Rakhine State
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Coordinates: 19°30′N 94°0′E / 19.5°N 94°E
| ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ် Rakhine State (MLCTS: rahkuing pranynai) |
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| Capital | Sittwe (Akyab) |
| Region | West coastal |
| Area | 36,780 km² |
| Population | 2,744,000 (2000) |
| Ethnicities | Rakhine, Rohingya, Chin, Mro |
| Religions | Theravada Buddhism, Islam |
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Rakhine State (Burmese: ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်; formerly Arakan) is a state of Burma. Situated the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State in the north, Magway Division, Bago Division and Ayeyarwady Division in the east, the Bay of Bengal to the west, and the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh to the northwest. It is located approximately between latitudes 17°30' north and 21°30' north and east longitudes 92°10' east and 94°50' east. The Rakhine (Arakan) Yoma mountain range, which rises to 3,063 m at Victoria Peak, separates Rakhine State from Burma Proper. Its area is 36,762 km² and its capital is Sittwe.
The estimated population in 2000 was 2.75 million of which the ethnic Rakhine make up the slight majority. The Rohingya make up approximately 25% of the state's population (about 723,000 in 2009)[1] but are not counted as citizens by the military government.
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[edit] Etymology
Rakhapura is internationally known as Rakhine or Arakan but it is still called Rakhaingpray by its own people, Rakhaingthas.
[edit] Rahkine
The term Rakhine (pronounced Ra Khaing) is believed to have derived from the Pali word Rakkhapura (Sanskrit Raksapura), meaning “Land of Ogres”, possibly a pejorative referring to the original Negrito inhabitants. Another possibillity is from the Pali word "Rakkhapura" > "Rakkhita" meaning the land of the people of Rakhasa (Rakhasa > Rakkha > Rakkhaing > Rakhaing) who were titled this name in honor of preservation on their national heritage and ethics or morality.
[edit] Arakan
"Arakan", used in British colonial times, is believed to be a Bengali/Arab/Portuguese corruption of the word Rakhine and still popularly used in English as a gesture of political opposition to the current government. Arakan was vaguely known to the Romans as Argyre (Pliny the Elder, Ptolemy) or Khruse (Periplus of the Erythraean Sea), which they only knew as being vaguely somewhere near India.
[edit] Demographics
Ethnographers classify up to 11 ethnic groups (not including ethnic sub-groups) as native to Rakhine State. The Rakhine or Arakanese live in valleys. Rambye (Ramree) and Manaung (Cheduba) islands. The Chin inhabit the mountain regions of the north. The Mro, Thet (Chakma), Khami, Dainet, and Maramagri live on mountain ranges in the west and north.Neither foreigners so-called Islamic radical Rohingyas, who are Chittagongnian Bangali descended from an orginal Hindu Lower Caste (locally call Kular or Khaw taw- Kular) are indigenous peoples of Arakan.They have illegally migrated into Arakan since British colonial period according to British records. So far Arakan is effected as top problem by present situration of Bangladesh's undiguified population explosion.
The United Nations estimates that about 723,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar.[1]
The Myanmar government estimates that 69.7% of the population are Buddhist and 28.6% follow Islam.[2]
[edit] Administrative divisions
Rakhine State consists of four districts: Sittwe, Maungdaw, Kyaukphyu and Thandwe. Combined, these districts have a total of 17 townships[3] and 1,164 village-tracts.
[edit] Transport
Separated by the Rakhine Yoma mountain range, Rakhine State is essentially cut off from the mainland. Air travel still is the most popular mode of transport to Sittwe and Ngapali, the popular beach resort. Only in 1996 was a highway from Sittwe to the mainland constructed. The state still does not have a rail line (although Myanmar Railways has announced a 480-km rail extension to Sittwe from Pathein via Ponnagyun-Kyauttaw-Mrauk U-Minbya-Ann).[4]
[edit] Economy
Rakhine State receives much rain, so rice is the main crop, occupying around 85% of the total agricultural land. Coconut and nipa palm plantations are also important. Fishing is a major industry, with most of the catch transported to Yangon, but some is also exported. Wood products such as timber, bamboo and fuel wood are extracted from the mountains. Small amounts of inferior-grade crude oil are produced from primitive, shallow, hand-dug wells, but there is yet unexplored potential for petroleum and natural gas production.
Tourism is slowly being developed. The ruins of the ancient royal town Mrauk U and the beach resorts of Ngapali are the major attractions for foreign visitors, but facilities are still primitive, and the transportation infrastructure is still rudimentary.
[edit] Education
Educational opportunities in Myanmar are extremely limited outside the main cities of Yangon and Mandalay. The following is a summary of the public school system in the state in academic year 2002-2003.[5]
| AY 2002-2003 | Primary | Middle | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schools | 2515 | 136 | 49 |
| Teachers | 8600 | 2100 | 700 |
| Students | 264,000 | 76,000 | 25,000 |
Sittwe University is the main university in the state.
[edit] Health care
The general state of health care in Myanmar is poor. The military government spends anywhere from 0.5% to 3% of the country's GDP on health care, consistently ranking among the lowest in the world.[6][7] Although health care is nominally free, in reality, patients have to pay for medicine and treatment, even in public clinics and hospitals. Public hospitals lack many of the basic facilities and equipment. In general, the health care infrastructure outside of Yangon and Mandalay is extremely poor but is especially worse in remote areas like Rakhine State. The entire Rakhine State has fewer hospital beds than the Yangon General Hospital. The following is a summary of the public health care system in the state.[8]
| 2002-2003 | # Hospitals | # Beds |
|---|---|---|
| Specialist hospitals | 0 | 0 |
| General hospitals with specialist services | 1 | 200 |
| General hospitals | 16 | 553 |
| Health clinics | 24 | 384 |
| Total | 41 | 1137 |
[edit] History
| This article is part of the History of Burma series |
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| Early history of Burma |
| Pyu city-states (c. 100 BC–c. 840 AD) |
| Mon kingdoms (9th–11th, 13th–16th, 18th c.) |
| Bagan dynasty (849–1287, 1st Empire) |
| Ava (1364–1555) |
| Pegu (1287–1539, 1747–1757) |
| Mrauk U (1434–1784) |
| Toungoo dynasty (1486–1752, 2nd Empire) |
| Konbaung dynasty (1752–1885, 3rd Empire) |
| Wars with Britain (1824–1826, 1852, 1885) |
| British Arakan (1824–1852) |
| British Tenasserim (1824–1852) |
| British Lower Burma (1852–1886) |
| British Upper Burma (1885–1886) |
| British rule in Burma (1824–1942, 1945–1948) |
| Nationalist movement in Burma (after 1886) |
| Ba Maw |
| Aung San |
| Japanese occupation of Burma (1942–1945) |
| Democratic period (1948–1962) |
| U Nu and U Thant |
| 1st military rule (1962–1989) |
| Ne Win |
| 8888 Uprising (1988) |
| Aung San Suu Kyi |
| 2nd military rule (1989–present) |
| Saffron Revolution (2007) |
| Cyclone Nargis (2008) |
| [edit this box] |
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The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (March 2009) |
Past dynasties included Danyawady, Vesali, Laemro and Mrauk-U. The golden days of Mrauk-U in 16th and 17th centuries were contemporary to the days of Tudor kings and the Moguls from India, the Ayudya kings of Thailand and Ava, Taungoo and Hanthawaddy kings of Burma. Arakan has an over 5000-years old language and rich culture.[citation needed]
The natives of Arakan trace their history as far back as 2666 B.C., and give a lineal succession of 227 native princes down to modern times. According to them, their empire had at one period far wider limits, and extended over Ava, part of China, and a portion of Bengal. This extension of their empire is not, however, corroborated by known facts in history. According to recorded history, a kingdom called Dhanyawadi arose in the Arakan region in the 1st century AD. The famous Mahamuni Buddha (located in Mandalay) was cast in Dhanyawady in around 150 AD.[citation needed]
The kingdom of Waithali (Rakhine: Wai-tha-li) was the successor to Dhanyawady from the 3rd century AD.
Arakan reached the zenith of its power in the Bay of Bengal during the Waithali (Vesali), Lemro and Mrauk U periods, but the country steadily declined from the seventeenth century onwards. Chittagong, which was part of Arakan, was invaded and occupied by the Mughal Empire in 1666. Internal instability and dethroning of kings was very common. The Portuguese, during the era of their greatness in Asia, gained a temporary establishment in Arakan; but on December 28 1784 the province was finally conquered by the Burmese.
The famous Mahamuni Buddha image was taken as a war trophy by Crown Prince Shwedaung, son of King Bodawpaya and Conqueror of Arakan in 1784, to his capital of Amarapura. (The image was relocated to Mandalay By King Mindon in 1853 when he relocated the capital to Mandalay). The Burmese, after conquering Arakan, came directly into contact with British interests in east India. Burmese seizures of Arakan's neighbouring states of Assam and Manipur and the assault on Shinmaphyu Isle, which was a British outpost in Bengal was the instigating causes of the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824 to 26). Under the Treaty of Yandabo (1826), Burma ceded Arakan and Tenasserim to British India. Arakan was thus one of the first Burmese territories to be ceded to the British. The British made Akyab capital of Arakan, and retained the traditional divisions of the country into the districts of Akyab, Kyaukpyu and Sandoway (Ramree) with a district officer in charge of each.
With independence and the formation of the Union of Burma in 1948, the three districts became Arakan Division, on equal footing with the majority Burmese administrative divisions.
From the 1950s, there was a growing movement for secession and restoration of Rakhine independence. In part to appease this sentiment, in 1974, the Burmese government of Ne Win constituted Rakhine State from Arakan Division giving at least nominal acknowledgment of the majority Rakhine ethnic group.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Indonesia’s Poor Welcome Sea Refugees". The New York Times. 2009-04-19. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/world/asia/19indo.html?hp.
- ^ "The 8 Major National Ethnic Races in Myanmar" Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, Union of Myanmar
- ^ [http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs6/MIMU001_A3_SD%20&%20Township%20Overview.pdf "Myanmar States/Divisions & Townships Overview Map"] Myanmar Information Management Unit (MIMU)
- ^ "Myanmar to construct first railroad to link western state". Xinhua News. 2009-02-19. http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2009/02/19/3998164.htm.
- ^ "Education statistics by level and by State and Division". Myanmar Central Statistical Organization. http://www.etrademyanmar.com/STATS/s1701.htm. Retrieved on 2009-04-10.
- ^ "PPI: Almost Half of All World Health Spending is in the United States". 2007-01-17. http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=108&subsecID=900003&contentID=254167.
- ^ Yasmin Anwar (2007-06-28). "06.28.2007 Burma junta faulted for rampant diseases". UC Berkeley News. http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/06/28_Burma.shtml 06.28.2007.
- ^ "Hospitals and Dispensaries by State and Division". Myanmar Central Statistical Organization. http://www.etrademyanmar.com/STATS/s0413.htm. Retrieved on 2009-04-19.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
[edit] External links
Rakhine independence-affiliated
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