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Myanmar Standard Time

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UTC+06:30
Time zone
Myanmar Standard Time
UTC offset
UTCUTC+6:30
Current time
11:09, 16 July 2024MMT[refresh]
Centralmeridian
Date-time group

Myanmar Standard Time(Burmese:မြန်မာ စံတော်ချိန်,[mjəmàsàɰ̃dɔ̀dʑèiɰ̃]), formerlyBurma Standard Time(BST), is thestandard timeinMyanmar,6.5 hours ahead ofUTC.Myanmar Standard Time (MMT) is calculated on the basis of 97°30′Elongitude.[1]MMT is used all year round, as Myanmar does not observedaylight saving time.[2][3]

History

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TheAlanpya "Signal" Pagodain Rangoon/Yangon in 1855. Thetime ballattached to the top of the pagoda by the British is visible.[4]

Pre-colonial period

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Myanmar did not have a standard time before theBritish colonial period.Each region kept its ownlocal mean time,according to theBurmese calendarrules: sunrise, noon, sunset and midnight.[note 1]The day was divided into eight 3-hour segments calledbaho(ဗဟို), or sixty 24-minute segments callednayi(နာရီ). Although the calendar consists of time units down to the millisecond level, the popular usage never extended beyondbahoand at mostnayimeasurements; a gong was struck everynayiwhile a drum (စည်) and a large bell (ခေါင်းလောင်း) were struck to mark everybaho.[5]

Type Time Burmese name Description
Day 1 o'clock နံနက် တစ်ချက်တီး midway between sunrise and midday
2 o'clock နေ့ နှစ်ချက်တီး noon (midday)
3 o'clock နေ့ သုံးချက်တီး midway between noon and sunset
4 o'clock နေ့ လေးချက်တီး sunset
Night 1 o'clock ည တစ်ချက်တီး midway between sunset and midnight
2 o'clock ည နှစ်ချက်တီး midnight
3 o'clock ည သုံးချက်တီး midway between midnight and sunrise
4 o'clock နံနက် လေးချက်တီး sunrise

Colonial period

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Burma at 6:30 ahead of the GMT on this 1928 world map of time zones

The use of a common time began inBritish Burmain the late 19th century. The first confirmed mention of Rangoon Mean Time (RMT) atGMT+6:24:40[note 2]being in use was in 1892,[6]a year before the country's firsttime ballobservatory[note 3]was opened inRangoon(Yangon) on 1 October 1893.[7][8]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 andProme(Pyay), began on 2 May 1877,[9]and the non-authoritativeIANA time zone databasesays RMT was introduced in 1880.[10]) On 1 July 1905,[11][12]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 theRailwaysandTelegraphadministrations.[11][13]Although the rest of the country came to adopt BST, RMT continued to be used in the city of Rangoon at least to 1927.[note 4]By 1930, however, BST apparently had been adopted in Rangoon as well.[note 5]

The standard time was changed toJapan Standard Time(JST) during theJapanese occupationof the country (1942–1945) in World War II.[14]

After independence

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The standard time was reverted to GMT+6:30 after the war.[14]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 Time[1]presumably since 1989 when the country's name in English was changed from Burma to Myanmar.[15]The country does not observe a daylight saving time.[2]

Timeline of common times

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Name Period Offset fromUTC Notes
Rangoon Mean Time 2 May 1877? – 30 June 1905 UTC+6:24:40 Standard time for British Burma from at least 1892 to 30 June 1905. Continued to be used in Rangoon (Yangon) at least to 1927[16]perhaps until 1929.[17]
Burma Standard Time 1 July 1905 – 30 April 1942 UTC+6:30:00 First adopted by Railways and Telegraph offices in 1905.[11][13]The October 2021 IANA database says it was introduced in 1920[14]but does not provide a source.
Japan Standard Time 1 May 1942 – 2 May 1945 UTC+09:00:00 Standard time during theJapanese occupation
Burma/Myanmar Standard Time 3 May 1945 – present UTC+06:30:00

IANA time zone database

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TheIANA time zone databasecontains onetime zonenamedAsia/Yangon[18]forMyanmar[14]

Country Code Coordinates Time Zone Comments UTC offset UTC DST offset
MM 16.79543 96.15051 Asia/Yangon Asia/Rangoon +06:30

Notes

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  1. ^(Clancy 1906: 57): The Burmese calendar recognizes two types of day: astronomical andcivil.The mean Burmese astronomical day is from midnight to midnight, and represents 1/30th of asynodic monthor 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.
  2. ^The time offset of 6:24:40 was the time used by the official time signal station in Rangoon per (Kinns 2020: 545) and theAdmiralty(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.
  3. ^(Kinns 2020: 544): The British apparently were using a local pagoda (later came to be known as theSignal Pagoda) in Rangoon for signaling at least since 1855, three years after theirannexation of Lower Burma;but "no supporting evidence of a Rangoon time signal has been found in notices prior to 1893."
  4. ^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).
  5. ^(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).

References

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  1. ^abMFF 2002: 1
  2. ^abUSNAO 2013: 262
  3. ^Myanmar
  4. ^Kinns 2020: 544
  5. ^Clancy 1906: 57
  6. ^Kinns 2020: 544–545
  7. ^Hydrographic 1895: 27
  8. ^Kinns 2021: 445
  9. ^Chailley-Bert 1894: 336
  10. ^IANA TZ October 2021: Burma/Myanmar
  11. ^abcRE 1906: 346
  12. ^USBS 1935: 3
  13. ^abUSNO 1906: Volume IV, Appendix II, v
  14. ^abcdIANA October 2021: Burma/Myanmar
  15. ^BBC News 2 December 2011
  16. ^USNI 1928: 723
  17. ^Kinns 2020: 545
  18. ^Yangon

Bibliography

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  • 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".Retrieved2022-01-01.
  • 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.S2CID256563687.
  • 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.ISBN978-3-030-62776-8.
  • 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.ISBN978-0-16-091756-1.
  • 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.
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