lonely-planet-myanmar-burma-11-edition

THE NAGA313The Naga are mainly settled in a mountainous region of eastern India known as Nagaland,but significant numbers live in the western Sagaing Region between the Indianborder and the Chindwin River.When the British arrived in the mid-19th century, the Naga were a fragmented butfearsome collection of tribes. Headhunting was a tradition among them and for manydecades they resisted British rule, though a lack of cooperation between the tribes hinderedtheir efforts to remain independent. After nearly 17,000 Naga fought in WWI in Europe,a feeling of unity grew, which led to an organised Naga independence movement.The Naga sport one of the world’s most exotic traditional costumes. Naga men atfestival time wear striking ceremonial headdresses made of feathers, tufts of hair andcowry shells, and carry wickedly sharp spears.The only way to visit the Naga in Myanmar is on a government-organised trip duringthe Naga new year in January. It’s easier, and more rewarding, to visit on the Indian sideof the border, where the majority of Naga live.a few groups continue a guerrilla-style conflict in the mountains nearThailand.Other PeoplesApart from the Wa (see p 311 ), Myanmar’s constitution has set aside ‘selfadministeredzones’ for the Naga, Danu, Pa-O, Palaung and Kokang.Figures from the 1983 census also show there were 233,470 Chinese,428,428 Indians, 567,985 Bangladeshis and 42,140 Pakistanis living inMyanmar. This data is sure to be grossly inaccurate today, especially withregard to the Chinese. In recent years there’s been a massive influx ofChinese people into northern Burma, evident in Mandalay and certainlyin border towns such as Mong La, where the yuan is the local currency.Women in MyanmarIn Letters From Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi writes that a baby girl is asequally celebrated as a baby boy, as they’re believed to be ‘more dutifuland loving than sons’. Girls are educated alongside boys and, by universityage, women outnumber men in university and college enrolment.Most white-collar professions grant women six weeks paid maternityleave before birth and one or two months afterwards.Myanmar women enjoy equal legal rights to those of men, can ownproperty, do not traditionally change any portion of their names uponmarriage and, in the event of divorce, are legally entitled to half of allproperty accumulated during the marriage. Inheritance rights are alsoequally shared.Rights on paper, however, don’t always translate into reality. In thecurrent parliament only 20 out of 659 members are women, and it’s rarethat you’ll find women in other positions of power in Myanmar including,crucially, in the military. As the author Nu Nu Yi said in an interviewwith The Irrawaddy on the occasion of International Women’s Day in2011, men in Myanmar ‘don’t want to give important decision-makingpositions to women.’When it comes to religion, women certainly take a back seat. Manypeople in Myanmar – women as well as men – believe the birth of agirl indicates less religious merit than the birth of a boy, and that onlymales can attain nibbana a (for a woman to do so, she first has to comeback as a man!) A few Buddhist shrines, including Mandalay’s MahamuniPaya, have small areas around the main holy image that are offlimits to women.In Andrew Marshall’sThe TrouserPeople theintrepid authorgoes in search ofthe Wa’s creationmyth lake ofNawng Hkeo.White Lotus Press(www.whitelotuspress.com)publishes booksin English on thevarious people ofMyanmar.PEOPLE OF MYANMAR (BURMA) WOMEN IN MYANMAR