The Imperial Gazetteer of India
Meyer, William Stevenson, Sir, 1860-1922.
Burn, Richard, Sir, 1871-1947.
Cotton, James Sutherland, 1847-1918.
Risley, Sir Herbert Hope, 1851-1911.
....................................
New edition, published under the authority of His Majesty's secretary of state for India in council.
Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1908-1931 [v. 1, 1909]

243 NORTHERN SHAN STATES
,betel,.-and-other boxes, and.da and dagger scabbards, gold and silver
trappings for Sawbwas' ponies,. hairpins, rings, jewellery, goblets, and
other articles. Blacksmiths are common throughout the States.
Ploughshares are forged, and das, choppers, spades, and other agri-
cultural implements are manufactured locally. Many of the Was are
clever smiths,-and Namhkam in. North Hsenwi is a great centre for
local hardware, which is, however, all' manufactured by Chinese or
Maingtha smiths, who set up their forges in the town every year.
Brass-work is less common, but occasionally large monastery bells
are cast, as well as the; booming bullock bells which swing on the
necks of the leading, beasts of the caravans. Images of Buddha and
tattooing implements are made at Hsenwi. town, also brass buckles
for -belts and betel-nut pounders.
Pottery, in the shape of clay water-bottles and earthen chatties, is
manufactured at Tapong and Namh6n and other villages in South
Hsenwi, at Manpan in Mbngtung (Hsipaw); and at Namhkam, Kokang,
and elsewhere., North and South Hsenwi turn out a certain amount of
red lacquer-work, the principal articles manufactured being the round
trays or salvers standing on legs which are used for religious-oferings.
The lacquered goods consist of a �rameworkof woven bamboo, smeared
aver with a mixture of rice ash and black varnish extracted from the
mar heck or tkitsf tree (Afadamorrhoeex usitata), which, after being dried
in the sun, -receives a com of red sulphide of mercury, A certain
amount of wood-ca'mving, is done. It generally takes the4orrn *f wooden
images of Gautama and of gilded scroll-work (known as` Mwwrgrlaiamawk
to the Shans), used for decorative purposes in the monmsteeries, and on
the lazarrngdalngs which are placed round or near pagodas. Mat-
weaving and basket-making are practised generally. Grass gnats are
woven at Tangyan and Namhkam- but the=ordinary -kinds' are tihe
hsgpyu mats, made from the outer, and ksatnu from the inner part
of the bamSoo. The manufacture of a coarse-textured paper from
the bgLrk of the paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) is carried on
wherever that particular tree is found.
The means of transport employed in the trade of the Northern Shan
States now includes the railway from Mandalay to Lashio; and the
system of feeder cart-roads conriecting the railway with the interior has,
to some extent; superseded the older means of transport by mules,.
pack-bullocks, and pakondans (petty traders who carry their goods on
their shoulders). A large trade in surplus rice finds its way by means
of bullock caravans to Tawngpeng; the great tea-producing area,. where
very little rice is cultivated. In former days the rice was.. exchanged
for yen� pickled and dry, which the traders brought down. and sold in
Mandalay. The cash they received for their tea enabled-the traders to
return to the Shan States with salt, ngapi; salted fish, cotton-goods,

Graphics file for this page >> Sourthern Shan State