About

Sapa Tribes was set up in 2011 when a couple of travelers from New Zealand visited Sapa and witnessed what they viewed as the unjust treatment of the local tribes people. Locals are benefiting from the tourism brought in by the tribes people while actively preventing the tribes people from profiting themselves.

In August 2011 the Vietnamese people of Sapa started a regime against the local tribes to stop them from selling goods on the streets. Police physically threaten the local tribes people and hit them with batons in order to move them on while a propaganda van patrols the street announcing over megaphones that tourists should not buy goods from the tribes people, but instead shop at the markets.

Closer inspection reveals that the markets are exclusively owned by Vietnamese, and the vast majority do not sell genuine tribes people products, but instead sell poor quality replicas produced cheaply in China.

Many of the tribes people depend on the sale of their handicraft for income. This site aims to put some power back in the hands of the tribes people while also offering you, the customer, a cheaper and more genuine experience of the Sapa tribes.

We encourage you to travel to the local minority villages using a local tribes person as a guide, and if you are going to buy crafts, buy directly from the villages to ensure that the product is genuine and that the minorities receive the proceeds from their traditions.

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