Cultivation and Farming
Shan people like living on high plateau and places where there are plenty of water. Farming was their main occupation. Rice was the
staple food. Shan used buffalos in ploughing rice field and used cows in pulling the cart. Before starting farming a stone of the
spirit was place in the middle of the field until harvest time. After harvest a small portion of the crops was offered to the stone
and then stone was brought back home. In the old days, rice grown by family was for family consumption only. However nowadays farmers
are making money by selling rice from their field. They kept the rice enough for their family for the whole year before another harvest.
Apart from growing rice Shan also grew vegetables and fruits.
Life began early in Shan village. The women rose up at cockcrow early
morning before dawn to prepare the rice for the morning meal. The thud, thud, thud sound of pounding paddy in the kitchen about five
o’clock in the morning was just like a sound that makes a wonderful alarm clock for the whole village. The men folks rose up a little
later. They ate breakfast, took tools and departed from the house for the whole day work in the field or jungle and returned home
at sunset. They paddock the buffaloes or cows they had tended the whole day in lower ground of the house, took bath, ate their evening
meal, and retired to bed or puffing tobacco and drinking a cup of green tea or alcohol, talking and chatting round the flickering
fire for a while before going to bed. They used to talk about the buffaloes, cows, or water in the field. Economic or politic were
not common topics. They cooked late and ate late in the evening. Usually dinner time started at 9 PM and finished at 10 PM.
