Pyin Oo Lwin or Pyin U Lwin (, ;
Shan: ), formerly and colloquially referred to as Maymyo (), is a scenic hill town in the
Mandalay Region
Mandalay Region ( my, မန္တလေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Mandalay Division) is an administrative division of Myanmar. It is located in the center of the country, bordering Sagaing Region and Magway Region t ...
,
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 ...
, some east of
Mandalay, and at an elevation of . The town was estimated to have a population of around 255,000 in 2014.
Etymology
*
*Pyin Oo Lwin (ပြင်ဦးလွင်)
*Maymyo (မေမြို့)
*
*Taung Hlay Khar (တောင်လှေခါး) ('hillside stairs')
*Taung Sa Kan (တောင်စခန်း) ('hill station') and the best-known name, Pan Myo Taw ('city of flowers)
* Remyo (historically)
History
The town began as a military outpost established near a small
Shan village with two dozen households
on the
Lashio
Lashio ( ; Shan: ) is the largest town in northern Shan State, Myanmar, about north-east of Mandalay. It is situated on a low mountain spur overlooking the valley of the Yaw River. Loi Leng, the highest mountain of the Shan Hills, is located ...
-
Mandalay trail between
Nawnghkio
Nawnghkio, variously spelt Naunghkio, Naungcho or Nawngcho, is a town in Kyaukme District, in northern Shan State, Burma. It is the principal town and administrative seat of Nawnghkio Township. It is connected to Mandalay, Pyin U Lwin, Kyaukme, ...
and
Mandalay. In 1897, a permanent military post was established in the town and later, because of its climate, it became a
hill station and the summer capital of British Burma. The establishment in Burma (civil, commercial and military) would move to Maymyo during the hot season to escape from Rangoon's high heat and humidity. During British rule and through the 1970s, Maymyo had a large
Anglo-Burmese population, but this steadily declined. During the Japanese occupation, as many Anglos were concentrated in and around Maymyo, the Japanese incarcerated many of them for fear of their loyalty to the British very close to Maymyo. Today, Maymyo still has one of the country's larger populations of
Anglo-Burmese. The
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
named the location Maymyo, literally 'May's Town' in
Burmese, after
Colonel May, a veteran of the
Indian Rebellion of 1857
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...
and commander of the
Bengal Regiment
The regiments of Bengal Native Infantry, alongside the regiments of Bengal European Infantry, were the regular infantry components of the East India Company's Bengal Army from the raising of the first Native battalion in 1757 to the passing int ...
temporarily stationed in the town in 1887.
[ The military government of Burma renamed the town Pyin U Lwin, the word-for-word Burmese transcription of the Shan "City (ဝဵင်း, ''Weng⁴'') of Paang²uu⁴ (ပၢင်ႇဢူး)".
The area is also the site of the decisive battle of Maymyo where the Burmese royal army under Maha Thiha Thura defeated the Chinese Army in the third invasion during the Sino-Burmese War of 1765–1769.
]
Demographics
The town has approximately 10,000 India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n and 8,000 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 ...
inhabitants who settled in Maymyo during British rule. Today, Pyin Oo Lwin has a thriving Eurasian community, consisting mostly of Anglo-Burmese and Anglo-Indians. There is also a diverse mix of Chinese, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Shan, Bamars (Burmese) and communities.
Educational institutions
Maymyo was an important educational centre during colonial times, with the GEHSs (Government English High Schools), such as St. Mary's, St. Michael's, St. Albert's, St. Joseph's Convent, and Colgate, are all based in the town. British settlers and colonial administrators sent their children to be educated here, both European and Anglo-Burmese children. The town was also the location of the various schools of military education open to all ethnicities.
It is today home to the Defence Services Academy (DSA) and the Defence Services Technological Academy (DSTA). There is a large military presence in the town.
Nowadays private schools such as Soe San, Sar Pan Eain, Genius and others are thriving. The Mandalay Region Private Schools Association is the country's most dynamic and forward-looking group in this sector.
On the map of HQ Fourteenth Army in March 1945, there was the Government Anglo Vernacular school beside the police station. It is near the railway station. You can see the map at the Royal Park View hotel in Pyin Oo Lwin at present(2020).
Economy
Sweater knitting, flower and vegetable gardens, strawberry and pineapple
The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centuri ...
orchards, coffee plantations and cow rearing are the main local businesses. There has been an influx of Chinese immigrants (especially from Yunnan
Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...
) in recent years. The city is a resort town for visitors from Myanmar's major cities during the summertime and a popular stop for foreign tourists during the winter season.
Established in 1915, the National Botanical Gardens and the adjacent Pyin Oo Lwin Nursery are attractions of Pyin Oo Lwin. A orchid
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant.
Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowerin ...
garden is planned for 2007.
Today, Pyin Oo Lwin is noted as four centres of national economic importance. It is the centre of sericulture
Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, '' Bombyx mori'' (the caterpillar of the domestic silkmoth) is the most widely used and intensively stud ...
( silkworm rearing). The Sericulture Research Centre, near the National Kandawgyi Botanical Gardens, has three distinct roles: the intensive planting and harvesting of mulberry trees
''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of diverse species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 identif ...
(leaves for the silkworms, bark for handmade paper), the rearing of silkworms, and the reeling of the silk from the cocoons. It has a large research centre for indigenous medicinal plants. It has one of the country's few pharmaceutical
A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field an ...
production facilities.
Pyin Oo Lwin is the centre of the country's flower and vegetable production. The most important flowers grown intensively are chrysanthemum, aster and gladiolus
''Gladiolus'' (from Latin, the diminutive of ''gladius'', a sword) is a genus of perennial cormous flowering plants in the iris family (Iridaceae).
It is sometimes called the 'sword lily', but is usually called by its generic name (plural ''g ...
, which are exported to every corner of Myanmar throughout the year. Lastly, Pyin Oo Lwin is the centre of Myanmar's rapidly growing coffee industry. Several factories in the town process coffee beans for country-wide distribution and export.
Notable people
* Eric Arthur Blair better known by his pen name George Orwell Author, stationed in Maymyo 1922-1927
* Alan Basil de Lastic (24 September 1929 – 20 June 2000), prominent Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
(Latin Rite) clergyman in India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
*Haji U Thein - Chairman, Islamic Religious Affairs Council of Myanmar
*Hteit Tin Ma Latt - a grandchild of Prince Kanaung
* Prince Taw Phaya (22 March 1924 – 12 January 2019) - the oldest grandson of King Thibaw Min, the last King of Burma.
*Thakhin Ohn Pe
*Ma Chit Po
Thura Ma Chit Po ( my, သူရ မချစ်ပို; February 1908 – 8 April 1949) was a Burmese woman who was the one and only civilian woman to have received the Thura medal for bravery. She gathered intelligence on the Karen National ...
(February 1908 – 8 April 1949), the only woman to be awarded the Thura Medal
* B. G. Verghese (21 June 1926 - 30 December 2014) was a senior Indian journalist born in Maymyo. He was editor of leading newspapers the Hindustan Times
''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia.
It was founded by Sunder Singh Ly ...
(1969–75) and The Indian Express
''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split be ...
(1982–86). In 1975, he received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for his outstanding contribution to journalism. After 1986, he was associated with the New Delhi think-tank Centre for Policy Research.
References
External links
*
Pyin Oo Lwin: Myanmar's Highland City of Flowers
pyinoolwin.info
"Maymyo, Burma"
Maplandia.com
{{Authority control
Populated places in Mandalay Region
Hill stations in Myanmar
Township capitals of Myanmar
Shan Hills