Maps : Map of the Royal lands, showing the distribution of rice (wet season) and leguminous (dry season) crops in the southern part...

Maps

<p style='text-align: justify;'><b>Map of the Royal lands, showing the distribution of rice (wet season) and leguminous (dry season) crops in the southern part of the Ko-ka-reing districts, Shan Province, Burma: likely depicting the frontier region on the border between Burma and Siam</b></p><p style='text-align: justify;'>One of three maps of parts of Burma (now Myanmar) presented to Cambridge University Library by Louis Allan Goss in 1910 and now available for viewing in Cambridge Digital Library. By 1886 Goss was Inspector of Schools in Burma and after his retirement he was paid by the Indian Government to teach Burmese language at Cambridge University. All three maps (<a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='/view/MS-MAPS-MS-PLANS-R-C-00001/1'>Maps.Ms.Plans.c.1</a>, <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='/view/MS-MAPS-MS-PLANS-R-C-00002/1'>Maps.Ms.Plans.c.2</a> and Maps.Ms.Plans.c.3) were painted by Burmese artists on cloth (hand woven cotton in various grades) in ca. 1860. The Library is grateful to The Anstruther Literary Trust for Rare Books for funds that have enabled the conservation of all three maps (the image shown here was taken before conservation). Although a small amount of research has been done on these maps, we hope that placing the images on the Cambridge Digital Library will promote greater awareness of their existence, and encourage more research into their origins and purpose.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>This is by far the largest of the three maps. It seems to depict the frontier region on the border between Burma and Siam (now Thailand) and was possibly created for taxation purposes. Like <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='/view/MS-MAPS-MS-PLANS-R-C-00002/1'>Maps.Ms.Plans.c.2</a> it has a grid drawn on it, enabling the artist-cartographer to draw to scale.</p>