Naypyidaw, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw (; ), is the
capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
and third-largest city of
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 C. Wells, Joh ...
. The city is located at the centre of the
Naypyidaw Union Territory
The Naypyitaw Union Territory ( my, ပြည်ထောင်စုနယ်မြေ နေပြည်တော်), also called Naypyitaw Council Territory () (Naypyitaw also spelled Nay Pyi Taw, Naypyidaw or Nay Pyi Daw) is an administr ...
.
[ It is unusual among Myanmar's cities, as it is an entirely ]planned city
A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...
outside of any state or region. The city, then known only as Pyinmana District
Pyinmana District ( my, ပျဉ်းမနားခရိုင်) was a district of Mandalay Division, Myanmar.Later it was renamed as Naypyidaw District.Since 2011, it was separated from Mandalay Region and organized under Naypyidaw Union T ...
, officially replaced Yangon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
as the administrative capital of Myanmar on 6 November 2005; its official name was revealed to the public on Armed Forces Day, 27 March 2006.
As the seat of the government of Myanmar, Naypyidaw is the site of the Union Parliament
The Union Parliament ( my, ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော်) was the bicameral legislature of the Union of Burma from 1948 to 1962, when it was disbanded by the Union Revolutionary Council. It consisted of an upper h ...
, the Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
, the Presidential Palace, the official residences of the Cabinet of Myanmar
, border = central
, image = State seal of Myanmar.svg
, image_size =
, alt = State seal of Myanmar
, image2 =
, image_size2 =
, alt2 =
, caption = State seal of Myanmar
, date_established =
, date_dissolved =
, state = Myanmar
...
and the headquarters of government ministries and military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
. Naypyidaw is notable for its unusual combination of large size and very low population density. The city hosted the 24th and 25th ASEAN Summit
The ASEAN Summit is a biannual meeting held by the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in relation to economic, political, security, and socio-cultural development of Southeast Asian countries. In addition, it serves ...
, the 3rd BIMSTEC
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is an international organisation of seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations, housing 1.73 billion people and having a combined gross domestic pro ...
Summit, the Ninth East Asia Summit
The Ninth East Asia Summit was held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar (Burma) on November 12–13, 2014. The East Asia Summit is an annual meeting of national leaders from the East Asian region and adjoining countries.
Attending delegations
The heads of s ...
, the 2013 Southeast Asian Games
The 2013 Southeast Asian Games ( my, ၂၀၁၃ ခုနှစ် အရှေ့တောင် အာရှ အားကစား ပြိုင်ပွဲ), officially known as the 27th Southeast Asian Games, or the 27th SEA Games, and comm ...
and the 2014 AFC U-19 Championship
The 2014 AFC U-19 Championship was the 38th edition of the biennial international youth football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for players aged 19 and below. Myanmar were approved as hosts of the competition on 25 ...
.
Etymology
''Naypyidaw'' is Burmese for "abode of the king", and is generally translated as "royal capital",["An Introduction to the Toponymy of Burma (October 2007) – Annex A"]
p. 8, The Permanent Committee on Geographic Names (PCGN), United Kingdom "seat of the king", or "abode of kings".[ Traditionally, it was used as a suffix to the names of royal capitals, such as ]Mandalay
Mandalay ( or ; ) is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631km (392 miles) (Road Distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census).
Mandalay was fo ...
, which was called Yattanarbon Naypyidaw ().
History
Naypyidaw was founded on a greenfield site
Greenfield land is a British English term referring to undeveloped land in an urban or rural area
In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low po ...
near Pyinmana
Pyinmana (, ; population: 100,000 (2006 estimate)) is a logging town and sugarcane refinery center in the Naypyidaw Union Territory of Myanmar. The administrative capital of Myanmar was officially moved to a militarized greenfield site (which the ...
, about north of the old capital, Yangon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
. Construction started in 2002 and was completed by 2012.[Marshall Cavendish Corporation (2007). ''World and Its Peoples: Eastern and Southern Asia.'' Marshall Cavendish. p. 650.] At least 25 construction companies were hired by the military government
A military government is generally any form of government that is administered by military forces, whether or not this government is legal under the laws of the jurisdiction at issue, and whether this government is formed by natives or by an occup ...
to build the city. It is estimated that the planned city development reaches US$4 billion.
On 6 November 2006, more than 12,000 troops marched in the new capital in its first public event: a massive military parade to mark Armed Forces Day
Many nations around the world observe some kind of Armed Forces Day to honor their military forces. This day is not to be confused with Veterans Day or Memorial Day.
Africa
Egypt
In Egypt, Armed Forces Day is celebrated on 6 October, ...
, the anniversary of Burma's 1945 revolution against the Japanese occupation. Filming was restricted to the concrete parade ground, which contains enormous sculptures of Kings Anawrahta
Anawrahta Minsaw ( my, အနော်ရထာ မင်းစော, ; 11 May 1014 – 11 April 1077) was the founder of the Pagan Empire. Considered the father of the Burmese nation, Anawrahta turned a small principality in the dry zone ...
, Bayinnaung
, image = File:Bayinnaung.JPG
, caption = Statue of Bayinnaung in front of the National Museum of Myanmar
, reign = 30 April 1550 – 10 October 1581
, coronation = 11 January 1551 at Toung ...
and Alaungpaya
Alaungpaya ( my, အလောင်းဘုရား, ; also spelled Alaunghpaya or Alaung-Phra; 11 May 1760) was the founder of the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma (Myanmar). By the time of his death from illness during his campaign in Siam, this f ...
. The city was officially named Naypyidaw during these ceremonies, and the official, albeit mostly administrative, capital of the country was relocated from Yangon to Naypyidaw.
Rationale behind moving the capital
There are several assumptions why the capital was moved: Naypyidaw is more centrally located than the old capital, Yangon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
. It is also a transportation hub
A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include railway stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stops, airports and ferry slips. F ...
located adjacent to the Shan, Kayah, and Kayin states. It was felt by governmental and military leaders that a stronger military and governmental presence nearby might provide stability to those chronically turbulent regions.[McGeown, Kate (8 November 2005)]
Burma's confusing capital move
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
. The official explanation for moving the capital was that Yangon had become too congested and crowded with little room for future expansion of government offices.[
]
Geography and climate
Naypyidaw is located between the Bago Yoma
The Pegu Range ( my, ပဲခူးရိုးမ; Pegu Yoma or Bago Yoma) is a range of low mountains or hillsSeekins, Donald M. (2006) ''Historical dictionary of Burma (Myanmar)'' Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Marylandpage 357 and uplands between ...
and Shan Yoma mountain ranges. The city covers an area of and has a population of 924,608, according to official figures.
Chaungmagyi Dam is located a few kilometres to the north of Naypyidaw, while Ngalaik Dam Ngalaik Dam is a dam and reservoir on Ngalaik Creek in the Pyinmana Township of the Mandalay Region of central Burma, near the capital of Naypyidaw
Naypyidaw, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw (; ), is the capital and third-largest city of Mya ...
is a few kilometres to the south. The Yezin Dam is farther away in the north-east.
Cityscape
Naypyidaw is organized into a number of zones.
![NPDAerial22](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/NPDAerial22.jpg)
Residential zones
The residential areas are carefully organised, and apartments are allotted according to rank and marital status. The city has 1,200 four-story apartment blocks. The roofs of apartment buildings are color-coded by the jobs of their residents; Ministry of Health employees live in buildings with blue roofs and Ministry of Agriculture employees live in those with green roofs. High-ranking government officials live in mansions,
/ref> of which there are about 50. However, in 2019, quite a few of the ministerial mansions were reported to be unused and left in a neglected state in overgrown compounds.
Ministry zone
The city's Ministry zone contains the headquarters of Myanmar's government ministries. All the ministry buildings are identical in appearance. A Assembly of the Union, parliamentary complex consisting of 31 buildings and a 100-room presidential palace are also located there.[Living in a ghost town](_blank)
''Bangkok Post
The ''Bangkok Post'' is an English-language daily newspaper published in Bangkok, Thailand. It is published in broadsheet and digital formats. The first issue was sold on 1 August 1946. It had four pages and cost one baht, a considerable amount ...
''. 18 October 2009. The zone also contains the city hall building, which has many characteristics of Stalinist architecture
Stalinist architecture, mostly known in the former Eastern Bloc as Stalinist style () or Socialist Classicism, is the architecture of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, between 1933 (when Boris Iofan's draft for the Palace ...
, but with a Burmese-style roof.
Military zone
High-ranking military officers and other key officials live away from regular government employees in a complex said to consist of tunnels and bunkers; this area is restricted to the public. The city also hosts a military base, which is inaccessible to citizens or other personnel without written permission.
Diplomatic zone
The government has set aside of land each for foreign embassies and headquarters of United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
missions. The Chinese embassy formally opened its interim liaison office in 2017. The liaison office is the first foreign office to be permitted to open in Naypyidaw. Bangladesh and Malaysia have also signed agreements to open embassies in Naypyidaw. The government confirms that proposals have been put forward by 11 other countries to move their embassies to Naypyidaw, namely Russia, China, the United States, India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey and Kuwait. In February 2018, State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from ...
chaired a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Naypyidaw where she urged foreign governments to move their embassies to the capital.
Hotel zone
The Hotel zone has a handful of villa-style hotels on the hilly outskirts of the city. There are twelve hotels located in or near Naypyidaw. Eight of these are located within the Naypyidaw Hotel Zone, and two are located in Laeway (Lewe
Lewe is a town in the Naypyidaw Union Territory of central Myanmar.
Location and population
Lewe is one of the administrative township in Naypyidaw Union territory, Myanmar. It is about ten miles southwest from Pyinmana Township. It is not onl ...
) on the Yangon-Mandalay Road. Forty villas were constructed near the Myanmar Convention Centre in preparation for the 25th ASEAN summit conducted in Naypyidaw in November 2014. Construction of the villas was begun in 2010 by the government. However, funds were limited, so the project was later put out to tender for completion by private sector investors. A total of 348 hotels and 442 inns were constructed to house the athletes and spectators of the 2013 Southeast Asian Games
The 2013 Southeast Asian Games ( my, ၂၀၁၃ ခုနှစ် အရှေ့တောင် အာရှ အားကစား ပြိုင်ပွဲ), officially known as the 27th Southeast Asian Games, or the 27th SEA Games, and comm ...
, which was hosted in Naypyidaw.
Shopping
Naypyidaw Myoma Market is the commercial centre of Naypyidaw. Other shopping areas include Thapye Chaung Market and Junction Centre Naypyidaw. Junction Centre is the city's first privately operated shopping centre. There are also local markets and a restaurant area.
Recreation
Ngalaik Lake Gardens is a small water park situated along the Ngalaik Dam Ngalaik Dam is a dam and reservoir on Ngalaik Creek in the Pyinmana Township of the Mandalay Region of central Burma, near the capital of Naypyidaw
Naypyidaw, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw (; ), is the capital and third-largest city of Mya ...
, near Kyweshin Village on Ngalaik Lake (about from Naypyidaw). Opened in 2008, facilities at the Ngalaik Lake Gardens include water slides, natural resorts, lodging and a beach. The gardens are open to the public during Thingyan
Thingyan (, ; Arakanese: ; from Sanskrit '' saṁkrānti,'' which means "transit f the Sun from Pisces to Aries) is the Burmese New Year Festival that usually occurs in middle of April. Thingyan is the first ever water festival celebrated in ...
holidays.
Also opened in 2008, the National Herbal Park
The National Herbal Park ( my, အမျိုးသား ဆေးဖက်ဝင် အပင်များ ပန်းခြံ) is a park located near the Naypyidaw-Taungnyo Road in Naypyidaw, Myanmar. Over 20,000 herbal and medicinal plan ...
has exhibits of plants having medicinal applications from all of the major regions of Myanmar. There are thousands of plants at the park, representing hundreds of different species. Behind the city hall, there is a park with a playground and water fountain complex, which hosts a musical light show every night.
The Naypyidaw Zoological Gardens
The Naypyidaw Zoological Gardens () located in Naypyidaw is the largest zoo in South East Asia. Located on the Yangon-Mandalay highway about 250 miles (400 km) north of Yangon, the 612-acre (247-hectare) zoo opened its doors on Myanmar's Arme ...
opened in 2008 with 420 species and now with 1500 animals. The main attraction of the zoo is the climate-controlled penguin house. The animals were shipped to it from the old one in Yangon. The Naypyidaw Safari Park
The Naypyidaw Safari Park ( my, နေပြည်တော် ဆာဖာရီ ဥယျာဉ်) is a wildlife park, located in Naypyidaw, Myanmar (Burma). The park consists of a Asian safari, a Australian safari and a African safari. The ...
officially opened on 12 February 2011.
Naypyidaw also has two golf courses, Naypyidaw City Golf Course and Yaypyar Golf Course, and a gem museum.
Landmark
Similar in size and shape to the Shwedagon Pagoda
The Shwedagon Pagoda (, ); mnw, ကျာ်ဒဂုၚ်; officially named ''Shwedagon Zedi Daw'' ( my, ရွှေတိဂုံစေတီတော်, , ) and also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda and the Golden Pagoda is a gilded stupa ...
in Yangon, Uppatasanti Pagoda
, native_name =
, image = Naypyidaw -- Uppatasanti Pagoda.JPG
, image_size =
, alt =
, caption =
, map_type = Burma
, map_size =
, map_alt ...
was completed in 2009. This new pagoda is named the Uppatasanti or "Peace Pagoda". The stake-driving ceremony for the pagoda was held on 12 November 2006.[Uppatasanti Pagoda, replica of Shwedagon Pagoda in Nay Pyi Daw](_blank)
The invitation card for the ceremony opened with a phrase "Rajahtani Naypyidaw (the royal capital where the king resides)". The pagoda is just shorter than the Shwedagon Pagoda. Uppatasanti translates roughly to "Protection against Calamity". It is the name of a sūtra
''Sutra'' ( sa, सूत्र, translit=sūtra, translit-std=IAST, translation=string, thread)Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an aph ...
prepared by a monk in the early 16th century. It is to be recited in time of crisis, especially in the face of foreign invasion.Weekly Eleven News Journal Weekly, The Weekly, or variations, may refer to:
News media
*Weekly (news magazine), ''Weekly'' (news magazine), an English-language national news magazine published in Mauritius
*Weekly newspaper, any newspaper published on a weekly schedule
*Alt ...
, Vol. 1, No. 44 (16 August 2006), p. 9.
Administration
The Naypyidaw Union Territory
The Naypyitaw Union Territory ( my, ပြည်ထောင်စုနယ်မြေ နေပြည်တော်), also called Naypyitaw Council Territory () (Naypyitaw also spelled Nay Pyi Taw, Naypyidaw or Nay Pyi Daw) is an administr ...
is administered at both the State/Region level, and as a municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
at the local level under two different governing bodies. Naypyidaw is one of three cities in the country to have municipal governance, the others being Yangon and Mandalay.
Naypyidaw Council (NPTC) is the regional administrative body of the territory, and is under the direct supervision of the President of Myanmar
The president of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar () is the head of state and constitutional head of government of Myanmar. The president leads the Cabinet of Myanmar, the executive branch of the Burmese government. The current presiden ...
. The council is appointed by the President, and must have no less than 5 and no more than 10 members and include both civilians and military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
personnel. The Chairperson becomes the ex-officio
An ''ex officio'' member is a member of a body (notably a board, committee, council) who is part of it by virtue of holding another office. The term ''ex officio'' is Latin, meaning literally 'from the office', and the sense intended is 'by right ...
Mayor, and the Head of the General Administration Department
The General Administration Department ( my, အထွေထွေအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးဦးစီးဌာန, abbreviated GAD) is a civil service body that staffs all regional and state-level governments in Myanmar and provides ad ...
(GAD) of the territory becomes the Secretary of the council. Matters under the jurisdiction
Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels.
Jur ...
of the Council include: general planning, coordination of internal security
Internal security is the act of keeping peace within the borders of a sovereign state or other Self-governance, self-governing territories, generally by upholding the national law and defending against internal security threats. Responsibility fo ...
, nature conservation
Nature conservation is the moral philosophy and conservation movement focused on protecting species from extinction, maintaining and restoring habitats, enhancing ecosystem services, and protecting biological diversity. A range of values unde ...
, emergency management
Emergency management or disaster management is the managerial function charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actuall ...
, oversight of civil service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
organizations within the territory, and any other duties assigned to it by the constitution or law.
Naypyidaw Development Committee
The Naypyidaw Development Committee ( my, နေပြည်တော်စည်ပင်သာယာရေးကော်မတီ; abbreviated NPTDC) is the administrative body of Naypyidaw, the administrative capital of Myanmar (Burma). NPTDC ...
(NPTDC) is the local government
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...
body of the territory. The committee is appointed by the President, and must have at least 5 members, but no more than 9. The Chairperson of the Committee becomes the Mayor of Naypyidaw, the vice-chairman becomes the Vice-Mayor, and the Head of Office becomes the Joint Secretary of the committee. Because both laws make the chair of the Council and Committee the mayor, the same person holds both offices. Matters under the jurisdiction of the Committee include: urban planning
Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...
, land-use planning
Land use planning is the process of regulating the use of land by a central authority. Usually, this is done to promote more desirable social and environmental outcomes as well as a more efficient use of resources. More specifically, the goals ...
, planning permission
Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
, traffic management
Traffic management is a key branch within logistics. It concerns the planning control and purchasing of transport services needed to physically move vehicles (for example aircraft, road vehicles, rolling stock and watercraft) and freight.
Traffic ...
, various public works
Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, sc ...
(sewage treatment
Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding envir ...
, water supply
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Public water supply systems are crucial to properly functioning societies. Thes ...
, sanitation
Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation systems ...
, roads, bridges, drainage, etc.), and other local competencies. Unlike the NPTC which must request funding for its budget from the Union government, the committee is permitted to levy taxes to fund its work.
The current mayor is Dr. Maung Maung Naing, appointed as the Chair of Naypyidaw Council on 2 February 2021. Dr. Myo Aung of the National League for Democracy
The National League for Democracy ( my, အမျိုးသား ဒီမိုကရေစီ အဖွဲ့ချုပ်, ; Abbreviation, abbr. NLD; Burmese abbr. ဒီချုပ်) is a liberal democratic political party in Myanm ...
party served as Mayor from his appointment on 1 April 2016, until his arrest on 1 February 2021, during 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 veste ...
.
Administrative divisions
Naypyidaw Union Territory consists of 2 districts
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...
subdivided into 8 townships
A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...
. Pyinmana
Pyinmana (, ; population: 100,000 (2006 estimate)) is a logging town and sugarcane refinery center in the Naypyidaw Union Territory of Myanmar. The administrative capital of Myanmar was officially moved to a militarized greenfield site (which the ...
, Lewe
Lewe is a town in the Naypyidaw Union Territory of central Myanmar.
Location and population
Lewe is one of the administrative township in Naypyidaw Union territory, Myanmar. It is about ten miles southwest from Pyinmana Township. It is not onl ...
, and Tatkone townships were all formerly part of Yamethin District
Yamethin District ( my, ရမည်းသင်း) is a district of the Mandalay Region in central Myanmar.
Townships
The district contains the following townships:
*Pyawbwe Township
Pyawbwe Township is a township of Yamethin District in the ...
in Mandalay Region
Mandalay Region ( my, မန္တလေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Mandalay Division) is an administrative divisions of Myanmar, administrative division of Myanmar. It is located in the center of the country, bordering ...
. Ottarathiri, Dekkhinathiri, Popphathiri, Zabuthiri, and Zeyathiri are all new townships under construction. Like the townships in the rest of the country, they are governered by a development affairs organization (DAO) which includes a Township Administrator appointed by the General Administration Department
The General Administration Department ( my, အထွေထွေအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးဦးစီးဌာန, abbreviated GAD) is a civil service body that staffs all regional and state-level governments in Myanmar and provides ad ...
, and an elected Township Development Affairs Committee (TDAC).
* Ottara District
** Ottarathiri Township Ottarathiri Township ( my, ဥတ္တရသီရိမြို့နယ်) is one of Naypyidaw Union Territory's eight townships, located south of Mandalay Region in Burma.
History
Ottarathiri Township formerly part of Mandalay Division. The ...
(, from Pali ')
** Pobbathiri Township (, from Pali ')
** Tatkone
** Zeyarthiri Township Zeyathiri Township ( my, ဇေယျာသီရိမြို့နယ်) is one of Naypyidaw Union Territory's eight townships, located south of Mandalay Region in Myanmar.
History
Zeyathiri Township formerly part of Mandalay Division. The to ...
(, from Pali ')
* Dekkhina District
** Dekkhinathiri Township (, from Pali ')
** Lewe Township
Lewe Township ( my, လယ်ဝေးမြို့နယ်) is one of eight townships of Naypyidaw Union Territory, Burma.
Demographics 2014
The 2014 Myanmar Census reported that Lewe Township had a population of 284,393. The population dens ...
** Pyinmana Township
Pyinmana Township ( my, ပျဉ်းမနားမြို့နယ်) is one of eight townships of Naypyidaw Union Territory, Myanmar.
History
Historically, Pyinmana was formerly known as Ningyan (နင်းကြမ်း). Shan traders ...
** Zabuthiri Township Zabuthiri Township ( my, ဇမ္ဗူသီရိမြို့နယ်) is one of Naypyidaw Union Territory's eight townships, located south of Mandalay Region in Burma.
History
Zabuthiri Township was formed from part of Mandalay Division's ...
(, from Pali ')
There is sometimes some controversy about land use and changes in land ownership related to the urban spread of Naypyidaw. In late 2014, for example, there were suggestions in parliament that land grabs were occurring near the Dekkhinathiri Township and that existing laws needed to be amended to provide better protection for farmers. There has also been criticism from some members of parliament about the size of the Naypyidaw Union Territory and the fact that money is being spent on urban infrastructure (such as lighting around lakes) although the facilities do not attract much use.
Transport
Roads
The four-lane, Yangon-Naypyidaw highway links Naypyidaw with Yangon directly and is part of the long Yangon-Naypyidaw-Mandalay Expressway. There is a 20-lane boulevard; like most roads in the city, it is largely empty. Naypyidaw has four-lane roads and multilevel, flower-covered roundabouts (traffic circle
A roundabout is a type of circular intersection (road), intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The N ...
s).![YangonMandalayExpy](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/YangonMandalayExpy.jpg)
Air
Naypyidaw International Airport
Naypyidaw International Airport officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw , ( my, နေပြည်တော် အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ လေဆိပ်; previously known as Ela Airport), is located 16 kilometres (10 mi) southea ...
, also known as Ayelar Airport, opened in December 2011 and is south-east of the city, between the towns of Ela and Lewe. It is served by all domestic airlines—Air Bagan
Air Bagan Limited ( my, အဲပုဂံ) was an airline headquartered in Bahan Township, Yangon, Myanmar. It operated domestic scheduled services within Myanmar, as well as to Thailand. Its main bases were Yangon International Airport and Mand ...
, Air Mandalay, Myanmar National Airlines
Myanmar National Airlines ( my, မြန်မာအမျိုးသားလေကြောင်း ), formerly Union of Burma Airways, Burma Airways, and Myanma Airways, is a state-owned airline and the flag carrier of Myanmar, based in ...
, FMI Air and Yangon Airways
Air Thanlwin () is an airline based in Yangon, Myanmar, offering scheduled and chartered domestic flights from its base at Yangon International Airport. The airline was rebranded in October 2019 from Yangon Airways which was founded in 1996.
A ...
—with regular flights to Yangon and other cities across the country. According to the Transport Ministry, the airport has a long runway, a control tower high and handle up to 65,000 flights annually. Bangkok Airways
Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited ( th, บางกอกแอร์เวย์ส) is a regional airline based in Bangkok, Thailand. It operates scheduled services to destinations in Thailand, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Laos, ...
, China Eastern Airlines
China Eastern Airlines Corporation Limited (), also known as China Eastern, is an airline headquartered in the China Eastern Airlines Building, on the grounds of Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport in Changning District, Shanghai. It is ...
, Qingdao Airlines
Qingdao Airlines is a startup Chinese airline that commenced operations on 26 April 2014. The carrier is based at Qingdao Jiaodong International Airport.
History
An application for the establishment of an airline based in the Shandong province ...
, and Donghai Airlines
Donghai Airlines is an airline headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, with its base at Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport.
History
The company was started in November 2002 as Jetwin Cargo Airline, with 2005 being the originally anticipated lau ...
serve the airport with international flights to and from Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...
, Kunming
Kunming (; ), also known as Yunnan-Fu, is the capital and largest city of Yunnan province, China. It is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province as well as the seat of the provincial government. The headquar ...
, Nanning
Nanning (; ; za, Namzningz) is the capital and largest city by population of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in Southern China. It is known as the "Green City" because of its abundance of lush subtropical foliage. Located in the South of ...
, Xi' an, and Shenzhen
Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...
.
Buses and taxis
Public transport services are limited between neighborhoods. Government ministries run shuttle buses in the morning and evening to their respective buildings.[Varadarajan, Siddharth (21 January 2007)]
In phantom capital, a city slowly takes shape
''The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
''.
The city has a central bus station and one taxi company, which is operated by the military. Motorbike
A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: Long-distance ...
s are banned from some roads in Naypyidaw city limits, including sections of Taw Win Yadana Road, as a result of hundreds of traffic accident-related deaths in 2009.
Railways
Naypyidaw railway station was opened at milepost No. (233/0), between Ywataw station and Kyihtaunggan station on the Yangon-Mandalay railroad with a station area of and a covered area of . Construction began on 8 December 2006 and Naypyidaw railway station was opened on 5 July 2009, even though the overpass, locomotive shed, concrete road leading up to the station, parking lot, passenger lounge and platform were not completed.
Before the opening of Naypyidaw railway station, Naypyidaw was served by Pyinmana and Lewe stations, though only Pyinmana station is on the main rail line (which extends from Yangon-Bago
Bago may refer to:
Places Myanmar
* Bago, Myanmar, a city and the capital of the Bago Region
* Bago District, a district of the Bago Region
* Bago Region an administrative region
* Bago River, a river
* Bago Yoma or Pegu Range, a mountain rang ...
-Naypyidaw- Thazi-Mandalay). Lewe station is on the way from Pyinmana to Kyaukpadaung
Kyaukpadaung ( my, ကျောက်ပန်းတောင်းမြို့ ) is a town in Mandalay Region in Central Myanmar. It lies just south-west of Mount Popa. It is the administrative seat for Kyaukpadaung Township.
History
The nam ...
. It takes nine hours by train to get from Yangon to Pyinmana; trains leave at 12:00 and arrive at 21:30 local time.
In August 2011, Russian news media announced that a Russian-based firm would be constructing a metro line
The Metro Line is a light rail transit line on the Edmonton LRT system. The line operates from northwest Edmonton to south Edmonton, and was scheduled to have begun operation by spring 2014 but instead opened on September 6, 2015, at a reduced ...
, which would be the country's first underground rail system, underneath Naypyidaw. However, the Rail Transportation Ministry then announced that the plan had been cancelled due to lack of demand and budgetary limits.
Education and research
Basic education
*No. 1 Basic Education High School
*No. 2 Basic Education High School
*No. 3 Basic Education High School
Higher education
Yezin
Yezin is a university village located beside the Yangon-Mandalay Road. The village of Yezin ( my, ရေဇင်း), 12 miles far from north-east of Pyinmana, Burma, has been the site of national scientific research institutions since the late 19 ...
(a few kilometers north-east of Naypyidaw and Pyinmana)
* Yezin University of Veterinary Science
*Yezin Agricultural University
Yezin Agricultural University (YAU) ( my, ရေဆင်း စိုက်ပျိုးရေး တက္ကသိုလ် ), located in Yezin, is the only institution of higher learning in agriculture in Myanmar. YAU also has major campuses ...
* Yezin University of Forestry
Research
* Forest Research Institute (FRI), Yezin
* Department of Agricultural Research (DAR), Yezin
* Southeast Asia Biodiversity Research Institute (SABRI)
Healthcare
The city is served by five public hospitals: 1000-bed Naypyidaw General Hospital
Naypyidaw, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw (; ), is the capital and third-largest city of Myanmar. The city is located at the centre of the Naypyidaw Union Territory. It is unusual among Myanmar's cities, as it is an entirely planned city out ...
, Naypyidaw Women Hospital
Naypyidaw, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw (; ), is the capital and third-largest city of Myanmar. The city is located at the centre of the Naypyidaw Union Territory. It is unusual among Myanmar's cities, as it is an entirely planned city out ...
, Naypyidaw ENT Hospital
Naypyidaw, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw (; ), is the capital and third-largest city of Myanmar. The city is located at the centre of the Naypyidaw Union Territory. It is unusual among Myanmar's cities, as it is an entirely planned city out ...
, 100-bed Naypyidaw Traditional Medicine Hospital
Naypyidaw, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw (; ), is the capital and third-largest city of Myanmar. The city is located at the centre of the Naypyidaw Union Territory. It is unusual among Myanmar's cities, as it is an entirely planned city out ...
, and Naypyidaw Orthopaedic Hospital
Naypyidaw, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw (; ), is the capital and third-largest city of Myanmar. The city is located at the centre of the Naypyidaw Union Territory. It is unusual among Myanmar's cities, as it is an entirely planned city out ...
. There is also a 300-bed Obstetric, Gynaecological and Children's Hospital of Defence Services, which is one of the teaching hospitals of Myanmar Defence Services Medical Academy. The nearby towns of Lewe, Pyinmana, and Tatkone each have one hospital.
Sports
Naypyidaw F.C, a Myanmar National League
The MPT Myanmar National League ( my, မြန်မာ နေရှင်နယ် လိဂ်; abbreviated MNL) is the premier national professional football league of Myanmar. In 2009, the league replaced the Myanmar Premier League, which co ...
football club, is based at Wunna Theikdi Stadium
Wunna Theikdi Stadium ( my, ဝဏ္ဏသိဒ္ဒိ အားကစားကွင်း) is a multi-use stadium in Naypyidaw, Myanmar. It can seat 30,000 spectators. The stadium hosted the 2013 Southeast Asian Games and 2014 ASEAN Para Ga ...
in Naypyidaw.
Main sights
Pagodas
* Uppatasanti Pagoda
, native_name =
, image = Naypyidaw -- Uppatasanti Pagoda.JPG
, image_size =
, alt =
, caption =
, map_type = Burma
, map_size =
, map_alt ...
* Maha Thetkya Yanthi Buddha
Maha Thetkya Yanthi Buddha ( my, မဟာသကျရံသီ ရုပ်ရှင်တော်မြတ်ကြီး); pi, Mahāsakyaraṃsi) is a Buddhist temple in Ottarathiri Township, Naypyidaw Union Territory, Myanmar that houses ...
* Thatta Thattaha Maha Bawdi Pagoda (replica of Buddha Gaya
Bodh Gaya is a religious site and place of pilgrimage associated with the Mahabodhi Temple Complex in Gaya district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is famous as it is the place where Gautama Buddha is said to have attained Enlightenment ( pi, ...
)
Museums and memorials
* Memorial to the Fallen Heroes
* National Museum
A national museum is a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In other countries a much greater numb ...
* Defence Services Museum
* Naypyidaw Gems Museum
* Planetarium
* The Museum of Sport
Recreation
*Naypyidaw Safari Park
The Naypyidaw Safari Park ( my, နေပြည်တော် ဆာဖာရီ ဥယျာဉ်) is a wildlife park, located in Naypyidaw, Myanmar (Burma). The park consists of a Asian safari, a Australian safari and a African safari. The ...
* National Herbal Park
The National Herbal Park ( my, အမျိုးသား ဆေးဖက်ဝင် အပင်များ ပန်းခြံ) is a park located near the Naypyidaw-Taungnyo Road in Naypyidaw, Myanmar. Over 20,000 herbal and medicinal plan ...
*Naypyidaw Zoological Gardens
The Naypyidaw Zoological Gardens () located in Naypyidaw is the largest zoo in South East Asia. Located on the Yangon-Mandalay highway about 250 miles (400 km) north of Yangon, the 612-acre (247-hectare) zoo opened its doors on Myanmar's Arme ...
* Naypyidaw Water Fountain Garden
The Naypyidaw Water Fountain Garden ( my, နေပြည်တော် ရေပန်း ဥယျာဉ်) is a garden in Naypyidaw, Myanmar. The garden is situated near the Naypyidaw City Hall with a steel structure arch-way. Also include ...
*National Landmark Garden
*Naypyidaw Hot Spring Resort
* Wunna Theikdi Stadium
Wunna Theikdi Stadium ( my, ဝဏ္ဏသိဒ္ဒိ အားကစားကွင်း) is a multi-use stadium in Naypyidaw, Myanmar. It can seat 30,000 spectators. The stadium hosted the 2013 Southeast Asian Games and 2014 ASEAN Para Ga ...
* Wunna Theikdi Indoor Stadium
* Zayarthiri Stadium
Zayarthiri Stadium ( my, ဇေယျာသီရိ အားကစားကွင်း) is a multi-use stadium in Naypyidaw, Myanmar. It has a capacity of 30,000 spectators. Having been completed in 2012, it is used mostly for football and athle ...
Concert halls and theatres
* Myanmar International Convention Centre 1 (MICC-1)
* Myanmar International Convention Centre 2 (MICC-2)
* Open-Air Theatre
Arts and entertainment
The Myanmar Motion Picture Academy Awards
The Myanmar Motion Picture Academy Awards are presented annually to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the Burmese Film Industry of Myanmar. The awards ceremony has been held annually since 1952. Each winner is pr ...
are held annually in Naypyidaw given to the highest achievers in Burmese cinema. There is a movie theater in the Junction Centre Mall as well as in the Ocean Shopping Mall. There are two others in nearby Pyinmana, and one in Tatkone Township
Tatkon Township ( my, တပ်ကုန်းမြို့နယ်) is one of eight townships of Naypyidaw Union Territory, Burma.
History
The area comprising Lewe Township was previously called Nga-nwe-kon (ငနွဲ့ကုန်း), Nw ...
.
Media and communications
The headquarter of the Ministry of Information is located in Naypyidaw. Since 2009, Naypyidaw has had mobile phone coverage.
Print
The ''Myanmar Alin
Myanmar Alin ( my, မြန်မာ့အလင်း; also known as Myanma Alinn) is a state-run Burmese language daily newspaper and the longest running newspaper in circulation in Myanmar. The daily is considered to be the official mouthpiece ...
'' and the ''Kyaymon
''Kyemon'' ( my, ကြေးမုံ; also known as Kyaymon) (''The Mirror'') is a state-owned Burmese language daily newspaper based in Yangon, Myanmar. Along with ''Myanmar Alin'', Kyemon is one of two Burmese language national newspapers in t ...
'' in Burmese and the ''New Light of Myanmar
''The New Light of Myanmar'' (, ; formerly ''The New Light of Burma'') is a government-owned newspaper published by the Ministry of Information and based in Yangon, Myanmar.
''The New Light of Myanmar'' is often viewed as propaganda on part of t ...
'' in English are available in Naypyidaw. Since 18 November 2011, the Ministry of Information has begun publishing a weekly journal called the ''Naypyidaw'' ''Times'', to report on government policies.
Radio
There are a number of AM and FM stations broadcasting in Naypyidaw. The main available channels in Naypyidaw are Myanmar Radio (operated by MRTV), Cherry FM, Mandalay FM, FM Bagan, Padamyar FM, Pyinsawaddy FM, Shwe FM and City FM.
Television
MRTV, MRTV-4 and MWD are the main channels, broadcasting Burmese-language programmes in Naypyidaw. Privately owned enterprise Sky Net
SKYNET Direct to Home (DTH) is a Satellite television pay TV operator provided nationwide in Myanmar by Shwe Than Lwin Media Co.,Ltd. It was launched in November 2010. Sky Net broadcasts a total 80 channels via Apstar 7 satellite. It also provi ...
provides more than 70 pay-TV channels of local and international origin. MRTV broadcasts 19 free-to-air channels and MWD broadcasts 8 free-to-air channels. Other TV channels such as Channel 7, 5-plus and Myanmar International
Myanmar International Television ( my, မြန်မာအင်တာနေရှင်နယ်ရုပ်သံလိုင်း, abbreviated MITV) is a Burmese state-owned national and international English-language television channel ba ...
, the English-language channel that targets overseas audiences are also available.
Costs and issues
One estimate puts the cost in the range of $3–4 billion USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
although only part of this estimate is for cash spending because non-cash investments were also reportedly involved in supporting the construction effort.
There is now continual travel by vehicles along the highway from Yangon to Naypyidaw, which is four lanes for most of the way. There are relatively few vehicles for much of the time on the road. Most trucks traveling North from Yangon to Naypyidaw and Mandalay are prohibited from using the highway. The Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field office ...
has estimated that allowing more trucks onto the road would save over $100 million per year in reduced traveling time and other savings. There are plans to turn the road into a six-lane highway for greater safety.
The proportion of housing that meets expatriate needs is limited because the majority of existing apartments are for government employees.[Kyaw Soe Htet,]
More time needed before expatriates consider relocating to Nay Pti Daw'
''Myanmar Times'', 8 October 2019.
In popular culture
In March 2014, Naypyidaw was one of the locations featured on the British motoring TV show ''Top Gear
Top Gear may refer to:
* "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission
Television
* ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme
* ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...
'' during a two-part special event in Myanmar.
In 2018, Naypyidaw was on the TV show '' Dark Tourist''.
See also
* List of capitals of Myanmar
The current capital of Myanmar (Burma) is Nay Pyi Taw. The following is a list of political capitals of notable states in Burmese history from the 9th century to the present. The list is generally organised in dynastic and chronological orders ...
* Naypyidaw Victoria rape case
Naypyidaw Victoria Rape Case refers to the rape of a 2-year-and-11-month-old girl, nicknamed Victoria, believed to have happened in Wisdom Hill Nursery School in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, which sparked national outrage. The police filed a case at court a ...
Gallery
File:Uppatasanti Pagoda.jpg, Uppatasanti Pagoda (western view)
File:Naypyidaw -- Uppatasanti Pagoda Plaza at sunset.JPG, Uppatasanti Pagoda
, native_name =
, image = Naypyidaw -- Uppatasanti Pagoda.JPG
, image_size =
, alt =
, caption =
, map_type = Burma
, map_size =
, map_alt ...
at sunset
File:Government luncheon reception in Naypyidaw.jpg, Government reception
File:Naypyidaw -- Uppatasanti Pagoda interior.JPG, Uppatasanti Pagoda interior
File:Zayyarthiri Stadium.JPG, Zayyarthiri Stadium
File:Naypyidaw -- Zoo.JPG, Nay Pyi Taw Zoo
File:Naypyidaw Zoo Planetarium.JPG, Planetarium
File:Buddha Gaya Naypyitaw 001.jpg, Thatta Thattaha Maha Bawdi Pagoda
File:Maha Thakya Yan Thi Pagoda.jpg, Maha Thakya Yan Thi Pagoda
File:Naypyitaw Gems Museum-02.JPG, Naypyidaw Gems Museum
File:Seagame.jpg, Naypyidaw hosting the 2013 Southeast Asian Games
The 2013 Southeast Asian Games ( my, ၂၀၁၃ ခုနှစ် အရှေ့တောင် အာရှ အားကစား ပြိုင်ပွဲ), officially known as the 27th Southeast Asian Games, or the 27th SEA Games, and comm ...
File:Myanmar-Lower-House-Parliament.jpg, Union Parliament (Interior View)
File:Myanmar Foreign Minister San Suu Kyi Addresses Reporters during News Conference with Secretary Kerry following their Bilateral Meeting in Naypyitaw (27131739766).jpg, A press conference in Naypyidaw
File:The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi inspecting the guard of honour, at the Ceremonial Reception, in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar on September 05, 2017. The President of Myanmar, Mr. U. Htin Kyaw is also seen (2).jpg, A ceremonial reception in Naypyidaw
References
* Dulyapak Preecharushh, ''Naypyidaw: New Capital of Burma'', 2009, White Lotus.
Notes
External links
Nay Pyi Daw – A photo album
The Flying Dutchman blog, 15 June 2007 (one of first two tourists to visit Naypyidaw, includes many photos)
Abode of Kings in a Derelict Kingdom
Disposable Words blog, 15 June 2007 (second of first two tourists to visit Naypyidaw, more photos)
BBC Top Gear Series 21 Episode 6
{{Authority control
Populated places in Mandalay Region
Capitals in Asia
Planned capitals
Populated places established in 2005
Township capitals of Myanmar
2005 establishments in Myanmar
New towns started in the 2000s