Shan, Southeast Asian people who live primarily in eastern and northwestern Myanmar (Burma) and also in Yunnan province, China. The Shan are the largest minority group in Myanmar, making up nearly one-tenth of the nation’s total population. In the late 20th century they numbered more than 4 million. Their language, commonly known as Shan, belongs to the Tai linguistic group, which also includes the Thai and Lao languages. Most Shan, however, with the exception of those living in the relatively isolated easternmost strip of Myanmar, are closer culturally to the Burman people.
The Shan are Theravada Buddhists and have their own written language and literature. Most live on the Shan Plateau, which is seamed by low mountains and masses of broken, forested hills. Although much of the Shan territory thus consists of uplands, the people live primarily in the valleys and stretches of plain between the uplands. The surrounding hill country is occupied by aboriginal peoples who live in economic symbiosis with the Shan. The Shan economy is based almost entirely on rice farming where irrigation is available. Shifting (slash-and-burn) cultivation is practiced otherwise, and this has resulted in considerable deforestation. The Shan carried on a considerable trade for centuries with the Burman who live to the west in the Irrawaddy River valley and with the Chinese to the north in Yunnan. Shan society was traditionally divided into a class of farmer commoners and a hereditary nobility who furnished both local chiefs and the ruling head of the Shan state.
The Shan are extremely conscious of their ethnic identity. They dominated much of Myanmar from the 13th to the 16th century. After their power declined, there were more than 30 small Shan states, most of which paid tribute to the Burman kings; under the British the Shan states of Burma were ruled by hereditary chiefs, subject to the crown. In 1922 most of the states joined the Federated Shan state, which had considerable local autonomy. Like the other states in the country after independence, however, Shan state lost much of its autonomy under the constitution of 1974. Since then the Shan have frequently been at odds with the national government over the issue of local autonomy. Several armed Shan separatist groups were formed in the 1960s, although by the late 20th century their principal interest had apparently become the illegal production and export of opium from areas near the border with Thailand, an area known as the Golden Triangle.