The Serpent and the King: The Dutch-Arakanese Relationship (Re-submitting)

The Serpent and the King: The Dutch-Arakanese Relationship


by Stephan Van Galen

D.G.E. Hall, the eminent historian of Southeast Asia, in his ‘’Studies in Dutch relations with Arakan’’, was the first to point out the importance of the Dutch language sources for a study on the history of Arakan. Hall pieced together a preliminary overview of the Dutch-Arakanese relationship on the basis of the published Daghregisters or diaries of Batavia. In his history of Southeast Asia Hall even based his description of 17th century Arakan almost entirely on the Daghregister and further source publications: the Corpus Diplomaticum Neerlando-Indicum and De Jonge’’s Opkomst van het Nederlandsch gezag in Oost-Indie.

The scope of Halls description of the Arakanese-Dutch relationship could however only be limited because of the nature of these source publications.

A recent article by Prof. Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Slaves and tyrants: Dutch tribulations in seventeenth-century Mrauk-U further highlights the need for a structured overview of the Arakanese-Dutch relationship. In this article Subrahmanyam has sketched the built-up of a proto-colonial discourse around the disastrous 1649 embassy of the Dutch ambassador Hensbroeck to the Arakanese court. The daghregister of this embassy, which ended in outright-armed conflict, has been used by Subrahmanyam to characterize the relationship between ‘’European’’ and ‘’Southeast Asian’’.

In this paper I will describe Arakanese-Dutch relations from 1608, when the first contacts were established, until the end of the era of systematic contacts in 168 when the Dutch factory in Arakan was closed. This description will not only be an attempt at providing a first structured overview of the relationship, it will also aim to provide a basis for further research.

I will begin with a short overview of the available sources for a study of the Arakanese-Dutch relationship and continue with a tentative periodisation, which I will illustrate with some occurrences from these periods that can be seen as characteristic for these phases in the relationship.

This paper is based on a re-examination of the Source publications used by Hall and study of unpublished source materials from the VOC archives.

The published sources can be divided in four groups, that is:
First the Daghregister of Batavia, which covers in its published form the period from 1624 to 1682.4

Secondly the Corpus Diplomaticum Neerlando-Indicum which is a compilation of what might be called the treaties between the United East India Company and various Asian rulers, this publication covers the period from 1596 to 1799.5

Thirdly De Jonge’’s formidable Opkomst van het Nederlandsch gezag in Oost-Indie, being a somewhat haphazard but still useful compilation of primary documents from the VOC archive covering the period 1595 to 1811.6

And finally the Generale Missiven van Gouverneur-Generaal en Raden aan Heeren XVII der Verenidge Oost-Indische Compagnie being the letters sent by the Governor-General and Council from Batavia to the Board of the VOC in the Netherlands, this last publication covers the period 1610 to 1750.7

The archival material from the VOC archives at the Hague used for this paper can be roughly divided into three categories.8 The missiven, or reports sent by the head of the Dutch factory in Arakan to the Governor and Council in Batavia constitute the first category, The daghregistersinstructies to new factors the third. held by the factors of the Company the second, and The Although we have access to only a few examples of the daghregisters they are of primary importance because they consist of day-to -day observations of VOC employees on trade and politics. They provide verbatim reproductions of conversations between VOC employees and Court officials and observations on Arakanese culture. Originally there must have been a continuous collections of these daghregisters for Arakan and even for Chittagong, but the majority of the Arakan diaries and all the Chittagong diaries have supposedly been destroyed during the early years of the nineteenth century on orders of the then Governor-General Herman Daendels.9 The available daghregisters at the Algemeen Rijksarchief at the Hague have survived because they were sent to the Heeren XVII in the Netherlands to serve as background information for the Generale Missiven or the copies of the missiven sent from Arakan to Batavia.
This brings us to the bulk of the material, the missiven. As I just mentioned copies of the missiven sent from Arakan to Batavia were annually forwarded to the Netherlands to provide the Board of the VOC with the necessary information for their policy decisions. These letters refer in the first place to the commercial situation in Arakan and the results of VOC’’s investments in the Arakanese markets. They provide information on the market structure, give analyses of market forces and describe the other players on the market. But this is only part of the information contained in these letters. They also provide us with a synopsis of the information contained in the daghregister, they give an overview of the situation at the Arakanese court and if necessary they sketch Arakans relations with its neighbours-especially when these might impair the Companies trade in Arakan. The instructies lastly contain the instructions sent fro Batavia or the early seventeenth century from the Choromandel coast to factors going out to Arakan. As one might expect the first of these provide the best information on the Arakanese situation while the latter say more about the objectives of the Company itself.
As a last remark on the sources, I want to add that in some respect the following discussion will be limited because I have not been in the position yet to conduct a systematic research in the original resolutions and the uitgaande brieven van Gouverneur-Generaal en Raden. This paper thus leaves aside the directions send from Batavia to the factors in Arakan. This should however not present a substantial hindrance as a thorough reading of the missiven from Arakan and the published sources gives us a good impression of the content of the instructions sent to Arakan by the Dutch directors at Batavia.

After this lengthy digression to the source materials I will now come to a provisional periodisation of the Dutch-Arakanese relationship. A first analysis of the materials collected from the VOC archives at the Hague suggests that we may divide the period under consideration into three phases.

The first phase in the Dutch-Arakanese relationship can probably be best described as one during which both parties shared a common enemy and as a result there was room for military cooperation. I suggest that this was the case from 1608 to 1620.

The second phase can be best described as being dominated by a growing economic interdependence of the Arakanese court of Batavia. This was the period from 1625 to 1647. The last phase of systematic contact runs from 165 to 1682 when it might be argued the interests of both parties slowly diverged.

I. 1608-1620
The first contacts between the Dutch and the Arakanese took place in 1608 when the Dutch arrived in Arakan to investigate trading possibilities in the bay of Bengal.10 They arrived in Arakan just after Mong Razagri had returned from an abortive expedition to lower Burma against Philip de Brito. The Arakanese king seemed determined to find new allies in his battle with the Portuguese. The king was faced not only with a hostile Portuguese community on his Eastern, but also on his Western flank. Here Sebastiao Gopcalves Tibau was well under way in becoming a potentially bigger embarrassment of the Arakanese king then de Brito already was.11 Mong Razagri was well aware of Dutch successes in their battles with the Portuguese.12 After the Arakanese king had sent an embassy to the Dutch in Masulipatnam in 1610 to enquire whether any support was still forthcoming, it was decided by the Dutch Company to send Jacob Dirksz. Kortenhoef to Arakan, not with any definite promises on military cooperation but to inform the Arakanese of the possibilities and limitations of any cooperation.1 As you can see on the sheet Kortenhoef was followed by several other employees, not because the trade with Arakan was extremely profitable, but mainly to keep the Company informed about events in the area and to provide a base for VOC ships cruising for Portuguese prizes.14 To understand this situation we have to take into consideration that at this movement trade meant also war for the VOC, moreover, it was reckoned that with a few good prizes the Company could more than defray its operating costs in the Bay of Bengal area.15 It is in this light that we have to look at the events of 1615 which I have selected as exemplary for this phase.

In 1615 a large fleet from Goa to assist Tibau in his conflict with Mong Khamoung, the successor to Mong Razagri. The importance of the ensuing naval battles between the Portuguese on the one hand and the Arakanese and the Dutch on the other having hitherto been misinterpreted or not well understand.16

Arthur Phayre in his history of Burma comments on this event as ‘’There happened to be lying there some Dutch vessels, and they joined the Arakanese flotilla to resist the [Portuguese] attack.17 Also in G.E. Harvey’’s history of Burma and in Hall’’s history of Southeast Asia it has remained an open question just why the Dutch ships had arrived in Arakan at such a critical juncture.18

Reading the accounts as presented by these authors one might be lead to believe that the sudden arrival of the Dutch on the scene came as much as a surprise to the Arakanese as to the Portuguese. There are however three important considerations that contradict this view.

Firstly it has to be remembered that the main objective of the Portuguese expedition was to assert control over the Arakanese country trade and to keep the Dutch Company out of the coast waters of lower Burma. The Portuguese were well aware of the presence of two Dutch ships in Arakan and were actively seeking a naval engagement.19

Secondly, as we have seen, the Dutch presence in Arakan was not only aimed at commerce but also centred around military objectives, namely to secure access to the trade of the Bay of Bengal. The Dutch ships in Arakan had permission to assist the Arakanese in their conflict with Portuguese.20

And thirdly, the Arakanese not only counted on an attack from Tibau, no they had even requested and obtained Dutch support for an offensive action against Tibau.21

The arrival of the Portuguese fleet at the mouth of the Kaladan River on the rd of October 1615 could therefore not have been a total surprise to the Arakanese-Dutch alliance.22

A full scale attack finally came on the 15th of October1, leaving the allies more than a week to prepare for battle, the Portuguese commander had lost the element of surprise and was driven of the river by the combined Arakanese-Dutch forces.24 The Portuguese armada under Dom Francisco de Menezes consequently set sail to unite with Tibau’’s forces and they planned a second attack at Mrauk-U.25 This attack came on the 18th of November when the combined Portuguese forces appeared in the Kaladan river once again. This time the Allies were even more prepared. They had constructed six batteries on the Eastern bank of the river and arranged their ships in a line, surrounded with a stockade in the shallow part of the river. After a heavy cannonade from both sides the Allies broke their line and chased the Portuguese with the tide from the river.26Directly following this victory Mong Khamoung forces were attacked on the island of Cheduba by a Burmese force, a conflict that ended in a stand-off after which the Burmese were forced to retreat.27 Having thus secured his position in Arakan Mong Khamoung invited the Dutch to join him in an attack on what was left of Tibau’’s forces on Sundiva, this attack took place in January 1616. The Allies were again successful and after a 2-day battle Tibau was driven of the island.28
As we have seen the stationing of the two Dutch vessels in Arakan had been a conscious move of the Dutch and the Arakanese, totally in accordance with the objectives of both parties. It was not a mere lucky coincidence. These victories however didn’’t mean that Arakan now controlled the Bengal’’s coastal trade, as late as 1625 the Portuguese were able to disrupt the Arakan trade to a considerable extent. Moreover the control of the restored Toungoo dynasty over Lower Burma meant that also the direct trade with Ava had come to a standstill.29 Mong Khamoung control over the area from Chittagong to Cape Negrais was still constantly being questioned and tested.
Because of this instability Arakan had lost its commercial and military value to the VOC, which accordingly withdrew its personal from Mrauk-U in 1620.0

 
I. 162-1647
The second phase of the Arakanese-Dutch relationship started in 162 when Hendrick Lambrechts arrived at the court of the new king Thiri Thudhamma. The latter offered Lambrechts a large supply of slaves and a stone factory building, to be built on account of the king. After Jan Pietersz Goens ruthless expedition to Banda in 1622 this was welcome news in Batavia.1 Slaves would however not be the only incentive the VOC had to pursue the Arakan trade. After 1628 the wars with Mataram meant that the Company had no access to Javanese rice, this combined with the fact that plantations on Banda could not produce enough rice for their own subsistence meant that the VOC had to look elsewhere for its rice. Siam and Arakan where two obvious places to look for rice imports.2

In the years from 162 to 161 the Company was busy trying to establish a permanent factory in Arakan, when this did not meet with success the Arakan trade was left from 161 to 165 to the Batavian free-burgher.

Repeated embassies (1627 and 164) sent by the Arakanese to Batavia confirmed the importance they attached to more durable trading relations and the settlement of a permanent factory in Mrauk-U.4 That this was also felt in Batavia proves the resolution of the Governor-General and Council taken in July 164, when it was decided to ‘’embrace’’ the trade of Bengal, Pegu and Arakan.5 With the arrival of Adam van der Mandere in 165 the contacts between the Dutch and the Arakanese became more permanent.6 During this period we can discern a growing economic interdependence of the Arakanese court and Batavia. Rice exports from Arakan to Batavia increased as a result of the stability brought by the reign of Thiri Thudhamma and his successors. The Arakanese economy in this period rapidly grew and trading relations between Arakan and Atjeh, Chronomandel and Tenasserim became more intense.

The daghregisters of Van der Mandere’’s successor, Arent van der Helm presented a good picture of the state of the Arakanese-Dutch relationship. Van der Helm appears almost daily at the court of Narabadigri where he discusses freely with the nobility of Arakan on all matters of state. His good relations with the Portuguese and the King’’s treasurer at Court was on the one hand the result of the large contribution made by the VOC to the Arakanese economy, and on the other a side effect of the potential military power he had at his disposal with the frequent arrival of large ships from Batavia and occasionally Choromandel. From the daghregisters kept by Van der Helm we can conclude that his sudden departure from Arakan in 1647 was closely related to the change in Government in the last months of 1645. It seems that the Dutch factor had been an active opponent of the accession to the throne of the new king Thado Mong Tara. It is in this light that we should view the embassy of Jacob Hensbroeck in 1650. Hensbroeck hostile reception at the Arakanese court was in my view directly related to Van der Helms efforts to block Thado Mong Tara pretensions to the crown. The new king did in fact not disguise the fact that he was much disturbed that Van der helm had behaved in such a way as if he was part of the Arakanese elite.
I. 165-1682

During the third and last phase the growth of the VOC’’s trade in Bengal and its diminishing dependence on Arakanese slaves and rice meant that the interest of the Arakanese and the Dutch slowly diverged.

In 165 the contacts between Arakan and Batavia were renewed by an embassy under John Goessens.40 Goessens was able to negotiate a new contact with the young king Sandathudhamma Raza, who had been on the throne for less than a year when the embassy arrived.

A striking example of this new situation was the- often romanticized- episode of Shah Shuja.42 The VOC’’s growing dependence on its Bengal trade meant that it could not remain obvious to threats from the Mughal subahdar of Bengal. The VOC therefore discontinued its activities in Arakan in 1666 and even sent a small naval squadron to Bengal in aid of the Mughal conquest of Chittagong.4 Arakan had become only a cheap market for rice, but rice was also to be had at other places in the Bay of Bengal. Slaves on the other hand were during this period also available from a variety of sources. The only reason for the VOC to continue its factory in Arakan the rice market showed signs of collapse and the internal situation in Arakan became more and more unstable the VOC in 1682 decide to discontinue its operations in Arakan. Thus ended the era of systematic contacts between the Dutch and Arakan. As I have pointed out the nature of the Arakanese-Dutch relationship underwent several changes over time. While it started out as a military alliance to ensure that Portuguese dominance of the high seas be broken, it developed slowly to a more commercial relationship.

From the beginning of the 1620’’s a substantial trade in rice and slaves developed between Arakan and Batavia. Although it is difficult to assess the impact of this large-scale trade on the Arakanese economy it seems that trade in Arakan was growing rapidly during this period. It is therefore extremely difficult to construct a seventeenth century crisis for Arakan. Especially if we take into account the large building programmes initiated by king Narabadigri in the latter part of the century and add to this the extensive patronage of the arts, which made Arakan a cultural center of importance in the region one can only be left to conclude that from the mid 1620’’s the Arakanese economy went through a period of growth and expansion.

Only after the conquest of Chittagong a gradual decline set in when not only the Dutch Company left Arakan, other merchants did the same, and so the rice market and other markets collapsed.

(mentioned in WEEKLY MAGAZINE of the Independent News, BD)
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The Rise and Fall of the Kingdom of Mrohaung in Arakan (Re-submitting)

The Rise and Fall of the Kingdom of Mrohaung in Arakan

by D.G.E. Hall

Arakan stretches for some 350 miles along the eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal to the south of the Chittagong division of East Bengal. It is separated from Burma by a long, deep range of mountains, the Arakan Roma, through which there are only two serviceable passes, the Ann connecting with Minbu on the west bank of the Irrawaddy, and the Taungup connecting with Prome. The Arakanese call themselves Rakhaing and their country Rakhaingpray. According to Sir Arthur Phayre, the word is a corruption of the Pali rakkhaso (Skt. rakshasa) meaning ‘’ogre’’ (Burmese bili) or guardian of the mansion of Indra on Mount Meru. Sir Henry Yule identifies the Angyre or Silverland of Ptolemy with Arakan. But Arakan produced no silver and the previously accepted views of Ptolemy’’s idea concerning the Indo-Chinese peninsula are now open to question.
The Arakanese of today are basically Burmese, though with an unmistakable Indian admixture. Although mainly Buddhist, they have been influenced by long centuries of contact with Muslim India. Their language is Burmese with some dialectical differences and an older form of pronunciation, especially noticeable in their retention of the ‘’r’’ sound, which the Burmese have changed to ‘’y’’. The Bengalis refer to them by the name Magh, a word adopted by seventeenth-century European writers and written ‘’Mugg’’. The name is also applied to a class of people belonging to Chittagong who are Buddhists but speak Bengali and are not Mongoloid. Much that is fanciful has been written about its possible etymology, but the question is as yet unsolved.

Buddhism would seem to have reached Arakan long before its arrival in the interior of Burma, and the famous Mahamuni image, brought from Arakan by the Burmese in 1785, and now to be seen in the Arakan Pagoda at Mandalay, may date from the early Christian era.

Buddhism would seem to have reached Arakan long before its arrival in the interior of Burma, and the famous Mahamuni image, brought from Arakan by the Burmese in 1785, and now to be seen in the Arakan Pagoda at Mandalay, may date from the early Christian era. Inscriptions mention a Candra dynasty, which may have been founded as early as the middle of the fourth century A.D. Its capital was called by the Indian name of Vaisali, and thirteen kings of the dynasty are said to have reigned there for a total period of 230 years. The Arakanese chronicles claim that the kingdom was founded in the year 2666 B.C., and contain lists of kings beginning that date.

The Burmese do not seem to have settled in Arakan until possibly as late as the tenth century A.D. Hence earlier dynasties are thought to have been Indian, ruling over a population similar to that of Bengal. All the capitals known to history have been in the north near modern Akyab. It was a district subject to chronic raids from hill tribes- Shans, Burmese, and Bengalis- and there were long periods when settled government can hardly have existed. But the spirit of independence was always strong, and in the business of raiding the Arakanese could usually give as much as they received. Their main activity was by sea into Bengal, and they developed great skill in sea and riverine warfare. By the middle of the sixteenth century they were the terror of the Ganges delta.

North Arakan was conquered by Anawrahta of Pagan (1044-77), but was not incorporated in his kingdom. It remained a semi-independent feudatory state under its hereditary kings. When Pagan fell in 1287 Arakan asserted its independence under the famous Mong Hti, whose reign, according to the chronicles, lasted for the fabulously long period of ninety-five years (1279-1374). His reign is also notable for the defeat of a great Bengali raid. After his death Arakan was for a considerable time one of the theatres of war in the great struggle between Ava and the Mon kingdom of Pegu. Both sides sought to gain control over it. First the Burmese, then the Mons, placed their nominees on its throne.

When in 1404 the Burmese regained control King Narameikhla fled to Bengal, where he was hospitably received by King Ahmed Shah of Gaur. During his exile he distinguished himself while assisting his host to repel in invasion, and when in 1426 Ahmed Shah died and was succeeded by Nazir Shah the new ruler provided him with a force for the recovery of his kingdom under the command of a general called in the Arakanese chronicle Wali Shah. This man, however, turned traitor, and in league with a disloyal Arakanese chieftain imprisoned Narameikhla. The king managed to escaped, and in 1430 regained his throne with the aid of a second force supplied by Nazir Shah.

He thereupon built himself a new capital named Mrauk-U in Arakanese, but usually known by its Arakanese name of Mrohaung. The date of its foundation is given as 1433. King Narameikhla held his kingdom as the vassal of Gaur, and in token of this he and his immediate successor, though Buddhists, added Mahommendan titles to their Arakanese ones and issued medallions bearing the Kalima, the Mahommendan confession of faith.

In 1434 Narameikhla was succeeded by his brother Mong Khari, also known as Ali Khan, who declared his independence of Gaur. His son Basawpru, who succeeded him in 1459, took advantage of the weakness of Barbek Shah of Gaur to seize Chittagong. He and his successors continued to use Mohammedan titles, no longer as a sign of vassaldom but as a token of their sovereignty over Chittagong, which was recognized as lying beyond the geographical borders of Arakan. Chittagong had for centuries been a bone of contention between Arakan and Bengal and had often changed hands. It was not to remain in Arakanese hands until 1666, when the Mughals recovered it permanently for India.

Basawpru was murdered in 1482 and his country entered upon a half-century of disorder and dynastic weakness. No less than eight kings came to the throne; most of them were assassinated. Then in 1531 a capable young king, Mong Bong, came to the throne and Arakan entered upon a new era. It was in his reign that the first European ships made their appearance, as raiders, and that the Portuguese free-booters (feringhi) began to settle at Chittagong. It was in his reign also that Tabinshwehti revived Burmese power, conquered the Mon kingdom of Pegu, and threatened the defences of his capital with massive earthworks and dug a deep moat, which was filled with tidal water from the river. Hence in 1544, when the inevitable Burmese attack came, although Mong Bong could not defeat the invaders in the open, the defence works of Mrohaung proved an obstacle against which even the great Tabinshwehti could not prevail when he appeared before them in 1546. While the siege was on the Raja of Tipperah raided Chittagong and Ramu with his wild tribesmen. But again victory was on the side of the Arakanese.

When Mong Bong died in 1553 he had a force of Portuguese mercenaries. His sea power, based on Chittagong, was the terror of the Ganges region, and his country was on the threshold of the greatest period of her history. But her somewhat spectacular rise was hardly due to the genius of her rulers. It coincides with a period of weakness in Bengal, when, before the gradual extension eastwards of the Mughal power, the native governments of that region were tottering. The possession of Chittagong was the key to the situation; for Mong Bong leased to the feringhi who took service under his flag the port of Dianga on the seacoast south of the mouth of the river Kurnaphuli, some twenty miles south of the modern city of Chittagong. The place soon attracted a large European and Eurasian population which drove a thriving trade with the ports of Bengal. But piracy and slave-raiding were the chief occupations of the feringhi, who gathered there in increasing numbers and before long became as great a source of embarrassment to the King of Arakan as to the Viceroy of Goa.

Matters came to a crisis during the reign of Mong Razagri (1593-1612). He was the king who employed Philip de Brito in his attack on Nanda Bayin of Pegu, thereby opening the way for the feringhi leader to make himself master of Syriam.

Matters came to a crisis during the reign of Mong Razagri (1593-1612). He was the king who employed Philip de Brito in his attack on Nanda Bayin of Pegu, thereby opening the way for the feringhi leader to make himself master of Syriam. When de Brito defeated the Arakanese flotilla sent to dislodge him from the Mon port and captured the crown prince, Mong Razagri decided that he must break the power of the Portuguese at Dianga. For that port also was coveted by de Brito; he planned to use it as a base for the conquest of Arakan. In 1607, therefore, the king sent an expedition which attacked Dianga by land and massacred its inhabitants without mercy. Six hundred Portuguese are said to have fallen.

Among those who escaped was the egregious Sebastian Gonzales Tibao. He had been engaged in the salt trade. Now with other refugees he took to piracy, and in 1609 made himself ‘’king’’ of Sandwip Island by exterminating the Afghan pirates who had made their nest there. At Sandwip he received a refugee Arakanese prince who, as Governor of Chittagong, had quarreled with his brother, King Razagri. Tibao married the prince’’s sister and when he died suddenly, probably from poison, seized all his treasure. Soon afterwards the Mughal Governor of Bengal began an attack upon the district of Noakhali, east of Ganges mouth, which had submitted to Arakan. This threw Tibao and Mong Razagri into one another’’s arms. But while his ally was conducting an unsuccessful land campaign Tibao took possession of the Arakanese fleet by luring its leaders to a conference and murdering them. Then he raided up the Lemro River to the very walls of Mrohaung, capturing the royal barge as a trophy.

When in 1612 Mong Razagri died his successor, Mong Khamoung (1612-22), decided that the power of Tibao and his ruffians must be finally broken. His first effort failed because the Raja of Tippera raided at the crucial moment and he had to withdraw his forces. Tibao, aware of his precarious position, with hostile Bengal on one side and revengeful Arakan on the other, appealed to Goa, urging the viceroy to avenge the massacre of Dianga. He suggested a joint attack on Arakan and offered to pay annual tribute to the Portuguese crown for his island ‘’kingdom’’. The viceroy sent a fleet of fourteen galliots, which arrived off the coast of Arakan at the end of the wet monsoon in 1615. Mrohaung was attacked, but partly through faulty arrangements for cooperation and partly through the help given to the Arakanese by a Dutch ship lying in the harbour the Portuguese failed to effect a landing and sailed away. Two years later Mong Khamoung captured Sandwip, wiped out the feringhi settlement and destroyed its fortifications. Tibao is said to have escaped, but is heard of no more.

The feringhi had now shot their bolt. Philip de Brito’’s escapade at Syriam had already come to its sorry end in 1613. So they made their peace with the king and settled down once more to assist him in his efforts to gain control over the southeastern parts of Bengal- ‘’the conquest of the middle land’’, as the Arakanese Chronicle euphemistically calls it. There was no conquest in the real sense, though for a time Arakan held the districts of Noakhali and Backergunge and some of the Sunderbunds delta. What chiefly took place was slave-raiding, in 1625 even captured and held for a short time. This kind of thing could never have occurred had it not been for the crisis in the Mughal Empire resulting from Shah Jahan’’s rebellion in 1612 against his father Jehangir. Year after year the feringhi armada returned to Dianga bringing thousands of Bengali slaves. Before long not a house was left inhabited on either side of the rivers between Chittagong and Dacca.

Mong Razagri’’s attampt to rid himself of the Portuguese coincided with the first Dutch trading voyage to Arakan. In 1605 they had planted factories at Masulipatam and Petapoli on the Coromandel Coast. From these two centres they began to explore the possibility of establishing trading relations with Bengal and Arakan. An invitation from King Razagri led to the dispatch of two merchants, Pieter Willemsz and Jan Gerritsz Ruyll, to Mrohaung in 1607, the year of the Dianga massacre. The king, like so many other rulers in South-East Asia, received them with delight, offered them customs-free trade in his dominions, and expressed the hope that they would assist ‘’to drive the Portuguese our’’.

He asked particularly for their help against Philip de Brito at Syriam. ‘’So would he give us to wit the aforesaid Castle in Pegu, the island of Sundiva, Chittagong, Dianga, or any other places in Bengal, as he had given the same previously to the Portuguese,’’ wrote Pieter Willemsz in his report. And he went on to represent that if the opportunity were not seized the Portuguese would ‘’determine it so well for themselves that it would be to the great detriment of the Company’’. But the Dutch wanted trade, not war, even against the Portuguese, in this region, for, with their hands full with the struggle to gain contemplate an expedition against Syriam.

The envoys returned to Masulipatam in May 1608. In September 1610 van Wesick, the Dutch chief of the Coromandel factories, decided to make a trial venture with an established factory at Mrohaung. Jacob Dirckszoon Cortenhoof went to take charge of it. The king, however, wanted the Dutch to built a fort at Dianga. In 1615, as we have already seen, they played an important part in warding off the attack of the Portuguese fleet on Mrohaung. They had, however, no desire to become involved in Mong Khamoung’’s wars, and especially in his projected operations against Tibao, because, as they put it, ‘’of the small profits, which could be made there, and the great expenses the Company must first be put to, in order to establish the king again in his kingdom, which at present is much in trouble’’. The factory was accordingly withdrawn in 1617.

But Arakan remained on the programme, and from 1623 Dutch ships were going there to buy the Bengali slaves captured by the marauding feringhi, and the surplus rice that the country produced as a result of the abundant slave labour available for cultivating the fields. Early in 1625 the Dutch planted another factory at Mrohaung, with Paulus Cramer Heyn as its Chief. It came about through an expedition under Anthonij Caen which had been despatched from Batavia in September of the previous year to attack Portuguese vessels. He was instructed to call at Mrohaung and discuss with king Thirithudamma (1622-38) the possibility of cooperation against ‘’our common enemy’’, and to conclude an agreement for the export of rice and slaves. Little came of the negotiations, although the king sent an envoy to Batavia in 1627, and as the slave did not go Well Jan Pieterszoon Coen issued orders for the factory to be closed for the second time.

Trade, however, continued. The free burghers of Batavia were allowed to have a share in it, and envoys passed frequently between Batavia and Mrohaung. The Dutch, having completely depopulated the Banda Islands and given over the land there to Company’’s servants to cultivate with slave labour, were anxious to buy all the slaves that Arakan could spare from the proceeds of the feringhi raids. So the Cornelis van Houten, the chief factor, reported that trade had been brought to a standstill by a terrible famine and pestilence. He was accordingly withdrawn and the trade again thrown open to private merchants.

Meanwhile Dianga and the feringhi had once come into the limelight. In 1630 Thirithudamma appointed a new Viceroy of Chittagong, who took so violent a dislike to the feringhi that he sent an alarmist report to Mrohaung alleging a Portuguese plot to admit the forces of the Mughal Viceroy of Dacca into Chittagong. His intention was to persuade Thirithudamma to administer to Dianga a further dose of the medicine given in 1607. As the feringhi fleet was away upon its annual slaving expedition, the inhabitants, who got wind of the scheme, deputed two envoys to hurry to the capital to persuade the king that the rumour was without foundation. They were a feringhi captain, Gonzales Tibao, a relative of the erstwhile ‘’king’’ of Sandwip, and Fra Sebastiao Manrique, an Augustinian friar of Oporto, who had recently arrived in Dianga as its vicar under the jurisdiction of the archbishopric of Goa. years later, after his return home to Portugal, Manrique told the story of his travels in detailed memoirs, which are of exceptional interest and value.

The mission was successful. The king called off a large expedition he was preparing for the punishment of Dianga. He also gave permission for the construction of a Catholic church in the suburb of Daingri-pet, on the western side of the capital, where the Portuguese mercenaries of the royal guard lived. The outspoken friar, who did not fear to adjure the king to abandon his false religious beliefs and become a Christian, was treated as an honoured guest. He was shown the loot taken from Pegu in 1599 and was greatly impressed by the white elephant. Nanda Bayin’’s daughter, who had been carried off to Mrohaung and married to King Razagri, received him and related the story of her sufferings with deep emotion. Early in 1631, after a stay of six months, Manrique returned to Dianga.

In the following year Shah Jahan, now the Great Mughal, decided to wipe out the Portuguese settlement at Hugli. He suspected it of being implicated in the intolerable slave-raids of the Dianga free-booters. His religious fervour also had been deeply stirred by the abduction in 1629 by the feringhi of the wife of a high official near Dacca and her subsequent conversion to Catholicism by Fra Manrique. The town put up a desperate resistance, but without timely help could not possibly hold out. Some of the defenders cut their way out, boarded their ships and got away to Saugar Island, just outside the river mouth, where they proceeded to establish themselves. At the same time they sent a Jesuit, Father Cabral, to ask King Thirithudamma for help. News of the seige, however, had already reached him long before Cabral’’s arrival, and he had ordered the feringhi armada of Dianga to make a surprise attack upon the Mughal fleet in the Hugli River. The armada was held up by bad weather, and when at last it was able to sail it arrived too late to save the city. It managed, however, to follow up the Mughal fleet and destroy it. Then it fell back on Saugar to await reinforcements.

In launching this attack the king appears to have had a double object. He aimed at preventing the Mughals from attempting the capture of Chittagong; he naturally expected this to be their next objective after taking Hugli. He hoped also that a decisive victory over the Mughal fleet would enable him to persuade the Viceroy of Goa to join forces with him in an invasion of Bengal. The viceroy was indeed willing to discuss matters, and in 1633 deputed Gaspar de Mesquita to proceed to Mrohaung for this purpose, with Fra Manrique as his adviser. The negotiations, however, came to nothing. The king’’s grandiose scheme for the conquest of Bengal had to be dropped.

The Goanese envoy sailed away, but Manrique had to remain behind. The king liked him. Moreover, he knew too many state secrets to be allowed to return at once to Dianga. Not until two years later, in 1635, was he permitted to depart. His book tells of further strange adventures while at Mrohaung. He gives also a vivid description of Thirithudamma’’s coronation, which was not celebrated until 1635 because of a prophecy that he would die within a year of it. Before it took place barbarous propitiatory sacrifices were made to avert this fate. But three years later his chief queen procured his murder and placed her lover on the throne. He was King Narapatigri (1638-45).

Manrique makes no mention of Thirithudamma’’s relations with the Dutch. In 1633 he had sent two envoys to Batavia to invite them to reopen their factory. They were engaged upon the blockade of Malacca and needed the food supplies that could be obtained from Arakan.


Manrique makes no mention of Thirithudamma’’s relations with the Dutch. In 1633 he had sent two envoys to Batavia to invite them to reopen their factory. They were engaged upon the blockade of Malacca and needed the food supplies that could be obtained from Arakan. Two Dutch ships, therefore, with cargoes of goods for sale escorted the Arakanese envoys home, and in 1635 Adam van der Mandere reopened the factory. At first trade went well. But soon difficulties arose. The king wanted a military alliance, and when he heard that Mughal ambassadors had been received at Batavia he sent an angry letter to warn the governor-general that the Mughals were his enemies. Moreover, van der Mandere’’s relations with the king were bad. The king established a royal monopoly over rice, and when van der Mandere objected to the price and attempted to buy his supplies in the open market serious trouble resulted.

Van der Mandere’’s conduct was considered undignified by Governor-General Anthony van Diemen and his books were found to have been carelessly kept. He was accordingly transferred elsewhere, and van Diemen directed that in future ‘’men of good bearing and not slovens’’ should be appointed to Mrohaung. The next Chief, Arent Jansen van den Helm, got on extremely well with the usurper Narapatigri as a result of lavish presents of wine and spirits, which the latter much appreciated. But in 1643 the king’’s health broke down and he lost control over affairs. Then an incident occurred which caused the Dutch to close the factory once more. A frigate belonging to a Dutch free burgher, bound for Chittagong with a valuable cargo of piece-goods, was decoyed into Mrohaung harbour, its cargo confiscated and its captain and crew imprisoned. When efforts for their release failed and several of them died in prison the Dutch broke off relations. For eight years the factory was empty, and the Dutch subjected Arakanese shipping to severe reprisals.

Narapatigri’’s nephew Thado, who succeeded him in 1645, was a nonentity and reigned for only seven years. But his son Sandathudamma, who came to the throne in 1652 and reigned for thirty-two years, became famous as one of the best of the Arakanese monarchs. Although he was quite young at the time of his accession, it soon became known at Batavia that he had a more enlightened attitude towards trade than his predecessors. And as the directors of the V.O.C. were urging Batavia to reopen trade with Arakan, a Dutch envoy, Joan Goessens, left in October 1652 with a long list of stipulations for negotiations with the new king. Agreement seems to have been easily reached, and the terms, embodied in the form of a treaty, were accepted by both parties in 1653. Its main provisions were to the effect that the Dutch were to enjoy customs-free trade under royal licence and be exempt from the necessity of buying and selling through the king’’s agents. Goessens was much impressed by the riches and splendour of the Court. There can be no doubt of the prosperity of the kingdom at this time.

The Dutch factory, thus reopened in 1653, carried on successfully until 1665, when it was again closed, this time for a political reason. Shah Shuja, the second son of the Great Mughal Shah Jahan, had been appointed Viceroy of Bengal in 1639. In 1657, when the emperor fell so seriously ill that there were premature rumours of his death, a struggle for power began between his sons. It was won by Aurangzeb, who deposed his father in 1658 and became emperor himself. Shah Shuja refused to accept this arrangement but was defeated by Aurangzeb’’s general Mir Jumla, and after failing to hold Bengal fled from Dacca to Chittagong, together with his family and a bodyguard of some 500 faithful followers. Sandathudamma granted him permission to continue his journey to Mrohaung on condition that his followers surrendered their arms. He arrived there on 26 August 1660 and was favourably received by the king, who assigned him a residence near the city on the right bank of the Wathi Creek at the root of Bahbudaung Hill. He asked for ships to convey him and his people to Mecca and was promised that they would be supplied.

But the promise remained unfulfilled and the fugitive prince soon found his situation intolerable. Repeated demands for his surrender came from his fleet off Dianga and sent up reinforcements. A state of alarm developed and a rumour spread that Mir Jumla had taken Dianga. Moreover, the king asked for one of Shah Shuja’’s daughters in mirriage and his request was indignantly rejected. Thus were bad relations fomented; deliberately, suggests Phayre, in order that Sandathudamma might have a specious cause for quarrel, since he was only too conscious of the contempt in which the haughty Mughal held him and was greedy to get possession of the rich hoard of treasure the other had brought with him.

Shah Shuja, realizing his peril, made a desperate attempt to escape from the country. But his plans miscarried, and when the populace set upon his followers the latter ran amok and set fire to a large part of the city before they were rounded up and massacred. That was in December 1660. It was given out that he had attempted to seize the palace. The king, it was said, had only been dissuaded by his mother from having him killed. She argued that killing princes was a dangerous spot for which his own subjects might acquire a taste. But on 7 February 1661 Shah Shuja’’s residence was attacked and there was another massacre. Shah Shuja was never seen again. It was rumoured that he had fled to the hills with his sons but had been caught and put to death. Not until months afterwards did Gerrit van Voorburg, the Chief of the Dutch factory, discover what had happened. His report is summarized in the Daghregister thus:
‘’The prince Chasousa, of whom in the previous Arakan advices of 22 February last it was said that he was a fugitive, and had not been found either alive or dead, is believed, though with no certainty, to have perished in the first fury, but his body was made unrecognizable by the grandees in order the better to be able to deck their persons with the costly jewels which he wore. His three sons together with his wives and daughters have been taken; the wives and daughters have been brought into the king’’s palace, and the sons, after being imprisoned for some time, have been released and permitted to live in a little house. Every day the gold and silver, which the Arakanese have taken, are brought into the king’’s treasury to be melted down.’’ /p>

As soon as the Viceroy of Bengal heard, through the Dutch factory at Dacca, of Shah Shuja’’s murder he commandeered a Dutch ship to carry an envoy to Mrohaung with a peremptory demand for the surrender of his children. It was refused, and the king protested to Batavia against the use of a Dutch ship by a Mughal envoy. As the threat of war increased, so did the Dutch position as neutrals become correspondingly more uncomfortable. In July 1663 a desperate attempt to rescue the three captive princes failed. Thereupon the king burnt his boats by having them beheaded and slaughtering a large number of Bengalis and Moslems at the capital. Early in the next year the feringhi fleet sailed up the river towards Dacca, put to flight a Mughal flotilla of 260 vessels, destroying more than half of them, and carried away hundreds of people into slavery.

The time was now past when that sort of thing could go on with impunity. Shayista Khan, Aurangzed’’s maternal uncle, had just been appointed Viceroy of Bengal and was determined to burn out the pirate nest at Dianga. He called on the Dutch for assistance and threatened them with expulsion from all their Bengal factories if they refused. At the same time the King of Arakan, who was preparing yet another great raid on Bengal, ordered them to lend their ships for service with his armada. Luckily for them, a storm shattered his fleet before it sailed, and while he was repairing the demage the Dutch ships got away. When at last it did sail it carried out an even more devastating raid than the previous one.

In July 1665 the Council of the Indies at Batavia held a special meeting at which secret orders were passed for the abandonment of the Mrohaung factory. The king was cleverly hoodwinked, and on a dark night in November the factors hurriedly loaded everything that could be carried away on four ships and decamped. At the mouth of the river they were overtaken by a special messenger bearing a letter from the king for delivery to the governor-general. Why, he asked, were the Dutch so much afraid of the Viceroy of Bengal? It would be easier for him to build the Tower of Babel than conquer Arakan.

But the feringhi navy was to raid Bengal no more. Shayista Khan, who had built and equipped a new fleet, had already seized Sandwip Island as a base for an attack upon Dianga. What would have happened had the feringhi decided to fight it out it is hard to say, for they were more than a match for the Bengal navy. But at the crucial movement they quarrelled with the Arakanese, and when Shayista Khan seized the opportunity to invite them to change sides most of them did so. Then early in 1666 he assailed Dianga by land and sea. In February he defeated the Arakanese fleet in a fierce fight. Dianga surrendered, and the whole of the Chittagong district down to the River Naaf was annexed to the Mughal Empire.

Shorn of its powerful fleet the Arakan kingdom declined rapidly after 1666. Some years later the Dutch returned and reopened their factory, but we know little about it. The Daghregister for 1682 contains a letter from Governor-General Cornelis Speelman to King Sandathudamma announcing that owing to the lack of trade the factory was to be ‘’reduced’’. A resident factor would no longer remain there after the business of collecting outstanding debts had been completed. He hoped, however, to send one or two ships annually for the purchase rice.

When Sandathudamma died in 1684 the country became a prey to internal disorder. As Harvey puts it: ‘’the profits of piracy had gone but the piratical instinct remained, rendering government impossible.’’ Many of Shah Shuja’’s followers had been taken into the royal service as Archers of the Guard. Their numbers were maintained by a constant supply of recruits from north India. In 1685 they murdered Thirithuriya, Sandathudamma’’s son and successor, plundered the treasury, and placed his brother Waradhammaraza on the throne. When he was unable to give them their promised pay they mutinied and set the palace fire. Then they roamed about the country doing as they pleased. After some time they came to terms with the king, and he returned to his capital. But in 1692 they deposed him and placed his brother Muni Thudhamma Raza on the throne, only to murder him some two years later and place another brother on the throne.

So things went on until 1710. In that year an Arakanese chieftain Maha Danda Bo, with the support of a band of devoted men, overcame the Archers and deported them to Remree island, where their descendants still live, speaking Arakanese and retaining their Mahomedan religion. Maha Danda Bo became king Sandawizaya and reigned until 1731. But he spent little of his time on constructive work and much of it in raiding neighbours. He made war on the Raja of Tippera and collected booty and prisoners. He took advantage of the weakness of the Toungoo dynasty’’s hold on central Burma to cross the mountains and raid Prome and Malun. The decline of the Mughal power after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707 tempted him to push his authority towards the north and raid Sandwip Island. But nothing came of all these efforts, and when he was murdered in 1731 the country relapsed into chaos.

Fourteen more kings came to the throne before King Bodawpaya’’s armies entered the kingdom and deposed the last king Thamada in 1785. Long before the event Arakanese chieftains were fleeing to the Court of Ava and urging Burmese intervention. When at last it came it brought such evils that half the population of Arakan fled into the Chittagong district and a situation was created that again challenged the security of Bengal, this time with consequences of far greater moment. For it was one of the main causes of the first Anglo-Burmese war of 1824-6.

(mentioned in the Independent News, BD)
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Arakan: The Mrauk U Period

by Dr. Jacques P. Leider

Though Arakan1 has remained up to a very recent date a very poorly studied area of Southeast Asia, historians agree that the coastal Kingdom of Arakan developed during the 17th century into a thriving commercial entrepot that had its place in the trade network of the Bay of Bengal (Lieberman 1980:204 Subrahmanyam 1997:208)2. But little interest has been paid to the political and military background of Arakan's rise during the 16th and early 17th century3. While the reasons for this lack of interest can only be hinted at, a look at an Arakan-related bibliography shows indeed the paucity of scientific or academic materials on the country. The only overview of Arakanese history can be found in Arthur P. Phayer's History of Burma published in 1983, a book in which, meritoriously, Arakanese history still gets a fair share in the general history of Burma4. Mainly based on a single Arakanese chronicle that was written around 1842 at the initiative of Phayre himself, the Na Man rajawan5, Phayer's text reflects the Western reading of a traditional Burmese literacy form, an oriental chronicle seen through the eyes of an educated and interested mid-19th century Brithsh colonial officer. Phayer singled out what he deemed fit to p****as straight facts and put it into the mould of a Western-style dynastic history. In the end, much interpretation of the author is passed over to the reader as a matter of fact. Little attention was paid to the geographical and historical context and much of the textual richness of the original document was sacrificed. All this should be born in mind as Phayre has remained a major reference tool for most people who are unfamiliar with the original sources.
If we examine what has been written on, or in connection with Arakanese history, it looks more like an incongruous collage than a mosaic of elements completing each other. A various range of books and articles have brought about a certain number of simplifications or clichés that can only be accounted for in the reduced perspectives of their authors. There is thus an obvious interest in dealing briefly with the historiographical literature on Arakan to approach the history in its geographical context and some of the problems of research. Some conclusions from this review can lead us to a better understanding of the field of studies concerned with Arakan's past and the challenges awaiting the researcher.
In a second part, the political and military history of Arakan from the 15th to the end of the 17th century will be presented diachronically. This synopsis, based on Burmese, Arakanese, Portuguese and Persian sources, is a critical attempt to pull together in coherent picture the episodic appearances of Arakan in the older literature; it also pays due attention to its local and wider socio-economic context as construed in contemporary studies on the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia. The second part will show that the kingdom of Arakan had its own autonomous history, that should be understood in its proper geo-political and cultural context. Arakan in the 16th and 17th centuries does not fit into the conceptual framework of dynastic cycles that has been outlined for neighboring Burma. This paper challenges Harvey's statement that "Arakan has a separate history" that is "the same in king" [than Burma's] (Harvey 1967:137). A consistent approach of Arakan's history must moreover transgress the all too well established and rigorously defined cultural areas of study and research, such as South Asia and Southeast Asia and contemporary political borders. Northeast India, East Bangladesh and Western Myanmar form a last geographical zone of mountains, valleys and alluvial plains characterized by a great ethnic diversity. They share the experience of a past (and maybe a present) peripheral situation when related to the development of the greater political centres on their eastern and western sides (mainly in our context, the eastward expansion of the Irrawaddy kingdoms and the eastward expansion of the Mogul empire). This experience can also be recontextualised in a langue duree perspective with the expansion of Islam and lamic culture moving towards the east and the consolidation and increasing impact of a centralizing kingdom in the upper Irrawaddy valley.
The whole area was repeatedly a destination port for refugees from India's North and West Buddhists who lost the support of predominantly Hindu ruling elites and came under the pressure of Muslim progress, Afghan Muslims fleeing the Mogul conquerors) and a barrier for ethnic expansion from the east (the farthest expansion of the Tai (Tai-Ahom settling in Assam) and the Tibeto-Burmans (e.g. Arakanese settling in Eastern Bengal). In political terms (keeping the major political centre-oriented perspective), the area had only a limited importance; but conquest by great powers (i.e. the Moguls from India or the kings of Burma) was discouraged and for a long time kept at bay, as the hope of controlling effectively the land faded away with the rising heights, the dense jungle or the intricate waterways. One can illustrate this point with the dragging Mogul wars against the Ahom or the approximately 90 years that it took to extend Mogul control over the whole of Bengal [from the 1976 victories in Western and central Bengal to the conquest of Chittagong (in southeastern Bengal) in 1666].
With the first and second part outlining the sources and the history of Araksn's kingship in the early modern period, one may wonder if this is an attempt to put another, lesser known centre on the map of continental Southeast Asia. It actually is. But this does not only mean switching the headlight to a minor political and economic center worth to be recognized as such. It leads inevitably to a whole lot of yet little explored questions linked to the relations between Arakan and Bengal or Myanmar. How did Arakan resist attempts at conquest in the 16th 17th centuries? Why did it fail in defending Chittagong in 1666 a year which marks the onset of its decline and why did it fall like a rotten fruit into Burmese hands in 1785? I consider that Arakan's development was sensibly different from the political development in the Irrawaddy valley during the early modern period. This paper supports the view that a study of Arakanese political institutions and the country's integration into the socio-economic network of the Bay of Bengal provide answers to the above questions. Where the historian makes himself at home on the periphery, he faces both an inward and an outward perspective. On one hand there is the all pervasive question of how does the periphery respond to the challenge of higher' centres in terms of defending itself (military resources, alliances, diplomacy). On the other hand, there is the question of the periphery's own structural balance which is based on creating and maintaining resources. Logically the third part will thus proceed with an analysis of various aspects of the administration, the trade connections in relation to the socio-political background and the nature of the political development that characterized Arakan's rise during the Mrauk U period.
Those who consider that the varying degree of centralization is the crucial question of Southeast Asia's historical development, might feel that the insistence on peripheral developments is blurring their main point of interest. The study of the periphery compels indeed a more complex view as it calls for an examination of the diversity of local conditions. Shifting our attention from the centre to the periphery, the analytical framework of political and economic centralization needs to be complemented by a better understanding of related and interacting networks based on a study of local and regional history.
(To be continued)

(mentioned in the Independent News, BD)
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by Dr. Jacques P. Leider
Historians of Southeast Asia have maneuvered themselves into a blind alley while sticking too much to the 20th century concept of Southeast Asia and its nation states that emerged from the colonial period. The challenge of studying especially early modern history calls for a more flexible answer in terms of geographical and ethnic boundaries and the concept of autonomous history comes as a natural companion to the discovery of regional and local history. This does not just mean a shifting of perspectives and this is not just giving more credit to some minor centres on a map of hierarchically structured political and economic centres. It literally enriches our perception and deepens our meaning of the historical map of Southeast Asia.
Arakan's Past in Historical Writing
The deplorable state of historical research on Arakan is best illustrated by the fact that there is neither any manuscript or printed collection of epigraphic sources of the Mrauk U period nor any catalogue or detailed description of religious monuments, temples, pagodas or mosques. In this paper, I will deal mainly with manuscript or printed literary and historiographical sources. The main source for the study of Arakan's history are Arakanese historiographical compilations which contain texts belonging to different literary genres (poetry, annals, narratives, eulogies)6; the only chronicle presenting a coherent narrative like U Kala's Maharajawan is the above mentioned Na Man rajawan, of which only a few manuscript copies are still existing. Burmese, Persian and Tripura chronicles as well as Bengali literary sources vastly contribute to our information on Arakan's history as they report how the Mon or Burmese kings of the Irrawaddy valley, the political rivals in southeastern Bengal (sultans of Bengal or kings of Tripura), and the Mogul government (through its subadars of Bengal) interfered with Arakan's master. Some slightly better known printed French, Portuguese and Dutch sources have in fact been little exploited. Recently scholars have unraveled new source material in England, Portugal and the Netherlands which is directly or indirectly relevant for the study of Arakan.
The major grief with the modern historiography on Arakan has been the selective choice of source materials by historians dealing with the country. Actually the work of historians reflects not only their own eclectic use of sources, it mirrors the chronicles in their selectivity. Progress of research and academic interest have evolved mainly along traditional borderlines of culture and nation. What we can read in English or Burmese on Arakan's history is generally based on the Arakanese and Burmese palm leaf sources and historians have not shown much interest in Arakan's involvement in southeastern Bengal's past. Bengali historians, on the other hand, have based their articles mainly on Bengali and Persian sources; Phayre's or Harvey's standard histories of Burma would do as their reference tools in English to keep track of the chronology of kings and political events, but nothing is generally said about what was Arakan's place in the Burmese context. As a result, the general picture (or just the impression) of the Arakanese kingdom and its political and its political and socio-economic development was biased following the selective choice of materials consulted and as a consequence of the linguistic abilities or just the limited knowledge of historian. But more than that, Arakan's history has suffered from the centre-oriented perspectives of modern-day historian. With the exception of Arthur Phayre, the majority of Burma specialists had little or no special interest in Arakan's history as such7. As we have already mentioned, Phayre's history was based on a chronicle written by an Arakanese familiar with the country's past and the traditional, historiographical literature. Phayre presents Arakan's history in distinct chapters beside the Burmese history and differences between what the respective chronicles say on the same events or people are occasionally outlined. GE. Harvey readily subsumed Arakan's history under Burma's general history and in consequence disregarded Arakan's own political development, focusing mainly on a few episodes relating to Arakan's involvement with Burma or occasionally Bengal. In Maung Htin Aung's History of Burma, Arakan gets recognition as one among other Burmese kingdoms competing for power, but the author does not allow for a separate history and Arakan gets only attention as a military player momentarily involved with events in Burma. Harvey's and Maung Htin Aung's histories exclusively focus on the history of important Burmese political centres, such as Pagan, Ava or Pegu. Though his chapter on Arakan is less detailed than Phayre's, Harvey consulted Arakanese manuscript sources (and seemingly had a broader access to them then Phayre); Maung Htin Aung does not refer to any Arakanese sources at all. After the second world war, the tendency among historians dealing with the history of Burma was mostly to disregard Arakanese history. With one exception though: D.G.E Hall was not proficient in Burmese, but he had some interest in Arakanese history as his article on Arakanese Dutch relations shows. The little regard for Arakanese history may be stated without too many critical overtones. Not too much can be glanced from the sole reading of the Burmese chroniclers. After all, one does not necessarily need to share the view that a history of Burma has to cover the history of Arakan as well. It is actually quite a different story, , though we are evidently inside the sphere of Tibeto-Burmese ethnicity and culture and on the safe ground of a Theravadin Buddhist kingship. But while Maung Htin Aung strongly claims the Burmese identity of 16th century Arakanese ("the Arakanese remained nationalistic and proud of their Burmese origin"), it is surprising that he, as a self-proclaimed nationalist historian, pays about no attention to the historical developments in Arakan. Readers of the Journal of the Burma Research Society are familiar with the more than a dozen articles that Maurice Collis and two Arakanese authors, San Baw U and San Shwe Bu, published on diverse topics and periods of Arakanese history between 1913 and 1933. We find here some valuable contributions to what the authors called "legendary history" and what are actually oral traditions that have sometimes a counterpart in the written historiographical tradition. Though Maurice Collis was not a historian, he had a tremendous influence inside and outside of Burma on what people currently think on Arakan and its kings; his popular romance on friar Sebastian Manrique's stay in Mrauk U during Sirisudharamaraja's reign, was published as The land of the Great Image in 1943. In is article "Arakan's Place in the Civilisation of the Bay". Collis asserted, without any scientific rationale that Mrauk U's civilization in the 16th 17th century was mainly the result of turning away from a backward East and exposing itself to a civilizing Muslim world (1925: 39-40). Not much more convincingly Maung Htin Aung explained that Arakan became a "worthy rival of Pegu" because it had copied "Bayinnaung's enlightened policies with regard to commerce, religion and culture". Interestingly, Harvey strikes the balance and is so much less condescending as regards the "real aptitudes" of the Arakanese who he says, "were usually quite able to look after themselves" and "in several respects less back ward than the Burmese". Beside the fact of the cultural influences and the complex relationships that Arakan entertained with neighbouring countries. Hervey notes their competence on the sea, their use of coins and the business-like attitude of their 17th century kings (1967: 138, 140, 146) And this is indeed one of the rare positive judgements on the Arakanese kingship.
In the writings of Bengali historians, three major themes are prominent: (1) The raids of Arakanese fleets and the aggressions against southern and eastern Bengal; (2) the Bengali Muslim influence on the court of Arakan; (3) Arakan's control over chittagong. Most articles are void of any contextual approach and generally try to give a kind of synthesis based on Bengali and Persian sources. So the main criticism one can formulate concerns the neglect of any arakanese socio-cultural, economic or political background that would have provided a more sensitive approach to the (indeed horrifying) slave-raids (but the Arakanese incursions were not only slave-raids!) and to the impact of the Muslim presence at the count which varied considerably over the decades!8
Arakanese kings led war raids against Tripura and south-eastern Bengal and they even attacked the Mogul fleet in Dhaka. On the other hand, they tolerated slave-raids which were for many decades masterminded and organized by the Luso-Asian communities in the Chittagong area with the help of Arakanese manpower. Both phenomena cannot be chronologically separated and particular events are sometimes difficult to assess. The available evidence suggests that warfare played a grater part during the period between approximately 1575 and 1624, while systematic slave-raiding became more prominent after the final elimination of the political endeavours of the local Portuguese community in 1615. The dedeportation of Bengali country folk to Arakan considerably slowed down only some time after the establishment of the British administration in Chittagong (1761). While the subject of slave-raiding and Bengal wars did not interest historians focusing on Burmese history, there is generally no clear distinction in the Bengali historiography between these two related but dissimilar aspects of Arakan's aggressive policy versus Bengal. Exclusive attention is paid to slave-raids highlighted in western travelogues like Francois Bernier's or Wouter Schouten's and remembered in Bengali folk songs. Moreover the Arakanese are usually identified as pirates, a biased (and value-added) term, which makes it difficult to understand the political strategy of the Arakanese kings while reading one's way through the confusing Histoire evenamentielle of Arakan-Bengal relations. In his History of the Mughal Navy and Naval Warfares, Atul Chandra Roy writes for instance that "at the beginning of Jahangir's reign, most of the strategic naval forts in Bengal were in the possession of the Bhulyas and the Magh-Feringhi pirates".

(mentioned in the Independent News, BD)




GMA NEWS

-------------------

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Seminar for the opinion on Myanmar situation & 2010 Election of SPDC” was held continue

Thursday, August 14, 2008 10:14 AM

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“Seminar for the opinion on Myanmar situation &
2010 Election of SPDC” was held continue”


Cox’s Bazar, 14th August, 2008: According to the sources, led by Sasanamoli, Bangladesh Branch “Seminar for the opinion on Myanmar situation & 2010 Election of SPDC” was continually held by Burmese oppositions orgs, and Individuals at building of Rakhaing Development Foundation – RDF, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.



Seminar was started on 8:30 AM. And mentioned programs were following ;


1. Attendants of seminar was open with saying prayer of Namo Thesa 3 times.


2.The seminar’s coordinator have declared the opening ceremony.


3. Chosen patron-U Nyanika-Alikadong Buddhist monk-was given speech

of opening seminar.



Then following org and personal were reading for their thesis:



(A) Representative of All Arakan Student & Youth Congress – AASYC was read their thesis.

(B) Mr. Pho Hla have submitted a thesis and it was read by himself.


And above mentioned their thesis were discussed cordially like round table system by other attendants, Representatives of orgs and individuals very frankly. And morning section was stopped around 11: 30 AM for the reason of Buddhist monks’ to take meal (Swem in Burmese) before 12 O’clock.


Second section or evening section was started around 1 PM


(c) U Tha Tha Maung, an individual, was submitted his thesis and read himself

(d) And U Saw Hla Aung, Representative of NUPA was submitted their party’s thesis and read himself.

And above mentioned their thesis were also discussed cordially like round table system by other attendants, Representatives of orgs and individuals very frankly and very detail.


Among the attendants U Maung Maung, GS of ANC was also participated for both days of August 13, 14. In often he has discussed for other bodies submitted thesis. But he has not given his opinion of ANC even though some of participants were requested him for ANC’s opinion thesis on the occasion of this seminar. This is all information or issues of our Arakanese umbrella ANC, very unfortunately.




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NB: Conclusion of seminar statement will be release soon.

Points of view in Myanmar political affair of 2010 election and submitting, discussion of the thesis

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 7:07 PM

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“Points of view in Myanmar political affair of 2010 election
and submitting, discussion of the thesis”



Cox’s Bazar, 14th August, 2008: Points of view in Myanmar political affair of 2010 election and submitting, discussion of the thesis seminar was hold on 1 pm yesterday.

Seminar programs were as following:
Attendants of seminar was open with saying prayer of Namo Thesa 3 times.
3 personal Buddhist monks were elected as patrons.
Following slogans were shouted against the SPDC, Burmese military junta.



(1) We don’t need constitution of SPDC!(which was established by them on 26th May, 2008, illegally).

(2) Let’s we against for coming 2010 general election of SPDC!

(3) Let’s we, opposition forces of Burma, united !

(4) Victory with democracy revolution!


Patron was giving speech as opening seminar
IBMOI submitted thesis was read by the representative of IBMOI.

6. Sasana Moli submitted thesis was read by U Dhamadasa, the representative of

Sasana Moli.

7. ALD submitted thesis was read by Mr. Khaing San Lunn-G.S, the representative

of ALD.
IFA submitted thesis was read by Khaing Por Lunn, the representative of IFA.



According to GMA news, above mentioned submitted every thesis were cordially, frankly and very open mindedly discussed like a round table system, discussion time was 20 minutes per each upon the submitted every each thesis.



First program seminar was very cordially and successfully ends on 5:30 pm, yesterday.




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The Rice Killing Day was held in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 11:44 AM

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The Rice Killing Day was held in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh


Cox’s Bazar, 13th August, 2008: According to one of participant, the Sitwee Rice Killing day was observed at building of Rakhaing Development Foundation-RDF in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh on 8:30 AM in the morning, under the providing of IBMOI – International Burmese Monks Organization Inc(Bangladesh Branch).

Participant said that about 60 attendants including Buddhist monks and some women were participate on the occasion of that Sittwe Rice Killing memorial Day.

Accordance to as foresaid personal, participated orgs were as following:

1. Arakan League for Democracy – ALD (Exile)
2. All Arakan Students & Youth Congress – AASYC
3. National United Party of Arakan – NUPA
4. Rakhaing Women’s Union – RWU
5. Arakan National Council – ANC
6. And Individuals

Accordance to some of their statements, in Burma, Arakan region was called Dynyawaddy, which meant abundant of paddy state. They have been own sovereignty since BC 3325 to AD 1784, for 5000 years over. Mentioned in their statement that they, Arakanese have been as a so strong nation in the world and Arakan Navy forces was so famous in the Bangal Bay, also. Arakaneses’ have had no experience for starvation or scarcity of food in their history. But very unfortunately, in the result of disunity among them, Arakan failed under the intruder of Barman in 1784.
And when reached in 1967, Arakan peoples had to face starvation and scarcity of food Because of in the result Baman colonial ruled or slavery lives of Arakanese.

For starvation, authorities were asked by Arakan people to sell rice, which was available in rice stores, with appropriate price. But Arakanese people were given bullets instead of need survival rice.
Accordance to some of them, on that day 13th August, 1967 Arakan people around 400 personals were buried with alive and death one in Thay Chaung, Sittwe..

So, Arakanese say for that Day “ Unforgettable 13th August. And when reach or arrive this days, in and out of Arakanese people will hold for this memorial day as a Day of unforgettable, where there arrive or living in.


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Three Burmese soldiers arrived in Bangladesh as a fled from Burma

“Three Burmese soldiers arrived in Bangladesh as a fled from Burma”



Date: 11-08-2008, Maung Daw: According to the firm sources, three Burmese soldiers, were flee away, from their administration camp of border security forces, Maung Daw township, Arakan region, western side of Burma, to Bangladesh.


They are;

1. Maung Than Win Ta/353584

2. Zaw Myo Htun Ta/360756

3. Thway Naing Ta/ 360757


At first they had four one named Maung Maung Hla, who was arrested and left in Maung Daw.


On one and half PM, August 5th, 2008, as foresaid Burmese soldiers were leave from their administration camp of border security, Kyi Kam Prun, Maung Daw town-ship. And on 6th August, 2008, they fled or crossed Naf river from Aung Bala quarter, Maung Daw town-ship to Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh.


According to the latest condition of them, they are seeking political refugee status under the protection of UNHCR, Dhaka branch office.


Said firm sources, conditions of ordinary soldiers in Burmese military junta, are become so worsening day by day. E.g. providing salary is not properly cover for their living cost and survival because of like every consumptions of human being survival things are sky-rocketing day by day more than before in Burma, according to a bordering trader of Burma.


And an anonymity sources said that the information is developing that more Burmese soldiers can flee for further, also.




The GMA news cell

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NB: Ta=Tat Thar, mean mentioned as ordinary soldiers, in Burmese.

Myanmarese political refugees were hold demonstration

Myanmarese political refugees were hold demonstration


Cox’s Bazar: 24th April 2008 – Myanmarese political or urban refugees have held demonstration in front of UNHCR branch office which is locate at costal area of western side of Cox’s Bazar.

According to their in brief history, started of their recognized as urban or political refugee around 1990 after 1988 world wide known uprising in Burma. As mentioned in their statement, they have been struggling for their survival so hardly among the different faith people and populated alien state. And revealed that they have tried to resettle as a escape from suffering of like hell condition, meanly for their children future plan. But failed like long till 18 years in misery condition. Within that 18 years period of staying Bangladesh, only their two families and other four individuals were resettle while hundreds of Somali, Iraqi, Iranian, etc nationals were resettle in third countries, they have unveiled.

And even the intrusion of like 21st century, present day, hundreds of bordering/ economic refugees were resettle in third countries and for further also going on, but their, Myanmarese political or urban refugees’ resettlement cases are ignored continually by concerned personals and asylum country.

So, in attached letter in which they are requesting for consider and sympathy of visiting representatives of the Italy, the Sweden, the Netherlands and the Canada were requested by them, Myanmarese (Burmese) political refugees, to consider for their suffering in Bangladesh and for resettlement in third countries, they, Myanmarese political or urban refugees, have mentioned in their demands.



The GMA news cell
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UNHCR Chief was greeted and welcomed by Burmese Urban Refugees

UNHCR Chief was greeted and welcomed
by Burmese Urban Refugees


Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh: On 26th May 2008, from 8: 30 AM to 2: 30 PM, around the 30 personals, including woman and children, of Burmese political (Urban) refugees have greed and welcomed for Mr. António Guterres, head of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who is visiting to Cox’s Bazarr, Bangladesh as a two days visit.
According to them (Burmese political refugees), they have been waiting for their head to hand over for their statement (which was attached with this as an attached file). They said, they have held a big size banner in which mentioned that ;
“WARMLY WELCOME FROM MYANMARESE URBAN REFUGEES”
“PLEASE HELP US FOR RESETTLEMENT! while awaiting for their head.
Among of them (of urban refugees), two personals were chosen by them to meet with their head. And when they met they have handed over for their statement to their head, and said they have unveiled for their suffering in brief that they are facing with so hardship like in a hell, etc, according to them.
Accordance to the GMA, Burmese political refugees are living in this country Bangladesh as a scatter spreading position like in Dhaka, Chittagong, Chittagong three hill Dists, and Cox’s Bazaar, boarder town of Bangladesh – Burma, etc for majority percent of them were stopped Subsistence Allowance –SA by UNHCR, Dhaka since 1998. So, they are facing with so hardship neither provide SA nor provide resettlement and also they can’t go back for their homeland for most tyranny rule of Burmese military junta, they said, Burmese political refugees said.


The GMA news cell
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----------
UNHCR chief arrives today
To talk with govt on Rohingya issue
Staff Correspondent

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) António Guterres is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka today on a two-day visit that will highlight the need to find a lasting solution to the issue of around 27,000 Rohingya refugees living in the country.

During his first visit to Bangladesh as high commissioner, Guterres plans to discuss with the government the long-running plight of the Rohingya refugees as part of the high commissioner' s initiative to place a spotlight on the issue and to resolve some of the world's most protracted refugee situations, said a press release.

These refugees who fled Myanmar have been staying in two refugee camps--Nayapara and Kutupalong in Cox's Bazar--for more than 16 years.

Guterres will spend a day in Kutupalong Refugee Camp, home to almost 10,800 refugees, and meet refugees, visit medical and feeding centres as well as inspect new housing units that are being built for the refugees.

During the last two years, the government allowed the UN refugee agency, other UN agencies and non-governmental organisations to make many improvements there, the release said.

António Guterres, former Portuguese prime minister, has led UNHCR since June 15, 2005. The UN General Assembly had elected him for a five-year term and he is the UN refugee agency's 10th high commissioner.

As high commissioner, he heads one of the world's principal humanitarian agencies.

UNHCR has twice won the Nobel Peace Prize and it works in over 110 countries providing protection and assistance to nearly 33 million refugees and others of concern. The agency's total budget for 2008 is more than $1.6 billion.

Who are Dictators?

Who are Dictators?


“A planet which was spill from the Sun”
“There where I become being a human like others”

“Those so-called human being I am”
“Nothing have own called property;
A spot of land!
A piece of finance!

“Due to; confiscated by Dictators, BSPP, SLORC, SPDC”

“Fled away from danger of life
“Took shelter, given asylum under the noble aim of UNHCR”

“In a alien state, while struggling”
“with compatriots, partisans”
“for restore democracy, peace in homeland”

“When those noble aim of UNHCR is being misused, mistreat by some one”

Alas! Alas! My God!
“We are confused … confused …. confused"

“Who are Dictators?
SPDC?
Or social counselor?
Or some one of UNHCR?




By
A Burmese Political Refugee



The GMA news cell
For contact mobile and phone numbers: 01199081074, 04437142255

 
NB: It is only mentioned people’s desire, not from product of the GMA news cell!

------------------

Yor are earnestly requested by us for contact and ask them!

The Representative
UNHCR Branch Office
H # NE (N) 8, Road No: 90
Gulshan-2, Dhaka – 1212
Bangladesh


The Representative phone no: +880-2-8826802=Extension – 101
The Deputy Representative phone no: +880-2-8826802=Extension – 102
UNHCR Branch Office of Dhaka fax no: +880-2-8826557

E-mail: bgdda@unhcr.ch, bgdda@unhcr.org


Bangladesh Legal Aim Service Trust – BLAST
( Implementing Partner of UNHCR ), e-mail: mail@blast.org.bd


Mr. Bazalar Rahman’s (mobile no: 01819274377)
The Social Counsellor
Refugee Counselling Service Unit

“A custom officer is being arrested for corruption case”

“A custom officer is being arrested for corruption case”


Maung Daw: 5 August 08:-
Accordance to firm sources; on July 30, 2008, U Aye Win, who is being arrested - accordance with relevant documents and getting firm informations - by Special Criminal Research Forces - SCRF of SPDC of Maung Daw township, he is the head of extraordinary custom department gate of Burma & Bangladesh trade fair,.
Said sources, when SCRF have interrogated upon U Aye Win he couldn’t refuse and confessed because of firmly involved with corruption case and illegal drug affair cases.
SCRF has uncovered with firm documents that U Aye Win, who took bride money from illegal drug and alcoholics trade affair which was not permitted and included between the two countries’ trade fair agreement, sources said.
Said sources, in Arakan region, as foresaid U Aye Win who case which is a first case among the SPDC’s high rank official, on 2008.
Now, on 31 July, 08, arrestee U Aye Win and his cases files, relevant documents were sent by SCRF of Maung Daw to HQ of military tribunal court of Buthidaung, Arakan region, western side of Burma for examine his case on military tribunal court of SPDC, sources said. But some source said that it is only like a drama. Because of even Mr. Khon Sa - the king of opium - has been close friend of SPDC, as world wide known.
According to some Bangladeshis, in this way harmful drugs including Heroin, Yaba tabs are coming to Bangladesh, controllessly it is so dangerous for human being and young generations of this country, also they said.


The GMA news cell
For contact mobile and phone numbers: 01199081074, 04437142255

“Kyauk Taw township peoples are being forced labors under the oppressive of SPDC”

“Kyauk Taw township peoples are being forced labors under the oppressive of SPDC”


Kyauk Taw: 5 August 2008: - No: 9 - HQ administration of second in-chief military command (which is exist under the command of military HQ of western Divisions, Arakan region, western side of Burma), established in Daung Taung yoe, Kyauk Tawtownship, arakan region.


On farm-lands around 80 acres, are being plundered, in very urgent condition that are being ordered by high authority of SPDC No: 9 - HQ administration of second in-chief military command to complete within 10 days. As foresaid people are struggling as un-paid force labors in mentioned confiscated farm-lands, they are around 300 peoples including females, children, old ages, from 1 August to till 10 August, 08, urgent work.


Above mentioned forces labours peoples are from (A) Tharunk Tabun (B) Lann Maday (C) Kyaunk Lone Gree (D) Daung Taung Yoe (E) And Myounk Taung villages. In this way, people can’t do for their farm-lands in season for their own survival, but for SPDC.


Sources said, not only in this rainy season but for other rest winter and summer also have to work the same way for SPCD like slaveries but under the cover of Myanmar style traditional.






The GMA news cell

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“Agree Daw Ma villagers, minority ethnicity, l000 acres lands were confiscated by SPDC”

“Agree Daw Ma villagers, minority ethnicity, l000 acres lands were confiscated by SPDC”

Mrauk Oo: August 6, 2008: - Agree Daw Ma village, is existing in Mrauk Oo township, Arakan region, western side of Burma, it villagers are minority of Khami ethnic origin.

Sources said, as foresaid villagers have own around 1000 acres of tidy reach fir forest (local name Danit) and mangrove forests since long – long years ago. In often, Argee Daw Ma villagers and local Arakanese people said like that in often that fir water is better than beer because of it is made from nature. Mentioned peoples are surviving selling fir water, leaves and nearest man-grow forest is like also a their Aladdin lamp. Because of not only these villagers, majority percent of Burmese citizens still using to build their houses, tents, for such as cover of roof, wall, etc. And various kind of other way also useful/ using in this 21st century, as everybody known, well. In this way, as foresaid villagers and peoples are living peacefully from centuries.

But, on August 3, 2008, without given any information, a delegate of land measurement , a delegate of forest HQ and a band of police personals were arrive and some villagers were summoned then declared that as foresaid around 1000 acres of tidy reach fir forest and man-grow forest are own by government, SPDC. Then declared as a prohibited area and kept a police guard standby at boat station of Agree Daw Ma village, not for in and out to that mentioned forest area.
Said sources, Tantara chaung ( chaung=stream) is flowing around the Agree Daw Ma village. One point of Tantara chaung against side by side existing villagers are Agree Daw Ma and Pa Day village- it villagers are Rakhaing. Those mentioned villagers and living around the Tantara chaung peoples are using boats to across side by side and up and down along the Tantara chaung, also since centuries back, for the matter of their trade, social, religious, etc.

Now, as foresaid stand by police guard personals are collecting toll till 2000 Kyat from per each cross passing boat and 500 Kyat for up or down of each passing boat, sources said.

So, in the result of Agree Daw Ma villagers’ fir forest land around acres 1000 are being confiscated by as foresaid authority of SPDC, and standby police guard personals’ toll collecting problems are creating so difficulties and hardship for survival of Agree Daw Ma minority ethnic villagers, sources said.




The GMA news cell
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NB: All of you are earnestly requested by us to read Nipa palm forest instead of fir forest.