Sagaing Region ( my, စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Sagaing Division) is an
administrative region
Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...
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 ...
, located in the north-western part of the country between latitude 21° 30' north and longitude 94° 97' east. It is bordered by India's
Nagaland
Nagaland () is a landlocked state in the northeastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south and the Sagaing Region of Myanmar to the east. Its capital cit ...
,
Manipur
Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of ...
, and
Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares ...
States to the north,
Kachin State,
Shan State
Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင်းတႆး, italics=no) also known by the endonyms Shanland, Muang Tai, and Tailong, is a state of Myanmar. Shan State borders China (Yunnan) to the north, Laos ...
, and
Mandalay Region
Mandalay Region ( my, မန္တလေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Mandalay Division) is an administrative division of Myanmar. It is located in the center of the country, bordering Sagaing Region and Magway Region t ...
to the east, Mandalay Region and
Magway Region
Magway Region ( my, မကွေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Magway Division) is an administrative division in central Myanmar. It is the second largest of Myanmar's seven divisions, with an area of . Pa Del Dam (ပဒ� ...
to the south, with the
Ayeyarwady River
The Irrawaddy River ( Ayeyarwady River; , , from Indo-Aryan languages, Indic ''revatī'', meaning "abounding in riches") is a river that flows from north to south through Myanmar (Burma). It is the country's largest river and most important comm ...
forming a greater part of its eastern and also southern boundary, and
Chin State and India to the west. The region has an area of . In 1996, it had a population of over 5,300,000 while its population in 2012 was 6,600,000. The urban population in 2012 was 1,230,000 and the rural population was 5,360,000. The capital city of Sagaing Region is
Monywa
Monywa (; ) is the largest city in Sagaing Region, Myanmar, located north-west of Mandalay on the eastern bank of the River Chindwin. Monywa is one of the largest economic cities in Myanmar.
It is also known as Neem city because many of the c ...
.
Capital city
The Capital city of Sagaing Region is Monywa.
History
The
Pyu
Pyu, also spelled Phyu or Phyuu, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. is a town in Taungoo District, Bago Region in Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions requ ...
were the first to in recorded history to populate the area of Sagaing Region by the first century CE. The
Burmans
The Bamar (, ; also known as the Burmans) are a Sino-Tibetan ethnic group native to Myanmar (formerly Burma) in Southeast Asia. With approximately 35 million people, the Bamar make up the largest ethnic group in Myanmar, constituting 68% of ...
first migrated into
Upper Myanmar by ninth century CE. The area came under the
Pagan Kingdom certainly by the middle of 11th century when King
Anawrahta (r. 1044–1077) founded the Pagan Empire, which encompasses the modern day Myanmar.
After the fall of Pagan in 1287, the northwestern parts of Upper Myanmar came under the
Sagaing Kingdom (1315–1364) ruled by Burmanized
Shan kings. The area was ruled by the kings of
Ava from 1364 to 1555 and the kings of
Taungoo from 1555 to 1752.
Konbaung Dynasty
The Konbaung dynasty ( my, ကုန်းဘောင်ခေတ်, ), also known as Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်) and formerly known as the Alompra dynasty (အလောင်းဘ ...
(1752–1885), founded by king
Alaungpaya
Alaungpaya ( my, အလောင်းဘုရား, ; also spelled Alaunghpaya or Alaung-Phra; 11 May 1760) was the founder of the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma (Myanmar). By the time of his death from illness during his campaign in Siam, this f ...
in
Shwebo, became the last Burmese dynasty before the
British conquest of Upper Burma in 1885. The area became Sagaing Division after the Burmese independence in January 1948.
Administrative divisions
As of 2021, Sagaing Region consists of 11 districts and 1 Self-Administered Zone divided into 34 townships
["Myanmar States/Divisions & Townships Overview Map"](_blank)
Myanmar Information Management Unit (MIMU) with 198 wards and villages. The major cities are
Sagaing,
Shwebo,
Monywa
Monywa (; ) is the largest city in Sagaing Region, Myanmar, located north-west of Mandalay on the eastern bank of the River Chindwin. Monywa is one of the largest economic cities in Myanmar.
It is also known as Neem city because many of the c ...
,
Ye U,
Katha,
Kale,
Tamu,
Mawlaik and
Hkamti.
Mingun with its famous bell is located near Sagaing but can be reached across the Ayeyarwady from
Mandalay.
In August 2010,
three former townships of
Hkamti District
Hkamti District or Khamti District (sometimes Naga Hills District) is a district in northern Sagaing Division of Burma (Myanmar). Its administrative center is the town of Singkaling Hkamti. Townships
The district consists of the two townships ...
were transferred, in accordance with the 2008 constitution,
[ (in Burmese]
2008" target="_blank" class="mw-redirect" title="Constitution PDF">Constitution PDF
to a new administrative unit, the
__Government_
__Executive_
__Legislature_
__Judiciary_
__Demographics_
The_Bamar_people.html" ;"title="Naga Self-Administered Zone.
Government
Executive
Legislature
Judiciary
Demographics
The Bamar people">Bamar (Burmans) are the majority ethnic group in the dry regions and along the Mandalay-Myitkyina Railroad.
Shan live in the upper
Chindwin River valley. A sizable minority of
Naga
Naga or NAGA may refer to:
Mythology
* Nāga, a serpentine deity or race in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions
* Naga Kingdom, in the epic ''Mahabharata''
* Phaya Naga, mythical creatures believed to live in the Laotian stretch of the Mekong Ri ...
resides in the north of
north-west mountain ranges and
Kuki which includes the Thadou in the south. Smaller ethnic groups native to the Region include the
Kadu and
Ganang, who live in the upper
Mu River valley and Meza River valley. There are also an unknown number of
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
Bayingyi people (at least 3,000), the descendants of 16th and 17th century Portuguese adventurers and mercenaries, who live in their ancestral villages on the expansive plains of the
Mu River valley.
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 ...
, who make up 92.2% of Sagaing Region's population, form 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� ...
(6.6%),
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 ...
(1.1%), 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 ...
(0.1%) who collectively comprise the remainder of Sagaing Region'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, 55,041 Buddhist monks were registered in Sagaing Region, comprising 10.3% 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 (83.8%), followed by
Shwegyin Nikaya (16.1%), 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 ...
.
9,915
thilashin were registered in Sagaing Region, comprising 16.4% of Myanmar's total thilashin community.
Ecology
There are a number of protected areas in Sagaing Region, among them are
Alaungdaw Kathapa National Park
Alaungdaw Kathapa National Park is a national park in Myanmar covering . It was established in 1989 and is listed as one of the ASEAN Heritage Parks. It spans an elevation of in the Kani and Mingin Townships in Sagaing Region.
History
In 18 ...
,
Chatthin Wildlife Sanctuary,
Mahamyaing Wildlife Sanctuary
Mahamyaing Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected area in Myanmar's Sagaing Region, covering an area of .
It ranges in elevation from and was established in 2002 in Kalay and Mawlaik Townships.
History
The area of Mahamyaing Wildlife Sanctuary used ...
, and
Htamanthi Wildlife Sanctuary
Htamanthi Wildlife Sanctuary is a large protected area in northern Myanmar. It was established in 1974 in the Sagaing Region.
It is located between the Chindwin River in Hkamti District and the Uyu River, with of the area in Homalin Township, an ...
in
Homalin Township
Homalin Township ( my, ဟုမ္မလင်း မြို့နယ် ) is a township in Hkamti District in the Sagaing Region of Burma. The principal town is Homalin. .
Transport
Hemmed in by two great rivers of Myanmar, the
Irrawaddy and the
Chindwin, river transport is a common way to move people and cargo. Much of the inland Sagaing Region relies on roads and rail in poor condition.
Economy
Agriculture is the chief occupation. The leading crop is
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 ...
, which occupies most of the arable ground. Other crops include
wheat
Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
,
sesame,
peanut
The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small an ...
,
pulses
In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the nec ...
,
cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...
, and
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
. The region being next to India, depends on the export import business from India. It is the gateway to India for Myanmar. Sagaing is Myanmar's leading producer of wheat, contributing more than 80% of the country's total production. Forestry is important in the wetter upper regions along the
Chindwin River, with
teak
Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters ( pan ...
and other hardwoods extracted. As in other parts of the country,
reforestation
Reforestation (occasionally, reafforestation) is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands ( forestation) that have been depleted, usually through deforestation, but also after clearcutting.
Management
A de ...
is not effective enough to maintain
sustainable forestry
Sustainable forest management (SFM) is the management of forests according to the principles of sustainable development. Sustainable forest management has to keep the balance between three main pillars: ecological, economic and socio-cultura ...
. Important minerals include
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
,
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when ...
,
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 ...
and small amounts of
petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...
. Industry includes textiles,
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...
refining, gold smelting, and a
diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-cal ...
plant. The Region has many rice mills,
edible oil mills, saw mills, cotton mills, and mechanized weaving factories. Local industry includes earthen pots, silverware, bronze-wares, iron-wares and
lacquerware.
Education
Educational opportunities in Myanmar are extremely limited outside the main cities of
Yangon and
Mandalay. According to official statistics, less than 10% of primary school students in Sagaing Region reach high school.
Sagaing Region has three national "professional" universities in the
Monywa University of Economics
The Monywa University of Economics ( my, မုံရွာ စီးပွားရေးတက္ကသိုလ် ), located in Monywa, Sagaing Region, is one of four universities of economics and business in Myanmar. The university offers un ...
,
Sagaing University of Education and the
Sagaing Institute of Education.
Monywa University Monywa University, ( my, မုံရွာတက္ကသိုလ်), is a co-ed higher education institution located in Monywa, Sagaing Region, Myanmar. The university is officially recognized by the Department of Higher Education of the Minist ...
is the main
liberal arts
Liberal arts education (from Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as La ...
university in the region.
Sagaing Institute of Education also known
Sagaing University of Education is the one of two senior universities of education in
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 ...
.
Healthcare
The general state of healthcare in Myanmar is poor. The military government spends anywhere from 0.5% to 3% of the country's GDP on health care, consistently ranking among the lowest in the world.
Although healthcare is nominally free, in reality, patients have to pay for medicine and treatment, even in public clinics and hospitals. Public hospitals lack many of the basic facilities and equipment. Moreover, the healthcare infrastructure outside of
Yangon and
Mandalay is extremely poor. In 2003, Sagaing Region had less than a quarter of the number of hospital beds counted in
Yangon Region, with a similar size of population.
References
External links
{{Administrative divisions of Burma (Myanmar)
Regions of Myanmar