Thai Tribal Crafts Thailand

Thai Tribal Crafts is a self-help marketing agency operated on a non-profit basis for the benefit of tribal people in Northern Thailand. It is tribal owned, and is governed by a Board of Directors composed mainly of tribal people. Thai Tribal Crafts, The products in the cataloque are producted by the hilltribe people of Northern Thailand. Most of the Karen, Lahu, Akha, Lisu, Meo and Yao people are subsistence farmers, trying to carve a livelihood out of the marginal land available to them in the highlands. Others are displaced people who have fled from neighboring countries and are now living as refugees in Thailand. The selling of their handicrafts is virtualty their only means of gaining a cash income. Although economically poor, these people have a rich heritage of artstic skill which has come down to the present generation in the form of their crafts. It has been only in recent years that these crafts with their many artistic forms have come to be appreciated by people atside of their own tribes. Some of the world's most exquisite hand-woven fabeics, needlework, and baskettry are produced by these six tribe, who traditionally live in Northern Thailand.