Yangon

Yangon , formerly Rangoon , city (1983 pop. 2,458,712), capital of Myanmar and of Yangon div., S central Myanmar, on the Yangon River (a mouth of the Ayeyarwady) near its entrance into the Gulf of Martaban. The largest city in Myanmar, Yangon is the transportation hub of the country and its commercial and industrial center. Major exports include rice, teak, petroleum, cotton, and metal ores; there are rice mills, sawmills, oil refineries, and steel, iron, and copper mills. Probably founded in the 6th cent., it was until the 18th cent. a small fishing village, dominated—as is the modern city—by the most celebrated temple in Myanmar, the golden-spired Shwe Dagon Pagoda. Alaungapaya, the founder of the last line of Burmese kings, made the town his capital in 1753. Under his rule Yangon was given its present name ( "Rangoon" is a less accurate transliteration) and was built up as the chief port of Myanmar. It was held briefly by the British in 1824-26; after it came under British rule in 1852, it was transformed into a modern city. Yangon was heavily damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in 1930, and again in World War II. In 2005 the government announced that it was relocating the capital to a compound near Pyinmana in S central Myanmar, and began transferring government offices there. The Univ. of Yangon was founded in 1920 and reorganized in 1948 and again in 1964, when it became the Arts and Science Univ.

Rangoon (Yangon), Burma Dagon Written with an r in English because the British learnt to speak Burmese in Arakan where the r sound is used in comparison with y in standard Burmese. The English version of the name was officially replaced by the Burmese in 1989. In 1754 Alaungpaya (1714–60), King of Burma (1752–60), ejected the Mons from Upper Burma. His final victory was at Dagon—named after the great golden shrine here, Shwe Dagon ‘Golden Dagon’. Here he built a new city in 1756 and called it Yangon from yangun ‘Peaceful’ or ‘End of Strife’ in the hope that the fighting was over. The name was corrupted to Rangoon when the British captured the city in 1852 and the city has been the capital of Burma since 1885. The name Dagon may have come from the Pali Tikumbha‐nagara ‘Three Hills City’ and then slowly evolved through Tikum, Takum, and Takun to Dagon; this explanation is disputed, however, because kumbha does not mean ‘hill’ and there are no hills by the site of the Shwe Dagon pagoda. The Burmese takun means ‘treetrunk’.

Rangoon (Yangon) Capital of Burma (Myanmar), a seaport on the Rangoon River. The site of a Buddhist shrine, it became capital in 1886, when the British annexed the country. It was the scene of heavy fighting between British and Japanese forces in World War II. It is the country's chief trade centre. Industries: oil refining, timber, rice, iron ore. Pop. (2002 est.) 4,016,000.