Plants and people of the Golden Triangle. Ethnobotany of the hill tribes of northern Thailand

This book is about the people-plant relationship of the hill tribes of northern Thailand. After a preface, acknowledgments and introduction, the book is divided into 13 chapters: (1) the people of the hills, focusing on the Karen, Hmong, Lahu, Mien, Akha and Lisu tribes; (2) the land of the hill tribes, including physiography, geology, soils, climate, vegetation zones and their modification due to deforestation, watershed conservation and reforestation; (3) farming in the hills, including shifting cultivation (swidden farming), permanent fields, gardens, origins of agriculture and domestication of plants, agricultural calendar, crop diversity, cash crops, field rotation, cropping systems, major crop plants, and the diet and nutrition of the hill tribes; (4) rice, its botany, cultivation, sources and varieties, and ceremonial use; (5) the forest as a provider of food, fodder, firewood, dyes, poisons, rope and medicinal plants; (6) bamboo, its classification, tribal names and uses as a building material; (7) opium (Papaver somniferum), its origin and use as a cash crop, opium alkaloids, cultivation, opium substitution programmes, and its use by hill tribes; (8) plants that cure, including hill tribe concepts of diseases and cures, medicinal knowledge, availability and preparation of plants, and tribal treatments of ailments including malaria, broken bones, bites and stings, skin parasites, burns, tonics, venereal disease, pregnancy and childbirth; (9) houses from the forest, including design, construction, community participation, ceremonies, and modern house construction; (10) plant fibres and dyes in relation to tribal dress; (11) plants and the spirit world, including forest spirits, and spirits involved with legend, evil, illness, injury, birth and death; (12) plants for beauty and pleasure including clothing, cosmetics and toiletry items, masticatories and fumatories, with reference to Areca catechu (betel nut), Phyllanthus emblica and Nicotiana tabacum, alcoholic beverages, games, musical instruments; (13) the future, with particular reference to factors leading to the loss of tribal culture (tourism, population growth, land shortage, lack of citizenship, disease, poverty and forest destruction), and the importance of conservation of tribal knowledge and forests. An index of scientific plant names and an index of common plant names are included, as are 4 appendices: (A) plants used by hill tribes, including Latin name, family, uses and herbarium voucher specimen number; (B) medicinal plants used by hill tribes, including Latin name, tribe, ailment and part of plant used; (C) units of measure; and (D) hill tribe villages visited.