Akha girls carry large bundles of imperata grass on their backs up to the village from the forest, in preparation for re-thatching houses. This work takes place in the cool season, after the rice harvest has been gathered. The Akha are one of the most distinctive and colourfully dressed of the hilltribes that live in the mountainous border areas of Thailand, Burma, Laos and southern China. Of Tibeto-Burmese origin, they build their villages of stilted houses on the middle slopes of the forested hills. This is the village of Maw La Akha in Chiang Rai province..