Shwebo

History

Up to 1752, Shwebo was a village, called Moksobo (Burmese: မုဆိုးဘို [moʊʔ sʰó bò]; lit. "Hunter Chief") of about 300 houses. It lies near the site of the ancient Pyu 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 (lit. Golden Chief). 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 went in 1853 to raise the standard of rebellion in his successful bid to overthrow his half brother Pagan.

Names of Shwebo

Shwebo is famous for its five names. Five titles had been conferred to the city namely:

1. Moksobo (မုဆိုးဘို), its original name
2. Yadana-Theinhka (ရတနာသိင်္ဃ)
3. Konbaung (ကုန်းဘောင်)
4. Yangyi-Aung (ရန်ကြီးအောင်), and
5. Shwebo (ရွှေဘို), its modern name.

Most of the people knows above names but the name "အယုစြ်ဇပူရ" and "မြေဘုံသာ" ("Ayuhcyajpuur" and "Myaybhonesar") are rarely known.

Climate

Shwebo received 4.37 inches (111 mm) 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 3.84 inches (98 mm) of 24 October 1993.

Transport

Shwebo is served by Myanmar Railways's Mandalay-Myitkyina railway line. The city is best reached by pickup truck or bus as the roads from Mandalay and Monywa are in reasonably good shape. There are highway express buses from Yangon to Shwebo.

Economy

As with Monywa, the city is a trade center for agricultural produce, especially beans, rice and sesame from the surrounding plains between the Mu River and the Ayeyarwady River.

The major tourist attractions in Shwebo, although few tourists make the journey and facilities are very limited, are its numerous Buddhist temples, and the reconstruction of Alaungpaya's palace. The city is still surrounded by its ancient moat. There are many pagodas, such as Shwetaza Buddha Image and Myodaung Pagoda.

In the very hot summer, people who live in Shwebo believe that rain comes when people bring the Shwetaza Buddha Image around the town.

Education

There are three Basic Education High Schools in Shwebo. The town is home to the Shwebo University and Shwebo Government Technological College. Government Technological College (Shwebo) was established on 20 January 2007. It is situated in the north-east of Shwebo, about 3 miles (4.8 km), and in the east of Shwebo-Myitkyina Mahabyuha Road, about 1.14 miles (1.83 km)

Famous places

At the time of building the Shwebo City, the King Alaungpaya built seven places;

1. The Shwechattho Pagoda built in the place where the King Alaungpaya was born
2. The city
3. The Mahananda Lake
4. The auspicious ground
5. The central drum (Bahosidaw)
6. The place for nine city guardian spirits