History

     I did a project on the Karen culture. Karens originated from Mongolia. But they moved to Burma. The Karen historically was rural people, living in river valleys, plains and mountains, and engaged in agriculture and hunting and gathering. As they were spread throughout south and southeast Burma, different subgroups formed. These subgroups are now distinguished in part by language differences, which actually date to the influences of American Christian missionaries in the early nineteenth century. The Karen traditionally was animist. However, animism was not dominated by a belief of specific natural spirits, as is commonly the case in other animist societies. Rather, for any given area there was a master of the water, the land and the sky. In addition, there was a belief that one supreme spirit dominated the whole of the water, the earth and the sky. The arrival of British colonization in the mid-to-late nineteenth century brought a new sense of safety to the Karens. Contact with American and European Christian missionaries, who brought literacy and education, was welcomed. Then WWII came to Burma. As Britain granted Burma independence after the war, Karen people hoped for their own nation.  Government forces sent to conquer the rebellion actually drove more Karens into joining the rebels. A consistent pattern of considered human rights violations by the government against ethnic minority civilians has continued to this day, driving tens of thousands of Karens to Thailand as refugees and making the Karen conflict the world's longest running rebellion.

Karen people