While most of Asia's major cities are increasingly homogenized by
rapid economic growth and cultural globalization, Rangoon, which is
Burma's former capital and largest city, still bears the imprint of
a unique and often turbulent history. It is the site of the
Shwedagon Pagoda, a focus of Buddhist pilgrimage and devotion since
the early second millennium C.E. that continues to play a major
role in national life. In 1852, the British occupied Rangoon and
made it their colonial capital, building a modern port and
administrative center based on western designs. It became the
capital of independent Burma in 1948, but in 2005 the State Peace
and Development Council military junta established a new, heavily
fortified capital at Naypyidaw, 320 kilometers north of the old
capital.
A major motive for the capital relocation was the regime's
desire to put distance between itself and Rangoon's historically
restive population. Reacting to the huge anti-government
demonstrations of "Democracy Summer" in 1988, the new military
regime used massive violence to pacify the city and sought to
transform it in line with its supreme goal of state security.
However, the "Saffron Revolution" of September 2007 showed that
Rangoon's traditions of resistance reaching back to the colonial
era are still very much alive.
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