Things have changed somewhat since then, but it is not vastly different. After all Mandalay, like much of Myanmar tends to develop at a slow meandering pace compared to most developing countries and in fact time seems to stand still more often than not.

Mandalay is a relatively young city that got its name from Mandalay Hill, situated at the north-east corner of present day Mandalay. According to the legends, Lord Buddha had prophesied that a great city would be founded at the foot of Mandalay Hill.

It fell on King Mindon Min's shoulders to make the legend a reality and the building of the new capital was planned in the year 1857 and in 1859 it was inaugurated. Most of the monuments including the Mandalay Palace, the city walls, pagodas and monasteries were built in that year or soon after.

Once built the city did not remain the capital of Myanmar for long. Mindon was succeeded by a disastrous Thibaw Min and in 1885 Mandalay was taken by the British.

The British, after taking control of Myanmar shifted their capital to Rangoon (now Yangon) nearly 700 km to the south in lower Myanmar. Thibaw Min and his equally notorious queen were exiled and ‘the Golden City’ (as it was known) became just another outpost of the British Empire.

 

During World War II, most of the Mandalay Palace (which had been built of wood) was destroyed by a fire, this though has since been rebuilt. Today, Mandalay is the second largest city of Myanmar and a place of great tourism importance.