State and Society in Modern Rangoon [Paperback]

While most of Asias major cities are increasingly homogenized by rapid economic growth and cultural globalization, Rangoon, which is Burmas 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 regimes desire to put distance between itself and Rangoons 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 Rangoons traditions of resistance reaching back to the colonial era are still very much alive.

Introduction: the Abode of the King and the City of Peace  1. The Shwedagon Pagoda  Sacred Space and Power Politics  2. The Rise and Fall of British Rangoon, 1824  1941 3. Landscapes of Resistance in Colonial Rangoon  4. The City from War to Military Rule, 1941  1958  5. The City under Military Rule, 1958  1988  6. Covert and Overt Resistance to the State, 1962  1976  7. Rangoon from Popular Uprising to Pacification, 1987 1988  8. Transforming Rangoon, 1988  2008  9. Rangoons New Buddhist Landscapes

Clearly the result of decades of visits to andlCª