Myanmar, or Burma as it is still more familiarly known in the West, is a country where magnificent and ancient Buddhist temples gaze out serenely over a nation restless for change. Myanmar has plenty of wonders for the eye, sinuous life-giving rivers, lush mountain forests, and intricately-drawn cities.
Myanmar's coastline defines the eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal, running from the Bangladesh border in the northwest down to the Malay Peninsula and Thai territory in the southeast. Southern Myanmar consists largely of the western slopes of the Bilauktaung Range, which constitutes the northern base of the Malay Peninsula. Northern Myanmar, which comprises the great bulk of the country's area, consists largely of the broad river valley of the Irrawaddy. Originating high up in the very eastern extremity of the Himalayas, the Irrawaddy rushes down through great mountain gorges in northern Myanmar before spreading out into one of the largest river deltas in Asia. Both of Myanmar's principal cities - Rangoon and Mandalay - are situated along the Irrawaddy, and the 1,000 mi (1,600 km) river is navigable for almost two thirds of its length. The Irrawaddy valley is surrounded by a great horseshoe of mountain ranges, which rise in the east to the highlands of the Shan Plateau.
The vast majority of Myanmar's people live in the lowland regions of this river valley, in the Irrawaddy basin. This fertile expanse, which sits within the tropical monsoon belt, is one of the world's great rice-growing regions. Myanmar's population includes dozens of different racial and ethnic groups, including the Mon, Burmans, Kachins, Chins, Shans, Rakhine, and Karens, each of which have historically dominated a particular area of the country. Although Burmese is the major and official language, more than a hundred local and regional dialects are spoken throughout Myanmar.
Despite modern changes and globalized cultural blending, Myanmar people have been able to preserve their own lifestyles and activities that have existed since time immemorial. The people of Myanmar communicate in their own language, wear their own style of clothing including the longyi, relish their own style of food, pray in their own way, play their own games, celebrate their own festivals, receive treatment with their own traditional medicines, and perform their own rituals remaining as Myanmar as possible in every aspect. Many of the life styles and activities are unique to Myanmar people. For example, the Shin Pyu or novitiation ceremony, which allows a young boy to experience temporary monastic life, is a religious practice virtually nonexistent in other parts of the world. Although some of Myanmar's beliefs, superstitions, customs and lifestyles have gradually disappeared, many still remain and are cherished and highly valued by the majority of the people.
There are two main schools of Buddhism, Theravada, practiced chiefly in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos; and Mahayana, practiced in China, Tibet, Japan and Korea.
Theravada, which means the Way of the Elders, was the original school and Mahayana, which emerged later, differs in many aspects.
Throughout the 1st century A.D. to the 10th century A.D., the land of present day Myanmar was inhibited by the Pyus and the Mons. In 1044, King Anawrahta of Bagan unified the land and the First Myanmar Dynasty was founded. Under the spiritual guidance of Shin Arahan, a distinguished Mon monk from Thaton, he introduced Theravada Buddhism into his empire, which stretched from the Indian border in the west to part of Thailand in the south.
In recent years, Myanmar has attained special eminence as the host for the Sixth Buddhist Council, held in Yangon from 1954 to 1956. It is also known as the source of major systems of Vipassana meditation that have spread throughout the world. The propagation of Buddha Sasana (teachings) is carried out through scriptural learning and the practice of Vipassana meditation especially by the 400,000 Myanmar Buddhist monks 400,000 and thousands of monasteries, hundreds of meditation centers and some Buddhist universities.
Myanmar is known as "the land of pagodas" thanks to a series of devout Myanmar kings and their citizens who built countless religious monuments and shrines throughout the ages, and out of Buddhist belief that acquiring good kamma (karma) or merits will make one attain Nibbana (Nirvana), the final deliverance.
Although Myanmar is predominantly a Buddhist country with Buddhists making up about 80 percent of the population, there are also Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Chinese and some animists. But freedom of belief is practiced as evidenced by the existence of numerous religious buildings of different beliefs in large cities and small towns. The government designated the religious occasions of other faiths as public holidays in addition to those of the Buddhists.
Even in downtown Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, churches, mosques, Hindu temples, Jewish synagogue and Chinese temples outnumber Buddhist pagodas and monasteries.
Britain conquered Burma over a period of 62 years (1824-1886) and incorporated it into its Indian Empire. Burma was administered as a province of India until 1937 when it became a separate, self-governing colony; independence from the Commonwealth was attained in 1948. Gen. NE WIN dominated the government from 1962 to 1988, first as military ruler, then as self-appointed president, and later as political kingpin.
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