Burmese Sketches - Khamkoo

BURMESE SKETCHES.
link in the shape of physiognomy. After all these have been
attended to, the theory advanced above will stand or fall.
BURMESE ETHNOLOGY.
Burma is supposed to have been occupied by a Negrito
race, which even now extends its habitat from the Andamans
to the Philippines. This race was succeeded by another of a
different stock, the Mon-Khmer, which is now represented by
the Talaings and Cambodians, and by the straggling and
scattered tribes of Khasias in Assam, and the Palaungs and
Was in the Northern Shan States. The Mon-Khmer appears
to have entered Burma from north-eastern India, as it has
left its congeners, the Bhils and Gonds, behind. This race
was again succeeded by the Shans and Karens, who came
originally from Yunnan and Kueichou respectively. These
were succeeded by the Tibeto-Burman tribes, of which the
Chins are the earlier, and the Marus, Zis, and Lashis of the
Kachin Hills are the later representatives. The new comers
immigrated into Burma from Flastern Tibet, where the allied
tribes, the Lolos, Mantzu and Sifans, are still to be found.
We have, then, the following four stocks in Burma :
(i) The Negrito
(ii) The Mon-Khmer
;
(iii) The Shan-Karen from China
(iv) The Tibetan.
;
Burmese history is very vague, due, no doubt, to the
exterminating wars, and to the excessive zeal for vandalism
displayed by the victors. We have no traditional histories or
national ballads like the Mahabharata and the Ramayana of
India, which indicate the ethnic movements and the displacement
of the indigenous tribes by the Aryan race. In these
circumstances, we have to rely on comparative philology,
comparative religion, and anthropometry to supply us with the
necessary evidence.
TAUNGTHAS.
POPA was the hunting ground of the kings of Pagan, and
when they became powerful, they ousted the Taungthas from
that locality. History is silent as to the date of their exodus
and their migration to the Chin Hills. Subsequently, they
;