ASIA/MYANMAR - Info:

Saturday, 20 November 2004

Vatican City (Fides Service) - In the occasion of Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe's visit to Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, here is some basic information on Myanmar.
area 676.563 sq. km.
population 48.85 million (mid 2002, source FMI).
Capital: Yangon (formerly Rangoon) 2,513,000 population
Other cities Mandalay 533,000; Bago 320,000; Henzada 290,000; Myingyan 230,000.
Languages Burmese; and ethnic minority languages
Currency Kyat (Kt), divided into 100 Pyas. (7,8824 Kt = 1 Euro 2004)
GNP 8.9 billion dollars (2003)
growth 1.1%
GNP Contribution of Sectors (%) Agriculture and fishing 57,7%; industry 10,6%; manufacture 8,3%; services 31,6%
Religion: 72.7% Buddhism; 12.6% animist; 8.3% Christianity ; 2.4% Islam; others 4%
Culture: The countryside is disseminated with thousands of Buddhist pagodas and temples of every epoch and size. Yangon boasts the world’s largest and most famous pagoda Shwedagon Pagoda 91 mt. high and covered in gold and precious stones where 12 hairs of Buddha are preserved. Bagan, the original capital has a temple area with no less than 1,300 temples which is one of the most important archaeological areas of Indochina. On the Shan plain there is the famous Pindaya grotto with 800 statues of Buddha of different sizes and styles, some of which are more than 2,200 years old.
Catholic Church
History The Gospel was brought here by Portuguese missionaries in the 16th century. In the 18th century the Mission of Burma began officially, and in the 19th century it was divided into three circumscriptions entrusted to the Paris Foreign Missions Institute MEP and the Pontifical Foreign Mission Institute PIME. The Catholic faith took root thanks to generous work of tireless missionaries including Blessed Father Paolo Manna, (who founded the Pontifical Missionary Union) and Father Clemente Vismara (1897-1988), missionary in Burma for 65 anni (1923-1988), where he devoted his time to assisting orphans and abandoned children. The first locally born Bishop U Win, was ordained in 1954 as auxiliary for Mandalay and in 1955 the Catholic hierarchy was established in two provinces Rangoon and Mandalay.
Today: Catholics 602,000; Dioceses 12; bishops 17; diocesan priests 533; religious priests 24; Brothers 97; women Religious 1.396; lay missionaries 427 catechists 3.399; major seminarians 334 (Agenzia Fides 20/11/2004)


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