Yangon
(2002 est. pop. 4 million). Yangon is the capital of the Union of Myanmar (Burma) and of Yangon Division (2002 est. pop. 5.7 million). Located on the Yangon River, some 30 kilometers (21 miles) from its mouth on the Gulf of Martaban, Yangon is Myanmar's largest city and principal seaport, with Mingaladon airport its main international entry point.
Yangon was originally an ancient Mon settlement known latterly as Dagon (derived from an ancient Pali term meaning "three pots"), a name commemorated in that of Burma's famed Buddhist temple, the Shwedagon, which has stood for centuries on Singuttara Hill. Dagon was renamed Yangon (meaning "end of strife") by King Alaungpaya (reigned 1752–1760), who conquered Lower Burma in 1755. Under British colonial rule, Yangon—its name anglicized to Rangoon—developed rapidly as a major seaport and cosmopolitan commercial center. In the 1850s the British constructed a new city on a grid plan on delta land, bounded to the east by the Pazundaung Creek and to the south and west by the Yangon River. By the 1890s Yangon's increasing population and commerce necessitated land reclamation work at its riverine boundaries, while prosperous residential suburbs developed to the north of the royal lakes (Kan-daw-gyi) and the Shwedagon. Colonial Yangon, with its spacious parks and lakes and mix of modern buildings and traditional wooden architecture, was known as "the garden city of the East." Before World War II, almost half of Yangon's population was Indian.
Yangon suffered heavy damage in World War II and, in the decades since Burma regained independence (1948), the city has expanded and changed in character. Satellite towns were built to create a Maha Yangon (Greater Yangon) and names of streets and parks were changed from old colonial appellations to more patriotic nationalist names. The greatest transformation occurred in the 1990s, following both the military government's adoption of an open-door market economy under strong state control and an influx of investment. Many colonial-period buildings were demolished to make way for multistory hotels, office buildings, and shopping developments, and some inner-city inhabitants relocated to new satellite towns. Major road-and bridge-building programs were undertaken, including construction of a bridge across the river to Syriam (Thanlyin) and its industrial hinterland.
The 99.4-meter-high (326-foot-high) golden Shwedagon is the city's major landmark, and the country's largest and most revered Buddhist shrine. Legend links its foundation to the time of the Buddha, and for centuries it has been the focus of state as well as private patronage and devotion. Other temples are the waterfront Botataung (destroyed in 1943, but rebuilt as an exact replica) and the octagonal Sule in the heart of Yangon. Notable twentieth-century temples include the Kaba Aye (World Peace), completed under U Nu's government in 1952; the six-story Kyauk-htat-gyi, containing a huge reclining Buddha; the Melamu; and the Maha Wizaya (Great Victory), completed in 1986. The Azani Beikman (Martyrs' Mausoleum), containing the tombs of Burma's independence hero Aung San and six cabinet colleagues (assassinated 19 July 1947), is an important national monument.
Further Reading
Pearn, Bertie Reginald. ([1939] 1971) A History of Rangoon. Reprint ed. Farnborough, U.K.: Gregg.
Renault, Thomas, and Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière. (1998) Eternal Rangoon: Contemporary Portrait of a Timeless City. Paris: ASA.
Singer, Noel F. (1995) Old Rangoon: City of the Shwedagon. Gartmore, U.K.: Kiscadale.
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