Lake Inlay lies about 900m above sea level on the Shan plateau. This shallow mountain lake (6m at its deepest) is one of Burma's few freshwater lakes and contains many unique species of fish and snails. Geologists say it was formed in the tertiary era. It originally occupied an area of 65x12km, but is now closer to 15x6km.
The area is populated by many different ethnic groups (Shan, PaO, Palaung, Danu etc) but there is one population group that can only be found on and around the lake: the Intha (also spelled Inntha or Inthar). "Tha" means "people" and "In" means "lake", so they are commonly referred to as the "sons of the lake". They speak a Tibeto-Burman language which is very close to Burmese. There are several theories regarding their presence in the area. The most widely accepted one is that they come from Dawei (Tavoy) in the south of Burma. But they themselves tend to believe that they migrated to the lake region at or near the dissolution of the Bagan kingdom. The Intha are Buddhist, and are mostly engaged in fishing and farming. They are famous for 2 of their techniques:

>The first one is leg-rowing. As the Inlay lake is shallow and weed-infested, fishermen have to stand up to look down into the waters, using both hands to maneuver their fish trap. Thus they started using their feet to propel their boats.

>The second one is their unique method of planting veggies on small man-made floating islands. Floating islands occupy and area of 72 km2. It takes 10 to 15 years to form an island (using Graminae and Cyperaceae), and islands can be used for more than 10 years when they are ready. When reaching their mature state, the aerial plant parts are cut off leaving only the underwater portion. They then are divided in smaller portions with big saws, and the portions are sold to farmers who attach them to the lake bottom with bamboo poles. When Colocacia Antiquorum starts to emerge from the island, it's the sign that it has reached the end of its useful life. It then naturally sinks or is sunk using bamboo poles. Tomato is the most grown crop. Studies have shown that the amount of nitrogen contained in the floating islands is 6 to 8 times higher than in soil, which gives them an incredible yield.

A third interesting Intha technique is their fishing method: it involves dropping a conical net into the water near a suspected catch. The fisherman then plunges a bamboo stick with a two-pronged head into the lake and thrashes the water to startle the fish which then "escapes" into the net.

More info on the Intha can be found in "The people of the Intha on the lake Inle in Burma, an example of extreme adaptation to geographical conditions", by Adolf Tüllmann, inside "Bulletin of Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and prehistory, vol 8, 1987", ISBN 3-89646-803-0