Yegyi Township (, officially romanized as Yekyi Township) is a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

of Kyonpyaw District in north-central

Ayeyarwady Region Ayeyarwady Region ( , , ; formerly Ayeyarwady Division and Irrawaddy Division) is a region of Myanmar, occupying the delta region of the Ayeyarwady River (Irrawaddy River). It is bordered by the Rakhine State to the northwest, the Bago Region to ...

, Myanmar. The Township has three towns- the principal town of Yekyi and the towns of Ahthoke,

Ngathaingchaung Ngathaingchaung or Ngathinechaung and sometimes Ngathainggyaung () is a town and the second largest town in Yegyi Township, Kyonpyaw District in north-central Ayeyarwady Region, Myanmar and is divided into 6 urban wards. It is the namesake of N ...

. The western portion of the township are informally includes

Ngathaingchaung Subtownship Ngathaingchaung Subtownship () is a subtownship of Yekyi Township in Kyonpyaw District, Ayeyarwady Region, Myanmar. It can also sometimes be referred to simply as Ngathaingchaung Township. The namesake of the subtownship is Ngathaingchaung, a t ...

, an unofficial division used by the Township for statistical and administrative ease. The township as a whole borders Lemyethna Township of Hinthada District to the north, Gwa Township of

Rakhine State Rakhine State ( ; , ; ), formerly known as Arakan State, is a Administrative divisions of Myanmar, state in Myanmar (Burma). Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State to the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Re ...

to the northwest and Thabaung Township of

Pathein District Pathein District () is a district of Ayeyawady Division, Myanmar. It is located around and includes the urban area of the city of Pathein. The area of the Pathein District is . Its population was 1,630,716 in 2014. Townships The district cons ...

to the southwest. To its east and southeast, it borders the other two townships of Kyonpyaw District, Kyonpyaw Township and Kyaunggon Township. The township has 1 subtownship, 3 towns with 16 total urban wards and 87 village tracts representing 523 villages. Its largest town is Ngathaingchaung.

Geography

Yegyi Township is located in the Irrawaddy Delta spanning to the peaks of the southern Arakan Mountains, which forms its northwestern border with

. The township is divided between two geophysical region, the steep forested mountains in the west and the low-lying delta of the east. The Arakan Mountains run north-south on the township's western edge with mountain streams flowing eastwards towards the Ngawun River in the township's centre. The highest peak within the township is the

tripoint A triple border, tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geography, geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or Administrative division, subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints ...

between Rakhine State and Thabaung Township at an elevation of . The Ngawun forms most of the eastern dividing border of the

, except in the north where the border turns east to encompass the town of

itself, which is located on the eastern bank of the Ngawun. The eastern portion of Yegyi township contains several streams, with Singu Creek (also known as the Yekyi Creek) being a major waterway connecting the town of Yekyi to the Daka River on the eastern edge of the town. The Daka forms most of the township's eastern border with Kyonpyaw Township. Riverbank erosion remains a safety risk for villages along the many waterways of the township. The township has a variety of flora including valuable

hardwoods Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes ...

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panic ...

and pyinkadoe as well as other trees like Indian laurel, bamboo, mango and ''zanka'' trees. The township also locally cultivates medicinal pants including the ivy gourd and the bark of the thakhut tree. The township has 28.96% forest cover, with 22.63% of the township being state-maintained forest lands, with the largest reserve being the Kyetpaung Forest Reserve. These forest lands are home to fauna including forest goats, muntjacs, Asian golden cats, monkeys and pangolins. Beyond state-owned lands, the township also encourages private conservation efforts, including the planting of 250 acres of new hardwood forests in 2019.

Economy and Demographics

The township is relatively rural with 76.0% of the population living outside the three towns. The majority religion is

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

with 97.4% of the population adhering to it. The second largest religion at 3,540 adherents is

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. Not counted in this statistic is 1,490 residents without a nation national ID card, including reportedly 772

Pakistani Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...

individuals, mostly in the town of Ahthoke. Between 2018 and 2019, the township saw 1,946 people immigrate into the township, mostly to the town of Yekyi. In 2014, the area of the township outside the Ngathaingchaung subtownship had a median age of 16.3 and a 95.1% literacy rate. The township's primary industry is

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

and has seen economic development in the 2010s. 68.7% of the Town's non-protected lands are used for agricultural activities, primarily producing

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

and various types of legumes. Other agricultural products include bananas,

betel nut The areca nut ( or ) or betel nut () is the fruit of the areca palm ('' Areca catechu''). The palm is originally native to the Philippines, but was carried widely through the tropics by the Austronesian migrations and trade since at least 1 ...

and

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

. There is also a significant forestry industry, mostly managed by the government. Illegal teak products have been caught in the township, such as in 2013 when a shipment of teak doors were seized near Yekyi town. The township contains the Gwa-Ngathaingchaung road, the main road to southern Rakhine state from Lower Myanmar. In late 2024, as the

Arakan Army The Arakan Army (; Abbreviation, abbreviated AA), sometimes referred to as the Arakha Army is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnic-List of insurgent groups in Myanmar, armed organisation based in Rakhine State (Arakan). Founded in April 2009, the Ara ...

advanced south in the Rakhine offensive of the Myanmar civil war, military junta troops were stationed in the forest reserves to the township's west basing them out of small mountainside villages like Chaw Pyar and Thar Baung.

Localities

* Aingzauk * Kya Khat Hmyaung *

* Yekyi

Gallery

File:Railway in Yekyi.jpg, Railway in Yekyi Township File:De Pa Yone Pagoda.jpg, De Pa Yone Pagoda in Yekyi File:De Pa Yone.jpg, Entrance Walkway to De Pa Yone Pagoda

References

{{Reflist Townships of Ayeyarwady Region

Geography

Economy and Demographics

Localities

Gallery

See also

References