Thailand's Hill Tribes

Karen. By far the largest group, the Karen (Kariang or Yang in Thai) live in hundreds of villages along the western border, mostly at middle elevations, and many more live across the border in Myanmar, where decades of war have pushed refugees into camps on the Thai side. The two main branches in Thailand are the Sgaw and the Pwo. Karen farmers practise rotational cultivation, clearing a field for a year or two and then letting it return to forest for years before using it again, a system now recognised by many researchers as sustainable when land is sufficient. Karen weaving is distinctive: in Sgaw villages unmarried girls traditionally wear long white tunics and married women switch to coloured blouses and skirts. Religion is mixed, with Buddhist, Christian and animist villages side by side.

Hmong. The Hmong came south from China through Laos in the 19th century and settled the highest ridges. The two main groups in Thailand are the Green or Blue Hmong, whose women wear pleated indigo batik skirts, and the White Hmong. Hmong embroidery and reverse appliqué are among the finest textiles in Asia, and family wealth was traditionally kept in silver neck rings and jewellery. Hmong New Year, around December, brings ball-tossing games, music and the best clothes of the year.

Akha. Akha villages are mostly in Chiang Rai province, often on high ridges. The Akha follow a body of custom they call Akhazang, the Akha way, which covers ancestor offerings, farming and daily conduct. Each village has a wooden gate at its entrance, rebuilt every year and carved with human figures, which marks the boundary between the village and the spirit world of the forest, and a tall swing used in a festival in late summer. Akha women’s headdresses, built up with silver coins, beads and dyed feathers, differ between subgroups.

Lahu. The Lahu call themselves Lahu; Thais often call them Musoe. Several subgroups, including the Lahu Na, Lahu Nyi and Lahu Shehleh, live in the far north and west, and a large share converted to Christianity in the 20th century. Lahu culture puts great weight on equality between husband and wife, and many villages are known for their music and hunting skills.

Lisu. The Lisu are a Tibeto-Burman people from the borderlands of Yunnan and Myanmar. Lisu women wear tunics of blue or green with a mass of coloured bands at the shoulders and sleeves, and at New Year, which falls around Chinese New Year, whole villages dance in circles around a sacred tree to the sound of gourd pipes.

Mien. The Mien, also known as Yao, came from southern China and live mainly in Nan, Chiang Rai and Phayao. Their religion is a form of Taoism brought from China, with priests who read ritual texts written in Chinese characters and paintings of the Taoist pantheon brought out for ceremonies. Mien women wear black turbans, long tunics with a ruff of red wool at the neck, and trousers embroidered in dense cross-stitch.

Other groups. The Lua or Lawa, a Mon-Khmer people, are among the oldest inhabitants of the north; Chiang Mai legends give them a place at the founding of the city and on Doi Suthep, and their villages are mostly in Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai provinces. The H’tin (also called Lua or Prai) and the Khamu live mainly in Nan province, near the Lao border. The Mlabri, a few hundred people in Nan and Phrae, were until recent decades forest foragers who moved camp often; the Thai name sometimes used for them, “spirits of the yellow leaves”, is considered disrespectful. Shan, Yunnanese Chinese and other communities also live in the mountains, alongside Northern Thai villagers.

Many hill people were not registered when Thailand’s borders and identity system were drawn up in the 20th century, and some arrived later as refugees from war in Myanmar and Laos. As a result, Thailand has one of the largest stateless populations in the world, and a large share of them are hill people. Without citizenship, people can face limits on travel outside their district, on owning land, on getting some jobs and on access to public services; children born in Thailand have often inherited the same uncertain status.

Registration drives since the 1970s have given ID cards to many, and in October 2024 the Thai cabinet approved a faster route to citizenship or permanent residence for about 483,000 long-term residents from ethnic minority groups, cutting a process that could take years to days in principle. Implementation is still under way, and many people are still waiting.

Most hill villages sit in areas that were later declared national forest, national parks or wildlife sanctuaries, often without the agreement of the people who already lived there. Rotational farming and highland villages have been blamed for deforestation, haze and soil loss, and some communities have been relocated; Karen families in Kaeng Krachan, who were evicted from their village inside the park in 2011, became a national symbol of the conflict, and the case of the Karen activist Porlajee “Billy” Rakchongcharoen, who disappeared in 2014 and whose remains were later found in the park’s reservoir, drew wide attention. Since then, laws and court rulings have moved slowly towards recognising community forests and traditional land use. When you hear blanket claims that hill people destroy the forest, remember that many villages manage their watersheds carefully and that lowland logging and commercial farming did far more damage.

In the mid-20th century the hills around the Golden Triangle were part of one of the world’s biggest opium-growing regions, and opium poppies were a cash crop for some Hmong, Lahu, Lisu, Mien and Akha villages, bought by traders and armed groups who controlled the trade. Thailand banned opium sales and smoking in 1959. From 1969 King Bhumibol’s Royal Project, and later the Doi Tung Development Project started by the King’s mother, helped highland villages switch to coffee, tea, temperate fruit, vegetables and flowers, and Thailand stopped being a significant opium producer by the end of the century. The cool-climate farms and gardens at Doi Ang Khang and Doi Tung are the visible results.

The Hall of Opium at the Golden Triangle tells the story well. Opium is illegal in Thailand, and the “opium sessions” once sold on cheap treks harmed both visitors and villages; any trek that still offers drugs is one to avoid.

The women photographed with stacks of brass coils around their necks are Kayan (sometimes called Padaung, a Shan name), part of the Karenni or Red Karen peoples of Kayah State in Myanmar. They are not Shan and not a Thai hill tribe. Most came to Thailand as refugees from fighting from the late 1980s onwards. The coils, put on in childhood and gradually lengthened, press the collarbone and upper ribs down rather than stretching the neck, and Kayan explanations for the custom range from beauty and identity to protection.

Around Mae Hong Son and, later, near Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, Kayan families were settled in villages set up for tourists, where visitors pay an entrance fee to walk among stalls and take photographs. Critics, including the UN refugee agency, have described these places as human zoos. Many residents have had limited freedom to travel or work elsewhere, much of the entrance money has gone to the businesses that run the villages rather than the families, and at times residents who were offered resettlement abroad were held back. Some younger women have stopped wearing the coils or never started, while others keep them, sometimes because the coils are their income.

We recommend not visiting the long-neck tourist villages, including the “hill tribe villages” sold on day tours that group Kayan women with members of several other peoples in one site. If you want to understand Kayan and Karenni culture, read the accounts of Kayan people themselves, or support organisations working with refugees from Kayah State.

Good village visits are possible, and many communities want them on their own terms. A few principles:

• Go with someone from the community. The best treks use guides from the villages they visit, or community-run homestay networks where the village decides how many guests it receives and keeps the money. Ask any operator how the village is paid. Our trekking guide covers routes and the practicalities.
• Ask before you photograph, and accept no. Never chase or pose children for pictures, and do not photograph shrines, altars or ceremonies unless invited to.
• Respect sacred places. Do not touch Akha village gates or the carvings on them, walk around rather than through them if you are unsure, and do not touch household altars, sacred posts or anything hung over a doorway.
• Do not hand out sweets, money or gifts to children. It teaches begging and harms teeth. If you want to give, give school supplies through the teacher or headman, or simply buy crafts.
• Buy directly and pay fairly. Textiles and silver bought from the person who made them do far more good than anything else you spend in the village.
• Dress modestly and follow your host. Accept food and drink when offered, ask your guide about house rules (some homes have areas guests should not enter), and keep evenings quiet.
• Keep groups small and avoid villages that receive several tour groups a day.

Start at the Hilltribe Museum & Education Centre in Chiang Rai, run by a Thai development organisation, which introduces each group and can arrange community-based treks. The Mae Fah Luang Art and Cultural Park in Chiang Rai shows Lanna and highland art, and the Hall of Opium and Doi Tung cover the opium years. In Tak province, the Doi Muser Hilltribe Market above Mae Sot is a roadside market where highland farmers sell produce and crafts. For walking, the areas around Mae Hong Son, Pang Mapha, Mae Sariang, Mae Chaem, Umphang and Nan have Karen, Lisu, Lahu, Hmong and Mien villages with community homestays, and the slopes of Doi Inthanon have Karen and Hmong villages selling coffee and produce. Our arts and crafts guide covers textiles and silver in more detail.