Picture of the Week – 8.4.15 – The Yumbri
By Tessa Bunney on 8 April 2015I first met members of Laos’ smallest ethnic group, the Yumbri at the Sayaboury Elephant Festival although I had already read a lot about them. It was one of the saddest things I have come across in Laos to see them sitting in a hut roped off from the gawping and photographing general public. The government had invited them to build a ‘model house’, a shelter made from bamboo and leaves and there they stayed with a big donation box to help raise some money for their daily living expenses.
Later in the week we had to chance to go and visit them at their camp in the Nam Poui NPA (National Protected Area). The Yumbri also known as Yellow Leaves, Tong Luang or Mlabri are the last remaining nomadic hunter-gatherer community living in the primary forests and river basins of the Nam Poui region in Sayaboury province. They migrate by group in the forest seeking edible natural resources. Their huts are simple constructions of a few palm leaves or wild banana leaves fitted over a frame of bamboo where they reside for around 7 to 10 days depending on food availability. They are Laos’ smallest ethnic group with estimates of the numbers of Yumbri remaining varying between 21 and 30 individuals.
