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History

Pre-colonial period

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.⁴ The day was divided into eight 3-hour segments called baho (ဗဟို), or sixty 24-minute segments called nayi (နာရီ). 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 (စည်) and a large bell (ခေါင်းလောင်း) were struck to mark every baho.⁵

Colonial period

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+6:24:40⁶ being in use was in 1892,⁷ a year before the country's first time ball observatory⁸ was opened in Rangoon (Yangon) on 1 October 1893.⁹¹⁰ 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 1877,¹¹ and the non-authoritative IANA time zone database says RMT was introduced in 1880.¹²) On 1 July 1905,¹³¹⁴ 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.¹⁵¹⁶ Although the rest of the country came to adopt BST, RMT continued to be used in the city of Rangoon at least to 1927.¹⁷ By 1930, however, BST apparently had been adopted in Rangoon as well.¹⁸

The standard time was changed to Japan Standard Time (JST) during the Japanese occupation of the country (1942–1945) in World War II.¹⁹

After independence

The standard time was reverted to GMT+6:30 after the war.²⁰ 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 Time²¹ presumably since 1989 when the country's name in English was changed from Burma to Myanmar.²² The country does not observe a daylight saving time.²³

Timeline of common times

IANA time zone database

The IANA time zone database contains one time zone named Asia/Yangon²⁹ for Myanmar³⁰

Notes

Bibliography

• 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. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• 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.

References

1. MFF 2002: 1 ↩

2. USNAO 2013: 262 ↩

3. Myanmar /wiki/Myanmar ↩

4. (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. /wiki/Civil_day ↩

5. Clancy 1906: 57 ↩

6. 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. /wiki/Admiralty_(United_Kingdom) ↩

7. Kinns 2020: 544–545 ↩

8. (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." /wiki/Alanpya_Pagoda ↩

9. Hydrographic 1895: 27 ↩

10. Kinns 2021: 445 ↩

11. Chailley-Bert 1894: 336 ↩

12. IANA TZ October 2021: Burma/Myanmar ↩

13. RE 1906: 346 ↩

14. USBS 1935: 3 ↩

15. RE 1906: 346 ↩

16. USNO 1906: Volume IV, Appendix II, v ↩

17. 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). ↩

18. (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). ↩

19. IANA October 2021: Burma/Myanmar ↩

20. IANA October 2021: Burma/Myanmar ↩

21. MFF 2002: 1 ↩

22. BBC News 2 December 2011 ↩

23. USNAO 2013: 262 ↩

24. USNI 1928: 723 ↩

25. Kinns 2020: 545 ↩

26. RE 1906: 346 ↩

27. USNO 1906: Volume IV, Appendix II, v ↩

28. IANA October 2021: Burma/Myanmar ↩

29. Yangon ↩

30. IANA October 2021: Burma/Myanmar ↩