Chiang Mai, Hill People Tribes

Chiang Mai, Hill People Tribes

Our next stop is Chiang Mai, the largest city in northern Thailand and the capital of Chiang Mai Province.  Chiang Mai is situated amongst the highest mountains in the country and sits astride the Ping River, a major tributary of the Chao Phraya River. This is a beautiful part of Thailand with towering thick groves of trees and beautiful ponds filled with water lilies.

Our first outing in Chiang Mai was a visit to villages of two of the Hill People tribes.  This visit was educational in many ways.  Though Thailand is considered a third world country, they have left the Hill People largely to themselves to preserve their way of life.  The life of the tribes includes no running water, no electricity and they farm, hunt and fish for their food.  What little money they have comes from tourists like us through the purchase of handmade items like scarves, jewelry, bags and other goods. 

 The Karen Long Neck Tribe the largest ethnic minority group in Thailand with a population of around 1 million.  The Karen Hill Tribes live along the Thai-Myanmar border.  Due to ethnic and political conflict in Burma, now known as Myanmar, many fled to Thailand and sought refugee status and thus a safer life. The day we visited the men were all out in the fields farming so the tourists see only the women and children.  The Hill Tribes also serve as one of Thailand's most profitable tourist attractions in the Thai tourism industry.  Anyone visiting can see how challenging their lives are. Our tour guide explained that their living arrangements are as they were over the past many many years.

The heavy neck rings that the women wear around their necks for most of their lives are really very heavy!  We had the opportunity to hold a set of rings; it had to weigh 15 to 20 pounds, possibly more!  Some women also wear these heavy rings around their forearms, knees and shins.  This is different from neck rings and is up to their own choice.  The heavy brass rings are a neck stretcher, compressing their rib cage and shoulders down over the years. That gives the illusion that their necks are unusually long.  Some women wear the brass neck rings around their necks respecting their ancestor traditions, but today more are encouraged to do it so that they can make more money through tourism.

Little girls start to wear neck rings from the age of 5 – 6. They start with 5 rings around their neck and 2 extra neck stretching rings are added year by year. There’s no fixed maximum number of neck rings that they can wear, but it can go up to 25.  Once a girl reaches age 15 they are able to choose if they will continue wearing the rings or if they will stop.  After this age, their rib cage will become too damaged and their neck would no longer be able to hold their head up if the rings are removed.    I asked our tour guide if these children go to school.   His answer was ‘yes, they do’.  However, I learned later that to go to a Thai school these children must know how to speak the Thai language which they are unable to do.  So they go to a local school within the tribe’s village and receive a traditional education taught by one of the women. 

We also visited the Akha Tribe who came to Thailand during the early 20th century however the large migrations due to persecution and instability in Myanmar have only been quite recent. Akha villages can be found near the Myanmar border in the northern part of Chiang Mai province.  As with the Long Necks, the Akha are registered as aliens which unfortunately does not allow them to receive state assistance which negatively affects their life.

Akha dwellings are traditionally constructed of logs, bamboo, and thatch and are of two types: "low houses", built on the ground, and "high houses", built on stilts. Some say that this gives the dwellings a deceptively fragile and flimsy appearance, although they are quite well-built as proved over generations.

Akha clothing is made of a homespun cotton cloth died to near black with indigo.  This cloth is embellished for women with embroidery and strips of colored cloth decorated with coins, seeds and beads. Women's outfits consist of hip length jackets worn over a halter, a short skirt, a sash, and leggings. The most distinct item for women is the headdress, which gets more elaborate as the wearer matures. Men tend to wear loose jackets that may have an embroidered strip down the front as well as the back.  Akha women spin cotton into thread with a hand spindle and weave it on a foot-treadle loom. The cloth is hand dyed with indigo and Akha women are known for their embroidery skills. While traditional clothes are typically worn for special ceremonies, one is more likely to see Akha villagers in full traditional garb in areas that have heavy volumes of tourists, particularly in Thailand. 

 

The headdresses worn by the women are perhaps the most spectacular and elaborate items of Akha dress. Akha women define their age or marital status with the style of headdress worn. At roughly age 12, the Akha female exchanges her child's cap for that of a girl. A few years later she will begin to don the jejaw, the beaded sash that hangs down the front of her skirt and keeps it from flying up in the breeze. During mid-adolescence she will start wearing the adult woman's headdress. Headdresses are decorated by their owner and each is unique. Silver coins, monkey fur, and dyed chicken feathers are just a few of the things that might decorate the headdress. The Lomi Akha wear a round cap covered in silver studs and framed by silver balls, coins and pendants and the married women attach a trapezoidal inscribed plate at the back.

The Akha farmers have long been involved in cash cropping and trade.  Recent cash crops are chilies, soybeans, cabbages, and tomatoes. One or more families in a village may operate a small shop in their home selling items to traders, either lowlanders or other hill-dwelling tribes that come to buy livestock or cash crops, or to sell blankets and other goods.

Increasingly, the Akha find themselves, whether solicited or not, in the business of tourism, specifically ecotourism. Tourists pay a fee to Akha villages to be allowed to witness and participate in "everyday" Akha life, although much of what they see is often staged. The villagers dress up in their elaborate costumes and charge tourists to take photos with them. In addition to opening the village for visiting tourists, the Akha also sell their handicrafts, including hand woven baskets and even replicas of their traditional costumes.  We did not visit one of the Villages that solicit ecotourism.  Instead we visited a small village that welcomed us.  We saw the many handmade items that were all beautiful and all for sale.  They gathered and sang songs that have been passed down through the centuries.  They allowed us to take photos and of course talked us into buying their goods.  But I also noticed there were no men, I assumed they were out farming, and there were no children.  So this made me wonder that instead of this being an actual village where they lived, it instead, was their version of a shopping mall.

More coming soon  😊 

Jan 🌷🌷🐾🐾