Pegu

Pegu, port city, southern Myanmar (Burma), on the Pegu River, 47 miles (76 km) northeast of Yangon (Rangoon). Pegu was the capital of the Mon kingdom and is surrounded by the ruins of its old wall and moat, which formed a square, with 1.5-mile (2.4-kilometre) sides. On the Yangon–Mandalay railway, it is the start of a branch line southeast along the Gulf of Martaban, an inlet of the Bay of Bengal, and has extensive road links in all directions. Pegu is a major rice- and timber-collecting centre and has numerous rice mills and sawmills.

Of its many pagodas, the ancient Shwemawdaw (“Golden Shrine”), 288 feet (88 m) high, is the most venerable. Said to contain two hairs of Gautama Buddha, it is of Mon origin and was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1930, but restoration was completed in 1954. The Shwethalyaung, a colossal reclining statue of Buddha (181 feet [55 m] long), is to the west of the modern town and is reputedly one of the most lifelike of all the reclining Buddha figures; allegedly built in 994, it was lost when Pegu was destroyed in 1757 but was rediscovered under a cover of jungle growth in 1881. From the nearby Kalyani Sima (“Hall of Ordination”), founded by the Mon king Dhammazedi (1472–92), spread one of the greatest reform movements in Myanmar Buddhist history. Its story is related in 10 stone inscriptions erected by the king close to the Sima. The Mahazedi, Shwegugale, and Kyaikpien are other notable pagodas.

Pegu city is said to have been founded in 573 by Mon emigrants from Thaton to the southeast, but the most likely date of its foundation as the capital of a Mon kingdom is 825. The earliest record of the kingdom shortly before 850 was by the Arab geographer Ibn Khurradādhbih, who called it Ramaññadesa (the Rmen, or Mon, land). In 1057, when the Burman king Anawrahta of Pagan conquered the kingdom, he depopulated it by transporting 30,000 Mon to Pagan. Pegu was little heard of until Pagan fell to the Mongols in 1287. When the Mons recovered their independence, Pegu became the capital of their new kingdom in 1369. It functioned as a port, easily accessible from all parts of the alluvial plain. It was also a centre of Buddhist culture.

When in 1539 the Mon kingdom fell to the Burman Toungoo dynasty, Pegu was made the capital of a united kingdom until 1599 and again from 1613 to 1634. It was used in the 16th century as a base for the invasion of Siam. Many Europeans visited it, including the Venetian trader Cesare Federici (1569) and the English merchant Ralph Fitch (1587–88), whose description detailed its magnificence.

After the Burmans moved their capital to Ava in 1635, Pegu became a provincial capital, but a Mon revolt in 1740 restored it as the capital of their short-lived kingdom. When in 1757 the Burman king Alaungpaya invaded the Mon land, wiping out the last vestiges of independence, he destroyed Pegu but left the religious buildings intact. The British annexed the Pegu area in 1852, and in 1862, when the province of British Burma was created, the capital was moved from Pegu to Rangoon. Because of Alaungpaya’s wars and the flight of the Mon people, the area was again virtually depopulated. The British later developed that area into the main rice-growing and exporting region of Burma.

Pegu is located between the forested Pegu Mountains (west) and the Sittang River (east). The area has a major irrigation scheme; rice is practically the only crop and is exported through Yangon. The Pegu Sittang Canal, which crosses the area, is navigable for nearly 40 miles (nearly 65 km) with locks. Pop. (1983) 150,447.