The Akha Heritage Foundation: Welcome __ Learn about the Akha people of Thailand. You will find an overview and a series of articles. - illustrated - From the Akah Heritage Foundation - http://www.thailine.com/akha/index.htm

Asia for Educators __ While this site deals with a lot more than indigenous and ethnic studies, I thought it would be a good addition to this section. You will find the place jam-packed with infomation. - illustrated - From Columbia University - http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/

Asian Forest Peoples __ "Asia is by far the most populous region on earth and population pressures have pushed people into forested lands where they interrupt the lives of the few remaining forest people." Learn how population pressures threaten lifestyles. - From Rhett Butler - http://www.mongabay.com/0703.htm 

‘Biopiracy’ increasing threat to survival of Asian indigenous culture __ You can read a story of exploitation. "The violation of Asian indigenous people’s intellectual and cultural property rights through ‘biopiracy’ and other forms of exploitation of their collective heritage is a serious threat to their cultural survival as distinct peoples." - From minorityrights.org - http://www.minorityrights.org/news_detail.asp?ID=125 

Christian conversion threatens hill tribe culture __ Learn how a change in religion is changing cultural heritages. "The hill tribes of northern Thailand have survived centuries of displacement, hardship and discrimination. But now their uniquely colorful culture is under a new threat, albeit a well-meaning one: Christian evangelism." - From Asia Times - http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/EH29Ae01.html 

Contribution submitted by the Asian Indigenous Peoples Pact __ AIPP submission to World Conference on Human Rights. - From Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights - http://tinyurl.com/5bsqq  

Costumes of Minority Peoples in China __ A gallery of costume. The imgaes are from the shanghai Museum. - illustrated - From University of Akron - http://www3.uakron.edu/worldciv/russ/minority.html 

FOE Briefing: Asia Pulp and Paper __ "The activities of pulp and paper companies in Indonesia directly conflict with the needs and rights of indigenous communities and have serious impacts on the environment." You will find a detailed report about that industry and Indonesia. - From Friends of the Earth - http://www.foe.co.uk/pubsinfo/briefings/html/20010619164305.html

Helping Tribal People of Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts __ "The Chittagong Hill Tracts Rural Development Project is the first major effort to help the hill people since two decades of civil strife ended in 1997. People's livelihoods were severely disrupted and roads and trails deteriorated during the unrest." - From Asian Development Bank - http://www.adb.org/Documents/News/2000/nr2000111.asp 

The Hilltribes of Northern Thailand __ "The main area of hill-country in Thailand is the exotically-named Golden Triangle - along the borders with Burma and northwest Laos and the confluence of the Mekong and Mae Kok rivers - and this is where most of the tribal groups are concentrated. In the settlement of the North they are newcomers; the main migration started only at the beginning of this century." - From chiangmaihandicrafts.com - http://www.chiangmaihandicrafts.com/thaiculture/HilltribesofNorthernThailand/indexht.htm 

Indigenous Peoples / Ethnic Minorities and Poverty Reduction - Viet Nam __ Online book detailing the indigenous people of Viet Nam and the programs in place relating to them. - From Asian development Bank - http://www.adb.org/Documents/Reports/Indigenous_Peoples/VIE/default.asp

A miraculous method of singing __ Learn about one person 'choirs.' "Exercised by a number of Central Asian tribes, throat singing is a peculiar vocal art with three basic vocalizing methods and at least four submethods that allow a singer to simultaneously sing with two, indeed, sometimes even with four voices." - illustrated - From Sami Jansson - http://www.cc.jyu.fi/~sjansson/throat.htm 

Operations Manual - Indigenous Peoples - ADB.org __ Learn about the Asian Development Bank and its programs and standards of operation in relationship to Asian indigenous people. - From Asian Development Bank - http://www.adb.org/Documents/Manuals/Operations/om53.asp?p=aadb 

People of South East Asia __ Learn who the ethnic groups are and their relationship with the majority. - illustrated - From Bernard Cloutier - http://berclo.net/page00/00en-sea-people.html 

A Primitive National Policy __ "What might be considered ‘primitive’ by the enlightened may not be a state of backwardness. Tribal knowledge-systems need not conform to ‘mainstream’ development notions." An interesting article related to primitive tribes in India. - illustrated - From HIMAL Southasian - http://www.himalmag.com/2004/may/report.htm

Sarawak Peoples Campaign __ "The Sarawak Peoples Campaign (or SPC) is a non-profit organization that seeks to defend the rights of the indigenous peoples of Sarawak, Malaysia. It supports social justice, and in particular the right of indigenous peoples to preserve their cultures and ancestral lands." Many articles and links. - From rimba.com - http://www.rimba.com/spc/spchomepage.html 

Setting Standards for Indigenous Peoples’ Rights: From the Grassroots Up __ ""Our existence is threatened by systematic campaigns of extermination, development aggression, population transfers, forced assimilation, invasions, occupations, and militarization." —Declaration on the Rights of Asian Indigenous-Tribal Peoples, AIPP, 1993. Learn about the organization, its foundation and goals. - From Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs - http://www.cceia.org/viewMedia.php/prmID/562 

Thailand Hilltribes traditional dress __ Articles, images, culture and history. - illustrated - From Tudtu Homepage - http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Congress/7905/hillsty1.htm 

TiT Culture: The Tribes of Taiwan __ Learn about the indigenous cultures of Taiwan with text and photo. "Before the Han Chinese immigration began in the mid-1600s, Taiwan was inha-bited by people belonging to the Austronesian race, the members of which lived in a vast area extending from Madagascar in the west to Hawaii and Easter Island in the east, and from New Zealand in the south to Taiwan in the north. Taiwan's aborigines are believed to have come from the Malay archipelago in different waves about 6,000 years ago at the earliest and less than 1,000 years ago at the latest." - illustrated - From Vision International Publishing Co - http://www.sinica.edu.tw/tit/culture/0795_TribesOfTaiwan.html 

Tribal People of Chamba __ "The culture and traditions of these remote hill people remained uninterrupted from outside influence. The period during which the Rajput Hindu family reigned was the 7th century A.D. till 1947." Story and photos. - illustrated - From dalhousie.net - http://www.dalhousie.net/tribals.htm 

Tribal People and Nature Conservation in Southeast Asia __ "The main threat to the natural environment does not come from the tribal peoples themselves, but from national governments and Western enterprises which ruthlessly exploit the woods for logging, agriculture or minerals. Tribal peoples with long-standing rights to their territories profit the least from this exploitation and suffer the most." - From F. Colombijn - http://www.iias.nl/iiasn/iiasn2/soueasia/tribal.txt 

The Tribal People of Vietnam __ "Six to seven million of Vietnam's 73 million population comprise an estimated 54 ethnic groups divided into dozens of subgroups some with a mere hundred or so members, giving Vietnam the richest and most complex ethnic make-up in the whole of southeast Asia. - From vwam.com - http://www.vwam.com/vets/tribes/ethnicminorities.html 

The Tribal Peoples of Western and Central Asia __ "The definition of what constitutes a tribe is rather complex. Tribes are political, social, and cultural units. Sometimes ethnically homogeneous, sometimes heterogeneous, tribes are typically united by bonds of kinship and fealty within a hierarchical power structure. They are also usually united by a common language and set of cultural customs." - From Allen Memorial Art Museum - http://www.oberlin.edu/allenart/exhibitions/woven/wp_03tribal.html 

Woven Treasures __ Article about a museum exhibit of tribal fabrics from Western Asia. - illustrated - From Allen Memorial Art Museum - http://www.oberlin.edu/allenart/exhibitions/woven/wp_05role.html 

Written statement submitted by the Asian Legal... __ "Under the pretext of preserving the natural forests, the Government of India is evicting indigenous communities from their lands. Meanwhile, wealthy businessmen and farmers are given free reign to encroach onto these lands. These evictions cause loss of property and life, unemployment and utter poverty. They are coupled with police abuses, including torture and killing. The use of force against these groups has rapidly increased in recent years, as the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People draws to a close." - From Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights - http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/(Symbol)/E.CN.4.2004.NGO.25.En?Opendocument