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MYITKYINA, Myanmar: "Amber hunters" looking for a discovery of the Jurassic-style dinosaur roams mounds of precious resin in Myanmar – a lucrative business that captivates paleontologists but also feeds a conflict that has been going on for decades.
The morning amber market on the outskirts of Myitkyina, the capital of the Kachin State, is filled with merchants using torches and magnifying glasses to scan honey-colored fossilized sap pieces [19659003] Advertisement
sell uncut pieces with raw edges. Others sell finished products: pendants, necklaces and bracelets made from carefully polished pieces.
Trade takes place a few dozen kilometers from fighting between the Myanmar Army and ethnic Kachin rebels fighting for autonomy, land, identity and natural resources.
The jade and ruby industries overshadow the essentially artisanal trade in amber, but resin can still bring large sums of money to those who control the mines.
According to the Myo trader, the Myitkyina market has money to gain. Swe.
His specialty is "inclusions", sap that trapped parts of plants, animals and even dinosaurs before hardening into amber – story hanging inside the resin.
and he could pocket up to $ 100,000 US a piece in a shady industry that sees most of the amber smuggled into China
"Even though it contains only one ant or a mosquito – every room is inter, "AFP told AFP." I value each one of them. "
TALES OF DINOSAURA
Amber, historically coveted by the nobility of China to ancient Greece, has experienced a revival of popular culture thanks to the hit movie of the 1990s "Jurassic Park", set in a theme park where dinosaurs were cloned by extracting DNA from mosquitoes preserved in the resin.
However, most amber announce not Jurassic but Late Cretaceous, up to 100 million years.
The best-preserved "inclusions" offer scientists and collectors of today a great ossile three-dimensional, with some creatures even frozen half-movement.
Amber deposits are found all over the world but, for paleontology, the Kachin mines are "irreplaceable", says Lida Xing, 36, of the Chinese University of Geosciences Beijing [19659002] "The amber mining area of Kachin is the only Cretaceous amber mining site in the world still operating in the commercial mining sector." It is ays. "There is no better place than Myanmar."
Lida Xing enjoyed fame among his paleontologist colleagues in 2015 when he brought back a part of a 99-million-year-old feathered dinosaur tail from Myanmar. his discovery, however, was tinged with disappointment when he returned to try to find the source.
"They said that they did not know, they probably had already sold or broken it." This dinosaur could even have been complete with a 1965-19002 "AMBRE OF CONFLICTS"
Amateur amber hunters aside, the main challenge for traders and collectors is to work in an area of conflict
. Fighting between the army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in recent years has displaced more than 100,000 people in the region.
The leaflets dropped by military helicopters in June be considered co "
Now, only the hardiest amber hunters are trying to go there.
"We could almost not reach the mining area because it was very dangerous," says Lida Xing about her operation. Journey of 2015. "We infiltrated when the situation was much lessened, but no scientist could enter after that."
"This is a serious problem because, for paleontology, you get a lot of useful information from geological and strata conditions – but we have not been able to do that."
Amber, jade, wood and gold are also "key drivers" of the conflict in northern Myanmar, says Hanna Hindstrom of the Global Witness monitoring group. In a responsible manner, any company that markets Myanmar amber "could cause or contribute to a range of damage, including conflict and human rights violations," she adds [19659002] Akbar Khan, an extreme fossil of 52 years. "Running a street stall in downtown Bangkok avoids the risks and ethical issues.
He makes frequent visits to Kachin and explains the adrenaline rush he's getting in finding dinosaur pieces. "walk in the clouds, to paradise," he says:
"If people have a big diamond, so what? The world is full of big diamonds … but the world n & # Is not full of amber dinosaurs. "
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