Hpakant

Quality 0.50 · 1 view · Updated 2 months ago

Town in Kachin State, Myanmar

title: "Hpakant" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["populated-places-in-kachin-state", "township-capitals-of-myanmar", "populated-places-established-in-1832"] description: "Town in Kachin State, Myanmar" topic_path: "general/populated-places-in-kachin-state" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hpakant" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Town in Kachin State, Myanmar ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]

FieldValue
settlement_typeTown
native_nameဖားကန့်
official_nameHpakant
pushpin_label_positionbottom
pushpin_mapMyanmar
pushpin_map_captionLocation in Myanmar (Burma)
image_skylineHpakant City in January 2018.jpg
imagesize270px
map_captionHpakant
subdivision_typeCountry
subdivision_nameMyanmar
subdivision_type1Division
subdivision_name1Kachin State
subdivision_type2District
subdivision_name2Mohnyin District
subdivision_type3Township
subdivision_name3Hpakant Township
unit_prefImperial
population_footnotes
population_total312,278
population_urban60,123
population_rural252,155
population_as_of2014
population_blank1_titleEthnicities
population_blank2Buddhism, Christianity
population_blank2_titleReligions
population_density_km2auto
coordinates
leader_titleMayor
timezoneMMT
utc_offset+6.30
::

|settlement_type = Town |native_name = ဖားကန့် |official_name = Hpakant |pushpin_label_position = bottom |pushpin_map = Myanmar |pushpin_map_caption = Location in Myanmar (Burma) |image_skyline =Hpakant City in January 2018.jpg |imagesize = 270px |image_map = |map_caption = Hpakant |subdivision_type = Country |subdivision_name = Myanmar |subdivision_type1 = Division |subdivision_name1 = Kachin State |subdivision_type2 = District |subdivision_name2 = Mohnyin District |subdivision_type3 = Township |subdivision_name3 = Hpakant Township |unit_pref = Imperial |area_total_km2 = |population_footnotes = |population_total = 312,278 |population_urban = 60,123 |population_rural = 252,155 |population_as_of = 2014 |population_blank1_title = Ethnicities |population_blank2 = Buddhism, Christianity |population_blank2_title = Religions |population_density_km2 = auto |coordinates = |leader_title = Mayor |elevation_m = |timezone = MMT |utc_offset = +6.30 |website =

Hpakant (, ; , also Hpakan and Phakant) is a town in Hpakant Township, Kachin State in the northernmost part of Myanmar (Burma). It is located on the Uyu River 350 km north of Mandalay. It is famous for its jade mines which produce gem-quality jadeite.

History

The word Hpakant comes from the Shan language words for "rock fall" or "building up a wall." Hpakant was first established in 1832 as a village but shortly afterwards the village was destroyed in a landslide. Thereafter, Hpakant was established for the second time in 1836.

In 2011, fighting broke out between the Kachin Independence Army and the Myanmar Army in the area around the Hpakant jade mines, displacing an estimated 90,000 people by September 2012 and killing hundreds of others.

Political economy

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566_h-10c.jpg" caption="DMA]], 1990)"] ::

Since after the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) came into the area before negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Burma's military government in the early 1990s, heroin is no longer openly on sale on the streets of Hpakant. Both addicts and drug dealers were rounded up, taken to the nearby Uru River, shot and their bodies dumped in the river.

Concerns have been expressed regarding the encroachment on and destruction of the environment from deforestation and landslides resulting from mining activities and consequent flooding. The Uru River has also been affected by the dumping of soil. There have been instances of locals being forced to leave their homes when upland areas were bulldozed by the big mining companies.

The KIA however lost control of the jade mines once the ceasefire had been arranged, and firms from China, Hong Kong and Singapore started to operate in the area after winning concessions from the government. More recently however the mining contracts went to the well known Burmese tycoon Tay Za's Htoo Group and also to Myanmar Dagaung Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the Hong Pang Group headed by Wei Hsueh-kang, a former drug trafficker and leader of the Wa insurgent group UWSA turned entrepreneur after the cease-fire deal.

Maran Brang Seng, former chairman of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) from 1976 until he died in 1994, was born in Hpakant in 1930.

Mining hazards

One thousand miners apparently drowned in 2000 when flood waters of the Uru River rushed into the underground mines, but the news was hushed up by the authorities, according to the locals. An explosion at Hpakant Gyi mine on New Year's Eve 2008 killed two miners and injured seven. It is owned by another one of the ethnic ceasefire groups, the Pa-O National Army (PNA), headed by Aung Kham Hti. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/A_large_company_Jade_Mine_in_Hpakant_2018_January_.jpg" caption="A large jade mine in Hpakant"] ::

More than 30 (and up to 70) people are believed to have been killed in a massive landslide near Hpakant in early July 2009; official figures are not available. The flood waters swept away homes, blocked roads and cut communications. The disaster is being blamed on jade mining, which creates large deposits of debris that block heavy rain from reaching natural rivers and drainage, including the Uru river.

About 100 jade mining companies operate in the Hpakant area. The Kachin Environmental Organization, based on the Sino-Burmese border, says that people living in the Hpakant area had appealed to the companies not to dump waste near the Uru River and to avoid environmental damage. The companies enjoy government backing, however, and local complaints are regularly ignored.

Over 100 people were killed in a landslide in the 22 November 2015 Hpakant jade mine disaster. Most of those killed were people living near the waste heap, who made their living scavenging through waste soil looking for jade remnants. At least 15 jade seekers in a closed mine were killed and 45 injured by a landslide in July 2018. Six people were killed in the April 2019 Hpakant jade mine collapse. More than 162 people were killed in a landslide in the 2 July 2020 Hpakant jade mine disaster. In 2021, a landslide at a jade mine killed 20 and swept up to 100 people into a lake. On 13 August 2023 a landslide killed 32 people in the 2023 Hpakant jade mine disaster. Another 32 people were killed during a similar landslide in Hpakant in the early hours of 13 January 2025.

Notes

References

  1. (May 2015). "Census Report". Ministry of Immigration and Population.
  2. "Hpakan Other Rock Mine (Myanmar)".
  3. "Heaven and Hell: The Quest for Jade in Upper Burma". Ruby-Sapphire.com.
  4. KURABE, Keita. (2021-09-27). "Oronyms in northern Burma: Asymmetry between highland and lowland place names". Studies in Geolinguistics.
  5. Democratic Voice of Burma, Displaced by fighting, villagers take shelter in Hpakant, 22 October 2012, http://www.dvb.no/news/displaced-by-fighting-villagers-take-shelter-in-hpakant/23955 {{Webarchive. link. (27 November 2012)
  6. Violet Cho. "Gem Mining Destroying Environment, Activists Say". [[The Irrawaddy]] 25 June 2008.
  7. "The War on Kachin Forests". [[The Irrawaddy]] October 2001, vol 9, no 8.
  8. "Te Za mines jade with sophisticated equipment in Phakant". KachinNews.com, 5 July 2007.
  9. "Kachin's Anti-Government Forces". Kachinstate.com.
  10. "Two miners killed, seven injured on New Year eve explosion in Hpakant mine". KachinNews.com, 7 January 2009.
  11. (11 August 2010). "Many Die as Landslide Sweeps through Jade-mining Area".
  12. [http://orf.at/#/stories/2447065/ Viele Tote bei Erdrutsch in stillgelegter Mine in Myanmar] {{Webarchive. link. (20 April 2013 orf.at, 16 July 2018, retrieved 16 July 2018 – German.)
  13. (2 July 2020). "Myanmar jade mine landslide kills more than 100". BBC.
  14. (22 December 2021). "Myanmar: dozens feared missing after landslide at jade mine". The Guardian.
  15. Magramo, Su Chay, Sophie Jeong, Kathleen. (2023-08-16). "At least 32 dead after landslide at Myanmar jade mine". CNN.
  16. Zan, Hein Htoo. (2025-01-17). "32 Bodies Found, Scores More Missing in Myanmar Jade Mine Collapse".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

populated-places-in-kachin-statetownship-capitals-of-myanmarpopulated-places-established-in-1832