Mandalay

Mandalay ( or ; ) is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631km (392 miles) (Road Distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census).

Mandalay was founded in 1857 by King Mindon, replacing Amarapura as the new royal capital of the Konbaung dynasty. It was Burma's final royal capital before the kingdom's annexation by the British Empire in 1885. Under British rule, Mandalay remained commercially and culturally important despite the rise of Yangon, the new capital of British Burma. The city suffered extensive destruction during the Japanese conquest of Burma in the Second World War. In 1948, Mandalay became part of the newly independent Union of Burma.

Today, Mandalay is the economic centre of Upper Myanmar and considered the centre of Burmese culture. A continuing influx of illegal Chinese immigrants, mostly from Yunnan, since the late 20th century, has reshaped the city's ethnic makeup and increased commerce with China. Despite Naypyidaw's recent rise, Mandalay remains Upper Myanmar's main commercial, educational and health center.

Etymology

The city gets its name from the nearby Mandalay Hill. The name is probably a derivative of a Pali word, although the exact word of origin remains unclear. The root word has been speculated to be ' (မဏ္ဍလ), referring to circular plains or '' Mandara'', a mountain from Hindu mythology.

When it was founded in 1857, the royal city was officially named Yadanabon (, ), a loan of the Pali name Ratanapūra () "City of Gems." It was also called ''Lay Kyun Aung Myei'' (, , "Victorious Land over the Four Islands") and Mandalay Palace (, , "Famed Royal Emerald Palace").

History

Early history

Like most former (and present) capitals of Burma, Mandalay was founded on the wishes of the ruler of the day. On 13 February 1857, King Mindon founded a new royal capital at the foot of Mandalay Hill, ostensibly to fulfill a prophecy on the founding of a metropolis of Buddhism in that exact place on the occasion of the 2,400th jubilee of Buddhism.


The new capital city site was in area, surrounded by four rivers. The plan called for a 144-square block grid patterned citadel, anchored by a 16 square block royal palace compound at the center by Mandalay Hill. The 1020-acre (413-hectare) citadel was surrounded by four long walls and a moat wide, deep. At intervals of along the wall, were turrets with gold-tipped spires for watchmen. The walls had three gates on each side, and five bridges to cross the moat. In addition, the king also commissioned the Kuthodaw Pagoda, the ''Pahtan-haw Shwe Thein'' Ordination Hall, the ''Thudamma'' zayats or public houses for preaching Buddhism and a library for the Pāli Canon.

In June 1857, the former royal palace of Amarapura was dismantled and moved by elephants to the new location at the foot of Mandalay Hill, although construction of the palace compound was officially completed only two years later, on Monday, 23 May 1859.

For the next 26 years, Mandalay was to be the last royal capital of the Konbaung Dynasty, the last independent Burmese kingdom before its final annexation by the British Empire. Mandalay ceased to be the capital on 28 November 1885 when the British conquered the city, looted the Pitakataik (Royal Library) and sent Thibaw Min and his queen Supayalat into exile, ending the Third Anglo-Burmese War.

Colonial Mandalay (1885–1948)

While Mandalay would continue to be the chief city of Upper Burma during the British colonial rule, the commercial and political importance had irreversibly shifted to Yangon. The British view on the development of Mandalay (and Burma) was mainly with commercial intentions. While rail transport reached Mandalay in 1889, less than four years after the annexation, the first college in Mandalay, Mandalay College, was not established until 40 years later, in 1925. The British looted the palace, with some of the treasures going on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum; in 1964 they were returned to Burma as a gesture of goodwill. The British also renamed the palace compound Fort Dufferin and used it to billet troops.

Throughout the colonial years, Mandalay was the centre of Burmese culture and Buddhist learning, and as the last royal capital, was regarded by the Burmese as a primary symbol of sovereignty and identity. Between the two World Wars, the city was Upper Burma's focal point in a series of nationwide protests against the British rule. The British rule brought in many immigrants from India to the city. In 1904–05, a plague caused about one-third of the population to flee the city.

During World War II, Mandalay suffered the most devastating air raids of the war. On 3 April 1942, during the Japanese conquest of Burma, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service carried out an extensive assault. The city was in effect defenseless as its firefighting resources were weak, having been lost in earlier bombing, it had no anti-aircraft capacity, and the British RAF had by now withdrawn all its aircraft to India. Three-fifths of Mandalay's houses were destroyed and 2,000 civilians were killed. Many residents also fled when the city was under Japanese occupation from May 1942 to March 1945. The palace citadel, which had been turned into a supply depot by the Japanese, was in turn burnt to the ground by Allied bombing; only the royal mint and the watch tower survived. (A faithful replica of the palace was rebuilt in the 1990s.)

Contemporary Mandalay (1948–present)

After the country gained independence from Britain in 1948, Mandalay continued to be the main cultural, educational and economic hub of Upper Burma. Until the early 1990s, most students from Upper Burma went to Mandalay for university education. Until 1991, Mandalay University, the University of Medicine, Mandalay and the Defence Services Academy were the only three universities in Upper Burma. Only a few other cities had "Degree Colleges" affiliated with Mandalay University that offered a limited number of subjects. Today, the city attracts a fraction of students as the military government requires students to attend their local universities in order to reduce concentration of students in one place.

In November 1959, Mandalay celebrated its centennial with a festival at the foot of Mandalay Hill. Special commemorative stamps were issued.

During Ne Win's isolationist rule (1962–1988), the city's infrastructure deteriorated. By the early 1980s, the second largest city of Burma resembled a town with low-rise buildings and dusty streets filled mostly with bicycles. In the 1980s, the city was hit by two major fires. In May 1981, a fire razed more than 6,000 houses and public buildings, leaving more than 36,000 homeless. On 24 March 1984, another fire destroyed 2,700 buildings and made 23,000 people homeless.

Fires continue to plague the city. A major fire destroyed Mandalay's second largest market, Yadanabon Market, in February 2008, and another major fire in February 2009 destroyed 320 homes and left over 1600 people homeless.

Illegal Chinese immigration

The 1980s fires augured a significant change in the city's physical character and ethnic makeup. Huge swaths of land left vacant by the fires were later purchased, mostly by the ethnic Han Chinese, many of whom were recent immigrants from Yunnan. The Chinese influx accelerated after the current State Peace and Development Council came to power in 1988. Many Chinese immigrants from Yunnan (and also from Sichuan) poured into Upper Burma in the 1990s and many openly ended up in Mandalay, living illegally there. In the 1990s alone, about 250,000 to 300,000 Yunnanese are estimated to have migrated to Mandalay. Today, ethnic Chinese people are believed to make up about 40%–50% of the city's population that is nearly the same as the natives, and are a major factor in the city's doubling of population from about 500,000 in 1980 to one million in 2008. Chinese festivals are now firmly embedded in the city's cultural calendar. The Chinese dominance in the city center has pushed out the rest to the suburbs. The urban sprawl now encompasses Amarapura, the very city King Mindon left some 150 years ago. Mandalay celebrated its 150th birthday on 15 May 2009, at precisely 4:31:36 am.

Despite the rise of Naypyidaw, the country's capital since 2006, Mandalay remains Upper Burma's main commercial, educational and health center. In October 2018, Mandalay was ranked by CIO Asia as number fifth among the top 10 cities in Southeast Asia in the process of becoming a smart city for ASEAN Smart Cities Network.

Geography

Location

Mandalay is located in the central dry zone of Burma by the Irrawaddy river at 21.98° North, 96.08° East, 80 meters (260 feet) above sea level. Its standard time zone is UTC/GMT +6:30 hours.

626 km from Yangon.

Mandalay lies along the Sagaing Fault, a tectonic plate boundary between the India and Sunda plates. The biggest earthquake in its history, occurred on March 23 1839, an estimated magnitude 8.2 destroyed the formal capital Ava and caused extreme destruction in nearby cities. The most recent quake was a magnitude of 7, occurred in 1956. The devastation was greatest in nearby Sagaing, and it came to be known as the Great Sagaing Quake.

Bodies of water near Mandalay are Mandalay Kantawgyi, a small lake and Irrawaddy River to the west of the city.

Climate

The rain shadow of the Arakan Mountains is so powerful that the city qualifies as having a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification: ''BSh''), although it does border on a tropical wet and dry climate (Köppen climate classification: ''Aw''). Mandalay features noticeably warmer and cooler periods of the year. Average temperatures in January, the mildest month, hovers around while the hottest month, April, averages . Mandalay is very hot in the months of April and May, with average high temperatures easily exceeding . It is not uncommon to see high temperatures surpass during these two months in the city. Mandalay also features wet and dry seasons of nearly equal length, with the wet season running from May through October and the dry season covering the remaining six months. The highest reliably recorded temperature in Mandalay is on 24 April 1975 while the lowest is on 26 December 1999. There is considerably more diurnal temperature variation in the dry season than the wet season.

Cityscape

Around the city

* Atumashi Monastery: The "Atumashi kyaung", which literally means "inimitable vihara", is also one of the well known sights. The original structure was destroyed by a fire in 1890 though the masonry plinth survived. The reconstruction project was started by the government on 2 May 1995 and completed in June 1996.
* Buddha's Replica Tooth Relic Pagoda: One of the Buddha's Sacred Replica Tooth Relics was enshrined in the Mandalay Swedaw Pagoda on Maha Dhammayanthi Hill in Amarapura Township. The pagoda was built with cash donations contributed by the peoples of Burma and Buddhist donors from around the world under the supervision of the State Peace and Development Council. The authorities and donors hoisted Buddha's Replica Tooth Relic Pagoda Mandalay's ''Shwe Htidaw'' (sacred golden umbrella), ''Hngetmyatnadaw'' (sacred bird perch vane) and ''Seinhpudaw'' (sacred diamond bud) on 13 December 1996.
* Kuthodaw Pagoda (The World's Biggest Book): Built by King Mindon in 1857, this pagoda modeled on the Shwezigon Pagoda at Nyaung-U, is surrounded by 729 upright stone slabs on which are inscribed the entire '' Tipiṭaka'' as edited and approved by the Fifth Buddhist council. It is popularly known as " World's largest book" for its stone scriptures.
* Kyauktawgyi Pagoda: Near the southern approach to Mandalay Hill stands the Kyauktawgyi Buddha image built by King Mindon in 1853–78. The Image was carved out of a huge single block of marble. Statues of 80 arahants are assembled around the Image, twenty on each side. The carving was completed in 1865.
* Mahamuni Buddha Temple: The image of Gautama Buddha at Mahamuni Buddha Temple is said to have been cast in the life-time of the Gautama Buddha and that the Buddha embraced it seven times, thereby bringing it to life. Consequently, devout Buddhists hold it to be alive and refer to it as the Mahamuni Sacred Living Image. Revered as the holiest pagoda in Mandalay, It was built by King Bodawpaya in 1784. The image in a sitting posture is 12 feet and 7 inches (3.8 m) high. As the image was brought from Rakhine State, it was also called the Great Rakhine Buddha. The early morning ritual of washing the Face of Buddha Image draws a large crowd of devotees every day. The Great Image is also considered as the greatest in Burma next to Shwedagon Pagoda.
* Mandalay Hill: The hill has for long been a holy mount. Legend has it that the Buddha, on his visit, had prophesied that a great city would be founded at its foot. Mandalay Hill, 230 metres high, provides a view of the city and surrounding countryside. The construction of a motor road to reach the hill-top has already been finished.
* Mandalay Palace: The whole palace complex was destroyed by a fire during World War II. The palace walls, the city gates with their crowning wooden pavilions and the surrounding moat, "Mya-nan-san-kyaw Shwenandaw", were rebuilt using forced labor. A model of the Mandalay Palace, Nanmyint-saung and Mandalay Cultural Museum are located inside the Palace grounds.
* Shwenandaw Monastery: known for its wood carvings, it was a part of the old palace. In 1880 it was moved by King Thibaw to its current site close to Atumashi Monastery.
* U Bein Bridge : known for the oldest and (once) longest teakwood bridge in the world. It was constructed when the capital of Ava Kingdom moved to Amarapura .
* Yadanabon Zoological Gardens: A small zoo between the Mandalay Palace and Mandalay Hill. It has over 300 species and is notably the only zoo to have Burmese roofed turtles.

Administration

The Mandalay Region Government is the government for Mandalay Region including Mandalay City. The Mandalay City Development Committee (MCDC) is municipal organization for Mandalay City. The Mandalay District consists of seven townships.
* Amarapura
* Aungmyethazan
* Chanayethazan (city centre)
* Chanmyathazi
* Maha Aungmye
*Patheingyi
* Pyigyidagun

Transport

Mandalay's strategic location in Central Burma makes it an important hub for transport of people and goods. The city is connected to other parts of the country and to China and India by multiple modes of transportation.

Air

Mandalay International Airport (MDL) was one of the largest and most modern airports in Myanmar until the modernization of Yangon International Airport in 2008. Built at a cost of US$150 million in 2000, it is highly underused; it serves mostly domestic flights with the exception of those to Kunming and to/from Bangkok and Chiang Mai, with daily flights on Air Asia and Bangkok Airways. The airport has come to represent the military regime's propensity for bad planning and penchant for white elephant projects. Myanmar's recent opening stance on tourism means the airport is now receiving a growing number of visitors from Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

The airport is far from the city, on a modern highway. Before the construction of this airport, Mandalay Chanmyathazi Airport was the main airport of the city. The airport serves some flights to Myanmar towns.

River

The Ayeyarwady River remains an important arterial route for transporting goods such as farm produce including rice, beans and pulses, cooking oil, pottery, bamboo and teak.

Rail

Mandalay Central Railway Station is the terminus of Myanmar Railways's main rail line from Yangon and the starting point of branch lines to Pyin U Lwin (Maymyo), Lashio, Monywa, Pakokku, Kalay, Gangaw, and to the north, Shwebo, Kawlin, Naba, Kanbalu

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