Mawlamyine

Mawlamyine lies near the mouths of the Salween, Gyaing and Attaran rivers, opposite Martaban. Low hills overlooking the water carry Buddhist pagodas, including Kyaikthanlan, whose history is associated with Mon rulers. Before the nineteenth century the settlements clustered around these shrines were much smaller than the town that later grew at the river mouth.

The First Anglo-Burmese War ended with the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826, by which Burma ceded the Tenasserim coast to Britain. The British established their administrative centre at Mawlamyine, known to them as Moulmein. Roads and government buildings began to rise beside the old settlements, and the port grew around the river junction. In 1831 local donations funded repairs to Kyaikthanlan Pagoda, preserving a landmark above the expanding town.