A few days ago, regular New Mandala contributor Aiontay asked about the tusks at the Manau ground at Laiza, the Kachin Independence Army/Kachin Independence Organisation stronghold along the Sino-Burmese border. While I don’t have any further information on the tusks I do have a close-up taken a few years ago.
As an aside, the towers that are (barely) visible on the line of hills in the background belong to Chinese mobile phone companies. Unlike people in many other parts of Burma, citizens of Laiza usually have reliable access to telecommunications technology at a reasonable price.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Grasshopper // Mar 19, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Perhaps this is of interest:
From http://www.kachinland.org/kno_2006/Kachin_Culture/index.htm
“The leaders of the Manau Festival wear long robes with headdresses of hornbill or peacock feathers. The headdresses are also adorned with tusks of wild boar.
Are you sure that the Ginsi Duwa tusks are specifically from an elephant? Or do the Ginsi Duwa’s out phallic all the other Kachin Duwas? I think with the considerable size of the tusks in the picture, that they could not be from a boar!
2 aiontay // Mar 19, 2008 at 10:40 pm
I haven’t seen the tusks, but I’ve seen a photo of the last Ginsi duwa in front of the tusks from the elephant his ancestor killed. If they’re from a boar, it must be the largest boar ever known, since the tusks are taller than a man. Furthermore, those tusks are more than just a phallic symbol, they have to do with political legitimacy, particularly with regard to the Hpakant region.
3 Mandy Sadan // Mar 24, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Sorry to only now have seen this thread – I haven’t been able to access the site for a while (and haven’t yet read Andrew’s comment related to this). I would suggest that these are definitely elephant tusks. In the oral recitations of the joiwa dumsa (spirit priests), elephants (and the size of their tusks particularly) are often used as metaphors for the greatness of a chief (not just Ginsi but any). The specific link with Ginsi is rooted in the relationship with the Hukawng valley and jade mines area, where elephants provided both real and symbolic claim to wealth and status (’sut’ more generally conceived), as Aiontay says. My father in law is from Hugawng, and the first thing he did when he got a bit of money (he found a gold mine at the bottom of his paddy field – as you do …) was to buy an elephant. But the metaphor of the elephant tusks is deeply rooted in traditional Kachin conceptualisations of chiefly status.
4 panaung // Aug 8, 2008 at 7:34 pm
i want to see my kachin land picture….
im living in singapore …
thanks
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