EEB-000029 The Making of Modern Burma
EEB-000029 The Making of Modern Burma
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Thant Myint-U
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom
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Thant Myint-U 2004
First published in printed format 2001
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Contents
Acknowledgements [vii]
Introduction: The fall of Mandalay [1]
1
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Acknowledgements
Most of this book was written in the period 199598, while I was a
Research Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and I would like to thank
the Master and Fellows of the college for their support. Professor Victor
Lieberman, Professor James Scott, Professor Michael Aung Thwin, Dr
Anil Seal, Dr Tim Harper, Dr Ian Brown, Dr Patrick Tuck, Miss Elizabeth
Sellwood and Mrs Zunetta Liddell all read parts of the manuscript at
different stages and I am grateful for all their comments and criticisms. I
would also like to thank Mrs Patricia Herbert of the British Library, Dr
John Okell of London University and Dr Lionel Carter of the Centre for
South Asian Studies, Cambridge University for their expert help. In
Burma, I am indebted for the assistance and advice of Dr Than Tun, U
Than Htut, U Thaw Kaung, U Maung Maung Tin, and to HRH Prince
Hteik Tin Taw Hpaya. The late Dr Michael Aris generously spent many
memorable afternoons with me in Oxford discussing Tibetan and Burmese religion, language and history. My special thanks, however, are to
my former Ph.D. supervisor Professor C.A. Bayly. I could not have asked
for a better supervisor, and I am deeply grateful to him for all his kind and
invaluable support over the years. This book is dedicated to my parents.
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Thibaws fate had been sealed several weeks before with a decision by
the British Secretary of State for India, Lord Randolph Churchill, to
occupy Mandalay. The British and the Burmese had already fought two
wars, in 18246 and 18523, both resulting in decisive British victories.
Assam, Manipur, Arakan and the Tennasserim were ceded to Calcutta
after the first war, and the remainder of the Indian Ocean coastline was
taken during the second. But the heartland of the Burmese kingdom, what
the British called Ava or Upper Burma, remained in the hands of an
enfeebled Burmese monarchy, together with a collection of nearby Shan
principalities. For twenty-five years, attempts were made by both sides,
British India and Burma, to find a mutually agreeable system of bilateral
relations. Treaties were signed which opened the country to European
commerce and several embassies were exchanged.
But by the death of Thibaws father, King Mindon, in 1878, many
businessmen both in Rangoon and Calcutta were calling for the outright
annexation of the remaining royal domains. Political unrest under
Thibaw, allegations of frightful imprisonments and massacres of suspected opponents provided ammunition to the interventionist cause. Politicians and officials in Calcutta, Westminster and Whitehall also began
considering intervention by the late 1870s. At a time when France was
consolidating her hold over Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, they feared
increased French influence at the Court of Ava and eyed with suspicion
the diplomatic missions of Burmese envoys to Paris and other European
capitals. The Burmese had insisted on maintaining their independence in
their foreign affairs, and the limits of British tolerance were soon
breached.
The decision to employ military power in support of commerce and
strategic concerns was certainly nothing unusual for Victorian Britain.1
The Empire was enjoying a period of continued expansion, pushing forward colonial boundaries and enlarging spheres of influence across Africa
and Asia. What were highly unusual, however, in the history of latenineteenth-century imperialism, were the decisions taken by London and
Calcutta in the aftermath of Thibaws sudden exile. These decisions, taken
primarily between December 1885 and February 1886, amounted to no1
Introduction 3
Introduction 5
side under varying degrees of royal direction. Often titled and granted
special sumptuary privileges, these men served as intermediaries between
the distant Court of Ava and the thousands of villages and hamlets scattered across the lowlands. And yet British policy-makers, rather than
attempting to co-opt their services into the new regime, deliberately
shunted them aside. Myothugyi quickly lost their dominant position.
What had been a complex hierarchy of local hereditary office dissolved
into a sea of undifferentiated and salaried village headmanships.
The military expedition which had been charged solely with the occupation of Mandalay and the removal of King Thibaw thus became a
permanent military occupation, one which dramatically changed the social and political organisation of the country and created a new colonial
state and society. The explanation most often given for the abolition of the
monarchy was that there was no suitable prince whom the British could
place on the vacant throne.2 The Nyaungyan Prince, an elder half-brother
of Thibaw, had been living in Calcutta and had been the obvious choice
for future king. But he had died only a few months before the outbreak of
the war. Another senior member of the royal family was the Myingun
Prince, but he had fled British territory, first for Pondicherry and then for
Saigon, and was thought by the British to be much too close to the French
to be considered as a possible puppet. Several other sons of Mindon had
been killed in the political executions of the late 1870s. But despite this,
many other possible candidates did exist. There was, in fact, no shortage of
princely contenders, including, for example, the young Pyinmina Prince,
who was finally considered as a possible king, but not until more than half
a century later by very different masters, the Japanese.
While at least some explanation is usually offered for the abolition of
the monarchy, little if anything is ever said about the destruction of the
nobility or the undermining of local elite positions. Where the myothugyi
and other gentry leaders are mentioned at all, historians have argued that
they formed the backbone of anti-colonial resistance in the 1880s and
were effectively wiped out as a class. But this does not agree with the
records of the fighting which took place. Where local hereditary leaders
did play a role, they are usually portrayed by contemporary British
observers as supporting the new authorities. In most English-language
See, for example, D.G.E. Hall, A History of Southeast Asia, London, 1955, p. 681; John
Cady, A History of Modern Burma, Ithaca, 1958, p. 120.
histories of this period, however, the nobility and gentry are not discussed
at all.3
To a large extent this was the result of a reading of pre-annexation
Burmese society which saw the political system as a sort of oriental
despotism, a king ruling ruthlessly and absolutely over an otherwise
egalitarian society.4 The nobility and the gentry were not recognised as
distinct groups, and office-holders were simply seen as clients of the king,
serving at his whim. Little was known about the elaborate hereditary
structures which had developed over the preceding several hundred years,
and few early colonial writers were concerned with the details of local
social organisation. In addition, this image of a corrupt king ruling over a
mismanaged but otherwise attractive and egalitarian Burmese society
fitted well with British attempts to justify the imposition of direct rule.
But while these later historians focused exclusively on the removal of
Thibaw and tended towards this simple image of pre-colonial Burmese
society, the discussions of policy-makers at the time reveal a much
broader set of considerations which moved events in their peculiar
directions.
A key reason given at the time for the abolition of the monarchy was
not that there lacked a suitable prince but that the Court of Ava was
simply unable to fulfil the role of a local collaborator, and that successive
kings and governments had shown themselves incapable of accommodating British interests, permitting free trade or keeping out unwanted
rival European influences.5 This reason seems much closer to the truth.
Despite a clear awareness by the late nineteenth century of its extremely
weak international position, Mandalay had continued to resist British
3
See, for example, J.S. Furnival, Colonial Policy and Practice: A Comparative Study of
Burma and Netherlands India, Cambridge, 1948, pp. 704; D.G.E. Hall, A History of
Southeast Asia, London, 1968, pp. 7704; Ernest C.T. Chew, The Fall of the Burmese
Kingdom in 1885: Review and Reconsideration, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
(hereafter JSEAS), 10 (1979), 37281; David Steinberg, Burma: A Socialist Nation of
South East Asia, Boulder, 1982; Michael Aung-Thwin, The British Pacification of
Burma: Order Without Meaning, JSEAS, 16 (1985), 24562; and the more recent Carl
A. Trocki, Political Structures in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, in
Nicholas Tarling (ed.), The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia (hereafter CHSEA),
vol. II, Cambridge, 1993, pp. 11920.
See, for example, Htin Aung, A History of Burma, New York, 1967, pp. 2669;
H. Fielding-Hall, The Soul of a People, London, 1898, pp. 7993.
See, for example, V.C. Scott OConner, Mandalay and Other Cities of the Past in
Burma, London, 1907, p. 26.
Introduction 7
collaborator and preserve a degree of autonomy, if not nominal independence, as did nearby states such as Nepal, Afghanistan or Siam?
This book is an attempt to answer these questions and to explore more
generally a much neglected chapter in southern Asian and in British
colonial history: the long transition in the Irrawaddy valley away from the
Ava-based imperial polity of the early nineteenth century and towards the
British Burma of the early twentieth.
The English-language historiography of this period is almost entirely
confined to specialist monographs or to chapters in more general histories
of Burma. These chapters are either found at the very end of books on
Burma before the British, or at the very beginning of books on modern
Burma. Scholarly works which are set entirely within the nineteenth
century have all focused on specific themes, nearly all related to AngloBurmese diplomatic relations or war.6 The reaction of successive royal
regimes to European expansion and other contemporary challenges, in
particular the reformist programmes of Mindon and Thibaw, are thus
never placed in a broader historical context. Attempts by Mandalay in
the period 185385 to modernise administration are dismissed as wellmeaning but insignificant.7 Attention is focused on the gradual consolidation of British rule in the south, and the annexation of 1885 is seen
almost as an inevitable final episode in the growth of British Indian power
across the Irrawaddy basin.
Burmese-language historiography is not very different. While the Burmese court is predictably portrayed in a kinder light, the focus remains the
same. The possibility of political and social change over the course of the
nineteenth century is similarly ignored. Within the study of local history,
much greater interest is always paid to the time of the Pagan and the early
Toungoo monarchs, than to what is seen as the sad and ignoble decades
preceding alien occupation.
6
For example, Htin Aung, The Stricken Peacock: Anglo-Burmese Relations 18521948,
The Hague, 1965; Oliver Pollack, Empires in Collision: Anglo-Burmese Relations in
the Mid-Nineteenth Century, Westport, 1979; Charles Keeton, King Theebaw and the
Ecological Rape of Burma: The Political and Commercial Struggle between British
India and French Indochina in Burma 18781886, Delhi, 1974.
For example, Furnival, Colonial Policy and Practice, esp. pp. 734; G.E. Harvey,
History of Burma from the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824 The Beginning of the
English Conquest, London, 1925; Cady, History of Modern Burma, esp. pp. 1414;
Frank Trager, Burma: From Kingdom to Republic: A Historical and Political Analysis,
London, 1966, esp. p. 38; Joseph Silverstein, Burma: Military Rule and the Politics of
Stagnation, Ithaca, 1977, esp. pp. 1112.
Introduction 9
defeats, was fully aware of the need to refashion state structures and find a
place within the emergent international system.
Secondly, these policies failed, as a result of several internal and external factors, to achieve their prime objective of creating an independent
and modern Burmese state. These included the loss of the Irrawaddy delta
to British India, the imposition of British commercial treaties which
limited state involvement in the economy, the effects of the 1870s world
depression, the effects of the Panthay revolt in Yunnan and contemporaneous crises in China, and the chronic political instability at home
related to the ever present threat of British intervention.
Thirdly, the net result of the interplay among British imperial policies,
the reaction of Ava to changing circumstances and a host of other local
and global factors was the creation of a peculiarly unrooted colonial
regime, one which started (and ended) as a military occupation with little
popular support. The interplay of these various actors and processes also
led to significant social change. Just as new landed elites emerged under
the old regime, colonial policies largely undermined their position and
created a much more homogeneous and egalitarian social order.
Fourthly, local reaction to British expansion and other challenges was
itself conditioned by the regions recent history, including a long era of
imperial conquest from an Irrawaddy valley core and the development of
patriotic sentiment tied to the Ava polity and the related Burmese or
Myanma identity. On the opposite side, Calcuttas policies were framed
within the context of Indian interests and strategies and saw the Burmese
kingdom with reference to Indian experiences, knowledge and objectives.
Finally, the end of the century witnessed the birth of Burma as we still
know it today. The territorial limits of the country, the notion of who is
Burmese and who is not, key social and political structures, all find their
origins in this period surrounding the fall of Mandalay.
The nineteenth century in the areas in and around modern Burma is an
interesting but largely unexplored episode in both British imperial and
regional history. The century witnessed the gradual displacement, in the
Irrawaddy, Brahmaputra and Salween river basins, of the once expansive
authority of the Court of Ava by the authority of an equally aggressive
British Indian state. It also witnessed quite vigorous attempts by the Court
of Ava to construct a modern though territorially more modest state under
the shadow of colonial encroachments. And finally the century saw the
development of a strong patriotic sentiment centred on the rump Ava
Introduction 11
polity and memories of a conquering past. Burma was created out of the
interaction of these processes, as well as a number of other factors, not
least contemporary events in China and the impact of increasingly global
markets. This book is a story of that century, of the final decades of
autonomous Burmese rule at Mandalay and the making of modern
Burma.
high. To the east are thick teak forests which suddenly give way to the
Shan uplands, a plateau averaging 3,000 feet, in some places rising in
single steps of 2,000 feet from the basin below. Often treacherous passes
link the valley to its nearest lowland neighbours: Arakan, Manipur,
Assam and Siam.
Only to the south is the valley free from its mountain fastness. Here,
the badlands, savannah and scrub-clad hills give way to the broad alluvial
plains of the delta, as the Irrawaddy spreads out like a fan, the river
dividing and sub-dividing and finally spilling into the Bay of Bengal
through nine smaller rivers and countless streams. This lower region is as
wet as the upper valley is dry, with some parts receiving nearly 200 inches
of rain a year. Much is also relatively new: the gradual silting of the river
has pushed the land forward three miles each century, with many parts of
the delta still below the level of the spring tides. Mangrove swamps and
great tidal forests along the coast turn to marshes and grassland further
inland, and dense tropical jungle covers the higher elevations just to the
east and west.1
1
2
Gangamumei Kabui, History of Manipur, Vol. I: Pre-Colonial Period, New Delhi, 1991,
pp. 194291.
S.L. Baruah, A Comprehensive History of Assam, New Delhi, 1985, pp. 220369.
in a series of defensive wars against the Mughal empire and had gradually,
like the Manipuris, come under increasing Sanskrit and Hindu cultural
influences. By the 1790s, however, the power of the Ahom court had
begun seriously to decline, as intra-dynastic disputes combined with a
widespread uprising by followers of the neo-Vaishnavite Moamariya
movement. Rival groups turned to both Ava and Calcutta for assistance,
leading to an initial British expedition in the winter of 17923 which aided
in the quelling of the rebellion.
But by 1817, the situation in Assam had again reached a point of
considerable instability, as the leader of one of the court factions appealed
to Bodawpaya to intervene against the incumbent ruler or swargadeo of
Assam, Chandrakanta Singh. Bodawpaya had already been looking to
invade the Brahmaputra valley in support of the Moamariyas and in
support of his own imperial aims. A well-equipped force of 8,000 men was
marched north, swelled along the way by thousands more Jingpaw and
Shan levies from the Hukawng valley and then, in an amazing logistical
feat, was brought across the Himalayan passes along the Patkai ridge, and
into the valley at its eastern end. The Assamese were decisively defeated at
the battle of Kathalguri and the pro-Burmese premier Badan Chandra was
installed. Chandrakanta Singh was allowed to remain as the nominal
king.
Several years then followed of local intrigue and Burmese intervention,
Assamese princes constantly switching allegiances and Ava becoming
convinced of the need for tighter control. In 1821, a huge army of 20,000,
including 10,000 Jingpaw levies, under the command of General Thado
Maha Bandula again crossed the snow-clad mountains and began a pacification campaign intended to consolidate Avas permanent hegemony
over the country. In 1823, with the back of Assamese resistance largely
broken, Thado Maha Bandula established his forward base at Rangpur
and extinguished the Ahom court. He then began his initial forays into
Cachar and Jaintia, and planned to march on Bhutan.6
Domination of this vast area, now sandwiched between British Bengal
and Burma, was to have two profound effects. The first was the importation to the Court of Ava of many of the often Sanskrit-educated elites of
these occupied states, a process which will be discussed in chapter 4. The
second was to whet the Burmese appetite for further expansion, into the
6
heart of India, a course of action which would lead directly to the First
Anglo-Burmese War in 1824.
Than Tun, ed. Royal Orders of Burma 15981885, part 9, Tokyo, 1989 (hereafter ROB),
3 March 1810.
Tin (Pagan), Myanma Min Okchokpon Sadan (Documents Relating to the
Administration of the Burmese Kings) (hereafter MMOS), 5 vols., Rangoon, 19313,
vol. III, pp. 701.
George Bruce, The Burma Wars: 18241880, London, 1973, pp. 1127; Htin Aung,
History of Burma, pp. 194217; KBZ, vol. II, pp. 369425.
musketeers and were fitted with six- or twelve-pounder guns, and it was
the defeat of this river fleet, as well as a decisive British victory at Pagan,
which finally led to a Burmese request for negotiations in early 1826. On
24 February at Yandabo, a small village along the Irrawaddy forty-five
miles from the capital, a peace treaty was signed between Campbell and
the Myoza of Le`gaing, a senior minister.10
Under the Treaty of Yandabo, the Court of Ava agreed to cease interference in the affairs of Jaintia, Cachar and Assam and to cede to the British
their provinces of Manipur, Arakan and the Tennasserim. They also
agreed to allow for an exchange of diplomatic representatives between
Amarapura and Calcutta and to pay an indemnity, in instalments, of 10
million rupees or 1 million pounds sterling. The British would withdraw to
Rangoon after the payment of the first instalment, and withdraw from
Rangoon after the payment of the second.11 After much delay, the second
instalment was paid, the British left Rangoon, and in the steamy towns
and forests of the Tennasserim and Arakan began their creation of British
Burma.
11
For a translation of the relevant portions of the Konbaungzet chronicle, see Anna
Allott, The End of the First Anglo-Burmese War: The Burmese Chronicle Account of
How the 1826 Treaty of Yandabo Was Negotiated, Bangkok, 1994.
12 On Bagyidaws reign, see KBZ, vol. III, pp. 220545.
ROB, 31 August 1824.
his foreign friends except for the Spanish merchant Don Gonzales de
Lanciego, who translated for him the Calcutta newspapers and was
thought by the British to be pro-French. Described by the American
missionary Judson as mild, amiable, good natured and obliging . . . fond of
shews, theatrical exhibitions, elephant catching and boat racing, he was
said to be inordinately devoted to technical researches and experiments.
Understandably weary from the endless rituals and intrigue of court life,
Bagyidaw was also reported to be particularly desirous of discovering the
secret of rendering himself invisible at will.13
Up until the early 1830s, the Burmese government harboured considerable hope that with the final payment of indemnity, Calcutta would hand
back Arakan and the Tennasserim. The Viceroy, Lord William Cavendish
Bentinck, sent as the first British Resident to the Court of Ava Henry
Burney, a career company-man who had just spent several years as Political Agent in Bangkok, and a Burmese embassy headed by Mingyi Maha
Sithu visited India in 1830 in return. But when the last payment was made
and it was clear to Amarapura that the annexations were final, relations
began to deteriorate. This worsening of ties coincided with a decline in
Bagyidaws health, the king sinking into a severe manic-depression and
increasingly unable to fulfil any of his official functions.
A regency was formed, headed by his full-brother the Prince of Tharrawaddy and including the queen, Me` Nu, her brother, the Myoza of Salin,
and two half-brothers of the king, the princes Thibaw and Kanaung. This
was a coalition. During most of this time, Tharrawaddy kept a low profile,
spending time with a circle of courtiers described as including the most
saucy set of fellows in Ava.14 Me` Nu and Salin, on the other hand, became
very active and tightened their grip on power, much to the dismay of the
rest of the court, and eventually provoked an open split between them and
the royal family. On 21 February 1837, Salin ordered the arrest of the
Pagan Princess, Tharrawaddys sister, on suspicion of hoarding arms, and
Tharrawaddy, fearing he would be next, first fled the capital, and then,
after weeks of fighting and attempted diplomacy, defeated Salins forces
and seized the throne. Bagyidaw was spared and died a natural death in
1846, but both the ex-queen and her brother were soon executed together
with dozens of their followers as the new king moved to secure his throne.
The British had hoped that relations would now improve. But neither
13
Political and Secret Correspondence with India, Bengal Secret and Political (vol. 341),
14 Quoted in Pollack, Empires in Collision, p. 16.
5 August 1826.
under Tharrawaddy nor under his son and successor Pagan did the Burmese court display the sort of deference Calcutta now expected. By the
early 1840s, British policy-makers grew fearful that Ava, having crushed
an uprising in the delta and having reorganised the army, would launch a
surprise attack on British Moulmein. Tharrawaddys sons were given
military commands in the south in Rangoon, Bassein and Toungoo and
the king himself in 1841 sailed down-river at the head of an enormous
flotilla of war-boats to pay homage at the Shwedagon Pagoda. Tharrawaddy knew that the British were preoccupied in China and Afghanistan and had hoped that his sabre-rattling would compel the British to
negotiate the return of lost territory. But it seems he also knew that his
armed forces were still no match for the East India Company and was
careful not to be overly provocative.
Amidst this bellicose atmosphere, Tharrawaddy began to show signs of
the same manic-depressive affliction which had debilitated his brother.
Increasing the number of his wives and concubines from the sixteen he
had when a member of the Regency Council to over one hundred probably aggravated his condition. A new cycle of intra-dynastic intrigue then
began with several of his many sons jockeying for position. One of these,
the Prince of Prome, rebelled against his father in 1845, supported by a
number of grandees. Another son, the Prince of Pagan, was then made
head of the government. He moved fast to end the rebellion and to purge
the court of his brothers supporters. Tharrawaddy himself was placed
under restraint as his condition worsened. When the king died in November 1846, Pagan ascended the throne.
Pagans rule was not to last long. Once secure in power he entrusted
many of the day-to-day affairs of state to one of his Privy Councillors.
Initially, the king concentrated on his religious obligations and undertook
numerous merit-making projects. He abolished livestock slaughter during
certain parts of the year, freed caged animals, built pagodas and monasteries and searched far and wide for a new white elephant. His government,
however, was directed towards managing relations with the British, in
particular the large and vocal business community in Rangoon, where an
unbending Burmese administration combined with profit-hungry British
traders and ambitious missionaries to create a volatile atmosphere. Pagans officials raised port charges, increased shipping regulations, opened
incoming mail and restricted the movement of Burmese women, all
measures which led the expatriates to call for a tough British response.
Calcutta was indeed frustrated that the Court of Ava, after such a resounding military defeat, had not adopted a more subservient attitude. Once
the Companys hands were freed from other far-flung engagements, the
Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie, began actively to consider a new war,
one which would impress upon the Burmese the need to recognise British
superiority.
In December 1851, the governor of Rangoon fined the captains and
crews of two British ships 1,000 rupees for reported customs violations.
Lord Dalhousie immediately dispatched two vessels of the Royal Navy
with an ultimatum that the Burmese government rescind the fine and that
the governor be immediately removed. The surprised Pagan and his ministers, fully aware of the consequences of a new war, accepted the terms.
Nevertheless, the British naval officer in command at Rangoon, Commodore Lampert, went ahead and blockaded the coastline. Though
Dalhousie reprimanded Lampert for his actions, Calcutta decided hostilities were inevitable and sent a new ultimatum, demanding 1 million
rupees to cover the costs of having had to prepare for war. Without
waiting for a reply, joint British naval and ground forces quickly seized
Rangoon, Bassein and Martaban.
Burmese forces were commanded by the Myoza of Tabayin, a son of the
great general Thado Maha Bandula and a career military man, who had
served as colonel of the Marabin Artillery and as captain of the Eastern
Gate. But thirty years of advances in military technology and planning on
the British side, and little innovation on the Burmese side, meant that the
kings forces could offer only a limited defence. In April 1852, the Myoza
of Tabayin himself was killed in the defence of Rangoon, and Pegu was
taken in November despite spirited resistance.15 In December, Dalhousie
declared the newly occupied territory as a new province of British Burma.
Two months later, a palace coup overthrew Pagan. His half-brother
Mindon, leading a peace party, became the new king and Burmese forces
were withdrawn northwards of the annexation line.
15
Hmawbi Saya Thein, Myanma Wungyi Hmugyi Mya Akaung, Rangoon, 1967, p. 151.
the average number of people per household was seven, this would work
out to 1.97 million and 1.25 million people respectively.1 These censuses
included all the registered households reported by local officials to royal
agencies from the entire valley as well as some of the Tennasserim littoral
and settlements along the Shan escarpment. They did not include Arakan
and more peripheral parts of the kingdom. Local officials often underreported the number of households in their charge in order to minimise
the amount of revenue or labour later demanded. In addition, people
living away from royal authority such as forest monks or bandits, itinerant
traders and entertainers, as well as the slaves and the retainers of the larger
and more important households, were probably not reported at all. Thus,
there were perhaps somewhat over 2 million people in the Irrawaddy
valley in the early nineteenth century, a figure similar to that reached by
several contemporary European observers.
This population was very unevenly distributed. A majority of people
lived close to the Irrawaddy river itself, from around Shwebo in the north
to Prome in the south. This is an area of only about 40,000 square miles
compared with a total area for present-day Burma of 238,000 square
miles. A large proportion of these people lived in and around Ava and as
much as 10 per cent of the valley population lived either in the royal city or
nearby along the IrrawaddyChindwin confluence. Ava and Amarapura
were both, at different times, reported to have been home to over 100,000
people. Few other places reached even a tenth of that figure, including
major towns such as Alon or Salin. Other areas were very sparsely populated, including the delta, which was only just beginning to recover from
the devastation of the mid-eighteenth-century wars. Even along the
middle valley, large tracts of scrub forest separated the mainly riverine
communities.
Population trends are even more difficult to estimate, but it is possible
that overall population grew very gradually over the early modern era, say
from the sixteenth century onwards. Population certainly rose and fell to
an extent. War, disease, famine and forced relocations could all turn fairly
densely inhabited areas back to desert or jungle in a short space of time.
On the other hand, long periods of internal stability, such as the peace
1
which the dry-zone enjoyed from the final expulsion of Mon-led forces
during the civil war in 1752 to the turn of the century, were periods of
demographic expansion. In the late eighteenth century, natural population growth was also supplemented by the large-scale importation or
immigration of peoples from the surrounding uplands, Manipur and Siam.
Most of the people of the valley spoke Burmese as their mother tongue.
Many were descendants of the earliest Burmese-speakers of the valley but
many others were descendants of speakers of other languages, such as
Pyu, Thet or Kadu, who gradually came to adopt Burmese and assimilate
into the majority society. Others were recent arrivals. These included
recent captives, as well as Armenian, Jewish, Chinese, Persian, Bengali,
Tamil and other south Asian traders. They also included the descendants
of Portuguese and Muslim mercenaries from the Deccan, and peoples
imported after earlier military victories. Some had ancestors from quite far
afield. In 1758, for example, a French warship was seized towards the end
of the civil war. Its crew were marched north, enlisted into the kings army
as hereditary gunners and given land near the capital. There they joined
the descendants of earlier European mercenaries, Dutch, Spanish and
Portuguese. Their leader, the chevalier Pierre de Millard was made head of
the royal bodyguard and granted a suitable noble title. A few small Roman
Catholic villages remain to this day, and their inhabitants are aware of
their European ancestry. But in every other way they are virtually indistinguishable from their neighbours. For the Theravada Buddhist Lao, the
Siamese and others, assimilation was doubtless even faster. While names
such as Vientiene Hill or Manipuri village remain, very few are aware
of the great mix of backgrounds which went into creating the modern
Burmese.
larger formations with constituent descent groups scattered across a region. From the royal family itself to a group of slaves attached to a small
village pagoda, these descent groups formed the basis of social organisation and of political control throughout the kings realm.2
People lived in very distinct clusters of settlements along the Irrawaddy
river. Some of the settlements were fortified, and these were called myo.
Some also had a moat as well as a wall and a permanent market, or zay,
and were usually the site of a shrine to a local deity, or nat, where a festival
would be held once a year. There would be one, or perhaps several,
Buddhist monasteries which served not only as religious centres but also
as local schools, places of rest for travellers and places of refuge for stray
animals. Many of the houses were built of simple materials, bamboo and
thatch, but the more important people of the myo its rulers, rich traders
and representatives of the king lived in large wooden compounds, their
doors sometimes painted vermillion, the colour of minor nobility. An
army garrison might be stationed within the walls, but more likely a
number of local men would be given the right to bear arms and they would
act as police and as a military reserve in times of need.
Other settlements, which were not fortified were known as ywa. A ywa
was generally smaller than a myo and was often just a collection of houses,
perhaps a few dozen, built closely together near the fields, where most of
the inhabitants worked. The houses themselves would be simple constructions of bamboo and thatch and were raised for protection from floods
and snakes. Mango and tamarind trees were often planted for shade and
the entire settlement would normally be surrounded by a protective wall
of tall thorny hedges.3 At the edge of the ywa, there would invariably be a
small shrine to the village nat.
A myothugyi, the chief of the myo, was the hereditary ruler of his town
and its hinterland, the myo-ne`. Some of these chiefs had other names, but
all were the leading members of the areas dominant descent group and
served as the primary link between their communities and the Court of
Ava. They were supervised to varying extents by the royal governors, quite
senior officials who set up headquarters in the largest and most strategi2
cally placed myo and acted as agents of the crown. In addition to the
governor and the local chief, the third important figure within the rural
towns was the myo-za, literally the eater of the town. These were members of the Ava aristocracy, normally members of the royal family or
serving high officials, to whom the crown alienated its customary income
from a given town. They also had other rights, including some judicial
authority, but this varied from place to place and time to time. They
normally lived in the royal city and so were represented at their appanage
by their representative, the myo-kaing. Together these three august personages, the governor, the chief and the eater, dispensed justice, collected
taxes, presided over religious and state ceremonies and led their men in
war. Between themselves, they shared the power and divided the surplus
wealth of their local community.
Most people lived with their extended families. The word for kinsman
or relation is a-myo. Confusingly, though myo meaning town and myo
meaning kin or descent are spelled the same in English, they are distinct in
Burmese, being of different tones. They are entirely different words. The
root of the words for kinsmen and descent group is a cognate of the
Tibetan bru. Both mean seed. In Burmese myo has come to imply a
shared origin or a common descent. It also has come to have a more
general connotation of sort or kind and may be applied to people and
animals as well as inanimate objects. The Burmese saw the word as
equivalent to the Pali word jati, which in English is usually translated as
caste. Descent was reckoned biologically, that is both the mothers and
fathers relations were regarded as the individuals a-myo.
Marriage tended to be endogamous, within the circle of ones a-myo.
Cross-cousin marriages in particular were encouraged and incest rules
extended only to parents, children and full siblings, marriages to halfsiblings being far from unknown. Marriage outside of ones group was
permitted, but often actively discouraged, both by royal decree and probably as well by local custom. Various rules were established to then
determine the position of children in a mixed marriage, the general
principle being that male children were recognised as members of the
fathers group and female children as members of the mothers group.
Residence was neo-local, that is to say newly married couples moved away
from their respective parents and into their own homes.
Throughout the early modern era, periodic war and famine and
attendant displacements of people led to frequent abandonment and
recolonisation of villages, particularly in less productive areas. In addition, the low density of population in all but the most intensely irrigated
places, and places close to the main river-ways, meant that new communities were constantly being formed by immigrants. These immigrants included settlers from nearby upland areas such as Maru, Jingpaw or Mizo
speakers of related Tibeto-Burman languages.4 Others were immigrants
from overseas, or war captives who were settled in newly colonised land
by the crown.
Within these small single-myo villages, there would be a line of chiefs.
This was known as the chiefly yo, or bone. Yo is a cognate of the Tibetan
rus-pa, and in Tibetan means clan or family.5 In Burmese, however, the
word means lineage, normally a patrilineage in which office descended
from father to eldest son. This was the most common inheritance system
in general, the eldest son having the special position known as oratha,
which granted him not all his parents property, but the largest share. In
some villages, the yo might descend from father to youngest son, or even
from mother to daughter, but these systems of inheritance were relatively
uncommon. Most chiefs were known as thu-gyi, literally the big person,
and he would be the head of his lineage, the head of his descent group, and
the chief of his village.
Over time, outsiders would arrive at these new settlements and apply
for permission to live. They would normally be accepted, given the acute
labour shortages in most parts of the valley. They were known as kappa,
and would be assigned land or other duties by the chief. If they married
into the local myo, their children were known as ala. This sense of
difference between locals and outsiders was very important and was
traced through many generations of descent, with clearly marked categories for varying degrees of outsideness. The members of the original
descent group would propitiate the same deity, perhaps an ancestor of the
ruling family. This would be their ancestral or mizain-pazain nat.6 Outsiders would bring their own nat worship, and, over time, a small village
might have one dominant nat cult with a small number of subsidiary ones
as well.
As these settlements grew in times of peace and prosperity as well as in
the older, larger walled towns, the founding descent group would come to
4
5
see itself in a position apart from newer, subordinate myo who had arrived
later. Whatever the truth of peoples actual descent, even in centuries-old
towns, the dominant myo was seen or saw itself to be the myo of the
original colonisers of the locality. The chief, who might enjoy a noble style,
would be of the chiefly lineage of the founding descent group. Being of
the founding family or of the original family of chiefs was a key claim to
local elite status. Below them, all other inhabitants would be ranked in an
hierarchy.
The Burmese legal literature clearly divided all people into four general
social classes.7 The first was the min-myo, the rulers. The second was the
ponna-myo, the ritualists who were learned in the Vedas; the third, the
thuhtay-myo, the bankers and rich merchants; and the fourth, the
sinye`tha-myo, the poor people or commoners. These reflect the Indian
varna system which was known to the Burmese at the time and in which
descent groups were classed as Ksatriya, Brahmin, Vaishya or Sudra. The
Burmese used their single word myo as a synonym for both the Indian
derived zati ( jati) and wunna (varna).8 Indeed, the Burmese explicitly
link each of their four classes to one of the four varnas. But the difficulty of
the fit is seen in the addition, especially in the legal literature, of a number
of other categories and sub-categories.
For example, a distinction was made between the ruling class and the
noble or official class. The first was said to refer mainly to the royal
family, but also included a few very senior ministers, generals and other
exalted persons. The second, the amat-myo, included the families of all
office-holders, both those who held local office by hereditary right and
royal office-holders who were, nominally at least, selected by the king. The
first group was said to rank above the ponna, whereas the ponna ranked
above the ordinary nobility. In addition, the legal literature often makes
reference to the konthe`-myo, the trading class, which ranked somewhere
in between the richer merchant-bankers and the ordinary poor people.
Finally, below the normal poor peoples class was the much lower class of
D. Richardson (ed.), The Damathat or the Laws of Menoo, Moulmein, 1847, p. 91 and
passim; John Jardine, Notes on Buddhist Law, Rangoon, 1882, passim; see also Kala,
Maha Yazawindawgyi, pp. 1314; Andrew Huxley, The Village Knows Best: Social
Organisation in a 18th century Burmese Law Code, Southeast Asia Research, 5 (1997),
215.
Pali-Myanma Abhidan, vol. VIII, Rangoon, 1974, p. 217; Pitaka Kyan-hnyun, vol. I,
Rangoon, 1972, p. 519.
hereditary pagoda slaves, beggars and those who dealt with burial, the
sandala-myo.9
These divisions were important to daily life in that an individuals
classification determined his or her legal status. Inheritance rights as well
as other civil and criminal cases involving two parties were judged with
these classifications in mind. Different sets of laws, for example, pertained
to assault by a trader against a noble than by a noble against a trader. In
another example, divorce laws between two people of the banking class
were different from those between a banker and a wife who was of royal
descent.
A persons class was inherited and could not be changed except by
royal order. But there were no customary prohibitions of inter-class marriage. Occasionally, there might be royal edicts encouraging people to
marry their own kind or even banning marriage outside ones descent
group, but these were uncommon and had no standing in customary law.
Polygamy was allowed and was perhaps quite common, given the likely
skewed gender balance, a product of war and the large male celibate
Buddhist order. Indeed, many Burmese laws deal with property, inheritance and divorce rights for men of each social class who had married
several different women of different class backgrounds.
Overarching these four main social classes were two primary grades:
superior (myat) and inferior ( yoke). Rulers, nobles, ponna, bankers and
big merchants were exalted and the rest were inferior. This divide also
informed much of early modern law and determined many day-to-day
practices, such as the custom by which those of inferior status had to
make way on the road to those classed as superior. It also determined
one place in the sumptuary order.
As important as this fourfold class division was the twofold division of
all the kings subjects into those who owed hereditary labour service to the
royal court, and those who did not. People who were members of descent
groups which owed labour service were known as crown servants or
ahmudan. Ahmudan literally means a carrier of an obligation. Perhaps as
many as 40 per cent of people living along the middle Irrawaddy and lower
Chindwin, the area of tightest crown control, were members of these
groups. Many were groups within military regiments such as the Marabin
Artillery or the Shan Horse. Soldiers, ex-soldiers, their wives and children,
9
were all members of the regiment. A particular village, for example, might
be a village of the Tavoy Guards. The hereditary obligation of members of
this group would be to supply a certain number of men to the Household
Division as part of the Tavoy Guards regiment on a rotating basis.
Others were groups within what were known as soft civilian regiments. These included groups of hereditary cooks, washermen, musicians,
weavers and others. In the same way as their military counterparts, they
would live together in a village or town, and supply the royal city with a
specified number of people for their hereditary occupation, over a given
period. These descent groups were usually known as asu, meaning simply
a group or collection.
Those who were not ahmudan were known as athi. They too lived in
their own closely knit communities, but paid taxes rather than provide
labour to Ava. As royal agencies were not particularly concerned with
their internal organisation, unlike the organisation of crown servants, we
have much less information about the various types of athi groups. They
might be mobilised in times of war or used as corvee labour, but they had
no specific hereditary labour obligation.
The third cross-cutting social division was that between slaves and
non-slaves.10 Slave is a very unsatisfactory translation of the Burmese
word kyun, as kyun can refer to a number of different legal positions. The
vast majority of kyun were redeemable slaves, that is people who were
bonded to an individual but who might buy their freedom back in time.
Financial debt and the inability to repay a loan was the most common
cause, and once the loan was repaid, the persons bonded status would
end. Other slaves, a much smaller number, were irredeemable and were
thus hereditary slaves. These included pagoda slaves, descendants of
people donated to a religious establishment, as well as most people captured in war. Slaves could perform a variety of functions, but most were
used to work the land. Slaves were also bought as concubines for the
well-to-do.11 A mountain of legal literature exists to define categories of
slavery and the rights and obligations attaching to each. Again, slavery cut
across class lines. A trader, for example, could become the slave of a
10
11
The gentry
The Burmese gentry (akyi-ake` myo or thugyi-myo) of the early nineteenth
century were a class apart from both the nobility at Ava and the ordinary
people of the countryside. They held the important offices of rural govern12
ment by hereditary right and provided the critical connection between the
royal courts and the general population. They enjoyed special sumptuary
privileges and titles, and were among the very few who moved regularly
between the gilded world of the palace and the more prosaic world of the
common villager. They were the backbone of Burmese administration;
through civil wars and changes of dynasty, the same families ruled their
charges for hundreds of years.
The actual office-holders normally succeeded to their positions
through rights of primogeniture. The names of the offices were varied. The
most common was thugyi for an ordinary chief or myothugyi for the chief
of an entire township. In the far north, near the China border, the local
office-holders were often called shwe-hmu or ngway-hmu, meaning
supervisor of gold or supervisor of silver, a reference to the gold and
silver mines in their localities. Many other enjoyed military designations.
A senior hereditary military officer, for example, might be the leader of a
collection of kinship groups, all of which provided soldiers under his
charge. As these groups lived in neighbouring villages, he, living in the
main walled town, would be the effective, if not nominal, ruler of the
entire region. For example, along the west bank of the Irrawaddy, about
fifty miles south of Ava, nearly all the inhabitants were men of the
Shwaypyi Yanaung cavalry regiment or members of their families. Each
group of fifty or so men and their families lived under the charge of their
myinsi or cavalry officer. The entire regiment was under their commander,
the myingaung, the holder of the senior bone.
The greatest of the gentry office-holders were the above-mentioned
myothugyi, the chiefs of the townships. They were members of the dominant lineage in large athi communities. While some had charge of only a
few isolated settlements, others maintained substantial courts and presided
over more than one hundred villages and towns. Beneath these myothugyi
were often a host of other lesser officials, some of whom held these lesser
offices by hereditary right while others were appointed directly by the
myothugyi. These included town clerks, criers, irrigation officers, land
supervisors and the holders of a variety of possible military-style offices.
The most elaborate of these local administrations was that of Pagan. As
the rulers of the most important of all the former royal capitals, the
hereditary magnates of Pagan enjoyed the particularly grand style of
mintha or prince, a title otherwise reserved for members of the royal
family. There were four princes of Pagan, from inter-related families, and
they in turn presided over a myriad of hereditary officials: the pyizo, who
handled day-to-day administration; the sachi, or writers; the sokay, or
constables; as well as brokers, fishery officers, ferry operators, toll station
officers and revenue collectors. All held their positions by hereditary right
as the holder of the senior lineage among their group.13
Other local administrations were much more modest. In general, the
local thugyi was policeman, tax collector, judge and jury. He (very rarely
she) decided the apportioning of revenue or corvee demanded by royal
officers, allocated civil and military duties and was generally in charge of
all aspects of local government, holding judicial and executive powers. All
members of the local gentry, as well as their personal retainers, were
exempted from taxation and demands for labour. Though some large
communities had specific hereditary police officers,14 in most places the
local chief would simply call on all the armed men under his charge to
suppress any criminal activity.15 In Amyint, a fairly typical town to the
north of Ava, the chiefly family was divided into three primary lineages:
the Eastern Four Hundred, the Ponnya and the Western Four Hundred.
In addition, there were seven other gentry office lineages, including
lineages of the hereditary land surveyor, broker, merchant and ferry
operator.16
In addition to the Pagan gentry, two other regional elites were particularly prominent. The first were the thugaung of Salin. They were a class of
a few dozen inter-related families who together governed the rich irrigated
area centred at Salin, along the lower reaches of the Irrawaddy. Their
chiefs were organised into four lines of descent and members of these
chiefly lineages, the Badda Raza, Taungzin, Hkaingza and Maha Thaman
lineages, all traced their ancestry back to the late Pagan era, and to the
original granting of hereditary rights in this area to their families.17 They
controlled the best agricultural land under their charge and sat at the apex
of an agrarian financial system through which they dominated the local
economy. The other important regional elite were the twinzayo of Yenan13
14
15
16
17
F.N. Trager and William Koenig (eds.), Burmese Sit-tans, 17241826: Records of Rural
Life and Administration, Tucson, 1979, Pagan myo sittan 1765.
Ibid.
J.G. Scott and J.P. Hardiman (comps.), Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States,
5 vols. in 2 parts (hereafter GUBSS), Rangoon, 19001, vol. II, p. 105.
ROB, 21 July 1786.
Ohn Kyi, Salin Thugaung Thamaing (Akyin), in Bama Thamaing (Studies in Burmese
History) by colleagues of Dr Than Tun (mimeo.).
in turn had borrowed from their even richer cousins in the royal court.
However much money the gentry were able to accumulate, their spending was carefully prescribed through customary sumptuary rules and
regulations, and the myothugyi in particular enjoyed a number of privileges which clearly marked him apart from his subjects. These normally
included the right to wear certain types of dress or ride horses. In his 1764
sittan, for example, the Myothugyi of Wuntho stated:
my retinue is comprised of two swordsmen on the right and two on the left,
seven vermillion drums, one slightly smaller drum, one great horn and
smaller horn. My house has a three tiered cemented roof with horns and
interior partitions painted vermillion. The windows are part gilt and two parts
vermillion and there are four gates to the wall of the compound . . .19
Another clear way in which office-holders and their wives were separated from those of subordinate classes was by their names. The Burmese
attached great importance to their names and titles, but did not have
anything like the system of surnames as in parts of contemporary western
Europe or China. Instead, personal names were almost always descriptive
Burmese words, with meanings such as gold (Shwe), famous (Kyaw),
pleasant (Tha) or First (U), and were determined in part by the day of
the week of ones birth. Within a small community, people often called
one another by a familial term, such as elder brother (ko) or aunt (daw),
whether or not there existed a known tie of kinship, and a person outside
of his or her immediate small community was addressed by his or her
name, prefixed by nga for a man and mi for a woman, or maung and me`
respectively for those of more notable birth.
Gentry lineages, however, often had lineage names, such as the Maha
Thaman yo or the Tharay Ponnya yo, the names of the chiefly lineages of
Pahkangyi and Ahmyint respectively.20 In addition, most if not all officeholders received a fitting title. The titles were similar to those used by the
court aristocracy, but were less grand. Gentry titles were usually easy to
distinguish from those of the nobility and royal family, and did not contain
key court appellations, such as min or maha. They did, however, very
often include the title thamada, which implies that the holder was someone who ruled by popular consent. The word may be translated as elected, and today the word is used for both president and republic. Other
19
20
Trager and Koenig (eds.), Burmese Sit-tans, Wuntho myo sittan 1764.
ROB, 30 November 1635.
cally, the remaining gentry were still included in the reckoning of the
kings 80,000 amatya, his 80,000 nobles. They were part of the more
general amat-myo which included the nobility at the capital as well. Even
more generally, they were part of the min-myo, the ruling or ksatriya class
together with the king himself.
But as differences in power and wealth between the remaining gentry
clans and the aristocracy at Ava grew, they were increasingly treated as a
class apart. While they had once been referred to primarily as min, as
rulers, they were increasingly known only as thugyi or headman.23
Through the early modern period and into the nineteenth century, administrative and commercial processes would combine to widen the gap
between the centre and the hinterland. This would take on new twists and
turns in the late nineteenth century as we will see. By the colonial period,
the British would see only village notables, not great rural magnates,
ruling over an otherwise undifferentiated social landscape.
Certain other types of land could also become crown property, such as
lands which were difficult to assign to any one person or group, for
example the small islands in the Irrawaddy near the capital which disappeared beneath the surface of the river every year, and then, on reappearing, could not easily be identified. The right of collecting rent from such
land was the responsibility of the Superintendent of Crown Property, the
Ayadaw-ok, who was allowed to dispose of them as he thought most
profitable, while gaining some sort of commission for himself. Land confiscated for criminal acts (thein-myay, or confiscated land) and land
which reverted to the crown because the original owners had left no heirs
(amwe-son-myay, or end of lineage land) were also supposed to become
crown land if deemed valuable. Thus the king was the default landowner
of his realm.
While the king was the largest single landowner, the majority of land
was probably allodial or boba-baing-myay. This literally means fathers
and grandfathers land and it was not private land in that the holder did
not have full rights to dispose of the land as he or she saw fit. Land which
was cleared by an individual and kept within the family was classed as
allodial in this way. Land was often mortgaged and some may have been
bought and sold, but fully private, or pudgalika, land did not appear as a
distinct category until colonial times.
Other land belonged to religious establishments, monasteries and pagodas. They were crown lands or allodial lands donated by the king or
other notables in perpetuity; their integrity was meant to be scrupulously
maintained. In fact, glebe land tended to shrink over time, as lapses in
record-keeping allowed cultivator-tenants or other local people to claim
bits of the estate as their own. Land donations were often accompanied by
donations of slaves to work the land. Those who did, the hpaya-kyun,
were irredeemable slaves. Even though they were common cultivators in
every other way, they came to occupy the lowest rung in the Burmese
social ladder, as low as those who dealt in death. For ordinary people, they
were beyond the pale and no social interaction was allowed.
The last and most complicated category of land was min-myay or
prebendal land. Min means ruler and in a village setting might refer to the
local chief. Min-myay in this case was the chiefs land and was part of his
patrimony, his inheritance as head of his lineage. More generally, the
phrase might refer to all land seen as belonging to the chiefly clan. But this
phrase was also used to categorise land granted by a king to his crown
26
other important industries in the early nineteenth century were the oil
industry, located at Yenangyaung, a sprawling community along the west
bank of the Irrawaddy,27 and shipbuilding, increasingly important as a
source of foreign exchange in the countrys southern ports.28
While many of the patterns of consumption and production as described above had probably changed little over the previous several centuries, the local economy was far from static. Looking at the very long term,
we have already seen that the early modern era was likely to have witnessed a degree of demographic growth. Almost certainly, the fifty years
from the civil war in the 1750s to the very beginning of the nineteenth
century saw an increase in population in the Irrawaddy valley, both as a
result of relative peace and stability, and as a consequence of large-scale
importation of war captives. The famine of 180507 may have been the
result of a prolonged drought, but may also have been linked to overpopulation relative to production capacities in some parts of the country.
This demographic growth was a likely factor in a growing commercialisation of the valleys economy, as cultivators and others began producing
for bigger and more distant markets.29 The focus of this increased commercialisation was the periodic fairs, or pwe`, and the permanent markets,
or zay, of the larger towns. The smaller pwe` would normally rotate between five large villages and were markets held in conjunction with the
visit of travelling entertainers. More substantial ones might take place in
conjunction with a religious occasion. Customary revenue from a periodic
market or festival was given to the person holding the office of pwe`za, or
broker. The larger, permanent markets in towns and in the capital were
much more impressive exchange sites where a number of customary
office-holders derived income from sales, licences, the use of standard
weights and measures and currency exchange.30
Rice was in part distributed through these locally regulated markets, or
sold by small-scale traders who exchanged rice for other easily portable
27
28
29
18241942, London, 1944, pp. 3412; Tun Wai, Economic Development, pp. 1220.
Crawfurd, Journal, p. 55; Cox, Journal, pp. 345, 43; Henry Yule, Mission to the Court
of Ava in 1855, reprint, Kuala Lumpur, 1968, pp. 212; Fritz Noetling, Report on the
Petroleum Industry in Upper Burma from the End of the Last Century to the Beginning
of 1891, Rangoon, 1892, p. 59.
Sangermano, Description, pp. 21920; Symes, Account, vol. I, p. 254; vol. II, p. 218;
Tun Wai, Economic Development, pp. 1112.
On the long-term commercialisation and monetisation of the economy, see Lieberman,
30 ROB, 26 October 1872.
Secular Trends, esp. pp. 1321.
32
On the redistribution of rice at Amarapura in the 1850s, see D.G.E. Hall (ed.), The
DalhousiePhayre Correspondence 185256, London, 1932 (hereafter DPC), 18
March 1854.
Crawfurd, Journal, p. 434; GUBSS, vol. II, p. 165; Tun Wai, Burmas Currency and
Credit, Bombay, 1962, p. 24; Toe Hla, Moneylending and Contractual Thet-kayits.
This picture of a political-financial elite is complicated by the important position of professional bankers, the thuhtay, of the early modern era.
They are the least known of all the countrys social classes. Unlike the
min-myo kings and noblemen the thuhtay-myo figured little, if at all, in
the chronicles and in the other literature of the age. We know the names of
only a very few thuhtay, and next to nothing about their business organisation. Many were titled and in this way were clearly separated from
the commoner class. These titles sometimes included the word dana,
meaning donation, such as in the style Maha Danaraza, but they more
often included the word thuhtay itself, which is a Burmese corruption of
the Pali setthi, also meaning banker or rich man.
Their place in palace society will be discussed in the next chapter. Their
place in rural society, however, is much less clear. As we have seen, the
thuhtay-myo, was a recognised social division. Today, being a thuhtay
simply means that one has wealth or property above what is common. But
in early Konbaung society, thuhtay was both a royal designation and an
inherited position. To be a thuhtay, to be ennobled and enjoy a fitting
style, was the gift of the crown and could be revoked at any time. Usually a
person becoming a thuhtay also entered into a contractual relationship
with his sovereign. In return for the title, the royal protection the designation offered and the specific trade privileges which were granted, the
thuhtay would agree to pay a fixed amount of silver each year. These
bankers were also thus monopolists. In 1798, for example, a banker titled
Yanaung Kyawhtin, was granted the position of Broker for River-borne
Trade (Thinbaw-kon Pweza). He was given a monopoly of trade in all
imported maritime goods to the greater Ava area in return for 100 viss of
silver per year and was placed under the responsibility of the Master of
Granaries and the Commander of the Main Cavalry Regiments, an indication of the numerous business links which all senior members of the Court
of Ava enjoyed.33
While the actual office of thuhtay was, at least nominally, a crown
appointment, being of the thuhtay-myo, the banking class, was hereditary.
Maung Kala, the great eighteenth-century historian, for example, was of
the Singaing thuhtay-myo, Singaing being a village near Ava. Even if a
member of a thuhtay descent group was impoverished, he or she would
still be seen, as least in the eyes of the law, not as a poor person but as the
33
lowest of the various internal groupings within the thuhtay class. One
small step below the thuhtay were the thugywe`, a Burmese word meaning
full or wealthy person, an inferior grade of the same general class. One
large step below both were the konthe`, the traders. They were part of the
commoner class and were not seen as noble. Yet they enjoyed some legal
distinction from other commoners and were thus placed between the
lowest thugywe` and the bulk of the sinye`tha, the poor. Thus the great
divide between noble and common took place within the trading or
business population.
Being recognised as a thuhtay or thugywe` was also a licence to spend.
Strict sumptuary regulations meant that spending on most things was
highly restricted, and conspicuous consumption occurred only with royal
approval. Many thuhtay became great religious donors. A pagoda near
Ava built by one of my great-great-great-great-grandfathers in the eighteenth century still stands today. He was a member of the Dabessway
thuhtay-myo and made his fortune from financial dealings across the
Kyaukse area. But like many others of the moneyed classes, he also
profited handsomely from long-distance trade, across the Bay of Bengal,
and up through the Shan hills to the markets of China.
The early Toungoo kings and their predecessors at Pegu had benefited
from the great rise in intra-Indian Ocean trade at the beginning of the
early modern era, and in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a number of
port towns along the Arakan, Pegu and Tennasserim littoral had been
important entrepots of regional commerce. Imported mercenaries, horses,
muskets and cannon as well as a variety of consumer goods had dramatically changed local politics as well as local lifestyles; Burmese ships and
sailors travelled to distant ports and Pegu was home to a diverse mix of
western Europeans, Persians, Armenians, south Asians, Mons, Burmese
and others.
From the seventeenth century onwards, however, following the move
of the capital from Pegu to Ava, the importance of maritime trade as a
source of goods and state revenue declined. In part this may have been
related to the general decline in trade around the Bay of Bengal. But it was
also likely to have been related to local demographic growth which in turn
led to food shortages and the royal prohibition on the export of rice. By
1800, the Court of Ava followed what might be considered a mercantilist
policy, with strict prohibitions as well on the export of precious metals.
Otherwise, a 6 per cent ad valorem tax was levied on exports with 5 per
cent going to the treasury and 1 per cent to local office-holders. Remaining
exports included ivory, pepper, cutch, teak, other timber, and lac as well
as some gold and silver despite the prohibition. Imports, which included
firearms, textiles and various manufactures, were taxed at 12 per cent, with
10 per cent going to the treasury.34
By the early nineteenth century, however, China loomed very large on
the horizon. Various local polities and Chinese-speaking empires had, of
course, been in varying degrees of contact for a very long time. As early as
the Han dynasty, Chinese armies based along the Yellow river were able to
project military power across the Yunnan Plateau right up to Burmas
modern borders. But this was an ephemeral and tenuous projection and it
was only in recent times, as the autonomous kingdoms and chieftanships
of Yunnan fell to Pekings control, that the Chinese empire emerged on
the countrys very doorstep. We have mentioned the likely demographic
rise in the Irrawaddy valley in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. But the demographic rise in Yunnan was far more dramatic, and it
accompanied a rapidly changing ethnic composition.35
Over the course of the eighteenth century, the population of Yunnan is
believed to have more than doubled, from approximately 4 to 11 million
people, creating a population density in parts of the plateau far higher
than anywhere on the Irrawaddy plain. Dali itself had a population of
300,000 in 1750, at least twice that of the Ava area. For the Burmese
kingdom, a stronger Chinese presence to the north-east at first led to war
in the 1760s, but then to rapidly increasing trade and friendly diplomatic
relations. From here on, events in China would have an enormous impact
on the valley, at times suddenly and almost absent-mindedly wreaking
havoc on the Middle Kingdoms much smaller south-western neighbour.
Cotton was Burmas big export to China, and in return China provided
raw silk for the Burmese weaving industry and, importantly, gold and
silver which provided liquidity for Burmas trade and agriculture and
enriched the upper classes. From across the border also came highly
prized silk, copper, sulphur, zinc, cast-iron pots and pans, paper and
various and exotic foods.36 While cotton was estimated as only half of the
34
35
36
valleys exports to China in the late eighteenth century, it had become the
only significant export by the mid-nineteenth century. The only other
significant export was tea, which came not from the valley itself but from
the Shan plateau, especially the Palaung principality of Tawng Peng, with
some of the tea passing through the royal customs post at Bhamo. The
export of tea to China was such an important part of the local economy
that Burmese officials told a visiting British delegation in 1855 that they
thought preposterous the idea that tea was grown in China.
overland contacts with Bengal, Tibet and Yunnan. These latter areas were
all strongholds of Mahayana and Tantric Buddhism, with the university at
Nalanda in Bengal being perhaps the most prominent of all the contemporary centres of Buddhist learning.
Alongside Buddhism, the worship of nat was the most important
constituent element in the dominant religion of the Irrawaddy valley.38
Nat is a generic word for any spirit or deity and they are seen as
potentially malevolent and in need of constant propitiation, usually
through the ritual offering of food and water. At the centre of the nat faith
were the thirty-seven Nats, a royally patronised pantheon of nat which
dated back to eleventh-century Pagan. Deities of Indian origin were easily
incorporated into nat worship. Brahmanical gods and goddesses were
given Burmanised names, for example Sarasvati becoming Thaye`thadi,
Siva becoming Paramizwa and Vishnu becoming Withano. Indra, or
Thagya Min in Burmese, was the chief of all the nat.39
To an extent, this mix of differing Buddhist, Hindu and indigenous
religious notions and rituals survived until the early nineteenth century
and even survives to this day. But through the early modern period this
eclecticism would come under sustained challenge from a great renewal of
orthodox or neo-conservative Buddhist beliefs and eventually the rise of
what might be termed a fundamentalist Buddhism. The history of this
renewal was intimately tied with the history of Buddhism in the not too far
away island of Ceylon. There, an extremely conservative Theravada
school, the Maha Vihara school, had flourished under royal protection,
and then survived the Cola invasions. Links between Pagan and Ceylon
had been strong and there had been a considerable exchange of monks
and Theravada texts, including the Pali canon, and also the later Singhalese commentaries and the works of Buddhaghosa, the great south Indian
cholastic. In the fifteenth century, Dhammazedi, the king of Pegu undertook a sweeping reform of the local Sangha, closely tying the monkhood
to Singhalese forest-based religious lineages. From then on, Mahayana
and Vajrayana beliefs and practices slowly declined as Ceylon-derived
38
39
On Burmese nat worship, see Temple, Thirty Seven Nats; Melford Spiro, Burmese
Supernaturalism, Philadelphia, 1967, pp. 4063; Yves Rodrigue, Nat-Pwe: Burmas
Supernatural Sub-Culture, Edinburgh, 1992; Htin Aung, The Thirty-Seven Lords,
JBRS, 39 (1956), 81101; and Shway Yoe (George Scott), The Burman: His Life and
Notions, reprint, Edinburgh, 1989, pp. 23142.
Temple, Thirty Seven Nats, pp. 1011.
conservatism triumphed, first at Pegu and then at Ava and throughout the
countryside.
Greater emphasis was placed on knowledge of Theravada texts, on the
Canon and related commentaries, and on much closer observance of
vinaya rules of monastic discipline. Practices by monks such as participation in local feasts in which large quantities of meat and alcohol were
consumed were ended and, in general, a more puritan ethic came to
pervade at least parts of Burmese society.40 Drinking of alcohol was
replaced to an extent by the consumption of stimulants such as pickled tea
and betal nut and the smoking of opium, and even the killing of large
animals became a capital offence.41 By the nineteenth century, the Court of
Ava also undertook measures against homosexuality and transvestitism.
Deviation from the new orthodoxy became less tolerated, religious sects
opposing support for monks and monasteries were suppressed by royal
order, and both Christians and Muslims experienced some persecution.42
But despite these neo-conservative trends, elements of Mahayana and
Tantric Buddhism remained deeply embedded in popular thought. Many
believed that the next Buddha, the Maitreya Buddha, would appear when
the teachings of the historical Buddha, the Gautama Buddha, were forgotten, or that the disappearance of Buddhism would come at a time of
general decline, the world lapsing into conflict and anarchy. Burmese
kings often harnessed these popular ideas and aspired to the role of
Setkyamin (in Pali, Cakravatti) or Universal Monarch, a sort of Boddhisatta who would rule over an enlightened Buddhist society, and various signs and symbols such as possession of a white elephant were seen as
marks of this status. Sects which were closer to Tibetan Buddhism were
known collectively as pwe`-gyaung, and experienced varying degrees of
discrimination, losing influence to the Theravada orthodoxy over the
course of the nineteenth century.43
Alongside this majority Buddhist and nat-worshiping tradition was
Islam, the second largest non-indigenous belief system in the Irrawaddy
valley.44 Islam had arrived in the country only a few centuries after
40
42
43
44
Than Tun, Mahakassapa and His Tradition, in Essays on the History and Buddhism
41 Sangermano, Description, pp. 845.
of Burma.
Ibid., pp. 11112. On the persecution of Muslims in the 1840s see Henry Gouger,
Personal Narrative of Two Years Imprisonment in Burmah, London, 1860, p. 97.
ROB, 23 July 1813.
On the history of Muslims in Burma, see especially Moshe Yeager, The Muslims of
Burma: A Study of a Minority Group, Wiesbaden, 1972; Ba U, Mandalay Centenary:
History of Burmese Muslims, Mandalay, 1959.
Henry Yule and A.C. Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, London, 1903, see entry for Zerabadi.
ROB, 17 November 1807, 16 December 1807.
The Burmese kingdom on the eve of the First Anglo-Burmese War was at
the very height of its powers. The imperial formation over which the Court
of Ava presided was the most expansive in its peoples history. Burmese
soldiers, following their mounted chiefs, had marched, almost unchecked,
from the frost-covered foothills of the Himalayas to the malarial jungles of
the Malay Peninsula. Though their hold on many of their new possessions
remained tenuous, their newest campaigns, in the west, were meeting with
growing success.
At home, along the banks of the Irrawaddy, the Court of Avas authority was stronger than ever before. Building on core institutions which
reached back to Pagan, increasingly bureaucratic royal structures peeled
away the autonomy of local magnates and established a more direct
administration. The gentry came under tighter control and the area under
the sway of appointed provincial officers began to stretch beyond the
neighbourhood of garrison towns and into more outlying areas. Within
the walls of the royal city, a generation of relentless conquest had produced a cosmopolitan society and a cultural renaissance. Titles became
grander and internal differences more marked. Food and entertainment
became richer and more varied. A new capital was built and was named
Amarapura, the Immortal City. The king of Ava, styling himself The
Master of the White Elephant and The Lord of All Umbrella-Bearing
Chiefs, came to see himself as an equal of the emperor of China and more
than an equal of the newly arrived and somewhat inscrutable English
governors of India.
But while the territory over which it ruled grew over the years, and
while its hold over the villages along the Irrawaddy increased, the basic
functions and resources of the Court of Ava remained much as they had
been for the previous 200 years or more. The administrative reorganisation which had taken place following the restoration of the Toungoo
dynasty had set in place key elements of government. These remained
largely unaltered. The principal institutions of the early modern state,
such as the Council of State, the Privy Council, the appanage system, and
provincial governorships date back to this formative period. The restored
retinues, the colour of personal umbrellas, all were organised and assigned
according to rank and precedent. Everyone, depending on their exact
place in the hierarchy, had his or her special dress and relative place. In
ceremony after ceremony, religious and cultural, no one was ever at a loss
as to what to wear or where to sit.1
Around the city were the town and various smaller satellite communities. Many, if not most of the population were hereditary crown servants,
ahmudan units living among their own kind and under their own chiefs:
masons, carpenters, tailors, artisans, smiths and other craftsmen as well as
soldiers grouped by army regiment. A large number of those in the lower
status occupations, as well as slaves and soldiers, were Manipuris,
people from the Imphal valley who had been brought as war-captives or
were their immediate descendants, and by the mid-nineteenth century
they were said to form perhaps as much as a quarter of the population
or at least 25,000 people. They were Avas underclass and nearly all
domestic servants and many ordinary workers were from this displaced
community.2
Many others in the town around the city were Buddhist monks. As
Defender of the Faith, the king, as well as the entire ruling class, lavished
considerable patronage on the many monasteries which sprang up around
the fort. They were the most important monastic schools in the land and
many, such as the Bagaya and Parama monasteries, were distinguished by
their education of many future kings and ministers. Bright young novices
from provincial monasteries came here to complete their studies in the
religion, as well as readings in law, history, mathematics and astronomy;
often they ended up in the kings service. One in ten people, or one in five
men at the capital were monks in the mid-nineteenth century, and the
proportion was not likely to have been any less in the past.
There was also a mercantile community, divided mainly along ethnic or
religious lines: Chinese, Armenians, Europeans, Muslims and others lived
in their separate quarters, the Chinese and Muslim presence being particularly strong. Some of the Chinese were from families which had
arrived, indirectly, from the south-eastern coastal provinces of China and
who were linked with the wider Chinese trading world of south-east Asia.
1
See Yule, Mission, pp. 15061 for a detailed description of Amarapura in 1855. For an
earlier description of Ava, see Sangermano, Description, pp. 823. For a description of
Mandalay city, see Herbert White, A Civil Servant in Burma, London, 1913, p. 120.
Yule, Mission, pp. 1534.
3
4
his position because of his past good works and was now the leading
defender and patron of the religion.
In a second and related myth, the first law-giver (Manu) was said to
have been a former minister, who lost his position because of a poor legal
judgement, retired to the forest, gained knowledge of an absolute moral
law and returned to provide renewed service to the government. The king
ruled because he was an upholder of this received moral law, the
dhamma, and as a righteous king (dhamma-raza) governed according
to timeless moral precepts. His was not an arbitrary or violent rule, but
one which acted through established parameters and in conformity with
Buddhist ethical ideals. The great Mauriyan emperor Asoka, who was said
to have converted to Buddhism while at the very height of his powers, was
seen as the model for all Buddhist rulers to follow.
An important function of the king, as patron of the religion and as a
righteous ruler, was to preside over the many and varied spectacles which
dominated palace life. The most significant of these were His Majestys
own abhiseka consecrations, which could be held at various times
throughout his reign, and also grand ceremonies which were held to mark
numerous Buddhist and Hindu occasions. Every month offerings were
made to Burmese nat as well as Hindu gods, among the more important
being the offerings made to Ganesh and later to Skanda. Lavish affairs
were also organised around the life-ceremonies of members of the royal
family. The cradling ceremony for new-born princes and princesses, the
ear-boring ceremony for adolescents, and countless royal marriages and
funerals were usually attended by the king in person; many occasions
involved gifts or the exchange of gifts between the sovereign and his
principal subjects.
Enveloped in a world of queens, chamberlains and Officers of the
Guard, the daily routine of the reigning monarch was theoretically subject
to detailed regulation. Ostensibly, the kings daily schedule was a carefully
constructed affair, as set down by age-old precedent. According to one
source, the day began fairly prosaically at 5.30 a.m., when his majesty
awoke, listened to the news, washed and shaved. He then granted a brief
audience to his queens who came to pay their respects, dealt with some
official business at eight, and ate his morning meal. In the late morning, he
met with members of the royal family and then retired to the library to
read learned works. At one, he attended a meeting of his senior generals,
then his Privy Council, followed by a midday meal at four, more meetings
and a general conference of all his ministers at six. Only then did the king
return to his private apartments.5
In fact, the life of a Burmese king was often much less circumscribed.
Tharrawaddy for one was extremely fond of billiards, becoming practically addicted to the game, and apparently threw traditional scheduling to
the wind. Captain William McLeod, a member of the British Residency at
the time, wrote:
His Majesty was yesterday from 12 to 5 playing at billiards. He afterwards
regaled his friends with a dinner in the Billiard Room. A chest of beer was
ordered to be produced, but the Royal Steward reported that the Princes had
drained His Majestys cellar. The Ministers are sometimes vexed at his
Majestys frivolous amusements.6
While perhaps Tharrawaddys fondness for beer and billiards was unusual for a Konbaung monarch, his predilection for somewhat unkingly
amusements illustrates the substantial gap which must have existed between the theory of kingship found in Burmese texts of the period and the
more sobering reality. Certainly there were great differences between the
kings themselves in how they used their positions and employed their
time. The early kings of the previous dynasty, up to Singu, were great
generals. Alaungpaya had conquered his kingdom by force of arms, and
his elder sons, Naungdawgyi and Hsinbyushin, followed in the martial
tradition, personally leading their men into war. Singu himself disliked
war but liked hunting, though one suspects more for the post-hunting
entertainment. Bodawpaya, though an imperial expansionist, never took
to the battlefield himself and as king preferred to concentrate on matters
of religion. For years he personally supervised the construction of what
would have been the largest pagoda in the world at Mingun and also
directed the building of smaller pagodas in 230 towns and villages around
the country.7 In strong contrast his successor Bagyidaw was known for
having no interest in Buddhism at all. Instead, he spent most of his time on
horseback, enjoying the vogue in polo-playing and other equestrian sports
which had swept the court, and feeding his favourite horses himself.
What all the kings of Ava had in common, however, right up to Thibaw
5
6
who was the stark exception, was that they had, and spent much of their
day with, their many wives. Fathering a bewildering number of children,
often over a hundred, was an unwritten task of the Burmese monarch,
and, by the mid-nineteenth century, the House of Alaungpaya, the royal
myo, was a small society in itself.
throughout the Konbaung region and these allied families had provided
him the support he desperately needed during his initial campaigns. The
early marital ties of the new royal house continued to be with these local
gentry, as well as with selected high official lineages from Ava, and with
members of the old dynasty. Their closest marital allies were the family of
Min Thiri of Yandaza, whose formidable clan provided wives for three
generations of Konbaung princes. By the early nineteenth century, the
dominant pattern had changed, and the royal house had become fairly
endogamous. Kings themselves made strategic partnerships with a number of noble and tributary families, and the minor royals did as they chose.
But the upper-level princes and princesses married each other, almost
without exception.
Like all other groups at the Court of Ava, the royal family was carefully
ranked. Princes, sons and grandsons of the reigning monarch, were
divided into nine major grades and many more lesser grades. They enjoyed
the style mintha, and were alone in having the title minye` as part of their
name. The grander princes, like their royal father, were also styled
dhamma-raza, righteous king. They could expect a share of a towns
income as their appanage and were granted lavish sumptuary rights,
including the rights to ride an elephant and have a golden umbrella held
over their heads. They were sometimes called into the business of government, but more often were idle or were plotting to ensure that they were
not among the next victims of a princely purge.
Equivalent in power and influence, if not in formal rank, to the princes
were the kings women. A sizeable progeny was an important royal goal
and much kingly energy was apparently devoted to this aim. The women
were ranked, generally by background, with the most senior positions
being taken by daughters of the previous monarch, that is the kings
half-sisters. They were one of the four to six chief queens and were
known as the queen (mibaya) of one of the several palaces. Next were
the junior queens, known as the queens of one of the various royal
apartments. There then normally followed a host of other lesser wives
and concubines. These were other members of the royal family, daughters of noblemen, generally grandees of the court, as well as daughters of
important members of the gentry. Daughters of tributary princes were
also well represented. They were known as the thami-kanya. The concubines of the early Konbaung kings included the daughters of many Shan
sawbwa as well as real and fictitious princesses from distant lands. To-
gether they formed the Western Court, with their own elaborate rules
and regulations. Middle-ranking male officials assisted the senior queens
in the orderly running of this society. There were also officials, who may
have been eunuchs, known as mainma-so, or superintendent of the
women.9
Below the princes were other male members of the royal family, descendants of Alaungpaya removed from the dominant line. Most if not all,
together with their immediate families, were placed into thwe-thauk,
which were palace-based associations which grouped together men of
similar rank and descent. The most important were associations known as
The Royal Forty or The Royal Fifty. Like all such groupings in Ava, they
were methods of keeping track of people, keeping them from causing
trouble, and keeping them on standby in case of need. The extended royal
clan, as a whole, was placed under the authority of a minor prince known
as the swaydaw-ok, the supervisor of the royal clan. Images of dead kings
and queens were kept at the Zetawun-saung, the Hall of Ancestors, and
obeisance ceremonies, led by the reigning monarch and attended by the
entire Konbaung family, were held three times a year.10
After a few generations, some of these members of the extended family
lapsed into obscurity. Others, however, gained high office as ministers and
noblemen in their own right. A good example was Maung Shwe Tha, a
grandson of Alaungpaya through his minor son the Prince of Malun. Born
in the 1780s, he was eventually appointed to a number of high-level
positions and was granted his fathers old appanage of Malun, as its
myoza. Though holding an official rank equal to other court grandees of
non-royal birth, his style, Thado Minye` Raza, indicated his connection to
the Konbaung house, Minye`, as mentioned, being a title reserved for
princes of the blood. He eventually was made a senior minister, or wungyi,
and was the first wungyi to be posted in Rangoon, just after the end of the
First Anglo-Burmese War, as part of Bagyidaws abortive attempt to
handle his relations with the British away from the capital.11 Too distant
from the main line to be a contender for the throne, he made his name as a
minister rather than as a prince.
The immediate royal family lived a lavish lifestyle and were provided
ample income by the reigning monarch through the appanage system. All
9
10
11
queens, many other wives and concubines of the king, and all princes and
princesses above a certain age were granted a town, village or other
locality as a source of income. In part because of the great length of
Konbaung titles, royals (and noblemen) were commonly known by these
appanages, for example as the Myoza of Syriam or the Prince of Prome.
The Salin princess, at her cradling ceremony (pahket-mingala) in 1853,
was granted the towns of Mohkaing, Thonze` and Alon as her appanages.
She was also given other landed estates south of the capital, a personal
barge, two baby elephants, two adult female elephants, thirty oxen, a host
of personal retainers and a select group of royal playmates (kasataw),
chosen from among the children of blue-blooded nobles.12
Though royals no longer resided in their appointed appanages, in many
cases they clearly continued to take a strong interest in the affairs of their
towns and villages. To a large extent, this interest was related solely to
income, but in some cases involvement by members of the royal family in
local administration remained. For example, in 1807, a daughter of
Bodawpaya who had been granted the town of Kyaukmaw as her appanage applied successfully to the Hluttaw for permission for the local
hereditary chief, the Myothugyi of Kyaukmaw, to be given extraordinary
powers to deal with crime. Specifically, she asked that the chief, Wuttana
Zeyya, be permitted to govern the township alone, without interference
from centrally appointed officials, in order that he might take severe
measures to combat banditry in the area. Leaving aside what those
measures actually were and why he needed special powers, this case
demonstrates the special relationship which often developed between
the appanage holder and the people, especially the ruling class, of that
community.13
A second and perhaps equally important source of income was moneylending. As appanage holders, members of the royal family accumulated
silver which they could then lend out, through bankers, to the cashstarved population. The king himself was also involved in the business of
money-lending, occasionally extending cash loans, for example, to his
tributary Shan chieftains.14 As relatively cash-rich members of society,
others in the Konbaung family probably followed this lead and endeavoured to profit from financial dealings themselves. Special officers were
appointed to look after their money-lending businesses. For example, one
12
14
13
KBZ, vol. II, p. 174.
ROB, 13 November 1807.
Toe Hla, Moneylending and Contractual Thet-kayits, p. 133.
such official, Kyawhtin Nanda Sithu, handled all financial affairs for the
Kutywa, Nyaungyan and other princes at the turn of the century.15
In addition to private bankers, such as Kyawhtin Nanda Sithu, princes
and princesses maintained large personal courts. Many of these courts
were staffed with officials and servants who belonged to a class of people
known as the kyundaw-yin, hereditary royal retainers. Kyundaw literally
means royal slave and all the kings subjects were often referred to in this
way. But the kyundaw-yin, the close royal slaves were members of
lineages which had personally served the Alaungpaya family since their
capture of Ava, or perhaps even before as servants of the family at Moksobo. They were the trusted, close aides of the family. Over the years, they
produced a number of illustrious officials. Possibly the greatest kyundawyin lineage was that of the Myoza of Syriam.
Maung Kyaw Hlaing had been born a hereditary retainer to the royal
family around the turn of the century. Both his parents had been servants
in the private court of Bodawpaya when the latter was still a prince and he
had grown up with many of the royal children. After a spell at a local
monastic school, he followed an exemplary official career successively
serving as the Chief of the State Palanquin Bearers, Captain of the Kaunghan Guards, Commander of the Left Household Brigade, Senior Minister of the Hluttaw, Governor of Toungoo, Governor of Bassein, Privy
Councillor, and finally Master of the Royal Granaries. Through much of
his later career he had also been Myoza of Syriam and enjoyed a portion of
the income from that port.
With his rise to power, he was able to secure for both his sister and his
daughter the position of lesser queens with their own appanages. His
daughter held Meiktila as one of her appanages, and his brother-in-law
was appointed the town governor, ensuring their hold over the town.
Among his own brothers, the most eminent was his younger brother
Maung Kyaw Shwe, who eventually also became a senior minister, only to
be killed at Rangoon during the English War. Other brothers held a
variety of army posts. The Syriam family continued to enjoy important
places in the Court of Ava for at least another two generations, the
daughter of Maung Kyaw Shwe, for example, becoming the Mye`du Queen
in the 1830s.16 When this man, born a royal servant, died, he was allowed
15
Ibid., p. 129.
16
the funeral of royalty itself, with a white umbrella held over his palanquin
en route to his cremation.17
Ibid.
18
R.B. Pemberton, Journey from Munipoor to Ava, and from Thence Across the Yooma
Mountains to Arraccan, JBRS, 43 (1960), 98103.
where royal orders to servants and subjects were formulated and from
which they were sent. The Hluttaw is often referred to as the Council of
State.
These senior ministers of the early Konbaung dynasty were often men
of considerably literary and scholarly accomplishment, and the tumultuous but highly productive career of U Paw U illustrates the multifaceted
world of the highest court grandees. Unlike many other senior officials, he
had been born into an undistinguished local family in the small village of
Tase` near Mye`du. After a very successful monastic education, he became
an expert in the Buddhist Tripitika as well as the Vedas and Burmese law,
joining Bodawpayas court, and rising to become a Privy Councillor and
the Myoza of Yaw. He was later stripped of his office and titles for
opposing the expenditure of 800,000 rupees on precious stones for the
kings great-grandson and exiled to the Shan state of Theini, close to the
Chinese border, spending his time there writing the series of poems for
which he is renowned. In one of these poems, he argues that money from
taxation should only be used in the interests of the country as a whole and
not for war and extravagant expenditure. The king, hearing the poem read,
then recalled him to royal service. Under Bodawpayas grandson and
successor Bagyidaw, Paw U finally became a wungyi as well as Minister
for War. He lived to see defeat in the first English war and died at the end
of the Burmese century, in 1838, aged 84.20
The balancing organ of the Hluttaw was the Bye`daik. The word is Mon,
literally meaning the Bachelor Chambers, and is often translated as the
Privy Council. Its function was to serve as a gateway between the king
and the Hluttaw, and between the king and all other royal agencies,
handling the inner affairs of the royal court, while the Hluttaw handled
the government of the country. The four heads of the Bye`daik were called
atwinwun, literally Inner Minister. The word is also translated as Privy
Councillor. While the wungyi and other ministers often came up through
the official ranks, these Privy Councillors were usually intimates of the
reigning monarch, members of his private princely establishment who
followed his rise to the throne.
Below this highest level of officialdom wungyi and atwinwun were
a multitude of other grandees who ran departments and headed crown
service groups, such as the athi wun, the minister in charge of corvee
20
labour and mass mobilisation for war, and the myinsu-gyi wun, the Chief
of the Main Cavalry Regiments, the highest regular army position.
Another step down were a host of other high-ranked noblemen. They
included the important shwedaik wun, the privy treasurer, who was in
charge not only of treasure in precious metals, but also of treasure in
information; he was the palaces chief archivist who kept accounts of all
noble and gentry family genealogies and census reports. Among others
were the four wundauk, deputies to the four wungyi, who assisted them in
the running of the Council of State. Rounding out the upper echelon were
four justices (taya-thugyi) of the Eastern Court, who dealt with all lawand-order matters for the royal city. All these men wore elaborate costumes with high peaked or conical hats, enjoyed the style mingyi, or great
lord, and were followed though the streets of Ava by a considerable
retinue dressed in distinctive white coats. A golden umbrella, an emblem
of upper nobility, was held over their heads.
Many middle-level officials dealt primarily with information. They
were known by a variety of titles, but most included the words royal voice
(thandaw) or royal ear (nahkandaw). They acted as intermediaries between state organs as well as between the king and his ministers. They
collected, sorted and interpreted reports, read proclamations at official
gatherings and transmitted orders to provincial courts.21 A formal intelligence establishment also provided the court with information from within
the city and from the countryside. Those who openly provided the king
and ministers with information about goings on in and around the royal
city included a number of former monks. Others were selected from
among the fairly large group of palace stewards (asaungdaw-mye`), including at least one who was sent as a spy to India at the turn of the century.
Secret agents included monks, nuns, court officials and members of the
royal family, in particular women members. Masseurs were also prized as
spies, presumably because they often found themselves privy to indiscreet
conversation.22
The middle ranks of the court were also held by a multitude of writers
or secretaries, known as sayay. The Hluttaw establishment included
dozens of secretaries of different grades, headed by chief secretaries, or
sayay-gyi. Others of middling rank included the numerous crown service
heads. Many of these held military office, as the captains and colonels of
21
22
various regiments. Others were head of soft groups (asu-nu) such as the
Chief of the Royal Tailors, the Master of the Glassworks, or Head of the
Royal Cooks. The rank and file of these groups, military and civil, provided the ordinary working class of the royal city. Serving on a rotating
basis, they ate, slept and worked in their cells, and then, after a period,
returned to their home villages, cultivating the land that was their right as
crown servants, their places at Ava taken over by near relatives.
Methods of recruitment varied and were never completely systematised. Generally, a person assumed office through an hereditary claim
or after a long period of apprenticeship. The other possibility, of a direct
appointment without an apprenticeship, was said to be very rare.23 Occasionally, a son might inherit his fathers office as well as his appanage, but
he would almost always have already been in government service.24 Connections made through an appanage holder were also important in obtaining appointments. For example, one of Bagyidaws senior ministers,
born Maung Ta, was not of a noble family and had been born in the fairly
remote though important town of Taungdwingyi. When the wife of one of
the kings sons had held Taungdwingyi as an appanage, he had been
selected to serve the princess at Ava, as a member of her private establishment. He then worked his way up and out of the princesss court and into
mainstream royal government.25 In general, the lower the rank of the
office, the more important the hereditary principle. Senior ministers and
other high officials were all appointed by the reigning monarch and
though he might take family background into consideration, other factors
such as competence and loyalty were likely to be much more important.
Lesser officials, however, could often count on their family backgrounds
and connections to secure them posts, similar to their fathers, in due time.
24
century. Maung Sa was schooled at the Parama monastery near Ava, later
marrying within the Ava aristocracy to Me` Aye, the daughter of a retired
minister of state. He was first noticed by the future king, Bagyidaw, when,
while still crown prince, he was bringing together a circle of innovative
young artists in his private court and when Maung Sa was already gaining
a name as an accomplished musician.
He soon rose quickly through court offices but became much more
famous for his great works of music and drama, especially his translations
of the Javanese epic Enao from Thai and his many songs influenced by the
Ayuthaya style. As an official, he had been a financial secretary to the
crown prince and later followed him into the main palace establishment
as a minister, gaining the noble style Thiri Maha Zeyya Thura and being
granted the town of Myawaddy as his appanage. But like many Konbaung
officials, he was also a soldier, commanding four companies in the
Manipur campaign of 1813, and serving as the Commander of the Left in
the first English war under Thado Maha Bandula on the Arakan border.
After the war he was raised to the rank of wungyi, but unwisely became
involved in the machinations surrounding Bagyidaws final days, was
sentenced to death for treason, and then was granted a royal reprieve just
before his execution. He continued to compose music and poetry and he
lived just long enough to see the British annexation of Rangoon in 1853,
dying later that year, aged 92.26
The career of the Myoza of Myawaddy was exemplary in several respects. The first was that he was of noble birth. The Burmese nobility was
an office-holding nobility in that noble status depended, in one way, upon
crown recognition. This in turn was granted, with very few exceptions, to
those men who held royal office. They would then be given a fitting title
and a salway, the principal marks of noble (amat) status, the latter being a
collection of silk cords which was worn around the persons outer coat.
The office, title and salway could all be revoked upon order of the king,
and this did on occasion take place. With the gentry, and with the tributary princes, crown recognition of office and its accompanying marks
were, to a much greater extent, a mere formality; members of the nobility
were much more dependent upon active crown support.
But nobility at the Court of Ava also had a much broader and no less
important meaning. Within the Indian-inspired fourfold social division,
26
Ibid., p. 155.
nobles would be grouped into the ruling min-myo. But they also made up
part of their own amat-myo sub-division, separate from royalty and the
gentry. A person could be raised to this sub-division or class. If a man,
born of a lower order, achieved a position in a royal agency, he would be
ennobled and would be seen as a full member of the amat-myo. But a
person born of noble parents, or a son born of a noble father, was a noble
by birth. Unless, for some reason, the crown ordered him to be reduced to
a lower status, he would enjoy the legal position of being a nobleman
regardless of whether or not he eventually held office.
In fact, nearly all office-holders were members of this more broadly
defined noble class, that is they were noblemen (and women) by birth.
This is similar to the way in which office-holding rural chiefs were members of the broader gentry class. The only difference was the degree to
which the hereditary principle was important. For rural chiefs, the prime
qualification was being of the local chiefly lineage. At Ava, being of a noble
lineage was only one of several factors taken into account. The civil war of
the 1750s and the fall of Ava to Pegu had devastated the old noble class.
Alaungpayas seizure of power through force of arms, and without any
substantial help from the old nobility, led to an influx of many outsiders,
self-made men, into the restored Ava court. A few of the officials in the
very early years of the Konbaung dynasty were holdovers from the last.
The Ywaza of Inyon, for example, the author of the Lawka Byuha Kyan,
was kept on as an advisor on administrative practices by Alaungpaya,
having been a minister in the old regime.27
Certainly by the 1820s the nobility had re-emerged as a distinct class in
local society. This was done in part through increasingly endogamous
marriage practices which came to link much of the ruling class by blood.
While there was no formal bar to non-nobles attaining office, the key
mechanisms of selection made sure that commoners would find entrance
into palace service very difficult. This is another way in which the Myoza
of Myawaddys career was exemplary. He had started his career as a royal
page, a sort of apprenticeship only open to members of the nobility. This
was a training ground for future office-holders and was entirely restricted
to sons of families already in palace circles. These were early ties which
lasted a lifetime. In a major land dispute in 1826 between the Sawbwa of
Kalay and the Teinnyin Town Officer, for example, both had used the
27
Ibid., p. 145.
palace connections they had made as royal pages to try to influence the
arbitration.28
Office-holding noblemen were allocated among a hierarchy of
grades.29 A royal order of 1826, for example, lists a total of 132 senior
officials, sorted into their different grades, attending the kings coronation.30 The most important divisions were reflected in what was known as
the individuals place or naya, a reference to his seating position at a royal
audience. Places were grouped into taw, du, atwin, pyin bawaw and sanee
naya, with each naya coming with its own sumptuary privileges and
funeral rights.31 More generally, all office-holders were classed as senior
(pyadan-gyi) or ordinary (pyadan-yo). Grades were also reflected in
names.
Except for the kings closest intimates, members of the nobility, once
they had received their coveted titles, were never referred to by their old
personal names. Indeed, the first title received by a newly ennobled
official was known as his nge`-mi hpyout bwe`, literally meaning the title
which does away with his name in youth. Replacing ones personal name
with a royally granted style was only the first step in a very carefully
designed ladder of titles which marked each persons exact position within the Court of Ava. The simplest way to determine a noblemans relative
position was the length of this title, the longer being the better. In general,
a core title, such as Thinhkaya, was maintained throughout, and a series of
additional titles, in Pali or mixed Burmese and Pali were added on, each
addition being accompanied by a ceremony, sometimes attended by the
king himself, in which the official was presented with his new name
inscribed on a sheet of gold. After having achieving a simple title, the next
highest title was a title containing the name Shweidaung, followed in
turn by ones containing the names Nawrahta, Naymyo, Naymyo Min,
Min (without the Naymyo), Maha, Mingyi, Thado, Thettawshay
and finally Thudamma. These titles do not, taken together, have any
definite meaning. Each of the words does have a meaning, Naymyo for
example meaning of the race of the sun in Burmese and Maha meaning
great in Pali.32
28
29
31
32
This elaborate and precise hierarchy of titles did not achieve its final
form until well into the nineteenth century. In the early and mid-eighteenth century noble titles were very different. Late Toungoo ministers
were styled Nanda Thuriya or Maha Tarbya.33 By the mid-nineteenth
century, there were eleven very specific grades of titles. In fact, it was
probably immediately after the First Anglo-Burmese War that the system
described above became fully fixed. If we look at a list of Bodawpayas
ministers around the turn of the century, for example, we find that many
are still styled Naymyo, a very middling title in a later period when every
single minister enjoyed the much grander Mingyi or Great Lord as part
of his name.34 The wives of noblemen also had their own parallel places in
court society. The wife of a high official was known as his kadaw. The wife
of a more junior official or other titled person was known as his maya.35
All of these are assigned ranks, the assignments depending upon royal
favour and the day-to-day politics of the court. A more subtle hierarchy,
however, existed alongside, one which prized ancient noble lineages over
the shallow lineages of relative newcomers to Ava.36 The origins of noble
families were varied. By late in the Konbaung period, and perhaps late in
the previous dynasty as well, many were actually minor royal lineages,
descendants of sons by concubines. Many were descendants of the former
ruling families of Prome, Toungoo, Martaban, Tavoy and other principalities which were now under royal administration.37 After losing their family
seats to royal appointees, they were organised into elite crown service
groups which merged into palace society.38 Others were descendants of
captive royalty. The blood of the Ayuthaya, Pegu, Arakan, Chiang Mai and
other royal lines was often claimed by Burmese aristocrats in the later
Konbaung period. One of the last Burmese noblewomen, for example, the
Htayanga Princess, wife of the Pyimina Prince, both of whom lived until
the 1950s, was a direct descendant of the last kings of Ayuthaya.39
The income position of the nobility was very similar to that of the royal
family. The most important source of income was the appanages granted
by the king. At the upper end of the nobility, these appanages were entire
33
34
36
38
39
Inyon, The Ywa of (Thiri Uzana), Lawka Byuha Kyan, Rangoon, 1968, pp. 20015;
also see lists in Lawka Byuha Kyan, pp. 20015.
35
Hmawbi Saya Thein, Wungyi Hmugyi, p. 152.
ROB, 26 April 1838.
37
MMOS, vol. II, p. 147.
ROB, 2 June 1679.
See ibid., on the creation of these service groups.
Damrong Rajanubhab, Journey Through Burma in 1936, Bangkok, 1991, p. 129.
Sangha and often enjoyed a close relationship with the king and his
ministers.43 Monks who were advisors of the king were styled sayadaw or
royal teacher, though by the mid-nineteenth century this had become a
title applied to almost any distinguished monk. Several lay officers assisted the Thathanabaing and the Sangha leadership in their administration
of glebe lands and their relations with secular authority.44 Various kings in
the nineteenth century tried different policies, all wishing in some way to
support religious activity and encourage monastic organisation and discipline while also being wary of permitting too strong an alternative structure to the state.45
The other titled group at court which enjoyed high status were the royal
bankers, the thuhtay. The formal office of thuhtay was a royal appointment. In the mid-nineteenth century there were approximately a dozen
thuhtay and the same number of thugywe`, a similar but lesser designation.
Many acted as personal brokers (pwe`za) for the king and more generally
as financial middlemen between the cash-rich court and the agrarian
countryside.46 This was, at times, an ephemeral designation, and not a
lifelong contract. One unfortunate merchant, for example, who had lost
his position after several years, tried to regain the status of thuhtay
through a series of bribes. He was found out and executed, leaving behind
a sizeable estate of 40,000 rupees.47 Others were much luckier and died in
office. On these occasions, the position, title and relationship to the crown
sometimes passed on together to his heir, as in 1847, when the son of the
prominent thuhtay Thiri Thuhka Anadabain inherited his fathers place
and style as well as all his property.48 The weightiness attached to this
office, to the position of the banking elite, was represented most clearly in
royal consecration ceremonies, when a selection of bankers and their
daughters played key ritual roles.49 Noblemen connected the king to
gentry, and monks to the village monasteries. But bankers made the king
rich and ensured that he was, besides all other things, the chief financier in
his realm.
43
44
45
47
49
Donald E. Smith, Religion and Politics in Burma, Princeton, 1965, pp. 331.
GUBSS, vol. II, p. 10, passim.
E.M. Mendelson, Sangha and State in Burma: A Study of Monastic Sectarianism and
46
Leadership, Ithaca, 1975, p. 84.
ROB, 11 November 1854.
48
Cox, Journal, pp. 3413.
ROB, 20 April 1847.
See for example, KBZ, vol. III, pp. 399400.
50
51
well as several customs officers. All of the myowun supervised the local
hereditary elite. The area under a governors charge would normally
overlap with the jurisdictions of several myothugyi and dozens of other
gentry office-holders. The myowuns court, the myo-yon, was thus the
point of interface between the irregular and varied forms of rural government, and a systematising royal administration.
Beyond the main riverways and into the surrounding hills, even nominal jurisdiction passed from the hands of these court officials and into the
hands of tributary princes, the sawbwa. The word sawbwa is derived from
the Shan saohpa meaning lord of the sky but it became a generic Burmese term for all tributaries and was applied to Palaung, Jingpaw,
Manipuri and other dependent chiefs as well. Avas partial hold over their
territories was based in part on its ability to project military forces in the
event of a breakdown in customary tributary arrangements, and a sitke`, or
military commander, was based at Mong Nai in the southern Shan states,
backed by a substantial garrison. Sons of sawbwa were often educated at
court and served for a time as royal pages.52 Leading Shan families intermarried with the Burmese aristocracy.
If the key aim of the Court of Ava for its hinterland was the maintenance of peace and stability, other principal objectives included the mobilisation of manpower and the expropriation of surplus food and silver.
Manpower, as we have seen, was organised in large part through the
ahmudan crown service system. Military and other service communities
supplied labour on a rotating basis; Avas command over the armed
villages it had settled across its hinterland was at the very heart of the
monarchys power. Under the athiwun, the remainder of the population
were also often mobilised for war and other grand Konbaung projects, a
manpower demand mediated through gentry elites. The importation of
thousands of captives from conquered territories doubtless lightened the
burden on the valleys indigenous inhabitants. But this proved an ephemeral relief, and by the early nineteenth century, the royal court was again
attempting to muster yet more local men for the new campaigns to the
west.
Food and money were extracted from the economy in part through
customs posts, port tariffs, rent on crown lands, and royal ownership of
several silver mines in the north. Ava also expected, and usually received,
52
Defeat had made the Court of Ava anxious for the future of the kingdom.
Until the First Anglo-Burmese War, the men of the Golden City, buoyed
by a generation of virtually unchecked military expansion, had entertained grand schemes for further conquest. Their home was the centre of
an expanding empire, and their king a universal monarch, a chakravatti
over many subject peoples. Within months their world had come crashing
down. As the army of the East India Company sailed up the Irrawaddy, the
extent of the new English threat became clear for the first time. The defeat,
the annexations and the indemnity, the sudden awareness of their inferiority in science and technology, threw the Burmese ruling class into
confusion. One of their first responses was to write a new book of history,
the Hman-nan Raza-windaw-gyi, The Glass Palace Chronicle.
Pe Maung Tin and G.H. Luce (translated), The Glass Palace Chronicle of the Kings of
Burma, Rangoon, 1910, p. ix.
The writing of history received new impetus under the young Konbaung kings. Bodawpaya, in particular, was keen on reading history, and
ordered a collection of inscriptions from throughout the kingdom. These
were brought to the capital and were examined by the scholar and writer
Maha Sithu, a nobleman, and a one time superintendent of the Twinthin
region. Based in part on these sources, and together with material from the
royal library, Maha Sithu composed the Razawin-thit, the New Chronicle towards the end of the eighteenth century. Other historical writings
around this time include a number of other royal chronicles; thamaing, or
local histories of individual towns and pagodas; and stories written in
verse about the exploits of former kings and princes.
In many of these histories, the origins of the Burmese royal lineage are
eventually traced back to the quasi-legendary founder of the Pagan dynasty, Pyuminhti. He was said to be the product of a union between a Sun
spirit and a Naga princess. But by the early nineteenth century, an even
grander if slightly less exotic lineage was devised for the somewhat upstart
Konbaung family. Alaungpayas genealogists had already contrived a suitably royal pedigree for their new king by linking him, somewhat spuriously, to the Pagan royal house. But now the kings of Pagan, in turn, were
shown not merely to be descended from a long noble line beginning with
Pyuminhti, but to be Sakiyans, members of the Sakya clan of the
Gautama Buddha himself. In a long digression from the principal narrative, the authors of the Glass Palace Chronicle carefully dissect the
legends surrounding Pyuminhtis mythic origins and conclude their improbability. In place of the founders birth from the union of the Sun and
the Naga princess, they argue that he was simply a scion of the Sakiyan
house, the same house which had provided rulers in the Irrawaddy valley
since long before Pagans construction. Burmas kings were Ksatriya, and
looked to the Ganges valley, the home of Buddhism, as their place of
origin.7
According to Bagyidaws post-bellum historians, the first kingdom in
the Irrawaddy valley was the kingdom of Tagaung, along the upper river.
Tagaung was said to have been founded by a Sakiyan prince, named
Abhiraza, in the early first millennium BC. This prince was a refugee,
6
Tet Htoot, The Nature of the Burmese Chronicles, in D.G.E. Hall (ed.), Historians of
Southeast Asia, London, 1961; Tin Ohn, Modern Historical Writing in Burmese, in
D.G.E. Hall (ed.), Historians of Southeast Asia, London, 1961.
Pe Maung Tin and Luce (translated), Glass Palace Chronicle, pp. 309.
having left after a violent conflict in his north Indian homeland. Other
Sakiyan immigrants followed. They and their descendants were portrayed
as members of the valleys one true royal line. The line extended backwards in time, past the time of the Gautama Buddha, to the very first king
of the world, Maha Thammada. Through him, the Burmese Ksatriya still
claimed ultimate descent from the Sun, and styled themselves naymyo, of
the solar race. The line then went forward in time through the kings of
Pagan to Alaungpaya himself and finally to his Konbaung successors.
Purity of this special race of kings was said to be best preserved through
strict endogamy. By the 1820s the presence of dozens of young princes
and princesses made this possible. Half-sibling and first-cousin marriages
became the rule. And so in the years just after Avas most humiliating
defeat, the formerly quite humble gentry clan of Moksobo became, officially, the true heirs of the greatest of all possible royal lines.
This rendering of the Burmese royal house as Sakiyans from the
Ganges basin does not, however, mean that early-nineteenth-century
scholars believed the ordinary people of the Irrawaddy valley migrated
from the west. Instead, the Glass Palace Chronicle mentions a number of
different people as inhabiting the Irrawaddy valley in the first millennium,
without any discussion of other origins. The Pyu, the Kanyan and the Thet
are mentioned as three divisions among the people of the Irrawaddy
valley in the first millennium. The Myanma, or Burmese, are described as
the product of a later division from among the same mix. They appear for
the first time about halfway through the narrative, or early in the first
millennium. There is no mention of migration, other than that of the
Sakiyan princes and even they were said to have arrived long ago. The
ordinary people are all native people, arising and disappearing, in appropriate conformity with Buddhist notions of constant change. But the
overall picture is one of change within continuity, the continuity of the
Sakiyan lineage, and continuity of the Irrawaddy valley as a Buddhist
land, a place of refuge for Buddhism and for Buddhist princes from their
homeland across the Brahmaputra.
And to all this must be added mention that members of the royal court
did not necessarily believe all that they read. Bagyidaw himself was a
sceptic. He once remarked to the English Resident that histories, being
human compilations, are unreliable, and interpolations are often made
to please the reigning sovereign.8 But the general notion that the rulers
8
A Burmese country?
By the mid-nineteenth century, the Court of Ava had begun referring to its
kingdom almost exclusively as the Myanma Naing-ngan, the Burmese
Kingdom, and to their king as the Myanma Min, the Burmese King.
These had come gradually to replace older terms. In the mid-eighteenth
century, Alaungpaya, in writing to the East India Company, had referred
to himself as the king of Tampradipa and Thunaparanta, of Ramannadesa
and of Kamboza, old and imprecise names for parts of the Irrawaddy
valley and its eastern tributaries. He also styled himself the Lord of the
White Elephant and the Ruler of All Umbrella Bearing Chiefs.10 This was
all very much in the local tradition of kingship, which viewed the monarch
as a universal sovereign over many and varied peoples. Myanma Naingngan, however, clearly implies an ethnic-based polity. Was the Irrawaddy
valley becoming more Burmese? And what did this mean?
The word Mranma or Myanma first occurs, somewhat surprisingly,
in a Cham inscription and refers, presumably, to the people of the Pagan,
with whom they apparently traded. The Myanma or Burmese language
itself appears slightly afterwards, in a late-twelfth-century inscription.
This inscription, commemorating a religious dedication by a Prince
Rajkumar, is likely to have been a very early attempt to reduce the
language to writing. There follows a brief period of orthological trial and
error and then written Burmese assumes more or less its present form.
This all occurs very late in the Pagan era.
Other languages were also present at Pagan: Pyu, Mon, Pali and
9
10
Sanskrit were all known, and a vast spectrum of other indigenous languages and dialects must have been spoken across the valley and in the
surrounding uplands. The origin of Burmese itself remains obscure.11 The
language is quite closely related to Yi, a group of languages now spoken in
remote parts of northern Burma as well as in much of western Yunnan
and southern Sichuan provinces, in China, and more distantly to Tibetan.
Yi is likely to have been the language of the Nan Chao ruling class, Nan
Chao being the kingdom based in what is today western Yunnan, which
dominated the upper Irrawaddy valley in the eighth and ninth centuries. If
so, languages immediately ancestral to Burmese may have arrived together with the Nan Chao invasions of the ninth century and perhaps a
related spread of cultural influences from Yunnan. There needs to have
been no large-scale migration of people, only a diffusion of Burmese-Yi
languages accompanying the push of Nan Chao political power into the
lowlands. Myanma, as a new language accompanying Pagans rise to
regional greatness, may have been a sort of creole, a dialect of the formerly
occupying Nan Chao forces which was locally adopted and which took on
aspects of existing native tongues, such as Pyu.
The emergence and diffusion of the Burmese language from what
appears to have been its original core around Pagan was the principal
cultural transition of the early modern period, together with the rise of
neo-conservative Buddhism. In the early Pagan period, we know that
Mizo-Chin languages were spoken along the Chindwin river, Sak-Kadu
languages just to the north, as well as Pyu everywhere in the upper and
middle valley. By the eighteenth century, only pockets of other indigenous
languages remained. In Arakan as well, a dialect of Burmese displaced
existing, possibly Indo-European languages and became the language of
the Mrohaung aristocracy. In the delta, Mon still dominated but Burmese
was making inroads as far south as the Malay Peninsula by 1800. Around
this time there also existed an increasing linguistic uniformity within the
Burmese language itself. Burmese spelling books and other attempts to
standardise the written and spoken language first appeared in the early
modern era.12 A vast vernacular literature had already emerged and nu11
12
On the early development of Burmese, see Luce, Phases of Pre-Pagan Burma, vol. I,
pp. 98108.
Anna Allott, Patricia Herbert and John Okell, Burma, in Patricia Herbert and
Anthony Milner (eds.), Southeast Asian Languages and Literatures: A Select Guide,
Whiting Bay, n.d.
16
mythical though it is considered the ancestral polity by both the Ava and
the various Shan-speaking courts to the east. We know little about the Sri
Ksestra polity and even less about the relationship between Sri Ksestra
and early Pagan. But we do know that Pagan extended its sway through
much of the valley for over two centuries and that memories of a unified
monarchy lived far into the politically more fractured period which followed. The extent of institutional continuity between Pagan and the
various successor states, whether based at Pegu, Pinya, Sagaing, Ava,
Toungoo, Prome or elsewhere is a matter of debate. But the idea of a
grander valley-wide polity surely remained, informing kingly rituals and
local ambition.
Pagan also bequeathed a common legal heritage which not only survived its decline but developed considerably through the early modern
era. Benefiting from the rise in literacy which seems to have accompanied
more textually inclined religious study was a mushrooming of writings on
civil justice and governance.17 The Irrawaddy basin possesses one of the
oldest legal traditions in the world and both the earliest legal texts and the
emergence of professional jurists may date from as early as the thirteenth
century. They in turn may have borrowed from substantially older Mon
writings and were ultimately inspired by early Buddhist ideas on ethics
and society.18 Much of this legal tradition may already have been quite
developed by the beginning of the early modern period. But the writing,
reading and use of legal texts more likely expanded in the early modern
era even if basic principles had remained fairly unchanged since the
Pagan era.
Burmese law was ordinarily divided into two spheres: that of lawka-wut
or, loosely, civil law, concerning all manner of disputes between private
parties; and raza-wut or criminal law, meaning acts against the king or
state and including failure to perform customary obligations, pay taxes or
obey royal orders. Lawka-wut disputes were settled with reference to the
dhammathat, a huge body of legal writings which included detailed expositions on the proper ordering of society and ways of dealing with transgressions, including writing in both prose and verse in Pali and Burmese.
17
18
Maung Maung, Law and Custom in Burma and the Burmese Family, The Hague,
1963; Htin Aung, Burmese Law Tales, London, 1962, introduction.
Unpublished manuscripts by Andrew Huxley, How Buddhist is Theravada Buddhist
Law?, pp. 219; and Sanction in the Buddhist Southeast Asian Kingdoms; Htin
Aung, Burmese Law Tales, introduction.
See Richardson, The Damathat, for earliest translation of the principal dhammathats.
Than Tun, Administration under King Thalun (16291648), JBRS, 51(1968), 1257.
See Gouger, Narrative, p. 161, for graphic descriptions of Burmese torture.
ROB, 22 November 1628, 2 June 1679.
MMOS, vol. II, pp. 2431. Chin was an occasional extra category, and Shan and
Tayok were sometimes merged.
ant component in the thinking behind these divisions. The Arakanese, for
example, who spoke a near identical language but who were as similar or
distinct from the people of the Irrawaddy valley in other ways as the Mon,
were lumped together under the Myanma heading. Similarly, all the
various Tai-speaking peoples, from the people of the Hukawng valley in
the Himalayan foothills to the people of Bangkok, were all seen as Shan.
The idea of language, orthography and translation were all subjects of
considerable study at Ava, being related in different ways to Buddhism
and the search for authentic texts. Discovering which languages were
related to which others was perhaps a topic of interest as well.
But language was not the only component in a still somewhat hazy
classification schema. The Khmer or Gywan as well as the Jingpaw or
Kachin were also placed within the Shan category. The third category
after Myanma and Shan was the Tayok, alternatively spelled Tarup
or Taruk, a word apparently derived from Turk. This category was
applied to the Han Chinese, and more generally to all the people across
the immediate eastern highlands. The fourth and broadest category included the many and varied Kalas. Kala in early-nineteenth-century
Burma roughly meant an overseas person, a person from south Asia,
west Asia or Europe and probably insular south-east Asia as well. It
included the English, the French, the Armenians, the Jews, and all
the various people of the sub-continent with whom the Burmese were
familiar. It included the Bengalis but not the Arakanese. The Kalas were
seen as a people with certain cultural and perhaps physical similarities,
though the latter is not spelled out. For example, for the Burmese, a
Kala seat (kala-htaing) is the word for a chair as opposed to a stool and
a Kala temporary dwelling (kala-te`) is the word for a cloth tent. The
Kala religion was Islam.
Kala was an ethnic category, a division of lu-myo, before the first
European contact with Burma. Thus, the Europeans were fitted into an
existing category. They were viewed as Indians, different from say
Gujaratis and Tamils, but no more different from either of those people
than they were from each other. The Europeans were a sub-group of
Kalas and were initially labelled bayingyi, a Burmese corruption of the
Arabic feringhi. The word was applied mainly to the Portuguese, the
European people with whom the Burmese had by far the most contact
until the late eighteenth century. Then, as other Europeans appeared on
the scene, bayingyi came to mean Roman Catholic, and the newly
arrived English were simply termed the English Kala (Ingaleit kala). The
English were more commonly referred to as the thosaung kala,
the sheep-wearing kala, a reference to their woollen clothes and hats.
The British were well aware that they were being lumped together with
their Indian subjects into a single ethnic category. They also realised that
the Burmese often regarded them as somewhat low in the hierarchy of
Kalas.
But while these scholarly divisions of the early nineteenth century seem
to be very clear and precise, what is unclear is the actual usage of these
categories in other aspects of political and social thought, and political or
social organisation. The Irrawaddy valley was and has always been a
receptacle for immigrants from near and far. How and in what way did,
say, Maru people from the northern hills, royal captives from Bangkok or
mercenaries from Brittany become Burmese? Were emergent ethnic
identities embedded in local class relations? Were, for example, crown
service descendants of Lao captives seen as Lao long after their cousins
at court were viewed as Myanma? Given the paucity of the material at
hand, these are very difficult questions to answer. But what we know is
that the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries witnessed considerable political turmoil, dislocations and demographic shifts, foreign
invasion followed by great conquests and then renewed threat; and that at
the middle of the nineteenth century, we see a valley-wide Myanma
identity which included nearly all the local population and which in turn
gave rise to a new and militant patriotism.
the Mon, you are acting contrary to your lineage and descent (amyoanwe`) and your abilities.24
We can only imagine that a long period of external invasion of the rural
Ava hinterland, from Manipur and Pegu and later from China, would only
have hardened a local sense of common identity. Invasion and devastation by foreigners Hindu Manipuris under their proselytising Raja,
Gharib Newaz, people from Pegu with their distinct hairstyles, dress and
different language, Manchu cavalry and Chinese foot soldiers all came
within the space of a generation, a generation which then produced
Alaungpaya from the depths of the Myanma countryside. Invasion was
then followed by expansion, economic growth, immigration and the forced importation of tens of thousands more foreigners. Foreigners worked
the mills, foreigners cleaned the streets, foreigners dug new irrigation
ditches, while the Myanma generals claimed new lands for their king. In
1824 this came to an end, and a long period of encroaching British Indian
power began. Exactly how all this relates to a growing patriotism based on
a Myanma identity is impossible to know in any detail. But surely we can
see how these events may have helped to further mould local notions of
belonging and nurture a sense of patriotism. New histories and poems
celebrated distant victories. In part, these were celebrations of dynastic
achievements of kings and princes. But they were also in part a celebration of the accomplishment of the Burmese people. When a grandee of the
Court of Ava told a visiting Englishman in 1826, you see, we have never
met a people who can withstand us, he was revealing more than a pride in
his royal family.
Was Myanma just a people or was there a Myanma place as well? A
number of different words may be seen as approximate equivalents of the
English words country, kingdom, empire or land. As we have seen,
pyi could refer to both the capital city and to the kings dominions as a
whole. The Myanma pyi was both Ava and the Ava kingdom, and was set
against the Mon pyi or the Shan pyi, for example. Naing-ngan during the
Pagan period meant the peripheral parts of the polity which had been
conquered but were not quite under full royal administration. By the early
1800s, naing-ngan took on the modern connotation of kingdom and the
Myanma Naing-ngan was the Kingdom of Burma. This is how the Eng24
lish phrase was translated in the 1826 Treaty of Yandabo and later texts.
Detha, from the Sanskrit-Pali desa or desh, and other words denoting a
spatial realm were also used.
There was a blurry but not entirely vague notion of what this Kingdom
of Burma was. As early as 1578, for example, a royal order defined the
limits of the kingdom as being more or less the entire Irrawaddy valley,
together with the Shan hills to the iron bridge in the east and the lands of
the Big Ears, the Kadu and the Kathe in the north.25 Much later, in 1822,
instructions to a royal embassy to the Vietnamese court at Hue carefully
surveyed the geography of the kingdom, listing important towns, landmarks and sacred places.26 Poems sung at palace celebrated the landscape
of the realm.27
One might ask to what extent these ideas related to identity and place
were confined to the scholarly world of the court and to what extent there
existed a diffusion of knowledge and a shared emergent patriotism. Whilst
conclusive evidence is lacking, we may point to two important vehicles of
intra-valley information: itinerant monks and itinerant entertainers.
Buddhist monks were among the most important vehicles through
which knowledge circulated, was challenged, interpreted and changed
throughout the kingdom, bridging the world of the aristocracy and the
countryside. This they did in part through their role in monastic education. A large proportion of boys attended monastic schools in their home
communities, studying not only Buddhist Pali texts but also Burmese, law,
history and other secular subjects. Many of the brighter students then
went on to higher learning at one of the several monastic colleges at Ava
or elsewhere. Some then stayed on to teach, while others re-entered lay
society. The overall proportion of monks and novices in the late nineteenth century was around 2 per cent of the male population. The tens of
thousands of men who wore the saffron robes at any given time, drawn
from a cross-section of society and memorising the same Theravada
canon, must have exercised a powerful homogenising force throughout
the country. Monks were also great travellers. Through public sermons,
their ideas were spread to the whole of society.
The second important vehicle was the rise of popular theatre. The
emergence of Burmese drama and from it the more popular theatre of the
25
26
27
completely isolated from one another in culture and ideas. While early
entertainers brought court styles and thinking to the towns and villages,
later innovations may have found much of their inspiration from beyond
Avas walls. The Buddhist establishment was even more of a vehicle for
cross-country intellectual exchanges, as many leading sayadaw, after
making their name in their provincial seat, moved on to the capital to
preach their comments on the Theravada recension. These two vehicles in
turn may have been linked, in still unexplored ways, with a growing
intolerance of social deviancy. We have seen that as early as the fifteenth
century, Avas monarchs, in their self-proclaimed role of Buddhist ruler,
attempted to enforce stricter adherence to perceived Theravada ethical
precepts. Through the early Konbaung period, these trends gained pace.
In 1782, for example, the consumption of alcohol, opium and opium
derivatives, and gambling and hunting were banned.30 In 1785, prostitution was similarly proscribed.31 A generation later, in 1811, royal authorities were even dictating hairstyles and prohibited the wearing of short
hair, the mark of the Mon, by men.32
Within the next decade or so, a new element would be thrown into this
changing mix of ideas: the western campaigns and Avas dreams of conquest in India.
31
nineteenth century and the influence of court Brahmins was very strong.33
Vaishnavite influence had also become powerful in Assam, having gradually spread from Bengal to the Brahmaputra valley since at least the
sixteenth century.34 The educated among the new captives were integrated
into a long-established structure of secular and religious scholarship.
The erudite men of the Court of Ava were known as pyinnya-shi, a
Burmese-Pali word meaning possessors of learning, and a synonym of
the Pali pandit. This was a formal title, the gaining of which involved some
sort of examination (sa-pyan-pwe`) in divers branches of sacred and profane knowledge.35 These men, who often also held other unrelated offices,
officiated at court rituals and determined the most auspicious time for all
kingly actions. Buddhist monks could be pyinnya-shi, as could laymen.
Many, if not most, however, were neither monks nor ordinary laymen but
members of the small ponna community. The word ponna itself may be a
corruption of the Sanskrit word for Brahmin, but if so it is an old corruption which has taken on special local meanings. The ponna of Ava may be
seen in a variety of ways. Firstly, they were a collection of descent groups
in a special relationship to the crown, providing service on a hereditary
basis in a way not very different from other crown service divisions.
Secondly, they, the ponna-myo, were one of the four main social divisions
into which all people were theoretically classed. Thirdly, they were seen as
an ethnic group, with their own community leader, much like resident
Chinese or Manipuris. And finally, they were seen as possessing their own
religion, separate from Buddhism. But to say that they were Indian or
Hindu or Brahmins would be an oversimplification and largely incorrect. There were, for example, Myanma ponna, and ponna who were
categorised as Ksatriya, Vaishya or Sudra as well as Brahmin.36
The conquests of Manipur and Arakan led to a significant influx of
foreign ritualists, astronomers and other learned men into the Ava court.
Many were classed as ponna and integrated into the ponna establishment.37 In 1785, one of these ponna was appointed Ponna Thathanabaing
or Primate of the Ponna Religion. The style Thathanabaing had until
then been reserved for the Buddhist primate. The Arakanese, who had
33
34
35
37
been in much closer contact with centres of knowledge in India and the
wider Islamic world, brought with them religious as well as secular texts
on science, medicine and astrology. They also brought with them smallpox inoculation which helped to reduce the very high infant mortality
rates which were reflected in the loss of almost half the royal children.
Brahmins from Arakan were soon joined by Brahmins from Benares.
The city of Benares occupied a special place in the minds of learned early
modern Burmans, being closely associated with the Buddha. Such was the
high status accorded to the new Brahmins from Benares that they were
exempted by royal order from prostrating themselves in the presence of
princes and ministers, a status formerly reserved only for members of the
Sangha. With the aid, and probably the encouragement, of the Indians,
court rituals were carefully reviewed and amended. The leader of the first
large delegation of Brahmans, named Govinda, was granted the title
Govinda Maha Rajendra Agga Maha Dhamma Rajadhiraja Guru. While
he later returned to India, he left behind two of his nephews, Bhisunnath
and Gajanath and a disciple, Vasita. Altogether by 1810, twenty-seven
Brahmans were said to have arrived from Benares. Acting as ritual consultants, the newly arrived team went quickly to work in criticising existing
practices and suggesting alterations. For example, the worship of the
Maha Pinnai nat, identified explicitly with Ganesh, had been long-standing, and Burmese Brahman ponna from Sagaing were in charge of regular
puja ceremonies in his honour. Under a royal order, Bodawpaya accepted
the suggestion of Govinda and his team to replace the worship of Ganesh
with the worship of Skanda, the god of war.38
A wide range of Sanskrit and Indian vernacular texts were imported,
adding to the growing library at Amarapura, and in 1812 a mission
returned with a statue of Kapilamuni the Risi, the king duly making the
appropriate offerings and building a special shrine.39 Such was the influence of these new Brahmins that, in 1813, a royal order insisted on
reviewing and confirming the varna position of each resident of the
capital area, expressing the hope that this review could then be extended
throughout the kingdom.40
The Myanma Min Okchokpon Sadan, the near contemporary text
which includes a detailed discussion about ponna, states that there were
three different internal divisions of this community. The first was their
38
39
division by the Court of Ava into four classes: a superior class (myat-tan),
a middle class (ale`-tan), a lower class (auk-tan) and an inferior class
(anyant-tan). Those of the superior class were entitled to wear a nine- to
twelve-stranded salway, signifying that they were of approximately the
same rank as a senior official. The middle-class ponna wore a six-stranded
salway, the lower class wore a three-stranded salway and those of the
inferior class were not entitled to one at all. The second division was by
their origin, whether Burmese, Arakanese, Manipuri or from Benares.
The oldest of the ponna lineages in the kingdom was believed to be those
of Myanma ponna who could trace their ancestry back in unbroken
descent to the ponna of Pyu, capital of Sri Ksetra in the mid-first millennium AD. Manipuri ponna were said to have been present at the royal
court since at least the mid-sixteenth century. The third division was
between Brahmin, Ksatriya, Vaishya and Sudra.
Thus, a particular ponna could be classed as a three-salway Manipuri
Vaishya ponna or a twelve-salway Arakanese Brahmin ponna. The
Benares ponna were said to almost always be from the upper three ranks
of ponna (that is to say, not Sudras), but otherwise communities of
ponna from various descent groups could be of any classification. Only
ponna of the very highest status, that is Brahmin ponna who had been
granted twelve salway, were permitted to preside over royal consecration
ceremonies as the Eight Ponna of the Right and the Eight Ponna of the
Left of the reigning king.
Royal ceremonies officiated by the ponna included the thrice annual
puja of images of deceased kings and queens. Other responsibilities of the
ponna and other pyinnya-shi included time-keeping and the setting of the
calendar, and special puja (or puzaw) ceremonies for various deities
related to the sun, the moon and individual planets. The Myanma Min
Okchokpon Sadan alleged that in the setting of the annual calendar, if
there were any disputes between Burmese pandits and ponna pandits,
Buddhist monk pandits would be called in to make a final decision. Ponna
and other pyinnya-shi also played key roles in the all-important royal
consecration ceremonies, the abhiseka, held at various times throughout
a kings reign.41
Despite the centuries-long association between successive Burmese
courts and all manner of Indian knowledge, religious and secular, there
41
46
Bengal should also come under his authority. One order argued that while
the English may have a right of possession over all the British Isles they
cannot possibly have a legitimate claim over the territory just to the west
of Arakan. The same order demanded that the English, who are now in
occupation of Benares and Lucknow, must return Mushidabad, Chittagong and Dacca to the Burmese Myowun of Mrohaung.47 A letter to the
East India Company was sent at the same time demanding an end to tax
collection in the area.48
The Burmese went into the first war with at least some optimism. The
defeat was difficult to accept as were the terms of the Treaty of Yandabo.
But while some in the Court of Ava had long harboured resentment
against the English, and while this resentment only intensified as a result
of the war, many others in the palace took an active interest in learning
more about the lands of Wilayat. Two leading intellectuals during this
period were the Myoza of Myawaddy and the Prince of Mekkaya.49
We have already met the Myoza of Myawaddy, born Maung Sa. He had
commandedtroops at Ramu at the start of the First Anglo-BurmeseWar. He
was also a great scholar and composer and was among the first to foray into
the new areas of knowledge made available by greater contact with Europe.
By the late 1820s English-language newspapers were being brought across
the hills from British Akyab to Ava and these were translated by the
Spaniard Lanciego under Myawaddys direction for the king and court.
Burney noted that the old minister was himself able to read the Devanagari
script of north India and spoke a little Hindustani. He also sang for the
British envoy a few lines of a Latin hymn he had apparently learned from
resident missionaries.50 Burney had tried to persuade the Ava grandees to
send young Burmese noblemen to school in Calcutta. To this, however, the
Myoza of Myawaddy replied: Burmese parents are not like English parents.
Wecannot part with ourchildren and let them, when young, go away to such
a distance and for such a long time, as you appear to do.51
Another pioneer of European learning was the Prince of Mekkaya. The
prince, whose personal name was Maung Myo and whose princely style
47
49
50
was Minye Kyawswa, was born in 1792, and was a younger son of Bodawpaya. Judson described him as a great metaphysician, theologian and
meddler in ecclesiastical affairs. He had been taught to read and understand English by a British merchant resident at Amarapura and had
obtained a copy of Rees Cyclopaedia, published in Calcutta. He translated portions of the cyclopaedia, especially articles on lawka-dat, or
the elements of the world, in which he was keenly interested. Later,
he worked together with Charles Lane to put together the very first
EnglishBurmese dictionary.
The British Resident Henry Burney developed a close relationship with
the prince. In their numerous meetings, Mekkaya questioned him on the
latitude and longitude of London, Calcutta, Ava and Bangkok, the cause
of the polarity of the needle, the re-appearance of the last comet, the
properties of the Barometer and Thermometer . . . and the nature of
Algebra. Burney noted that the prince had both a barometer and thermometer hanging in his apartment and that his personal library included
Rees Cyclopaedia, Johnsons Dictionary, the Holy Bible and recently
translated papers on the calculation of eclipses and the formation of
hailstones. Burney concluded that he had never met an individual with as
great a thirst for knowledge as this Prince.52
This new learning, pioneered by these two men and followed by many
others through the 1830s and 1840s, led to a renaissance in local scholarship which affected many and divers fields of knowledge, including
geography, astronomy, history and the natural sciences. The arrival of
European learning also displaced India as the ultimate and natural source
for outside information, and marked the beginnings of a long relationship
between modern science and Theravada Buddhism. The ponna appear to
have been early losers in this development, their influence at court falling
rapidly after the 1820s. The new geography, a source of great interest, may
also be linked back to local patriotic sentiments. Ava had always had a
fairly clear grasp of internal spatial boundaries, but only after 1826 were
the kingdoms external limits marked out on a modern map. The Burmese
kingdoms tenuous position next to an expanding British India was, for
the first time, plain to see.
Anti-British sentiment rose even further in the years after the first war.
Burney reported that the king and his ministers were inclined to give
52
Ibid., 978.
Popular hostility was not confined to the official British delegation and
seemed to extend to all the western Kalas. In April 1831, a boat belonging
to an old Armenian merchant was attacked by river pirates near Pagan in
broad daylight. The bandits, when boarding the vessel, were reported as
53
56
54
55
Ibid., 182.
Ibid., 4034.
Ibid., 441.
Secret Correspondence with India. India Secret Consultations, vol. 22, McLeods
57 Burney, Population of the Burman Empire, 182.
Journal, p. 14.
having cried out: You Kalas have forced us to pay plenty of money, we
will now retake some of it.58 Even natural disasters were blamed on the
English. In 1839, a major flood devastated parts of the countryside near
the capital. Many people called the flood Kala-yay, the Kala waters.
Centuries-long processes of linguistic and religious homogenisation,
followed by a turbulent era of war and defeat, had produced a strong sense
of Myanma patriotism, tied to the Irrawaddy valley and to the Burmese as
a people, a patriotism which now hardened under the threatening shadow
of imperial Britain.
58
Ibid., 147.
was collected against the two princes. As the investigation came closer,
Mindon became convinced that the myowuns actions were part of a plot
to discredit him in the eyes of the king. He and Kanaung fled, together
with their immediate families and over 300 private retainers, retreating to
the Konbaung heartland along the Mu valley. There the princes mustered
an army to attack Shwebo, overwhelming the 3,000-strong garrison. The
Shwebo governor was said to have been a very unpopular man and
Mindon may have been assisted by supporters from within the town.
Now ensconced in the home of his great-great-grandfather Alaungpaya, Mindon was in open revolt, and his actions split the Amarapura
court and paralysed government for weeks. The regular army was now
fighting on two fronts, against the British and against Mindon, and within
weeks, Pagans grip both on the battlefield and over the governing establishment began to slip. After a decisive defeat along the banks of the
Irrawaddy, and as the rebels approached Ava, loyalist resolve crumbled.
The nobility switched sides. Two of the most influential grandees, the
Myoza of Kyaukmaw and the Myoza of Yenangyaung, persuaded royal
guardsmen to stand down and allow Mindon and Kanaung to enter the
city unopposed. Pagan was placed under house arrest. The new monarch
assumed the regal title Thiri Thudhamma Tilawka Pawara Maha Dhamma
Razadiraza. He was thirty-nine years old. His personal name was Maung
Lwin, and he had been born on a Friday.1
education. By the time of the 18523 war, the old men of the former
empire had finally left the stage of government. These included men such
as the accomplished general Mingyi Maha Minhla Minkaung, who had
begun life as a hereditary retainer to the royal family and had originally
served as a pageboy in Bodawpayas royal suite. He later rose through the
cavalry ranks to become commander of the main cavalry regiments and
had led the army in Manipur and Assam in the 1810s and early 1820s. In a
way, his death, at the very beginning of Mindons reign in 1853 when he
was 76, signalled the end of an era.2 Mindon and Kanaung represented a
new generation who had grown up in the shadow of British power and at
a time of rapidly increasing access to knowledge about the outside world.
Their great-uncle, the Mekkaya Prince, and others since had made available a growing body of translated works. A desire to reform and to adapt to
a Western-dominated modern world was at the very centre of new government policies.
The kingdom of 1853 was a very different place from the kingdom of
1824. Most obviously, the core area of the Irrawaddy valley had been
shorn of all its imperial possessions with the exception of the nearest
Shan-speaking principalities. The importation of captive workers from
peripheral areas had ended as had the whole notion of Ava being at the
centre of an imperial polity. But while the British annexations of Arakan
and the Himalayan kingdoms had sapped the strength and the pride of the
Burmese court, the new annexation, of the entire Irrawaddy delta, was to
be far more devastating.
The most critical result of the annexation of what was to be called
Lower Burma was that rice surpluses from that region now could no
longer be procured through state-controlled channels of redistribution.
Instead they would have to be bought in cash at international prices.
Overnight, the economy and, indirectly, the politics of the Burmese kingdom would become intimately tied to the global market. Lord Amherst, in
1824 had stated:
As any active and successful hostilities in which we may engage with that
proud, arrogant and irascible people, will necessarily make them for ever our
fixed and deadly enemies, every maxim of sound policy suggests that, when
once this Government has embarked on measures for coercing them, it
should require such concessions as must materially circumscribe their means
of doing future injury to the British Power.3
2
3
The annexation of the delta, Avas frontier, was to be the most important
element in circumscribing the capacity of the Burmese state to reform
and adapt to the unfolding modern world. Beyond the tightening of the
food supply, the loss of the south diminished the revenue base for both the
treasury and an aristocracy of no smaller size. Appanages in the delta were
lost and the need to compensate nobles and a still growing royal family
would only increase income and labour demands on the core population
remaining under Avas rule.
Furthermore, the loss of the delta was taking place at a time when it was
becoming an important frontier for colonisation and immigration. Large
numbers of people from the upper valley had already been migrating south
to newly reclaimed land and this trend was to intensify greatly over the
next half-century. By 1881, more than 300,000 people living in Lower
Burma were recorded as having been born outside of the region, the vast
majority being cultivators from the Ava kingdom.4 If the delta had remained under royal authority this might have been a welcome development. But now, crown service families as well as others were leaving their
labour and revenue obligations as well as their ancestral homes for areas
under foreign occupation. The governing structures of old village communities would gradually weaken under the effects of this enormous demographic shift and the tax base of the Court of Ava would slide into further
and further decline.5
Census of India, 1891, 1901; Michael Adas, The Burma Delta: Economic Development
and Social Change on an Asian Rice Frontier, 18521941, Madison, 1974, pp. 4157;
Aung Tun Thet, Burmese Entrepreneurship: Creative Responses in the Colonial
5 Census of India, 1881.
Economy, Stuttgart, 1989, pp. 12645.
for Buddhist learning throughout his secular career. His respect for traditional Pali and Burmese scholarship and political ideals was combined
with a genuinely reformist zeal. Mindon wanted a modern Burma in
which the key symbiotic institutions of monarchy and the Buddhist order
would remain and be strengthened alongside imported technologies,
science, industry and new structures of bureaucratic government. He also
wanted a modern Burma which would remain independent and be a
friend of Britain.
The king was interested in every detail of government, personally
overseeing many of his crown agencies. He arranged for direct popular
petitions to be sent and these occasionally led him to overturn decisions of
the Hluttaw.6 British observers in the 1850s were all full of praise for the
new king. Thomas Spears, the informal British agent at the time, noted his
wisdom and cunning and his infinite superiority over others in his court
in the art of managing people.7 Sir Henry Yule, a visitor to the court in the
1850s, wrote of Mindon:
the Sovereign of Burma is just and mild in temper, easy of access, hears or
seeks to hear everything for himself, is heartily desirous that his subjects shall
not be oppressed, and strives to secure their happiness. He is, in fact, as far as
we can judge, a man of conscience and principle . . . And if there is any
extravagance in his expenditure, it shows itself rather in the liberality of his
gifts than in selfish indulgences.8
The early years of Mindons reign were very much a joint government
between him and the Kanaung Prince. The two brothers appeared to enjoy
a very close relationship. Kanaung was designated heir apparent and was
allowed to maintain a very large personal court, much greater than an
ordinary prince, and rivalling that of the king himself. He was given
responsibility for new technologies, military modernisation and the arts,
while Mindon reserved for himself diplomacy, administrative reform,
economic affairs and the traditional role of the king as patron and defender of Buddhism.9 Styled Thiri Pawara Maha Thudhamma Raza and
granted the towns of Dabayin, Taungdwingyi, Pyinsala and Salay as his
appanages, Kanaung was also given considerable landed estates close to
the royal city.10
6
8
10
7
9
Another critical influence over Mindon was that of his chief queen. A
daughter of Bagyidaw and full-sister of Pagan, she was Mindons first
cousin, and closer to the senior lineage within the Alaungpaya house. She
was well known for her interest in modern science and for her dominance
over the dozens of other royal women. Renowned as a skilled astrologer,
she came to use an English nautical almanac for her calculations. British
visitors regarded her in high esteem and brought her various gifts, telescopes and barometers, related to her scientific interests.11 She too maintained a large privy court, complete with her own minister of state and a
chief secretary.
After these three leading figures of the Konbaung family, nearly all the
important members of the new court were men of the nobility. Alaungpaya had come to power with the aid of key gentry allies. Mindon had
come to power with the backing of important Ava grandees. Those who
had assisted him most directly in his coup against Pagan were rewarded
with the highest offices. The Myoza of Magwe (formerly Kyaukmaw),
Thalun and Mye`daung had been Privy Councillors before throwing their
support behind Mindon. They were now made senior ministers with
Magwe as de facto president of the Council of State. A large number of
other more junior officials also stayed in place. But in appointing a fourth
senior minister, Mindon reached beyond officialdom and called his former tutor to the royal service: Maung Yan Way, formerly of the Bagaya
monastery. Now created the Myoza of Pahkangyi, he would keep a steady
grip on day-to-day administration until his death in 1875. He had left the
Sangha several years before and had been serving as private advisor to
Mindon. Quick to set up a loyal following of his own within the court, he
appointed a number of his proteges to key positions. Minhla Sithu was
made a deputy senior minister. Maha Minhla Thiri was made commander
of the main cavalry regiments. Mingyi Maha Tarabya was made commander of the Left Household Brigade. All had been secretaries under the
Myoza of Pahkangyi in Mindons princely court.
Once the government was formed, the Shan princes were quick to offer
their oaths of allegiance. The Sawbwa of Taungpeng arrived personally at
Shwebo with his family and a small army of retainers, bringing gifts of
gold, silver and horses. Mindon, in return, gave presents of precious stones
11
DPC, 3 July 1855; Myo Myint, The Politics of Survival in Burma: Diplomacy and
Statecraft in the Reign of King Mindon, 18531878, Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell
University, 1987, p. 82.
and cloth.12 The Chinese also responded promptly to the change of regime
and an embassy arrived in early 1853 with gifts and seals of recognition
from the Manchu court.
Gifts were also conferred on crown servants and representative groups
of his majestys subjects. At the foot of the Shwetansa Pagoda at Shwebo,
Mindon made donations to groups of monks, nuns, ponna, Indians,
Chinese, Manipuris, Siamese, old people, beggars and others. Gifts were
also made to members of the military, court officials and palace retainers.13 Ministers and princes were awarded new titles and Mindons
sons were arranged into an appropriate hierarchy. The gentry were also
not forgotten. Over a thousand members were granted new titles, including 12 cavalry chiefs, 11 cavalry officers, 98 village and town heads, and
890 mounted gentlemen.14 At the same time, the royal women were
reorganised. Queens were appointed from members of the House of
Alaungpaya and married to Mindon; appropriate titles and appanages
were conferred and the Chief Queen was now styled Thiri Tilawka Maha
Ratana Dewi. Strategic marriages with daughters of tributary chiefs and
ministers of state were also speedily arranged.
A cessation of hostilities against the English did not mean an immediate peace on all fronts. At home, a local rising at Kanpyin had accompanied the more important fighting around the capital and a force under
the Myoza of Mohnyin had to be organised to quell the unrest.15 Farther to
the east, Siam had viewed the new Anglo-Burmese war as an opportunity
for further expansion in their far north. A large infantry and elephant force
had marched from Chiang Mai and attacked the trans-Salween area
around Keng Tung. In reply, Mindon dispatched an army of several
thousand regular troops under the command of the new commander of
the Mong Nai garrison, Mingyi Maha Minhla Minkaung. This army,
together with assistance from the Sawbwa of Keng Tung, managed to push
back the Siamese attack by late 1853, but only after heavy loss of life.
Another invasion soon followed. In 1854, with the British front quiet, Ava
was able to send a much larger force of over 3,000 cavalry, backed by
artillery, and placed under the command of the Prince of Chundaung,
Thiri Maha Dhammaraza. The threat from Siam was held in check.16
While securing Avas position in the east, the new government also
began work aimed at repairing and expanding the irrigation system and
12
16
13
Ibid., p. 170.
14
Ibid., p. 167.
15
improving road infrastructure in and around the Ava area. Building work
was undertaken to expand several reservoirs and the Kyaukse governor
was charged with overseeing repairs to the entire Kyaukse water system.
An aristocrat of the old school, the governor was a direct descendent of
Shin Saw Bu, the fifteenth-century queen of Pegu and builder of the
Shwedagon Pagoda. He is remembered for his harsh rule, but also for the
extensive reconstruction which he and the king oversaw. Mindon himself
attended several ceremonies marking new work, including one at the
beginning of expansion efforts at the Shwebo lake.17
All these early events of Mindons reign are not very different from
those of his predecessors. The re-organisation of court grandees and of the
Western Court, the acceptance of tribute, the repairing of irrigation works
and the launching of campaigns against neighbouring powers, these had
all been the stuff of early rule for many Konbaung kings. Auspiciously, a
white elephant was caught by the Sawbwa of Thaungthut in the northwest and another near Thonze` and both were appropriately welcomed
with great ceremony.18 In late 1853, a formal consecration ceremony was
held to mark the kings assumption of power. By all accounts, Mindon was
off to a good start.
Once the fighting was finally over on the many and varied fronts, the
remainder of the 1850s and early 1860s was a time of considerable hope in
the Burmese court, with the threat of renewed war receding and an
expanding trade bringing increased income to some individuals and to the
royal coffers.19 Contemporary British reports stressed the optimistic mood
and often mentioned the absence of crime and general peace in the
countryside.20 Many of the key reforms discussed below were set in
motion during this period of renewed confidence and relative prosperity,
reforms which would only be reinforced over the years despite the political and economic troubles which were to come.
Mindons reign was also a time of great expansion in popular theatre as
well as many notable achievements in literature and the arts in Mandalay.
One of the most famous playwrights of the nineteenth century was Salay
Maung Ponnya who had risen to fame as a poet in the court of the
17
18
19
Kanaung Prince in the early 1850s.21 He had been born in 1812 into the
Ponnya Thaman family, one of the two chiefly families of Salay. His father
had been called into the kings service during Tharrawaddys early years in
power and the young Ponnya had spent his formative years at the Bhamo
monastic college at Amarapura. He left the monastery to join the Kanaung
Princes establishment and soon became widely known for his singular
literary skills, skills which he often employed in the service of local
patriotism. In 1852, on the eve of the Second Anglo-Burmese War, he had
written a poem celebrating Avas military victories over Ayuthaya and
Chiang Mai. In a later play, Wizaya, he subtly emphasises the importance
of devotion to ones country above all else, including even the monarchy.
He was conferred the title Minhla Thinhkaya and granted the village of
Ywasi as his appanage.22
Mindons modernisations
The better known of Mindons reforms are his attempts to modernise the
military, develop manufacturing industries, import new technologies, especially in transportation and communications, and broaden access to
Western learning. In the early 1860s the size of the army was estimated as
approximately 50,000.23 Modernising the military meant in part the incorporation of up-to-date technology and included the development of a
domestic weapons industry. Factories under the Kanaung Princes control
soon began producing rifles and ammunition to replace the antiquated
muskets still in use. Artillery, however, still had to be imported and several
large guns were procured with the permission of Rangoon, as were a total
of ten steamers, which would play an increasingly important role in
maintaining internal security.24 The army was also reorganised along
professional lines. This meant creating a standing army to replace the old
rotating crown service system of the past. Much more will be said below
on the effects of dismantling hereditary service arrangements. A few army
officers received training in Europe and by the late 1870s a number of
21
22
23
24
26
27
28
29
30
31
On Mindons enthusiasm for new technologies, see Mandalay Diary, India Foreign
Proceedings (hereafter IFP), 9 November 1872.
Alistar McCrae and Alan Prentice, Irrawaddy Flotilla, London, 1978, p. 65.
Annual Report of Maritime Trade and Customs (hereafter RTC), 1874/5, p. 24.
Report on the Administration of Burma (hereafter RAB), 1877/8, p. 54.
Ibid., 1879/80, p. 68.
Mandalay Diary, IFP, 16 November 1872; RAB, 1877/8, p. 51; 1879/80, p. 66.
RAB, 1877/8, p. 51.
school was established just outside the royal city in 1870 on Mindons
initiative. It was funded by the government and run by Dr John Marks of
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospels.32 The schools pupils were
primarily the sons of noblemen, though a number of princes, Mindons
own sons, also attended for a while, including the future King Thibaw.
Though royal interest and the number of princes enrolled declined over
the years, the school continued to operate until the flight of foreigners
from Mandalay in 1879.33 A much more concerted attempt was made to
send students abroad. Overturning the Myoza of Myawaddys views in the
1820s that Burmese parents could never part with their children as the
English appear to do, a sizeable group of children and young adults were
sent abroad in the 1850s and 1860s, to India and Europe. One group of six
whose backgrounds can be clearly identified all belonged to noble families, and it is reasonable to assume that this was true of most others. The
six were sent to St Xaviers School in Calcutta in 1872. They were aged
1517 and were the sons, grandsons or nephews of the myaung wun (the
irrigation minister); the hledaw ttaukke (an officer of the Royal Boats);
the naukwin min (a Household Guards officer); a nahkandaw (a court
reporter); the pantin wun (the master of the coppersmiths); and a
sayedawgyi (a chief secretary).34
The first state scholars were sent to France in 1859, to St Cyr and the
Ecole Polytechnique. They were followed by others throughout Mindons
reign. A total of at least seventy were sent abroad during the period
185975, most to France, England and India. At least one, the son of the
senior diplomat, the Myoza of Myaunghla, was sent to school in Turin and
a few others might also have been sent to Italy. The returned students all
seem to have followed official careers. The St Cyr student became a
cavalry commander; at least three other returners had reached cabinetlevel positions with the rank of wundauk or atwinwun by 1885.35 Men
such as the Myoza of Kyaukmyaung, who was educated at the Sorbonne,
would play an important role in the final drama before the occupation.
New rifles and cannon, steamships and telegraphs, smoke-billowing
mills, the first students to the West: these were all the better known
reforms, and, in many ways, they may be said to have failed. The military
32
33
34
responsibility clearly between provincial and high courts as well as between the different high courts over various types of cases.36
Over the next twenty years numerous orders would reinforce these
attempts to bureaucratise the judiciary and rein in provincial offices.37 In
this effort Mindons government was only at best partially successful, and
Burmese records note the unwillingness of provincial yon to pass on to
Mandalay cases which were theoretically under Hluttaw jurisdiction.38
This problem lasted until the very end of the monarchy, with myowun in
1884 still promising to send cases for central decision.39 Corruption was
seen to be a major problem in establishing a functioning centrally controlled judicial bureaucracy. Immediately after assuming power, Mindon
fixed judicial fees, that is the fees which were to be given to the local or
high court judges for various types of cases.40 The failure of this policy is
evidenced by the series of royal orders condemning the acceptance of
extra fees,41 the passage of an anti-bribery act listing harsh punishments,42 and the ordering of all cases to be heard only in the provincial or
high court and not in the residence of the adjudicating magistrate.43
There were complementary efforts to rein in the gentry and place them
more fully under crown authority. There were also attempts to rationalise
their position vis-a`-vis Mandalay and to establish a single category of local
hereditary officer in place of the enormously confusing and varied patchwork of local magnates which still existed. In the wake of the 1853 palace
revolution, Mindon, having just become king and perhaps being in a still
tenuous position, temporarily confirmed all incumbent chiefs in their
positions, but this soon gave way to a more interventionist approach.44
In Salin, the government tried to find a single hereditary chief to
replace the local oligarchy. A network of inter-related families had ruled
the area for 500 years and the complexity of their elite organisation had
begun to trouble Mandalay. Several times orders were given to restrict
government to the rule of a single chiefly line, including one to appoint the
head of the Zeyya Battara Maha family as the sole lord of Salin.45 But this
rich and distant gentry elite was able to an extent to thwart Mandalays
plans and the Zeyya Battara Maha family never ruled alone. But in many
other localities, the Court of Ava was much more successful in arbitrating
36
39
41
44
49
50
51
53
A fiscal revolution
Overarching these attempts to reform administration were attempts to
implement new financial policies. Among the more important policy
problems facing Mindon was that of finding a way to improve the poor
state of the royal treasury. On coming to power, the king, in a somewhat
tenuous position, made the politically astute and familiar promise of no
new taxes, stating that his government would levy only customary fees.
This was in part related to the growing concerns of officials over the state
of indebtedness in the countryside. There appears to have been a substantial increase in the extent of rural indebtedness in the years since the First
Anglo-Burmese War, though the evidence is sketchy.57 A palace memorandum of 20 April 1855 summarises its view of the debt problem:
In instances where the creditor is a notable or powerful person, unjust
methods have at times been employed to pressure debtors to pay back their
loans. In other cases, the debtor has gained office or status since initially
incurring the debt and has then tried to evade repayment. Cumulative debt
has, for some become an enormous burden as a result of compounded
interest charges. It is not the case that all debt repayments should stop or that
all debts should be paid off. [The government] shall decide on a case-by-case
basis.58
caused distress was contrary to justice and caused the lender to forfeit
merit in both his or her present and future existences. Though nothing
suggests that attempts to reform the situation made much difference, the
royal court was, by the 1850s, reluctant to place new revenue burdens on
the countryside.59
Contemporary British observers generally believed that direct taxation
by Mindon on agriculture in his early years was lower than that of previous reigns.60 But this meant that the treasury desperately needed to find
alternative sources of income. Despite now ruling over a smaller territory,
the revenue requirements of the state remained very high. This was partly
a result of Mindons modernisation programme and expensive diplomatic
missions abroad. It was also a result of his extensive patronage of the
Sangha, the construction of Mandalay in the late 1850s as the new Konbaung seat, and other projects designed in part to demonstrate that his
court was still the exemplary centre of the entire country.
Mindon first turned to trade, first and foremost trade in cotton. From
1853 to 1857 Mindon effectively taxed the export of cotton to China by
acting as middleman between cultivators and Chinese firms operating out
of Amarapura.61 These dozen or so firms represented commercial houses
in Yunnan and elsewhere in China and dominated both the export of
cotton and the import of Chinese goods. The kings agents collected the
cotton on site, paying approximately twenty kyat of silver per hundred viss
for cleaned cotton. This was then delivered to Chinese merchants at
Amarapura or at various points along the Irrawaddy and sold at fifty kyat
per hundred viss. Reports from the informal British agent at Amarapura
stated that in 1855 four million viss was sold to China in this way. To a
much lesser extent, Mindon also traded in timber cutch, wheat and gram.
Timber and cutch were sold to firms in Rangoon62 and wheat and gram
were sold directly to British authorities for use as food for Indian troops
stationed in Lower Burma.63 Mindon also traded in rubies, which were
brought in from crown-controlled mines in Sayin and Mogok, then sold
wholesale to Chinese and other purchasers. In 1855, Sir Henry Yule
estimated Mindons profits as totalling nearly 230,000 sterling a year.64
As both the sale of forest and other natural resources claimed by the
crown and the crowns intervention in the export market became critical
59
61
63
60
Ibid., 10 April 1853.
Yule, Mission, p. 256.
62
DPC, 22 April 1854, 17 March 1855.
Ibid., 13 January 1855, 15 May 1855.
64 Yule, Mission, pp. 2567.
Ibid., 18 February 1854, 7 March 1854.
66
67
Pollack, Empires in Collision, p. 124.
Ibid., p. 125.
Yule, Mission, p. 257.
Denis Twitchett and John K. Fairbank (eds.), The Cambridge History of China, vol. II:
Late Ching, 18001911, part 2, Cambridge, 1980, pp. 21114.
70
71
say, this rent was less than forthcoming and much of this land began to fall
into private hands.72
Also by the early 1860s the government decided to introduce, after
consultation with the Buddhist Sangha, the new thathameda tax, effectively abolishing (though over many years) the entire early modern system
of revenue and elite income upon which the state had rested.73 The
thathameda tax was theoretically an income tax, amounting to exactly
one-tenth the income of all citizens, and was intended to replace all other
existing and customary taxes and fees.74 It was, in fact, much more a
property tax with collection left largely in the hands of rural magnates who
were expected to report to the treasury an assessed sum based on the
number of households they reported to be under their charge.75 They then
collected the revenue (in kind or in cash) within their villages, based
mainly on the property wealth of the particular household, and then
handed over the sum to the provincial myoyon in cash. Destitute households or individuals (dukkhita) were listed and were not expected to pay
any tax.
For the purpose of assessing the thathameda each myo was classified
according to its perceived wealth or prosperity.76 Within each area, however, it seems townspeople and the more commercialised cultivators often
bore the brunt of uneven assessment. Financiers, traders, artisans and
craftsmen were carefully scrutinised and assessed and then the balance
was distributed over the rest of the population. Given limits on the
mobility of royal officials (compared with colonial officers) and the absence of any tradition of touring the countryside, it is perhaps not surprising that agricultural holdings were assessed somewhat indiscriminately
and inadequately. British reports state that those cultivators who were
taxed very highly were those who produced mainly for the market and
who had become conspicuous for money-lending and acquiring mortgaged land.77
This new fiscal system could obviously not be imposed overnight. One
major problem was the difficulty faced by the kings men in gaining
72
74
75
76
77
85
charge of their officer to the chief queen shortly after Mindons coming to
power.86 Another royal order confirmed the status of her personal slaves
and their exemption from taxation and other state obligations.87 New
groups of slaves were also recruited for other members of the royal
family88 and their exemption from any other service was noted.89 Thus,
while salaries were instituted, the members of the aristocracy fought a
rearguard action to preserve the lucrative aspects of their relationship
with the countryside in the past.
Though some writers early in the colonial period described the attempt
to impose the thathameda tax as unsuccessful, this establishment of an
entirely new system of taxation carried with it wide repercussions which
critically influenced the course of social change in the Irrawaddy plain in
the years prior to British annexation. First, if we assume that in some areas
the thathameda did work as conceived and did replace older taxes and
fees, then the effect would have been to lighten the tax burden on some
people, especially crown servicemen and those classified as destitute. But
it would have increased taxation on the commercial class which was
expanding with the growth of foreign trade and a more export-oriented
agriculture. In this way, the thathameda and Mindons interventions in
trade, a de facto taxation of foreign trade, would have combined to curtail
severely the development of a private sector in the most dynamic part of
the economy. The state might have thus stood in opposition to the interests of the indigenous commercial class and certainly this is how contemporary British free traders accessed the situation.
Second, and with the same assumption, the entire revenue position of
hereditary local office-holders, would have been completely undermined.
Rural chiefs and others commissioned to take part in thathameda assessment and collection were compensated, but this would have been only a
fraction of their previous income. Certainly the extent to which the assumption (that older taxes were abolished) was true varied from place to
place and stronger gentry leaders would have perhaps been able to satisfy
or ignore central demands while still collecting customary taxes for themselves. But as attempts to centralise political authority increased, and with
the country becoming smaller as a result of improvements in transportation, the position of some local chiefs, forced to accept a much smaller
part in the revenue system, would have been dramatically altered.
86
89
87
88
91
For example, Maung Bo, Myowun of Malun, led a guerilla resistance against the new
colonial authorities but was soon afterwards replaced by Mindon with an official of
93 KBZ, vol. III, p. 209.
Armenian descent. DPC, 12 November 1855.
for bilateral relations took place from August through October 1855 with
the mission of Phayre as representative of the Governor-General of India
to the Court of Ava. Phayre was accompanied by several experts including
geographers and scientists, and a detailed account of the mission was
subsequently written by Sir Henry Yule. Phayres mission, which travelled
in two steamers, included no less than 440 soldiers and a personal escort
of cavalry. He was met at the border by the deputy senior minister Maha
Minhtin Kyaw, the chief secretary to the chief queen, and a large flotilla of
over a thousand war-boats and royal barges.
The primary goal of the mission for the British was to induce Mindon to
sign a peace treaty acknowledging Burmas cession of the province of
Pegu, which, together with Arakan and the Tennasserim, now formed
British Burma. Mindon was very keen to extend every hospitality to the
visiting delegation. They were quite free to travel around as they wished,
and trips were conducted to Bhamo as well as places closer to Amarapura.
What Mindon was careful not to do, however, was to appear in any way a
subject ruler and great care was taken to play the part of a sovereign head
of state hosting a mission from an equal foreign power. In several areas of
protocol, differences appeared between the two sides which remained
until annexation.
The most well known was the so-called shoe question.94 It was the
custom that shoes were taken off when entering a building as a mark of
respect similar to the removal of ones hat in Europe. The British, however, felt that the Burmese were insisting on their taking off their shoes, at
royal audiences or even on the approach to the audience hall, in an
attempt to humiliate them. They were never quite sure where custom
ended and a deliberate slight began. There are many other similar
examples of this sort of passive protest by the Burmese, as well as related
attempts by Mindon and officials not to give in to British displays of their
superior position. Phayres steamer was not allowed all the way up to
Amarapura,95 for example, and Mindon insisted on financing himself the
cost of their stay.
The decision not to sign an accord, as proposed by Phayre, was made by
Mindon against the advice of his ministers who were apparently united in
favouring a treaty.96 His stated reason, which he repeated many times, was
his fear of how he would be portrayed in future chronicles as the king who
94
95
96
98
Ibid., pp. 968.
Ibid., p. 195.
B.R. Pearn, The Commercial Treaty of 1862, JBRS, 27 (1937), 3353.
survey mission which was to be allowed to explore the trade route from
Bhamo to Yunnan. The 1862 treaty heralded the beginning of vigorous
attempts by the growing British commercial community at Rangoon to
secure greater and greater access to Burmese markets, largely undoing in
the process the very financial basis of Mindons reformed state. It also
marked the beginning of sustained commercial interest in the China
market and a desire to prevent other Western countries from accessing
this market through Upper Burma.100
The immediate effect of the 1862 treaty was a considerable expansion
of bilateral trade. Despite this, the foreign business community at
Rangoon began to criticise the Burmese governments upholding of the
agreements provisions. In particular, foreign firms, supported by most
British officials, felt that the Burmese government, though no longer
working through official monopolies, nevertheless remained unfairly involved in trade. In addition, the Burmese government, though it was
bound to abolish specific frontier duties within a reasonable amount of
time did not do so until five years later. The reason was clearly the states
financial situation, already damaged by the relaxation on tariffs which had
taken place. According to the Resident, Col. Edward Sladen, the Myoza of
Pakhangyi, a senior minister, told him that the Burmese government
never intended at the time the treaty was made to abolish the duties, but
[that] the Article was inserted for mere forms sake. Sladen went on that
the minister pleaded almost pitifully that the very low state of the
countrys finances due to the expenditure incurred in the construction
of Mandalay and the extraordinary demands of the priesthood on the
State purse and the reduction in the size of the kingdom made it
practically impossible for them to give up even a single item of the current
revenue.101
By the mid-1860s, as the governments financial worries continued, a
new crisis would threaten to derail Mindons entire reform process: a
great rebellion which shook the kingdom to its very foundations.
100
Dorothy Woodman, The Making of Burma, London, 1962, pp. 171204; Ralph
Charles Croziet, Antecedents of the Burma Road: Nineteenth Century British
Interest in Trans-Burma Trade Routes to China, M.A. dissertation, University of
101 IFP, Sept. 1865, no. 23.
Washington, Seattle, 1960.
The first dozen years of Mindons reign had been marked by an increasing
pace of reform. They had also been marked by increasing stresses and
strains, as Burmese society entered an unprecedented period of social
change. By the mid-1860s another problem, much more traditional in
nature, reared its head. The failure of the House of Alaungpaya to regularise succession to the monarchy yet again threatened to divide the court.
All sons of a king by a senior queen remained at least theoretically eligible.
Among the fourth and fifth generations of descent from the founder were
dozens of men with some claim to the throne. Mindon had clearly marked
Kanaung as his successor and had appointed him Prince of the Eastern
Palace, or crown prince. But now, many of Mindons own numerous sons
were reaching maturity and resented their uncles position. Mindon had
used Kanaung on at least one occasion to discipline some of the royal
princes for bad behaviour. Two of the eldest, the Princes of Myingun and
Myinhkondaing were among those who had been disciplined. Their personal ambitions would soon combine with the volatile atmosphere of the
countryside to produce the worst fighting in the Irrawaddy valley in nearly
a generation.
assassinated. Others in Kanaungs family had followed his example, including his younger brothers the Princes of Kyemyint, Taingda, Taungsin
and Ywatha. They decamped to Madaya and then marched on Shwebo,
which they took by force with the aid of local people. Mindon requested
Padein to return, offering complete amnesty and protection. But encouraged by a growing crowd of advisors and hangers-on, he refused and
instead raised the standard of rebellion. The governor of Tabayin had
joined him, and he was appointed his army commander. A new rebel force
was mustered and soon began to march on Mandalay.
At one point, in the third week of August, the governments position
seemed extremely precarious. The British Resident, Col. Sladen, was
certain Mindon would be dethroned and refused appeals for use of the
Residency steamer. Padeins forces approached the royal city from the
north, east and west, while provincial officials to the south rallied to the
rebel princes standard and raised another force of 10,000 anti-government troops. Mindon considered surrender to avoid further bloodshed.
But his chief queen consulted her astrological charts and predicted victory, if he persevered.
Finally, by late September, when the Myingun rebellion had been
crushed, the tide began to turn against Padein as well. A new force of
12,000 men backed by three steamers was divided into twelve separate
commands, including one Shan division under the Sawbwa of Yawnghwe.
A delegation of monks was then sent to make a last attempt at reconciliation. When this failed, an auspicious time for the counter-offensive was
chosen and the lead companies of the royal army, lead by the Prince of
Nyaungyan, crossed the Irrawaddy with 16 elephants, 18 cannon and 600
hand-picked cavalry. Padeins forces were routed in a series of engagements and the prince himself finally took refuge in a monastery. On 2
November he was arrested and led back to Mandalay, where he was first
placed in detention at the Privy Treasury, and then executed for treason.
Days later, the Kanaung Prince was cremated in a grand funeral,
attended by Mindon as well as an assortment of Kanaungs 144 children
and grandchildren. He had been married to ten women, all daughters of
noblemen, Shan chiefs and gentry leaders. His considerable family would
remain a force in Burmese politics to the end of the monarchy and
beyond.2
2
The rebellion was a political turning point for the Mindon regime,
ending the fourteen-year partnership between the king and his brother.
Mindon himself gradually withdrew from the day-to-day business of government, concentrating on projects of religious merit. A number of steps
were undertaken to prevent a similar occurrence from happening again.
In November, an attempt was made to collect arms throughout the country and to redistribute them to the local myowun and other provincial
officials who were made directly responsible for their safekeeping.3 Most
importantly, Mindon decided not to appoint a new heir-apparent, apparently for fear that the selected prince would become a new target of
assassination. This decision was to be of great consequence a little more
than a decade later as we shall see in chapter 7.
Despite these political changes, however, the reform process itself not
only continued but was strengthened. A whole new generation of reformminded officials came into prominence in the late 1860s. These included
several young men who had recently been sent to study abroad and who
now returned to take up official positions. Among the returners was the
future Myoza of Kyaukmyaung, who was rushed back from the Ecole
Central des Arts et Manufactures in Paris to fill one of the new upper-level
vacancies. He had also been educated at Doveton College in Calcutta and
at the Pantheon, having gone to Paris after a chance meeting with a
Frenchman, the Comte de Sacy on a steamer voyage across the Bay of
Bengal. He was of partial European, perhaps Portuguese, descent, and is
better remembered as the pangyet wun or Master of the Glass Factories, a
reference to his critical role in setting up local industries.4
The most conservative of the old senior ministers, the Myoza of
Magwe, had been implicated in the rebellion and was subsequently jailed.
The much more forward-looking Myoza of Pahkangyi, Mindons old
tutor, was thereafter able to consolidate his position as the most important
member of the new government. A new title of wun-shindaw or Chief
Minister was created and the Myoza of Laungshay and Hkampat were
promoted to that role, in addition to Pahkangyi himself. The British
henceforth referred to the Myoza of Pahkangyi as Prime Minister, and
one report described him approvingly as an experienced and highly
respected official [who] on all occasions conducted the communications
3
4
RAB, 1873/4, p. 4.
his fathers business dealings with foreign firms.7 But the king, though he
hinted at times that he would prefer Mekkaya to succeed him, never took
the final step of naming him his heir and, within a few years, relying on
even this favourite son proved troublesome. In 1871, following a murky
affair in which Mekkaya seemed to have been engaged in some sort of
conspiracy, he was deprived of most of his official duties. The Council of
State then imposed strict rules to prevent any informal contact between
royal princes and ministers. No powerful prince remained at Mandalay,
leaving the way clear for the grandees of the court to dominate the
succession.8
Lawrence replied:
All our merchants and traders long for a bouleversement and would probably
do what they could to bring one on. The annexation of Burmah proper will no
doubt come sooner or later, but the longer it can be staved off the better.9
KBZ, vol. III, p. 390. See also Mandalay Diary, IFP, 2 August 1872, 28 October 1872,
8
21 December 1872, 16 January 1873.
GUBSS, vol. II, p. 73.
Quoted in Woodman, The Making of Burma, p. 184.
business community, that outright annexation or at least the establishment of a protectorate would very much help the further expansion and
profitability of British trade.
A few months later, in October 1867, Sir Albert Fytche, the Chief
Commissioner, headed a new mission to Mandalay. The Court of Ava,
then still reeling from the effects of the Myingun rebellion, could offer little
resistance to Fytches demands for all sorts of new commercial concessions. The Burmese agreed to stronger terms barring state involvement in
trade including the surrender of all royal monopolies save those on timber, oil and precious stones. Frontier duties were further lowered from 10
per cent to 5 per cent ad valorem on imports and to 56 per cent on
exports. They also agreed to the stationing of an Assistant Resident at
Bhamo; permission for the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company to sail up to
Bhamo and the granting of extrajudicial rights for British subjects in
Burmese territory. Nevertheless, Fytche did not see it as appropriate to go
as far as his brief allowed: his instructions from the Governor-General had
instructed him to include, if possible, the following stipulation: The Burmese ruler engages not to enter into negotiations or communication of
any kind with any foreign power, except with the consent, previously
obtained, of the British ruler.10 Fytche apparently realised that the Burmese were still not ready to make this final concession to informal empire
and did not press the issue. In exchange for the concessions which were
made, the Burmese government were given Article 8, which read: The
Burmese Government shall further be allowed permission to purchase
arms and ammunition and war materials generally in British territory
subject to the consent and approval in each case, of the Chief Commissioner of British Burma. Very importantly, in an attached annex to the
treaty, it was stated that such consent and approval would ordinarily be
given. The Burmese government also received from Fytche a separate
agreement allowing the procurement of arms through British territory.11
In 1868, funded by commercial interests in Rangoon and not the
government, Col. Sladen, then Resident at Ava, received permission from
Mandalay to head an exploration team into China. His team included
10
11
14
Official Narrative of the Expedition to Explore the Trade Routes to China via Bhamo
under the Guidance of Major E.B. Sladen, Political Agent, Mandalay, with Connected
13 Quoted in Woodman, The Making of Burma, p. 189.
Papers, 1871.
IFP, October 1871, no. 409. See also Mandalay Diary, IFP, 31 December 1872.
Mandalay Diary, IFP, 23 January 1873; Woodman, The Making of Burma, pp. 1967.
Mandalay Diary, IFP, 20 November 1872, 9 December 1872; RTC, 1867/8, p. 2.
On British policy towards the Panthay rebels, see Brian L. Evans, The Panthay
Mission of 1872 and its Legacies, JSEAS, 16 (1985), 11729.
20
first hoped that this meeting would pave the way for direct representation
in London, they understood the implications of their presentation to the
Queen not by the Foreign Secretary but by the Secretary of State for India.
The Kinwun Mingyi was deeply angered at the British governments
insistence on maintaining only indirect ties with Mandalay via Calcutta,
especially given Siams recognition in 1855 through the Bowring treaty as
an equal power with an ambassador in London. When they stopped in
Paris again on their return to complete their negotiations, the British
ambassador, apparently to underscore Londons position, offered to present them to the French foreign minister, an offer firmly if diplomatically
refused.
Calcutta and Rangoon also refused to sanction, as they had pledged
under the 1867 accords, the importation of arms through British territory
to Upper Burma. Mindon had on many occasions requested permission to
purchase current military hardware, only to be consistently refused.21 The
kingdoms increasing ties with European governments were worrying
London, but this embargo on arms, arms which Mandalay believed were
needed for internal security, only served to push the Burmese towards
closer relations with the French and the Italians in particular.
By the mid-1870s, British officials were also becoming increasingly
involved in internal Burmese politics in a way which further weakened
Mindons authority and set the stage for the collapse of state control,
especially in outlying areas shortly after the kings death. One area of
interference was directly into the affairs of the palace, with the British
Residency becoming a magnet for would-be conspirators and various rival
factions. There is no evidence of British complicity in the Myingun rebellion, but certainly by 1878 the Residency had become deeply involved in
the intrigues which surrounded Thibaws succession. Asylum was granted
to several Burmese princes and British territory became the stagingground for more than one failed attempt to overthrow the government at
Mandalay.
The second area of interference was, as mentioned, along the Yunnan
border, where certain officials such as G.A. Strover (the Assistant Resident) and Edward Sladen (the Resident) believed that a replacement of
crown authority with that of local chiefs friendly to Rangoon would better
serve expanding British interests.22 From the time of Sladens trip to the
21
22
25
the enormous drop in the worlds cotton supply resulting from Washingtons blockade of her southern ports meant higher prices still. Cultivators
were paid 5 rupees per 100 viss, commercial buyers were paid 3540
rupees and the cotton was then exported at 150200 rupees per 100 viss to
Rangoon. These early 1860s prices represented a 600800 per cent increase over the 1854 export price of just 25 rupees per 100 viss. By 1865,
however, the American Civil War had ended, and there began a downward spiral in cotton prices. A few years of heavy rain and drought in the
late 1860s and early 1870s compounded the fall in income for large groups
of cultivators.30 Despite the fall in prices, however, the total volume of
cotton exported and the total value of exports continued to rise, from
710,000 rupees in 1868/9 to 2,500,000 rupees in 1872/3, reflecting increases in the total area of cultivation.31
Timber, mainly teak, was the other major export commodity for the
Burmese government and teak became increasingly important from the
mid-1860s onwards as profits from cotton fell. The Bombay Burma Trading Corporation as well as smaller Burmese firms had been granted several
concessions, mainly in the Yame`thin region across the British Burma
border from Toungoo and in the large swathe of forest north of Prome.32
Teak exported for international markets through Rangoon was almost
entirely of Upper Burma origin. Total exports rose from 24,000 tons (of 50
cubic feet) in the five years 185660, to 44,000 tons in 18615, 56,000 tons
in 186670, 71,000 tons in 18715 and 73,000 tons in 187680.33 Mindons government also traded in wheat and chickpeas. These were staple
foods for British troops in Lower Burma which had to be imported from
India but which were, by the mid-1860s, grown under crown encouragement in Upper Burma. As with cotton, royal agents bought large advances
from cultivators and then sold them to official agents in Rangoon.34
Total trade between Upper and Lower Burma in the late 1850s averaged around 4 million rupees with imports slightly higher than exports.35
Over the next twenty years bilateral trade increased steadily with almost
30
31
32
33
34
37
commodity which did not involve ordinary cultivators and the benefits
from its export went almost exclusively to the government and the Bombay Burma Trading Corporation. At the same time, the volume and total
value of imports, especially manufactured goods from the United Kingdom, increased significantly.
Examining the cloth trade in isolation also gives some indication of the
effects of economic change at this time on popular consumption and
relative incomes. What we see from the statistics is first that the import of
silk increased and, since silk was a luxury item within existing sumptuary
laws prohibiting general wear, consumption of silk by the elite probably
increased or remained the same. Second, the import of cotton cloth also
increased for a time and then declined while the export of cotton cloth
first declined and then increased. This inverse relationship between the
export of locally made cotton cloth and the import of foreign cotton cloth
suggests strongly that in the years 186873 a relatively large amount of
cloth was being consumed locally, while in subsequent years, this amount
declined. As cotton cloth was a fairly commercialised, generally consumed commodity, we might infer that popular incomes also rose and
then declined in the 1870s.
These figures though do not include overland trade with China. Overland trade virtually stopped during the Panthay rebellion in part because
of the actual fighting and in part because the Burmese government was
afraid of incurring Pekings anger. Mindon was apparently sympathetic to
the rebels, whom he considered the natives, as opposed to the Manchu
foreigners, and the embargo on trade meant that what trade occurred
was not officially taxed. Once the Panthay rebellion ended in 1873, the
Mindon government became very interested in furthering trade between
Upper Burma and Yunnan as well as between British Burma and Yunnan.
His ministers tried unsuccessfully to raise funds for the construction of a
railway line through Mandalay partly for this purpose. But it does not
seem that trade ever reached pre-rebellion levels, mainly the result of
continued unrest and a breaking down of Mandalays control along border areas. Possibly, some cotton was now exported again to China and this
may have provided some relief to a depressed market.
But it seems that China itself had begun to import British cotton textiles
not only through coastal ports but through Rangoon and Upper Burma as
well. However much trade revived, it almost certainly dropped from 1880
onwards as a result of the economic crisis in China which caused a large
An exemplary centre
The decline in royal prestige resulting from the second defeat at the hands
of the British and the loss of Pegu impressed upon Mindon the need to
meet or even exceed what was perceived as the traditional ceremonial
and religious obligations of a Burmese monarch. This is not to say that
Mindon was not following genuinely felt religious motivations. His personal correspondence with Buddhist figures in Siam and Ceylon reveal
clearly his own deep devotion to Theravada Buddhism. Nevertheless,
Mindon must have seen the usefulness, at a time of increasing threats to
royal authority, of strengthening religious institutions through lavish patronage, and to associate the state, especially the monarchy, as closely as
possible with a reinvigorated and centralised Buddhist Sangha.
One of his first projects was, literally, the building of a new exemplary
centre, the new royal city of Mandalay.40 Problems related to health and
sanitation, or overcrowding may have been part of the reasons for the
move. The move may also have been related to defence considerations,
38
39
40
Amarapura being within range of steamer guns, while Mandalay was built
a few miles inland on a large plain at the foot of the Shan Plateau. Though
the government of Mindon was not a theatre state in the sense that state
power existed centrally to produce royal ceremony,41 royal ceremonies
were certainly still a very important part of what government was all
about, setting an aesthetic, religious and political example for local elites
and others in whose hands remained much day-to-day administration. Of
the surviving royal edicts from Mindons reign, close to half deal with
royal ceremonies or with royal grants to individuals, mainly princes and
nobles, to conduct ceremonies of their own.42 Mindon as king presided
over at least one major religious ceremony each month and often many
more, as well as attending weddings, funerals, monastic initiations, ceremonies marking the construction of new monasteries or pagodas and
naming ceremonies for the royal children.
Another area of exemplary rule was the protection of animals. From the
very beginning of his reign, Mindon had followed the initiatives of many of
his predecessors and sought to improve animal welfare, in line with
Buddhist teachings. In 1853, when he ordered irrigation repairs to be
undertaken around Shwebo, he also ordered that no fish were to be
harmed as a result.43 Soon afterwards, a special wildlife sanctuary was
established just outside of Sagaing and others were later established at
Maungdaung, near Alon, and around the Meiktila lake.44 In 1854, all
hunting and trapping of animals in the Lower Chindwin was banned.
Others followed Mindons example. The Mekkaya Prince established a
wildlife sanctuary of his own as did the Myoza of Myothit, a deputy senior
minster, who created a protected place for animals in his new appanage.45
The late nineteenth century saw a strengthening of earlier trends towards greater state-sponsored Sangha centralisation. Movement towards
increasing fundamentalism, a strict interpretation of the Theravada
canon coupled with rigorous observance of codified rules of self-discipline, also continued. Strong state intervention under Bodawpaya before
the First Anglo-Burmese War had lead to the unification of the Sangha
under the state-patronised Thudhamma sect.46 But soon afterwards, numerous challenges to the orthodoxy reappeared, both from within and
41
43
46
without the Sangha and Mindons government again felt the need for
intervention. The annexation of Pegu had led to a large migration of
monks from British territory and was followed by a noticeable decline in
religious activity and patronage as well as a growing autonomy and lax
observance of disciplinary rules on the part of monks who remained
behind. Mindon attempted to encourage monks from Upper Burma to
return, at least temporarily, to Lower Burma, but with only some success.
In 1871, he held a Buddhist synod for monks from all over the country,
as well as a few from Ceylon, Siam and elsewhere. This was also in part an
attempt to maintain some sort of country-wide organisation despite the
British occupation of the delta.47 At around the same time, he funded a
project to review the Tripitika canon and to inscribe an authoritative copy
in stone at the foot of Mandalay Hill. The project was placed under the
charge of three leading sayadaw: the Taungsaung Sayadaw, who was the
queens tutor, the tutor of the Captain of the Musketeers, the Myoza of
Myadaung, and the tutor of the Master of the Kings Horses. Mindons
Privy Councillors were also involved.48 In a more political vein, Mindon
also donated a hti (a jewelled spire) for the Shwedagon pagoda in
Rangoon. After some official debate, the British decided not to allow the
king to travel to Rangoon for the actual donation ceremony.49 Extensive
preparations for the new hti were made between royal courtiers and the
new Rangoon Burmese elite, and the hti was accompanied along its entire
route by the Myoza of Poppa, a deputy senior minister, with considerable
pomp and huge crowds lining the way.50
The other main challenge facing Burmese Buddhism was the emergence of several extreme fundamentalist sects which advocated a further
reformation of religious practices. During Mindons reign thousands of
monks and lay followers moved from Mandalay to the Sagaing Hills on
the other side of the Irrawaddy, believing that the capitals monasteries
had encouraged lavish lifestyles. Sagaing was transformed in the 1860s
into a new city of monasteries, preaching halls and rest houses.51 As part of
the same popular movement, the Hngettwin Sayadaw established a new
faction within the Sangha, preaching that religious practices needed to be
radically altered, and insisting that meditation was necessary for all Buddhists and that mere charity and an observance of Buddhist ethics was not
47
50
51
48
49
Ibid., vol. III, pp. 1412.
KBZ, vol. II, pp. 38890.
RAB, 1871/2, p. 24.
KBZ, pp. 3756, 387.
Htin Aung, Burmese Monks Tales, New York, 1966, pp. 206.
53
Than Tun, History of the Shwegyin Sect of Burma, in Than Tun, Essays on the
History and Buddhism of Burma. See also John Ferguson, The Quest for Legitimation
by Burmese Monks and Kings: The Case of the Shwegyin Sect (19th and 20th
Centuries), in B.L. Smith (ed.), Religion and the Legitimation of Power in Thailand,
Laos and Burma, Philadelphia, 1978.
ROB, 15 May 1867.
including headmen.54 Monks were also being asked at this time to assist in
the repatriation of persons displaced by the 1866 Myingun rebellion and
the government accepted their advice on tax and debt relief for these
people.55 Monks were even asked to assist directly in the collection of the
thathameda tax in 1868.
With increasing popular and intra-Sangha criticism of monks for lax
observance of monastic vows, information was sought on the monks by
local officials as well. A series of royal orders and orders from the head of
the Sangha condemned infringement of discipline and reiterated the rules
all monks were expected to follow.56 Popular patronage of corrupt
monks was condemned and rural chiefs were requested to report on such
monks to provincial authorities.57 Mindon may have viewed his support
for a strong centralised Sangha as politically beneficial, both in underscoring his legitimacy at a time when secular institutions were coming under
increasing pressure, but also in providing the state with an allied structure
which could assist in shoring up Mandalays influence over the countryside. Mindon made large daily donations to the Sangha, according to one
account supporting 217 monasteries, mainly in the capital, or a total of
15,366 monks and novices. The same Burmese source estimates a total
expenditure by Mindon over his twenty-six years as king at 226 million
rupees or an average of nearly 9 million rupees a year.58
But Mandalay by the 1870s was not simply the cultural capital of a
remote Buddhist kingdom, but also part and parcel of a fast-changing and
ever-shrinking world. The mid-nineteenth century nearly everywhere was
a time of momentous technological change. From the first photographic
portraits of Burmese aristocrats to the electrification of parts of the Mandalay palace, the Court of Ava was far from isolated from new inventions
and new ideas. Through the popular plays and other literary works from
this period, we see clearly that the people of the Irrawaddy valley, as well,
were increasingly aware of the great transformations taking place around
them.
The first Burmese-language printing presses, however, appeared in the
late 1860s, and by about 1870, Burmese presses, in Rangoon, became very
active.59 The appeal was to a public which had a great demand for theatre
54
56
58
55
Ibid., 14 March 1872, 21 April 1873.
Ibid., 19 January 1868.
57
Ibid., 15 February 1856, 25 March 1856, 25 May 1867.
Ibid., 15 February 1856.
MMOS, vol. III, p. 143. See also India Foreign (Political) Proceedings, Sept. 1865,
p. 23.
but perhaps only too few occasions to actually attend performances. The
published plays were written at nearly full-length in the authentic stage
idiom, complete with songs and stage directions. The plots were taken
from the Buddhas birth stories, or Jataka, from mythology and history, or
were original and the supernatural often played an important part in the
story. The scene was set, however, in nineteenth-century Burma, as both
the writers and the readers seemed most interested in contemporary
events.
The printed plays which survive are full of descriptions of new technologies, information about distant places and, most of all, a world
dominated by economic forces beyond the control of the ordinary individual. In the middle of the traditional Jataka-based stories with naga,
garuda and yogi, there are also references to trains, steamships, telegrams, newspapers, cameras, thermometers, brandy and champagne.60 In
one play, Luwun Maung Hnama, the people of a small village in Lower
Burma borrow a large sum of money from Indian money-lenders during a
period of high rice prices but then squander the money on new houses,
buffaloes and gifts for their daughters. Soon, the economic situation turns
and the money-lenders call in their loans and the families, summoned to
court for non-payment, are forced to flee. In another, Shan Min, the
guardian spirit of a banyan tree refuses permission for the burial of a
corpse under his tree on the pretext that the tree does not legally belong to
him anymore, having had to mortgage the tree in order to pay barrister
fees in the original suit through which he had gained possession. These
plays were written almost entirely by a new generation of playwrights
from Lower Burma and printed in Rangoon but they were read and
performed in Upper Burma as well.61
It was within this context of often confusing economic, intellectual and
cultural changes, that the final Konbaung succession took place, with an
ambitious essay at sweeping political reforms, one which would lead
directly to the fall of the kingdom in 1885.
59
60
Hla Pe, The Beginnings of Modern Popular Burmese Literature, in Hla Pe, Burma,
pp. 2031.
Hla Pe, Social Conditions as Reflected in the Popular Drama, in his introduction to
Konmara Pya Zat: An Example of Popular Burmese Drama in the Nineteenth Century
61 See Allott, Herbert and Okell, Burma.
by Pok Ni, London, 1952, pp. 2230.
In October 1877, King Mindon became ill with dysentery and his condition rapidly deteriorated.1 His German physician, Dr Marfels, declared
His Majestys condition to be critical and Mindon was soon confined to
the gilded thalun bed in his private apartments. His wives and daughters
were in constant attendance and he was visited by a number of his sons
and ministers.
A few hundred yards away, in the lacquered teak pavilion of the
Council of State, the most senior grandees of the Court gathered to discuss
the royal succession. Ever since the assassination of the Kanaung Prince
in 1866, Mindon had steadfastly refused to appoint a new heir apparent,
for fear that the chosen prince would become, in turn, a target for murder.2
The prime movers of the 1866 rebellion, the Myingun and Myinhkondaing Princes, were the eldest princes of their generation with excellent
claims to the throne. But they had been living in exile since their failed
coup and no attempt at reconciliation between father and sons had been
made. The obvious candidates for the throne were the three senior princes
who had remained loyal to Mindon: the Princes of Mekkaya, Nyaungyan
and Thonze`. The Mekkaya Prince, who had been by his fathers side
during the worst days of the 1866 rebellion, was thought to be Mindons
favourite. He had substantial experience in government and was for a
while in charge of the new factories being built outside the city. But a
choice of any one over the other would almost certainly have resulted in a
long period of infighting among this fifth generation in descent from
Alaungpaya.
Instability was the last thing the old court grandees wanted when they
assembled to choose the next king. As no heir apparent had been selected
by the incumbent, the choice, by tradition, fell to the senior ministers of
KBZ, vol. III, pp. 43664. See also Bennett, Conference under the Tamarind Tree,
pp. 7084.
The problem of succession during the Konbaung dynasty was a recurrent one. See
Koenig, Burmese Polity, pp. 16587.
the Hluttaw. None wanted any of the three elder sons. Instead, their desire
was for a young pliant prince, someone they could control. Their aim was
to establish a government of the senior nobility, with as weak a king as
possible. The royal family, some thought, had caused nothing but trouble
with their constant in-fighting and intrigues. All were of course devoted
monarchists, but a limited monarchy, on European lines, seems to have
been the ambition of at least the majority.
The Myoza of Yenangyaung was one of the chief ministers, perhaps the
most powerful of the four. He was allied by marriage with a number of
important ministerial and military office holding families. He was also a
member of the hereditary Twinzayo gentry of Yenangyaung, the rich
oil-producing region south of Pagan. A tough-talking old man, he had
fought in the 1853 war and enjoyed showing off his battle-scars. He also
enjoyed showing off his twenty-something wife and boasted of his innumerable children. One of his daughters, the Kye`myint Queen, had
become one of Mindons also numerous wives and her son, the Pyinmina
Prince, was his natural choice for king. Only eight, Pyinmina would have
well suited the Councils desire for a pliant figurehead. A regency would
undoubtedly have been established, along the lines of the contemporary
Chuan Bunnag regency in Siam, and ministers would have had ample
time to consolidate their hold on power. Other noblemen, however, had
other ideas. The Thonze` Prince was the nephew of the Myoza of Bhamo,
then a Privy Councillor. The Nyaungyan Prince, now in British territory,
was the nephew of a retired, but still influential cavalry commander. Both
men wanted one of these elder and popular princes to be elected.
The deciding influence was to come from the Kinwun Mingyi, the
second most important official in the land, and the leader of the reformist
wing at Court. He had travelled extensively through Asia and Europe
during his diplomatic missions in 1871 and had been clearly impressed
with the magnitude of the challenges facing his small kingdom. He
gathered around him a circle of young, Western-educated scholar officials. This group, the product of the state scholarship programme of the
1860s, now dominated a number of key middle-ranking offices. Their aim
was more than just a limited monarchy, more than just a tilt in the balance
of power towards the nobility. They wanted nothing less than a complete
overhaul of the existing system. As a former holder of high military office,
he enjoyed a certain backing within the army, in particular the regular
infantry. He had also served as governor of Alon, the principal recruiting
ground for the Household Guards, and had married into the family of the
hereditary myothugyi of that province.
For the Kinwun Mingyi and his followers, the implementation of their
reform plans required not only a weak prince, but also the removal of the
old establishment as represented by the Myoza of Yenangyaung. The
election of the Pyinmina Prince would have meant government by the
nobility, but a nobility led by the Myoza of Yenangyaung and his somewhat backward-looking clients. They turned therefore to the third powerful faction at court, the faction of the Middle Palace Queen.
The Middle Palace Queen was, at the time of Mindons death, his most
senior queen, his chief queen having died a few years before. The Middle
Palace Queen had no sons, but was ambitious, and her main ambition was
to have one, or all, of her three young daughters married to whoever
became the next king. She too wanted a pliant prince, but for completely
different reasons. Her choice was the Thibaw Prince, a younger son of
Mindon by the Laungshay Queen.
The Thibaw Prince was twenty years old, a shy, somewhat unknown
figure at the court. He had spent part of his youth at Dr Marks Anglican
school, just across the street from the southern city wall, where he studied
English as well as other subjects and was known to have been a fairly keen
batsman. He was also remembered for having used unprincely language
when bowled. On leaving the Anglican school he entered the Bagaya
monastic college, becoming an accomplished Pali scholar. In 1877 he had
passed the highest Patamabyan monastic examination, and had been
feted by his father in a grand ceremony at court. Most importantly, he was
in love with his half-sister, the Princess of Myadaung, also known as
Supayalat, the strong-willed second daughter of the Middle Palace
Queen.3 With the backing of the Kinwun Mingyi and the dying kings most
senior wife, the Council of State, on 15 September, elected Thibaw as
heir apparent and their nominee soon received the guarded approval of
Mindon himself.
of the palace environs with support from the Household Guards and then
ordered the arrest of many prominent members of the royal family, including all the elder princes. When Mindon, during a brief recovery, heard of
these developments, he ordered the imprisoned royals released, appointing his three eldest sons, the Nyaungyan, Mekkaya and Thonze` Princes as
joint heirs and ordering them to be sent off immediately as viceroys to
three different parts of the country. This he most probably did for their
own safety, hoping that they would be able to flee the city immediately.
But as the kings condition worsened, these orders were ignored and all
the elder princes and their families were rearrested. Only the Nyaungyan
Prince, disguised as a coolie, managed to escape to the British Residency
and from there, with British aid, onto a waiting steamer. On 15 September, Thibaw was officially proclaimed as crown prince with Supayalat and
her older sister as his future queens.4
The king himself passed away on 1 October knowing that Thibaw
would ascend the throne but believing in all likelihood that his other
children were safe from harm. His funeral, which followed seven days of
mourning, was to be the last state funeral of a Burmese monarch and was a
strange affair. By now, so many princes and princesses were in detention
that the cortege was led by the former king Pagan, who survived his
half-brother, and by male members of the extended royal family. The men
were followed by the Middle Palace Queen and her daughters, already
trying to assert themselves as the powers behind the throne. All were
dressed in a brilliant white, the colour of death as well as the colour of
sovereignty.
What happened in the final few days of Mindons reign and the first few
weeks of Thibaw can only be described as a palace coup. On 11 November, during the thadingyut festival which marks the end of the Buddhist
Lent, the Kinwun Mingyi and other government leaders met in the Southern Royal Gardens to set in motion the series of sweeping reforms which
they believed were critical for preserving the countrys independence.5
First, the Kinwun Mingyi and his allies reshuffled the top ranks of the
administration. The Myoza of Yenangyaung and Magwe, the Kinwun
Mingyis only near rivals, were summarily dismissed together with dozens
of others. At the same time, those ministers and army officers who had
supported the coup were then rewarded with key positions and new
4
titles.6 The Kinwun Mingyi himself not only retained his position of Chief
Minister, but had conferred on him the special style of Mingyi Thettawshe.7 This granted him immunity from prosecution. He retained his
military rank as commander of all infantry regiments. Thibaw himself later
said that for most of his first year as king he was a virtual prisoner of his
own government8 and British reports of that time also state that he was
more or less a puppet of his Ministers, with the oaths taken by the sixty
ministers of the new government being made not to the king but to the
king-in-council.9
The Kinwun Mingyis plan was to establish a proper system of ministries along Western lines. Though Burmese official positions and offices
had become increasingly specialised over the previous twenty years, they
were still extremely disorganised, with ad hoc responsibilities being given
to various officials with antiquated titles such as Master of the Ironworks
or Captain of the Musketeers. Within a few weeks of Thibaws accession
fourteen ministries covering the entire government, each with approximately forty officials, were established.10 The various functional titles of
the early modern state, such as thandawzin or wundauk, became bureaucratic ranks within the revamped structure. The old system whereby the
Hluttaw and the Bye`daik met separately each day and then together with
the king in an afternoon audience, or nyilagan, was abolished and replaced by meetings of the full cabinet and several subordinate committees.11 All policy matters were to be discussed and decided by the full
cabinet and only the cabinet as a whole, rather than individual ministers,
was allowed to meet with the king. Importantly, the treasury was ordered
not to pay out any funds to the king or queen, or anyone else, without the
approval of the Myoza of Yaw, the new minister for finance.12 According
to one former official writing after annexation, these reforms were enacted
in clear emulation of Western governments.13
6
8
9
10
12
13
In order that this new government might consolidate its position and
policies without royal interference, the Kinwun Mingyi further suggested
that Thibaw undertake a long trip abroad, to Britain and Europe. The
Kinwun Mingyi perhaps hoped that through this trip Thibaw would also
become firmly convinced of the need for accelerated reforms, and he was
probably influenced by the successful trip around the world of Chulalongkorn several years earlier during the regency of Chuan Bunnag.14 The
Myoza of Yaw wrote a large collection of essays for the young king,
brought together as the Raza Dhamma Thingaha Kyan, or Treatise on the
Compassionate Disposition of Righteous Government. Deriving his ideas
from classical Pali sources, the minister argued in favour of limits on royal
authority and in favour of constitutional government. It was an exhortation to Thibaw to rule through the cabinet and in the interest of all subjects
and to consider even wider-ranging political reforms. The Myoza of Yaw,
now with the rank of wungyi, had emerged as the most radical of all the
new government ministers. The treatise was to be among the last of the
great scholar and statesmans twenty wide-ranging books.
The ministerial government quickly went to work. A tentative agreement was reached with a British firm for the construction of a railway
through Upper Burma, trade restrictions were relaxed, and, as a friendly
gesture, an armed guard was permitted to be stationed around the British
Residency. Clearly, the governments new policies were directed towards
increased accommodation with British demands, a more liberal trade
regime and intensified administrative and infrastructure modernisation.
Furthermore, in line with Mindons policies towards the Sangha, the old
kings sayadaw, or senior monks, were confirmed in their position and
other prominent monks brought into the state-sponsored hierarchy. Perhaps seeing a relationship between a standardisation of the vernacular
language and the development of a modern nation-state, the government convened a meeting of nearly all senior officials and other scholars
to begin preparation of a definitive treatise on Burmese orthography.
Thirty-six works on orthography were subsequently presented to the
king.15
Alongside this reorganisation was another, inner reorganisation whose
15
14
Since the Death of the Late King, 13 November 1878.
MMOS, vol. II, p. 252.
ROB, 19 December 1878; Bennett, Conference under the Tamarind Tree, p. 79. See
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
Nationalism, London, 1983, pp. 6782, on the relationship between the rising
importance of vernacular languages in Europe and the spread of nationalism.
16
18
17
KBZ, vol. III, pp. 4756.
MMOS, vol. II, p. 251.
19 KBZ, vol. III, pp. 5005.
Ibid., p. 252.
25
21
Ibid., vol. III, pp. 470, 477.
Ibid., p. 500; MMOS, vol. II, p. 229.
KBZ, vol. III, pp. 50510.
Shaw to Government of India, Correspondence Relating to the Affairs of Burmah
24
Since the Death of the Late King, 20 March 1879.
RAB, 1878/9, p. 3.
KBZ, vol. III, p. 571; MMOS, vol. II, pp. 2416.
community had already been calling for intervention and the massacre
was seized upon by British firms as a reason to resolve the Burma
problem once and for all. Calcuttas thinking was not far removed from
this and the British Indian Army began preparations for war. Reinforcements arrived from India and were quickly dispatched to posts along the
Upper Burma frontier. The plan was for the dethronement of Thibaw and
his replacement by the Nyaungyan Prince, who was now safely in India.26
Before an offensive could be launched, however, British policy-makers
abandoned their scheme, not because of the situation in Mandalay, but
because of developments in Afghanistan and to a lesser extent South
Africa which had overstretched resources. The massacre of the British
Resident at Kabul and his entire staff had led to a momentary panic in
Calcutta and to a sudden decision to withdraw the Residency in Mandalay, though the Thibaw government had done nothing, despite the killings,
to actual threaten either the Resident, Horace Browne, or any of the
European community in Mandalay.27
The Burmese government after 1879 may be seen as a sort of coalition
of two factions. One faction was composed of reformist ministers loyal
mainly to the Kinwun Mingyi. Of increasing importance were several
Indian- or European-educated officials such as the Myoza of Kyaukmyaung. The other was the royalist faction, represented by Supayalat and
friends of Thibaw as well as the conservative Taingda Mingyi and his
allies, especially in the military.28 But this latter faction underwent its own
internal divisions and in 1882 these divisions would lead to the execution
of Thibaws erstwhile closest confidante, the Myoza of Yanaung. He had
apparently advised his childhood friend to take further wives, additional
to Supayalat, in the custom of Burmese kingship. Yanaung probably saw
an increased number of wives as a way of diluting Supayalats influence,
Thibaws lack of wives being an incredible departure from the norm and
preventing him from cementing ties with important noble families, and
more importantly with Shan courts, many of which were now in rebellion.
His scheme was for Thibaw to take Mi Hkin-gyi as his minor wife. She was
the daughter of the Myoza of Kanni, the granddaughter of the Myoza of
Kampat, and the niece of the Myoza of Pagan, all serving cabinet ministers. Supayalat, perhaps a selective modernist, was determined to see this
26
27
one custom not followed and conflict between the two soon erupted.
Yanaung lost the power struggle and was killed on the queens orders. Mi
Hkin-gyi, seventeen years old, was also executed.29
Though the reformist-designed administration still existed in form, this
Fourteen Department government was never able to fully function as
intended. The number of departments constantly changed over the next
six years, with various departments merging or being reconstituted.30
While some of the departments, namely Civil Justice, Education, Religious
Affairs and Legislation, were able to operate under autonomous ministerial direction, the others came under continual interference. Two of the
most important ministries War and Revenue as well as the appointments office, were effectively under royal or palace control.31
31
The stories of Yanaung, Supayalat, Mi Hkin-gyi and others at Thibaws court form the
backdrop to F. Tennyson Jesses novel The Lacquer Lady (London, 1929), which was
30
based in part on interviews with surviving courtiers.
MMOS, vol. II, pp. 2416.
Ibid.
Thibaw was in many ways the work of Rangoon-based commercial interests which had been, throughout the 1870s, pressing for intervention. For
several years prior to Mindons death, they had already been warning that
at no former time has the population of Burma been so poor or so
poverty-stricken as they are known to be at present and predicting a crisis
as the situation had reached beyond even Burmese endurance.32 Conditions were worsening, not because of political intrigues and repression in
Mandalay, but because external conditions were changing ever more
quickly and the Burmese state remained unable to meet these new and, by
this point, perhaps impossible challenges.
The central problem facing Thibaws government was that of revenue,
which was steadily worsening as the Mandalay treasury became caught
between its own budgetary needs, British demands for free trade and fear
of the consequences of increased taxation over the countryside.33 In the
search for new, politically feasible sources of revenue, the government
initially turned to the institution of new monopolies on the export of
selected commodities. British traders complained that this move ran contrary to the 1867 treaty, but the treaty itself had already lapsed after ten
years. But the resulting protests from Rangoon were so strong, that the
monopolies were quietly dropped within a few months.34 The government
then turned to the sale of new concessions to both local and foreign firms.
Concessions mainly in the area of forestry had already been sold to British
companies, most notably the Bombay Burma Trading Corporation.
An increasing number of smaller concessions, not only in forestry but
also for example in mining and oil production were also sold to local
businessmen. The most notable of these was the thuhtay banker, Moola
Ismail, a Muslim, and the nephew of another prominent Muslim thuhtay,
Moola Ibrahim. The latter had been active in court circles since at least the
mid-1850s when he was mentioned in Yules reports.35 Many other local
businessmen-concessionaires seem also to have been Mandalay-based
Muslims, normally referred to in Burmese sources, however, under Burmese names.36 In the final years of Thibaws reign, he also held the coveted
32
33
34
36
post of revenue minister. Merchants were then paying 10,000 rupees per
year and bankers 40,000 rupees per year for thuhtay status and the
resulting access to various monopolies and licences. Moola Ismail, with
government encouragement, also built the new Mandalay market, or
Zegyo. This was located outside the city walls, and designed by a resident
Italian architect.
Despite continued attempts to regularise the thathameda tax regime,
related administrative problems plagued the government until the very
end, when, just before the war, a new tax code attempting to clarify the
thathameda was promulgated.37 In addition to all the various complications of administering the tax, problems which took the British more than
ten years to finally resolve, was the inability of the royal agencies to rein in
local taxation in many areas. Neither could they end the seepage of tax
revenues through various administrative layers, though the Thibaw government attempted to confront this problem head on. Several royal orders
expressly prohibited the levying of customary fees38 and others called for
closer supervision of hereditary local office-holders. The government also
turned to the easier but much more desperate solution of farming out
revenue from state lands (but not, it seems, the thathameda). These state
lands included crown estates belonging to the incumbent monarch. They
also included prebendal estates which had been granted to crown service
families in return for service but which now, with the introduction of cash
salaries, required holders to pay rent. While initially this revenue was paid
in kind, under the tax farming system, payment had to be made in cash, the
determination of the equivalent cash demand being said to have been less
than generous.39
By increasingly turning to tax farming, Burmese government policy had
begun to turn full circle as crown agencies, which had taken much of
revenue administration away from hereditary local officials, were now
feeling pressurised into handing revenue administration back. Critically,
however, revenue administration was not being handed back under the
old system, to the various myothugyi and crown service chiefs, but to the
highest bidders. These included some gentry leaders, but also many more
38
39
five-year forestry concession for 200,000 rupees, including 50,000 up front (KBZ, vol.
37
III, p. 610).
MMOS, vol III, pp. 339.
KBZ, vol. III, p. 589.
J.A. Stewart, Burma Gazetteer Kyaukse` District (hereafter Kyaukse` Gazetteer),
Rangoon, 1925, vol. I, p. 126.
42
43
45
household. Different rates within each community were determined locally. But by the early 1880s, revenue assessments, in most if not all areas,
appear to have been significantly reduced. In Alon, for example,
thathameda demand was less than half that under Mindon, with assessment down from ten to six rupees.47 The fall in revenue from the countryside was also related to increasing tax evasion as will be discussed below.
But by 1883, the Court of Ava was also aware that taxation was becoming
a politically explosive issue and in one order expressly banned punishment for underpayment.48
In addition to reductions in the thathameda, the government in 1884
enacted a number of other pro-trade policies. Following a meeting between Thibaw and leading businessmen, the government announced a
repeal of twenty-three internal tariffs on trade as well as substantial
reduction of many other tariffs, in the interests of economic progress and
development. At the same time, however, ministers called for a more
disciplined collection of remaining taxes.49 Noting the importance in
several of its last orders of promoting vigorous buying and selling50 the
government, despite its severe fiscal situation, also completely exempted
key market towns such as Bhamo from the payment of thathameda.51
Half-hearted attempts to encourage an expansion of agricultural production were also made and in one of the very last royal orders before
annexation, the government granted limited ownership rights to cultivators reclaiming state lands, exempting them from tax and allowing inheritance, but prohibiting sales.52
The final attempt by the ailing government to shore up its financial
position was to borrow money. Receiving credit from firms and traders in
Calcutta and Rangoon for various purchases had been common under
Mindon. But it seems only under Thibaw that the government began
borrowing large amounts of cash from private individuals. Moola Ismail
lent the government 160,000 rupees, for example, in the early 1880s.53 By
around this time, the government had also begun planning for the establishment of a Royal Bank of Burma. The idea was that initial capitalisation would come from a European partner bank. The new bank would
then lend money to private Burmese businessmen as well as to the
47
49
51
53
48
Lower Chindwin Gazetteer, p. 161.
ROB, 30 November 1883.
50
KBZ, vol. III, pp. 6434.
ROB, 12 August 1881.
52
Ibid., 8 October 1885; KBZ, vol. III, pp. 5689.
ROB, 16 January 1885.
Lease of the Zegyo Bazaar, BHP, December 1887.
treasury.54 Negotiations had taken place in Paris in 1885 for the establishment of a joint Franco-Burmese bank, but no final agreement was made
prior to the outbreak of war.
Beyond revenues, Thibaws government was also facing increasing
problems with administrative disorder in the countryside. This was a
continuation of trends which had begun under Mindon. The first major
problem related to local hereditary offices, those of the myothugyi and
various crown service chiefs. The Burmese state in the early 1880s was in
no position to completely revamp local administration, in the manner the
British were to do ten years later. Early modern political structures at the
myo level and below therefore needed to be fitted into emerging new
national institutions and policies. If the goal of the post-1878 government
was to create a more bureaucratic state based on cash revenues, local
authority would have to become rationalised and more territorially based.
This was attempted by creating a new layer of centrally appointed officials,
the district commissioners, or hkayaing wuns, as well as strengthening
the older myowun and subordinate offices but without any real effort
fundamentally to reform lower-level hereditary positions.
This neglect of the gentry encouraged the increasing penetration by
outsiders of still important local hereditary offices as well as much infighting among local elite families over chiefly position. The last proper accounting of local hereditary offices and office-holders had taken place in
1805. By the early 1880s, in many areas, two or more persons were
claiming the same chiefly position.55 In other areas, outsiders, not of the
traditional chiefly family, had taken over the local office, either through
the intervention of a friendly myowun or other Mandalay official, or by
buying the office directly from the old family. By annexation, British
sources said that some rural offices were changing hands as often as every
few months.56 Myothugyi offices could also allegedly be purchased from
some of Thibaws less than high-minded aides-de-camp.57 Despite a call in
54
55
56
India Foreign (Secret) Proceedings (hereafter ISP), 1885, no. 178, 23 September 1885.
See also Joseph Dautremer, Burma Under British Rule (trans. from French by George
Scott), London, 1913, pp. 775. Apparently plans for a national bank had begun as
early as 1873 under Mindon. See Mandalay Diary, IFP, 25 February 1873.
KBZ, vol. III, pp. 5856 says that there were now four or five claimants for many
offices.
GUBSS, vol. II, p. 370. See also R.R. Langham-Carter, Burmese Rule on the Toungoo
Frontier, JBRS, 27 (1937), 1533, for a detailed look at local administration around
57 MMOS, vol. II, pp. 2416.
this time.
1882 for all chiefs to submit fresh papers stating their hereditary claims to
office, it does not seem that these practices were in any way attenuated.
Only one subsequent royal order actually dismissed a chief, the Myothugyi
of Ahmyint, for not being of the hereditary governing family.58 Far from
Mandalays grip, however, other gentry leaders were apparently capturing
provincial office previously reserved for Ava officials. In 1879, for
example, Naymyo Thamada Raza, the Myothugyi of Myede, was made
myowun of his home town, erasing the old bifurcation of power between
hereditary chief and appointed provincial governor.
The second major problem was the status of prebendal estates. As we
have seen, by the early 1880s, the process begun under Mindon of replacing the early modern system of appanages and prebendal land-holdings
with cash revenues and cash salaries had largely succeeded, in the sense
that the appanage system was abolished. But the reforms had not succeeded in the sense that officials now contented themselves with only
their nominal cash incomes. Instead, the reforms had thrown into disorder the earlier tenure system and Thibaws government was able to
make no real headway towards redefining land ownership to conform
with a more bureaucratised state at the centre. The net result was a
large-scale selling and mortgaging of state lands and the growing prominence of non-local traders and money-lenders throughout the countryside.59
As already mentioned, the main innovation of the Thibaw government
in the area of local administration was the creation of a new layer of
administration, that of the district (hkayaing).60 These districts, which
numbered ten altogether, were modelled on British Indian districts such
as those in Lower Burma. By placing fairly senior officials in charge of
these districts (as hkayaing wun) with judicial and administrative authority over the several myowun in their territory, the direction of policy
became that of further centralisation, rather than any resuscitation of
more local institutions. The new hkayaing wun were noblemen of fairly
high status in Mandalay and needed quite a lot of encouragement before
actually travelling to their district seat, much less touring around their
district as they were also called on to do. Their main brief was to check
58
59
60
62
ROB, 27 February 1884, 17 March 1882.
IFP, January 1878, pp. 2235.
64
65
GUBSS, vol. II, pp. 4989.
KBZ, vol. III, pp. 5412.
Ibid., p. 651.
ROB, 22 June 1882, 18 May 1883, 23 May 1884.
68
Ibid., 22 June 1882, 18 May 1883.
KBZ, vol. III, p. 607; GUBSS, vol. I, p. 94.
KBZ, vol. III, p. 552.
MMOS, vol. II, p. 224. See also Saimong Mangrai, The Shan States and the British
Annexation, Ithaca, 1965, pp. 10128. On problems with payment of the thathameda
71 KBZ, vol. III, pp. 5457.
tax, see especially pp. 1035.
the eastern hills. An expedition was immediately sent out to deal with
what the relevant royal order termed these uncivilised (mayinchay)
sawbwa.
For six years, thousands of Burmese troops were sent in campaign after
campaign against the Sawbwa of Mong Nai as well as against the several
other sawbwa who came to fight alongside him.72 During the course of
one such campaign, in 1881, the Mong Nai Sawbwa managed to overwhelm the local garrison, killing the commander and over 400 soldiers.
While the town of Mong Nai was finally captured in 1882, the Sawbwa
himself was able to flee further east to Keng Tung. Keng Tung had become
a refuge for the Sawbwa of Yauksauk, Mai Nong, and others and was itself
now far from the grip of declining royal power.73 Other sawbwa, such as
the Sawbwa of Hsenwi, decided not to take sides and instead fled to
British territory, returning only after annexation in 1885.74
A number of very prominent noblemen were lost to the incessant
campaigning, including the Myoza of Pagan, a court wundauk. He had
died in an abortive attempt to seize the town of Mai Nong in 1885 after the
local chief had refused to recognise Thibaws authority. Many of the losses
were due to malaria and other hardships rather than combat. The governor of Pahkangyi, Maha Mindin Minkaung, was then appointed commanding general for the entire theatre, but he too soon died of illness. The
commander of the main cavalry regiments, Mingyi Maha Minkaung
Kyawdin, the most senior military officer in the regular army, then took to
the field himself.75
By the time of the Third Anglo-Burmese War, many if not most of the
sawbwa had decided to join together in a formal alliance aimed at replacing Thibaw, not with a Shan prince, but with his cousin, the Burmese
Limbin Prince. Limbin was the son of the assassinated Kanaung Prince
who had been living in British territory and who now agreed to join forces
with the rebel sawbwa. The Shan revolt thereby turned from a localised
rebellion into a direct challenge against the Mandalay government. The
following extract, part of a letter from the Keng Tung Sawbwa to the
Hsipaw Sawbwa, provides an interesting insight into the motivations
behind the revolt:
72
73
It seems from this, first of all, that the sawbwa were not fighting for
complete independence but for increased autonomy under some sort of
nominal Burmese sovereignty. Second, the thathameda tax was an important source of discontent, perhaps a key cause driving these hereditary
local elites into rebellion. We will return to this point in the next chapter,
comparing this phenomenon with the causes underlying popular resistance to the British occupation in the Irrawaddy valley in the late 1880s.
By the early 1880s royal authority had also begun to collapse much
nearer to home, in the Sagaing Hills, along the Lower Chindwin plain and
around the suburbs of Mandalay itself.77 Burmese sources describe sections of this area coming under the control of large gangs of bandits
(damya), and several of the new district commissioners were replaced,
presumably for not dealing effectively with them. New appointments were
given first fifty, and then one hundred soldiers and ordered to travel
around their districts and suppress the lawlessness.78 By 1883 the situation had become so bad that no district commissioner could be posted to
either Sagaing or Alon because of the complete breakdown of government
authority.
The cream of the regular army was sent out to areas where the dacoits
were most active. Three hundred of the North Marabin regiment together
with the elite Natshinyway (chosen by the gods) were sent to Alon. The
latter regiment had been reorganised under Mindon and comprised
specially selected men over six feet tall. The Linzin Regiment, descendants
of men brought from the Lao court at Vientiane, were sent to Tabayin. All,
however, found themselves the constant victims of ambush by increasingly daring bandit gangs.79 Official reports stated that all military efforts
to suppress the bandits had failed, and that if one were captured, two
would appear to take his place. The government believed that trade and
the economy in general was beginning to suffer as a result.80
76
77
78
The policy then agreed by the Hluttaw was one made from a position of
weakness. An amnesty was declared and those bandits who turned themselves in were registered and tattooed, their right arm being tattooed with
their name and their left with the warning beware (thadi-hta).82 Unfortunately, we know very little about these bandits, their aims or motivations,
their social background or their relationship with local communities or
Buddhist monasteries. In 1875, Mindons government had compiled a list
of senior gentry office-holders which categorised twenty out of approximately two hundred as being in rebellion, indicating that state control
had begun to falter as early as the mid-1870s. This also suggested that
some of the leaders of these bandit groups were former myothugyi and
other chiefs.83
Revolts against the state also came under religious leadership. Generally, Buddhist monks did not go into rebellion until after the British
takeover. What we do see at this time, however, is the emergence of what
we might term millenarian figures, though this is a very preliminary
categorisation as we have very little information beyond their actual
81
82
83
85 Ibid., p. 629.
KBZ, vol. III, p. 608.
This is mentioned in a number of British sources, mainly gazetteers written after
annexation. The main source, however, appears to be GUBSS, vol. II, pp. 41921.
Without giving many statistics, MMOS, vol. II, pp. 12634 describes population
decline in many areas, a decline which is based on a significantly lower number of
households paying taxes in 1885 than in previous years, which I would attribute only
partially to emigration and mainly to tax evasion.
91
Burmese called them, continued however to raid into the lowlands, creating generally unsettled conditions throughout the north and practically
ending cross-border trade with Yunnan.92 By the few months preceding
the British intervention, even the Manipuris seemed to be joining in, and
British observers reported limited incursions by the Maharaja of
Manipurs men across the disputed border into the Kubo valley.93
By late 1885, the violence had spread to Mandalay itself. Late in the
year, during the annual Thadingyut festival, 200 prisoners were killed in
what the military alleged was a failed breakout. The attempted escape was
said to have been orchestrated by the dacoit leader Nga Yan Min, whose
body was kept on display for three days in order to quell rumours that he
had managed to flee the city.94 British observers believed the escape was
engineered by prison warders as an excuse to execute the 150 or so
political prisoners being held.95 Stories spread throughout the capital
about the imminent arrival of either the Myingun Prince or the Nyaungyan Prince to depose Thibaw, with or without foreign help. The Myingun
Prince had left Saigon in late 1884 for Bangkok and had begun preparations for an attack into Upper Burma. Soon after, all inhabitants of
Mandalay were required to present themselves and provide information
on their address and occupation to the city governor and prisons director.
All through these difficult times, the royal couple continued to celebrate in grand style. The feasts and festivals accompanying the ear-boring
ceremonies of their eldest daughter (their only son having died in infancy),
for example, lasted for several days and involved thousands of people.
Preparations were placed under the charge of the treasury minister, the
Myoza of Paukmyaing, and other high officials were involved. The ministers in charge of Chinese and Indian affairs, in what must have been a
somewhat pedestrian task for such important grandees of the court, were
instructed to organise Chinese and Indian food for the occasion.96 Gifts
were given out by the royal family, Siamese dancers entertained large
crowds of ordinary people, and more than 2,000 court ponna presided
over the relevant rituals.
The royal couple were also keen shoppers and sent close aides on
numerous trips to Rangoon and Calcutta to buy cloth and other consumer
92
94
95
93
IFP, January 1878, pp. 2235.
IFP, nos. 4751, 5961, August 1885.
KBZ, vol. III, pp. 6645.
Correspondence Relating to the Affairs of Upper Burma 18801885, Secret Letter 56,
96 KBZ, vol. III, pp. 6689.
24 March 1885.
goods. In late 1885, in one of her last acts as queen, Supayalat sent offerings
to the Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon and to the white elephant at Pegu.
She also dispatched three royal retainers, including the court tailor
Shwedaung Kyaw. They were given 70,000 rupees to spend and returned
with boxes of the latest Rangoon fashions as well as with interesting and
unusual new things.97 Though the signs of impending disaster continued,
Thibaws court took heart in the capture of a baby white elephant in the
southern forests along the Toungoo frontier, a special palace being built for
the animal and preparations for his grand welcoming to Mandalay being
placed under the charge of the Taingda Mingyi himself.98
Around the time of Lord Churchills fateful ultimatum in November
1885, a Parsee drama troupe from Bombay had arrived in the royal city
and performed to packed audiences at the new, European-style theatre
just outside the main palace complex. During the cool autumn evenings,
from the open-air theatre, the assembled aristocrats, and the royal couple
on occasion, could have seen in the distance the Shan hills, where nearly
half the army remained bogged down in bloody fighting. But even closer to
home, royal authority, once so strong across the valley and the uplands,
was now in tatters. Everyone expected a new British assault. Many hoped
the growing crisis would bring back the Prince of Myingun or the Prince of
Nyaungyan. No one could have thought that within weeks, the kingdoms
thousand-year-old monarchy would disappear for ever.
98
102
lapsed after ten years in 1878. Nevertheless, the monopolies ignited such a
furore among the Rangoon business community that the government then
felt compelled to abolish many within the year. Trade as a result picked up
and then continued to grow right up to annexation.104
But what this narrow focus on total trade figures hides completely is
that Upper Burma was actually trading at a large and increasing deficit
throughout this period. This in turn resulted in a net outflow of treasure,
mainly silver, as much as 4 million rupees per year between 1878 and
1884. The real amount of silver leaving the country could have been much
more, given restrictions on the Burmese side against the export of silver,
the difficulty of registering land (as opposed to river-borne) trade, and the
technically illegal flight of people during these years, people who must
have also carried with them silver or other capital.
The final three years of Thibaws reign were also years of very poor rice
harvests in some areas, particularly the Lower Chindwin where food
supplies bordered on famine conditions. We might assume that Upper
Burma incurred this large deficit particularly in years of bad harvests, but
the fit is quite rough and certainly many other factors must have been
involved. While in 1880/1 and 1881/2, the country imported only 56,000
tonnes of rice a year, this figure climbed to 40,000 tonnes in 1882/3,
87,000 tonnes in 1884/5 and 96,000 tonnes in 1885/6.
The cost of this rice to the economy is difficult to calculate given its
different prices at various stages of transport, prices which are not available over the entire time-span. The price of rice generally, however, had
increased by well over 50 per cent over the course of Thibaws incumbency. In the worst years (18824), when the entire rice crop was lost in
the Lower Chindwin and around Mandalay, the price was reported to
have even gone beyond 120 rupees per basket, this at a time when most
annual incomes were considerably less.105
What the emphasis on increases in the value of bilateral trade also does
not reveal was the precipitous fall in world commodity prices in the 1870s
and early 1880s. This included the prices of nearly all of Upper Burmas
principal exports, while the price of rice, the main import, increased
considerably during this time. This dramatic change in Upper Burmas
terms of trade came almost at the same time as the change in regime and
104
105
provided an all important backdrop to the political events of the next few
years increasing crime and administrative collapse in parts of the countryside, British intervention and annexation, and the widespread resistance to the colonial regime.
One sector of the economy badly hit during this time was the cotton
industry. This was partially the result of several consecutive years of poor
cotton harvests around 1880. But world prices as well began to fall,
combining with the poor harvests to produce extreme hardship for cotton
producers in areas such as Myingyan and Magwe, traditionally among the
poorest parts of the valley. Manufacturers of cotton goods also suffered
considerably as cheap British products began aggressively to establish
themselves in even fairly remote markets. Mindons cotton mills had been
able to stave off foreign competition to some extent in the early 1870s. But
by the late 1870s all British reports stated that the industry was now in
terminal decline because of the preference throughout the country for the
less durable but much cheaper British cloth.106
While both yarn and piece-good imports were negatively affected by
the general downturn in trade in 1881/2 (see below), piece-good imports
bounced back, while the import of yarn, for local manufacture, continued
to decline. This fits well with the drop in the export of Upper Burma
cotton piece-goods to Lower Burma from a total value of 1,645,000 rupees
in 1878/9 to 970,000 rupees in 1885/6.107 Silk manufacturing was also
said to be in decline, partly because of the unsettled state of affairs in
Mandalay where the industry was based but mainly because this industry
was weakened by continuing competition from European silk manufacturers.108 Colonial reports also stated that imports of British crockery were
damaging the sale of locally made lacquerware.109
The oil industry was a further sector where a significant decline was
reported. Mindon had personally acquired direct control over 120 oil
wells at Taungdwingyi through marriage to a member of a Twinzayo
family. He then acquired a further seventeen wells through local mortgages to the crown.110 Oil was becoming more valuable as a result of the
increasing demands of foreign markets. But by the early 1870s, though
there were about 150 wells worked at Yenangyaung with a daily production of 15,000 viss, there were also many abandoned wells and wells
106
108
110
107
RAB, 1884/5, p. 36; 1885/6, p. 37.
See also analysis in ibid., 1884/5, p. 36.
109
Ibid., 1880/1, pp. 815.
RTC, 1876/7, p. 31.
Penzer, The Mineral Resources of Burma, p. 128.
producing very small quantities. The total yield was 60,000 viss per year
and the kings income was 400,000 rupees.111 A downturn in production,
which had been growing steadily throughout the first part of the century,
began around 1873 and lasted until right after British annexation. Possibly, this post-1873 downturn in production was the result of Mindons
intervention in the trade and the resulting depression of prices. It may also
have been simply an exhaustion of supply at the level of technology then
locally available. Other more local industries experienced more long-term
falls in production. The iron and brass industries were said to have
declined as a result of diminishing royal spending on religious construction.112 There was also a marked decline in handicraft production, for
example of paper, pottery, lacquerware and rockets for fireworks113 as a
direct consequence of competition from British products.
Speculation also increasingly affected the economy. As the economy
became more nationally integrated, financial shocks emanating from
Mandalay as a result of speculation severely affected trade on several
occasions. For example, in 1869 a squeeze on credit led to a sudden
depression of economic activity. This was in turn caused by the political
uncertainty surrounding the imminent establishment of Sladens residency.114 This proved to be only a temporary stagnation but demonstrates
both the extent to which speculation in Mandalay affected the entire
country, and the pivotal importance of British influence. The weakness of
the Burmese state by the 1870s was one which would be increasingly seen
as a cause of economic instability. For foreign firms doing business in
Upper Burma and through Upper Burma to China, this situation where
trade could be so easily disrupted by the policies of an independent
Burmese regime was a situation which demanded change. This was the
commercial argument for annexation. By now the Burmese had more or
less given in to demands to end intervention in trade and to grant unlimited access to British firms. The main problem remaining for British
commerce was the inherent instability of the political situation at the
centre. This made the environment for increased investment much more
111
112
113
114
Volume in mounds
1879/80
1880/1
1881/2
516,166
575,243
491,293
2,045
2,338
2,046
risky than many businessmen coping with the world depression would
have cared to accept.
Exactly how all this was affecting the economy as a whole or personal
incomes is impossible to know. Perhaps the best (though still problematic)
index we have for a fall in popular incomes at this time is the fall in the
importation of ngapi. Ngapi was the fermented fish paste which was and is
as much a dietary staple as rice (together with tea), but which was (unlike
rice) almost entirely imported from Lower Burma. Looking at ngapi
imports, we find that indeed the volume and value of consumption did fall
from 1880/1 (table 1). Unfortunately, there are no statistics on ngapi
alone after 1881/2, but the category of provisions in which it was included also continued to fall at least to 1883/4.115
At the same time, while the price of rice increased during the Thibaw
period, the price of many cash crops sesame, wheat and cotton in
particular dropped dramatically. Wages for skilled labour rose to keep
pace with the rice inflation but wages for unskilled labour, representing in
part new migrants from depressed rural areas, fell very low. Those few rice
producers who escaped the poor harvests of 18835 and avoided as well
increasing taxes might have enjoyed a rise in real income. The vast majority, however, especially those dependent after thirty years of integration
into the new world economy on cash-cropping, would have been severely
hit by the reversal in the countrys terms of trade.
Two further aspects of trade which contributed to the worsening economic picture must also be noted. One was the relative fall in the price of
silver, Upper Burmas currency, to that of gold. This change in the relative
value of silver, and thus pounds sterling, to gold affected not only Burma
but also other regional trading partners such as India, China and Siam.116
The second was the economic crisis in China which also began in the
115
116
118
Hao Yen-ping, The Commercial Revolution in Nineteenth Century China: The Rise of
Sino-Western Mercantile Capitalism, Berkeley, 1986, pp. 3248.
Proceedings of the Finance Departments (Upper Burma), July 1886, nos. 12.
The colonial officer and writer V.C. Scott OConner, who had lived in
Upper Burma in the 1890s explained: The Burmese Court . . . were too
proud and too weak to make the concessions that could alone serve as the
basis for conciliation. Its own resources were too slender to sustain its
great pretensions . . . The result was war.1
Others have echoed this assessment. The viceroy, Lord Dufferin, in a
telegram to Rangoon, complained of the Burmese kingdoms molluscous
consistency which made informal empire over the Court of Ava near
impossible. In many ways, this analysis of the reasons behind Britains
decision to impose direct rule over the kingdom of Burma in 1885 was
correct and relates to many of the processes discussed in earlier chapters.
Specifically, we have seen that, on the one hand, the development of a
political and fiscal crisis of the Burmese state led to a precipitous decline
of its authority within its nominal borders. This weakness was in turn the
consequence of a variety of factors related both to British imperialism and
local responses to changing international conditions. On the other hand,
the Burmese government, like the shell of a mollusc, remained hard and
impervious to informal control. Half a century after defeat in the First
Anglo-Burmese War, the pride and great pretensions of the Court of
Ava, though diminished, remained strong. Local patriotism, born in an
age of conquest, had hardened under the shadow of British expansion.
The best local collaborator for the British empire would have been at once
strong internally and appreciative of its external weakness. The Burmese
were neither. They were losing their grasp on villages just outside Mandalay and still insisting on their rights as an equal power with Britain.
V. C. Scott OConner, Mandalay and other Cities of the Past in Burma, London, 1907,
p. 26.
British commercial expansion in the context of global economic difficulties had turned more aggressive. For the Bombay Burma Trading
Corporation and the other big merchant houses of Rangoon, the distortions to the free market and the fluctuations in trade caused by an
enfeebled but unpredictable Court of Ava were now impossible to tolerate. Profits from business in British Burma, with the vast expansion of rice
cultivation, were substantial and the thought of even greater profits in
2
3
Upper Burma and through Upper Burma to China were enticing. Unqualified annexation was the preferred option of Rangoon-based European
firms who saw no reason why the business-friendly environment of Lower
Burma should not be extended to Mandalay and beyond.
The re-emergence of Anglo-French rivalry in South-east Asia and
growing French interest in Thibaws kingdom was a second reason for
moving from informal to formal empire. French power on the mainland
had developed rapidly as a result of a victorious war against the Vietnamese and Chinese in 1882 and the subsequent establishment of French
protectorates over Tongking, Annam, Cambodia and Laos. Over the early
1880s the Burmese government had adopted a high-risk strategy of courting French and other European assistance in the hope that this would
make difficult further British expansion. In early 1885, a Burmese embassy sent to Paris signed a formal treaty of friendship with the French
government. Other agreements, between private French interests and
Mandalay, were also negotiated following the signing of the treaty, perhaps with official mediation from the Quai dOrsay. They included agreements for the French to build and manage a new railway from Hanoi to
Mandalay, control the ruby mines and, perhaps most importantly, establish a jointly owned Royal Bank of Burma. This bank would have lent
money both to the government at preferential interest rates and would
have represented the first formal relationship between Western finance
and the Burmese state. The news of these agreements and rumours of
secret clauses caused significant alarm in official circles in both Rangoon
and Calcutta, and Sir Charles Bernard, the Chief Commissioner, warned
that if Ava refuses to stop the treaty, annexation will be inevitable.5
In addition, the political situation in Mandalay was giving the prointervention side more ammunition. The massacres surrounding the alleged prison breakout in 1884 were vividly reported in the English-language
press as was growing lawlessness. Even with the paucity of the information available (given the absence of a Resident in Mandalay), it was
becoming clear to British officials that events in Upper Burma had taken
an even more unstable turn. Refugees from persecution and economic
hardship were streaming into British territory and the breakdown in state
control over peripheral areas was threatening to affect law and order
along the northern borders of Lower Burma.
5
Ibid., p. 709.
this point the response was left deliberately vague, stating that the Court of
Ava would accept this demand if agreed by France, Italy and Germany,
the other European countries with which Mandalay had diplomatic relations. The government was apparently playing for time, perhaps in the
hope that France would pressurise Britain into backing down. In Paris,
the Burmese ambassador Mingyi Minhla Maha Sithu attempted lastminute negotiations with the India Office while courting the British press.
At the same time, preparations for war were begun.
No Burmese response, even an unconditional acceptance of all demands, could have prevented the occupation of Mandalay. British intervention to overthrow Thibaw was by the beginning of November a
foregone conclusion, and the Conservative government, on the very eve of
general elections, was particularly eager to benefit from a successful
colonial war. Lord Randoph Churchill, the Secretary of State for India,
was certainly in favour of annexation, writing to Dufferin, the Viceroy,
that the Government as a body are strongly in favour of annexation pure
and simple [and] I think you will be forced into it by the difficulty of
finding a suitable prince who would have any chance of maintaining
himself or of giving any guarantees of value for good government.9 Thus,
the argument for annexation pure and simple was not that this was
somehow intrinsically better for British interests, but that the local situation made impossible the establishment of a workable protectorate. In
other words, London viewed the past twenty years as a failed test of
informal empire. Anything less than annexation would only be a marginal
improvement on an already problematic arrangement. Churchill and
others perceived a crisis of the Burmese state and thus the costs of
propping up that state, even one under formal colonial authority, seemed
now to far outweigh the benefits.10
Senior Indian civil servants, however, were unanimously against annexation. Sir Charles Aitchison, lieutenant-governor of the Punjab, and
Lord Reay, governor of Bombay, both warned against the problems which
would arise from military intervention. Aitchison wrote that the annex9
10
further cost or many further problems. The Foreign Office seemed undecided about whether it favoured annexation or not. Part of its official
instructions to Prendergast read:
You will understand that after you cross the frontier no offer of submission
can be accepted or can affect the movement of the troops; Mandalay must be
occupied and Thibaw dethroned . . . You will be informed hereafter whether
Burma (Upper) is to be annexed. If so, the Chief Commissioner will go to
Mandalay and assume civil controls meanwhile . . . it is extremely desirable
[that the aims of the campaign] be attained rather by the display than by the
use of force.14
15
18
Ibid., pp. 71421.
Prendergast Diary, 14 November 1885, BMP.
Further Correspondence Relating to Burmah, London, 1886, pp. 34.
Supayalat appeared at the top of the steps of their summer palace, his
entire government prostrate on the ground before him. Prendergast and
Sladen stood nearby and escorted the royal couple first to the waiting
carriage, and then to the steamer three miles away.20
Even then, policy-makers had yet to decide on the future relationship
between Upper Burma and British India. If a protectorate was to be
established, the obvious candidate for the throne had been the Nyaungyan
Prince, Mindons eldest son, who had escaped and had been living in
Calcutta. But he had died earlier that year and so the lack of a suitable
candidate for the throne was added to the litany of arguments for annexation. In fact, however, several other possibilities did remain, including
Nyaungyans son, Kalayana, or the Pyinmina Prince, Mindons youngest
son, who had survived the 1878 killings because of his youth. At least
twelve sons of Mindon were alive and living in Mandalay and dozens of
other lesser princes as well. Prior to the war chief commissioner Bernard
had favoured placing Pyinmina on the throne under a British regency. He
ruled out the Myingun Prince who had been living in Pondicherry and
Saigon for fear that he was now too much under the French thumb. What
genuinely convinced British officials in Burma that a protectorate was not
a viable option was not this supposed lack of a candidate, but the changing
local scene in December. To the new colonial authorities, the weakness of
Mandalays control over the countryside even prior to intervention had
become clear. They saw what remained of the Burmese state crumble
within these first few weeks of occupation.
An interim attempt was made by Colonel Sladen to govern the country
through the Hluttaw. Up until this time it was assumed that whatever the
final decision was on the political status of Upper Burma and the retention
of the monarchy, the country would be governed through the existing
officials and institutions.21 Sladen, who favoured annexation as opposed
to a protectorate, nevertheless believed that rule through indigenous
structures was possible and was the cheaper and more efficient alternative. By December, however, the disturbed nature of the countryside had
pushed most of the military and many civilians towards the view that
soliciting the co-operation of the former Mandalay government was a
hopeless task.22
20
21
There were problems right away with Sladens efforts to utilise the
Burmese nobility. The first was that the Kinwun Mingyi had decided to
accompany Thibaw on part of his journey to Madras. This left the British
to work for several weeks with the next most senior official, the Taingda
Mingyi. This former minister was widely held by Rangoon to be responsible for the political killings under Thibaw and to be violently antiBritish. Though seemingly co-operative for a time, information surfaced
linking him to armed gangs plotting against the occupying army, and he
was eventually arrested and deported to India. The experiment continued,
however, and the Hluttaw was given some limited authority in districts
around Mandalay. The Hluttaw and Sladen worked together to set up
some sort of Burmese police force and to reinforce the position of the
hkayaing wun (Thibaws district commissioners) in the countryside.
Bernard, however, quickly came to oppose working through the Hluttaw.
Describing the districts in which they were allowed to retain some power
as being in the worst state of any, he stressed the need for pacification
efforts to proceed under the direct control of British officers.
The members of the Hluttaw were also very frustrated. The Kinwun
Mingyi had returned from Rangoon in December and he had signed a
series of letters to the viceroy through Bernard asking for the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under British protection. They argued
that the monarchy was an extremely important institution for the Burmese and that with a new king, the disorder in the countryside could be
easily ended. They also stressed, however, that under their scheme the
king would have no real authority, as in Britain, and that they, the
ministers, would rule under the direction of a British Resident. They
complained that the current arrangement, in which they had no control
over the administration of the capital and only limited authority in nearby
districts, deprived them of any popular legitimacy.23 They could not, they
said, be expected to be effective under the existing arrangements.24 They
asked to be given full authority under Sladens general direction or be
relieved entirely of their responsibility.25
22
23
24
25
Edmund Charles Browne, The Coming of the Great Queen: A Narrative of the
Acquisition of Burma, London, 1888, pp. 2289.
Hluttaw to the Chief Commissioner, 1 January 1886, BHP.
Paper from Certain Ministers to the Chief Commissioner, 30 December 1885, BHP.
Ministers to the Chief Commissioner through Sladen, 10 January 1886, BHP; Sladen to
Chief Commissioner, 2 January 1886, BHP.
27
28
29
30
conclusion that no formula other than direct rule was possible. He subsequently argued that a puppet king of the Burmese type would prove a very
expensive, troublesome and contumacious fiction and that given the state
of the country, keeping the Burmese royal family would impose upon us
all the trouble, anxiety, and cost of British occupation, without securing us
any corresponding advantages in the present . . .31 Before he left, Lord
Dufferin formally abolished the Hluttaw and, on 1 March, placed the
entire country except for the Shan states under British administration as
part of British India.
But though the decision was finally taken against retaining the monarchy and for direct rule, there still remained all sorts of possibilities as to
the structure of the new colonial state and its foundations within local
society. That is to say, direct rule could still have taken many different
forms. In the Shan states, for example, British sovereignty still meant only
indirect rule through the local sawbwa with only minimal interference by
the British Superintendent. In the early modern period, the counterparts
of the sawbwa in the Irrawaddy basin were, in many ways, the myothugyi.
They were the leaders of local communities and had been the critical
intermediary group between Ava and the Irrawaddy countryside. But why
did the colonial regime then not base their new state on this institution?
Why was not only the monarchy and nobility swept away but also the
gentry, the hereditary leaders of the countryside?
The conventional explanation for the British decision to install a completely new Indian bureaucracy right down to the village level was that
many of the myothugyi and other local leaders died or were wiped out as a
class as a result of the fighting which followed annexation. But while a few
did join the resistance, the decision was based much more on the weakness of their position within their own charges. This weakness was in turn
the result of the several preceding decades of economic and social change
which left local elites in many parts of Upper Burma with only a fraction of
the authority and influence which they had commanded at the beginning
of the century. One contemporary commentator contrasted the situation
in the Shan states leading to indirect rule and the situation in Upper
Burma: it was not a case of dealing with disintegrated masses like the rebel
bands and bandit gangs, but with large organised tribal units, each under
the moral and administrative control of an individual ruler.32
31
32
The resistance
The Secretary for Upper Burma wrote to the Chief Commissioner: The
people of this country have not, as was by some expected, welcomed us as
deliverers from tyranny.33 This remark is illustrated by the fact that the
formal annexation of Upper Burma by British India was followed by over
two years of violent fighting, requiring at its peak in 18867 over 40,000
British and Indian troops and military police. The resistance to British
forces was overwhelmingly rural and enjoyed substantial popular support.34 Immediately following the occupation of Mandalay in late 1885,
the army established ten military posts along the Irrawaddy and around
Yame`thin. Then for a while they refrained from mounting any offensive
operations against the guerrilla bands which were now gaining control
throughout the valley. Some skirmishes did take place, but they were
generally initiated by the guerrillas in attacks on British positions. By
January, however, the security situation had clearly deteriorated to an
extent which warranted a more proactive policy. One official reported to
Calcutta: More definite information arrives daily of increasing bodies of
rebels and dacoits. These are something more than mere marauders, and
follow the standards of pretenders. A general feeling of insecurity and
33
34
systematic terrorism obtains around, and has even penetrated Mandalay.35 The task of turning the tide fell on the shoulders of Sir Charles
Crosthwaithe, who was appointed Chief Commissioner of Burma in
March 1886. A number of different tactics were tried. Some local Burmese
officials in areas close to the initial occupation were approached for help
and temporarily reconfirmed in their position. Ex-ministers in Mandalay,
especially the Kinwun Mingyi, were also coaxed into lending their services
and some did use their influence to persuade appointed provincial figures,
the hkayaing wun and myowun, to serve the new regime. But, by and
large, the structures emanating from Mandalay were of little use and
Crosthwaithe soon decided on a close military occupation of the country, followed by the introduction of a generally all-new administrative
apparatus.36
By early 1886, after the decision to impose permanent direct rule had
been made, Sir Charles took the offensive, launching a pacification
operation which was not fully complete in the lowlands for another two
years. It would be another five years before the upland areas, the newly
named Chin, Kachin and Shan hills were entirely subdued. The problem
for the British was that what had been an anarchic situation in the
countryside during the last years of Thibaws rule, aggravated by the
power vacuum created by Mandalays surrender, was now quickly turning
into an organised and certainly passionate resistance against colonial rule.
The imposition of direct rule would perhaps have resulted in such a
resistance whatever had been British policy during the cold season of
18856. But sentiment against the new regime was undoubtedly made
worse by the series of extremely repressive or insensitive measures which
were undertaken and which seemed to confirm predictions that British
occupation would soon result in the destruction of Burmese society,
religion and culture.
A few days after Thibaws exile, the white elephant kept in the palace,
an object of considerable respect and an emblem of royal authority, died.
Though a proper cremation attended by court Brahmins was allowed, the
elephant was unceremoniously dragged by Indian troops out through the
(inauspicious) western gate in full sight of the public. Just as disquieting to
the Burmese, the main halls of the Eastern and Western Palaces were
35
36
turned into an Anglican chapel and the Upper Burma Club respectively.
What British attempts there were to accommodate local ideas and sensitivities were few and far between and were usually unsuccessful. The Chief
Commissioners offices were placed in the royal palace, but in the sevenroofed Pyathat and not the nine-roofed Myenan which was the symbol of
sovereignty. Efforts were made by the British to ring the gong in the
Bahosi tower to discourage rebellion when they were told that silence
might make people think no government was in power, but were then
stopped after a few days when they were told people would now think that
a Burmese government was still in charge.37
More seriously, rumours spread, some reported in the English press, of
the purposeful destruction of the royal library by British troops on the first
night of the occupation, of ill-treatment of Buddhist monks and monasteries, of ill-treatment of Burmese women, and of the summary execution of
suspected rebels and sympathisers. After January, as British forces began
to try to move out from Mandalay and other riverine posts, fighting
intensified and guerilla armies of up to a few thousand strong began
coalescing throughout the country. In Lower Burma, events in the north
triggered unrest, which quickly spread throughout the delta.
By the first day of the Burmese new year, 15 April 1886, the British
were faced with what appeared to be an organised countrywide campaign
to evict them from Upper Burma and restore a Burmese prince to the
throne. On that day, rebel armies combined to attack all major military
posts up and down the Irrawaddy. In Mandalay, twenty or so armed
guerrillas succeeded in entering the royal compound, setting several fires
and killing two Scottish doctors.38 But the campaign proved unsuccessful,
and by mid-year, the British had gained the upper hand.39
The upper hand was gained in large part thorough the large-scale
37
38
39
forced relocation of people, cutting off guerrillas from their basis of support. British magistrates were given wide-ranging powers to move suspected sympathisers and these powers were used quite liberally.40 Even in
Mandalay, 6,000 houses, belonging mainly to the nobility, their dependants and retainers, were moved outside the city walls.41 In the countryside,
entire villages suspected of sympathising with the guerrillas were burnt
and their inhabitants moved, often dozens of miles away.42 Of the forced
relocations, Crosthwaithe, the architect of pacification policy, called the
effect magical.43
On top of this came a widespread famine, largely man-made, resulting
from the fighting and the inability of many cultivators to harvest their
crop.44 The forced relocations were coupled with a programme of disarmament or the redistribution of arms to trusted local officials who were
then held personally responsible.45 The forced relocations were also linked to a more ruthless turn in conduct. The Times ran a series of critical
articles describing the summary execution of suspected rebels, and questions were asked in Parliament, but no real disciplinary action was ever
taken against those publicly mentioned as being the worst offenders.
Crosthwaithe, in a revealing justification of his policies, wrote that the
rebels displayed a ruthless and savage cruelty that might have made a
North American Indian in his worst time weep for human nature. But he
then went on to write: As they [the villagers] would not [give information
on the rebels], the only course open was to make them fear us more than
the bandits.46
A large number of weapons were collected in late 1886 and 1887. In
Ye-U district, for example, a total of 1,088 guns were collected of which
148 were captured in action. Subsequently 192 licences to possess guns
were granted, with a maximum of five per village. British reports proudly
stated that there was no instance in which licensed guns then fell back into
the hands of guerrillas. Of the guerrillas who surrendered 96 were classified as leaders and 474 as ordinary, indicating the fractured nature of
resistance organisation by this time. Most were released on bail of
40
42
44
45
46
200500 rupees and many were then allowed to take office under British
government as headmen. Official reports say that while some served
well, a few endangered life and property in service. Half of those who
surrendered had been branded professional bandits by Burmese officials
before annexation. Of captured bandits, three were officially executed.
The rest were imprisoned for terms up to life.47
Crosthwaithe wrote in his memoirs that in some districts there was not
merely a system of brigandage; it was a system, a long established system,
of government by brigands;48 and that in a district where there was little
activity on the part of British officers, and where the chief civil officer
failed to get information, very little was heard of the bandits, simply
because the people were paying tribute to the leaders, who did not need
to use coercion.49 In addition, British reports of the uprising suggest
that there were a considerable number of attacks against local officials,
especially those who had been appointed by the crown.50 While many may
have been targeted as British collaborators, some of these attacks may
have been motivated by grievances or conflicts originating under Burmese
rule.
These remarks help to confirm that in some areas at least, for several
years prior to annexation, authority had effectively passed away from
those recognised by the Court of Ava either to gentry leaders in rebellion,
or brigands popular figures who successfully usurped power from
official authority whether local or Mandalay-appointed. Perhaps, the gentry leaders who became most actively involved in the resistance were
those whose political authority had weakened as a result of economic
change and administrative reform and who were unable (unlike some
local elites) to find new power and position through money-lending,
private land ownership, or trade. These may have included crown service
chiefs who had seen much of their old status vanish with the abolition of
the early modern system of labour control.
The uprising may be seen as a coming together of three distinct though
related elements: banditry, rising patriotic sentiment, and millenarianism.
The first was a continuation of the collapse of political authority in the
countryside which had at least begun by the late 1870s. In some areas
hereditary rural chiefs themselves had gone into rebellion. In other areas,
especially around the capital, new bandit leaders emerged who sup47
49
48
GUBSS, vol. II, p. 144.
Crosthwaithe, Pacification of Burma, p. 103.
50 Ibid., p. 83.
Ibid., p. 104.
planted what was left of traditional gentry authority as well as the provincial appointees of the Mandalay state. The most disturbed areas immediately following annexation were the same ones mentioned in Burmese
sources as having been the centres of banditry and lawlessness those
areas right around Mandalay.51 Among the most prominent of these
bandits turned resistance leaders were Hla U in the Lower Chindwin, Bo
Po Tok in the Ava area, Maung Cho in Pagan, Nga To and Nga Yaing in
the islands of the Irrawaddy above Mandalay, Nga Zeya in the hills above
the capital, Kyaw Zaw in Kyaukse` and the Shan foothills, and Yan Nyun
in Myingyan.52 Here, armed opposition to the Burmese state, especially in
the area near the capital, simply carried over into attacks on British forces
in the early months of the opposition.
The second element was a patriotic resistance to British rule, in which
some princes and others in the old aristocracy took part. This resistance
was often passive, with members of the Hluttaw, for example, pretending
to co-operate but in fact obstructing attempts to consolidate the British
position. In a few cases princes and noblemen did actually go over to the
other side and came to head existing armed bands or perhaps new groups
which gathered around them at this time. Because of their prominence,
these princes and noblemen who joined the resistance are the most
remembered, giving the impression of a large-scale resistance by the
aristocracy. But actually, there does not seem to be much evidence that
many from the old regime, including those from the army, openly resisted
the new rulers. Very few if any of the thirty-odd myowun were active
participants in the resistance, and neither any of the ten hkyaing wun nor
the numerous Mandalay ministers did anything more than perhaps be
involved in behind-the-scenes activities.53 The elite cavalry units as well,
including those in the Shwebo area, the home of the royal family, were
also uninvolved in armed resistance and several of their officers lent
immediate help to British suppression efforts.54
But the inclusion of a few aristocrats in the resistance did add
a patriotic character to the anti-colonial fighting. For example the
51
52
53
54
Places mentioned in KBZ, vol. III, pp. 6978 are Ava, Chindwin, Sagaing and
Yadantheinhka (Shwebo) hkayaing. These are the same places mentioned in early
British reports. See, for example, RAB, 1885/6, pp. 89; Chief Commissioner to the
Secretary, India Foreign Department, 10 January 1886, BHP.
GUBSS, vol. II, p. 120.
See Departure of the Hlethin Atwinwun, IFP (Upper Burma), April 1886.
White, Civil Servant in Burma, pp. 129, 160.
and that he (Saw Yan Paing, a minor prince) had to attempt to restore the
monarchy with himself as king.57 Even if much of the rank and file in the
resistance were not motivated by patriotic sentiment, many of the Mandalay elite who joined the rebels or who refused to co-operate with the new
authorities certainly were. They were motivated not only by a simple
desire to defend the old dynasty, but to protect their imagined Burmese
nation and its religious beliefs and traditions.
55
56
57
59
60
62
63
64
These included, for example, the Mekkaya Myothugyi in Kyaukse` (see Inspection
Notes by the Chief Commissioner, Kyaukse` District, 11 April 1886, BHP); the Myobin
Myothugyi near Pagan (see Summary Correspondence on Minhla and Taungdwingyi,
August 1886 BHP); and the Myogyi Myothugyi in the Lower Chindwin (see Fryer to
the Chief Secretary to the Chief Commissioner, 4 January 1888, BHP).
India Judicial Proceedings (Upper Burma), November 1886.
On millenarian revolts in South-east Asia generally, with some reference to Upper
Burma, see Reynaldo Ileto, Religion and Anti-Colonial Movements, in Cambridge
History of Southeast Asia, vol. II, Cambridge, 1992, pp. 197249. Also see Michael
Adas, Prophets of Rebellion: Millenarian Protest Movements Against European
Colonial Order, Chapel Hill, 1979, which includes a section on the 1930s Saya San
61
rebellion in Lower Burma (pp. 3440).
White, Civil Servant in Burma, p. 161.
J.G. Scott, Burma: From Earliest Times to the Present Day, London, 1924.
Inspection Notes by the Chief Commissioner, Yame`thin District, 2 June 1886, BHP.
Summary Correspondence on Minhla and Taungdwingyi, August 1886, BHP.
to exploit the weakness of the centre, and resisted increased tax demands,
with a few later participating in the anti-British resistance.
When Prendergasts army arrived in Mandalay, however, and Thibaw
was taken away, a cross-section of these local leaders, new and old, came
to find common cause, as did the Shan chiefs, with displaced individuals
of the old regime who were looking to resist the imposition of direct
colonial rule and place a new Burmese king on the throne.
British administration has been discussed in detail in several books, mainly by former
officials. See for example F.S.V. Donnison, Public Administration in Burma: A Study
67
68
70
of Development During the British Connection, London, 1953; and Robert Taylor, The
State in Burma, London, 1987, pp. 66147.
Having reached a high of 17,000 in the late 1880s. See RAB, 1887/8, p. 19.
Government of Burma, Economic and Social Board, Office of the Prime Minister, A
Study of the Social and Economic History of Burma (The British Period). Part V:
Burma Under the Chief Commissioners 18867 to 18967 (hereafter SEHB), Rangoon,
69
1957, p. 5; RAB, 1887/8, p. 71.
RAB, 1895/6, p. 19.
Nisbit, Burma, vol. I, pp. 2368.
Most of Thibaws senior officials and other members of Mandalays nobility, including fairly young officials who had been trained abroad, had
slipped quietly into oblivion by the late 1880s. The Kinwun Mingyi was
retained as an advisor to the government and then as a member of the
Lieutenant-Governors Council and produced at the request of Rangoon
his Digest of Burmese Buddhist Law in 1887. A dozen others received
pensions and a few official decorations, but practically all of the top ranks
of the ancien regime retired completely from public service soon after
Sladens failed attempts to work through the Hluttaw.71 While a few of the
old nobility had acquired some private wealth,72 for others the most
important aspects of their difference from the rest of society their
residence within the old royal city walls and the exclusivity of their
sumptuary rights entirely disappeared.
In line with long-standing British Indian policy of non-intervention in
indigenous religious affairs, the relationship between the state and the
Buddhist Sangha was effectively severed at annexation. Some officials
were aware of the critical role which had been played by the Burmese state
and in particular the king in support of Buddhism and a minor debate
ensured as to how best to fill this vacuum. Many Burmese had long
warned that British rule would inevitably bring about the disestablishment of Buddhism and there was no real expectation that the new colonial
authorities would fulfil traditional functions.73
The British knew that a major function of the reigning monarch was to
appoint the head of the Sangha, the Thathanabaing. They were also
worried about possible Chinese annoyance over the annexation of Upper
Burma. As a result Rangoon toyed with the idea of inviting the Qing
emperor to nominate the successor to Thibaws Thathanabaing, the Taungdaw Sayadaw. This proposal was vigorously criticised by the former
Mandalay ministers who were aghast at the notion of being considered
somehow a tributary of China and tried to provide documentary evidence
against the idea. British officials then quietly dropped the whole idea, and
on the death of the Taungdaw Sayadaw in 1895, no successor was
71
72
For a list of those who continued to serve as advisors through the late 1880s, see
Further Correspondence Relating to Burmah, pp. 435.
The Hle`thin Atwinwun, for example, invested some of the wealth he had gained from
office to enter into business deals with firms based in Calcutta. Departure of the
Hlethin Atwinwun from Mandalay, Upper Burma Proceedings (Foreign Department),
73 Geary, Burma, After the Conquest, pp. 1059, 11415.
April 1886.
76
77
80
Ibid., 1868/9, p. 34.
Ibid., 1881/2, p. 46.
Ibid., 1886/7, p. 9. See also, for example, Donald MacKenzie Smeaton, The Loyal
Karens of Burma, London, 1887.
92
93
94
95
96
and myowun were centrally appointed positions, and were more or less
easily replaced by the district and sub-divisional officers. None of the
hkayaing wun, being quite senior officials based in large part in Mandalay
and not in their districts, lasted very long after annexation. The record of
the myowun, however, was somewhat mixed. Many preferred to leave of
their own accord. Those that stayed were usually those who were natives
of their charge, and were eventually made myo-ok or given some other
new designation.97 For example, in Sagaing district, the governor of
Myinhmu was originally from the area and was considered to be of some
help in the campaign against the resistance leader Hla-U. Nearby, the
governor of Sagaing was reported to be a Mandalay man of no local
influence who retired soon after the British arrival.98
Finally, many boundaries, representing the jurisdictions of the various
new myo-ok and others, were drawn up or redrawn during this hectic
time. Whatever remained of the personal, as opposed to the territorial,
nature of gentry leadership in the last years of the Burmese kingdom, local
offices were now assumed to be completely territorial and were revised as
such. In Kyaukse`, for example, nearly all the myothugyi jurisdictions had
towns and villages added or subtracted, over a period of a few months,
without any real explanation being reported.99 Other myothugyi jurisdictions were enlarged; sometimes two were combined. The Myothugyi of
Pyaungbya, for example, received neighbouring Myogyi in the Lower
Chindwin after that myothugyi went over to the rebels.100
These appointments and dismissals created a semi-functioning administration in the countryside, one which came to approach that of Indian
bureaucratic norms and the reformed administration in Lower Burma.
The myo-ok township officer was quickly replacing the myothugyi but the
possibility of reviving and using the myothugyi still remained. Policy
varied from district to district, and it was recognised that the entire issue of
local administration still needed to be settled.101 It was for Sir Charles
Crosthwaithe, who as we have seen succeeded Bernard as the new Chief
Commissioner in mid-1887, to make the final decision against continued
97
98
99
100
101
Myo-ok came in seven grades with pay ranging from 50 rupees to 300 rupees per
month.
Inspection Notes by the Chief Commissioner Sagaing District, 2 April 1886, BHP.
Note by R.H. Pilcher, Kyaukse` Deputy Commissioner, 27 April 1886, BHP.
F.W.R. Fryer (Commissioner of the Central Division, Upper Burma) to the Chief
Secretary to the Chief Commissioner, 4 January 1888, BHP.
BHP, March 1888.
gentry-based administration. This he did through the drafting and implementation of the Upper Burma Village Regulation which proved so useful
in crushing Burmese resistance.102 This regulation, which was largely
conceived to aid the pacification campaign, also came to change permanently the nature of Burmese government.
Through the regulation, Crosthwaithe dealt the final death blow to the
old system of local government by essentially removing the position of
myothugyi and creating the new bureaucratically appointed and controlled village headman. He wrote, ironically, that the regulation gave position and powers which [headmen] have exercised under the ancien regime as near as may be . . .. Crosthwaithe somehow seemed to believe that
the myothugyi were the creations of recent troubles under Thibaw and
that they were the expansion of one village headmans authority at the
expense of others during a period of anarchy. He seemed to believe that
the village headman was the real local authority and began a policy,
carried out until completion around the time of the First World War, of
dismantling the circles. As a result, British officials then began either
dismissing myothugyi, making them head of only their main village or
town, or waiting until they died and not appointing a successor.
Crosthwaithe explained:
in Burma there are no hereditary leaders of the people. There is no hereditary
aristocracy outside the royal family and their descendants rapidly merge with
the people . . . The really stable part of the administration on which everything
rested was the village, the headmanship of which was by custom hereditary,
but not necessarily in the direct line.103
103
RAB, 1889/90, p. 14.
Crosthwaithe, Pacification of Burma, p. 4.
Report on the Revenue Administration of Burma (hereafter RAR), 1889/90, p. 2.
the early British administration soon ended what was left of their position
in local society.
What little remained of their old prerogatives and authority faded away
over the 1890s as the colonial state moved to a more effective consolidation of power. In the judicial sphere, colonial officers continued attempts
to find them a role, with suggestions that superior headmen be allowed to
try cases worth up to 50 rupees. But only a handful were able to make this
transition to colonial judge. The experiment was soon ended with the note
that few were competent to observe regular procedure.105 Some British
officers hoped that these old rural chiefs and other local lugyi (or big
people) could arbitrate disputes without these disputes having to be
referred to civil courts. The feeling was that some sort of arbitration was
the traditional system. But even here, by the mid-1890s, most British
officers on the ground were against any encouragement of arbitration, one
explaining that when people come to court they prefer to get the courts
decision. When asked why they do not go to the lugyis, the reply is we
cannot agree with the lugyis, we do not trust the lugyis, we want an order
from the court, etc . . ..106
These and other similar remarks suggest that colonial officials quickly
grew impatient of trying to create a small space for traditional government within the context of the very substantial changes in the whole
manner of governance which had taken place. That is to say the whole
basis of the gentrys position had gone, and British administrators on the
ground soon gave up trying to prop up the old chiefs position solely in the
area of judicial administration, believing that the effort was not really in
anyones interest, including that of the local population.
The Shan states provide an interesting comparison for the proposition
that the British decision to impose a centralised bureaucracy was not
necessarily the one which they would ordinarily have preferred. The Shan
rulers, the hereditary sawbwa, were, in many ways, the counterparts of the
Burmese myothugyi. But, as we have seen, whereas the myothugyi came
under increasing control from the centre, the sawbwa were able to maintain a large degree of autonomy and local power. Thus, despite some
resistance to the imposition of colonial authority, the British were faced in
the Shan states with a much more familiar situation a clearly visible class
105
106
of hereditary local chiefs through which to govern cheaply and effectively. Following the suppression of insurgency, by late 1888, nearly all the
various sawbwa had submitted.107 Under the Shan States Act108 of that
year, the indirect control of the British superintendent was regularised,
and by the following year a series of agreements had been reached limiting
the authority of the sawbwa and asserting British rights to the forests and
mineral resources of the area.109 This sort of accommodation between
British authority and local power-holders was much more the norm in the
history of late-nineteenth-century imperialism. In the Irrawaddy valley, it
was the host of local factors discussed, precipitating the crisis of the
Burmese state, which led to such an unusually radical overhaul of government and indigenous elites by the new colonial power.
While it is possible that Crosthwaithe was entirely motivated by his
desire to destroy the Burmese resistance and saw the formation of the
village system as the best way to achieve that objective, it may also be
useful to consider the state of colonial knowledge regarding Burmese
society. After over half a century of close contact with Burma, various
interpretations about the country and its people had developed. These
interpretations, however, were naturally based much more on the areas
which had earlier come under British occupation Arakan, the Tennasserim and the delta which would have had the effect of presenting
frontier conditions as the norm. It must be remembered that compared
with the Irrawaddy valley, particularly the area around the capital, many
early modern structures and institutions would have been much weaker
in the areas forming Lower Burma, local communities being much
younger and perhaps less under the influence of hereditary elites. This
being said, a certain amount of British intelligence about Burmese society
was of course gathered in the valley as well. But for reasons which are
not completely clear, most British scholarship by the 1870s had come to
view Burmese society as a mix of oriental despotism and a sort of rural
egalitarianism. There seemed to be little notion of any intermediate class
between the royal family and ordinary cultivators, and this view was quite
explicitly spelled out in many official documents. One report, for
example, stated that all officials in the kingdom were only temporary,
holding office at the kings pleasure, and contrasting this Burmese royal
107
109
108
BHP, September 1888.
Burma Gazette, 17 November 1888, pp. 3, 115.
GUBSS, vol. II, pp. 31316.
absolutism with the supposedly more diffuse power structure of the Mahrattas.110
Following annexation, this interpretation became the accepted orthodoxy, and both Scotts official Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan
States and Nisbits unofficial Burma Under British Rule and Before
echoed this view.111 Even the historian G.E. Harvey, who wrote extensively on the organisation of early modern Burmese society, contradicted his
own studies and stated that the largest unit the Burmese could systematise was the village community. Beyond that they failed to build, and
so the highest structure of central government inevitably fell in the form of
despotism, which is anarchy the negation of system.112 Crosthwaithes
pacification policy had, if not engendered, at least strongly reinforced, the
dominant school of colonialist thinking.
110
111
112
9 A colonial society
From the fall of Mandalay to the turn of the century, the Kingdom of Ava
was reintegrated with its erstwhile southern frontier as well as its old
imperial possession of Arakan. Together, they formed Burma. But in this
process of reintegration, old royal structures and old aristocratic elites had
no say. Instead, the web of institutions and processes which bound the
new country together were fashioned in Rangoon and Calcutta, by British
policy-makers, with little or no accommodation with the collapsed and
largely discredited Konbaung regime.
The early colonial period in the Irrawaddy valley represented an end of
attempts to reform the early modern state. As a consequence, many
aspects of early modern social and economic organisation, already in
decline, disappeared entirely. Existing institutions such as the Hluttaw
were supplanted by an imported British Indian bureaucracy, and local
offices, both hereditary and appointed, were largely extinguished. The
changes were more than institutional, as they also led to a complete
transformation in the rationale of government and the ceremonies and
symbols used to legitimate state authority. Gone was the role of the state in
supporting Buddhism and the Buddhist Sangha, as well as in patronising
the cultural activities which made up Avas great tradition. The British in
India had, over the course of the late nineteenth century, attempted to
invent a new traditional place for their authority over local society.1 But
practically no such effort was made in Burma, beyond a few court costumes retained for the governors durbars and the creation of minor
Burmese titles as rewards for service to the colonial Raj.
In some respects, however, colonial policies represented an intensification of trends already underway prior to annexation. The centralised and
bureaucratic nature of the colonial state completed, albeit much more
quickly and effectively, efforts begun under Mindon and Thibaw to centralise and bureaucratise their administrations. In the area of land and
revenue policies, the capacity of the colonial state to gather information
and taxes far exceeded that of the Burmese. But the general direction of
policies was not dissimilar to the efforts of the later Konbaung kings to
move away from early modern structures based on labour obligations to
one more suited to a cash-based economy dependent on foreign trade.
This chapter on the early British occupation aims to survey fairly broadly
the impact of these colonial policies on Irrawaddy valley society, the final
act of the valleys transition from the centre of empire to a part of modern
Burma.
include Upper Burma reckoned the population of this new entity at just
over 3 million.3 The population was found to be overwhelmingly rural,
with only 12 per cent living in a total of twenty-four towns of over 5,000
people, and the remainder spread over 11,000 villages. Mandalay was the
only city in the entire country; it had a population of 180,000, which was
believed to have fallen from perhaps 200,000 since the war. The next
largest town, Pakkoku, had a population of around 15,000. Salin, Myingyan, Bhamo and the rest were found to be just under 10,000, though in
these towns as well a significant number of people are believed to have left
in the mid-1880s for Lower Burma, with some only now beginning to
return. The second census, which took place ten years later in 1901,
revealed a further decline in the urban population of Upper Burma,4 and
twelve out of the nineteen towns listed showed a decrease in population.5
The only ones to show any significant increases were Bhamo on the China
frontier, and Meiktila and Yame`thin on the new railway line between
Rangoon and Mandalay.6 Mandalay itself continued to fall in population,
down by about another 5,000. A total of 372,000 people had been listed in
the earlier census as residing in Lower Burma but having been born in
Upper Burma.7 In 1901 this figure was 399,000, indicating a still substantial migration south. Whatever seasonal aspect to this migration had
existed in the past, entire families were now emigrating permanently.8
The decline in the urban population would have been even greater had
it not been for the immigration of Europeans, Indians and Chinese to
Mandalay and other towns. A total of 21,000 people were listed in 1901 as
having been foreign-born.9 Though no distinction was made as to whether
individuals had immigrated before or after annexation, the vast majority
of Indians and Europeans must have arrived under British rule. In Mandalay, for example, the Buddhist population (more or less the same as the
Burmese population) fell by nearly 8,000, but was partly compensated by
3
5
6
The total area used as Upper Burma in the census was somewhat larger than the area
which has been used throughout this book; the census included predominantly Shan
areas such as the Upper Chindwin valley, which have not been considered. It did not,
however, include the Shan states themselves.
Census of India, 1901 Burma Report 14 (hereafter Census of India with year and page
or table number). Comparisons between the 1891 and 1901 censuses are not very easy
as many of the categories used were changed, as well as territorial boundaries.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 25. The population decreases were most marked in Amarapura, Shwebo,
7 Ibid., table XI.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
Kyaukse`, Myingyan and Pagan.
A British market
Early colonial rule ended the possibility of a significant French penetration of the economy and removed the aristocracy from their protected and
privileged market positions. The late 1890s also witnessed a rapid expansion in Britains commercial presence in Upper Burma. This was assisted
by the major infrastructural developments which were undertaken by the
new colonial state. These infrastructural developments cost over 12
million over the first ten years of the British occupation and were almost
5 million more than total revenue from Upper Burma during this time.
They averaged more than 600,000 per year exclusive of salaries,13 and
may have played a role in arresting the economic decline of the Thibaw
10
12
11
Ibid., p. 27.
Ibid. Subsidiary table II-A.
13 Nisbit, Burma, vol. II, p. 246.
Census of India, 1891, vol. II, table XVI.
Kyaukse`, and in total, the area irrigated was increased by 500,000 acres
from 230,000 in 1891 to 740,000 in 1921.18 The third area of development
was the post and telegraph system, where Mindons telegraph system was
taken over, rebuilt, and English substituted for Burmese.19
The final area of infrastructural development for the new colonial
economy was the establishment of a more modern system of currency and
banking, where the somewhat unstable Burmese peacock rupee was
replaced with the British Indian rupee in 1886/7. Colonial officials found
that the Burmese rupee was worth 12 per mille less than the Indian rupee
but the government decided to accept them for exchange at par up to 31
March 1888 and then at a discount for another two years. The circulation
of paper currency rapidly expanded from 1,567 lakhs in 1886 to 3,201 in
1887 and then doubled again by 1893.20
Major British banks based in Rangoon quickly established branches in
Mandalay, but mainly to cater to foreign firms. In the countryside, changes
in agricultural finance are difficult to see and British reports are mainly
concerned with possible inroads by Chettiyar money-lenders from South
India whose extensive activities in Lower Burma had already begun to
worry colonial authorities. The reports state, however, that most agricultural loans were still from other Burmese, the majority of whom were not
professional money-lenders but were traders and other townspeople or
simply better-off relatives.21 The exceptions were frontier trading and
mining towns such as Mogok where significant Indian communities had
already emerged and where Indian bankers were now able to turn to the
British courts to recover money from an increasingly indebted Burmese
and Shan population.22
All these changes in infrastructure as well as the general stability
enjoyed throughout Upper Burma by 1890 led to a long period of expanding trade and economic growth, certainly through the turn of the century.
According to the 1891 census, the vast majority of the population were
employed in the agricultural sector. Only in Mandalay district did agriculturists not exceed three-quarters of the total population. Commerce was
found to be the occupation of over 10 per cent of the people in Mandalay
district and of approximately 2 to 3 per cent of the population in every
other district.
18
19
21
A. Ireland, The Province of Burma, 2 vols., Boston, 1907, vol. III, pp. 66970.
20
SEHB, p. 29.
Burma Finance Proceedings (Upper Burma), July 1886.
22 Ibid.
RCJB, 1896, p. 4.
Despite the growth in population and the return of many refugees and
others from Lower Burma, by the late 1880s, wages of both skilled and
unskilled labourers had risen well above their depressed levels under
Thibaw, wages for unskilled workers rising from 1 anna a day to 6 annas a
day, while the rise in wages for others was much less dramatic. There was
considerable internal variation with wages being significantly higher for
both skilled and unskilled labour in the frontier town of Bhamo and ruby
mines town of Mogok.23 At the same time, however, the price of rice fell
considerably while the prices of all of Upper Burmas major crops, including millet, sesame, wheat, peas, cotton, tea and tobacco rose considerably.
The areas dependent on rice production around the capital Kyaukse` and
Shwebo may have had any fall in farm-gate prices for their product offset
by lower taxes. Lower real taxes would have resulted from the removal of
aristocratic control over their erstwhile estates, while income may have
increased from improvements in irrigation and transport. In Salin, the
other rice-growing area, tenants of the local landowning class (see below)
may not have fared so well, a possibility evidenced by the continued flight
of cultivators from there to the delta during early British rule. On the other
hand, for cultivators in Mandalay, where tobacco was increasingly grown,
and Myingyan which grew cotton, tobacco and wheat, the relative change
in prices could only have been welcome.24 Indeed, most official reports
around this time note that more stable market conditions encouraged a
move away from rice farming in areas not particularly suited for rice, and
towards other cash crops, intensifying a trend which had only just begun
under Burmese rule.
Profits from the backdoor China trade never lived up to pre-colonial
expectations. Partly as a result of continuing instability in China throughout the 1890s, trade remained insignificant, at least relative to maritime
trade, both for Upper Burmas growing economy and for British firms.25
The trade amounted to about 30 lakh rupees26 in 1895, increasing to over
50 lakhs in 1900. Indian yarns and European manufactured goods were
exported and raw silk was still the primary import.27 By 1891/2, trade
between the two Burmas had reached a total value of over 60 million
rupees, or more than twice the average in the early 1880s prior to the
war.
Statistics on the rice trade between the two Burmas were kept until
23
26
24
RAB, 1888/9, appendix, p. ccii.
Ibid., p. cc.
27 Ibid., 19012, pp. 623.
Ibid., 18956, p. 51.
25
31
British officials and businessmen alike also had great faith in the
countrys mineral potential, particularly in precious stones.32 As with the
China trade, however, the profits derived from Burmas mines never lived
up to pre-annexation expectations.33 Forestry was the other area in which
British firms supplanted local businessmen. Whereas some Burmese businessmen had managed to operate logging firms in competition with the
Bombay Burma Trading Company in the early 1880s, by the turn of the
century nearly all leases had been given to British firms, these firms being
given strong preference by the state in the selection process.34 By the turn
of the century, five British firms Bombay Burma, Steel Brothers and Co.,
MacGregor and Co., Foucar and Co. and T.D. Findlay and Son accounted for more than 75 per cent of all teak extraction, and exports rose from
50,000 tonnes in 1888/9 to 100,000 the following year to 150,000 by the
end of the 1890s.35
Of the old court banker thuhtay we have little information. The most
important of the Mandalay thuhtay at annexation, Moola Ismail, appears
to have maintained some of his commercial position into the 1890s
despite new British competition. He retained for example his control over
the main Mandalay market, the Zegyo.36 He also came to own large
landed estates in the Lower Chindwin and prospected for oil at minor
oil-fields outside the main Yenangyaung wells dominated by Burmah
Oil.37
34
36
37
43
Ibid., pp. 912.
Ibid., pp. 467.
Report on Settlement Operations in the Mandalay District, pp. 245.
46 LRM, pp. 435.
47 RAB, 1899/1900.
Ibid., pp. 247.
of the state being the ultimate owner of the land or was justified in part by
citing the Burmese notion of the king as the lord of water and earth
(ye-mye shin). Thus, what had been an abstract Burmese theory of government, never practised, in this way became a codified and enforced reality
under the British administration. This triple system of taxation the
thathameda, rent on state land and general land revenue proved fairly
unwieldy in the early years and was constantly modified throughout the
1890s as more and more settlement operations were carried out. Fairly
elaborate formulae were devised for calculating the revenue owed, but as a
general principle, the amount paid as land revenue was deducted from
thathameda obligations.48 By the turn of the century, the regulation was
finally simplified by ending all distinctions between the payment of rent
on state land and revenue on non-state land, all lands now being liable to
payment of the land revenue.49
Attempts at implementing these new policies were very confused, not
surprisingly as the inherited Burmese system, originally complex and
varied, had itself been undergoing radical but not fully completed reform.
Now, added onto this, was a hectic attempt, based on partial information,
to restructure but not completely replace this system with one which fitted
into British Indian norms. A key problem was simply trying to distinguish
state from non-state land.50 In theory, all tenures should have fitted
easily into one of the several categories listed above. In fact, the Burmese
state had never really been able to completely control land use, in particular in areas at any distance from the capital. Categories of tenure tended to
blur into one another and changed with distance from the capital or
provincial centres of state authority. The past ten years of upheaval had
added even more complex elements. In Shwebo, for example, it was found
that most of the land was originally bobabaing, or ancestral, but that
recently the land had been confiscated by Mandalay and handed over to
various members of the royal family or nobility, causing much local
dissatisfaction. Here, it was decided that the land would remain state
land but assigned back to the original owners on payment of a moderate
annual revenue.
Gaining the necessary information to make a proper distinction at
48
49
50
LRM, p. 62.
Upper Burma Land Revenue Regulation of 1901, RAB, 1901/2, p. 18.
Note by Burgess to the Commissioner of the Northern Division on Shwebo, July 1886,
RAB.
53
55
Report on the First Regular Settlement of Operations in the Lower Chindwin District,
52
pp. 417.
Yame`thin Gazetteer, vol. I, p. 130.
54
Ireland, Province of Burma, vol. I, p. 602.
Lower Chindwin Gazetteer, pp. 1801.
RCJB, 1896, p. 6.
57
Ibid., 1890.
Burma Judicial Proceedings (hereafter BJP), August 1886, no. 7.
59 Ibid., 1890, p. 3.
60 Ibid., 1891, p. 4.
61 Ibid., 1890, p. 3.
RCJB, 1891, p. 5.
lated by different local class interests. As we have seen, gentry leaders had
managed in some areas to maintain their authority through reappointments by the colonial regime to local office. In the 1891 report, it was
suggested for the first time that newly appointed Burmese officials were
using the courts to further their own commercial interests, and the Commissioner of the Southern Division, which included Salin, argued strongly
in favour of British or at least non-Upper Burman subdivisional officers
trying all land cases where possible, noting also that litigation in Minbu
rose when land suits were disposed of by disinterested tribunal.62
In most other places, however, the impact of the British courts was
reversed, and members of the old ruling lineages lost control over land to
their former tenants. In Pagan, for example, the British categorised the
estates of the old minthas of Pagan, the min-myay, as land held by the
village community.63 Here it seems clear that the establishment of British
courts reinforced existing trends and further undermined old elites whose
influence still rested on their early modern prerogatives. In other areas,
the biggest winners were outsiders, traders and money-lenders.64
How all this affected popular welfare is difficult to judge. Certainly, the
colonial state was able to extract much greater revenue from the countryside than the Burmese state ever could, even in the best years of Mindons
reign (estimated at around 50 lakh rupees); it amounted to over 100 lakh
rupees a year by 1889. The vast majority of revenue was from the
thathameda assessment, together with rents on state lands and income
from forestry concessions.65
What is easier to see are certain shifts in the tax burden. The first was
geographic. Mandalay, which had been exempt from the thathameda, was
taxed for the first time in 1886/7 against strong local opposition.66 As
British reports stated, however, this new taxation may have been more
than compensated by the lifting of many restrictions and tariffs on trade.67
On the other hand, under Burmese rule, areas close to the capital and
other centres of authority generally paid more tax simply because they
were more accessible. As the new colonial state reached all areas almost
62
65
66
67
63 Ibid., 1894, p. 4.
64 Ibid., 1894, p. 5.
Ibid., 1891, p. 5.
RAB, 1898/9, p. 80.
Burgess (Commissioner of the Northern Division) to the Chief Secretary for Upper
Burma to the Chief Commissioner, 21 December 1887, BHP.
Burgess (Commissioner of the Northern Division) to the Secretary for Upper Burma to
the Chief Commissioner, RAR, October 1886; Burgess to the Chief Secretary to the
Chief Commissioner, 21 December 1887, BHP.
equally, this distinction would have disappeared, helping poorer cultivators in Kyaukse` but worsening the burden of more distant communities
who had been paying only a nominal tribute to their Konbaung overlords.
The second shift in the tax burden related to social status and proximity
to the Mandalay aristocracy. Members of both the Mandalay aristocracy
and local gentry elites, who had been completely exempt from any revenue obligations, received no exemptions under British administration.
The only minor exceptions left were some officials, such as township
officers and village headmen. Tax exemption under Burmese rule had
extended not only to the nobility and their extended families but also to
members of elite military units such as the Linzin Guards regiment based
in Kyaukse`.68 While the British continued to depend in some areas on
local elites for tax assessment this sort of class bias may have continued,
but the situation soon changed. For example, in Minbu, it was stated that
taxation of state land more than doubled after the Land Records Department took over assessment from the local headmen in the late 1890s.69
Just as disastrous for many in both the old aristocracy and the gentry was
the loss of their position in the taxation process itself. The state crisis of the
late 1870s and early 1880s resulted in the government turning increasingly to informal taxation, including especially the creation of tax farms.
These lucrative concessions were ended. Though many members of the
royal family and nobility petitioned colonial authorities early after annexation for some sort of compensation, no compensation was ever made.70
The third shift related to economic hardship. Tax exemption on account of destitution or temporary economic difficulties, an important
and often used royal prerogative, became rare. While the British did relax
thathameda demands during times of extreme hardship, such as during
the drought and famine in Meiktila and Yame`thin in 18978,71 these
exemptions appear to have been much more infrequent and to have been
made in response only to very severe conditions. In addition, they were
assessed much more formally and not on the personal ad hoc basis with
which Burmese exceptions appeared to have been decided.
The Shan states, in significant contrast again, seem to have enjoyed a
definite absolute reduction in revenue demand, at least on average, under
68
70
73
Ibid., p. 121.
and thus established a private holding. The Burmese state was too weak to
prevent such transactions from occurring and here we see most visibly the
rise of a commercial and land-holding class, composed in part of members
of the aristocracy and their friends and clients.
An example of this first category of social change was Kyaukse`. In the
1891 census, in strong contrast to the Upper Burma averages, less than 1
per cent of the agricultural population were listed as landlords, while 53
per cent were landowning cultivators, 16 per cent were tenants and 31 per
cent were agricultural labourers, by far the highest proportion of agricultural labourers in the country. Kyaukse`, throughout the early modern
period, was closest to approaching the traditionally conceived model of
society, a large portion of the population having been crown servants
closely supervised by the state.74
This breakdown in early modern social organisation came at a time
when an increased population allowed more intensive cultivation. Surplus production was siphoned off quite effectively by Mandalay-based
noblemen and their banking partners. Liquidity for economic growth was
provided by Mandalay nobility and merchants, channelled only in part
through dependent local authorities. As crown service and non-service
distinctions were largely ended, aristocrats, as absentee landlords, expanded their private ownership of the best lands. Some of these aristocrats
managed to hold on to their new estates under colonial rule with now full
and recognised rights of private property. In the first Kyaukse` settlement
report written in the early 1890s, of twenty large landlords with holdings
over 100 acres, four are easily identifiable as members of the former royal
family or nobility. They are the widow of the former Myoza of Yaw, the
widow of a former commander of the Household Guards, the former
foreign minister, the Myoza of Kyaukmyaung, and the Pintha Princess.75
A similar example of this category was Sagaing, across the river from
Mandalay. Much of this land had also been crown service land in the early
modern period, but became essentially privately owned by former servicemen cultivators who now paid rent. But being close to the capital, here
too members of the Mandalay elite had attempted to secure some control
over agricultural production, translating that control, at least in some
cases, into outright private ownership under British rule. The settlement
officer states that:
74
75
In other areas close to the capital, British policies entirely reversed the
inroads made by aristocrats and other outsiders. For example, in the
slightly richer and irrigated Mu valley, control over land by the Mandalay
elite was not recognised.77 Around Shwebo, for example, the British undid
the expanding control of princes and noblemen over the best irrigated
land, essentially handing the land back to the cultivators themselves.
The fate of my own family around this time is perhaps representative of
the middling Mandalay nobility. One of my great-great-great-grandfathers, Maha Mindin Thinhkaya was born in Dabessway, a collection of
seven villages just to the west of Ava and close to the old fortified town of
Mekkaya. His father had been a court banker and his mother a member of
the Mekkaya chiefly line. After a long monastic career, he joined the kings
service and eventually rose to become a Chief Secretary to the Hluttaw
and court poet (sasodaw). He was created the Myoza of Dabessway in the
1840s and married into the minor Yanaung Minzin branch of the royal
family. Of his two sons, one Maha Mindin Minkyaw Raza became Keeper
of the Privy Armory, while another, my great-great-grandfather Maha
Mindin Kyawthu was Thibaws Privy Treasurer. While neither of these
men were given appanages, having achieved office only after the reforms
of the 1860s, they continued their commercial and financial interests in
and around Dabessway. Both retired to the area after the fall of Mandalay,
but the early revenue settlements left them with little private land, forcing
their sons and grandsons to seek their careers in the new colonial civil
service and nationalist politics.
The claims of some local hereditary office-holders and their relatives,
however, were treated much more generously, the Myothugyi of Monywa,
for example, being left in private ownership of over 3,000 acres and the
Myothugyi of Tawbo being granted the 4,000 acres which he was found
to control. Other landowners included several myo-ok and a former
76
77
L.M. Parlett, Report on the Settlement Operations in the Sagaing District, Season
18931900 (hereafter Report on Settlement Operations in the Sagaing District),
Rangoon, 1903, p. 58.
Report on Settlement Operations in the Shwebo District, p. 15.
myowun of local origin. Similarly, along the Lower Chindwin, most of the
large landowners were found to be former or current thugyi.78
Thus, in this first category, the region close to the capital, colonial
policy aided and consolidated the position of a few of these new businessmen-aristocrats while undermining the position of others. In Kyaukse`, the
new state permitted some of the Mandalay-based estates to remain. In
other areas, however, administrators refused to recognise the claims of
aristocratic outsiders and handed land back to local people, including the
local gentry. This variation could be due in part to the fact that the system
of tenure in Thibaws Burma was still very imperfectly reformed and did
not explicitly recognise land bought by outsiders as private property.
While the old regime was in place, de facto control of land was not a
problem. But under the colonial state these virtual estates could be, and
were, easily undone.
The second category of social change occurred in Salin, a rich irrigated
region in which we see a much greater movement towards the development of a genuine local landlord class.79 In Salin, unlike the region closest
to the capital, the local gentry, given their greater geographic distance and
the considerable local resources at their disposal, successfully maintained
a certain autonomy from the Court of Ava and transformed their traditional position based on personal loyalty and patronage into a commercial
position based on privately owned land. As we have seen, these local
gentry families were known as the thugaung, a title peculiar to that
region.80 At the time of the first settlement report, they were organised into
twenty-eight related families.81
At the time of the first settlement in the mid-1890s, the thugaung were
still maintaining their dominant position. The 1891 census lists Minbu
district, of which Salin is a part, as the district with the highest proportion
78
79
80
81
83
Census of India, 1891, p. 14.
Ibid., pp. 434.
Report on Revision Settlement Operations in the Minbu District, p. 23.
86 Furnival, Political Economy of Burma, p. 90.
Census of India, 1891.
poorer middle area which had experienced only moderate commercialisation and where some local gentry had come to benefit. Colonial policies
helped those who had already made the transition to private land-holder
the Salin thugaung, a few other rural chiefs and a handful of Mandalay
aristocrats while undercutting the position of others, including many in
the capital, who, at annexation, had been able to exploit the agrarian
economy only through the still wobbly structures of the Court of Ava.
Kaung, A Survey of the History of Education in Burma before the British Conquest
and After, JBRS, 46 (1963), 1112.
this shift, both Burmese and British, were critical of this sudden change,
and commented that the entire ethical dimension of education was being
wrought away. Many later blamed the decline in monastic teaching for
the rise in crime in Upper Burma after the turn of the century.88 The
total number of pupils in 1891, the year of the first census, is believed to
have represented approximately 15 per cent of the total school-age
population.89
Whether or not this expansion of formal schooling led to a rise in
literacy during this same period is not clear. The 1891 and 1901 censuses
used very different criteria for literacy and this makes any comparison over
the ten-year period impossible. Both, however, clearly show an enormous
gender disparity in literacy; the 1891 census records a male literacy rate for
over-fifteens of around 70 per cent compared with a female literacy rate of
only around 3 per cent.90 The same census listed only 3,000 girls in school
as opposed to almost 90,000 boys in both monastic and secular schools. By
the turn of the century the percentage of girls in both primary and secondary schools had more than doubled as secular education expanded.91
The Buddhist monasteries thus lost their critical role in society as the
educators of the ruling elites. But the Sangha easily survived the withdrawal of state patronage and the loss of its key social function, and by the
turn of the century Theravada Buddhism had achieved an unparalleled
dominance over rival schools of thought. Burma, or the Burmese, and the
Singhalese neo-conservative recension were forever linked in local and
foreign perceptions. The strict observance of ethical precepts which fundamentalist and mainstream monasteries alike now preached became
part of the emerging national identity.
What did not survive the transition to colonial rule, however, were the
myriad court-sponsored Brahmanical rituals, the puja of Hindu deities
and the worship of royal ancestors. Ponna lost their separate identity and
many of the images of veneration were themselves soon lost, some taken
away to museums in Calcutta and elsewhere, and the images of the
Konbaung kings and queens being melted down for their gold. Less than a
hundred years after Bodawpaya sent for Benares Brahmins and installed
images of Ganesh and Skanda in his Amarapura palace, the new Burmese saw these devotional cults as Hindu, in opposition to Buddhism,
and foreign.
88
89
94
95
For example, the descendants of the well-known Maha Bandula were members of the
subordinate civil service (R.R. Langham-Carter, Maha Bandula at Home, JBRS, 26
(1936), 12231); see also Maung Tha Aung and Maung Mya Din, Pacification of
Upper Burma. Many of the elite cavalry families mentioned had descendants in the
early twentieth century who were township officers, district office clerks or members
of the police.
R.R. Langham-Carter, The Kinwun Mingyi at Home, JBRS, 25 (1935), 1219.
For a contemporary discussion of language and race in Burma, see Census of India,
1891, Burma vol. I, pp. 14570.
The deposed King Thibaw of Burma lived in virtual seclusion with his wife
and family for the better part of thirty years. They resided in a large
rambling house just outside Ratanagiri, a small town along western Indias
hot and humid Konkan coast. Though not strictly confined to the house,
he could only leave his compound with permission, and rarely ventured
outside. He took little exercise, ate copious amounts of fried pork, and was
surrounded by a still considerable retinue of servants.1
On 11 October 1915, just after the long rains had finally ended, the old
kings second daughter disappearedwithout warning to the residence of the
Political Officer. She was a friend of the Political Officers wife, Mrs Head,
and had left to solicit her help. For several weeks, the Second Princess, as
she was known, had carried on, against her parents express wishes, a
relationship with a former royal secretary named Khin Maung Lat. A few
years back, her elder sister, the First Princess had married against Thibaws
wishes, an Indian who was employed at the house. This was seen as a most
unsuitable match, but the old king and queen later relented and the young
couple, with their little daughter, were eventually welcome back. But here
Thibaw had drawn the line. Marrying a foreigner was one thing. Marrying a
Burmese beneath ones class, a Burmese descended from court retainers
and a former servant of the crown, this was beyond the pale. For several
years, a succession of British officials, Collectors and Governors had
schemed to find eligible partners for Thibaws four daughters, all of whom
were well into their twenties. But the king had rejected all the unmarried
Burmese princes British civil servants had proudly produced on a list. At
this point, even the Viceroy himself, Lord Minto, and his Foreign Secretary,
Sir Louis Dane, became involved. Playing matchmaker, they introduced
the princesses to the crown prince of Sikkim, the future chogyal. But the
heir to the Gangtok throne, though initially declaring some interest,
declined any talk of marriage, commenting only that the young women
were not fluent in English. So the matter had rested, temporarily.
On Thibaws exile, see N.S. Desai, Deposed King Theebaw of Burma in India, Delhi,
1968.
But now the Second Princess was gone. Thibaw, immediately on hearing the news, had dispatched his car and driver to fetch his runaway
daughter. An hour or so later, the black Ford Model T pulled back into the
compound and the ex-Lord of the White Elephant rushed out onto the
driveway. On seeing the car empty, except for the driver, he realised the
princess had refused to come back. He had a heart attack and died days
later. He was 58 years old.
His death and the end of the Great War a few years later marked a
change in British attitudes towards the Burmese royal family. All senior
members of the family descendants of Tharrawaddy had been forced to
leave Mandalay in 18856. Most of them were sent to Lower Burma.
Many others were scattered around India. These were now allowed to
return, though not to Mandalay, and they remained under careful surveillance and supervision. Supayalat herself lived for nearly ten years in a
modest bungalow off Churchill Road in Rangoon, with two daughters,
until her death in 1925. Her funeral was seized upon by young nationalists
and held in grand style. Thibaws remains had been cremated and then
buried in Ratanagiri, but Supayalat was allowed a royal tomb, at the foot of
the Shwedagon Pagoda. But except for this one occasion, and apart for
nationalists marking of the exile of Thibaw on 28 November 1885 as a day
of mourning, the returned royal family was largely forgotten. The young
politicians of the independence movement looked to Sinn Fein, the
Fabian Society, the Indian National Congress and the rise of Japan for
their inspiration, and not to the last remnants of the House of Alaungpaya
and the lost world which they represented.
In the chapters above, I have tried to paint, in broad and tentative
strokes, a portrait of how the old world of the Court of Ava and the
Irrawaddy countryside was transformed into the British Burma of the
twentieth century. Long-term demographic and commercial processes;
the gradual displacement by military force of Ava by Calcutta from the
Brahmaputra and Irrawaddy basins; the reaction of the Burmese government to colonial expansion and her own reduced position; contemporary
developments in China; the rise and fall of global prices; and other lesser
factors: all these contributed to decades of sustained innovation, change
and crisis in the territories which became modern Burma.
The transition from the Ava-based imperial polity of the late eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries to the Burma of the colonial and postcolonial period was a product of the interaction between these and other
Conclusion 247
Anthony Reid (ed.), The Last Stand of Asian Autonomies: Responses to Modernity in
the Diverse States of Southeast Asia and Korea, 17501900, London, 1997, pp. 127.
Akin Rabibhadana, The Organization of Thai Society in the Early Bangkok Period,
17821873, Ithaca, 1969; and Clientship and Class Structure in the Early Bangkok
Period in G. William Skinner and A. Thomas Kirsch (eds.), Change and Persistence in
Thai Society: Essays in Honor of Lauriston Sharp, Ithaca, 1975.
rule in all of the small Asian and North African states still independent in
the late nineteenth century.
Mindon and his contemporary Mongut both pursued comparable policies of administrative centralisation, economic development and an accommodating approach towards encroaching Western imperialism.4
Furthermore, the Bowring Treaty, which the Siamese government felt
compelled to accept in 1855, was not dissimilar to the commercial treaties
under which vastly increased foreign economic penetration and increased
Western political influence became possible in Burma. Both states were
by the early 1870s faced with the challenges of avoiding financial insolvency without provoking rebellion. They stepped up reform measures,
especially the implementation of new systems of taxation which could
exploit increases in agricultural production, and pushed through various
infrastructural modernisations. But while widespread social unrest and
eventually a virtual collapse of state authority followed Mindons death in
1878, Monguts death was followed by continued and even more successful programmes of modernisation. In Burma the unrest was followed by a
transition to formal empire, while in Siam economic and political reforms
continued together with informal arrangements of accommodation with
the West.
Two explanations are normally offered to explain the vastly different
fates of Burma and Siam. One explanation centres on the nature of the
royal succession and the politics within the respective governments. In
Burma, Mindons death led to bitter intra-elite conflict and the emergence
of a weak king. Thibaw was surrounded by a reactionary palace clique and
instability in his court led to severe repression. In contrast, an orderly
succession followed Monguts death in 1868 and the Bangkok officialdom
under Chuan Bunnag governed effectively during the new kings minority.
Though Monguts son and successor Chulalongkorn later regained power
for the monarchy, he proved himself to be a man of considerable vision
and ability and led Siam successfully into the next century. A second
explanation offered is that Siam was permitted to maintain her independence in order to serve as a buffer state between expanding British and
French empires. By the late 1880s only Siam remained between British
India and French Indochina with neither country enjoying a clear dominance over the Bangkok regime.
4
Charnvit Kasetsiri, The Rise of Ayudhaya, Kuala Lumpur, 1976; Hong Lysa, Thailand
in the Nineteenth Century, Singapore, 1984, pp. 11130; David Wyatt, A Short History
of Thailand, New Haven, 1984, pp. 181212.
Conclusion 249
But I would argue that an even more important factor was their very
different structures of foreign trade. The rump Burmese kingdoms economy under informal empire had become dangerously dependent on the
export of a few primary commodities cotton and teak in particular. At
the same time, rice was being imported in ever larger quantities, draining
the country of cash. Siam, in strong contrast, was a rice-exporting nation,
having faced no similar annexation of its most productive agricultural
lands. While Britain had annexed Burmas maritime provinces, Siam had
lost only its peripheral holdings in Laos, Cambodia and Malaya. The
world depression of the 1870s led to a dramatic decline in the relative
prices of nearly all primary commodities, including all of Burmas main
exports. However, and very importantly, international rice prices stayed
the same or even rose. Thus, at this time of attempted reform, the Siamese state enjoyed the profits of growing international trade. Burma,
however, was plunged into increasing economic hardship and fiscal collapse. Even if Thibaws accession had not been followed by political
instability, the Mandalay government by the 1880s would have been
extremely hard pressed to avert the crisis which led indirectly to colonial
rule.
This contrast between Burma and Siam helps us then to understand the
importance of local conditions in the complex dynamic which informed
the nature of European expansion. Siams geopolitical position and the
good government it enjoyed under Chulalongkorn were certainly important factors behind its successful strategy to preserve its sovereignty in the
age of imperialism. But we might speculate that had Siam faced the sort of
political crisis which engulfed Upper Burma in the 1880s, colonial powers
might have similarly considered military intervention and perhaps an
Anglo-French partition of the kingdom.
Contemporary Egypt was one country where intervention and colonial
occupation did take place and a comparison between Egypt and Burma
reveals a number of similarities in the local circumstances leading to this
intervention. In both cases, efforts by the state to promote economic
development failed as the state lost its autonomy to colonial powers and
the economy became more fully integrated into global markets. At the
turn of the eighteenth century the two countries were both agricultural
societies with roughly the same population. In Egypt, under the reigns of
Muhammad Ali (180549), Said (185462) and Ismail (186379), efforts
were made to reassert weakening central authority, including a modernisation of the army and the bureaucracy and an overhaul of the revenue
system.5 As in Burma, local elites were bypassed as the state began direct
collection of taxes through government agents and established a series of
monopolies on virtually every type of agricultural produce. The rents thus
derived from the states role in exporting Egyptian commodities and from
more efficient taxation were used to finance various modernisation efforts
in industry, infrastructural development, education and the military
and these efforts were seen as vital in developing Egypt into a viable
nation-state. These plans never materialised, however, for two main reasons, the weakness of state institutions, i.e. their inability to play the
critical roles assigned to them as part of the modernisation drive, and the
effects of European commercial and financial expansion.
Muhammad Ali attempted to profit from European trade while at the
same time limiting European penetration of the economy. But, as in
Upper Burma, pressure soon forced an opening up of the Egyptian market
and the abandonment of the state monopolies which had become a
critical part of the state revenue structure.6 The middle of the century
witnessed a dramatic expansion of cotton production, especially during
the American Civil War. Trade was conducted directly between local
landlords and foreign firms and during the same period the import of
British products steadily rose. European banks became increasingly involved in the economy and the Egyptian government itself became a
borrower from 1862. With economic transformation came also important
social changes, including the growth of a landlord and bureaucratic class
and a rise in the position of the foreign community. Egypts bankruptcy in
1875 then precipitated a series of measures imposed by lending institutions which in turn increased European control over the administration.7
This expanding foreign control then led to a popular nationalist movement which was seen as threatening to European interests and which
eventually led in 1882 to British military occupation.8 Landowners, fearing tax rises, and bureaucrats and army officers, resentful of increasing
European control, were among the main constituents of the nationalist
reaction to Western expansion.9
5
Roger Owen, Cotton and the Egyptian Economy 18201914, London, 1969,
pp. 35268; and Egypt and Europe: From French Expedition to British Occupation, in
Roger Owen and Bob Sutcliffe (eds.), Studies in the Theory of Imperialism, London,
6 Owen, Cotton, pp. 2001.
7 Ibid., pp. 2057.
1972, pp. 198200.
A. Scholch, Egypt for the Egyptians: The Socio-Political Crisis in Egypt 18781882,
London, 1981, p. 303.
R. Robinson and J. Gallagher, The Imperialism of Free Trade, Economic History
Review, 6 (1953), 115.
Conclusion 251
achieved political supremacy after a long commercial and military presence. But in these areas, colonial rule was attenuated by the need for alien
administrators to incorporate indigenous elites into new state structures,
to better understand local society and to accommodate existing structures
of social organisation. In a way, the Ava kingdom might be compared with
some of the similar sized Mughal successor states such as Mysore or the
Punjab which also existed on the edge of British power, and which
eventually came under Company rule.10 But in at least two important
ways, Burmas experience was distinctive.
First is simply the timing. By the time Mindon was beginning his reform
initiatives, all of the important independent states in what became India
had been absorbed into the British Raj. All had been part of the Mughal
polity and were never in a position, as was Mandalay, of attempting to
become full members of the late-nineteenth-century international system.
Furthermore, their absorption into British India, whether as princely
states or under direct rule, took place in a time of relative technological
equality, thus compelling colonial policy-makers to find methods of
achieving domination which did not rely solely on military coercion. By
1885, industrial England with the resources of all India behind it was
easily able to impose an entirely new administration on Upper Burma in a
way which would have been impossible either in the Irrawaddy valley or
anywhere else just a few decades earlier.
Secondly, Britains marked superiority vis-a`-vis Mandalay after 1853,
made acceptable a relatively poor knowledge of local conditions. A colonial officer in the 1880s remarked that our ideas and customs remain as
alien to them, as theirs are to us, a remark unlikely to have been made
with reference to polities within what had been the Mughal empire. Very
few British officials ever learned Burmese until the twentieth century, and
those that did came from an initial and perhaps formative experience
somewhere else in the empire. In 18856, a combination of relatively poor
information and the luxury of largely ignoring local elite groups moved
policy-makers towards effecting a much greater departure with the past
than nearly anywhere else in the region.
By 18856, despite Mandalays annexation to British India, Burma
was already seen as essentially different from the rest of India. As early
10
C.A. Bayly, Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire, Cambridge, 1988;
Information and Empire, Cambridge, 1997; Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal, Modern
South Asia: History, Culture and Political Economy, London, 1997, pp. 4887.
Conclusion 253
as the eighteenth century, if not earlier, Ava saw the various peoples to
their west as belonging to a different category of descent than the
Myanma. The English, as well, often made comparisons between Burmese and Indians. But this distinction was reinforced, rather than dissipated, by the countrys incorporation into the Indian empire, leading to
separation in 1937, and a very different subsequent history. In part, this
was the result of colonial scholarship which viewed India in terms of
essential categories such as caste which were not believed to be present in
Burma. Burma was seen as an obvious other to India, with Buddhism
and an egalitarian social order being viewed as important local characteristics. But on the Burmese side as well, developments pushed towards a
distinctive, ethnically based identity. The war of 18246 had shorn Ava of
all its western possessions, possessions which were under much greater
Hindu and Brahmanical influence. In addition, she was reduced to a
relatively homogeneous core which, as we have seen, made easier a
stronger sense of local patriotism. Local dissatisfaction at the large-scale
immigration of labourers and money-lenders from far-away parts of India,
as well as the development of a modern Burmese nationalism, then solidified this sense of difference. The Irrawaddy valleys colonial experience
made Burma a south-east Asian rather than a south Asian nation.
See, for example, Stan Sesser, Burma: A Rich Country Gone Wrong, New Yorker,
1990, reprinted in Lands of Charm and Cruelty: Travels in Southeast Asia, New York,
1993, pp. 177239.
important early modern political and social institutions. These were then
replaced by colonial institutions, unrooted in local society, which were
themselves shattered in the aftermath of the Japanese conquest of 19412.
With the exception of the Sangha, one is hard pressed to identify any
supra-local institution which carried over from pre-colonial through colonial times, and even the Sangha, stripped of its role as educator as well as
of royal patronage and supervision, underwent a profound transformation. Unlike Thailand, no older institutions, such as the monarchy, carried over to ballast newer forces in society. And unlike other British Asian
possessions at independence, such as India, Ceylon or Malaya, Burmas
colonial era structures the army, police, civil service and judiciary were
singularly fragile, having had barely fifty years of life in the old heartland.
Thus Burma at independence faced a weak institutional legacy, a vacuum
which the new war-time army was soon able to fill.
The army was able to fill this vacuum in part because of another
important legacy: Burmese ethnic nationalism. As we have seen, the
transition to a reduced Ava polity, to a core area homogeneous in language and religion, facing imminent foreign domination after decades of
her own military expansion, merged easily into a more modern nationalism, still based around a central Myanma identity. But this was an identity
which excluded not just Indians, as mentioned above, but also many
other people living within the boundaries of British Burma. A comparison
might be made with Indonesia. In the Dutch East Indies, modern nationalism emerged only well into the colonial period, leading to the construction of perhaps a Javanese-centred but still relatively inclusive national
identity. Both the name Indonesia and the new nations adopted language of Bahasa Indonesia show an inclusiveness lacking in post-colonial
Myanmar. In Burma the strength and political dominance of a Burmese/
Myanma identity based on older Ava-based memories has never allowed
the development of a newer identity which would incorporate the divers
peoples inhabiting the modern state. Instead, it has led since 1948 to
recurrent warfare, the growth of a large military machine and an army rule
which seems unlikely to end.
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Index
Abhisha Husseini, 51
Afghanistan, 8, 22, 98, 102, 162
agriculture, 36, 37, 40, 44, 47, 119, 120,
122, 167, 224, 225, 236, 239; see also
cultivators
Ahom dynasty, 1516
Aitchison, Sir Charles, 1901
Alaungpaya, King, 13, 17, 58, 5960, 61,
70, 81, 83, 90, 91, 107
Alaungpaya dynasty, 59, 63, 161
allodial land, 40, 41
Alon, 26, 39, 68, 155, 173, 175
Amarapura, 14, 17, 18, 20, 21, 26, 51, 53,
54, 119, 127, 149
rice prices, 143
royal library, 96
Amarapura, Myowun of, 1045
Amherst, Lord, 106
Amyint, 36, 38, 175
An Tu (U), 242
Anglo-Burmese wars, 2, 79
First (18246), 1820, 25, 99, 220
Second (18523), 23, 104, 126
Third (1885), 172, 176, 189, 1913
animal welfare, 149, 171
appanages, 29, 53, 613, 68, 69, 723, 77,
107, 108, 231
reform of, 1215
Arakan, 2, 1314, 24, 72, 99100, 104,
160, 219, 220
and Britain, 1718, 19, 20, 127,
217
cultural exchanges, 94, 95
languages, 84, 89
trade, 46
aristocracy, see nobility
arms, see weapons
army, British Indian, 1, 2, 5, 7, 16, 1820,
162, 1913, 196, 208, 211
army, Burmese, 3, 7, 14, 15, 1820, 23, 34,
42, 64, 67, 75, 110, 160, 161, 162, 170
Index 273
invasion of, 901
judicial system, 29, 31, 32, 36, 37, 56, 67,
878, 11516, 169, 170
mercantile community, 556
modernisation and reform, 8, 910,
10525, 1335, 151, 15760, 21920,
247ff.
and morality, 94
physical geography, 1213, 24, 25
political instability, 10, 1045, 132, 133,
140, 15463, 1718, 1845, 186, 188
political tradition, 867
reaction to defeat, 79, 91, 100
rebellions, 1303, 140, 146, 152, 154,
1718, 184, 2023
relations with Britain, 99103, 1259,
13942, 159
revenues, 36, 42, 62, 75, 767, 107,
1225, 129, 1648, 1756, 178
royal associations, 61
royal city, 53, 546, 1489
royal household, 645
secretaries, 678, 69
social organisation, 2734
succession crisis, 130, 133, 135, 1547,
248
surrender to British, 193
weakness of royal power, 7, 140
women, role of, 601, 67, 72, 110, 161
see also Irrawaddy valley; Lower
Burma; Upper Burma
Ayuthaya, 14, 69, 72
Ba U (U), 242
Bagyidaw, King, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 58, 59,
61, 645, 66, 69
and royal chronicle, 79, 81
scepticism of, 82
banditry, 7, 26, 62, 102, 170, 173, 174, 175,
176, 177, 198, 199, 202, 203, 206
Bandula, see Thado Maha Bandula
bankers, 31, 32, 39, 456, 623, 73, 74; see
also thuhtay
banks and banking, 34, 446, 1678, 188,
224, 250, 251; see also bankers
Bassein, Myoza of, 73
beggars, 32
Benares, 96, 97, 98
Bengal, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 49, 94, 95, 96,
99100, 220
Bentinck, Lord William Cavendish, 21
Bernard, Sir Charles, 4, 188, 191, 194, 195,
196, 211, 213
Bhamo, 17, 48, 112, 127, 136, 137, 141,
148, 167, 175, 176, 213, 221, 222,
223, 225
Bhamo, Myoza of, 155
Bodawpaya, King, 1314, 16, 17, 51, 58,
59, 63, 72, 99, 101, 242
and Buddhism, 86, 96, 98, 149
and Burmese history, 81
and theatre, 93
Bombay Burma Trading Corporation, 139,
145, 147, 164, 187, 189, 227
Brahmans, 14, 15, 49, 86, 94, 95, 96, 97,
253
Brahmaputra valley, 10, 16, 18, 25,
94
British Burma, 23, 1269
and Chinese trade, 1358, 1478
contacts with local chiefs, 1401
economic interests of, 1879
incursions into, 1767
refugee flows to, 176
see also colonial state, Burmese; Lower
Burma; Rangoon
British East India Company, 1718, 22, 79,
99, 100, 2512
British Indian government, 2, 3, 10, 91,
101, 102, 104, 219, 2513
annexation of Burma, 1967
and Arakan, 1718
reaction to royal massacre, 1612
and trade, 13848
ultimatum of, 189
see also army, British Indian; British
Burma; Great Britain; India
brokers, 36, 43, 74
Browne, Horace, 162
Buddha Raza, 205
Buddhism, 7, 32, 42, 734, 108, 206, 247,
253
British attacks on, 200
and Burmese identity, 82, 83, 856, 89
challenges to, 14951
and colonial state, 20910, 219, 241
274 Index
Buddhism (cont.)
conservative school, 48, 49, 50, 84, 86,
94, 98, 149
and government, 567
histories of, 80, 81, 82
Mahayana, 48, 49, 50, 85, 86
and morality, 50, 57, 87, 94, 241
Pali, 85
and popular theatre, 153
state patronage of, 14852, 1701
Vajrayana, 48, 49, 50
see also Sangha; Theravada Buddhism;
Thudhamma sect
Buddhist monks, 39, 49, 50, 86, 88, 95, 97,
117, 244
anti-colonial resistance, 7, 204, 205, 206
at Court of Ava, 55, 734, 152, 159
and cultural exchanges, 92, 93, 94
and information, 1512
and rebellions, 1745
see also monasteries; Sangha
bureaucracy, 4, 115, 116, 158, 168, 211,
212, 21415, 219
Burma, see Ava kingdom; British Burma;
colonial state, Burmese; Lower
Burma; modern Burma; Upper
Burma
Burmah Oil Company, 139, 226, 227
Burmese, 9, 10, 27, 30, 83, 91, 211, 222,
244, 253; see also Myanma identity
Burmese language, 14, 24, 25, 27, 29, 30,
835, 98, 242
and Burmese identity, 889, 91
origins of, 83, 84
Burney, Henry, 21, 100, 1012
Cachar, 18, 19, 20
Calcutta, see British Indian government
calendar, 97
Campbell, General Sir Archibald, 19, 20
cash, 37, 62, 74, 106, 121, 122, 125, 143,
148, 165, 169, 184, 249
caste, 243, 253
cavalry, 15, 32, 35, 39, 67, 110, 123, 170,
175, 192, 203, 212, 239
censuses, 256, 67, 77, 2202, 224, 2356,
2389, 241, 243
ceremonies, see rituals
Index 275
trade, 222, 2257
see also British Burma; modern Burma
commercial treaties, 10, 128, 129, 136,
137, 146, 164, 17980, 248
commoners, 31, 34, 39, 46, 55, 70, 239
communications, see transport
concubines, 33, 60, 72
consumption, 43, 46, 143, 147, 148
corruption, 116, 117, 152, 166, 168
cotton, 42, 478, 119, 120, 128, 137, 138,
143, 147, 183, 225, 249, 250
prices, 1445, 146, 181, 251
Cranbourne, Lord, 135
crime, 36, 41, 87, 88, 117, 208, 241
Crosthwaithe, Sir Charles, 199, 201, 202,
21418
crown land, 401, 121
crown servants, see hereditary crown
servants
Cruz, Joseph Xavier de, 65
cultivators, 34, 39, 42, 68, 119, 123, 125,
137, 167, 225, 236
culture, 14, 16, 84, 85, 88, 924, 958, 108,
11112, 134, 151, 1523
and colonial state, 219, 2404
see also Burmese language; drama;
literature; scholarship
currency, 44, 224
Dabessway, 237
Dabessway, Myoza of, Maha Mindin
Thinhkaya (Maung Mya Yit), 237
Dalhousie, Lord, 23, 104, 126
Danubyu Queen, 65
debt, 33, 42, 44, 118, 125, 152, 184, 224
deities (nat), 48, 49, 50, 57, 97
despotism, 6, 217, 218
destitution, 122, 124, 234
direct rule, 34
reasons for, 6, 186, 1978, 247
resistance to, 198207
see also colonial state, Burmese
divorce, 32
donations, 45, 46, 150, 152, 170; see also
gifts
drama, 69, 923, 94, 98, 11112, 1523,
178
dress, 38, 54, 85
276 Index
foreign trade, 121, 124, 1289, 135, 137,
139, 1428, 1803, 185, 220, 249,
250, 251
foreigners, 30, 89, 102, 114, 241, 243, 254;
see also immigration
forestry, 119, 120, 141, 164, 189, 217, 223,
226, 227
Forsythe, Sir Douglas, 141
forts, 28, 77, 192, 193
France, 2, 5, 7, 21, 27, 114, 138, 139, 140,
171, 188, 190, 222, 248
free trade, 6, 121, 124, 126, 164, 187
funerals, 32, 57, 71, 149
Fytche, Sir Albert, 136
Garib Nawaz, 15
Gautama Buddha, 81, 82, 96; see also
Buddhism; Buddhist monks
gender, 244; see also women
genealogical records, 4, 67, 77
gentry, 45, 6, 3440, 44, 53, 60, 110
and British annexation, 197, 198
and colonial rule, 5, 214, 215, 234,
2389, 242, 243
and finance, 73, 1215
land ownership, 42, 121, 123
local administration, 357, 11617,
21018
military offices, 35, 39
and nobility, 3940
office-holders, 36, 69, 70, 168, 169
privileges, 38
and rebellions, 5, 174, 202, 205, 2067
tax farming, 166
titles and names, 389, 242
see also myothugyi
gifts, 57, 10910
girls, 29, 30, 241
Glass Palace Chronicle, 79, 813
glebe land, 41, 74
global economy, 11, 106, 121, 137, 1428
depression, 148, 180, 183, 185, 249
see also foreign trade
government, theory of, 567, 159, 230; see
also local government; political
structures
Great Britain, 2, 10
and annexation, 190, 1968
Index 277
Hsinbyushin, King, 58, 59
Htin Aung (Dr), 242
images, 42, 97, 151, 241
immigration, 27, 30, 46, 55, 56, 83, 8990,
91, 107, 221, 222, 244, 253
imperialism, 2, 8, 24751; see also colonial
state, Burmese
imports, 45, 46, 47, 119, 136, 1428, 183,
2256, 249, 250
indemnity, 20, 21
India, 1, 3, 9, 10, 17, 83, 99100, 101, 102,
114, 124, 246
compared to Burma, 2513
cultural influences, 948
religious influences, 489, 51, 80, 81, 85,
86
social systems, 31
trade with, 144, 146, 183
see also British Indian government
Indian Ocean, 14, 46
Indonesia, 254
industries, 423, 47, 108, 112, 113, 115,
133, 134, 142, 225
decline of, 1812
information, 67, 77, 923, 958, 118, 123,
1512, 170, 217, 230
and Britain, 99103
see also spies
infrastructure, 159, 2224, 232
inheritance, 301, 32, 34, 37, 73, 170
inscriptions, 80, 81, 83, 150
institutional weakness, legacy of, 2534
interest rates, 184, 185
Inyon, Ywaza of, 70
Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, 113, 136,
137, 138, 139, 141, 223
Irrawaddy river, 1, 12, 13, 105, 113
Irrawaddy valley, 10, 54, 92
agriculture, 402
British annexation of, 1067, 1978
colonial administration, 45, 217
crown servants, 323, 39, 77
economy, 424, 468, 76
immigration, 27, 244
history, 803
people and population, 247, 43, 47,
2356, 244
regiments, 35
religions of, 4851
rice production, 1424
social organisation, 2734, 367,
23540
tax revolts, 175, 184
trade, 25, 27, 106
see also Lower Burma
irrigation, 37, 40, 77, 110, 111, 166, 185,
2234, 232, 237, 239
Islam, 501, 89, 96; see also Muslims
Italy, 114, 139, 140, 190
Jaintia, 16, 18, 19, 20, 99
Jingpaw, 16, 25, 30, 76, 89, 1767
Jones, Edmund, 137
judicial system, 29, 31, 32, 36, 37, 56, 67,
878, 11516, 169, 170, 216, 2313
Kachin Hills. 137, 141, 199, 207, 211
Kala, Maung, 45, 80
Kalas, 8990, 102, 103
Kanaung, Prince of, Thiri Pawara Maha
Thudhama Raza, 104, 105, 108, 112,
130, 131, 132
Kandy kingdom, 86
Kanni, Myoza of, 162
Karen peoples, 9, 131, 141, 208, 211
Kengtung, Sawbwa of, 172
kinship, 2734, 36, 37, 38, 39, 63, 72, 76,
77, 8890
Kinwun Mingyi, see Legaing, Myoza of
Konbaung dynasty, 1, 3, 9, 13, 15, 25, 44,
45, 59, 61, 62, 68, 69
and Burmese language, 85
lineage of, 81
moral codes, 94
see also Ava kingdom
Kyaukmaw, 62
Kyaukmaw, Myothugyi of, Wuttana Zeyya,
62
Kyaukmaw, Myoza of, see Magwe, Myoza
of
Kyaukmyaung, Myoza of, 114, 133, 160,
162, 189, 193, 236
Kyauksauk, Myoza of, 161
Kyaukse, 44, 46, 77, 111, 117, 166, 176,
203, 224, 225, 234, 236, 238
278 Index
Kyaw Min (U), 242
Kyaw Shwe, 63
labour, 91, 125
corvee, 33, 36, 667
hereditary service, 323, 76
shortages, 30
labourers, 15, 40, 55, 236, 239
Lanciego, Gonzales de, 21, 65, 100
land tenure, 37, 39, 402, 1212, 1656,
169, 22735, 2379
landlords, 4, 225, 235, 236, 2389, 250
Lane, Charles, 101
languages, 14, 15, 16, 24, 25, 27, 29, 30,
835, 889, 91, 92, 100, 242, 243
Laos, 5, 90, 188
Laungshay, Myoza of, 113
law, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 66, 878, 151, 170,
209
Lawrence, Sir John, 135
learning, see scholarship
Legaing, Myoza of, 75, 134, 13940,
15563, 189, 193, 195, 196, 199, 209,
240, 243
legal literature, 31, 33, 878, 134
Le`zin family, 39
Limbin, Prince of, 1723, 206
lineage, see kinship
Linzin Guards regiment, 173, 234
literacy, 87, 241, 253
literature, 845, 87, 88, 96, 111, 152, 153,
159; see also poetry
litigation, 2323
loans, 33, 378, 44, 120, 1678, 182, 224
local government, 6, 289, 30, 36, 534,
62, 758, 140
colonial system, 45, 21018
gentry and, 3440, 53, 76, 77, 168
nobility and, 756
reforms, 11618, 16970
revenue shortfalls, 1656, 1756
see also gentry; myothugyi
lottery, 166
Lower Burma, 245, 106
administrative districts, 169
annexation of, 126
anti-colonial resistance, 200, 211
impact on Upper Burma, 207, 21011
Index 279
merchants, 31, 32, 51, 556, 74, 120, 124,
165, 236; see also traders
merit, 56, 119
Middle Palace Queen, 156, 160
military occupation, 7, 10, 190, 1937,
199207
military organisation, 28, 323, 35, 39, 64,
76, 77
colonial, 208, 211, 212, 234
reforms, 108, 11213, 11415, 170
see also army, Burmese; cavalry
Millard, Pierre de, 65
millenarian revolts, 171, 1745, 2056
Min Thiri of Yandaza, 60
Minbu, 175, 205, 223, 233, 234, 2389
Mindon, King, Thiri Thudhamma Tilawka
Pawara Maha Dhamma Razadiraza
(Maung Lwin), 2, 23, 59, 83, 226
anti-British stance, 7, 1278
birth, 105, 107
character, 108
election of, 105
foreign policy, 108, 1259, 134
government of, 1089, 1335, 212
illness and death, 154, 157, 187
modernisation policies, 8, 10525,
1335, 247, 248
and religion, 1078, 148, 152
response to British demands, 140, 141,
142
and royal ceremonies, 148, 149, 150
and royal succession, 130, 133, 135, 154,
157
sons of, 5
trade policies, 119, 1378, 140, 1428,
181
minerals, 120, 142, 143, 227
Mingun, 58
Mingyi Maha Minhla Minkaung, 106
Mingyi Maha Minkaung Nawrata,
192
Mingyi Maha Tarabya, 109
Mingyi Minkaung Mindin Raza, 192
Mingyi Thiri Maha Zeyya Kyawdin, 192
Minto, Lord, 245
modern Burma, 3, 10, 219, 246, 2534; see
also colonial state, Burmese
modernisation and reform, 8, 9, 10525,
280 Index
Myinhkondaing, Prince of, 1301, 154
Myinzaing, Prince of, 204
myo, 289, 30, 31, 34, 122, 170
Myobin, Myothugyi of, 205
myothugyi, 3, 45, 28, 29, 30, 35, 37, 38,
39, 70, 115, 156, 165
and British annexation, 197
and colonial administration, 21015,
2378
conflicts over, 16870
female, 34
loss of power, 185
and rebellions, 5, 175, 176, 202, 203,
205, 206, 210
and tax reforms, 123, 124, 125, 175
myoza, 29
mythology, 57, 81, 87, 96, 153
nationalism, 250, 253, 254; see also
patriotism
Naungdawgyi, Prince of, 58, 59
navies, 1920, 23, 131
ngapi, 144, 183
nobility, 6, 7, 15, 20, 24, 27, 32, 45, 60, 61,
6873, 92, 155, 162
anti-colonial resistance, 2034
and British annexation, 1945, 196
and colonial state, 209, 234, 236, 237,
240, 242, 243
courts of, 63
destruction of, 35, 197
and foreign education, 100, 101, 114,
133, 155, 156, 242
land tenure, 230, 231
legal writing by, 88
in Mindons government, 109
office-holders, 69, 701, 16970
political divisions in, 1045
and popular drama, 93
revenue of, 61, 62, 107, 121, 166
and royal administration, 28, 29, 658,
69, 701
and ruling class, 31, 3940
social divisions, 6972
tax exemptions, 123, 234
titles, 38, 712, 242
see also gentry; monarchy; royal family
Nu, Me` (Queen), 20, 21
Index 281
personal names, 389, 49, 71, 242
Phayre, Sir Arthur, 83, 126, 127
Pinya, 87
piracy, 14, 102
poetry, 66, 69, 87, 92, 98, 111, 112, 134
police, 36, 56, 195, 208, 211
political structures, 10, 2834, 567, 62,
658, 758, 15760
crisis of, 1825, 186, 198
Mindons reforms, 1089, 11518
ponna, 31, 32, 34, 51, 64, 95, 967, 101,
123, 177, 241
Ponnya (Salay U), see Ywasi, Myoza of
Poppa, Myoza of, 150
popular incomes, 147, 183; see also wages
population, 257, 54, 55, 2212, 244
colonial, 2356
growth, 27, 43, 46, 47
Portuguese, 27, 51, 89
prebendal land, 412, 165, 169, 235
precious stones, 227
Prendergast, General Sir Harry, 1, 191,
192, 194, 207
prices, 182, 183, 184, 185, 249
cotton, 1445, 146, 181, 251
rice, 1434, 180, 183, 225
primogeniture, 35
princes, 3, 5, 7, 60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 130,
1312, 135, 203, 204
printing press, 152, 207
private property, 229, 231, 232, 235, 236,
237, 240
Privy Council, 53, 57, 64, 66, 150, 189
Prome, 19, 26, 39, 72, 87
property, 229, 231, 232
prostitution, 94
protectorate, 3, 1945
provincial governors, 289, 39, 53, 75, 104
punishment, 88, 116, 208
Punjab, 99, 102
Pyinmina, Prince of, 5, 155, 156, 194
Pyu people, 82, 85, 97
language, 83, 84, 85
queens, 60, 62, 63, 65, 109, 110, 155, 156
race, 243
railways, 113, 147, 159, 223
Ramayana plays, 93
Rangoon, 19, 20, 23, 25, 61, 105, 112, 113
administration, 756, 207, 208
British companies in, 139
business community, 2, 22, 129, 1357,
139, 1612, 164, 180, 1868
refugees, 18, 176, 180, 184, 188, 222
regiments, 323, 35, 42, 64, 173, 234
Reid, Anthony, 247
religion, 14, 15, 22, 27, 29, 30, 31, 42, 43,
4851, 734, 856, 88, 89, 1078, 243
Indian influences, 948
and monarchy, 56, 57
and rebellions, 1745, 176
reform of, 1501
see also Buddhism; Hinduism; Islam;
ponna
rents, 41, 76, 1212, 165, 166, 22830,
235, 236, 250
revenue, 36, 37, 42, 62, 75, 767, 11920,
1225, 129
colonial, 211, 222, 223, 22735
shortfalls, 1648, 1756, 178
rice, 25, 40, 434, 179, 185, 2256
ban on exports, 44, 46
imports, 44, 144, 148, 249
and Irrawaddy delta, 1424
prices, 1434, 180, 183, 225
state control of, 44, 106, 143
rituals, 31, 74, 95, 96, 97, 111, 149, 150,
177, 241; see also ponna
Roman Catholics, 27, 51, 90
royal agencies, 3, 33, 37, 658, 77, 108,
115, 120, 196
royal family, 3, 5, 15, 28, 29, 31, 34, 38, 39,
57, 5964, 65, 108, 155, 161, 217, 242
appanages, 123
and colonial taxes, 234
exile of, 2456
land ownership, 230, 231, 236, 237
leisure, 1778
lineage of, 81
see also monarchy; princes
royal governors, 289, 39
royal library, 81
destruction of, 200, 240
rulers, 31, 32, 40, 62, 226; see also gentry;
myothugyi; nobility
282 Index
rural areas, 3, 92, 93, 107
administration, 3440, 758, 11518,
140, 16870, 20718
and annexation, 195, 1978
anti-colonial resistance, 7, 198207,
212, 213
financial system, 368, 11819, 1215
hereditary offices, 28, 29, 30, 35ff., 117,
237
law and order, 7, 168
local rebellions, 1718
military organisation, 28, 323, 35, 39
professional bankers, 456
social and economic change, 1235,
23540
taxation, 164, 165, 1667, 173, 175, 184,
22735
see also gentry; local government;
myothugyi; villages
Sagaing, 39, 87, 150, 173, 175, 176, 214,
222, 232, 236
Sakiyans, 812, 867
salaries, 121, 124, 165, 169
Salay, Myoza of, Mingyi Thiri Maha Zeyya
Kyawdin (Hle`thin Atwinwun), 174,
192
Salin, 26, 36, 37, 62, 116, 175, 176, 221,
225, 233, 2389
Salin, Myoza of, 20, 21
Sangha, 34, 73, 74, 86, 96, 118, 119, 148,
149, 152, 159, 170, 209, 241, 254
Sanskrit, 15, 16, 84, 92, 96
sawbwa, 4, 24, 60, 76, 77, 197, 21617
scholarship, 89, 66, 80, 81, 88, 89, 92,
956, 97, 98, 100, 101, 108, 134, 159,
240, 242
Western, 112, 11314, 217, 240,
253
schools, 28, 55, 98, 114, 2401, 243
science, 96, 101, 108, 109, 134
Second Princess, 2456
servants, 15, 54, 63, 64
Shan people, 9, 16, 89
language, 24
Shan states, 2, 13, 24, 26, 48, 62, 109, 137,
141, 143, 162
colonial administration, 208, 21617
Index 283
steamers, 1920, 112, 113, 138, 141, 223
Strover, G. A., 137, 140
Supayalat, Queen, 1, 156, 157, 160, 161,
1623, 178, 194, 246
Syriam, 17
Syriam, Myoza of (Maung Kyaw Hlaing),
62, 63
Ta, Maung, 68
Tabayin, Myoza of, 23
Tagaung kingdom, 812, 867
Taingda, Myoza of, 160
Taingda Mingyi, 161, 162, 178, 189, 195
tariffs, 37, 76, 129, 167, 233, 235
Taungdwingyi, 68
taxation, 29, 36, 37, 44, 46, 77, 100, 117,
118, 142, 164
athi, 33, 35
colonial, 223, 225, 22835
exemptions, 1234
and local rebellions, 173, 175
and political crisis, 184
reform of, 115, 1215, 248
revenue shortages, 1656
see also thathameda tax
tea, 48, 146, 184
teak, 138, 141, 145, 227, 249
technology, 108, 112, 113, 115, 134, 152,
153, 185
telegraph system, 224
tenants, 236, 239
Tennasserim, the, 2, 20, 21, 25, 26, 46, 85,
102, 104, 127, 217, 220
Thado Maha Bandula, 16, 1819, 23, 69,
75, 99
Thado Minye` Raza (Maung Shwe Tha), 61
Thailand, see Siam
Thalun, Myoza of, 109
Tharrawaddy, King, 19, 21, 22, 58, 59, 107,
112
thathameda tax, 1225, 152, 1657, 173,
184, 185, 206, 228, 22930, 231, 233,
234
theatre, see drama
Theravada Buddhism, 14, 27, 48, 49, 50,
85, 86, 92, 94, 14852, 241
Thibaw, King, Thiri Pawara Wizaya Nanda
Yatha Tilawkadipati Pandita Maha
Dhammayazadiyaza, 1, 3, 5, 589,
125, 248
anti-British stance, 7
and Buddhism, 1701
compared with Mindon, 163
education of, 156
exile and death, 2456
government policies, 16371
as heir-apparent, 15663
lack of wives, 162
local government reforms, 16870
military reforms, 170
and murder of siblings, 161
political crisis, 17885
reform policies, 8
surrender of, 193
Thila Wuntha, 80
Thonze`, Prince of, 154, 155
Thudhamma sect, 149, 151, 171, 210
Thugaung of Salin, see Salin
thugyi, 35, 36, 40, 212
thuhtay, 456, 64, 74, 120, 1645, 166,
185, 227
Tibet, 12, 15, 49, 50, 220
language, 29, 30, 84
timber trade, 119, 142, 144, 145, 1467,
226, 227
Tin (Pagan U), 240, 242
Tin Tut (U), 242
titles, 5, 356, 389, 53, 62, 63, 66, 68, 70,
712, 83, 110, 158, 242
torture, 208
Toungoo dynasty, 8, 9, 14, 39, 46, 51, 53,
54, 72, 87
towns, 27, 28, 35, 62, 70, 73, 117, 213
trade, 14, 25, 27, 438, 64, 106, 111, 159,
167
Chinese, 478, 556, 1358
and colonial state, 222, 2257
deficit, 1801, 184, 185, 249
fall in, 179, 1812, 184
growth of, 128, 129, 1456, 148, 17980,
184, 232
Mindons reforms and, 11921
and political crisis, 179, 1825, 1879
rural, 37
terms of, 1468, 1801, 183
women in, 34
284 Index
trade (cont.)
see also foreign trade; free trade
traders, 22, 27, 31, 32, 334, 43, 46, 55,
122, 233; see also merchants
transport, 37, 111, 112, 113, 118, 124, 138,
139, 141, 185, 223, 232
treasury, royal, 4, 37, 64, 118, 125, 158
Treaty of Yandabo (1826), 20, 91, 100
tributary states, 15, 245, 60, 767, 141
Twinzayo of Yenangyaung, see
Yenangyaung
United States, 138, 144, 145, 226
Upper Burma, 25, 120
annexation of, 190, 1968
anti-colonial resistance, 198207, 212,
213
British ultimatum to, 189
and Chinese trade, 1358, 138, 188
colonial administration, 20718
colonial land reform, 22735
colonial revenues, 222, 223
crime, rise in, 241
deficit, 180, 184, 185
informal empire over, 7, 13542, 186
political crisis, 15663, 1718, 1845,
186, 188
population, 221, 222
rice imports, 44, 144, 148
social and economic change, 152, 153,
185, 23540
trade with Britain, 1289, 138, 139, 144,
146, 148, 181
trade with Lower Burma, 138, 143, 144,
1456, 179, 180, 181, 2256
Upper Burma Club, 4, 200
Victoria, Queen, 139, 140
Vietnam, 2, 5, 139, 188, 248
villages, 4, 5, 27, 28, 62, 73, 232
administration, 75, 107, 215, 218