Why a Booktrail?
2000s: Thailand is a country of contrasts – bustling cities and several hill tribes.
Fieldwork
What you need to know before your trail
This is the story where the hill tribes come into full focus – for the story surrounds an American Journalist, Mischa Berlinski’s and his desire to unravel the mystery of an american educated woman- an anthropologist by the name of Martiya van der Leun.
He’s never met her but knows a great deal about her. She was working with the animist Dyalo hill tribe in Northern Thailand, was accused and jailed for murder and and has now apparently committed suicide there.
Despite the book reading very realistically as if a journalist really had been on this journey, it is still a work of fiction
Locations
ResetTravel Guide
Tribes in Northern Thailand
The Dyalo tribe not surprisingly is also fictional but in the book the author suggests that there are many similar tribes such as the Lisu who do exists. Other tribes he mentions are all real.
Mae Hong Son and exploring the region
The book is a good example of fieldwork but is a lot more detailed and interesting than the title suggests. The subject studied here is anthropology and the work of Christian missionaries in remote and desolate areas.These missionaries have a certain faith and way of doing things but in the hills of Thailand, their belief in evil spirits and the more supernatural of ideas seems to match well the folklore and the mystery which floats like the mist on the mountains itself.
These tribes are under close scrutiny, everything from the way they plant their rice, to the way they cook their food and generally live day to day, whether fictional or not, does portray a part of the world and its people that few will ever see.
Streetview Maps
A) Chang Mai - A prison in Chiang Mai
C) Mae Hong Son-The roads to the mountains
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: Fieldwork
Author/Guide Mischa Berlinski Destination: Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Son Departure Time: 2000s
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