A Study of Burmese History and Language within the Southwestern Silk Road Regional Sphere

Abstract

This thesis is about interstate cultural interactions along the Southwestern Silk Road regional sphere. My exploration incorporates two sections from the perspective of history and linguistics. Chapter 1 examines the historical sources regarding music performances sent from the Pyu kingdom in modern-day Myanmar to the Chinese Tang court around the end of the 8th century and the beginning of the 9th century. I argue that the religious interactions of this region along the Southwestern Silk Road are overshadowed by the political situation on the border between Tang China, Nanzhao and a kingdom in Burma. Chapter 2 investigates the selection between causative and non-causative verbs together with the suffixes within the context of The Glass Palace Chronicle. I consider the influence of Pali language so that we can see the selection of causative and non-causative verbs in Sino-Tibetan language interacts with an Indo-European language through the religious influence.