| Thaton သထုံ |
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Thaton
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Burma |
| Division | Mon State |
| District | Thaton District |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | |
| Population (2007) | |
| • Total | 130,763 |
| • Religions | Theravada Buddhism |
| Time zone | MST (UTC+6.30) |
| Area code(s) | 57[1] |
Thaton (Burmese: သထုံမြို့; MLCTS: sa. htum mrui.; Mon: သဓီု, [kəthɜ̀m]) is a town in Mon State, in southern Myanmar on the Tenasserim plains. Thaton lies along the National Highway 8 and is also connected by the National Road 85.
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Thaton is the Burmese name of Sadhuim in Mon, which in turn is from Sudhammapura (သုဓမ္မပူရ) in Pali, after Sudharma, the moot hall of the gods.[2]
Thaton was the capital of the Thaton Kingdom, which ruled present day Lower Burma between the 9th and 11th centuries. Like the Burmans and the Thais, some modern Mons have tried to identify their ethnicity and, specifically this kingdom at Thaton, with the semi-historical kingdom of Suwarnabhumi ("The Golden Land"); today, this claim is contested by many different ethnicities in Southeast Asia, and contradicted by scholars. Historical scholarship indicates that the early usage of the term (as found in the edicts of Ashoka of India, who sent Buddhist missionaries there in the 3rd century BC) indicated a location in southern India, and not in Southeast Asia.
In the kingdom of Dvaravati, Thaton was an important seaport on the Gulf of Martaban, for trade with India and Sri Lanka. Shin Arahan, also called Dhammadassi, a monk born in Thaton and raised and educated in Nakhon Pathom, an old capital of the Mon kingdom of Dvaravadi, now in Thailand, took Theravada Buddhism north to the Burmese kingdom of Bagan. In 1057, King Anawrahta of Bagan conquered Thaton.
Silting has resulted in the coastline moving 16 km away from Thaton, which is now a sleepy town on the rail line from Bago to Mottama.
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