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PENTAX K-5 • 80 ISO • Pentax DA* 55mm F1.4 SDM
Kenko Pz-AF UniPlus Tube 25
Metz Flash 48 AF-1 Digital with Ray-Flash ring adapter
A night time shot of the pier head in Liverpool, a view of the "Three Graces", being the Royal Liver building, the Cunard building and the Port of Liverpool building. The were all built in the early 20th century and are now part of a UNESCO world heritage site.
Sony A700/Sigma 10-20mm
Isn't that what everyone wants to hear? Just those three magic little words. In this case though the three little words you're getting are probably not the ones you're looking for and they are distinctly less magical. It would seem this lady has had just about enough and she ain't gonna take any more.
This little beauty is on a 30cm square deep sided canvas has been constructed using ink, watercolour, paint pen, gold leaf, acrylic and charcoal.
£100 + P&P
Cheers
id-iom
Clayton had three cheap plastic fishes on the front of one of his comics, so just a bit of fun before they got chewed, lost, or thrown away!!
Ran across 40+ black vultures. Tricky angles from the car but managed a few clicks. These three posed nicely.
Take Aim In a Row
Beta Three is the second generation of robots capable of AHE or Artificial Human Emotion. The Alpha Two was the first to use it but the hardware was flawed. As AHE evolved into a more advanced pieces of software, the robot needed to be upgraded to be able to run it. This new robot has a head that has artificial muscles integrated into it for more complex emotions. If the muscles dry out they become very brittle and must be replaced. To keep the muscles wet, the entire head is surrounded by a jar-like helmet filled with a special chemical solution. The body of the robot has also been upgraded to be lighter and easier to repair.
The Three Soldiers statue was created and designed to complement the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, by adding a more traditional component to the Memorial.
Washington, DC
March 2013
We would like to present hand painted oil on canvas painting (recreation) of Afremov's artwork mentioned in the title. This art piece made by Leonid Afremov Studio with the same amount of soul and emotion just like the first original painting. The piece is created with oil paint on artistic canvas using Afremov's unique technique of a palette knife.
The History of the Ohio State Reformatory:
"The cornerstone laid on November 4, 1886 evolved into this magnificent Chateauesque structure. Cleveland architect Levi T. Scofield designed the Ohio State Reformatory using a combination of three architectural styles; Victorian Gothic, Richardsonian Romanesque and Queen Anne. This was done to encourage inmates back to a "rebirth" of their spiritual lives. The architecture itself inspired them to turn away from their sinful lifestyle, and toward repentance
The Reformatory doors were opened to its first 150 young offenders in September 1896. After housing over 155,000 men in its lifetime, the doors to the prison closed December 31, 1990.
Today the Ohio State Reformatory Historic Site receives visitors from all over the world. Every year tourists, movie buffs, thrill seekers and paranormal investigators walk through the halls of this majestic structure.
SOURCE: www.mrps.org/
Ghostly History of OSR
As reported by News Channel 4, Columbus, Ohio 1997
Stone walls and iron bars they're still here, but what of the humanity, if you can call it that, of the old Ohio State Reformatory at Mansfield. What of the 154,000 inmates who passed through it's gates in it's 94 years as a working prison. Not to mention their keepers, the Wardens, and the Guards, the gravediggers, and the rest, what of them remains? As it turns out, more than you might think. No matter what their crime, some sent to Mansfield have never left. They rest unclaimed in a cheerless graveyard just outside the fence. 215 numbered markers laid out row on row. Most were victims of disease, influenza, tuberculosis, but some died of less natural causes; From the violence, that is all to common inside any prison and was far from unknown in this one. And the worst of it occurred well away from the main cell block with their rows of cages stacked tier on tier, and inmates, one or two to a cell. There were too many eyes, too many witnesses here, no the worst of it was reserved for a far lonelier place, deep beneath the prison ground. A place called local control, or solitary, by some, known by everyone else as the hole. Near total isolation can crack all but the toughest of cons, but none was so alone that there wasn't room for death. At least one inmate managed to hang himself, another set himself on fire, once two men left too long in a single tomb like cell, only one walked out, leaving his cellmate's body behind, stuffed beneath a bunk. Could there be other similar surprises? Or words left over from the days before the prison closed? Even when they're empty, some swear something walks these halls. It isn't enough for contemporary visitors not to wonder off alone while sight seeing, what‘s become one of Mansfield's more popular tourist attractions. But the bloodiest single incident in the old prison's history occurred outside it's walls. In July 1948, when the Reformatory's farm boss, his wife and daughter were kidnapped and shot to death by two parolees bent on revenge. A six state manhunt for the so called mad-dog killers ended in a shootout that left Robert Daniels of Columbus in custody and his partner, James West dead. "I'll get the Chair" Daniels told police as he signed the confession. And on January 3rd, 1949, he did. A year later in 1950 disaster struck again. This time, here in the living quarters of the Warden himself. The Warden's wife, removing a jewelry box from a closet shelf dislodged a pistol from it's hiding place. When it hit the floor, the gun went off inflicting a fatal wound. And within the decade, even more bad luck. The Warden, hard at work in his office, suffered a heart attack and died. All this was nearly 40 years ago and more, how then to explain the voices shaken tour guides swear they hear today? Man and woman talking, to faint to understand, to persistent to ignore and chilling to listeners who think they're alone, only to find themselves apparently eavesdropping on the warden and his wife locked forever in an endless conversation from beyond the grave.
The Three Caballeros figures return to ending scene at Gran Fiesta Tour in Mexico Pavilion at Epcot. The figures were once featured in Mickey Mouse Revue attraction at Magic Kingdom Park.
Three exposures (0, -2, +2 ev) autobracketed to create the HDR.
This is the final image of this series.
Hope you enjoyed viewing the images and thank you for following my photostream.
Happy Furry Friday
Dogsitting in Coconut Grove, FL
Yes, I am dogsitting again. This time not just for the weekend, but for 10 days.
Actually I am here in the Grove since last Saturday and since then I've been trying to get them to pose for me, but without any luck whatsoever. I might have had one sitting still just for the other to run into the frame, usually right when I pressed the shutter. And, all I got was a furry blur.
So today I took my wide-angle lens and thought I try some artsy shots. That didn't work too well either until I grabbed some treats, held them in my left hand over my head, had the camera in my right hand and just fired away.
So here they are, from left to right: Virgil, whom you already have met, Benny, his son, and Idgy. Virgil and Benny are Cairn Terriers, 2 years and 8 months old, and Idgy is a Keeshond and with 15 years the senior of the household.
Please view the three amigos large on black.
Now a total of three pieces. From top to bottom: Sunday Morning, The Faithful Dog, The Volunteer. Need to work out how to display them.
An endangered Wood Stork and 2 Alligators hanging out together, Shipyard Plantation, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
A quick break to cool off during a Saturday hike. Three friends being adventurous and climbing a small waterfall at Patapsco State Park.
Hanoi, Vietnam.
copyright: © varenne. All rights reserved. Please do not use this image, or any images from my photostream, without my permission.
These three fine gentlemen were photographed in the village of Okankolo in 2000, attending the wedding of two friends of mine. I do not remember their names, unfortunately, but they were proud to be in their Sunday Best, and had an altogether very dignified air about them.
This is a scan of a print. It turns out that this film isn't that easy to print in a wet darkroom.
Out to run errands today and caught these three sketches. Made with a Sharpie and color pencils in my 3 x 5 Canson journal.
Three Shires Head on the River Dane. The point where the counties of Derbyshire, Cheshire, and Staffordshire meet. Four ancient packhorse routes converge at the river crossing.
CDV by Hurlbut, West Greenville, PA
period pencil inscription on back
Mark L. Weastcott
David Minnis
C. N. Failes
Sarah Jane Westcott
Anna L. Failes
At first glance this carte de visite appears to be an ordinary photo of a small group of family or friends. Additional research reveals some exciting details as well as a minor mystery. On its face, the photo shows three young men and two women, all in civilian clothing. These people are identified in pencil on the reverse as Mark L. Weastcott (sic), David Minnis, C. N. Failes, Sarah Jane Westcott, and Anna L. Failes. Unfortunately there is no indication which name on the reverse of the photo corresponds to each person of the front. The photo was taken by Hurlbut, in West Greenville, Pennsylvania.
A preliminary search of the National Park's online Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database revealed that all three men served in the Union Army from Pennsylvania: Mark Westcott and David Minnis in the 57th PA, and C. N. Failes in the 141st PA Infantry. Further research showed that Westcott was actually a common misspelled version of Westcoatt's actual name by omitting the "a", and that a typo on the website mistakenly identified Failes' unit as the 141st PA -- it actually was the 140th PA. But I still did not know who on the CDV was who.
I found the Westcoatt family in Trumbull County Ohio in 1850, Mercer County Pennsylvania in 1860 and Johnson County Iowa in 1870. The parents were Oliver P and Christiana Westcoatt. The children in the family were, in order of age Mary, Mark, Ann, Ezra, Amanda, John, Ida, Oliver Jr., William and Ambrose. Birth years ranged from about 1842 for Mary down to 1868 for Ambrose. The Minnis family showed up in Mercer County Pennsylvania in 1850, 1860 and 1870. The parents were Samuel and Narcissa Minnis. The children here were, in order, David born in 1844, William, John, Cynthia, James, Clara and Mary born in 1863. I had no such luck for finding census records for Failes or his family until he shows up in the 1880 census as head of his own household.
Next, I tried to put a name to a specific face on the photo. Through military records, I discovered that C. N. Failes was Caleb N. Failes and he was born in 1840. Westcoatt was born about 1843 and Minnis in 1844. So Failes was the oldest of the men by 3 or 4 years. That was clue number one. Next I noticed that one of the men appeared to be wearing what looks like a diamond shaped pin with a second circular pin and ribbon below it. This could be a Third Corps badge with a round ID tag hanging below it. Regardless of the nature of the lower pin, the upper one clearly reminds me of the diamond shaped lozenge used by the Third Corps. This was clue number two. Lastly, on close inspection, I could not decide if there was a photographic defect showing up on the cheek of the man on the left, or if the blemish was actually a scar. This was clue number three.
A trip to the National Archives in Washington, DC allowed me to pull the military, medical and pension records of all three men. (All three men's military biographies are presented in more detail below.) Here I learned that Failes did not serve in the 141st PA as I had been led to believe, but in the 140th PA instead. The 140th PA was assigned to the 5th Corps for the first few months, and then was transferred to the 2nd Corps. Failes thus did not seem to be a candidate for the man wearing the diamond shaped pin. But the 57th PA was part of the 3rd Corps at the time the other two men enlisted in February 1864. Even though the regiment was soon transferred out of the 3rd Corps, it is reasonable to assume that a new recruit could have been talked into buying an ID pin and corps badge before the transfer was announced. Therefore the man standing at the rear could be either Minnis or Westcoatt. The final piece of the puzzle fell into place when the medical and pension records for Westcoatt revealed that he had indeed been shot in the face, and was left with a rather large scar on his right cheek, matching what appears in the photo of the clean-shaven man seated on the left. Therefore, by process of elimination I have tentatively identified the three men in the photo as Mark Westcoatt seated at left, David Minnis standing in rear with lapel pin, and Caleb Failes, the oldest of the three, wearing a beard and seated in front.
The only times when all three men could have been together in West Greenville, Pennsylvania where the photo was taken, would have been either before August 1862 when C. N. Failes enlisted, or after June 1865 when all three men were discharged. At no time during their military service were all three men listed as absent at the same time. The presence of Westcoatt's scar and the Third Corps Badge worn by Minnis places this image in the post war period. The lack of a tax stamp on the reverse of the photo may further indicate that it was taken after August 1866 when the tax was repealed. However there is a faint stain that may be the result of a former tax stamp affixed to the back thus possibly dating this to the period 1864-1866, or it could just be the mark of a stamp on an adjoining CDV while held back to back in an album.
While I have an idea who the men in the photo are, I still have no clue as to the women. It is clear from the records than neither woman was a wife of Mark Westcoatt or C. N. Failes. Anna Failes might very well be a sister of C. N. Failes. Indeed, the woman sitting in the center seems to have a bit of a resemblance to the man with the goatee that I suspect is Failes, but so far I have found no census records for the Failes family prior to the Civil War. Sarah Jane Westcott remains a mystery. Her name does not correspond to any of Mark's sisters as listed in the census records for the Wesctoatt family. Although the woman at left bears a striking resemblance to the man sitting in front of her whom I believe is Mark Westcoatt I have not been able to figure out who she is. There is also the possibility that the first and last names of the women were inadvertently switched by whoever wrote the names on the back of the card. In that case, Ann L. could be Anna the sister of Mark L. Westcoatt, and Sarah Jane could be somehow related to C. N. Failes.
Military Biographies
Caleb N. Failes (1840-1921)
Caleb N. Failes was born October 22, 1840 in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. On August 15, 1862 he enlisted at Mercer County for 3 years in Company B, 140th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. This regiment was assigned to the 5th Army Corps until December 1862, at which time it was transferred to the 2nd Army Corps. The new regiment was ordered to join the Army of the Potomac in the field, and reached Aquia Creek, Virginia on December 15, 1862. But Failes failed to make it that far. On December 10, he had been sent from the hospital camp at Seward, Maryland to the U.S. Army General Hospital at York, Pennsylvania suffering from Typhoid Fever. Luckily he recovered enough to be returned to duty on February 11, 1863. His health did not last long, however, and on April 10 he was back in the regimental hospital and for the next two weeks he is listed as variously suffering from diarrhea, bronchitis, pains and rheumatism. Then, on April 21, 1863 he was admitted to the hospital of the 1st Division, 2nd Army Corps, Army of the Potomac near Falmouth, Virginia due to "Continued Fever." From there, on June 14, 1863 he was transferred to Carver U.S. Army General Hospital in Washington, DC and was finally returned to duty on August 8. Thus he missed the early fighting of his regiment at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.
By the fall of 1863 it appears Caleb Failes had finally kicked the sick bug. He was back in the ranks for the advance on the Rappahannock in late 1863 and for the spring campaign in early 1864. The 140th PA fought its way through from the Wilderness to Petersburg. By this time the regiment's effective strength was down to about 150 enlisted men, with companies that once numbered 100 men reduced to little bands of 10 or 12 now clustered around a tattered and powder-grimed stand of colors.
In the June 18, 1864 attack on Petersburg Failes was wounded in action when he was felled by a large piece of artillery shell. The metal fragment must have been nearly spent because it bounced off his right shoulder rather than perforate his body. Failes was evacuated from the battlefield, and with nearly 600 other wounded was packed onto the steamer Connecticut to be transferred to the Division Number 1 U.S.A. General Hospital at Annapolis, Maryland where he was admitted on June 20. The wound was diagnosed as a "contusion of the right shoulder caused by a piece of shell" and the medical records indicate that it "Requires no treatment." But in those days before x-rays and MRIs, there may well have been internal bone or ligament damage, because it took a very long time for the injury to heal and for him to regain useful movement and strength in his right arm. On July 3, 1864 Failes was transferred from Division No. 1 Hospital to the General Hospital at Camp Parole, just outside the city of Annapolis, where he remained for some time, still listed as suffering from a gunshot wound of the right shoulder. He was granted a two-week furlough on October 31, 1864, presumably to visit his home, and was readmitted to Camp Parole Hospital from furlough on Nov 14, 1864. He was again granted a furlough on January 6, 1865, this time for 30 days, and "Returned on time" by February 3.
The 140th PA had finished out the war at Appomattox Court House and returned to Washington, DC in May 1865. Its members were mustered out of the army at Alexandria, Virginia on May 31. But Caleb Failes was still recuperating in the hospital at Annapolis at that time and missed the regimental discharge. He received his individual muster out at Annapolis on June 8, 1865. Discharged from the service, he returned home to Pennsylvania. About two years later, in 1867 he married Mary C. ("Lottie") Unger and the couple raised several children. Caleb N. Failes died on December 15, 1921 at Warren, Ohio.
Mark L. Wesctoatt (~1843-1902) & David A. Minnis (1844-1919)
Mark L. Westcoatt was listed as 20 years old and a laborer when he enlisted in Company B, 57th PA Infantry at West Greenville, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, on February 10, 1864. This was the same company in which his father, Oliver P. Westcoatt, had enlisted on October 21, 1861. At the time, the elder Westcoatt had given his occupation as a blacksmith and his age as 44 (one year below maximum military draft age). In the spring of 1862 Oliver was detailed as an ordnance guard. But army life was hard on the older man, and he was given a disability discharge for being "debilitated" while at White's Ford, Maryland, on October 28, 1862. Although only one year had elapsed since Oliver's enlistment, his age as listed in army records had inexplicably advanced from 44 to 51 years old. In early 1864, the veterans of the regiment came home on furlough and apparently took the opportunity to enlist new recruits, and among the new enlistees was Mark Westcoatt. Perhaps the younger man wanted to follow the example of his father, or maybe he felt the need to redeem the family's honor after his father's discharge. Mark Westcoatt was described as six feet tall with dark hair and dark or hazel eyes.
David Andrew Minnis was born on September 26, 1844 in Sheakleyville, Mercer County, Pennsylvania. He was 19 and a farmer when he enlisted just two days after Mark Westcoatt in the same company on February 12, 1864. Minnis was described as 5 feet 8 inches tall with gray eyes and light hair. Both men had signed on for a three-year term of enlistment and were mustered into Federal service with the 57th PA Infantry on March 1, 1864. The 57th PA had been part of the 3rd Army Corps up till now, but in March 1864 it was transferred to the 2nd Army Corps.
In early March the veterans and new recruits arrived in Virginia in preparation of the spring campaign. The new men would presumably have been given cursory military instruction in an attempt to bring them up to speed with the veterans. It would have been a tough introduction to life in the field for the new men, but within 60 days the regiment would be thrown into the meat grinder of combat at the Wilderness. David Minnis survived the battle unscathed. But in this, his first fight, Mark Westcoatt was seriously wounded. The regimental casualty sheet noted Westcoatt received a gunshot wound of the face on May 5, 1864. He was hit by a .58 caliber minie ball that struck "him in left cheek passing through & knocking out ten of his teeth, the ball coming out at the right side. Said shot fired by the enemy." Had the bullet hit him two inches behind and above, it would have penetrated his temple and killed him instantly.
Westcoatt was evacuated from the field and admitted to Stanton U.S. Army General Hospital in Washington, DC, on May 11, 1864. His treatment consisted of a "water dressing" in which the bandages were kept wet in the belief that it promoted healing. He was diagnosed with a gunshot wound to the face with fractured upper jaw. In fact, the front portion of his upper jawbone was completely missing. The bullet "passed latterly through the face carrying away the incisors canine & bicuspid teeth together with the alveolar process of superior maxillary bone. Ball entered left cheek just in front and below malar bone, making its exit at same point in right cheek." Not surprisingly, after blasting its way through his face and carrying away a large chunk of bone and several teeth with it, the bullet tore a much bigger hole on its exit through the right cheek than when it entered on the left side. Westcoatt had "a small round scar (of entrance) upon the left side of face a little posterior to the angle of the mouth: a large stellate scar upon the right side of face into angle of mouth and upward and back 2 1/2 inches and again back and down about the same distance." In all, Westcoatt lost all of his upper teeth "except two molars and the wisdom tooth on the left side and one molar and the wisdom tooth on the right side," either because they and the bone supporting them were directly carried away by the bullet or as a result of being loosened by the shock.
After a couple of weeks at Stanton Hospital, Westcoatt was transferred on May 27 to Saterlee U.S. Army General Hospital in West Philadelphia, being admitted there on May 28, 1864. It took six months of convalescence, but Westcoatt, although somewhat impaired in eating and chewing, was returned to duty with his regiment on November 26, 1864.
Meanwhile David Minnis survived the brutal fighting in Virginia through the spring and summer of 1864 before the 57th PA settled in for the siege of Petersburg. But life in the trenches was not healthy for other reasons besides enemy bullets. On September 29, 1864 Minnis was admitted to the 3rd Division Depot Field Hospital, 2nd Army Corps, Army of the Potomac due to remittent fever. On October 4, 1864, he was sent on to an army general hospital and arrived at the U.S. Army General Hospital at Beverly, New Jersey on October 7. Two months later, on December 3, 1864, Minnis was transferred to the U.S.A. Gen Hospital at 16th and Filbert Streets in Philadelphia with what was described as "Functional Cardiac Disorder." He too was eventually returned to duty with the 57th PA, arriving back with his regiment on February 8, 1865. The regiment was present at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865 when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. David Minnis was promoted to corporal on May 1, 1865. And the regiment marched to Washington, DC and did duty at Alexandria until the men were mustered out on June 29, 1865. With the war over, the government no longer needed thousands stands of arms and the former soldiers were allowed to purchase their weapons and take them home with them. David Minnis apparently decided to keep his army issued musket and accouterments in exchange for a $6 stoppage of his pay "for gun and equipment." He returned home to Salem Township, PA and became a boot and shoe maker.
Many years after the war, about 1885, David Minnis married Mary Elizabeth Porter who was about 22 years younger than him. In fact she would not even be born until 1867, almost two years after he was discharged from the army. David Minnis died October 4, 1919 at Franklin, Venango County, Pennsylvania. He was 55. His widow lived until 1954.
Mark Westcoatt moved to Scott Township, Johnson County, Iowa after the war with his parents and siblings. A few years later, he had moved out of his parent's home and shows up in the 1870 census as a 26 year old farmer living with Caroline Westcott, age 25, and Helen S. Westcott, age 2. However, ten yeas later he appears in the 1880 census at a boarding house in Cedar Township, Benton County, Iowa and is listed as single and a laborer. This raises the question, who were Caroline and Helen, and what happened to them?
Mark lived for a time in Mt. Auburn, Barton County, Iowa. The 1885 Iowa state census shows Mark living with his mother and his youngest brother, William Westcoatt, who was about 20 years younger than him.
Wescoatt's pension records indicate that he continued to have trouble due to his old wound. After examining him in 1881, a doctor wrote to the Pension Bureau stating, "The teeth of superior maxillary bone are all gone. His face is disfigured and mouth so deformed as to be unable to have a plate and false teeth fitted. Being unable to properly masticate his food for a long time he has now some dyspeptic trouble. While his wound in no way interferes with manual labor I am quite unable to fix the amount of pension which is justly due him. Taking the disfigurement of face and condition of mouth and inability to masticate food or wear false teeth into consideration I believe he is justly entitled to an increase."
Over the years, other doctors weighed in as well. "...he incurred gunshot wound of his face which carried away his upper front teeth and the alveolar process so he cannot make artificial teeth do duty. It impairs biting and chewing." 1881
"The exit of the missile tore the right upper lip and cheek as shown in the diagram. These scars are normal and cause no disability. We think the disability resulting from the loss of the upper teeth is rated correctly." 1886
"That at a result of G.S.W. of upper jaw he is unable to thoroughly and satisfactorily masticate his food and that his digestion is to some extent impaired as a result. That on account of condition of jaw he has been unable to secure a plate that he could wear...in our opinion a satisfactory plate is an impossibility." 1891
Pension records also indicate that on August 14, 1893, Mark Westcoatt married Elizabeth R. Kinsie, who at 50 was about three or four years older than him. Notwithstanding the prior census records linking Mark Westcoatt with Caroline Westcott in 1870, his pension records indicate that this was his first marriage. Elizabeth Kinsie, on the other hand, was a widow (her maiden name was Noble) and her 16-year-old son, William Kinsey, lived with them after they were married. Elizabeth died sometime before 1900. Mark Westcoatt passed away on July 24, 1902 in Blackhawk County, Iowa. He was about 58 years old.
References:
U.S. Census records for 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880.
Iowa State Census for 1885
Military, Pension and Medical records United States Archive and Record Administration
Dyer, Frederick H., A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Vol. III, Regimental Histories
++++++ Form Wikipedia +++++
Kalaw (Burmese: ကလောမြို့; Shan: ၵလေႃး [ka lɔ]) is a hill town in the Shan State of Myanmar. It is located in Kalaw Township in Taunggyi District.
Kalaw
ကလောမြို့
Kalaw 21.jpg
Kalaw is located in Myanmar
Kalaw
Location in Myanmar
Coordinates: 20°38′N 96°34′E
Country Myanmar
Division Shan State
Districts Taunggyi District
Township Kalaw Township
Population (2005)
• Religions Buddhism
Time zone MST (UTC+6.30)
OverviewEdit
The town was popular with the British during colonial rule. Kalaw is the main setting of the novel "The Art of Hearing Heartbeats" by Jan-Philipp Sendker.
The hill station is located at an elevation of 1320 metres, 50 km from the Inle lake. Kalaw is famous for hiking and trekking.[1]
Kalaw Train station sign altitude.
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.
created for: Surrealart challenge " Time Travel "
After the defeat suffered in Battle of Actium
Marco Antonio and Cleopatra discuss their defeat with a very important guest, Mr. Trump
picture by Louis Gauffier
