Bago

The Burmese name Bago (ပဲခူး) is likely derived from the Mon language place name Bagaw (Mon: ဗဂေါ, [bəkɜ̀]). Until the Burmese government renamed English place names throughout the country in 1989, Bago was known as Pegu. Bago was formerly known as Hanthawaddy (Burmese: ဟံသာဝတီ; Mon: ဟံသာဝတဳ Hongsawatoi; Pali: Haṃsāvatī; lit. "she who possesses the sheldrake"), the name of a Burmese-Mon kingdom. An alternative etymology from the 1947 Burmese Encyclopedia derives Bago (ပဲခူး) from Wanpeku (Burmese: ဝမ်းပဲကူး) as a shortening of Where the Hinthawan Ducks Graze (Burmese: ဟင်္သာဝမ်းဘဲများ ကူးသန်းကျက်စားရာ အရပ်). This etymology relies on the non-phonetic Burmese spelling as its main reasoning.

Various Mon language chronicles report widely divergent foundation dates of Bago, ranging from 573 CE to 1152 CE while the Zabu Kuncha, an early 15th century Burmese administrative treatise, states that Pegu was founded in 1276/77 CE. The earliest extant evidence of Pegu as a place dates only to the late Pagan period (1212 and 1266) when it was still a small town, not even a provincial capital. After the collapse of the Pagan Empire, Bago became part of the breakaway Kingdom of Martaban by the 1290s. The earliest possible external record of Bago dates to 1028 CE. The Thiruvalangadu plate describe Rajendra Chola I, the Chola Emperor from South India, as having conquered "Kadaram" in the fourteenth year of his reign – 1028 CE. According to one interpretation, Kadaram refers to Bago. More modern interpretations understand Kadaram to be Kedah in modern day Malaysia, instead of Bago. …

Bago has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen Am), similar to most of coastal Myanmar, with a hot, dry season from mid-November to mid-April and a, hot, extremely humid, and exceedingly rainy wet season from May to October.