Portal:Myanmar
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Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and also rendered as 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 and Bangladesh to its northwest, 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 2022, according to the Human Development Index, it ranks 144 out of 193 countries in terms of human development. Since 2021, more than 600,000 people were displaced across Myanmar due to the surge in violence post-coup, with more than three million people in dire need of humanitarian assistance. (Full article...)
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China–Myanmar relations (Chinese: 中缅关系; Burmese: တရုတ်မြန်မာဆက်ဆံရေး) are the international relations between the People's Republic of China and Myanmar. China and Myanmar have active bilateral relations with each other. The relation is often described as a pauk-phaw relationship (Burmese: ပေါက်ဖော်), based a Burmese term for kinsfolk that implicates special asymmetric obligations between the two countries.
Generally, China has maintained positive relationships with both military and elected governments in Myanmar. In recent years, bilateral relations between China and the current Myanmar government (Junta) have faced difficulties due to alleged Chinese backing of rebels in Myanmar's territories. In recent years, the relations between China and Myanmar have faced some problems due to ongoing clashes between ethnic Chinese rebels and the Myanmar military near the China–Myanmar border. (Full article...) -
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The Rohingya genocide is a series of ongoing persecutions and killings of the Muslim Rohingya people by the military of Myanmar. The genocide has consisted of two phases to date: the first was a military crackdown that occurred from October 2016 to January 2017, and the second has been occurring since August 2017. The crisis forced over a million Rohingya to flee to other countries. Most fled to Bangladesh, resulting in the creation of the world's largest refugee camp, while others escaped to India, Thailand, Malaysia, and other parts of South and Southeast Asia, where they continue to face persecution. Several countries consider these events ethnic cleansing.
The persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar dates back to at least the 1970s. Since then, the Rohingya people have been persecuted on a regular basis by the government and Buddhist nationalists. In late 2016, Myanmar's armed forces and police launched a major crackdown against the people in Rakhine State which is located in the country's northwestern region. The Burmese military was accused of committing ethnic cleansing and genocide by various United Nations agencies, International Criminal Court officials, human rights groups, journalists, and governments. The UN found evidence of wide-scale human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings; summary executions; gang rapes; arson of Rohingya villages, businesses, and schools; and infanticides. At least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of attacks, between 25 August and September 24, 2017. The Burmese government dismissed these findings by stating they are "exaggerations". Using statistical extrapolations which were based on surveys which were conducted with a total of 3,321 Rohingya refugee households in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, a study which was conducted in January 2018 estimated that the military and the local Rakhine population killed at least 25,000 Rohingya people and perpetrated gang rapes and other forms of sexual violence against 18,000 Rohingya women and girls. They estimated that 116,000 Rohingya were beaten, and 36,000 were thrown into fires. (Full article...) -
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The State Administration Council (Burmese: နိုင်ငံတော်စီမံအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးကောင်စီ; abbreviated SAC or နစက) is the military junta currently governing Myanmar, established by Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Min Aung Hlaing following the February 2021 coup d'état and the declaration of a state of emergency by the National Defence and Security Council. Under the constitution, the Commander-in-Chief holds absolute legislative, executive, and judicial power during a state of emergency. Min Aung Hlaing has delegated his legislative power to the SAC, which he chairs. It has formed a provisional administration, also led by Min Aung Hlaing as Prime Minister of Myanmar.
The Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) has designated the SAC as a "terrorist group", and SAC's legitimacy is contested by the competing National Unity Government of Myanmar (NUG). (Full article...) -
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The Burmese–Siamese War of 1765–1767, also known as the war of the second fall of Ayutthaya (Thai: สงครามคราวเสียกรุงศรีอยุธยาครั้งที่สอง) was the second military conflict between Burma under the Konbaung dynasty and Ayutthaya Kingdom under the Siamese Ban Phlu Luang dynasty that lasted from 1765 until 1767, and the war that ended the 417-year-old Ayutthaya Kingdom.
Burma under the new Konbaung dynasty emerged powerful in mid-eighteenth century. King Alaungpaya the dynastic founder led his Burmese forces of 40,000 men, with his son Prince of Myedu as vanguard commander, invaded Siam in late 1759 to early 1760. The Burmese reached and attacked Ayutthaya in April 1760 but the arrival of rainy season and sudden illness of Alaungpaya prompted the Burmese to retreat. Traditional Siamese strategy of passive stand in Ayutthaya citadel against Burmese besiegers worked for one last time, postponing the eventual fall of Ayutthaya for seven years. Alaungpaya died on May 1760 on his way from Siam back to Burma. Burmese invasion of Siam in 1760, in which the Burmese, particularly Prince Myedu, had an opportunity to learn about Siamese geography, strategy and tactics and to reflect about their own flaws in the campaign, served as the foundation of the next Burmese invasion in 1765–1767. Prince Myedu ascended the Burmese throne as King Hsinbyushin in late 1763. Hsinbyushin inherited military energy and prowess from his father Alaungpaya and was determined to accomplish the unfinished mission of conquering Ayutthaya unattained by his father. (Full article...) -
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The Pagan Kingdom (Burmese: ပုဂံပြည်, pronounced [bəɡàɰ̃ kʰɪʔ], lit. 'Bagan State'; also known as the Pagan dynasty; also Romanized Bagan) was the first Burmese kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern-day Myanmar. Pagan's 250-year rule over the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery laid the foundation for the ascent of Burmese language and culture, the spread of Bamar ethnicity in Upper Myanmar, and the growth of Theravada Buddhism in Myanmar and in mainland Southeast Asia.
The kingdom grew out of a small 9th-century settlement at Pagan (present-day Bagan) by the Mranma/Burmans. Over the next two hundred years, the small principality gradually grew to absorb its surrounding regions until the 1050s and 1060s when King Anawrahta founded the Pagan Empire, presumably for the first time unifying under one polity the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery. By the late 12th century, Anawrahta's successors had extended their influence farther to the south into the upper Malay Peninsula, to the east at least to the Salween river, in the farther north to below the current China border, and to the west, in northern Arakan and the Chin Hills. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Pagan, alongside the Khmer Empire, was one of two main empires in mainland Southeast Asia. (Full article...) -
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The Early Pagan Kingdom (Burmese: ခေတ်ဦး ပုဂံ ပြည်) was a city-state that existed in the first millennium CE before the emergence of the Pagan Empire in the mid 11th century. The Burmese chronicles state that the "kingdom" was founded in the second century CE. The seat of power of the small kingdom was first located at Arimaddana, Thiri Pyissaya, and Tampawaddy until 849 CE when it was moved to Pagan (Bagan).
Radiocarbon dating shows the earliest human settlement in the Pagan region dates only from the mid-7th century CE. It existed alongside Pyu city-states that dominated Upper Burma. The city-state of Pagan, according to mainstream scholarship, was founded in the mid 9th century by the Mranma of Nanzhao Kingdom. Burmans at Pagan expanded irrigation-based cultivation while borrowing extensively from the Pyus' predominantly Buddhist culture. It was one of many competing city-states in the Pyu realm until the late 10th century when the principality began absorbing its surrounding states. The expansion accelerated in the 1050s and 1060s when King Anawrahta founded the Pagan Empire, the first ever unification of the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery. (Full article...) -
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Burmese cuisine encompasses the diverse regional culinary traditions of Myanmar, which have developed through longstanding agricultural practices, centuries of sociopolitical and economic change, and cross-cultural contact and trade with neighboring countries at the confluence of Southeast Asia, East Asia, and South Asia, such as modern-day nations of Thailand, China, and India, respectively.
Burmese cuisine is typified by a wide-ranging array of dishes, including traditional Burmese curries and stews, Burmese salads, accompanied by soups and a medley of vegetables that are traditionally eaten with white rice. Burmese curries are generally distinguished from other Southeast Asian curries in the former's prominent use of an aromatic trio of garlic, shallots, and ginger (in common with South Asian curries), and the general lack of coconut milk. (Full article...) -
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Hkakabo Razi (Burmese: ခါကာဘိုရာဇီ, pronounced [kʰàkàbò ɹàzì]; simplified Chinese: 开加博峰; traditional Chinese: 開加博峯; pinyin: Kāijiābó Fēng) is believed to be Myanmar's highest mountain. The 5,881-meter (19,295 ft)-tall mountain is the highest mountain in Southeast Asia as well. It is located in the northern Myanmar state of Kachin in an outlying subrange of the Greater Himalayan mountain system near the border tripoint with India (Arunachal Pradesh) and China. Its highest status has recently been challenged by 5,870-meter (19,260 ft)-tall Gamlang Razi, located about 6.6 kilometers (4.1 mi) WSW on the Chinese border.
Administratively, it lies in Dahangdan, Nogmung Township, Putao District, Kachin state.
The peak is enclosed within Khakaborazi National Park. The park is entirely mountainous and is characterized by broad-leaved evergreen tropical rain forest at low altitudes, a sub-tropical temperate zone from 8,000 to 9,000 ft (2,400–2,700 m), then broad-leaved, semi-deciduous forest and finally needle-leaved evergreen, snow forest. Above 11,000 ft (3,400 m), the highest forest zone is alpine, different from the forest not only in kind but in history and origin. Still higher, around 15,000 ft (4,600 m), cold, barren, windswept terrain and permanent snow and glaciers dominate. At around 17,500 ft (5,300 m), there is a large ice cap with several outlet glaciers. (Full article...) -
Image 9The Thirty Comrades (Burmese: ရဲဘော်သုံးကျိပ်) constituted the embryo of the modern Burmese army called the Burma Independence Army (BIA) which was formed to fight for independence from Britain. This was accomplished just before the majority of the Thirty Comrades returned with the invading Japanese Army initially through Southern Burma in December 1941.
In April 1941, small groups of Burmese youth left Burma secretly to obtain military training to fight the British colonists in the struggle for independence. Their leader was Thakin Aung San and they were sent by the Dobama Asiayone ("We Burmans Association") with the intention to get assistance from Guangzhou. By a quirk of fate, however, they ran into the Japanese instead in Amoy and arrived in Japan later to be flown to occupied parts of Sanya, in order to receive military training from the Japanese Army. They were later moved to Formosa for security reasons and subsequently returned to Burma via Vietnam and
Thailand with the Japanese. On 26 December 1941, in a house (owned by a Burmese doctor) in Bangkok, about 25 of the Thirty Comrades had their blood drawn from their arms in syringes, then poured into a silver bowl from which each of them drank – thway thauk in time-honoured Burmese military tradition – pledging "eternal loyalty" among themselves and to the cause of Burmese independence. Their average age was just 24 years. A Japanese officer called Suzuki Keiji, better known among the Burmese by his nom de guerre Bo Mogyo (Commander Thunderbolt) and head of a special intelligence unit called Minami Kikan (南機関) formed in order to support a national uprising in Burma, was the mentor and principal trainer of the Thirty Comrades. The British were driven out of Burma to India during World War II. (Full article...) -
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The Kuomintang in Burma (Chinese: 泰緬孤軍; pinyin: Tàimiǎn gū jūn; Wade–Giles: T‘ai4-mien3 ku1 chün1) or Kuomintang in the Golden Triangle, which was officially known as the Yunnan Province Anti-Communist National Salvation Army (Chinese: 雲南反共救國軍; pinyin: Yúnnán fǎngòng jìuguó jūn; Wade–Giles: Yün2-nan3 Fan3-kung4 Chiu4-kuo2 Chün1) were troops of the Republic of China Army loyal to the Kuomintang that fled from China to Burma in 1950 after their defeat by the Chinese communists in the Chinese Civil War. They were commanded by Lieutenant-General Li Mi. It attempted several incursions into Yunnan in the early 1950s, only to be pushed back into Burma each time by the People's Liberation Army.
The entire campaign, with logistical support from the Republic of China which had retreated to Taiwan, the United States, and Thailand, was controversial from the start, as it weakened Burmese sovereignty and introduced the KMT's involvement in the region's lucrative opium trade. In 1953, the frustrated Burmese government appealed to the United Nations and put international pressure on the Republic of China to withdraw its troops to Taiwan the following year. As a result, the United States initiated a Four-Nation Military Commission (Burma, the United States, the Republic of China, and Thailand) to negotiate the KMT withdrawal. On 30 May 1954, General Li Mi announced the dissolution of the Yunnan Province Anti-Communist National Salvation Army. However, 6,000 irregular KMT troops remained in Burma. Fighting continued sporadically from the irregular troops until coordinated military operations from 1960 to 1961 between the PRC and Burmese governments expelled the remaining irregular KMT troops from Burma. Though most were evacuated to Taiwan, some remained in Burma or formed communities in Thailand. (Full article...)
Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch
- ... that squatters in Myanmar were punished for protesting against the 2021 coup d'état by being evicted?
- ... that Maung O, Prince of Salin, and his sister Nanmadaw Me Nu became de facto rulers of Burma when King Bagyidaw was suffering from depression?
- ... that the DI MA-1 Mk. III rifle was made in Myanmar as a reverse-engineered copy of the Chinese QBZ-97?
- ... that Myinsaing withstood a ten-week siege by the Mongols because its three brother leaders bribed the invaders to withdraw?
- ... that the talabaw soup, which consists primarily of bamboo shoots, is the essential dish of Myanmar's Karen people, who use it to supplement rice?
- ... that Maw Htun Aung, a Shan Nationalities League for Democracy candidate in the 2020 Myanmar general election, is Kachin, not Shan?
- ... that Rolling Stone named Mission of Burma's "Academy Fight Song" as one of the 100 greatest debut singles of all time?
- ... that Thinzar Shunlei Yi hid in the Burmese jungle for a month and joined a rebel militia following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état?
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Image 1Military situation in Myanmar as of 2024[update]. Areas controlled by the Tatmadaw are highlighted in red. (from History of Myanmar)
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Image 2Two female musicians play the saung at a performance in Mandalay. (from Culture of Myanmar)
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Image 3Recorder's Court on Sule Pagoda Road, with the Sule Pagoda at the far end, Rangoon, 1868. Photographer: J. Jackson. (from History of Myanmar)
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Image 4A bull fight, 19th-century watercolour (from Culture of Myanmar)
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Image 6The shores of Irrawaddy River at Nyaung-U, Bagan (from Geography of Myanmar)
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Image 7Myinhkin thabin - equestrian sport (from Culture of Myanmar)
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Image 8Temples at Mrauk U, the capital of the Mrauk U Kingdom, which ruled over what is now Rakhine State (from History of Myanmar)
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Image 9Saint Mary's Cathedral in Downtown Yangon is the largest Roman Catholic cathedral in Burma. (from Culture of Myanmar)
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Image 10British soldiers on patrol in the ruins of the Burmese town of Bahe during the advance on Mandalay, January 1945 (from History of Myanmar)
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Image 11A theatrical performance of the Mon dance (from Culture of Myanmar)
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Image 13Aerial view of a burned Rohingya village in Rakhine state, September 2017 (from History of Myanmar)
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Image 16Grandfather Island, Dawei (from Geography of Myanmar)
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Image 17A wedding procession, with the groom and bride dressed in traditional Burmese wedding clothes, reminiscent of royal attire (from Culture of Myanmar)
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Image 18Portuguese ruler and soldiers mounting an elephant. Jan Caspar Philips (draughtsman and engraver). (from History of Myanmar)
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Image 19British 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)
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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)
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Image 21A group of Buddhist worshipers at Shwedagon Pagoda, an important religious site for Burmese Buddhists (from Culture of Myanmar)
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Image 22A large fracture on the Mingun Pahtodawgyi caused by the 1839 Ava earthquake. (from Geography of Myanmar)
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Image 24The restored Taungoo or Nyaungyan dynasty, c. 1650 CE (from History of Myanmar)
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Image 25Pagan 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)
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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)
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Image 27Political map of Burma (Myanmar) c. 1450 CE. (from History of Myanmar)
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Image 30Salween river at Mae Sam Laep on the Thai-Myanmar border (from Geography of Myanmar)
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Image 31Boxing match, 19th-century watercolour (from Culture of Myanmar)
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Image 32Hlei pyaingbwè - a Burmese regatta (from Culture of Myanmar)
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Image 33Aung San Suu Kyi addresses crowds at the NLD headquarters shortly after her release. (from History of Myanmar)
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Image 34Protesters in Yangon carrying signs reading "Free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi" on 8 February 2021 (from History of Myanmar)
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Image 35Sculpture of Myanmar mythical lion (from Culture of Myanmar)
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Image 36Myanmar (Burma) map of Köppen climate classification (from Geography of Myanmar)
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Image 37Vegetable stall on the roadside at the Madras Lancer Lines, Mandalay, January 1886. Photographer: Hooper, Willoughby Wallace (1837–1912). (from History of Myanmar)
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Image 39Protesters in Yangon with a banner that reads "non-violence: national movement" in Burmese. In the background is Shwedagon Pagoda. (from History of Myanmar)
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Image 40Former US President Barack Obama poses barefoot on the grounds of Shwedagon Pagoda, one of Myanmar's major Buddhist pilgrimage sites. (from Culture of Myanmar)
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Image 41British 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)
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