Myanmar - Country Information

Rudyard Kipling's off-quoted line that Burma (Myanmar) is “quite unlike any land you know about” is as accurate today as written in his Letter from the East. Most who visit Myanmar agree that the sense of other-worldliness is what stays with them long after their trip is over.

The city of Dagon (Today’s Yangon) was founded by the Mon clan in the 4th century, around the Shwedagon Pagoda, which continues to dominate the city’s skyline and cultural outlook to this day.

The golden dome of Shwedagon is an enchantment to all who lay eyes on it, and a pilgrimage there is something that every Burmese aspires to during their lifetime. On seeing it for the first time, Kipling wrote: “then, a golden mystery upheaved itself on the horizon, a beautiful winking wonder that blazed the sun, of a shape that was neither Muslim dome nor Hindu temple-spire. It stood upon a green knoll, and below it were lines of warehouses, sheds, and mills”.