{{Short description|Village in Shan State, Myanmar}} {{about|the village tract|the historical state|Mongpai|the king of Ava|Mobye Narapati}} {{Infobox settlement |native_name = {{lang|my|မိုးဗြဲအုပ်စု}} |official_name = Mobye Village Tract |pushpin_map = Burma |settlement_type = Village tract |image_skyline = Moe Bye Reservoir.jpg |image_map = |map_caption = |subdivision_type = Country |subdivision_name = {{flag|Myanmar}} |subdivision_type1 = State |subdivision_name1 = {{flag|Shan State}} |subdivision_type2 = District |subdivision_name2 = Kalaw District |subdivision_type3 = Township |subdivision_name3 = Pekon Township |unit_pref = Imperial |area_total_km2 = |population_total = 28287 |population_as_of = 2019 |population_density_km2 = auto |coordinates = {{coord|19|44|46|N|97|5|24|E|region:MM|display=inline,title}} |elevation_ft = 2988 |elevation_m = 910.7 |timezone = MST |utc_offset = +6:30 |website = }} '''Mobye''' ({{langx|my|မိုးဗြဲ}}; also spelt '''Mobre''' or '''Moe Bye''') is a village tract within Pekon Township, Shan State, Myanmar. It is located on the southern end of the Mobye Reservoir located south of Inle Lake and contains the lowest point within Pekon Township at {{convert|2950|ft|m}}. The village of Mobye is located within the village tract along with 35 other villages in close proximity.
==Geography== Mobye is located on the border with Kayah State, 10 miles northwest of its the Kayah capital Loikaw. The village tract is connected to Pekon, the township's principal town, and Loikaw through waterways, railways and a roadway.<ref name="mimu">{{cite report |author=Myanmar Information Management Unit |date=September 2019 |title=Pekon Myone Daethasaingyarachatlatmya|script-title=my:ဖယ်ခုံမြို့နယ် ဒေသဆိုင်ရာအချက်လက်များ|trans-title=Pekon Township Regional Information |url=https://themimu.info/sites/themimu.info/files/documents/TspProfiles_GAD_Pyapon_2019_MMR.pdf |publisher=MIMU}}</ref>
The Mobye Dam, located within the village, is built along the Pilu River (also called the Baluchaung River). Together with the Lawpita Dam, the dams power the Lawpita Power Plant system.<ref name=KDRG>{{cite book |author=Karenni Development Research Group |year=2006 |title=Dammed by Burma's Generals: The Karenni Experience with Hydropower Development - from Lawpita to the Salween |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |isbn=9781899235964}}</ref> The Mobye dam began construction in 1969 with the first of the two hydropower stations along the Pilu River completing in 1974. During this period, 8000 people were forced to relocate away from the reservoir area.<ref>{{cite report |title=Hydropower politics and conflict on the Salween river |last1=Middleton |first1=Carl |last2=Lamb |first2=Vanessa |series=Knowing the Salween River: Resource politics of a contested transboundary river |volume=27 |page=37}}</ref> The construction of the two dams in 1992 was conducted by the Myanmar Army and displaced over 12,000 people and created severe negative social and ecological impacts in the area.<ref name=KDRG/>
==History== {{See also|Mongpai}} Mobye was formerly the capital of Mongpai, a Shan state. It belonged to the Central Division of the Southern Shan States.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Scott|first1=James George|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=peY2AQAAMAAJ&dq=maingpun&pg=PA314|title=Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States|last2=Hardiman|first2=John Percy|date=1899|publisher=superintendent, Government printing, Burma|language=en}}</ref>
During the 2021 Myanmar civil war, Mobye was the site of several battles. Due to its proximity to Loikaw, Mobye was the site of skirmishes during the 2021 Battle of Loikaw. Battles between junta troops and the Mobye PDF along roads and villages leading to Loikaw.<ref>{{Cite web |title=မိုးဗြဲ၊ လွိုင်ကော်နဲ့ ဒီမော့ဆို မြို့နယ်တွေမှာ တိုက်ပွဲဖြစ်ပွား |url=https://burmese.voanews.com/a/myanmar-army-pdf-fighting-in-kayah-shan/5901089.html |access-date=2023-04-19 |website=ဗွီအိုအေ |language=my}}</ref> Additionally, there were firefights in the village tract throughout the aftermath of the 2022 Battle of Loikaw.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Irrawaddy |first=The |date=8 June 2022 |title=မိုးဗြဲသို့ တက်လာသည့် စစ်ကောင်စီစစ်ကြောင်း တိုက်ခိုက်ခံရပြီးနောက် ပြန်ဆုတ်သွား |url=https://burma.irrawaddy.com/news/2022/06/08/252422.html |access-date=27 April 2023 |website=ဧရာဝတီ |language=en-US}}</ref> During the course of Operation 1111, the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force seized control of the town during spillover clashes from fighting in Loikaw.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wei |first=Brian |date=25 March 2024 |title=Myanmar’s Junta is Nearing Its End in The Thai Border State of Karenni |url=https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmars-junta-is-nearing-its-end-in-the-thai-border-state-of-karenni.html |website=The Irrawaddy}}</ref>
On June 30, 2025, a large number of Junta forces, supported by air, drone and artillery support, recaptured Mobye. About 40 rebels were killed in the fighting.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Irrawaddy |first=The |date=2025-07-03 |title=Myanmar Junta Retakes Mobye in Southern Shan |url=https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/war-against-the-junta/myanmar-junta-retakes-mobye-in-southern-shan.html |access-date=2025-07-04 |website=The Irrawaddy |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Demographics== {{Historical populations |title = Historical population |type = |align = |direction = |width = |state = |shading = |pop_name = Mobye Village Tract |percentages = |footnote = |source =<ref name="mimu"/> |2018 | 27,798 |2019 | 28,287 }}
There are several ethnic groups within the area, including, Kayan, Shan, Bamar, Karenni and Intha people.<ref name="mimu"/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Shan State}}
Category:Populated places in Shan State
{{Shan-geo-stub}}