Thai Aboriginies.

[Guest]

The original inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula are the Sakai, of which there are still scattered populations living in Malaysia and Southern Thailand.

In Thailand, the Sakai live in the forests of the provinces Trang, Phattalung, Satun und Yala. There's a long thin mountain range between Trang and Phattalung provinces, Khao Thuek Banthat, in which there are still a few hundred Sakai. They're hunter-gatherers, very shy and avoid the "mainstream" Thais. There is some interaction, though; the Sakai often exchange hunted animals for rice or other necessities. They speak their own language, or rather a language which has markedly different dialects depending on the province that they live in.

I'm not certain about the etymology of the word Sakai; often, it's translated as "slave". The Sakai call themselves "Manik", which simply means "people". The Thais often refer to them jokingly as "ngor", just like the fruit, since the Sakai have curly, frizzy hair, which is reminiscent of the "ngor". The Sakai look pretty much like the aboriginals of Australia.

[pattaya127]

Hey, Uncle Scum, before you re-ignite your pipe and tell us more "once upon a time" stories, can you talk to us about the Yellow leaves People of the North?

PS: Talking about Diran's book, and staying on Nana topic, is he another (young) female body lover disguised as a great photographer? I mean, some of the girls in his book are just dropdead gorgeous....

[Guest]

Originally posted by peesooahbkk:

"The other day, I ran into Richard K. Diran ... I'm sure he knows the anthropology of ancient Siamese tribes."

With the "Siamese tribes" you must mean the Thai Yai who hail from Yunnan, China. After having founded their kingdom Nanchao in the 7th century AD, they came increasingly under attack by their neighbours, which caused many of them migrate southward into what is today's Thailand. After Nanchao was sacked in 1253 by Kublai Khan the migrations increased.

The name Siam was coined only later, possibly by the Khmer - "Siam" (from Sanskrit shyama) means "black" or "dark"; according to Pridi Banomyong who did some research on the name Siam it should be translated as "golden-brown", but I guess this is Thai colour-(self-)consciouness speaking.

Other branches of the Thai Yai migrated to Assam in India, Burma and Laos. To summarize: The Thai Yai are very late entrants into Thailand and by no means the "original inhabitants". See my above post for further clarification.

[Guest]

Originally posted by pattaya127:

"Hey, Uncle Scum, before you re-ignite your pipe and tell us more "once upon a time" stories, can you talk to us about the Yellow leaves People of the North?"

Oh, Monsigneur, I don't even smoke; I rather have myself s... well, forget it.

Anyhow, the People of the Yellow Leaves or Mlabri, of which there are about 100-150 left in Thailand, are not original inhabitants of this country. They originally hail from Laos, where there's still roughly an equal number living.

Ha, gotcha, no?

[Guest]

quote:

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Originally posted by sinsin:

Returning from LOS last month with EVA,

I read an article in Verve (inflight magazine) about the history of Taiwan.

It seems that the original Taiwanese

were aborigines and it had old photographs

to prove it(to me).These people had only been

recently displaced by the Chinese.

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I thought everyone knew that? The KMT fled China after being defeated by Mao's army and invaded Formosa which I think at the time was a Portugese colony that they had taken from China.

[pattaya127]

Yep! You had me sleeping in no time. Thank you, Uncle Scum......

[Guest]

I seen a program on tele that said that aborigines first came to Aus from south east asia.

I believe this as I have seen a few thais, that in australia would be accepted as a native aussie, until they started to speak.

Thailand is a multi-cutural nation. I have some history on it if anyone would like a copy, email me on pscheirich@hotmail.com

[iuytrede]

@ PvtDick

the PC term for "shan di ren" is "yuanzhumin", which translates as "aboriginals".

"shan di ren" sounds about as nice as "negro" when talking about African Americans, and is seldom used by educated people.

EVA's inflight magazine certainly does not use the term "shan di ren", as EVA is Taiwan's "Taiwanese" airline (as opposed to China Airlines) and celebrating everything autochthonous is very much in vogue in Taiwan.

[Guest]

Thanks for the information. "Yuanzhumin" means, literally, "original residents" or "aborigines" I suppose. And it does sound a lot better than "shan di ren" ("mountain people").

I lived in Taiwan for several years in the '80s, but I never heard the term "yuanzhumin". Everyone said "shan di ren" (even the aborigines themselves). It is nice to hear they are receiving more respect these days.

[iuytrede]

@ PvtDick

You will be pleased to hear that the road opposite the Presidential Palace, which used to be named after Chiang Kai Shek, got a new name a couple of years ago:

The new name is in one of the aboriginal languages (a minor one, it is the language of the people who used to live in the Taipai area), not in Chinese. It is written in Chinese characters (I think they need 4 or 5) and nobody can pronounce it.

Oh, and A-Mei is an aborigine. She is Taiwans biggest pop star, very popular in China, too. And at the inauguration of President Chen Shui-Bian she sung the national anthem.