KengtungKengtung (ဝဵင်းၵဵင်းတုင် weŋ˥ keŋ˥ tuŋ˨˦, เชียงตุง), also spelt Kyaingtong (; tɕaɪ́ɰ̃ tòʊɰ̃ mjo̰), is a town in Shan State, Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is the principal town of Kengtung Township and the former seat of Kengtung State, a minor principality. Kengtung is located on the National Highway 4 (NH4) and at the AH2 and AH3 of the Asian Highway. Owing to Kengtung's proximity to China and Thailand, the city is known by a number of exonyms and endonyms. The endonym used by Tai Khun and Tai Lue-speaking locals is Jeng Tung (ᨾᩨ᩠ᨦᨩᩭᨦᨲᩩᨦ) respectively.
Pyu city-statesThe Pyu city states (ပျူ မြို့ပြ နိုင်ငံများ, ) were a group of city-states that existed from about the 2nd century BCE to the mid-11th century in present-day Upper Burma (Myanmar). The city-states were founded as part of the southward migration by the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu people, the earliest inhabitants of Burma of whom records are extant. The thousand-year period, often referred to as the Pyu millennium, linked the Bronze Age to the beginning of the classical states period when the Pagan Kingdom emerged in the late 9th century.
History of MyanmarThe history of Myanmar (also known as Burma; မြန်မာ့သမိုင်း) covers the period from the time of first-known human settlements 13,000 years ago to the present day. The earliest inhabitants of recorded history were a Tibeto-Burman-speaking people who established the Pyu city-states ranged as far south as Pyay and adopted Theravada Buddhism. Another group, the Bamar people, entered the upper Irrawaddy valley in the early 9th century. They went on to establish the Pagan Kingdom (1044–1297), the first-ever unification of the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery.
Pagan KingdomThe Kingdom of Pagan (ပုဂံခေတ်, bəɡàɰ̃ khɪʔ, Pagan Period; also known as the Pagan dynasty and the Pagan Empire; also the Bagan dynasty or Bagan Empire) was the first Burmese kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern-day Myanmar. Pagan's 250-year rule over the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery laid the foundation for the ascent of Burmese language and culture, the spread of Bamar ethnicity in Upper Myanmar, and the growth of Theravada Buddhism in Myanmar and in mainland Southeast Asia.
Bago, MyanmarBago (formerly spelled Pegu; , bəɡó mjo̰), formerly known as Hanthawaddy, is a city and the capital of the Bago Region in Myanmar. It is located north-east of Yangon. The Burmese name Bago (ပဲခူး) is likely derived from the Mon language place name Bagaw (ဗဂေါ, bəkɜ̀). Until the Burmese government renamed English place names throughout the country in 1989, Bago was known as Pegu. Bago was formerly known as Hanthawaddy (ဟံသာဝတီ; ဟံသာဝတဳ ; Haṃsāvatī; lit. "she who possesses the sheldrake"), the name of a Burmese-Mon kingdom.
BaganBagan (, bəɡàɰ̃; formerly Pagan) is an ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Bagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that would later constitute Myanmar. During the kingdom's height between the 11th and 13th centuries, more than 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains alone, of which the remains of over 2200 temples and pagodas survive.
Bamar peopleThe Bamar People (, bəmà lùmjó; also known as the Mranma), are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Myanmar. They are a Sino-Tibetan ethnic group of approximately 35 million people who constitute Myanmar's largest ethnic group, accounting for 68% of the country's population. The geographic homeland of the Bamar is the Irrawaddy River basin. Burmese is the native language of the Bamar, as well as the national language and lingua franca of Myanmar.
British rule in BurmaBritish rule in Burma lasted from 1824 to 1948, from the successive three Anglo-Burmese wars through the creation of Burma as a province of British India to the establishment of an independently administered colony, and finally independence. The region under British control was known as British Burma, and officially known as Burma (မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်) from 1886. Various portions of Burmese territories, including Arakan and Tenasserim were annexed by the British after their victory in the First Anglo-Burmese War; Lower Burma was annexed in 1852 after the Second Anglo-Burmese War.
Burmese languageBurmese ( mjəmà bhasaca.kaː) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Myanmar (also known as Burma), where it is an official language, lingua franca, and the native language of the Burmans, the country's principal ethnic group. Burmese is also spoken by the indigenous tribes in Chittagong Hill Tracts (Rangamati, Bandarban, Khagrachari, Cox's Bazar) in Bangladesh, and in Tripura state in Northeast India.
Konbaung dynastyThe Konbaung dynasty (ကုန်းဘောင်မင်းဆက်), also known as Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်), was the last dynasty that ruled Burma/Myanmar from 1752 to 1885. It created the second-largest empire in Burmese history and continued the administrative reforms begun by the Toungoo dynasty, laying the foundations of the modern state of Burma. The reforms, however, proved insufficient to stem the advance of the British, who defeated the Burmese in all three Anglo-Burmese Wars over a six-decade span (1824–1885) and ended the millennium-old Burmese monarchy in 1885.