Tagaung
| Tagaung | |
|---|---|
 Tagaung
|
|
| Coordinates: 23°30′N 96°2′E / 23.500°N 96.033°E | |
| Country |
 Burma
|
| Region | Mandalay Region |
| Township | Thabeikkyin Township |
| Population (2005) | |
| • Ethnicities | Bamar |
| • Religions | Buddhism |
| Time zone | MST (UTC+6.30) |
Tagaung is a town in Mandalay Region of Myanmar (Burma). It is situated on the east bank of the Ayeyarwady River, 127 miles north of Mandalay.
The Ayeyarwady remains the principal means to reach Tagaung. It is linked to Mandalay and to Kachin State in the north also by the Mandalay-Tagaung-Shwegu-Bhamo-Myitkyina Union Highway.
The 19th-century chronicle Hmannan Yazawin introduces Tagaung as the very first capital of Burma, along with the adage Myanmar asa Tagaung ga (Myanmar starts from Tagaung), and it was the ancient capital of the Pyu, who were the forerunners of the Burmese people. Its history is steeped in myth and legend. The city is said to have been founded in 850 BC by King Abhiraja of the Sakya clan from Kapilavastu in India, before the time of the Buddha.
It has a very important place in Burmese culture also for the Tagaung Yazawin (Tagaung Chronicle) legends of Maung Pauk Kyaing the dragon slayer, the powerful blacksmith and his sister who became the household guardian spirits known as the Mahagiri Nats, and the blind twin princes who were sent adrift on a raft down the Ayeyarwady.
Although the British historians G E Harvey and D G E Hall had dismissed the Abhiraja origin of the Burmese people, the antiquity of Tagaung itself is not in dispute.Ptolemy, the Greek geographer, writing in 140 AD, mentions Tugma Metropolis believed to be Tagaung at a spot in Upper Burma.
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