Pyinmana

   A town located 320 kilometers (200 miles) north of Rangoon (Yangon) in the southern part of Mandalay Division. Pyinmana was the site of the headquarters of the Burma Defence Army during World War II and an insurgency by the Communist Party of Burma after independence in 1948. Its population in 2005 was estimated at around 98,000. Although situated near a major north-south road between Rangoon and Mandalay, its relative remoteness, on the Sittang (Sittoung) River, with mountains and the ethnic minority areas of Shan, Kayah, and Karen States lying to the east and southeast, may have been a factor in the decision of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to make Pyinmana, or rather, a heavily fortified compound located a few kilometers outside the town, Burma's new national capital. On November 6, 2005, civil servants in a truck convoy left Rangoon to take up their posts at the new site. The official name of the new capital will be Nay Pyi Daw ("Place of the King").

   The military junta's motivations for the capital's relocation, which was veiled in secrecy and poorly organized (there was insufficient food and housing at the new site), remain obscure. Some observers believe the SPDC was fearful of an Iraq-style invasion of Burma by the United States, which might include an amphibious landing on the coast near Rangoon. The need to exercise greater pressure on the ethnic minorities, especially the Shans and Karens (Kayins), is probably also a factor, especially since the October 2004 purge of Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, head of Border Area Development Programs since 1989, injected a new element of uncertainty into relations between the junta and the border area armed groups. Moreover, Burma's military elite, especially Senior General Than Shwe, are very superstitious, and astrology and yedaya probably played a major role in their decision to quit Rangoon. But most fundamentally, against a background of continued economic crisis, it seems that the SPDC was afraid of a recurrence of Democracy Summer in Burma's cities and wanted to construct a tightly controlled, combined military camp and capital in a remote area to insulate themselves from urban social tensions. The move also seems to reflect a return to an isolationist foreign policy, a desire to minimize foreign ties (except possibly with China) in a manner similar to that of the 1962-1988 regime of General Ne Win. Relocation of the capital is not without precedent in Burmese history: King Thalun (r. 1629-1648) moved the capital from Pegu (Bago) to Ava (Inwa) in central Burma, and it was relocated several times between Ava, Amarapura, and Mandalay during the Konbaung Dynasty.

   See also Tatmadaw and Burmese Society.