The Kachin - Lords of Burma's Northern Frontier by Bertil LintnerFrom the "People and Cultures of Southeast Asia" Series
Teak House has produced a series of extremely high quality books combining the large format and excellent photography associated with "coffee table books" with authoritative text from some of the best known experts in their fields. Ideal for both travelers and academic readers.
Remarkable for their military prowess, their receptiveness of Christianity, and their intricate all-embracing kinship network, the Kachin are a hardy mountain people living in the remote hills of northern Burma and on the peripheries of India and China. During the Second World War they strongly aided the Allies in defending Burma against the imperialist designs of the Japanese, earning themselves sobriquets such as 'amiable assassins' and 'Ghurkas of Southeast Asia'. After Burma's independence in 1948, the Kachin were given their own state, but in the early 1960s they went to war again, this time fighting for autonomy for their homeland. For over thirty years, funded largely by the world-renowned jade mines they control, they maintained their armed insurgency, playing a key role in Burma's internecine struggles. In 1994 the Kachin signed a cease-fire agreement which they hope marks the start of an era of peace.
Bertil Lintner was born in Sweden in 1953 and left for Asia in 1975. He has been living permanently in Thailand since 1979, working as a journalist. From 1985-1987, Lintner, together with his wife Hseng Noung, a Shan from Burma, made an 18 month, 2,275 km. overland journey from northeastern India across rebel-held areas in Burma to China, including 10 months in Kachin territory. Travelling by foot, jeep, bicycle and elephant, they were the first outsiders to cross this isolated land since the 1940s. Their daughter, Hseng Tai, was born during that journey.
Hard Cover
Large Format 12" x 8.5"
Chiang Mai, Teak House
ISBN 1876437057
252 pages with over 300 colour photographsClick here for more books by Bertil Lintner For delivery in Thailand please go to
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