Mandalay

Mandalay

Mandalay is Myanmar's second largest city after Yangon. It is located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, about 631 km north of Yangon. It was founded by King Mindon in 1857, as the new royal capital of the Konbaung dynasty, to replace Amarapura. It was the last royal capital of Burma before the kingdom was annexed by the British Empire in 1885. Mandalay continued to be commercially and culturally important under British rule, in spite of the rise of Yangon, the new capital of British Burma. During the Japanese occupation of Burma in World War II, the city suffered major destruction, and in 1948 Mandalay became part of the recently independent Union of Burma. Nowadays, Mandalay is the economic center of Upper Myanmar and the heart of Burmese culture. Despite the recent rise of Naypyidaw, Mandalay continues to be Upper Myanmar's main commercial, educational and health center. Mandalay is situated along the Sagaing Fault, a tectonic plate boundary between the India and Sunda plates. The largest earthquake in its history took place on 23 March 1839, with an estimated magnitude of 8.2 destroying the formal capital, Ava, and causing extraordinary devastation in the nearby towns. Mandalay is also the cultural and religious center of Buddhism in Burma, with many monasteries and over 700 pagodas. At the foot of Mandalay Hill, in the Kuthodaw pagoda, is the world's official "Buddhist Bible", which is also known as the world's largest book. The moated buildings within the old Mandalay city walls, recently repaired by prisoners' labor, form the Mandalay Palace, much of which was destroyed during the Second World War.