Isan people

The Isan people (Thai: คนอีสาน, RTGS: Khon Isan, Thai pronunciation: [kʰōn ʔīːsǎːn]; Lao: ຄົນອີສານ, Burmese: အီသန်လူမျိုး) or Northeastern Thai people are an ethno-regional group native to Northeastern Thailand ("Isan")[2] with an estimated population of about 22 million.[1][3] Alternative terms for this group are T(h)ai Isan,[1][4] Thai-Lao,[5] Lao Isan,[1][6] or Isan Lao. Like Thais (Siamese) and Lao, they belong to the linguistic family of Tai peoples.

Not to be confused with Esan people.
Isan people
Isan woman wearing traditional Sinh at Ubon Ratchathani Candle Festival
Total population
22 million[1]
Regions with significant populations
Thailand (Northeastern region and Greater Bangkok)
Languages
Isan (Lao), Thai
Religion
Predominantly Theravada Buddhism
Related ethnic groups
Other Tai peoples

In a broader sense, everyone who comes from the 20 northeastern provinces of Thailand may be called khon isan. In the narrower sense, the term refers only to the ethnic Lao who make up the majority population in most parts of the region. Following the separation of Isan from the historical Lao Kingdom, its integration into the Thai nation state and the central government's policy of "Thaification", they have developed a distinct regional identity that differs both from the Laotians of Laos and the Thais of Central Thailand.[2][7][8] Integration of this identity into Thai national identity began around 1900,[9][10][11] accelerated during the fascist era,[12] was aggressively pursued during the Cold War,[2] and is maintained today, although in 2011, Thailand officially recognized the Lao identity to the United Nations.[3][13] Even during the height of the Cold War, the level of this integration was very high,[2] as measured by expression of nationalist sentiments.[14] Even today, the Isan people are some of the most nationalist in Thailand; they are more nationalist than the Central Thai.[15][16] As such, during the height of Thailand's 'color wars' in the late 2000s and early 2010s, the mainly Isan-based Red Shirts were not calling for separatism but a return to democracy, in support of the Pheu Thai party.[17]

Almost all inhabitants of Thailand's Northeast are Thai nationals. Yet a majority of them (approximately 80%)[18] are ethnically Lao and speak a variant of the Lao language when at home (the three main Lao dialects spoken in Northeastern Thailand are summarized as the Isan language).[19] To avoid being subjected to derogatory stereotypes and perceptions associated with Lao-speaking people, most prefer to call themselves khon isan.[20][21]

Official status

Thailand's longstanding policy was not to regard Isan as a separate ethnicity, based on the principle of considering all Tai groups living in Thailand as part of the Thai people. This successfully downplayed the majority Lao ethnicity and led to the development of a distinct regional Isan identity,[22] which is, nonetheless, multi ethnic.

In 2011, Thailand recognized almost all its ethnolinguistic identities. The following table shows all the officially recognized ethnolinguistic groups of Northeast Thailand.[3] The source, a 2011 country report to the International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, uses revised (2004) Mahidol University Ethnolinguistic Maps of Thailand data (1997), which provides population numbers for most Northeast Thailand ethnic groups.[23]

Ethnic groups of Northeast Thailand by language family[3]

Language family Ethnic group Persons
Tai Lao Esan / Thai Lao 13,000,000
Tai Central Thai 800,000
Tai Thai Khorat / Tai Beung / Tai Deung 600,000
Tai Thai-Loei 500,000
Tai Phu Thai 500,000
Tai Nyaw 500,000
Tai Kaleung 200,000
Tai Yoy
Tai Phuan
Tai Tai-dam (Song) (not specified)
Tai Total 16,103,000
Austroasiatic Thailand Khmer / Northern Khmer 1,400,000
Austroasiatic Kuy / Kuay 400,000
Austroasiatic So 70,000
Austroasiatic Bru
Austroasiatic Vietnamese 20,000
Austroasiatic Ngeu 10,000
Austroasiatic Ngah Kur / Chao Bon / Khon Dong 7,000
Austroasiatic So (Thavaung) 1,500
Austroasiatic Mon 1,000
Austroasiatic Total 1,909,000
Cannot identify ethnicity and amount 3,288,000
Total Total 21,300,000

Subsequently, in 2015, the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security's 2015 Master Plan for the Development of Ethnic Groups in Thailand 2015-2017[24] officially recognized the majority of the Northeast's peoples, the main exception being the 'Thai Lao' group. Further, it did not recognize the 'Isan' ethnic identity.

Ethnology

The first Western scholar to identify and study the distinct "ethno-regional" identity of khon isan was the US anthropologist Charles F. Keyes in 1967.[25] He chose to categorize them as a "ethno-regional" group rather than an ethnic minority, given that their "cultural differences have been taken to be characteristic of a particular part of the country rather than of a distinctive people."[26] He has, nonetheless, consistently described them as being formed mainly of the ethnic Lao group.[2]

Language
Main article: Isan language

About 88% of the people habitually speak the Isan language at home, while 11% say they speak both Isan and Central Thai among themselves, and only 1% speak Central Thai exclusively.[1] "Isan", "Lao" and "Thai" languages form a dialect continuum, in many cases the linguistic varieties do not coincide with the geographical and political boundaries. Defining and differentiating these three "languages" according to objective, linguistic criteria is impossible. The different terms are rather used for political and emotional reasons.[27] In official contexts as well as in school and university classes, only Standard Thai is allowed. There are hardly any mass media publishing or broadcasting in Isan. Many Isan people, especially the younger and well-educated ones as well as those living in towns or outside their native region, master standard Thai on a native or near-native level. Some of them are even shy to speak their original language with their own parents,[4] and in public or in the presence of Thais from other regions[21] due to the low social prestige.[28] Many Central Thais, but also some Isan speakers, associate the Isan language with being uneducated and backward.[28] Therefore, many Isan practice diglossia (i.e. Isan in familiar and informal contexts, standard Thai in public and official ones)[29] or code-switching in their everyday lives.[30] Despite effectively being banned in official discourse, since at least the 1997 Thai constitution, the Isan language has been used publicly within the Northeast for communicating Thai discourses,[31] including political discourses,[32] and there has been a recent resurgence in assertion of the Lao identity, including language.[33]

Process of acculturation
See also: Thaification

From the late nineteenth century into the 1930s, the Siamese and then Thai states employed diverse means to integrate the people of the former Lao principalities into the Thai state, including military conscription, forced labour, the introduction of Thai provincial administrative systems,[34] the Siamese monarchy, the Siamese religious sangha and Buddhist calendar (as opposed to the Lao sangha and religious calendar or hit sipsong khong sipsii), and a national education system and bureaucracy.[11] Thai sociopolitical integration of the Isan people into Siam was in some cases met with insurrection in the form of the Holy Men's Rebellions.[35] In the late 1930s, the Thai Cultural Mandates were deployed; by this period, acculturation included the burning of ancient Lao Buddhist manuscripts and records, in order to eliminate Lao culture, especially Lao literacy.[36] In the 1950s, during the Cold War, acculturation accelerated, incorporating more determined and institutionalized state development that included a sacralized bureaucracy,[37] economic development, mandatory primary and then secondary education, health programs, infrastructure (roads and rail) and media (print and radio, followed by television) programs, inspired by Thai nationalism and utilizing the Thai monarchy as a unifying symbol. The overall result was a significant shift towards the Thai language and Thai dress norms, combined with a greater awareness of Thai national identity as defined by adoption of national symbols (e.g., the Thai flag and photographs of the Thai monarch in homes) and reverence towards the Thai Sangha and the Thai monarchy.[38] The integration of Isan people into Thai national identity was generally successful, though with significant structural inequalities remaining, meaning socioeconomic and political integration remain problematic.[39] However, cultural assimilation in terms of, for example, food,[40] music[41] and language[42] was never complete, more hybridized, and in more recent years, there has been a resurgence in some of the local Isan regional and ethnic cultural identities, such as Phu Thai[43] and Lao.[33] This has been due in part to greater multiculturalism and political decentralization beginning in the late 1990s, following the 1997 Constitution and 1999 Education Act, as well as the work of institutes working on language and cultural maintenance and revitalization, such as Mahidol University's Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia (RILCA).[44]

Migration

Millions of people have migrated from Isan to the Bangkok agglomeration seeking work and they constitute at least one-fourth of the capital's population.[45][46] About 8,000 from Isan live in Laos on the eastern bank of the Mekong River, which forms much of the border with Thailand. Others have emigrated to Malaysia, Singapore, and western countries such as Australia and the United States.[1]

Socioeconomic position

The socioeconomic integration of the Isan people is an unfinished and ongoing project, and the ethnic minorities of Northeast Thailand are heavily affected by the regional disparities that plague Thailand in terms of, for instance, socioeconomic and educational outcomes.[39] For the period of the 1970s and 1980s, the lower outcomes experienced by the Ian people has been described as internal colonialism due to Isan people filling a cultural class role as construction workers, gardeners, and maids for the Central Thai.[47] More recently, it has led to the integration of Isan people being characterized as 'integration without inclusion'.[48][49][50] A 2019 Asia Foundation report highlighted that Isan people were less affected by poverty than in the past, except in rural areas; that their incomes were stagnant, though they were optimistic for the future; that most people still owned land, but that it was unproductive; they experienced extremely high levels of household debt; that fewer of them were now migrating to other regions of Thailand; that a high percentage of survey respondents supported greater development and industrialization in the region; that most were actually satisfied with educational quality; and that Thailand's universal health courage scheme was greatly benefiting them. The report concludes by pointing out that, contrary to stigma, Isan people are not "unsophisticated peasants".[51]

See also

Further reading
  • Asia Foundation (2019). Thailand's Inequality: Myths & Reality of Isan. The Asia Foundation.
  • David Brown (1994). "Internal colonialism and ethnic rebellion in Thailand". The State and Ethnic Politics in Southeast Asia. Routledge. pp. 109–142.
  • The Isaan Record (online magazine).
  • Volker Grabowsky, ed. (1995). "The Northeast (Isan)". Regions and National Integration in Thailand, 1892-1992. Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 105–192.
  • Charles F. Keyes (2014). Finding Their Voice: Northeastern Villagers and the Thai State. Silkworm Books.
  • Duncan McCargo; Krisadawan Hongladarom (June 2004). "Contesting Isan-ness: Discourses of Politics and Identity in Northeast Thailand" (PDF). Asian Ethnicity. 5 (2): 219–234. doi:10.1080/1463136042000221898. S2CID 30108605.

References
  1. Hattaway, Paul (ed.) (2004), "Isan", Peoples of the Buddhist World, William Carey Library, p. 103CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  2. Keyes, Charles F. (2014). Finding their voice: Northeastern villagers and the Thai state. Chiang Mai: Silkworm. ISBN 978-616-215-074-6. OCLC 1127266412.
  3. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; Reports submitted by States parties under article 9 of the Convention : Thailand (PDF) (in English and Thai). United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. 28 July 2011. pp. 3, 5, 95. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  4. McCargo, Duncan; Hongladarom, Krisadawan (2004). "Contesting Isan‐ness: discourses of politics and identity in Northeast Thailand". Asian Ethnicity. 5 (2): 219–234. doi:10.1080/1463136042000221898. ISSN 1463-1369. S2CID 30108605.
  5. Hayashi Yukio (2003). Practical Buddhism among the Thai-Lao. Kyoto University Press.
  6. Barbara A. West (2009). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. Facts on File. p. 449. ISBN 978-1438119137.
  7. Hesse-Swain, Catherine (2011-01-01). Speaking in Thai, dreaming in Isan: Popular Thai television and emerging identities of Lao Isan youth living in northeast Thailand. Edith Cowan University, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia. OCLC 1029867099.
  8. McCargo, Duncan; Hongladarom, Krisadawan (2004). "Contesting Isan‐ness: discourses of politics and identity in Northeast Thailand". Asian Ethnicity. 5 (2): 219–234. doi:10.1080/1463136042000221898. ISSN 1463-1369. S2CID 30108605.
  9. Iijima, Akiko (2018). "The invention of "Isan" history". Journal of the Siam Society. 106: 171–200.
  10. Streckfuss, David (1993). "The mixed colonial legacy in Siam: Origins of Thai racialist thought, 1890–1910". Autonomous Histories, Particular Truths: Essays in the Honor of John R. W. Smail. Madison, WI: Centre for Southeast Asian Studies. pp. 123–153.
  11. Breazeale, Kennon. (1975). The integration of the Lao States into the Thai Kingdom. Bodleian Library, Oxford University. OCLC 223634347.
  12. Strate, Shane, author. The lost territories : Thailand's history of national humiliation. ISBN 978-0-8248-6971-7. OCLC 986596797.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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  17. Alexander, Saowanee T. (2019). "Identity in Isan and the Return of the Redshirts in the 2019 Elections and Beyond". The Kyoto Review. 27.
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  19. Draper, John (2016). "The Isan Culture Maintenance and Revitalisation Programme's multilingual signage attitude survey: Phase II". Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. 37 (8): 832–848. doi:10.1080/01434632.2016.1142997. ISSN 0143-4632. S2CID 216112353.
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  23. แผนที่ภาษาของกลุ่มชาติพันธุ์ต่าง ๆ ในประเทศไทย [Ethnolinguistic Maps of Thailand] (PDF) (in Thai). Bangkok: Office of the National Culture Commission. 2004. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  24. แผนแม่บท การพัฒนากลุ่มชาติพันธุ์ในประเทศไทย(พ.ศ.2558-2560) [Master Plan for the Development of Ethnic Groups in Thailand 2015-2017] (PDF) (in Thai). Bangkok: Ministry of Social Development and Human Security. 2015. pp. 1, 29.
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  26. Charles F. Keyes (1997), "Cultural Diversity and National Identity in Thailand", Government policies and ethnic relations in Asia and the Pacific, MIT Press, pp. 197–231, at p. 213
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  28. Draper, John Charles (2010). "Inferring ethnolinguistic vitality in a community of Northeast Thailand". Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. 31 (2): 135–147. doi:10.1080/01434630903470845. ISSN 0143-4632. S2CID 145258391.
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