Mawlamyinegyun (; also spelt Moulmeingyun and known as Mawgyun), is a town in southern

Ayeyarwady Region Ayeyarwady Region ( , , ; formerly Ayeyarwady Division and Irrawaddy Division) is a region of Myanmar, occupying the delta region of the Ayeyarwady River (Irrawaddy River). It is bordered by the Rakhine State to the northwest, the Bago Region to ...

in south-west

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

. It is the seat of the Mawlamyinegyun Township in the

Labutta District Labutta District or Latputta District () is a district in Ayeyarwady Region, Myanmar. Labutta District was established in 2008 after the region was hit by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008. The administrative seat is the town of Labutta (Latputta). T ...

. The town is situated in the delta of the

Irrawaddy River The Irrawaddy River (, , Ayeyarwady) is the principal river of Myanmar, running through the centre of the country. Myanmar’s most important commercial waterway, it is about 1,350 miles (2,170 km) long. Originating from the confluence of the ...

. The town lies at the confluence of the Razudai and Tonle Rivers and is subdivided into 13 urban wards.

History

The town's name in Burmese literally translates as Mawlamyine Island The island's name comes from initial settlers finding a field of

cosmos The cosmos (, ; ) is an alternative name for the universe or its nature or order. Usage of the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity. The cosmos is studied in cosmologya broad discipline covering ...

flowers, which in Burmese is called the mawlamyine flower, which is in turn named after the city of

Mawlamyine Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; , ; ; , ), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), ''World Gazetteer'' southeast of Yangon and south of Thaton, at the mouth of Thanlwin (Salween) River. Mawlamyine was an ancient ...

. The town was founded during the reign of

Thibaw Min Thibaw Min, also Thebaw (, ; 1 January 1859 – 16 December 1916), was the last king of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) and also the last Burmese monarch in the country's history. His reign ended when the Royal Burmese armed forces ...

during the

Konbaung Dynasty The Konbaung dynasty (), also known as the Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်), was the last dynasty that ruled Burma from 1752 to 1885. It created the second-largest empire in history of Mya ...

in 1878 as a logging settlement. The initial settlement had an area of and was founded on the western bank of the main stream of the Irrawaddy River. However, after a tiger attack killed an elderly woman, the village chief U Saw Ke moved the village west to the Razudai River

distributary A distributary, or a distributary channel is a stream channel that branches off and flows a main stream channel. It is the opposite of a ''tributary'', a stream that flows another stream or river. Distributaries are a result of river bifurc ...

on the western side of Mawlamyine Island. the town grew in prominence in the 1880s after the

Third Anglo-Burmese War The Third Anglo-Burmese War (), also known as the Third Burma War, took place during 7–29 November 1885, with sporadic resistance continuing into 1887. It was the final of three wars fought in the 19th century between the Burmese and the Br ...

. It becoming a village under

British rule in Burma British colonial rule in Burma lasted from 1824 to 1948, from the successive three Anglo-Burmese wars through the creation of ''Burma'' as a province of British India to the establishment of an independently administered colony, and finally i ...

in 1898 after which a township administrator by the name of Mr. Gray allotted residential lots using a lottery system. The village became a municipality in 1935 under the Town Committee's direction, expanding the borders of the town. In 1972, the

Ministry of Home Affairs An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the i ...

would designate it as a new town. It took until 2010 for all township administrative offices to be established in the town. Prior to the formation of Labutta District, the town was in

Myaungmya District Myaungmya District () is a district of the Ayeyarwady Division in south western Myanmar. It consists of 5 cities. Myaungmya is the chief town of the district. Myaungmya district in Ayeyarwady region Wakema Township Wakema Township ( ) is a township of Myaungmya District in central Ayeyarwady Region, Myanmar. The first Prime Minister of Burma, U Nu was born in the principal town, Wakema. Wakema Township is bordered to its west by the other townships within ...

. In 1962, the town had 17,641 people. According to the 2014 Myanmar census, the town had 32,915 people.

In popular culture

It is the setting for Ma Ma Lay's 1955 novel, ''Not Out of Hate''.

References

External links

Satellite map at Maplandia.com
{{Ayeyarwady Region Populated places in Ayeyarwady Region Township capitals of Myanmar