Economy of Shan State
Websites/Multiple Documents
Description:
This document provides a basic introduction to Shan State inculding information about population; inhabitants; religion and languages; formation of districts, townships, villages and wards; sown acreage and crops produce; significant products; geographical, historic and interesting places; cultural and social festivals; Raido/TV relay stations and microwave stations.
Source/publisher:
MODiNS.NET
Date of entry/update:
2005-06-04
Grouping:
Websites/Multiple Documents
Category:
Economy of Shan State
Language:
English
more
Individual Documents
Topic:
plantation, dispossession, life, economy, Wa
Topic:
plantation, dispossession, life, economy, Wa
Description:
"A classic origin story told and retold among the Wa of China and Myanmar is about their flight from Keng Tung: in the long‐ago past, the Wa ruled over the Shan in the great city of Keng Tung.1 But they were tricked by the Shan, who came with an army of elephants and expelled them from the city. Those who went ahead broke plantain leaves along their path so that those coming behind would find the way. But plantains grow back very fast, and the latecomers got lost and had to stay in the plains: the Wa pioneers entered the mountains where they are until today, and the others are the ‘left‐behind Wa’, the Wa Git, or the ‘Hill Thai’, Tai Loi. From then on, every time a
new Sawbwa was installed in Keng Tung, some left‐behind Wa were feasted at the palace and then ritually expelled (Enriquez 1918: 33; Mangrai 1981: 230). Today, the Shan of Kengtung recognise their Burmese overlords and have no Sawbwa anymore, but the
Tai Loi, the descendants of the Wa, still play an important part in the rituals of Songkran, the Thai New Year Festival, specifically by carrying and playing drums. Even though the rituals imply mutual interdependence, it is clear that the Tai Loi subordinate themselves to the Tai Khuen, the Shan majority group in today’s Keng Tung, thus annually repeating the humiliation of their expulsion centuries ago (Karlsson 2013). Yet, about 100 km to the North of Keng Tung, in Pang Hsang, the capital of the Wa State, we can observe an inversion of the ritual of expulsion. Each year at the Songkran of
Pang Hsang, Wa rulers receive gifts from local Shan villagers. Similar to the Shan princes of the past, representatives of the Wa central authorities sit in elevated thrones, while the Shan villagers squat in front of them. During the rituals, the Shan villagers pay their
honours to the Wa, deliver presents to them, including fruits, sweets and sticky rice, and in turn receive red envelopes with money from the Wa officials. Most of the leaders of the Wa State are from villages in the hills to the North of Pang Hsang and can easily be
distinguished from their Shan subordinates: dark‐skinned and in army fatigues, followed by an entourage of soldiers, no one would mistake them for a Shan villager. The core leaders of the Wa State are relatives and associates of Tax Pang, also known by his Chinese name Bao Youxiang. Tax Pang, and his brothers Tax Rang and
Tax Jiet, were born in the village of Taoh Mie in the 1940s and 50s. When they were children, neighbouring armies had just started to move into the Wa hills, and as teenagers they still took part in raids and headhunting rituals. They rose through the ranks
of the guerrilla armies of the Communist Party of Burma during the 1970s and 80s, founded the United Wa State Army (UWSA) in 1989, and have been presiding over its de‐facto state since. Like Tax Pang and his brothers, most members of the central committee and politburo of the Wa State are veterans of the Communist Party of Burma. All of them have accumulated substantial personal wealth – bureaucracy and administration is relatively weak, and most infrastructure construction in the Wa State is paid
for directly by the elites. The trade in drugs played an important role in the emergence of this elite, but already in the 1990s, they started to diversify into other industries, including mining and food, as well as large‐scale investments in China, Thailand and Myanmar (where they own, for instance, one minor airline). Ordinary villagers and
Chinese traders often tell stories about the unimaginable wealth of the Wa commanders: for instance, one commander had so much cash stored in his warehouses that it got mouldy and had to be taken out. His servants dried truckloads of 100‐Yuan batches
in the huge courtyard for several days, just like other people would dry corn cobs or tea leaves. Wa villagers who have served in the army or at the house of a commander commonly know that a normal 50 kg rice‐bag can carry three million Chinese yuan
(the equivalent of € 380,000). In the warehouse of one Wa commander I have seen two Bentleys, and in one of Pang Hsang’s large garages, a monster truck imported from Thailand that is said to be worth exactly one rice bag full of Chinese money.
The elites of the Wa State have effectively turned around the old story of the Wa’s expulsion from the highlands and have re‐conquered the lowlands. During the 1970s and 80s, when they fought with the Communist Party of Burma, Wa soldiers entered the
plains of Pang Hsang, Meng Pok and Meng Yawn – traditionally settlements of their Shan neighbours. Since then, the Wa have established a de facto state the size of Belgium, and
the core leaders of this state are tightly connected through kinship and business ties. Most of them have grown up in villages at the Chinese border. In their lifetime, they saw huge changes: they have conquered the surrounding valleys and since then have also overseen
huge changes to the villages in the hills, where they had grown up. They started off, quite literally, as pioneers, that is, foot soldiers,2 in the Communist Party of Burma. Even though the first generation of Wa leaders rose through the ranks of the army and have
become agrarian capitalists, they still define themselves by a pioneering ethos that will become apparent. They have been pioneers in many ways, but here I want to focus on the plantation economies that they have established in the Wa State. Using their income from elsewhere, the elites of the Wa State have invested in new forms of commercial and large‐
scale agriculture. The rubber and tea plantations they have opened rely on the new technologies of transport, communication and production that in the Wa hills were introduced
for military purposes. The plantations also required large‐scale forced resettlements, which took place especially during the 1990s but continue until the present day. The plantation economy requires a lot of investment, it often incurs losses (especially rubber, in
recent years) and is generally not very profitable. But even so, it is an essential part of the de facto sovereignty of the Wa State, not least because it is a core institution of the military state and its ‘garrison‐entrepôts’ (Roitman 2005): plantations provide radical means to
control populations, and thus offer a core nexus between the elites of the Wa State and ordinary villagers – as well as with animals and plants..."
Source/publisher:
Wiley Periodicals LLC
Date of publication:
2021-00-00
Date of entry/update:
2021-05-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Rubber plantations, Armed conflict in Shan State - general articles, Wa (cultural, political, economic), Economy of Shan State, Burma: drug production and trafficking
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
128.69 KB
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Description:
"Myanmar held an investment forum in Taunggyi, northern Shan state Tuesday to promote investment in tourism and agriculture in the state, according to the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations Wednesday.
The event was organized by the ministry, Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) and Shan State Investment Committee. A total of 92 foreign investors joined the forum.
Myanmar Minister of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations and Chairman of the MIC U Thaung Tun highlighted at the forum that Myanmar, as an agro-based country, considered agriculture sector to be important to achieve sustainable development, stressing that agriculture growth was critical for inclusive development and for food security.
He called for raising agricultural productivity to ensure national growth, believing that the forum would enable many agro-businesses to thrive an flourish in Shan state..."
Source/publisher:
"Xinhua" (China)
Date of publication:
2019-11-27
Date of entry/update:
2019-11-27
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma/Myanmar's relationship with the Global Economy, Economy of Shan State, Sustainable/ethical/responsible tourism (Burma/Myanmar), Society and Culture, global - general studies
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Daniel Bennett, managing director and co-founder of Shan Orchard Myanmar, reckons Myanmar is the perfect place for the company to reach its goal of growing up to 100 acres of premium Hass avocados for export.
Description:
"“We are interested in southern Shan, where our orchard is, because of its unique subtropical/temperate climate, which is ideal for crops ranging from mangoes to wheat, potatoes to rice, as well as Hass avocados. You can grow a wide range of produce that you cannot grow in other Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia and the Philippines, which are generally too hot and very wet,” Bennett said.
“The other reason I came to Shan State was because the Shan Plateau has an abundance of flat land that is conducive cost-wise to our goal of producing Hass avocados and related products like edible oils and guacamole for export,” he said.
Shan Orchard Myanmar was established in 2017 by New Zealander Bennett, who has 15 years of experience in early-stage agricultural firms and large established plantations across Asia, and local entrepreneurs Nathan Naing Win and Thel Suu Thinzar Bo. It is a wholly owned registered company specialising in producing Hass avocado oil for export.
The oil, which is cold pressed and extra virgin, is generally used in the high-end food industry as a salad dressing, and is a beautiful green-gold colour..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Times"
Date of publication:
2019-09-16
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-16
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description:
"The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Royal Project Foundation of Thailand (RPF) have signed an agreement to consolidate and strengthen technical cooperation in the area of alternative development for opium farmers in Shan State.
The cooperation with the RPF will contribute to the UNODC Country Programme, which supports the development of sustainable livelihood alternatives for opium growing communities in 60 villages in southern Shan State by introducing high-yield cash crops such as coffee, tea, avocado, and high value vegetables. The programme currently covers a total of 800 hectares and involves close to 1100 beneficiary farmers constituting 21% of households in the area. Plans call for programme coverage and the number of beneficiary farmers to grow year by year. According to the UNODC 2015 Southeast Asia Opium Survey, the total area of opium poppy cultivation in Myanmar was 55,500 hectares with 90% of production concentrated in Shan State, and of that 50% in southern Shan State. The survey found that opium poppy is mainly cultivated for economic reasons to maintain livelihoods and cover family expenses..."
Source/publisher:
UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)
Date of publication:
2016-12-16
Date of entry/update:
2019-06-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
UNODC Burma/Myanmar, Drugs: regional and global, Roots and Resources - global and regional experience and analysis, Thailand-Burma relations, Economy of Shan State
Language:
English
more
Description:
Abstract: "Socio‐economic
situation
means
an
individual?s
or
a
group?s
position
within
a
hierarchical
social
structure.
Socio-economic
status
depends
on
a
combination
of
variables,
including
occupation,
education,
income,
wealth,
and
place
of
residence.
While
sociologists
often
use
socio-economic
status
as
a
means
of
predicting
behavior,
geographers
used
to
focus
on
that
position
with
the
relations
to
or
reference
of
a
place
or
space
or
a
region.
Therefore,
in
this
paper,
the
variables
of
the
social
and
economic
status
of
a
small
village
will
be
examined
at
an
individual
level
with
the
respects
of
location,
physical
phenomena,
human
resource,
land
use
pattern
and
the
environmental
perception
of
the
rural
dwellers
from
Sinlan
Village.
This
village
is
located
about
1km
northwest
of
Pyin
Oo
Lwin
town.
It
lies
at
an
elevation
of
about
1,160
meters
above
sea
level
so
that
it
receives
temperate
climate.
As
consequence,
the
main
economy
and
living
style
of
the
village
is
quite
different
to
that
of
the
others.
Random
sampling
method
was
used
to
define
the
number
of
households
to
be
visited
and
interviewing
and
field
observation
methods
are
also
applied
to
collect
the
necessary
data
by
the
teachers
and
PhD
preliminary
students
from
Geography
Department,
Mandalay
University.
The
field
survey
was
made
in
February,2015.".....Paper delivered at the International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-26 July 2015.
Nyo Nyo, Soe Sandar San
Source/publisher:
International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-26 July 2015
Date of publication:
2015-09-04
Date of entry/update:
2015-09-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Mandalay Division, Economy of Shan State, Social studies of Burma, Cities, International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies (ICBMS) 23-26 July, 2015
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
1.43 MB
more
Description:
This article on Shan State was originally printed in the New Light of Myanmar on February 7th, 2005, as part of a series leading up to and immediately following the celebration of Union Day on the 12th of February. The original text along with accompanying pictures and tables can also be
found in the archive of the print edition of NLM in the On-line Burma Library at http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs2/NLM2005-02-07.pdf
An article summing up recent developments in the whole country with accompanying statistical tables was published in NLM on Union Day, 2005, and is available at http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs2/NLM2005-02-12.pdf.
Thiha Aung
Source/publisher:
SPDC (News and Periodicals Enterprise, Ministry of Information, Union of Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2005-02-07
Date of entry/update:
2005-08-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Economy of Shan State
Language:
English
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
1.82 MB 1.84 MB
Local URL:
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