This is a survey of the postage stamps and

postal history Postal history is the study of postal systems and how they operate and, or, the study of the use of postage stamps and covers and associated postal artifacts illustrating historical episodes in the development of postal systems. The term is att ...

of the

Republic of the Union 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 Wells explai ...

, formerly known as Burma. Burma is the largest country by geographical area in

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

(mainland

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

). The country is bordered by

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

on the north-east,

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

on the east,

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

on the south-east,

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

on the west,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

on the north-west and the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...

to the south-west with the

Andaman Sea The Andaman Sea (historically also known as the Burma Sea) is a marginal sea of the northeastern Indian Ocean bounded by the coastlines of Myanmar and Thailand along the Gulf of Martaban and west side of the Malay Peninsula, and separated from ...

defining its southern periphery.

Indian stamps

Starting in 1854, Burma used the stamps of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

without any form of overprinting. The stamps may be identified by the postmarks used which, after 1856, were specially prepared for Burma post offices.

First stamps

The first stamps of Burma were stamps of British India overprinted ''BURMA'' from 1 April 1937. It is shown on Tharaphi Philately.''Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue: Commonwealth and British Empire Stamps 1840-1970''. 110th edition. London:

Stanley Gibbons The Stanley Gibbons Group plc is a company quoted on the London Stock Exchange specialising in the retailing of collectable postage stamps and similar products. The group is incorporated in London. The company is a major stamp dealer and philat ...

, 2008, pp.135-138. Mm-0069.jpg

Stamps inscribed Burma

Burma under Japanese occupation stamp of 15c

The first stamps inscribed Burma in the design, rather than simple overprints, were

definitive stamp A definitive stamp is a postage stamp that is part of the regular issue of a country's stamps, available for sale by the post office for an extended period of time and designed to serve the everyday postal needs of the country. The term is used in ...

s depicting King George VI issued between 1938 and 1940. On 6 May 1940 a commemorative stamp was issued to celebrate the centenary of the first postage stamp by overprinting one of the 1938 stamp with the inscriptions "Commemoration Postage Stamp 6th May 1840".

Japanese occupation

During World War II, Burma was occupied by the Japanese between 1942 and 1945. Stamps were issued by the Japanese Army and by the '' Burma Independence Army'' in 1942. In 1943 and 1944 stamps were issued by the Burma Government with the permission of the occupying forces. File:Burma independence day of 1cent stamp in 1943.JPG, Stamp issued by the State of Burma during Japanese occupation. File:Burma 30cents stamp in 1943.JPG, Stamp issued by the State of Burma during Japanese occupation. File:Buruma 2R in 1943.JPG, Stamp issued by the State of Burma during Japanese occupation.

Shan States issues

In 1943 separate stamps were also issued for use in the

Shan States The Shan States (1885–1948) were a collection of minor Shan kingdoms called ''muang'' whose rulers bore the title ''saopha'' in British Burma. They were analogous to the princely states of British India. The term "Shan States" was firs ...

under Japanese occupation.

British Military Administration

Burma Military Administration stamps 1945

After the liberation of Burma, normal postal services were gradually restored under a British Military Administration. Pre-war stamps of Burma from 1938 were overprinted ''MILY ADMN'' in 1945. 1946 1R Burma used Mi63 Yv46

Civilian administration

When civilian administration of Burma was restored, new stamps were issued in the designs of the stamps from 1938 but in different colours. In 1946 a set of 4 Victory stamps were issued. In 1947, the 1946 series was overprinted ''Interim Government'' in Burmese characters as Burma gained self government.

Independence

On 4 January 1948 Burma became an independent republic as the '' Union of Burma'' and stamps were issued in that name until 1973. From 1974 stamps were marked ''

Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma , conventional_long_name = Union of Burma Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma , common_name = Burma , status = , status_text = , p1 = Post-independence Burma, 1948–1962Uni ...

'', and from 1990 ''

Union of Myanmar The State Peace and Development Council ( my, နိုင်ငံတော် အေးချမ်းသာယာရေး နှင့် ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေး ကောင်စီ ; abbreviated SPDC or , ) was the offi ...

''.''Scott 2004 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue Vol.1''. 160th edition. Sidney, Ohio:

Scott Publishing Co. The Scott catalogue of postage stamps, published by Scott Publishing Company, now a subsidiary of Amos Media, is updated annually and lists all the stamps of the world that its editors recognize as issued for postal purposes. It is published in fo ...

, 2003, pp.1065-1073.