Chinlone

Every day after work when we were in Shinlonga, the guys would get together and play chinlone for about an hour before it got dark. Amazing to watch. Certainly one of the most unique and beautiful ball games in the world - and the ball is made out of rattan. [NOTE: I always wondered where they got the energy to do this after working all day; music by Avishai Cohen].

The Cookie and the Caterpillar

This ones's pretty straightforward. Blissfully happy little Kachin girl with a package of sugar wafers in one hand and a twig with a huge green caterpillar in the other. [NOTE: This was taken while doing household interviews in Shinlonga last week].

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

A bit of holiday cheer. This clip, filmed last week, shows the kitchen and the cooking crew at the camp in Shinlonga in the Hukaung Tiger Reserve.  The guys are preparing lunch, but I was most taken by what was playing on the radio.  Never heard this song in Burmese before...

Naw Sein

Naw Sein is a Kachin villager that worked with us to set up the management area in Shinlonga. He mainly helped with tree identifications and managed the transect rope when we were measuring between plots. And he did this with such poise and insouciance. Note the cheroot in his left hand, the blue plaid longyi, and the yellow transect rope (see Shopping for Rope in Tanai) in his right hand configured in the shape of an endless or eternal knot. [NOTE: This beautiful portrait of Naw Sein was taken by Rob Tizard, Technical Advisor to the WCS Myanmar Program (thx, Rob)].

Shopping for Rope in Tanai

Before heading up to Shinlonga to start the community forestry work, we first needed to buy about 250 meters of nylon rope to make into transect ropes for measuring our inventory plots.  I had left one transect rope in Shinlonga last May, but it was apparently cut up several times to "fix" something.  We found exactly what we needed in the main market of Tanai (see Shopping for Supplies) - and in yellow. [NOTE: We got a really good price because the lady said we were her first customers of the day].   

Naw Aung and His Sagawa

I spent the last two weeks in northern Myanmar working with Kachin villagers from Shinlonga (see Shinlonga and Morning Mist) on a community forestry project.  Much of the time I was living in a tent in the forest two hours walk from the village laying out a 100 hectare management area.  Naw Aung (shown above) was along to help us identify trees; he had also worked with me when I was in Shinlonga last May (see Field Crew; he's to my right in a woven hat.)

On the way to the management area, Naw Aung came across a large sagawa tree (Michelia champaca L.) that had fallen across the trail. Sagawa is one of the preferred construction timbers in Shinlonga and the species is hard to find. Although this tree had been dead for a while, the heartwood was still solid and several posts could be cut from it. To claim the wood, Naw Aung put a little sign in front of the log (shown in photo above) and then he carved his name on the log. This, apparently, is sufficient to let people know that the tree belongs to him.