We bought a beautiful and brightly colored table runner woven by this young lady. Here is another view of her weaving. They make many nice colorful cloth goods here to use and sell to tourists.

Small girl walking around. They are refugees, with much larger populations living in Myanmar. Skirmishes occur and Karens flee across the border to places like this, where they are protected but not often granted citizenship.

The local women gather to tell stories. They cannot return and are not allowed to assimilate. There are an estimated 400,000 Karens in Thailand and 10-15 times that number living in Myanmar (Burma).

This "Red Karen" woman was,
like absolutely everyone we encountered there (about 10km from Burmese border) was friendly and accommodating. Elongated earlobes like these are typical of the Red Karens.

These were being worn as part of the traditional outfit by the Red Karen woman shown in the previous picture. The 2 other major groups not shown on this site are Sgaw and Pwo Karen (white Karens), and the Pa-O (black Karens.) Other hilltribes in the area include Lisu, Hmong, Ahka, Lahu, Yao and others.

This cute girl was friendly of course! You can see her beginning to elongate her earlobes. It's unfortunate, but most pictures I see of young Karen boys show rifles instead of decorative outfits.

Since the crushing immigration from Cambodia in the late 70's, Thailand tries to regulate immigration. Like Florida, where we live, there are many who want to immigrate for the economic opportunities. But inevitably political refugees will get caught in the middle.

They build homes planning to stay here for a while. Myanmar's Karen populations have long wanted to carve out a homeland from the area where they are the ethnic majority. But the Burmese military regime is hostile to the idea of relinquishing territory. recommended Karen links

These hand-made textiles are evidence of the Karen women's sewing and dyeing skills. One common attribute shared by the various Karen groups is their beautiful and colorful clothing. Another is their legendary skill with elephants.