Exploring the East-West Cultural Corridor: Historic and Modern
Archaeology of Bago and Dawei, Myanmar
Elizabeth Howard Moore
Former Visiting Researcher CSEAS

The East-West Cultural Corridor and the Southern
Coastal Zone
The East-West Corridor is a conceptual tool for identifying
common cultural processes across mainland Southeast (Ishii2009). Our research group has drawn upon this model to study
the past histories of sites and their continuities with present
traditions. My role in our group has been adding Myanmar toour database of Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos andwidening our discussion of the East-West Cultural Corridor
concept. Our ‘sites’ vary in size, at times end-points, and atothers, connectors along routes that over many centuries haveconnected Myanmar to capitals such as Sukhothai (13th–14th),
Ayutthaya (14th–18th) and Angkor (9th–15th) (Shibayama 2013).1
The ‘routes’ include walls, moats, streams, paths and special
purpose roads used by man, ox-carts and elephants to move
within, between, and beyond sites (Im Sokrithy 1998, 101; Surat
Lertlum and Im Sokrithy 2013).
We follow Ishii's example in using ecological zones rather
than dynastic lines to divide Myanmar into three regions as ourprimary framework:

1. Upper Myanmar: the broad Ayeyarwaddy (Irrawaddy)
basin (c. 650–1250 mm rainfall per annum)
2. Lower Myanmar: the plains bordering the Gulf of Muttama(Martaban) (c. 5000 mm)
3. The Southern Coastal Zone: the 600 km long peninsula(c. 5000 mm) with river valleys sandwiched between theAndaman Sea and the 700 m high Tanintharyi (Tennasserim)
Range
While we have identified links between sites in Upper Myanmar,
Yunnan and south to Thailand, our focus is Lower Myanmar andthe Southern Coastal Zone, two regions of vital significancewhose early and later archaeology has been little studied. Twosites are compared here, Bago (Pegu)2 in Lower Myanmarand Dawei (Tavoy) 3 in the Southern Coastal Zone. Each is thewestern terminus of routes east: Bago leads to Haripunchai,Sukhothai and Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand and Dawei via
multiple passes over the mountains to Kanchanaburi andAyutthaya.4
In the historical sketches below, a 9th century traditionalfounding is followed by a millennium of conquest by greater
powers: at Bago to establish a new capital and at Dawei to lay

Fig. 1: Map showing Bago, Dawei and sites in Thailand. Courtesy of Mamoru Shibayama
21Fig. 2: Bago in 1942, Williams-Hunt Collection, Geo-referenced courtesy Surat
Lertlum, CRMA

Fig. 3: Bago in 2002, IKONOS, Geo-referenced courtesy Surat Lertlum, CRMA

claim to the seaward side of the Tanintharyi peninsula. The
process internationalized Bago but in Dawei, apart from a few
stupas said to be ‘Thai-style,’ the isolation and conquest as aregion rather than a center, encouraged an insular pride with astrengthening of local modes and styles. The historical sketches
end with World War II images from the Williams-Hunt Collection
as comparison of these with present day images can help us
contrast the rapid expansion of Bago and the relatively stable
Dawei landscape.5

The 16th century rulers brought artisans from Ayutthaya, conquered in 1548, including goldsmiths, painters, cooks and clothdyers. Trade from the interior to the port was encouraged, sothat Bago was active in 16th century European and Japanesemarkets (Tun Aung Chain 1999: 43). In the 17th century, however, the ruling dynasty moved the capital back to Upper
Myanmar and the land base of Bago dwindled while depositsof alluvium narrowed the Bago River and destroyed its accessto the sea.
In 1757, much of Lower Myanmar was devastated by Upper
Myanmar rule, Alaungpaya and in 1852, the British took controlof Lower Myanmar. With World War II, British troops took extensive cover of Bago including a mosaic of the ancient city on 20March, 1942, two months after the Japanese took Dawei. Theoutline of the 16th century wall and moat is strikingly clear, as is
the absence of a dense population apart from the northwest
corner of the site adjacent to the Bago River. Lines of rectangular vegetation are the only remnants of the once-renowned
palace and the lively 16th century capital described above.

Bago: 9th to 16th Century Capital
The chronicle history of Bago (Ussā-Hanthawaddy) dates
the original rectangular walled site (120 ha) to 825 (Moore andSan Win 2014). In the 11th century, Bago was dominated by
the Upper Myanmar capital at Bagan6 but in the 14th century it
ended up being ruled by a succession of eleven Mon kingsfrom nearby Martaban (Muttama) (Tun Aung Chain 1999: 38).
Among these was Dhammaceti (1470–1492), whose reign, freefrom invasion from the Upper Myanmar capital at Ava (Inwa)7
brought expanded trade. Gifts sent by on a religious mission
to Sri Lanka in 1476 included cloth from China, betel boxes
from Haripunchai and carpets from Inwa – all indicative of atrade network stretching from the Gulf of Martaban (Muttama)
to Yunnan. Bago reached its peak in the 16th century under aline of rulers from the Upper Myanmar capital of Toungoo8 with
its geographical position giving it maritime access to goods
from South Asia and the river valleys on its landward side thatlinked it to inland trade (Tun Aung Chain 1999, 42, 37). It wasat this time that a vast new moat and wall (571 ha) were built
by King Bayinnaung (1552–1581) lying just southeast of theoriginal site. As noted by Ralph Fitch in 1586;‘It is a Citie very great and populous, and is made square withvery Faire walls and a Ditch round it full of water with many
Crocodiles in it…there are also Turrets for Centinels to watch,made of wood, and gilded with Gold very faire’ (Fitch 2004, 170).
22Dawei and the Southern Coastal Zone
Dawei’s chronicle history begins in 707 at Kaleinaung, 60 km
north, and its royal lineage in 754 with the walled site of Thagara(176 ha).9 As with Bago, Dawei’s location attracted conquest bya succession of more dominant powers: not only Upper Myanmar,
but Lower Myanmar and Thailand. The latter included a 10thcentury line of Thai princes from Tak and Ayutthaya rule from1350. Thai links are seen also at Mokti (c. 150 ha), a walled site
9.6 km south of Dawei dated to 1417. A bronze bell was donatedto Mokti in 1432 by Wikara Orada, a Thai person of high status.10
During the 16th and 17th centuries, Dawei rule moved between Upper Myanmar and Ayutthaya including a successful
attack in 1593 by King Nareusuan. The 1757 present walledcity was soon seized by Upper Myanmar with Tanintharyi(Tennaserim) ranked as a second level city within four levels by
the Ayutthaya monarch in the 1805 edited ‘Law of the ThreeNo.68 Autumn 2013

Fig. 4: Lead coin (10 cm), Collection Than Swe (Dawei)

Seals’ (Kotmai Tra Sam Duang) (Ishii 1998). In 1826, Lower
Myanmar and Tanintharyi Division were ceded to the British
who were quick to document routes to Thailand and demarcate the border. An 1826 map of Dawei, for example, includes
Kaleinaung of the Dawei chronicle, the starting point fromwhich the Dawei River is navigable, and a route to Thailand.
Kaleinaung is also marked on a 19th century Siamese royalmilitary map and a 1917 geological survey (Hearn 1917, Pasuk
Santanee 2004). By the early 20th century, the British administrative documents focused on the isolation of the region, documenting routes east to the disputed border and Siamese elephant stealing (NAD 1919).
Dawei was invaded on 18 January, 1942, with the battle being the first clash between British and Japanese troops insideMyanmar. The Williams-Hunt Collection photographs of Dawei
include the elaborate Japanese expansion of airport runways
taken in December 1944 during the British campaign to re-takethe country (Defence Surveyors Association: 216, 237).

Conclusion
This article has shown how, in the 16th century, Bago wasinternationally renowned as a port linking South Asia to theinterior of the mainland overland. Its power waned after thesilting up of the Bago River and Upper Myanmar rulers returned
the capital to the north. The Department of Archaeology excavated Kambawzathadi Palace in the 1990s, included it in the1996 UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List11 and in 1999 inscribed it on the Ministry of Culture’s Notified Zones of Cultural
Heritage Regions and Buildings. Today, however, the moats are
thick with vegetation and refuse on the eastern side at theShwe-yaung-ye pagoda where the massive 16th century wall
curves around this stupa, a clear note of the ancient respect for
its earlier construction (Pyiet Phyo Kyaw 2013).
The famed beauty of its wide streets and gilded turrets

Fig. 5: Dawei airport in 1944, Williams-Hunt Collection

can be glimpsed in the reconstructed palace buildings, stillvenerated pagodas, and the vibrancy of its ceramic artefacts.
However, the population of over 300,000 in the immediate
metropolitan zone has obscured the ancient cultural landscape,a process that will accelerate with the completion of theHanthawaddy International Airport in 2017.12 This comparison
is particularly vivid in a geo-referenced comparison of a 1942
aerial photograph of Bago from the Williams-Hunt Collection
and an IKONOS satellite image of the site (Lertlum andShibayama 2009, 549).
In contrast to the fame of Bago, Dawei was a medium-size
port and territorial prize traded between kings of Upper Myanmar, Thailand and from 1824, under British rule. Local styles canbe seen in 7th to 9th century images of the Buddha to 15th–18thcentury brown and green glazed wares and large (10 cm­diameter) lead and tin coins. The Dawei dialect, a variant of
the Myanmar language, has survived in orally transmitted folksongs (Winn Myintzu 2011). The ecology, again in contrast toBago, has remained constant, with major change only with theexpansion of tin and lead mining in the colonial era. In addition, rather than being a single massive walled site as seen atBago, Dawei was a series of smaller fluctuating sites north andsouth of the 1754 town of present Dawei.
Unfortunately, the area has not been without cultural destruction, as in the long period of insurgent activity following
1948 independence, the walled site of Weidi (114 ha) became
an insurgent camp and its rich supply of large lead coins dating
to the 15-17th century were melted down for bullets. For themost part, however, the ancient sites of Dawei are intact. The23

region is in the process of change, and has come to international attention with the development of a large deep-sea port
project, but this has catalyzed local attention, with the 2012
inscription of Thagara (Thargaya) on the Ministry of Culture’s
list of Notified Cultural Zones, the first site from the entire
Tanintharyi Division.
At Bago and Dawei, the archaeological remains of the firstmillennium data provide the foundation from which to compare later cities. Conversely, the networks identified in the historical period provide a template through which to explore theearlier communication systems. There has been little attempt
to weave synchronic site studies such as these into a wider
frame that gives credibility to both continuities into the pastand into the present (Aung-Thwin 2013, 97). It is hoped that
this study may contribute to our appreciation of this duality.

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Notes1Mamoru Shibayama (Kyoto), Surat Lertlum (Chulachomklao
Royal Military Academy), Pongdhan Sampaongern (FineArts Department, Thailand), Surapol Natapintu (ThailandResearch Fund), Im Sokrithy (APSARA, Cambodia), Tran Ky
Phuong (Danang, Vietnam)
2
Bago 17°17’58.38 “N, 96°28’59.81”E; Sukhothai 16.951169°N,99.855425°E; Ayutthaya 14°21’11.65”N, 100°34’8.28”E;
Angkor 13°25’55.42”N, 103°52’18.72”E
3Dawei 14°10’23.99”N, 98°10’0.58”E
4Haripunchai 18.577107°N, 99.006826°E; Kanchanabui(13.996865°N, 99.555616°E) via Pilok (14.681037°N,98.362935°N), Sangklaburi (15°16’25.74”N, 98°17’52.30”E),
and the Amya Pass (13.888381°N, 99.075318°)
5The Williams-Hunt Collection is an archive of 5000+ 1942-1955
aerial photographs of Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar,
Singapore and Vietnam. The online site is a collaboration
between Mamoru Shibyama and Yasuyuki Kono (Kyoto),
Surat Lertlum (CRMA) and Elizabeth Howard Moore (SOAS).
See http://gdap.crma.ac.th
6Bagan 21.124613°N, 94.922275°E
7Inwa 21.856932°N, 95.981813°E
8Toungoo 18.933333°N, 96.433333°E
9Kaleinaung
14°37’28.95”N,98°08’13.79”E;
Thagara14°10’22.91”N, 98° 9’57.85”E
10The bell inscription includes the words kara (king) and orada(a royal rank) (Surapol Natapintu, pers.comm. 22.12.12)
11
1996 UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List. 
http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/ (accessed 13 Aug,2013)12
In 2012, 284,179 with 5,739,344 in the metropolitan area; See
Myanmar to Build largest airport. 
http://www.mizzima.com/business/investment/9843myanmar-to-build-largest-international-airport (accessed14 Aug, 2013)