ပံုေတာင္ဂီ်းယား (Pondaungia)

သူရ (ေရွးသု)

ပံုေတာင္ဂီ်းယား (Pondaungia) ကို ၁၉၁၄ ခုႏွစ္တြင္ အိႏိၵယႏိုင္ငံ၊ ဘူမိေဗဒဌာနမွ ဂီ်ဒီပီေကာက္တာ (G.D.P.Cotter) က ပခုကၠဴခ႐ိုင္၊ ၿမိဳင္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္၊ ဖန္းကန္ေက်းရြာအနီးမွ စတင္ေတြ႔ရိွရသည္။ ေတြ႔ရိွခ်က္မွာ အံသြားအမွတ္ (၃) ပါရိွေသာ ညာဘက္ေအာက္ေမး႐ိုးအပိုင္းအစ၊ အံသြားအမွတ္(၂) ႏွင့္ (၃) ပါရိွေသာ ဘယ္ဘက္ ေအာက္ေမး႐ိုုးအပိုင္းအစ၊ အံသြားအမွတ္(၁) ႏွင့္ (၂) ပါရိွေသာ ဘယ္ဘက္အေပၚ ေမး႐ိုးအပိုင္းအစမ်ားကို ေတြ႔ရိွရသည္။ ၄င္းအေထာက္အထားမ်ားကို ေက်ာက္ျဖစ္႐ုပ္ၾကြင္းပညာရွင္ (G.E.Pilgrim) က ၁၉၂၇ခုႏွစ္တြင္ ေလ့လာခဲ့ၿပီး စာတမ္းေရးစဥ္က မ်ိဳးစုအသစ္ျဖစ္ေသာေၾကာင့္ အမည္အသစ္ေပးရာတြင္ ပ႐ိုင္းမိတ္ ေက်ာက္ျဖစ္႐ုပ္ၾကြင္းကို ေတြ႔ရိွခဲ့ရေသာ ပံုေတာင္ေက်ာက္လႊာစုအမည္ကို အစဲြျပဳ၍ ပံုေတာင္ဂီ်းယား ေကာ္တာရိုင္း (Pondaungia-cotteri) ဟုအမည္ေပးခဲ့သည္။

၁၉၇၈ ခုႏွစ္တြင္ မႏၱေလးတကၠသိုလ္ ဘူမိေဗဒဌာနမွ ကထိက ဦးဘေမာ္ႏွင့္အဖဲြ႔မွ အံသြားအမွတ္ (၂) ႏွင့္ (၃) ပါရိွေသာ ညာဘက္ေအာက္ေမးရိုုးအပိုင္းအစကိုလည္းေကာင္း၊ ကထိက ဦးေသာ္တင့္ႏွင့္အဖဲြ႔မွ ပံုေတာင္ဂီ်းယား အံသြားအမွတ္ (၂) ႏွင့္ (၃) ပါရိွေသာ ဘယ္ဘက္ေအာက္ေမး႐ိုးအပိုင္းအစကို ထပ္မံရွာေဖြ ေတြရိွခဲ့သည္။

၁၉၉၇ခုႏွစ္၊ မတ္လ (၉) ရက္ေန႔မွ ဧၿပီလ (၂၅) ရက္ေန႔အထိ စစ္မဟာဗ်ဴဟာ ေလ့လာေရး႐ံုုးမွ ဗိုလ္မွဴးႀကီး သန္းထြန္း ေခါင္းေဆာင္သည့္အဖဲြ႔ႏွင့္ ေမာ္လၿမိဳင္တကၠသိုလ္ ဘူမိေဗဒဌာနမွ ေဒါက္တာတင္သိန္း ဦးေဆာင္ေသာအဖဲြ႔မွ ပုလဲၿမိဳ႕နယ္၊ မိုးေကာင္းရြာအနီးမွ ပံုေတာင္ဂီ်းယားအံသြားအမွတ္ (၂) ႏွင့္ (၃) ပါရိွေသာ ညာဘက္ေအာက္ ေမး႐ိုး အပိုင္းအစကို ေတြ႔ရိွခဲ့သည္။

အမ္ဖီပီးသီးကပ္စ္ (Amphipithecus)

အမ္ဖီပီးသီးကပ္စ္(Amphipithecus) ၁၉၂၃ခုနွစ္တြင္ အေမရိကန္သဘာ၀ သမိုင္းျပတိုက္မွ ေဒါက္တာဗာနမ္ဘေရာင္း( Dr.jarnum jrown) က ပုလဲၿမိဳ႕နယ္၊ မိုးေကာင္းေက်းရြာအနီးမွ  စတင္ေတြ႔ ရိွခဲ့သည္။ ေတြ႔ရိွရေသာ ပ႐ိုင္းမိတ္အေထာက္အထားမွာ စြယ္သြားအျမစ္၊ အေရွ႕အံသြား အမွတ္(၂)အျမစ္ ၊ ေရွ႕အံသြားအမွတ္ (၃) (၄)နွင့္ အံသြားအမွတ္(၁) တို႔ပါရိွေသာ ဘယ္ဘက္ေအာက္ေမးရိုးအပိုင္းအစ ျဖစ္သည္။

ဤေတြ႔ရိွခ်က္ကို ၁၉၃၇ခုနွစ္တြင္ အေမရိကန္ေက်ာက္ျဖစ္ရုပ္ၾကြင္းပညာရွင္ (edwin.H.Colbert) ကေလ့လာခဲ့၍ အမ္ဖီပီးသီးကပ္စ္ မိုးေကာင္းဂဲ်န္းစစ္ (Amphipithecus-Mogoungenesis) ဟု အမည္ေပးခဲ့သည္။

မ်ိဳးစုအမည္ကိုေတြ႔ရေသာ  ပရိုင္းမိတ္အေနအထားအရ အဆင့္နိမ့္ (Prosimian) မွ အဆင့္ျမင့္ (Simian) ၾကားကာလသို႔ ကူးေျပာင္းေသာ ၾကားတြင္ရိွေသာေၾကာင့္  အမ္ဖီ (Amphi) ၾကားေနလိုျခင္း ဆိုေသာ ေ၀ါဟာရကို အစဲြျပဳ၍ အမ္ဖီပီးသီးကပ္စ္ Amphipithecus ဟုအမည္ေပးခဲ့သည္။ ၄င္းေက်ာက္ ျဖစ္ရုပ္ၾကြင္းသည္ ယခုအခါ အေမရိကန္သဘာ၀ သမိုင္းျပတိုက္မွာ ရိွသည္။

၁၉၇၈ ခုနွစ္တြင္ မႏၱေလးတကၠသိုလ္ဘူမိေဗဒဌာနမွ ကထိကဦးဘေမာ္နွင့္အဖဲြ႔မွ ပုလဲျမိဳ႕နယ္မိုးေကာင္း ေက်းရြာအနီးတြင္ အမ္ဖီပိီးသီးကပ္စ္ပရိုင္းမိတ္ Amphipithecus Primate ကိုထမ္မံေတြရိွခဲ့သည္။ ၄င္းေတြရိွခ်က္တြင္ အံသြားအမွတ္ (၁)နွင့္ (၂) တို႔ကိုပါရိွေသာ ဘယ္ဘက္ေအာက္ေမးရိုးအပိုင္းအစ ျဖစ္သည္။

၁၉၉၇ ခုနွစ္တြင္ ပံုေတာင္ေဒသေက်ာက္ျဖစ္ရုပ္ၾကြင္း ရွာေဖြေရးအဖဲြ႔မွ ပုလဲၿမိဳ႕နယ္၊ မိုးေကာင္းေက်းရြာ အနီးတြင္ Amphipithecus Primate  Gsemains ကို ထပ္မံေတြ႔ ရိွသည္။ ေတြ႔ရိွခ်က္မွာ အံသြားအမွတ္ (၁) နွင့္ (၂) တို႔ပါရိွေသာ ဘယ္ဘက္ေအာက္ေမးရိုးအပိုင္းအစျဖစ္သည္။ ၁၉၉၇ ခုနွစ္တြင္ ဤအဖဲြ႔မွပဲ ၿမိဳင္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္၊ ဗဟင္းေက်းရြာအနီးမွ Amphipithecus Primate  Gsemains ကို ထပ္မံေတြ႕ရိွခဲ့ရျပန္သည္။ ဤေတြ႔ရိွ ရေသာ ပရိုင္းမိတ္ရုပ္ၾကြင္းသည္ ယခင္ေတြ႔ရိွရေသာ Amphipithecus Mogaungenesis နွင့္ ကဲြျပားေသာ အခ်က္အခ်ိဳ႕ရိွ၍ မ်ိဳးစိတ္အသစ္ျဖစ္မည္ဟု ယူဆထားပါသည္။ သို႔ျဖစ္၍ ဤမ်ိဳးစိတ္အသစ္ကို  အမ္ဖီပိေသကပ္စ္ဗဟင္းနဲန္စစ္ Amphipithecus  jahinensis ဟု ယာယီအမည္ေပးထားပါသည္။

၂၀၀၂ ခုနွစ္ အထိ အေပၚေမးရိုးအပိုင္းအစ Frontal ပရိုင္းမိတ္ အစိတ္အပိုင္းမ်ားမ်ားပါ ထပ္မံေတြ႔ရိွခဲ့သည္။

ဗဟင္းနီးယား (Jahinia)

၁၉၉၈ ခုနွစ္တြင္ ျမန္မာျပင္သစ္ပညာရွင္မ်ားအဖဲြ႔ပါ၀င္ေသာ ေက်ာက္ျဖစ္ရုပ္ၾကြင္း ေလ့လာရွာေဖြေရး အဖဲြ႔မွ ၿမိဳင္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္ ဗဟင္းေက်းရြာအနီးရိွ ယာရွည္က်စ္ေခ်ာင္မွ ပရိုင္းမိတ္မ်ိဳးစုအသစ္၏ ရုပ္ၾကြင္းမ်ားကို ေတြ႔ရိွ ခဲ့ရသည္။ မ်ိဳးစုအသစ္ျဖစ္ေသာေၾကာင့္ ဗဟင္းေက်းရြာကို အစဲြျပဳ၍ ဗဟင္းနီးယား (Jahinia) ဟု အမည္ေပးခဲ့သည္။ ေတြ႔ရိွခ်က္မွာေရွ႕သြားနွင့္ အံသြားမ်ားပါရိွေသာ အေပၚေမးရိုးဘယ္ညာနွင့္ ေရွ႕အံသြားအမွတ္ (၁) ပါရိွေသာ ညာဘက္ေအာက္ေမးရိုးအပိုင္းအစတို႔ ျဖစ္သည္။ ဤပရိုင္းမိတ္ ရုပ္ၾကြင္းသည္ အဆင့္နိမ့္ (Prosimian) အဂၤါရပ္မ်ားနွင့္ အဆင့္ျမင့္ (Simian) လူတူပရိုင္းမိတ္အဂၤါရပ္မ်ား ေပါင္းစပ္ပါ၀င္ေနသည္ကို ေတြ႔ရသည္။ ပရိုင္းမိတ္မ်ိဳးစု အသစ္ကို ဗဟင္းနီးယားပံုေတာင္ဂဲ်န္းစစ္ Jahinia  Pondaungensis ဟု အမည္ေပးထားသည္။

၂၀၀၁ ခုနွစ္တြင္ ျမန္မာ – ဂ်ပန္အဖဲြ႔ပါ၀င္ေသာ ေက်ာက္ျဖစ္ရုပ္ၾကြင္း ေလ့လာရွာေဖြေရးအဖဲြ႔မွ ၿမိဳင္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္၊ ေပါက္ေခါင္းက်စ္ေခ်ာင္မွ ဗဟင္းနီးယားပရိုင္းမိတ္၏ ညာဘက္ေအာက္ေမးရိုးအပိုင္းအစနွင့္ ဘယ္ဘက္္ေအာက္ေမးရိုးအပိုင္းအစကို ေတြ႔ရိွခဲ့သည္။

ယင္းနွစ္မွာပင္ အေမရိကန္နိုင္ငံတြင္ ၂၀၀၁ ခုနွစ္က ျပဳလုပ္ခဲ့ေသာ လူတူပရိုင္းမိတ္နွင့္ ပတ္သတ္သည့္ အျပည္ျပည္ဆိုင္ရာ ညီလာခံ၌ ျမန္မာနိုင္ငံ ပံုေတာင္ေဒသမွေတြ႔ ရိွခဲေသာ နွစ္သန္းေပါင္း (၄၉) သန္းမွ (၃၇.၇) သန္း အထိကာလအတြင္း သက္တမ္းရိွခဲ့သည္။

ဗဟင္းနီးယားပံုေတာင္ဂဲ်န္းစစ္ Jahinia  Pondaungensis ပရိုင္းမိတ္သည္ ကမၻာေပၚေတြ႔ရေသာ လူတူပရိုင္းမိတ္မ်ားအနက္ ေရွးအက်ဆံုး လူတူပရိုင္းမိတ္တြင္ အျပည္စံုဆံုးျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း ကမၻာအရပ္ရပ္တြင္ ပညာရွင္မ်ားက လက္ခံအတည္ျပဳၾကသည္။

၂၀၀၂ ခုနွစ္ နွင့္ ၂၀၀၃ ခုနွစ္မ်ားတြင္ ယခင္ေတြ႔ရိွေနက် ေမးရိုး၊ အံသြားအစိတ္ပိုင္းမွ်သာမကေတာ့ပဲ ေျခမ်က္စိရိုး၊ ေျခက်င္း၀တ္ရိုး ၊ေျခဆစ္ရိုး အစိတ္အပိုင္းမ်ားကိုပါ ထပ္မံေတြ႔ရိွခဲ့သည္။

၂၀၀၈ ခုနွစ္တြင္ ၿမိဳင္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္ ၊ေပါက္ေကာင္းေက်း၇ြာ၏ အေနာက္ေျမာက္ဘက္ ေပါက္ေကာင္းက်စ္ေခ်ာင္ အမွတ္ (၄) မွ ဗဟင္းနီးယား၏ သြားမပါ ညာဘက္ေအာက္ေမးရိုးပိုင္းတခုကို ထမ္မံေတြရိွခဲ့သည္။

ျမန္မာပီးသီးကပ္ (Jyanmar  Pithecus)

၁၉၉၈  ခုနွစ္တြင္ ျမန္မာ-ဂ်ပန္ပညာရွင္မ်ားအဖဲြ႔မွ ၿမိဳင္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္၊ ဗဟင္း ေက်းရြာအနီး ယာရွည္က်စ္ေခ်ာင္မွ ပရိုင္းမိတ္မ်ိဳးစုအသစ္၏ ရုပ္ၾကြင္းကို ေတြ႔ရိွခဲ့ရသည္။ ေတြ႔ရိွခ်က္မွ ပရိုင္းမိတ္၏ အေပၚေအာက္ ေမးရိုးအပိုင္းအစမ်ားနွင့္ သြားအခ်ိဳ႕တို႔ျဖစ္သည္။ အဆိုပါ ပရိုင္းမိတ္ရုပ္ၾကြင္းအသစ္ကို ျမန္မာနိုင္ငံကို ဂုဏ္ျပဳေသာအားျဖင့္ ျမန္မာပီသီးကပ္ယာရွည္နစ္ Jyanmar  Pithecus  Yarshensis ဟု အမည္ေပးထားသည္။ အဆိုပါနွစ္မွာပင္ ျမန္မာ-ဂ်ပန္ပညာရွင္မ်ားအဖဲြ႔နွင့္ ျမန္မာ -ျပင္သစ္ပညာရွင္မ်ား အဖဲြ႔တို႔သည္ ၿမိဳင္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္  ဗဟင္းေက်းရြာအနီး၊ ေပါက္ေခါင္းက်စ္ေခ်ာင္တို႔တြင္ ျမန္မာပီးသီးကပ္ မ်ိဳးစုအသစ္မ်ားကို (၃)ၾကိမ္ထပ္မံ ေတြ႔ရိွခဲ့သည္။

ပံုေတာင္ေက်ာက္လႊာစုနွင့္ ပံုေတာင္ပရိုင္းမိတ္တို႔၏သက္တမ္း (Dating of Pondaung Primates)

ပံုေတာင္ေက်ာက္လႊာစုသည္ လြန္ခဲ့ေသာနွစ္ (၃၇.၂) သန္းက ျဖစ္တည္ခဲ့ေသာ ေက်ာက္လႊာစုျဖစ္ျပီး ပံုေတာင္ေဒသမွ ေတြ႔ရိွရေသာ နို႔တိုက္သတၱ၀ါမ်ား၏ ရုပ္ၾကြင္းကို အာရွတိုက္ေျမာက္ပိုင္းေဒသတခ်ိဳ႕မွ ႏို႔တိုက္သတၱ၀ါရုပ္ၾကြင္းမ်ားနွင့္ နိႈင္းယွဥ္စပ္ဆက္ ေလ့လာျခင္းအားျဖင့္ Encene  အလယ္ေနွာင္းပိုင္းကာလ သက္တမ္းတြင္ အက်ံဳး၀င္ေၾကာင္း သိရပါသည္။ သို႔ျဖစ္၍ ပံုေတာင္ေဒသမွ ပရိုင္းမိတ္မ်ား အပါအ၀င္အျခား သတၱ၀ါ ရုပ္ၾကြင္းမ်ားသည္လည္း လြန္ခဲ့ေသာနွစ္သန္း ၄၈ ခန္႔ (late  jiddle  eocene) ၾကားတြင္ အက်ိဳး၀င္သည္ဟု သတ္မွတ္ပါသည္။

ပံုေတာင္ပရိုင္းမိတ္တို႔၏ အေနအထား

လူသားမ်ိဳးနြယ္တို႔၏ ဆင့္ကဲျဖစ္စဥ္သည္ လြန္ခဲ့ေသာနွစ္သန္း ၆၀ ခန္႔က ပရိုင္းမိတ္တို႔၏ ေရွ႕ေျပးသတၱ၀ါမ်ား စတင္ေပၚေပါက္လာခဲ့သည္။ လြန္ခဲ့ေသာ နွစ္သန္း (၄၀) ခန္႔တြင္ Eocene အလယ္ပိုင္းသက္တမ္း အခိ်န္ကပင္ ပံုေတာင္ပရိုင္းမိတ္ (Pondaung Primates) မ်ားေပၚထြန္းခဲ့သည္။ လြန္ခဲ့ေသာနွစ္ (၃) သန္းခန္႔တြင္ Oligocene သက္တမ္း အခိ်န္ခန္႔တြင္ အီဂ်စ္နိုင္ငံ Fayun ေဒသမွ လူတူပရိုင္းမိတ္မ်ားအျဖစ္ တိုးတက္ေျပာင္းလဲ ေပၚေပါက္လာခဲ့သည္။ jiocene ကာလ လြန္ခဲ့သည့္ နွစ္သန္း (၂၀) အခိ်န္ခန့္တြင္ Fayun ေခၚ လူတူပရိုင္းမိတ္မ်ားအျဖစ္ ထပ္ဆင့္ေျပာင္းလဲ တိုးတက္လာခဲ့သည္။ လြန္ခဲ့သည့္နွစ္ (၅) သန္းခန္႔ Pliocene ကာလက အခိ်န္တြင္ Austrolopithecus ေခၚ အဆင့္ျမင့္ လူတူပရိုင္းမိတ္ မ်ိဳးႏြယ္မ်ားအျဖစ္ တိုးတက္ေျပာင္းလဲလာခဲ့သည္။ Austrolopithecus မွ လြန္ခဲ့ေသာအနွစ္ (၂) သန္းခဲြခန္႔တြင္ ဟိုမိုဟားဘီးလီစ္ Homohabilis  ပထမဦးဆံုးလူသားမ်ား အျဖစ္သို႔ေျပာင္းလဲ ျဖစ္ေပၚလာၾကသည္။

အျခားနိႈင္းယွဥ္ေသာပရိုင္းမိတ္မ်ား

Tsailekia Primates (Simian) (37) oef; (hpper  jiddle  eocene) Thailand

Siamopithecas Primates (Simian) (37)oef; (hpper  jiddle  eocene) Thailand

eosimias Primates (Simian) (40)oef; ( jiddle  eocene) China

Fay un Primates (Simian) (37) – (33)oef; (hpper   eocene) egypt

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ပုဂံေရွးေဟာင္းသုေတသန ျပတိုက္

သူရ (ေရွးသု)

ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံတြင္ ကမၸည္းေက်ာက္စာဌာန ဖြင့္လွစ္ၿပီးေနာက္ ပုဂံေဒသရိွ ေရွးေဟာင္းအေဆာက္အအံုမ်ားကို ထိန္းသိမ္းေစာင့္ေရွာက္ခဲ့သည္။ ၁၉၀၂ ခုနွစ္တြင္ ေက်ာက္စာ၀န္ မစၥတာေတာ္စိန္ခိုက ပုဂံေဒသပတ္၀န္းက်င္ရိွ ေရွးေဟာင္းေစတီ၊ ဂူ၊ ေက်ာင္းမ်ားမွ ရရိွသည့္ ေရွးေဟာင္းယဥ္ေက်းမႈအေမြအႏွစ္ ၀တၳဳပစၥည္းမ်ားႏွင့္ ေက်ာက္စာမ်ားကိုျပသရန္ အာနႏၵာဘုရား ေျမာက္ဘက္တြင္ ျပတိုက္တည္ေဆာက္ၿပီး ၁၉၀၄ ခုႏွစ္တြင္ ျပတိုက္ဖြင့္လွစ္ခဲ့သည္။

ႏွစ္ကာလၾကာျမင့္လာသည္ႏွင့္အမွ် ျပတိုက္၌ ေရွးေဟာင္းပစၥည္းမ်ား တျဖည္းျဖည္း ထပ္မံစုေဆာင္းရရိွလာရာ လက္ရိွျပတိုက္တြင္ ေရွးေဟာင္းကမၸည္းေက်ာက္စာမ်ားႏွင့္ ေရွးေဟာင္းပစၥည္းမ်ားကို ျပသရန္ေနရာ မလံုေလာက္ေတာ့ေပ။ ထို႔ေၾကာင့္ ပုဂံၿမိဳ႕ေဟာင္းအတြင္း ကန္ေတာ့ပလႅင္ဘုရား၏ ေတာင္ဘက္  (၈.၁၆) ဧက (၃.၃-ဟက္တာ) က်ယ္၀န္းေသာ ေျမေနရာတြင္ ရွစ္ေျမႇာင့္သဏၭာန္ ျပတိုက္တစ္ခုႏွင့္ ထုထည္ႀကီးမားေသာ ေရွးေဟာင္းေက်ာက္စာမ်ား၊ ေက်ာက္ဆစ္လက္ရာမ်ား ၊ ေက်ာက္ျဖစ္ ရုပ္ၾကြင္းမ်ားကို ျပသရန္ႏွင့္ ပုဂံၿမိဳ႕ေဟာင္းႏွင့္ ေ၀းကြာေသာဂူဘုရားမ်ားအတြင္းမွ မူလေက်ာက္ဗုဒၶ ဆင္းတုေတာ္မ်ားကို အမ်ားျပည္သူမ်ား တစ္စုတစ္ေ၀းတည္းၾကည့္႐ွႈ ေလ့လာႏိုင္ရန္အတြက္ သစ္သားအေဆာင္ႀကီး သံုးေဆာင္ (ေရွးေဟာင္း သုေတသန ျပတိုက္အေဟာင္း၏ အေရွ႕ဘက္တြင္) တည္ေဆာက္ကာ  ၁၉၇၉ ခုႏွစ္၊ ေအာက္တိုဘာလတြင္ ဒုတိယအႀကိမ္ျပတိုက္အသစ္ႀကီးကို ဖြင့္လွစ္၍ ေျပာင္းေရြ႕ျပသထားသည္။

ျမန္မာ့ေရွးေဟာင္းယဥ္ေက်းမႈ အေမြအနွစ္မ်ား တည္ရိွရာ ပုဂံေဒသသို့ လာေရာက္ ၾကသည့္ နိုင္ငံျခားသား ကမၻာလွည့္ခရီးသည္မ်ား တစ္နွစ္ထက္တစ္နွစ္ ပိုမိုမ်ားျပားလာျခင္းေၾကာင့္ စုေဆာင္းရရိွထားေသာ ျပတိုက္ပစၥည္းမ်ားကို က်ယ္က်ယ္၀န္း၀န္းနွင့္ ခန့္ခန့္ ထည္ထည္ ခင္းက်င္း ျပသနိုင္ရန္ ျပတိုက္အသစ္ထပ္မံတည္ေဆာက္ရန္ လိုအပ္လာပါသည္။ ထို့ေၾကာင့္ ၁၉၉၅ ခုႏွစ္တြင္ ရွစ္ေျမႇာင့္သဏၭာန္ ျပတိုက္ကို ခ်န္လွပ္၍ က်န္အေဆာက္အအံုမ်ား ကိုဖ်က္သိမ္းကာ ေျမဧက (၁၀.၉၇) ဧက အက်ယ္အ၀န္းရိွေသာ ေျမကြက္ေပၚတြင္ ခံ့ညားထည္၀ါသည့္ ကမၻာအဆင့္မီ ေလးထပ္အေဆာက္ အဦ ျပတိုက္သစ္ၾကီးကို ထပ္မံေဆာက္လုပ္ခဲ့သည္။ ယေန႔ေတြ႔ ျမင္ရသည့္ ပုဂံ ေရွးေဟာင္း သုေတသန ျပတိုက္သစ္ၾကီးကို ၁၉၉၈ ခုနွစ္၊ ဧျပီလ၊(၁၇)ရက္ေန့တြင္ ဖြင့္လွစ္ ျပသခဲ့သည္။ ျပတိုက္အားေန့စဥ္ နံနက္ (၉း၀၀) နာရီမွ ညေန (၄း၃၀) နာရီအထိ ဖြင့္လွစ္ထားပါသည္။

ပုဂံေရွးေဟာင္းသုေတသနျပတိုက္သစ္ႀကီးအား ခိုနန္းခ်ိဳးသံုးထပ္ပႏၷက္ပံုျဖင့္ တည္ေဆာက္ထားသည္။ ျပတိုက္ႀကီး၏ အျပင္ဘက္ႏွင့္ အတြင္းပိုင္းတို႔တြင္ ျမန္မာမႈလက္ရာ ပုဂံေခတ္ဟန္ အဂၤေတပန္းမ်ား၊ သစ္ထြင္းပန္းပု ကႏုတ္ပန္းလက္ရာမ်ား၊ ေရႊဇ၀ါယြန္းပန္းခီ်လက္ရာမ်ားျဖင့့္္ တင့္တယ္လွပစြာ တန္ဆာဆင္ ထားသည္။ ျပတိုက္ႀကီး၏ ေျမေအာက္ခန္းတြင္ ဓာတ္ခဲြခန္းတစ္ခန္း၊ ပစၥည္းသိုေလွာင္ခန္းႏွင့္ လံုၿခံဳေရးခန္းမ်ားပါရိွသည္။ ေျမညီထပ္တြင္ ျပခန္း (၆) ခန္းႏွင့္ ပထမထပ္တြင္ ျပခန္း (၅) ခန္း တို႔ျဖင့္ ခင္းက်င္းျပသထားသည္။ အေပၚဆံုးထပ္မွာ ပုဂံေစတီ၊ပုထိုးမ်ားကို ျပတိုက္ေပၚမွ ေလ့လာၾကည့္ရႈ၊ ဖူးေမွ်ာ္ႏိုင္ရန္ စီစဥ္ထားျခင္း ျဖစ္သည္။

ေျမညီထပ္တြင္

၁။    အထူးျပခန္း (သို႔မဟုတ္) ပင္မျပခန္းေဆာင္        1.        Main Hall

၂။    ပုဂံနန္းၿမိဳ႕ျပခန္း                    2.        Display Room of Bagan Palace

၃။    ပုဂံေခတ္ စာေပျပခန္း                3.        Show Room of Bagan Period                                         Literatures

၄။    ပုဂံေခတ္ လူေနမႈဘ၀ျပခန္း                4.        Display Room for Social Life       of                                     Bagan Period

၅။    ပုဂံေခတ္ ဗိသုကာလက္ရာျပခန္း            5.        Show Room of Bagan Period                                         Architecture

၆။    ပုဂံေခတ္ လက္မႈအနုပညာျပခန္း            6.        Show Room of Bagan Period Arts                                      and Crafts

ဟူ၍ ျပခန္း (၆) ခန္း တို႔ျဖင့္ ဖဲြ႔စည္းျပသထားသည္။

ပထမထပ္တြင္
၁။    ပုဂံေခတ္ ဗုဒၶဆင္းတုေတာ္မ်ားျပခန္း            1.        Show Room of Bagan Period Buddha Images
၂။    ပုဂံေခတ္ ဗုဒၶအနုပညာျပခန္း                        2.        Show Room of Bagan Period  Buddha Art
၃။    ပုဂံေခတ္ ဘုရားပုထိုး ပန္းခီ်ျပခန္း                3.        Art Gallery of Bagan Period Ancient Monuments
၄။    ပုဂံေခတ္ နံရံေဆးေရးပန္းခီ်ျပခန္း                4.        Art Gallery of Bagan Period Mural  Paintings
၅။    ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္ဦးတည္ခ်က္ (၁၂) ရပ္ႏွင့္            5.        Twelve National Objectives and                       တိုင္းက်ိဳး    ျပည္ျပဳျပခန္း                    Nation – Building Endeavours  Show                                     Room
ဟူ၍ ျပခန္း(၅)ခန္းျဖင့္ ဖဲြ့စည္းခင္းက်င္းျပသထားပါသည္။

ပင္မျပခန္းေဆာင္တြင္ ဗုဒၶ၀င္ရွစ္ခန္း သ႐ုပ္ေဖာ္ ေက်ာက္ဆစ္လက္ရာမ်ား၊ အေနာ္ရထာမင္း၊ က်န္စစ္သားမင္း၊ အေလာင္းစည္သူမင္းႏွင့္ က်စြာမင္းတို႔၏ ေၾကး႐ုပ္တု (၄) ရုပ္ႏွင့္ က်န္စစ္သားမင္း အတၳဳပတိၱ ေက်ာက္စာ (ပလာစတာပံုတူ) တို႔ကိုျပသထားသည္။

ပုဂံနန္းၿမိဳ႕ ျပခန္းတြင္ ပုဂံေခတ္၊ ပဥၥပါႆာဒနန္းေတာ္ႏွင့္ သက္ဆိုင္ေသာ အဓိကျပကြက္အျပင္၊ ေခတ္အဆက္ဆက္မွ နန္းေတာ္အေဆာင္မ်ား ပႏၷက္ပံု ရွင္းလင္းခ်က္၊ က်န္စစ္သားမင္းႀကီး၏ ပလာစတာ ႐ုပ္တုပံု၊ ပ်ဴရြာ (၁၉) ရြာျပ ေျမပံု၊ ေရနံ႔သာကင္းတပ္ၿမိဳ႕ေဟာင္းပံုစံငယ္၊ ပုဂံေခတ္စစ္လက္နက္မ်ားႏွင့္ ပုဂံေခတ္ပန္းပဲ လုပ္ငန္းတို႔ကို ျပသထားသည္။

ပုဂံေခတ္ စာေပျပခန္းတြင္ ျမန္မာစာေပသမိုင္းတြင္ အေရးအႀကီးဆံုး အခန္းမွပါ၀င္ေသာ ပါဠိ၊ ပ်ဴ၊ မြန္၊ ျမန္မာ ေလးဘာသာျဖင့္ ေရးထိုးထားသည့္ ရာဇကုမာရ္ေက်ာက္စာ မူရင္းကို အဓိကထား၍ ျပသထားၿပီး ျမန္မာစာေပ ေျပာင္းလဲလာပံု ဇယားႏွင့္တကြ ပုဂံေခတ္ထိုးေက်ာက္စာ၊ နံရံမင္စာ၊ အုတ္ခြက္စာ၊ ခဲျပားစာ၊ ေပစာ၊ သစ္ျပားစာ၊ ေျမတံဆိပ္မ်ားကို ျပသထားသည္။

ပုဂံေခတ္ လူေနမႈဘ၀ျပခန္းတြင္ ေအဒီ (၁၁) ရာစု၊ ပုဂံေခတ္သီရိပစၥယာရြာျပကြက္၊ ပုဂံေခတ္ ယြန္းလုပ္ငန္း၊ ပုဂံေခတ္ လယ္ယာလုပ္ငန္း၊ ပုဂံေခတ္ ထန္းလ်က္ခ်က္လုပ္ငန္း၊ ပုဂံေခတ္ ယာဂုပဲြႏွင့္ ပုဂံေခတ္က ကင္းတားဆည္ တည္ေဆာက္ေနပံုမ်ားကို ျပသထားသည္။ ေအဒီ (၁၁)ရာစု၊ ပုဂံေခတ္ သီရိပစၥယာရြာ ျပကြက္တြင္ ပုဂံေခတ္၏ တစ္ေန႔တာ လႈပ္ရွားမႈကို အသံစနစ္ျဖင့္ သ႐ုပ္ေဖာ္ ျပသထားသည္။

ပုဂံေခတ္ ဗိသုကာျပခန္းတြင္ ပုဂံေဒသတ၀ိုက္ (၁၉) စတုရန္းမိုင္ပတ္လည္ ဧရိယာအတြင္းရိွ ေစတီပုထိုးမ်ားျပ ေျမပံု၊ ဗိသုကာလက္ရာ ထူးျခားထင္ရွားေသာ ေစတီပုထိုးမ်ား၊ ဂင္းပိတ္ေစတီအမ်ိဳးအစား၀င္ ေစတီ (၄) မ်ိဳးႏွင့္ လိုဏ္ေပါက္ေစတီအမ်ိဳးအစား၀င္ ေစတီ (၁၅) မ်ိဳး၊ ေပါင္းကူး (၇) မ်ိဳးတို႔ကို ပံုစံငယ္မ်ားျဖင့္ ခင္းက်င္းျပသထားသည္။

ပုဂံေခတ္ လက္မႈအႏုပညာျပခန္းတြင္ ပုဂံေခတ္က လက္မႈပညာရွင္မ်ား၏ ဘာသာေရးအေပၚ အေျခခံကာ ျပဳလုပ္ခဲ့ေသာ အဂၤေတပန္းမ်ား၊ ေက်ာက္ဆစ္လက္ရာမ်ား၊ ပန္းပုလက္ရာမ်ား၊ ေျမထည္ ပစၥည္းမ်ား၊ ေငြထည္ပစၥည္းမ်ား၊ စဥ့္ထည္ပစၥည္းမ်ား၊ ေၾကးထည္ပစၥည္းမ်ား၊ နံရံပန္းခီ်မ်ား၊ အဆင္ တန္ဆာမ်ားနွင့္ ေက်ာက္ျဖစ္ရုပ္ျြကင္းမ်ားကို ျပသထားသည္။

ပုဂံေခတ္ ဗုဒၶဆင္းတုေတာ္မ်ားျပခန္းတြင္ ေအဒီ (၁၁) ရာစုမွ (၁၉) ရာစုအထိ ေခတ္အလိုက္ ကဲြျပားျခားနားစြာ ထုလုပ္ခဲ့ေသာဆင္းတုေတာ္မ်ားကို ပလႅင္တံကဲ ေနာက္ခံ၍ ပူေဇာ္ျပသထားသည္။ ဆင္းတုေတာ္မ်ားတြင္ ထုလုပ္ေလ့ရိွေသာ မုျဒာဟန္ရွင္းလင္းခ်က္မ်ား၊ သိဒၶတဘုရားေလာင္း ဗ်ာဒိတ္ခံ ဆင္းတုမ်ား ကိုျပသထားသည္။

ပုဂံေခတ္ ဗုဒၶအနုပညာျပခန္းတြင္ ပဥၥေလာဟာဗုဒၶဆင္းတုေတာ္၊ ဗုဒၶ၀င္ရွစ္ခန္းပါ အႏၶဂူေက်ာက္ခ်ပ္၊ ေၾကးၾကာဖူး၊ ေရႊေဖာင္းၾကြဆင္းတု၊ သစ္သားဆင္းတု၊ ေျမဆင္းတု၊ အုတ္ခြက္ဘုရားမ်ား၊ ေရႊေပလႊာႏွင့္ သဲေက်ာက္ဗိုက္ပူရဟႏၱာစေသာ ဆင္းတုမ်ားကို ျပသထားသည္။ ထို႔ျပင္ ဗုဒၶျဖစ္စဥ္ ဇာတ္ေတာ္မ်ား ေရးဆဲြထားေသာ ပုဂံေခတ္ကာလအ၀တ္ပန္းခီ်ကိုလည္း ျပသထားပါသည္။ ယင္းပုဂံေခတ္ အ၀တ္ပန္းခီ်မ်ားကို  ၾကည့္ရႈေလ့လာျခင္းအားျဖင့္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံတြင္ လြန္ခဲ့ေသာ ေအဒီ ၁၁ ရာစုပုဂံေခတ္ ကတည္းက အ၀တ္အထည္တြင္ ပန္းခီ်ေရးဆဲြေလ့ရိွေၾကာင္းကို လည္းေလ့လာသိရနိုင္သည္။

ပုဂံေခတ္ ဘုရားပုထိုးပန္းခီ်ျပခန္းတြင္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံရိွ ထင္ရွားေသာ ပန္းခီ်ဆရာႀကီးမ်ား၏ ပုဂံေဒသတ၀ိုက္ရိွ ဘုရား၊ ေစတီ၊ ပုထိုး၊ ေက်ာင္း စသည့္ အေဆာက္အအံုမ်ားကို ဆီေဆးျဖင့္ေရးဆဲြ ထားေသာ ပန္းခီ်ကားမ်ားႏွင့္ ပဥၥေလာဟာဗုဒၶဆင္းတုေတာ္၊ ေရႊဆင္းတု၊ ေငြဆင္းတု တို့ကိုအပူေဇာ္ခံ ျပသထားသည္။

ပုဂံေခတ္ နံရံေဆးေရးပန္းခီ်ျပခန္းတြင္ အေၾကာင္းအရာအလိုက္ ဗုဒၶ၀င္ခန္းမ်ား၊ ငါးရာ့ ငါးဆယ္ဇာတ္ေတာ္မ်ား၊ မဟာယာနႏွင့္ တႏၱရပန္းခီ်မ်ား၊ နတ္႐ုပ္၊ ျဗဟၼာ႐ုပ္မ်ား၊ ပုဂံေခတ္လူတို႔၏ပံုမ်ား၊ ပုဂံေခတ္အတီးအမႈတ္၊ အကအခုန္ပံုမ်ား၊ ပုဂံေခတ္ ကႏုတ္ပန္းမ်ားႏွင့္ တိရစာန္ပံုမ်ားကို ပုဂံေခတ္ နံရံပန္းခီ်မ်ားမွ ပံုတူကူးေရးဆဲြတင္ျပထားပါသည္။

ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္ဦးတည္ခ်က္ (၁၂) ရပ္ႏွင့္ တိုင္းက်ိဳးျပည္ျပဳ ျပခန္းတြင္ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္ဦးတည္ခ်က္ (၁၂) ရပ္၊ မူ၀ါဒ လမ္းစဥ္ (ရ) ရပ္၊ ပညာေရးဖံြ႔ၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္မႈ၊ က်န္းမာေရးေစာင့္ေရွာက္မႈ၊ တည္ေဆာက္ၿပီး၊ တည္ေဆာက္ဆဲ ဆည္ေျမာင္း၊ တာတမံမ်ား၊ လမ္းႏွင့္တံတားမ်ား တိုးတက္မႈျပဇယားမ်ားကို ျပသထားသည္။

ပုဂံေရွးေဟာင္းသုေတသနျပတိုက္ႀကီးသည္ ျပခန္းေပါင္း (၁၁) ခန္းျဖင့္ ပုဂံေခတ္၏ ပံုရိပ္မ်ားကို ထင္ဟပ္ေပၚလြင္ေအာင္ ျပသထားေသာ ျမန္မာ့က်က္သေရေဆာင္ ျပတိုက္ႀကီးျဖစ္ေပသည္။

သူရ (ေရွးသု)
(မူရင္း ေဖာ္ျပသူ http://www.aomar.co.cc ႏွင့္ http://www.ahuntphonemyat.co.cc တို႔အား ညႊန္းဆို၍ ကူးယူေဖာ္ျပႏိုင္ပါသည္။)

Salay Yokesone Kyaung

During the Bagan Late Bagan era, specifically the late 12th and 13th centuries, Salay developed as the expanding spiral of Bagan’s influence moved southward along the Ayeyarwady River. Today’s Salay is much more of a religious centre than Bagan, with many more working monasteries than found in Bagan today. Among the Myanmar it’s most famous as the historic home of Salay U Ponya, a Yadanabon-era writer/poet whose works are read by high school and college students all over the country. A trip to Salay is warranted for anyone who develops a passion for Bagan style architecture.

YOKESONE KYAUNG

Yokesone kyaung lies on the other side of the main road from Kyauk Padaung. The hall sports a new corrugated metal roof to protect the carved wooden structures below from rain or stray sparks from cooking fires. Only two sides of the 23-meter-long hall actually bear the original 120-year-old sculptures, which include nearly three-dimensional carvings of 19th century court life, jatakas (stories from the Buddha’s life) and other tales. Some panels are missing and there are some newer wood carvings mixed in with the old, but those that remain are lovingly cared for by the monks and caretakers, who apply oil regularly to prevent cracking.

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Salay is about 120km from Bagan to the south. Kyauk Padaung and Chauk are the towns on the way to Salay from Bagan. It is a day-trip from Bagan.

The Shwe-zigon pagoda (Early Kyanzittha Period) (1084-1088)

The Shwe-zigon pagoda (Early Kyanzittha Period) (1084-1088)

The Shwe-zigon is one of the most important Buddhist pilgrimage site in Burma. According to the GPC the Shwe-zigon was built to house the sacred hair relic which Anawrahta took by force from Srikshetra. He destroyed the city and the pagoda housing the relic and returned with it to Bagan. The relic was placed on the back of a white elephant and at the site where the elephant knelt the Shwe-zigon was built. The GPC says:

“ When the relic-chamber was ready, the lord’s frontlet-relic adorned itself
with the greater and lesser signs and the six rays, and rose all-glorious
with grace transcendent, and shouldering the eight priestly requistites
ascended the sky and prophesied, saying, in the days of yore this king was
a Pulali elephant, and during the three months of rains once ministered to
me. Now also he has exalted my religion. In time to come he shall be lord
like me ! ”

“ At Shin Arahan’s behest, Anawrahta cast a golden image which was
enshrined in the relic chamber. ”

The Shwe-zigon pagoda was not completed during Anawrahta’s reign. The GPC refers to the enshringing of the relics and building of three terraces. The temple was completed during Kyanzittha’s reign. Why Anawrahta did not continue building works at this site is pussling, given it was the place of the prophecy that he would eventually be reborn a Buddha, surely the most important event to have occurred in his lifetime. It appears, however, that only the octagonal terraced bases were constructed before the building focus shifted to the Shwe-hsan-daw. Perhaps the scope of the construction was beyond the capabilities of the available builders.

Shwe-zi-gon_001 (Early Kyanzittha Period) (1084-1088)

Shwe-zi-gon_002 (Early Kyanzittha Period) (1084-1088)

The Shwe-zigon is mentioned here as part of the chronology of monuments built by Anawrahta. There are, however, no figurative images within the Shwe-zigon compound that can be reliably attributed to Anawrahta’s reign.

 

Shwe-zi-gon_003 (Jataka Plaque, Sabbasamharaka Jataka) (Early Kyanzittha Period) (1084-1088)

 

Shwe-zi-gon_004 (Jataka Plaque, Guttila Jataka) (Early Kyanzittha Period) (1084-1088)

The Shwe-zigon is one of the principal Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Burma. The foundations and lower terraces were laid under Anawraha’s patronage to house the tooth and frontlet relices. The attribution of the Shwe-zigon is heavily dependent on two pillars installed within the compound which are inscribed on all four sides with Mon script and tell of Kyanzittha’s move to his new palace, and recount other events of his reign. Luce notes that Kyanzittha’s original name for the stupa was prefixed with the word, nirvana, “implying (I imagine) that he was no longer in the Mahayanist fold (which regarded Nirvana as a sort of opium for the masses), but a Theravardin with Nirvana as his declared goal. If this is right, the Shwezigon marks the final break with Mahayanisam, and stands as the first great monument of the Reformed Church in Burma.”

 

Shwe-zi-gon_005 (Kassapa & Kakusanda Buddha) (Early Kyanzittha Period) (1084-1088)

Shwe-zi-gon_006 (Konagamanda & Gotama Buddha) (Early Kyanzittha Period) (1084-1088)

Sincee the Shwe-zigon is a stupa, there are no central shrine images. There is still an abundance of imagery, however, within the Shwe-zigon compound, some of which is attributable to Kyanzittha’s reign. These images are housed in shrines which

Shwe-zi-gon_001 (Early Kyanzittha Period) (1084-1088)

Shwe-zi-gon_002 (Early Kyanzittha Period) (1084-1088)

Shwe-zi-gon_003 (Jataka Plaque, Sabbasamharaka Jataka) (Early Kyanzittha Period) (1084-1088)

Shwe-zi-gon_004 (Jataka Plaque, Guttila Jataka) (Early Kyanzittha Period) (1084-1088)

Shwe-zi-gon_005 (Kassapa & Kakusanda Buddha) (Early Kyanzittha Period) (1084-1088)

Shwe-zi-gon_006 (Konagamanda & Gotama Buddha) (Early Kyanzittha Period) (1084-1088)

 

 

 

 

The Pagan Period: Burma’s Classic Age – 11th To 14th Centuries

The Pagan Period: Burma’s Classic Age – 11^th To 14^th Centuries

Part 2

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C.  Architecture

1. General Characteristics

a. Major types of Buildings

The remains of a variety of building types are found at Pagan including stupas, temples, monasteries, ordination halls and libraries.

Stupas are solid structures that typically cannot be entered and were constructed to contain sacred Buddhist relics that are hidden from view (and vandals) in containers buried at their core or in the walls. Temples have an open interior that may be entered and in which are displayed one or more cult images as a focus for worship.  Although this simple distinction between Stupa and temple is useful, the distinction is not always clear. There are stupas such as the Myazedei that have the external form of a stupa but are like a temple with an inner corridor and multiple shrines.

Floor plan of Myazedei

Exterior View of Myazedei from South

Corridor within Myazedei

Also, there are temples that enshrine a small stupa instead of an image of the Buddha while numerous temples have a diminutive stupa atop their tower (shikhara) or towers.

Temple with stupa inside, general view

Temple with stupa inside, detail

A third building type of which there are abundant examples is the monastery that can be either a one-room building or a vast complex of buildings.  Libraries and ordination halls appear to have been infrequently built but are also found among the structures at Pagan.

Domestic architecture, including the royal palace, was constructed of wood and consequently, has completely vanished. The only trace of these wooden buildings is the pattern of the post-holes that were dug to contain the supporting timbers.

The structures at Pagan vary greatly in scale from very small one-room structures to enormous temples with multiple floors and shrines that soar to 200 feet.  The eleven largest buildings at Pagan are all royal foundations that were built before 1300. Each contains within its mass more than fifty times as much material as the average temple or stupa. Therefore, the volume of these eleven buildings is equivalent to one quarter of the building activity during the Pagan Period.

b. Organization

Temples and stupas, even though adjacent to one another, were generally designed to stand alone as single buildings without planned relationships between one another. A boundary wall, thought be a protection against fire, surrounded the largest and most important buildings.

These enclosing walls were usually square with an entrance in the middle of each side. The main buildings, at times raised on a platform, were located in the center of this large enclosure with smaller structures placed around them.

View of gatehouse and boundary wall, Htilominlo Temple

Massive boundary wall surrounding Htilominlo Temple

c. Materials and Techniques

All Pagan structures were made of brick plastered with stucco except for three buildings that were made of stone or were faced with stone.

Nanpaya Temple, brick faced with stone

Nanpaya Temple, Cross section

Nanpaya Temple, Elevation, side view

Preliminary Report on the Discovery of Mesolithic Tools in Shinma-daung Area, Central Myanmar

BY : U WIN KYAING

Abstract

First and new discovery of pure Mesolithic site has ever been found in southeastern area of Shinma-daung, it is located in the heart o f dry zone of Middle Myanmar. Although systematic investigation on the site and its cultural materials are still to be necessarily proceeded, the author urgently attempt to nominate the site and its tools belong to “pure Mesolithic culture” comparing with neighbouring occurrences.

Introduction

During January, 2007, an exploration by the author and a staff of Pakhangyi Archaeological Museum has made to record Megalithic site near Kyauk-htet Village in Yesagyo Township, Pakokku District. Kyauk-htet Village lies on the west 3 miles from Pakokku-Mandalay Road near the mile-post 9/1. Unfortunately it was known that that Megalithic site made up of fossilized wood (Ingyin-kyauk) had been destroyed by the hunters of wood-fossils when the illegal markets of such fossil-woods were taken place in Upper Myanmar during this decade. But two more items of archaeological interest was fortunately investigated in this area;

Discovery Mesolithics_ 2007-10

(i) an big old mound of iron-slag near by the western side of the village, it shows that in the past there was traditional iron smelting and production, villagers call this mound as “thangyi-daung (the hill of iron-ore waste)”, it has about 3-4 meters high and 1 acre wide, as the surface-finds on its there can be collected some pieces of terracotta tubes used for air-blowing in furnaces and

(ii) discovery of microlithic tools while searching for a location, from where once found the so-called chin beads according to the local information. The bead-site had not been recovered although tried to find with the help of villagers. For two hours searching on the ground there could be noticed the chipped stone pieces in white colour are spread in the area of sandstone bed-plain. Owing to different colours of the tools from the brownish of ground, white chipped stone pieces can be easily found on the surface. Supposed tools of almost are sized in about thumb and finger-tips, so these are suggested micro or mesolithics. Numerous chipped or discards are also identified along with true tool-types. They are mostly made up of quartzite, therefore almost colour in white. This area is locally called “myauk-kangyi kon” (higher plain near northern lake called as Hton-moat-kan) hence there is a big annual lake, situated 1 mile far from the north of Kyauk-htet village. Another following exploration to the same site had been done in April 2007, and it could have been collected more numerous Mesolithic tools.

Geographical Background

Kyauk-htet Mesolithic stone tool site locates on the plain, which is to say belonging to the Kyauk-htet Taung hill-range area. Its bed soil Shinma-daung Sandstone Bed is overlaid by Nyaung Oo Red Earth and Magwe Sand of Pleistocene and Post Pleistocene Aeolian deposit. These are major soil types for the agriculture of Central Dry Zone. Shinma-daung sandstone is locally known as The’daw-kyauk in connection with the production of sandstone construction-materials near by the village named The’daw in the area. The’daw-kyauk is generally look-liked light pinkish colour with the forming of more fine sand percentage. In the surrounding areas of Shinma-daung, there were existed the sandstone mines viz; in the northeastern site_ Taung-U sandstone mine and southeastern_ The’daw mine, since the ancient time. These sandstones have being exploited for construction purposes of religious buildings, worshipping statues, ornamental stone-carvings and multiple traditional artifacts, which cultural materials could be visible plentifully throughout Ancient Pakhangyi region. Even nowadays local people still uses these sandstones in road-paving, foundation, floor of house building, retaining well, pot, caskets, quern, pillar of ordination hall, and etc. Shinma-daung area belongs to a part of the Shwezetaw Sandstones Stage considering the lithological and palaeontological agreement. Shwezetaw Sandstones stage is the first group among the six stages of Pegu Series, estimated occurrence during the Oligocene- Miocene Era (circa.25 million years). The Pegu Series is generally understood to embrace the Post-Eocene and pre-Ayeyarwaddian deposits of Myanmar. There represented the fine –grained, soft and pinkish colored sandstones which tend to form a very steep scarp slope conspicuous in local topography(Chibber,1934).

Remote View of Shinma-daung Seen from Kyauk-htet Summit

Mesolithic Site, North of the Village and West of Kyauk-htet Hill

Close up View of Mesolithic Site

Surface Finds of Mesolithic Tools Occurred on Upper Pleistocene Deposit

Stratigraphy showing Upper Pleistocene Deposit in Reddish Colour, Below lies weathered Shinma-daung Sandstone Bed (Early Miocene Era) in Deep-pinkish Colour

Surface Finds of Mesolithic Tools

In addition to the geographical point of view, the environment of Kyauk-htet Mesolithic tool site is surrounded by lower hill ranges known as Seikgyo-taung, Chin-taung, and Bagyi-taung also known as Kyauk-htet taung in northwest to east direction and Kyaukhpu taung and Taung-ni in the west. Among these hills Kyauk-htet taung is the highest (960 ft), due to its tallest the hill range is called as Kyauk-htet taungdan. This hill range is topographically slopes down from Shindaung (1723 ft) in the north and old river terraces to the east.

Shinma-daung is a series of elongated hills about thirty miles long, running north and south between the Yesagyo and Myaing Townships (Owens, 1913). This region is wellknown in Myanmar for the plant of sanakha (Limonia acidissima), a natural plant grown in the Dry Forest, a kind of tree the bark and root of which are used in making a fragrant paste for cosmetic purposes. The natural plant of sanakha grows in the weathering condition of tropical climate with the less rainfall, the growing soils approve red earth, sand bed mixing gravels. It is similarly survives in such type of acacious and thorny forest of tropical arid zone of Middle Myanmar. Shinma-daung area actually closed to the conflucence of Ayeyarwaddy and Chindwin river, dealing its wavy plains interrelated with old river terraces of west of these two mighty rivers.

THE ‘NEOLITHIC’ CULTURE OF THE PADAH-LIN CAVES

U Aung Thaw
Introductory
Although Burma prossesses a potential wealth of stone-age materials prehistoric research was done very spasmodically. Polished stone implements of different size are often found on the ground surface in many parts of the country but they usuelly fall into the hands of those collectors who believe in the superstitions attached to the socalled ‘thunderbolts’. The first to draw their attention in Burma as prehistoric implements appears to be W.Theobold of the Geological Survey of India, who in 1873, recognized certain remarkable peculiarities of the polished stone implements from Burma. Among the few persons who later took interest in such stone implements was T.O Morris Who made an intensive study of the neolithic tools in Upper Burma. However, the first systematic exploration of prehistoric sties was made only in 1937-38 by the American South-East Asiatic Expedition for Early Man led by Dr.Hellmut de Terra and Prof. Hallam L.Movius. The Collected materials from Palaeolithic and Neolithic sites on the terraces along the middle course of the Irrawaddy and explored some caves in the Shan States. As a result of the study of those materials the palaeolithic culture of the region was properly recognized and was named the Anyathian culture. The caves in the Shan States, however, were superficially investigated and on finding traces of neolithic occupation only the expedition did not excavate in them as their object was to study the early, i.e. palaeolithic man in Burma.

I-VIEW OF PADAH-LIN CAVE (1)

II-VIEW OF PADAH-LIN CAVE (1) (Man On Scaffolding Copies The Paingtings On The Wall)

III-INTERIOR VIEW OF PADAH-LIN CAVE (2)

Appreciating the need for systematic exploration and excavation the Archaeological Department has chalked out a programme for the exploration of river terraces and open sites. However, the unveiling of ancient city sites comes to the forefront and still claims the all-out efforts fo the few available hands on its staff. Fortunately, the first prehistoric expedition could be launched at the instigation and support of the Central Organization Committee Headquarters of the Burma Socialist Programme Party. An expedition team composed of research workers drawn from the Archaeological Department, the Burma Historical Commission and the departments of Anthropology, Geology and Zoology of the Rangoon Arts and Science University together with representatives from the Party headquarters was organized by the Party to explore the Padah-lin caves and it was able to set upon its task on the 9th January 1969.

FIG (4) REPRODUCTION OF PAINTINGS IN CAVE (1)

The existence of what look like prehistoric paintings in one of the cave of Padah-lin was first discovered by a geologist, U Khin Maung Kyaw, sometime in 1960. Recently it was brought to the notice of the Party heandquarters which felt the need to substantiate the fact for incorporation in the basic political history of Burma being compiled by the Party. A preliminary survey of the caves was conducted bye the Party headquarters before the main team commenced work. The Archaeological Department took the responsibility to organize excavation in the caves which is the main function of the expedition.

The Caves

The locality in which the caves are situated is a submontane region west of the Shan Plateau falling within the Panlaung Reserved Forest area classified as a fairly dense jungle with bamboo. They lie close to the north of the packtrack from Nyanunggyat to Yebok village in Ywangan or Yengan Township in Taunggyi district, Southern Shan State, the distance from Nyaunggyat (Latitude 21 6 1/2′ N Longitude 96 18′ E) being 4 miles and from Yebok 1 mile.

To the east of Yebok rises the Nwalabo range with peaks over 4500 feet high. The caves are in the spur of a foothill 1000 feet above sea level. The Yebok stream, a tributary of the Panlaung river passess through Yebok in its southward course and meets the river four miles away. The Panlaung which rises further south turns a westerly direction for about two miles from the confluence and meanders northward. The rocky terrain between Nyaunggyat and Yebok is uninhabited. It is only along the Panlaung river that small villages are found, e.g. Taungbon, Nyaunggyat, Neyaunggga, Kyidaing and Maunggwe, reckoning from south to north.

The western margin of the Shan Plateau in which the caves lie is, generally speaking, a broad belt of limestion which is a prominent member of the rocks characterizing the Shan State. This plateau limestion varies from an almost pure calcite to a true dolomite.

Myin Pya Gu (No.1493)

Myin Pya Gu (No.1493)

Myin-pya-gu hav been attributed either to the end of Anawrahta’s reign or the beginning of his son Sawlu’s reign (1077-1084). Votive tablets bearing the seals of both kings have been found in this large temple, sited south of the old city will. The quadrilateral structure rises in the shape of a stupa yet it has wide internal corridors. A single entrance faces west. The walls are lined with niches housing lifesize images of the Buddha and the interior was extensively decorated with scences from this jatakas. Luce notes that the niche are arranged fourteen on each side, totaling 28 in each half of the temple. The number of niches is no dubt related to the 28 former Buddhas. However, at the Myin-pya-gu, these niches do not all contain images of seated Buddhas. Most of the seated images are in bhumisparsa mudra and, according to Luce, “of the ‘Aniruddha type’, with long torso, conical usnisa and flame-niche (this last generally lost). Ears touch shoulders”. The faces are a little less rounded than those typical of Anawrahta’s reign, a feature that supports the proposed dating of this sculptures. The torsos are slightly elongated and very upright. Some features, however, are not typical and suggest either later repairs or damage. A number of the earth-touching hands have even fingers. This is not a characteristic of images in the early Bagan period but developed later in the 12 th century. The hair caps are smooth on a number of the sculptures. This is also a feature that is associated with images of the later Bagan period. Perhaps the original stucco curls had fallen off and repairs were made in the style of the day.

(Myin Pya Gu Exterior) (Late Anawrahta Period) (1070-1075)

(Myin Pya Gu Plan) (Late Anawrahta Period) (1070-1075)

As well as housing repetitive images of the earth-touching Buddha there are life scenes including the Buddha sheltered by Mucalinda and the Fasting bodhisattva. While both are badly damaged the overall composition is consistent with a date of around 1075-1084. Seven sparate naga heads frame the Buddha’s head and shoulders. Rounded hair curls are still visible on this sculpture. The right hand and lower arm has been repaired, the hand has fingers of equal length and the arm is close to the body, crossing the shin in an almost central position. The fasting image is similar to the figure in Kyauk-ku-umin although, in this temple, the Buddha is on his own without any devas in attendance.

Halin (Hanlin, Halin-gyi)

Halin (Hanlin, Halin-gyi)

Halin (Chart 1, Figure 95 & Figure 99), with its substantial record of Late Prehistoric materials which appear to be linked to ongoing salt exploitation, is a special case in the expansion from the homeland. It is the only one of the four major sites with demonstrated and substantial pre-urban occupation of what later became a walled settlement, although it may be more accurate to say, since most of the known Late Prehistoric finds are south of the walls adjacent to the salt fields, that the walled complex was built beside, rather than on, the earlier area of occupation. Salt extraction has been recorded since the colonial period (Scott 1900: 116 Vol 1, Part 2 & 295-296 Vol 2, Part 1; Scott 1921: 253; Williamson 1929: 124-126, 141-143; Nyo Win 2001a) and remains of broad earthenware bowls that may have been precursors of the metal troughs currently used for reducing brine to salt have been recovered by local farmers, with some examples kept in the Nine Banyan Trees Monastery museum at Halin.

Iron Hoes, Adzes And Spearheads Halin (Halin Monastery Museum)

Coins Excavated At Halin

Characteristic Halin Srivatsa Rising Sun Coin

The geographical location of Halin supports the idea of a special function such as salt production rather than the prehistoric exploitation of networks of local streams for irrigation (see page 126). Maps (Figure 95) show the former bed of the Mu to the east of the present Mu river (Digital Chart of the World 1993), and a largely dry lake south of Halin (Burma One Inch series, 84 N/15). The geologically disrupted drainage system suggests that in prehistoric times this area may not have had the same access to irrigation resources as Beikthano or Maingmaw. In the Bagan period (Figure 96), the Mu canal was built from Myedu in the north, draining into the lake, Halin In, as the area was opened up for irrigated farming, and this system was extended in colonial times (Aung-Thwin 1990: 22-26, 72), but there is nothing to suggest that there was an earlier system of canal irrigation. The Halin/Shwebo area contains a number of Bagan period inscriptions (Figure 96), and there are similarities to Bagan in ceramics, with a red libation jar from Halin overpainted in white lines and dots (Myint Aung 2003: 112-113) comparable to a sample excavated in Bagan in 2003 (page 230).

Gold Filled Teeth Halin

Bronze Sword Handle Halin

Bronze Sword Handle Pommel Of Previous Figure Halin

Bronze Sword Handles Reverse View Of items in previous figures

The earliest capital of the Pyu, according to the Za-bu-kon-cha (page 29), Halin was first explored by archaeologists in 1905. Taw Sein Ko, director of archaeology, excavated ten sites, but was disappointed because the excavations did not yield the museum pieces he was seeking. His sites 1- 10 on the map (Figure 99), shown in black circles, are identified in the text as TSK to avoid confusion with the later excavated or explored sites which were numbered again from 1 in the 1960s by the Archaeology Department. The initial excavations were based largely on information from local people about discoveries of treasure, real or imagined. In one case, a site was excavated because someone had dreamed there was treasure buried there. Taw Sein Ko mapped the city walls and noted that the salt industry had denuded the area of fuel. Local people provided several silver coins and gold ornaments, and told the investigator that many bronze figures, coins or ornaments had been sold or melted down for the metal. These included figures of elephants, horses, bulls and serpents which had been dug up in a dry stream, TSK 7 (Figure 99). The now-vanished figures were described by the locals as having been filled with “medicinal or alchemical ashes”, although this might simply have been burnt clay cores from the lost-wax process. One useful find, at TSK 6, was a Pyu stone inscription which was attributed paleographically to the 4th century AD or earlier (AWB 1905: 7-10; ASB 1915: 21-23). This appears to be a funerary record, referring to the bones of Lord Ruba, son of Lord Davi-ni-mli and grandson of N-ga Kno. While not bearing a specific date, it provides three names of people who were most likely residents of the city, and of sufficient importance to merit commemoration in stone. Other Pyu inscriptions found at Halin (location of the finds is shown on the plan) refer by name to (King) Sri Trivigrama (Trivikrama) and Queen Candradevi (Luce 1985: 149, Vol 1). “Trivikrama” is the name of an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, who can set foot on several worlds at the same time and conquer them (Nai Pan Hla 1972b). Aung-Thwin agrees that Sri Trivikrama appears to be a general royal title, and points out that Luce’s Queen Candradevi can also be read as Sri Jatradevi. Another stone mentions Mahadevi Sri Jatra (Aung-Thwin 2004 Ch 7). The vikrama suffix is shared with a dynasty at Sriksetra (see page 138). The South Indian script in the Sri Trivikrama inscription has been proposed as 8th-9^th century AD (Aung Thaw 1972: 13).

Excarvation At Tagaung

TAGAUNG

The lack of a western wall at Tagaung has been attributed to a number of factors. The most debated of these is a westward movement of the Ayeyarwaddy in the geologically recent past from the bed of the ‘Old Ayeyarwaddy’ east of the present site to that of the Meza Chaung.41 Working within this premise, one of the present authors has suggested that not only the location but also the layout may have conformed to a tradition that first millennium AD walled cities associated with Pyu-speaking groups had nine quadrants.42 There are today three walled areas at Tagaung: Wall 1 (19 hectares) around a low hillock on the north, Wall 2 (62 hectares) known as Anya Bagan and Wall 3 (204 hectares) which encloses the other two walls. All three, however, are missing the western wall. When the nine quadrants are plotted to form an oval-shaped city plan, site TG31, excavated in 2003-2004, falls in the northeast quadrant of the old city. As the finds from TG31 and Hsin Hynat to the south support our note above of links beyond Myanmar, in this case to Yunnan, we will return to TG31 and Hsin Hynat. First, however, we discuss Bagan and the natural resources of Tagaung that together with its location ensured continued patronage from its founding to the present.

Tagaung and Bagan are closer to the Ayeyarwaddy than Halin, Maingmaw, Waddi or Beikthano.44 While
the west wall of both is currently the Ayeyarwaddy, each may once have been farther from the bank and the threat of flood. At Bagan, Daw Thin Gyi concluded from aerial photographs that the west wall has been gradually lost to the Ayeyarwaddy through erosion and flood.45 A jutting out of the river at the village of Myit Khe (‘lower portion’) north of Bagan also supports its gradual eastward shift. Beyond this, however, comparison weakens, for Bagan’s setting may have obviated the need for fortification on the immediate east while the ecology and location of Tagaung may have required it. The site’s strategic position on the Yunnan frontier is evident in the array of Tagaung artefacts attributed to its use by the 11th century AD Anawrahta as part of his east flank fortification.46 Ores may additionally explain Anawrahta’s interest in Tagaung, with silver continuing in use at Bagan for land and slave purchases.47 Tagaung afforded access to the silver mines of Bawdwin and Yadanatheingyi at Namtu in around Mogok. It is also via Mogok and the Shweli and Taping (Tabein) rising in the uplands that Tagaung linked to Yunnan via Muse and Bhamo.48 Other resources including jade, copper and iron were reachable by the Meza and Uru watercourses to the north and northwest.49

Koke-ko-khar-hla site was flourished during the transitional period from Bronze-Age to Iron-Age

Koke-ko-khar-hla site was flourished during the transitional period from Bronze-Age to Iron-Age

Koke-ko-khar-hla Bronze age site is located in Wundwin township of Mekithila District. Excavated finds are bronze and iron implements, skeletons, stone and bone beads, and different types of grave potteries. Study of excavated finds suggest that Koke-ko-khar-hla site was flourished during the transitional period from Bronze-Age to Iron-Age.

(REF : http://www.myanmar.com/Ministry/culture/)

Samon Bronzes

Pyu Iron Age Site In Myanmar