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Myanmar Cities with Hotels
 Myanmar, officially, Union of Myanmar, republic in Southeast Asia, bounded on the west by Bangladesh; on the northwest by India's Assam state; on the northeast by China's Yunnan province; on the east by Laos and Thailand; and on the southwest by the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal. The longest land border is shared with China. Myanmar (pronounced myahn-mah) was known as Burma until 1989; the English version of the country's name was changed by the military government that took over in 1988. Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon) is the capital and largest city.
 Land and Resources
The total area of Myanmar is 676,552 sq km (261,218 sq mi). From north to south, Myanmar stretches about 2085 km (about 1295 mi); from east to west, the distance is about 930 km (about 575 mi). The coastal region is known as Lower Myanmar, while the interior region is known as Upper Myanmar. A horseshoe-shaped mountain complex and the valley of the Irrawaddy River system are the country's dominant topographical features. The mountains of the northern margin rise to 5881 m (19,296 ft) atop Hkakabo Razi, the highest peak in Southeast Asia. The two other mountain systems have northern to southern axes. The Arakan Yoma range, with elevations between 915 m (3000 ft) and 1525 m (5000 ft), forms a barrier between Myanmar and the subcontinent of India. The Bilauktaung Range, the southern extension of the Shan Plateau, lies along the boundary between southwestern Thailand and southeastern Lower Myanmar. The Shan Plateau, originating in China, has an average elevation of about 910 m (about 3000 ft).
Generally narrow and elongated in the interior, the central lowlands attain a width of about 320 km (about 200 mi) across the Irrawaddy-Sittang delta. The deltaic plains, extremely fertile and economically the most important section of the country, cover an area of about 46,620 sq km (about 18,000 sq mi). Both the Arakan (in the northwest) and the Tenasserim (in the southwest) coasts of Myanmar are rocky and fringed with islands. The country has a number of excellent natural harbors.
Plant and Animal Life
Forests and woodland cover about half of Myanmar. In Lower Myanmar, the dense tropical forests contain extensive stands of timber and oil-bearing trees, including commercially valuable teak forests. Other trees include rubber, cinchona, acacia, bamboo, ironwood, mangrove, coconut, betel palm, and, chiefly in the northern highlands, oak, pine, and many species of rhododendron. Tropical fruits such as citrus, bananas, mangoes, and guavas grow in the coastal regions. Vegetation in the arid regions is sparse and stunted. One consequence of Myanmar's slow economic growth has been the preservation of much of the natural environment.
Jungle animals such as the tiger and leopard are common in Myanmar. Among the larger native animals, found mainly in the highlands of Upper Myanmar, are the elephant, rhinoceros, wild buffalo, wild boar, and several species of deer and antelope. Elephants, tamed or bred in captivity, are used as work animals, particularly in the lumber industry. Smaller animals include the gibbon, which is a small species of ape that lives in trees, several species of monkey, the wildcat, the flying fox, and the tapir. Myanmar has more than 1200 known varieties of birds, including parrots, peafowl, pheasants, crows, herons, and paddybirds. Among typical reptiles are crocodiles, geckos, cobras, pythons, and turtles. Many edible species of freshwater fish are plentiful.
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Myanmar
Natural Resources
The most important resources of Myanmar are agricultural. There are approximately 250 commercially useful kinds of trees, 50 of which have been exploited. The most important forest resource is teak, of which Myanmar holds the majority of the world's remaining supply. Important mineral resources are petroleum and natural gas, along with tin, antimony, zinc, copper, tungsten, lead, coal, and small amounts of marble and limestone. Myanmar is an outstanding source of jade and natural rubies.
Myanmar's richest soils are found in a narrow alluvial strip along the Bay of Bengal, where mountain streams irrigate the land in the wide Irrawaddy and Sittang river valleys. These deep deposits form a vast, fertile belt especially suitable for rice cultivation because of the abundant moisture.
Climate
The climate of Myanmar and other countries in South and Southeast Asia follows a monsoon pattern. During the half of the year that the sun's rays strike directly above the equator, the land mass of Asia is heated more than is the Indian Ocean. This draws moist hot air from over the ocean onto the land, bringing the rains of the southwest monsoon. When the tilt of the earth brings the direct sun rays south of the equator, the heating of the Indian Ocean draws the cooler dry air of the northeast monsoon from the highlands of Asia across the countries of South and Southeast Asia. As a result, Myanmar has three seasons: hot and wet, warm, and very hot. During the hot, wet season, from mid-May to October, rain usually falls every day and sometimes all day. Almost all of Myanmar's annual rainfall falls during this time. In the cooler season, which runs from late October to mid-February, the temperature for January averages 25° C (77° F) in Yangon in Lower Myanmar and 20° C (68° F) in Mandalay in Upper Myanmar. The hottest season runs from late February to early May. At the end of this season, the average monthly temperature reaches the upper 30°s C (lower 100°s F) in many parts of Myanmar. By July rains have brought the average temperature down to 29° C (84° F) in Mandalay and 27° C (81° F) in Yangon. Average annual rainfall varies from about 5000 mm (about 200 in) on the Tenasserim Coast to about 760 mm (about 30 in) at Mandalay.
People of Myanmar
The population of Myanmar (1995 estimate) is about 45,103,809. The overall population density is about 67 persons per sq km (173 per sq mi), one of the lowest in East Asia. The population is more than 75 percent rural, with almost half the urban population found in the three largest cities: Yangon, Mandalay, and Moulmein.
Population and Settlement
More than two-thirds of the people of Myanmar are Burman, ethnically akin to the Tibetans and the Chinese. In addition, several native minorities with their own languages and cultures inhabit the country. The most important of these groups are the Karen and the Shan, each of which comprises less than 10 percent of the population. There are also several smaller groups such as the Arakanese (Rakhine), Mon, Chin, and Kachin, as well as numerous even smaller minorities. The Karen are found primarily in delta villages and along the Thailand border, the Shan throughout the vast Shan Plateau, the Mon along the Tenasserim coast (this group is largely assimilated within the Burman majority), the Arakanese along the Arakan coast next to Bangladesh, the Chin on the western border with India, the Kachin on the northern border with China, and many of the smaller groups along the Chinese border intermingled with the Shan. Large Chinese and Indian minorities dominated the urban population during the British rule of Myanmar (1826-1948); however, many of the Chinese have since assimilated as Sino-Burmans and most of the Indians have emigrated, though many Indian Muslims remain in their traditional homeland on the Arakan coast.
The borderlands in which most of the ethnic minorities live had been separately administered under British rule. Having retained many of their hereditary traditions under British rule, these groups have been restless under Burman rule in the independent Union of Myanmar. Since 1948 the Karen have been in armed rebellion, accompanied by the Kachin beginning in the 1950s and by periodic outbursts from a variety of Shan political groups.
Political Divisions
The nation comprises Myanmar proper and the seven states of Chin, Kachin, Karen, Kayah, Mon, Rakhine, and Shan. Myanmar proper consists of seven divisions: Irrawaddy, Magwe, Mandalay, Pegu, Rangoon, Sagaing, and Tenasserim.
The capital, largest city, and principal seaport is Yangon, (population, 1983, 2,513,023). Mandalay (532,949), in central Myanmar, is an important trade center. Other important cities are Moulmein (219,961), on the Gulf of Martaban, and Sittwe (107,621), a major seaport on the Bay of Bengal.
Language and Religion
Most of the linguistic groups of Myanmar are monosyllabic and polytonal, similar to those of Tibet and China (see Sino-Tibetan Languages). The official Myanmar language is spoken by the great majority of the population, including many of the non-Burman ethnic minorities. About 15 percent of the population speaks Shan and Karen. English is spoken among the educated, and the country contains a sizable number of speakers of Chinese.
More than 85 percent of all the people of Myanmar are Buddhists, most of whom adhere to the Theravada school of Buddhism, as do Buddhists in neighboring Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia (see Theravada Buddhism). Theravada (the Way of the Elders) Buddhism is sometimes called Hinayana (the Lesser Vehicle) by contrast with Mahayana (the Great Vehicle) Buddhism, a later and more elaborate form that is practiced largely in China, Korea, and Japan. Theravada Buddhism is also quite different from the Tantric Buddhism that is found in Japan and Himalayan regions such as Tibet. Underlying the everyday practice of Buddhism is a well-developed culture of animism, the worship of spirits known as nat. This culture provides a basis for many nat festivals and for much of traditional medical practice. Muslims have also long formed a part of the population and there are a significant number of Christians (mostly Baptists) as well, particularly in the hill areas.
Education
Education is free and compulsory for children from the age of five to ten. Secondary education consists of four years of middle or vocational school and an additional two years for high school. Middle and vocational schools are also free, but fees are charged for high school. About one-fifth of the secondary school-age population is enrolled in school. Instruction in primary and secondary schools is in the Myanmar language; English is the second language taught in many secondary schools. Four-fifths of the adult population are said to be able to read and write. However, the Myanmar government claimed that less than one-fifth of the population was truly literate when it was seeking United Nations (UN) status as a "least developed country" in the late 1980s.
Yangon and Mandalay have a variety of long-established universities and postsecondary educational institutes. In order to disperse the political protests by students in these two cities, regional colleges were set up in the late 1960s in a number of principal towns. Rangoon University (founded in 1920) and Mandalay University (1925) are the premier institutions in arts and sciences. A bachelor's degree is also granted by the Defense Services Academy (1955) in Maymyo. An emphasis on science and technology since the 1960s expanded the Yangon Institute of Technology (1964) and led to the establishment of the Mandalay Institute of Technology (1991) and an Institute of Economics (1964) in Yangon. Medical doctors are trained at two institutes of medicine in Yangon and one in Mandalay. There are numerous teacher-training institutes throughout the country. As a result of periodic political disturbances, universities have been mostly closed since 1988.
Way of Life
Myanmar civilization is largely an outgrowth of Indian influences. For the majority of Myanmar's population, Buddhism is the center of individual life and the monastery (pongyi kyaung) is the center of the community. This is especially true in the villages, where most of the population lives. Wisdom is believed to reside at the pongyi kyaung and refuge may be sought there. A rite of passage for every adolescent boy is the shinphyu, in which the boy briefly relives the princely life of Gautama, who became the Buddha, and enters into the life of the monastery as a novice monk. At any later time in life he may return to the monastic life for a longer or shorter period of time. If married, he should ask his wife's permission to do this. The daily life of the village begins with the pongyis (monks) making their rounds in the morning with their begging bowls. By donating that day's food, the villagers earn merit, and the monks, who are forbidden to work, are nourished. The annual cycle of life follows the seasons, with all hands put to work for rice planting when the summer monsoon brings the first rains. The time during the three months of the most intensive rain is the Buddhist lent, when such activities as marriage and hunting are put off, but nat festivals can be enjoyed. Harvest in the fall is again a busy time, followed by the cooler season when the traditional form of entertainment is the pwe, a type of folk opera. In the evenings during this season, a crowd gathers on the grounds of a temple to watch the pwe in which dancers retell tales of royal times in Myanmar or present such Indian epics as the Ramayana. Dramatic music and dance alternate with bawdy skits by clowns, who often include political satire in their acts. In the towns, movies, particularly foreign feature films, are popular.
The Myanmar orchestra that accompanies the theatrical performances in a pwe consists of a bamboo xylophone, tall bamboo clappers, many kinds of tuned gongs, a small pair of cymbals to keep time, and the hne, a six-reeded oboe that carries the theme. The hne mimics the sound of the human voice speaking in the tonal Burmese language. In cities and towns music is piped into the streets for the public's benefit through loudspeakers located in tea shops, and video cassette recorders bring cosmopolitan musical culture to even the smallest settlements.
The core of the Myanmar diet is boiled rice, combined with a little spicy meat or fish and some vegetables. Also popular for breakfast is a hot noodle soup flavored with coconut. A favorite sauce is ngapi, which is made from fermented fish or prawns and gives off a pungent odor. Several varieties of bananas along with coconut are the main fruits, while a wide variety of more exotic fruits are also enjoyed, such as the mangosteen, the custard apple, and the durian. The common drink is weak green tea, which is taken tepid throughout the day in small cups.
A typical gesture of hospitality in Myanmar is to offer guests the materials and equipment for making a chew of betel. This chemical combination of a chopped areca nut with lime and spices, all wrapped in a betel leaf, cleans the mouth, sweetens the breath, and settles the stomach. Locally rolled cigars, called cheroots, are smoked by young and old, male and female.
In keeping with the hot climate, both men and women wear skirts, except for those in the military, who wear long trousers. The longyi is a wrap-around cylinder of cloth that is tucked in at the waist in one way by men and in another way by women. Male and female longyis also differ in the patterns printed or woven into them. On top men wear a light shirt, covered by a Chinese-style jacket on formal occasions. Women wear a long or short sleeved blouse. On the head men may wear a gaunqbaung, which for a farmer can be a simple length of cloth twisted around the head like a turban, while a government official at a formal event will have one made of silk and stretched over a light wicker frame. Because of the hot weather and rains, sandals are worn rather than shoes. Umbrellas are carried throughout the year to keep off either sun or rain.
For much of Myanmar's history, women played a stronger role than in traditional Western societies. From early on they could own property and were independent in economic activities. In religion, however, their place is secondary. Males can become monks and they can earn religious merit in a number of ways; the few women who become nuns and the many who offer gifts to monks usually hope at best to be born as a man in their next reincarnation. While some men in powerful social positions and others who are very poor may have multiple wives, the practice is much less common than in neighboring Thailand.
A popular form of recreation is traveling by bus or oxcart to visit a notable pagoda or attend a festival. Soccer is a prominent sport, even during heavy rains; kites are flown in season; and a frequent occurrence on any day is a local game of chinlon, in which a small circle of men keeps a ball of woven cane up in the air with gentle blows from the foot, knee, shoulder, or head. Golf is particularly favored among military leaders.
Social Problems
A number of social problems follow from the fact that Myanmar is poor by Asian standards. In 1987 the government petitioned the UN to designate Myanmar as a "least developed country." Inflation in the prices of consumer goods has been a continuing problem, particularly for poorer people in the cities. Since a large number of young women in the border areas have been drawn into prostitution in Thailand, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) has become a large-scale problem. For much of the period since World War II (1939-1945), poverty along with the conditions of political unrest have kept the population growth rate quite low, lower even than in neighboring Thailand, which boasts a successful family-planning program.
"Myanmar," Microsoft® Encarta® 97 Encyclopedia.
© 1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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December 03, 2008 01:01 PM. |
