Classroom lesson · The Irrawaddy - the river that runs through everything · 🇲🇲 Myanmar

The Irrawaddy - the river that runs through everything

Myanmar's mightiest river, 2,170 km long

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

The Irrawaddy - locals call it the Ayeyarwady - is Myanmar's biggest river. It flows for 2,170 kilometres from the snowy mountains in the north all the way to the warm sea in the south. The river runs almost the entire length of the country, like a long blue ribbon down the middle.

Tell me more

The Irrawaddy starts high up in the Himalayan foothills, where two icy mountain streams meet. From there it grows wider and slower as it travels south. By the time it reaches Bagan and then the southern delta, the river is several kilometres wide in places.

More than 30 million people live near the Irrawaddy. The river waters their rice fields, feeds them fish, carries their boats and connects their cities. Big wooden cargo boats - low and flat - chug up and down with bags of rice, oranges and pottery. In some villages, the river is still the main 'road'.

Down at the southern end, the Irrawaddy splits into many smaller channels that fan out into the sea. This is called a 'delta'. The delta is made of soft, rich soil washed down from the mountains - perfect for growing rice. Most of the rice Myanmar eats comes from this one corner of the country.

The river has been the country's main highway for thousands of years. The old kings of Bagan and Mandalay travelled up and down it in great gilded barges. Today, families catching the dawn ferry past temple-dotted banks still see roughly the same view those kings did.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

01Why might a big river be like a 'highway' for the people who live along it?
02The river drops rich soil at its delta. Why might that make it a good place to grow food?
03Is there a river near where you live? What do people use it for - or used to use it for?

Try this

Classroom activity

On a long strip of paper, draw the Irrawaddy from top (snowy mountains) to bottom (delta into the sea). Mark on it: Bagan, Mandalay, the rice fields of the delta. Add anything else you want - boats, fish, temples, fishermen. Hang the long strip across one wall of the classroom.

The Irrawaddy - the river that runs through everything

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Discussion prompts

Classroom activity

Other things that make Myanmar special

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