Tag Archives: traditional

It was a Sunday. And the sky was full of rain. In spite of that, hill tribe children were at school, scrubbed and dressed in their traditional clothing, ready with smiles to greet our group of visitors. It always amazes me how cheerfully Thai students – especially those from farming hill tribe families in the remote northern […]

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I love driving into Thailand’s green, jungle-draped mountains, where the clouds hang so low they look like snow patches, and the sun traces the outlines of dark post-afternoon rainclouds and glints off the golden Buddhas and bejewelled temple rooftops. If you turn off the highways, however, it is not long before the ornate temples – and […]

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The remote, mountainous corners of northern and western Thailand – and neighbouring  Laos and Myanmar – are home to countless small villages of “mountain folk” (ชาวเขา), or ethnic “Hill Tribes”.  These Hilltribes/Hill Tribes are not a unitary group. In Thailand alone, there are six major distinct ethnic minority groups – the Akha, Karen, Meo or Hmong, Yao, Lahu, and Lisu, plus a few […]

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Bong! Bong! Bong! The sound of gongs reverberate in my head; deep, surprisingly melodic tones that almost transport me back to Bhutanese monasteries… But in this image there are no tall, ornately carved and painted wooden buildings; in fact we are outdoors on dusty ground, surrounded by dry trees, old people and children, with few […]

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