Pyay

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Pyay (Burmese: ပ္ရည္‌; MLCTS: prany, formerly Prome), is a town (1983 population 83,000) and district of the Bago Division in Lower Myanmar, located some 161 km, or 7 hours north of Yangon by road, or an overnight boat trip south of Bagan. The British Irrawaddy Flotilla Company established the current town in the late 1800s on the Ayeyarwady River as a transshipment point for cargo between upper and lower Myanmar. It is also called Pyi by the locals.

The name “Pyi” means “capital” in Burmese, and refers to the ruins of the Pyu capital of Sri Ksetra (Sanskrit: City of Splendor, Burmese: သရေခေတ္တရာ; MLCTS: sa. re hkett ra), which is located 8 km to the southeast of modern Pyi and is known today as the village of Hmawa. Sri Ksetra was built around 638 AD and was the capital of the new Pyu dynasty of Vikrama. The city was circular with walls enclosing an around of 46 sq km. The city fell to Bagan in 1057, and the Pyu retreated northward. The Burmese came continued to call the old Pyu center Pyi. The extensive ruins have been the subject of intensive archaeological investigation.

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