Page 137 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

Chin State The DelTa anD wesTern MyanMar 135
shOPPInG
L’Amitie Just north of the Shittaung Paya ChIn sTaTe N
Eartsmtmu@yahoo.com. This art gallery is the base MANIPUR
of the father-and-son painting team of Shwe Maung INDIA
Tha (who has had his work shown overseas) and Khine Khawdungsei
Minn Tun – one of them can usually be found around
this place. Daily 7am–dusk.
DIreCTOry Khampat 2
Banks There’s a branch of the KBZ Bank with an ATM Tonzang
opposite the Shwe Thazin Hotel.
Champhai
Tadim
Chin State
MIZORAM
Manipur River Kale
Squeezed in between Myanmar, INDIA Htomar
Bangladesh and the Indian states of
Mizoram and Manipur, remote and SAGAING
impoverished Chin State is one of Falam
Myanmar’s least explored regions, with
thick jungles, mountainous terrain and
only rudimentary infrastructure. The Thantlang
state’s 500,000 or so Chin inhabitants Hakha
– including the famed women with
facial tattoos – are among Myanmar’s
most persecuted minorities. Large CHIN STATE
numbers converted to Christianity
during colonial times, and have
suffered widespread oppression from
the 1960s through to the present day,
with forced labour, torture, rape, acute Rezua
food shortages and extrajudicial MAGWAY
executions widely reported – as well as
attempts to forcibly reconvert Chin
Christians to Buddhism. Tilin
The region has been largely closed to
foreigners for decades, but over the past Matupi
couple of years things have changed
and Chin State has suddenly started to (Nat Ma Taung)
Mount Victoria
open up, with permit-free independent (3053m) Mindat
travel now permitted to many areas. Samee
NAT MA TAUNG
This is exciting news for adventure- NATIONAL PARK Kanpetlet
seekers, who now have a rare
opportunity to explore a part of Asia
seen by few other foreigners. The star
attraction of the region is Mount
Victoria (aka Nat Ma Taung), the highest
peak in Myanmar south of the Kyauktaw
Himalayas. Elsewhere, the towns of
Hakha and Falam offer a glimpse of RAKHINE
small-town Chin life, and there’s the Mrauk-U 0 30
chance to meet some of the last kilometres
tattooed women in villages throughout

098-137_Myanmar_B2_Ch2.indd 135 30/06/17 2:20 pm