Yangon

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Yangon (Burmese: ရန်ကုန်), formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. It formerly served as the country's capital until 2006, when it was replaced by Naypyidaw. The city is home to the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's most sacred and famous Buddhist pagoda.

History

Early history

Yangon was founded as Dagon, a small fishing village built around the Shwedagon Pagoda by the Mon people in the 6th century CE. It remained an important pilgrimage pagoda town for centuries and, in 1755, it was captured by King Alaungpaya, the founder of the Konbaung dynasty, who renamed the town to Yangon and greatly expanded it.

Toungoo dynasty

In 1608, during Burma's rule by the Toungoo dynasty, the Portuguese adventurer Filipe de Brito e Nicote plundered the Shwedagon Pagoda and attempted to make off with its 300-ton Great Bell of Dhammazedi. However, the bell fell into the Bago River, where it remains lost to this day. After this incident, security around the pagoda greatly increased, with a number of guards patrolling the peremiter around the sacred site day and night.

Secretly, the Shwedagon Pagoda housed a Piece of Eden which was protected by a group of Buddhist monks. In 1725, the members of the Zhang Wei Union learned about the Piece of Eden housed within the pagoda and traveled to Yangon to retrieve it. Thanks to Zhang having established contact with the monks beforehand, the Union members were granted safe passage into the city, as the monks believed it was safer to allow them to claim the artifact than risk having it fall into unworthy hands.

Once in Yangon, the Union members devised a plan to infiltrate the Shwedagon Pagoda without the guards noticing. As Shimazu Saito refused to get the monks involved any further, she and Edward Kenway instead decided to fly above the pagoda using the Celestial Chariot, a hot air balloon built by Yun Pyeong-Gyu. From there, Edward and Saito parachuted onto the pagoda and entered the temple through a hole in the roof.

Modern times

In 2023, Shimazu Sei, Noa Kim, Yuki, and Nathan Zhang traveled to Yangon following their escape from Abstergo Industries in Singapore, seeking to retrieve the Piece of Eden housed within the Shwedagon Pagoda. Despite the ongoing civil war in Myanmar, the group easily passed through a security checkpoint and entered the city, whereupon they went to a hotel near the pagoda. There, Sei talked with Noa, who believed himself to be his ancestor Edward Kenway due to the Bleeding Effect, and convinced him to help recover the Piece of Eden from the pagoda.

At night, while Nathan and his Doom Eagle thugs attacked the soldiers near the Shwedagon Pagoda as a distraction, Sei and Noa infiltrated one of the nearby temples. There, they found a secret underground passage leading to the central pagoda and used it to reach their destination.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple