The great Irrawaddy river is the backbone of Burma. Rising high in the Himalayas, it flows south through 1,000 miles of jungle-clad mountains and and desert plains before entering the Bay of Bengal close to the capital, Rangoon.The Irrawaddy is Kiplmgs Roaa to Mandalay, where the fljin fishes play, an' the dawn comes up like thunder, outer China, 'crost the Bay '.On its banks lie the ruins of Pagan, once the centre of a mighty empire, where powerful kings tried to outdo their predecessors by building ever more magnificent temples.Today Burma is a socialist country, slowly emerging from a long period of near-isolation from the rest of the world. Perhaps because of that isolation, it has preserved traditions and an old-wor d charm and sophistication which are uniquely its own.