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Shan people in Mae Hong Son
The Shan call themselves tai yàay , which translates as "big Tai" as
opposed to the "little Tai" (tai nàuy ), the Thai and Lao. This
distinction probably refers to a period when the Shan established
states in upper Burma (muang ) before the Thai and Lao. I shall use
the word Shan for convenience sake since it is the one which has
previously been used by scholars and historians. Shan and tai yàay
refer to the same geographical and cultural areas. The province of Mae
Hong Son in Thailand´s northwest is thickly forested and mountainous.
It borders Burma on two sides and can be reached either eight hour bus
ride over windy, bumpy roads which are often strewn with rocks and
debree in the rainy season, or a spectacular 30 minute flight from
Chiang Mai. This province has some of the most beautiful natural
scenery in Thailand and an incredible mosaic of ethnic groups. It is
also the only province in which the Shan,, a Tai-speaking people, make
up the majority of the inhabitants.
Migration History
The original homeland of the Tai-speaking peoples including the Shan,
Lao and Thai, was somewhere in southern China. From there they
gradually migrated along rivers into Southeast Asia at the beginning
of this millenium. Shan settled down in northern Burma in the fertile
upper valleys of the Salaween, Irrawaddy and Chindwin rivers. The
Mongol invasion of 1238 and the destruction of the Burmese kingdom of
Pagan "opened the floodgates" as it were, creating a power vaccum
which the Shan scrambled to fill. Thus began a conflict which is still
continuing today between the Shan, who defend their independence in
the hills and expand southwards when Burmese central control lapses,
and the Burmese who aim to extend their political power over other
ethnic groups. The Shan States have always been a loose confederation,
uniting only occasionally in the face of military attack, and have
often been forced to accept either Burmese or Chinese suzerainity or
both. It is uncertain when the Shan arrived in Mae Hong Son (perhaps
200 years ago) but the route is known: from the southern Shan States
and along the Pai River, a tributary of the Salaween, to Pai. Carl
Bock in his travels through northern Thailand records that the Shan
settlers and raiders were eventually halted and driven back in 1869
from the borders with Chiang Mai province. Presently, there are many
Shan villages near Chiang Mai and Muang Fang as well as in Mae Hong
Son.
Ethnic Mosaic
Mae Hong Son can be divided into ethno-ecological niches (cf. Walker
1992) in which a particular group cultivates a particular region. The
Shan (ca. 45% of the population) are wet rice cultivators and have
constructed elaborate irrigation systems in the valleys and terraces
in the surrounding hills. Houses are built on stilts and in the centre
of a Shan village is a rectangular Buddhist temple complex. The Karen
(ca. 40%) first arrived in the province at about the same time as the
Shan but came from the west. Originally, the Karen practiced crop
rotation, relied on forest products, built houses on hill sides and
domesticated the elephant, but today some have resettled near Shan
villages and have started paddy cultivation. Most Karens are Christian
but there are also practicing animists and converts to Buddhism. In
the village of Pa Pu where I conducted fieldwork there were 144 Shan
households and 26 Karen households as well as a temple and a church.
Both groups work together but religious and social events are held
separately.
In this century, various hill tribes (Hmong, Lisu and Lahu) and Haw
Chinese from Yunnan (former Kuomingtang soliders) have arrived and
occupied the uppermost ecological niche. These groups build villages
on mountain ridges and practice slash and burn agriculture, growing
dry rice, corn and poppy. More recently refugees fleeing from Burma´s
ethnic conflicts have entered Mae Hong Son which now has many refugee
camps and a large population of illegal residents.
Changing Shan Ethnic Identity
The Shan of Mae Hong Son are a tiny colony of Shan culture separated
by a political boundary from their cultural heartland, the Shan
States. Previously, the fact that the province was isolated and had a
poor infrastruture helped to preserve Shan culture. As part of
Thailand´s rapid economic expansion and modernization of the 1970´s,
many officials, teachers and skilled workers from central Thailand and
Chiang Mai came to Mae Hong Son. Thai is the language of all
government officials and is the only language taught in village
schools. Through TV, access to higher education and improved
infrastructure, the Shan are no longer isolated but being rapidly
integrated into the Thai nation state. The two most prominent
differences between Shan and Thai culture are language and ritual.
The Shan language is related to Thai and Lao but is not mutually
intelligible. Thai is taught in schools and the majority of teachers
come from outside the province, especially from Chiang Mai. TV and
radio is only in Thai, and only a handful of elderly men and monks are
able to read Shan as it was formally written in a Burmese script. Yet
Shan is the language spoken in villages and homes even if one parent
comes from another ethnic group. Practically all villagers in Pa Pu
are fluent in Shan and Thai while some speak northern Thai and a
little Karen as well. Southeast Asia has always had a population of
multilingual people. The general rule is the smaller the group in a
particular area, the more languages it needs. Thus in Mae Hong Son the
Thai rarely learn another language, the Shan know their own and Thai,
and the Karen learn Thai and Shan as well as their own.
Although the Shan are Therawada Buddhists like the Thai, their rituals
and holy texts have been greatly influenced by Burmese Buddhism. Many
rituals are unique to Mae Hong Son and have become popular tourist
attractions such as the three-day long ordination feastival, poi sang
long held in April and processions of elaborate pagoda like structures
called jong pala in October. Two northern Thai rituals are now also
practiced in villages, the rocket festival held before the onset of
the rains and the basii, calling the "life essence" of individuals
about to undergo a rite de passage ritual. The culture and language of
Mae Hong Son is changing into a "hybrid" culture, one which is
predominately Shan but influenced from other regions in Thailand and
different from the Shan cultures of Burma and China. One cannot speak
of a single Shan culture but rather a cultural core, a set of common
values, religious beliefs and language, and variation within specific
societies.
Economic Change
For the Shan of Mae Hong Son the last twenty years have been a time of
rapid economic change and increase in the standard of living. But the
region´s induction into the world economy occured when Anglo-Burmese
lumber companies acquired concessions from the Thai government to cut
down tracts of teak forest in the1890´s. The logs were floated down
the Salaween River to the port of Moulmein and from there to Europe
and Japan where they fetched very high prices. Today there are very
few large teak trees left and only a modest local furniture industry.
There has been a government ban on large-scale logging in Thailand
since 1989.
More than half the population is still engaged in the agricultural
sector, producing rice, soya and garlic. Yet Mae Hong Son imports food
from northern Thailand due to a shortage of land and the lack of
interest in farming as a livelihood. More and more men and women seek
employment in towns, learning skills, working for government
departments and in the tourist industry. Mae Hong Son is becoming a
very popular tourist destination, and there is presently a boom in the
construction industry with new hotels, shops and resorts being built
in and around the town. Many villagers from Pa Pu have benefitted by
obtaining employment in construction companies, the road works´
department and in hotels as maids, watchmen, receptionists and guides.
Due to tourism the infrastructure in the province has improved
rapidly: there is a new airport, better roads, a new hospital and more
schools. With possibilities of earning more money, villagers are
abandoning farming: acquiring an education for oneself or one´s
children is now the best security for the future, the first step to
acquiring the much-sought-after job in a government office.
More wealth also means more donations to temples and more extravagant
festivals, an intregal part of Shan ethnic identity. Much of Buddhist
ideology centres around the notion of obtaining merit (tham bun).
Villagers acquire small amounts merit on a daily basis by providing
food, but also hold large festivals where large amounts of money are
donated to monasteries for adornment of temples or the construction of
new ones. The latter earns the donors a large amount of spiritual
merit for a better incarnation and social status since such festivals
are a public display of wealth. New temples and monasteries are
appearing everywhere as competition between rich donors has resulted
in inflation.
Refugees
Another important factor is the recent influx of Burmese Shan refugees
from the Shan States. There has always been a trickle of Shan
migrating south due the similarities in culture, a porus border and
various upheavals in Burma, but the civil war between the Burmese
government forces and the self-styled Shan nationalist/drug lord, Khun
Sa, and various other factions fighting for an independent Shan State,
has turned the trickle into a flood. One refugee commented that the
police were busy all day taking photos and registering newcomers.
Estimates are hard to come by since the vast majority are illegal, but
in the vicinity of the village of Pa Pu alone, I estimate about 30-35
families. This influx has had noticeable effects on the economy and on
Shan ethnic identity.
The refugees, both legal and illegal are poor, illiterate farmers
without possessions, skills or money. Their arrival has created a pool
of cheap labour and effected the system of social inequality.
Previously in Pa Pu there were about a dozen families who owned most
of the land; the other families were share croppers or labourers. The
refugees now do alot of the farming since majority of the landless
villagers earn their living in town as labourers, mechanics,
carpenters and hotel maids. Many children of landowners have become
government clerks, businessmen and teachers. This is a "convenient"
arrangement which pleases everyone at a time of economic expansion:
village officials never seem to inform the authorities about the
presence of illegal squatters.
Boys and men flee more than women since many recounted that it was
either a choice between joining the Burmese army or becoming a porter
for Khun Sa. Many come to Thailand illegally and then enter the
monkhood. I would estimate that 80% of the monks and novices in Mae
Hong Son (but not the abbots) are refugees. They have replaced the
dwindling numbers of local boys, who are still ordained according to
tradition but rarely stay more than a few weeks, preferring secular
education and opportunities to earn money outside the monkhood. Thus,
the increased amounts of donations is indirectly supporting the
refugees.
The notion of an independent Shan State is only an issue in Burma.
There is little discussion concerning anything resembling
"pan-Shanism" or a reuniting of all Shan peoples in Mae Hong Son. The
Shan here are quite content to be bilingual and citizens of a
prosperous Thailand.
References
Hall, D.G.E. A History of South-East Asia . Macmillan. London, 1991.
Hallett, Holt S. A Thousand Miles on an Elephant in the Shan States .
White Lotus. Bangkok 1988 (original 1890).
Milne, Lesile. Shans at Home . Paragon. New York, 1970 (original
1910).
Tannenbaum, Nicola. "Galactic Polities, the Asiatic Mode of Production
and Peasant-States: Southeast Asian Pre-Modern Politics" in The
Australian Journal of Anthropology . 1993:4-1.
Walker, Anthony R. (ed.) The Highland Heritage: Collected Essays on
Upland Thailand . Double-Six Press. Singapore, 1992.
Regards
Torben
Einige seiner Artikel habe ich unter einem Parkforum regepostet.
Um mal einen Eindruck von seiner Arbeit zu machen,
hier das Reposting seines Artikels :
Shan people in Mae Hong Son
The Shan call themselves tai yàay , which translates as "big Tai" as
opposed to the "little Tai" (tai nàuy ), the Thai and Lao. This
distinction probably refers to a period when the Shan established
states in upper Burma (muang ) before the Thai and Lao. I shall use
the word Shan for convenience sake since it is the one which has
previously been used by scholars and historians. Shan and tai yàay
refer to the same geographical and cultural areas. The province of Mae
Hong Son in Thailand´s northwest is thickly forested and mountainous.
It borders Burma on two sides and can be reached either eight hour bus
ride over windy, bumpy roads which are often strewn with rocks and
debree in the rainy season, or a spectacular 30 minute flight from
Chiang Mai. This province has some of the most beautiful natural
scenery in Thailand and an incredible mosaic of ethnic groups. It is
also the only province in which the Shan,, a Tai-speaking people, make
up the majority of the inhabitants.
Migration History
The original homeland of the Tai-speaking peoples including the Shan,
Lao and Thai, was somewhere in southern China. From there they
gradually migrated along rivers into Southeast Asia at the beginning
of this millenium. Shan settled down in northern Burma in the fertile
upper valleys of the Salaween, Irrawaddy and Chindwin rivers. The
Mongol invasion of 1238 and the destruction of the Burmese kingdom of
Pagan "opened the floodgates" as it were, creating a power vaccum
which the Shan scrambled to fill. Thus began a conflict which is still
continuing today between the Shan, who defend their independence in
the hills and expand southwards when Burmese central control lapses,
and the Burmese who aim to extend their political power over other
ethnic groups. The Shan States have always been a loose confederation,
uniting only occasionally in the face of military attack, and have
often been forced to accept either Burmese or Chinese suzerainity or
both. It is uncertain when the Shan arrived in Mae Hong Son (perhaps
200 years ago) but the route is known: from the southern Shan States
and along the Pai River, a tributary of the Salaween, to Pai. Carl
Bock in his travels through northern Thailand records that the Shan
settlers and raiders were eventually halted and driven back in 1869
from the borders with Chiang Mai province. Presently, there are many
Shan villages near Chiang Mai and Muang Fang as well as in Mae Hong
Son.
Ethnic Mosaic
Mae Hong Son can be divided into ethno-ecological niches (cf. Walker
1992) in which a particular group cultivates a particular region. The
Shan (ca. 45% of the population) are wet rice cultivators and have
constructed elaborate irrigation systems in the valleys and terraces
in the surrounding hills. Houses are built on stilts and in the centre
of a Shan village is a rectangular Buddhist temple complex. The Karen
(ca. 40%) first arrived in the province at about the same time as the
Shan but came from the west. Originally, the Karen practiced crop
rotation, relied on forest products, built houses on hill sides and
domesticated the elephant, but today some have resettled near Shan
villages and have started paddy cultivation. Most Karens are Christian
but there are also practicing animists and converts to Buddhism. In
the village of Pa Pu where I conducted fieldwork there were 144 Shan
households and 26 Karen households as well as a temple and a church.
Both groups work together but religious and social events are held
separately.
In this century, various hill tribes (Hmong, Lisu and Lahu) and Haw
Chinese from Yunnan (former Kuomingtang soliders) have arrived and
occupied the uppermost ecological niche. These groups build villages
on mountain ridges and practice slash and burn agriculture, growing
dry rice, corn and poppy. More recently refugees fleeing from Burma´s
ethnic conflicts have entered Mae Hong Son which now has many refugee
camps and a large population of illegal residents.
Changing Shan Ethnic Identity
The Shan of Mae Hong Son are a tiny colony of Shan culture separated
by a political boundary from their cultural heartland, the Shan
States. Previously, the fact that the province was isolated and had a
poor infrastruture helped to preserve Shan culture. As part of
Thailand´s rapid economic expansion and modernization of the 1970´s,
many officials, teachers and skilled workers from central Thailand and
Chiang Mai came to Mae Hong Son. Thai is the language of all
government officials and is the only language taught in village
schools. Through TV, access to higher education and improved
infrastructure, the Shan are no longer isolated but being rapidly
integrated into the Thai nation state. The two most prominent
differences between Shan and Thai culture are language and ritual.
The Shan language is related to Thai and Lao but is not mutually
intelligible. Thai is taught in schools and the majority of teachers
come from outside the province, especially from Chiang Mai. TV and
radio is only in Thai, and only a handful of elderly men and monks are
able to read Shan as it was formally written in a Burmese script. Yet
Shan is the language spoken in villages and homes even if one parent
comes from another ethnic group. Practically all villagers in Pa Pu
are fluent in Shan and Thai while some speak northern Thai and a
little Karen as well. Southeast Asia has always had a population of
multilingual people. The general rule is the smaller the group in a
particular area, the more languages it needs. Thus in Mae Hong Son the
Thai rarely learn another language, the Shan know their own and Thai,
and the Karen learn Thai and Shan as well as their own.
Although the Shan are Therawada Buddhists like the Thai, their rituals
and holy texts have been greatly influenced by Burmese Buddhism. Many
rituals are unique to Mae Hong Son and have become popular tourist
attractions such as the three-day long ordination feastival, poi sang
long held in April and processions of elaborate pagoda like structures
called jong pala in October. Two northern Thai rituals are now also
practiced in villages, the rocket festival held before the onset of
the rains and the basii, calling the "life essence" of individuals
about to undergo a rite de passage ritual. The culture and language of
Mae Hong Son is changing into a "hybrid" culture, one which is
predominately Shan but influenced from other regions in Thailand and
different from the Shan cultures of Burma and China. One cannot speak
of a single Shan culture but rather a cultural core, a set of common
values, religious beliefs and language, and variation within specific
societies.
Economic Change
For the Shan of Mae Hong Son the last twenty years have been a time of
rapid economic change and increase in the standard of living. But the
region´s induction into the world economy occured when Anglo-Burmese
lumber companies acquired concessions from the Thai government to cut
down tracts of teak forest in the1890´s. The logs were floated down
the Salaween River to the port of Moulmein and from there to Europe
and Japan where they fetched very high prices. Today there are very
few large teak trees left and only a modest local furniture industry.
There has been a government ban on large-scale logging in Thailand
since 1989.
More than half the population is still engaged in the agricultural
sector, producing rice, soya and garlic. Yet Mae Hong Son imports food
from northern Thailand due to a shortage of land and the lack of
interest in farming as a livelihood. More and more men and women seek
employment in towns, learning skills, working for government
departments and in the tourist industry. Mae Hong Son is becoming a
very popular tourist destination, and there is presently a boom in the
construction industry with new hotels, shops and resorts being built
in and around the town. Many villagers from Pa Pu have benefitted by
obtaining employment in construction companies, the road works´
department and in hotels as maids, watchmen, receptionists and guides.
Due to tourism the infrastructure in the province has improved
rapidly: there is a new airport, better roads, a new hospital and more
schools. With possibilities of earning more money, villagers are
abandoning farming: acquiring an education for oneself or one´s
children is now the best security for the future, the first step to
acquiring the much-sought-after job in a government office.
More wealth also means more donations to temples and more extravagant
festivals, an intregal part of Shan ethnic identity. Much of Buddhist
ideology centres around the notion of obtaining merit (tham bun).
Villagers acquire small amounts merit on a daily basis by providing
food, but also hold large festivals where large amounts of money are
donated to monasteries for adornment of temples or the construction of
new ones. The latter earns the donors a large amount of spiritual
merit for a better incarnation and social status since such festivals
are a public display of wealth. New temples and monasteries are
appearing everywhere as competition between rich donors has resulted
in inflation.
Refugees
Another important factor is the recent influx of Burmese Shan refugees
from the Shan States. There has always been a trickle of Shan
migrating south due the similarities in culture, a porus border and
various upheavals in Burma, but the civil war between the Burmese
government forces and the self-styled Shan nationalist/drug lord, Khun
Sa, and various other factions fighting for an independent Shan State,
has turned the trickle into a flood. One refugee commented that the
police were busy all day taking photos and registering newcomers.
Estimates are hard to come by since the vast majority are illegal, but
in the vicinity of the village of Pa Pu alone, I estimate about 30-35
families. This influx has had noticeable effects on the economy and on
Shan ethnic identity.
The refugees, both legal and illegal are poor, illiterate farmers
without possessions, skills or money. Their arrival has created a pool
of cheap labour and effected the system of social inequality.
Previously in Pa Pu there were about a dozen families who owned most
of the land; the other families were share croppers or labourers. The
refugees now do alot of the farming since majority of the landless
villagers earn their living in town as labourers, mechanics,
carpenters and hotel maids. Many children of landowners have become
government clerks, businessmen and teachers. This is a "convenient"
arrangement which pleases everyone at a time of economic expansion:
village officials never seem to inform the authorities about the
presence of illegal squatters.
Boys and men flee more than women since many recounted that it was
either a choice between joining the Burmese army or becoming a porter
for Khun Sa. Many come to Thailand illegally and then enter the
monkhood. I would estimate that 80% of the monks and novices in Mae
Hong Son (but not the abbots) are refugees. They have replaced the
dwindling numbers of local boys, who are still ordained according to
tradition but rarely stay more than a few weeks, preferring secular
education and opportunities to earn money outside the monkhood. Thus,
the increased amounts of donations is indirectly supporting the
refugees.
The notion of an independent Shan State is only an issue in Burma.
There is little discussion concerning anything resembling
"pan-Shanism" or a reuniting of all Shan peoples in Mae Hong Son. The
Shan here are quite content to be bilingual and citizens of a
prosperous Thailand.
References
Hall, D.G.E. A History of South-East Asia . Macmillan. London, 1991.
Hallett, Holt S. A Thousand Miles on an Elephant in the Shan States .
White Lotus. Bangkok 1988 (original 1890).
Milne, Lesile. Shans at Home . Paragon. New York, 1970 (original
1910).
Tannenbaum, Nicola. "Galactic Polities, the Asiatic Mode of Production
and Peasant-States: Southeast Asian Pre-Modern Politics" in The
Australian Journal of Anthropology . 1993:4-1.
Walker, Anthony R. (ed.) The Highland Heritage: Collected Essays on
Upland Thailand . Double-Six Press. Singapore, 1992.
Regards
Torben
