Palaw

{{Short description|Town in Tanintharyi Region, Myanmar}}

{{for|the plant known as "palaw"|Cyrtosperma merkusii}}

{{Infobox settlement

|name = Palaw Township

|native_name = ပုလောမြို့

|image_skyline =

|image_caption =

|image_map =

|map_caption = Location in Myeik district

|pushpin_label_position = bottom

|pushpin_map = Myanmar

|pushpin_map_caption = Location in Myanmar

|seat = Palaw

|seat_type =

|settlement_type = Township

|subdivision_type = Country

|subdivision_name = {{flag|Myanmar}}

|subdivision_type1 = Region

|subdivision_name1 = Tanintharyi Region

|subdivision_type2 = District

|subdivision_name2 = Myeik District

|subdivision_type3 = Township

|subdivision_name3 = Palaw Township

|area_total_sq_mi = 2.73

|unit_pref = Imperial

|population = 22267

|population_as_of = 2019

|population_footnotes ={{cite report |author=Myanmar Information Management Unit |date=September 2019 |title=Palaw Myone Daethasaingyarachatlatmya|script-title=my:ပုလောမြို့နယ် ဒေသဆိုင်ရာအချက်လက်များ|trans-title=Palaw Township Regional Information |url=https://themimu.info/sites/themimu.info/files/documents/TspProfiles_GAD_Palaw_2019_MMR.pdf |publisher=MIMU |access-date=12 February 2024}}

|population_density_km2 = auto

|coordinates = {{coord|12.9597|N|98.6545|E|type:landmark_source:enwiki|display=inline,title}}

|elevation_ft =

|elevation_max_ft =

|timezone = MMT

|utc_offset = +6.30

|website =

}}

Palaw ({{langx|my|ပုလောမြို့}}, {{langx|th|ปะลอ}}) is a town in the Tanintharyi Region, Myanmar. It is the administrative seat of Palaw Township.

In 1948, a Bamar militia group threw hand-grenades into a Christmas Eve service in Palaw and killed 80 ethnic Karen churchgoers. This incident and existing interracial tensions sparked a series of retaliatory incidents and massacres between Bamar and Karen ethnic groups that culminated in the declaration of the Karen conflict war by the Karen National Union.{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Martin |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=ui9zQgAACAAJ&newbks=0}} |title=Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity |date=1999-06-01 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-85649-660-5 |language=en|pages=117}}