Identification. The Lisu are mountain swiddeners in southwest China, northeast India, Myanmar (Burma), and Thailand. Because the Lisu are widely scattered among other peoples of many different ethnic groups, names tend to differ from one locality to another. The people refer to themselves as "Lisu" or by clan names.

Location. The main concentration of Lisu is in China's western Yunnan Province, between the Salween and Mekong rivers. Migration has scattered villages as far west as eastern Tirap (at the extreme northeast corner of India) and as far south as Kamphaeng Phet and Phitsunulok in Thailand.

Demography. In 1989, there were an estimated 481,000 Lisu in China, as many as 250,000 in Myanmar (there has never been a reliable census), about 18,000 in Thailand, and several hundred in India.

Linguistic Affiliation. Lisu is in the Lolo (Yi) Group of Tibeto-Burman languages, closely related to Lahu, Akha, and Yi, with many Yunnanese loanwords. Most Lisu men are fluent in several languages, especially Yunnanese, Lahu, Shan, Yuan (northern Thai-Lao), and Akha. There are scripts devised by British missionaries and by Chinese, but they are little used. Some Lisu are literate in Chinese or Thai.

Lisu - History and Cultural Relations

There is a Lisu tradition that their origins lie in the eastern Tibetan plateau. The Lisu are mentioned among the "Southern Barbarians" (of mountainous Yunnan and Szechwan) in the early Chinese histories and annals such as the Man Shu (ca. A.D. 685). The Chinese regarded them as a lesser branch of the Han, to be pacified and assimilated. This explains the derogatory names applied to them and the two trends discernible in Sino-Lisu relations: peaceful coexistence, cultural exchange, trade, and intermarriage on the one hand, and constant small-scale warfare, raids, kidnappings, banditry, enslavement, suppression, and rebellion on the other. The Chinese exchanged salt, iron, silver, and foodstuffs for beeswax, bear gall, stag horn, hides, medicinal herbs, and coffin planks. In areas closer to Chinese settlements, such as Tengyueh and to the south, Lisu were taxed, corvéed, and appointed as headmen ( tussu ) and government officers ( tumu ), perhaps as early as the Han dynasty, and certainly by the Ming. The system seldom worked well, and there were numerous grievances. After the formation of the People's Republic of China, army units and government cadres arrived to administer Lisu areas, and the Nuchiang Lisu Autonomous Zhou and other autonomous areas were formed. The abolition of slavery, land reform, and cancellation of debts were decreed in 1956. Chinese influence on Lisu culture, already considerable before 1949, has accelerated, as evidenced by the virtual end of opium growing, the introduction or extension of double cropping, manuring, irrigation and terracing, new tools, roads, bridges, medical centers, schools, economic diversification, the organization of mutual aid teams, cooperatives and communes (and their subsequent abandonment), and the development of political consciousness evident in Lisu cadres, soldiers, and Communist Party members. These changes caused great stress, particularly during times of radical change such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, when "local nationalism" was criticized and rapid movement toward socialism demanded. During the lulls in Communist fervor, a continuity with the past can still be discerned: the vast majority of Lisu are still small-scale agriculturalists in remote mountain villages with few modern amenities. The movement of Lisu peoples south and east into Burma, India, and Thailand may have been related to the development of opium growing and worsening relations with Chinese administrators in the nineteenth century. Chinese pacification measures in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries caused large-scale movements of Lisu into Burma, and subsequently Thailand and India. Oral traditions of the Lisu in Thailand indicate that the first families arrived there from Burma between 1900 and 1930, motivated by the search for good high-elevation opium lands and a wish to escape unsettled conditions in China and Burma. The Lisu have been described as a "fine" people: robust, independent of spirit, and excellent warriors. They are also very adaptable and quick to learn the languages and ways of their neighbors. Some, especially in Myanmar and Thailand, have even intermarried with Chinese, Lahu, and Kachin, recognizing a fictitious equivalence of Lisu clans and lineages with those of neighboring ethnic groups. Chinese operate stores or caravan routes in Lisu villages, and the Lisu patronize local markets. Lisu have served in the British Burma army, the People's Liberation Army, and the Thai Border Patrol Police. Christian and Buddhist missionaries among the Lisu have not been very successful.

Lisu - Marriage and Family

Marriage. Marriage may be with anyone who is not a member of the same clan, irrespective of residence. Cross-cousin marriage (especially patrilateral, of any degree) is preferred and often practiced, with the result that two families exchange mates over time. Polygyny is rare. Bride-payments and the nature and length of service to the wife's parents and brothers are subject to negotiation both before and after marriage. In post-1949 China, these practices have been discouraged by the authorities. After bride-service, residence is patrilocal, at first in the husband's parents' house, then in a separate house nearby. Divorces are infrequent, usually taking place before children are born; divorcées usually return to their parents' houses.

Domestic Unit. The household is the basic socioeconomic unit in village ceremonies, village assessments, village labor, and economic and ritual activities. The typical household is a nuclear or stem family, although extended families also occur. The youngest married son, together with his wife and children, normally remain in his parents' house. Frequently, one or more relatives, usually of the husband, will live with the family. The male head of the household is its spokesman, though individual members may incur debts and hold property separately.

Inheritance. All sons share in the inheritance, the youngest married son usually receiving the house and taking care of a widowed mother. Daughters receive small dowries at marriage.

Socialization. Lisu want and love children and large families. Older siblings, grandparents, and other relatives help parents care for children, often carrying them in back slings. Toilet training and weaning are lenient. As soon as able, a child begins taking part in adult activities, and by 13 or 14 is making important contributions to the household economy.

Lisu - Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. Religion revolves around spirit (ne) propitiation and ancestor worship of the two most recently deceased generations. To assure good health and good crops, a Lisu must stay on good terms with his dead ancestors and the hierarchy of other spirits. The strength of belief varies from one Lisu to the next, Chinese writers claiming that religion has greatly diminished in importance in post-1949 China. Any knowledgeable Lisu may practice divination, commonly with pig livers, chicken femurs, or bamboo dice.

Religious Practitioners. Religion is generally a male concern. Any male may become a shaman (ne pha ) if he has the aptitude for contacting ancestors and other spirits useful in curing the sick, and if he passes initiation tests by other shamans. He has no inherent power and receives little remuneration. A village priest ( mu meu pha ), who is chosen through divination, keeps track of the religious (lunar) calendar (which frequently differs from village to village) and coordinates ceremonies for the village spirit. The Lisu observe a twelve-year cycle, similar to that of the Chinese.

Ceremonies. Most important are New Year (extending over several days in spring, and a chance to display fine clothes and jewelry, visit other villages, and seek a spouse), and the tree-renewal ceremony (held at harvest time to purify the village of bad spirits and help the guardian spirit defend the village).

Arts. The major forms of artistic expression are: clothing (especially shoulder bags worn by both men and women, embroidered with abstract designs), jewelry (worn by both men and women on wrists, neck, ears, breast, and back—the principal form of wealth), music (three-string guitars, flutes, and gourd pipes), singing (including challenge-and-response love songs between groups of young men and women), and community dancing.

Medicine. Herbal medicines are used. Sickness is a symptom of disharmony between the patient and the spirit world, so a ne pha must be consulted. In trance, he finds the spirit responsible for the sickness and the patient's family strikes a deal for the performance of a propitiating ceremony and the offering of a chicken or pig (which is afterward eaten by the patient and kin).

Death and Afterlife. When a person dies, his or her spirit is potentially dangerous for three years, after which it is invited to the altar shelf in the house of its son. Spirits of those who died without children, or who died an unusual death (homicide, suicide, strange accident) may attack people. Ancestral spirits who are honored regularly with offerings of rice, liquor or water, joss sticks, and ragweed bring good health and large crops.

Bibliography

Dessaint, Alain Y. (1972). "Economic Organization of the Lisu of the Thai Highlands." Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Hawaii.

Dessaint, William Y., and Alain Y. Dessaint (1975). "Strategies in Opium Production." Ethnos 17:153-168.

Durrenberger, E. Paul (1971). "The Ethnography of Lisu Curing." Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

Rose, Archibald, and J. Coggin Brown (1911). "Lisu (Yawyin) Tribes of the Burma-China Frontier." Memoirs of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal 3:240-276.