Talk:Putao
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Why the area is on the map
- Myanmar Digital News, 13 December 2023, "Azi (aka) hemp, the heart of the Rawang people", byline Hponkan (Putao): U Sayet Dee, secretary of the Myanmar Rawang Literature and Culture Association, said that Azi plants "are usually grown in the farmland", in February in the Khalan region at 4,000 ft and in January in lower parts such as the Putao Plain, and described the harvest and the making of thread.
- Scott and Hardiman, Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, Part I vol. I (1900), pp. 392–393: Khunnong clans east of Hkamti Long paid tribute that included "One seer of ganja hemp for making clothes", and made their own cloth from hemp fibre (after Errol Grey).
- Three herbarium sheets from Putao District (2001, 2014, 2014) are cited in the article for the presence of the plant only.
Growing status
The status is Active. The 2023 report describes the growing in the present tense ("are usually grown"; "We can harvest them in August and September"). The same speaker said the Rawang "cannot grow them officially" because the plant is banned; read in context this means they cannot grow it lawfully, and the report does not say that growing has stopped. No first or last year is set, since the status is Active.
Rawang, Nung and Khunnong
The 2023 report says the Kachin and Shan called the Rawang "Nung or Khanaung". The 1900 gazetteer's Khunnongs are hill clans above 27°30′ N between the Nam Kiu and the Salween, east of Hkamti Long, whose tribute included fish from the Tisang river and who worked silver at Nogmun. The names are close and so is the country (the report places the Rawang along the Tisan), but neither source links the two peoples, so the article keeps each source's name and does not join them.
Padao and Hkamti Long
The 1900 gazetteer names "the Choja (Chief) of Padao in Hkamti Long". Padao is taken to be Putao, the main town of the old Shan state of Hkamti Long on the Mali Hka; the gazetteer itself does not give the modern name, so the article keeps "Padao". Hkamti Long is not given as a former name of the growing area, because the sources do not draw its bounds.
The herbarium sheets
GBIF lists three sheets of Cannabis from Putao District: KUN 1255559 (B. Bartholomew and others, 2001, Machan Baw township, west of Ahtan Ga on the trail to Alan Ga), PE 2027942 (Putao Expedition Team, 2014, Machanbaw) and PE 2030168 (Putao Expedition Team, 2014, Wasadam to Upper Shankaung). None of the GBIF entries says whether the plants were wild or grown, so they do not bear on the status and give no growing tier.
How the border is drawn
- The border is a proxy drawn on three townships of Putao District: Putao (OpenStreetMap relation 5996806), Machanbaw (5996695) and Nogmung, which OpenStreetMap names Nawngmun (5996769); about 17,500 km² together, the figure in the infobox.
- Putao Township holds the town and the Putao plain. Nogmung holds the Naung Mon valley, where the report places the Rawang, and the country north of 27°30′ N where the gazetteer placed the Khunnongs (its Nogmun). Machanbaw lies between them, east of Putao. Khalan, about 30 miles from Putao on the road to Mount Phonkanrazi, has not been placed on a map; the proxy takes in the country round Putao on that side. All three herbarium sheets fall inside the proxy.
- Kawnglanghpu and Sumprabum townships, also in Putao District, are left out: no source read places hemp growing there. The report places Rawang settlement in the Maykha valley of the Kawnglanghpu region too; if a source places the growing there, the border can be widened.
- The coordinates are those of Putao town. The border is not drawn from accession or news points.
The name
The page takes the name of the town and district, Putao, which the 2023 report uses. The 1900 gazetteer writes Padao.
Sources
- Read in full: the 2023 Myanmar Digital News report (a report of the same title in the Global New Light of Myanmar could not be opened); Scott and Hardiman, Part I vol. I, ch. VII, the Khunnong passage; the Myitkyina district gazetteer, vol. A (1912), for Hkamti Long; the three GBIF entries.
- Not read: a 2009 Myanmar Times report on Rawang hemp cloth near Putao, known only from snippets of reprints that could not be opened. A 2023 Frontier Myanmar report cited by a secondary source for Rawang hemp clothing could not be opened either.