|
Thailand The Highland, or Hill, Peoples
Commonly included among the highland people were the ethnic
groups living in the mountains of northern and northwestern
Thailand in the area known, because of its illegal opium
production, as the "Golden Triangle." Until the 1970s, the Thai
central government tended to regard these groups chiefly as opium
cultivators engaged in illegal activities. Since that time the
highland minorities, through their own efforts and
government-organized crop substitution projects, have become
involved in the legal market economy of the country.
Among the larger groups of highland people were the Karen
(Kariang, Yang), Hmong (Meo, Miao), Mien (Yao), Lahu (Mussur),
Akha (Kaw), and Lisu, or Lisaw
(see
fig. 10). Some of the smaller
groups preceded the Tai-speaking peoples in the area, but many
were relative latecomers. Through natural increase and
immigration, the population of the highlands increased from
approximately 100,000 in 1948 to about 700,000 in the late 1980s,
according to Ministry of Interior estimates. This population
growth led to a significant increase in the number of landless
people in the highlands. As a result, many of the landless began
cultivating forest reserves, thereby accelerating the depletion
of the country's forestland.
The varying estimates for specific groups in some cases
reflected the tendency of estimators to include only those still
living in relatively isolated mountain communities, whereas other
observers might include some or all of those who had come down
from the mountains and were at various points in the process of
becoming Thai. Observers noted that for some groups, more
individuals were in the process of assimilation than remained in
the mountain communities that were their traditional homes. The
languages spoken by the hill peoples fell into three broad
categories: Tibeto-Burman (a subfamily of the larger Sino-Tibetan
language family), Mon-Khmer (a subfamily of the Austro-Asiatic
language family), and the small Miao-Yao language family. The
language of the most numerous of these hill peoples, the Karen,
was generally considered Sino-Tibetan, but some authorities
included it in the subset Tibeto-Burman, or placed it in a
category of its own. The other languages included in the
Tibeto-Burman category--Akha, Lisu, Lahu, and Jinghpaw
(Kachin)--have been estimated as ranging from a few hundred
speakers (Jinghpaw) to about 25,000 speakers (Akha).
The category of Mon-Khmer included a number of highland
groups: the Kui (called Soai by the Thai), which totaled between
100,000 and 150,000 in the mid-1960s; the Tin, about 20,000; and
several smaller groups, including the Lua (also called Lawa),
about 9,000; the Khmu, about 7,600; and the Chaobon, about 2,000.
The Kui were said to be largely assimilated into Thai society.
The figure for the Khmu pertained only to those presumably living
in the highlands in a more or less traditional setting.
Substantial numbers were said to be pursuing a Thai way of life.
The Miao-Yao languages were spoken by two peoples, the Hmong
and Mien, both originally from China (the terms Miao and
Yao are Chinese). There were Hmong and Mien still living
in China as well as other Southeast Asian countries. Called Meo
by the Thai, the Hmong began to arrive in Thailand in the late
nineteenth century, and some continued to migrate directly from
China or other neighboring states, particularly Laos. Numbering
about 50,000 in 1970, the Hmong were one of the largest groups of
hill peoples. An additional 40,000 Hmong fled from Laos to
Thailand in 1975, but by the late 1980s many of these had
migrated elsewhere, some going to the United States. The Mien
were even more recent arrivals, most of them having come from
Laos after 1945. Their numbers were estimated at 30,000 in the
1980s. These two groups, particularly the Hmong, were among those
affected by the security operations of the Thai government that
began in the mid-1960s. These actions occurred in part because
the Hmong, like other mountain groups, were said to be destroying
forests in the course of practicing their traditional shifting
cultivation, and in part because their chief cash crop was the
opium poppy
(see State of National Security
, ch. 5).
Data as of September 1987
|
