Bhamo ( my, ဗန်းမော်မြို့ ''ban: mau mrui.'', also spelt Banmaw; shn, မၢၼ်ႈမူဝ်ႇ; tdd, ᥛᥫᥒᥰ ᥛᥨᥝᥱ; zh, 新街, Hsinkai) is a city in Kachin State in northern

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 ...

, south of the state capital, (

Myitkyina Myitkyina (, ; (Eng; ''mitchinar'') Jinghpaw: ''Myitkyina'', ) is the capital city of Kachin State in Myanmar (Burma), located from Yangon, and from Mandalay. In Burmese it means "near the big river", and Myitkyina is on the west bank of the ...

). It is on the Ayeyarwady River. It lies within of the border with

Yunnan Province Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

, China. The population consists of Chinese and Shan, with Kachin peoples in the hills around the town. It is the administrative center of

Bhamo District Bhamo District ( my, ဗန်းမော်ခရိုင်) is a district of the Kachin State in northern Burma (Myanmar). The capital is the city of Bhamo. The district covers an area of 10,742.9 km2. In 2002, the population of the Bhamo ...

and

Bhamo Township Bhamo Township ( my, ဗန်းမော်မြို့နယ်) is a Townships of Myanmar, township of Bhamo District in the Kachin State of Burma. The principal town is Bhamo. Towns and villages *Asin, Bhamo, Asin *Aw-ka-tha *Awngsa *Ban ...

Etymology

"Bhamo" derives from the

Shan language The Shan language (written Shan: , , spoken Shan: , or , ; my, ရှမ်းဘာသာ, ; th, ภาษาไทใหญ่, ) is the native language of the Shan people and is mostly spoken in Shan State, Myanmar. It is also spoken in p ...

term "Manmaw" ( shn, မၢၼ်ႈမေႃႇး, ; tdd, ᥛᥫᥒᥰ ᥛᥨᥝᥱ), which means "potter's village."

History

From 1869 to 1879, it was the seat of British colonial Assistant political agent, subordinate to the Resident with the

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ...

of and in Ava. In the early 20th century, due to its location at the highest navigable point of the river, it formed a part of caravan routes bringing

jade Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole gro ...

from

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

to China. Bhamo was once called Sampanago, the capital of the now-extinct Shan predecessor kingdom of

Wanmaw Man Maw is a village in Bhamo Township in Bhamo District in the Kachin State of north-eastern Burma. History Wanmaw (Bhamo) was the name and capital (royal seat) of a relatively major one of the petty Shan (ethnic Tai) principalities, ru ...

. The ruins of the old city walls, dating from the fifth century, are found some from the modern town.

Contemporary

A once weekly

Myanma Airways Myanmar National Airlines ( my, မြန်မာအမျိုးသားလေကြောင်း ), formerly Union of Burma Airways, Burma Airways, and Myanma Airways, is a state-owned airline and the flag carrier of Myanmar, based in ...

flight is available, as are three times a week river ferries. It is the terminus of river ferries from Mandalay. There is no river ferry between Bhamo and state capital Myitkyina. The land route between Bhamo and Mu Se District (Muse, part of Northern

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 ( L ...

), is in poor condition. Bhamo is one of the official border trading towns between China and Myanmar.

Education

The town is home to Bhamo University. One can also study engineering at Technological University (Bamaw), and computer and networking at

Computer University A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These program ...

(Bamaw).

Climate

Bhamo has a climate that lies in the transition between

tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry winter) and ''As'' (for a dry summer). The driest month has less than of ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''Aw'') and humid subtropical climate (

''Cwa''). Temperatures are very warm throughout the year, although the winter months (December–February) are milder. There is a winter dry season (November–April) and a summer wet season (May–October).

References

Sources

WorldStatesmen – Burma/Myanmar