Lahu Hilltribe
The Lahu are a strong independent and very diverse ethnic group who number about 60,000 in Thailand. The Lahu are located primarly in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces, but can also be found in considerable numbers as far south as Tak province. Their settlements are usually remote from roads and towns, due to their strong commitment to the maintenance of the Lahu way of life.
The Lahu are a strong independent and very diverse ethnic group who number about 60,000 in Thailand. The Lahu are located primarly in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces, but can also be found in considerable numbers as far south as Tak province. Their settlements are usually remote from roads and towns, due to their strong commitment to the maintenance of the Lahu way of life.
The Lahu are complex and diverse
ethnicity. In Thailand there are no fewer than six different Lahu
tribes, some of whose languages are not mutually intelligible. The
majority of Lahus in Thailand are Red Lahu, pantheistic animists who
follow a Dtobo, a messianic leader. There are also a
significant number of Black, Yellow and Shehleh Lahus in Thailand, many
of whom have been Christian for nearly one hundred years. Black Lahu are
the most populous throughout Southeast Asia and theirs is considered to
be the standard Lahu dialect.
Although primarily subsistence
farmers, growing rice and corn for their own consumption, the Lahu are
also proud of their hunter-warrior heritage.They remain a strict, serious people governed by strong principles of right and wrong, every individual in the village answering to the common will of the elders. While less importance is placed on the extended family than in other hill tribe communities, the Lahu are still strongly committed to principles of unity and working together for survival. Lahus may have the most gender-equitable society in the world.
HISTORY:
Like most Hilltribes, the Lahu have their origin in
southwestern China. In about 1830 there were already some Lahu
villages located in the Kengtung State of Burma. By 1870 the Lahu
had moved across the northern Burmese border in fear of their
lives from the government of Burma. They moved into the northern
highlands and valleys of Siam. By the 20th century Lahu villages
were discovered as far south as Fang, just 70km north of
Chiangmai.Burma has long been the oppressor of Hilltribe people, and it is not only the Lahu who have experienced their wrath. In order to make these independent peoples succumb to a despotic rule, many Hilltribe people have been killed.
The Lahu have always referred to themselves as the "people of Blessing". That is, they have always thought that the blessings of health, sufficient food to eat and security for their families were the greatest gifts that their Creator could bestow.
They have used the term, Boon (or merit) to denote the form in which this Blessing is given. Lahu often refer to themselves as Bon Yu or the "children of the Blessing."
The Lahu have now embraced many of the ways of missionary peoples that have lived among them since the end of World War Two. It is a fact of social change that in the near future many of the customs of the old Lahu will have given way to the "consumer passion" that is now evident in Southeast Asia. Radio, television and print media are fast altering this tribal peoples.
Read More http://lahuhilltribe.blogspot.com
http://www.tayara.com/club/hilltribe.htm#Lahu
http://lahu.hilltribe.org/english/
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