The name Sittwe (စစ်တွေမြို့) is derived from the Burmese pronunciation of Arakaneseစစ်တွေ, meaning "the place where the war meets".[citation needed] When the Burmese king Bodawpaya invaded the Mrauk U Kingdom in 1784, the Rakhine defenders encountered the Burmese force at the mouth of Kaladan river. In the ensuing battle, which was waged on both land and water, the Mrauk U forces were defeated. The place where the battle occurred came to be called Saittwe by the Rakhine and then as Sittwe by the Burmese. The name was initially anglicized as Tset-twe[3] and Site-tway.
The colonial name Akyab (အာကျပ်) derived from the town's hill Akyatkundaw[4] or A-khyat-dau-kun (ကုန်း), named for one of its four stupas whose own name Ankyeit,[4]Akyattaw,[4]Akyatdaw[5] or Ahkyaib-daw[citation needed] ("Royal Rear-Jaw Pagoda") referenced its supposed possession of a Buddhist relic, a rear section of Siddhartha Gautama's jawbone.[3]
History
Police checkpoint in Sittwe with closed-off Rohingya Muslim area in the background.
The area of modern Sittwe was the location of a battle during the conquest of the Kingdom of Mrauk U (later Arakan and now Rakhine State, Myanmar) by the BurmesekingBodawpaya. In 1784, a Burmese expeditionary force said to be 30,000 strong encountered the governor of U-rit-taung Province, General ("Saite-ké") Aung and his force of 3000.[6] Although heavily outnumbered, the Arakanese force tried to fight the Burmese forces on both land and sea, but were brutally crushed. This defeat opened the route towards the inland Arakanese capital of Mrauk-U, which was soon conquered, ending the independence of the Arakanese. According to Arakanese lore, all[clarification needed] of the Arakanese defenders were killed.
Saittwe or Sittwe was only a small fishing village at the time of the Britishconquest of Burma,[3] but its four poorly-maintained stupas Akyattaw, Thingyittawdhāt, Letyatalundaw, and Letwetalundaw were later claimed to date to the 16th century and to hold various relics of the Buddha: part of his rear jawbone, his thigh, his right shinbone, and his left shinbone respectively.[4]
The local defenses were stormed by the British under Gen. Morrison in 1825 during the First Anglo-Burmese War.[7] Despite Morrison and many of his men succumbing to malaria, cholera, and other tropical diseases to the point the entire settlement was abandoned for a time,[7] the port was chosen to serve as Arakan's seat of government in 1826 largely because Mrauk U was considered even more unhealthy.[4] It was renamed Akyab after the town's hill and its eponymous pagoda.[3] The bell of the pagoda at the Mahamuni Buddha Temple south of Mandalay was removed to the basement of the Akyab courthouse until 1867.[8]
Under British occupation, the town grew into an important maritime base, particularly for the export of the area's rice.[5] Despite its bad reputation for disease, historical records indicate Akyab was no more dangerous to its European colonizers than other locations along the India coast.[citation needed] Its population increased to 15,536 inhabitants c. 1865,[9] 33,200 c. 1880, and 31,687 by 1901, when it was the third largest port city in British Burma.[9] In the 1860s, the Consulate General of the United States (Kolkata) had a consular agency in Akyab.[10] The four stupas along the ridge overlooking the town were rebuilt in the late 19th century very plainly and unattractively.[4]
During World War II, Sittwe was an important site of many battles during the Burma Campaign due to its possession of both an airfield and a deepwater port.
Sittwe is the birthplace of political monks in Myanmar. It was the birthplace of U Ottama, the first monk who protested against the colonial British in Myanmar. Also, in the recent 2007 protest marches, known as the Saffron Revolution, it was the monks in Sittwe who started the protest against the military government in Myanmar. Sittwe houses the Dhanyawadi Naval Base, named after the ancient Rakhine city-state of Dhanyawadi.
Since 2012, the Myanmar government has held tens of thousands of Rohingyas in camps at Sittwe. There are now some 140,000 Rohingyas living in poor condition huts with limited electricity and food. Rohingya refugees can not go out or move around and also not allowed to work outside of camp. The beach at Ohn Daw Gyi became the main departure point.[11]
In early 2024, as a result of the Myanmar Civil War, Sittwe was surrounded by Arakan Army forces, which gained control of most of Rakhine State. Sittwe and a number of other cities are the only remaining areas in the state still controlled by the ruling military junta. A mass population exodus has been reported, with the only remaining avenue of escape being the airport.[2]
Climate
Sittwe's climate is classified as a tropical monsoon climate (Am), according to the Köppen climate classification system. The city experiences a dry season from December through April, and an extraordinarily rainy wet season covering the remaining seven months. Sittwe sees average rainfall in excess of 1 metre (40 in) per month during June, July and August. Conditions are noticeably cooler and less humid in the months of December, January and February than during the remainder of the year.
As of 2019, the General Administration Department reported 170,355 "Bangladeshi foreigners" living Sittwe' metro area- Sittwe Township and only 144,773 Rakhine residents in the township. Accordingly, 53.4% of the overall township adheres to Islam. There are no comparable statistics for just the city of Sittwe as the township's population nearly doubled between 2018 and 2019.[1]
The vast majority practises Theravada Buddhism and Islam. The Rohingya Muslim quarter used to be called Aung Mingala, until the Muslims were driven out by mobs during the 2012 riots in October.[15] It is difficult to document the number of Rohingya who remain in the Internally Displaced Persons camps as the so-called "illegal people" were not permitted to register for the national census and the government refuses to address this minority Rohingya ethnic group by name.
Human Rights Watch, Fortify Rights, Amnesty International and the UN Special Rapporteur have documented the spread of orchestrated anti-Muslim violence with the permission (and sometimes the direct involvement of) government and military authorities.[16]
In October 2011, as part of a recent bilateral trade deal signed by Myanmar and India, the two countries pledged a US$120 million port and multimodal investment to complete the infrastructure linking Indian north-eastern provinces to Sittwe overland via India's Mizoram by 2013.
The port of Sittwe will undergo extensive dredging and the construction of new berthing terminals. Once operational it will offer direct passage to enable Burmese and Indian shippers to pick up mainline services to and from Kolkata. The two countries also pledged to double bilateral trade to US$3 billion by 2015 by reducing trade tariffs.
Attractions
Viewpoint, or more popularly known as Point is perhaps the most well-known attraction in Sittwe. It is at the end of the Strand Road and looks out into the Bay of Bengal and the mouth of the Kaladan River.
The hundred-year old Shwezedi Monastery is a famous monastery in Sittwe. It was the monastery of U Ottama, who was the first political monk in Myanmar.
Sittwe Pharagri, the focal point of Sittwe's Buddhist environment, beside Shwezedi Monastery.
Ahkyaib-daw, is one of the most sacred Buddhist pagodas, possibly originating from the 3rd century BC in the days of Emperor Asoka. The pagoda Ahkyaib-daw, meaning maxillary bone, is believed to be built on a foundation encasing a piece of Buddha’s maxillary bone hence its name.[18]
British writer Hector Hugh Munro, better known under his pen name Saki, was born in Sittwe in 1870. A road in Singapore is named after its old name, Akyab.
^Shwe Lu Maung alias Shahnawaz Khan: The Price of Silence, A Muslim-Buddhist conflict of Myanmar - A Social Darwinist's Analysis, DewDrop Arts & Technology, 2005
^Shwe Lu Maung alias Shahnawaz Khan, The Price of Silence: Muslim-Buddhist War of Bangladesh and Myanmar – A Social Darwinist’s Analysis, DewDrop Arts & Technology, 2005, p174. [1]
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