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Mawlamyine, Moulmein, Mon, Mon
State, Kipling, Myanmar, Burma,
Mawya Myine, Thaton, Moattama,
Myanmar, Burma, Birma,
Moktama, Martaban
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Mawlamyine is
the capital of Mon State, a seaport and the
third largest city in Myamar.
The name
Mawlamyine is derived from the words ‘ Mawya
Myine’ meaning ‘forest haunt of peacocks.’
Just 70 km south of Thaton by road or rail,
it is also linked by air with Yangon- only
forty-five minutes flight time, since the
road is not as bad it makes some sense to
drive there with the car, but not in the
night !!
Coming from
Yangon either by road or rail, the visitor
gets off at Moattama (Martaban), the terminus for both,
and takes a ferry to Mawlamyine on the
opposite shore.
This city will
always be associated with Kipling’s verse
reproduced below, which made it known far
and wide:
By the old
Moulmein pagoda lookin’ lazy at the sea
.There’s a Burmese girl a-settin’ and I know
she thinks o’ me,
For the wind is in the palm trees and the
temple bells they say ‘Come you back you
British soldier, come you back to Mandalay!’
Due to its
hilltop location from the Kyaikthanlan
Pagoda there is a lovely views over the
city and harbor, the Thanlwin (Salween)
River on the West and the Taungnyo hills to
the east. Another interesting pagoda has
four life-sized figures, three - an old man,
a sick man and a dead man- depicting that
life is transitory, and a holy ascetic -
representing how one must strive to gain
freedom from the inevitability of mortal
existence.
These were the ‘Omens’
that influenced Prince Siddartha Gautama to seek the
path for enlightenment and ultimately succeeding in
becoming Gautama Buddha. .
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There are two cave temples near Mawlamyine.
The Payon Cave filled with stalactites and
stalagmites contains innumerable Buddha images
installed in shrines while the Kawgaun Cave, locally
called the Cave of Ten Thousand Buddha’s, has a
great number of Buddha figures in various forms and
sizes. Kyaikmayaw Pagoda, a half hour’s drive out of
town along toddy palm -lined roads with wayside
rubber plantations, is a pleasant shrine to visit
and usually is on the visitor’s itinerary.
 
About 60 km south of Mawlamyine, at Thanbyuzayat,
there is a large, well
maintained war cemetery for thousands of Allied
prisoners-of-war who died during World War II while
constructing the infamous ‘death railway’ for the
Japanese. The same is on the Thailand side near the
Bridge over the River Kwai.
Another 28 km southwards
brings one to Kyaikkhami (Amherst), a popular
coastal resort during British times, with its
well-known Kyaikkhami Pagoda in the sea. Setse- the
beach here is a favorite with local residents and if
properly developed has great potential to draw
tourists- is soon reached after a twenty minute
drive. Like the rest of Mon State, Mawlamyine has a
hot and wet climate with an annual rainfall of
around 482 cm, average year-round temperature of
26.6°C; the average for the hottest months (April
and May) is 29.3°C and the average for December and
January about 25°C.
It
lies in the only sizable plain in the state- the Mawlamyine plain - so it produces rice, rubber, sugar
cane, coconuts and betel nuts in addition to such
delicious fruits like mangoes, durians, mangos teens
and pumaloes. Seafood is also plentiful and
enjoyable and one can still see timber yards and
forests in the surrounding countryside since teak
used to be one of the chief exports.
Two large natural gas
fields, the Yadana and the Yetagun,
have been recently
developed by foreign companies. Thailand is to be
supplied with gas and a pipeline running 346 km
offshore and 63 km onshore for delivery to a plant
in
Kanchanaburi Province.
The majority of the people here and in Mon State as
a whole are Mons, with Kayins, Bamars, Shans, Pa-Os
and Daweites (Tavoyans) making up the rest.
 
all at e-books
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Mawlamyine, Moulmein, Mon, Mon
State, Kipling, Myanmar, Burma,
Mawya Myine, Thaton, Moattama,
Myanmar, Burma, Birma,
Moktama, Martaban,
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