BURMA GAZETTEER THARRAWADDY DISTRICT VOLUME A SUPERINTENDENT, GOVT. PRINTING AND STATY., UNION OF BURMA RANGOON PREFACE The gazetteer was compiled mainly by Mr. S. G. Grantham, I.C.S., Assistant Settlement Officer, No. 5 Party, and completed by Mr. R.G. McDowall, I.C.S., Assistant Settlement Officer, and Mr. B.W. Swithin bank, I.C.S., Settlement Officer, No. 5 Party. B. W. PERKING, Settlement Officer, No. 5 Party. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGES Physical Description 1--22 CHAPTER II History and Archaeology 23--40 CHAPTER III The People 41--56 CHAPTER IV Agriculture 57--62 CHAPTER V Forests and Minerals 63--68 CHAPTER VI Occupations and Trade 69 CHAPTER VII Means of Communication 70--74 CHAPTER VIII General Administration 75—101 ii CONTENTS PAGES CHAPTER IX Revenue Administration 102--120 CHARTER X Local Selt-Government 121 CHAPTER XI Education 121--122 CHARTER XII Public Health 123--130 CHAPTER XIII Minor Articles 131--135 BURMA GAZETTEER THE THARRAWADDY- DISTRICT Chapter I PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Situation and Area. The Tharrawaddy district, lying between 17° 31´ and 18° 47´ North Latitude and between 95° 15´ and 96° 10´ East Longitude and having an area of 2,863 square miles, forms part of the Pegu Division of Lower Burma. It marches with the Prome district on the north and with the Insein district on the south. To the east the range of hills known as the Pegu Yoma, reaching in places a height of 2,000 feet, divides it from the Pegu and Toungoo districts. The western boundary is the Irrawaddy River, but in the south-west a small area between that river and the Insein district is excluded, to belong to the district of Henzada. Derivation of Name. The name of the district is properly a Pali word made up of sara (wealth, substance) and of vanta, an adjectival suffix showing possession; thus saravanta means wealthy, substantial. Following a common rule in Pali which makes names of countries feminine, the feminine form saravati was adopted; in Burmese this is written tharawadi. The district was probably so called owing to its natural wealth in timber and paddy which sent much revenue to the royal exchequer; Burmese writers say it was so called because of the large amount of revenue it yielded. Traditional Derivation. The locally-given derivation is somewhat different. It is related that when King Myitkyanzwa and his brother Minyanga came south from Ava to Prome, the king travel ling by road and his brother by river, they made a tour through the delta, and after erecting a pagoda at Hmawbi they came to Gangaw which was situated at the present site 2 THARRAWADDY DISTRICT of Myodwin, some 8 miles east of Gyobingauk. The King ordered his ministers to build a palace. there and measures were taken accordingly to put in posts to mark the site. But the posts would not stand up; so holes were dug for them. But, on digging, the ground was found to be swarming with ants and to have the tnatted appearance of a loofah. It was impossible to cut through it. The ponnas called upon to interpret this phenomenon said the swarms of ants indicated that the people of that place would be numerous, but just as it was impossible to unravel the tangle of a loofah, so it would be impossible to clear away the disorder that would exist among those people. In order that the work might go on four women must be killed and buried at the corners. Ma Min Ban, Ma Aung Bu and two others were sacrificed. Before she was killed Mr. Min Ban called down on the place the curse that no male child born in the place should be of good character, that no good pony should be foaled there, and that nobody there should ever be able to build a really good boat. So, that the people might know that her curse would be fulfilled she prayed to the hats that when she was killed her blood might sprut high in the air; and this actually happened. But the work went on successfully enough until the time came to hang the gates; these would not stay up. The ponnas now advised that the first pregnant woman who came along a certain road must be sacrificed. After five years Ma Aung Zan came along and was seized. But when they were about to kill her she begged them to let her stay in jail until her child was born. The plea was refused and then the gates were put up successfully.* Still the new town had no name and for five more years they waited to find one suitable. At last the ponnas saw a crow come and perch on a gate holding in his beak a fine fat worm and "singing" in his pleasure over such a meal. The crow, said the ponnas, is happy (tha-ya-om,m) because it can eat to repletion (wa-o) of this fine fat earthworm (ti-wD). So the place was called "thaya-wa-.t" But the curse has lived ever since. Philologically the legend fails to explain the form Tharrawaddy as it gives the sound of * Some versions of the story ascribe the curse to Ma Aung Zan and some call her Me Nyun. THARRAWADDY DISTRICT 3 , and not of &; but the people accept and it so apparently does the Railway. Company which always spells the name with a , Configuration. Physically the district falls into four tracts differing materially from each other in the main though each merges gradually into the next. These tracts form four narrow strips lying roughly north and south, all extending through practically the whole length of the district. The most easterly consists of the forests on the western slopes of the Pegu Yoma ; much is reserved forest producing fine teak as well as other useful if less costly timber, and more detailed accounts will be found in the sections dealing, with forests. To the west of this is a strip of undulating ground in which infertile ridges and bosses of laterite and sand occur amidst the general slope down from the foot of the hills to the alluvial plains. Here cultivation has extended considerably in recent years and little remains which can be cultivated profitably. But the land is still new and not completely broken in, elephant-grass invades the paddy holdings, and a large number of trees still stand in the rice fields. Next comes the main strip about eight to twelve miles wide, lying chiefly to the east of the railway but in some places extending several miles across it to the west. This consists of a flat and fertile alluvial plain given up to paddy-cultivation, with numerous villages rendered conspicuous by their groves of mango, tamarind and other garden trees with the fronds of the coconut palm waving above them. Toddy- palms (Borassus fiabellifer) are fairly numerous in some parts, and, aided occasionally by other trees, relieve the dull monotony of the rice-fields. Pogyikyaungs and pagodas are rather scarce. Close attention discovers slight variations of level, chiefly due to the low ridges formed by silt-deposits along the banks of the streams. But generally the aspect is that of a level plain with the Pegu Yoma as a dark bank to the east and the Arakan Yoma as a shadowy distant mass to the west serving to emphasize the dull monotony of the plain without affording it any relief. The last strip is that which brings us to the Irrawaddy a strip of low land along both sides of the Myitmaka most of which is flooded every year to a depth of from two to fifteen feet In August or September the floods subside 4 THARRAWADDY DISTRICT and the outer edges are then cultivated in parts. In the cultivated portion the villages are new and consist of little more than groups of huts huddled together on the higher points generally destitute of shade. The greater part, however is unculturable and forms a "laha" (or marsh tract flooded in the rains), its surface gently undulating and con sisting of almost pure clay save where the rivers are despositing their silt. There is a network of water courses, well-defined and deep close to the Myitmaka, ill defined and shallow where there are depressions big enough to form anything in the nature of a swamp or in. The laha in some places is covered with a dense tree and shrub growth, the typical tree being the kyi (Barringtonia acutangula). In some places the tree-growth is open and there is nothing but a short growth of grass. Less deeply flooded parts are covered with a dense growth of tall elephant-grass; the presence of this grass may indeed generally be taken as a sign that silting-up is in active progress and that very little more is needed to make the land fit for cultivation. It is said that the laha used not to be flooded every year; that the flooding dates back only to 1867 when the Irrawaddy was bunded along its right bank. The bunding raised the Irrawaddy flood-level and caused a large amount of its water to flow over to the Myitmakat valley and inundate it. This further banked up the tributaries of the Myitmaka and caused them to overflow. But while there are no very clear and precise records of the degree of flooding in early times, there are reasons for thinking that this statement is at least exaggerated. In 1868, it was stated in the Administration Report that this trace was subject to inundation during the south-west monsoon.