First some basic info about the Hill Tribes in Thailand:
- They are not indigenous Thai people. Most came from China or Myanmar a few hundred years ago escaping from some kind of oppression.
- There are nine different tribes living in Thailand. In my class we study six, and visit five of them. All have distinct languages and culture that is different from the dominant Thai culture.
- Most aren't Thai citizens, and a lot of Thai people hate on them because they think they are dirty communists, and they sell drugs, and they slash and burn the forests to plant their crops. Not all true.
- Here is some basic info slash-and-burn agriculture.
Hmong people: Migrated out of China to South East Asia around 1800 because of war. During the Vietnam war, the US recruited Hmong people to fight against the Vietnamese in the CIA Secret War in Laos against communism. 30-40,000 Hmong died in war. Then the Laotian and Vietnamese people really hated the Hmong so they were refugees again. Basically these people have been refugees forever. In the 80's the US said 'okay, you can come live in the US' and now actually more Hmong live in the US than in Thailand (200,000 > 150,000)
So we visited a Hmong village a few weeks ago for a day trip.
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| Indigo dye painting - traditional craft. |
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| Where the Shaman does his work |
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| Crops in the hill side |
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| School in the village |
So most Hill tribe people used to grow a lot of opium. This was their cash crop. Now this is illegal and more heavily enforced. Some hill tribes still grow it, but not the ones we visit obvs. Another way hill tribes get money is through tourism. Parts of this are a little controversial. Some tribes relocate to somewhere they normally wouldn't live, and practice old traditions that they wouldn't otherwise just for tourists. Some see this as a sort of human zoo.
Example: Long neck Karen people.
The rings on the neck push the collar bone down and suppress the rib cage. Most women stopped doing this a while ago to protest against the exploitation of their culture. Other tribes started doing it again for tourism.
This is not the type of tourism we did. Many other villages have homestays where tourists can stay in a village and learn about their culture. This is more of an eco-tourism thing. The guides are hill tribe people and they are the ones that make the money.
When we went to the Hmong village we learned a little about the Royal Project Foundation.
The Royal Project is a program by the King, Queen etc. where they said to the Hill Tribes - "Hey stop growing opium and stop slashing and burning the forests so much. We will give you these animals and plants and crops to grow if you please stop!" It's a good thing. Many villages have embraced it. We went to one that did.
On one hand, the slash and burn agriculture is actually a pretty sustainable method of farming in terms of land management - but it has to be done correctly so the forests have time to grow back. Also it is complicated because most of these people aren't even citizens, and they don't own the land.
So the Hmong village we went to was neat. They grew a bunch of crops. They were into Ying and Yang and there were a lot of similarities to Ionia that I noticed. ...Basic things like living in a community and living sustainably. They believe in animism - where everything has a spirit. They have shamans, but they also have motorbikes.
Basically even though these villages are separate from the dominant Thai culture, it's 2013 and they aren't as much anymore. Not a bad thing.
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