Bertil Lintner - Land of Jade: A Journey Through Insurgent Burma

Praise for
LAND OF JADE

Lintners book deserves a lot more attention and recognition than it will probably receive, in a day when real deeds take second place to armchair analysis.

John McBeth , Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) , Vol. 150/41, Oct. 11, 1990

Land of Jade concerns the four-decade-long revolts against Rangoons rule by the countrys hill peoples and the time the intrepid couple spent in their midst. told from the unique position of authority his travels, studies and work as a journalist have earned him.

Derek Davies , Travellers Tales, FEER , 1990

Land of Jade is both a fascinating travelogue and a dramatic eye-witness account of the different insurgencies that were then being waged against the Burmese government. He was the first Westerner to visit the rugged, insurgent-held north of Burma for many years and provides a rare insight into the daily lives of the hill people, caught up in the struggles between the government, the insurgents, and the local opium lords.

Andrew Selth , Asian Studies Review , Vol. 15/2, Nov. 1991

the ultimate hill trek: two years through jungles and hills, being passed from one guerrilla group to the next. Land of Jade is a cross between a travel narrative and a history of the insurgent groups.

Andrew Metten , Great Expeditions , March/April 1991

To say this book is the best there is on the subject is no recommendation at all, since its the only one available. More meaningfully one can predict that it will continue to be read as an absorbing account of a very difficult journey, and as a first-class piece of balanced political journalism, long after it has rivals.

Charles Browne , Northern Monthly , Vol. 2/3, March, 1991

Land of Jade still ranks as one of the best I have read, describing not only the couples remarkable 18-month, 2,275 kilometre expedition, but also providing remarkable new insights into the long-forgotten struggle by the Naga, Shan and Kachin ethnic groups against Burmese military rule.

John McBeth , Reporter: Forty Years Covering Asia , Talisman Publishing, Singapore 2011

In memory of

Lieut . Yaw Htung

Sgt.-Maj . Maru Tanggun

Lance Cpl . Tangbau Zaungdau

Cpl. Zau Shan

Sgt.-Maj . Dingring Naw Bawk

Zekope Krome

Michael Davies

Sai Noom Pan

Lashi Naw Ja

A Journey from India through Northern Burma to China

Bertil Lintner

Photographs by
Hseng Noung Lintner

Orchid Press

LAND OF JADE: A Journey from India through Northern Burma to China

Bertil Lintner; photography by Hseng Noung Lintner

First published in Danish as Reisen Th. Jadelandet , Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke, Copenhagen 1989

First English edition, Kiscadale Publications & White Lotus Press, Arran/Bangkok 1990

Second English edition, White Orchid Press, Bangkok 1996

Third English edition 2011

ORCHID PRESS

P. O. Box 19,

Yuttitham Post Office,

Bangkok 10907, Thailand

www.orchidbooks.com

Copyright Orchid Press 2011

Protected by copyright under the terms of the International Copyright Union: all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Cover image: Naga boy blowing a horn made of a long green leaf. Photo by Hseng Noung Lintner.

ISBN 978-974-524-185-5

Kindle Edition

In October 1985 the Lintners crossed the border between Nagaland and Burma with their daughter who was then six weeks old. Here, she is six months and the Lintners have reached Kachin State in northern Burma. Hseng Noung is keeping her warm by the fire in a small mountain village hut.

The journey through Kachin State went by elephant, by river boat and on horseback. Sometimes they took part in local festivals, such as this ceremony to ordain Buddhist monks in a village near the Chinese border

The author together with his photographer wife, Hseng Noung, and their daughter Hseng Tai Ja Reng.

Plans for the journey were made during some sweltering days in Calcutta in the summer of 1985

Fernandes da Souza, August 1985.

Bertil Lintner in hiding in Zanietsos house in Kohima, September 1985.

A few moments after our daughter was born on September 13, 1985.

Father and daughter a few weeks after her birth.

October 1985. The border between India and Burma.

Naga boy in a village in northwestern Burma.

The Patkai range in the Naga Hills as seen from the Burmese side.

The Nagas were headhunters until only a few years ago.

Interviewing Isak Chishi Swu, chairman of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland

The first stop in northern Burma was Kesan Chanlam, the NSCNs headquarters in the Naga Hills of northern Sagaing Division.

Heavily armed Naga guerrillas pose for the camera. But when their headquarters was attacked in December 1985, they showed little fighting ability. The Lintners escaped unscathed, but many people were killed in the fighting.

The stay at Kesan Chanlam provided the first exciting opportunity for interviews with NSCN leaders and veterans of the Naga struggle.

Zekope Krome, a young NSCN activist from the Indian side, helped the Lintners during their stay in the Burmese Naga Hills.

The village of Kesan Chanlam in the Naga Hills where the NSCN had built its headquarters. It was attacked in December 1985.

Lieut. Yaw Htung (left) together with NSCN chairman Isak Chishi Swu at Kesan Chanlam on December 16, 1985. Two days later, Yaw Htung was dead.

Youthful Naga warriors in northwestern Burma.

NSCN soldiers with their flag: Nagaland for Christ.

On January 3, 1986, the Lintners crossed the Chindwin River. They had just celebrated New Years Eve together with their KIA escorts in a small village near the river. The dramatic events at Kesan Chanlam were still fresh in their memories. A pig was roasted over open fire to celebrate the new year.

The trek to Kachin State went through dense jungle and wet marshland. When they at last reached a fishing village by the Nam Byu River, the first Kachin settlement, villagers came out to greet them.

Maj. Pan Awng who escorted the party from Nam Byu to Tanai Yang in western Kachin State.

Bertil and Maj. Pan Awng study maps before crossing the Ledo Road in the Hukawng Valley.

A peasant with his bullocks passing KIA troops on the Ledo Road.

A jeep with drug traffickers is stopped and searched by the KIA.

Bertil rides into Tanai Yang, the 2 nd Brigade headquarters of the KIA.

A party was held at Tanai Yang to celebrate the arrival of Mr. Hamilton.

Kachin villagers in northernmost Burma.

Early morning in the Kachin Hills.

The village of NRaw Kawng in January 1986.

Young Kachin girls looked after our daughter during the journey.

Local people panning for gold near the Mali Hka River, northern Kachin State.

Every year, thousands of people flock to the gold fields at Gawng Sha in northern Kachin State.

On the way from the Triangle to Pa Jau.

Maj.-Gen. Zau Mai at the KIAs headquarter at Na Hpaw.

Riding a bicycle down the Myitkyina-Bhamo road was a welcome change!

Gold was abundant at Hkala Yang market. Jade and opium were exchanged for consumer goods from China.

Anti-aircraft position at the KIAs headquarters at Na Hpaw.

Hseng Noung gives Hseng Tai a bath in a fresh mountain stream.