History of Yangon

Yangon in the past

As I mentioned in the general post about Myanmar, Yangon is the country’s former capital. To understand how it became what it is now, it is important that we have a look at the history of Yangon:

Origins

The tribe of the Mon founded a fisherman village centered around the Shwedagon pagoda in the 11th century. They named it Dagon. In 1755, King Alaungpaya conquered Dagon and renamed it Yangon, which was an important inflexion point in his unification of Burma.

British colonization

After the British captured Yangon during the colonization in the 19th century, they renamed it Rangoon. It also replaced Mawlamyine as the capital of Burma. Since the one to design the city plan was an army engineer, it’s no surprise that the city adopted a grid plan. As the new capital, the city thrived with commerce and the population increased, giving rise to prosperous suburbs.

Litography of Yangon in 1825 during the British occupation

Gaining independence from Great Britain

In the 20th century, with its gardens and parks, public services and infrastructures, Yangon was on par with the city of London. During World War I, Yangon was the epicentre of Burmese independence, starting at Rangoon University. In World War II, the city was under Japanese occupation and incurred a big deal of damage. After the Allies re-took the city at the end of the war, it became again the capital of the independent Union of Burma.

Independent Union of Burma

At that time, Yangon’s population was over 50% composed of South Asians. However, after the xenophobic government of Ne Win during the 1960s, they were forced to leave, together with the Anglo-burmese population. The same isolationist government was the cause of the loss of infrastructures in Yangon. In the 1990s, the military government changed to a more open market policy, trying to rebuild the city with new hotels, offices, etc. substituting some colonial buildings. In 2005 the government moved the capital to Naypyidaw.

The Saffron Revolution

In 2007, the national military government removed the subsidies for fuel. This decision increased the price by 66 to 500% over the span if a week, therefore massive protests on the streets of Yangon (among other cities), which were termed the Saffron Revolution. The government’s response to the nonviolent resistance ended up with hundreds of casualties and thousands of demonstrators arrested, including monks. In 2015, Aung San Suu Kyi won the general elections, becoming the first non-military government in 54 years.

Yangon now

Yangon is currently at peace, having been one of the center stepping stones towards democracy in Myanmar. During our itinerary, Yangon was the only city we visited that looked like an actual “big city”. With its 5.2 million inhabitants, it’s the biggest city in Myanmar, which comes with heavy traffic and plenty of people in the streets.

A big city comes with big traffic

Yangon has a decadent charm to it. The combination of faded colours from a better time, British colonial buildings and industrial buildings has a very powerful imagery. That being said, it is a dirty city (the dirtiest we saw in our trip). Unfortunately, that includes cockroaches and rats literally in every street at night time.

Beautiful Yangon

The foodie tendencies of Yangon was one of the things that shocked me most. To start with, there’s the street food (which I always recommend anywhere in SEA). Most surprisingly, we saw many small restaurants with a great proposal of the country’s classics with a modern twist. Another great finding was specialty coffee shops with pretty modern decoration. And of course their delicious noodles are everywhere so there’s that.

I have read many articles and blog posts saying that it is not worth going to Yangon and that you should fly directly to Mandalay. I say STOP THIS MADNESS!! Yangon is a diamond; in the rough, yes, but a diamond after all. It has a lot to offer to those that make an effort to get to know it. And if I still didn’t convince you, make sure you check out our post about what to do in Yangon.