Paul Went To High School 1960-1962

Class Name: Tai Shans; Huh!!!

Everybody needs a class name, right!  We got Tai Shans... I never understood what all that was about but I wore the sweater.  It was a bright orange.

Tai Shan is not just a mountain, it's a god. Lying 100km south of Ji'nan, it's the easternmost and holiest of China's five holy Taoist mountains (the other four being Hua Shan, the two Heng Shans and Song Shan), and has been worshipped by the Chinese for longer than recorded history. It is justifiably famed for its scenery and the ancient buildings strung out along its slopes. Once host to emperors and the devout, it's now Shandong's biggest tourist attraction. The walk up is sometimes tacky, often engrossing, occasionally beautiful - and always very hard work.

The Shan people currently are a people without a nation. The Shan State, 155,081 square kilometers or 60,146 square miles, forms the eastern part of the Union of Burma. Currently the Shan people are horribly oppressed by the government of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) and many are now refugees in Thailand. Shan people can also be found in Laos, China (Yunnan Province), and Vietnam. It is these Shan refugees in Thailand whom a missionary I support, Neel Roberts, met and immediately felt a strong affection. Because of my desire to further understand Neel's ministry I am doing this project on the Shan people.

"The word "Shan" is actually a corruption of Siam or Syam, and is the name given to them by the Burmans. The Shans call themselves 'Tai' (sometimes spelled 'Dtai' or ,across the border in southwestern China, 'Dai'), and they are related to the Thais and the Laotians, whose borders they share."In Thailand the Shan are known as "Tai Yai" which mean "elder brother of the Thai."

"The history of the Shan dates back to the 2nd century B.C. when diverse groups of people living in the Kwangsi and Kweichow provinces south of the Yangtze River were pushed southward by the expansion of the Chinese empire. A western group migrated down the Salween river around 63 B.C. in to what is presently Shan State and established a number of principalities."

Since the 13th century when the Shan gained control over upper Burma, the history of the Shan is filled with conflict with the Burmese. The Shan have been desiring to have their own independent state ever since the Burmese took over the Shan state in 1604. In 1922, the British government established the Federated Shan States but in 1942 the Japanese overran south-east Asia and set up a Burmese puppet government with most of the Shans states being part of Burma and two states being transferred to Siam (now Thailand). During World War II, the Shan were loyal to the Allies while the Burmese assisted the Japanese. After the war British rule was reestablished in the Union of Burma which included the Shan State. The Union of Burma became independent in 1948 with the Shan State given the right to secede in ten years. This right was never acknowledged and in fact as Burma became more totalitarian the Shan were more ruthlessly repressed