in Rural Cambodia,
Laos and Thailand

Plants, Animals, Salt and Spirits: How People Live with and Talk about the Environment in Rural Cambodia, Laos and Thailand

How People Live with andTalk about the Environment

How People Live with andTalk about the Environment

in Rural Cambodia,
Laos and Thailand

Plants, Animals, Salt and Spirits: How People Live with and Talk about theEnvironment in Rural Cambodia, Laos and Thailand
March 2015
Edited by Toshiyuki Doi
Written and translated by Chaiyarak Bampen, Syvongsay Changpitikoun,Toshiyuki Doi, Satomi Higashi, Yuka Kiguchi, Leakhana Kol and Tomohiro Oh
Published by Mekong Watch
3F Aoki Building 1-12-11 Taito, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-0016 Japan
Tel: +81 3 3832 5034
Fax: +81 3 3832 5039
Website: http://www.mekongwatch.org/index.html
E-mail: info@mekongwatch.org
Cover art: Amarit Muadthong
Layout: Siriporn Pornsiritived
Japanese to English translation: Tony Boys and Patricia Ormsby

Contents
Foreword

4

Part I
Introduction: Why People’s Stories?

11

Part II
People’s Stories in Rural Cambodia, Laos and Thailand

21

Stories from Bunong Communities in Northeastern Cambodia• Origin of Elephants• History of Keo Seima District

23
25
29

Stories from Kmhmu’ People in Central and Northern Laos
• A Civet Cat• Brother Rui, Source of Lice
• Pho Yal
• The Owl and the Deer

33
35
41
45
51

Stories from Siphandon in Southern Laos
• Somphamit Waterfall and the Tale of the Dolphin• The Legend of the Water Buffalo King

57
59
63

Stories from Akha People in Northern Thailand• Mo Hue and Mon Yi• Searching for a New Land
• How Cats Came to the World• Origin of a Swing

67
69
73
77
81

Stories from Northeastern Thailand• Great-Grandfather Ja Klawa• White Elephant Path
• Phadaeng and Nang Ai• Rhino Head Pond
• The Efficacy of Fear – Forest Spirits

85
87
91
101
109
117

Part III

125

Notes

126

References

127

Project Member Profiles

128

Fieldwork Sites Map

130

Foreword
In the Mekong Basin, where people’s livelihoods are deeply rooted in thenatural world of rivers and forests, many legends, tales and narratives thatrevolve around nature have been created and handed down from generation
to generation. These stories have played an important role in protecting
nature by avoiding the over-exploitation of natural resources. In recent years,
however, profit-focused economic development has increased, leading
to the rapid deterioration of the environment. At the same time, traditional
knowledge of natural resource use as conveyed by these tales is being lost.
“The People’s Stories Project” is an exploratory effort launched in August 2014
with three purposes: (1) To record legends, old tales, folklore and narratives,and access the local knowledge and experience over natural resource use
found therein; (2) To develop an environmental education tool kit whichmakes practical use of people’s stories to bring about better governanceof local resources, and; (3) To convey knowledge of local natural resource
use and the richness of the world described in the stories to researchers,
students, people involved in development, younger generations and citizens
in general, providing a new point of view for observing natural resource
management in the Mekong Region.
Seven Cambodian, Japanese, Lao and Thai researchers and NGO workers
set out to investigate rural areas in Northeastern Cambodia, Central andSouthern Laos and Northern and Northeastern Thailand. This booklet
introduces stories collected in the first year of the project and attempts
to present possibilities for practical use of these people’s stories in local
environmental preservation efforts.
The research team owes a debt of gratitude to the many people who helped
us in this project. There are too many to list them all here, but we received
kind assistance from local communities in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.
In particular, without the help of local villagers who related their stories to4

outsiders like us, our project in general and this booklet in particular would
never have materialized. We received tremendous assistance, especiallyfrom Mr. Randall Arnst, Mr. Amrit Muadthong, Mr. Ariya Rattanawichaikul
and Dr. Suksawang Simana, in making this booklet. We were also financially
supported by the Nippon Foundation’s Asian Public Intellectuals (API)Program and the Japan Fund for Global Environment of the Environmental
Restoration and Conservation Agency for our fieldwork and publication ofthis booklet. We express our gratitude to both of these organizations. Notethat the content and claims contained in this booklet are those of the project
team and have no connection with any of the aforementioned individuals
and organizations.
Through these stories, this booklet may be of some use in gaining an
understanding of the connections between people and their naturalenvironment from the perspective of rural villagers living in the Mekong
Basin. We would be happy if it provides a new approach to consideringdevelopment and environmental issues.
March 2015
Bampen Chaiyarak, Syvongsay Changpitikoun, Toshiyuki Doi,
Satomi Higashi, Yuka Kiguchi, Leakhana Kol and Tomohiro Oh

5

PART I
Introduction: Why People’s Stories?

9

Introduction: Why People’s Stories?
This booklet has come out of a research project to collect various typesof stories told by local community members living in rural areas of three
Mekong countries, namely Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. In this short
introduction, we would like to explain why we started the project, how wecollected the stories, and what we learned from them so far.
1. Why People’s Stories?
All of us in the project team (see “Project Member Profiles”) have work related
to development in the Mekong Region. As such, we often use terms suchas “sustainable development” and “natural resource management” in ourconversations with others. While these concepts are useful as guiding
principles, we sometimes feel they are somewhat foreign to us.
There can be several reasons for this. One, these and other key words(“gender equity,” “inclusiveness,” “safeguards” and “poverty” to name afew) in the development sector have often been coined and brought tothe region from outside. We struggle to understand what they mean to
our work. Two, these terms are usually used with scientific data, typicallystatistics. They are abstracted from the daily life that we see, hear and feelin our contact with local communities in the Mekong Region. Three, theyalmost always originate from English, and none of us in the project teamuse English as a first language.
How can we deal with terms such as “sustainable development” and“natural resource management” in ways that are grounded in the realitiesof the Mekong Region? How can we enrich the concepts behind these
expressions by embracing details we observe within the lives of community
members we meet, including their feelings and emotions? How can we
benefit from these terms, while paying due respect to traditional practices
among local communities? Finding answers to these questions is one ofthe purposes of this project.
11

Toward that end, we have realized that stories local community members
often tell us may be used as tools. Consider the following story, which oneof us heard from a villager in Southern Laos:
Once, a soldier stepped into a spirit forest. He discovered a lot of
tobacco leaves there and collected them. However, when trying toleave the forest, he could not find an exit. It was because he took
more tobacco leaves than he could possibly consume for himself.
No matter how hard he searched, he could not find a way out of
the forest. Realizing what might have been the problem, he finallydecided to return the tobacco leaves to the forest. The moment hedropped them on the ground, he was able to see an exit in front ofhim.
The teller of this story reports the incident in very specific local contexts,
such as a spirit forest. However, what he says is really about the managementof resources. The story highlights a moral dimension of the soldier’s
misbehavior to avoid the over-exploitation of the natural resource, in thiscase, tobacco leaves. It also incorporates the teller’s feelings of awe towards
the forest spirit. As this example shows, a story can provide detailed contexts
and a core message around a particular topic, and put them together into
an organic whole through everyday language.
We have encountered similar verbal performances when working withvillagers in the Mekong Region and have been struck by the effectivenessthey have in making the point and creating lively conversations. We havethought that such verbal repertories, or people’s stories, can be viewed as
locally-shared intellectual resources, based on which key development issues
can be reviewed. People’s stories can be seen as common repositories,
where local community members have encoded their experiences with theenvironment, as well as ethical, aesthetic and spiritual values they haveformed, in ordinary language. Such an accumulation of wisdom can beused to enhance our understanding of various issues which we often try tocapture through such terms as “sustainable development.”12

2. The People’s Stories Project
We named our research program “The People’s Stories Project” and started
to collect stories from local communities in August 2014. As of January
2015, we collected 102 stories in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Fieldwork
sites and schedule are summarized in TABLE 1.
TABLE 1: Fieldwork sites and schedule
Site(District/Province/
Country)

Date

Group

Major Topics# ofStories

Kusuman, Sakhon
Nakhon, Thailand

12-13
August 2014

Thai So

history of
migration,
forests

3

Pakse, Champasak,Laos

7 SeptemberLaoplace names

1

Khong, Champasak,
Laos

8-9
Septemberand4-5 OctoberLaoanimals,
place names

5

Khong Chiam, Ubon
Ratchathani, Thailand

21 SeptemberIsanspiritualbeliefs

1

Mae Suai, Chiang Rai,
Thailand

8-10 October

Akha

animals,
genealogy,
music

32

Hin Heup, Vientiane,Laos

11-12 October

Kmhmu’

ghost, trees,
animals

22

Kusuman, Sakon
Nakhon, Thailand

15 and 19
October

Thai So,
Isan

naga

5

Senmonorom andPechr Chenda,
Mondulkiri, Cambodia

18-21 October

Bunongrice-planting,baskets,
herbs, songs

20

Selaphum, Roi Et,
Thailand25 OctoberIsannaga, salt,
rivers

6

13

Site
(District/Province/
Country)

Date

Group

Major Topics# ofStories

Rasi Salay, Sisaket,
Thailand30 Octoberand1 NovemberIsanspirits, forests

4

Prachaksinlapakhom,
Udon Thani, Thailand

9 November

Isan

salt
production,
rivers1

Seka, Bueng Kan,
Thailand21 November

Isan

salt
production,
rivers

2

Total

102

Most stories were recorded by audio or video. The 102 stories were first
told in local languages and then translated into national languages. An
English summary was made for each story. The summary was then put intoa card (a “story card”) alongside information related to the teller’s profiles
and the recording date and place. All 102 recordings, including English
summaries and data-related information, will be posted on a website forthe public’s use.
Since the project was exploratory, our definition of people’s stories werebroad. Stories were defined as “an intellectual resource in which thecommunity has collectively accumulated their common analyses, feelings,
ethics, aesthetics and spiritual values relating to their experiences withthe environment in everyday language.” The data set that was collected
included myths, legends, folk tales, life histories, narratives, anecdotes
and songs. Most of the time, the data gathering was conducted outside

14

the teller’s house in a village. Other villagers often joined. A few of themcheered or helped the teller. Others stood and listened. Every once in awhile the teller also asked the audience for help when s/he was not sure
about the story.
While our sampling framework was rather unstructured, we focused on
indigenous and ethnic minority communities as a fieldwork site. TABLE 2
summarizes the indigenous and minority groups we visited. Language
names, classification and the estimated number of speakers are based on
Lewis et al. (2015).
TABLE 2: Indigenous and ethnic minority communities studied
Country

Group Name

Language
Name

Language
Family# ofSpeakers

Cambodia

BunongBunongMon-Khmer

37,500

Laos

Kmhmu’

Kmhmu’

Mon-Khmer

614,000

Thailand

Akha

Akha

Sino-Tibetan

56,600Lao

Isan

Tai-Kadai

15,000,000

Thai So

Thai So

Mon-Khmer

70,000One of the reasons we focused on these groups was that the existence of
their language and culture are under threat. We hoped this project could
contribute to documenting and reviving the linguistic and cultural resourcesthat these indigenous and ethnic minority groups still possess.

15

3. Results
Some of the 102 stories are quite long and last for 20 to 30 minutes. Others
are short and are less than five minutes. The stories cover a wide rangeof topics, including the community’s history and genealogy, traditions andcustoms, and knowledge on plants and herbs. Quite a few stories describe
the origin of local place names, spiritual beliefs and livelihoods, such as
traditional salt production. There are six performances of singing andplaying a musical instrument (see TABLE 1). We have chosen 17 stories,
translated them into English in full, and reproduced them in Part II.
3.1. Functions of the stories
Some of the 102 stories store information and knowledge that is importantto the local community. They serve the purpose of sharing the informationand knowledge among the community members, and passing it on toyounger generations. Such stories are about using herbs and other medical
plants to stay healthy, conducting ceremonies to plant and harvest crops
such as rice, and building a new village.
Among the 17 stories included in Part II, Searching for a New Land falls
in this category. This story is from Akha people living in Northern Thailand,suggesting that the location of a new village cannot be chosen only forconvenience, but the area has to be blessed. In fact, Akha elders memorize
details about how a village entrance and houses should be built whenestablishing a new village. Rhino Head Pond from Northeastern Thailand
also documents how the community has come into existence. It also
describes the community’s main livelihood, salt production.
Other stories more directly communicate particular values that are meaningful
to the group. They draw the attention of the community members, especiallychildren, to differences between proper and prohibited behaviors. The tellerof Phadaeng and Nang Ai from Northeastern Thailand explicitly talks abouta negative impact (land collapse) of overexploiting natural resources, in thiscase, underground salt. The Efficacy of Fear – Forest Spirits, also from16

Northeastern Thailand, summarizes a few villagers’ recalling the punishments
they have experienced due to breaking taboos. The Owl and the Deer from
Kmhmu’ people in Central and Northern Laos highlights the negative
consequence of bad behaviors such as cheating. The central theme of Mo
Hue and Mon Yi from Akha people is about children’s obligation to takecare of their parents. Origin of a Swing from the same group shows thevalue of self-sacrifice through a heroic episode of a brother and a sister
who put the world in order. Brother Rui, Source of Lice seems to suggestthat innocence pays off eventually.
A third group among the 102 stories seems to result from the community’sefforts to understand or make sense of the surrounding environment.
These stories make the community members feel more attached to the
locality and thus strengthen their identity as a community member. BothThe Legend of the Water Buffalo King and Somphamit Waterfall and theTale of the Dolphin from Southern Laos are such examples. The former isabout a patricide, but has become a resource to explain local place namesin Siphandon. A village chief in the area also testified that the story had led
to the taboo of not killing animals, contributing to the conservation of natureon his island. Stories relating to the origin of place names and animals fall
into this category, including History of Keo Seima District from Bunongcommunities in Northeastern Cambodia, and A Civet Cat from Kmhmu’
people in Central and Northern Laos.
One story can serve two or all of the three functions described above. For
instance, White Elephant Path from Northeastern Thailand is the community’s
memory of its own past. However, it also indicates how the community has
made sense of the rich salt reserve found all over the area where they live.
Furthermore, the story is delivered with a strong Buddhist tone, and tries to
explain how the world operates through the riddle “What is dark and light?”
The three functions of the stories illustrated above can also be fulfilled
through other verbal means. For instance, parents can explicitly tell theirchildren, “You must care about older people.” However, what stories canuniquely do is communicate such a message in indirect ways. For instance,17

in Mo Hue and Mon Yi from Akha people, the aged father does not condemn
his children for having forgotten the care he gave to them when they were
smaller. Instead, he sends a reminder by comparing himself to a flycatcher
who is feeding her babies. This indirect messaging through a story is effective
among those who hold close relationships with one another, such as family
and community members. It is also more appropriate because it is lessface-threating. Stories provide enough detail and context so listeners can
get the message. Stories are also memorable, enjoyable and worth passing
on to future generations. In this regard, Mo Hue Mon Yi is interesting in thatit also has its own message as a story.
3.2. Recurrent themes
Transformation among plants, animals, humans and spirits frequently occurs
in the 102 stories. Among the 17 stories in Part II, Origin of Elephants from
Bunong people in Northern Cambodia is about transformation from humans
to elephants, and Pho Yal from Kmhmu’ people includes changing from aplant to a human. Supernatural beings also change themselves into a plant(a banana tree) in Great-Grandfather Ja Klawa, an animal (a squirrel) in
Phadaeng and Nang Ai and a human (a hermit) in White Elephant Path. It
is also interesting that seemingly useless human waste, such as urine andscurf, can also be transformed into a cat in How Cats Came to the World,and humans and salt in White Elephant Path. These stories may suggestthat local community members feel the ubiquitous life in the environment.
They might also be related to the concept of reincarnation. We need morein-depth analysis on these issues.
Water buffalos also appear quite often in the 102 stories. Legend of theWater Buffalo King from Southern Laos and White Elephant Path from
Northeastern Thailand are examples of this. This may be by accident,
or because water buffalos live throughout the Mekong Region and areimportant animals in the life of local communities. Yet another possibility
is that these stories may be influenced by mythologies coming from otherregions. This could be another topic warranting further investigation.

18

4. Final Remarks
Much has probably been lost in the 17 stories in Part II through translation
across several languages. Our grasp of the local contexts may still not beenough to fully appreciate the value of these and the other stories. We had
to ask villagers to tell their stories in rather unusual settings. They often had
to talk into a microphone and in the presence of strangers who they knew
did not understand the language they were speaking. When storytelling isperceived as performance, such factors must have affected the tellers andtherefore the stories they told. A more radical view is that a story may exist
only once, and taking a story out of its immediate context by recording anddocumenting it may risk spoiling its vitality.
For these reasons, the 17 stories in Part II, as well as the rest of the collectedstories, may be approximations at best. That said, they still comprise a richdata base as can be seen through this preliminary analysis and each of thestories in the following section.
As a next step of this project, we are planning to use this data set todevelop environmental education materials to answer the questions webegan with in more comprehensive ways. In the meantime, we hope that
this booklet serves as a guide, and that readers will have an opportunity
to visit local communities in the Mekong Region, and listen to such stories
themselves.

19

20

PART II
People’s Stories in Rural Cambodia,
Laos and Thailand

21

22

Stories from
Bunong Communities inNortheastern

Cambodia
Bunong, also known and spelled
as Mnong, Phnong and so forth,is one of the Bahnaric languages
in the Mon-Khmer branch of theAustroasiatic language family.
Bunong people live mostly in
Vietnam and the northeastern
provinces of Kratie, Mondulkiri
and Ratanakiri in Cambodia. The
estimated population of Bunongpeople in Cambodia is 37,500(in 2008 census). The language isstill actively used among Bunong
speakers (Lewis et al. 2015).

23

Origin of

Elephants

25

Origin of ElephantsThis story was told by Mr. Chhot Pich and his sister on 20 October 2014.
Mr. Chhot Pich was living in Bouraing Village, Bousra Commune, Picheada
District in Mondulkiri Province.
Elephants were originally relatives to humans. Elephants were not born inthe present shape of elephants. So they still love humans and are willing to
be caught by humans. They have lived with and served humans until now.
Once upon a time, a group of villagers wentfishing. They poisoned fish so that they
could easily catch them. They collected the
poisoned fish. They all ate the fish, except
for one woman, who had a baby and wasbusy breast-feeding. She did not eat thefish.
After having eaten the fish, the villagers
were transformed into elephants. They
could still understand and speak thehuman language, however. They went
back to the village and told their families
why they had become elephants. They
then continued to live with their families
as before.
Brahma remained angry with the villagers
who had poisoned the river and become
elephants. He took a pestle and hit themouths of the elephants. This made them
unable to speak. However, they were still
able to understand the human language26

as before. They still ate rice and soup and drank alcohol as humans, too.
They had the knowledge of traditional medicine and led their families to findmedical herbs. They also dragged logs, helped humans in agriculturalwork, and carried them from place to place. Sometimes, they even tookcare of their human families.
The elephants also gave birth to baby elephants. Many years went by. The
next generation of elephants did not know about their origin. They did not
get along well with their human relatives anymore. So they went to live ina forest and started eating tree leaves instead of rice and soup.
Today, when humans need to find elephants for help in agricultural work,
they have to hunt for them in the forest. As elephants have originated fromhumans, they can still eat human food. They regard humans as their masterand obey and serve them. They accompany humans to catch youngelephants, too.

27

History of

Keo Seima

District29

History of Keo Seima District
This story was told by Mr. Keo Pleuy and his wife Ms. Tet Yet on 19 October
2014. Mr. Keo Pleuy was 80 years old and living in Lao Ka Village, Sen
Monorom, the capital city of Mondulkiri Province.
A long time ago, villagers found glassy rocks on a mountain which looked
like crystal and glimmered in multiple colors like a diamond. They werebeautiful. The villagers called the rock keo seima, or magic glass.
The area on the mountain was where villagers grazed their cattle. The cattle
would never get lost. The villagers always prayed to the spirit to take careof their cattle. Whenever there were any lost cattle, the villagers prayed tothe spirit for their return, and a few days later the cattle would come back.
30

So the area became a sacred place for the villagers. When the villagers
became ill, they offered pig or chicken blood, burned incense and candles,
and wished for happiness. The area became the place where the villagers
held religious ceremonies and celebrations.
The villagers of that generation were ancestors of the Bunong. At night,
virtuous villagers dreamed of the spirit who told them about magic glass
coming from a rock, and how they could find and collect it. The villagers
then went to collect magic glass. Some placed it on a shelf at home, andothers kept it in a bag to worship. Those who had magic glass always
enjoyed good luck, not only for themselves, but also for their entire family,
and even their animals.
When there was a ceremony in the village, those who had magic glassbrought it to the sacred place to worship. After finishing the ceremony,
they took it back to their house. They named the place where they hadcollected magic glass as Keo Seima. It was situated in the forest at Prey
Ochhloung. Later, the place came to be called Keo Seima District. The
forest is now in Sre Preah Commune, Keo Seima District in Mondulkiri
Province.
During the regime of Pol Pot, all the magic glass rocks were confiscatedand therefore can no longer be seen these days.

31

32

Stories from
Kmhmu’ People inCentral andNorthern Laos
The Kmhmu’1 are one of the original,
old lines of indigenous inhabitantsof Laos. Linguistically, the Kmhmu’
belong to the Mon-Khmer branchof the Austroasiatic language family.
There are currently about 70,000
Kmhmu’ living in the Lao PDR,
Northern Vietnam, Xichuang Panna(Sipsong Panna) Prefecture in China
and the border region of Thailand(Simana and Preisig 2006: 1). The
population of Kmhmu’ in Laos isestimated to be about 610,000,
which equals 11 percent of the total
population of the country (DoS-MPI2005).
The Kmhmu’ depend mainly on
agriculture, especially shifting cultivation, and supplementary hunting,fishing and collecting non-timber
forest products (NTFPs). To the

Kmhmu’ people, forests are where
they live and obtain food, as well as
the base of culture and religion(Simana and Preisig 1998; 2006).
The Kmhmu’ have long histories
of conducting shifting cultivationand have a rich knowledge about
forests. They have long collected
NTFPs and utilize them in various
ways, including for subsistence andgenerating income. The Kmhmu’
believe that the world can be divided
into human and spirit spheres, andthat people belong to both (Simana
and Preisig 1998: 7).
This section introduces four Kmhmu’folktales from Central and Northern
Laos about forest resources andspirits which have been handed
down from their ancestors.

33

A Civet CAT

35

A Civet Cat
Illustrations by Khanhkeo Simana
This story was told by Tanaly at Khone Keo Village, Hin Heup District inVientiane Province on 12 October 2014. It explains the origin of a singmong, or a sing ngaen mong, or a civet cat. Kmhmu’ people in somecommunities also title the story “Grandma Tid Tieng.” Tid tieng means
to be stuck in bed.
A long time ago, there lived a boy and a girl who loved each other verymuch and were betrothed to get married. Unfortunately, however, the boy,
Pho Ja Rang, had to serve a three-year military assignment. He told the girlthat he would marry her after his mission.
The girl waited for a long time for the boy to return to her. However, shebecame very sick and eventually died. Her relatives and other villagers
tried to bury her in a forest, but strangely, they could not move her body.
It was stuck to the mattress and bed. The villagers became scared. So
they decided to move the village instead, and left her body there.
Pho Ja Rang completed his mission in three years and came back to
his village. He arrived at the village in the evening and saw his girlfriend’s
house. So he hurried to the house. He got there and opened the door. It
was very dark inside. He asked his girlfriend to turn on the light. She thentold him, “Do so yourself. If I do, you will be afraid of me.”However, she turned on the light after all, as she did not want to upset
Pho Ja Rang. They then talked with each other as they used to. Suddenly,
though, he noticed that she was not normal. He realized that she hadalready died and become a ghost. So, he decided to run away. He told her
to wait for a while as he was going to pee. She did not let him go, however.
Pho Ja Rang kept asking many times. She finally allowed him to go.

36

37

When Pho Ja Rang went out of the house, he caught a louse and left it ata nearby house. He said to the louse, “If someone calls my name, pleasesay ‘I am here’.” He also picked up a kettle full of water and turned it upside
down. The water came out from the kettle, which made the noise as if he
was peeing.
Pho Ja Rang ran and escaped into a forest. Soon after, the ghost started
calling him, “Pho Ja Rang!” “I am here,” replied the louse. Every time shecalled Pho Ja Rang, she heard the same answer. So she went out to findhim. She found the louse and the kettle instead. She went searching for
him with the bed stuck on her back, saying, “Pho Ja Rang is mine! Pho Ja
Rang is mine!”
Pho Ja Rang kept running in the forest but became very tired. He stopped
at a som fard, or a sour tree, and found a ngaen mong, or a civet cat,there. He asked the cat to help him. The cat told him to take off all his
clothes and hide in a hollow of the tree. The civet cat then put on Pho Ja
Rang’s clothes.
The ghost came. When she saw Pho Ja Rang, she became very happy.
She touched him and danced with him. She said, “These clothes belong to
Pho Ja Rang. But you have paws and feet like a civet cat.” She kept saying, “My boyfriend! My boyfriend!” The ghost and the civet cat danced for alittle while. However, in the end, the civet cat bit the ghost’s neck.
The ghost died.
Pho Ja Rang and all his family and relatives thanked the civet cat for thegreat help. He considered the civet cat as a great fortune of his family. He
promised not to kill or eat civet cats and respected them. Pho Ja Rangand his family believed that they would lose their teeth and their skin would
be burned if they ate the meat of civet cats. They also decided not to use
som fard to make a pillar for a house or a rice storage, because they wereafraid that it would bring about misfortune, such as wasted rice, sickness
or death.

38

39

Brother Rui,
Source of Lice

41

Brother Rui, Source of LiceThis story was told by Xiengvilay Oulaythone at Na Sao Nang Village, Hin
Heup District in Vientiane Province on 11 October 2014. Ai means “brother”.
So, Ai Rui is Brother Rui.
There once lived a woman. She had a son but no husband. Her son was
extremely lazy. He relied on his mother for living. One day, his mother passed
away. So he became an orphan. He became poor and dirty. Villagers
started calling him Ai Rui, or Haeng Bor Hao, a source of lice.
The villagers hated Ai Rui. They told him to leave the village and stay away.
So he had to build a shack near the village and lived there. He had to makehis own living by practicing hed hai, or upland cultivation. No one wanted
contact with Ai Rui because he was dirty. He was really a source of lice.
The villagers made fun of him and discriminated against him. He was often
isolated and had to eat alone whenever he joined village activities.
One day, the village was told to help the district governor plant seeds inan upland field. Ai Rui was told to help with the work, too. There weremany termite mounds in the upland field. It was very difficult to dig a holefor seeding because the soil was very hard. Ai Rui was told to seed where
there were termite mounds. The district governor’s daughter noticed thisand became sympathetic to Ai Rui. She came close to help him, but she
was also afraid of touching him. She stayed away from Ai Rui.
Ai Rui could not make a hole in the termite mounds. So he seeded aroundthem. But when he broke one termite mound, he found silver and gold. It
was very lucky of him. He wanted to show it to the governor’s daughter.
So he called her. However, she would not come because she did not trust
him. Ai Rui then said, “If you do not believe me or feel disgusted by me, it
is fine. I will move aside. You can come and see it then.”42

Ai Rui moved a little bit. The governor’s daughter came and found a lot ofsilver and gold there. She and Ai Rui decided to take all the silver and gold
and hide it in Ai Rui’s shack during a lunch break. After having finishedthe seeding, the governor’s daughter did not return home but stayed at
Ai Rui’s shack. The governor became speechless upon hearing that his
daughter had not come back home. He let the two stay together, however.
The governor’s daughter helped Ai Rui cut his hair, take a bath, and wash
his clothes. She then stayed with Ai Rui for twenty days and finally returned
to her father. She said to her father, “Father, if you want to eat bananas,
please go and pick them up on the roof of Ai Rui’s shack.” But the governor
did not listen to her. He ignored what she had said. On the seventh day,however, he changed his mind and could not ignore his daughter’s words
anymore. He went to Ai Rui’s shack, took a stool, and climbed up on theroof. He looked down and saw silver and gold. He got down and washedthe stool. He then left the shack as if nothing had happened.
After this incident, the villagers did not hesitate to help Ai Rui seed in the
upland field. When finishing the work, Ai Rui offered the villagers lao hai, ortraditional rice wine, for dinner. However, all the villagers brought their own
bamboo straw to drink lao hai because they were still worried if Ai Rui’s
lao hai was clean. To their surprise, however, they saw golden straws withthe lao hai. The villagers felt embarrassed. They threw away their bamboo
straws on the ground under Ai Rui’s shack.
The district governor allowed his daughter to marry Ai Rui. The two lived
happily together. Firewood found on the ground these days comes fromthe bamboo straws for drinking lao hai, which the villagers had thrown
away.

43

Pho Yal

45

Pho Yal
This story was told by Maitha Sengaloun at Khone Keo Village, Hin Heup
District in Vientiane Province on 12 October 2014. Yal is a name of themain character in the story. It is a funny story, which consists of a numberof episodes, including that of Pho Yal working in a rice field, practicing
swidden agriculture, making a hut in the rice field, hunting a deer, delivering
deer meat to his uncle, and working as a volunteer soldier. The following
are two episodes. One is about Yai working in a rice field; the other about
Yai hunting a deer.
A long time ago, there lived some girls. They caught fish in a stream. On
their way home, one girl got left behind because she was slow. She saw atree with a beautiful shape and said to the tree, “You are so beautiful. If you
were a human, I would marry you.” The tree answered, “If you want me,
you can measure and cut me as you wish.” So she cut the tree and thenit became a man. He married her. The man came to be known as Pho Yal.

46

Yal and his wife lived together until the season for swidden agriculturecame. All the farmers in the village went to work on a rice field. Pho Yal’s
wife said to him, “Today, you must do swidden agriculture in our rice field.”
So Yal left home with a big knife and an axe and headed for the rice field.
When he arrived there, he took out the axe to cut a tree. But the tree
asked Yal not to cut it. Yal accepted the request and did not cut the tree.
When Yal returned home in the evening, his wife asked him, “Did you finish
cutting trees and clearing the field?” Yal answered, “Yes, I did.”
However, when Yal’s wife went to the rice field the next day, she found that
it was not cleared. So she had to tell him again to cut the trees. Yal’s wife
said to him, “Burn the dead trees. If the wind comes from the head of the
field, set the fire at the head. If the wind comes from the foot, set the fire at
the foot.” Yal went to the rice field. The wind blew on his head. So he set
the fire on his head. The wind then shifted and blew to his feet. So he set
the fire at his feet. Yal had his head and feet totally burned when he cameback home. His wife asked him, “Did you burn it well?” Yal answered,“Burn it well or not, come and see me here.” She saw the wounds on Yal’shead and feet. She then went to clear the rice field for herself.
The wife found a dead civet cat in the rice field and decided to take ithome. She stopped by the river to take a bath. She put the civet cat on
the ground, took off her clothes, and left them next to the body of the civet
cat. Yal came to the river to fetch water. He then saw the burned civet cat
and his wife’s clothes. He thought that her wife had also died. So he took
her clothes back home.
When she finished bathing, Yal’s wife could not find her clothes. She had
to hide herself in a bush until it got dark. However, when she came backhome with the dead civet cat, the door was locked and she could notenter the house. Yal’s wife asked him to open the door. Yal said, “You havealready died! Please do not come to frighten me.” The wife got angry and47

so broke the door to enter the house. Yal got scared and jumped out of
the house. After a while, Yal returned home, when his wife had finishedcooking the civet cat for dinner.
The season to plant rice came. Yal’s wife asked him to find an elbow-shaped
tree to poke holes in the soil to plant rice. Yal thought that his wife wanted
him to catch a deer to use its leg to poke holes. So he went to a forest
to catch a deer. It was a very easy task for him because he was able tocommunicate with trees in the forest. Trees were his friends. They helped
him corner a deer and he caught it quite easily.
Yal took a leg, meat and some inner parts from the deer and brought themhome. He carried the deer meat along a stream. When Yal heard the soundof frogs, he thought that they were asking for the meat. So he threw asmall piece of meat into the stream whenever he heard frogs. The meat
was quickly gone. Yal said, “Hey, frogs, I do not have enough meat. The
only piece left is a lung.” He then threw the deer’s lung into the stream but
it did not sink. Seeing this, Yal said, “Oh, you are full now.” When Yal’s wife
saw him come home with a deer leg, she wondered why he had no meat.
She asked Yal, “Where is the meat?” Yal replied, “I gave it to everyone who
asked for it on my way back here.” Yal and his wife had to go back to thestream to get back the meat.
After having come back home with the deer meat, Yal’s wife divided it into
small pieces to give to their relatives. One of the pieces was for their uncle.
Yal’s wife asked him to deliver the meat to their uncle and said to him, “IfUncle asks what kind of meat, tell him that it is deer meat.”48

Yal left home with the meat. On the way, he became thirsty. So, he drankwater from a stream. He started to hear a sound of the water flowing andsplashing around rocks, “jork, jork”. When he heard the sound, he forgot
what kind of meat he was carrying. So he went back home to ask his wife.
His wife told him that it was deer meat. This time, Yal tried to remember itby heart while walking to his uncle’s house. So he kept saying to himself,“Deer meat, deer meat, deer meat,” until he stopped to drink water fromthe stream one more time. He then forgot again what kind of meat he wascarrying. He went back home and asked his wife for the second time.
Yal finally got to his uncle’s house and gave the meat to his uncle. His
uncle asked Yal, “What kind of meat is this?” When Yal tried to recall it, abird came flying and made a sound, “Arng, arng.” This helped Yal recall it.
He said to his uncle, “Deer meat!”
Yal stayed at his uncle’s house that night. He then returned home withclothes that his uncle and aunt had given him. On his way back home, hefound a squirrel and a mouse trapped by villagers. He thought that they werefeeling cold. So he tore the clothes into pieces and covered the squirrel andthe mouse with them. When he got back home, his wife asked, “What did
your uncle and aunt give to you?” Yal answered, “They gave me clothes.”
His wife asked once again, “Where are they?” Yal said, “I gave them tochildren who were feeling very cold.” Yal and his wife went back where hehad found a squirrel and a mouse, got back the pieces of the clothes, andbrought them back home. Yal’s wife then sewed them into a sine or traditional skirt. She wore the sine that night. Yal found it beautiful. So he asked
all the young boys to come to his house and see his wife.

49

The Owl andthe Deer

51

The Owl and the Deer
In Pakbeng District of Oudomxay Province in Northern Laos, the Kmhmu’
account for a large proportion of the population. Among the indigenous
tribes currently living in Laos, the Kmhmu’ are said to have lived there thelongest. The typical lifestyle of the Kmhmu’ people is based on agriculture,
particularly rice production in swidden fields, which is supplemented withhunting, fishing and gathering in the forests and rivers.
Auntie Toop, one of the older residents of Chom Leng Noy Village in
Pakbeng District, is the village’s leading storyteller of tales from olden
times. Having become too old to go out to the swidden fields, she spends
her time looking after small children, feeding chickens, and gatheringvegetables in the nearby forests.
The old tales recounted by Auntie Toop always feature a variety of plants
and animals. In the tale, “The Owl and the Deer” below, wild animals
such as the owl, the deer, the elephant, the snake and the bat, as well
as farm animals such as the chicken and the pig, all play a part alongwith people and even a dragon.2 A banana tree growing wild in the forest
makes an appearance, and so does a pumpkin, perhaps raised by people
in a swidden field. In the folktales of the Kmhmu’, listeners experiencea glimpse of the world that surrounds these people who have deep
connections with their natural environment of forests and rivers, and theinner workings of their lives.
One day, an owl invited a deer to go fishing with him.3 When they reached
the river together, the owl chose a small side stream and the deer chosea larger one, and they used woven baskets to scoop up fish from theirrespective streams. The deer caught lots of fish, crayfish and other things.

52

The owl, however, did not catch anything at all. The owl, who was getting
hungry, turned to the deer and said, “Hey, Mr. Deer. If you go upstream,
you can catch even more fish.” The deer said, “Really? In that case, I will
go up a little and come back in a while.”
The deer left his catch behind and went upstream. When the deer hadgone far enough that he could no longer be seen, the owl ate up all of
the fish the deer had gathered. When the deer returned, he could not
find any of the catch he had painstakingly gathered. The only thing thatremained was the crayfish that the owl had left uneaten. Realizing that hehad been deceived, the deer stamped around in a rage. When he did that,he accidentally caught his hoof on a pumpkin vine, and the pumpkin went
rolling down the slope.
The pumpkin’s course took it straight to where an old woman was tending
a fire to boil water. The pumpkin hit the pot, knocking it over and spilled
boiling water onto the old woman’s legs. The old woman, upset at having
been showered with hot water, beat on a drum that was nearby. A chicken,
surprised at the sound of the drum, ran around crying out loudly, andknocked over a pole (used for making holes in the soil when sowing rice)that had been left standing. The falling pole hit a snake. Startled, the snake
took off in a mad dash. The panicking snake slithered over an anthill,
demolishing it.

53

The ants in the ruined anthill came rushing out all at once at a pig that was
nearby and bit him in the mouth. Bitten by the ants, the pig tried to shakethem off, and rubbed his mouth on a banana tree. The pig rubbed hismouth so hard that he knocked the banana tree over. A bat sleeping in thebanana tree was startled by this. Flying off in a panic, the bat flew into anelephant’s ear. In turn, the elephant was startled. He kicked a branch that
had fallen from a tree and sent it flying. The fallen branch pierced the eyesof a dragon-child that was swimming in the river. Upon hearing her childcrying because of his injured eyes, the mother dragon came rushing out ina panic.
The mother dragon said, “Good Heavens! What’s the matter?” “A tree branchcame flying and poked my eyes,” said the young dragon. “Mr. Tree Branch!
Why did you go and pierce my child’s eyes?” The tree branch said, “Because
I was kicked by the elephant. So I went flying.” “Mr. Elephant! Why did you
kick the tree branch?” “Because the bat suddenly flew into my ear, and I
was startled.” “Mr. Bat! Why did you fly into the elephant’s ear?” “Because54the banana tree in which I was hanging fell over.” “Mr. Banana Tree! Why
did you fall over?” “Because the pig rubbed his mouth on me.” “Mr. Pig!
Why did you rub your mouth on the banana tree?” “Because the ants were
biting me in the mouth.”“Ants! Why were you biting the pig?” “Because the snake destroyed ouranthill.” “Mr. Snake! Why did you destroy the anthill?” “Because I was
suddenly struck by a falling pole.” “Mr. Pole! Why did you fall over on thesnake?” “Because the chicken bumped into me.” “Mrs. Chicken! Why did
you bump into the pole?” “Because the old woman suddenly started beating
the drum.” “Old Woman! Why did you beat the drum?” “Because I was
surprised when the pot overturned, pouring hot water on my legs.” “Mr.
Pot! Why did you overturn?” “Because the pumpkin came rolling down theslope.”“Mr. Pumpkin! Why did you roll down the slope?” “Because the deer
uprooted my vine.” “Mr. Deer! Why did you uproot the pumpkin vine?”“Because the owl stole my catch and I got angry.” Finally, the motherdragon arrived at the owl. “Mr. Owl! Why did you steal the deer’s catch?”
The owl could not think of a clever explanation. Unable to respond, helooked all around with his big eyes. The dragon said, “You are to blame.
Because of you, my child’s eyes were damaged. To replace them, I willtake your eyes.” The dragon pulled out the owl’s eyeballs and placed themin her child’s sockets. To replace the owl’s eyes, she used the seeds of afruit called salaen, which allowed him to see only at night. This is how thecrafty owl lost his ability to see by day.

55

56

Stories from

Siphandon inSouthern Laos
The name “Siphandon” refers toabout 4,000 (siphan in Lao) islands(don) in the Mekong River locatedin Khong District of Champasak
Province in Southern Laos. In thisarea, near the Cambodian border,
the Mekong spreads to a width ofabout 14 kilometers with all mannerof large and small islands andcascades emerging from the river.
The Mekong boasts the world’s
largest freshwater fishery, and theSiphandon area supports people’s
livelihoods with abundant aquatic
resources. Less than 100 Irrawaddy
Dolphins, commonly known as
Mekong River Dolphins, an endangered species, also live here (WWF).

The area was ruled by the Kingdomof Champasak from the 18th to the20th centuries. Under that dynasty,
the Lao version of the Ramayana(Phra Lak Phra Lam) was disseminated, and stories inscribed on bailan(manuscript materials made frompalm leaves, used for recording
Buddhist tales and other narratives)
are still found at temples in the area.
“The Legend of the Water Buffalo
King” in this section derives from the
Phra Lak Phra Lam.

57

Somphamit Waterfall andthe Tale of theDolphin59

Somphamit Waterfall andthe Tale of the Dolphin
This story was told in Lao language by Mr. Khampheuan Keokeanchan on
9 September 2014. Mr. Khampheuan was living in Hang Khone Village,
Khong District in Champasak Province.
In the village of Hang Khone, where farming, fishing and tourism provide
the main means of making a living, the tale of the endangered Irrawaddy
Dolphin and the sida bird continues to be told. Dolphin watching tours byboat are a big source of income, but for the past several decades serious
changes have been occurring in the environment surrounding the village.
Because of illegal fishing and other factors, there has been a drastic
decrease in numbers of the kind of dolphin that appears in the tale, andthe sida bird is also rarely seen anymore.
Once upon a time, a man and his wife set forth seeking new lands where
food would be abundant. The man’s name was Kha, and his wife’s namewas Sida. The couple built a bamboo raft and set out together with achicken, a duck, a kiyat (small frog), a frog, an ian bird and a peacock.
They descended the Mekong River on the raft, approaching close toSomphamit Waterfall. Kha and Sida asked each of the animals whether
they should continue going ahead as they were, but the chicken cried,“Jort! Jort! Jort!” meaning, “Stop!” The duck cried, “Wa! Wa! Wa!” meaning,“To the bank!” The frog cried, “Leuk! Leuk! Leuk!” meaning, “It’s deep!”460

Finally, the couple asked the peacock, who was the largest of the animals,
and he cried, “Baewon! Baewon! Baewon!” meaning, “Go on!” Kha andSida took the advice of the peacock, since he was big, and proceeded
further aboard the raft. Then, they went over Somphamit Waterfall and losttheir lives. After that, the man was reborn as an Irrawaddy Dolphin, or pa
kha in Lao language, and his wife as a sida bird.
Even now, when dolphins chase fish, sida birds come down to eat the fish,
and they can be seen living harmoniously together. At the same time, thedolphins and sida birds are both said to reside upstream from Somphamit
Waterfall, and never try to approach the place where they previously losttheir lives.

61

The Legend of
the Water Buffalo

King
63

The Legend of the Water Buffalo King
This story was told in Lao language by Mr. Nuxuay Kommasith on 8
September 2014. Mr. Nuxuay was 54 years old and the chief of Tholathi
Village, Khong District in Champasak Province.
Tholathi Island, one of the Siphandon, or four thousand islands, ofChampasak Province is a peaceful island where villagers live mainly byfishing and cultivating paddy fields. It is said that Tholathi Island was once
known by the disturbing name of “Tholaphi (patricide) Island.” The originof that name conceals the legend of Water Buffalo King, the ruler of theSiphandon, which has been handed down on Tholathi and the surroundingislands. Even now, the villagers of Tholathi Island observe the taboo thatwater buffalos and cattle must not be killed.
About 20 years ago, a fish conservation zone was set up with the supportof an overseas organization in the area surrounding the Tholaphi Cave,the scene of the tale. The village headman reports that the water buffalo
legend has played an important role to the protection of the fish in theconservation zone up to today. This is aided by the fact that the zone has
contributed to the conservation of fish as, for example, a spawning ground.
Further, it is said that this story derives from an episode in the Phra Lak
Phra Lam, the version of the Indian epic poem Ramayana that wastransmitted to Laos.
A long time ago, in Siphandon, there lived Water Buffalo King who had
many wives and children. Fearing that his position might be threatened,
the king killed all the male calves one by one as soon as they were born.
One time, however, a mother buffalo gave birth to a male calf in a cave. As
she was afraid that her son would be killed, she reared the calf secretly inthe cave so that her husband, Water Buffalo King, would not find him. She
brought him up to be strong in order to be able to resist his father.
64

One day, the son said to his mother, “I am now quite strong enough andwant to fight my father.” But the mother buffalo rejected her son’s request,
saying, “My son, you are far from being ready yet. You must train much
more if you want to surpass your father.”
The son then crossed to another island in order to train for the bout withhis father, and when he rammed his horns against the tree called som mo,which grew on the island and which had the ability to confer supernatural
powers, the tree swayed and a large number of small fruits rained downon him. When the mother buffalo saw that her son was able to pierce eachand every one of the small fruits with his horns before they reached theground, she was convinced that he now had sufficient strength to duel with
Water Buffalo King. The island where the son trained has become known
as Det (supernatural power) Island.
Eventually, the father and the son met in the cave where the son was born.
Water Buffalo King was surprised and angry to find that there was a grownwater buffalo bull alive, and the duel between the two began immediately.
However, they were very evenly matched and it was hard for either one ofthem to conquer the other.
Water Buffalo King asked, “Who on earth did you learn your power from?”
The son replied, “I inherited my strength from you.” When the son asked
his father, “So, who did you learn from?” the father answered, “My power
came down to my horns from heaven. I have no master.”At the end of the furious battle between the father and the son, the water
buffalo son at last threw his father to the floor of the cave. Thereafter, thiscave has been known as Tholaphi (patricide) Cave, which is said to actuallyexist near Tholathi Island below the water’s surface in the bed of the
Mekong River.

65

66

Stories from

Akha People inNorthern
ThailandAkha is one of the languages
belonging to Sino-Tibetan language
family. It is reported that between
200,000 and 240,000 Akha speakers
live in Burma/Myanmar and in Yunnan
Province of Southwestern China,
respectively. The Akha also live in
Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. The
total population of Akha people isestimated to be 563,960.

The following four stories are fromamong those by Akha people living
in Chiang Rai Province of Thailand.
The total number of Akha speakers
living in Thailand is estimated to be
56,600. They live mostly in thenorthern provinces of Chiang Mai,
Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son.
The language, written in different
scripts, is actively used among Akha
speakers. Many Akha people are
Christian (Bradley 2007).

67

Mo HueandMon Yi69

Mo Hue and Mon Yi
The following stories were told by Mr. Amui Cemui on 8 and 9 October
2014. Mr. Amui was 64 years old and living in Ya Nam Village, Huay Mae
Sray Sub-district in Chiang Rai Province. The first two are part of a much
longer story about two brothers, Mo Hue and Mon Yi. Mon Yi ended upkilling his older brother, Mo Hue, towards the end of the story (Phichain.d.).
A long, long time ago, there lived two brothers. The older brother’s namewas Mo Hue and the younger brother’s name was Mon Yi. They were living
in an old cabin with a very aged father. The father was not able to takecare of himself. He had to have someone to serve him food and water.
Even when he defecated and urinated, he always had to have someone tohelp him.
Mo Hue and Mon Yi talked with each other, “Our father gave life to bothof us. We should not kill him, though we feel that we really cannot takecare of him by ourselves.” They agreed that it would be better to take theirfather and sell him so that they could obtain some cash to support theirfamily.
Mo Hue and Mon Yi made a stretcher, put their father on it, and carriedhim on the road. After they had walked for a while, they felt tired andthirsty. So they put their father down at the foot of a banyan tree. The twobrothers then went down to get water to drink. When they sat and took arest at the banyan tree, they saw a long-tailed bird, a flycatcher, feeding
her babies in a nest in the tree.
Mo Hue and Mon Yi’s father pointed at the bird and said, “Mo Hue and
Mon Yi, my sons, your father is old now. I cannot take care of myself andyou cannot take care of me. So you are now taking me to sell. See the bird
feeding her children that she has given birth to. She has to take care ofthem until they grow up.”70

Having heard their father talking this way, Mo Hue and Mon Yi recalled,“When we were little children, our father took good care of us. He served
us food and water like that for sure.” The two brothers felt deeply sorry for
their father and decided to carry him back home. Mo Hue and Mon Yi took
good care of their father. They served him rice and fish, made warm water
to bathe him and wipe his body, and kept him at home so that he would
not have to go out.
Many years passed. Mo Hue and Mon Yi’s father said to the two brothers,“Mo Hue and Mon Yi, I would like to take a bath in the river. I feel that mynails are too long and I would like to cut them.” The two listened to theirfather’s request and took him to the river. They then left him at a boat dockby himself and came back home to do some errands.
When Mo Hue and Mon Yi thought that the father had already finishedbathing, they went back to the dock to bring him home. The two brothers
were very surprised, however, because their father had disappeared. No
matter how hard they searched, they could not find him. Mo Hue and Mon
Yi felt very sad.

71

Searching for a

New

Land
73

Searching for a New Land
Mo Hue and Mon Yi believed that their father had been kidnapped by Nagaand set out to look for him. Mo Hue went upstream in his gold boat, while
Mon Yi went downstream in his silver boat. Mon Yi then saved the life of aking’s daughter. The king offered Mon Yi silver, gold and jewelry for saving
his daughter. However, Mon Yi declined and asked for a rooster instead.
He declared, “When this rooster crows, that is where our God wants me tobuild my home” and travelled on.
Mon Yi arrived at one place where the landscape was beautiful and thewater plentiful. There were betel trees and a lot of loud sounds from wild
animals. The land was very much ready for use. Mon Yi really wanted tobuild his home here and put the rooster on a branch of a tree to see if itwould crow. Alas, however, the rooster was completely silent.
Mon Yi said to himself, “Our God does not allow me to build a homehere.” So he went on. He travelled for seven days and seven nights andfelt extremely exhausted. He sat down and took a rest. The place was fullof rocks of various kinds, as well as rocky and steep mountains. The land
was not appropriate for planting anything. However, the rooster did crow
here.
Mon Yi said to himself, “This is the land that satisfies our God.” So hechose to stay. The rooster then crowed again, “Cock-a-doodle-doo.
Without scooping, you will get good drinking water. Without planting, youwill get long grain rice for eating. Cock-a-doodle-doo.” The rooster crowed
three more times and said, “The high rocky mountains will become aplateau. Everything will become as Mon Yi wishes.”74

Soon after the rooster stopped crowing, the steep mountains became aplateau. Mon Yi cast a spell and got various goods, silver, gold and jewelry,as much as they were needed.

75

76

How Cats

Came to the

World
77

How Cats Came to the WorldA long, long time ago, God created everything in the world, including
various kinds of animals living in the rivers and mountains. However, he
forgot to create cats. The world was full of dust. Rats were all over. Theybothered humans. They ate all the vegetables and the humans could notharvest them. Rats also destroyed many things.

One day, the humans thought of consulting with God for a solution. They
went to see God and said to him, “God.” God said, “What?” The humanssaid, “We cannot live.” God asked, “Why? What happened?” The humanssaid, “There are too many rats. They have destroyed our vegetables andother things. We want cats to chase them away.”78

God thought for a while and put his scurf into three bamboo containers.
God handed them to the humans and said, “Do not open them on yourway back home.”
On their way back home, the humans asked themselves, “What did God
give to us?” They became very curious to know what was inside the bamboo
containers. They could not resist and opened one of them. Something
jumped out and quickly ran away. The humans closed the container but it
was too late.
They walked on and again became curious to know what was inside. They
could not resist and opened another container. Again, something jumped
out and ran away. The humans said to themselves, “We should not open
the third container and look inside. If we open it before getting back home,
we will not be able to get a cat.”
The humans managed to get back home without opening the last container.
After having arrived at home, they opened it and found a cat inside. Thisis how God created cats out of his scurf and gave them to humans. Since
then, we have had cats.

79Origin
of a

Swing
81

Origin of a Swing
Humans did not have a swing. How did it come to exist?
A long, long time ago, many fish lived in rivers and rice paddies. There wasa village, and farmers lived there. When the farmers went to farm, they did
not take anything to eat with them except for rice. They caught fish and atethem with rice.
This caused trouble for the fish. So two fish went to ask God to dosomething about the humans. They said, “God, please help us.” Godasked them, “Why do I need to help you?” The fish replied, “When thehumans go farming, they catch us and eat us. We cannot stand it. We
used to play in rivers and rice paddies. We have come to live here for along time. However, we cannot survive anymore.”
A sparrow at God’s house happened to hear thisconversation. He said that it was because
the fish had done something wrong to
the humans. So the humans got angry.
The two fish said that it was not true.
They said that the humans werecausing them trouble. God did notknow what to do.
God finally decided to make aswing and give it to the humans
so that they could play. Whenthey swung up, especially at the
beginning of the rainy season, theywould be away from the earth for a
few days. The fish thought that God

82

had punished the humans and so became satisfied with what God had
done. The two fish went back home.
There lived a brother and a sister. The brother’s name was A Rong andthe sister A Ong. They made a type of swing, too. The two played with it,
swinging up and down and moving around as well. Back in those days,
the sun and the moon did not keep time. They came out when they felt likerising. Sometimes, neither the sun nor the moon came out for four or fivedays. Then, when they were up in the sky, they did not go down for two to
three days.
This was a problem. Humans did not know when to farm. They could nottell what season it was. A Rong and A Ong felt sorry for this and decided
to talk with the sun and the moon to do something about it. So they cut
bamboo trees and made a swing. They rode on the swing, swung up anddown, and finally flew up into the sky.
A Rong got to the sun and asked the sun to come out on time. The sunagreed. But it was too hot and so A Rong died. A Ong reached the moon
and asked the moon to come out on time. The moon agreed. But it was
too cold and so A Ong died, too.
Since then, the sun and the moon have come out on time. Making a swing
is to remember about A Rong and A Ong, who sacrificed themselves forhumans.

83

84

Stories from

Northeastern

ThailandThe northeastern region of Thailand
is more popularly known as Isan. Isan
originates from a Sanskrit word meaning“north east direction.” The word began
to be used extensively at the beginningof the 20th century to refer to the entire
region. Isan is Thailand’s largest region
and is located on the Khorat Plateau.
It also borders the Mekong River. A
number of important rivers, including
the Songkhram and Mun, both major
Mekong tributaries, and the Chi River, a
Mun tributary, run through Isan.
Isan is home to several Mon-Khmer
languages of the Austroasiatic family.
The first story below was told in Thai
So, which is a language belonging
to the Katuic branch of Mon-Khmer
languages. People who speak So live
on both sides of the Mekong River, with
about 118,000 on the Lao side and70,000 on the Thailand side, especiallyin Nakhon Phanom and Sakon Nakhon
Provinces. The language is still actively
used. Thai So orthography has also
been developed based on Thai scripts

and is used among speakers of thelanguage (Lewis et al. 2015).
Isan is also home to some Tai-Kadai
languages. The most notable Tai-Kadai
language in Isan is Northeastern Thai,also known and spelled as Esarn, Isan,
Isaan and so forth. It is a language ofregional identity among Isan speakers
and is used habitually in every domainof life in the region, including at home.
The language is written in Thai script.
The total population of Isan speakers is
estimated to be around 15,000,000. At
least 1,000,000 live in Bangkok (Lewis
et al. 2015).
Three of the four stories below weretold in Isan and are all about salt andthe traditional salt industry in the region.
Substantial, high-quality salt deposits
can be found underground in Isan.
Traditional small-scale salt production
is still practiced. This salt is traded andwidely used among Isan people fortraditional cooking.

85

Great-Grandfather

Ja Klawa

87

Great-Grandfather Ja Klawa
Illustrations by Sanan Yaipangkaew
This story was told by Mr. Sanan Yaipangkaew on 19 October 2014 in Thai
So language. Mr. Sanan was 57 years old and living in Khok Muang Village,
Na Pho Sub-district, Kusuman District in Sakon Nakhon Province.
One day, Ao Ja Klawa, a great-grandfather of the Thro, went to cut a tree
near a river. (Ao means “great-grandfather” in Thai So. Thro is how Thai So
people call themselves.) Ao Ja Klawa carried an iron axe with him. The forest
was dense with trees suitable to obtain materials for making a boat.
Ao Ja Klawa cut down a tree. It made a loud noise. The noise reachedunderwater where King Naga was living, and disturbed him. King Naga’s
son, or Ja Rawa in Thai So, transformed himself into a banana tree on theriverbank and started to bother Ao Ja Klawa. A stem of the banana treewith ripe bananas fell towards Ao Ja Klawa, who was working in the forest.
The yellow color of the bananas was from Ja Rawa’s crest.
Ao Ja Klawa could not tolerate it and suspected that supernatural power
was involved. He said to himself, “If I do not do anything, it will disturb me.”
So he threw the iron axe into the stem of the banana tree. It cut into Ja
Rawa’s neck. Ja Rawa hurriedly escaped into
the water but was injured with the iron axe.
It had pierced his neck and could not
be removed.

88

Ja Rawa’s father, King Naga, came to learn the cause of the incident andtold Ja Rawa to apologize to Ao Ja Klawa. King Naga then transformed
himself into a human to look for Ao Ja Klawa. King Naga said, “Where is
the great-grandfather? Where does he live?” Hearing this, Ao Ja Klawa
replied, “It is my axe that is on your son’s neck.” Ao Ja Klawa then agreed
to help Ja Rawa. Ao Ja Klawa and King Naga came to the riverbank. Ao
Ja Klawa closed his eyes and counted to two. When he opened his eyes,
he was at the city of King Naga.
Ao Ja Klawa saw Ja Rawa injured. He walked around Ja Rawa clockwise
and chanted a mantra of healing in Thai So, saying, “Muay ban pai mun
suatapat ratad ratai ayat talong ja nonai o mo pieng.” Ao Ja Klawa pulled
the iron axe from Ja Rawa’s neck. He then touched the big wound on his
neck, and it immediately went away. Ja Rawa was healed.
King Naga held a feast to thank Ao Ja Klawa. They brought a lot of food,including big chickens and fish, and drinks for him. They also tied many
threads around Ao Ja Klawa’s wrists. Ao Ja Klawa then made an agreementwith King Naga on behalf of the Thai So people. They agreed that if Nagas
hear the Thai So language, Thai So descendants must be around. If theyswim in the river, Nagas should not hurt or scare them. This is because Ao
Ja Klawa helped cure Ja Rawa. If Nagas come up to the earth, humans
will not harm them, either.
When Ao Ja Klawa came back to his village, he said to his children, “Whenyou are in a river to catch fish and crabs or swim, say muay bam pai Ao
Ja Klawa na ja kreng. This is to ask Nagas not to harm you.” (The Thai
So phrase says, “We are descendants of Ao Ja Klawa and are roaming.”)
Since then, Thai So people have lived and traveled on the water safely.

89WhiteElephant
Path91

White Elephant Path
Illustrations by Worajak Maneewong
This story was told by Mr. Thongsin Thonkannya on 25 October 2014.
Mr. Thongsin was 57 years old and living in Tha Yiam Village, Wang Luang
Sub-district, Selaphum District in Roiet Province. The story was originally
told by Mr. Kanha Phalaphon, a monk who was able to read the old text
written on palm leaves.
The title of the story, “White Elephant Path” (Thang Chang Phuek in Isan),refers to the area which starts from Ubon Ratchathani Province, passes
through Nakhon Ratchasima Province, and reaches Bangkok. The story
symbolizes a large amount of salt reserve and traditional salt productionsin the area. The story is also based on Jataka, which is about the previous
lives of Buddha.
This is about the firsthuman couple. Phya
Thaen, who had created the earth, wanted
to create humans. He
molded his scurf intoa human shape. Phya
Thaen created one
man and one woman
and sent them to theearth. While they werefalling down to theground, a strong gustof wind came andblew them apart.

92

They were separated on both sides of a big river. The man was called
Grandpa Sang Ka Sa, and the woman Grandma Sang Ka Si.
When they reached the ground, they thought about how to meet eachother. They planted a gourd and used the vines to build a bridge over theriver. Then, they finally met each other. They helped each other to live, until
one day Grandpa Sang Ka Sa wanted Grandma Sang Ka Si to become

93

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his wife. So Grandpa Sang Ka Sa said to Grandma Sang Ka Si straightforwardly, “We have lived together for a long time. You are a woman. I ama man. We should have children as our descendants. We are alreadyold.” Grandma Sang Ka Si replied, “We can marry. But a man is a leaderof a family and should be wise. Working hard alone is not enough. If you
answer my riddle, it will show that you are wise, and I will agree to be yourwife. My riddle is not difficult. If you have wisdom, you can answer.” Theriddle was, “In this world, what is dark and light?”
Grandpa Sang Ka Sa heard the riddle and said, “I can answer. You reallyasked me an easy question.” He then said, “Dark is the moonless night.
The sun sets and it is dark. This is the nature that we see every day.
However, on a full-moon night, the sun sets and it is light. Is it not true?”
Grandma Sang Ka Si showed a disappointed look and said, “No. Youranswer is wrong. I cannot be your wife. You are good at many things but
you could not answer my riddle. I will give you another chance. Go andfind the answer. I will wait for you here.”

95

96

So Grandpa Sang Ka Sa traveled to find the answer. He traveled ten
thousand years but still could not find the right answer. He was disappointed
and decided to go back to see Grandma Sang Ka Si.
Having known Grandpa Sang Ka Sa was returning, Phya Thaen transformed
himself into a rusi, or hermit, and waited for Grandpa Sang Ka Sa on hisway. Grandpa Sang Ka Sa saw the hermit and asked him about the riddle,“In this world, what is dark and light? Help me answer the riddle. I have
traveled for ten thousand years but have yet to find the right answer.” Thehermit said, “This is a dharma question. The world exists because of dharma,or cosmic law and order. The darkness and lightness is the human mind. If
it is dark, the world will not proceed. If it is light, the world will prosper. The
darkness is the human mind which does not accept dharma. Bleakness
appears. Greed appears. The lightness is the human mind which accepts
dharma. If it does not know, it will seek. If it already knows, it will reflect.
This is the right answer.”
Having learned the answer, Grandpa Sang Ka Sa became happy, left thehermit, and hurried back to see Grandma Sang Ka Si. It took him anotherten thousand years. The vine bridge was still there and helped him crossthe river. When he finally met Grandma Sang Ka Si and gave the answer to
her riddle, Grandma Sang Ka Si said, “The answer is right. But it has taken
you twenty thousand years. It has been so long. My mind has changed. I
do not want to marry you.” Grandpa Sang Ka Sa was very disappointed,
went back to the other side of the river, and stayed there with sadness.

97Grandpa Sang Ka Sa asked for Phya Thaen’s help again, saying, “I have
tried in vain. I want to marry the woman but it does not work out. She is
too smart.” Phya Thaen wanted to find a way to make the two live together.
He appeared in Grandpa Sang Ka Sa’s dream and said, “Mold two water
buffalos out of clay, one male and the other female.” The next morning,Grandpa Sang Ka Sa woke up and followed Phya Thaen’s advice. He
hurriedly crossed the river and went to see Grandma Sang Ka Si. He thenmolded two water buffalos. Phya Thaen saw it and ordered devas, or
supernatural beings, to be born as water buffalos. So the two water
buffalos came to life and could work.
When Grandma Sang Ka Si saw this, she understood that Grandpa Sang
Ka Sa was wise. She said, “You have come here to lead me. Please help
me build a community. We must have children and grandchildren. The twowater buffalos you have just created can help us.” Grandpa Sang Ka Sa
was very happy. Soon after, the female water buffalo gave birth to baby
buffalos. Grandma Sang Ka Si agreed to marry Grandpa Sang Ka Sa.
Grandpa Sang Ka Sa and Grandma Sang Ka Si farmed, lived together, andhad many children and grand-children. A problem occurred, however. They
had rice, fish and gourds to eat. But they were not tasty or nutritious. So
their children and grandchildren were very thin, weak and not smart.
Phya Thaen learned about this and became worried. He transformed himself
into a chang phuek, or a white elephant. The elephant walked around on
Grandpa Sang Ka Sa and Grandma Sang Ka Si’s farmland and urinated all
over. The urine crystallized into a dry white crust on the soil surface. When
Grandpa Sang Ka Sa and Grandma Sang Ka Si tasted it, they found it salty.
They followed the elephant’s footprints but the elephant had disappeared.

98Grandpa Sang Ka Sa and Grandma Sang Ka Si suggested to their children
and grand-children that they use din aead, a white crust crystalized on thesoil surface, to make salt and produce pla daek, or fermented fish. Pla daek
was added to food to make it tasty. It helped the children and grandchildrenof Grandpa Sang Ka Sa and Grandma Sang Ka Si become stronger andhealthier.
Grandpa Sang Ka Sa and Grandma Sang Ka Si’s descendants increasedin number. Their village expanded. The amount of salt was limited, however,and villagers started to quarrel and fight over it. So Phya Thaen transformed
himself into a white elephant again. The white elephant walked through thearea while urinating and finally urinated all over from the river to the mountainand the Himmaphan Forest which, according to Buddhists’ beliefs, is aforest in heaven. This made the area into fertile land. Grandpa Sang Ka Sa
and Grandma Sang Ka Si’s descendants became strong and healthy anddid not have to starve. When they finished the salt harvesting season, they
could sell salt for income, too. This has been the case until the present.

99

PhadaengandNang Ai
101

Phadaeng and Nang Ai
Illustrations by Amarit MuadthongThis story was told by Mr. Thawon Manosin at Huay Sam Phad Sub-district,
Prachaksinlapakhom District in Udon Thani Province on 9 November 2014.
It is about the creation of Nong Han Lake in Udon Thani Province andrefers to a number of existing place names in the area. White squirrel meatin the story symbolizes salt or potassium/potash. If humans excavateand overuse the minerals, the land will collapse just as those living in Khita
Nakhon, including Nang Ai, consumed too much squirrel meat and the citycollapsed.
There lived Thaw Phangkhi, a son of Naga. Phangkhi transformed himself
into a squirrel to look for Nang Ai. This was because Phangkhi had beenborn as a dumb man in his previous life. Nang Ai, in her previous life, wasNang Ongkham, who was a daughter of a rich man. Her beauty was wellknown, but she was not in love with anyone. Her parents liked the dumbman because he was hard-working, and asked him to marry Nang Ongkham. But the dumb man did not like her. He was not interested in her anddid not have a relationship with her. They stayed together and only played
the roles of husband and wife.
Many years passed. The dumb man became rich and wanted to go backto his parents living in an old house. He lied to Nang Ongkham that hewould go by himself. Nang Ongkham said, however, that she wanted to gowith her husband to meet his mother. But the husband did not want her
to come with him. He wanted to escape from her. They traveled together
and in the evening they stopped at a fig tree on a riverbank. The husband
climbed up the tree to eat figs. But he did not toss even one to Nang
Ongkham. He did not show interest in her. She became hungry and ate
figs on the ground. The husband did not come down to the ground but

102slept in the tree, while Nang Ongkham slept under the tree. When thehusband saw Nang Ongkham fall asleep, he came down and fled away,
leaving her all by herself.
Luckily, no tiger came to eat Nang Ongkham. She woke up and did not see
her husband. She walked out of the forest but did not know which way togo. She then met a hunter, who offered to take her to the river. The hunterthen told her to wade across the river to visit her husband’s house on theother side, and left. While crossing the river, however, Nang Ongkham
drowned. Her body sank into the river. When dying, she wished that in her
next life her husband would love her. She also wished to be more beautiful
and wanted him to become crazy about her.
Nang Ongkham’s life ended and her new life began in Khita Nakhon.
She was born to be Nang Aikham, or Nang Ai. The hunter was born tobe Thaw Phadaeng. The dumb man became Thaw Phangkhi.
Nang Ai was a daughter of Khita Nakhon’s king. The king had a younger
brother in Chiang Hien. Nang Ai’s beauty was well known in many places,
including Pha Phong, where Thaw Phadaeng was living. Phadaeng travelled
to Khita Nakhon and heard that Nang Ai was very beautiful. So, Phadaengsneaked into Nang Ai’s room, courted her, and had a relationship with her.
Nang Ai’s reputation of being beautiful also reached underground. Thaw
Phangkhi heard that Nang Ai was beautiful, transformed himself to be ahuman, and approached her. However, he was not able to come close toher. So he went back home and came to visit her again. But he still could
not get a chance to talk with her.

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104

At Khita Nakhon, they held a ceremony in the fifth or the sixth month of
the year. It was called Bun Baek Fa Ko Fon Jud Bang Fai, and was to ask
for the rain from the sky. It was held together with the bang fai, or rocket
competition. The king of Khita Nakhon sent out invitation letters to various
places, including Pha Phong and Chiang Hien. The king announced, “If
Chiang Hien wins, I will award them my town. If Thaw Phadaeng from Pha
Phong wins, I will award him Nang Ai.” On the day of the ceremony andcompetition, many people came. News about the bang fai competition
reached underground. Phangkhi came up to the earth and transformed
himself into a human to come close to Nang Ai. He still could not talk withher, however.
The bang fai competition began. The competition lasted seven days andseven nights. Phadaeng’s rocket did not go the highest, however. He was
defeated by the king of Chiang Hien and could not win Nang Ai to be hiswife. However, Phadaeng still continued riding a horse named Ma Bug
Sam and regularly visited Nang Ai. Phangkhi could not accept this andmade many plans, but they were unsuccessful. So he transformed himself
into a white squirrel, came up to Nang Ai’s terrace, and played there so that
she could see him. Nang Ai wanted to catch the squirrel and asked herservants to bring a hunter. A hunter happened to live close by and came tohunt the squirrel. The hunter’s house was located in the present-day Kong
Phan Village. The hunter also asked villagers to come and help him huntthe squirrel.

105

At first, the white squirrel escaped into a suan mon, or mulberry garden,
which was in the present-day Suan Mon Village, and passed a forest to get
to a jan tree on Um Jan Hill, which is now in Um Jan Village. The hunter
could not shoot the squirrel, however. From Um Jan Hill, the squirrel went
into Phon Thong Hill in the present-day Phon Thong Village, but the hunter
still could not shoot the squirrel. The string, or sai, on his bow broke. The
hunter looked for a new string but could not find one. He then found one atPhon Thong Village, and carried it to Khon Sai Village (Carry String Village),and shot the squirrel. He still could not catch it, however. The bow made aloud noise, “puk.“ So, the area came to be called Muang Puk Village. The
squirrel, or Phangkhi, ordered his servants, the birds and snakes, to scare
off the hunter. The hunter did not get scared, however. He shot the birds
and snakes and killed them all.
The white squirrel escaped from Phon Thong Hill and went into a hollow ofa big tree in the forest. The hunter thought that the squirrel must be in thehollow and shot together with many villagers, but still could not kill it. The
squirrel ran away further. The hunter chased after it. This time, the hunterhad to call in Siang Som, a novice monk who had left the monkhood andjust seen the squirrel. Siang Som was given a reward, or nguen, and guided
the hunter and villagers to Don Nguen Village. The hunter and villagers
chased the squirrel into a fig tree. The hunter shot the squirrel. It dropped
from the tree and died.
The hunter and villagers came where the present-day Chaing Haew Village
is located and Siang Som sliced the squirrel’s meat. When cut, however, it
multiplied and eventually filled up one thousand carts. The meat was thenshared with everyone in Khita Nakhon except for widows, who did nothave a husband or children to send out to help the hunter and so were notgiven the meat. In the evening, the villagers gathered and ate the meat.
The delicious smell reached underground.

106News came to King Naga’s underground city that his son had been shot
to death. King Naga became very angry and ordered his soldiers to go up
and bury Khita Nakhon. Wherever the soldiers found the squirrel meat on
the ground, they caused that place to sink underground.
Phadaeng came to Khita Nakhon at dinner time to look for Nang Ai andsmelled food. When he came to Nang Ai’s room, she was still eating andsaid to Phadaeng, “I have had larb krarog (minced squirrel meat salad),which I got from a squirrel with a gold necklace around its neck.” Phadaeng
asked, “Are you not afraid that your land will collapse into the underground?”When he said this, a loud noise came from the city. Phadaeng told Nang
Ai to hurry and jump up on the back of Ma Bug Sam, his horse. The city
began to be destroyed. Nang Ai snatched her valuables like a ring and anecklace and other things like a gong, a drum and gold.
This made it difficult for Ma Bug Sam to flee. King Naga and his soldiers
were approaching, while rending the earth. Ma Bug Sam came to a river.
Phadaeng told Nang Ai to throw away the things she had brought withher because they were too heavy. So she threw away the gong. It was notenough. She then threw away the drum. It was still not enough. She threw
away the ring and everything. The only thing left was herself. Ma Bug Sam
tried to jump over a log which was blocking its way. However, it was notpossible because it was King Naga who had transformed himself into thelog.
Phadaeng thought of ways to save Nang Ai. He put a pole on the ground,and left her there to pick up later. However, right after he had put her on
the ground, she sank into the water. Phadaeng and Ma Bug Sam went
back to the city and saw only a lake full of water. This is how Nong Han
Lake was created.

107

Rhino Head

Pond
109

Rhino Head Pond
Illustrations by Anekpong IttijanThis story was told by Mr. Buali Suwannakhot on 21 November
2014. Mr. Buali was 98 years old and living in Muang Khan,Tha Sa’ad Sub-district, Seka District in Bungkan Province. It
is about the history of his village. Mr. Buali’s parents migrated
from the town of Attapue in the south, because the life there
had been very hard. His mother’s name was Pong. His father
was probably ethnic So. Travelling on a boat, Mr. Buali’s parents
entered the mouth of the SongkhramRiver at Tha U Thaen and sailed
upstream. They then found a pondat the present-day Hua Haed Chiang
Khrue Village. Mr. Buali’s family settled
down and started to make salt.
A long time ago, before villagers built
a community, a rhinoceros had lived
in a forest near the Songkhram River.
The rhino rested on the riverbank,drank water, and licked salt. One daya king, who ruled the area, cameand saw the rhino resting near theriverbank. The king took out a gun
and shot the rhino. The rhino died.
The bullet went through and reached
the riverbank. The stream there wasthen named Huay Luk Puen, or Bullet
Stream.

110

111

The king shared the rhino meat and skin with his people. While they weresharing, a big storm came. The rain fell on the meat. It then turned into
a red stone. Many years later, villagers living in the area saw water inside
the stone. They wondered if the water was clean. They took the water out
and boiled it. The water turned into salt. So, the villagers decided to use it
for cooking and also for making pla daek, or fermented fish.5 They started
trading salt for other things, and did this for many years. Some villagers
said that part of the rhino meat and its head fell into a pond and neverwent bad. So, the villagers used the water to produce salt. In any case,salt production in the area developed. Many people moved in. The area
expanded, and so did the salt industry.

112

Many more years passed. A spirit named Thaw Si Thon Kham Daeng, or
Jao Pho Kham Daeng, lived in the area. Actually, Jao Pho Kham Daeng
lived there before the rhino. When many people came to produce salt at asalt pond, Jao Pho Kham Daeng became annoyed. He decided not to givethem any salt. He also caused them trouble so that they could no longer
stay healthy. The salt makers were in trouble and went to ask a fortune
teller for advice. The fortune teller told them to build a shelter for Jao Pho
Kham Daeng, and appoint a man to contact him and serve him pork. The
fortune teller also advised that they make salt in the evening. Peace cameto the area.

113

The area became famous for salt. More and more people came to produce
salt for trade. At first, they wove small baskets to carry salt. Later, they
wove big baskets that held 12 kilograms of salt.6 Salt production in thearea attracted many traders. The area expanded and Tha Leung Puey
became a center for salt production. At first, villagers living near-by moved
to settle down in Tha Lueng Puey, and it expanded further. New people,
including migrating traders, came to stay. Many houses were built in Tha
Sa’ad, which was near a big tree along the riverbank. The population
increased. A temple was built and a market opened. The area was thennamed Tha Sa’ad Village. Many people gathered for trading and the village
gradually grew. Many monks came to live, too.

114

Salt traders came to buy salt in big boats. Each boat was 25 to 40 meters
long, five to ten meters wide, and two to three meters deep. They bought
salt here and sold it in other places. Around 20 crew members were ineach boat. They purchased around six to ten tons of salt. One boat went
as far as to the mouth of the river at Saiburi. Five to seven small boats alsocame. Some say that ten to 20 boats came to buy two to three tons ofsalt. In addition, many smaller boats came to trade salt along the river. Salt
traders sometime travelled as far as to Mukdahan, Khemrath, Nong Khai,
Vientiane, Luang Prabang and Champasak. Some traders transported salt
by cart on land.
Villagers worked hard in the daytime and relaxed in the nighttime. About
three hundred worked to produce salt at Hua Haed Pond. Women alsocame to work. They wove baskets to contain salt. There was no electricity.
So when a woman wanted to see a man’s face, she would use fire. The
villagers earned about 10,000 Baht (330 USD) trading salt, and paid about
800 Baht (25 USD) per year to hire workers. Workers stayed at Hua Haed
Pond from around November or December to prepare firewood, andthen produced salt from around February to April the next year. They thenpacked the salt, and waited until the flood season in August, when they
could transport the salt along the river for trading.7

115

The Efficacy of Fear -ForestSpirits
117

The Efficacy of Fear - Forest Spirits
This story is composed of interviews with several informants in Rasi Salai
District in Sisaket Province. In Thailand and Laos, it is believed that spirits
reside on any land or forest. A small shrine is always set up in the groundsof a house to honor the spirit of the land. In Northeast Thailand, many
villages also have a forest, known as a don phutha (ancestral forest), whichis revered as sacred ground. The two forests of Don Phudin and Don
Phudaen, introduced here, lie alongside the Mun River, a tributary of the
Mekong. It is believed that the spirits of the people, known as Chao Pho,
who were once the royal family of Laos, live in and protect these forests.
The majority of the population inhabiting these and similar forests, which
are held in great awe by the people, are mainly ethnic Lao, who are to befound throughout Northeastern Thailand as well as in the central andsouthern areas of Laos. These people help to keep the forests in goodcondition, even in fast-developing Northeastern Thailand. In order toimprove their lives, the people are always making use of the forest, andappear to believe that they can control the spirits by performing religious
rites (for example, when building a house on the land or when clearing
the forest to make a field). In Don Phudin and Don Phudaen, however,there are taboos that strongly inhibit the use of natural resources. Fromlistening to the villagers’ stories, it was possible to understand their feelingsof reverence toward the forest and their desire to protect it, which also
provides them with the spiritual support they need in their efforts to prevent
rampant development by companies.

118

A story about cutting down trees in Don Phudin
Until several years ago I was very self-centered. As there were good trees
in Don Phudin, I went with my friend to cut some of them down to makea stairway for my house. As we were coming out of the forest, my friend
said, “There is a person in white clothes following us.” However, I could
not see the person and asked angrily, “What are you afraid of?” When wereached the house, I suddenly collapsed with a fever. I went to see thedoctor, but was told that I was not sick. My stomach ached. I had diarrhea
and an especially bad fever. I then decided to consult Naan Thiam (a woman
possessed by one of the Chao Pho).
“You stole wood from Don Phudin, did you not? The Chao Pho are furious.
You will die if you do not apologize,” she intoned. After making an offeringof a pig’s head and four bottles of rice wine (the number of the pig’s legs)
I was completely cured.
Even now, lots of villagers die from such curses. Despite the fact that his
father was a djam (an intermediary who mediates between the villagers
and the possessed people), one man wanted to build a sturdy house, butdied when he cut down a big tree in the forest. That was 40 or 50 years
ago. In these cases, pleading with the spirits after the fact is of no use.
Breaking taboos even though you do not know about them is a grave sin.

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Keeping promises
In 2013, the racing boat kept at the shrine was supposed to be repainted,
but the paint ran out part way through the job and the village headman
simply abandoned it. That evening, I went out to fish with a tangle net andwas attacked by a ghost at about seven o’clock in the evening. The samething happened again the next day, which I thought was strange, but askingaround I found that the boat repainting work had not been completed.
Since it was possible that this might result in other problems, I went aroundthe village asking for donations and finished the job. If you once tell the
Chao Pho you are going to do something, you must never fail to see itthrough to the end.

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The Mun River Tham (Cavern)
The Mekong River, its tributary the Mun River, and Mun’s tributary the Chi
River, are linked together by underground caverns. These are known as
the Tham Phayanaak (caverns of the naga/dragon). The cavern in thisarea is linked to the cavern in Nong Khai Province (in the northern part ofNortheastern Thailand, near Vientiane). The Chao Pho came to this area
by way of these caverns. Many years ago, there was trade by boats thatcame up the Mun River from the Mekong River, and so there are places
where there is sunken treasure. People who have found gold on the riverbed
in this area have died two or three days later if they took it home with them.
This is not a problem if the spirits have given the gold as a gift, but if thegift is not accepted when it is offered, it cannot be found if the person goesback to look for it later.
Protecting the forest
A company dredging sand for construction started work on the Mun Riverright in front of the village. The company received permission from the village
headman, but the villagers were not informed about it until later. Fishing
was affected, and the coming and going of the trucks carrying the sandout caused a large number of cracks to appear in the village roads. The
road in front of the kindergarten was also damaged, and the trucks were
not permitted to pass that way. The company then built a separate roadwhich passed through the forest, and the damage to the village ceased.
After a while, however, the damage began to occur again. I looked at the
documents and realized that it was not clear how far the company waspermitted to carry out its operations. After I started to look into the matter,I began to receive death threats from people related to the company. I thenconsulted with a villager I knew well, and we decided to get the company
to leave the village area. That was nine years ago.

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At first, we had no idea how to go about doing this, but we blocked the roadto stop the transport of sand out of the village. This turned into a hugecommotion, with even the provincial governor turning up to mediate, though
no agreement was reached and the blockade continued. The company
was dredging sand out of the Mun River in several places without knowing
where the boundaries of the permitted area were. Even the province said
that they did not have firm knowledge of the area (i.e., in square kilometers)for operations of the company. In the end, after blockading the road for aweek, the villagers’ demands were met. The villagers were absolutely terrified
that erosion of the riverbank caused by the dredging would result in trees
collapsing in the forest. The owner of the company had been paying his
respects to the Chao Pho shrine by making annual offerings of a pig’s head,rice wine and other goods. At the same time, though, he was destroying
the environment, and that was unacceptable. The villagers were angry about
the possibility of becoming ill from the sand dust and about the impact on
the forest from the dredging. Before blocking the road, we consulted the
Chao Pho and prayed that none of the villagers would be arrested.

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The relationship of the villagers with the forest
Because they protect us, I feel no need to run away from the Chao Phoeven if they punish us. When villagers set out on a long trip and when they
return they go and pray at the shrine. We also pray at the shrines twice ayear, on a Wednesday or Thursday at the end of the rainy season, goingfirst to the Don Phudaen shrine. The other time is during May of the lunar
calendar. The forest is protected by thaep (angels). We cannot see them,but they can see us. There are also lots of medicinal herbs in the forest.
In the past, to prevent people from cutting down trees and stealing thetimber, we would tie a thief up at the edge of the forest and ask the Chao
Pho to come and break the person’s legs. Once, when I brought woodhome myself, unwittingly forgetting to ask for permission, I dropped thetimber on my legs and could not walk. I remembered that I had not asked
for permission and apologized to the Chao Pho. I was then able to walkhome on what should have been my broken legs. My legs healed in abouta week.
If an outsider who does not know about the taboos cuts down trees, thevillagers will be punished. This is a reproach from the Chao Pho for notprotecting the forest properly. The villagers are therefore very watchful to
see that nothing like that happens.

123

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PART III125

Notes
1. Alternative spellings are Khmu, Kammu, Khmou, Khamou and Khơmu
(Simana and Preisig 2006: 79).
2. This story was told at Chom Leng Noy Village, Pakbeng District in
Oudomxay Province on 25 July 2010.
3. The deer appearing in this story is a muntjac, a small species known
as fahn in Lao, or puai in Kmhmu’.
4. Part of the story is omitted.
5. Mr. Mun Khimpraset, or Grandpa Lung, 68 years old, at Tan Diew Village
in Tha Sa’ad Sub-district told a very similar story. In Grandpa Lung’s
version, however, it was a hunter, and not a king, who killed the rhino.
The hunter then used salt to cook the rhino meat. Villagers at Hua Haed
Village, or Rhino Head Village, were given the rhino head. Onions from
Nong Mua Miang Village were added to cook larb haed, or minced rhino
meat. While cooking, salt from the rhino fell on the ground. The villagers
took the soil, boiled it, and dried it to produce salt.
6. According to Grandpa Lung, the salt price in the past was around three
to 30 US cents per basket at Hua Haed. It rose to 60 US cents in themarket at the mouth of the Songkhram River.
7. The information in this paragraph came from Grandpa Lung’s story.
He himself used to hire four workers every year to produce salt. He thentraded it mostly at the mouth of the Sayaburi River in Ton Kian Village,
Tha Khaek and That Phanom on the Lao side. After a road had been
built, he also used a truck to trade salt. He earned about 5,000 Baht
(160 USD) for a truckload of salt. Before, the salt was put into a basket,
but now it is stored in a metal container.

126

References
Bradley, David. 2007. “Language Endangerment in China and Mainland
Southeast Asia.” In Matthias Brenzinger (ed.) Language Diversity
Endangered. New York, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 278-302.
Department of Statistics, Ministry of Planning and Investment (DoS-MPI).
2005. Census of Population and Housing 2005. Vientiane, Lao PDR.
Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.) 2015.
Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Eighteenth edition. Dallas,
Texas: SIL International. http://www.ethnologue.com
Phichai Biang Lae. (tr.) n.d. Akha Folktales. Chiang Rai, Thailand:
Development, Agriculture, and Education Project for Akha (in Thai).
Simana, Suksavang, and E. Preisig. 1998. Kmhmu’ Livelihood: Farming
the Forest. Vientiane, Lao PDR: Institute for Cultural Research.
Simana, Suksavang, and E. Preisig. 2006. “Rice-Based Traditions andRituals of the Kmhmu’”. In J. M. Schiller et al. (eds.) Rice in
Laos. Manila, the Philippines: International Rice Research Institute,79-106.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Irrawaddy Dolphins. http://www.worldwildlife.
org/species/irrawaddy-dolphin (last accessed on 10 March 2015)

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Project Member Profiles
Bampen CHAIYARAK is a researcher and writer who is working with aparticular focus on issues such as local ecology, environment and culture.
She has been disseminating information and analysis on local ecologicaland cultural diversities in Northeast Thailand through her writing.
Syvongsay CHANGPITIKOUN is a development professional currently
working as a Programme Officer at the United Nations Entity for Gender
Equality and the Empowerment of Women. From 1999 to 2012, he worked
for a variety of development organizations in the fields of community
development, emergency relief, child rights, gender and educational
development, and civil society organizations in the Lao PDR.
Toshiyuki DOI is Senior Advisor at Mekong Watch. He has extensive
experience in working towards improving environmental and social
safeguard policies and practices of development institutions such as the
Asian Development Bank (ADB). His research interest includes language
endangerment and revitalization, biological and cultural diversity andlanguage in development.
Satomi HIGASHI is Lao Program Director for Mekong Watch. From 2005
to 2013, she was engaged with a community-based watershed management
project in Oudomxay Province in cooperation with the Faculty of Forestry,
National University of Laos. Through the project, she worked with Kmhmu’communities and conducted research on watershed management and land
use in Northern Laos to make policy-level recommendations on natural
resources management and planning.

128

Yuka KIGUCHI is Executive Director at Mekong Watch. She has been
conducting field research on the Lao in Thailand and the Lao PDR for
many years. She has been working for Mekong Watch since 1999, andsupporting local TV stations in the Lao PDR in making environmental
documentaries since 2004.
Leakhana KOL has been working in the field of social developmentwith specific focus on urban development, resettlement and land andnatural resources management. Her work experience has covered
income generation, livelihood, democracy, human rights, civil society
and community development in the course of her managing projects forvarious NGOs and UN agencies. She has also performed consultancy
and advisory services for research and consultancy firms, and NGOs in
Cambodia.
Tomohiro OH is Project Researcher at the Research Institute for Humanity
and Nature in Kyoto, Japan. His research interest includes natural resource
governance from cultural and social perspectives, with a particular focus
on the nexus of resources in Laos and Japan.

129

Langca ng

CHINA

R.

Simao

BURMA

Luang Pabang
1

Vientiane

hr am

gk

P ho ng R . S

Mu

Bangkok

C hi

4

R.

.

R

THAILANDonn R.

PursatKompong
Chhnang

CAMBODIA
Gulf
of
Thailand

130

K
San R
Se

S re Pok

Ratanakiri

5 R
Stung Treng.

Siem Reap
Battambang

2.

(Yangon).
kong R
Me

Rangoonong R.

ChiangKhong
3Andaman
Sea

Hanoi

LAOS

Se

(Myanmer)

Phnom Penh

VIETNAMSouth China
SeaFieldwork Sites Map
1

Kmhmu’ in Northern and Central Laos

2

Siphandon in Southern Laos

3

Akha in Northern Thailand

4

Thai So and Isan in Northeastern Thailand

5

Bunong in Northeastern Cambodia

131in Rural Cambodia,
Laos and Thailand

Plants, Animals, Salt and Spirits: How People Live with and Talk about the Environment in Rural Cambodia, Laos and Thailand

How People Live with andTalk about the Environment