Origins: Depending on the sources, different dates for the beginning of human occupation in today's Myanmar (Burma) can be quoted. However, one thing seems clear: from what evidence has been found so far, it must go all the way back to Europe's Lower Paleolithic, with the Anyathian culture that may have lasted almost 400,000 years, until 25,000 BC circa.

Little is understood of the period between the end of the paleolithic and the rise of the Pyu civilisation. We know that a proto-burmese people, the Mon, who are still a minority living in Myanmar to this day, have entered the region and have assimilated local neolithic populations. At which date they arrived is another point of divergeance since the dates range from 3,000 to 1,100 BC depending on the sources. They came from central Asia to found the first civilization on burmese soil. Several sources agree on the fact that Buddhism became an important, if not the main religion during the 3rd century BC, and traded with Ashoka's India. They won't dominate the region for long though, as they will become vassals to the Pyu cities.

There are many mysteries around a potential bronze age in Burma. For a very long time, it was believed that the iron age had directly followed the neolithic, but an important quantity of bronze artefacts have been discovered during the last 15 years, which leads the specialists to reconsider the possibility of a distinct bronze age in Burma between the neolithic and the iron age. However, the relations between all those cultures and the later Pyu still appear confused to us at best.

The Pyu: Again, their arrival is situated sometime between the 5th and the 1st century AD. They came all the way from Tibet, as a branch oof the people called Qiang, who had been neighbors to the Chinese as early as the late 2nd millenium BC. Competition over land between the two people led to conflicts, and soon the Chinese started to capture Qiang people as slaves and even for human sacrifices. As a result, the Qiang migrated south several time, until the 4th century BC when the Qiang were divided into several branches, one of them being the Qiang-Pyu. Another branch will later follow in their footsteps as the Burmese.

The Pyu were soon converted to Buddhism by the local populations, notably the Thet and the Gadu, in the central plains. From there, they will spread both north and south, following the Irrawaddy valley. They ended up occupying most of today's Myanmar territory. During this period, until the first years into the first millenium AD, they built several city-states, or rather city-kingdoms; most of them were only big villages, led by a "king", but there were also a few cities.

Although all the Pyu never united into one kingdom, it seems that there were dynasties that would dominate the political scene to which other Pyu leaders would pay tribute. The first dynasty that we know of was located in Beikthano, a city that was inhabitated between the 2nd and 7th centuries AD. The last one, Srikshetra, was occupated between the 6th and the 10th centuries; both were quite big since within their walls were fields, which would allow to feed the people during a siege.

Many other details on the Pyu are available in the chinese annals, as they Pyu were living around one of the commercial roads between China and India: one of their traits seems to be that they were a pretty peaceful people, more interested in trading than fighting with their neighbors.

The Arrival of the Burmese: the branch of the Qiang who started to be refered to as the Burmese were living in the Yunnan, and from what the chinese sources tell us, were leading a harsh life under the chinese rule. They were probably part of the armies that regularly attacked the Pyu in the south, even destroying one of their cities. It may be these repeated contacts with a people to which they were close in origins that brought them to the decision to leave the Yunnan for the south.

On their way, this people who had been neighbors with the Chinese will learn a lot from the various proto-burmese people who had assimilated many aspects of India's culture. First, they will meet the Mon in the Kyaukse region, where they inheritate from an irrigation system that was already in place before the Mon themselves had arrvied and which they will develop. It's also during this time that they will learn to write, writing being something they had never used before. The Burmese still consider that region as the first burmese cultural center in Burma.

More burmese populations will continue their migration towards Burma, and will establish two more centers, one of which wil be around Pagan, where they will live alongside with the Pyu for a while

History of Burma (Myanmar)@Wikipedia
The Art and Culture of Burma
An Introduction to Myanmar@Geographia
Nicholas Tarling (Editor), "The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia", Cambridge University Press; New Ed edition, 2000
Guy Lubeigt, "La Birmanie", Guides Belles Lettres des civilisations, Paris, 2005

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