Sagaing (, ) is the former capital of the

Sagaing Region Sagaing Region ( my, စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Sagaing Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar, located in the north-western part of the country between latitude 21° 30' north and lon ...

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 ...

. It is located in the

Irrawaddy 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 ...

, to the south-west 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 fo ...

on the opposite bank of the river. Sagaing with numerous

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whic ...

is an important religious and monastic centre. The pagodas and monasteries crowd the numerous hills along the ridge running parallel to the river. The central pagoda, Soon U Ponya Shin Pagoda, is connected by a set of covered staircases that run up the hill. Today, with about 70,000 inhabitants, the city is part of

built-up area with more than 1,022,000 inhabitants estimated in 2011. The city is a frequent tourist destination of day trippers. Within the city are the Sagaing Institute of Education, the Sagaing Education College, Sagaing University, Technological University (Sagaing), and co-operative university (Sagaing). Sagaing University was established on 11 February 2012. It is in Pakatoe Quarter, Sagaing Township, Sagaing Region, Myanmar. It has an area of . As a result, there are now five colleges/university in Sagaing.

Name

The classical name of Sagaing is Zeyapura (; pi, Jayapura), which literally translates to "city of victory."

History

Sagaing was the capital of Sagaing Kingdom (1315-1364), one of the minor kingdoms that rose up after the fall of

Pagan dynasty 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 ...

, where one of Thihathu's sons, Athinkhaya, established himself. During the Ava period (1364-1555), the city was the common

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of f ...

of the crown prince or senior princes. During the reign of King

Naungdawgyi Dabayin Min ( my, ဒီပဲယင်းမင်း), commonly known as Naungdawgyi ( my, နောင်တော်ကြီး ; 10 August 1734 – 28 November 1763) was the second king of Konbaung Dynasty of Burma (Myanmar), from 1760 to 1 ...

. Sagaing briefly became the royal capital between 1760 and 1763. On 8 August 1988, Sagaing was the site of demonstrations which were concluded by a massacre in which around 300 civilians were killed.

Climate

Located in the rain shadow of the

Arakan Mountains The Arakan Mountains ( my, ရခိုင်ရိုးမ), also known as the Rakhine Yoma, are a mountain range in western Myanmar, between the coast of Rakhine State and the Central Myanmar Basin, in which flows the Irrawaddy River. It is th ...

, Sagaing has a borderline

hot semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-a ...

( Köppen ''BSh'') just short of a

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 ...

(''Aw''). The city receives less than a third as much rainfall as

Chittagong Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in B ...

at a similar latitude on the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line bet ...

. Unlike most monsoonal semi-arid climates, the rainy season is relatively long at around five to six months, while variability and extreme monthly and daily rainfalls are much lower than usual with this type of climate.See

People

* Sithu Kyawhtin, King of Ava (1552-1555) * Zhu Youlang, Prince of Gui, last

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

claimant to China, lived in exile at Sagaing in 1661 * Maurice Collis, author of ''

Trials in Burma {{Unreferenced, date=March 2009 ''Trials in Burma'' is a memoir by Maurice Collis, an English author of Irish origin who served in Burma in the Indian Civil Service under the British Empire written in 1937 describing events in 1929-30. After p ...

'', district commissioner of the Sagaing district in 1928

Places of interest

The Kaunghmudaw Pagoda (Burmese: ; Yaza Mani Sula Kaunghmudaw (); Pali: Rājamaṇicūḷā) is a large pagoda on the northwestern outskirts of Sagaing.

Images

File:Sagaing Hill.jpg, Sagaing Hill File:Sagaing, Myanmar.jpg, Irrawaddy River from Sagaing Hill, Sagaing Sagaing, Buddhist stupas, Myanmar.jpg, Pagodas Sagaing, Buddhist monks, Myanmar.jpg, Buddhist monks Sagaing, View, Myanmar.jpg, Viewpoint at Sagaing Hill File:Sagaing2.jpg, Pagodas that dot Sagaing File:U Min Thonze exterior, Sagaing, Sagaing Division, Burma.jpg, U Min Thonze Cave File:Sone Oo Pone Nya Shin Pagoda.jpg, Sone Oo Pone Nya Shin Pagoda, Sagaing Hill File:Umin Thonze Pagoda.JPG, Umin Thonze Pagoda File:Two bridges of Sagaing.jpg, Bridges connecting Sagaing and Mandalay

References

{{Authority control Township capitals of Myanmar Populated places in Sagaing Region Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Myanmar