(Concise translation of Chapter-1 from Thaung Wai Oo’s “My Opium Operations”.)
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| Thaung Wai Oo's My Opium Operations. |
Before I continued on to write about my personal involvements in the 1978 army operations against opium–trafficking ethnic insurgent armies in Shan State I would like to explain a bit about the long history of opium.
Opium (Bain in Burmese) originally was not the product of Burma nor the infamous word a Burmese word. Opium reached Burma via sea routes across India and also land routes across China from the Europe and the Mediterranean regions and the Asia Minor.
Opium was originally called Ee-Phon in its native regions and E-pha-na in Pali language the ancient and the religious language of Indian Sub-continent. Later in India it is called Ah-Phain or Phain and it became Bain in Mon-Burmese language.
