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Portal:Myanmar

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ကြိုဆိုပါတယ်။ / Welcome to the Myanmar Portal Peacock

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. Since 2021, more than 600,000 people were displaced across Myanmar due to the civil war post-coup, with more than three million people in dire need of humanitarian assistance. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are over 1.3 million people counted as refugees and asylum seekers, and 3.5 million people displaced internally as of December 2024. (Full article...)

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  • Image 1 Location of airport in Myanmar Mandalay International Airport (IATA: MDL, ICAO: VYMD), located 35 km south of Mandalay in Tada-U, is one of three international airports in Myanmar. Completed in 1999, it replaced the old Mandalay Chanmyathazi Airport as the city's main airport and it was the largest and most modern airport in the country until the modernization of Yangon International Airport in 2008. The airport connects 11 domestic and seven international destinations. Its 4,267 m (14,000 ft) runway is the longest runway in use in Southeast Asia and has the capacity to handle up to 3 million passengers a year. (Full article...)

    Location of airport in Myanmar

    Mandalay International Airport (IATA: MDL, ICAO: VYMD), located 35 km south of Mandalay in Tada-U, is one of three international airports in Myanmar. Completed in 1999, it replaced the old Mandalay Chanmyathazi Airport as the city's main airport and it was the largest and most modern airport in the country until the modernization of Yangon International Airport in 2008. The airport connects 11 domestic and seven international destinations. Its 4,267 m (14,000 ft) runway is the longest runway in use in Southeast Asia and has the capacity to handle up to 3 million passengers a year. (Full article...)
  • Image 2 Shwedagon Pagoda Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government relocated the administrative functions to the purpose-built capital city of Naypyidaw in north central Myanmar. With over five million people, Yangon is Myanmar's most populous city and its most important commercial centre. Yangon boasts the largest number of colonial-era buildings in Southeast Asia, and has a unique colonial-era urban core that is remarkably intact. The colonial-era commercial core is centered around the Sule Pagoda, which is reputed to be over 2,000 years old. The city is also home to the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda – Myanmar's most sacred and famous Buddhist pagoda. (Full article...)

    Shwedagon Pagoda

    Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government relocated the administrative functions to the purpose-built capital city of Naypyidaw in north central Myanmar. With over five million people, Yangon is Myanmar's most populous city and its most important commercial centre.

    Yangon boasts the largest number of colonial-era buildings in Southeast Asia, and has a unique colonial-era urban core that is remarkably intact. The colonial-era commercial core is centered around the Sule Pagoda, which is reputed to be over 2,000 years old. The city is also home to the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda – Myanmar's most sacred and famous Buddhist pagoda. (Full article...)
  • Image 3 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...)
    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...)
  • Image 4 The Burmese calendar (Burmese: မြန်မာသက္ကရာဇ်, pronounced [mjəmà θɛʔkəɹɪʔ], or ကောဇာသက္ကရာဇ်, [kɔ́zà θɛʔkəɹɪʔ]; Burmese Era (BE) or Myanmar Era (ME)) is a lunisolar calendar in which the months are based on lunar months and years are based on sidereal years. The calendar is largely based on an older version of the Hindu calendar, though unlike the Indian systems, it employs a version of the Metonic cycle. The calendar therefore has to reconcile the sidereal years of the Hindu calendar with the Metonic cycle's near tropical years by adding intercalary months and days at irregular intervals. The calendar has been used continuously in various Burmese states since its purported launch in 640 CE in the Sri Ksetra Kingdom, also called the Pyu era. It was also used as the official calendar in other mainland Southeast Asian kingdoms of Arakan, Lan Na, Xishuangbanna, Lan Xang, Siam, and Cambodia down to the late 19th century. (Full article...)
    The Burmese calendar (Burmese: မြန်မာသက္ကရာဇ်, pronounced [mjəmà θɛʔkəɹɪʔ], or ကောဇာသက္ကရာဇ်, [kɔ́zà θɛʔkəɹɪʔ]; Burmese Era (BE) or Myanmar Era (ME)) is a lunisolar calendar in which the months are based on lunar months and years are based on sidereal years. The calendar is largely based on an older version of the Hindu calendar, though unlike the Indian systems, it employs a version of the Metonic cycle. The calendar therefore has to reconcile the sidereal years of the Hindu calendar with the Metonic cycle's near tropical years by adding intercalary months and days at irregular intervals.

    The calendar has been used continuously in various Burmese states since its purported launch in 640 CE in the Sri Ksetra Kingdom, also called the Pyu era. It was also used as the official calendar in other mainland Southeast Asian kingdoms of Arakan, Lan Na, Xishuangbanna, Lan Xang, Siam, and Cambodia down to the late 19th century. (Full article...)
  • Image 5 The railway bridge over the Khwae Yai River in Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. The Burma Railway, also known as the Siam–Burma Railway, Thai–Burma Railway and similar names, or as the Death Railway, is a 415 km (258 mi) railway between Ban Pong, Thailand, and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar). It was built from 1940 to 1943 by Southeast Asian civilians abducted and forced to work by the Japanese and a smaller group of captured Allied soldiers, to supply troops and weapons in the Burma campaign of World War II. It completed the rail link between Bangkok, Thailand, and Rangoon, Burma. The name used by the Imperial Japanese Government was Tai–Men Rensetsu Tetsudō (泰緬連接鉄道), which means Thailand-Burma-Link-Railway. At least 250,000 Southeast Asian civilians were subjected to forced labour to ensure the construction of the Death Railway and more than 90,000 civilians died building it, as did around 12,000 Allied soldiers. The workers on the Thai side of the railway were Tamils, Malays, and fewer Chinese civilians from Malaya. (Full article...)

    The railway bridge over the Khwae Yai River in Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand.

    The Burma Railway, also known as the Siam–Burma Railway, Thai–Burma Railway and similar names, or as the Death Railway, is a 415 km (258 mi) railway between Ban Pong, Thailand, and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar). It was built from 1940 to 1943 by Southeast Asian civilians abducted and forced to work by the Japanese and a smaller group of captured Allied soldiers, to supply troops and weapons in the Burma campaign of World War II. It completed the rail link between Bangkok, Thailand, and Rangoon, Burma. The name used by the Imperial Japanese Government was Tai–Men Rensetsu Tetsudō (泰緬連接鉄道), which means Thailand-Burma-Link-Railway.

    At least 250,000 Southeast Asian civilians were subjected to forced labour to ensure the construction of the Death Railway and more than 90,000 civilians died building it, as did around 12,000 Allied soldiers. The workers on the Thai side of the railway were Tamils, Malays, and fewer Chinese civilians from Malaya. (Full article...)
  • Image 6 Location of Andaman Sea in the Indian Ocean The Andaman Sea (historically also known as the Burma Sea) is a marginal sea of the northeastern Indian Ocean bounded by the coastlines of Myanmar and Thailand along the Gulf of Martaban and the west side of the Malay Peninsula, and separated from the Bay of Bengal to its west by the Andaman Islands and the Nicobar Islands. Its southern end is at Breueh Island just north of Sumatra, with the Strait of Malacca further southeast. Traditionally, the sea has been used for fishery and transportation of goods between the coastal countries and its coral reefs and islands are popular tourist destinations. The fishery and tourist infrastructure was severely damaged by the December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. (Full article...)

    Location of Andaman Sea in the Indian Ocean

    The Andaman Sea (historically also known as the Burma Sea) is a marginal sea of the northeastern Indian Ocean bounded by the coastlines of Myanmar and Thailand along the Gulf of Martaban and the west side of the Malay Peninsula, and separated from the Bay of Bengal to its west by the Andaman Islands and the Nicobar Islands. Its southern end is at Breueh Island just north of Sumatra, with the Strait of Malacca further southeast.

    Traditionally, the sea has been used for fishery and transportation of goods between the coastal countries and its coral reefs and islands are popular tourist destinations. The fishery and tourist infrastructure was severely damaged by the December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. (Full article...)
  • Image 7 Location of airport in Myanmar Yangon International Airport (Burmese: ရန်ကုန်အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာလေဆိပ်; MLCTS: rankun apranyprany hcuingra lehcip [jàɴɡòʊɰ̃ əpjìpjì sʰàɪɴjà lèzeɪʔ]) (IATA: RGN, ICAO: VYYY) is the primary and busiest international airport of Myanmar. The airport is located in Mingaladon, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) north of central Yangon. All ten Myanmar carriers and about 30 international airlines operate at Yangon International Airport. The airport is also colloquially known as Mingaladon Airport due to its location. (Full article...)

    Location of airport in Myanmar

    Yangon International Airport (Burmese: ရန်ကုန်အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာလေဆိပ်; MLCTS: rankun apranyprany hcuingra lehcip [jàɴɡòʊɰ̃ əpjìpjì sʰàɪɴjà lèzeɪʔ]) (IATA: RGN, ICAO: VYYY) is the primary and busiest international airport of Myanmar. The airport is located in Mingaladon, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) north of central Yangon. All ten Myanmar carriers and about 30 international airlines operate at Yangon International Airport. The airport is also colloquially known as Mingaladon Airport due to its location. (Full article...)
  • Image 8 Rice plantation in Myanmar, 2006 Rice production in Myanmar accounts for approximately 43% of total agricultural production in the country, making it the seventh largest producer of rice in the world. Out of 67.6 million hectares of land, 12.8 million are used for cultivation. In 2019 alone, Myanmar accounted for 13,300 million metric tons of milled rice production. Throughout history, Myanmar established itself as a major rice producing and exporting country due to favourable weather for rice paddies and governmental intervention in the form of agricultural policies. The production is undertaken using traditional cultivation methods, particularly during monsoon season, which has led to the development of different varieties of rice. Recent global economic policies have led to increasing international cooperation with NGOs and other organisations, that have provided financial and technological assistance to rice farmers. (Full article...)
    Rice plantation in Myanmar, 2006

    Rice production in Myanmar accounts for approximately 43% of total agricultural production in the country, making it the seventh largest producer of rice in the world. Out of 67.6 million hectares of land, 12.8 million are used for cultivation. In 2019 alone, Myanmar accounted for 13,300 million metric tons of milled rice production.

    Throughout history, Myanmar established itself as a major rice producing and exporting country due to favourable weather for rice paddies and governmental intervention in the form of agricultural policies. The production is undertaken using traditional cultivation methods, particularly during monsoon season, which has led to the development of different varieties of rice. Recent global economic policies have led to increasing international cooperation with NGOs and other organisations, that have provided financial and technological assistance to rice farmers. (Full article...)
  • Image 9 Black and white photograph of logging in Myanmar taken by a Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation official during British rule. Deforestation in Myanmar (otherwise known as Burma) led to a reduction in forest cover from 70% of the country in 1948 to 48% by 2014. Myanmar possesses the largest expanse of tropical forest in mainland Southeast Asia, which contains high biodiversity. As of 2010, Myanmar's living forest biomass held 1,654 million metric tons of carbon and over 80 endemic species. Under British rule, Myanmar's forests were logged for timber on an industrial scale for the first time. After independence, commercial logging greatly expanded under the military government of Ne Win. According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization, Myanmar lost 19%, or 7,445,000 hectares (28,750 sq mi), of its forest between 1990 and 2010. In the 21st century, contributing factors to deforestation in Myanmar include continued timber extraction, illegal logging, agricultural expansion, land disputes and civil conflict. Deforestation has increased amidst the escalation of civil war following the 2021 coup d'état. (Full article...)
    Black and white photograph of logging in Myanmar taken by a Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation official during British rule.
    Deforestation in Myanmar (otherwise known as Burma) led to a reduction in forest cover from 70% of the country in 1948 to 48% by 2014. Myanmar possesses the largest expanse of tropical forest in mainland Southeast Asia, which contains high biodiversity. As of 2010, Myanmar's living forest biomass held 1,654 million metric tons of carbon and over 80 endemic species.

    Under British rule, Myanmar's forests were logged for timber on an industrial scale for the first time. After independence, commercial logging greatly expanded under the military government of Ne Win. According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization, Myanmar lost 19%, or 7,445,000 hectares (28,750 sq mi), of its forest between 1990 and 2010. In the 21st century, contributing factors to deforestation in Myanmar include continued timber extraction, illegal logging, agricultural expansion, land disputes and civil conflict. Deforestation has increased amidst the escalation of civil war following the 2021 coup d'état. (Full article...)
  • Image 10 Shan State (Shan: မိူင်းတႆး, Möng Tai; Burmese: ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, pronounced [ʃáɰ̃ pjìnɛ̀]) is a state of Myanmar. Shan State borders China (Yunnan) to the north, Laos (Louang Namtha and Bokeo Provinces) to the east, and Thailand (Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son Provinces) to the south, and five administrative divisions of Myanmar in the west. The largest of the 14 administrative divisions by land area, Shan State covers 155,800 km2, almost a quarter of the total area of Myanmar. The state gets its name from the Burmese name for the Tai peoples: "Shan people". The Tai (Shan) constitute the majority among several ethnic groups that inhabit the area. Shanland is largely rural, with only three cities of significant size: Lashio, Kengtung, and the capital, Taunggyi. Taunggyi is 150.7 km northeast of the nation's capital Naypyitaw. The Shan state, with many ethnic groups, is home to several armed ethnic groups. While the military government has signed ceasefire agreements with most groups, vast areas of the state, especially those east of the Salween River, remain outside the central government's control, and in recent years have come under heavy ethnic-Han Chinese economic and political influence. Other areas are under the control of military groups such as the Shan State Army. (Full article...)

    Shan State (Shan: မိူင်းတႆး, Möng Tai; Burmese: ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, pronounced [ʃáɰ̃ pjìnɛ̀]) is a state of Myanmar. Shan State borders China (Yunnan) to the north, Laos (Louang Namtha and Bokeo Provinces) to the east, and Thailand (Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son Provinces) to the south, and five administrative divisions of Myanmar in the west. The largest of the 14 administrative divisions by land area, Shan State covers 155,800 km2, almost a quarter of the total area of Myanmar. The state gets its name from the Burmese name for the Tai peoples: "Shan people". The Tai (Shan) constitute the majority among several ethnic groups that inhabit the area. Shanland is largely rural, with only three cities of significant size: Lashio, Kengtung, and the capital, Taunggyi. Taunggyi is 150.7 km northeast of the nation's capital Naypyitaw.

    The Shan state, with many ethnic groups, is home to several armed ethnic groups. While the military government has signed ceasefire agreements with most groups, vast areas of the state, especially those east of the Salween River, remain outside the central government's control, and in recent years have come under heavy ethnic-Han Chinese economic and political influence. Other areas are under the control of military groups such as the Shan State Army. (Full article...)
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