The Lisu people (Lisu: ꓡꓲ‐ꓢꓴ ꓫꓵꓽ; Burmese: လီဆူလူမျိုး, [lìsʰù]; Chinese: 傈僳族; pinyin: Lìsùzú; Thai: ลีสู่) are a Tibeto-Burman ethnic group who inhabit mountainous regions of Myanmar (Burma), southwest China, Thailand, and the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

[9][10] Taiping village in Yinjiang, Yunnan, China, was first established by Lu Shi Lisu people about 1,000 years ago.

[14][better source needed] Since the 2010s, many Lisu clashed with the Kachin over allegations of the KIA forcefully conscripting them and killing civilians.

[15][16] During the Myanmar Civil War, the Lisu National Development Party formed pro-Tatmadaw militias to fight the KIA and the PDF.

Millar's diary recalls the escape of a party of 150 European, Indian and Kachin officials and civilians fleeing the advance of the Japanese in May 1942.

Millar records that over a hundred miles of the Chaukan Pass, "there was no trace of man" either Lisu or any other tribe.

[21] The border negotiations with China that led to the 1962 Sino-Indian War, and the intrusion of Chinese troops into the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh, propelled the Government of India to secure its international borders in the North East region, defined as per the Topographical Survey of British India.

The Assam Rifles Regiments who took control of the border area hired labourers from various tribes, including Lisus, to build the air strip at Vijoynagar.

[23][24] In the early 1980s, the Lisu people living in India did not have Indian citizenship as they were considered refugees from Myanmar.

[26] Between 1976 and 1981, a 157-kilometre (98 mi) road was made between Miao and Vijoynagar (MV road) by the Public Works Department following the left bank of the Noa-dihing river through Namdapha National Park but proved difficult to maintain due to extreme rainfall and frequent landslides.

[27] Lisu villages are usually built close to water to provide easy access for washing and drinking.

[9] Their homes are usually built on the ground and have dirt floors and bamboo walls, although an increasing number of the more affluent Lisu are now building houses of wood or even concrete.

With the introduction of the opium poppy as a cash crop in the early 19th century, many Lisu populations were able to achieve economic stability.

Very few Lisu ever used opium, or its more common derivative heroin, except for medicinal use by the elders to alleviate the pain of arthritis.

In conditions of low population density where land can be fallowed for many years, swiddening is an environmentally sustainable form of horticulture.

However, with road building by the state, logging (some legal, but mostly illegal) by Thai companies,[29][30] enclosure of land in national parks, and influx of immigrants from the lowlands, swidden fields can not be fallowed, can not re-grow, and swiddening results in large swathes of deforested mountainsides.

Missionaries such as James O. Fraser, Allyn Cooke and Isobel Kuhn and her husband, John, of the China Inland Mission (now OMF International), were active with the Lisu of Yunnan.

David Fish says, "There were over a hundred missionaries who committed their life for spreading the Gospel among the Lisu people.

The Lisu people accepted those missionaries and their teaching the Gospel so that they converted into Christianity quickly to be followers of Christ.

David Fish reports that, "J. Russell Morse brought many kinds of fruit such as Washington, Orange, Ruby, King-Orange, and grapefruit.

They used various kind of methods, including teaching hymns, sending medicines and doctors, helping the needy, and providing the funds for domestic missionaries and evangelists.

The Chinese government's Religious Affairs Bureau has proposed considering Christianity as the official religion of the Lisu.

Archibald Rose points that the religion of the Lisus appears to be a simple form of animism or nat-worship, sacrifices being offered to the spirits of the mountains.

The main Lisu festival corresponds to Chinese New Year and is celebrated with music, feasting and drinking, as are weddings; people wear large amounts of silver jewelry and wear their best clothes at these times as a means of displaying their success in the previous agricultural year.