Sagaing Division
(2002 pop. est. 5.6 million). The Sagaing Division is the largest of the modern political divisions in Myanmar (Burma). It has an area of 94,622 square kilometers, and is situated between the Indian border to the north, Chin State to the west, Kachin and Shan states to the east and northeast, and Magwe and Mandalay divisions to the south.
It is a territory of geographic and ethnic diversity. The population consists mainly of ethnic Burmans, but there also are substantial communities of Shans, Chins, Nagas, and Kachins, especially in the northern hills. The Academy for the Development of National Groups, established by the Burma Socialist Program Party in 1965 to promote national unity, is located at Ywathitkyi within the division.
The main economy of the territory, which consists of thirty-eight townships and nearly two thousand wards and village-tracts, is agriculture. The division is the main producer of wheat, pulses, and sunflowers in Myanmar. Other important crops include paddy rice, groundnuts, cotton, and tobacco, and timber, including teak, is the most valuable natural resource. There also are substantial copper deposits in Salingyi township, west of the Chindwin (Chindwinn) River.
After Burma's independence in 1948, the development of the division was held back by armed conflict. The capital is the former royal capital of Sagaing, 24 kilometers downstream from Mandalay on the Irrawaddy River. It remains a major center for Buddhist pilgrimage. Another former capital was located at Shwebo farther north. In contrast, the other major town in the division, Monywa, was little more than a village until the twentieth century. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, it was the main commercial gateway to the Chindwin valley.
Under the State Law and Order Restoration Council (1988–1997) and successor State Peace and Development Council, Monywa and the western region of the division were scheduled for economic expansion. Major resettlement and road-building programs were to link up through the Kale-Kabaw valley to the Indian border at Tamu. Similar plans were mooted for the Khamti region and the historic Ledo Road in the far north.
Government authority, however, continued to be challenged in the latter decades of the twentieth century by ethnic Naga, Kachin, and Chin opposition groups in several frontier regions. The creation of a Naga "self-administered zone" was considered for inclusion in Myanmar's future constitution and a ceasefire agreed with the Kachin Independence Organization in 1994, but substantive reforms were not yet completed by the end of the twentieth century.
The division contains several areas of rare natural biodiversity. These include the Naga Hills of the Paktai Range and the Htamanthi reserve, which lies between the Uru and Chindwin rivers. This was designated as a wildlife sanctuary in 1974.
Further Reading
Bunge, Frederica M, ed. (1983) Burma: A Country Study. Washington, DC: American University Foreign Area Studies, U.S. Government Printing Office.
Images Asia, Karen Human Rights Group, and the Open Society Institute's Burma Project. (1998) All Quiet on the Western Front?: The Situation in Chin State and Sagaing Division, Burma. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Images Asia.
Minority Rights Group. (1980) India, the Nagas, and the North-East. London: Minority Rights Group.
Smith, Martin. (1994) Ethnic Groups in Burma: Development, Democracy, and Human Rights. London: Anti-Slavery International.
Tinker, Hugh. (1967) The Union of Burma: A Study of the First Years of Independence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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