Burmese Teak: Anatomy of a Violent Luxury Resource

The history of the development of the teak industry is a record of the creation of a luxury resource steeped in chronic and unspeakable violence. Notably centred on Burma (re-labelled Myanmar by the country’s military rulers) where most of the world’s teak supplies are located, teak production has long been a Jekyll and Hyde tale of murder and marketing, of distinction and extinction, all masked behind a carefully crafted image of the mystery and romance of ‘green gold’. It is a tale where the production of consumption has been inextricably linked to the consumption of production – or, at least, a mythical version of that production.