A Burmese soldier looks across the border into the Wat Fa Wiang from what used to be dormitory to a number of novice monks from the Shan State. The monestary lost this part of the building after heavy fighting in this area in 2002 between the Shan Sate Army and the Burmese Goverment. Many Shan people fled Burma and took refuge in the monestary.
Northern Thailand and the borderlands between Burma and Laos are home to a number of stateless hill tribes and is reknown for drug smuggling and human trafficking.