Ethnic minorities
living in the mountainous regions of Northern Thailand
are often called hilltribes,
or in the common Thai vernacular, chao khao (mountain people). Each
hilltribe has its own language, customs, mode of dress and spiritual beliefs.
The Lisu
aka Lisaw people are a Tibeto-Burman ethnic group of semi-nomadic origin who are believed to have originated in eastern
Tibet during the
past 300 years. Their subsistence was based on paddy fields, mountain
rice, fruit and vegetables. With the introduction of the opium poppy as a
cash crop in the early 19th century CE, many Lisu communities were able to
achieve economic stability. This lasted for over 100 years, but the opium
production has all but disappeared in Thailand and China due to the interdiction
of the production.
Perhaps the
best-known subgroup of the Lisu minority is the Flowery Lisu hilltribe in Thailand. The women are
notable for their brightly coloured dress. They wear a multi-coloured
knee-length tunic of red, blue, or green with a wide black belt and blue or
black pants. Sleeve shoulders and cuffs are decorated with a dense applique of
narrow horizontal bands of blue, red and yellow. For headdresses, Lisu girls and women wear black, flat circular hats with coral tassels, strings of beads, tiny pompoms and other elaborate accessories (e.g. metal flowers, small stars, pins).
The historic Lisu religion is animism, a belief that
all things are embodied with spirit, ancestor worship, and living in harmony
with nature and all beings. Over the years many of them have converted to
Buddhism and more recently Christianity. Yet even the converts express their spirituality
with a unique mixture of the old and the new.
With
their elaborate tribal dress, ceremonies, belief systems and customs the Lisu
are among the most fascinating of the ethnic minority tribes in Southeast Asia.
Along with the H'mong,
they have retained their culture and autonomy from outside influences
remarkably well as they have been exposed to forces like missionary conversion
and globalisation.
High-res portrait photographs with full exif data, precise geotags and technical details in Matt Hahnewald's
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