The Royal Armed Forces (,See (Maha Yazawin 2006: 26), (Yazawin Thit Vol. 1 2012: 236), (Hmannan Vol. 2 2012: 2) for example. ; ) were the armed forces of the Burmese monarchy from the 9th to 19th centuries. It refers to the military forces of the Pagan Kingdom, the Kingdom of Ava, the Hanthawaddy kingdom, the Toungoo dynasty and the Konbaung dynasty in chronological order. It was one of the major armed forces of Southeast Asia until it was defeated by the British over a six-decade span in the 19th century.
The army was organised into a small standing army of a few thousand, which defended the capital and the palace, and a much larger conscript-based wartime army. Conscription was based on the ahmudan system, which required local chiefs to supply their predetermined quota of men from their jurisdiction on the basis of population in times of war. The wartime army also consisted of elephantry, cavalry, artillery and naval units.
Firearms, first introduced from China in the late 14th century, became integrated into strategy only gradually over many centuries. The first special musket and artillery units, equipped with Portuguese matchlocks and cannons, were formed in the 16th century. Outside the special firearm units, there was no formal training program for the regular conscripts, who were expected to have a basic knowledge of self-defense, and how to operate the musket on their own. As the technological gap between European powers widened in the 18th century, the army was dependent on Europeans' willingness to sell more sophisticated weaponry.Tarling 2000: 35–44
While the army held more than its own against the armies of the kingdom's neighbors, its performance against more technologically advanced European armies deteriorated over time. It defeated the Portuguese and French intrusions in the 17th and 18th centuries respectively but the army could not stop the advance of the British in the 19th century, losing all three Anglo-Burmese Wars. On 1 January 1886, the millennium-old Burmese monarchy and its military arm, the Royal Burmese Armed Forces, were formally abolished by the British.
The Burmese name Tatmadaw remains the official name for the country's modern armed forces. The term is also incorporated into the Burmese names of opposition groups such as the People's Defence Force.
Origins
The Royal Burmese Army had its origins in the military of the early Pagan Kingdom circa mid-9th century. The earliest recorded history was the foundation of the fortified city of Pagan (Bagan) in 849 by the Mranma, who had entered the Upper Irrawaddy valley along with the Nanzhao raids of the 830s that destroyed the Pyu city states. The early Pagan army consisted mainly of conscripts raised just prior to or during the times of war. Although historians believe that earlier kings like Anawrahta, who founded the Pagan Empire, must have had permanent troops on duty in the palace, the first specific mention of a standing military structure in the Burmese chronicles is 1174 when King Narapatisithu founded the Palace Guards—"two companies inner and outer, and they kept watch in ranks one behind the other". The Palace Guards became the nucleus round which the mass levy assembled in war time.Harvey 1925: 323–324
Organisation
The Royal Burmese Army was organized into three general tiers: the Palace Guards, the Ahmudan Regiments, and the field levies. Only the first two were the standing military. They protected the sovereign and the capital region, and formed the nucleus of the armed forces in wartime. The third, the field levies or conscripts, were usually raised just prior to or during wartime, and provided manpower to resist attacks and project power beyond the boundaries of the empire.Dijk 2006: 37–38 Most of the field levy served in the infantry but the men for the elephantry, cavalry, artillery and naval corps were drawn from specific hereditary villages that specialized in respective military skills.
Royal Household Guards
Royal Bloodsworn Bodyguard
The King and the royal family's personal protection are under the Royal Thwei-thauks (သွေးသောက်) or Bloodsworn Guards, who were sworn under a blood oath, hence their name. They are generally made up of royal relatives and the most trusted courtiers. The term sometimes refer to the close companions of the King. The most famous example is the ethnic Mon General Binnya Dala, who was a thwei-thauk of Bayinnaung. Dala describes the men, who had sworn the blood oath as "All [of us], his chosen men, in fact, whether Shans, Mons or Burmans... declared ourselves willing to lay down our lives [for him]."
The Bloodsworns were never a permanent military body and their loyalty was personal to the individual king. Whenever a new king reigns, he would form his own bodyguard of Bloodsworn men, usually from his own retainers or relatives.
Palace Guard Regiments
The Guards Division consisted of four brigades, each of which resided in barracks outside the palace, and designated by the location in relation to the place: Front, Rear, Left and Right. The captain of each brigade was called ( ). The men generally were gentry, and selected for their trustworthiness. Servicemen in the Capital Regiments and the Royal Palace Guards were selected from trusted hereditary ahmudan village located near the capital or the king's ancestral/appanage region. Prior to the early 17th century, each viceroy also maintained his own smaller version of household guards and ahmudan regiments especially at the border regions—essentially a garrison. The existence of competing armies was a constant source of political instability especially during the 14th to 16th centuries when high kings regularly faced rebellions by their own kinsman viceroys who also wanted to be king. It changed in 1635 when all appanage-holders (viceroys, governors and sawbwas) along with their retainers were required to abolish their local forces and instead reside at the capital for long periods. Gentry youths in Upper Burma were required to serve in the military or non-military service of the king either in the corps of royal pages or in the capital defence regiments. At a lower social level, tens of thousands of military and non-military were required to serve capital service rotas lasting from several months to three years.Lieberman 2003: 192–193
The Guard Regiments were notably for including a large number of non-Burmese in their ranks. In the Konbaung era, the interior Palace was guarded by companies of Laotian, Shan and Northern Thai soldiers. They served in a similar function to the Swiss Guards of European monarchs in the 17th and 18th century. Burmese of European descendants known as the Bayingyi are noted to serve in these regiments as well.
Ahmudan service system Service to the army was organized according to the ahmudan ( ) system, which had been in place since the Pagan era. Ahmudan literally means civil service. This required local chiefs to supply their predetermined quota of men from their jurisdiction on the basis of population in times of war. The village chiefs responded to requests from their respective mayors who in turn responded to those of governors and viceroys/sawbwas, who in turn responded to the high king.Lieberman 2003: 154–156 The quotas were fixed until the 17th century when restored Toungoo kings instituted variable quotas to take advantage of demographic fluctuations.Lieberman 2003: 185 Some hereditary ahmudan villages, particularly those that had descended from European and Muslim corps, specialized in providing more skilled servicemen such as gunners and cannoneers. The selection of conscripts was left to the local headmen. Conscripts could provide a substitute or pay a fee in lieu of service. Conscripts often had to be driven into battle, and the rate of desertion was always high.
Command
The command structure followed the three-tier organizational structure. The king was the commander-in-chief although in practice most kings appointed a commander-in-chief, usually from the ranks of the royal house or from the top command of the Palace Guards, to lead the campaigns. The formed the core command of most military operations although more prominent military campaigns would ostensibly be led by a close member of the royalty—at times, the king himself or the king's brother or son, or other times a senior minister of the court. (Although Burmese history is often dominated by the portrayals of warrior kings' battlefield exploits, the high royalty's leadership on the battlefield was largely symbolic in most cases.)
Directly below the generals were the local chiefs and their deputies who commanded the regiment commanders. The use of local chiefs was a necessary element of the army's organizational structure especially in Toungoo and Konbaung eras because the army was made up of levies from all parts of the empire. Shan sawbwas (chiefs) and Mon commanders routinely led their own regiments throughout the imperial era. Outstanding ethnic commanders also led larger operations and even entire campaigns, especially in Ava and Toungoo periods (14th to 18th centuries). (King Bayinnaung's best and most relied upon general Binnya Dala was an ethnic Mon while many Shan sawbwas led multi-regiment armies throughout Toungoo and Konbaung eras.)
The main field military unit of the army was the regiment. A 1605 royal order decreed that the fighting forces should be organised as follows: each regiment shall consist of 1000 foot soldiers under 100 company leaders called akyat ( ), 10 battalion commanders called ahsaw ( ) and 1 commander called ake ( ), and all must be equipped with weapons including guns and cannon. In the early 17th century, a typical regiment consisting of 1000 men was armed with 10 cannon, 100 guns and 300 bows. Moreover, the camp followers should include expert catchers of wild elephants as well as musicians and astrologers.Dijk 2006: 35–37 An infantry unit was generally divided between daing or shields, musketeers and spearmen.
Special branches The infantry was the backbone of the wartime Burmese army, and was supported by special branches—the elephantry, cavalry, artillery, and naval corps. These special branches were formed by the men from certain hereditary villages that provided the men with specialized skills. In a typical Toungoo or Konbaung formation, a 1000-strong infantry regiment was supported by 100 horses and 10 war elephants.See formulaic reporting throughout Hmannan Yazawin, Alaungpaya Ayedawbon, and Burney 1840: 171–181 on Sino-Burmese War (1765–1769)
Elephantry The main use of war elephants was to charge the enemy, trampling them and breaking their ranks. Although the elephantry units made up only about one percent of the overall strength, they were a major component of Burmese war strategy throughout the imperial era. The army on the march would bring expert catchers of wild elephants.
During the 19th century elephants were still used to carry armed men and artillery; one elephant could carry a battery of eight pieces
In this period elephants were fitted Howdahs and covered in armor; both made of an iron frame covered with two layers of buffalo hide. Each Howdah carried four gunmen; the gunmen climbed through a rope ladder which was hung on a hook afterwards. Two long spears were hung on the side of the Howdah to be used in melee
Cavalry
While not as pronounced as in Europe and other similar cultures, mounted warriors hold an elite position in Burmese society, "because horses and elephants are worthy of kings; they are excellent things, of power."
The Myinsi (မြင်းစီး lit. Horse rider or Cavalier) served as a knightly class of sorts being the only class of people allowed mobility throughout the kingdom without permission and ranking only below the noble-ministers. The highest military rank is termed myinhmu mintha (literally cavalry prince) or perhaps better translates as knight commander in English.