Fulfilling a Buddhist prophecy King Mindon selected the short lived site of the Burmese Royal capital at the foot of Mandalay Hill.
Lord Buddah pointing to the site of a Royal Burmese Capital
The British conquered upper Burma in 1885 and exiled King Thibaw into India ending Mandalay’s role as a capital city.
The Royal Palace moat
Travelling to Mandalay was partly an excuse to do a nice night bus but also as a transit stop before heading North into Shan States. That is why this post is very light on detail!
Mandalay is a well known city partly because of a Rudyard Kipling poem called Mandalay written after he had visited Mawlamyine (formerly Moulmein). Kipling never made it as far as Mandalay. This hasn’t stopped a plethora of bars being named after him.
http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_mandalay.htm
