Tribal Visits
The Hill tribes that we visited were the Akha and Lahu tribes. Hill tribes are people living in the mountains or hills with their own way of life
In the Hill tribes, there is not much technology present there and the technology there is backwards. The people also have a habit of chewing a kind of fruit that makes their teeth black. These people live in the hills with their own way of life. Most of them also raise domestic animals including chickens and dogs.
Some of the locals sold handmade handicrafts, which could be bought as souvenirs, to make a living for themselves. Not only that, permission was required to take a picture of them while some others would ask for money in return for pictures of them or with them (a possible source of income through tourism).
Today, most of the younger generations do not wear their traditional costumes anymore. Only the older generation have a strong belief in their tradition and are still wearing the traditional costumes during their daily lives. They made use of silver to decorate their clothes. Houses in the villages have also become modernised (buildings/houses made of bricks) and there were few traditional homes still standing (straw huts), and went on to live in the urban cities.. Due to this phenomenon becoming increasingly common, many hill tribes have already become a thing of the past, with no one left to carry on their ‘legacy’.
The people living in the village also had close relationships with one another. This formed a bond within the community. They all lived a cheerful and happy life, as compared to the stressful environment in Singapore.
It is most likely not possible to manufacture similar products as those in the Cottage industries Centre & Outlet as Singapore does not have any natural resource nor land to build these.
Cottage Industries Centre & Outlet
The older generation used to make their living from selling opium. The Queen wanted to change it, so she made plans to help change the people there, by planting coffee plants to replace the opium plants,
During the cloth production, it requires lots of focus and also patience. If they make a mistake, they would have to restart and re-weave the cloth with the same design again. The process is very tedious and they have to be meticulous to ensure that they meet the customer’s demands.
The coffee that they produced and sold had different grades and tastes. For example, fancy and premium grades. Roasting is a crucial part for the production of the coffee beans.
They also have paper production, through the Japanese and Thai method.
This industry has provided more jobs for the people as compared to the past, when people were still selling opium. The unemployment rates have also decreased.
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