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Other Destination
Mawlamyine (Moulmein)
Mawlamyine(or Moulmein )is the capital
of the Mon State in the Union of Myanmar. It is also the third
largest city in the country, after Yangon and Mandalay. It has a
population of about 240,000.
Mawlamyine is an ancient Mon town. The name according to the
legend comes from Mot-Mua-Lum, meaning "one eye destroyed" . In
this legend an ancient king had three eyes, the third eye in the
centre of the fore-head having the power of seeing what was
going on in surrounding kingdoms. The King of a neighbouring
country gave his daughter in marriage to the three-eyed king,
and this queen was eventually able to destroy the all-seeing
third eye.
Mawlamyine is now being transformed into a modern city with many
new public and private buildings coming up. Only the old pagodas
on the Mawlamyine Ridge remind us of her ancient origins.
Interesting Places In Mawlamyine
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Kyaik-Than-lan Pagoda
Three famous pagodas adorn the Mawlamyine Ridge. The
Kyaik-thanlan pagoda was erected in 875 A.D. during the reign of
King Mutpi Raja. A hair relic of the Buddha, Tripitaka
manuscripts and gold images of the Buddha were enshrined in the
pagoda. Successive kings raised the pagoda higher, from 56 feet
to the present 150 feet. The present base of the pagoda is 450
feet in circumference. There are 34 small pagodas called Zediyan
surrounding the pagoda. A lift has now been installed for easy
access.
•
U Zina Pagoda
This pagoda is named after a person called U Zina, but no one
really knows who he was. Some say that U Zina was a sage who
lived at thc time of king Asoka, and that U Zina was just a
villager who while collecting shoots on the hill where the
pagoda now stands, found a pot of gold buried in a bamboo grove.
The villager and his wife became rich and built this pagoda on
the hill which gave up its treasure to them. The old Mon name
for this pagoda is Kyaikpatan, named after thc white hill on
which it stands. Legend says it was first built in the 3rd
century B.C.
•
Mahamuni Pagoda
This is a replica of the Maha Muni Image at Mandalay. The
Seindon Mibaya-gyi, a prominent Queen of King Mindon from
Mandalay, went to live mawlamyine after the Annexation. She and
other members of the Myanmar Royal Family who were in Mawlamyine,
felt a great longing to pay homage to the Maha Muni Image, and
they arranged for a replica to be made in 1904. The building of
this Pagoda was led by Sayadaw Waziya-yama, a prominent Buddhist
monk, and Daw Shwe Bwin of Mawlamyine. The great image made in
Mandalay was brought to Naga-with a Hill on the Mawlamyine
Ridge,where a large building, a Gandakudi Taik, was erected to
house it. The nearby monastery named after its donor, the
Seindon Mibaya kyaung has some excellent wood-carvings which are
over a hundred years old.
How To Go There
Mawlamyine can be reached by road, rail or plane. As Myanmar
Airways flies to Mawlamyine only on Thursdays and Sundays. it is
more convenient to go by car, bus or railway. There are at
present three trains from Yangon to Mottama(or Martaban ) ehe
terminus across the Than Lwin ( Salween ) River from Mawlamyine.
She trains leave Yangon at 3a.m. . 4a.m. and 8a.m daily, and
take about seven hours to reach Mottama.
It is a pleasant half an hour's river crossing by passenger or
car ferry from Mottama to Mawlamyine. The ferry goes in a
southeast direction across the wide expanse of the Than Lwin
River near its mouth. As you cross, you can see Bilu Gyun (Ogre
Island) in the west.
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