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50 free Myanmar trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Myanmar, still called Burma by many, is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia and one of the least understood: a land of 10,000 temples at Bagan, a golden pagoda that dominates Yangon, a purpose-built capital few outsiders have seen, and a military that has run the country for most of the years since 1962. This quiz covers the geography (the Irrawaddy and Salween, Hkakabo Razi, the seven states and seven regions, the neighbours from India to Thailand), the kingdoms (Pyu and Mon, Anawrahta's Pagan, Bayinnaung's empire, the Konbaung dynasty and the three Anglo-Burmese wars), and the modern nation from Aung San's assassination and independence in 1948 through Ne Win, the 8888 Uprising, Cyclone Nargis, Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest and Nobel Prize, the Rohingya crisis and the 2021 coup. Culture and daily life are here too: Theravada Buddhism, the Burmese language, mohinga for breakfast, lahpet tea-leaf salad, chinlone and lethwei, the world's ruby supply from Mogok, teak, jade, the Golden Triangle and the flag with its big white star. Easy questions ask which city is the largest; hard ones want the height of the Shwedagon and the year Bagan finally made the World Heritage list. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, Naypyidaw, the Shwedagon Pagoda, Bagan, the Irrawaddy, mohinga and the flag, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What was Myanmar's official English name until 1989?
Burma
Burma was the country's official English name until 1989, when the ruling military council renamed it Myanmar under the Adaptation of Expressions Law.
Q 02What is the capital city of Myanmar?
Naypyidaw
Naypyidaw has been the capital since the military government began moving the seat of government there from the former capital in November 2005.
Q 03What is Myanmar's largest city?
Yangon
Yangon, the former capital, is Myanmar's largest city with roughly 5 million residents, several times the size of Mandalay.
Q 04What does the name of Myanmar's purpose-built capital mean?
City of the kings
The capital's name translates as 'city of the kings' or 'royal abode'; it was announced on Armed Forces Day, 27 March 2006.
Q 05Myanmar holds what distinction among the countries of mainland Southeast Asia?
Largest by area
Myanmar is the largest country by area in mainland Southeast Asia, covering about 676,000 square kilometres, well ahead of Thailand's 513,000.
Q 06Which of these countries does NOT border Myanmar?
Vietnam
Vietnam does not touch Myanmar; Laos lies between them. Myanmar's five neighbours are Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand.
Q 07What is the principal river of Myanmar, about 2,170 km long?
The Irrawaddy
The Irrawaddy, or Ayeyarwady, bisects the country from north to south past Mandalay and Bagan and has been its main commercial waterway for centuries.
Q 08What is the highest point in Myanmar, at 5,881 m?
Hkakabo Razi
Hkakabo Razi, 5,881 m, stands in Kachin State on the Chinese border in the far north and is generally counted the highest peak in Southeast Asia.
Q 09Myanmar is divided into how many states, matched by an equal number of regions?
Seven
Myanmar has seven states, mostly named for ethnic minorities such as the Shan and Kachin, and seven regions where the Bamar majority predominates.
Q 10Which king built the Pagan Empire in the 11th century, first uniting the river valley?
Anawrahta
Anawrahta took the Pagan throne in 1044 and, by conquering the Mon kingdom of Thaton in 1057, united the river valley under one ruler for the first time.
Q 11Roughly how many temples and pagodas survive on the plains of Bagan?
Over 2,200
Over 2,200 temples and pagodas survive on the Bagan plain, out of more than 10,000 built at the kingdom's height between the 11th and 13th centuries.
Q 12Bagan finally became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in which year?
2019
Bagan was inscribed in July 2019, after a 1990s nomination stalled over heavy-handed reconstructions carried out under the military government.
Q 13Which invaders toppled the Pagan Kingdom in 1287?
The Mongols
The Mongols of Kublai Khan's Yuan dynasty invaded from Yunnan and took Pagan in 1287; Shan migrants who came with them stayed and founded rival states.
Q 21Which general seized power in the coup of 2 March 1962?
Ne Win
General Ne Win overthrew U Nu's elected government on 2 March 1962; his 'Burmese Way to Socialism' then nationalised almost every part of the economy.
Q 22The mass pro-democracy protests of 1988 are known by what name?
The 8888 Uprising
The 8888 Uprising takes its name from the general strike called on 8 August 1988; the army crushed the protests in September, killing thousands.
Q 23The 2007 protests led by Buddhist monks against fuel prices were called what?
The Saffron Revolution
Q 14Under which 16th-century king did Burma become the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia?
Bayinnaung
Bayinnaung, who reigned 1550–1581, conquered Ayutthaya, Lan Na, Lan Xang and Manipur, building the largest empire in Southeast Asian history; it collapsed by 1599.
Q 15How many Anglo-Burmese Wars did Britain fight in the 19th century?
Three
Britain fought three Anglo-Burmese Wars, in 1824–26, 1852 and 1885; the last ended with the fall of Mandalay and the annexation of the whole country.
Q 16Britain annexed the rest of Burma in 1885 partly out of alarm at which rival's expansion?
French Indochina
British fears that King Thibaw was courting France, which had just taken Tonkin and was assembling French Indochina, helped trigger the 1885 war; annexation followed on 1 January 1886.
Q 17In the 1920s, Rangoon overtook which city as the world's busiest immigration port?
New York
Rangoon, then the colonial capital, drew so many migrants from India that by the 1920s it surpassed New York as the world's greatest immigration port; Indians became a majority of its population.
Q 18Who negotiated the 1947 Panglong Agreement with ethnic leaders and is called the Father of the Nation?
Aung San
Aung San signed the Panglong Agreement with Shan, Kachin and Chin leaders on 12 February 1947 and was assassinated with six cabinet colleagues on 19 July 1947.
Q 19Burma became an independent republic on which date?
4 January 1948
Burma became independent on 4 January 1948 under the Burma Independence Act 1947, leaving the Commonwealth as a republic with Sao Shwe Thaik as its first president.
Q 20Which Burmese diplomat served as UN Secretary-General for ten years from 1961?
U Thant
U Thant led the United Nations from November 1961 to December 1971, the first Asian Secretary-General; the army violently broke up protests at his 1974 funeral.
The Saffron Revolution is named for the monks' robes; it began after fuel prices were raised in August 2007 and was crushed by the army in late September.
Q 24Which cyclone devastated the rice-growing delta in May 2008, killing at least 138,000 people?
Nargis
Cyclone Nargis came ashore on 2 May 2008; the official count was 138,373 dead or missing, the worst natural disaster in the country's recorded history.
Q 25Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in which year?
1991
Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, two years into her first house arrest; her son Alexander accepted it on her behalf in Oslo.
Q 26Why was Aung San Suu Kyi barred from becoming president after the 2015 election?
Her husband and children were foreign citizens
Article 59(f) of the 2008 constitution bars anyone whose spouse or children are foreign citizens; her late husband and two sons were British, so she became State Counsellor instead.
Q 27Aung San Suu Kyi's party, which won landslides in 1990, 2015 and 2020, is called what?
National League for Democracy
The National League for Democracy, founded in September 1988, took 392 of 492 seats in the 1990 election, a result the junta refused to honour.
Q 28Which military chief took power in the coup of 1 February 2021?
Min Aung Hlaing
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief since 2011, detained Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint on 1 February 2021 and took power through a State Administration Council.
Q 29What is the name of Myanmar's armed forces?
Tatmadaw
Tatmadaw, literally 'royal armed forces', is the name of Myanmar's military, which has ruled the country directly or through proxies since 1962.
Q 30Which minority has been denied citizenship under Myanmar's 1982 Citizenship Law?
The Rohingya
The Rohingya, a mostly Muslim people of Rakhine State near the Bangladesh border, were left off the list of recognised national races in the 1982 Citizenship Law, leaving most of them stateless.