|
The original inhabitants of northern Thailand.
Probably the least known of the northern Thailand mountain minorities the Lawa are probably the most interesting. Books on the hilltribes tend to overlook them, and most anthropologists choose the more colourful groups for their PhD dissertations. The Lawa were the first people to inhabit the Chiang Mai valley in historic times and referred to in myth and legend. The Phu Sae Ya Sae or grandfather, grandmother spirits ceremony in which the good represented by Buddha, overcomes evil represented by a medium in a cannibalistic trance, is still performed annually every June near Chiang Mai city and has its origins in ancient Lawa ritual. Ancient grave sites and remnants of old settlements indicate a sophisticated people inhabited the area before the Thai arrived seven hundred years ago.
Today the Lawa have either fully assimilated into Thai society as in some villages in the Chiang Mai city area and only retain some of their language, or they have been marginalised into hilltribe villages in the Mae La Noi and mae Chaem areas. They might sometimes be seen in the market at Mae Sariang. These hilltribe Lawa are mixing and intermarrying with the neighbouring Karen. They are not migratory, like many of the hilltribes, but live in settled villages that have been there for sometimes hundreds of years. They cultivate wet padi rice and sell vegetables and forest products to the local markets. In dress they sre similar to the Karen except the women wear a short sarong with a lightening pattern, wear a lot of brightly coloured beads around their necks, and can occasionally be seen with black lacquered leg bands made of cane. Their language is of the Mon-Khner group and they have many rituals and spirits of which the Karen are very afraid. According to some they may have been affiliated to the Wa at some time in the past, and although the Lawa and the Lua are usually assumed to be the same, there is evidence that they were quite separate ethnic groups.
Other topics are in Hill Tribes Category
 The Hmong
Other minorities
The long necked Karen.
The Lisu.
The Yao or Mien are the most 'Chinese' of the minorities.
|
