Mandalay, the Royal City of Burma

Abstract

Mandalay is the second largest city in Burma, with a population of approximately four hundred thousand. It lies at 21°59′N and 96°6′E, and occupies part of a plain which stretches about thirteen kilometres from the Irrawaddy on the west to the Shan Hills on the east, and from the Madaya river on the north to the Mitnge river on the south. This rectangular area was designated “Shwe-gyo-that-ne,” the Royal City Area.
 Mandalay was founded by King Mindon in 1858 as a new capital. The shift of capital from Amarapura to Mandalay seems to have been made for mainly political and partly private reasons on the king's part. Following victory in the Second Anglo-Burmese War, the Governor-General of India unilaterally annexed the Province of Pegu with its ports of Rangoon and Bassein without concluding a peace treaty. Mindon seized the bloodstained Crown from his brother Pagan in 1853. To erase the humiliating disasters and to distract the attention of his people from their gloomy memories, he resolved to move his capital.
 Mandalay was designed basically on the same plan as the preceding capitals of Ava and Amarapura. The Royal City, called “Myo-daw” in Burmese, was built in a square, nearly eight kilometres in circumference. It was enclosed by a brick wall about eight metres high and two metres thick with the forty-eight bastions, which support the posts of the “Pyat-that,” a many-tiered pavillion. The wall was pierced by twelve gates, three on each side. Outside the walls, a deep moat was dug, seventy metres in breadth, which was originally crossed by five bridges.
 The king's palace, called “Shwe-nan-daw” in Burmese, was in the exact centre of the square city. It is enclosed by a stockade of teak posts six metres high, then by a brick wall, and again by another brick wall. In the inner enclosure stands the palace, facing east. All the palace buildings stood on a platform of brickwork two metres high. These building were all built of wood, and had only one storey.
 Roughly speaking, the eastern portion of the platform was reserved for official purposes, and the western half exclusively for the residences of the queens, princes and princesses together with their female attendants and servants. Facing the main eastern gate was the “Mye-nan-daw,” which consisted of the Great Hall of Audience, South and North, and just behind it the Lion Throne Room, over which rose “Pyat-that,” a grand seven-tiered spire. Behind this room was the “Hman-nan-daw-gyi,” the Glass Palace, the principal living apartment of King Mindon.
 The palace was not only the royal residence but also the centre of the kingdom. It is also said that the royal palace of Burma was regarded as the symbolic centre of the cosmological island of Mt. Meru. These palace buildings were, to my regret, burnt to ashes in bombing by the Allied Forces in March 1945.