Yao Hilltribe Woman, Thai-Burma Border

Yao Hilltribe Woman, Thai-Burma Border

The Yao live among the low hills in the dense forest. Their earthen homes feature a space designed for a cooking fire in the center of the main room, as well as a small shrine dedicated to their ancestors and to the guardian spirit they believe to inhabit each individual house. In a village near the Burmese border, I encountered this Yao woman and was immediately struck by the colorful sash worn around her neck.

"A modest woman, dressed out in all her finery, is the most tremendous object of the whole creation."
-Oliver Goldsmith-