The Kachin

Remarkable for their military prowess, their receptivity to Christianity, and their intricate all-embracing kinship network, the Kachins are a hardy mountain people living in the remote hills of northern Burma and on the peripheries of Indian and China. During the Second World War they strongly aided the Allies in defending Burma against the imperialist designs of the Japanese, earning themselves sorbriquets such as 'amiable assassins' and 'Ghurkas of Southeast Asia.' After Burma's independence in 1948, the Kachins were given their own state, but in the early 1960s they went to war again, this time fighting for autonomy for their homeland. For over thirty years, funded largely by the world-renowned jade mines they control, they maintained their armed insurgency, playing a key role in Burma's internecine struggles. In 1994 the Kachins signed a cease-fire agreement which they hope marks the start of an era of peace.