![DAMES AND DEBUTANTES OF THE KAREN HILLS](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/DAMES_AND_DEBUTANTES_OF_THE_KAREN_HILLS.jpg)
The Karen Hills, () also known as Kayah-Karen Mountains, are one of the main hill ranges in eastern
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
. They are located at the SW corner of
Shan State
Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင်းတႆး, italics=no) also known by the Endonym and exonym, endonyms Shanland, Muang Tai, and Tailong, is a administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. ...
and in
Kayah State
Kayah State ( my, ကယားပြည်နယ်, formerly Karenni State) is a state of Myanmar. Situated in eastern Myanmar, it is bounded on the north by Shan State, on the east by Thailand's Mae Hong Son Province, and on the south and wes ...
, a
mountainous
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited Summit (topography), summit area, and ...
region where the only relatively flat area is
Loikaw
Loikaw (, ) is the capital of Kayah State in Myanmar. It is located in the Karen Hills area, near the State's northern tip, just above an embayment on the Pilu River. The inhabitants are mostly Kayah (Karenni). Myanmar's largest hydropower plant ...
, the capital. The southern end runs into
Kayin State
Kayin State ( my, ကရင်ပြည်နယ်, ; kjp, ဖၠုံခါန်ႋကၞင့်, italics=no; ksw, ကညီကီၢ်စဲၣ်, ), also known by the endonyms Kawthoolei and Karen State, is a state of Myanmar. The ...
. One of the first
all-weather road
A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation.
There are many types of ...
s in Burma was across the Karen Hills connecting
Taungoo
Taungoo (, ''Tauñngu myoú''; ; also spelled Toungoo) is a district-level city in the Bago Region of Myanmar, 220 km from Yangon, towards the north-eastern end of the division, with mountain ranges to the east and west. The main industry ...
with
Loilem
Loilem ( shn, လွႆလႅမ်; also Loi-Lem or Loi-lem) is a town in the Shan State of central-eastern Burma. It is the principal town in Loilem Township in Loilem District
Loilem District is a district of the Shan State in Myanmar. It co ...
.
Lawpita Falls, Myanmar's largest
hydropower
Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by energy transformation, converting the Pot ...
plant, built by the
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese as
war reparation
War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war.
History
Making one party pay a war indemnity is a common practice with a long history.
R ...
, is located in these mountains.
The name of the range is derived from the
Karen people
The Karen, kjp, ပ်ုဖၠုံဆိုဒ်, my, ကရင်လူမျိုး, , th, กะเหรี่ยง ( ), also known as the Kayin, Kariang or Kawthoolese, are an ethnolinguistic group of Sino-Tibetan language ...
who occupy the highland area. In
colonial times
The ''Colonial Times'' was a newspaper in what is now the Australian state of Tasmania. It was established as the ''Colonial Times, and Tasmanian Advertiser'' in 1825 in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land was the colon ...
these mountains were often referred to as the "Toungoo Hills", for they rise east of Taungoo (formerly "Toungoo").
Geography
Geographically the Karen Hills are the southwestern projection of the
Shan Hills
The Shan Hills ( my, ရှမ်းရိုးမ; ''Shan Yoma''), also known as Shan Highland, is a vast mountainous zone that extends through Yunnan to Myanmar and Thailand. The whole region is made up of numerous mountain ranges separated ...
.
The highest peak is
Nattaung
Nattaung ( my, နတ်တောင်) is the highest mountain of the Karen Hills. It is located in the border area between Kayin State and Kayah State, Burma, to the west from the border with Thailand. With a height of and a prominence of , Na ...
, one of the
ultra prominent peaks in Southeast Asia. Another prominent mountain is 1,249 m high
Takolaw Kyo.
The Karen Hills rise from Burma's central plain and stretch for 120 km eastwards in their broadest part until they reach the
Salween
, ''Mae Nam Salawin'' (
, name_etymology =
, image = Sweet_View_of_Salween_River_in_Tang_Yan_Township,_Shan_State,_Myanmar.jpg
, image_size =
, image_caption = Salween River in Shan State, Myanmar
, map ...
(Thanlwin) River valley. The steep gorge of this river, one of the main rivers in Burma, divides the Karen Hills from the
Dawna Range
The Dawna Range (; th, ทิวเขาถนนธงชัยตะวันตก, ทิวเขาดอยมอนกุจู), also known as Dawna Hills, is a mountain range in eastern Burma and northwestern Thailand. Its northern e ...
in the east.
Human activity and ecology
The Karen Hills are covered with dense montane
rain forest
Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainforest ...
. Local villages used to be far up in the hills and as much off the main roads as possible and villagers used to cultivate
upland rice
Upland rice is a type of rice grown on dry soil rather than flooded rice paddies. It is sometimes also called dry rice.
Introduction
Today nearly 100 million people depend on upland rice as their daily staple food. Almost two-thirds of the up ...
in forest clearings. Owing to the activity of the
Tatmadaw
Tatmadaw (, , ) is the official name of the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force. Auxiliary services include th ...
in the area many local people have moved across the border into
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
where they live in
refugee camp
A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced peo ...
s.
These mountains are geologically and ecologically homogeneous with the neighboring Dawna Range and the head of the
Tenasserim Hills
The Tenasserim Hills or Tenasserim Range ( my, တနင်္သာရီ တောင်တန်း, ; th, ทิวเขาตะนาวศรี, , ; ms, Banjaran Tanah Seri/Banjaran Tenang Sari) is the geographical name of a r ...
, so that frequently the whole
mountainous
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited Summit (topography), summit area, and ...
area is considered as a whole under the name "Kayah-Karen/Tenasserim". They are covered with
tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Description
TSMF is generally found in large, discont ...
, the
Kayah-Karen montane rain forests; these are part of the
Kayah-Karen/Tenasserim moist forests ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...
which is included in the
Global 200
The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by the World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF), the global conservation organization, as priorities for conservation. According to WWF, an ecoregion is defined as a "relatively large unit of land or w ...
list of ecoregions identified by the
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as priorities for conservation.
Among the rare and
vulnerable species
A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...
in these highlands,
Kitti's Hog-nosed Bat
Kitti's hog-nosed bat (''Craseonycteris thonglongyai''), also known as the bumblebee bat, is a near-threatened species of bat and the only extant member of the family Craseonycteridae. It occurs in western Thailand
Thailand ( ), histor ...
and the
holoparasitic
A parasitic plant is a plant that derives some or all of its nutritional requirements from another living plant. They make up about 1% of angiosperms and are found in almost every biome. All parasitic plants develop a specialized organ called the ...
flowering plant ''
Sapria himalayana
''Sapria himalayana'', commonly known as the hermit's spittoon, is a rare holoparasitic flowering plant related to ''Rafflesia'' found in the Eastern Himalayas.Adhikari, D., Arunachalam, A., Majumder, M., Sarmah, R. & Khan, M.L. (2003) "A rare ro ...
'' deserve mention.
Protected areas
There were two main protected areas during British rule, the
Kahilu Reserved Forest and the
Sinswe Reserved Forest. Since the area is a conflict zone, the
KNU initially delimited an area in the Minanwe Wildlife Sanctuary, but in recent years these forests have seen unprecedented destruction.
Mu Traw district - Status of the Rainforest
/ref>
See also
* List of ecoregions in Burma
References
{{reflist, 2
External links
Google Books, ''The Physical Geography of Southeast Asia''
Peakbagger - Shan-Western Thailand
Mountain ranges of Myanmar
Hills of Myanmar
Shan Hills