Earlier, the area now called Thailand was largely dominated by other (especially Mon and Khmer) empires, and the local population was largely indigenous (Lue, Lawa and in the south, Malay). By the early 11th Century AD, many T'ai people had settled in the ChaoPraya Valley, heartland of the present kingdom but then center of the Mon-Dvaravati (Theravadi) Empire. To the north, T'ai kingdoms in Nakon Yonok (Chiang Saen) and Phayao were established. Sukhotai, then a colony of the Khom-Angkor Empire, had a large T'ai population. The word T'ai, as with the names of many peoples for themselves, means "human being" (or perhaps, 'dignified person' as opposed to infidel enemy, jungle dweller or slave). They were among the world's first rice cultivators, with a distinctive culture known for its characteristic weaving and bronzesmithing. T'ai people gradually spread throughout most of South East Asia, most likely from eastern coastal areas. Presently, about 100 million people of at least 80 T'ai ethnic groups speak various dialects of the T'ai linguistic family. Almost half of T'ai related language speakers live in Thailand.

For over 1000 years, until about 500 years ago, T'ai people spread across continental Southeast Asia and much of China. A point of origin, or genetic distinction from indigenous locals, isn't clear. There's little likelihood of any mass migration of T'ai people ever occurring: instead, it seems that a thin movement of skilled T'ai warriors rallying from defeat at the hands of wheat-noodle eating Central (Han) Chinese pushed west and south. They offered protection to vulnerable country folk, then strategically seized power. They built fortifications near existing villages, to defend locals from other warriors similarly bent on becoming protectors...

One theory holds that T'ai people first lived around Szechwan, China; that about 50 BC, attacks by Central, perhaps Han, Chinese made emigration south to Yunnan necessary for them. Another holds that T'ai people lived in the Yangtse River Valley, before the Chinese did; that in 2000 BC there were T'ai people spread from Szechwan in the west trough Hubei, south Henan, Anhui, southeast Shandong and parts of Jiangsu. By 1000 BC they were certainly in Guanxi (Kwangsi), south Hunan, Guandong (Kwantung, the Canton area), and northeast Vietnam. The theory that T'ai people originally migrated from the vicinity around the mouths of the Hia Chiang and Pei Chiang Rivers, areas near Kwangtung (Canton), Kwangsi Province and south past the Vietnamese border, seems most supportable. Certainly T'ai culture, with its rice and water buffalo, required access to lots of regularly available water to develop as it did. Sipsong Chu Tai (Twelve Tai Names) and Sipsong Jao Tai (Twelve Tai Lords), located between northeast Laos and northern Vietnam, and the area between the Red and Black Rivers (Song Hong and Song Da or De), were early, but most likely secondary, T'ai cultural cradles. Tribal peoples in those areas, people well settled there for millennia, use T'ai language and have distinctly T'ai traditions. Chinese records from the 3rd century BC mention the Tai Aw Lac inhabiting the Red River Delta, and much of the area from the Black River into what is now Guangxi.

As early as 1300 BC T'ai people had firmly established cultural traditions, well adapted to the tropical Southeast Asian climate. They grew rice, kept buffalo, pigs and chickens, wove, made pottery and used distinctive bronze utensils. Distinctions from Han Chinese and Kinh (Kao) Vietnamese remain clear. T'ai tribes remain in the mountains of northwest Vietnam today, but some, perhaps many, migrated inland and then further south. This seems due to Chinese invasions and population pressure. Records of T'ais in southwestern China (Yunnan) begin in the 6th century BC, referring to them as "the barbarians to the south." In 566AD the Emperor Wuti built a wall at the western end of his territory, to defend against the T'ai.

So, in the area between the wheat-growing, noodle eating areas to the north of China's eastern coast, and that of maritime people to the south, a culture centered on livestock, sticky rice and rice wine originated. It expanded westward into areas of peoples less agriculturally developed, eventually spreading far enough inland to meet Brahaminic and Buddhist influence from India. A sort of schism occurred - the Zhouang to the east, in China, northern Vietnam and northeastern Laos, remained subject to Han Chinese influence. The T'ai/Lao who went west found other influences, and became a prominent inland culture. These T'ai/Lao became the "People of the Dhamma Letters," with their several (at least six) similar alphabets and many dialects. As forbidding, though hardly impassable, mountain ranges disrupted cultural continuity, supplementary trade lingoes came into use. For everything associated with them there came to be many terms - various ways of referring to a single thing, according to whom you were. Influences from India, Tibet, China, the Mon, Khmer and Malay contributed, but were only a part of this. Regional terminologies in such difficult to transverse, mountainous areas still vary even within distinct tribes.

As the T'ai, Dhamma Letters, culture emerged, social structure was hardly rigid. There was little centralization. A relatively peaceful conjoining of influences lent strength to growth in trade, in ideas as well as goods. Eventually militarism strengthened, but on the heels of overtly pacifistic Theravada Buddhism.

T'ais who emigrated furthest west became Burmans, totally absorbed by Indian/Mon influence and intermarriage. Their skin is darker, dependence on livestock and rice-wine less, and their hierarchy more rigid and cruel, like that of the Khom. The Khom, slave-holding founders of that wonder-of-the-world, Angkor, were also Brahaministic, and descended largely, or at least in part, from people of the subcontinent. The T'ai/Lao and Leu/Lawa were more relaxed, unafraid, self-assured, and unneedful of centralization. Until the advent of Genghis Khan's Mongol hordes, that is.

T'ai peoples seem very likely to have been accepted by the Lawa and Lue, as they offered service in resisting encroachments by Han Chinese, and later, by the Han's temporary masters, the Mongol Yuan. The T'ai brought better storage vessels, weapons and fighting skills. They also showed flexibility and readiness in community co-operation, and had a similar non-centralized hierarchic structure, as was quite advantageous in mountainous regions. The new culture layered onto the old and long held its own against more structured societies.

SipsongPanna (Twelve Thousand Rice Fields or 12 rice growing districts), in south Yunnan, became popularly, but incorrectly, accepted as the cradle of T'ai civilization. SipsongPanna is referred to in early Chinese records as an independent country on the southern borders, inhabited by Lue people. By the 1st century AD, many T'ai were moving from the Yue Kingdom of Yelang (western Guizhou and parts of Sichuan, Guangsi and Hunan) to north and west Yunnan. The descendents of those who went on to northeast Burma became known as Shan, pronounced by the Burmans as Siam. They traded overland with India and China, and held parts of Lanna before Mengrai.

By the time of Mengrai, T'ai people were spread over an area in excess of a quarter million square kilometers, living in co-operative, communalistic style. The village was the political unit; we've no record of any complex social hierarchies. The name of Mengrai's lineage, Luajakarat or Lawajakarat, as well as his actions, denotes intermingling among indigenous peoples (Lua, Lawa), and access to various ancient political ideas. Young Mengrai seems to have seen a united political and military front with loosely-associated peoples as the only way to maintain his position and prestige. He clearly had the sophistication to effectively use ideas quite as advanced as those put forth much, mush earlier by Sun Tzu in his book, The Art of War (although Mengrai may well never have even known Sun Tzu's name).



People of the Dhamma Letters:

People of the area in Mengrai's time had many names. In later times well over 40 were counted, including: Lue, Lawa, Yue, Lao, Shan, Siamese, and Dai. Just who was who isn't entirely clear. Mengrai seems to have been half Lua (or Tai Lue) and half Lawa. After about 900 AD, when Hinanaya/Theravada Buddhism began to rise as the dominant religion of the area (with local animism interspersed or intermixed), the culture sometimes referred to as that of the Dhamma Letters emerged.

Lanna people used a variety of scripts, which varied over time and distance, and according to intended usage. One adapted from ancient Mon was used for secular matters. Another called Tham, Dhamma letters or Tua Muang, was used with many Pali words, for religious purposes. Similar secular/religious dichotomy existed in northwest Laos (Luang Prabang, Lan Xang), parts of northeast Burma (with the Khuen peoples of Keng Tung) and parts of Yunnan (especially with the Tai Lue of SipsongPanna). The oldest known palm leaf manuscript has been dated to 1471 AD.

The Lue or Yue were perhaps indigenes from the pre-Neolithic period. They lived from Western Shan States to Fujian and southern Sichuan, and down the Mekong valley, since Chinese records started. Probably they were antecedents to many current T'ai/Lao and Vietnamese peoples. Some groups used ankle to waist tattoos and had short hair - as specifically mentioned in Chinese records from Qin to T'ang dynasties. Men tattooed their legs to resemble the skin of water serpents and demons, to help avoid attacks by spirits. Lowland Yue, however, preferred long hair and eschewed tattooing. Perhaps Yues strongly influenced by the Han Chinese became known as Zhuangs (the Zhuang are China's largest official minority or 'nationality'), and others more affected by Indian influence became Thais.

The Lua, perhaps the same as the Lue/Yue, were the dominant people of the northern hills of old; this is what Lanna people were referred to as, by KrungThep (Bangkok) people at the beginning of the present Chakri dynasty, and for quite some time after. The Lua farmed and hunted, mostly in valley areas. The Tai Lue (called by the Chinese Dai or Bai-i), from SipsongPanna (Muang Yong of south Yunnan to Sayaburi, Laos, and during the last couple centuries also into northern and northeastern Thailand) were economically and culturally similar to the Khon Muang (which is what they call themselves!), and renowned for their weaving. Their men traditionally wore tattoos from below the knees to the waist; many worked as silversmiths.

Khon Muang, Tai Yuan, Tai Nuea & Tai Yon are other names for peoples of Lanna and the original Tai settlers of Yonok. Khon Muang means 'People of the towns.' 6 million in 1993, they're the largest ethnic group in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. Perhaps the original T'ai peoples identified by Chinese Dynastic records from 1000 BC became the lowland town-dwelling Tai/Dai who arrived in Yunnan after the emergence of Nan-Zhao kingdom 5th century AD. They eventually followed the great river valleys to the southern coast, intermingling with Mon, Khmer and Malay peoples to form the Siamese. As lowland town people, they were administratively and militarily advanced compared to indigenes. After absorbing influences from India, they formed the first administration-centered communities in much of northern Southeast Asia.

Similar people called Tai Yai, Tai Long, Tai Luang, Shan and Ngiaw started arriving in Lanna about the time of Christ. They've become so intermingled that definitive identity is restricted, for administrative convenience, to a small group of people originally from Muang Tong Yee, Saen Wee and Si Por, in western Shan State. Many were forcibly resettled to outlying regions of Mae Sariang, Mae Hong Son, TaTon and Fang in the 1800s. In Chiang Rai, Tai Yai (or Tai Luang, Great Thai) are now mostly found in the Muang District (Chiang Rai City) and the Mae Sai area (Thailand's northernmost point). About 10,000 are officially recognized as Tai Yai in Thailand's 20 northern provinces (1997). They're Theravada Buddhist, and well amalgamated with the Khon Muang. They excel, traditionally, as potters and tanners.

The Shan (usually referred to in the Thai media as Tai Yai, and Ngieow by the Karen and Tai Yuan) were the traditional rulers of Shan State; they're now usually partially Chinese, and probably a little hill-tribe. They're the majority population of Mae Hong Son Province (although only 21,411 were registered as such in all Thailand, 2002). More Sinicized, less influenced by India than their neighbors to the south or east, their traditional society involved loose confederations of Muang. The Muang, a sense of a social and political center, and connectedness, remains of great cultural importance to the Shan. Spreading throughout northern Thailand in the second half of the 19th century, following work as mahouts in the lumber trade, small distinctly Shan (as opposed to Khon Muang) communities developed in Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Lampang and Phrae. Hkamti Shans, who may have been in the area since the 7th century, and numbered about a million in a 1901 census, live in north Burma and across to Assam. 'Chinese Shans' (Tayok or Tai Hokchao, from Old Nanchao, now Szechwan) are an eastern branch, subdued by the Mings in the 15th century. Chinese officers were appointed hereditary rulers (and took Shan wives). Tai Khe and Tai Wu are other subgroups. There were 33 Shan States in Burma, and their total population has grown to over 4 million. This combines in other peoples; there may be less than 3 million Shans in Shan State, and their culture and population is actively suppressed by the Burmese government of Myanmar and its military. To me, Shan Buddha images are among the most beautiful, made of stone, wood or bronze, with big ears poking out sideways, slanted and squinting eyes, round heads and beautiful headdresses. Shan architecture is also known for its grace, but most has been lost; there are few examples of fine Shan architecture left.

The Tai Khoen (Tai Khun), reputedly from the flood-plain of the Khoen (or Khin) River, which flows northward through the Shan Plateau of southwestern China, have their cultural center at Chiang Tung (Keng Tung), Shan State, which is reputed to have once been the capital of the Khemrat Tungkaburi kingdom of Luesi Tungka (a hermit over 800 years ago). Keng Tung may date to 500 AD, though this conflicts with records of a great lake (named for perhaps another ancient hermit, but more likely the same legendary figure, Tungkalasi) once there. Considered with Shan/Tai Yai, they were once the largest minority ethnic group in Burma. They may still be in Shan State, though the Wa seem to be taking over. Culturally similar to the Tai Lue, the Tai Khoen excel as carvers and laquerware makers. There are many living around Doi Mae Salong (Santikiri) in northern Chiang Rai Province. Others more recently arrived in Thailand were forced to relocate from Shan State to Mae Hong Son.

The Tai Mao are another kind of Shan, but perhaps equally related to the Tai Ahom of Assam, India. They've had their own script, from at least Mongol times, but accepted Mengraisat laws. From before 600 AD they've lived along the Shweli, or Mao, River, along the Burma/China border at the northern edge of Shan State, east of Bhamo. This was the southern edge of ancient Nanchao. Early Dai Mao cities were Ruili and Longchuan; Cheli, Mainguo, Tufan and Yungchang became amalgamated. This area, the extreme western tip of Yunnan, was called Daikong but then changed by the Communists to the Deihong Dai and JingPo Nationalities Autonomous Prefecture. Other tribals there are Jingpo, Palung, Lisu and Ashang. The largest city is Luxi (or Mangshi; the Tai Mao name is Muang Khon). More famous is tiny Ruili, the frontier town by Muse, north of Lashio. The Burma Road built in World War II to connect Kunming and Mandalay remains perhaps the most important of 5 routes passing from Shan State to Yunnan; Chinese men regularly come to marry and take home women they meet here.

Legend tells of Muang Mao beginning with brothers Khun Lung and Khun Lai who departed heaven to live at Hsenwi, in the Shweli Valley. They founded Muang Mao in 586 AD, and expanded it into Muang Mao Luang Kawsampi. Anoratha, King of Pagan, checked rising Mao power, and married a Mao princess (1057 AD). The Hsenwi Chronicle says rule by the Tai Yai of Shweli Valley extended from the Black River Valley of north Vietnam to the Bhrahmaputra Valley of Assam, India. This is best taken euphemistically as referring to areas of related people and influence. One king, Chao Sua Khan Fa, is said to have defeated Sipsongpanna, Chiang Rung, Chiang Tung, Ava, Lan Xang, Chiang Saen, Lampang and Lamphun, and marched on Kunming. He sent his brother south to the central plain of Thailand; which can be taken to indicate a southern extent of influence and relation. After Kublai Khan took Talifu (1253 AD), the Mongols conquered all Nanchao and the Shweli Valley too. But by 1336 the Mao kingdom had revived; again the king is said to have been Chao Sua Khan Fa. In 1355 he sent a son to the (Chinese) Imperial Court and was granted the highest title given heads of tributary states, as "Chao Saen Wi Fa of Lu Chuan" kingdom. In the first half of the 15th century, Muang Mao rose to power and prosperity, but by 1448 was again subdued by the Chinese.

The Dai Mao speak "kham tai" which can (with difficulty) be understood by speakers of other Tai dialects, including Thai. Their alphabet may prove significant to understanding the origins of Thai.

Tai Dam, White Tai, Tai Daeng, Tai Zhuang, Tai Na, Pu Tai (Tai Song Dam), Tai Saek, Tai Puan, Tai Phoeng, Tai Moei, Tai Jang, Tayok - there are 50 to 80 different T'ai groups, the most exotic or extreme of which might be the Tai Aiton (of Assam, India) and Tai Kuey (Suay or Souei), Mon-Khmer speakers living in lower Isan (northeast Thailand). These T'ai names usually refer to location and/or dialect. At least 30 groupings of T'ai peoples live entirely outside of Thailand; some of one of these groups, the Bai-Yi, T'ai speakers from south China, recently migrated to Doi Mae Salong (Santikiri). Altogether there are at least 100 million T'ai related people, the most widely distributed race in Indochina.

Lao is an interesting and difficult word, used with a variety of connotations. The most proper reference is to the lowland rice cultivating people of Laos, culturally T'ai and similar to the Thai. Many Isan (northeastern Thai) people see themselves, and are seen as, Lao. Like Shan means 'mountain' in Chinese, Lao means 'old'; Laotians are sometimes thought of as elder brothers to the Thai (and have even been claimed to be the elder brothers of the Chinese). They are the only T'ai other than those of the Chao Phraya River valley to develop an extensive and complex political hierarchy.

From Korat to Mae Sot, Taunggyi, Mandalay and up to Dali, Kunming and down the mountains of North Vietnam, an area encompassing all of Laos and going across northern Cambodia, locals are sticky-rice eaters and have all, at one time or another, been referred to as Lao. The country of Laos admits to 47 ethnic groups, all of whom, as citizens of their country, can also be referred to as Laotian. Some Laotian citizens, however, are not T'ai at all, or even distantly related. A Hmong hilltribesman and a lowland Lao are easily recognizable as quite different. The term Lao may have had some overlap in usage with Lua or Lawa, but they aren't the same, either.

T'ai language, whether Mao, Shan, Pasa Muang or whatever dialect, has become of decreasing utility, albeit still widely spoken throughout its native area. For centuries, T'ai was used as a 'lingua franca' trade language even by uplanders or hill-tribes, such as the Karen and Lua. The T'ai written language has always been used mostly for religion; teaching of the writing has always taken place in the temples. It is still used, mostly by men, to facilitate telling of stories of the Buddha (jataka) to audiences at ordinations and other Buddhist ceremonies. These stories are also read at funerals and social gatherings respecting any elderly T'ai person. Written T'ai, unlike spoken T'ai or Thai, is a ritual language, not unlike the Pali of which it makes much use.