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Hill tribe or “chao khao” (chao means people and khao means mountain in Thai) are known as a group of people who live in the border and highland zones in China, Burma, Laos, and Thailand.

These people live mainly in the highlands and each group or tribe has their own distinct culture, lifestyle, religion, language, art, lifestyle and dress code. According to many authors (Cohen 1995; 1996; 2001; Hall and Lew 1998; Cummings 2005; Robin 2009) these people had travelled from the southern part of China and entered Laos, Burma, Vietnam and stopped in Thailand. Rajani (2002) argues that these tribes have moved to Thailand mainly due to their traditional nomadic lifestyle - moving around from one place to another on a 7 year cycle rather than settling down in one location due to their farming technique which is known as “slash and burn” (see Section 3.3 the occupation of Karen and Hmong people), coupled with other reasons such as political, and economic problems and other social pressures in their native lands (McKinnon 2003; Eversole et al. 2005; Hall and Patrinos 2006; Evrard and Leepreecha 2009).

Tribes are referred to differently according to their race, language and ethnicity and each has many different names (Tribal Research Institute (TRI) 2007). Nevertheless, these groups are generalised as hill tribe mountain people or people of different cultures (Rajani 2002). Moreover, observations (Charles et al. 1961; Nadel 1995; and Parry 2007) suggest that hill tribe peoples live in societies that appear to be distinct and different from many contemporary societies, Thai society as an example. Wall (1996) and Cummings (2005) claim that hill tribes tend to have low standards of living. This argument is supported by McKinnon (2003) who describes the stereotype of hill tribe people as “forest simpletons”.

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Cohen (1996) points out that hill tribes are not a group or tribe „returning to‟ or „rediscovering‟

their roots. In contrast to many indigenous and first nation people in other countries, many tribes continue, to a great extent, to retain their original culture in their day to day life (Rajani 2002;

Ministry of Interior of Thailand 2008 (MIT)). This idea, however, is not only supported by Thai researchers but by western researchers; Keyes (2003) and McKerron (2003) affirm that some of the hill tribes still maintain the culture and traditions of their ancestors and fortunately have been able to maintain their ethnic identity, with little change for over centuries. This can be seen through their architecture, dress, belief systems and rituals. In the reminder of this chapter, the following section reviews general details on hill tribe people specifically in Thailand and their relationship with Thai society.

3.2.1 General information on hill tribes in Thailand

Many different ethnic groups which are collectively known as „hill tribes‟ have been living in northern Thailand some for centuries and some for decades. According to Rajani (2002) the Thai authorities have categorised these hill tribe people in Thailand into nine major groups which are Karen, Hmong (Meo), Yao, Lisu, Lahu, Lawa, Akha, H‟Tin and Khamu. Table 3.1 shows a recent official Tribal Population survey:

Table 3.1 Hill tribe population in Thailand Source: Social Development Center (2008)

Hill tribe groups Approximate population

Karen 438,450

Hmong 151,080

Lahu 102,371

Lisu 37,916

Yao 44,017

Akha 65,826

Lawa 21,794

H‟Tin 42,782

Khamu 10,519

Total population 914,755

The hill tribe communities are mainly scattered in the 20 provinces of northern and north-western Thailand, the highest proportion of the hill tribe population is found in Chiang Mai province (25.5% of this population group). Mae Hong Son province has the highest ratio of the total hill tribe population to Thai nationals (53%), Tak province has 22%, Nan and Chiang Mai are next with 13% and 11% respectively (TRI 2007). Some groups of hill tribe such as Karen

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and Lawa have lived in northern Thailand for centuries, while other groups are more recent arrivals such as the Hmong, Akha, Yao/Mien, Lahu, Lisu, Khamu and H‟tin, around 1890 to 1974 (TRI 2007).

Ethnic minority groups traditionally live on the edge of Thai society (Toyota 2005). However, there are an increasing number of hill tribe people in Thailand in recent decades that have shown their willingness to participate in development programmes with the hope of becoming closer to mainstream Thai society (Wijeyewardene 1990; Aguettant 1996; Buadang 2004). Now, these hill tribe people are settled in Thailand and some have legal status as Thai citizens but some do not (see below section) (Kasper 1999; Keyes 2003).

3.2.2 Relations of hill tribe people in Thai society

Hill tribe people are often the victims of violence from other groups and can find themselves alienated from Thai society as a whole (Cooper 1979; McKinnon 2003; Pinsarn 2006). They used to receive many negative comments from outsiders and lowland Thais, the main reason being that they were originally animists and this is problematic for the Thai nation which is predominantly Buddhist (Cohen 1996; Rajani 2002; Leepreecha 2005). Moreover, in the past decade, hill tribe areas have been marked as the most underdeveloped areas / communities both by the government and in the eyes of many Thai people (Pipithvanichtham 1997; McKinnon 2003; Delang and Wong 2006). As a result, tribal people have relocated themselves, to getaway from all the negative comments, to live in the central area of Chiang Mai and some have managed to move to live in major cities like Bangkok where they try every way they can to survive (Enrard and Leepreecha 2009; Robin 2009).

This migration to the major cities was when issues of prostitution and drugs became their trademarks (Buadang 2005). Not only has the government realised the negative impacts resulting from the dislocation of these hill tribe peoples but they are also concerned with other problems such as opium cultivation, drug addiction, national security issues, conservation of natural resources and environmental degradation (Tan 1975; Tapp 1986; Thai Development Research Institute (TDRI) 1994; McKinnon 2003; TRI 2007). Therefore, they reached an agreement with the hill tribes that they would settle down in places where they can be monitored (Leepreecha 2005). A hill tribe population registration system was then introduced (in the 1980s) and by registering, individuals had the opportunity to become full citizens (Panishjarean 1993). However, the hill tribe population registration of each destination does not allow tribal people who are not qualified (this could be due to various reasons such as no proof of residence, no recommendation letter from Thai citizen, no proof of employment, not enough length of stay in Thailand) to register, even though they are living in that area (Leepreecha

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2005). The information obtained during the data collection stages revealed that being recognised as citizens is what most hill tribe people need.

As mentioned, hill tribe people live throughout Thailand, but mainly scattered in the Northern part. Despite various locations, each tribe managed to hold on to their own tribe characteristics.

The following section highlights characteristics of Karen and Hmong tribe, respectively.