by David Eimer
Not everyone who moves to Hpakant ends up an addict. The man who drove me to Namhsan, the Ta’ang capital, had worked as a freelance miner there for seven years without taking drugs. But neither did he become rich. Even if you find a decent-sized piece of jade, getting a fair deal from the Chinese buyers is a challenge. ‘I never found good jade,’ Tang Raw remembered. ‘But the traders won’t pay a good price to an addict. They know that they just have to offer a low one and you’ll take it because you need to score.’
These days, Tang Raw visits Hpakant to try and save people from heroin. The town sits in a bowl surrounded by devastated hills of red earth. In their lee are the shanties where an estimated 200,000 migrant workers live and Tang Raw preaches the gospels. He showed me phone footage he had shot on his most recent trip. There were no hidden away shooting galleries, like the one I saw outside Namtu in Shan State. People wandered openly with syringes tucked behind their ears, or crouched outside their lean-to shelters, the needles still in the veins of their arms.
Overdose victims lay where they had died, covered in plastic sheets, waiting to be collected by local NGOs. A woman was breastfeeding while also injecting herself in the hand. ‘She’s twenty-four, or was. A Karen from Mawlamyine,’ said Tang Raw. Another woman in a dirty red htamein sold heroin outside her shack. I was surprised by the number of female users, but prostitution is rampant in Hpakant, too. With both the women and their customers shooting heroin, it is little surprise that HIV is rife in the town. Watching the film, I thought that some of Burma’s barred areas are worth avoiding.
There was one last task to complete before I departed Putao. Three roads run northwards of the town, heading north-east, north-west and north, tapering out before the forests and hills that lead to the Himalayas. I wanted to travel as far as I could on one of them. Ngwalisa recommended the road that leads due north. I would be in an area technically out of bounds to foreigners, but we would be able to get to the end of the road and back to Putao in a day.
Our route took us through Shan villages for the first time, the centres of some of them featuring expanses of open land, the local version of a village green. There were small pagodas and monasteries, too, as well as fields of coriander, mustard, garlic and beans. Pink roses flowered in the gardens, along with citrus fruit trees. Stone and dirt tracks connect the villages, logs lashed together acting as bridges over the many streams that cleave through the earth here. ‘We won’t see any police,’ said Ngwalisa. ‘Only motorbikes and ox carts can get across the bridges.’
Diverting to the west, we visited a timber camp in a forest. Two elephants nudged the fallen trees towards an electric saw with their foreheads and trunks, having dragged them down from the logging area a four-hour ride away using chains that trailed behind them. Piles of sawdust and elephant dung littered the camp. The pachyderms were from near Indawgyi Lake, as were their Shan mahouts. One had previously mined in Hpakant. ‘I went when I was fifteen,’ he told me. ‘I didn’t find any jade. I prefer being with the elephants.’
Still widely used as working animals in the borderlands, with the KIA employing them as transport, elephants remain as valuable in Burma today as they were in 1926, when George Orwell made the mistake of shooting one in Mawlamyine. They can cover twenty miles a day and a trained elephant costs as much as £30,000. ‘We don’t think it is cruel to use elephants for work. It is normal for us,’ the mahout said. ‘We raise them in captivity now as there aren’t really any wild elephants left around Indawgyi. When they are too old to work, we let them go to the forest and they die there.’
Moving on, we reached Setilaw Village, a small Lisu settlement that is the final outpost of civilisation due north of Putao. It was one of the poorest villages I’d seen in the Triangle, humble patches of land given over to rice and sugarcane, wells providing water and bamboo houses on stilts lining both sides of a dust track that ran straight towards the hills. In the far distance was the 4,700-metre peak of Madaw Razi, with only a few wispy clouds above the snow-clad summit to disturb the dazzling blue sky.
To my eyes the hills appeared much closer here. But Ngwalisa knew better. I was being deceived by a mountain mirage. ‘It’s a six-day walk from here to the main hills. The first two days are easy, after that it is very up and down,’ he said. Beyond the last house in the village the track veered abruptly west. There was only prairie to the north now, the thick grass reaching above my knees. ‘This is where you start walking for the mountains,’ said Ngwalisa. I nodded and returned to the bike. There was nowhere else to go.
List of Abbreviations
AFPFL Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League
ARSA Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army
DEA Drug Enforcement Administration
ESSDDP Eastern Shan State Development Democratic Party
KIA Kachin Independence Army
KIO Kachin Independence Organisation
KMT Kuomintang
MNDAA Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army
NDAA National Democratic Alliance Army
NLD National League for Democracy
RCSS Restoration Council of Shan State
TNLA Ta’ang National Liberation Army
USDP Union Solidarity and Development Party
UWSA United Wa State Army
Acknowledgements
I owe a huge debt to everyone who spoke to me for this book. Some names have been changed at the request of those interviewed or where I felt it necessary. I am especially grateful to Robin Gardiner for sharing his memories of his father and for granting me access to his personal papers.
Michael Fishwick, Sarah Ruddick and Marigold Atkey at Bloomsbury were ever-supportive and patient. Richard Collins did a sterling job as editor. Thanks also to Patrick Walsh.
The following people provided assistance and advice during my time in Burma – my gratitude to you all: Mr Anthony, Aye Chan Bo, Eaint Thiri Thu, Japha, Kaung Myat Min, Mya Wutyee Hlaing, Nang Htwe Lin Yu, Saw Closay, Shunn Lei, Su Mon Pyae, Swe Zin Htaik, Thaiddi, Tin Maung Maung Aye, Wae Win Khaing, Win Naing, Win Sandar Soe, John Buchanan, Colin Hinshelwood, David Scott Mathieson, Jochen Meissner, Bruno Philip and Samara Yawnghwe.
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Index
actresses here
Adventures of Kathlyn, The (film) here
AI film company here, here, here
Akyab see Sittwe
Alaungpaya, king of Burma here, here, here, here, here, here
alcohol here, here
All Burma Students’ Democratic Front here
amber mines here
Anawrahta, Bagan king here, here, here
Anglo-Burmese Wars: First (1924–6) here; Second (1852) here; Third (1886) here, here, here
animal trade and wildlife trafficking here, here
animism here, here
Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League here, here
Ar Kar here
Arakan: ceded to Britain here; see also Rakhine State
Arakan Army (Rakhine) here, here
Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) here, here, here
Aris, Michael (Aung San Suu Kyi’s husband) here
art: practitioners here
Arunachal Pradesh, India here, here, here, here
Ashae Taike Monastery, Pakokku here
astrologers here, here
Aung Gyi here
Aung Mingalar, Sittwe here, here
Aung San (Suu Kyi’s father): assassinated here, here, here, here; fame and qualities here; in film Boycott here; founds Tatmadaw here, here; friendship with U Raschid here; heads People’s Freedom League here; image on banknotes here; influence on Suu Kyi here, here; meets minority groups at Panglong Conference here, here, here; opposes British rule here; photograph here; recognises minority rights here; rise to power here; and Sao Shwe Thaike in Shan State here; and Shan autonomy movement here; socialist ambitions here; supports Japanese in war here, here; switches to support Allies here
Austen, Charles here
Ayutthaya here
Ayeyarwady Delta: devastated by Cyclone Nargis here; economic decline here; fertility and population here; rice production here
Ayeyarwady River and Valley (formerly Irrawaddy) here, here, here, here
Ba Maw here
Bagan here, here
Bagyidaw, king of Burma here
Bamar (Burmese people) here, here, here, here, here
Bandula, General Maha here
Bangkok: Suvarnabhumi Airport here
Bangladesh here, here; see also Rohingya
Baptists: in Chin State here; see also Christianity
Bayinnaung, king of Burma here, here
Beichuan, Sichuan Province (China) here
betel nuts here
Bilu (island) here
Bodawpaya, king of Burma here
Boulder Bay Island here
Boycott (film) here
Bristol: as source of buccaneers here
Britain: Japanese attack in Burma here, here; rule in Burma here, here, here, here; war casualties in Burma here; see also Anglo-Burmese Wars
British Petroleum (oil company) here
Bruce, Sir Arthur here
Buddhism, Buddhists: administrative role here; attacks on Muslims here, here, here; and making merit here; on male superiority and status of women here; monks here, here; and nationalism here; prevalence and dominance here, here, here, here; temples here; Theravada here; Tibetan here
Burma: achieves independence (1947) here, here; astrologers, numerologists and soothsayers here; author moves to here; autocratic tradition here; border with Bangladesh here; British life in here; British occupy and rule here, here, here, here, here; by-elections (2012) here, here; censorship and media restrictions here; Christian missionaries in here, here; civil wars here, here; composition of military forces here; constitution redrafted by junta here; corruption in here, here; cross-border smuggling here; dissent and protests in here, here; earnings here, here, here; economic decline here; education system here; emigrants here; entertainment and social life here; ethnic composition here; factories and labour here; foreign incomers and traders here; history of violence here; identity cards here, here, here; importance of contacts here; indirect rule here; Japanese invade and occupy (1942) here; life expectancy here; migrant labour in here; minorities despised by Bamar here; minorities and regions aim for autonomy here, here; murder rate here, here; natural resources here, here, here; opium growing here, here; political ideas and administration here; post-war conditions and unrest here; protesters arrested and killed here; rail network here; rebels against British colonial rule here, here, here; referendum on constitution here; religious freedom here; renamed Myanmar here; roads here; Scots in here; trade with India here; trade union movement here; treatment of minority groups here; under junta control here, here, here; under King Anawrahta here; wars with Britain here, here, here; World War II campaign here; World War II damage and casualties here, here
Burma Independence Army here, here
Burma Rifles here
Burmah Oil (company) here
‘Burmese Way to Socialism’ (junta’s programme) here, here, here, here, here
censorship here, here
Cham Myae here
Chaukkan Pass here
Chettiars (Indian moneylenders) here
Chiang Mai, Thailand here, here
Chin Independence Army here
Chin National Front here
Chin State: character and conditions here, here, here, here; demand for autonomy here; denied self-rule here; family size here; government here; migant workers send money home here; number of doctors here; religion in here, here, here, here; in W
orld War II here
China: border with Burma here, here; gambling illegal in here; hostility to Christianity here; imports Burmese jade here; influence in Burmese civil war here; migrant labour in Burma here; in opium trade here, here; presence in Mong La here, here, here; provides money along border here; relations with RCSS here; restrictions on Tibet here; tea trade here; and Tibetan rising here
Chindits (British military force in Burma) here
Chinese: in Soppong here
Chinese Communist Party here
Christianity: in Chin State here, here, here; in Kachin here; in Mawlamyine here
Christmas: celebrations here, here
cinema see films and cinema
Collis, Maurice here, here, here, here, here; Trials in Burma here
communists: insurgents in Burma here, here
Conto, Niccolò de’ here
Cope, Joseph Herbert (Baptist missionary) here, here
crime and criminals here, here
Croker, B.M.: The Road to Mandalay here
cronies here, here
Cyclone Nargis here, here
dacoits, dacoity here, here
Dalai Lama here
Dalou, Yunnan here
Davenport (Boston navigator) here
Daw Suu see Suu Kyi, Aung San
Dawei here
death penalty here
Dehong Prefecture here
Donald, Mr (of Hsipaw) here
dress here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
drug dealers: women as here
drugs (narcotics): addicts here; among young minority groups here; decline in profitability here; from Golden Triangle here; Kachin opposition to here, here; local use here, here; museum in Mong La here; organisations opposing and rehabilitation here; Salone people use here; trade here, here, here, here; see also heroin; opium
East India Company here, here, here, here, here
Eastern Shan State Development Democratic Party (ESSDDP) here
Eberhard, Inge here; Twilight over Burma here
Edward, Prince of Wales here
8888 Uprising here, here
elephants here
Enriquez, C.M. here; A Burmese Enchantment here
