About the Akha Hilltribe

The Akha hilltribe originate from Tibet, most of them now live in Yunnan province in South West China. However they can now be found residing in Laos, Myanmar and Northern Thailand living at high altitudes in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. They migrated to Thailand at the beginning of the 20th Century and now approximately 80,000 live here. Their language is closely related to the Lahu and Lisu hilltribes as they once belonged to the same tribal group living in South Western China.  They have no traditional written language and literacy amongs older generations is virtually nil.  The Akha live in low stilt houses made of bamboo.  The huts are divided by gender so that one side is for women, and the other side for men, then there is a communal area for both sexes.  They are expert hunters and practice slash and burn farming. The Akha women wear broad leggings around their calves , knee length black skirts with a kind of sporran over the top which bears traditional Akha embriodered design on it.  They also wear black shirts with embroidered cuffs and lapels.  A distinctive aspect of Akha costumer are the hats worn by women adorned with silver bauble and coins. Traditionally every village would have an Akha swing which they use only on special occasions such as at the start of September for the rice harvest celebration.  Women will dress beautifully wearing lots of silver and everybody brings food.  The festival ususally lasts 4 days with lots of singing,dancing eating and swinging.  Every village also has a spirit gate decorated with amulets and wooden carvings, the gate acts to protect the village from evil spirits. The Akha are animists who believe in spirits, over the years they have been converted to Christianity and Buddhism which they practice alongside their animist beliefs.  Historically the Akha used to cultivate opium but a ban on opium cultivation by the Thai government means they have now turned to other crops such as rice,corn and soybean.  This changeover was with help from the King's crop substitution program initiated some 30 years ago which is a sucessfull showcase for how to wean farmers off growing opium to cash crops.