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Thailand The Tai People: Origins and Migrations
The forebears of the modern Thai were Tai-speaking people
living south of the Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) on the
mountainous plateau of what is now the Chinese province of Yunnan
(see The Thai and Other Tai-Speaking Peoples
, ch. 2). Early
Chinese records (the first recorded Chinese reference to the Tai
is dated sixth century B.C.) document the Tai cultivating wetland
rice in valley and lowland areas. During the first millennium
A.D., before the emergence of formal states governed by Taispeaking elites, these people lived in scattered villages drawn
together into muang, or principalities. Each muang
was governed by a chao, or lord, who ruled by virtue of
personal qualities and a network of patron-client relationships.
Often the constituent villages of a muang would band
together to defend their lands from more powerful neighboring
peoples, such as the Chinese and Vietnamese.
The state of Nanchao played a key role in Tai development. In
the
mid-seventh century A.D., the Chinese Tang Dynasty, threatened by
powerful western neighbors like Tibet, sought to secure its
southwestern borders by fostering the growth of a friendly state
formed by the people they called man (southern barbarians)
in the Yunnan region. This state was known as Nanchao. Originally
an ally, Nanchao became a powerful foe of the Chinese in
subsequent centuries and extended its domain into what is now
Burma and northern Vietnam. In 1253 the armies of Kublai Khan
conquered Nanchao and incorporated it into the Yuan (Mongol)
Chinese empire.
Nanchao's significance for the Tai people was twofold. First,
it blocked Chinese influence from the north for many centuries.
Had Nanchao not existed, the Tai, like most of the originally
non-Chinese peoples south of the Chang Jiang, might have been
completely assimilated into the Chinese cultural sphere. Second,
Nanchao stimulated Tai migration and expansion. Over several
centuries, bands of Tai from Yunnan moved steadily into Southeast
Asia, and by the thirteenth century they had reached as far west
as Assam (in present-day India). Once settled, they became
identified in Burma as the Shan and in the upper Mekong region as
the Lao. In Tonkin and Annam, the northern and central portions
of present-day Vietnam, the Tai formed distinct tribal groupings:
Tai Dam (Black Tai), Tai Deng (Red Tai), Tai Khao (White Tai),
and Nung. However, most of the Tai settled on the northern and
western fringes of the Khmer Empire.
The Thai have traditionally regarded the founding of the
kingdom of Sukhothai as marking their emergence as a distinct
nation. Tradition sets 1238 as the date when Tai chieftains
overthrew the Khmer at Sukhothai, capital of Angkor's outlying
northwestern province, and established a Tai kingdom. A flood of
migration resulting from Kublai Khan's conquest of Nanchao
furthered the consolidation of independent Tai states. Tai
warriors, fleeing the Mongol invaders, reinforced Sukhothai
against the Khmer, ensuring its supremacy in the central plain.
In the north, other Tai war parties conquered the old Mon state
of Haripunjaya and in 1296 founded the kingdom of Lan Na with its
capital at Chiang Mai
(see
fig. 4).
Data as of September 1987
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