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The Karen

Since we'll be spending a week with the Karen people, we wanted to provide a little background information on this esteemed tribe.

In the late 17th century the Karen people began to migrate from their homelands in Burma to settle in the rural mountain ranges of northern Thailand. They brought their domesticated elephants with them.

Today population estimates put their numbers in Thailand at above 300,000, accounting for more than half of Thailand’s hill tribe population. And they still own thousands of elephants. As their numbers have increased, the Karen people have been forced to adapt their farming practices and way of life to accommodate their growth and to address growing environmental concerns.

In 1969 His Majesty King Bhumibol (RAMA IX) launched The Royal Project using his own private funds. Primarily The Royal Project set out to end the cultivation of poppy plants, thereby bringing about an end to the violence associated with the opium trade in Thailand and neighboring countries. The project also allocated funds to teach the hill tribe people about sustainable agriculture and about the serious environmental impacts of swidden (“slash and burn”) farming methods.

Also as part of The Royal Project, the hill tribe people were given legal status in the country and land as long as they agreed not to use it for growing poppies. They learned new methods of conserving land and forest resources. It is impossible to know what the state of Thailand's northern forests would be today without this project.

The Royal Project, still going strong today, has had a positive impact on hill tribe culture, particularly the Karen people. Since their homelands are so heavily forested, the Karen tribes still practice some slash and burn methods but at a much more sustainable rate. They practice crop rotation over large parcels of land and spare the large trees when they clear a plot.

Also, the Karen tribes were among the first of the hill tribes to develop environmentally sustainable terraced rice fields. They now grow rice, corn, cabbages and other vegetables in abundance and supply them to the city as a source of income.

Karen settlements are usually found at lower elevations than other hill tribes in Thailand. The villages consist of raised bamboo huts, usually thirty or more, under which families keep their livestock. As in many traditional cultures, unmarried children, and sometimes married daughters and their families, live with their parents.

Respect and honor are important to the Karen culture. Young men and women do not touch in public and clothing, especially for women, is very conservative. The highest authority in each village is the priest. With the elders, the priest runs the village; in the absence of a priest, the male elders take on his role. Villages are often clustered together, and may share a priest for important decisions or rituals.

The Karen are renown for their skills at farming, weaving, and working with elephants. But the Karen tribe faces a growing number of threats and problems. Many of the younger generation, better educated and more exposed to modern life than their parents, are leaving the tribe for the city. Often they are unable to compete for the jobs they seek, and end up as day laborers, beggars, or prostitutes.

This integration with and movement towards the cities has caused a loss of tradition for the Karen. Older generations find themselves fighting a losing battle to keep tradition alive while still benefiting from quality of life improvements, like trucks and electricity. The desire to incorporate things like cell phones and computers into their lives means that the Karen now are spending more, while they are still earning relatively little for their crops. It is uncertain what the long-term effects of this change in standard of living will be.

Despite the changes that have been made to their farming methods, deforestation is still a big concern for the Karen people. With less and younger forest around their homes and farmland, the Karen may have trouble supporting themselves in the future. Their reliance on short-term methods like swidden farming and heavy pesticide use has led to severe air pollution and health problems in some areas, and are not viable solutions for the future.


Journey to freedom is the next step in improving the lives of the Karen people and the elephants they keep. Elephants are an important part of Karen culture. They are handed down within families, their offspring bringing a new source of wealth. Once used for farming and logging, these elephants are now often loaned out to trekking camps, where they may be kept in poor conditions. In recent decades, the ancient bond between the Karen and their elephants has weakened severely.

The Journey to Freedom is an effort to replace the income that the Karen can earn by renting their elephants. Instead, elephants will be cared for at home and let to live in their natural jungle habitat. To support this, travelers will come to the Karen village to see the elephants in their natural home.

The hope is that this movement will show that elephants can be a source of income without their being exploited. What's more, the Karen can live closely to their traditional way of life without avoiding quality-of-life improvements. The Journey to Freedom has helped to develop roads, water systems, and even recently installed the first refrigerator in a Karen village. The goal is to provide economic support for humane and culturally sensitive choices.