Myanmar units of measurement

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The traditional Burmese units of measurement were a system of measurement used in Myanmar.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Myanmar was one of three countries that had not adopted the International System of Units (SI) metric system as their official system of weights and measures according to the 2010 CIA Factbook. [1] However, in June 2011, U Kyaw Htoo from the Myanmar government's Ministry of Commerce began discussing proposals to reform the measurement system in Burma and adopt the kilogram for domestic trade, reasoning that this would simplify foreign trade which it conducts exclusively in metric; [2] and in October 2013, Pwint San, Deputy Minister for Commerce, announced that the country was preparing to adopt the metric system. [3]

As of 2006, Myanmar government web pages in English used imperial and metric units inconsistently. For instance, the Ministry of Construction used miles to describe the length of roads [4] and square feet for the size of houses, [5] but square kilometres for the total land area of new town developments in Yangon City. [5] As of 2010 the Ministry of Agriculture used acres for land areas. [6] As of 2009 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs used kilometres (with mile equivalents in parentheses) to describe the dimensions of the country. [7]

Length

Table of length units
UnitMetricImperial/USRatio to
previous
BurmeseRomanized
ဆံချည်sanchi79.375  μm 3+18  thou/mil
နှမ်းhnan793.75 μm31+14 thou/mil10
မုယောmuyaw4.7625  mm 316  in 6
လက်သစ်let thit19.05 mm34 in; one digit 4
မိုက်maik152.4 mm6 in; one shaftment 8
ထွာhtwa228.6 mm9 in; one span 1.5
တောင်taung457.2 mm1+12  ft; one cubit 2
လံlan1.8288  m 6 ft; one fathom 4
တာta3.2004 m10+12 ft1.75
ဥသဘout-thaba
(from Pali usabha)
64.008 m70  yd 20
ကောသkawtha
(from Pali kosa)
1.28016  km 0.795455  mi 20
ဂါ၀ုတ်ga-wout
(from Pali gāvuta)
5.12064 km3.18182 mi;
about one league
4
ယူဇနာyuzana
(from Pali yūjanā)
20.48256 km12.7273 mi4

Mass

Table of mass units
UnitMetricImperial/USRatio to
previous
BurmeseRomanized
ရွေးလေးyway lay136.078  mg 2.1 grain
ရွေးကြီးyway gyi272.155 mg4.2 grain2
ပဲသားpetha1.02058  g 15.75 grain3.75
မူးသားmutha2.04117 g31.5 grain2
မတ်သားmattha4.08233 g63 grain2
ငါးမူးသားnga mutha [N 1] 8.16466 g0.288  oz 2
ကျပ်သား kyattha [N 2] 16.3293 g0.576 oz2
အဝက်သားawettha204.117 g7.2 oz12.5
အစိတ်သားaseittha408.233 g14.4 oz2
ငါးဆယ်သားngase tha816.466 g1.8  lb 2
ပိဿာpeittha [N 3] 1.63293  kg 3.6 lb2
အချိန်တစ်ရာachein taya163.293 kg360 lb100
  1. Literally "five mutha", but in fact it is only four.
  2. Traditionally known as a tical in English.
  3. Traditionally known as a viss in English.

Volume

Table of volume units
UnitMetricImperialUSRatio to
previous
BurmeseRomanized
လမြူla myu79.9118  mL 2+1316  fl oz 2.70214 fl oz
လမျက်la myet159.824 mL5+58 fl oz5.40428 fl oz2
လမယ်la me319.647 mL11+14 fl oz10.8086 fl oz2
စလယ်sa le639.294 mL1+18  pints 1.35107 pints2
ခွက်hkwet1.27859  L 1+18  qt 1.35107 qt2
ပြည်pyi2.55718 L2+14 qt2.70214 qt2
စိတ်seit10.2287 L2+14 gallons
1+18 pecks
2.70214 gallons
1.16106 pecks
4
ခွဲhkwe20.4574 L4+12 gallons
2+14 pecks
5.40428 gallons
2.32213 pecks
2
တင်းtin40.9148 L9 gallons
1+18 bushels
10.8086 gallons
1.16107 bushels
2

Money

Table of money units
UnitEquivalent to
BurmeseRomanizedpyamumatnga mukyat
ပြား1 pya11101251501100
မူး1 mu1012515110
မတ်1 mat252+1211214
ငါးမူး5 mu (nga mu)5052112
ကျပ်1 kyat 10010421

Adoption of SI (metric) system

Speed limit road sign using kilometres per hour in Amarapura Speed limit road sign in Myanmar.jpg
Speed limit road sign using kilometres per hour in Amarapura

In October 2013, the Ministry of Commerce announced that Myanmar was preparing to adopt the International System of Units (SI) as the country's official system of measurement. [3]

Examples of metrication in Myanmar include weather forecasts by the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology being given with temperatures in Celsius. [8] Petrol in Myanmar is sold with prices in Burmese kyat per litre (K/L). [9] [10] Speed limits in Myanmar are given by law in kilometres per hour (km/h). [11] [12]

See also

References

  1. "The World Factbook, Appendix G: Weights and Measures". Web Pages. Central Intelligence Agency. 2010. Archived from the original on 28 May 2010. Retrieved 10 May 2010.
  2. Gyi, Ko Ko (18–24 July 2011). "Ditch the viss, govt urges traders". Business and Property. The Myanmar Times. Translated by Thit Lwin. Myanmar. Archived from the original on 20 September 2011. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
  3. 1 2 "Myanmar to adopt metric system". www.elevenmyanmar.com. Eleven Media Group. Archived from the original on 24 March 2015. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
  4. "Public Works, Fields Of Activities". Web Page. Ministry Of Construction. 2006. Archived from the original on 1 February 2010. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
  5. 1 2 "Housing Development". web page. Ministry Of Construction. 2006. Archived from the original on 1 February 2010. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
  6. "Ministry of Agriculture and Information". Web Page. Myanmar Agriculture. 2009–2010. Archived from the original on 13 June 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
  7. "About Myanmar : Geography". web page. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Myanmar. 2009. Archived from the original on 5 August 2010. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
  8. "City Weather Forecast for States and Regions | Department of Meteorology and Hydrology". www.moezala.gov.mm. Archived from the original on 24 December 2017.
  9. Fuel prices on the rise | The Myanmar Times
  10. Petrol Prices March 2014 in Yangon, Myanmar
  11. Road Safety in Myanmar (Road Safety 2030 High level Action For Road Safety) - Recommendations of an Expert Mission invited by the Government of Myanmar and supported by the Suu Foundation. Paris, April 2017, page 13 of 21 "A national speed limit law featuring maximum speed limits on urban roads (48 km/h) and rural roads (80 km/h)"
  12. Strict speed limit enforcement begins in Mandalay | The Myanmar Times

Bibliography