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The 'Lisu' people (Chinese: : lìsù zú) are an ethnic group who inhabit Myanmar (Burma), China, Thailand, and the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Jingpho and some Kachin sub groups often call Lisu by the name "Yaw Yin" as a derogatory insult. The Jinpho word "Yawyin" derived from the Chinese word "Yie Rein" which meant "savage or wild". The name "yie rein" was first given to Szi Kachins by local Chinese people according to a record of an American missionary and Chinese history. Han Chinese people never called Lisu by the name "yie rein" at all. In the beginning era of Qing dynasty 1650 A.D, the Lisu learned a new business from aliens and did slave trading business. The Lisu warriors started to capture slaves from Tibet and sold them to business-men in Paoshan and Tali. At first, the Han Chinese word "nu" was not referred to any particular tribe people. Later on, the name "Nu" was given to a local Tibetan tribal people who had migrated along the Salwin river into Lisuland. Nowadays, the spelling or the form of this word has been slightly changed in order to make it more acceptable or polite. The older Lisus of 1870 A.D still told stories of trading slaves that their forefathers exchanged slaves for horses from Han rich people in Tali and Boxa, now so called Paoshan. Most of the Lisu people in upper Salwin river valley owned slaves until the American president Abraham Lincoln. The new American government gave out a big sum of dollar money to release or free those slaves from Lisus.
About 730,000 live in Li Jiang, Paoshan, Nu jiang and De Hong prefectures in Yunnan, China. The Lisu form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. In Myanmar, the Lisu is known as one of the seven Kachin minority groups and an estimated population of 350,000 Lisus live in Kachin and Shan state in Myanmar. 55,000 live in Thailand, where they are one of the six main hill tribes. They mainly are inhabited in the remote country areas.

Contents

History

Origins

Arunachal Pradesh Migration

Culture

Religion

See also

External links

History

Lisu history is passed from one generation to the next in the form of songs. Today, this song is so long that it can take more than a week to sing. Before Ming kingdom's invasion around 1140 A.D, the ancestors of the Lisu tribe people inhabited and ruled in Paoshan and Teingchun palins. The Lisu tribe people bitterly hated Ming kingdom rulers until Qing's victory over Ming around 1644 A.D. One of the Lolohunters' groups, which later would became Lahu tribe people fought against Ming kingdom's troops and were defeated so badly. They were driven out down ward Mekong river. This group almost never learned Han culture and so they do not have words such as; uncle, aunty, brother-in-law, grandfather, grandmother and so on like the Lisu and Akha tribe people do. Lahu people call everyone "O-Mee-pha" which means "big brother". It has become a funny traditional custom for the Lisu and Ahkha as some of them thought they were more civilised after Han invasion. In upper Salwin river valley, where the authority of Ming and Qing never reached, the Lisu collected taxes from local Tibetan migrants, so called Rawang tribe people, till the last warior Meko Shala's time, the British rule in Burma (Myanmar). Meko Shala, the last Lisu warrior was assassinatd by local the Rawang tribe men while he was collecting tax somewhere in upper Laemae-doh river (Me Kha) valley. In those days, they used salt, dried-ham, dried-beef, beans, animal skins and harbals in stead of money to pay taxes to Lisu rulers. Germudi plain was where the Lisu hunters hunted bears, tigers and a source of harbal medicines. As a revange, a Rawang minority officer, named Ding Gratang, convinced Burmese socialist government and give the Lisuland into China during U Nu's rule. Nowadays, Lis people live in Li Jiang, Paoshan, Teing chung, Daehong and Nu jiang prefectures in Yunan China. On Myanmar side, the Lisu tribe people mainly live with its own brothers; the Kachin groups in Kachin state and as well as in Mo Meik and Mo Goke townships.

Origins

The Lisu are believed to originate from eastern Tibet. A wide and deep research done by Lisu scholars indicates that they moved to northwestern Yunnan in the primitive time. They inhabited across Paoshan and Teing Chung plain for thousands of years. More than 2000 years ago, the Myanmar people inhabited in this land. Lisu, Lahu, Ahkha and Kachin groups were the remnants of ancient Burmese. After Han dynasty of Ming, around 1140-1644 A.D. the eastern and Southern Lisu language and culture were greatly influenced by Han cultures. Tai Ping village in Ying Jiang was first established by Lu Shi Lisu people about 1000 years ago. In the early 18th century, Lisu peoples in Pyin Yang, so called Yin Jiang nowadays, began moving into Mo Meik, a few of them moved into Mo Goke, north-eastern Myanma and then in the early 20th century, moved into northern Thailand.

Arunachal Pradesh Migration

Christian Lisus in Arunachal Pradesh are were believed to have migrated from the Patkai Hills. Part of the population was believed to have migrated from China to Burma, fleeing the Communists, and then were ordered to leave Burma by the government at the time; this group also settled in Arunachal Pradesh. No inhabitants was ever found in this valley before the Lisu tribe people. In Arunachal Pradesh, they are primarily concentrated in Vijoynagar town of Changlang District.[1]

Culture

The Lisu tribe consists of more than 58 different clans. Each family clan has its own name or surname. The biggest family clans well known among the tribe clans are Laemae pha, Bya pha, Thorne pha, Ngwa Pha, Naw pha, Seu pha, Khaw pha and Gwa pha. Most of the family names came from their own work as hunters in the primitive time. However, later, they adopted many Chinese family names.
After Ming Dynasty, most of the Lisu tribe people had become a people that lived in villages high in the mountains or in mountain valleys. However, those who still lived in Paoshan plains, standing on the side of Qing, fought against the kingdom of Ming. The Lisu knife ladder climbing festival was first held as a memorial event of victory over Ming in 1644 A.D. The Lisu people invented their own traditional dance so called "gwa-che" along with the Lisu guitar which has no bars on the fretboard. They invented another musical instrument called fulu jewlew as well. It is a kind of flute that has about six or seven small bamboo tubes tied up together to a dried-hollow-gourd.
Songs and dances are different from each other according to the occasions. They have different songs and dances for weddings, homecoming hunters, harvest time and so on, separately.
Lisu villages are usually built close to water to provide easy access for washing and drinking. Their homes are usually built on the ground and have dirt floors and bamboo walls, although an increasing number of the more affluent Lisu are now building houses from wood or even concrete.
Lisu subsistence was based on paddy fields, mountain rice, fruit and vegetables. However, they have typically lived in ecologically fragile regions that do not easily support subsistence. They also faced constant upheaval from both physical and social disasters (earthquakes and landslides; wars and governments). Therefore, they have typically been dependent on trade for survival. This included work as porters, caravan guards. With the introduction of the opium poppy as a cash crop in the early 19th century, many Lisu populations were able to achieve economic stability. This lasted for over 100 years, but opium production has all but disappeared in Thailand and China due to interdiction of production. Very few Lisu ever used opium, or its more common derivative heroin, except for medicinal use by the elders to alleviate the pain of arthritis.
The Lisu practiced swidden (slash and burn) horticulture. In conditions of low population density where land can be fallowed for many years, swiddening is an environmentally sustainable form of horticulture. Despite decades of swiddening by hill tribes such as the Lisu, northern Thailand had a higher proportion of intact forest than any other part of Thailand. However, with road building by the state, logging (some legal but mostly illegal) by Thai companies, enclosure of land in national parks, and influx of immigrants from the lowlands, swidden fields can not be fallowed, can not re-grow, and swiddening results in large swathes of deforested mountainsides. Under these conditions, Lisu and other swiddeners have been forced to turn to new methods of agriculture to sustain themselves.
Perhaps the best-known subgroup of the Lisu is the Flowery Lisu in Thailand, due to hill tribe tourism. Lisu women are remarked for their brightly colored dress. They wear a multi-colored knee-length tunics of red, blue or green with a wide black belt and blue or black pants. Sleeve shoulders and cuffs are decorated with a dense applique of narrow horizontal bands of blue, red and yellow. Men wear baggy pants, usually in bright colours but normally wear a more western type of shirt or top.

Religion

Prior to the 20'th century, the Lisu religion was part animistic part ancestor worship, but was imbricated within complex local systems of place-based religion. Most important rituals were performed by Shamans.
In the beginning of the 20'th century, many Lisu people in China converted to Christianity, at first largely through the work of the Scottish missionary James O. Fraser. John Kuhn and his wife Isobel, Eugene Morse continued the working Fraser died, but by that time the Lisu church was already self propagating, and were sending their own missionaries to tribes that had not yet been converted. James O. Fraser was the founder of the Lisu Baptist Church as well. John Kuhn and other missionaries who stationed across southern Mekong and Nu Jiang river valley established Inland Lisu Christian Church.
Still today, slightly over 40% of the Lisu are Christians; the other 60% are today mostly atheists.

See also

★ Lisu Church

External links

★ The Virtual Hilltribe Museum

★ The Lisu Bible Institute

★ Lisu of China