From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mawlamyaing
Mawlamyaing Location of Mawlamyaing, Myanmar (Burma)
Coordinates: 16°29′N 97°37′E / 16.483, 97.617
Country	Myanmar (Burma)
Admin. division	Mon State
Population
- Total	300,000
- Ethnicities	Bamar, Burmese Chinese, Burmese Indians, Kayin, Mon
- Religions	Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hindu

Mawlamyaing (Burmese: ; MLCTS: mau la. mruing mrui.; IPA: [mɔ̀ləmjàiN mjo̰]; formerly Moulmein or "Maulmain") is the capital and largest city in Mon State, Myanmar, which is crowded with Mon people majority. Its name, originally means ruined eye, was an ancient Mon district where the Mon king lost his powerful eye. It is now famous with its seaport, new market, famous pagodas, newly constructed bridge and Mawlamyaing University. It holds the main railway station which communicates to the Burmese capital in the north and Southern town of Ye. The old Death railway is also a diverted route from Mawlamyaing at the town of Tanbyuzayat.

The city sits on the coast of Taninthayi. It is the third-largest city in Myanmar, with a population of 300,000. The population is estimated as 75% ethnic Mon, with minorities of Bamar, Anglo-Burmese, Karen, Indian and Chinese. During colonial times, Moulmein had a substantial Anglo-Burmese population; an area of the city was known as 'Little England' due to the large Anglo-Burmese community, many of them engaged in the running of rubber plantations; however nowadays this has dwindled to all but a handful of families as most have left for the UK or Australia.

Shampoo Island near Mawlamyaing.

Moghul Shah Mosque.

Mawlamyaing became the first capital of British Burma between 1827 and 1852 after Taninthayi (formerly Tenasserim) and Rakhine (formerly Arakan) were ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Yandaboo at the end of the First Anglo-Burmese War, primarily because it was a major port for the extraction of teak. Today, Mawlamyaing is famous for its tropical fruits and for its cuisine as indicated in the popular Burmese expression, "Mandalay for the speaking, Yangon for the bragging, and Mawlamyine for the eating".

It is probably best known to English speakers through the opening lines of Rudyard Kipling's poem Mandalay:

"By the old Moulmein pagoda

Lookin' Eastward to the sea

There's a Burma girl a-settin'

and I know she thinks o' me".

Mawlamyaing is also the setting of George Orwell's famous 1936 memoir Shooting an Elephant. He served there as sub-divisional police officer. The essay opens with the striking words:

In Moulmein, in Lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people -- the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me.

• University of Mawlamyaing
• Mawlamyaing Bridge
• Mawlamyaing Airport
• Mon people

• Moulmein
• Photos of Moulmein
• Mawlamyine

The subject of this article has been identified by the Missing Encyclopedic Articles project as being a high priority for expansion.

Coordinates: 16°29′05″N, 97°37′33″E