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Yangon Time Machine Posts

Cantonment Gardens

Cantonment Gardens

Published by Will on December 21, 2017

1890

2017

“On this lake float many charming pleasure boats, some rowed by gay laughing groups, and others skim along with their glittering sails set, looking like large white birds”
– Among Pagodas And Fair Ladies, Gwendolen Trench Gascoigne, 1896

The cantonment refers to a British military zone around the Shwedagon Pagoda. As the only high ground in the vicinity of Yangon, Shwedagon has often found itself used as a strategic location in conflicts involving the city, and it was the core of the British cantonment.

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Phayre Street, Middle
Sule Pagoda

Sule Pagoda

Published by Will on December 10, 2017

1885

2017

“I might certainly describe the charm of the Sule Pagoda, the creeks choked with teak logs, the crowded shipping, the dingy markets, the yellow-red brick of the Secretariat and the Chief Court, but to what end? Photographs are more accurate”
– Richard Curle, ‘Into the East: notes on Burma and Malaya’, 1923

When Alanpyaya won Yangon from the Mon in 1755, he had taken a small but strategic fort town, on an island that stretched from what is now 30th St to Thein Pyu Road. It was surrounded by swampy marsh, and was inundated with water with each tide. To the north-west, Sule pagoda sat on a small, rocky outcrop attached to the mainland, reached from the town by a footbridge.

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The Excelsior Theatre

The Excelsior Theatre

Published by Will on December 10, 2017

c.1950

2017

“Please accept our apologies for the poor quality of the film”
– opening slide of Myanmar’s first ever film

The Excelsior is the last scion of a time when Myanmar’s film industry was a leading light in South East Asia. Despite some initial British censorship, the industry thrived, and by the 70s there were hundreds of cinemas up and down the country showing a healthy mix of imported and Burmese-made films.

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‘Footwearing Prohibited’

‘Footwearing Prohibited’

Published by Will on December 9, 2017
British troops at Shwedagon in 1945

“Touching on Burmese English usage, let us deal now with the ‘footwearing prohibited’ notice in all the pagodas and have done with it. Its literal interpretation is too old and stale a joke now to be even mildly funny. The expression is not, anyhow, more absurd than many expressions which have invaded our English tongue from America and the armed forces[*]. “You see,” a Burman said to me, wearily, “if we change it to a ‘footwear prohibited’, as the people who want to improve us are always urging us to, the people will think it’s a new rule which means that they mustn’t even carry their footwear. The people understand what it means – that the wearing of footwear is prohibited. If the highly educated among our own people have no objection to the expression, why should we mind what outsiders think? If it makes us look ridiculous perhaps it is not more ridiculous than the sight of Western people paddling round our pagodas in their socks, frightened to go barefoot.”
– Ethel Mannin, Land of the Crested Lion, 1955

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The Royal Lake

The Royal Lake

Published by Will on December 8, 2017

1895

2017

“In the Dalhousie Park the inhabitants of Rangoon have a possession of which they may be justly proud, and which it is to be hoped that succeeding generations will insist shall at all times be maintained in a worthy manner. There are few, if any, parks in India equal to Dalhousie Park, and visitors often declare with enthusiasm that there is nothing in the world to compare with it.”
– Twentieth Century Impressions of Burma, 1910

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