29.07.2013

Hsipaw, pronounced Teebaw by the locals, is in the Northern Shan State of Myanmar. In the old days each village or group of villages and even towns were ruled by their own sawbwa or Shan Prince, but when Ne Win came to power in 1962 all power had to be in his hands and more than 30 sawbwa disappeared. The sawbwa of Hsipaw had been at university in America and brought back an American wife. They had two children and were ahead of their time in granting to the villagers the land on which they worked. But Sao Kya Seng was a victim of the purge: he attended a meeting in Yangon and never returned. His wife, Inge Sargent, searched for news of him for months, but in the end she was advised to return to America. Mr Donald, a relative of the sabwa, stayed on in the palace and over the years told the tale to countless visitors. For this, in 2005, he was removed to prison. For a long time the palace was closed, but it is now open to visitors at 4.00 each afternoon.

Kyaung Payn is a Shan village of 84 houses extending a mile along the bank of the Dotthawady River. Mango orchards were fruiting prolifically, though the mangoes were still green. The orchards were flanked by jackfruit, bananas, pomelo and custard apples. The villagers were also growing beans and sweetcorn, and yellow and white pumpkins ran riot across the land in places even climbing trees. Pumpkin are especially good to grow as the curling new shoots can be harvested many times until the pumpkin is ready to eat.

We stood to watch as a woman, who was minding her shop, was also making flags. Her hut was in the shade of a grove of bamboo and it was these that she was gradually harvesting for her home industry. She managed the whole process by hand by herself. Once she had cut the bamboo into very thin slivers, she dyed them bright mauve and stuck short paper streamers at the top. These she would sell at the market: 100 pieces for 200 kyat (about 20 cents). Villagers would buy them as an offering on their own Buddha image in their house or would take them to the paya (pagoda) or monastery.

While watching the woman making flags a man, perhaps hoping we were doctors, showed me large white patches on his brown legs. His lips were unusual too: the bottom lip turned over and was bright pink. He had been to the clinic, where he was given tablets to take three times a day for six months. He had not been told the name of his ailment, but it was thought it could be leprosy. The clinic was free so it was advice not money that he needed.  Next time he goes to the clinic he will ask them.

After Hsipaw we were to go to Namhsan, but there is fighting there. Lashio is quiet and we will go there instead.

Lashio was pivotal in WWII as it was the start of the Burma Road. Doubtless there was much fighting then and coincidentally there was fighting here – with different adversaries – last month and one enormous many storey building was burned to a black shell.