Twilight Speaker meeting

Burma – Key facts.

Burma was renamed Myanmar in 1989.

The Mon 2000 years ago settled Burma from Central Asia and introduced Buddhism.  In 9^thCentury the Bamar established themselves in Upper Burma and controlled the trade routes between India and China.  TheFirst Burmese Empire was established in 1057 when the Bamar gave up animism and adopted Theravada Buddhism as the State Religion. 

The Golden Age of Bagan was in 12^th Century – a city of 4 million pagodas contemporary with Angkor Wat - both based on rice cultivation.  Kublai Khan and the Mongol invasion ended this Empire in the late 13^th Century.  Subsequently there were many small states in Burma.  In 15^th Century the Portuguese arrived after Vasco da Gama had discovered the sea-route from Europe to India followed by Dutch, British and French traders in 17^thCentury.   In 1826 first Anglo-Burmese War secured the Bay of Bengal for the British.  In 1852 Second Anglo-Burmese War- an  expeditionary force conquered Lower Burma. Upper Buma was Invaded by the British in 1885 and on Ist January 1886 Burma ceased to exist and the British took over Government sending the king into exile.

Economy based on rice culture and centred on the Ayeyarwaddy (Irrawaddy) river which rises in the Himalayas and crosses the country for 1350 miles.  The river is navigable from the delta for 930 miles;  This river was Kipling’s road to Mandalay.

Current Population is estimated at 60 million of whom 70% live in rural villages.  Yangon (formerly Rangoon) has about 5 million inhabitants and the next biggest city is Mandalay with 2 million.

There are 67 indigenous groups speaking 242 languages.  The Bamar – comprising 68% of population originally related to the Thais - are Buddhists.  The Karen – 7% of population - many of whom are Christian and have been involved in an independence struggle for 50 years.   The Mon – 2% have their own state in the south East are Buddhists.  There are substantial Indian and Chinese minorities.  Other groups include the Intha minority group at Inle Lake and the  Muslim minority group the Rohinya near to Bangladesh. 

Burma and the Shwedagon in literature

 Marco Polo came to Bagan in 1277 and recalled the sight as one of the finest in the world.  “When illuminated by the sun the towers are especially brilliant and can be seen from a great distance.”

The first record in English of Myanmar’s pagodas was by Ralph Fitch in 1586 who wrote : “The Shwedagon is the fairest place, as I suppose, in the world.”

In Letters from the East (1889) Kipling wrote ; Then, a golden mystery upheaved itself on the horizon – a beautiful , winking wonder that blazed in the sun, of a shape that was neither Muslim dome nor Hindu temple spire.  It stood upon a green knoll... “There’s the old Shway Dagon,” said my companion.  The golden dome said,” This is Burma, and it will be quite unlike any land that one knows about.”

Somerset Maugham – The Gentleman in the Parlour (1930).  “The Shwe Dagon rose superb, glistening with its gold, like a sudden hope in the dark night of the soul of which the mystics write glistening against the fog and smoke of the thriving city”.

 The words of Norman Lewis .  Golden Earth (1952).  “The special sanctity of the Shwedagon arises from the fact that it is the only pagoda recognised as enshrining the relics not only of Gautama but of the three Buddhas that preceded him”.

Shwe is the Burmese word for gold and Dagon means three hills.

Further reading

HE Bates  The Jacaranda Tree (1949).

HE Bates The Purple Plain. ( 1944).

George Orwell   Burmese Days (1934).

Peter Popham  The Lady and the Peacock; The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma(2012)