stop guerrilla warfare; this included prohibiting training with swords and
spears. Thus the British occupation started a progressive decline in the
Burmese fighting arts.
Ironically, however, in 1933 the British-supervised Ghurka Rifles at-
tempted to revive unarmed systems of Burmese traditional fighting. Form-
ing the Military Athletic Club, nine Gurkha officers combined knowledge
of the Burmese arts with what they knew of the Indian, Tibetan, Chinese,
and Nepalese martial arts (i.e., the native arts of the countries from which
the Ghurkas were recruited into the British army). The result was called
bandô.
During World War II, the Japanese occupied southern Burma, but the
British and Indians continued to fight in the mountains using Chinese mil-
itary and American logistical assistance. (This area was home to Claire
Chennault’s Flying Tigers in 1941, and subsequently the famous “Burma
Road.”) During the war, the mountain tribes were generally loyal to the Al-
lies, and in the process demonstrated formidable military skills. The Jingh-
paw, for example, who fought with American troops during the war, in
spite of retaining hostility toward the British, cooperated with them out of
a greater hatred for the Japanese occupation forces.
The role played by the Jinghpaw (still known to the Allies as Kachin)
is representative of that played by the hill tribes. OSS Detachment 101
worked with a force of 11,000 Kachin tribesmen who reportedly killed
10,000 Japanese at a loss of only 206 of their own. U.S. military personnel
came to appreciate the Kachins as natural guerrilla fighters. So great was
their skill (developed, in part, through practice of thaing), that the Kachin
method of attack and ambush came to be emulated in the tactics of U.S.
special forces teams such as the SEALs and Green Berets.
In 1946, nine survivors of the Military Athletic Club formed the Na-
tional Bandô Association (NBA) in Burma. Their eclectic background is in-
dicated by the ethnicity noted following their names: Abehananda (Indian),
C. C. Chu (Chinese), Has. K. Khan (Pakistani), U Zaw Min (Burmese),
G. Bahadur (Ghurkan), U Ba Saw (Karen), Duwa Maung (Lisu), Boji Mein
His (Arakanais), and U Ba Than [Gyi] (Burmese). As the senior military of-
ficer, U Ba Than (1883–1968) was elected president.
In 1948 the British granted independence to Burma. The new govern-
ment refused to join the Commonwealth, and shortly afterwards both
Karens and Communists led rebellions. Although it was at first a close con-
test, the central government retained power. Nevertheless student unrest in
the cities and guerrilla warfare in the countryside have continued into the
present. Given this ongoing turmoil, reliable information on the state of
thaing in Myanmar in general and among the Kachins and Karens in par-
ticular is difficult to obtain.632 Thaing