Kayan History
The Origin of the Kayan people
The Kayan History is an oral one. In appearance the Kayan look different from the Kayah, Shan and Karen people they live amongst and their oral history explains this by recounting that the original Kayan people came from Mongolia. Over centuries they moved to Turkistan, then Tibet and into Yunnan (China), but they were oppressed in China, so in 1128 BC, they started to trek along the Salween River and so eventually came to settle in the Demawso area in Karenni State (later renamed Kayah State).
At times in their history they are believed to have lived amongst the Pa-o and Mon people, but they fell out and parted from them. The Pa-o and Kayan languages are similar; some of the vocabulary is the same.
A story told to the children goes:
Originally the Kayan and the Pa-o were one people. They migrated from China together, constantly moving on, but had settled in Thaton in Shan State. One day the young Kayan brother killed an elephant and he gave a lot of the meat to his older Pa-o brother. Later on the old Pa-obrother killed a porcupine and he shared some of the meat and quills with the young Kayan brother. When the young Kayan saw the head of the porcupine he realised it was very large, but the portion of meat and quills he had been given was very small and he argued that when he had killed the elephant he had shared the meat fairly. The Kayan brother was angry and therefore he led his people away from the Pa-o into Kayah Sate. The Pa-o branch thought they could follow later, but when they started to follow the Pa-o brother cut down a banana tree, but noticed that the banana leaf grew again very quickly. He took this as a sign that the Kayan had already moved far away and it was too late to follow them, so the Pa-o stayed in the Thaton area while the Kayan moved to Deemawso.
Even today the Pa-o consider the Kayan their kin and take care of Kayan visitors well. There are even a few marriages between Kayan and Pa-o people, mainly amongst soldiers who travel around.
Another story recounts that along the way a bridge collapsed and one group of Kayan, along with their wealth, horses and elephants were left behind and have never been heard of since.
The Population
Published estimates of how many Kayan people there are vary from 7,000 to over 130,000. Some Kayan think were may be around 300,000 Kayan in the world. There are no reliable official figures, but the Kayan are only a tiny minority of Burma’s population of around 60 million.
According to Khon Eden Phan’s book “The Narratives, Beliefs and Customs of the Kayan People”, published in 2004 using undated statistics, the areas the Kayan live in and their numbers were:
The Kayan History is an oral one. In appearance the Kayan look different from the Kayah, Shan and Karen people they live amongst and their oral history explains this by recounting that the original Kayan people came from Mongolia. Over centuries they moved to Turkistan, then Tibet and into Yunnan (China), but they were oppressed in China, so in 1128 BC, they started to trek along the Salween River and so eventually came to settle in the Demawso area in Karenni State (later renamed Kayah State).
At times in their history they are believed to have lived amongst the Pa-o and Mon people, but they fell out and parted from them. The Pa-o and Kayan languages are similar; some of the vocabulary is the same.
A story told to the children goes:
Originally the Kayan and the Pa-o were one people. They migrated from China together, constantly moving on, but had settled in Thaton in Shan State. One day the young Kayan brother killed an elephant and he gave a lot of the meat to his older Pa-o brother. Later on the old Pa-obrother killed a porcupine and he shared some of the meat and quills with the young Kayan brother. When the young Kayan saw the head of the porcupine he realised it was very large, but the portion of meat and quills he had been given was very small and he argued that when he had killed the elephant he had shared the meat fairly. The Kayan brother was angry and therefore he led his people away from the Pa-o into Kayah Sate. The Pa-o branch thought they could follow later, but when they started to follow the Pa-o brother cut down a banana tree, but noticed that the banana leaf grew again very quickly. He took this as a sign that the Kayan had already moved far away and it was too late to follow them, so the Pa-o stayed in the Thaton area while the Kayan moved to Deemawso.
Even today the Pa-o consider the Kayan their kin and take care of Kayan visitors well. There are even a few marriages between Kayan and Pa-o people, mainly amongst soldiers who travel around.
Another story recounts that along the way a bridge collapsed and one group of Kayan, along with their wealth, horses and elephants were left behind and have never been heard of since.
The Population
Published estimates of how many Kayan people there are vary from 7,000 to over 130,000. Some Kayan think were may be around 300,000 Kayan in the world. There are no reliable official figures, but the Kayan are only a tiny minority of Burma’s population of around 60 million.
According to Khon Eden Phan’s book “The Narratives, Beliefs and Customs of the Kayan People”, published in 2004 using undated statistics, the areas the Kayan live in and their numbers were:
Area |
Township |
Villages |
Household |
Population |
Brass Wound Women |
North West Region |
Loikow & Demawso |
107 |
8855 |
45075 |
270* |
Southern Shan State |
Pekon / |
141 |
11250 |
60905 |
132 |
Karen (Kawthoolei) State |
Northern Than Daung |
37 |
2530 |
12650 |
0 |
Mandalay Division |
South-east Pinmana |
21 |
990 |
4950 |
2 |
Thai-Burma border |
Mae Hong Son |
3 |
118 |
590 |
108*** |
Other Locations** |
|
8 |
700 |
6000 |
30 |
TOTALS |
|
309 |
24443**** |
130170 |
542 |
* Disputed figure: in my village only 2 women are reported to wear the rings, but actually there are 7 women currently (2009) wearing the rings; before that we had 10 brass wound women but 3 died recently.
** This figure is out of date. Between the years 2007-2009 at least half the brass wound women and girls in Mae Hong Son removed their rings either in protest at their exploitation for tourism, or in order to assist their resettlement in third countries.
***In recent years Kayan villages have also been opened up for tourism purposes in Tachilek, Burma (on the border with Mae Sai, Thailand); and in Thailand in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai provinces. There are also Kayan living in Yangon (Rangoon) or working or resettled around the world. There are now at least two brass wound women living in the USA and one in New Zealand.
**** This figure is not accurate because some families have moved between villages or into Thailand and they have been double-counted.
The name Kayan
The Kayan are often referred to by the Shan term Padaung, but they prefer to be know as Kayan:
“One of the first occurrences of the name Kayan is in Khin Maung Nyunt The Ka-yans (White Karen) of the Pinlong District (1967), but he refers not to Padaungs, but to White Karens. In The Hardy Padaungs (1967) the same author says that Padaung prefer to be called Kayan. Dr Khin Maung Nyunt, who attended the Conference in Berlin (May 1993) confirmed that the Kayan at the time repeatedly asked him to use the new term. (p.7)”
From Rastorfer, Jean-Marc: On the Development of Kayah and Kayan national identity – a study and a bibliography. Southeast Asian publishing House, Bangkok (1994)
One reason given by the Kayan for preferring the term Kayan is that when the Pa-o and Kayan fell out (see story above) the Pa-o started to use the word Padaung for the Kayan brass-wound people and they intended this as an insult, so Padaung is a pejorative term.
Administration
According to the Kayan’s oral history, they have always elected chiefs to administer the various settlements and at one time, around AD 1000, they accepted the rules of the Shan Sawbwas (the chiefs of former times, also known as Saohpa in Shan (Lehman, F.K. Contemporary Change in Traditional Societies).
Karenni was divided into 5 States, each ruled by separate Sawbwas. Kayan lived in three of the States. The Kayan people found life under the Sawbwas increasingly intolerable due to their heavy taxes and use of forced labour and there were some protests against them. For example, in AD 1682, one of the Shan Sawbwa was assassinated.
The Kayan never came under the Burmese kings as the Burman kingdom never claimed to include Karenni (Kayah) State (Lehman, p.16).
Today every Kayan village has a headman who is appointed by the village. He is responsible for investigating problems, making decisions, planning and administering. A village secretary may be appointed who also helps administering the village’s money. In addition villages are grouped in village tracts, with a village tract leader appointed over all the village headmen. Nowadays this village tract leader will act as liaison between the Kayan villagers and the Burmese army.
British Colonialism
During the second Burmese-English war of 1853, British troops invaded the eastern mountain range from Taungoo into the Kayan (Kadaw) Gayko region. At the time one of the Kayan chiefs, Maung Kyaw, is said to have recruited troops from some Kayan villages and from the Gaybar people to fight against the British colonists. At the time, the Catholic Priest, Fr. Paolo Manna, was in Taungoo and he ended the war by intervening and negotiating a cease-fire. The British then reorganised the administration of the area. The British influence then spread into the Kayan Lahta region. The British were interested in the area where the Kayan lived because of the large amount of teak available.
In 1853 the Kayan from the Middle Kayan land went to Mine Pon, the Shan Sawbwa, to request they be allowed a king to rule the Kayan people again. Mine Pon Sawbwa refused their request because two previous Shan Sawbwas had been deposed. However the son of the Sawbwa, expressed a wish to rule the Kayan lands. His father asked him to demonstrate that he had the qualifications to rule the Kayan.
The three tests used to decide whether Kyar Mine was suitable to be the ruler of the Kayan lands were:
The son, Kyar Mine, was able to perform these tasks as ordered by his father and in this way convinced his father he could rule the Kayan people. The new Kayan ‘king’ lived in Mobye and Hsaing Khon village.
When the British colonists entered Shan state, the Sawbwa was acknowledged by the British to rule and collect taxes in the lands of Mobye. In July 1933 the Shan Sawbwa administration was collecting a tax of 5 Kyats per family. This tax was too much of a burden for the poor people and the heads of the village pleaded for consideration to the Sawbwas, but their request was considered to be a rejection of taxation and they were arrested, fined and sentenced to 3 years with forced labour. Later others also protested about the tax and were arrested and imprisoned. Despite this the Kayan leaders continued to ask for tax concessions and in 1937 the tax was finally reduced to 3 Kyats per family.
Meanwhile the Kayan people in the North Bawlake area remained under the rule of the Bawlake Sawpya. The British acknowledged that Karenni was a separate state and not part of Burma proper. Instead a Contract of Friendship was signed in 1863. In 1875 the Burmese king also agreed with the British that Burma would not claim any sovereignty in Western Karenni. This agreement guaranteed the independence of the Karenni States against both the British and the Burmese. (Source: Scott & Hardiman. Part II. Vol 1 pp 339-340).
The Japanese Occupation
In early 1942 World War II spread to Burma. The Japanese troops advanced into Burma and occupied Taungoo (via Rangoon, Mawchi, Loikaw, and Thunggi). Some Kayan leaders in Shan Stte tried to reorganize their village administration but the Shan Sawbwa complained to the Japanese who arrested the Kayan village leaders and accused them of stealing. When the Japanese realised this was a political conflict between the Shan and the Kayan they charged the Shan Sawbwa with lying and made their own changes to the administration system which was more in line with what the Kayan wanted.
In Karenni State the Kayan in the Northern Bawleke area did not come under the rule of the Japanese but their life was made more difficult because of the currency inflation of the Japanese army of occupation.
Resistance against the Japanese was largely confined to the ethnic groups in the Frontier States who contacted the Allied Forces. A number of British Allied military officers entered the Kayan region in the first week of March 1945. They came into the Mobye region. Colonel Tarlord, Major Dainy, Major Louis and 5 accomplices parachuted in, landing at the base of Lainanpa Mountain in western Loikaw. They met with Karenni leaders Bi Tu Re, Thaing Ba Han, A Myat Lay, Louisy, Paulu, and Saw Po Thaung and formed an alliance to fight against the Japanese fascists. They fought the Japanese troops stationed in Loikaw and Mobye using guerrilla warfare.
Thaing Ba Han raised about 2000 troops to fight alongside the British 136 Special Forces. Some Kayan villages were punished by the Japanese as their men were helping the British. The assistance of the Kayan helped defeat the Japanese occupiers. By the end of August 1945 the battles were ended. In September the allied officers collected all their troops and the villagers from around Par Laing village, which was the department's center, and killed 4 cows, 4 buffalos and 2 pigs for the victory celebrations.
The Kayan National leader, Thaing Ba Han, was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the British Allies because of his principles and military support.
** This figure is out of date. Between the years 2007-2009 at least half the brass wound women and girls in Mae Hong Son removed their rings either in protest at their exploitation for tourism, or in order to assist their resettlement in third countries.
***In recent years Kayan villages have also been opened up for tourism purposes in Tachilek, Burma (on the border with Mae Sai, Thailand); and in Thailand in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai provinces. There are also Kayan living in Yangon (Rangoon) or working or resettled around the world. There are now at least two brass wound women living in the USA and one in New Zealand.
**** This figure is not accurate because some families have moved between villages or into Thailand and they have been double-counted.
The name Kayan
The Kayan are often referred to by the Shan term Padaung, but they prefer to be know as Kayan:
“One of the first occurrences of the name Kayan is in Khin Maung Nyunt The Ka-yans (White Karen) of the Pinlong District (1967), but he refers not to Padaungs, but to White Karens. In The Hardy Padaungs (1967) the same author says that Padaung prefer to be called Kayan. Dr Khin Maung Nyunt, who attended the Conference in Berlin (May 1993) confirmed that the Kayan at the time repeatedly asked him to use the new term. (p.7)”
From Rastorfer, Jean-Marc: On the Development of Kayah and Kayan national identity – a study and a bibliography. Southeast Asian publishing House, Bangkok (1994)
One reason given by the Kayan for preferring the term Kayan is that when the Pa-o and Kayan fell out (see story above) the Pa-o started to use the word Padaung for the Kayan brass-wound people and they intended this as an insult, so Padaung is a pejorative term.
Administration
According to the Kayan’s oral history, they have always elected chiefs to administer the various settlements and at one time, around AD 1000, they accepted the rules of the Shan Sawbwas (the chiefs of former times, also known as Saohpa in Shan (Lehman, F.K. Contemporary Change in Traditional Societies).
Karenni was divided into 5 States, each ruled by separate Sawbwas. Kayan lived in three of the States. The Kayan people found life under the Sawbwas increasingly intolerable due to their heavy taxes and use of forced labour and there were some protests against them. For example, in AD 1682, one of the Shan Sawbwa was assassinated.
The Kayan never came under the Burmese kings as the Burman kingdom never claimed to include Karenni (Kayah) State (Lehman, p.16).
Today every Kayan village has a headman who is appointed by the village. He is responsible for investigating problems, making decisions, planning and administering. A village secretary may be appointed who also helps administering the village’s money. In addition villages are grouped in village tracts, with a village tract leader appointed over all the village headmen. Nowadays this village tract leader will act as liaison between the Kayan villagers and the Burmese army.
British Colonialism
During the second Burmese-English war of 1853, British troops invaded the eastern mountain range from Taungoo into the Kayan (Kadaw) Gayko region. At the time one of the Kayan chiefs, Maung Kyaw, is said to have recruited troops from some Kayan villages and from the Gaybar people to fight against the British colonists. At the time, the Catholic Priest, Fr. Paolo Manna, was in Taungoo and he ended the war by intervening and negotiating a cease-fire. The British then reorganised the administration of the area. The British influence then spread into the Kayan Lahta region. The British were interested in the area where the Kayan lived because of the large amount of teak available.
In 1853 the Kayan from the Middle Kayan land went to Mine Pon, the Shan Sawbwa, to request they be allowed a king to rule the Kayan people again. Mine Pon Sawbwa refused their request because two previous Shan Sawbwas had been deposed. However the son of the Sawbwa, expressed a wish to rule the Kayan lands. His father asked him to demonstrate that he had the qualifications to rule the Kayan.
The three tests used to decide whether Kyar Mine was suitable to be the ruler of the Kayan lands were:
- He had to catch a large pig of 7 grasps measurement and kill it by himself. (A grasp is a common measurement used by the Kayan. To measure a grasp, you clench your fist and raise the thumb. The measurement is from the underside of the fist to the top of the thumb)
- He had to catch and peel the flesh from a 2 year old cockerel without using a knife.
- He had to climb a large tree of about 7 grasps measurement using only his hands, without the aid of a ladder or any notch.
The son, Kyar Mine, was able to perform these tasks as ordered by his father and in this way convinced his father he could rule the Kayan people. The new Kayan ‘king’ lived in Mobye and Hsaing Khon village.
When the British colonists entered Shan state, the Sawbwa was acknowledged by the British to rule and collect taxes in the lands of Mobye. In July 1933 the Shan Sawbwa administration was collecting a tax of 5 Kyats per family. This tax was too much of a burden for the poor people and the heads of the village pleaded for consideration to the Sawbwas, but their request was considered to be a rejection of taxation and they were arrested, fined and sentenced to 3 years with forced labour. Later others also protested about the tax and were arrested and imprisoned. Despite this the Kayan leaders continued to ask for tax concessions and in 1937 the tax was finally reduced to 3 Kyats per family.
Meanwhile the Kayan people in the North Bawlake area remained under the rule of the Bawlake Sawpya. The British acknowledged that Karenni was a separate state and not part of Burma proper. Instead a Contract of Friendship was signed in 1863. In 1875 the Burmese king also agreed with the British that Burma would not claim any sovereignty in Western Karenni. This agreement guaranteed the independence of the Karenni States against both the British and the Burmese. (Source: Scott & Hardiman. Part II. Vol 1 pp 339-340).
The Japanese Occupation
In early 1942 World War II spread to Burma. The Japanese troops advanced into Burma and occupied Taungoo (via Rangoon, Mawchi, Loikaw, and Thunggi). Some Kayan leaders in Shan Stte tried to reorganize their village administration but the Shan Sawbwa complained to the Japanese who arrested the Kayan village leaders and accused them of stealing. When the Japanese realised this was a political conflict between the Shan and the Kayan they charged the Shan Sawbwa with lying and made their own changes to the administration system which was more in line with what the Kayan wanted.
In Karenni State the Kayan in the Northern Bawleke area did not come under the rule of the Japanese but their life was made more difficult because of the currency inflation of the Japanese army of occupation.
Resistance against the Japanese was largely confined to the ethnic groups in the Frontier States who contacted the Allied Forces. A number of British Allied military officers entered the Kayan region in the first week of March 1945. They came into the Mobye region. Colonel Tarlord, Major Dainy, Major Louis and 5 accomplices parachuted in, landing at the base of Lainanpa Mountain in western Loikaw. They met with Karenni leaders Bi Tu Re, Thaing Ba Han, A Myat Lay, Louisy, Paulu, and Saw Po Thaung and formed an alliance to fight against the Japanese fascists. They fought the Japanese troops stationed in Loikaw and Mobye using guerrilla warfare.
Thaing Ba Han raised about 2000 troops to fight alongside the British 136 Special Forces. Some Kayan villages were punished by the Japanese as their men were helping the British. The assistance of the Kayan helped defeat the Japanese occupiers. By the end of August 1945 the battles were ended. In September the allied officers collected all their troops and the villagers from around Par Laing village, which was the department's center, and killed 4 cows, 4 buffalos and 2 pigs for the victory celebrations.
The Kayan National leader, Thaing Ba Han, was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the British Allies because of his principles and military support.
The History of Kayan Villages in Mae Hong Son
There are three Kayan villages in Mae Hong Son:
Most of the Kayan people in Mae Hong Son are formerly from nine villages in Kayah (Karenni) State; the majority are from Rwan Khu, Daw Kee and Lay Mile villages.
This is how the Kayan first came to the Thai-Burma border according to the records of the Kayan people:
1983 - 88: The Kayan people from Lay Mile village, near Deemawso in Kayah (Karenni) State, first settled at Huai Pu Long, the Karenni Army base near the Thai border, in 1983. The dates given in publications of the time and the memories of the women differ, but between 1983 and 1985 three brass wound women came to live in the camp. There are conflicting reports about why the women came to the border camp.
Soon after their arrival tour guides from Mae Hong Song started to take tourists to visit them. At that time tourists from Mae Hong Son used to travel by boat and cross the border to see the Kayan women. The Karenni Army agreed to these visits as it was a means to draw international attention to their plight.
1988 – 89: Due to the Burmese military’s offensive operation in 1988, a refugee camp was established on the Karenni side of the border in 1989. More and more Kayan (including brass wound women) fled to the KNPP refugee camp from their villages near Deemawso and Loikow. The Kayan lived alongside their fellow Karenni in this camp.
Six Kayan households moved into Thailand’s Nam Pin Din (Huay Pu Keng) camp in 1989, together with between 1500 and 2000 other Karenni who were fleeing from the fighting.
1989 - 96: There was a period in 1995 when the KNPP had a short-lived ceasefire agreement with the Burmese military regime. After it broke down the refugees all moved into Thailand. By 1996 the majority of the refugees from the other ethnic groups had moved into official refugee camps inside Thailand. The Kayan were initially moved into the camp, but soon after they were returned to the Huay Pu Keng area to promote tourism.
1988 – 1992: Another group of Kayan from Rwan Khu village came to Saw Yoe Leh on the Thai-Burma border in 1988 and they too had to flee into Thailand as a result of the Burma Military’s offensive against the Karenni. They moved to Noe Pa Ah in 1989 together with a large number of Karenni refugees from other ethnic groups.
In October 1992 there were further Burmese military offensives so in November 1992, the Kayan were moved to Nai Soi Kayan Tayar village.
1995: In 1995 local business people opened a tourist attraction in Huai Suea Tao and 6 or 7 households from Nai Soi moved to this new village.
1998: Seven Kayan households from Chiang Rai province’s Mae Ain camp moved to Kayan Tha Yar camp in March 1998.
Since then the community has grown as a result of marriages and births. A few more families also migrated to Mae Hong Son, mainly to settle in Huai Seau Tao. They are believed to have come because of the hardships caused by the on-going insurgency and the Burmese junta’s Four Cuts policy, which targets Karenni villagers.
2007: Over 30 households (96 people) from Kayan Tayar and Huai Seau Tao agreed to a request from the Mae Hong Son Provincial Governor to move to a new village behind the existing Huay Pu Keng village.
2008: Many families from Huay Pu Keng and Kayan Tayar (Nai Soi) chose to move into the main Karenni Refugee Camp. The new village in Huay Pu Keng closed down as the residents were unable to earn enough to support themselves. There are no recent figures, but it is estimated that the population of the 3 villages is now about half the previous number (less than 300).
2009-10: Some of the Kayan families living in the Ban Mai Nai Soi refugee camp have been resettled in third countries (New Zealand, Finland and the USA) as part of a UNHCR sponsored resettlement programme.
- Huay Pu Keng (close to the Burmese border at Ban Nam Piang Din). The village is on the Pai river and normally only accessible to tourists by boat from Huai Dua.
- Ban Mai Nai Soi (Kayan Tayar). This is in Nai Soi, on the perimeter of the main Karenni refugee Camp 1 (which is not open to visitors).
- Huai Seau Tao. This is an artificially created tourist village. It can be reached by a paved road which passes through many fords. Huai Seau Tao is adjacent to a Thai/Kayah village.
Most of the Kayan people in Mae Hong Son are formerly from nine villages in Kayah (Karenni) State; the majority are from Rwan Khu, Daw Kee and Lay Mile villages.
This is how the Kayan first came to the Thai-Burma border according to the records of the Kayan people:
1983 - 88: The Kayan people from Lay Mile village, near Deemawso in Kayah (Karenni) State, first settled at Huai Pu Long, the Karenni Army base near the Thai border, in 1983. The dates given in publications of the time and the memories of the women differ, but between 1983 and 1985 three brass wound women came to live in the camp. There are conflicting reports about why the women came to the border camp.
Soon after their arrival tour guides from Mae Hong Song started to take tourists to visit them. At that time tourists from Mae Hong Son used to travel by boat and cross the border to see the Kayan women. The Karenni Army agreed to these visits as it was a means to draw international attention to their plight.
1988 – 89: Due to the Burmese military’s offensive operation in 1988, a refugee camp was established on the Karenni side of the border in 1989. More and more Kayan (including brass wound women) fled to the KNPP refugee camp from their villages near Deemawso and Loikow. The Kayan lived alongside their fellow Karenni in this camp.
Six Kayan households moved into Thailand’s Nam Pin Din (Huay Pu Keng) camp in 1989, together with between 1500 and 2000 other Karenni who were fleeing from the fighting.
1989 - 96: There was a period in 1995 when the KNPP had a short-lived ceasefire agreement with the Burmese military regime. After it broke down the refugees all moved into Thailand. By 1996 the majority of the refugees from the other ethnic groups had moved into official refugee camps inside Thailand. The Kayan were initially moved into the camp, but soon after they were returned to the Huay Pu Keng area to promote tourism.
1988 – 1992: Another group of Kayan from Rwan Khu village came to Saw Yoe Leh on the Thai-Burma border in 1988 and they too had to flee into Thailand as a result of the Burma Military’s offensive against the Karenni. They moved to Noe Pa Ah in 1989 together with a large number of Karenni refugees from other ethnic groups.
In October 1992 there were further Burmese military offensives so in November 1992, the Kayan were moved to Nai Soi Kayan Tayar village.
1995: In 1995 local business people opened a tourist attraction in Huai Suea Tao and 6 or 7 households from Nai Soi moved to this new village.
1998: Seven Kayan households from Chiang Rai province’s Mae Ain camp moved to Kayan Tha Yar camp in March 1998.
Since then the community has grown as a result of marriages and births. A few more families also migrated to Mae Hong Son, mainly to settle in Huai Seau Tao. They are believed to have come because of the hardships caused by the on-going insurgency and the Burmese junta’s Four Cuts policy, which targets Karenni villagers.
2007: Over 30 households (96 people) from Kayan Tayar and Huai Seau Tao agreed to a request from the Mae Hong Son Provincial Governor to move to a new village behind the existing Huay Pu Keng village.
2008: Many families from Huay Pu Keng and Kayan Tayar (Nai Soi) chose to move into the main Karenni Refugee Camp. The new village in Huay Pu Keng closed down as the residents were unable to earn enough to support themselves. There are no recent figures, but it is estimated that the population of the 3 villages is now about half the previous number (less than 300).
2009-10: Some of the Kayan families living in the Ban Mai Nai Soi refugee camp have been resettled in third countries (New Zealand, Finland and the USA) as part of a UNHCR sponsored resettlement programme.