Page 383 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

MyanMar’s ethnic groups CONTEXTS 381
Myanmar’s ethnic groups

Myanmar is home to an extraordinary patchwork of peoples. No fewer than
135 different ethnic groups are officially recognized by the government,
arranged into eight “major national ethnic races”: Bamar, Chin, Kachin, Kayah,
Kayin, Mon, Rakhine and Shan. There are also some major ethnic groups not
officially recognized, including the Burmese Chinese (three percent of the
population), Burmese Indians (two percent of the population) and the
embattled Rohingya (see box, p.121), not to mention the mixed-race
Anglo-Burmese. Most ethnic groups speak their own language, with
Burmese as a second language – although some (such as the Rakhine) speak
a dialect of Burmese as their first language.

Ethnically, Myanmar is dominated by the Bamar, who have occupied the fertile
Ayeyarwady valley and central plains for the past thousand years. Other ethnic groups
tend to inhabit the country’s mountainous margins, battling inhospitable terrain and
(in recent decades) widespread military repression and human-rights abuses – every
single major ethnic group in the country has been at war with the central government
at some point since independence, with most insurgencies dragging on into the 1990s,
while those in parts of Shan and Kachin states continue to this day.

Bamar
Far and away Myanmar’s largest ethnic group are the Bamar (still occasionally referred to
by their old colonial-era name, “Burmans”, or, less accurately, as the “Burmese”, although
properly speaking this adjective refers to all citizens of Myanmar rather than the Bamar
alone). The Bamar now make up over two-thirds of the national population – around
38 million people – and have largely assimilated formerly distinct ethnic groups including
the now vanished Pyu people (see p.358) as well as large numbers of formerly independent
Mon and other minorities who have been steadily “Burmanized” over the past centuries.
Originally hailing from Yunnan in southern China, the Bamar’s traditional heartlands
were the fertile Ayeyarwady River valley and surrounding plains, where they first settled
in around 1000 AD, establishing the kingdom of Bagan. Bamar culture and language
are now inextricably bound with that of the nation as a whole – the Bamar language,
Burmese, is now Myanmar’s official mother tongue, and many other marks of Bamar
identity (the wearing of longyi and thanaka, for example; see box, p.7) have become
synonymous with the country as a whole.

Shan
Myanmar’s second-largest ethnic group – roughly nine percent of the population
(around five million people) – the Shan live mainly in eastern Myanmar (as well as
across the border in northern Thailand), where they have given their name to the
country’s largest state. Culturally and linguistically the Shan are closely related to the
Tai peoples of Thailand and Laos – indeed, the Shan refer to themselves as “Tai”, the
name “Shan” being a Burmese corruption of “Siam”. Originating, like the Bamar, from
Yunnan in southern China, the Shan have inhabited eastern Myanmar since at least the
tenth century, playing a major role in the country’s history. Most are Buddhist and
speak the Shan language, closely related to Thai and Lao.

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