Dr. Kit Miyamoto's Field Journals
  • Home
  • Kit’s Journals
    • Afghanistan
    • China
    • Ecuador
    • Haiti
    • Italy
    • Japan
    • Nepal
    • Philippines
    • Thailand
    • Guest Journals
  • About Miyamoto
    • Miyamoto International
    • Miyamoto Relief

Exploring Myanmar Heritage

June 5, 2013November 13, 2018,
  • Prev
  • Next
This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Myanmar
Next Post

YANGON, Myanmar–We flew from Bangkok to Yangon, Myanmar on Monday morning. Once there we were greeted by Twe Twe and Nang. They took us to lunch before visiting the Myanmar Engineering Society. We stopped at  a local place, they let me sample the goat brains to see if I would like it as my main course. It seemed every meal we had during this trip was accompanied with mango, which was great for an avid fruit eater like myself. The mango I had today was sweet and had hints of mint in the flavor.

After lunch we arrived at the University campus where the Myanmar Engineering Society (MES) is located. We had discussions with U Thang Mhint, the past President of MES and the current Myanmar Earthquake Committee chair, about current structural design practices in Myanmar, in order to gain a better idea of what current efforts are in place to implement a building code in Myanmar. Although Myanmar is located in a seismically activearea of the world, currently the country has no building code. They are modeling the proposed code after the ASCE 7.

We ended the day with a visit to the Swedagon pagoda in the heart of Yangon. All those visiting must cover their legs and take off their shoes—hence the purple skirt in the picture. It is customary to walk clockwise around the pagoda twice for good merit. While we were there, they were cleaning part of the historic pagoda with the help of bamboo scaffolding, something I’ve heard about but never seen until now.

The following day, we went on a ten hour round trip journey to Naipaydaw, the new capital of Myanmar. The road to get there is very scenic with beautiful rich green farm land, small pagodas and Buddhist temples scattered along the entire length of the drive.

Upon arriving in Naypaidaw, we met with the director and deputies under the Ministry of Culture for the country of Myanmar. Miyamoto is working to gain an understanding of what action the Myanmar government is taking to retrofit and protect the country’s building heritage from future earthquakes.

The following day we met with the Ministry of Irrigation and the Yangon Heritage Trust (YHT) to discuss heritage building retrofitting as well. They mentioned the need to retrofit many of the British colonial structures as well as those built in the early 20th century.

We learned during our visit that some of these beautiful historic structures, pagodas as well as British colonial buildings, have suffered extensive damage from previous earthquakes and there is a huge desire to retrofit and protect not just the structures but also what they represent: the heart and heritage of Myanmar.

Elizabeth Kenyon, June 5, 2013.

Kit Miyamoto
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google Plus
  • Pinterest

Post navigation

   The L’Aquila Earthquake, Part 1
The L’Aquila Earthquake, Part 2   

You may also like

One Way Ticket: Haiti, New York, Dubai, Kathmandu, Nepal

Continue Reading

Miyamoto in Haiti: Lycee de Cite Soleil Rehabilitation Project

Continue Reading

ABOUT

Kit Miyamoto

As CEO of the structural engineering company Miyamoto International, Kit is dedicated to making the world a better place. In Kit's words: our responsibility as engineers is to make buildings safer by sharing what we know around the world. Join his journey to make the world a better, safer place.

Archives

  • May 2022
  • January 2022
  • October 2021
  • August 2017
  • April 2016
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • August 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • September 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • April 2013
  • February 2013
  • November 2012
  • March 2011
  • March 2010
  • January 2010
  • May 2008

miyamoto_international

The frequency of severe weather, coupled with the The frequency of severe weather, coupled with the staggering costs associated, has made #resilience planning increasingly important for the #AEC industry. Miyamoto International driving resilience-enhancing designs, technologies, and methods.​

#construction #constructionlife #college #civilengineering #engineering #renpl #architect #architecture #renovation #renovate #renovatedkitchen #renovatedhome #modularkitchen #kitchendecor #kitchengoals #homedecor #homeremodel #homeremodeling #homerenovation #homebuilder #architecturalvisualization #resilienceengineering​

https://miyamotointernational.com/housing-resilience
After a 5.9 magnitude earthquake devastated provin After a 5.9 magnitude earthquake devastated provinces in Afghanistan, Miyamoto experts deployed to undertake a rapid assessment of the affected areas in Khost and Paktika.

Miyamoto International's mission in Afghanistan is to establish a repair methodology, identify repairable houses and create a rapid repair response for emergency shelters. 

#afghanistanearthquake #khost #paktika #disasterresponse #disasterrecovery #humanitarianengineering #structuralengineering
Photos from the field: Miyamoto engineers Traci Wo Photos from the field: Miyamoto engineers Traci Wong and Paulina Robles on site today for a project inspection. Miyamoto International is proud to celebrate our amazing Women in Engineering who lead, collaborate, and are constantly strumming up innovations to make the world a better, safer place. 

#InternationalWomenInEngineeringDay
#INWED2022 
#WomenInSTEM 
#TogetherWeShine 
#BigInYourLife
#WomenInTech
#WomenInSTEM
#WomenInEngineering
An unprecedented massive damage assessment has rec An unprecedented massive damage assessment has recently been completed in Haiti. More than 550 Haitian engineers and social communicators were trained and equipped with advanced technology to not only track damage indexes, but also identify repair methods and costs in real-time. In an astonishing five months, teams assessed 179,861 buildings across Haiti.
Join us May 4-6 for CDRI's International Conferenc Join us May 4-6 for CDRI's International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure. You can register at icdri.cdri.world.
This week we brought a delegation of disaster and This week we brought a delegation of disaster and engineering authorities from Costa Rica 🇨🇷 to California to exchange ideas about risk management & damage assessments. Thank you to 
@FEMA, @readyoakland, @cityofsanjose, CADRE and @Cal_OES for your hospitality!
Load More... Follow on Instagram

© Miyamoto International. All Rights Reserved.