Hill Tribal Crafts IX

Hill Tribes (cont.):

- Tai or Shan (called by Burmese) or Dai (called by Chinese) or Tay (called by Vietnamese & Lao) or Thaiyai (called by Thai), is the second large ethnic population in Burma (Myanmar). Most Tai are living in Shan State of Burma, and some has migrated to Thailand from the political issue and for job seeking since 17^th century.

The Poy Sang Long Festival of Tai people, is for a large group of 7-14 years old boys to be ordained as novice monks at the same time. They will be dressed up like princes in imitation of the Lord Buddha and be carried on the shoulders of their older male relatives for three days before ordaining.

Tai people’s surnames are prefix with ‘Loong’, such as Loong Kam, Loong Pang, etc., because they don’t know how to set a good surname, so they use their pass away cousins’ names to put after ‘Loong’.

Their famous and special food is ‘soybean fermented’. It’s very useful for health, and looks like ‘Shrimp Paste or Kapi’.

Recommended book for Today is ‘The Shan: Culture, Art and Crafts’. The culture of the Shan peoples of Burma and their rulers is extensively explored in this volume. Shan courts flourished in the late British colonial period, and in this book rare early photo graphs, never before published, document life in the courts and in the hill regions of Shan dominion.

(To be continued)

Hill Tribal Crafts VIII

Hill Tribes (cont.):

- Palaung or De-ang or Ta-ang or Dara-ang, Burmese call them as Palaung, Tai call them as Pa-long or Kun-loi (means hill tribe people).  From the history, Palaung were populated in San-Wee city of Shan State of Burma. They are Mon-Khmer ethnic minority who now live in Burma, China & Thailand. In 1968-1984 A.D. (2511-2527 B.E.), Palaung immigrated into Thailand close to Doi Ang Khang (Ang Khang Mountain of Chiang Mai Province) from the military situation in Burma.

Palaung dislike to get married with people from other races. Youth will date in festival season or religious ceremony. The young man will court a lady with the clarinet or sueng (a northern Thai musical instrument) in front of her house. If she accepts, she will open the door to invite him to talk with at the fireplace through the night without sex.

The production of crafts by Palaung is very limited. Their trade is based on both dry and pickled tea. However today, let us recommend some books and songs (courting songs) of Palaung as follows:

(To be continued)