Mabri village

Mabri village in Nan province, Northern Thailand.

Along the border of Phrae and Nan Provinces live the remaining members of the Mabri (sometimes spelt Mrabri or Mlabri) hill tribe, whom the Thais call phii towng leuang (spirits of the yellow leaves). The most nomadic of all the tribes in Thailand, the Mabri customarily move on when the leaves of their temporary huts turn yellow, hence their Thai name. Now, however, their numbers have been greatly reduced (possibly to as few as 150) and experts suspect that few of the Mabri still migrate in the traditional way.
Traditionally the Mabri are strict hunter-gatherers, but many now work as field labourers for Thais or other hill-tribe groups, such as the Hmong, in exchange for pigs and cloth. Little is known about the tribe's belief system, but it's said that the Mabri believe they are not entitled to cultivate the land for themselves. A Mabri woman typically changes partners every five or six years, taking any children from the previous union with her. The Mabris' knowledge of medicinal plants is said to be enormous, encompassing the effective use of herbs for fertility and contraception, and for the treatment of snake or centipede poisoning. When a member of the tribe dies, the body is put in a treetop to be eaten by birds..
The Thai government runs a 'Pre-Agricultural Development of Mabri Society Project' in both provinces (Phrae and Nan) to ease the Mabri into modern rural society without an accompanying loss of culture.
According to project leaders, the effort is necessary to protect the Mabri from becoming a slave society within northern Thailand's increasingly capitalist rural economy. Because of their antimaterialist beliefs, the Mabri perform menial labour for the Hmong and other hill tribes for little or no compensation.

From Thailand, Lonely Planet 2006.
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Village mabri dans la province de Nan, Thailande du nord.

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