Meiktila
More actions
| Meiktila | |
|---|---|
| HistoricalGrown here in the past | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Growing Region | Dry Zone |
| Geography | |
| Country | Myanmar |
| Province/State | Mandalay Region |
| District | Meiktila District |
| Coordinates | 20.88, 95.86 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 5,800 km² |
| Terrain | Plains of the southern Dry Zone; approximately Meiktila District |
| Growing history | |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Meiktila is a historical cannabis growing area in Meiktila District, Mandalay Region, Myanmar, in the Dry Zone. Two officials who gave evidence to the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1893–94 spoke of the plant grown there after the British had prohibited it, and the Commission named Meiktila among the districts of Burma where the cultivation was perhaps most prevalent.[1]
Setting
Meiktila Township lies in the band of the Dry Zone that receives 30 to 35 inches (760–890 mm) of rain a year, a band that takes in most of the zone's margins. The eastern part of Thazi Township, at the zone's eastern tip, receives more than 35 inches.[2]
Cultivation under the prohibition
British Burma prohibited the sale and cultivation of ganja in 1873. After the annexation of Upper Burma the excise law was extended there in 1888.[3][4]
J. E. Bridges, Commissioner of the Eastern Division, told the Commission that the hemp plant "was grown at Meiktila". Two or three months before, a Burman had been brought to court for growing the plants. He said in his defence that he had been used to it all his life and could not do without it, and he was fined five rupees.[5] Not every officer in the district remembered growers. In a statement Bridges sent to the Commission, the thugyi (village headman) of Wundwin said that no one had planted or smoked ganja there under the Burmese kings.[5]
H. Adamson, Deputy Commissioner of Meiktila, understood that the plant did not grow wild there and had to be cultivated. He wrote that it was "cultivated secretly in gardens occasionally". The soil of almost any garden in the country was said to suit it. He found its use among Burmans so slight as to be scarcely worth notice. Burmese doctors used ganja for dysentery, and it was considered invaluable as a medicine for elephants.[6]
Summing up the evidence, the Commission wrote that a few plants were still grown in secret in Lower and Upper Burma alike, and that prosecutions sometimes followed, but that the practice was on the whole kept in check in the settled districts. It named Thayetmyo, Meiktila, Kyaukse and Mandalay as perhaps the districts where the cultivation was most prevalent.[1]
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
No recent news items.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. IV, "Extent of cultivation, and its tendency to increase or decrease", paras. 136–138, pp. 52–54 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Khin Thein Oo (2016). "Spatial Analysis of Rainfall Variation in Dry Zone of Myanmar". Yadanabon University Research Journal. 7 (1) – via Myanmar Education Research and Learning Portal.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. XVI, "Provincial systems examined", paras. 692–695, pp. 338–342 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. K. G. Burne, Deputy Commissioner, Mandalay". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Burma witness no. 7, pp. 381–382 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. J. E. Bridges, Commissioner of the Eastern Division". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Burma witness no. 3, pp. 377–380 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. H. Adamson, Deputy Commissioner, Meiktila". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Burma witness no. 10, p. 384 – via Internet Archive.