Myanmar

Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and also known as Burma, is a sovereign state in Southeast Asia. Myanmar is bordered by India and Bangladesh to its west, Thailand and Laos to its east and China to its north and northeast. To its south, about one third of Myanmar's total perimeter of 5,876 km (3,651 mi) forms an uninterrupted coastline of 1,930 km (1,200 mi) along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The country's 2014 census counted the population to be 51 million people. As of 2017, the population is about 54 million. Myanmar is 676,578 square kilometres (261,228 square miles) in size. Its capital city is Naypyidaw, and its largest city and former capital is Yangon (Rangoon). Myanmar has been a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since 1997.

Quotes

Enlightenment finds its way even among the outer barbarians.
- Inscription on the joss-house of a Chinaman in the outskirts of Mandalay, as reported in James George Scott, Burma: As It Was, as It Is, and as It Will Be (1886), p. 75

Back to Port Blair, and onward to Rangoon
Athirst for war news; and we heard full soon
The loud salute resounding through the bay
For Theebaw caught and taken Mandalay.
- Thomas Frank Bignold, "The Holiday", Leviora (1888), p. 72

By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' lazy at the sea,
There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me.
- Rudyard Kipling, "Mandalay", st. 1 (1890)