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Trade and Traders: Local Becomes National

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2011

Niti Pawakapan
Niti Pawakapan
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore
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Extract

Growing inter-regional trade has created closer ties between a remote.Thai market town near the Burma-Thailand border and the central region of Thailand. With more outside traders — armed with new kinds of goods — coming to trade, the central region, Bangkok in particular, is no longer a strange, faraway land, and Central Thai, which is used in trade, has become a familiar language in the town. Such new economic activities are thus a crucial factor in national integration, and help strengthen the ideology of the modern Thai nation.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , September 2000 , pp. 374 - 389
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 2000

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References

1 Although the term “Tai” has several different meanings, in this article, unless otherwise specified, it will refer to the Shan people, since that is how they designate themselves. They are called Ngiaw by the Kon Müang, but that name is considered offensive to them.

2 The economic crisis of July 1997 caused a slowdown in Khun Yuam businesses. The crisis seems to have affected the owners of big stores less than those who run smaller shops.

3 In Khun Yuam both men and women are involved in trade and business. Shops are normally run by both spouses — or to be precise, by all adults in the family. If one of the spouses is a schoolteacher or a government official, he/she will help in the shop after work. Moreover, although it is true that most sales representatives are men, almost all of the itinerant traders travel with their wives, children and/or one or two other close relatives. All adults travelling with the group assist in the transactions.

4 The use of the term “Central Thai” or “Thai” language (interchangeable in this paper) follows Anthony Diller, who suggests the significant forces that have made it the national language; see Diller, Anthony, “What Makes Central Thai a National Language?”, in National Identity and Its Defenders: Thailand, 1939–1989, ed. Reynolds, Craig J. (Clayton: Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, 1991), pp. 87–132.Google Scholar I would argue that “Central Thai” is a more appropriate term than “Standard Thai”, which is indicated by some scholars as the national language (see Smalley, William A., Linguistic Diversity and National Unity: Language Ecology in Thailand [Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,1994]).Google Scholar Standard Thai is the variety preferred by educated persons as the language they “think they should speak or write and which they take as norms when using the language carefully” (Smalley, p. 26, emphasis added). However, there are many misconceptions concerning Standard Thai, and educated people and other Bangkok residents often mistakenly think that they speak this variety. For example, although there are distinctions between /1/ and /r/ and between /kw/ and /f/ in Standard Thai, even educated speakers often do not pronounce /1/ and /r/ differently (pp. 29–31). During conversations in Khun Yuam, none of the locals or outsiders spoke what could be considered Standard Thai. Hardly any speakers, for instance, made the distinction between /1/ and /r/; even schoolteachers often failed to distinguish the two. It is clear, needless to say, that they were conversing in Central Thai, not Standard Thai.

5 , Smalley, Linguistic Diversity, pp. 111–12Google Scholar.

6 , Diller, “What Makes Central Thai”, p. 100Google Scholar; emphasis added.

7 Ibid., pp. 99–100.

8 The other two groups are the Karen and the Hmong. The Karen are the majority population of the area, but most of them live in upland villages. The Hmong are the smallest group, all recent migrants from Mae Chaem District in Chiang Mai; they mostly reside at high altitudes. However, some Karen and Hmong have moved down to settle in the outskirts of the town.

9 Keyes, Charles F., Thailand: Buddhist Kingdom as Modern Nation-State (Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1987), p. 213Google Scholar.

10 Diller, Anthony, “Tai Languages: Varieties and Subgroup Terms”, Australian National University Thai-Yunnan Project Newsletter 25 (1994): 15Google Scholar.

11 A similar situation can be found in the Shan States of Burma, where Tai is spoken widely. Leslie Milne wrote that in that region in the nineteenth century, “Nearly all Kachins can speak and understand a good deal of Shan; indeed, the people of the different tribes use Shan as a common language” (Milne, Leslie, Shans at Home [New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp., 1970 reprint of 1910 original], p. 132).Google Scholar The Palaung of Tawngpeng and several other ethnic groups spoke Tai as well; see Collis, Maurice, Lords of the Sunset: A Tour in the Shan States (London: Faber & Faber, 1938), p. 214; andGoogle ScholarLebar, Frank M., Hickey, Gerald C. and Musgrave, John K., Ethnic Groups of Mainland Southeast Asia (New Haven: Human Relations Area Files Press, 1964), p. 122.Google Scholar

12 , Diller, “Tai Languages”, pp. 8, 15.Google Scholar

13 Ibid., pp. 11–12.

14 These two terms are pronounced with an unaspirated “k” by the local Kon Müang in Khun Yuam. However, the Central Thai terms Kham Muang or Mu'ang and Khon Muang (with an aspirated consonant) are commonly used in the literature. Kam means “word” or “language”.

15 Davis, Richard B., Muang Metaphysics: A Study of Northern Thai Myth and Ritual (Bangkok: Pandora, 1984), p. 23Google Scholar.

16 According to informants, the Kon Müang left Mae Chaem owing to famine and drought conditions in the area. Even without the drought, however, there would never be enough rice to eat because of the soil's poor quality, which has made Mae Chaem one of the poorest districts in this region even today.

17 Apart from some former policemen who married local women, almost all government officials are posted in the town for only a few years before being transferred elsewhere.

18 Khun Yuam District Office, Eegkasaanprakaub kaanbanjaajsarub Amphoe Khunyuam [Summary report of Khun Yuam District] (Khun Yuam, B.E. 2535 [1992]), p. 2; and , Saatronnawid, Thiiralyg naj nganchalaung sanjaabadphadjodchanphised Phrakhruu Anusaunsaadsanakaan Cawkhana Amphoe Khunyuam [In memory of the celebration for Phrakhruu Anusaunsaadsanakaan, the District Ecclesiastical Head of Khun Yuam, who was awarded the Fan of the Special Ecclesiastical Rank] (Chiang Mai: Thibphajaned Kaanphim, B.E. 2524 [1981]), pp. 5–10Google Scholar.

19 Renard, Ronald D., “Kariang: History of Karen-Tai Relations From the Beginnings to 1923” (Ph.D. diss., University of Hawaii/Honolulu 1980), pp. 129–30Google Scholar.

20 Vallibhotama, Srisakr and Wongthes, Suchit, Thajnauj Thajjaj Thajsajaam [Lesser Tai, Greater Tai, Siamese Tai], special issue of Sinlapawadthanatham [Arts & Culture] (Bangkok: Samnakphim Mathichon, B.E. 2534 [1991]), p. 95; andGoogle ScholarSethakul, Ratanaporn, “Political, Social, and Economic Changes in the Northern States of Thailand Resulting from the Chiang Mai Treaties of 1874 and 1883” (Ph.D. diss., Northern Illinois University, 1989), pp. 65–66.Google Scholar Some sources indicate that Mae Hong Son was established first, then Khun Yuam as its satellite town.

21 Sisawat, Bunchuai, Chiangmai lae Phaagnya [Chiang Mai and the Northern region] (Bangkok: Khlang Witthaya, B.E. 2504 [1961]), p. 672Google Scholar.

22 Elderly residents of Müang Paun, some twelve kilometres to the south of Khun Yuam, said that early settlers of the village were wartime migrants.

23 According to the elderly Tai, the Kayah mainly resided in the eastern outskirts of the town. Owing to intermarriage, however, the Kayah became Tai-ized and stopped speaking their language or following their own customs. A few elders recognize some of these Kayah-Tai descendants, calling them luug jaang laeng (children of the Red Karen).

24 Sometimes this term is translated as “ox-train traders” or “bullock traders”; see Bowie, Katherine Ann, “Peasant Perspectives on the Political Economy of the Northern Thai Kingdom of Chiang Mai in the Nineteenth Century: Implications for the Understanding of Peasant Political Expression” (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1988)Google Scholar; Chuchart, Chusit, “From Peasant to Rural Trader: The Ox-train Traders of Northern Thailand, 1855–1955”, Australian National University Thai-Yunnan Project Newsletter 7 (1989): 2–8; andGoogle ScholarScott, J. George, Burma and Beyond (London: Grayson & Grayson, 1932).Google Scholar These oxen were used only for transporting goods and were looked after with great care; they would not have to plough the land or work at any other tasks.

25 According to some locals, there was often more than enough rice for local consumption; the surplus was sold in nearby villages or Mae Hong Son and, occasionally, as far away as the markets of Mae Rim or Chiang Mai.

26 Many British subjects crossed the border to Khun Yuam for trade and other purposes. Some married local women, but only a few settled down there. They occasionally got into disputes with local people and sometimes with the Thai authorities.

27 For the administrative reforms in the North, see , Ratanaporn, “Political, Social, and Economic Changes”, p. 255.Google Scholar Documentation of disputes between Thai authorities and British subjects and of issues concerning new settlements and land ownership can be found in the Ministry of Interior files of the Thai National Archives (MT.5.16/1).

28 There is another road from Mae Hong Son to Chiang Mai which passes through several small towns. It was upgraded in the early 1980s from an old dirt road built by the Japanese during the Second World War.

29 Also see Wijeyewardene, Gehan, “Translator's Introduction”, in Khonkhai, Khammaan, The Teachers of Mad Dog Swamp (St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1982).Google Scholar Thai formal education is compulsory and free. Every child is required to finish the six-year programme in school — an extension of the old four-year compulsory education.

30 Khun Yuam's morning market is rather small. It begins very early in the morning and stops shortly after 8 a.m. Most of the goods sold in the morning market are foodstuffs, many of them locally produced; clothes, household utensils and miscellaneous products can be found as well.

31 Town residents are normally known among themselves by their Tai or Kon Müang nicknames. Thai names are used when dealing with the district office, the hospital or schools and for business transactions. Many outside traders and sales representatives call local shop owners by their Thai names.

32 Paul Durrenberger notes the use of the Tai written language among Tai traditional healers in the Mae Hong Son area: in some villages “practitioners use [written Tai] to prepare and prescribe herbal medicines, diagnose illness, and determine auspicious and inauspicious days” (Durrenberger, E. Paul, “Changes in a Shan Village”, in Highlanders of Thailand, ed. McKinnon, John and Bhruksasri, Wanat [Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1983], p. 120)Google Scholar.

33 In 1991–93, there was an effort to improve literacy in the Tai language among Tai children. Parents agreed to send their children to study it with monks at the temple. Unfortunately, as far as I know, only a small group of children studied; no adults wished to participate.

34 I would like to thank Bruce Lockhart for this information.

35 There are two or three Thai men who run shops in the town but did not marry locally. As for those who did, most of their shops are owned by their wives or in-laws.

36 Jennifer Alexander has noted that in a rural Javanese market, “price competition is between a specific buyer and a specific seller”; Alexander, Jennifer, Trade, Traders and Trading in Rural Java (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 177.Google Scholar Since the prices are not standardized but vary depending on the season, bargaining may be regarded as a search for information whereby a buyer compares prices offered by different sellers until eventually finding the price he/she thinks is the best.

37 Goods are frequently taken back by the shops because customers cannot finish their hirepurchase payments. (The period of payment varies depending on the type of product, normally from three months to one year for electrical appliances and two to four years for motorcycles.) Repossessed items will be sold as second-hand goods, but it is not clear whether they are resold on hire-purchase.

38 The shop sells a number of different materials, but some customers prefer to buy their own elsewhere.

39 Chusit has estimated that elsewhere in the Northern region ox caravan traders travelled about five hours a day, covering a distance of 15–20 kilometres; see , Chusit, “From Peasant to Rural Trader”, p. 5, and the same author'sGoogle ScholarPhaukhaa wuataang: phuubugboeg kaankhaakhaj naj muubaan Phaagnya khaung Phratheed Thaj (Phau. Sau. 2398–2503) [Phaukhaa wuataang: trading pioneers in the villages of Northern Thailand, 1855–1960] (Chiang Mai: Chiang Mai Teachers College, B.E. 2525 [1982]), p. 18Google Scholar.

40 Michael Moerman notes similar experiences among former Lü traders, who greatly enjoyed their trading journeys; Moerman, Michael, “Chiangkham's Trade in the Old Days”, in Change and Persistence in Thai Society: Essays in Honor of Lauriston Sharp, ed. Skinner, G. William and Kirsch, A. Thomas (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1975), pp. 158–59Google Scholar.

41 A study of a rural Javanese market provides a comparison. Apparently, being able to speak the Indonesian language rather than Javanese alone is important for traders who want to enlarge the scale of their business. For instance, petty cloth traders who lack fluency in Indonesian are excluded from having a creditor-debtor relationship with the Chinese; the scale of their trade is therefore limited by a lack of financial support (, Alexander, Trade, Traders and Trading, pp. 124–25).Google Scholar In Khun Yuam, business credit is provided by the bank — a long, complicated process which requires proof of the borrower's financial situation and so on. Only the owners of large shops whom the bank considers creditworthy can borrow money. Of course, local people borrow from the rich, but such loans appear to normally be for personal reasons, not for business purposes.