Feed the Spirit and the Spirit will Feed You in Return

The food sacrificed for the spirits comprises a young chicken ,(if it is a young hen,it must not yet lay eggs, if is a male chicken, it must not yet crow), banana, nonglutinous rice, sticky rice, desserts, liquor, joss sticks, candles, and white flowers. The sticky rice is wrapped with banana leaf in a cone-shape and steamed until cooked, which is called "khao tom laem."

In general, the ritual commerences in the morning and finishes in the afternoon. The villagers bring live chickens and put them together at the place they organize the ritual. They start to cut the throat of a chicken and put it down on the ground to struggle until it dies and stays still. They will look at the direction where the head of the chicken points to. If the head of the chicken does not point to the stretcher which they placed the sacrificed food on, they will cut the throat of another chicken and continue the same process until the head of the dead chicken points at the direction of the stretcher where they placed the food. Pointing at the stretcher means that the spirit is satisfied and willing to accept the sacrificed food. They will pull out the feathers of the chicken and cut it into pieces and cook them with chilli and salt. They put tiny sticks into the hole of the upper part of the chicken's leg bone in accordance with the number of the holes in the leg. Then the ceremonial leader who is called "Pu Muang" or "the old man of the city" will interpret the fate of the chicken owners, based on the way the sticks are pointed and the number of holes in the chicken leg.

Underneath the spirit house, people stake some tiny poles in the ground so that "Chao Tao" or the spirit of the old man can bind the animal he rides, such as a horse or elephant to the pole before he come up to the spirit house to receive the sacrificed food. People also put some water in the water flask made of bamboo stem, plus some rice grains, milled rice, and popped rice for the pet of the spirit. They say that "Chao Tao" is the spirit of the one ruler that the Tai people respect so much. The spirit comes from Doi Chiang Dao. In the past, "Chao Paw Mue Lek (the Iron Hand Father) stayed at the village spirit house. Just recently, Pu Muang dreamed that Chao Paw Mue Lek had left for another place, so he invited the soul of Chao Tao to stay at the village spirit house.TEXT THE HIGHLANDERS

Feed the Spirit and the Spirit will Feed You in Return

Amidst the mountain forest along the Thai - Burmese border in Mae Hongson, there are still communities where people's daily life revolues around their spiritual beliefs. In the Tai community, known to the lowland people as Thai Yai, people and spirits can live together in harmony as they respect the rules and rituals of each other, as well as the practice from their ancestors. The fundamental principle is that if hunans respect the spirits, the spirits will also respect human beings, and thus humans and spirits can live together in harmony.
According to the beliefs of Tai people, the spirit is the soul of the dead person. The spirit moves about to several places, such as in the woods, on the mountain, in the water resource, etc. These souls or spirits can make people happy or suffer. Therefore, if someone happens to disparrage or mistreat the spirits, or violate the customs whether he is aware of it or not, he will be punished by the spirits. Thus, he will not be able to earn a living, he will be sick or punished until death.
Based on this belief, the Tai people conduct a ritual to offer food to the spirits. This ceremony is called a spirit offering. The Tai people organinze this ritual twice a year, in the second month and the seventh month of the year, which is on the third and the thirteenth day of a moonlit night. In some villages, the ritual maybe different from place to place. An old respected man who is called "Pu muang" or "village grand par muang" or a quack, who is knowledgeable about ritual. During the ceremony people from outside are not allowed to get into the village and people in the village are not allowed to leave. Everybody in the village has to stop his or her daily work such as planting, washing clothes, cutting wood and building houses etc. Every has to be peaceful and help, joining in the ceremony until finished. Then, they can start working as usual. It is belived that if someone continues cutting the wood, the spirit will be dissatisfied and will cause the people in the village to be in trouble. If they are attentive and join in the ritual, the spirit will make them happy and the cultivation will be fertile throughout the year.
On 19 May 1996 which was on the third moonlit night, I intended to go to collect data in Huay Hia, a black Lahu village. On the way to Huay Hia, I passed Mai Hung (banyan tree) village. At the entrance of the village, I saw a rope made of bark blocking the way. In the middle of the road, there was a talaew pitching on the wood. Feeling suspicious, I walked close up to the wood. Suddenly, three young Tai men ran to me and shouted, "do not enter, do not enter." I asked them why I could not enter the village and what they were doing. One of the Tai men explained that they were conducting a food offering to the spirit. No one could enter the village. I was interested in observing the ritual so I asked them to let me go in, hoping that being a tercher would help. The young man told me that even a teacher would not be allowed to enter. I explained to him that I studied anthropology and was doing a master's degree at Silapakorn University (actually I had already completed the program). The same man replied, "whatever program you study, we cannot allow you to enter". While thinking what to do, I saw an old man walking by the roadside. I pleaded with him hoping to make him sympathize with me, saying that I would like to treat the spirits, I intended to look after the spirits so that I could have a happy life like him.
He showed a little grin at the corner of his mouth, glancing at the young men, and stared at me saying "come in." The old man told me to hurriedly buy some liquor ande candle in a minishop in the village and come back before the ritual started. I did as he said without hesitation. In fact, the information I learned from Mai Hung village was very useful in studying the beliefs of Tai people.
The spirit offering ritual of "Pee Muang" (spirit of a respected former leader) is generally conducted in the village's spirit house. Women are not allowed to enter the compound. It is believed that if a girl gets into the compound, she will violate the custom and will become insane. Therefore, on the spirit offering day, there are only males permitted in the area. Prior to the ceremony, men will make bamboo carriages and place one in each of the four corners of the spirit house. An additional carriage is put at the bole of a big tree to feed the forest spirits or spirits who had no relatives. These little bamboo carriages are called "keng" and are used as containers for the food being offered. Author : M.A.Pimook Chantanawat THE HIGHLANDERS

The evacuation route of these Lahu can be traced back to their previous location in Kiew Koh village, which was a part of the territory under control of Khun Sah. During childhood period, they used to live in Piang in Burma. When the Burmese officials charged them with higher taxation in 1977, they avoided paying the tax by moving across the border into Fang District, Chiangmai Province. While living in the boundary area of Fang District, they grew opium to earn a living. They lived in Fang for 12 years. During that time, sometimes they earned nothing because their opium was cut down by the Thai officials. Therefore in 1989, they moved back to Burma again in the area opposite to Mae Hongson. They spent 6 days walking from Fang to Burma and settled in Kiew Kor village, which was under the control of Khun Sah's faction.
At this location, their sons and daughters were able to go to school provided by Khun Sah. The teaching was conducted in Thai Yai language. Four years after that, Khun Sah recruited children for military training, preparing to fight against the Burmese army. In 1993, whenthere was also a rumor that the Burmese would launch a harsh attack on Khun Sah's ground, the Kulao Lahu decided to evacuate to Pang Mapah, Mae Hongson again. However, the Thai officals pushed them back into Burma. Because of the concern for their safety, they finally sneaked back into Thai territory again. This time they walked through the zigzaging rough mountain ranges for up to 4 days. One family lost their baby because of the hardship in the woods and rough terrain on the way.
Since the beginning of 1994, I have admitted 10 Kulao Lahu children to study in my school, located in a Red Lahu village, Pang Mapah District. The girl students studying with me are: Airme, Najor, Itair, Ilae, and the boy tudents are: Patae, Arsir, Buway, Jakar, Jakorpo, and Morsay. These kids are very shy, apprehensive, and less expressive. They barely talk to the teacher. After years of teaching and playing with them, they begin to feel more comfortable with me and begin to speak central Thai, al-though they cannot arrange the sentence gram-matically. This is not a critical problem for someone who opens his mind to accept other human beings. Living in a rough and remote area is not an easy thing for an inexperenced person. Similarly, teaching Thai language to Lahu children who have different language structure is also a complicated thing.
However, I still continue to teach and pay attention to them hoping that when they grow up, they will be good adults who feel grateful to the country and the King of Thailand no matter where they live. THE HIGHLANDERS

The Road of Khun Sah to Myanmar,the Road of Lahu to Mae Hongson

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Lahu is one of the tribal people who can be divided into several sub-ethnic groups, more than any other tribal groups in Thailand. Professor Boonchuay Srisawat describes that there are up to 23 Lahu ethnic groups, and one of them is Kulao Lahu.
Lahu is the term they call themselves. The book "the Festivals in the Mysterious Land of Yannan" refers to Lahy as "a tribe that eats roasted tiger meat." This definition expresses the ability of the Lahu as that of competent tiger hunters. Nonetheless, I found that the Lahu in Mae hongson do not eat the meat of the tiger they hunt. They say tiger meat is dirty and obnoxious. Thai people call Lahu "Musur"the term can be split to "mu" which means trivial or little in Thai Yai language and "sur" which means joy or happiness. Combining the two words, the meaning of "Musur" may be interpreted as some littie things that bring happiness.
In the western part of Thailand, there have been regular fights between minority groups and the Burmese army for decades. The fight increases in intensity by the dry season approximately from November to April every year.
The fight has a dirrect impact on the minority peoples who live close to the Thai-Burmese border. Some have evacuated into the boundary provinces of Thailand, namely Chiangrai, Chiangmai, Mae Hongson, Tak and down south to Ratchaburi. In summer 1993, the fight between the Burmese army and Khun Sah's armed forces, an influential group in the area opposite to the Northwest border of Thailand, had resulted in a massive evacuation of the Thai Yai, Lisu and other tribal groups to Thailand, especially in the Pang Mapah and pai Districts in Mae Hongson Province. The Thai officials put them under control and later on sent them back to their original groups. Those who were dismissed, however, did not feel safe in their own territory and attempted to sneak back into Thailand again.
In fact, Idiscovered later on that a group of 63 Lahu who were released by Thai officials had returned to Thailand through a sneak walk along the boundary areas. When they got into the country,,they broke into two groups. The first group, comprising 6 families, 25 males and 16 females, joined the Red Lahu in Y1 village, whereas another group comprising 2 families, 13 males and 9 females had consolidated with the Red Lahu in H1 village.
Initially, I assumed that all the new comers were Red Lahu since they seemed to be well integrated with the former groups and accepted by villagers. It was in 1994 when I discovered that the new comers were not actually Red Lahu as 61 of them were Kulao Lahu and 2 others were Piti Lahu.
On the way home one day, I met an elderly woman who just came to live in Y1 Village. I greeted her, "where are you elderly Red Lahu going?" She replied instantly; "I am not elderly Red Lahu." In fact, she was a Kulao Lahu. Adding the word Red Lahu to the word elderly in the teasing greeting made me discover reality. From then on, I spent some time in the evening and on holidays visiting the houses of the new residents.
My initial study about this group of people suggests that the Kulao Lahu has, to some extent, a different culture from Red Lahu. For instance, some of the words they use are not the same. Kulao Lahu call "Or-A."When someone passes away, the Red Lahu bury the dead person, except in the case of deather hand, will cremate the dead body unless the dead person is a young child then they will bury it. The costumes they wear are also different.

A Lahu"s Belief

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What is on the MoonA Lahu"s Belief
The Moon is the nearest star in orbit to the earth when compared to other stars. Human beings were interested in this star for as long as the history of mankind.
The Moon has an eminent feature in that humans can see it clearly with their own eyes.
on a full Moon day, it is larger and brighter at night than any other stars,illuminating the earth. The size and the brightness of the Moon decreases gradually day by day until the darkness moves in to replace the bright light. Then, the Moon re-appears gradually and increases its size and brightness until becoming afull Moon once again. Human beings have taken advantage of this phenomenon, from one full moon to the next which lasts about 30 days for each cycle, tocreate A lunar calendar.
on the full moon day, humans in the world can see it more clearly than any other star. It noticed carefully,we can see some dark shadow on the moon. People in different cultures and different societies have different beliefs about the moon.
In 1994, I was in a remote tribal community on the mountain in Mae Hongson,whic was very naive to civilization and technology. On one full moon day after the class session,the evening. In such an environment,the moon was so ravishing and gleaming. To be in congruent whith the atmosphere, I started teaching them A song about the moon. This song is included in the primary education curriculum. The verse of the song is:
Looking up in the sky
the moon"s bright,I see
Looking up in the sky
A rabbit"s in there clearly
this is told in the tale is it true?
Please tell me
on that beautiful moon
is the rabbit in there,really?
As soon as I finished the song, one of the children who could understant Thai language better than others argued with me,saying "tercher there is no rabbit in the moon. Mommy told me there is "Mae ku jae " up there."
I was curious to find out What is " Mae ku jae." No one, however,was able to explain to me What it was. They just said Mae ku jae was in the jungle not far away from the school.
The following day,I asked the children to take me to see What Mae ku jae really was. They took me to A place quite A distance from the school and pointed to " Mae ku jae ". I was sort of tired and sweating. In fact, the thing they pointed at was actuaally a tree, called by Thai Yai(an ethnic group of Thai ) as " mai hung " or What is called by central Thai People as banyan tree!!!
In addition, the elderly People told me that the ancestors of the Red Lahu believed there was a huge banyan tree and a magic well on the moon. Whoever had an opportunity to drink the water, would become immortal. The only animals that might have a chance to drink the water were eagles or falcons becuse they could fly up to the ceiling of the sky ( right now they have to give in to Human beings as we can build an airplane to fly much higher and faster ).
I was so tired from going to see Mae ku jae in the jungle and got a fever after coming back. after taking two tablets of paracetamol, I laid down in the teacher"s residence and took A glance at the moon which was still very bright outside,thinking " if only I could drink that magic water on the moon!!!". however,What I see in the moon is still a rabbit.
I can"t held thinking about the day, lovely children running in front of me excitedly to show me the banyan tree. Taking into account the food They eat of which the main components are salt, chilli, and vegetables, and also taking into account their interesting culture,the picture of a rabbit on the moon began to fade out. The picture of the banyan tree on the moon has now become prominent and has replaced the picture of the rabbit.
Have you tried staring at the moon closely on the full moon day? What kind of picture is it on that shadow?

The Belief about the Soul of the Dead.

An elderly Red Lahu used to tell this story concerning the soul of dead person, when someone dies, his soul or spirit, is still bound to his family and home. This strong bond has made the spirit of the dead person come back tohis home. On the first night after death, the soul is able to come to the kitchen to search for something to eat. On the second night, the soul can get to the door of the house, and on the third day the soul can only get to the ladder. On the fourth night, the soul will be able to get to the entrance of the village. On the subsequent nights, the ability of the soul to come to the village will be weakening respectively until the 7 th night when the soul of the dead person will disappear for good to live in its own world.
Summary. The Red Lahu is an ethnic group of what Thai people call Musur. However, they call themselves Lahu. In Mae Hongson Province, the Red Lahu can be found in upper northern areas of the province, inthe districts of Pang Mapah and Pai. Based on the dead can be analyzed into two aspects. Firstly, it sh0ws how they love and are bound to the dead have a different status from those who are still alive.
Prior to 1969, the Red Lahu along the Thai-Burmese border would evacuate to a new location after 3-4 person in the village passed away witth in a short period of time. They believed that the ghost had cone to take the life of other people. Currently, the public health know ledge that they acquire from government agents is one of the factors that has diminished such belief. They do not have to evacuate to run away from the ghost as they can have access to modern medicine from public health workers.
The Red Lahu have a profound and complicated funeral ritual when treating the dead person. This treatment involves natural materials involved in the ritual, so there is no need to spend a large amount of money for the ritual. However, there is a trend that this cultural ritual of the Red Lahu is diminishing because of the influence of external culture, particularly in the case of those from the cities and Christian practice that have increasing roles in the daily life of the Red Lahu.

Placing the Corpse in the Grave.

In a funeral ritual in I participated, I noticed that before the corpse in the grave, they lit pinewood and swang it at the bottom of the grave to eliminate damp and other bad things believed to be in the grave. Then they paved the bottom of the grave with bark. While lowering the corpse into the grave, they placed a bamboo trunk. with another end shaped into several thin pieces and cur in circles equivalent to the number of those who come to the funeral ritual, to support the dead and living persons and to give a way out for the souls of the funeral participants so as not to be trapped in captivity in the grave. Then, they dropped fresh twigs on the dead body symbolizing forgiveness to the dead and covered the grave with soil. At this moment, I noticed that men and women teased one another in fun and some couples chased and embraced around the burial area.
Before they returned home, all participants stood at the edge of the grave and jumped across it. Then they walked through a wooden arch with a small bonfire underneath. Next to the wooden arch was aperson carrying a fresh twig to wipe the back of each villager in order to prevent bad things from following them to the village. After the last person passed, he used the twig to wipe his own back and followed the others back to the village. When they were in the village, they walked directly to the house of the dead person, soaked a twig in the basin and splashed the water on their bodies. This was to expel all the bad things from their bodies.

Choosing the Area for the Grave.

The Red Lahu have their own method of choosing the area to dig a grave by tossing a prophecy egg. Wherever the egg drops and breaks, it means that the dead person is satisfied to be buried there, and that area will be chosen as the burial ground. Sometimes, if they cannot find an egg for tossing, they will throw the mowing knife of the dead person up in the air until the knife stabs in the soil. That are will then be chosen as the burial ground.
By and large, the Red Lahu will not dig a very big burial ground. The grave is normally a little bit bigger than the body of the dead person. I recorded a grave of an elderly man in 1991, with the following dimensions.
Depth : 135 centimeters
Length : 175 centimeters
Width : 43 centimeters

Funeral Procedure.

When someone in the family passes away, relatives and friends express their sorrow and mourning. According to the Red Lahu custom, if the dead person is a young child, the corpse can be buried within the same day. If the dead person is an adult, the corpse will be kept for one day, and the next dayit can be buried. There is no coffin. Instead , the relatives will cover the corpse with cloth or a reedmat.
Based on their belief, a chicken will be slaughtered and cooked as food for the dead person. They will cut a chicken wing with feathers and a chicken leg, sandwich them with a piece of bamboo strip ,and put them on the chest of the dead body. It is believed that the wing would become a fan to use to cool down with when feeling tired after along journey: The leg would become a digging tool for the dead person to dig for drinking water. Relatives have to find a handful of grass or pick up some leaves in the housing area that can be used as thatch, tie it and put it on the chest of the dead body. It is believed that the person can use it as a broom for cleaning. They alsq put some tin, the kind that they use to make a bullet, in the mouth of the corpse believing that this would be money for the dead to spend. A pot of rice will be cooked for the dead, putting in it charcoal or ash to make the rice look black and not suitable for eating. It is a sing to warn those who are still alive not to follow the dead because they will not have clean rice to eat.
The following day, relatives would tie a bamboo trunk on each side of the dead body and carry it to the village cemetery. The dead body will be carried down the house from the side wall, not down the ladder as they believe that the ladder is the way up and down for the living person. Crrying the dead body down the ladder may cause another member of the family to follow him in death.
In addition, the relatives will put the personal belongings of the dead person, such as pillow, blanket, clothes, and knife on the edge of the grave for the dead touse. A scientific and medical analysis suggests the hygienic usefulness of this treatment, cspecially if the dead person has an infectious disease, this will prevent the family members from infection.

Unseen Events of The Highlanders

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The Funeral Ritual of the Red Lahu
Death, a mysterious destination, has been unavoidable and faced by all human beings, be they millionaires, the poor, the great army commanders, the coward, the philosopher, or the fool. Everybody finihses his role in this world with death, an undeniable truth of life.

Nonetheless, there is hardly a person who really comprehends the essence of this truth. Currently, human beings in each grouq, social entity, race or culture still provide different answers, and organize a variety of rituals passes away, people in one culture may treat the dead with a peaceful, simple and economical ritual, whereas others may treat the dead with a luxurious and extravagant ritual. Similarly, one culture may treat the dead with sensational events and fun, while people in another culture may be in deep grief. All there are the response of human beings to the query they still cannot adequately understand.

The funeral ritual of the Red Lahu presented here is one of the approaches the writer experienced while living in the Lahu community in the mountainous and remote area along the Thai-Burmese border, as a teacher and researcher of the Lahu culture.

unseen events of the highlanders

The Red Lahu: who are they?
Red Lahu is a sud-ethnic group of Lahu. Thai people call them Musur, while they call themselves Lahu. Thee thnic group of Lahu is divided into several sud-ethnicities more than any other tribal group in Thailand. Each ethnic group has its own distinct culture while sharing the core culture with other ethnic group in common. The funeral of each sud-ethnic group is trivially different in specific details. For instance, when a Red Lahu person has died normally, the corpse will be buried. On the othew hand, if the person had an abnormal death, the corpse will be burned. The Kulao Lahu, however, always burn the dead body, with the exception of an infant corpse. Similarly, the Sae Lae Lahu, always cremate the corpse no matter how the person has died.
The death of Red Lahu: Should the dead body be burned or buried? It seems that dead and living creatures cannot be separated. Death is an end road for everybody. The Red Lahu classify death into two categories: good death and bad death. In Lahu language, death is termed as Sayway. A good death is referred to the end of someon"s life because of aging or sickness without having any blood coming out of the dead body. A bad death is referred to the end of someone"s life because of being killed by someone or by an accident, such as a car accident, or falling from a cliff or a tree.
In customary practice, the body of the person who had a good death or normal death would be buried, while the body ofthe person who had a bad death or died because of an accident or killing would be burned. A sample case is depicted by the death of a boy in Yapanae village. This boy, the son of the village headman, was actually one of my students. He rode a motorcycle and lost his life because of an accident in February 1993. He was lost from the village during the Lahu"s the New Year Festival. Nobody knew where he was. Pujong, the spiritual leader in the village killed a chicken for an oracle prophecy and told the people that he went to another village. They waited for him for two days. when there was no sing that he would come back, the village headman asked a group of young men to search for him. After searching for nine days, one of the men in the team found his body in the lalang bush on the road side to Mae Hongson, about 3 kilometers from Pang Mapah District Office. The people in the village, including the writer, cremated his body with grief. He was a very nice kid and always fetched water and firewood for me, even when . I did not request it. The 1993 New Year Celebration in Yapanae village was quiet and mournful, not as hilarious as in the previous years.