Burma, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, commonly shortened to Myanmar, Burmese pronunciation is a sovereign state in Southeast Asia bordered by Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand. One-third of Burma's total perimeter of 1,930 km (1,200 miles) forms an uninterrupted coastline along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Burma has a population of 51 million people. Burma is 676,578 square kilometres (261,227 sq mi) in size. Burma's capital city is Naypyidaw and its largest city is Yangon.

Early civilisations in Burma included the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu in Upper Burma and the Mon in Lower Burma. In the 9th century, the Burmans of the Kingdom of Nanzhao entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and, following the establishment of the Pagan Empire in the 1050s, the Burmese language, culture and Theravada Buddhism slowly became dominant in the country. The Pagan Empire fell due to the Mongol invasions and several warring states emerged. In the 16th century, reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty, the country was for a brief period the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia. The early 19th century Konbaung Dynasty ruled over an area that included modern Burma and briefly controlled Manipur and Assam as well. The British conquered Burma after three Anglo-Burmese Wars in the 19th century and the country became a British colony. Burma became an independent nation in 1948, initially as a democratic nation and then, following a coup in 1962, a military dictatorship which formally ended in 2011.