Myanmar Police Band
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The Myanmar Police Band (Burmese: ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့ တီးဝိုင်း) is a military/police band formation in the Myanmar Police Force. Being a battalion-sized organization (it consists of 240 musicians in total), it follows a British and Malaysian military format for marching bands. It is today regarded as Myanmar's oldest brass band, having established in 1945. It is also one of many militarized marching bands in the Myanmar Armed Forces, with the police band being based in Yangon.
It was founded in 1945, three years prior to the country gaining its independence from the British Empire. It was at that time, Indians soldiers and Gurkhas from Nepal were recruited to perform during flag-raising ceremonies. The newly formed band consisted of 13 recruits that were trained in Mandalay and sent to towns to train other uniformed musicians. Since 1997, the band has played at military parades and official receptions. The band took its first trip abroad in 2006 to Malaysia to perform with 10 other bands from ASEAN. In 2017, the band hosted the International Police Band Concert in the Kyauktada Township for the first time.[1][2][3][4] It takes part in that event every year, where it performs with police bands from Vietnam and Singapore.[5][6]