Bago

關於Bago

Bago, formerly known as Hanthawaddy, is the capital of the Bago Region in Myanmar. It is located 91 kilometres (57 mi) north-east of Yangon. The city had a population of 179,505 people in 2019 and was a historical capital of the Taungoo Dynasty and is known for its large pagodas.

The Burmese name Bago (ပဲခူး) is likely derived from the Mon language place name Bagaw. Until the Burmese government renamed English place names throughout the country in 1989, Bago was known as Pegu. Bago was formerly known as Hanthawaddy, the name of a Burmese-Mon kingdom.

An alternative etymology from the 1947 Burmese Encyclopedia derives Bago (ပဲခူး) from Wanpeku (Burmese: ဝမ်းပဲကူး) as a shortening of Where the Hinthawan Ducks Graze (Burmese: ဟင်္သာဝမ်းဘဲများ ကူးသန်းကျက်စားရာ အရပ်). This etymology relies on the non-phonetic Burmese spelling as its main reasoning.

Various Mon language chronicles report widely divergent foundation dates of Bago, ranging...

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.