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Burma

Did you know ...

• the Ananda Temple (pictured) in Bagan, Myanmar, with four standing Buddhas facing the cardinal directions, is said to be an architectural wonder titled the "Westminster Abbey of Burma"?
• the World Wide Fund for Nature rates the Mizoram-Manipur-Kachin rain forests bordering India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar (Burma) as "Globally Outstanding" in biological distinctiveness?
• the ecosystem contained in Myanmar's N'Mai River watershed contains some of the most diverse flora of its type in the world, yet it is threatened with destruction through damming?
• the Taping river is the first tributary of Myanmar's chief river, the Irrawaddy?
• the extinct rove beetle genus Ektatotricha is known from 15 beetles trapped in Cretaceous amber from Myanmar?
• thousands of Muslims from Myanmar and Thailand who have migrated to Taiwan were descendants of nationalist soldiers that fled Yunnan when the communists took over mainland China?
• the sight of the "gravity defying" Kyaiktiyo Pagoda (pictured) or Golden Rock, in the Mon State of Myanmar, has been described as "enough to inspire a religious conversion"?
• the 90-ton Mingun Bell (pictured) in Mingun, Myanmar, was the world's heaviest hanging bell until 2000, when the 116-ton Bell of Good Luck was erected in Pingdingshan, China?
• a hole was made in 1997 in the belly of the Mahamuni Buddha statue (pictured) at the Mahamuni Buddha Temple in Mandalay, Myanmar, aiming to steal embedded jewels thought to be inside?
• Bodawpaya, an 18th-19th century king of Burma, fathered 120 children?
• Singapore's Burmese Buddhist Temple has the largest white marble statue of the Buddha (pictured) outside of Myanmar?
• Bupaya Pagoda (pictured), in Bagan in Myanmar was named for its gourd-shaped dome?
• Htoo Group of Companies, among Myanmar's largest privately held companies, has been under sanctions by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) since 2008?
• a zayat is a combination rest-house and religious school funded and run by Burmese Theravada Buddhists, as an act of daná (meritorious charity)?
• merrilactone A, a natural compound found in the fruits of some star anise trees indigenous to Myanmar and China, is neuroprotective and promotes the growth of neurons?
• Bishop George Algernon West, the Lord Bishop of Rangoon 1935–1954, became for two months the Bishop of Atlanta, Georgia while the Japanese occupied Burma?