50 free Myanmar trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Myanmar, still called Burma by many, is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia and one of the least understood: a land of 10,000 temples at Bagan, a golden pagoda that dominates Yangon, a purpose-built capital few outsiders have seen, and a military that has run the country for most of the years since 1962. This quiz covers the geography (the Irrawaddy and Salween, Hkakabo Razi, the seven states and seven regions, the neighbours from India to Thailand), the kingdoms (Pyu and Mon, Anawrahta's Pagan, Bayinnaung's empire, the Konbaung dynasty and the three Anglo-Burmese wars), and the modern nation from Aung San's assassination and independence in 1948 through Ne Win, the 8888 Uprising, Cyclone Nargis, Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest and Nobel Prize, the Rohingya crisis and the 2021 coup. Culture and daily life are here too: Theravada Buddhism, the Burmese language, mohinga for breakfast, lahpet tea-leaf salad, chinlone and lethwei, the world's ruby supply from Mogok, teak, jade, the Golden Triangle and the flag with its big white star. Easy questions ask which city is the largest; hard ones want the height of the Shwedagon and the year Bagan finally made the World Heritage list. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, Naypyidaw, the Shwedagon Pagoda, Bagan, the Irrawaddy, mohinga and the flag, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What was Myanmar's official English name until 1989?
Burma
The military government romanised many place names that year; the change is still contested.
Q 02What is the capital city of Myanmar?
Naypyidaw
The junta moved the capital there from the old one in November 2005.
Q 03What is Myanmar's largest city?
Yangon
Its name was romanised differently in the colonial era.
Q 04What does the name of Myanmar's purpose-built capital mean?
City of the kings
The name was announced on Armed Forces Day, 27 March 2006.
Q 05Myanmar holds what distinction among the countries of mainland Southeast Asia?
Largest by area
Its population is about 55 million.
Q 06Which of these countries does NOT border Myanmar?
Vietnam
Bangladesh and Thailand complete the list of neighbours.
Q 07What is the principal river of Myanmar, about 2,170 km long?
The Irrawaddy
It runs through the centre of the country and is its most important commercial waterway.
Q 08What is the highest point in Myanmar, at 5,881 m?
Hkakabo Razi
It rises in Kachin State in the far north.
Q 09Myanmar is divided into how many states, matched by an equal number of regions?
Seven
States are home to particular ethnic minorities; regions are mainly Bamar.
Q 10Which king founded the Pagan Kingdom in the 1050s, uniting the central river valley for the first time?
Anawrahta
Bagan's rulers went on to build more than 10,000 temples.
Q 11Roughly how many temples and pagodas survive on the plains of Bagan?
Over 2,200
More than 10,000 were built during the kingdom's height between the 11th and 13th centuries.
Q 12Bagan finally became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in which year?
2019
Heavy-handed restorations had long delayed the listing.
Q 13Which invaders toppled the Pagan Kingdom in 1287?
The Mongols
Shan migrants who arrived with them stayed on and founded rival states.
Q 14Under which 16th-century king did Burma become the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia?
Q 21Which general seized power in the coup of 2 March 1962?
Ne Win
His 'Burmese Way to Socialism' nationalised almost every part of the economy.
Q 22The mass pro-democracy protests of 1988 are known by what name?
The 8888 Uprising
They led to multi-party elections in 1990 that the military then ignored.
Q 23The 2007 protests led by Buddhist monks against fuel prices were called what?
The Saffron Revolution
The crackdown brought a fresh round of international sanctions.
Bayinnaung
He conquered Ayutthaya, Lan Na, Lan Xang and Manipur, but the empire collapsed by 1599.
Q 15How many Anglo-Burmese Wars did Britain fight in the 19th century?
Three
The last, in 1885, ended with the fall of Mandalay and full annexation.
Q 16Britain annexed the rest of Burma in 1885 partly out of alarm at which rival's expansion?
French Indochina
All of Burma came under British rule on 1 January 1886.
Q 17In the 1920s, which city overtook New York as the world's busiest immigration port?
Rangoon
Indian immigrants came to form a majority in several of Burma's largest cities.
Q 18Who negotiated the 1947 Panglong Agreement with ethnic leaders and is called the Father of the Nation?
Aung San
He was assassinated with several cabinet members in July 1947, months before independence.
Q 19Burma became an independent republic on which date?
4 January 1948
It came under the terms of the Burma Independence Act 1947.
Q 20Which Burmese diplomat served as UN Secretary-General for ten years from 1961?
U Thant
Protests at his 1974 funeral were violently suppressed by the military.
Q 24Which cyclone killed an estimated 200,000 people in the rice-growing delta in May 2008?
Nargis
It was the worst natural disaster in Burmese history.
Q 25Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in which year?
1991
She spent almost 15 of the years between 1989 and 2010 under house arrest.
Q 26Why was Aung San Suu Kyi barred from becoming president after the 2015 election?
Her husband and children were foreign citizens
She instead took the newly created post of State Counsellor.
Q 27Aung San Suu Kyi's party, which won landslides in 1990, 2015 and 2020, is called what?
National League for Democracy
It took 392 of 492 seats in 1990, a result the junta refused to honour.
Q 28Which military chief took power in the coup of 1 February 2021?
Min Aung Hlaing
The coup triggered mass protests and a nationwide civil war.
Q 29What is the name of Myanmar's armed forces?
Tatmadaw
The military has ruled directly or indirectly since 1962.
Q 30Which persecuted Muslim minority has been denied citizenship in Myanmar since 1982?
The Rohingya
Most live in Rakhine State on the Bangladesh border.