Shwebo ( ) is a city in Sagaing Region, Burma, 110 km north-west of Mandalay between the Irawaddy River and the Mu River rivers. The city was the origin of the Konbaung Dynasty, established by King Alaungpaya in 1752, that was the dominant political force in Burma after the mid-18th century. It served as Alaungpaya's capital from 1752 to 1760. As of 2021, it has a population of 88,914.
It is the site of Shwebo University and Shwebo Palace.
History
Up to 1752, Shwebo was a village, called
Moksobo ( ; ) of about 300 houses.
It lies near the site of the ancient
Pyu people city-state of Hanlin.
On 29 February 1752, the chief of the village Aung Zeya founded the
Konbaung Dynasty to resist the upcoming invasion of
Lower Burma-based Hanthawaddy forces. Aung Zeya, who also assumed the royal title of
Alaungpaya, gained the allegiance of 46 surrounding villages, and organized defenses building a stockade and digging a moat around Moksobo. He renamed his village, Shwebo ().
[ Over the next eight years, Alaungpaya led the reunification of Burma with Shwebo as his capital.
]
Shwebo lost its status as capital after Alaungpaya's death in 1760. The successor Naungdawgyi moved the capital to Sagaing closer to the Irrawaddy river. Nonetheless, Shwebo continued to be an important region throughout the Konbaung era (1752–1885), providing a disproportionate share of soldiers that served in Konbaung's armies. The region was usually held as an appanage by the most senior princes, usually the crown prince. It was to Shwebo that Prince of Mindon Min went in 1853 to raise the standard of rebellion in his successful bid to overthrow his half brother Pagan Min.
Names of Shwebo
Shwebo is famous for its five names. Five titles had been conferred to the city namely:
-
Moksobo (မုဆိုးဘို), its original name
-
Yadana-Theinhka (ရတနာသိင်္ဃ)
-
Konbaung (ကုန်းဘောင်)
-
Yangyi-Aung (ရန်ကြီးအောင်), and
-
Shwebo (ရွှေဘို), its modern name.
Most of the people know the above names but the name "အယုစြ်ဇပူရ" and "မြေဘုံသာ" ("Ayuhcyajpuur" and "Myaybhonesar") are rarely known.
Geography
Climate
Located in the “Dry Valley” in the rain shadow of the Arakan Mountains, Shwebo lies on the boundary between a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw) and a hot semi-arid climate ( BSh). The city received of rainfall on 19 October 2011. It was the record breaking rainfall within 24 hours of October for past 48 years. The previous record was of 24 October 1993.[http://www.mrtv3.net.mm/newpaper/2110newsm.pdf Page 10 Col 2]
Transport
Shwebo is served by Myanmar Railways's Mandalay-Myitkyina railway line.
See also
-
2012 Shwebo earthquake
-
Basic Education High School No. 3 Shwebo
External links
