| State Seal of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar | |
| Armiger: | Republic of the Union of Myanmar |
| Year Adopted: | 31 January 2011[1] [2] |
| Crest: | A mullet Or |
| Shield: | Gule, a map of Myanmar Or surrounded by sprigs of Eugenia of the same |
| Supporters: | Two lion sejant Or |
| Motto: | ပြည်ထောင်စု သမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် (literally, "Union President State of Myanmar"; officially, "Republic of the Union of Myanmar") |
The State Seal of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (Burmese: ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် နိုင်ငံတော်အထိမ်းအမှတ်တံဆိပ်) is the national emblem used in all official government documents, including publications. As the seal is an official symbol, there are State Seal Law and Principles regarding appropriate usage of it.
The State seal can be used for the following:
The previous state symbol of Burmese monarchs was the green peacock. Late kings of Konbaung dynasty adopted the circular State Seal bearing a peacock on the sun surrounded by the text: မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတံဆိပ်တော်.[4] [5]
| Government seal | |
| Armiger: | |
| Year Adopted: | 1886 |
| Until: | 1948 |
| Crest: | A royal crown proper |
| Shield: | Quarterly, I and IV Gules, three lions passant guardant in pale Or langued and armed Azure. II Or a lion rampant Gules armed and langued Azure within a double tressure flory-counter-flory Gules. III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent. |
| Supporters: | On the dexter a lion rampant guardant Or langued and armed Gules, royally crowned Proper. On the sinister a Unicorn rampant Argent armed crined and unguled Or, and gorged with a Coronet composed of crosses patee and fleurs-de-lis, a chain affixed thereto passing through the forelegs and reflexed over the back Or |
| Motto: | French: [[Dieu et mon droit]]|lit=God and my right |
After being annexed by the British Empire, the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom replaced the place of State seal. After Burma was separated from India, the green peacock on a yellow was adopted as the national symbol and badge of Burma, in 1939. But the State Seal was still the coat of arms of United Kingdom.
The State of Burma, a Japanese puppet state, adopted the circular seal bearing stylized golden peacock as the State seal in 1943.
The current design of the State Seal was first introduced at the Constituent Assembly of the Union of Burma in 1947.[6]
| State Seal of the Union of Burma | |
| Armiger: | Union of Burma |
| Year Adopted: | 4 January 1948 |
| Until: | 3 January 1974 |
| Crest: | A lion sejant Azure |
| Shield: | Azure, a map of Myanmar Argent between two areas, surrounded by a circle Gules that bears the State motto: သမဂ္ဂါနံ တပေါ သုခေါ |
| Supporters: | Two lion sejant Argent |
| Motto: | သမဂ္ဂါနံ တပေါ သုခေါ (samaggānaṃ topo sukho) ပြည်ထောင်စု သမတ-မြန်မာ နိုင်ငံတော်။ (• literally, "Union, President-Myanmar, State"; • formally, "Republic of the Union of Myanmar") |
The State Seal of Burma, approved by the Constituent Assembly in 1947,[6] contained the Burmese text on the banner, which means "Republic of Union of Myanmar" (the same as the text in the current State Seal except the spelling of the word that mean President or Republic:), as well as three lions. Additionally, there was a circle surrounding the map of the country containing Verse 194 of the Buddhavagga in the Dhammapada in Pali: (samaggānaṃ tapo sukho), which translates to "Happy is the practice of those in harmony."[7] It was adopted at the independence of the country on 4 January 1948.
| State Seal of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma | |
| Armiger: | Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma |
| Year Adopted: | 3 January 1974 |
| Until: | 19 October 1988 |
| Crest: | A mullet Or |
| Shield: | Or, a map of Myanmar Or in a field Sable surrounded by a pinion Or which is also surrounded by paddy ears Or |
| Supporters: | Two lion sejant Or |
| Motto: | ပြည်ထောင်စု ဆိုရှယ်လစ်သမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် (• literally, "Union, Socialist President, State of Myanmar"; • formally, "Socialist Republic of the Union of Myanmar") |
| Image2 Width: | 125 |
| Image2 Caption: | official colour |
| Image3: | State seal of Myanmar (1974-1988).svg |
| Image3 Width: | 125 |
| Image3 Caption: | later interpretation |
The 1974 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma adopted a new State Seal with Socialist symbols : a pinion (cogwheel) with 14 teeth, surrounding the map of Myanmar, surrounded by two paddy ears, the two artistic Burmese lions besides the branches: The left lion facing to the left and the right lion facing to the right, The words , which means "Socialist Republic of the Union of Myanmar", on the ribbon banner at the bottom.[8] It was adopted together with the new State flag and the 1974 constitution on 3 January 1974. The original publications of 1974 constitution shows the State flag with full colours, but it shows the State seal only in white and black.[9] But in the official usage, it is always yellow and black.[10] The e-book version of the 1974 constitution from Myanmar Law Information System shows the blue State seal from Wikipedia in place of the State seal.
| State Seal of the Union of Myanmar | |
| Armiger: | Union of Myanmar |
| Year Adopted: | 19 October 1988 |
| Until: | 31 January 2011 |
| Crest: | A mullet Or |
| Shield: | Or, a map of Myanmar Or in a field Sable surrounded by a pinion Or which is also surrounded by paddy ears Or |
| Supporters: | Two lion sejant Or |
| Motto: | ပြည်ထောင်စု မြန်မာ နိုင်ငံတော် (• literally, "Union, Myanmar, State"; • officially, "Union of Myanmar") |
On 19 October 1988, the State Law and Order Restoration Council enacted a law which replaces the expression "Socialist Republic of the Union of Myanmar" with the expression "Union of Myanmar".[11] The State Seal was modified as the country name in State Seal Law had been replaced: the words ("Socialist Republic") were removed.[5]
In 2008, the Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar for Burma was approved by a referendum. In this new constitution, changes have been made to the State Seal. The new State Seal uses the colours red and gold/yellow. Also, the pinion and paddy ears have been removed and replaced with Eugenia sprigs and the words on the ribbon have been changed to which translates "Republic of the Union of Myanmar" .[12] The new Laws and Principles for State Seal were passed on 21 October 2010[13] (but were not enforced immediately) and the new State Seal was displayed on the television on that day's afternoon.[14] But the new state seal had not been adopted yet until 2011.[1] It was adopted on the day the 2008 Constitution came into force, on 31 January 2011.[2] [15]
Peafowl symbolizes the race of the sun.[16]
The reason of the inclusion of three lions in the State Seal was given as follow:[6]
(samaggānaṃ tapo sukho), which can be translated to "Happy is the practice of those in harmony," is from Verse 194 of the Buddhavagga in the Dhammapada.[7]
Ears of paddy are the symbol for cultivating class.[17]
Pinion (cogwheel) is the symbol for working class.[17]
Five-pointed star represents the revolution/resistance and the struggle for independence of Myanmar against colonialist and fascists.[18]
Eugenia sprig symbolizes victory.[19]
The map of Myanmar in the State Seal symbolizes the principal that the Sovereign power of the State is derived from the citizens and is in force in the entire country.[18]
Myanmar traditional floral arabesques are included to decorate the State seal as representation of ancient Myanmar traditions which are appropriate for modern Union of Myanmar.[6] [5]
The then conventional long names of the State are included in the State Seals,
http://www.hubert-herald.nl/Myanmar1.htm
