Bogyoke Aung San Market ( my, ဗိုလ်ချုပ်အောင်ဆန်းဈေး; formerly the Scott Market) is a major bazaar located in Pabedan township in central

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 ...

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 ...

. Known for its colonial architecture and inner cobblestone streets, the market is a major tourist destination, dominated by antique, Burmese

handicraft A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

and

jewellery Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry (U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a wester ...

shops,

art galleries An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

, and clothing stores. Bogyoke Market is a popular black market location to exchange currency. The market also has a number of stores for local shoppers, selling medicine, foodstuffs, garments and foreign goods. Moreover, it is the best place to make photo shoots with the ancient building. The market always closes on Monday.

Stores

The ground floor and the first floor are lined with small antique shops selling old coins, bank-notes, postage stamps and medals. In the middle of the market are jewellers, selling famous Burmese jade, Burmese

rubies A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sap ...

and other precious stones. The rest are art galleries, handicraft shops, restaurants and clothes stores. The new wing of the market, across Bogyoke Aung San Market Road, houses shops that sell medicine, foodstuffs, garments and foreign goods. The market is also known for its black market money changers, with jewellery merchants typically able to change the largest notes at the best rates. The market is closed on Mondays. The little shabby shop called "Lady Home" at the back of the market behind the Jewellery Row, near the old wooden foot bridge crossing the old circle line train tracks, makes delicious fried noodles and vermicelli dishes. For the adventurous, try the pig organs (intestines, tongue, ears, etc.) boiled and fried and then tossed in fiery chilli sauce.

History

Scott Market was built in 1926, late in the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

rule of Myanmar, and although it is commonly believed to be named after

James George Scott Sir James George Scott (pseudonym Shway Yoe, 25 December 1851 – 4 April 1935) was a Scottish journalist and colonial administrator who helped establish British colonial rule in Burma, and in addition introduced football to Burma. Life He w ...

, the British civil servant who introduced football to Myanmar, it is actually named after the Municipal Commissioner of the time, Mr. Gavin Scott, a Scottish colonial official who was nearing the end of a 30-year career of involvement in administering the city.A History of Rangoon by B.R. Pearn, American Baptist Mission Press, Rangoon, 1939, p. 284. According to the ''Rangoon Gazette,'' Mr Scott himself was not very keen on the idea, but the Rangoon Corporation rejected a second proposal - to name the market "the Municipal Zegyi" - and voted unanimously to name it after him. In 1940 a young Burmese nationalist called U Ba Hlaing proposed to change the name of the site to Mingala Market, the word ''mingala'' meaning "auspicious" in the

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddh ...

language. Against a background of growing demands for Burmese independence from British rule, he argued that "public institutions in Burma should have Burmese names". The late Mr Scott, he said, "had done nothing for the benefit of Burma" and was merely an

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million p ...

bureaucrat paid a "fat salary" like so many others who had reached the end of his career. According to the report in the Rangoon Gazette, this sparked a heated debate within the Rangoon Corporation's Public Health and Markets Committee. One former colleague pointed out that Scott "had done more for the development of Rangoon than any other person", while another Burmese colleague who had worked with him, U Kyaw Zan, said he was "not only a very fine officer, but one of the nicest men one could meet". In the end, the proposal was defeated by three votes to two. Much later, after Burmese independence in 1948, the market was renamed after Bogyoke (General)

Aung San Aung San (, ; 13 February 191519 July 1947) was a Burmese politician, independence activist and revolutionary. He was instrumental in Myanmar's struggle for independence from British rule, but he was assassinated just six months before his goa ...

. A new wing of the market was added across Bogyoke Market Road in the 1990s. The market structure is listed on the

Yangon City Heritage List The Yangon City Heritage List is a list of man-made landmarks in Yangon, Myanmar, so designated by the city government, Yangon City Development Committee. The list consists of 188 structures (as of 2001), and is largely made up of mostly religious ...

Gallery

File:Scott Market.JPG, Scott Market in 1890s Jewellery Market, Yangon, Myanmar.jpg, A jewellery market row inside the market File:Bogyoke Aung San Market Map.JPG, Map File:Bogyoke Market Jwelly.JPG, Jewellery File:Bogyoke Ang San Market Yangon.jpg, Textiles

References

External links

Bogyoke Aung San Market with plenty of pictures and videos
Yangon Shopping malls and markets in Myanmar Tourist attractions in Yangon Jewellery districts {{Myanmar-geo-stub