Dynamics of Ethnic Cultures across National Boundaries in Southwestern China and Mainland Southeast Asia: Relations, Societies, and Languages

312 Pages·2000·7.493 MB·

by  Yukio Hayashi and Guangyuan Yang

Dynamics of Ethnic Cultures Across National Boundaries
in Southwestern China and Mainland Southeast Asia:
Relations, Societies and Languages
Edited by
HAYASHI Yukio and YANG Guangyuan
The Workshop and Publication were Funded by Japan Ministry of Education, Science
and Culture, Project Title “Making Regions: Proto-Areas, Transformation and New
Formation in Asia and Africa.”
front cover : Bridge with roof (fengyuqiao) among the Dong,
a Tai speaking people, in northern Guangxi, China,
photographed by KANESHIGE Tsutomu in 1993.
March 2000
Ming Muang Printing House
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Tel : [phone]
Fax : [phone]
ISBN 974-7791-18-8
Lanna Cultural Center, Rajabhat Institute Chiang Mai
202 Chotana Rd., Amphur Muang, Chiang Mai 50300, Thailand,
phone: [phone] Ext 305 fax: [phone]
cultural @ nakornping. cmr i. ac. th
Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University
46 Shimoadachi-cho, Yoshida, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan,
phone: [phone] fax: (81-75) 753-7350
http:/ / sawasdee.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Table of Contents
PREFACE HAYASHI YUKIO and YANG GUANGYU AN HI
SUMMARY IN CHINESE .................................................................V UI
Cultural Trends among Trans-National Minorities in Yunnan Province and
Indo-China During a Period of Social Transition.
.............................. ZHANG GONGJIN I
The Tai Ethnic Migration and Settlement in Myanmar.
................................ SAI AUNG TUN 14
Who are the Tai? A Discourse of Place, Activity and Person.
............... RICHARD A. O ’CONNOR 35
An Exposition on the Funeral Rite and View of Soul of the Dai Nationality
in Jinping.
................................ HE SHAO-YING 51
Tai Dam in Laos: Rituals of the Death.
.................... PRACHANG RAKPONG 66
Village Community and Public Architecture: -wagx. Concept and Drum
Tower among Dong People of Sanjiang in Guangxi Province, China.
................... KANESHIGE TSUTOMU 82
A Cultural Interpretation of the Religious and Sacrificial Rites of the Dai
Nationality.
....................... YANG GUANGYUAN 106
I
Cultural Revival and Ethnicity: The Case of the Tai Lue in the Sipsong
Panna, Yunnan Province.
..................... HASEGAWA K1Y0SHI 121
Lawa (Lua): A Study from Palm-Leaf Manuscripts and Stone Inscriptions.
...... AROONRUT WICHIENKEEO 138
On Narrative Formation of Spirit Legends in Burma (Myanmar).
........................ TAKATANI MICHIO 154
Spells and Boundaries in Regional Context: Wisa and Thamma among the
Thai-Lao in Northeast Thailand.
........................... HAYASHI YUKIO 169
The Naxi Traditional Medicine: the Dongba Sutra of Naxi Ethnic Group.
................................. LI GUOWEN 189
A Study on the Culture of the Dance of Lahu Nationality.
............................ LIUJING-RONG 206
On the Marriage Culture of the Jingpo Nationality.
.......................................... SHI RUI 223
A Tentative Research on the Culture of the Wooden Drum of Wa Ethnic
Group.
.............................. ZHAO YANSHE 233
Migration of Yao Labor in Northern Thailand.
................... SOMKIAT JUMLONG 246
“He's Really a Karen”: Articulation of Ethnic and Gender Relationship in a
Regional Context.
.............................. HAYAMI YOKO 260
■5
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PREFACE
This volume is a collection of revised papers originally presented at the
‘International Workshop on “Dynamics of Ethnic Cultures Across National
Boundaries in Southwestern China and Mainland Southeast Asia:
Relations, Societies, and Languages’ which was held in Kunming, China,
on October 16-17, 1999. The workshop was a result of the cooperation
between Yunnan Institute of the Nationalities, Kunming, China, and Center
for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Japan, with the financial
support of the COE (Center of Excellency) Program of “Making Regions:
Proto-Areas, Transformations and New Formations in Asia and Africa,”
Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture.
Historically, Southwest China and Mainland Southeast Asia have been
inseparably related through trade and the mobility of the population
conditioned by the ecological niche of the different groups. It is well-
known that the region shows a great diversity of languages and cultures
among the various ethnic groups. Under the wind of globalization today,
the dynamics of such ethnic cultures become more outstanding. With the
opening of some hitherto inaccessible fields, the Tai peoples and their
neighboring ethnic groups across national boundaries have been intensively
studied in recent decades. Each discipline has differed in its approach and
contribution. Moreover, researchers’ perspectives have differed according
to their countries of origin. However, all have contributed new knowledge
to this understudied area.
The main purpose of the workshop, therefore, was to present case
studies on that theme done in particular regions, compared and related to
each other, rather than “overviews” primarily based on a single imagined
assumption and second-hand observations. Following the previous
workshop held in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 1998, which both of the editors
and some contributors to this volume participated (*), another important
purpose was to exchange and share these research findings and related
ideas towards future academic cooperation, to seek a new paradigm for the
comparative study of cultures and societies in the region.
Preceding the workshop, a three-day research excursion was held
among the “minority nationalities” in Xishuangbanna. It provided a great
I opportunity for sharing and exchanging ideas from different academic
backgrounds in the same field settings. It was a valuable occasion to
observe for ourselves not only what was happening at the research sites but
also to note what we presupposed about the field sites we visited. We
experienced different fields in the same field.
Original papers were presented by seventeen participants: from China,
six researchers from the Yunnan Institute of the Nationalities in Kunming,
and one from the Central Institute for Nationalities, Beijing; five
researchers from Japan: three from Thailand; one from Myanmar; and one
from the U.S. More than forty people attended the workshop. Papers were
prepared in English and a one to two page Chinese language abstract was
attached to each paper. Presentation and discussion were facilitated by
Chinese-English translation.
The workshop reflects the recent extensive as well as intensive studies
on ethnic cultures, in particular, those of the Tai peoples and their
neighbors across national boundaries, from Southwestern China, Thailand,
Burma and Laos. Such studies have been conducted by researchers from
across disciplines and nationalities. Scholars from the Yunnan Institute of
Nationalities, studying in many cases their own groups, scholars from
Japan or the U.S. studying ethnic groups in countries other than their own,
and Tai speaking scholars from Thailand and Myanmar each with different
standpoints on the study of ethnic groups in this region.
The difference was strongly felt during the workshop. On the one hand,
it made us recognize that all participants are constrained by their own
backgrounds, and by various academic and political stances. On the other
hand, however, it also convinced us that it is such diversity of viewpoints
which, combined with the accumulation of knowledge, have provided us
with a sense of breaking new ground and the possibility of future
cooperation.
There is one fundamental thing we shared in this workshop. Even in the
papers which deal with theoretical issues, all contributors of the workshop
focused on “ locality” in each region. Each paper is rich in ethnography, the
evidence necessary to discover the patterns and ideas in a comparative
perspective. Based on the first hand field data concerning, various socio-
cultural phenomena such as those of ethnology, religious practices,
performative arts, and gender, they give accounts in local cultural terms in
each regional setting. At the same time, they also show that ethnicity and
ethnic culture are not only questions of origin, but are also determined by
locality and by observers. Ethnic culture is not static but the constantly
changing product of contemporary relations with surrounding peoples in a
specific region. It is not only socially constructed, but also historically
conditioned and culturally mediated. That is, that ethnic culture itself, being
iv
made and used as an indicator, is the practice of communicating and
maintaining cultural differences. Ethnic culture in this context is its
articulation along with regional and national identities.
It should be added that, notwithstanding the apparent simplicity of their
tasks, encountering “evidence” at each locality/reality in a specific
regional setting is not automatically promised when they are in the field.
Every kind of data and the insights that emerge in the field is always
mediated by the observers’ experiences which impose both a comparative
and a reflective point of view between themselves and the areas where they
have good relations with the people being studied. Due to the post
modernism that is fashionable in some academic circles, with which most
of the contributors in this volume are not concerned directly, the occasions
when they face up to such experiences are getting more difficult. All the
participants in the conference share a conviction that ethnography without
local evidence has little to contribute to understanding what is really
happening in the age of globalization today. In this sense, we made a great
step to the next stage of academic networking based on each locality.
In such an international workshop, we must overcome such practical
difficulties as differences in the customs regarding meeting procedures, not
to mention the difficulties of speaking, discussing and involving each other
in academic discussion through translation. Notwithstanding such
difficulties, however, it was a significant step towards mutual
understanding and the exchanging of valuable information. This volume
contains important reports and data on hitherto under-researched areas
within the region. In particular, the works of the scholars from the Yunnan
Institute of the Nationalities, most of which had never been introduced in
English, are promising a lively and bright future for research in this region.
Without the scholars’ earnest enthusiasm, the workshop would not have
been possible. While there was no general or conclusive discussion, the
two-day workshop opened paths towards future cooperation among the
participating researchers.
Lastly but not least, we acknowledge very much the great endeavors
that many of the contributors made to our project; both Professors Liu and
Wang, those who managed preparation works for this conference from the
beginning; Prof. Hasegawa who made a great effort in both being in contact
with Chinese colleagues from an early stage of this project and also in
editing Chinese summaries in this volume; Prof. Hayami who designed the
final format of all the papers in English; Prof. Aroonrut who engaged in
publishing our results in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Without their sacrificial
contributions, we would not have had such a valuable occasion to practice
an inter-national as well as an inter-regional research project on the basis of
cultural, historical, political and anthropological experiences in each
specific regions.
Editors:
HAYASHI Yukio
Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Japan.
YANG Guangyuan
Yunnan Institute of the Nationalities, China.
(*) HAYASHI Yukio (compiled) 1998, Inter-Ethnic Relations in the Making of Mainland Southeast
Asia vol. I: Papers presented at the 'International Co-Workshop on the Projects of "Inter-Ethnic
Relations in the Making of Mainland Southeast Asia (CSEAS, Kyoto University)" and "Social and
Cultural History of the Tai Peoples (Chulalongkorn University), Chiang Mai, Thailand, March 28-29,
1998, Bangkok: CSEAS, Kyoto University Bangkok Office.
PROGRAM
DAY 1 (1999, October 16th )
OPENING ADDRESS
Pu Tongjin, Vice President , Yunnan Institute of the Nationalities
Hayashi Yukio, Associate Professor, Kyoto University
MEMORIAL LECTURE
Zhang Gongjin, Central University for Nationalities, Beijing, China
“Culture Trends among Trans-National Minorities in Yunnan Province and
Indo-China During a Period of Social Transition.”
PRESENTATIONS
Sai Aung Tun, Myanmar Historical Commission, Yangon University, Myanmar
“The Tai Ethnic Migration and Settlement in Myanmar.”
Richard A. O’Connor, University of the South, U.S.A.
“Who are the Tai? A Discourse of Place, Activity and Person.”
He Shao-ying, Yunnan Institute of the Nationalities, China
“An Exposition on the Funeral Rite and View|of Soul of the Dai Nationality in
Jingping.”
Prachan Rakpong, Rajabhat Institute Chiang Mai, Thailand
VI
“Tai Dam in Laos: Rituals of the Death.”
Kaneshige Tsutomu, Shiga University, Japan
“Village Community and Public Architecture: wagx Concept and Drum Tower
among Dong People of Sanjiang in Guangxi Province, China.”
Yang Guangyuan, Yunnan Institute of the Nationalities, China
“A Cultural Interpretation of the Religious and Sacrificial Rites of the Dai
Nationality.”
Hasegawa Kiyoshi, Gifu Shotoku Gakuen University, Japan
“Cultural Revival and Ethnicity: The Case of the Tai Lue in the Sipsong Panna,
Yunnan Province.”
WELCOME PARTY
DAY 2(1999, October 17th)
Aroonrut Wichienkeeo, Rajabhat Institute Chiang Mai, Thailand
“Lawa (Lua): A Study from Palm-Leaf Manuscripts and Stone Inscriptions.”
Takatani Michio, Hiroshima University, Japan
“ On Narrative Formation of Spirit Legends in Burma (Myanmar).”
Hayashi Yukio, Kyoto University, Japan
z
“Spells and Boundaries in Regional Context: Wisa and Thamma among the
Thai-Lao in Northeast Thailand.”
Li Guowen, Yunnan Institute of the Nationalities, China
“The Naxi Traditional Medicine: the Dongba Sutra of Naxi Ethnic Group.”
Liu Jing-rong , Yunnan Institute of the Nationalities, China
“A Study on the Culture of the Dance of Lahu Nationality.”
Shi Riii, Yunnan Institute of the Nationalities, China
“ On the Marriage Culture of the Jingpo Nationality.”
Zhao Yanshe, Yunnan Institute of the Nationalities, China
“A Tentative Research on the Culture of the Wooden Drum of Wa Ethnic
Group.”
Somkiat Jumlong, Tribal Research Institute, Thailand
“Migration of Yao Labor in Northern Thailand.”
Hayami Yoko, Kyoto University, Japan
“He’s Really a Karen: Articulation of Ethnic and Gender Relationship in a
Regional Context.”
CLOSING DISCUSSION
VII