Rakhine

The Rakhine, or Arakanese, are a Theravada Buddhist Tibeto-Burman people of the coastal plain west of the Arakan Mountains, whose language descends from Old Burmese but whose history faces Indian Ocean trade rather than the Irrawaddy valley. Their chronicles record ancient Arakanese kingdoms; in 1337 King Min Hti ruled the Launggyet dynasty.

Ava occupied northern Arakan from 1406, and exiled Min Saw Mon returned in 1429 with the Bengal sultan's troops to found Mrauk U, a Bengali vassal until 1437. Mrauk U became the greatest Arakanese kingdom: Min Bin, builder of the Shitthaung temple, repelled Toungoo invasion in 1545 to 1547 and made Chittagong tributary around 1542, and Min Razagyi joined Portuguese freebooters to sack Pegu in 1599.

Ruling mixed Buddhist and Muslim populations, its kings used Muslim-style titles and fleets of Portuguese and Afghan sailors until the Mughals retook Chittagong in 1666. In 1785 Konbaung king Bodawpaya overran Mrauk U and annexed Arakan to Burma; tens of thousands of refugees fled to Chittagong by the end of the century.