Page 43 - Proceedings of The Fifth Meeting of Indigenous Medicine in the Mekong Basin

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Ayeyarwady delta had a rainfall of around 3000 mm, the mountains in the extreme
north had over 2000 mm and the hills of the east over 1300 mm. The dry zone had
between 700 and 1500 mm due to the Rakhine Yomas (hills) cutting off the
monsoon. The average temperature experienced in the delta ranged between 22°C
to 33°C, while in the dry zone, it was between 20°C and 34°C. The temperature was
between 17°C and 30°C in hilly regions and even lower in Chin state ranging
between 10°C and 24°C.

4. Demography
The population of Myanmar in 2010-2011 is estimated at 59.78 million with
the growth rate of 1.1 percent. About 70 percent of the population resides in the rural
areas, whereas the remaining are urban dwellers. The population density for the
whole country is 88 per square kilometers.

5. People and Religion
The Republic of the Union of Myanmar is made up of (135) national races
speaking over 100 languages and dialects. The major ethnic groups are Kachin,
Kayah, Kayin, Chin, Bamar, Mon, Rakhine, Shan and there are 12, 9, 11, 53, 9, 1, 7,
33 races respectively in each group. About 89.4% of the population mainly Bamar,
Shan, Mon, Rakhine and some Kayin are Buddhists. The rest are Christians,
Muslims, Hindus and Animists.

6. Economy
Myanmar is a country with a large land area rich in natural and human
resources. Cognizant of the fact that the agricultural sector can contribute to overall
economic growth of the country the government has accorded top priority to
agricultural development as the base for all round development of the economy as
well. Following the adoption of market oriented economy from centralized economy
the government has carried out liberal economic reforms to ensure participation of
private sector in every sphere of economic activities. The country comes into the