The Maritime Frontier of Burma: Exploring Political, Cultural and Commercial Interaction in the Indian Ocean World, 1200-1800

Situated at the periphery of both South and Southeast Asia, the maritime frontier of Burma (Arakan, Lower Burma and Tenasserim) has long been neglected area of study. In spite of its location at the outskirts of powerful Asian polities such as Taungngu Burma, Ayutthaya and Mughal India, it served as an important cultural and commercial crossroads connecting all the regions surrounding the Bay of Bengal. For the first time in Burmese studies, this volume explores the interactive elements of Coastal Burma's civilization by bringing together a unique array of scholars, both historians and art historians, both anglophones and francophones, both South Asianists and Southeast Asianists. The result is a creative and colorful pastiche that pays tribute to Burma's distinctive political, cultural and commercial place in the Indian Ocean world.