Aphilak Kasempholkoon
Mahidol University
Inspired by Professor Dr. Khun Banchob Bandhumedha’s field trip surveying the Tai languages and cultures to Assamese villages in India and other places mentioned in one of the Thai classical works, Kale Man Tai (Journey to the Tai's Villages), this study focuses on indigenous rituals and traditions regarded as the basis of Thai culture that have been inherited today in Thailand. Among these is Songkran (Tai-Thai New Year Festival), also known by various names such as as Poi Sang Jaen-Poi Sang Kaen for the Tai Yai in Shan state in Myanmar, Poi Son Nam-Poi Sat Nam for the Tai Dehong and Tai Lue in Xishuangbanna in China, etc. Songkran has been selected as the subject matter because it is popularly followed by almost all Buddhist Tai people, whether or not they live in Thailand. The main purpose of this article is to examine the origin of the tradition, together with the relationship between Tai-Thai cultures, based on the assumption that the Songkran tradition of Tai people maintains its primary forms, whereas the same tradition in Thailand has not only "developed", but also has been "bound with its old roots."
It has been found that Thailand's Songkran traceably keeps original Tai characteristics, but is presented by eminently dynamistic performing ways and artistic elements so that it can be counted as a Thai distinctive festival with these interesting points: 1) the co-originating traditional aetiological myths mentioning the Tai's Khun Sangkhan (God of Songkran Period) and the Thai's Nang Songkran (Songkran Female Deities); 2) the old flower-picking tradition at the end of Songkran performed by Tai-Thai teenagers; 3) the water-pouring tradition to apologize to the elderly and to be blessed by them in several ways of practice called Kong Son, Hang Hot or Tang Benja; 4) various ways of social reinforcement, including the installation of village pillars and the formation of sand pagodas; and 5) the Tai-Thai festival food called kalamae. Nowadays, eventually, there is a vivid dynamism in Tai-Thai Songkran that expresses how the tradition has gradually changed to be a cultural festival among all Tai-Thai ethnic groups and reflects the adaptation of folklore to participate in a creative economy.
(Presented in the 2020 Chulalongkorn Asian Heritage Forum : Thai-Tai Language and Culture, 20 July 2020, The St.Regis Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Department of Thai, Department of Linguistics, Southeast Asian Linguistics Research Unit, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University)