Pyin Oo Lwin | |
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Town | |
Downtown Pyin Oo Lwin
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Coordinates: 22°2′4.38″N 96°27′31.49″E / 22.0345500°N 96.4587472°E | |
Country | Myanmar |
Region | Mandalay Region |
District | Pyin Oo Lwin District |
Population (2014) | 255,000 |
Time zone | MMT (UTC+6:30) |
Pyin Oo Lwin or Pyin U Lwin (Burmese: ပြင်ဦးလွင်, pronounced [pjɪ̀ɴ ʔú lwɪ̀ɴ]; MLCTS=prang u: lwang mrui.), formerly and colloquially referred to as Maymyo (မေမြို့), is a scenic hill town in Mandalay Division, Myanmar, located in the Shan Highland, some 67 kilometers (42 mi) east of Mandalay, and at an altitude of 1,070 meters (3510 ft). The town was estimated to have a population of around 255,000 in 2014.
Pyin Oo Lwin(ပြင်ဦးလွင်) May myo (မေမြို့) Taung Lay Khar(တောင်လှေခါး) (Hillside Stairs) Taung Sa Kan(တောင်စခန်း) (Hill Station) and the most well-known name, Pan Myo Taw (City of flowers)
The town began as a military outpost established near a small Shan village with two dozen households situated on the Lashio-Mandalay trail between Nawnghkio and Mandalay. In 1896, a permanent military post was established in the town and later, because of its climate, it became a hill station and the summer capital of British Burma. The establishment in Burma (civil, commercial and military) would move to Maymyo during the hot season to escape from the high heat and humidity of Rangoon. During British rule and through the 1970s, Maymyo had a large Anglo-Burmese population, but this steadily declined. During the Japanese occupation, as many Anglos were concentrated in and around Maymyo, the Japanese incarcerated many of them for fear of their loyalty to the British very close to Maymyo. Today though, Maymyo still has one of the larger hold over populations of Anglo-Burmese in the country. The British named the location Maymyo, literally May's Town in Burmese, after Colonel May, a veteran of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and commander of the Bengal Regiment temporarily stationed at the location of the town in 1887. The military government of Burma renamed the town Pyin U Lwin.