Japan-ASEAN Transdisciplinary Studies Working Paper Series No.4
January 2019

Cheroots in Myanmar:
Rural Development behind the Government Policy
Matsuda Masahiko*Abstract
Cheroot, seboleik in Burmese, is a traditional and unique tobacco product made of tobacco andthanatphet (Cordia dicotoma Forst.) leaves in Myanmar. This paper examines the development processof production centers of the two materials for cheroot making, using information obtained by fieldsurveys. The two centers were very different in ecological and cultural settings but have created strong
interdependence between them. The centers had continuously grown, even under contrary agriculture
policy and during political instability; the rural development was purely led by the local residents.

Keywords: Burma, Pao, Thanatphet, Tobacco*

Professor, College of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto 603-8577, Japan.
Email: matsu@ir.ritsumei.ac.jp
11. Cheroot smoking in Myanmar
Myanmar has a traditional and unique tobacco product: cheroot. In Burmese a cheroot is called seboleik,
which means light-tasting rolled tobacco. The cheroot has been smoked widely in Myanmar regardlessof age, gender and ethnicity, although the majority of cheroot smokers are normally elderly men (Figure1). Cheroot are more popular than commercial cigarettes in rural areas.
The cheroot contains leaves, stems and roots of the tobacco plant and wood chips from trees forfragrance. Local Myanmar varieties of tobacco are used for cheroots. Cured tobacco leaves are chopped
and scented with vinegar, which is made from the sap of Palmira palm, banana, pineapple or tamarind.
The chopped stems and roots are also scented and roasted. They are wrapped by a leaf of thanatphet(Cordia dicotoma Forst.) plant, with a filter made of maize husks (bract).
This paper focuses on commercialized cheroots. The commercialized cheroot, which is wrapped inthanatphet, is popular and available everywhere in Myanmar and is consumed in great volume at thepresent. People in Myanmar also smoke homemade rolled tobacco, which is rolled in materials including
newspapers, banana leaves and maize husks. They all are also included among seboleik in a broad sense.
The commercial cheroot looks like a cigar at a glance, but is completely different from the cigar, which
is made solely of tobacco leaves. The cigar is called sebyinleik in Burmese and means strong-tastingrolled tobacco.
The main materials in the cheroot are tobacco and thanatphet. The two materials are produced indifferent regions and by different ethnic groups. Tobacco is mainly grown in the central part of Myanmar
where mainly Burmese, the ethnic majority, live. Thanatphet is grown in the mountainous region where
the ethnic minorities commonly live. This paper outlines the cheroot and its industry in Myanmar, andexamines the independent development process of production centers of the two main materials forcheroot making, considering the national agriculture policy and politics. Field information and statistical
data used here were primarily obtained by surveys in Myanmar from 2007 to 2017. This paper is largely
adapted from Matsuda (2014) and original discussion on rural development is newly added.

2. Burmese cheroot making and tobacco farming in central Myanmar
Myingyan Township, located in the central dry zone of Myanmar, is the best-known production center2

for both tobacco leaves and cheroots. Many people in Myingyan, mostly Burmese, engage in tobacco
farming and/or the cheroot industry; local residents call the township tobacco town.
The Myanmar cheroot industry is concentrated in Myingyan. The number of cheroot making
companies, seleikkoun, in Myingyan has been gradually increasing for the last few decades. The cheroot
industry in other regions of Myanmar, in general, has been decreasing or has become a sub-center
depending on Myingyan. Mandalay is probably the second largest center of cheroot production andapproximately 15 companies were working in 2009, but the owners said that the industry was in a
downward trend. Bago was also well-known for cheroot making in lower Myanmar and approximately
20 companies were producing their own brand in 2011; most of them use ready-made materials
purchased from the manufacturers in Myingyan.
Over 200 cheroot manufacturing companies are probably operating in Myingyan town. There were atleast 60 large scale companies with their own brand of cheroot with small subcontractors under them in2010. A large-scale cheroot company can produce more than 150 thousand cheroots per day. Eachcompany has acquired specific regions as their steady markets; Myanmar has no cheroot brands sold
across the entire country. Most of the large companies have continued to purchase cured tobacco leaves
from specific villages, each company working with different villages. The cheroot companies provide
processed materials including mixed and processed tobacco, filters and thanatphet leaves which werepurchased from the mountainous region to the workers in the villages to handle most of the wrapping
process (Figure 2). Commission brokers link cheroot companies and villages; the cheroot companies
commission villagers with the piecework of making cheroots.
Tobacco is a major cash crop in Myingyan Township. Local Myanmar varieties of tobacco called
seywegyi, bamase, and myanmase have been grown more widely in Myingyan than a bagyiniya(Virginia) variety which was introduced into Myanmar from the USA in the 1930s and used for cigarettes.
According to official statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation (MOALI), thesown area of the local variety of tobacco in Myingyan Township was 7,842 acres in 2009-2010. The
area was the largest in Myanmar and accounted for approximately 24% of the national total sown area.
Tobacco is sown both in the upland fields (ya) and alluvial lowland fields (kain) in Myingyan. Farmers
said that the former was generally higher quality and lower yield than the latter. Sowing tobacco starts
3

in August in nurseries and the seedlings are transplanted into the fields in September and October. The
leaves are harvested from December to February. Harvested tobacco leaves are dried outside in the sun
for a few days and inside for approximately three months. Then, the cured tobacco leaves are classified
by quality and sold to cheroot manufacturing companies (Figure 3).
Although tobacco farming has been developed and is an important income source for local residents,
Myanmar government policy has not supported the industry. The central government sometimes
hindered tobacco farming in Myingyan during the 2000s. The agriculture policy of the previous
government had prioritized rice production all over the country, probably in order to maintain a low andstable price of rice for social stability then. To achieve the chief objective in the agriculture policy,
increasing rice production and attaining regional self-sufficiency, the government had a planned
economy, especially for the politically important crop: rice. The government had set a production target
for rice at the township level and led farmers to follow the policy. Even in the central dry zone where
agricultural fields suitable for rice farming are limited from the agro-ecological viewpoint, increasing
rice production had been driven by the government, especially since the late 1990s (Matsuda 2009). The
planned sown area of rice in Myingyan Township was 2.68 times as large as the actual sown area in
2009-2010 and 1.85 times in 2010-11 according to the MOALI statistics. These areas probably indicate
the strong political pressure for expanding the paddy fields in Myingyan Township in the late 2000s.
According to local officials, the central government planned to replace tobacco with rice in lowland
fields which were potentially available for rice production. Tobacco was thought of as an obstruction torice production and the government called tobacco a restricted crop.
However, the tobacco farmers did not simply follow the rice-oriented agriculture policy and tried tomaintain tobacco production, working against the policy and the strong pressure from the central
government. The statistics from MOALI state that the sown area of tobacco was more than that of ricein the previous years, but decreased 73 percent from 2000-2001 to 2009-2010 and was replaced by ricein the late 2000s. That may have been an “achievement” of the national policy. However, the number oftobacco products changed relatively little from the previous years in the statistics, which indicated only
a 39 percent reduction during the same period. All cheroot companies said that they had never faced any
tobacco leave shortages then. The rice-oriented agriculture policy was changed and relaxed after a4

democratic government was newly established in 2011; the sown tobacco area became greater than rice
again after 2011-2012. Tobacco farming in Myingyan has developed in spite of the central government’s
policy.

3. Pao thanatphet production in a mountainous region
Thanatphet has been produced in the mountainous region of Myanmar and shipped to central Myanmar
for cheroot making. Thanatphet has been widely planted as a perennial crop on the Shan Plateau at least
since the British Colonial Era and used as a cheroot wrapper. Its cultivation and marketing were often
found in descriptions of gazetteers published in the 19 century due to its importance as a revenue source
for the colonial government. The recent production center is in Southern Shan State. According to
MOALI, the planted area of thanatphet in Southern Shan State was 53,633 acres in 2009-2010,accounting for 98 percent of the total Myanmar thanatphet crop.
In Southern Shan, thanatphet has been grown mainly on the hillsides and is sometimes found in homegardens as well. The leaves can be harvested the second year after seedlings are planted. The harvest
period is from June to September, which is the rainy season, and the leaves are picked twice a month.
Manure and chemical fertilizers are used for thanatphet cultivation and pesticides are usually applied.
Agrochemical use started by the 1950s (Maung Khun Nwe 1973). The harvested leaves are pressed anddried on stoves in villagers’ houses (Figure 4). The processed leaves are classified by size and sold incentral Myanmar for cheroot making.
Kyautaloungyi Sub-township, a southern part of Taunggyi Township located in Southern Shan State,is a well-known center of thanatphet production. Pao, an ethnic group, has lived there and grownthanatphet for a long time (Maung Khun Nwe 1973), which has been important in their livelihoods.
Matsuda (2010) described thanatphet farming and its position in the livelihoods in a hillside village ofthe sub-township as follows. Many households, 29 out of a total of 36, grew thanatphet in the village
and nearly half of the thanatphet farming households (13) have a stove for drying in their houses. Somehouseholds (5) have continued thanatphet production since the 1950s. Thanatphet production was abasic income source in the village. The villagers said that the area and amount of the production hadoriginally been less than the present level in the 1950s when subsistence rice farming in shifting5

cultivation had been important for their livelihood. Thanatphet planting had expanded when commercial
crops and continuous upland farming had also increased there in the 1960s-1970s. Then, in the 19801990s, most of the villagers had engaged in thanatphet production at the present level. Although thevillagers enjoyed a boom in garlic, which was intensively cultivated in the dry season in irrigated uplandin the 2000s, they kept producing thanatphet as well until now.
The production center of thanatphet, Kyautaloungyi, was politically unstable for a long time. Afterthe independence of Myanmar in 1948, ethnic armed groups against the central government had
occupied their territories in rural areas in order to secure their autonomy. In Shan Plateau, military
conflicts occurred between the ethnic groups and the national army; political tension was also high fora long time. The production center was the same, and the area was occupied by the Pao National
Organization (PNO), an anti-government Pao organization. The ceasefire agreement between the PNO
and the central government was signed in 1991. Then, the area was authorized as Special Region No. 6
and the PNO received some administrative autonomy. Even after the agreement, entry into the area wascontrolled by the PNO until 2011 when the democratic government established. Now, the area is a SelfAdministered Zone established by the 2008 Constitution.
Although the political tension between the PNO and the central government was especially highbefore a ceasefire agreement in 1991, the thanatphet distribution from the production center to central
Myanmar was not interrupted. The local residents continued their business in spite of the situation.
According to Maung Khun Nwe (1973), the distribution of thanatphet from Shan State only stopped
during the Japanese rule in World War II. Additionally, in the Socialist era, the central government
intervened and started to control the thanatphet trade in 1963 (Maung Khun Nwe 1973). However,delivery to the government at the fixed price did not work well and the system was abolished in 1966
and thanatphet was liberalized again (Maung Khun Nwe 1973).

4. Co-evolution of the production centers
The two production centers of the major cheroot materials, Myingyan for tobacco and Southern Shanfor thanatphet, have created a strong and closed interdependence between them. They need each otherto exist because both materials are only used for making cheroots. The local tobacco variety is primarily
6consumed for cheroots, although it is partly used as an ingredient for betel chewing. It is indispensable
for cheroot making because the introduced variety of tobacco is not appropriate for cheroots. Thanatphet
is only utilized for cheroot wrappers, indicating that the centers, disparate in ecological and cultural
settings, are economically linked together.
The interdependence between the two different centers can be described as a consequence of coevolution. As the cheroot industry developed and became concentrated, the production centers of thematerials changed and their interdependence increased. Cheroot making changed from subsistence to acommercial enterprise. Then the cheroot industry and tobacco farming in rural area were graduallyconcentrated at Myingyan. Thanatphet came to be produced more intensively in Southern Shan and its
importance in earning livelihoods was increased in Pao villages; they became major producers ofthanatphet in Myanmar. The cheroot related industry should be a chief component in the ruraldevelopment of the two centers: Myingyan and Southern Shan.
The firm bond between the two centers was a strong barrier against external dividing forces underpolitical tension to realize stable economic connection. Even when political relations between the ethnicorganization in the thanatphet center and the central government were hostile, good economic relations
were maintained by the local residents. However, this could also be a weakness in that they have acommon destiny. If one should face serious difficulties and the local industry declines for any reason,
the other would also be affected by that negative impact.
In recent years Myanmar society and the economy have been changing faster than before, and theindustry and relevant rural areas should adapt to the new environment in the near future. The local
cheroot industry in Myanmar has developed in its own way and the production centers of materials haveco-evolved until now, competing with cigarettes in the Myanmar domestic market. Asia has someexamples of traditional tobacco industries that experienced modernization and they may provide ideas
for the Myanmar cheroot industry in the future. Indonesia has a unique local tobacco, kretek, whichcontains cloves. The kretek industry have flourished by shifting to a cigarette-like kretek. Originallywrapped mainly in maize husks, it has been replaced by cigarette papers and the production process has
been mechanized (Horii and Akasaki 2008). Whereas, Indian local tobacco, bidi, is rolled with the leavesof particular plants like Myanmar cheroot while bidi in Bangladesh is wrapped by papers at the present7(Dr. Muhammad Salim, personal communication, 2018).

5. Rural development according to local resident initiatives
The rural development accompanied by the cheroot industry in Myanmar is an obvious and concrete
example purely led by local residents. Unsupported by the government and sometimes opposed by thegovernment, tobacco farming in Myingyan had faced the challenges of both rice-oriented and antitobacco agriculture policies of the previous government, but was still developed by the local residents.
Even with political instability, Thanatphet trading was also sustained by the common people.
Local resident initiatives could be a fundamental component of sustainable and desirable ruraldevelopment. The Japanese One Village One Product (OVOP) is a well-known model for ruraldevelopment in Asia. The movement started officially in 1979 in a prefecture in Japan and expanded
domestically and internationally, such as the One Tambon One Product Project (OTOP) in Thailand.
Financial or institutional support from the public sector are often found in these cases and are sometimes
built into the projects. Cooperation between the government and the people, of course, is generally
expected for successful results. However, the origin of the OTOP movement was a farmers’ trial against
the national agriculture policy of the Japanese government. The villagers had decided to prioritize theregional economy on perennial crop production instead of rice farming in the 1960s (Matsui andYamagami 2006). The Japanese government had focused on promoting rice production then, but the
local residents had decided to go the opposite way with their own initiative. Outsiders, including
government agencies and universities, should play supporting roles in rural development. They canencourage and facilitate local initiatives, propose technical options (which can become part of the local
strategies, if suitable), support adaptation to a new environment if the local society faces to difficulty
due to rapid socio-economic changes and make additional contributions.

References
Horii, Kenzo, and Akasaki Yuichi. 2008. “Tobacco.” In Cyclopedia of Southeast Asia edited by Shiro
Momoki, Hidefumi Ogawa, Christian Daniels, Sumio Fukami, Madoka Fukuoka, Ken Miichi,
Masayuki Yanagisawa, Mako Yoshimura and Yoshinari Watanabe, 264–265. Tokyo: Heibonsha. (In8Japanese.)
Matsuda, Masahiko. 2009. “Dynamics of Rice Production Development in Myanmar: Growth Centers,
Technological Changes, and Driving Forces.” Tropical Agriculture and Development 53: 14–27.
Matsuda, Masahiko. 2010. “Ecohistory in the Southern Shan State, Myanmar: The Development Processof Commercial Farming and Indigenous Irrigation Systems.” Noko no Gijutsu to Bunka (Farming
Technology and Culture) 27: 109–134. (In Japanese.)
Matsuda, Masahiko. 2014. “Smoking Links the Plain and the Plateau.” In Mono to Kurashi no
Shokubutsushi (Flora of Materials and Daily Life) edited by Yukino Ochiai and Chihiro Shirakawa,
112–130. Kyoto: Rinsen Book. (In Japanese.)
Matsuda, Masahiko. 2016. “Sustainable Farming Systems in Myanmar: The implications of Findings
from Field Surveys in the 2000s.” In The Myanmar Economy: Its Past, Present, and Prospect editedby Konosuke Odaka, 131–153, Tokyo: Springer.
Matsui, Kazuhisa, and Susumu Yamagami, eds. 2006. One Village One Product Movement andDeveloping Countries: How was the Japanese Rural Development Introduced? Chiba: IDE-JETRO.
(In Japanese.)
Maung Khun Nwe (Inlay). 1973. Seinmyanyoywet Thanatphet (Emerald Greenish Brown Cheroot
Leaves). Yangon: Burma Translation Society. (In Burmese.)

9Figure 1. Burmese man smoking a cheroot. (Myingyan Township, Mandalay Region, in August 2017)

Figure 2. Cheroot making in a village. Chopped tobacco leaves and other ingredients were being
wrapped in a shaped thanatphet leaf. (Myingyan Township, Mandalay Region, in August 2017)10

Figure 3. Classification of cured tobacco leaves in a village. (Myingyan Township, Mandalay Region,in August 2017)

Figure 4. Pressing and drying thanatphet leaves by the stove. (Kyautaloungyi Sub-Township,Southern Shan State, in August 2013)11