LIVE FROM eBAY - LISTINGS FOR Tibetan Silver Leaves ENDING VERY SOON

Lisu people

History

Lisu history is passed from one generation to the next in the form of songs. Today, this song is so long that it can take a whole night to sing.

Origins

The Lisu are believed to originate from eastern Tibet. Research done by Lisu scholars indicates that they moved to northwestern Yunnan. They inhabited a region across Baoshan and the Tengchong plain for thousands of years. The Lisu, Lahu, Akha and Kachin languages are Tibetan-Burman languages, distantly related to Burmese and Tibetan. After the Han Chinese Ming Dynasty, around 1140-1644 A.D. the eastern and Southern Lisu language and culture were greatly influenced by Han culture of China. Taiping village in Yinjiang, Yunnan, China, was first established by Lu Shi Lisu people about 1000 years ago[citation needed]. In the mid-19th century, Lisu peoples in Yinjiang began moving into Momeik, Burma, a population of Southern Lisu moved into Mogok, north-eastern Burma, and then in the late 19th century, moved into northern Thailand.

Migration into Arunachal Pradesh

Christian Lisu in Arunachal Pradesh, India are believed to have migrated from the Patkai Hills. Part of the population was believed to have migrated from China to Burma, fleeing the Communists, and then were ordered to leave Burma by the government at the time; this group also settled in Arunachal Pradesh. In Arunachal Pradesh, they are primarily concentrated in Changlang District and Tirap district.

Culture

The Lisu tribe consists of more than 58 different clans. Each family clan has its own name or surname. The biggest family clans well known among the tribe clans are Laemae pha (Shue or The Grass), Bya pha (The Bee), Thorne pha, Ngwa Pha (Fish), Naw pha (Thou or Bean), Seu pha ( the Woods), Khaw pha. Most of the family names came from their own work as hunters in the primitive time. However, later, they adopted many Chinese family names[citation needed].

After the Ming Dynasty, most Lisu tribe people had become a people that lived in villages high in the mountains or in mountain valleys. However, those who still lived in the Paoshan plains, standing on the side of the Qing Dynasty, fought against the kingdom of Ming. The Lisu knife ladder climbing festival was first held as a memorial event of victory over Ming in 1644 A.D. The Lisu people invented their own traditional dance so called "che-ngoh-che" along with the Lisu guitar which has no bars on the fretboard. They invented another musical instrument called fulu jewlew as well. It is a kind of flute that has about six or seven small bamboo tubes tied up together to a dried-hollow-gourd.[citation needed] Songs and dances are different from each other according to the occasions. They have different songs and dances for weddings, homecoming hunters, harvest time and so on, separately.

Lisu villages are usually built close to water to provide easy access for washing and drinking. Their homes are usually built on the ground and have dirt floors and bamboo walls, although an increasing number of the more affluent Lisu are now building houses from wood or even concrete.

Lisu subsistence was based on paddy fields, mountain rice, fruit and vegetables. However, they have typically lived in ecologically fragile regions that do not easily support subsistence. They also faced constant upheaval from both physical and social disasters (earthquakes and landslides; wars and governments). Therefore, they have typically been dependent on trade for survival. This included work as porters and caravan guards. With the introduction of the opium poppy as a cash crop in the early 19th century, many Lisu populations were able to achieve economic stability. This lasted for over 100 years, but opium production has all but disappeared in Thailand and China due to interdiction of production. Very few Lisu ever used opium, or its more common derivative heroin, except for medicinal use by the elders to alleviate the pain of arthritis.

The Lisu practiced swidden (slash and burn) horticulture. In conditions of low population density where land can be fallowed for many years, swiddening is an environmentally sustainable form of horticulture. Despite decades of swiddening by hill tribes such as the Lisu, northern Thailand had a higher proportion of intact forest than any other part of Thailand. However, with road building by the state, logging (some legal but mostly illegal) by Thai companies, enclosure of land in national parks, and influx of immigrants from the lowlands, swidden fields can not be fallowed, can not re-grow, and swiddening results in large swathes of deforested mountainsides. Under these conditions, Lisu and other swiddeners have been forced to turn to new methods of agriculture to sustain themselves.

Lisu Women in Traditional Dress, Northern Thailand

Perhaps the best-known subgroup of the Lisu is the Flowery Lisu in Thailand, due to hill tribe tourism. Lisu women are remarked for their brightly colored dress. They wear a multi-colored knee-length tunics of red, blue or green with a wide black belt and blue or black pants. Sleeve shoulders and cuffs are decorated with a dense applique of narrow horizontal bands of blue, red and yellow. Men wear baggy pants, usually in bright colors but normally wear a more western type of shirt or top.

Religion

Animism, shamanism, ancestor worship

Lisu practice a religion that is part animistic, part ancestor worship, but is mixed within complex local systems of place-based religion. Most important rituals are performed by shamans. The main Lisu Festival corresponds to the Chinese New Year and is celebrated with music, feasting and drinking, as are weddings; people wear large amounts of silver jewelry and wear their best clothes at these times as a means of displaying their success in the previous agricultural year. In each traditional village there is a sacred grove at the top of the village, where the sky spirit or, in Thailand, the Old Grandfather Spirit, are propitiated with offerings; each house has an ancestor altar at the back of the house. See later sections of this article for Christianity among the Lisu.

Christianity

Further information: Lisu Church

Beginning in the 20th century, some Lisu people in China and Burma converted to Christianity. Missionaries such as James O. Fraser and Isobel Kuhn of the China Inland Mission, were active with the Lisu of Yunnan. The Chinese government's Religious Affairs Bureau has proposed considering Christianity as the official religion of the Lisu. According to estimates by the Christian organization OMF International, as of 2008 there are now at least 300,000 Christian Lisu in Yunnan, China and 150,000 in Burma (between 40-50% of the Lisu population of each country). The Lisu of Thailand have remained largely unchanged by Christian influences.

Language

Further information: Lisu language

Linguistically, the Lisu belong to the Yi or Ngwi branch of the Sino-Tibetan family.

There are two scripts in use and the Chinese Department of Minorities publishes literature in both. The oldest and most widely used one is the Fraser alphabet developed about 1920 by James O. Fraser and the Karen evangelist Ba Taw. The second script was developed by the Chinese government and is based on pinyin.

Fraser's script for the Lisu language was used to prepare the first published works in Lisu which were a catechism, portions of Scripture, and eventually, with much help from his colleagues, a complete New Testament in 1936. In 1992, the Chinese government officially recognized the Fraser alphabet as the official script of the Lisu language.

Only a small portion of Lisu are actually able to read or write the script[citation needed], with most learning to read and write the local language (Chinese, Thai, Burmese) through primary education[citation needed].

See also

Coptis teeta

Notes

^ a b Hutheesing 1990

^ Gros 1996

^ Gros 2001

^ Bradley 1997

^ Matisoff 1986

^ a b Dessaint 1972

^ a b Hanks & Hanks 2001

^ George 1915

^ Enriquez 1921

^ Scott & Hardiman 1900-1901

^ People

^ John McCoy, Timothy Light (39). Contributions to Sino-Tibetan Studies. BRILL. pp. 9156. ISBN 9004078509.

^ Durrenberger 1976

^ Fox 2000

^ Fox et al. 1995

^ McCaskill and Kempe 1997

^ Durrenberger 1989

^ Bradley (1999), p. 89

^ Klein-Hutheesing 1990

^ "Yunnan Province of China Government Web". http://www.eng.yn.gov.cn/yunnanEnglish/145529160029175808/20050623/378813.html. Retrieved 20080215.

^ Covell, Ralph (Spring 2008). "To Every Tribe". Christian History & Biography (98): 2728.

^ "Lisu of China". OMF International. http://www.omf.org/omf/us/peoples_and_places/people_groups/lisu_of_china. Retrieved 20080220.

^ OMF International (2007), p. 1-2

^ Bradley 2008

^ "Omniglot writing systems & languages of the world". Fraser alphabet. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/fraser.htm. Retrieved 20080220.

References

Bradley, David (November 1999). Hill Tribes Phrasebook. Lonely Planet. ISBN 0864426356.

Bradley, David (2008). Southern Lisu Dictionary. STEDT. ISBN 978-0-944613-43-6.

Bradley, David, 1997. What did they eat? Grain crops of Burmic groups, Mon-Khmer Studies 27: 161-170.

Dessaint, Alain Y, 1972. Economic organization of the Lisu of the Thai highlands Ph.D. dissertation, Anthropology, University of Hawaii.

Durrenberger, E. Paul, 1989. Lisu Religion, Southeast Asia Publications Occasional Papers No. 13, DeKalb: Northern Illinois University.

Durrenberger, E. Paul, 1976. The economy of a Lisu village, American Ethnologist 32: 633-644.

Enriquez, Major C.M., 1921. The Yawyins or Lisu, Journal of the Burma Research Society 11 (Part 2), pp. 7074.

Fox, Jefferson M., 2000. How blaming 'slash and burn' farmers is deforesting mainland Southeast Asia, AsiaPacific Issues No. 47.

Fox, Krummel, Yarnasarn, Ekasingh, and Podger, 1995. Land use and landscape dynamics in northern Thailand: assessing change in three upland watersheds, Ambio 24 (6): 328-334.

George, E.C.S., 1915. Ruby Mines District, Burma Gazetteer, Rangoon, Office of the Superintendent, Government Printing, Burma.

Gros, Stephane, 1996. Terres de confins, terres de colonisation: essay sur les marches Sino-Tibetaines due Yunnan a travers l'implantation de la Mission du Tibet, Peninsule 33(2): 147-211.

Gros, Stephane, 2001. Ritual and politics: missionary encounters in local culture in northwest Yunnan, In Legacies and Social Memory, panel at the Association for Asian Studies, March 2225, 2001.

Hanks, Jane R. and Lucien M. Hanks, 2001. Tribes of the northern Thailand frontier, Yale Southeast Studies Monographs, Volume 51, New Haven, Hanks.

Hutheesing, Otome Klein, 1990. Emerging Sexual Inequality Among the Lisu of Northern Thailand: The Waning of Elephant and Dog Repute, E.J. Brill, New York and Leiden.

McCaskill, Don and Ken Kampe, 1997. Development or domestication? Indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.

OMF International (November 2007). Global Chinese Ministries. Littleton, Colorado: OMF International.

Scott, James George and J.P. Hardiman, 1900-1901. Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, Parts 1 & 2, reprinted by AMS Press (New York).

Further reading

Tribes of the northern Thailand frontier, Yale Southeast Studies Monographs, Volume 51, New Haven, Hanks, Jane R. and Lucien M. Hanks, 2001.

Emerging Sexual Inequality Among the Lisu of Northern Thailand: The Waning of Elephant and Dog Repute, Hutheesing, Otome Klein, E.J. Brill, 1990

The economy of a Lisu village, E. Paul Durrenberger, American Ethnologist 32: 633-644, 1976

Lisu Religion, E. Paul Durrenberger, Northern Illinois University Southeast Asia Publications No. 12, 1989.

Behind The Ranges: Fraser of Lisuland S.W. China by Mrs. Howard Taylor (Mary Geraldine Guinness)

Mountain Rain by Eileen Fraser Crossman

A Memoir of J. O. Fraser by Mrs. J. O. Fraser

James Fraser and the King of the Lisu by Phyllis Thompson

The Prayer of Faith by James O. Fraser & Mary Eleanor Allbutt

In the Arena, Kuhn, Isobel OMF Books (1995)

Stones of Fire, Kuhn, Isobel Shaw Books (June 1994)

Ascent to the Tribes: Pioneering in North Thailand, Kuhn, Isobel OMF Books (2000)

Precious Things of the Lasting Hills, Kuhn, Isobel OMF Books (1977)

Second Mile People, Kuhn, Isobel Shaw Books (December 1999)

Nests Above the Abyss, Kuhn, Isobel Moody Press (1964)

The Dogs May Bark, but the Caravan Moves On, Morse, Gertrude College Press, (1998)

Transformations of Lisu social structure under opium control and watershed conservation in northern Thailand, Gillogly, Kathleen A. PhD thesis, Anthropology, University of Michigan. 2006. Available as open access at http://manao.manoa.hawaii.edu/38/.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lisu people

The Virtual Hilltribe Museum

Yunnan Province of China government web site in English

Research Paper on Lisu of Northern Thailand

The Lisu of China, OMF International

v  d  e

Ethnic groups in China

as classified by the People's Republic of China

Achang  Bai  Blang  Bonan  Buyei  Dai  Daur  De'ang  Derung  Dong  Dongxiang  Evenk  Gaoshan  Gelao  Han  Hani  Hezhen  Hui  Jing  Jingpo  Jino  Kazakh  Kirgiz  Korean  Lahu  Lhoba  Li  Lisu  Manchu  Maonan  Miao  Monba  Mongol  Mulao  Nakhi  Nu  Oroqen  Pumi  Qiang  Russian  Salar  She  Shui  Tajik  Tatar  Tibetan  Tu  Tujia  Uyghur  Uzbek  Va  Xibe  Yao  Yi  Yugur  Zhuang

Undistinguished ethnic groups in China

v  d  e

Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh

Major tribes

Adi  Mishmi

Scheduled tribes (recognised by government)

Aka  Apa Tani  Ashing  Bori  Chikum Dui  Deori  Digaru  Gallong  Hill Miri  Khamba  Khampti  Khamyang  Khowa  Lisu  Padam  Palibo  Phake  Memba  Monpa  Miji  Mikir  Minyong  Miju  Mishing  Nishi  Nocte  Nga  Ran  Sherdukpen  Singpho  Sulung  Takpa  Tangsa  Tutsa  Wancho  Zekhring

Other tribes (Not recognised by government)

Chugpa  Lishipa

v  d  e

Government-classified ethnic groups in Burma (Myanmar)

Anu  Anun  Asho  Atsi  Awa Khami  Bamar (Burman)  Beik  Bre (Ka-Yaw)  Bwe  Chin  Dai (Yindu)  Daingnet  Dalaung  Danaw (Danau)  Danu  Dawei  Dim  Duleng  Eik-swair  Eng  Ganan  Gheko  Guari  Gunte (Lyente)  Gwete  Haulngo  Hkahku  Hkun (Khn)  Hpon  Intha  Kachin (Jingpo)  Kadu (Kado)  Ka-Lin-Kaw (Lushay)  Kamein  Kaung Saing Chin  Kaungso  Kaw (Akha-E-Kaw)  Kayah (Karenni)  Kayin (Karen)  Kayinpyu (Geba Karen)  Ka-Yun (Kayan; Padaung)  Kebar  Khami  Khamti Shan  Khmu (Khamu)  Khawno  Kokang  Kwangli (Sim)  Kwelshin  Kwe Myi  Kwi  Lahu  Lai (Haka Chin)  Laizao  Lashi (La Chit)  Lawhtu  Laymyo  Lhinbu  Lisu  Lushei (Lushay)  Lyente  Magun  Maingtha  Malin  Manu Manaw  Man Zi  Maramagyi  Maru (Lawgore)  Matu  Maw Shan  Meithei (Kathe)  Mgan  Mi-er  Miram (Mara)  Moken (Salon; Salone)  Mon  Monnepwa  Monpwa  Mon Kayin (Sarpyu)  Mro  Naga  Ngorn  Oo-Pu  Paku  Palaung  Pale  Pa-Le-Chi  Panun  Pa-O  Pyin  Rakhine (Arakanese)  Rawang  Rongtu  Saing Zan  Saline  Sentang  Sgaw  Shan  Shan Gale  Shan Gyi  Shu (Pwo)  Son  Tai-Loi  Tai-Lem  Tai-Lon  Tai-Lay  Taishon  Ta-Lay-Pwa  Tanghkul  Tapong  Taron  Taungyo  Tay-Zan  Thado  Thet  Tiddim (Hai-Dim)  Torr (Tawr)  Wa (Va)  Wakim (Mro)  Yabein  Yao  Yaw  Yin Baw  Yin Gog  Yin Kya  Yin Net  Yin Talai  Yun (Lao)  Za-How  Zahnyet (Zanniet)  Zayein  Zizan  Zo  Zo-Pe  Zotung

v  d  e

Ethnic groups in Thailand by language family

Tai

Isan  Khorat Thai  Khn  Lanna  Lao  Lao Ga  Lao Krang  Lao Lom  Lao Loum  Lao Ngaew  Lao Song  Lao Ti  Lao Wieng  Lu  Northeastern Thai  Northern Thai  Nyaw  Nyong  Phu Thai  Phuan  Saek  Shan  Southern Thai  Tai Bueng  Tai Daeng (Red Tai)  Tai Dam (Black Tai)  Tai Gapong  Kaleun  Tai Na  Tai Wang  Tai Yuan  Thai (Central Thai)  Yoy

Malayo-Polynesian

Cham  Malay  Moken  Moklen  Pattani  Satun  Urak Lawoi

Monhmer

Bru  Chong  Kensiu  Khmer  Kintaq  Kuy  Mani (Negrito)  Mon  Nyahkur (Nyah Kur, Chao-bon)  Nyeu  Pear  Sa'och  So  Vietnamese

Khmuic

Khmu  Lua  Mlabri  Phai  Pray  Tin

Palaungic

Blang  Lamet  Lawa  Mok  Palaung (De'ang)

Tibeto-Burman

Akha  Bamar  Bisu  Karen  Kayah  Lahu  Lisu  Lolo (Yi)  Mpi  Pa'o  Phrae Pwo  Phunoi  Pwo  S'gaw  Ugong

Chinese

Chinese (general)  Cantonese  Hakka  Han  Hokkien  Teochew

Hmong-Mien

Hmong  Yao/Iu Mien

Other

Indian  Japanese  Korean  Farang  Portuguese  Persian

Categories: Ethnic groups in China | Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh | Ethnic groups in Burma | Ethnic groups in ThailandHidden categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from February 2008 | Articles with unsourced statements from July 2008 | Articles with unsourced statements from March 2008
About the Author

I am a professional writer from Cheap On Sales, which contains a great deal of information about kosher sea salt , urea hydrogen peroxide, welcome to visit!