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Time in Myanmar
Myanmar Standard Time
(
Burmese
:
?????? ???????????
,
[mj?ma
sa??d??d?ei??]
), formerly
Burma Standard Time
(
BST
), is the
standard time
in
Myanmar
, 6.5 hours ahead of
UTC
. Myanmar Standard Time (MMT) is calculated on the basis of 97°30′E
longitude
.
[1]
MMT is used all year round, as Myanmar does not observe
daylight saving time
.
[2]
[3]
History
[
edit
]
Pre-colonial period
[
edit
]
Myanmar did not have a standard time before the
British colonial period
. Each region kept its own
local mean time
, according to the
Burmese calendar
rules: sunrise, noon, sunset and midnight.
[note 1]
The day was divided into eight 3-hour segments called
baho
(????), or sixty 24-minute segments called
nayi
(????). Although the calendar consists of time units down to the millisecond level, the popular usage never extended beyond
baho
and at most
nayi
measurements; a gong was struck every
nayi
while a drum (???) and a large bell (????????????) were struck to mark every
baho
.
[5]
Type
|
Time
|
Burmese name
|
Description
|
Day
|
1 o'clock
|
????? ??????????
|
midway between sunrise and midday
|
2 o'clock
|
??? ???????????
|
noon (midday)
|
3 o'clock
|
??? ???????????
|
midway between noon and sunset
|
4 o'clock
|
??? ??????????
|
sunset
|
Night
|
1 o'clock
|
? ??????????
|
midway between sunset and midnight
|
2 o'clock
|
? ???????????
|
midnight
|
3 o'clock
|
? ???????????
|
midway between midnight and sunrise
|
4 o'clock
|
????? ??????????
|
sunrise
|
Colonial period
[
edit
]
The use of a common time began in
British Burma
in the late 19th century. The first confirmed mention of Rangoon Mean Time (RMT) at
GMT
+6:24:40
[note 2]
being in use was in 1892,
[6]
a year before the country's first
time ball
observatory
[note 3]
was opened in
Rangoon
(Yangon) on 1 October 1893.
[7]
[8]
However, the use of RMT as the common time, at least in some sectors, most probably started earlier. (The country's first rail service, between Rangoon and
Prome
(Pyay), began on 2 May 1877,
[9]
and the non-authoritative
IANA time zone database
says RMT was introduced in 1880.
[10]
) On 1 July 1905,
[11]
[12]
a new standard time called Burma Standard Time (BST) at GMT+6:30?set to the longitude 97° 30' E, and 5 minutes and 20 seconds ahead of RMT?was first adopted by the
Railways
and
Telegraph
administrations.
[11]
[13]
Although the rest of the country came to adopt BST, RMT continued to be used in the city of Rangoon at least to 1927.
[note 4]
By 1930, however, BST apparently had been adopted in Rangoon as well.
[note 5]
The standard time was changed to
Japan Standard Time
(JST) during the
Japanese occupation
of the country (1942?1945) in World War II.
[14]
After independence
[
edit
]
The standard time was reverted to GMT+6:30 after the war.
[14]
It has remained ever since, even after the country's independence in 1948. The only change has been its name in English; the official English name has been changed to Myanmar Standard Time
[1]
presumably since 1989 when the country's name in English was changed from Burma to Myanmar.
[15]
The country does not observe a daylight saving time.
[2]
Timeline of common times
[
edit
]
Name
|
Period
|
Offset from
UTC
|
Notes
|
Rangoon Mean Time
|
2 May 1877? ? 30 June 1905
|
UTC+6:24:40
|
Standard time for British Burma from at least 1892 to 30 June 1905. Continued to be used in Rangoon (Yangon) at least to 1927
[16]
perhaps until 1929.
[17]
|
Burma Standard Time
|
1 July 1905 ? 30 April 1942
|
UTC+6:30:00
|
First adopted by Railways and Telegraph offices in 1905.
[11]
[13]
The October 2021 IANA database says it was introduced in 1920
[14]
but does not provide a source.
|
Japan Standard Time
|
1 May 1942 ? 2 May 1945
|
UTC+09:00:00
|
Standard time during the
Japanese occupation
|
Burma/Myanmar Standard Time
|
3 May 1945 ? present
|
UTC+06:30:00
|
|
IANA time zone database
[
edit
]
The
IANA time zone database
contains one
time zone
named
Asia/Yangon
[18]
for
Myanmar
[14]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
(Clancy 1906: 57): The Burmese calendar recognizes two types of day: astronomical and
civil
. The mean Burmese astronomical day is from midnight to midnight, and represents 1/30th of a
synodic month
or 23 hours, 37 minutes and 28.08 seconds. The civil day comprises two halves, the first half beginning at sunrise and the second half at sunset.
- ^
The time offset of 6:24:40 was the time used by the official time signal station in Rangoon per (Kinns 2020: 545) and the
Admiralty
(Admiralty 1895: 27); it was confirmed by the US Naval Intelligence report (USNI 1928: 723).
The IANA database (
https://www.iana.org/time-zones
, version 2021e, released on 2021-10-21) gives 6:24:47, citing a secondary source (Reed and Low, The Indian Year Book, 1936?37, pp. 27?28); to be sure, the maintainers of the database do state that "this file is by no means authoritative." The 6:24:47 figure of (Reed and Low) may have been a typographical error from the 6:24:37 time given in (Indian Railway Board 1906: 7) which states that "... in Burma 6 1/2 hours ahead of Greenwich and 5 minutes 23 [sic] seconds earlier than Rangoon time." The Railway Board's 6:24:37 is likely false as the Admiralty records from 1898 to 1922 all say the official Rangoon time (per Kinns 2020: 545) was 6:24:40.
- ^
(Kinns 2020: 544): The British apparently were using a local pagoda (later came to be known as the
Signal Pagoda
) in Rangoon for signaling at least since 1855, three years after their
annexation of Lower Burma
; but "no supporting evidence of a Rangoon time signal has been found in notices prior to 1893."
- ^
An April 1927 dispatch by the US Naval Intelligence (USNI 1928: 723) says that the whole country, except Rangoon, used the standard time, GMT+6:30, while the city of Rangoon still used Rangoon Mean Time, which was 5 minutes 20 seconds behind Burma Standard Time (or GMT+6:24:40).
- ^
(Kinns 2020: 545): the UK Admiralty records show that the time ball at the Rangoon time signal station was dropped twice each day, once at GMT+17:30:00 for 00:00:00 BST (i.e. GMT+6:30:00) and also at GMT+17:35:20 for 00:00:00 RMT (i.e. GMT+6:24:40); it was only in 1930 that the time ball at Rangoon was dropped for the standard time (GMT+6:30:00).
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
MFF 2002: 1
- ^
a
b
USNAO 2013: 262
- ^
Myanmar
- ^
Kinns 2020: 544
- ^
Clancy 1906: 57
- ^
Kinns 2020: 544?545
- ^
Hydrographic 1895: 27
- ^
Kinns 2021: 445
- ^
Chailley-Bert 1894: 336
- ^
IANA TZ October 2021: Burma/Myanmar
- ^
a
b
c
RE 1906: 346
- ^
USBS 1935: 3
- ^
a
b
USNO 1906: Volume IV, Appendix II, v
- ^
a
b
c
d
IANA October 2021: Burma/Myanmar
- ^
BBC News 2 December 2011
- ^
USNI 1928: 723
- ^
Kinns 2020: 545
- ^
Yangon
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- BBC News (2 December 2011).
"Who, What, Why: Should it be Burma or Myanmar?"
. BBC News.
- Chailley-Bert, Joseph (1894).
The Colonisation of Indo-China
. Translated by Arthur Baring Brabant. London: A. Constable & Company.
- Clancy, J.C. (January 1906). T. Lewis; H.P. Hollis (eds.). "The Burmese Calendar: A Monthly Review of Astronomy".
The Observatory
.
XXIX
(366).
- Hydrographic Office,
Admiralty
(1895).
"Bay of Bengal Pilot"
. London.
- IANA Time Zone Database (2021-10-21).
"Time Zone Database, 2021e"
. Retrieved
2022-01-01
.
- Kinns, Roger (2020).
"Time Signals for Mariners in India, Burma and Ceylon"
(PDF)
.
Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage
.
23
(3). Chiang Mai: National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand: 523?552.
Bibcode
:
2020JAHH...23..523K
.
doi
:
10.3724/SP.J.1440-2807.2020.03.05
.
S2CID
256563687
.
- Kinns, Roger (2021). "Time Signals for Mariners in Southeast Asia: Time Balls, Discs, Bells, Guns and Lights". In Wayne Orchiston; Mayank N. Vahia (eds.).
Exploring the History of Southeast Asian Astronomy: A Review of Current Projects and Future Prospects and Possibilities
.
Cham, Switzerland
: Springer.
ISBN
978-3-030-62776-8
.
- The Railway Board of India (1906).
Administration Report on the Railways in India for the Calendar Year 1905
. Simla: Manager of Publications.
- Union of Myanmar Ministry of Information (2002).
Myanmar: Facts and Figures
. Ministry of Information, Union of Myanmar.
- United States National Bureau of Standards (1935).
Standard Time Throughout the World
. Washington: United States Department of Commerce.
- United States Nautical Almanac Office (17 May 2013).
The Nautical Almanac for the Year 2014
. Government Printing Office. p. 262.
ISBN
978-0-16-091756-1
.
- United States Naval Observatory (1906).
Publications of the United States Naval Observatory
. Vol. IV. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
- United States Office of Naval Intelligence (1928).
Port Directory of the Principal Foreign Ports
. Washington: US Naval Department.