Dagon Township ( my, ဒဂုံ မြို့နယ် ) is located immediately north of downtown

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

. The township comprises five wards, and shares borders with

Bahan Township Bahan Township ( my, ဗဟန်း မြို့နယ်, ) is located in the north central part of Yangon. The township comprises 22 wards, and shares borders with Yankin Township and Mayangon Township in the north, Sanchaung Township and ...

in the north, Ahlon Township in the west,

Mingala Taungnyunt Township Mingala Taungnyunt Township ( my, မင်္ဂလာ‌တောင်ညွန့် မြို့နယ် ; also spelled Mingalar Taung Nyunt) is a township of Yangon, Myanmar. Located in the east-central part of the city, the township co ...

in the east, and

Lanmadaw Township Lanmadaw Township ( my, လမ်းမတော် မြို့နယ်; MLCTS=lam: ma. taw mrui. nai; ) is located in the western part of downtown Yangon, and shares borders with Ahlon Township in the west, Latha Township in the east, Seik ...

Latha Township Latha Township ( my, လသာ မြို့နယ်, ) is located in the western part of downtown Yangon, and shares borders with Lanmadaw township in the west, Pabedan township in the east, Seikkan township and Yangon river The Yangon Ri ...

and

Pabedan Township Pabedan Township ( my, ပန်းဘဲတန်း မြို့နယ်, ) is located in the center of downtown Yangon, Myanmar. The township is home to Bogyoke Aung San Market and Theingyi Market, two of the largest shopping centers in a ...

in the south. Dagon is home to some of the most prominent places of the city, including the great

Shwedagon Pagoda The Shwedagon Pagoda (, ); mnw, ကျာ်ဒဂုၚ်; officially named ''Shwedagon Zedi Daw'' ( my, ရွှေတိဂုံစေတီတော်, , ) and also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda and the Golden Pagoda is a gilded stupa ...

, the

Maha Wizaya Pagoda The Maha Wizaya Pagoda ( my, မဟာဝိဇယစေတီ; pi, Māhavijayacetiya) is a pagoda located on Shwedagon Pagoda Road in Dagon Township, Yangon, Myanmar. The pagoda, built in 1980, is located immediately south of the Shwedagon Pag ...

, the

National Museum A national museum is a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In other countries a much greater numb ...

, the National Theatre and the

Yangon Region Hluttaw Yangon Region Hluttaw ( my, ရန်ကုန်တိုင်းဒေသကြီးလွှတ်တော်) is the legislature of the Burmese region of Yangon Region. It is a unicameral body, consisting of 123 members, including 92 electe ...

(Parliament). This prosperous neighborhood has many hotels, embassies and diplomatic residences. The township's Dagon 1 High School and Dagon 2 High School are considered among the top public high schools in the country. On 6 February 2011, the Taw Win Centre, a major shopping and residential complex, was opened in the township. Construction on the 25-story complex began in 2004, but was stopped during the country's banking crisis, before resuming in March 2008. The country's first 3D movie theater opened at the Taw Win Centre on 1 March 2012. In June 2011, the

Sitagu Sayadaw Ashin Nyanissara ( my, ဉာဏိဿရ; ) best known as Sitagu Sayadaw (), is a Burmese meditation teacher and prolific Buddhist scholar. He is also the founder of Sitagu International Buddhist Academy. His work as a teacher began in 1977 a ...

opened the Yangon campus of the Sitagu International Buddhist Academy in Dagon Township.

History

Dagon ( mnw, လဂုင် ) was a small fishing village founded by the Mon in the 6th century, CE, around the Shwedagon Pagoda. Throughout much of the history, the village was just in the periphery of

Thanlyin Thanlyin (; or ; mnw, သေၚ်, ; formerly Syriam) is a major port city of Myanmar, located across Bago River from the city of Yangon. Thanlyin Township comprises 17 quarters and 28 village tracts. It is home to the largest port in the cou ...

(Syriam), the commercial city located across the

Yangon river The Yangon River (also known as the Rangoon River or Hlaing River) is formed by the confluence of the Pegu and Myitmaka Rivers in Myanmar. It is a marine estuary that runs from Yangon (also known as Rangoon) to the Gulf of Martaban of the Andaman ...

. Still, because of the pagoda, Dagon's cultural significance was far greater than its size. In 1755, 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 ...

captured the village, renamed it Yangon (most commonly translated as "End of Strife"), and founded a larger city by adding settlements such as Ahlon, Pabedan, Kyauktada, and Botataung. During the British colonial period, Dagon was mostly a prosperous neighborhood, though the areas closer to downtown were full of

squatters Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

. Dagon boasted both the Methodist English High School, one of the top English-language medium schools and the nationalist Burmese language medium high school, Myoma High School. In the 1950s, the Burmese government cleared the squatters in the southern part of the township, and built the Minmanaing Housing Project for senior civil servants. Dagon gained another prominent pagoda in the 1980s, when Gen. Ne Win commissioned the

. Dagon Town was designated a township in 1971.

Demographics

2014

The 2014 Myanmar Census reported that Dagon Township had a population of 25,082. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

was 5,370.8 people per km². The census reported that the median age was 30.4 years, and a

sex ratio The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. Many species devia ...

of 90 males per 100 females. There were 4,608 households; the median household size was 4.4.

Landmarks

The following landmarks in Dagon township are protected by the city.

References

{{Administrative divisions of Burma (Myanmar) Townships of Yangon Populated places established in the 6th century