Kyaukse ( my, ကျောက်ဆည် မြို့, ) is town and capital of Kyaukse District in

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 ...

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 ...

. Lying on the Zawgyi River, 25 miles (40 km) south of

Mandalay Mandalay ( or ; ) is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631km (392 miles) (Road Distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census). Mandalay was fou ...

, it is served by the Mandalay-Yangon (Rangoon) railway. The first Myanmar probably settled in the area about 800, and local 12th- and 13th-century inscriptions refer to Kyaukse as “the first home”. Remains of pagodas and old cities are found throughout the area. The

Shwethalyaung Pagoda Shwethalyaung Pagoda ( my, ရွှေသာလျောင်းဘုရား) is a Buddhist temple in Kyaukse, Mandalay Region, Myanmar. It is located on top of the Shwethalyaung Hill. The pagoda was built by King Anawrahta of Bagan and ens ...

, built by King Anawrahta (1044–77), is located in Kyaukse. Kyaukse is famous for the

Kyaukse elephant dance festival Kyaukse elephant dance festival ( my, ကျောက်ဆည်ဆင်ပွဲ) is an annual major traditional dance festival in Myanmar. It is held is on the day before full moon day of the Burmese lunar month of Thadingyut and the full moon d ...

, and for being the home town of former dictator Senior General

Than Shwe Than Shwe ( my, သန်းရွှေ, ; born 2 February 1933 or 3 May 1935) is a Burmese strongman politician who was the head of state of Myanmar from 1992 to 2011 as Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). During thi ...

. The town's industrial zone is one of more than 30 across the country.

Geography

The surrounding area consists of a level strip running south from Mandalay along the foothills of the

Shan Plateau The Shan Hills ( my, ရှမ်းရိုးမ; ''Shan Yoma''), also known as Shan Highland, is a vast mountainous zone that extends through Yunnan to Myanmar and Thailand. The whole region is made up of numerous mountain ranges separated ...

. The area is located in the heart of Myanmar’s dry zone but is drained by the Panlaung and Zawgyi rivers, which were used for an ancient irrigation-canal system that predates Myanmar settlement in the area.

History

Kyaukse has been an important area in Myanmar history. It is well irrigated and lush, and has been ever since the

Bagan era The Kingdom of Pagan ( my, ပုဂံခေတ်, , ; also known as the Pagan Dynasty and the Pagan Empire; also the Bagan Dynasty or Bagan Empire) was the first Burmese kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern-da ...

when it was known as the granary of the kingdom. King Anawrahta built numerous fortresses along his kingdom's borders, as well as along the rivers flowing within his lands. Tamote was one of nine fortresses along the rivers of Kyaukse region, erected because he needed protection against invasion by water. When Than Shwe was in power at the head of the military regime, a heavy industrial zone was established in Kyaukse – supposedly to provide employment, though its population is relatively small. Kyaukse Township is now constituted with one town, 10 wards and 223 villages of 87 village-tracts.

Economy

The Kyaukse area is known for its

turmeric Turmeric () is a flowering plant, ''Curcuma longa'' (), of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae, the rhizomes of which are used in cooking. The plant is a perennial, rhizomatous, herbaceous plant native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast ...

mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree '' Mangifera indica''. It is believed to have originated in the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in Sout ...

and

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the on ...

s. The town has a relatively large shopping centre Aye Mya Kyi Lin Market.

Education

Kyaukse is home to the * Basic Education High School No. 1 Kyaukse, * Basic Education High School No. 2 Kyaukse, * Basic Education High School No. 3 Kyaukse, *

Technological University, Kyaukse Technological University (Kyaukse) is a university under the Ministry of Education. It is located at Kyaukse township, Mandalay Region, Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions requ ...

, *

Kyaukse University Kyaukse ( my, ကျောက်ဆည် မြို့, ) is town and capital of Kyaukse District in Mandalay Region, Myanmar. Lying on the Zawgyi River, 25 miles (40 km) south of Mandalay, it is served by the Mandalay-Yangon (Rangoon) railway. ...

Notable people

, Myanmar's dictator and

Chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the group ...

of the State Law and Order Restoration Council * Saw Tun, a former Minister for Construction of Myanmar * U Thaung, a former Minister for Science and Technology of Myanmar and former member of parliament in the

Pyithu Hluttaw The Pyithu Hluttaw ( my, ပြည်သူ့ လွှတ်တော်, ; House of Representatives) is the ''de jure'' lower house of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the bicameral legislature of Myanmar (Burma). It consists of 440 members, of whic ...

* Ashin Wirathu, a nationalist Buddhist monk * Ledwintha Saw Chit, an author * Shwe Sin, an actress and model *

Than Khe Ye Baw Than Khae (also spelt Than Khe, my, သံခဲ) is the current leader and chairman of the All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF), an insurgent group based in Kayin State, Myanmar (Burma). He was elected chairman of All Burma Stud ...

, Chairman of the

All Burma Students' Democratic Front The All Burma Students' Democratic Front ( my, မြန်မာနိုင်ငံလုံးဆိုင်ရာကျောင်းသားများဒီမိုကရက်တစ်တပ်ဦး; abbreviated ABSDF or မက� ...

(ABSDF)

Sights of interest

* Shwethalyaung Hill * Mahar Shwe Thein Daw Pagoda * Tamote Shinpin Shwegugyi Temple * Shinpin Set Thwar Pagoda * Shwemuhtaw Pagoda * Laymyatna Pagoda * Shwe Taung Htee Pagoda * Shwebontha Pagoda * Dee Doke Waterfall * Sunye Lake * Shwehylan Taung Pagoda * Dattaw Taung Cave Pagoda * Myinsaing Nanoo Pagoda

Gallery

Image:No.1 BEHS Kyaukse.jpg, BEHS 1 Kyaukse Image:Kyaukse City Call.jpg, Kyaukse City Hall Image:Kyaukse landscape.jpg, View from Kyaukse hill Image:Aye Mya Kyi Lin Market.jpg, Aye Mya Kyi Lin Market

References

External links

Township capitals of Myanmar Populated places in Mandalay Region {{Mandalay-geo-stub