(As recounted by Kareng Naw Tawng, 2nd son of Maj. Kareng Gam) My father Maj. Kareng Gam was the eldest of 9 children born to Kareng Ning Sang and Gawlu Kai Htang of Jahkai, a village in the Kachin hills northeast of Bhamo town. My grandfather was a Jaiwa and Dumsa, highest in the hierarchy […]
Category: Archives
The Kachin Memorandum of 1947
Photo: Kachin Leaders with the Frontier Areas Committee of Enquiry (FACE); Maymyo, April 1947. (Illustrated London News) The Frontier Areas Committee of Enquiry, also known as the Rees-Williams Commission, began its proceedings in March 1947. The Enquiry was made necessary due to limitations in the Panglong Agreement drafted by U Tin Tut. It had been rectified […]
The Nampaka Resolution
The Nampaka Resolution is a formal statement expressing the ideals envisioned for an independent federal Union of Burma by the Kachins. The resolution was reached on February 1, 1947, by Kachin delegates on their way to the historic Panglong Conference at the village of Nampaka in northern Shan States. Prior to the Nampaka meeting, […]
Incident at Naungwo Defile: En Route from Loikaw to Kalaw
Photo: Google Map showing present day Kalaw/Loikaw motor routes In 1950, while serving as commander of the 1st Emergency Kachin Battalion at Myitkyina, I received orders to take up command of the newly formed 4th Light Infantry Brigade at Kalaw. The War Office had dragged its feet about making official the local rank promotion that Prime […]
Moments with Independence Hero Bogyoke Aung San
Photo: Kachin Leaders with the Frontier Areas Committee of Enquiry (FACE); Maymyo, April 1947. (Illustrated London News) I had the privilege of close personal encounters with Bogyoke Aung San on three separate occasions. All of the meetings were unscheduled but nonetheless significant, as they took place in the crucial pre-independence years of our nation, and provide […]
To the Tender Memory of Judson College (Judson Chapel Golden Jubilee Magazine; 1982)
Liveth there a Judsonian with a soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my Alma Mater. It was the first morning of the first week of June 1929, the official opening day of the new term at Judson College. Approximately 800 students were gathered at the assembly hall of […]