Alas, it was time to leave. After the mother-in-law of the village head showed me the beautiful appliqué work she was working on to form a pair of leggings, we thanked everyone for their hospitality and moved onward. On the way back to Chiang Rai, Tee stopped at a nearby village where he showed me an altar that had been constructed as part of a forest ceremony. Accompanied by the symphony of cicadas, the ceremony had recently been performed to honor the forest spirits and ask them for protection. Despite the conversion of many Akha to Christianity, traditional beliefs and/or practices still are present.
In the forest, Tee captured one cicada and demonstrated how loudly just one single insect could “sing” with their timbals. It was amazing how much quieter the symphony was with just one of its members momentarily silenced; I had incorrectly envisioned thousands of cicadas all joining in the song. Tee’s own family enjoyed eating cicadas. During February through April, the children would collect this delicacy, using gum-tipped poles to lance the insects and collect between 1-3 kg (2.2-6.6 pounds) per day.
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