Thu 01 Apr 2004,
Among the present various inhabitants of Burma, the Mon are the oldest. They arrived into Burma probably between 2500 and 1500 BC. The Mon were close cousin of Khmers, with whom they originally came down from Mongolia. Since then, they settled in some parts of Thailand, and along Tenasserim and on the Irrawaddy delta of Burma. The first strong Mon kingdom in Burma was well-known as Suwarnabhumi, The Golden Land and it had a port capital Thaton (it is still situated in Mon State as a small town), which was not so far from the isthmian portage route; and through this window to the see they saw India, in its full glory, united and peaceful under emperor Asoka and a flourishing center of Theravada Buddhism. Asoka sent a mission of Buddhist monks to Suwarnabhumi and introduced Theravada Buddhisim, which improved new civilization to the Mon. The ancient monastic settlement of Kalasa, situated a few miles from Thaton and claimed by Mon and Burman chronicles to have been founded by Asoka?s missionaries, was mentioned in early Ceylonese records as being represented at a great religious synod held in Cylon (Siri Lanka) in the 2nd Century BC.