About 2,500 Lahu Nyi live in northern Laos. They inhabit the mountains of western Bokeo Province, near the Golden Triangle where the borders of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet. The Lahu Nyi, who are also known as the White Lahu or Red Lahu, inhabit the Tonpheung and Houayxay districts of Bokeo Province. Bokeo is one of the most ethnically diverse areas in the world. It's 113,000 inhabitants are divided into at least 34 ethnic groups.
The Lahu Nyi language is closely related to Lahu Na. The two groups live alongside each other in some locations. The Lahu in China rebelled more than 20 times throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. The region they occupied west of the Mekong River was branded "a place of constant riot." It is almost certainly because of such constant harassment and persecution that the ancestors of today's Lahu in Laos packed up their belongings and migrated across the border to start a new life outside China.
Lahu Nyi women give birth in the privacy of their own rooms. Three days after the delivery they invite old people to a small feast, where a name is given to the child. However, if an unexpected visitor should come in the meantime, he or she is given the honor of naming the newborn. If the baby has a lot of sickness a new name is chosen to chase away the ill fortune.
The Lahu Nyi believe in a Supreme God, G'ui Sha. Many villages have a temple consecrated to this deity.
When American Baptist missionary William Young first preached the Gospel to the Lahu in northern Burma in 1901, they exclaimed, "We as a people have been waiting for you for centuries.... We even have meeting houses built in some of our villages in readiness of your coming." Many of the Lahu men wore ropes on their wrists. They explained, "We Lahu have worn ropes like these since time immemorial. They symbolize our bondage to evil spirits. You alone, as the messenger of G'ui Sha, may cut these manacles from our wrists— but only after you have brought the lost book of G'ui Sha to our very hearths!"
A significant church exists among the Lahu Nyi in Laos today, although believers have been hampered by their inability to read God's Word.
Pray for the Lahu Nyi
Pray for people to come and teach the Lahu Nyi how to read God's Word in their own language.
Thank God for not leaving the Lahu Nyi without a witness in the past.
Pray the Lahu Nyi would be outward-focused in their faith, burdened and empowered to reach other tribes.