Travel Guide Thanlyin

It is hard to imagine today that Thanlyin was a compulsory passage in Lower Burma for maritime trade. The story goes that, disembarked as a simple cabin boy at the court of King Razagyi of Arakan, the young Portuguese Felipe de Brito was entrusted with the administration of the port of Thanlyin. He quickly built a real kingdom there. With the help of his army, he besieged Bago and proclaimed himself: sovereign of Lower Burma! He even tried to seize the bell of the Yangon pagoda to make cannons from bronze. But the bell sank with the ship that tried to take it. His kingdom was then attacked by the Buddhists, and he was soon condemned to death. In 1756, Alaungpaya acceded to the throne. The latter ordered the city to be burned down, giving priority to the development of a newly built city not far away: Yangon, which was thus born from the ashes of its neighbour Thanlyin.