Part 1: Section 2 Summary

This section comes from a descriptive series intended for young readers (the series also included Bhutan and Nepal). Aung San Suu Kyi noted that the "main river of Burma is the Irrawaddy, which ... flows north over two thousand kilometers (more than one thousand miles) until it reaches the ocean. The eastern Himalayas form Burma's north boundary; to the east lies the Shan plateau (about 3,000 to 4,000 feet above sea level); to the west are the coastal plains of Arakan; to the east is the lush Irrawaddy Delta, the home of Burma's capital city, Rangoon (its name is a corruption of its Burmese name Yangon). Rice, grown primarily in the central plains, was then Burma's main export (and food staple). The first wave of people to enter the country were the Buddhist Mons (around 2000 B.C.); the second wave were the Tibeto-Burmans who...