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Mawlamyine, the former Moulmein, is the capital of Mon State and the fourth-largest city of Myanmar, set at the mouth of the Salween River about 300 kilometres southeast of Yangon. It is famous for the hilltop Kyaikthanlan Pagoda, its colonial churches and its fruit and cooking, praised in the Burmese saying that Mawlamyine is the place for eating.
An old Mon city, Mawlamyine was the first capital of British Burma from 1826 to 1852 and grew rich on teak, rice and shipbuilding. Adoniram Judson founded the first Baptist church of Myanmar here in 1827, George Orwell served in the city as a police officer in 1926, and Rudyard Kipling is believed to have written a line of his poem Mandalay at the pagoda on the ridge.
Pagodas and monasteries line that ridge, from Kyaikthanlan and U Zina to the Mahamuni Pagoda, while the Mon State Cultural Museum and the long Thanlwin and Attaran bridges lie below. South of the city wait the giant reclining Buddha of Win Sein Taw Ya, the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery and the sea pagoda of Kyaikkhami.
Kyaikthanlan Pagoda is the tallest pagoda in Mawlamyine, rising 46 metres on the ridge above the city. Built in 875 under the Mon king Mutpi Raja and raised by later kings, it overlooks the Salween, the Gulf of Martaban and the Kayin hills, and Kipling is believed to have found a line of Mandalay.
The Mahamuni Pagoda in Mawlamyine enshrines a copy of the revered Mahamuni Buddha of Mandalay, cast in 1904 on the northern spur of Kyaikthanlan hill for Queen Seindon and local worshippers. Gold and silver went into the casting, and a donor from Madras named Ganapati gave a ruby for its ornaments.
U Zina Pagoda stands on the eastern ridge of Mawlamyine and was once known in Mon as Kyaik Pa-tan, the white pagoda. It is believed to enshrine a hair relic of the Buddha from the time of King Ashoka. When the merchant U Moe rebuilt it in 1873 it fell twice, and the third one held with iron bands.
Yadanabonmyint Monastery in Mawlamyine, also called the Queen Seindon Monastery, is known for its royal craftsmanship and motifs. It was built under the guidance of Queen Seindon of King Mindon and consecrated in 1886, and divans she used are shown in the Mon State Cultural Museum.
The First Baptist Church in Mawlamyine is the first Baptist church in Myanmar, founded in 1827 by Adoniram Judson, the American missionary who compiled the first Burmese-English dictionary. It is built of red brick, George Orwell attended it in 1926, and Judson's wife Ann died at Kyaikkhami in 1826.
Attaran Bridge spans the Attaran River in Mawlamyine township, a suspension bridge hung on steel cables over reinforced concrete foundations, 430 metres long and 7.3 metres wide. It was formally opened in March 1998 on Armed Forces Day, and its towers make a striking sight over the water.
The Thanlwin Bridge links Mawlamyine with Mottama across the mouth of the Salween, near where the Gyaing and Attaran rivers join it. It was the longest bridge in Myanmar until the Pakokku Bridge opened, carrying a 3-kilometre road and a 6.6-kilometre railway line, with wide river views.
Bilu Island, the Ogre Island, is a delta island in the Salween just west of Mawlamyine, about the size of Singapore and home to some 200,000 people. Its villages are known for home industries such as school blackboards, rubber bands, cane goods and pipes, and a long bridge now links it to town.
Win Sein Taw Ya, near Mudon about 29 kilometres south of Mawlamyine, is the largest reclining Buddha in the world, 180 metres long and 30 metres high. Begun in 1992 by the monk Win Sein Sayadaw, it is ringed by stupas and statues, and chambers inside show the life and teachings of the Buddha.
Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, about 65 kilometres south of Mawlamyine, holds the graves of 3,770 Allied prisoners of war who died building the Burma-Siam Death Railway, whose Burmese end lay here. Designed by Colin St Clair Oakes, it was inaugurated on 10 December 1946 by General Aung San.
Kyaikmaraw Pagoda stands in the small town of Kyaikmaraw, a short drive southeast of Mawlamyine. It was built in 1455 by Shin Sawbu, the only queen regnant in the history of Myanmar, and its great Buddha image sits in the western manner, with legs lowered as if on a chair, a rare pose.
Kyaikkami Yele Pagoda in Kyaikkhami, about 48 kilometres south of Mawlamyine, is built out over the sea on a natural reef and reached by a long corridor from the beach. The resort town was once the British base of Amherst, where the American missionary Ann Judson died of smallpox in 1826.
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