Mon State ( my, မွန်ပြည်နယ်, ; mnw, တွဵုရးဍုင်မန်, italics=no) is an administrative division of
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
. It lies between
Kayin State to the east, the
Andaman Sea to the west,
Bago Region to the north and
Tanintharyi Region
Tanintharyi Region ( my, တနင်္သာရီတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; Mon: or ; ms, Tanah Sari; formerly Tenasserim Division and subsequently Tanintharyi Division, th, ตะนาวศรี, RTGS: ''Tanao Si'', ; ...
to the south, also having a short border with
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
's
Kanchanaburi Province at its south-eastern tip. The land area is . The
Dawna Range, running along the eastern side of the state in a NNW–SSE direction, forms a natural border with Kayin State. Mon State includes some small islands, such as
Kalegauk,
Wa Kyun and
Kyungyi Island, along its of coastline. The state's capital is
Mawlamyine
Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; , ; th, เมาะลำเลิง ; mnw, မတ်မလီု, ), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), ''World Gazetteer'' south east of Yangon and south of Thaton, at t ...
.
History
Mon tradition holds that the
Suwarnabhumi mentioned in the
Edicts of Ashoka
The Edicts of Ashoka are a collection of more than thirty inscriptions on the Pillars of Ashoka, as well as boulders and cave walls, attributed to Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire who reigned from 268 BCE to 232 BCE. Ashoka used the exp ...
and the
''Dîpavamsa'' was their first kingdom (pronounced Suvanna Bhoum), founded around the port of
Thaton
Thaton (; mnw, သဓီု ) is a town in Mon State, in southern Myanmar on the Tenasserim plains. Thaton lies along the National Highway 8 and is also connected by the National Road 85. It is 230 km south east of Yangon and 70 k ...
in about 300 BC, however, this is disputed by scholars.
Oral tradition suggests that they had contact with
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
via seafaring as early as the 3rd century BCE, though definitely by the 2nd century BCE when they received an envoy of monks from
Ashoka. The Mon converted to
Theravada Buddhism sometime before the sixth century, and they adopted the Indian
Pali script. Much of the Mon's written records have been destroyed through wars. The Mons blended Indian and Mon cultures in a hybrid of the civilisations. By 825 they had firmly established themselves in southern and southeastern Myanmar and founded the cities of
Bago (Pegu) and
Thaton
Thaton (; mnw, သဓီု ) is a town in Mon State, in southern Myanmar on the Tenasserim plains. Thaton lies along the National Highway 8 and is also connected by the National Road 85. It is 230 km south east of Yangon and 70 k ...
. By the mid-9th century, they had come to dominate all of southern Myanmar.
Mon kingdoms
The first recorded kingdom that can undisputedly be attributed to the Mon was
Dvaravati
The Dvaravati ( th, ทวารวดี ; ) was an ancient Mon kingdom from the 7th century to the 11th century that was located in the region now known as central Thailand. It was described by the Chinese pilgrim in the middle of the 7th cen ...
which prospered until around 1024 AD when their capital was sacked by the
Khmer Empire and most of the inhabitants fled west to present-day Myanmar and eventually founded new kingdoms. These, too, eventually came under pressure from new ethnic groups arriving from the north.
Advent of the British
Lower Burma, including what is now Mon State, was conquered by
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...
in 1824 after the
First Anglo-Burmese War. The Mon assisted the British in the war, in return for promises of their own leadership after the defeat of Burma. Hundreds of thousands of Mons who had migrated into
Siam
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
returned to their homeland when it came under British rule. However, British promises to restore the Mon Kingdom were never fulfilled. During colonial times, Moulmein had a substantial
Anglo-Burmese
The Anglo-Burmese people, also known as the Anglo-Burmans, are a community of Eurasians of Burmese and European descent, who emerged as a distinct community through mixed relationships (sometimes permanent, sometimes temporary) between the Brit ...
population; an area of the city was known as 'Little England' due to the large Anglo-Burmese community. Nowadays this community has dwindled to a handful of families as most have left for the UK or Australia.
Burmese independence
In 1947, the Mon sought
self-determination from the yet unformed
Union of Burma. Burmese Prime Minister
U Nu refused, saying that no separate national rights for the Mon should be contemplated. The Burmese army moved into areas claimed by the Mon nationalists and imposed rule by force which resulted in a civil war. Mon separatists formed the
Mon Peoples Front, which was later superseded by the
New Mon State Party (NMSP) in 1962. Since 1949, the eastern hills of the state (as well as portions of Thaninthaya Division) have been under control of the NMSP and its military arm, the
Mon National Liberation Front (MNLF). In addition to fighting the central government, the MNLF has fought the
Karen people
The Karen, kjp, ပ်ုဖၠုံဆိုဒ်, my, ကရင်လူမျိုး, , th, กะเหรี่ยง ( ), also known as the Kayin, Kariang or Kawthoolese, are an ethnolinguistic group of Sino-Tibetan language ...
over control of lucrative border crossings into
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
.
In 1974, partially to assuage Mon
separatist demands, the theoretically autonomous Mon State was created out of portions of
Thaninthayi Division and
Bago Division. Resistance continued until 1995, when NMSP and
SLORC agreed a cease-fire. In 1996, the
Mon Unity League was founded. SLORC troops continued to operate in defiance of the agreement.
Government
Executive
Mon State Government
Legislative
Judiciary
Mon State High Court
Demographics
The population was 2,054,393 according to
2014 Census. The majority are
Mon
Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to:
Places
* Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar
* Mon, India, a town in Nagaland
* Mon district, Nagaland
* Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India
* Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons
* A ...
. However, there is a large number of ethnic
Bamar, as well as members of the
Kayin and
Pa-O ethnic groups and a small, dwindling
Anglo-Burmese
The Anglo-Burmese people, also known as the Anglo-Burmans, are a community of Eurasians of Burmese and European descent, who emerged as a distinct community through mixed relationships (sometimes permanent, sometimes temporary) between the Brit ...
community. Many are isolated and many do not understand or speak
Burmese. There is a
Thai Community in
Kyaikkami
Kyaikkhami ( Mon: ; ; pronounced ; th, เชียงกราน, formerly Amherst) is a resort town within Thanbyuzayat township in the Mon State of south-east Myanmar.
The town is situated on a peninsula about south of Mawlamyine, the c ...
. The majority of people are
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
.
Religion
According to the
2014 Myanmar Census,
Buddhists
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
make up 92.6% of Mon State’s population, forming the largest religious community there.
Minority religious communities include
Christians
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ� ...
(0.5%),
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
(5.8%), and
Hindus
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
(1%) who collectively comprise the remainder of Mon State’s population.
0.1% of the population listed no religion, other religions, or were otherwise not enumerated.
According to the
State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee’s 2016 statistics, 32,769 Buddhist monks were registered in Mon State, comprising 6.1% of Myanmar's total
Sangha membership, which includes both novice
samanera
A sāmaṇera (Pali); sa, श्रामणेर (), is a novice male monastic in a Buddhist context. A female novice is a ''śrāmaṇerī'' or ''śrāmaṇerikā'' ( Sanskrit; Pāli: ''sāmaṇerī'').
Etymology
The ''sāmaṇera'' is ...
and fully-ordained bhikkhu.
The majority of monks belong to the
Thudhamma Nikaya (79.8%), followed by
Shwegyin Nikaya (14.9%), with the remainder of monks belonging to other small
monastic orders
Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic life plays an important ro ...
.
3,550
thilashin were registered in Mon State, comprising 5.9% of Myanmar’s total thilashin community.
Geography
Bordering Bago Division in the south of Sittaung River Mouth, Kayin State in the east, Thailand and Taninthayi Division in the south and Andaman Sea and Gulf of Mottama in the West, Mon state is situated between latitudes 14°52′ north and 17°32′ north and longitudes 96°51′ east and 98°13′ east.
Climate and weather
Mon State has a tropical climate. It has temperate weather as it is located in the low latitude zone and near the sea. The state has only slight changes in temperature. The average temperature of Mawlamyine in January is and in April is . Annual rainfall in Mawlamyine is and in Thaton is . Rain is especially heavy in July and August.
Economy
Mon State has a cultivated area of nearly , mostly under
rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...
. The major secondary crop is
rubber
Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...
. Orchards and rubber plantations are found in the mountainous areas while Coastal fishing and related industries such as production of dried fish,
fish sauce and
agar-agar are in southern part,
Ye district. Production of
Betel nut
The betel (''Piper betle'') is a vine of the family Piperaceae, which includes pepper and kava. The betel plant is native to Southeast Asia. It is an evergreen, dioecious perennial, with glossy heart-shaped leaves and white catkins. Betel pla ...
is also a sustaining business of Mon state, as the Mon peasants preserved their heredity land onwards along with the government regulations, however, there are some many parts of uncultivated crude land in the area closed to neighbour
Karen state
Kayin State ( my, ကရင်ပြည်နယ်, ; kjp, ဖၠုံခါန်ႋကၞင့်, italics=no; ksw, ကညီကီၢ်စဲၣ်, ), also known by the endonyms Kawthoolei and Karen State, is a state of Myanmar. The ...
. Moreover, modern business development includes growing of
cashew trees (acajoú, in Portuguese), from which they collect the cashew nut for market elsewhere.
Other industries include paper, sugar, rubber tires.
Thaton
Thaton (; mnw, သဓီု ) is a town in Mon State, in southern Myanmar on the Tenasserim plains. Thaton lies along the National Highway 8 and is also connected by the National Road 85. It is 230 km south east of Yangon and 70 k ...
has a major factory (Burmese, Ka-Sa-La) of rubber products run by Ministry of Industry (1). Forests cover approximately half of the area and timber production is one of the major contributors to the economy. Minerals extracted from the area include
salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...
,
antimony
Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient ti ...
, and
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...
.
Natural resources
Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. ...
such as forest products, and onshore and offshore mineral resources, are exploited only by top Myanmar military leaders and foreign companies. At the present time one of the biggest
foreign investments
A foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment in the form of a controlling ownership in a business in one country by an entity based in another country. It is thus distinguished from a foreign portfolio investment by a notion of direct co ...
into Myanmar is for the exploitation of
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon d ...
reserves in Mon State. The Yadana Gas project which connected pipelines alongside the towns of Mon state made harassed danger to the native Mon land and
Mon people
The Mon ( mnw, ဂကူမည်; my, မွန်လူမျိုး, ; th, wikt:มอญ, มอญ, ) are an ethnic group who inhabit Lower Myanmar's Mon State, Kayin State, Kayah State, Tanintharyi Region, Bago Region, the Irrawaddy ...
.
In Mudon, a small town near
Mawlamyine
Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; , ; th, เมาะลำเลิง ; mnw, မတ်မလီု, ), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), ''World Gazetteer'' south east of Yangon and south of Thaton, at t ...
, there is an applied research center for
agricultural science with laboratory bases in rubber plantation and
fertilization
Fertilisation or fertilization (see spelling differences), also known as generative fertilisation, syngamy and impregnation, is the fusion of gametes to give rise to a new individual organism or offspring and initiate its development. Pro ...
of some other species.
The future plans with
tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...
will benefit Mon state a lot as it has excellent transportation with the capital Yangon. Transportation routes include Train, Bus, Sea line and Airlines. The newly opened
Mawlamyine Bridge gives quick access from southern
Ye to North
Bago and Yangon by a day journey.
Three Pagoda Pass is an alternative route which communicates Mon state with neighbour
Kanchanaburi province of Thailand.
According to the Mon State Directorate of Investment and Company,
foreign direct investment
A foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment in the form of a controlling ownership in a business in one country by an entity based in another country. It is thus distinguished from a foreign portfolio investment by a notion of direct c ...
from 1994 to 2016 in Mon State was more than 5.433 billion US dollar.
Transport
*
Ye Airport
*
Mawlamyine Airport
Administrative divisions
Mon state has a capital of
Mawlamyine
Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; , ; th, เมาะลำเลิง ; mnw, မတ်မလီု, ), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), ''World Gazetteer'' south east of Yangon and south of Thaton, at t ...
, the fourth largest city in Myanmar. It was formerly known as Moulmein under the British colonial rule till the late 1980s. Administrative body is set under
South Eastern Regional Command of
Myanmar Army in Mawlamyine and
Mawyawaddy Navy Command controls coastline security. There are dispersed army infantry
battalion
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions ...
s at many towns in Mon state, and
Thaton
Thaton (; mnw, သဓီု ) is a town in Mon State, in southern Myanmar on the Tenasserim plains. Thaton lies along the National Highway 8 and is also connected by the National Road 85. It is 230 km south east of Yangon and 70 k ...
has a Light Infantry Division (44th). Major districts are divided for example, Mawlamyine, Thaton, and Ye districts. At present, army infantries are densely placed in the former
neutral territory of
Ye district for future plans. Ye has become the major city for Southern Mon State with Sector Operation Command of Air Defense, and Military Operations Command 19 based headquarters.
Mon State consists of two districts:
*
Mawlamyine District
*
Thaton District
Cities and towns and villages
Education
The following is a summary of the public school system in the state in the academic year 2002–2003.
Almost all institutions of higher education in the state are located in Mawlamyine.
Mawlamyine University
Mawlamyine University (also the University of Mawlamyine; my, မော်လမြိုင် တက္ကသိုလ် ), located in Mawlamyine, is the largest university in Mon State, Myanmar. Being established in 1953, Mawlamyine Univers ...
is the main university and the largest university in the state.
Health care
The general state of health care in Myanmar is poor. Although health care is nominally free, in reality, patients have to pay for medicine and treatment, even in public clinics and hospitals. Public hospitals have limited number of basic facilities and equipment. The following is a summary of the public health system in the state, in the fiscal year 2002–2003.
Notable sites
*
Kyaiktiyo Pagoda: A famous religious site with a steeple built on a rock covered with gold leaf, precariously balanced on the site of a cliff.
*
Kyaikhtisaung Pagoda
Kyaikhtisaung Pagoda ( my, ကျိုက်ထီးဆောင်းစေတီ) is a Buddhist pagoda in Bilin, Mon State, Myanmar.
Geography
Kyaik Htee Saung Pagoda is located on a laterite stone hillock near the town of Bilin. The hillo ...
: A famous pagoda said to hold a hair of the
Gautama Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...
.
*
Kaylartha Pagoda
Kaylartha Pagoda ( my, ကေလာသစေတီတော်) is a Buddhist Pagoda that sits atop the summit of Mount Kaylartha in Mon State, Myanmar. Local legend claims that at the foot of Kaylartha Mountain sat the ancient Kingdom of the Go ...
: A famous pagoda on Kaylartha Mountain where the Buddha is said to have landed.
*
Thaton
Thaton (; mnw, သဓီု ) is a town in Mon State, in southern Myanmar on the Tenasserim plains. Thaton lies along the National Highway 8 and is also connected by the National Road 85. It is 230 km south east of Yangon and 70 k ...
: Thaton was the capital of the
Thaton Kingdom, which ruled present-day Lower Burma between the 9th and 11th centuries.
*Mudon
Kangyi Pagoda
Kangyi Pagoda ( my, ကန်ကြီးစေတီတော်) lies on the hill west of the vast lake east of Mudon. It was built to enshrine a Buddha's hair relic granted by Buddha as he and five hundred arahantas were going on sojourn this ...
: It lies on the hill west of the vast lake east of
Mudon
Mudon ( my, မုဒုံမြို့; mnw, မိုဟ်ပ္ဍုၚ်) is a town in the Mon State of south-east Myanmar, south of Mawlamyine. Mudon lies along the highway that links Mawlamyine to Thanbyuzayat, Kyaik-kami (Amherst ...
.
*Win Sein reclining Buddha: It is the world's largest reclining buddha at Mudon.
*
Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery
The Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery ( Burmese: သံဖြူဇရပ်စစ်သင်္ချိုင်း) is a prisoner of war cemetery for victims of Japanese imprisonment who died building the Death Railway in Burma. It is at the Burmes ...
&
Death Railway Museum
*
Setse Beach &
Kyaik-kami
*
Kyaikmaraw Paya: A huge Buddha image built in AD 1455 by
Queen Shin Saw Pu, the only female ruler in the history of Myanmar.
*Belu-kyun (
Bilu island
Bilu Island ( my, ဘီလူးကျွန်း; mnw, တေကာ့ခမိုင်း; Bilu Kyun, lit. "ogre island") is a Deltaic island of Salween(Thanlwin) River in Chaungzon Township, Mon State, located west of Mawlamyine. The isla ...
): It is located opposite to
Mawlamyine
Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; , ; th, เมาะลำเลิง ; mnw, မတ်မလီု, ), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), ''World Gazetteer'' south east of Yangon and south of Thaton, at t ...
, and is famous for traditional handmade products.
*
Zinkyaik Pagoda
Zinkyaik Pagoda ( my, ဇင်းကျိုက်ဆံတော်ရှင် စေတီတော်မြတ်ကြီး; mnw, ဓါတ်သော်ဂမၠိုၚ် ဇိုၚ်ကျာ်) is a Lord Buddha's Hair Relic ...
: An ancient pagoda on top of Zinkyaik Mountain and former home of
Hermits Tissa and Thiha
See also
*
Mon State Cultural Museum
*
Ramannadesa
Rāmaññadesa ( my, ရာမညဒေသ, ; Mon: ) is a Burmese and Mon word which means "country of the Ramans". This was because the Mons were previously called Ramans. The term was coined by King Dhammazedi in 1479.
History
Its primary me ...
References
External links
Kaowao News GroupMawlamyaing cultureMonzel.be(in Burmese)
{{Authority control
States of Myanmar
1974 establishments in Burma
States and territories established in 1974
Andaman Sea