Tai Peoples and Theirs Languages: A Preliminary ... - Khamkoo

might go the deplorable way of Ahom, since the younger generation sees less and less
relevance in remaining Tai amidst the Assamese culture. 5
In Burma, the Shans, the Tai-speaking peoples of the Shan State retain their
rigorous culture and the use of their language. The Shan State lies in the central-eastern
half of the Union of Burma. 6 To the east its borders touch China, Laos, and Thailand. An
important Shan kingdom called the Tai Mau existed on the bank of the river Mau (the
present-day Shweli) during the seventh century A.D., and during the thirteenth century
there occurred a large-scale Shan immigration from the east into the present-day Shan
State. By the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, they were the chief rivals of the Burmese
in the contest for supremacy throughout Burma. At present only the Shan State and the
Karen State from time to time have been raising the question of secession from the Union
of Burma 7 . Regarding demography, according to the 1931 census 8 , 1,037,406 Tai Shan
were listed. One recent official reference gives the recent Shan population as 3.7 millions
out of a total national population of 35.3 million. Shan is used as one of the lingua franca
in the Shan State along side of Burmese and Jingphaw. The other two Tai-speaking
communities of Burma are the Tai Lü and the Tai Khün.
The Tai Lü concentration is in Southern Yunnan in the People’s Republic of
China. The Lü country in that area, traditionally known as Sip Song Pan Na (literally
meaning or translated: the land of twelve thousand rice fields), occupies more than 6,000
square miles in the southern most part of Yunnan. From there the Lü spilled into Burma,
Thailand, Laos and northern Vietnam. The Chinese refers to the Lü as Shui (Water) Pai-I
because the Lü’s habitation is usually in lowland valleys near rivers. But the term Pai-I is
generic: the Chinese does not classify the Tai people in terms of language; under the
grouping Pai-I, we can find the Tai Lü as well as the Tai Nua and the Tai Shan. This may
be the reason why we have a higher estimation of the number of the Lü in earlier works.
The scholar-missionary W.C. Dodd, in 1923 9 , estimated that there were 350,000 Lü in
Yunan and an additional 50,000 in Kengtung (Burma) and Laos. The Lü in Laos,
according to P.B. Lafont 10 , totalled 16,000. In the 1960’, the Lü in Laos were numerous in
western Phong Saly and also in northern and western Haut Mekong, and there were Lü
villages along the Nam Tha and Nam Beng as well as in the vicinity of Luang Prabang.
The situation after 1975 prevents us from specifying the locations as well as the exact
number of the various Tai-speaking people in Laos and Vietnam at this moment.
However, the number of the Lü in Vietnam was negligible; they were scattered along the
5 Banchob Bandhumedha Kalemantai [Visiting a Thai Village], Bangkok, Language and Book
Society, p.364 (in Thai).
6 The name was changed to the Union of Myanma in June 1989.
7 Josef Silverstein “Politics in the Shan State The Question of Secession from the Union of
Burma” The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. XVIII, No.1, Nov. 1958, p.44.
8 The 1931 Census of India.
9 The Tai Race, Cedar Rapids, Torch Press, p. 185.
10 “Les écritures’ tay du Laos”, BEFEO, vol.50, 1962, p. 370.
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