Lawa ( th, ลัวะ or ; ) are an
ethnic group
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
in northern
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
. The
Lawa language
Lawa (La'wa, L'wa) is a Mon–Khmer language of Thailand. There are two distinct varieties or dialects of Lawa, considered to be separate languages; their names in the ''Ethnologue'' are Eastern Lawa and Western Lawa. They are spoken in Lawa vil ...
is related to the
Blang and the
Wa language
Wa (Va) is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Wa people of Myanmar and China. There are three distinct varieties, sometimes considered separate languages; their names in ''Ethnologue'' are Parauk, the majority and standard form; Vo ( Zhen ...
found in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
and
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
, and belongs to the
Palaungic languages
The nearly thirty Palaungic or Palaung–Wa languages form a branch of the Austroasiatic languages.
Phonological developments
Most of the Palaungic languages lost the contrastive voicing of the ancestral Austroasiatic consonants, with the disti ...
, a branch of the
Austroasiatic languages
The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are t ...
. Their population is estimated to be some 17,000.
The Western Lawa are found in the vicinity of
Mae Sariang in the south of
Mae Hong Son Province
Mae Hong Son province ( Burmese: မဲဟောင်ဆောင်; th, แม่ฮ่องสอน, ; Northern Thai: ; Shan: ; formerly called ''Mae Rong Son''), also spelled ''Maehongson'', ''Mae Hong Sorn'' or ''Maehongsorn'', is one of ...
, the Eastern Lawa are centred on
Bo Luang
Bo Luang ( th, บ่อหลวง) is a ''tambon'' (subdistrict) of Hot District, in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand. In 2019 it had a total population of 12,143 people.
Administration
Central administration
The ''tambon'' is subdivided into 13 ...
in
Chiang Mai Province
Chiang Mai ( th, เชียงใหม่, ; nod, , ) is the largest Province (''changwat'') of Thailand. It lies in upper northern Thailand and has a population of 1.78 million people. It is bordered by Chiang Rai to the northeast, Lam ...
.
[http://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/33/89/43/33894368593744268318445295670982885176/silesr2011_044.pdf ]
Overview
The Lawa are sometimes mistaken for being the same people as the
Lua
Lua or LUA may refer to:
Science and technology
* Lua (programming language)
* Latvia University of Agriculture
* Last universal ancestor, in evolution
Ethnicity and language
* Lua people, of Laos
* Lawa people, of Thailand sometimes referred t ...
of northern
Laos
Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...
and of
Nan Province, Thailand, who are speakers of the more distantly related
Khmuic languages
The Khmuic languages are a branch of the Austroasiatic languages spoken mostly in northern Laos, as well as in neighboring northern Vietnam and southern Yunnan, China. Khmu is the only widely spoken language in the group.
Homeland
Paul Sidwel ...
. This problem is compounded by the Eastern Lawa of Chiang Mai Province preferring to be called Lua by outsiders, and by the Thai people generally referring to speakers of these different Palaungic languages as Lua.
Today, those Lawa who have not been integrated in mainstream Thai society, still live a traditional way of life, often professing
animism
Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, Soul, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct Spirituality, spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—Animal, animals, Plant, plants, Ro ...
. As with the other
mountain ethnic groups of Thailand, they are known for extraordinary craft skills, especially for being ironsmiths.
History
In the 5th to 10th century the Lawa people lived in
Central Thailand
Central Thailand (Central plain) or more specifically Siam (also known as Suvarnabhumi and Dvaravati) is one of the regions of Thailand, covering the broad alluvial plain of the Chao Phraya River. It is separated from northeast Thailand (Isan) by ...
, and, together with the
Mon, were the inhabitants of present-day
Lopburi
Lopburi ( th, ลพบุรี, , ) is the capital city of Lopburi Province in Thailand. It is about northeast of Bangkok. It has a population of 58,000. The town (''thesaban mueang'') covers the whole ''tambon'' Tha Hin and parts of Th ...
. The name "Lopburi" is said to have been derived from "Lawaburi", and the city formed the core of an early kingdom in what is now Thailand, the
Lavo Kingdom, which existed from the 7th century CE until it was incorporated into the
Ayutthaya Kingdom
The Ayutthaya Kingdom (; th, อยุธยา, , IAST: or , ) was a Siamese kingdom that existed in Southeast Asia from 1351 to 1767, centered around the city of Ayutthaya, in Siam, or present-day Thailand. The Ayutthaya Kingdom is conside ...
in 1388 CE. Other sources place the Lawa as the original inhabitants of Northern Thailand, pre-dating the Tai migration into these lands.
There is evidence that the Lawa inhabited cities before the arrival of the
Tai peoples
Tai peoples are the populations who speak (or formerly spoke) the Tai languages. There are a total of about 93 million people of Tai ancestry worldwide, with the largest ethnic groups being Dai, Thais, Isan, Tai Yai (Shan), Lao, Tai Ahom, an ...
.
Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai (, from th, เชียงใหม่ , nod, , เจียงใหม่ ), sometimes written as Chiengmai or Chiangmai, is the largest city in northern Thailand, the capital of Chiang Mai province and the second largest city in ...
, Thailand, was founded on the location of a 5th-century CE Lawa walled city, and legends state that
Kengtung
th , เชียงตุง
, other_name = Kyaingtong
, settlement_type = Town
, imagesize =
, image_caption =
, pushpin_map = Myanmar
, pushpin_label_position = left
, ...
in Myanmar was taken from the Lawa in the 13th century CE through cunning and deceit by King
Mangrai Mangrai ( nod, ; th, มังราย; 1238–1311), also known as Mengrai ( th, เม็งราย),The name according to historical sources is "Mangrai", and this is used in most modern scholarly applications. "Mengrai", popularised by a 19 ...
, the founder of the northern Thai
Lanna Kingdom
The Lan Na Kingdom ( nod, , , "Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields"; th, อาณาจักรล้านนา, , ), also known as Lannathai, and most commonly called Lanna or Lanna Kingdom, was an Indianized state centered in present-day ...
.
The Lawa in northern Thai legends
The Lawa people are mentioned in northern Thai legends, mainly in connection with the founding of its cities. The 15th century CE book ''
Cāmadevivaṃsa
The Camadevivamsa ( th, ตำนานจามเทวีวงศ์, , literally, "Chronicle of the Lineage of Cāmadevi") is a Pali chronicle composed in the early 15th century by the Lanna Buddhist monk Mahathera Bodhiramsi ( th, พระ ...
'' by the Chiang Mai monk Bodhiramsi, relates how the
Mon Queen
Camadevi, a princess of the
Lavo Kingdom, established the city of
Haripunchai (present-day
Lamphun
Lamphun ( th, ลำพูน, ) is a town (''thesaban mueang'') in northern Thailand, capital of Lamphun Province. It covers the whole ''tambon'' Nai Mueang of Mueang Lamphun district. As of 2006 it has a population of 14,030. Lamphun lies north ...
) in the 7th century CE and is attacked by Vilanga, king of the Lawa, with 80,000 soldiers. After his defeat, she marries her two sons to the two daughters of the Lawa king, after which the two kingdoms become allies.
The founding of the city state of
Ngoenyang
The Kingdom of Hiran or Kingdom of Ngoenyang ( th, อาณาจักรหิรัญเงินยาง ) was an early mueang or kingdom of the Northern Thai people from the 7th through 13th centuries AD and was originally centered on ...
in the 8th century CE, of which
Mangrai Mangrai ( nod, ; th, มังราย; 1238–1311), also known as Mengrai ( th, เม็งราย),The name according to historical sources is "Mangrai", and this is used in most modern scholarly applications. "Mengrai", popularised by a 19 ...
was a prince before establishing the
Lanna Kingdom
The Lan Na Kingdom ( nod, , , "Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields"; th, อาณาจักรล้านนา, , ), also known as Lannathai, and most commonly called Lanna or Lanna Kingdom, was an Indianized state centered in present-day ...
in the 13th century, is also attributed to the Lawa in the
Doi Tung
Doi Tung (ดอยตุง) is a mountain in the Thai highlands of Mae Fa Luang District, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand.
Location
While not the highest elevation of the province, the 1,389 m high Doi Tung rises steeply close to the Thailand-M ...
story.
[Chris Baker: ''From Yue to Tai'', Journal of the Siam society 90.1 & 2, 2002, page 12]
See also
*
Wa people
The Wa people ( Wa: Vāx; my, ဝလူမျိုး, ; ; th, ว้า) are a Southeast Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in Northern Myanmar, in the northern part of Shan State and the eastern part of Kachin State, near and along Myanm ...
Further reading
Nahhas, Ramzi W (2011
Sociolinguistic Survey of Lawa in Thailand
References
{{Authority control
Ethnic groups in Thailand
Wa people
History of Chiang Mai