Kawthoolei ( ksw, ကီၢ်သူလ့ၤ, ; my, ကော့သူးလေ) is the

endonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, o ...

for a proposed state that the Karen have sought to establish in

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

since the beginning of the Karen conflict in the late 1940s. Kawthoolei roughly approximates to present-day

Kayin State Kayin State ( my, ကရင်ပြည်နယ်, ; kjp, ဖၠုံခါန်ႋကၞင့်, italics=no; ksw, ကညီကီၢ်စဲၣ်, ), also known by the endonyms Kawthoolei and Karen State, is a state of Myanmar. The ...

, although parts of

Mon State Mon State ( my, မွန်ပြည်နယ်, ; mnw, တွဵုရးဍုင်မန်, italics=no) is an administrative division of Myanmar. It lies between Kayin State to the east, the Andaman Sea to the west, Bago Region to th ...

, Tanintharyi Region,

Bago Region Bago Region ( my, ပဲခူးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Pegu Division and Bago Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar, located in the southern central part of the country. It is bordered by Magway Region a ...

, and the

Irrawaddy River The Irrawaddy River ( Ayeyarwady River; , , from Indo-Aryan languages, Indic ''revatī'', meaning "abounding in riches") is a river that flows from north to south through Myanmar (Burma). It is the country's largest river and most important comm ...

Delta with Karen populations have sometimes also been controlled and claimed by groups such as the Karen National Union. The name "Kawthoolei" was created by nationalist leader Saw Ba U Gyi in a 1949 declaration of independence of the region, prior to his death in battle. Kawthoolei has also been spelled "Kaw-thu-lay" or "Kawthoolie" with the last syllable replacing the "lay" with "lea". The name "Kaw-thu-lay" was used by the government of the Union of Burma in the drafting of its 1948 constitution, which made provisions for an autonomous region for the Karenni people. Prior to the adoption of Kawthoolei, there were a number of other names to denote what the Karen people would call a Karen state. In the early 1900s, the historical term used for a Karen land was Kaw Lah, meaning "green land"; it is unclear as to why the name Kawthoolei was adopted. Kawthoolei is not the only name used to refer to a Karen country: the Pwo Karen use the phrase "Kan Su Line", meaning literally, "land cool cave". The flag was adopted in 1974.Crampton, William (1989). The Complete Guide to Flags (p.132). Kingfisher Books. The precise meaning of Kawthoolei is disputed even by the Karen themselves.

References

History of Myanmar Karen people Politics of Myanmar Independence movements {{Myanmar-geo-stub

See also

References