Roofing in Myanmar

Myanmar (Burma) is known for its multi-tiered pyatthat roofs, which crown monasteries, palaces and city gates, and for the thousands of brick temples of Bagan. Ordinary housing has moved from palm-leaf thatch and bamboo toward corrugated metal sheet.

Climate and hazards

Most of the country has a tropical monsoon climate with very heavy rain in the coastal and delta regions and a drier central zone around Bagan and Mandalay. The coast is exposed to tropical cyclones, and much of the country is seismically active. The 2016 national building code was developed with a focus on disaster-resilient construction.

Roofing history

Early stupas. In the Pyu period (from about 200 BC to 100 CE onward), stupas, temples and pagodas were topped with finials and spires, often with a hti, an umbrella-shaped crowning ornament that is still used today.

Bagan. By the mid-12th century, Bagan had more than 10,000 red-brick stupas and temples. Bagan builders used brick vaulted halls and tapered, rising roofs, and the region's dry climate has helped many survive. The Ananda Temple, begun about 1090 and completed in 1105, has brick-vaulted halls and one of the earliest uses of the tiered pyatthat, placed to signal a throne or sacred image inside.

Royal and monastic timber. Later kingdoms built palaces and monasteries (kyaung) of teak. Mandalay Palace (1857-1859) had pyatthat roofs over its throne rooms, including the Great Audience Hall; only part of it survived a fire in 1945. Wooden monasteries of the Konbaung period, such as Shwe In Bin Monastery (1895), keep the full set of pyatthat-crowned pavilions prescribed by monastic tradition. Because the tropical climate requires frequent repair of timber and stucco, parts of Mandalay Palace have been rebuilt with concrete.

Colonial era. Under British rule, Burmese motifs were used on public buildings; Yangon City Hall (1926-1936), designed by U Tin, carries traditional tiered pyatthat roofs.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Pyatthat: a stack of gabled roofs in odd numbers of tiers, separated by box-like stages and topped by a spire. Before the colonial period its use was restricted to royal and religious buildings, and the number of tiers was tied to rank: only the king could have nine tiers. See the separate pyatthat entry.
• Houses: the 2014 census recorded roofing in six main categories, of which the traditional ones were palm leaf (dhani, theke or in leaf), bamboo, wood and earth, alongside corrugated sheet and tile, brick or concrete. Dhani is the nipa palm, whose leaves are folded into thatch panels.

Roofing today

The 2014 Population and Housing Census included roofing material in its housing questions. Township data illustrate the pattern: in Pyinmana township, 82.3% of households had corrugated-sheet roofs and 15.0% had dhani, theke or in leaf roofs, with tile, brick or concrete at only 1.3%.

The Shwedagon Pagoda's gold covering is repaired or replaced every four or five years, and its crowning hti, donated by King Mindon in 1871, was replaced in 1999.

Codes, standards and regulation

The Myanmar National Building Code (MNBC) 2016 was developed by UN-Habitat in coordination with the Ministry of Construction and technical bodies including the Myanmar Engineering Society. It is issued in seven parts.

Notable roofs

• Bagan (UNESCO World Heritage): brick temples such as Ananda and Gawdawpalin with tiered roofs.
• Mandalay Palace: pyatthat over the throne halls.
• Shwe In Bin Monastery, Mandalay: carved teak monastery with pyatthat pavilions.
• Yangon City Hall: colonial-era civic building with pyatthat roofs.

Local roofing terms

• pyatthat - multi-tiered roof (from Sanskrit prasada)
• boun - a single tier of a pyatthat
• hti - umbrella finial
• kyaung - monastery
• dhani - nipa palm thatch; theke - thatch grass

Sources and gaps

National census percentages for roof materials and industry data: published information is limited.