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 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. PÄli is a Middle Indo-Aryan dialect or prakrit. ... Silver coin of the Gupta King Kumara Gupta I (414-455 CE). ...
The people of Pyu are believed to have been ethnically different from the Burmese, although they may have inter-married with the Sino-Tibetan migrants who later became the Burmese ethnic group. Sino-Tibetan languages form a language family of about 250 languages of East Asia, in number of speakers worldwide second only to Indo-European. ...
Archaeological evidence suggests that the Pyu were indeed an exceptionally cultured civilization with their own language, a highly developed urban culture, excellent craftsmen and their own advanced architecture.
The Pyu were extremely skilled jewelers, and their gold jewelry in particular is magnificent.
The pagodas and temples of the Pyu Kingdom were brick constructions of high quality and ingenious design; the vaulted arch system - a technique that was later employed regularly in temple architecture - appears for the first time in their construction.
The Pyu lived in houses built of timber and roofed with tiles of lead and tin; they used golden knives and utensils and were surrounded by art objects of gold, green glass, jade, and crystal.
Pyu sons and daughters were disciplined and educated in monasteries or convents as novices.
In the 7th century the Pyu shifted their capital northward to Halingji in the dry zone, leaving Shri Ksetra as a secondary centre to oversee trade in the south.
Feeds |
Contact