Arakanese

Arakanese

▪ people
also called  Rakhine  

      ethnic group centred in the Arakan coastal region of southern Myanmar (Burma). Most Arakanese speak an unusual variety of the Burmese language that includes significant differences from Burmese pronunciation and vocabulary.

      An independent Arakanese kingdom was probably established as early as the 4th century AD and was led at various times by Muslim as well as Buddhist rulers. Modern Arakanese continue to follow distinctive traditions and to celebrate this part of their history. The huge Mahamuni statue (now in Mandalay) is considered by Buddhist Arakanese to be their national image and is alleged to predate the Burmese kingdom centred at Pagan (AD 1044–1287) by a millennium.

      Eventually the Mongols, and later the Portuguese, invaded Arakan. In 1785 Burmese forces conquered the Arakanese kingdom and carried the Mahamuni statue off to Mandalay. The Arakan region was ceded to the British in 1826 through the Treaty of Yandabo. When Myanmar became independent from British rule in 1948, the province in which the Arakanese are dominant was named Arakan; this name was changed to Rakhine in the 1990s. See also Mrohaung, Arakanese Kingdom of.

      At the end of the 20th century, Arakanese numbered approximately two million individuals, some 90 percent of whom lived in Myanmar, with most of the remaining 10 percent in Bangladesh and a small number in India. Most Arakanese are Buddhist, but perhaps 15 percent of them follow Islam. The Islamic Arakanese are known as Rohingyas, a name based on the historical name of the region, Rohang.

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Universalium. 2010.

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