The Mists of Ramanna The Legend That Was Lower Burma
Scholars have long accepted the belief that a Theravada Buddhist Mon kingdom, Ramannadesa, flourished in coastal Lower Burma until it was conquered in 1057 by King Aniruddha of Pagan-which then became, in essence, the new custodian and repository of Mon culture in the Upper Burmese interior. This sc...
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| Format: | Electronic Book Chapter |
| Language: | English |
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University of Hawai'i Press
2005
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| Online Access: | OAPEN Library: download the publication OAPEN Library: description of the publication |
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| Summary: | Scholars have long accepted the belief that a Theravada Buddhist Mon kingdom, Ramannadesa, flourished in coastal Lower Burma until it was conquered in 1057 by King Aniruddha of Pagan-which then became, in essence, the new custodian and repository of Mon culture in the Upper Burmese interior. This scenario, which Aung-Thwin calls the ""Mon Paradigm,"" has circumscribed much of the scholarship on early Burma and significantly shaped the history of Southeast Asia for more than a century. Now, in a masterful reassessment of Burmese history, Michael Aung-Thwin reexamines the original contemporary accounts and sources without finding any evidence of an early Theravada Mon polity or a conquest by Aniruddha. The paradigm, he finds, cannot be sustained. Aung-Thwin meticulously traces the paradigm's creation to the merging of two temporally, causally, and contextually unrelated Mon and Burmese narratives. |
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| ISBN: | oapen_625896 9780824874414 |
| Access: | Open Access |