Shwebo
Encyclopedia
Shwebo is a city in Sagaing Division
Sagaing Division
Sagaing Region is an administrative region of Burma , located in the north-western part of the country between latitude 21° 30' north and longitude 94° 97' east...

, Myanmar
Myanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....

, located 113 km northwest of Mandalay
Mandalay
Mandalay is the second-largest city and the last royal capital of Burma. Located north of Yangon on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, the city has a population of one million, and is the capital of Mandalay Region ....

 between the Irrawaddy and the Mu
Mu River
Mu River is a river in upper central Myanmar , and a tributary of the country's chief river the Ayeyarwady. It drains the Kabaw valley and part of the Dry Zone between the Ayeyarwady to the east and its largest tributary Chindwin River to the west, flows directly north to south for about and...

 rivers. The city, also called Ratanasingha , was the capital of Myanmar from 1752 to 1760 during the Konbaung
Konbaung dynasty
The Konbaung Dynasty was the last dynasty that ruled Burma from 1752 to 1885. The dynasty created the second largest empire in Burmese history, and continued the administrative reforms begun by the Toungoo dynasty, laying the foundations of modern state of Burma...

 period.

It got the 4.37 inches (111 mm) of rainfall on 19 Oct 2011. It was the record breaking rainfall within 24 hours of Oct for past 48 years. The previous record was 3.84 inches (100 mm) of 24 Oct 1993.

History

Up to 1752, Shwebo was a village, called Moksobo of about 300 houses. It lies near the site of the ancient Pyu city-state of Hanlin
Hanlin
For the electronic device see Hanlin_eReaderHanlin is a village in near Shwebo in the Sagaing Division of Myanmar. In the Pyu era it was a city of considerable significance, possibly a local capital replacing Shri Ksetra. Today the modest village is noted for its hot springs....

. In March 1752, the chief of the village Aung Zeya founded the Konbaung Dynasty
Konbaung dynasty
The Konbaung Dynasty was the last dynasty that ruled Burma from 1752 to 1885. The dynasty created the second largest empire in Burmese history, and continued the administrative reforms begun by the Toungoo dynasty, laying the foundations of modern state of Burma...

 to resist the upcoming invasion of Lower Burma
Lower Burma
Lower Burma is a geographic region of Burma and includes the low-lying Irrawaddy delta , as well as coastal regions of the country ....

-based Hanthawaddy
Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom
The Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom was the kingdom that ruled Lower Burma and parts of Upper Burma from 1740 to 1757. The kingdom grew out of a rebellion by the Mon people, who then formed the majority in Lower Burma, against the Burman Toungoo Dynasty of Ava in Upper Burma...

 forces. Aung Zeya, who also assumed the royal title of Alaungpaya
Alaungpaya
Alaungpaya was king of Burma from 1752 to 1760, and the founder of the Konbaung Dynasty. By his death in 1760, the former chief of a small village in Upper Burma had reunified all of Burma, subdued Manipur, recovered Lan Na, and driven out the French and the English who had given help to the...

, gained the allegiance of 46 surrounding villages, and organized defenses building a stockade and digging a moat around Moksobo. He renamed his village, Shwebo (lit. Golden Chief). Over the next eight years, Alaungpaya led the reunification of Burma with Shwebo as his capital.

Shwebo lost its status as capital after Alaungpaya's death in 1760. The successor Naungdawgyi
Naungdawgyi
Naungdawgyi was king of Konbaung Dynasty of Burma from 1760 to 1763. He was a top military commander in his father Alaungpaya's reunification campaigns of the country. As king, he spent much of his short reign suppressing multiple rebellions across the newly founded kingdom from Ava and Toungoo ...

 moved the capital to Sagaing
Sagaing
Sagaing is the capital of Sagaing Region in Myanmar. Located on the Ayeyarwady River, 20 km to the southwest of Mandalay on the opposite bank of the river, Sagaing with numerous Buddhist monasteries is an important religious and monastic center. The pagodas and monasteries crowd the numerous...

 closer to the Irrawaddy river. Nonetheless, Shwebo continued to be an important region throughout the Konbaung era (1752–1885), providing a disproportionate share of soldiers that served in Konbaung's armies. The region was usually held as an appanage
Appanage
An apanage or appanage or is the grant of an estate, titles, offices, or other things of value to the younger male children of a sovereign, who would otherwise have no inheritance under the system of primogeniture...

 by the most senior princes, usually the crown prince
Crown Prince
A crown prince or crown princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The wife of a crown prince is also titled crown princess....

. It was to Shwebo that Prince of Mindon
Mindon Min
Mindon Min was the penultimate king of Burma from 1853 to 1878. He was one of the most popular and revered kings of Burma. Under his half brother King Pagan, the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852 ended with the annexation of Lower Burma by the British Empire. Mindon and his younger brother Kanaung...

 went in 1853 to raise the standard of rebellion in his successful bid to overthrow his half brother Pagan
Pagan Min
Pagan Min , was the ninth king of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma. Born Maung Biddhu Khyit, he was granted the title of Prince of Pagan by his father Tharrawaddy in August 1842. Pagan Min became king when Tharrawaddy died on 17 November 1846, with the formal title of His Majesty "Pyinsama...

.

Names of Shwebo

Five titles had been conferred to the city namely:
  1. Moksobo(မုဆိုးဖို), its original name
  2. Yadana-theinhka (ရတနာသိဃၤ)
  3. Konbaung (ကုန္းေဘာင္)
  4. Yangyi-aung (ရန္ၾကီေအာင္), and
  5. Shwebo (ေရႊဘို), its modern name.

Transport

Shwebo is served by Myanmar Railways
Myanmar Railways
Myanmar Railways ; also spelled Myanma Railways; formerly Burma Railways) is the state-owned agency that operates the railway network in Myanmar. The metre gauge rail network consists of 858 stations, and generally spans north to south with branch lines to east and west. MR also operates the...

's Mandalay-Myitkyina
Myitkyina
Myitkyina is the capital city of Kachin State in Myanmar , located from Yangon, and from Mandalay. In Burmese it means "near the big river", and in fact "Myitkyina" lies on the west bank of the Ayeyarwady River, just below from Myit-son of its two headstreams...

 railway line but is best reached by pickup truck
Pickup truck
A pickup truck is a light motor vehicle with an open-top rear cargo area .-Definition:...

 or bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

 as the roads from Mandalay and Monywa
Monywa
Monywa is a city in Sagaing Division, Myanmar, located 136 km northwest of Mandalay on the eastern bank of the River Chindwin.-Transport:...

 are in reasonably good shape.

Economy

As with Monywa
Monywa
Monywa is a city in Sagaing Division, Myanmar, located 136 km northwest of Mandalay on the eastern bank of the River Chindwin.-Transport:...

, the city is a trade
Trade
Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...

 center for agricultural
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 produce
Produce
Produce is a generalized term for a group of farm-produced goods and, not limited to fruits and vegetables . More specifically, the term "produce" often implies that the products are fresh and generally in the same state as where they were harvested. In supermarkets the term is also used to refer...

, especially beans, rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

 and sesame
Sesame
Sesame is a flowering plant in the genus Sesamum. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for its edible seeds, which grow in pods....

 from the surrounding plain
Plain
In geography, a plain is land with relatively low relief, that is flat or gently rolling. Prairies and steppes are types of plains, and the archetype for a plain is often thought of as a grassland, but plains in their natural state may also be covered in shrublands, woodland and forest, or...

s between the Mu River
Mu River
Mu River is a river in upper central Myanmar , and a tributary of the country's chief river the Ayeyarwady. It drains the Kabaw valley and part of the Dry Zone between the Ayeyarwady to the east and its largest tributary Chindwin River to the west, flows directly north to south for about and...

 and the Ayeyarwady River
Ayeyarwady River
The Irrawaddy River or Ayeyarwady River is a river that flows from north to south through Burma . It is the country's largest river and most important commercial waterway. Originating from the confluence of the N'mai and Mali rivers, it flows relatively straight North-South before emptying through...

.

The major tourist attractions in Shwebo, although few tourists make the journey and facilities are very limited, are its numerous Buddhist temples, and the reconstruction of Alaungpaya's palace. The city is still surrounded by its ancient moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...

. There are many pagoda
Pagoda
A pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly Buddhist,...

s, such as Shwe-taza paya and Myodaunk zedi.

In the very hot summer, people who live in Shwebo believe that rain
Rain
Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. Rain requires the presence of a thick layer of the atmosphere to have temperatures above the melting point of water near and above the Earth's surface...

 comes when people bring the Shwe-taza Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...

 image around the town.

Education

The town is home to the Shwebo University and Shwebo Government Technological College.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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