A Burmese wonderland; a tale of travel in Lower and ... - Khamkoo

88 A BURMESE WONDERLAND.
but others occur, notably one on the famous quadralingual
Mya-zedi pillar found by Forchhammer. This
monument was erected at Pagan in 1112 A.D., and is
written in Burmese, Pali, Taking and Pyu. The Pyu
face was deciphered by Mr. Blagden who in this way
rediscovered an extinct language. The Mya-zedi pillar
is the Rosetta Stone of the Pyu.^ and is of further
value in that it
estabUshes dates connected with Kyanzittha
(1084—1112 A.D.), one of the greatest kings of
Burma. These dates are corroborated by an inscription
in Prome, and are thus definitely fixed.
The Pyu were one of the several Tibeto-Burman
tribes who, shortly before our era, descended through
Ssuch'uan and Yiinnan into Burma^ where, between
the 9th and 11th centuries, they gradually amalgamated
with kindred races and formed what are now Burmans.
This Tibeto-Burman invasion was the second great wave
of immigration to enter Burma from Central Asia.^
They had been preceded by Mon-Khmers (Taking,
Palaung, Pale, Wa and Annamites) who, as we have
seen, had previously moved down the Mekong VaUey,
and by a lateral movement overrun Burma, spreading
across it very thinly-. They offered at first httle
obstruction to
the Tibeto-Burmans until they had been
driven together in the vicinity of Prome in suflScient
^ See my Pdgan. Page 27.
' See Taw Sein Ko'e Burmese Sketches. Page 5.
^ See A Burmese Arcady, Preface.
* Census Report, 1911, Tol IX. Part I. Page 251.