Sittwe

Sittwe (Burmese: စစ်တွေမြို့, MLCTS: cac twe mrui., Burmese pronunciation: [sɪʔtwè mjo̰]), formerly Akyab (Burmese: အာကျပ်, MLCTS: a kyap), is the capital of Rakhine State, Myanmar (Burma). Sittwe is located on an estuarial island created at the confluence of the Kaladan, Mayu, and Lay Mro rivers emptying into the Bay of Bengal. As of 2019 the city has an estimated population of over 120,000 inhabitants. It is the administrative seat of Sittwe Township and Sittwe District.

The name Sittwe (စစ်တွေမြို့) is derived from the Burmese pronunciation of Arakanese စစ်တွေ, meaning "the place where the war meets".^{[citation needed]} When the Burmese king Bodawpaya invaded the Mrauk U Kingdom in 1784, the Rakhine defenders encountered the Burmese force at the mouth of Kaladan river. In the ensuing battle, which was waged on both land and water, the Mrauk U forces were defeated. The place where the battle occurred came to be called Saittwe by the Rakhine and then as Sittwe by the Burmese. The name was initially anglicized as Tset-twe and Site-tway.

The colonial name Akyab (အာကျပ်) derived from the town's hill Akyatkundaw or A-khyat-dau-kun (ကုန်း), named for one of its four stupas whose own name Ankyeit, Akyattaw, Akyatdaw or Ahkyaib-daw^{[citation needed]} ("Royal Rear-Jaw Pagoda") referenced its supposed possession of a Buddhist relic, a rear section of Siddhartha Gautama's jawbone.

The area of modern Sittwe was the location of a battle during the conquest of the Kingdom of Mrauk U (later Arakan and now Rakhine State, Myanmar) by the Burmese king Bodawpaya. In 1784, a Burmese expeditionary force said to be 30,000 strong encountered the governor of U-rit-taung Province, General ("Saite-ké") Aung and his force of 3000. Although heavily outnumbered, the Arakanese force tried to fight the Burmese forces on both land and sea, but were brutally crushed. This defeat opened the route towards the inland Arakanese capital of Mrauk-U, which was soon conquered, ending the independence of the Arakanese. According to Arakanese lore, all^{[clarification needed]} of the Arakanese defenders were killed.

Saittwe or Sittwe was only a small fishing village at the time of the British conquest of Burma, but its four poorly maintained stupas Akyattaw, Thingyittawdhāt, Letyatalundaw, and Letwetalundaw were later claimed to date to the 16th century and to hold various relics of the Buddha: part of his rear jawbone, his thigh, his right shinbone, and his left shinbone respectively.

The local defenses were stormed by the British under Gen. Morrison in 1825 during the First Anglo-Burmese War. Despite Morrison and many of his men succumbing to malaria, cholera, and other tropical diseases to the point the entire settlement was abandoned for a time, the port was chosen to serve as Arakan's seat of government in 1826 largely because Mrauk U was considered even more unhealthy. It was renamed Akyab after the town's hill and its eponymous pagoda. The bell of the pagoda at the Mahamuni Buddha Temple south of Mandalay was removed to the basement of the Akyab courthouse until 1867.

Under British occupation, the town grew into an important maritime base, particularly for the export of the area's rice. Despite its bad reputation for disease, historical records indicate Akyab was no more dangerous to its European colonizers than other locations along the India coast.^{[citation needed]} Its population increased to 15,536 inhabitants c. 1865, 33,200 c. 1880, and 31,687 by 1901, when it was the third largest port city in British Burma. In the 1860s, the Consulate General of the United States (Kolkata) had a consular agency in Akyab. The four stupas along the ridge overlooking the town were rebuilt in the late 19th century very plainly and unattractively.

During World War II, Sittwe was an important site of many battles during the Burma Campaign due to its possession of both an airfield and a deepwater port.