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Bayingyi people

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Baryingyi
ဘုရင်ဂျီ
Total population
At least 3,000, up to 100,000[1][2][3][4]
Regions with significant populations
Myanmar
Sagaing Region~3,000+
Languages
Languages of Myanmar:Burmese
SomeEnglish
Religion
Related ethnic groups

Bayingyi people(Burmese:ဘရင်ဂျီ) also known asLuso-Burmese,are a subgroup ethnicity ofLuso-Asians,and are the descendants ofPortuguesemercenaries or adventurers who came toMyanmar(Burma) in the 16th and 17th centuries. They were recruited into theRoyal Burmese Armed forces' artillery and musketeers corps, and over centuries of continued settlement in theMu Valley,particularly theSagaing Regionof Myanmar, have been more or lessassimilatedinto the dominant ethnic group of the region, theBamar,while keeping their sense of Portuguese identity andRoman Catholicreligion.

Etymology[edit]

The descendants of the Portuguese were once commonly known, because of theirCaucasianfeatures, as “Bayingyi", but the everyday usage of the term, along with the Bayingyi'sEuropeanappearance, has almost disappeared due to assimilation with theBamar.The term “Bayingyi” is derived from theArabicexpression ‘Feringhi’ or 'Frank', used to generally describe any western European, with the word mainly being used by Middle EasternMuslimsto describe theChristianinvaders from Europe during theCrusades.[5][6]

History[edit]

Arrival of the Portuguese[edit]

Standard of the Burmese royal artillery who were mainly Christian Portuguese descendants
A 19th-centuryKonbaungpennant of a Burmese artillery unit made up of European descendants.

During the 16th and 17th centuries theRoyal Burmese Armed forcesrecruited entire corps of European and Muslim mercenaries, who used knowledge ofartilleryandmusketsto assist the Burmese in war. By the mid-17th century, the mercenaries, who had proven politically dangerous as well as expensive, had virtually disappeared in favour of cannoneers and matchlockmen in the Burmese militaryahmudansystem. However, the men who replaced the mercenaries were themselves descendants of the mercenaries who had settled in their own hereditary villages inUpper Burma(on the vast plain inSagaing Region) where they practised their own religion (Roman Catholicism) and followed their own customs.[5][7]

Filipe de Brito and the development of the Bayingyi identity[edit]

Filipe de Brito,Portuguese mercenary and governor ofSyriam,Burma,circa 1600.

One of the best-known Portuguese adventurers wasFilipe de Brito e Nicote,who served theRakhineking,Min Razagyi.In 1599, de Brito was made governor of Syriam, a busy port on theBago Riverin what is nowYangon’s Thanlyin Township,where the ruins of the country’s first Catholic church can be seen on a hilltop.[5]

De Brito, who commanded a force of about 3,000 men, enraged the Burmese after his forcesdesecratedBuddha images,and in 1613 Syriam was attacked by theTaungoo dynastyking,Anaukpetlun.De Brito was captured and executed by impaling. The Portuguese community, between 4,000 and 5,000 people, was taken prisoner and marched to the Taungoo capital,Ava.Some sources say it took them 10 weeks to complete the journey.[5]

In 1628,Anaukpetlunwas succeeded by KingThalun.He encouraged the Portuguese and their mixed-race families to integrate, and gave them the land where their ancestors live inSagaing.Now the descendants of these Portuguese, heavily integrated both ethnically and culturally into theBamar,live scattered across an unknown range of villages and towns in this region known as 'Anya'.[5]

Population[edit]

St Mary's Cathedral,a Catholic church inYangon(formerly Rangoon),Myanmar(Burma).

An 1830 census put the population of the Bayingyi at somewhere roughly around 3,000,[8]but it is entirely possible many thousands more have somePortuguese ancestry– at least 5,000 Portuguese adventurers and mercenaries came to and settled inMyanmar,[5]and some estimate up to 100,000 Bayingyi are dispersed across the villages of the Mu Valley.[9]Centuries of inter-marriage have left the Bayingyi more or less assimilated into theBamarethnic group of Myanmar, but they have still kept their sense ofPortuguese identityandRoman Catholic religion,and in some individuals obvious European phenotypes are still present.[5][10][11]

Persecution[edit]

At the end of 2021 and through 2022 several Bayingyi villages in the Mu Valley were targeted by theTatmadaw,leading topro-democracyanti-government protests from the community.[9]Agriculture and infrastructure was destroyed and livestock were killed.[12]The villages were ransacked, hundreds of houses were looted and torched, with Catholic chapels also being targeted and razed.[9][13]According to the International Association of Luso-Descendants (IALD) the village of Chaung Yoe was the hardest hit, and was allegedly attacked with artillery. After the attacks, only 20 of the 350 houses were left intact.[12]The villagers were persecuted, terrorised and at least five were shot and killed while fleeing the attack, according to eyewitnesses.[12][13]Severalclergymenwere arrested and their chapels were looted for gold and money.[9][13]According to a Bayingyi eyewitness, the Catholic faith and 'foreign' traditions of his people is likely the reason for the attacks.[12]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^"1: The 400-year history of Portuguese Catholics in Sagaing"(PDF).19 December 2017.Retrieved11 May2019.
  2. ^"2: The Bayingyi People of Burma"(PDF).Joao-Roque Literary Journal Est. 2017.26 February 2018.Retrieved11 May2019.
  3. ^"3: Portuguese descendants in Thailand"(PDF).19 June 2009.Retrieved11 May2019.
  4. ^"Casas incendiadas, terror e morte em Myanmar: Luso-descendentes católicos Bayingyi no alvo dos militares".
  5. ^abcdefgThu, Mratt Kyaw (6 December 2017)."The 400-year history of Portuguese Catholics in Sagaing".Frontier Myanmar.Retrieved2019-05-11.
  6. ^"The Bayingyis of Myanmar".lostfootsteps.org.Retrieved2019-05-17.
  7. ^"The Bayingyi People of Burma".Joao-Roque Literary Journal est. 2017.6 February 2018.Retrieved2019-05-11.
  8. ^Combustões (19 July 2009)."Portuguese descendants in Thailand".500 Anos Portugal-Tailândia, por Miguel Castelo Branco.Retrieved2019-05-11.
  9. ^abcd"'Risking my life to speak out,' claims minority Catholic community leader amid persecution by Myanmar's junta ".SBS Language.Retrieved2024-04-29.
  10. ^"Bayingyis of the Valley of Mu".19 June 2009. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 16 August 2017.Retrieved11 May2019.
  11. ^"The Bayingyi People of Burma".Joao-Roque Literary Journal est. 2017.6 February 2018.Retrieved2020-06-23.
  12. ^abcd[email protected], The Tablet-w."Ancient Catholic villages in Myanmar targeted by military".The Tablet.Retrieved2024-04-29.
  13. ^abc"Political situation in Myanmar and the effects on Bayingyi villages - José Ramos-Horta".ramoshorta.com.2022-06-05.Retrieved2024-04-29.
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