ေမာင္ေက်ာင္းသား: March 2012

Demonym		Burmese / Myanma
Government		Unitary presidential republic
-	President	Thein Sein
-	Vice President	Tin Aung Myint Oo Sai Mauk Kham
Legislature		Pyidaungsu Hluttaw
-	Upper House	Amyotha Hluttaw
-	Lower House	Pyithu Hluttaw
Formation
-	Pagan Dynasty	23 December 849
-	Toungoo Dynasty	16 October 1510
-	Konbaung Dynasty	21 March 1752
-	Independence (from UK)	4 January 1948
-	Coup d'état	2 March 1962
-	New constitution	30 March 2011
Area
-	Total	676,578 km² (40^th) 261,227 sq mi
-	Water (%)	3.06
Population
-	2010 estimate	60,280,000 (24^th)
-	1983 census	33,234,000 (³)
-	Density	73.9/km² (119^th) 191.5/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2011 estimate
-	Total	$81.553 billion (76^th)
-	Per capita	$1,307 (163^RD)
GDP (nominal)		2010 estimate
-	Total	$42.953 billion76^th)
-	Per capita	$702 (155^th)
HDI (2011)		0.483 (low) (149^th)
Currency		kyat (K) (MMK)
Time zone		MST (UTC+06:30)
Drives on the		right
Internet TLD		.mm
Calling code		95
	Some governments recognise Rangoon as the national capital

This article contains Burmese script. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Burmese script.

Burma or Myanmar(now), officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (Burmese: ပြည်ထောင်စု သမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်, Pyidaunzu Thanmăda Myăma Nainngandaw, pronounced), is a country in South Asia and Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by India, Bangladesh, China, Laos and Thailand. One-third of Burma's total perimeter of 1,930 kilometres (1,200 mi) forms an uninterrupted coastline along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. At 676,578 km² (261,227 sq mi), it is the 40th largest country in the world and the second largest country in Southeast Asia. Burma is also the 24th most populous country in the world with over 58.8 million people.

Myanmar is home to some of the early civilizations of Southeast Asia including the Pyu and the Mon. In the 9^th century, the Burmans of the Kingdom of Nanzhao, entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and, following the establishment of the Pagan Kingdom in 1057, the language and culture of these peoples slowly became dominant in the country. Sometime during this period, Buddhism became the predominant religion of the country. Following the Mongol invasion of Burma in 1287, the kingdom of Pagan fell and a period of control by several warring states emerged. In the second half of the 16^th century, the country was reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty which, for a brief period of time, was the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia. The 18^th century Konbaung Dynasty ruled over an area that includes modern Burma as well as Manipur in India. In the 19^thcentury, following three Anglo-Burmese Wars, Burma was colonized by Britain.

British rule brought social, economic, cultural and administrative changes to the once-feudal society. Since independence in 1948, the country has been in one of the longest running civil wars among the country's myriad ethnic groups that remains unresolved. From 1962 to 2011, the country was under military rule. The military junta was dissolved in 2011 following a general election in 2010 and a civilian government installed.

Myanmar is a resource rich country. However, since the reformations of 1962, the Myanmar economy has become one of the least developed in the world. Burma’s GDP stands at $42.953 billion and grows at an average rate of 2.9% annually – the lowest rate of economic growth in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Among others, the EU, United States and Canada have imposed economic sanctions on Burma. Burma's health care system is one of the worst in the world: The World Health Organization ranked Burma at 190^th, the worst performing of all countries.

The United Nations and several other organizations have reported consistent and systematic human rights violations in the country, including child labour, human trafficking and a lack of freedom of speech.

Both "Burma" and "Myanmar" are derived from the name of the majority Burmese Bamar ethnic group. "Myanmar" is considered to be the literary form of the name of the ethnic group, while "Burma" is derived from Bamar, the colloquial form of the name of the group. Depending on the register used the pronunciation would be "Bama", or "Myamar". The name "Burma" has been in use in English since the time of British colonial rule.

In 1989, the military government officially changed the English translations of many colonial-era names; among these changes was the alteration of the name of the country to "Myanmar". The renaming remains a contested issue. Many opposition groups and countries continue to use "Burma" because they do not recognize the legitimacy of the ruling military government or its authority to rename the country. Various non-Burman ethnic groups choose not to recognize the name because of the association of the term "Myanmar" with the majority ethnic group, the Bamar, rather than with the country.

"Burma" continues to be used in English by the governments of many countries, including the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. The United Nations uses "Myanmar", as do the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Germany, China, India and Japan.

ေမာင္ေက်ာင္းသား

lable

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Republic of the Union of Myanmar (ျပည္ေထာင္စု သမၼတ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံေတာ္)