Mawlamyine မော်လမြိုင် မတ်မလီု | |
|---|---|
Capital Town | |
  _Entrance.jpg) -1.jpg)  _11.jpg)    Top to bottom and left to right:Uzina Pagoda,Kyaikthanlan Pagoda,Pa-Auk Forest Monastery, Mahar Myat Muni Pagoda, Shri Shiva Lokanathan Temple,Cathedral of the Holy Family, Moghul Shiah Mosque,Mawlamyine University,Shampoo Island on theSalween | |
  Mawlamyine Location of Mawlamyine, Myanmar (Burma) | |
| Coordinates:16°29′N97°37′E / 16.483°N 97.617°E /16.483; 97.617 | |
| Country |  Myanmar |
| State |  Mon State |
| District | Mawlamyine District |
| Township | Mawlamyine Township |
| Population (2014 Census)[1] | |
• Capital Town | 289,388 |
| • Urban | 253,734 |
| • Rural | 35,654 |
| • Ethnicities | Mons Burmans Chinese Indians Karens |
| • Religions | Theravada Buddhism Christianity Islam Hinduism |
| Demonym(s) | Moulmeinian, Mawlamyinian |
| Time zone | UTC+6.30 (MST) |
| Area code | 57 |
| [2] | |
Mawlamyine (also spelledMawlamyaing;Burmese:မော်လမြိုင်မြို့;MLCTS:mau la. mruing mrui.,Burmese pronunciation:[mɔ̀ləmjàɪ̯ɰ̃mjo̰];Thai:เมาะลำเลิง ;Mon:မတ်မလီု,Mon pronunciation:[mo̤tməlɜ̤m]), formerlyMoulmein, is the fourth-largest city inMyanmar (Burma),[3][4] 300 kilometres (190 mi) south east ofYangon and 70 kilometres (43 mi) south ofThaton, at the mouth ofThanlwin (Salween) River. Mawlamyine was an ancient city and the firstcapital ofBritish Burma. The city is currently the capital and largest city ofMon State and the maintrading centre andseaport in south eastern Myanmar.[5]
TheMon name which was previously used for Mawlamyine,Moulmein (မတ်မလီု;[mòtməlɜ̀m]) means "damaged eye" or "one-eyed man."[6][7][8] According to legend, aMon king had a powerful third eye in the centre of his forehead, able to see what was happening in neighbouring kingdoms. The daughter of one of the neighbouring kings was given in marriage to the three-eyed king and managed to destroy the third eye.[9] The Burmese name "Mawlamyine" is believed to be a corruption of the Mon name.
Moulmein was also spelled asMaulmain or Moulmain or Maulmein in some records of the 19th century. The people of Moulmein were referred asMoulmeinian.[10]
According toKalyani Inscriptions erected by KingDhammazedi ofHanthawaddy Pegu in 1479, Mawlamyine was mentioned among the ‘32 myo’ or thirty-twoMon cities within the Martaban division.[11] Binnya U, a deputy of ViceroySaw Binnya, was one of the notable governors of Mawlamyine in the early history of the city.
In May 1541, KingTabinshwehti and his deputyBayinnaung captured Mawlamyine.[12] During the reign of Bayinnaung,Toungoo Empire became the largest empire in the history ofSoutheast Asia. After his passing in 1581, his sonNanda Bayin and successors faced with rebellion byLan Na,Siam,Lan Xang and renewed Portuguese incursions. In 1594, the governor of Mawlamyine who being in league with Siamese KingNaresuan revolted against Toungoo court.[13] Since then, the city became under the control of Siam (present-dayThailand) until 1614.
In 1760, GeneralMinkhaung Nawrahta of theRoyal Burmese Army repaired Mawlamyine on his way back fromBurmese–Siamese War inAyutthaya (former capital of Thailand). Kyaikthanlan Pagoda Inscription hinted that in 1764 (1125 ME), GeneralMaha Nawrahta repaired Kyaikthanlan Pagoda on his way to captureTavoy, and before finishing the repairment, Mawlamyine faced utter destruction.
Mawlamyine was thefirst capital ofBritish Burma between 1826 and 1852 after theTanintharyi (Tenassarim) coast, along withArakan, was ceded toBritain under theTreaty of Yandabo at the end of theFirst Anglo-Burmese War.[14] After the first Anglo-Burmese war, the British made it their capital between 1826 and 1852, building government offices, churches and a massive prison.In 1829, the Moulmein Bar Association was founded by the Barristers in Mawlamyine. They started business enterprises and the country's first newspaper,The Maulmain Chronicle.[15] Between 1826 and 1862, colonial Mawlamyine was the center of British Burma and the firstport city that became a strategically important area and a geographical nodal point for the newly occupied British territory in Southeast Asia.[16] Ever since the first British occupation in 1824, the growth and prosperity of Mawlamyine had steadily increased due to timber trade. Nevertheless, the decline in prosperity of Mawlamyine began when the supply of marketable timber from Salween Valley started to decrease in the 1890s.[17]
During British colonial times,Germany,Siam,Persia,Denmark,Norway andSweden opened and maintainedconsulates in Mawlamyine led by eitherconsuls or vice-consuls whileItaly andthe United States placed consular agencies in Mawlamyine.[18][19][20]German explorerJohann Wilhelm Helfer's landing at Moulmein shore on 8 February 1837 made him as the first German to arrive Burma in the history.[21][22]
Mawlamyine was the setting ofGeorge Orwell's famous 1936 essayShooting an Elephant, which was inspired by Orwell's posting to the city as a police officer in 1926.[23] The story, which is most likely a mixture of fact and fiction,[23] opens with the striking words:
During colonial times, Moulmein had a substantialAnglo-Burmese population. An area of the city was known as "LittleEngland" due to the large Anglo-Burmese community, many of them running rubber plantations. This has since dwindled to a handful of families as most have left for the UK or Australia.
It was probably best known toEnglish speakers through the opening lines ofRudyard Kipling's poemMandalay:
DuringWWII, the city and theTanintharyi Region were the first objectives during theJapanese invasion of Burma.[24]
The "old Moulmein pagoda" Kipling cites is thought to be theKyaik Than Lan (also spelled Kyaikthanlan) pagoda in Mawlamyine.[25] It stands on a ridge, giving a panoramic view of the city, and is surrounded by 34 smaller temples.[25] Among its sacred treasures is a hair relic ofBuddha,[25][26] received from a hermit in Thaton,[27] as well as a tooth relic conveyed fromSri Lanka by a delegation of monks in ancient times.[27]
Soon after Burma's independence in 1948, the city fell into the hands ofKaren insurgents. TheMyanmar military retook the city with the help ofUBS Mayu in 1950.[28] Later, many colonial names of streets and parks of the city were changed to more nationalistic Burmese names. Mawlamyine stood as the third-largest city of Myanmar until the recent rise ofNaypyidaw.
Mawlamyine is in theSalween Riverdelta, where the mouth of the Salween is sheltered by Bilugyun Island as it enters theGulf of Martaban and theAndaman Sea. It is flanked by low hills dotted with ancient pagodas to the east and west.[14]
Mawlamyine has atropical monsoon climate (Köppen:Am) similar to the climates ofDawei andSittwe. There is a lengthydry season between mid-November and mid-April, and an extremelywet season due to the southwest monsoon between mid-April and mid-November. Between June and August when the surface westerly winds are strongest and supersaturated air is advected onto the nearby mountains, Mawlamyine averages around 1,100 millimetres or 43 inches of rain per month.
| Climate data for Mawlamyine (1991–2020, extremes 1958-1994, 2012-present) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 37.2 (99.0) | 39.1 (102.4) | 39.7 (103.5) | 40.2 (104.4) | 41.2 (106.2) | 36.1 (97.0) | 35.2 (95.4) | 36.7 (98.1) | 35.3 (95.5) | 37.2 (99.0) | 37.2 (99.0) | 36.8 (98.2) | 41.2 (106.2) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 33.0 (91.4) | 34.6 (94.3) | 35.9 (96.6) | 36.2 (97.2) | 33.0 (91.4) | 30.2 (86.4) | 29.2 (84.6) | 29.0 (84.2) | 30.5 (86.9) | 32.9 (91.2) | 33.5 (92.3) | 32.7 (90.9) | 32.5 (90.5) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 25.8 (78.4) | 27.2 (81.0) | 29.1 (84.4) | 30.6 (87.1) | 28.8 (83.8) | 27.2 (81.0) | 26.5 (79.7) | 26.3 (79.3) | 27.2 (81.0) | 28.4 (83.1) | 27.9 (82.2) | 26.2 (79.2) | 27.6 (81.7) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 18.6 (65.5) | 19.9 (67.8) | 22.4 (72.3) | 24.9 (76.8) | 24.6 (76.3) | 24.1 (75.4) | 23.7 (74.7) | 23.7 (74.7) | 23.9 (75.0) | 23.9 (75.0) | 22.3 (72.1) | 19.8 (67.6) | 22.7 (72.9) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 12.2 (54.0) | 12.2 (54.0) | 16.7 (62.1) | 19.4 (66.9) | 16.7 (62.1) | 21.1 (70.0) | 18.9 (66.0) | 18.9 (66.0) | 21.1 (70.0) | 19.4 (66.9) | 15.0 (59.0) | 11.1 (52.0) | 11.1 (52.0) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 8.8 (0.35) | 4.5 (0.18) | 19.3 (0.76) | 59.5 (2.34) | 542.0 (21.34) | 953.1 (37.52) | 1,240.2 (48.83) | 1,224.6 (48.21) | 692.2 (27.25) | 193.1 (7.60) | 27.8 (1.09) | 14.2 (0.56) | 4,979.2 (196.03) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 1.0 mm) | 0.7 | 0.4 | 1.6 | 4.0 | 19.2 | 26.5 | 27.9 | 28.2 | 23.0 | 11.8 | 2.2 | 0.6 | 146 |
| Source 1:World Meteorological Organization[29] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: Sistema de Clasificación Bioclimática Mundial (records),[30]NOAA (extremes)[31] | |||||||||||||
Mawlamyine Airport has regular flights to Yangon (Rangoon).
Mawlamyine is the main gateway to south eastern Myanmar.Thanlwin Bridge, the longest road and rail bridge in Myanmar is the most prominent landmark in the area. It stretches 11,000 feet (3,400 metres) over the Thanlwin River connecting the country's south eastern region with Yangon.[32] The city has a central highway bus station. The city is connected toPa-an in Kayin State in the north-east andDawei andMyeik in Tanintharyi Division in the south by road.[33] ViaKawkareik, the city is also connected withThai-Myanmar border townMyawaddy. Newly openedBogyoke Aung San Bridge (Bilu Kyun) connects Mawlamyine with nearbyBilu island, lies about 500 metres west off the shore of Mawlamyine.[34][35]
In Mawlamyine, motorcycles andtuk-tuk (Thone Bee in Burmese) motorized tricycles cumulatively registered for use as taxis. Mawlamyine is also served by bus networks which radiate mostly from the north to the south.
It was the rail head toYe, linked to Yangon by rail only fromMottama (Martaban) across the river by ferry, but today connected by the Thanlwin Bridge (Mawlamyine) opened in April 2006.[14][36][37]
Mawlamyine Railway Station, which was reportedly built to the standards of an "ASEAN railway station", is the terminus ofMyanmar Railways'Yangon–Mawlamyine Railway andTanintharyi Line.
Incolonial era, Mawlamyine (then Moulmein) port was served by European shipping companies includingScottish-ownedBritish-India Steam Navigation Company andIrrawaddy Flotilla Company.
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The port was important not only for inland navigation but also for international shipping. Rice and teak from sawmills at Mawlamyine were exported worldwide by those shipping companies.[38] The 1880 handbook ofBritish-India Steam Navigation Company listed:
In 1894, the journey between Barr Street Jetty of Rangoon to the Main Wharf of Moulmein took about nine hours at a fare of 10Rupees for second class.[42]
Nowadays, although much diminished from its past prominence, water-based transport still plays an important role in connecting between Mawlamyine and the immediate upstream towns. The Port of Mawlamyine is currently under the management ofMyanma Port Authority and is located on theThanlwin River about 28 nautical miles inland from the Kyaikkhame point on the Gulf of Martaban, 2 kilometers fromMawlamyine railway station.[43][44]
Mawlamyine is famous for its tropical fruits[5] and for itscuisine[14] as indicated in the popular Burmese expression, "Mandalay for the speaking, Yangon for the bragging, and Mawlamyine for the eating." (မန္တလေးစကား ရန်ကုန်အကြွား မော်လမြိုင်အစား) Among its tropical fruits, Mawlamyinepomelo,durian andrambutan are traded countrywide.
Mawlamyine had severalsawmills andrice mills asteak and rice were transported down the Salween. It was once a busyshipbuilding center and remains an important port. At least one major British shipping line had some of their ships built here. The teak "country-built" ships generally had a longer service life than those constructed from European hardwoods.[72] The city had a solar-powered plant for extracting salt fromseawater and adiesel electric plant.[14] On the night of 1 December 2008, a fire that started from afloating restaurant destroyed the larger of city's two markets called the lowerbazaar.[73]
The city has twoindustrial zones. Of two, the newly opened Kyauktan industrial zone features a variety of different business enterprises, including zinc, barbed wire, ready-mix cement, food and drink production, textiles, gold purification, ice factories, shoe production facilities, furniture enterprise, plastic enterprises, cool seafood storage and car accessory businesses.[74]
As a cross-border investment, the state-of-the-art combined-cycle gas power plant in Mawlamyine was constructed by Singapore'sUnited Overseas Bank (UOB) backed Singapore company Asiatech Energy.[75] The Mawlamyine power plant brings a sustainable supply of power to residents and businesses in Mon State.
In July 2017, to make the country'soil and gas industry more efficient, theMyanmar Investment Commission (MIC) granted an approval to a subsidiary of Singapore-based firm to construct an offshore supply base in the 46 acres of river front land of Mawlamyine.[76][77] It would provide a wide range of services to the operators ofoil and gas fields in the waters off the coast in theBay of Bengal.[78]
Mawlamyine is the western terminus and an important part of theEast-West Economic Corridor. The 1450-kilometre east–west economic corridor links theSouth China Sea atDa Nang to Mawlamyine throughLaos andThailand.[79] By using the East-West Economic Corridor, the travel time betweenBangkok and Yangon is just three days, compared with the two to three weeks needed for conventionalmarine transportation via theStraits of Malacca.[80]Japan'sNippon Express started land transportation services between Thailand and Myanmar in 2016.
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Mawlamyine provides amulticultural dimension despite a BuddhistMon majority.Buddhist cultural dominance is as old as Mawlamyine, but the Britishannexation and American missionaries in the early 19th century introduced Christianity. Many of the relics of theBritish Raj remain along with Hindu temples, Chinese temples, mosques and even a slice ofAmericana, reflecting Mawlamyine's great diversity.[81]
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The First Baptist Church in Mawlamyine was constructed in 1827 by the legendaryAdoniram Judson, the first Caucasian Protestant missionary sent fromNorth America to Myanmar.[82] The building is a masterful blend of Western and local elements, with the materials and building technology speaking directly to Mon cultural traditions and crafts expertise. In 2015,the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar announced that it gave an award of $125,000 toWorld Monuments Fund (WMF) to restore the historic First Baptist Church in Mawlamyine through theAmbassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation.[83]
The Mon State Cultural Museum exhibits the ancient cultural relics ofMon people and divans used by aKonbaung princess who resided in Mawlamyine.
Mawlamyine has 13 public high schools, two institutes, a college and three universities.
TheUniversity of Mawlamyine, established in 1953, is the major university for the south eastern region and offers both bachelor's and master's degree programs in liberal arts and sciences. It is the third oldest Arts and Science university in the country after theUniversity of Yangon (est. 1878) and theUniversity of Mandalay (est. 1925). It is one of the few universities in Myanmar that offers a degree in marine science. Its Marine Science Laboratory inSetse, a coastal town about 83 km south of Mawlamyine, was the first of its kind in Myanmar.[84]Technological University (Mawlamyine) offers technological and engineering courses. The Mawlamyine campus ofYezin Agricultural University, administered byMinistry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation (MOALI), offers agriculture courses.[85]Government Technical Institute (Mawlamyine) offers vocational engineering courses located in outskirts of the city.Mawlamyine Education College andMawlamyine Institute of Education are also located in the city.[86]
The St. Patrick's School (now B.E.H.S. No. 5) founded by theDe La Salle Brothers in 1860, Morton Lane-Judson School, (formerly Morton Lane Girls' School, now B.E.H.S No.6) founded in 1867 andShin Maha Buddhaghosa National School (now B.E.H.S. No.9) founded in 1899 are a few of the oldest public high schools in Myanmar.[87]
The firstinternational student ofBucknell University, Class of 1864,Maung Shaw Loo was the first Burmese physician of Western medicine and the first Burmese to study Western medicine in the United States.[88][89]
The 10,000-seatYamanya Stadium is one of the main venues for local and regional football tournaments. The stadium is also a home forSouthern Myanmar F.C., aMyanmar National League (MNL) football club.
Mawlamyine established a Friendship City agreement withFort Wayne, Indiana, United States in 2016.[91] Astudent exchange program between Mawlamyine University andIPFW of Fort Wayne began in 2017.
A primary road inNovena,Singapore and a road (Solok Moulmein) inGeorge Town,Malaysia were named after the city's old name, Moulmein.
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Mawlamyine | ||
| Preceded by None | Capital of British Tenasserim 24 February 1826 – 31 January 1862 | Succeeded by |
16°29′05″N97°37′33″E / 16.48472°N 97.62583°E /16.48472; 97.62583
Capital:Mawlamyine | ||
| Mawlamyine District | .svg)  | |
| Thaton District | ||
| Cities, towns, and villages | ||
| 2,000,000 and more | |
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| 1,000,000–1,999,999 | |
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| 200,000–499,999 | |
| 100,000–199,999 | |
| International | |
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| National | |
