The Dawna Range (; th, ทิวเขาถนนธงชัยตะวันตก, ทิวเขาดอยมอนกุจู), also known as Dawna Hills, is a mountain range in eastern

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 C. Wells, Joh ...

and northwestern

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

. Its northern end is located in

Kayah State Kayah State ( my, ကယားပြည်နယ်, formerly Karenni State) is a state of Myanmar. Situated in eastern Myanmar, it is bounded on the north by Shan State, on the east by Thailand's Mae Hong Son Province, and on the south and we ...

where it meets the

Daen Lao Range The Daen Lao Range ( th, ทิวเขาแดนลาว,
; my, Loi La) is a mountain range of t ...

, a subrange of the

Shan Hills The Shan Hills ( my, ရှမ်းရိုးမ; ''Shan Yoma''), also known as Shan Highland, is a vast mountainous zone that extends through Yunnan to Myanmar and Thailand. The whole region is made up of numerous mountain ranges separated ...

. The range runs southwards along

Kayin State Kayin State ( my, ကရင်ပြည်နယ်, ; kjp, ဖၠုံခါန်ႋကၞင့်, italics=no; ksw, ကညီကီၢ်စဲၣ်, ), also known by the endonyms Kawthoolei and Karen State, is a state of Myanmar. The ...

as a natural border with

Mon State Mon State ( my, မွန်ပြည်နယ်, ; mnw, တွဵုရးဍုင်မန်, italics=no) is an administrative division of Myanmar. It lies between Kayin State to the east, the Andaman Sea to the west, Bago Region to th ...

in the west forming parallel ranges to the northern end of the

Tenasserim Hills The Tenasserim Hills or Tenasserim Range ( my, တနင်္သာရီ တောင်တန်း, ; th, ทิวเขาตะนาวศรี, , ; ms, Banjaran Tanah Seri/Banjaran Tenang Sari) is the geographical name of a r ...

further south and southeast. The Dawna Range extends east of the Salween southwards from the Shan Hills for about 350 km, at the western limit of the

Thai highlands The Thai highlands or Hills of northern Thailand is a mountainous natural region in the north of Thailand. Its mountain ranges are part of the system of hills extending through Laos, Burma, and China and linking to the Himalayas, of which they m ...

. Its southern end reaches the Thai-Myanmar border in the Umphang area, entering Thailand west of

Kamphaeng Phet Kamphaeng Phet is a town (''thesaban mueang'') in central Thailand, former capital of the Kamphaeng Phet Province. It covers the complete ''tambon'' Nai Mueang of the Mueang Kamphaeng Phet district. As of 2020, it has a population of 28,817. ...

. The Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary is in the Thai side of the range. Some geographers include the Dawna Range as the western and the southern part of the Thanon Thong Chai Range (เทือกเขาถนนธงชัย). The highest point of the range is 2,080 m high Mela Taung; 2,005 m high Mulayit Taung is located at the southern end of the range.

Ecology

The Dawna Range provides a habitat for the

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living Felidae, cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily pr ...

, the wild

Asian elephant The Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus''), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living species of the genus '' Elephas'' and is distributed throughout the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India in the west, Nepal in t ...

and Fea's muntjak. Endangered species in the area are the plain-pouched hornbill and Gurney's pitta. There are other rare species some of which have only recently been discovered. This narrow steep-sided range is geologically and ecologically homogeneous with the neighboring head of the Tenasserim Hills and the Karen Hills further north, so that frequently it is considered as a whole under the name "Dawna Tenasserim" or as "Kayah-Karen/Tenasserim". The Dawna Range is covered with

tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Description TSMF is generally found in large, discon ...

. The Kayah-Karen montane rain forests that cover the mountains are part of the Kayah-Karen/Tenasserim moist forests

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

which is included in the

Global 200 The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by the World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF), the global conservation organization, as priorities for conservation. According to WWF, an ecoregion is defined as a "relatively large unit of land or w ...

list of ecoregions identified by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as priorities for conservation.

Protected areas

Protected areas of the Dawna range are part of the

Western Forest Complex The Western Forest Complex, straddling two countries, Thailand and Myanmar, including 19 national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, is the main biodiversity conservation corridor of the region. Covering 18,730 km2, it is one of the largest pro ...

Burma

Mulayit Wildlife Sanctuary Mulayit Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected area in Myanmar's Kayin State, covering . It ranges in elevation from and encompasses grassland, evergreen forest and mixed deciduous forest in Kyain Seikgyi Township. It was gazetted in 1936. It is loc ...

Thailand

Salawin National Park The Salawin National Park or Salween National Park( th, อุทยานแห่งชาติสาละวิน) is located in Mae Sariang and Sop Moei Districts in Mae Hong Son Province, northern Thailand, adjacent to its border with Bu ...

Mae Moei National Park Mae is an American rock band that formed in Norfolk, Virginia in 2001. The band's name is an acronym for "Multi-sensory Aesthetic Experience", based on a course taken by drummer Jacob Marshall while a student at Old Dominion University. History ...

* Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary *

Khao Laem National Park Khao Laem National Park is a park of about 1,500 square kilometers in western Thailand, located in the northern area of the Tenasserim Hills, Kanchanaburi Province. It is a part of the Western Forest Complex, a system of protected wilderness in ...

* Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary * Khun Phawo National Park * Namtok Pha Charoen National Park * Taksin Maharat National Park *

Lan Sang National Park Lan Sang National Park ( th, อุทยานแห่งชาติลานสาง) is in the Dawna Range, Tak Province, northern Thailand. Established in 1979, it is an IUCN Category II protected area measuring 65,000 rai ~ . On the Tak-Ma ...

* Khlong Wang Chao National Park *

Khlong Lan National Park Khlong Lan National Park ( Thai อุทยานแห่งชาติคลองลาน) is a national park in Thailand. Description Khlong Lan National Park is situated in the Dawna Mountain Range. This park lies in Khlong Lan and M ...

Mae Wong National Park Mae Wong National Park (Thai alphabet, Thai: อุทยานแห่งชาติแม่วงก์) is a List of national parks of Thailand, national park in Thailand. This park lies in Amphoe Mae Wong, Mae Wong and Amphoe Mae Poen, Mae ...

* Phu Toei National Park

History

In 1944 and 1945, at the time of the

Japanese conquest of Burma The Japanese invasion of Burma was the opening phase of the Burma campaign in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II, which took place over four years from 1942 to 1945. During the first year of the campaign (December 1941 to mid-1942), ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the eastern Dawna mountains provided a base from which the

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 la ...

troops led by

Bo Mya Bo Mya ( my, ဘိုမြ ; born Htee Moo Kee; 20 January 1927 – 24 December 2006) was a Karen leader born in Papun District, which is in present-day Karen State, Myanmar. He was a long-standing chairman of the Karen National Union (KNU), ...

fought against the

Japanese Imperial Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor ...

on the side of 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, ...

. Owing to the unrest in Burma and the human rights abuses by the Tatmadaw, some

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced peo ...

s have been established for the cross-border refugees in the Thai side of the range. The largest is the

Mae La refugee camp Mae La, Beh klaw (alternatively spelled Maela),( ksw, မဲၣ်လးဒဲကဝီၤ, ဘဲကျီး) is a refugee camp in Thailand. It was established in 1984 in Tha Song Yang District, Tak Province in the Dawna Range area and house ...

, established in 1984 in

Tha Song Yang District Tha Song Yang ( th, ท่าสองยาง, ) is the northwesternmost district (''amphoe'') of Tak province, western Thailand. History Tha Song Yang was a minor district (''king amphoe'') of Mae Sariang district, Mae Hong Son province. It w ...

Tak Province Tak ( th, ตาก, , Burmese: တာ့ခ် pronounced ak is one of Thailand's seventy-seven provinces (''changwat'') and lies in lower northern Thailand. Neighbouring provinces are (from north clockwise) Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai, Lamphun, ...

and currently houses over 40,000 refugees

Landmine A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automati ...

s have been laid in the border area and this affects wildlife as well.Thai elephant steps on landmine in Burma
/ref>

References

External links

Google Books, ''The Physical Geography of Southeast Asia''The Geology of Burma (Myanmar)Picture of peak on the Thai side of the rangeKNU - Forest policy
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012065915/http://karennationalunion.net/index.php/burma/departments/forestry , date=2017-10-12 Mountain ranges of Myanmar Mountain ranges of Thailand