Shan people

Here is your host, Joe Mathews.

[upbeat music] Christians in Myanmar's Kachin State protest the junta and the Shan Nationalities Army occupying the Kachin Baptist and St Joseph's Catholic churches in Namhkam as military bases.

The SNA, a Buddhist militia founded in 1989 and reactivated in 2016, allied with the junta after the 2021 coup.

The junta let them expand brigades, collect taxes, and control Hkamti and Monyin against the Kachin Independence Army.

Now a junta tactical commander uses it as headquarters.

A new church, completed in 2022 and overseen by catechist Zau Ra, was looted.

The SNA occupies the Baptist church, graduating its sixth batch of 400 recruits from Shan, Kachin, and Upper Sagaing in late September.

Activists, including a Kachin Christian woman, say this violates international and constitutional laws.

And to prove my words, whose are these? and she produced the very bundles of food that her sisters had offered the day before to the supposed ruler of all spirits the sisters were surprised to see that she had the food there but they laughed her to scorn when she told them of her husband in order that his son should become mighty and famous the lord sakya sent one of his attendants to the king and caused him to give an order to his children that they should have a boat-race the one who reached the winning post first and carried away the flag on its rattan pole was to be the king in his room and the one who came last was to be the slave to the fortunate one there were great preparations among the servants of the six princesses and many wagers were made as to who would be successful but none wished to wager to who would come in last as they all knew it would be the youngest sister she has no boat said they and she has no servants to make one nor money to buy one even if she had what could she do her husband has no hands how could he row against and defeat the swift boatmen who have been called by the princesses the king gave seven days in which his daughters were to prepare for the race and during that time the shouting of the various crews as they practised on the lake was heard from early morning till the sun dropped behind the mountains but only six boats were seen the race was to take place on a lake on the outskirts of the city and on the morning of the seventh day when the six princesses took their stations they were surprised to see that there was a seventh boat there but they did not know that it was a magic boat sent by lord sarkia from the hypere country and that the sixteen rowers were not men but hypers the course was over a thousand cubits to the post and around it and return and so fast did the magic boat glide through the water that it had covered the entire distance and the captain had laid the flag at the king's feet before any of the other boats had reached the first bowl that showed half the distance but something even more wonderful than that had taken place during the race the time spent apart during which the son of my kith was to have the form of a frog had expired and lo he was now the most handsome man in all the hill and water country he had a crown of gold upon his head and magic white cloth such as only the harpiers wear were on his person his wife was clothed in as beautiful a manner and the king at last seeing his mistake he had made in treating him so badly knelt on the shore and asked which lord is the son of his slave by which he meant which of the lords was the one to whom he had given his daughter but the lord kith as now he was called did not take a mean revenge on his unkind brothers and sisters and when they came on their knees begging for their lives and asking for the privilege of being his slaves he took compassion on them and instead of ordering them to immediate execution made them his amas this is why the shans who live in the hill and water country worship sau mahakik chapter one Recording by This Neem

Chapter 2 of Shan Folklore Stories from the Hill and Water Country.

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For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Carol Eades Shan Folklore Stories from the Hill and Water Country by William Charles Griggs.

How Bohanmi got his title.

Bohanmi was one of the greatest generals who ever lived in the Hill and Water Country.

The wife pondered a while and then advised her husband to get dressed in his best clothes and go to the palace, look down the well to see what it was like, then make some excuse to come back home and she would tell him what next to do.