The Secretariat, or Ministers’ Office, is the building where Myanmar’s national hero, General Aung San, was assassinated in 1947, along with eight others. The Victorian-style building dates from the 1800s and was extended into a courtyard-like complex of buildings in 1905. Indeed it feels much like an Oxford University college.
The Yangon government has recognised the value of restoring its old buildings for tourists, and this one will be quite grand when renovation has finished. At the moment it has a cafe and a souvenir shop and you must go around with a guide. It was assumed that we knew the story of the assassination, so the short video they showed us was a bit complicated to follow. I still have a bit of reading to do to understand the history of this country, so here’s a link to information about General Aung San if you would like more information.
This is the room in which General Aung San and others were shot. For a period it was used as a Buddhist shrine, so now they are stripping the walls back to the original form and looking for the bullet holes.
A surprise discovery in the lobby of the building was the arrival of Father Christmas (on 21st December), so I just had to get a sweet from him!
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