Some Thoughts From Burma

It seems that since the mid nineteenth century, the Kachin have had to deal with massive cultural changes.  Missionaries and colonization began to change their identity through religious and social transformation.  In 1962, political tensions between the minority Kachin and the majority Burmese reached a climax as war officially broke out.  1988 saw the house arrest of democratic Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi.  From 1986 to 2001, the Burmese imposed military rule on the Kachin and other ethnic minorities, which included curfews, shutting down their schools and forcing them to go to Burmese schools, and denying them the freedom to come together and dance the Manau.  Since the Manau was one of the last cultural treasures of Kachin Christians, there was a whole generation of Kachin children that didn’t grow up with this identity.  

The situation between the Burmese and the Kachin is very complex.  While there has been a long history of conflict between the two groups, inter-marriage between them, though not common, is a reality.  Because the culture in Burma is so interdependent (Kachin consider cousins to be the same as brothers and sisters), marrying into a Burmese family presents a complex social situation.  Kachin churches have added services in Burmese as a way to accommodate this situation. 

I think it is fair to say that the Kachin have had to struggle to maintain their ethnic identity due to a deficiency in cross-cultural understanding by the missionaries, as well as fighting for their physical survival in their ongoing conflict with the Burmese.