Abstract
THE Shan States under the control of the Government of Burma form two groups, the northern and the southern, separated for some distance by the Nam Tu or Myitnge River in the eastern portion of the province. Ethnologically, the Shans are a branch of the great Tai people, “the free,” who at present exercise sovereignty only in Siam. The affinities of the branches of this people are obscured by the bewildering variety of names which disguises their identity, while the dialects are mutually incomprehensible, and, as if this were not enough, are recorded in at least six forms of written character. Even the origin of the name Shan is a puzzle, the only reasonable explanation being that of Sir J. G. Scott, who points out that they were known to the Burmese as Tarok or Taret, and possibly gained their present title from their Chinese designation, Han Jen. Our knowledge of them is derived from the accounts of earlier travellers like Dr. Richardson, Captain Macleod, and Sir H. Yule; from the translation of tribal chronicles by Mr. Ney Elias and Sir J. G. Scott, and of Chinese authorities by Mr. G. H. Parker; and, in particular, from the monograph on their history and ethnography written for the Census Report of Burma, 1892, by Dr. J. N. Gushing. In the present book the information thus collected has been carefully summarised in two chapters on tribal history and literature by Mr. W. W. Cochrane.
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"Shans at Home". By Mrs. L. Milne . With Two Chapters on Shan History and Literature by the Rev. W. W. Cochrane . Pp. xxiv + 289. (London: J. Murray, 1910.) Price 15s. net.
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The Home Life of the Shans . Nature 86, 314–316 (1911). https://doi.org/10.1038/086314a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/086314a0