Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
PLATE OF TEA, VICAR?
Northern Shan State is one of the original homes of
Camellia sinensis
, which originated
somewhere in the hills that range between northeast India, northern Burma and southwest
China. When the British first surveyed the Shan states in the nineteenth century, Palaung
and Shan villagers had already been cultivating tea for several centuries. In 1855 Burmese
officials told a visiting British delegation that they thought the very idea that the Chinese
grewtheirownteawas“preposterous”,sogreatwastheirneighbour'sdemandforBurmese
exports of the crop.
Tawngpeng, a largely Palaung district that surrounds the (currently off limits) hill town
of Namhsan, is Myanmar's main tea-growing region, with the best of their fragrant harvest
being reserved for the production of
lahpet
(fermented tea leaves). The fresh leaves are
lightlysteamedandthenpackedintolengthsofbamboo,buriedandlefttofermentforany-
thing up to a year, before they're ready to be eaten as
lahpetthouq
(tea-leaf salad), served
asanafternoonteastaplefromYangon's
Strand Hotel
tothehawkersonMyanmar'strains.
East Haw
1km northeast of the town centre • Daily 9am-noon & 3-6pm • Free
While Sakandar, the Neoclassical summer palace of the Hsipaw
saophas
, was destroyed in
World War II, the 1924
East Haw
still stands, and it was here that
Sao Kya Seng and Inge
Sargent
lived in the 1950s. The buildings and swimming pool are overgrown and sorely in
needofmaintenance,butthelast
saopha
'sniece-in-law,MrsFern,opensthepalacegatesand
receives visitors. While the state of the buildings is sad, it's a rare opportunity to hear first-
hand stories of Hsipaw's colourful recent history.
Little Bagan
500m west of Namtu Rd, 1.5km north of Hsipaw • Free
The northwest corner of Hsipaw is dotted with a handful of crumbling and overgrown brick
pagodas, earning it the jokingly overblown name of
Little Bagan
. It may be a fraction of
its namesake's size, but it's still an appealing place to explore. At the eastern extremity is
Kotaun Kyaung
, which is marked by a dramatically cracked pagoda with a tree sprouting
fromitscrown.Asyoumakeyourwaywestyou'llpass
MadhayaShweKyaung
and
Maha
Nanda Kantha Kyaung
, a pair of attractive 150-year-old teak monasteries that flank the
road, the latter with a Buddha figure woven from bamboo and covered with gold leaf. A few
further groups of pagodas lie northwest of here.
Sao Pu Sao Nai Nat Shrine
100m west of Namtu Rd, 1.5km north of Hsipaw • Daily dawn-dusk • Free
