Palaung

The Palaung live in the Shan State (Myanmar), Yunnan (China) as well as in the northern mountains of Thailand, where some of them fled from the conflict in Burma some decades ago. The Palaung are also known as “Ta-ang”, “Dara-ang”, “De-ang” or “Pale”. In the 19th century they were actually a quite powerful tribe in Burma, however the centralising military government transformed them into a minority group fighting for their economic and cultural independence. The Palaung are famous for their unique intensively coloured dress of the women together with rattan or bamboo and silver waist hoops.