,
, image = Homalin aerial.jpg
, image_size =
, image_caption = The Chindwin at
Homalin. The smaller, meandering
Uyu River can be seen joining the Chindwin.
, map = Irrawaddyrivermap.jpg
, map_size =
, map_alt =
, map_caption =
, source1_location =
Hukawng Valley
The Hukawng Valley ( my, ဟူးကောင်းချိုင့်ဝှမ်း; also spelt Hukaung Valley) is an isolated valley in Myanmar, roughly in area. It is located in Tanaing Township in the Myitkyina District of Kachin State ...
,
Kachin State
, subdivision_type1 = Country
, subdivision_name1 =
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 ...
, length =
, source1_elevation =
, mouth_location =
Irrawaddy River
, mouth_elevation =
, mouth_coordinates =
, discharge1_avg=
The Chindwin River (also called the Ningthi River) is a river flowing entirely in
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 ...
, and the largest
tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...
of the country's main river, the
Ayeyarwady.
Its official name is also spelled Chindwinn.
Sources
The Chindwin originates in the broad
Hukawng Valley
The Hukawng Valley ( my, ဟူးကောင်းချိုင့်ဝှမ်း; also spelt Hukaung Valley) is an isolated valley in Myanmar, roughly in area. It is located in Tanaing Township in the Myitkyina District of Kachin State ...
of
Kachin State of Burma, roughly
, where the Tanai, the Tabye, the Tawan, and the Taron (also known as Turong or Towang) rivers meet.
The headwaters of the Tanai are at about
on the Shwedaunggyi peak of the Kumon range, north of
Mogaung. It flows due north for the first part until it reaches the Hukawng Valley. In 2004, the government established the world's largest tiger preserve in the Hukawng Valley, the
Hukaung Valley Wildlife Sanctuary
Hukaung Valley Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected area in northern Myanmar, covering . It was established in 2004 and extended to its present size in 2010.
It was initially gazetted in 2004 with an area of in Tanaing Township and extended to Kama ...
, with an area of approximately ; later, the Sanctuary was extended to , making it the largest protected area in mainland Southeast Asia. The river then turns to the west and flows through the middle of the plain,
joined by the Tabye, the Tawan, and the Taron rivers from the right bank. These rivers drain the mountain ranges to the north and northeast of the Hukawng valley.
Course
The Tanai exits the Hukawng valley through the Taron or Turong valley and through a sharp
defile in the river. It then takes on the name of Chindwin, and maintains a general southerly course.
It passes the town of Singkaling
Hkamti on the left bank, then the town of
Homalin, also on the left bank.
The river's course is generally southwesterly until the town of
Mingin. It then takes a more southeasterly course entering into broad central plain, passing the city of
Monywa
Monywa (; ) is the largest city in Sagaing Region, Myanmar, located north-west of Mandalay on the eastern bank of the River Chindwin. Monywa is one of the largest economic cities in Myanmar.
It is also known as Neem city because many of the c ...
on the left bank. Its course at this point forms the boundary between the
Sagaing District
Sagaing District is an administrative district in southern Sagaing Division, Burma (Myanmar). of
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 ...
and the
Pakokku District
Pakokku District ( my, ပခုက္ကူခရိုင်, ; also Pagukku District) is a district of the Magway Division in central Burma (Myanmar). It is situated in northern part of Magwe Region. The administrative centre is the city of ...
of
Magway Region
Magway Region ( my, မကွေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Magway Division) is an administrative division in central Myanmar. It is the second largest of Myanmar's seven divisions, with an area of . Pa Del Dam (ပဒ� ...
.
It enters the
Ayeyarwady River (Irrawaddy) at about . The extreme outlets into the Ayeyarwady are about apart, the interval forming a succession of long, low, partially populated islands. The lowest
mouth of the Chindwin is, according to tradition, an artificial channel, cut by one of the kings of
Bagan (Pagan). It was choked up for centuries until 1824 when it was opened out by an exceptional flood. Satellite pictures show this lowest channel to be the widest one today.
Tributaries
#
Uyu River is the largest tributary joining the Chindwin river just below Homalin on the left. The famous
jade
Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group ...
mines at
Hpakant lie in the headwaters of the Uyu.
#
Myittha River, draining the Kale valley, joins on the right further downstream. The town of
Kalewa is on the left bank of their
confluence.
Towns
#
Hkamti
#
Htamanthi
#
Homalin
#
Mawlaik
#
Kalewa
#
Kalaymyo
Kalay ( my, ကလေး), also known as Kale, is a town in the Sagaing Region of Myanmar. It is located upstream from Mandalay and Monywa on the Myittha River, a tributary of the Chindwin River. The town is the district headquarters of the Kalay ...
#
Mingin
#
Monywa
Monywa (; ) is the largest city in Sagaing Region, Myanmar, located north-west of Mandalay on the eastern bank of the River Chindwin. Monywa is one of the largest economic cities in Myanmar.
It is also known as Neem city because many of the c ...
Environment
Much of Chindwin's course lies within mountain ranges and forests. Due to the difficulty of access, much of it remains unspoilt. The government of Burma recently created a very large (2,500 square mile) sanctuary for the endangered tiger within the Hukawng Valley.
History
The mountain ranges to the west of the Chindwin are formidable, yet not totally impregnable to armies. The Kabaw valley saw many an invasion by the kingdom of
Manipur
Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of ...
to the west, most notably during the reign of King
Garibaniwaj (1709–1748) when his army crossed over the Chindwin and the
Mu, took Myedu, and reached as far as Sagaing opposite the capital
Ava. The tables were turned in 1758 after King
Alaungpaya
Alaungpaya ( my, အလောင်းဘုရား, ; also spelled Alaunghpaya or Alaung-Phra; 11 May 1760) was the founder of the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma (Myanmar). By the time of his death from illness during his campaign in Siam, this f ...
ascended the Burmese throne. The Burmese army invaded and occupied
Manipur
Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of ...
and
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
marching across the western mountain ranges, and even encroached upon British India.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, when the
Japanese had cut off sea access, the British army and other allied forces under General
Joseph Stilwell
Joseph Warren "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell (March 19, 1883 – October 12, 1946) was a United States Army general who served in the China Burma India Theater during World War II. An early American popular hero of the war for leading a column walking ...
retreated on foot to India across the same mountains, with disastrous results, mainly due to disease and hunger. The
Ledo Road was built across the Hukawng valley to supply China. The Chindwin was a major barrier both for the Japanese trying to invade India and for the Allied forces to reoccupy Burma.
Ethnography and culture
The chindwin river has a great impact on the culture of western Burma.
[Andrew Hsiu which taken from a journal titled
"Morphological Evidence for a Central Branch of Trans-Himalayan (Sino-Tibetan)." by Scott DeLancey which was published on 2015] Central Sino-Tibetan (which includes Meithei) languages originated from valley areas of this river.
Economics
The Chindwin is served by regular river-going vessels up to the town of Homalin.
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 ( pan ...
forests within its drainage area have been a valuable resource since ancient times. The
Hukawng Valley
The Hukawng Valley ( my, ဟူးကောင်းချိုင့်ဝှမ်း; also spelt Hukaung Valley) is an isolated valley in Myanmar, roughly in area. It is located in Tanaing Township in the Myitkyina District of Kachin State ...
is known for its abundance of Burmese
amber
Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In M ...
. Along the river, there are deposits of
jade
Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group ...
, but
Hpakant in the headwaters of the Uyu river is the only place in the world where the finest jade - known as
jadeite or imperial jade - is found, along with an abundance of
fish
Fish are Aquatic animal, aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack Limb (anatomy), limbs with Digit (anatomy), digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous and bony fish as we ...
.
[
]
Notes
Bibliography
* J. G. Scott, ''Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States''. 5 vols. Rangoon, 1900–1901
External links
Rivers Network - Chindwin Blog
{{Authority control
Rivers of Myanmar