Lahu ethnic group

Proper name: Lahu.

Other names: Xa la vang, Co Xung, Khu Sung, Kha Quy, Co So, Ne Thu.

Local groups: Lahu Na (black), Lahu Su (yellow), and Lahu Phung (white).

Population: 5,319 people.

Language: The Lahu language belongs to the Tibeto-Burmese language group (Sino-Tibetan language family), but is closer to the Burmese.

Production activities: The Lahu mainly practice slash and burn cultivation, with high rotation schedule. Lately, they have moved to wet rice cultivation on step terraces. They are famous for bamboo plaiting (place mats, chairs), and for their metal work and smithing. Hunting, fishing, and gathering fruit play an important role in their economy.

Diet: The Lahu have shifted from eating mostly corn and sticky rice to a diet of regular rice. They like to eat bird and animal meat which they hunt themselves, or fish caught from the brook. Bamboo, bean soup, and pumpkin also form part of the Lahu diet.

Clothing: The Lahu don't have a tradition of planting cotton. In former times, women used to bring wild animal meat, field mushroom, opium, and precious forest and native products to trade with other ethnic groups for cotton. Then they wove the cotton into textiles themselves. Women wear long pants and blouses. They wear two layers of blouses; the one inside has long sleeves and buttons on the right underarm. The outside one has short sleeves with buttons on the front. They only wear the outside blouse on festival occasions.

Housing: In the past, the Lahu built houses and tented shelters randomly right on the field site, on the high mountains of Pa U and Pa Ve Su villages of Muong Te district (Lai Chau province). The roof was traditionally made from leaves; it is said that when the leaves on the roof turned yellow, they moved to another place. That was why the Lahu has the name Xa la vang (yellow leave Xa). Today, they normally live in brick houses with wooden or bamboo walls. Kitchen, worshiping altar, and beds are all in the same room.

Transportation: The Lahu are used to carrying bamboo baskets that have a flexible handle that is placed on the forehead. These are used to carry things in hilly areas. They carry their babies on the back during trips or when working.

Social organization: The Lahu spread out in small villages, but the composition of these villages changes due to the nomadic nature of the Lahu. There isn't segregation between the rich and the poor. Within a family, the woman is highly respected, but they play little role in community life.

Relations between relatives are fairly loose. There is no head of a family tree; there also isn't any worshiping ceremony performed together as an extended family. Some families bear the names of animals and birds, though the precise meanings of some of these names have been lost over time.