Pyu City-States

The Pyu city-states (Burmese: ပျူ မြို့ပြ နိုင်ငံများ [pjù mjo̼.pjɑ̼ nàɪɴŋàɴ mjá]) were a group of city-states that existed from about the 2nd century BCE to the mid-11th century in present-day Upper Myanmar. These city-states were founded as part of the migration of the Pyu people from Tibet to Mainland Southeast Asia by the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu settlers, the earliest inhabitants of Burma of whom records are extant. The thousand-year period, often referred to as the Pyu millennium, linked the Bronze Age to the beginning of the classical states period when the Pagan Kingdom emerged in the late 9th century. The major Pyu city-states were all located in the three main irrigated regions of Upper Burma: the Mu River Valley, the Kyaukse.