Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The British distinguished two main groups of Wa according to how receptive they
were to the colonisers' attempts to control them. The 'Wild Wa' were headhunters, and
decorated their villages with the severed heads of vanquished enemies to appease the
spirits that guarded their opium fields. (Apparently they only stopped the practice in the
1970s!)
The so-called 'Tame Wa' allowed the colonisers to pass through their territory unim-
peded, yet the area inhabited by the Wa - east of the upper Thanlwin (Salween) River in
northern Shan State - was never completely pacified by the British.
For decades the 30,000-strong United Wa State Army (UWSA) has controlled this bor-
derland area, gathering power and money through the production of opium and
methamphetamine; the US labelled the UWSA a narcotics trafficking organisation in
2003. Nevertheless, the UWSA struck a ceasefire deal with the military regime in 1989
and the territory under their control looks set to be designated a special autonomous re-
gion for the Wa under Myanmar's new constitution.
For more about ethnic and religious conflicts in Myanmar
Click here
.
When Myanmar locals go on holiday it's often in the form of a pilgrimage. Ma Thanegi
describes one such trip in
The Native Tourist: In Search of Turtle Eggs
.
Women in Myanmar
In
Letters From Burma
, Aung San Suu Kyi writes that a baby girl is as equally celeb-
rated as a baby boy, as they're believed to be 'more dutiful and loving than sons'. Girls
are educated alongside boys and, by university age, women outnumber men in university
and college enrolment. Most white-collar professions grant women six weeks paid mater-
nity leave before birth and one or two months afterwards.
Myanmar women enjoy equal legal rights to those of men, can own property, do not
traditionally change any portion of their names upon marriage and, in the event of di-
vorce, are legally entitled to half of all property accumulated during the marriage. Inher-
itance rights are also equally shared.
Rights on paper, however, don't always translate into reality. In the current parliament
only 20 out of 659 members are women, and it's rare that you'll find women in other po-
sitions of power in Myanmar including, crucially, in the military. Speaking in 2013 Suu
Kyi, herself now one of those 20 parliamentarians, said 'the constitution was drawn by
the military government, and by male military parliamentarians, so it should be amended
to reduce gender discrimination.'
