Thaton Kingdom
Kingdom of Thaton သထုံခေတ် သုဝဏ္ဏဘူမိ | |||||||
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| 9th century–c. May 1057 | |||||||
| Status | Kingdom | ||||||
| Capital | Thaton | ||||||
| Common languages | Mon | ||||||
| Religion | Theravada Buddhism | ||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||
| History | |||||||
• Founding of dynasty | 9th century | ||||||
• End of kingdom | c. May 1057 | ||||||
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 Myanmar portal |
The Thaton Kingdom or Thuwunnabumi (Burmese: သထုံခေတ်, pronounced [θətʰòuɴ kʰɪʔ]; or သုဝဏ္ဏဘူမိ, [θṵwəna̰ bùmḭ]) was a Mon kingdom that existed in Lower Burma from at least 9th century to the middle of 11th century. One of many Mon kingdoms that existed in modern day Lower Burma and Thailand, the kingdom was essentially a city-state centered around the city of Thaton. It traded directly with South India and Sri Lanka, and became a primary center of Theravada Buddhism in South-East Asia. Thaton, like other Mon kingdoms, faced the gradual encroachment of Khmer Empire. But it was the Pagan Kingdom from the north that conquered the fabled kingdom in 1057.
Name of the kingdom
The Mon tradition maintains that the kingdom was called Suvannabhumi (Burmese: သုဝဏ္ဏဘူမိ), a name also claimed by Lower Thailand, and that it was founded during the time of the Buddha in the 6th century BCE. Thaton is the Burmese name of Sadhuim in Mon, which in turn is from Sudhammapura in Pali, after Sudharma, the moot hall of the gods.[1]
History
According to the Mon tradition, the Kingdom of Thaton was founded during the time of the Buddha, and was led by a dynasty of 59 kings. The tradition also maintains that a group of political refugees founded the city of Pegu (Bago) in 573.[2] But the historical kingdom probably came into existence some time in 9th century, following the entry Mon people into Lower Burma from modern northern Thailand. GE Harvey's History of Burma, citing the Shwemawdaw Thamaing, gives the year of founding of Pegu as 825; even that date remains unattested.[3]
Traditional Burmese and Mon reconstructions hold that Thaton was overrun by the Pagan Kingdom from Upper Burma in 1057. King Anawrahta, having been converted to Theravada Buddhism by a Mon monk, Shin Arahan, reportedly asked for the Theravada Buddhist canon from King Manuha of Thaton. The Mon king's refusal was used by Anawrahta as a pretense to invade and conquer the Mon kingdom, whose literary and religious traditions helped to mold early Pagan civilization.[4] According to Mon chronicles, King Manuha of Thaton surrendered after a 3-month siege of the city by Pagan's forces in May 1057 (11th waxing of Nayon, 419 ME).[5] Between 1050 and about 1085, Mon craftsmen and artisans helped to build some two thousand monuments at Pagan, the remains of which today rival the splendors of Angkor Wat.[6]
More recent research[7] has argued forcefully that Anawrahta's conquest of Thaton is a post-Pagan legend without contemporary evidence, that Lower Burma in fact lacked a substantial independent polity prior to Pagan's expansion, and that Mon influence on the interior is greatly exaggerated. Possibly in this period, the delta sedimentation—which now extends the coastline by three miles a century—remained insufficient, and the sea still reached too far inland, to support a population even as large as the modest population of the late precolonial era. Whatever the condition of the coast, all scholars accept that during the 11th century, Pagan established its Lower Burma and this conquest facilitated growing cultural exchange, if not with local Mons, then with India and with Theravada stronghold Sri Lanka. From a geopolitical standpoint, Anawrahta's conquest of Thaton checked the Khmer advance in the Tenasserim coast.[8]
List of Thaton kings
According to the Mon chronicles, the Kingdom of Thaton had a line of 59 kings that begun from the time of the Buddha.[2]
See also
References
- ^ H.L. Shorto (2002). "The 32 Myos in the medieval Mon Kingdom". In Vladimir I. Braginsky (ed.). Classical civilisations of South East Asia: an anthology of articles. Routledge. p. 590. ISBN 0700714103, 9780700714100.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: invalid character (help) - ^ a b Lt. Gen. Sir Arthur P. Phayre (1883). History of Burma (1967 ed.). London: Susil Gupta. pp. 24–32.
- ^ GE Harvey (1925). "Genealogical Tables". History of Burma. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd. p. 368.
- ^ Maung Htin Aung (1967). A History of Burma. New York and London: Cambridge University Press. pp. 32–33.
- ^ Kyaw Thet (1962). History of Burma (in Burmese). Yangon: University of Rangoon Press. p. 45.
- ^ Ashley South (2003). Mon nationalism and civil war in Burma: the golden sheldrake. Routledge. p. 67. ISBN 0700716092, 9780700716098.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: invalid character (help); More than one of|pages=and|page=specified (help) - ^ Michael Aung-Thwin (2005). The Mists of Rāmañña: the Legend that was Lower Burma. University of Hawaii Press. p. 433. ISBN 0824828860, 9780824828868.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: invalid character (help) - ^ Victor B Lieberman (2003). Strange Parallels: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 800-1830, volume 1, Integration on the Mainland. Cambridge University Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-521-80496-7.