Daily Reflections – 4 January 2016

Today’s trip to the hill tribes of Northern Thailand was a really eye-opening experience for me. Prior to this trip, I had always thought that there were only 2 main ethnic groups in Thailand: The Thais, and the Chinese who had acclimatised to living in Thailand. Little did I know that there are actually 70 ethnic groups in Thailand! Neither was I aware of also, that among them are tribal groups of Northern Thailand such as the Akha and Yao people! At the hill tribe village I visited, I learnt that many of these tribal ethnic groups initially originated from neighbouring countries. The Yao originated from Southern China while the Kayans originated from Myanmar. I am left in awe of the confluence of cultures in Northern Thailand, which comes about because it is at the crossroads of various Asian nations like Myanmar and Laos.

Additionally, observing the way of life of the hill tribes has made me more aware of 2 aspects of our human condition. First, I am more aware of our shared human tendency to be rational. At a first glance, some of the traditional practices of the hill tribes appear bizarre in today’s modern context. For example, the Kayans first believed in the tradition of wearing coiled, gold rings around their necks to guard against tiger bites. To people like ourselves, this practice may not make sense because wearing such rings around our necks would surely be painful. However, it can also be argued that having the rings indeed would prevent tigers from biting the women’s neck, protecting them from harm. My observations here hence showed to me that in life, we all believe in doing things that make sense but due to the different time periods or backgrounds we hail from, our opinions on what practices make sense will differ.

The second aspect of the human condition I was made aware of through my hill tribe visit is our common quest for survival. In the village, I saw people snapping photos of tribal people like the long-necked Kayans. Seeing this, I could not help wondering whether the tribal people really liked being photographed as though they were exhibits or having their peaceful way of life disrupted. I later learnt that the purpose of setting these tourist villages up was for the hill tribes to find alternative sources of income rather than rely on practices like selling opium, which is increasingly banned in Thailand. Hence, while setting up tourist villages comes at some cost, it is also essential if the hill tribes want to survive in the long-run. This thus highlights our shared desire – whether tribal man or city goer – to be survivors in this world.

Lastly, besides visiting the hill tribes, I also had the chance to conduct interviews with locals both en route to Chiang Rai, and in the hill tribe village for my research question. When we interviewed locals about how they felt about Chinese tourists in Chiang Rai or Chiang Mai, they shared that they liked Chinese tourists because the tourists would bring them business. They would thus welcome the Chinese tourists in spite of bad media reports about them. I was slightly disappointed but felt that this might be because the desire for business profit really is a factor that overwrites the anger locals feel towards Chinese tourists for not respecting their culture. Also, another reason for the lack of variety in responses might be because most of the people we interviewed were in business and valued making money.

Today has certainly be an enriching day where I got a glimpse into the richness of Northern Thailand’s culture. I hope to get more varied interview responses tomorrow by interviewing people not involved in business together with my group. I also wish to find out if it is true that the locals view obtaining business profits as more important than respect for culture and we plan to explore this issue through surveys.

This is a photo of the long-necked Kayans who reside in the tourist village.