In 1961, the General Assembly unanimously elected U Thant acting secretary general of the U.N.

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Naypyitaw, he paid tribute to former United Nations Secretary-General U Thant at a memorial in Yangon.

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It was here that U Thant learned the ways of the world before guiding it at the United Nations.

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Mr Thant is an academic historian and the grandson of U Thant, secretary-general of the United Nations in the 1960s.

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When U Thant visited Nepal in April 1967 as Secretary-General of the United Nations, he proposed the development of Lumbini into a major centre of pilgrimage.

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The Secretary-General then visited the UN House in Yangon, where he planted a tree sapling, unveiled a plaque commemorating his visit and inaugurated a new U Thant Conference Room in the complex.

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The 46-year-old Thant Myint-U is the natural candidate to save Yangon's cosmopolitan past.

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