Pakokku ( my, ပခုက္ကူမြို့, ) is the largest city in the

Magway Region Magway Region ( my, မကွေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Magway Division) is an administrative divisions of Myanmar, administrative division in central Myanmar. It is the second largest of Myanmar's seven divisions, ...

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 situated about 30 km north-east of

Bagan Bagan (, ; formerly Pagan) is an ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Bagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that wou ...

on the

Irrawaddy River The Irrawaddy River ( Ayeyarwady River; , , from Indic ''revatī'', meaning "abounding in riches") is a river that flows from north to south through Myanmar (Burma). It is the country's largest river and most important commercial waterway. Origi ...

. It is the administration seat of

Pakokku Township Pakokku Township ( my, ပခုက္ကူ မြို့နယ်) is a township of Pakokku District in Magway Division of Burma (Myanmar). The principal town and administrative seat is Pakokku. The township has its eastern and southeastern bo ...

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 ...

and

Gangaw District Gangaw District ( my, ဂန့်ဂေါ ခရိုင်, ) is a district of the Magway Division in central Myanmar. Pakokku is the capital city of Pakokku District and Gangaw District. In 1926, it became a part of Pakokku Hill Tracts Dist ...

Pakokku Bridge Pakokku Bridge is a rail and road bridge across the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar's Pakokku town. The main bridge is long with the motorway measuring and the railroad measuring . The bridge is part of the India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral High ...

is part of the

India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway (IMT Highway), long route, is a highway under upgrade under India's Look East policy that will connect Moreh, India with Mae Sot, Thailand via Myanmar. Imphal-Mandalay-Bangkok route, consisting of I ...

and is the longest bridge in Myanmar. It is home of the

Pakokku Airport Pakokku Airport is an airport in Pakokku, Myanmar, administered by the Ministry of Transportation. It is a regional airport in Magway Division. Due to its proximity to Bagan, a UNESCO World Heritage site A World Heritage Site is a landmark ...

. The city is the location of

Computer University, Pakokku University of Computer Studies (Pakokku) (formerly Computer University (Pakokku), Government Computer College (Pakokku)) is a public undergraduate university located in Pakokku, Magway Region, Myanmar. Students study various computer disciplines ...

, Pakokku Education College,

Technological University, Pakokku Technological University, Pakokku is situated beside the Pakokku–Yesagyo road. It is about 8 miles and 4 furlongs far from Pakokku. Kyauk Hlae Khar village is situated to the north, Pantinechone village at the south and Oakkan village at the we ...

, and

Pakokku University Pakokku University is a public university located in Pakokku, Magway Region, central Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although ...

. Thiho Shin Pagoda (The Lord of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Pagoda), Shwe Ku Pagoda, Shwe Mothtaw Pagoda, Shwe Tant Tit, and Phaung Taw Oo Pagoda are famous pagodas in Pakokku. Pakokku is also the largest rice market city of Upper Myanmar.

History

Before British occupation, Pakokku was a small village and part of both Pakhangyi and Bagan districts. The British occupied

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 ...

on 29 November 1885. On 1 December 1887, British India Government established Pakokku Municipal. On 21 December 1887, British India government ordered Pakokku as a town of Pakhangyi District with the population of 1,985. By the order degree (201) of British Government, Pakhangyi District was abolished and

was established on 21 July 1888. In 1901,the population of Pakokku was 19,456. During 13 years, Pakokku's population and developments were increased rapidly. In 1896, Pakokku became a capital city of Pakokku Hill Tracts Districts. The area under its administration included

Chin State Chin State (, ) is a state in western Myanmar. The Chin State is bordered by Sagaing Division and Magway Division to the east, Rakhine State to the south, Bangladesh to the south-west, and the Indian states of Mizoram to the west and Manipur t ...

outside

Paletwa Paletwa (, ) is one of the westernmost towns of Myanmar, in Chin State 18 kilometres from the border with Bangladesh. Its population in 2014 was about 97,000. Demographics Rakhine is the Lingua Franca of the region, while Kuki-Chin languages a ...

township,

Naga Self-Administered Zone The Naga Self-Administered Zone ( my, နာဂကိုယ်ပိုင်အုပ်ချုပ်ခွင့်ရဒေသ ), is a self-administered zone in the Naga Hills area of Sagaing Region of Myanmar. Its administrative seat is ...

Nagaland Nagaland () is a landlocked state in the northeastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south and the Sagaing Region of Myanmar to the east. Its capital cit ...

Mizoram Mizoram () is a state in Northeast India, with Aizawl as its seat of government and capital city. The name of the state is derived from "Mizo people, Mizo", the endonym, self-described name of the native inhabitants, and "Ram", which in the Mizo ...

Tripura Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east a ...

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 Myanm ...

and

Meghalaya Meghalaya (, or , meaning "abode of clouds"; from Sanskrit , "cloud" + , "abode") is a states and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the state of As ...

outside

Shillong Shillong () is a hill station and the capital of Meghalaya, a Indian state, state in northeastern India, which means "The Abode of Clouds". It is the headquarters of the East Khasi Hills district. Shillong is the list of most populous cities in ...

township. In the early months of 1930, political speeches for Burma's colonial separation from British India were held in Shwegu Pagoda. U Lwin was appointed a new mayor of Pakokku on 7 November 1930. Pakokku Municipal election was held on 10 December 1930. In the early morning of 22 March 1931, heavy fire burned in Pakokku and more than 3,000 people were homeless, so Pakokku Fire Brigade was established on 7 April 1931. When Burma won independence in 1948, Pakokku Hill Tracts Districts was divided into two sections.

and

became parts of Burma and

and

became a parts of

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 ...

. By the 1947 Constitution of the Union of Burma, Pakokku Province was established with two districts in 1948. They are

and Kanpetlet District with 11 townships. Townships are Pakokku, Kanpetlet, Yesagyo,

Pauk Pauk may refer to: People * Alex Pauk (born 1945), Canadian conductor and composer * Goran Pauk (born 1962), Croatian politician * György Pauk (born 1936), Hungarian violinist * Ke Pauk (1934–2002), Cambodian communist * Paul Pauk (1912–1 ...

Seikphyu Seikphyu ( my, ဆိပ်ဖြူ) is the principal town and administrative seat for Seikphyu Township in Pakokku District in the Magway Division of Myanmar, on the right (western) bank of the Irrawaddy immediately below its confluence with th ...

, Myaing,

Gangaw Gangaw ( my, ဂန့်ဂေါမြို့, ) is a town of Gangaw Township in Gangaw District in the Magway Division in Myanmar. Gangaw is also known as the City of Yaw, a certain region in Myanmar including Gangaw (), Tilin (), Saw () an ...

Htilin Htilin ( my, ထီးလင်းမြို့, ; also spelt as Htilim
GeoNames or Htilin) is a town in Saw A saw is a tool consisting of a tough blade, wire, or chain with a hard toothed edge. It is used to cut through material, very often wood, though sometimes metal or stone. The cut is made by placing the toothed edge against the material and mo ...

Mindat Mindat may refer to: Places in Burma/Myanmar *Mindat, Chin State, in Burma *Mindat Township, in Burma *Mindat District in Chin State, Burma Other uses *Mindat Min Kanaung Mintha ( my, ကနောင်မင်းသား; 31 January 1820 � ...

and Matupi. Pakokku was occupied by Communist rebels in 1949 and held until 1955, when it was liberated by government forces. In 1958,the name of Kanpetlet District was changed into Mindat District and Kanpetlet District's Capital was moved to

from Kanpetlet. Province's Capital city was Pakokku. On 2 March 1962, the military led by General Ne Win took control of Burma through a coup d'état, and the government has been under direct or indirect control by the military. A new constitution of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma was adopted in 1974. By the 1974 Constitution, Pakokku Province was abolished and

was added to the

Magway Division Magway Region ( my, မကွေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Magway Division) is an administrative divisions of Myanmar, administrative division in central Myanmar. It is the second largest of Myanmar's seven divisions, ...

and Mindat District was added to the

. On 4 April 1998,

was divided into two districts. Pakokku,

, Yesagyo, Myaing and

became

and

Saw A saw is a tool consisting of a tough blade, wire, or chain with a hard toothed edge. It is used to cut through material, very often wood, though sometimes metal or stone. The cut is made by placing the toothed edge against the material and mo ...

and

Htilin Htilin ( my, ထီးလင်းမြို့, ; also spelt as Htilim
GeoNames or Htilin) is a town in Gangaw District Gangaw District ( my, ဂန့်ဂေါ ခရိုင်, ) is a district of the Magway Division in central Myanmar. Pakokku is the capital city of Pakokku District and Gangaw District. In 1926, it became a part of Pakokku Hill Tracts Dist ...

construction was started on 15 December 2009 and ended on 31 December 2011. It was opened on 1 January 2012, and is the longest bridge in

Notable Places

Thihoshin Pagoda Thihoshin Pagoda ( my, သီဟိုဠ်ရှင်စေတီ) is a famous Buddhist pagoda in Pakokku, Magway Region, Myanmar. The pagoda was built 800 years ago by King Alaungsithu. It was offered by King Vijayabahu I(Ashoka Rama), king ...

Climate

Located in the powerful

rain shadow A rain shadow is an area of significantly reduced rainfall behind a mountainous region, on the side facing away from prevailing winds, known as its leeward side. Evaporated moisture from water bodies (such as oceans and large lakes) is carrie ...

of the

Arakan Mountains The Arakan Mountains ( my, ရခိုင်ရိုးမ), also known as the Rakhine Yoma, are a mountain range in western Myanmar, between the coast of Rakhine State and the Central Myanmar Basin, in which flows the Irrawaddy River. It is th ...

, Pakokku has a

hot semi-arid climate 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-ar ...

( Köppen ''BSh''), receiving only about two-fifteenths as much rain as Sittwe at the same latitude on the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...

coast. Unlike most monsoonal semi-arid climates, the rainy season is relatively long at around five to six months, while variability and extreme monthly and daily rainfalls are much lower than usual with this type of climate.

Transport

Pakokku's strategic location in Central Myanmar makes it an important hub for transport of people and goods. The city is connected to other parts of the country and to China, Thailand and India by multiple modes of transportation.

Air

River

The

irrawaddy River The Irrawaddy River ( Ayeyarwady River; , , from Indic ''revatī'', meaning "abounding in riches") is a river that flows from north to south through Myanmar (Burma). It is the country's largest river and most important commercial waterway. Origi ...

remains an important arterial route for transporting goods such as farm produce including rice, beans and pulses, cooking oil, pottery, bamboo and teak. Pakokku river port is one of the most important ports, the third largest port in

after Yangon port and Mandalay port. Pakokku port is a major port of

Rail

Division 10 Pakokku
/ref> Pakokku Railway Station is the terminus of Myanmar Railways's main rail line from

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 the starting point of branch lines to

Pyin U Lwin Pyin Oo Lwin or Pyin U Lwin (, ; Shan: ), formerly and colloquially referred to as Maymyo (), is a scenic hill town in the Mandalay Region, Myanmar, some east of Mandalay, and at an elevation of . The town was estimated to have a population of ...

(Maymyo),

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 cit ...

Mandalay Mandalay ( or ; ) is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631km (392 miles) (Road Distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census). Mandalay was fo ...

Kalay 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 ...

, and to the south,

, Minbu, Thayet,

Pyay Pyay (, ; mnw, ပြန် , ; also known as Prome and Pyè) is principal town of Pyay Township in the Bago Region in Myanmar. Pyay is located on the bank of the Irrawaddy River, north-west of Yangon. It is an important trade center for the Aye ...

and Kyangin.Pakokku Railway Station is the major Railway Station of Magwe Division. Pakokku does not have an intra-city metro rail system.

Roads

Pakokku is a part of Myanmar's road network. The highway network includes roads towards: * Upper Burma and China— Pakokku— Myingyan-

Tagaung Tagaung is a town in Mandalay Region of Myanmar (Burma). It is situated on the east bank of the Ayeyarwady River, 127 miles north of Mandalay. Etymology "Tagaung" derives from the Shan language term "Takawng" ( shn, တႃႈၵွင်; ), whic ...

– Bhamo– Myitkyina Road, Pakokku- Chaung Oo- Sagaing-

Road, Pakokku-

– Lashio–

Muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

Road (part of

Asian Highway The Asian Highway Network (AH), also known as the Great Asian Highway, is a cooperative project among countries in Asia and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) to improve their connectivity via hig ...

) * Western Burma and India— Pakokku-

Htilin Htilin ( my, ထီးလင်းမြို့, ; also spelt as Htilim
GeoNames or Htilin) is a town in Gangaw Gangaw ( my, ဂန့်ဂေါမြို့, ) is a town of Gangaw Township in Gangaw District in the Magway Division in Myanmar. Gangaw is also known as the City of Yaw, a certain region in Myanmar including Gangaw (), Tilin (), Saw () an ...

Kale Kale (), or leaf cabbage, belongs to a group of cabbage (''Brassica oleracea'') cultivars grown for their edible leaves, although some are used as ornamentals. Kale plants have green or purple leaves, and the central leaves do not form a head ...

Tamu Tamu may refer to: * Texas A&M University or TAMU * Tamu, Myanmar ** Tamu District, Myanmar ** Tamu Township * Ta'mu, rice cooked in woven coconut leaves from the Philippines * Tamu Massif, an inactive underwater volcano in the Pacific * '' Helio ...

Road, Pakokku-

Kyaukhtu Kyaukhtu or Kyaukhtu is a small town in Saw Township, Magway Region, Myanmar near the Chin Hills. Kyauktu (Kyaukhtu) is the second largest town in Saw Township. Kyaukhtu area is known as part of Southern Yaw by local people. It is like a gateway c ...

- Matupi Road, Pakokku— Chaung Oo–

– Kalewa–

Road (part of

) * Lower Burma and Thailand— Pakokku- Nyaung-Oo- Chauk-

Bago Bago may refer to: Places Myanmar * Bago, Myanmar, a city and the capital of the Bago Region * Bago District, a district of the Bago Region * Bago Region an administrative region * Bago River, a river * Bago Yoma or Pegu Range, a mountain range ...

Road, Pakokku-

Meiktila Meiktila (; ) is a city in central Burma on the banks of Meiktila Lake in the Mandalay Region at the junctions of the Bagan-Taunggyi, Yangon-Mandalay and Meiktila-Myingyan highways. Because of its strategic position, Meiktila is home to Myanmar Ai ...

–

Nay Pyi Taw Naypyidaw, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw (; ), is the capital and third-largest city of Myanmar. The city is located at the centre of the Naypyidaw Union Territory. It is unusual among Myanmar's cities, as it is an entirely planned city out ...

–

Thaton Thaton (; mnw, သဓီု ) is a town in Mon State, in southern Myanmar on the Tenasserim plains. Thaton lies along the National Highway 8 and is also connected by the National Road 85. It is 230 km south east of Yangon and 70 km n ...

– Hpa-an –

Kawkareik Kawkareik (; my, ကော့ကရိတ်, ; ksw, ဒူဖျၢ်ယၢ်ဝ့ၢ်ဖိ) also spelled as Kawkarike, is a town in Karen State, Myanmar. It is the capital of Kawkaraik District and Kawkaraik Township. History The K ...

– Myawaddy Road (part of

) Most stretches of these highways are one-lane roads in poor condition.

is part of the

and is the longest bridge in Myanmar. IRRAWADDY FERRY JOURNEY RAILWAY BRIDGE NEAR BAGAN STEAMING TO MANDALAY MYANMA FEB2013

Education

List of universities and colleges in Pakokku

*Pakokku Teacher Training Degree College (Pakokku Education Degree College) *

*Nursing College, Pakokku *East Pali University of Buddhism, Pakokku (Maha Vijara Rama) *Middle Pali University of Buddhism, Pakokku (Maha Visuta Rama) *West Pali University of Buddhism, Pakokku (Mandalay tike)

Sports

The 7,000-seat Pakokku Stadium is a multi-use

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

used mostly for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

matches.

List of Ethnic Groups in Pakokku

Religion

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

is the practised by the majority of the population. A sizable minority, however, adheres to

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

Atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...

, and

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

. Pakokku is the second most important and populated city of

Buddhist monks A ''bhikkhu'' (Pali: भिक्खु, Sanskrit: भिक्षु, ''bhikṣu'') is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male and female monastics ("nun", ''bhikkhunī'', Sanskrit ''bhikṣuṇī'') are members of the Sangha (Buddhist c ...

with three Pali university of Buddhism.

Health care

Public Hospitals

*Pakokku General Hospital *Pakokku Traditional Medicine Hospital *Pakokku Women's and Children's Hospital *Pakokku Sangha Hospital

Private Hospitals

*ChanMyae Hospital *ThaPyaeNyo Hospital

Future Plans

* Pakokku Airport as an international Airport * Pakokku Inland port development project in Irrawaddy River * A new bus terminal as a largest bus terminal in Upper Myanmar * Fuel Refineries economic Zone * Shopping Malls and Supermarkets * Pakokku-Bagan Circular high speed Railway

References

Populated places in Magway Region Township capitals of Myanmar {{Magway-geo-stub