Mlabri Tribe

Mlabri Tribe In Thailand

 
Mla are known as yellow leaf or “Mlabri”. The meaning of the name “Mlabri” can be separated into two words. The first word is “Mla” meaning human, this is the word the tribe use to call themselves. The second word “Bri” meaning forest, this is just a word to add after, thereby they have the word Mlabri which means “barbarian tribe” but they would like to be known as “Mla tribe”. This means “human” because they are not barbarians. They live in the forest. Mlabri is what they are called by others but not what they call themselves.

"Yellow leaf" is the name given to them by other people but they do not like being called this because it makes them sound like ghosts, which they are not. They are human like us. “Yellow leaf” is a name that the “Mla tribe" do not like being called, and to not call them yellow leaf, honors.

     Them they will call others “Gwao” “Yellow leaf” came from “Mla” people living in the forest; they find goods from the forest such as taro, potatos, bananas, bamboo shoots, animals and bees. They live at a singular place for around 2-3 days then will move the place continuously and will choose where to move to by having a discussion between families. Sometimes they will move to an other place, not for food, but because they fear people will come to disturb or hurt them.

So, when a stranger comes or even when they hear people’s voices near the area that they lived, they would escape rapidly. They would do this because they had experienced relatives of theirs being shot and hurt in front of them in the past. This makes them fear people so they move continuously, make very little noise and also do not dare to make fires.

      The banana leaf that they make their huts, changes color from green to yellow and then eventually dries, this is the origin of the word "Yellow leaf" but the word that they are proud of and want other people to call them is “Mla” Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.

 

Informants:
1. Weera Srichawpa
2. Phin Srichawpa
3. Nlikarn Chawphanaprai
4. Duangporn Naamjaikiri 5. The youths: Mai, Nueng, Amara and Kaewta

Mlabri village

Mlabri village

The History of Mlabri community Baan Boonyuen Moo 13.Thambon. Rongkwang, Rongkwang district, Phrae province.

     Currently the Mlabri people live in Boonyuen Suksanae, an area of land owned by Mr Eugene Robert Long, an American missionary. This is because in the past the Mlabri people lived in an area owned by the Hmong tribe whom they worked for. However, the Hmong people paid the Mlabri very little for the work that they did.

This was until a journalist came to visit and wrote about the way that the Mlabri people lived and their low standard of living.

Mr Boonyuen came to the village of the Hmong tribe area and felt compassion towards the Mlabri tribe and wished to help them improve their standard of living. He persuaded the Mlabri people to come and stay with him in Boonyuen Suksanae and helped them to make a better life for themselves.

 Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.

Informants: 

1. Weera Srichawpa
2. Phin Srichawpa
3. Nlikarn Chawphanaprai
4. Duangporn Naamjaikiri
5. The youths: Mai, Nueng, Amara and Kaewta

Life style : Born

       When the women in the Mlabri village will deliver, they will go to deliver in the place that away from the village and have women who could help. Men are forbidden to go to that place. During the birth, men will go out to collect food in the forest. They will use a splinter of bamboo to cut the umbilical cord then use a banana leaf or hemp to cover the baby. The umbilical cord of the baby is buried, and then the mother carries her baby back to her house. The Mlabri do not have lie by the fire after childbirth. They do not have to do any hard work such as carrying water from the pond or prepare food and after around 2-3 days they are able to do hard work or travel to other places, remarkably most of the Mlabrie would like to have a male child.
            Naming/ Calling and Surname.
            In the original, Mlabri tribe has surname like E-Mert, Ip-raw, U-du but in the current time was not using the original surname when they would like to derivation of a relative or a sibling, they will asked a question. When they combined in multi-family, then will asked the name of husband or wife, father mother or grandparents in seeking the relatives because in the past they live in the forest and live with other families.
            Calling the child’s name will have father name to the end of every name which indicate that children are whose and also can tell the rank of the child from the name and asked the question too.
            Present time, Mlabri tribe are not used the original surnames. They have a new name and surname. Surname that they used is related to forests such as Sri chawpha (Chawpha is the forester), Naamjai Kiri, Chawphanaprai, Doisak etc.
            The name change in Mlabri tribe will have to change since have to marriage by using the husband's name to replace their own name and added “Ya” in front of   the wife's name. Mlabri do not change their name often, they will change only when marriage. The Naming of the children depend on the convenience of parents such as follow their own family or some people will naming children according to their respective situations.
Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province
Informants:    1. Weera Srichawpa
                    2. Phin Srichawpa
                    3. Nlikarn Chawphanaprai
                   4. Duangporn Naamjaikiri
                   5. The youths: Mai, Nueng, Amara and Kaewta.

Life style : Death

In the past, if in the village has people die, Mlabri will take the body of dead person away from they live. There is no cemetery for bury a dead body because they move to other place always. Where people die, they take the banana leave to cover and decorate with the area with the stone and leave, no dig a grave. Then the older pray to send the spirit to other world. When the places that they live have the people die, then they will change to a new place. Now, when someone dies in the village, they will take the dead to bury in the graveyard of the village. By dig holes and then use a stripes of bamboo as the floor and cover the dead with their blanket and take a drink or dessert of the dead that was used put on the grave area. The days to perform the ceremony is depends on the dead body family, during the body is in the village, if the family has a lot of the relatives, they much buy pork to give to them that come to joining in the ceremony. They will not invite any person just only there relatives joined the ceremony to drink, and then bury. When in the village has the people die, every villagers will not go to any where, not work and do not bathe or wash during have the funeral ceremony in the village. They can bathe after the ceremony finish.
  Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.
Informants:    1. Weera Srichawpa
                    2. Phin Srichawpa
                    3. Nlikarn Chawphanaprai
                   4. Duangporn Naamjaikiri
                   5. The youths: Mai, Nueng, Amara and Kaewta.

Life style : Entertainment

      In the Past, Mlabri people did not have any instruments to play as their own because they feared that others would hear them. They have only just made swings from vines for their children but when they move down to live with the Hmong people, the Mlabri youth start to use the Hmong’s toys such as using bamboo as guns etc.  .

Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.
Informants: 1. Weera Srichawpa
2. Phin Srichawpa
3. Nlikarn Chawphanaprai
4. Duangporn Naamjaikiri
5. The youths: Mai, Nueng, Amara and Kaewta

Life style : Hunting

  In the past, Mlabri people did not know how to make a trap so they hunted the animals by using spikes as tools. For hunting, they lay down food, and then use the spikes to kill the animals. The men will take responsibility for hunting.

Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.

Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.
Informants: 1. Weera Srichawpa
2. Phin Srichawpa
3. Nlikarn Chawphanaprai
4. Duangporn Naamjaikiri
5. The youths: Mai, Nueng, Amara and Kaewta

Life style : Counting Days, Months and Years.

      The Mlabri people have never kept a strict record of the date, instead they will make observations from the natural world to tell them which season it is, such as in the summer they observe bees when they look for nectar, for winter they look at the leaves changes in color and for the rainy season they look at rapid climate change such as the weather changing from cold to hot to heavy rain. They use the sun as an indicator for the time of day.   .

Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.
Informants: 1. Weera Srichawpa
2. Phin Srichawpa
3. Nlikarn Chawphanaprai
4. Duangporn Naamjaikiri
5. The youths: Mai, Nueng, Amara and Kaewta

Life style : Language

Mlabri speak their own language but it has no written form. Presently they are trying to collect their stories so they are not lost with the new generations. They are adapting the Thai characters to fit their language so they have written copies of their history. Below are samples of the written Mlabri language.         

Thai language.	Mlabri language.
Father	Muem
Mother	Mer
Grandfather	Ta
Grandmother	Ya
Daughter	Aew-aui
Son	Aew-yong
Children	Ai-Tak
Son-in-law	Aew-Kui
Brother-in-law	Ding-Kui
Sister-in-law	Kui
Daughter-in-law	Kui
Brother	Ding
Hello	A-lae-la
How are you?	Juk-krae-rae
Have meal	A-Er-lae
Eat already	A-Er
Where are you going?	Juk-Ga-lang
Where you been?	Juk-Ga-lang-lae
I love you	O-mak-man
I, me	O
Mother	You
Can	Dai
Can not	Ko-bor-dai
Yes	Oh
No	Gi-man
Couth the number (1-10)	Moy-Brae-Pae-Pon-Tung-Tal-Kul-Ti-Kha-Halmoy

However, Mlabri move to live in the lowland but them proud in their language that they are used. When the children are born, they will teach their own language is the first the language for their children.


 Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.
Informants: 1. Weera Srichawpa
2. Phin Srichawpa
3. Nlikarn Chawphanaprai
4. Duangporn Naamjaikiri
                   5. The youths: Mai, Nueng, Amara and Kaewta

Life style : Marriage

     In the past, Mlabri people did not have wedding ceremonies. When a young couple would like to live together, the man would take his parents to talk with the parents of the woman. When the families of both acknowledged and agreed to live together, the man would take the woman to build their own house. Before that the parents of both would have blessed the couple’s marriage. When everything was done, they would live together in the house they built and be married. The woman would then change her first name to follow her husband’s, for example if her husbands name was Ali, she would become ‘YaAli’. Women would add Ya to the start of her husbands name. “Ya” means wife, so YaAli means Ali’s wife. When they have a child, then they will change the name of a child to follow the father’s name, first they will change the first word to be Ei as this means father name. So a child of Ali, will have a name as Eili, Eiti. 
      Meanwhile, the marriage of the Mlabri is prohibited so that they do not marry with their relatives no matter how many generations apart they may be. If they know they are related, then they are unable to marry. Also, in the past, Mlabri tribe did not encourage their children to marry outside the tribe because they feared new diseases such as AIDS and also feared that outsiders would bully or disliked their tribe. Nowadays, Mlabri people still perform weddings as in the past. They do not ask for a dowry, they are not engaged and they do not organize the ceremony. The parents simply talk to each other and make a decision. If the couples love is for another, parents do not mind it just means that they are husband and wife from then onwards.

Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.
Informants: 1. Weera Srichawpa
2. Phin Srichawpa
3. Nlikarn Chawphanaprai
4. Duangporn Naamjaikiri
5. The youths: Mai, Nueng, Amara and Kaewta

Life style : Occupation

When the Mlabri people were living in the forest, they did not have a career of any kind. They would rely on the forest to provide them with the necessary goods, such as food and building resources. However, when they later moved away from the forests to live with the Hmong people, they were employed as gardeners or farmers, with a fee of fish, rice and some pets. At this moment, the Mlabri people are starting to learn how to properly cultivate plants and harvest crops from the Hmong tribe. Other, they keep domestic animals such as chickens and pigs, which they can sell as food. An additional form of employment is the weaving and selling of hammocks. This is being supported by Development Aid for the Hilltribes, the Phare province and Mr. Boonyuen.
Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.
Informants: 1. Weera Srichawpa
2. Phin Srichawpa
3. Nlikarn Chawphanaprai
4. Duangporn Naamjaikiri
5. The youths: Mai, Nueng, Amara and Kaewt

Life style : The Musical Instrument

The Mlabri people make musical instruments to use when they have free time. They may use a blower leaf as a song or take a piece of bamboo and use it as a drum by hitting a rhythm. However, the blower leaf or the drum is not hit much unless they are sure that the area is far away enough from other people so that they aren’t disturbed. They didn’t teach their lineage, so they can not play, but they will play Hmong’s musical instruments such as reed mouth organ, guitar etc.

 

Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.
Informants: 1. Weera Srichawpa
2. Phin Srichawpa
3. Nlikarn Chawphanaprai
4. Duangporn Naamjaikiri
5. The youths: Mai, Nueng, Amara and Kaewta

Life style : Courting

        During courtship of Mlabri in the past, the young people would either talk to each other or the man who was falling in love with the woman would help to find a taro or potato to give to the woman’s family. When the young man who was falling in love with the woman goes into the forest, he would give the woman a memento and when he returns if the women still keeps it or has not married, it shows that the woman loves him. If both of them are in love then they will have a wedding ceremony. If they move to live on the lowland then they have to change the way they court each other such as writing a letter etc.
Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.
Informants:    1. Weera Srichawpa
                    2. Phin Srichawpa
                    3. Nlikarn Chawphanaprai
                   4. Duangporn Naamjaikiri
                   5. The youths: Mai, Nueng, Amara and Kaewta.

Beliefs

In the past, a Mlabri person believed in the things such as ghosts, spirits, the natural, forests or wildlife. When they have illness then, they will raise a comfort or a ceremony ask for forgiveness at the place that they think has to sacrilegious or disparage without knowledge, then will have the older made the ring from bamboo and then go to perform the ceremony at that area by have praying. Or when someone is sick as terrible, the older will use the herbal for treatment or sometimes use the spell to blow out the evil from the body. Currently, treatment by use the herbal still exist but not common because they can go to hospital for treatment. They do not pass their knowledge about treatment from the spell or herbal to the lineage then, the older pass mean that they losing. Beliefs about the mystery, ghost and spirit.           The pass, Mlabri people has beliefs about the ghost or spirit. When in the village have someone sick, they believe that person do something wrong with the guardian spirit. They will have the ceremony to apologize. When they live in the forests, they will ignite a fire to protect them from the ghost or make a warmth and confidence for themselves.

Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.
Informants: 1. Weera Srichawpa
2. Phin Srichawpa
3. Nlikarn Chawphanaprai
4. Duangporn Naamjaikiri
5. The youths: Mai, Nueng, Amara and Kaewt

Comparing Mlabri Way of Life: Past and Present

When the Mlabri tribe used to live in the forest it was a peaceful and simple life for them. However, they struggled if there was little rain, food shortages and with dangerous wild animals such as bears and tigers. By moving into other communities they improved their standard of living.
          
Passing on Knowledge of the Forest to the Next Generation
           When they lived in the forest the parents would have to forage to find food and other goods.  They used to take the children with them as they feared leaving them alone and they could also learn what was edible and what was not. This would help the children in the future when they would have to forage for themselves.  When testing out a new food, the adults would try it first to see whether it was safe to eat.
The Mlabri have great skill and expertise when it comes to surviving in the forest.  The knowledge is passed down from generation to generation.  When one family finds something to eat they will share with each other so everyone has enough food.  If they get an excess of food such as taros, or potatoes they cook and dry it to store for later use.  This is also very useful to help maintain flavor.  They use a similar method with unripe bananas; they pit the banana and heat it so they do not have to wait for it to ripen.

 Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.
Informants: 1. Weera Srichawpa
2. Phin Srichawpa
3. Nlikarn Chawphanaprai
4. Duangporn Naamjaikiri
                   5. The youths: Mai, Nueng, Amara and Kaewta

Social and family characteristics.

The Mlabri tribe in 2 provinces. In the Nan province the Mlabri tribes live in the Huay yuak village in Viangsa district. In the Phrae province the Mlabri tribe people live in the Tawa village, Song district and other villages such as Huay hom village in Rongkwang district. Each community is separate as a result of emigration but these (Boonyeun village) communities come together and are then established as one whole community.

Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.
Informants: 1. Weera Srichawpa
2. Phin Srichawpa
3. Nlikarn Chawphanaprai
4. Duangporn Naamjaikiri
5. The youths: Mai, Nueng, Amara and Kaewt

Social and family characteristics.

Mlabri live together as a family. When their children are married they then separate to build their own home. The Mlabri people have a lot of child, some have about 10 children because do not know about contraception. Mlabri has a clear divide between the men responsibilities and women’s. For example, the men go to hunt animals, find bees, and the female’s cut the wood to make the huts, find taro, potato, take care children, and prepare food. However, both of men and women still have to honor each other. When the son is married he then must move and build his own house for his own family. When married, the man and the woman will live together. Even when they have moved to another house the son and daughter must still help and take care their father and mother.
Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.
Informants: 1. Weera Srichawpa
2. Phin Srichawpa
3. Nlikarn Chawphanaprai
4. Duangporn Naamjaikiri
5. The youths: Mai, Nueng, Amara and Kaewt

Dresses

Education

    In the pass, Mlabri people do not have studied because they living in the forest but now when they move to live in the lowland, the youths in the village (Huayhom village) in Tambon Huayhom, Rgagkwag districe, Prea province, they has been thoroughly studied in the school in the village together with the Hmong children. The school away from the village around 1 km. then the children walks to school everyday.  If high school, they will go to study in the school in the city. Prae province.

 

Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.
Informants: 1. Weera Srichawpa
2. Phin Srichawpa
3. Nlikarn Chawphanaprai
4. Duangporn Naamjaikiri
5. The youths: Mai, Nueng, Amara and Kaewta

Population

The population of the Mlabri tribe in the Naan and Prae provinces of Thailand is around 500 people. Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.

Source: The Mlabri community at Baan Boonyuen, Moo 13, Thambon Vieng, Rongkwang district, Prae province.
Informants: 1. Weera Srichawpa
2. Phin Srichawpa
3. Nlikarn Chawphanaprai
4. Duangporn Naamjaikiri
5. The youths: Mai, Nueng, Amara and Kaewt