Kachins

Select Language Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bulgarian Bengali Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Khmer Korean Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Maltese Marathi Nepali Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swahili Swedish Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish

This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.

Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.

Kachins

A community of Tibeto-Burman origin, inhabiting the north and north-east of Upper Burma and the Shan States. After the Shans and the Chins, the Kachins, known also as Chingpaws or Theinbaws, are the most numerous non-Burman people in the Upper Province. In 1901, 64,405 persons were returned as Kachins, but this includes only the population dealt with in the regularly enumerated areas. In what were known as the ‘ estimated ' areas no race data were collected; but it is certain that at least three-eighths of the 127,011 persons inhabiting these areas were Kachins, and it will be safe to put the total of the race at nearly 120,000. About one-half of the popula- tion of Myitkyina District is Kachin; and Kachins form a substantial portion of the inhabitants of Bhamo, Katha, and the Ruby Mines, and of the Northern Shan States. Of the same primaeval stock as the Burmans and the Tibetans, the Kachins seem to have remained for centuries in possession of the uplands about and to the north of the head-waters of the western branch of the Irrawaddy, and it is only within the last few decades that they have encroached on their neigh- bours in the south. Of recent years, however, observers have had an opportunity of witnessing in the Kachins what in all probability will be the last- of those immigration waves from the north that have played so important a part in the history of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula. The Kachin tribes have penetrated westwards into Assam, where they are known as Singphos, and as far down. the valley of the Irrawaddy as Katha District ; but here they appear for the time being to have been brought to a halt by contact with a comparatively dense population. Though checked in one direction, the southward movement still continues. The line of least resistance has now shifted to the east : the borders of the Northern Shan States, till recently inhabited only by Shans and Palaungs, have been gradually overrun; and in the direction of China the Kachins have worked their way as far south as the trans- Salween State of Kengtung.

The next few years will probably see a further extension of the race in a southerly direction. The Kachins have given considerable trouble on the frontier in the past, and more than one punitive expedition has had to be sent against them. Strictly speaking, Chingpaw is the name given only to the southern section of the Kachin race, the communities farther north being known generally as Khakus. The social system of the Kachins is tribal, but nothing approaching to tribal federation is known. The five principal tribes are the Marips, the Lepais, the Lahtawngs, the 'Nkhums, and the Marans. Subdivisions, clans, and families abound. About one hundred family names have been recorded, and persons bearing the same family name do not intermarry. The Kachins are practically all spirit-worshippers, and their nats are extremely numerous and, for the most part, malignant. The Kachin places himself en rapport with the spirit world through the offices of a medium (mi-twe) or a pro- fessional priest (tumsa). Divination is frequently resorted to by this very superstitious race. The dead are disposed of by burial. Taungya (shifting cultivation) is the usual form of agriculture practised in the Kachin country, rice being the main crop. The Kachin house is ordinarily far larger than a Burmese or Shan dwelling, and has many points of resemblance to the lengthy structure seen in some Palaung villages. Slavery still exists among the Kachins, but only to the modified extent in which it survives among the Chins of the Chin Hills. The Kachin physical type varies considerably. Though the physiognomy is Mongolian and often of a character far from attractive to Europeans, aquiline noses are not unknown and regular features are occasionally met with. The figure is short but wiry.

There is nothing very distinctive about the dress of the Kachin men. They wear as a rule a dark jacket, a waistcloth (frequently of a plaid pattern) or Shan trousers according to their habitat, and a turban varying from locality to locality. The women ordinarily wear a jacket, sometimes long with long sleeves, sometimes short and practically sleeveless, as well as a skirt and turban, which, in the case of Chingpaw women, is often of considerable size. Wherever the means of the wearer allow it, silver torques are worn by the Chingpaw women. The Kachins speak a language belonging to the same linguistic sub-family as Burmese, and resembling the latter closely in grammatical structure. It has various dialects, but they do not differ materially from one another. The Marus, the Szis, and the Lash is, hill tribes of the north-eastern frontier, have been looked upon as Kachins, whom tbey resemble somewhat in manners and dress. It appears, however, probable from their language that these tribes are more nearly con- nected with the Burmans than with the Kachins. Their original home was probably to the east of that of the Kachins.