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�In pictures:�Rangoon colonial architecture |
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Decades of poverty brought on by political and economic isolation has left the Burmese capital Rangoon with the largest collection of colonial architecture in South East Asia. BBC News Online takes a look at architectural survivors that are facing their greatest challenge yet � tenants prosperous enough to afford something new. |
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�In pictures:�Rangoon colonial architecture |
|
Decades of poverty brought on by political and economic isolation has left the Burmese capital Rangoon with the largest collection of colonial architecture in South East Asia. BBC News Online takes a look at architectural survivors that are facing their greatest challenge yet � tenants prosperous enough to afford something new. |
|
Click below for more images |
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�In pictures:�Rangoon colonial architecture |
|
Decades of poverty brought on by political and economic isolation has left the Burmese capital Rangoon with the largest collection of colonial architecture in South East Asia. BBC News Online takes a look at architectural survivors that are facing their greatest challenge yet � tenants prosperous enough to afford something new. |
|
Click below for more images |
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Rangoon has the most colonial era architecture in South East Asia
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Sadly, this building was given a ruthless facelift two years ago - most of the faux Egyptian stucco ornamentation was chipped off the facade and replaced with glazed tiles. The only bit to survive the renovation was a winged scarab high up the building.
Opponents of Burma's military regime accuse the government of destroying these vestiges of British colonial rule in an effort to modernise the capital before the Asean Summit, which Burma will host in 2006.
Ironically, if it were not for decades of ruinous economic policies, the buildings would probably never have survived in the first place. For many years residents of Rangoon were simply too poor to build anything new.
Modernisation
Rangoon now has the largest collection of colonial architecture of any South-East Asian city. For first time visitors to the capital, the sheer number of colonial buildings is likely to dazzle.
"We were in Havana on vacation last year and that's what Rangoon reminds us of - the pastel colours and the people lounging in the windows", remarked a visitor from Canada.
Less likely to attract attention are the vacant lots surrounded by high sheet-metal fences that tell of yet another structure to fall victim to modernisation.
While visitors may be charmed by facades, residents of these old buildings find they are difficult to maintain - sometimes for surprising reasons.
"Birds drop the seeds of trees and these sprout on the building", said a barrister whose offices occupy a decrepit colonial building.
"The problem is that some of those plants you see growing from the buildings cannot be removed. That is to say, people do not want to remove them. They are a type of banyan, Ficus religiosa, and this tree is sacred to the Buddha and so too sacred to Buddhist people," he said.
If nothing else, the present state of much of Rangoon's British colonial architecture is a lesson in the Buddhist concept of universal impermanence.
The building dates back some 70 years to when U Myo Thein was just a boy.
Colonial-era architecture
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In pictures: Rangoon colonial architecture |
|
Decades of poverty brought on by political and economic isolation has left the Burmese capital Rangoon with the largest collection of colonial architecture in South East Asia. BBC News Online takes a look at architectural survivors that are facing their greatest challenge yet – tenants prosperous enough to afford something new. |
|
Click below for more images |
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On to the next image');" onmouseout="ChangeText(infotxt);">NEXT |
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