Pakayo Village, Mae Hong Son: Amazing.

our host family's house

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this is the typical style of Pakayo housing - in the past few years some of the houses have begun using tin rather than thatch, but the body of the house is made entirely of wood and bamboo

And then we hiked through the jungle for 7 hours

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The village is nestled into a little mountain range, which we proceeded to climb all over. It came as a bit of a surprise - we were expecting a nice relaxing nature walk, but what we got was a grueling full day of mountain climbing, lead by a 9 year old boy. I guess he knows the jungle as well as anyone... Some elders came with us, but trailed along in the back, occasionally stopping us to point out different plants and roots that can be used for food/medicine/burning/house-building/etc.

Incredible

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So much of village life is wrapped up in the forest. There's so much to tell - an elder told us (through two translators) that they were born in the forest and they will die in the forest - and their methods of conservation are the most sound on earth - their survival is dependent on the survival of the forest, and the way they talk about it... It was impossible not to fall in love with them and want to stay forever.

stopping for lunch

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The Pakayo people have two varieties of food: "khaaw" and "kap khaaw". As in "rice" and "with rice," both of which you eat at every meal. The elders gave us huge portions of rice grown in their village, wrapped up in banana leaves, with two hard-boiled eggs each and some mostly leaf curries they brought from the village.

our hut

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many families have numerous huts, used for different purposes - we slept in the hut that Pati Aube (our host father)'s children used to sleep in when they were children. Compared to the rest of the village, this is very swanky. We were given the finest of straw mats to sleep on.

creek

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the twins washing their mystery rashes in the creek - didn't seem like the best idea to me, but the rashes disappeared within an hour. Those elders know what's what.

Ceremonial tree

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The elders pointed out a spot in the forst where they hold important ceremonies. There are three trees here that they use, this one pointing North and therefore the most important tree.

Top of a mountain

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It was difficult to get a good top-of-the-mountain view shot, as even the tops are very densely forested, and climbing a tree to get a good photo didn't seem appropriate.

rice, jungle, me

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Exhausted after a day of climbing, with rice fields on my right and my host family's house behind me.

Inside the house

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All my pictures from inside the house turned out like crap because it was too dark, but there's an open fire pit inside and not much else. This is the area between the two parts of the house. You can see the part of the bamboo floor that I was convinced I was going to fall through. And the cat I cuddled the whole time I was there. And the papayas growing on the trees outside. And there's a big white bowl full of snails on the floor.

Campfire

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A group of kids sitting across from me at our evening of cultural sharing.

traditional Pakayo music

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that's my host father on the right, singing to this instrument, the name of which I've forgotten

Pakayo sword dancing

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Possibly the coolest thing I've ever seen.

So much rice.

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Day 3 in the village consisted of an age and a half in a rice field. This rice field.

Pakayo agriculture

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The Pakayo still practice swidden agriculture, but in a more sustainable way than most others. They rotate fields every 7 years, but don't burn the whole thing. Instead, they cut the trees only halfway so that the trees are still living, and regrowth can happen more easily. In this picture an elder is standing over the altar that they build in the middle of the field. Next to the altar is three standing pieces of sharpened bamboo, as a sort of symbolic weapon, so that the field can defend itself from disease, pests and drought.

ordained tree

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There's a place in the middle of the jungle where people from different groups and tribes met 5 years ago to talk about the future of the forests. Each group (including different villages, Buddhists from the nearby forest monestaries, Christians from the city, and city officials representing the king) gave its promise to protect these forests. Some of the trees, like this one, have been ordained as holy trees in order to protect them from harm.