The Si La (also Sila) are an ethnic group of about 1,800 people living in northern Laos and another 600 living in the Lai Chau province of northwestern Vietnam.
The Si La people speak a Tibeto-Burman language closely related to Hani (Edmondson 2002). Their primary occupation is the cultivation of cereals, augmented by hunting and foraging. One of the most distinctive Si La customs is tooth painting: men traditionally painted their teeth red, while women painted theirs black. The custom is increasingly uncommon among the younger generation.
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“It is true, these Roman Catholics, priests and all, impress me as a people who have fallen far behind the significance of their symbols. It is as if an ox had strayed into a church and were trying to bethink himself. Nevertheless, they are capable of reverence; but we Yankees are a people in whom this sentiment has nearly died out, and in this respect we cannot bethink ourselves even as oxen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)