The Dai peoples of China (Tai Lü: tai51 l?11 ) is the officially recognized name of several ethnic groups living in the Sipsongpanna Tai Autonomous Prefecture and the Taihong Tai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture (both in southern Yunnan, China), but by extension can apply to groups in Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and Burma when Dai is used to mean specifically Tai Lue, Chinese Shan or even Tai in general. For other names, see table below.

Name Ambiguity

The Dai people form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China, and are closely related to the Thai people who form a majority in Thailand. However, as with many other 'officially recognized' ethnic groups in China (See Gaoshan and Yao), the term Dai at least within Chinese usage is an umbrella term and as such has no equivalent in Tai languages who have only more general terms for 'Tai peoples in general' (eg, Tai Lue: tai51) and 'Tai people in China' (eg, Thai: ??????????'), both of which include the Zhuang for example which is not the case in the Chinese; and more specific terms, as shown in the table below. Therefore the word Dai, like with the aforementioned Yao, is a Han-Chinese cultural concept which has now been adopted by other languages such as English, French and German (see respective Wikipedias). As a solution in the Thai language, however, as in English, the term Tai Lue can be used to mean Dai, despite referring to other groups as in the table below. This is because the two main groups actually bear the same name, both meaning 'Northern Tai' (lue and nüa are cognate).

Although they are officially recognized as a single people by the Chinese state, these Tai people form several distinct cultural and linguistic groups. The two main languages of the Dai are Tai Lü (Sipsongpanna Tai) and Tai Nüa (Taihong Tai); two other written languages used by the Dai are Tày Pong and Tai Dam. They all are Tai languages, a group of related languages that includes Thai, Lao, and Zhuang, and part of the Tai-Kadai language family. Various dialects of the Tai/Dai language family are spoken from Assam, India to Taiwan and ShanSri Province, China in the North to Java in the South. The Tai peoples follow their traditional religion as well as Theravadin Buddhism, and maintain similar customs and festivals (such as the Sankrant) to the other Tai-speaking peoples. They are among the few natives groups in China who nominally practice the Theravadin school of Buddhism.

Exodus

The original areas of the Tai Lue included both sides of the Mekong River in the Sipsongpanna. According to the Tai Lue, there were five city-states on the east bank and six on the west, which with Chiang Rung formed twelve rice field divisions with all twelve having another 32 small provinces. These were:

On the west banks - Rung, Ha, Sae, Lu, Ong, Luang, Hun, Phan, Chiang Choeng, Hai, Chiang Lo and Mang;

On the east banks - La, Bang, Hing, Pang, La, Wang, Phong, Yuan, Bang and Chiang Thong (present-day Luang Prabang).

Some portions of these Tai Lue either voluntarily moved or were forcibly herded from these city-states around one to two hundred years ago, arriving in countries of present-day Burma, Laos and Thailand.

The Tai Yong

In the 19th Buddhist century Chao Sunantha, son of the ruler of Chiang Rung, led a following of Tai Lue from Chiang Rung to Yong in present-day Shan State to rule over the original inhabitants, the Lawa. They were aided by the following factors:

Given this history, the Tai Yong are thus descendants of the Tai Lue. In Thailand, these people are know as Thai Yai (Big Thai) and by the rest of the world as Shan.

Tai Lue in Thailand

In Thailand there are Tai Lue in many provinces of the upper regions of Northern Thailand; these provinces are:

Economy

The Dai people are typically farmers, growing a variety of tropical crops such as pineapples, in addition to the staple crop of rice. Many Dai live near the Mekong river where it meanders through the far south of Yunnan.

Tai groups and names

References

• Zhu, Liangwen (1992). The Dai: Or the Tai and Their Architecture & Customs in South China. Bangkok, Thailand, and Kunming, Yunnan, China: D D Books and The Science and Technology Press of Yunnan.

External links

• Photos related to Dai Theravada Buddhism
• Site including information on some endangered Tai scripts

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