Young Lisu women wear colourful turbans mostly for festive occasions. To make the turban, the women use black fabric folded to a width of 3-4 cm. After measuring the size of their heads, the women wrap the cloth tightly around their bent knee until it is arranged tidily into a spool of cloth. It is then tightly tied together with a wider strip of cloth wrapped under the spool and is sewn to keep it in place. Strands of colourful yarns are attached to the rim of the hat, which is then decorated with glass beads and mulit-coloured pompoms. Older women wear plain black turbans, neatly wrapped.The Lisu are speakers of a Tibeto-Burman family of languages. They migrated into northern Thailand from neighbouring regions during the 18th and 19th centuries.
