The Mlabri Hilltribe is the last hill tribe left in the north of Thailand.
They are shy jungle hunter-gatherers, who wear only loin-clothes
and leave their dead on the tree-top for the birds.
Thai people call them “Spirits of the Yellow leaves,”
because they live in banana-leaf shelters until the leaves turn yellow (2 weeks)
and they vanish into the jungle like spirits, when anyone comes to make contact
Of the Mlabri who migrated from Muang Chaiburi of Lao P.D.R. 100 years ago,
only about currently 200 survive in Nan,
and recently the government has tried to “settle” some of them in Hmong-style villages