A Shan State born researcher who had released a report a decade earlier that there were 58 ‘national races’ in Burma, yesterday issued a new report that there are no more than 33 indigenous races.

Gamanii, who resides in Thailand’s Tak province, says, “It is not strange to have several subfamilies and clans in a ‘national race’. Developed countries today can determine one’s race by running DNA tests.”


According to him, if the following races pre-eminent in neighboring countries:

• Chinese
• Hindi
• Burmanized Muslims like Myedu, Pathi and Mago
• Hindu Bengalis
• Muslim Bengalis
• Chittagong Bengalis (aka Rohingyas)
• Tibetan
• Linbu
• Gurkha and
• Kasay (Kathey)
  are added there are only 44 ‘national races’ at the most.

The 33 indigenous races of Burma as enumerated by Gamanii are:

1	Kachin	18	Intha
2	Thaman	19	Taungyo
3	Kadu-Kanan	20	Dawei (Tavoyan)
4	Naga	21	Akha
5	Karen	22	Lahu
6	PaO	23	Kokang
7	Kayah	24	Tai (Shan)
8	Kayan	25	Mon
9	Chin	26	Khamu
10	Phon	27	Palaung (Ta-ang)
11	Monghsa (Maingtha)	28	Yang (Yin)
12	Burman (Bamar)	29	Danaw
13	Rakhine (Arakanese)	30	Wa
14	Thet	31	Mogen (Salon)
15	Dainet (Chakama)	32	Miao
16	Marama Gyi	33	Kaman
17	Danu

The government of U Thein Sein, nominally elected in 2010, nevertheless has stuck to its guns on the 135 national races designated by his predecessors for the census taking that will begin on 30 March 2014. Each of the 135 national races has been given a numerical code name. For instance, Shan’s code number is 801, while its aliases ‘Shan Gyi’ and ‘Tai Long’ are 822 and 829.

Critics have accused Naypyitaw of trying to justify the role of the military by exaggerating the number of national races that it is needed to prevent the country from breaking up into several independent states.