Myanmar (Burma) is the name that has long been used by its people to describe their motherland which the British named ‘Burma’ after the majority national group ‘Bamar’. It has a total area of 676,577 square km (261,218 miles) and runs 1,300 miles from north to south, draws out 575 miles from east to west. Myanmar is the largest country in Southeast Asia peninsular sharing borders with Bangladesh, India, China, Laos, Thailand, the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal.
It is a union of many nationalities as many as 135 groups speaking over 100 languages and dialects which is richly endowed not only with tourist attraction sites but also with natural resources such as natural gas, crude oil, hard woods and precious stones like Jade, Ruby, and Sapphire, the snow-cap mountains which can only be seen in Southeast Asia, Rivers, Archipelago, and Ancient Pagoda and so on.
Buddhism has great influence on daily life of the Myanmar and preserving the traditions of close family ties, respect for the elders, reverence for Buddhism and simple native dress with a cheerful face and simple hospitality and friendliness. Myanmar is a nation with a great diversity of landscape, sights, sounds, ethnic races and boasts colorful festivals round the year.
