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State Seal of Myanmar

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The State Seal of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (Burmese: ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် နိုင်ငံတော်အထိမ်းအမှတ်တံဆိပ်) is the national emblem used in all official government documents, including publications. As the seal is an official symbol, there are State Seal Law and Principles regarding appropriate usage of it.

State Seal of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar
ArmigerRepublic of the Union of Myanmar
Adopted31 January 2011[1][2]
CrestA mullet Or
ShieldGule, a map of Myanmar Or surrounded by sprigs of Eugenia[3] of the same
SupportersTwo lion sejant Or
Mottoပြည်ထောင်စု သမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်

(literally,
"Unitary Sublime Republic of Myanmar";
officially,
"Republic of the Union of Myanmar")
DesignerMya Thaung [4]

Description

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See also: § Symbolism (historical and current)
  • At the centre of the Seal is the map of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. The sprigs of Eugenia containing fourteen leaves each are on either side of the map.
  • The sprigs of Eugenia are flanked on each side by an artistic Myanmar lion. The lion on the left side faces towards the left and the lion on the right side faces towards the right
  • The name of the country in Burmese, ပြည်ထောင်စု သမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်, is expressed on the ribbon at the foot of the Seal. The expression ပြည်ထောင်စု is on the scroll which is under the left lion. The expression သမ္မတ is under the map. The expression မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် is under the right lion.
  • The large yellow five-pointed star indicating above uprightly is at the top of the Seal.
  • The other part of the seal is surrounded by Myanmar traditional floral arabesques.[3]

Usage

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The State seal can be used for the following:

  • Can be used in the Presidential Palace.
  • Can be used in/on the vehicles of the president.
  • Can be used in the Central Parliament Buildings (Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, Pyithu Hluttaw and Amyotha Hluttaw), the union level government offices, State and Region Hluttaw Buildings, Offices of State and Region Government, Self-Administered Zones and Divisions.
  • Can be used in ministries and their child agencies' offices, in the courts and the organizations and departments which are allowed to use by the Union Government.
  • Can be used in Myanmar Embassies, consulates and one other representations.
  • Can be printed on the objects which are used in State Receptions.
  • Can be used in bank notes and stamps.
  • Can be used by the organizations which are allowed use by the president.
  • Can be used in the official documents of Central Parliaments and State & Region, the Union Government and the ministries, the State, Region and SAZ and SAD Governments, the organizations and department which are allowed by the union government.
  • Can be used in State meetings and ceremonies.[3]

History

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Colonial Era

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British rule in Burma (1886-1942) (1945-1948)

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Coat of arms of the United Kingdom (1886 version)
 
ArmigerBritish rule in Burma
Adopted1886
Relinquished1948
CrestA royal crown proper
ShieldQuarterly, I and IV Gules, three lions passant guardant in pale Or langued and armed Azure. II Or a lion rampant Gules armed and langued Azure within a double tressure flory-counter-flory Gules. III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent.
SupportersOn the dexter a lion rampant guardant Or langued and armed Gules, royally crowned Proper. On the sinister a Unicorn rampant Argent armed crined and unguled Or, and gorged with a Coronet composed of crosses patee and fleurs-de-lis, a chain affixed thereto passing through the forelegs and reflexed over the back Or
MottoFrench: Dieu et mon droit, lit. 'God and my right'
Order(s)Order of the Garter
 
Badge of Burma
(1939–1941, 1945–1948)

After being annexed by the British Empire, the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom was adopted. After Burma was separated from India, the green peacock on a yellow was adopted as the national symbol and badge of Burma, in 1939. But the coat of arms was still the coat of arms of United Kingdom.

Japanese Era

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State of Burma (1943-1945)

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State Seal of the State of Burma
(1943–1945)

The State of Burma, a Japanese puppet state, adopted the circular seal bearing stylized golden peacock as the State seal in 1943.

First design of the State Seal

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(1948-1974)

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State Seal of the Union of Burma
 
ArmigerU Nu's Government (1948-1962)
Ne Win's Government (1962-1974)
Adopted4 January 1948
Relinquished3 January 1974
CrestA lion sejant Azure
ShieldAzure, a map of Myanmar Argent between two areas, surrounded by a circle Gules that bears the State motto:
သမဂ္ဂါနံ တပေါ သုခေါ
SupportersTwo lion sejant Argent
Mottoသမဂ္ဂါနံ တပေါ သုခေါ
(samaggānaṃ topo sukho)

ပြည်ထောင်စု
သမတ-မြန်မာ နိုင်ငံတော်။
(• literally,
"Unitary Sublime Republic of Myanmar";
• formally,
"Republic of the Union of Myanmar")

The first design of the State Seal of Burma, adopted by the Constituent Assembly in 1947,[5]: 8  contained the Burmese text ပြည်ထောင်စု သမတမြန်မာ နိုင်ငံတော်။ on the banner, which means "Republic of Union of Myanmar" (the same as the text in the current State Seal except the spelling of the word that mean President or Republic: သမတ), as well as three lions. Additionally, there was a circle surrounding the map of the country containing Verse 194 of the Buddhavagga in the Dhammapada in Pali: သမဂ္ဂါနံ တပေါ သုခေါ (samaggānaṃ tapo sukho), which translates to "Happy is the practice of those in harmony."[6] It was adopted at the independence of the country on 4 January 1948.

Current design of the State Seal

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Original version (1974-1988)

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State Seal of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma
 
Versions
 
official colour
 
later interpretation
ArmigerNe Win's Government (1974-1988)
Adopted3 January 1974
Relinquished19 October 1988
CrestA mullet Or
ShieldOr, a map of Myanmar Or in a field Sable surrounded by a pinion Or which is also surrounded by paddy ears Or
SupportersTwo lion sejant Or
Mottoပြည်ထောင်စု ဆိုရှယ်လစ်သမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်

(• literally,
"Unitary Sublime Socialist Republic of Myanmar";
• formally,
"Socialist Republic of the Union of Myanmar")
DesignerMya Thaung

The 1974 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma adopted a new State Seal[7] with Socialist symbols : a pinion (cogwheel) with 14 teeth, surrounding the map of Myanmar, surrounded by two paddy ears, the two artistic Burmese lions besides the branches: The left lion facing to the left and the right lion facing to the right, The words ပြည်ထောင်စု ဆိုရှယ်လစ်သမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်, which means "Socialist Republic of the Union of Myanmar", on the ribbon banner at the bottom.[8] It was adopted together with the new State flag and the 1974 constitution on 3 January 1974. The original publications of 1974 constitution shows the State flag with full colours, but it shows the State seal only in white and black.[7] But in the official usage, it is always yellow and black.[9] The e-book version of the 1974 constitution from Myanmar Law Information System shows the blue State seal from Wikipedia in place of the State seal.

1988 Modification (1988-2011)

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State Seal of the Union of Myanmar
 
ArmigerMilitary Junta (1988-2011)
Adopted19 October 1988
Relinquished31 January 2011
CrestA mullet Or
ShieldOr, a map of Myanmar Or in a field Sable surrounded by a pinion Or which is also surrounded by paddy ears Or
SupportersTwo lion sejant Or
Mottoပြည်ထောင်စု မြန်မာ နိုင်ငံတော်

(• literally,
"Unitary Sublime State of Myanmar ";
• officially,
"Union of Myanmar")
DesignerMya Thaung

On 19 October 1988, the State Law and Order Restoration Council enacted a law which replaces the expression "Socialist Republic of the Union of Myanmar" with the expression "Union of Myanmar".[10] The State Seal was modified as the country name in State Seal Law had been replaced: the words ဆိုရှယ်လစ်သမ္မတ ("Socialist Republic") were removed.[11]

2011 Modification (Current version)

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In 2008, the Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar for Burma was approved by a referendum. In this new constitution, changes have been made to the State Seal. The new State Seal uses the colours red and gold/yellow. Also, the pinion and paddy ears have been removed and replaced with Eugenia sprigs and the words on the ribbon have been changed to ပြည်ထောင်စု သမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် which translates "Republic of the Union of Myanmar" .[12] The new Laws and Principles for State Seal were passed on 21 October 2010[13] (but were not enforced immediately) and the new State Seal was displayed on the television on that day's afternoon.[14] But the new state seal had not been adopted yet until 2011.[1] It was adopted on the day the 2008 Constitution came into force, on 31 January 2011.[2][15]

Symbolism (historical and current)

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Peafowl

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Peafowl symbolizes the race of the sun.[16]

Lion (Leograph)

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The reason of the inclusion of three lions in the State Seal was given as follow:[5]: 10 

  1. In the traditional view of ancient sages, the nature of lion gives the natures of bravery, diligence, extinguishing any size of danger with the same effort, purity and virtue. Such characteristics can make Myanmar honoured and they are the ones that Myanmar citizens should imitate.
  2. Being surrounded by three lions means defending and protecting Myanmar. In the view of astrologist monks and persons, number three means "divisible by three" (end of all evil events).
  3. Lion and Myanmar are regarded as compatible paring according to astrology.
  4. Lion and traditional floral arabesques are inserted and decorated, so it is assumed as giving respect to an ancient traditional Myanmar culture appropriate for the modern Union of Myanmar.

State Motto on the Circle

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သမဂ္ဂါနံ တပေါ သုခေါ (samaggānaṃ tapo sukho), which can be translated to "Happy is the practice of those in harmony," is from Verse 194 of the Buddhavagga in the Dhammapada.[6]

Ears of Paddy

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Ears of paddy are the symbol for cultivating class.[17]

Pinion

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Pinion (cogwheel) is the symbol for working class.[17]

Five-Pointed Star (Mullet)

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Five-pointed star represents the revolution/resistance and the struggle for independence of Myanmar against colonialist and fascists.[18]

Sprigs of Eugenia

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Eugenia sprig symbolizes victory.[19]

Map of Myanmar

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The map of Myanmar in the State Seal symbolizes the principal that the Sovereign power of the State is derived from the citizens and is in force in the entire country.[18]

Myanmar traditional floral arabesques

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Myanmar traditional floral arabesques are included to decorate the State seal as representation of ancient Myanmar traditions which are appropriate for modern Union of Myanmar.[5][11]

State Name

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The then conventional long names of the State are included in the State Seals,

  • The 1948 State Seal included the name "ပြည်ထောင်စု သမတ-မြန်မာ နိုင်ငံတော်။",[5]: 9  which is the de facto long name sometimes appeared in some official documents, longer than the then official conventional long name "ပြည်ထောင်စုမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်".
    • For each words, "ပြည်ထောင်စု" means "union"; "သမတ" (old spelling of "သမ္မတ") means "president"; "မြန်မာ" means "Burma/Myanmar"; and "နိုင်ငံတော်" means "State".
    • When "သမတ/သမ္မတ" (president) and "နိုင်ငံတော်" (State) are put together, this combination means "republic".
  • The 1974 State Seal included the then conventional long name "ပြည်ထောင်စု ဆိုရှယ်လစ်သမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်".[7][8]
    • For each words, "ပြည်ထောင်စု" means "union"; "ဆိုရှယ်လစ်" means "socialist"; "သမ္မတ" means "president"; "မြန်မာ" means "Burma/Myanmar"; and "နိုင်ငံတော်" means "State".
    • When "သမ္မတ" (president) and "နိုင်ငံတော်" (State) are put together, this combination means "republic".
  • The 1988 State Seal included the then conventional long name "ပြည်ထောင်စု မြန်မာ နိုင်ငံတော်".
    • For each words, "ပြည်ထောင်စု" means "union"; "မြန်မာ" means "Burma/Myanmar"; and "နိုင်ငံတော်" means "State".
  • Current State Seal includes the current conventional long name "ပြည်ထောင်စု သမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်".[2][18]
    • For each words, "ပြည်ထောင်စု" means "union"; "သမ္မတ" means "president"; "မြန်မာ" means "Burma/Myanmar"; and "နိုင်ငံတော်" means "State".
    • When "သမ္မတ" (president) and "နိုင်ငံတော်" (State) are put together, this combination means "republic".
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See also

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References

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http://www.hubert-herald.nl/Myanmar1.htm

  1. ^ a b Public Service Medal certificate awarded on 4 January 2011 is with old State Seal bearing cogwheel and paddy ears. [1]
  2. ^ a b c "နိုင်ငံတော်အထိမ်းအမှတ်တံဆိပ်ဥပဒေ". Constitutional Tribunal of the Union of Myanmar, Law Library (in Burmese). အာဏာတည်သည့်ရက်: 31/1/2011
  3. ^ a b c The Union Seal Law (PDF). The State Peace and Development Council. 21 October 2010.
  4. ^ https://www.facebook.com/share/v/15pZNHTxdz/
  5. ^ a b c d "ပြည်ထောင်စု သမတမြန်မာငံနိုင် အလံတော်". ဖဆပလ သတင်းစဉ်. 9 August 1947.
  6. ^ a b "The Dhammapada: Verses and Stories".
  7. ^ a b c Article 191, Chapter XIV, Constitution of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma, 1974
  8. ^ a b State Seal Bylaws (2). Pyithu Hluttaw. 30 March 1974.
  9. ^ Facts About Burma. Burma Socialist Programme Party Headquarters. 1983.
  10. ^ Adaptation of Expressions Law (PDF). State Law and Order Restoration Council. 19 October 1988.
  11. ^ a b [2], Part 1, Treatise about State Seals and State Flags Used Through Successive Periods In Myanmar.
    Presenter = Yi Yi Nyunt, Director, Nationalities Youth Resources Development Degree College Sagaing, Department of Education and Practising, Ministry of Border Affairs, Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, 5 February 2014
  12. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 April 2011. Retrieved 23 September 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. ^ Union Seal Law (PDF). State Peace and Development Council. 21 October 2010.
  14. ^ "Regime New Flag to raise today". 22 October 2010.
  15. ^ "၂၀၀၈ ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေ" [2008 Constitution]. Constitutional Tribunal of the Union of Myanmar (in Burmese). March 2018. ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေပြဋ္ဌာန်းချက်များနှင့်အညီ ၂၀၀၈ ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေသည် ပထမအကြိမ် ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော်စတင်ကျင်းပသည့် ၃၁-၁-၂၀၁၁ ရက်နေ့တွင် စတင်အာဏာတည်ခဲ့သည်။
  16. ^ မြန်မာဖတ်စာ ပဉ္စမတန်း (Grade-6) [Myanmar Textbook for Fifth Standard (Grade-6)] (in Burmese). Ministry of Education, Government of the Union of Myanmar. 2006. p. 4.
  17. ^ a b မြန်မာဖတ်စာ ဒုတိယတန်း (Grade-3) [Myanmar Textbook for Second Standard (Grade-3)] (in Burmese). Ministry of Education, Government of the Union of Myanmar. 2006. p. 1.
  18. ^ a b c "ပြည်ထောင်စု သမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်" (PDF). www.burmalibrary.org (in Burmese). 24 December 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 October 2022. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
  19. ^ Myanmar-English Official Dictionary. Yangon, Burma: Department of the Myanmar Language Commission. 1993.
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