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

A BURMESE WONDERLAND. 27
merged in the mass of the Burmese, and the race name
is now Talaing-Myanma (Talaing-Burman). My people
are very simple ; and like all simple races they abound
in the domestic \artues. If you understand them you
will find them the best of good-fellows, eager to please
and generous to a fault."
We can easily understand the regret a Talaing
must feel at the obliteration of his race. Their absorption,
however, into a strong, virile nation like the
Burmese will be as beneficial in the end as the fusion
of Briton and Norman was in our own history. The
comparison is not without interest. In the case of
Norman and Briton it was the conquered race that
benefited most in the educational sense. But with
Burmese and Talaings, it was the subjugated who
triumphed morally. And if Talaing literature is decaying,
at least it has been the basis of Burmese literature,
though, a."> I have shown, it is possible that both the
Burmese and Talaing alphabets are deeply influenced
by that of the Pyu, who also based theirs on some
south Indian script. The Burmese in 1057 A.D.
received their southern Buddhism from Thaton.
Talaing
architects and artists produced the wonderful
Pagodas at Pagan, where extensive Talaing Inscriptions
(notably on 400 plaques in the Ananda Pagoda,
on the bell in the Swezigon Pagoda, and on the face of
the Myazedi Pillar)
have, in recent years, greatly helped
to illucidate the early history of Burma. For these
reasons Talaing, though moribund, is regarded by