 1 Tribes and ethnic groups list
 2 articles on tribes
 3 Tribes Thailand
 4 Witch doctors (Bomohs)+BigFoot
 5 Islam

\1 Tribes list (* = see articles below)

Akha (Kaw) - Poorest of hill tribes
*Arakanese (Rakhines)
Danu
*Dayak - Borneo
*Hmong
*Hmong (Meo)
Intha - Tibeto-Burman live around Inle Lake
*Kachins
Katu - Sekong hill tribe in Laos
*Karen (Yang, Kailiang)
Lahu (Mussur)
Lawa (Lua)
*Lisu (Lisaw)
*Meo
*Mien (Yao)
*Mina
*Mon
Padaung - women called GIRAFFE because of their rings
Palaung
Pa-O - Tibeto-Burman
*Shan
*Siang
Taungyoe
*Wa
Yau (Mien)
*Yi

Ethnic Groups:

Bajau - seafarers from the S.Philippines share Sabah with Kadazans. They are the second largest ethic group in the state and Muslim.

Chinese - came early in the 14 and 1800s to work for the colonial mines. Their nyonya food is popular and are about 1/3 the population. The majority of Chinese in Penang including the Baba Nyonya adapted a set of beliefs which is a mixure of Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhaism.

Indian - from south India, the Tamil heritage brought to Malaya by the British for the rubber plantations at the turn of the century. They are found in most cities on the west coast.

Kadazan - share Sabah with the Dayak. As the largest ethic group in the state and are Roman Catholic. They use to be fierce head hunters.

Malay - constitue 50% of the population. The Penang Malays originated from Kedah, northern and central Sumatra and south Thailand.

\2 articles:

Arakanese (Rakhines) - member of a Myanmar (Burmese) ethnic group centred in the Arakan coastal region of southern Myanmar (Burma). The Arakanese are Buddhists of Myanmar stock and possess a dialect and customs of their own. Separated from the parent group in central Myanmar by the mountains of the Arakan Yoma, they trace their history to 2666 BC, have had a lineal succession of as many as 227 princes, and claim that their empire once extended across Myanmar into China and Bengal.

Although history does not corroborate these claims, the Arakanese's most sacred image of the Buddha, the huge Mahamuni statue (now in Mandalay), is alleged to predate the Pagan kingdom (1044-1287) by a millennium. An independent Arakanese kingdom was probably established as early as the 4th century AD. The Mongols, Pegus, and Portuguese invaded Arakan at different times.

Myanmar forces conquered the Arakanese kingdom, carried off the Mahamuni statue to Mandalay, and made Arakan a part of the Myanmar kingdom in 1785. As a province, Arakan was ceded to the British in 1826 by the Treaty of Yandabo. Arakan became independent from British rule in 1948 together with the rest of Myanmar.

Mrohaung, Arakanese Kingdom of in southern Myanmar (Burma), state whose longevity (1433-1785) provided a strong tradition of independence for the Arakan region, a coastal strip on the Bay of Bengal. King Narameikhla founded a strong, stable kingdom in 1433. In 1531 the first European ships appeared in the region, and Portuguese freebooters began to settle at Chittagong.

Mrohaung's navy, under the leadership of King Minbin and with Portuguese assistance, was the terror of the Ganges River region. Arakan's neighbour and traditional antagonist, Bengal, was weak; the freebooters raided there at will, carrying hundreds of slaves off to Arakan. For almost a century Mrohaung retained its naval power. The slave markets at Mrohaung attracted the attention of Dutch traders, who purchased slaves from the Arakanese.

To stop the depopulation of coastal Bengal, the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in 1629 wiped out a Portuguese pirate nest on the Chittagong coast. Mrohaung endured as a naval power until 1666, when Bengal annexed the coastal area. When King Sandathudamma died in 1684, the country became prey to internal disorder. Another 25 kings came to the throne, however, before the armies of the Burmese king Bodawpaya invaded the kingdom and deposed the last king, Thamada, in 1785.

Dayak - one of several ethnic groups on Sarawak and former headhunters are christian today. Borneo - Bahau, Pronunciation: (bu-hou'), [key] n., pl. -haus, (esp. collectively) -hau. a member of any of several Dayak tribes of central and eastern Borneo.

Dayak, also Dyak, name applied to aborigines of the island of Borneo, particularly to the tribes of the interior of the state of Sarawak. The Dayak are divided into six groups: the Penans, Klemantans, and Kenyahs, who represent the oldest Dayak elements of Borneo, and the Kayans, Muruts, and Iban, who are later arrivals. Physically, the Dayak are the result of long-term admixture of Chinese, Malay, and Negrito peoples. The Iban, known as Sea Dayak and famous as pirates and conquerors, were probably the latest of the Dayak to arrive in Borneo; they alone of the Dayak groups inhabit the coastal region. They bear strong ethnological similarities to the Malays, who came to Borneo in the 12th century. Many Iban have been converted to Christianity, some practice an amalgam of Christianity and traditional beliefs, and some still follow their traditional beliefs.

The other Dayak groups, especially the Kayans and Penans, have maintained their ancient customs, habits, and religious beliefs to a much greater extent. They follow a polytheistic rite of worship that incorporates a system of major and minor gods. The form of worship and the nomenclature of the respective gods vary from tribe to tribe.

The Dayak practice of headhunting, rooted for the most part in religious beliefs, is rapidly dying out. The Iban, formerly the most notorious of the headhunters, have given up the custom more quickly than the other tribes, probably because, living on the coast, they are in more direct contact with other cultures.

The Dayak are skilled in crafts, making fine cloth and excellent iron weapons. They are efficient in the use of the 
blowpipe for hunting and are noted for the construction of serviceable bamboo suspension bridges. Rice cultivation, hunting, and the gathering of wild fruit are their main means of subsistence. The Dayak population of Borneo has been estimated as slightly more than 1 million.

In recent years the traditional lifestyles of the Dayak have become increasingly endangered by industrialization, logging, and forced government resettlement. Many Dayak have been active in the struggle to save their dwindling coastal and rain forest homelands.

Hmong - migrated from China in 19th century and is the largest and most underprivildged grp in VN today. Their spoken language sounds like Mandarin. Raise livestock and cultivate at high altitudes including opium.
Muong, a male dominated society live in small stilted house hamlets mostly in Hoa Binh province. Literate and similar to Tai.
Nung are goo at farming and handicrafts. Superstitious and found mostly in Cao Bang and Lang Son provinces.
Other tribes in VN are: Jarai, Ede, Bahnar, Sedang, Tay, Tai, et al.

Hmong (Meo) - FREE people quickest to move away from subsistence farming. Grow opium for sale. Hmong villages are on hill tops below the crest.
Miao also called Meo, or Hmong, mountain-dwelling peoples of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand, speaking Sino-Tibetan dialects. In China the Miao call themselves Hmong, Hmung, or Hmu; there are estimated to be 70 or 80 different groups or varieties of them, distinguished by differences in dialect, dress, and other customs, living in the provinces of Kweichow, Hunan, Szechwan, and Yunnan, and in Kwangsi Chuang Autonomous Region. In the late 1970s the government of China estimated the Miao to number 3,900,000. They are closely related to the Yao. The Miao of Indochina, who also refer to themselves as Meo or Hmong, are concentrated in the northern areas of Vietnam and Laos. Those in Vietnam are sometimes divided into groups distinguished by the costumes of the women (e.g., White Miao, Blue Miao, Black Miao, Red Miao, Flowered Miao). In the early 1980s their numbers were estimated at about 380,000. The Miao of Thailand, who live mainly in the northern provinces, call themselves H'moong.
Groups are distinguished according to their dress, the majority being Blue or White. Most Miao live in single-story houses built directly on the ground. Agriculture is the chief means of subsistence for all of the groups, who grow corn (maize) and rice on burned-over forest land in the hills. Opium is an important cash crop, sold in the lowland markets. There is little indigenous political organization above the village level. The highest position is usually that of village chief. In China the Miao are subject to the local Chinese authorities. In Laos and northern Vietnam, where the Miao are relatively dense in certain areas, they have sometimes obtained political positions at a level above that of the village.

In religion most Miao venerate spirits, demons, and ancestral ghosts. They have shamans who exorcise malevolent spirits, and often priests who perform ceremonial functions. Animal sacrifice is widespread. Young people are permitted to select their own mates, and there is a good deal of sexual freedom among them, although many Miao in China have adopted the Chinese custom of arranging marriages. One form of institutionalized courtship involves antiphonal singing or the tossing of a ball back and forth between groups of boys and girls from different villages. Polygyny is permitted, but in practice it is limited to the well-to-do. The household is usually made up of several generations, including married sons and their families. When the parents die, the household breaks up into smaller units which then repeat the cycle.

Kachins - Tibeto-Burman from west China

Kachin - people occupying parts of northeastern Myanmar (Burma) and contiguous areas of India (Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland) and China (Yunnan). The greatest number of Kachin live in Myanmar (roughly 590,000), but some 120,000 live in China and a few thousand in India. Numbering about 712,000 in the late 20th century, they speak a variety of languages of the Tibeto-Burman group and are thereby distinguished as Jinghpaw, or Jingpo (Chingpaw [Ching-p'o], Singhpo), Atsi, Maru (Naingvaw), Lashi, Nung (Rawang), and Lisu (Yawyin).

The majority of Kachin are Jinghpaw speakers, and Jinghpaw is one of the officially recognized minority languages of China. Under the British regime (1885-1947), most Kachin territory was specially administered as a frontier region, but most of the area inhabited by the Kachin became after Burmese independence a distinct semiautonomous unit within the country.

Traditional Kachin society largely subsisted on the shifting cultivation of hill rice, supplemented by the proceeds of banditry and feud warfare. Political authority in most areas lay with petty chieftains who depended upon the support of their immediate patrilineal kinsmen and their affinal relatives. The Kachin live in mountainous country at a low population density, but Kachin territory also includes small areas of fertile valley land inhabited by other peoples of Myanmar. The traditional Kachin religion is a form of animistic ancestor cult entailing animal sacrifice. About 10 percent of the Kachin are Christian.

Kachin Hills heavily forested group of highlands situated in the northeasternmost section of Myanmar (Burma). They range north-south and are bordered on the northwest by Arunachal Pradesh state of India, on the north by the Tibet autonomous region of China, and on the east by Yunnan province of China. The hills blend with the Kumon Range to the west. The Kachin Hills are drained by the Mali and Nmai rivers, which are headstreams of the Irrawaddy River. The upper basin of the Chindwin River lies to the west.

The Kachin Hills are chiefly inhabited by the Kachin people, who use slash-and-burn cultivation to grow hill rice on the slopes. They are a Sino-Tibetan group with a patrilineal tribal organization. The steep river valleys of the southern part of the region are mainly inhabited by Shans and Burmans. Rice, vegetables, tobacco, cotton, and sugarcane are their main crops. Opium is a cash crop. The main population centres in the Kachin Hills are the towns of Myitkyina, Mogaung, and Putao. The railroad north from Yangn (Rangoon) ends at Myitkyina.

The rivers in the area are used for transportation. Since the 18th century successive Chinese governments have laid claim to the northeasternmost segment of the Kachin Hills. The political boundary remained in dispute until the early 1960s, when Myanmar relinquished the eastern villages of Hpimaw, Gawlam, and Kanfang to China.

The remote, isolated area comprising the Kachin Hills was never under the control of the Burmese kings, and the British administered the area directly. The area was granted a large measure of autonomy under the 1947 constitution, but subsequently the Myanmar government integrated the area more fully into the country.

Karen (Yang, Kailiang) - Second oldest and largest in Thailand. Variety of tribal peoples of southern Myanmar (Burma), speaking languages of the Sino-Tibetan family. They are not a unitary group in any ethnic sense, differing linguistically, religiously, and economically. One classification divides them into White Karen and Red Karen.

The former consist of two groups, the Sgaw and the Pwo; the Red Karen include the Bre, the Padaung, the Yinbaw, and the Zayein. They occupy areas in southeastern Myanmar on both sides of the lower Salween River, in contiguous parts of Thailand, in the Pegu Yoma range in lower Myanmar, and also in the Irrawaddy delta land of southern coastal Myanmar.

They are the second largest minority in Myanmar. After the country attained its independence in 1948, a condition of sporadic civil war developed between the government and various dissident groups calling themselves Karen. By the early 1980s the principal unifying factor among Karen was a common distrust of political domination by Myanmar; the assimilation of this minority into the state of Myanmar remained a pressing political problem in the country.

Karen languages languages spoken in lower Myanmar (Burma) and on the borders of Thailand. The Karen languages are usually divided into three groups: northern (including Taungthu), central (including Bwe and Geba), and southern (including Pwo and Sgaw); only Pwo and Sgaw of the southern group have written forms. Leading scholars believe the Karen languages to be related to the Tibeto-Burman group of the Sino-Tibetan language family, but the relationship does not appear to be a close one. Languages of the Karen group have been greatly influenced by languages of the Tai and Austro-Asiatic families. Distinctive features of the Karen languages include the use of tones to distinguish between words with identical sequences of consonants and vowels and the placing of the verb between the subject and object (in other Tibeto-Burman languages the verb occurs after the subject and object).

Deadly river - Despite a government promise to clean up the contaminated Klity creek, the Thai-Karen villagers who live along it are still haunted by health and food problems Story And Pictures By ATIYA ACHAKULWISUT 1/30/01 In the chilliness of an early night, dozens of villagers in long, white overalls _ the traditional dress of the Karen people _ crouched by the creek. Each took turns putting bits of glutinous rice and steamed taro into a decorated bamboo raft. The villagers then said a prayer, their voices a rhythmic wave rising and falling along with the sound of the creek itself.

Here and there, tiny pools of flickering candlelight represented the Karens' undying hope for the health of the stream _ their main source of water.

This ceremonial rite to renew the life of the Klity creek in Lower Klity village, Kanchanaburi province, has additional significance, since the stream has been polluted for decades by toxic discharges from a lead-separation plant upstream.

"The water has been spoiled for years. We have suffered for so long. Since we are organising a ceremony to express our gratitude to the Rice Goddess, we thought we might as well conduct a renewal rite for the creek, to drive all the hardship and misery away," explained Somchai Thongphaphumepatavee, 46, a native of the Lower Klity village.

The ceremony was held last month and was the first in seven years for the small village of about 200 residents. In a sense, the jubilation _ the melodious sound of traditional Karen music, the colourful dance troupe and theatre that played on into the wee hours of the morning _ embodied the villagers' efforts to break away, if only for a brief moment, from the collective sadness that has engulfed their village over the past few years.

In a mournful voice, Somchai described the once-vibrant Klity creek he used to know, a stream that was full of fish, of large trees that towered over its two banks, and how, at night, the croaking of frogs and toads could be heard echoing in the woods.

All this was lost once the lead-separation plant, run by Lead Concentrate Thailand Co, went into operation upstream from the village some 20 years ago.

Since 1994, hundreds of cattle have died after drinking water from the stream. At least seven residents of the Lower Klity village were believed to have died of causes related to lead poisoning.

The Department of Pollution Control, which went into the village to analyse the contamination after news of the villagers' suffering came to light three years ago, confirmed that the level of lead contamination in the Klity creek was "startling and scary", the highest ever discovered in Thailand.

A study done by the department revealed that lead content in the creek was 10 times higher than that deemed safe. It also discovered about 15,000 tonnes of lead-laden sediment piled up as high as 30 centimetres along the course of the 19-kilometre-long creek.

The Public Health Department was slower to react. It waited almost two years after the contamination was reported to begin medical check-ups and blood tests among the villagers. The first blood test, conducted in 1999, showed that the amount of lead in most villagers' blood was four to five times higher than the 4.9 microgrammes per decilitre (ug/dl) in the average Thai adult.

Another test was administered early last year. On average, the level had not receded.

But what's next? The Medical Services Department has started treating a few children and adults for lead poisoning. The remainder have been left in the dark as to what exactly has happened to them _ how on earth could the seemingly solid lead get into their bodies? _ and what they can and should do about it.

"From the first test I learned that the lead level in my blood did not exceed 40. From the second test, I learned that the amount had increased, but I don't know by how much," Somchai said.

According to the Public Health Ministry, the level of lead in the blood of an adult should not exceed 40 ug/dl, while that among children should not exceed 10 ug/dl.

However, it may be _ as some in the United States argue _ that there is no such thing as a "safe" level. The accumulation of lead in the human body, even at close-to-zero amounts, can, in the long run, damage brain cells and the nervous system.

Somchai's son, Jow Lor Phor, is one of the children with an extraordinarily high amount of lead in his blood. "He is rather weak and mentally slow. He is four years old now but has not started to speak," Somchai said.

The boy shows signs of suffering from Down's syndrome.

Two-year-old Orathai Nasuantasanee is another victim. The girl looks pale and weak, and cries most of the time. Orathai's father, Anant, said the girl is sick quite often. While the level of lead in the blood of a child should not exceed 10 ug/dl, Orathai's is loaded, with 35.2 ug/dl.

The young girl was treated for lead poisoning in October last year.

Her mother, Sayumporn, took care of her during her 10-day hospitalisation.

A few months later, Sayumporn, who also suffered from a high lead content _ her level was 38.15 ug/dl _ hanged herself. She was the first person to commit suicide in this close-knit village.

Her husband and relatives insist there was no reason for Mrs Sayumporn to take her own life. The health problem is believed to have stressed the mother of four, leading to her tragic end.

Anant does not know how to help his sick child. "I don't think I can take her to see a doctor," he said.

Since the only link between the Lower Klity village and the outside world is a rough dirt road which is almost useless during the rainy season, it takes hours to get to the nearest town of Thongphaphume.

"It takes too much money. I don't know what to do next. I wish doctors would come more often to look after us. It would be best if they could be here on a regular basis."

A quick look around the community reveals an unsettling phenomenon: quite a few children in the village suffer from an abnormality or a deformity of some kind or other. Malnutrition may be a factor, but even so, the rate is startling, taking into account that a couple of cases can be found in about every five households, and that this is a community of about 200 people.

Tukata is another slow-to-develop child. Only a year old, the girl remains too weak to begin crawling. Her neck has not strengthened up and her large eyes are always filled with tears.

Six-year-old Darika Takoengwitsathaporn is not only mentally underdeveloped but was also born without genitalia. The girl was diagnosed with 26.42 ug/dl of lead in her blood.

Darika's father, Boonchai, died last month. The 35-year-old man had suffered from an unidentified illness which caused his body to swell and ache. He also had acute stomach pains. The level of lead in Boonchai's blood was 22.49 ug/dl.

Next door to the Takoengwitsathaporn's house, Janthira Tongfah cradled her 10-month-old son. Janthira herself is among those with the lowest amount of lead in the village, yet her husband, Prasert, was found to have 25.02 ug/dl. Janthira's son has six digits on both his hands and feet. The list goes on and on.

Unfortunately, there has been no study conducted in the village to determine if there is a pattern of abnormality that is related to lead poisoning.

Surapong Kongchantuk, director of the Karen Studies and Development Centre, who first alerted the media and government authorities to the lead contamination issue, suggested the authorities take a more active and coordinated role if they really want to help the villagers.

"First of all, the health authorities should give blood tests to everyone. In the past, the officials would just show up in the village, with no prior announcement. Then they would round up whoever happened to be around, and give them a test. The rest were simply left out," Surapong said.

Most villagers admit that since the lead-separation plant was ordered closed in 1998, the water has improved. The creek is deeper in some parts, with less scum-like sediment and no foul smell. Still, the stream is far from being the source of life it used to be.

Health authorities have told the villagers not to drink the water or eat the fish, shrimp or crab from the creek for fear it will increase the lead content in their bodies.

Unfortunately, the Karens, who live a life of subsistence, don't have many choices.

"I tried not to eat fish from the creek, but I have to sometimes, otherwiee I would have nothing to eat," Somchai said. Anant concurred.

The health authorities provide water piped in from across the mountain to the village. Although every house in the village has access to water, the supply is often not adequate.

Anant noted it was difficult to carry water with him when he goes out to work in the field, further away from the village. These trips can last for several days, and it's not possible to carry all the water needed.

"I have to use water from the creek, sometimes, both for drinking and bathing. I know it may make me sick, but where else can I find water to use?" the father of four asked.

Surapong recommended that every agency concerned must work together to implement measures that meet the villagers' immediate and long-term needs.

"The government must take a more holistic approach. They must look at every aspect of the problem _ food, medicine, health, the environment. So far, treatment has been done on a case-by-case basis. The possibility of a larger pattern of lead poisoning has been dismissed.

"The Klity contamination is a case of community-wide sickness. I think the authorities must treat the whole village collectively, keeping in mind that the affliction is both physical and mental. In the past, doctors would come in and spend half-an-hour or so with the villagers. I don't think they learned anything that way. For the treatment to be effective, we need specialists to come in and study the villagers' sicknesses and their way of life. Then a treatment regime can be planned based on the real conditions."

Sopon Tatichotiphan, director of the Pollution Inspection Division under the Pollution Control Department, said a master plan for the clean-up of Klity creek will be finished this week. The scheme, undertaken by the department after the initial attempt by the lead plant failed to correct the problem, will include dredging the lead-laden sediment. The dregs will then be buried in a landfill.

"The dredging will take at least four to five years. The rough road means we can work for only three or four months a year, when it does not rain. The cost, about 5 million baht, will be shouldered by the lead separation plant," he said.

It will take longer before the villagers can use water directly from the creek for consumption, and even longer before they can eat the fish in the river.

Until the time when villagers can depend on the creek for their livelihood again, a revolving fund will be set up to enable the villagers to buy other kinds of food.

``We would like to let villagers manage the fund themselves. We are studying how to do this, in consultation with non-governmental organisations. Initially, I think we will need about 1 million baht in the fund,'' Sopon said.

Ironically, the contamination has not prompted the government to review its policy on mining and its impact on the environment.

While the clean-up attempt is going on at Lower Klity village, the Forestry Department agreed to let the Bor Ngam lead mine, situated on the border of the Thungyai Naresuan wildlife sanctuary, continue operations even though many environmentalists and NGOs have voiced opposition to the idea of having such a heavy-impact industry so close to a World Heritage site.

Since the ore from the Bor Ngam mine was fed to the Klity lead-separation plant, now temporarily closed, the news appalls the Karens in Lower Klity village, who are afraid the mine owner will now reopen the plant. ``If the company can reopen the plant, it will be good for them because they now have to separate the ore at another plant further away,'' said Chaveevan Potikanon, financial manager of Lead Concentrate Thailand Co. She noted, however, that it would be difficult for the company to obtain a license to operate again.

She admitted that part of the Klity creek problem was caused by the plant, and thtt the plant did reap some benefits from its operations.

Concerning responsibility for environmental damage _ and damage to the health of the villagers, she said, ``The plant will take responsibility at an appropriate level.'' She added that she would have to coordinate with concerned government agencies in the matter, and that the company would donate 1 million baht to the revolving fund for villagers.

But Anant declared, ``I don't want any lead mines around any more.'' Kamthorn Sisuwanmala echoed the sentiment. ``The leftover lead has not been washed out. If the plant reopens, the toxins will flow out again. The poison will become endless. How hard will our life be then? How terrible will our future be?''

Lisu (Lisaw) - The Lisu are one of the smallest ethnic groups in N. Thailand. They comprise about 4% of the total hilltribe pop with more than 90% of the Lisu living in the prov of Chiangmai, Chiangrai and Mae Hong Sorn. They are relativ-ely new to Thailand with two subdivisions of the tribe crossing over from Burma as recently as the 1920's. Their fundamental outlook on life is what is referred to as 'Primacy' and this very colorful ethnic group goes to great lengths to maintain patrimonial clans within the tribes, and kinship relationships are based on family, extending in increasingly wider circles to include the tribe.

Although much diff from the Mien in most respects, the Lisu and Mien appear to have a strong common trait : both tribal groups spend lavish sums on wedding ceremonies. The Lisu sense of primacy seems to be very closely related to the Mien sense of propriety in that the marriages within each group take priority over nearly all other ceremonial activities. The two tribes tend to spend so much money on making a good show, both in courtship and in the marriage ceremony itself, that most of their waking hours are spent trying to make enough to pay for not only the ceremony but also new clothing for courting and dowries. The bridal couple are blessed in verse and plain speech, often emphasizing Lisu virtues and customs. For example, the bride's father only begs a dowry because of tribal custom, not poverty. One common theme in many songs, not just assoc with marriage, and which seems contrary in such outgoing people is that they have no writing of their own, no irrigation for their crops and
no nation that is truly theirs. This is then countered by the assertion that the Lisu way is the best way.

New Year's Day is another major and distinctive ceremony of the Lisu. Each village has its own priest, and the celebration mainly consists of dancing around the priest's holy tree, shifting to the vicinity of the headman's house on the following day. Music is provided by traditional wind and string instruments, with the dance following both tempo and instrument played. There seems to be a clear social hierarchy displayed in the order of dance, with the headman and the adults initiating proceedings, to be followed by the children and finally the young men and women who have spent the day dressing to impress in their finery.

Throughout the celebrations, a few of the village men are appointed as clowns or jesters, who goad the others if the pace of the dancing slackens off, but this is all good-natured, as fighting or arguing are forbidden throughout the entire New Year celebration. Formerly the festival was taboo to outsiders, being confined to family, clan and friends, but these restrictions have been eased over the years. After 2 days of festivity, the priest announces the rising of the sun, ending the celebration. Each family then ties a piece of pork and a pair of rice cakes to its own New Year tree, and casts it into the forest, severing the link with the past year.

There are fewer than 25,000 Lisu in all of Thailand. About 50% of them live in Chiangmai Prov, approx 25% in Chiangrai Province, less than 20% in Mae Hong Sorn, and the remainder scattered from Sukhothai to Kampaeng Pet. They are farmers for the most part and grow rice, corn and vegetables. They supplement their farm income by making traditional tribal handicrafts.

The Lisu prefer to settle near the tops of mountains, as close as possible to streams or waterfalls. Their houses never have more than one door and are oriented to stand parallel to the face of the mountain on which they live. Each village has a spirit house, and each house has a small shrine to spirits and ancestors. In addition, because the Lisu are the "engineers" among the hill tribes, most of thiir villages feature a large bamboo pipe, a conduit, that carries water to the village from the nearest source.

The Lisu are a handsome people, perhaps the best-looking of all the tribes, and they like to think of themselves as a cut or two above their other Hilltribe neighbors. Consequently, they are among the least bashful of these ethnic groups, and, although patient, like to be a bit competitive as well.

This ethnic group, although small, is probably the most outgoing of all. When you enter a Lisu village, you know - - they're not in the least bit afraid of intrusion and they're a most fun - loving people. In work they are both energetic and enthusiastic, but don't mistake them for people who don't know how to do business. If you're bargaining with them, they're the ones who are most likely to come out ahead. Maybe a better definition of the word 'primacy' as it applies to the Lisu tribes is " lively and strong determination to succeed, not just financially but also on an internal tribal level as well as an external human relations levels.

Meo - also called Meo, or Hmong, mountain-dwelling peoples of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand, speaking Sino-Tibetan dialects. In China the Miao call themselves Hmong, Hmung, or Hmu; there are estimated to be 70 or 80 different groups or varieties of them, distinguished by differences in dialect, dress, and other customs, living in the provinces of Kweichow, Hunan, Szechwan, and Yunnan, and in Kwangsi Chuang Autonomous Region. In the late 1970s the government of China estimated the Miao to number 3,900,000. They are closely related to the Yao.

The Miao of Indochina, who also refer to themselves as Meo or Hmong, are concentrated in the northern areas of Vietnam and Laos. Those in Vietnam are sometimes divided into groups distinguished by the costumes of the women (e.g., White Miao, Blue Miao, Black Miao, Red Miao, Flowered Miao). In the early 1980s their numbers were estimated at about 380,000.

The Miao of Thailand, who live mainly in the northern provinces, call themselves H'moong. Groups are distinguished according to their dress, the majority being Blue or White. Most Miao live in single-story houses built directly on the ground. Agriculture is the chief means of subsistence for all of the groups, who grow corn (maize) and rice on burned-over forest land in the hills. Opium is an important cash crop, sold in the lowland markets.

There is little indigenous political organization above the village level. The highest position is usually that of village chief. In China the Miao are subject to the local Chinese authorities. In Laos and northern Vietnam, where the Miao are relatively dense in certain areas, they have sometimes obtained political positions at a level above that of the village. In religion most Miao venerate spirits, demons, and ancestral ghosts.

They have shamans who exorcise malevolent spirits, and often priests who perform ceremonial functions. Animal sacrifice is widespread. Young people are permitted to select their own mates, and there is a good deal of sexual freedom among them, although many Miao in China have adopted the Chinese custom of arranging marriages. One form of institutionalized courtship involves antiphonal singing or the tossing of a ball back and forth between groups of boys and girls from different villages. Polygyny is permitted, but in practice it is limited to the well-to-do. The household is usually made up of several generations, including married sons and their families. When the parents die, the household breaks up into smaller units which then repeat the cycle.

Mien (Yao) - Originating from central China 2000+ years ago, they consider themselves ARISTOCRATs of hill tribes.

Miao-Yao languages languages spoken by the Miao and Yao peoples of southern China and SE Asia. The Miao-Yao language group includes Miao, Ch'i-lao (also called I-lao and closely related to Miao), Yao, and Sho (closely related to Yao and spoken in southern China). Miao-Yao languages are written with the Latin alphabet.

In Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand, the Miao language is known as Meo. The dialects of both Miao and Yao diverge enough that, in some cases, they are mutually unintelligible. Some scholars classify the Miao-Yao languages as a separate branch of the Sino-Tibetan family, whereas others place them in the Tai or Austronesian language families.

Mina - also called MEO, OR MEWATI, tribe and caste inhabiting Rajasthan and Punjab states in northern India, and Punjab province, Pakistan, who speak Hindi and claim descent from the Rajputs.

The Mina are possibly of inner Asiatic origin, and tradition suggests that they migrated to India in the 7th century with the Rajputs, but no other link between the two has been substantiated. In the 11th cen, the Meo branch of the Mina tribe converted from Hinduism to Islam, but they retained Hindu dress. Although the Mina and Meo are regarded as variants, some Meo claim that their ancestral home is Jaipur.

Originally a nomadic, warlike people practicing animal breeding and known for lawlessness, today most Mina and Meo are farmers with respected social positions. In the late 20th cen the Mina in India numbered more than 1,100,000, and the Meo, concentrated in NE Punjab, Pakistan, numbered more than 300,000.

Both are divided into 12 exogamous clans, led by a headman (muqaddam) and a council (panch) of tribe members. They trace descent patrilineally and divide themselves into three classes: landlords, farmers, and watchmen. Both the Mina and Meo permit widow divorce and remarriage, and the Meo allow a man to exchange a sister or a close female relative for his bride. Following Hindu tradition, the Mina cremate their dead while the Meo observe burial rites.

Mon - Also spelled MUN, Burmese Talaing, people living in the eastern delta region of Myanmar (Burma) and in west-central Thailand, numbering in the late 20th cen more than 1.1 million. The Mon have lived in their present area for the last 1200 years, and it was they who gave Myanmar its writing (Pali) and its religion (Buddhism). The Mon are believed to have spread from western China over the river lowlands from the Irrawaddy River delta south to the Chao Phraya River basin in Thailand.

The Mon city of Thaton was conquered by Burmans migrating southward in 1057. The Mon state endured, however, until it was finally subjugated by the Burmans in 1757 (see Mon kingdom). Most Mon are bilingual, speaking Burmese as well as their own language, which is of Austroasiatic stock. The Mon homeland occupies a coastal strip of land bordering the Gulf of Martaban and includes the Bilugyun and Kalegauk islands. The physiography of the area consists of lowlands terminated by the Taungnyo Range in the east.

The Sittang River is the region's NW boundary, and the rivers Gyaing, Ataran, Salween, and Ye drain the area westward to the Gulf of Martaban. Rice and teak are the most important agricultural products; mangoes and durians are cultivated as well. Tea, sugar, tobacco, rubber, salt, and bamboo products are exported from Moulmein. Other cities and towns in the region include Thaton, Ye, and Martaban. Thaton, the former capital of the Mon kingdom, lost its position as a port because of silting.

A Mon village typically consists of rectangular houses with thatch roofs, granaries, and cattle sheds. Most villages have a monastery that also functions as a school, as well as pagodas, an image house where images of the Buddha are kept, and a rest house or meeting house. The family unit is nuclear rather than extended. The Mon religion of Theravada (Hinayana) Buddhism is combined with belief in various spirits.

Shan - Shan Tai, Southeast Asian people who live primarily in eastern and northwestern Myanmar (Burma) and also in Yunnan province, China. The Shan are the largest minority group in Myanmar, making up nearly one-tenth of the nation's total population. In the late 20th century they numbered more than 4 million. Their language, commonly known as Shan, belongs to the Tai linguistic group, which also includes the Thai and Lao languages. Most Shan, however, with the exception of those living in the relatively isolated easternmost strip of Myanmar, are closer culturally to the Burman people.

The Shan are Theravada Buddhists and have their own written language and literature. Most live on the Shan Plateau, which is seamed by low mountains and masses of broken, forested hills. Although much of the Shan territory thus consists of uplands, the people live primarily in the valleys and stretches of plain between the uplands. The surrounding hill country is occupied by aboriginal peoples who live in economic symbiosis with the Shan. The Shan economy is based almost entirely on rice farming where irrigation is available. Shifting (slash-and-burn) cultivation is practiced otherwise, and this has resulted in considerable deforestation.

The Shan carried on a considerable trade for centuries with the Burman who live to the west in the Irrawaddy River valley and with the Chinese to the north in Yunnan. Shan society was traditionally divided into a class of farmer commoners and a hereditary nobility who furnished both local chiefs and the ruling head of the Shan state. The Shan are extremely conscious of their ethnic identity.

They dominated much of Myanmar from the 13th to the 16th century. After their power declined, there were more than 30 small Shan states, most of which paid tribute to the Burman kings; under the British the Shan states of Burma were ruled by hereditary chiefs, subject to the crown. In 1922 most of the states joined the Federated Shan state, which had considerable local autonomy. Like the other states in the country after independence, however, Shan state lost much of its autonomy under the constitution of 1974.

Since then the Shan have frequently been at odds with the national government over the issue of local autonomy. Several armed Shan separatist groups were formed in the 1960s, although by the late 20th century their principal interest had apparently become the illegal production and export of opium from areas near the border with Thailand, an area known as the Golden Triangle.

Shan language Shan Tai, language spoken in the northern and eastern states of Myanmar (Burma) and belonging to the Southwestern group of the Tai language family of Southeast Asia. Its speakers, known as the Shan people to outsiders, call themselves and their language Tai, often adding a modifier such as a specific place-name or other term (e.g., Tai Long: "Great Tai"). Like the other Tai languages, Shan is largely monosyllabic in word form and makes use of tones to distinguish between otherwise identically pronounced words.

Although closely related to Thai (Siamese) and Lao (Laotian), Shan differs from them in being more strictly monosyllabic and in borrowing many words from Burmese. Shan is written in an alphabet derived from the Burmese writing system. This alphabet, with its lack of both vowel and tone markers, was inadequate and difficult to read even for a Shan speaker until these defects were corrected by a series of orthographic reforms culminating in 1955.

Siang - The Siang of Indonesia belong to a larger ethnic group known as the Ot Danum. The term ot danum literally means "people who live in the upper regions along rivers." It covers a number of sub-groups who share a common mythical origin and speak dialects of the same language. Four major sub-groups of the Ot Danum can be found living on the island of Borneo, located in the Indian Ocean just southwest of the Philippines. They occupy a 180 mile belt that stretches from the upper Melawi River to the upper Barito River.

The legend of their origin says that there were two brothers and two sisters who descended from the skies on a golden palangka, or altar. The brothers made their way down the Kahayan River, and the sisters journeyed down the Barito River. While hunting, the brothers saw human tracks, which they traced to the two women. There they married. One of the couples went back to the Kahayan and their descendants became known as the Ot Danum.

What are their lives like? The Ot Danum belong to a larger group of peoples known collectively as the Dayak. This term is refers to non-Muslim peoples who live along the banks of large river systems, growing rice and collecting forest products such as resin, rubber, ironwood, and animal skins.

Like other Ot Danum, the Siang live near rivers and practice "slash and burn" agriculture. Rice is their staple crop; maize, sweet potatoes, and various other vegetables are also grown. Fishing and hunting provide other important food sources. Between seasons, forest products are gathered and sold. The Siang are known throughout the central Kalimantan region for their plaited hats, baskets, and mats. Farming and hunting tools are also made locally.

Villages range in size from 100 to 400 people. Their homes are rectangular and stand six to fifteen feet above the ground on wooden posts. Dogs, pigs, and chickens are kept as domestic animals, and cows are kept to eat at major festivals. Water buffaloes are herded, but only at a distance because they easily turn wild and can be dangerous to villagers.

The land surrounding each village (for about a two mile radius) is considered to be village property. Each villager has the right to sell his land if he chooses, but only to a fellow villager. Land that remains fallow for more than five years may be claimed by anyone in the village. Neighbor relationships vary from group to group. However, those speaking the same dialect maintain the most peaceful relations.

Cross-cousin marriages are preferred among the Siang. When an agreement has been reached by a couple's parents, the groom's family gives a symbolic gift to the family of the bride. A second gift is given when the engagement is announced. After the marriage has taken place, a bride price is paid.

The Siang typically wear light, loose clothing. Loin cloths are often worn for informal events, while wrap-around skirts are worn on formal occasions.

What are their beliefs? The Siang are animists (believe that non-living objects have spirits). They are also polytheistic (worship many gods). However, their religious practices revolve around two main deities. One is represented by the hornbill (a type of bird) and the other by the water snake. Religious rituals can range from simple events to lengthy feasts. The people look to shamans (witchdoctors) for treatment of their illnesses. Shamans may be either male or female, and are often possessed by evil spirits.

In past times, the Dayak populations were abused by bordering Malaysian rulers. They lost much of their land as a result of headhunting raids. Today, some of the people still have a "slave complex" as a result of this long history of exploitation.

People name: Siang Country: Indonesia Their language: Siang Population: (1990) 71,200 (1995) 77,000 (2000) 82,900 Largest religion: Ethnic religionist 98% Muslim (Sunni) 1%

Wa - also called LAWA, VA, HKAWA, KAWA, OR KALA, hill-dwelling peoples of eastern Myanmar (Burma), where they are generally called Lawa, and southwestern Yunnan province of China, where they are generally called Va, or Wa. They speak an Austro-Asiatic language related to Mon-Khmer. The pagan, or "wild," Wa are concentrated in the isolated northern and central Wa states of Myanmar; they are known as headhunters who believe that the skulls of the dead are an assurance of good crops and good health. The so-called tame Wa have acculturated to neighbouring groups, sometimes intermarrying with them, and are mainly Buddhists.

Yi - also called LOLO, OR WU-MAN, ethnic group of Austro-asiatic origin living largely in the mountains of SW China and speaking a Tibeto-Burman language; the term is used by the Chinese to designate what they formerly called the Lolo or Wu-man. The Yi people numbered about 5.9 million in the late 20th century.

Their principal concentrations were in Yunnan and Szechwan provinces, with smaller numbers in northwestern Kweichow province and in the northern part of Kwangsi Chuang autonomous region. Almost two-thirds of the Yi live in Yunnan province alone. The Yi language is spoken in six relatively distinct dialects. Among lesser minorities within the Yi language group are the Lisu, Na-hsi (Naxi) (former Moso), Hani, Lahu, and Pai. The traditional Yi culture includes a primitive hoe-using agriculture, livestock herding, and hunting.

A caste system formerly divided the Yi into two groups. The Black Bone Yi, the ruling group, were apparently descended from a people that originated in NW China. The far more numerous White Bone Yi were formerly subjugated or enslaved by the Black Bones. The subjugation of the White Bones was ended by the Chinese govt in the 1950s. The White Bones have spread over the highlands of Yunnan and Kweichow, while the heartland of the Black Bones lies in the great and lesser Liang Mountains SW of the Szechwan Basin.

The Lisu group, numbering about 520,000 in China, have spread southward from Yunnan as far as Myanmar (Burma) and northern Thailand. The Chinese distinguish between Black Lisu, White Lisu, and Flowery Lisu, terms that seem to relate to their degree of assimilation to Chinese culture.

In the 1960s the Black Lisu, living highest up in the Salween River valley, were least civilized; they wore coarse clothes of homespun hemp, while the others dressed in colourful and elaborate garments. In their migrations the Lisu have kept to the highest parts of hill ranges, where they cultivate hill rice, corn (maize), and buckwheat on frequently shifted fields worked mainly with hoes. Their houses are of wood and bamboo. Crossbows, poisoned arrows, and dogs are used for hunting.

They have a clan organization, men of one clan taking wives from others. They worship their ancestors and gods of earth and sky, wind, lightning, and forest. The Na-hsi, also known as Moso, are estimated to number about 270,000. In common with the Tibetans, many of them embrace Tibetan Buddhism; they also believe in various spirits and demons and, along with their shamans, have priest-exorcists of the Bon cult of Tibet.


\3 Tribes Thailand

Forest communities in the North are working together to realise their constitutional rights in natural resource management-and to fight against public prejudice Sanitsuda Ekachai

Mention hilltribe people and most Thais will immediately think of slash-and-burn cultivation, forest destruction and drug trafficking.

That wearies Joni Odashao, 55, a Thai-Karen elder and one of Thailand's most outspoken grassroots leaders.

"The stereotypes come from school textbooks and the media," he said. "As long as this portrayal continues, there's little hope for our struggle to secure rights to stay on our ancestral land."

Like most hilltribe communities in the mountainous North, Baan Nong Tao, Joni's ancestral village in Chiang Mai, is subject to land insecurity and eviction threats by forest officials because the laws do not allow any human settlements in the forests.

Forest-dwellers argue that their communities are often older than the forestry laws and the greenery around their communities is clear proof of their forest conservation culture. But the Forestry Department insists on evicting forest-dwellers.

The forestry law has outlawed about 1.2 million small-farm families across the country. Although poor farmers also suffer the stereotype of forest encroachers, the tribal peasants are on the lowest rung because ethnic minorities are considered aliens, thus having no rights to stay in the eye of state authorities.

Such draconian laws, argue the villagers, do not respect the localities' diverse topographies and cultures.

In the mountainous North, communities are often nestled in valleys between green mountains and their way of life is closely linked to the forests.

"Northern farmers have developed water management systems such as small-scale dykes to draw and share water from the hills. Their land and forest management is also eco-friendly," explained Chatchawan Thongdeelert, a veteran development worker and an expert on Northern folk culture.

The hill people who live higher up the mountains have also developed their own land, forest and water systems which keep nature intact over time, he said. These practices are governed by religious beliefs which help keep people in check, he added.

A Chiang Mai university research project undertaken in 1995 found that there are over 288 communities in the North which have successfully safeguarded their forests through local beliefs, traditional land use systems and regular forest patrols against poachers and illegal loggers.

More often than not, the villagers found that their main threat stemmed from state authorities.

"We don't understand why the government wants to evict us, but keep on giving concessions to mining or rock-blasting businesses which destroy nature and our livelihoods," said Musoh Sanohtongprai of Baan Kapu village, Chiang Mai.

During the economic boom, the villagers lost much of their public graze land and community forests to land speculators, through corruption among officials.

Facing the common threats of forced evictions, state concessions and land speculators, a group of lowland rice farmers and ethnic highlanders formed a network of forest communities to protect their land rights and their environment.

In 1996, the group set up the Community Forests Support Group, or Kong Tun Chumchon Rak Pah in Thai, to raise funds because their local conservation activities get no support from the authorities.

The villagers use the funds to beef up their forest patrolling, to prevent forest fires, to plant trees and to hold religious activities such as tree ordination ceremonies to protect the forests and strengthen community unity.

Funds are also used to support the villagers' efforts to campaign for legal amendments to allow for community rights in forest management.

"But it is an uphill task because the public is still prejudiced against the poor," said Joni, weariness evident on his wrinkled, sun-drenched face.

The group's hard work to campaign for a community forest bill is a case in point. After 15 years of campaigning with support from academics and environmentalists, the Forestry Department finally adopted, though reluctantly, the concept of community forests, which allow the locals to manage forests in their vicinities.

But when the people-sponsored version of the community forest bill entered the legislative process, it was taken over by the state-sponsored bill which still gives the Forestry Department ultimate authority to evict forest dwellers.

When forest villagers in the North rallied in Chiang Mai to voice their concerns last year, ministers and provincial authorities attacked the hilltribes as aliens with no rights to reside on Thai soil. The clampdown nearly led to violent confrontations.

And now, as before, the forced eviction of ethnic minorities who live mostly in forests still continues with public indifference. "Because we are portrayed as forest destroyers," said Joni.

Even hilltribe children begin to see themselves that way. "The school textbooks describe us in ways which make us feel bad about ourselves," said Permpool Pino, 25, of Baan On Nai, Chiang Mai.

Joni's struggle is twofold; how to return cultural self-confidence to the hilltribe children and how to make the general public understand the hilltribe way of life.

"The mainstream education system and the media are stealing our children away from us," said Joni.

To fight back, Joni initiated a new programme at his village school by inviting village elders to speak with the children about village folklore, traditional rituals, religious beliefs and farm practices which reflect the hilltribe peoples' respect for nature.

"Our children are facing two worlds," said Joni, referring to modern city values and the hill people's traditions. "We parents must help build them a strong bridge so they can go back and forth safely between these two worlds," he said.

After four years, the Baan Nong Tao School has attracted many educators who want to learn about the school's experiment and to initiate a similar programme elsewhere.

The Community Forests Support Group, meanwhile, produces its own media which includes newsletters, books and music tapes to tackle public preconceptions and prejudices against hilltribe people. The group also invites Thailand's top artists to visit forest communities. The paintings from the trips are sold to raise funds for forest conservation activities.

"The public needs to see and hear another side," said Rojarek Watanapanich, co-ordinator of the Community Forests Support Group. "But information alone is often not enough to change attitudes. Art is a powerful medium. So is personal experience."

Every year the group takes city residents to visit forest communities, hoping that their first-hand experience will make them understand the hill people better.

When the group took on a massive challenge by ordaining 50 million trees to celebrate the 50th anniversary of His Majesty the King's accession to the throne.

\4 Witch doctors (Bomohs)

(by Harold Stephens booking@inet.co.th wolfenden.com - story taken in part from book *Return to Adventure SE Asia*)
No adventure in the SE Asia would be complete without some involvement of the so-called "mysteries of the Orient." I remember reading a short story by Somerset Maugham about an Englishman who had spent twenty years running a rubber estate in Malaya. When time came for him to retire, he packed up and returned home to England by steamer. Behind he left not only a way of life but also a Malay woman with whom he had spent his last years. She wasn't too pleased with his departure, so she had a bomoh, a Malay witch doctor, put a curse on him.

The unfortunate Englishman died from hiccups before reaching England. A fascinating story, but one I never really believe. How could someone put a curse upon someone else, and have him die of hiccups? A product of Maugham's imagination. But when I came to Asia, I learned Maugham had traveled widely throughout Thailand and SE Asia, and from his everyday experiences he drew the plots for his stories. The stories were more real than imagined. I also discovered that some very strange things do go on in Asia, and I learned that if you want to survive in this part of the world, you cannot let yourself become a diehard skeptic, or even a doubter. You soon learn to accept those mysteries that once baffled you. You may not totally believe them, but you accept them.

The learning process is slow. It doesn't happen in a week or a month, or even in a year. But it does happen, eventually, if you remain in Asia long. It begins when you go to a Thaipusam celebration at the Batu Caves in Malaysia, or the yearly festivals in Phuket, and see things performed by Hindu devotees which even in your wildest imagination you never thought humanly possible. Or when you travel to the Philippines during the Easter holidays, and on Friday morning visit Batangas outside Manila and watch believers being nailed to a cross, and later see them kneeling in church praying. And when you hear and perhaps visit with a bomoh, or a soothsayer or rain-stopper, or a medium or faith-healer, you know it's all an inherent part of the mysterious Orient.

Andy Larson lived in Kuala Lumpur and came to Asia with some fixed ideas. He wasn't the type to be worried by the number thirteen; he wouldn't hesitate to walk under a ladder; he wasn't alarmed if a black cat crossed his path. Nothing fazed him. Being a determined backwoods Canadian, his philosophy was "show me."

As head of a large advertising firm in KUL, with a responsible position, Andy wasn't apt to be led astray by buffoonery. I was sitting in his office one afternoon, having a coffee, when our conversation lead to a story that had appeared in the Straits Times the same morning. It mentioned a law was passed requiring bomohs to register their services. It seems there were too many quacks in the witch doctor business. It was then that Any told me the story that changed his thinking. Andy had a Malaysian Chinese secretary, an attractive, intelligent girl, who had been distraught about something. "For the past few months she was not the happy, carefree girl she once had been," he said. One day Andy noticed a change in her. She was all smiles. "What's the occasion?" he asked.

"I have a second meeting with the bomoh this evening," she said jovially. "You have what?" She repeated she was going to see her bomoh. Andy then explained a few things about bomohs, that they can be Malay, Indian or Chinese, male or female. The bomoh the secretary was going to visit was an Indian gentleman.

"But why?" Andy asked. "To break the spell," she said. She maintained a spell was put upon her by a young man with whom she had had a love affair. When she broke off the relationship, the jilted lover became irate and threatened her. She remained persistent, however, and refused to see or have anything to do with him. The man swore he would get even with her. He then went and hired the services of a bomoh, who put a curse upon her. The witch doctor maintained she would never have a successful love affair again.

Andy had to admit that although the girl was good looking, with a pleasant personality, she had no boyfriends. If a boy did take her out, he never asked her for a second date. Andy never could figure it out. The pretty secy learned there was in KUL a Hindu sect whose priests could remove spells. She went to one of the meetings and talked to a priest. She explained her predicament, and he agreed to help her. He consulted a thumb-worn book of heavenly bodies, found a time that corresponded with a certain phase of the moon and instructed her to return in eleven days. But first, she must buy a small, green lime, put it under her mattress during this period and bring it with her when she returned. She did exactly as she was told, and with the moon being exactly right, she told Andy this was the night she was to meet the bomoh. Seeing that Andy had his doubts, she said, if he wished, he could accompany her that night. He accepted.

Andy met his secretary that evening and they drove to a section of town he had not visited before. They parked and followed a narrow, unlit street to a ramshackle building, lit by oil lamps, with a dozen people crowded inside. Others waited outside on the steps. Discordant Indian music, mostly from drums and clanging cymbals, mingled with the chanting of Hindu worshippers, came from within the building. Andy and his secretary entered. The head priest was already in a trance, as were most of the others there. It was strange and mystifying, Andy explained. Suddenly someone next to him slipped into a trance and began rolling on the floor, while others, already on the floor, shook violently as though suffering from an epileptic fit. A young Indian girl had to be carried out of the building. Andy's first impulse was to flee, but he felt duty-bound to remain.

After half an hour, several assts took hold of the priest, pulled out his tongue and shoved several long spikes through it. The wounds bled only a moment. They took the blood and dotted his bare chest and forehead, which was then smeared with red ochre and ashes. Supposedly, the high priest was taken over by a Hindu god. He was led to an altar, whereupon devotees lined up in front of him and revealed their problems. Andy's secretary was among them. She gave him the lime, which he cut in half, and then pulled from it a tiny piece of dirty rag. He explained to the bewildered girl that this was once a piece of her clothing that the jilted boy friend had used in the ritual to put the spell upon her. Thus he had removed the spell.

"Then what happened?" I asked Andy. "You wouldn't believe it," he began, "but her life changed drastically." He explained that only a few short weeks later, she became engaged to a young Chinese man who was departing for Australia. They married and she and her husband settled in Sydney. Andy still gets greeting cards from her from time to time.

Anyone who spends time in SE Asia is sure to hear village tales about bomohs, but it isn't always restricted to villages. Bomohs travel in royal and govt circles and they play an integral role in Malay society.

The main task of a witch doctor, or bomoh, is that of healing. By autosuggestion he falls into a trance and spirits speak through his words. The results achieved by these bomohs have baffled doctors and scientists the world over. Perhaps the most famous, or at least the most publicized, bomohs in Malaysia are the rainstoppers. Many countries profess to have rain-makers, but few have rain-stoppers. One of the best known rain-stoppers is bomoh Lebai Abdullah bin Omar, who baffled thousands of spectators at a cricket match in Kuala Lumpur. It was the beginning of the rainy season. Malaysia was playing the Commonwealth cricket team for three days.

The Malay Cricket Assoc engaged Lebai to stop the rain. For two days he remained in concealment, in constant meditation. On the afternoon of the third day he came out onto the playing field to the thunderous applause of thousands of spectators. For the three days no rain had fallen on the field, although there was rain in the surrounding areas. He then untied a knot in a handkerchief he pulled from his pocket. Rain clouds darkened the sky. Members of the team rushed up to him and offered congratulations - before they got wet.

There was a great deal of discussion during some serious floods in Kuala Lumpur a few years back. Residents believed there had been too many cricket matches and official functions for which bomohs were called upon to halt the rain. The rains had stored up, and when they fell so came the floods. Bomohs are also skilled, it's said, in the art of preparing charms to engender love, beauty and courage, to protect against spiritual or material hurt, to prevent girls from marrying rivals, to obtain good business, to shatter a competitor's business, and so forth. Name it and a bomoh can probably do it. But it's not always easy. In preparing certain charms, especially love charms, the potion must be mixed with blood - blood from the corpse of a person who has died violently.

Or suppose you discover your cup of tea is poisoned, and you have already drunk from it. A good bomoh will recommend the following: take two dry walnuts, some clean figs, twenty leaves of rue, and 'bruise' and beat together with a dash of salt and seven different kinds of flowers. Take orally immediately.

Another antidote for poison, if the above doesn't work, is burnt tigers' whiskers in coconut oil, which must be licked from a betel leaf. This can also be taken as an internal remedy for chronic rheumatism. A Malay bomoh may fall into the same classification as a surgeon, physician, gynecologist, dental surgeon or orthopedist. When you desire the services of a bomoh, you seek out the one who specializes in your need. Spell-casting is done in the strictest secrecy. It's commonly believed the person wishing the spell cast will ultimately suffer if the charm has been placed for evil or wrong purposes. The bomoh is never to blame.

The Hindu festival of Thaipusam involves a form of self-hypnosis that has to be seen to be believed. I came to know and understand something about it through a Tamil named Mohan who worked for me when I was building my schooner Third Sea in Singapore. But first, let me tell you something about this strange Hindu belief.

Thaipusam is without doubt the grandest and most awesome of Hindu festivals celebrated in Southeast Asia to honor Lord Subramaniam, son of Siva. Hundreds of Hindus who seek penance and absolution for past sins, or who wish to show gratitude to God for blessings during the year, vow to carry a kavadi, a wooden frame decorated with flowers and fruits and supported by long thin spikes pinned or driven into the carrier's body. To do so they go on a strict vegetarian diet for forty days prior to the festival.

Other devotees may have their tongues and cheeks pierced with spikes. Some spikes are more like long rods, ten or twelve feet long and as thick as a man's thumb. These are forced through his cheeks and he walks along holding the rod in his teeth, supported on both sides by his hands. Devotees insist their minds are on their gods and they do not feel pain. Nor do their wounds bleed. And, most unbelievable, there are no scars afterwards. The largest Thaipusam gathering is at Batu Caves north of KUL. Kavadi-carriers gather there before dawn, bathe in the river and enter a trance-like religious euphoria before mounting the 272 steps to Lord Subramaniam's shrine within the gigantic caves. As many as 100,000 worshippers come to join in the solemn procession.

Inside the cave, a dozen white-clad priests tend to the thousands of worshippers and bestow upon them blessings and sacred ash. Spikes from their cheeks are removed, the kavadis are lifted, the trance subsides. A coconut is dashed to the ground and camphor is burned. The holy vow made to God has been fulfilled.

My Tamil worker, Mohan, agreed to carry a kavadi at Thaipusam to enable me to complete my schooner on time. It was January, a month before Thaipusam. The schooner was almost complete, and the most important and critical day of construction was nearing. Third Sea was built by a special process called ferro-cement construction. Everything hinges on the final day when the entire hull of the vessel must be plastered within the short span of a few hours. Our problem arose when a delay in procuring building material held up the completion date, and put us into the rainy season.

"It will take another two months until the rainy season ends," Mohan said. "Not much we can do," I said. We had put up protection around the hull, but unfortunately wet mortar had to be carried through an exposed area. And every day, almost without fail, the rain had been falling. After telling Mohan and the others this, I laughed, and then added: "Maybe we should hire a Malay bomoh, a rain-stopper." Mohan didn't think it was funny and asked if he could take the afternoon off. I agreed and the next day he returned. "We can plaster as scheduled," he said. "It won't rain." "You have to be kidding!" I said.

"It won't rain," he insisted. "I have asked my gods to help." I knew not to joke with him. We plastered the hull as scheduled, and it didn't rain. Mohan had made an agreement with his gods. What I didn't know was he had agreed to drive a rod through his cheeks during that coming Thaipusam at the Batu Caves. I went with my crew to the Batu Caves to witness him go through his ordeal.

At 4 AM we were at the riverbank. We watched Mohan strip and bathe in the river. He was already in a trance and didn't take any notice of us. The air was hypnotic. The beat of the Hindu drums was mesmerizing. I felt myself almost slipping off into a trance and for a moment I was fearful that I might let myself be subjected to spikes entering my body.

I snapped back to reality when I saw Mohan's assistants take the long rod and drive it through his cheeks. It was almost too horrifying to watch, but we could hardly turn away. He registered no sign of pain, nor did he wince during the operation. Not a drop of blood came from his wounds. We stepped aside to let Mohan pass. He was in another world. We followed him up the stairs, suffering with him, wondering what it all meant. We lost him in the crowd, and found him again. The steel rod had been removed from his cheeks. There was sacred ash smeared on his cheeks where the rod had pierced his flesh, but there was no wound. He saw us, and a look of surprise came to his face. "You came," he said, pleased, and then added: "It didn't rain."

It didn't rain, and Mohan saw Third Sea completed before it sailed on to adventure in Southeast Asia. A simple Hindu devotee, and yet in his mysterious way he helped make it all possible. But then in Asia, we learn, anything is possible.

The Search for Big Foot in SE Asia

Any discussion about Big Foot is like treading on thin ice. I don't want to affirm or deny such creatures exist, but I will report what I have uncovered in the Malay jungle a number of years ago and readers be the judge. I have to admit, I would not be telling this story had not the Chinese Govt recently revealed the results of their research on Big Foot.

Stories about wild men in China go back 3000 years. A chronicle of the Warring States Period (476-221 BC), relates how a captured wild man was presented as a gift to the king of the eastern Zhou dynasty. Newspaper articles published in PEK have quoted records as saying: "In the remote mountains of Fang Xian country, there are rock caves in which hairy men three meters tall live."

More than 300 sightings have been recorded since the 1920s. Four scientific expeditions have searched for the wild man since 1976. They penetrated the mountainous, thickly forested Shen Nong Jia region of NW Hu Bei, where reports have been most persistent. In 1980, Meng Qing Bao, leader of one expedition, found more than 1000 footprints stretching for about one-and-a-half miles. The team made a plaster cast of the most prominent print, more than 20 inches long and showed the largest of the five toes splayed outwards.

Anyone who goes to Guandong can visit a permanent exhibition on display there for the hunt for the legendary "Abominable Snowman." The Yangcheng Evening News made the report that Mr. Fang Zhong Shi, head of Research Association, has a standing offer of a 10,000 yuan (about US$10,000) reward for anyone bringing in one of the wild creatures.

That's China. What about the jungles of SE Asia? I first heard about a jungle giant some years ago when invited by Tunku Bakar, a Malay prince from Johor State, to join him and friends on a fishing trip on the Endau River in Malaysia. When he mentioned wild elephants, tigers and primitive orang asli, I accepted the invitation.

The unexpected did happen; monsoon rains came early. Instead of good fishing, a rising river forced us to seek shelter in an orang asli village. For three days we sat on mats in a bamboo house built on stilts, and while smoke filtered up between cracks in the floor to keep mosquitoes at bay, we listened to orang asli tales of the jungles. We learned how the white-handed gibbon's hands became white, why the tongue of a certain lizard is red, and other such unhelpful bits of information. They had jungle yarns to tell, too, about rogue elephants, man-eating tigers and giant catfish that weigh 300 pounds. Then casually the headman said: "We saw the footprints again."

"What footprints?" "The giant people, orang dalam." "Where did you see them?" I asked, half-heartedly. No doubt more local superstition. "Far upriver," he replied. "Above the twelfth rapid beyond the Kimchin. Orang dalam live on the high plateau and come down to the river when it's dry." Back in Singapore I would most likely have forgotten about jungle giants had it not been for my Chinese friend, Tan Khia Fatt. We were having lunch and he wanted to know about my trip. He chuckled about the orang asli, until I mentioned Big Foot.

"It's more than native talk," he said. "You don't believe in these giants?" I said jokingly. "During the Malay National Emergency," he began slowly, "when the Chinese terrorists roamed the jungle freely, there were many reports of strange jungle people. It was all in the newspapers." "But that doesn't make it true, because it's in the papers," I said. "OK, but I happened to be there," he snapped. "It was in Johor," he began and then told me his story. He was a young insurance salesman and had to do a lot of traveling, driving mostly at night. It was a wild stretch of road when suddenly the two cars in front of him stopped. When he jumped out of his car, he found the driver in the lead car in a shock."

"He said they had been speeding along when suddenly a hairy creature, like an ape walking upright, come out of the forest and started across the road. He had to skid to a stop to avoid hitting him. The creature stopped when he saw the lights, paused, and then returned in the same direction from which he had come. The driver in the second car saw him too." Khia Fatt described in detail what the drivers had seen, and concluded by saying the story appeared in the The Straits Times. Maybe the headman on the Endau was right.

It wasn't long after meeting with Khia Fatt that I began my homework at the National Library. I read through rolls of microfilm of The Straits Times. It was slow work. The National Emergency covered a span of years. I was about to give up when I reached the fall of 1953. The black print seemed to leap out at me. It was Christmas Day. A young woman named Wong Yee Moi was tapping rubber on an estate in Perak, when she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to be "confronted by the most revolting female" one could possibly imagine. This she-thing was covered with hair, had white Caucasoid-type skin and long black hair. She wore a loin cloth of bark and stank as if "of an animal."

The female grinned and revealed long nasty fangs. Yee Moi fled in panic, but not before sighting two similar types she thought to be males. The estate manager called the National Security Force which responded with a posse of security guards. On searching the estate, they spotted three hairy types on the river bank-such as described by Yee Moi. The creatures dived underwater, emerged on the far bank and vanished into the jungle. When security guards saw the same creatures, it had to be something more than a thing imagined. Nor did the incident end there. The following day, a Hindu worker was squatting to tap a flow of rubber latex when he was encircled by a pair of hairy arms. In a rage of fear, he broke loose only to fall into a dead faint on his way back to the compound. He revived to find the same trio standing over him, laughing.

When security guards were summoned again, they too saw the same hairy creatures on the riverbank. Newspapers and Radio Malaya reported the sightings and brought forth official statements from such sources as the Department of Museums and Aboriginal Research. Authorities believed that this could be "one of the most valuable anthropological discoveries since Darwin."

I dug deeper into dusty old volumes in the basement at the National Library in Singapore. Again, I hit pay dirt. Two British anthropologists wrote in The Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula that orang asli often encountered such jungle types, which they called orang dalam, or translated 'interior people.' These people lived in high remote cloud forests, and were large and hairy.

They were sometimes referred to as 'the stinking ones.' It was more than just a coincidence that the headman on the Endau had also spoken of them as 'interior people.' Other reports went back even further. In 1871, an Englishman wrote about a hairy humanity he saw in a cage in Calcutta. A sketch of the creature was included with the report, which is now the property of the American Museum of Natural History in NY. In SE Asia, there was certainly evidence documenting the existence of hairy jungle creatures inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, but did it have any direct relationship with what the natives on the Endau River had indicated to me?

Detailed maps of the Malay jungles are restricted, but I was fortunate to get a copy of the Endau region at British Army Headquarters. I studied the river in detail. I located the village where we stayed and followed the river up to the rapids. I counted them - twelve. The headman said there were twelve rapids that led to the Kimchin. But beyond that the area was marked 'relief data incomplete.' Why incomplete?

"Quite simple to explain," the British Officer said. "It's due to clouds. Maps are compiled from aerial photographs. This is a high region. Most likely some kind of plateau." Again it was more than coincidence. The headman had said there were twelve rapids and a plateau. His people must have been there - at least to the foot of the plateau. I went as far as I could with research. There was only one way left to see if there was any truth in what I had read and heard, and that was to organize an expedition and go into the jungle.

The Endau River in the Malay jungle that we wanted to explore in the search for the Asia Big Foot can be treacherous, with uncertain rapids, snakes the size of tree trunks and lurking crocodiles. For certain, the jungle teams with elephants and tigers. Nor could we expect much outside help once we passed beyond the first rapid. There were no more aboriginal settlements, and what lay at the headwaters of the Endau, even the orang asli didn't know.

I was fortunate that Kurt Rolfes, an ex-combat photographer from Vietnam, was as interested in Big Foot as much as I was. Kurt had his own photo studio in Singapore and could spare the time. Argosy Mag in NY agreed to sponsor the expedition, and from a safari outfitter in Singapore we were able to get most of the equipment we needed, including the help of an experienced jungle hand, an Eurasian named Kenny Nelson. Kenny knew two orang asli, Bojung and Achin, who agreed to serve as porters. Further help came from Capt Patrick Coverton, Second King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles, instructor in the Jungle Warfare School and commanded a Gurkha company. He would see us part way upriver to the first rapids. Coverton made good his promise. We camped with him and his Gurkhas along the bank of the lower Endau, and several days later met Kenny and the orang asli porters at the first rapids. Our 16-foot-long boat, when fully loaded, was but inches above water. We bid good-byes to Capt Coverton who wanted desperately to join us but his higher command would not authorize a search for a legendary jungle giant. Four miles farther upriver we came to our second set of rapids. From here on at every rapids we had to unload and carry the supplies to the river above.

Then came the grueling task of pushing the boat up the swirling falls, inch by inch. The lower Endau is wide and muddy, and swampy along the banks. Crocodiles lurk among the reeds. Above the rapids there are less mud banks and very few crocodiles, making swimming reasonably safe. The deeper we penetrated into the jungle, the more beautiful it became. The forest was triple canopy with trees and trailing vines hundreds of feet high. Birds sang from the treetops and playful monkeys dropped from dizzy heights to the branches below. The jungle was pristine, almost pure.

We hated to talk, even to leave footprints on a bank for fear of changing it all. Kurt and I walked the banks whenever possible, checking tracks. We often found it best to swim the river or walk with water up to our armpits rather than hack through the jungle. The jungle was dark and menacing, and in many places so dense we could hardly pass without chopping through. Leeches fell upon us like raindrops. If we didn't stop on the spot to burn them off with strong cheroots we smoked for the purpose, they left nasty wounds which began to fester later. Survival means puffing on a cigar or cheroot all day long.

The banks were a maze of tracks - deer, pig, turtle, monitor lizard, elephant, tiger, leopard, tapir. Tiger tracks were the most frequent. Beyond the tributary of the Kimchin we reached the twelfth rapid. We found a wide sand bank and set up camp. While the others gathered firewood, Kurt and I crossed the river to look for tracks. We saw elephant tracks and numerous tiger tracks.

Kurt was in the lead when suddenly he stopped. He stood motionless, staring down at the crusted sand. For a moment I thought it might be a coiled cobra blocking his path. But snakes don't come out into the hot sun. I cautiously moved up to where he stood. He pointed down to the sand. There in front of us were footprints - human footprints, but not ordinary human prints. These were enormous, 19 or 20 in long and 10 in wide. The creature that had made them had come down from the jungle and entered the river. We called the others. They came half running and half swimming across the river. They stopped dead. Bojung shook his head. "Orang dalam," he said. They insisted we go back to camp, which we did, but not before Kurt photographed the tracks.

It was a tense evening. Judging by all the tracks, the river where we were camped was the junction of a game trail: elephant, tiger and the questionable human tracks. But what kind of human tracks? Achin refused to talk about it. And when we finally cajoled Bojung to loosen up and speak, Achin withdrew to the far end of the lean-to and covered his head, so as not to hear our conversation.

Bojung was with the party that fist saw the tracks of the man-beast. None of them actually saw the creature, but others from their village did, including the headman's father. What was so amazing about the story that Bojung had to tell was that it confirmed things I had read about in my research.

The size of the man-beast varies, anything from six to nine feet tall. He is hair covered but not furry. Males have much hair about their head, chest, arms and legs. Their eyes are red, or at least bloodshot. They give off a powerful odor which Bojung likened to 'monkey urine.' Another interesting characteristic about the creatures is that at first contact they appear friendly, usually making the overtures and approach slowly. Then, for some reason, they become frightened and flee into the jungle.

How do such creatures evade detection from man? I found this most baffling, but not so with Bojung. He pointed out that a herd of elephants can vanish undetected, yet their footprints are still filling with water as men approach. Why then can't a creature - perhaps a sub-human with a higher degree of intelligence - cunningly and cleverly keep clear of man? Furthermore, how well explored is a jungle anyway? Man may paddle up a river or walk along a game trail, but what does he know about what actually lies beyond that riverbank or beyond the edge of the trail? He sees little, like one who walks down Fifth Ave in NY and claims to know what goes on behind the walls.

Skeptics are fond of saying that in this day and age there cannot possibly be any group or race of people or animal alive which is unknown to science. But every year new species of animals are discovered, and nearly every decade or so tribes or races that have previously been regarded as purely legendary or mythical are encountered by unimpeachable witnesses. Was it not only a few yrs ago that a Stone Age tribe was discovered in the Philippines?

Our findings on the Endau River reached the front cover of Argosy and made news in papers in SIN, and it stirred up more controversy. The Himalayan yeti, or the Abominable Snowman, is the subject of stories that never die, and there will always be both doubters and believers. But the search for Big Foot doesn't stop in Asia. According to Peter Byrne, founder of Intentional Wildlife Org Society, the Asian Big Foot may have crossed over the land mass between the eastern and western hemi "thousands of years ago, probably around 500 BC, and still exists in isolated remote spots in the NW, Canada and Alaska.' In America it's called Sasquatch, Indian for Big Foot.

There are skeptics, but, nevertheless, the State of WA has imposed a $10,000 fine for "the wanton slaying of the ape-creature." Maybe state officials should reconsider and make it voluntary manslaughter. Who knows? Big Foot runs the risk of being shot without provocation. Anything man doesn't understand he shoots. The security guards in Malaysia opened fire on the man-beasts when they would not respond to their shouts. I read of another account that took place in Burma before WW II. A hunter sighted down his gun barrel what appeared to be "an ape with human traits."

He pulled the trigger and struck the beast in the chest. It let out a most pitiful scream, whereupon a much larger animal, evidently the mother, rushed from the forest, picked up the wounded child in her arms and dashed for cover.

For 100s of yrs there were rumors about man-beast roaming the jungles of Africa, and then, little more than 100 yrs ago, the gorilla was discovered. What might the next 100 yrs bring?


\5 Islam

Islam may mean a religion of peace but the headlines tell a different story. At least three ASEAN countries have a majority Islamic population. When it comes to promoting tourism, is this a liability?

With Islam getting such great gobs of terrorist publicity, how do Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, the three Southeast Asian countries with majority Islamic populations, position themselves in order to attract visitors from countries which recoil in horror at the mention of Islam?

Malaysian Tourism Minister Datuk Abdul Kadir Hj. Sheikh Fadzir told a press conference that his country has nothing to apologise about. He stressed the new tagline of Malaysia as Truly Asia, a country that is multi-cultural with Islam only the official religion. He called Islam the most misunderstood religion.

The true doctrine of the Quran, the Islamic holy book, says clearly that people are free to practise their religion as they see fit. "We practise Islam through the Quran. Of course, there are some stupid religious Ulemas who have manipulated the Quran to their own whims and fancies, what can we do?"

Islam is the official religion but there's not full stop after that. All other religions are free to practise. So when you go there, you see mosques beside churches, Hindu temples beside Jewish synagogues. Nobody is destroying that. Sometimes, the Muslim prayer call might disturb the peace of the others, so we slow down the microphone. He noted that under the countrys sedition act it is a crime to say and do things that will hurt the sensitivities of other races or religions or which will arouse racial or religious hatred.

In other words, visitors to Malaysia have nothing to worry about. Much the same line comes from Indonesia. Director General A. Gede Ardika, a Balinese Hindu, reflects the philosophy being pursued by his countrys President Abdurrahman Wahid who wants to position Islam itself as a religion of peace, which is what the word Islam really means. Mr Gede Ardika told Newswire that his country had no history of religious friction and that by and large everyone lived together in peace.

The recent incidents were more isolated cases that hopefully will not spread to other parts. In Bali, where 90% of the people are Hindus, we know that everyone lives off tourism and that tourism survives on peace, so our people have already taken action at the community level to ensure that nothing happens there.

As for Brunei Darus salaam, the full name of the country itself means Brunei - the House of Peace. Brunei Tourism's official literature reflects the pride of its heritage, referring to the country as an oil-rich Islamic Sultanate that is ruled according to Islamic values and traditions by the Sultan.

The country's official Visit Brunei 2001 brochures are among the most attractive on the ASEAN shelf and juxtapose images of Islamic icons, such as children with head-scarves and its famous mosque next to the countrys rich rainforests. In the official press conferences, the Islamic connection is usually downplayed by Brunei Tourisms flamboyant Director General Sheikh Jamaluddin who under a previous job worked in London for many years and enjoys having an un-Islamic good time.

Asked how visitors react to such icons, Rod Gluth, managing director of Globus/Cosmos Asia-Pacific, who buys mainly for the American market, said Americans are only concerned if there is evidence of a fringe fundamentalist group that is deliberately seeking to incite trouble or target tourists. Otherwise, he said, I don't think the Americans care what religion a country is. He noted at the same time that because most Americans are geographically not very savvy, if there is a problem anywhere in Asia, they just don't go to the region. He cited the recent Indian Airlines hijacking as an example, as well as the recent religious rioting in Indonesia. The Americans know they are targets and security is their number one concern, he said.

Indeed, Newswire understands that in Malaysia, efforts are under way by two states with Islamic party govts to create special tours that will give the religion a more positive outlook, distancing itself from the fundamentalists and hardliners responsible for giving it a violent image. They may want to take the Thai approach; the idea of bringing together Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Burma under the umbrella of a campaign to promote their common Buddhist heritage was first proposed by Thai Foreign Minister Dr Surin Pitsuwan, a Muslim.