Kalay

Kalay (ကလေး), also known as Kale, is a town in the Sagaing Region of Myanmar. It is located upstream from Mandalay and Monywa on the Myittha River, a tributary of the Chindwin River. The town is the district headquarters of the Kalay District. It has gained importance with trans border movement enabled between Myanmar and India following the Tamu–Kalay section of India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway built by the Border Roads Organization of India under the Look-East Connectivity policy. Consequently, Kalay is now one of the fastest developing towns in Myanmar. Kalay has several notable prisons, to which people from all across the region are transported. The earlier name of the town ‘Karlaymyo,’ renamed now as ‘Kalaymyo,’ means “a town surrounded by four satellite towns” in the Burmese language. "Kalaymyo" means "town of children" in Burmese. According to tradition, Kalay was established as a town on 3 February 966 (Sunday, the 5th of waning of Tabodwe 328 ME). A votive tablet unearthed in Kalay in 1983, with a Mon language inscription, refers to the "Aniruddha, the Great King". During the Second World War, Kalay was an important regrouping point for the British during their retreat from Burma in 1942 because of the relatively easier access to India along the Manipur River (the alternative was to march through malarial forests from Kalewa to Tamu). On September 19, 2007, 200 monks marched through the streets of Kalay as a part of the 2007 Burmese anti-government protests. Over the next few days, the monks were joined by thousands of people of the Chin ethnic group. On September 24, students marched from Kalay University with posters and protested, demanding the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and two other political prisoners. In July 2015, a monsoon rain triggered a natural disaster, and a state of emergency was declared in four regions of the country. The disaster caused a flash flood in Kalay and surrounding areas. Kalay was devastated by the disaster. Geographically, the distinctive feature of the town is that the Tropic of Cancer passes through it.