Pyu
Pyu (also written Pyuu, or Pyus) refers to an ancient kingdom (and its language) found in the central and northern regions of what is now Myanmar (Burma). The history of the Pyu is known to us from two main historical sources: the remnants of their civilization found in stone inscriptions (some in Pali, but rendered in the Pyu script, or a Pyu variant of the Gupta script) and the brief accounts of some Chinese travellers and traders, preserved in the Chinese imperial history.
The people of Pyu are believed to have been ethnically different from the Bamar (Burmans), although they may have inter-married with the Sino-Tibetan migrants who later became part of the Bamar ethnicity.
Literature
- Janice Stargardt: The ancient Pyu of Burma, Cambridge 1990, ISBN 1-873178-01-8
Categories
History of Myanmar | Ethnic groups in Myanmar | Ancient peoples