Von den Ländern Asie. Von der Statt Tarnasseri. / Von der Statt und dem Königreich Pego.

Title

Von den Ländern Asie. Von der Statt Tarnasseri. / Von der Statt und dem Königreich Pego.

Two images on one sheet, top view of the town of Thamarassery in the Kozhikode (Calicut) district of Kerala, India. Lower view of the city of Bago in Myanmar. Published by Heinrich Petri, 1550 in Basel.

ca. 1550

Artist

Münster (1489-1552)

Sebastian Münster (1489–1552) was a leading Renaissance cosmographer. His most famous work, the Cosmographia (1544), was a comprehensive description of the world with 24 maps, based on research dating back to 1528. Continuously revised, the 1550 edition already included many new maps. It was the first scientific yet accessible world description published in German, illustrated with numerous woodcuts by artists such as Hans Holbein the Younger. Between 1544 and 1650, the Cosmographia appeared in 46 editions (27 in German) and was translated into several languages. Münster’s work combined the knowledge of scholars, artists, and travelers and remained influential long after his death.

Historical Description

King Anawrahta founded the first Burmese in the 11th century. The early civilizations in Myanmar included the Tibetan-Burmese-speaking Pyu city-states in Upper Burma and the Mon kingdoms in Lower Burma. In the 9th century, the Bamar entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and after the establishment of the pagan kingdom in the 1050s, Burmese language, culture and Theravada Buddhism slowly dominated the country. The pagan kingdom fell due to the Mongol invasions and several belligerent states emerged. In the 16th century, which was reunited by the Taungoo dynasty, the country was briefly the largest empire in the history of mainland Southeast Asia. In the 18th century, Burmese rulers, whose land was not of particular interest to European traders, attempted to maintain their traditional influence in the western areas of Assam, Manipur and Arakan. However, the British East India Company, which expanded its interests in the same area to the east, pushed for them. The Konbaung dynasty of the early 19th century ruled over an area that encompassed modern Myanmar and briefly controlled Manipur and Assam. The British East India Company took control of Myanmar's administration after three Anglo-Burmese wars in the 19th century, and the country became a British colony. Myanmar became independent as a democratic nation in 1948. After a coup d'état in 1962, it became a military dictatorship under the Burma Socialist Program Party. Throughout most of its independent years, the country has been involved in rampant ethnic conflicts and its myriad ethnic groups have been involved in one of the world's longest-lasting civil wars. During this time, the United Nations and several other organizations have reported consistent and systematic human rights violations in the country.