An Akka father smoking opium, Mae Suay, Thailand, 1986. When I first came to Thailand, I spent a few weeks living with this family near Chiang Rai. The man is the village head. He and his wife sleep in separate rooms,even eating separately, with a common room for cooking. The house is made of bamboo- even the floors are made of bamboo strips, making it feel like a trampoline. Below the house is where the pigs and chickens live. The wife gets up at 4:30, prepares breakfast for the family, and goes off to work in the village fields or as hired-labour. The husband in this family stays home and smokes opium most of the day. I tried opium a few times and I found its effects calming, but little else. The man smokes about 100 pipe-loads a day, buying the opium with the fruit of his wife's labour. This is a serious problem in most villages and recently, this has expanded to include heroin use
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Grandchild/Grandmother, Chiang Rai, 1989
In most hilltribe families, the parents work all day and the grandparents are responsible for caring for the children at home. Now, the family structure is starting to change as the outside world has more influence over the family. Electricity brings television, which brings visions of an outside world that some families find desirable. They want the cars, motorcycles, refrigerators,etc., too, but they don't have the cash to buy them, so some families send their children to work in factories or become prostitutes to enable them to buy the things they desire. Very few hilltribe groups have been able to resist this temptation, but as education becomes more accessable to people living in the mountains, more options other than factory work or prostitution will hopefully emerge

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Chiang Mai Beauty, Thailand 1995
The women of the north are known for their beauty, primarily because fair skin is highly-prized in Thai culture. There is a huge business built around skin-lighteners, some of which use mercury as a lightener. This has had obvious health effects that are just now being addressed by the government, which has laws that outlaw many dangerous chemicals, but the laws are not usually enforced. There is a movement now towards more natural products and cosmetics produced in western countries, where the ingredient laws are more strictly enforced.
As for the beauty of the women, well since my wife is Thai, I guess I must agree that Thai women have something very special, both outside and inside....: )

Akka woman, Chiang Dao,1989


Chiang Mai, 1996
The boys are called 'naens', which is what a monk is called before he reaches 18 years old. This group of boys, with their abbot, had just completed a 300+ kilometer walk barefoot from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai. They did this as part of a pilgrimage to another wat.)


Hilltribe women near Chiang Kong, 1988


Classic Hmong Grandmother passing down her craft, 1989


Old style Hmong women, Laos, 1990.


More cute kids, Mae Hong Sorn, 1992


Two beautiful Lisaw women, Mae Hong Sorn, 1990.


Northern Thailand circa 1920.

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