Eastern Shan State Special Region 4 (Burmese: ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်အရှေ့ပိုင်း အထူးဒေသ(၄), Chinese: 缅甸掸邦东部第四特区), commonly known as Mongla area or Lesser Mongla area, is a special region administrated by Peace and Solidarity Committee (PSC) of Shan State-East, and National Democratic Alliance Army. It covers territories of the entire Mong La Township, eastern part of Mong Hpayak Township and to the north borders the northern part of Wa State.
The indigenous peoples of this region are Blang, Pyin, Akha, Hani, Lahu and Tai Lue people, etc. while the lingua franca is Mandarin Chinese.
It was established by sent-down youth U Sai Leun (born Lin Mingxian). Since its active involvement into casinos and endangered wild-animal trafficking, it has been an issue for the Chinese government, which closed the Port of Daluo several times. It also sent police cross border to destruct a casino there, under the acknowledgement of Burmese government. This special region is notorious in southwest Yunnan as they send casino advertisement spam SMS to Chinese cellphones. Organized crime used to be common in this region.[citation needed]
Sai Leun maintained a good relationship with Burmese army (Tatmadaw) as the Tatmadaw units benefit financially from it.
Name
Mongla, Mengla or Meungla are different Romanization of the same Tai word, both the e and the o here should be pronounced like the Scottish accent pronunciation of u in bucks. Thus, to differentiate Mengla County in China and Mong La Township/settlement in Myanmar the locals call the former Greater Mengla/Mongla while the latter Lesser Mongla/Mengla.
Administrative divisions
- Mengla District 勐拉县
- Nanban District 南板县
- Sele District 色勒县
Citations
- 边城勐拉，中缅交界处的法外之地 - New York Times
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