Yangon History

The history of Yangon is intertwined with the history of the Shwedagon Pagoda.
Wherever one may be in Yangon, in the busy town center, in the new towns of the east, in
the industrial zone of the west, in the paddy fields of the north, the golden form of the
Shwedagon will be seen on the skyline rising above the foliage of the tropical trees, and
the top of high rises. The founding story of Shwedagon reaches back to the days of the
Enlightenment of Gaudama Buddha when He discovered the cause of universal suffering
and the way to its elimination. It was on the 49th day after the Enlightenment when two
brothers, Taphussa and Bhallika, merchants from Ukkalapa in the land of Mon people in
Lower Myanmar, came before Buddha. A nat (spirit) who had been the mother of the two
brothers in a previous existence had guided them to the Buddha. The brothers offered
honey cakes. After Buddha had eaten the cakes, the brothers asked for gift. Buddha
passed His hand over His head and, obtaining eight Hairs, gave them to the brothers.
Buddha, perceiving that the three previous Buddhas had caused their possessions to be
enshrined in a pagoda on Singuttara Hill in the country of the two brothers, bade them to
do likewise with the Sacred Hairs. The brothers returned home and made landfall at
Pagoda Point in the south-west coast of Myanmar. They sent word to king Ukkalapa of
their arrival with the sacred Hairs. The King welcomed the Hairs with great ceremony at
Asitanzana, north-west of present Yangon. The king and the brothers next sought for a
man who could tell them the location of Singuttara Hill. No human knew the location but
Sakka, King of the nats did, and guided them to the Hill. Singuttara Hill is known by seven
names of which one is Trikhumba, meaning 'three pots' and signifying three pot-shaped
hills. Tikhumba became Tikun and Dagon and later Changed to Lagun in Mon. When the
brothers asked Sakka where the Hairs should be shrined, Sakka could not tell them where
the earlier relics were enshrined because they were of such antiquity and he was not that
old. However, Sule Nat knew where Kakusandha Buddha's staff was enshrined, Yawhani
Nat knew where Konagamana Buddha's water-dipper was enshrined. Hmawbi Nat
revealed that he had been assigned to guard the sacred objects. Finally, Gautama
Buddha's Hairs were enshrined and stupa consecrated on the full moon day of Tabaung
(March 6,c.588 B.C.) Along time after that, there that, there being no one to worship at the
Lagun shrine, it fell into ruin and was covered with jungle.Tradition states that 200 years
after Buddha's Parinirvana in 543 BC. Sona and Uttara, two monks from Sri Lanka
brought King Asoka to the Pagoda. The King had the jungle cleared and the Pagoda
repaired. In the fifth century A.D. King Duttabaung paid homage at the Pagoda. In the 11th
century, King Anawratha of Bagan offered gold and silver umbrellas and built a pagoda
near the town of Twante across the Yangon River. Dalla, which is now a town on the bank
opposite Yangon, was then located on the Twante Ridge and was more important than
Dagon. Dagon at that time lay in low lying often water-logged land. Sule Pagoda, now in
downtown Yangon, stood on a small island in the swamp, to the west down to he Hlaing
River and Yangon /River to the south .The Shwedagon (then called Kyak Lagun in Mon)
was reached across a causeway. The discovery of a votive of the Bagan period at Tadagale
to the north of Yangon shows that the laterite ridge at the end of which Shwedagon lay
was a scene of activity in the Bagan period and the ridge may have provided a road
southwards to the Shwedagon Pagoda and Dagon Village beyond. After the collapse of
Bagan in the 13th century and the rise of Mon power in the 14th with the capital at Bago,
Dagon became a place of some importance, though not as a commercial port but as a
centre of religious life. At onetime Dagon was reported to contain thirty-two ordination
halls Binnya U (1348-83), Mon king of Bago created a pagoda of height 18 m. (60'). Dagon
was also a place of refuge for princes who did not find Bago safe. Binnya U's son, Binnya
Nwe, later King Rajadarit, who had a chronicle to himself, fled to Dagon when he ran away
with his half-sister Talamidaw. Dagon at that time was not a walled city but a fort of logs.
Successive Mon King of the 15th century raised the height of Pagoda by encasing earlier
pagoda and embellishing the new. King Binnyayan (1426-46)cut down the hill and
enlarged the base to five terraces to sustain the height but before he could finish the work
he died. The work was continued by his successor, Binnyawaru (1446-50) who was
helped by his mother, Queen Shin Saw Bu, the only regnant queen of Myanmar. She was
ably assisted by the commander of the army, soldiers, attendants and the common people.
They raised the height of the Pagoda to 90.6 m(302'). Queen Shin Saw Bu was the first to
gild the Pagoda. She went on the scales and let them take her weight which was a bout 40
kg.(90 lbs). She donated that weight in gold. She dedicated a vast expanse of glebe lands
which virtually covered the whole of modern Yangon. Her successor King Dhammazedi
created the stone inscriptions standing on Pagoda Hill. He also donated a huge bell which
a Portugese adventurer took away but which fell into the river and has not been
recovered. In 1539, Tabinshwehti, who had conquered Bago, placed a jewelled finial on
the Pagoda. sCasper de Cruz, a Dominican priest, who was the country between 1550-60
said that "the Brames (Burmese) were a great people, very rich of gold and precious
stones, chiefly of rubies; a proud nation and valiant. They have very rich and gallant
shippings garnished with gold which they sail in the rivers; they use vessels of gold silver;
their houses are of timber and well wrought. The kingdom is very great." In 1572,
Bayinnaung rebuilt the Pagoda to 360' and had it reguilded. The shrine had been reduced
to rubble during an earthquake in 1564.Bayinnaung embarked from Bago in a golden
barge in the form of the mythical hintha bird, surmountedby a golden spire. The barge
was escorted by a large fleet of 300 golden canoes and 1000 war boats which filled the
Bago River as far as the eye could see. The grand fleet floated down to Dagon. Bayinnaung
repeated the trip in 1581. In 1583, Gasparo Balbi "came to the faire cities of Dagon, it is
finally seated, and fronted towards the south-west, and where they land are twenty long
steps, the matter of them is strong and great pieces of timber--After we were landed we
began to go on the right hand is a large street about fifty places broad, in which we saw
wooden houses gilded, and adorned with delicate gardens, after their custom, where in
Talapoins, which are their Firers dwell. The left side is furnished with Portals, and Shops,
very like the new Procuration at Venice; and by a street that go towards the Varella, for
the space of a good mile straightforwards either under paint houses or in the open street,
which is free to walk in." Ralph Fitch wrote about the same time; "It is the fairest place,
as I suppose, the that is in the world; it (the Pogoda) standeth very high, and there are
four ways to it, which all along are set with trees of fruits, in such wise that a man may
goes in the shade above two miles in length. And when their feast day is, man can hardly
passe by water or land for the great presse thither of people; for they come from all places
of the Kingdom of Pegu thither at their Feast." By the end of the 16th century the
Shwedagon Fair was attracting people not only from Myanmar but also from distance
lands such as Laos and Cambodia. The Dagon Fair was one of the chief markets for
overseas trade rivalling Bago and Thanlyin. The Delta was effecting yet another change.
The Bago River too was silting up off Thanlyin, and sea-going vessels were finding it
difficult to navigate the reaches opposite the town. Thus, Dagon was becoming the port
of choice. After the founding of the Shwedagon Pagoda. Alaungpaya's conquest of lower
Myanmar is the second most important event in the history of Dagon. May 1775 marks
the beginning of the modern town when Alaungpaya, to commemorate his victory,
changed its name from Dagon to Yangon, "Enmity Exhausted." Alaungpaya's Yangon was
basically a log fortress, with the river frontage in the south, the site of the present 30th
street in the west, a line of about 3300' cutting across the modern Maha Bandola Garden,
Pansodan and Bo Aung Gyaw street in the north, and Theinbyu Street in the east. The
town lay well to the east of the Sule Pagoda. Its area could not have been more than 1/8
square mile. The stockade was built of solid teak piles, rising to a height of twelve feet on
average, but to twenty feet in some places. The stockade was protected by a ditch and it
did not stand directly on the bank of the river but twenty or thirty yards away at its
nearest point. The town had three streets running east-west and two running north-
south. The east-west streets counting from the river side were Strand Road, also known
as Kaladan, the street of the foreigners because most foreigners lived there. then above
that was where modern Merchant Street runs, also known as "Pegu Palace" to the English
because the Myowun's residence was there. The northernmost street was the Mingala
Bazaar. The main south-north road ran along the line of the present Seikkantha Street.
The Sule Pagoda stood on a small laterite pinnacle cut off from the town by a swamp.
Yangon itself too stood on a small island surrounded by water at high tide, In 1782, it was
reported that the streets were not paved but by1795 they were well paved, and because
wheel traffic was not allowed within the town, the paving remained in tolerable repair.
Outside the town were three wooden wharfs, the principal one being the King's Wharf
which allowed ships to load or unload without the use of sampans. Higher up the River,
beyond the limits of the town, was the China Wharf where Chinese merchants conducted
business. The population of Yangon was now about 30,000 according to Symes. Exports
frorm Yangon included lac, isingglass, vegetable oil, ivory, cotton, petroleum and famous
teak. Teak was especially valued because a vessel built with teak would outlast four ships
built of oak. the abundance of teak made ship-construction cheap and the twenty-foot
tide in the Yangon River made docks unnecessary for ships could be beached without
danger. The Myanmar carpenters were good carftsmen and were hard-working. They
were regarded as better shipwrights than men of other nationalities, More than a
hundred ships were built in the thirty years after 1775.Most of these ships were sold in
foreign ports. Apart from construction, the shipyards did a busy trade in refitting ships.
The industry became so important that it alarmed the British in India who felt that steps
should be taken to curb its power, which they did. The East India Company's government
sent a combined force of nearly eleven thousand men with forty pieces of artillery. The
transports carrying this force were escorted by HMS Liffey, HMS Larne, HMS Sophia, the
sloop Slaney, several cruisers, twenty gun brigs, twenty tow-boats each armed with an
eighteen-pounder gun and the steamship Diana. On 10 May 1824 the fleet stood into the
River and anchored within the bar. The expedition landed on the 12th The invading force
was distributed in the town and along to two roads leading to the Pagoda, along the road-
side and on the Shwedagon platform. In November, the great Myanmar general Maha
Bandoola arrived in the neighbourhood of Yangon. He made several attempts to evict the
invading force stationed on the Pagoda but was frustrated by the guns of the enemy fleet.
On the 15th, the Myanmar army was driven from its stronghold at Kokine. The Myanmar
army retreated towards Danubyu where an enemy shell killed Maha Bandoola. That was
virtually the end of the war. The Treaty of Yandabo was concluded on 24th February
1826.Yangon remained in occupation till 8th December. The invading force enshipped on
9 December with a detachment left behind to receive the final instalment of the
indemnity. Yangon was returned to the Myowun by General Campbell. Serious damage
was done by the troops who pillaged the pagodas on the Shwedagon platform and around
the town. A single company stationed on the Pagoda obtained in one night a large number
of gold and silver images which was sold to an officer who resold them for a big profit in
Calcutta. Most seriously, General Cambell ordered the piercing of a tunnel into the bowel
of the Shwedagon in the hope of finding treasure. He was disappointed. Singu Min's great
bell was seized, but when they tried to transport it to India the Bell sank to the bottom of
the River. Later, Myanmar people retrieved it by attaching it to a ship at low water, when
the tide came in, the ship lifted the bell. In , King Thayawady decided that King
Alaungpaya's town was too vulnerable to attack from the river and that a new town
should be built further inland, about a mile and a quarter from the river. A mud wall
sixteen feet high and eight broad was to surround the town and a ditch to run alongside
it. The Pagoda was worked into the defences of the town which was about three-quarters
of a mile away. Thus the Shwedagon formed the north-east corner of the town. The east
border of the town ran along Shwedagon Pagoda Road ridge. The southern boundary was
slightly south of the road where the National Health Laboratory now stands. The west
road ran roughly along Myoma Kyaung Lan, while the north face cut across Pyay Road
and People's Park. Water was supplied by thirty wells. The town was named Aung Myei
Aung Hnin, "Victory Soil, Victorious Ejector". Endawya Pagoda in Myoma Kyaung lan
remains from the visit of Ling Thayawady. Though King Thayawady's town was occupied
for residence, the old Yangon continued to be populous. Commerce and industry and all
connected with trade and the port were still situated there. A crane was placed at the new
King's Wharf at Lanmadaw. So King Alaungpaya's Yangon continued to be the business
town. In the end,King Alaungpaya's town existed for only ten years because by the war of
1852, Lower Myanmar was annexed by the British and a new Yangon was planned. A
British force of 6000 men with thirty-five pieces of artillery, escorted by fifteen warships
appeared at the mouth of Yangon River on the 1st April 1852. Posts and stackade
guarding the River were attacked and taken on the 5th.On the 11th the ships crossed the
bar and took up position opposite the old town. The next day, Theinbyu, "the White House
Stackade" was taken. Meanwhile, a certain Mr.C.M.Crisp, a foreigner residing in Yangon,
who had previously sent information about the defence of Yangon, had told Capital Latter
that it would be better to direct the attack at the eastern entrance of the Pagoda which
was very inadequately defended. A detachment then rushed the east entrance and gained
the Pagoda platform. Myanmar forces were compelled to retire by the southern and
western gates of the town. The British lost sixteen killed and one hundred and thirty-
three wounded. Two majors also died. The British annexed lower Myanmar by a
proclamation dated 20th December 1852. On the 21st the proclamation was read in
Yangon. Dr. William Momtgomery who had come along as Superintendent Surgeon with
the British troops proposed a town with a checkered pattern of streets based on a road
which ran along the Strand. Lt. Fraser of the Bengal Engineers, who had been assigned
the design task, largely followed Dr. Montgomery's plan. Fraser's detailed proposal dealt
with the problem of flooding at high tide. However, his plan had to be modified to provide
for a larger city. Three kinds of roads were incorporated into the design. Roads running
west to east were broad roads 160 feet wide. Roads running south consisted of two small
30 feet wide roads, one medium-sized road 50 feet wide, two more 35 feet wide roads
and then one broad 100 feet wide road. This order was repeated from west to east. The
smaller roads were numbered, while the medium and broad roads were given names,
some for eminent persons of that time. As laid down, there was the 100 feet wide
Lanmadaw Road, followed by 17th and 18th street, which were small roads, then the
medium 58 feet road Sint-O-Dan Road, next the smaller 19th and 20th streets, followed
by 100 feet wide Latter Road, followed again by the two numbered small roads 21th and
22th streets. The roads running paralle west to east were the Strand Road, Merchant
Road, Dalhousie Road (Maha Bandoola), Fraser Road, (Anawrahta) and Montgomery/
Commissioner Road (Bogyoke Aung San) then a medium 50 feet wide road known as
Bank Road. Yangon, which had become the model city in South-east Asia, suffered great
damage during the Second World War. Its buildings, roads and drainage systems were
destroyed. Multicoloured insurgents added to the problem after Independence in 1948.
This led to a massive influx of refugees into the city where enough housing was not
available to accommodate them. People simply settled where they pleased. The city was
now covered with small shacks of bamboo and thatch causing serious fire hazard.
Drainage was blocked with refuse. Traffic on motor roads and sidewalks was impeded by
huts and shops. People squatted on public land, gardens and parks. Disease became
rampant and the mortality rate increased .Fires often broke out, destroying thousands of
homes in the squatter slums. The population was 46000 in 1856; in 1860 it rose to 60,000
To accommodate the population, the original town was extended west by the three 100
feet roads, three 50 feet roads and twenty-two 30 feet roads. The extension to the east
was by three 50 feet roads and twenty-two 30 feet roads. The extension to the east was
by three 30 feet roads. In 1872, the population had risen to nearly 100,000. In 1900, it
was over 200,000. The suburbs of Kyimyindaing, Ahlone, Pazundaung, Yegyaw,
Myaynigone, Kamayut were incroporated into the town and Voyle Road (U Wisara Road)
was added as another northward road to the existing Prome Road (Pyay Lan). Meanwhile,
British officers and soldiers fallen in the war were buried in the north-east corner of the
Shwedagon Pagoda platform. They were exhumed and buried in the Cantonment
Cemetery after repeated appeals, only in January 1929.the western stairs were opened to
the public in March, 1930, after 77 years in British military custody. In1869, presiding
monk U Pya and elders responsible for the upkeep of the Pagoda found the 100-year old
King Hsinbyushin htee crowing the Pagoda had rusted and was beginning to crumble.
Since the people of occupied Lower Myanmar could not by themselves put up a new htee,
permission was sought and received from the British authorities to appeal to King
Mindon who granted assent. When the htee was ready for crowning, the British began to
have serious doubts over the political implication of a Myanmar King embellishing the
Shwedagon because the act could signify the King's supremacy over the area. The British
Chief Commissioner of British Burma and not by the Myanmar king. King Mindon agreed.
The htee should be placed on the Pagoda by the subjects of British Burma and not by the
Myanmar king. King Mindon agreed. The htee was sent to Yangon and was disembarked
on 24 October 1871. The vane surmounting the htee was placed in position on 26
November and the ceremony was completed without the trouble the British feared,
though people from all parts of the country had flocked to Yangon. "The town was never
more quiet as regards crime than during this great influx of people", reported the Chief
Commission. When the Caretaker Government assumed power in 1958,a Municipal
commissioner was appointed with the mission to clean up the City. The task was to
educate the public, to lay down necessary controls, to dredge and clear blocked drainage,
to rid sidewalks of encroaching shops, to repair old equipment and install new machinery.
the mission was undertaken with the slogan; "Wash the City with sweat." APeople living
as squatters on public land and in trespassing huts, and those living on roadsides were
transferred with necessary help to the new towns of Thaketa, South and North Okkalapa.
At first, people were reluctant to move, but when they found themselves living in their
own houses in clean quarters with water and electricity, good roads and health and
educational facilities they realiz ed how well they had come up in life from their previous
squalid habitats. by enactment of the Revolutionary Council, the township Councils of
Thingangun, Kanbe, Kamayut, Thamaing, North Okkalapa, South Okkapala and Thaketa
were absorbed into the territory of the Yangon municipality. The population of Yangon in
1973 was 2,015,230. More was to come. Before the accession of the State Law and Order
Restoration Council the population of Yangon had increased to over 2,8 million. Attempts
to get rid of squatters on choice lands in the central areas of the City had not succeeded.
The City had lost many of the features and characteristics of a capital city. The solution
was obvious. People living on trespassed land would have to be relocated, which meant
that new towns would have to be made available and the city limits extended .And
according to the new policy of opening up the market to private enterprise, private
entrepreneurs and construction companies would have to be given the opportunity to
employ their initiative. A new slogan was established: " Raising the people from hut to
brick housing ".
The architecture of Yangon’s City Hall tells a tale of rising nationalism in the dying
decades of colonial rule. It was built over a drawn-out, fifteen-year period during which
the world was changing profoundly. At first this massive complex was not intended to
be constructed in its present form, with its overt Burmese features. As Sarah Rooney
recounts in 30 Heritage Buildings of Yangon, initial plans for a new city hall emerged in
1913. Architect LA McClumpha won the tender. British administrators saw in his
designs the promise of “the finest group of architectural buildings in Burma”. But the
First World War broke out, funds froze and construction stopped.
Yangon City Hall, as seen from Mahabandoola Garden
When it resumed in 1925, Burmese nationalists started a debate in the Legislative
Council. They demanded Burmese forms inspired by temple architecture from the
ancient capital, Bagan. Their campaign overcame Western reluctance. Burmese architect
U Tin was invited to revise the designs.

But how much leeway was U Tin given? It is easy to imagine the original design without
his additions, such as the peacocks, pyatthat roofs and purple nagas (dragons) on either
side of the entrance. The loggia and arcade illustrate the building’s competing visions.
On the one hand, the lotus flower motif lining the fourth-floor loggia is in keeping with
Buddhist heritage. On the other, the design of the three-storey arcade echoes the
colonial architecture of Bombay.
Burmese motifs cover the façade of the original British design
The building used to be painted a cream colour. Before that it was a striking green, at
least for a time. In 2011, it was repainted a shade of “luminous lilac”, as Sarah Rooney
vividly describes it. A straw poll suggests the new colours are not to everyone’s taste—
especially the bright purple nagas!

Finishing touches aside, this vast edifice is a product of European engineering. Clark &
Greig built some parts. (The city also owes them the Central Telegraph Office.) Other
parts were built by AC Martin & Co. (who were also responsible for laying the city’s
asphalt roads and constructing the General Post Office). Architect AG Bray (who also
designed the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company building) oversaw the process.
City Hall and its colourful neighbour from Sule Pagoda Road
Today the building still houses the city authority, the Yangon City Development
Committee (YCDC). Its mandate stems from colonial legislation and the 1922 Rangoon
Municipal Act; however, the YCDC itself was created by the SLORC government in 1990.

The YCDC is independent from the government and raises its own revenue, but the
government appoints the chairman/mayor. The current mayor, U Hla Myint, took office
in 2011 and is a former brigadier general. He was previously ambassador to Brazil,
Argentina and Japan. In December 2014 Yangon held its first municipal council
elections, but these were marred by low turnout and a controversial “one vote per
household” rule.

Mynma Port Authority

Yangon was a fishing village know by the name of Dagon up to the mid eighteenth-century.
It was not yet established as a seaport then. At that time, ThanLyin, Pathein, Mottama and
Pegu were mostly used as seaports.
In 1775, King Alaung Phaya seized to the territories along the Ayeyarwaddy river and
reached Dagon. The name Dagon was changed to Yangon by the King.