Kalaw is described as ‘the queen of Burma’s beauty spots’ and a ‘tourists’ haven’. Travellers are invited to come and savour ‘the breath-takingly beautiful pine-studded blue Shan hills’ and marvel at ‘a new vista every minute’.
Even the attractions on offer are the same: the Pindaya Caves, Inle’s leg rowers, the 5-day markets, and the ‘gorgeously dressed hill tribes’.The Kalaw Hotel – now the Kalaw Heritage Hotel – was Myanmar’s second ever hotel after The Strand in Yangon. An early advert for the hotel at the turn of the 20th Century reads much like any travel brochure from the last couple of decades.
It seems, that in over a century, Kalaw has not changed very much at all.
Back in Time
In the late 19th Century the Shan States of Burma were categorized into three zones by the British: Kachin / Sagaing, Myelat, and Trans-Thanlwin. Myelat had a population of 107,500 at the turn of the 20th Century, mainly consisting of the Taungthu / Pa’O, Danu, Taungyo and Shan. Myelat was comprised of 17 smaller states and what is today Kalaw was part of the state of Hsamongkham (or ‘Thamakan’).
Whereas what remains of Hsamongkham today is a small village with crumbling pagodas, Kalaw is a regional hub, its growth boosted during colonial rule due to the construction of the railway in the 1910s.
Kalaw’s temperate climate and fertile land quickly drew interest form the British. Civil Servant Sir Hubert Thirkell White visited by horse in the 1890s and described it as ‘a perfectly lovely spot, believed by many to be the future hill capital of Burma.’ The water of Kalaw was soon being transported to be drunk in Rangoon. Visiting in 1912, P.D Patel described it a ‘a real health resort’ while an editorial in The Rangoon Times labelled it ‘the Rhodesia of Burma’.