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Naypyidaw, officially Nay Pyi Taw, is the purpose-built capital of Myanmar, set between the Bago Yoma and Shan Yoma ranges in the centre of the country. It is famous for its vast scale and its wide, quiet boulevards, for the golden Uppatasanti Pagoda, a near copy of Yangon's Shwedagon, and for the giant marble Maravijaya Buddha.
Construction began in 2002 on a greenfield site beside the old town of Pyinmana, about 320 kilometres north of Yangon, and the government moved here on 6 November 2005. The name, meaning royal capital, was announced on Armed Forces Day in 2006. The city has an official population of about 925,000 spread over 7,054 square kilometres, and the March 2025 earthquake damaged most of its government buildings.
For visitors the draw lies in the pagodas, the National Museum and the Defence Services Museum, and in a ring of parks: the zoo with its penguin house, a safari park, the National Herbal Park and the Water Fountain Garden. Myoma Market is the busy heart of daily life, and the Ngalaik Lake Gardens lie about 11 kilometres from the city.
Uppatasanti Pagoda in Naypyidaw is a 99-metre replica of Yangon's Shwedagon, built from 2006 to 2009 and just 30 centimetres shorter than the original. It enshrines a Buddha tooth relic, its name means protection against calamity, and four jade Buddha images sit in its hollow core.
The Maravijaya Buddha in Dekkhinathiri Township, Naypyidaw, is the largest marble Buddha statue in the world, carved from Sagyin marble quarried near Mandalay. Consecrated on 1 August 2023, the seated image weighs 5,292 tons and is ringed by 720 stone stupas and a Mucalinda pond.
The Hluttaw Complex in Naypyidaw houses the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the two-chamber Union Assembly of Myanmar. Its 31 buildings in Zeya Theddhi Ward are believed to stand for the 31 planes of existence in Buddhist cosmology, and they were badly damaged in the March 2025 earthquake.
Shwe Lett Hla Pagoda, also called Yan Aung Myin Pagoda, is a historic stupa in Yan Aung Myin village in Dekkhinathiri Township, Naypyidaw. Legend credits its founding to envoys of King Ashoka; it was restored by Bagan kings, rebuilt after the 1838 earthquake and given a new crown umbrella in 1875.
The National Museum in Naypyidaw, near the Kumudra circle in Ottarathiri Township, opened in 2015 as the country's second national museum. Its five wings run from Pondaung primate fossils and models of the Pyu cities to Bagan art, ethnic instruments and a full replica of the royal Lion Throne.
The Defence Services Museum in Naypyidaw's Zeyathiri Township spreads over about 600 acres beside the old Yangon-Mandalay road. Opened in March 2012, it has halls for the army, navy and air force, and outdoor grounds with old bronze cannons, armoured vehicles, model warships and aircraft.
The Naypyitaw Gems Museum is the gem museum of Naypyidaw, one of the capital's museums alongside the National Museum, the Defence Services Museum and the Planetarium. It is devoted to the precious stones of a country famed for its rubies, sapphires, pearls and jade, like the gems museum in Yangon.
Myoma Market is the commercial centre of Naypyidaw and its main market, in a capital better known for its wide and quiet avenues. Other places to shop in the city include Thapye Chaung Market, Naypyidaw Wholesale and the Junction Centre, the city's first privately run shopping centre.
Naypyidaw Zoological Gardens opened on Armed Forces Day, 27 March 2008, with about 420 animals moved from the Yangon zoo, and covers 247 hectares by the Yangon-Mandalay highway. Its best-known exhibit is an air-conditioned penguin house, while white tigers, elephants and kangaroos also live here.
Naypyidaw Safari Park, which officially opened on 12 February 2011, has Asian, African and Australian sections, the African one covering about 24 hectares. Visitors ride buggies past giraffes, zebras, rhinos, lions, tigers, camels and ostriches, while the Asian area shelters sambar and other deer.
The National Herbal Park in Naypyidaw covers 200 acres near the Naypyidaw-Taungnyo Road and grows over 20,000 medicinal plants of more than 700 species from every state and region of Myanmar. It opened on 4 January 2008 to protect the herbs of traditional medicine, and entry is free of charge.
The Naypyidaw Water Fountain Garden is a 67-hectare park near the City Hall, entered beneath a steel arch. A main pond with three fountains and 11 smaller ponds with 13 more surround a 9-metre clock tower and two stone gardens, and the fountains host a musical light show every night.
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