Ramree Island ( my, ရမ်းဗြဲကျွန်း; also spelled Yanbye Island) is an
island off the coast of
Rakhine State,
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 ...
(Burma). Ramree island is the largest island in the entire
Rakhine Coast Rakhine () may refer to:
* Rakhine State, in Myanmar
* Rakhine people, a Tibeto-Burman ethnic group
* Rakhine language
, pronunciation =
, ethnicity = Rakhine, Kamein
, states = Myanmar, Bangladesh, India
, region ...
and in Myanmar. The area of the island is about and the main populated center is
Ramree
Ramree or Ramarwaddy ( my, ရမ်းဗြဲမြို့, ) also known as Yanbye is a town in Kyaukpyu District, Rakhine State, Myanmar. Ramree (locally pronounced Ram Bray) is situated on Ramree Island. Ramree is the capital of the townsh ...
. In the Burmese language it is known as Yanbye Island. The district on Ramree island is
Kyaukpyu district, and
Kyaukpyu
Kyaukpyu ( my, ကျောက်ဖြူမြို့ ; also spelt Kyaukphyu) is a major town in Rakhine State, in western Myanmar. It is located on the north western corner of Yanbye Island on Combermere Bay, and is 250 miles (400 ...
is a major town and the second capital of Rakhine State.
Geography
The island is separated from the mainland by a narrow canal-like strait, which is only wide in average. There is a bridge over the strait connecting the island with the continental shore. The highest point is
Zikha Taung, a high mountain located near the western shore in the southern part of the island. There are
mud volcanoes present on the island.
Nearby islands
* Sagu Kyun is a long and wide island located off the southern cape of Ramree, separated from it by a wide strait.
* Magyi Kyun is a long islet off the southern end of Sagu Kyun.
*
Cheduba Island
Cheduba Island ( my, မာန်အောင်ကျွန်း; also known as Manaung Island) is an island in the Bay of Bengal close to Ramree Island and belongs to Myanmar, formerly Burma. It has a maximum length of , with an area of approxi ...
lies further offshore, about from the south-western coast of Ramree Island.
History
Originally, the island was a trading post for the Kingdom of Mrauk-U, with fishing villages spread across it. During
World War II the
Battle of Ramree Island
The Battle of Ramree Island ( Burmese:ရမ်းဗြဲကျွန်း တိုက်ပွဲ, (also called Operation Matador) took place from 14 January to 22 February 1945, in the Second World War as part of the offensive on the Sout ...
was fought during January and February 1945, as part of the
British 14th Army 1944–45 offensive on the
Southern Front of the
Burma Campaign. At the close of the battle,
Japanese soldiers
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
were forced into the marshes surrounding the island, and
saltwater crocodiles are claimed to have eaten 400 (or 980 of them, as only twenty survived according to one account) — in what the
Guinness World Records has listed as "The Greatest Disaster Suffered
y humans
Y, or y, is the twenty-fifth and penultimate letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. According to some authorities, it is the sixth (or seventh ...
from Animals". However, the veracity of this story has been disputed and the facts suggest that, while a small number of Japanese soldiers were likely killed by crocodiles (the only verifiable mention is of 10-15 men killed by crocodiles while crossing Min Chaung creek near Ramree town), the vast majority likely died due to a variety of other reasons including dehydration, drowning, British gunfire, dysentery, and perhaps even a small number to sharks (Platt ''et al.'' 1998).
Ramree was the homeland of the last ruler of
Arakan,
Maha Thammada
Maha Thammada, ( Arakanese:မဟာသမ္မတ, whose personal name is Thado Aung (သတိုးအောင်), was a last king (r. 1782 – 1785) of the Mrauk-U Dynasty of Arakan. Last King of Arakanese Monarchy.
When Sanda Thaditha ...
.
Wildlife
Saltwater crocodiles were still common in the Ramree Island region up and into the 1960s, but the region no longer supports a viable population of crocodiles, likely due to hide-hunting, and by the early 1980s evidence suggested only scattered individuals remained.
Pipeline
Ramree Island is also the location of a gas pipeline system that transports oil and gas from the
Indian Ocean coast to the province of
Yunnan in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. From a deep water port on
Kyaukphyu in Rakhine State and from Ramree Island, oil from the Middle East and gas from Myanmar's ocean coast is transported through the pipelines to China. The pipelines enable China to rely less on ocean-transported oil and gas through the treacherous
Strait of Malacca and also cut two weeks off the transport time. The pipeline transport fees are a source of revenue for the Burmese government, on top of the sale of the gas. Construction began in 2011. The Myanmar section of the gas pipeline was completed on 12 June 2013 and gas started to flow to China on 21 October 2013. The oil pipeline was completed in August 2014.
[sources and more details here.]
See also
*
List of islands of Myanmar
References
External links
*
{{Islands of Myanmar
Islands of Myanmar
World War II sites in Burma