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The Shore Beyond Good and Evil: A Report from Inside Burma's Opium Kingdom
Top | Contents Summary | Book Reviews | Author Interview | Purchase Information

 
By Hideyuki Takano

ISBN: 0970171617
LCCN: 2001094035
Price: US$23.95
Size: 5.5 x 8.5 inches
Pages: 277
Photos: 20 Color
     
Hideyuki Takano takes us on a journey into the Wa State at the very heart of the Golden Triangle. A remote land with a headhunting past, traditional hilltribes, drugs and guerrilla warfare. This book follows his 7-months in a traditional Wa mountain village, his participation in the complete cycle of opium cultivation and gives insights into a way of life molded by opium and ethnic conflict.

As readers are drawn into the life of the Wa, Takano is increasingly drawn into opium dependence, unwittingly becoming a part of this intriguing story. His experiences bring home the stark reality of life on a "Shore Beyond Good and Evil.

 

Drugs & Drug Lords
Opium and Heroin! Crime and Corruption! The United Wa State Army (UWSA), and leader Pao Yuchang (Bao Youxiang) are now classed as one of the world's leading drug suppliers by the US State Department. Takano introduces us to the key players and gives us a taste of life under military rule. We share in an opium farmer's daily life and an addict's daily desperation.


Exclusive
Hideyuki Takano is the first writer and one of the very few foreign nationals to have ever stayed for an extended period of time in this remote and dangerous region. Once isolated by the local practice of headhunting, then by the control of the Burmese Communist Party. It remains closed due to drugs, ethnic warfare, fear and ignorance.

In the International Media Spotlight
With the fight for democracy in Burma by Nobel prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the flood of cheap heroin into the West and the war against drugs and terrorism escalating in both Asia and South America, people are hungry for a look behind the battle lines. "The Shore Beyond Good and Evil" gives us that opportunity.


"remarkable" -The Japan Times

"highly recommended" -The Daily Yomiuri

"riveting" - I-S Magazine

"Told with reality, presence and vividness" - Kyodo News Book Review

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Contents Summary

PROLOGUE
Chapter1-THE WA STATE, KINGDOM OF OPIUM
Pang Sang, The State Capital
Where Deals are made in Chinese Currency
Meeting the Supreme Commander of the Anti-government Guerrillas
Buying Electricity from Yunnan Province
No Culture Here, but we do have History

Chapter2-GROPING MY WAY TO THE FRONTIER
Out of Nowhere, Deep in the Mountains, a Colorful Market
The Oldest Son is Wa, the Second Son is Chinese, the Third Son is Shan
The Special Way of Consuming Wa Fire Water "Plai Ko"
I Want to Go to a More Remote Village...
The Girl Smoking a Silver Pipe...
A Hidden Paradise needs no Opium
What the Burmese Army left for the Wa
The Real Story behind the Man with the Sharp-Looking Eyes
Let Flowers Bloom from this Waste Land
The Joy at Being Diagnosed with Malaria

Chapter3-OPIUM AND THE WA PEOPLE
From the Medicine of the Gods to an All-Purpose Elixir
Followers of Islam turn Opium into an Addictive Drug
The Opium War Was a Drug War!
The Wa People Encounter Opium

Chapter4-WEEDING THE GOLDEN LAND
Morning in Muik Re begins with the Sound of the Pestle
The Mysterious Man from "Water China"
Why so many Widows in the Village
Poppy Cultivation as a Pure Form of Farming
A Mouse Offering and Fortune-telling with Toothpicks
The Enbriated Village Priest, Old Sam Tao
On the Teacher's Podium, Wa-Style
The State is for Whom? - The Nationalist Resolve
Dissatisfaction of the Opposite Type
The Wa Army's Delicate Problem

Chapter5-A PLAN TO TURN OPIUM INTO MORPHINE
"My name is Chi Ko Ko"
The Unknown Yugoslavia of Southeast Asia
Khun Sa's Surrender in Mong Mao.
A Dream to Change the History of the World

Chapter6-WHITE POPPY, GREEN UNIFORM
The Unexpected Death of a Young Man
A Man's Death causes the "Extinction of a Family." A Woman's Death Causes the "Extinction of a Farm.
The Powerful Effects of Opium
The Pleasure of the "Flat Dream"
Romantic Village Life
With the Hot Weather Comes Opium Collecting
Financial Dealings in a Primitive Semi-Communist Village
The Heroin Broker and a Ruby Ring.
The Wanderings of an Opium Smoker
The Three Great Opium Smokers of the Yang Laing Village Group
Opium: The Wa Army Tax
To the Beckoning Cats, a Farewell Salute

Chapter7-THE FINAL MYSTERY
The New Drug Lord, Ta Pang
The Meaning of the U.S. Government Announcement

EPILOGUE
The Wall Separating the Wa State from the Outside World

CURRENT SITUATION UPDATE

INDEX

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Purchase Information 
Last update: December 4, 2005

BOOKSTORES
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PHILLIPINES,
BRUNEI, CAMBODIA & VIETNAM.
*Available.

UK & EUROPE

*Available at all major & independent bookstores and
online from July 2002

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.de

Amazon.fr

Blackwell's

Burma Campaign UK

USA & CANADA

Borders - You can locate a Borders in your area and order a copy online for in-store pickup.

Amazon.com

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Powell's Books - the largest new & used bookstore in the world

TextbookX - new and used college textbooks at significant discounts

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JAPAN Junkudo Ikebukuro (ISBN 4903295036)

Kinokuniya Shinjuku Main Store (ISBN 4903295036)

Waseda University Co-op Bookstore, BLDG. 17 at Waseda University's Nishiwadeda Campus (ISBN 4903295036)

Amazon.co.jp


AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND

 

*Available at all major & independent bookstores and
online from September 2002

Angus & Robertson



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