File:In farthest Burma - the record of an arduous journey of exploration and research through the unknown frontier territory of Burma and Tibet (1921) (14783987222).jpg

Identifier: infarthestburmar00ward (find matches)
Title: In farthest Burma : the record of an arduous journey of exploration and research through the unknown frontier territory of Burma and Tibet
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors: Ward, Francis Kingdon, 1885-1958
Subjects: Botany
Publisher: London : Seeley, Service
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
banks of the Irrawaddybelow the confluence. Isolated, surrounded by trackless mountains and bywild tribes—Hkanungs, Hkakus, Dulengs—this outlierof the once mighty Tai race which had spread fromTibet to the China Sea and founded powerful kingdomsin Yun-nan, Burma, Assam and Siam, the last of which,shorn of power, alone survives to-day, lies dying atthe sources of the western Irrawaddy! What a pitiful tragedy—to have journeyed back todie near the old home their ancesters left whenthey went forth to conquer southern Asia, unknowncenturies ago! For the Hkamtis are slowly disappearing. Thestrongest long ago emigrated to Assam, and _thedegraded remnant, rotted with opium, ruined by slavedealing, preyed upon by the virile Kachins, are dyingout. How is it that they have not long ago beenblotted off the plain by the Kachins? Because theyare, in the language of the hill-men, the fire thatkeeps the Kachins warm. In other words, the raidersbatten on them. Every year when the crops are ripe
Text Appearing After Image:
A Hammock Bridge and The Cane Bridge over the Ngawchang River. The bridge is made entirely of climbing palm (rattan cane), and is slung between trees on either bank. THE PLAINS 233 the poor Kachins come down from their hills and billetthemselves on the indolent Shans for a month or two,and eat their fill; and when the time comes for themto depart they take with them a few baskets of riceor a few pigs, or poultry or cattle, even a girl or two—anything, in fact, for which they have a fancy. Between host and parasite the utmost friendlinessprevails, and the transactions are marked by profoundpeace, for though the Shans loathe the Kachins, theirloathing is tempered by a wholesome fear. In return—for the transaction is not entirely one-sided, and, to borrow a term from biology, might becited as an example of commensalism, a living togetherfor mutual benefit—in return the Kachins assist theShans in their eternal intertribal feuds. Thus one tribe of Kachins will be parasitic in oneShan

Note About Images