A visit to the Myanmar National Military Museum
In May, I visited the Myanmar National Military Museum in Yangoon.
After several minutes of long negotiations with the army guards at the gate, my driver got them to sell me an admission ticket but I was not permitted to bring my camera. We walked up to a relatively new, modern, and very large white building and another guard in the lobby examined my ticket as if it were the first one he'd seen. Then I began to tour the first of several floors. On the 1st floor the galleries were broken down by branch of service, i.e. Infantry, Armour, Artillery, Engineer… and they seemed to concentrate on contemporary interpretation of the tools and weapons systems of each branch with limited historical background. In the back was the large Air Force gallery, more like a hanger with a good collection of aircraft. On the opposite side was the Navy gallery with a full size replica of the deck of a river patrol craft. On upper floors were galleries relating to other branches of the government and above them tribal and regional militia units, and cultural regions were interpreted. This was all plaid out around a central open-air courtyard. I asked to meet with an administrator or curator but was told that all appointments of that nature must be arranged in advance. The lack of environmental controls and even the switched-off electric lights made viewing the exhibits uncomfortable but there were pleasant guards in each gallery and a smattering of families and children were also touring that day. All-in-all it was a very respectable museum with only limited English language labeling but a large and fairly well organized exhibits program. Being that Myanmar is a military dictatorship, The Military Museum covers every aspect of public life in the country. Like much of Myanmar it appears to be remnants of a once proud and modern culture slipping into decay. Still, I would recommend it to tourists but only with an interpreter to assist. Kim |
A visit to the Myanmar National Military Museum
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A visit to the Myanmar National Military Museum
There was no luck to it. You just go! There is also a
well-publicized WWII UK-US cemetery and memorial to the international war dead. I to got a kick out of the historic weaponry and vehicles sported by the military. The PPS / PPSH and the SSK submachine guns and rifles and the occasional GAZ Jeep on the streets. But I found that the soldiers loved having their pictures taken and would group together in outlandish poses and ham-it-up. I guess when they're not out brutalizing their just regular guys. |
A visit to the Myanmar National Military Museum
well-publicized WWII UK-US cemetery and memorial to the international
war dead... Was that in Rangoon, or were you referring to the War Memorial Cemetery midway between Rangoon and Bago? I found that the soldiers loved having their pictures taken and would group together in outlandish poses and ham-it-up... I guess I was mislead about photographing soldiers by the warning in a travel book I read (a warning re-iterated by relatives back there...along with the one about not knowing who on the street might really be 'M.I.' - military intelligence). If I would have known it was possible, I would have also taken a photo of the soldier in the exhibition hall with the odd-looking Burmese knock-off of the Uzi. From the looks of it when old M1 carbines die, instead of going to Heaven they go to the streets Rangoon and end up in the hands of the new recruits. USC |
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