1.
SEA-ME-WE 3
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SEA-ME-WE3 or South-East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 3 is an optical submarine telecommunications cable linking those regions and is the longest in the world, completed in late 2000. It is led by France Telecom and China Telecom, and is administered by Singtel, the Consortium is formed by 92 other investors from the telecom industry. It was commissioned in March 2000, according to the cable system network administrators website, the system capacity has been upgraded several times. The cable system itself has two pairs, each carrying 48 wavelengths of 10 Gbit/s. In December 2009, the 4th 10G Upgrade increased WDM channels from 48 to 64 per fibre pair, on 1 Jan 2015, the 5th Capacity Expansion was distributed to all the owners. Data capacity of the network is increased significantly with 100G technologies. In November 1996, additional MOUs were signed to extend the system from Singapore to the Far East, finally in January 1997, the Construction and Maintenance Agreement for Sea-Me-We 3 was signed by 92 International Carriers. By end-2000 the entire network was completed, on 26 December 2006 this link severed, causing major disruption to internet services to and from the Far East. The cause of this was suspected to be a magnitude 7.1 earthquake off the coast of Taiwan and it was stated that the link would take 3 weeks to repair. S. and Europe from the Middle East and South Asia. Over 70 percent of the network in Egypt was down, on 19 December 2008, the cable was again severed, simultaneously with SEA-ME-WE4, the FLAG FEA cable, and the GO-1 cable. On 10 January 2013, the cable was severed, this time 1,126 kilometres from the Tuas cable station in Singapore. The repair ship ASEAN Explorer was sent to the site, a tentative repair date of 09 April 2013 has been posted but still position isnt clear when it will get restore. On 30 November 2014, the cable again experienced a problem in the Jakarta to Perth sector, the fault is still being investigated. ASEAN Explorer appeared onsite of the Cable Breakage point on the 24th December 2014 which involved over a week of repairs, Cable restored on 1 January 2015 On 8 January 2015, The cable once again experienced problems on the Perth to Jakarta Section. On 15 September 2015 the cable was cut at segment 3.3 causing significant disruption to services from Australia to Singapore. Service disruptions caused particular impact for Apple customers due to the release of the iPhone 6, iOS9, apples services were reported as being crippled for Telstra customers but the impact was noticeable for all other Australian ISPs. This disruption is expected to be repaired sometime after Mid October 2015 and this is the third time that the cable has been cut in this segment in just over 2 and a half years. On 25 September 2015 at 03,07 UTC, The cable once again experienced problems at SMW3 S3.3 at about 1143 km from Tuas cable station
2.
Satellite
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In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an artificial object which has been intentionally placed into orbit. Such objects are called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as Earths Moon. In 1957 the Soviet Union launched the worlds first artificial satellite, since then, about 6,600 satellites from more than 40 countries have been launched. According to a 2013 estimate,3,600 remained in orbit, of those, about 1,000 were operational, the rest have lived out their useful lives and become space debris. Approximately 500 operational satellites are in orbit,50 are in medium-Earth orbit. A few large satellites have been launched in parts and assembled in orbit. Over a dozen space probes have been placed into orbit around other bodies and become artificial satellites to the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, a few asteroids, Satellites are used for many purposes. Common types include military and civilian Earth observation satellites, communications satellites, navigation satellites, weather satellites, Space stations and human spacecraft in orbit are also satellites. Satellite orbits vary greatly, depending on the purpose of the satellite, well-known classes include low Earth orbit, polar orbit, and geostationary orbit. A launch vehicle is a rocket that throws a satellite into orbit, usually it lifts off from a launch pad on land. Some are launched at sea from a submarine or a mobile maritime platform, Satellites are usually semi-independent computer-controlled systems. Satellite subsystems attend many tasks, such as power generation, thermal control, telemetry, attitude control, the first fictional depiction of a satellite being launched into orbit was a short story by Edward Everett Hale, The Brick Moon. The idea surfaced again in Jules Vernes The Begums Fortune, in 1903, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky published Exploring Space Using Jet Propulsion Devices, which is the first academic treatise on the use of rocketry to launch spacecraft. He calculated the speed required for a minimal orbit. In 1928, Herman Potočnik published his book, The Problem of Space Travel — The Rocket Motor. He described the use of orbiting spacecraft for observation of the ground, in a 1945 Wireless World article, the English science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke described in detail the possible use of communications satellites for mass communications. He suggested that three geostationary satellites would provide coverage over the entire planet, the first artificial satellite was Sputnik 1, launched by the Soviet Union on October 4,1957, and initiating the Soviet Sputnik program, with Sergei Korolev as chief designer. This in turn triggered the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States, Sputnik 1 helped to identify the density of high atmospheric layers through measurement of its orbital change and provided data on radio-signal distribution in the ionosphere
3.
Intelsat
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Intelsat, S. A. is a communications satellite services provider. As of March 2017, Intelsat is to merge with Softbank backed OneWeb, the agreement is to merge in a share-for-share deal. SoftBank will buy voting and non-voting shares in the company for $1.7 billion in cash. Shares that Softbank-OneWeb will buy in the company will be bought for $5 per share. As of March 2011, Intelsat operates a fleet of 52 communications satellites and they claim to serve around 1,500 customers and employ a staff of approximately 1,100 people. The intergovernmental organization began on 20 August 1964, with 11 participating countries, on 6 April 1965, Intelsat’s first satellite, the Intelsat I, was placed in geostationary orbit above the Atlantic Ocean by a Delta D rocket. In 1973, the name was changed and there were 80 signatories, Intelsat provides service to over 600 Earth stations in more than 149 countries, territories and dependencies. By 2001, INTELSAT had over 100 members and it was also this year that INTELSAT privatized and changed its name to Intelsat. Since its inception, Intelsat has used versions of its dedicated Intelsat satellites. Intelsat completes each block of spacecraft independently, leading to a variety of contractors over the years, Intelsat’s largest spacecraft supplier is Space Systems/Loral, having built 31 spacecraft, or nearly half of the fleet. The network in its early years was not as robust as it is now. Fortunately, during the Apollo 11 moonwalk, the moon was over the Pacific Ocean, and so other antennas were used, as well as INTELSAT III, to avert the US governments interference with Intelsat, Intelsats senior management unsuccessfully considered relocating the IGO to another country. On 18 July 2001, Intelsat became a company,37 years after formation. Prior to Intelsats privatization in 2001, ownership and investment in INTELSAT was distributed among INTELSAT members according to their use of services, investment shares determined each member’s percentage of the total contribution needed to finance capital expenditures. Satellite services were available to any organization, and all paid the same rates. Today, the number of Intelsat satellites, as well as ocean-spanning fibre-optic lines, modern satellites are more robust, lasting longer with much larger capacity. Intelsat Americas-7 experienced a power failure on 29 November 2004. The satellite returned to service with reduced capacity, Intelsat was sold for U. S. $3. 1bn in January 2005 to four private equity firms, Madison Dearborn Partners, Apax Partners, Permira and Apollo Global Management
4.
Indian Ocean
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The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the worlds oceanic divisions, covering 70,560,000 km2. It is bounded by Asia on the north, on the west by Africa, on the east by Australia, the Indian Ocean is known as Ratnākara, the mine of gems in ancient Sanskrit literature, and as Hind Mahāsāgar, in Hindi. The northernmost extent of the Indian Ocean is approximately 30° north in the Persian Gulf, the oceans continental shelves are narrow, averaging 200 kilometres in width. An exception is found off Australias western coast, where the width exceeds 1,000 kilometres. The average depth of the ocean is 3,890 m and its deepest point is Diamantina Deep in Diamantina Trench, at 8,047 m deep, Sunda Trench has a depth of 7, 258–7,725 m. North of 50° south latitude, 86% of the basin is covered by pelagic sediments. The remaining 14% is layered with terrigenous sediments, glacial outwash dominates the extreme southern latitudes. The major choke points include Bab el Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, the Lombok Strait, the Strait of Malacca, the Indian Ocean is artificially connected to the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal, which is accessible via the Red Sea. All of the Indian Ocean is in the Eastern Hemisphere and the centre of the Eastern Hemisphere is in this ocean, marginal seas, gulfs, bays and straits of the Indian Ocean include, The climate north of the equator is affected by a monsoon climate. Strong north-east winds blow from October until April, from May until October south, in the Arabian Sea the violent Monsoon brings rain to the Indian subcontinent. In the southern hemisphere, the winds are milder. When the monsoon winds change, cyclones sometimes strike the shores of the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean is the warmest ocean in the world. Long-term ocean temperature records show a rapid, continuous warming in the Indian Ocean, Indian Ocean warming is the largest among the tropical oceans, and about 3 times faster than the warming observed in the Pacific. Research indicates that human induced greenhouse warming, and changes in the frequency, among the few large rivers flowing into the Indian Ocean are the Zambezi, Shatt al-Arab, Indus, Godavari, Krishna, Narmada, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Jubba and Irrawaddy River. The oceans currents are controlled by the monsoon. Two large gyres, one in the northern hemisphere flowing clockwise and one south of the equator moving anticlockwise, during the winter monsoon, however, currents in the north are reversed. Deep water circulation is controlled primarily by inflows from the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea, north of 20° south latitude the minimum surface temperature is 22 °C, exceeding 28 °C to the east. Southward of 40° south latitude, temperatures drop quickly, surface water salinity ranges from 32 to 37 parts per 1000, the highest occurring in the Arabian Sea and in a belt between southern Africa and south-western Australia
5.
Base transceiver station
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A base transceiver station is a piece of equipment that facilitates wireless communication between user equipment and a network. UEs are devices like mobile phones, WLL phones, computers with wireless Internet connectivity, the network can be that of any of the wireless communication technologies like GSM, CDMA, wireless local loop, Wi-Fi, WiMAX or other wide area network technology. BTS is also referred to as the base station, node B or, simply. For discussion of the LTE standard the abbreviation eNB for evolved node B is widely used, though the term BTS can be applicable to any of the wireless communication standards, it is generally associated with mobile communication technologies like GSM and CDMA. In this regard, a BTS forms part of the base station subsystem developments for system management, typically a BTS will have several transceivers which allow it to serve several different frequencies and different sectors of the cell. A BTS is controlled by a parent base station controller via the station control function. The BCF is implemented as a unit or even incorporated in a TRX in compact base stations. The BCF provides an operations and maintenance connection to the management system. The basic structure and functions of the BTS remains the same regardless of the wireless technologies, a BTS is usually composed of, Transceiver Quite widely referred to as the driver receiver, DRX are either in form of single, double or a composite double radio unit. It basically does transmission and reception of signals and it also does sending and reception of signals to and from higher network entities. Power amplifier Amplifies the signal from DRX for transmission through antenna, combiner Combines feeds from several DRXs so that they could be sent out through a single antenna. Allows for a reduction in the number of antenna used, multiplexer For separating sending and receiving signals to/from antenna. Does sending and receiving signals through the same antenna ports, antenna This is the structure that the BTS lies underneath, it can be installed as it is or disguised in some way. Alarm extension system Collects working status alarms of various units in the BTS and extends them to operations, control function Controls and manages the various units of BTS, including any software. On-the-spot configurations, status changes, software upgrades, etc. are done through the control function, baseband receiver unit Frequency hopping, signal DSP. Diversity techniques To improve the quality of the signal, often two receiving antennas are used, placed at a distance equal to an odd multiple of a quarter of the corresponding wavelength. For 900 MHz, this wavelength is 30 cm and this technique, known as antenna diversity or space diversity, avoids interruption caused by path fading. The antennas can be spaced horizontally or vertically, horizontal spacing requires more complex installation, but brings better performance
6.
GSM
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As of 2014 it has become the de facto global standard for mobile communications – with over 90% market share, operating in over 219 countries and territories. This expanded over time to include communications, first by circuit-switched transport, then by packet data transport via GPRS. Subsequently, the 3GPP developed third-generation UMTS standards followed by fourth-generation LTE Advanced standards, GSM is a trademark owned by the GSM Association. It may also refer to the most common voice codec used, the decision to develop a continental standard eventually resulted in a unified, open, standard-based network which was larger than that in the United States. In February 1987 Europe produced the very first agreed GSM Technical Specification, the MoU drew-in mobile operators from across Europe to pledge to invest in new GSM networks to an ambitious common date. In 1989, the Groupe Spécial Mobile committee was transferred from CEPT to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, in parallel, France and Germany signed a joint development agreement in 1984 and were joined by Italy and the UK in 1986. In 1986 the European Commission proposed reserving the 900 MHz spectrum band for GSM, the former Finnish prime minister Harri Holkeri made the worlds first GSM call on July 1,1991, calling Kaarina Suonio using a network built by Telenokia and Siemens and operated by Radiolinja. In the following year,1992, saw the sending of the first short messaging service message, work began in 1991 to expand the GSM standard to the 1800 MHz frequency band and the first 1800 MHz network became operational in the UK by 1993 called and DCS1800. Also that year, Telecom Australia became the first network operator to deploy a GSM network outside Europe and the first practical hand-held GSM mobile phone became available. In 1995, fax, data and SMS messaging services were launched commercially, in the same year, the GSM Association formed. Pre-paid GSM SIM cards were launched in 1996 and worldwide GSM subscribers passed 100 million in 1998, in 2000 the first commercial GPRS services were launched and the first GPRS-compatible handsets became available for sale. In 2001 the first UMTS network was launched, a 3G technology that is not part of GSM, worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded 500 million. In 2002 the first Multimedia Messaging Service were introduced and the first GSM network in the 800 MHz frequency band became operational, EDGE services first became operational in a network in 2003 and the number of worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded 1 billion in 2004. By 2005, GSM networks accounted for more than 75% of the cellular network market. In 2005 the first HSDPA-capable network also became operational, the first HSUPA network launched in 2007. Worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded three billion in 2008, GSM is a second-generation standard employing time-division multiple-Access spectrum-sharing, issued by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. GSM, for the first time, set a standard for Europe for wireless networks. It was also adopted by many countries outside Europe and this allowed subscribers to use other GSM networks that have roaming agreements with each other
7.
UMTS
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The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. UMTS uses wideband code division multiple access radio access technology to offer greater spectral efficiency, UMTS specifies a complete network system, which includes the radio access network, the core network and the authentication of users via SIM cards. The technology described in UMTS is sometimes referred to as Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access or 3GSM. Unlike EDGE and CDMA2000, UMTS requires new base stations and new frequency allocations, UMTS supports maximum theoretical data transfer rates of 42 Mbit/s when Evolved HSPA is implemented in the network. Users in deployed networks can expect a transfer rate of up to 384 kbit/s for Release 99 handsets, since 2006, UMTS networks in many countries have been or are in the process of being upgraded with High-Speed Downlink Packet Access, sometimes known as 3. 5G. Currently, HSDPA enables downlink transfer speeds of up to 21 Mbit/s, work is also progressing on improving the uplink transfer speed with the High-Speed Uplink Packet Access. The first national consumer UMTS networks launched in 2002 with a emphasis on telco-provided mobile applications such as mobile TV. UMTS combines three different terrestrial air interfaces, GSMs Mobile Application Part core, and the GSM family of speech codecs, the air interfaces are called UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access. All air interface options are part of ITUs IMT-2000, in the currently most popular variant for cellular mobile telephones, W-CDMA is used. Please note that the terms W-CDMA, TD-CDMA and TD-SCDMA are misleading, while they suggest covering just a channel access method, they are actually the common names for the whole air interface standards. W-CDMA or WCDMA, along with UMTS-FDD, UTRA-FDD, or IMT-2000 CDMA Direct Spread is an air interface found in 3G mobile telecommunications networks. W-CDMA uses the DS-CDMA channel access method with a pair of 5 MHz wide channels, in contrast, the competing CDMA2000 system uses one or more available 1.25 MHz channels for each direction of communication. W-CDMA systems are criticized for their large spectrum usage, which delayed deployment in countries that acted relatively slowly in allocating new frequencies specifically for 3G services. The specific frequency bands originally defined by the UMTS standard are 1885–2025 MHz for the mobile-to-base, in the US, 1710–1755 MHz and 2110–2155 MHz are used instead, as the 1900 MHz band was already used. Some carriers such as T-Mobile use band numbers to identify the UMTS frequencies, in the late 1990s, W-CDMA was developed by NTT DoCoMo as the air interface for their 3G network FOMA. Later NTT DoCoMo submitted the specification to the International Telecommunication Union as a candidate for the international 3G standard known as IMT-2000. The ITU eventually accepted W-CDMA as part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G standards, as an alternative to CDMA2000, EDGE, later, W-CDMA was selected as an air interface for UMTS. As NTT DoCoMo did not wait for the finalisation of the 3G Release 99 specification, however, this has been resolved by NTT DoCoMo updating their network
8.
Code-division multiple access
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Code division multiple access is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. CDMA is an example of access, where several transmitters can send information simultaneously over a single communication channel. This allows several users to share a band of frequencies, to permit this without undue interference between the users, CDMA employs spread-spectrum technology and a special coding scheme. CDMA is used as the method in many mobile phone standards. The technology of code division multiple access channels has long been known, in the Soviet Union, the first work devoted to this subject was published in 1935 by professor Dmitriy V. Ageev. It was shown that through the use of methods, there are three types of signal separation, frequency, time and compensatory. LK-1 has a weight of 3 kg, 20–30 km operating distance, the base station, as described by the author, could serve several customers. In 1958, Kupriyanovich made the new experimental pocket model of mobile phone, to serve more customers, Kupriyanovich proposed the device, named by him as correllator. In 1958, the USSR also started the development of the Altai national civil mobile phone service for cars, the phone system weighed 11 kg. It was placed in the trunk of the vehicles of high-ranking officials, the main developers of the Altai system were VNIIS and GSPI. In 1963 this service started in Moscow and in 1970 Altai service was used in 30 USSR cities, one of the early applications for code division multiplexing is in the Global Positioning System. This predates and is distinct from its use in mobile phones, the Qualcomm standard IS-95, marketed as cdmaOne. The Qualcomm standard IS-2000, known as CDMA2000, is used by mobile phone companies. The UMTS 3G mobile phone standard, which uses W-CDMA, CDMA has been used in the OmniTRACS satellite system for transportation logistics. CDMA is a multiple access technique. A spread spectrum technique spreads the bandwidth of the data uniformly for the transmitted power. A spreading code is a code that has a narrow ambiguity function. In CDMA a locally generated code runs at a higher rate than the data to be transmitted
9.
Huawei
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Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is a Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong. It is the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the world, having overtaken Ericsson in 2012, Huawei was founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, a former engineer in the Peoples Liberation Army. Huawei has over 170,000 employees as of September 2015, around 76,000 of whom are engaged in research and development.4 billion USD in R&D, in 2014, Huawei recorded a profit of 34.2 billion CNY. Its products and services have been deployed in more than 140 countries, Huawei is the official translation of the firms Chinese name. The etymology of the character 华 is derived from 花 which means flower and this is hinted at in Huaweis logo. The character can also mean splendid or magnificent, but nowadays mostly refers to China or Chinese and it is common for Chinese companies to use this word, another example being the Taiwanese company Asus that was founded back in 1989. The second character of Huaweis name, 为, means action or achievement and it is pronounced Wah-Way according to a Gizmodo video that claims to provide the official pronunciation, as well as many other internet sources. However, Wah-Way is incorrect, and is a perpetuation of a mistaken combination of the Cantonese and Mandarin pronunciations for the first and second characters. The Cantonese pronunciation is Wah-Waii, while the Mandarin pronunciation is Hwa-Way, although the company is based in the Cantonese-speaking area of Guangdong, the use of Huawei as the spelling for its name reflects the Mandarin pronunciation the two characters. During the 1980s, Chinas government tried to modernize the countrys underdeveloped telecommunications infrastructure, Ren Zhengfei, a former deputy director of the Peoples Liberation Army engineering corp, founded Huawei in 1987 in Shenzhen. At a time all of Chinas telecommunications technology was imported from abroad. The company reports that it had RMB21,000 in registered capital at the time of its founding, the Far Eastern Economic Review also reported that it received an $8.5 million loan from a state-owned bank, though the company has denied the existence of the loan. During its first several years the business model consisted mainly of reselling private branch exchange switches imported from Hong Kong. Meanwhile, it was reverse-engineering imported switches and investing heavily in research, by 1990 the company had approximately 600 R&D staff, and began its own independent commercialization of PBX switches targeting hotels and small enterprises. The companys first major breakthrough came in 1993, when it launched its C&C08 program controlled telephone switch and it was by far the most powerful switch available in China at the time. By initially deploying in small cities and rural areas and placing emphasis on service and customizability, ahrens writes that these methods were unorthodox, bordering on corrupt, but not illegal. Jiang reportedly agreed with this assessment, Huawei was promoted by both the government and the military as a national champion, and established new research and development offices. In 1997, Huawei won its first overseas contract, providing fixed-line network products to Hong Kong company Hutchison Whampoa, later that year, Huawei launched its wireless GSM-based products and eventually expanded to offer CDMA and UMTS
10.
Yangon
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Yangon is a former capital of Myanmar and the capital of Yangon Region. Although Yangons infrastructure is undeveloped compared to that of major cities in southeast Asia. Yangon is a combination of the two words yan and koun, which enemies and run out of, respectively. It is also translated as End of Strife, Rangoon most likely comes from the British imitation of the pronunciation of Yangon in the Arakanese language, which is. Yangon was founded as Dagon in the early 11th century by the Mon, Dagon was a small fishing village centred about the Shwedagon Pagoda. In 1755, King Alaungpaya conquered Dagon, renamed it Yangon, the British captured Yangon during the First Anglo-Burmese War, but returned it to Burmese administration after the war. The city was destroyed by a fire in 1841, the British seized Yangon and all of Lower Burma in the Second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852, and subsequently transformed Yangon into the commercial and political hub of British Burma. Yangon is also the place where the British sent Bahadur Shah II, Yangon became the capital of all British Burma after the British had captured Upper Burma in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of 1885. By the 1890s Yangons increasing population and commerce gave birth to prosperous residential suburbs to the north of Royal Lake, the British also established hospitals including Rangoon General Hospital and colleges including Rangoon University. Colonial Yangon, with its spacious parks and lakes and mix of modern buildings, by the early 20th century, Yangon had public services and infrastructure on par with London. Before World War II, about 55% of Yangons population of 500,000 was Indian or South Asian, karens, the Chinese, the Anglo-Burmese and others made up the rest. After World War I, Yangon became the epicentre of Burmese independence movement, three nationwide strikes against the British Empire in 1920,1936 and 1938 all began in Yangon. Yangon was under Japanese occupation, and incurred heavy damage during World War II, the city was retaken by the Allies in May 1945. Yangon became the capital of Union of Burma on 4 January 1948 when the country regained independence from the British Empire, soon after Burmas independence in 1948, many colonial names of streets and parks were changed to more nationalistic Burmese names. In 1989, the current military junta changed the citys English name to Yangon, since independence, Yangon has expanded outwards. Successive governments have built satellite towns such as Thaketa, North Okkalapa and South Okkalapa in the 1950s to Hlaingthaya, Shwepyitha, today, Greater Yangon encompasses an area covering nearly 600 square kilometres. During Ne Wins isolationist rule, Yangons infrastructure deteriorated through poor maintenance, in the 1990s, the current military governments more open market policies attracted domestic and foreign investment, bringing a modicum of modernity to the citys infrastructure. Some inner city residents were relocated to new satellite towns
11.
Mandalay
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Mandalay is the second-largest city and the last royal capital of Myanmar. Located 716 km north of Yangon on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, Mandalay is the economic centre of Upper Burma and considered the centre of Burmese culture. A continuing influx of Chinese immigrants, mostly from Yunnan, in the past twenty years, has reshaped the citys ethnic makeup, despite Naypyidaws recent rise, Mandalay remains Upper Burmas main commercial, educational and health center. The city gets its name from the nearby Mandalay Hill, the name is probably a derivative of a Pali word, although the exact word of origin remains unclear. The root word has been speculated to be mandala, referring to circular plains or Mandara, when it was founded in 1857, the royal city was officially named Yadanabon, a loan of the Pali name Ratanapūra City of Gems. It was also called Lay Kyun Aung Myei and Mandalay Palace, like most former capitals of Burma, Mandalay was founded on the wishes of the ruler of the day. The new capital city site was 66 km2 in area, surrounded by four rivers, the plan called for a 144-square block grid patterned citadel, anchored by a 16 square block royal palace compound at the center by Mandalay Hill. The 1020-acre citadel was surrounded by four 2,032 m long walls, at intervals of 169 m along the wall, were turrets with gold-tipped spires for watchmen. The walls had three gates on each side, and five bridges to cross the moat, for the next 26 years, Mandalay was to be the last royal capital of the Konbaung Dynasty, the last independent Burmese kingdom before its final annexation by the British Empire. Mandalay ceased to be the capital on 28 November 1885 when the conquering British sent Thibaw Min and his queen Supayalat into exile, ending the Third Anglo-Burmese War. While Mandalay would continue to be the city of Upper Burma during the British colonial rule. The British view on the development of Mandalay was mainly with commercial intentions, while rail transport reached Mandalay in 1889, less than four years after the annexation, the first college in Mandalay, Mandalay College, was not established until 40 years later, in 1925. The British looted the palace, with some of the treasures still on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum, also renaming the palace compound Fort Dufferin and used it to billet troops. Between the two World Wars, the city was Upper Burmas focal point in a series of protests against the British rule. The British rule brought in immigrants from India to the city. In 1904–05, a plague caused about one-third of the population to flee the city, during World War II, Mandalay suffered the most devastating air raids of the war. On April 3,1942, during the Japanese conquest of Burma, many again fled the city when the city was under Japanese occupation from May 1942 to March 1945. The palace citadel, turned into a depot by the Japanese, was burnt to the ground by Allied bombing, only the royal mint
12.
Naypyidaw
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Naypyidaw, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw is the capital city of Myanmar. It is administered as the Naypyidaw Union Territory, as per the Constitution, on 6 November 2005, the administrative capital of the country was officially moved to a greenfield site 3.2 km west of Pyinmana, and approximately 320 km north of Yangon, the previous capital. The capitals official name was announced on 27 March 2006, Myanmars Armed Forces Day and it first became the capital of Myanmar in 2006, after the government decided to move the capital from Yangon with minimal explanation. Much of this city was completed in 2012. The 24th and 25th ASEAN Summit as well as the Ninth East Asia Summit were held in Naypyidaw and it was also one of the host cities for the 2013 Southeast Asian Games. Naypyitaw is generally translated as royal capital, seat of the king or abode of kings, traditionally, it was used as a suffix to the names of royal capitals, such as Mandalay, which was called ရတနာပုံနေပြည်တော်. The name literally means abode of the king in Burmese, Naypyidaw has a short history, having been founded on a greenfield site some 3 kilometres west of Pyinmana, and approximately 320 kilometres north of Yangon, with construction starting in 2002. At least 25 construction companies were hired by the government to build the city, including Asia World. The military government began moving government ministries from Yangon to Naypyidaw on 6 November 2005 at the auspicious time of 6,37 a. m. Five days later, on 11 November at 11 a. m. a second convoy of 1,100 military trucks carrying 11 military battalions and 11 government ministries left Yangon, the government originally prohibited families of government workers from moving to the new capital. Military headquarters were located in a compound from the government ministries. Vendors are restricted to a zone near the government offices. The city was officially named Naypyidaw during these ceremonies and it is not known why the capital was moved, but according to The Guardian, it is believed that the capital was moved because Than Shwe did it as a vanity project. Naypyidaw is more centrally located than the old capital, Yangon and it is also a transportation hub located adjacent to the Shan, Kayah, and Kayin states. It was felt by governmental and military leaders that a stronger military, the official explanation for moving the capital was that Yangon had become too congested and crowded with little room for future expansion of government offices. Some Western diplomats speculated that the government were concerned with the possibility of attack, as Yangon is on the coast. The popular belief among the Burmese is that a warning about foreign attack was delivered to the chief by an astrologer. Naypyidaw is located between the Bago Yoma and Shan Yoma mountain ranges, the city covers an area of 7,054.37 km2 and has a population of 924,608, according to official figures
13.
Telenor
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Telenor Group is a Norwegian mostly government-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the worlds largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and it has extensive broadband and TV distribution operations in four Nordic Countries, and a 10-year-old research and business line for Machine-to-Machine technology. Telenor owns networks in 13 countries, and has operations in 29 countries if their 33% ownership in VimpelCom Ltd is included, Telenor started off in 1855 as a state-operated monopoly provider of telegraph services named Telegrafverket. Televerket began by connecting Christiania to Sweden as well as Christiania, by 1857 the telegraph had reached Bergen on the west coast via Sørlandet on the south coast, and by 1871 it had reached Kirkenes on the far north coast. Cable connections were opened to Denmark in 1867 and to Great Britain in 1869, the telegraph was most important for the merchant marine who now could use the electric telegraph to instantly communicate between different locations, and get a whole new advantage within logistics. The first telephone service in Norway was offered in 1878 between Arendal and Tvedestrand, while the first international service between Christiania and Stockholm was offered in 1893. Automation of the system was started in 1920 and completed in 1985. In 1946 the first Telex service was offered, and in 1976 satellite telephone connections to oil platforms in the North Sea were installed, in 1980 the first steps to digitalise the telephone network were taken. Televerket opened its first manual telephone system in 1966, being replaced with the automatic NMT system in 1981. Norway was the first country in Europe to get a mobile telephone system. The digital GSM system came into use in 1993, the third generation of mobile technology with UMTS system began full operation 2004. The Opera web browser was created in 1994 by Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, Opera Software was established in 1995 after the pair went on to continue development of their browser. Telenor and Huawei Conducted a Successful Test of 5G with 70 Gbps Speeds in Lab environment. The corporation changed its name to Televerket in 1969, in 1994, the then Norwegian Telecom was established as a public corporation. The authorities wanted to deregulate the telecom sector in Norway, an attempt to merge Telenor with its counterpart in Sweden, Telia, failed in 1999, while both still were owned by their respective governments. On December 4,2000 the company was privatised and listed on Oslo Stock Exchange. The privatisation gave the company NOK15,6 billion in new capital, as of 2014, the Norwegian government holds 53. 97% of the Telenor shares directly and another 4. 66% through the Pension Fund. Operations in Greece, Ireland and Germany were sold in 1999/2000, in October 2005 Telenor acquired Vodafone Sweden, changing the name to Telenor in April 2006. On 31 July 2006, Telenor acquired 100 per cent share of mobile operator Mobi 63, Telenor offers a full range of telecommunication services in Norway, including mobile and fixed telephony as well as Internet access and content
14.
Ooredoo
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Ooredoo is an international telecommunications company headquartered in Doha, Qatar. Ooredoo provides mobile, wireless, wireline, and content services with market share in domestic and international telecommunication markets and it is one of the worlds largest mobile telecommunications companies, with over 114 million customers worldwide as of September 2015. Partly state-owned, Ooredoo has operations in the Middle East, Europe and Asia, including Algeria, Indonesia, Iraq, Kuwait, Myanmar, Maldives, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Ooredoos shares are listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. Ooredoo has a market capitalisation of QAR301.2 billion as of September 2015, Qtel was founded in Doha in 1987 initially as a telephone exchange company. It has since grown to become the largest communications operator in Qatar offering new technologies to the country including mobile, broadband, digital, the publicly traded company has ownership from the royal family with H. E. Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani as the chairman is. Q-Tels COO is Waleed Al-Sayed.2 billion for the first nine months of fiscal year 2015, in 2010 the company upgraded its 3G network in the country and launched its Mobile Money service. By 2012, its network grew with its network that provided services with download speeds of up to 100 Mbit/s, HDTV. The companys consumer base has grown significantly in recent times, from 1.9 million subscribers in 2008 to 2.5 million in 2012 within Qatar and its annual revenues increased by QAR3.5 billion from 2012 to 2013 in a single quarter. In the last two years the company has developed a partnership with Nokia in Qatar. In May 2016, the firm expanded this partnership with Nokia in a deal to develop a nationwide mobile network in Qatar. The firm has also broadened its reach with its operations on over 16 countries across the GCC, Middle East, North Africa, as of 2013, the company unified under Ooredo Group. Under this flagship, the firm has experienced significant growth with QAR24.2 billion in revenues in the first 3 Quarters of 2015, and over 17,000 employees. Sheikh Abdullah has played a key role in directing Ooredoos growth, in March 2014, Sheikh Abdullah was appointed to the World Bank Group Advisory Council on Gender and Development. His appointment is a reflection of Ooredoos engagement in womens initiatives across its footprint, Sheikh Abdullah is chief executive officer of Qatar Investment Authority and a member of the Supreme Council for Economic Affairs and Investment. Additionally, he was the Chief of the Royal Court from 2000 to 2005, Sheikh Abdullah was previously a Member of the Planning Council in Qatar and serves on the Board of a number of leading telecommunications companies. Sheikh Abdullah completed his studies at the Staff and Command College in Egypt before joining the United States Army War College in Carlisle. Chief executive officer Dr. Nasser Mohammed Marafih Dr. Nasser Marafih has been the executive officer of the Ooredoo Group since 2006
15.
Radio
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When radio waves strike an electrical conductor, the oscillating fields induce an alternating current in the conductor. The information in the waves can be extracted and transformed back into its original form, Radio systems need a transmitter to modulate some property of the energy produced to impress a signal on it, for example using amplitude modulation or angle modulation. Radio systems also need an antenna to convert electric currents into radio waves, an antenna can be used for both transmitting and receiving. The electrical resonance of tuned circuits in radios allow individual stations to be selected, the electromagnetic wave is intercepted by a tuned receiving antenna. Radio frequencies occupy the range from a 3 kHz to 300 GHz, a radio communication system sends signals by radio. The term radio is derived from the Latin word radius, meaning spoke of a wheel, beam of light, however, this invention would not be widely adopted. The switch to radio in place of wireless took place slowly and unevenly in the English-speaking world, the United States Navy would also play a role. Although its translation of the 1906 Berlin Convention used the terms wireless telegraph and wireless telegram, the term started to become preferred by the general public in the 1920s with the introduction of broadcasting. Radio systems used for communication have the following elements, with more than 100 years of development, each process is implemented by a wide range of methods, specialised for different communications purposes. Each system contains a transmitter, This consists of a source of electrical energy, the transmitter contains a system to modulate some property of the energy produced to impress a signal on it. This modulation might be as simple as turning the energy on and off, or altering more subtle such as amplitude, frequency, phase. Amplitude modulation of a carrier wave works by varying the strength of the signal in proportion to the information being sent. For example, changes in the strength can be used to reflect the sounds to be reproduced by a speaker. It was the used for the first audio radio transmissions. Frequency modulation varies the frequency of the carrier, the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is directly proportional to the instantaneous value of the input signal. FM has the capture effect whereby a receiver only receives the strongest signal, Digital data can be sent by shifting the carriers frequency among a set of discrete values, a technique known as frequency-shift keying. FM is commonly used at Very high frequency radio frequencies for high-fidelity broadcasts of music, analog TV sound is also broadcast using FM. Angle modulation alters the phase of the carrier wave to transmit a signal
16.
Broadcasting
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Broadcasting began with AM radio, which came into popular use around 1920 with the spread of vacuum tube radio transmitters and receivers. Before this, all forms of communication were one-to-one, with the message intended for a single recipient. Over the air broadcasting is usually associated with radio and television, the receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively small subset, the point is that anyone with the appropriate receiving technology and equipment can receive the signal. The field of broadcasting includes both government-managed services such as radio, community radio and public television, and private commercial radio. The U. S. Code of Federal Regulations, title 47, part 97 defines broadcasting as transmissions intended for reception by the general public, private or two-way telecommunications transmissions do not qualify under this definition. For example, amateur and citizens band radio operators are not allowed to broadcast, as defined, transmitting and broadcasting are not the same. Transmissions using a wire or cable, like television, are also considered broadcasts. In the 2000s, transmissions of television and radio programs via streaming digital technology have increasingly been referred to as broadcasting as well, the earliest broadcasting consisted of sending telegraph signals over the airwaves, using Morse code, a system developed in the 1830s by Samuel F. B. Morse, physicist Joseph Henry and Alfred Vail and they developed an electrical telegraph system which sent pulses of electric current along wires which controlled an electromagnet that was located at the receiving end of the telegraph system. A code was needed to transmit natural language using only these pulses, Morse therefore developed the forerunner to modern International Morse code. Audio broadcasting began experimentally in the first decade of the 20th century, by the early 1920s radio broadcasting became a household medium, at first on the AM band and later on FM. Television broadcasting started experimentally in the 1920s and became widespread after World War II, satellite broadcasting was initiated in the 1960s and moved into general industry usage in the 1970s, with DBS emerging in the 1980s. Originally all broadcasting was composed of signals using analog transmission techniques but in the 2000s. In general usage, broadcasting most frequently refers to the transmission of information, Analog audio vs. HD Radio Analog television vs.9 zettabytes. This is the equivalent of 55 newspapers per person per day in 1986. Historically, there have been several methods used for broadcasting electronic media audio and/or video to the public, Telephone broadcasting. Telephone broadcasting also grew to include telephone services for news and entertainment programming which were introduced in the 1890s. These telephone-based subscription services were the first examples of electrical/electronic broadcasting, Radio broadcasting, audio signals sent through the air as radio waves from a transmitter, picked up by an antenna and sent to a receiver
17.
Burmese language
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The Burmese language is the official language of Myanmar. Although the Constitution of Myanmar officially recognizes the English name of the language as the Myanmar language, Burmese is a tonal, pitch-register, and syllable-timed language, largely monosyllabic and analytic, with a subject–object–verb word order. It is a member of the Lolo-Burmese grouping of the Sino-Tibetan language family, the Burmese alphabet is ultimately descended from a Brahmic script, either Kadamba or Pallava. Burmese belongs to the Southern Burmish branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages, Burmese is the most widely spoken of the non-Sinitic Sino-Tibetan languages. Burmese was the fifth of the Sino-Tibetan languages to develop a system, after Chinese characters, the Pyu script, the Tibetan alphabet. However, several dialects substantially differ in Burmese with respect to vocabulary, lexical particles, the standard dialect of Burmese comes from the Irrawaddy River valley. Regional differences between speakers from Upper Burma, called anya tha အညာသား, and speakers from Lower Burma, called auk tha အောက်သား, occur in vocabulary choice, minor pronunciation differences do exist within the Irrawaddy River valley. For instance, for the term ဆွမ်း food offering, Lower Burmese speakers use instead of, the standard dialect is represented by the Yangon dialect because of the modern citys media influence and economic clout. In the past, the Mandalay dialect represented standard Burmese, moreover, with regard to kinship terminology, Upper Burmese speakers differentiate the maternal and paternal sides of a family whereas Lower Burmese speakers do not. Spoken Burmese is remarkably uniform among Burmese speakers, particularly living in the Irrawaddy valley. The figure would have much higher if non-Bamars were excluded. For the whole country, the rate was 49% for men and 5. 5% for women. The migration of Burmese speakers of Bamar descent to Lower Burma is relatively recent, as late as the mid-1700s, the Austroasiatic language Mon was the principal language of Lower Burma and the Mon people who inhabited it. After the Burmese-speaking Konbaung Dynastys victory over the Mon-speaking Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom in 1757, by 1830, an estimated 90% of the population in the region identified themselves as Bamar due the influx from Upper Burma, assimilation, and intermarriage. In the British colonial era, British incentives, particularly geared toward rice production, as well as political instability in Upper Burma, more distinctive non-standard varieties emerge as one moves farther away from the Irrawaddy River valley toward peripheral areas of the country. These varieties include the Yaw, Palaw, Myeik, Tavoyan, despite substantial vocabulary and pronunciation differences, there is mutual intelligibility among most Burmese dialects. Dialects in Tanintharyi Region, including Palaw, Merguese and Tavoyan, are conservative in comparison to Standard Burmese. The Tavoyan and Intha dialects have preserved the /l/ medial, which is only found in Old Burmese inscriptions
18.
New Light of Myanmar
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The New Light of Myanmar is a government-owned newspaper published by the Ministry of Information and based in Yangon, Myanmar. The newspaper was founded in 1914, first published as a magazine before becoming a newspaper and it is the longest-running circulated newspaper in Myanmar. The newspaper was nationalised in 1969, in 1993, the Working Peoples Daily, a state-run newspaper that first appeared in 1963, was renamed the New Light of Myanmar in 1989. It is a daily printed in both English and Burmese, and is printed in the Berliner format, the New Light of Myanmar is often viewed as propaganda on part of the Tatmadaw and the government, and features many articles about military officials. List of newspapers in Burma Media of Burma Official website Official website
19.
The Myanmar Times
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The Myanmar Times, founded in 2000, is the oldest privately owned and operated English-language newspaper in Myanmar. A division of Myanmar Consolidated Media Co. Ltd, the Myanmar Times published weekly English and Burmese-language news journals until March 2015, when the English edition began publishing daily, five days per week. Its head offices are in Yangon, with bureaus in Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw. The Myanmar Times was founded by Ross Dunkley, an Australian, the newspaper is privately owned by Myanmar Consolidated Media Co. Ltd. which is 51 percent locally owned and 49 percent foreign owned. When it was first established, The Myanmar Times was the publication in the country to be censored by Military Intelligence. This created some resentment locally, among both the Ministry of Information and other journals and it was also forced to print government propaganda, albeit under a State Opinion banner. Sonny Swe was arrested on 26 November 2004, in April 2005 he was given a 14-year jail sentence for publishing the papers without approval from the Ministry of Informations Press Scrutiny Board. He was released from Taunggyi Prison in Shan State on 23 April 2013 after serving more than eight years of a 14-year sentence. However, she was forced by the Ministry of Information to sell her stake to local media entrepreneur, Dr Tin Tun Oo, whose company, Thuta Swe Sone. Dr Tin Tun Oo was the secretary of the Myanmar Writers, when Myanmar Consolidated Medias shareholders initially refused to comply with the ministry, rumours circulated that the paper would be shut down. Australias Foreign Minister Alexander Downer reportedly flew to Yangon to intervene, at the time, the newspaper was still widely regarded as semi-official or government-influenced, despite the fact it is run by a private company. Following Sonny Swes imprisonment in 2005, another Burmese media entrepreneur, Dr Tin Tun Oo, the reformist Thein Sein government abolished pre-publication censorship in August 2012. According to Dunkley, on average 20 percent of the articles submitted to the board were rejected. The English language edition moved to a daily publishing cycle in March 2015, Dunkley sold his interest in the paper and transferred his responsibilities as CEO to Tony Child on October 1 of that year. In April 2016, Child was succeeded by Malaysian journalist Bill Tegjeu as CEO, since 2007, MCM has also published NOW. A Burmese-language health, beauty, and fashion weekly magazine, in late 2007 investors in Myanmar Consolidated Media took a controlling interest in well-regarded English-language newspaper The Phnom Penh Post, based in Cambodia. The investors were identified as Ross Dunkley and Bill Clough, an Australian mining and oil, six months after the takeover, The Phnom Penh Post, which was established in 1991, began daily publication, including an article republication agreement with The Myanmar Times. Dunkley ceased his association with The Phnom Penh Post in 2013, the Myanmar Times also engages in a content-sharing association with The Bangkok Post, an English-language daily newspaper published in Bangkok, Thailand
20.
DVB-T2
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DVB has been standardized by ETSI. This system transmits compressed digital audio, video, and other data in physical layer pipes, the higher offered bit rate, with respect to its predecessor DVB-T, makes it a system suited for carrying HDTV signals on the terrestrial TV channel. As of 2014, it was implemented in broadcasts in the United Kingdom, Italy, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Thailand Flanders, Serbia, Ukraine, Croatia, Denmark, Romania, in March 2006 DVB decided to study options for an upgraded DVB-T standard. The novel system should provide a minimum 30% increase in payload, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 agreed with the regulator Ofcom to convert one UK multiplex to DVB-T2 to increase capacity for HDTV via DTT. They expected the first TV region to use the new standard would be Granada in November 2009 and it was expected that over time there would be enough DVB-T2 receivers sold to switch all DTT transmissions to DVB-T2, and H.264. Ofcom published its decision on 3 April 2008, for HDTV using DVB-T2 and H.264. ITV and C4 had, as expected, applied to Ofcom for the 2 additional HD slots available from 2009 to 2012. Ofcom indicated that it found a channel covering 3.7 million households in London. Ofcom indicated that they would look for more unused UHF channels in other parts of the UK, the DVB-T2 draft standard was ratified by the DVB Steering Board on 26 June 2008, and published on the DVB homepage as DVB-T2 standard BlueBook. It was handed over to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute by DVB. ORG on 20 June 2008, the ETSI process resulted in the DVB-T2 standard being adopted on 9 September 2009. The ETSI process had several phases, but the changes were text clarifications. Since the DVB-T2 physical layer specification was complete, and there would be no further technical enhancements, a draft PSI/SI specification document was also agreed with the DVB-TM-GBS group. Prototype receivers were shown in September IBC2008 and more recent version at the IBC2009 in Amsterdam, as of 2012, Appear TV also produce DVB-T2 receivers, DVB-T2 modulators and DVB-T2 gateways. Other companies like ENKOM or IfN develop software based decoding, NORDIG published a DVB-T2 receiver specification and performance requirement on 1 July 2009. The DTGs test house, DTG Testing are testing Freeview HD products against this specification, many tests broadcast transmission using this standard are being in process in France, with local Gap filler near Rennes CCETT. DVB-T2 was tested in October 2010, in Geneva region, with Mont Salèves repeater, a mobile van was testing BER, strength, and quality reception, with special PCs used as spectrum analysers, constellation testers. The van was moving in Canton Geneva, and France, however, there were none demonstrated in TELECOM2011 at Palexpo. The following characteristics have been devised for the T2 standard, COFDM modulation with QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM, OFDM modes are 1k, 2k, 4k, 8k, 16k, and 32k
21.
Shan language
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The Shan language is the native language of the Shan people and is mostly spoken in Shan State, Burma. It is also spoken in pockets of Kachin State in Burma, in northern Thailand, Shan is a member of the Tai–Kadai language family, and is related to Thai. It has five tones, which do not correspond exactly to Thai tones and it is called Tai Yai, or Tai Long in the Tai languages. The number of Shan speakers is not known in part because the Shan population is unknown, estimates of Shan people range from four million to 30 million, though the true number is somewhere around six million, with about half speaking the Shan language. Many Shan speak local dialects as well as the language of their trading partners, due to the civil war in Burma, few Shan today can read or write in Shan script, which was derived from the Burmese alphabet. The Shan language has a number of names in different Tai languages, in Shan, the language is commonly called kwam tai. In Burmese, it is called shan, bhasa, whence the English word Shan, the term Shan, which was formerly spelt သျှမ်း in Burmese, is an exonym believed to be a Burmese derivative of Siam. In Thai, it is called phasa tai yai, or more informally or even vulgarly by some phasa ngiaw, in Northern Thai, it is called kam tai, or more informally or even vulgarly by some kam ngiao, literally Shan language). In Lao, it is called phasa tai yai, or phasa tai nuea, in Tai Lü, it is called kam ngio. Dialects differ to an extent in vocabulary and pronunciation but are generally mutually intelligible. A number of words differ in initial consonants, in the north, initial /k/, /kʰ/ and /m/, when combined with certain vowels and final consonants, are pronounced /tʃ/, /tʃʰ/ and /mj/. In Chinese Shan, initial /n/ becomes /l/, in southwestern regions /m/ is often pronounced as /w/. Initial /pʰ/ becomes /f/ in the east, prominent dialects are considered as separate languages, such as Khün, which is spoken in Kengtung valley, and Tai Lü. Chinese Shan is also called Mao, referring to the old Shan State of Mong Mao, Tai Long is used to refer to the dialect spoken in southern and central regions west of the Salween River. There are also still spoken by a small number of people in Kachin State. Unlike in Thai and Lao there are no voiced plosives and,1 The glottal plosive is implied after a short vowel without final, or the silent a before a vowel. 2 Initial is only found in dialects in words that are pronounced with elsewhere. 3 The trill is very rare and mainly used in Pali and some English loan words, many Shans find it difficult to pronounce, often pronouncing it
22.
Karen people
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The Karen, Kayin, Kariang or Yang people refer to a number of individual Sino-Tibetan language speaking ethnic groups, many of which do not share a common language or culture. These Karen groups reside primarily in Karen State, southern and southeastern Myanmar, the Karen make up approximately 7 percent of the total Burmese population with approximately 5 million people. A large number of Karen have migrated to Thailand, having settled mostly on the Thailand–Myanmar border, some of the Karen, led primarily by the Karen National Union, have waged a war against the central Burmese government since early 1949. The aim of the KNU at first was independence, since 1976 the armed group has called for a federal system rather than an independent Karen State. Karen legends refer to a river of running sand which ancestors reputedly crossed, many Karen think this refers to the Gobi Desert, although they have lived in Myanmar for centuries. The Karen constitute the third biggest ethnic population in Myanmar, after the Bamars, the term Karen is an umbrella term that refers to a heterogeneous lot of ethnic groups that do not share a common language, culture, religion or material characteristics. Karen is an Anglicisation of the Burmese word Kayin, whose etymology is unclear, the word, which was originally a derogatory term referring to non-Buddhist ethnic groups, may have come from the Mon language, or is a corruption of Kanyan, the name of a vanished civilization. The total number of Karen is difficult to estimate, the last reliable census of Myanmar was conducted in 1931. A2006 VOA article cites an estimate of seven million in Myanmar, there are another 400,000 Karen in Thailand, where they are by far the largest of the hill tribes. Some Karen have left the camps in Thailand to resettle elsewhere, including in North America, Australia, New Zealand. In 2011, the Karen diaspora population was estimated to be approximately 67,000, following British victories in the three Anglo-Burmese wars, Myanmar was annexed as a province of British India in 1886. Baptist missionaries introduced Christianity to Myanmar beginning in 1830, and they were successful in converting many Karen, some Christian Karens began asserting an identity apart from their non-Christian counterparts, and many became leaders of Karen ethno-nationalist organisations, including the Karen National Union. In 1881 the Karen National Associations was founded by western-educated Christian Karens to represent Karen interests with the British, despite its Christian leadership, the KNA sought to unite all Karens of different regional and religious backgrounds into one organisation. They argued at the 1917 Montagu–Chelmsford hearings in India that Myanmar was not yet in a fit state for self-government, three years later, after submitting a criticism of the 1920 Craddock Reforms, they won 5 seats in the Legislative Council of 130 members. The majority Buddhist Karens were not organised until 1939 with the formation of a Buddhist KNA, in 1938 the British colonial administration recognised Karen New Year as a public holiday. During World War II, when the Japanese occupied the region, as a consequence, many villages were destroyed and massacres committed by both the Japanese and the Burma Independence Army troops who helped the Japanese invade the country. Among the victims were a pre-war Cabinet minister, Saw Pe Tha, a government report later claimed the excesses of the BIA and the loyalty of the Karens towards the British as the reasons for these attacks. The intervention by Colonel Suzuki Keiji, the Japanese commander of the BIA, after meeting a Karen delegation led by Saw Tha Din, appears to have prevented further atrocities
23.
Chin State
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Chin State is a state in western Myanmar. The population of Chin state is about 478,801 in 2014 census, the capital of the state is Hakha. The state is a region with few transportation links. Chin State is sparsely populated and remains one of the least developed areas of the country, Chin State has the highest poverty rate of 73% as per the released figures from the first official survey. The Chin people entered the Chin Hills in the first millennium AD as part of the migration of Chin peoples into the area. Some historians put Pateikkaya in eastern Bengal, thus placing the entire Chin Hills under Pagan suzerainty but others, like Harvey, citing stone inscriptions, Kale was a minor Shan state. The minor state occasionally paid tribute to the larger Shan States of Mohnyin and Mogaung, starting in the 1480s, Ava began to disintegrate and Kale was swallowed up by the Shan State of Mohnyin by the 1520s. Toungoo began to weaken in the late 17th century, by the 1730s a resurgent Manipuri Kingdom had conquered the Kabaw Valley, which is at the eastern front of Chin Hills, from the Burmese. Situated in a far west hilly region, however, Chin Hills was traditionally autonomous, the British acquired the Chin Hills a decade after the Third Anglo-Burmese War of 1885. The ensuing Chin resistance to the British was suppressed only by 1896 with the arrest of Khai Kam Suantak of Siyin area, the administered the Chin Hills as part of Arakan Division. American missionaries began arriving in the 1890s and, by the middle of the 20th century, the region was the westernmost advance of the Imperial Japanese Army, which occupied the region in November 1943, in World War II. Because of the regions economic dependence on Burma, Chin leaders, unlike Shan and Kachin leaders, asked only for a special administrative division. As a result, when the 1947 Constitution of Burma granted the right of secession to states after 10 years after the independence, upon Burmas independence from the United Kingdom in 1948, Chin Hills Special Division was created out of Arakan Division, with its capital at Falam. On January 4,1974, it was granted state status, today, the state has little infrastructure and remains extremely poor and undeveloped. Chin National Day is designated on 20 February to commemorate the General Assembly of Chinland held in 1948, the first celebration of Chin National Day was held in 1951. But it was not well recognized by Myanmar governments until the 2010s, Chin National Front proposed to designate 3 January as Chin State Day. Falam had been the capital since the British colonization. After the military coup in 1962, the junta in the 1974 reorganization shifted the capital to Hakha
24.
Satellite television
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A direct-broadcast satellite is a type of artificial satellite which usually broadcasts satellite television signals for home reception. The type of satellite television which uses direct-broadcast satellites is known as direct-broadcast satellite television or direct-to-home television and these services were to use the D-Mac and D2-Mac format and BSS frequencies with circular polarization from orbital positions allocated to each country. Before these DBS satellites, home satellite television in Europe was limited to a few channels, really intended for cable distribution, in 1977, the ITU adopted an international BSS Plan under which each country was allocated specific frequencies at specific orbital locations for domestic service. Over the years, this plan has been modified to, for example, accommodate new countries, increase coverage areas, at present, numerous countries have brought into use their BSS Plan allocations. By contrast, the term DTH can apply to similar services transmitted over a range of frequencies transmitted from satellites that are not part of any internationally planned band. The term DBS is often used interchangeably with DTH to cover both analog and digital video and audio services received by relatively small dishes, a DBS service usually refers to either a commercial service, or a group of free channels available from one orbital position targeting one country. In certain regions of the world, especially in North America, DBS is used to refer to providers of subscription satellite packages, the second commercial DBS service, Sky Television plc, was launched in 1989. Sky TV started as a four-channel free-to-air analogue service on the Astra 1A satellite, by 1991, Sky had changed to a conditional access pay model, and it launched a digital service, Sky Digital, in 1998, with analogue transmission ceasing in 2001. Since the DBS nomenclature is used in the UK or Ireland. News Corporation has a 32% stake in BSkyB, PrimeStar began transmitting an analog service to North America in 1991, and was joined by DirecTV, in 1994. At the time, DirecTVs introduction was the most successful consumer electronics debut in American history, although PrimeStar transitioned to a digital system in 1994, it was ultimately unable to compete with DirecTV, which required a smaller satellite dish and could deliver more programming. DirecTV purchased PrimeStar in 1999 and moved all of that subscribers to DirecTV equipment. In 2008, Liberty Media Corporation purchased News Corporations controlling interest in DirecTV, in 1996, EchoStars Dish Network went online in the United States and, as DirecTVs primary competitor, achieved similar success. AlphaStar also started but soon went under, astro was also started, using a direct broadcast satellite system. Dominion Video Satellite Inc. s Sky Angel launched on a platform in the United States in 1996, with its DBS service geared toward the faith. It grew from six to 36 television and radio channels of entertainment, Christian-inspirational programming. Dominion, under its corporate name Video Satellite Systems Inc. Sky Angel, although a separate and independent DBS service, used the satellites, transmission facilities
25.
Democratic Voice of Burma
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The Democratic Voice of Burma is a non-profit media organization based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Run by Burmese expatriates, it makes radio and television aimed at providing uncensored news. In July 1992, DVB began broadcasting programming into Burma from studios in Oslo, Norway, now the broadcast is sent via satellite. On May 28,2005, DVB expanded its programming and began television broadcasts into the country. In 2012, DVB started multimedia operations inside Myanmar openly, running an office with its former underground VJs
26.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
27.
Internet in Burma
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The Internet in Myanmar has been available since 2000 when the first Internet connections were established. Beginning in September 2011, the historically pervasive levels of Internet censorship in Burma were significantly reduced, in 2015, the internet users significantly increased to 12. Before the democratization in 2011, Internet cafés were common access center for users in the country. The popularity of Internet cafés declined with the emergence of mobile internet with the improvement in telecommunication infrastructure following the liberalization. However, they are widely present, especially in Yangon and Mandalay and are used extensively for blogging. Myanmar has a very low Internet penetration rate due to government restrictions on pricing and deliberate lack of facilities and infrastructure. According to World Internet Stats statistics as of June 2012, the country had over 534,930 Internet users with the vast majority of the users hailing from the two largest cities, Yangon and Mandalay. Although 42 cities across the country have access to the Internet, in 2012, most of the countrys 40,000 Internet connections were ADSL circuits, followed by dial-up, satellite terminal, and WiMax. MPT is also undertaking a trial of fibre-to-the-home in Mandalay, listed as selective in the political and Internet tools areas, as substantial in social, and as no evidence of filtering in conflict/security by the OpenNet Initiative in August 2012. Listed as an Internet enemy by Reporters Without Borders in 2011, following decades of military rule, Burma has undergone a series of significant political and economic reforms since elections in November 2010. March 2011 saw the end of military rule in the country. In 2011-2012 hundreds of prisoners were released and legislative changes re-establishing labour rights in the country. Reforms have also extended to the country’s strict information control regime, beginning in September 2011, the historically pervasive levels of Internet censorship were significantly reduced. International news sites, including Voice of America, BBC, and Radio Free Asia, restrictions on content deemed harmful to state security, however, remained in place. These laws and associated regulations are broadly worded and open to arbitrary or selective interpretation, violators face fines and prison terms of 7 to 15 years. The importing and use of a modem without official permission is banned, harsh prison terms and selective enforcement encourages self-censorship. However, expression in online environments such as comment features where posters can remain anonymous remains relatively free, as of January 2013 the new media law was not in place and there is some concern that the country could backslide and return to the repressive tendencies of the past. With the removal of blocking of web sites after 2012, the need for proxies was reduced, cybercafes were required by law to keep records on their customers’ activities and provide police access to the records upon request
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Internet
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The Internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite to link devices worldwide. The origins of the Internet date back to research commissioned by the United States federal government in the 1960s to build robust, the primary precursor network, the ARPANET, initially served as a backbone for interconnection of regional academic and military networks in the 1980s. Although the Internet was widely used by academia since the 1980s, Internet use grew rapidly in the West from the mid-1990s and from the late 1990s in the developing world. In the two decades since then, Internet use has grown 100-times, measured for the period of one year, newspaper, book, and other print publishing are adapting to website technology, or are reshaped into blogging, web feeds and online news aggregators. The entertainment industry was initially the fastest growing segment on the Internet, the Internet has enabled and accelerated new forms of personal interactions through instant messaging, Internet forums, and social networking. Business-to-business and financial services on the Internet affect supply chains across entire industries, the Internet has no centralized governance in either technological implementation or policies for access and usage, each constituent network sets its own policies. The term Internet, when used to refer to the global system of interconnected Internet Protocol networks, is a proper noun. In common use and the media, it is not capitalized. Some guides specify that the word should be capitalized when used as a noun, the Internet is also often referred to as the Net, as a short form of network. Historically, as early as 1849, the word internetted was used uncapitalized as an adjective, the designers of early computer networks used internet both as a noun and as a verb in shorthand form of internetwork or internetworking, meaning interconnecting computer networks. The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used interchangeably in everyday speech, however, the World Wide Web or the Web is only one of a large number of Internet services. The Web is a collection of interconnected documents and other web resources, linked by hyperlinks, the term Interweb is a portmanteau of Internet and World Wide Web typically used sarcastically to parody a technically unsavvy user. The ARPANET project led to the development of protocols for internetworking, the third site was the Culler-Fried Interactive Mathematics Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, followed by the University of Utah Graphics Department. In an early sign of growth, fifteen sites were connected to the young ARPANET by the end of 1971. These early years were documented in the 1972 film Computer Networks, early international collaborations on the ARPANET were rare. European developers were concerned with developing the X.25 networks, in December 1974, RFC675, by Vinton Cerf, Yogen Dalal, and Carl Sunshine, used the term internet as a shorthand for internetworking and later RFCs repeated this use. Access to the ARPANET was expanded in 1981 when the National Science Foundation funded the Computer Science Network, in 1982, the Internet Protocol Suite was standardized, which permitted worldwide proliferation of interconnected networks.5 Mbit/s and 45 Mbit/s. Commercial Internet service providers emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the ARPANET was decommissioned in 1990
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Internet service provider
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An Internet service provider is an organization that provides services for accessing and using the Internet. Internet service providers may be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, Internet services typically provided by ISPs include Internet access, Internet transit, domain name registration, web hosting, Usenet service, and colocation. The Internet was developed as a network between government research laboratories and participating departments of universities, by the late 1980s, a process was set in place towards public, commercial use of the Internet. The remaining restrictions were removed by 1995,4 years after the introduction of the World Wide Web, in 1989, the first ISPs were established in Australia and the United States. In Brookline, Massachusetts, The World became the first commercial ISP in the US and its first customer was served in November 1989. On 23 April 2014, the U. S, a possible solution to net neutrality concerns may be municipal broadband, according to Professor Susan Crawford, a legal and technology expert at Harvard Law School. On 10 November 2014, President Barack Obama recommended that the FCC reclassify broadband Internet service as a service in order to preserve net neutrality. On 31 January 2015, AP News reported that the FCC will present the notion of applying Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 to the internet in a vote expected on 26 February 2015. Adoption of this notion would reclassify internet service from one of information to one of the telecommunications and, according to Tom Wheeler, chairman of the FCC, the FCC is expected to enforce net neutrality in its vote, according to the New York Times. On 26 February 2015, the FCC ruled in favor of net neutrality by adopting Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 and Section 706 in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to the Internet. The FCC Chairman, Tom Wheeler, commented, This is no more a plan to regulate the Internet than the First Amendment is a plan to free speech. They both stand for the same concept, on 12 March 2015, the FCC released the specific details of the net neutrality rules. On 13 April 2015, the FCC published the rule on its new Net Neutrality regulations. ISPs provide Internet access, employing a range of technologies to connect users to their network, available technologies have ranged from computer modems with acoustic couplers to telephone lines, to television cable, wireless Ethernet, and fiber optics. For users and small businesses, traditional options include copper wires to provide dial-up, DSL, typically asymmetric digital subscriber line, using fiber-optics to end users is called Fiber To The Home or similar names. Wireless access is another option, including cellular and satellite Internet access, a mailbox provider is an organization that provides services for hosting electronic mail domains with access to storage for mail boxes. It provides email servers to send, receive, accept, many mailbox providers are also access providers, while others are not. Internet hosting services provide email, web-hosting, or online storage services, other services include virtual server, cloud services, or physical server operation
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Very-small-aperture terminal
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A very small aperture terminal is a two-way satellite ground station with a dish antenna that is smaller than 3 meters. The majority of VSAT antennas range from 75 cm to 1.2 m, data rates, in most cases, range from 4 kbit/s up to 16 Mbit/s. VSATs access satellites in orbit to relay data from small remote Earth stations to other terminals or master Earth station hubs. VSATs are used to transmit data, or broadband data. VSATs are also used for transportable, on-the-move or mobile maritime communications, the concept of the geostationary orbit was originated by Russian theorist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who wrote articles on space travel around the beginning of the 20th century. Clarkes October 1945 Wireless World article discussed the necessary orbital characteristics for a geostationary orbit, live satellite communication was developed in the 1960s by NASA, which called it Syncom 1-3. It transmitted live coverage of the 1964 Olympics in Japan to viewers in the United States, on April 6,1965, the first commercial satellite was launched into space, Intelsat I, nicknamed Early Bird. The first commercial VSATs were C band receive-only systems by Equatorial Communications using spread spectrum technology, more than 30,00060 cm antenna systems were sold in the early 1980s. Equatorial later developed a C band two-way system using 1 m x 0.5 m antennas, in the early 80s, LINKABIT developed the worlds first Ku-band VSAT for Schlumberger to provide network connectivity for oil field drilling and exploration units. LINKABIT which had part of M/A-COM went on to develop Ku band VSATs for enterprise customers such as Walmart, Holiday Inn, Chrysler. These enterprise terminals made up the vast majority of sites for the next 20 years for two-way data or telephony applications. A large VSAT network, with more than 12,000 sites, was deployed by Spacenet, today, the largest VSAT Ku-band network containing over 100,000 VSATs was deployed by and is operated by Hughes Communications for lottery applications. In 2005, WildBlue started deploying VSAT networks deploying Ka-band, viaSat launched the highest capacity satellite ever, ViaSat-1, in 2011 to expand the WildBlue base under its Exede brand. In 2007, Hughes Communications started deploying Ka band VSAT sites for consumers under its HughesNet brand on the Spaceway 3 satellite, by September 2014, Hughes became the first Satellite Internet Provider to surpass one million active terminals. Some VSAT networks are configured by having several centralized uplink sites connected in a topology with each star connected to each other in a mesh topology. Others configured in only a single-star topology sometimes will have each terminal connected to other as well. Advances in technology have improved the price–performance ratio of fixed satellite service over the past five years. New VSAT systems are coming online using Ka band technology that promise higher data rates for lower costs, FSS systems currently in orbit have a huge capacity with a relatively low price structure
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Censorship in Burma
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Censorship in Myanmar results from government policies in controlling and regulating certain information, particularly on religious, ethnic, political, and moral grounds. Freedom of speech and the press are not guaranteed by law, many colonial-era laws regulating the press and information continue to be used. Until August 2012 every publication required pre-approval by the Press Scrutiny, Burma ranked 151st of 179 nations in the 2012–2013 worldwide Press Freedom Index from Reporters Without Borders. During the reign of King Mindon Min of Burmas last dynasty, the Konbaung dynasty, the Seventeen Articles, passed in 1873 safeguarded freedom of the press. In 1878, after Lower Burma was annexed by Great Britain, the Vernacular Press Act was passed, in 1898, the Criminal Procedure Code allowed the government to convict people for treason and sedition on grounds of disseminating false information against the state. Soon after, in 1908, the Unlawful Associations Act, was enacted to further freedom of expression. The Official Secrets Act was passed in 1923, which makes it unlawful for any person to possess classified information from the state, a decade later, the Burma Wireless Telegraphy Act was passed, criminalising possession of telegraphs without government permission. However, there were numerous publications in circulation during the colonial era, in 1911, there were 44 periodicals and newspapers in circulation, and 103 in 1921. By the end of the 1930s, there were over 200 newspapers and periodicals in circulation, the Constitution of the Union of Burma guaranteed freedom of expression, guaranteeing the liberties of thought and expression. Two years later, the Emergency Provisions Act, which criminalised the spreading of false news knowingly, despite the law, in the 1950s, Burma had one of the freest presses in Asia, with 30 daily newspapers. After the military coup détat by Ne Win in 1962, the Printers and Publishers Registration Law was enacted. This law, still in function, requires all printers and publishers to register and submit copies of their publications to the Press Scrutiny Board, under the Ministry of Home and Religious Affairs. The Memorandum to all Printers and Publishers Concerning the Submission of Manuscripts for Scrutiny was issued by the Printers and Publishers Central Registration Board. That same year, the State Protection Law was issued, allowing authorities to any persons who have been suspected of being a threat to national peace. This law has been the basis for the arrests of many journalists, martial law orders have since been repealed. In 1996, several laws were passed to control dissemination of information in Burma. In addition, it illegalised acts of demeaning the National Convention, films are subject to censorship by the Motion Picture Censor Board. In addition, The Computer Science Development Law was passed, under this law, all computer equipment must be approved by the Ministry of Communications, Posts, and Telegraphs
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Myanmar
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Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and also known as Burma, is a sovereign state in South East Asia bordered by Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand. About one third of Myanmars total perimeter of 5,876 km, forms an uninterrupted coastline of 1,930 km along the Bay of Bengal, the countrys 2014 census revealed a much lower population than expected, with 51 million people recorded. Myanmar is 676,578 square kilometres in size and its capital city is Naypyidaw and its largest city and former capital city is Yangon. Early civilizations in Myanmar included the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states in Upper Burma, the Pagan Kingdom fell due to the Mongol invasions and several warring states emerged. In the 16th century, reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty, the country was for a period the largest empire in the history of Mainland Southeast Asia. The early 19th century Konbaung Dynasty ruled over an area included modern Myanmar and briefly controlled Manipur. The British invaded Myanmar after three Anglo-Burmese Wars in the 19th century and the became a British colony. Myanmar became an independent nation in 1948, initially as a nation and then, following a coup détat in 1962. For most of its independent years, the country has been engrossed in rampant ethnic strife, during this time, the United Nations and several other organisations have reported consistent and systematic human rights violations in the country. In 2011, the junta was officially dissolved following a 2010 general election. While former military leaders still wield enormous power in the country, there is, however, continuing criticism of the governments treatment of the Muslim Rohingya minority and its poor response to the religious clashes. In the landmark 2015 election, Aung San Suu Kyis party won a majority in both houses, Myanmar is a country rich in jade and gems, oil, natural gas and other mineral resources. In 2013, its GDP stood at US$56.7 billion, the income gap in Myanmar is among the widest in the world, as a large proportion of the economy is controlled by supporters of the former military government. As of 2016, according to the Human Development Index, Myanmar had a level of human development. The renaming remains a contested issue, many political and ethnic opposition groups and countries continue to use Burma because they do not recognise the legitimacy of the ruling military government or its authority to rename the country. The countrys official name is the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Countries that do not officially recognise that name use the long form Union of Burma instead, in English, the country is popularly known as either Burma or Myanmar /ˈmjɑːnˌmɑːr/. Both these names are derived from the name of the majority Burmese Bamar ethnic group, Myanmar is considered to be the literary form of the name of the group, while Burma is derived from Bamar, the colloquial form of the groups name
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History of Myanmar
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The history of Myanmar covers the period from the time of first-known human settlements 13,000 years ago to the present day. The earliest inhabitants of recorded history were a Tibeto-Burman-speaking people who established the Pyu city-states ranged as far south as Pyay, another group, the Bamar people, entered the upper Irrawaddy valley in the early 9th century. They went on to establish the Bagan Kingdom, the unification of the Irrawaddy valley. The Burmese language and Bamar culture slowly came to replace Pyu norms during this period, in the second half of the 16th century, the Taungoo Dynasty reunified the country, and founded the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia for a brief period. Later Taungoo kings instituted several key administrative and economic reforms that gave rise to a smaller, more peaceful and prosperous kingdom in the 17th, the dynasty also went to war with all its neighbours. The Anglo-Burmese wars eventually led to British colonial rule, British rule brought several enduring social, economic, cultural and administrative changes that completely transformed the once-agrarian society. Most importantly, the British rule highlighted out-group differences among the countrys ethnic groups. Since independence in 1948, the country has been in one of the longest running civil wars that remains unresolved, the country was under military rule under various guises from 1962 to 2010, and in the process has become one of the least developed nations in the world. The earliest archaeological evidence suggests that cultures existed in Burma as early as 11,000 BCE, most indications of early settlement have been found in the central dry zone, where scattered sites appear in close proximity to the Irrawaddy River. The Anyathian, Burmas Stone Age, existed at a thought to parallel the lower. About 1500 BCE, people in the region were turning copper into bronze, growing rice, by 500 BCE, iron-working settlements emerged in an area south of present-day Mandalay. Bronze-decorated coffins and burial sites filled with earthenware remains have been excavated, archaeological evidence at Samon Valley south of Mandalay suggests rice growing settlements that traded with China between 500 BC and 200 CE. During the Iron Age, archaeological evidence also out of Samon Valley reveal changes in infant burial practices that were influenced by India. These changes include burying infants in jars in which their size depict their family status, the Pyu entered the Irrawaddy valley from present-day Yunnan, c. 2nd century BCE, and went on to found city states throughout the Irrawaddy valley, the original home of the Pyu is reconstructed to be Qinghai Lake in present-day Qinghai and Gansu. The Pyu were the earliest inhabitants of Burma of whom records are extant, during this period, Burma was part of an overland trade route from China to India. Trade with India brought Buddhism from South India, by the 4th century, many in the Irrawaddy valley had converted to Buddhism. Of the many city-states, the largest and most important was the Sri Ksetra Kingdom southeast of modern Pyay, in March 638, the Pyu of Sri Ksetra launched a new calendar that later became the Burmese calendar
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Prehistory of Myanmar
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The prehistory of Burma spanned hundreds of millennia to about 200 BCE. Though these sites are situated in areas, evidence shows these early people were not yet familiar with agricultural methods. The Bronze Age arrived c.1500 BCE when people in the region were turning copper into bronze, growing rice and they were among the first people in the world to do so. The Iron Age arrived around 500 BCE when iron-working settlements emerged in an area south of present-day Mandalay, evidence also shows rice growing settlements of large villages and small cities that traded with their surroundings and as far as China between 500 BCE and 200 CE. Bronze-decorated coffins and burial sites filled with the remains of feasting and drinking provide a glimpse of the lifestyle of their affluent society. The Pyu went on to settlements throughout the plains region centred on the confluence of the Irrawaddy. The Pyu were followed by groups such as the Mon, the Arakanese. By the Pagan period, inscriptions show Thets, Kadus, Sgaws, Kanyans, Palaungs, Was and Shans also inhabited the Irrawaddy valley, Homo erectus began to settle in Burma in 750,000 BCE before the arrival of Homo sapiens from Africa. No archaeological evidence of Homo sapiens before the 11th millennium has yet been discovered, the pre-migration period of Burma spanned from 11,000 BCE to 4,000 BCE before the mass migration. This era is characterised by stone age culture which later advanced to bronze, the cave ritual system, which was later used for Buddhist caves, is believed to have been rooted in the earliest civilisation of this era. The effect can be today in many Buddhism ritual caves across Burma. Roughly polished stone implements of various sizes are found in the Shan States of eastern Burma. Pebble tools, including choppers and chopping tools, are found in the Pleistocene terrace deposits of the Irrawaddy Valley of Upper Myanmar and these complexes are collectively known as the Anyathians, thus, the culture is called the Anyathian culture. The Early Anyathian is characterised by single-edged core implements made on natural fragments of wood and silicified tuff. However, domestications and polishing of stones, which are signs of Neolithic culture, are not known until the discovery of Padah Lin caves in Southern Shan State. Three caves located near Taunggyi at the edge of the Shan Plateau, depict the Neolithic age when farming, domestication and they are dated between 11,000 and 6,000 BCE. The most significant of these is the Padah-Lin cave where over 1,600 of stones and cave paintings have been uncovered. These paintings lie from ten to twelve feet above the floor level depicting figures in red ochre of two hands, a fish, bulls, bisons, a deer and probably the hind of an elephant
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Pyu city-states
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The Pyu city states were a group of city-states that existed from c. 2nd century BCE to c. mid-11th century in present-day Upper Burma, the city-states were founded as part of the southward migration by the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu people, the earliest inhabitants of Burma of whom records are extant. The thousand-year period, often referred to as the Pyu millennium, part of an overland trade route between China and India, the Pyu realm gradually expanded south. Twice as large as Halin, Sri Ksetra was the largest and most influential Pyu centre, the Pyu calendar, based on the Buddhist calendar, later became the Burmese calendar. Recent scholarship, though yet not settled, suggests that the Pyu script, based on the Indian Brahmi script, the millennium-old civilisation came crashing down in the 9th century when the city-states were destroyed by repeated invasions from the Kingdom of Nanzhao. The Bamar people, who came from Nanzhao, set up a town at Bagan at the confluence of the Irrawaddy. Pyu settlements remained in Upper Burma for the three centuries but the Pyu gradually were absorbed into the expanding Pagan Kingdom. The Pyu language still existed until the late 12th century, by the 13th century, the Pyu had assumed the Burman ethnicity. The histories and legends of the Pyu were also incorporated to those of the Bamar, only the city-states of Halin, Beikthano and Sri Ksetra are designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, where the other sites can be added in the future for an extension nomination. Based on limited evidence, it is inferred that the earliest cultures existed in Burma as early as 11,000 BCE. The Anyathian, Burmas Stone Age, existed around the time as the lower. Three caves located near Taunggyi at the foothills of the Shan Hills have yielded Neolithic artefacts dated 10-6000 BCE. About 1500 BCE, people in the region were turning copper into bronze, growing rice, by 500 BCE, iron-working settlements emerged in an area south of present-day Mandalay. Bronze-decorated coffins and burial sites filled with earthenware remains have been excavated, archaeological evidence at Samon River Valley south of Mandalay suggests rice-growing settlements that traded with China between 500 BCE and 200 CE. Circa 2nd century BCE, the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu people began to enter the Irrawaddy River Valley from present-day Yunnan using the Tapain, the original home of the Pyu is reconstructed to be Qinghai Lake, which is located in the present-day provinces of Qinghai and Gansu. The Pyu realm was longer than wide, stretching from Sri Ksetra in the south to Halin in the north, Binnaka and Maingmaw to the east, the Tang dynastys records report 18 Pyu states, nine of which were walled cities, covering 298 districts. The city-states were contemporaries of the Kingdom of Funan and Champa, Dvaravati, Tambralinga and Takuapa near the Kra Isthmus, all these statelets foreshadowed the rise of the classical kingdoms of Southeast Asia in the second millennium CE. Of the 12 walled cities excavated thus far, five are the remains of largest Pyu states, Beikthano, Maingmaw, Binnaka, Halin and its remains—the structures, pottery, artefacts, and human skeletons—date from 200 BCE to 100 CE
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Pagan Kingdom
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The Kingdom of Pagan was the first kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern-day Burma. The kingdom grew out of a small 9th-century settlement at Pagan by the Mranma, in the 12th and 13th centuries, Pagan, alongside the Khmer Empire, was one of two main empires in mainland Southeast Asia. The Burmese language and culture became dominant in the upper Irrawaddy valley, eclipsing the Pyu, Mon. Theravada Buddhism slowly began to spread to the village level although Tantric, Mahayana, Brahmanic, Pagans rulers built over 10,000 Buddhist temples in the Pagan capital zone of which over 2000 remain. The wealthy donated tax-free land to religious authorities and this ushered in a vicious circle of internal disorders and external challenges by the Arakanese, Mons, Mongols and Shans. Repeated Mongol invasions toppled the four-century-old kingdom in 1287, the collapse was followed by 250 years of political fragmentation that lasted well into the 16th century. The origins of the Pagan kingdom have been reconstructed using archaeological evidence as well as the Burmese chronicle tradition, considerable differences exist between the views of modern scholarship and various chronicle narratives. Burmese chronicles do not agree on the origins of the Pagan kingdom, chronicles down to the 18th century trace its origins to 167 CE, when Pyusawhti, a descendant of a solar spirit and a dragon princess, founded the dynasty at Pagan. But the 19th-century Glass Palace Chronicle connects the dynastys origins to the clan of the Buddha, the Glass Palace Chronicle traces the origins of the Pagan kingdom to India during the 9th century BCE, more than three centuries before the Buddha was born. Prince Abhiraja of Kosala of the Sakya clan — the clan of the Buddha — left his homeland with followers in 850 BCE after military defeat by the kingdom of Panchala. They settled at Tagaung in present-day northern Burma and founded a kingdom, the Chronicle does not claim that he had arrived in an empty land, only that he was the first king. The elder son Kanyaza Gyi ventured south, and in 825 BCE founded his own kingdom in what is today Arakan, the younger son Kanyaza Nge succeeded his father, and was followed by a dynasty of 31 kings, and then another dynasty of 17 kings. Some three and a half later, in 483 BCE, scions of Tagaung founded yet another kingdom much farther down the Irrawaddy at Sri Ksetra. Sri Ksetra lasted nearly six centuries, and was succeeded in turn by the kingdom of Pagan, the Glass Palace Chronicle goes on to relate that around 107 CE, Thamoddarit, nephew of the last king of Sri Ksetra, founded the city of Pagan. The site reportedly was visited by the Buddha himself during his lifetime, Thamoddarit was followed by a caretaker, and then Pyusawhti in 167 CE. The chronicle narratives then merge, and agree that a dynasty of kings followed Pyusawhti, king Pyinbya fortified the city in 849 CE. They doubted the antiquity of the tradition, and dismissed the possibility that any sort of civilisation in Burma could be much older than 500 CE. The Abhiraja myth notwithstanding, more recent research indicate that many of the places mentioned in the royal records have indeed been inhabited continuously for at least 3500 years
