The real story of Thailand’s Akha tribe
One of the most intriguing and colourful items on any Northern Thailand tourist brochure is the attraction of the region’s hill tribes. Their distinctive traditional dress and bizarre headdress can be seen splashed all over postcards, and tour buses and trekking groups routinely troop through their villages. Photos are taken, a few pieces of their unique silver jewellery and handicrafts are purchases and then they are once again left to their poverty and isolation.
The truth is, many of the hill tribes remain marginalised minority groups who live in abject poverty as subsistence farmers in the hills of the North. Many are ‘citizens in limbo’, without IDs or rights and prefer to quietly get on with their peasant-like existence undisturbed. For tourists it’s a quaint chance into the lifestyles of rural Asian tribes unchanged in a hundred years but for these people life is a question of harsh survival on the edge of society.
There are more than half a dozen tribes, each with their own customs, languages, dress and standing, but the most downtrodden and poorest of the lot are arguably the Akha. However, they also have one of the most distinct characters and their powerlessness has brought them particular attention among charity workers, missionaries, anthropologists and the general public who find them desperately hawking their goods at night markets or escaping their village as young adults to seek work in the city.
The Akhas, often by the Thais called ‘Egor’ (a derogatory name) have one of the lowest status levels in Thailand. There are even other hill tribes who look down on them. Originating from Tibet, the Akha migrated south into Burma, Laos and Thailand more than a century ago, along with the other hill tribes. Persecution under the military regime in Burma caused many more to arrive in Northern Thailand as refugees over the past few decades, and though many have lived here since childhood they remain stateless and subject to exploitation from drug lords, abuse by corrupt and immoral police, as well as being considered worthless peasants by many Thai people.
The Akhas speak a Lolo-Burmese language and some people think they originally came from Yunnan in China, for there are many communities living there too. The Akha language was never written and this resulted in not having any writing of their history. The history known of them was passed on mouth by mouth from generation to generation. Nowadays civil rights activists who try to improve the miserable living standards of the Akha people, have created a system making it possible to write the Akha language.
The majority of the Akha villages are to be found in the mountains of Chiang Rai province and there are about 300,000 Akhas living in Thailand, but they seldom leave their immediate district. Typically they are subsistence farmers who cultivate mountainside vegetables, a little rice and raise animals such as pigs and chickens. Some villages have been lucky enough to be electrified, but some don’t even have running water and can only be reached by a treacherous motorbike journey. Their houses are simple bamboo and grass structures accommodating an entire family. One of the main features of Akha villages is the giant swing, constructed from three long poles, and used for their memorable swing festival each year.
There are still some Akha villages to be found in the north which are not transformed into tourist attractions. One of those villages is in Chiang Rai’s Mae Yao district. Visiting this village really was an unforgettable experience as I could see how these people really lived, undisturbed by crowds of tourists invading their village. The village is perched on the top of a mountain and there was no electricity and tap water. For water the women went down to the only well and filled big buckets. Daily the women went down four or five times to get water this way. Most of the men worked on the surrounding rice and tobacco plant fields, starting at seven in the morning until seven in the evening for as little as 100 baht per day - well under the minimum wage.
It was an honour to me being invited to the party of an Akha child’s first birthday. A big black pig was slaughtered and its liver studied by two elderly Akha men believing they can predict the future this way. Fortunately it seemed my future was going to be prosperous. The women prepared the food. Akha food mainly consists of plain rice, cooked vegetables with salt and roasted fish and pork. It is not spicy like Thai food. Really delicious is the ’Sabier’ which is minced pork with lots of herbs added, packed in banana tree leaves and heated in glowing charcoal. During the meal the people had lively conversations and after smoked cheap Burmese cigars. The children played football on the little square in front of the church and the women kept on bringing more food and fruit. One thing I didn’t know was that they prepared dog meat early in the morning. They offered me some while telling me it was beef, so politely I took some and ate it.
There were only two buildings made out of bricks, the Catholic Church and the house of the Akha priest! Many of the Akhas have been converted to Christianity, but this is somewhat controversial and many have questioned the aggressive erosion of their culture and over intrusion of missionaries, who sometimes even take the children out of homes in the belief they are offering them a more civilised upbringing. Somehow it was strange to see how the villagers practiced their original beliefs while on Sunday going to the church. Originally the Akhas believe in many spirits, good and bad ones. In this village it was clear that their own culture could exist next to Catholicism. This is not always the case as often the Akhas seem to abandon their own unique and fascinating culture due to the pressure put on them by the Christian religions.
The erosion of their culture is unfortunately a reality of poor meeting rich, and many young Akha girls have abandoned their village obligations to seek work in the cities, but without ID cards some resort to prostitution or under-paid massage jobs. Even more devastating was the tendency for young men to be recruited as drug runners for the drug lords across the border in Myanmar. The ill-conceived War on Drugs initiated by Prime Minister Taksin Shinawatra in 2003 left more than 3000 people dead, summarily executed (by both sides) without any legal protection. Many of them were Akha.
The future of the Akha is uncertain as the modern world creeps further into rural Southeast Asia. Many prefer to be left alone on their hilltops to get on with their subsistence lives. Some government projects, such as the King’s Royal Project, have been successful in creating agricultural opportunities for the hill tribes and eradicate the practice of opium production, but the Akha are an maverick tribe who have found themselves last in line for these benefits. The missionaries have had the largest impact on changing their lives but it’s difficult to see how they can retain parts of their peasant culture with the outside world constantly knocking on their village entrance doors.
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