| 466 | BURMAH | BURMAH (British) |
from time to time. The good, after death, are happy in Nirvana, a state of perfect rest, while the had are punished by a degrading metempsychosis. The other sect rejects entirely the doctrine of the metempsychosis, and the picture worship and cloister system of the Buddhists; considers death as the portal to everlasting happiness or misery, according to the conduct of the deceased; and worships one supreme and all-creating spirit. The adherents of this sect are numerous, but they worship in secret on account of their persecution by the government. The rosary is in general use, and the Pali words expressing the transitory nature of all sublunary things are often repeated. The Burmese Buddhists avoid to some extent the picture worship practised in China, and their monks are more than usually faithful to their vows of poverty and celibacy. Their religious ministrations are confined to sermons. They live in monasteries, instruct the children, and subsist entirely on the contributions of the public. They may at any time leave their convents and resume the ordinary occupations of life.—The ancient history of the Burmese commences with a cosmology similar to that of the Hindoos. A chronological table translated into English goes as far back as 289 B. C. Prome was then the seat of government. About A. D. 94 the last king of Prome died, and a new dynasty arose and transferred the court to Pugan, which remained the capital for 12 centuries. About 1233 the Chinese invaded Burmah, and subdued Ava. About 1300 Panya became the capital, and continued so for 360 years. In 1322 arose the dynasty of Sagaing. About 1364 Panya and Sagaing were both destroyed, and the seat of government was transferred to Ava. Wars were constantly waged between the Burmese and Peguans, and in the middle of the 16th century the Burmese conquered Pegu; but the latter, supported by the Europeans, not only cast off the Burmese yoke, but invaded Burmah in 1752, captured Ava, and took prisoner Donipti, the last king of his race. Soon afterward Alompra, a village chief of ability, placed himself at the head of the malcontents, defeated the Peguans, recovered Ava, and became king and lawgiver of Burmah, and founder of the present dynasty. In 1754-'7 he conquered the Cassayans and Pegu, then Martaban and Tenasserim, and took the king of Siam prisoner. In 1771 the Siamese regained their independence, and the Chinese invaded Burmah. The Chinese were repulsed and many of the Chinese prisoners forced to settle in the country. In 1783 one of the successors of Alompra conquered Aracan, fought with Siam, and captured Mergui, Tavoy, and other districts. He also armed his troops with European weapons, organized the country to resist the encroachments of the English, and changed his residence to Amarapura. Under his successor Ing-she-men (Madutchao) Ava again became the capital, and Assam was annexed to Burmah in 1822. At this time the war with England commenced. In 1799, 50,000 Mughs of Aracan migrated into British territory, to escape the extortions of the Burmese governor; and in 1811 they made an incursion into Burmese territory. On the king's demanding these emigrants from the English, he was met with a refusal. He next demanded the cession of several border districts of Bengal on the ground of their having originally formed parts of Ava, with the same result. In 1824 Lord Amherst, governor of India, declared war against Burmah and sent Campbell to Cachar, which had expelled its rajah, who was tributary to the king of Burmah. Campbell gained a victory at Prome (Dec. 3, 1825), and concluded a treaty of peace with the Burmese shortly after. But the ratification of the treaty not following on the part of the Burmese, Campbell renewed the war in the early part of the following year, and the treaty was ratified in a few days. The English obtained thereby the provinces of Aracan, Mergui, Tavoy, and Ye. For the wars in Pegu and its subjection to the English, see Pegu.—See Yale's “Narrative of the Mission from the Governor General of India to the Court of Ava” (London, 1858); Winter's “Six Months in Burmah” (London, 1858); Bastiat's Seigen in Birma in den Jahren 1861-'2; and Williams's “Through Burmah to Western China” (London and Edinburgh, 1867).
BURMAH, British, a province of British India, comprising those portions of Burmah which the English crown has acquired by successive conquests, viz.: the states of Aracan and Tenasserim, which were ceded at the close of the Burmese war of 1824, and the intermediate state of Pegu, which became a British possession in 1852, after the second war with Burmah. They constitute a narrow strip of territory occupying about 1,000 m. of seaboard on the E. shore of the bay of Bengal and the Indian ocean, and extending southward over a part of the Malay peninsula, being included between lat. 22° 46′ and about lat. 10° N., and lon. 92° and 99° E. It is bounded N. by Bengal and Burmah proper, E. by Burmah proper and Siam, S. by the lower part of the Malay peninsula and the Indian ocean, and W. by the Indian ocean and the bay of Bengal. Area, 98,881 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 2,463,484. The three principal governmental divisions of the province, which was constituted in 1862, correspond to the three states above mentioned. The British parliamentary accounts for 1871 furnish the following particulars as to the area, districts, and population of each : Aracan (Akyab, Ramree, Sandoway), 23,529 sq. m., pop. 447,957; Pegu (Rangoon, Bassein, Myanoung, Prome, Toungoo), 36,454 sq. m., pop. 1,533,505; Tenasserim (Amherst, Shwé-gyeen, Tavoy, Mergui), 38,898 sq. m., pop. 482,022. Aracan, the northern portion, is for the most part a depressed valley, varying from 10 to 50 m. in width, enclosed between a low range of coast
