Myanmar Aye International Group Travels & Tours

their port city of Thaton.About 2000 years ago, the Pyu people whose language belonged to Tibeto-Burman family settled in Myanmar. Their first capital was Tharaykhittaya (Sri Ksetra) near present day Pyay (Prome). Then they relocated their capital north to Halin near present day Shwebo at about 8th Century.

All the Myanmar people moved to the Ayeyarwaddy River and Kyaukse plain and established themselves as the major power in the rich-cultivating region of the north. From Bagan which they built into fortified town, they could control the Ayeyarwaddy and Sittaung river valleys as well as the trade routes between China and India.

According the the Glass Palace Chronicle, Bagan had actually been founded in 108 A.D. In the 11th Century under the wise leadership of Great King Anawrahta (1044-71) the first Myanamr Empire was established and the political unification was achieved by welding the former groups of independent Myanmar States into one Kingdom. It was called the Bagan Dynasty in which Theravada Buddhish was brought from Thaton Kingdom, and it became a newly established faith. AT that time Myanamr attained the golden age of political unity and temples you are now going to see at Bagan. The noted tourist to visit was Marco Polo. At approximately the same time (9th century) the Thai-Chinese People were pressing southward from their home, the China-Tibet border area and settled in Myanmar.

In its history, Myanmar was spilt up into small states many times; but the disintegrated country was soon reunified by the powerful kings such as Tabinshwehti, Bayintnaung (1150-1501), Alaungpaya (1772) and so on. Kongbaung Dynasty was the last one and Myanmar was annexed by the British colonialists in 1885.

From that time onwards, the freedom-loving people of Myanmar bagan to struggle against the colonial rule in various forms. When the Second World War broke out, the British rulers were driven away and a brief Myanmar civil administration was established under the Japanese Militarists. Soon the tide of war began to turn and the Myanmar people shook off their colonial status and emerged as a sovereign and independent nation again on 4th January 1948.

Economically and politically Burma now found herself in an unhappy situation. The war had brought her agriculture and industry to a standstill, while the postwar colonial period had not lasted long enough to capture the benefits of stability it had previously conferred. Furthermore the main minority groups were fighting the new Government for autonomy. In 1948 the defeated Chiang Kai-shek withdrew from the Chinese mainland for Taiwan. Elements of his Kuomintang army remained on Burma's border with Yunnan Province and were a constant source of trouble. General Ne Win, one of the early members of the Thakin movement (and himself of Chinese Hakka ancestry), was commander of Burma's armed forces and Minister of Defense. By the mid 1950s he had managed to contain the worst of the rebel fighting. The economy, however, failed to improve and in 1958, ten years after independence, Ne Win was asked to form a caretaker government. Two years later free elections were held as a result of which U Nu once again became Prime Minister. But U Nu was more interested in religion than economics: in 1956 he convened the Sixth Buddhist Synod. Notwithstanding his manifest merits and his having been an original member of the Thakin movement, U Nu was not the strongman needed to put the country back on the road to recovery, nor indeed to deal with Burma's ethnic minorities, who were once again stirring. The 1948 Constitution stated that after ten years of the Union of Burma, the principal minority groups could elect to become autonomous. But in 1962, with the economy continuing to flounder, Ne Win took control again, this time by means of a bloodless coup. Later that year a manifesto proclaiming 'The Burmese Way to Socialism' was published by the Revolutionary Council. Foreign businesses were closed, the State took control of all banks, many Chinese and Indians left, tourist visas were limited to 24 hours and the minorities' demands for autonomy were answered with military repression.

Burma's almost total seclusion continued for more than a decade. In 1974, the veil was lifted gingerly. Some foreign investment was allowed, mainly in the natural resources development field, and tourist visas were extended to seven days. In 1975 when an earthquake rocked Pagan, the Government accepted funds from the United Nations for the repairs (though all the restoration work was carried out by Burmese experts). In 1979 Ne Win withdrew Burma from the Nonaligned Movement citing the increased influence of the Soviet Union through her proxy, Cuba. This was a surprise to the outside world but, in retrospect, seems consistent with Burma's historical determination to avoid getting caught up in others' conflicts.

Burma's tentative emergence into the outside world during the last decade has been accompanied by a quickening economic pace. In comparison to the stagnant 1950s and 1960s, however, almost any economic development would seem like a boom. Japan, the occupying power of a generation previously, has now appeared in a more constructive role, leading the way, as in so many other southeast Asian economies, as a source of finance and a trading partner. However, travelers familiar with other noncommunist countries of the region will be struck by Burma's relative lack of economic development - no glittering high-rises; no marble-lobbied hotels, virtually no modern communications or industry (nor the accompanying pollution), no international banks or other visible badges of membership of the world community of commerce. The predominance of rice is now less pronounced - Burma ceased to be the world's premier rice exporter in 1962, and teak and other hardwoods overtook rice as her largest export in 1985. Nevertheless Burma remains, as she has always been, an essentially agricultural nation. An estimated 70% of the working population is now engaged in agriculture with a further 10% in light industrial or resource-based activities such as lumber, mining and crude oil production.

While Burma is officially a socialist country, an estimated half of all economic activity takes place in the 'unofficial sector' - ranging from perfectly honest traders and entrepreneurs at one end of the spectrum, via illegal but tolerated black markets, to warlords, smugglers and drug dealers operating around Burma's border with China, Laos and Thailand. The latter, while often written up in the international press, are most unlikely to feature in a visitor's experience of Burma. Less menacing manifestations of Burma's unofficial economy (and its interplay with the official one) are commonplace.

Low economic growth and, in consequence, very limited infrastructure development in such areas as roads and medicine are perhaps circumstances which the Burmese people will have to accept for the present. How long the country can sustain high inflation, shrinking exports and paying out some 60% of her foreign exchange earnings to repay foreign debt without radical economic reforms remains open to question. However, in late 1987 there were reports of changes in government policy, for instance the lifting of a 21-year-old ban on private trading of rice and other farm products in order to boost production. Wide-ranging economic reforms are rumored to be introduced in the near future.