ARAKANESE

member of a Myanmar (Burmese) ethnic group centred in the Arakan coastal region of southern Myanmar (Burma). The Arakanese are Buddhists of Myanmar stock and possess a dialect and customs of their own. Separated from the parent group in central Myanmar by the mountains of the Arakan Yoma, they trace their history to 2666 BC, have had a lineal succession of as many as 227 princes, and claim that their empire once extended across Myanmar into China and Bengal. Although history does not corroborate these claims, the Arakanese's most sacred image of the Buddha, the huge Mahamuni statue (now in Mandalay), is alleged to predate the Pagan kingdom (10441287) by a millennium. An independent Arakanese kingdom was probably established as early as the 4th century AD. The Mongols, Pegus, and Portuguese invaded Arakan at different times. Myanmar forces conquered the Arakanese kingdom, carried off the Mahamuni statue to Mandalay, and made Arakan a part of the Myanmar kingdom in 1785. As a province, Arakan was ceded to the British in 1826 by the Treaty of Yandabo. Arakan became independent from British rule in 1948 together with the rest of Myanmar. See also Mrohaung, Arakanese Kingdom of.