PEOPLE OF MYANMAR (BURMA)
MAIN ETHNIC GROUPS
310About the only vestige of Kachin dress that foreign visitors are likely to
encounter are men’s longyii (sarong-style lower garment) of indigo, green
and deep-purple plaid. During festive occasions, Kachin women sport fi ne-
ly woven wool skirts decorated with zigzag or diamond patterns, and dark
blouses festooned with hammered silver medallions and tassels.
Following independence from Britain, Kachin relations with the Bur-
mese-run government were increasingly precarious. After the military
coup in 1962, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) was formed under
the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO). These two organisations
eff ectively ran the state on an economy based on smuggling and narcot-
ics until a ceasefi re agreement was struck in 1994.
Since the 2010 election when some pro-KIO politicians were barred
from standing, the situation has again turned volatile. In July 2011 fi ght-
ing with the Tatmadaw broke out in the state again, forcing, according to
human rights groups, some 10,000 people to fl ee.Kayah
Also known as the Karenni or Red Karen, the Kayah are settled in the
mountainous isolation of Kayah State – an area closed to travellers.
As with many of Myanmar’s ethnic groups that traditionally practised
animism, the Kayah were targeted for conversion to Christianity by Bap-
tist and Catholic missionaries during the colonial period. The name ‘Red
Karen’ refers to the favoured colour of the Kayah traditional dress and the
fact that their apparel resembles that of some Kayin (Karen) tribes – a
resemblance that caused the Kayah to be classifi ed by colonisers and mis-
sionaries as ‘Karen’.
Today the Kayah make up a very small percentage of the population
of Myanmar – perhaps less than 1% – and the vast majority lead agrarian
lives. A signifi cant number of Kayah also live in Thailand’s Mae Hong
Son Province.Kayin (Karen)
No one knows for sure how many Kayin (also known as Karen) there
are in Myanmar. This ethnic group numbers anything between four and
seven million and is linguistically very diverse, with a dozen related but
not mutually intelligible dialects. Originally animists, it’s now reckoned
that the majority are Buddhists, with around 20% Christian and a small
percentage Muslim.THE WOMEN WITH TATTOOED FACESThe most extraordinary (but no longer practised) Chin fashion was the custom of tat-
tooing women’s faces. Chin facial tattoos vary according to tribe, but often cover the
whole face – starting at just above the bridge of the nose and radiating out in a pattern
of dark lines that resemble a spider’s web. Even the eyelids were tattooed. A painful
process, the tattooing was traditionally done to girls once they reached puberty.
Legend has it that this practice was initiated to keep young Chin maidens from being
coveted by Rakhaing princes whose kingdom bordered the southern Chin Hills. But it’s
just as likely that the tattoos were seen as a mark of beauty and womanhood. One proud
old Chin woman we met told us that she was just seven when she started pestering her
parents to have her own facial inking.
Eff orts by Christian missionaries and a government ban on facial tattoos in the 1960s
has resulted in the practice dying out. But in some Chin villages (particularly in the more
traditional southern areas) live a handful of tattooed grannies; see p 286 for details on
how to visit these places.Author Alan
Rabinowitz shows
much of the local
life in the Kachin
hills in his fasci-
nating Life in the
Valley of Death.Little Daughter:
A Memoir of
Survival in Burma
and the West is
the autobiogra-
phy of Zoya Phan
(written with
Damien Lewis), a
Kayin woman who
is the interna-
tional coordinator
of the UK Burma
Campaign and
who spent many
years as a child
living in refugee
camps.