Forest as a source of identity

In addition to its political and economic rationale, the SLORC-engineered assault on the border forest also resonates with cultural meaning. An attempt to undermine the military and financial advantages derived by the KNU from the forests, this assault simultaneously attacked the foundations of Karen national identity. As the forests have always been an integral part of Karen identity, their large-scale elimination after 1988 has had cultural as well as political and economic significance.

Traditionally, lowland Burmese and Thais viewed the Karen as an integral part of the forests — the former called them "the wild cattle of the hills," whereas the latter classified the Karen as "wild animals." The British held similar views. Colonial missionaries, for example, considered the Karen to be a primitive people ("noble savages") at home in their forest habitat. Colonial foresters, meanwhile, acknowledged the Karen's detailed forest knowledge (at the same time as they decried their allegedly destructive methods of shifting cultivation). Indeed, the introduction of the taungya forestry system noted earlier reflected a British desire to harness that

knowledge to the teak-centred forestry management then being introduced in Burma's forests.
Certainly, Karen refugees from the Irrawaddy and Sittang deltas do not fit the popular image of the Karen as a forest people. Karen from the deltas often differ from their hill brethren in terms of religion, education and forest knowledge. Yet, even for the delta Karen, the forests resonate with meaning. Thus, the forests in which they took refuge are a reminder of the historical origins of the Karen people, symbolized most vividly in the many Karen myths and prophecies that are set in the forests. Even among the Christian Karen from the deltas, the notion of the Karen as a lost tribe of Israel wandering in the forests (first suggested by colonial missionaries) serves as a powerful symbolic reinforcement of the link between the forests and Karen identity.

The insurgency reinforced the role of the forests in Karen culture. As noted, they have served as a source both of refuge and of livelihood for the KNU throughout the struggle. Many senior political and military leaders have lived in the forests for more than 30 years, and a new generation has been born in Mannerplaw and other forest strongholds. In as much as these Karen have made the forests their home in exile they have become forest dwellers. Karen refugees have kept alive memories of their previous urban existence (reinforced by satellite TV as well as journeys to Bangkok by the elite). However, as their fate has been linked to the forests now for nearly 50 years, these Karen have been de-urbanized — in other words, they have become a "forest people."

To the extent that the Karen are today a forest people — dependent on the forests for security, livelihood and cultural integrity — the fall of Mannerplaw and other KNU strongholds to the Burmese army is a catastrophe for the Karen. As many Karen have become refugees in Thailand, much of Kawthoolei has been lost to the advancing Burmese.

The territory the Karen called the "Flower Land" has already been changed beyond recognition. A hitherto forested landscape has been converted in many areas into an environmentally degraded and treeless territory as a result of indiscriminate logging. The SLORC's plans to build a series of dams on the Salween River and its tributaries near and along the border (to meet Thai electricity demands) will further alter the landscape. With this loss of the forests, the Karen have been denied refuge, livelihood and even a cultural referent.