Land of Jade
Page 1
Praise for
LAND OF JADE
“Lintner’s… book deserves a lot more attention and recognition than it will probably receive, in a day when real deeds take second place to armchair analysis.
John McBeth, Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER), Vol. 150/41, Oct. 11, 1990
Land of Jade concerns the four-decade-long revolts against Rangoon’s rule by the country’s hill peoples and the time the intrepid couple spent in their midst. …told from the unique position of authority his travels, studies and work as a journalist have earned him.
Derek Davies, Traveller’s Tales, FEER, 1990
Land of Jade is both a fascinating travelogue and a dramatic eye-witness account of the different insurgencies that were then being waged against the Burmese government. He was the first Westerner to visit the rugged, insurgent-held north of Burma for many years and provides a rare insight into the daily lives of the hill people, caught up in the struggles between the government, the insurgents, and the local opium lords.
Andrew Selth, Asian Studies Review, Vol. 15/2, Nov. 1991
…the ultimate hill trek: two years through jungles and hills, being passed from one guerrilla group to the next. Land of Jade is a cross between a travel narrative and a history of the insurgent groups.
Andrew Metten, Great Expeditions, March/April 1991
To say this book is the best there is on the subject is no recommendation at all, since it’s the only one available. More meaningfully one can predict that it will continue to be read as an absorbing account of a very difficult journey, and as a first-class piece of balanced political journalism, long after it has rivals.
Charles Browne, Northern Monthly, Vol. 2/3, March, 1991
Land of Jade still ranks as one of the best I have read, describing not only the couple’s remarkable 18-month, 2,275 kilometre expedition, but also providing remarkable new insights into the long-forgotten struggle by the Naga, Shan and Kachin ethnic groups against Burmese military rule.
John McBeth, Reporter: Forty Years Covering Asia, Talisman Publishing, Singapore 2011
In memory of
Lieut. Yaw Htung
Sgt.-Maj. Maru Tanggun
Lance Cpl. Tangbau Zaungdau
Cpl. Zau Shan
Sgt.-Maj. Dingring Naw Bawk
Zekope Krome
Michael Davies
Sai Noom Pan
Lashi Naw Ja
LAND OF JADE
A Journey from India through Northern Burma to China
Bertil Lintner
Photographs by
Hseng Noung Lintner
Orchid Press
LAND OF JADE: A Journey from India through Northern Burma to China
Bertil Lintner; photography by Hseng Noung Lintner
First published in Danish as Reisen Th. Jadelandet, Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke, Copenhagen 1989
First English edition, Kiscadale Publications & White Lotus Press, Arran/Bangkok 1990
Second English edition, White Orchid Press, Bangkok 1996
Third English edition 2011
ORCHID PRESS
P. O. Box 19,
Yuttitham Post Office,
Bangkok 10907, Thailand
www.orchidbooks.com
Copyright © Orchid Press 2011
Protected by copyright under the terms of the International Copyright Union: all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover image: Naga boy blowing a horn made of a long green leaf. Photo by Hseng Noung Lintner.
ISBN 978-974-524-185-5
Kindle Edition
Table of Contents
Praise for Land of Jade
In Memory of
Title Page
Copyright Page
List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction to the Third Edition
1. The Nagas
2. Calcutta
3. To Kohima
4. In Hiding
5. Longva—Kesan Chanlam
6. To the Chindwin
7. The Hukawng Valley
8. The Triangle
9. Pa Jau
10. Hsi-Hsinwan
11. Kokang and the Wa Hills
12. Panghsang
13. Over the Kengtung Hills
14. To Sipsongpanna and Hong Kong
Epilogue
Index
About the Author and Photographer
Back Cover
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
#1: In October 1985 the Lintners crossed the border between Nagaland and Burma with their daughter who was then six weeks old. Here, she is six months and the Lintners have reached Kachin State in northern Burma. Hseng Noung is keeping her warm by the fire in a small mountain village hut.
#2: The journey through Kachin State went by elephant, by river boat and on horseback. Sometimes they took part in local festivals, such as this ceremony to ordain Buddhist monks in a village near the Chinese border
#3: The author together with his photographer wife, Hseng Noung, and their daughter Hseng Tai Ja Reng.
#4: Plans for the journey were made during some sweltering days in Calcutta in the summer of 1985
#5: “Fernandes da Souza”, August 1985.
#6: Bertil Lintner in hiding in Zanietso’s house in Kohima, September 1985.
#7: A few moments after our daughter was born on September 13, 1985.
#8: Father and daughter a few weeks after her birth.
#9: October 1985. The border between India and Burma.
#10: Naga boy in a village in northwestern Burma.
#11: The Patkai range in the Naga Hills as seen from the Burmese side.
#12: The Nagas were headhunters until only a few years ago.
#13: Interviewing Isak Chishi Swu, chairman of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland
#14: The first stop in northern Burma was Kesan Chanlam, the NSCN’s headquarters in the Naga Hills of northern Sagaing Division.
#15: Heavily armed Naga guerrillas pose for the camera. But when their headquarters was attacked in December 1985, they showed little fighting ability. The Lintners escaped unscathed, but many people were killed in the fighting.
#16: The stay at Kesan Chanlam provided the first exciting opportunity for interviews with NSCN leaders and veterans of the Naga struggle.
#17: Zekope Krome, a young NSCN activist from the Indian side, helped the Lintners during their stay in the Burmese Naga Hills.
#18: The village of Kesan Chanlam in the Naga Hills where the NSCN had built its headquarters. It was attacked in December 1985.
#19: Lieut. Yaw Htung (left) together with NSCN chairman Isak Chishi Swu at Kesan Chanlam on December 16, 1985. Two days later, Yaw Htung was dead.
#20: Youthful Naga warriors in northwestern Burma.
#21: NSCN soldiers with their flag: “Nagaland for Christ.”
#22: On January 3, 1986, the Lintners crossed the Chindwin River. They had just celebrated New Year’s Eve together with their KIA escorts in a small village near the river. The dramatic events at Kesan Chanlam were still fresh in their memories. A pig was roasted over open fire to celebrate the new year.
#23: The trek to Kachin State went through dense jungle and wet marshland. When they at last reached a fishing village by the Nam Byu River, the first Kachin settlement, villagers came out to greet them.
#24: Maj. Pan Awng who escorted the party from Nam Byu to Tanai Yang in western Kachin State.
#25: Bertil and Maj. Pan Awng study maps before crossi
ng the Ledo Road in the Hukawng Valley.
#26: A peasant with his bullocks passing KIA troops on the Ledo Road.
#27: A jeep with drug traffickers is stopped and searched by the KIA.
#28: Bertil rides into Tanai Yang, the 2nd Brigade headquarters of the KIA.
#29: A party was held at Tanai Yang to celebrate the arrival of “Mr. Hamilton”.
#30: Kachin villagers in northernmost Burma.
#31: Early morning in the Kachin Hills.
#32: The village of N’Raw Kawng in January 1986.
#33: Young Kachin girls looked after our daughter during the journey.
#34: Local people panning for gold near the Mali Hka River, northern Kachin State.
#35: Every year, thousands of people flock to the gold fields at Gawng Sha in northern Kachin State.
#36: On the way from the Triangle to Pa Jau.
#37: Maj.-Gen. Zau Mai at the KIA’s headquarter at Na Hpaw.
#38: Riding a bicycle down the Myitkyina-Bhamo road was a welcome change!
#39: Gold was abundant at Hkala Yang market. Jade and opium were exchanged for consumer goods from China.
#40: Anti-aircraft position at the KIA’s headquarters at Na Hpaw.
#41: Hseng Noung gives Hseng Tai a bath in a fresh mountain stream.
#42: At Pa Jau, the political headquarters of the KIO, Bertil interviewed Brang Seng, who masterminded an alliance between all major rebel armies in northern Burma. But, at the same time, there was time for popular music in the Kachin Hills!
#43: Brang Seng, the leader of the Kachin rebels, gives a dinner talk for the Lintners at Pa Jau.
#44: Hseng Tai’s first birthday party on September 13, 1986.
#45: Brang Seng and Bertil saying goodbye before the Lintners left Pa Jau in October 1986.
#46: In October 1986, a year after they crossed into Burma, the Lintners continued their journey, south from Kachin State and down to Shan State. Hseng Tai has grown considerably!
#47: CPB officers planning the attack on Hsi-Hsinwan. Zhang Zhiming (Kyi Myint) identifies the target of first strike against the Burmese army.
#48: Kyi Myint leading the attack on Hsi-Hsinwan, November 16, 1986.
#49: Some CPB soldiers were very young.
#50: CPB troops getting ready to attack Hsi-Hsinwan.
#51: Crossing the Salween River on 22nd Novermber 1986.
#52: The Salween ferry was held in place by a strong iron wire.
#53: Hsi-Hsinwan, 16th November 1986. The attack took place in a spectacular landscape.
#54: The CPB’s troops moved into combat in old Chinese army trucks. The battle was planned meticulously by the CPB—but, in the end, they lost. Bertil marched south, crossed the Salween River and entered the Malipa Valley in Kokang
#55: Early morning in the Kokang hills.
#56: Old man in Tashwehtang village.
#57: Panghsang was the headquarters of the Burmese communists, but the local population was still Buddhist. Plenty of opium poppies were also grown in the area.
#58: Bertil and Thakin Ba Thein Tin, the chairman of the CPB.
#59: The market in Panghsang.
#60: Mong Paw market, northern Shan State.
#61: Old Wa man in a village near the Yunnan frontier.
#62: Hseng Tai, 14 mouths old.
#63: In early 1987 the Lintners met Chairman Thakin Ba Thein Tin at the Panghsang headquarters of the Communist Party of Burma. Earlier, in late 1986, they had met Brang Seng, the leader of the Kachin rebels
#64: The market in Panghsai, stocked with contraband from China.
#65: The CPB headquarters at Panghsang, which the Lintners reached in late December 1986.
#66: CPB troops posing with Swedish-made rocket launcher, which they had captured from the government troops.
#67: Opium for sale in Panghsang market.
#68: Lahu New Year in Weng Gao, 1987.
#69: San Thu and his wife San Yi looked after the Lintners during their stay at Panghsang
LIST OF MAPS
Map 1: The entire Journey from the Indian border through Burma to the Chinese border
Map 2: Route followed through Nagaland, across the Indian Border to the Hukawng valley
Map 3: The Hukawng valley—The Triangle—Pa Jau
Map 4: Kokang and the Wa Hills
Map 5: From Pangsang to the Chinese border
Battle Map A: The attack on Kesan Chanlam
Battle Map B: Hsi-Hsinwan
Map 1: The entire Journey from the Indian border through Burma to the Chinese border
In October 1985 the Lintners crossed the border between Nagaland and Burma with their daughter who was then six weeks old. Here, she is six months and the Lintners have reached Kachin State in northern Burma. Hseng Noung is keeping her warm by the fire in a small mountain village hut.
The journey through Kachin State went by elephant, by river boat and on horseback. Sometimes they took part in local festivals, such as this ceremony to ordain Buddhist monks in a village near the Chinese border
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book, and the journey it describes, would not have been possible without the generous and selfless help of numerous people in Thailand, India, Burma and China. Many of the people we would like to thank the most have to remain anonymous. These are mostly Nagas living in India who, at considerable risk to their own security, helped us into the forbidden areas along the Indo-Burmese border, and later even across it. These people have been given aliases in this book while those in the underground are referred to by their real names, as are all other insurgent personalities in Burma.
The Kachin guerrillas, who escorted us from Naga headquarters, near the Indian border, across northern Burma to the Sino-Burmese frontier, deserve a special acknowledgment. In my work as a journalist in East Asia, I have visited more than twenty different rebel groups in Burma, Kampuchea and the Philippines. But the Kachins are incomparably the finest soldiers I have ever seen.
Major (later Sir) Bernard Fergusson, who fought together with them against the Japanese during World War Two, wrote of these tribesmen in the northernmost corner of Burma: “I can do no more than commend that gallant race to my countrymen.” They stand equally high in our esteem. The Kachin guerrillas not only looked after our family’s security during almost half of our altogether 2,275 kilometre long trek through upper Burma, but also took care of all our basic needs during our arduous journey.
Three of them were killed while resisting a Burmese Army attack on a camp where we were staying. This book is dedicated to these three brave young men—and to a fourth Kachin friend, Lashi Naw Ja, who was shot dead when Burmese government troops fired indiscriminately into his village.
Zekope Krome, another person to whom this book is dedicated, was a young Naga friend of ours. While the work with this book was in progress, the sad news reached us that he had been assassinated in Kohima on August 15, 1987.
Khun Nawng, a young second lieutenant in the Kachin rebel army, acted as our guide and interpreter during several months of travelling. We appreciated his patience with us and all our probing questions which he translated to villagers, private soldiers and others we met along our journey through the Kachin Hills. Although my wife Hseng Noung is fluent in Burmese and Shan, Khun Nawng was our main help in communicating with people who knew only the Kachin language.
Of the many Kachin guerrillas we met, we were especially impressed by their tough NCOs. Sgt.-Maj. Dingring Naw Bawk, who commanded the company that escorted us from the Triangle area in northern Kachin State down to the Chinese frontier near Na Hpaw and Pa Jau, was one of them. I still remember waking up early in the morning in our jungle bivouacs, hearing his voice all over our temporary camp, getting his soldiers ready for the day’s duties. He was killed in action in May 1987, and this book is dedicated to him as well.
While at the Na Hpaw-Pa Jau headquarters of the Kachin rebels, Maj. N’Chyaw Tang’s notes on the war in northern Burma provided an inexhausti
ble fund of information which I was later able to cross-check with other sources.
Other Kachins also helped and encouraged us in our work. There was no instance when I was prevented from interviewing someone I wanted to see, even if the facts that came out would not necessarily be to the advantage of the guerrillas. Nor did they ever try to interfere in my work, check notes or manuscripts. This made their proclaimed dedication to democracy and freedom of the press thoroughly credible.
In the then communist-controlled areas in northeastern Burma—where we spent almost half a year after marching down from the Kachin Hills—we felt sympathy for the rank and file hill tribe soldiers who have been caught in the fighting for a cause I do not think they ever believed in, but who are determined to defend their homes and families if attacked by any outside force.
The communist cadres were more reluctant than the Kachin rebels to let us work independently and to talk freely to people inside their area. I often had the feeling that they wanted me to hear only the party line. Nevertheless, it is to their credit that they talked surprisingly openly about their party’s history, revealing many facts which until I gathered them had remained unknown to the outside world. Without their help and assistance, I would never have been able to write my articles about them and other Burmese rebels which were published in the Far Eastern Economic Review on May 28, and June 4, 1987, and my subsequent book The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Burma, which was published in 1990.
The author together with his photographer wife, Hseng Noung, and their daughter Hseng Tai Ja Reng.
This book, Land of Jade, is also dedicated to the tens of thousands of Burmese government troops who are posted in the country’s remotest areas under extremely difficult and hostile conditions. Despite recent cease-fire agreements with most of the rebel armies, I do not think that they can ever achieve what their government is hoping for: a victory over the country’s 25,000-30,000 odd insurgents. Nor do I believe that the regime they are at present fighting for is worth defending.