Lahu people 拉祜族
Lahu people 拉祜族, numbered about 500,000 living in mostly Yunnan China, is one of the official recognized ethnic group. In addition there are about 170,000 living in Myanmar and about 120,000 living in Thailand where they are regarded as one of the 6 hill tribes. The tai often refer to them by the exonym "mussur" or hunter. In vietnam they are officially one of the 54 ethnic group with about 2,000 living in Lai Chau province and estimate of 12,000 living in northern Laos.
The Lahu divide themselves into a number of subgroups, such as the Lahu Na (Black Lahu), Lahu Nyi (Red Lahu), Lahu Hpu (White Lahu), Lahu Shi (Yellow Lahu) and the Lahu Shehleh. Where a subgroup name refers to a color, it refers to the traditional color of their dress. These groups do not function as tribes or clans - there are no kin groups above that of the family. Lahu trace descent bilaterally, and typically practice matrilocal residence.
The Lahu language, varies among themselves, is part of the Loloish branch of the LoloBurmese subgroup of the Tibeto-Burman family. They adopted the Latin alphabets as their scripts. Most Lahu in China are Buddhists.
Official portrait of a Lahu family
A Lahu family in Lancang 澜沧
A map of Lincang Lahu Autonomous County 澜沧拉祜族自治县 Yunnan (orange), bordering Myanmar, where the Lahu people live on both sides of the border along the hilly area of Lancang River 澜沧江, the China portion of the Mekong river 湄公
Lancang River (becomes Mekong River a little further downstream) by Lancang County is the mother river for the Lahu people, or to be precise, the mother river for numerous ethnic groups that need its water to survive
Lahu modern Latin scripts
A jade sculpture of Lahu people
Lahu people have a long history in this area and historians believe they migrated southward from Erhai Lake 洱海 area in Kunming