THE VANISHING TRIBES OF MYANMAR

"There is in this particular region a collection of races diverse in feature, language and customs such as cannot, perhaps, be paralleled in any other part of the world".

Gazetteer of Upper Burma and thw Shan States, Sir George Scott, 1899

"We shall never be able to trace all the people who now inhabit Burma back fully to their original seats, or say precisely where they had their beginnings".

The Tribes of Burma, C.C. Lowis, 1919

"Here is a vast country, with a thin population and poor communications. The races are varied and in places their distribution is confused. We are frankly on the edge of the unknown"

Races of Burma, Major C. M. Enriquez, 1923

"The whole country is a mass of small pockets of mutually hostile peoples, speaking languages which may vary sometimes from village to village within a certain tribe having customs which differ in minor details to a bewildering degree".

The Hill Peoples of Burma, Stevenson, 1944

“Burma is a living fossil from another era".

Insight Guides, Burma, Apa Productions, 1981.

Nestling between China, Tibet, and India to the north, Thailand and Laos to the east and Bangladesh to the west, Myanmar is home to a vast collection of different ethnic groups and clans who for centuries have followed ancient migration routes from India, southwest china, Tibet and Assam. Many of these peoples eventually retreated deep into the mountains and forests around Myanmar's borderlands, where few roads exist above 3,000 fee, and away from the malaria-infested valleys where their forefathers had lived and died. Indeed, such is the ruggedness of Myanmar's mountains that two villages of people belonging to the same ethnic group can be so isolated geographically that their language will not be understood by the other after a generation. Chin State alone boasts of forty-four different dialects, many of which are mutually unintelligible. Across the centuries, despite a process of constant human movement and interchange, these geographical barriers have served to keep culture, dress and language remarkably separate in Myanmar.

Even today, Myanmar remains one of the last unexplored regions on earth. Modern maps provided by the U.S Defense Department show swathes of land marked "relief territory incomplete" or "boundary only approximate". Vast tracts of the country have no roads at all, particularly in the mountainous border areas. Where they do exist, the roads are made of dirt and disappear into rivers of mud during the rainy season, making travel to the region impossible.

These physical obstacles have meant that there has been very little access to the hill peoples by outsiders.  Few of the majority of Myanmarns, let alone foreigners, have seen these ethnic groups, and very few photographers have been in minority areas in recent years. The Burmese government ended its own studies on ethnic minority peoples in the 1960s after General Ne Win seized power, while books compiled by the Ministry of culture were not allowed to be reprinted.

If you were to make an inquiry at the Ministry of Culture in Yangon to the venerable gentlemen working there, they would inform you that there are 135 separate and distinct tribes within her borders. This is not exactly correct. True perhaps if you were to divide the Naga into the Tangkhun, the Sema, the Konyak, the Summra, the Ponnyo ect., comprising nearly 49 different clans. Or the Chins into the Chin Bok, Chin Bon, Laytoo, Maga'n and nearly fourty others, differentiated by the women's facial tatoos of their clans. There are variously dressed Lisu, from Bhamaw, different from those living near the snowy peaks of Putao, Akha of the Gu Ba and Yer tung, and so forth. For practical purposes there are definately more than thirty distinct groups.

In my search to find out more about Myanmar's ethnic groups, I resorted to historical and ethnographical studies of the country, consulting British journals from the late nineteenth century as well as studies by military men with an eye to recruitment of the hill peoples in the first and second world wars. To my amazement, I found that many of the ethnic sub-groups had changed very little in a hundred years, if at all. Photographs in Sir George Scott's 1900 study, Gazetteer of Upper Myanmar and the Shan States, or National Geographic in 1922, alongside an article by Alexander Graham Bell titled Prehistoric Telephone Days, for example, show black-and-white photographs of the Bre (Kayaw) and Padaung (Kayan) peoples wearing the same style of dress and jewellry as they wore nearly a century later when I photographed them.

Many of my photographs were taken during times of great upheaval within the country. Few foreigners were allowed into Myanmar in the 1980s and some of the photographs were taken while the country was under martial law.

In unspecified areas, historical struggles continue against various armed ethnic groups. Despite some recent ceasefires, the Burmese government is unwilling to allow outsiders to visit most of these regions, claiming it cannot guarantee their safety. Whether this is due to genuine concern for travelers' safety or simply irritation at the fact that it has been unable to bring a large proportion of Myanmar's population under its control is a moot point. Nothing is more troublesome to central government than semi-nomadic villagers or minority groups demanding political autonomy and cultural freedom. in remote areas, many of the hill peoples still live by slash-and-burn methods of growing food and must abandon nutrient-depleted upland fields every five to fifteen years. They may move to nearby fields, or else the whole village may just pack up and travel to new hills.

Another problem is the notion that national boundaries do not exist and that the hill peoples are free to wander across mountains as they choose. Ethnic minority groups such as the Naga straddle both Burma and India, while Karen overlaps into Thailand and the Lisu, Akha, Lahu and others find themselves in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, China or even Vietnam.  Central government control means nothing to such hill peoples because they have no affiliation of national identity with the government in Yangon, only kinship within the clan or local ethnic community.

Traveling in Myanmar, where military rule is pervasive, presents many difficulties. Although all major roads and towns are controlled by the central government, the country can be divided into three different areas. The "white areas" cover the region known by the British as "Myanmar Proper"; they have long been under the control of the government and, under the SLORC, tourists are permitted to travel relatively freely in these areas. Then there are the "brown areas" such as towns located in insurgent-held areas which have garrisons of soldiers and to which tourists may be granted permission to travel. Finally, there are the "black areas" controlled by the insurgent groups where there is little or no Burmese government presence; here the schools, hospitals and trade have long been controlled by armed ethnic opposition groups which try to run their own administration.

As a foreigner I used every means possible to reach Myanmar's most remote hill or tribal peoples. Sometimes I was able to reach them in their villages by negotiating border crossings with the help of local soldiers or ethnic groups which maintained their own armies in the region. On other occasions, I was led to the villages by elephant or by the headman himself.

Some of the ethnic groups were so remote, such as the Lahta in the Loikaw area, that I had to send independent representatives to them in order to gain their trust. Then they were brought to me - often many miles and many days journey away - to a place where they felt comfortable posing for photographs, far away from the probing eyes of the central government. I am indebted to many people who, at great risk to themselves and their families, helped me to gain an insight into these isolated peoples.

Like many readers, perhaps, I was overwhelmed by the most obvious characteristic of the hill peoples - their colorful, exquisitely crafted costumes and jewellry. Each clan or sub-group has a unique range of styles and colors, and great time and imagination are used to make the adornments. They are an expression of status, pride, and art. Until recently they were worn all the time - at work and rest. Now the most ornate costumes are worn only on ceremonial occasions. Western clothing - jeans and T-shirts - are commonly worn by men and children, although women still wear traditional clothes.

Jewellery is usually made of brass or silver, the latter being the common currency among many of the mountain villagers as they do not trust paper money. Animals, land, dowries and crops are all paid for in silver, and spare jewellery on a woman's costume performs much the same function as a bank account.

Although many of the customs of the different ethnic groups have somehow endured throughout the twentienth century, some are beginning to show signs of change. When I first went to Myanmar in the 1980's most of the "tribal" people I encountered wore traditional dress every day at home and in the fields. However, within a mere fifteen years, it has become the exception rather than the rule. I soon realised that this was perhaps the last opportunity to document their cultures. Many of my photographs are perhaps the last of their kind.

For example, the Taungyo people of Shan State, who seemed plentiful when I first photographed them in 1983, had become very difficult to find in 1996. Some had traded the brass rings they wore on their ankles for cooking pots. Living in villages which were physically isolated, they stopped weaving and only the very old wore traditional dress.

Similarly, the traditional thick amber earrings worn by the Hkahku women are easy to find in Kachin State, but it was nearly impossible to find anyone who can still wear them. Similarly, few ethnic minority women have had the time to sit and embroider a piece of cloth or weave a fish trap when war is raging and they are left to fend for their communities alone.

There has never been a time in the history of Myanmar when there have been more threats to the traditional lifestyles of the country's ethnic minority and hill peoples. In the past few decades, countless villagers and communities have been dislocated from their homes due to the fighting. Western influences are also growing stronger by the year and the geographical barriers that once protected them, such as mountains, ravines and rivers, will soon be overcome. Even the most remote ethnic groups will be linked to their neighbors by roads cutting through their terrain and, as demand for their agricultural produce grows, they will become more familiar with outside influences. In addition, the demand for development and economic progress is strong, too, among leaders of ethnic minority groups that have been battling for political rights for their peoples for more than forty years.

As the pressures increase, the lack of cultivable land has led to inter-ethnic rivalries as well as conflict with local authorities, with the result that many traditional villagers have either left the hills, abandoning their unique way of life, or have been absorbed into neighboring ethnic groups. The Yinnet and Yinset peoples near Loilem, whom I had photographed in 1987, have had their villages burnt and have fled deeper into the mountains. the Taungyos are probably going to be absorbed by the Pa-Os during the next few years. In Kachin State, smaller groups such as the Hkahku, Azi, Maru, Lashi and, to a lesser extent, the Nung Rawang, will come to be dominated by the culture of the majority Jinghpaw. In Shan State, the Yinnet and Yinset are quickly disappearing, while the Wa, Palaung, Akha and Lahu are slowly being absorbed by the Shan or by each other. The few Hmong of Myanmar, like the more numerous Hmong in Laos, have been lured across the Thai border by the scent of easy money and can be found in the night market of Chiang Mai or the streets of Bangkok, selling their crafts.

The Taungyo wear the same style of clothes as the Pa-O; the Intha are increasing in population, but the resources of Inle Lake will not be able to sustain them for long. Arakan State has been dominated by Myanmar rule since King Bodawpaya's invasion and the loss of the Mahamuni Buddha image two hundred years ago, while the Thet, Khami and Daignet are faced with absorption by the more numerous Rakhine. The Mon, too, are destined to live in the shadow of their conquerors, the Myanmarn, who, over time, have claimed much of their cultural identity as well. Cultural assimilation and exchange can work both ways.

In Kayah (Karenni State) and Karen State, the fifty-year war between the central government and Karen groups have driven more than 100,000 Karen refugees over the border into Thailand. Padaung refugees have been brought into Thailand where they live as exotic curiosities for the entertainment of tourists wishing to see the so-called "Giraffe-necked" women. They earn more from tourism than from their agricultural work.

The indigenous Chin of Chin State and the Naga or the Naga hills, who have been isolated for fifty years, are still relatively untouched due to their isolation, but even these groups are now being affected by outside influences. The Burmese authorities no longer permit Chin women to tattoo their faces; skulls are rare in the Nagas' bachelor huts as game is dying out, and the tiger claws which once circled the warriors' faces are often made of painted wood.

Most of the Wa still live in semi-autonomy in the eastern Shan State and continue growing their opium crop and to carry weapons. But, after decades of insurgency and communist pressure, their culture is now heavily influenced by China and most Wa men now wear the green military fatigues of the Chinese army rather than their traditional robes.

It is difficult to predict how Myanmar's ethnic minorities- in particular, the diverse hill peoples - will adapt to the complex changes of the twenty-first century. Determined ethnic nationality movements continue to struggle to find a just place for their peoples on Myanmar's political map. But in the mountains, what will become of the spirit headman who can relate the myths and histories of the last forty generations? What will happen to their unrivalled knowledge of traditional medicines? Tribal children are hungry to learn, but without citizenship or accepted national identities they remain on the periphery of the dominant cultures in which they live. they have little stake in the future: there are no fresh mountain ranges to inhabit, no virgin fields to till and no untouched streams to fish.

Myanmar's minority peoples have always had a precarious existence, but the next millennium will bring new and exacting challenges. Some ethnic groups will fight to maintain their traditional way of life; others will adapt and modernize or be absorbed by more dominant groups; others will probably die out, leaving only the faintest trace of what was once a fine culture.

For over fifteen years, I traveled, researched, and photographed over thirty different tribal groups in every state of Myanmar. In 1997 Weidenfeld and Nicolson published my book, "The Vanishing Tribes of Myanmar", which was launched at the United Nations in London in recognition of The International

Decade of the World's Indigenous People 1994-2004.

Richard K. Diran