Kachin – often called themselves Jingpaw – accounting for 7% of the population of Myanmar. They live mainly in Kachin province bordering with Van Nam province, China. They have their own script and language and famous for brave fighting spirit. Hok is the main object of the western missionaries during British colonial.
Approximately 36% of Kachin people are Christians, including most of the Baptist lines and Catholicism. Because of most areas of the Kachin region located in the equator, extreme climates: very hot in the summer and cold in winter. That is the reason why the Kachin had to abandon their traditional costumes to wear simple clothes to adapt to climatic conditions in this region now.
A small part is still wearing the traditional dress of Kachin. Taking Burma tours, you can see that the longyi of Kachin men with a variety of colors such as indigo, green, purple. Every January, the Kachin Manaw Festival is a good occasion for tourists to indulge in a delightful atmosphere with local people and get to know more about the Kachin people. During festivals, women usually wear short wool dresses decorated zigzag motifs, combined with the round or square silver on the coat.
After the British colonial dominated Myanmar and assigned autonomy for Kachin. The politic situation in Myanmar was always stressful. In 1961, after Prime Minister U Nu declared Buddhism is the national religion in Myanmar, Kachin opposed and officially formed their own army. Until 1994, the Kachin signed a ceasefire agreement with the government, but then “Kachin Ethnic Organizations” continues to struggle to gain autonomy for the Kachin people.