Karen and Lahu: ethnic affiliation or Baptists' imagination?

Abstract

Three generations of the Young family: William Marcus (pioneer American Baptist missionary among the Lahu people of Kengtung, Burma and across the northern border into Yunnan); son, Harold Mason and grandson, Oliver Gordon have championed the view that there is a close ethnic relationship between Karen and Lahu. This paper contends that the claim cannot be substantiated either ethnologically or linguistically. It concludes that Lahu-Karen ethnic affiliations derive from ideas espoused by Baptist Karen evangelists who were sent from Lower Burma (principally the Bassein area) to assist William Young’s missionary efforts in Kengtung.