States and Divisions
Rakhine State
Rakhine State (formerly Arakan) is a state
of Myanmar. 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 Arakan Yoma mountain range, which rises to 3,063 m at
Victoria Peak, separates Rakhine State from Myanmar proper.
Its area is 36,762 km˛ and its capital is Sittwe (formerly
Akyab). The estimated population in 1985 was 2,698,000 and it
is inhabited primary by two groups of people the Rakhine
ethnic group and Rohingyas ethnic group. The remaining ethnic
groups are Mro, Khami (Khumi), Kaman Muslim, Dienet, Marmagri
and a few others. The majority of people are Buddhists, and
second being Muslims.
Name
The term Rakhine derives from the Pali word
Rakkhapura or Sanskrit Raksapura, meaning “Land of Ogres”,
possibly a pejorative referring to the original Negrito
inhabitants. The Pali word Rakkhapura (Rakkhita) means "land
of the people of Rakhasa" (also Rakkha, Rakhaing).
The name "Arakan" is a Bengali, Arabic, Portuguese, and
English corruption of "Rakhine", and continues to be widely
used. The Burmese government refers to Arakan as "Rakhine".
Arakan was vaguely known to the Romans as Argyre (Pliny the
Elder and Ptolemy) or Khruse (Periplus of the Erythraean Sea),
but was a vaguely defined area adjacent to India.
Demographics
Ethnographers classify up to 11 ethnic
groups (not including ethnic sub-groups) as native to Rakhine
State. The Rakhine and Bamar live in valleys and on Yambye and
Manaung islands. The Chin inhabit the mountain regions of the
north. The Mro, Thet, Khami, Dainet, Maramagyi, Khumi, and
Kaman live on mountain ranges in the west and north. Each
group is also known by more than one name, and data on the
smaller ethnic groups is insufficient. Ethnicity in Rahkine
State is a complex issue, made more complex by the current
political situation.
One such complication to the Rahkine ethnic issue is that of
the Rohingya, who are not recognised as a legitimate native
ethnic group, but who currently form perhaps 25% of the
Rakhine State's population. Organization
Arakan State consists of five districts:
Sittwe, Maungtaw, Buthidaung, Kyaukpyu and Thandwe. Combined,
these districts have a total of 17 townships and 1,164
village-tracts.
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 transportation infrastructure is still
rudimentary.
History
Rakhine's ancient kingdoms are divided into
four separate periods.A kingdom called Dhanyawady 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. The kingdom of Wethali (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 and Lemro periods, but the country
steadily declined from the fifteenth 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 Burmese King U Wine
invaded and occupied Arakan in 1784.
The famous Mahamuni Buddha image was taken as a war trophy to
his capital of Mandalay (where it is still located). Burmese
attacks on Rakine refugees in neighboring British Bengal was
one of 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. Akyab district originally included the
Arakan Hill Tracts, which were detached 1865 and made into a
separate district (and which is now Chin State).
With independence and the formation of the Union of Burma in
1948, the three Arakan 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 acknowledgement of the majority Rakhine ethnic group.
Pro-independence movements have been highly fragmented, and
the Burmese military has capitalised on the existing tension
between the majority Buddhists and minority Muslims. As with
other areas of Myanmar, massive human rights violations by the
Myanmar military have been reported. It has been alleged that
villagers live under the constant threat of rape, beatings,
arbitrary arrest or execution, conscription as slave labor for
the Tatmadaw, and having their food and possessions taken
without compensation
|
Rakhine State
|
| Capital |
Sittwe (Akyab) |
| Region |
West coastal |
| Area |
36,780 km˛ |
| Population |
2,698,000 |
| Ethnicities |
Rakhine, Bamar, Rohingya,
Chin |
| Religions |
Buddhism,
Islam, Christianity |
 |
|
|
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