Yangon struggles to preserve British legacy
13 July 2012 1:54 AM GMT
From a teak clubhouse where British officers once sipped gin to an old English department store dubbed ‘Harrods of the East’ - the race is on to save Myanmar’s colonial jewels from the wrecking ball.
Six decades after the country also known as Burma won its independence, the grandeur of the British Raj lives on in the elegant but crumbling 19th and early 20th century buildings that dot the former capital Yangon.
But as the nation emerges from decades of military rule and investors flock to what they hope will be the region’s next hottest economy, experts fear that Myanmar’s largest city could soon lose its architectural treasures.
Hundreds of colonial buildings have already been torn down in what was once one of Asia’s top trading hubs, many falling prey to a building boom and a wave of property speculation, as high-rise buildings mushroom around the city.
‘Unfortunately I would say half of the residential buildings that are 50 years or older in downtown Yangon have been knocked down over the past 10 years,’ said historian and writer Thant Myint Oo, founder of the Yangon Heritage Trust which is spearheading a preservation campaign.
‘We have enough left that Yangon can still be a very special and unique city,’ he told AFP.
‘But the fear is also that in five years’ time it could look like any other Asian city with skyscrapers and traffic jams and not much else to distinguish it,’ he added.
The trust’s goal is to have a statutory list of protected buildings as well as official regulations on standards of renovation.
An existing heritage list, compiled by the city authorities, includes about 180 buildings but offers no legal protection.
They include the former Reserve Bank of India, the colonial rulers’ central bank; the
Secretariat, the one-time seat of the colonial-era government where independence hero General Aung San was assassinated in 1947; and the former headquarters of the mighty Irrawaddy Flotilla Company.
Hundreds of other residential buildings are not listed, while a number of landmark properties once filled by government ministries now stand empty after the regime moved the administrative capital to Naypyidaw in 2005.
Six decades after the country also known as Burma won its independence, the grandeur of the British Raj lives on in the elegant but crumbling 19th and early 20th century buildings that dot the former capital Yangon.
But as the nation emerges from decades of military rule and investors flock to what they hope will be the region’s next hottest economy, experts fear that Myanmar’s largest city could soon lose its architectural treasures.
Hundreds of colonial buildings have already been torn down in what was once one of Asia’s top trading hubs, many falling prey to a building boom and a wave of property speculation, as high-rise buildings mushroom around the city.
‘Unfortunately I would say half of the residential buildings that are 50 years or older in downtown Yangon have been knocked down over the past 10 years,’ said historian and writer Thant Myint Oo, founder of the Yangon Heritage Trust which is spearheading a preservation campaign.
‘We have enough left that Yangon can still be a very special and unique city,’ he told AFP.
‘But the fear is also that in five years’ time it could look like any other Asian city with skyscrapers and traffic jams and not much else to distinguish it,’ he added.
The trust’s goal is to have a statutory list of protected buildings as well as official regulations on standards of renovation.
An existing heritage list, compiled by the city authorities, includes about 180 buildings but offers no legal protection.
They include the former Reserve Bank of India, the colonial rulers’ central bank; the
Secretariat, the one-time seat of the colonial-era government where independence hero General Aung San was assassinated in 1947; and the former headquarters of the mighty Irrawaddy Flotilla Company.
Hundreds of other residential buildings are not listed, while a number of landmark properties once filled by government ministries now stand empty after the regime moved the administrative capital to Naypyidaw in 2005.
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