The Tribute Bearers: Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos

Abstract

The countries in the northern part of South-East Asia are different to those of the south by virtue of a near common frontier with China. Modern Burma, now renamed Myanmar, directly abuts the Peoples Republic’s Yunnan province, as does Laos; Vietnam is immediately south of Guangxi. Thailand’s northern frontier is with Burma and Laos, however China is but a hundred or so miles away. Cambodia is immediately to the south and borders on Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. All these countries have from a slight to moderate degree been under Chinese influence for up to 2,000 years, their rulers sometimes sent tribute to the Emperor of China and acknowledged Chinese superiority. Travellers, merchants, pilgrims, priests, peasants, at times soldiers, have crossed over, mostly from north to south, at varying times. For reasons of difficult terrain and poor communications there has never been any large-scale overland migration; a trickle rather than a flood. Later migration was largely by sea, from China’s eastern seaboard down the Vietnam coast, or further south. As elsewhere in the region, the very first Chinese settlers mostly arrived by junk during the Han dynasty, forming small coastal settlements, some to travel on further south.