The Newsletter 57 Summer 2011

Relics, replicas, and the generals in the 'fairyland' of Myanmar

Paul Franck

Is Naypyidaw, Myanmar's new administrative capital, becoming a \"Legoland\"? The military regime moved all ministries there in 2005 while it was still under construction. And after building replicas of the Shwedagon, the country’s most sacred pagoda, and the Mahamuni, the country’s most venerated Buddha image, there are now rumours that the military regime will erect there a replica of the famous golden boulder located at Kyaikhtiyo, a most sacred place for Burmese Buddhists. More than just a fortress located in the country’s geographical centre, the military regime appears to be turning the new capital into a microcosm of the realm they control.

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