Transcriber: Leanne Aung Reviewer: sann tint
Gandhi, Neru, Pablo Neruda, George Orwell -
what do they all have in common,
besides being great men and famous?
They either visited or lived
here in downtown Yangon at one point of their lives.
Many of you here might also
live in downtown Yangon, or commute there
everyday for work, or even have your favorite place
or building in downtown Yangon.
Why am I standing here,
talking so much about downtown Yangon?
I'll tell you why.
First of all, I love it.
Let's look at Sule area.
This is the area where you can see
a mosque, a church and a pagoda
all together in a single scene.
Yangon was once the Pearl of the East.
It is in the scene where you can see
all these beautiful buildings from 19th century
and also diverse ethnic groups mingled together.
Let me take you on a little tour.
So you`re in the Sule area,
with the Sule Pagoda on your left
and Emmanuel church on your right.
You're facing the City Hall.
This building is unique because
it is the building and it is the first building
with the large scale masonry building with European design
and technology skills combined
with the Burmese flourishes.
So you have the Mahabandoola Park at your back, right?
And then you take this little lane
besides the park and you see
all these kids playing, couples chatting,
vendors selling various things.
And you see the High Court on your left.
British took 5 years to have it
nicely planned.
Look how solidly built it is.
One architect commented
that British must have built all these buildings, like
they are going to be forever.
Old Yangon was a financial hub.
If you walk down the Sule Pagoda Road
towards the Strand Road,
you see what is now the Yangon Stock Exchange.
It was the Union Bank of Burma
where they issue the Burmese currency
that we use now today on the 1st of July, 1952.
So you walk down this financial district of Myanmar in Yangon
and you reach to the Merchant Street.
Let's walk a little further down
until you see the pigeons.
Then you see the Armenian Church.
This compound was a free grant from the British
to the Armenian community
when they first decided Rangoon
to be as a capital in 1852.
I think it's amazing to see a building
which is the same age
as the city that you live in.
So let's walk further down
to the Pansodan Road: on the Merchant Road
until you see Pansodan Road.
And then you see this beautiful building on your left.
This building is special.
This building is special
because it is my favorite building.
It is called Lokanat Building.
It is also called the Sofaer Building
because of Issac Sofaer.
He was a Jewish-Baghdad trader.
He designed this complex.
People in the 1900s,
they bought the Egyptian cigarettes, Lighthouse Munich beer
and candies from the England.
They bought all of them in this building
and also China Mutual Life Insurance Company
was also there.
And there's also a German photographer named Philip Klier.
He was also here.
He lived there. He was a tenant here.
He was special
because his photographs were the primary windows to the historic Myanmar today.
And then, today, you see this building
with governmental, commercial
and residential use.
So let me take you to the dorm of this building
on the four story building.
And you see Ma Hla San Win.
She has been living in this building
for about 40 years.
When she first moved in, she was only 8.
She barely remembers anything
except the building was beautiful.
There were not many tenants there.
She will run up and down on the stairs
and the titles were really pretty.
The tiles were imported directly
all the way from Manchester.
She has witnessed
so many changes to this building.
She has witnessed so many changes
around this area, around this building.
She's afraid that something terrible
might happen to this building.
And one floor down, you see the governmental offices.
And then on the first floor,
you see the Lokanat Gallery
which was established about 40 years ago.
And this gallery was supported by a retired military man
who was also a famous author
together with the traditional painter
who was considered as a father of the modern painting.
And Paw Oo Thet, he lost his right hand
during the World War II,
but he relearned to paint again
with his left hand
and still produced a lot of amazing paintings.
And there is one interesting criteria
to be a part of this community
in Lokanat Gallery.
That is all members shall not paint
with the sole aim of gaining fame
profit or power.
Back in the days,
there were not many venues to display such kind of art.
So this place is one of those primary attractions
for locals and also foreign art lovers
up until today.
But on ground floor,
you see many newcomers to this building.
There are modern restaurants,
a bank, also a souvenir shop.
They add lives to this building.
They add souls to this building.
And this building is my favorite
because of what it has.
It is the building with the living heritage.
This is not a heritage building,
but it exists right next to my favorite building.
This!
It shows the art's current urban development problem.
Yangon's beautiful heritage buildings are at risk
from many decades of long neglect
and more pressingly, new commercial waves.
We have to save them
but whose responsibility is it
to save our history and our heritage?
It's our responsibility
and it's also your responsibility
as a citizen of Yangon,
as people living in Yangon.
We're already too late to protect them
but it's our own responsibility to protect
our history and our heritage.
Imagine Sofaer Building is gone!
It will be heartbreaking for Ma Hla San Win
not to be able
to point out the building
that she lived for 40 years to her grandchildren.
It'd be such a great loss to find
the Lokanat Gallery only in the history books.
What do I point at when somebody asks me
what my favorite building is?
I'm only talking about this one building.
It is unthinkable to imagine
this happening to the whole city.
Thank you!
(Applause)