Believing this was an auspicious omen, the princes built a city called Hanthawady (Pali: Hamsavati) on the edge of the lake.

[3] The earliest reliable external record of Bago comes from Chinese sources that mention Jayavarman VII adding Pegu to the territory of the Khmer Empire in 1195.

The kings of Taungoo made Bago their royal capital from 1539 to 1599, and used it as a base for their repeated invasions of Siam.

Burmese King Bodawpaya (1782–1819) rebuilt Bago, but by then the river had shifted course, cutting the city off from the sea.

Bago Region's seal are two sibling hintha (Hamsa), due to historic Mon influences in the area.

The total population of Bago Region is 4,863,455 according to 2014 Burma Census with Bamar, Karen, Mon, Chin, Rakhine, Shan, South Asians, Chinese, and Pa-O ethnic groups represented.

[7] Minority religious communities include Christians (2.9%), Muslims (1.2%), Hindus (2.1%), and animists (0.1%) who collectively comprise the remainder of Bago Region's population.

Taungoo, in the northern end of the Bago Region, is bordered by mountain ranges, home to teak and other hardwoods.

Other major crops include betel nut, sugarcane, maize, groundnut, sesamum, sunflower, beans and pulses, cotton, jute, rubber, tobacco, tapioca, banana, Nipa palm and toddy.

Industry includes fisheries, salt, ceramics, sugar, paper, plywood, distilleries, and monosodium glutamate.

[9] The major tourist sites of the Bago Region can be reached as a day trip from Yangon.

[10] Educational opportunities in Myanmar are extremely limited outside the main cities of Yangon and Mandalay.

The military government spends anywhere from 0.5% to 3% of the country's GDP on health care, consistently ranking among the lowest in the world.

[12][13] Although health care is nominally free, in reality, patients have to pay for medicine and treatment, even in public clinics and hospitals.