50 Fun Facts About Myanmar

What was Myanmar's official English name until 1989?

The military government romanised many place names that year; the change is still contested.

What is the capital city of Myanmar?

The junta moved the capital there from the old one in November 2005.

What is Myanmar's largest city?

Its name was romanised differently in the colonial era.

What does the name of Myanmar's purpose-built capital mean?

The name was announced on Armed Forces Day, 27 March 2006.

Myanmar holds what distinction among the countries of mainland Southeast Asia?

Its population is about 55 million.

Which of these countries does NOT border Myanmar?

Bangladesh and Thailand complete the list of neighbours.

What is the principal river of Myanmar, about 2,170 km long?

It runs through the centre of the country and is its most important commercial waterway.

What is the highest point in Myanmar, at 5,881 m?

It rises in Kachin State in the far north.

Myanmar is divided into how many states, matched by an equal number of regions?

States are home to particular ethnic minorities; regions are mainly Bamar.

Which king founded the Pagan Kingdom in the 1050s, uniting the central river valley for the first time?

Bagan's rulers went on to build more than 10,000 temples.

Roughly how many temples and pagodas survive on the plains of Bagan?

More than 10,000 were built during the kingdom's height between the 11th and 13th centuries.

Bagan finally became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in which year?

Heavy-handed restorations had long delayed the listing.

Which invaders toppled the Pagan Kingdom in 1287?

Shan migrants who arrived with them stayed on and founded rival states.

Under which 16th-century king did Burma become the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia?

He conquered Ayutthaya, Lan Na, Lan Xang and Manipur, but the empire collapsed by 1599.

How many Anglo-Burmese Wars did Britain fight in the 19th century?

The last, in 1885, ended with the fall of Mandalay and full annexation.

Britain annexed the rest of Burma in 1885 partly out of alarm at which rival's expansion?

All of Burma came under British rule on 1 January 1886.

In the 1920s, which city overtook New York as the world's busiest immigration port?

Indian immigrants came to form a majority in several of Burma's largest cities.

Who negotiated the 1947 Panglong Agreement with ethnic leaders and is called the Father of the Nation?

He was assassinated with several cabinet members in July 1947, months before independence.

Burma became an independent republic on which date?

It came under the terms of the Burma Independence Act 1947.

Which Burmese diplomat served as UN Secretary-General for ten years from 1961?

Protests at his 1974 funeral were violently suppressed by the military.

Which general seized power in the coup of 2 March 1962?

His 'Burmese Way to Socialism' nationalised almost every part of the economy.

The mass pro-democracy protests of 1988 are known by what name?

They led to multi-party elections in 1990 that the military then ignored.

The 2007 protests led by Buddhist monks against fuel prices were called what?

The crackdown brought a fresh round of international sanctions.

Which cyclone killed an estimated 200,000 people in the rice-growing delta in May 2008?

It was the worst natural disaster in Burmese history.

Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in which year?

She spent almost 15 of the years between 1989 and 2010 under house arrest.

Why was Aung San Suu Kyi barred from becoming president after the 2015 election?

She instead took the newly created post of State Counsellor.

Aung San Suu Kyi's party, which won landslides in 1990, 2015 and 2020, is called what?

It took 392 of 492 seats in 1990, a result the junta refused to honour.

Which military chief took power in the coup of 1 February 2021?

The coup triggered mass protests and a nationwide civil war.

What is the name of Myanmar's armed forces?

The military has ruled directly or indirectly since 1962.

Which persecuted Muslim minority has been denied citizenship in Myanmar since 1982?

Most live in Rakhine State on the Bangladesh border.

The Bamar make up roughly what share of Myanmar's population?

Their language, Burmese, is related to Tibetan and Chinese.

Which branch of Buddhism is the most widespread in Myanmar?

Between 80 and 89 percent of the population is Buddhist.

Myanmar supplies roughly what share of the world's rubies?

The Mogok 'Valley of Rubies' lies 200 km north of Mandalay.

Before Afghanistan's 2022 poppy ban, Myanmar was the No. 2 producer of which drug crop?

After Afghan output collapsed, UNODC rated Myanmar the top opium producer in 2023; Shan State is also thought to be the largest methamphetamine-producing area on Earth.

What is mohinga, Myanmar's national dish?

It is typically eaten for breakfast, flavoured with lemongrass and turmeric.

Lahpet, a staple of Burmese salads, is what?

Salads called a thoke are built around one main ingredient.

Chinlone and lethwei are traditional Burmese examples of what?

Football is nonetheless played all over the country.

The Shwedagon Pagoda is believed to enshrine relics of how many previous Buddhas?

They include eight strands of Gautama's hair.

How tall is the Shwedagon Pagoda?

It stands on Singuttara Hill and dominates the skyline of the largest city.

The crown of the Shwedagon is tipped with 2,317 rubies and how many diamonds?

The stupa's plinth is bricks covered in gold plates.

What colours make up the Myanmar flag adopted in 2010?

A large white five-pointed star sits in the centre.

Myanmar's principal river empties through its delta into which body of water?

The delta is home to an endangered species of river dolphin.

Which early city-states of Upper Myanmar were heavily influenced by trade with India, importing Buddhism?

The Mon kingdoms dominated Lower Myanmar at the same time.

Which kingdom unified the Arakan coastline for the first time in 1437?

Its ruins lie in what is now Rakhine State.

Which liturgical language of Burmese Buddhism is an Indo-European language used in Myanmar?

The other is English; Burmese script is used to write Pali too.

Which king had reunited all of Myanmar by 1759, founding the Konbaung dynasty?

He also drove out the French and British, who had armed the rival Hanthawaddy; by 1770 his heirs had subdued much of Laos.

In which year did Myanmar become a member of ASEAN?

It skipped its turn as ASEAN chair in 2006 but chaired the forum and hosted the summit in 2014.

Rice covers roughly what share of Myanmar's cultivated land?

Rice also accounts for 97 percent of the country's food grain production by weight.

Roughly how many people live in Myanmar?

It is bordered by India, Bangladesh, China, Laos and Thailand, with the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal to the south.

Besides 1961 and 2013, in which year did Myanmar host the Southeast Asian Games?

The 2013 edition was spread across Naypyidaw, Yangon, Mandalay and Ngwesaung Beach.