Mawlamyine

Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; Burmese: မော်လမြိုင်မြို့, MLCTS: mau la. mruing mrui., Burmese pronunciation: [mɔ̀ləmjàɪ̯ɰ̃ mjo̰]; Thai: เมาะลำเลิง; Mon: မတ်မလီု, Mon pronunciation: [mo̤t məlɜ̤m]), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), 300 kilometres (190 mi) southeast of Yangon and 70 kilometres (43 mi) south of Thaton, at the mouth of Thanlwin (Salween) River. Mawlamyine was an ancient city and the first capital of British Burma. It also serves as the capital of Mon State.

The Mon name which was previously used for Mawlamyine, Moulmein (မတ်မလီု; [mòt məlɜ̀m]) means "damaged eye" or "one-eyed man." According to legend, a Mon king had a powerful third eye in the centre of his forehead, able to see what was happening in neighbouring kingdoms. The daughter of one of the neighbouring kings was given in marriage to the three-eyed king and managed to destroy the third eye. The Burmese name "Mawlamyine" is believed to be a corruption of the Mon name.

Moulmein was also spelled as Maulmain or Moulmain or Maulmein in some records of the 19th century. The people of Moulmein were referred to as Moulmeinian.

According to Kalyani Inscriptions erected by King Dhammazedi of Hanthawaddy Pegu in 1479, Mawlamyine was mentioned among the '32 myo' or thirty-two Mon cities within the Martaban division. Binnya U, a deputy of Viceroy Saw Binnya, was one of the notable governors of Mawlamyine in the early history of the city.

In May 1541, King Tabinshwehti and his deputy Bayinnaung captured Mawlamyine. During the reign of Bayinnaung, Toungoo Empire became the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia. After his passing in 1581, his son Nanda Bayin and successors faced with rebellion by Lan Na, Siam, Lan Xang and renewed Portuguese incursions. In 1594, the governor of Mawlamyine who being in league with Siamese King Naresuan revolted against Toungoo court. Since then, the city became under the control of Siam (present-day Thailand) until 1614.

In 1760, General Minkhaung Nawrahta of the Royal Burmese Army repaired Mawlamyine on his way back from Burmese–Siamese War in Ayutthaya (former capital of Thailand). Kyaikthanlan Pagoda Inscription hinted that in 1764 (1125 ME), General Maha Nawrahta repaired Kyaikthanlan Pagoda on his way to capture Tavoy, and before finishing the repairment, Mawlamyine faced utter destruction.

Mawlamyine was the first capital of British Burma between 1826 and 1852 after the Tanintharyi (Tenassarim) coast, along with Arakan, was ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Yandabo at the end of the First Anglo-Burmese War. After the first Anglo-Burmese war, the British made it their capital between 1826 and 1852, building government offices, churches and a massive prison. In 1829, the Moulmein Bar Association was founded by the Barristers in Mawlamyine. They started business enterprises and the country's first newspaper, The Maulmain Chronicle. Between 1826 and 1862, colonial Mawlamyine was the center of British Burma and the first port city that became a strategically important area and a geographical nodal point for the newly occupied British territory in Southeast Asia. Ever since the first British occupation in 1824, the growth and prosperity of Mawlamyine had steadily increased due to timber trade. Nevertheless, the decline in prosperity of Mawlamyine began when the supply of marketable timber from Salween Valley started to decrease in the 1890s.

During British colonial times, Germany, Siam, Persia, Denmark, Norway and Sweden opened and maintained consulates in Mawlamyine led by either consuls or vice-consuls while Italy and the United States placed consular agencies in Mawlamyine. German explorer Johann Wilhelm Helfer's landing at Moulmein shore on 8 February 1837 made him the first German to arrive in Burma in the history.