Akha woman dyeing braid and chicken feathers red, for making into a woman’s headdress. The Akha are one of the mot distinctive and colourfully dressed of the hilltribes that live in the mountainous border areas of Thailand, Burma, Laos ans 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.