Aree and Sanga Selakoon are sisters from Ratchaburi province in Thailand. They grew up in Thailand, and Sanga still lives there, in her hometown of Ban Pong, where she gardens the land she was born on and takes care of her nine dogs. Aree lives in Sweden, but when she visits her sister, they don’t speak Thai. They speak Mon – a language that predates both Thai and Burmese by centuries in this part of the world.

The Mon were the dominant civilization in Lower Burma until the Bamar began conquering the area, starting in 1057 under King Anawrahta of Bagan. The Mon made major comebacks over the years and left their mark on Myanmar’s history, especially during the time of the Hanthawaddy Kingdom (1287-1539), which gave us Queen Shin Sawbu and King Dhammazedi – the namesakes of two of Yangon’s foodiest streets. The Burmese alphabet is also said to have been appropriated from Old Mon script.

Ultimately, though, the Mon homeland was colonized by the British while the Bamar were in control of it, so when the British left, they gave it back to the Bamar, leaving millions of Mon under foreign dominion, where they remain.

Centuries of Bamar incursions also forced thousands of Mon refugees into what is now Thailand. There are about 100,000 Mon people in Thailand today. Among them are the Thai royal family, who are descended from a Mon noble. The community also includes Aree and Sanga.

The sisters recently visited Kyaiktiyo Pagoda, also known as the Golden Rock, which is perched threateningly at the top of a mountain in Myanmar’s Mon State and is said to be held in place by a hair from the Buddha.

They received an unexpectedly warm welcome in the land of their ancestors.

How did your family end up in Thailand?

Aree: Our great-grandfather was a general who lost a war against the Burmese and had to flee to Thailand. We don’t know what year that was, but we still have his sword and his uniform at home in Ban Pong.

Is this your first time in Myanmar?

Aree: My first time.

Sanga: I came with a tour group in 2009. It was way less developed than it is today. The road to the pagoda was dirt, and the trucks to the top had no roofs. The trucks stopped further down the mountain than they do now, and porters would carry all the pilgrims to the pagoda on bamboo stretchers.

(Today, the road is paved and goes almost all the way to the pagoda complex. Porters still carry the elderly the remainder of the way.)

Did you expect to hear people speaking Mon before you came?

Aree: We thought we would hear some Mon, but we didn’t think we would understand it. We thought, maybe Mon is spoken differently in Thailand and Myanmar.

And was that the case? Did you understand Myanmar Mon?

Sanga: We were speaking Mon to each other as we walked into a restaurant at the bottom of the mountain. A man heard us, and he started talking to us. He said he lived in Myanmar. We could understand most of what he said, but there were some words we didn’t recognize. That’s probably because they were Burmese words. When we speak Mon, we use a lot of Thai words to fill in the gaps. We understood enough to ask him what we should order for lunch.

Aree: All the people selling snacks around the pagoda were also speaking Mon, and we could understand them.

Were there any other Mon things you recognized?

Aree: Lots of the vendors were selling the Mon version of rod chong – a sweet mixture of noodles and coconut milk. The Thai version uses green noodles, but the Mon version is white. The Mon version also mixes in some jaggery juice. It tasted like the rod chong we grew up with.

Do Mon people in Thailand know about the Golden Rock?

Sanga: They all know about it, but not everyone can go. Our father always wanted to go, but he died before he got the chance. Our uncle went several times. He traveled by oxcart. It took him a month to get there and a month to get back.

Do you consider Mon State your homeland?

Aree: It’s where our family originates, but our family has been in Ban Pong for a long time. That’s our home.

Are there any other places in Mon State you’d like to visit?

Sanga: We heard there’s another nice pagoda nearby.