Kachin State

Traditional Kachin society was based on shifting hill agriculture. According to "The Political Systems of Highland Burma: A Study of Kachin Social Structure", written by E. R. Leach, Kachin was not a linguistic category. Political authority was based on chieftains who depended on support from immediate kinsmen. Considerable attention has been given by anthropologists of the Kachin custom of maternal cousin marriage, wherein it is permissible for a man to marry his mother's brother's daughter, but not with the father's sister's daughter. In pre-colonial times, the Kachin were animist.

After the Qing-Konbaung war, the Chinese exercised a degree of control over the present-day northeastern Kachin State. During the British colonization of Burma, the Kachin Hills tribes autonomy was accepted by the British government. British forces carried out two expeditions against the Kachin in 1892 and 1896. In 1910, the British occupied Hpimaw (Chinese characters: 片马, pinyin: Piànmǎ) in the Pianma Incident.

The pre-independence Burmese government under Aung San reached the Panglong Agreement with the Shan, Kachin, and Chin peoples on 12 February 1947. The agreement accepted "Full autonomy in internal administration for the Frontier Areas" in principle and envisioned the creation of a Kachin State by the Constituent Assembly. Burma attained independence on 4 January 1948. Kachin State was formed in the same year out of the former British Burma civil districts of Bhamo and Myitkyina, together with the larger northern district of Puta-o. Kachin State was officially announced on 10 January 1948 and Kachin State Government held "Mungdaw Masat Masat Manau" (forming of Kacahin State Manau) for three consecutive days since 9 to 11 January as happiness since that year they held Manau on January 10 every year until Military in coup 1962.[3] The vast mountainous hinterlands are predominantly Kachin, whereas the more densely populated railway corridor and southern valleys are mostly Shan and Bamar. The northern frontier was not demarcated and until the 1960s Chinese governments had claimed the northern half of Kachin State as Chinese territory since the 18th century. Before the British rule, roughly 75% of all Kachin jadeite ended up in China, where it was prized much more highly than the local Chinese nephrite.

Kachin troops formerly formed a significant part of the Burmese army. With the unilateral abrogation of the Union of Burma constitution by the Ne Win regime in 1962, Kachin forces withdrew and formed the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) under the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO). Aside from the major towns and railway corridor, Kachin State has been virtually independent from the mid-1960s through 1994, with an economy based on agriculture and trade with China, including of jade. After a Myanmar army offensive in 1994 seized the jade mines from the KIO, a peace treaty was signed, permitting continued KIO effective control of most of the State, under aegis of the Myanmar military. This ceasefire immediately resulted in the creation of numerous splinter factions from the KIO and KIA of groups opposed to the SPDC's sham peace accord, and the political landscape remains highly unstable.

The Kachin group has six tribes or subdivisions: Lisu , Rawang, Lachid(Lachid and Ngaw Chang), Zaiwa(Ah Zi), Lhaovo(Maru) and Jinghpaw included((Hkahku(Jinghpaw), Gauri(jinghpaw),Majimala(Jinghpaw),Wunla(Jinghpaw), Duleng(jinghpaw),Manmaw (jinghpaw ),Sammung(Sinli) (Jinghpaw) and Hting Nai (jinghpaw)). The word "Wunpong", which means "Strong and United Human Beings", also represents the six Kachin tribes. The region is also home to a number of Shan and a small number of Tibetans.

The economy of Kachin State is predominantly agricultural. The main products include rice, teak, sugar cane, opium. Mineral products include gold and jade. Hpakan is a well known place for its jade mines.[9] Over 600 tons of jade stones, which were unearthed from Lone-Khin area in Hpakan aka Pha-Khant Township in Kachine State, had been displayed in Myanmar Naypyidaw to be sold in November 2011. Most of the jade stones extracted in Myanmar, 25,795 tons in 2009–10 and 32,921 tons in 2008–09, are from Kachin State. The largest jade stone in the world, 3000 tons, 21 metres long, 4.8 metres wide and 10.5 metres high was found in Hpakan in 2000.[10] The Myanmar government pays little attention to the deterioration of environment in Kachin because of jade mining. There has been erosion, flooding and mudslides. Several houses are destroyed every year.[11]

Kachin has deep economic ties with China, which acts as the regions biggest trading partner and chief investor in development project. In 2006, the Prime Minister General Thein Sein made an agreement with the China Power Investment Cooperation in Beijing to build the Myitsone Dam and six others dam in Kachin State.[12] One controversial construction project of a huge 1,055 megawatt hydroelectric power plant dam, the Myitsone Dam, is ongoing.[13][13] It is funded by China Power Investment Cooperation. When completed, the dam will measure 152 metres high and the electricity produced will be sold to China. This project displaced about 15,000 people and is one of 7 projects planned for the Irrawady River.[14]

Bhamo is one of the border trading points between China and Myanmar.[15]

Kachin State is served by the following airports:

• Bhamo Airport
• Myitkyina Airport
• Putao Airport

There is a railroad between Myitkyina and Mandalay (through Sagaing). The train will takes 21–30 hours from Mandalay to Myitkyina.[16]

Educational opportunities in Myanmar are extremely limited outside the main cities of Yangon and Mandalay. It is especially a problem in Kachin State where over 60 years of fighting between the government and insurgents has displaced thousands of people. The following is a summary of the education system in the state.[17]

The general state of health care in Myanmar is poor. The military government spends anywhere from 0.5% to 3% of the country's GDP on health care, consistently ranking among the lowest in the world.[18][19] Although health care is nominally free, in reality, patients have to pay for medicine and treatment, even in public clinics and hospitals. Public hospitals lack many of the basic facilities and equipment. In general, the health care infrastructure outside of Yangon and Mandalay is extremely poor but is especially worse in remote areas like Kachin State. The following is a summary of the public health care system in the state.[20]

• Kachin Hills
• Kachin State Cultural Museum
• Kumon Bum Mountains
• Myitsone Dam

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kachin State.

• The Kachin Post