Nyaungshwe Township (; ) is a

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

Taunggyi District Taunggyi District ( my, တောင်ကြီးခရိုင်) is a district of Shan State in Burma. The principal town and administrative center is Taunggyi. This district has 12 towns and 3001 villages. Popular tourist sites, Inle Lake a ...

Shan State Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင်းတႆး, italics=no) also known by the Endonym and exonym, endonyms Shanland, Muang Tai, and Tailong, is a administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. ...

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 C. Wells, Joh ...

. It is located south of Sakangyi and south-west of

Taunggyi Taunggyi ( ; Shan: ; Pa'O: ) is the capital and largest city of Shan State, Myanmar (Burma) and lies on the Thazi-Kyaingtong road at an elevation of , just north of Shwenyaung and Inle Lake within the Myelat region. Taunggyi is the fifth lar ...

. The principal town is Nyaungshwe.

Inle Lake Inle Lake (, ), a freshwater lake located in the Nyaungshwe Township of Shan State, part of Shan Hills in Myanmar (Burma). It is the second largest lake in Myanmar with an estimated surface area of , and one of the highest at an elevation of . D ...

, a popular tourist destination and an inland freshwater lake, is located south of Nyaungshwe town. Part of

Inlay Lake Wetland Sanctuary , iucn_category = V , photo = Inlay Lake Biosphere Reserve.JPG , photo_caption = Entrance to the sanctuary , map = Myanmar , relief = 1 , map_alt = , map_caption = Location in Myanmar , map_width = , location = Nyaungsh ...

lies in Nyaungshwe,

Pinlaung Pinlaung is a town above sea level and seat of Pinlaung Township, in the Pa-O Self-Administered Zone of Shan State of eastern-central Burma. It lies along National Road 54, north-west by road from Loikaw. Running through the city center is a rai ...

and

Pekon Township Pekon Township (also spelled Pekhon, Phekhon, Pekong, Pecong, Pékon) is a township of Taunggyi District in the Shan State of Myanmar. The principal town is Pekon. Part of a popular tourist place and bird watching site, Inle Lake and Inlay Lake W ...

History

Nyaungshwe was formerly the capital of

Yawnghwe Yawnghwe ( shn, ယွင်ႈႁူၺ်ႈ), known as Nyaungshwe ( my, ညောင်ရွှေ) in Burmese, was a Shan state in what is today Myanmar. It was one of the most important of the Southern Shan States. Yawnghwe state include ...

, one of many Shan principalities in pre-colonial and colonial Burma (collectively called the

Shan States The Shan States (1885–1948) were a collection of minor Shan kingdoms called ''muang'' whose rulers bore the title ''saopha'' in British Burma. They were analogous to the princely states of British India. The term "Shan States" was firs ...

). Nyaungshwe is a

Burmese language Burmese ( my, မြန်မာဘာသာ, MLCTS: ''mranmabhasa'', IPA: ) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Myanmar (also known as Burma), where it is an official language, lingua franca, and the native language of the Burmans, the count ...

approximation of the Shan name, Yawnghwe ().

Nyaungshwe town

The town of Nyaungshwe comprises 8 wards, namely Kantha, Thasi, Nandawun, Myole, Win, Nangpang, Mingala, and Maineli. Nyaungshwe is the

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mo ...

hub for visiting

and

. It consists of one main thoroughfare with numerous side streets and a few parallel roads. The main street has numerous shops, several restaurants, a few stupas, travel agencies and a market (located behind the storefronts). Near the end of this road, a bridge crosses the river channel near an impressive mirror-tiled

stupa A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation. In Buddhism, circumamb ...

. The town serves as a marina for the numerous long boats carrying tourists into the lake. The lake itself is located a few kilometers south through a river channel. Nyaungshwe can be reached by

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...

, or by

plane Plane(s) most often refers to: * Aero- or airplane, a powered, fixed-wing aircraft * Plane (geometry), a flat, 2-dimensional surface Plane or planes may also refer to: Biology * Plane (tree) or ''Platanus'', wetland native plant * ''Planes' ...

via the airport in

Heho Heho ( my, ဟဲဟိုး) is a small town in Kalaw Township, Taunggyi District, Shan State of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is the primary air gateway to tourist areas such as Inle Lake. Heho is connected by NH4 to Sakangyi and Taunggyi, th ...

, located about a one-hour drive away. Nearby in

Shwenyaung Shwe Nyaung is located in southern Shan state of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is near Taunggyi Taunggyi ( ; Shan: ; Pa'O: ) is the capital and largest city of Shan State, Myanmar (Burma) and lies on the Thazi-Kyaingtong road at an elevation o ...

there is a train station with services to the mainline at Thazi, where connections to Yangon and Mandalay exist.

Demographics

2014

The

2014 Myanmar Census Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unrele ...

reported that Nyaungshwe Township had a population of 189,407. 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 130.3 people per km². The census reported that the median age was 26.7 years, and 100 males per 100 females. There were 42,634 households; the mean household size was 4.2.

Attractions

Nyaungshwe Township is home to

and

, including the village of Ywama, which is home to a floating market. In addition, Nyaungshwe Township has several cultural attractions, including: * Shwe Yaunghwe Kyaung, a wooden monastery dating to the 19th century * Yadana Man Aung Pagoda * Bawrithat Pagoda, founded by

Anawrahta Anawrahta Minsaw ( my, အနော်ရထာ မင်းစော, ; 11 May 1014 – 11 April 1077) was the founder of the Pagan Empire. Considered the father of the Burmese nation, Anawrahta turned a small principality in the dry zone ...

* Museum of Shan Sawbwa.

References

External links

Satellite map at Maplandia.com
Townships of Shan State {{Shan-geo-stub