Cecil Champain Lowis

“ So far as Chinese and its sister languages are concerned, it has by now been clearly shown that tones do not mark a very primitive but a comparatively advanced stage of linguistic development, and the fact that the Karens are in possession of a vernacular that has as many tones as either Chinese or Shan affords reasonable grounds for the presumption that they did not begin to occupy their present seats at any extraordinarily remote period of the world's history—probably not till after a good many of the other hill tribes who now inhabit Burma had entered into theirs. ”

“ The Szis, who lie for the most part to the south of the Lashis, have been more assimilated into the pure Kachin population than the Lashis and Marus, and many of them have been looked upon in the past as belonging to the Lepai tribe. The Lashi country proper appears to lie south of the Nanwu Maru country near the lower reaches of the N'maikha, but like the Marus and Szis the Lashis are found here and there in the Myitkyina District. It is hard to form an idea of the strength of the tribes. ”

“ They are almost the only Lower Burma Karens who have preserved their tribal homogeneity. The Pwos and Sgaws are largely dwellers in the plains and foot-hills whom alien surroundings have moulded into some kind of uniformity, but they have never really coalesced. The Upper Burma Karens as a whole, partly on account of the rugged nature of their separating hills, partly as a result of their leaning towards endogamy show an ever-growing tendency to disintegrate into separate clans differing widely from each other in dress, dialect and custom. ”

“ For a description of the Akhas a reference is invited to the authorities quoted on page 87. They are a swarthy stalwart tribe, dull but peaceable. They mix and intermarry with the Chinese to an extent remarkable among these eastern hill dwellers and have hitherto been best known to those who have not lived among them by their women's dress, which with its abbreviated skirt, leggings and bamboo head-dress, is very distinctive, Missionary work has extended of late years into the Akha country, but apparently, the Akhas are not as ready to embrace the Christian faith as the Lahus. ”

“ The most characteristic of what may be called the Burman tribes are the Taungyos and Inthas of the Southern Shan States, the Yaws of the Pakokku District and the Yabeins of Lower Burma. The first two live surrounded by people of non-Burman origin and have adopted the dress and habits of their neighbours, but speak a language which is practically an archaic form of Burmese. ”

“ Before this, however, the Talaings had started carving out a political destiny for themselves, their long residence in the plains having caused them to diverge widely in speech from the hill tribes of similar ancestry who lay to the east of them. Thus it is that the affinities between Talauig and the other Mon Khmer languages in Burma are somewhat remote, though not so remote as to allow of any doubt being thrown on the theory of relationship. ”

“ As Chins, Kamis, Mros, Chinboks, Chinbons, Yindus, etc., they have been for centuries in occupation of the western uplands, which extend from the north of the Upper Chindwin District (where the Chin merges into the Naga country) along the edge of the Assam uplands— the home of their blood-relatives the Lushais— down to the foot-hills on the fringe of the Irrawaddy delta, and have had time, by union with the plain dwellers, to form hybrid communities— like the Taungthas of Pakôkku and the Chaungthas of Arakan— whose connection with their Chin neighbours is no longer obvious. ”

“ In accordance with the principle indicated at the beginning of this note it is not proposed to treat of the Burmans themselves as a race or the Arakanese, beyond noting that at the 1901 Census the total of Burmans in Burma was 6,508,682 and that of Arakanese 405,143. There are, however, a number of scattered tribes who appear to have broken off from the main body at a comparatively recent date and acquired in new surroundings certain new characteristics differentiating them from the Burman proper who cannot be allowed to pass unnoticed. ”

“ A link that may be looked upon as connecting the Chins with the communities to the east is provided by the Kadus of the Katha District of Upper Burma. The Chin element in the Kadus is very faint. They are for the most part, like the Danus, a Burmese-Shan compound, but they have also an appreciable mixture of Kachin besides the trace of Chin. ”

“ They are conspicuous among the hill tribes of this region by their universal adoption of Buddhism, their tea culture and the variety and elaboration of their women's dresses. For a tribe that lives so consistently on the hill tops as they do, they are—in Tawngpeng at any rate—a wonderfully advanced community. ”

“ The Was, including the Tai Loi, the En, the Hsen Hsum and other sub-tribes are a Trans-Salween hill-folk who, while clearly related to the Palaungs and the Yins, differ outwardly very considerably from them. The wild Was, of whom very little is known—their head-hunting propensities having secured them for the time being almost complete isolation—are all spirit worshippers and most of the tame Was are also non-Buddhists. ”

“ The Lahus are best known for the resistance they have offered to the Chinese along the border and, latterly, for the readiness that they have exhibited to adopt Christianity. Some of the missionaries working among them would class them ethnically with the Karens, but for this there seems no justification. Their women's dress, the prinicipal item of which is a long-embroidered coat, is picturesque. ”

“ It is impossible, as stated above, to give any idea of the order in which these migration waves came down from Central Asia, for they were not single streams, but rather a succession of intermittent spates, the first separated by millenniums from the last; but it is probable, if for no other reason than that its traces seem the most diffuse and faint, that the Mon Khmer was in its beginnings the remotest in point of time. ”

“ On the whole it seems probable that the Maingthas are merely Chinese-Shans. The total, of Maingthas at the 1901 Census was 749 only. The Upper Burma Gazetteer connects the Maingthas with the Turengs, referred to by Mr. Enrol Gray, but it seems probable that Mr. Errol Gray's Turengs were merely a tribe of Kachins. A second Shan tribe is that of the Daves, who are found in the Myelat Division of the Southern Shan States. ”

“ The habitat of the Riangs is the eastern portion of the northern half of the Cis-Salween Southern Shan States, from Kebsi Mansam southwards to Mongsit. Like the Palaungs they are a quiet, peaceable folk. ”

“ It is stated that the women used formerly to wear a short thindaing and petticoat like the Taungthus and Taungyos. This is not a usual form of Mon Khmer dress, but the Yanghseks afford an example of its adoption by a tribe of Mon Khmer origin, and there is nothing intrinsically improbable in the statement. There seems no likelihood of the Danaws' origin being ever finally established now. ”

“ That there is a connection between the two tribes is certain, but it is probably not as close as the similarity of name implies. At the same time there is ample linguistic evidence to show that the Lahus have much in common with the Lisaws, the former being an eastern branch of the same prehistoric stock who in their southward journey have followed the course of the Mekong just as the Lisaws have that of the Salween, and it seems likely that, unless they are more closely related to the Lolos, the hill dwelling Akhas or Kaws of Kengtung also belong to the same Eastern Tibeto-Burman branch. ”

“ Owing to various causes the Central Chins have never been systematically studied as a whole and, though ample information has been collected regarding some of them, not only are there others—for the most part in the unadministered tracts—of whom little is known, but also the relation the different tribes bear to one another has never been fully brought out. Roughly speaking, however, there are four main tribes of Central Chins, namely, the Chinboks, the Yindus, the Kara is and the Mros. ”

“ For years it has been an interesting object-lesson for observers to note how, during the past generation, one of the most conspicuous of the tribes of Burma, the Kachins, have been pressing down from the north, displacing in their search for fresh ground the less virile tribes with whom they have come in contact. ”

“ Any Lisaws that belonged in 1901 to the Myitkyina District were dealt with in the "estimated" areas. Particulars regarding the tribe will be found in the bibliographical note at page 79. Their dress consists ordinarily of long tunics of blue hempen cloth, with occasionally red cuffs, and blue gaiters. On the borders of the Myitkyina District some local influence (possibly Lashi) has introduced a patch-work coat. Beads and cowries are common adornments among the women, and earrings are much worn. The men frequently wear a pigtail. ”

“ When this latter movement began, some six centuries after the commencement of the Christian era, the Mon Khmers had in Cambodia and in the Talaing country of Lower Burma already attained to some measure of civilization. ”

“ The real prehistoric inhabitants of the country along the Irrawaddy valley from Bhamo due north must be looked for elsewhere than among the Shans and the Kachins. We find them in the Marus, the Szis and the Lashis, who, though they have been often regarded in the past as Kachins, are not Kachins, and who, moreover, speak vernaculars that present features that are strikingly like those of Burmese. ”

“ Generally speaking the people are primitive and backward. Their men's dress is scanty. Their women generally wear the shortest of skirts and tattoo their faces either in lines or clots. Bead ornaments are worn by both sexes and the men's weapons are elaborate and picturesque. ”

“ This classification has the result of, so to speak, cutting the Karen off from all intimate connection with the hill tribes with whom he would naturally be held to have an affinity and to leave him still somewhat of a puzzle, but till it has been proved to be fallacious it must be accepted. ”

“ They are the most numerous and about the most widely distributed hill tribe in the Southern Shan States. The Taungthu men dress like Shans. The women wear a dark smock and skirt. In the Shan States the arms are frequently covered with sleeves decorated with coloured patch work, and leggings are worn. ”

“ The Kamis and Mros have been dealt with here separately from the other Chin tribes, partly because they have for the past forty years formed the subject of independent observation, partly because they possess several marked characteristics (e.g., the fact that the women do not have their faces tattooed) which differentiate them from their Chin cognates in the south and east. ”

“ Wehrli gives 145 works of reference more or less utilized by him in the preparation of his scholarly monograph published at Leiden in 1904. A large number of these deal with the Singphos of Assam. The most important of the references to the Ching-paw proper of Burma are given in the bibliographical note printed on page 70. ”

“ Above this the population of the Irrawaddy valley is mainly non-Burman, and it is clear that the Burmans, when they reached Tagaung in those far off days, must have descended from a region now mainly inhabited by Shans, Kachins, Marus and the like. The presence of the Kachins on the Upper Irrawaddy has been accounted for in the preceding paragraph. They are late comers from the north-west, just as the Shans, whose movements will be touched upon below, are migrants from the east. ”

“ For a description of the Inthas the reader is referred to page 564 of Volume I, Part I, of the Upper Burma Gazetteer and page 68 of Sir George Scott's " Burma" (London, 1906) . There were 50,478 Inthas enumerated at the Census of 1901. ”

“ They inhabit Siamese and French territory, but 141 of them (probably timber coolies and mahouts) were found within the limits of the Province at the 1901 Census, mostly in the Thaton and Amherst Districts. The Yaos and the Miaotzus, the other two of the three tribes aforesaid, are residents of China. ”

“ The Tarengs are merely a tribe of Kachins, vide page 44 post. The Khunnongs, whom Mr. Errol Gray found on the hills to the east of the Namkui near Khamti are the Kiutzes described by Prince Henri, vide page 9 ante. They must not be confused with the Khamangs, who are Mishmis, or with the Khenungs, who wear felt hats and pigtails and are probably more closely connected with the Tibetans than with any of the other tribes we are here concerned with. ”

“ Burma Census Report, 1901, Part I. 626—645 94 5 Religion Buddhism, combined with nat worship. Upper Burma Gazetteer, Vol. I, Part I. 520 6 Clothing Men — dress as Shans, Women — Yanglam, dark jacket and skirt Yangwankun, dark jacket and skirt, flounced ; Yanghsek, thindaing or smock. ”

“ They may possibly have a strain of Chinese blood in them, but it probably dates back to a very remote period. Most of what is known of them is noted at page 564 of the Upper Burma Gazetteer. Further data about the Dayes and Naungyes (a branch of the tribe) have been supplied by Mr. ”

“ Men tattooed like Shans from waist to knee. Lowis ... ... 15 13 Games and amusements. Dancing, etc. Lowis ... ... 12 14 Agriculture ... Tea and rice cultivated
In some places opium ... Upper Burma Gazetteer, Vol. ”