Journal of the Siam Society; 67

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.· JOURNAL•. ·oFTHE ... SIAM SOCIETY

. JA·NUARY.1979 .. ·

·. · volume ~1 part t . .•· · ··· ···

THE SIAM SOCIETY PATRON

His Majesty the King

VICE-PATRONS

Her Majesty the Queen Her Majesty Queen Rambai Barni

UON. VICE-PRESIDEN'l'

Her Royal Highness the Princess Mother Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sat' sr:; Mr. Alexander B. Griswold

COUNCIL OF THE SIAM SOCIETY FOR 1978/79

Professor Chitti Tingsabadh H.S.H. Prince Subhadradis Diskul M.R. Patanachai Jayant Dr. Tern Smitinand Mrs. Nisa Sheanakul Mrs. Chittra Pranich Mr. Kim Atkinson Mrs. Katherine Buri Mr. Francis W.C. Martin Mr. Kenneth J. MacCormac Mr. Henri Pagau-Clarac H.E. Mr. Frantz B. Howitz Dr. Pensak Chagsuchinda Howitz Dr. Piriya Krairiksb Mr. Vivadb na Pombejra MR. Chakarot Chitrabongs Mrs. Beverly Frankel M.L. Manich Jumsai Mr. Dacre F.A. Raikes Mrs. Edwin F. Stanton Mr. Antoine van Agtmael

President Senior Vice-President Vice-President and Honorary Treasurer Vice-President and Leader, Natural HiM Of)' Honorary Secretary Honorary Librarian Honorary Editor

JOURNAL OF THE SIAM SOCIETY

JANUARY 1979

volume

67

part 1

© THE SIAM SOCIETY 1979 Honorary Editor : Kim Atkinson

Contributed manuscripts should be typed double-spaced on quarto paper (approximately 8 x 11 inches), with generous margins. The top copy should be submitted. All notes and references should be similarly typed double-spaced. References should include name of author(s), title, name a~d volume of periodical or relevant publication series (where applicable), date and place of publication (or nature of reference, if unpublished), and pagination (where appropriate). Page-proofs of Articles and Review Articles are normally sent to authors; proofs of Notes, Reviews and other contributions will be sent to authors on request only. Originals of illustrations will be returned 011 request. Authors of published contributions receive 30 offprints free of charge. copies will be supplied at cost price, but must be paid for in advance.

Additional

The Siam Society encourages readers to communicate to the Honorary Editor any differing opinion on, or corrections to, material which appears in JSS. Suitably documented correspondence will be published.as a Communication, bearing the writer's name.

"' :uuscripts, books for review, and all correspondence should be sent to the Honorary tor, Journal of the Siam Society, G.P.O. Box 65, Bangkok, Thailand. ·· d . . Subscription and membersh' . tp enqu1r1es, an pubhcatwns orders, should be addressed to the Ad · · t . mmts ratxve Secretary, Siam Society, G.P.Q. Box 65, Bangkok, Thailand. Exchange copies of periodicals sho ld b G.P.O. Box 65, Bangkok, Thailand~ e sent to the Honorary Librarian, Siam Society,

jOURNAL OF THE SIAM SOCIETY Contents of Volume 67 Part 1 January 1979 Artie/e.~

TERRY E. MILLER & JARERNCHAI CHONPAIROT

The musical traditions of northeast Thailand

MICHAEL WRIGHT

Towards a history of Siamese gilt-lacquer painting

17

Thai interpolations in the story of Aniruddha

46

Folk memories of the decline of Angkor in nineteenth-century Cambodia: The legend of the Leper King

54

Epigraphic & Historical Studies No. 21 : The second oldest known writing in Siamese

63

MANEEPIN PHROMSUTHIRAK

DAVID P. CHANDLER

A.B. GRISWOLD & PRASERT ~A NAGARA

I

A.B. GRISWOLD & PRASERT l;'l"A NAGARA

Epigraphic & Historical Studies No. 22 : An inscription from WitHin !lH1, · Sukhodaya

.RAYMOND S. KANIA & SIRIPHAN ltATUWONG KANIA

The So people of Kusuman, northeastern Thailand

74

NIELS MULD:gR

Concepts of power and moral goodness in the contemporary Thai worldview ·

111

Notes M.C. CHAND CHIRAYU RAJANI Thai poetry translation: A review and some new examples

132

DAVID W. HOGAN

140

Urak Lawai' funeral in Phuket

Reviews SOMPHOB PHIROM FORREST McGILL

Two views of a pioneering reference work:

Six Hundred Years of Work by Thai Artists and Architects, by Joti Kalyanamitra

JOHN STIRLING BENJAMIN A. BATSON

ELIZABETH REID

FRANKLIN E. HUFFMAN

143

Sukhothai Art, by M.C. Subhadradis Diskul 157 Thailand and thd Japanese Presence, 1941-45, by Thamsook Numnonda

158

Family Life in a Northern Thai Village: A Study in the Structural Significance of Women, by Sulamith H~ins Potter 161 Mon-Khmer Studies V !, ed. by Philip N. Jenner

MILTON OSBORNE

164

Southeast Asian Affairs 1978, publ. by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies

MICHAEL SMITHIES

.'

tl'

JERROLD

W. HUGUET

Contemporary Southeast Asian Arts and Crafts, by Thelma R. Newman

169

The Demography of the Semai Senoi, by Alan G. Fix

AR.UN KlTIYAKARA

167

172

Plants of Khao Yai National Park, ed. by Tem Smitinand

175

EDWARD VAN Roy

Tribute and Profit: Sino-Siamese Trade, 1652-1853, by Sarasin Viraphol

176

Communication HERBERT R. SWANSON. On the Manuscript Division,

Pa~ap College

184

,-

' '

'

'

r

;

,.

' I

:··

,.

·,

,

.· JOURNAL•. ·oFTHE ... SIAM SOCIETY

. JA·NUARY.1979 .. ·

·. · volume ~1 part t . .•· · ··· ···

THE SIAM SOCIETY PATRON

His Majesty the King

VICE-PATRONS

Her Majesty the Queen Her Majesty Queen Rambai Barni

UON. VICE-PRESIDEN'l'

Her Royal Highness the Princess Mother Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sat' sr:; Mr. Alexander B. Griswold

COUNCIL OF THE SIAM SOCIETY FOR 1978/79

Professor Chitti Tingsabadh H.S.H. Prince Subhadradis Diskul M.R. Patanachai Jayant Dr. Tern Smitinand Mrs. Nisa Sheanakul Mrs. Chittra Pranich Mr. Kim Atkinson Mrs. Katherine Buri Mr. Francis W.C. Martin Mr. Kenneth J. MacCormac Mr. Henri Pagau-Clarac H.E. Mr. Frantz B. Howitz Dr. Pensak Chagsuchinda Howitz Dr. Piriya Krairiksb Mr. Vivadb na Pombejra MR. Chakarot Chitrabongs Mrs. Beverly Frankel M.L. Manich Jumsai Mr. Dacre F.A. Raikes Mrs. Edwin F. Stanton Mr. Antoine van Agtmael

President Senior Vice-President Vice-President and Honorary Treasurer Vice-President and Leader, Natural HiM Of)' Honorary Secretary Honorary Librarian Honorary Editor

JOURNAL OF THE SIAM SOCIETY

JANUARY 1979

volume

67

part 1

© THE SIAM SOCIETY 1979 Honorary Editor : Kim Atkinson

Contributed manuscripts should be typed double-spaced on quarto paper (approximately 8 x 11 inches), with generous margins. The top copy should be submitted. All notes and references should be similarly typed double-spaced. References should include name of author(s), title, name a~d volume of periodical or relevant publication series (where applicable), date and place of publication (or nature of reference, if unpublished), and pagination (where appropriate). Page-proofs of Articles and Review Articles are normally sent to authors; proofs of Notes, Reviews and other contributions will be sent to authors on request only. Originals of illustrations will be returned 011 request. Authors of published contributions receive 30 offprints free of charge. copies will be supplied at cost price, but must be paid for in advance.

Additional

The Siam Society encourages readers to communicate to the Honorary Editor any differing opinion on, or corrections to, material which appears in JSS. Suitably documented correspondence will be published.as a Communication, bearing the writer's name.

"' :uuscripts, books for review, and all correspondence should be sent to the Honorary tor, Journal of the Siam Society, G.P.O. Box 65, Bangkok, Thailand. ·· d . . Subscription and membersh' . tp enqu1r1es, an pubhcatwns orders, should be addressed to the Ad · · t . mmts ratxve Secretary, Siam Society, G.P.Q. Box 65, Bangkok, Thailand. Exchange copies of periodicals sho ld b G.P.O. Box 65, Bangkok, Thailand~ e sent to the Honorary Librarian, Siam Society,

jOURNAL OF THE SIAM SOCIETY Contents of Volume 67 Part 1 January 1979 Artie/e.~

TERRY E. MILLER & JARERNCHAI CHONPAIROT

The musical traditions of northeast Thailand

MICHAEL WRIGHT

Towards a history of Siamese gilt-lacquer painting

17

Thai interpolations in the story of Aniruddha

46

Folk memories of the decline of Angkor in nineteenth-century Cambodia: The legend of the Leper King

54

Epigraphic & Historical Studies No. 21 : The second oldest known writing in Siamese

63

MANEEPIN PHROMSUTHIRAK

DAVID P. CHANDLER

A.B. GRISWOLD & PRASERT ~A NAGARA

I

A.B. GRISWOLD & PRASERT l;'l"A NAGARA

Epigraphic & Historical Studies No. 22 : An inscription from WitHin !lH1, · Sukhodaya

.RAYMOND S. KANIA & SIRIPHAN ltATUWONG KANIA

The So people of Kusuman, northeastern Thailand

74

NIELS MULD:gR

Concepts of power and moral goodness in the contemporary Thai worldview ·

111

Notes M.C. CHAND CHIRAYU RAJANI Thai poetry translation: A review and some new examples

132

DAVID W. HOGAN

140

Urak Lawai' funeral in Phuket

Reviews SOMPHOB PHIROM FORREST McGILL

Two views of a pioneering reference work:

Six Hundred Years of Work by Thai Artists and Architects, by Joti Kalyanamitra

JOHN STIRLING BENJAMIN A. BATSON

ELIZABETH REID

FRANKLIN E. HUFFMAN

143

Sukhothai Art, by M.C. Subhadradis Diskul 157 Thailand and thd Japanese Presence, 1941-45, by Thamsook Numnonda

158

Family Life in a Northern Thai Village: A Study in the Structural Significance of Women, by Sulamith H~ins Potter 161 Mon-Khmer Studies V !, ed. by Philip N. Jenner

MILTON OSBORNE

164

Southeast Asian Affairs 1978, publ. by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies

MICHAEL SMITHIES

.'

tl'

JERROLD

W. HUGUET

Contemporary Southeast Asian Arts and Crafts, by Thelma R. Newman

169

The Demography of the Semai Senoi, by Alan G. Fix

AR.UN KlTIYAKARA

167

172

Plants of Khao Yai National Park, ed. by Tem Smitinand

175

EDWARD VAN Roy

Tribute and Profit: Sino-Siamese Trade, 1652-1853, by Sarasin Viraphol

176

Communication HERBERT R. SWANSON. On the Manuscript Division,

Pa~ap College

184

THE MUSICAL TRADITIONS OF NORTHEAST THAILAND by TERRY E. MILLER and JARERNCHAI CHONPAIROT*

Although Thailand has been among the most accessible countries in Southea~t Asia to scholars its musical traditions constitute an underworked field. Dr. DavJd Morton of the 'university of California at Los Angeles has written a thoroughly accurate study of central Thai classical music (1964), and a few articles have appeared from time to time in this journal concerning certain theatrical traditions, but scholurs have not yet published studies of the regional musics of the south, north, and northeast. The first-named author, Professor Miller, has completed a doctoral dissertation on the music of northeast Thailand!, with the extensive help of Professor Jarernchai Chonpnirot of the Srinakharin Wirot University branch in Maha Sarakham Province, northeast Thailand. It is our desire ~hat northeastern Thai music become known to the wodd, for it certainly has rich and elaborate traditions. Culturally, the northeastern region (pak isan), which comprises 16 of Thailand's 72 provinces and at least 12 million people, is Lao. Although this urea following the right bank of the Mekong River from above Wiangjun (Vientiane), Laos, to the border of Cambodia in the south was never really an integral part of the old Lao kingdom of Lan-sang ("million elephants") or even the princedoms which succeeded Lan-sang in the early eighteenth ·century A.D. (Luang Prabang, Wiangjun, and Jumba-suk/Champasak), it maintained a cultu;al identity quite separate from the central region, old Siam. In the twentieth century with the advent of development. especially improved roads, radio, television, and government schools, the character of the culture has changed slightly, but old Lao traditions still survive in the villages, while in the provincial towns progress is more apparent. Being Lao means eating a distinctive diet (glutinous rice and fermented fish), speaking a different dialect (pasa isan, a modern form of Lao), following certain farm practices dictated by the dry environment, and having distinctive traditions in literature, music, and dance. The music of northeast Thailand is little understood in the West both because of a lack of literature on the subject as well as errors in the few articles and books which discuss it. For example, James Brandon's otherwise impressive book, Theatre in Southeast Asia, includes material about northeastern Thai music and theatre which is at best incomplete and at worst naive or wrong, but many of these problems probably

*

School of Music, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA; Srinakharin University, Maha Sarakham, Thailand.

1. Terry E. Miller, "Kaen playing and mawlum singing in northeastern Thailand" unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1977. ' 1

4

Terry E. Miller & Jarernchai Chonpairot

Aerophones. Similar to the k.a~n in principle is the ~ook f2.ee kaen, a free-ree: tube played by the hill-dwelling Poota1m both northeast Thailand and southern Laos . The pitches of this instrument are similarly generated from a metal free-reed, but the single tube is fitted with six or seven finger holes allowing the player to. blow seven or eight pitches. The player's mouth placed over the reed acts as the wmdchest. The bee sanai is a water buffalo horn with both ends open, and a metal free-reed larger than but similar to that of the kaen fitted over a hole cut in the concave side. The bee sanai is capable of only two or three pitches and is said to be a favorite noise-maker ;t the bung-fai (rocket) festival, though we have not seen one. Its pitch may be changed by opening or closing the larger end. The klui, a vertical bamboo flute, while well known, is actually of more significance in central Thailand where it functions in the kruang-sai and mahori ensembles. Of less musical importance is the wot, a children's toy constructed of eight bamboo tubes each about eight to 21 em long (see figure 6). The tubes are formed into a circular bundle around a longer handle and sealed into place with kisoot, a type of black, sticky beeswax that also seals the kaen tubes in place. At the bottom end the tubes remain sealed by their unpierced nodes but are open at the other. A rounded mound of ordinary beeswax or kisoot is formed over the open end, but not closing the pipes completely so that air blown over the ends causes whistle-like pitches to be sounded. Although an old man from Kalasin Province named Pao has in recent years become locally known for playing the wot, in fact it is normally. throwtl by children in the fields as a musical toy. The two remaining wind instruments barely deserve mention. The f!.ee goo luang is a child's toy flute ~ade from a green ricestalk. and the b.ee bai dawng glui is a cone-shaped kazoo made from a ba11ana leaf. Of these wind instruments, only the kaen and klui are mentioned in old Lao literature. Two instruments mentioned in literature are unknown today, the kai and suanlai, but may have been aerophones. Several older singers whose texts were drawn from such literature felt that the kai (which also means "elephant trunk") may be the kaen although the kaen is also named. Among the aerophori.es no longer used are the sung (hsiang-lo in Chinese), a large conch-shell trumpet, and the f2.ee tae, probably an oboetype instrument used to signal the time during certain periods of the night, especially from 9.00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., the period known as yamtae. Tae, however, is derived from trae (tae in Lao), meaning a metal trumpet.

C:hordophones. The most important of the chordophones is a plucked hlte called prn ~r less ~ommonly sung 4 (see figure 7). There is no standard form for pin other than 1ts havmg a wooden corpus and neck with five to eight frets. There may be from two to four metal strings, one of which is a melodic or 'singer' string, the 3,' !he look fl.ee kaen is called Qee-saw in northern Thailand where it is used to accompany saw smgmg.

4. _It is called both siing and sung, the former being the northern Thai word, Siing is probably denved from saung, the Burmese harp.

MUSICAL TRADITIONS OF NORTHEAST THAILAND

5

others tuned a fifth lower being drone strings; they are plucked with a piece of buffalo horn. While the pin repertory is severely limited to three or four pieces, players have nevertheless created a very distinctive style in which one drone string is stopped and consequently parallels the melody in fifths, while the remaining string or strings produce unstopped drones. Pin combined with kaen has become the standard accompaniment for mawfum pliln, a type of traditional theatre, and in fact the bestknown pin solo today is 'fum pliin'. The antiquity of the instrument cannot be doubted however contemporary the northeastern pin repertory may appear. The word pin in Tai is based on a Pali-Sanskrit word meaning "plucked instrument", and may be related to the Indian words vina and bina 5 • The northeastern pin is possibly related in form to the Siamese grajupbee, a four-stringed long-neck lute, and to the northern sung whose form is somewhat more standardized than that of the northeastern pin. There is no significant relationship, however, to the pin num ff.ao or pin pia, chestresonated chordophones found in the north. Of secondary importance are two types of bowed instruments, the first called saw bung mai pai ("bamboo fiddle"), the second saw Q.ip ("metal can fiddle"). The former is very similar to the two-stringed Siamese saw oo whose corpus is also a coconut shell, but the more common today is the saw b.ip whose corpus is a metal can such as for kerosene or Hall's Mentho-Lyptus lozenges fitted with a wooden neck and two wire strings. Unlike the bow of the saw oo or saw bung mai pai, whose hairs pass between the two strings (as in the Chinese hu-ch'in as well), the bow of the saw Q.ip is often separate from the instrument except in the largest one used to accompany an early type of Lao theatre. Last is the sanoo, a musical bow which is attached to large kites. As the wind changes the tension on the bow, random melodies are produced by a strip of dried palm leaf or rattan. Membranophones and idiophones. The most widely encountered membranaphone (drum) is the glawng yao ("long drum"; see figure 8) or glawng hang ("tail drum"), a single-headed drum whose hardwood body is shaped somewhat like an hourglass. The gfawng yao, which is played with the hands, is usually combined with a pair of cymbals called saeng (chap in Siamese; see figure 8) and a pair of finger cymbals called sing (ching) usually to accompany dancing. Sometimes a small bronze gong with a boss called kawng (or mong) is used, as well as a large flat gong suspended from a horizontal stick called pang hat. Another drum, of barrel shape called glawng sun (see figure 8), may also be added. All of the above instruments are known in central Thailand as well, including also the rummana fum qut, a large, flat frame drum called glawng tliing in the northeast. Smaller drums such as the ton, also known in central Thailand, are sometimes found in the northeast as well. Lastly, pairs of long frame drums called glawng jing ("jing drum"; see figu~e 9) or glawng seng ("contest drum") are beaten in competition to attain the highest pitch, a din that defies description. 5. Dhanit Yupho, Thai Musical Instruments, trans. David Morton (Bangkok, Department of Fine Arts, 1960), p. 87.

6

Terry E. Miller & Jarernchai Chonpairot

Two northeastern idiophones are not known in other Thai regions, the kaw law (or f2ong lang; see figure 10) and hoon (or hun; see figure 11). The latter is a bamboo jaw harp approximately 25 em long, and the former is a vertical wooden xylophone peculiar to Kalasin Province. A few Thai, seeking proof of their culture's local origin, have cited the kaw law as a possible ancestor of the ranat, the xylophone found in Siamese court ensembles. The kaw law, however, is a recent invention whose form, tonal material, and repertory are nearly as young as the men playing it. Its more common name, !J.ong lang, derives from its best-known piece referring to a wooden cow bell (f2.ong lang). A more traditional idiophone is the mak gup gaep (or mai gup gaep) consisting of pieces of.hardwood about 13 em long, 5 em wide, and from 1 to 2 em thick. These are played in pairs, one pair in each hand, clicked in varying patterns to mark the rhythm. A similar instrument in the central region is called the grup sepah and accompanies sepah recitation 6 • Lastly, the Pootai, especially in southern Laos, use an instrument which may be called mai-Qawk-!J.aek. Although we have never seen one, Dr. Carol Compton, a linguist who has conducted research in Laos, has described the instrument. According to her the instrument consists of two sticks of wood perhaps 30 em long, the lower side of one being scalloped or cut into saw teeth. The upper piece has at one end three French coins held in place by a nail which pierces them. As the player clicks the two pieces of wood together in one hand, he rubs the saw-toothed portion over a stone producing a combination of clicking, jingling, and buzzing. The instrument is often heard in the ensembles which accompany certain kinds of southern Lao singing.

Singing "Intended as it is to be read aloud or sung, Laotian poetry, or verse, is essentially musical and rhythmic."7 The ethnomusicologist's definition of song as heightened speech best prepares the reader for understanding the various Siamese and Lao words which are usually translated "to sing". Four words must be discussed in this regard, though only one is commonly used by northeasterners. The standard dictionary definition in Thai of "to sing" is rawng, which is usually combined with pleng meaning "to sing a song"; this implies a set melody to which the words must adjust themselves regardless of their tones. Singers rawng Siamese classical songs, popular songs, and Western songs, but when rendering Siamesefolksongs one uses the term wah. Wah has various shades of meaning from simply "to say" to "to insult", "to scold", or "to speak out''. The Siamese also use the word kup for certain types of recitation, particularly kup sepah, the reading of poetry to a ·set melody accompanied by two pairs of wood 6. Ibid., p. 11. 7. Thao Nhouy Abhay, "Ve~sification", in Kingdom of Laos, ed. Rene de Berval, trans. Teissier du Cros et al. (Saigon, France-Asie, 1959), p. 348.

MUSICAL TRADlTIONS OF NORTHEAST THAILAND

7

castanets called grupB. According to Mosel9, kup literally means "to eject" or recite words with voice modulation or melody. While birds and animals may rawng, only humans can kup. The Lao, however, use the word fum that in a musical sense is unknown in Siamese in spite of Mosel's claim to the contrary. Lum neither appears in the Haas Thai-English Student's Dictionary nor under "sing" in any major English-Thai dictionary. Lum has often been confused and misprinted by the Siamese as rum meaning "to dance" because both Lao and Siamese, finding the consonant "r" difficult to pronounce, often alter it to "1" (e.g. "lawng pleng" rather than rawng pleng). Mosel, however, correctly states that /urn is a kind of song "in which the words are primary, the melody being adjusted to fit the sound and grouping of the words (as in setting a poem to music). The rhythmic intervals are necessarily irregular in that they must accommodate to the word groups and their meaning."IO Mosel, however, implies incorrectly that fum is to kup (kup fum) as pleng is to rawng (rawng pleng), for pleng is a noun and fum is a verb. A number of other meanings further complicate the term lum. It may mean "a story according to the rule of verse", such as lum pra wet, the story of Prince Wetsundawn, the penultimate life of the Buddha before Enlightenment. It may also refer to the body of a human, animal, or anything, living or inanimate, minus appendages. Similarly it is a classifier word for tubular objects such as boats, airplanes, and bamboo, e.g. hila sam lum ("boat-three tubes"). This latter definition together with its meaning as a trunk or stalk (e.g. fum pai : "bamboo stalk") is known to the Siamese. Lastly it refers to Lao singing generated by word-tones. While the term fum is usual throughout the northeast as well as southern Laos, the word !cup describes central and northern Lao styles, such as kup sum nila, kup ngilm, and kup siang kuang, referring to place names. While kup also means "to drive a car or animal'', in its musical meaning it too implies that the tones of the words generate the melody. While tum implies a direct relationship between tone and pitch, there is in fact no hard-and-fast system in this regard. There are many different kinds of Jum, each with different possible modes, rhythms, and moods, and yet all are lum in principle. The word therefore has a very general application as in lum isan, meaning northeastern singing. As a fundamental concept in creating melody, lum may be as old as the Lao people although the resulting melodies will have changed drastically over the years and from region to region. 8. H.H. Prince Bidya, "Sebhii recitation and the story of Khun Chang Khun Phan", Journal of the Thailand Research Society (Siam Society series), 33 (March 1941), pp. 1-22. 9. James N. Mosel, Trends and Structure Contemporary Thai Poetry, Southeast Asia Program Data Paper no. 43 (Ithaca, New York; Cornell University Press, 1961), p. 51. 10. Ibid., p. 50.

in

8

Terry E. Miller & Jarernchai Chonpairot

· · 11 d a mawlum · Maw alone means "medical doctor" and A Lao smger IS ca e while some translate mawlum as "singing doctor", this is more innocent .tl~an helpful. Maw means a "skilled person" as in mawyah (yah:"medicine"-folk-mediCl.~e doctor), doo (doo: "to see"-fortune teller), or maw-kuam (kuam: "law --lawyer). ~:~heast singing has also been called fum kaen in reference. to the b~mboo r~ed organ which accompanies the singing. In central Thailand, especially durm.g the nm?.teenth and early twentieth centuries, lum isan was known as aeow lao. Wlul.e some Siamese dictionaries translate aeow as "love song", in fact it has no meamng except. that erroneously applied to Lao singing. Aeow in Lao means "to implore" or "to Cajole", as a child nags its mother for milk. In northern dialect, however, it means "to court a girl" (aeow sao), and this may have influenced the Siamese knowing that mawlum often sang love poems. Lao musical theory is neither written nor systematic. Players and singers distinguish scales and rhythms in nontechnical language which, when not understood, must be explained in descriptive terms. Today singers and players distinguish metrical and nonmetrical rhythms with the words sun and yao, the former meaning "short", the latter "long". In certain singing forms the two rhythms are distinguished as fum tang sun (metrical) and lum tang yao (nonmetrical), tang meaning "route" or "way". These terms, however, are of recent origin and would not be encountered, for example, in old literature. The terms may have come into use as recently as 1945 when northeastern vocal music reappeared in Bangkok, and the singers used these terms for the benefit of the central Thai. Today in northeast Thailand there are two basic nondramatic singing genres, mawlum pun (figure 12) and mawlum glawn (figure 13). The latter, however, constitutes at least 95 per cent of all such musical activity today, since only four singers of mawlum pun were performing actively in 1974. Mawlum piin reached its apex of popularity more than a generation ago before the rise of mawlum glawn. In lttm pun one singer, normally male, performs extended poetic versions of favorite Jataka, Lao epic tales (nitan pun muang), and stories from Lao history. These require from one to three nights and demand considerable concentration on the part of the audience. Mawlum glawn, on the other hand, features two singers, one male and one female, in competition primarily performing amorous poetry but also poems concerning religion, history, geography, and other didactic matters in a question-andkanswer format. A complete performance of mawlum glawn begins about 9.00 p.m. with one of the two singers introducing himself in lum tang sun and the lum scale (G, A, C, D, E) followed the~ by the oth~r. The pair then continues to alternate asking each other questions, teasmg, attemptmg to impress the other, but using previously memorized poetry whose order is determined according to need.

Lum ta~g ~un continues throughout the night without stopping until near daybreak, by which time for stage purposes the singers have fallen in love and must then part. Lum tang yao, also called !urn lah ('~goodbye") or lum lawng ("to sing along a

MUSICAL TRADITIONS OF NORTHEAST THAILAND

9

river") and sung to the an nungsu scale (A, C, D, E, G), takes only 15 or 20 mim1tes but is the emotional highpoint of the performance. After World War II younger singers began adding a third portion, tum tJ.oi, in which the an nungsu scale is maintained but the rhythm is metrical (sun) and the poetry often light-hearted and even bawdy. Lum ljoi includes three types, goi tumadah ("ordinary") whose melody is generated according to the principles of lum; doi kong (" of the Mekong"); and d.oi pamah (Burmese), the latter two of which use patterned melodies. Singers usually string these together in no particular order while alternating between male and female. Singers are usually classified as either Ubon style or Udon-Khon-Kaen style (from the Provinces of Ubon Ratchathani, or Udon Thani and Khon Kaen). The distinction primarily concerns lum tang sun, for the differences disappear in lum tang yao ancllum ljoi. The most obvious differences are those of subject, for Ubon-style singing inclines more to love poetry called glawn gio ("courting poems") than Udon-Khon-Kaen style whose origin may be traced to the sharply competitive lum jot, a variation of lum glawn, in which questions and answers often involve multisyllabic Pall-Sanskrit words which do not fit readily into Lao poetic patterns. As a result Ubon singing has clearer phrases than Khon-Kaen style. In reality few singers may be classified as pure Ubon or pure Khon-Kaen, for elements of both styles influence most singers today. In terms of popularity, Ubon has tended to dominate Khon-Kaen but there is no shortage of the latter in Roi Et, Maha Sarakham, Khon Kaen and Chaiyaphum Provinces. In addition to lum jot, there are or were other permutations of lum glawn: primarily lum sam sing ching nang ("three lions compete for a girl"), lum sam g/ii ("three professions"), and lum ching choo ("compete for a lover"- perhaps a 'minor wife'). Sam glU features three male singers, a farmer, merchant and government official, discussing politics and other matters. Sam sing ching nang is like sam glii but a female is added for romantic interest. Ching choo is sung by two males and a female, the former two competing for the latter. None of these is very common today. Today there are two basic theatrical forms of the tum type as well as nung tjaloong or nung f2.ra mo tai (the shadow-puppet theatre; see figure 14) which came originally from southern Thailand but in recent years, especially around Roi Et, began to incorporate the more popular styles of northeastern singing. Mawlum moo ("group mawlum"; see figure 15), the more serious of the two, primarily uses tum tang yao though in a more ornate form than found in mawlum glawn. Some forms of mawlum moo, particularly among older troupes from the Khon Kaen area, also use a type of lum tang sun called dun dong ("walking in the forest"), and all troupes sometimes use cjoi hua non [fan, a slow pastoral melody in 6/8 meter. Though mawlum moo popularity began to eclipse that of mawlum glawn during the past 10 years, just as lum glawn had overshadowed lum pun some 25 years earlier, the second theatrical form, mawlum pliin ("spontaneous") is now swiftly overtaking mawlum moo in popularity. The main expression of mawlum p!Un, fum tang sun, is the most energetic of all northeastern styles but shows strong influence from popular music both in its catchy rhythms

10

Terry E. Miller & Jarernchai Chonpairot

and accompaniment which includes a Western drum set ( glawng choot) and ;aritms ot~1er · m · st n Jments · Lum tang sun always follows an abbrevmted Western percuss10n . . · verswn . I of lum tang yao which has become stylized to the pomt that 1t can be mst,mt y recognized as lum pliln. Lao singing is often said to be "improvised", and the implication is that there are hundreds if not thousands of skilled poets performing in the north~ast who com~ose both poetry and song simultaneously every night of their performmg careers. fhe melodies are generated, more or less, from the word tones, t~1o~gh m~ny standn.rd phrases can be isolated; still, it could be said that the melody lS lmprovisetl. Wh1lc highly predictable in general structure, details change from singer to singer and even performance to performance. The poetry, however, is not improvised; it is memorized from written sou~ces. All but the older singers (who long ago memorized their repertory) have notebooks mto which are written by hand the poetry they sing; theatrical troupes similarly play from fully written-out scripts, not scenarios as do /igeh troupes in central Thailand. The only improvised portions might be the jokes spoken by the qua d,alok ("joke man"), a comic character. While this is not 'the place to go into great detail about Lao poetryand the techniques of setting it to melody, a few remarks ought to be made. First, the language is Lao, very close to thllt spoken across the Mekong River, but sometimes different in vocabulary because of local usage and influence from central Thai, the official language of Thailand. Because Lao is no longer taught in schools, ami the writing of Lao using Lao script is little known in the northeast, the dialect has come to be The difficulties are written and printed in a makeshift form using Thai letters. immense, because unless one actually knows Lao, this written form cannot be accurately read. It is inconsistent in regard to consonant clusters, tones and spellings, and furthermore some Thai words are thrown in using correct spelling and meant to be read that way. To make matters even more complicated, tonal inflections vary from province to province in the northeast. There is a way to write northeastern Lao consistently, using Thai letters, but this system is unknown to the poets and mawlum singers who can only read the makeshift system. Obviously there is the requirement that, to be a mawlum singer, one must be literate. The image of the northeastern musician as an uneducated peasant singing 'folksongs' is quite untenable. Thou.gh there is little published material to explain Lao poetry, there is a great In reading the latter studies two factors confuse the deal about Smmese poetry. uninitiat~d. While .c~rtain terms for poetic styles such as glawn and gap are common to both literary traditiOns, they are not actually equivalents, yet the parallel forms have completely different names. The word glawn means not only poetry in general to the L~o, but one .type .of poem in particular, at least in everyday usage. Maha Sila Y1rawong descnbes Six types of glawnl_', but northeastern singers generally speak of only one and refer separately to gap, which is far less important than the former. 11. Maha Sila Viravong, Sunta-luksana ("Versification''), (Vientiane, Laos; l961), pp. 16-22.

11

MUSICAL TRADITIONS OF NORTHEAST THAILAND

Glawn consists of stanzas each having four lines called, in order, wak sa-dup, wak hup, wak hawng and wak song. Each line has seven syllables (feet) divided into two hemistiches, one having three, the other four feet. Whfle most stanzas have four lines, many have only two, beginning either with the first or the third lines. In constructing his lines, however, the poet may affix a variety of adverbial or conjunctive expressions of an exclamatory, interrogative or supplicatory nature before or after the basic seven syllables which complete the thought. Expressions preceding the line are called kum boopabot (prefix) and those following kum soi (suffi.x). In counting syllables these added words are not included, nor are the auxiliary si ("well"), certain unwritten vowels especially in words of Pali origin, or the auxiliary gaw meaning "do" as in "I do have". Furthermore, each phrase of a glawn stanza must obey a pattern of tonal signs (see figure 16). The rules, as summarized by Thao Nhouy, are (a) the third syllable (end of the first hemistich) of the first, third, and fourth lines, and also the last syllable of the second line, must be given the accent to (V); (b) the third syllable of the second line, and also the last syllable of the fourth line, must not have any accent; (c) the last syllable of th'e third line must always be either given the accent ek (') or formed with a consonant of the lower series and a vowel composed with the finals k, d, or pl2, Thao Nhouy neglected to mention that the fifth word of the last line must also have a to accent. , The following stanza is drawn from the Lao epic poem Sung Sin~sai by the poet Bang-kum.IJ

""

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took tee nah

nawng net niiang lai

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f2en f!..ang took

suat Q.aman mee mua

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mae hawt haeng

hui mawy mawt gam

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Everyone's tears are flowing For it is a time of great sorrow. Love floods the mother's heart ; She feels so sad that she would like to die. Alliteration and interior rhyme are integral to glawn, but external rhyme is not. While two and three repetitions of a consonant or vowel are cultivated, four exceed the limits of good taste, though such cacophony may be used for special effect. 12. Thao Nhouy Abhay, Zoe. cit., p. 353. 13. Bang-kum, Sung Sin-sai, ed. Sila Viravong (Vientiane; 1972), p. 61.

Terry E. Miller & Jarernchai Chonpairot

12

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THE SECOND OLDEST KNOWN WRITING IN SIAMESE

67

Translation

[1-4.] Vandetamanujarp s ..... mahantaqJ. ratanattayam., pavakkhami maha-

dana~ su~atha

sadhavo.l 0//0

[4-8.] I raise2 my hands3 to salute the Three Gems, which are more excellent than Indra and B[rahmaJ ....... all the people. [You who are of noble rank] (such as) Khun or Mun Nay4, (as well as) the populaceS, (should) all listen to the Lord Buddha's 6 teaching about earning merit. [8-13.] (We) shall speak about Khun ...... , the ruler of Moari Trok Salop and Je Nun, who has diffused the love of earning merit and (observing the) Dharma. He is a kindly ruler who persuaded nobles, officials, mun nay and the populace, as well as many princesses and princes, to stamp images of the Lord (Buddha) in tin or clay 7, totaling eleven thousand one hundred and eight. [13-21. J (He presented this monastery with) one holy relic, two ..... two ivory images (of the Buddha), as well as silver trays for areca nuts and gold trays for areca nuts, umbrellas and flags, accompanied by the sound of xylophones and the sound of drums, (and other things, such as) bowls of parched rice, flowers, torches, candles, incense, sandalwood and fragrant oil. He bowed down to do homage with the five points 8 , making these offerings in homage to the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha. Then he put ... in a basin .... at an auspicious moment on a 'mon piau' day, the fifteenth [? J day of the waxing moon of the seventh month, in the 'katt mau' year, a year of the hare. [21-29.] From the time they started forming laterite (into blocks to build a cetiya ?) up to the time they covered it with stucco, it took one month. Then he also erected a sala and prepared offerings to give as alms (to the monks). . .. (He gave) one family of slaves to look after the holy (cetiya ?), [one] elephant, [one horse,] one ox, and one buffalo ......... monastic robes for Cau Bay Salop ............. eight hundred and sixty thousand (cowries ?) .............. fifty pillows ............. . areca nuts ....................... . 1. We have regularized the spelling of this Pali passage. If we were to romanize the spelling as given in the inscription, it would read as follows: vanndetamanujaoil s .... mahanna!inirattanattata (ya!"fl pava) kkkhiimi mah'iidananh sunatha (sadha) vo. 2. ~ (line 4) :::: ~fl (!In).

3. ~ (line 4). 4. Khun was a princely title. In the Ayudhyan system, the Mun Nay were the administrators of the population in their assigned territories; it is rather surprising to find the title in use at Bre in the fourteenth century. 5. 1w1t n (line 7) :::: 1w-it n!l. 6. The reading is doubtful and our translation conjectural. 7. I.e. to make votive tablets. 8. I.e. with his forehead, both his hands, and both his knees on th:e ground.

Epigraphic and Historical Studies No. 21 THE SECOND OLDEST KNOWN WRITING IN SIAMESE by

A.B. GRISWOLD AND PRASERT ~A NAGARA Inscription No. 107 is engraved on one face of a slab of greenish stone 28 centimetres (em) wide and 6 em thick; in its present broken condition, the maximum height is 52 em. It was discovered at an unrecorded date in the Subdistrict of Vail Jin in Bre Province. It was presented in 1946 A.D. to the Division of Manuscripts and Inscriptions of the Department of Fine Arts by Bra:\! Garu Atularatanafia!).a of Vat Pari Snuk, the Can Gallah of Van Jin, and is now kept in the Vajirafial;J.a Hall of the old National Library building in Bangkok. A reading by Mr. Prasara Pufi:eragori, with commentary by Prasert \].a Nagara, is published in Prajum Silacarik, IV, page 133 f. For a photograph of the inscription, see op. cit., facing page 134. The text consists of 29 lines of writing. The first three lines, and part of the fourth, are in Pali; the remainder is in Tai. The Sukhodayan script is used throughout. The form of the letters is remarkably similar to that in Rama Gaf\lhen's inscription; but the vowels have their normal position in relation to the consonants. The maihan-akasa does not occur, being replaced by reduplicating the final consonant of the syllable. The vowels "'and""~ are represented by"' or~. The mai-ek occurs only once, as a syllabic indicator, not as a tone marker; and the symbol for the mai-do is lacking. The chief event commemorated in the inscription is dated in the year of the hare, a 'katt mau' year of the Tai cycle, on the fifteenth(?) day of the waxing moon of the . seventh month, a 'moti piau' day in the Tai cycle. The designation of the year is clear and easily legible. The year of the hare, 'katt mau' in the Tai cycle, could mean either C.S. 701 (1339 A.D.), or any year separated from C.S. 701 by a multiple of 60 years. Obviously C.S. 641 (1279 A.D.) will not do, because the Tai script did not come into existence until 1283 A.D. (see JSS 59/2, pp. 191, 196, 201-202 (IV/8-11], 217 [IV/8-11] and note 122). C.S. 761 (1399 A.D.) is very improbable bec~use of the total absence of the mai-han-akasa. We therefore take the year to be C.S. 701=1339 A.D., which the archaic appearance of the script serves to confirm. ~

The day of the month, fflJ .. , is mutilated. As the lacuna is wide enough for just two letters, the obvious reconstruction is 'IA1, 'fifteen'; but in any case the complete number has to be something between ten and fifteen, as the waning moon begins the day after the fifteenth of the waxing. Not one of these dates in the seventh month of C.S. 701 (1339) would be a 'morl. :elau' day in the Tai cycle; but the discrepancy, rather than invalidating our view that the year was really C.S. 701 (1339), must be considered as an example of the disarray of the calendar in the Sukhodaya area before it was reformed by Mahadharmaraja I between 1347 and 1357. 63

64

A.B. Griswold & Prasert

~a

Nagara

The inscription, if we are right in dating it to the year 1339 A.D., is-the second oldest known epigraph in Sukhodayan script, being preceded only by that of R'ama Garphen. The text commemorates a group of benefactions made by Khun ....... (name illegible), the ruler of Moan 1;'rok Salop and Je Nun, which were presumably two moans in what is now the Province of Bre. But the ruler is not the author of the inscription: the latter is evidently a high-ranking monk, perhaps the person named Cau Bay Salop (line 26), who receives a gift of monastic robes from the ruler, and who seems to be the lord abbot of the monastery which is the chief recipient of the ruler's benefactions. The name of this monastery does not appear in the legible portions of the text. The text itself has the form of a short sermon delivered by this monk. It begins with a passage of homage to the Three Gems in Pali, followed by one in Tai, and a general exhortation to persons of all ranks to follow the Buddha's religion and to perform acts of merit. The remainder is a eulogy of the ruler of Moan Trok Salop and Je Nun, beginning with persuading his subjects to fabricate 11,108 votive tablets of tin or clay. It continues with a list of his benefactions to the monastery: gifts of a relic (of the Buddha), images of the Buddha, utensils of silver and gold, then listing various articles connected with the ceremony of presentation, such as umbrellas and flags, musical instruments, parched rice, flowers, torches, candles, incense, sandalwood and fragrant oil. At the stated date, the ruler puts something illegible, doubtless the relic, into a basin, in which we should probably understand that it performs a miracle while he lustrates it. The purpose of the lustration seems to be to prepare the relic for enshrinement in a stucco-covered structure of laterite, presumably a cetiya, which the ruler has b~ilt in the monastery. His other benefactions include building a s~ila, presenting slaves and animals to the monastery, and making other offerings to it.

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66

A.B. Griswold & Prasert I}a Nagara

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THE SECOND OLDEST KNOWN WRITING IN SIAMESE

67

Translation

[1-4.] Vandetamanujarp s ..... mahantaqJ. ratanattayam., pavakkhami maha-

dana~ su~atha

sadhavo.l 0//0

[4-8.] I raise2 my hands3 to salute the Three Gems, which are more excellent than Indra and B[rahmaJ ....... all the people. [You who are of noble rank] (such as) Khun or Mun Nay4, (as well as) the populaceS, (should) all listen to the Lord Buddha's 6 teaching about earning merit. [8-13.] (We) shall speak about Khun ...... , the ruler of Moari Trok Salop and Je Nun, who has diffused the love of earning merit and (observing the) Dharma. He is a kindly ruler who persuaded nobles, officials, mun nay and the populace, as well as many princesses and princes, to stamp images of the Lord (Buddha) in tin or clay 7, totaling eleven thousand one hundred and eight. [13-21. J (He presented this monastery with) one holy relic, two ..... two ivory images (of the Buddha), as well as silver trays for areca nuts and gold trays for areca nuts, umbrellas and flags, accompanied by the sound of xylophones and the sound of drums, (and other things, such as) bowls of parched rice, flowers, torches, candles, incense, sandalwood and fragrant oil. He bowed down to do homage with the five points 8 , making these offerings in homage to the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha. Then he put ... in a basin .... at an auspicious moment on a 'mon piau' day, the fifteenth [? J day of the waxing moon of the seventh month, in the 'katt mau' year, a year of the hare. [21-29.] From the time they started forming laterite (into blocks to build a cetiya ?) up to the time they covered it with stucco, it took one month. Then he also erected a sala and prepared offerings to give as alms (to the monks). . .. (He gave) one family of slaves to look after the holy (cetiya ?), [one] elephant, [one horse,] one ox, and one buffalo ......... monastic robes for Cau Bay Salop ............. eight hundred and sixty thousand (cowries ?) .............. fifty pillows ............. . areca nuts ....................... . 1. We have regularized the spelling of this Pali passage. If we were to romanize the spelling as given in the inscription, it would read as follows: vanndetamanujaoil s .... mahanna!inirattanattata (ya!"fl pava) kkkhiimi mah'iidananh sunatha (sadha) vo. 2. ~ (line 4) :::: ~fl (!In).

3. ~ (line 4). 4. Khun was a princely title. In the Ayudhyan system, the Mun Nay were the administrators of the population in their assigned territories; it is rather surprising to find the title in use at Bre in the fourteenth century. 5. 1w1t n (line 7) :::: 1w-it n!l. 6. The reading is doubtful and our translation conjectural. 7. I.e. to make votive tablets. 8. I.e. with his forehead, both his hands, and both his knees on th:e ground.

Epigraphic and Historical Studies No. 22

AN INSCRIPTION FROM VAT HIN TAN, SUKHODAYA by

A.B. GRISWOLD AND PRASERT

~A NAGARA

Introduction Inscription 95 was discovered at an unstated date in the ruins of Vat Hin Tail in or near the old walled city of Sukhodaya. It is now in the possession of Mr. Upathambha Hlaubairocana at New Sukhodaya. It is engraved on one face of a slab of stone 92 centimetres (em) high, 45 em wide, and 6 em thick. The writing consists of 36 lines of Siamese in the Sukhodayan script. The mai-han-iildisa appears constantly, being placed more or less on top of the final consonant of the syllable rather than in its modern position. The mai-ek occurs sporadically; the mai-do is lacking. A reading of the text by Mr Prasara Punpragon, together with a modernized version by the same author, and annotations by Dr Prasert '!fa Nagara, were published in Silpallara VIII/3 (p. 83 ff.) and have been reprinted in Prajum Siiac'iiri'ka, IV (p. 60 ff.). For a rubbing of the inscription., the reader is referred to the photograph at r~rajllm Si/acari"a, IV, figure 11, facing page 60. The inscription contains no dates, but was presumably composed in the reign of Mahiiclharmaraja III (Sai l~idaiya, r. from about A.D. 1398 to 1419), who proclaimed his independence from Ayudhya in 1400, but was again reduced to vassalage about a decade later. The author is a widow, Lady Min, who has undertaken to devote her declining years to the service of religion. Judging from her title, she is a person of rank, perhaps a princess; but we cannot identify her. The purpose of the text is to commemorate a long series of acts of merit performed by the author during the course of her lifetime. The first of these was in the reign of 'Mahadharmaraja the Grandfather' (i.e. Mahadharmarajii I, J;.,rclaiya, King of Sukhodaya from 1347 to 1370 or a little later). The last one was in the teign of another Mahadharmaraja, who is almost certainly Mahiidharmaraja III.

68

TAN, SUKHODAYA

AN INSCRIPTION FROM VXT HIN

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~ ""9 9 "" v "" 'Vlmti~'l"'t.!e:J-:~JJ A"ilf1'l'li1 ~rte:J\91Wn~mN'JU~t.!u-:~u 1) guti) or short pants (s::>lJ ]::>1) m nkae), and several shirts (silok?) for work, and at least one good pair of pants and a shirt for special occasions. The adult men in Kusmnan wear mostly old-style, homeSome of made shirts and short pants made of cotton and dyed black by their wives. the younger ones like to buy shirts and long pants made in factories in a variety of colors. If the knees wear out on a pair of long pants, a So will cut the legs off at that point and continue to wear them. Pants and shirts will be patched and worn until they disintegrate .. A few farmers still wear the wrap-around sarong called a }iHiy. It reaches from the waist to just above the knees, but a farmer will often wrap it a foot or more above the knees when working in the fields. All the clothes made by So women are made from cotton. Every step, from growing the cotton t4rough dying the material, is done by women using machines made by So men out of wood and bamboo construction materials. This process is described under the section "Subsistence patterns and technology". For footwear, So men and women go barefoot or use rubber sandals imported from Japan. Today very little jewelry is worn by women because of attacks by thieves from non-So villages. But before 1960 the older women would wear large, round earrings and bracelets made from white gold, and the buttons on their shirts were made from Thai coins. Although a chewing-tobacco mixture called fia is enjoyed by adults in Kusuman, it is more popular in the outlying areas, chewed by people of all ages. The ila is 2. Erik Seidenfaden, tr., "Regarding the customs, manners, economics and languages of the Kha (So) and Phutai living in Amphoe Kutchinarai, Changwat Kalasindhu, Menton Roi Et", Journal of the Siam Society, vol. 34 pt. 2 (1943), pp. 145-181.

78

Raymond S. Kania & Siriphan Hatuwong Kania

actually a mixture of six ingredients.

It consists of betel leaves (siHi. palu), areca nut

(panaiJ), bark from the }isiAt tree ( 0 ~okJisfAt), the interior of the qun tree (gaenqun), The procedure for chewing is as follows. First, a small lime (a pui'), and tobacco. piece of gaen qun is placed in the mouth and chewed a while. The 0 !okJislAt is then added. The lime is then placed on the betel leaf and added to the mixture. The areca nut (panaiJ) is chewed neKt. Only the inside can be used on the older nuts, but . the outside and inside of young green nuts can be used. Finally a small amount of tobacco is placed betwee11 the upper lip and teeth and rotated from side to side with the fingers and then left there while chewing the rest of the mixture. This whole process results in a red juice that must be expectorated from time to time. The older, people who no longer have teeth use a mortar and pestle to grind up the ingredients before chewing. Na and cigarettes made from tobacco wrapped in banana leaves are served at social functions in all So-~peaking areas. In Kusuman this includes the wedding reception, the Ja at f and Ja at fdoiJ ceremonies, and at exorcisms conducted by m m the mo yao.

~···

I

Because of marriage between the So of Kusuman and members of different ethnic groups, a variety of physical types can be found here. However, the average So· has physical characteristics very similar to the Lao, and it ·is difficult to distinguish between them. A Thai has certain features which sets him apart, such as a more prominent nose and a narrow, elongated (longer) face. The Yaw, another people living in this area, a!"e larger than the So and have fair skin. Many So are dark-skinned (dark brown to reddish brown) with coarse black hair, although some reddish-brown hair can be found. A few So have naturally curly hair. The women seem to aver~ge. about five feet in height, while the men are· a few inches over five feet. Both men and women are of slender build. They have round faces with short, flat noses, prominent; cheekbones, dark eyes, and rather thick lips. Variations can be found. Siriphan's uncles, aunts, and grandparents on he~ mother's side are all considerably taller, some of the men reaching six feet in height, Their skin is fair and they have rather large, regularly shaped noses like some of the ethnic groups living in the Chiang Mai area. In fact, her grandmother speaks a Laotian: ~ialect found near Chiang Mai. Siriphan stands five feet tall with yellowish skin, almond eyes, prominent cheekbones, coarse black hair, and a small, flat nose. She is quite often mistaken by Vietnamese for one of their own. The So in Kusuman bathe regularly. Water is obtained from: rains or is carriec] several miles ~rom a ~ommunity well, They shower by dipping water from large potte:ty storage contamers w1th a bowl, and pouring it over themselves. Their shampoo is macle, f:om. sticky-rice water. The So prepare sticky rice by placing the desired amount l:lf · rice lU a bowl filled with water and stirring thoroughly. They then let it sit r()l" approximately six hours. All the water is drained off at this time. The rice water i ,;

a..

THE SO PEOPLE OF KOSUMAN

79

used as we would use a shampoo. It is applied liberally and then rinsed off with plain water, two or three times. Sometimes a grapefruit rind is added to the rice water. It is allowed to sit until the preparation takes on the odor of grapefruit.

Housing The houses in Kusuman are built on wooden poles, some five or six feet off the ground, as are most houses in Thailand·. Each So house also has a fence which encloses the yard, and a gate in front. While individual houses vary in size, they are generally small. They are of frame construction with board sidings and gabled roofs. The roofs are made from wood shingles, each shingle being about three feet in length. A few houses have recently been built with tin roofs. A large porch runs the length of one side of the house with an accompanying overhang to provide shade. Two doors are located on the porch side, one at each end of the house. Windows with shutters are placed on the two end walls or on all three remaining sides. The average So house has only one room. A small section of this room is partitioned as a home for the ancestral spirits and as the sleeping quarters of the mother and father. Other areas may also be partitioned off to accommodate other members of the family. Each sleeping area is just large enough to lie down in. Other than a few articles of clothing, essential items such as pots, bowls, sleeping mats, and personal possessions, the house stands bare of fumiture and adornments. There are no toilets in So houses. The So relieve themselves wherever nature calls. Sometimes, during a cold night, a large crack in the floor may suffice, instead of a trip outside. Some So have kitchens located to. the rear of the house and separated from it. A raised woo~en walkway runs from the porch to the kitchen. The kitchen itself is constructed out of lumber. Typically it is approximately six by six feet in area, and four feethigh. There is only one small opening in which to enter. Pots, pans, and other cooking utensils are kept here. Those without kitchens store utensils in the house as well as cook there. Whether cooking in the house or in the kitchen, breathing becomes a bit of a problem due to a lack of adequate ventilation.

Subsistence patterns and technology Rice is the basis of the So diet as well as a source of income. For these reasons rice is used in many of their religious ceremonies such as the :Ja a tf doiJ, the ceremony m for retrieving lost spirits, the wedding ceremony, and the funeral.ceremony. There are also several ~eremonies to the various spirits involved in the rice-growing process (explained under "Religion"). Other than for food and religious purposes, rice is also used in making rice wine and shampoo. The most popular type grown here and throughout northeast Thailand is a glutinous rice. Surpluses are sold and the rest is consumed by the grower's household over the remainder of t~e year.

80

Raymond S. Kania & Siriphan I-latuwong Kania

The So begin planting rice sometime in May, the start of the rainy season, Rice for planting is stored in bamboo baskets (ga ta aplu). The baskets of rice are m allowed to soak in water for two days and nights. The rice basket is then placed in the sun for one day to induce sprouting. Meanwhile, the planting area is being plowed and broken up into fine particles. After the field is leveled off, rice is broadcast over the area. About one month later the rice seedlings are thinned out. Some of them are transferred to other fields. Sometime during October or November the rice is harvested and the grain separated from the stalk. The harvest is stored in a barn; any surplus is usually sold to a dealer. About the time rice is planted, or a little earlier, the So women also plant vegetables and cotton in small plots beside the ricefields. Some of the vegetables grown include Chinese long beans, corn, tomatoes, cantaloupe, okra, potatoes, eggplants, gourds, and peppers. During the rainy season when the ricefields are flooded, women and children can be seen fishing with large nets. Each net is comprised of q long wooden pole and two crossed bamboo poles, each about 4.5 feet in length attached to the end of the long pole, and a net which is fixed to each end of the crossed poles. Held like a flagstaff, the pole is lowered into the canals and raised again, hopefully filled with prawns and small fish, a favorite food of the So. The So also use several kinds of fish-trap baskets constructed of bamboo. These are often used in combination with bamboo weirs placed across small areas of a stream. The women During the winter and spring the So become hunter-gatherers. and older children gather most of the plants, grasses, and insects at this time, and as time permits, throughout the rest of the year. The men hunt what animals that can be found, such as rabbits, birds, and lizards. But even these are becoming scarce. A wide variety of wild game used to roam this part of Thailand. Around the first part of this century the quantity was enough to meet the needs of the people. They included deer, bear, pigs, and game birds. H~wever, unrestricted hunting has wiped out every popular species. There is no need for game laws here since there i.s nothing left to protect. The So hunter has several weapons at his disposal. Some of these he makes himself, like the bow and arrow, crossbow, and a blowgun made from bamboo, which fires a bamboo dart. A few also use rifles and slingshots. For frogs and crabs a long pole (ga no!) is used. It is very slender with a small hook on the end. When a hole is found, the pole is pushed in and withdrawn. If moisture is on the pole there is a good chance a frog is inside, so the hunter will try to hook the frog and pull it out Crabs are taken in the same way. Frogs ~re also taken with a specially constructed bamboo basket trap (tom). A good hunter can tell what kind of prey is in the hole. This is a valuable skill because quite often cobras are found in these places. A few So kill cobras and make soup from them.'

THE SO PEOPLE OF KUSUMAN

81

Because of the scarcity of game the So have turned to other items to supplement their diet. It can be said that the So will try anything as a food source. In addition to the frog and cobra, they also eat other varieties of snake, the red ant, grasshopper, praying mantis, spider, rat, dog, cat, various bugs, cooked chicken blood, and raw cow blood. The So also keep some animals. Buffalo are used for work, such as plowing or pulling carts. A few also raise buffaloes for sale at home and in the more productive rice-growing areas of Thailand. Other animals which are raised for food include chickens, ducks, geese, and hogs. They fell trees using two-man saws, Some So families do their own logging. and then make boards and shingles with other special saws. Men and women and, in rare cases, children as young as seven, help perform these tasks. A few men skilled in carpentry construct houses for others. Since the demand for this service is very limited, no one engages in this line of work as a full-time occupation.

Making bulls sterile When a bull is to be made sterile, he is led by a rope to an open area. There his front legs are tied tog~ther, and also his hind legs. After the bull falls over, a large wooden pole is inserted between his hind legs. This pole is extended over the hull's shoulder and outward for several feet, and two or three men apply leverage in order to keep the bull from thrashing about too much during the operation. After the bull has thus been secured, two narrow rectangular boards, each about 18 inches long with a hole in the middle, are placed on his testicles, one on a side with each hole over a testicle. The boards are placed as close to his body as possible, and tied tightly. A man then places a wooded chisel above the visible testicle where the vas deferens is located. He strikes the chisel with a hammer in order to break the vessel. This striking continues for 20-30 minutes. The boards are removed and a black dye is applied to the injured area. Some dye is also applied to his legs after the ropes have been removed, in order, to prevent the rope burns from becoming infected. The bull is thus effectively sterilized. From bartering to selling Bartering was the primary means of commerce for the So and other people of this area until the late 1950s. A gradual change began taking place until today practically all transactions involve cash. This change might be attributed partly to the influence of the Vietnamese, who came to Kusuman in the 'early 1950s as refugees from the French-Indochinese war. They started out with very little, but being shrewd businessmen, it wasn't long before they became Kusuman's wealthiest Citizens. Whereas the So would trade his rice for products he wanted, and sometimes even gave away rice if he had a surplus, the Vietnamese would obtain rice from the So by trading, and sell it to a dealer, making a nice profit. Practically all the shops in Kusuman used to be run by Vietnamese and a few Chinese.

82 The Vietnamese con~idcrnl lite ,I.}Jt Vietnamese would !-~peak w a ~\las a JHa"Jit•r

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Sentence structure a11d grammar The basic sentence structure in So consists of subject nnd verb. If an object is included, it follows the verb. F'Rok" This is a story passed clown among the Sc1 which i~ u~cd don't have a writte11language.

w cl(piain why they

It seems a long time agel the So people had u king tHunetl Ayp,ttk. He wu a man of considerable intelligence und one day he decided 1u develop an alph~1bet for the So language. After a period of time he flnished hill project and wrnte ih~: rc:~ult!l on a buffaloskin. The king wanted to teuch hill pe yao during exorcisms; also used for entertainment.

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THE SO PEOPLE OF KUSUMAN, NORTHEASTERN THAILAND by RAYMOND S. KANIA, AND .SIRIPHAN HA TUWONG KANIA

Forew01·d This ethnographical account of the So people of Thailand embodies material collected primarily in interviews with my wife, Siriphan Hatuwoilg Kania, a So who was born in Kusuman, Sakon Nakhon Province in 1951, and who lived there until August · 1973 except for a period of employment in Bangkok from about 1966 to 1970. Some of the material is based on observations which I made during the almost two years I spent in northeastern Thailand, which included several visits to the village of Kusuman. The information presented here describes the So and their activities at that time, except as noted otherwise. With regard to recent changes in Kusuman, I have suggested probable causes, based on material supplied by Siriphan . . The report is divided into sections describing the physical setting of the So in Kusuman, subsistence patterns and technology, the So life cycle, the family and relations with others, religious practices, and language, with a synopsis of So folktales. The concluding section speculates on the forces influencing the gradual disintegration of So cultural identity. I have appended a key to pronunciation of the So spoken language, with a tentative phonology based on the International Phonetic Alphabet; with my wife's help, I hope to produce a So-English dictionary in the near future. Finally, my wife and I have added our sketches of a representative. selection of So musical instruments and basketry, together with brief notes explaining their particular construction and uses. I was stationed at the Royal Thai Air Force Base near the provincial capital of Nakhon Phanom, from April1972 until February 1974, as a member of the United States Air Force Security Service. Nakhon Phanom is a town of about 35,000 people located in northeastern Thailand by the Mekong RiveJ', which separates Thailand from Laos. I was .an intupreter/translator for a South Vietnamese army unit attached to our squadron. I spent some of my free time studying the Thai language at the University of Maryland branch located on base. I met Siriphan about one year after I arrived at Nakhon Phanom. Sompit, a young Thai man who took care of our quarters, introduced us. Siriphan was a good friend of Sompit's wife. After a brief courtship we were married, and subsequently left Thailand for California where! received my discharge from the US Air Force in August 1974. 74

THE SO PEOPLE OF KUSUMAN

75

While in California I decided to research information on the So people because of my interest in Asian cultures. I discovered that very little was known about them. The only material I was able to locate consisted of a few pages written by a Thai official some 55 to 60 years ago, translated into English by Maj. Erik Seidenfaden about 20 years later (see footnote 2). That report concerned the So who lived in Kuchinarai District, Kalasin Province. As far as I can determine, no work has been done with the So living in Kusuman District or the village of Kusuman. Since the So of that area are being assimilated at an ever faster pace into the Thai culture, my wife and I decided to set down as much information about them as we could. The preparation of this report was assisted by Dr. Allyn Stearman, an anUnder her thropologist at Florida Technological University in Orlando, Florida. direction I completed an independent studies course during the summer of I977, which A has made it possible for me to bring the material together in its present form. much more detailed report could have been presented if I had spent a year or two in Kusuman recording firsthand observations in situ, and if I had been trained in anthropological research. However, I believe that I have been able to assemble, with much assistance from Siriphan, an accurate picture of the So people of Kusuman. Raymo1td S. Kania 6480 Savannah Place Orlando, Florida 32807, USA

The physical setting Land and climate The So village of Kusuman is located in the northeastern part of Thailand, in Kusuman District of Sakhon Nakhon Province, approximately equidistant (35 kilometers) between the two provincial capitals of Sakhon Nakhon and Nakhon Phanom. Nakhon Phanom, to the southeast of Kusuman, is situated on the west bank of the Mekong River directly opposite Thakek, Laos. Kusuman lies on the Khorat Plateau, a fairly flat region with a few hilly areas in its eastern parts. There are large areas of trees, but without the thick undergrowth that one finds in jungle areas. The soil is of a sandy ' loam type, lacking in the nutrients necessary for high crop yields. There are two distinct seasons: a dry season whicl{ begins around the latter part of September and lasts until the first part of May, and the wet, or monsoon, season which lasts from May through September. During the dry season, the area may experience as many as eight months without a single drop of rain. The. land becomes dry

76

Raymond S. Kania & Siriphan Hatuwong Kania

and cracked and villagers must walk many miles just to obtain drinking water. During the winter months (December and January) the temperature has dropped as low as 29·p as the result of a cold air mass moving down from China. During the month of February, however, it may reach 105'F. The summer southwest monsoon may produce as much as 150 inches of rain in a four-month period, or an amount far below this total. The poor soil conditions and an uncertain rainy season make the northeast part of Thailand the most economically deprived area of the country. The region where Kusuman is located is fairly level, with evergreen forests and grass cover. The trees· are not large for the most part, but there are old trees of rather large diameter to be found in Kusuman and the surrounding villages. Bamboo and various small plants and bushes can also be found here. Some low areas experience a healthy increase in vegetation during the rainy season. Several seasonal 'streams are found on either side of Kusuman, which cross the highway that runs from Nakhon Phanom southwest to Sakon Nakhon. During the summer monsoon villagers with nets and various basket traps try to extract as many fish and prawns as possible.

The people Not much is known about the history of the So people (or Tro as the So call themselves) for they have no written language. The little that is remembered has been handed down by word of mouth. As for the So in Kusuman and nearby villages, they are believed to be "immigrants who crossed the Mekong from the mountains of Laos"l at some indefinite period in the past. Sakon Nakhon and Nakhon Phanom Provinces are the two areas in Thailand where So can be found in significant numbers. Although no census data are available, probably about 5,000 to 7,000 people who use So as their first language reside in these provinces. One of the largest concentrations of So can be found in the village of Kusuman. Possibly because of external influences brought about by the existence of the highway which runs through Kusuman, there are some variations in behavior of the people who live here and those who reside in some of the more· isolated villages. A. dirt road runs through most of these villages, but traffic consists mostly of an occasional pickup truck which makes up the taxi system. Siriphan, who has relatives in some of these villages, says that the people in these areas, with the exception of Na Piang ·village, speak a "pure" So dialect, and that they speak in a rough and impolite manner. Those So who live in Na Piang speak a mixture of So, Dtree, and Laotian. According to Siriphan, the So in these outlying villages are also poor housekeepers, with items scattered throughout a dirty interior in no particular order. Similar observations about 1. Frank J. Moore, Thailand (New Haven, HRAF Press, 1974), p. 73.

THE SO PEOPLE OF KUSUMAN

77

the So who lived in Kuchinarai Dis.trict were noted some 60 years ago, and later translated by Major E. Seidenfaden.2 Another difference between Kusuman and the other villages is the style of dress. Practically all of the women in Kusuman presently cover their breasts with a shirt, bra, or a full-length, wrap-around dress cJikat). But the married women in the smaller, more isolated villages, who have previously nursed babies, go about uncovered. The turban (pt;.e g[An plA) also tends to be worn more often by married men and women of the smaller villages. So women wear black-colored cotton material (usually homemade) that is wrapped around the body, with the excess tucked in at the top. This wrap-around garment, the ]ikat, is worn from the waist to just above the ankles. For taking showers it is worn from just under the armpits to somewhere above the knees. Today the women in Kusuman wear a shirt (sil6k?) with it, but occasionally one may see an older woman without the top. Most women in Kusuman have several everyday }ikat and si16k?, and at least one outfit for ceremonies and parties. So men have several pair of long pants (SOIJ 1::>1) guti) or short pants (s::>lJ ]::>1) m nkae), and several shirts (silok?) for work, and at least one good pair of pants and a shirt for special occasions. The adult men in Kusmnan wear mostly old-style, homeSome of made shirts and short pants made of cotton and dyed black by their wives. the younger ones like to buy shirts and long pants made in factories in a variety of colors. If the knees wear out on a pair of long pants, a So will cut the legs off at that point and continue to wear them. Pants and shirts will be patched and worn until they disintegrate .. A few farmers still wear the wrap-around sarong called a }iHiy. It reaches from the waist to just above the knees, but a farmer will often wrap it a foot or more above the knees when working in the fields. All the clothes made by So women are made from cotton. Every step, from growing the cotton t4rough dying the material, is done by women using machines made by So men out of wood and bamboo construction materials. This process is described under the section "Subsistence patterns and technology". For footwear, So men and women go barefoot or use rubber sandals imported from Japan. Today very little jewelry is worn by women because of attacks by thieves from non-So villages. But before 1960 the older women would wear large, round earrings and bracelets made from white gold, and the buttons on their shirts were made from Thai coins. Although a chewing-tobacco mixture called fia is enjoyed by adults in Kusuman, it is more popular in the outlying areas, chewed by people of all ages. The ila is 2. Erik Seidenfaden, tr., "Regarding the customs, manners, economics and languages of the Kha (So) and Phutai living in Amphoe Kutchinarai, Changwat Kalasindhu, Menton Roi Et", Journal of the Siam Society, vol. 34 pt. 2 (1943), pp. 145-181.

78

Raymond S. Kania & Siriphan Hatuwong Kania

actually a mixture of six ingredients.

It consists of betel leaves (siHi. palu), areca nut

(panaiJ), bark from the }isiAt tree ( 0 ~okJisfAt), the interior of the qun tree (gaenqun), The procedure for chewing is as follows. First, a small lime (a pui'), and tobacco. piece of gaen qun is placed in the mouth and chewed a while. The 0 !okJislAt is then added. The lime is then placed on the betel leaf and added to the mixture. The areca nut (panaiJ) is chewed neKt. Only the inside can be used on the older nuts, but . the outside and inside of young green nuts can be used. Finally a small amount of tobacco is placed betwee11 the upper lip and teeth and rotated from side to side with the fingers and then left there while chewing the rest of the mixture. This whole process results in a red juice that must be expectorated from time to time. The older, people who no longer have teeth use a mortar and pestle to grind up the ingredients before chewing. Na and cigarettes made from tobacco wrapped in banana leaves are served at social functions in all So-~peaking areas. In Kusuman this includes the wedding reception, the Ja at f and Ja at fdoiJ ceremonies, and at exorcisms conducted by m m the mo yao.

~···

I

Because of marriage between the So of Kusuman and members of different ethnic groups, a variety of physical types can be found here. However, the average So· has physical characteristics very similar to the Lao, and it ·is difficult to distinguish between them. A Thai has certain features which sets him apart, such as a more prominent nose and a narrow, elongated (longer) face. The Yaw, another people living in this area, a!"e larger than the So and have fair skin. Many So are dark-skinned (dark brown to reddish brown) with coarse black hair, although some reddish-brown hair can be found. A few So have naturally curly hair. The women seem to aver~ge. about five feet in height, while the men are· a few inches over five feet. Both men and women are of slender build. They have round faces with short, flat noses, prominent; cheekbones, dark eyes, and rather thick lips. Variations can be found. Siriphan's uncles, aunts, and grandparents on he~ mother's side are all considerably taller, some of the men reaching six feet in height, Their skin is fair and they have rather large, regularly shaped noses like some of the ethnic groups living in the Chiang Mai area. In fact, her grandmother speaks a Laotian: ~ialect found near Chiang Mai. Siriphan stands five feet tall with yellowish skin, almond eyes, prominent cheekbones, coarse black hair, and a small, flat nose. She is quite often mistaken by Vietnamese for one of their own. The So in Kusuman bathe regularly. Water is obtained from: rains or is carriec] several miles ~rom a ~ommunity well, They shower by dipping water from large potte:ty storage contamers w1th a bowl, and pouring it over themselves. Their shampoo is macle, f:om. sticky-rice water. The So prepare sticky rice by placing the desired amount l:lf · rice lU a bowl filled with water and stirring thoroughly. They then let it sit r()l" approximately six hours. All the water is drained off at this time. The rice water i ,;

a..

THE SO PEOPLE OF KOSUMAN

79

used as we would use a shampoo. It is applied liberally and then rinsed off with plain water, two or three times. Sometimes a grapefruit rind is added to the rice water. It is allowed to sit until the preparation takes on the odor of grapefruit.

Housing The houses in Kusuman are built on wooden poles, some five or six feet off the ground, as are most houses in Thailand·. Each So house also has a fence which encloses the yard, and a gate in front. While individual houses vary in size, they are generally small. They are of frame construction with board sidings and gabled roofs. The roofs are made from wood shingles, each shingle being about three feet in length. A few houses have recently been built with tin roofs. A large porch runs the length of one side of the house with an accompanying overhang to provide shade. Two doors are located on the porch side, one at each end of the house. Windows with shutters are placed on the two end walls or on all three remaining sides. The average So house has only one room. A small section of this room is partitioned as a home for the ancestral spirits and as the sleeping quarters of the mother and father. Other areas may also be partitioned off to accommodate other members of the family. Each sleeping area is just large enough to lie down in. Other than a few articles of clothing, essential items such as pots, bowls, sleeping mats, and personal possessions, the house stands bare of fumiture and adornments. There are no toilets in So houses. The So relieve themselves wherever nature calls. Sometimes, during a cold night, a large crack in the floor may suffice, instead of a trip outside. Some So have kitchens located to. the rear of the house and separated from it. A raised woo~en walkway runs from the porch to the kitchen. The kitchen itself is constructed out of lumber. Typically it is approximately six by six feet in area, and four feethigh. There is only one small opening in which to enter. Pots, pans, and other cooking utensils are kept here. Those without kitchens store utensils in the house as well as cook there. Whether cooking in the house or in the kitchen, breathing becomes a bit of a problem due to a lack of adequate ventilation.

Subsistence patterns and technology Rice is the basis of the So diet as well as a source of income. For these reasons rice is used in many of their religious ceremonies such as the :Ja a tf doiJ, the ceremony m for retrieving lost spirits, the wedding ceremony, and the funeral.ceremony. There are also several ~eremonies to the various spirits involved in the rice-growing process (explained under "Religion"). Other than for food and religious purposes, rice is also used in making rice wine and shampoo. The most popular type grown here and throughout northeast Thailand is a glutinous rice. Surpluses are sold and the rest is consumed by the grower's household over the remainder of t~e year.

80

Raymond S. Kania & Siriphan I-latuwong Kania

The So begin planting rice sometime in May, the start of the rainy season, Rice for planting is stored in bamboo baskets (ga ta aplu). The baskets of rice are m allowed to soak in water for two days and nights. The rice basket is then placed in the sun for one day to induce sprouting. Meanwhile, the planting area is being plowed and broken up into fine particles. After the field is leveled off, rice is broadcast over the area. About one month later the rice seedlings are thinned out. Some of them are transferred to other fields. Sometime during October or November the rice is harvested and the grain separated from the stalk. The harvest is stored in a barn; any surplus is usually sold to a dealer. About the time rice is planted, or a little earlier, the So women also plant vegetables and cotton in small plots beside the ricefields. Some of the vegetables grown include Chinese long beans, corn, tomatoes, cantaloupe, okra, potatoes, eggplants, gourds, and peppers. During the rainy season when the ricefields are flooded, women and children can be seen fishing with large nets. Each net is comprised of q long wooden pole and two crossed bamboo poles, each about 4.5 feet in length attached to the end of the long pole, and a net which is fixed to each end of the crossed poles. Held like a flagstaff, the pole is lowered into the canals and raised again, hopefully filled with prawns and small fish, a favorite food of the So. The So also use several kinds of fish-trap baskets constructed of bamboo. These are often used in combination with bamboo weirs placed across small areas of a stream. The women During the winter and spring the So become hunter-gatherers. and older children gather most of the plants, grasses, and insects at this time, and as time permits, throughout the rest of the year. The men hunt what animals that can be found, such as rabbits, birds, and lizards. But even these are becoming scarce. A wide variety of wild game used to roam this part of Thailand. Around the first part of this century the quantity was enough to meet the needs of the people. They included deer, bear, pigs, and game birds. H~wever, unrestricted hunting has wiped out every popular species. There is no need for game laws here since there i.s nothing left to protect. The So hunter has several weapons at his disposal. Some of these he makes himself, like the bow and arrow, crossbow, and a blowgun made from bamboo, which fires a bamboo dart. A few also use rifles and slingshots. For frogs and crabs a long pole (ga no!) is used. It is very slender with a small hook on the end. When a hole is found, the pole is pushed in and withdrawn. If moisture is on the pole there is a good chance a frog is inside, so the hunter will try to hook the frog and pull it out Crabs are taken in the same way. Frogs ~re also taken with a specially constructed bamboo basket trap (tom). A good hunter can tell what kind of prey is in the hole. This is a valuable skill because quite often cobras are found in these places. A few So kill cobras and make soup from them.'

THE SO PEOPLE OF KUSUMAN

81

Because of the scarcity of game the So have turned to other items to supplement their diet. It can be said that the So will try anything as a food source. In addition to the frog and cobra, they also eat other varieties of snake, the red ant, grasshopper, praying mantis, spider, rat, dog, cat, various bugs, cooked chicken blood, and raw cow blood. The So also keep some animals. Buffalo are used for work, such as plowing or pulling carts. A few also raise buffaloes for sale at home and in the more productive rice-growing areas of Thailand. Other animals which are raised for food include chickens, ducks, geese, and hogs. They fell trees using two-man saws, Some So families do their own logging. and then make boards and shingles with other special saws. Men and women and, in rare cases, children as young as seven, help perform these tasks. A few men skilled in carpentry construct houses for others. Since the demand for this service is very limited, no one engages in this line of work as a full-time occupation.

Making bulls sterile When a bull is to be made sterile, he is led by a rope to an open area. There his front legs are tied tog~ther, and also his hind legs. After the bull falls over, a large wooden pole is inserted between his hind legs. This pole is extended over the hull's shoulder and outward for several feet, and two or three men apply leverage in order to keep the bull from thrashing about too much during the operation. After the bull has thus been secured, two narrow rectangular boards, each about 18 inches long with a hole in the middle, are placed on his testicles, one on a side with each hole over a testicle. The boards are placed as close to his body as possible, and tied tightly. A man then places a wooded chisel above the visible testicle where the vas deferens is located. He strikes the chisel with a hammer in order to break the vessel. This striking continues for 20-30 minutes. The boards are removed and a black dye is applied to the injured area. Some dye is also applied to his legs after the ropes have been removed, in order, to prevent the rope burns from becoming infected. The bull is thus effectively sterilized. From bartering to selling Bartering was the primary means of commerce for the So and other people of this area until the late 1950s. A gradual change began taking place until today practically all transactions involve cash. This change might be attributed partly to the influence of the Vietnamese, who came to Kusuman in the 'early 1950s as refugees from the French-Indochinese war. They started out with very little, but being shrewd businessmen, it wasn't long before they became Kusuman's wealthiest Citizens. Whereas the So would trade his rice for products he wanted, and sometimes even gave away rice if he had a surplus, the Vietnamese would obtain rice from the So by trading, and sell it to a dealer, making a nice profit. Practically all the shops in Kusuman used to be run by Vietnamese and a few Chinese.

82 The Vietnamese con~idcrnl lite ,I.}Jt Vietnamese would !-~peak w a ~\las a JHa"Jit•r

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f iu tho• 11wr~ctly is then transferred to a foot-operated loom (plim), und the weaving begins.

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hu " bamhuu ned~ ~~ hll%'"• "n'! cilhce· two ur lhrcc !!>Hint~!~. Thld bow ill nu~.>l~:~ Juhl h,rm hnm '* hoa.1.1·~ tnt! kin•! l*f 111kin, u~~mll!" t:c~llmttmthcrwis.e their meanings are IOI!It. sound must be pronounced,

Sentence structure a11d grammar The basic sentence structure in So consists of subject nnd verb. If an object is included, it follows the verb. F'Rok" This is a story passed clown among the Sc1 which i~ u~cd don't have a writte11language.

w cl(piain why they

It seems a long time agel the So people had u king tHunetl Ayp,ttk. He wu a man of considerable intelligence und one day he decided 1u develop an alph~1bet for the So language. After a period of time he flnished hill project and wrnte ih~: rc:~ult!l on a buffaloskin. The king wanted to teuch hill pe yao during exorcisms; also used for entertainment.

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Figure 23. (;t) .11 gAi'; from a tree trunk, not very deep and of varying diameter; covcn:J with buthlu or cmvhidc. !h) uluw yao, a~ well as for entertainment. It accompanies a wind or string instrument at sncinl functions.

THE CONCEPTS OF PO\VER AND MORAL GOODNE.,fiS lN THE CONTE!'vlPORARY THAI WORLDVIEW by NifU¥S MULlmR •

Worldviem ue dili:l:ripti\'C ihe41nie1l th:H ~nrc hJ Cltphlin how life on earth is organized and hmv it relnla::~ h::» 10n:l.t g,oncrli! principle8. Morst often they arc of a highly symbolic nawre •mJ in religion; ltw)melime:J~ th;ey are speculative and embodied in metz.1phy11i~:.~; MHtletime:li thiS~' are political :md emtxxlicd in n political ideology; and certain modem nro C''l:fl \JfUp~d ttl be !!Cieruific. Whatever the case may be, they ~m: !»f ht:~w life in i111 au::tu:~lity can he comprehended, and are as such model:~~ uf ;:uc the l>f"11ducu of' lhe refie fim•ter:~, the spirit fl.nwcr suhmdll and a donation to the Erawan hospital foundation; fem.;lle 11piril! {caw mtle) luB•e 11 rnr a llpe·.:ific purp>(tte, and of rehnively 11bort duration. Moreover, such contracts are never fully r"'liabh.:. The power11 bnvo t,, r1.1~:u:t to a ~orrect ceremony. and thtlOO ceremonies nre well known. When a eturcct rain-maldns ceremony luu; been given, rain should follow. If rai.n does not fall, the ceremony m1y b~ repeated and carefully checked in order to verify it11 ritual corre(llftcl'lll. If rnin i11 11till not forthcoming, or whatever wish not fulfilled, then it may he !IIUPpt~d thnt '''her, nmre pt)werful cnuse!l are thwarting the contract. Perhap'll thC~ pnw1.1r 1ddre~d hu11 boon irumlted by c:tther behuviour and cannot respond, (lr other ptlwer!l rMy thwart the m:hemo, whether elf a supernatural or a plain, natur11l characl~r. Basioolly. tho sahll powers roact to prefl.entation, such as right ceremony, proper words, appropriate movomenu• ".nd formulae. The contracts are mechanical and people know how to perform their side of' the contract. In the manipulative contracts, power is never seen as being located in man himself, but in his knowledge of the correct form that make~ sakslt power respond. These saksft powers may therefore be considered to he dc>mcstie:ated: people have clear ideas how to handle them, are intimate with their behaviour, and in this sense they are reliable a11d predic~ table. The same predictability i11 expected of tbe human counterparts of the contract. When the blessing of a saksit power has boon !Klught again.st a promise; that power may become very irritated and dangerous if the vow is not redeemed in the correct manner and according to the terms of contract. In s:uoh cues protective power turns vengeful and will punish negligent behaviour.

116

Niol.s Mulder

Insult to saksit power is by no means sinful (baab), but merely stupid. One does not llctivate the moral force of karma by not living up to n businesslike contract, but in the manner of a civil lawsuit the problem will be settled between parties. In relntion to these saksil powers, we could observe that to stick to the terms of contract will he beneficial, while the stupidity of not doing !!Cl will result in revenge, disaster, shame and loss of fac.e. Saksit powers are highly sensitive abut their power, rank, und prestige, easily insulted, yet also cusy to satisfy by the show of respect, an offer, or a bribe. Summarizing, we find that the concept of sakslt pi)wer has the following characteristics. The human life situation is surrounded, encompassed as it were, by a realm of nature and supcrnuture in which power is veste.d. Humans need that power for protection, for blessing, for safety and auspiciousness, and for success in their personnl and communal pursuits. In places such as loca.lities, !lhrines, and amulets power is concentrated. By knt>wing the way, such as the use of rituals, ceremonies, or incantations, these powers can be made to work for the needs of the human supplicants. Consequently, these powers may be considered to be domesticated. Interestingly, these powers are thought to react to outward manipulation and the shcnv cJf respect, irrespective of intentions. Contracts with saksll powers are defined by their purpose, have a relntively short time perspective, and need to he periodically renewed. Saksil powers are p(>tentially benevolent and protective, but can be dangerous, je1~lous and vengeful if they do not receive their due. Another charactoristic of diffuse or concentrated saksit power is that it does not appear to derive from a centre or an ultimate source of Iegilimatiun. It derives from the fact that there is power, and in its concentrated forms it is just there with a sort of natural right of being there, to exercise its rule, and to dernand offerings and respect. These powers represent the tenuous order outside the horne or community; they are jeulous of other powers, and never fully reliable; they nre highhanded minor or major potentates that need to be respected and bribed to be g()od. In spite of these churacteristics, humans feel the need to depend on them and seek their favour for their activities in the outside world, To do so, they need to initiate the action. Basicully, saksit pc)wer is amoral, because it does not ask for intentions and protects the good and the wicked alike. lt is unprincipled and reacts to mechanical manipulation nnd the outward show of respect. It is not concerned with right or wrong, or with the development of moral goodness. Contracts with saksit power are guided by their own businesslike logic, and there is no higher moral principle that guides these. Moreover, these contracts are never fully reliable. If insulted, sakslt power may turn dangerous and seek revenge, but its revenge is escapable if its subject places himself under the protection of other, more powerful saksit agents, takes refuge in the monkhood, or simply moves out of their sphere of influence. Therefore, to take advantage of saksit power, for instance, by not redeeming a vow, is not perceived to be sinful or to activate the moral law of karma. ln such cases one merely exposes oneself to revenge, which is stupid and may cause loss of face.

111 (b)

Nondr:mr.f!tlit:olt1'4f

Next {() the f~inn~l"!! dtlH iiU\1: we find tha inautpi* cious, wicked :and evil puwcrllllut !he r tl.nd MArc the cnrriers of b•td luck. These bad 11piritlii, ~a~> «bey C~ii:c~&J:~>c from lhc .\ii~Clu:rne of the predictable and i!U'C u:• act n:uhcr tluut ~~' wait until properly and c·erem,mi.nlly A~> w lhc prcdi~:tilllble dome:fltit1ilted powers, they rather reflll:tmblc ahe p.nli'cr of" cnmin.oAI (1f 11 aruublemd:er. Before they can be inc.apa-ciuuoo anJ well }uavt'l dom: !Klmo harm, having caused illneu, deauh, They ~m only be dealt with through strong 'IMJdt kl~a1uhao «l.f 1he Huddhit>t um:mk: c•r the spirit doctor. Thill hm.er I he !ipirit, umd then domel!sticati.ng it in a pot, or ch;u>ing it ,~&Will)' l'i!lll'lnHm.J C