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State Mon constitutes an administrative division of the Burma.
To know
Geographical notes
The state of Mon borders on the east Karen state, to the north and to the west with the Bago region and to the south with the Tanintharyi region. For a short stretch to the east it also borders the Kanchanaburi province in Thailand. To the west it overlooks the Andaman Sea with a coastline of 566 km off which are some islands.
Background
The Mon are a people of ancient settlement in modern day Burma. They probably settled there in 1500 BC. According to tradition they founded the state of Suwarnabhumi mentioned in the edicts of Emperor Ashoka. In the third century they founded a new kingdom with a capital Thaton The Mon converted to Theravada Buddhism in the 6th century AD. They later founded the kingdom of Dvaravati which prospered around AD 1,000, before being sacked by the Khmer empire. It was then that the Mon fled west to present-day Burma, where they founded new kingdoms but were eroded by new migrations of peoples, the Burmese who came from the Tibetan plateau and the Thais who came down from the Yunnan.
In 1757 the last independent kingdom of the Mon fell into the hands of the Burmese
The British took possession of southern Burma in 1824 at the end of the First Anglo-Burmese War. The Mon fought alongside them because they had received guarantees for a form of self-government. It was then that many of the Mon who had emigrated to Thailand returned to Burma again under the tutelage of the British. These, however, were careful not to fulfill the promises made before the war.
In 1947 the Mon waged armed struggle after the 1st Burmese minister U Nu had flatly refused their demands for autonomy. The separatists founded the "Front of the Mon People", an organization which was absorbed in 1962 into the NMSP (New Party for the State of Mon). As early as 1949, the mountainous areas bordering Thailand came under the control of the party's military wing, the "National Liberation Front of the Mon" (MNLF). In addition to government forces, the front also fought the Karen insurgents to control the border posts with the Thailand which would have allowed them to finance themselves by demanding a kind of duty on incoming and outgoing goods.
In 1974, the military junta in power in Burma proceeded to create the state of Mon with territories taken from the regions of Tanintharyi and of Bago. Nevertheless, the resistance continued until 1995 when an armistice was reached between the regime and the Front. In the following year, the League for the Unity of the Monts was founded. However, the troops of the military junta have repeatedly violated the terms of the agreement. Humanitarian organizations have repeatedly denounced the Yangon regime for human rights violations in Mon state including forced labor, deportation of villagers, land confiscation and military violence against women etc.
Territories and tourist destinations
Urban centers
- Moulmein (or Mawlamyine) - The capital of the Mon state and its most populous city.
- Kyaiktiyo Pagoda (kyaik-isi-yo pagoda) - A place of worship where a daring pagoda was built on a precariously balanced boulder inside which a relic of the Buddha is kept. According to believers, it would be this relic (a lock of hair as usual) that with its divine power would allow the building and the boulder on which it rests to remain in balance.
- Thaton - Ancient capital of the Mon kingdom which was a thriving port between the 6th and 10th centuries AD in commercial relations with Sri Lanka and theSouthern India.
- Ye - Third city by population. It is located in an area rich in resources, especially teak, rubber and Betel. It has an old airport and a railway starts in Ye connecting it to Tavoy.
Other destinations
- Thanbyuzayat War Memorial - Connected by the bridge over the River Kwai.
