Tay (Shan) Encroachments into the Irrawaddy Basin and the Fall of Ava: Western Mainland Southeast Asia in the “Age of Commerce”

Authors

  • Ken Kirigaya Independent scholar, Tokyo, Japan

Abstract

The “Age of Commerce,” habitually and primarily regarded as a maritime phenomenon, actually affected the interior of western mainland Southeast Asia, including the highland Tay (Shan) world, a rich source of valuable commodities, such as musk, jade, amber, and rubies, which were destined to be exported from the seaports of Lower Burma southward to Melaka and westward to India and beyond. The economic boom further activated the southward downhill movement of the Tay onto the Irrawaddy Basin, ultimately leading in 1527 to the fall of the Upper Burma capital Ava, a thriving riverine emporium. The Tay seizure of the vital trading center in the “Burmese heartland” made the western mainland a commercially more integrated unit, which would in turn be politically unified decades later by Bayinnaung, the king of the maritime state more blessed with the Age of Commerce.

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