Yangon
former capital of Myanmar (Burma) and the current capital of Yangon Region
Yangon, also romanized in English as Rangoon, is the capital city of the Yangon Region and the most populous city of Myanmar. Yangon was the capital city of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the military government relocated the administrative functions to the purpose-built capital city of Naypyidaw in north central Myanmar. With over five million people, Yangon is Myanmar's most populous city and its most important commercial centre.
Yangon boasts the largest number of colonial-era buildings in Southeast Asia, and has a unique colonial-era urban core that is remarkably intact. The colonial-era commercial core is centred around the Sule Pagoda, which is reputed to be over 2,000 years old. The city is also home to the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda – Myanmar's most sacred and famous Buddhist pagoda.
Yangon suffers from profoundly inadequate infrastructure, especially compared to other major cities in Southeast Asia, such as Jakarta, Bangkok or Hanoi. Especially rail transport is lacking. Though many historic residential and commercial buildings have been renovated throughout central Yangon, most satellite towns that ring the city remain chronically impoverished and lack basic infrastructure.
Etymology and pronunciation
The name Yangon (ရန်ကုန်) is derived from the combination of the Burmese words yan (ရန်) and koun (ကုန်), which mean 'enemies' and 'run out of', respectively.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Yangon” is former capital of Myanmar (Burma) and the current capital of Yangon Region. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Yangon, former and capital, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “former capital of Myanmar (Burma) and the current capital of Yangon Region” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q37995. VIAF identifies the subject as 136635929. The Library of Congress control number is n80053296. Authority coordinates are 16.795, 96.160. 5 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2005 and 2006.
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This entry incorporates text from “Yangon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.