Mogok (, ;
Shan: , ) is a town in the
Thabeikkyin District
Thabeikkyin District ( my, သပိတ်ကျင်း ခရိုင်) is the district of Mandalay Region, Myanmar. It's principal town is Thabeikkyin.
__TOC__ Townships
The townships, cities, towns that are included in Thabeikkyin Distric ...
of Mandalay Region of
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 ...
, located north of
Mandalay and north-east of
Shwebo
Shwebo ( my, ရွှေဘိုမြို့ ) is a city in Sagaing Region, Burma, 110 km north-west of Mandalay between the Irawaddy River, Irrawaddy and the Mu River, Mu rivers. The city was the origin of the Konbaung Dynasty, establi ...
.
History
Mogok is believed to have been founded in 1217 by three lost Shan hunters who discovered rubies at the base of a collapsed mountain.
According to the tale, the hunters returned to their home in
Momeik
Momeik ( my, မိုးမိတ်), also known as Mong Mit (Shan language, Shan: ) in Shan language, Shan, is a town situated on the Shweli River in northern Shan State of Myanmar (Burma).
Transport
It is connected by road to Mogok and its r ...
and offered the precious stones to the local
saopha
Chao-Pha (; Tai Ahom: 𑜋𑜧𑜨 𑜇𑜡, th, เจ้าฟ้า}, shn, ၸဝ်ႈၾႃႉ, translit=Jao3 Fa5 Jao3 Fa5, my, စော်ဘွား ''Sawbwa,'' ) was a royal title used by the hereditary rulers of the Tai peoples of ...
who established a village in what would become modern-day Mogok.
Following the 1885
Third Anglo-Burmese War
The Third Anglo-Burmese War ( my, တတိယ အင်္ဂလိပ် – မြန်မာစစ်, Tatiya Anggalip–Mran cac), also known as the Third Burma War, took place during 7–29 November 1885, with sporadic resistance conti ...
in which the British conquered and annexed the hitherto independent
Upper Burma
Upper Myanmar ( my, အထက်မြန်မာပြည်, also called Upper Burma) is a geographic region of Myanmar, traditionally encompassing Mandalay and its periphery (modern Mandalay, Sagaing, Magway Regions), or more broadly speak ...
, in 1886 the British launched a military expedition to "open up" the ruby mines at Mogok and make them available to British merchants. George Skelton Streeter, a gem expert and son of Edmund Streeter of the Streeters & Co Ltd jewllery company in London, accompanied the expedition and stayed there to work as a government valuer in the British-run mines.
In 2018, the Mogok commemorated the 800th anniversary of the city's founding.
Geography
At in elevation, the city has a fairly
temperate climate
In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout ...
year-round, and is home to
Bamar
The Bamar (, ; also known as the Burmans) are a Sino-Tibetan ethnic group native to Myanmar (formerly Burma) in Southeast Asia. With approximately 35 million people, the Bamar make up the largest ethnic group in Myanmar, constituting 68% of th ...
,
Shan,
Lisu Lisu may refer to:
*Lisu people, an ethnic group of Southeast Asia
*Lisu language, spoken by the Lisu people
* Old Lisu Alphabet or Fraser Alphabet
*Lisu syllabary
* Lisu (Unicode block), the block of Unicode characters for the Lisu language.
*Lisu ...
,
Palaung, and
Karen
Karen may refer to:
* Karen (name), a given name and surname
* Karen (slang), a term and meme for a demanding woman displaying certain behaviors
People
* Karen people, an ethnic group in Myanmar and Thailand
** Karen languages or Karenic l ...
ethnic groups
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
, as well as
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
,
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
s and
Gurkha
The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (), with endonym Gorkhali ), are soldiers native to the Indian subcontinent, Indian Subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of Northeast India.
The Gurkha units are composed of Nepalis and Indian Go ...
s.
The city is composed of two towns, Mogok and Kyat Pyin. Mogok is four miles long and two miles wide. It is situated in a valley surrounded by a large number of mountains. Kyatpyin lies about southwest of Mogok. Tourists that travel to this area need a special authorization and a guide person.
Climate
In contrast to the hot to sweltering,
semi-arid
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi- ...
Dry Zone, Mogok has a borderline
humid subtropical
A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
''Cwa'')/
subtropical highland climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...
(''Cwb'') characterised by a warm
dry season
The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...
with cold mornings from mid-November to mid-April, and a very warm and extremely rainy
wet season
The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...
akin to that of
Kachin State, only less extreme in heat discomfort, from mid-April to mid-November. The annual rainfall of around is comparable to that of
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 ...
and three times that of Mandalay.
Economy
Mogok and other villages nearby have been famous since ancient times for its gemstones, especially
ruby
A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called ...
and
sapphire
Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. The name sapphire is derived via the Latin "sa ...
, but
semi-precious stone
A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, a ...
s such as
spinel,
lapis lazuli,
garnet
Garnets () are a group of silicate minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives.
All species of garnets possess similar physical properties and crystal forms, but differ in chemical composition. The different s ...
,
moonstone,
peridot and
chrysoberyl
The mineral or gemstone chrysoberyl is an aluminate of beryllium with the formula Be Al2 O4. The name chrysoberyl is derived from the Greek words χρυσός ''chrysos'' and βήρυλλος ''beryllos'', meaning "a gold-white spar". Despite ...
are also found. The gems are found in
alluvial
Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. All ...
marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...
gravels by means of
panning,
tunnel
A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...
ing and digging pits by hand. There is little mechanization of the mining. The gravels derive from the metamorphosed limestones (marbles) of the Mogok metamorphic belt.
[Iyer, Lakshinarayanpuran Anantkrishna Narayana (1953) ''The geology and gem-stones of the Mogok Stone Tract, Burma'' Geological Survey of India Memoir 82, Government of India Press, Calcutta]
OCLC 6526679
reprinted in 2007 by White Lotus, Bangkok,
Gems are sold in
market
Market is a term used to describe concepts such as:
*Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand
*Market economy
*Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market
Geography
*Märket, an ...
s in Mogok; however, foreigners require special permits to visit the town, and it is illegal to purchase/
export
An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is an ...
gems from Myanmar other than from government licensed dealers.
90% of a certain version of the world's
rubies
A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sap ...
come from Myanmar (Burma). There are many other ruby sources in the world such as Sri Lanka and various places in Africa. Only in terms of quality Mogok rubies are best. The red stones from there are prized for their purity and
hue
In color theory, hue is one of the main properties (called color appearance parameters) of a color, defined technically in the CIECAM02 model as "the degree to which a stimulus can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that ...
.
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
buys the majority of Myanmar's
gems
Gems, or gemstones, are polished, cut stones or minerals.
Gems or GEMS may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Gems'' (Aerosmith album), 1988
* ''Gems'' (Patti LaBelle album), 1994
* ''Gems'' (Michael Bolton album), 2011
* Gems TV, ...
. The "''Valley of Rubies''", the mountainous Mogok area, north of
Mandalay, is noted as the original source of ruby including the world's finest "pigeon's blood" rubies as well as the world's most beautiful sapphires in "royal" blue.
Health care
* Mogok General Hospital
*Kyatpyin General hospital
Notes
{{Authority control
Mogok Township
Township capitals of Myanmar
Populated places in Pyin Oo Lwin District