The Mrabri in Laos: A World Under the Canopy [first edition]

This ethnological study presents the first published information on the Mrabri living in Laos collected during two years of preservation, development, and research activities. There are currently less than 400 living Mrabri distributed between northern Thailand and the Lao PDR. The Mrabri have been studied in Thailand since 1919, but on the Lao side of the border no research was conducted until 1999. As of now there are only 28 Mrabri alive in the Lao PDR, with 22 of them maintaining their nomadic way of life in the primary forest of Sayabury Province. For the Mrabri the most important values are freedom and peace in the forest, and food availability. In recent history, the main enemies were human factors such as military events and misunderstandings, floods, illnesses, accidents and tigers.