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111-462: The Mandalay Palace ( Burmese : မန္တလေး နန်းတော် , pronounced [máɰ̃dəlé náɰ̃dɔ̀] ), located in Mandalay , Myanmar , is the last royal palace of the last Burmese monarchy . The palace was constructed between 1857 and 1859 as part of King Mindon 's founding of the new royal capital city of Mandalay. The plan of Mandalay Palace largely follows the traditional Burmese palace design; it

222-565: A pitch-register language like Shanghainese . There are four contrastive tones in Burmese. In the following table, the tones are shown marked on the vowel /a/ as an example. For example, the following words are distinguished from each other only on the basis of tone: In syllables ending with /ɰ̃/ , the checked tone is excluded: In spoken Burmese, some linguists classify two real tones (there are four nominal tones transcribed in written Burmese), "high" (applied to words that terminate with

333-645: A subject–object–verb word order. It is a member of the Lolo-Burmese grouping of the Sino-Tibetan language family . The Burmese alphabet is ultimately descended from a Brahmic script , either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabets. Burmese belongs to the Southern Burmish branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages , of which Burmese is the most widely spoken of the non- Sinitic languages. Burmese

444-457: A hti. Other mausoleums include those of three wives of Mindon: Chief Queen; Queen Laungshe , mother of King Thibaw; Queen Hsinbyumashin , mother of Queen Supayalat . The Royal Mint is located a few hundred metres to the northeast of the mausoleums. It was where the first Burmese coin was minted in 1865. After the British annexation, the mint was used as bakery for the troops for some years. It

555-550: A lesser extent, Burmese has also imported words from Sanskrit (religion), Hindi (food, administration, and shipping), and Chinese (games and food). Burmese has also imported a handful of words from other European languages such as Portuguese . Here is a sample of loan words found in Burmese: Since the end of British rule, the Burmese government has attempted to limit usage of Western loans (especially from English) by coining new words ( neologisms ). For instance, for

666-569: A marble manussiha or winged leogryph; the monster has a human head and two bodies. The relic-chamber on the terrace is square; the only entrance into it is on the west, facing the flight of stairs by which access is obtained to the top of the terrace; these narrow steps are enclosed between two brick walls, ornamented with copings in three tiers; the lower end of each coping is terminated by a large and graceful volute; this kind of ornamental stairs, with minor differences in details, may be seen all over Burma, either in brick or wood. The walls and roofs of

777-538: A masonry screen or barbican erected a few metres away from the moat in front of the entrance. It is 17.5 m (57 ft 5 in) in length, 5.2 m (17 ft) thick, 1.5 m (1 ft 8 in) in height, raised on a low plinth, and battering to the top. The summit is crowned by crenellated battlements on three sides only, the inner side facing the gate being left open and free. Access to the top could be gained by means of ladders, no other means of going up having been provided. It served as an advanced defence work protecting both

888-674: A monk]", Lower Burmese speakers use [sʰʊ́ɰ̃] instead of [sʰwáɰ̃] , which is the pronunciation used in Upper Burma. The standard dialect is represented by the Yangon dialect because of the modern city's media influence and economic clout. In the past, the Mandalay dialect represented standard Burmese. The most noticeable feature of the Mandalay dialect is its use of the first person pronoun ကျွန်တော် , kya.nau [tɕənɔ̀] by both men and women, whereas in Yangon,

999-431: A perfect square, complete with a total of 48 bastions with gold tipped pyatthats or spires at regular intervals of 169 m (555 ft) and surrounded by a moat 64 m (210 ft) wide, 4.5 m (15 ft) deep. The walls, built with the common Burmese bricks set in mud mortar, are 3 m (10 ft) thick at the base and 1.47 m (4 ft 10 in) at the top; 6.86 m (22.5 ft) in height, excluding

1110-412: A rather formidable obstacle to the besieging army, whose crafts would have been completely exposed to the missiles of the warriors protected by the merlons on the ramparts and on the barbicans. The moat was originally spanned over by five wooden bridges, four of which lead to the four principal or middle gates, that is one to each face of the walls. The fifth leads up to the south-western gate, used during

1221-487: A right angle at the corner; the chief motifs are flamboyant, foliage, lotus-bands and guilloches. The angle represents a stylized peacock—the emblem of royalty—is surmounted by a finial; below the eaves-boards is a pendant turned in the lathe. This same peacock is everywhere found at the points of the gables, forming a hip-knob, with the pendant below. All these carvings, besides being gilt, were also decorated with simple glass mosaic. The details above given apply mostly to all

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1332-492: A row of niches, with a somewhat larger one above it; in these niches were small figures of lions, besides the two large ones which may be seen now at each side of the throne. Access to the throne was obtained by means of a flight of steps in the room behind it from which it is shut off by a sliding door of gilt iron lattice work. The other thrones were the Hintha Throne ( ဟင်္သာသနပလ္လင် ), Elephant Throne ( Gajasana ) in

1443-600: A series of rulers: the Mongols (1287-c.1303), Myinsaing (1298–1313), Pinya (1313–1364), and Sagaing (1315–1364). In 1364, Ava kingdom led by Burmanized Shan kings reunified all of central Myanmar. Central Myanmar was under Ava's control until 1527, and under the Shans of Monhyin (1527–1555). Burmese literature and culture came into its own during this era. Central Myanmar was part of the Taungoo kingdom from 1555 to 1752. Parts of

1554-466: A stop or check, high-rising pitch) and "ordinary" (unchecked and non-glottal words, with falling or lower pitch), with those tones encompassing a variety of pitches. The "ordinary" tone consists of a range of pitches. Linguist L. F. Taylor concluded that "conversational rhythm and euphonic intonation possess importance" not found in related tonal languages and that "its tonal system is now in an advanced state of decay." The syllable structure of Burmese

1665-467: A substantial part of Mandalay Region's economy, as it contains many historical sites including Mandalay , Amarapura , Bagan , Pyin U Lwin , Mount Popa , and Ava . Hardwoods such as teak and thanaka are also harvested. Educational opportunities in Myanmar are extremely limited outside the main cities of Yangon and Mandalay. According to official statistics, over 1 million students were enrolled in

1776-828: A supply depot by the Japanese and was burnt to the ground by Allied bombing. Only the royal mint and the watch tower survived. Reconstruction of the palace began in 1989, initiated by the Department of Archaeology. Because government funds were insufficient, the Mandalay Committee for the palace Reconstruction was formed, with funds coming from the State Law and Order Restoration Council , which patronized this project. The regional governments of Mandalay , Magwe and Sagaing Divisions were responsible for drawing up architectural plans and constructing various parts of

1887-418: A wooden platform surmounted by a double-roof; the whole is crowned by a small finial and a hti or umbrella. It is from this platform that the passing of time was made known to the city by sounding regularly a gong and a very large drum at each watch, that is, every third hour; the day and the night were each divided into four watches. The time was marked by a water-clock . This consisted of a large water jar on

1998-573: Is mutual intelligibility among Burmese dialects, as they share a common set of tones, consonant clusters, and written script. However, several Burmese dialects differ substantially from standard Burmese with respect to vocabulary, lexical particles, and rhymes. Spoken Burmese is remarkably uniform among Burmese speakers, particularly those living in the Irrawaddy valley, all of whom use variants of Standard Burmese. The standard dialect of Burmese (the Mandalay - Yangon dialect continuum ) comes from

2109-483: Is C(G)V((V)C), which is to say the onset consists of a consonant optionally followed by a glide , and the rime consists of a monophthong alone, a monophthong with a consonant, or a diphthong with a consonant. The only consonants that can stand in the coda are /ʔ/ and /ɰ̃/ . Some representative words are: Mandalay Division Mandalay Region ( Burmese : မန္တလေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး , pronounced [máɰ̃dəlé táiɰ̃ dèθa̰ dʑí] ; formerly Mandalay Division )

2220-519: Is an administrative division of Myanmar . It is located in the center of the country, bordering Sagaing Region and Magway Region to the west, Shan State to the east, and Bago Region and Kayin State to the south. The regional capital is Mandalay . To the south of the region lies the national capital of Naypyidaw . The division consists of eleven districts, which are subdivided into 28 townships and 2,320 wards and village-tracts. Mandalay Region

2331-832: Is home to Myanmar's largest bhikkhu community. The majority of monks belong to the Thudhamma Nikaya (92.3%), followed by Shwegyin Nikaya (7.1%), with the remainder of monks belonging to other small monastic orders . 8,174 thilashin were registered in Mandalay Region, comprising 13.5% of Myanmar’s total thilashin community. Agriculture is the primary economical source of livelihood. Primary crops grown within Mandalay Region are rice, wheat, maize, peanut, sesame, cotton, legumes, tobacco, chili, and vegetables. Industry, including alcoholic breweries, textile factories, sugar mills, and gem mines also exists. Tourism now forms

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2442-559: Is important in Myanmar's economy , accounting for 15% of the national economy. It is under the administration of the Mandalay Region Government . The history of Mandalay Region is the same as that of much of Upper Myanmar except that for much of Burmese history, the political power emanated out of royal capitals located in Mandalay Region. The country's present capital, Naypyidaw , and most former royal capitals of

2553-470: Is inside a walled fort surrounded by a moat. The palace itself is at the centre of the citadel and faces east. All buildings of the palace are of one storey in height. The number of spires above a building indicated the importance of the area below. Mandalay Palace was the primary royal residence of King Mindon and King Thibaw , the last two kings of the country. The complex ceased to be a royal residence and seat of government on 28 November 1885 when, during

2664-766: Is led by Chief Minister . The Government Office is located in Aungmyaythazan Township. In 2011, the State and Region Hluttaws were introduced in the new system. Each State and Region has a State Hluttaw or Regional Hluttaw made up of elected civilian members and unelected representatives of the Armed Forces. The number of seats in each State or Region Hluttaw depends on the number of townships (each township constituency has two MPs), as well as ethnic representatives. The Mandalay Region Hluttaw have 57 elected members (include one ethnic affairs minister) and 19 military representatives. Under

2775-507: Is made up of three parts: the North (or Left) Audience Hall, and the South (or Right) Audience Hall; they were so called because, when the king was seated on the throne, facing the east, the first was to his left and the second to his right. These two parts or wings are connected by a transept running east to west from the flight of steps up to the railing around the throne; this transept was called

2886-442: Is pronounced [mõ̀ũndã́ĩ] . The vowels of Burmese are: The monophthongs /e/ , /o/ , /ə/ , /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ occur only in open syllables (those without a syllable coda ); the diphthongs /ei/ , /ou/ , /ai/ and /au/ occur only in closed syllables (those with a syllable coda). /ə/ only occurs in a minor syllable , and is the only vowel that is permitted in a minor syllable (see below). The close vowels /i/ and /u/ and

2997-676: Is the single remaining major structure of the original wooden palace today. In October 2021, in the aftermath of the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état , the State Administration Council began constructing a public recreation park adjacent to the historic walls of the Mandalay Palace in violation of the 2015 Law on the Preservation and Protection of Ancient Buildings, sparking criticism from local conservationists. The palace citadel's four 2 km long walls form

3108-584: Is the value of the four native final nasals: ⟨မ်⟩ /m/ , ⟨န်⟩ /n/ , ⟨ဉ်⟩ /ɲ/ , ⟨င်⟩ /ŋ/ , as well as the retroflex ⟨ဏ⟩ /ɳ/ (used in Pali loans) and nasalisation mark anusvara demonstrated here above ka (က → ကံ) which most often stands in for a homorganic nasal word medially as in တံခါး tankhá 'door', and တံတား tantá 'bridge', or else replaces final -m ⟨မ်⟩ in both Pali and native vocabulary, especially after

3219-638: Is the word "moon", which can be လ la̰ (native Tibeto-Burman), စန္ဒာ/စန်း [sàndà]/[sã́] (derivatives of Pali canda 'moon'), or သော်တာ [t̪ɔ̀ dà] (Sanskrit). The consonants of Burmese are as follows: According to Jenny & San San Hnin Tun (2016 :15), contrary to their use of symbols θ and ð, consonants of သ are dental stops ( /t̪, d̪/ ), rather than fricatives ( /θ, ð/ ) or affricates. These phonemes, alongside /sʰ/ , are prone to merger with /t, d, s/ . An alveolar /ɹ/ can occur as an alternate of /j/ in some loanwords. The final nasal /ɰ̃/

3330-491: The [ ɹ ] sound, which has become [ j ] in standard Burmese. Moreover, Arakanese features a variety of vowel differences, including the merger of the ဧ [e] and ဣ [i] vowels. Hence, a word like "blood" သွေး is pronounced [θw é ] in standard Burmese and [θw í ] in Arakanese. The Burmese language's early forms include Old Burmese and Middle Burmese . Old Burmese dates from

3441-588: The /l/ medial, which is otherwise only found in Old Burmese inscriptions. They also often reduce the intensity of the glottal stop . Beik has 250,000 speakers while Tavoyan has 400,000. The grammatical constructs of Burmese dialects in Southern Myanmar show greater Mon influence than Standard Burmese. The most pronounced feature of the Arakanese language of Rakhine State is its retention of

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3552-666: The 2014 Myanmar census , Buddhists make up 95.7% of Mandalay Region's population, forming the largest religious community there. Minority religious communities include Christians (1.1%), Muslims (3%), and Hindus (0.2%) who collectively comprise the remainder of Mandalay Region's population. According to the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee ’s 2016 statistics, 99,964 Buddhist monks were registered in Mandalay Region, comprising 18.7% of Myanmar's total Sangha membership, which includes both novice samanera and fully ordained bhikkhu. Mandalay Region

3663-527: The Burmese alphabet began employing cursive-style circular letters typically used in palm-leaf manuscripts , as opposed to the traditional square block-form letters used in earlier periods. The orthographic conventions used in written Burmese today can largely be traced back to Middle Burmese. Modern Burmese emerged in the mid-18th century. By this time, male literacy in Burma stood at nearly 50%, which enabled

3774-540: The Byedaik (Privy Council Hall), Thinga Throne, Deer Throne ( Migasana ), Peacock Throne ( Marurasana ), Lily Throne ( ပဒုမ္မာသနပလ္လင် ), and Bee Throne ( Bhamarasana ). The original Lion Throne was saved from destruction in the bombings of World War II, because it was transported by the British authorities to India in 1885 after the Third Anglo-Burmese War , and later returned. It is now exhibited in

3885-618: The English language in the colonial educational system, especially in higher education. In the 1930s, the Burmese language saw a linguistic revival, precipitated by the establishment of an independent University of Rangoon in 1920 and the inception of a Burmese language major at the university by Pe Maung Tin , modeled on Anglo Saxon language studies at the University of Oxford. Student protests in December of that year, triggered by

3996-723: The Mon people , who until recently formed the majority in Lower Burma . Most Mon loanwords are so well assimilated that they are not distinguished as loanwords, as Burmese and Mon were used interchangeably for several centuries in pre-colonial Burma. Mon loans are often related to flora, fauna, administration, textiles, foods, boats, crafts, architecture, and music. As a natural consequence of British rule in Burma , English has been another major source of vocabulary, especially with regard to technology, measurements, and modern institutions. English loanwords tend to take one of three forms: To

4107-534: The Myanma Salonpaung Thatpon Kyan ( မြန်မာ စာလုံးပေါင်း သတ်ပုံ ကျမ်း ), was compiled in 1978 by the commission. Burmese is a diglossic language with two distinguishable registers (or diglossic varieties ): The literary form of Burmese retains archaic and conservative grammatical structures and modifiers (including affixes and pronouns) no longer used in the colloquial form. Literary Burmese, which has not changed significantly since

4218-587: The National Museum of Myanmar in Yangon. Hmannandawgyi ( မှန်နန်းတော်ကြီး ) or Glass Palace, is the largest and considered one of the most beautiful apartments of the palace. It is believed to be King Mindon's principal living apartment of the palace. Like all the Throne rooms, it is divided by a wooden partition into two rooms. In the east room is the Bee Throne (Bhamarasana), so called because it

4329-614: The Pyu language . These indirect borrowings can be traced back to orthographic idiosyncrasies in these loanwords, such as the Burmese word "to worship", which is spelt ပူဇော် ( pūjo ) instead of ပူဇာ ( pūjā ), as would be expected by the original Pali orthography. The transition to Middle Burmese occurred in the 16th century. The transition to Middle Burmese included phonological changes (e.g. mergers of sound pairs that were distinct in Old Burmese) as well as accompanying changes in

4440-549: The Third Anglo-Burmese War , troops of the Burma Field Force entered the palace and captured the royal family. The British turned the palace compound into Fort Dufferin , named after the then viceroy of India . Throughout the British colonial era , the palace was seen by the Burmese as the primary symbol of sovereignty and identity. Much of the palace compound was destroyed during World War II by allied bombing; only

4551-515: The University of Computer Studies, Mandalay are among the most selective universities in Myanmar. Other highly selective schools are Myanmar Aerospace Engineering University and military academies in Pyinoolwin : Defence Services Academy and Defence Services Technological Academy . The general state of health care in Myanmar is poor. The military government spends between 0.5% to 3% of

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4662-436: The crenelles . On each face of the walls are three gateways placed at equal distances (508 m; 1666.5 ft) one from the other and from the corners. Each of the twelve gates, represented by its own zodiac sign, is 4.8 m (15.75 ft) wide and flanked on both sides by one-half of a bastion which supports the post of a many-tiered pavilion or pyatthat that rises over the gateway. The pyatthats over middle gates, used by

4773-410: The merlons , and 8.23 m (27 ft) with the merlons. The embrasures are 0.84 m (2 ft 9 in) in width. To give access to the battlements in cases of alert and at the same time to strengthen the wall, an earthen rampart on a moderately inclined plane has been thrown up behind it. Its summit forms a platform 1.83 m (2 ft) wide, paved with bricks and running all along the walls behind

4884-489: The "Great Golden Royal Palace". The Mandalay Palace was constructed as part of King Mindon's founding of Mandalay in February 1857. Large parts of the palace were reconstructed from the palace at Amarapura, which was relocated to Mandalay. The master plan called for a 144-square block grid patterned city, anchored by a 16 square block royal palace compound at the centre by Mandalay Hill. The 413-hectare royal palace compound

4995-413: The 11th to the 16th century ( Pagan to Ava dynasties); Middle Burmese from the 16th to the 18th century ( Toungoo to early Konbaung dynasties); modern Burmese from the mid-18th century to the present. Word order , grammatical structure, and vocabulary have remained markedly stable well into Modern Burmese, with the exception of lexical content (e.g., function words ). The earliest attested form of

5106-457: The 13th century, is the register of Burmese taught in schools. In most cases, the corresponding affixes in the literary and spoken forms are totally unrelated to each other. Examples of this phenomenon include the following lexical terms: Historically the literary register was preferred for written Burmese on the grounds that "the spoken style lacks gravity, authority, dignity". In the mid-1960s, some Burmese writers spearheaded efforts to abandon

5217-410: The 19th century, in addition to concomitant economic and political instability in Upper Burma (e.g., increased tax burdens from the Burmese crown, British rice production incentives, etc.) also accelerated the migration of Burmese speakers from Upper Burma into Lower Burma. British rule in Burma eroded the strategic and economic importance of the Burmese language; Burmese was effectively subordinated to

5328-552: The Bamar population. A large community of Indians also reside in Mandalay. A dwindling community of Anglo-Burmese still exists in both Pyinoolwin and Mandalay. A number of Shan people live along the eastern border of the region. Burmese is the primary language of the division. However, Mandarin Chinese is increasingly spoken in Mandalay and the northern gem mining town of Mogok . Religion in Mandalay (2015) According to

5439-471: The British in the lead-up to the independence of Burma in 1948. The 1948 Constitution of Burma prescribed Burmese as the official language of the newly independent nation. The Burma Translation Society and Rangoon University's Department of Translation and Publication were established in 1947 and 1948, respectively, with the joint goal of modernizing the Burmese language in order to replace English across all disciplines. Anti-colonial sentiment throughout

5550-557: The Buddhist clergy (monks) from the laity ( householders ), especially when speaking to or about bhikkhus (monks). The following are examples of varying vocabulary used for Buddhist clergy and for laity: Burmese primarily has a monosyllabic received Sino-Tibetan vocabulary. Nonetheless, many words, especially loanwords from Indo-European languages like English, are polysyllabic, and others, from Mon, an Austroasiatic language, are sesquisyllabic . Burmese loanwords are overwhelmingly in

5661-688: The Burmese language into Lower Burma also coincided with the emergence of Modern Burmese. As late as the mid-1700s, Mon , an Austroasiatic language, was the principal language of Lower Burma, employed by the Mon people who inhabited the region. Lower Burma's shift from Mon to Burmese was accelerated by the Burmese-speaking Konbaung Dynasty 's victory over the Mon-speaking Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom in 1757. By 1830, an estimated 90% of

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5772-469: The Burmese language is called Old Burmese , dating to the 11th and 12th century stone inscriptions of Pagan . The earliest evidence of the Burmese alphabet is dated to 1035, while a casting made in the 18th century of an old stone inscription points to 984. Owing to the linguistic prestige of Old Pyu in the Pagan Kingdom era, Old Burmese borrowed a substantial corpus of vocabulary from Pali via

5883-565: The Burmese nation— Bagan , Ava , Amarapura , Mandalay —are all located here. The Tibeto-Burman speaking Pyu were the first historical people to dominate the Dry Zone in central Myanmar that includes Mandalay Region as early as the 1st century AD. By the early 9th century, the Pyu were decimated in a series of wars with the Nanzhao kingdom from Yunnan. The Burmans, who had been migrating into

5994-529: The Central Audience Hall, because it was flanked by the Right and Left Halls. The Great Audience Hall as a whole measures, from north to south, 77.1 m (253 feet). Below the palace platform, on each side of the flight of steps, on the east, may be seen a few old pattern European cannons and near them some heaps of cannonballs; a few other guns of the same pattern are placed also on the sides of

6105-779: The Clock Tower and the Relic Tower, leads to the Mye-Nandaw, and the Golden Spire over the Lion Throne Room, which marks the centre of the city. All the palace buildings stood on the platform. The latter consists of three distinct parts: on the east, the Great Audience Hall and the Lion Throne Room are erected on an earthen basement contained by a brick wall; the whole of the western portion, from

6216-497: The Irrawaddy River valley. Regional differences between speakers from Upper Burma (e.g., Mandalay dialect), called anya tha ( အညာသား ) and speakers from Lower Burma (e.g., Yangon dialect), called auk tha ( အောက်သား ), largely occur in vocabulary choice, not in pronunciation. Minor lexical and pronunciation differences exist throughout the Irrawaddy River valley. For instance, for the term ဆွမ်း , "food offering [to

6327-619: The Mandalay Region High Court there are eight district courts, Mandalay, Pyin Oo Lwin, Kyaukse, Meithtila, Myingyan, Nyaung Oo, Yamethin and Dakina (for Union Territory). There are 35 township courts including the townships of Union Territory and 5 special courts. The majority of the population in Mandalay Region are Bamar (Burmans). In the Mandalay metropolitan area, however, a large community of Chinese , most of whom are recent immigrants from Yunnan , now nearly rival

6438-479: The OB vowel *u e.g. ငံ ngam 'salty', သုံး thóum ('three; use'), and ဆုံး sóum 'end'. It does not, however, apply to ⟨ည်⟩ which is never realised as a nasal, but rather as an open front vowel [iː] [eː] or [ɛː] . The final nasal is usually realised as nasalisation of the vowel. It may also allophonically appear as a homorganic nasal before stops. For example, in /mòʊɰ̃dáɪɰ̃/ ('storm'), which

6549-420: The Relic Tower has three parts – first a low basement; second a rectangular block or terrace rising from the first and third a relic-chamber surmounted by a three-tiered roof (pyatthat); the whole is crowned by the usual finial and the hti. Along the four sides of both basement and terrace runs a battlemented parapet formed of lozenge ornaments; at the four corners of each are small square pillars each surmounted by

6660-427: The abutments running into the moat from both banks. The space between is spanned over by teak logs of natural size – the length of two of these logs making up the length of the bridge resting, at both extremities on transversal beams supported by five posts partially encased in the masonry of the abutments; the extremities of the logs which meet in the middle of the bridge are likewise supported by five huge wooden pillars

6771-491: The adoption of neologisms. An example is the word "university", formerly ယူနီဗာစတီ [jùnìbàsətì] , from English university , now တက္ကသိုလ် [tɛʔkət̪ò] , a Pali-derived neologism recently created by the Burmese government and derived from the Pali spelling of Taxila ( တက္ကသီလ Takkasīla ), an ancient university town in modern-day Pakistan. Some words in Burmese may have many synonyms, each having certain usages, such as formal, literary, colloquial, and poetic. One example

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6882-412: The basement is 2 m (6 ft 9 in), the surrounding or retaining wall rising to a height of 3 m (10 ft 9 in) from the surrounding ground, and forming a parapet 1.2 m (4 ft) from the basement. Access to the top of the basement was obtained by thirty-one flights of steps, some large and some quite small, the principal of which are those at the eastern and western extremities. This hall itself

6993-601: The bills and lakes. They also, from its summit, contemplated the spectacle of the illumination of the town at the Thadingyut festival at the end of Vassa ('Buddhist Lent'). It is said that Queen Supayalat witnessed, from there, the entry of the British troops who took Mandalay in November 1885. The Watch Tower also survived the allied bombing during World War II. The road from the Eastern Gate, which passes between

7104-472: The cast of the palace. This pyatthat was of gilt copper. On each side of this spired-room were constantly kept open two white umbrellas. The ladies-in-waiting of the Glass Palace were, by turns, stationed around the west room to wait upon. Their Majesties; they, whether princesses or minor queens, were not allowed to enter this room with slippers on or with their golden umbrellas: they had to leave these at

7215-525: The close portions of the diphthongs are somewhat mid-centralized ( [ɪ, ʊ] ) in closed syllables, i.e. before /ɰ̃/ and /ʔ/ . Thus နှစ် /n̥iʔ/ ('two') is phonetically [n̥ɪʔ] and ကြောင် /tɕàũ/ ('cat') is phonetically [tɕàʊ̃] . Burmese is a tonal language , which means phonemic contrasts can be made on the basis of the tone of a vowel. In Burmese, these contrasts involve not only pitch , but also phonation , intensity (loudness), duration, and vowel quality. However, some linguists consider Burmese

7326-561: The country's GDP on health care, consistently ranking among the lowest in the world. Although health care is nominally free, in reality patients have to pay for medicine and treatment even in public clinics and hospitals. Public hospitals lack many of the basic facilities and equipment. The following is a summary of the public health system in the division, in the fiscal year 2002–2003. In 2005, Mandalay Region's public health care system had slightly over 1,000 doctors and about 2,000 nurses working in 44 hospitals and 44 health clinics. Over 30 of

7437-604: The country. These varieties include the Yaw , Palaw, Myeik (Merguese), Tavoyan and Intha dialects . Despite substantial vocabulary and pronunciation differences, there is mutual intelligibility among most Burmese dialects. Below is a summary of lexical similarity between major Burmese dialects: Dialects in Tanintharyi Region , including Palaw, Merguese, and Tavoyan, are especially conservative in comparison to Standard Burmese. The Tavoyan and Intha dialects have preserved

7548-425: The disastrous Second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852, the shrunken Burmese kingdom had few resources to build a new ostentatious palace. The former royal palace of Amarapura was dismantled and moved by elephants to the new location at the foot of Mandalay Hill. The construction of the palace compound was officially completed on Monday, 23 May 1859. During the Third Anglo-Burmese War , the British captured and occupied

7659-485: The division's 4,467 primary and secondary schools in 2005. Of the total, the vast majority, about 4,000, were primary schools. Only about 13% of primary school students make it to high school. The region has some of the best institutions of higher education in Myanmar. As medical, engineering and computer studies are the most sought after in Myanmar, the University of Medicine, Mandalay , the University of Dental Medicine, Mandalay , Mandalay Technological University , and

7770-669: The early post-independence era led to a reactionary switch from English to Burmese as the national medium of education, a process that was accelerated by the Burmese Way to Socialism . In August 1963, the socialist Union Revolutionary Government established the Literary and Translation Commission (the immediate precursor of the Myanmar Language Commission ) to standardize Burmese spelling, diction, composition, and terminology. The latest spelling authority, named

7881-427: The eaves-boards; the barge-boards are ornamented with a plain scroll design and surmounted by flamboyant which are very effective as a decoration. But the wealth of ornamentation is lavished on the corners of the hipped roofs and the points of the gables as well as their lower extremities. The corners of the hipped (lower) roofs are surmounted by two wooden boards, made up of several joined pieces and meeting so as to form

7992-475: The entrance with their attendants. In the time of King Thibaw, Queen Supayalat had a small room to herself in this west room of the Hmannan. 21°59′34.59″N 96°5′45.28″E  /  21.9929417°N 96.0959111°E  / 21.9929417; 96.0959111 Burmese language Burmese is a tonal , pitch-register , and syllable-timed language , largely monosyllabic and agglutinative with

8103-422: The fact indeed was that anybody sitting on this throne was practically the king, if he could keep the rightful owner off. The base is a lotus throne formed of two lotuses, the upper one inverted on the top of the other; this pattern in no way differs from an ordinary altar supporting a Buddha image; but in the centre, where it is narrowest, that is, at the point where the two lotuses meet, is a small band containing

8214-598: The form of nouns . Historically, Pali , the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism , had a profound influence on Burmese vocabulary. Burmese has readily adopted words of Pali origin; this may be due to phonotactic similarities between the two languages, alongside the fact that the script used for Burmese can be used to reproduce Pali spellings with complete accuracy. Pali loanwords are often related to religion, government, arts, and science. Burmese loanwords from Pali primarily take four forms: Burmese has also adapted numerous words from Mon, traditionally spoken by

8325-430: The gate and the bridge a few feet away. By the side of this screen is a huge teak pillar resting on a brick plinth stepped off on two sides, and carrying near the top a wooden board on which is carved an inscription giving the name of the gate, and the year and date on which it was built. Each of the four walls has 13 bastions for a total of 48 bastions. (Bastions at each corner are merged into one, hence 48 in total.) All

8436-413: The heads of which are joined together by means of two large wooden plates which rest on cleats so constructed that the whole structure could be taken down and removed rapidly in case of danger. Entering the palace grounds from the east, on the right or north sits the Clock Tower, or Bahozin ( ပဟိုရ်စင် ). It is a simple building, consisting of a high square plinth; on the top of this four columns sustain

8547-430: The hospitals had less than 100 beds. Since almost all of large public hospitals and private hospitals, and doctors are located in Mandalay, these low numbers for a division with 7.7 million are actually even worse in the rest of the division, though these figures are believed to have improved by the advent of Naypyidaw as the nation's capital in 2006 although the level of improvement remains unreported. The well-to-do bypass

8658-414: The inner face which forms the prolongation of the gateway itself, it rises abruptly without any plinth or mouldings, from the ground level. Two flights of steps, one on each side of the gateway, provide access to the top of the bastion and the wall. Each gateway was equipped with a thick wooden door of two leaves, (which were removed after the British annexation). The entrance to each gateway is protected by

8769-401: The intermediate bastions are surmounted by a quintuple-roof pavilion. The barge-board of these many-gabled roofs are covered with carvings. Surrounding the walls, at a distance of about 18 m (60 ft) from them, is a moat 64 m (210 ft) wide, and of an average depth of 4.5 m (15 ft). In the case of foes armed with ancient weapons, this moat would no doubt have presented

8880-522: The introduction of English into matriculation examinations , fueled growing demand for Burmese to become the medium of education in British Burma; a short-lived but symbolic parallel system of "national schools" that taught in Burmese, was subsequently launched. The role and prominence of the Burmese language in public life and institutions was championed by Burmese nationalists, intertwined with their demands for greater autonomy and independence from

8991-515: The literary form, asserting that the spoken vernacular form ought to be used. Some Burmese linguists such as Minn Latt , a Czech academic, proposed moving away from the high form of Burmese altogether. Although the literary form is heavily used in written and official contexts (literary and scholarly works, radio news broadcasts, and novels), the recent trend has been to accommodate the spoken form in informal written contexts. Nowadays, television news broadcasts, comics, and commercial publications use

9102-428: The memory of some members of the royal family. The most important historically is that of King Mindon, who died in 1878. It was originally a brick pyatthat, plastered over and whitewashed, erected by King Thibaw to the memory of his father, as soon as the grave had been built. The Sawbwa of Yawnghwe, decorated the king's tomb with glass mosaic. It is a square structure surmounted by a septuple roof terminating as usual in

9213-425: The official business of the court was conducted. The Lion Throne (Sihasana) was the chief throne of eight in the palace. The hall consists of two three-roofed wooden structures, richly decorated with figures and flowers, and supported by massive teak pillars painted red at the bottom and gilded above. Therein was a Lion-Throne (Sihasana) for the king. Due north from the Clock Tower is a cluster of mausoleums erected to

9324-533: The other apartments. There were eight thrones in the palace, of which the Lion Throne ( သီဟာသနပလ္လင် , Sihasana Palanka ) was the greatest, and as such much more elaborately sculptured and finished than the others; an exact replica of the one in the palace was formerly in the Hluttaw. The king alone, of course, had a right to sit on it; and for anybody else to do so would be considered a case of high treason;

9435-538: The palace, ransacking it before burning down the royal library . The royal regalia of Burma were removed as spoils of war and displayed in the South Kensington Museum (now the V&;A Museum, London). In 1964 they were returned to Burma as a gesture of goodwill. The British renamed the palace compound Fort Dufferin and used it to billet troops. During World War II , the palace citadel was turned into

9546-423: The palace: While the overall design was faithful, the construction process incorporated both traditional and modern building techniques. Corrugated sheet metal was used for the roofing of most buildings, while concrete was extensively used as a building material (the original palace was built using only teak ). One of the halls was dismantled during the rule of King Thibaw and rebuilt as Shwenandaw Monastery . It

9657-649: The population in Lower Burma self-identified as Burmese-speaking Bamars; huge swaths of former Mon-speaking territory, from the Irrawaddy Delta to upriver in the north, spanning Bassein (now Pathein) and Rangoon (now Yangon) to Tharrawaddy, Toungoo, Prome (now Pyay), and Henzada (now Hinthada), were now Burmese-speaking. The language shift has been ascribed to a combination of population displacement, intermarriage, and voluntary changes in self-identification among increasingly Mon–Burmese bilingual populations in

9768-632: The region fell briefly to the Mons of Pegu (Bago) (1752–1753). Konbaung dynasty ruled the region until December 1885 when it lost all of Upper Myanmar in the Third Anglo-Burmese War . The British administration organized seven divisions in Upper Myanmar: Mandalay, Meiktila, Minbu, Sagaing, and the Federated Shan States (North and South). Mandalay Division included what is now Kachin State . Circa 1940, Meiktila Division

9879-487: The region from Yunnan in the 9th century, founded a city of their own, Pagan, in 849. The Pagan dynasty gradually came to dominate the central zone over the next two centuries, and by the late 11th century, all of present-day Myanmar. The Burmese language and script came to prominence with royal patronage of Pagan kings. After the fall of Pagan to the Mongols in 1287, parts of central Myanmar came to be controlled by

9990-425: The region. Standardized tone marking in written Burmese was not achieved until the 18th century. From the 19th century onward, orthographers created spellers to reform Burmese spelling, because of ambiguities that arose over transcribing sounds that had been merged. British rule saw continued efforts to standardize Burmese spelling through dictionaries and spellers. Britain's gradual annexation of Burma throughout

10101-530: The relic-chamber are adorned with graceful plaster carvings. Although the building is called the Tooth Relic Tower, there never was any tooth-relic enshrined in it. The tower was built simply because it was the tradition to have such a tower at the royal city, a tradition from the time of King Bayinnaung . The Hluttaw ( လွှတ်တော် , [l̥ʊʔ tɔ̀] ) or the Supreme Court was where

10212-444: The royal mint and the watch tower survived. A replica of the palace was rebuilt in the 1990s with some modern materials. Today, Mandalay Palace is a primary symbol of Mandalay and a major tourist destination. The Mandalay Palace's formal name in Burmese is Mya Nan San Kyaw ( မြနန်းစံကျော် [mja̰ nán sàn tɕɔ̀] ; "The Famed Royal Emerald Palace"). It is also known as ရွှေနန်းတော်ကြီး ( [ʃwè nán dɔ̀ dʑí] ), or

10323-558: The royalty, have seven tiers while those on the rest have only five. Of these twelve gates, the main one was the central gate in the east wall, facing the Great Hall of Audience and the Lion Throne in the palace. The bastion projects 7 m (23 ft) from the face of the wall, and is 10.36 m (34) ft in breadth on each side of the gateway. It is ornamented on the outside, with simple mouldings and simple plaster carvings, but on

10434-510: The said pronoun is used only by male speakers while ကျွန်မ , kya.ma. [tɕəma̰] is used by female speakers. Moreover, with regard to kinship terminology , Upper Burmese speakers differentiate the maternal and paternal sides of a family, whereas Lower Burmese speakers do not. The Mon language has also influenced subtle grammatical differences between the varieties of Burmese spoken in Lower and Upper Burma. In Lower Burmese varieties,

10545-764: The spoken form or a combination of the spoken and simpler, less ornate formal forms. The following sample sentence reveals that differences between literary and spoken Burmese mostly occur in affixes: Burmese has politeness levels and honorifics that take the speaker's status and age in relation to the audience into account. The suffix ပါ pa is frequently used after a verb to express politeness. Moreover, Burmese pronouns relay varying degrees of deference or respect. In many instances, polite speech (e.g., addressing teachers, officials, or elders) employs feudal-era third person pronouns or kinship terms in lieu of first- and second-person pronouns. Furthermore, with regard to vocabulary choice, spoken Burmese clearly distinguishes

10656-404: The steps on the west front of the palace. The Great Audience Hall was built with a special eye to external effect, and this object was attained by carving and gilding all the wooden parts of the roofs-except the panels between the two roofs, which were merely gilt-that is, the gables, barge-boards and eaves-boards. The carving is in low relief and consists principally of a lotus and foliage-band on

10767-449: The times of monarchy for amingala or inauspicious occasions such as to carry off dead bodies. The British constructed two additional bridges one at the south-west and the other at the north-west corner, to allow of materials and supplies for the troops into the fort. The five original bridges are similar in design and are in unison with the defensive character of the fort and the moat. Two earthen embankments encased within brick walls form

10878-448: The traditional homeland of Burmese speakers. The 1891 Census of India , conducted five years after the annexation of the entire Konbaung Kingdom , found that the former kingdom had an "unusually high male literacy" rate of 62.5% for Upper Burmans aged 25 and above. For all of British Burma , the literacy rate was 49% for men and 5.5% for women (by contrast, British India more broadly had a male literacy rate of 8.44%). The expansion of

10989-425: The underlying orthography . From the 1500s onward, Burmese kingdoms saw substantial gains in the populace's literacy rate , which manifested itself in greater participation of laymen in scribing and composing legal and historical documents, domains that were traditionally the domain of Buddhist monks, and drove the ensuing proliferation of Burmese literature , both in terms of genres and works. During this period,

11100-462: The verb ပေး ('to give') is colloquially used as a permissive causative marker, like in other Southeast Asian languages, but unlike in other Tibeto-Burman languages. This usage is hardly used in Upper Burmese varieties, and is considered a sub-standard construct. More distinctive non-standard varieties emerge as one moves farther away from the Irrawaddy River valley toward peripheral areas of

11211-486: The water of which was placed a brass bowl; in the bottom of the latter was pierced a tiny hole, its size so calculated that the bowl filled with water and dropped to the bottom of the jar at exact recurring intervals, which were the hours. To the south of the Clock Tower, nearly facing it across the road is Swedawzin ( စွယ်တော်စင် ) or the Tooth-Relic Tower. A good example of traditional Burmese architecture,

11322-498: The westernmost extremity up to and including the Hman-nan or Glass Palace, is likewise an earthen basement surrounded by a masonry wall; these two basements are connected, from the Hman-nan up to the Lion Throne Room, by a plank flooring of the same level supported by numerous teak posts. The whole of this platform, in its greatest length, measures 306 m (1,004 ft); in its greatest width, 175 m (574 ft). The height of

11433-466: The wide circulation of legal texts, royal chronicles , and religious texts. A major reason for the uniformity of the Burmese language was the near-universal presence of Buddhist monasteries (called kyaung ) in Burmese villages. These kyaung served as the foundation of the pre-colonial monastic education system, which fostered uniformity of the language throughout the Upper Irrawaddy valley,

11544-410: The word "television", Burmese publications are mandated to use the term ရုပ်မြင်သံကြား (lit. 'see picture, hear sound') in lieu of တယ်လီဗီးရှင်း , a direct English transliteration. Another example is the word "vehicle", which is officially ယာဉ် [jɪ̃̀] (derived from Pali) but ကား [ká] (from English car ) in spoken Burmese. Some previously common English loanwords have fallen out of use with

11655-607: Was adorned with figures of bees in the small niches at the bottom of the pedestal. This was where the ceremony for the nomination of the Chief Queen and the Royal nuptial were held. It was also where the king and queen celebrated the Burmese New Year, and where the formal ear piercing of young princesses took place. The body of King Mindon was laid out in this room for viewing after his death in 1878. The west room, which

11766-505: Was formed as Union Territory under the direct administration of president. So Mandalay Region remains 28 townships organized into eleven districts. During the ruling of junta, the region peace and development committee is the administrative body of Mandalay Region. In 2011, the new government form was introduced, and the Mandalay Region Government became the main administrative body of the region. The government

11877-405: Was formerly divided into several smaller ones, was the principal living room of Mindon, and no other persons were allowed to sleep there except the four principal queens, to each of whom was appointed a room near the royal bed-chamber, which consisted of a small room surmounted by a pyatthat , or small spire consisting of seven superposed roofs similar to the Golden Spire over the Lion Throne Room on

11988-636: Was merged with Mandalay Division. Much of Upper Myanmar, including Mandalay Division, was under the Japanese rule during World War II between May 1942 and March 1945. When the country gained independence from the United Kingdom in January 1948, the Myikyina and Bhamo districts were carved out to form Kachin State. Before 2010, Mandalay Region consists of 8 districts. Later the Pyinmana district

12099-405: Was one of few buildings in the palace that survived allied bombing during World War II . The palace grounds are dominated by the 24 m (78 ft) tall Nanmyintsaung ( နန်းမြင့်ဆောင် ) or Watch Tower, topped by a seven tiered pyatthat . It was the spot from which to view the city. The king and queen sometimes ascended the tower to witness the panorama of the country around, with its river,

12210-422: Was surrounded by four 2 km (6666 ft) long walls and a moat 64 m (210 ft) wide, 4.5 m (15 ft) deep. Along the wall were bastions with gold-tipped spires at intervals of 169 m (555 ft). The walls had three gates on each side, twelve in total, each presenting a zodiac sign. The citadel had five bridges to cross the moat. In June 1857, the construction of the palace began. After

12321-839: Was the fifth of the Sino-Tibetan languages to develop a writing system, after Classical Chinese , Pyu , Old Tibetan and Tangut . The majority of Burmese speakers, who live throughout the Irrawaddy River Valley, use a number of largely similar dialects, while a minority speak non-standard dialects found in the peripheral areas of the country. These dialects include: Arakanese in Rakhine State and Marma in Bangladesh are also sometimes considered dialects of Burmese and sometimes as separate languages. Despite vocabulary and pronunciation differences, there

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