Kayaw Village

Kayaw; Kayaws people respects trees and demons. Their legend follows that the elder of the tribe kept migrating as they ran out of land, he kept moving in a very fast pace that he did not care about his followers and he has stopped at Salween river basin, Irrawaddy River basin and later to the east of Thailand. Kayaw can be categorised into different ethnicities and races with various languages and religious beliefs. Traditional Kayaws believe in tree spirits but the new generations are now Buddhist, Christians etc. Their place of origin is Myanmar but due to the war, they have escaped to Thailand. There are 4 different Karens in Thailand and Kayaw is the majority among them. Kayaw people have their own written language which was invented by missionary who Romanized the language based on Burmese. The development of written language makes them advanced in storytelling and history of their tribe. Another group is Po, many of whom converted to Christianity. Most of them live in Mae Sarieang District of Hongson, Omkoi District of Chinag Mai. Bwe group live in the west of Thailand and Kun Yuam District of Mae Hongson. The other group is Pa-O or Tongsu which are rare in Thailand.