Kachin State
From Free net encyclopedia
- Kachin is also another name for the Jingpo or Jinghpaw people, an ethnic group living in Yunnan province of China.
{{Infobox Burmesestatedivision | englishname = Kachin State | burmesename = ကခ္ယင္ပ္ရည္နယ္ | transcription = kahkyang pranynai | flag = kachinstate | capital = Myitkyina | region = Northwestern | area = 89,041 | population =1,200,000 | ethnic = Kachin, Bamar, Shan, Chin, Naga, Indians | religious = Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism | locatormapfile = MyanmarKachin }} Image:Kachin Independence Organization Flag.gif Kachin State (Jingphaw Mungdan), is the northernmost state of Myanmar. It is bordered by China to the north and east; Shan State to the south; and Sagaing Division and India to the west. It lies between north latitude 23° 27' and 28° 25' longitude 96° 0' and 98° 44' . The area of Kachin State is 34,379 sq. miles. The capital of the state is Myitkyina. Other important towns include Bhamo.
Kachin State has Myanmar’s highest mountain, Hkakabo Razi, at 5889 meters in height, forming the southern tip of the Himalayas, and Myanmar’s largest lake, Indawgyi Lake.
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Population
The majority of the state's 1.4 million inhabitants are ethnic Kachin, also known as Jinghpaw, and the state is officially home to another 13 ethnic groups, including Bamar, Rawang, Lisu, Zaiwa, Maru, Yaywin, Lawngwaw, Lachyit), and Shan. No census has been taken in almost a century. Official government statistics state that the distribution by religion is 57.8% Buddhist, 36.4% Christian. The Kachin language is the lingua franca in the State, and has a written version based on the Roman alphabet.
Economy
The economy of Kachin State is predominantly agricultural. The main products include rice, sugar cane. Mineral products include gold and jade.
History
Kachin State was formed in 1948 out of the British Burma civil districts of Bhamo and Myitkyina, together with the larger northern district of Puta-o. 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 until the 1960s and Chinese governments have claimed all of Kachin State as Chinese territory since the 18th century. During the Konbaung era, roughly 75% off all Kachin jadeite ended up in China, where it was prized much more highly that 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 smuggling, jade trade with China and narcotics. 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 peace accord, and the political landscape remains highly unstable.
Traditional Kachin society was based on shifting hill agriculture supplemented by banditry and feud warfare. Political authority was based on petty 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. Traditional religion was animist, but missionary activity since the British period have converted the vast majority of the population to Christianity (notably US Baptist with pockets of Roman Catholicism), with the consequent damage to traditional society and culture. Ironically, the less isolated Jingpaw across the border in China have retained more of their traditional religion.
See also
ca:Kachin de:Kachin (Staat) et:Katšini osariik es:Estado Kachin fa:ایالت کاچین my:ကခ္ယင္ပ္ရည္နယ္ nl:Kachin-staat zh:克钦邦