Karen village

We stayed for two days and nights at a Karen village about 100 km north of Chiang Mai. The Karen are a group of people that moved to Thailand originally from South China many centuries ago. There are about 400,000 of them in Thailand and most them live in small isolated villages in the mountains of northwestern Thailand.  Many of them have turned themselves into tourist attractions - notably the long neck Karens you may have heard of. The group we visited had not succumbed to that temptation - this was not a tourist resort.

There have been numerous studies done of this village by various groups such as CMU looking at issues of sustainable development. That was the nominal focus of our visit but we found so much more than that.

The sleeping arrangements

The village is located in a deep valley surrounded by mountains. Because of the mountains there are no cell phones or any other form of communication with the outside world. There is no electricity so we found ourselves going to bed at sunset and getting up at sunrise. Electronics withdrawal was significant but we needed the extra time for sleeping as there wasn't much between us and the floor. Kathleen has mentioned bruised hips several times since our visit. The call of nature in the middle of the night was a challenge as we had to cross the room full of sleeping bodies, unlatch the door and descend a flight of stairs to the outdoor facilities, all in total darkness.  We were thankful for our led flashlights.

The man who explained his mousetrap

It was a delight to meet the people of the village.  I had a fun interaction with the village spiritual leader.  The Karen speak their own language and for them Thai is a second language, so going from Karen to Thai to English was often a challenge. This man wanted to show me a mouse trap he had built (or maybe invented - I don't know).  After a series of gestures and demonstrations, I managed to set the mouse trap.  He suggested I stick my finger in it, but I think he was joking.  I used a stick instead and the trap worked as expected and I still have ten fingers.  It was fun connecting even in this very limited way - I felt like he was a friend.

The children observing us as we arrived.

The children in their best clothes to say goodbye

There were fifteen children in the village (total population 102) and they were of course beautiful. When we first arrived they were visible standing under a house nearby (most of the houses are on stilts), peeking at all these strange creatures that had just arrived. It was fun watching as over the next couple of hours the ice was broken and they started to interact with our students. On the day we left they were all present and got Canada sticker tattoos from us.

Wetland rice field

One of the villagers' primary occupations is living off the products of the surrounding forest.  In the morning we did a mountain walk rising through the forest about 300 meters above the village.  It was fascinating to see how they had very subtly managed the forest to supply the food they need.  What at first glance just looked like random forest turned out to be deliberately cultivated, interspersed with large sections of natural forest.  In the afternoon we hiked about four km one way to the rice fields.  The villagers grow both wet and hillside rice and it is all done with manual labour.  The hillside rice is grown on a seven-year cycle.  One year of cropping is followed by six years of natural growth so when the next crop is due, they have to start by re-clearing the jungle.  I had my mouse trap lesson at a shelter at the far end of this trek.

Six people including an infant live here to be near the rice fields

The village has so far managed to more or less maintain its traditional lifestyle.  There have been some modern encroachments.   The motorbikes they drive along the mountain footpaths to take the workers to the rice fields and to transport the harvested rice back, and the solar-powered satellite internet-connected computers in the school are examples.  But for the most part the Karen are still living the way their ancestors did hundreds of years ago. The big question is how long can this continue?  The place they live in has been designated as a national park - they don't have any property rights at all and could, in theory, be evicted at a moment's notice.  But they manage the forest very effectively and are probably Thailand's best option for maintaining this national treasure.