Burma - The Royal Cities of Asia

The Book

Mandalay, the fabled royal city of Burma founded by King Mindon in the mid-19th century, is celebrated in the Burmese annals as the "Centre of the Universe". Surrounded by high walls and wide moats, the city remains the sophisticated heart of traditional Burma. As befits a royal city, it is closely associated with the Burmese arts - woodcarving, sculpture, painting, weaving, embroidery, music and dance. Within a narrow radius of 20 kilometres, moreover, four other ancient royal cities - Mingun, Ava, Sagaing and Amarapura - survive. Highly photogenic, the story of Mandalay is also enlivened by the vicious, often bloody nature of Burmese court politics. Captured by the British in 1886, the city was subsequently badly damaged by fire during the Second World War, but is today being painstakingly restored to its former splendours.

The Author

Andrew Forbes graduated in Chinese Studies from the University of Leeds before going on to complete an MA in Islamic Studies and a Ph.D in Central Asian History. He first visited Mandalay in 1976 and has revisited the city on numerous occasions over the past twenty years. He has written on aspects of Burmese culture and history for various academic publications, as well as for The Asian Wall Street Journal. His writings on Burma include the Teak House publication The Haw: Traders of the Golden Triangle (1997).