Myanmar? There is a country called Myanmar? Never heard of it. Yes you Have
Now, I really haven't. -You know what this is, right? Uh yeah that's a Burmese python
well there you go, "Burmese." Well, that's Burma -yeah
But, Myanmar -is Burma It's.... Ohhhhhh
Intro song*
By the way guys, this is Kaleb's wife Jilian, Say "Hi!" -Hi!Guys!
Kaleb: I was looking for this!
Hey everybody I'm your host Barb's welcome to Southeast Asia's
tenacious older sister she likes to do what she wants and don't tell her to
change anything unless if it's her name then she's totally down over the years
Myanmar has gone through quite a few interesting chapters and it all begins
in the humid rainforest of the Irrawaddy River let's begin yeah Burma is pretty
much the bridge that links the Indian subcontinent to China and Southeast Asia
and it's interesting to see the role that they play in the geopolitical
atmosphere first of all the country is located in Southeast Asia bordered by
five other countries with a coast along the Andaman Sea and broader Bay of
Bengal they even have a long slice of the Christmas part of the peninsula that
is shared by three countries here the southernmost mainland area called Tong
can be found however on the coasts the country has over 800 islands and the
territory extends further south the southernmost point is here Christi
Island if you go just a bit north though the largest island Cadden kun is located
keep in mind these small islands known as the Coco's just off the animun
islands belonging to India are also Myanmar's territory the country is
divided into 21 administrative divisions this is where things get a little tricky
first there are seven states and seven regions they are considered equivalent
and the only distinction is that the states typically have an ethnic minority
whereas regions have the largest majority group the vimar burmese people
within these two areas the Shan State in the saga in region 5 self-administered
zones and one self-administered division exist these are kind of strange areas
that are led by a chairman nominated by the Armed Forces it's kind of confusing
finally the newly moved and constructed capital of Nepal
the third largest city in the country acts as its own Union Territory the
largest city is actually Yangon in the South which was the capital for the
longest time it even holds the largest International Airport Yangon
International as well as the largest seaports the Myanmar Port Authority
otherwise the second largest city is Mandalay
North which was also the last royal capital and the second busiest airport
as well lies here Mandalay International apart from all
that Myanmar actually has a pretty well interconnected rail system that goes to
virtually every corner of the country the vast majority of people live along
the Irrawaddy River and River Delta that flows into the ocean to the south where
jung-hwan lies fun fact the capital NIP Yadav which means the abode of the king
is actually a young planned city it's funny because there's no official reason
as to why the city was built some people might say things like oh it was built
further up north to centralize the seat of legislation and gives stability to
all states and regions no we built it to avoid cyclones come on safety first you
know no Yangon was too crowded and they just told a bunch of people to get out
and move there actually it was a passion project by this guy and he used a series
of lucky numbers and fortune tellers to determine the area it should be built on
well either way at over 4,800 square kilometers in size it's huge but in
return it has a pretty low population density and has this eerie looking empty
20 lane highway and speaking of places that stick out in Myanmar some spots of
interest you might want to check out if you visit might include the in hua ruins
the pagoda of holy snakes the second largest bell in the world
this large reclining Buddha the chuan undock young temple young ohaf jungle
temple village this temple in mandalay the world's largest book carved in
stones bogey okay market tall Qiang War Cemetery the independence
monument the Golden Rock schwag our own pagoda and probably the most famous
landmark at the ancient city of began with over 2,200 temples you can even
ride a hot-air balloons and observe it from above absolutely breathtaking of
course one reason why they are so breathtaking is because the buildings
are surrounded by lush vegetation all over the country which brings us to
now in the best way I can put it if you look at me on Mars layout physically it
kind of looks like a spilling bowl let me explain the country is basically
surrounded on all sides from their neighbors by various mountain chains you
have the oricon youma and King Hills in the southwest the Naga Hills and hanged
on mountains part of the larger Himalayas in the north where the tallest
peak in all Southeast Asia kakapo Razi can be found then there's
the shan plateau the karen hills as well as the dona and tennessee room hills in
the south that means the central interior of myanmar is generally flat
with incredibly lush valleys fed by the longest and most important river of the
country the Irrawaddy sourced by the snowmelt and springs of the himalayas up
north speaking of the north the largest natural lake in the country can be found
here in doggy lake it also has a cool pagoda on it
unfortunately Myanmar is kind of smashed right in between the Sunda and Indian
plates right off the Burma microplates in the ocean and the entire lush center
of the country lies on the saw gang fault line which is subject to
occasional earthquakes a recent one in 2016 destroyed or damaged over 170
ancient temples in began in addition though this also gives Myanmar some
geothermal activity the country contains some of the few rare mud volcano spots
in the world mostly near the town of mean boo mud volcanoes that we should
hang out sometime yeah there's lots of stuff going on but as you know it's time
for me and my triple shot espresso break which means Noah comes in and fills in
for the rest of this segment him me and my triple shot espresso break oh sorry I
forgot about the whole bad con thing it was that so hard
thank you reduction wise beyond Mar is loaded with various resources industries
more notably though they are known for producing precious stones like
high-quality sapphires pearls Jade's and rubies wait don't they have a pagoda
made out of jade yes they do taupe and the country alone supply is about 90% of
the world's rubies mostly found in high concentrated deposits around the north
area of Mandalay country has an incredibly diverse flora and fauna over
300 mammals including the famous Burmese white elephant 100 bird species
including the national bird the peacock and 300 species of reptile one
interesting sidenote myanmar is part of the broader region known as the Golden
Triangle in a nutshell this is basically the largest drug production region of
Southeast Asia most of it lies in the Shan States to
this day Myanmar is actually the largest producer of methamphetamines in
world user both medicine and illegal recreation in addition they're also the
second largest producer of opium after Afghanistan and what could I say
it grows well here according to the Bangkok Post the illegal trade is
estimated to produce about two billion dollars annually or somewhere around
forty percent of their foreign exchange alone which is pretty high finally food
some dishes you guys ramiz geographies have mentioned might include dishes like
lahpet mone tea coconut noodles papillote Ameen so many different
curries these desserts and of course the national dish you can find pretty much
anywhere mohinga you forgot to mention that
Tanaka's am i pronouncing that right tanaka stuff it's like the sunscreen
they make from tree bark and like everyone puts it on their faces yep that
too dope and that's just one of the many cultural traits you'll find here which
brings us to thank you Noah by the way one of our fans from Canada sent fan
mail and they want to give you these Arnold Schwarzenegger socks that's
fantastic thank you I'll be back now Myanmar's people are honestly some of
the most fascinating in the world because there's over a hundred and
thirty ethnic groups in the country each one kind of retains some kind of unique
trait untouched by contemporary values first of all the country has somewhere
around fifty six million people and has one of the lowest energy consumption
rates per capita in all of Asia out of the many ethnic groups the largest ones
are the Burman or Bama at about sixty eight percent next are the Shan at about
nine percent the Karen at about seven percent the Rakhine at about four
percent and the rest are made up of the remaining 130 groups with a noticeable
Chinese and Indian community for their currency they use the chaat yes in
Burmese romanization KY makes a chit sound they used to type CD f ng plug
outlets and surprisingly even though they're a former British colony and some
of their neighbors like India and Thailand drive on the left side they
actually drive on the right side of the road but it's weird because most of
their cars still have right-hand side steering now before we go forward let's
clear something up what is the title you give someone from
Myanmar why thank you for asking ken most people from Myanmar are Burmese
which is just another name for the bum our majority people group there's also
why the country was called Burma in the past however not everybody in the
country is Burmese ethnically so if you meet somebody from llamar that is not
Burmese you can call them by what group they belong to you like the Karen
or the Shawn or if you really want to play it safe the general title for
anybody from Myanmar is Myanmar but wait then what is the language they speak in
Myanmar well you have such inquisitive pep today Ken thank you for asking as
well they speak the language of the majority group Burmese the Burmese
language is a unique tongue unrelated to any of their neighbors linguists say
that maybe it's a distant cousin of Tibetan but for now it's kind of its own
thing and it's written in a strange weird script that looks like alien
bubbles you could stare at it for hours hmm we should hang out sometime faith
why's the country is predominantly Buddhist at somewhere around 88% most
adhering to the Theravada branch of teaching and Buddhism plays a huge role
in the culture you see it literally everywhere monks temples pagodas statues
it's incredibly Buddhist nonetheless about 6.2 percent are Christians mostly
among the catching Chien and Chi in people's Islam is practiced by about 4
percent mostly by the calm in Ponte and Pasha Malays and also the most notable
one that makes up the news articles the rural India in regards to the Rohingya
yes I know it's a very messy tricky subject to cover and that would take way
too long to explain in this episode so I made a whole other video for you guys to
use as context check it out otherwise let's move on who came prepared for this
one yes I did otherwise Myanmar kind of has a long history of keeping things to
themselves and maintaining their own way of life minimizing outside influence I
mean they are one of the only three countries that doesn't completely at
least use the metric system today they still use the traditional Burmese
measuring units in many parts of the country which are hard to explain
for example a lawn is six feet long a NASA taw is 1.8 pounds a la mu is 2.7
fluid ounces and so on and in 2013 the country's Minister of Commerce announced
that they would prepare the country to adopt the metric system over time it's
like and now let's talk about some culture stuff and you know what Caleb
and Jillian just take this cuz I've been on camera for so long and you guys just
kind of sit in the corner doing nothing cultural is speaking there are too many
things to list with the various ethnic groups of Myanmar you have things like
the silver jewelry of the Jing Pope people flowery headdresses of women for
Malea hilltribe the kya people and their sessions the moon people and their music
the Austronesian Moken people though are kind in their coastal flare the shan and
their cuisine and costumed performances the PHA oh and their fire rocket
festival the hua people and their water buffalo sacrifice tradition and the Terr
own people there are only about five left in the world and they ever Geron
four feet tall and finally you've probably seen pictures of the famous
Padang people with their brass ring - long necked woman that stretched their
collarbones to give off the image of a long neck traditionally seen as a sign
of beauty some nationwide shared aspects amongst the people might include things
like chin Monet considered one of the nation's sports it's like a wicker ball
hacky sack type of game with six players there's also less way it's like muy Thai
but even crazier because you can use your head when fighting many people wear
their traditional long Yi on a daily basis it can be folded and used in many
ways like pants or even an umbrella today the nation is a unitary
parliamentary constitutional republic 2011 was a big year for political
restructuring however the military-backed party still
holds a high level of power to this day making things a little bit complicated
historically though there were many kingdoms and royal burmese households
although the royal throne was abolished in 1885 the descendants of the throne
are still alive today and known as monarch pretenders today this guy is the
head of the royal house of Kong bong currently the heir to the throne of
Burma even though it doesn't matter and really does nothing for the country
thanks guys you had your screen time I proven that I'm inclusive I'll take it
from here what about me do I get any more lines I mean if you want you can
take this next part where we explain the history but it's all voiceover in
montages okay in the quickest way we can condense the history of Myanmar Hindu an
animus kingdoms Buddhism comes in the pew little buggin Kingdom big began
Kingdom Mongol invasion tongu Empire small kingdoms Kong bong dynasty Santo
Burma Wars a lot of burma sia mores big kong bunk kingdom british come in one
big war and two small wars with the british boom colonial time world war two
kick British overlords out with Japan crap Japan is worse they go back to the
British and fight off Japan independence coupe socialism name change protest
military rule 2011 democracy again kind of Rohingya stuff again check out the
video and here we are today thank you Ken when I just
do the notable people section yeah why not I already gotten this far anyways
some notable people either from Myanmar or Burmese Myanmar descent might include
people like these Kings bacchiocchi young son Nate all these artists sook
Bahadur this actress young mountain son SAS icon Lane and of course everyone has
now heard of Aung San su Chi people with known Burmese heritage abroad include
celebrities like Bollywood actress Helen Peter bodycon Jamie Cullum zuleyka
Robinson Maurice a Kiwi Wendy Lyon and Richard Beckinsale was also quarter
Burmese so his daughters Kate is an aide so still counts yeah Kate Beckinsale out
of all the people that British Empire go figure I mean I'm a product of the
Korean War so I get it and I have a product that parents I met at a party
with questionable life choices let's not talk about it
and speaking of countries that interact with Myanmar now Myanmar is funny
because politically speaking they are for lack of a better term a little
intense with domestic policy but they have lots of business and trade so they
always kind of end up interacting with the outside world no matter what it's
like ah my arm is stuck in a bear trap but I'll have a triple shot latte first
of all China and India have both had their ups and downs with Myanmar for
India things started great as they work together to fight drug trafficking and
many of the same tribes of the northern states share family across the Indian
border roads were built to connect the isolated provinces and trade is pretty
strong they are the fourth largest trading partner and second largest
export market things got a little strained though when India supported the
democratic movement and condemned the arrest of on song su Chi but today
things are better with China there were some border wars in the past and Myanmar
doesn't really like the whole Tibet annexation thing there were some
anti-chinese riots in the 60s but then in the 80s they gave lots of money and
supplies to the ruling military Hunta they also agreed to build a Chinese
intelligence based on great cocoa Island and now Myanmar acts as kind of like
China's closest eyes and ears to help monitor activity in the Indian Ocean
which is kind of like a slap in the face to India as they kind of gave me on
Marlo's islands as a member of ASEAN or the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations they generally get along with all their other Southeast Asian
neighbors historically Thailand is like this sister that they always kind of get
into fights with and argue over small things they used to hate each other but
today in modern times realize that when they work together
they can make tons of money and cooperate well they are the largest
trading partner about 80% of Thailand's migrant workers are from Myanmar and
trade is important between them nonetheless every so often they might
throw a few rocks here and there on a personal level though many people I have
spoken to have said that oddly enough Japan might be considered their best
friend tons of Japanese companies have opened
up in Myanmar giving them jobs and education opportunities tons of Japanese
volunteers come over to help the poor and orphan kids building schools and
hospitals and in general Japan has kind of acted as like the mediator that has
never really had any crazy drama with them everybody in the country generally
has high regards for the Japanese in conclusion Myanmar is a place where
Buddhism and beauty meet earthquakes and conflict vibrant colors sounds taste but
with a slight stressful twitch in their eye either way they are Myanmar
stay tuned Namibia is coming up next