Kokang

Kokang

In the villages, Kokang nationals earn surplus income mainly from shoes manufacturing, traditional rain coat manufacturing made from a kind of bear. Kokang traditionally worship the source of their ancestor. The Nat Saya tells their future by using the bones of chickens.

Kokang was the only Burmese-Chinese feudal state in Myanmar. It was founded by the Yang dynasty, a Chinese military house that fled with the Ming dynasty to Yunnan Province in the mid 1600's and later migrated to the Shan States in eastern Burma. Today it is the First Special Region of Myanmar and is still comprised of a mostly ethnic Han Chinese population. The Salween River passes its western side and it shares a border with China's Yunnan Province in the east. Its total land area is around 2700 sq km. The capital is Laukkai.

History

The state was officially founded by Yang Shien Tsai who began his reign in 1739 in and around Ta Shwe Htan, then called Shin Da Hu, and took the title "Chief of Shin Da Hu". He was succeeded on his death in 1758 by his son Yang Wei Shin, later referred to as Chief of Kho Kan Shan. He expanded his territory tenfold compared to that inherited from his predecessor. After his death in 1795, his son Yang Yon Gen became the chief. He soon renamed the state as Kokang and titled himself Heng of Kokang.

The Heng was succeeded after his death in 1874 by his younger brother, Yang Guo Zhen, who ruled peacefully and began relations with Britain upon the annexation of Upper Burma. In 1916 he went blind, and abdicated in favour of his nephew Yang Chun Yon. The new ruler then took the Burmese title Myosa. He died in 1927 and was succeeded by his son Colonel Sao Yang Wen Pin, Saopha of Kokang.

For the services of Kokang during World War II, it was recognized a separate Shan state in August 1947 by the British, and the ruler took the title Saopha. He died in 1949 and was succeeded by his son Sao Edward Yang Kyein Tsai who was deposed by the Burmese in 1959.

After the collapse of the Communist Party in 1989, Kokang was assigned as the autonomous First Special Region of the northern Shan State of Myanmar.

In 2003, a comprehensive ban on the cultivation of opium came into effect. The population was reported to be approximately 140,000. Of these, around 100,000 are Burmese; the remainder being Chinese. Of the Burmese, in of 90% are ethnic Han Chinese, with others being Shan, Palaung, Hmong, Va, Lisaw, Naman and Burman. Because of the effective disappearance of the narcotics trade, many have lost their source of income and many Chinese have left the region.

Sao Edward Yang Kyein Tsai