The Akha Tribe

In the mountains of southern China, Laos, Myanmar (Burma) and northern Thailand, the Akha tribe resides. If you visit the villages, you are obvious to notice the local people busy with their sewing. Carved wooden gates, headed over by guardian spirits, mark an Akha village. The people harvest narcotics only because their ancestors did and as the means of trading. There are festivals for the harvest of mountain rice.

The disorderly politics and economics of the Golden Triangle created a host of problems for the Akha tribe. The Golden Triangle is the secret Nationalist Chinese Army in the region, sponsored by the CIA, in 1949. China sponsored them with opium. Be it resettlement, narcotics, poverty or the Christian missionaries, the effect on the indigenous culture of the Akha tribe has been a menace. To make it worse the civil war in Burma, deforestation or reforestation, road building and relocation of villages by Thai authorities render insecurity to the people of Akha. One can only hope that things turn out well for the unfortunate Akha people, in the near future.