the Children of Blessing: Lahu tribe

*note: the following pictures are ones I've collected, but did not take myself. those will come later!







The Lahu are a strong and proud people, slow to trust other tribes, and dedicated to maintaining their unique ways of life. For this reason, they choose to settle their villages high up in the mountains, removed from towns and roads. Hilltribe history and lore paints them as famously fine hunters, and they live intimately and harmoniously with nature. This is one of the things that stood out to me the most, in the time we spent with the Lahu of Ban Yafu village. As we trekked through the forests and hills, our guide and new friend Ja Ha, was constantly stopping to point out plants and herbs that had medicinal properties or other uses for the Lahu. He was so full of knowledge of the land, which is sacred and deeply spirit-filled to the Lahu.

The Lahu were originally from Tibet and the Tibetan plateau area of China and have been migrating to bordering countries for the past 200 yrs. As an ethnic group, they number about 60,000 in Thailand, located primarly in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces. They are complex and diverse ethnically. In Thailand there are no fewer than six different Lahu tribes, some of whose languages are not mutually intelligible. The majority of Lahus in Thailand are Red Lahu, which is what the people of Ban Yafu, where we stayed, were. Red Lahu are pantheistic animists who follow a Dtobo, a messianic leader. There are also a significant number of Black, Yellow and Shehleh Lahus in Thailand, many of whom have been Christian for nearly one hundred years, after being converted by missionaries. Black Lahu are the most populous throughout Southeast Asia and theirs is considered to be the standard Lahu dialect.


Lahu are primarily subsistence farmers, growing rice and corn for their own consumption. While so many of the villages of other hilltribes in Thailand are becoming strongly influenced by Thai urban culture, the Lahu remain a strict, serious people governed by strong principles of right and wrong, every individual in the village answering to the common will of the elders. While less importance is placed on the extended family than in other hill tribe communities, the Lahu are still strongly committed to principles of unity and working together for survival. There was a strong tribal feel among the Lahu of Ban Yafu, and it seemed like most every person in the village, young and old, had a specific role. Some were tribal council and elders. Some were representatives of the village. there was a kind of witch doctor or spirit doctor, and spiritual leaders.


An interesting observance- Lahus "may have the most gender-equitable society in the world." This is something that definitely stood out to Luke and me during the time we spent in Ban Yafu. Ja ha was most often the one taking care of the kids while his wife was in the fields doing physical labor. Ja Ha’s son helped to cook the meals and clean the dishes. All of the daily activities are shared. The Lahu have a motto regarding gender equality, which states that “chopsticks only work in pairs.” This was a shocking and very welcome change to come upon, after so much time spent in mainstream Thai culture where women have a very specific and less-respected role in society (I’ll expound on this later )

The Lahu language comes from the Tibeto-Burman family and has no traditional written form, though missionaries have tried to create a Romanized transcription. They call themselves the “children of blessing.”
The concept of “blessings” is an integral part of Lahu daily life, rituals, spirituality and folklore, and manifests in the forms of successful hunting, bountiful harvest and long life. The Lahu look to many sources for these blessings, the main two of which are their ancestors and their God of creation, G'ui sha, who controls all other spirits.



Well, there is so much more for me to learn and write and share with you about the Lahu and our short but impactful experience with them, and I will try to do that more vigilantly. Next, I will write about two sacred and amazing gifts of nature to the Lahu: bamboo and rice, and the amazing stories they created for us.