Museums
The National Museum on Pyay Road holds a collection of royal regalia, as well as the Lion Throne, the only one of the original nine from Mandalay Palace that has been preserved. The solid gold vases, trays, spittoons, water jugs and flower caskets now on display in separate cases were once arrayed in front of the throne for state occasions.
Among the items of the king’s regalia on display are a flywhisk, dagger; white umbrella and heavy gold slippers set with rubies. On the ground floor are the gilded beds and book cabinets of the last kings and queens, including a chair carved out of ivory.
Other floors house excellent collections of folk art and traditional paintings showing royal family _ groups and works of the old Myanmar masters who first _painted in the western style. Also on display are elegant of calligraphy from the Pyu era. which flourished from the second to the ninth centuries. The Gems Museum on Kaba Aye Pagoda Road displays fine examples of cut and uncut precious stones from Myanmar; including rubies. sapphires and jade. The best rubies come from Mogok in Mandalay Division, and the biggest quantities of imperial jade in the world come from Kachin State. Huge uncut rubies, the size of bricks, are on show. Although sapphires are not found in abundance in Myanmar; the museum holds a flawlessly cut sample of the deep blue stone that is about the size of a large marble. The biggest natural pearl in Myanmar, found only a few years ago, sits like a fluffy cream bun in a glass case, perfectly round in shape and measuring more than three inches in diameter. Shops on the ground floor of the museum offer a dazzling array of jewellery of different qualities and prices. Opened in 1995, the Defence Services Museum documents the military campaigns that have occurred on Myanmar soil since the days of the monarchy. Separate rooms feature displays of weaponry, maps and photos that provide insight into baffles involving the British, the Japanese, the US-backed Kuomintang Chinese, communist insurgents and opium eradication operations.
Historical Section 1 gives a glimpse of the baffle formations of the old days as recorded in an antique folding manuscript from 1502. There were six offensive and six defensive formations, with names like ‘Spreading the Wings of the Garuda Bird’, ‘Water Waves’, ‘Leading Bull’ dnd ‘Bow String’.
There is also a huge hangar with a number of airplanes that were used by the Myanmar Air Force over the years.
