Taukkyan War Cemetery

The Taukkyan War Cemetery, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, lies about 30 km north of downtown Yangon on the road to Bago. It is one of the most moving sites in Myanmar — 6,374 graves laid out in a large, immaculately kept garden, each stone identical and precisely spaced.

The Memorial to the Missing records over 27,000 names of those who died in the Burma Campaign with no known grave. The scale of loss is almost incomprehensible, and the quietness of the site — well off the tourist trail, rarely visited — intensifies the experience. A short drive from the city; most visitors combine it with a trip to Bago.

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The cemetery contains 6,374 graves of Allied soldiers who died in the Burma Campaign, plus the names of a further 27,000 who have no known grave, recorded on the Memorial to the Missing. Among those buried here are soldiers from Britain, India, Australia, Canada, East Africa, West Africa, and Burma itself. The Burma Campaign was among the most gruelling of the Second World War — fought in dense jungle, extreme heat, and endemic disease.

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