The Kadu people (Burmese: ကဒူး/ကတူးလူမျိုး; also spelt Kado) are an ethnic group in Myanmar. They speak the Kadu language.[1] They mostly reside in the country's northwestern hills, centred around Katha, and are ethnolinguistically related to the Ganan and Sak peoples.[2][3] The Kadu traditionally cultivate rice on irrigated terraces.[4]
Names
In Old Burmese, the Kadu were referred to as the Kantu or Sak-Kantu.[3] Their endonym is Asak, commonly shortened to Sak.[2][5] Speakers of the Ganan and Mokhwang Kadu dialects do not self-identify as Sak or Asak.[6] In the 13th century History of Yuan, they are recorded as the Jiandu (建都), while the Travels of Marco Polo recorded them as the Caindu.[3]
With the rise of the Pagan kingdom, by the 12th and 13th centuries, the Kadu inhabited the border areas between the present-day Sichuan and Yunnan provinces of China and Burma.[3] By the 13th century, they had largely assimilated into more dominant Tibeto-Burman speaking groups in both China and Burma.[3] By the mid-13th century, the Kadu had diverged from the Sak (or Thet people), who now reside in southwestern Myanmar's Rakhine State.[3] By the early 20th century, most Kadu had assimilated and adopted Burmese customs, including Theravada Buddhism.[5][4]
Population
The Kadu population is estimated to be approximately 180,000.[7] The 1901 census counted 16,300 Kadu speakers, while the 1911 census reported 11,069 Kadu speakers.[5] The 1931 census counted 36,400 persons of Kadu descent.[3]
^ abcBradley, David (2002). "The Subgrouping of Tibeto-Burman". In Beckwith, Christopher I. (ed.). Brill's Tibetan studies library. 2,6: PIATS 2000: Tibetan studies: Leiden 2000 / ed. by Christopher I. Beckwith. Proceedings of the ... seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies. Leiden Köln: Brill. pp. 73–112. ISBN978-90-04-12424-0.