Tribasia Blog

(Picture by Prince Roy)
We are entering our fifth day of travel here in Laos.
After one day in Luang Namtha, one word came to our mind: changes. Changes are like coins, there are two sides to them.
1) Positive:
- Prosperity which comes as a result of foreign investment and an increased flow in tourism and trade movements.
For instance, the European Union financed the recently built Luang Namtha airport.
It might not be quite true but it seems that the Chinese pretty much financed everything else or own many of Laos' assets in the north of the country. Many new building structures and companies' names are a testimony to these. Chinese characters are also very often written side by side with Lao on road signs.
As a result, Lao children in the northern part of the country now learn Chinese as well as English and Lao at school.

- Better living conditions. The first time we came to Luang Namtha, dirt roads were hampering transport between this city and other major hubs. Now the dirt has been replaced by paved roads at every turn. As a result, transport time between cities has been reduced and road transport for passengers and goods made easier.
The traditional wooden houses are also slowly but surely replaced with bricked ones. The latter require less up keeping and as a construction material, brick is more resistant to adverse weather conditions.

- Greater awareness about the environment. Many ecoprojects have flourished as a result of foreign investments and tourism.

2) Negative:
- Loss of traditional cultures under the influence of those foreign cultures.
Young people increasingly watch Chinese, Thai and American T.V. Many turn their backs on their traditional lifestyles in favour of others perceived as more 'in'.

When we visited to the village of Namdy (Ban Namdy in Lao) 5 kms away from Luang Namtha, where Lanten people resides, we were shocked to see how it had changed since our last stay. Many women no longer sported their traditional costume and children begged for money in return for pictures.
When we first visited the place a few years back, we gathered a completely different picture from this area. Locals were shy but happy to communicate with us without money involved. We quickly understood that the increasing flux of tourists which had recently come to nearby Luang Namtha, had also used Namdy as a stopover on their way to a nearby waterfall and it had changed it all.

- Threat to social integrity: Minority women, in particular the Akha, leave their families and traditional lifestyle behind to work hundreds of miles/kms away from their villages to sell their crafts or/and sometimes, drugs, to dollar/euro-happy tourists.
Young tourists see drug-taking as a fun way to pass their holidays, unaware that their consumption only encourages more local young people to peddle drugs and become dependent on them -physically and economically.
For every local man becoming an addict to drug, a family suffers. Far from the hustle-bustle of tourist destinations, we witnessed a minority village where one household in three had a problem with drug abuse. Often, the husband is addicted to opium and his wife has to provide alone for their - large and young- family.

- Increased cost of living for Lao people and travelling for backpackers. It is now really difficult to find anything to eat for less than 5,000 kip on the street (a dollar is currently worth 8,500 kip) which was not the case two years back.

Besides, hordes of tour groups now in Luang Prabang are uninterested in knowing the real local cost of living and happy to throw 20 dollars on a hotel bed, which was barely worth 5 two years ago.

- A widening socioeconomic gap between 'the haves' and the 'have-nots'.
We could add more to the above list...

We therefore gathered a mixed picture of Laos this time round.

In a few days' time, we will leave the country as we want to take a break from travelling before going back on the road in 'Tribasia' style.
We will probably come back to Laos, but not in Luang Prabang, which seems to have lost its way on the package tourism highway.

Labels: Asia, changes, ethnic minorities, foreign investment, lanten, Laos, loss of cultures, Luang Namtha, Luang Prabang

After spending a couple of days resting in Jinghong, the capital city of Xishuangbanna, southern China, we decided it was time to go for some good old exploration! We left Jinghong in a local minivan to visit one of the smallest -officially recognized- minorities in China: the Jinuo.

Numbering 20,000 individuals, Jinuo township is the only area in the whole Chinese territory where this minority can be found in numbers.
Their villages are sitting on top of hills, surrounded by lush tropical vegetation.
We visited a traditional wooden longhouse on pillars where many families could live under the same roof. A long hearth is built at the centre of a common room. A series of private rooms for each family were built either side of the building entrance for some privacy.
This type of structure is on the wane as Jinuo's way of living have changed. In the last ten years, they have built invidual homes and opted for long-lasting cement and bricks instead of wood for building them.

Jinuo clothing takes months to weave. Both man and woman's cotton clothing were dyed using traditional techniques with natural plants. Men wore long white-legged pants with a sleevless jacket and a fitted tubular headdress whereas women wore a long-sleeved jacket, a knee-length skirt and a white pointy headdress. They used to adorn their pierced earlobes with flowers. The more flowers you could fit inside, the better. Now again, the young generation has discontinued such practice.

Traditionally, the woman's pointy hat is adorned on its back panel with colourful embroidered shapes. The fitted knee-length skirt and short-length top are also richly embroidered with colourful stripes.
The young generation sports sun and star-like embroidered shapes on their outfit and sometimes opt for cheaper silky materials instead of cotton for their clothing.

Unlike most minorities, the Jinuo people have no festival of their own but they follow particular customs when it comes to wedding ceremonies and the likes. They also have a rich dancing and singing culture.
The Jinuo language has not written form. The young generation can speak it but we realized that they were not fluent. The Jinuo's main language is now 'putonghua', i.e. mandarin.

The Jinuo are undoubtedly losing their distinctive way of living. Another micro-culture is going down the drain...

Labels: China, ethnic minorities, Jinuo, tribal, Xishuangbanna

The People's Republic of China officially recognizes 56 distinct ethnic groups (see picture by James Cambridge - left). However, the real figure might be much higher. Indeed, so-called 'undistinguished' groups are not officially recognized by Beijing. Other groups, such as the 'Mosuo' in Yunnan, have been erroneously assimilated to one existing group (in this instance the Naxi), despite not being affiliated to them.

Most of the minorities' population is concentrated along the border areas of China, the West and South autonomous regions, i.e. strategic areas. Over centuries, minorities have fled south into the bordering countries of Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. As a result, most of South-East Asia's minorities are originally from China.

Non-Han minorities may comprise only 9% of China's total population but there have been ongoing tensions between them and the Beijing authorities. The recent Tibetan protest is only the tip of the iceberg.

The "Hanification" (the process through which the authorities encourage minorities to fully adopt the mainstream Chinese culture, language and customs to the detriment of theirs) is a silent killer of minority cultures.

Despite this bleak introduction, we should also mention that during our last visit to China, we came across resilient minorities. The Hanification might have gained ground but it has not killed the spirit of these ethnic cultures.

We hope to bring you many testimonies of their survival over the next few weeks.

P.S. Let us know your comments to our posts! Just click on the comment link below.

Labels: China, ethnic minorities, PRC

4.45 am on 13th June. So early! Too early to be true but we have to wake up to take the only bus of the day leaving Dien Bien for Sin Ho.

After a bumpy ride, we arrived at destination just before midday. Sin Ho is a big village of 8,000 people located in the middle of a green valley surrounded by paddy fields and lush landscapes of mountains and untouched nature. Once you enter the place, you understand that here stops the postcard picturing of the place.

Sin Ho is not used to tourism, at least not of the foreign kind. People welcomed us with icey glances and seemed to have a keen interest in our belongings. We try to get moving by finding an accommodation for the night but this is no easy task. After much drama and crossing dozens of barking dogs along the main road -the only one in the village- we managed to get a room in the end.

We ventured for a long walk outside Sin Ho but loving dogs -an average of two per hemlet- waited us at every corner and we decided that it was time to go back. On Sunday, we woke up early again to spend time in Sin Ho's market. A wealth of ethnic minorities from the surrounding area had come to trade or do their shopping: Tay, Hmong Dau (Red Hmong), Hmong Du, Hmong La, Dzao and Lu, we saw them all!

'Hmongs' are a complex people to classify. This group is in fact a collective name for many different sub-groups. Each of these sub-groups can easily identified by their attire:
- the Red Hmong (they called themselves "Hmong De" in this region) sport a giant headdress made from red pleated wool and hair

- the Hmong Dau (again, this is the name they gave us when we asked who they were) wear black skirts with colourful stripes, colourful long sleeved cropped jackets whose sleeves' pattern (stripes) differ from that of the body (flowery or block colour).

- the Hmong La wear a conic shaped hat and black clothing adorned with flashy colours.

- the Dzao from this region are different from those of Tam Duong or Sa Pa. They wear indigo or black dyed clothing and headdress, similar to the Lanten from Laos. They have cropped trousers stitched with white, red and green design at the helms. All women sport a rigid brass necklace, similar to a choker and colourful wool strings with colourful beads and coins on their backs, hanging from their neck line.

- the Lu from this region are similar to that of Tam Duong area. They also sport a headgear made from wrapped black material adorned with fake flowers for a dash of colours :))

We also spotted a Tay woman -not to be confused with a Thai minority woman- doing her shopping! This maze of minorities lifted our spirits up in what was otherwise a difficult stay.

Sin Ho is really not a welcoming place at all: we got people throwing stones, or whatever they had at hand, at us. Therefore, we decided not to linger too much and on Sunday 14th, in the early afternoon, we 'escaped' by mini-bus.

Labels: ethnic minorities, northern Vietnam, Sin Ho

We left Hanoi on 9th May and headed in the overnight train northwest to the village of Bac Ha in Lao Cai province. This place is famed for its huge Sunday market where all local indigenous groups -and unfortunately, hordes of tourists on express tours- come to sell, buy and bargain it all.

The market is divided in several areas: one for trading water buffalos, horses, pigs and dogs (yes, dog is not only a man's best friend here but it also makes a toothy security guard and at times a good supper!), another for handicrafts and souvenir, another still for local firewater brews (made from rice, cassava or corn) and a meat, vegetable and fruit market. You can also encounter traditional medicine doctors, saddlers, blacksmiths and of course hairdressers: a healthy man with a well-saddled horse is nothing without a good haircut after all :))

The market is a good representation of the demographics of the minority population in the vicinity. The Flower Hmong, whose women are highly recognizable with their richly embroidered skirts, puttees and tops, flood the market with electric colours. Other minorities such as the Dzao, Tai and Phula are less numerous and wear more subtle attires. They are also more camera shy and weary of foreigners.

Although we only witnessed 5 different groups this Sunday, a total of 10 Montagnard groups are living in the area, namely the Flower Hmong, Dzao (or Dao), the Giay (also called Nhang), Han (also called Hoa), Xa Fang, Lachi, Nung, Tai, Phula and Thulao.

Bac Ha market is the biggest market in the area but not the only one as there are three others on Sundays. There is also a popular market in Can Cau on Saturdays and another in Coc Ly district on Tuesdays. In a nutshell, open-air markets are central to the life of 'hill tribes'.

After an exciting day among chaotic stalls and ethnic crowds, we decided to stay beyond the colourful Sunday market to get acquainted further with the local people and Bac Ha surroundings. Tomorrow, we are off trekking!

Labels: Bac Ha, ethnic minorities, hill tribes, Lao Cai, Markets, northern Vietnam

After a very sweaty stopover in Thailand to prepare for the next phase of our tribal expeditions, we finally left Bangkok with a few extra visas' stamps on our passports with itchy feet.
We start the second leg of our journey here in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Vietnam counts approximately 86 million people and is the easternmost country in the Indochina peninsula in Southeast Asia. Following a Chinese invasion, French colononization, the infamous Vietnam war in the late sixties and early seventies and armed tensions with its neighbouring countries of Cambodia and China in the late seventies, Vietnam has finally been enjoying more peaceful times as a reunified country. After years of political and economical isolation, the country has opened up again to the region and the world since the 1990s.

In practical terms, the legacy of a divided country can still be felt upon visiting 'South' Vietnam and 'North' Vietnam' - from Hanoi onwards. We decided to focus on the northern part of the country as this is where most of the ethnic minority groups live.

The Viet group -also called Kinh- represents the major component of the Vietnamese population, accounting for over 86% of it. For years, the central authorities alienated minority cultures and attempted at eradicating them by imposing the Viet way of life. This led to a massive exodus of minorities, notably Degar -also known as Montagnards- and Hoa peole, from Vietnam. However, most minorities have unexpectedly struck back through economic revival and -for better and for worse- the avent of tourism in the region.

We will start our excursions of the North this week, join us on the road!

Labels: ethnic minorities, Hanoi, North, Vietnam