The Chindwin river
is the biggest
tributary of the Irrawaddy contributing a
large volume of brown water to the Irrawaddy
the river is very important in the life of
Myanmar people in the North West part of the
country. Its sources lie in the midst of
snow touched peaks and unexplored mountains
in the far north west of Burma.
Together
with tributaries a substantial size it reached
when the stream enters Hu Kawng valley in the 27th
degree of North Latitude. The water passes
wild tracts of mountain and deep valleys
which have never seen any foreign traveler.
Continuous navigation starts after emerging
from the defiles which for a natural bar its
between the 26th and 27th degrees of North
Latitude. From here bigger ships can
navigate all the way down to the junction
with the Irrawaddy. The stream enters the
Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady via two streams with
around 30km in between.
One of these streams is an old royal canal
cut by a bygone king of Bagan. It silted up
and for centuries it remained unused, until
in 1840 a great flood came and cut a new
passage through it. This arm enters the
Irrawaddy at an angle, and the land between
is low. Hence, for some distance from the
two rivers look as if they ran parallel to
each other.
The town of
Mingyan gleams on the far eastern shore ten
miles away, and the farthest bank can be
traced from the mid-current of its
feudatory. At high floods the narrow
peninsula between them is submerged, and
tree-tops and hamlet roofs alone mark the
division between. |
