Last modified: 2003-09-06 by rob raeside
Keywords: myanmar | burma | asia | arakan | kachin | karenni | pa-o | lahu | wa | palaung | mon | karen | kawthoolei | chin | naga |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
"Myanmar is a federal republic made of seven purely burmese divisions (Sagaing, Mandalay, Magwe, Pegu, Irrawaddy, Rangoon, Tenasserim) and seven states with non-burmese population (Kachin, Chan, Kayah, Karen, Mon, Arakan, Chin). National unity was not really achieved due to the diversity of populations. Burmese are mongoloid peoples speaking a language of the tibeto-burmese group, and represent 75% of the population, and up to 80% when including Arakans, who speak the same language but were more or less influenced by Islam, and Tenasserim Mo^ns, who speak a mo^n-khmer language and greatly influenced the Burmese civilization. Burmese are theravada buddhists.Chan (1,500,000 ?) are Tha, related to Siamese, and also theravada buddhists. They have preserved a feudal organization and dominate proto-indochinese minorities
Kachin of the mountains (450,000 ?) speak a tibeto-burmese language but were not influenced by Indians. They are animists or christians.
Chin tribes (400, 000?) are also of tibeto-burmese language but remain very primitive, and their dialects differ from one valley to the other.
Karen (2,000,000 ?) of the mountains speak a language close to burmese but are animists and partially christianised."[eun]
Ivan Sache, 16 Sep 1999
The flags shown here are probably those of organizations engaged in a struggle against the Myanmar government, as the designs do not coincide with the "official" flags of the states as illustrated in Burmese postage stamps of 1974.
The following tribes and peoples have reported flags:
See also:
Mark Sensen, 1 June 1996, Crampton (1990)
This flag (based on W.Crampton, if I remember right) corresponds to the National United Front of Arakan (NUFA), the principal military organization of the State of Arakan, with more than two hundred regular soldiers, the majority Arakanese with some Chin and Rohingas. The Arakanese people number some four million and live in the western hill country of Myanmar. The flag of the organization is horizontal white on red, and in the white part, near the shaft, a red star.
Than-Tam Le, 09 June 1999
Reported as a flag of the Arakan State in a letter from George Pasch to Thanh-Tam Le dating from May 1982.
Than-Tam Le 09 June 1999
Concerning Arakan:
"Moslims of bengali origin already rebelled against the government between 1948 and 1954. The citizenship law of 1981 made a distinction between nation indigen ethnics (Chin, Kachin, Shan, Kayah, karen, Mon, Arakans) and those immigrated after 1824 (beginning of the first Angle-Burmese war who induced the annexation of Arakan). In 1982 appeared in Arakan refugees in Bangladesh the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (R. S. O.), which asked for the independence of North-Western. A new rebel organization, the Arakan Rohingya Islamic Front (A. R. I. F.) appeared in 1991." [eun]
Ivan Sache, 16 Sep 1999
Jaume Ollé, 13 August 1996
The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) counts more than five thousand regular soldiers. The Kachin people numbers some two million persons, who live in northernmost Myanmar.
Jaume Ollé, 13 August 1996.
"Kachinland (Kachin Independence Orgnization) - Burma". Similar to the above, but with stripes of equal height and smaller emblem. Identical to "Hainan".
Ivan Sache, 16 Sep 1999
" Kachin Independence Army (K.I.A.) signed under the direction of Brang Seng, former director of Kachin Baptist High School in Myitkyina, in March 1976 with the Burmese Communist Party [a pro-chinese rebellion movement opposed to the Burmese government] a cooperation agreement, which was considered as ideological by the Communists but only tactical by the Kachin. On 10 October 1980, a new agreement stated that the alliance was based on mutual respect. Therefore, China provided directly the Kachin with weapons in exchange of illegal exportations. The Kachin movement was reunified in 1981." [eun]
Ivan Sache, 16 Sep 1999
by
Jaume Ollé
The national flag of Karen (Republic of Kawtholei) according Franciae Vexilla
#20/66, December 2000, by J. Renault & H. Calvarin.
Jaume Ollé, 25 January 2001
See also:
Jaume Ollé, 16 August 1996
The Karenni Nation Progressive Party (KNPP) has 200 regular fighters (Kayaw, Kaya, Manamanaw, Shao, Pa-O and others). The Karenni number approximately 300,000.
Jaume Ollé, 15 June 1998
An alternate version of the flag of the Karenni States is reported to have equal width stripes, red, white and blue, with a central motif in black consisting of a central 12-pointed star surrounded by four frogs in an inner circle and four fish in an outer circle.
Murray Menzies, Karenni Govt. South Pacific Regional Charge d'Affaires, 1 March 1998
In 'Franciae Vexillae' # 4/50 (January 1997), M. Corbic reports the history of the Karenni flag, as follows:
Recently the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Abel Tweed and the South Pacific regional charge d'affairs sent me much documentation and I redrew the flag according to the official documentation. The flag is three horizontal stripes of red, white and blue, with the emblem in the center. Several times is reported the same flag but with the central stripe double wide. The official name of the country is the United Karenni independent States, but is abrreviated United States of Karenni. The states are Bawlake, Kyebogyi and Kantarawaddy. The emblem has four fish and four toad and a twelve pointed star.
Jaume Ollé, 15 June 1998
Than-Tam Le, 09 June 1999
"Karenni [Kayah State] (Red Karens), based on written description - Burma." Vertical blue-white-red with a white star at hoist, 1:2. "1993: The most recently seen flag. Three equal horizontal stripes blue-white-red with a white 5-pointed star near the hoist in the blue stripe."
Ivan Sache, 16 Sep 1999
"In 1995, following the seizure of his headquarters in Manerplaw, in January, and of the locality of Kawmoora, in February, general Bo Mya, chief of the Karen National Union, asked for a ceasefire." [eun]
Ivan Sache, 16 Sep 1999
Jaume Ollé, 14 August 1996
Ivan Sache, 16 Sep 1999.
"Lahu National Organization (Lahus) - Burma." Similar to above, but with stripes of equal height. I have found mention of Lahu tribes in Laos but not in Burma.
Ivan Sache, 16 Sep 1999
Jaume Ollé
Nickname: Flag of the Golden Drake Flying. The New Mon State Party (NMSP) has 3,000 regular fighters (mostly Mon). The Mon people number approximately one million.
Jaume Ollé, 15 August 1996
Than-Tam Le, 09 June 1999
Reported as a flag of the Arakan State in a letter from George Pasch to Thanh-Tam Le dating from May 1982. The bird is probably a sheldrake.
Than-Tam Le 09 June 1999
"New Môns State Party (Môns) - Burma." Similar to the first one above but with different bird (flying drake represented in profile, in "cruising flight" position.) Ivan Sache, 16 Sep 1999
"The Môn ethnic group established in the past rich and powerful kingdoms in Burma and Thailand, but is nowadays a minority trying to preserve its identity, in spite of the fiction of a "Môn federate state' in Myanmar. At the end of the 70's, they were ca. 1,000,000 Môns in Myanmar and 60,000-100,000 of them in Thailand. The ethnic emblem is a species of duck, which represents the brahmanic 'hamsa' [the mount of God Brahma]. Môn language belongs to the Môn-Khmer family, with one of the oldest writing system in the area." [eun]
Ivan Sache, 16 Sep 1999
After the British-Burmese war, British troops evacuated the occupied regions of
Syriam, Rangoon Prome, etc... The Mon (called by the Burmese Talaing) were the
majority in Syriam, and expected the formation of a national state under British
protection. However they did not obtain it, and then, allied with the
Karen (that also expected a British protected state) revolted and proclaimed the
Kingdom of Talaing. Maong Sat, brother-in-law of the Burmese king, ethnic Mon
and governor of Syriam, was proclaimed king (1826). But Burmese troops occupied
the kingdom and supressed it in 1827.
Jaume Ollé,
30 June 2001
Jaume Ollé
Franciae Vexilla reported another flag supposed
to be from Pegu, a Mon Kingdom in fact called Ramanyadesa (capital Pegu),
according to Norie and Hobbs, but Vexilologie
15 shows a similar flag attribued to Sanove. Perhaps is the flag hoisted by the
kingdom of Talaings (Mon) when was annexed to Britain in 1825/26 (Talaing
kingdom I believe that was the remain of the old Pegu kingdom, and was vassal of
Ava/Burma kings).
Jaume Ollé, 28 June 2001
Jaume Ollé, 14 August 1996
Jaume Ollé, 14 August 1996.
"Surrender of the P.S.L.A. was effective in May 1991." [eun]Ivan Sache, 16 Sep 1999
Jaume Ollé, 14 August 1996
Jaume Ollé, 14 August 1996
"Surrender of the Pa-Os was effective in April 1991." [eun]Ivan Sache, 16 Sep 1999
Jaume Ollé, 14 August 1996
Jaume Ollé, 14 August 1996.
"The Wa came to an agreement with the SLORC [the ruling structure of the Burmese junte] in 1990." [eun]Ivan Sache, 16 Sep 1999.
According to a paper in 'Asahi Shimbun' (Tokyo), translated in 'Courrier International' #466, 7 October 1999, there is now a "United Party of the Wa State", whose army controls the drug traffic in [the] Golden Triangle located in Shan State. They took control of the area after the fall of Khun Sa, the former "king of opium", in 1996. Similar to the "Shan State Army", the "United Party of the Wa State" may claim nationalist revendications to hide more fruitful activities.Ivan Sache, 17 Oct 1999.