“When [George] Scott entered [Shan] territory over a century ago . . . [l]ocal people drew maps for [him]. A few months before I had sat in a reading room at Cambridge University Library marvelling over some that had survived. They were as big as bed sheets, and thickly painted on rough paper or mould-speckled linen which crackled as I unfolded it. Some were quite beautiful. The rivers were painted ruby-red; the mountains, which were often given strange, curly peaks, were done in electric greens and purples; pagodas were painted gold. The maps were surreal, magical, like illustrations from a Dr Seuss book, yet utterly true to the wonder inspired by the real scenery now unfolding before me.”

—Andrew Marshall, The Trouser People: A Story of Burma—In the Shadow of the Empire, 2002.