Sagaing Region ( my, စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Sagaing Division) is an
administrative region
Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...
of
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 ...
, located in the north-western part of the country between latitude 21° 30' north and longitude 94° 97' east. It is bordered by India's
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 ...
,
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
Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...
States to the north,
Kachin State
Kachin State ( my, ကချင်ပြည်နယ်; Kachin: ), also known by the endonym Kachinland, is the northernmost state of Myanmar. It is bordered by China to the north and east (Tibet and Yunnan, specifically and respectively); Sh ...
,
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. ...
, and
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 ...
to the east, Mandalay Region and
Magway Region
Magway Region ( my, မကွေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Magway Division) is an administrative division in central Myanmar. It is the second largest of Myanmar's seven divisions, with an area of . Pa Del Dam (ပဒ ...
to the south, with 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. Orig ...
forming a greater part of its eastern and also southern boundary, and
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 ...
and India to the west. The region has an area of . In 1996, it had a population of over 5,300,000 while its population in 2012 was 6,600,000. The urban population in 2012 was 1,230,000 and the rural population was 5,360,000. The capital city of Sagaing Region is
Monywa.
Capital city
The Capital city of Sagaing Region is Monywa.
History
The
Pyu
Pyu, also spelled Phyu or Phyuu, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. is a town in Taungoo District, Bago Region in Myanmar. It is the administrative seat of Phyu Township
Pyu Township is a township in Taungoo District in the ...
were the first to in recorded history to populate the area of Sagaing Region by the first century CE. The
Burmans first migrated into
Upper Myanmar
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 ...
by ninth century CE. The area came under the
Pagan Kingdom
The Kingdom of Pagan ( my, ပုဂံခေတ်, , ; also known as the Pagan Dynasty and the Pagan Empire; also the Bagan Dynasty or Bagan Empire) was the first Burmese kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern-da ...
certainly by the middle of 11th century when King
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 ...
(r. 1044–1077) founded the Pagan Empire, which encompasses the modern day Myanmar.
After the fall of Pagan in 1287, the northwestern parts of Upper Myanmar came under the
Sagaing Kingdom
The Sagaing Kingdom ( my, စစ်ကိုင်း နေပြည်တော်, ) was a small kingdom ruled by a junior branch of the Myinsaing dynasty from 1315 to 1365. Originally the northern province of Sagaing of the Pinya Kingdom, ...
(1315–1364) ruled by Burmanized
Shan kings. The area was ruled by the kings of
Ava from 1364 to 1555 and the kings of
Taungoo
Taungoo (, ''Tauñngu myoú''; ; also spelled Toungoo) is a district-level city in the Bago Region of Myanmar, 220 km from Yangon, towards the north-eastern end of the division, with mountain ranges to the east and west. The main industry ...
from 1555 to 1752.
Konbaung Dynasty
The Konbaung dynasty ( my, ကုန်းဘောင်ခေတ်, ), also known as Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်) and formerly known as the Alompra dynasty (အလောင်းဘ ...
(1752–1885), founded by king
Alaungpaya
Alaungpaya ( my, အလောင်းဘုရား, ; also spelled Alaunghpaya or Alaung-Phra; 11 May 1760) was the founder of the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma (Myanmar). By the time of his death from illness during his campaign in Siam, this f ...
in
Shwebo
Shwebo ( my, ရွှေဘိုမြို့ ) is a city in Sagaing Region, Burma, 110 km north-west of Mandalay between the Irawaddy River, Irrawaddy and the Mu River, Mu rivers. The city was the origin of the Konbaung Dynasty, establi ...
, became the last Burmese dynasty before 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, ...
conquest of Upper Burma in 1885. The area became Sagaing Division after the Burmese independence in January 1948.
Administrative divisions
As of 2021, Sagaing Region consists of 11 districts and 1 Self-Administered Zone divided into 34 townships
["Myanmar States/Divisions & Townships Overview Map"](_blank)
Myanmar Information Management Unit (MIMU) with 198 wards and villages. The major cities are
Sagaing
Sagaing (, ) is the former capital of the Sagaing Region of Myanmar. It is located in the Irrawaddy River, to the south-west of Mandalay on the opposite bank of the river. Sagaing with numerous Buddhist monasteries is an important religious and m ...
,
Shwebo
Shwebo ( my, ရွှေဘိုမြို့ ) is a city in Sagaing Region, Burma, 110 km north-west of Mandalay between the Irawaddy River, Irrawaddy and the Mu River, Mu rivers. The city was the origin of the Konbaung Dynasty, establi ...
,
Monywa,
Ye U,
Katha,
Kale,
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 ...
,
Mawlaik
Mawlaik ( my, မော်လိုက် ; shn, မေႃႇလဵၵ်) is a town in Mawlaik District, Sagaing Region in north-west Myanmar, along the Chindwin River.
Etymology
" Mawlaik" derives from the Shan language
The Shan language ...
and
Hkamti.
Mingun
Mingun ( ) is a town in Sagaing Township of Sagaing Region, north-west Myanmar (Burma), located 11 km up the Ayeyarwady River on the west bank from Mandalay. Its main attraction is the ruined Mingun Pahtodawgyi.
Mingun Pahtodawgyi
The Ming ...
with its famous bell is located near Sagaing but can be reached across the Ayeyarwady from
Mandalay.
In August 2010,
three former townships of
Hkamti District
Hkamti District or Khamti District (sometimes Naga Hills District) is a district in northern Sagaing Division of Burma (Myanmar). Its administrative center is the town of Singkaling Hkamti. Townships
The district consists of the two townships:
...
were transferred, in accordance with the 2008 constitution,
[ (in Burmese]
2008" target="_blank" class="mw-redirect" title="Constitution PDF">Constitution PDF
to a new administrative unit, the
__Government_
__Executive_
__Legislature_
__Judiciary_
__Demographics_
The_Bamar_people.html" "title="Naga Self-Administered Zone.
Government
Executive
Legislature
Judiciary
Demographics
The Bamar people">Bamar
The Bamar (, ; also known as the Burmans) are a Sino-Tibetan ethnic group native to Myanmar (formerly Burma) in Southeast Asia. With approximately 35 million people, the Bamar make up the largest ethnic group in Myanmar, constituting 68% of th ...
(Burmans) are the majority ethnic group in the dry regions and along the Mandalay-Myitkyina Railroad.
Shan live in the upper
Chindwin River valley. A sizable minority of
Naga
Naga or NAGA may refer to:
Mythology
* Nāga, a serpentine deity or race in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions
* Naga Kingdom, in the epic ''Mahabharata''
* Phaya Naga, mythical creatures believed to live in the Laotian stretch of the Mekong Riv ...
resides in the north of
north-west mountain ranges and
Kuki which includes the Thadou in the south. Smaller ethnic groups native to the Region include the
Kadu
KADU (90.1 FM broadcasting, FM) is a radio station licensed to Hibbing, Minnesota, United States. The station is owned by Heartland Christian Broadcasters, Inc.
Translators
In addition to the main station, KADU is relayed by an additional trans ...
and
Ganang, who live in the upper
Mu River valley and Meza River valley. There are also an unknown number of
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 ...
Bayingyi people (at least 3,000), the descendants of 16th and 17th century Portuguese adventurers and mercenaries, who live in their ancestral villages on the expansive plains of the
Mu River valley.
Religion
According to the
2014 Myanmar Census,
Buddhists
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 ...
, who make up 92.2% of Sagaing Region's population, form the largest religious community there.
Minority religious communities include
Christians
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
(6.6%),
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
(1.1%), and
Hindus
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
(0.1%) who collectively comprise the remainder of Sagaing Region's population.
0.1% of the population listed no religion, other religions, or were otherwise not enumerated.
According to the
State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee
The State Saṅgha Mahā Nāyaka Committee ( my, နိုင်ငံတော် သံဃာ့မဟာနာယကအဖွဲ့, abbreviated Mahana or in Burmese, SSMNC in English) is a government-appointed body of high-ranking Buddhis ...
’s 2016 statistics, 55,041 Buddhist monks were registered in Sagaing Region, comprising 10.3% of Myanmar's total
Sangha
Sangha is a Sanskrit word used in many Indian languages, including Pali meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community"; Sangha is often used as a surname across these languages. It was historically used in a political context t ...
membership, which includes both novice
samanera
A sāmaṇera (Pali); sa, श्रामणेर (), is a novice male monastic in a Buddhist context. A female novice is a ''śrāmaṇerī'' or ''śrāmaṇerikā'' (Sanskrit; Pāli: ''sāmaṇerī'').
Etymology
The ''sāmaṇera'' is a ...
and fully-ordained bhikkhu.
The majority of monks belong to the
Thudhamma Nikaya
Thudhamma Nikaya ( my, သုဓမ္မာနိကာယ, ; also spelt Sudhammā Nikāya) is the largest monastic order of monks in Burma.
It is one of 9 legally sanctioned monastic orders (''nikāya'') in the country, under the 1990 Law Co ...
(83.8%), followed by
Shwegyin Nikaya
Shwegyin Nikāya (, ; also spelt Shwekyin Nikāya) is the second largest monastic order of monks in Burma. It is one of nine legally sanctioned monastic orders (''nikāya'') in the country, under the 1990 Law Concerning Sangha Organizations. Sh ...
(16.1%), with the remainder of monks belonging to other small
monastic orders
Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic life plays an important rol ...
.
9,915
thilashin
A ( my, သီလရှင်, ,( mnw, သဳလ, ), "possessor of morality", from Pali '' sīla'') is a female renunciant in Burmese Buddhism; a Burmese Theravada Buddhist nun. They are not fully ordained nuns, as the full ordination is not ...
were registered in Sagaing Region, comprising 16.4% of Myanmar's total thilashin community.
Ecology
There are a number of protected areas in Sagaing Region, among them are
Alaungdaw Kathapa National Park,
Chatthin Wildlife Sanctuary,
Mahamyaing Wildlife Sanctuary
, iucn_category = IV
, photo =
, photo_caption =
, map = Myanmar
, relief = 1
, map_alt =
, map_caption = Location in Myanmar
, label = Mahamyaing Wildlife Sanctuary
, map_width =
, location =Sagaing Region, Kalay and Mawlaik ...
, and
Htamanthi Wildlife Sanctuary in
Homalin Township
Homalin Township ( my, ဟုမ္မလင်း မြို့နယ် ) is a township in Hkamti District in the Sagaing Region of Burma. The principal town is Homalin. .
Transport
Hemmed in by two great rivers of Myanmar, the
Irrawaddy and the
Chindwin ,
, image = Homalin aerial.jpg
, image_size =
, image_caption = The Chindwin at Homalin. The smaller, meandering Uyu River can be seen joining the Chindwin.
, map = Irrawaddyrivermap.jpg
, map_size =
, map_alt =
, map_caption ...
, river transport is a common way to move people and cargo. Much of the inland Sagaing Region relies on roads and rail in poor condition.
Economy
Agriculture is the chief occupation. The leading crop is
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 ...
, which occupies most of the arable ground. Other crops include
wheat
Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
,
sesame,
peanut
The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible Seed, seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small ...
,
pulses
In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the nec ...
,
cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
, and
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 ...
. The region being next to India, depends on the export import business from India. It is the gateway to India for Myanmar. Sagaing is Myanmar's leading producer of wheat, contributing more than 80% of the country's total production. Forestry is important in the wetter upper regions along the
Chindwin River, with
teak
Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters ( pan ...
and other hardwoods extracted. As in other parts of the country,
reforestation
Reforestation (occasionally, reafforestation) is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands (forestation) that have been depleted, usually through deforestation, but also after clearcutting.
Management
A debat ...
is not effective enough to maintain
sustainable forestry. Important minerals include
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
,
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
,
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 quant ...
and small amounts of
petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...
. Industry includes textiles,
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
refining, gold smelting, and a
diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...
plant. The Region has many rice mills,
edible oil
Cooking oil is plant, animal, or synthetic liquid fat used in frying, baking, and other types of cooking. It is also used in food preparation and flavoring not involving heat, such as salad dressings and bread dips, and may be called edible oil ...
mills, saw mills, cotton mills, and mechanized weaving factories. Local industry includes earthen pots, silverware, bronze-wares, iron-wares and
lacquerware
Lacquerware are objects decoratively covered with lacquer. Lacquerware includes small or large containers, tableware, a variety of small objects carried by people, and larger objects such as furniture and even coffins painted with lacquer. Befor ...
.
Education
Educational opportunities in Myanmar are extremely limited outside the main cities 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 ...
and
Mandalay. According to official statistics, less than 10% of primary school students in Sagaing Region reach high school.
Sagaing Region has three national "professional" universities in the
Monywa University of Economics,
Sagaing University of Education and the
Sagaing Institute of Education
The Sagaing University of Education ( my, စစ်ကိုင်း ပညာရေးတက္ကသိုလ် ), formerly known as Mandalay Institute of Education or Sagaing Institute of Education located in Sagaing, Sagaing Region, is one o ...
.
Monywa University is the main
liberal arts
Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically th ...
university in the region.
Sagaing Institute of Education
The Sagaing University of Education ( my, စစ်ကိုင်း ပညာရေးတက္ကသိုလ် ), formerly known as Mandalay Institute of Education or Sagaing Institute of Education located in Sagaing, Sagaing Region, is one o ...
also known
Sagaing University of Education is the one of two senior universities of education in
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 ...
.
Healthcare
The general state of healthcare in Myanmar is poor. The military government spends anywhere from 0.5% to 3% of the country's GDP on health care, consistently ranking among the lowest in the world.
Although healthcare is nominally free, in reality, patients have to pay for medicine and treatment, even in public clinics and hospitals. Public hospitals lack many of the basic facilities and equipment. Moreover, the healthcare infrastructure outside 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 ...
and
Mandalay is extremely poor. In 2003, Sagaing Region had less than a quarter of the number of hospital beds counted in
Yangon Region
Yangon Region(, ; formerly Rangoon Division and Yangon Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar. Located in the heart of Lower Myanmar, the division is bordered by Bago Region to the north and east, the Gulf of Martaban to the south, ...
, with a similar size of population.
References
External links
{{Administrative divisions of Burma (Myanmar)
Regions of Myanmar