Senior General Min Aung Hlaing receives Indian Ambassador to Myanmar H.E. Mr. Saurabh Kumar

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing receives Indian Ambassador to Myanmar H.E. Mr. Saurabh Kumar

NAY PYI TAW June 10 



Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Senior General Min Aung Hlaing received Indian Ambassador to Myanmar H.E. Mr. Saurabh Kumar at the Parlour of Bayintnaung Villa, here, this afternoon.

At the meeting, friendly relations between the two armed forces of both countries and promotion of cooperation were cordially discussed.

Also present at the meeting together with the Senior General were Lt-Gen Soe Htut from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief (Army) and senior military officers. The Indian Ambassador to Myanmar was accompanied by Defence Attaché Colonel Naveen Mahajan and officials.

SENIOR GENERAL MIN AUNG HLAING RECEIVES VICE ADMINISTRATOR MR. XU ZHANBIN OF SASTIND OF CHINA

SENIOR GENERAL MIN AUNG HLAING RECEIVES VICE ADMINISTRATOR MR. XU ZHANBIN OF SASTIND OF CHINA

NAY PYI TAW June 5

Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Senior General Min Aung Hlaing received Vice Administrator Mr. Xu Zhanbin of the State Administration for Science, Tech-nology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) of China at Bayintnaung Villa here this morning.

Also present at the meeting together with the Senior General were Lt-Gen Hsan Oo, Lt-Gen Nyo Saw and senior military officers from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief (Army). Mr. Xu Zhanbin was accompanied by Chinese Military Attaché in Myanmar Sr. Col. Xiong Shaowai and officials.

At the meeting, the long and excellent military relations between the two countries and between the two armed forces, cooperation in military technology and other sectors between the two armed forces, the further strengthening of bilateral relations between the two countries through bilateral military cooperation, and the application of technologies in the interest of the nation and the people through military cooperation were discussed.

Court of Inquiry launches investigation in Buthidaung

Court of Inquiry launches investigation in Buthidaung

The Court of Inquiry established in accordance with the Defence Services Rules, led by Maj-Gen Myat Kyaw commenced investigation on March 18, 2019 and inquired in three military units including a command headquarters, three police stations, a prison and five villages in Buthidaung area, and arrived back on June 3, 2019 in Nay Pyi Taw. The Court of Inquiry sought advice from Legal Advisory Team during its investigation and will continue its investigation.

Tatmadaw True News Information Team

Kyansittha

Kyansittha

Kyansittha also Kyanzittha or "Hti-Hlaing Shin"; 1030 – 1112/13) was king of Pagan dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) from 1084 to 1112/13, and is considered one of the greatest Burmese monarchs. He continued the social, economic and cultural reforms begun by his father, King Anawrahta. Pagan became an internationally recognized power during his 28-year reign. The Burmese language and culture continued to gain ground.

In his early life, Kyansittha was a popular and successful general who led Anawrahta's major military campaigns that founded the Pagan Empire. He was exiled twice in the 1070s and 1080s for his affair with Queen Manisanda. Kyansittha ascended to the Pagan throne in 1084 after suppressing a major Mon rebellion that killed King Saw Lu.

His reign was largely peaceful. A great admirer of Mon culture, he pursued a conciliatory policy towards the Mon of the south, and continued the patronage of Mon language and culture at his court. It was in his reign that the synthesis of Burman, Mon, Pyu and Buddhist practices into a Burmese cultural tradition began to reach a level of maturity. The Burmese script began to be used alongside Pyu, Mon, and Pali. A peaceful Pagan grew wealthy from agriculture and trade, and large scale temple building began in earnest. Kyansittha completed Anawrahta's Shwezigon Pagoda and built his crowning achievement, the Ananda Temple. Pagan became a major center of Buddhist learning. Theravada Buddhism continued to gain ground although many Ari, Mahayana and Hindu practices continued to pervade. Pagan emerged a major power alongside the Khmer Empire in Southeast Asia, recognized as a sovereign kingdom by the Chinese Song Dynasty, and Indian Chola dynasty.

Kyansittha is one of the most famous monarchs in Burmese history. His life stories and exploits are still retold in Burmese literature, theater, and cinema.

Military career (1057–1070s)

Kyansittha grew up in relative obscurity until Anawrahta recalled his son at a later point (likely by his early teens). At Anawrahta's court, he was a minor prince under the shadow of his elder half-brother Saw Lu, and served as a royal cadet in the Pagan army. Anawrahta soon recognized the ability of his son. According to tradition, in early 1057, the king made his teenage son one of four lead commanders in his invasion of Thaton Kingdom. (Anawrahta's appointment of Kyansittha as commander at such an early age indicates that Anawrahta considered Kyansittha his offspring. During the Burmese imperial era, only the royalty were allowed to assume a senior position in the army at an early age. Commoners, who had to earn that privilege over years of service, were never that young.) Pagan's forces captured Thaton after a 3-months' siege in May 1057. Kyansittha became famous as one of the Four Paladins.

More recent research by historian Michael Aung-Thwin accepts Anawrahta's conquest of Lower Burma but argues that the chronicle narrative of the conquest of Thaton is a post-Pagan legend.

Anawrahta went on found the Pagan Empire (also known as the First Burmese Empire) expanding his authority in all directions: northern Arakan in the west, Shan Hills in the north and east, and Tenasserim in the south. Kyansittha partook in all of Anawrahta's expeditions including one to the Nanzhao Kingdom, and in some cases (such as the Tenasserim campaign against the Khmer Empire) led them. Soon after the Thaton conquest, Kyansittha along with his three other "Paladins" were sent to take control of Tenasserim. The Four Paladins defeated the Khmer army, and Tenasserim became part of Pagan Empire from then on.

In the early 1070s, Kyansittha was called into service to defend Pegu (Bago) against the raiders from the direction of Chiang Mai. The Pagan army easily drove out the raiders. The ruler of Pegu, whom Anawrahta had allowed to remain as viceroy for his cooperation in the 1057 conquest of Thaton, sent his young daughter, the lady Khin U, jewels and hair relics as presents for Anawrahta. On the journey to Pagan, Khin U was borne in a curtained litter, and Kyansittha rode at her side. During the long journey, they fell in love with each other so violently that the matter had to be reported to Anawrahta. It was the end of Kyansittha's career. He was sent into exile by the king.

Exile years (1070s–1082)

Kyansittha fled west, and at a time, he earned a living by tending horses. He finally settled at Kaungbyu (likely in the Sagaing District), and got married to Thanbula, niece of the head abbot of the local monastery. He was in his early 30s. He lived there for the remainder of Anawrahta's reign until 1077.

In April 1077, Anawrahta died, and his son Lu succeeded. Lu, who had always viewed Kyansittha as a rival, reluctantly recalled Kyansittha to Pagan, at the urging of Shin Arahan, primate of Pagan, to help administer the kingdom. Kyansittha left a pregnant Thanbula at Kaungbyu. At Pagan, he soon renewed his affair with Khin U (now with the title of Manisanda), who was now a queen of Lu. Kyansittha was promptly exiled again, this time much farther away to Dala (modern-day Yangon).

Pegu rebellion (1082–1084)
In 1082, Saw Lu faced a serious rebellion by his childhood friend Yamankan, whom he had appointed governor of Pegu. The king recalled Kyansittha to put down the rebellion. At a battle near Magwe, Lu was captured in November 1082 (Natdaw 444 ME). Ministers offered Kyansittha the crown. But he refused. Instead he personally tried to rescue Lu by breaking into the enemy camp at night. Seated on Kyansittha's shoulders and well on the way to safety, Lu thought Kyansittha was stealing him to kill him. After all, he had never treated Kyansittha well, and could not believe that Kyansittha would risk his life to rescue someone who had treated him badly. Yamankan on the other hand was his childhood friend, and son of his wet nurse.

Lu yelled out "Kyansittha is stealing me".
Kyansittha exclaiming, "Then die, thou fool; die the death of a dog at the hands of these scum", flung him down, and ran for his life. He swam across the Irrawaddy, and eventually made back to safety.
Yamankan promptly executed Lu, and marched to Pagan. Unable to blockade the fortified walls of Pagan, his army drifted north to near the present-day Ava (Inwa).

Kyansittha went to the Kyaukse region, the breadbasket of Pagan, to raise an army. He received allegiance from the chief of Htihlaing, who helped him raise men. With his army, Kyansittha drove Yamankan out. Yamankan's army fled south while Yamankan fled on a barge full of gold and gems he had looted down the Irrawaddy. Kyansittha and his army followed up on the retreating Peguan forces. Midway to the Pegu country, Kyansittha's advance forces caught up with Yamankan near Myingyan. Yamankan, who was blind in one eye, was killed by an arrow through his remaining good eye.

According to the chronicle Zatadawbon Yazawin, Kyansittha and Yamankan fought a battle c. April 1083 (Kason of 445 ME).[note 3] The battle may not be the final battle in which Yamankan was slain since Zatadawbon says Saw Lu died in 1084 after having reigned seven years. However, other chronicles (Hmannan and Yazawin Thit) say he reigned only for five years, followed by an interregnum that lasted till 1084—implying that Saw Lu died in late 1082 or early 1083.[5] At any rate, Kyansittha came to power in 1084, per the Myazedi inscription.

Most Popular Attractions in Myanmar

Most Popular Attractions in Myanmar 

Yangon – The Most Lively City for Myanmar Tourism

The former capital is one of the most attractive destinations in Myanmar for those who are seeking for a vacation in Asia. Without doubts, Yangon is the most exciting place for Myanmar tourism that opens the opportunity for tourists to admire the most sacred Buddhist pagoda in Myanmar – the elegant Shwedagon pagoda which is gold plated with the diamond studded on top and makes a mystical beauty visible from almost everywhere.
In addition to the charming pagodas, breathtaking landscapes of the city will truly fascinate your senses in your Yangon sightseeing tour. Since it is known as the “Garden of the East”, you should be completely overwhelmed by the landscape of local green lakes, shady parks, and verdant tropical trees. Tired a bit after a long day sightseeing? Markets in Yangon are the paradise that almost makes you swoon! Here you will not only get the chance to enjoy Myanmar authentic specialties but also soak in the Myanmar lifestyle and culture. Bogyoke Aung San Market, Theingyi Zay, China Town, Anawrahta Road are all great and worth exploring. Besides, Yangon brings to you a variety of pleasant hotels and excellent restaurants not inferior to any the other developing cities to sit back. At night, it is a joyful time to indulge in the Yangon nightlife, here blend in and enjoy the vỉbrant atmosphere in a hot nightclub or relax in a tranquil teahouse.

Bagan – The Hidden Treasure in Myanmar

Along with Yangon, Bagan is one of the main tourist attractions in Myanmar. With a repertoire of the massive Buddhist temple, built by King Pagan over many centuries, Bagan is undoubtedly the greatest archaeological site on earth that you should never miss to visit in Myanmar tourism. Nowadays, with 2,220 temples still remaining (in about 13,000 temples in the peak period), this native land unleashes fair chances for you to freely explore Bagan art and architecture by a visit to the Bagan temples. They are close to each other, so it provides you with a wide range of moving ways such as walking, cycling, buses, tuk-tuk or on a hot air balloon to discover this marvelous site. If you have already mesmerized by the ancient architecture of pagodas from the ground, a hot-air balloon flight will provide you a chance to marvel at the wonderful Bagan from above, which is an unforgettable experience. To the southeast of Bagan lies Mount Popa together with a lot of Buddhist monasteries situated. Popa, in Sanskrit, means ‘flower’ as the whole remains are well-known for its breathtaking beauty.

Mandalay – The City of Cultural & Heritage

Located not far from Bagan (about 30-minute flight from Bagan), Mandalay is another beautiful place to visit in Myanmar. Previously, it used to be the capital of ancient Myanmar and now is a city of chaos, smoke, and dust. Whenever you plan for a Myanmar vacation, Mandalay may not the first priority. Nevertheless, just travel here one time, it will never fail to captivate your soul with the majestic beauty of the sacred temples, then you would be definitely amazed by the true beauty of this land when you leave the bustling downtown to visit the architectural wonders. Mahamuni Buddha image, Shwenandaw, Kuthodaw and the complex architecture of Mandalay Hill are the main tourist attractions of Mandalay. Especially, the most prominent site in this city U Bein Bridge which is located in a historic village in Amarapura and considered the longest teak wooden bridge. From here, the most brilliant photography works of sunsets have been being established widely to the world.

Inle Lake – The Breathtaking Lake for Myanmar Tourism

Among the most popular tourist destinations in Myanmar, Inle Lake is the place to be best known by the fishermen with unique fishing methods, just rowing with one leg. Although tourism in the region has developed in recent years, Inle Lake still retains the natural beauty of its capital and one of the main attractions for Myanmar tourism. Getting to Inle, you will experience the sensation of floating houses, an ideal place for you to sink in deeper into this wondrous beauty of nature brings. Along with fishing, traditional handicrafts are a significant part of the local economy, and it’s very intriguing to see silk weavers and silversmiths plying their trade on the lake. As religion plays an integral role in Burmese daily life, numerous pagodas and monasteries can be easily found on the lake and its shores. There are also many restaurants dotted around, where you can indulge in their delicious catches of the day.

Golden Rock Pagoda

Golden Rock Pagoda, also known as Kyaikhtiyo Pagoda is the Myanmar masterpiece ranked third, below only Mahamuni Pagoda and Shwedagon Pagoda. A unique feature of the temple is situated on a protruding rock on a mountain making it a fabulous spot to visit in Myanmar tourism; legend has it that the stone still stands over the years by temples a hair of the Buddha. The strange thing is difficult decoding of the temple, making, even more, mystery and curiosity to many tourists to this place. The Pagoda Festival (also known as the Nine Thousand Lights Festival) takes place at Mount Kyaiktiyo late in the year and participating this event, you will get special food offered by the locals and sightsee the mountaintop fancifully illuminated by candles after dark.

The Ancient City of Mrauk U

Among the best tourist attractions in Myanmar, Mrauk U is the hidden gem that you cannot forget once taking a glance at the fancy mist and smoke in the morning. It is also the 2nd largest center of temples in Myanmar. When you visit it in Myanmar tourism, you will see hundreds of pagodas and temples built of bricks from the 15th century remains, nestled in the hills and small villages. You can also visit the riverside village for a sense of an adventure and enjoy the serenity. Although it is quite hard to get to Mrauk U when you have to embark on a boat to get there, you will be completely fascinated by the labyrinth of maze designed as the tunnels containing the great collection of Buddha statues in Shitthaung Temple, the most impressive relic in this ancient city.

Kengtung (Kyaing Tong)

Kengtung Tong, the capital of the Golden Triangle area, is the beautiful attraction of Myanmar in the far east of Shan State where you are immensely impressed by the beauty of the rolling hills and the idyllic villages. The town is home to numerous Burmese ethnic tribes so it offers you a chance to soak in the cultural diversity of different groups. The arrival point is famous for its picturesque mountains and the ethnic groups living on it as well. This area is quite secluded and remains a vague location with many visitors. If you want a perfect trip here for Myanmar tourism you need to plan well and should go with a local tour guide.

Hpa An

If you are in your Yangon tour, you had better manage to head off the tiny Hpa An town to get the unforgettable experience of a place on Myanmar tourism’s must-see list. Located in the southeast of Yangon, it takes about seven hours in the cart reach here. A short visit to the morning market in downtown Hpa An is an exciting experience to see colorful vendors, stalls with full of products blending with the bustling sounds of local people.
Furthermore, Hpa An is surrounded by dramatic limestone mountains ranges to explore and a great place for a short journey to embark on a ferry drafting along the river to behold the spectacular mountains and serene beauty on the riversides as well. Outside the city is the beauty of the vast green rice fields, with the mountains behind the stone will give you a beautiful sight. There are also lots of temple caves with unique architecture, layout and the people using as the natural Buddhist temples. Getting to know Mount Zwegabin, you may want to conquer its summit to reach the medieval monastery and contemplate the fantastic views of the whole surroundings and plains.

Putao

Putao has been seen as the gateway to climb the mountain ranges of Himalayas for a long time. This is a very familiar place with those people wants to try at climbing in Myanmar tourism. This area has the richest biological diversity in the world, with an average of 30 to 40 new species of flora and faunas discovered each year. Therefore, if you are adventurous, Putao is an ideal choice for you to fall in line. There is nothing better than the experience exploring forests, mountains, river rafting, and massage and then enjoy a delicious cocktail after a long day.

Ngapali & Ngwe beaches

Ngapali is one of the most beautiful tropical beaches on the Bay of Bengal suiting for leisure travel in Myanmar tourism. Situated on the coast of Bengal Bay in Rakhine State, the main feature of this destination is an idyllic stretch of endless white sand and the coastline of palm trees, with a number of resorts beside traditional fishing villages. Another thing that makes Ngapali become a favorite site for Myanmar tourism is the seafood here is really delicious that is highly marked by visitors. You should be absolutely delighted when trying local amazing dishes such as fried squid, lobster, snapper, barracuda, king prawns, and fish curries. You can now move to the beach for a vacation Ngwe beach with limited budgets, where the relatively unspoiled beaches will be very suitable for tourists who prefer the quiet, in a frame of the romantic scene.

Bago

Located 80 kilometers Northeast of Yangon, near Bago River, Bago is an ancient capital of Myanmar, appearing to be a land of myth and legend. At a height of 115 meters, the Shwe Mawdaw Pagoda or Golden God Temple here holds the record for the tallest pagoda in the country. Along with Shwemawdaw, a number of the other large and small pagodas contributes to the well-known abundance of Bago’s religion. Besides, the activities of the morning market near the river and cycling around Stupas and Buddhas make the itinerary worth trying once in Myanmar tourism.

Kalaw – Best Trekking Spot for Myanmar Tourism

Kalaw is a hill station situated about 1300 meters above the sea level. Like the other attractions of Myanmar, you are provided with a wide range of specialties, accommodations, and kinds of entertainment at a reasonable cost. One reason why Kalaw becomes a travel attraction for Myanmar tourism is tourist prefer coming here for trekking. You can independently do a short walk around the area to witness the daily life of the tribal group or discover the mystery of Hnee Pagoda in a cave filled with golden Buddhas. Otherwise, you can rent local guide to go long-way hiking from here to other tourist attractions in Myanmar and perhaps on your way you may catch sight of fascinating heritages remaining from the colonization of Britain.

Bhamo (Bamaw)

Bhamo is a small peaceful town on the banks of the Irrawaddy River in southern. From other parts of the country, most tourists find information and get here by plane. Unless you are unhealthy, you should give it a shot to travel by boat on a picturesque journey along the river to reach this place. Bamaw itself is not glamorous but a pleasurable town to settle and chill out in Myanmar tourism. You may comfort yourself here thanks to warm-hearted residents and a scenic view of the local bamboo bridge.

by.Myanmar Tours

10 Great Reasons to Visit Myanmar

10 Great Reasons to Visit Myanmar

Whether you’ve travelled through Vietnam, Cambodia or Thailand in the past and are looking for a different experience in Southeast Asia, or you’re completely new to this side of the world, you simply cannot go amiss with a holiday in the beguiling country of Myanmar.

Need a reason to go? We’ll give you 10. From its stupa-filled plains and impressive golden palaces to its traditional culture and age-old religious practices, Myanmar is a destination still relatively untouched by tourism making there no better time to go. Still need convincing? This photography is sure to get you reaching for your passport.

1. For its stunning stupa-filled plains
We aren’t going to beat about the bush here. Just the mention of Myanmar conjures up the image of hot air balloons drifting serenely over the misty temple-strewn landscape of Bagan – and it’s certainly one of our favourite reasons for heading here.

2. For its unique culture and age-old traditions
Having been cut off from the western world for so many years, Myanmar has been fortunate to retain much of its culture and traditions. Whether its the unique style of fishermen on Inle Lake, respecting proper etiquette, or the monks’ daily morning collection of alms.

3. For its religious practices and rituals
Speaking of the daily morning ritual of Buddhist monks collecting alms, this is yet another reason to visit Myanmar. As a predominantly Buddhist nation, it’s fascinating to learn about their practices and beliefs and to see the importance their religion plays in the actions of everyday life.

4. For its impressive palaces and pagodas
Whilst Egypt has its ancient temples and tombs, and Russia has its impressive cathedrals and kremlins, in Myanmar the country is glittering with golden palaces and pagodas, each more impressive than the other. Perhaps the most famous is Karaweik Palace, in the capital of Yangon.

5. For its tasty street food
Just like its culture, this country’s cuisine has benefited from a lack of tourism meaning many of the original flavours and ways of preparing food are still in use. Try traditional dishes like Kat Kyi Hnyat – similar to Pad Thai, fried quail eggs or Danbauk curry.

6. For its floating gardens
The people of Myanmar like to do things a little differently and their floating gardens are the perfect example – gardens on water rather than on land, but somehow they make it work! You have to see it to believe it – with tomatoes and cucumbers growing out of grassy mounds bobbing on the water’s surface.

7. For its local interactions
The local people in Myanmar are incredibly friendly, and there’s not a chance you’ll leave the country without at least one memorable interaction. U Bein Bridge is a wonderful place to people watch and get chatting with the locals, plus you’ll often see monks here enjoying their evening stroll.

8. For its traditional handcrafts
Every country has its local crafts, and in Myanmar marionette puppetry is all the rage. Referred to locally as yoke thé, it’s a popular form of entertainment and you’ll easily find handcrafted puppets you can buy as souvenirs to take home with you.

9. For the confluence of old and new
Following on from Myanmar’s re-connection with the western world, things are beginning to change – and fast. It’s a fascinating place to witness the integration of old and new at its beginning stages, but with rapid development, you may not be able to witness it for long.

10. For its idyllic beaches
While Myanmar may not be your first thought for a beach break, it shouldn’t be so easily dismissed. Sun seekers will find respite on stunning stretches of beach along its coast, while offshore its tropical islands offer a tiny slice of paradise too – like Tafook Island in the Andaman Sea.

by Christine Fleitz

EARLY BURMESE IMPERIALISM

EARLY BURMESE IMPERIALISM

Burmese school children are taught that their country’s history begins in the town of Tagaung in the centre of Myanmar. It was here, the royal chronicles parport, that the first ever Kingdom of Myanmar was founded by the Sakiyan prince Abhiraja, who arrived from India millenia ago with his family and a motley band of followers. After his death, one of Abhiraja’s sons went on to found the Kingdom of Arakan, while the other succeeded his father and was followed in turn by 31 more kings. Descendants from this dynasty, the chronicles go on to state, founded the Kingdom of Prome to the south of the country, which lasted for 500 years before the succession of the medieval Bagan Empire.

Colonial scholars in British Burma and their successors today have taken a sceptical stance towards the story of Abhiraja. What is agreed upon, is that if thousands of years ago there ever was an Abhiraja, he would not have found the Burmese plains empty. Archeologists estimate that humans were likely to have lived in the region since 75,000 BC. In 2003 the BBC reported the discovery in Myanmar of a 45 million year old fossil, believed to be an ankle bone, that could suggest that our primate ancestors may have come out of not Africa but Asia, perhaps even Myanmar itself. Naturally there are many in the country who are more than happy to embrace this line of thought.

What is believed to have happened in the land we now call Myanmar between then and the Bagan Empire is mainly conjecture. It is estimated that by 1500 BC the inhabitants of Myanmar had moved along the Ayeyarwaddy and Chindwin Rivers. Bronze was being smelted in the Shan Hills to the East, and those in the Ayeyarwaddy Delta were some of the first in the world to domesticate the chicken.

In the years when Rome, Persia, the Mauryans in India and the Han Empire in China reigned from the north of England to the Sea of Japan, the valleys around the Ayeyarwaddy Delta were one of the rare patches left in peace. Not only made up of obscure and disparate tribes, around the Ayeyarwady there would also have been city states with cultures and languages quite distinct from their larger neighbours to either the east or west.

One of the largest (and possibly oldest) of these would have been the Pyu city of Hanlin (in today's Saging District), the oldest known place of civilisation in Myanmar. It is believed that the people of Hanlin later migrated south towards Sri Ksetra (near present-day Pyay or 'Prome') where much of the ancient city and stupas can be seen. Chinese travellers to the city reported that the citizens of Sri Ksetra were marked for their piety and lived by the custom to ‘love life and hate killing.’ The people of Sri Ksetra appeared to have existed largely untroubled until the 8th Century when hordes of the war-loving Nanzhao from the limestone hills around Lake Dali in West China raged through the land. Though bloody, Nanzhao supremacy was relatively short-lived. By the 10th Century they have faded from history, with their entire royal family being murdered in 902.

However, with the city-states of Myanmar in disarray, others from the north came where the Nanzhao had led, attracted by the fertile land and warm climate. Amongst these were the ‘Strong Horseman’, or in their own language, the ‘Myanma’.

The Burmese Chronicles claim that one of these Myanma, Pyusawthi, founded the Bagan Empire after vanquishing a great boar, a great bird, a great tiger and a flying squirrel, all of which had been terrorizing the local population. It is believed that Pyusawthi was in fact a descendant of the Nanzhao family, and with the lifestyle and customs he found on the banks of the Ayeyarwaddy, created a fusion of the two that was to be the foundation of modern Burmese culture. From this point on, Burma history becomes a little clearer.

It was a couple of centuries later that the city of Bagan became the Bagan Empire. Anawrahta, a descendant of Pyusawthi’s and Myanmar’s first ‘Great King’ (ie. a Bamar unifer and nation-builder), had seized the throne when still a teenager after killing his cousin in single combat, “his mother’s milk still wet upon his lips.” Anawrahta was to subjugate the surrounding principalities and unify a kingdom which well reflects the borders of modern-day Myanmar. The great scalp for Anawrahta came in 1057 when Thaton, capital of the Mon Empire to the South, was conquered, and the king Manuha was brought back to Bagan as captive. Alongside Manuha were 30,000 other Mon slaves, amongst them crafstmen and artists who would be instrumental in designing and building the many flamboyant temples of Bagan.

At the height of the Empire, Bagan became a centre of commerce, learning and spiritualism, with students, scholars and monks travelling from as far away as Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and the Khmer Empire (Cambodia.) Over the next couple of centuries the people of Bagan underwent a mind-boggling spree of pagoda and temple construction, up to almost 10,000, the ruins of which continue to draw scores of pilgrims and tourists today, almost a millennium later. The Bagan Empire also established Theravada Buddhism as the dominant strain in the country. Additionally, the earliest examples of Burmese script in its present form are dated back to Bagan.

Anawrahta's sucessors Sawlu, Kyansittha, Alaungsittha and Narapatisithu continued to push out the borders of Bagan. The Empire reached its greatest geographical extent under the reign of Narapatisithu (1174-1211) stretching down south to the Malay peninsula. However in 1273 King Narathihapate made the crucial error of executing the envoys of Kublai Khan. The Mongols eventually saw to the fall of the great Bagan Empire in 1287 (Narathihapate fled south to Pyay where he committed suicide.) Shan tribes from the hills to the east rushed in to take control of the low country, while the Mon from the south re-established their own kingdom around Hanthawaddy (modern-day Bago), as did the Arakanese in modern-day Rakhine State.

In the 16th Century, with Portuguese assistance, the country was united once more under the Toungoo Dynasty. After having subjugated the entirety of the land, King Tabinshweti picked up an insatiable thirst for alcohol, first introduced to him by a Portuguese courtier. With no longer an appetite for ruling, Tabinshweti began to lose the territories he had conquered, while his conduct in court became more manic and erratic. Matters were eventually taken in hand. The king was killed when out in the woods searching for a White Elephant, the Portuguese courtier was dismissed, and Tabinshweti’s general and old friend Bayinnaung took the throne.

Bayinnaung was the son of a lowly toddy-tapper but had risen through the ranks due to his force of character and millitary prowess. He was the second Great King of Myanmar and upon coming to power set about reconquering the land Tabinshweti had lost. Bayinnaung brought fire and sword to every renegade city, town and village, wielding the country together by force, and reaching deep into Laos and the Kingdom of Siam (Thailand), creating the largest empire in Southeast Asia of the time. One historian described Bayinnaung’s life as ‘the greatest explosion of human energy ever seen in Burma.’ Schoolboys in Myanmar read of his conquests as those in the West do of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. The legend of Bayinnaung feeds into the ensuing belief that a strong unified Myanmar requires iron fisted rule.

Two centuries later, Bayinnaung’s descendants were unable to quell a Mon rebellion from the south. Having overthrown the dynasty, the Mon themselves were then faced with their own uprising, and were soon meshed into war with the Burmese north, led by one Aung Zeyya, from modern day Shwebo. In May 1755 Aung Zeyya took the fishing village of Dagon and renamed it ‘Rangoon’, meaning ‘end of strife.’ Shortly afterwards Bago, the Mon capital, was also taken and Aung Zeyya rechristened himself Alangpaya, meaning ‘the future Buddha.’ He is the founder of the last ever Burmese Kingdom, the Konbaung Dynasty, and the third Great King of Myanmar.

For the Mon, their long held dreams of their own empire were sundered forever. The destruction of Mon-speaking society in the south not only doused the chances of another uprising but also led to a more compact ethnic nationalism throughout the Ayeyarwady Delta.

Alangpaya continued fighting his way south, eventually sacking the great Siam city of Aythaya in 1766. The Siamese retreated back to form a new base, which was later to be known as Bangkok.

THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE

THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE

In the early years of the 20th Century there were protests throughout British Burma. The first major uprising was in the 1930s, led by a farmer called Saya San who aimed to force out the British and crown himself king. He attracted thousands of peasants to his cause and it was only suppressed by the British with great difficulty. However, suppressed it eventually was, culminating in Saya San and over one hundred other rebels being hanged.

Following Saya San, most organised dissent was instigated by monks and students, both against colonial rule and in response to Indian and Chinese immigration. These students referred to each other as thakin - a term for ‘master’ usually reserved for the British - as a way of stating their claim to be the true masters of the country. Their first major protests erupted around 1938, known as the 1300 Revolution due to the date in the Bhuddhist calendar. Strikes by employees of the Burmah Oil Company led to nationwide protests. The British crackdown claimed 33 lives, including 13 unarmed protestors shot dead in Mandalay.

Aung San, he was also the editor of the student newspaper at Rangoon University and president of the All Burma Students’ Union. At 26 years old he left with 30 others to Japan, there to seek support for the struggle against colonial rule and to receive military training. They returned with the invading Japanese in 1941. These 30 former students were now the first troops of the Burmese Independence Army (BIA).

The Japanese invasion of British Burma was swift and clinical. The Imperial Army first entered the country in mid January 1942, at Victoria Point, the southernmost tip of mainland Burma. By March 7th the Allies were retreating from a burning Rangoon, and by May the Japanese had taken full control of the country. Myanmar History - Aung San BNA - Sampan Travel Burma had now joined the theatre of war, and it soon became clear to Aung San - now General or ‘Bogyoke’ Aung San - that the Japanese had no intention of relinquishing their control over the country. The BIA came to regard the new occupying force as worse than the British. Aung San said that though under the British the Burmese had been handled like oxen, under the Japanese they were treated as dogs. Led by Aung San, the BIA renamed themselves the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPFL) and turned their sights upon those who were supposed to be their country’s saviours.

Under the command of General Slim, with the assistance of the BIA and the many guerilla forces amongst the Kachin, Chin, and Kachin who had remained loyal to the British, the Allies eventually drove the Japanese out of Burma in 1945. In January 1947, General Aung San visited British Prime Minister Clement Atlee at 10 Downing Street and negotiated terms for Burma to gain independence within the year. Back in Burma, Aung San met with Shan, Chin, and Kachin leaders (but not the Karen with who relations had been sorely tested during the war) to sign the Panglong Agreement, bringing them into the independent Union of Burma but also promising that these ethnic races could dictate their own political future if they were unhappy with the situation after a decade. On the 19th of July 1947, an armed group of paramilitaries of Aung San’s political rival U Saw broke into a meeting of the Executive Council chaired by the General, and assassinated him and six of his cabinet ministers, including his older brother Ba Win. Aung San was only 32.

Despite his short life, Aung San’s leading role in bringing about Burmese independence and thus shaping modern Myanmar cannot be understated. Of this, Maurice Collis, a British administrator in Burma during colonial rule, wrote:

‘His coming […] was a symptom of the age. […] so it is always in the careers of great men. They appear when the moment is ripe. The British were all set to grant Burma her liberation. They had their plan how this should come about, and wanted the satisfaction of carrying it out themselves. The role of liberator was in the air; there was rivalry for it. Dorman-Smith planned for years in the hope of filling it. Mountbatten was not indifferent to its attractions. Atlee and the Labour Government recognized that it would suit them to perfection. On the Burmese side there were many competitors, Paw Tun for one and U Saw for another. Yet the historical process which produced all these would-be liberators had its central figure in Aung San.’

U Saw was swiftly arrested and hanged by the British. Much mystery still surrounds the assassination. Due to the fact that weapons had recently been sold to U Saw by low-ranking British officers, there are conspiracy theories that the assassination was an act of the British Government. Others point the finger at the Burmese General Ne Win, who would later cease power.

Aung San continues to be regarded as a national hero today, celebrated as the ‘architect of Burmese freedom.’ The 19th of July, ‘Martyrs’ Day’, remains a day of national mourning. Although it is anyone's guess how Aung San would have ruled if he had been given the chance, due to his success as a unifying figure directly after WW2, many believe that much of the civil conflict and strife that the country has since suffered might have been averted had he lived.

Following the assassination, U Nu, the country’s foreign minister during Japanese occupation, was asked to lead both the AFPFL and the government, and the following year was sworn in as the country’s first Prime Minister. At midnight on January 4th 1948, Sir Hubert Rance, the last Governor of British Burma, met with Burmese politicians in Fytche Square (now Maha Bandoola Square) and in the presence of cheering crowds the Union Jack was lowered for the final time and the new flag of the Union of Burma was hauled up in its place. Burma had left the British Commonwealth and become an independent nation once more.

Anglo-Burmese wars

Anglo-Burmese wars

With China being a much bigger force to the east, and Siam gaining more ground in the south-east, King Bodawpaya (the fourth son of Alaungpaya), decided west was the best option to increase the size of his empire. Several invasions were successful during his lifetime – conquering Arakan, Manipur and Assam, which now gave them a border with British India. In 1819, King Bagyidaw, (Bodawpaya’s grandson and next on the throne) was faced with several rebellions in Manipur, instigated by the British who protected the Indian territories of the border. This led to a series of three Anglo-Burmese Wars between 1824 and 1886. Each resulted in further control of Burma by the British Empire, which ended in the annexation of Upper Burma and the entire country becoming a province of India under the control of the British Raj.

Despite a constant resistance during this time, Burma would not see independence again for over 60 years until after WWII.

World War II – Japanese Occupation & Communist uprising
The chaos of the Second World War opened up several unexpected options to the Burmese people. Some believed that helping the British could be exchanged for increased control of their country again, while others wanted to avoid the war altogether. Aung San, co-founder of the Communist Party of Burma and others in a movement known as Thakins, were part of the latter. Aung San became a key figure in Burma’s future, working with several groups including politically active monks and Ba Maw’s Poor Man’s Party, the Freedom Bloc, and eventually the Burma Independence Army (BIA). The BIA was set up in anticipation of the Japanese invasion of Burma in 1942 and formed a temporary government in some areas. The Japanese decided that having a political uprising in Burma would be beneficial to them, so alongside Ba Maw and Aung San, worked to create the Burma Defence Army (BDA) out of the BIA, with promises of independence after the war. It became apparent to the BDA and Aung San that independence was never really going to happen, and Ba Maw had been deceived.

This led to negotiations with several Communist & Socialist leaders to create the Anti-Fascist Organisation in August 1944, which identified fascism as the main enemy and called for the Allies and British cooperation for temporary support to rebel against the Japanese.

The alliance resulted in the Japanese being routed out of Burma by May 1945, and the forces were disarmed following the Kandy conference in Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) in September 1945.

During the Japanese occupation, 170,000 – 250,000 civilians died.

A Brief History of Burma

A Brief History of Burma 

Pyu City-States
Although there are signs of cultures existing as early as 11,000 BCE (a long, long time ago..!) with findings of stone tools, domesticated animals and also following evidence of bronze age and iron age up until 200 BCE. The first inhabitants on record were the Pyu (arriving in Yunnan in the 2nd century BCE), who had their origins in present-day Qinghai and Gansu (China). They also established trade routes between China and India which introduced Buddhism to the area from South India. They founded most of the central city-states of Burma, creating roughly 18 states in the Irrawaddy valley.

According to early Chinese records, they were peaceful people who wore cotton-silk, rather than pure silk, so they weren’t harming the silkworms (they sound like our kind of people!). The Pyu remained part of the area until they became merged into the Burman kingdom of Pagan in the 11th century.

Pagan Dynasty to Taungoo Kingdom (849 – 1752)
The Burmans joined smaller raids on the Pyu states with the Nanzhao, and remained in upper Burma, creating small strategic settlements around the Chindwin River in the Irrawaddy valley by the mid-9th century to pacify the other inhabitants of the region over time. Over the next few hundred years, these settlements grew, allowing the Nanzhao to become part of the area with minimum conflict.

This led to the Pagan Empire’s rising in 1044 with the ascension of a new leader, Anawrahta Minsaw, uniting several kingdoms into one empire within 30 years. By the 12th century, Pagan had become a dominant power in south-east Asia alongside the Khmer Empire, Song dynasty of China, and Chola dynasty of India. Anawrahta – considered the Father of Burma – was responsible for developing Burma’s social, religious and economic foundations, which are still part of today’s culture. However, in 1277, the Mongols began to invade and weaken the area after seeing cracks in the crown’s control of the country and by 1297 the Myinsaing Kingdom, a neighbouring kingdom who had managed to fend off the Mongol invasions, had taken over.

The Myinsaing Kingdom was to be short-lived, and the area was split into four smaller kingdoms: Ava, Hanthawaddy, Shan States and Arakan. This became a turbulent period, with rebellions and external attacks. There was little stability in the region until 1599, where the country was reunified as a Restored Taungoo Kingdom (which included some areas of current Thailand and China). The then King, Thalun, rebuilt the chaotic country and ordered the first census in 1635, introduced a legal and political system, as well as appointing governorships to the Irrawaddy valley. This stability created a prosperous economy for almost a century, and the kingdom was at peace for the most of what remained of the 17th century.

A Short History of Burma

A Short History of Burma

Beginnings
Colonial historians of Burma claimed that its earliest civilizations had been founded under Indian influence and could not date back much beyond 500 CE. However, recent research indicates that civilization in Burma’s Irawaddy valley is very old – 3,500 years ago its inhabitants were farming rice, raising livestock and using bronze implements. In the fourth century, however, this civilization underwent its defining moment when it adopted South India’s Theravada style of Buddhism. Today over 80 per cent of Burma’s people are Buddhist and the country has the largest number of monks as a percentage of the total population.

Burma emerges
By the ninth century a group of people from the north, the Bamar, gained prominence and founded the powerful kingdom of Pagan (today’s Bagan). Old city states gave way to a more unified administration, which reached it’s apogee during the reign of king Anawrahta (or Aniruddha) who successfully unified all of Burma by 1057. The line of kings that followed him constructed thousands of pagodas, and also monasteries, libraries and colleges. Their harnessing of water resources led to a surge in rice production.

However, the Buddhist kingdom was isolated from its geographical neighbours who followed other religions. The growing influence of the monkhood over resources prompted a decline, inviting Mongol and Tartar invasions. The succeeding centuries would be marked by divisions, as various ruling dynasties rose and fell, and territories under their control underwent constant permutation.

Bayinnaung’s empire
The next unifier of Burma would emerge in the mid-sixteenth century. Bayinnaung was an expansionist ruler who waged relentless war in order to gain increasingly larger areas of territory. His aggression is much admired by the military rulers of today’s Burma, for whom he is a role model. Upon his death in 1581 at 66 years of age his rule stretched over almost all of Burma, Thailand and Laos. But such dominion, won at great cost, was difficult to hold on to, and soon after his death sections of his empire began to fall away.

Wars with Britain
Burmese expansionism in the late eighteenth century caused strife with China, but it was Burmese general Maha Bandula’s conquest of Assam in 1824 that would pit Burma against an enemy that would come to occupy it – Britain. Whereas the first Anglo-Burmese War (1824-1826) was fought to regain territory that Burma had wrested away from British India, by the time of the third war in 1885, which resulted in the total annexation of Burma, other factors were at play. The British viewed Burma not so much as land that they definitely needed to control, but as a market they needed to capture and as a backdoor to lucrative trade with China.

A province of India
The British made Burma a province of India in 1886 and instigated far-reaching changes to the country’s make up. Indians were brought in to fill civil-service jobs and the business interests of Indians and Chinese in Burma were encouraged, which bred resentment in many Burmese people. Agriculture was geared towards export and Burma became the world’s largest exporter of rice. Resistance to British rule continued in the northern territories up until 1890, when the British finally destroyed entire villages in order to halt guerrilla activity – a tactic still favoured by today’s military junta. Here, as elsewhere, divide-and-rule was characteristic of British governance, with certain ethnic groups being favoured over others, creating clashes of loyalties.

The new masters
Protests by university students in 1920 were the first signs of renewed resistance against British rule. Strikes and anti-tax protests followed, with Buddhist monks playing a prominent role and even leading armed rebellion. Rangoon University was a hotbed of radicalism and a young law student, Aung San, gained increasing prominence in the movement for national autonomy. He and fellow student Nu (a later Prime Minister of Burma) joined the thakin movement. The name, which translates as ‘master’, was an appropriation of the term colonial subjects in Burma had to use for the British. Now it signified that Burmese citizens wanted to be masters of their own destiny.

World War manoeuvres
The start of the Second World War saw the administration of Burma separated from India. For some nationalists the War presented an opportunity to gain concessions towards autonomy in return for Burmese support in the hostilities, but the thakins rejected any participation in the war. The nationalists drew much inspiration from Marxist ideas and the Sinn Féin movement in Ireland. Aung San co-founded the Communist Party of Burma. He sought contact with Chinese communists, but the Japanese authorities got to him first, promising military training and support for a national uprising. Aung San and 29 other young men, known as the Thirty Comrades, left for Hainan Island in China (which was under Japanese occupation) for the promised training. The deal was that the Japanese would help Burma rid itself of the British colonialists and grant independence. But with the Japanese invasion of Burma in 1942 came the growing realization that one set of colonialists had been exchanged for another. Aung San then quickly changed sides and negotiated with the British to drive out the Japanese. Having had his brush with the imperial ambitions of Japan, he was also one of the founders of the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPFL). The Japanese were successfully expelled from Burma in May 1945. However, many parts of the country lay in ruins, devastated by warfare.

credit-

Pagan Empire (1044–1287)

Pagan Empire (1044–1287)

Over the next 30 years, Anawrahta founded the Pagan Kingdom, unifying for the first time the regions that would later constitute the modern-day Burma. Anawrahta's successors by the late 12th century had extended their influence farther south into the upper Malay Peninsula, at least to the Salween River in the east, below the current China border in the farther north, and to the west, northern Arakan and the Chin Hills. The Burmese Chronicles claim Pagan's suzerainty over the entire Chao Phraya Valley, and the Thai chronicles include the lower Malay Peninsula down to the Strait of Malacca to Pagan's realm.

By the early 12th century, Pagan had emerged as a major power alongside the Khmer Empire in Southeast Asia, recognised by Song China and the Chola dynasty of India. Well into the mid-13th century, most of mainland Southeast Asia was under some degree of control of either the Pagan Empire or the Khmer Empire.

Anawrahta also implemented a series of key social, religious and economic reforms that would have a lasting impact in Burmese history. His social and religious reforms later developed into the modern-day culture of Burma. The most important development was the introduction of Theravada Buddhism to Upper Burma after Pagan's conquest of the Thaton Kingdom in 1057. Supported by royal patronage, the Buddhist school gradually spread to the village level in the next three centuries although Vajrayana Buddhist, Mahayana, Hindu, and animism remained heavily entrenched at all social strata.

Pagan's economy was primarily based on the Kyaukse agricultural basin northeast of the capital, and Minbu, south of Bagan, where the Bamars had built a large number of new weirs and diversionary canals. It also benefited from external trade through its coastal ports. The wealth of the kingdom was devoted to building over 10,000 Buddhist temples in the Pagan capital zone between 11th and 13th centuries (of which 3000 remain to the present day). The wealthy donated tax-free land to religious authorities.

The Burmese language and culture gradually became dominant in the upper Irrawaddy valley, eclipsing the Pyu and Pali norms by the late 12th century. By then, the Bamar leadership of the kingdom was unquestioned. The Pyu had largely assumed the Bamar ethnicity in Upper Burma. The Burmese language, once an alien tongue, was now the lingua franca of the kingdom.

The kingdom went into decline in the 13th century as the continuous growth of tax-free religious wealth—by the 1280s, two-thirds of Upper Burma's cultivable land had been alienated to the religion—affected the crown's ability to retain the loyalty of courtiers and military servicemen. This ushered in a vicious circle of internal disorders and external challenges by Mons, Mongols and Shans.

Beginning in the early 13th century, the Shan began to encircle the Pagan Empire from the north and the east. The Mongols, who had conquered Yunnan, the former homeland of the Bamar, in 1253, began their invasion in 1277, and in 1287 sacked Pagan, ending the Pagan Kingdom's 250-year rule of the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery. Pagan's rule of central Burma came to an end ten years later in 1297 when it was toppled by the Myinsaing Kingdom.

After the fall of Pagan, the Mongols left the searing Irrawaddy valley but the Pagan Kingdom was irreparably broken up into several small kingdoms. By the mid-14th century, the country had become organised along four major power centres: Upper Burma, Lower Burma, Shan States and Arakan. Many of the power centres were themselves made up of (often loosely held) minor kingdoms or princely states. This era was marked by a series of wars and switching alliances. Smaller kingdoms played a precarious game of paying allegiance to more powerful states, sometimes simultaneously.

Index ranks Myanmar fourth in military power in Southeast Asia

Index ranks Myanmar fourth in military power in Southeast Asia

Myanmar ranked 31st in the 2017 Global Firepower Index, which categorises the military strength of 133 countries based on 50 factors, including military budget, manpower and equipment, among others.

In Southeast Asia, Myanmar has the fourth strongest armed forces behind Indonesia at 14th, Vietnam at 16th and Thailand at 20th, according to the index.

China scored the highest among Asia’s militaries, occupying the third place behind global powerhouses United States and Russia in the first two places, respectively.

Other Asian countries boosting powerful militaries are India at 4th, Japan at 7th, South Korea at 12th, Pakistan at 13th and Taiwan at 18th.

The Global Firepower Index showed Myanmar with 516,000 military personnel, including 406,000 in active service and 110,000 in reserve. 

It noted that 21.63 million of the country’s over 56 million people are fit for military service.

In terms of strength, Myanmar has 592 combat tanks, 1358 armoured fighting vehicles, 108 self-propelled artillery pieces, 884 towed artillery pieces and 108 rocket launchers.

The country’s air assets consist of 56 fighter aircraft, 77 attack aircraft, 97 transport aircraft, 58 trainer aircraft and 86 helicopters, nine of which are attack helicopters.

Its navy assets comprise five frigates, three corvettes, 40 patrol craft and one mine warfare vessel.

Myanmar’s military budget in 2017 amounted to US$2.4 billion (K3.21 trillion), according to the Global Firepower Index.

Tatmadaw - Defense Services / Armed Forces

Tatmadaw - Defense Services / Armed Forces

Burma's armed forces have dominated all aspects of Burmese life since General Ne Win's military coup of March 1962. In recent years, however, greater emphasis has been given to more conventional defense roles. Strategy is based on the preservation of unity, the protection of sovereignty, and the defense of Burma against external threats.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, led by an active-duty military general who is nominated by the armed forces commander-in-chief in accordance with the constitution, oversees the Myanmar Police Force (MPF), which is largely responsible for law enforcement and maintenance of order, although the Defense Services Office of the Chief of Military Security Affairs also plays a significant role in the maintenance of law and order, particularly in conflict areas. As such, lines of authority for internal security may be blurred. For example, during the operations in Rakhine State beginning in August 2017, military commanders assumed primary control over all security arrangements and appeared to wield considerable operational influence over the Border Guard Police, which are also overseen by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

If called upon to do so, the army would fight hard and well to defend the country but would be unable to cope with a well-prepared enemy armed with modern weapon systems. The army has scored a number of significant military successes against insurgents since 1988 but would still find it difficult to defeat a committed rebel group which was well established in the rugged border areas of the country. On numerous occasions since the 1962 coup, the Burmese Army has shown ruthless efficiency in crushing political dissent. Any unrest within its own ranks has also met with the same result.

The Myanmar Armed Forces, officially known as Tatmadaw, is the military organization of Myanmar. The Tatmadaw has dominated Burma's politics since the Japanese and British occupation of Burma until today. The armed forces are administered by the Ministry of Defence and are composed of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. Auxiliary services include Myanmar Police Force, People Militia Units and Frontier Forces, locally known as Na Sa Kha.

Although the nation took pride in its precolonial military traditions, the roots of the modern defense establishment lay in two very different military organizations, the British colonial army during the colonial period, and the Burma Independence Army (BIA) and its successors. The former, organized to serve British colonial interests, was manned primarily by Indians and by Burmese ethnic minorities. Widely resented by ethnic Burmans during the colonial period, the Burma Army was thoroughly discredited in the eyes of most Burmese by its hasty retreat before advancing Japanese forces in 1942.

When the British attempted to reestablish colonial rule in 1945, a new Burma Army was formed from a merger of the old colonial forces and the Patriotic Burmese Forces (PBF). Under the terms of an agreement between General Aung San and the British, the PBF was disbanded, some of its members entering the new army as part of five battalions of the Burma Rifles. Only an estimated 200 PBF officers were incorporated into the new structure, the top leadership of which remained in British hands. In theory, the Burman units differed only in name from Shan, Chin, Kachin, and Karen battalions that had been established at the same time in recognition of wartime contributions to the British cause. In practice, however, the four minority ethnic battalions and the five Burman ones, including the Fourth Burma Rifles led by Brigadier Ne Win, were clearly separated by ethnic cleavages and by differing military traditions and experiences.

The underlying defects in both the merger solution and the structure of the army itself quickly became apparent. The surplus of PBF members entered a private army, called the People's Volunteer Organization (PVO), which was allied with AFPFL. PVO branches were soon established in most districts and townships and came to represent a parallel and sometimes competing authority within the state. These problems were compounded by political disagreements among nationalist leaders who, though unified under the AFPFL rubric, represented a wide spectrum of ideologies and beliefs.Their differences were transmitted to PVO units and to the component battalions of the Burma Army, whcrc many leaders served or maintained close contacts.

After General Aung San's assassination in July 1947, no nationalist leader had the requisite authority and prestige to stem the growing political chaos or to compel unity in the military. Immediately after independence, civil war erupted, and the new national army, which contained small naval and air elements, was wracked by mutinies in the ranks of some minority ethnic battal- ions and by widespread defections to the communist underground in the Burman ones.

The army emerged from these crises shorn of most of its ideological extremes, its leadership united in experience and firmly committed to establishing a unified and oderly socialist nation and to developing defense forces better able to perform those tasks. During the early and mid-1950s, the military continued to press against rebel forces and consolidate its own organization. Under the direction of the army commander, General Ne Win, the number of ground force battalions was greatly expanded. More importantly, all units were ethnically integrated, eliminating what had been a serious source of internal friction in the defense services. The army and navy were also confirmed as separate branches.

Since 1948 the Burmese armed forces have been committed almost entirely to the restoration of internal security. During the three years 1980-1983 alone, Burmese armed strength increased from about 60,000 to about 78,000 men (including an estimated 60,000 in the army, 14,000 in the National Union Military Police, about 2,200 in the navy,and 1,900 in the air force), but the army still lacked sufficient strength to mount simultaneous offensives against all the insurgent forces in Burma.

While charged with civil policing functions, the Paramilitary Forces Police - numbering some 50,000 by 1997 - is armed and essentially functions as an adjunct to the army, particularly in the control of political dissent. Many senior police officers have either been seconded from the army or have had military service. There are police stations in all major population centers.

Burma is the only country in Southeast Asia to be steadily increasing the size of its armed forces. Dominated by the Army, a strong and increasingly well-armed force, the military is now double the size of what it was in 1988. After the coup in 1988, the SLORC immediately arranged for the importation of a range of small arms, support weapons, and ammunition to replenish the army's depleted supply and to help guard against further challenges to military rule. Next the SLORC began a massive build-up and modernization program. This also included expanding the domestic arms industry. To best utilize and manage this massive expansion, build-up, and modernization a new command and control, communications, intelligence, and training structure has been instituted.

In mid-1988, Burma's armed forces personnel numbered approximately 186,000. The army was the largest at 170,000, air force 9,000, and the navy 7,000. There were an additional 73,000 personnel in the paramilitary People's Police Force and People's Militia who might have been able to perform a limited combat role. After the SLORC's expansion program, these numbers increased to 270,000-300,000 personnel (army-275,000; air force-10,000; navy-15,000) to date. It is reported that the goal was to have 500,000 well equipped personnel by 2000. Currently, after Vietnam, Burma has the next largest army in South East Asia and may become the largest if Vietnam continues its troop reductions.

Myanmar 101: Burma in World War II

Myanmar 101: Burma in World War II

A timeline of the Japanese invasion, British defeat, Allied reoccupation and political turmoil that would set the stage for an independent Burma.

July 7, 1937: Japan invades China

Under the command of Kuomintang Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, the Chinese Nationalists begin work in 1937 on the 1,154-kilometre (717-mile) Burma Road, connecting Kunming in Yunnan with Lashio, and ultimately Rangoon, to help supply their beleaguered forces in China.  

The Burma Road – along with Burma’s rubber, oil and other resources, and the country’s proximity to British India – make the country instrumental to Japan’s plans to dominate Asia.

August 14, 1940: Aung San flees Burma as a political fugitive

Aung San, then a 25-year-old activist, would soon be recruited by the Japanese to nurture an anti-colonial movement in Burma along with a hand-picked team that would be known as the “Thirty Comrades”.

December 8, 1941: The last days of peace

Japan forces Thailand into an armistice and immediately attacks British Malaya, the Philippines and Hong Kong. Already embroiled in a war in Europe, Britain declares war on the Empire of Japan.

Burma was only defended by two divisions – the 17th Indian Division and the 1st Burma Division – but at the time the Allies, underestimating Burma’s strategic value and overestimating its jungles, mountains and rivers as natural defences, did not expect an invasion by the Imperial Japanese Army.

December 14, 1941: The Japanese invasion

Japanese forces begin the invasion of Burma by capturing a British airfield at Victoria Point (Kawthaung) at the country’s southern tip, cutting off British reinforcements bound for Malaya.

The Allied Commander-in-Chief, India, General Archibald Wavell, (who had previously fought the Germans in North Africa) scrambles to rally Burmese forces for a counterattack with assistance from the Chinese Nationalists, but it is too late.

December 23, 1941: Bombing of Rangoon

Fighter planes from the British Royal Air Force and the 1st American Volunteer Group (the “Flying Tigers”) fight valiantly, but continued attacks over the coming months will devastate the city.

February 19, 1942: First Japanese bombs fall on Mandalay

February 22, 1942: The battle of Sittaung Bridge

Retreating ahead of a smaller but more experience Japanese force, the 17th India Division – comprising British, Indian and Burmese troops – makes a stand at the bridge over the Sittaung River (about 140 kilometres by road northeast of Rangoon). The Battle of the Sittaung Bridge is a disaster. Allied forces destroy the bridge to slow the Japanese advance, inadvertently trapping two Indian brigades on the eastern side of the river.

The Japanese find another way to cross the river and continue their rapid advance on Rangoon.

March 9, 1942: Japanese enter Rangoon

After days of bitter fighting at Pegu (Bago) and Taukkyan, British forces secure a retreat towards Mandalay. The Japanese Imperial Army enters an undefended Rangoon.

As Chinese Nationalist forces head for Yunnan, retreating British and Indian troops, together with thousands of British and Indian civilians, endure a grim journey towards the safety of northeastern India. Thousands of civilians perish from hunger and disease during the exodus through mountains and jungles to the Indian border.

May 1, 1942: Aung San and the Thirty Comrades return

As the Japanese plotted their invasion of Southeast Asia, they had been nurturing an anti-British network in Rangoon and giving General Aung San and the other members of the Thirty Comrades military training on Hainan Island, then occupied by the Japanese. Most of the Thirty Comrades, the nucleus of the Burma Independence Army, had returned with invading Japanese forces through southern Burma in 1941.

In the coming months, under the guidance of Japan’s Colonel Keiji Suzuki (who called himself Bo Mogyo, or “Thunderbolt”), the BIA’s efforts to recruit volunteers were aided by the nationalist sentiment it aroused.

The BIA would grow to about 18,000 soldiers, although many were untrained and underequipped and there were problems with maintaining discipline.

The BIA (which would be refined and re-branded the Burma Defence Army, a forerunner of the Tatmadaw) saw some action but left the heaviest fighting to the Japanese. However, tensions grew between the Bamar and ethnic minority groups that had been loyal to the British, including the large Karen population in the Irrawaddy Delta. Mutual suspicion ended in violence and atrocities on both sides and the suppression of the Karen planted the seeds for what would become a 70-year civil war.

May 20, 1942: Japanese complete conquest of Burma

August 1, 1943: Japan grants “independence” to Burma

The Japanese establish a provisional Burmese government with pre-war nationalist leader Dr Ba Maw as its head and Aung San as Minister of War. The Burma Defence Army is re-named the Burma National Army.

Ba Maw’s government was fond of pomp and showboating, but the Japanese clearly held power. Life under the Japanese was as often brutal, with constant arrests, interrogations, executions, looting, sex slavery and forced labour.

Burmese were among the 180,000 Asian forced labourers and 60,000 Allied prisoners-of-war who toiled on the infamous Death Railway, built by the Japanese to link Kanchanaburi in Thailand with Thanbyuzayat, about 60 kilometres south of Moulmein. The barbaric conditions under which they were forced to work claimed the lives of about 90,000 Asians and 12,400 Allied POWs.

March 1944: Japanese launch failed attempt to invade India

With the Americans steadily advancing across the Pacific and the Axis powers in  retreat, the Japanese throw everything they have into a doomed attempt to invade India through the border town of Imphal, in northeastern Mizoram State.

The defeat of the Japanese at Imphal and nearby Kohima is a turning point that leads to the rout of their forces in Burma. Allied forces are assisted by British and Indian special operations units known as the Chindits, who conduct operations far behind Japanese lines to disrupt the delivery of supplies.

January 19-March 29, 1945: The battles at Meiktila and Mandalay

Allied forces begin their gradual reconquest of Burma, memorably described by Field Marshal William Slim, commander of the British 14th Army, in his book, Defeat into Victory. The 14th Army crosses the Irrawaddy and Chindwin rivers.

To secure central Burma, British forces send a diversionary assault to Mandalay while deploying a greater force to capture Meiktila to the south. The offensive would be long and brutal (and end in the almost total destruction of both cities), but would prove the death blow to the Japanese army in Burma.  

January 22, 1945: “Battle of Hill 170” secures Arakan and Chin Hills for the Allies

March 1, 1945: Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League formed in Rangoon

The Allies race to capture Rangoon before the start of the rainy season. Meanwhile, a resistance movement has been brewing in the capital. It is headed by Aung San (who has eschewed his former pro-fascist rhetoric) and other nationalist leaders, who form the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League and begin secretly colluding with the Allies.

March 27, 1945: The Thirty Comrades change sides

On what is now honoured as Armed Forces Day, Aung San marches the BNA out of Rangoon on the pretence of fighting the advancing British only to turn on the Japanese and assist the Allies in capturing the capital.

May 3, 1945: British forces enter Rangoon unopposed

On May 16, Aung San meets Slim at Meiktila and tells him of the AFPFL’s intention to help the Allies drive the last of the Japanese from Burma. Slim later describes Aung San as a promising candidate to lead Burma after the war.

Burma is a shambles. Rangoon has been devastated by air raids and plundered by the retreating Japanese, and major cities such as Meiktila and Mandalay are in ruins.

The AFPFL shares a boisterous political landscape with returning politicians, communist and socialist groups, resistance fighters and ethnic militias – many of whom had given their everything to fight the Japanese and want a place in the future of their nation.

The war in Burma is over, but modern Myanmar’s troubles are just beginning.

By JARED DOWNING | FRONTIER

Royal Burmese armed forces

Royal Burmese armed forces

The Royal Armed Forces were the armed forces of the Burmese monarchy from the 9th to 19th centuries. It refers to the military forces of the Pagan Dynasty, the Ava Kingdom, the Toungoo Dynasty and the Konbaung Dynasty in chronological order. The army was one of the major armed forces of Southeast Asia until it was defeated by the British over a six-decade span in the 19th century.

The army was organised into a small standing army of a few thousand, which defended the capital and the palace, and a much larger conscript-based wartime army. Conscription was based on the ahmudan system, which required local chiefs to supply their predetermined quota of men from their jurisdiction on the basis of population in times of war.The wartime army also consisted of elephantry, cavalry, artillery and naval units.

Firearms, first introduced from China in the late 14th century, became integrated into strategy only gradually over many centuries. The first special musket and artillery units, equipped with Portuguese matchlocks and cannon, were formed in the 16th century. Outside the special firearm units, there was no formal training program for the regular conscripts, who were expected to have a basic knowledge of self-defense, and how to operate the musket on their own. As the technological gap between European powers widened in the 18th century, the army was dependent on Europeans' willingness to sell more sophisticated weaponry.

While the army held more than its own against the armies of the kingdom's neighbors, its performance against more technologically advanced European armies deteriorated over time. It defeated the Portuguese and French intrusions in the 17th and 18th centuries respectively but the army could not stop the advance of the British in the 19th century, losing all three Anglo-Burmese wars. On 1 January 1886, the millennium-old Burmese monarchy and its military arm, the Royal Burmese Armed Forces, were formally abolished by the British.

The Burmese name Tatmadaw is still the official name for today's armed forces.

From the Japanese surrender to Aung San's assassination

From the Japanese surrender to Aung San's assassination

The surrender of the Japanese brought a military administration to Burma. British administration sought to try Aung San and other members of BIA for treason and collaboration with the Japanese. Lord Mountbatten realised that a trial was an impossibility considering Aung San's popular appeal. After the war ended, the British Governor, Colonel Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith, returned. The restored government established a political programme that focused on the physical reconstruction of the country and delayed discussion of independence. The AFPFL opposed the government leading to political instability in the country. A rift had also developed in the AFPFL between the Communists and Aung San together with the Socialists over strategy, which led to Than Tun being forced to resign as general secretary in July 1946 and the expulsion of the CPB from the AFPFL the following October.

Dorman-Smith was replaced by Major-General Sir Hubert Rance as the new Governor, and almost immediately after his appointment, the Rangoon Police went on strike. The strike, starting in September 1946, then spread from the police to government employees and came close to becoming a general strike. Rance calmed the situation by meeting with Aung San and convincing him to join the Governor's Executive Council along with other members of the AFPFL. The new executive council, which now had increased credibility in the country, began negotiations for Burmese independence, which were concluded successfully in London as the Aung San-Attlee Agreement on 27 January 1947.

The agreement left parts of the communist and conservative branches of the AFPFL dissatisfied, sending the Red Flag Communists led by Thakin Soe underground and the conservatives into opposition. Aung San also succeeded in concluding an agreement with ethnic minorities for a unified Burma at the Panglong Conference on 12 February, celebrated since as 'Union Day'. Shortly after, rebellion broke out in the Arakan led by the veteran monk U Seinda, and it began to spread to other districts.[13] The popularity of the AFPFL, now dominated by Aung San and the Socialists, was eventually confirmed when it won an overwhelming victory in the April 1947 constituent assembly elections.

Then a momentous event stunned the nation on 19 July 1947. U Saw, a conservative pre-war Prime Minister of Burma, engineered the assassination of Aung San and several members of his cabinet including his eldest brother Ba Win, the father of today's National League for Democracy exile-government leader Dr Sein Win, while meeting in the Secretariat. Since then 19 July has been commemorated since as Martyrs' Day in Burma. Thakin Nu, the Socialist leader, was now asked to form a new cabinet, and he presided over Burmese independence instituted under the Burma Independence Act 1947 on 4 January 1948. Burma chose to become a fully independent republic, and not a British Dominion upon independence. This was in contrast to the independence of India and Pakistan which both resulted in the attainment of dominion status. This may have been on account of anti-British popular sentiment being strong in Burma at the time.

water donation everywhere in myanmar

medical care in everywhere

AA terrorists Blowing up land mines NEWS