Resource information
Mandalay has many faces. As the last capital of the Konbaung Dynasty, Mandalay is
considered the origin of the traditional Myanmar culture. A wide variety of handicrafts
remain in practice today and are a focal point of the Buddhist practice. However, Mandalay
cannot be discussed in only the narrow framework of Myanmar culture. Mosques, Hindu
temples, and Chinese temples stood in a row along its streets, demonstrating the complex
history of this city.
However, the study of Mandalay’s diversity remains limited. The urban area of
Mandalay lies around a square castle, and the towns are ordered as a grid. Such an
extremely orderly city attracts attention from researchers, and arguments concentrate on
interpretation of the design, the centricity and the cosmology of the city. In addition, a
viewpoint assuming Mandalay as a model of the traditional capital of continental Southeast
Asia was dominant for a long time.
It is necessary to reconsider Mandalay as a hub in the regional trade network. Henry
Yule, who visited the city during the Konbaung period records prosperous local trade
activity. According to his account, various merchant groups including Chinese and Muslim
possessed commercial quarter. The presence of a variety of religious buildings and communities in contemporary Mandalay is difficult to understand without paying attention
to the commercial characteristics of the city. Recently, the study of the commercial importance of Mandalay has gradually
developed. For example, Thant Myint-U acknowledges the commercial importance of the
urban area. From the viewpoint of economic history, Schendel explains in detail a variety
of commercial activities of the merchant group based in Mandalay. However, still too few
studies address how these various groups were placed in the spatial structure of Mandalay.
This paper collects basic information and creates a rough sketch of the formation of
Mandalay.
I suggest in advance that foreigners assume a considerable part of the city’s functions
occur in the urban area. In the western part of the city, the commercial space stood along the
Shwe ta waterway. However, the military was concentrated in the eastern, northern, and
southern parts of the moat. In military duty, people of various backgrounds provided
services for the needs of the royal authority. However, the openness of the social structure
did not divide dwellers by ethnicity or religion in the city in those days, and personal
relationships with the sovereign were indispensable. Based on such characteristics, we
review Mandalay as an inland port city...
