Pathein (, ; mnw, ဖာသီ, ), formerly called Bassein, is the largest city and the capital of the

Ayeyarwady Region Ayeyarwady Region ( my, ဧရာဝတီတိုင်းဒေသကြီး , , ; formerly Ayeyarwady Division and Irrawaddy Division), is a region of Myanmar, occupying the delta region of the Ayeyarwady River (Irrawaddy River). It is bor ...

Myanmar (Burma) 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 ...

. It is located 190 km (120 mi) west 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 ...

within

Pathein Township Pathein Township (formerly Bassein West Township) is a township of Pathein District in the Ayeyawady Region of Myanmar. The administrative seat of the Township, District and Region is Pathein. The city of Pathein is the largest city in the Regi ...

on the bank of the

Pathein River This is a list of rivers in Myanmar (also known as Burma). This list is arranged by drainage basin from east to west, with respective tributaries indented under each larger stream's name. Indian Ocean * Nāf River * Kaladan River * Lemro Riv ...

(Pathein), which is a western branch of 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 ...

, the city has a population of 237,089 (2017 census). Although once a part of the

Mon kingdom Mon kingdoms were polities established by the Mon-speaking people in parts of present-day Myanmar and Thailand. The polities ranged from Dvaravati and Haripuñjaya in present-day northern Thailand to Thaton, Hanthawaddy (1287–1539), and the R ...

, Pathein has few ethnic

Mon Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to: Places * Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar * Mon, India, a town in Nagaland * Mon district, Nagaland * Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India * Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons * An ...

residents today. The majority are of Bamar with a significant

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 ...

Burmese Indian Burmese Indians are a group of people of Indian origin who live in Myanmar (Burma). The term 'Burmese Indian' refers to a broad range of people from South Asia, most notably from present-day countries such as India, Bangladesh and also Pakis ...

, Rakhine and

Burmese Chinese Chinese Burmese, also Sino-Burmese or Tayoke, are a Burmese citizens of full or partial Chinese ancestry. They are group of overseas Chinese born or raised in Myanmar (Burma). As of 2012, the Burmese Chinese population is estimated to be as h ...

populations .

Etymology

The city's name is believed to derive from the

Old Mon The Mon language (, mnw, ဘာသာမန်, links=no, (Mon-Thai ဘာသာမည်) ; my, မွန်ဘာသာ; th, ภาษามอญ; formerly known as Peguan and Talaing) is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Mon peopl ...

name, (). "pha" means great or wide and sī/sɛm means river or sea. Pha-sɛm means a big sea. The name was corrupted to ''Bassein'' during the British colonial period. An alternate theory holds that the city's name comes from the classical name of Pathein, Kusimanagara, a name used by ancient writings and the

Kalyani inscriptions The ''Kalyani Inscriptions'' ( my, ကလျာဏီကျောက်စာ), located in Bago, Burma (Myanmar), are the stone inscriptions erected by King Dhammazedi of Hanthawaddy Pegu between 1476 and 1479. Located at the Kalyani Ordinatio ...

. Pathein itself is a corruption of

"Kuthen," which itself is a contraction of Kusimanagara. This is supported by the fact that the Portuguese call Pathein "Cosmim."

History

Pathein was part of the

. The British built a fort and established a

garrison A garrison (from the French ''garnison'', itself from the verb ''garnir'', "to equip") is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a mil ...

in 1826, after the First Anglo-Burmese War. The 1983 census recorded a population of 144,092.

Geography and economy

Lying at the western edge of the

Ayeyarwady 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 ...

delta, on the Pathein (Ngawan) River west of

, Pathein is accessible to large vessels and despite its distance from the

ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...

, it is the most important delta port outside of Yangon. The city is also a terminus of a branch of the main

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

line which connects it to

Hinthada Hinthada ( my, ဟင်္သာတမြို့; formerly Henzada) is a city located on the Irrawaddy River in Ayeyarwady Region, Burma (Myanmar). In the 1983 census the city itself had a population of 82,005. By 2010 it had grown to 170,312. ...

Letpadan Letpatan or Letpadan United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. is a town in Tharrawaddy District, Pegu region in Burma (Myanmar). It is the administrative seat of Letpadan Township Letpatan Township ( my, လက်ပတန်းမ ...

and Yangon. In the 1990s, the road network along the Irrawaddy to

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 ...

was improved. The coastline along 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 ...

is surrounded by 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 ...

. In the area is Inye Lake, long and wide, which is known for its fishing. There is also an offshore reef at Diamond Island that is popular with bathers. Diamond Island is also noted as a

turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...

breeding ground. The city is a

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

-milling and export centre. Aside from several rice mills, the town has numerous sawmills and umbrella workshops. The colourful handmade parasols made in Pathein are widely known throughout Burma. They are known locally as " Pathein hti". Pathein is also known for its pottery and colourful hand-made baskets and buckets. Among Pathein's most prominent industries also include production of

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

, mats, and

Pathein halawa Pathein halawa ( my, ; ) is a traditional Burmese dessert or ''Mont (food), mont''. The dessert is a pudding cooked using glutinous rice flour, rice flour, coconut, sugar, poppy seeds, butter, and milk, and has 2 primary variants: wet and dry. T ...

. The

textiles Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

produced in Pathein Industrial Zone is, however, the largest industry economy of the city. The surrounding area of Pathein are employed in agriculture and primarily cultivates

. Other crops include

sesame Sesame ( or ; ''Sesamum indicum'') is a flowering plant in the genus ''Sesamum'', also called benne. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cu ...

s, groundnuts,

jute Jute is a long, soft, shiny bast fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus ''Corchorus'', which is in the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is ''Corchorus olit ...

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

pulse (legume) A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock for ...

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

, chilies as well as a wide variety of fruits like

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...

and

tamarind Tamarind (''Tamarindus indica'') is a Legume, leguminous tree bearing edible fruit that is probably indigenous to tropical Africa. The genus ''Tamarindus'' is monotypic taxon, monotypic, meaning that it contains only this species. It belongs ...

Climate

Pathein has a

tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ...

(''Am'') according to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system. Pathein experiences a sustained period of extraordinary rainfall from June through August. The dry season which runs from December through April, begins with noticeably cooler temperatures than the remainder of the year, but becomes sweltering as the wet season approaches in March and April.

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 Pathein had a population of 169,773, representing 59.1% of

's total population. Pathein is subdivided into 15 urban wards.

Landmarks

Pathein has a scenic waterfront and many

Buddhist 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 ...

temples A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

, including the main sight of

Shwemokhtaw Pagoda Shwemokhtaw Pagoda ( my, ရွှေမုဋ္ဌောစေတီ) is a Buddhist pagoda in Pathein, Myanmar (formerly Bassein, Burma). The pagoda is bounded by Merchant St, Strand, Mahabandoola and Shwezedi Roads. At the southern pavilion of ...

. * Tagaung Mingala Pagoda * Settawya pagoda *

Phaung Daw U Pagoda Phaung Daw U Pagoda ( my, ဖောင်တော်ဦးဘုရား, IPA: ; ), also spelt Phaung Daw Oo or Hpaung Daw Oo, is a notable Buddhist pagoda in Myanmar (formerly Burma), located in the village of Ywama on Inle Lake in Shan Sta ...

* Clock Tower * St Peter's Cathedral * Pathein University * Pathein Cultural Museum

Education

The city is home to the

Pathein Education College Pathein (, ; mnw, ဖာသီ, ), formerly called Bassein, is the largest city and the capital of the Ayeyarwady Region, Myanmar (Burma). It is located 190 km (120 mi) west of Yangon within Pathein Township on the bank of the Pathe ...

for elementary teachers and

Pathein University Pathein (, ; mnw, ဖာသီ, ), formerly called Bassein, is the largest city and the capital of the Ayeyarwady Region, Myanmar (Burma). It is located 190 km (120 mi) west of Yangon within Pathein Township on the bank of the Pathe ...

for arts and science students. The Computer University (Pathein) which is administered by

Ministry of Science and Technology A Science Ministry or Department of Science is a ministry or other government agency charged with science. The ministry is often headed by a Minister for Science. List of Ministries of Science Many countries have a Ministry of Science or Ministry ...

offers both undergraduate and graduate programs in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

, and

computer technology Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, e ...

. Technological University (Pathein) which was founded in 1999, offers engineering courses.

Sports

The 6,000-seat Ayar Stadium is one of the main venues for popular local football tournaments. The stadium is the home of

Ayeyawady United F.C. Ayeyawady United Football Club ( my, ဧရာဝတီယူနိုက်တက် ဘောလုံးအသင်း) is a Burmese football club, based at Pathein Stadium in Pathein, Myanmar. The club was a founding member of the Myanmar ...

, a

Myanmar National League The MPT Myanmar National League ( my, မြန်မာ နေရှင်နယ် လိဂ်; abbreviated MNL) is the premier national professional football league of Myanmar. In 2009, the league replaced the Myanmar Premier League, which co ...

(MNL) football club.

Health care

Pathein, Myanmar (Burma) - panoramio (4)

Pathein General Hospital serves people in Pathein and its surrounding districts.

Notable people

Ba U Sir Ba U ( my, ဘဦး, ; 26 May 1887 – 9 November 1963), was a Burmese politician and lawyer. He served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Burma from 1948 to 1952, and the second president of Burma from 16 March 1952 to 13 March 1957 ...

, 2nd president of Myanmar (1952–1957) was born in Pathein in 1887. *Mahn Win Maung, 3rd president of Myanmar (1957–1962) was born in a town near Pathein in 1916. *8th president Thein Sein was also born in a village near Pathein in 1945 and studied his high school education in Pathein. *10th president Win Myint was also born in Danuphyu town near Pathein in 1945 and started his political life in Pathein.

References

{{Most populous cities in Myanmar Populated places in Ayeyarwady Region Old Cities of Mon people Township capitals of Myanmar