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Why is Myanmar called this name?

Myanmar is a country in Southeast Asia with a long history, which can be traced back to five thousand years ago. I don’t know if you have ever wondered why Myanmar is called this name and what does it mean?

The article “Myanmar” on page 426 of the “Dictionary of Foreign Geographical Names and Etymology” by Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House in 1983 said: “China was called Shan State in ancient times, Pyu State in Tang Dynasty, Bagan in Song Dynasty, and also called Myanmar. Barrier, it is called Myanmar, which means far away; and because of the China-Myanmar border area, the mountain valley is called “Dian”, collectively called Myanmar, that is, the distant valley.

The Burma English name Burma comes from Brahma in the Dereng language, and its etymology may be related to Brahman or Sanskrit. The Burmese call themselves Bama, which is Myamma in Sanskrit, which means strong. Some people think that Brahma is the name given to the local residents by the early immigrants here, and it also means strongman. “This interpretation has many problems, and the etymology is not accurate.

First of all, “Myanmar” means that Chinese is far away, as if it was a name given by the Han people; in fact, of course, it is the transliteration of Myan in the Burmese self-proclaimed, not Chinese. Although the translation of the word “Myanmar” has a taste of both the meaning of the translation, it is not the real etymology.

Do the Burmese call themselves far away? Therefore, “Myanmar” means “far outskirts”, which is the name given to this land by people in the southwest of ancient China. It became the most widely used name by Chinese people during the Yuan Dynasty.

In 1989, the Burmese military government changed the English spelling of Burma from “Burma” to “Myanmar”, and most countries in the world also changed their names according to their own will; “ㄆ Ma”), even in Myanmar, it is usually called Burma (sound close to BAMA), and is called Myanmar (sound close to MYAM-MA) in written language, and the protagonist in the movie “First Blood 4” is also Call Myanmar Burma.

It is said that Burma comes from Brahma, the Derang language, and that the etymology may be related to Brahman or Sanskrit. “Derang” is what the Burmese call the aboriginal Mon people. The Mon people (Mon) speak an Austro-Asian language. The Mon people call the Burmese people Brahma. . It is even more inappropriate to say that burma is taken from Sanskrit. The Sanskrit bura means “bad, evil”, not powerful.

Burmese history shows that the Burmese originally migrated from the southeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. In fact, after the failure of the battle with Tubo in the Tang Dynasty, Bai Lanqiang was unwilling to surrender to Tubo, and most of them migrated south to Burma, conquered the original Mon, Phyu and Shan people, occupied the northern part first, and gradually developed into Burma the main nation.

They are the Bailangqiang in the Han Dynasty. The “Huayang Guozhi” since the Wei and Jin Dynasties was also translated as Bailan, which is divided into two branches: “white” Brah and “blue” Mran, so the Burmese may call themselves Brah, and later become Ba, that is, Call Ba-ma (Bama = Big Bus), or call yourself Mran, and later change to Myan, that is to say Myan-ma (Myanma = Big Burma means strong, and is equivalent to Sanskrit maha. The newspaper said that Myanmar should be in Burma. Make Mranma. For the Mon, Pyu, and Shan who were subdued in history, the Burmese are naturally powerful.

So Brahma is not “the name given to the local residents by the early immigrants here” as the dictionary says, but the name given by the local residents to the early immigrants here. Zheng Zhang pointed out in 1993 that the branch of Bai Langqiang recorded in “Han Shu” was later translated as “loubo” (Boren), and [Bo baag] is the modern Ba, that is, the “white” Braag originally said, the Meng people, Sanskrit is still recorded as Brah people, not Ba people. As for Burma, it is a form of misrepresentation, which is far from the original language and should have been discarded.