page_title: Pyin Oo Lwin
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Pyin Oo Lwin / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Summer Palace of the Governor of British Burma, located in Pyinoolwin
context_page_description: Pyin Oo Lwin or Pyin U Lwin, formerly and colloquially referred to as Maymyo, is a scenic hill town in Shan State, Myanmar, some 67 kilometers east of Mandalay, and at an elevation of 1,070 meters. The town was estimated to have a population of around 255,000 in 2014.
context_section_description: The town began as a military outpost established near a small Shan village with two dozen households on the Lashio-Mandalay trail between Nawnghkio and Mandalay. In 1897, a permanent military post was established in the town and later, because of its climate, it became a hill station and the summer capital of British Burma. The establishment in Burma (civil, commercial and military) would move to Maymyo during the hot season to escape from the high heat and humidity of Rangoon. During British rule and through the 1970s, Maymyo had a large Anglo-Burmese population, but this steadily declined. During the Japanese occupation, as many Anglos were concentrated in and around Maymyo, the Japanese incarcerated many of them for fear of their loyalty to the British very close to Maymyo. Today, Maymyo still has one of the larger populations of Anglo-Burmese in the country. The British named the location Maymyo, literally 'May's Town' in Burmese, after Colonel May, a veteran of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and commander of the Bengal Regiment temporarily stationed in the town in 1887. The military government of Burma renamed the town Pyin U Lwin.
  The area is also the site of the decisive battle of Maymyo where the Burmese royal army under Maha Thiha Thura defeated the Chinese Army in the third invasion during the Sino-Burmese War of 1765–1769.
caption: Summer Palace of the Governor of British Burma, Pyinoolwin
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