FEATURE
Forgotten, but Not Gone Half a millennium after the Portuguese first set foot in Myanmar, their legacy lives on in a remote corner of the country’s north By YAN PAI / THE MU RIVER VALLEY, Sagaing Region ALL PHOTOS: YAN PAI / THE IRRAWADDY
U Ba Htay, 89, is from the village of Monhla, home to around 170 Bayingyi households.
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yanmar has a long and complicated history, full of footnotes that could take up whole chapters. One episode that still stands out, even though precious little remains to remind us of it today, came in the early 17th century, when Portuguese adventurers held the fate of kingdoms in their hands. The Portuguese first started arriving on Myanmar’s shores some 500 years ago, but it was not until 1599, when the mercenary Filipe de Brito e Nicote wrested control of Thanlyin (Syriam)
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TheIrrawaddy
away from the powerful Taungoo dynasty, that they gained a foothold in the country. De Brito (known in Myanmar as Nga Zinga) was subsequently named governor of this strategically important port on the Bago River opposite Yangon (then called Dagon) by the Rakhine king Min Razagyi, in whose service he had captured it. But his true loyalties soon revealed themselves when, in 1603, he claimed Thanlyin for Portugal. Once in power, de Brito quickly earned a permanent place in Myanmar’s annals of infamy by plundering April 2014