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About Hill-tribesAbout hill tribes people
The majority of these ethnic people earned their living by agriculture and livestock. In 16th - 18th centuries most of these ethnic minority groups cultivated opium as a cash crop and grew some other crops such as rice, corn and beans for consumption. Until late nineteen century the United Nations imposed the Thai government to ban opium production in Thailand and some other Asia countries. Since then they were forced to quitted opium cultivation on the mountain regions which imposed them into extremely difficulty situation. A large number of tribal people are suffered and changed their traditional cultivation for consumption into cultivation for economic which consequently led to deforestation on the mountain regions for expansion of cultivation areas. Since these ethnic minority people earned their living by agriculture and livestock they are encountering various difficulties situations, such as restriction of cultivation, taking advantages by dealers which caused them extremely poor. The problems encountering by tribal people of Thailand
Thailand is democracy country and peaceful country when compare with our neighbor countries Therefore, Thailand is overwhelmed by political asylums or illegal migrants due to political and economic problems. A large number of refugees and migrants from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia illegally migrated to Thailand and brought many communicable diseases such as, Malaria, Diarrhea, ARI, Tuberculosis, Hepatitis etc. and difficult to surveillance and control the diseases. Restriction of cultivation on the mountain regions Many young naive girls who migrated to the cities are overwhelmed by hegemonic culture and modernization societies and encountering misplaced and difficult reconstruct themselves into a new society properly which consequently led them into sex commercial, drug trafficking and mostly end up by Aids victims. Forced to leave their communities due to forest preservation and national parks expansion policies occurred frequently in many different areas. In February 1997 over 850 tribal people evacuated from their communities by forest ranger officers in Lumpang province, in March 1999 more than 50 tribal people both men and women from pangdeang village, Chiangdao district were arrested and sentenced to jail on charged of deforestation. In February 2000 a large number of Hmong tribe from Pua district, Nan province invaded and occupied by the government officers, these phenomena are happening in many different hill-tribes villages which obviously demonstrated human rights violations. Hill-tribes people are being treated unfair in many different forms either forced to leave their communities or evacuated. Discrimination and prejudice are also occurring everywhere. Social status problem Social status or legal rights problem is another important issue that caused tribal trapped into difficulty situations. According to Center for the Coordination of Non-government Tribal Development Organization (CONTO) and world concern Thailand studied indicated that there are 40% of tribal population lacked of legitimate document or Thai citizenship. Without having legitimate document is impossible for job opportunity and traveling (Demographic and Social Survey of Tribal People, September 1999) Ethnic minority of Thailand have been along historical social victims/social scapegoat and development victims. Media also constructed or formed negative ethnic minority stereotypes or images and present hill-tribes people as drug baron, forest destructors which make them excluded from the Thai society and deprived them access to available assistance resources. Migration A result of Tribal Research Institute studied showed that a large number of limited education tribal people migrated into urban areas for better employment and development opportunities. They reported that there are more than 20,000 of tribal people working as unskilled labors in the cities with minimum wage. This number or statistic is recorded by labor department office in the north of Thailand, the actual number is triple. These ethnic minority migrants are typically employed in occupation that the Japanese labeled as “3K” works are – hard work, dirty work, high risk work and low pay (Kitsui, Kitanai and Kilen) or in English is “3D works” – difficult work, dirt work and dangerous work. These of works are includes gas fillers, constructors, parlor massagers, dish cleaners, waitress/waiters and sex workers. Commercial sex or prostitution Many human trafficking protection organizations reported that a large number of tribal young naive girls are involved in sex commercial. The U.S state department estimated that anywhere from 700,000 to 4,000,000 persons are trafficked annually worldwide, and approximately 50,000 women and children’s were trafficked annually by human traffickers for sex exploitation into the United States. Women are particularly vulnerable to this slavery-like practice due largely to the persistent inequalities they face in status and opportunity worldwide. Many of them trapped into a big debt and forced to work without payment for a year or longer (A.U.S. Department of State Trafficking Report Release 2000) Many other reliable resources also reported that a large number of ethnic minority young naive girls from rural areas being sold as cattle or animal. The estimated number of ethnic minority women and girls from the north of Thailand working as prostitutes in the cities around 20,000 - 28,000 and increasing dramatically, Thailand has been human trafficking transit country. In each year at least 5,000 ethnic minority women and children were sold into Thailand from neighborhood countries. Some of them being sold into Japan and many other countries by human traffickers in various forms, such as pretended married, job offered etc. HIV/AIDS and illicit drug problems Even if Thailand is known as success in fighting HIV/AIDS country in the past six years, however, the challenge now is to ensure that this success does not lead to complacency and inaction. The prevalence of the disease is still relatively high, affecting many lives, and Thailand is still vulnerable to a resurgence of a generalized epidemic. If Thailand falters in its effort to control the disease, the impact would be far-reaching, dealing a major blow to the global response to HIV/AIDS, to UNAIDS, and to the many countries of the world struggling to follow Thailand’s example, bringing into question the effectiveness of the prevention-based paradigm
The age group that had the highest proportion of HIV/AIDS infections was the 30-34 year old group at 25.80% and the second highest was the 25-29 year old group at 25.32%. The major risk factor or caused of the infection was sexual intercourse (83.77%). The occupations of PLWHA (In descending order) were general employees (44.29%), farmers, unemployed, merchant, housewife, children, etc. Most of the reported case of AIDS also had other opportunities infections. The top 5 of such infections are as fellows
In 2004, the conscripts were being closely monitored for risky behaviors and condom usage. The results indicated that there was a rise of risky behavior when compared to the 1997 figures and the rate of condom usage was only 30-60%. For general company employees, 77-84% indicated that they had had sex, and only 15-33% of the people used condom. Likewise for vocational students, 21-32% indicated that they had had sex, and only 10-31% of them used condom. Globalization and materialism are overwhelming vulnerable ethnic minority’s life on the mountain regions, large number of naïve young people lured to the cities for seeking better life which easily fall to social pitfall and trapped in human traffickers, many of them involved in drug dealing, commercial sex and ended up by AIDS victims. Drugs situation A variety of insurgent of ethnic minority groups in Burma are involved in drug production and trafficking however, it is believed that all of the amphetamine type of stimulant tablets that smuggled in to Thailand last several years were produced in areas controlled by the UWSA and RTA. Some sources stated that up to billion tablets were smuggled into Thailand in 2003-2005. The government estimated that 3,000,000 Thais, or 5% of the total population of Thailand are involved in drug dealing. Prime Minister Thakin’s war against drug produced some results. Between February and August 2003, over 51,000 drug dealers were arrested and 2,000+ judicial die have occurred, causing worry among human rights watchers. Thailand’s war on drugs “Victory is temporary. PM Thanksin’s campaign has decimated the drug market at the local traffickers and street-users level, but it has not reduced cross-borders’ trafficking or attacked the drug trade’s higher elements. Burma and Laos are the main contributors and most major Thai drug barons are remains free. (www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/thai-drug-war.htm)
LISU HISTORY The Lisu people is a Tibet-Burman people of Lo-Lo extration. They originally came from upper reaches of the Salween valley in upper Tibet through Burma to Thailand almost a hundred years a go. The Lisu people have a long history in war with many other groups, such as, Lawang . Chinese. Lishaw or Lisu is the same tribe, they called themselves "LISU" but other tribes called them "Lishaw".
There are two groups of Lisu people: But, some anthropologists believed that there are three Lisu groups. Flowery Lisu Each group have different dialects and custom dressing styles. The Lisu people are inhabitants in many countries, For instance, China, Tibet, Burma , India , Lao and Thailand. The majority population of the Lisu tribe is in China and Burma.The first migration of the Lisu people into Thailand is in 1919. The first Lisu village was established in Thailand in 1919 was“Doi Chang “ in Chiangrai province. This first Lisu village is still existing to this day. Currently 2005 There are approximately 375,000 - 40,000 of Lisu population in Thailand. They are scattered in nine province of northern Thailand.
There are approximately 160-180 of Lisu villages with population 37,000 - 40,000 in Thailand. The Lisu people is a member of six main tribes in Thailand. They came originally from Tibet to China through Burma to Thailand a hundred years ago. They scattered throughout the hills of northern Thailand. They have their own language , both written and spoken and their own distinct culture and tradition as other hill-tribes do. Most of the Lisu people live in the mountainous areas and earn their living by agriculture, grow various crops, such as corn, rice, beans as well as cash crops and raise animals. Since they earn their living by agriculture most of them are very poor and have had limited access to formal education. Education Only 0.1 % of the Lisu people have completed university, 0.7 % are completed college, and 12.1% are completed high school education. Approximately 20 - 30 % of Lisu people in Thailand do not have Thai citizenship, poverty is a major problem. Limited of education and language constraints make make them extremely difficult for applying the Thai citizenship. Religion
Language A Tibeto-Burman language related to the Lo-Lo dialects with six tones. The Lisu language is a very difficult one since there are many sounds as well as forms. The Lisu people are remarkable linguists. They are very good at learning many other languages. Most of Lisu people are bilingual some are can speak four to five languages. Most of the Lisu elders are fluent in at least Yunanese and Lahu.
Social Customs
Lisu people has traditional new year celebration every year as chinese in February or March. During new year's cerebration day there are dance performance in the village 3-4 days or a week. In this occasion most of them are full dressed Lisu custom. Its also a special for them to remember and pay homage to their ancestors spirits. Bigs pets were killed for the feast in this special new year. This celebration the women and girls are practically inactive dancing surrounding by men and boys who shuffle and stamp their heels in a circular motion. |
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Life Development Center P.O Box 300 Chiang Mai, Thailand 50000. E-Mail: ldc@loxinfo.co.th |
There are six main tribes of ethnic minority groups in the north of Thailand, include Karen, Hmong, Lahu, Ahka, Mien and Lisu. Many of these ethnic minority groups also reside in China, Burma, Vietnam, Lao as well. The total of tribal population in Thailand is approximately 760,000 – 800,000 and 70% of them scattered reside in Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Son, Chiang Rai, Phayao, and Tak provinces, they originally came from Tibet, China to Burma and Thailand a hundred years ago.
The Thai government forest preservation and national parks expansion policies caused vastly impacts to ethnic minority people’s lives. Because 85-90% of tribal people earned their living by agriculture and resided in forest preservation and national parks areas for many generations, they don’t have land rights document which caused thousands of tribal people forced to leave their community by the government officers. Many young naive girls lured into the cities for seeking better life and development opportunities, some of them arrested and sentenced on charged of forest encroached.
Thailand has achieved a stunning 83 % reduction in new infection, dropping from the 1991 peak of 142,819 new infections per year to an estimated 21,260 in 2003
According to Thai military officials, the foremost threat to Thailand’s national security greater than any since the communist insurgency of the 1970s – lines along the northern borders is mass of highly addictive methamphetamine pills (ATS) which imported from Burma by United Wa State Army (UWSA). Royal Thai Army’s Narcotics Suppression Committee Kaewprasit state that “The situation is now quite critical and decisive action inevitable” The impact of Amphetamine Type Stimulant (ATS) abuse in Thai society over the past several years has reached crisis proportions. ATS has spread to infiltrate homes, schools, offices and factories throughout the country. The pandemic of ATS or known locally as Ya Ba has left in its wake a widening swath of organized crime, official corruption, street violence and broken families. The impact among youths and students has been severe.
