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HISTORY


Pre-Colonial

The Mon were one of the earliest distinct groups to occupy Burma, moving into the area as early as 1500 BCE, or possibly earlier. The Mon are primarily associated with the historical kingdoms of Dvaravati and Haripunchai ; up until the 14th century, outposts of Mon culture continued to spread very far east, including modern Thai and Issan 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 intermarried freely with Cambodian 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 Haripunchai 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 Thais and Cambodians converted from Hindu/Mahayanism to Theravada Buddhism (increasingly from the 15th century). 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, as the lineage was destroyed in India, and repeatedly disrupted by invasions in Sri Lanka .

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.

The last Mon kingdom was Hongsavatoi - they reconquered much of their lost territory until the energetic Burman leader U Aungzeya forced them back and captured the kingdom by 1757 . The Mon religious leaders were forced to flee to Siam and the Mon have been harshly repressed from the 1750s to the present day.


Colonial

Burma, including the Mon territories, was conquered by the British by 1824 after the Second Anglo-Burmese War . The Mon aided the British in the overthrow of the Burman monarchy.
Mon were under Burman's massacre as they lost their kingdom and seeked asylum under the Thai Kingdom. During which time, the British Invasion to Burma saved Mon to survive from Burman's massacre in the Southern Burma until today.


Post-Colonial

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. SLORC troops continued to operate in defiance of the agreement.

In 1947 Mon National Day was created to celebrate the ancient founding of Hongsawatoi , 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 .)


LANGUAGE AND SCRIPT

The Mon Language is part of the Monic Mon-Khmer branch of the Austro-Asiatic family, related to Khmer . The writing system is Indic based. The Burmans took and adapted the Mon alphabet following their conquest.


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