Lahu

The Lahu are a Lolo-speaking Tibeto-Burman people of the mountains of southern Yunnan, centred on Lancang, Menglian and Shuangjiang along the Mekong, with related villages spreading into Burma and the highlands of Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. They divide into branches named from the traditional colour of their dress, the Black Lahu or Lahu Na being the largest.

Their tonal Loloish language served as a lingua franca between neighbouring hill peoples, and their oral lore centres on the long creation epic of Mupa Mipa. Traditionally polytheist, the Lahu adopted Buddhism from neighbouring Tai communities in the late 1600s, and the faith spread widely through their villages in the following century.