Other neighbouring residents of Kachin State include the Shans (Thai/Lao related), the Lisus, the Rawangs, the Nagas, and the Burmans, the latter forming the largest ethnic group in Burma, also called Bamar.
The Karen constitute the third biggest ethnic population in Burma, after the Bamars and Shans.
Up until the 12th century AD, it was the lingua franca of the Irrawaddy valley—not only in the Mon kingdoms of the lower Irrawaddy valley but also of upriver Burman kingdom of Pagan (Bagan).
Nong Bua Lam Phu is famous as the spot where in the sixteenth century Naresuan, the King-Liberator of Siam, came to learn the outcome of a war between the Lao and Burmese in the area of Vientiane.
Led by Burmanized Shan kings, the kingdom occasionally clashed with the cross-river rival Pinya Kingdom for the control of central Burma but was largely kept on the defensive throughout its existence by Shan raids from the north.
Soon after their return to the island they established a udakhupkhepa sima (a flotilla of boats moved together to form a platform on the water) on the Maduganga river, Balapitiya and, under the most senior Burmese monk who accompanied them, held an upasampada ceremony on Vesak Full Moon Day.
The group was established in 1930 in Rangoon, after Indian dock workers and their families were murdered by Burman dock workers who believed that the Indians had taken jobs that rightfully belonged to them.