History of persecution

The Bisu are one of the smaller ethnic groups within the Tibeto-Burman linguistic family. There are approximately 1,000 Bisu in Thailand, with an additional 6,000 in neighboring countries.

Bisu history has been one of harassment and persecution at the hands of neighboring groups. The Bisu in northern Thailand migrated south, along the Mekong River from either Yunnan or Laos in the early 20th century, finding hostile people wherever they went.

Today the Bisu are at the "bottom of the totem pole" in terms of social prestige in the areas where they live. As one Bisu elder commented: "Everyone looks down on us, ­there's no one left for us to look down on."

Slaves to evil spirits

All aspects of Bisu village life revolve around their zealous appeasement of evil spirits. No sacrifice is spared in an effort to keep peace with the demanding demons. One Bisu leader describes himself as "a slave to the spirits," ­a condition he does not enjoy. The Bisu readily admit that the need to sacrifice valuable livestock is one of the causes of their material poverty.

Few attempts have been made to take the gospel to the Bisu, despite the presence of Christians in neighboring ethic groups. Long-standing racial tensions are part of the problem. There are probably no more than 20 Bisu believers, and most of these have faced severe persecution. After one elderly Bisu couple in Thailand converted to Christianity, an epidemic swept over their home village. The spirit doctor believed the sickness was the spirits' way of expressing displeasure towards the converts, who were then driven out of the village.

Hope for future ministry

The Bisu in Thailand are concerned about preserving their language and culture. Accordingly they have asked for outside assistance in developing a Bisu alphabet and initiating a literacy project.

Profile: Was it a spirit?

"There are two types of illness," explained Ai Yaay. "Normal ones that doctors can treat, and spirit illnesses that render doctors helpless."

"Last week, for example, my four year old son became very sick. All of his muscles tensed up, and he cried incessantly. We took him to the local government clinic, then the big hospital in the city, but they could not help him. That is how we knew that it was a spirit illness."

"When we got back to the village, we called the spirit doctor to consult the spirit stick. You then ask the spirit stick all sorts of questions — 'Was it a spirit in the forest?' 'Was it a spirit in the village?' 'Was it the spirit of a tree?' You may not believe this, but when the spirit stick wants to say 'yes,' it actually grows by several inches. Once we know which spirit is responsible, we ask the spirit stick how to appease the offended spirit—should we sacrifice a chicken, a dog, a pig? Once we have the answer, we have to make the sacrifice in the appropriate place as quickly as possible, no matter the personal cost. A pig, for example, is worth two months' income. In my son's case, we found out that his mother had offended a field spirit, and we had to sacrifice a chicken. Within minutes, my son was fine.

"You could say that we Bisu people are slaves to the spirits. I don't know why the spirits are always tormenting us, demanding sacrifices, keeping us poor.

"Do they enjoy doing this to humans? All I know is that if we don't appease them, they get very angry, and can even kill us. That's what happened to my uncle—he went to the hospital and got a clean bill of health, but died within hours of returning to the village, where the spirits killed him. And when some old people in the village became Christians and stopped sacrificing to the spirits, the spirits made all the children very ill, and some even died. We had to drive the Christians out in order to stop the epidemic."

Resource Note:
A flier on CBF missions among the Bisu is available. Visit the CBF e-Store or call toll-free at (888) 801-4CBF (4223).