Akha Hill tribe

The Akha Tribal in Thailand

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 Akha, also known to the Thai as the Gaw or the E-gaw are located primarily with Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai provinces. The Akha originated in Yunnan in Southern China. Yunnan has the highest Akha population. Over several centuries many Akha have been migrating southward from their original home. In the middle of the 19th century significant numbers were moving into Kengtung State, the easternmost of the Shan States of Burma. Others made their way into Laos. The Akha in Thailand came from Burma. The first Akha village in Thailand was probably established in 1903 in the Phaya Phrai area on the Burmese border. Phaya Phrai is in Mae Fah Luang District, Chiang Rai. There are a variety of schemes for writing Akha developed by missionaries or linguists which employ Roman, Thai or Burmese characters, but literacy in Akha is still virtually nil. The Akha are traditionally subsistence farmers, growing a variety of crops including rice and corn.

The Akha generally live in bamboo houses raised on low wooden stilts in hilly areas. These huts are divided by gender - one side is for the women, and the other side, occupied by the men, is used as a more public area. The Akha subsist through an often destructive form of slash and burn agriculture which can result in elimination of old growth forest, native animal species and serious soil runoff problems. They are expert farmers who focus on mountain rice, corn, and soybeans that are planted in seasonal shifts. The Akha are also very efficient hunters, though their prey sometimes includes endangered species. Some Akha grew opium for income in the past.
The main crop cultivated by the Akha is rice. This is their staple crop; however, they are also known to grow millet, peppers, sesame, and a variety of other vegetables that are indigenous to this region. The Akha also raise livestock, though it is typically only used for special occasions and sacrificial purposes. The Aka are also known to grown opium, though this tradition isn’t as popular as it once was, due to affects resulting from the addictive nature of the plant.

The Akha are a monogamous people for the most part, though it is believed, that there might be possible acceptance from the group for a man who chooses to have more than one wife. From a religious point of view, they are animists. Animists tend to be very connected to nature, and believe that everything is endowed with a soul, including animals and plants. Animist type religions are very popular among indigenous and traditional peoples.
The Akha also worship their ancestors. The Akha guard their village with impressive ceremonial gates, enshrined with human artifacts, as varied as traditional symbols of lovers embraced, all the way down to the airplanes of today. They decorate their gates with these representations of humanities, to inform the spirit world that only humans may enter the gates. Typically the gates are restored once a year.