Khmu People - Origin of The Khmu

Origin of The Khmu

The Khmuic people were among the first populations to settle in Laos. They were by and large absorbed by the later arriving Mon–Khmer and Tai ethnicities, except for small populations that migrated to the mountainous regions of Laos during the Tai migration into the region. The Khmuic are an Austro-Asiatic people, distantly related to the nuclear Mon–Khmer people. They are believed to have inhabited in Indo-China where they have resided for at least 40,000 years ago(around 40,000 BC) or maybe they are the first group of Homo Sapien inhabited in this area. Some 10,000 years ago, they were probably part of a largely homogenous ethnicity now referred to as the Austro-Asiatic peoples with a homeland somewhere within the south borders of the modern-day Peoples Republic of China and central part of Indo-China Peninsula. Khmu is believed to be the ancestor of the ethnic minorities that are grouped into Tai-Kadai language family especially Lao and Thai and the other ethnic minorities which are grouped into Mon-Khmer language family especially Mon, Khmer and Kinh or Viet. Scientifically, the prevalence of Y-DNA Haplogroup O among Austro-Asiatic peoples suggests a common ancestry with the Sino-Tibetan, Austronesian and Hmong–Mien peoples some 30,000 years ago in China. Haplogroup O is a subclade of Y-DNA Haplogroup K which is believed to have originated 40,000 years somewhere between Iran and Central China. In addition to the ethnicities previously mentioned, the progenitor of Haplogroup K was probably the ancestor of nearly all modern Melanesian people, as well as the Mongols and the Native Americans. Haplogroup K, in turn, is a subclade of Y-DNA Haplogroup F, which is believed to have originated in Northern Africa some 45,000 years ago. Haplogroup F is believed to be associated with the second major wave of migration out of the African continent. In addition to the ethnicities previously mentioned, the progenitor of Haplogroup F was probably the ancestor of all Indo-Europeans.

Some historians and ethnologists believe that Mon have immigrated from India during the invasion of Aryans into northern Indian. In Indian history it is stating that Aryans make their first notable appearance in history around 2000-1500 BC as invaders of Northern India(Source: Indian History "Aryan"). So if this understanding is true, the Mon people must have moved to present day of Myanmar at least around 1500 BC. Others believe that Mon people moved to northeastern India from their prehistoric homeland of Southeast Asia or maybe Southern China in the area of where they have ever settled with their neighboring Khmuic people who settled in the whole area of present day southern China to the central part of Indo-China peninsular from the middle paleolithic period. So the arrivals of them at present day Myanmar are the returning to the area nearest to, or exactly their original homeland where they shared and inhabited with Khmu. An information in history of Thailand(Source: Library of Congress) referring that in early history in the 9th century BC, Mon and Khmer established kingdoms that included large area what is now Thailand. According to the early history of the Mons, in the beginning the Mon people settled in the area between the lower Salween and Sittang rivers, and established the kingdom called Suvannabhumi, which is mentioned in the early Indian literature and Chinese records. The Early History of the Mons written by Sudara Suchaxaya referring to the chronicles, the Mons were the people who constructed the Swedagon Pagoda in Rangoon about 2,540 years ago. However, what is obvious is that the Mons introduced Buddhism into Burma for the first time. In the third century B.C. according to the chronicles, Suthammavadi or Thaton, the center of the Mons at the time, had close contacts with India particularly during the time of King Asoka, who sent missionaries called Sona and Uttara to Suwannabhumi. And that is why some ethnic Lao historians, ethnologists and archeologists misunderstand that Khmu and Mon are the same ethnic, the same language and that they migrated from India. Historians, ethnologists and archeologists believed that Mon may have inhabited in the south of China to the central part of Indo-China Penicular with the Khmu from the stone age. And then Mon people were separated into two groups:

One group slowly migrated to the eastern of present day Myanmar and continued to spread to South and Southeast which occupied almost the whole central and Southern part of present day Myanmar and the whole area of present day Thailand and continued spreading to the whole central part of present day Loas(include Vientiane Capital City and 4 provinces: Vientiane, bolikhamxay, Khammuan and Savanakhet provinces). Because of this wide spread of Mons; it leaded to assimilation of Khmu into their society and eventually absorbed by them during the Mesolithic to the Neolithic age; the remnants int the Southern part of the present day Laos were absorbed by Khmer; the rests were later absorbed by Tai especially Thai and Lao after their immigration from southern China into the area of the present day Laos during the 5th-6th centuries AD(a small number of tai people immigrated during this centuries and a large number immigrated during the 7th-9th centuries AD and mostly from Southwest of present day Yunnan province of China which have ever been Nanchao Kindom. The small Khmu remnants moved to the mountains to join other Khmuic groups who still lived there and not yet removed to the plain areas and they become hill tribes together until the present day.

Another group migrated from the Southern part of the present day China to the northern part of present day India. And because of the invasion of Aryan people thru the northern part of India it drove Mon people to migrate to the western part of present day Myanmar around at least 1500 BC.