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Burma or Myanmar: One Country With Two Names?

Lin Yang

   One coup. One country. Two names?

   Myanmar is the official name of the country upended by a military coup
   this week. In official documents issued by the Biden administration,
   the country with beaches on the Andaman Sea is Burma.

   And whenever the country is in the news, the question of what's in a
   name returns.

   "Our official policy is that we say 'Burma' but use 'Myanmar' as a
   courtesy in certain communications," Jen Psaki, the White House
   spokesperson, said when asked to address the issue during a press
   conference this week. "So, for example, the embassy website refers to
   Burma -- Myanmar because they are by definition dealing with officials
   and the public.'¯The State Department website uses 'Burma (Myanmar)' in
   some places and 'Burma' in others."

   How it began

   The conundrum emerged in 1989 when the ruling military government
   changed the country's name from Burma to Myanmar after quashing a
   pro-democracy uprising by killing thousands of people. The military
   changed the name of Rangoon, the nation's major city, to Yangon at the
   same time.

   The military government believes that the term Burma only covers
   Burman, the largest ethnic group in Myanmar, and does not include the
   other 134 ethnic minority groups.'¯The military position is that if the
   name of the main ethnic group is used as the name of the country, it
   would be racially discriminatory, according to the [1]United States
   Institute of Peace blog.'¯And, Burma, which became the country's
   official name under British rule and stuck after independence, was a
   reminder of the colonial past.

   The United Nations and some countries such as France and Japan
   recognized the change. The United States and Britain did not.

References

   1. https://www.usip.org/blog/2018/06/whats-name-burma-or-myanmar

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