Kyaukme (Shan State)
Encyclopedia
Kyaukme is a town
in northern Shan State
of Burma. It is situated on the Mandalay
- Lashio
road, after Pyin U Lwin
and Nawnghkio
, and before Hsipaw
, on what is now the Mandalay
- Muse
road, part of the Asian Highway route 14 (AH14). It is also connected to Momeik
(Mongmit) in the Shweli River
valley and Mogok with its ruby
mines. Kyaukme can be reached by train on the Mandalay-Lashio railway line.
Tenth Air Force
carried out bombing raids between October 1944 and March 1945 on Kyaukme station, rolling stock, tracks and roads as well as Japanese
troop concentrations in the area.
On 12 February 1945, British
and American units of Lt Gen Sultan's Northern Combat Area Command
(NCAC) were advancing south towards Lashio and Kyaukme but were being held up by heavy fighting near the Shweli River. Kyaukme was captured on 31 March 1945 by the British 36th Infantry Division
and Chinese 6th Army units, which cleared the Burma Road
from Mandalay to Lashio.
, the main trading centre for tea
from Tawngpeng
, and the hills around Kyaukme itself, inhabited by the Palaung.
Burma and China
signed a contract in August 2003 for a hydel power project. A dam
is under construction on the Shweli River
near Namhkam
aiming to supply electricity to Kyaukme, Hsipaw, Lashio and Namtu
.
is endemic
in the area, and its control has been the concern of the WHO
since the 1950s. Women of reproductive age (15-49) in Kyaukme and Nawnghkio have been targeted for improvement in reproductive health
in the community in collaboration with Japan
. A study mission was started in June 2004, with the project continuing for the period January 2005- December 2009.
(SSA-North)'s Third Brigade has been active in Mongmit, Kyaukme, Hsipaw, Namtu and Lashio. It reached a cease-fire agreement with the Burmese military government (SLORC) in 1989, and its activities have been severely curtailed.
During the Saffron Revolution, on 24 September 2007, 37 Buddhist monk
s in Kyaukme staged a peaceful protest march which ended without interference from the authorities, but they were prevented from repeating the protest the next day.
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
in northern Shan State
Shan State
Shan State is a state of Burma . Shan State borders China to the north, Laos to the east, and Thailand to the south, and five administrative divisions of Burma in the west. Largest of the 14 administrative divisions by land area, Shan State covers 155,800 km², almost a quarter of the total...
of Burma. It is situated on the Mandalay
Mandalay
Mandalay is the second-largest city and the last royal capital of Burma. Located north of Yangon on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, the city has a population of one million, and is the capital of Mandalay Region ....
- Lashio
Lashio
Lashio is the largest town in northern Shan State, Myanmar, about northeast of Mandalay. It is situated on a low mountain spur overlooking the valley of the Nam Yao river. The population grew from around 5000 in 1960 to 88,590 in 1983. It is currently estimated at around 130,000.Lashio is the...
road, after Pyin U Lwin
Pyin U Lwin
Pyin U Lwin or Pyin Oo Lwin , formerly Maymyo , is a scenic hill town in Mandalay Division, Myanmar, located in the Shan Highland, some east of Mandalay, and at an altitude of 1070 meters .-History:...
and Nawnghkio
Nawnghkio
Nawnghkio, variously spelt Naunghkio, Naungcho or Nawngcho, is a town in northern Shan State, Burma. It is connected to Mandalay, Pyin U Lwin, Kyaukme, Hsipaw and Lashio by road and rail and by road to Taunggyi via National Road 43. Asia World Company, led by Tun Myint Naing, won the contract to...
, and before Hsipaw
Hsipaw
Hsipaw , is a town in Shan State, Myanmar on the riverbank of Myitnge River. It is 200 km northeast of Mandalay.-Shan Saopha:Hsipaw is perhaps one of the most well known and powerful saopha states of Shan State...
, on what is now the Mandalay
Mandalay
Mandalay is the second-largest city and the last royal capital of Burma. Located north of Yangon on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, the city has a population of one million, and is the capital of Mandalay Region ....
- Muse
Muse (Shan State)
Muse is the principal town of Muse Township also spell as Mu Se Township in northern Shan State, Myanmar. It is situated on the Shweli River, and is connected by a bridge and road to Ruili in Yunnan Province, China....
road, part of the Asian Highway route 14 (AH14). It is also connected to Momeik
Momeik
Momeik, known as Know as Mong Mit in Shan, is a town situated on the Shweli River in northern Shan State of Myanmar .-Transport:...
(Mongmit) in the Shweli River
Shweli River
Shweli River is a river in Myanmar . Also known as Nam Mao in Shan and Lung Chuan Chiang in Chinese, it forms part of the boundary between Burma and China. It is one of the tributaries of the country's chief river, the Ayeyarwady, and arises in Yunnan Province of China...
valley and Mogok with its ruby
Ruby
A ruby is a pink to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum . The red color is caused mainly by the presence of the element chromium. Its name comes from ruber, Latin for red. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapphires...
mines. Kyaukme can be reached by train on the Mandalay-Lashio railway line.
History
During the Second World War, the B-25s and P-47s of the USAAFUnited States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
Tenth Air Force
Tenth Air Force
The Tenth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Reserve Command . It is headquartered at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas....
carried out bombing raids between October 1944 and March 1945 on Kyaukme station, rolling stock, tracks and roads as well as Japanese
Imperial Japanese Army
-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...
troop concentrations in the area.
On 12 February 1945, British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
and American units of Lt Gen Sultan's Northern Combat Area Command
Northern Combat Area Command
The Northern Combat Area Command or NCAC was a mainly Sino-American formation that held the northern end of the Allied front in Burma during World War II. For much of its existence it was commanded by the acerbic General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, and controlled by his staff...
(NCAC) were advancing south towards Lashio and Kyaukme but were being held up by heavy fighting near the Shweli River. Kyaukme was captured on 31 March 1945 by the British 36th Infantry Division
British 36th Infantry Division
The 36th Indian Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Indian Army during the Second World War. The division was subsequently converted to a British Army formation and redesignated the 36th Infantry Division. It served in India and during the Burma Campaign...
and Chinese 6th Army units, which cleared the Burma Road
Burma Road
The Burma Road is a road linking Burma with the southwest of China. Its terminals are Kunming, Yunnan, and Lashio, Burma. When it was built, Burma was a British colony.The road is long and runs through rough mountain country...
from Mandalay to Lashio.
Economy
Kyaukme has been, since before British colonial ruleBritish rule in Burma
British rule in Burma lasted from 1824 to 1948, from the Anglo-Burmese Wars through the creation of Burma as a province of British India to the establishment of an independently administered colony, and finally independence...
, the main trading centre for tea
Lahpet
Lahpet, also spelt laphet :"Of all the fruit, the mango's the best; Of all the meat, pork's the best; Of all the leaves, lahpets the best".-Etymology:...
from Tawngpeng
Tawngpeng
Tawngpeng is a district in Burma and was a Palaung state in the Northern Shan States prior to the de-recognition of independent Shan States by the military government of Burma in 1962. The capital of Tawngpeng is at Namshan.Tawngpeng is a center for tea production in the Shan States.....
, and the hills around Kyaukme itself, inhabited by the Palaung.
Burma and China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
signed a contract in August 2003 for a hydel power project. A dam
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
is under construction on the Shweli River
Shweli River
Shweli River is a river in Myanmar . Also known as Nam Mao in Shan and Lung Chuan Chiang in Chinese, it forms part of the boundary between Burma and China. It is one of the tributaries of the country's chief river, the Ayeyarwady, and arises in Yunnan Province of China...
near Namhkam
Namhkam (Shan State)
Namhkam , also spelt Namkham, is the principal town of Nanhkan Township in northern Shan State, Burma, situated on the southern bank of Shweli River near the border with Yunnan Province, China.-History:...
aiming to supply electricity to Kyaukme, Hsipaw, Lashio and Namtu
Namtu
Namtu is a town in northern Shan State, Burma. Famous for its Bawdwin and Namtu silver mines, it is situated on the Nam Tu River, and is connected to Lashio by rail.-History:...
.
Health
MalariaMalaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
is endemic
Endemic (epidemiology)
In epidemiology, an infection is said to be endemic in a population when that infection is maintained in the population without the need for external inputs. For example, chickenpox is endemic in the UK, but malaria is not...
in the area, and its control has been the concern of the WHO
Who
Who may refer to:* Who , an English-language pronoun* who , a Unix command* Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism- Art and entertainment :* Who? , a 1958 novel by Algis Budrys...
since the 1950s. Women of reproductive age (15-49) in Kyaukme and Nawnghkio have been targeted for improvement in reproductive health
Reproductive health
Within the framework of the World Health Organization's definition of health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, reproductive health, or sexual health/hygiene, addresses the reproductive processes, functions and system...
in the community in collaboration with Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. A study mission was started in June 2004, with the project continuing for the period January 2005- December 2009.
Politics
The Shan State ArmyShan State Army
The Shan State Army, or SSA, was an army formed in 1964 to resist the military government of Burma in Shan State.It later split into two factions, usually known in English as the Shan State Army - South or SSA-S, which continues to oppose the government, and the Shan State Army - North or SSA-N,...
(SSA-North)'s Third Brigade has been active in Mongmit, Kyaukme, Hsipaw, Namtu and Lashio. It reached a cease-fire agreement with the Burmese military government (SLORC) in 1989, and its activities have been severely curtailed.
During the Saffron Revolution, on 24 September 2007, 37 Buddhist monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s in Kyaukme staged a peaceful protest march which ended without interference from the authorities, but they were prevented from repeating the protest the next day.
External links
- Satellite map WikimapiaWikimapiaWikiMapia is a privately owned, online map and satellite imaging resource that combines Google Maps with a wiki system, allowing users to add information, in the form of a note, to any location on Earth. Users may currently use this information for free...
- Shan State map: 10= Kyaukme Asterism
- Photo: American, British and Chinese soldiers meet at Kyaukme at the end of March 1945
- Photos FlickrFlickrFlickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
- Kyaukme Asia Trip