Portal:Myanmar

ကြိုဆိုပါတယ်။ / Welcome to the Myanmar Portal

Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and also rendered Burma (the official English form until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has a population of about 55 million. It is bordered by India to its west, Bangladesh to its southwest, China to its northeast, Laos and Thailand to its east and southeast, and the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to its south and southwest. The country's capital city is Naypyidaw, and its largest city is Yangon (formerly Rangoon).

Myanmar is a member of the East Asia Summit, Non-Aligned Movement, ASEAN, and BIMSTEC, but it is not a member of the Commonwealth of Nations despite once being part of the British Empire. Myanmar is a Dialogue Partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The country is very rich in natural resources, such as jade, gems, oil, natural gas, teak and other minerals, as well as also endowed with renewable energy, having the highest solar power potential compared to other countries of the Great Mekong Subregion. However, Myanmar has long suffered from instability, factional violence, corruption, poor infrastructure, as well as a long history of colonial exploitation with little regard to human development. In 2013, its GDP (nominal) stood at US$56.7 billion and its GDP (PPP) at US$221.5 billion. The income gap in Myanmar is among the widest in the world, as a large proportion of the economy is controlled by cronies of the military junta. Myanmar is one of the least developed countries; as of 2020, according to the Human Development Index, it ranks 147 out of 189 countries in terms of human development, the lowest in Southeast Asia. Since 2021, more than 600,000 people were displaced across Myanmar due to the surge in violence post-coup, with more than 3 million people in dire need of humanitarian assistance. (Full article...)

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Image 1

Satellite image of the cyclone offshore Myanmar

The 2004 Myanmar cyclone was considered the worst to strike the country since 1968. The second tropical cyclone of the 2004 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, it formed as a depression on May 16 in the central Bay of Bengal. With low wind shear and a surge in the monsoon trough, the storm intensified while meandering over open waters. The storm eventually began a steady northeastward motion due to a ridge to the north over India. While approaching land, an eye developed in the center of the storm, indicative of a strong cyclone. On May 19, the cyclone made landfall along northwestern Myanmar near Sittwe, with maximum sustained winds estimated at 165 km/h (105 mph) by the India Meteorological Department. The storm rapidly weakened over land, although its remnants spread rainfall into northern Thailand and Yunnan province in China.

Winds from the cyclone reached 157 km/h (98 mph) in Myanmar, occurring in conjunction with heavy rainfall and a high storm surge. Despite the storm's ferocity, the government did not report about the cyclone for ten days, as they usually under-report on landfalling storms. The cyclone caused heavy damage throughout Rakhine State, destroying or heavily damaging 4,035 homes and leaving 25,000 people homeless. There was widespread crop damage, resulting in food shortages, and damaged roads disrupted subsequent relief efforts. Damage in Myanmar totaled over K621 million kyat ($99.2 million USD), making it the worst storm in the country since 1968, and there were 236 deaths, with an unofficial death toll as high as 1,000. Although damage was heaviest in Myanmar, the cyclone's effects also spread into neighboring Bangladesh, where strong winds knocked over trees and capsized two ships. (Full article...)
Image 2
Hkakaborazi National Park is a national park in northern Myanmar with an area of 1,472 sq mi (3,810 km²). It was established in 1998.
It surrounds Hkakabo Razi, the highest mountain in the country.

It ranges in elevation from 2,950 to 18,730 ft (900 to 5,710 m) comprising evergreen forest and mixed deciduous forests in Nogmung Township, Kachin State. It is managed by the Nature and Wildlife Conservation Division.
It is contiguous with Bumhpa Bum Wildlife Sanctuary and Hukaung Valley Wildlife Sanctuary. These protected areas together with Hponkanrazi Wildlife Sanctuary comprise the largest continuous expanse of natural forest called the Northern Forest Complex stretching over an area of 11,624 sq mi (30,110 km²). Its objective is to conserve the biodiversity of the Ayeyarwady and Chindwin river basins. (Full article...)
Image 3
On 2 July 2020, a major landslide at the Wai Khar jade mining site in the Hpakant area of Kachin State, Myanmar, killed between 175 and 200 miners in the country's deadliest-ever mining incident. At 06:30 local time (MMT) heavy rains triggered the collapse of a heap of mining waste, which came tumbling down into a lake. This generated a 6.1-meter (20 ft) wave of mud and water that buried those working at the Wai Khar mine. The miners killed or injured by the landslide were independent "jade pickers", who scavenge tailings from larger operators and who live in ramshackle quarters at the base of large mounds of rubble.

Myanmar's jade industry supplies 70% to 90% of the world jade supply. The industry had become known for its fatal accidents in the preceding years, with the previous deadliest accident in 2015 killing 116 people. While the government responded with promises of reforms in the jade mining industry, activists claim that little has been done in practice since then. (Full article...)
Image 4

The Provisional Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (Burmese: ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် အာဏာသိမ်းခေါင်းဆောင်), is the provisional government of Myanmar under the current military junta, the State Administration Council. On 1 August 2021, it replaced the Management Committee of the State Administration Council, which had been in place since 19 February 2021, following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état. Some ministers were appointed by Min Aung Hlaing immediately following the coup on 1 February, in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services exercising emergency powers.

Due to the state of emergency, the cabinet is led by Prime Minister Min Aung Hlaing rather than Acting President Myint Swe, despite the president being the constitutional head of government. (Full article...)
Image 5

A plate of mont kywe the, a rice flour cake sweetened with jaggery and garnished with grated coconut

In the Burmese language, the term mont (Burmese: မုန့်; pronounced [mo̰ʊɴ]) translates to "snack", and refers to a wide variety of prepared foods, ranging from sweet desserts to savory food items that may be cooked by steaming, baking, frying, deep-frying, or boiling. Foods made from wheat or rice flour are generally called mont, but the term may also refer to certain varieties of noodle dishes, such as mohinga. Burmese mont are typically eaten with tea during breakfast or afternoon tea time.

Each variety of mont is designated by a descriptive word or phrase that precedes or follows the word mont, such as htoe mont (lit. 'snack that is prodded') or mont lone yay baw (lit. 'floating snack balls'). The term mont has been borrowed into several regional languages, including into Shan as မုၼ်း and into Jingpho as muk. (Full article...)
Image 6
The military history of Myanmar (Burma) spans over a millennium, and is one of the main factors that have shaped the history of the country, and to a certain degree, the history of Southeast Asia. At various times in history, successive Burmese kingdoms were also involved in warfare against their neighbouring states in the surrounding regions of modern Burmese borders—from Bengal, Manipur and Assam in the west, to Yunnan (the southern China) in the northeast, to Laos and Siam in the east and southeast.

The Royal Burmese Army was a major Southeast Asian armed force between the 11th and 13th centuries and between 16th and 19th centuries. It was the premier military force in the 16th century when the Toungoo dynasty built the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia. The centuries-long warfare between Burma and Siam (1547–1855) shaped not only the history of both countries but also that of mainland Southeast Asia. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, highly militaristic Konbaung kings had built the largest empire in mainland Southeast Asia until they encountered the British in present-day northeast India. Prior to the three Anglo-Burmese wars (1824–1885), previous existential threats to the country had come from China in the form of Mongol invasions (1277–1301) and Manchu invasions (1765–1769). (Full article...)
Image 7

British forces launch an amphibious assault on Rangoon in May 1824.

The First Anglo-Burmese War (Burmese: ပထမ အင်္ဂလိပ်-မြန်မာ စစ်; [pətʰəma̰ ɪ́ɰ̃ɡəleiʔ-mjəmà sɪʔ]; 5 March 1824 – 24 February 1826), also known as the First Burma War in English language accounts and First English Invasion War (Burmese: ပထမ အင်္ဂလိပ် ကျူးကျော် စစ်) in Burmese language accounts, was the first of three wars fought between the British and Burmese empires in the 19th century. The war, which began primarily over the control of what is now Northeastern India, ended in a decisive British victory, giving the British total control of Assam, Manipur, Cachar and Jaintia as well as Arakan Province and Tenasserim. The Burmese submitted to a British demand to pay an indemnity of one million pounds sterling, and signed a commercial treaty.

The war was one of the most expensive in British Indian history. Fifteen thousand European and Indian soldiers died, together with an unknown number of Burmese military and civilian casualties. The high cost of the campaign to the British, 5–13 million pounds sterling (£500 million – £1.38 billion as of 2023) contributed to a severe economic crisis in British India which cost the East India Company its remaining privileges. (Full article...)
Image 8

Temples and pagodas in Bagan

Bagan (Burmese: ပုဂံ; MLCTS: pu.gam, IPA: [bəɡàɰ̃]; formerly Pagan) is an ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Pagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that would later constitute Myanmar. During the kingdom's height between the 11th and 13th centuries, more than 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains alone, of which the remains of over 2200 temples and pagodas survive.

The Bagan Archaeological Zone is a main attraction for the country's nascent tourism industry. (Full article...)
Image 9

The welcome board in Yenangyaung

Yenangyaung (Burmese: ရေနံချောင်း; literally "stream of oil") is a city in the Magway Region of central Myanmar, located on the Irrawaddy River and 363 miles from Yangon. Until 1974, it remained the capital city of both Minbu Division (now Magway Division) and Yenangyaung District. The population of Yenanchaung was 45,120 according to the 2014 census, but it reached 49,938 in September 2020. This makes it the fourth-largest city in the Magway Region, after Pakokku, Magway and Aunglan. General Aung San received his secondary education in this city. (Full article...)
Image 10
Wing of the dragonfly Burmalindenia in a cabochon of Burmese amber, showing typical red colouration of the amber. Scale bar = 5mm

Burmese amber, also known as Burmite or Kachin amber, is amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. The amber is dated to around 100 million years ago, during the latest Albian to earliest Cenomanian ages of the mid-Cretaceous period. The amber is of significant palaeontological interest due to the diversity of flora and fauna contained as inclusions, particularly arthropods including insects and arachnids but also birds, lizards, snakes, frogs and fragmentary dinosaur remains. The amber has been known and commercially exploited since the first century AD, and has been known to science since the mid-nineteenth century. Research on the deposit has attracted controversy due to the potential role of the amber trade in funding internal conflict in Myanmar and hazardous working conditions in the mines where it is collected. (Full article...)

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Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

... that the DI MA-1 Mk. III rifle was made in Myanmar as a reverse-engineered copy of the Chinese QBZ-97?
... that the Burmese Buddhist monk Sagyo Thu-Myat successfully lobbied for the recalibration of the Burmese calendar?
... that clashes between the Myanmar military and local armed groups broke out in Lay Kay Kaw six years after it was established as a "town of peace" between the parties?
... that while defending Zaw Myint Maung following his arrest by the Myanmar junta, lawyer Ywet Nu Aung was herself arrested and charged?
... that former Burmese actress Honey Nway Oo turned rebel and took up arms against the military junta following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état?
... that Rolling Stone named Mission of Burma's "Academy Fight Song" as one of the 100 greatest debut singles of all time?
... that one academic described the introduction of femboys to Myanmar as a tactic to achieve an "ideological revolution"?
... that Rangoon kept its own time for more than two decades after Burma Standard Time first came into effect?

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The following are images from various Myanmar-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Mountains near Pindaya on the Shan Plateau (from Geography of Myanmar)
Image 2Recorder's Court on Sule Pagoda Road, with the Sule Pagoda at the far end, Rangoon, 1868. Photographer: J. Jackson. (from History of Myanmar)
Image 3An ear-piercing ceremony at Mahamuni Buddha in Mandalay (from Culture of Myanmar)
Image 4The shores of Irrawaddy River at Nyaung-U, Bagan (from Geography of Myanmar)
Image 5Jade Mine in Hpakant (from Geography of Myanmar)
Image 6British soldiers dismantling cannons belonging to King Thibaw's forces, Third Anglo-Burmese War, Ava, 27 November 1885. Photographer: Hooper, Willoughby Wallace (1837–1912). (from History of Myanmar)
Image 7Myinhkin thabin - equestrian sport (from Culture of Myanmar)
Image 8Portuguese ruler and soldiers mounting an Elephant. Philips, Jan Caspar (draughtsman and engraver) (from History of Myanmar)
Image 9Aung San Suu Kyi addresses crowds at the NLD headquarters shortly after her release. (from History of Myanmar)
Image 10Two female musicians play the saung at a performance in Mandalay. (from Culture of Myanmar)
Image 11A wide range of Burmese lacquerware from Bagan (from Culture of Myanmar)
Image 12View of Hpa-An from Mount Zwegabin in Southeastern Hills (from Geography of Myanmar)
Image 13British soldiers remove their shoes at the entrance of Shwedagon Pagoda. To the left, a sign reads "Foot wearing is strictly prohibited" in Burmese, English, Tamil, and Urdu. (from Culture of Myanmar)
Image 14Political Map of Burma (Myanmar) c. 1450 CE. (from History of Myanmar)
Image 15A wedding procession, with the groom and bride dressed in traditional Burmese wedding clothes, reminiscent of royal attire (from Culture of Myanmar)
Image 16Myanmar (Burma) map of Köppen climate classification (from Geography of Myanmar)
Image 17The restored Taungoo or Nyaungyan dynasty c. 1650 CE. (from History of Myanmar)
Image 18Pagan Kingdom during Narapatisithu's reign. Burmese chronicles also claim Kengtung and Chiang Mai. Core areas shown in darker yellow. Peripheral areas in light yellow. Pagan incorporated key ports of Lower Burma into its core administration by the 13th century. (from History of Myanmar)
Image 19Vegetable stall on the roadside at the Madras Lancer Lines, Mandalay, January 1886. Photographer: Hooper, Willoughby Wallace (1837–1912). (from History of Myanmar)
Image 20The paddle steamer Ramapoora (right) of the British India Steam Navigation Company on the Rangoon river having just arrived from Moulmein. 1895. Photographers: Watts and Skeen (from History of Myanmar)
Image 21Sculpture of Myanmar mythical lion (from Culture of Myanmar)
Image 22Protesters in Yangon with a banner that reads non-violence: national movement in Burmese, in the background is Shwedagon Pagoda. (from History of Myanmar)
Image 23Grandfather Island, Dawei (from Geography of Myanmar)
Image 24A bull fight, 19th-century watercolour (from Culture of Myanmar)
Image 25Aerial view of a burned Rohingya village in Rakhine state, September 2017 (from History of Myanmar)
Image 2619th-century funeral cart and spire, which would form part of the procession from the home to the place of cremation (from Culture of Myanmar)
Image 27Mount Popa, a dormant volcano in the Central Lowlands (from Geography of Myanmar)
Image 28Sculpture of Thagyamin nat (from Culture of Myanmar)
Image 29Former US President Barack Obama poses barefoot on the grounds of Shwedagon Pagoda, one of Myanmar's major Buddhist pilgrimage sites. (from Culture of Myanmar)
Image 30Protesters in Yangon carrying signs reading "Free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi" on 8 February 2021. (from History of Myanmar)
Image 31A theatrical performance of the Mon dance (from Culture of Myanmar)
Image 32Boxing match, 19th-century watercolour (from Culture of Myanmar)
Image 33Temples at Mrauk U, was the capital of the Mrauk U Kingdom, which ruled over what is now Rakhine State. (from History of Myanmar)
Image 34Saint Mary's Cathedral in Downtown Yangon is the largest Roman Catholic cathedral in Burma. (from Culture of Myanmar)
Image 35Hlei pyaingbwè - a Burmese regatta (from Culture of Myanmar)
Image 36Deforestation in Myanmar during the British colonial era. (from Geography of Myanmar)
$Image 37A large fracture on the Mingun Pahtodawgyi caused by the 1839 Ava earthquake. (from Geography of Myanmar)$

Image 37A large fracture on the Mingun Pahtodawgyi caused by the 1839 Ava earthquake. (from Geography of Myanmar)
Image 38British soldiers on patrol in the ruins of the Burmese town of Bahe during the advance on Mandalay, January 1945. (from History of Myanmar)
Image 39Salween river at Mae Sam Laep on the Thai-Myanmar border (from Geography of Myanmar)
Image 40A group of Buddhist worshipers at Shwedagon Pagoda, an important religious site for Burmese Buddhists (from Culture of Myanmar)