Kalaw (Burmese : ကလောမြို့; Shan: ၵၢတ်ႇလေႃႉ [kalɔ] ) is a hill town in the Shan State of Myanmar. It is located in Kalaw Township in Taunggyi District.
The town was popular with the British during colonial rule. Kalaw is the main setting of the novel Das Herzenhören by Jan-Philipp Sendker.
The hill station is located at an elevation of 1310 metres, 50 km from the Inle lake. Kalaw is famous for hiking and trekking. [1] Many trekking trails ranging from nearby places to Inle Lake and Pindaya. [2] The town still feels like a high-altitude holiday resort – the air is cool, the atmosphere is calm and the tree-lined streets still contain a smattering of colonial-era architecture – while the surrounding hills are fine for relatively easy day or overnight treks to Danu, Danaw, Palaung, Pa-O and Taung Yo villages. [3]
Shan State is a state of Myanmar. Shan State borders China (Yunnan) to the north, Laos to the east, and Thailand to the south, and five administrative divisions of Myanmar in the west. The largest of the 14 administrative divisions by land area, Shan State covers 155,800 km2, almost a quarter of the total area of Myanmar. The state gets its name from the Burmese name for the Tai peoples: "Shan people". The Tai (Shan) constitute the majority among several ethnic groups that inhabit the area. Shanland is largely rural, with only three cities of significant size: Lashio, Kengtung, and the capital, Taunggyi. Taunggyi is 150.7 km northeast of the nation's capital Naypyitaw.
Inle Lake, a freshwater lake located in the Nyaungshwe Township of Shan State, part of Shan Hills in Myanmar (Burma). It is the second largest lake in Myanmar, with an estimated surface area of 44.9 square miles (116 km2), and one of the highest at an elevation of 2,900 feet (880 m). During the dry season, the average water depth is 7 feet (2.1 m), with the deepest point being 12 feet (3.7 m). During the rainy season, this can increase by 5 feet (1.5 m).
Taunggyi (Burmese: တောင်ကြီးမြို့; MLCTS: taung kri: mrui. ; Shan: ဝဵင်းတူၼ်ႈတီး ဝဵင်းလူင်တႆးႁဝ်း Shan pronunciation:[weŋ˥ton˧˧˨ti˥]; is the capital and largest city of Shan State, Myanmar ဝဵင်းလူင်မိူင်းတႆး and lies on the Thazi-Kyaingtong road at an elevation of 4,712 feet, just north of Shwenyaung and Inle Lake within the Myelat region. Taunggyi is the fifth largest city of Myanmar, although Taunggyi is the capital of Shan State, and has an estimated population of 380,665 as of 2014. The city is famous for its hot air balloon festival held annually on the full moon day of Tazaungmon.
Heho is a small town in Kalaw Township, Taunggyi District, Shan State of Myanmar. It is the primary air gateway to tourist areas such as Inle Lake.
Kawthaung is a border town located in the southernmost part of Myanmar, in the Tanintharyi Region. During British rule in Burma between 1824 and 1948, it was known as Victoria Point. As of 2021, it has a population of 57,949. Facing Ranong in Thailand, Kawthaung is one of 7 official border trade posts with Thailand.
Yawnghwe, known as Nyaungshwe in Burmese, was a Shan state in what is today Myanmar. It was one of the most important of the Southern Shan States. Yawnghwe state included the Inle Lake. The administrative capital was Taunggyi, located in the northern part of the state. The Agent of the British government, the Superintendent of the Southern Shan States, resided at Taunggyi and the king's palace was at Yawnghwe.
The Intha are members of a Tibeto-Burman ethnic group living around Inle Lake. There are around 100,000 to 200,000 Intha.
Phaung Daw U Pagoda, also spelt Phaung Daw Oo or Hpaung Daw Oo, is a notable Buddhist pagoda in Myanmar, located in the village of Ywama on Inle Lake in Shan State. The pagoda is the site of a major annual pagoda festival during which the temple's principal Buddha images are circulated on a royal barge across Inle Lake.
Heho Airport is an airport serving Heho, a town in Kalaw Township, Taunggyi District, Shan State, Myanmar. It is the main airport serving Inle Lake and Taunggyi the former of the top tourist destinations of Myanmar.
Nyaungshwe, is the principal town of Nyaungshwe Township in southwestern Shan State, Myanmar. The town of Nyaungshwe comprises 8 wards, namely Kantha, Thasi, Nandawun, Myole, Win, Nangpang, Mingala, and Maineli. In 2014, the town had 14,072 people. In 2019, the town's population was 14,007. The Nandawun ward is the most popoulous ward with 5,852 residents in 2019.
Aungban is a major trading town in the southern Shan State of Myanmar that supplies agricultural yield to the rest of the country. It is located in Kalaw Township which is part of Taunggyi District. It lies on the Thazi-Kyaingtong road at an elevation of 4,219 feet (1,286 m) above sea level.
Nyaungshwe Township is a township of Taunggyi District in Shan State, Myanmar. It is located south of Sakangyi and south-west of Taunggyi. The township contains one town, the principal town of Nyaungshwe and 35 village tracts, comprising 8 urban wards and 445 villages in total.
Pekon Township is a township of Taunggyi District in the Shan State of Myanmar. The principal town is Pekon. The largest settlement in the township is Mobye, a village tract in the east of the township.
Taunggyi District is a district of Shan State in Burma. The principal town and administrative center is Taunggyi. This district has 12 towns and 3001 villages.
Tourism in Myanmar is a developing sector. As at 2023, new tourist visa applications resume. Although Myanmar possesses tourist potential, much of the industry remains to be developed. The number of visitors to Burma is small compared to its neighbouring countries. This is primarily due to its political situation. However, after the junta transferred power to the civilian government, the tourism sector saw an increase in tourism arrivals, and in 2012, tourist arrivals surpassed the one million mark for the first time. In 2013, the Tourism Master Plan was created, targeting 7.5 million arrivals by 2020.
The Shan Hills, also known as Shan Highland, is a vast mountainous zone that extends through Yunnan to Myanmar and Thailand. The whole region is made up of numerous peaks separated mostly by narrow valleys, as well as a few broader intermontane basins. The ranges in the area are aligned in such a way that they link to the foothills of the Himalayas further to the northwest.
Inlay Lake Wetland Sanctuary is a protected area in Myanmar's Shan State, covering an area of 533.73 km2 (206.07 sq mi) surrounding Inle Lake. It ranges in elevation from 830 to 1,270 m, stretching over Nyaungshwe, Pinlaung and Pekon Townships. It was gazetted in 1985 to protect habitats for migratory birds. In 2003, it was designated as one of the ASEAN Heritage Parks, and in 2015 as the first Biosphere Reserve in the country.
Ywama village, also known as Heya Ywama, is located on the western side of Inle Lake in Nyaungshwe Township, Taunggyi District, Shan State, Myanmar. The village is most easily accessible by boat from the town of Nyaung Shwe on the north side of the lake.
The Shwe Indein Pagoda is a group of Buddhist pagodas in the village of Indein, near Ywama and Inlay Lake in Shan State, Myanmar.
Wanmaw, Manmaw or Banmaw (Bhamo) was a Shan state in what is today Burma. It was an outlying territory, located away from the main Shan State area in present-day Kachin State close to the border with China.