In pursuit of dinosaurs in northern Myanmar

MYITKYINA, MYANMAR – "Amber hunters" in search of a dinosaur discovery in the Jurassic style travels the mounds of Myanmar's precious resin – a lucrative business that appeals to paleontologists but which also nourishes decades

The morning amber market on the outskirts of Myitkyina, the capital of the Kachin State, is cluttered with merchants who use torches and magnifying glasses to scrutinize pieces of honey-colored fossil tree sap

. uncut pieces with rough 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 has trapped parts of plants, animals and even dinosaurs before hardening into amber – history hanging inside the resin.

Find the right buyer and he could pocket up to $ 100,000 A piece in a shady industry that sees most of the amber smuggled into China

"Even though it contains only an ant or a mosquito, each piece is interesting, "said the 40-year-old. "I value each one of them."

Dinosaur Tales

Amber, historically coveted by the Chinese nobility to ancient Greece, experienced a revival in popular culture through the film successful "Jurassic Park" of the 1990s. a theme park where dinosaurs were cloned by extracting DNA from mosquitoes kept in the resin.

However, most amber announce not Jurassic but late Cretaceous, up to 100 million years ago.

The "inclusions" offer today's scientists and collectors a three-dimensional fossil, with some creatures even frozen at mid-movement.

There are amber deposits found all over the world but, for paleontology, the Kachin mines are "irreplaceable". Lida Xing, 36, of the China Geoscience University in Beijing

"The Kachin amber mining area is the only surviving Cretaceous amber mining site in the world in commercial mining, "says. "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 might even have been complete with a head," he said in Beijing

" Amber Conflict "

Amber hunters aside, the main challenge for traders and collectors is to work in a conflict zone. An upsurge in fighting between the army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in recent years has left more than 100,000 displaced people in the region.

Pamphlets dropped by military helicopters in June leave the area or be considered cooperating with rebels, according to Human Rights Watch.

Now, only the hardiest amber hunters are trying to go there.

"We could almost not reach the dangerous mining area," says Lida Xing of her trip in 2015. "We infiltrated when the situation was much lessened, but no scientist was able to enter after that. "

"This is a serious problem because, for paleontology, you get a lot of useful information from geological conditions and strata – but we have not been able to do that." [19659002] Amber, jade, wood and gold are also "key drivers" of the conflict in northern Myanmar, says Hanna Hindstrom of the Global Witness monitoring group. Any company that markets Myanmar amber "could cause or contribute to a range of harms, including conflict and human rights violations," she adds

Akbar Khan , 52, "Extreme fossil in an amber hunter". Who runs a stall in downtown Bangkok avoids risks and ethical issues.

He makes frequent visits to Kachin and explains that the adrenaline rush he finds in finding parts of dinosaurs is nothing else. You walk in the clouds, to heaven, "he said.

"If people have a big diamond, so what? The world is full of big diamonds … but the world is not full of dinosaurs in amber. "