The Burmese Road to Ruin

With its origins high in the eastern Himalaya Mountains, the Irrawaddy River sweeps down into Burma onto a vast plain. With the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Mekong, it is one of the great rivers of Ssoutheast Asia. From where it comes out of the mountains above Myitkyina, it runs along a valley perhaps 1,500 kilometers long.

The Irrawaddy Valley’s sur…