Basic Facts About Myanmar
Location
Myanmar is situated in Southeast Asia and is bordered on the north and north-east by China, on the east and south-east by Laos and Thailand, on the south by the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal and on the west by Bangladesh and India. It is located between latitudes 09 32'N and 28 31'N and longitudes 92 10'E and 101 11'E.
Geography
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.
Burma 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-Burman border total of 2,185 km (1,358 mi). It is bounded by Laos and Thailand to the southeast. Burma 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.
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. 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.The mountain chains divide Myanmar's three river systems, which are the Irrawaddy, Salween (Thanlwin), and the Sittaung rivers.
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. The majority of Myanmar's population lives in the Irrawaddy valley, which is situated between the Rakhine Yoma and the Shan Plateau.
Administrative divisions
Myanmar is divided into seven states (ပြည်နယ်) and seven regions (တိုင်းဒေသကြီး), formerly called divisions. 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.
Below are the number of districts, townships, cities/towns, wards, village groups and villages in each divisions and states of Myanmar as of 31 December 2001:
No.
|
State/Region
| Districts | Town ships | Cities/ Towns | Wards | Village groups | Villages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1
|
Kachin State
|
4
|
18
|
20
|
116
|
606
|
2630
|
2
|
Kayah State
|
2
|
7
|
7
|
29
|
79
|
624
|
3
|
Kayin State
|
3
|
7
|
10
|
46
|
376
|
2092
|
4
|
Chin State
|
2
|
9
|
9
|
29
|
475
|
1355
|
5
|
Sagaing Region
|
8
|
37
|
37
|
171
|
1769
|
6095
|
6
|
Tanintharyi Region
|
3
|
10
|
10
|
63
|
265
|
1255
|
7
|
Bago Region
|
4
|
28
|
33
|
246
|
1424
|
6498
|
8
|
Magway Region
|
5
|
25
|
26
|
160
|
1543
|
4774
|
9
|
Mandalay Region
|
7
|
31
|
29
|
259
|
1611
|
5472
|
10
|
Mon State
|
2
|
10
|
11
|
69
|
381
|
1199
|
11
|
Rakhine State
|
4
|
17
|
17
|
120
|
1041
|
3871
|
12
|
Yangon Region
|
4
|
45
|
20
|
685
|
634
|
2119
|
13
|
Shan State
|
11
|
54
|
54
|
336
|
1626
|
15513
|
14
|
Ayeyarwady Region
|
6
|
26
|
29
|
219
|
1912
|
11651
|
Total
|
63
|
324
|
312
|
2548
|
13742
|
65148
|
Naypyidaw Union Territory
Naypyidaw Union Territory (Burmese: နေပြည်တော် ပြည်တောင်စုနယ်မြေ, also spelt Naypyitaw) is an administrative division in central Burma (Myanmar).The Union Territory encompasses the administrative capital of Burma, Naypyidaw.
Administrative divisions;
The Naypyidaw Union Territory consists of the following districts and townships:
- Ottara District (a.k.a. North Naypyidaw)
- Ottarathiri Township (ဥတ္တရသီရိမြို့နယ်)
- Pobbathiri Township (ပုဗ္ဗသီရိမြို့နယ်)
- Tatkone Township (တပ်ကုန်းမြို့နယ်)
- Zeyathiri Township (ဇေယျာသီရိမြို့နယ်)
- Dekkhina District (a.k.a. South Naypyidaw)
- Dekkhinathiri Township (ဒက္ခိဏသီရိမြို့နယ်)
- Lewe Township (လယ်ဝေးမြို့နယ်)
- Pyinmana Township (ပျဉ်းမနားမြို့နယ်)
- Zabuthiri Township (ဇမ္ဗူသီရိမြို့နယ်)
Administration
Naypyidaw Union Territory is under the direct administration of the President. Day-to-day functions are carried out on the President's behalf by the Naypyidaw Council led by a Chairperson. The Chairperson and members of the Naypyidaw Council are appointed by the President and include both civilians and Armed Forces representatives.On 30 March 2011, President Thein Sein appointed Thein Nyunt as chairman of the Naypyidaw Council, along with 9 chair members: Than Htay, Colonel Myint Aung Than, Kan Chun, Paing Soe, Saw Hla, Myint Swe, Myint Shwe and Myo Nyunt.
Climate
The climate of Myanmar is roughly divided into three seasons: Summer, Rainy Season, and Winter Season. From the end of February to the beginning of May are Summer months, with highest temperatures during March and April in Central Myanmar up to above 110F (43.3C) while in Northern Myanmar it is about 97F (36.1C) and on the Shan Plateau between 85F (29.4C) and 95F (35C). Rainy Season, from mid May to the end of October, with annual rain fall of less than 40 inches in Central Myanmar while the coastal regions of Rakhine and Tanintharyi get about 200 inches. Winter which starts from November and lasts to the end of February with temperature in hilly areas of over 3000 feet drops below 32F (0C).
As a whole, the location and topography of the country generate a diversity of climatic conditions. Seasonal changes in the monsoon wind directions create summer, rainy and winter seasons. Extremes of temperature are rare. The direction of winds and depression bring rain, and although it is always heavy in the coastal areas during Monsoon season, it seldom creates hardships. The Government is giving priority to forest conservation and greening of nine arid districts in central Myanmar.
Monthly Average Temperature (C) in Yangon
Jan
|
Feb
|
Mar
|
Apr
|
May
|
Jun
|
Jul
|
Aug
|
Sep
|
Oct
|
Nov
|
Dec
|
19
|
23
|
29
|
32
|
33
|
33
|
32
|
32
|
30
|
28
|
18
|
16
|
Flora and Fauna
Myanmar is endowed with a rich diversity of habitat types arising largely from its unusual ecological diversity. It is home to nearly 300 known mammal species, 300 reptiles about 100 bird species, and a haven for about 7000 species of plant life. The potential worth of plant species in Myanmar is considerable. Since Myanmar considers such a rich pool of biodiversity as an important national asset, the Government of the Union of Myanmar has drawn up strict regulations to protect its reservoir of biodiversity and biological resources.
Historical Background
Archaeological findings reveal that parts of Myanmar were inhibited some five thousand years ago. The ancestors of present-day Myanmars, the Pyus and the Mons established several kingdoms throughout the country from the 1st century A.D. to the 10th century A.D. From that early beginning, there are today a fascinating 135 nationalities who call Myanmar home.
Myanmar history dates back to the early 11th Century when King Anawrahta unified the country and founded the First Myanmar Empire in Bagan more than 20 years before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066(i.e. 1044 A.D.). The Bagan Empire encompassed the areas of the present day Myanmar and the entire Menam Valley in Thailand and lasted two centuries.
The Second Myanmar Empire was founded in mid 16th Century by King Bayinnaung(1551-1581). King Alaungpaya founded the last Myanmar Dynasty in 1752 and it was during the zenith of this Empire that the British moved into Myanmar. Like India, Myanmar became a British colony but only after three Anglo-Myanmar Wars in 1825, 1852, and 1885.
During the Second World War, Myanmar was occupied by the Japanese from 1942 till the return of the Allied Forces in 1945. Myanmar has become a sovereign independent state since 4th January 1948 after more than 100 years under the colonial administration.
Religion
The main religions of the country are Buddhism (89.2%), Christianity (5.0%), Islam (3.8%), Hinduism (0.5%), Spiritualism (1.2%) and others (0.2%). Religious intolerance or discrimination on grounds of religion is nonexistent in the Union of Myanmar throughout its long history.
Population
The Union of Myanmar is made up of 135 national races, of which the main national races are Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, Chin, Bamar, Mon, Rakhine and Shan. Population of the country is estimated at 54.4 million (July, 2016) and the population growth rate is 1.84 percent.
 |
| Kachin |
 |
| Kayah |
 |
| Kayin |
 |
| Chin |
 |
| Mon |
 |
| Bamar |
 |
| Rakhine |
 |
| Shan |
The State Flag
The design of the flag has three horizontal stripes of yellow, green and red with a five-pointed white star in the middle. The three colours of the stripes are meant to symbolise solidarity, peace and tranquility, and courage and decisiveness.
The State Seal
The State Seal of Myanmar (Burmese: ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်အထိမ်းအမှတ်တံဆိပ်) is used in all official government documents, including publications. In 2008 a new constitution for Burma was adopted in a controversial referendum. In this new constitution, changes have been made to the coat of arms. The new coat of arms removes the colours blue and dark gold/orange and instead just uses the colours red and gold/yellow. Also, the cogwheel has been removed and replaced with laurel or olive branches and the words on the central portion of the scroll have been changed to ပြည်ထောင်စု သမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်.
We shall always love Myanmar, Land of our forefathers.
We fight and give our lives For our union.
For her we responsibly shoulder the task,
Standing as one in duty to our precious land.
We fight and give our lives For our union.
For her we responsibly shoulder the task,
Standing as one in duty to our precious land.
Government and politics
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 a portion of legislators appointed by the military and others elected in general elections.The legislature, called the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, is bicameral and made up of two houses: the 224-seat upper house Amyotha Hluttaw (House of Nationalities) and the 440-seat lower house Pyithu Hluttaw (House of Representatives). The upper house consists of 224 members, of whom 168 are directly elected and 56 are appointed by the Burmese Armed Forces. The lower house consists of 440 members, of whom 330 are directly elected and 110 are appointed by the armed forces. More known about our country>>>
