The Akha are an ethnic group which originated in China and Tibet. Most of the remaining Akha people are now distributed in small villages among the mountains of China, Laos, Myanmar (Burma) and northern Thailand, where they are one of the six main hill tribes. Some 80,000 live in Thailand's northern provinces of Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai at high altitudes. Many of these villages can be visited by tourists on trekking tours from either of these cities.

The Akha generally live in bamboo houses raised on low wooden stilts in hilly areas, where they subsist through a slash and burn rotation method of agriculture. They are expert farmers and hunters. There is controversy as to whether they are responsible for deforestation or actually preserve the environment, and over development projects which some regard as taking away the Akha's land [1]. Land rights and missionary efforts are particularly controversial in Thailand.

In more touristed areas, the Akha will often supplement their income through the sale of handicrafts and woven clothing made using traditional skills. Like many other hill tribes of the region they ave for many years also cultivated opium as an additional source of income, but the Thai government claims that several programmes in recent years have led to a decline in the production of the drug within Thai borders.

External links

• www.Akha.net Helping the Akha People of Laos
• The Peoples of the World
• Akha.org
• The Virtual Hilltribe Museum
• Akha Language Sample