Early Modern Architecture

By the end of a century of British presence in the country, very few of the local populace outside the cities had ever seen an Englishman. Public administration was largely staffed by Indian clerks, while most of the entrepreneurs and engineers who came seeking their fortunes were Scots. Yet, between the Second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852 and the end of World War II, the impact of the West was certainly felt by all in the rapid spread of roads, new ideas in building and urban planning, and a rich infusion of diverse decorative vocabularies.

Myanmar today retains more 19th-and early 20th-century architecture than any other country in Southeast Asia, though what is often refered to as "colonial architecture" was no more a single unifed style than it was purely a foreign aesthetic. An irrepressibly Asian love of ornamentation eagerly embraced the novelty of Victorian and Edwardian design idioms to create hybrid architectural forms as unique as the Anglo-Saracen monuments of India.

Outside of downtown Yangon, where Indian-built shophouses and public offices predominate, the numerous of most extant colonial-era buildings are Buddhist ordination halls (thein). Found throughout the country, these confections of moulded stucco with tiered roofs and stupa finials were donated by well-to-do Burmese merchants and rice-milling families affecting the latest "international standards" in sophistication, thereby enhancing their kammic merit as well as aiming to impress the community. After the 1880s and the abolition of the Konbaung Dynasty sumptuary laws (which forbad commoners from building large or ornate "palaces") brick-and-plaster with corrogated iron or zinc roofing became the building materials of choice, replacing teak, bamboo and palm thatch. Stone was seldom used; structures drew instead on centuries-old local traditions of solid-brick temple construction from Bagan and earlier, now adapted to the lighter columns, narrower walls and open arcades of Western-style villas.

The bricklayers may have been Burmese, but the plasterers were typically intinerant Indian journeymen who had no real grounding in the indigenous culture.

Carved teak rosette-boss on the main rotunda ceiling of the Karen Chapel, to the east of the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.

Teak-shingled double-cupola with lace-like pendantives atop a minor monastery in the wooded lnya Myaing ("Golden Valley") residential area of Yangon.

The Boat Club on Kandawgyi (Royal Lake), Yangon, by the site of the Kandawgyi Palace Hotel. Along with the Gymkhana, it was one of the most popular expatriate social clubs of its day.

Deep eaves to shade against the tropical sun. Iron, zinc and tin roofing came from British Malaya.

As more and more splendiferous brick monasteries (kyaung taik) replaced older wooden temples, stucco decoration sometimes mimicked the traceries of Burmese kanot floral woodcarving; the odd door-frame or lintel might echo the ornate flourishes of Buddhist altar nimbuses. More often, however, stylistic inspiration derived from the neo-classicisms of Anglo-Indian mansions in Bengal. Façades concocted fanciful curries of Ionic and Corinthian pilasters and arched windows, scrolled corbels and keystones, sculpted festoons and baroque balustrades crested with the occasional Buddhistic peacock-hare "sun-moon" motif or naga serpent. Even British lions pay homage to the Buddha in the iconography of these temple halls!

Opinion among Myanmar's foreign residents toward such highly-mannered reworking of Europeanisms was not always favourable: "The old-style religious buildings were really beautiful-but the new-style taik kyaungs were hideous. So were most of the Burmese towns, but they were not Burmese in architecture and came from copying the West," wrote C J Richards in The Burman: An Appreciation (1945). Little did such East-West distinctions deter those wealthy and pious patrons to whom the rich new designs evoked realms beyond-both exotic and otherworldly. And, by the 1930s, the kyaung taik was a well-established local tradition, no longer so very foreign at all.

Only slightly less prevalent in Myanmar are bungalows, those gentrified cottages that repose in rural towns, hill stations and former upper-class suburban estates such as Yangon's "Golden Valley" (present-day lnya Myaing). As suggested by the name, which originally derived from the Hindustani bangala meaning "hut", the basic bungalow form was transplanted from British India. As early as the 1830s, rather simple single-family homes raised on wooden posts or masonry piers began to appear, but here again the Burmese taste for embellishment soon took to the romanticism of cupolas and gabled roofs with "gingerbreaded" eave-line vergeboards, fretwork and pendants. Unlike India, there are virtually no large-scale manor houses in the country, yet the amount of detailing invested in these architectural gems make for some of the most delightful creations in the early-modern heritage of the country.

Finally, there are the three-and four-storey rowhouses that fill out the urban fabric of Yangon, Mawlamyaing (Moulmein) and other regional cities. Painted in pastel blues and yellows, whole blocks of profusely ornamented stucco facades-some spanning more than 100 metres-remain intact as nowhere else in Southeast Asia or even Calcutta. A few Chinese-style rooflines or carved doors evidence migration from the Straits Colonies in the 1920s; many more bear the Muslim names of Indian companies who built them as worker dormitories. Truly vernacular constructions, the architects and contractors are generally unknown. Most rowhouses, faded though still structurally sound, have been renovated and subdivided to house far larger communities than originally intended and cry out for conservation. These beautiful buildings are as alive as their bustling ground-floor shops and families that smile from their rococo balconies-endearing faces that stand witness to the changes occuring in Myanmar today.

A grand turret atop the former residence of Bogyoke Aung San, the father of Myanmar's independence movement, now a museum.

Old photograph of the interior of the bungalow of the manager of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, Yangon, circa 1880s, complete with wool carpet and upholstered chairs. The punkah fan-curtain draped from the ceiling made such warm furnishings acceptable in the tropics. Private collection.

One of the more ornate private residences hidden away in the garden estates of northwest Yangon.
Plates 1 and 4 from a private collection.

Old Rangoon

Yangon (as Rangoon is known today) retains little of the original Mon-Burman town of Dagon that once skirted the foot of the Shwedagon Pagoda. The city was entirely rebuilt after the Second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852, laid out on a long east-west grid by military engineers Fraser and Montgomerie and developed over the following decades by the Public Works Department and Bengal Corps of Engineers. The whole downtown port area had to be raised several feet for flood-control and modern sanitation, the Corporation of Rangoon raising funds by auctioning off private lots. By the turn of the century, Rangoon was reputedly the most cosmopolitan city in the British Empire, with streetcars, gaslights and telephone services on a par with London.

The downtown area abounds in marvellous period architecture, both vernacular and landmark structures. Among the most famous public buildings are the massive polychrome-brick High Court (1911) by James Ransome (1865-1944), Telegraph Office (1911) by John Begg (1866-1937) and citadel-like Secretariat (1905). The tower of the Port Authority (1920) stands at the head of the Pansodan (Phayre Street) main business district, still graced with the imposing façades of major banks and trading houses from the heyday of Rangoon's shipping industry. The Strand Hotel (1896), built by the Sarkies Brothers whose hotel chain included the famous Raffles Hotel in Singapore, has now been restored to its original splendour, though its view of the river remains blocked by recent port facilities. The most inspired examples of a syncretic Myanmar style are to be found in the tier-roofed Railway Station (1910) and City Hall (1927) designed by Burmese architect U Tin (1890-1972).

As the city grew, it pushed north into residential estates between Kandawgyi (Royal Lake) and lnya Lake (Lake Victoria). Nestled among the wooded lanes are fine examples of period architecture like the teak-spired Myoma High School (1922), also by U Tin, and the Dhammazedi (Boundary) Road arch-Victorian teak bungalows (circa 1920) of former Rangoon Mayor U Pa Thein. To its credit, as of 1996, the government established a listing of 71 heritage buildings, out of literally hundreds around Yangon. Now comes the challenge to implement preservation efforts to safeguard these sites for future generations.

Proud lions and cherubic sculptural detailing on the façade of an Indian Merchant Association building tells of the past wealth of Yangon.

An orchestrated rhythm of arches, corbels and pilasters stratified between cornices on a shophouse façade in Yangon's Indian Quarter. Photo by Jean-Leo Dugas!, Photobank.

The Port Authority, corner of Lower Pasodan and Strand, with its Spanish Mission-influenced carillon tower.

Period postcard of the District Courts (1911) by Public Works Department engineer Hoyne-Fox. The building later became the Headquarters of the Burma Socialist Programme Party.

A many-shuttered shophouse block in Yangon's Chinatown. Each building was allowed one narrow staircase for every 25 feet (8 m) of frontage. They are similar to Straits shophouses, if more massive in scale.

A Palladian Villa in Teak

This unlikely Buddhist retreat in southwest Mandalay was built in 1879 at the behest of U Kaung (1822-1908), a former Kinwun Mingyi (Minister of Foreign Affairs). He served as royal envoy to England and France in 1872 and 1874, where his duties included observing "things Western" both cultural and technological. Upon his return, he commissioned architects Comodo and Bonvallein, both formerly in the employ of King Mindon (r. 1853-78), to adapt European neo-classical style to a Burmese wooden building raised on stilts.

It is not known whether the construction was intended to be a villa or a monastic building, but it is thought that the Minister intended to retire here. However, at some point in time, the building became part of the nearby Thakawun or "Self-designated" monastery. Singularly quiet and understated, it is rectangular in plan and raised on masonry-footed pilings, as was traditional in Myanmar. Unlike most early modern monasteries, however, the Western-influenced forms here are rendered in the wood, not in brick and plaster; it is interesting to note how the woodworking and joinery echo the neo-classical composure of Palladia's villas (who in turn used stucco to emulate Roman stone architecture). The overall effect is planar and tableaux-like, each side repeating a graceful rhythm of pedimented windows and Ionic pillasters surmounted by a central gable.

The interior again features pedimented windows, together with delicate transom carvings over solid door-panels with fluted mouldings. A spiral staircase leads to a roof terrace, which formerly boasted a cupola over a central rotunda, now badly rain-damaged. The layout follows European models with its corridors and succession of individual rooms-more like private apartments than monks' quarters.

A rare late 19th-century Myanmar official reinterperation of Western taste in local materials, the Kinwun Mingyi villa stands as a counterpoint to the "entirely Burmese" Lieutenant-Governor's Residence (destroyed in World War II) that Lord Curzon had constructed inside the grounds of the Mandalay palace in demonstration of his keen interest in preserving the architectural traditions of Myanmar.

This large mansion is accessed by two large, whitewashed brick and plaster staircases, similar to the those that lead to traditional monasteries. There used to be a wooden balcony all around the building; this has now collapsed and been dismantled, thus explaining the whimsical appearance of the staircase that falls slightly short of the entrance.

The rotunda, in neo-classical style with Corinthian capitals on the top of the building, was once the centrepiece of an ltalianate rooftop garden. It is now hidden below a roof hastily erected to protect the edifice from the vagaries of the tropical climate.

Richly carved, renaissance-style solid teak doors with floral detailing in the arched transoms lead from the main reception hall.

Although monks do not live here, an altar is set up in the hall on special Buddhist holidays and monks use the building.

The veranda at the front of the building is embellished by neo-classical windows and Victorian wooden gates. It now serves as an area for relaxation for the monks living in the large monastery compound.

Scottish Cottages in the Shan Hills

The old hill station of Maymyo (or "Maytown" after Colonel May of the Fifth Bengal Infantry Regiment) is a little Lake District in the Shan Hills just above Mandalay. Now called Pyin U Lwin, it boasts perhaps the most picturesque collection of colonial-era bungalows in the whole of Myanmar: over 100 former summer villas and estate houses of civil servants and private companies-mostly Scottish-but now owned by Chinese businessmen and military families, still survey gardens of roses and gladioli.

Today, the main street, a segment of the famous Burma Road, is lined with colourful souvenir shops run by a large Nepali community descended from Gurkha solidiers of the Raj. Two-storey shophouses boast well-preserved iron grillework balconies, intricately carved slat vergeboards and even chimneys. In the centre of town stands the Purcell Tower, erected in 1910 as a gift from Queen Victoria. The clock in the tower still chimes like Big Ben, although capped with a Burmese-style roof similar to that of Mandalay's royal Zegyo Clocktower (1903).

The Candacraig (Thiri Myaing) Hotel, built in 1906.as a chummery (bachelor quarters) for the Bombay-Burmah Trading Company, is surely the most striking extant period building. Posed on a hilltop by the Botanical Gardens, the brick and teak miniature manor house seems all the more imposing for its octagonal turrets and ivy-covered walls. Renovations may have tarnished its authenticity, but the entry hall with its lyre-shaped staircase has lost none of its charm.

Colonials escaped the heat and spent the summer months amidst Maymyo's gardens and fruit orchards. This photograph depicts a typical civil servant family bungalow.

Whitewashed turrets peer over the misty knolls. A former company lodge evokes an era long past.

The brick and teak Candacraig Hotel has changed little since colonial days. Unique to Maymyo, picturesque miniature horse carriages still ply the country roads.

A rustic woodland estate, just like home, back in Scotland.

A simple Edwardian-vintage vacation cottage with deep eaves and central chimney.

The entrance hall of the Canda-craig with its staircase leading to the upper landing, parlour and guest rooms.

1930s' Monasteries at Sagaing

Some of the finest examples of brick and plaster temple halls (kyaung talk) are found in Sagaing, a major craft and religious centre across the river from Mandalay. A one-time Shan capital, Sagaing today is renowned for gold-and silver-smithing, as well as for housing the largest community of Buddhist nuns in the world. They live in many of the sanctuaries that dot the large steep hill, likewise famous for its breathtaking panorama of the Irrawaddy River. Sight-seers and pilgrims pack picnic lunches and spend the afternoon wandering from temple to temple amidst the flowering jacaranda trees along the ridge.

Around the base of Sagaing Hill, however, survive a number of very beautiful, but overlooked, colonial-influenced monasteries from the 1930s. Now sadly in varying degrees of disrepair, their elevated pediments and tiered jack-roofs exemplify early-modern Burmese syncretism at its peak. Typically ltalianate in conception, the vertical proportions are accentuated in rhythms of tall, inter-columnated window arches and multiple cornices. However, the flat roofs fringed by raised parapet trimmings and balustrades also support pagoda spires and Buddhist statuary-heavenly devas or sphinx-like manuthiha whose double haunches spread perpendicularly in two directions around corners. Grand staircases mount the raised foundation platforms, playing up the solemnity of monastic processionals.

The interiors are often very spare, belying the rich façades; high-ceiling teak beams and mouldings-which once complemented chandeliers-hide behind cobwebs, as if in back-handed dismissal of worldly show. After decades of use, makeshift living quarters are still roped off with blankets and old robes. Faded calendars and dusty photos of past abbots are tacked up on the walls. Donated clocks chime at odd intervals. Despite the pride of the original patrons, the temples themselves have become timeless meditations on vanitas.

A triumphant peacock, sun-symbol of the Konbaung kings, crests the ornate stucco façade of a monastery in Sagaing.

A colourful ltalianate façade further uplifted by tiered teak roofs.

A heavily-moulded late-Renaissance balustrade ascends to a monastery terrace.

Buddhist stupa finials and figures surmount the parapet of a Portuguese-influenced façade. In the past, when monasteries were the sole responsibility of the Burmese kings, their upkeep and the monks' living expenses would have been taken care of. After the fall of the monarchy, when it became feasible for the new rich seeking merit to sponsor the building of monasteries, it was often simply the construction that was paid for. In some cases, only a façade was built! This is very evident in Sagaing, where many monasteries are empty shells, mere ceremonial structures-unused and falling into disrepair.

A Wonderland in Monywa

Eleven kilometres southeast of Monywa, a commercial centre of Upper Myanmar located a day-trip away from Mandalay, one finds the eclectic temple complex of Mohnin Thamboddhe pagoda. Composed of several buildings, all sponsored by various people seeking merit, the most strikingly bizarre edifice here is the Eng Aung Tong "Eternal Peace Hall". It was built in 1938 as an infirmary for the Buddhist Sangha by nouveau riche Singapore-Chinese medicine magnates Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par for their spiritual mentor, the Mohnin Sayadaw U Kyauk Lon. A sort of "Hong Kong Tiger Gardens done up in Victoriana", it is now in a state of some disrepair.

Enter though a triumphal arch flanked by two huge white elephant statues, and the tiger-topped gateway of this lavishly detailed "Tiger Dispensary" is on the right. Polychrome sculptural detailing abounds: every Corinthian capital has its little tiger; Kwan-yin, the Mahayana Goddess of Mercy, rides two dragons atop the façade. A colourful frieze celebrates the miraculous Buddha-blessed origins of Tiger-brand lotus balm; curious portrait figures of the illustrious Aw Brothers in modern suits attend at the entrance. A teak staircase with tiers of ascending gables extends from the rear of the dispensary, ornamented by cut-away traceries of leaping tigers and cornucopious bouquets.

Trompe l'oeil bunting and festoons above a doorframe.

Main entrance to the monks' quarters. Painted flower insets lighten the broad arches.

A small zeidi with crowning hti complements the Victoriana. Vines twine about the columns and yogi figures top the capitals.

Slatwork traceries grace the gable over the rear staircase of the dispensary.

Butterfly and garland from a votive plaque. Donor names are inscribed on their "good deed".

A decorative door frame.

Stucco Buddhistic lotus petals and British roses on a minor zeidi.

Frieze depticting the "miraculous" lotus balm cure. Here, a herbalist (ziwaka) administers to an ailing patient. Bounding tigers complete the image of vital energy.

Portrait bust of founder of the Aw Family fortunes, not quite identified by mock-Chinese characters.

Side view of the "Tiger Dispensary", complete with teak gabled window-awnings and tigers perched on the fence-posts.

Inside, the long-vacant dispensary bears faded traces of a brilliant colour scheme. The ceiling wears a moulding of pastel-painted teak bats and butterflies, Chinese symbols of good fortune (not to mention a few live bats!). Tinted glass window-panes cast rainbows over the dusty wall-mounted alabaster Buddhas that watched over each bedstead. The overall effect is almost hallucinatory.

Indeed, the layout, replete with spiral view-tower, dainty gazebos and sculpture gardens, is more reminsicent of an amusement park than a place of worship. The giddy, festive flourishes, however, give way to a more sombre mood inside the main worship hall built from 1939 on by architect-astrologer U Han, after a premonition about the coming World War. Over a hundred thousand tiny Buddha statues stare from dark alcoves. Astrological symbols and hex-like diagrams posted at every turn render an arcane order that fuses Eastern cosmological mandala with British imperial pomp. The whole complex is truly a strange wonderment.

A humble Aw Boon Haw welcomes the visitor to his flam-boyan! Eternal Peace Hall.