The Lahu people (; ; Lāhùzú; ) are an

ethnic group An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...

native to China, Myanmar, and the rest of

Mainland Southeast Asia Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

Etymology

The Chinese name "Lahu" is a

phono-semantic matching Phono-semantic matching (PSM) is the incorporation of a word into one language from another, often creating a neologism, where the word's non-native quality is hidden by replacing it with phonetically and semantically similar words or roots f ...

of the Lahu endonym, and literally means "to drag favour from heaven" (拉, lā, "to drag"; 祜, hù, "blessing, favour"). It replaced the older and more-offensive "Luohei" (猓黑) as the official Chinese name for the Lahu people.

Distribution

The Lahu are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China, where about 720,000 live in

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

province, mostly in Lancang Lahu Autonomous County. In

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

, the Lahu are one of the six main groups categorized as hill tribes. The Tai often refer to them by the

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

''Musoe'' (also spelled ''Muser''; ), meaning 'hunter'. They are one of 54 ethnic groups in

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

, and mostly live in three communes of Mường Tè, Lai Châu Province. International Lahu New Year 2024 event held in Thailand

A few Lahu, along with many Hmong and Mien and some Lao, were recruited by the United States

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

to help fight against the communist

Pathet Lao The Pathet Lao (), officially the Lao People's Liberation Army, was a communist political movement and political organization, organization in Laos, formed in the mid-20th century. The group ultimately gained control over the entire country of ...

, known as the secret war, during the

Laotian Civil War The Laotian Civil War was waged between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government from 23 May 1959 to 2 December 1975. The Kingdom of Laos was a covert Theatre (warfare), theater during the Vietnam War with both sides receiving heavy ...

. In fear of retribution when the Pathet Lao took over the Laotian government in 1975, those who had helped the United States fled to neighboring Thailand seeking political asylum. A couple thousand Lahu have resettled in the United States as refugees, in the states of

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, and

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

Subgroups

The Lahu divide themselves into a number of subgroups, such as the Lahu Na (Black Lahu), Lahu Nyi (Red Lahu), Lahu Hpu (White Lahu), Lahu Shi (Yellow Lahu) and the Lahu Shehleh. Where a subgroup name refers to a color, it refers to the traditional color of their dress. These groups do not function as

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

s or

clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...

s - there are no kin groups above that of the family. Lahu trace descent bilaterally, and typically practice

matrilocal residence In social anthropology, matrilocal residence or matrilocality (also uxorilocal residence or uxorilocality) is the societal system in which a married couple resides with or near the wife's parents. Description Frequently, visiting marriage ...

. Bradley (1979) lists the following Lahu ethnic subgroups. ;Black Lahu *Lahu Na **Meuneu (Shan, 'north country') **Meun Pulon **Shehvi (Hsenwi) **Bawfa (Shanised) **Hkahka: (known only to Bradley's Akha informants) **Panai (known only to Bradley's Akha informants) *Divergent Lahu Na dialects **Kaishin: (Chinese 'exchange hearts') **Hpu: ('white') Lahu Peoples Flag

***Hu:paw ***Kulao ***Namhpehn (hpeh) ***Lalaw (na) **Laba **Huli *Lahu Nyi ('red') **Nyi **Venya ('go to town') **Kulao: (not the same as Hpu: type Lahu Kulao) *Shehleh (Red Lahu name) **Laho Na ('black') / Shehleh **Laho Namoe **Laho A:leh ;Yellow Lahu *'Like Black Lahu' **A:ga / A:do'aga (Black Lahu name) **A:hpube:le: (Yellow Lahu 'bent gourd'; own name) **Shi: Bankeo: *Laho Shi **Banlan (black name) **Menhke (yellow name) ;Divergent *Lahu Meh *Lahu Lawmeh *Lahu Velon ('big town') ;Unclassified *Kawsung ( Kucong?) *Pawla *Khapaw *Cili *Senling *Nambawpe *Si Pyeng ('yellow-Pyeng') *Si Pü ('yellow - white') *Hai (Chinese 'black' ?) ;Non-Lahu (some have "become" Lahu) *Micha (Lisoid group) *Bana (Akoid group)

Language

The Lahu language is part of the Loloish branch of the Lolo–Burmese subgroup of the

Tibeto-Burman The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak ...

family (itself a member of the

Sino-Tibetan language family Sino-Tibetan (also referred to as Trans-Himalayan) is a language family, family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European languages, Indo-European in number of native speakers. Around 1.4 billion people speak a Sino-Tibetan languag ...

). Like most of its relatives, it is a strongly

isolating language Social isolation, Isolation is the near or complete lack of social contact by an individual. Isolation or isolated may also refer to: Sociology and psychology *Social isolation *Isolation (psychology), a defense mechanism in psychoanalytic theo ...

with subject–object–verb word order, and a set of numeral classifiers. There are seven tones, and consonants cannot close syllables. The language spoken by the Lahu Shi is notably divergent from that spoken by the other groups. In Thailand, Lahu Na often serves as a

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...

among the various hill tribes. Written Lahu uses the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

. Among Christian villages, the language has been enriched by loanwords from English, Latin and Greek via Bible translation, plus

neologism In linguistics, a neologism (; also known as a coinage) is any newly formed word, term, or phrase that has achieved popular or institutional recognition and is becoming accepted into mainstream language. Most definitively, a word can be considered ...

s in the areas of hygiene, music and education.

Religion

The traditional Lahu religion is

polytheistic Polytheism is the belief in or worship of more than one Deity, god. According to Oxford Reference, it is not easy to count gods, and so not always obvious whether an apparently polytheistic religion, such as Chinese folk religions, is really so, ...

. Buddhism was introduced in the late 17th century and became widespread. Many Lahu people in China are Buddhists. Christianity became established in Burma in the 19th century and has been spreading since. The Lahu of Northeastern Thailand had encounters with

Theravada Buddhist ''Theravāda'' (; 'School of the Elders'; ) is Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed ''Theravādins'' (anglicized from Pali ''theravādī''), have preserved their version of the Buddha's teaching or ''Dhamma'' in th ...

forest monks (tudong monks) around the years 1930–1940. The leader of such a group of monks, Mun Bhuridatta, spent some time in Lahu territory. These Lahu asked him for a " gatha that would protect them from ghosts and demons."

Names

Lahu people used to have just a given name, until the

Chinese Government The government of the People's Republic of China is based on a system of people's congress within the parameters of a Unitary state, unitary communist state, in which the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) enacts its policies through people's ...

gave them surnames. About 90% of the Lahu people are either named Lee or Zhang, two of the most common Chinese surnames. Lahu given names are made of two syllables: one that shows the gender and one that gives information on the day of birth, based on the

zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south celestial latitude of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. Within this zodiac ...

. For example, a person born on the Ox day will be named “Zanu” if he is a boy and “Nanu” if she is a girl.

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * Phạm Huy. 1997. ''Một phần chân dung: dân tộc La Hủ (nhật ký điền dã)''. Lai Châu: Sở Văn Hóa Thông Tin Lai Châu.

External links

Video documentary about Lahu Opium People

Lahu Audio Resources FEBC

Lanu names

Lahu ethnic group in Vietnam
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lahu People Ethnic groups officially recognized by China Ethnic groups in Myanmar Ethnic groups in Thailand Ethnic groups in Vietnam