Hidden Heritage: Yangon's Secretariat

There are significant view lines and axes that ensure the site has a strong presence in the surrounding neighbourhood.

It sits within an extensive open garden space with important established trees.

The site consists of three sets of buildings, the main U-shaped Secretariat building itself built between the 1880s and 1905, the parliament buildings that sit within the quadrangle of the main building, and the northern range consisting of three detached buildings once used for stables and machine halls.

The Secretariat covers a whole city block within the historic downtown grid of central Yangon. It is the only complex of its size situated within the historic grid.

The site has two main dimensions of spatial significance. Firstly, its grand exterior centred along a north-south axis, within generous gardens. The repetitive grand facades and towers, face main public streets and are the aspects of the building most people would be familiar with.

The second spatial dimension is the internal courtyard space, also dominated by repetitive grand facades and colonnades with quiet, contained and the garden spaces are simple lawns.

The central placement of the Martyr’s mausoleum, the independence flag pole and the parliament building lend the courtyard dignity and solemnity.

The site’s setting lends it an authentic spirit of place.

As the place where Myanmar’s first steps towards independence were taken with the establishment of diarchy in 1923, the separation from India in 1937, the student protests of 1938 and the meeting place of Aung San’s interim government in 1947, the Secretariat Complex is of outstanding national historic value.

The Old Parliament House and associated buildings have outstanding national historic value as the birthplace of parliamentary democracy in Myanmar and where representative government first took shape.

The Secretariat Complex also has outstanding national historic value as the site of the assassination of General Aung San and eight other people, today considered martyrs.

Independence from Britain was finally marked in the Secretariat Complex’s main courtyard in 1948.

The Yangon Heritage Trust, in partnership with the site’s leaseholders have undertaken careful work to restore the council room back to its 1947 appearance. During these works, bullet holes from the 1947 assassinations were discovered in the walls.

In the evolving modern political and social climate of Myanmar, the Secretariat and its conservation exemplify a push to conserve the uniqueness of Yangon and to reinvigorate the city’s heritage.

As with any major renovation, there is a risk that works will be done that cause irreparable loss of historic value.

YHT continues its work with the lease-holders to minimise this risk.