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Chiang Mai People & Culture People here mix up with many tribes so they have many interesting cultures with their hospitality, gentle and smile!

Culture of Chiangmai	People	Language	Religion
Spirits and Mediums	Buddhist Festival	Education & Schools

Culture of Chiang Mai

People practiced wet rice subsistence agriculture and were selfsustaining, making what they needed. Customs and beliefs associated with the agricultural cycle were passed down from their ancestors.

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People
The people of the valleys refer to themselves as the khon muang, and are of mixed origin. The first inhabitants were known as the Lawa. These people were joined by other groups moving along the trading routes of the river valleys.

Notable amongst these were the Mon, who originated from the region around Thaton in Burma. The Mon founded Haripunchai, a northern offshoot of the Dvaravati civilization that predominated in the Chao Phraya basin from the 6th - 10th centuries. By the 13th century, however, the dominant group were ethnic Tai, who had been migrating south into the valleys from at least the 10th century (some theories plausibly suggest the Tai may have been in the area long before this date). This group came to be known as the Tai Yuan.

Until the European colonialism of the 19th century, the politics of the north was dominated by the struggles with the Burmese, and between the kingdoms of Ayutthaya, Lanna and Lan Xang. Each military incursion involved forced relocation of populations to increase manpower. Thus the wars of the region served mainly to mix ethnic Tai groups. Such resettlements tended to be geographically based, resulting in subtle differences within the population of the valley to this day.

The second half of the 19th century saw a large influx of overseas Chinese coming up from the South, as well as Haw Chinese coming overland from Yunnan. Many of the latter were Muslims who had fled to the hills after the brutal Chinese suppression of the Panthay rebellion in Yunnan in 1873. At the same time the hilltribes were also moving south through the uplands.

In the mid 19th century Westerners started arriving with Christian missionaries and increased in numbers with the growth of the teak industry. The teak industry also attracted large numbers of Shan who worked all over the north for the logging companies.

The 20th century has seen large migrations of hilltribes as well as  Kuomintang Chinese, who fled China after the communist victory of 1949. Finally the recent economic growth has attracted people from all over Thailand. The incorporation of Lanna into the global market place brought to an end the relative cultural isolation of the once remote northern valleys.

Tai
The Thais originate from an ethnic group known as the Tai, who were the forebears of peoples found in central Southeast Asia today. These include the Dai and Tai Leu in Yunnan, the Shan in Myanmar , the Lao, the Tai Yuan (Northern Thais) and the Siamese (Central and Southern) Thai, and total more than 90 million people.

Controversy surrounds the origin of the Tai, who spoke a language of the SinoTibetan group of languages. Linguistic evidence suggests that they probably originated from Kwangtung and Kwangsi in coastal south China . From there they migrated south and west.

The Tai social unit was a muang (the Burmese and Chinese equivalents of muang are meng and mong), which consisted of a group of vil­ lages protected by a central fortified town known as a wiang. A muang was physically restricted to the valley where it was located. The leader of a muang protected villagers from danger beyond the valley in exchange for their manpower, the main source of political strength. If the leader of the muang was a high ranking noble or monarch, then the fortified centre became a Chiang.

Kingdoms were formed from alliances between semiautonomous leaders of the muang. Alliances depended entirely upon personal relationships between them, so the death of a powerful king

often brought political chaos.

Language

Religion

Theravada Buddhism in its essence is about the dhamma, the truth according to the Buddhist view. As the state religion of Lanna, however, it became connected with Brahmanic court traditions. These came from the indianised empires of the Khmer at Angkor and the Burmans at Pagan, which were at the height of their power in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Prior to the dominance of these beliefs, the Tai were animists with a fertility cult centered on the wet-rice cultivation cycle. The blend of the Tai spirit world with Buddhism has resulted in the variety of customs and religious practice today. [See Spirits and Mediums]

Central to the traditional Thai view of the cosmos is the cycle of rebirth. To commit sin is to be reborn into a hell world, and to make merit is to progress into a better after-life. A forest monk may explain this to a Westerner as an allegory for the laws of cause and effect known as karma. To a Thai villager, near Mae Chaem the holy images in the temples are the home of powerful spirits, and the vivid depictions of heaven and hell are maps that help him find his way in the cycle of seasons and years.

The temple has long been the social center of rural Thai communities and Buddhism is woven into the fabric of rural life. The monk-hood originally provided the only education available and served to occupy males without work, especially during the rainy season. To this day folk festivals involve making merit by supporting the monk-hood with food and labor.

Until quite recently the temple was the main outlet for artistic creativity, the greatest works coming as a result of sponsorship by the ruling nobility. By so doing the rulers not only gained merit, but also gained political legitimacy, as pious works were seen as a crucial part of a leader's majesty.

Buddhist values pervade the character of the Thai, who value maintaining harmony in relationships very highly. To avoid causing offense, Thais pay much attention to outward appearance. However, they also prize having a "cool heart" being jai yen. This means that you should not allow yourself to become "hot" with desire and at the mercy of worldly passions which can lead to harmful actions.

Buddhism also teaches tolerance, and so people have been free to practice other religions. Islam first arrived with Muslim Yunnanese who have been trading in the northern valleys since the time of the Mongols (11th - 13th centuries). The first permanent Christian mission was established in 1867. McCormick Hospital is one of several major institutions that came about with the growth of Christianity in the valley.

Spirits and Mediums

In former times the jungle beyond the muang was considered the abode of beasts, primitives and fearsome spirits, while the city pillar represented the heart of civilisation. Today Indic forms of worship associated with Brahmanism and Buddhism are used in ceremonies to pay respect to the highest spirits that guard the cities. Villages traditionally have a lakban made from a tree trunk in the center of the village, as well as a community spirit house just outside the village.

Pre-Indic practice dominates rituals that honour the lesser ancestral clan spirits. In propitiation rites female mediums fol­lowing clan lineage are possessed by ancestral spirits, reflecting women's spiritual power in the traditional matriarchal structure of northern society (in rural areas men still move into the houses of their spouses).

In Buddhist cosmology the spirits possessing male or female mediums are thought to be thewada who dwell in heavenly realms between the cycle of rebirths, and who are sometimes identified as figures of local historical importance. By providing a beneficial link between spirit world and human realm the mediums are ensuring progress in the cycle of rebirths for all.

In propitiation rituals mediums enter trances, don bright robes, swig rice liquor, dance with abandon and offer guidance to supplicants; whether one comes across such an event is a matter of fortune.

Buddhist Festival

If you visit a temple on a holy day, you may see people dressed in white sitting around the viham. On holy days devout lay Buddhists traditionally stay in the temple for twenty four hours, a practice which the elderly, particularly women folk still observe, but it remains to be seen whether the youth of today will uphold such practices in the future.

On the three main annual Buddhist festivals - Makha Bucha (puja), Visakha Bucha and Asalaha Bucha that celebrate events in the life of the Buddha, people go to the temples early in the evening for the wien tien ceremony. After chanting, a sermon, and some meditation, they walk mindfully three times clockwise around the chedi or viharn holding flowers, a lit candle, and burning incense. These they place nearby as an offering. The ceremony is very atmospheric and it is a good time to go to any of the temples.

Education & Schools

Founded seven hundred years ago, Chiangmai is today a bustling city of over 200,000 people with all modern facilities first class hotels and restaurants, theatres and cinemas, sports complexes and golf courses, shopping malls and hypermarkets, hospitals and condominiums. Yet the moated city contains many beautiful wat or temples from a bygone age, which lend an air of peace, tranquillity and history as a counter balance to all the modern development. Drive twenty minutes from the centre of town in any direction and you will come to little villages nestling amongst the rice fields, or you can climb up through the forest to Doi Suthep perched on the mountain that guards the city.

Chiang Mai is home to five universities, Buddhist and Christian seminaries, technical colleges, four international English language schools and one German one, a large university teaching hospital and several private ones, some with nursing schools. There are also many private language schools as well as the AUA, the British Council, Australian and New Zealand centres and the Alliance Francaise.  

All this means that there are many opportunities for native English language teachers, especially if they have a university degree and teaching qualifications. The many Thai schools are hungry to employ English teachers.  

The international schools cater for the children of ex-patriates living in Thailand and are increasingly attracting Thai children and those from neighbouring countries, whose parents want them to be educated in English. Universities are offering more and more courses in English and are anxious to establish exchange programmes for overseas students and lecturers. All this activity results in a stimulating environment - students exchanging ideas at the food stalls around the university or picnicking beside the lake at the foot of the mountain; English teachers relaxing after a hard day's work at the quiet bars and restaurants along the banks of the River Ping.

In the age of cyberspace and satellite dishes, Chiangmai, only one hour's flight from Bangkok, is no longer an isolated outpost. It is, in fact, a regional centre of communications, the gateway to Myanmar ( Burma), Laos and southern China.

Chiang Mai is a safe, healthy and stimulating place for students, and a low cost, convenient and idyllic heaven for teachers.
Among are some of the schools are as followed :