The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXXI, Part 1-2, 1983 - Khamkoo

150 Anthony R. Walker
on the Lahu Nyi (Red Lahu) in particular, and on the relevant a~pects
. -· . .. of Lahu Nyi
.
material culture, namely the domestic "buildings and sacred centre of tbe village. It is
only against this physical backdrop that the rites, and the prayers used in them, can
properly be uncJerstood.
2. The Laha People
The Lahu are one of a great many linguistically and culturally distinct minority
peoples who inhabit the rugged mountains of the so-called "Go14en Triangle" (map).
This territory falls within the political. jurisdic~ion of four nations--China, Burma, Laos
a~d Thailand--but it has a greater geographical and ethnic homogeneity t~n its_ political
fragmentation would suggest. The region is characterised by rugged hills or mountains,
interspersed with narrow alluvial valleys.
And everywhere the valleys are occupied.
predominantly by Tai-speaking peoples:s irrigated-rice fam1er8, long-time adherents
of the Theravada school of Buddhism, participants ~ a literate tradition and, despite
the considerable autonomy of theii- village communities, politically organized during
the pre-modern period into more-or-less independent pr~cedoms, called muang. The
highlands which surround these Tai-occupied valleys are, by contrast, the home of a great
number of so-called "tJ.:ibal" peoples, 6 speaking a heterogeneous collection of languages
belonging to the Tibeto-Burman, Moo-Khmer and Meo-Yao families.' But it is not
merely their linguistic diversity which distinguishes the upland peoples from their
lbwland Tai neighbours. The uplanders are swidden, or slash-and-burn, bill farmers; •
they are not, for the most part, for~al adherents of Theravada Buddhism (although
Buddhist ideas and practices have penetrated their cultures); they possess no tradition of·
S. I use the term "Tai" to refer to any group speaking a Tai (or Daic) language; "Thai" refer,s.
eilhe:f to a citizen of the modern JCiogdom of Thailand or, adjectivally, to something belonging
to that kingdom, e g., the northern Thai hills.
6. ·"Hill tribes" is a common designation for the upland peoples of northern Southeast Asia, but
I am reluctant to use the term.· "Tribe" usually connotes people who have some form _of supralocal
political organization, considerable cultural uniformity and common occupancy of a
definite territory. None of these features is usually true for the uplanders of northern
Southeast Asia. The term also perpetuates the notion that uplanders are completely separate
from 1owlanders, while in reality the two sets of peoples usually are intimately involved with
one another. I prefer to call these people "hill folk" or "upland peoples", thus shifting the
emphasis from sociological to ecological criteria.
'
7. For some idea of the linguistic complexity of this region, see LeBar et. al., compilers,
"Ethnolinguistic Groups of Mainland Southeast Asia", a map to accompany LeBar et. al.
(1964). But even this is a gross, although eartographically necessary, oversimplifi.c~tion of
the situation on -the ground.