Mandalay

For the trip-hop band, see Mandalay (band).

Template:Infobox Burmese city Mandalay (Burmese: Mantale:) is the second largest city in Myanmar (formerly Burma) with a population of 927,000 (2005 census), agglomeration 2,5 million. It is the former royal capital of Myanmar and capital of the current Mandalay Division. The city is bordered by the Ayeyarwady River and is located at 21°58′N 96°04′E, 716 km north of Yangon. Mandalay is in the center of Myanmar's dry zone.

History

The wall and moat of the Mandalay Fort at the city centre.

Some of the 729 stupas at Kuthodaw Temple

Founded in 1857 by King Mindon, Mandalay was the last capital (1860–1885) of the last independent Burmese Kingdom before annexation by the British after the Third Anglo-Burmese War in 1885.

Unlike other Burmese towns, Mandalay did not grow from a smaller settlement to town proportions. Mandalay was set up in an empty area at the foot of 236 meter Mandalay Hill because of a prophecy made by the Buddha that in that exact place a great city, metropolis of Buddhism, would come into existence on occasion of the 2,400th jubilee of Buddhism.

King Mindon decided to fulfill the prophecy and during his reign in the Kingdom of Amarapura he issued a royal order on 13 January, 1857 to establish a new kingdom. The Ceremony of Ascending the Throne was celebrated in July, 1858 and the former royal city of Amarapura was dismantled and moved by elephants to the new location at the foot of Mandalay Hill. With the Ground-breaking ceremony, King Mindon laid the foundation of Mandalay on the 6th waning day of Kason (1857). The King simultaneously laid the foundations of seven edifices: the royal city with the battlemented walls, the moat surrounding it, the Maha Lawka Marazein Stupa, the higher ordination hall named the Pahtan-haw Shwe Thein, the Atumashi (the Incomparable) monastery, the Thudhama Zayats or public houses for preaching the Doctrine, and the library for the Buddhist scriptures.

The whole royal city was called Lei Kyun Aung Myei (Victorious Land over the Four Islands) and the royal palace, the Mya Nan San Kyaw (The Royal Emerald Palace). The new kingdom was called the Kingdom of Yadanabon, along with other name Ratanapura, mean "The Bejeweled Site". It was finally renamed to Mandalay which is a derivative of the Pali word "Mandala", which means "a plains land" and also of the Pali word "Mandare", which means "an auspicious land."

Mandalay would be captured just 29 years later and the palace would become the British headquarters, known as Fort Dufferin, of Upper Burma.

During World War II, the Japanese, seeking to cut China's supply line, occupied Indochina. However, a new supply line via Burma had already been opened in January 1939. This Burma route went from Rangoon to Chongqing via Mandalay, Lashio, Baoshan and Kunming. Tens of thousands of tons of war material reached the Chinese nationalists by this route, creating difficulties for the Japanese army, which became desperate to cut this supply line. Thus, Japan with the support of local nationalist groups such as the Burma Defense Army under their command invaded Burma and captured Mandalay on May 2, 1942. The fort which contained the palace was turned into a Japanese supply depot and was heavily bombed by the British prior to their liberation of the city in March 1945 as part of an overland operation to recapture the capital and port of Rangoon.

In 1948, with the formation of the Union of Burma, the city became the capital of Mandalay Division.

Transportation and Economy

Mandalay is the terminus of the main rail line from Yangon and the starting point of branch lines to Lashio and Myitkyina. It is also the major trading and communications center in northern and central Myanmar. Among the leading industries are silk weaving, jade cutting,stone sculpture, brewing, distilling, the manufacture of matches, the working of gold flakes and the working of silver.

Culture

Buddha relics from Kanishka's stupa in Peshawar, Pakistan, now in Mandalay. Teresa Merrigan, 2005

Mandalay is a cultural and religious center of Buddhism, having many monasteries and more than 700 pagodas. At the bottom of Mandalay Hill sits the world's official "Buddhist Bible", also known as the world’s largest book, in Kuthodaw Pagoda. There are 729 slabs inscribed with the entire Buddhist canon, each housed in its own white stupa.

The buildings inside the Mandalay Fort comprise the Mandalay Palace, a walled square to the north of Mandalay with a moat, were mostly destroyed during World War II including the Palace. There is now a Museum and some concrete reconstructions.

Mandalay In Popular Culture

• The children's song "Nellie the Elephant" features the line "they met one night by a silver light on the road to Mandalay."
• The Electric Light Orchestra had an unreleased track on their 1983 Secret Messages album called Mandalay. It later released on the 3rd CD of their boxed set Afterglow.
• Colin Hay, the lead signer and main writer from the group Men at Work has put out a number of solo albums since the break up of Men at Work. His Topanga (album) CD released in 1996 has a track called Road to Mandalay.
• Robbie Williams had a song called The Road To Mandalay on Sing when you're winning.
• Blackmore's Night have a song called Way to Mandalay on Ghost of a Rose album.
• Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem called "Mandalay"
• George Orwell was stationed at Mandalay for a time during while working for the Indian Imperial Police in Burma.
• On the Frank Sinatra album Come Fly With Me he sings the song "On the Road to Mandalay".
• Mandalay is referenced in the song "Not Guilty" written by George Harrison for The Beatles but it was not released as a Beatles song until the Anthology set was released in 1995. A solo version of the song was released by Harrison in 1979.

External links

• Template:Wikitravel
• Mandalay Supply Route
• History
• Mandalay city website
• Satellite picture by Google Maps