Kawthaung
human settlement
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 seven official border trade posts with Thailand.
History
Rakhine and Tanintharyi were transferred to British rule after the First Anglo-Burmese War of 1823–1826.
In 1859, a local group of Chinese and Thais settled at Maliwan (Thai language) to the north of Kawthaung, a place with numerous lakes and flowering trees. In 1865, an Arab–Malay group led by Nayuda Ahmed, traveling and collecting sea products around Mergui Archipelago started a base and village at the bay of Victoria Point.
In 1872 the third mayor of Mergui District, Sir Ashly Din (1870–1875), assigned the first police officer to be stationed at Maliwan, a village 24 miles north of current Victoria Point. In 1891, the local government offices were moved from Maliwan to Kawthaung because Maliwan is located on the bank of a small shallow river, Maliwan Creek, unsuitable for large ships to enter and waiting tide water.
Geography
Kawthaung is located about 10°N and 98.30°E at the mouth of Kyan River on the Malay Peninsula.
“Kawthaung” enters the record as human settlement. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kawthaung, human and settlement can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q978611. Authority coordinates are 9.983, 98.550. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1824, 1948, 2021 and 1823.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kawthaung” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.