There are six major hill tribes with subcategories and clans that further divide the groups of indigenous people. Each hill tribe has its own customs, language, dressing, skills, craft and spiritual belief and this applies to even subcategories within each hill tribe. For example, they have their own dialects even within one hill tribe and dress differently.
I will only touch on certain hill tribes that largely have to do with disneyization and their way of life and such. All the hill tribes come into contact with foreign cultures as they are more than happy to receive tourists as it means that there is money to made. Money making opportunities are welcomed as the hill tribes are rural and most of them are poor.
Karen
The largest minority group in Chiang Mai is the Karen. Some of the tribes are still practicing animism or being buddhist while many of the Karen were converted to Christianity by the missionaries.
They wore woven V-neck tunics of a range of natural colours and turbans. Unmarried women would wear long white V-neck tunics to distinct themselves from the rest. They occupy lowland areas and engage in agriculture. However they are the most environmentally conscious of the hill tribes as they practice crop rotation.
Padaung
The Paduang are part of the Karen people but they escaped and started a different hill tribe on their own.
The Padaung attract many curious visitors on account of their long-necked women. The women had to wear neck rings so that they would resemble their ancestors which are dragons and swans. Long necks symbolised elegance and sexuality. It was also hypothesised that it prevented them from being slaves to other tribes as the women appeared less attractive to other tribes.
Where does Disneyization come in?
Disneyization occurs here when most of the Karen, which is the majority of the hill tribes, were converted to a religion that was of something new to them. This is known as theming as the world is becoming more similar in the sense of religion. Christianity brought about antagonisation at the start because Christian missionaries promote and decry other religions like Buddhist and animism. They said stuff like Christians would go the heaven while people from other religion would burn in hell. Another hill tribe which is the Akha also goes through the same process till majority of the people converted to Christianity. People of these tribes feel that Christianity has diluted their original culture and religion.
A tradition of beautifying women by adding brass rings, up to 5 kilogrammes, to their necks has been preserved largely for generating tourism. Although the neck appears cruelly elongated, it is the collarbone which has been displaced rather than the stretching and weakening of the neck.
The culture of the women having to wear neck rings were almost disneyified under theming as the government of Thailand wants Chiang Mai to be more modernised. So that Thailand will be more in sync with the 20th century world. The government did not allow the younger women to wear the neck rings if they wanted to continue with education. However, some of the young girls continued with their tradition as they knew it was a source of revenue.
Also, the women of Padaung were subjected to emotional labour as they had to pretend that they were happy with being stared at and photographed by tourists. They had to wear the neck rings for tradition and not to generate more revenue for themselves but the hill tribes are run by local businessmen and these people also want to earn from their tradition. They knew that their culture has been exploited due to the surge of tourism and feel antagonised. In actual fact, most of them suffer while wearing the neck rings. For example, their necks are burnt or bruised by the neck rings that are welded on. They are refugees and they are glad to even be alive. Therefore they had to accept tourism and smile to tourists despite feeling unhappy deep down inside as they are safe and can earn some money. Moreover, tourists would expect to get the same friendliness from the locals.
And moreover in comparison to Disney, while the idea of emotional labour may concern some Chiang Mai people, there is a certain similarity with Disney as Disney is not short of people who welcome this as part of their job and want to work at Disney. Similarly, there are people who want to preserve the culture because of their pride and don't mind earning money from it.
The way they dress
For example, some indigenous people and communities, dress in their traditional clothing only when the tourists are visiting them, even though they would only wear it for ceremonies and festivals when the tourists aren’t visiting. The false image that these indigenous cultures present to the tourist is misleading and does not give the tourist a true cultural experience. Like example, the Karen people is usually seen in their traditional clothes as they are a popular settlement to visit when tourists visit Chiang Mai.
References:
http://www.1stopchiangmai.com/culture/hill_tribes/
http://www.chiangmai1.com/chiang_mai/hill_tribes.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Mai_Province
http://www.chiangmainews.com/indepth/details.php?id=469
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayan_Lahwi
http://www.google.com.sg/imglanding?q=hill+tribes+chiang+mai+houses&um=1&hl=en&tbs=isch:1&tbnid=kNL_V7tU4u83PM:&imgrefurl=http://www.ultimatejourney.com/Chap29.html&imgurl=http://www.ultimatejourney.com/T.BambooHuts.JPG&zoom=1&w=640&h=480&iact=hc&ei=TFL7TIPsCcbKrAfiu_TPCA&oei=TFL7TIPsCcbKrAfiu_TPCA&esq=1&page=1&tbnh=134&tbnw=179&start=0&ved=1t:429,r:21,s:0&biw=1408&bih=714
http://www.google.com.sg/imglanding?q=removal+of+neck+rings&um=1&hl=en&tbs=isch:1&tbnid=J8XHCnjoLTK0FM:&imgrefurl=http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php%253Ft%253D225359%2526page%253D2&imgurl=http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj147/leretserge/femme_girafe.jpg&zoom=1&w=400&h=600&iact=hc&ei=T1X7TN6ZMoa8cI_wlPQO&oei=I1X7TMLJHsLUrQf074DXCA&esq=4&page=3&tbnh=131&tbnw=86&start=64&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:64&biw=1408&bih=714
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