Bamar people
The Bamar people are a Sino-Tibetan-speaking ethnic group native to Myanmar. With an estimated population of around 35 million people, they are the largest ethnic group in Myanmar, accounting for 68.78% of the country's total population. The geographic homeland of the Bamar is the Irrawaddy River basin. The Bamar speak the Burmese language which serves as the national language and lingua franca of Myanmar.
Ethnonyms
In the Burmese language, Bamar and Myanmar have historically been interchangeable endonyms. Burmese is a diglossic language; "Bamar" is the diglossic low form of "Myanmar," which is the diglossic high equivalent. The term "Myanmar" is extant to the early 1100s, first appearing on a stone inscription, where it was used as a cultural identifier, and has continued to be used in this manner. From the onset of British colonial rule to the Japanese occupation of Burma, "Bamar" was used in Burmese to refer to both the country and its majority ethnic group. Since the country achieved independence in 1948, "Myanmar" has been officially used to designate both the nation-state, its official language and majority ethnic group, but the ethnic group was renamed to "Bamar" in 1980 by the order of General Ne Win. In spoken usage, "Bamar" and "Myanmar" remain interchangeable, especially with respect to referencing the language and country.In the English language, the Bamar are known by a number of exonyms, including Burmans and Burmese, both of which were interchangeably used by the British. In June 1989, in an attempt to indigenise both the country's place names and ethnonyms, the military government changed the official English names of the country, the language, and the country's majority ethnic group.
Ancestral origins
The Bamar's northern origins are evidenced by the extant distribution of Burmish languages to the north of the country, and the fact that taung, the Burmese word for 'south' also means 'mountain,' which suggests that at one point ancestors of the Bamar lived north of the mountains. Until a thousand years ago, ancestors of the Bamar and Yi were much more widespread across Yunnan, Guizhou, southern Sichuan, and northern Burma. During the Han dynasty in China, Yunnan was ruled primarily by the Burmese-Yi speaking Dian and Yelang kingdoms. During the Tang dynasty in China, Yunnan and northern Burma were ruled by the Burmese-Yi speaking Nanzhao kingdom. Between the 600s and 800s, the Bamars migrated from their original homeland in Tibet to settle present-day Myanmar, establishing settlements along the Irrawaddy and Salween Rivers and founding the outpost of Pagan. The Bamar gradually settled in the fertile Irrawaddy and Salween river valleys that were home to Pyu city-states, where they established the Pagan Kingdom. Between the 1050s to 1060s, King Anawrahta founded the Pagan Empire, for the first time unifying the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery under one polity. By the 1100s, the Burmese language and culture had become dominant in the upper Irrawaddy valley, eclipsing Pyu and Pali norms. Conventional Burmese chronicles state that the Pyu were assimilated into the Bamar population.By the 1200s, Bamar settlements were found as far south as Mergui and Tenasserim, whose inhabitants continue to speak archaic Burmese dialects. Beginning in the 900s, Burmese speakers began migrating westward, crossing the Arakan Mountains and settling in what is now Rakhine State. By the 1100s, they had consolidated control of the region, becoming a tributary state of the Pagan Empire until the 13th century. Over time, these Bamar migrants formed a distinct cultural identity, becoming the Rakhine people.
Genetics
A 2014 DNA analysis found that the Bamar exhibited 'extraordinary' genetic diversity, with 80 different mitochondrial lineages and indications of recent demographic expansion. As the Bamar expanded their presence in the region following their arrival by the 800s, they likely incorporated older haplogroups including those of the Pyu and Mon. Another genetic study of G6PD mutations in Mon and Bamar men found that the two groups likely share a common ancestry, despite speaking languages that belong to different language families. Another 2022 study found that Central and Southern Thais had a large proportion of Bamar-related ancestry, while Bamar ancestry was also detected among the Palaung and Shan groups.Y-DNA
Y-DNA traces paternal ancestry and is inherited through the male line.The Bamar are linguistically classified as Tibeto-Burman, part of the Sino-Tibetan language family.Their Y-DNA reflects historical migration from China and Tibet, possibly via the Irrawaddy River basin.
Ethnic identity
Modern-day Bamar identity remains permeable and dynamic and is generally distinguished by language and religion, i.e., the Burmese language and Theravada Buddhism. There is considerable variation among individuals who identify as Bamar, and members of other ethnic groups, particularly the Mon, Shan, Karen, and Sino-Burmese, self-identify as Bamar to various degrees, some to the extent of complete assimilation. To this day, the Burmese language does not have precise terminology that distinguishes the European concepts of race, ethnicity and religion; the term lu-myo can reference all three. For instance, many Bamar self-identify as members of the 'Buddhist lu-myo' or the 'Myanmar lu-myo,' which has posed a significant challenge for census-takers.In the pre-colonial era, ethnic identity was fluid and dynamic, marked by patron-client relationships, religion, and regional origins. Consequently, many non-Bamar assimilated and adopted a Bamar identity and norms for sociopolitical purposes. Between the 1500s and 1800s, the notion of Bamar identity expanded significantly, driven by intermarriage with other communities and voluntary changes in self-identification, especially in Mon and Shan-speaking regions. Bamar identity was also more inclusive in the precolonial era, especially during 1700s when Konbaung kings embarked on major territorial expansion campaigns, to Manipur, Assam, Mrauk U, and Pegu. These campaigns paralleled those in other Southeast Asian kingdoms, such as Vietnam's southward expansion, which wrested control of the Mekong delta from the Champa during the same period.
During the early 1900s, a narrower strain of Bamar nationalism developed in response to British colonial rule, which failed to address Bamar grievances and actively marginalised the Bamar from entering public occupations such as educational and military ones. One of the primary Bamar grievances with British colonial rule was the widespread immigration of non-Bamar people from other parts of British India, which was perceived as transforming the Bamar people into a minority on their own homeland. In 1925, all Bamar military personnel serving in the British Indian Army were discharged, and the colonial authorities adopted an exclusionary policy which stipulated that only the Chin, Kachin and Karen minorities would be targeted for military recruitment. By 1930, leading Burmese nationalist group the Dobama Asiayone had emerged, from which independence leaders like U Nu and Aung San would launch their political careers. For most of its colonial history, Burma was administered as a province of British India. It was not until 1937 that Burma was formally separated and became directly administered by the British Crown, after a long struggle for direct colonial representation.
Government classification
The Burmese government officially classifies nine 'sub-ethnic groups' under the Bamar 'national race.' Of these nine groups, the Bamar, Dawei, Myeik or Beik, Yaw, and Yabein, all speak dialects of the Burmese language. One group, the Hpon, speak a Burmish language closely related to Burmese. Two groups, the Kadu and Ganan, speak more distantly related Sino-Tibetan languages. The last group, the Moken, speak an unrelated Austronesian language. The Burmese-speaking Danu and Intha are classified under the Shan 'national race.'Geographic distribution
Myanmar
The Bamar predominantly live at the confluence of the Irrawaddy, Salween, and Sittaung River valleys in the centre of the country, which roughly encompass the country's seven administrative regions, namely Sagaing, Magwe, Mandalay in Upper Myanmar, as well as Bago, Yangon, Ayeyarwady and Taninthayi Regions in Lower Myanmar. However, the Bamar, particularly labour migrants, are found throughout all 14 of Myanmar's regions and states.The cultural heartland of the Bamar is called Anya, which is the area adjoining the upper reaches of the Irrawaddy River, and centred around Sagaing, Magwe, and Mandalay. The Anya region is often called the 'central dry zone' in English due to its paucity of rainfall and reliance on water irrigation. For 1,100 years, this region was home to a series of Burmese royal capitals, until the British annexed Upper Burma in 1885. Bamar from this region are called anyar thar in Burmese.
In the 1500s, with the expansion of the Toungoo Empire, the Bamar began populating the lower stretches of the Irrawaddy River valley, including Taungoo and Prome, helping to disseminate the Burmese language and Bamar social customs. This influx of migration to historically Mon-speaking regions coincided with the rise of King Tabinshwehti. This pattern of migration intensified during the Konbaung dynasty, particularly among men specialised in wet rice cultivation, as women and children were generally prohibited from emigrating. Following the British annexation of Lower Burma in 1852, millions of Bamar from the Anya region resettled in the sparsely populated Irrawaddy delta between 1858 and 1941. The Bamar were drawn to this 'rice frontier' by the British colonial authorities, who were eager to scale rice cultivation in the colony, and attract skilled Bamar farmers. By the 1890s, the British had established another centre of power and political economy in the Irrawaddy delta.