Cape Negrais (, also known as Pagoda Point (ဆံတော်ရှင်မြတ်ငူ) or Mawtin Point (မော်တင်စွန်း, Mawtin Soon) is a
cape
A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment of any length that hangs loosely and connects either at the neck or shoulders. They usually cover the back, shoulders, and arms. They come in a variety of styles and have been used th ...
in
Burma
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...
(Myanmar), west of the
Irrawaddy Delta. It is located 133 km to the NNE of
Preparis Island and 193 kilometres from the nearest point in the
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
n
union territory
Among the states and union territories of India, a Union Territory (UT) is a region that is directly governed by the Government of India, central government of India, as opposed to the states, which have their own State governments of India, s ...
of the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India comprising 572 islands, of which only 38 are inhabited. The islands are grouped into two main clusters: the northern Andaman Islands and the southern Nicobar Islands, separated by a ...
. For a long time, it was occupied by the
Kingdom of Mrauk U
The Kingdom of Mrauk-U (Arakanese language, Arakanese: မြောက်ဦး ဘုရင့်နိုင်ငံတော်) was a kingdom that existed on the Arakan coastal plain from 1429 to 1785. Based in the capital Mrauk-U, near t ...
(1429–1785 CE). It was a battleground in the
Taungoo–Mrauk-U War of 1545 to 1547. Most of English traders were massacred in October 1759.
Captain Alves' Account of the Loss of Negrais in 1759
archive.org 2010-11-11
It is northernmost point of Andaman Sea
The Andaman Sea (historically also known as the Burma Sea) is a marginal sea of the northeastern Indian Ocean bounded by the coastlines of Myanmar and Thailand along the Gulf of Martaban and the west side of the Malay Peninsula, and separated f ...
where it meets the Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region.
Many South Asian and Southe ...
. To the south and east of this point lies Andaman Sea, and to the north and west lies the Bay of Bengal.
Etymology
The Portuguese name 'Negrais' is borrowed from the Burmese name 'Nagariz' (နဂရစ်), which in turn came from 'Nagaraj' (Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
: नागराज, ). It refers to the story of the dragon king 'Jeyasena'(ဇေယျသေန) taking some holy hairs of Buddha and creating a cape Pagoda.
See also
* Geography of Burma
* Coco Islands, Myanmar's westernmost island.
* Landfall Island, India's's northernmost island in Andaman Nicobar islands.
References
Negrais
{{Burma-geo-stub