Myitnge River ( my, မြစ်ငယ် or Nam Tu, also known as Dokhtawaddy River (), is a major tributary of

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 ...

(Irrawaddy) 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 ...

(Burma). The name Myitnge in Burmese and Dokhtawaddy in

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddh ...

both mean "little river", by contrast with the Ayeyarwady or "big river".

Source, course and outflow

The river rises on the Irrawaddy-Salween watershed, not far from the latter river, and flows westwards through northern

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 ...

of eastern Burma where it is known as Namtu River, and eventually into the Ayeyarwady at

Amarapura Amarapura ( my, အမရပူရ, MLCTS=a. ma. ra. pu ra., , ; also spelt as Ummerapoora) is a former capital of Myanmar, and now a township of Mandalay city. Amarapura is bounded by the Irrawaddy river in the west, Chanmyathazi Township in t ...

. The old capital of the

Ava Kingdom The Kingdom of Ava ( my, အင်းဝခေတ်, ) was the dominant kingdom that ruled upper Burma (Myanmar) from 1364 to 1555. Founded in 1365, the kingdom was the successor state to the petty kingdoms of Myinsaing, Pinya and Sagai ...

was built between its two branches, Myittha River which it gives off to the west and the eastern stream which retains the name Myitnge before it enters the Irrawaddy.

Tributaries

Zawgyi River Zawgyi River ( my, ဇော်ဂျီမြစ်) is a river of eastern Burma (Myanmar). It flows through the foothills of the Shan Mountain range in Shan State Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင� ...

enters the Myitnge about 20 km north of Kyaukse at Nyaungbintha. # Panlaung River enters near Ava.

Towns

# Namtu #

Hsenwi Theinni or Hsenwi ( shn, ; my, သိန္နီ, ; th, แสนหวี, , ) is a town in northern Shan State of Burma, situated near the north bank of the Nam Tu River and now the centre of Hsenwi Township in Lashio District. It is nor ...

# Hsipaw

History

The famous Shwe Sar Yan Pagoda on its north bank, built in 1053 by the Shan princess Sao Mon Hla on her journey home after wedding and later leaving King

Anawrahta Anawrahta Minsaw ( my, အနော်ရထာ မင်းစော, ; 11 May 1014 – 11 April 1077) was the founder of the Pagan Empire. Considered the father of the Burmese nation, Anawrahta turned a small principality in the dry zone ...

(1044–1077) of

Bagan Bagan (, ; formerly Pagan) is an ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Bagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that wo ...

in central Burma, holds its annual festival starting just before the full moon of

Tabaung Tabaung ( my, တပေါင်း) is the twelfth and final month of the traditional Burmese calendar. Festivals and observances *Tabaung Festival (Magha Puja) - full moon of Tabaung * Sand Pagoda Festival () *28 Pagoda Parade Festival, Pyinma ...

(March). Anawrahta constructed an irrigation system consisting of weirs and canals on the Panlaung and the Zawgyi rivers but found the Myitnge too wild to tame. Three centuries later

Thado Minbya Thado Minbya ( my, သတိုးမင်းဖျား, ; also spelt as Thadominbya; 7 December 1345 – 3 September 1367) was the founder of the Kingdom of Ava. In his three plus years of reign (1364–67), the king laid the foundation for ...

(1364–67) built Ava as his capital at the confluence of Myitnge and Ayeyarwady rivers within easy reach of the rice granary at Kyaukse.

Bridges

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

starting from New Year Day 1943 through to late April, several bombing raids were carried out by

B-25 The North American B-25 Mitchell is an American medium bomber that was introduced in 1941 and named in honor of Major General William "Billy" Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation. Used by many Allied air forces, the B-25 served in ...

s and

B-24 The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models ...

s of the

USAAF The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

to destroy the bridge over the Myitnge River carrying the main

railway line Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...

from

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 ...

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

. They returned the following December to bomb the bridge and the

rail yards A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or ...

at nearby Paleik. Two years later it was the turn of the RAF Thunderbolts to attack the bridge. Myitnge River is today spanned by a new bridge, 700 feet long and 27 feet wide for motor traffic flanked on each side by a footpath 6 feet wide, and was opened in 1999.

Dams

A 790

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

power plant called Yeywa Dam Project, with assistance from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, is under way on the Myitnge River southeast of

Notes

External links

*{{Commons category-inline
Shan state map by ''Asterism''

Change in the Landscape of First Millennium A D Myanmar
Elizabeth Moore & U Win Maung (Tampawaddy), ''

SOAS SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury are ...

'', pp 3, 10, 12
Google map
''GeoNames'' Rivers of Myanmar