Indawgyi Wildlife Sanctuary Ramsar Site comprises Indawgyi Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake in Myanmar, and surrounding lowlands which have mostly been converted to wet rice agriculture. The Lake plays a role in flood control and provides regionally important habitats to at least 20,000 migratory and resident waterbirds. These include globally threatened birds such as the vulnerable lesser adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus), sarus crane (Grus antigone) and wood snipe (Gallinago nemoricola). The Site is home to globally threatened mammals such as the endangered hog deer (Axis porcinus) and Shortridge’s langur (Trachypithecus shortridgei), and the vulnerable eastern hoolock gibbon (Hoolock leuconedys). It also hosts five species of globally threatened chelonians, of which three are endangered: the Asian brown tortoise (Manouria emys), Burmese peacock softshell turtle (Nilssonia formosa), and the yellow tortoise (Indotestudo elongata). Indawgyi Lake has a high diversity of fish, including seven species recently discovered and endemic to the Site. The 30,000 people living in 16 villages around the lake basin depend on a mixture of rice farming and fishing for their livelihoods. The annual festival held in March at the Shwe Myint Zu Pagoda on the west side of the lake attracts tens of thousands of Buddhist pilgrims.