It is thought that Lisu first moved into Thailand from Myanmar towards the beginning of the twentieth century, about eighty years ago, from an area near Doi Mea Salong to the villages of Huai Sarn and Doi Chang in Chang in Chiang Rai province (Ayabe 1996:17). From these early beginnings, the Lisu have established villages throughout the lower and upper northern regions of northern Thailand. “The Lisu in Thailand is not an ethnic group that is fully understood” (Ayabe 1996:15); neither is their position clearly and consistently defined within the Thaistate. They have been variously represented as a hill-tribe or chao khao, destroyers of the forest, threats to national security, involved in the narcotics trade, as a tourist attraction, un-Thai, or the most difficult ethnic group to develop.