Mon state
Overview of Mon State
Captital : MAW-LA-MYINE
Population : Over 2.46 million
Area : 4748 sq.miles
How to get there: By air, cruise, train, car
Places of interest
1. Kyaikhtiyo Pagoda (the Holy Rock)
2. Kyaikkami Yele Pagoda
3. Setse Beach Resort
4. Thanbyuzayat War Memorial
Mon State, in southeastern Myanmar, is home to the Mon people, who make up a significant portion of the states's 2.6 million people. Much of its 4748 square miles border the Gulf of Mottama.
One of the state impressive sites is the balancing stup at Kyaiktiyo, one of the most sacred Buddhist sites in the country.
Mawlamyine, the fourth largest city in Mon State, is also its capital, with a population of around 300000 people. George Orwell, author of Burmese Days, was stationed here for a time in the 1920s. The city is home to a Mon Cultural Museum as well as five separate monasteries and shrines, including the Seintone Mibaya Kyaung where Queen Seintone, wife of King Mindon Min, took refuge after King Thibaw Min, Myanmar's last king took power.
The lower part of the state is renowened for its beaches, jungles and cotton-weaving.
The notorious Burma-Siam Railway, or 'Death Railway', which killed tens of thousands of Allied POWs and Asian workers during WWII, had its western terminus in Thanbyuzayat, a town in the middle of the state.