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{{Short description|Myanmar Standard time}}
{{infobox time zone
| title = Myanmar Standard Time
| image = File:MMT-TZ.jpg
| UTC = Asia/Yangon
| name = UTC+06:30
| alt = Burma Standard Time
| offset = +6:30
}}
'''Myanmar Standard Time''' ({{langx|my|မြန်မာ စံတော်ချိန်}}, {{IPA|my|mjəmà sàɰ̃dɔ̀dʑèiɰ̃|}}), formerly '''Burma Standard Time''' ('''BST'''), is the [[standard time]] in [[Myanmar]], 6.5 hours ahead of [[Coordinated Universal Time|UTC]]. Myanmar Standard Time (MMT) is calculated on the basis of 97°30′E [[longitude]].<ref name=mff>MFF 2002: 1</ref> MMT is used all year round, as Myanmar does not observe [[daylight saving time]].<ref name=USNAO-262>USNAO 2013: 262</ref><ref>[[Myanmar]]</ref>

==History==
[[File:Alanpya Pagoda.png|thumb|The [[Alanpya Pagoda|Alanpya "Signal" Pagoda]] in Rangoon/Yangon in 1855. The [[time ball]] attached to the top of the pagoda by the British is visible.<ref name=rk-2020-544>Kinns 2020: 544</ref>]]

===Pre-colonial period===
Myanmar did not have a standard time before the [[British rule in Burma|British colonial period]]. Each region kept its own [[local mean time]], according to the [[Burmese calendar]] rules: sunrise, noon, sunset and midnight.<ref group=note>(Clancy 1906: 57): The Burmese calendar recognizes two types of day: astronomical and [[civil day|civil]]. The mean Burmese astronomical day is from midnight to midnight, and represents 1/30th of a [[synodic month]] or 23 hours, 37 minutes and 28.08 seconds. The civil day comprises two halves, the first half beginning at sunrise and the second half at sunset.</ref> The day was divided into eight 3-hour segments called ''baho'' (ဗဟို), or sixty 24-minute segments called ''nayi'' (နာရီ). Although the calendar consists of time units down to the millisecond level, the popular usage never extended beyond ''baho'' and at most ''nayi'' measurements; a gong was struck every ''nayi'' while a drum (စည်) and a large bell (ခေါင်းလောင်း) were struck to mark every ''baho''.<ref name=jcc-57>Clancy 1906: 57</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! width="100"|Type
! width="100"|Time
! width="100"|Burmese name
! width="300"|Description
|-
|-
| rowspan=4 | Day || 1 o'clock || {{lang|my|နံနက် တစ်ချက်တီး}} || midway between sunrise and midday
|-
| 2 o'clock || {{lang|my|နေ့ နှစ်ချက်တီး}} || noon (midday)
|-
| 3 o'clock || {{lang|my|နေ့ သုံးချက်တီး}} || midway between noon and sunset
|-
| 4 o'clock || {{lang|my|နေ့ လေးချက်တီး}} || sunset
|-
| rowspan=4 | Night || 1 o'clock || {{lang|my|ည တစ်ချက်တီး}} || midway between sunset and midnight
|-
| 2 o'clock || {{lang|my|ည နှစ်ချက်တီး}} || midnight
|-
| 3 o'clock || {{lang|my|ည သုံးချက်တီး}} || midway between midnight and sunrise
|-
| 4 o'clock || {{lang|my|နံနက် လေးချက်တီး}} || sunrise
|}

===Colonial period===
[[File:World Time Zone Chart 1942.jpg|thumb|400px|Burma at 6:30 ahead of the GMT on this 1928 world map of time zones]]

The use of a common time began in [[British Burma]] in the late 19th century. The first confirmed mention of Rangoon Mean Time (RMT) at [[GMT]]+6:24:40<ref group=note>The time offset of 6:24:40 was the time used by the official time signal station in Rangoon per (Kinns 2020: 545) and the [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|Admiralty]] (Admiralty 1895: 27); it was confirmed by the US Naval Intelligence report (USNI 1928: 723). <br/> The IANA database (https://www.iana.org/time-zones, version 2021e, released on 2021-10-21) gives 6:24:47, citing a secondary source (Reed and Low, The Indian Year Book, 1936–37, pp. 27–28); to be sure, the maintainers of the database do state that "this file is by no means authoritative." The 6:24:47 figure of (Reed and Low) may have been a typographical error from the 6:24:37 time given in (Indian Railway Board 1906: 7) which states that "... in Burma 6 1/2 hours ahead of Greenwich and 5 minutes 23 [sic] seconds earlier than Rangoon time." The Railway Board's 6:24:37 is likely false as the Admiralty records from 1898 to 1922 all say the official Rangoon time (per Kinns 2020: 545) was 6:24:40.</ref> being in use was in 1892,<ref name=rk-2020-544-545>Kinns 2020: 544–545</ref> a year before the country's first [[time ball]] observatory<ref group=note>(Kinns 2020: 544): The British apparently were using a local pagoda (later came to be known as the [[Alanpya Pagoda|Signal Pagoda]]) in Rangoon for signaling at least since 1855, three years after their [[Second Anglo-Burmese War|annexation of Lower Burma]]; but "no supporting evidence of a Rangoon time signal has been found in notices prior to 1893."</ref> was opened in [[Yangon|Rangoon]] (Yangon) on 1 October 1893.<ref name=bbp-27>Hydrographic 1895: 27</ref><ref name=rk-2021-445>Kinns 2021: 445</ref> However, the use of RMT as the common time, at least in some sectors, most probably started earlier. (The country's first rail service, between Rangoon and [[Pyay|Prome]] (Pyay), began on 2 May 1877,<ref name=cb-336>Chailley-Bert 1894: 336</ref> and the non-authoritative [[tz database|IANA time zone database]] says RMT was introduced in 1880.<ref name=iana>IANA TZ October 2021: Burma/Myanmar</ref>) On 1 July 1905,<ref name=re-346>RE 1906: 346</ref><ref name=us-bs-3>USBS 1935: 3</ref> a new standard time called Burma Standard Time (BST) at GMT+6:30—set to the longitude 97° 30' E, and 5 minutes and 20 seconds ahead of RMT—was first adopted by the [[Myanmar Railways|Railways]] and [[Myanma Posts and Telecommunications|Telegraph]] administrations.<ref name=re-346/><ref name=usno-v>USNO 1906: Volume IV, Appendix II, v</ref> Although the rest of the country came to adopt BST, RMT continued to be used in the city of Rangoon at least to 1927.<ref group=note>An April 1927 dispatch by the US Naval Intelligence (USNI 1928: 723) says that the whole country, except Rangoon, used the standard time, GMT+6:30, while the city of Rangoon still used Rangoon Mean Time, which was 5 minutes 20 seconds behind Burma Standard Time (or GMT+6:24:40).</ref> By 1930, however, BST apparently had been adopted in Rangoon as well.<ref group=note>(Kinns 2020: 545): the UK Admiralty records show that the time ball at the Rangoon time signal station was dropped twice each day, once at GMT+17:30:00 for 00:00:00 BST (i.e. GMT+6:30:00) and also at GMT+17:35:20 for 00:00:00 RMT (i.e. GMT+6:24:40); it was only in 1930 that the time ball at Rangoon was dropped for the standard time (GMT+6:30:00).</ref>

The standard time was changed to [[Japan Standard Time]] (JST) during the [[Japanese occupation of Burma|Japanese occupation]] of the country (1942–1945) in World War II.<ref name=tz>IANA October 2021: Burma/Myanmar</ref>

===After independence===
The standard time was reverted to GMT+6:30 after the war.<ref name=tz/> It has remained ever since, even after the country's independence in 1948. The only change has been its name in English; the official English name has been changed to Myanmar Standard Time<ref name=mff/> presumably since 1989 when the country's name in English was changed from Burma to Myanmar.<ref name=bbc>BBC News 2 December 2011</ref> The country does not observe a daylight saving time.<ref name=USNAO-262/>

==Timeline of common times==
{| width=100% class="wikitable"
|-
! Name
! Period
! Offset from [[UTC]]
! Notes
|-
| Rangoon Mean Time || 2 May 1877? – 30 June 1905 || UTC+6:24:40 || Standard time for British Burma from at least 1892 to 30 June 1905. Continued to be used in Rangoon (Yangon) at least to 1927<ref name=usni-723>USNI 1928: 723</ref> perhaps until 1929.<ref name=rk-2020-545>Kinns 2020: 545</ref>
|-
| Burma Standard Time || 1 July 1905 – 30 April 1942 || UTC+6:30:00 || First adopted by Railways and Telegraph offices in 1905.<ref name=re-346/><ref name=usno-v/> The October 2021 IANA database says it was introduced in 1920<ref name=tz/> but does not provide a source.
|-
| [[Japan Standard Time]] || 1 May 1942 – 2 May 1945 || UTC+09:00:00 || Standard time during the [[Japanese occupation of Burma|Japanese occupation]]
|-
| Burma/Myanmar Standard Time || 3 May 1945 – present || UTC+06:30:00 ||
|}

==IANA time zone database==
The [[IANA time zone database]] contains one [[time zone]] named [[Asia/Yangon]]<ref>Yangon</ref> for [[Myanmar]]<ref name=tz/>

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! [[Country Code]]
! [[Coordinates]]
! [[Time Zone]]
! Comments
! [[UTC offset]]
! [[Daylight savings time|UTC DST offset]]
|----
| [[Myanmar|MM]]
| {{coord|16.79543|96.15051}}
| [[Asia/Yangon]]
| [[Asia/Rangoon]]
| {{Time zone/utc offset link|Asia/Yangon}}
|}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite news | author=BBC News | title=Who, What, Why: Should it be Burma or Myanmar? | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16000467 | date=2 December 2011 | publisher=BBC News}}
* {{cite book | last=Chailley-Bert | first=Joseph | title=The Colonisation of Indo-China | translator=Arthur Baring Brabant | date=1894 | location=London | publisher=A. Constable & Company | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cARJAAAAIAAJ }}
* {{cite journal | last=Clancy | first=J.C. | title=The Burmese Calendar: A Monthly Review of Astronomy | date=January 1906 | journal=The Observatory | editor=T. Lewis |editor2=H.P. Hollis | volume=XXIX | number=366}}
* {{cite journal | author=Hydrographic Office, [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|Admiralty]] | title=Bay of Bengal Pilot | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tOKvAAAAMAAJ | location=London | year=1895}}
* {{cite web | author=IANA Time Zone Database | url=https://www.iana.org/time-zones | title=Time Zone Database, 2021e | date=2021-10-21 | access-date=2022-01-01}}
* {{cite journal | last=Kinns | first=Roger | title=Time Signals for Mariners in India, Burma and Ceylon | url=https://www.narit.or.th/files/JAHH/2020JAHHvol23/2020JAHH...23..523K.pdf | journal=[[Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage]] | volume=23 | issue=3 | year=2020 | publisher=National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand | location=Chiang Mai | pages=523–552| doi=10.3724/SP.J.1440-2807.2020.03.05 | bibcode=2020JAHH...23..523K | s2cid=256563687 }}
* {{cite book | last=Kinns | first=Roger | chapter=Time Signals for Mariners in Southeast Asia: Time Balls, Discs, Bells, Guns and Lights | editor1=Wayne Orchiston | editor2=Mayank N. Vahia | title=Exploring the History of Southeast Asian Astronomy: A Review of Current Projects and Future Prospects and Possibilities | year=2021 | isbn=978-3-030-62776-8 | publisher=Springer | location=[[Cham, Switzerland]] | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aUw2EAAAQBAJ}}
* {{cite book | author=The Railway Board of India | title=Administration Report on the Railways in India for the Calendar Year 1905 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qJA-AQAAMAAJ | location=Simla | year=1906| publisher=Manager of Publications. }}
* {{cite book | author=Union of Myanmar Ministry of Information | title=Myanmar: Facts and Figures | publisher=Ministry of Information, Union of Myanmar | year=2002 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iXCyAAAAIAAJ}}
* {{cite book | author=United States National Bureau of Standards | title=Standard Time Throughout the World | year=1935 | location=Washington | publisher=United States Department of Commerce | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2w8kqYGR5q8C}}
* {{cite book|author=United States Nautical Almanac Office | title=The Nautical Almanac for the Year 2014 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xi3A8_DCvAcC | date=17 May 2013 | publisher=Government Printing Office | isbn=978-0-16-091756-1 | page=262}}
* {{cite book | author=United States Naval Observatory | title=Publications of the United States Naval Observatory | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QUrnAAAAMAAJ | volume=IV | issue=2 | location=Washington, DC | year=1906| publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office }}
* {{cite book | author=United States Office of Naval Intelligence | title=Port Directory of the Principal Foreign Ports | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HVXXAAAAMAAJ | year=1928 | publisher=US Naval Department | location=Washington}}

{{Asia topic|Time in}}

[[Category:Time in Myanmar| ]]
[[Category:Time in Southeast Asia]]

Myanmar Standard Time - Revision history

imported>BunnysBot: /* top */ Fix CW Errors with GenFixes (T1)