The Chinese name “Lahu” literally means “to drag favour from heaven” (拉, lā, “to drag”; 祜, hù, “blessing, favour”). It replaced the older and more-offensive “Luohei” (猓黑) as the official Chinese name for the Lahu people. The Lahu are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People’s Republic of China, where about 720,000 live in Yunnan province, mostly in Lancang Lahu Autonomous County. In Thailand, the Lahu are one of the six main groups categorized as hill tribes. The Tai often refer to them by the exonym Musoe (also spelled Muser; Thai: มูเซอ), meaning ‘hunter’. They are one of 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam, and mostly live in three communes of Mường Tè, Lai Châu Province. The Lahu divide themselves into a number of subgroups, such as the Lahu Na (Black Lahu), Lahu Nyi (Red Lahu), Lahu Hpu (White Lahu), Lahu Shi (Yellow Lahu) and the Lahu Shehleh. Where a subgroup name refers to a color, it refers to the traditional color of their dress. These groups do not function as tribes or clans – there are no kin groups above that of the family. Lahu trace descent bilaterally, and typically practice matrilocal residence.
Lahu, also known as Muhso, Musso, or Mussuh, peoples living in upland areas of Yunnan, China, eastern Myanmar (Burma), northern Thailand, northern Laos, and Vietnam who speak related dialects of Tibeto-Burman languages. Although there is no indigenous Lahu system of writing, three different romanized Lahu orthographies exist; two of these were developed by Christian missionaries and the other by Chinese linguists. Literacy in Lahu is primarily for religious purposes; educated individuals also know the national language of the country in which they live. The Lahu have historically lived in relatively autonomous villages. From time to time, however, a Lahu leader would be able to attract a following from many villages for a temporary period of time. Since the mid-20th century, the Lahu have been increasingly integrated into the countries in which they reside, albeit often as a marginalized minority.
The Lahu are one of 56 officially recognized ethnic groups in China. They number above 700,000 in China, and hundreds of thousands of Lahu are also located in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and the United States. About two thirds of all Chinese Lahu live in the mountainous Lancang and Menglian autonomous counties in southwestern Yunnan, along the Mekong River. Despite the elevation, the Lahu homeland is humid and warm with virtually no winter. There are only two seasons: wet and dry. The Lahu are traditionally semi-nomadic, living in villages at elevations of 1,000 meters (3,280 ft) or higher, where they grow rice, corn, and – for a time – opium. Like many of southwestern China’s ethnic groups, the Lahu are believed to be descended from the ancient Qiang tribe, a nomadic people that migrated southward from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau around the third century. More recent DNA analyses suggest, however, that the Lahu are not related to the Qiang at all, but rather originated as its own unique group in Yunnan itself.
Indigenous Peoples of Southeast Asia
Lahu is a Tibeto-Burman language and has various dialects. Black Lahu is the most commonly spoken dialect. The language of the Lahu hill tribe has no traditional script. During this century, three romanizations have been introduced by Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries and by Chinese government linguists. The Lahu hill tribe group has five sub-groups: Red Lahu, Yellow Lahu, Black Lahu, White Lahu, and Lahu Sheleh. The Black Lahu is the largest sub-group, making up close to 80 percent of the Lahu population. The Lahu hill tribe is a strongly independent and diverse ethnic group that number about 60,000 in Thailand. The Lahu are located primarily in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces but can also be found in considerable numbers south as Tak province. Their settlements are usually remote from roads and towns due to their strong commitment to maintaining the Lahu way of life.
LAHU IS AN ANCIENT HILL TRIBE IN THAILAND. THEIR HISTORY BEGAN MORE THAN 4,500 YEARS AGO. ACCORDING TO THE LEGEND, LAHU PEOPLE USED TO BE HOMELESS JUST BEFORE THE 19TH CENTURY. LATER, CHINESE GAVE LAHU PEOPLE THE POWER OF SELF-GOVERNMENT ON THE CONDITION THAT LAHU PEOPLE WOULD HAVE TO BE UNDER THE CARE OF THE CHINESE KING AT THE TIME. NOT SO LONG AFTER THAT, THERE WAS A CHANGE IN CHINESE GOVERNMENT AND SOLDIERS BEGAN TO RULE LOCAL COMMUNITIES, WHICH WERE MOSTLY INHABITED BY LAHU PEOPLE. THEREFORE, LAHU PEOPLE STARTED TO BE UPSET AND UNSATISFIED WITH CHINESE GOVERNMENT. AS TIME WENT BY, LAHU PEOPLE COULDN’T STAY SILENT ANYMORE. THEY BEGAN TO FIGHT WITH SOLDIERS BUT LOST THEIR VICTORY. THEREFORE, SOME OF THEM GAVE UP AND STAYED UNDER THE GOVERNMENT WHILE MANY OR THEM EVACUATED TO SOUTHERN CHINA TO LEAVE THE GOVERNMENT. HOWEVER, LATER, LAHU PEOPLE DIDN’T WANT TO BE UNDER THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINESE ARMY ANYMORE. THEY STARTED TO EVACUATED TO KENGTUNG, MYANMAR. THAT’S WHEN THEY STARTED TO RECEIVE CULTURES FROM SHAN PEOPLE IN SHAN STATE. THEIR LIVES IN KENGTUNG WEREN’T CONVENIENT LIKE THEY SHOULD BE. LAHU PEOPLE HAD TO FACE SOME ENGLISH MISSIONARIES WHO TRIED TO CONVINCE THEM TO ABANDON THEIR CULTURES AND TRADITIONS AND BECOME CHRISTIANS. OF COURSE, LAHU PEOPLE DIDN’T WANT TO DO SO. THEREFORE, THEY ASSEMBLED AND STAND AGAINST THE ENGLISH. HOWEVER, THE ENGLISH ARMY TRIED TO GET TO LAHU PEOPLE WHILE LAHU PEOPLE STARTED TO GIVE UP, AS THINGS DIDN’T TURN OUT AS PLANNED. MORE LAHU PEOPLE DIED. SOME SURVIVORS FLED AND EVACUATED TO THAILAND ABOUT 200 YEARS AGO.
The 453,705 members of China’s Lahu ethnic group live primarily in Yunnan‘s Lancang Lahu Autonomous County and neighboring counties such as Menglian, Shuangjiang, and Simao. This region is also home to Hans, Dais, Yis, Hanis, Blangs, and Was. The Lahu trace their ancestry back to the ancient Qiang people, who immigrated to present day northern Yunnan from northwestern China early in the third century AD. Beginning in the 8th century, the emergence of the Nanzhao State forced the Lahu to move further southward. After the 10th century AD, they continued this southward migration on a larger scale. As they migrated, they divided into two groups: the ‘Lahu Na’ (White Lahu) who took the western route, settling down in the Lincang, Lancang, Mengbian and Menggai area, and the ‘Lahu Pu’ or ‘Lahu Xi’ (Yellow Lahu), who took the southern route, along Ailao Mountain, and made their home in the area near Jindong, Simao, Mojiang and Yuanjiang. By the end of the 18th century, they had already inhabited in the areas in southern Yunnan they live in today. This ethnic group has named themselves the Lahu, due to their long history of hunting tigers. ‘La’ means the tiger, and the ‘hu’ means the method of roasting and eating. In their language, Lahu means ‘roasting tiger-meat on a fire’.
The Lahu people are one of the ancient nationalities and one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People’s Republic of China. Lahu people originated from the ancient Qiang people of Gansu and Qinghai. The Lahus ethnic minority mainly distributed in the Lancang Lahu Autonomous County in Simao Prefecture and Southern Lincang Prefecture and Menghai County in western Xishuangbanna in Yunnan Province. Others live in counties along the Lancang River. The Lahu language belongs to the Chinese-Tibetan language family. Most of the Lahus also speak Chinese and the language of the Dais. In the past the custom of passing messages by wood-carving was prevalent. In some parts the alphabetic script invented by Western priests was in use. After liberation, the script was reformed and became their formal written language. Legend says that the forbears of the Lahu people, who were hunters, began migrating southward to lush grassland which they discovered while pursuing a red deer.
The Lahu are a strong independent and very diverse ethnic group who number about 60,000 in Thailand. The Lahu are located primarly in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces, but can also be found in considerable numbers as far south as Tak province. Their settlements are usually remote from roads and towns, due to their strong commitment to the maintenance of the Lahu way of life. The Lahu are complex and diverse ethnicity. In Thailand there are no fewer than six different Lahu tribes, some of whose languages are not mutually intelligible. The majority of Lahus in Thailand are Red Lahu, pantheistic animists who follow a Dtobo, a messianic leader. There are also a significant number of Black, Yellow and Shehleh Lahus in Thailand, many of whom have been Christian for nearly one hundred years. Black Lahu are the most populous throughout Southeast Asia and theirs is considered to be the standard Lahu dialect. Although primarily subsistence farmers, growing rice and corn for their own consumption, the Lahu are also proud of their hunter-warrior heritage. They remain a strict, serious people governed by strong principles of right and wrong, every individual in the village answering to the common will of the elders. While less importance is placed on the extended family than in other hill tribe communities, the Lahu are still strongly committed to principles of unity and working together for survival. Lahus may have the most gender-equitable society in the world.
Lahu (autonym: Ladhof [lɑ˥˧xo˩]) is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by the Lahu people of China, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos. It is widely used in China, both by Lahu people, and by other ethnic minorities in Yunnan, who use it as a lingua franca. However, the language is not widely used nor taught in any schools in Thailand, where many Lahu are in fact refugees and illegal immigrants, having crossed into Thailand from Myanmar. The Lahu language, along with the closely related Kucong language, is classified as a separate branch of Loloish by Ziwo Lama (2012), but as a Central Loloish language by David Bradley (2007). Lahu is classified as a sister branch of the Southern Loloish branch in Satterthwaite-Phillips’ computational phylogenetic analysis of the Lolo-Burmese languages.
Lahu ethnic group has a population of 453,705. Most of them are scattered around the Lancangjiang Lahu Autonomous County and Menglian, Shuangjiang Autonomous Counties, with others in the Simao, Lincang and Xishuangbanna Regions. It is said that they have been living there since the 18th century. Their language is a member of Tibetan-Burman group of the Sina-Tibetan phylum. Their written characters were formed based on early ones that were more unified in 1957. Lahu, in their language, means to roast the meat of the tiger. It indicates that this ethnic group was quite good at hunting. Most people believe in Mahayana (one of the major schools of Buddhism, teaching social concern and universal salvation) as well as the group’s original religion, that is, they think everything in the world has its spirit. In their literature, there are many poems handed down orally. According to those, they are confident that their ancestors were born from cucurbit. This also affects their music. Many musical instruments are formed from cucurbit. Lusheng, a wind instrument constructed from bamboo and a gourd is their favorite.
There is a group of non-native people living in some regions of Thailand called the Lahu people. Their life and their peaceful nature have attracted many people to visit them in Thailand. They do not have a large population and live as tribes near towns or roads. One of their settlements is the Lahu Village, which is located in Chiang Mai in the southeast of Mae Hong Son. Their population is around 60000, and they have their specific Lahu dialects and religions. There are also subgroups of them, but they all share the same simple ways of life. Lahu people are very strict in their traditions and follow their elders, which govern their tribes. But having these strict rules does not mean that the people will not let outsiders into their settlements, in fact, they are very hospitable and friendly. The people living in the Lahu Village originally belong to the Tibet plateau and northern regions of China. They migrated to Thailand and other places due to the conquests of China and to avoid getting caught in war. The Lahu are groups of people who have lived as nomads and tribes for approximately 4500 years. They lived like nomads for some time until they decided to settle down in some remote areas in Thailand.
The Lahu are one among many linguistically and culturally distinct ethnic minority peoples of the mountainous region that extends from the far southwestern part of China‘s Yunnan Province into Myanmar‘s (Burma) Shan State, northwestern Laos, northern Thailand, and northwest Vietnam. The people’s own ethnonym, “Lahu” (“Laho” in some dialects), is of uncertain meaning. The old Chinese name for them was “Lohei,” now dropped because of its derogatory connotations. The Tai call them “Mussur,” derived from the Burmese moksa, “hunter.” “Kucong” and “Co Sung” (also “Co Xung,” “Khu Xung,” and “Kha Quy”) are names used in Yunnan and North Vietnam respectively for a highly divergent branch of the Lahu, traditionally forest-dwelling hunters and gatherers but in Yunnan simple swiddeners as well. Only recently have they been identified (by Chinese researchers) as belonging within the wider Lahu ethnic group. The Lahu have numerous linguistically and culturally specific subdivisions, the two most important being the Lahu Na (Black Lahu) and Lahu Shi (Yellow Lahu; called “Mussur Kwi” or just “Kwi” by the Shan). Lahu Hpu (White) is another important subdivision, especially in Yunnan, as is Lahu Nyi (Red) in Myanmar’s Shan State and in north Thailand. Yunnan’s Kucong also have Black and Yellow divisions; the Black Kucong reportedly call themselves “Guozhou” but are termed “Lahu Na” by their Lahu Shi neighbors, and the Yellow Kucong call themselves “Lahu Shi.” Ethnic identification by color labels is widespread in Southeast Asia.
LAHU PEOPLE: YUNNAN’S ‘TIGER-EATERS
As a consequence of the rise of the Nanzhao Kingdom in the eighth century, the Lahu were forced out of the plains and moved south to live in the hills. About 460,000 now reside in Yunnan — in Lincang, Pu’er, Xishuangbanna and Honghe prefectures. They are divided into several sub-groups, named after the prominent color of the women’s traditional clothing. I don’t know whether the Nanmei district Lahu were called the Blue Lahu, but that color dominated the female clothing components, providing the basic background for their apparel. Along with rice and maize, tobacco is one of the main crops in the Nanmei area. And the Lahu love smoking, especially the women. Using small pipes with very long, thin bamboo stems, they smoke while walking to the market and continue puffing away while ambling around the stalls. Older men use pipes with shorter stems, while younger ones prefer cigarettes. Only among the Wa had I witnessed such a large percentage of women smokers. In Nanmei virtually every woman over thirty seemed to be smoking.
Indigenous Peoples Literature 
