Source - Bangkok Post
November 16, 2006

Xishuang Banna in China was like returning to our ancestral roots and it was followed by a cruise on Mekong to Chiang Saen in northern Thailand

SUPARA JANCHITFAH

Before landing, the plane flew over the Mekong presenting us with a fleeting glimpse of the mighty river as it snakes through Xishuang Banna and the life it supports on its either banks.

Unlike major airports, the one in Jinghong, the capital city of Xishuang Banna Tai Autonomous Prefecture, is small but it sits in a beautiful landscape with gigantic mountains as backdrop.

A few minutes' drive from the airport, the golden rice fields signalled that the harvest season was not far off. It's a completely different world in Jinghong. In the language of Tai ethnic people, Jinghong is called Chiang Roong or "the city of dawn".

The mushrooming of modern shopping malls and fashion shops showed how lively the town has become. Despite communist control, the people of Yunnan Province are apparently living out the Chinese version of the American dream.

Yet, many Tai, or Dai as they are also called, still maintain their age-old customs and traditions passed down the generation. Some of us were surprised to learn that the majority of population in this southern prefecture of China were not Hani but Dai or Tai Lue.

At the Ganlanba market, about one hour's drive from Jinghong, most of the vendors and customers conversed in a language that closely resembles Thai. Most vendors were friendly and even allowed us to take their pictures, and they did not overcharge visiting tourists.

But the long arm of capitalism was in full evidence: some locals had leased their land to big businesses. In place of indigenous food crops that villagers used to grow for their own consumption, we saw some large banana and rubber plantations.

Thanks to Toyota Foundation (Thailand) and the Foundation for the Promotion of Social Sciences and Humanities' Textbooks Project, we had an opportunity to study the transformation of life along the Mekong River. We visited two connecting communities - the villages of Tab and Tao - in Muang Ham or Ganlanba. They are not on the usual tourist map but our guide managed to obtain permission from the village headmen for the visit.

When we arrived at the Tab village temple, we were surprised by the lavish reception the entire community had thrown up for us. Praying there, I felt like being in a northern Thai temple hall, and not in China. If you want to see culture of the mainstream Chinese, Jinghong is not a right place, but if you wish to see the diversity of cultures in China, rural Xishuang Banna is certainly the one to go for. A number of Thai people can trace their ancestral roots to this area from where their great, great grand parents migrated to Thailand many centuries ago.

Tai women still wear long skirts and do their hair in traditional style. The houses are built from bamboo or other woods and villagers keep their harvests on the ground floor.

In Tai speak, "Xishuang" means "twelve" and "Banna" is "one thousand pieces of land", therefore Xishuang Banna translates into twelve thousand pieces of land. In real terms, it refers to the twelve regions that are under its administration. Xishuang Banna shares a 1,070-kilometre-long boundary with Burma to its southwest, while to its southeast is Laos.

In Tab and Tao villagers invited us to their homes for a meal after the temple reception and some of us even sampled the local moonshine. Their hospitality was overwhelming, as was the send-off. When our bus was leaving villagers presented us with home-grown pomelos and banana, and they invited us to visit them again.

In the afternoon we returned to Jinghong and visited the old palace grounds at Vieng Pha Krang or "the crying cliff town" which was destroyed completely during the Chinese revolution. Presently, the government has constructed a museum that showcases the history of Xishuang Banna region. A cable car service across the Lancang Jieng River connects visitors to the museum. Some old palace structures and two ancient pagodas are all what remains of the original town.

The next day we chartered a boat for 200,000 baht for a nine-hour ride from Jinghong to Chiang Saen in Thailand.

One of our guides, historian Charnvit Kasetsiri, took the very same trip in 2001 and needed more than 12 hours to navigate the distance. He noted that boats could now sail faster because 10 major rapids along the route have been removed.

He meant the Lancang-Mekong Navigation Channel Improvement Project that envisaged removal of 11 rapids and shoals, and 10 scattered reefs under its first phase. However due to fierce opposition from local Thais, the Khon Pi Long rapid along the Thai-Laos border was retained. Forty other small rapids and shoals were blasted away in the second phase.

Upon completion of the project, huge commercial vessels of up to 100-300 DWT (dead weight tonnage) are be able to navigate the entire length of the Mekong.

Miti Yaprasit, a leader of the Rak Chiang Saen Group, says that for those looking for commercial gains, the blasting of rapids would facilitate their mission.

"But for us it simply destroyed our livelihood, and the way of life of local fishermen," he lamented, adding that the rapids had their use: fish came to spawn in the rapids and stayed on to nurture the little ones.

"The Mekong has gone through many changes," said Charnvit, pointing the flat-bottomed iron boats mostly carrying Chinese agricultural products as well as other mass and cheap goods to Thailand and other countries downstream.

"In the colonial era," added Charnvit, "France had a clear agenda to use the Mekong as a backdoor entry to China. But the difficulties in navigating through numerous rapids along the 3,000-km passage prompted the French to scrap their plan. Ironically, China is now using the Mekong as a route to expand its wings across Southeast Asia."

For many tourists, the river ride from Jinghong to Chiang Saen can be great fun. You can see different plants, rocks of various shapes and forms and, last but not least, the fascinating ways of life of riverine people in China, Laos, Burma and Thailand.

However, there are also a number of places where you see people cultivate crops on mountains, depriving them of their forest cover. In addition to that, some boats were seen loading huge amounts of timbers, but no one knew if the logs were legal or felled illegally.

Arriving in Chiang Saen, we found many Burmese and Thai workers carrying goods from Chinese boats to warehouses. Apart of the inflow of Chinese goods and vegetables, there are a number of other concerns that need to be addressed.

"A number of bars and message parlours have sprung up in the area, some near schools and temples. We are worried about the fallout on the young generation. When fishermen can't fish and farmers can't grow vegetables, they become labourers. We don't oppose friendly tourists but we do need responsible tourists who respect our culture," Miti said.

On November 23-24, the Promotion of Social Sciences and Humanities Textbooks Project and the Toyota Foundation (Thailand) will hold a conference titled "Mekong-Salween: Peoples, Water and the Golden Land of Suvarnabhumi/Southeast Asia" at the Central Duang Tawan Hotel, Chiang Mai.

After that the organisers have scheduled a two-day trip to Mae Hong Son to give participants a chance to learn about the way of life of villagers who live along the Moei and Salween rivers who will get affected if construction of a dam on the Salween got the green light.

To obtain more information,
visit http://www.seas.arts.tu.ac.th,
or call 02-424-5768 and 02-433-8713.

 

 

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