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.
