Wattana Wattanapun

Today over 2000 Palaung--a group of mountain peoples speaking Mon-Khmer--live in a handful of villages north of Chiang Mai in Thailand. They fled from Burma in the 1980s to escape the fighting between communist insurgents and Burmese army troops. Though granted sanctuary, in the late 1990s many of the Palaung in Thailand found themselves involved in a new conflict over land use in northern Thailand's environmentally degraded highlands. This is the first book written on the Palaung in Thailand, a compelling collaborative effort by anthropologist Michael Howard and Thai artist Wattana Wattanapun. They introduce the Palaung culture and way of life, telling the story of the Palaung's flight from Burma and settlement in Thailand. Howard's photographs and Wattana's drawings enliven the account.