The 7 Biggest Cultural Site in Yangon

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Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is a country in Southeast Asia with a rich cultural heritage. The country is home to many cultural sites of great historical and archaeological significance. Here are the five largest cultural sites in Myanmar:

  1. Bagan Archaeological Zone: This site in central Myanmar is home to the remains of the ancient city of Bagan, which was once the capital of the Pagan Kingdom. The site contains over 2,000 temples and pagodas, many of which are still in good condition. The temples are decorated with intricate carvings and murals, and they are a testament to the skill of the ancient Burmese craftsmen.
  2. Shwedagon Pagoda: This iconic pagoda in Yangon is the most sacred Buddhist site in Myanmar. The pagoda is said to contain eight strands of Buddha’s hair, and it is believed that anyone who visits the pagoda will be blessed with good luck. The pagoda is a beautiful example of Burmese architecture, and it is a popular tourist destination.
  3. Ananda Temple: This temple in Bagan is one of the most famous and well-preserved temples in Myanmar. The temple was built in the 12th century, and it is dedicated to the Buddha. The temple is known for its beautiful architecture and its stunning murals, which depict scenes from the life of the Buddha.
  4. Mandalay Palace: This palace in Mandalay was the last royal palace of the Burmese monarchy. The palace was built in the 19th century, and it is a beautiful example of Burmese architecture. The palace is surrounded by a moat, and it contains many buildings, including a throne room, a library, and a museum.
  5. Kyaiktiyo Pagoda: This pagoda is located on top of a large boulder in Mon State, Myanmar. The pagoda is said to have been built in the 11th century, and it is one of the most sacred Buddhist sites in Myanmar. The pagoda is a popular pilgrimage site, and it is believed that anyone who visits the pagoda will be blessed with good luck.
National Museum of Myanmar in Yangon
National Museum of Myanmar in Yangon

The 7 Biggest Cultural Site near Yangon

Chaukhtatgyi Buddha Temple

  • Address: R567+MFQ, Yangon, Myanmar (Burma)
  • Map: Click here
  • Rating: 4.5 (2290)
  • Opening hours:
    Monday: Open 24 hours
    Tuesday: Open 24 hours
    Wednesday: Open 24 hours
    Thursday: Open 24 hours
    Friday: Open 24 hours
    Saturday: Open 24 hours
    Sunday: Open 24 hours
  • Reviews:
    Chiquita Maria✭✭✭✭
    4 months ago
    Very large resting Buddha, 65 m, about 210 ft., definitely a must see in Yangoon. We enjoyed it very much. Lots of youngsters that wanted to practice their foreign language skills. Mothers with their babies. Everyone was so friendly and the temple is very colorful and pretty.
    leo lobarbio✭✭✭✭✭
    7 months ago
    Worth visiting. Very peacefull. Didnt expect to be that big in person. Spend minutes admiring Buddha’s face and the way his manicured hand support his head. The bare metal frames and trusses adds the charm to the temple. One of the most memorable temples I visited around Southeast Asia
    Kitchet Nualsoot✭✭✭✭✭
    7 months ago
    A must visit large scale lounging Buddha if you are in Yangon. A very beautiful and serene place. Much bigger than I expected. I love this magnificent and peaceful place.
    Ngân Lê✭✭✭✭✭
    6 months ago
    I was late for my flight so I stayed in Yangon without planning ahead. Visiting this temple was not in my plan either. I got an uber and he became my tour guide. This is one of the places he took me to. The reclining Buddha image was impressive. At the time I did not understand the meaning of the image, but I was still overwhelmed. Now that I know the story of thus image, I hope I will have another chance to visit this temple ???

    The man statue is Sir Po Tha, a wealthy Burmese who sponsored this temple.

    A very worthy visit

    Bars Bars✭✭✭✭✭
    4 weeks ago
    The biggest Reclining Buddha in Myanmar with full length 66.95 m. and high 17.36 m. Its construction began more than 100 years ago and have finished only in 1970s with installing eyes. The the Buddha’s eyes are the most amazing thing – to make the class eyes lively the have tried many times. This Buddha is so famous so it’s easy to find this Temple.

National Museum of Myanmar

  • Address: 66 Pyay Rd, Yangon 11191, Myanmar (Burma)
  • Map: Click here
  • Rating: 4.2 (1248)
  • Phone: +95 1 378 652
  • Opening hours:
    Monday: Closed
    Tuesday: 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM
    Wednesday: 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM
    Thursday: 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM
    Friday: 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM
    Saturday: 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM
    Sunday: 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM
  • Reviews:
    Maris Cockrell✭✭✭✭
    5 months ago
    Surprisingly empty. No bags allowed inside but there are lockers you can rent. Phones are allowed but some areas are off limits for photography.

    4 floors with 3-4 galleries per floor. It has everything from Royal Regalia and thrones to prehistoric dinosaur bones. The gallery on the major tribes that make up Myanmar was fascinating as was the music and art gallery.

    Well worth a visit if you are in the city. Give yourself 2-3 hours to explore.

    Katie Harvey✭✭✭✭✭
    3 months ago
    I absolutely loved this place! Unbelievably cheap at 5000 MMK for foreigners and 500 MMK for locals. Stunning things on show from original Costumes of kings and queens gone by, weapons, jewellery, beautifully carved teak cupbards and shelves, thrones, EVERYTHING GILDED in Burmese gold. Different eras in Myanmar shown through rubbings taken from stones and carvings amd payas in Shwedaggon, Mingun, Bagan, Mandalay and other famous places. Even prehistoric fossils uncovered all over Myanmar. Well worth a visit. 🙂
    Saw Soe Hla Kyi✭✭✭✭✭
    a week ago
    I love it and want to go back there again. There are many things to learn and study.
    Moh Teama✭✭✭✭
    a year ago
    I was there last year people said its closed now as they plan to move it to another place so you need to check about this. But although of this I want to share my experience about this amazing museum as I really enjoyed to be there last year. First you pay as forginer 500k and you have to leave your bag at outside locker and it’s mandatory The museum consist of 5 floors each one has a story and it’s special and different items. If you want to know about Burma history and traditions and culture this will be the best place ever as almost show every thing you need to know specially its very hard to find someone explain all of this to you as the history of Burma is long and complicated. I took around 1.5 hours to finish my tour and still feeling its not enough. Overall its a great experience and I hope it still open.
    Zaw Myo Tun✭✭✭✭
    2 months ago
    A good place to learn about Burma. A quite place too.

U Thant House

  • Address: No.31, Panwa Lane (enter from, Inya Rd, Yangon, Myanmar (Burma)
  • Map: Click here
  • Rating: 4.6 (175)

National Races Village

  • Address: R63J+8X, အမှတ်(၁၀) မြောက်ရပ်ကွက်၊ ရန်ကုန်- သန်လျင်တံတားအနီး ပဲခူးမြစ်ကမ်း ၊, ရှုခင်းသာလမ်း သာကေတမြို့နယ်၊, Yangon, Myanmar (Burma)
  • Map: Click here
  • Rating: 4.1 (960)

Sule Pagoda

  • Address: Junction of Sule Pagoda Road, Maha Bandula Road, Yangon 11141, Myanmar (Burma)
  • Map: Click here
  • Rating: 4.3 (5487)

Yangon Heritage Trust

  • Address: Q5C6+3M4, Pansodan Street, Yangon, Myanmar (Burma)
  • Map: Click here
  • Rating: 4.5 (66)

Bogyoke Aung San Museum

  • Address: 25 Bo Gyoke Museum Ln, Yangon, Myanmar (Burma)
  • Map: Click here
  • Rating: 4.3 (473)
National Museum of Myanmar in Yangon
National Museum of Myanmar in Yangon

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Top Cultural Site Alternatives in Yangon

Myanmar (Burmese: မြန်မာ; MLCTS: Mranma, pronounced [mjəmà]), officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, also known as Burma (the official name until 1989), is a country in Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has a population of about 55 million. It is bordered by Bangladesh and India to its northwest, China to its northeast, Laos and Thailand to its east and southeast, and the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to its south and southwest. The country's capital city is Naypyidaw, and its largest city is Yangon (formerly Rangoon).Early civilisations in the area included the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states in Upper Myanmar and the Mon kingdoms in Lower Myanmar. In the 9th century, the Bamar people entered the upper Irrawaddy valley, and following the establishment of the Pagan Kingdom in the 1050s, the Burmese language, culture, and Theravada Buddhism slowly became dominant in the country. The Pagan Kingdom fell to Mongol invasions, and several warring states emerged. In the 16th century, reunified by the Taungoo dynasty, the country became the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia for a short period. The early 19th-century Konbaung dynasty ruled over an area that included modern Myanmar and briefly controlled Manipur and Assam as well. The British East India Company seized control of the administration of Myanmar after three Anglo-Burmese Wars in the 19th century, and the country became a British colony. After a brief Japanese occupation, Myanmar was reconquered by the Allies. On 4 January 1948, Myanmar declared independence under the terms of the Burma Independence Act 1947.
Myanmar's post-independence history has continued to be checkered by unrest and conflict. The coup d'état in 1962 resulted in a military dictatorship under the Burma Socialist Programme Party. On 8 August 1988, the 8888 Uprising then resulted in a nominal transition to a multi-party system two years later, but the country's post-uprising military council refused to cede power, and has continued to rule the country through to the present. The country remains riven by ethnic strife among its myriad ethnic groups and has one of the world's longest-running ongoing civil wars. The United Nations and several other organisations have reported consistent and systemic human rights violations in the country. In 2011, the military junta was officially dissolved following a 2010 general election, and a nominally civilian government was installed. Aung San Suu Kyi and political prisoners were released and the 2015 Myanmar general election was held, leading to improved foreign relations and eased economic sanctions, although the country's treatment of its ethnic minorities, particularly in connection with the Rohingya conflict, continued to be a source of international tension and consternation. Following the 2020 Myanmar general election, in which Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a clear majority in both houses, the Burmese military (Tatmadaw) again seized power in a coup d'état. The coup, which was widely condemned by the international community, led to continuous ongoing widespread protests in Myanmar and has been marked by violent political repression by the military, as well as a larger outbreak of the civil war. The military also arrested Aung San Suu Kyi in order to remove her from public life, and charged her with crimes ranging from corruption to the violation of COVID-19 protocols; all of the charges against her are "politically motivated" according to independent observers.Myanmar is a member of the East Asia Summit, Non-Aligned Movement, ASEAN, and BIMSTEC, but it is not a member of the Commonwealth of Nations despite once being part of the British Empire. Myanmar is a Dialogue Partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The country is very rich in natural resources, such as jade, gems, oil, natural gas, teak and other minerals, as well as also endowed with renewable energy, having the highest solar power potential compared to other countries of the Great Mekong Subregion. However, Myanmar has long suffered from instability, factional violence, corruption, poor infrastructure, as well as a long history of colonial exploitation with little regard to human development. In 2013, its GDP (nominal) stood at US$56.7 billion and its GDP (PPP) at US$221.5 billion. The income gap in Myanmar is among the widest in the world, as a large proportion of the economy is controlled by cronies of the military junta. Myanmar is one of the least developed countries; as of 2020, according to the Human Development Index, it ranks 147 out of 189 countries in terms of human development, the lowest in Southeast Asia. Since 2021, more than 600,000 people were displaced across Myanmar due to the surge in violence post-coup, with more than 3 million people in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

The Biggest Cultural Site in Myanmar (Burma)

Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar, is home to a rich cultural heritage and boasts several popular cultural sites. Here are three top cultural site alternatives that are very popular in Yangon:

  • Shwedagon Pagoda: One of the most iconic landmarks in Yangon, the Shwedagon Pagoda is a must-visit cultural site for tourists. This massive golden pagoda is believed to be over 2,500 years old and is the most sacred Buddhist site in Myanmar. It is adorned with thousands of diamonds, rubies, and other precious gemstones. Visitors can explore the pagoda complex, marvel at the stunning architecture, and witness the rituals and ceremonies performed by devotees.
  • Sule Pagoda: Another significant cultural site in Yangon is the Sule Pagoda. Located at the heart of the city, this pagoda is over 2,000 years old and serves as a focal point for religious and social gatherings. The Sule Pagoda is believed to enshrine a hair relic of the Buddha and is surrounded by bustling markets and colonial-era buildings. Visitors can explore the pagoda and its surroundings, offering a glimpse into the city’s rich history and cultural blend.
  • Bogyoke Aung San Market: While not a traditional cultural site, Bogyoke Aung San Market is a popular destination for visitors seeking an immersion into Yangon’s vibrant local culture. Also known as Scott Market, it is a bustling market located in the city center and offers a wide array of traditional crafts, textiles, jewelry, and souvenirs. Visitors can wander through the market’s narrow alleys and shop for unique handicrafts, art pieces, and traditional clothing, providing a glimpse into the local arts and crafts scene.

These top cultural site alternatives in Yangon offer an opportunity to delve into the rich cultural and religious heritage of Myanmar and experience the vibrant local culture.

Thank you for taking the time to read our article. For more in-depth reviews and comprehensive ratings on the Cultural Site spots, please explore the recommended articles listed below.

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