Lower Myanmar (, also called Lower Burma) is a geographic region of

Myanmar 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 has ...

and includes the low-lying

Irrawaddy Delta The Irrawaddy Delta or Ayeyarwady Delta lies in the Irrawaddy Division, the lowest expanse of land in Myanmar (Burma) that fans out from the limit of tidal influence at Myan Aung to the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, to the south at the mout ...

( Ayeyarwady, Bago and

Yangon Region Yangon Region (, ; formerly Rangoon Division and Yangon Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar. Located in central Myanmar, the region is bordered by Bago Region to the north and east, the Gulf of Martaban to the south, and Ayeyarwady ...

s), as well as coastal regions of the country ( Rakhine and

Mon State Mon State (, ; ) is an administrative division of Myanmar. It lies between Kayin State to the east, the Andaman Sea to the west, Bago Region to the north and Tanintharyi Region to the south, also having a short border with Thailand's Kanchanabu ...

s and

Tanintharyi Region Tanintharyi Region (, ; Mon: or ; formerly Tenasserim Division and Tanintharyi Division) is a region of Myanmar, covering the long narrow southern part of the country on the northern Malay Peninsula, reaching to the Kra Isthmus. It borders ...

). In the

Burmese language Burmese (; ) is a Tibeto-Burman languages, Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Myanmar, where it is the official language, lingua franca, and the native language of the Bamar people, Bamar, the country's largest ethnic group. Burmese dialects are a ...

, people originating from

Upper Myanmar Upper Myanmar ( or , also called Upper Burma) is one of two geographic regions in Myanmar, the other being Lower Myanmar. Located in the country's centre and north stretches, Upper Myanmar encompasses six inland states and regions, including M ...

are typically called ''a-nya-tha'' for men and ''a-nya-thu'' for women, whereas those from Lower Myanmar are called ''auk tha'' () for men and ''auk thu'' for women. 100px Green represents Upper Myanmar and Yellow represents Lower Myanmar

History

The territories of present day Lower Myanmar was part of Pagan Kingdom until the end of 13th century. After the collapse of Pagan Kingdom, the territories become Martaban Hanthawaddy Kingdom founded by King

Wareru Wareru (, , ; also known as Wagaru; 20 March 1253 – ) was the founder of the Martaban Kingdom, located in present-day Myanmar (Burma). By using both diplomatic and military skills, he successfully carved out a Mon-speaking polity in Lower B ...

. From the 16th century to the middle of 18th century, Pagu was a province of

Toungoo Dynasty ''taungnguumainn saat'' , conventional_long_name = Toungoo dynasty , common_name = Taungoo dynasty , status = Empire/Monarchy, Kingdom , event_start = Independence from Kingdom of Ava, Ava Kingdom , yea ...

. In 1752,

Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom The Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom (), also known as the Neo-Ramanic State () was the kingdom that ruled Lower Burma and parts of Upper Burma from 1740 to 1757. The kingdom grew out of a rebellion by the Mon led population of Pegu, who then ra ...

successfully overthrown Toungoo Dynasty but later conquered by

Konbaung Dynasty The Konbaung dynasty (), also known as the Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်), was the last dynasty that ruled Burma from 1752 to 1885. It created the second-largest empire in history of Mya ...

led by King

Alaungpaya Alaungpaya (, ; also spelled Alaunghpaya or Alaung-Phra; 11 May 1760) was the founder and first emperor of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma. By the time of his death from illness during his Burmese–Siamese War (1759–60), campaign in Siam, this ...

. So, Pegu became a province of Konbaung Dynasty with the name of Lower Province (). After the loss of Second Anglo-Burmese War,

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

annexed Lower Province, Prome and

Toungoo Taungoo (, ''Tauñngu myoú''; ), also spelled Toungoo and formerly Toung-ngú, is a district-level city in the Bago Region of Myanmar, 220 km from Yangon, towards the north-eastern end of the division, with mountain ranges to the east an ...

. Lower Province was divided into Irrawaddy Division, Pegu Division, Toungoo District and Salween District of Tenasareim Division. Historically, Lower Myanmar referred to the part of

annexed by the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

after the end of the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852, Arakan Province and Tavoy(Tenasserim) Province which the British had taken control of in 1826 through the

Treaty of Yandabo The Treaty of Yandabo ( ) was the peace treaty that ended the First Anglo-Burmese War. The treaty was signed on 24February 1826, nearly two years after the war formally broke out on 5March 1824, by General Sir Archibald Campbell on the British ...

. Lower Myanmar was centred at

Rangoon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

, and composed of all of the coast of modern

, and also the lower basin of the

Irrawaddy River The Irrawaddy River (, , Ayeyarwady) is the principal river of Myanmar, running through the centre of the country. Myanmar’s most important commercial waterway, it is about 1,350 miles (2,170 km) long. Originating from the confluence of the ...

, including Prome. Until the early 19th century, Lower Myanmar was predominantly populated by the Mon and Karen tribes and was a historical stronghold of the Mon people.

References

Regions of Myanmar + {{Burma-geo-stub