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The Dai Name: Dai, Tai, Shan Population: 1,150,000 Localization: Yunnan Province, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefectures, and several discrits between them. |
The official category "Dai" includes several Tai-speaking groups linguistically related to other peoples belonging to the Tai-Kadai (Dong-Tai in Chinese) linguistic family and classified under the categories Zhuang, Li, or Shui. Those groups currently categorized as "Dai" were traditionally designated by the Han Chinese as "Pai-yi" -a name whose origin remains obscure. Han Chinese, following also traditional categories, still divide these peoples according to arbitrary, non-emic denominations, such as Han Dai (Dry-land Tai) and Shui Dai (Water Tai), Huayao Dai (Flowered-belt Tai), etc.
The two most important Tai groups included in the "Dai" category are the Tai Neua, who inhabited mainly the Tai Khong area (Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture), as well as other regions along the Burmese border, and the Tai Lue, who live mostly in the Sipsong Panna (Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture), bordering Myanmar and Laos. There are also smaller populations of these groups in neighbouring Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. While the culture of these main groups, as well as that of the Tai Mao, also concentrated in the Tai Khong area and along the Burmese border, is determined by the Theravada Buddhist tradition, other groups have maintained Tai cults previous to the arrival of Buddhism in these regions. This is also the case for a small number of Tai groups living along the Vietnamese border, such as the Tai Dam, Tai Khao or the Tai Leang (Black, White and Red Tai, respectively).
In
spite of a supposed common origin and common cultural traits, historically
most of the groups categorized as "Dai" had hardly any contact
among them, and developed diverse economic and cultural systems: the Tai
Neua or the Tai Lue, for instance, were culturally closer to other Tai
groups inhabiting areas being part of present-day Myanmar (the so-called
"Shan") or Thailand. As it is true for these areas, Tai groups
living in present-day P. R. China lived in interaction with other, mainly
Mon-Khmer or Tibeto-Burman-speaking ethnic groups such as Bulang, Akha/
Hani or Lahu.
Introductory
Articles in Ethnic China
The
Dai peoples: The official category "Dai"
includes several Tai-speaking groups linguistically related to other peoples
belonging to the Tai-Kadai
The sacred forests
of the Dai: Protecting the ancestors - protecting nature.
Scholars Researches available in the Web
Jerold A. Edmondson.- The
power of language over the past: Tai settlement and Tai linguistics in
southern China and northern Vietnam.
Helen James.- Transition and Tradition in a White Tai Village in north Vietnam
Susan McCarthy.- Gods of Wealth, Temples of Prosperity: Party-State Participation in the Minority Cultural Revival
This article contrasts Chinese government support for the minority cultural revival among the Bai and Dai in Yunnan Province, with a crackdown on religious expression in Beijing. Inconsistencies in the state's behaviour in these cases might be attributed to arbitrary decision-making, or to "internal orientalism".
Suriya
Ratanakul.- Tai
People and Their Languages: Theories Concerning the Origin of the Tai
Language and the Tai Homeland
How is it that locating the homeland of the Tai-speaking
people at the foot of the Altai Mountains amounts to patriotism?
Yang
Guangyuan.- A
Cultural Interpretation of the Religious and Sacrificial Rites of the
Dai Nationality
Primitive religion is usually the first popular religious belief of any
ethnic group in its survival and development. In the early stage of Dai
society, the Dais believed in the Family God (phi1 hcn2), the Village
God (tsau3 man3) and the Meng God (sc3 mci2 or tsau3 mci2)
Books
and references
Free
books about the Dai Nationality
The Dai of Yunnan in 1917, as seen by Roy Chapman Andrews in Camps and Trails in China
Basic
Bibliography of the Dai
Chinese Bibliography of the Dai
Photo Exhibitions
Ethnic
China photo exhibitions
More Photo exhibitions
Music
Dai
music
A guide to download their music
Films and Video
Documentary
Films about the Dai
Available dvds and vcds about the Dai
Image of the the Dai in the cinema
Art and Handicrafts
The
Dai in the art
Art Exhibitions
Travel
Travel
to Dai lands
Wiki Ethnic China
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