Namhsan

Namhsan
နမ့်ဆန်မြို့
Town
Namhsan

Location in Burma

Coordinates: 22°57′54″N 97°9′48″E / 22.96500°N 97.16333°E / 22.96500; 97.16333Coordinates: 22°57′54″N 97°9′48″E / 22.96500°N 97.16333°E / 22.96500; 97.16333
Country Burma
Division Shan State
District Tawngpeng
Population (2005)
 • Ethnicities Palaung
 • Religions Buddhism, Hinduism
Time zone MST (UTC+6.30)

Namhsan (Burmese: နမ့်ဆန်မြို့; Om-yar in Palaung), also spelt Namh San, Namsan, or Nam San, is the capital of Tawngpeng District in northern Shan State of Burma. Besides Palaung, the town is populated by Kayin, Lisu, and Shan ethnic tribal groups as well as Indians, and Chinese.

The town is a popular starting point for trekking to Hsipaw.

History

It was the capital of Tawngpeng State, a Palaung substate of the Shan States of British Burma and the only Palaung kingdom in the former Shan States, the people of the town are predominantly of the Ka-tur (Samlong) tribe.[1] The people of the tribe are often referred to as the Golden Palaung (Shwe Palaung) because of the color of the belts that they wore.[2] In previous times they wore silver belts for dress occasions, but these days aluminum has taken its place.

Their language is called Shwe, a language variant that is only partially intelligible by other Palaungic language speakers. [3] In Shwe, Namhsan means trembling waters and the town is thought to be so named because it is situated on a marsh which gets flooded during heavy rains. In its heyday, during the 1920s and 1930s, the town prospered because of the presence of silver mines in the kingdom and because of the tea grown in the area. The tribe was heavily studied by anthropologist Mrs. Leslie Milne.

References

  1. ↑ Milne, Mrs. Leslie (1924) The Home of an Eastern Clan: A study of the Palaungs of the Shan states Clarendon Press, Oxford, England, OCLC 5226811
  2. ↑ Marshall, Andrew (2002) The Trouser People: a story of Burma-in the shadow of the Empire Counterpoint, Washington, D.C., ISBN 1-58243-120-5
  3. ↑ "Overview of the Shwe De'ang" Asiaharvest.org, last accessed 5 October 2010

External links

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