Mawlamyine (Moulmein)

Moulmein - Sunset over the Thanlwin (Salween) River

Mawlamyine (Moulmein) is the third largest city in Myanmar after Yangon and Mandalay situated 300 kilometres south east of the nation's capital at the mouth of the Thanlwin river. It is the capital of Mon State with a population of almost 300,000 people. The name Mawlamyine is derived from the words ‘ Mawya Myine’ meaning ‘forest haunt of peacocks.’ Formerly known as Moulmein, it was once a thriving teak port and the administrative capital of British Lower Burma. During colonial times, Moulmein had a substantial Anglo-Burmese population; an area of the city was known as 'Little England' due to the large Anglo-Burmese community, many of them engaged in the running of rubber plantations; however nowadays this has dwindled to all but a handful of families as most have left for the UK or Australia.

Mawlamyine became the first capital of British Burma between 1827 and 1852 after Taninthayi (formerly Tenasserim) and Rakhine (formerly Arakan) were ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Yandabo at the end of the First Anglo-Burmese War, primarily because it was a major port for the extraction of teak. Today, Mawlamyine is famous for its tropical fruits and for its cuisine as indicated in the popular Burmese expression, "Mandalay for the speaking, Yangon for the bragging and Mawlamyine for the eating".

Mawlamyine is generally considered to be off the main tourist trail for most travellers to Myanmar but the town does have a charm of its own with its rich history, buildings with colonial style architecture, World War II era wooden buses, and its close proximity to the infamous Siam-Burma "death railway“.

About 60 km south of Mawlamyine, at Thanbyuzayat, there is a large, well maintained war cemetery for thousands of Allied prisoners-of-war who died during World War II while constructing the infamous ‘death railway’ for the Japanese.

Images of Mawlamyine

                    Mawlamyine Railway Station

                                Small Industry Port

            Ferry along the Thanlwin (Salween) River