Happenings in Kachin

Lovely photo from the 2005 Naga festival in Kachin State, Myanmar (see Naga Festival and Manau Leader). Real reason for this post, however, is that the Myanmar government has halted construction on the controversial Myitsone Dam on the Irawaddy River in northern Kachin State (click here for more about this surprising development). Financed by the Chinese, the dam would have been the first to span the Irrawaddy and was a showcase project of the previous military government. Victory for the dissidents in Kachin? A step in the right direction? Will I be getting back into the Hukaung Valley anytime soon? I'd love to know what is really going on here. [NOTE: Photo by U Tun Shuang (see Tea Break)].

Naga Festival

The elephants hadn't arrived yet so we were forced to stay in Shimbweyang another day.  Fortuitous, actually.  There was a Naga festival that morning with gongs, and spears, and feathers, and dancing, and chanting, and flowers, and layers and layers of bracelets and necklaces.  All performed with the foothills of the Indian Himalayas in the backgorund.