A RESEARCH ON THE APPLICABILITY OF THE MANDALAY MODEL TO OTHER HISTORICAL CAPITAL CITIES OF THE BURMESE KINGDOM

Abstract

 The author proposed a city model for Burmese capital cities based on the analysis of the spatial structure of Mandalay, the last capital city of the Burmese kingdom¹⁾. This paper discusses the applicability of the Burmese city model to other historical capital cities of the Burmese kingdom.

 This research first examines and discusses the spatial structure of the historical capital cities of the Burmese kingdom from documents, maps, and satellite imagery in terms of shape, orientation, size, land use, and disposition of important devices. The historical capital cities dealt with, from the oldest to the newest are: 1) Sri Ksetra, 2) Bagan, 3) Toungoo, 4) Pegu, 5) Shwebo, 6) Inwa (Ava), 7) Amarapura, and 8) Mandalay. Most of the capital cities were rectangular- or square-shaped with a moat; in most cases they were aligned to the four directions; and that the size of the walled city ranged between 1 to a little less than 2 km on each side.

 It can be seen from the analysis that the city model proposed for Mandalay may be applicable to the capital cities of Inwa and Amarapura in several aspects, including the square or rectangular shape of the capital city surrounded by a moat, and basically three gates on each side and the eastward orientation. In close scrutiny of Burmese historical capital cities, there is yet another model with five gates on each side instead of the three on each side as in Mandalay. The proposed Burma models are to be positioned as subsidiary models of the ancient India model.