Doi Chiang Dao
General Education credit in HBS -- Studies in Human Behavior and
Society
Major credit -- Sociology-Anthropology, Women's Studies, Asian Studies
Cost of Program $2500
(Includes Airfare, Food, Lodging, Fees, etc.)
Village Scene
Through interviews with tribal leaders and village residents and the reading of written materials concerning the Sgaw Karen, students will gain an understanding of the Karen people. The Karen are facing rapic cultural assimilation due to pressures from the dominant culture and social institutions of Thailand, and from trends toward global homogenization shaped by increasing activity of multinational corporations and the spread of Western culture to previously more isolated peoples of the world. Students taking this class will live near the Sgaw Karen village of Tee Mae Ker Lah, situated 120 miles northwest of Chiang Mai (Thailand's second largest city).
Karen Women
Through interviews with tribal leaders and village residents and the reading of written materials concerning the Sgaw Karen, students will gain an understanding of the Karen people. The Karen are facing rapic cultural assimilation due to pressures from the dominant culture and social institutions of Thailand, and from trends toward global homogenization shaped by increasing activity of multinational corporations and the spread of Western culture to previously more isolated peoples of the world. Students taking this class will live near the Sgaw Karen village of Tee Mae Ker Lah, situated 120 miles northwest of Chiang Mai (Thailand's second largest city).
The country of Thailand has a population of approximately 61 million people, and almost 695,000 of those are tribal minorities who live in the mountains. Of Thailand's six major tribal groups, the Karen are as large as all other tribal groups combined--nearly 322,000 people. The Karen share a common language, biological characteristics, and share a cultural heritage. This heritage includes Karen history, tales, legends, myths in songs, poetry, and prose; religious rituals; and preferences for dress and food.
The Karen of Tee Mae Ker Lah, like all other ethnic groups, are confronted with social change. As much as they want to maintain their Karen ethnic identity within the country of Thailand, they are being pressured to assimilate into the larger society. Some of the social changes promote what Karen consider to be a better life for their families--they have greater access to education, health care, food, transportation, communication, better housing, ample water, warm clothing, and energy to light their homes and cook their food. Yet, such benefits may come at the cost of loosing their distinctive Karen culture.
Increasingly the primary language of Karen children is Thai and presently few children are able to read and write their tribal language. Traditional Karen dress, an important source of ethnic pride and identity, is now reserved for special occasions. The performance of ancestral Karen music and dance is so rare that even most middle-age adults are unable to participate. Historic Karen stories, poems, and songs are no longer a part of the collective memory. Their history and folk heros are not even taught in the private schools that they themselves sponsor. Given the fact Tee Mae Ker Lah is located in a government protected forestry area and there are virtually no additional rice fields being cleared to provide for the needs of the village's children and their future families, how long will it take before the Karen people are completely assimilated into Thai society once they leave their mountain homelands and move into the large urban centers of Thailand?
CMU North Gate
For the first week of the class, students will live in Chiang Mai (Thailand) and attempt to understand the larger Thai society that is attempting to assimilate the Karen people. After taking up residency in the village of Tee Mae Ker Lah, students will gather empirical data on Karen family, religious, political, economic, and educational institutions. They will also attempt to understand how changes within the larger society and world have affected the lives of people in the village.
While in the village, students will receive group and individualized instruction as they write a descriptive paper on the structure, functions, and changes that have taken place in one of the following social institutions: family, religion, or education. In gathering information for these papers, students will have group access and personal interviews (assisted by interpreters) with village leaders, pastors, educators, the village headman and tribal elders. In addition to the term paper, students will take an examination covering readings on the Sgaw Karen of northern Thailand and submit a personal "reflexive" journal.
Wat Prasing
Jan 5 (M) Meet at MSP Airport at 10:OO PM to fly to Chiang Mai, Thailand
Jan 7 (W) Arrive in Chiang Mai at 7:30 PM and transfer to Suan Doi Guest House.
Jan 8 (F)
8:00 - 9:00 City Tour
9:00 - 10:30 Lecture -- Tribal People in Thailand
10:45 - 12:00 Lecture -- Karen People and Culture
1:30 - 3:00 Lecture on contemporary problems faced by tribal peoples--alcohol, drugs,
prostitution, depleting land resources.
Jan 8 (Sa) Elephant Camp, 14 Waterfalls, Butterfly and Orchid Farms, Botanical Gardens & Wat Doi Suthep
Jan 9 (Su) Visit factories (silk, silver, woodcarving) and the hot springs at San Kamphaeng and Zoo near CMU
Jan 10 (M)
9:00-10:30 Film on the Karen of Tee Mae Ker Lah
10:30-12:00 Lecture -- Dr. Gary of Ford Foundation on Alcohol, Drugs, Prostitution, and
AIDS
1:30 - 5:00 visit three wats (Suan Dok, Phra Singh, Umong) with Ajaan Sommai and have
lecture on Thai Buddhism
Jan 11 (Tu)
9:00-5:00 Lecture and Field Trip to Karen Social Institutions within the city of Chiang Mai (Center for the Uplift of Hilltribe Peoples, Tribal Research Center, Thailand Karen Baptist Church, New Life Center, and Thai Tribal Crafts Center)
Jan 12-29 Conduct research in Tee Mae Ker Lah village. Students will be housed at at the Hilltribe Resources and Development Center in a hostel located in Ban Mai Phattana. The village is located 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Chiang Mai. After arriving at the Hilltribe Resources and Development Center we will move into the guest hostel. We will stay for three weeks in the village. During this time we will interview village leaders (headmen, pastors, animist priest and shaman, Sahamit School teachers and principal, and a variety of village elders). Students attend a number of village cultural events and ceremonies and visit village social institutions. We will also visit two Hmong villages, a Lisu village, and at least seven Karen villages, and have short home stays with village people.
Jan 29 (Th) Return to Chiang Mai and take night train to Bangkok
Jan 30 (F) Arrive Bangkok 6:00AM and travel to Pattaya Beach and spend night in Pattaya at Orchid Lodge.
Jan 31 (Sa) Drive to Murang Boran and tour ancient city, stay at Bangkok YMCA.
Feb 1 (Su) Royal Palace and Wats, and Farewell Dinner
Feb 2 (M) Transfer to Airport at 6:00 AM and return to Minneapolis
Mike Leming
The primary focus of Dr. Leming's formal academic training was the sociological study of social institutions. Dr. Leming has published extensively on cross-cultural and comparative studies of kinship, religion, death rituals, and bereavement behavior leading to the publication of nine textbooks and anthologies.
During the 1990-91 academic year, Dr. Leming served as the field supervisor for the Term in Asia and lived in Thailand for three months and studied the Thai language at Chiang Mai University. In January of 1991 he made his first visit to the six Karen villages in the Mae Chem area. Since that time he has returned to these villages and lived in Tee Mae Ker Lah for one month stays in 1993, 1994 and 1995 for the purpose of teaching and doing ethnographic research on Karen village life. As a result of these research efforts, he has made many professional presentations on Karen village life, produced a documentary video tape (80 minutes in length in both English and Karen languages), and filed ethnographic research reports with the Thai Government, the Hilltribe Research Institute, and the Karen Cultural Center in Ban Mai Phattana.
During his 1995-96 sabbatical leave, Dr. Leming served as visiting professor of sociology in the Faculty of Humanities of Chiang Mai University. While in Thailand, and with the assistance of a major grant by the Pew Foundation, Professor Leming conducted ethnographic and survey research in three Karen villages concerned with the cultural assimilation of the Karen people of the Mae Chem area. This reasearch lead to the production of an 80 minute documentary film and a monograph on the Karen of Mu Si Khee. He has spent time in more than 20 different Thai tribal villages. In the context of this sabbatical research effort, Dr. Leming did further Thai language study at Chiang Mai University.
Sam Lor (Tricycle)
CMU Salatham Hall
Hayami, Yoko. 1992. "RITUAL AND RELIGIOUS TRANSFORMATION AMONG SGAW KAREN OF NORTHERN THAILAND: IMPLICATIONS ON GENDER AND ETHNIC IDENTITY." Ph. D. Thesis Department of Anthropology, Brown University. Hovemyr, Anders. 1989. IN SEARCH OF THE KAREN KING: A STUDY IN KAREN IDENTITY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO 19TH CENTURY KAREN EVANGELISM IN NORTHERN THAILAND. Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala University Press. Keyes, Charles F. (Editor). 1979. ETHNIC ADAPTATION AND IDENTITY: THE KAREN ON THE THAI FRONTIER WITH BURMA. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues. Maybury-Lewis. 1997. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, ETHNIC GROUPS, AND THE STATE (The Cultural Survival Studies in Ethnicity and Change). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Mulder, Niels. 1992. INSIDE THAI SOCIETY: AN INTERPRETATION OF EVERYDAY LIFE. Bangkok: D. K. Book House. Renard, Ronald D. 1980. KARIANG: HISTORY OF KAREN-T'AI RELATIONS FROM THE BEGINNINGS TO 1923. Ph. D. Thesis Department of History, University of Hawaii. Renard, Ronald D., et. al. 1988. CHANGES IN THE NORTHERN HILLS: AN EXAMINATION OF THE IMPACT OF HILL TRIBE DEVELOPMENT WORK 1957-1987. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Research and Development Center, Payap University. Yoshimatsu, Kumiko. 1989. THE KAREN WORLD: THE COSMOLOGICAL AND RITUAL BELIEF SYSTEM OF THE SGAW KAREN IN NORTHWESTERN CHIANG MAI PROVINCE. "Final research Report presented to the National Research council of Thailand, Bangkok."
Hayami, Yoko. 1992. "RITUAL AND RELIGIOUS TRANSFORMATION AMONG SGAW KAREN OF NORTHERN THAILAND: IMPLICATIONS ON GENDER AND ETHNIC IDENTITY." Ph. D. Thesis Department of Anthropology, Brown University. This is a recent anthropological Ph. D. dissertation dealing with changes in three Karen villages--including Tee Mae Ker Lah and Ban Wat Chan. Hovemyr, Anders. 1989. IN SEARCH OF THE KAREN KING: A STUDY IN KAREN IDENTITY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO 19TH CENTURY KAREN EVANGELISM IN NORTHERN THAILAND. Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala University Press. This is an Ph. D. dissertation in the field of history concerned with Karen Identity in the countries of Burma and Thailand and focusing on the changes that have taken place in the 19th and 20th centuries. Keyes, Charles F. (Editor). 1979. ETHNIC ADAPTATION AND IDENTITY: THE KAREN ON THE THAI FRONTIER WITH BURMA. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues. This edited work is concerned with Karen Identity in the countries of Burma and Thailand. Maybury-Lewis. 1997. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, ETHNIC GROUPS, AND THE STATE (The Cultural Survival Studies in Ethnicity and Change). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. The first in a new series of monographs on ethnicity and social change sponsored by Cultural Survival. The book focuses on ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples as they try to defend their rights, their resources and their ways of life within modern states. Mulder, Niels. 1992. INSIDE THAI SOCIETY: AN INTERPRETATION OF EVERYDAY LIFE. Bangkok: D. K. Book House. This short book provides an understanding of Thai culture and society written from a "forang" perspective based upon interviews with indigenous Thai by a visiting professor at Chiang Mai University. Renard, Ronald D. 1980. KARIANG: HISTORY OF KAREN-T'AI RELATIONS FROM THE BEGINNINGS TO 1923. Ph. D. Thesis Department of History, University of Hawaii. This is an Ph. D. dissertation on the history of the Thai Karen until 1923. Renard, Ronald D., et. al. 1988. CHANGES IN THE NORTHERN HILLS: AN EXAMINATION OF THE IMPACT OF HILL TRIBE DEVELOPMENT WORK 1957-1987. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Research and Development Center, Payap University. An empirical research monograph investigating social change of tribal villages in the Mae Chaem area. Yoshimatsu, Kumiko. 1989. THE KAREN WORLD: THE COSMOLOGICAL AND RITUAL BELIEF SYSTEM OF THE SGAW KAREN IN NORTHWESTERN CHIANG MAI PROVINCE. "Final research Report presented to the National Research council of Thailand, Bangkok." An empirical research monograph the explores traditional the Karen religious practice of "au xae."
Wat Jedi Luan
Conklin, James. 1984. "WORLD VIEW EVANGELISM: A CASE STUDY OF THE KAREN BAPTIST CHURCH IN THAILAND," Doctor of Missiology Dissertation, Fuller Theological Seminary. De Vos, W. and L. Romanussi-Ross. (Editors). 1982. ETHNIC IDENTITY: CULTURAL CONTINUITIES AND CHANGE. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Keyes, Charles F. (Editor) 1977. THE GOLDEN PENINSULA: CULTURE AND ADAPTATION IN MAINLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA. New York: Macmillan Press. Koehler, Oliver. 1990. "Teamegala and The Karen Baptist Church," Thesis for School of International Training, College Semester Abroad in Thailand, Cornell University. Lewis, Paul and Elaine Lewis. 1984. PEOPLES OF THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE. London: Thames and Hudson. Maniratanavongsiri, Chumpol. 1992. "RELIGION AND SOCIAL CHANGE: ETHNIC CONTINUITY AND CHANGE AMONG THE KAREN IN THAILAND WITH REFERENCE TO THE CANADIAN INDIAN EXPERIENCE." M. A. Thesis Canadian Heritage and Development Studies Program, Trent University (Peterborough, Ontario, Canada). McKinnon, John and Bernard Vienne. 1989. HILL TRIBES TODAY: PROBLEMS IN CHANGE. White Lotus-Orstom (Tri-Orstom Project). Mischune, Roland. 1986. "ENVIRONMENTAL ADAPTATION AMONG UPLANDS PEOPLES OF NORTHERN THAILAND: KAREN/HMONG CASE STUDY. "Final research Report presented to the National Research council of Thailand, Bangkok." Rashid, Mohd Razha and Pauline H. Walker. 1981. THE KAREN PEOPLE: AN INTRODUCTION. (Asian Folklore and Social Monographs Volume 105. Taipei, Taiwan: The Chinese Association for Folklore. Renard, Ronald D. Ruthjaporn Prachadetsuwat, Soe Moe. 1991. SOME NOTES ON THE KAREN AND THEIR MUSIC. Chiang Mai: Center for the Arts and Culture, Payap University. Zan, U. n.d. "History of the Karen Church in Thailand," translated by Thra Thogkham Songsaeng. Payap University Archives, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Golfing in Thailand
Karen House
Mike in Thailand
Villages (Karen-Thai) Houses Families Population/Ave + Tee Mae Ker Ler -- Nong Chet Noi 76 82 365 4.8 O Wa Su Ko Khee--Hwuih Bong 35 40 177 3.3 + No Dae Law--Ban Mai Phattana 13 15 65 5.0 = Pla Doe -- Ban Din 74 77 425 5.7 + Maw Tar -- Chaem Luang 34 39 360 10.6 = Maw Day -- Kiau Pong 31 34 180 5.8 = Sa Kaw Lu -- San Muang 44 44 328 7.5 O Kho Kaw Tee -- Wat Chan 88 90 896 10.2 = Kloe Klo -- Naklaet Hoi 23 25 186 8.1 = Nya Su Klo -- Hwuih Ya 34 36 170 5.0 + Paw Hser Kee -- Hwuih Tong 96 112 300 3.1 + All Christian = Mixed Christian/Buddhist/Animist O Buddhist or Animist
Wat Jet Yod
Wat Doi Suthep
Solar Eclipse and King's Statue
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