Who Killed the King of Bagan?

Who Killed the King of Bagan? PDF Author: Jame DiBiasio
Publisher: Penguin Random House Sea
ISBN: 9789814882965
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Unravelling the greatest mystery of Myanmar by uncovering evidence through time and place Who Killed the King of Bagan? tells the story of Bagan (and thus the founding of Myanmar) through the device of a murder mystery. Bagan's most important king was Anawrahta. According to the Myanmarese chronicles, he died under suspicious circumstances, and contemporary Burmese writers surmise he was assassinated. But why, and by whom? The answers are tepid and unconvincing. The book teases out a possible culprit who is overlooked today for long-standing cultural and religious reasons. The process of examining the evidence involves two journeys. One is through time--a rough chronology of the important kings and the racey gossip the chronicles tell about them. The second is physical--walking through ten different temples, each representing a theme in Bagan's history, and using this to unpack what the legacy of Anawrahta was.

Who Killed the King of Bagan?

Who Killed the King of Bagan? PDF Author: Jame DiBiasio
Publisher: Penguin Random House Sea
ISBN: 9789814882965
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book Here

Book Description
Unravelling the greatest mystery of Myanmar by uncovering evidence through time and place Who Killed the King of Bagan? tells the story of Bagan (and thus the founding of Myanmar) through the device of a murder mystery. Bagan's most important king was Anawrahta. According to the Myanmarese chronicles, he died under suspicious circumstances, and contemporary Burmese writers surmise he was assassinated. But why, and by whom? The answers are tepid and unconvincing. The book teases out a possible culprit who is overlooked today for long-standing cultural and religious reasons. The process of examining the evidence involves two journeys. One is through time--a rough chronology of the important kings and the racey gossip the chronicles tell about them. The second is physical--walking through ten different temples, each representing a theme in Bagan's history, and using this to unpack what the legacy of Anawrahta was.

Wider Bagan: Ancient and Living Buddhist Traditions

Wider Bagan: Ancient and Living Buddhist Traditions PDF Author: Elizabeth Moore
Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
ISBN: 9814951994
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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Book Description
Wider Bagan: Ancient and Living Buddhist Traditions is the first book to define the area outside the renowned Buddhist capital where vestiges of Bagan era cultural traditions can be found. From nearly six hundred attributes inventoried in Wider Bagan, thematic and geographical analysis of the Wider Bagan data reveals a related but different trajectory from that of the capital. The Sasanā of the court was honoured, and though its economy profited many places across Wider Bagan, local resilience was foremost. While the capital and Wider Bagan existed in relation to each other, their aims and narratives differed. Much has been written about Bagan, but little attention on the ground has been devoted to areas beyond the capital. These places have stories to tell—ones of the past and of the present—that are narrated in this book. "Wider Bagan is the most important recent publication on Myanmar’s past. Tracing Bagan’s ideational and material legacies, it recovers how this kingdom’s successors related to their heritages. Meticulously researched, beautifully illustrated, studded with clear maps, tables and outlines—Wider Bagan reveals these legacies’ custodians—inhabiting territories stretching as far as Yunnan and Bengal. Multiple topics are examined also in light of local scholarship, often ignored due to linguistic limitations. The resulting evocations of times and places make Wider Bagan an enduring guide to people’s lives—also in the larger scheme of things—like the community tracing its founding to the Buddha Gotama’s grandfather. No one interested in Myanmar’s complex past and fractious present can ignore the author’s conclusions."—Lilian Handlin, Member of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences CAMLab. "In her detailed survey of hundreds of sites in the Ayeyarwady River basin, Moore and her collaborators have revealed a long-suspected, but hitherto undocumented, rural cultural landscape with origins well before and persisting long after the political heyday of metropolitan Bagan in the eleventh through thirteenth centuries. During their investigations, the authors had numerous encounters with local scholar-archaeologists who identified frequently overlooked physical attributes that define the local cultural landscape. In mapping these attributes, the authors reconstructed a narrative of local resilience that speaks to a long local history of diversity and adaptability over an extensive region, where other scholars—working mainly from historical chronicles—had observed only a rigid hegemony emanating from the political centre at Bagan. Moore’s innovative methodology breaks new ground for the study of early urban formations, not only in Myanmar but throughout mainland Southeast Asia. This research contributes to a building body of evidence that suggests a fresh paradigm to replace the long-standing concentric circle model most often used to explain state formation throughout the region. In this new paradigm, the contradiction between urban and rural settlements is dismantled as the stories of the smaller villages and towns re-enact the iterative process between places, communities of users, and social memory of Wider Bagan, demonstrating, in the process, an ecology of resilient settlement that has endured through generations of political, social and economic upheaval."—Richard A. Engelhardt, UNESCO Chair Professor of Cultural Heritage Management and Regional Advisor for Culture in Asia and the Pacific

The Wheel-Turner and His House

The Wheel-Turner and His House PDF Author: Geok Goh
Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
ISBN: 1501757997
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
The recorded history of precolonial Burmese empire and the modern state of Myanmar starts with the kingdom of Bagan in the eleventh century. The oldest surviving written records and structures are from the reign of King Anawrahta (1044–1077). Anawrahta converted to Theravada Buddhism and created a vibrant Buddhist state in the Irrawaddy River basin. Anawrahta is a folk hero to this day in Myanmar and is widely credited as a charismatic and pious leader who consolidated various ethnic groups throughout the region into a single nation. The Wheel-Turner and His House traces the archaeological and historical record of Anawrahta and his seminal position in forming modern Myanmar, based on the few sources that have been recovered. The Great Chronicle, an important history of the country written by the 18th-century Burmese nobleman U Kala, forms the basis for much of the knowledge we have about Anawrahta today. Geok Yian Goh examines U Kala's work in light of the context of U Kala's own time and points out the bias of his royal court, as well as the scribe's personal views from the elaborate narratives he produced. She looks at other sources as well, including unpublished palm-leaf manuscripts, to disentangle earlier knowledge about Anawrahta and eleventh-century Bagan. Placing the overall study of Burmese historical tradition within the larger manuscript culture of Asia, Goh presents a critique of theoretical issues in history, especially the relationship between the past and memory. In order to analyze the expansion of Anawrahta's historical image that formed the development of a Buddhist ecumene in the eleventh and twelth centuries, Goh utilizes published and unpublished texts in Burmese and classical Chinese, along with northern Thai and Sri Lankan texts, many of which Goh makes available for the first time in English.

Myanmar (Burma) since the 1988 Uprising

Myanmar (Burma) since the 1988 Uprising PDF Author: Andrew Selth
Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
ISBN: 9814951781
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Updated by popular demand, this is the fourth edition of this important bibliography. It lists a wide selection of works on or about Myanmar published in English and in hard copy since the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, which marked the beginning of a new era in Myanmar’s modern history. There are now 2,727 titles listed. They have been written, edited, translated or compiled by over 2,000 people, from many different backgrounds. These works have been organized into thirty-five subject chapters containing ninety-five discrete sections. There are also four appendices, including a comprehensive reading guide for those unfamiliar with Myanmar or who may be seeking guidance on particular topics. This book is an invaluable aid to officials, scholars, journalists, armchair travellers and others with an interest in this fascinating but deeply troubled country.

When Mountains Melted

When Mountains Melted PDF Author: Khin Maung Phone Ko
Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
ISBN: 1543746136
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
The First Myanmar Empire of Bagan has a fascinating hidden history. While many historians claim that Myanmar’s history is Buddhist, the second emperor, King Kyansittah (AD 1040–1113) had faith in Jesus Christ and built the famous Ananda Temple, which is today a famous tourist attraction in the city of Bagan, Myanmar. In When Mountains Melted, author Khin Maung Phone Ko explores the Christian origins of Myanmar’s empire, providing historical evidence that points to a lineage of Christian thought that survived in Bagan for a hundred years, from AD 1085 to 1185. When Mountains Melted also discusses how Bagan’s political ideology was remarkably similar to modern-day democratic systems, and it shows how Myanmar was based on concepts of basic human rights, freedom of worship, freedom of expression, and national defense. Myanmar has a hidden history, and When Mountains Melted reveals the Christian roots of the First Myanmar Empire of Bagan. The hope is that this revealed Christian era of Myanmar’s history can provide the template for a revival in present- day Myanmar—an awakening to democracy, unity, strength, and ministry.

The Military History of the Yuan Dynasty

The Military History of the Yuan Dynasty PDF Author: Li Shi
Publisher: DeepLogic
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
The book is the volume of “The Military History of the Yuan Dynasty” among a series of books of “Deep into China Histories”. The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC) and the Bamboo Annals (296 BC) describe a Xia dynasty (c. 2070–1600 BC) before the Shang, but no writing is known from the period The Shang ruled in the Yellow River valley, which is commonly held to be the cradle of Chinese civilization. However, Neolithic civilizations originated at various cultural centers along both the Yellow River and Yangtze River. These Yellow River and Yangtze civilizations arose millennia before the Shang. With thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the world's oldest civilizations, and is regarded as one of the cradles of civilization.The Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC) supplanted the Shang and introduced the concept of the Mandate of Heaven to justify their rule. The central Zhou government began to weaken due to external and internal pressures in the 8th century BC, and the country eventually splintered into smaller states during the Spring and Autumn period. These states became independent and warred with one another in the following Warring States period. Much of traditional Chinese culture, literature and philosophy first developed during those troubled times.In 221 BC Qin Shi Huang conquered the various warring states and created for himself the title of Huangdi or "emperor" of the Qin, marking the beginning of imperial China. However, the oppressive government fell soon after his death, and was supplanted by the longer-lived Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD). Successive dynasties developed bureaucratic systems that enabled the emperor to control vast territories directly. In the 21 centuries from 206 BC until AD 1912, routine administrative tasks were handled by a special elite of scholar-officials. Young men, well-versed in calligraphy, history, literature, and philosophy, were carefully selected through difficult government examinations. China's last dynasty was the Qing (1644–1912), which was replaced by the Republic of China in 1912, and in the mainland by the People's Republic of China in 1949.Chinese history has alternated between periods of political unity and peace, and periods of war and failed statehood – the most recent being the Chinese Civil War (1927–1949). China was occasionally dominated by steppe peoples, most of whom were eventually assimilated into the Han Chinese culture and population. Between eras of multiple kingdoms and warlordism, Chinese dynasties have ruled parts or all of China; in some eras control stretched as far as Xinjiang and Tibet, as at present. Traditional culture, and influences from other parts of Asia and the Western world (carried by waves of immigration, cultural assimilation, expansion, and foreign contact), form the basis of the modern culture of China.

MYANMAR: A Memoir of Loss and Recovery

MYANMAR: A Memoir of Loss and Recovery PDF Author: Judyth Gregory-Smith
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1105440052
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
Myanmar: a Memoir of Loss and Recovery traces two journeys: a geographical journey and an inner journey. The author travels alone around Myanmar over several years and gradually comes to terms with the illness and subsequent death of her husband, Richard. Though painfully sad at times, these journeys of discovery and recovery celebrate their life together. Not speaking the language in Myanmar prompts many humorous incidents and her grief dispels as she finds ways to regain happiness.

Ancient Southeast Asia

Ancient Southeast Asia PDF Author: John Norman Miksic
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317279042
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 654

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Book Description
Ancient Southeast Asia provides readers with a much needed synthesis of the latest discoveries and research in the archaeology of the region, presenting the evolution of complex societies in Southeast Asia from the protohistoric period, beginning around 500BC, to the arrival of British and Dutch colonists in 1600. Well-illustrated throughout, this comprehensive account explores the factors which established Southeast Asia as an area of unique cultural fusion. Miksic and Goh explore how the local population exploited the abundant resources available, developing maritime transport routes which resulted in economic and cultural wealth, including some of the most elaborate art styles and monumental complexes ever constructed. The book’s broad geographical and temporal coverage, including a chapter on the natural environment, provides readers with the context needed to understand this staggeringly diverse region. It utilizes French, Dutch, Chinese, Malay-Indonesian and Burmese sources and synthesizes interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives and data from archaeology, history and art history. Offering key opportunities for comparative research with other centres of early socio-economic complexity, Ancient Southeast Asia establishes the area’s importance in world history.

The History of Myanmar

The History of Myanmar PDF Author: William J. Topich
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313357250
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
This text provides a thorough examination of the history of Myanmar from Neolithic times to the present. Myanmar has experienced a seemingly endless series of conquerors, dating from prehistoric times through the reign of Kublai Khan's Mongol forces beginning in the late 1200s, all the way through the modern era, when it was subject to both British colonial control and invasion by the Japanese during World War II. The History of Myanmar provides a detailed, historical overview of the key people, places, and events in this often-overlooked country's past and present. It examines the history of Myanmar, from Neolithic times to all of its ruling dynasties to the modern era in a chronological manner, providing a contextual framework for the further exploration of its complex history. This text pays special attention to the unique circumstances that led to the formation of the modern nation of Myanmar.

The Kings of Ayutthaya

The Kings of Ayutthaya PDF Author: Robert Smith
Publisher: Silkworm Books
ISBN: 1943932786
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Part fact, part fiction, part myth, and part legend, this book brings to life the kingdom of Ayutthaya from its roots in the kingdom of Sukhothai to its eventual destruction by the Burmese in the year 1767. It is the turbulent story of both the kings and their kingdom, from its birth to its downfall. Robert Smith retells the history of Ayutthaya by reimagining and dramatizing the exploits of its rulers, building his account around a framework of documentary evidence and hints in the historical record. Intrigues, honor, and deception wind through the tale as do ingenuity, determination, and the will to greatness that made Ayutthaya a major regional power for centuries. This account of the development of a nation—and the myths and legends that have gone with it—shows how Ayutthaya and its kings laid the foundation of modern-day Thailand. Highlights • Engages readers with its presentation of the history, myths, and legends of the Ayutthaya kingdom • Shows the development of cultural heritage, kingship, and governance of Thailand • Narrates the stories of the kings and ruling dynasties of Ayutthaya • Dramatizes famous figures and events in Ayutthaya history through dialogue, narration, and description