The Maritime Frontier of Burma: Exploring Political, Cultural and Commercial Interaction in the Indian Ocean World, 1200-1800

Description

Situated at the periphery of both South and Southeast Asia, the maritime frontier of Burma (Arakan, Lower Burma and Tenasserim) has long been neglected area of study. In spite of its location at the outskirts of powerful Asian polities such as Taungngu Burma, Ayutthaya and Mughal India, it served as an important cultural and commercial crossroads connecting all the regions surrounding the Bay of Bengal. For the first time in Burmese studies, this volume explores the interactive elements of Coastal Burma's civilization by bringing together a unique array of scholars, both historians and art historians, both anglophones and francophones, both South Asianists and Southeast Asianists. The result is a creative and colorful pastiche that pays tribute to Burma's distinctive political, cultural and commercial place in the Indian Ocean world. Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Preface Burma at the Frontier of South, East and Southeast Asia: A Geographic Perspective Burma in Early Thai Sources: An Essay on Models of Perception Lower Burma and Bago in the History of Burma Coastal Peripheries during the Pagan Period The Mergui-Tenasserim Region in the Context of the Maritime Silk Road: From the Beginning of the Christian Era to the End of the Thirteenth Century AD Coastal Burma and the Trading World of the Bay of Bengal, 1500-1680 And a River runs through it: The Mrauk U Kingdom and its Bay of Bengal Context On Arakanese Territorial Expansion: Origins, Context, Means and Practice Arakan at the Turn of the First Millennium of the Arakanese Era Towards a History of the Architecture of Mrauk U An Arakanese Perspective from the Dutch Sources: Images of the Kingdom of Arakan in the Seventeenth Century Myth and History of Bengali Identity in Arakan Beyond State-centered Histories in Western Burma. Missionizing Monks and Intra-regional Migrants in the Arakan Littoral, c. 1784-1860 Locating Arakan in Time, Space, and Historical Scholarship Authors List of Maps and Illustrations Index