Thailand Hilltribes

 The Lawa (Lua)

• Probably the least known of the northern Thailand mountain minorities the Lawa are probably the most interesting. The Lawa were the first people to inhabit the Chiang Mai valley in historic times and are 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 the Chiang Mai city area and only retain some of their language, or they have been marginalized into 'hilltribe' villages in the Mae La Noi and Mae Chaem ares. They might sometimes be seen in the market at Mae Sariang. These 'hilltribe' Lawa are mixing and intermarrying with the neighboring 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 are similar to the Karen except the women wear a short sarong with a 'lightning' pattern, wear a lot of brightly colored beads around their necks, and can occasionally be seen with black lacquered leg bands made of cane. Their language is of the Mon-Khmer group and they have many rituals and spirits of which the Karen are very afraid.

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