A remarkable fact about Bagan is that presently over three thousand monuments are found concentrated in an area of forty-two square kilometres (sixteen square miles). An Inwa dynasty king, Moe-Nyin- Thado, recorded 4,474 structures there in the 15th century. There are presently 3,122 monuments and mounds in the list of the archaeological department. If there were over 4,400 monuments in the 15th century, it is possible that approximately a thousand monuments are no longer standing, either in scattered ruins, rebuilt into new structures not listed in the inventory, or possibly eroded away by the Ayeyarwady River over the past five centuries.

This chapter examines the construction techniques utilized at the Pyu sites such as Sriksetra and Bagan and compares these construction techniques with selected historical sites in Southeast Asia from the period between the beginning of the first millennium ce and the 14th century. This period starts with incipient urbanization and concludes with the end of Bagan in Myanmar history.

Overview of Ancient Civilizations in East Asia

The earliest complex societies in Asia were found in the Indus Valley and the Yellow River and Yangtze River valleys. These societies developed parallel to the civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Crete.

The Yellow River and Yangtze River valleys were two core regions from where the Shang dynasty drew influences. Traditional records mention a series of legendary pre-Shang rulers, such as the Yellow Lord (Huang Di), who invented the key features of civilization like agriculture, the family, boats, carts, bows and arrows, and the calendar. It is believed that these rulers existed before the 22nd century bce. They were superseded by the Shang dynasty (1570–1045 bce), which coincided with the beginning of written and archaeological records. Chinese accounts of the Shang rulers match inscriptions on animal bones and tortoise shells that date from the 20th century bce at the city of Anyang in the valley of the Huang He (Yellow River) (Lawler 2009; Long and Taylor 2015).

This book was inspired by a conference in Bagan, sponsored by the Nalanda- Sriwijaya Centre, ISEAS, in 2012. Participants in the conference were invited to submit chapters for a book about ancient Bagan's connections with the rest of Asia. This book contains ten chapters, each by a respected expert in early Myanmar history. The publication of this volume marks an important step forward in reintroducing scholarship on Myanmar and Myanmar scholars to the rest of the world. Four of the authors are Myanmarese academics, and one of the three author-editors is of Myanmar ancestry.

The conference sought to gather evidence with which to dispel the myth that Myanmar has always been a hermit kingdom or nation. This book presents abundant evidence that the kingdom of Bagan, which flourished from around 1000 to 1300, played a major role in the development of the economy, religion, art and technology in the area which stretches from India to China.

At the time the conference was conceived, Myanmar was just reestablishing contact with the outside world. The publication of this book demonstrates that Myanmar's growing integration into the international community does not signify a new relationship; Myanmar has more often been a catalyst for development and communication between West Asia, South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia than a passive bystander. Buddhism formed one of the major contexts in which Myanmar exerted considerable influence over early Asian civilization. Bagan was also an economic power, and one of Southeast Asia's oldest and largest urban cultures. Myanmar is now resuming its role as an integral part of Asia which it played a thousand years ago.

The editors and authors would like to pay tribute to the late Pamela Gutman, who passed away during the interval between the conference and the publication of this book. She is greatly missed by all scholars with an interest in Myanmar. Her publications will long remain important contributions to the study of this fascinating nation. We would like to dedicate this volume to her memory.

This chapter isolates Bagan from its traditional moorings to Southeast Asian polities and highlights its westward links, particularly its relations with medieval Bengal, an expansive polity. The distinct geography and enigmatic history of Bagan — situated in an arid zone and driven by perennial cycles of conquest, expanding frontiers and growing exchange relations with small polities located between it and Bengal — illustrates how polities in the region responded to crisis and change. The region stretching from India's northeast into Burma experienced different trajectories of state formation, political legitimation and monetization; its nature can neither be studied within conventional paradigms of the state, nor by the “little kingdom” model (Schnepel and Berkemer 2003), the triad of time, change and linear evolution being irrelevant (Aung-Thwin 1991). Nor can its growth be analysed within a world-systems framework of cores and peripheries. Therefore, a different notion of political economy linked to time and change, distinct from the conventional notion of a sequential progression — from the prehistoric, through classical-ancient, to medieval, to the modern (Aung-Thwin 2002) — is necessary for our understanding of this region.

Enigma of Bagan

In its four-hundred–years-plus history (849 to ca. 1287 ce), Bagan displayed a state-driven religious policy, a state-directed labour system, a statesponsored building programme and state-administered trading practices. There was a direct and circular relationship between spending on religion, increased agricultural production, proportional demographic expansion and state development (Aung-Thwin 1985, p. 27). In this distinctive political and social formation, how important was trade and what was the role of money in Bagan's economy? What connections were forged by Bagan, with its silver supplies, with neighbouring polities? What follows is a visualization of Bagan's international connections, through tracing exchanges between Bagan and Bengal, to explain the curious absence of silver circulation in Bengal at a time when Bagan was reportedly accessing silver deposits. Was this silver traded at all? Why was it not exported as done previously? And what prevented the silver from reaching Bengal?

A Brief History of Money

A new polity in the mid-9th century, Bagan faced challenges on land while struggling to create a space for itself (Lieberman 2009, pp. 16–17). It seems isolated, cut off from silver supplies to its north and from the bay trade to its south.

On the surface, Southeast Asian archaeology presents an extreme example of the dichotomy between the theoretical extremes of the orthogenetic and heterogenetic types of city. The remains of major monumental complexes such as Angkor, Borobudur/Prambanan and Bagan contrast sharply with the remains of trading port-cities such as Palembang, Barus and Singapore. This apparently simple picture, however, begins to display more shades of grey the more one peers beneath the surface, as further exploration begins to provide more detailed information about the lives of these ancient cities. Research at the site of Trowulan, east Java, in the early 1990s necessitated a revision of the previous assumption that Majapahit's 14th-century capital was merely a complex of royal and religious buildings. Surface survey in the wake of large-scale looting of bricks for modern construction revealed dense scatters of pottery, both local and foreign. This pottery demonstrated the existence of numerous occupations and a dense population.

Archaeological observation at the sites of Bagan and Sriksetra (Pyay, Prome) is beginning to shed light on the distribution of population and range of economic activity at these sites. The occupations at the two sites overlap to a considerable extent, indicating that for a period of time they were linked in a complex economic relationship which written materials hint at but do not describe in detail.

Data obtained from the study of pottery distribution patterns is capable of measuring the degree of socio-economic complexity at a site. Preliminary analysis of recent discoveries indicates that Sriksetra and Bagan, like Trowulan, may have been hinterland capitals with some heterogenetic as well as orthogenetic characteristics. Preliminary pottery data indicates that Sriksetra and Bagan were similar but differed in several significant aspects, including internal settlement patterns and presence or absence of Chinese ceramics.

While our knowledge of pre-modern interaction between Southeast Asia and its neighbours to the east and west is increasing, we still know little of the interaction between Southeast Asian societies during this period. Stylistic studies of art suggest that Southeast Asian societies interacted and exchanged cultural and artistic traits to a relatively high degree, as well as economic commodities (Brown 1994).

To study Myanmar history, we need to examine chronicles, archaeological evidence, historical reports and studies, surveys and interviews with local people, among other sources. The Rakhine region is part of an ancient civilization which comprised several flourishing city states rich in cultural heritage. Chronicles mentioned that the Rakhine kingdoms, contemporaries of Burmese polities, were settled systematically by kings since the first century ce. An example was Dhanyawadi City. Rakhine kingdoms existed prior to the Mrauk-U period, which ended in 1785 ce. Each dynasty left an invaluable cultural heritage which showcased its glory and prosperity. This chapter examines the establishment of libraries in Mrauk-U connected with the propagation of Buddhism in the region between the 15th and 18th centuries.

A Brief History of Mrauk-U

Mrauk-U city is the most important archaeological heritage of the Rakhine people. Mrauk-U, which means “plentifully perceived foremost to be completely successful”, was Rakhine's last powerful kingdom. It represented the zenith of cultural values for the Rakhine people, and flourished from 1430 to 1785 CE (Rakhine State People Council 1988,p. 7).

The golden age of Mrauk-U was the 16th and 17th centuries, contemporary with the Tudor kings, Queen Elizabeth I and Shakespeare in England, the Moghuls in India, the Ayutthaya kings in Siam, and the kingdoms of Ava (lnwa), Taungngu and Hanthawaddy of Myanmar (Rakhine State People Council 1988, p. 8). U May Oung provides a chronology of Myanmar kingdoms based on various historical accounts of Myanmar and archaeological reports (May Oung 1912, p. 9).

Archaeological evidence from excavations of Dhanyawadi city provides much information on the period beginning with the 1st century ce. Excavations revealed irregular circular brick city walls, a moat, and the palace site. After Dhanyawadi, the Chandra Dynasty established the Vesali kingdom in the middle of the fourth century ce. U Pandi's Dhanyawadi Yazawinthit (New Dhanyawadi history) states that Vesali was founded in 790 ce, several decades before Bagan was built in 849 ce. Archaeological evidence from the Vesali site includes Buddha images, stupas, metal materials, inscriptions, et cetera. During the reign of the last Chandra king, Sula Chandra, Vesali became weak and was succeeded by a kingdom centred in the Lemro valley (Rakhine State People Council 1988, p. 8).

If you want to know the exact date of an ancient object or structure, find an inscription. In the 11th–13th century Bagan period, stone inscriptions give the founding year of dozens of pagodas. Some inscriptions, motivated by an urge to commence building at an auspicious moment, go so far as to nominate the day, hour or even minute when construction began (see, for example, Luce 1932). From Bagan onward, these absolute dates have provided a vital chronological framework for historical and archaeological analysis. When monks and scholars sat down in King Bagyidaw's “Glass Palace” in 1829 to try to bring together the often contradictory narratives of earlier chronicles, pagoda histories and religious commentaries, they recognized the value of inscriptions for their dates as well as for their dedicatory content (Pe Maung Tin and Luce 1923).

A “scientific” date, generally from carbon, can also provide an accurate time for a past event, but the time is within a range of centuries, not a specific year. However, radiocarbon dates can also go back many thousands of years before inscriptions. So far there have been relatively few samples from Myanmar tested to provide carbon dates, but the results of carbon dating so far show, among other things, that construction and other economic and cultural activity was taking place between the 1st and 3rd centuries ce at Sriksetra, Halin and Beikthano (figure 6.1). These date ranges help provide a framework within which we can view changes in art styles, palaeography, architecture and expressions of religious ideas in text or sculpture during the early urban period, before inscriptions appear.

Radiocarbon Dating

Radiocarbon dates tell us when the material being tested was alive. The material is usually wood which, before it rotted away in the ground, was converted to charcoal by burning and was thus preserved. During its lifetime the wood took in an isotope, Carbon-14 (written as 14C).

The economic, political, strategic and cultural dynamism in Southeast Asia has gained added relevance in recent years with the spectacular rise of giant economies in East and South Asia. This has drawn greater attention to the region and to the enhanced role it now plays in international relations and global economics.

The sustained effort made by Southeast Asian nations since 1967 towards a peaceful and gradual integration of their economies has had indubitable success, and perhaps as a consequence of this, most of these countries are undergoing deep political and social changes domestically and are constructing innovative solutions to meet new international challenges. Big Power tensions continue to be played out in the neighbourhood despite the tradition of neutrality exercised by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The Trends in Southeast Asia series acts as a platform for serious analyses by selected authors who are experts in their fields. It is aimed at encouraging policy makers and scholars to contemplate the diversity and dynamism of this exciting region.

INTRODUCTION

Throughout much of Southeast Asia and beyond, we are witnessing a resurgence of identity politics framed around notions of “nativeness” or “indigeneity” in opposition to “foreignness” or “otherness” (Dominguez and Metzner 2017). For example, in Myanmar and Thailand there is a rising trend among some members of the ethnic Burman and Thai Buddhist majorities towards the heightened politicization of Buddhism as an exclusive marker of the borders of national belonging (Hutt 2016; Jerryson 2011; Keyes 2016; Than 2015; Walton et al. 2017). In Indonesia, some groups are reviving an earlier public discourse of “pribumi-ism” (“indigenism”) alongside “political Islam” in order to address what are perceived as the ethnic roots of growing social inequalities in the country (Suryadinata 2017; Burhani 2017). Meanwhile, in Malaysia ethnic Malay nativism is on the rise as the ruling party attempts to shore up its support among the majority-Malay population (Lim 2016; Millar 2017). On the other side of the Straits of Johor in Singapore some nativists are making public assertions of “Singapore for Singaporeans” (Fenn 2014).

These resurgences of “nativism” are occurring at a particular juncture in history when states in the region are attempting to, first, exert more direct control over hitherto peripheral regions within their territorial borders, and, second, promote greater transregional economic integration within the utopian community of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). These two processes of national and regional economic integration, while highly uneven and contested, are occurring hand in hand. In addition, while state-driven economic growth is generating great wealth throughout Southeast Asia, it is doing so in a highly uneven manner, leading to rising rates of inequality. On a more global scale, this resurgence is occurring amidst rising concerns over the ascendance of China and India to positions of global supremacy, and the waning of U.S. imperialism.

In the midst of these resurgences of “nativism” on the part of various national publics throughout Southeast Asia another related yet distinct movement being framed around altogether different notions of “Indigeneity” is occurring on the national and regional scale among diverse ethnic groups that have long experienced marginalization and oppression by more dominant ethnic groups during periods of European colonialism and post-colonial nationalism.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Daw Suu's National League for Democracy (NLD) government marked its first anniversary in office on 30 March 2017. There are differing “key performance indicators” set by analysts in assessing the administration's performance. National reconciliation and the peace process, constitutional reform, and better living standards are the top priorities highlighted in the inaugural address of President U Htin Kyaw. Of these three priorities, the NLD has emphasized the importance of the peace process towards national reconciliation. Many observers have pointed out other deserving issues including the overall performance of both the executive and legislative, and the relations between NLD and the Tatmadaw (military). While the NLD continues to have wide public support, concerns over a possible return to military rule and over ineffective executive and legislative performance have emerged.

Daw Suu has emphasized political considerations as the most important aspect of her agenda. She maintains that the country's development can only be smooth when Myanmar has genuine peace. But this prioritization of the domestic political agenda may come at the cost of economic performance. Additionally, much hinges on Daw Suu's health and ability to manage a punishing schedule as Myanmar's de facto leader; she was already 70 when the NLD won a landslide victory in the 2015 elections, making her as the most senior leader (in age) to take office.

Popular support — from both the Myanmar diaspora and the citizenry — is still high despite the fact that the 2017 by-elections saw lower voter turn-outs and more votes going to locals or ethnic-party candidates. There is a popular desire, despite any setbacks or dilemmas during the NLD's first year of administration, to avoid another military-led government in Myanmar.

Though not a declared campaign promise, the NLD has prioritized peace since taking office. Long-time watchers of Myanmar politics had observed that Daw Suu's intention for peace was not clear but she has openly stated that although the NLD did not participate in the NCA process formulated by the Union Solidarity Development Party (USDP) government, it would as an elected ruling party continue with this process, including the Union Peace Conferences that are meant to be held every six months. The NLD-led peace conferences have adopted the additional title of 21st Century Panglong, and the first under this dual title (the second since the first Union Peace Conference in October 2015) was convened on 31 August to 3 September 2016.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The economic, political, strategic and cultural dynamism in Southeast Asia has gained added relevance in recent years with the spectacular rise of giant economies in East and South Asia. This has drawn greater attention to the region and to the enhanced role it now plays in international relations and global economics.

The sustained effort made by Southeast Asian nations since 1967 towards a peaceful and gradual integration of their economies has had indubitable success, and perhaps as a consequence of this, most of these countries are undergoing deep political and social changes domestically and are constructing innovative solutions to meet new international challenges. Big Power tensions continue to be played out in the neighbourhood despite the tradition of neutrality exercised by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The Trends in Southeast Asia series acts as a platform for serious analyses by selected authors who are experts in their fields. It is aimed at encouraging policy makers and scholars to contemplate the diversity and dynamism of this exciting region.

INTRODUCTION

Access to and quality of education have been key agendas of the Malaysian government to foster national unity and enhance economic growth. The First Malaysia Plan (1966–70) and the subsequent plans give much importance to education: “unless the education system is geared to meet the development needs of the country, there will be a misallocation of an important economic resource, which will slow down the rate of economic and social advance” (Government of Malaysia 1965, p. 163). The government allocates substantial financial resources to education annually, constituting about 17 per cent of the total public expenditure.

The Malaysian Ministry of Education has worked closely with state and district education offices, international organizations (e.g., United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)), and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), such as Child Aid Borneo and Human Rights Commission, to expand access toprimary schooling to all children. However, access to education remains lower for children who are poor, live in remote and sparsely populated area and without citizenship documentation. It should be noted that children without citizenship documents are not captured in the calculations of Net Enrolment Ratio (NER), and thus represents an additional population of out-of-school children and youth.

The following sections will discuss patterns of primary school access and retention, quality and equity in Malaysia, and policies affecting access and retention in the sector.

WHAT HAS BEEN ACHIEVED?

Patterns of Primary School Access and Retentionin Malaysia

Figure 6.1 shows the primary school NER for selected years (indicated by dots) between 1970 and 1972 as well as between 1994 and 2005. This rate measures the proportion of children aged 7 to 13 who were enrolledin primary school. One notes that this rate was already relatively high in 1970 (84.3 per cent) and had increased to 96.2 per cent in 1994. Between 1999 and 2005, although minor fluctuations occurred, the percentage of primary school-aged children enrolled remained at or above 95 per cent but did not reach 100 per cent (with the highest net enrolment of 97.8 per cent, recorded in 2000). It is important to note that the figures — both the numerators and denominators of these percentages — exclude undocumented children (e.g., those whose parents are refugees or migrant workers), who face special challenges in gaining access to public schools.