Shan want language taught in schools
Repressed for decades like the country's other ethnic minorities, people want their tongue back in the schools
For half a century a single precious copy of a textbook kept the language of Myanmar's Shan people alive for students, forced to learn in the shadows under a repressive junta.
Now with a reformist government reaching out to armed rebel groups after decades of civil war, calls are growing to reinstate ethnic-language teaching in minority-area state schools as part of reconciliation efforts.
"Shan is the lifeblood of the Shan people. If the language disappears, the whole race could disappear too," said Sai Kham Sint, chairman of the Shan Literature and Cultural Association (SLCA) in Taunggyi, capital of Shan state.
Photocopies of the cherished Shan book have been used in private lessons for years in the eastern state, after the original was banished from the curriculum by a regime intent on stamping out cultural diversity.
Shan activists this year finally felt able to print a new edition as the country emerges from decades of military rule.
The SLCA runs its own summer schools, giving students basic training in written and spoken Shan and familiarising them with such classics of local literature as Khun San Law and Nan Oo Pyin, a tale of lovers who turn into stars after their deaths.