Life at the top is the niche in which the Hmong have specialized. Master poppy growers, they exploit higher land and steeper slopes than other mountain peoples and move more frequently-often over considerable distances-in quest of big stands of virgin forest in which to clear large fields. Clever, curious, and hard working, they are ready to take advantage of new opportunities and techniques but resist attempts to infringe upon their interests. Though widely scattered in small communities over terrain that makes communication extremely difficult, they maintain contact and share a consciousness of their distinctiveness as a people, rarely intermarrying with non-Hmong.

Most of the Hmong settled in Thailand are of either the Blue Hmong or the White Hmong sup-groups.

Name and Language

The Blue Hmong call themselved Hmong Njua, Njua meaning "green," while the white Hmong call themselve Hmong Doew, or "White Hmong." These are but two among many sup-groups inhabiting a range extending from Thailand though Laos and Vietnam northward to the Yangtze River basin in China.

The diverse dialects spoken by these sup-groups are classified in the Miao-Yao-Pateng family. Several Hmong scripts have been devised but none is much used in Thailand. In addition to their own dialect, Hmong men are often able to speak Yunanese, some form of Tai, and languages of non-Hmong hill peoples.

In Thai, the Hmong are called Mong or Maeo, the latter derived from the Chinese name for the group, Miao which in English is sometimes written Meo. In Chinese writings, the charater Miao has long been used to designate groups of intractables, but the first time it seems to have been applied unambiguously to Hmong is in the 12th century account of tribes on the Human-Guizhou border, distinguishes Hnong from Iu Mien, Tai, and other groups.

Migration

Until the 17th century, the mountainous south was governed by native rulers, among whom no doubt were Hmong "kings," subject to the emperor of China. However, as the Manchu (Qing) pushed their authority southward, they instituted direct control exercised by ethnic Chinese officials. With increasing frequency though the 18th and 19th centuries, dissatisfaction among local people led to insurrections, which brought harsh repression, stimulating further uprisings more violently quelled. This, together with the prospect of prosperity opened by opium production, sent Hmong pioneers further south.

It was from Laos that Hmong first entered Thailand about a century ago, settling in Nan Province. From Nan and Laos, migrants moved south, and by the 1960s, many had settled in Petchabun Province. Insurrection there, however, caused an exodus, and now the greatest numbers of Hmong are found in Tak, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Nan. The total population in Thailand is about 80,000, excluding Hmong from Laos interned in refugee camps.

Attire

Blue Hmong women wear a knee-length, pleated skirt of batik cloth with an embroidered or appliqued lower border. The batik is made by applying molten wax to cloth with a metal tool to form the negative of the design and then, after dyeing the unwaxed areas to the desired shade, removing the wax from the cloth by boiling.

Puttees are worn on the calves, and the long, narrow apron covering the front of the skirt is secured at the waist with a wide sash of red, pink, or orange cloth. At times, additional sashes are wound about the waist, giving the wearer a hefty appearance.

The upper garment is a long-sleeved, waist-length jacket in black with elaborate embroidery along the opening in front and on the rectangular or swallow-tailed collar flap in back.

The hair is worn in a bun. This may be enlarged by the addition of a hairpiece to cover the crown of the head. On festive occasions, a headdress made of many pieces of black and white plaid cloth folded and drawn to a high peak in front may be worn.

White Hmong women wear long, loose trousers. The collar flaps on their jackets are rectangular, and the hair is drawn into a bun over the forehead. On special occasions, a pleated white skirt replaces the trousers and a high, cylindrical turban cover the head.

In both sub-groups, men's clothing consists of very ample, low-crotched, ankle-length trousers and a long-sleeved jackets heavily embroidered on to the panel which closes across the chest. Some jackets reach to the hips, others only to the abdomen. The waist is girded with a sash whose brightly embroidered ends drape in front. On the head, often partially or completely shaved, may be a cap with a red pompom.

Silver shows wealth and status. People of both sexes and all ages wear neck rings, often in concentric sets, as well as bracelets, chains, and various hanging ornaments.

Village

The Hmong are divided into clans, each identified by a name passed from father to son and each having its own customs. Clansmen are obligated to help one another. Men must marry outside their clans and women join their husbands' clans.

Hmong prefer large villages in which several clans are represented as this provides young folhs with a wider choice of marriage partners and everybody with greater security and fellowship. Kinsmen build their houses in a cluster and several such clusters, perhaps spread out over a large area, constitute one village.

Housing

The Hmong, house has an earth floor. The front door, which faces downhill, is indwelt by one of the spirits which protect the household. The Blue Hmong house has but this one door. In the White Hmong house, the front door is opened only on ritual occasions, a door in one gable end being used otherwise. The main house post, supporting one end of the ridgepole, is indwelt by another house spirit. At the front, to one side of the door, are bedrooms, where other house spirits abide. The rice pounder is inside and there are two hearths, each indwelt by a spirit, and on one of which fire is always kept burning. On the back wall opposite the front door are altars.

Household

Households may be large as married men continue to reside in their father's homes and under their authority. Children are indulged by parents and taught to respect and obey their elders. Sons set up separate households after their father's death or well before differences among household members develop to an open breach.

Ceremonies and Beliefs

Ritualists

By the time a man becomes a household head, he should be able to conduct rites honoring the house spirits. He may also have become a priest, learning curing ritual from a teacher, who gives him a coin in a bowl of water to be enshrined on a special altar in this home. The priest replenishes the water regularly and sacrifices to the priest spirit at the New Year.

More potent is the shaman, a man or woman chosen by shaman spirits, usually while he or she is suffering from a lingering illness. The shaman, too, sacrifices to his or her shaman spirit at a special altar in the home. Unlike the priest spirit, however, the shaman spirit possesses the shaman during curing ritual.

Souls

The household spirits protect the souls of people, livestock, crops, gold, silver, and money; even so, souls may escape and must be recalled. A person frightened by suddenly coming upon a snake loses one or more of his souls and will languish if they are not quickly restored. So, a ritualist goes with the person to the place he saw the snake, sacrifices a chicken, and calls the souls. Meanwhile, the person digs up from the spot some grubs, held to contain the souls, and these are brought back home.

Bridges

A lasting; unaccountable illness may by ascribed to souls' having wandered away. Hence, they must be recalled from a distance. One means is a bridge ceremony. The bridge may indeed be a bridge across a stream, but a similar structure, or perhaps simply a board, on a path outside the village may serve as well. A ritualist sacrifices an animal and calls the souls. A wayfarer, stranger, or some other person is asked to escort the patient across the bridge and explain that he found the patient in far county and has brought him home.

Marriage

Hmong marry around the age of 17. The prime time for courting is the New Year festival in December after the rice harvest, when boys make the rounds of the villages. Boys and girls dressed in their finest line up opposite one another and play catch with a cloth ball, those mutually attrated gradually pairing off.

A boy and his father must agree on his choice of a girl, and so must she. He may take her before the wedding, in which case he must send a representative the next day to tell the girl's family and to take over a wedding date, a bride price, and so on. The wedding and payment of the bride price may be deferred for some year.

The wedding begins at the groom's house. Offerings are made to the household spirits and the groom pays obeisance to his male elder, house spirits, and ancestors. The bride and groom with representatives from his family than go to her home, making offerings to hill, forest, and water spirits on the way. At the bride's home, offerings are made to the spirits, the groom pays obeisance to all her male elders, and representatives of both sides finalize the settlement in pigs, chickens, and silver. The bride is then brought to her new home, where offerings are made to introduce her to the house spirits and a feast is held honoring the representatives for their role in the proceedings.

Birth

After delivery, the placenta is buried in the froor of the home. The newborn still belongs to the spirit who sent it; only after three days is a child admitted to the world of men, named, and placed under the protection of the house spirit.

Funeral

A god grants each individual a license to live so long. As the expiration date approaches, the elderly prepare elaborate funerary garments to be buried in. At death, the deceased departs home on a journey and it is important that surviving spouse and children be present to provide a sumptuous send off, for if shamed by poverty in the afterworld, the dead return to trouble the living. Debts must be settled, instruction must be given on the course of the journey, and offerings of food and other necessary articles provided. On the day of burial, one or more oxen are sacrificed. Before the burial party sets off, the souls of the living are called to remain safely in the house and not to follow the deceased. As the sun starts to set, the body is laid in a grave at a good place on a mountain.

By-CHIANG MAI & THE HILL TRIBES, SANGDAD PUBLICATIONS Email : sangdad@asianet.co.th

The Akha raise their villages high in the mountains as bastions of refuge for those who follow in the way of their ancestor. Hunting, growing and gathering rice, establishing home and villages, receiving guests-indeed, nearly all aspects of living and dying-are conducted in a manner and attended with observances conforming to their unwritten tradition. This common inheritance, enshrined in the memory and speech of each individual, lives on in the community, whose welfare and harmony is the enduring concern of all: living leaders and followers and their ancestors, whom they recall by name. In the villages, they commune, nourishing and being nourished.

Name and language

Akha call them selves Akha. The Shen name for the group is Kaw, and the Thai l Kaw, where Kha is Lao For "slave," and l is Thai term of contempt.

The Akha language is classified in the southern division of the Lolo (Yi) branch of the Tibeto-Burman family. Literacy in the language is limited to the Chritian community. Some Akha also speak Shan or Northern Thai and Lahu.

Migraion

The probable homeland of the Akha is east of the Sip Song Pan Na in the mountains along the Black and the Red Rivers in southeastern Yunnan, where today live people the Chinese call Hani, among whom are included Akha. Over the centuries, this people has spread into Vietnam, Laos, and Burma, migration likely being accelerated by the chaotic conditions during the 19th century. Beginning around 1900 Akha have entered Thailand from Burma. Akha settlement has remained concentrated north of the Kok River in Chiang Rai Province, and it is only recently that villages have been founded in more southerly areas of Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai. The population in Thailand today is about 25,000.

Attire

The crowning glory of the Akha women is her helmet-like headdress, encrusted with silver and festooned with strings of beads and brightly dyed feathers and fur.

Her calves are encased in puttees, and slung low on her hips is a short skirt, reaching nearly in puttees, reaching nearly to the knees, which is plain in front and pleated in the back. Girding the waist is a sash, whose ends hang down the front of the skirt. A wrap, fastened at the side and suspended by a single strap over one shoulder, covers the torso from above the breasts to the naval. Over this is worn a long-sleeved, hip-length jacket.

The jacket, puttees, and sash are decorated with applique and embroidery in bright colors as well as with beads, seeds, shells, and silver.

A girl wears the skirt, the jacket, and a cap. As she grows up, she changes to adult attire by stages on the occasion of important ceremonies, taking first the chest wrap, next adding more beads and other ornaments to her cap, then wearing the sash, and finally assuming the woman's headdress.

Traditional wear for men includes loose trousers, a flat turban wound like a broad-brimmed hat, and a jacket, which may be decorated on the lower edges, the back, and the front with embroidery and applique.

Akha clothing is made from hand-woven, homespun cotton cloth dyed with indigo. On their way to and from the fields and at other times their hands are free, girls and women spin using a hand spindle, a traditional symbol of the distaff side of the tribe, which they set spinning by rolling on the thigh and than fling out and away to draw the thread.

Housing

The Akha house is raised on posts, though on a steep slope, the uphill side may about the mountain while the downhill side is high in the air. The roof sweeps down low over the side and the porches at either end, from one of which extends an uncovered platform. Nearby are a granary and a rice pounder.

In the interior, the uphill side is a area while the downhill side is the sleeping area. The latter is divided into two sections by a chest-high partition running from the port supporting the ridgepole at the center of the house to the main house post, which is in the middle of the downhill wall. Men sleep in the section closer to the uncovered platform, and it is in this end, of the house that guests are received. Male guests are excluded from the other end, the quarters of the women and children.

Tea is brewed and meat is cooked at the men's end, vegetable dishes and rice are cooked at one the hearths in the woman's end, and pig food is cooked at the other.

Ceremonies and Beliefs

Altar

The ancestral altar, either a shelf or a section of bamboo holding the first three sacred ears of rice cut at the most recent harvest, is placed high near the main house post on the women's side of the partition.

On days appointed for offerings, food and drink contained in bowls arranged on a small table are placed before the altar, the ancestors are invited to partake, and then the offering is distributed to and consumed by the members of the household, who on that day abstain from field work, hunting, and sexual relations. The officiant is normally the household head and the spirits invited are his parents, his father's parents, and his father's parents.

Leaders

Those who live in an Akha village must be under the protection of an ancestral altar and the authority of village leaders. The first among these is the priest, guardian of the tradition and usually related to his predecessor in the male line. Assisting him are elder of the lineages, of which there should be at least three, various spirit specialists, a blacksmith, and a secular headman, who deals with outsiders.

Lords of the Place

Transients in the timeless forest and mountains, men are destroyers, who to live must kill: hunting, felling trees, burning fields, and all this disturbs innumerable spirits. Thus, having found a suitable village site, the priest must first divine whether the spirit lords of that place will accept the settlers by dropping a raw egg. If the egg breaks, the spirits accept them. The priest's house is built on that spot and the other houses are arranged about it. Each year at altar raised outside the village, the priest leads the men of the community in rites propitiating these spirits.

Water

Vital yet powerful, water is brought to the village from a source at some remove. This is indwelt by a spirit, under the care of the priest, and tidily kept, for carelessness here might have unfortunate consequences for the entire village. The priest leads the men in cleaning the area and honoring spirit annually.

Gates

The village, stronghold of a few feeble humans, is surrounded by innumerable spirits, many bringing ills to man. Sacred gates, each consisting of two pillars supporting a lintel, stand at opposite ends of the village to divide the domain of the people from that of the spirits. Each year in a ceremony before planting, the priest and the men erect new gates and decorate them elaborately with charms and symbols of wealth, for human wealth is one thing spirits fear.

Outside the gates are banks of ceremonial weapons, which are plunged into the earth at the end of a festival held after planting. Carrying the weapons and shouting to expel spirits, the people proceed from house to house, collecting an offering at each one, until finally they arrive at the house of the priest, who feasts them on a buffalo or a pig.

At times when there is much illness, sacrifices may be made at the gates. Dog is held to be particularly effective in repelling spirits.

Adjacent to the gate are statues: large females opposed to smaller males as though copulating, the genitals greatly exaggerated. New statues are set up each year with the gates, and these too are protective, for like wealth, human sexuality is feared by spirits.

Swing

Each year in August or early September as the rice matures, the Akha hold their awing festival. After demolishing the previous year's swing, the men lash together four freshly cut trees to form a pyramid and from the apex, suspend a vine ending in an eye, though which a wooden seat is inserted. Everyone swings, but it is the women who are primary, and they dress in their best, budding girls blossoming into more adult attire. Feasting and merrymaking go on at high pitch through the four days of the festival; than, the swing is left undisturbed.

Courting Ground

A leveled plaza provided with benches, perhaps near the swing, is where young people gather in the evening to enjoy themselves singing, dancing, and courting. The belief is that sexual intercourse strengthens boys and matures girls, but also that when a girl has a baby, she should have a husband as well, so that while enthusiasm and experimentation are part of the proceedings, there are certain ground rules.

Marriage

When a girl and a boy have decided to many, he has a representative approach her father. If the match is acceptable, each party posts bond on the agreement. When the wherewithal for a feast is ready, the bride is bought to the groom's home and enters the men's end wearing a white skirt and a conical palm-leaf field hat. The presiding elder feeds them a boiled egg, they eat boiled chicken, and they are married.

During the feast which follows, the couple are playfully daubed with soot, mud, and dung by their friends to give them a foretaste of married life. Following the meal, they sit beneath the ancestral altar and are showered with blessings and cooked rice by the elders.

After marriage, the couple sleep in a little house near the groom's parent's home but take part in meals and ceremonies in the main house, the bride now integrated into the groom's lineage.

Birth

Women deliver at home assisted by their mother-in-law or other experienced women, but since women work right though pregnancy, many baby babies are born in the fields. The new-born is not picked up until it has cried three times.

Akha regard with horror the birth of twins or of deformed babies. Such children, deemed to be devils, must be devils, must be immediately destroyed and the parent are treated as pariahs. All work in the village stops while the priest and people undertake rites to purify the community, the affected lineage, and the couple.

Funeral

At death begins the transition to ancestorhood. A key figure is priest, who over the days and nights of the wake, gives the deceased directions to the several days and nights of the wake, gives the deceased directions to the village of the ancestors. The deceased is reminded of who wells there by the recitation of the names of all of his or her forefathers back though the sixty-or-so generations to the first Akha. This should be done by a son, as every man is expected to memorize his lineage ; however, the priest can fill the role because he knows the lineage of everyone in his village.

The spirits of all the Akha who ever lived are summoned to assist the deceased on the journey and to instruct him or her in the duties of ancestorship. At the end of funeral, the boat-shaped coffin is committed to the grave, visited the next day and than never again, but the following year the deceased is called to come and feast as an ancestor and to nourish the living.

By-CHIANG MAI & THE HILL TRIBES, SANGDAD PUBLICATIONS Email : sangdad@asianet.co.th

The lu Mien bear a culture that opens before them a path of dignity, achieved ultimately beyond death in a position of honor among the gods and spirits in the celestial kingdom. Through astuteness and industry in the present life, the individual acquires the wherewithal to faultlessly fulfill obligations to the living and the dead and to fittingly honor the gods and spirits so as to merit their esteem and their aid in further advancement. Iu mien culture emphasizes politeness, reserve and careful negotiation so as to discover common interests that will foster harmonious cooperation. Conflict is avoided, for it only wastes precious time and resources and diverts and the individual from the central takes of earning a living and gaining honor here and hereafter.

Name and Language

The language of the lu Mien linguists call Yao and classify in the Miao-Yao-Pateng family. This is usually placed in the great Sino- Tibetan super-family, which also includes such families of languages as Burmese, Chinese, and Tibetan.

Iu Mien are often able to speak Yunnanese or the closely related Mandarin Chinese, and literacy in Chinese has long been highly regard among them, sons being taught by fathers, and by tutors when available. An archaic form of Chinese is the liturgical language of lu Mien religion, occupying a place analogous to that of Pali in Buddhism and Latin in Christianity. Chinese characters are also employed in writing Yao.

In Yao, the word mien means people. In Chinese and Thai, the lu Mien are called Yao, and in Laos and Vietnam, they are called Man.

Man is an ancient Chinese word, meaning barbarian, which was applied to people the Han Chinese encountered but were unable to assimilate in their expansion to the south over the part few thousand years. In both Chinese and Lao, man may also refer to peoples other than lu Mien.

Yao, which may be derived from the lu in lu Mien,first appears as a name for the group in an account of the Man barbarians living along the Human- Guizhou border written about a century before the founding of Chiang Mai. By this time, lu Mien had probably also spread into Guangdong, Guangxi, and Yunnan, the other provinces of southern China where they are found today, as well as into northern Vietnam.

Migration

Movement further south probably begin during the 19th century, stimulated by the expansion of the opium trade and the Manchu(Qing) government’s reprisals against hill peoples in the aftermath of the Tai Ping, the Panthay, and other rebellions which wracked southern China in that period.

From Laos, some lu Mien entered Nan and what is now Phayao Province of Thailand in the 19th century, and greater numbers arrived after World War II, settling primarily in Chiang Rai. In Thailand today, the population is about 30,000 and settlements are located in Nan, Lampang, Phitsanulok, Chiang Mai, and Kamphaeng Phet, with the largest concentrations in the Mae Chan District of Chiang Rai and the Chiang Kham District of Phayao.

Attire

Traditional dress of the womenfolk consists of a large turban, trouser, and a long robe girt with a sash, all in dark blue or black, which sets off a bushy boa of bright red yam sewn about the neck and down the front of the robe. The sides of the robe are slit and the front panels are generally tucked up into the sash, bringing into view the beautiful embroidery covering the trousers.

Needlework is the feminine pastime. A pair of trousers is a project that occupies a woman, between household chores and fieldwork, for the better part of a year. Her skill is also displayed at the ends of the sash and the cloth forming the turban, on her menfolk’s clothing, on the caps and clothes she makes for her children, and on many other articles.

Sliver is the symbol of wealth and status, and at New Year’s, weddings, and special ceremonies, the family trove of bracelets, earrings, neck rings, and necklaces is trucked out to adorn the ladies f the house, and their turbans and robes are draped with gleaming strings of coins, chains, braid, and other ornaments, all made of silver. On such occasions an apron-like garment lavishly decorated either embroidery and silver is worn either at the waist or around the shoulders like a stole.

Traditional men’s garb includes loose trousers ands a double-breasted jacket. On special ritual occasions men don bright turbans and Chinese-style robes, and substantial amounts of money and effort may be invested in obtaining traditional goods from China. Particularly elaborate are the brocaded vestments worn by the ritual experts who preside at such ceremonies.

Village

Lu Mien culture counsels adaptation to the local political situation and prescribes no one form of village organization. In Thailand, lu Mien choose a headman, of their own or another ethnic group, to represent their village in accord with Thai government regulations.

Iu Mien culture specifies no communal structures, though communities cooperate in making improvements facilitate earning a living. On a mountain, an lu Mien village may not be below that of another ethnic group, and in a village, no house may obstruct the front door of anther or a clear line to the local spirit shrines, which must be above the village.

In the part lu Mien were highly mobile. While villages might remain in one place, inhabitants came and went as family heads were ever on the lookout for better land and opportunities to increase productivity to bear the costs of marriages and merit making.

Housing

The Iu Mien ritual center is the household altar. This faces the front door of the house, which opens away from the mountain and is used only on ritual occasions, such as when the bodies of the dead depart. Normally, access is though doors in either gable end of the house. At one end is the main room, where guests are received; on the other is a kitchen area with a rice pounder and two hearths, both indwelt by spirits. The area behind the altar is partitioned into bedrooms the house stands on the ground and has wooden or bamboo plank walls and a shingled or grass roof.

Household

Iu Mien favor large households. The ideal is for each son to bring his bride to his father’s home. While each family is a separate production unit, the ritual entity is the household, which is better able to absorb the expense of ceremonies when several families are contributing their resources.

To enlarge the household work force, lu Mien adopt children of any ethnic group, making payment to the children’s parents. Adoptees, who make up a fifth of some communities, are ritually integrated into the household head‘s lineage.

Ceremonies and Beliefs

Clans

As they themselves tell it, the origins of the lu Mien involved a hero or god named Pien Hung and an epic “crossing of the sea” far in the distant part. Many versions of what happened exist, some written down over a thousand years ago. In one, the lu Mien were forced by drought to leave their land and cross the sea boats. Many perished on the voyage, but some were saved by a god, whom Pien Hung promised would evermore be honored by the survivors, the twelve Iu Mien clans.

In another version. Pien Hung is a dragon dog, who volunteers to cross the sea to destroy an enemy of the Chinese emperor. Returning across the sea with the enemy’s head, he declines high state office, asking only to wed a lady of the court. Pien Hung and his wife then retire to the mountains and have twelve children. When the heroic dog dies, the emperor order his children, the founders of the twelve clans, to honor him and grants them license to cultivate the mountains in perpetuity.

Lineage

Iu Mien bear a clan name for life but, while well disposed toward fellow clansmen, they are not bound by obligations and restrictions as they are toward members of their lineage, a much narrower grouping of those able to trace a genealogical connection in the male line. The members of a lineage, living and dead, cooperate contractually. The older generation invests in merit-making ceremonies and marriages on behalf of the younger, expecting recompense before or after death. Prosperity and health attend the living who make offerings to and merit for their forebearers, while illness and misfortune are often attributed to dissatisfied ancestors.

The Celestial Kingdom

The felicity as the lineage spirits depends upon the place they have merited in a heavenly hierarchy governed by a number of great gods the lu Mien possess exact information on the correct protocol for approaching these gods. This is detailed in the liturgical manuals used by lu Mien major ritual experts, who orchestrate the lu Mien community in enacting the rites and instruct them in their meaning.

The teaching of this liturgy links scattered individuals as one people and has held this central position probably since the 14th century, when lu Mien religious thinking was influenced by Chinese Taoism.

In addition to great gods and ancestors, there are lesser spirits which may affect the living, often by causing illness. Iu Mien shamans and minor ritualists conduct rites to cure those so disturbed.

Marriage

Marriage is a momentous undertaking, crucial to augmenting both productivity and the lineage. Compatibility being essential to a stable union, young people are permitted to choose for themselves. A teenage girl is given her own bedroom and may have her boyfriend over for the night. Any children she may bear enhance her value ass a bride, and as a wedding can involve very heavy expenses, more than one child may be born before the necessary wealth is assembled.

In making a match, the most important criterion is the harmony of the birthday of the couple as determined with lu Mien astrological handbooks. If the match seems propitious, the families negotiate wedding arrangements, such as numbers of guests, days and pigs to be involved in feasting and the amount of the bride price and terms of payment. All details are entered in an agreement drafted in duplicate, duly signed and witnessed, retained by each party, and posted at the wedding.

A grand wedding consumes many days and pigs in feasting, first at the home of the bride and then at that of the groom. Escorted by a party of the agreed size, the bride, wearing an elaborate headdress of scarlet and embroidered cloths and long fringe draped from a large triangular frame, is received at the groom’s home with much pomp and feasting. At the auspicious moment, she is introduced though the spirit door, and in the evening begins the central ceremony, in which the couple pay obeisance to each guest. The next morning the couple drink wine mixed by the presiding ritual expert, who then preaches on lu Mien tradition and the duties of married life.

By-CHIANG MAI & THE HILL TRIBES, SANGDAD PUBLICATIONS Email : sangdad@asianet.co.th

Beyond Doi Suthep rise other peaks, myriad mountains ranging down from Tibet and China. These highlands are home for many peoples, among them Iu Mien, Karen, Akha, Lahu, Hmong, and Lisu, designated as the hill tribes. All are relative newcomers at Thailand’s northern gateway.

Among them, as among the Tai, the staff of life is rice, which is grow mainly on mountainsides in clearings burned in the forest. However, the soil loses fertility fast, so new fields must be made regularly, and thus a large area of forest is required to support a few people. As a result, hill people are scattered and tend to move often. Communities are small. Houses are built to be used a few years and then abandoned. Possessions are limited in size and quantity by the difficulties of transport over rugged terrain.

Though adrift in the wilderness, theirs is an orderly way of life. They obtain respect, support, and fellowship and find convivial friends and suitable spouses thanks to the tribal identity they flaunt. Each tribe holds itself unique. Each sets itself off strikingly by the dress of its womenfolk. Each has its own language, customs, and usages and its singular blend of belief, rite, and myth. The sharing of such uniqueness is the basis of communal life, and nearly all mountain villages are dominated by a single ethnic group.

While their villages may be remote, hill people are by no means cut off from the lowlands and exchange of goods and ideas has always been important. A commodity prominent in hill trade for over a century now has been opium, for so enormous was the demand in China at one time that even hill folk were able to enter the market. It is a fine cash crop, and spread like wildfire among Lu Mien, LaHu, Hmong, and Lisu. The demand is insatiable; the price is high; the product is easy to store and transport. A subtropical flower, the poppy needs cool weather, found in Southeast Asia only at high altitude, where tribal people are prepared to dwell. It needs a tremendous amount of labor, which tribal people, having few other opportunites, are willing to invest.

Though not always free of friction, the relations of the tribes people in Thailand with lowlanders and with the government have been relatively peaceful. A century ago when there was plenty of forest, the few tribal people paid their tax to the prince and followed their way of life undisturbed. Nowadays, there are a lot of tribal people and the forest is fast disappearing. The Royal Family, government agencies, and other groups are working closely with hill people to find viable ways they may earn a livelihood in conformity with national forest conservation and opium suppression policy, and administrative, health, and educational services are being extended to the tribes.

Chang Mai, which means ”new city”, stands on the Ping about 300 meters (1,000 feet) about sea level at the foot of the mountain Doi Suthep. The favorable geomantic characteristics of the spot and the appearance of various good omens there led King Meng Rai to choose it as the site for his new capital, which he began building just before Songkran in A.D.1298.

He acquired the site some years earlier by defeating the Mon king at Hariphunchai (now called Lamphun), who had previously ruled the Ping valley. This conquest made him a man to be reckoned with, for by force of arms and the forging of alliances he had already become master of the Mekong Basin from Chiang Rai and Chiang Saen north to the Sip Song Pan Na.

He went on to beat the Mongol armies sent to reckon with him, thus securing for Chiang Mai recognition by the Mongol emperor of China, so that by his death in A.D.1317, the ground had been cleared for the Lan Na Kingdom.

However, with Meng Rai died the alliances holding the embryo state together, and it remained for King Keu Na, who rued at Chiang Mai from 1355 to 1388, to firmly establish it. He inaugrated a golden age lasting two centuries during which Buddhism flourished and meuang culture attained its distinctive character.

The greatest ruler of this era was King Tilok (r. 1441-1487), but under him began a series of wars in which Lan Na and the Sianese kingdom of Ayutthaya to the south fought for control of the Chao Phraya basin. This warfare so depleted the two states that in the 1562s, both fell victim to Burma.

While Ayutthaya recovered, Lan Na disintegrated and Chiang Mai remained in the Burmese orbit, suffering repeated cycles of rebellion and repression. The longest period of independence was the second quarter of the 18th century under Chao Ong Kham, a Leu prince exiled from Luang Phra Bang.

In the 1760s, the Burmese hammer again struck, crushing Chiang Mai and destroying Ayutthaya. While Burma was distracted by Chinese invasions, Siam was reestablished at the mouth of the Chao Phraya, first at Thonburi and than at Bangkok. In 1774, some disaffected local leaders, among tham Prince Kawila of Lampang, went over to the Siamese and joined in the struggle against Burma and her allies. Fighting went on, frequently around the walls of Chiang Mai, until 1804, when with the fall of Chiang Saen, Siamese hegemony over the principalities of what is now northern Thailand was undisputed.

Decades of war devastated the city and the villages; most of the people were gone : fled, killed, or carried off captive. To repopulate his realm, Prince Kawila, who had been instated as Lord of Chiang Mai by King Rama I of Siam, launched raids west of the Salween and north as far as the Sip Song Pan Na and settled many of the captives taken in Chiang Mai.

Though instated by the Siamese king, Prince Kawila and his successors had a good deal of autonomy. As the 19th century wore on and the threat of imperialism loomed ever larger, this freedom caused increasing uneasiness in Bangkok, where it was feared that involvement of British concerns with the lords of Chiang Mai concerning logging concessions would bring Siam into conflict with Great Britain.

In the 1870s, Bangkok sent the first of its commissioners to Chiang Mai to supervise government affairs. This turned out to be an early step in a thoroughgoing reform ofgovernment in Siam, in which Chiang Mai continued to serve as a testing ground. Gradually, the meuang organization was dismantled, the local nobility were eased aside, a standardized system of government administration was instituted, and by the arrival of the railway in 1921, Chiang Mai was instituted as a province in the nation.

By-CHIANG MAI & THE HILL TRIBES, SANGDAD PUBLICATIONS Email : sangdad@asianet.co.th

Wat Chiang Man

Dating back to the foundation of the city, This monastery occupies a site in the northeast quarter where once the royal stronghold stood. It was probably a palace monastery, similar to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in the Bangkok. The main hall and the library in back testify to the skill of the Northern Thai woodcarver. Also in the back is large stupa in the Northern style, surrounded by life-size statues of elephants. An inscription on stone near the entrance to the main hall gives a brief historical of the town and the monastery.

Wat Phra Sing

This monastery in the western part of the city is named after its principal image, the Phra Sing, the most renowned in the whole of northern Thailand. This Chiang-Saen-style image is enshrined in a small but lovely hall, named the Wihan Lai Kham , noted for its elaborate ornamentation and for its murals portraying stories from Buddhist literature and showing interesting details of costume and daily life in the Chiang Mai of an earlier day.

Wat Chedi Luang

What remains of an immense stupa, chedi luang in Thai, standing to the south of the city’s center Lends its name it this monastery. Built in the 15th century, the stupa was damaged by an earthquake in A.D. finest in Chiang Mai. At the monastery’s entrance stands a great old tree, beneath which the City Pillar of Chiang Mai has been installed.

Monasteries Outside the Wall

Wat Ku Tao

This monastery, Located north of the walls, takes its name from its principal image, the Phra Ku Tao, held to be one of the most beautiful in northern Thailand. About 500 years old, it is among the largest cast images in the country, Here also is an unusual stupa : a series of bulbous forms stacked one upon another and diminishing in size from bottom to top, in each of which are niches for statues. This is thought to have been constructed in A.D.1613 to receive the remains of a Burmese governor of Chiang Mai.

Wat Chet Yot (Wat Photharam)

To the northwest of the wall is this shrine of the sacred fig tree, under which the Lord Buddha achieved Enlightenment. On the roof are seven spires, Chet Yot in Thai, whence the name. It was built to its present form during the reign of King Tilok in celebration of the 2000th year of the Buddhist Era. Twenty years later, in a.d.1477, the Eighth World Buddhist Council convened there. The shrine is noted for the intersting structure and sensitively wrought reliefs.

Wat Suan Dok (Wat Buppharam)

To the west of the wall was once a spacious flower garden (Suan Dok) which in A.D.1372 King Keu Na dedicated to religion to serve as the residence of Sumana Thera, a venerable monk from the kingdom of Sukhothai to the south who founded an order which long enjoyed a special relationship with the king of Chang Mai. Relics brought by him were enshrined in the main stupa, adjacent to which are numerous smaller stupas containing the remains of members of Chang Mai’s royal family. The roof of the main hall, the largest in the North, is a magnificent sight.

Wat Umong Thera Chan

Beyond Wat Suan Dok id a Buddhist retreat center set on a tract of peaceful foresed land. On the grounds is a very old monastery which King Keu Na refurbished and there constructed an underground chamber ( Umong ) formed like ground for the use of a learned monk names Thera Chan, whose advice was often needed when he had disappeared into the mountains to meditate in caves.

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep

Perched on an eminence of the mountain west of the city is the monastery whose name is practically synonymous with Chang Mai. Pilgrims from everywhere climb the naga staircase to the large stupa built in A.D.1383 by King Keu Na to enshrine a portion of the relics of the Lord Buddha (Phra That) which Sumana Thera brought to Chang Mai. There is a fine view of the city and the Ping vally stretching out 700 meters (2300 foot) below.

By-CHIANG MAI & THE HILL TRIBES, SANGDAD PUBLICATIONS Email : sangdad@asianet.co.th

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