The woman on the left with the big smile and the wonderful hat is Daw Khin Tin, the owner of the Khin Soe Trading Company in Myitkyina and the major exporter of rattan from the Hukaung Valley. She is also a devout Buddhist (note mala dangling from her right hand) and feels that her current business success is a result of deeds in past lives. She recently donated two million kyat to a local monastery so that they could rebuild their pagoda. In response, the monks let her use several acres of land around the monastery as a rattan storage and drying area.
in 2005 when this picture was taken, Daw Khin Tin was moving about 40,000 rattan canes/month out of Hukaung during the dry season. The material is carried (see Rattan Truck) back to Myitkyina where it is washed and treated with diesel and then trucked to China. We were camped right down the road from her rattan landing, and I had a wonderful chat with Daw Khin Tin one afternoon (thx, Saw Lwin). She told me all about the rattan trade in the Hukaung Valley, complained about the bridges (see Checking the Bridge), and gave me a pack of Chinese rice crispy treats. I gave her a "Hukaung Valley Rattan Survey 2005" t-shirt. There were lots of smiles all around. Image below shows Daw Khin Tin, U Tun Shuang (see Group Photo), me, Andrew (see A Palm, Two Botanist With Cameras) and the rice crispy treat (cradled in my right hand).
