Karen Riishi sect hill-tribe village, the remote community settled deep in forests of south-west Umphang Disctict, Tak Province.
Located couple of kilometers from unguarded Burmese border, it is a home to Telashkon sect of Talakone Karen, the tribe with unique traditions and beliefs. People living here differ from other Karen tribes, they are unique in Thailand, part of the Karen tribe forcibly driven by the Burmese Army. Interesting thing about these Karens is that they are not Christian or Buddhist as most others are, but have a belief system that is some combination of spiritualism and animism.
They do not drink alcohol or eat domesticated animals, preference goes to hunting and wilderness gathering. They eat wild meat only, most notably small deer, wild boar, python, and monkey. They keep no domesticated pigs or chicken.
Tribe men tie their long hair into something similar to a samurai topknot. In most ways they are like all other Karen though: incredibly friendly, hard working, athletic and passionate when comes to manual labor and hunting, fanatical about spicy food and betel nut, and generous with their food and time.
Sect has been established back in 1850's by a prophet called Pu Chaik. Today they have 16,000 followers spread across 31 villages in Myanmar and 3 in Thailand. Only Loy Tong Ku village has a leader who resides there. He is referred to as "isi". He is a priest and considered living divine being... a God.
The most important tradition is to offer a torch of fire as a gesture of paying homage to the revered Hermit master around December every year. They also worship an image of the Lord Buddha crafted out of a sacred 400 years old ivory tusks. This piece of ivory features carved in images of Lord Buddha in state of meditation from the base to the end of the tusk.
The present Isi was born in Burma and was installed by disciples of his predecessor who died back in 1989. He is surrounded by 60 disciples aged 10 to 28 who serve him for minimum of 3 years. They participate in rituals, household chores, tend to vegetable garden belonging to the temple. The youngest five of them are responsible with keeping sacred fire burning indefinitely in lodging of the master and sleep in same room with him.
The rules of community life are quite serious: two meals a day in normal times and one during the lent.
They are strictly prohibited from farming domestic animals for consumption. Isi eats fruit, vegetables, maize and rice only, and it has to be from temple garden, not anywhere else.
Consumption of alcohol is absolutely forbidden; anyone caught would be severely punished most notably by having their long hair cut and paraded in shame through the village. Same goes for other misdeeds such as thievery and adultery. Punishment goes as far as being expelled from the village for a period of up to 3 years. The only way they can redeem themselves and eventually accepted back into community is by profound apology and by bringing purest natural wild bees wax, up to 5kg as I have been told and 3kg of candles direct to Isi.
Current Isi is single but the previous one, the number 8 in the dynasty was allowed to marry and had 2 kids.
The sect has a number of special events: they celebrate Songkhran, end and beginning of raining season, full moon, new moon.
During these times faithful visit the temple loaded with offerings such as sugar cane, pineapple, bettel, coconut, bee wax for candles which is the most valuable. Man are dressed in white tunic which signifies purity. Married women are in red dress while the girls are in white. All females are relegated into the background during ceremonial. The reason for this is the belief that some of them are going through menstrual cycle and their blood could defile the sacred area.
The village is remote and hard to reach, it requires special permission from the 347th Border Patrol Police. And then comes almost 20km's of tough steep sandy trail across 2 mountain tops littered by switchbacks, river crossings and narrow passages hanging over...
Read more
Learn more insights from Wanderboat AI.
