Who are Mon people

The Mon (Mon language: မန္ or မည; Burmese: ‌မြန္လူမ်ဳိး; IPA: [mùn lùmjóʊ]; Thai: มอญ) are an ethnic group from Myanmar, living mostly in Mon State, Bago Division, Irrawaddy Delta of present Burma, and along the southern Thai-Myanmar border. One of the earliest peoples to reside in Southeast Asia, the Mon were responsible for the spread of Theravada Buddhism in the present day Burma and Thailand. In Myanmar, the Mon culture is credited as a major source of influence on the dominant Burmese culture.

As the eastern Mon were absorbed into the Thai/Siamese society long ago, the western Mon of Myanmar face the same pressure to assimilate. In Myanmar, the Mon are fighting for the retention of the Mon language and culture, and political autonomy. Once the predominant ethno-linguistic group in Lower Burma, the Mon language speakers number less than a million today, and those of Mon descent number anywhere between two million and eight million. The majority of Mon speak and are literate only in the Burmese language, and are often counted as the majority Bamar.

Early history

The Mon were one of the earliest distinct groups to settle in what is now Lower Burma, as early as 1500 BC or possibly earlier. The Mon are primarily associated with the historical kingdoms of Honsawati, Dvaravati and Hariphunchai. Up until the 14th century, outposts of Mon culture continued to spread very far east, including modern Thailand and Isan plateau cities such as Lampang and Khon Kaen. As late as the 14th and 15th centuries, it is believed that the Mon were the ethnic majority in this vast region, but also intermarried freely with Khmer and Tai-Kadai populations. Archaeological remains of Mon settlements have been found south of Vientiane, and may also have extended further to the north-west in the Haribhunjai era.

The Mon converted to Theravada Buddhism at a very early point in their history. Unlike other ethnic groups in the region, they seem to have adopted Theravada orthodoxy before coming into contact with Mahayana tendencies, and it is generally believed that the Mon provided the link of transmission whereby both the Thais and Cambodians converted from Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism to Theravada Buddhism (increasingly from the 1200s). Although the precise date cannot be fixed, it seems that the Mon have been practicing Theravada Buddhism continuously for a longer period than any other extant religious community on earth, except for Sri Lanka, as the lineage was destroyed in India.

Like the Burmese and the Thais, some modern Mons have tried to identify their ethnicity with the semi-historical kingdom of Suwarnabhumi. Today, this claim is contested by many different ethnicities in South-East Asia, and contradicted by scholars. Historical scholarship indicates that the early usage of the term (as found in the edicts of Ashoka) indicated a location in Southern India, and not in South-East Asia. However, from the time of the first translations of the Ashokan inscriptions in the 19th century, both the Burmese and the Thais have made concentrated efforts to identify place-names found in the edicts with their own territory or culture. Sometimes these claims have also relied upon the creative interpretation of place-names found in Chinese historical sources.

A Mon dynasty ruled Lower Burma after the fall of the Pagan dynasty from 1287 to 1539 with a brief revival during 1550–53. At first, Martaban was the capital of this kingdom and then Pegu. The Mon king Rajadhirat, who waged war with the northern Burman kingdom of Ava during the whole duration of his reign, unified and consolidated the Mon kingdom's domains in Lower Burma.

The most famous Mon monarchs during this period were Queen Baña Thau (Burmese: Shin Sawbu; reigned 1453–1472) followed by Dhammazedi (reigned 1472–92). Queen Baña Thau personally chose Dhammazedi to succeed her. Dhammazedi had been a monk before he became king of Pegu. Under Dhammazedi, Pegu became a centre of commerce and Theravadan Buddhism. These two devout Buddhist monarchs initiated a long period of peace in Lower Burma.
The 61st Anniversary Mon National Day in London

Many foreign traders were attracted to the capital, which became well-known to the outside world as a center of commerce. As such, it is mentioned by the Russian merchant, Nitikin, who traveled in the East about 1470. Its fifteenth century rulers were, like those of old Pagan, chiefly interested in the development of religion. Missions were sent to Ceylon and on their return stimulated an important religious revival, which affected the whole of Burma. Its center was the Kalyani thein near Pegu, so named because its original monks had been ordained on the banks of the Kalyani river in Ceylon. Kalyani ordination became the standard form for the whole country. The story of the reforms is told in the Kalyani inscriptions erected by King Dammazedi (1472-92).

Dammazedi was the greatest of the rulers of Wareru’s line. His reign was a time of peace and he himself was a mild ruler, famous for his wisdom. A collection of his rulings, the Dammazedi pyatton, is still extant. He maintained friendly intercourse with Yunnan and revived the practice of sending missions to Buddhagaya. He was a Buddhist ruler of the best type, deeply solicitous for the purification of religion. Under him, civilization flourished, and the condition of the Mon country stands out in sharp contrast with the disorder and savagery which characterized the Ava kingdom. When he died he was honoured as a saint and a pagoda was erected over his bones.

The Mon kingdom possessed two great pagodas of especial sanctity, the Shwemawdaw at Pegu and the Shwedagon at the small stockaded fishing-town of Dagon, now Yangon.[1]

The last Mon kingdom was Hongsavatoi—they re-conquered much of their lost territory until King Alaungpaya forced them back and captured the kingdom by 1757, massacring a considerable part of the population. The Mon religious leaders were forced to flee to Siam and the Mon have been harshly repressed from the 1750s to the present day.

[edit] Colonial

Burma was conquered by the British in a series of wars. After the Second Anglo-Burmese War, the Mon territories were completely under the control of the British. The Mon aided the British to free themselves from the rule of the Burman monarchy. Under Burman rule, the Mon people had been massacred after they lost their kingdom and many sought asylum in the Thai Kingdom. The British conquest of Burma allowed the Mon people to survive in Southern Burma.

[edit] After Burmese independence

The Mon soon became anti-colonialists and following the grant of independence to Burma in 1948 they sought self-determination, U Nu refused them this and they rose in revolt to be crushed again.

They have remained a repressed and defiant group in the country since then. They have risen in revolt against the central Burmese government on a number of occasions, initially under the Mon People's Front and from 1962 through the New Mon State Party. A partially autonomous Mon state, Monland, was created in 1974 covering Tenasserim, Pegu and Ayeyarwady River. Resistance continued until 1995 when NMSP and SLORC agreed a cease-fire and, in 1996, the Mon Unity League was founded.

In 1947, Mon National Day was created to celebrate the ancient founding of Hanthawady, the last Mon Kingdom, which had its seat in Pegu. (It follows the full moon on the 11th month of the Mon lunar calendar, except in Phrapadaeng, Thailand, where it is celebrated at Songkran.)

The largest Mon refugee communities are currently in Thailand, with smaller communities in the United States, Australia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

[edit] Language and script
See also: Mon language

The Mon language is part of the Monic group of the Mon-Khmer branch of the Austro-Asiatic family, closely related to the Nyah Kur language and more distantly related to Khmer. The writing system is Indic based. The Burmans adapted the Mon script for Burmese following their conquest of Mon territory.

[edit] Traditional culture

Mon culture and traditional heritages includes spiritual dances, musical instruments such as crocodile xylophone, harp, and flat guitar. Mon dances are usually played in a formal theater or sometimes in an informal district of any village. The dances are followed by background music using a circular set of tuned drums and claps, crocodile xylophone, gongs, flute, flat guitar, harp, etc. Mon in Burma wear clothes similar to the Bamars. Those living in Thailand have adopted Thai style scarfs and skirts.