HIstory of Lisu hilltribe

The Lisu have a legend quite similar to that of many other tribes in Southeast Asia, of how long ago there was a giant flood.  There were only two survivors: one man and one woman. These two were brother and sister. They survived by living off the meat inside a giant bottle gourd. Once the water had receded, the pair set out in search of other survivors, but to their dismay, they found no one. They became convinced they must be the last remaining man and woman in the world. They realized that if they did not reproduce then mankind would disappear off the face of the planet forever. Still, they couldn't get over the fact they were brother and sister. Finally, they decided to to consult the spirits. Seeing a grinding stone and a mortar on top of a hill, the pair determined to separate the two parts and roll them down opposite sides of the hill. When the grinding stone reached the base of the hill it refused to stop rolling. Instead, it persisted in rolling all the way 'round to the other side of the hill and reuniting with the mortar, ending up in exactly the same position it had been sitting in on top of the hill. It didn't matter what objects the pair used to test their fate, the results were identical each time. The older brother and younger sister agreed that God must have given his blessing to the union. Soon they had produced a son and a daughter which marked the new birth of the tribe.

	What "Lisu" means
	Lisu earned their name as the tribe that is alive with color. In fact, the Lisu are considered to use the greatest variety of colors of all the hill tribes. Their confident decision-making and independence is reflected in the way the Lisu use powerful combinations of colors, one on top of the other, to decorate their costumes. Often referred to as "Lisor," they refer to themselves as "Lisu." The word "Li" comes from the word "eelee," which means custom, tradition, or culture; "su" means "person." The combined meaning is: a group of people who share a deep pride in their customs, traditions, and culture. The Lisu are a people who love order and independence. The established social order is flexible, allowing room for change and diversity. Different cultures and customs are not dismissed out of hand, but new things must pass through a democratic decision-making process before being accepted. Processes like these make Lisu good managers, in general, and have allowed the Lisu have been quite successful at adapting to change.

Background
The Lisu are a people with a hunger for understanding about life. Their language falls into the Yee (Lo-Lo) language group--part of the larger Tibet-Burma family of languages. About 30% of the language comes from the Chinese Ho dialect. Originally, the Lisu were from the area near head of the Salawan waters and the Mekong river, located in northern Tibet and the northwest portion of Yunnan province in the People's Republic of China. The Lisu immigrated into Thailand around the year 1921 (Christian Calendar). This first group of migrants was made up of only 4 families. They settled in a village now known as Huay San in the capital of Chiang Rai province. Later, in that same year, 15 more families made the journey. As the Lisu have no written language of their own, a group of missionaries interacting with this first group, helped to create one using English characters to represent the Lisu sounds. Some Lisu are now Christian. About 5-6 years after the initial move into Thailand, the group separated, with one group remaining behind and the other moving to Doi Chang in the township of Mae Saruay in Chiang Rai province.        The Lisu divided into two sub-groups: the striped Lisu and the black Lisu. Almost all Lisu residing in Thailand are of the striped Lisu sub-group. As for the black Lisu, they are spread out across China, Burma, India, and Thailand. The Lisu in Thailand are scattered across nine different provinces: Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Son, Phayao, Tak, Kampaengphet, Phetchaboon, Sukhothai, and Lampang. Originally, the Lisu divided themselves into six different family dynasties: honey (bia-seu-wee), wood (seu-pa), fish (gua-pa), bear, rice bug, wheat, and hemp. The honey dynasty is the largest of these family lines, but is itself divided into three smaller sub-dynasties. There are nine family lines branching off from inter-tribal marriages with the Chinese Ho: Lee, Yang, Yao, Woo, Kao, Ho, Joo, and Jang. The two largest of these lines are the Lee and Yang line.        Religiously, the Lisu worship their ancestors and the great Spirit. They have two religious heads: the cultural leader (meu-meu-pa) and the ceremonial leader (nee-pa).
Population         In mid-1983 there were approximately 18,000 Lisu spread out over 110 villages in Thailand. In 1958 a survey concluded there were only about 7,500 Lisu, meaning their numbers multiplied at a rate of 3.6% per year over the course of 25 years. Most of the expansion accounts for new immigrants to the country, rather than births. For perspective, in 1983 there were 250,000 Lisu in Burma and about 500,000 in China. Hundreds of families crossed the border and settled in the northeast. Interestingly, there are no Lisu in Laos or Vietnam. The Lisu in Thailand are divided up across the different provinces as follows: 47% in Chiang Mai, 23% in Chiang Rai, 19% in Mae Hong Son, with the other 11% scattered across Phayao, Tak, Kampaengphet, Phetchaboon, and Sukhothai. The Lisu now living in Thailand are quite different from their relatives in northern Burma. This may be due to the fact that the Lisu began in China and divided up and separated out over many different generations. This is not to mention all the inter-marriage that occurred between the Lisu and the Chinese Ho, to the point that these Lisu began referring to themselves as Chinese-Lisu.       A survey conducted in 1997 by the Hill Tribe Research Institute found there were 30,940 Lisu living across 151 villages in 5,114 households. This accounts for 4.11% of all the hill tribe peoples living in the country. 23% are in Chiang Mai, 19% in Chiang Rai, 11% in Mae Hong Son, and the rest are spread out across Phayao, Tak, Kampaengphet, Phetchaboon, and Sukhothai. The past and current organizational structure in a Lisu village: Kwa-Too (Leader of the community): This person is elected to the position by the villagers. Meu-Meu-Pa (Ceremonial leader): The holder of this position is chosen by way of ah-bpa-mo (a fortune-telling ceremony). Each village can have only one Meu-Meu-Pa. The ceremonial leader's responsibilities are to act as a medium between the great Spirit and the villagers, and to announce and conduct ceremonies to observe the various sacred days of the year. Nee-Pa (Spirit doctor): This individual is elected and appointed by the spirits of the ancient ancestors of the family dynasty and is responsible for maintaining the connection between the spirit world and the world of humans. Cho-Mo-Cho-Dtee (Head elder): An elder in the village who is respected and revered by all the younger members of the village. Presently: Kwa-Too (Leader of the community): Now the official village headman. Meu-Meu-Pa (Ceremonial leader): Still appointed in the same way as in the past. Assistants to the village headman (1-2 assistants): Appointed by the headman. Official representative to the Tambon Administration Organization: This position is an appointed one and the appointee is responsible for general administration work in the village and managing and maintaining a budget from the government. The village committee. Advisor: Cho-Mo-Cho-Dtee (Head elder). Nee-Pa (Spirit doctor): Responsible for performing miscellaneous ceremonies.         As for the Lisu Village Organization (Tribal Organization), its role was not all that clear in the past, but was best known for its work in bringing distant relatives of the same family dynasty together. In other words, the organization was not an official one, but was known and respected among the Lisu. In the past, it had a long list of roles and responsibilities in Lisu society. Now, distant relatives continue to come together to perform various ceremonies of importance to the family. http://lisu.hilltribe.org