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The Bamar people (Burmese language: ဗမာလူမျိုး, ba. ma lu myui: ) (formerly known as Burmese people or Burmans) are a Sino-Tibetan-speaking ethnic group native to Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). With an estimated population of around 35 million people, they are the largest ethnic group in Myanmar, accounting for 68.78% of the country's total population. The geographic homeland of the Bamar is the Irrawaddy River. The Bamar speak the Burmese language which serves as the national language and lingua franca of Myanmar.
In the English language, the Bamar are known by a number of exonyms, including Burmans and Burmese, both of which were interchangeably used by the British. In June 1989, in an attempt to indigenise both the country's place names and ethnonyms, the military government changed the official English names of the country (from Burma to Myanmar), the language (from Burmese to Myanmar), and the country's majority ethnic group (from Burmans to Bamar).
By the 1200s, Bamar settlements were found as far south as Mergui (Myeik) and Tenasserim (Taninthayi), whose inhabitants continue to speak archaic Burmese dialects. Beginning in the 900s, Burmese speakers began migrating westward, crossing the Arakan Mountains and settling in what is now Rakhine State. By the 1100s, they had consolidated control of the region, becoming a tributary state of the Pagan Empire until the 13th century. Over time, these Bamar migrants formed a distinct cultural identity, becoming the Rakhine people (also known as the Arakanese).
Y-DNA (Paternal Lineages)
Y-DNA traces paternal ancestry and is inherited through the male line.The Bamar are linguistically classified as Tibeto-Burman, part of the Sino-Tibetan language family.Their Y-DNA (especially haplogroup O2 and O1b) reflects historical migration from China and Tibet, possibly via the Irrawaddy River basin.
In the pre-colonial era, ethnic identity was fluid and dynamic, marked by patron-client relationships, religion, and regional origins. Consequently, many non-Bamar assimilated and adopted a Bamar identity and norms for sociopolitical purposes. Between the 1500s and 1800s, the notion of Bamar identity expanded significantly, driven by intermarriage with other communities and voluntary changes in self-identification, especially in Mon and Shan-speaking regions. Bamar identity was also more inclusive in the precolonial era, especially during 1700s when Konbaung dynasty embarked on major territorial expansion campaigns, to Manipur Kingdom, Ahom kingdom, Mrauk U, and Pegu. These campaigns paralleled those in other Southeast Asian kingdoms, such as Vietnam's southward expansion (Nam tiến), which wrested control of the Mekong Delta from the Champa during the same period.
During the early 1900s, a narrower strain of Bamar nationalism developed in response to British colonial rule, which failed to address Bamar grievances and actively marginalised the Bamar from entering public occupations such as educational and military ones. One of the primary Bamar grievances with British colonial rule was the widespread immigration of non-Bamar people from other parts of British India, which was perceived as transforming the Bamar people into a minority on their own homeland. In 1925, all Bamar military personnel serving in the British Indian Army were discharged, and the colonial authorities adopted an exclusionary policy which stipulated that only the Chin, Kachin and Karen minorities would be targeted for military recruitment. By 1930, leading Burmese nationalist group the Thakins had emerged, from which independence leaders like U Nu and Aung San would launch their political careers. For most of its colonial history, Burma was administered as a province of British India. It was not until 1937 that Burma was formally separated and became directly administered by the The Crown, after a long struggle for direct colonial representation.
In the 1500s, with the expansion of the Toungoo Empire, the Bamar began populating the lower stretches of the Irrawaddy River valley, including Taungoo and Pyay (now Pyay), helping to disseminate the Burmese language and Bamar social customs. This influx of migration to historically Mon-speaking regions coincided with the rise of King Tabinshwehti. This pattern of migration intensified during the Konbaung dynasty, particularly among men specialised in wet rice cultivation, as women and children were generally prohibited from emigrating. Following the British annexation of Lower Burma in 1852, millions of Bamar from the Anya region resettled in the sparsely populated Irrawaddy Delta between 1858 and 1941. The Bamar were drawn to this 'rice frontier' by the British colonial authorities, who were eager to scale rice cultivation in the colony, and attract skilled Bamar farmers. By the 1890s, the British had established another centre of power and political economy in the Irrawaddy delta.
Pali, the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism, is the primary source of Burmese loanwords. British colonisation also introduced numerous English loanwords to the Burmese lexicon. As a lingua franca, Burmese has been the source and intermediary of loanwords to other Lolo-Burmese languages and major regional languages, including Shan, Kachin, and Mon. The Burmese language has a longstanding literary tradition and tradition of widespread literacy. Burmese is the fifth Sino-Tibetan language to develop a writing system, after Chinese, Tibetan script, Pyu, and Tangut script. The oldest surviving written Burmese document is the Myazedi inscription, which is dated to 1113. The Burmese script is an Abugida, and modern Burmese orthography retains features of Old Burmese spellings. The Shan, Ahom, Khamti, Karen, and Palaung scripts are descendants of the Burmese script.
Standard Burmese is based on the language spoken in the urban centres of Yangon and Mandalay, although more distinct Burmese dialects, including Yaw dialect, Tavoyan dialects (Tavoyan), Myeik dialect, Palaw, Intha-Danu, Arakanese (Rakhine), and Taungyo, emerge in more peripheral and remote areas of the country. These dialects differ from Standard Burmese in pronunciation and lexical choice, not grammar. For instance, Arakanese retains the sound, which had merged into the sound in standard Burmese between the 1700s and 1800s (although the former sound is still represented in modern Burmese orthography), while the Dawei and Intha dialects retain a medial that had disappeared in standard Burmese orthography by the 1100s. The pronunciation distinction is reflected in the word for 'ground,' which is pronounced in standard Burmese, in Arakanese (both spelt မြေ), and in Dawei (spelt မ္လေ).
A pivotal Bamar societal value is the concept of anade, which is manifested by very strong inhibitions (e.g., hesitation, reluctance, restraint, or avoidance) against asserting oneself in human relations based on the fear that it will offend someone or cause someone to lose face, or become embarrassed, or be of inconvenience. Charity and almsgiving are also central to Bamar society, best exemplified by Myanmar's consistent presence among the world's most generous countries according to the World Giving Index, since rankings were first introduced in 2013.
The Bamar customarily recognise Twelve Auspicious Rites, which are a series of rites of passage. Among these rites, the naming of the child, first feeding, ear-boring for girls, Buddhist ordination ( shinbyu) for boys, and wedding rites are the most widely practiced today.
The Bamar traditionally drink green tea, and also eat pickled tea leaves, called lahpet, which plays an important role in ritual culture. Burmese cuisine is also known for its variety of mont, a profuse variety of sweet desserts and savory snacks, including Burmese fritters. The best-known dish of Bamar origin is mohinga, rice noodles in a fish broth. It is available in most parts of the region, also considered as the national dish of Myanmar. Burmese cuisine has been significantly enriched by contact and trade with neighboring kingdoms and countries well into modern times. The Columbian exchange in the 15th and 16th centuries introduced key ingredients into the Burmese culinary repertoire, including , , , and . While record-keeping of pre-colonial culinary traditions is scant, food was and remains deeply intertwined with Bamar religious life, exemplified in the giving of food alms (dāna), and communal feasts called satuditha and ahlu pwe (အလှူပွဲ).
Bamar people of both sexes and all ages also apply thanaka, a paste ground from the fragrant wood of select tree species, on their skin, especially on their faces. In modern times, the practice is now largely confined to women, children, and young, unmarried men. The use of thanakha is not unique to by the Bamar; many other Burmese ethnic groups also utilize this cosmetic. Western makeup and cosmetics have long enjoyed a popularity in urban areas.
A common Bamar naming scheme uses a child's day of birth to assign the first letter of their name, reflecting the importance of one's day of birth in Burmese zodiac. The traditional Burmese calendar includes Rahu, which is Wednesday afternoon.
Theravada Buddhism is closely intertwined with Bamar identity, having been the predominant faith among Burmese speakers since the 11th century, during the Pagan Kingdom. Modern-day Bamar Buddhism is typified by the observance of basic five precepts and the practice of dāna (charity), sīla (Buddhist ethics) and bhavana (meditation). Village life is centred at Buddhist monasteries called kyaung, which serve as community centres and address the community's spiritual needs. Buddhist Sabbath days called Uposatha, which follow the moon's phases (i.e., new, waxing, full, waning), are observed by more devout Buddhists. Vestiges of Mahayana Buddhism remain popular among the Bamar, including the veneration of Shin Upagutta, Shin Thiwali, and Lawkanat (the Burmese name for Avalokiteśvara), while the influence of Hinduism can be in the widespread veneration of Hindu deities like Thuyathadi (the Burmese name for Saraswati) and practice of yadaya rituals. Smaller communities practice more esoteric forms of Buddhism, including weizza practices. Bamar also profess a belief in guardian nats, particularly the veneration of Mahagiri, the household guardian nat. Bamar households traditionally maintain a shrine, which holds a long-stemmed coconut called on-daw (အုန်းတော်), symbolic of Mahagiri. The shrine is traditionally placed at the home's main southwest pillar (called yotaing or ရိုးတိုင်). The expression of Burmese folk religion is very localised; the Bamar in Upper Myanmar and urban areas tend to propitiate the Thirty-Seven Min, a pantheon of nats who are intimately linked to the pre-colonial royal court. Meanwhile, the Bamar in Lower Myanmar tend to propitiate other local or guardian nats like Bago Medaw and U Shin Gyi. called nat ein (နတ်အိမ်) or nat sin (နတ်စင်) are commonly found in Bamar areas. A minority of Bamar practice other religions, including Islam and Christianity. Among them, Bamar Muslims (previously known as Zerbadees or Pati), are the descendants of interracial marriages between Indian Muslims and Bamar Buddhists, who self-identify as Bamar.
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