The Shan...

... are nice people, I'm sure.

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Joking aside (or am I?), the Shan are the main people group that we are going to help in ministering to.

They are known in Thailand as Tai Yai, which when translated means "elder brother of the Thai", as they are related in someways to the ethnic Thai.

Their home countries include Burma, the Yunnan province of China, Laos and Thailand. The Shan state is in Burma, with Taunggyi being the capital of the 32 districts within the Shan state. The symbol of the Shan is the Tiger, and their flag is as below.


The Shan flag consists of yellow, green and red stripes with a white circle in the middle. Yellow stands for Buddhism and that the Shan are part of the yellow race. Green symbolizes the verdant landscape, a warm climate and farming. Red symbolizes the Shan’s courage. The white disk is for the moon, the Shan’s pure and peaceful spirit. However, it is forbidden to use this flag in either Burma or Thailand.

There are 12 different subgroups of Shan people, each associated with where they were generally located. Tai Sa's for example, are generally from China, Thai Sipson Panna from the northern Shan state, and so on. However, all Shan will refer to themselves as Shan, and not either of the subgroup.

The Shan speak Tai, a variant of Thai (although less subtle than a missing h), which has 5 different tones. The Tai's in China has 6. Although there are dialects, they are more or less similiar, and based on Sanskrit.

According to Shan leaders there are 30 million Shan in the world. According to the Burmese military regime, there are 4 million Shan in the Shan State. and they comprise about 10% of the population in Burma. There are estimated to be about 2 million Shan in Thailand. It is impossible to get accurate statistics due to the difficult situation in Burma.

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Come back either tomorrow or on Saturday to be updated on the culture and religion of the Shan.

Cheers
V