Panthay Muslims

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Contents 1 Panthays – Myanmar Chinese Muslims 2 Myanmar Muslims or Burmese Muslims 3 Etymology 4 History 4.1 Panthays' role during Mongol invasions of Bagan 5 Yunnan, the place of origin of Panthays 5.1 Panthay caravaners 5.2 Panthay caravaneers travelling to Burma 5.2.1 Panthays arrived Mogok 6 Problems back in homeland of Panthays, Yunnan 6.1 Panthay rebellion in Yunnan 6.2 The Islamic Kingdom of Yunnan 6.3 Yunnan Sultan's Hajj trip through Burma 7 Panthays during Konbaung period 7.1 King Mindon and Panthays 7.2 King Mindon donated the land for Panthay Mosque 7.3 Sultan Suleiman of Yunnan built the Panthay Mosque in Mandalay 7.4 Colonel Mah Too-tu constructed the mosque 7.5 Business relations with King Mindon's Burma 8 Imperial China's ethnic cleansing on Panthays 8.1 British refused to help the Panthay Sultan 9 Latest diaspora 9.1 Colonel Mah Too-tu settled in Mandalay for good 9.2 Panthays established in Mandalay 9.3 Present Panthays in Myanmar 10 See also 11 References 12 Bibliography 13 References

[edit] Panthays – Myanmar Chinese Muslims

This chapter is taken and revised from The Emergence Of The Panthay Community At Mandalay, by Maung Maung Lay. (The writer is a great-grandson of Yunnan Chinese Colonel Mah Too-tu who had supervised the construction of the Panthay Mosque at Mandalay. He lectured in History and was an Associate Professor in International Relations at Mandalay University. He retired in 1997.)

[edit] Myanmar Muslims or Burmese Muslims

Panthays formed one of the definite group among Myanmar Muslims or Burmese Muslims. Some people like to refer Burmese Muslims as the more assimilated or original or oldest group amongst all the Muslims in Burma or Myanmar. That is because they are more "Burmanized" when compare to other groups. But nowadays, because of mixed marriages and intermarriages, it is some times difficult to differentiate who is who.

[edit] Etymology

Chinese Muslims in Myanmar are known as Panthays. The name Panthay is a purely Burmese word, which is said to be identical with the Shan word Pang hse.^[1] It was the name by which the Burmese called the Chinese Muslims who came with caravans to Burma from the Chinese province of Yunnan. The name was not used or known in Yunnan itself.^[2] But curiously in the research paper from Karachi on the Muslims in China, the Pakistani researchers used the name Panthay. Later, they acknowledged that they got that name from Burma.

The root of the name is exceedingly obscure. Several theories have been suggested as to its derivation, but none of them is strong enough to refute the others. The most plausible among them is the suggestion that the name Panthay has some kind of link with Pathi, the old Burmese word for Muslim. The Burmese word Pathi is a corruption of Farsi (Persian). The Burmese of Old Burma called their own indigenous Muslims Pathi. It was applied to all Muslims other than the Chinese Muslims. Thus the name Panthay is assumed by many as a corrupted form of Pathi. Whatever its origin, the name Panthay was, and still is, applied exclusively and uniquely to the Chinese Muslims.

Chinese Muslims in Yunnan did not call themselves by the name Panthay. They called themselves Huizu (回族), meaning Muslim in Chinese. Non-Muslim Chinese and Westerners refer to them as Huihui (回回). Apart from its Burmese origin, very little is known about the name Panthay.

[edit] History

In the stone inscriptions of Bagan, first Burmese Kingdom, the name pan:si comes up from time to time. ^[3] There is no other scholarly explanation for this than that it refers to Panthay, which later in the Konbaung period became a common name.

[edit] Panthays' role during Mongol invasions of Bagan

This is all the more probable if we consider it in the light of the fact that the Muslims of Yunnan had played an important role in the Mongol invasions of the Kingdom of Bagan towards the close of the 13th century. Some of the administrators of Yunnan during the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty were Muslims. Prominent among them were, Sai-Tien-Ch'ih-Shan-ssu-ting Wuma-erh (Sayyid Ajal Shams-al-Din-Umar), who was a general and (governor of' Yunnan between 1274 and 1279. Hisson Na-Su-la-ting (Nasir-al-Din) was in charge of' the road systems of Yunnan and personally commanded the first Mongol invasion of Bagan in 1277-78. And his younger brother Hushin (Husayn) was Transport Commissioner in 1284 and later Senior Governor of Yunnan.^[4]

It was believed that in all the three Mongol invasions of Bagan, there were Panthay officers and men in the ranks of the invading armies. This explains the occurrences of the name Pan:si in the inscriptions.

[edit] Yunnan, the place of origin of Panthays

The history of the Panthays in Burma was inseparably linked to that of Yunnan, their place of origin, whose population was predominantly Muslim. The Chinese Muslims of Yunnan were noted for their mercantile prowess. Within Yunnan, the Muslim population excelled as merchants and soldiers, the two qualities, which made them ideally suited to the rigors of overland trade in the rugged, mountainous regions, and to deserve the rewards therefrom. They might have been helped in this by their religion of' Islam from its inception had flourished as a Religion of Trade. The religious requirement to perform Hajj pilgrimage had also helped them to establish an overland road between Yunnan and Arabia as early as the first half of the 1300s.^[5]

[edit] Panthay caravaners

In the pre-colonial times the Panthays emerged as excellent long-distance caravaneers of southern China and northern Southeast Asia. They had virtually dominated whole caravan trade of Yunnan. By the time the first agents and adventurous pioneers the French and British imperialism arrived at the fringes of Yunnan, they found the caravan network of the region dominated by the Chinese Muslim muleteers.

One contributor to the British Royal Geographical Society had remarked in 1888, shortly after the British conquest of Upper Burma, on the Muslim caravaners of Yunnan as follows:

They (the Muslim caravaners) are perhaps the greatest travelers on the face of the earth, if we may distinguish between those who are carried by trains or steamers and those who travel on their own feet. Every year numbers of these men came from Yunnan to Rangoon and Moulmein, doing thousands of' miles on foot, with caravans of ponies, mules or cattle to exchange the productions of the country for the imported wares of Rangoon.^[6]

According to Hanna, a missionary who spent many years in Yunnan at the beginning of this century; The men who guide the long trains of mules and ponies through the wild mountain passes of Yunnan and the Burmese frontiers, must be rugged in constitution and resolute in spirit to endure this rough life, filled with hardship sand dangers. The scanty and ill-cooked food, the long marches, the exposures to all kinds of weather...would indeed daunt any but men of iron mould.^[7] The Chinese Muslim domination of the Yunnan caravan network seems to have continued well into the 20th century. By the mid 19th century the caravans of' Yunnanese traders ranged over an area extending from the eastern frontiers of Tibet, through Assam, Burma, Thailand, Laos and Tongkin (presently part of Vietnam), to the southern Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi.

[edit] Panthay caravaneers travelling to Burma

These sturdy caravaneers were the first Pathays from Yunnan who came to Burma with their caravans and their merchandise. In fact, the caravan trade between Burma and Yunnan had been going on for centuries before the Konbaung period. There were well-established caravan routes between Yunnan and Burma.

Prominent among them the Yunnan-Bhamo route, the Yunnan-Ava (later Mandalay) route via Theinni and Thibaw (Hsipaw) in the northern Shan State, and the route from Yunnan via Kengtung, through Lao and Siamese country to Moulmein (Mawlamyine) and Rangoon. Bhamo was an important natural entry-port and terminus for caravans from Yunnan. From there the Chinese goods were carried down by boat along Ayeyarwadi to the Burmese royal capital. Likewise, Kengtung in the eastern Shan State was the most important entry-port in the Yunnan-Thailand trade as well as for caravans coming to Mawlamyine and Yangon. Similarly, Theinni served as an important transit station for caravans coming to the royal capital along the overland route across the northern Shan State. For many caravans from Yunnan, Ava, and later Mandalay, was the destination. Thus, the Panthay caravaneers presented a familiar sight at the royal capital of Konbaung kings. The Bhamo route was the shortest, easiest and safest route from Yunnan. The over land route via Theinni was six hundred and twenty miles long, and forty-six hills and mountains, five large rivers and twenty-four smaller ones, had to be traversed in the of two months.^[8]

There were three routes from Bhamo in Burma to Momien (Tengyue) in Yunnan. The northern route called the Ponlyne route, passed through the northern Sanda valley formed by the Taping river, a tributary of the Ayeyarwaddy. The central route, called the Embassy or the Ambassador Route, passed through the Hotha valley formed by the Namsa River, a tributary of the Taping. The southern route, called the Sawuddy route, passed through the Muangwan valley formed by the Nam-wan river. ^[9] The Bhamo-Momien-Tali route was the main commercial highway used by and Chinese merchants form time immemorial, leading through the richest part of Yunnan, and tapping Sichuan and Guizhou, the most populous provinces in China. Tens of thousands of mules passed through this route each year. The volume of trade by Bhamo route in 1855 was estimated to be about nearly half a million pound sterling.^[10]

The merchandise brought from Yunnan by the Panthay caravaneers included opium, wax, silk cloth, tea, metal utensils, iron in the rough, felts, finished articles of' clothing, walnuts, preserved fruits and foods, and dried meat of' several kinds. The Burmese goods taken back to Yunnan were raw cotton, raw and wrought silk, amber, jades and other precious stones, velvets, betel-nuts, tobacco, gold-leaf', preserves, paps, dye woods,stick lac, ivory, and specialized foodstuffs such as slugs, edible birds’ nests, among other things. ^[11] Raw cotton, which was reserved as a royal monopoly, was in great demand in China. An extensive trade in this commodity had existed between the Burmese kingdom and Yunnan. It was transported up the Ayeyarwaddy River to Bhamo where it was sold to the Chinese merchants, and conveyed partly by land and partly by water into Yunnan, and from there to other provinces of China. Most caravans consisted of between fifty and one hundred mules, employing perhaps ten to fifteen drivers. ^[12] Thus, it can be said that the history of the Panthays in Burma began with the caravan trade between Burma and Yunnan, which had benefited both.

[edit] Panthays arrived Mogok

Besides the caravaneers, there were other Panthays, though very small in number, who came to Burma, to trade in jades and other precious stones. These merchants came via the Bhamo route. They were chiefly interested in the jade mines of northern Burma and ruby mines of Mogok. With whatever purpose they had come to Burma, most of these early Panthays, whether caravaneers or precious-stone dealers, had no intention of taking permanent residence in the Burmese Kingdom. They came and went only as itinerant merchants.

[edit] Problems back in homeland of Panthays, Yunnan

It is necessary here to shift our focus from Burma to China. An event that had a resounding impact on the history of the Yunnan province and rocked Manchu China from its foundation was the Panthay rebellion of 1855-73. Islam being a non-indigenous religion of China, the concepts and behavior of Chinese Muslims in Yunnan were many degrees removed from those of their eclectic compatriots. The Panthays tended to form in China exclusive circles, each retaining its identity under most adverse circumstances. They formed a closed-knitted society.

They resisted the unifying influences of Manchu China, earning for themselves the hatred of the T'ang Chinese of whose oppression they had become victims.

Starting from 1855 the Muslim majority of Yunnan had risen against the oppression to which they were subjected by the mandarins. They rose against the tyranny and extortion universally practiced by this official class, from which they were excluded.

The mandarins had secretly hounded mobs on to the rich Panthays, provoked anti-Muslim riots and instigated destruction of their mosques. ^[13] The religious hatred of the Panthays was thus aroused. The widespread Muslim desire for revenge for insults to their religion led to a universal and well-planned rising.

[edit] Panthay rebellion in Yunnan

The rebellion started as a local uprising. It was sparked off by the Panthay laborers of the silver mines of Li'nanxian village in Yunnan who rose up in one body against the overbearing conduct of their Chinese overseers. The rebels murdered every Chinese officer they set their eyes upon. The Chinese Governor of Yunnan sent an urgent appeal to the central government at Peking (Beijing) and then committed suicide. The Panthays, under the able leadership of Tu Wenxiu or Dowinsheow, and driven by the intensity of' their feelings and the strength of their convictions, went on to rebel against all forms of authority. They turned their fury on the local mandarins and ended up with challenging the ultimate authority-the central government at Peking. In this way, the rebellion became a matter of national importance.

The Imperial Government was handicapped by problems that cropped up in profusion in various parts of the sprawling empire, the Taiping rebellion being one of them. It was a time when China was still suffering from the shocks caused by the first series of unequal treaties signaled by the Treaty of Nanking forced upon her by the imperialist powers. These circumstances favored the ascendancy of Panthays in Yunnan.

[edit] The Islamic Kingdom of Yunnan

The Panthays won one victory after another in the initial phases of' the rebellion. They repulsed the desultory attacks of' the imperial troops. They wrested one important city after another from the hands of' the Imperial mandarins. The Chinese towns and villages which resisters were pillaged, and the male population massacred. All the places, which yielded, were spared. ^[14] The ancient holy city of Tali-fu fell to the Panthays in 1857. With the capture of Tali-fu, Muslim supremacy became an established fact in Yunnan.

The Islamic Kingdom of Yunnan was proclaimed after the fall of Tali-fu. Tu Wen-hsiu, leader of the Panthays, assumed the regnal title of Sultan Suleiman and made Tali-fu his capital. In this way, the Sultanate, fashioned after those of' the Middle East, appeared in Yunnan. Panthay governorships were also created in a few important cities, such as Momein (Tengyueh), which were a few stages from the Burmese border town of Bhamo. The Panthays reached the high watermark of their power and glory in 1860.

[edit] Yunnan Sultan's Hajj trip through Burma

The eight years from 1860 to 1868 were the heyday of the Sultanate. The Panthays had either taken or destroyed forty towns and one hundred villages. ^[15] During this period the Sultan Suleiman, on his way to Mecca as a pilgrim, visited Rangoon, presumably via the Kengtung route, and from there to Calcutta where he had a chance to see the power of the British. ^[16]

[edit] Panthays during Konbaung period

They were all men who never brought their wives and families along, since alone could have made such perilous and rigorous journeys of those days. This is the reason why no evidence of the existence of Panthay settlement anywhere in the Burmese Kingdom prior to the Konbaung period has yet been found.

Beginning from the late Konbaung period, however, the Panthays started to settle in the royal capital of Mandalay, particularly during the reign of King Mindon. Although their number was small, a few of them seemed to have found their way inside the court as jade-assessors. They lived side by side with non-Muslim Chinese at Chinatowns (tayoke tan), which had been designated by King Mindon as the residential area for the Chinese. The non-Muslim Chinese had started settling in Mandalay considerably earlier than the Panthays so that by the time the latter arrived, there already was a Chinese community at Mandalay, with their own bank, companies and warehouses and some kind of organized social and economic life.

It happened that there were also Chinese jade-assessors in the employ of the king. Rivalry between the Chinese and Panthay jade-assessors in courting the royal favor naturally led to a quarrel between the two groups, resulting in a number of deaths.^[17] King Mindon had not given much serious thought to the religious and social differences between the Panthays and the Chinese. He had treated the two more or less alike. But after the Chinadown quarrel, the king began to see the wisdom of separating the two groups.

[edit] King Mindon and Panthays

It was also during this time that King Mindon granted the Panthays of the royal capital land on which to settle as a separate community, with a view to preventing further quarrels between them and the Chinese. The Panthays were given the rare favor of choosing their own place of residence within the confines of the royal capital, and they chose the site on which the present-day Panthay Compound (Chinese Muslim Quarter) is located. It was bounded on the north by 35th Street, in the south by 36th Street, in the east by 79th Street and in the west by 80th Street. This site was chosen because it was the camping ground for the mule caravans from Yunnan, which regularly came to the capital via the Theinni route.

[edit] King Mindon donated the land for Panthay Mosque

The broadminded King Mindon also permitted a mosque to be built on the granted site so that the Panthays would have their own place of worship. Having no funds for an undertaking of such magnitude, the Panthays of Mandalay put up the matter to the Sultan of Yunnan. Sultan Sulaiman had already started a business enterprise (hao) in Mandalay.

His company was housed in a one-story brick building located at the present-day. Taryedan on the west side of the 80th Street, between 36th and 37th Streets.^[18] The hao had been carrying on business in precious stones, jades, cotton, silk and other commodities of both Chinese and Burmese origins.

[edit] Sultan Suleiman of Yunnan built the Panthay Mosque in Mandalay

Eager to establish close and friendly relations with all the neighboring states, the Sultan wasted no time in seizing the opportunity of having a Chinese Muslim mosque installed at the Burmese King's capital, an opportunity that had presented itself without being asked. He at once sent out Colonel Mah Too-tu, one of his senior military officers, as his special envoy and agent to Mandalay with the important mission of constructing the mosque.

[edit] Colonel Mah Too-tu constructed the mosque

The mosque took about two years to finish and was opened in 1868, the second mosque to be built in the royal capital. At the grand opening of the mosque, a great feast was given. All the Muslims in Mandalay and its suburbs were invited to it. But the turnout was so big that the food ran out in a short time. As there were still so many guests left untreated, the hosts gave each of them two coins of one kyat denomination as consolation.^[19] Today, 134 years after, the Panthay Mosque is still standing proudly as the second oldest mosque, in Mandalay and a standing witness to the long-lasting friendship and goodwill between the Bamars and the Panthays. (Note: The oldest mosque in Mandalay is the North Obo Mosque, which was built a few years earlier than the Panthay Mosque donated by King Mindon, second last King of Burma.)

[edit] Business relations with King Mindon's Burma

There was another reason for the cessation of trade by the Bhamo routes. It was King Mindon's earlier policy of confining the British to lower Burma. Mindon had feared that trade along the Bhamo route would lead to the extension of British influence to upper Burma and beyond. He did not want a fleet of British steamers to the north of the capital. He also seemed to be desirous of making Mandalay the center of trade instead of Bhamo which was difficult to control.^[20] He had, therefore, deliberately discouraged all communications with China via Bhamo and restricted the trade to the long overland journey of two months, via Theinni to Mandalay. The Panthay caravans had been encouraged to come to Mandalay to the exclusion of' Bhamo.

Later, this short-sighted policy and attitude of King Mindon gradually wore out as he began to see the practical economic and political advantages of the resuscitation of' Bhamo trade to his country and people. Thus, he extended all the help he could to the Sladen mission. With the Burmese monarch favorably disposed towards it, the British mission was cordially received by the Panthay Governor of Momien, Ta-sa-kon. Due to lack of' security of the roads, Sladen was not allowed to proceed to Tali-fu to discuss matters directly with the Sultan. However, the Sultan sent letters to Momien in which he expressed the desire of the Panthay government to enter into friendly relations with the British government, and to foster mutual trade. Before returning, Sladen and the Momien Governor Ta-sa-kon, as the Sultan's personal representative, signed an agreement in which the British and the Panthays pledged to foster Yunnan-Burma trade to the best of their ability. Though far from being a satisfactory treaty to both parties, the agreement had established some kind of de facto friendship between them.

[edit] Imperial China's ethnic cleansing on Panthays

In the meantime, in Yunnan, things were changing unfavorably for the Panthays. The Panthays in 1868 found it difficult to hold on to what they had won and assert their overlordship in Yunnan province as a whole.

Their attempts at any turn were flouted by the imperial troops and brigand chiefs like Li Xietai, who had sold their loyalty to Imperial China. They were unable to wipe out all the hostile elements. Their initial successes were only due to their superior prowess and the unanimity of their councils, directed by the Sultan (Talifu). The civil war dragged on. Yunnan was war-torn. Death and destruction became the order of the day. People abandoned honest occupations and took to brigandage as their livelihood. Shifting loyalties of brigand chiefs had complicated things. The Sultanate was unable to maintain order and security in the kingdom.

The Panthay power declined after 1868. The Chinese Imperial Government had succeeded in reinvigorating itself. By 1871, it was directing a campaign for the annihilation of the obdurate Panthays of Yunnan. By degrees the Imperial Government had tightened the cordon around the Panthays. The Panthay Kingdom proved unstable as soon as the Imperial Government made a regular and determined attack on it. Town after town fell under well-organized attacks made by the imperial troops. Tali-fu itself was besieged by the imperial Chinese. Sultan Suleiman found himself caged in by the walls of his capital. He now desperately looked for outside help. He turned to the British for military assistance.^[21] He realized that only British military intervention could have saved the Panthays.

[edit] British refused to help the Panthay Sultan

The Sultan had reasons for his turning to the British for military aid. He had seen the British might in India on his pilgrimage to Mecca some years earlier, and was impressed by it. Britain was the only western power with whom the Sultanate was on friendly terms and had contacts with. The British authorities in India and British Burma had sent a mission led by Major Sladen to Momien from May to July 1868. The Sladen mission had stayed seven weeks at Momien. The main purpose of the mission was to revive the Ambassador Route between Bhamo and Yunnan and resuscitate border trade, which had almost ceased since 1855 mainly because of the Panthay rebellion.

Taking advantage of the friendly relations resulting from Sladen's visit, Sultan Suleiman now, in his fight for the survival of the Panthay Kingdom, turned to the British for the vitally, needed military assistance. In 1872 he sent his adopted son Prince Hassan, to England, with a personal letter to Queen Victoria, via Burma, requesting British military assistance. The Hassan Mission was accorded courtesy and hospitality in both British Burma and England. However, the British politely, but firmly, refused to intervene militarily in Yunnan against Peking.^[22] The mission was a failure. While Hassan and his party were abroad, Tali-fu was captured by the Imperial troops in January 1873.

The Imperial Government had waged an all-out war against the Panthays with the help of French artillery experts.^[23] Their modern equipment, trained personnel and numerical superiority were no match for the ill-equipped Panthays with no allies. Thus, in less than two decades of its rise, the power of the Panthays in Yunnan fell. But the Chinese suffered the loss of more than 20,000 lives in various fights.^[24] Seeing no escape and no mercy from his relentless foe, Sultan Suleiman tried to take his own life before the fall of' Tali-fu. But, before the poison he drank took effect fully, he was beheaded by his enemies. The Sultan's head was preserved in honey and then dispatched to the Imperial Court in Peking as a trophy and a testimony to the decisive nature of the victory of the Imperial Chinese over the Pantliays of Yunnan. ^[25]

The scattered remnants of the Panthay troops continue their resistance after the fall of Tali-fu. But when Momien was next besieged and stormed by the imperial troops in May 1873, their resistance broke completely. Governor Ta-sa-kon was captured and executed by the order of the Imperial Government.

Many adherents to the Panthay cause were hounded out and persecuted by the imperial mandarins. Wholesale massacres of' Panthays followed. Many fled with their families across the Burmese border and took refuge in the Wa State where, about 1875, they set up the exclusively Panthay town of Panglong.^[26]

Those who remained in Yunnan had to bow down to the iron rule of the Manchu authorities. The Panthays were never to rise again as a political force. The last traces of Panthay authority in Yunnan vanished with the tragic death of Governor Ta-sa-kon of Momien.

[edit] Latest diaspora

The demise of the Sultanate had shattered the hopes of all the Panthays for a bright future in their own Islamic kingdom in Yunnan. The blood-bath that occurred in its wake had made the decision for many Panthays: to flee the country for those who could make it, and not to return to Yunnan for those who were already outside. In the first category were the refugees in the Wa State, and in the second were those who were in Mandalay at the time the Sultanate fell. As has been said earlier, the Panthays in Mandalay had left their families behind when they set out for Burma. These Panthay businessmen now realized that it would be at least some years before they would see their families in China again. Thus, many of them started raising second families in Mandalay by taking Burmese Muslim wives. This explains why most of the first-generation Panthays of Mandalay had non-Chinese wives and why their descendants today are Burmanized. In later years, when things became more favorable, these early Panthays of Mandalay alternated their stay between their Chinese and Burmese wives.

[edit] Colonel Mah Too-tu settled in Mandalay for good

Colonel Mah Too-tu found himself in the same situation. When he came to Mandalay with the mission to build the Panthay Mosque, he left his family behind in Yunnan. When the mission had been accomplished, he was assigned by the Sultan to take charge of the Panthay business enterprise at Taryedan. ^[27] When the Sultanate fell, Mah Too-tu was stranded at Mandalay. For a man of his rank and stature, going back to Tali-fu meant sure execution by the Manchu authorities. Mah Too-tu had no other alternative but to settle down in Mandalay. Since November 1868 he had bought a plot of land with a house on it for 80 pieces of one-kyat coins from Khunit Ywa-sa Princess.^[28] The plot happened to be at the southwest corner of the land granted by King Mindon to the Panthays (corner of' 36th and 80th Street). The addition of Mah Too-tu's plot made the Panthay compound into a full square. On 7 June, 1873, Mah Too- tu married Shwe Gwe, a lady from Sagyin-wa village near Amarapura, who happened to be the daughter of a princess of Manipur brought to Mandalay as a captive by the Burmese king.^[29] Mah Too-tu spent the last years of his life at the Panthay Compound with his Burmese wife.

[edit] Panthays established in Mandalay

After the mass exodus from Yunnan, the number of Panthays residing in Mandalay gradually increased. The new arrivals, usually families, came by way of Bhamo or via the Wa State. When the land for the Panthays was granted by King Mindon, there were a few houses on it, in addition to several old graves.^[30] This shows that the place had been an abandoned graveyard. In the years immediately following the completion of the mosque, the number of houses in the Panthay Compound was less than twenty. There were also between ten and twenty Panthay households living in other parts of Mandalay. But a trickle of new arrivals added to their number.

The establishment of the Panthay Mosque in 1868 marked the emergence of the Chinese Muslims as a distinct community at Mandalay. Although the number of this first generation of Panthays remained small, the Mosque, which is still standing, constitutes a historic landmark. It signifies the beginning of the first Panthay Jama'at (Congregation) in Mandalay Ratanabon Naypyidaw.

[edit] Present Panthays in Myanmar

Panthays are spread over many parts of Myanmar with their mosques in Yangon, Taungyi, Lashio, Tangyang, Kyaington, Pyin-Oo-Lwin, Myitkyina and Mogok.^[31]

[edit] See also

1. Burmese Muslims or Myanmar Muslims
2. Myanmar Indian Muslims
3. Islam in India
4. Burmese Indians
5. Islam in China
6. Islam in Asia
7. Burmese Chinese
8. Hui Chinese
9. Panthay Rebellion

[edit] References

1. ^ (Scott, 1900, 607)
2. ^ (Yule & Burnell, 1968, 669)
3. ^ (Ba Shin, 1962, 2)
4. ^ (Ba Shin, 1961, 2)
5. ^ (Forbes, 1987, 292)
6. ^ (Forbes, 1987, 290)
7. ^ (Forbes, 1987,193)
8. ^ (Anderson, 1876, 2)
9. ^ (The Sladen Report, 1871, 7)
10. ^ (The Sladen Report, 1871, 4)
11. ^ (Anderson, 1876, 4)
12. ^ (Forbes 1987, 293)
13. ^ (Anderson, 1876, 233)
14. ^ (Anderson, 1876, 233)
15. ^ (Anderson, 1876, 343)
16. ^ (Anderson, 1876, 242)
17. ^ (Interview with U Aung Myint)
18. ^ (Interview with Haji U Ba Thi alias Haji Adam (born 11 October, 1908) a Panthay elder who had served for many years as chairman of the Trust of 'the Panthay Mosque, on 15 October, 1997.)
19. ^ (Interview with Haji U Ba Thi)
20. ^ (Sladen Report, 1876,5)
21. ^ (Thaung, 1961, 481)
22. ^ (Thaung, 1961, 481)
23. ^ (Thaung, 1961, 481)
24. ^ (Anderson, 1876, 243)
25. ^ (Thaung, 1961, 482)
26. ^ (Scott, 1901, 740)
27. ^ (Interview with Haji U Ba Thi)
28. ^ (Family Parabaik)
29. ^ (Than Tun, 1968, 19)
30. ^ (Interview with Haji U Ba Thi)
31. ^ Message from Maung Ko Ghaffari, Chief Editor, Light of Islam Magazine, Myanmar in Feb. 2007

[edit] Bibliography

1. Anderson, John, Mandalay to Momien: A Narrative of the Two Expeditions to Western China of 1868 and 1875 (London: Macmillan, 1876).
2. Ba Shin, Lt. Colonel, "Coming of Islam to Burma Down to l700 AD.," Asian History Congress (New Delhi: Azad Bhavan, 1961).
3. Forbes, D.W., "The Role of Hui Muslims in the Traditional Caravan Trade between Yunnan and Thailand," Asian Merchants and Businessmen in the Indian Ocean and the China sea: 13-20 Centuries(French Journal published under the direction of Denys Lombard & Jean Aubin), (Paris: School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences, 1987).
4. Kaye, J.W., Major Sladen’s Report on the Bhamo Route, (In Continuation of' Parliamentary Paper No. 251, of Session 1868-9), (London: India Office, 1871), Microfilm copy.
5. Scott, J. George, GUBSS, 1, i ( Rangoon Government Printing, 1900).
6. ibid GUBSS, ii, ii (Rangoon- Government Printing, 1901).
7. Thaung, Dr., “Panthay Interlude in Yunnan: A Study in Vicissitudes Through the Burmese Kaleidoscope,” JBRS Fifth Anniversary Publications No. 1 (Rangoon Sarpy Beikman, 1961).
8. Yule, Col. Henry & Burnell, A. C., Hobson-Jobson- A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical And Discursive (Delhi-.Munshiran Manoharlal, 1968), Reprint.
9. Than Tun, Dr. (Professor of History), History on Tour, 111, (In Myanmar) (Yangon Nantha House, August 1968).
10. Parabaik dated 13 November, 1868 containing a short account of' Mah Too-tu's purchase of land and house from Khunit Ywa-sa Princess (a family parabaik of the writer).
11. Interview with U Aung Myint (aged 75), a higher grade pleader, before the war, and buildingcontractor after the war, on 11 December, 1987. Although a Myanmar Buddhist, U Aung Myint wasvery friendly with Khala Kyawt, a Myanmar Muslim who had lived in the Panthay Compound formany years in the pre-war days and who had in her possession a parabaik manuscript on the Tayoktan quarrel between the Chinese and the Panthays, and the circumstances leading to the granting of land by King Mindon for the residence of Panthays and the construction of the Parithay Mosque. U Aung Myint had personally read this parabaik, which, unfortunately was destroyed by fire during the war. U Aung Myint had lived close to the Panthay Compound before the war and the house in which he had lived is said to be inside the Panthay Compound at one time.

[edit] References

• Burma Digest Bo Aung Din’s Letter 11- About Myanmar Muslims. and Myanmar Indian Muslims. [1]
• Burma Digest Bo Aung Din’s Letter 10- Myanmar Muslims, Myanmar Chinese Muslims and Migrants. [2]
• Burma Digest Bo Aung Din’s Letter 9- Myanmar Muslims.[3]
• Myanmar Muslim news- [4]
• Burmese Muslims Network- [5]
• Islamic Unity Brotherhood [6]
• Myanmar Muslim political Awareness Organization- [7]
• Panthay on line community- [8]
• Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights [9]
• US Department of State, International Religious Freedom Report 2005 on Burma [10]
• US Department of State, Burma, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices- 2005
• Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor [11]
• Amnesty International’s report on Burma [12]
• UK Conservatives’ Human Rights [13]
• Refusal of Identity Cards for Burmese Muslims [14]
• Refusal of Identity Cards for Burmese Muslims [15]
• Racial Discriminations on Burmese Muslims [16][17]
• Human Rights issues in Burma [18]
• PRAYERS FOR BURMA [19]
• Priestly, Harry. "The Outsiders", The Irrawaddy, 2006-01. Retrieved on 2006-07-07.
• Butkaew, Samart. "Burmese Indians: The Forgotten Lives", Burma Issues, 2005-02. Retrieved on 2006-07-07.
• The Persecution of Muslims in Burma, by Karen Human Rights Group