307People of
Myanmar (Burma)
Ethnically speaking, multicultural Myanmar is more salad bowl than
melting pot. The government recognises 135 distinct ethnic groups that
make up eight offi cial ‘major national ethnic races’: Bamar, Shan, Mon,
Kayin (Karen), Kayah, Chin, Kachin and Rakhaing. The DPS tourist
maps of the country depict cute cartoon characters of each of these races
dressed in their traditional attire, and the incredible thing is that as you
travel through Myanmar, you’re quite likely to see people wearing simi-
lar, if not identical, attire.
Variations in dress are just a hint of the diff erences between Myan-
mar’s diverse ethnic populations. This chapter provides background on
the major ethnic groups that visitors are most likely to encounter or read
about.
Main Ethnic Groups
Historically, Myanmar’s diverseethnic make-up has been delineated
by its topography. The broad central plain, with the Ayeyarwady (Ir-
rawaddy) River and Myanmar’s most fertile soil, has been populated by
The 1983 census
records 69% of
the population
as Bamar, 8.5%
Shan, 6.2% Kayin,
4.5% Rakha-
ing, 2.4% Mon,
2.2% Chin, 1.4%
Kachin, 1% Wa
and 0.4% Kayah.MYANMAR’S CYCLE OF LIFEIn From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey, Pascal Khoo Thwe writes that,
growing up in the Shan hills, traditional family life meant that the ‘earth is round at
school and fl at at home’, meaning some aspects of modern life are left, along with your
shoes, outside the door.
Families in Myanmar tend to be large, and the birth of a child is a big occasion. While
boys are coddled more, girls are equally welcomed, as they’re expected to look after
parents later in life. You might fi nd three or four generations of one family living in a two-
or three-room house. Some thatched huts in the countryside have generators, powering
electric bulbs and pumping life into the TV a couple of hours a night; many don’t. Run-
ning water outside the cities and bigger towns is rare.
About three-quarters of the population farm, so much of local life revolves around
villages and the countryside. Here, national politics or dreams of wealth can pale in com-
parison to the season, the crop or the level of the river (used for bathing, washing and
drinking water). Everywhere, people are known for helping each other when in need, and
call each other ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ aff ectionately.
In Finding George Orwell in Burma, Emma Larkin recounts how a Mandalay cemetery
worker saved dirt from a moved gravesite so that just in case the family ever returned
they could have ‘some soil from around the grave’. Death, of course, is a big deal, though
mourned for less time than in much of the West. To miss a funeral is an unimaginable
faux pas. If a heated argument goes too far, the ultimate capper is to yell: ‘Oh yeah?
Don’t come to my funeral when I die!’