93a downtown with domes and pillars that
wouldn’t look out of place in London.
Today, Yangon’s collection of colonial-era
buildings is the largest in south-east Asia.
Wandering downtown’s streets,
packed with markets and teahouses,
and dotted with pagodas, churches,
mosques, Chinese and Hindu temples,
and crumbing colonial edifices, is an
essential Yangon experience. Perhaps the
most striking building is the Secretariat,
the seat of power in colonial times. With
its red-and-yellow brick constructions set
around a neat quadrangle, it’s reminis-
cent of a Victorian-era Oxford college.
Equally worthy of exploration are
the tree-lined streets of Golden Valley,
straggling south of tranquil Inya Lake
towards the Shwedagon. Its teak andbrick houses, dating from the late 19th
and early 20th century, are surrounded
by wonderful gardens that explode in
colour when their flowers bloom. This
district, once home to the British elite, is
still Yangon’s smartest suburb.
Burma gained independence from
British rule in 1948, but just 14 yearsThe British remade
the city, creating a
downtown decorated
with domes, cupolas
and pillars
ILLUSTRATION BY TONWEN JONESShwedagon Pagoda
Astonishing gilded temple built between
the sixth and 10th centuries (or, according
to legend, over 2,500 years ago)
Sule Pagoda
Spanning a traffic intersection in
downtown Yangon, this golden pagoda is
said to be even older than the Shwedagon
The Strand
Running alongside the Yangon River,
colonial-era buildings include the newly
restored Strand Hotel, built in 1901
Secretariat
Built from 1889 in the heart of downtown,
the former seat of the British colonial
government – a vast complex covering
6.5 hectares – was also used by the newly
independent government from 1948
Golden Valley
The winding lanes of this neighbourhood
are lined with palms and ferns, tamarind,
teak and pipal trees that shade imposing
colonial-era mansions
Inya Lake
Yangon’s largest lake was created by the
British in 1882–83 as a reservoir to
provide water to the growing city; today
it’s a peaceful spot favoured by joggers,
walkers, lovers and idlers
National Museum
Home to the giant, jewel-encrusted Lion
Throne of Thibaw, last king of Burma,
removed by the British in 1885YANGON IN SEVEN SITESlater the military snatched power in a
coup. The generals ruled for almost 50
years, denying its peoples democracy and
human rights. In 1989, they renamed
the country Myanmar, and Rangoon
became Yangon once more.
Yangon was the site of the biggest
demonstrations against the junta, in-
cluding those during the so-called 8888
Uprising in 1988, during which Aung
San Suu Kyi rose to fame after she spoke
to a crowd of half a million protestors
at the Shwedagon. Today, her National
League for Democracy-led government
is running Myanmar but Yangon, like
the rest of the country, has yet to recover
from the decades of neglect it suffered
under the generals. Perhaps one day it
will be a truly global city again.ИЗП
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