Wikipedia portal for content related to Myanmar (Burma)
ကြိုဆိုပါတယ်။ / Welcome to the Myanmar Portal
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and also known as Burma (the official name until 1989), is a country in
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
Bangladesh and
India 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).
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in
Myanmar face severe challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity is
illegal and
section 377 of
Myanmar's Penal Code 1861, enacted in 1886, subjects
same-sex sexual acts (regardless of whether they were consensual or done in private) to a term of
imprisonment of up to 20 years in prison. Heterosexual
anal intercourse and
oral sex are also illegal. Transgender people are subject to police harassment and sexual assault, and their
gender identity is not recognised by the state. During the country's long military dictatorship under the authoritarian
State Peace and Development Council between 1988 and 2011, it was difficult to obtain accurate information about the legal or social status of LGBT
Burmese citizens. Following the
2011–2015 Myanmar political reforms, improvements in media and civil freedoms have allowed
LGBT people to gain more visibility and support in the country. Despite the
2015 electoral victory of the
National League for Democracy, which promised improved human rights and whose leader
Aung San Suu Kyi had once called for the decriminalisation of homosexuality, there have been no changes to anti-LGBT laws. Nevertheless, LGBT activists have noted a growing climate of societal acceptance and tolerance toward LGBT people, in line with worldwide trends. (Full article...)
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The 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 nats (နတ်;
MLCTS: nat; IPA:[naʔ]) are god-like spirits venerated in
Myanmar and neighbouring countries in conjunction with
Buddhism. They are divided between the 37 Great Nats who were designated that status by
King Anawrahta when he formalized the official list of nats. Most of the 37 Great Nats were human beings who met violent deaths.
There are two types of nats in Burmese Belief: nat sein (နတ်စိမ်း) which are humans that were deified after their deaths and all the other nats which are spirits of nature (spirits of water, trees etc.). (Full article...)
There have been moves to lift censorship in the country. Tint Swe, head of the country's censorship body, the
Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRB), told
Radio Free Asia that censorship "should be abolished in the near future" as it is "non-existent in most other countries" and "not in harmony with democratic practices." Burma announced on 20 August 2012, that it will stop censoring media before publication. Newspapers and other outlets would no longer have to be approved by state censors, but journalists in the country could still face consequences for what they write and say. (Full article...)
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The 969 Movement (
Burmese: ၉၆၉ လှုပ်ရှားမှု) is a
Buddhist nationalist movement opposed to what they see as Islam's expansion in predominantly
BuddhistMyanmar (
Burma). The three digits of 969 "symbolize the virtues of the
Buddha, Buddhist practices and the Buddhist community". The first 9 stands for the nine special attributes of the Buddha and the 6 for the six special attributes of his
Dharma, or Buddhist Teachings, and the last 9 represents the nine special attributes of Buddhist
Sangha (monastic community). Those special attributes are the
Three Jewels of the Buddha. In the past, the Buddha, Sangha, Dhamma, the wheel of Dhamma, and "969" were Buddhist signs.
The movement has had strong reactions within and beyond Myanmar. In the international media it has received criticism. The Straits Times reported that
Ashin Wirathu, the movement's leader, responded to recent anti-Muslim violence with pledges to work for peace, but critics remain sceptical. (Full article...)
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Thura Ma Chit Po (
Burmese: သူရ မချစ်ပို; February 1908 – 8 April 1949) was a Burmese woman who was the one and only civilian woman to have received the
Thura medal for bravery. She gathered intelligence on the
Karen National Defence Organisation (KNDO) on behalf of the
Myanmar Military before she was caught and executed by the KNDO insurgents. (Full article...)
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Myanmar (also known as Burma) is the northwesternmost country of mainland Southeast Asia located on the
Indochinese peninsula. With an area of 261,228 sq mi (676,578 km2), it is the second largest country in Southeast Asia and the largest on mainland Southeast Asia. The kite-shaped country stretches from 10'N to 20'N for 1,275 miles (2,050 km) with a long tail running along the western coast of the
Malay Peninsula.
Myanmar lies along the
Indian and
Eurasian Plates, to the southeast of the
Tibetan Plateau. To its west is the
Bay of Bengal and to its south is the
Andaman Sea. The country is nestled between several mountain ranges with the
Arakan Mountains on the west and the
Shan Plateau dominating the east. The central valley follows the
Irrawaddy River, the most economically important river to the country with 39.5 million people, including the largest city
Yangon, living within its basin. The country is home to many diverse
ethnic groups, with
135 officially recognized groups. It is strategically located near major Indian Ocean shipping lanes and was historically home to overland trade routes into China from the Bay of Bengal. The neighboring countries are China, India,
Bangladesh,
Thailand and
Laos. (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...)
British forces launch an amphibious assault on Rangoon in May 1824.
The First Anglo-Burmese War (
Burmese: ပထမ အင်္ဂလိပ်-မြန်မာ စစ်; [pətʰəma̰ɪ́ɰ̃ɡəleiʔ-mjəmàsɪʔ]; 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 2British 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 25Protesters in Yangon carrying signs reading "Free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi" on 8 February 2021. (from History of Myanmar)
Image 26A wedding procession, with the groom and bride dressed in traditional Burmese wedding clothes, reminiscent of royal attire (from Culture of Myanmar)
Image 27Myanmar (Burma) map of Köppen climate classification (from Geography of Myanmar)
Image 28Vegetable stall on the roadside at the Madras Lancer Lines, Mandalay, January 1886. Photographer: Hooper, Willoughby Wallace (1837–1912). (from History of Myanmar)
Image 29British 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 30Recorder's Court on Sule Pagoda Road, with the Sule Pagoda at the far end, Rangoon, 1868. Photographer: J. Jackson. (from History of Myanmar)
Image 31Two female musicians play the saung at a performance in Mandalay. (from Culture of Myanmar)
Image 32The 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 34Political Map of Burma (Myanmar) c. 1450 CE. (from History of Myanmar)
Image 35Portuguese ruler and soldiers mounting an Elephant. Philips, Jan Caspar (draughtsman and engraver) (from History of Myanmar)
Image 36Pagan 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)