Panthays
[citation needed] One other theory is that Panthay is shortened version of the Burmese phrase "Tarup Pase", meaning Chinese Muslim.
The term Panthay achieved widespread usage during the period of British rule, and remains the name by which Myanmar's Chinese Muslim community has generally been distinguished in English language sources to this day.
[citation needed] During the Panthay Rebellion, Sultan Suleiman (Du Wenxiu) was eager to establish close and friendly relations neighboring states.
Few are conversant with more than the most elementary phrases of Arabic, and quite often when a Panthay imam is not available to care for the spiritual welfare of a community, a South Asian and Zerbadi Muslim is engaged instead.
The Zerbadi are descendent community of intermarriages between foreign Muslim (South Asian and Middle Eastern) males and Burmese females.
By the mid 19th century the caravans of Yunnanese traders ranged over an area extending from the eastern frontiers of Tibet, through Assam, Burma, Thailand, Laos and Tongkin (presently part of Vietnam), to the southern Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi.
Within Yunnan, the Muslim population excelled as merchants and soldiers, the two qualities, which made them ideally suited to the rigors of overland trade in the rugged, mountainous regions, and to deserve the rewards therefrom.
The religious requirement to perform Hajj pilgrimage had also helped them to establish an overland road between Yunnan and Arabia as early as the first half of the 14th century.
[9] The merchandise brought from Yunnan by the Panthay caravaneers included silk, tea, metal utensils, iron in the rough, felts, finished articles of clothing, walnuts, opium, wax, preserved fruits and foods, and dried meat of several kinds.
The Burmese goods taken back to Yunnan were raw cotton, raw and wrought silk, amber, jades and other precious stones, velvets, betel-nuts, tobacco, gold-leaf, preserves, paper, dye woods, stick lac, ivory, and specialized foodstuffs such as slugs, edible bird's nest, among other things.
Within Yunnan, the Chinese Muslim population excelled as merchants and soldiers, which made them ideally suited to the rigors of overland trade in the mountainous regions.
Commercial and cultural contacts between the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau and the Irrawaddy Delta and lower Salween River probably predate significant migration by Han Chinese or Bamar populations into either area.
[citation needed] It is at least certain that Muslims of Central Asian origin played a major role in the Yuan conquest and rule of Southwest China.
One important soldier-administrator was Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar, a Turkic court official and general who became Yuan Governor of Yunnan from 1274–79.
[14] Shams al-Din is represented as a wise and benevolent ruler, who successfully "pacified and comforted" the people of Yunnan, and who is credited with building temples of Confucius as well as mosques and schools.
[citation needed] During his rule, a significant number of Muslim soldiers of Central Asian origin were transferred to Yunnan, which was still largely unpopulated by Han Chinese settlers.
The Persian historian Rashid-al-Din Hamadani similarly recorded in the Jami' al-tawarikh that "the great city of Yachi" in Yunnan was exclusively inhabited by Muslims.
Rivalry between the Chinese and Panthay jade-assessors in courting the royal favor naturally led to a quarrel between the two groups, resulting in a number of deaths.
During early 19th century, the Hui Muslim and other minority peoples of Yunnan faced increased population pressures as a result of Han Chinese migration to the province.
Du erected a Forbidden City, wore Ming hanfu in repudiation of Qing authority, and adopted the Muslim name and title "Sultan Sulayman".
[citation needed] The Qing secretly hounded mobs on to the rich Panthays, provoked anti-Hui riots and instigated destruction of their mosques.
During these years, Hui refugees settled across the frontier within Burma gradually established themselves in their traditional callings – as merchants, caravaneers, miners, restaurateurs as well as some smugglers and mercenaries.
[26] On 7 June 1873, Mah Too-tu married Shwe Gwe, a lady from Sagyin-wa village near Amarapura, who happened to be the daughter of a princess of Manipur brought to Mandalay as a captive by the Burmese king.
The Panthay left the risky business of peddling this highly profitable commodity locally to Shan and Han Chinese dealers.
When Harvey visited Panlong in 1931 he found that Panthay numbers had risen to 5,000 ('including local recruits') and that they were financed by Singaporean Chinese, had 130 Mauser rifles with 1,500 mules, and exported opium by the hundredweight into French, Siamese and British territory.
Numbers of Panthay restaurateurs and innkeepers, merchants and traders settled in the urban centres of upland Burma – chiefly at Lashio, Kengtung, Bhamo and Taunggyi – to service the needs of these miners, passing caravaneers and local inhabitants.
During most of the British rule in Burma these Panthay settlers flourished, specialising in all levels of commerce from the international gem markets to shop and inn-keeping, mule-breeding and peddling or street hawking.
The traditional dominance of Panthay in the trade of the Burma-Yunnan frontier region was set back by the construction of the Burma Road between Lashio and Kunming in 1937–38.
[citation needed] During World War II, the main Panthay settlement at Panglong was destroyed in 1941 by the Japanese invasion of Burma.
As a result of these developments, which brought a flood of predominantly Han, and not Hui, "Overland Chinese" to the Burmese Shan States, many Panthay seem to have chosen to migrate to northern Thailand, where their communities continue to flourish.
