Mandalay Central Prison ( my, မန္တလေးဗဟိုအကျဉ်းထောင်), informally known as Obo Prison (), is a major

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

located in

Aungmyethazan Township Aungmyethazan Township (also Aungmyethasan Township; my, အောင်မြေသာစံ မြို့နယ် ) is the northernmost (and city centre core) township of Mandalay, Myanmar. The township is bounded by the Ayeyarwady river in ...

, Mandalay,

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

(formerly Burma). The prison is adjacent to the Obo railway station, and located northeast of the city centre, at the foot of

Mandalay Hill Mandalay Hill ( ) is a hill that is located to the northeast of the city centre of Mandalay in Myanmar. The city took its name from the hill. Mandalay Hill is known for its abundance of pagodas and monasteries, and has been a major pilgrimage ...

. The prison has a capacity of 4,833 inmates. Mandalay Central Prison has housed many prominent

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

s, including

Zaw Myint Maung Zaw Myint Maung ( my, ဇော်မြင့်မောင်) is a Burmese politician, physician and former political prisoner who currently serves as Chief Minister of Mandalay Region and Mandalay Region MP for Amarapura Township. Early li ...

, Ye Lwin, and

Win Htein Win Htein ( my, ဝင်းထိန် ) is a Burmese politician and former inmate who served as a Pyithu Hluttaw MP for Meiktila Township. He is a patron and member of the Central Executive Committee of National League for Democracy (NLD), for ...

History

King Mindon founded Mandalay in 1857 as the new royal capital of the Konbaung dynasty. It was Burma's last royal capital before the British Empire annexed the kingdom in 1885. The picture of the prison was taken in 1903 by the

Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexand ...

under

Lord Curzon George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), styled Lord Curzon of Kedleston between 1898 and 1911 and then Earl Curzon of Kedleston between 1911 and 1921, was a British Conservative statesman ...

, Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905. In this prison, heavily-guarded

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945 * * * * * * * * *) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperi ...

was brought on 25 January 1925, at midnight and spent almost three years there. Bose considered it as a privilege as Bal Gangadhar Tilak (imprisoned from 1907 to 1913),

Lala Lajpat Rai Lala Lajpat Rai (28 January 1865 - 17 November 1928) was an Indian author, freedom fighter, and politician. He played a vital role in the Indian Independence movement. He was popularly known as Punjab Kesari. He was one of the three members of ...

who were imprisoned there once. The jail was located on the banks of the Irrawaddy River shown in the picture in the far background on the right. A new prison was built in 1992 by the

State Law and Order Restoration Council State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * '' State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our ...

, the ruling military junta, to replace a pre-colonial jail inside Mandalay Palace, amid domestic unrest following the

8888 Uprising The 8888 Uprising ( my, ၈၈၈၈ အရေးအခင်း), also known as the People Power UprisingYawnghwe (1995), pp. 170 and the 1988 Uprising, was a series of nationwide protests, marches, and riots in Burma (present-day Myanmar) th ...

. The prison's half-spoke wheel design has been used as a reference model for subsequent prison designs in the country. In April 2008, 5 inmates at the prison were charged with murder after Kyaw Myo Thu, an inmate was found dead in a jail cell. In the aftermath of the

2021 Myanmar coup d'état A coup d'état in Myanmar began on the morning of 1 February 2021, when democratically elected members of the country's ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), were deposed by the Tatmadaw—Myanmar's military—which then ves ...

, Obo Prison has been used to house numerous political prisoners. In August 2022, several prisoners were shot for staging a

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...

, in response to the high-profile execution of anti-coup political activists, including

Kyaw Min Yu Kyaw Min Yu ( my, ကျော်မင်းယု; also known as Ko Jimmy; 13 February 1969 – 23 July 2022) was a Burmese writer, political prisoner, and a member of the 88 Generation Students Group. He was executed in July 2022 after being ...

and Phyo Zeyar Thaw.

Notable prisoners

* Ye Lwin *

* Subhas Chandra Bose * Bal Gangadhar Tilak *

Sardar Ajit Singh Sardar Ajit Singh (23 February 1881 — 15 August 1947) was a revolutionary, an Indian dissident, and a nationalist during the time of British rule in India. With compatriots, he organised agitation by Punjabi peasants against anti-farmer laws ...

References

{{reflist Mandalay Region Prisons in Myanmar Buildings and structures in Mandalay 1992 establishments in Myanmar