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THE AKHA PEOPLE 

By M.G. Edwards

The artisan village near Mae Chan,

Thailand that my family and I visited October 24was home to members of the Akha and Kayan

Lahwi indigenous groups. Two minorities that

normally did not live together had joined forces

to improve their livelihoods by promoting

tourism and selling handicrafts.

The Akha, who lived on the opposite side

of a small creek from the Kayan Lahwi, were the

first people I met. Although the “long-neck”

Kayan women were the primary draw for

tourists who visited by the village, the Akha

were the gatekeepers who collected entrance

fees and ran a small motorcycle-powered ice

cream cart. The cart was an odd sight in the

middle of a “traditional” village, but it revealed

ingenuity as yet another way for the villagers to

earn extra income.

I

did not

realize that different ethnic groups lived together

until I went back to the Akha side of the creek and noticed that the women there looked different

from the Kayan. The Akha women wore

distinctive headdresses bedecked with silver

circlets instead of brass coils around their necks

and

more

formal ceremonial clothing. Women who

managed the market stalls eagerly tried to sell us

handicrafts as we passed on our way to the

Kayan side. The men I saw manned the ticket

booth and parking lot at the village entrance.Tourists tended to buy arts and crafts from the

Kayan, passing by the Akha’s stalls without

another thought. I conjectured that the Akha

were in charge of collecting entrance fees while

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the Kayan drew

crowds. I surmised

that when the

Kayan fled from

Burma in the 1980s

and 1990s theywere invited by the

Akha to live and

work together in

order to attract

tourist dollars.

One of six major hill tribes in Thailand that include

the Lahu, Karen, Hmong/Miao, Mien/Yao and Lisu, the

Akha have traditionally engaged in subsistence farming in

a region stretching from China to Thailand, Laos, and Burma. They have come into

conflict with governments and other interests over engaging in slash-and-burn agriculture

and living in areas with protected ecosystems or forestlands. During my visit, I noted thatthe Ahka engaged in small-scale banana and rice cultivation.

I spoke with

one Akha woman

about life in her

village. She said in

English that her two

children attended a

public school in

Mae Chan for “a

 better life” and that

she worked to help put them through school. She did notlike living there but could not move because she did not

have a permit to live elsewhere. She said that life there was

not easy. I was touched by her story and wondered what, if 

anything, I could do for her.

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© 2011 Brilliance Press. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be

reproduced or transmitted without the written consent of the author. To read more

stories by M. G. Edwards, visit  http://www.mgedwards.com/ .