Taukkyan War Cemetery

We visited this afternoon the Taukkyan War Cemetery which is in Taukkyan town, Mingaladon Township. It is around one hour drive from downtown Yangon.

We saw the cemetery on our way to Golden Rock, when driving to Bago. We remembered we saw the Top Gear presenters stopping and paying their respects to the fallen heroes of WWII, in their show on Burma.

The cemetery, according to Commonwealth War Graves Commissions is the largest war cemetery from the three which exist in Myanmar. It has today 6374 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 867 of them unidentified.

Inside the cemetery there is also a Memorial which has on huge columns the names of 27000 people who died during the campaign in Burma and who do not have a known grave.

While reading some of the grave stones I was wondering how many grandchildren of these soldiers came to Burma to bring some flowers and light a candle for the loved one?

The locals come here to take a walk, make pictures and hide behind umbrellas while relaxing on the grass. It is for them an escape from the pollution and the noise of the town.