Shan

The Shan are an ethnic group of Southeast Asia. The Shan live primarily in the Shan State of Myanmar, and in adjacent parts of China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The Shan number approximately 6 million, but a population census has not been taken. The Shan language is part of the Tai languages group of the Tai-Kadai language family, and is related to Thai and Lao. The southern Shan use an alphabet based on the Burmese alphabet.

The Shan dwell mostly on the plains of the Shan Plateau, which is drained by the Salween River. The capital of Shan state is Taunggyi , which is a small city of perhaps 150,000 people.

The Shan are traditionally wet-rice cultivators, shopkeepers, and artisans. Most Shan are Theravada Buddhists and/or observe their traditional religion.

The Shan have been engaged in an intermittent civil war within Myanmar for decades, however there is currently a peace agreement with the main Shan faction. During conflicts, the Shan are often burned out of their villages and forced to flee into Thailand. There, they are not given refugee status, and often work as undocumented laborers. Their legal status in Thailand often leads to non-sustainable wages and unsafe work conditions.

His Royal Highness Prince Hso Khan Pha of Yawnghwe, lives in exile in the Canada, he pressuring politically the government of Burma to respect the tradional, culture and indegenious lands of the Shan people and he works with Shan exiles abroad helping to provide schooling for displaced Shan children because their parents are unable to provide this and we hope too to provide some training in life skills to fend for themselves and their families in the future.

The ISO language code for Shan is SHN; the SIL code is SJN.

陕, or Shǎn, is an abbreviation for the Shaanxi province of the People's Republic of China.

The Shan are an alien race in Ramsey Campbell's early short story "Insects from Shaggai". They are the titular creatures. The Shan hail from the planet Shaggai , revolving around a distant star. They were devout worshippers of the Outer God Azathoth and were rather advanced in their technology. However, their hayday was ended when Ghroth the Harbinger awakened the local Great Old One, The Worm that Gnaws at the Night , destroying the planet. The Mi-Go may have instigated this for unknown reasons. Most of the insectoid people migrated by means of peculiar "temple-ships" to their sister planet, Xiclotl , subjugating the natives . However, it did not suit their purposes, so they once again made the the exodus this time to Thuggon and L'gy'hx , aka Uranus, finally landing on Earth in the Severn Valley region in England.

In 1768 the enigmatic composer Benevento Chieti Bordighera composed an opera on their trek, the frightful but brilliant Massa di Requiem per Shuggay , the final act chronicling the arrival of the Shan on Earth in the 1600s and plight of the monstrous and godlike insect-beast Baoht Z'uqqa-Mogg , another ex-inhabitant of the dead world. In 1769 Pope Clement XII banned the piece, and one year later his successor placed Bodighera in prison as a heretic, another year later put to death. All copies of the morose libretto were ordered to be destroyed, although one or two survived. In 1774, Pope Clement XIV himself died.

The psychology of the Insects from Shaggai is alien and with a normal moralistic dichotomy could be branded evil. Other than a few heretics, Shan are divided into two factions: Fanatical worshippers of Azathoth in the avatar Xada Hgla who wish to eliminate all other sects, considering all other deities to be inferior or false, and a faction of amoral hedonists who main purpose in life is to discover new experiences, most of which being cruel or depraved. Their sadistic fancy is often implemented through a host, preferably sentient, from which they feed of the electromagnetic impulses in the brain. The relationship is totally parasitic. As long as a shan inhabits a human host, the Shan has some control over the hosts actions, and the longer it is there, the more control it gains. It can be driven out by trepanation. Most Shan have a phobia of sunlight due to the fact that the electromagnetic frequency of the suns rays poison its metabolism. An interesting fact about the Shan is that their brains have six lobes, giveng them the ability to follow three trains of thought at once. Physically, they are large, hideous winged insects. The gigantic Baoht Z'uqqa Mogg takes a similar form.

External links

• H.R.H. Prince Hso Khan Pha of Yawnghwe