About Mrauk U
Largely unknown to the Western
world for much of its turbulent history, Arakan
played a pivotal role in the exchange of cultures
and religions between Indi a and Southeast Asia. For
over a thousand years the region which now forms the Rakhine State of the Union of Myanmar (Burma) was an
independent state whose rich history is only slowly
being paid the attention it deserves. Stretching
along the Bay of Bengal, from the Naaf River which
separates it from Bangladesh to Cape Negrais in
southern Burma, it occupies the narrow strip of land
to the west of the mountains of the Arakan Yoma
(Range). Land and sea routes connected it with
Bengal to the west and Burma proper to the east,
routes that were traveled by peoples, religions and
cultures. When its neighbors were weak, Arakan was
able to expand its influence along the coast to the
east, west and south. At other times strong and
aggressive neighbouring states would drive the
Arakanese back to their homeland in the north or,
at times, seek to conquer them.
Arakan's heartland was in its north, based on the
rich alluvial flood plains of the adjoining Kaladan
and Le-mro valleys. The earliest cities were in the
Kaladan valley, backed by hills and facing west, and
were thus open to influence from India and beyond.
Subsequently cities were founded west of the Le-mro
River, more accessible to Burma proper. The greatest
city, Mrauk-U, bestrides the gap between these two
valleys and thus could control both. All these
cities were accessible to the Bay of Bengal through
the tidal Mayu, Kaladan and Le-mro Rivers and their
tributaries.
From the early centuries of the present era
Arakan was ruled by kings who adopted Indian titles
an d traditions to suit their own environment. Indian
Brahmins conducted the royal ceremonial, Buddhist
monks spread their teachings, traders came and went
and artists and architects used Indian models for
inspiration. In the later period, there was also
influence from Islamic courts of Bengal and Delhi.
As an important centre for trade and as a goal of
Buddhist pilgrims it was also the recipient of
influence from other cultural centres in Southeast
Asia. But the peoples of Arakan - like their
counterparts elsewhere. In the region - also
followed older traditions connected with their land
and the spirits which guarded it. Many of these
still survive in fertility and spirit cults, or have
been absorbed into the Buddhist Pantheon.
Arakan was discovered and forgotten by the rest
of the world as its power rose and fell. In the
first century AD the Alexandrian geographer Ptolemy
knew it as Argyre, the land of silver, which was
visited by merchants from southern India. Chinese
Buddhist pilgrims of the seventh century knew it and
the area of east Bengal within its cultural sphere
as A-li-ki-lo or Harikela. The Burmese inscriptions
of Pagan and Ava from the twelfth to fifteenth
centuries refer to the Country as Rakhaing, the
Tibetan historians Rakhan, and the Sri Lankan
chronicles Rakhanga. Portuguese explorers from the
fifteenth century call it Rachani and Aracan, and
were followed in this by the later Dutch and English
traders. The spelling 'Arakan' became standard in
the eighteenth century.
After Arakan was annexed to India by the British
in 1826 a number of scholar-administrators began to
study in antiquities, and in 1889 Dr Emil
F orchhammer, a Swiss Pali scholar employed by the
Government of India, undertook a survey of the sites
of the old cities and the major monuments. His
comprehensive account remains the best to date.
Later archaeologists found sites like Pagan in
central Burma more accessible and attractive than
those in remote and malarial Arakan, although the
region was visited briefly by Charles Duroisclle all
1920 and by U Lu Pe 'Will in 1940, Nevertheless, the
sites always attracted Arakanese scholars,
especially U San Shwe Bu who worked with British
colleagues in the writing, of Arakanese history.
A resurgence of interest led by key Arakanese in
the Burmese central government in the 1970s led to
further study being undertaken by Professor of
architecture U Myo Myint Sein and to the present
writer's work on the cultural history of the early
period. Some Vesali sites were excavated in the
1980s by the present Director-General of the
Department of Archaeology in Myanmar, U Nyunt Han.
Recognising the tourist potential of the region, the
government declared the old city of Mrauk-U a
Heritage area in 1996. It is now committed to
funding restoration of key shrines, and excavation
of the place sites of Vesali and Mrauk-U underway.
Some more information on Mrauk U
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