Four LED spotlights in a dark room, edited in Fujifilm's raw converter.

barr is watching.

As his nation was attacked, the President of the United States of America sat in his dining room.

 

And laughed.

 

#6January2021

#NeverForget

Do you think someone needs to order me to decapitate the evil people? No need! I am alienated anyway, I feel enraged with a massive sense of wrong, I do no longer reflect and be hesitant because I have got certainty now! I deeply believe in the pap of far-right propaganda. I have got my grievance and I know what the prompt remedy is! If you are a liberal or a communist or whatever, your head is no longer safe! You enemies of mine have not understood that my violence is not just the "relief of my aggression" - it is much more than that. Violence is the acting out of my truth, it is part of my liturgy, and it confirms my faith.

There once was a foxy

politician

full of self-rectitude, lies,

and sedition.

He was easily dumped,

once he was trumped,

Like an ignorant, ageing

patrician.

"It is only necessary to make war with five things; with the maladies of the body, the ignorances of the mind, with the passions of the body, with the seditions of the city and the discords of families." -Pythagoras

» Body

Head: lel Evox Ceylon

Body: Ebody Reborn

Hair: + Villena + Gemini Hair

 

» Clothing

Top: [The Forge] Selina Top, Black (Box)

Bottom: _CandyDoll_ Lilith Panties Black

 

» Accessories

#1: .:INHUMATION:. Sedition Piercings

#2: babyboo. grunge belts

#3: Elune. Bat wings - Black

 

» Pose

tsuki. dee set

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSdPkBKHqac

 

"Number one, tell me who you think you are

You got some nerve trying to tear my faith apart

(I have questions for you)

Number two, why would you try and play me for a fool?

I should have never ever ever trusted you (I have questions)

Number three, why weren't you, who you swore that you would be?

I have questions, I got questions haunting me"

 

~ I Have Questions by Camila Cabello

  

In Memorium (only IC, don't fret!) for SawyerMistStrider as Jax, a Conchobar Fae who ... was very alive when I first began working on this image. Now though, Jax has been executed for treason and sedition. With any luck, we will be seeing Jax some more in the future as a Wraith. Whichever way it goes, I enjoyed playing with this character very much.

 

Jax is(was?) a roleplay character at Convergence: The Lost City. A sim I have grown to adore.

 

Hope you like this as much as I do, and that it memorializes the character perfectly for you. <3

» Body

Head: lel Evox Ceylon

Body: Ebody Reborn

Hair: NOVA. Jae // Natural Kit

Bangs: [KRR] Mako Side Bangs 01 & VCO ~ Bangs 4set - B

 

» Clothing

Top: Loki - Marceline Punky Top @ Equal10

Bottom: Muse - Romantic Affair - Thong

Stocking: Tatiko - Torn Fishnet Leggings#7

 

» Accessories

#1: .:INHUMATION:. Sedition Piercings

#2: babyboo. grunge belts

#3: - Vermilion - Nix Gloves

 

» Pose

tsuki. beatrice set @ Anthology

View on Primfeed

 

» Body

Head: lel Evox Ceylon

Body: Ebody Reborn

Hair: PADO // yurisa hair

 

» Clothing

Top: [DELTA] LOOSETHY-BLACK

Bottom:[DELTA] SPIKED G-CROSS

 

» Accessories

#1: [L] Vampkin Choker [BLACK]

#2: .:INHUMATION:. Sedition Piercings

Ϯ AURICA Selena Bodysuit. This bodysuit is rigged for Ebody Reborn, Waifu Boobs, Legacy and Perky bodies. There are a total of 17 colours you can pick from and 3 metal colours for the zipper. This is an exclusive for the FAMESHED X Event : maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/FaMESHed%20X/112/148/1075

Mainstore afterwards -

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ZoHa%20Islands%20E/60/67/902

  

What else I'm wearing:

 

shape - +ARANA+ Florere Shape - KAYA Head Lelutka EvoX. This shape is made to fit the Lelutka Kaya head, and a lot of bodies - Ebody Reborn (2 versions of this, actually), Legacy Perky and Classic, BellGenX, Maitreya and Khara. It comes with a style card so you can look exactly like the ad picture. The shape is also modifiable so you can make it your own. Grab this @ the mainstore:

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Violet%20Moon/227/28/3064

 

skin - Traditional - Noelly / Blush

 

eyelashes - Void - Flutter

 

bindi - Six Feet under - Moon Pentacle Bindi. This original mesh item has a hud that gives you 7 different metal colours for 3 parts of the bindi - Moon, Stars, and Ring. It is unrigged and you can change the size. Grab this @ the mainstore:

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Blue%20Waters/25/61/22

 

face piercings - Inhumation - Sedition Piercings

 

ears - Swallow - Gauged S Ears

 

earrings - Knifu - Psychostasia Earrings

 

hair - No Match - No Verve

 

face tattoo - Cyanide - Chaos

 

chest/neck tattoo - Cyanide - Cursed Neck Tattoo

 

drink - Hive

 

pose (includes tvs) - CKey Poses - Dorian Series

for 365 and February's Alphabet Fun, TOTW: Extreme (um. hi. extremely stupid? or possibly extremely dumb? or maybe extremely tilted so it looks like I'm about to slide out of the pic. extremely over edited?)

 

definition via The Devil's Dictionary

 

Picture taken in honor of the Bug, age 4, who learned how to ride without training wheels this weekend.

 

I realized later that I should have stuck my tongue out or something with my face, but you know what, I took this on a 10-second timer and I think it's not half bad considering all of the up and down I was doing. And yes, I know I know, I could get a remote, but people. Look. I've made it to day 264 without one and sort of feel like I would be cheating on my timer if I did that. We've built up this close relationship and everything. I wouldn't want to start going out with a remote NOW, the poor timer would feel like it wasn't good enough for me. Which is TOTALLY not true! I mean, I made it this far! The timer rocks! So really, I am sparing the feelings of my 10-second self-timer, which I feel is a noble and worthy cause. Plus, I get more exercise this way. Which means more cookies with lunch.

 

Today's Random Fact:

I haven't owned a bike since I graduated from high school, but I always long to have one so we can all ride down to the park or the 7-eleven. That's a really boring fact. Let me add on a different bike-related one.

 

When I was in junior high I had a yellow bike that I rode to school with my brother and the neighbor boy every day. The ride was about two miles and not a big deal.

One day, my wheel got bent sideways somehow and was rubbing against the axel pins making it very hard to pedal (friction is a bitch!) and I was going and hard as I could and not really getting very far. This also happened to be the same morning that my mom had taken the cat up to the vet on the corner for his vaccination shots. The corner was about half-way between my house and the school and by the time I got there, I was exhausted from trying to pedal a bike with a wheel that did NOT want to turn and from yelling at my brother and the neighbor boy to wait for me (which they did NOT) that I was bawling huge tears. I dumped my bike outside the vet's office door and stumbled into the reception area, crumbling in my mom's lap and sobbing out a completely unintelligible explanation for what was going on --- with the rest of the reception room thinking that we must be putting our dear cat to sleep and I was HEAVILY distraught over the whole situation.

 

In the end, my mom drove me to school that morning, my dad fixed my bike, and my brother got grounded for a week for ditching me and not thinking twice about it. oh, and the cat got his shots. good times.

 

ETA: The End

Mixed media - watercolour, ink, gum arabic, pen

A group was gathered listening to the words of Benjamin Franklin, when suddenly, several British Redcoats arrived and announced that Franklin was being arrested for sedition to the King. Here, a handcuffed Franklin is being led away. Fortunately for him, a contingent of American militiamen arrived moments later and, outnumbering the British, forced Franklin's release.

 

Seen at a Colonial reenactment this weekend at Michigan's Kensington Metropark

Diurnal.

 

Аялагчийн танилцуулга үнэлж баршгүй хэлбэрийг гайхшруулж овсгоотой арга барил инээд урлаг хөгжөөн дэмжигч үзэгчид инээдмийн жүжигчин жүжигчин сонгодог ухамсар,

personnages rebelles apprentissages universels écritures métropolitaines cosmopolites au milieu des morts messages souterrains préoccupations périodes infections pestes séditions jugées pauvreté logements,

forvirrede tordenbolte upartiske påbud uheldige tekster private klostrede kuglepenne spillefornøjelser individuel leve hjemsøgt tilføjelser forkortede dage kritisk selskabelig leg,

πνευματικό κρασί φυλλάδια γράμματα υπνηλία ελαττώματα σημαντικές νύξεις σημειωματάρια γεμάτα κλασικές λεπτομέρειες αξιόλογοι πολιτικοί άνθηση πρότυπα γεμάτη χόρτες παράπονα μελετητές φιλόσοφοι διδασκαλίες λαμπερές εκθέσεις γνώση θέματα ενδιαφέρουσες αναμορφώσεις,

スラング歓声カウンターコンテンツ反抗力構造恥ずかしさ強い印象三段論法を面白くするルールに影響を与える気質備考タンブリング引用符豪華な用語.

Steve.D.Hammond.

For the Macro Mondays challenge (Feb 29th 2016) "Coffee"

PA - The little things

 

It's hard to imagine how people thought about coffee when the first coffeehouse opened in London in 1652. (Men only - women were banned - I wonder why!)

As their popularity grew, they became places for political debate and were seen as centres of sedition by various governments. They also became centres for commercial and financial business. But I can't find reference to the drinking of coffee in homes. The tea caddy locked up the precious tea leaves - but a coffee caddy? Maybe the roasting and grinding of the coffee beans was a closely guarded secret? I just don't know! But the coffee bean was not the readily available and much beloved everyday object that we know! It was a rare and exotic bean ;o)

 

This shot was taken using a small double-walled espresso glass, and a few arabica beans. The full base of the glass is about 4cm across

 

My 2016 Macro Mondays set: 2016 Macro Mondays

My Food and drink set: Food and Drink

My PA set here: Prompt Addicts set

Blog Post

 

AFFLICTSINS - "Knuckle" Piercing @ Spookzilla

✭ eBODY + Legacy F

 

AFFLICTSINS - "Spiked Neck" @ Spookzilla

✭ Unrigged

 

AFFLICTSINS - "Spooky Bone" Hair Clip @ DisturbeD (Hunt Item)

✭ Unrigged - HUD controlled

 

ETHRL - "Nia" Shorts @ Cakeday

✭ Kupra, Legacy, Peach, Reborn

✭ Interactive

 

Miso - Emuru Top @ Cakeday

✭ Legacy, Peach, Reborn, Waifu, Mounds

✭ Interactive

 

+Fatal+ His Bloodbag @ Core of a Vampire Hunt

✭ BoM bite marks

 

Yomi - Violet Hair @ Kustom9

✭ 3 head sizes - 148 colors + Dark roots

 

babyboo. rachel bento set @ The Warehouse Sale

✭ 5 static bento poses - curvy versions + mirrored

 

Other Items:

✭ -SU! - Essential Smokey Eye

✭ platinum - "the hunt" eyeliner

✭ WIHK - Vlad Tattoo

✭ WIHK - Don't Cry

✭ TF - Verkir

✭ .:INHUMATION:. Amantes

✭ .:INHUMATION:. Sedition Piercings

✭ AFFLICTSINS - "Chipped Nails"

✭ Bunk. Captivated Tunnels

✭ Manson - Teachers Glasses

what's this, boris?

it's a subpoena, comrade.

a subpoena? from who?

you're being called before the workers' committee on internal security and morality.

I am? what'd I do?

well, let me ask you. have you been watching any james bond movies lately?

how'd you know that?

it's your blog, comrade.

my blog? what about it?

let's just say that some interested parties don't like you calling it 'pussy galore.'

oh, they don't?

not so much.

oh.

This is just for fun :))))

 

After a minor routine operation, the seditive drugs seemed to make me see swirls and colourful patterns all morning ;))) (good potent stuff ;) so I just had to share the feeling with you!

 

PS I think Im getting dizzy again just looking at it... ;)

 

American army officer Benedict Arnold (1741 - 1801), mid to late 18th century. During the American Revolutionary War, Arnold secretly negotiated with British officer John Andre to surrender West Point to the British military, eventually formally switching sides and joining the British. His name became synonymous with treason. (Photo free to download)

Catalan Nationalist Riots, Passeig de Gracia, Barcelona, October 2019.

 

An activist celebrates the creation of a burning barrier blocking the Gran Via at Passeig de Gracia - the upmarket central shopping street in Barcelona. This was triggered by the sentencing of a number of nationalist regional political figures for sedition and misuse of public funds in connection to the illegal 2017 independence referendum.

 

These photographs are a continuation of the State of Independence project, for which I was awarded an ARPS distinction in October 2018. It is a project that I had hoped would not need any continuation.

 

More here: State of Independence XVIII

It is only necessary to make war with five things; with the maladies of the body, the ignorances of the mind, with the passions of the body, with the seditions of the city and the discords of families.

Pythagoras

This Building was constructed to commemorate James Craig.

 

James Craig (1744-95) famously won the competition to masterplan an Edinburgh New Town when only 22 years old in 1766; Edinburgh New Town gradually absorbed much of the professional classes from the increasingly ramshackle Old Town. The New Town was mostly built of sandstone from Craigleath Quarry. Princes Street (1805) is fairly uninteresting despite its fame, but Charlotte Square and George Street (after George III) contain many good works.

 

The Old Calton Burial Ground was the first substantial development on Calton Hill and lies on the south-western side of the hill. The philosopher David Hume is buried there. His tomb is engraved only with the year of his birth (1711) and death (1776), on the "simple Roman tomb" (a relatively large monument) which he prescribed. The Political Martyrs' Monument is also in the burial ground. This is in memory of five campaigners for political reform and universal suffrage who were convicted of sedition and sent in 1793 to Botany Bay, Australia.

 

On the west side of Calton Hill is the street named Calton Hill. Agnes Maclehose, better known as Robert Burns' Clarinda, lived at number and died there in 1841. Burns, Scotland's national poet, sent Clarinda many verses over several years in unsuccessful (it is believed) attempts to seduce this beautiful married lady.

  

Edinburgh from the Calton Hill with Calton Jail in foreground, by George Washington Wilson, albumen print, ca. 1865-1895

Calton Hill was the location of the notorious Calton Jail, a complex comprising a Debtors' Prison, the Bridewell (1791–96) by Robert Adam (later replaced) and a Felons' Prison of 1815-17 by Archibald Elliot. The prisons were replaced by Saughton Prison and demolished in 1930 providing a site for St. Andrew's House, home to Scotland's senior civil servants. The sole surviving building is the castellated and turreted Governors House by Elliot. The lower curtain walls of the prison are still visible on the south side of St. Andrew's House, above Calton Road.

Catalan Nationalist Riots, Carrer Comtal, Barcelona, October 2019.

 

The independence movement has now resulted in two weeks of near continuous rioting, police battles and attempts to shutdown infrastructure. This was triggered by the sentencing of a number of nationalist regional political figures for sedition and misuse of public funds in connection to the illegal 2017 independence referendum.

 

These photographs are a continuation of the State of Independence project, for which I was awarded an ARPS distinction in October 2018. It is a project that I had hoped would not need any continuation.

 

More here: State of Independence XVIII

("To suffering there is a limit; to fearing, none.")

 

~ Sir Francis Bacon, Of Seditions and Troubles - English author, courtier, & philosopher (1561 - 1626) ~

Sir John Cheke (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman, notable as the first Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge University.

 

The son of Peter Cheke, esquire-bedell of Cambridge University, he was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow in 1529.[1] While there he adopted the principles of the Reformation. His learning gained him an exhibition from the king, and in 1540, on Henry VIII's foundation of the regius professorships, he was elected to the chair of Greek. Amongst his pupils at St John's were William Cecil, later Lord Burghley, who married Cheke's sister Mary, and Roger Ascham, who in The Scholemaster gives Cheke the highest praise for scholarship and character. Together with Sir Thomas Smith, he introduced a new method of Greek pronunciation very similar to that commonly used in England in the 19th century. It was strenuously opposed in the University, where the continental method prevailed, and Bishop Gardiner, as chancellor, issued a decree against it (June 1542); but Cheke ultimately triumphed.

 

On 10 July 1544 he was confirmed as tutor to the future King Edward VI of England[2][3], to teach him ‘of toungues, of the scripture, of philosophie and all liberal sciences’ (BL, Cotton MS Nero C.x, fol. 11r). (This source and others have mistakenly placed this appointment in 1554 which is impossible because Edward was already dead by then). After his pupil's accession to the throne he continued in this role. Cheke was active in public life; he sat, as member for Bletchingley, for the parliaments of 1547 and 1552-1553; he was made provost of King's College, Cambridge (1 April 1548), was one of the commissioners for visiting that university as well as the University of Oxford and Eton College, and was appointed with seven divines to draw up a body of laws for the governance of the church. On 11 October 1551 he was knighted; in June 1553 he was made one of the secretaries of state, and joined the privy council.

 

His zeal for Protestantism led him to follow the Duke of Northumberland, and he filled the office of secretary of state for Lady Jane Grey during her nine days' reign. In consequence, Mary threw him into the Tower of London (27 July 1553), and confiscated his property. He was, however, released on 3 September 1554, and granted permission to travel abroad. He went first to Basel, then visited Italy, giving lectures in Greek at Padua, where he entertained Sir Philip Hoby. He finally settled at Strasbourg, teaching Greek for his living.

 

In the spring of 1556 he visited Brussels to see his wife; on his way back, between Brussels and Antwerp, he and Sir Peter Carew were seized (15 May) by order of Philip II of Spain, taken to England, and imprisoned in the Tower. Cheke was visited by two priests and by Dr John Feckenham, dean of St Paul's, whom he had formerly tried to convert to Protestantism, and, terrified by the prospect of being burned at the stake, he agreed to be received into the Church of Rome by Cardinal Pole. Overcome with shame, he did not long survive, but died in London, carrying, as Thomas Fuller says (Church History), "God's pardon and all good men's pity along with him." About 1547 Cheke married Mary, daughter of Richard Hill, sergeant of the wine-cellar to Henry VIII, and by her he had three sons. The descendants of one of these, Henry, known only for his translation of an Italian morality play Freewyl (Tragedio del Libero Arbitrio) by Nigri de Bassano, settled at Pyrgo in Essex.

 

Thomas Wilson, in the epistle prefixed to his translation of the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes (1570), has a long and most interesting eulogy of Cheke; and Thomas Nash, in To the Gentlemen Students, prefixed to Robert Greene's Menaphon (1589), calls him "the Exchequer of eloquence, Sir John Cheke, a man of men, supernaturally traded in all tongues." Many of Cheke's works are still in manuscript, some have been altogether lost. One of the most interesting from a historical point of view is the Hurt of Sedition how greneous it is to a Communeweith (1549), written on the occasion of Ket's rebellion, republished in 1569, 1576 and 1641, on the last occasion with a life of the author by Gerard Langbaine. Others are D. Joannis Chrysostomi homiliae duae (1543), D. Joannis Chrysostomi de providentia Dei (1545), The Gospel according to St Matthew translated (c. 1550; ed. James Goodwin, 1843), De obitu Martini Buceri (1551), (Pope Leo VI's) de Apparatu bellico (Basel, 1554; but dedicated to Henry VIII, 1544), Carmen Heroicum, aut epithium in Antonium Dencium (1551), De pronuntiatione Graecae ... linguae (Basel, 1555). He also translated several Greek works, and lectured admirably upon Demosthenes.

 

His Life was written by John Strype (1705); additions by J. Gough Nichols in Archaeologia (1860), xxxviii. 98, I27.

The Old Calton Burial Ground was the first substantial development on Calton Hill and lies on the south-western side of the hill. The philosopher David Hume is buried there.His tomb is engraved only with the year of his birth (1711) and death (1776), on the "simple Roman tomb" (a relatively large monument) which he prescribed. The Political Martyrs' Monument is also in the burial ground.[4] This is in memory of five campaigners for political reform and universal suffrage who were convicted of sedition and sent in 1793 to Botany Bay, Australia.

 

On the west side of Calton Hill is the street named Calton Hill. Agnes Maclehose, better known as Robert Burns' Clarinda, lived at number 14 and died there in 1841. Burns, Scotland's national poet, sent Clarinda many verses over several years in unsuccessful (it is believed) attempts to seduce this beautiful married lady.

  

Edinburgh from the Calton Hill with Calton Jail in foreground, by George Washington Wilson, albumen print, ca. 1865-1895

Calton Hill was the location of the notorious Calton Jail, a complex comprising a Debtors' Prison, the Bridewell (1791–96) by Robert Adam (later replaced) and a Felons' Prison of 1815-17 by Archibald Elliot. The prisons were replaced by Saughton Prison and demolished in 1930 providing a site for St. Andrew's House, home to Scotland's senior civil servants. The sole surviving building is the castellated and turreted Governors House by Elliot. The lower curtain walls of the prison are still visible on the south side of St. Andrew's House, above Calton Road.

The Imperial I-class Star Destroyer, also referred to as an Imperial-class Star Destroyer or Star Destroyer, was a model of Imperial-class Star Destroyer in the service of the Imperial Navy. A wedge-shaped capital ship, it bristled with weapons emplacements, assault troops, boarding craft, and TIE fighters. In the era of the Galactic Empire, its command bridge was staffed by the finest crewmen in the Navy.

At first, Star Destroyers were deployed to sectors and systems caught in the aftermath of the Clone Wars, where they would crush any signs of sedition. During the Galactic Civil War, the Destroyer's role changed to hunting down high-value Rebel targets and bases. They fought in notable battles such as the Battle of Hoth and the Battle of Endor. The Imperial II-class Star Destroyer was a derivative of the Imperial I-class.

 

____________________________________

 

More Lore here:

 

starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_I-class_Star_Destroyer

transpil sedition m1

These are frightening times for my nation as political life becomes toxic and millions embrace hideous lies and propaganda, tilting the country away from democracy toward authoritarian rule laced with racism and hatred. This year's elections are crucially important, but it looks like the forces of repression and deception are likely to regain control of Congress and send us down a path of destruction.

 

We face a political party, many of whose members have endorsed insurrection as a legitimate political activity along with an ex president who attempted to remain in power against the will of the American people.

 

The Unthinkable

 

Things we thought

Before

Unthinkable

Have become

Now

Quite sadly

Thinkable

Quite sadly

Possible

But we hope

Still

Unlikely

Remote

And unbelievable

 

© Jamie McKenzie, all rights reserved

 

You will find 184+ of my poems HERE. fno.org/poetry/index.html

  

You will find more of my poems and songs here

and in The Storm in Its Passing and Flights of Fancy.

 

My songs are at

www.youtube.com/user/edtech2008/videos

 

Used for Bafabegiya split LP with Acts of Sedition. Bafabegiya side.

."..The dust of sedition hath clouded the hearts of men, and blinded their eyes."

 

Baha'u'llah

  

West façade of the Château de Chenonceau in the evening light, seen from the southern bank of the River Cher, Chenonceaux, Loire Valley, France

 

Some background information:

 

The Château de Chenonceau is a French château spanning the River Cher, near the small village of Chenonceaux in the French department of Indre-et-Loire. Hence, it is a water palace and as such one of the best-known châteaux of the Loire Valley. The Château de Chenonceau is situated about 40 km (25 miles) to the southeast of the city of Tours. It is also called "Château des Dames" (in English "Château of the ladies"), because it were mainly women, who decided its history and fate. By the way, it was already my second visit at the Château de Chenonceau, but up to now I haven’t uploaded the photos from my first visit in 2019 yet.

 

The estate of Chenonceau was first mentioned in a document in the 11th century. The current château was built between 1514 and 1522 on the foundations of an old mill and later extended to span the river. In the 13th century, the fief of Chenonceau belonged to the Marques family. The original château was torched in 1412 to punish the owner, Jean Marques, for an act of sedition. In the 1430s, he rebuilt a château and fortified mill on the site. However, Jean Marques' indebted heir Pierre Marques found it necessary to sell the estate.

 

Thomas Bohier, Chamberlain to King Charles VIII of France, purchased the castle from Pierre Marques in 1513 and demolished most of it (resulting in 2013 being considered the 500th anniversary of the castle), though its 15th-century keep was left standing. Between 1515 and 1521 Bohier built an entirely new residence. The work was overseen by his wife Katherine Briçonnet, who delighted in hosting French nobility, including King Francis I on two occasions.

 

In 1535 the château was seized from Bohier's son by King Francis I of France for unpaid debts to the Crown. After Francis' death in 1547, Henry II offered the château as a gift to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, who became fervently attached to the château along the river. In 1555 she commissioned Philibert de l'Orme to build the arched bridge joining the château to its opposite bank. Diane then oversaw the planting of extensive flower and vegetable gardens along with a variety of fruit trees. Set along the banks of the river, but buttressed from flooding by stone terraces, the exquisite gardens were laid out in four triangles.

 

Diane de Poitiers was the unquestioned mistress of the castle, but ownership remained with the crown until 1555 when years of delicate legal manoeuvres finally yielded possession to her. After King Henry II died in 1559, his strong-willed widow and regent Catherine de' Medici forced Diane to exchange it for the Château Chaumont. Queen Catherine then made Chenonceau her own favourite residence, adding a new series of gardens.

 

As Regent of France, Catherine spent a fortune on the château and on spectacular nighttime parties. In 1560, the first-ever fireworks display seen in France took place during the celebrations marking the ascension to the throne of Catherine's son Francis II. The grand gallery, which extended along the existing bridge to cross the entire river, was dedicated in 1577. Catherine also added rooms between the chapel and the library on the east side of the corps de logis, as well as a service wing on the west side of the entry courtyard.

 

On Catherine's death in January 1589, the château went to her daughter-in-law, Louise of Lorraine, wife of King Henry III. Louise was at Chenonceau when she learned of her husband's assassination, in August 1589, and she fell into a state of depression. Louise spent the next eleven years, until her death in January 1601, wandering aimlessly along the château's corridors dressed in mourning clothes, amidst sombre black tapestries stitched with skulls and crossbones.

 

Henri IV obtained Chenonceau for his mistress Gabrielle d'Estrées by paying the debts of Catherine de' Medici, which had been inherited by Louise and were threatening to ruin her. In return, Louise left the château to her niece Françoise de Lorraine, at that time six years old and betrothed to the four-year-old César de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme, the natural son of Gabrielle d'Estrées and Henri IV. The château belonged to the Duc de Vendôme and his descendants for more than a hundred years. The Bourbons had little interest in the château, except for hunting. In 1650, Louis XIV was the last king of the ancien régime to visit.

 

In 1720, the Château de Chenonceau was bought by the Duke of Bourbon. Little by little, he sold off all of the castle's contents and many of the fine statues ended up at Versailles. In 1733 the estate was sold for 130,000 livres (corresponding to 2.1 million $ today) to a wealthy squire named Claude Dupin. His wife, Louise Dupin, was the natural daughter of the financier Samuel Bernard and the actress Manon Dancourt. She was regarded as an intelligent, beautiful, and highly cultivated woman.

 

Louise Dupin's literary salon at Chenonceau attracted such leaders of the Enlightenment as the writers Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Fontenelle, the naturalist Buffon, the playwright Marivaux, the philosopher Condillac, as well as the Marquise de Tencin and the Marquise du Deffand. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was Dupin's secretary and tutored her son. Rousseau, who worked on Émile at Chenonceau, wrote in his Confessions: "We played music there and staged comedies. I wrote a play in verse entitled Sylvie's Path, after the name of a path in the park along the Cher."

 

The widowed Louise Dupin saved the château from destruction during the French Revolution, preserving it from being destroyed by the Revolutionary Guard because "it was essential to travel and commerce, being the only bridge across the river for many miles."

 

In 1864 Marguerite Pelouze, a rich heiress, acquired the château. Around 1875 she commissioned the architect Félix Roguet to restore it. He almost completely renewed the interior and removed several of Catherine de' Medici's additions, including the rooms between the library and the chapel and her alterations to the north facade, among which were figures of Hercules, Pallas, Apollo, and Cybele that were moved to the park. With the money Marguerite spent on these projects and elaborate parties, her finances were depleted, and the château was seized and sold.

 

José-Emilio Terry, a Cuban millionaire, acquired Chenonceau from Madame Pelouze in 1891. Terry sold it in 1896 to a family member, Francisco Terry. In 1913, the château was acquired by Henri Menier, a member of the Menier family, famous for their chocolates, who still own it to this day.

 

During World War I Gaston Menier set up the gallery to be used as a hospital ward. During the Second World War, the château was bombed by the Germans in June 1940. It was also a means of escaping from the Nazi-occupied zone on one side of the river Cher to the "free" zone on the opposite bank. Occupied by the Germans, the château was bombed by the Allies in June 1944, when the chapel was hit and its windows destroyed. In 1951, the Menier family entrusted the château's restoration to Bernard Voisin, who brought the dilapidated structure and the gardens (ravaged in the Cher flood in 1940) back to a reflection of its former glory.

 

An architectural mixture of late Gothic and early Renaissance, Château de Chenonceau and its gardens are open to the public. The château has been designated as a Monument historique since 1840 by the French Ministry of Culture. Today, Chenonceau is a major tourist attraction. It receives more than 800,000 visitors each year and is the most visited château in France, apart from the Royal Palace of Versailles.

 

The Château de Chenonceau is also regarded as one of the haunted castles of France. Occasionally when the moon is full, Catherine may be seen combing the hair of her rival, Diane. On other occasions, Diane was seen standing unhappily in front of her bedroom mirror. At least, several people have stated that. Well, everyone has to decide for themselves whether she or he believes in ghosts or not.

 

Since 2000, the Château de Chenonceau belongs to the UNESCO Word Heritage Site "The Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes" with its many breathtaking châteaux. Altogether there are more than 400 of them in the Loire region.

A prominent monument on the Edinburgh sky-line, the Martyrs' Monument rises as an immense obelisk (90 ft tall) from Old Calton Burial Ground. The monument was built in 1844, designed by architect Thomas Hamilton to commemorate the political martyrs of 1793, who were charged with sedition and transported to Australia. The five men commemorated—two from Scotland and three from England—were imprisoned for campaigning for parliamentary reform under the influence of the ideals of the French Revolution.

 

Calton Hill in central Edinburgh is the location of several iconic monuments and also included in the city's UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

SAMSUNG CSC

Hanbury Hall was built by the wealthy chancery lawyer Thomas Vernon in the early 18th century. Thomas Vernon was the great-grandson of the first Vernon to come to Hanbury - Rev Richard Vernon (1549–1628). Rev Richard and his descendants slowly accumulated land in Hanbury, including the manor that Edward Vernon bought in 1630. However, it was Thomas, through his successful legal practice, who added most to the estates, which, by the time of his successor Bowater Vernon, amounted to nearly 8,000 acres.

 

Hanbury Hall is thought to stand on the site of the previous mansion, Spernall Hall, and Thomas Vernon first describes himself as ‘of Hanbury Hall’ in 1706, and this and other evidence leads to a likely completion date of about 1706. The date of 1701 above the front door is thought to be a Victorian embellishment, but no building accounts are known to exist.

 

The main house is in the Queen Anne style, and has two stories plus an attic. It has red Flemish bond ashlar brickwork, with a tiled hipped roof, and large brick chimney stacks. A notable feature of Hanbury Hall is the painting of the staircase, hall ceiling, and other rooms by the English painter Sir James Thornhill. They include a small representation of Rev Henry Sacheverell being cast to the furies – this relates to an incident in 1710 when Sacheverell, a Tory, was put on trial for sedition by the Whig government, and dates the paintings to that year. The focus of the paintings around the stairwell is the life of the Greek hero Achilles, as told by a range of classical sources. They are surmounted by a large representation of the Olympian gods on the ceiling.

Jason Atomic, London tartcard series.

At the12 days of xmas show in Bristol.

++++ FROM WIKIPEDIA ++++

 

Hpa-An (Burmese: ဘားအံမြို့; MLCTS: bha: am mrui. [pʰə ʔàɴ mjo̰]; S'gaw Karen: ဖးအါ, also spelled Pa-An) is the capital of Kayin State (also known as Karen State), Myanmar (Burma). The population of Hpa-An as of the 2014 census is 421,575. Most of the people in Hpa-An are of the Karen ethnic group.

 

Climate

Hpa-An has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen climate classification Am). Temperatures are very warm throughout the year, although maximum temperatures are somewhat depressed in the monsoon season due to heavy cloud and rain. There is a winter dry season (November–April) and a summer wet season (May–October). Torrential rain falls from June to August, with over 1,100 millimetres (43 in) falling in August alone.

 

+++++

 

Myanmar (Burmese pronunciation: [mjəmà]),[nb 1][8] officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and also known as Burma, is a sovereign state in Southeast Asia. Myanmar is bordered by India and Bangladesh to its west, Thailand and Laos to its east and China to its north and northeast. To its south, about one third of Myanmar's total perimeter of 5,876 km (3,651 mi) forms an uninterrupted coastline of 1,930 km (1,200 mi) along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The country's 2014 census counted the population to be 51 million people.[9] As of 2017, the population is about 54 million.[10] Myanmar is 676,578 square kilometers (261,228 square miles) in size. Its capital city is Naypyidaw, and its largest city and former capital is Yangon (Rangoon).[1] Myanmar has been a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since 1997.

 

Early civilisations in Myanmar included the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states in Upper Burma and the Mon kingdoms in Lower Burma.[11] In the 9th century, the Bamar people entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and, following the establishment of the Pagan Kingdom in the 1050s, the Burmese language, culture and Theravada Buddhism slowly became dominant in the country. The Pagan Kingdom fell due to the Mongol invasions and several warring states emerged. In the 16th century, reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty, the country was for a brief period the largest empire in the history of Mainland Southeast Asia.[12] The early 19th century Konbaung Dynasty ruled over an area that included modern Myanmar and briefly controlled Manipur and Assam as well. The British took over the administration of Myanmar after three Anglo-Burmese Wars in the 19th century and the country became a British colony. Myanmar was granted independence in 1948, as a democratic nation. Following a coup d'état in 1962, it became a military dictatorship.

 

For most of its independent years, the country has been engrossed in rampant ethnic strife and its myriad ethnic groups have been involved in one of the world's longest-running ongoing civil wars. During this time, the United Nations and several other organisations have reported consistent and systematic human rights violations in the country.[13] In 2011, the military junta was officially dissolved following a 2010 general election, and a nominally civilian government was installed. This, along with the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and political prisoners, has improved the country's human rights record and foreign relations, and has led to the easing of trade and other economic sanctions.[14] There is, however, continuing criticism of the government's treatment of ethnic minorities, its response to the ethnic insurgency, and religious clashes.[15] In the landmark 2015 election, Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a majority in both houses. However, the Burmese military remains a powerful force in politics.

 

Myanmar is a country rich in jade and gems, oil, natural gas and other mineral resources. In 2013, its GDP (nominal) stood at US$56.7 billion and its GDP (PPP) at US$221.5 billion.[6] The income gap in Myanmar is among the widest in the world, as a large proportion of the economy is controlled by supporters of the former military government.[16] As of 2016, Myanmar ranks 145 out of 188 countries in human development, according to the Human Development Index.[7]

Etymology

Main article: Names of Myanmar

 

In 1989, the military government officially changed the English translations of many names dating back to Burma's colonial period or earlier, including that of the country itself: "Burma" became "Myanmar". The renaming remains a contested issue.[17] Many political and ethnic opposition groups and countries continue to use "Burma" because they do not recognise the legitimacy of the ruling military government or its authority to rename the country.[18]

 

In April 2016, soon after taking office, Aung San Suu Kyi clarified that foreigners are free to use either name, "because there is nothing in the constitution of our country that says that you must use any term in particular".[19]

 

The country's official full name is the "Republic of the Union of Myanmar" (ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်, Pyidaunzu Thanmăda Myăma Nainngandaw, pronounced [pjìdàʊɴzṵ θàɴməda̰ mjəmà nàɪɴŋàɴdɔ̀]). Countries that do not officially recognise that name use the long form "Union of Burma" instead.[20]

 

In English, the country is popularly known as either "Burma" or "Myanmar" /ˈmjɑːnˌmɑːr/ (About this sound listen).[8] Both these names are derived from the name of the majority Burmese Bamar ethnic group. Myanmar is considered to be the literary form of the name of the group, while Burma is derived from "Bamar", the colloquial form of the group's name.[17] Depending on the register used, the pronunciation would be Bama (pronounced [bəmà]) or Myamah (pronounced [mjəmà]).[17] The name Burma has been in use in English since the 18th century.

 

Burma continues to be used in English by the governments of many countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom.[21][22] Official United States policy retains Burma as the country's name, although the State Department's website lists the country as "Burma (Myanmar)" and Barack Obama has referred to the country by both names.[23] The Czech Republic officially uses Myanmar, although its Ministry of Foreign Affairs mentions both Myanmar and Burma on its website.[24] The United Nations uses Myanmar, as do the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Australia,[25] Russia, Germany,[26] China, India, Bangladesh, Norway,[27] Japan[21] and Switzerland.[28]

 

Most English-speaking international news media refer to the country by the name Myanmar, including the BBC,[29] CNN,[30] Al Jazeera,[31] Reuters,[32] RT (Russia Today) and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)/Radio Australia.[33]

 

Myanmar is known with a name deriving from Burma as opposed to Myanmar in Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and Greek – Birmania being the local version of Burma in the Spanish language, for example. Myanmar used to be known as "Birmânia" in Portuguese, and as "Birmanie" in French.[34] As in the past, French-language media today consistently use Birmanie.,[35][36]

History

Main article: History of Myanmar

Prehistory

Main articles: Prehistory of Myanmar and Migration period of ancient Burma

Pyu city-states c. 8th century; Pagan is shown for comparison only and is not contemporary.

 

Archaeological evidence shows that Homo erectus lived in the region now known as Myanmar as early as 750,000 years ago, with no more erectus finds after 75,000 years ago.[37] The first evidence of Homo sapiens is dated to about 11,000 BC, in a Stone Age culture called the Anyathian with discoveries of stone tools in central Myanmar. Evidence of neolithic age domestication of plants and animals and the use of polished stone tools dating to sometime between 10,000 and 6,000 BC has been discovered in the form of cave paintings in Padah-Lin Caves.[38]

 

The Bronze Age arrived circa 1500 BC when people in the region were turning copper into bronze, growing rice and domesticating poultry and pigs; they were among the first people in the world to do so.[39] Human remains and artefacts from this era were discovered in Monywa District in the Sagaing Division.[40] The Iron Age began around 500 BC with the emergence of iron-working settlements in an area south of present-day Mandalay.[41] Evidence also shows the presence of rice-growing settlements of large villages and small towns that traded with their surroundings as far as China between 500 BC and 200 AD.[42] Iron Age Burmese cultures also had influences from outside sources such as India and Thailand, as seen in their funerary practices concerning child burials. This indicates some form of communication between groups in Myanmar and other places, possibly through trade.[43]

Early city-states

Main articles: Pyu city-states and Mon kingdoms

 

Around the second century BC the first-known city-states emerged in central Myanmar. The city-states were founded as part of the southward migration by the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states, the earliest inhabitants of Myanmar of whom records are extant, from present-day Yunnan.[44] The Pyu culture was heavily influenced by trade with India, importing Buddhism as well as other cultural, architectural and political concepts, which would have an enduring influence on later Burmese culture and political organisation.[45]

 

By the 9th century, several city-states had sprouted across the land: the Pyu in the central dry zone, Mon along the southern coastline and Arakanese along the western littoral. The balance was upset when the Pyu came under repeated attacks from Nanzhao between the 750s and the 830s. In the mid-to-late 9th century the Bamar people founded a small settlement at Bagan. It was one of several competing city-states until the late 10th century when it grew in authority and grandeur.[46]

Imperial Burma

Main articles: Pagan Kingdom, Taungoo Dynasty, and Konbaung Dynasty

See also: Ava Kingdom, Hanthawaddy Kingdom, Kingdom of Mrauk U, and Shan States

Pagodas and kyaungs in present-day Bagan, the capital of the Pagan Kingdom.

 

Pagan gradually grew to absorb its surrounding states until the 1050s–1060s when Anawrahta founded the Pagan Kingdom, the first ever unification of the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Pagan Empire and the Khmer Empire were two main powers in mainland Southeast Asia.[47] The Burmese language and culture gradually became dominant in the upper Irrawaddy valley, eclipsing the Pyu, Mon and Pali norms by the late 12th century.[48]

 

Theravada Buddhism slowly began to spread to the village level, although Tantric, Mahayana, Hinduism, and folk religion remained heavily entrenched. Pagan's rulers and wealthy built over 10,000 Buddhist temples in the Pagan capital zone alone. Repeated Mongol invasions (1277–1301) toppled the four-century-old kingdom in 1287.[48]

Temples at Mrauk U.

 

Pagan's collapse was followed by 250 years of political fragmentation that lasted well into the 16th century. Like the Burmans four centuries earlier, Shan migrants who arrived with the Mongol invasions stayed behind. Several competing Shan States came to dominate the entire northwestern to eastern arc surrounding the Irrawaddy valley. The valley too was beset with petty states until the late 14th century when two sizeable powers, Ava Kingdom and Hanthawaddy Kingdom, emerged. In the west, a politically fragmented Arakan was under competing influences of its stronger neighbours until the Kingdom of Mrauk U unified the Arakan coastline for the first time in 1437.

 

Early on, Ava fought wars of unification (1385–1424) but could never quite reassemble the lost empire. Having held off Ava, Hanthawaddy entered its golden age, and Arakan went on to become a power in its own right for the next 350 years. In contrast, constant warfare left Ava greatly weakened, and it slowly disintegrated from 1481 onward. In 1527, the Confederation of Shan States conquered Ava itself, and ruled Upper Myanmar until 1555.

 

Like the Pagan Empire, Ava, Hanthawaddy and the Shan states were all multi-ethnic polities. Despite the wars, cultural synchronisation continued. This period is considered a golden age for Burmese culture. Burmese literature "grew more confident, popular, and stylistically diverse", and the second generation of Burmese law codes as well as the earliest pan-Burma chronicles emerged.[49] Hanthawaddy monarchs introduced religious reforms that later spread to the rest of the country.[50] Many splendid temples of Mrauk U were built during this period.

Taungoo and colonialism

Bayinnaung's Empire in 1580.

 

Political unification returned in the mid-16th century, due to the efforts of Taungoo, a former vassal state of Ava. Taungoo's young, ambitious king Tabinshwehti defeated the more powerful Hanthawaddy in the Toungoo–Hanthawaddy War (1534–41). His successor Bayinnaung went on to conquer a vast swath of mainland Southeast Asia including the Shan states, Lan Na, Manipur, Mong Mao, the Ayutthaya Kingdom, Lan Xang and southern Arakan. However, the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia unravelled soon after Bayinnaung's death in 1581, completely collapsing by 1599. Ayutthaya seized Tenasserim and Lan Na, and Portuguese mercenaries established Portuguese rule at Thanlyin (Syriam).

 

The dynasty regrouped and defeated the Portuguese in 1613 and Siam in 1614. It restored a smaller, more manageable kingdom, encompassing Lower Myanmar, Upper Myanmar, Shan states, Lan Na and upper Tenasserim. The Restored Toungoo kings created a legal and political framework whose basic features would continue well into the 19th century. The crown completely replaced the hereditary chieftainships with appointed governorships in the entire Irrawaddy valley, and greatly reduced the hereditary rights of Shan chiefs. Its trade and secular administrative reforms built a prosperous economy for more than 80 years. From the 1720s onward, the kingdom was beset with repeated Meithei raids into Upper Myanmar and a nagging rebellion in Lan Na. In 1740, the Mon of Lower Myanmar founded the Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom. Hanthawaddy forces sacked Ava in 1752, ending the 266-year-old Toungoo Dynasty.

A British 1825 lithograph of Shwedagon Pagoda shows British occupation during the First Anglo-Burmese War.

 

After the fall of Ava, the Konbaung–Hanthawaddy War involved one resistance group under Alaungpaya defeating the Restored Hanthawaddy, and by 1759, he had reunited all of Myanmar and Manipur, and driven out the French and the British, who had provided arms to Hanthawaddy. By 1770, Alaungpaya's heirs had subdued much of Laos (1765) and fought and won the Burmese–Siamese War (1765–67) against Ayutthaya and the Sino-Burmese War (1765–69) against Qing China (1765–1769).[51]

 

With Burma preoccupied by the Chinese threat, Ayutthaya recovered its territories by 1770, and went on to capture Lan Na by 1776. Burma and Siam went to war until 1855, but all resulted in a stalemate, exchanging Tenasserim (to Burma) and Lan Na (to Ayutthaya). Faced with a powerful China and a resurgent Ayutthaya in the east, King Bodawpaya turned west, acquiring Arakan (1785), Manipur (1814) and Assam (1817). It was the second-largest empire in Burmese history but also one with a long ill-defined border with British India.[52]

 

The breadth of this empire was short lived. Burma lost Arakan, Manipur, Assam and Tenasserim to the British in the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826). In 1852, the British easily seized Lower Burma in the Second Anglo-Burmese War. King Mindon Min tried to modernise the kingdom, and in 1875 narrowly avoided annexation by ceding the Karenni States. The British, alarmed by the consolidation of French Indochina, annexed the remainder of the country in the Third Anglo-Burmese War in 1885.

 

Konbaung kings extended Restored Toungoo's administrative reforms, and achieved unprecedented levels of internal control and external expansion. For the first time in history, the Burmese language and culture came to predominate the entire Irrawaddy valley. The evolution and growth of Burmese literature and theatre continued, aided by an extremely high adult male literacy rate for the era (half of all males and 5% of females).[53] Nonetheless, the extent and pace of reforms were uneven and ultimately proved insufficient to stem the advance of British colonialism.

British Burma (1824–1948)

Main articles: British rule in Burma and Burma Campaign

Burma in British India

The landing of British forces in Mandalay after the last of the Anglo-Burmese Wars, which resulted in the abdication of the last Burmese monarch, King Thibaw Min.

British troops firing a mortar on the Mawchi road, July 1944.

 

The eighteenth century saw Burmese rulers, whose country had not previously been of particular interest to European traders, seek to maintain their traditional influence in the western areas of Assam, Manipur and Arakan. Pressing them, however, was the British East India Company, which was expanding its interests eastwards over the same territory. Over the next sixty years, diplomacy, raids, treaties and compromises continued until, after three Anglo-Burmese Wars (1824–1885), Britain proclaimed control over most of Burma.[54] British rule brought social, economic, cultural and administrative changes.

 

With the fall of Mandalay, all of Burma came under British rule, being annexed on 1 January 1886. Throughout the colonial era, many Indians arrived as soldiers, civil servants, construction workers and traders and, along with the Anglo-Burmese community, dominated commercial and civil life in Burma. Rangoon became the capital of British Burma and an important port between Calcutta and Singapore.

 

Burmese resentment was strong and was vented in violent riots that paralysed Yangon (Rangoon) on occasion all the way until the 1930s.[55] Some of the discontent was caused by a disrespect for Burmese culture and traditions such as the British refusal to remove shoes when they entered pagodas. Buddhist monks became the vanguards of the independence movement. U Wisara, an activist monk, died in prison after a 166-day hunger strike to protest against a rule that forbade him to wear his Buddhist robes while imprisoned.[56]

Separation of British Burma from British India

 

On 1 April 1937, Burma became a separately administered colony of Great Britain and Ba Maw the first Prime Minister and Premier of Burma. Ba Maw was an outspoken advocate for Burmese self-rule and he opposed the participation of Great Britain, and by extension Burma, in World War II. He resigned from the Legislative Assembly and was arrested for sedition. In 1940, before Japan formally entered the Second World War, Aung San formed the Burma Independence Army in Japan.

 

A major battleground, Burma was devastated during World War II. By March 1942, within months after they entered the war, Japanese troops had advanced on Rangoon and the British administration had collapsed. A Burmese Executive Administration headed by Ba Maw was established by the Japanese in August 1942. Wingate's British Chindits were formed into long-range penetration groups trained to operate deep behind Japanese lines.[57] A similar American unit, Merrill's Marauders, followed the Chindits into the Burmese jungle in 1943.[58] Beginning in late 1944, allied troops launched a series of offensives that led to the end of Japanese rule in July 1945. The battles were intense with much of Burma laid waste by the fighting. Overall, the Japanese lost some 150,000 men in Burma. Only 1,700 prisoners were taken.[59]

 

Although many Burmese fought initially for the Japanese as part of the Burma Independence Army, many Burmese, mostly from the ethnic minorities, served in the British Burma Army.[60] The Burma National Army and the Arakan National Army fought with the Japanese from 1942 to 1944 but switched allegiance to the Allied side in 1945. Under Japanese occupation, 170,000 to 250,000 civilians died.[61]

 

Following World War II, Aung San negotiated the Panglong Agreement with ethnic leaders that guaranteed the independence of Myanmar as a unified state. Aung Zan Wai, Pe Khin, Bo Hmu Aung, Sir Maung Gyi, Dr. Sein Mya Maung, Myoma U Than Kywe were among the negotiators of the historical Panglong Conference negotiated with Bamar leader General Aung San and other ethnic leaders in 1947. In 1947, Aung San became Deputy Chairman of the Executive Council of Myanmar, a transitional government. But in July 1947, political rivals[62] assassinated Aung San and several cabinet members.[63]

Independence (1948–1962)

Main article: Post-independence Burma, 1948–62

British governor Hubert Elvin Rance and Sao Shwe Thaik at the flag raising ceremony on 4 January 1948 (Independence Day of Burma).

 

On 4 January 1948, the nation became an independent republic, named the Union of Burma, with Sao Shwe Thaik as its first President and U Nu as its first Prime Minister. Unlike most other former British colonies and overseas territories, Burma did not become a member of the Commonwealth. A bicameral parliament was formed, consisting of a Chamber of Deputies and a Chamber of Nationalities,[64] and multi-party elections were held in 1951–1952, 1956 and 1960.

 

The geographical area Burma encompasses today can be traced to the Panglong Agreement, which combined Burma Proper, which consisted of Lower Burma and Upper Burma, and the Frontier Areas, which had been administered separately by the British.[65]

 

In 1961, U Thant, then the Union of Burma's Permanent Representative to the United Nations and former Secretary to the Prime Minister, was elected Secretary-General of the United Nations, a position he held for ten years.[66] Among the Burmese to work at the UN when he was Secretary-General was a young Aung San Suu Kyi (daughter of Aung San), who went on to become winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

 

When the non-Burman ethnic groups pushed for autonomy or federalism, alongside having a weak civilian government at the centre, the military leadership staged a coup d’état in 1962. Though incorporated in the 1947 Constitution, successive military governments construed the use of the term ‘federalism’ as being anti-national, anti-unity and pro-disintegration.[67]

Military rule (1962–2011)

 

On 2 March 1962, the military led by General Ne Win took control of Burma through a coup d'état, and the government has been under direct or indirect control by the military since then. Between 1962 and 1974, Myanmar was ruled by a revolutionary council headed by the general. Almost all aspects of society (business, media, production) were nationalised or brought under government control under the Burmese Way to Socialism,[68] which combined Soviet-style nationalisation and central planning.

 

A new constitution of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma was adopted in 1974. Until 1988, the country was ruled as a one-party system, with the General and other military officers resigning and ruling through the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP).[69] During this period, Myanmar became one of the world's most impoverished countries.[70]

Protesters gathering in central Rangoon, 1988.

 

There were sporadic protests against military rule during the Ne Win years and these were almost always violently suppressed. On 7 July 1962, the government broke up demonstrations at Rangoon University, killing 15 students.[68] In 1974, the military violently suppressed anti-government protests at the funeral of U Thant. Student protests in 1975, 1976, and 1977 were quickly suppressed by overwhelming force.[69]

 

In 1988, unrest over economic mismanagement and political oppression by the government led to widespread pro-democracy demonstrations throughout the country known as the 8888 Uprising. Security forces killed thousands of demonstrators, and General Saw Maung staged a coup d'état and formed the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). In 1989, SLORC declared martial law after widespread protests. The military government finalised plans for People's Assembly elections on 31 May 1989.[71] SLORC changed the country's official English name from the "Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma" to the "Union of Myanmar" in 1989.

 

In May 1990, the government held free elections for the first time in almost 30 years and the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, won 392 out of a total 492 seats (i.e., 80% of the seats). However, the military junta refused to cede power[72] and continued to rule the nation as SLORC until 1997, and then as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) until its dissolution in March 2011.

Protesters in Yangon during the 2007 Saffron Revolution with a banner that reads non-violence: national movement in Burmese. In the background is Shwedagon Pagoda.

 

On 23 June 1997, Myanmar was admitted into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). On 27 March 2006, the military junta, which had moved the national capital from Yangon to a site near Pyinmana in November 2005, officially named the new capital Naypyidaw, meaning "city of the kings".[73]

Cyclone Nargis in southern Myanmar, May 2008.

 

In August 2007, an increase in the price of diesel and petrol led to the Saffron Revolution led by Buddhist monks that were dealt with harshly by the government.[74] The government cracked down on them on 26 September 2007. The crackdown was harsh, with reports of barricades at the Shwedagon Pagoda and monks killed. There were also rumours of disagreement within the Burmese armed forces, but none was confirmed. The military crackdown against unarmed protesters was widely condemned as part of the international reactions to the Saffron Revolution and led to an increase in economic sanctions against the Burmese Government.

 

In May 2008, Cyclone Nargis caused extensive damage in the densely populated, rice-farming delta of the Irrawaddy Division.[75] It was the worst natural disaster in Burmese history with reports of an estimated 200,000 people dead or missing, damage totalled to 10 billion US dollars, and as many as 1 million left homeless.[76] In the critical days following this disaster, Myanmar's isolationist government was accused of hindering United Nations recovery efforts.[77] Humanitarian aid was requested but concerns about foreign military or intelligence presence in the country delayed the entry of United States military planes delivering medicine, food, and other supplies.[78]

 

In early August 2009, a conflict known as the Kokang incident broke out in Shan State in northern Myanmar. For several weeks, junta troops fought against ethnic minorities including the Han Chinese,[79] Wa, and Kachin.[80][81] During 8–12 August, the first days of the conflict, as many as 10,000 Burmese civilians fled to Yunnan province in neighbouring China.[80][81][82]

Civil wars

Main articles: Internal conflict in Myanmar, Kachin Conflict, Karen conflict, and 2015 Kokang offensive

 

Civil wars have been a constant feature of Myanmar's socio-political landscape since the attainment of independence in 1948. These wars are predominantly struggles for ethnic and sub-national autonomy, with the areas surrounding the ethnically Bamar central districts of the country serving as the primary geographical setting of conflict. Foreign journalists and visitors require a special travel permit to visit the areas in which Myanmar's civil wars continue.[83]

 

In October 2012, the ongoing conflicts in Myanmar included the Kachin conflict,[84] between the Pro-Christian Kachin Independence Army and the government;[85] a civil war between the Rohingya Muslims, and the government and non-government groups in Rakhine State;[86] and a conflict between the Shan,[87] Lahu, and Karen[88][89] minority groups, and the government in the eastern half of the country. In addition, al-Qaeda signalled an intention to become involved in Myanmar. In a video released on 3 September 2014, mainly addressed to India, the militant group's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri said al-Qaeda had not forgotten the Muslims of Myanmar and that the group was doing "what they can to rescue you".[90] In response, the military raised its level of alertness, while the Burmese Muslim Association issued a statement saying Muslims would not tolerate any threat to their motherland.[91]

 

Armed conflict between ethnic Chinese rebels and the Myanmar Armed Forces have resulted in the Kokang offensive in February 2015. The conflict had forced 40,000 to 50,000 civilians to flee their homes and seek shelter on the Chinese side of the border.[92] During the incident, the government of China was accused of giving military assistance to the ethnic Chinese rebels. Burmese officials have been historically "manipulated" and pressured by the Chinese government throughout Burmese modern history to create closer and binding ties with China, creating a Chinese satellite state in Southeast Asia.[93] However, uncertainties exist as clashes between Burmese troops and local insurgent groups continue.

Democratic reforms

Main article: 2011–12 Burmese political reforms

 

The goal of the Burmese constitutional referendum of 2008, held on 10 May 2008, is the creation of a "discipline-flourishing democracy". As part of the referendum process, the name of the country was changed from the "Union of Myanmar" to the "Republic of the Union of Myanmar", and general elections were held under the new constitution in 2010. Observer accounts of the 2010 election describe the event as mostly peaceful; however, allegations of polling station irregularities were raised, and the United Nations (UN) and a number of Western countries condemned the elections as fraudulent.[94]

U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with Aung San Suu Kyi and her staff at her home in Yangon, 2012

 

The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party declared victory in the 2010 elections, stating that it had been favoured by 80 percent of the votes; however, the claim was disputed by numerous pro-democracy opposition groups who asserted that the military regime had engaged in rampant fraud.[95][96] One report documented 77 percent as the official turnout rate of the election.[95] The military junta was dissolved on 30 March 2011.

 

Opinions differ whether the transition to liberal democracy is underway. According to some reports, the military's presence continues as the label "disciplined democracy" suggests. This label asserts that the Burmese military is allowing certain civil liberties while clandestinely institutionalising itself further into Burmese politics. Such an assertion assumes that reforms only occurred when the military was able to safeguard its own interests through the transition—here, "transition" does not refer to a transition to a liberal democracy, but transition to a quasi-military rule.[97]

 

Since the 2010 election, the government has embarked on a series of reforms to direct the country towards liberal democracy, a mixed economy, and reconciliation, although doubts persist about the motives that underpin such reforms. The series of reforms includes the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, the establishment of the National Human Rights Commission, the granting of general amnesties for more than 200 political prisoners, new labour laws that permit labour unions and strikes, a relaxation of press censorship, and the regulation of currency practices.[98]

 

The impact of the post-election reforms has been observed in numerous areas, including ASEAN's approval of Myanmar's bid for the position of ASEAN chair in 2014;[99] the visit by United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in December 2011 for the encouragement of further progress, which was the first visit by a Secretary of State in more than fifty years,[100] during which Clinton met with the Burmese president and former military commander Thein Sein, as well as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi;[101] and the participation of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the 2012 by-elections, facilitated by the government's abolition of the laws that previously barred the NLD.[102] As of July 2013, about 100[103][104] political prisoners remain imprisoned, while conflict between the Burmese Army and local insurgent groups continues.

Map of Myanmar and its divisions, including Shan State, Kachin State, Rakhine State and Karen State.

 

In 1 April 2012 by-elections, the NLD won 43 of the 45 available seats; previously an illegal organisation, the NLD had not won a single seat under new constitution. The 2012 by-elections were also the first time that international representatives were allowed to monitor the voting process in Myanmar.[105]

2015 general elections

Main article: Myanmar general election, 2015

 

General elections were held on 8 November 2015. These were the first openly contested elections held in Myanmar since 1990. The results gave the National League for Democracy an absolute majority of seats in both chambers of the national parliament, enough to ensure that its candidate would become president, while NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi is constitutionally barred from the presidency.[106]

 

The new parliament convened on 1 February 2016[107] and, on 15 March 2016, Htin Kyaw was elected as the first non-military president since the military coup of 1962.[108] On 6 April 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi assumed the newly created role of State Counsellor, a role akin to a Prime Minister.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Myanmar

A map of Myanmar

Myanmar map of Köppen climate classification.

 

Myanmar has a total area of 678,500 square kilometres (262,000 sq mi). It lies between latitudes 9° and 29°N, and longitudes 92° and 102°E. As of February 2011, Myanmar consisted of 14 states and regions, 67 districts, 330 townships, 64 sub-townships, 377 towns, 2,914 Wards, 14,220 village tracts and 68,290 villages.

 

Myanmar is bordered in the northwest by the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh and the Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh states of India. Its north and northeast border is with the Tibet Autonomous Region and Yunnan province for a Sino-Myanmar border total of 2,185 km (1,358 mi). It is bounded by Laos and Thailand to the southeast. Myanmar has 1,930 km (1,200 mi) of contiguous coastline along the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea to the southwest and the south, which forms one quarter of its total perimeter.[20]

 

In the north, the Hengduan Mountains form the border with China. Hkakabo Razi, located in Kachin State, at an elevation of 5,881 metres (19,295 ft), is the highest point in Myanmar.[109] Many mountain ranges, such as the Rakhine Yoma, the Bago Yoma, the Shan Hills and the Tenasserim Hills exist within Myanmar, all of which run north-to-south from the Himalayas.[110]

 

The mountain chains divide Myanmar's three river systems, which are the Irrawaddy, Salween (Thanlwin), and the Sittaung rivers.[111] The Irrawaddy River, Myanmar's longest river, nearly 2,170 kilometres (1,348 mi) long, flows into the Gulf of Martaban. Fertile plains exist in the valleys between the mountain chains.[110] The majority of Myanmar's population lives in the Irrawaddy valley, which is situated between the Rakhine Yoma and the Shan Plateau.

Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative divisions of Myanmar

A clickable map of Burma/Myanmar exhibiting its first-level administrative divisions.

About this image

 

Myanmar is divided into seven states (ပြည်နယ်) and seven regions (တိုင်းဒေသကြီး), formerly called divisions.[112] Regions are predominantly Bamar (that is, mainly inhabited by the dominant ethnic group). States, in essence, are regions that are home to particular ethnic minorities. The administrative divisions are further subdivided into districts, which are further subdivided into townships, wards, and villages.

 

Climate

Main article: Climate of Myanmar

The limestone landscape of Mon State.

 

Much of the country lies between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator. It lies in the monsoon region of Asia, with its coastal regions receiving over 5,000 mm (196.9 in) of rain annually. Annual rainfall in the delta region is approximately 2,500 mm (98.4 in), while average annual rainfall in the Dry Zone in central Myanmar is less than 1,000 mm (39.4 in). The Northern regions of Myanmar are the coolest, with average temperatures of 21 °C (70 °F). Coastal and delta regions have an average maximum temperature of 32 °C (89.6 °F).[111]

Environment

Further information: Deforestation in Myanmar

 

Myanmar continues to perform badly in the global Environmental Performance Index (EPI) with an overall ranking of 153 out of 180 countries in 2016; among the worst in the South Asian region, only ahead of Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The EPI was established in 2001 by the World Economic Forum as a global gauge to measure how well individual countries perform in implementing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The environmental areas where Myanmar performs worst (ie. highest ranking) are air quality (174), health impacts of environmental issues (143) and biodiversity and habitat (142). Myanmar performs best (ie. lowest ranking) in environmental impacts of fisheries (21), but with declining fish stocks. Despite several issues, Myanmar also ranks 64 and scores very good (ie. a high percentage of 93.73%) in environmental effects of the agricultural industry because of an excellent management of the nitrogen cycle.[114][115]

Wildlife

 

Myanmar's slow economic growth has contributed to the preservation of much of its environment and ecosystems. Forests, including dense tropical growth and valuable teak in lower Myanmar, cover over 49% of the country, including areas of acacia, bamboo, ironwood and Magnolia champaca. Coconut and betel palm and rubber have been introduced. In the highlands of the north, oak, pine and various rhododendrons cover much of the land.[116]

 

Heavy logging since the new 1995 forestry law went into effect has seriously reduced forest acreage and wildlife habitat.[117] The lands along the coast support all varieties of tropical fruits and once had large areas of mangroves although much of the protective mangroves have disappeared. In much of central Myanmar (the Dry Zone), vegetation is sparse and stunted.

 

Typical jungle animals, particularly tigers, occur sparsely in Myanmar. In upper Myanmar, there are rhinoceros, wild water buffalo, clouded leopard, wild boars, deer, antelope, and elephants, which are also tamed or bred in captivity for use as work animals, particularly in the lumber industry. Smaller mammals are also numerous, ranging from gibbons and monkeys to flying foxes. The abundance of birds is notable with over 800 species, including parrots, myna, peafowl, red junglefowl, weaverbirds, crows, herons, and barn owl. Among reptile species there are crocodiles, geckos, cobras, Burmese pythons, and turtles. Hundreds of species of freshwater fish are wide-ranging, plentiful and are very important food sources.[118] For a list of protected areas, see List of protected areas of Myanmar.

Government and politics

Main article: Politics of Myanmar

Assembly of the Union (Pyidaungsu Hluttaw)

 

The constitution of Myanmar, its third since independence, was drafted by its military rulers and published in September 2008. The country is governed as a parliamentary system with a bicameral legislature (with an executive President accountable to the legislature), with 25% of the legislators appointed by the military and the rest elected in general elections.

Hanbury Hall was built by the wealthy chancery lawyer Thomas Vernon in the early 18th century. Thomas Vernon was the great-grandson of the first Vernon to come to Hanbury - Rev Richard Vernon (1549–1628). Rev Richard and his descendants slowly accumulated land in Hanbury, including the manor that Edward Vernon bought in 1630. However, it was Thomas, through his successful legal practice, who added most to the estates, which, by the time of his successor Bowater Vernon, amounted to nearly 8,000 acres.

 

Hanbury Hall is thought to stand on the site of the previous mansion, Spernall Hall, and Thomas Vernon first describes himself as ‘of Hanbury Hall’ in 1706, and this and other evidence leads to a likely completion date of about 1706. The date of 1701 above the front door is thought to be a Victorian embellishment, but no building accounts are known to exist.

 

The main house is in the Queen Anne style, and has two stories plus an attic. It has red Flemish bond ashlar brickwork, with a tiled hipped roof, and large brick chimney stacks. A notable feature of Hanbury Hall is the painting of the staircase, hall ceiling, and other rooms by the English painter Sir James Thornhill. They include a small representation of Rev Henry Sacheverell being cast to the furies – this relates to an incident in 1710 when Sacheverell, a Tory, was put on trial for sedition by the Whig government, and dates the paintings to that year. The focus of the paintings around the stairwell is the life of the Greek hero Achilles, as told by a range of classical sources. They are surmounted by a large representation of the Olympian gods on the ceiling.

East façade of the Château de Chenonceau in the evening light, seen from the southern bank of the River Cher, Chenonceaux, Loire Valley, France

 

Some background information:

 

The Château de Chenonceau is a French château spanning the River Cher, near the small village of Chenonceaux in the French department of Indre-et-Loire. Hence, it is a water palace and as such one of the best-known châteaux of the Loire Valley. The Château de Chenonceau is situated about 40 km (25 miles) to the southeast of the city of Tours. It is also called "Château des Dames" (in English "Château of the ladies"), because it were mainly women, who decided its history and fate. By the way, it was already my second visit at the Château de Chenonceau, but up to now I haven’t uploaded the photos from my first visit in 2019 yet.

 

The estate of Chenonceau was first mentioned in a document in the 11th century. The current château was built between 1514 and 1522 on the foundations of an old mill and later extended to span the river. In the 13th century, the fief of Chenonceau belonged to the Marques family. The original château was torched in 1412 to punish the owner, Jean Marques, for an act of sedition. In the 1430s, he rebuilt a château and fortified mill on the site. However, Jean Marques' indebted heir Pierre Marques found it necessary to sell the estate.

 

Thomas Bohier, Chamberlain to King Charles VIII of France, purchased the castle from Pierre Marques in 1513 and demolished most of it (resulting in 2013 being considered the 500th anniversary of the castle), though its 15th-century keep was left standing. Between 1515 and 1521 Bohier built an entirely new residence. The work was overseen by his wife Katherine Briçonnet, who delighted in hosting French nobility, including King Francis I on two occasions.

 

In 1535 the château was seized from Bohier's son by King Francis I of France for unpaid debts to the Crown. After Francis' death in 1547, Henry II offered the château as a gift to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, who became fervently attached to the château along the river. In 1555 she commissioned Philibert de l'Orme to build the arched bridge joining the château to its opposite bank. Diane then oversaw the planting of extensive flower and vegetable gardens along with a variety of fruit trees. Set along the banks of the river, but buttressed from flooding by stone terraces, the exquisite gardens were laid out in four triangles.

 

Diane de Poitiers was the unquestioned mistress of the castle, but ownership remained with the crown until 1555 when years of delicate legal manoeuvres finally yielded possession to her. After King Henry II died in 1559, his strong-willed widow and regent Catherine de' Medici forced Diane to exchange it for the Château Chaumont. Queen Catherine then made Chenonceau her own favourite residence, adding a new series of gardens.

 

As Regent of France, Catherine spent a fortune on the château and on spectacular nighttime parties. In 1560, the first-ever fireworks display seen in France took place during the celebrations marking the ascension to the throne of Catherine's son Francis II. The grand gallery, which extended along the existing bridge to cross the entire river, was dedicated in 1577. Catherine also added rooms between the chapel and the library on the east side of the corps de logis, as well as a service wing on the west side of the entry courtyard.

 

On Catherine's death in January 1589, the château went to her daughter-in-law, Louise of Lorraine, wife of King Henry III. Louise was at Chenonceau when she learned of her husband's assassination, in August 1589, and she fell into a state of depression. Louise spent the next eleven years, until her death in January 1601, wandering aimlessly along the château's corridors dressed in mourning clothes, amidst sombre black tapestries stitched with skulls and crossbones.

 

Henri IV obtained Chenonceau for his mistress Gabrielle d'Estrées by paying the debts of Catherine de' Medici, which had been inherited by Louise and were threatening to ruin her. In return, Louise left the château to her niece Françoise de Lorraine, at that time six years old and betrothed to the four-year-old César de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme, the natural son of Gabrielle d'Estrées and Henri IV. The château belonged to the Duc de Vendôme and his descendants for more than a hundred years. The Bourbons had little interest in the château, except for hunting. In 1650, Louis XIV was the last king of the ancien régime to visit.

 

In 1720, the Château de Chenonceau was bought by the Duke of Bourbon. Little by little, he sold off all of the castle's contents and many of the fine statues ended up at Versailles. In 1733 the estate was sold for 130,000 livres (corresponding to 2.1 million $ today) to a wealthy squire named Claude Dupin. His wife, Louise Dupin, was the natural daughter of the financier Samuel Bernard and the actress Manon Dancourt. She was regarded as an intelligent, beautiful, and highly cultivated woman.

 

Louise Dupin's literary salon at Chenonceau attracted such leaders of the Enlightenment as the writers Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Fontenelle, the naturalist Buffon, the playwright Marivaux, the philosopher Condillac, as well as the Marquise de Tencin and the Marquise du Deffand. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was Dupin's secretary and tutored her son. Rousseau, who worked on Émile at Chenonceau, wrote in his Confessions: "We played music there and staged comedies. I wrote a play in verse entitled Sylvie's Path, after the name of a path in the park along the Cher."

 

The widowed Louise Dupin saved the château from destruction during the French Revolution, preserving it from being destroyed by the Revolutionary Guard because "it was essential to travel and commerce, being the only bridge across the river for many miles."

 

In 1864 Marguerite Pelouze, a rich heiress, acquired the château. Around 1875 she commissioned the architect Félix Roguet to restore it. He almost completely renewed the interior and removed several of Catherine de' Medici's additions, including the rooms between the library and the chapel and her alterations to the north facade, among which were figures of Hercules, Pallas, Apollo, and Cybele that were moved to the park. With the money Marguerite spent on these projects and elaborate parties, her finances were depleted, and the château was seized and sold.

 

José-Emilio Terry, a Cuban millionaire, acquired Chenonceau from Madame Pelouze in 1891. Terry sold it in 1896 to a family member, Francisco Terry. In 1913, the château was acquired by Henri Menier, a member of the Menier family, famous for their chocolates, who still own it to this day.

 

During World War I Gaston Menier set up the gallery to be used as a hospital ward. During the Second World War, the château was bombed by the Germans in June 1940. It was also a means of escaping from the Nazi-occupied zone on one side of the river Cher to the "free" zone on the opposite bank. Occupied by the Germans, the château was bombed by the Allies in June 1944, when the chapel was hit and its windows destroyed. In 1951, the Menier family entrusted the château's restoration to Bernard Voisin, who brought the dilapidated structure and the gardens (ravaged in the Cher flood in 1940) back to a reflection of its former glory.

 

An architectural mixture of late Gothic and early Renaissance, Château de Chenonceau and its gardens are open to the public. The château has been designated as a Monument historique since 1840 by the French Ministry of Culture. Today, Chenonceau is a major tourist attraction. It receives more than 800,000 visitors each year and is the most visited château in France, apart from the Royal Palace of Versailles.

 

The Château de Chenonceau is also regarded as one of the haunted castles of France. Occasionally when the moon is full, Catherine may be seen combing the hair of her rival, Diane. On other occasions, Diane was seen standing unhappily in front of her bedroom mirror. At least, several people have stated that. Well, everyone has to decide for themselves whether she or he believes in ghosts or not.

 

Since 2000, the Château de Chenonceau belongs to the UNESCO Word Heritage Site "The Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes" with its many breathtaking châteaux. Altogether there are more than 400 of them in the Loire region.

To view more of my images, in this series, please click "here" ! Click any image to view large!

 

Hanbury Hall was built by the wealthy chancery lawyer Thomas Vernon in the early 18th century. Thomas Vernon was the great grandson of the first Vernon to come to Hanbury, Worcestershire, Rev Richard Vernon (1549–1628). Rev Richard and his descendants slowly accumulated land in Hanbury, including the manor, bought by Edward Vernon in 1630, but it was Thomas through his successful legal practice who added most to estates, which amounted to nearly 8,000 acres (32 km2) in his successor Bowater Vernon’s day. The Hall is thought to stand on the site of the previous mansion, Spernall Hall, and Thomas Vernon first describes himself as ‘of Hanbury Hall’ in 1706, and this and other evidence leads to a likely completion date of about 1706. The date of 1701 above the front door is thought to be a Victorian embellishment, but no building accounts are known to exist. Although Hanbury Hall appears to be of a very uniform style, the rear wall is clearly of a different and rather earlier style, and may mark the first phase of a building campaign when Thomas Vernon and his wife Mary first came into possession of Spernall Hall in 1692 when his bachelor uncle John Vernon died. A notable feature of Hanbury Hall is the painting of the staircase, hall ceiling, and other rooms by the English painter Sir James Thornhill. They include a small representation of Rev Henry Sacheverell being cast to the furies – this relates to an incident in 1710 when Sacheverell, a Tory, was put on trial for sedition by the Whig government, and dates the paintings to that year. The focus of the paintings around the stairwell is the life of the Greek hero Achilles, as told by a range of classical sources. They are surmounted by a large representation of the Olympian gods on the ceiling. The original plan of the Hall had a large undivided central hall with the main staircase leading off it, with many rather small rooms in the corner pavilions and north range – the south range was given over mainly to service rooms. The 18th century Worcestershire historian Treadway Nash, in his Collections for the History of Worcestershire, wrote “Here is a large handsome house built by Counsellor Vernon about the year 1710 when a bad style of architecture prevailed; many windows and doors, rooms small, many closets, few arched cellars, large stables and offices in full view, are marks of that time”. When the heiress Emma Vernon (1754–1818) married Henry Cecil, 1st Marquess of Exeter in 1776, Cecil clearly was of the same opinion, as he remodelled the interior (other than the great hall) creating larger rooms and enlarging the north east pavilion. On the south façade, having removed a doorway he repositioned all the windows to lie under their first floor equivalent. On the south side there had been large formal gardens, clearly shown in Dougharty’s perspective drawing contained in the estate maps of the 1730s, and Cecil swept all these away (including the farm buildings in front of the Hall) and landscaped the park in the fashion of the time – he would have had contact with Capability Brown when being brought up by his uncle 9th Earl of Exeter at Burghley House. Following Henry and Emma’s divorce in 1791 the contents were all sold, and the house remained empty until Henry’s death in 1804, when Emma and her third husband, John Phillips, were able to regain possession. As the house had lain unoccupied for so long, many repairs had to be carried out at that time. Emma died in 1818 and left her second cousin, Thomas Shrawley Vernon (1759-1825), as the heir to her estate after the death of her husband John Phillips. Phillips married again and had two daughters in Hanbury before finally moving out in 1829. From then, the eldest son of Emma's heir, Thomas Tayler Vernon (1792–1835), was able to occupy it. His grandson Harry Foley Vernon (1834–1920) MP, was created 1st Baronet of Hanbury in 1885, and was succeeded by his son Sir (Bowater) George Hamilton Vernon (1865–1940), 2nd Baronet. Sir George led an unhappy life, separating from his wife Doris, and spending his last 10 years living with his secretary and companion Ruth Horton, who later changed her name by deed poll to Vernon. During this time the agricultural depression led to a reduction in rental income, and Hanbury Hall suffered a lack of care. In poor health, Sir George Vernon took his own life in 1940. There were no further heirs to the Baronetcy which became extinct. Sir George's estranged wife was able to move back in after his death, dying there in 1962. In the meantime, negotiations had led to the National Trust having the reversion, and after making essential repairs on Lady Vernon’s death, the hall was let to tenants and opened to the public on a restricted basis. In recent years the hall has been managed more commercially and is now open daily.

 

"From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia"

Hanbury Hall was built by the wealthy chancery lawyer Thomas Vernon in the early 18th century. Thomas Vernon was the great-grandson of the first Vernon to come to Hanbury - Rev Richard Vernon (1549–1628). Rev Richard and his descendants slowly accumulated land in Hanbury, including the manor that Edward Vernon bought in 1630. However, it was Thomas, through his successful legal practice, who added most to the estates, which, by the time of his successor Bowater Vernon, amounted to nearly 8,000 acres.

 

Hanbury Hall is thought to stand on the site of the previous mansion, Spernall Hall, and Thomas Vernon first describes himself as ‘of Hanbury Hall’ in 1706, and this and other evidence leads to a likely completion date of about 1706. The date of 1701 above the front door is thought to be a Victorian embellishment, but no building accounts are known to exist.

 

The main house is in the Queen Anne style, and has two stories plus an attic. It has red Flemish bond ashlar brickwork, with a tiled hipped roof, and large brick chimney stacks. A notable feature of Hanbury Hall is the painting of the staircase, hall ceiling, and other rooms by the English painter Sir James Thornhill. They include a small representation of Rev Henry Sacheverell being cast to the furies – this relates to an incident in 1710 when Sacheverell, a Tory, was put on trial for sedition by the Whig government, and dates the paintings to that year. The focus of the paintings around the stairwell is the life of the Greek hero Achilles, as told by a range of classical sources. They are surmounted by a large representation of the Olympian gods on the ceiling.

What tragically became a massive crime scene on 6 January 2021 because of violent actions by vile, lawless, murderous insurrectionists--people pretending to be U.S. patriots but who, in fact, were utterly un-American fascists

++++ FROM WIKIPEDIA ++++

 

Kyaiktiyo Pagoda (Burmese: ကျိုက်ထီးရိုးဘုရား, pronounced [tɕaiʔtʰíjó pʰəjá]; Mon: ကျာ်သိယဵု, [tɕaiʔ sɔeʔ jɜ̀]; also known as Golden Rock) is a well-known Buddhist pilgrimage site in Mon State, Burma. It is a small pagoda (7.3 metres (24 ft)) built on the top of a granite boulder covered with gold leaves pasted on by its male devotees.

 

According to legend, the Golden Rock itself is precariously perched on a strand of the Buddha's hair. The balancing rock seems to defy gravity, as it perpetually appears to be on the verge of rolling down the hill. The rock and the pagoda are at the top of Mt. Kyaiktiyo. Another legend states that a Buddhist priest impressed the celestial king with his asceticism and the celestial king used his supernatural powers to carry the rock to its current place, specifically choosing the rock as the resemblance to the monks head. It is the third most important Buddhist pilgrimage site in Burma after the Shwedagon Pagoda and the Mahamuni Pagoda.[1][2][3][4]

 

Currently, women are not allowed into the inner sanctuary of the rocks vicinity, maintained by an employed security guard who watches over the gated entrance. Women are permitted in the outer balcony and the lower courtyard of the rock.

 

C

Etymology

 

In the Mon language, the word 'kyaik' (ကျာ်) means "pagoda" and 'yo' (ယဵု) means "to carry on the hermit's head". The word 'ithi' (ဣသိ in Mon (from Pali ရိသိ, risi) means "hermit". Thus, 'Kyaik-htiyo' means "pagoda upon a hermit's head".[5][6]

Legend

 

The legend associated with the pagoda is that the Buddha, on one of his many visits, gave a strand of his hair to Taik Tha, a hermit. The hermit, who had tucked it in the tuft of his hair safely, in turn gave the strand to the king, with the wish that the hair be enshrined in a boulder shaped like the hermit's head. The king had inherited supernatural powers from his father Zawgyi, a proficient alchemist), and his mother, a naga serpent dragon princess. They found the rock at the bottom of the sea. With the help of the Thagyamin, the king of Tawadeintha Heaven in Buddhist cosmology, found the perfect place at Kyaiktiyo for locating the golden rock and built a pagoda, where the strand was enshrined. It is this strand of hair that, according to the legend, prevents the rock from tumbling down the hill. The boat, which was used to transport the rock, turned into a stone. This is also worshiped by pilgrims at a location about 300 metres (980 ft) from the golden rock. It is known as the Kyaukthanban Pagoda or stupa (literal meaning: stone boat stupa).[1][6][7]

 

Legends also mention that pilgrims undertaking the pilgrimage by trekking from the Kinpun base camp three times consecutively in a year will be blessed with wealth and recognition.[8]

Left: Stereoscopic view in 1900. Right: Night view in 2007

Geography

 

The pagoda is located near Kyaikto in Mon State in the northern part of the Tenasserim coast. The Golden Rock is situated at an elevation of 1,100 m (3,609 ft) above mean sea level, on top of the Kyaiktiyo hill (also known as Kelasa hills or Eastern Yoma mountains); it is on the Paung-laung ridge of the Eastern Yoma mountains. It is at a distance of 210 kilometres (130 mi) from Yangon and 140 kilometers (86 mi) north of Mawlamyine, the capital of Mon State.[9][10] The Kinpun village 16 km (10 mi) is at the base of Mt. Kyaiktiyo. It is the closest to the Kyaiktiyo Pagoda. From Kyaiktiyo, the foot trail or road starts for the Golden rock. On this approach, there are numerous granite boulders on the mountain, perched in precarious condition. Near the top of the mountain, there are two large lions guarding the entrance to Kyaiktiyo Pagoda. From this location, known as Yatetaung (the last point for vehicular traffic), pilgrims and visitors have to climb to the Golden Rock barefoot, after leaving their footwear behind, as per Burmese custom.[1][3][7][11] The paved mountain track, built in 1999, from the bus terminal at Yatetaung, is along a dusty section with kiosks on both sides and the climb of 1.2 km up to the Golden Rock is stiff and takes about one hour to reach.[1] From the base camp at Kinpun, the hiking trek to the pagoda is about 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) and many devotees do this trek as part of the pilgrimage rites.[12] There are also many temples and pagodas, which have been built recently on other hills in the vicinity of the Kyaiktiyo Pagoda that are visited by pilgrims and tourists by trekking along foot tracks.[8]

Structures

 

The boulder, which gleams golden and popularly known as the Golden Rock on which the small Kyaiktiyo Pagoda has been built, is about 25 feet (7.6 m) in height and has a circumference of 50 feet (15 m). The Pagoda above the rock is about 7.3 metres (24 ft) in height. The boulder sits on a natural rock platform that appears to have been naturally formed to act as the base to build the pagoda. This granite boulder lies on an inclined plane and the area of contact is extremely small. The golden rock or boulder and the rock table on which it is resting are independent of each other; the golden rock has an overhang of half its length and is perched at the extreme end of the sloping surface of the rock. There is a sheer vertical drop in the rock face, into the valley below. A lotus shape is painted in gold leaf, encircling the base of the rock. It appears as though the boulder will crash down at any moment. A staircase leads to the pagoda complex that houses several viewing platforms, pagodas, Buddha shrines, and nats (spirits worshipped in Burma in conjunction with Buddhism shrines). However, the Golden Rock is the main attraction for the pilgrims who offer prayers and also stick golden leaves on the rock in reverence. A short distance away, there is a circle of gongs with four statues of nats and angels in the centre.[1][3][4][7][8][11][12]

 

A main square close to the golden rock has many establishments that deal in religious paraphernalia for worship and offerings made by the pilgrims. Adjoining the plaza area is the Potemkin village where restaurants, gift shops, and guest houses are located. A new terrace has been built at a lower level from which visitors can get a good view of the rock and the pagoda.[1]

Pilgrimage

 

Kyaiktiyo Pagoda or Golden Rock has become a popular pilgrimage and also tourist attraction. At the peak of the pilgrimage season, during November to March, an atmosphere of devotion is witnessed at Kyaikhtiyo pagoda. As the golden rock gleams in different shades from dawn to dusk (the sight at dawn and at sunset are unique), pilgrims' chants reverberate in the precincts of the shrine. Lighting of candles, meditation and offerings to the Buddha continues throughout the night. Men cross over a bridge across an abyss to affix golden leaves (square in shape) on the face of the Golden Rock, in deep veneration. However, women are not allowed to touch the rock so cannot cross the bridge. Pilgrims visit the pagoda, from all regions of Myanmar; a few foreign tourists also visit the pagoda. Even disabled persons who are staunch devotees of Buddha visit the pagoda, walking up the track on crutches. Old people, who can not climb, are carried on stretchers by porters to the Pagoda to offer prayers to Buddha.[2][4][13] The Full Moon day of Tabaung in March, is a special occasion for pilgrims who visit the shrine. On this day, the platform of the pagoda is lighted with ninety thousand candles as reverential offering to the Lord Buddha. The devotees visiting the pagoda also offer fruits, food and incense to the Buddha.[6][14]

 

Currently, women are not allowed into the inner sanctuary of the rocks vicinity, maintained by an employed security guard who watches over the gated entrance. Women are permitted in the outer balcony and the lower courtyard of the rock. The belief stems from the practice of women forbidden to make physical contact with male monks, who are vowed under chastity as the rock itself represents of the Buddhist monk resembling its head.

 

+++++

 

Myanmar (Burmese pronunciation: [mjəmà]),[nb 1][8] officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and also known as Burma, is a sovereign state in Southeast Asia. Myanmar is bordered by India and Bangladesh to its west, Thailand and Laos to its east and China to its north and northeast. To its south, about one third of Myanmar's total perimeter of 5,876 km (3,651 mi) forms an uninterrupted coastline of 1,930 km (1,200 mi) along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The country's 2014 census counted the population to be 51 million people.[9] As of 2017, the population is about 54 million.[10] Myanmar is 676,578 square kilometers (261,228 square miles) in size. Its capital city is Naypyidaw, and its largest city and former capital is Yangon (Rangoon).[1] Myanmar has been a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since 1997.

 

Early civilisations in Myanmar included the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states in Upper Burma and the Mon kingdoms in Lower Burma.[11] In the 9th century, the Bamar people entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and, following the establishment of the Pagan Kingdom in the 1050s, the Burmese language, culture and Theravada Buddhism slowly became dominant in the country. The Pagan Kingdom fell due to the Mongol invasions and several warring states emerged. In the 16th century, reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty, the country was for a brief period the largest empire in the history of Mainland Southeast Asia.[12] The early 19th century Konbaung Dynasty ruled over an area that included modern Myanmar and briefly controlled Manipur and Assam as well. The British took over the administration of Myanmar after three Anglo-Burmese Wars in the 19th century and the country became a British colony. Myanmar was granted independence in 1948, as a democratic nation. Following a coup d'état in 1962, it became a military dictatorship.

 

For most of its independent years, the country has been engrossed in rampant ethnic strife and its myriad ethnic groups have been involved in one of the world's longest-running ongoing civil wars. During this time, the United Nations and several other organisations have reported consistent and systematic human rights violations in the country.[13] In 2011, the military junta was officially dissolved following a 2010 general election, and a nominally civilian government was installed. This, along with the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and political prisoners, has improved the country's human rights record and foreign relations, and has led to the easing of trade and other economic sanctions.[14] There is, however, continuing criticism of the government's treatment of ethnic minorities, its response to the ethnic insurgency, and religious clashes.[15] In the landmark 2015 election, Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a majority in both houses. However, the Burmese military remains a powerful force in politics.

 

Myanmar is a country rich in jade and gems, oil, natural gas and other mineral resources. In 2013, its GDP (nominal) stood at US$56.7 billion and its GDP (PPP) at US$221.5 billion.[6] The income gap in Myanmar is among the widest in the world, as a large proportion of the economy is controlled by supporters of the former military government.[16] As of 2016, Myanmar ranks 145 out of 188 countries in human development, according to the Human Development Index.[7]

Etymology

Main article: Names of Myanmar

 

In 1989, the military government officially changed the English translations of many names dating back to Burma's colonial period or earlier, including that of the country itself: "Burma" became "Myanmar". The renaming remains a contested issue.[17] Many political and ethnic opposition groups and countries continue to use "Burma" because they do not recognise the legitimacy of the ruling military government or its authority to rename the country.[18]

 

In April 2016, soon after taking office, Aung San Suu Kyi clarified that foreigners are free to use either name, "because there is nothing in the constitution of our country that says that you must use any term in particular".[19]

 

The country's official full name is the "Republic of the Union of Myanmar" (ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်, Pyidaunzu Thanmăda Myăma Nainngandaw, pronounced [pjìdàʊɴzṵ θàɴməda̰ mjəmà nàɪɴŋàɴdɔ̀]). Countries that do not officially recognise that name use the long form "Union of Burma" instead.[20]

 

In English, the country is popularly known as either "Burma" or "Myanmar" /ˈmjɑːnˌmɑːr/ (About this sound listen).[8] Both these names are derived from the name of the majority Burmese Bamar ethnic group. Myanmar is considered to be the literary form of the name of the group, while Burma is derived from "Bamar", the colloquial form of the group's name.[17] Depending on the register used, the pronunciation would be Bama (pronounced [bəmà]) or Myamah (pronounced [mjəmà]).[17] The name Burma has been in use in English since the 18th century.

 

Burma continues to be used in English by the governments of many countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom.[21][22] Official United States policy retains Burma as the country's name, although the State Department's website lists the country as "Burma (Myanmar)" and Barack Obama has referred to the country by both names.[23] The Czech Republic officially uses Myanmar, although its Ministry of Foreign Affairs mentions both Myanmar and Burma on its website.[24] The United Nations uses Myanmar, as do the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Australia,[25] Russia, Germany,[26] China, India, Bangladesh, Norway,[27] Japan[21] and Switzerland.[28]

 

Most English-speaking international news media refer to the country by the name Myanmar, including the BBC,[29] CNN,[30] Al Jazeera,[31] Reuters,[32] RT (Russia Today) and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)/Radio Australia.[33]

 

Myanmar is known with a name deriving from Burma as opposed to Myanmar in Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and Greek – Birmania being the local version of Burma in the Spanish language, for example. Myanmar used to be known as "Birmânia" in Portuguese, and as "Birmanie" in French.[34] As in the past, French-language media today consistently use Birmanie.,[35][36]

History

Main article: History of Myanmar

Prehistory

Main articles: Prehistory of Myanmar and Migration period of ancient Burma

Pyu city-states c. 8th century; Pagan is shown for comparison only and is not contemporary.

 

Archaeological evidence shows that Homo erectus lived in the region now known as Myanmar as early as 750,000 years ago, with no more erectus finds after 75,000 years ago.[37] The first evidence of Homo sapiens is dated to about 11,000 BC, in a Stone Age culture called the Anyathian with discoveries of stone tools in central Myanmar. Evidence of neolithic age domestication of plants and animals and the use of polished stone tools dating to sometime between 10,000 and 6,000 BC has been discovered in the form of cave paintings in Padah-Lin Caves.[38]

 

The Bronze Age arrived circa 1500 BC when people in the region were turning copper into bronze, growing rice and domesticating poultry and pigs; they were among the first people in the world to do so.[39] Human remains and artefacts from this era were discovered in Monywa District in the Sagaing Division.[40] The Iron Age began around 500 BC with the emergence of iron-working settlements in an area south of present-day Mandalay.[41] Evidence also shows the presence of rice-growing settlements of large villages and small towns that traded with their surroundings as far as China between 500 BC and 200 AD.[42] Iron Age Burmese cultures also had influences from outside sources such as India and Thailand, as seen in their funerary practices concerning child burials. This indicates some form of communication between groups in Myanmar and other places, possibly through trade.[43]

Early city-states

Main articles: Pyu city-states and Mon kingdoms

 

Around the second century BC the first-known city-states emerged in central Myanmar. The city-states were founded as part of the southward migration by the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states, the earliest inhabitants of Myanmar of whom records are extant, from present-day Yunnan.[44] The Pyu culture was heavily influenced by trade with India, importing Buddhism as well as other cultural, architectural and political concepts, which would have an enduring influence on later Burmese culture and political organisation.[45]

 

By the 9th century, several city-states had sprouted across the land: the Pyu in the central dry zone, Mon along the southern coastline and Arakanese along the western littoral. The balance was upset when the Pyu came under repeated attacks from Nanzhao between the 750s and the 830s. In the mid-to-late 9th century the Bamar people founded a small settlement at Bagan. It was one of several competing city-states until the late 10th century when it grew in authority and grandeur.[46]

Imperial Burma

Main articles: Pagan Kingdom, Taungoo Dynasty, and Konbaung Dynasty

See also: Ava Kingdom, Hanthawaddy Kingdom, Kingdom of Mrauk U, and Shan States

Pagodas and kyaungs in present-day Bagan, the capital of the Pagan Kingdom.

 

Pagan gradually grew to absorb its surrounding states until the 1050s–1060s when Anawrahta founded the Pagan Kingdom, the first ever unification of the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Pagan Empire and the Khmer Empire were two main powers in mainland Southeast Asia.[47] The Burmese language and culture gradually became dominant in the upper Irrawaddy valley, eclipsing the Pyu, Mon and Pali norms by the late 12th century.[48]

 

Theravada Buddhism slowly began to spread to the village level, although Tantric, Mahayana, Hinduism, and folk religion remained heavily entrenched. Pagan's rulers and wealthy built over 10,000 Buddhist temples in the Pagan capital zone alone. Repeated Mongol invasions (1277–1301) toppled the four-century-old kingdom in 1287.[48]

Temples at Mrauk U.

 

Pagan's collapse was followed by 250 years of political fragmentation that lasted well into the 16th century. Like the Burmans four centuries earlier, Shan migrants who arrived with the Mongol invasions stayed behind. Several competing Shan States came to dominate the entire northwestern to eastern arc surrounding the Irrawaddy valley. The valley too was beset with petty states until the late 14th century when two sizeable powers, Ava Kingdom and Hanthawaddy Kingdom, emerged. In the west, a politically fragmented Arakan was under competing influences of its stronger neighbours until the Kingdom of Mrauk U unified the Arakan coastline for the first time in 1437.

 

Early on, Ava fought wars of unification (1385–1424) but could never quite reassemble the lost empire. Having held off Ava, Hanthawaddy entered its golden age, and Arakan went on to become a power in its own right for the next 350 years. In contrast, constant warfare left Ava greatly weakened, and it slowly disintegrated from 1481 onward. In 1527, the Confederation of Shan States conquered Ava itself, and ruled Upper Myanmar until 1555.

 

Like the Pagan Empire, Ava, Hanthawaddy and the Shan states were all multi-ethnic polities. Despite the wars, cultural synchronisation continued. This period is considered a golden age for Burmese culture. Burmese literature "grew more confident, popular, and stylistically diverse", and the second generation of Burmese law codes as well as the earliest pan-Burma chronicles emerged.[49] Hanthawaddy monarchs introduced religious reforms that later spread to the rest of the country.[50] Many splendid temples of Mrauk U were built during this period.

Taungoo and colonialism

Bayinnaung's Empire in 1580.

 

Political unification returned in the mid-16th century, due to the efforts of Taungoo, a former vassal state of Ava. Taungoo's young, ambitious king Tabinshwehti defeated the more powerful Hanthawaddy in the Toungoo–Hanthawaddy War (1534–41). His successor Bayinnaung went on to conquer a vast swath of mainland Southeast Asia including the Shan states, Lan Na, Manipur, Mong Mao, the Ayutthaya Kingdom, Lan Xang and southern Arakan. However, the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia unravelled soon after Bayinnaung's death in 1581, completely collapsing by 1599. Ayutthaya seized Tenasserim and Lan Na, and Portuguese mercenaries established Portuguese rule at Thanlyin (Syriam).

 

The dynasty regrouped and defeated the Portuguese in 1613 and Siam in 1614. It restored a smaller, more manageable kingdom, encompassing Lower Myanmar, Upper Myanmar, Shan states, Lan Na and upper Tenasserim. The Restored Toungoo kings created a legal and political framework whose basic features would continue well into the 19th century. The crown completely replaced the hereditary chieftainships with appointed governorships in the entire Irrawaddy valley, and greatly reduced the hereditary rights of Shan chiefs. Its trade and secular administrative reforms built a prosperous economy for more than 80 years. From the 1720s onward, the kingdom was beset with repeated Meithei raids into Upper Myanmar and a nagging rebellion in Lan Na. In 1740, the Mon of Lower Myanmar founded the Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom. Hanthawaddy forces sacked Ava in 1752, ending the 266-year-old Toungoo Dynasty.

A British 1825 lithograph of Shwedagon Pagoda shows British occupation during the First Anglo-Burmese War.

 

After the fall of Ava, the Konbaung–Hanthawaddy War involved one resistance group under Alaungpaya defeating the Restored Hanthawaddy, and by 1759, he had reunited all of Myanmar and Manipur, and driven out the French and the British, who had provided arms to Hanthawaddy. By 1770, Alaungpaya's heirs had subdued much of Laos (1765) and fought and won the Burmese–Siamese War (1765–67) against Ayutthaya and the Sino-Burmese War (1765–69) against Qing China (1765–1769).[51]

 

With Burma preoccupied by the Chinese threat, Ayutthaya recovered its territories by 1770, and went on to capture Lan Na by 1776. Burma and Siam went to war until 1855, but all resulted in a stalemate, exchanging Tenasserim (to Burma) and Lan Na (to Ayutthaya). Faced with a powerful China and a resurgent Ayutthaya in the east, King Bodawpaya turned west, acquiring Arakan (1785), Manipur (1814) and Assam (1817). It was the second-largest empire in Burmese history but also one with a long ill-defined border with British India.[52]

 

The breadth of this empire was short lived. Burma lost Arakan, Manipur, Assam and Tenasserim to the British in the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826). In 1852, the British easily seized Lower Burma in the Second Anglo-Burmese War. King Mindon Min tried to modernise the kingdom, and in 1875 narrowly avoided annexation by ceding the Karenni States. The British, alarmed by the consolidation of French Indochina, annexed the remainder of the country in the Third Anglo-Burmese War in 1885.

 

Konbaung kings extended Restored Toungoo's administrative reforms, and achieved unprecedented levels of internal control and external expansion. For the first time in history, the Burmese language and culture came to predominate the entire Irrawaddy valley. The evolution and growth of Burmese literature and theatre continued, aided by an extremely high adult male literacy rate for the era (half of all males and 5% of females).[53] Nonetheless, the extent and pace of reforms were uneven and ultimately proved insufficient to stem the advance of British colonialism.

British Burma (1824–1948)

Main articles: British rule in Burma and Burma Campaign

Burma in British India

The landing of British forces in Mandalay after the last of the Anglo-Burmese Wars, which resulted in the abdication of the last Burmese monarch, King Thibaw Min.

British troops firing a mortar on the Mawchi road, July 1944.

 

The eighteenth century saw Burmese rulers, whose country had not previously been of particular interest to European traders, seek to maintain their traditional influence in the western areas of Assam, Manipur and Arakan. Pressing them, however, was the British East India Company, which was expanding its interests eastwards over the same territory. Over the next sixty years, diplomacy, raids, treaties and compromises continued until, after three Anglo-Burmese Wars (1824–1885), Britain proclaimed control over most of Burma.[54] British rule brought social, economic, cultural and administrative changes.

 

With the fall of Mandalay, all of Burma came under British rule, being annexed on 1 January 1886. Throughout the colonial era, many Indians arrived as soldiers, civil servants, construction workers and traders and, along with the Anglo-Burmese community, dominated commercial and civil life in Burma. Rangoon became the capital of British Burma and an important port between Calcutta and Singapore.

 

Burmese resentment was strong and was vented in violent riots that paralysed Yangon (Rangoon) on occasion all the way until the 1930s.[55] Some of the discontent was caused by a disrespect for Burmese culture and traditions such as the British refusal to remove shoes when they entered pagodas. Buddhist monks became the vanguards of the independence movement. U Wisara, an activist monk, died in prison after a 166-day hunger strike to protest against a rule that forbade him to wear his Buddhist robes while imprisoned.[56]

Separation of British Burma from British India

 

On 1 April 1937, Burma became a separately administered colony of Great Britain and Ba Maw the first Prime Minister and Premier of Burma. Ba Maw was an outspoken advocate for Burmese self-rule and he opposed the participation of Great Britain, and by extension Burma, in World War II. He resigned from the Legislative Assembly and was arrested for sedition. In 1940, before Japan formally entered the Second World War, Aung San formed the Burma Independence Army in Japan.

 

A major battleground, Burma was devastated during World War II. By March 1942, within months after they entered the war, Japanese troops had advanced on Rangoon and the British administration had collapsed. A Burmese Executive Administration headed by Ba Maw was established by the Japanese in August 1942. Wingate's British Chindits were formed into long-range penetration groups trained to operate deep behind Japanese lines.[57] A similar American unit, Merrill's Marauders, followed the Chindits into the Burmese jungle in 1943.[58] Beginning in late 1944, allied troops launched a series of offensives that led to the end of Japanese rule in July 1945. The battles were intense with much of Burma laid waste by the fighting. Overall, the Japanese lost some 150,000 men in Burma. Only 1,700 prisoners were taken.[59]

 

Although many Burmese fought initially for the Japanese as part of the Burma Independence Army, many Burmese, mostly from the ethnic minorities, served in the British Burma Army.[60] The Burma National Army and the Arakan National Army fought with the Japanese from 1942 to 1944 but switched allegiance to the Allied side in 1945. Under Japanese occupation, 170,000 to 250,000 civilians died.[61]

 

Following World War II, Aung San negotiated the Panglong Agreement with ethnic leaders that guaranteed the independence of Myanmar as a unified state. Aung Zan Wai, Pe Khin, Bo Hmu Aung, Sir Maung Gyi, Dr. Sein Mya Maung, Myoma U Than Kywe were among the negotiators of the historical Panglong Conference negotiated with Bamar leader General Aung San and other ethnic leaders in 1947. In 1947, Aung San became Deputy Chairman of the Executive Council of Myanmar, a transitional government. But in July 1947, political rivals[62] assassinated Aung San and several cabinet members.[63]

Independence (1948–1962)

Main article: Post-independence Burma, 1948–62

British governor Hubert Elvin Rance and Sao Shwe Thaik at the flag raising ceremony on 4 January 1948 (Independence Day of Burma).

 

On 4 January 1948, the nation became an independent republic, named the Union of Burma, with Sao Shwe Thaik as its first President and U Nu as its first Prime Minister. Unlike most other former British colonies and overseas territories, Burma did not become a member of the Commonwealth. A bicameral parliament was formed, consisting of a Chamber of Deputies and a Chamber of Nationalities,[64] and multi-party elections were held in 1951–1952, 1956 and 1960.

 

The geographical area Burma encompasses today can be traced to the Panglong Agreement, which combined Burma Proper, which consisted of Lower Burma and Upper Burma, and the Frontier Areas, which had been administered separately by the British.[65]

 

In 1961, U Thant, then the Union of Burma's Permanent Representative to the United Nations and former Secretary to the Prime Minister, was elected Secretary-General of the United Nations, a position he held for ten years.[66] Among the Burmese to work at the UN when he was Secretary-General was a young Aung San Suu Kyi (daughter of Aung San), who went on to become winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

 

When the non-Burman ethnic groups pushed for autonomy or federalism, alongside having a weak civilian government at the centre, the military leadership staged a coup d’état in 1962. Though incorporated in the 1947 Constitution, successive military governments construed the use of the term ‘federalism’ as being anti-national, anti-unity and pro-disintegration.[67]

Military rule (1962–2011)

 

On 2 March 1962, the military led by General Ne Win took control of Burma through a coup d'état, and the government has been under direct or indirect control by the military since then. Between 1962 and 1974, Myanmar was ruled by a revolutionary council headed by the general. Almost all aspects of society (business, media, production) were nationalised or brought under government control under the Burmese Way to Socialism,[68] which combined Soviet-style nationalisation and central planning.

 

A new constitution of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma was adopted in 1974. Until 1988, the country was ruled as a one-party system, with the General and other military officers resigning and ruling through the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP).[69] During this period, Myanmar became one of the world's most impoverished countries.[70]

Protesters gathering in central Rangoon, 1988.

 

There were sporadic protests against military rule during the Ne Win years and these were almost always violently suppressed. On 7 July 1962, the government broke up demonstrations at Rangoon University, killing 15 students.[68] In 1974, the military violently suppressed anti-government protests at the funeral of U Thant. Student protests in 1975, 1976, and 1977 were quickly suppressed by overwhelming force.[69]

 

In 1988, unrest over economic mismanagement and political oppression by the government led to widespread pro-democracy demonstrations throughout the country known as the 8888 Uprising. Security forces killed thousands of demonstrators, and General Saw Maung staged a coup d'état and formed the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). In 1989, SLORC declared martial law after widespread protests. The military government finalised plans for People's Assembly elections on 31 May 1989.[71] SLORC changed the country's official English name from the "Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma" to the "Union of Myanmar" in 1989.

 

In May 1990, the government held free elections for the first time in almost 30 years and the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, won 392 out of a total 492 seats (i.e., 80% of the seats). However, the military junta refused to cede power[72] and continued to rule the nation as SLORC until 1997, and then as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) until its dissolution in March 2011.

Protesters in Yangon during the 2007 Saffron Revolution with a banner that reads non-violence: national movement in Burmese. In the background is Shwedagon Pagoda.

 

On 23 June 1997, Myanmar was admitted into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). On 27 March 2006, the military junta, which had moved the national capital from Yangon to a site near Pyinmana in November 2005, officially named the new capital Naypyidaw, meaning "city of the kings".[73]

Cyclone Nargis in southern Myanmar, May 2008.

 

In August 2007, an increase in the price of diesel and petrol led to the Saffron Revolution led by Buddhist monks that were dealt with harshly by the government.[74] The government cracked down on them on 26 September 2007. The crackdown was harsh, with reports of barricades at the Shwedagon Pagoda and monks killed. There were also rumours of disagreement within the Burmese armed forces, but none was confirmed. The military crackdown against unarmed protesters was widely condemned as part of the international reactions to the Saffron Revolution and led to an increase in economic sanctions against the Burmese Government.

 

In May 2008, Cyclone Nargis caused extensive damage in the densely populated, rice-farming delta of the Irrawaddy Division.[75] It was the worst natural disaster in Burmese history with reports of an estimated 200,000 people dead or missing, damage totalled to 10 billion US dollars, and as many as 1 million left homeless.[76] In the critical days following this disaster, Myanmar's isolationist government was accused of hindering United Nations recovery efforts.[77] Humanitarian aid was requested but concerns about foreign military or intelligence presence in the country delayed the entry of United States military planes delivering medicine, food, and other supplies.[78]

 

In early August 2009, a conflict known as the Kokang incident broke out in Shan State in northern Myanmar. For several weeks, junta troops fought against ethnic minorities including the Han Chinese,[79] Wa, and Kachin.[80][81] During 8–12 August, the first days of the conflict, as many as 10,000 Burmese civilians fled to Yunnan province in neighbouring China.[80][81][82]

Civil wars

Main articles: Internal conflict in Myanmar, Kachin Conflict, Karen conflict, and 2015 Kokang offensive

 

Civil wars have been a constant feature of Myanmar's socio-political landscape since the attainment of independence in 1948. These wars are predominantly struggles for ethnic and sub-national autonomy, with the areas surrounding the ethnically Bamar central districts of the country serving as the primary geographical setting of conflict. Foreign journalists and visitors require a special travel permit to visit the areas in which Myanmar's civil wars continue.[83]

 

In October 2012, the ongoing conflicts in Myanmar included the Kachin conflict,[84] between the Pro-Christian Kachin Independence Army and the government;[85] a civil war between the Rohingya Muslims, and the government and non-government groups in Rakhine State;[86] and a conflict between the Shan,[87] Lahu, and Karen[88][89] minority groups, and the government in the eastern half of the country. In addition, al-Qaeda signalled an intention to become involved in Myanmar. In a video released on 3 September 2014, mainly addressed to India, the militant group's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri said al-Qaeda had not forgotten the Muslims of Myanmar and that the group was doing "what they can to rescue you".[90] In response, the military raised its level of alertness, while the Burmese Muslim Association issued a statement saying Muslims would not tolerate any threat to their motherland.[91]

 

Armed conflict between ethnic Chinese rebels and the Myanmar Armed Forces have resulted in the Kokang offensive in February 2015. The conflict had forced 40,000 to 50,000 civilians to flee their homes and seek shelter on the Chinese side of the border.[92] During the incident, the government of China was accused of giving military assistance to the ethnic Chinese rebels. Burmese officials have been historically "manipulated" and pressured by the Chinese government throughout Burmese modern history to create closer and binding ties with China, creating a Chinese satellite state in Southeast Asia.[93] However, uncertainties exist as clashes between Burmese troops and local insurgent groups continue.

Democratic reforms

Main article: 2011–12 Burmese political reforms

 

The goal of the Burmese constitutional referendum of 2008, held on 10 May 2008, is the creation of a "discipline-flourishing democracy". As part of the referendum process, the name of the country was changed from the "Union of Myanmar" to the "Republic of the Union of Myanmar", and general elections were held under the new constitution in 2010. Observer accounts of the 2010 election describe the event as mostly peaceful; however, allegations of polling station irregularities were raised, and the United Nations (UN) and a number of Western countries condemned the elections as fraudulent.[94]

U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with Aung San Suu Kyi and her staff at her home in Yangon, 2012

 

The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party declared victory in the 2010 elections, stating that it had been favoured by 80 percent of the votes; however, the claim was disputed by numerous pro-democracy opposition groups who asserted that the military regime had engaged in rampant fraud.[95][96] One report documented 77 percent as the official turnout rate of the election.[95] The military junta was dissolved on 30 March 2011.

 

Opinions differ whether the transition to liberal democracy is underway. According to some reports, the military's presence continues as the label "disciplined democracy" suggests. This label asserts that the Burmese military is allowing certain civil liberties while clandestinely institutionalising itself further into Burmese politics. Such an assertion assumes that reforms only occurred when the military was able to safeguard its own interests through the transition—here, "transition" does not refer to a transition to a liberal democracy, but transition to a quasi-military rule.[97]

 

Since the 2010 election, the government has embarked on a series of reforms to direct the country towards liberal democracy, a mixed economy, and reconciliation, although doubts persist about the motives that underpin such reforms. The series of reforms includes the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, the establishment of the National Human Rights Commission, the granting of general amnesties for more than 200 political prisoners, new labour laws that permit labour unions and strikes, a relaxation of press censorship, and the regulation of currency practices.[98]

 

The impact of the post-election reforms has been observed in numerous areas, including ASEAN's approval of Myanmar's bid for the position of ASEAN chair in 2014;[99] the visit by United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in December 2011 for the encouragement of further progress, which was the first visit by a Secretary of State in more than fifty years,[100] during which Clinton met with the Burmese president and former military commander Thein Sein, as well as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi;[101] and the participation of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the 2012 by-elections, facilitated by the government's abolition of the laws that previously barred the NLD.[102] As of July 2013, about 100[103][104] political prisoners remain imprisoned, while conflict between the Burmese Army and local insurgent groups continues.

Map of Myanmar and its divisions, including Shan State, Kachin State, Rakhine State and Karen State.

 

In 1 April 2012 by-elections, the NLD won 43 of the 45 available seats; previously an illegal organisation, the NLD had not won a single seat under new constitution. The 2012 by-elections were also the first time that international representatives were allowed to monitor the voting process in Myanmar.[105]

2015 general elections

Main article: Myanmar general election, 2015

 

General elections were held on 8 November 2015. These were the first openly contested elections held in Myanmar since 1990. The results gave the National League for Democracy an absolute majority of seats in both chambers of the national parliament, enough to ensure that its candidate would become president, while NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi is constitutionally barred from the presidency.[106]

 

The new parliament convened on 1 February 2016[107] and, on 15 March 2016, Htin Kyaw was elected as the first non-military president since the military coup of 1962.[108] On 6 April 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi assumed the newly created role of State Counsellor, a role akin to a Prime Minister.