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Myanmar
people, Burmese people,
Burma people.
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are split into
around 130 ethnic groups and there
are real differences between
them. The
main groups
are the Burmese people, Shan,
Mon or Talaing, Karen, Chin,
Kachin,
Kayahs,
Salone
and other. |
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For other
Myanmar ethnic groups pls.
have a look at the menu left. Of Myanmar people the Burmese
are the largest group.
Of the
Myanmar ethnic
groups the smallest and
most backward are the Salone
People,
who inhabit the islands off
the southern coast, mainly
in the Mergui or Myeik
archipelago, further south
in Thailand they are called Moken.
They are
probably the oldest
inhabitants on the west
coast of south east Asia.
Salone or Moken can be found from
the Nicobar and Andaman
Islands of India to the
Islands of southern
Myanmar and all the way down
to Indonesia.
Burmese people came in
from the north by
three waves of
immigration from China.
The earliest who came were the Mon or Talaing,
they also migrated
all the way down to present
day Phuket Island in
southern Thailand.
The second
and third wave of people
into Myanmar or Burma were
the today Burmese and the
Shan. The Kachin are of the
same ethnic
group as the Burmese, but
they came into Myanmar or Burma
later. Today Mon people
(called Thalang at
Phuket
Thailand) have their Mon
State around Bago and
southwards.
So have the Karen the Karen State, Chin the Chin
State and so on but everything is tightly
controlled by the central government at
Naypyidaw.
Unfortunately there is a
continuous struggle between the people of the
different ethnic groups in
Myanmar and the central
government. |
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The British colonialists brought
missionaries
into Myanmar to
pull the Karen and Chin away
from the dominant Burmese who
all are Buddhist and to use them
as a counterweight to
the Buddhist Burmese for their
political game for abuse. Just
in the same way like the old
Romans did it, divide and
conquer.
They succeeded not really,
but the seeds planted by the
colonial masters came up in the
198x and later and with strong
support from the US Americans in
form of weapons and money.
Until about 15 years ago
there was still some kind of
civil war between the
central
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British
colonialists and
Myanmar People History |
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Myanmar government in then
Yangon and armed Mon groups plus
Karen, Shan
and from time they have been
joined by Kachin and Chin
people.
Kachin live in the north of
Myanmar, that is the
Himalaya region and Chin
are on the northwest region
bordering India. One tribe of
the Chin people are the Naga
which are the same as the Indian
people in Nagaland on the Indian
side.
Presently the obstacle to
peace between the people
of today in 2011 are only two
groups, the Karen and Shan of
northwest Myanmar, the Shan of
that area are more or less left
alone by the central government
who just take taxes from them.
The Shan People
of the very north east
Myanmar,
called "the golden
Triangle" at the border to
China
earn their money by growing
opium poppy and production
of amphetamine and other drugs, they trade this
stuff mainly to Thailand. The
Thai make lot of business with
the Myanmar's in the Mae Hong
Son area
since they all come over to
Thailand to buy their
goods, there is no much supply on
the Myanmar side. This mainly done in
the Myanmar area west of Thailand's Mae
Hong Son.
Sometimes riots in Chin State
and elsewhere erupt. Chin State is
really totally neglected and probably
the poorest in Myanmar. Naga people are
a sub tribe of the Chin.
Almost all struggle
between the central Myanmar government
and the different ethnic groups came to
an end around a decade ago. The only
groups left who
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Burmese People,
Myanmar
people,
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photos,
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population,
Shan,
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child,
the people
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Karen,
Mon,
Kachin,
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images of
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Myanmar
girls
all at e-books |
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demand their own
independent state are the Karen and some
parts of Shan people. This two groups get
support in various form from the USA and
other countries which took immigrants
from this area.
Now some history
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Mon People,
Burma people. |
Of these the Burmese are
beyond comparison the most numerous. It
is the Myanmar idiosyncrasy that gives
its fascination with its color, its luxury,
its beauty, and its world.
One them are
the Mon
of the southern half of the
country, not totally absorbed into Myanmars. About a million of them
represent a ethnic group whose
civilization once extended from the
Assam hills to Annam. Broadly speaking
they are now indistinguishable except as
to language from the Myanmar's. People
who know them well can however
distinguish between them,
Burmese people picture.
Of kin with the Mon, but separated from them
by a wide space of country, are the
Palaung, the men wear the Shan dress,
the women a picturesque costume of
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their
own, which comprises a hood, coat, and
skirt, with leggings of cloth.
The Karen,
far more numerous and
more powerful than the Palaung, owe
their regeneration to the British. Borne
down by the dominant Burmese, they must
have been gradually annihilated, or at
best reduced to the least hospitable
portions of the country.
The Pax
Britannica has given them political
freedom, and Christianity, which they
have adopted en mane, has given them
self-respect and an impetus towards
civilization. In the modern history of
Christianity there is no more
interesting episode than the conversion
of the Karen. Prepared by prophecies
current among them and by curious
traditions of a biblical flavor they
embraced with fervor the new creed
brought to them by the
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Karen
People, Burma
people. |
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missionaries, and
there are to-day upwards of a hundred
thousand Christian Karen in the country.
The Karen occupy a long strip on the
east at the border to Thailand and a
considerable portion of the Irrawaddy
Delta. By temperament the Karen differ
radically from their Burmese neighbors.
They are singularly devoid of humor,
they are stolid and cautious, and they
lack altogether the light gaiety and
fascination of the Burmese. Yet it is
not suggested that in some qualities
they do not surpass them.
If their origin is still
obscure, it is at least certain that
they are not the aborigines of the land.
All their traditions point the other
way. " In my early travels," wrote
Mason, their picturesque apostle, " the
Karen pointed out to me the precise
spots where they took refuge in the days
of
Alompra, and where they had come down
and avenged themselves on their enemies;
but when I asked them who built this
city, as we stood together on the
forest-clad battlements of a dilapidated
fortification they replied : These
cities in our jungles were in ruins when
we came here. This country is not our
own, we came from the north, where we
were independent of the
Burmese and Thai
who now rule over us but now they are
Myanmar people.
Then we had a city and a
country of our own near called Toungoo.
All the Karen of Thailand and Myanmar
came originally from that region.' When
I asked for the time of their dispersion
they were silent. The fact was clearly
before them ; but the retrospect was too
obscure to determine the distance. Yet
they saw far beyond Toungoo. On the edge
of the misty horizon was the river of
running sand which their ancestors had
crossed before coming. That was a
fearful trackless region, where the
sands rolled before the winds like the
waves of the sea. They were led through
it by a chieftain who had more than
human power to guide them." The river of
running sand was boldly identified by
Mason with the
Gobi desert, of which Fa
Hian, the
Chinese pilgrim, has left this
description : "There are evil spirits in
this river of sand and such scorching
winds that whosoever encountered them
dies, and none escape. Neither birds are
seen in the air, nor quadrupeds on the
ground. On every side as far as the eye
can reach, if you seek for the proper
place to cross, there is no other mark
to distinguish it than the skeletons of
those who have perished there ; these
alone seem to indicate the route." But
the identity of the traditional desert
of the Karen with the desert of Gobi has
yet to be established.
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with his wide trousers and flapping hat, his instinct for trade
and his considerable civilization is a
much more notable person. Shan from
South-western China came into today
Myanmar about two thousand years ago.
Its migration was hastened by the
pressure of the Chinese behind, and as
this pressure increased they spread from
the valley of the
Shweli river, its
first home in Burma, southwards to today
Thailand and eastward to Tonguing, and
north and west till it reached the
Brahmaputra and founded the
Ahom kingdom
of Assam. The Shan are now found in
Burma, in the Shan States and far down
the eastern peninsula to Mergui or
Myeik. In the north they spread over the
whole of the upper territories of the
Irrawaddy
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Shan
People |
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from
Myitkyina to the
Third Defile; and along the
Chindwin,
where traces of their former supremacy survive
in the principalities of Singkaling,
Hkamti and Thaungdut. They have ruled at
Ava, and have come near to the mastery
of Burma. They owe their failure to
their inability to combine on any
national scale, in economic qualities
they surpass the Burmese.
The funny or rather not
so funny thing is that on the one hand
the US have their war against the drug
and opium growing business in the north
east Shan state, called "
Golden Triangle". On the other hand they support
the Shan against the central government of
Myanmar. Its typical US politics, nothing makes
sense and the left hand don't know what the
right is doing.
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Chin
People |
Of the Chin
who lie upon the
mountains which separate central Myanmar
from
Arakan and Assam there are two
great divisions the Northern and the
Southern. Of these the Southern Chin,
living as they do upon the narrowest
portion of their country, are of the
least consequence.
They have yielded
most to the pressure of the Burmese
races on each side of them and they are
a sparse and disorganized people.
Chin have a wider
territory, known administratively as "
The Chin Hills." It consists of a much
broken and contorted mass of mountains
intersected by deep valleys and it is
utterly devoid of plains and tablelands.
The
Northern Chin have a strong tribal
organization and time has developed in
each of their tribes a separate
idiosyncrasy. The Chin is of interest
because he reveals the material out of
which Buddhism and civilization between
them have evolved the Burmese people ;
the Chin in short is the rough wood out
of which Burmese people been carved.
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The Kayahs
are
natives of Kayah State,
which is between Shan
State to the north,
Thailand to the east,
and Karen State to the
south. Covering an area
of over 7200 square
kilometer, this is
geographically the
southernmost part of the
Shan plateau, with
mountain ranges,
ravines, depressions and
gorges.
From
north, the Thanlywin
(Salween) River comes
into Papun District. To
the east of the
Thanlywin River is the
Loilem mountain range
forming a natural
boundary to Thailand.
Timber is the main
product of that area.
The land on the east
bank of Thanlywin River
is covered with dense
forests, partially of
valuable high quality
teak. Other areas have
other hardwood such as
iron wood plus pine
trees and more.
The
Myanmar people of that
area mine tin, wolfram,
iron ore and more, best
known are Mawchi Mines.
There are plenty of
reads, but not in good
conditions to have a
look around even into
remote corners. The area
is very similar to
Thailand’s Kanchanaburi
district.
The
Kayahs form the majority
in the State. Ethnic
minorities include Gay-hko,
Gay-bah, Yinn-tale, Pa-ku-kayin,
Shan, Pa-oh, Padaung, or
Kayan, and Innthas
natives of Inle lake. Of
them, Padaungs are known
for some of their women
with elongated necks.
Known to foreign
tourists as "Giraffe
Women of Myanmar", such
Padaung women put solid
brass rings round their
necks of different in
size.
To non
Kayahs outside the
State, the Kayahs used
to be known as Kayinnis
(Red Kayins), partly
because their dialect is
somewhat akin to those
of the Kayins in the
neighbouring Kayin State
and partly because the
Kayahs by tradition wear
dresses dyed with laced
red coloring matter. The
Kayahs, however, have
always called themselves
"Kayah" or "Kayahli"
("Kaye," in their
dialect means "human"
and "Ii" means "red",
red human)
The
Kayahs believe to be the
descendants of Kinnara
(Mythical bird with
humanhead and torso)
that inhabited in Ngwe-taung-pyi
(Silver Mountain
Country). The Kayah
State's Ba-loo-chaung
River rises in the
Southern Shan State's
Inle Lake Lake noted for
its leg-rowers, and
enters the Kayah State
from northwest, passes
Loikaw, the capital of
the Kayah State and
continues down south
until it disappears
underground to flow into
Pun-chaung River, which
course down Kautarwaddy
and later into the
Thanlywin River. Now, to
the west of
Ba-loo-chaung River,
there is a high mountain
range with a 5,000 ft
high mountain top called
Lwe-nun-hpa (meaning
"Princess Mountain"). It
is believed that Ngwe-taung-pyi
(Silver Mountain
Country) lies somewhere
around there. The Kayahs
hold these mountains in
great veneration, and
pray for the return to
their Ngwe-taungpyi—the
"Land of Kinnard and
Kinarri. The Knnara is
the emblem of Kayah
State which figures it
in the State Flag. Also,
it is a tradition to
turn the faces of their
dead towards Ngwe-taung-pyi.
Customs and traditions,
while they have their
fair share of Buddhists
and Roman Catholics
amongst them, there are
still those who cling to
their customs and
traditions like nat
spirit propitiation,
feasting dancing and
exchange of gifts on
important occasions such
as birth, engagement,
wedding and funeral.
Clothes and costumes,
formal wear for Kayah
male consists of red
turban buttoned-up
jacket and dark baggy
trousers. A Kayah
female's formal wear
includes a red
headdress, red
short-sleeved blouse,
chest- and back-covering
ornaments of silver
trinkets and chains lung
round the neck and
shoulders, red cloak,
block and white
waistband with one end
dropped down front and a
short brown-red nether
garment.
Minority
ethnic groups in the
Kayah State are fond of
throwing housewarming
party. For example, the
time after harvesting
for Padaungs or Kayans,
is the time for house
building in which every
relative or friend will
lend a helping hand. As
soon as construction of
a new house is
completed, the
house-owner will have a
housewarming party,
feeding and giving
drinks to all friends
and relatives. There is
music and sing round a
bon fire. The party's
biggest attraction is
the young boy's and
girl's group dance, in
which dancers step
between shifting bamboo
pots timed to music.
The Ma-nu ma-naw ethnic
group also loves to hold
housewarming party. In
it, there is dancing and
singing, and the Hpa-zi
(Ceremonial bronze drum)
placed in a prominent
place. There's group
dancing but they don't
dance stepping between
shifting bamboo poles
like the Padaungs do.
And dancing partners are
of the same sex. Boys
and girls will sing
together—not in unison
but in a reciprocal way.
Members
of the Pa-ye ethnic
group, by tradition,
hold housewarming party
but in their case, their
party is held not one
night but seven nights!
The Gay-hkos
also throw housewarming
parties. They have many
dance items including
stepping-between
shifting-bamboo-poles
dance, shield dance and
Tay-la-doe dance. One
interesting feature of
the Gay-hko house
warning party is that
the party-giver is not
allowed to do a thing
about cooking food or
brewing Hkaungye for the
party but his friends
and relatives do all the
cooking and brewing.
The
Kayahs, by tradition,
celebrate two festivals
a year, namely the Ku-Atoe-po
(meaning "Flagstaff ")
Festival held in April
and Paw-mi or Di-ku
Festival (Glutinous rice
cooked wrapped in leaves
Festival) held in
August. But the festival
celebrated by all the
ethnic groups in the
State is the Kalu
(meaning Ceremonial
drum) Festival held
yearly in April since
1951. |
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Kayan or Padaung
are some of the most
interesting people in terms of
appearance are the
a
indigenous tribe from
eastern Myanmar. Famous
for the "long neck" women and girls with
brass spirals around their neck, arms
and legs. Some of them run away
to Thailand, near
Mae Hong Son,
from the continuous fighting between the
military and insurgent groups at
that area.
Today they earn a living in
Thailand by posing for tourist who come
in by large numbers to see this unique
brass fashion. They say they wear the
brass spirals and rings to remember
their mythical ancestors, the Naga, a
mythical snake.
Here are more pictures,
they tell more. are real oriental people by any
means. Soft, cute and pretty, most of them in
the rural areas must already work since
childhood and the work can be quite hard as seen
at the picture left side. But that's the
unfortunately the same elsewhere elsewhere in
the world, they should go to school not to work,
more
Different
Ethnic Groups of Burmese People |
Kayan
or Padaung |
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Kachin are 12 different
ethnic groups.
Kachin
Atsi
Dalaung
Duleng
Guari
Hkahku
Jinghpaw
Lashi
Lisu - also in Thailand
Maru
Rawang
Taron
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Kayah are 9 different
ethnic groups.
Kayah
Bre
Gheko
Ka-Yun or Padaung
Kebar
Manu Manaw
Yin Talai
Yin Baw
Zayein
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Kayin are 11 different
ethnic groups.
Kayin
Bwe
Kayinpyu
Mon Kayin
Monnepwa
Monpwa
Pa-Le-Chi
Paku
Shu
Sgaw
Ta-Lay-Pwa
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Chin are 53 different ethnic groups.
Chin
Anu
Anun
Awa Khami
Asho
Dai
Dim
Gunte
Gwete
Haulngo
Ka-Lin-Kaw
Kaungso
Kaung Saing
Khawno
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Khami
Kwangli
Kwelshin
Lai
Laizao
Lawhtu
Laymyo
Lushei
Lyente
Lhinbu
Magun
Malin
Matu
Meithei
Mgan
Miram
Mi-er
Naga
Ngorm
Oo-Pu
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Panun
Rongtu
Saing Zan
Saline
Sentang
Tanghkul
Taishon
Tapong
Tay-Zan
Thado
Tiddim
Torr
Za-How
Zahnyet
Zizan
Zo
Zo-Pe
Zotung
Wakim
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Bamar are 9 different ethnic
groups.
Bamar
Beik
Dawei
Ganan
Hpon
Kadu
Salone
Yabein
Yaw
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Mon is 1 ethnic group.
Mon
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Rakhine or Arakan are 7 ethnic
groups.
Rakhine
Daingnet
Kamein
Kwe Myi
Maramagyi
Mro
Thet
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Shan are 33 ethnic groups.
Shan
Danaw
Danu
Eng
Eik-swair
Hkun
Intha
Kaw or Akha
Khamu
Khamti Shan
Kokant
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Kwi
Lahu
Man Zi
Maingtha
Maw Shan
Palaung or Kayan
Pale
Pa-O
Pyin
Shan Gale
Shan Gyi
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Son
Tai-Lem
Tai-Loi
Tai-Lon
Tai-Lai
Taungyo
Yao
Yin Kya
Yin Net
Yun or Lao
Wa |
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