mysterious1804

“THE FAMOUS 1804 SILVER DOLLAR REMAINS IN MYANMAR”

Burma Background

Burma is a land of valleys and mountains lying between the massive ridges that fall off almost in perfect parallels from the Himalayan roof. The mountain walls form excellent natural frontiers while the river Irrawaddy running through the entire length of the country serves as a principal means of communication. On the east Burma shares a long stretch of common frontier with Indo-China. Then the frontiers march with those of Thailand for 800 miles before they reach Victoria Point within 400 miles north of Penang. In the far north, some borders still remain to be charted; those were the places which the Burmese kings did not find it worthwhile to garrison. After British occupation trade with China by overland route was an ambition that inspired surveys of the uncharted jungle country. The southern basin of Burma is the fertile delta, the principal rice-producing part of the country. Yangon, the capital, is the port of call of ocean going steamers: Yangon, the word in Burmese means the ‘end of hostility’.

Aspects of Myanmar

Myanmar is a country situated in the south east of Asia and is a member of ASEAN. It is about 261,765 square miles in area. The country consists of over a hundred races of people of which the major races are Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, Chin, Mon, Bamar, Rakhine and Shan. They are different in habits, languages, religions, traditions, cultures and customs. Myanmar is rich in mineral and other resources such as natural gas, gold, rubies, jade, silver, lead, copper, tin, wolfram, coal etc. The largest jade which weight over 2000 tons was excavated in northern Myanmar (Kachin State) in late 2000. The largest ruby which has 21,450 carats was discovered in 1996. Myanmar also possesses the world largest pearl. She has very dense tropical forest. In 2000, 52.3% of the face of Myanmar was still covered with forest. About a hundred year ago the percentage was much higher. The famous teak wood and many valuable hard wood trees such as Padauk (the red sandal wood genus), Pyengadu (Pyeng-ga-doa the Myanmar iron wood; Xylia Mimosaceae) grow abundantly, but human skill was very much more in need to turn these into real wealth. It seems as if some of them are there safely under lock and key waiting for those who would have the key of knowledge to bring them to light.