The Pa-O is called Taungthu by the Burmese, and Taungsu or Tongsu by the Shan. The term Taunghu has a double meaning in Burmese. It can mean “southern people,” when referring to those Pa-O living in the Thaton area of Lower Burma, as well as “hill people.” The Pa-O interprets the latter as “peasant,” a demeaning term. They refer to themselves as Pa-O.
The Pa-O are regarded as one of four main subgroups of the Karen. The other
three subgroups are the Sgaw, Pwo, and Karenni. The Pa-O are most closely related linguistically to the Pwo. C.M. Enriquez identifies ten tribal divisions
within the Pa-O: five in the Thaton area and five in southern Shan State
Aye Myint, who confines her study to southern Shan State, also lists ten Pa-O subgroups. Maung Khun Noay (Inle) lists fifteen subgroups in southern Shan, karenni (Kayah), and Karen (Kayin) states. However, there may be as many as twenty-four Pa-O subgroups. The Pa-O from the Thaton area in lower Burma refer to their people on the Shan plateau as highland Pa-O, while those in southern Shan State refer to those in the Thaton area of Lower Burma as lowland Pa-O. For the most part, the highland Pa-O has maintained their distinct language, traditional dress, and culture. They are recognizable by their black or dark blue traditional dress and colorful turbans. However, among the subgroups there are variations in language and dress. It is commonly accepted that the lowland Pa-O have largely become Burmanized. Along with their neighbors the Mon and the Karen, they have largely adopted Burmese language, dress, and customs. However, over fifty years ago C.C. Lowis noted that the Taungthus are “almost the only Lower Burma Karens who have preserved their tribal homogeneity (sic). According to Pa-O legend, they migrated south into Burma from the high plateau of central Asia. In lower Burma they established the city of Thaton, east of present day Rangoon. There they prospered, developing a kingdom and a sophisticated culture. Even though the Pa-O shared Thaton with the Mon, the Pa-O claim Thaton as their capital and regard the kings of Thaton as their own. Although virtually all historians agree that Thaton was a Mon Kingdom
1057), no account remains of the early history” of Thaton. Along with the lack of written documents, G. Coedes adds that “there are no archaeological remains of any importance” at the site to settle the dispute. Virtually nothing of the early history of Thaton survives except legend.
The Pa-O and the Mon were among the earliest converts to Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia. J. George Scott wrote seventy years ago that the Taungthu are “nominally Buddhist” but they are in fact “animists. His observation probably was incorrect then, and certainly is today. Lowis more accurately described the Pa-O belief system as “Buddhism, tempered with animism. Most Pa-O are devout Buddhists. However, Buddhism was superimposed on animism over a thousand years ago and still has not entirely replaced it. Enriquez notes that “the Taungthus are Buddhists. They retain the Nat (animist) superstition.” In contrast to Western religions, Buddhism tolerates traditional animist beliefs as long as they do “not interfere with the keeping of the precepts and the more public observances fo Buddhism. Animism remains an underlying belief, particularly in rural areas where animist shrines are frequently found on the edges of many villages.
Of the Karen subgroups the Pa-O are the only ones to develop a written language. Scott states that “the Taungthu certainly have a written character, but those who are able to read it are even fewer than the specimens of the literature. So far none of these have been obtained in the Shan States. William Dunn Hackett, writing fifty year later, and who lived among the Pa-O south of Taunggyi for five years, actually saw “in two or three of the oldest (monasteries) in and near Has Htung town . . . hand-written manuscripts. . . quite evidently of fairly ancient times.” He adds that “two factors led me to believe they were hundreds of years old; one was the yellow and archaic form which was almost unintelligible to monks, and completely so to the laymen. The abbot . . . told us that some of these writings had been brought with them when they moved from Thaton to Has Htung (present day His Hseng).” The Hackett stated in the early 1950s that the Pa-O language “has been written for years or more, perhaps.” The Pa-O written script was most likely developed when their civilization flourished, before the destruction of Thaton in A.D. 1057. If that is the case, then archaic Pa-O script is most likely to be more than one thousand years old. Thaton was at the time accessible from the sea and had considerable commercial, cultural, and religious contact with southern India and Ceylon. The Pa-O and Mon scripts were originally adapted from Indian script introduced by traders and Buddhist monks. Present-day written Pa-O is similar to the circular script of written Burmese; however, unique accent marks make it distinctive. Spoken Pa-O is very different from Burmese and the other over one hundred ethnic minority languages of Burma. Pa-O has more vowels than dose Burmese, and has six possible tones for syllables, while Burmese has only three. The other Karen subgroups either adapted Burmese or Roman script.
The story continues: In A.D. 1057 the Burmese king, Anawrahta, from Pagan, in his desire to acquire copies of Buddhist sacred texts (the Pitakas)
That the king of Thaton had refused him, led a large army southward. After
a long siege Anawrahta conquered the kingdom, sacked the walled city, and captured the Pa-O king, Manuha. Manuha, together with most of the royal court, many monks, scholars, artisans, as well as the Buddhist scriptures, was taken back to Pagan.
Glass Palace Chronicle of the Kings of Burma was compiled in 1829 by a royal committee of scholars based upon earlier records. It recorded what at the time was believed to be the historical truth. The Glass Palace Chronicle
was so named because it was written at Ava in the Palace of Glass
So the (Burmese) king made ready a store of gifts and presents and sent a wise minister t Thaton to ask for them (the Pitakas) in seemly words. But the heart of the Thaton king was rancorous and evilly disposed, and he answered ill. There at Anawrahtanimsaw ( Anawrahta) waxed exceedingly wroth, and he gathered all his mighty men of valour and marched by land and water. By water he sent eight hundred thousand boats and four score million fighting men . . . His land force, it is said, contained eight hundred thousand elephants, eight million horses, and eighteen million fighting men.
They constituted a formidable procession when viewed from the top of the late rite-faced walls that surrounded Thaton.
Again from the Glass Palace
He ( Anawrahta) brought away the sacred relics which were kept in a jeweled casker and worshipped by a line of kings in Thaton; and he placed thethirty sets of the Pitakas on the king’s thirty-two white elephants and brought them away. Moreover, he sent off in turn the mighty men of valour and all the host of elephants and horses. Thereafter he sent away separately, without mixing, such men as were skilled in carving, turning, and painting; masons, moulders of plaster and flower-patterns; blacksmiths, silversmiths, braziers, founders of gongs and cymbals, filigree flower-workers; doctors and trainers of elephants and horses; makers of shields, round and embossed, of divers kinds of shields, of shield both oblong and convex; forgers of cannon, muskets, and bows; men skilled in frying, parching, baking and frizzling; yakin hairdressers, and men cunning in perfumes, odours, flowers
and juices of flowers. Moreover, to the noble Order acquainted with the books of the Pitakas he made fair appeal and brought them away. He also took the king Manuha and his family and returned to (Pagan).
As a result of the forced removal of these scholars and skilled artisans to Pagan, Buddhism, as well as the art and culture of Pagan flourished. Regarding the “forgers of cannon, muskets, and bows,” Harvey points out that “the first extensive use of fire-arms that can be accepted without question is at Martaban (fifty kilometers south of Thaton) in 1541 when the Portuguese were present,” nearly five hundred years after the conquering of Thaton. (Harvey didn’t comment on those skilled in “frizzling.”)
D.G.E. Hall states that the entire population of Thaton was taken north to Pagan, which, if true, would make the Pa-O migration north to southern Shan State, after the fall of Thaton, difficult to explain. A simpler explanation is put forth by Scott: in addition to King Manuha and the royal court, “ the wealthier people were . . . carried off, and those who were left migrated from the ruins of the Taungthu capital to the Shan States. Michael Aung-Thwin is more specific, stating that Aniruddha (Amawrahta) brought back to Pagan “the bulk of the Mon population, including large numbers of the artisan class. No scholar writing in English about the sack of Thaton mentions that the Pa-O were a minority and though unworthy of mention in the chronicles or that being traditionally agriculturalists and living primarily outside the walled city of Thaton, most of the Pa-O escaped forced relocation. Enriquez states that “after the fall of the (Pa-O dynasty, the people appear to have been widely dispersed, and their numbers were no doubt reduced. As Robert Halliday, a Mon scholar, notes that “Thaton, which had been a center of civilization and learning for more than sixteen centuries, became a waste . . ..
While the length of time Thaton was a center of civilization and learning is open to question, there is little doubt of its destruction. An example of the vagaries in the recording of historical events is Scott’s observation: “Nothing is said of Pegu (onehundred kilometers northwest of Thaton and on the main traditional invasion route used by the Burmese on their way to Siam and Tenasserim), which even then materially, if not spiritually, was a much stronger place (than Thaton), but no doubt be (Anawrahta) took it in his stride. The destruction of both of these cities and the occupation of the region provided revenue and access to the sea. The Pa-O had little reason to stay on and considerable incentive to migrate out of the area. Due to periodic Mon rebellions, the area continued to be ravaged by the Burmese from the north. The Burmese king Bayinnaung conquered Pegu in 1551. Two hundred years later (1757) King Alaungpaya ascked Pegu again, as well as Martaban and Tavoy south of Thaton. Much of the land “relapsed into the jungle. And to add insult to injury, “Burmese armies on the way to Siam (to attack Ayutthaya) would lighten the tedium of the march by devastating the Pegu country. It was not a place to linger in unless one had extremely strong family ties.
The legend focuses upon the Pa-O’s migration from Thaton to Hsa Htung. Scott relates that “those who were left (after Thaton was destroyed) migrated from the ruins of the Taungthu capital to the Shan States and there founded a new state, to which they gave the same name. this is the modern Hsa Htung (Hsi Hseng); others settled in the Myelat. Since no records of this migration exist, the details of the population movement are open to question. It is unlikely there was a one-time major shift in population over a distance of nearly five hundred kilometers. It is more likely that over time there was a migration of a considerable number of Pa-O northward, possibly in waves following the periodic Burmese destruction of the Pegu-Thaton area, with each succeeding generation moving further north in stages. Today there are considerable numbers of Pa-O in the upper Sittang River valley, the main route of travel north from Thaton. Large numbers of Pa-O are found east o fThaton along the Thaton – Pa-an- Kawkareik- Mae Sot road, the ancient invasion/ trade route to Thailand, lending credence to the suggestion that Pa-O ancestors may have migrated east rather than north. Those Pa-O arriving on the Shan plateau settled in the area west of Inle Lake
When the Pa-O migrated north and settled in the southern Shan States, the Shan already occupied most of the fertile valleys. To avoid conflict with the established Shans, the Pa-O settled on the unoccupied hills to cultivate the less desirable land. This was common practice for non-Shan ethnic groups who arrived in an area after Shan occupation. Even though living on the hills made agriculture more difficult, sometimes there were advantages. The Pa-O was able to avoid malaria that debilitated many Shan who lived in the valleys near flooded rice paddies where the anopheles mosquito thrived. As a result, the Pa-O were more “robust.” The number of their villages increased, while Shan villages actually decreased in number. As a result the Pa-O began to replace the Shan in the area. In addition to living in the hills the Pa-O also settled in unoccupied valleys. Scott notes that the Pa-O “houses are for the most part large and well built and the villages well kept and clean”and that the “women and men alike are very industrious in their garden cultivation. In 1885 the Burmese withdrew their garrisons from the Shan states to oppose the British advance on Mandalay. In the absence of a stabilizing force, internecine fighting broke out among the Shan hereditary princes (chaofas or saophas in Shan, sawbwas in Burmese) plunging the entire hill country into war. However, “from its rather out-of-the-way position, partly, too, from the peaceful and industrious character of the Taungthu race, by which the State is mainly peopled, Has Htung . . . suffered little from the intestinal struggles of the other Shan States.
Prior to the British administration the Pa-O in the southern Shan States were victims of Karenni slave-hunting raids. As Archibald Ross Colquhoun states “The Karen-nees (Red Karen) . . . are renowned for their kidnapping propensities. Scott also describes the Karenni as “highly organized slave-traders, making raids into the Shan States to the north to carry off men, women, and children, whom they sold over the border in Siam. Initially they “raided the neighboring Shan States in pursuit of slaves. They gradually became bolder and at length overran the whole of the Myelat, burning villages and carrying off women and children. The Karenni raided to the east, west, and northwest of the state of Has Htung, which was regarded as the real headquarters of the Taungthu race in the Shan States. However, the “Taungthus have seemingly been well able to protect themselves from (Karenni) raids which were so much dreaded by the Shans of . . . other States bordering on the Red Karen country. It is unlikely that the Pa-O in the other southern Shan states were so fortunate. The British, after taking over the Shan State Inle Lake
The Pa-O are traditionally farmers, but a few are local merchants or traders of cattle and horses. In paddy fields they grow rice, vegetables, garlic, onions, soybeans, peanuts, potatoes, beans, mustard, tomatoes, as well as strawberries. On the hillsides, they cultivate tea, coffee, fruit, seasame, and hillside rice, the Pa-O are also known for producing thanatpet(cordial) leaves that are used for the outside wrapper of Burmese cheroots. Most of the trees grow on Pa-O occupied hillsides surrounding the Shan settled valleys, and as a result, the Pa-O tend to dominate thanatpet production, an important cash crop. Although little known outside of Burma
Scott, working in the Shan States as a political officer before he became superintendent of the southern Shan States, relates that in 1887 the chaofa of Yaunghwe, located just south of Taunggyi, said he would “buy a Taungthu woman and give her to us for dispatch to England as a curiosity. He suspects that her curiosity value would have been modest as Pa-O women were no more exotic in their dress than many of the other ethnic minority in the area. Scott, the compiler of the five volume Garreteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States., devotes several pages to the Pa-O” However, he appears to repeat McMahon’s inaccurate assertion, together with his own elaboration, that in addition to living in Lower Burma and the Shan States, the Pa-O were well known through out Siam and Cambodia. In a later work, Scott also states that Taungthu villages are found all over the more western Shan states, but they do not spread northward, and there are none east of the Salween except in Siamese territory.” Later in the same book he asserts that there are “a great many” Taungthus in the northern Shan State of Hsi Paw. In his earlier work he had noted that there were only three villages of Pa-O, consisting of over eighty households. Scott regarded this settlement to be in all likelihood the most northerly one whose inhabitants are said to have come form Lai Hka some hundred and twenty years ago and so intermixed with the Shans that most of them had forgotten their original language. Fifty years later Norman Lewis observed Pa-O in the Lashio bazaar wearing their their dark blue “indigo” dress.
Enriquez, in his Races of Burma, describes his version of Thaton and the Pa-O’s migration north to His Hseng. The Ferrars in their book, Burma, note that the Pa-O of Lower Burma “have maintained themselves distinct from the (Mom).” And that they “are expert craftsmen in all the arts of the Peninsula. They are strict Buddhists and build magnificent (monasteries) in the prevailing wood style. Around the turn of the twentieth century. V.C. Scott O’ Connor observed “comely Taungthu girls” working at silk weaving looms in Mandalay.
In the 1970s, Western scholars studying hill tribes in northern Thailand, noted the existence of the Pa-O, but considered them only as one of the smaller Karen subgroups. Their role as minor players in the anti-government insurgent movement of the 1970s and 1980s was later reported. Pa-O leaders, such as U Hla Pe and Aung Khum Hti, also were mentioned, as was Tha Kaley, a Karen, who led the pro- Communist faction of the Pa-O. It is likely that the next person to write about an individual Pa-O was Jonathan Falla, who describes his experiences with the Karen rebels in the late 1980s in his book, True love and Bartholomew: Rebels on the Burmese border. Although
Falla writes at length about Bartholomew, he mentions only in passing that he is a Pa-O from the Thaton area of Lower Burma.
In Richard K. Diran’s book of photographs entitled The Vanishing Tribes of Burma, the Pa-O is portrayed as one of the country’s many ethnic minority groups. The latest book to mention the Pa-O isAndrew Marshall Marshall
