in Rangoon/Yangon in 1855. The
time ball attached to the top of the pagoda by the British is visible.
Pre-colonial period Myanmar did not have a standard time before the
British colonial period. Each region kept its own
local mean time, according to the
Burmese calendar rules: sunrise, noon, sunset and midnight. 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.
Colonial period 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 being in use was in 1892, a year before the country's first
time ball observatory was opened in
Rangoon (Yangon) on 1 October 1893. 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
Prome (Pyay), began on 2 May 1877, and the non-authoritative
IANA time zone database says RMT was introduced in 1880.) On 1 July 1905, 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
Railways and
Telegraph administrations. Although the rest of the country came to adopt BST, RMT continued to be used in the city of Rangoon at least to 1927. By 1930, however, BST apparently had been adopted in Rangoon as well. The standard time was changed to
Japan Standard Time (JST) during the
Japanese occupation of the country (1942–1945) in World War II.
After independence The standard time was reverted to GMT+6:30 after the war. The country does not observe a daylight saving time. ==Timeline of common times==