Monywa

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title: "Monywa" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["populated-places-in-sagaing-region", "township-capitals-of-myanmar"] topic_path: "general/populated-places-in-sagaing-region" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monywa" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]

FieldValue
settlement_typeCity
native_nameမုံရွာမြို့
official_nameMonywa
pushpin_label_positionbottom
pushpin_mapMyanmar
pushpin_map_captionLocation in Myanmar
pushpin_mapsize300
image_skylineMonywa-aung-setkya-paya-d04.jpg
imagesize300px
image_captionMonywa
subdivision_typeCountry
subdivision_nameMyanmar
subdivision_type1Region
subdivision_name1Sagaing Region
subdivision_type2District
subdivision_name2Monywa District
subdivision_type3Township
subdivision_name3Monywa Township
unit_prefImperial
area_code71
population_total372,095
population_urban207,489
population_rural164,606
population_as_of2014 Census
population_footnotes
population_blank1_titleEthnicities
population_blank2Buddhism
population_blank2_titleReligions
population_density_km2auto
coordinates
timezoneMMT
utc_offset+6.30
::

|settlement_type = City |native_name = မုံရွာမြို့ |official_name = Monywa |pushpin_label_position = bottom |pushpin_map = Myanmar |pushpin_map_caption = Location in Myanmar |pushpin_mapsize = 300 |image_skyline = Monywa-aung-setkya-paya-d04.jpg |imagesize = 300px |image_caption = Monywa |image_map = |map_caption = |subdivision_type = Country |subdivision_name = Myanmar |subdivision_type1 = Region |subdivision_name1 = Sagaing Region |subdivision_type2 = District |subdivision_name2 = Monywa District |subdivision_type3 = Township |subdivision_name3 = Monywa Township |unit_pref = Imperial |area_code = 71 |area_total_km2 = |population_total = 372,095 |population_urban = 207,489 |population_rural = 164,606 |population_as_of = 2014 Census |population_footnotes = |population_blank1_title = Ethnicities |population_blank2 = Buddhism |population_blank2_title = Religions |population_density_km2 = auto |coordinates = |elevation_ft = |elevation_m = |timezone = MMT |utc_offset = +6.30 |website =

Monywa (; ) is a city in Sagaing Region, Myanmar, located 136 km north-west of Mandalay on the eastern bank of the River Chindwin. Monywa is one of the most economically important cities in Myanmar. It is also known as 'Neem City' because many of the city's streets are lined with neem trees.

Climate

Monywa and neighbouring parts of the “Dry Valley” are the only places in Southeast Asia where the hot semi-arid climate (Köppen BSh) occurs. The city misses the tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw) classification due to the very high temperatures and resultant high evaporation levels, alongside a long dry season. The semi-aridity has to do with the “Dry Valley” being located in the rain shadow of the Arakan Mountains. Temperatures are very high throughout the year, although the winter months from December to February are significantly milder at around 21 °C in January. The early monsoon months from April to July are especially hot, with average high temperatures reaching 38.4 °C in April.

Monywa received 139 mm of rainfall on 19 October 2011. This was a new record for rainfall within 24 hours in October in Monywa for the last 47 years. The previous record was 135 mm on 24 October 1967.

|location = Monywa (1991–2020) |metric first = Y |single line = Y |collapsed = | Jan record high C = 34.6 | Feb record high C = 39.3 | Mar record high C = 43.5 | Apr record high C = 44.8 | May record high C = 45.7 | Jun record high C = 43.5 | Jul record high C = 43.0 | Aug record high C = 41.0 | Sep record high C = 38.9 | Oct record high C = 39.4 | Nov record high C = 37.4 | Dec record high C = 34.0 |year record high C = 45.7 | Jan record low C = 7.2 | Feb record low C = 11.0 | Mar record low C = 11.8 | Apr record low C = 17.1 | May record low C = 20.0 | Jun record low C = 20.2 | Jul record low C = 22.8 | Aug record low C = 21.0 | Sep record low C = 20.4 | Oct record low C = 17.6 | Nov record low C = 12.0 | Dec record low C = 8.3 |year record low C = 7.2 |Jan high C = 29.2 |Feb high C = 33.0 |Mar high C = 37.0 |Apr high C = 39.4 |May high C = 38.1 |Jun high C = 36.4 |Jul high C = 36.2 |Aug high C = 35.0 |Sep high C = 34.1 |Oct high C = 32.9 |Nov high C = 31.3 |Dec high C = 28.9 | year high C = 34.3 |Jan mean C = 21.5 |Feb mean C = 24.4 |Mar mean C = 28.2 |Apr mean C = 31.4 |May mean C = 31.7 |Jun mean C = 31.1 |Jul mean C = 31.1 |Aug mean C = 30.3 |Sep mean C = 29.5 |Oct mean C = 28.2 |Nov mean C = 25.4 |Dec mean C = 22.1 | year mean C = 27.9 |Jan low C = 13.9 |Feb low C = 15.8 |Mar low C = 19.4 |Apr low C = 23.5 |May low C = 25.4 |Jun low C = 25.9 |Jul low C = 25.9 |Aug low C = 25.5 |Sep low C = 24.9 |Oct low C = 23.5 |Nov low C = 19.5 |Dec low C = 15.3 | year low C = 21.5 |precipitation colour = green |Jan precipitation mm = 2.9 |Feb precipitation mm = 1.3 |Mar precipitation mm = 7.0 |Apr precipitation mm = 31.5 |May precipitation mm = 97.5 |Jun precipitation mm = 80.6 |Jul precipitation mm = 62.4 |Aug precipitation mm = 121.6 |Sep precipitation mm = 172.3 |Oct precipitation mm = 135.8 |Nov precipitation mm = 23.3 |Dec precipitation mm = 3.6 | year precipitation mm = 739.8 | unit precipitation days = 1.0 mm |Jan precipitation days = 0.4 |Feb precipitation days = 0.5 |Mar precipitation days = 0.8 |Apr precipitation days = 3.4 |May precipitation days = 8.5 |Jun precipitation days = 6.6 |Jul precipitation days = 6.3 |Aug precipitation days = 9.3 |Sep precipitation days = 10.3 |Oct precipitation days = 8.8 |Nov precipitation days = 1.9 |Dec precipitation days = 0.7 |year precipitation days = 57.5 |source 1 = World Meteorological Organization{{cite web | url = https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/archive/arc0216/0253808/1.1/data/0-data/Region-2-WMO-Normals-9120/Myanmar/CSV/Monywa_48037.csv | title = World Meteorological Organization Climate Normals for 1991–2020 | publisher = World Meteorological Organization | access-date = 16 October 2023}} |source 2 = Norwegian Meteorological Institute (extremes), Meteomanz(record)

Capital status

All government offices of Sagaing Region are located in Monywa, including the regional parliament. The town is generally recognized as the capital of the region.

However, groups including the civil society group "Steering Committee for the Return of All Regional Offices to Sagaing City in Accordance with the Constitution" object to this, stating that the use of Monywa as the regional capital is unconstitutional per the 2008 Constitution of Myanmar.

Culture

Monywa is a national hub for poets, and is often described as the center of poetry in Upper Myanmar. The town has served as home to many contemporary poets, including Min Swe Hnit, K Za Win, Kyi Zaw Aye, and Khat Thi.

Transport

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/R_Chindwin.JPG" caption="River Chindwin at Monywa"] ::

Monywa is served by the Mandalay-Budalin branch railway line, but is best reached by bus as the road from Mandalay is in reasonably good shape. Monywa is linked by road to Budalin, Dabayin, Ye-U and Kin-U, and by rail to Sagaing and the Mandalay - Myitkyina line. River transport on the Chindwin has always been important as it is navigable for 640 km to Hkamti during the monsoon season, and most of the year to Homalin. Monywa Airport also serves the area.

Economy

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Monywa-thanboddhay-d13.jpg" caption="Thanboddhay Pagoda"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Monywa-d04.jpg" caption="Market"] ::

Monywa is a major centre for trade and commerce and for agricultural produce from the surrounding Chindwin valley, especially beans, oranges, pulses and jaggery (palm sugar). In addition, the local industry includes mills for the production of cotton, flour, noodles, and edible oil. Sausages from Alon called wet udaunk are quite popular, and Budalin longyi (sarong) is known for the strength of the fabric and its checked patterns. Monywa's rough cotton blankets are famous throughout Myanmar (with Monywa providing 80% of the country's blankets for a century), and some can be found sewn up into knapsacks sold to unsuspecting tourists in Bangkok. Other regional crafts include bamboo and reed products, bullock carts and agricultural implements. The village of Kyaukka is well known for its lacquerware utensils for everyday use.

Black market goods from India, especially saris and bicycle parts, pass through Monywa on their way to other parts of Myanmar.

Attractions

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Monywa_Signboard.jpg" caption="Entrance to Monywa"] ::

The major tourist attraction in Monywa is Thambuddhe Pagoda , a Buddhist temple with a huge stupa resembling Indonesia's Borobudur. It dates from 1303, although it was reconstructed in 1939. It is said to contain over 500,000 images of Buddha. Close by is the Maha Bodhi Tahtaung Laykyun Sekkya standing Buddha statue, the 3rd tallest statue in the world, at 115.82 metres (a total of 129.23 metres, including the pedestal). This is the focal point of a sprawling site filled with Buddha statues, bodhi trees, and pagodas, established by the Maha Bodhi Ta Htaung Sayadaw in the 1960s. It includes also a 95-metre long reclining Buddha statue.

Another attraction is the Phowintaung cave complex across the Chindwin River, approximately 25 km west of Monywa.

Nyaung-gan Bronze Age cemetery, dated to between 1,500 BCE and 500 BCE, in Budalin with bronze tools, ceramics and stone artifacts is 60 minutes travel on a narrow road north of Monywa.

Very few tourists visit Monywa as its facilities are limited.

Education

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Monywa_Tech_College.JPG" caption="Technological University (Monywa)"] ::

The city is home to several higher education institutions:

  1. Monywa University
  2. Monywa Education College
  3. Monywa University of Economics
  4. Technological University, Monywa
  5. Computer University, Monywa

Healthcare

Monywa has two public hospitals:

  • Monywa General Hospital
  • Monywa Women and Children Hospital

Politics

The insurgent Burmese Communist Party (BCP) was centred in the Monywa area (west of the Chindwin River) for many years. The Myanmar military presence in Monywa remains heavy.

Notable residents

Gallery

Image:Laykyun Setkyar 01 (cropped).jpg|Giant reclining Buddha at Bodhi Tahtaung Image:Yattawmu_Paya.JPG|Giant standing Buddha (under construction in the first picture) Image:Monywa-shwezigon-paya-d07.jpg|Shwezigon-Paya Image:Monywa-aung-setkya-paya-d02.jpg| Aung Setkya Paya

Notes

References

  1. "Myanmar Area Codes".
  2. (May 2015). "The 2014 Myanmar Population and Housing Census The Union Report Census Report Volume 2". Department of Population, Ministry of Immigration and Population.
  3. (14 June 2023). "Conflict in Upper Myanmar reaches outskirts of Sagaing capital". Myanmar Now.
  4. Brzezina, Jachym. "Meteotemplate".
  5. "Myanmar climate: Average Temperature, weather by month, Myanmar weather averages – Climate-Data.org".
  6. http://www.mrtv3.net.mm/newpaper/2110newsm.pdf{{dead link. (February 2018)
  7. "Myanmar Climate Report". Norwegian Meteorological Institute.
  8. "NAJAF - Weather data by month".
  9. "ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး အစိုးရအဖွဲ့ရုံး".
  10. Kyaw Kyaw. (26 May 2009). "Building bridges to understanding Sagaing Division". New Mandala.
  11. (6 December 2018). "စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းရဲ့ မြို့တော် "မုံရွာ"ဟု လွှတ်တော်မှာ ဖြေကြားခဲ့တဲ့ ပညာရေးဒုဝန်ကြီးထံကို ကန့်ကွက်စာပေးပို့". Voice of Myanmar.
  12. "Sr Gen Than Shwe urges officials to collectively strive for turning Sagaing Division into granary of Upper Myanmar Assistance assured to upgrade Monywa-Budalin-Dabayin-YeU-KhinU Road". [[The New Light of Myanmar]], December 3, 2002.
  13. "Chindwin River". [[Encyclopædia Britannica]] online.
  14. "Monywa Airport Profile | CAPA".
  15. Sandar Lwin. (21 March 2011). "In Monywa, 'market economy' leaves some businesses behind". Myanmar Times.
  16. "Nev World Wonders".
  17. [https://frontiermyanmar.net/en/once-feted-by-myanmars-junta-bronze-age-cemetery-site-returns-to-the-spotlight Once feted by Myanmar's junta, Bronze Age cemetery site returns to the spotlight], Forntier Myanmar.
  18. "Ministry of Science and Technology". MOST, February 2009.
  19. "Ministry of Science and Technology". MOST, February 2009.
  20. [https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/red-dawn-myanmars-reborn-communist-army/ Red dawn: Myanmar’s reborn communist army] [[Frontier Myanmar]] December 11, 2023 {{Webarchive. link. (January 28, 2024)

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populated-places-in-sagaing-regiontownship-capitals-of-myanmar