Hill-tribe civilizations

          All most all the hill-tribes in Thailand despite of different tribes came from Burma. It is not like the "Lonely planet Guide book" says; some from China,some from Tibet, some from Lao or Burma. In fact all the hill-tribes in Thailand came directly from Burma. To make it more clear and accurate, let's talk things logicallly.

            In all these hill-tribe villages regardless of their different tribes, all most all the older hill-tribes speak Burmese and even some young and new generations who born in Thailand do speak a little bit of Burmese. In many hill-tribe houses we can see Burmese calenders, Burmese movie stars pictures and malaria prevention poster in Burmese hanging on the walls. Besides this we can also see lots of these different hill-tribe children play games which are very popular in Burma. Above all these, lots of different hill-tribe listen to musics which are Burma. So with all these characteristics, traditions, cultures and manners very much similar to Burmese can't be from China, Lao, or Tibet. 

          When it comes to spoken languages, Lahu and Akha are similar and they both use vocabularies derived from Burmese. So, we can very safely say that Lahu and Akha hill-tribes can never be from Tibet or China or Lao since these hill-tribes's sponken languages contain Burmese origin. When it comes to written languages, they both use English alphabets omitting 4 alphabets. When Burma was under British rule, a lots of Christian missionaries came to Burma and went straight to those hilly places in Burma and converted lots of these tribal people into Christians. In those days there were no written languages for these tribal people, so the missionaries helped them set up a written language using English alphabets and that is how Lahu and Akha written languages came into existence. That is why the Missionaries could sing these hill-tribe song book and read their Bible written in Lahu and Akha. By this we can now very safely say that Lahu and Akha hill-tribes were from Burma. If they were from China as the Lonely planet Guide book says, they must have their written languages in alphabets similar to Chinese and their spoken languages must also contains Chinese words or Chinese origin. Now you can not burgain and say that missionaries might go to China and set up those hill-tribe written languages as they were there. In those days, there was no missionary in China. If people wanted to see one Christian in China, they had to go see the christian in Museum.

           Karen hill-tribe speaks totally different language from the above two hill-tribes. Karen uses its written language almost completely the same as Burmese alphabets. Their sponken language contain quite a few Burmese origin. There are actually four different type of Karen. But in Thailand you will find only two types of Karen: Karen long neck and a simple Karen who got normal neck like everyone else.

            Yao hill-tribe uses very different language and it is sad to say that they don't have their own written language. But for some purposes quite a a few Yao people learn Chinese how to read and write and some of them even claim Chinese as their written language. But this claim is quite baseless as the older Yao people are still learning Chinese how to read and write like how chidren learn A, B, C , D in primary shool. Unles they master in Chinese, they can never adopt Chinese as their written language.

            Lisu is definately from Burma and in Burma they live in Kachin State. In fact Lisu is one of the Kachin tribes that is in northern part of Burma close to China. They have their written language in English alphabets.

           Shan hill-tribes have a very big state in Burma and their spoken language is a bit similar to Thai, so this Shan people in Thailand are not considered hill-tribe by the Thai.  Their written language is quite similar to Burmese.

           Wa hill-tribe is a another sub-tribe of Shan and they live in Shan state in Burma. But this hill-tribe is not quite know by the world and there is very very less news about this hill-tribe. In fact they have the population in Thailand as big as Akha.

Religion:

         When it comes to religion all most every single tribe practises Animism, believing in spirits of Ancestors. In their own small society in village they have their own witch doctor who uses good spirit of Ancestors and cure sick people. When a child or a person gets sick, the family bring a chicken to Witch doctor and the witch doctor kill and offer it to the good spirit on behalf of the sick person. A rich family bring bigger animal like pig or cow and poor family bring chicken or rice.

to be continued