The history of Yangon is intertwined with the history of the Shwedagon Pagoda. Wherever one may be in Yangon, in the busy town centre, in the new towns of the east, in the industrial zone of the west, in the paddy fields of the north, the golden form of the Shwedagon will be seen on the skyline rising above the foliage of the tropical trees and buildings in the foreground.

The founding story of Shwedagon reaches back to the days of the ‘Enlightenment’ of Gaudama Buddha. It was on the 49th day after the ‘Enlightenment’ when two brothers, Taphussa and Bhallika, merchants from Ukkalapa in the land of Mon people in lower Myanmar, came before Buddha. Buddha passed his hand over his head and obtaining eight hairs, gave them to the brothers. Buddha, perceiving that three previous Buddhas had their possessions enshrined in a pagoda on Singuttara hill in the country of the two brothers, bade them to do likewise with the ‘sacred hairs’.

On their return the king welcomed the hairs with great ceremony at Asitanzana, north-west of present Yangon. No human knew the location of the previous Buddha’s possessions but Sakka, King of the nats did and guided them to Singuttara where Gautama Buddha's hairs were enshrined and a stupa consecrated on the full moon day of Tabaung (March 6,c.588 B.C.)

Over the years however it fell into ruin and was covered with jungle. Tradition states that 200 years afterwards two monks from Sri Lanka brought King Asoka to the Pagoda. The King had the jungle cleared and the Pagoda repaired.

In the fifth century A.D. King Duttabaung paid homage at the Pagoda and in the 11th century, King Anawratha of Bagan offered gold and silver umbrellas and built a pagoda near the town of Twante across the Yangon River. (Dalla, which is now a town on the bank opposite Yangon, was then located on the Twante Ridge and was more important than Dagon. Dagon at that time lay in low lying often water-logged land. Sule Pagoda, now in downtown Yangon, stood on a small island in the swamp, to the west down to he Hlaing River and Yangon /River to the south .The Shwedagon (then called Kyak Lagun in Mon) was reached across a causeway.)

After the collapse of Bagan in the 13th century and the rise of Mon power in the 14th with the capital at Bago, Dagon became a place of some importance, though not as a commercial port but as a centre of religious life. Dagon at that time was not a walled city but a fort of logs.

Successive Mon kings of the 15th century raised the height of Pagoda by encasing an earlier pagoda and embellishing the new. King Binnyayan (1426-46) enlarged the base to five terraces to sustain the height but before he could finish the work he died. Binnyawaru (1446-50) his successor and his mother, Queen Shin Saw Bu, raised the height of the Pagoda to 90.6 m.

Queen Shin Saw Bu was the first to gild the Pagoda.  She donated her weight in gold to its gilding process and dedicated a vast expanse of land which virtually covered the whole of modern Yangon. Her successor King Dhammazedi created the stone inscriptions standing on Pagoda Hill as well as donating a huge bell which a Portugese adventurer took away only to fall into the river, never to be recovered. In 1539, Tabinshwehti, who had conquered Bago, placed the jewelled finish on the pagoda’s spire.

In 1572, Bayinnaung rebuilt the Pagoda and had it re-gilded. The shrine had been reduced to rubble during an earthquake in 1564.

By the end of the 16th century the Shwedagon Fair (by now an annual event) was attracting people not only from Myanmar but also from distance lands such as Laos and Cambodia. The Dagon Fair was one of the chief markets for overseas trade rivalling Bago and Thanlyin. This and the fact that the Bago River was silting up making it difficult for sea-going vessels to navigate, Dagon become the port of choice.

After the founding of the Shwedagon Pagoda, Alaungpaya's conquest of lower Myanmar is the second most important event in the history of Dagon. May 1775 marks the beginning of the modern town when Alaungpaya, to commemorate his victory, changed its name from Dagon to Yangon, "Enmity exhausted."

Alaungpaya's Yangon was basically a log fortress. The stockade was built of solid teak and was protected by a ditch. The town had three streets running east-west and two running north-south. The Sule Pagoda stood on a small pinnacle cut off from the town by a swamp. Yangon itself stood on a small island surrounded by water at high tide, In 1782, it was reported that the streets were not paved but by 1795 they were.

Shipbuilding became a major industry and apart from construction, the shipyards did a busy trade in refitting ships, becoming so adept at this that it alarmed the British in India who felt that steps should be taken to curb its power, which they did.

The East India Company's government sent a combined force of nearly eleven thousand men with forty pieces of artillery. On 10 May 1824 the fleet had anchored within the bar upriver and landed on the 12^th.

By November, general Maha Bandoola arrived in the neighbourhood of Yangon. He made several attempts to evict the invading force stationed on the Pagoda but was frustrated by the guns of the enemy fleet. On the 15th, the Myanmar army was driven from its stronghold and retreated towards Danubyu where an enemy shell killed Maha Bandoola. 

The Treaty of Yandabo was concluded on 24th February 1826. Yangon remained in occupation till 8th December. The invading force weighed anchor on 9th December with a detachment left behind to receive the final instalment of the indemnity. Yangon was returned to the Myowun by general Campbell.

King Thayawady decided that King Alaungpaya's town was too vulnerable to attack from the river and that a new town should be built further inland, about a mile and a quarter from the river. The Pagoda was worked into the defences of the town  and thus the Shwedagon formed the north-east corner of the town which was named Aung Myei Aung Hnin, "Victory Soil, Victorious Ejector"

Though King Thayawady's town was occupied for residence, the old Yangon continued to be populous. Commerce and industry and all connected with trade and the port were still situated there. In the end, King  Alaungpaya's town existed for only ten years and in 1852, lower Myanmar was annexed by the British and a new Yangon was planned.

A British force of 6000 men escorted by fifteen warships appeared at the mouth of Yangon River on the 1st April 1852. On the 11th the ships crossed the bar and took up position opposite the old town. The next day, Theinbyu, "the White House Stockade" was taken. The British annexed lower Myanmar by a proclamation dated 20th December 1852. On the 21st the proclamation was read in Yangon.

Dr. William Montgomery who had come along as Superintendent Surgeon with the British troops proposed a town with a checker board pattern of streets. The smaller roads were numbered, while the medium and broad roads were given names, some for eminent persons of that time.

Yangon, become the model city in South-east Asia, but suffered great damage during the Second World War. Its buildings, roads and drainage systems were destroyed and insurgents added to the problem after Independence in 1948. This led to a massive influx of refugees into the city which became covered with small shacks of bamboo and thatch. Disease became rampant and the mortality rate increased .Fires often broke out, destroying thousands of homes in the squatter slums.

When the Caretaker Government assumed power in 1958, a municipal commissioner was appointed with the mission to clean up the city. The task was to educate the public, to lay down necessary controls, to dredge and clear blocked drainage, to rid sidewalks of encroaching shops, to repair old equipment and install new machinery. The mission was a relative success and today Yangon is the proud capital of this diverse land and is once more open to visitors from foreign shores, this time though with open arms.

Last changed: Saturday October 18, 2014