KACHIN [
listen Kachin Songs ]
Tribal
peoples occupying parts of northeastern Burma, and contiguous areas
of India (Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland) and China (Yunnan).
The greatest number of Kachin live in Burma (roughly 590,000), but some
120,000 live in China and a few thousand in India.
Numbering about 712,000 in the late 20th century, they speak a variety
of languages of the Tibeto-Burman group and are thereby distinguished
as Jinghpaw, or Jingpo The majority of Kachin are Jinghpaw speakers,
and Jinghpaw is one of the officially recognized minority languages
of China.
<Encyclopedia Britannica>
The British gradually
imposed the Pax Britannica on the hills, between 1885 and 1935, Kachin
are well known in the West for their heroic resistance to the Japanese
invasion during the second World War, Christian missionaries have been
particularly important in introducing Western education, and have made
many conversions around Myitkyina and Bhamo.
<World Languages>
Please visit the following web sites to learn more about
KACHIN.
* www.kachinstate.com
*
Ko Zaw Aung
