1925
The clever Duwa
Duwa Nga Lang La was the (Kachin) Hkahku Chief of the Upper Triangle Area. He was invited to Rangoon in 1925 by the then Governor Sir Harcourt Butler. The Kachin Hills were at the time only under indirect British-Indian administration, after having put up a fierce resistance to the new colonial overlords. In Rangoon, the Duwa asked the British for a motor car as a gift. The British laughed, knowing that a car would be of no use in the Upper Triangle, with no roads or petrol, but thought they would indulge the naive native chief, who they were hoping to impress. Little did they know that the shrewd Duwa Nga Lang La had already arranged with an Indian businessman to sell the car in Rangoon, pocketing the money before he left and returning home with a tidy sum.