Suwannaphum

Categories: History of Buddhism | History of India | History of Southeast Asia | Mon people

From Buddhist Encyclopedia

This article describes the ancient toponym. For the Bangkok airport, see Suvarnabhumi Airport

Suwannaphum (also Suwarnabhumi) is the name of a land referred to in the Edicts of Ashoka, stone inscriptions attributed to Emporer Ashoka (304-232 BC) of India. The particular edict that mentions Suwannaphum, which literally translated means "Golden Land" or "Land of Gold", does so only briefly to indicate that Ashoka sent Buddhist missionaries there sometime during the mid-third century BC. There are no other verifiable ancient texts known to independently mention a place by this name.

Location

The location of Suwannaphum has been the subject of much debate, both scholarly and nationalistic. It remains one of the most mythified and contentious toponyms in the history of Asia. Since the rediscovery and translation of the Edicts of Ashoka in the mid-19th century, Asian history scholars have identified two regions as possible locations for the ancient Suwannaphum.

Insular Southeast Asia theory

One theory is that it referred to a powerful coastal/island kingdom in present-day Indonesia and Malaysia, possibly centered on Java. This theory is based on such a kingdom's potential for power and wealth (hence, "Land of Gold") as a hub for sea-trade and on vague descriptions provided by contemporary Chinese pilgrims to India. Due to the Chinese writing system, however, the interpretation of the Chinese historical sources are based on supposed correspondences between idiograms and their possible phonetic equivelants with known toponyms in the ancient Southeast Asian civilizations.

Southern India theory

The other theory maintains that Ashoka's missionaries did not travel further east than Sri Lanka (called "Tamraparni" in the Edicts) and identifies Suwannaphum as a toponym in the extreme South of present-day India, outside of Ashoka's empire but still on the subcontinent, possibly in the land of the Cholas or Pandyas. This theory is based on equally vague archaeological evidence in southern India and the claim that there is no independent evidence, either historical or archaeoligical, proving Ashoka's missionaries ever visited South-East Asia.

Other traditions

Due to many factors, including the lack of historical evidence, the absence of scholarly consensus, and the timing of the translation of the Edicts coinciding with the colonial period in Southeast Asian history, various cultures in Southeast Asia indentify Suwannaphum as an ancient kingdom there and claim ethnic and political decendancy as its successors. As no such claim or legend existed prior to the translation and publication of the Edicts, scholars see these claims as based in nationalism or attempts to claim the title of first Buddhists in South-East Asia.

Burman/Mon

In Burma, both the ethnic Burmans and the Mons claim that Suwannaphum was a kingdom located on the Tenasserim coastal area centered on Thaton. This belief may stem from a reference in the fourth century Sri Lankan history Dîpavamsa which recounts the story of the Ashoka missionaries (seven centuries removed), stating "Sona and Uttara were dispatched to Suvarnabhumi" and identifies this land with the contemporary (forth century) area of Râmaññadesa or Thaton.<ref>Dîpavamsa VIII. 12</ref> If true, however, it is unlikely that the people of this area were either Burman or Mon since, according to accepted archaeogical and historical evidence, the Tibeto-Burman peoples had not yet begun their migration into the peninsula and the Mon were just beginning to filter into and settle the Khorat area of modern-day Thailand in the third century BC.

Thailand

In Thailand, government proclamations and state museums insist that Suwannaphum was somewhere along their southern coast. Although they have not based their claims on any historical records, the Thai government named the new Bangkok airport, Suvarnabhumi Airport, after the mythic kingdom of Suwarnabhumi, or Suwannaphum, in celebration of this tradition. This tradition however, is doubted by scholars for the same reason as the Burman claim. The migration of the Tai peoples into Southeast Asia did not occur until centuries later, long after the Pyu, Malays, Mons and Khmers had established their respective kingdoms.

References

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See also

• Pyu
• Dvaravati
• History of Burma
• History of Thailandde:Suvarnabhumi