A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Nine spirits descend from Möng Hpea, attracted by the scent of earth after a world-fire and rain. Eating it makes them too heavy to return. Hsin Kyan, the strongest of five male spirits, lets the other four pair with the four females in exchange for kingship and future marriages with their daughters.
He protects himself with tattooed charms when Sa Kyah tries to take his kingdom. Water, fire, rope, sword and spear cannot kill him, and the two opponents throw mountains at one another without a decisive result. His youngest daughter eventually learns to cut off his head with seven strands of spider web stretched on a white-bamboo bow.
The severed head retains catastrophic heat: setting it on earth would burn the world, and putting it in the sea would boil the oceans. His seven daughters must carry it in yearly turns, an explanation linked by this witness to the Wan Kyap washing days.
Origins & earliest records
Shan traditions of the hill and water country, Burma/Myanmar
Records & interpretation
Full relevant tale and introduction directly read; historical spellings preserved.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Shan Folk Lore Stories from the Hill and Water Country
Introduction dated Bhamo, 1902; How the World Was Created, pp. 86–91
- 02
Shan Folk Lore Stories, in The Red Miriok / Shan Folk Lore Stories (combined edition)
Bibliographic witness only: unpaginated title and copyright pages independently inspected in original scan; publication line says January1903, copyright1901and1902. This does not establish the date of the separately transcribed Gutenberg witness or of first publication.
Family, evolution & connections
Hsin Kyan’s seven daughters
Griggs’s creation account, pp. 89–91.
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- Nang Ta Nang Nooie (eldest)
- Five intervening daughters (collective terminal)
Explicit fatherhood and eldest/youngest designations. The grouped terminal represents five daughters, not one child. Mother unspecified. Sa Kyah refuses the promised marriage; bird address does not establish kinship.
Nang Hsa Nae
Griggs names Hsin Kyan as father of seven daughters and Nang Hsa Nae as the youngest.
Nang Ta Nang Nooie
Nang Ta Nang Nooie is the eldest of Hsin Kyan’s seven daughters; the five intervening daughters are not individually named here.
Primary records and illustrations
William C. Griggs, Shan Folk Lore Stories from the Hill and Water Country
Shan traditions; introduction dated Bhamo1902. How the World Was Created, pp. 86–91
Complete relevant narrative and introduction read from Gutenberg32375. Early English spelling retained; no invented individual narrator, modern standardized transcription or physical anatomy. Publication date distinguished from dated introduction. Original combined-volume title/copyright pages independently viewed: archive item redmiriokshanfol0000anna, cached griggs-redmiriok-6.jpg and-7.jpg in public/assets/credited/_audit; publishedJanuary1903. Separate bibliographic witness, not a claim that full original scan text was collated.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical folktale collectionGriggs, Shan Folk Lore Stories, How the World Was Created, pp. 86–91Research access: 2026-10-05
- Primary bibliographic scanCombined volume title and copyright pages, published January1903Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.