Burmans

By MANNING NASH

Burmese, Myanmarese

The Burmans speak Burmese (a Tibeto-Burman language) and live in the central plain of Burma, in the Union of Burma, which was renamed Myanmar in 1990. “Burman” is the name of the people of this region, while “Burmese” refers to the language and culture of these people and to other citizens of Myanmar. The Burmans are over-whelmingly adherents of Theravada Buddhism. Myanmar or Burma lies between India and China and also borders Thailand. The central plain formed by the Irrawaddy River and the Salween River is the home of the Burman, while the hill country around the plain is populated by Karen, Kachin, Chin, Shan, and some smaller tribal groups. The climate is dominated by the monsoon, which brings a rainy season lasting from June to October, followed by a brief cool season, and then a four- or five-month hot and dry season.

The official count for the country of Burma, in 1988 was 33 million. In 2012, the country population was estimated to be 54,584,650. Burmese speakers are about 68 percent of the national population, so the estimate for the number of Burmans in 2012 is about 37 million. Population growth is estimated at about 1 percent per year.

Burmese is a part of the Tibeto-Burmese Family, a Subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan Family. Outside the Sino-Tibetan Family—which includes Kachin, Chin, and several tribal languages on the China border—Tai (various dialects in the Shan states), Mon-Khmer (lower Burma), and some Indian languages on the western frontier are spoken in Myanmar.

The conquest of Yunnan by Kublai Khan shook the Burmans’ throne along with the rest of mainland southeast Asia, and after the fall of the capital at Pagan various principalities under shifting Tai, Mon, and Burman rulers held sway in various parts of the country. A new Burmans’ dynasty arose in Pegu and later shifted to Ava as its capital, giving an inland central-valley orientation to this and future Burmese regimes.

Upon its founding, the Union of Burma was plagued by ethnic unrest from separatist movements among the Karens (KNDO was the name of the armed insurgency) and various Communist and other insurgent groups, as well as vicious political in-fighting among the Thakins and other Burmese leaders. The hero of the independence movement, Aung Sang, and members of his cabinet, were assassinated by opponents. U Nu was elected prime minister, but the troubles with separatists, insurgents, and political disunity continued, leading to a caretaker government of the army under the command of General Ne Win.. U Nu won another election, but in 1962 the army again took control by establishing a single-party authoritarian regime under General Ne Win. In 2008, the military-backed government drafted a new constitution that promised substantial political reforms, including addressing the political aspirations of pro-democracy forces (led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of the slain independence movement leader) by allowing general elections. But, as of 2012, the reforms remain limited. In 2010, for example, the regime ended the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi but barred her supporters in the popular National League for Democracy from election and other political activities. Aung San Suu Kyi and her allies have won a portion of vacated seats in the legislature in the by-elections of April 2012. But 80% of the 664 seats in the legislature are still held by lawmakers aligned with the military-backed ruling party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

European trade and frontier squabbles led to three Anglo-Burman wars; the peacock throne was toppled and the last king Thibaw and his queen were sent into exile. Under British rule Burma became a province of India. Lower Burma was turned into one of the world's largest exporters of rice, while teak, rubies, and other products continued to enter world markets. A sort of ethnic division of labor took place with Europeans at the economic and political top, and most of the Burmans locked into the lower spaces of the classic plural or export economy. This export economy was hard hit by the world depression of the 1930s, and a rising nationalism combined with hard times led to the Saya San rebellion, suppressed by the British.

In World War II the Japanese occupied Burma and granted it nominal independence. The Japanese trained the “Thirty heroes” who became the military leaders of the independence movement called the “Thakins.” Burma received independence in 1948 and proceeded to attempt to rebuild a war-ravaged country.

The Burmans apparently migrated south from Yunnan, along with several other linguistic and cultural groups, more than 3,000 years ago. The Mons, the Tai, and the Burmans, the predominant population, were all of the same physical type called southern Mongoloid. The history of Burma begins with King Anawratha in 1057, when the king conquered the Mons in southern Burma and brought back, according to legend, a complete copy of the three books of the Pali canon, the basis of Theravada Buddhism.

Anawratha proceeded to make Theravada Buddhism the official religion of his kingdom, driving out other varieties of Buddhism and attempting to suppress and regulate forms of animism. This dynasty reigned for about two and one-half centuries.

Villages are the predominant form of human settlement. Over 65,000 villages make Myanmar a mainly rural country. Villages are of three kinds. In Upper Burma the village surrounded by a palisade or a fence is common. Ingress and egress are through a village gate, and the fence or palisade is often manned by village guards. There are also clustered villages without a boundary fence. These villages do not have regular plans and usually lack public buildings. The only major difference between houses is that some have one story, others two. Monasteries are always placed outside the bounds of the village. Fields lie beyond the village, usually within walking distance, but houses are set among trees and fruit crops. The third settlement type is a line village strung out along a road or river bank. Towns and cities are found near or on major rivers and waterways, indicating both irrigation centers and transport networks. Yangon (formerly Rangoon) is a major Burmese city and the nation's capital; Mandalay is the home of former kings and the cultural capital.

Wet-rice cultivation dominates agricultural activity. Most of that crop is consumed domestically because the export industry has shriveled under the centralized control of the military powers. Upland, rain-fed rice is common in Upper Burma above the 100-centimeter rain line, and in the hill country slash-and-burn agriculture (swidden agriculture rather than crop rotation) is practiced. Cotton, maize, peanuts, onions, and other crops are produced.

In the sector of industry and mining, technology is slightly obsolete but appropriate; in agriculture, on the other hand, most of the technology is geared to the small rice producer. A wooden plow with metal share yoked to a pair of bullocks, the wooden-toothed harrow, the sickle, the metal-bladed hoe, a long knife, ropes and twine of various grasses, and the forked stick comprise the long-standing farming kit. Bamboo and wood items are ubiquitous, and iron and metal nearly so. Modern technology is represented by the sewing machine, the loudspeaker and amplifier, the battery-run transistor radio, some guns, and an occasional vehicle. In the cities an assortment of machines and vehicles dating from World War II predominates.

Logging, especially of teak for export, is still an important industry. There is an active fishing industry in Burmese waters, and dried shrimp and fish are important components in the diet. Mining of rubies and the export of jade are successful industries. Drilling for and refining oil is attracting foreign investments. Among Burmese handicrafts, lacquer ware is distinctive.

There is a small livestock industry, some jute processing, and a little tin and tungsten mining. The economy, however, remains overwhelmingly agricultural and extractive.

Wood carving, stone sculpting, and brass casting are local industries. Tobacco, cheroots, and cigars are produced.

According to Brant’s (1954) account of a Burmese village in 1950, the wife’s role combined two sets of tasks. She was responsible for routine tasks such as preparation of food and serving of meals, keeping the house orderly and clean, and looking after small children. She also controlled the family income and made all important decisions as to expenditures. Children help their parents in tending cattle, getting firewood, and winnowing rice. Expected duties of the husband include striving to acquire wealth, providing the wife with a good house, maintaining family members with tender watchfulness, looking after the cattle with care and supporting poor relatives. These divisions are not rigid. Men, for example, often cook and tend babies. As an exception, women are strictly barred from the monkhood.

All the land cultivated or previously claimed by a man was traditional regarded as private property of the holder. All unclaimed and/or uncultivated land belonged to the king who was also entitled to a share of the produce on individual holdings. According to Scott (1910: 531), traditional Burmese land holding system provided seven methods of acquiring land. These were 1) by gift from the king as reward for services offered as solders and officials, 2) by inheritance, 3) by purchase, 4) by allotment from civil officers, 5) by personally claiming from the jungle, 6) by gift and 7) by unchallenged occupation for a period of ten years.

The kinship system counts relatives on both the mother's and father's side, and there are no kinship-based groups beyond the family. It is not the category of kinship that is important, but rather the personal relations cultivated, relative age, generation, and the sex of persons who are linked. Age, sex, and generation, in fact, are the major axes for ordering most social relations.

Beyond the nuclear family, terms of address reflect relative age, seniority, and respect rather than the degree or category of kinship.

Most marriages are monogamous. Marriages are not a sacramental affair and are arranged by families, but usually on the request of one or the other of the potential marriage partners. Divorce is easy, informal, but infrequent after the arrival of children.

Families tend to be nuclear and to live in their own compound, but many households (the really effective unit) are made up of extended families or compound families. This results in part from the normal cycle of family formation and dissolution rather than from a preference for larger than nuclear families. The strongest bond in the family is the mother-daughter relationship, which is life-long.

Burmese culture is frequently remarked for its emphasis upon equality including inheritance among siblings regardless of sex and seniority.

Children deemed incapable of understanding the moral teachings of Budhism are generally indulged. They are less unencumbered by rigid discipline, apart from inculcating of respect for elders. Young boys are initiated into the monkhood early in life and this brings great religious merit to their parents.

The current constitution of Myanmar, which was approved in a referendum in May 2008, divides the country into seven states and seven regions. Each of the seven states represent the traditional homeland of a particular ethnic minority after which it is named. By contrast, each of the severn regions are administrative divisions inhabited by the demographically dominant Burmans. Each region is subdivided into districts, which are further subdivided into townships, wards, and villages.

The traditional Burmese kingdom was divided into large administrative units, each headed by a governor (wun) appointed by the court. Since the governors, however, resided at the capital, local government was administered by ‘village circle” headmen (myothugyi), a “village circle” consisting of a number of villages within a designated area. These headmen had two types of subjects. One type, the athin, was subject to his dominion by virtue of residence in a village within his “circle” of contiguous villages. The second type, a nonresidential group called ahmudan, owned him allegiance - usually service (asu) – by virtue of descent. Though scattered, the ahmudan generally lived within a bounded area recognized as the domain of the headman.

As noted under History and Cultural Relations above, the Burmanshave undergone through bitter time of conflict and civil war. Part of the reason relates to deep seated conflicts between the interests of the politically and demographically dominant ethnic Burmans with the aspirations of minority ethnic groups for self-determination. The problem is also related to vicious in-fighting among Burmans’ political elites . An example of the later includes the assassination of the independence movement (Thakin) hero Aung Sang and members of his cabinet by opponents.

Burmese Buddhism is characterized by consensual elements of knowledge, belief, and practice that are separate from the more specialized knowledge of the Pali Canon and the commentaries known to some learned monks. The ideas of kan (related to karma) and kutho (merit) underlie religious practice. Kan is the moral nucleus earned throughout many lives that goes on from life to life in the never-ending chain of rebirth, until the very remote end of nirvana, when rebirth ends. Rebirth, in form and place, is determined by the accumulated merits and demerits earned in previous existences. A person can be reborn in one of the three levels of existence: this world, the hells below, or the various heavens above. The whole worldview of Buddhism is summed up in the continually heard refrain: aneiksa (change, the impermanence of everything), dokhka (life is suffering), and anatta (no self, the ego is an illusion). The next most common summary of the belief system is the repetition of the triple jewel: I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the teaching, and I take refuge in the monkhood.

Supplementary to the Buddhist worldview are belief systems involved with crisis management, prediction, and divination. Nats are the most important of these systems. These spirits are mainly malevolent and must be propitiated at stated times and places to avoid harm and evil. There are also ghosts, demons, spirits, and goblins in the forest, caves, and natural features capable of causing trouble to people.

Buddhism is a pervading force in Burmese society. The hill-sides dotted with pagodas, the hosts of saffron-robed monks, and innumerable monasteries all proclaim the breadth and depth of Buddhist belief and practice in Myanmar. Almost all Burmans (more than 95 percent) are Buddhist. There are also Christians, chiefly among the Karen, Kachin, and Chin, and a sprinkling of Muslims and Hindus. Buddhism is Theravada, although this distinction is only meaningful to the learned or sophisticated monk or abbot. The religion of the ordinary Burman is boda batha, the way of the Buddha.

Alchemy, astrology, and horoscope casting are employed in attempts to read the future disposition of forces toward the affairs of individuals.

The monkhood (sangha) is loosely organized into two principal sects without significant doctrinal splits. Monks (pongyi) are highly honored, and most Burmese boys spend some time in a monastery after an induction ceremony (shinbyu) mimicking the Buddha's renunciation of secular life.

Important ceremonial days in the Burmese calendar year include the new year (thingyan, the Buddhist lent (waso(), the festival of lights (thadingyut) and day of offerings (kahtein().

The pwe (a play, or a song and dance performance), often lasting several days and nights, often accompanies the ritual calendar.

There is a system of curing and healing depending on notions of a balance of elements in the patient.

Death is regarded as an inevitable course of nature. The body of the deceased is ceremonially bathed by relatives with water from a pot prepared for this purpose. Placed in a wooden coffin, the body is then carried feet first for burial in a cemetery. The soul is believed to leave the body prior to burial. The dead are commemorated through feasts and rituals.

Steinberg, David, 1980. Burma's Road Toward Development, Growth, and Ideology under Military Rule. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.

Tinker, Hugh, 1959. The Union of Burma: A Study of the First Years of Independence. London and New York: Oxford University Press.

CIA. 2012. The World Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bm.html. Accessed July 11, 2012.

Nash, Manning, 1973. The Golden Road to Modernity: Village Life in Contemporary Burma. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

New York Times. 2012. “Myanmar”.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/myanmar/index.html?8qa accessed August 14, 2012

Spiro, Melford E., 1970. Buddhism and Society: A Great Tradition and Its Burmese Vicissitudes. New York: Harper & Row.

Shway Yoe [James George Scott], 1882. The Burman, His Life and Notions. Reprint. 1963. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.

This culture summary is based on the article, "Burmese" by Manning Nash, in the Encyclopedia of World Culture, Vol. 3, South Asia, 1992.Paul Hockings, ed. MacMillan Reference, USA. Teferi Abate Adem wrote the synopsis and indexing notes in July 2011. The information on demography and recent political reforms was updated in July 2012.