From Tea to Temples and Texts: Transformation of
the Interfaces of Upland-Lowland Interaction
on the China-Myanmar Border
Kojima Takahiro* and Nathan Badenoch**

The nature of upland-lowland relations has been a productive preoccupation forstudents of Southeast Asia. This paper looks at relations between the Ta’aang and
Tay Maaw people of Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province,
in southwestern China, re-examining the upland-lowland interaction through thelens of Buddhist practice. The role of lay ritual specialists in maintaining daily
religious life and the use of upland minority language in ritual practice are central
to the analysis. Special attention is given to the Ta’aang, as the changes underway
in their society present us with an opportunity to reassess some of the basic assumptions about upland-lowland relations, in both present and past contexts, from thelesser-known upland point of view.
Keywords: Ta’aang (Palaung), Tay (Shan), upland-lowland interaction,
Buddhist practice, China-Myanmar border

I Introduction
In 2006, Aay Kham began reciting Buddhist texts at a temple in Maan Faai village, locatedin Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province, near the Chinese
border with Myanmar.1) In this locality of the Theravada Buddhist world, most temples
are not inhabited by monks, and lay practitioners play many of the roles that are usually
played by ordained clergy. So it is nothing unusual for a lay ritual specialist like him to
give the teachings of the Buddha and read Buddhist texts to the village lay people. What
was remarkable about his preaching is that it was done in Ta’aang, his native language,
rather than Tay, the common language of Buddhism in Dehong, to the Ta’aang lay people* 小島敬裕, Center for Integrated Area Studies, Kyoto University, 46 Shimoadachi-cho, Yoshida
Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
Corresponding author’s e-mail: kojima@cias.kyoto-u.ac.jp** Hakubi Center for Advanced Research, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University
1) As a rule, we use “Burma/Burmese” when referring to a language and an ethnic group in Myanmar,and “Myanmar” when referring to the country.
Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1, April 2013, pp. 95–131© Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University

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Fig. 1 Yunnan, China

assembled in the temple.
The Ta’aang generally live in the mountains and speak a Mon-Khmer language, buthave practiced Buddhism for generations. They have a long and close relationship with
the Tay Maaw, who are the traditional rulers of the valley bottoms of this area. The
Buddhism practiced by the Ta’aang is Dehong Buddhism, and the language used in theirritual practice has typically been a mix of Tay, the language of the Tay Maaw, and Pali,the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism. Texts are written in the Tay language,
while chanting and other rituals are performed in Tay Maaw style. Not only did Aay
Kham switch to Ta’aang for his sermons using texts created on the Myanmar side, but
he also started translating the Buddhist texts used in the daily rituals from Tay into theTa’aang language, using a Burmese-based script developed on the Myanmar side of theborder. Since then the use of spoken and written Ta’aang in Ta’aang Buddhist practicehas gained popularity. What should we make of Aay Kham’s choice to use Ta’aang? Whatcan we learn of Ta’aang thinking regarding their historically close relationship with the
Tay? What do these developments tell us about how upland-lowland relations are evolving in the present, and what are the implications for a rethinking of these relationships
in the past?

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Although he has become a ritual practitioner in this village on the Chinese side of
the border, Aay Kham himself was born in Myanmar, where he learned the Ta’aang script.
His residence on the Chinese side and the innovations he has introduced into the local
Buddhist practice are just one part of a larger set of dynamics in the long relationshipbetween the Ta’aang and Tay Maaw people. This interethnic relationship is multifaceted,demonstrating elements of symbiosis, dependence, and contestation. The presence ofthe border is also key to the contemporary developments in the relationship. Ta’aang
and Tay Maaw live on both sides of this border, and although both maintain fluid interactions across the border, the line drawn on the map does represent significant disconnects between and among the groups.
Like others in Dehong, the temple in the village where Aay Kham lives wasdestroyed during the Cultural Revolution, as part of the larger crisis that affected Buddhist communities throughout China. In 1983, the temple was rebuilt, as the central
control of religious life was relaxed and people moved to reconstruct their spiritual andritual lives. The daily activities of the temple were restarted, with sermons, chanting,and other rituals being carried out in both Pali and Tay, using texts written in Tay. This
was a return to the previous style of Buddhist practice, but socio-economic change in theregion has since then introduced a new set of forces driving people’s choices and preferences, bringing a new set of nuances to the ways in which upland and lowland peopleinteract.
In this paper we examine the relationship between the Ta’aang and Tay Maaw
people along this area of the China-Myanmar border, taking the role of Buddhism as aninterface between the two as the main analytical angle. We believe this is justified given
the central position that Buddhism typically has been given in defining the differences
between uplanders and lowlanders. First, the historical Ta’aang-Tay Maaw relationshipis introduced briefly, drawing selectively on theoretical material that has shaped theunderstanding of upland-lowland interactions in Southeast Asia. Next, the paper moves
to a discussion of the unique Buddhist practices of Dehong, particularly the role of lay
people in sustaining the religious life of the community. This section highlights the movement of people, between villages of different ethnicities and across the border, as animportant social mechanism. From there the analysis moves on to explore recent developments in Ta’aang literacy. These are relevant here because they have sprung fromTa’aang efforts to establish their own religious practices as separate from, yet still closely
related to, those of the Tay Maaw. These efforts are further reinforced by a perceived
crisis in Ta’aang identity as young people are taking on influence from Han Chinese
culture at a rapid pace. The last analytical section discusses these developments, placing
the ethnographic description back into the theoretical frameworks of upland-lowland

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relations. This discussion also attempts to describe some of the dynamics involved in
the exercise of Ta’aang agency and their articulation of cultural adaptation in a rapidlychanging world.
The ethnographic data presented was collected during several stages of fieldwork.
The first author conducted intensive and extended fieldwork in a Tay village outside Ruili
city in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture between 2006 and 2007. He madefive supplementary trips to Ruili over the period of 2009–12, when interviews and surveys
were carried out in 118 Buddhist institutions (temples, stupas, and other facilities housing Buddha relics), including both Ta’aang and Tay Maaw temples (Kojima 2010; 2011).
In-depth interviews were conducted in the Ta’aang village of Maan Faai, and moredetailed surveys were administered in seven temples. Interviews with Ta’aang monks
and women lay practitioners resident at Tay Maaw temples were also carried out. Finally,
interviews were held in four Ta’aang temples in Mu Ce (Burmese: Mu Hse) and Nam
Kham (Burmese: Nan Hkan) on the Myanmar side, as well as discussions with Ta’aang
in Yangon. Drawing on this ethnographic material, the paper makes use of the narrativesof the local people to highlight the perspectives on interethnic relations in the study area.
This research is the first intensive, long-term field-based examination of Buddhist practice in Ruili of its kind.
As introduced above, the main actors in this story are the Ta’aang and Tay Maaw.
The Ta’aang are known as uplanders, while the Tay Maaw are lowlanders. Both aretransboundary ethnic groups, with sizable populations located in Myanmar as well as
China. Because of political and other historical and linguistic reasons, the Ta’aang are
known as Palaung in Myanmar, while the Tay Maaw are called Shan. The Shan and Tay
Maaw spoken languages are very close. Traditionally they use different scripts, althoughin Ruili both scripts are used, often together. Local Palaung and Ta’aang speak the Rumai
language, with only slight dialect differences. In the following analysis, all four of these
ethnonyms are used. Although this may cause some initial confusion, these ethnonyms
are used to specify not only ethnicity but also geographic location of the people.

II An Exception to the Model of Upland-Lowland Relations
Academic interest in the relationship between upland and lowland peoples in Southeast
Asia has produced structural models that have been debated widely. While generally
regarded as uplanders, the Ta’aang, known as Palaung in Myanmar, where they werefirst studied, have been noted as not conforming to some of the norms ascribed to uplandsociety. This section provides a brief introduction to the theoretical discussion that has

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developed to explain upland-lowland relations. The historical background of the Ta’aang
people is presented, followed by an introduction to the local context of the study site.
Much of the contextual material presented in this section is from accounts in the earlytwentieth century in Myanmar.
Leach Typology and the Palaung Exception
The Palaung derive their economic prosperity from tea cultivation instead of wet paddy; they are
Buddhists and have a Shan type of social system, but they live in the mountains. (Leach [1954]
1964, 30)

Our frameworks for understanding upland-lowland relations have been colored by the
influential works of Leach (ibid.; 1960). His typology of Southeast Asian social organization constructs two model systems in mutual opposition. The lowland model is characterized as governed by hierarchical political structures, supported by high-productivity wetrice cultivation, organized by non-unitary descent, dedicated to Buddhism, and displaying
a modest level of bilingualism. The contrasting upland model has egalitarian governance,
shifting cultivation, unitary descent, animism, and high levels of multilingualism as its
defining characteristics. Regardless of the rigid, dichotomous framework he conceived,
Leach’s greatest contribution is his conclusion that in reality ethnicity is a fluid andchanging social phenomenon. His fieldwork with the Kachin showed that people could
and did switch between upland and lowland systems—Kachin became Shan, and Shanbecame Kachin, depending upon the circumstances of the times. Leach’s contributions
have been discussed thoroughly throughout the academic literature, and there is no needto rehash the arguments in detail here.
Although he does not provide much detail, Leach felt that the Palaung people of thenorthern Shan States (known as Ta’aang across the border in our study area in China),
uplanders in most senses, showed some rather different traits that made them stick out
within his typology of opposing systems. The fact that the Palaung were Buddhists, andthe related point that their economy was strong enough to support the necessary physical infrastructure and social institutions in the uplands, put the Palaung outside his framework. J. G. Scott observes that “thanks to their very pronounced hills, they have formed
a distinct tribe with a chief of their own for very many years,” stressing their uplandsetting, and perhaps a sense of isolation, as the facilitating factor for their social organization (1932, 136). Leach went as far as to say that the Palaung were organized “in exact
imitation of the political model provided by their Shan neighbors” (1960, 53). Milne
recognized the presence of strong influence from the Shan in the cultural, linguistic, andpolitical life of the Palaung, but she does not equate this situation of cultural exchange as

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KOJIMA
A T. and N. BADENOCH“becoming Shan” ([1924] 2004). Rather than engaging in the historical patterns of social
oscillation between hierarchical and egalitarian social structures, it seems that the
Palaung and Shan had established a more stable relationship of mutual dependence.
If, as Leach (1960) asserts, “only the true Valley People” were able to become“civilized and Buddhist,” what can we make of Palaung social organization? According
to his way of thinking, a hill person who converts to Buddhism has entered a world ofcivilization that will result in assimilation to a valley person. More importantly, we argue
in this paper, how can we interpret the relationship between the Palaung and the Shanin order to understand the flows of influence and adaptation that seem to have existed
between these people? The ecology-economy explanation provided by Leach leaves us
asking for more detail from the daily interactions. Here, we leave aside the approach ofassessing cultural instability based on idealized models, choosing rather to examine thedynamics of interaction between the two in daily life.
Palaung Tea and Shan Rice: Bridging the Upland-Lowland Divide
Since the time of colonial records, the Palaung have been known for their relative economic prosperity among the mountain people of northern Myanmar and southwestern
China. The source of their wealth has been tea, and this has been documented in somedetail (e.g. Milne [1924] 2004). The agriculture of the Palaung has consisted mainly of
tea and upland rice. Palaung pick and cure their tea before sending it to sellers throughnetworks that reach from Nam San (Burmese: Nam Hsan) to Mandalay and Yangon, andfrom Nam Kham into China, demonstrating two different economic orientations of the
Palaung in the northern Shan States. Buyers include Shan, Chinese, and Burmese. At
times livestock were sold to lowlanders, but this was typically done in conjunction withthe shipment of tea. Income derived from tea was used to purchase rice and manufactured
goods such as textiles from the Shan (Leach [1954] 1964). Some tea planters even placedadvance orders for manufactured goods from Mandalay on credit, and payment was madedirectly in tea at harvest time. Milne cites this as an example of the high levels of trustthat existed between the Palaung and their lowland neighbors.
Milne ([1924] 2004), writing about the situation in 1907 Burma, conjectured that tea
was a relatively recent adaptation, partly because there were not many rituals involved
with tea planting or harvesting. Unlike the cultivation of upland rice, which involved
rituals mediating between the human and natural worlds, and is an integral part of the
Palaung worldview, tea has always been a commercial undertaking. However, tea planting and curing were so deeply inscribed in the Palaung way of life that they created alegend to explain its importance, and tea is still the mainstay of rural Palaung livelihoods
in Myanmar. Within Chinese territory, there are many areas that are believed to be oldFrom Tea to Temples and Texts

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Ta’aang tea plantations even though there are no Ta’aang living there presently (Sang1999). On both sides of the border, it seems safe to say, the Palaung/Ta’aang’s access tocash from tea sales enabled them to invest in other areas of life, including social andphysical facilities to support Buddhism. Moreover, they were able to attain a level of
economic standing that differentiated them from the other upland groups and put themon more of an equal footing with the lowlanders living around them. Leach (1960) went
as far as to declare the economic success of Palaung tea to be the conditioning factor thatenabled their conversion to Buddhism and active support of monastic structures.
Mountain Temples: Palaung Buddhism and Its Ties to the Shan
While the Palaung’s deep integration into regional commercial markets is noteworthy,
the aspect of Palaung society that has been given the most attention is probably the factthat they are Buddhists. Races of Burma says comparatively little about the Palaung, butdoes mention that they are “peaceable Buddhists, and . . . better Buddhists than theirneighbors, the Shans” (Enriquez 1933, 38). Milne ([1924] 2004) states that King Bodawpaya
of Burma sent a monk to the Palaung to teach them about Buddhism in 1782, but suspects
that there was already significant Buddhist influence among the Palaung since the sixteenth or seventeenth century, as this is the time that Buddhism was introduced into thesurrounding Shan society.
In fact this might not have been so strange. According to the Pa Daeng Chronicle,
many hill people came down to take the Sasana back to every hill and mountain. Some of themcame down to study and learn correctly and thoroughly the Dhamma, its meaning, the letters of
the alphabet, the canon and the grammar and returned home to teach pupils and disciples.
(Veidlinger 2006, 80)

This record, describing the Tai of Kengtung in the fifteenth century, portrays uplanders
actively seeking out knowledge and technology, exercising substantial agency in acquiring and spreading Buddhist teachings during this early period of literate culture. In fact,some Palaung intellectuals deny that Palaung Buddhism was received from the Shan.
They refer to a folk story in which the Palaung receive Buddhist teachings directly from
India, from a disciple of the Buddha who was one of the original Palaung ancestors. Thisshows the strong feeling among Palaung that their Buddhism is more legitimate than thatof the lowland Buddhist around them.
Nevertheless, a scenario put forward by scholars is the introduction of Buddhism to
the Palaung from the Shan kingdom of Sën Wii (Burmese: Thein Ni). Shan rulers used
Buddhism as one way to increase their influence over the Palaung, who resisted tax andcorvee requirements (“De’angzu Jianshi” Xiudingben Bianxiezu 2008), and it spread as

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a result of the Burmese kingdom’s effort to introduce Buddhism among the Palaung(Milne [1924] 2004).
Palaung temples, built on the highest part of the mountain ridge on which a village
is situated, are reported to have had image-houses and a school (Milne [1924] 2004).
Monks gave discourses in the morning, and stories of the Buddha’s life were frequently
read aloud by anyone who was literate. In the Nam San area of Myanmar, it used to be
the tradition that parents encouraged all boys to enter the temple for some periods oftime. In the early twentieth century, it seems that each temple had a head monk, but theordained clergy consisted mainly of novices and nuns. The Chinese literature has also
made reference to a tradition of ordination in Dehong (Dang and Zhou 2010), but thefieldwork upon which this paper is based found that this was in fact not the case (Kojima
2011; 2010).
Palaung Buddhism has been heavily influenced by Shan Buddhism, and to a lesser,
yet still important, degree, Burmese Buddhism (Ashley 2005). The teachings, texts,
institutions, and ritual practices are basically the same as those of their Shan neighbors(Yang 1987a; 1987b). In Dehong, there are clear influences from Shan sects, particularly
the Yon (Thai/Lao: Yuan) sect from northern Thailand and the Pöy Cöng (Burmese: Pwe
Kyaung) sect from Myanmar, as well as others from Myanmar such as To Le (Burmese:
Taw Nei) and Co Ti (Burmese: Zaw Ti) (“De’angzu Jianshi” Xiudingben Bianxiezu 2008).
The close relation between Shan/Tay and Palaung/Ta’aang Buddhism is seen at many
levels of practice, and the depth of this influence is clear from the detail of sect differences
found within the local Buddhist communities.
The literature has focused on the Shan/Tay Buddhism of the region, and hardly any
detailed treatment has been given to Palaung/Ta’aang Buddhist practices, or to how
ritual is transmitted from lowland to upland peoples more broadly (Ashley 2005).
Tawngpeng: The Palaung Shan State
It is not well known that one of the Shan States was in fact a Palaung principality within
the larger Shan system of regional governance. Tawngpeng, centered around the Nam
San plateau, is a fine example of an upland kingdom, suggesting that the Palaung havenot thought like Zomians (J. C. Scott 2009) for some time. In form it resembled very
closely its Shan model, but its predominantly Palaung population was ruled by a Palaungsawbwa. The sawbwa of Tawngpeng styled themselves as Shan rulers, adopting muchof the apparatus of governance used by the Shan. Fig. 2 shows Hkun Pan Tsing, the lastof the Palaung sawbwa in Myanmar, and his consort in formal attire.
But the Palaung sawbwa made a point of maintaining relations with sources of poweroutside of the Shan political world. At one point, rather than submitting to the head of

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Fig. 2 Hkun Pan Tsing, Last Palaung Sawbwa in Myanmar, and His Consort
Source: Palaung calendar for 2009.

the Shan States, the Palaung insisted on paying tribute directly to the Burmese king in
Ava (Milne [1924] 2004). In this way, the Palaung were integrated into the Shan polity,
but they used their status—not to mention their Buddhist beliefs and literacy in the Shan
language—in refusing to submit fully to the Shan. While the Tawngpeng Palaung wereable to continue a flexible policy of avoiding the conflicts of their more powerful andambitious lowland neighbors, they also isolated themselves from other Palaung communities across the Shan States and into China. The other Palaung, living in smaller,
more dispersed groups, accepted more direct Shan/Tay control. This situation continued
until 1947, when Aung San called the ethnic groups to Pin Lon (Tay: Pang Long) to
discuss the details of a post-colonial Burmese federation. Hkun Pan Tsing was the headof the Executive Committee of the First Frontier Areas Conference in 1946, and represented the Shan states at the Second Pin Lon meeting in 1947 (Sai Aung Tun 2009).
Although it may seem remarkable that the Palaung head of one of the more remote Shan
States would be their representative at this momentous gathering, this in fact reflectsthat important role that Hkun Pan Tsing played in interethnic regional politics of thetime. The political strategies of the Tawngpeng sawbwa have not been analyzed in his-

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torical detail, but what we know of the Palaung’s relations with the Shan suggests acomplex set of nuanced interactions involving both demonstrations of conformity andalso acts of resistance to the larger Shan political structures.
Uplanders in the Tay Polity
The Palaung state is a surprising development that shines light on another angle ofupland-lowland relations. As part of the larger Tay cultural complex, the Shan/Tay Maaw
world is colored by their style of governance centered on muangg polities (e.g. Condominas
1990). The creation of a muangg usually starts with a Tay group migrating to an intermontane valley, displacing the autochthonous, usually Mon-Khmer-speaking people, andthen incorporating them into the muangg through symbolic relations that recognize theoriginal people’s relationship with the land and the spirits inhabiting it (Liew-Herres etal. 2012). Economic and social relationships are formed in a way that reinforces an imbalance in social status and political power in favor of the Tay.
This interaction probably had several possible outcomes, most of which are not wellunderstood. One is a process of “becoming,” in which one group assimilates to the other.
Historically it would seem that the main model would be Mon-Khmer assimilating to
Tay. Leach (1960) proposed this as the main mechanism for the growth of the Tay muang
across the region, rather than Tay migration. Davis (1984) proposed a more nuanced
view, in which the period before the Tay groups began to document their history wascharacterized by intense and sustained cultural interaction resulting in the gradual assimilation of many Mon-Khmer groups together with a significant level of cultural transferfrom Mon-Khmer to Tay. One main area of transfer seems to have been the world of
rituals related to the local spirits.
Another outcome of cultural contact in the muangg system involves transmission of
Tay cultural material to non-Tay groups. Across mainland Southeast Asia, there aremany such muang-based relationships between Tay and Mon-Khmer, such as Muang(Yuan)-Lawa (Davis 1984), Lao-Khmu (Archaimbault 1964), Tay Dam-K’sing Mul (Evans
2000), Lue-Plang (Hasegawa and Kojima 2011), and Phou Thay-Brou (Chamberlain 2011).
These often developed into feudal systems in which the Mon-Khmer assumed a positionof subjugation to the Tay. Academics tend to try to fit these relationships into frameworks, more often than not inspired by Leachesque structuralism, rather than examining
the daily micro-level interactions between them (ibid.). Re-examination of the historicaldynamics may be constrained by the biases inscribed in written records, but local oral
traditions may provide hints as to how these relationships really unfolded (e.g. Badenoch
and Tomita; Kataoka, this issue). It has been proposed recently that the relationships
between the Tay and the Mon-Khmer groups attached to the Tay muangg can be under-From Tea to Temples and Texts

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stood as a form of “social symbiosis” (Liew-Herres et al. 2012), where the Mon-Khmer
come under Tay patronage. Chamberlain makes the case for an even more flexible view,an “interethnic symbiosis” (2011) in which the unequal relationships are manipulated
and used by each group for their own benefit. The trade of high-value forest products is
one familiar example. Symbiosis entails complementary relationships, located somewhere between hierarchy and equality.
The Tay Maaw-Ta’aang relationship examined in this paper, within the larger geographic and socio-historical context of the Shan-Palaung relationship, suggests that thesymbiosis perspective, where unequal relations provide space for complementary interactions of mutual benefit, is a useful framework.

III Mäng Maaw: The Multiple Dimensions of a Borderland
The geographic setting for this paper is an area known locally as Mäng Maaw (Chinese:
Meng Mao), an inter-montane river valley through which the China-Myanmar borderruns. The Tay word mängg is cognate with muang, the unit of socio-political and economic
relations introduced above. Historically, the muangg would have functioned as one social
unit interwoven with different threads of interethnic relations. Now, Mäng Maaw isbisected by the border, and Ruili forms the center of economic gravity on the Chineseside. On the Myanmar side, the southwestern end of the valley is oriented towards
Nam Kham, while the northeastern region gravitates towards Mu Ce. The lowland
valley area has typically been inhabited by Tay Maaw/Shan, while upland groups such as
Ta’aang/Palaung, Jinghpaw, and Han Chinese have lived in the surrounding foothills andhighland areas. Burmese and Chinese presence has been a factor, but before the 1960s
this was less so (Fig. 3).
The border between China and Myanmar only started to be consolidated in themodern sense after the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949, although the last
Tay Maaw cawfaa (Burmese: sawbwa) remained in office until 1955. With the establishment of the authority of the nation-state, the Palaung/Ta’aang experienced different
socio-economic and political settings as they were split by the border. Two main historical threads are relevant to the consideration of local society in the Ruili border area.
The first is the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. These mega-policies
caused disruption to the economic, social, and spiritual life of the local people. The second is the long history of insurgency in Myanmar, pitting ethnic minority militias against
the army of the military regime. Both of these have been treated in detail elsewhere,
and the discussion here will be limited to the important milestones affecting the com-

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Fig. 3 Map of Mäng Maaw
Source: Adaptation of image downloaded from Google Maps.

munities in the research site. The Great Leap Forward was initiated in 1958, and many
people opted to take refuge in Myanmar, including lay people, monks, and others involvedin temple ritual practices. This outflow continued until 1960. In 1966, the Cultural
Revolution occurred, and another wave of people crossed the border into Myanmar. The
Red Guards destroyed stupas and temples. Land that was abandoned by fleeing lowlanders was reallocated to Ta’aang, and movement of Ta’aang from the mountains to thevalley basin increased through the 1970s. During this period on the Myanmar side, theeconomic situation of the Shan was deteriorating because the Chinese border trade had
been stopped. Many Shan migrated to Hpa Hkan in Kachin State to work in jade mines.
The Palaung, on the other hand, were still making money from their tea production. In
fact, they were in a better economic position than the Shan, and during the tea-picking
seasons, they would hire Shan as wage laborers. In the 1980s, Shan stopped going to
Palaung villages to pick tea as improvements in rice productivity stimulated agriculturein the lowland areas. Tea prices began to drop, and the Palaung ended up in a worse
economic position than the Shan. On the Chinese side, the Cultural Revolution came toan end in 1976, and reconstruction of temples began in the 1980s. From the 1990s,
border trade began to pick up again, and the Mäng Maaw area has become an area of
economic prosperity, increasing the importance of transboundary networks and pulling
more and more Burmese and Han influence into the social landscape of the local people.

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Table 1 The Population Growth in Ruili, 1951–2000
Ethnic Group

1951

1958

1978

1988

1990

1996

2000

Dai (Tay)

17,668(61.45)*2,406(8.37)
8,250(28.69)391(1.36)
36(0.13)

9,228(49.56)4,660(25.03)4,368(23.46)300(1.61)
62(0.33)

25,886(41.66)27,027(43.50)7,656(12.32)646(1.04)
139(0.22)
779(1.25)

35,161(45.25)30,527(39.28)9,764(12.56)950(1.22)
268(0.35)
1,041(1.34)

37,005(45.33)31,797(38.95)
10,272(12.58)1,039(1.27)
378(0.46)
1,148(1.41)

41,493(45.51)
36,169(39.67)
10,761(11.80)1,080(1.18)
329(0.36)
1,344(1.47)

47,343(43.19)46,135(42.09)12,010(10.96)1,499(1.37)
438(0.40)
2,195(2.00)

28,751

18,61862,13377,711

81,63991,176109,620

Han Chinese
Jingpo (Jinghpaw)
De’ang （Ta’aang）
Lisu
Others
Total

Source: Zheng et al. (2006, 9); Ruili Shizhi Bianzuan Weiyuanhui (1996, 101), with adjustments by Kojima
Takahiro.
Note: * Figure shows the population of the ethnic group as a proportion of the total population (%).

This area on the China-Myanmar border has long been an area of complex, multidirectional cultural forces, and the trends have intensified with rapid growth (Kojima2011). Table 1 shows population growth in Ruili city between 1951 and 2000, disaggregated by ethnicity.
Most ethnic groups living in the area are found on both sides of the border. Thereare close linguistic ties among the Palaung and Ta’aang in this area—the Rumai language
is shared by most of them—although the valley area is dominated linguistically by Tay.
Since the 1960s, the influence of the policies of national language has begun to make its
presence felt among communities on both sides of the border. On the China side, theCultural Revolution marked the first institutionalized introduction of the Chinese language into local society. This came with the increased attention of government policy
towards the governance of the border area, but was also driven by the influx of Han settlers. In Myanmar, Ne Win’s policy of Burmanization had a similar effect of dramaticallyincreasing the influence of the Burmese language locally, despite a tradition of minority
language education that had flourished previously.
The Palaung-Shan/Ta’aang-Tay relationship in the Mäng Maaw basin, often characterized as upland-lowland, is situated in this paper within other frameworks of crossboundary and interethnic relations. Each of these is relevant to the research and is
mentioned in the following analysis.

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IV Lay People in the Temple: Dehong Buddhist PracticeDehong Buddhist practices differ from the well-known Southeast Asian Theravada
norms, particularly with regard to the low number of ordained clergy found. In Dehong
Lay ritual specialists play the main role in mediating the exchange of offerings and meritthat form the core of daily Buddhist life for the communities. These ritual specialists arehighly mobile and represent an important mechanism for interaction between Ta’aang
and Tay people.
Theravada Buddhism: Local Variation on the ModelIn the Theravada tradition of Southeast Asia, the norm is for ordained clergy (monks andnovices) to lead the community in individual pursuit of enlightenment (Ishii 1975; 1991).
For monks, this involves strict following of the 227 Precepts, and for novices, the 10
Precepts. Ideally lay people will observe the Five or Eight Precepts. Thus the distinction
between lay and ordained is clearly maintained, with the social and religious roles clearly
defined. The practice is guided by the Pali Canon, scriptures in the Pali language. These
scriptures are written in different local scripts, and pronunciation in recital is heavily
influenced by the phonology of the local language, but the content is fairly constant acrossthe region.
While the practical distinction between lay and clergy is clearly maintained in daily
practice, as social categories, the two are not fixed. That is to say, moving between lay
and clergy status is relatively easy. This means that it is common for people to beordained and then return to lay life. In addition, an individual may be ordained for life orchoose to practice as a lay person. The relationship between lay and clergy is key to the
Buddhist community. As monks are prohibited by their precepts from working, the laycommunity must support the Sangha, the community of ordained clergy. The lay people
gain merit through their acts of charity. The accumulation of merit will ensure they arereborn into a better life, as a result of their support of the clergy’s more intense pursuitof enlightenment. Lay people and ordained clergy participate together in rituals. The
first concern of the lay people is that accumulated merit will bring improvements in thislife.
As a part of the Southeast Asian Theravada tradition, the Buddhism of Dehong
shares many common elements with this generalized model. For example, the Pali Canonis the central source of knowledge and norms for practitioners, and the Dehong Tay and
Shan scripts are used for ritual texts. Many of the rituals are performed in similar style
as well. However, there are several fundamental and important variations that set it
apart. The most striking difference in Dehong Buddhism is the small number of ordainedFrom Tea to Temples and Texts

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Table 2 The Number of Clergy and Temples in Theravada Buddhist Societies
Temples

Monks

Monks
per
TempleNovices

NovicesperTempleYear

Myanmar56,839242,8914.3

305,875

5.4

2007

Thailand

35,244

258,163

7.3

70,081

2.0

2007

Laos
Cambodia
Xishuangbanna

4,140
4,237
577

8,055
24,929
828

1.9
5.9
1.4

11,74032,421
3,998

2.8
7.7
6.9

2007
2007
2005

602

90

0.1

101

0.2

2007

DehongSource: (Kojima 2012, 399). The data for Myanmar was collected by Kuramoto Ryosuke, Thailand by Hayashi
Yukio, Laos by Yoshida Kayoko, and Cambodia by Kobayashi Satoru. Data for Xishuangbanna andDehong is from Kojima Takahiro’s interviews with the Buddhist association in each prefecture.

clergy (Kojima 2011). The average number of monks and novices resident at temples in
Dehong is significantly lower than in other parts of Southeast Asia (Table 2).
Of the 118 Buddhist facilities surveyed in Ruili, only 29 had people resident, meaning that 75 percent of the facilities were “empty.” There were seven Ta’aang temples,and none of them had ordained clergy resident. Of the people residing at the inhabitedfacilities (including monks, novices, women lay practitioners, and temple boys), only 25
percent were from China, with the rest originating from Myanmar, as shown in Table 3.
The Cultural Revolution had deleterious impacts on local Buddhist infrastructure
and practice, but even compared with Xishuangbanna (Sipsong Panna), where Buddhism
is practiced by people speaking the Tay language related to Tay Maaw, the number ofordained clergy is low. In Xishuangbanna, the number of monks and novices has returned
to levels similar to pre-Cultural Revolution days. In contrast to other areas of Southeast
Asia, in Dehong it is not standard practice for a young man to be ordained as a monk or
novice as part of the normal coming of age. These factors suggest low levels of ordination
are the norm in Dehong Buddhism, and this was confirmed by local people:
In Xishuangbanna, there is a belief that every boy should be ordained once in his lifetime. Thatmeans that there are many novices. However, that type of belief does not exist in Dehong. Because
we believe that only men who have the desire to be ordained should do so, the number of monks
and novices has been comparatively small even before the Cultural Revolution. (Tay local historian,aged 68)

In Dehong, ordained clergy are required at several types of ritual. For example, in
villages where there are monks or novices resident, they will travel to the homes of lay
people to perform funeral rites or preside over house-construction celebrations. Monks
and novices will also perform village-wide rituals to exorcise evil spirits.

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Table 3 Buddhist Facilities Inhabited by Monks, Novices,Temple Boys,and Laay Khaaw in Ruili City (August 2010)
Village Type
VO
VT
PT
ML
TL
TL
VM
TK
TN
LA
LN
LH
LH
TH
VL
HS
TT
LS
TX
TO
OL
LX
TS
NT
MA
LT
TS
LM
TT
Total

Sect

TemplePöy Cöng
TemplePöy Cöng
TempleTo Le
Lay house Pöy Cöng
TempleTo Le
Stupa
TempleTo Le
TempleTo Le
TempleTo Le
TempleTo Le
TempleTo Le
TempleTo Le
Stupa
TemplePöy Cöng
TempleTempleTo Le
TemplePöy Cöng
TempleTo Le
TempleTo Le
TempleTo Le
TempleTo Le
TempleTo Le
TemplePöy Cöng
TempleTo Le
TempleTo Le
TemplePöy Cöng
TempleTo Le
TempleTo Le
Footprint of
the Buddha

TempleLaay
Monks From From Novices From From
From From
From From
Boys
Khaaw
Total China Myanmar Total China Myanmar
China Myanmar
China Myanmar
Total
Total
2
2
0
0
0
0
1
4
1
0
0
0
0
0
5
6
2
5
2
1
1
0
1
3
1
2
1
1

0
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
1
1
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0

2
1
0
0
0
0
1
3
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
5
1
5
0
1
1
0
1
3
1
1
1
1

1
4
0
0
0
0
2
5
0
0
0
0
0
0
30
0
0
5
3
4
0
0
0
15
4
6
4
0

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
5
0
0
2
0
3
0
0
0
0
1
5
0
0

1
4
0
0
0
0
2
5
0
0
0
0
0
0
25
0
0
3
3
1
0
0
0
15
3
1
4
0

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
33
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
0

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
13
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
20
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
0

0
0
2
1
4
1
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
3
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
0
0
0

0
0
0
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

0
0
2
0
4
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
0
3
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
0
0
0

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

42

12

30

83

16

67

35

13

22

18

4

14

Source: Surveys conducted by Kojima Takahiro.
Notes: 1) The encircled cells indicate Palaung residents.
2) The temple of VT village was formerly affiliated with the Yon sect. Now the abbot belongs to the
Pöy Cöng sect.
3) The laay khaaw of ML village doesn’t live in the temple but in her son’s house.
4) The stupas and footprint of the Buddha don’t belong to any sect. The temple of VL village doesn’t belong
to a sect because it was built by the Buddhist association.

In villages where no monks or novices are resident, they may be invited fromanother village to come perform the necessary rituals, such as large-scale offerings.
Other rituals are performed by lay ritual specialists, allowing the community to function
with very few monks and novices.
With rising levels of prosperity, many Tay and Ta’aang villagers in Dehong expressFrom Tea to Temples and Texts

111

Fig. 4 Characteristics of Buddhism in Dehonga general desire to build temples, particularly in rebuilding those lost in the Cultural
Revolution. But in subsequent discussion, they often say that it is too much of a burden
to support the monks. Thus, the traditionally low levels of ordination and the cost of
maintaining resident clergy explain why so many temples are “empty” in Dehong. In
other words, we see a mix of cultural preferences and economic realities that are seemingly contradictory. But the standard practices centered on “empty temples” are interesting in light of Leach’s economic explanation of Palaung Buddhism. While we do seea good economic situation contributing to the growth of Buddhism, the relative affluence
has not meant a major shift in the patterns of residence in temples. The general schematicsof the common Southeast Asia norm and the Dehong norm are compared in Fig. 4.
The absence of monks and novices has implications for the accumulation of merit
within the local community. Whereas the norm for Southeast Asian Theravada Buddhism
is a direct relationship of exchange of offerings and merit between the lay community
and the ordained clergy, the offering-merit transaction is mediated by lay ritual specialists
who interact with symbols of the Buddha such as stupas, Buddha images, and Buddhist
texts.
Roles Played by Lay Ritual Specialists
As introduced above, lay ritual specialists make up for the lack of ordained clergy resident
at temples in Dehong. None of the seven Ta’aang villages have ordained clergy resident
at their temple. The most important of these specialists are responsible for reciting andreading texts during rituals. These individuals are known as ta’congg in Ta’aang (ta’, “oldman, grandfather,” and cong, “temple,” originally from Burmese kyaung) and ho lu in Tay( , “head,” and lu, “donation,” from Burmese hlu, “donation”). The ho lu is central to(ho
all the functions of the temple, and every village in Ruili has at least one ho lu. It isinteresting to note that 86 percent of the Tay ho lu are not from the villages where their

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Fig. 5 Text Altar in Tay House
Source: Photo by Kojima Takahiro.

temples are located, while all but one of the seven Ta’aang ta’congg are also from othervillages.
The ta’cong/ho lu provides access to Buddhist texts through his role in reciting at
rituals. As the Tay name indicates, he manages offerings from the lay community,
thereby facilitating access to merit. His duties cover rituals at several levels, including:• Reciting scriptures and making offerings in front of the “text altar” (Fig. 5) of eachhousehold at weddings, celebrations of house construction, and funerals;• Making offerings and leading the community in reciting scriptures in front of the
Buddha image at village-wide rituals; and• Reciting the Buddhist texts (taa laa) at the temple during large rituals such as theannual rainy season retreat (wa), water festival ((sang tsɛn), and donation of robes((kan thin) festival.
In each, the lay participants gain merit through the ta’cong/ho lu’s recitals, and in the caseof the taa laa recital the lay community receives Buddhist teachings for application indaily life.
In addition to the ta’cong/ho lu, Dehong Buddhist practices are supported by female
lay renunciants (referred to in this paper as “women lay practitioners”) known as yaa
khaaw or laay khaaw ((yaa, “grandmother,” laay, “elderly woman,” and khaaw, “white,From Tea to Temples and Texts

113

Fig. 6 Ta’aang Yaa Khaaw Reciting Scriptures at a Funeral
Source: Photo by Kojima Takahiro.

pure”) in Tay. Yaa khaaw are not considered to be Buddhist nuns in this analysis. They
do shave their heads, wear pink robes, and take part in the “ordained” realm of Buddhist
practice, but generally speaking their role is much less than that of the ta’cong/ho lu withregard to actual ritual practice. Therefore, a yaa khaaw has two main duties. The first is
to take care of the temple or stupa facilities and grounds, including cleaning and making
daily offerings to the Buddha image. The second duty involves participation in funerals,
and reciting scriptures in the daytime (Fig. 6), while the ta’cong/ho lu recites at night.
For the broader community, groups of lay people participate in certain rituals, particularly during the three-month wa period. These people are known as ta’ sin yaa sin(elderly men and women of the precepts) in Ta’aang, and khing laay (elderly men, elderly
women) in Tay. During the wa, they are in the temple on holy days (wan sin) to observe
the Five and Eight Precepts. They are also invited to participate at the many rituals held
throughout the year. The khing laay activities during the wa period demonstrate therelationship between lay practitioners, specialist practitioners, and symbols of the Buddha. There are 13 wan sin during this period. For each wan sin, the Tay khing laay stay
two nights at the temple, while the Ta’aang ta’ sin yaa sin do not. On the evening before
a holy day, the Tay ho lu leads the khing laay in taking the Five Precepts, which arereceived in front of the Buddha image, not from a monk, which is the more common
Theravada practice. After offering flowers to the image, the people go to sleep. The nextmorning, the Tay khing laay receive the Eight Precepts, and the Ta’aang ta’ sin yaa sin
receive the Five Precepts. They then offer a meal to the Buddha image and do meditation. In the afternoon, both the Ta’aang and Tay listen to the ta’cong/ho lu’s recitation of

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Buddhist texts and make another offering to the Buddha image. The next morning, theTay khing laay take the Five Precepts and then return to their homes.
While there are slight differences between the Tay and Ta’aang in the roles andpractices of the elderly lay people, in general the Dehong Buddhist community accumulates merit through the intermediary role of the ta’cong/ho lu. Recitation of Buddhist
texts accompanies offerings in this fundamental core practice led by laymen. This situation is the norm throughout the broader Ta’aang community, and much of the Taycommunity as well.
Movement of People
As suggested above, individual mobility is important to the functioning of Buddhist practice in Dehong, as witnessed by the accounts of ho lu and ta’congg originating from outside
their village of current residence. Results of a survey in 2010 of people residing at 29
Buddhist facilities in Ruili city confirm this observation.
The majority of clergy resident at the Ruili temples surveyed are from Myanmar,
as shown in Table 3 presented above. For example, 71 percent of the monks were from
Myanmar, including both Shan and Palaung, while 81 percent of novices had crossed theborder to take up residence on the Chinese side. Women also have high mobility, with
78 percent of women lay practitioners originating from Myanmar. The total number ofpeople from Myanmar in these temples is 75 percent.
The relationship between the villages of Ten Long (lowland, Tay, China) and Maan
Om (upland, Palaung, Myanmar) illustrates some of the important dynamics behind the
movement of people. Ten Long is a large village, comprised of approximately 250 households. Between funerals, house-construction celebrations, and other regular rituals,
there is a large demand for a resident monk. The normal practice in the village had been
to invite a monk from another village temple to perform the rituals. Eventually, in 1997,
the lay community decided that it would be better to invite a monk to reside permanently
at the temple. The temple of this village belongs to the Minzo sect, and there are other
Tay Minzo temples in the vicinity, but the community expressed concern about the
morality of Tay monks. There was a general sense that some Tay monks reflected an
unacceptable laxity in adherence to the precepts. The conclusion was that it would bebetter to invite a Palaung monk because they observe the precepts more strictly and ingeneral have good practice. Furthermore, the Palaung monks speak fluent Tay, and there
is no problem with giving sermons. For these reasons, the community decided to makea request to the elders of the Minzo sect in Maan Om that a monk be sent to their village
as the abbot.
Maan Om is located in the mountains in Myanmar, where the economic situation

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has deteriorated over the past years. The village used to be prosperous enough to support four temples, but the community is having a hard time providing for them now. The
birth rate is high, while at the same time divorce and death have created many singleparent situations. Poor families often send their boys to the temple to become a novice,
and many girls decide to become yaa khaaw. There is not enough rice or oil to support
the high population at the Maan Om temples. Ten Long, however, is a prosperous village
with only one temple. Because of the one-child policy, children are not so numerous,
and the parents do not want their children to be ordained. Moreover, because the village
is wealthy, there are many donations, making the conditions for residence attractive tomonks from Myanmar, where the security situation has been threatened by sustained
armed conflict.
This case shows the push-pull forces working in the relationship between the
Palaung and Tay temples. From the Palaung point of view, there are economic factorsthat make it more sensible to send monks down to take up residence in the Tay temple.
From the Tay point of view, the option of inviting a Palaung monk from an upland village
provides a solution to social problems that are affecting the local Buddhist practices. For
both, the shared language and script, not to mention the fact that they belong to the same
sect, make it possible for this exchange to take place.
Another type of movement that has special value for the Buddhists of Dehong istraveling to pay respects and offering a meal to the monks during the rainy season retreat(wa). In Tay this is called song pen. In fact, lay people visit the temples to pay respects
even if there are no monks resident. The wa period is a time of meditation, intensified
practice, and strict adherence to the precepts, for both the ordained clergy and the laycommunity. Members of the lay community make special trips to other villages withofferings during the wa period in order to make merit. Two cases of interest are presented below, illustrating the merit-making relations and social interactions between
temple communities.
The first case involves an upland Ta’aang village (Loi Mon) and a lowland Tay village(Taa Pe), both on the Chinese side of the border (Fig. 7). When the Cultural Revolution
began, the Tay villagers were concerned about the safety of the Buddha images in theirtemple. In order to avoid the risk of them being destroyed by the Red Guards, thevillagers smuggled the images across the border and hid them at a Shan temple on the
Myanmar side. After the Cultural Revolution, the images were returned to Taa Pe. The
villagers agreed to give one of the images to the temple at the Ta’aang village of Loi Mon.
In appreciation of the sharing of Buddha images, the Loi Mon temple community performed song pen at Taa Pe. This case can be considered as an exchange of merit-making
opportunities, the Buddha image representing a long-term source of merit, and the song

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Fig. 7 Song Pen between Loi Mon Village and Taa Pe Village
Source: Adaptation of image downloaded from Google Maps.

pen an immediate source of merit. Loi Mon also allows people from a neighboring Tay
village to collect firewood from the village forest, and in return the other village performs
song pen at Loi Mon.
In the second case, involving Ten Long and Maan Om (Fig. 8), the temple community of Ten Long performs song pen to the Maan Om temple. The relationship between
these two temples, introduced above, is slightly more involved than the first case. Before
the Cultural Revolution, the Tay community of Ten Long had invited a Palaung monkfrom Maan Om, in Myanmar. During the tumult of the Cultural Revolution years, theabbot of Ten Long took refuge at Maan Om. Then in 1997, as mentioned, Maan Om senta Palaung monk to reside at Ten Long. Tay villagers from Ten Long in China travel toperform song pen at the Palaung temple in Maan Om on the Myanmar side to express
their appreciation. This case also illustrates one strategy used by the Buddhist clergy todeal with the disruptions caused by the Cultural Revolution. This phenomenon is partof the larger relationship between the two groups.
As Table 3 shows, the cross-border movement of yaa khaaw is significant. Of the
14 women from Myanmar staying in Tay temples, 11 are Palaung. One of these women,
aged 49, explained the situation as follows:
On the Myanmar side there are too many yaa khaaw. Since there are not enough donations toFrom Tea to Temples and Texts

117

Song Pen between Ten Long Village and Maan Om Village
Source: Adaptation of image downloaded from Google Maps.

support them, they have to go to Tay villages on the Chinese side to get rice. This is called khaam
khaw and is done between November and December each year. One year I traveled on a khaam
khaw and the people asked me to stay, so I did.

Another woman, aged 54, says:
I traveled to Mu Ce from Nam San, collecting donations. I also took the opportunity to buy some
Chinese-made goods. In Mu Ce, I became acquainted with a lay person from Ton Hong Village on
the Chinese side, and they invited me to stay at their temple. The lay people provide me withanything I need. They are very thoughtful, and it is a good place to live.

With the women, it is clear that their minds are open to opportunities to improvetheir living standards, first increasing their mobility to secure needed food. From there,
personal relationships developed during the khaam khaw often lead to invitations to stayat temples in China. The reasons for this development are discussed in the following
section.

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V Reclaiming Buddhist Texts: Changes in Ta’aang Literacy
The Ta’aang community’s relation to their Buddhist texts is especially important given
the absence of ordained clergy to provide teachings directly and receive offerings. For
these reasons, literacy has long been important for the Ta’aang Buddhist practices led
by the lay people. This section describes the social setting for Ta’aang literacy, highlighting how written language is part of a Ta’aang effort to redefine their Buddhist practices
in Ta’aang terms, thereby differentiating themselves from the Tay, while at the sametime responding to a perceived cultural crisis arising from the influence of Han Chinese.
Interacting with Texts: Reading and Recitation
One of the central aspects of Buddhism linking Ta’aang and Tay practice is language use,
and it can be said that use of the Tay/Shan language has been an important foundation inthis interethnic relationship. As a rule, the Tay language and Tay writing (lik Tay) areused for scriptures recited in the annual rituals. Scriptures in the Pali language are usually written in the Shan script, connecting it with a Buddhist canonical tradition that spans
an area wider than the Shan States. It is probable that the Ta’aang have been using the
Tay script since they adopted Buddhism, although it is possible that some Ta’aang werefamiliar with the script before then. Milne ([1924] 2004) mentions that an elite Palaung
literati would have used the Shan script for commercial transactions and other communications with their Shan neighbors for many generations. This would not be surprising,
given the wide use beyond the world of Buddhist texts that the Tay script had in Tay
Maaw society (Daniels 2012). Sang sums up the situation:
The Ta’aang have no writing to represent their native language, but they have been using the Tay
script for a long time. They and the Tay are followers of Theravada Buddhism, and use ritual texts
written in Tay in the temple. Ta’aang novices get instruction in the Tay script, which means thatsome of the boys are able to learn the script from a young age. Because of this, Ta’aang intellectuals(lay people who have the experience of being ordained as a monk or novice) have for hundreds ofyears used the Tay script for reciting Buddhist texts, keeping public records, and exchange ofcorrespondence. (1999, 41–42)

The importance of reciting ritual texts in Dehong has already been mentioned.
However, in Southeast Asia the style of recitation differs by locality, and the Ta’aang
recite their texts using Tay intonation, rhythm, and stylistics. The style of recitation isa marker of identification, and even within Dehong there are slight variations according
to locality. But within the Ta’aang community, the main distinction made is between
Ruili (Tay: seng thung maaw, “sound of Mäng Maaw region”) and Mu Ce/Nam Kham on

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the Myanmar side (Tay: seng kalong pen, “sound of the Garuda flying”). According tolocal informants, the difference between these recitation styles is enough to cause problems in intelligibility. Accordingly, when ho lu or ta’congg from Myanmar are invited toperform rituals in Ruili, they usually make the effort to learn the local style of recitation.
With the increase in ho lu and ta’congg coming to Ruili from Myanmar, some texts(taa laa) have traveled across the border. As mentioned earlier, the Shan use a different
script from the Tay Maaw, but texts written in Shan have become increasingly common
in Ruili as well. Historically, the Dehong Tay script was also used widely on the Myanmar side of Mäng Maaw, but with the movement to unite Shan scripts led by Shan elites
after the 1960s, the influence of the Shan script grew in Myanmar, while the Dehong Tay
script continued to dominate on the Chinese side. Now, with the increased cross-borderinteraction and influx of Shan from Myanmar, the Shan script enjoys some popularity in
Ruili alongside the Dehong script.
Importing a New Literacy
Aay Kham’s decision to recite texts in the Ta’aang language was followed by a personalcommitment to translate Tay language texts into Ta’aang. Ta’aang informants in Ruili
report that their overall level of fluency in the Tay language has dropped in recent years
with the growth in Han Chinese influence. One direct implication of this development
is that Ta’aang lay people’s understanding of sermons and recitations in Tay is decreasing, and comprehension of the material used in rituals is falling as well. The head of theCommittee for Research on the Ta’aang People, Ruili Branch, summed up the issue:
On the Chinese side, the number of Ta’aang is rather small, so if we do not protect our linguistic
culture, we will be assimilated into the Tay or Han. It is also embarrassing when someone ofanother ethnic group asks us if we Ta’aang have our own writing system. (Ta Seng, aged 47)

This statement links the issue of language use in Buddhism to larger trends within
Ta’aang society in Dehong. For people like Ta Seng, the initiative to translate Buddhist
texts into Ta’aang and write them in a Ta’aang script is an opportunity to address thechallenges of maintaining their cultural integrity. On Aay Kham’s part, the motivation
for starting to speak and write in Ta’aang derives from the difficulty he initially faced inreciting the local Tay texts in a way that was intelligible to the Dehong Ta’aang lay
people. The local people initially preferred recitation using the seng thung maaw style,but his thinking was that it would be better to shift to Ta’aang rather than to try to adopt
the local style of recitation. The narratives of the local people show that aesthetic preferences and real issues of comprehension intertwined are behind Aay Kham’s decision
to start using Ta’aang language and script.

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Fig. 9 Palaung/Ta’aang Buddhist Text from Myanmar
Source: Photo by Kojima Takahiro.

The Palaung script was first created during the English colonial period, based on
adaptations of the Burmese, Shan, and Yuan (Yon) scripts. The Palaung script currently
in use was developed in 1955 by U Paw San, a highly educated Palaung from Nam San.
U Paw San was sent to study in Sri Lanka during his primary school days by his father,
who financed his son’s travels with income from tea sales. Revisions to the orthography
were made in 1972 at a nationwide Palaung conference. Standards for spelling werealso decided at this meeting. The Palaung script is based on Burmese, with one additional consonant and three additional vowels. Fig. 9 shows a Buddhist text written in
Palaung/Ta’aang, brought from the Myanmar side.
In 2010 and 2011, courses in Ta’aang/Palaung literacy were given in Ruili. In thefirst year, 10 students joined the 16-day course. In the second year, the number ofstudents jumped to 55, and the course lasted for 19 days. The courses were held during
the summer vacation in elementary schools near Ta’aang villages. The instructors used
a textbook developed in 2006 by the Palaung Literacy and Culture Association, which isbased in Nam Kham on the Myanmar side. Ta’aang people interviewed about the literacy

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Fig. 10 Palaung/Ta’aang Primer Text from Myanmar
Source: Photo by Kojima Takahiro.

classes mentioned that it was quite difficult for the Chinese Ta’aang to learn the script
quickly because it is based on Burmese script. For Palaung on the Myanmar side only
small adjustments are necessary to learn the script, as most people are literate in Burmese already. Moreover, the Chinese government has not offered to provide support
for the Ta’aang literacy efforts, meaning that the community must generate its own
support internally. The promotion of Ta’aang literacy has just begun, and although theresults to date are modest, it is unclear how popular the Burmese-based script will
become. From the policy perspective, in China it is standard for Roman (Pinyin)-based
orthographies to be developed for minority languages without their own written tradition(Shoji 2003). Fig. 10 shows a primer developed in Myanmar and used in Ta’aang language
instruction in Ruili.
In the meantime, texts are being translated in Nam Kham on the Myanmar side, andsome of these make their way to Dehong. The standard Palaung texts for use in rituals
were completed in 1991, after a process of consultation among senior monks. Previously
they were written in Shan or Burmese script. The ongoing work of translation is carriedout by ta’congg and monks.

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Institutionalization of a Nascent Literacy Movement
The Yunnan Province Ethnic Groups Academic Association Committee for Research on
the Ta’aang People (Yunnansheng Minzu Xuehui De’angzu Yanjiu Weiyuanhui) wasestablished in 1998 as a non-governmental organization with the objective of preserving
and developing Ta’aang culture. Although the committee is not a governmental organization, most of the approximately 200 members are civil servants or village headmen.
The establishment of the committee mirrors similar organizations, for example, the Tay
Research Committee (Daixue Yanjiu Weiyuanhui). Early inspiration for the Ta’aang
committee probably came from the example of the Tay group. The government provides
no financial support for these committees, and the organization is run with contributions
made by Ta’aang people. The headquarters are located in Mangshi in the administrative
center of Dehong, and branch field offices are maintained in cities and counties of Dehong,in addition to Kunming, Baoshan, and Lancang. At the annual meeting in 2010, the committee decided to begin instruction in Ta’aang literacy. Interestingly, the first person to
introduce Ta’aang literacy was an individual from Myanmar who happened to be a ritualspecialist (ta’cong), and the committee decided to start more organized activities afterwards.
The institutionalization of concern for Ta’aang culture in China followed a similar
development on the Myanmar side. In 1972 the Palaung Literature and Culture Association was established with offices in 19 districts. Once a year in August, the association
holds courses in Palaung literacy in many places, including Yangon, Mandalay, and Nam
San as well as smaller towns around the northern Shan States after the 1990s. Courses
for primary school students run for one month, while those for secondary school students
last for 20 days. The courses are taught by monks, school teachers, and other volunteers
and are financed by donations from the students and the public. An annual meeting isheld every August at the district level. Once every four years a nationwide meeting isconvened, the venue rotating each time. Chinese Ta’aang delegations also attend thisgeneral meeting. The representatives typically report the situation of education for literacy. The Chinese Ta’aang also attend the award ceremony for the examinations following the literacy course at Nam Kham.
The Myanmar Palaung’s motivation for initiating their literacy program was describedby one of the previous secretaries of the association’s Nam Kham branch:
During the British colonial period, the Palaung were the seventh largest ethnic group in Myanmar,in terms of population. But now our numbers are falling and we are only ninth. Because Palaung
do not live together all concentrated in one place, the Palaung scattered over a wide area tend toassimilate to the other ethnic groups around them. If a village headman gets married to a womanfrom another ethnic group, the entire village is likely to assimilate to that group. What’s more, weFrom Tea to Temples and Texts

123

didn’t have our own writing, which means that we need education to make sure that our ethnic
group does not disappear.

In his narrative, there is a clear link between assimilation, cultural integrity, and writing.
This man, 49 years old, was born in Nam Kham, but educated in Lashio and Mandalay
University. At the age of 21, he became a middle-school teacher in Nam Kham, but thenjoined the Palaung State Revolutionary Army, an armed insurgency group operating aspart of the ethnic minorities’ struggle against the oppressive policies of the Myanmar
military regime. He retired from the army in 2005, at the age of 43, and became involved
with the association. As an educated elite leader of the Palaung, he is looking to use his
experience and knowledge to raise awareness of the Palaung cultural predicament.
Thus, despite policy constraints on both sides of the border, a local literacy movement has been born and has started to spread. With the new script, the Palaung/Ta’aang
have seen an opportunity to open a new chapter in their own Buddhist practice.

VI Discussion
Following the narration of some of the changes underway among the Mäng Maaw Buddhist community, this section expands upon three themes—changes in multilingualism,
mobility, and the question of identity—that are relevant for the consideration of TayTa’aang relations. The analysis supplements synthesis of the data already presented
with some additional ethnographic material.
Shift in Multilingualism
Bilingualism, and often multilingualism, has been one of the defining cultural traits of theTa’aang people. The basic pattern of multilingualism has shifted significantly in the past
decades.
There has been a change in the second language of Ta’aang people in China. In theolder generation, Tay was the primary second language. Other languages that might belearned depending upon the individual’s upbringing were primarily Jinghpaw, followedby other more minor languages spoken in the locality. Tay was the lingua franca, as the
Tay Maaw made up the majority of people in the lowland area. Formal education was notwidespread. The younger generations have undergone a shift in second language from
Tay to Chinese. From the 1950s, Chinese-medium education spread in the area, andthere was a rapid influx of Han Chinese after the Cultural Revolution, tipping the lingua
franca towards Chinese. Since this period, all official meetings are held in Chinese, and124

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most Ta’aang are now conversant with Chinese. In the Ta’aang lexicon, the predominantsource of loan words used to be Tay, but now the strongest influence on Ta’aang comesfrom Chinese (Sang 1999).
A similar phenomenon has occurred in Myanmar, where speakers over 60 years old
are usually fluent in Tay/Shan as their second language but the younger generation
speaks Burmese as their second language. For some teenagers, knowledge of Tay/Shanhas been reduced to very basic words and simple phrases. For others, Tay/Shan is still
spoken, but the levels of proficiency are not as high as their parents’. The situation isstill very context driven. The introduction of the national Burmese-language education
curriculum is the major driver of this change. Change in lifestyle, particularly in the urban
areas, is a secondary factor in both Myanmar and China.
Social Mobility within Buddhist Society
From the narratives presented regarding choices to settle in temples on the China side,
it would appear that the Palaung see China as an area of opportunity. There is a perception that economic life in China is better. At the same time, Palaung are generally welcomed warmly into Tay temples, as the Tay generally perceive the Palaung role as being
valuable to the local community. This is especially the case with women lay practitioners.
Thus, the gaps in socio-economic wellbeing, taken together with the large number ofvacant temples, create push-pull forces drawing Palaung across the border. This movement can be considered a path to upward social mobility for Palaung on the Myanmarside.
Supporting this trend further is a set of perceptions about Palaung ordained clergy
among the Tay. When considering perceptions, at the basic level there is still an undercurrent of old stereotypes concerning the differences between upland and lowland communities, and more specifically between Tay and Palaung. First, there is a perceptionthat the Palaung monks are much more conscientious and honest than Tay monks. In
general, the Palaung are recognized for their competence in the Tay language and recitation. A similar good reputation precedes the women lay practitioners as well. Palaungyaa khaaw are perceived as being organized and thorough in the upkeep of temples. In
addition, they handle money and other valuables, including donations, with care andhonesty, and there are few cases of improprieties involving possessions at the temples.
At the same time, there are also comments that reflect stereotypic views of the uplanders—for example, that Palaung women are used to living on the mountains and therefore
do not get bored with the manual labor needed to maintain the temples.
In most cases, the change in place of residence has resulted in improved economic
standing for individuals who move across the border to China. For Palaung yaa khaaw itFrom Tea to Temples and Texts

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seems that their shift in residence is the by-product of their social networks rather thandriven by a desire to search for a better economic life. Concurrent to this is the realitythat there is a shortage of suitable people in Tay communities, and the Palaung’s ability
to perform in rituals in a way that is acceptable to the Tay means that they are recognized
as skilled practitioners.
Becoming Tay? Becoming Chinese? Becoming Ta’aang?
Today, the local people describe Ta’aang-Tay relations to be limited to certain areas ofsocial life. The networks observed are interesting in what they tell us about interethnic
relations, but at the same time it should be recognized that the Ta’aang and Tay retain
their own spheres of cultural life. The most intense areas of interaction are defined by
specific needs, primarily within the realm of Buddhist practice. The cases presented
above exemplify these dynamics. Thus, when there was a shortage of Buddha images
after the Cultural Revolution, lack of individuals to manage the upkeep of uninhabited
temples, or shortages in donations, the two groups formed bonds of exchange that wereformalized to varying degrees within the institutions of Buddhism.
The types of cultural influence the Ta’aang presently receive from their Tay neighbors are somewhat different from those in the past. However, the implications are fundamentally the same for the Ta’aang—they are concerned for the cultural integrity of thecoming generations. There are examples of the classic pattern of Ta’aang “becoming
Tay” ((pien pen tay) in Ruili. These villages are recognized by both Tay and Ta’aang as
having become Tay: Phaa Sä village and Maan Lim village (1960s); Maan Kham village(1970s); and Paang Yaang village (1980s).
A case in point is Paang Yaang village, which used to be a Ta’aang village. Now there
is only one Ta’aang person left. The rest have either become Tay, or are Tay who havemarried into the village. The prevalence of intermarriage is a major contributor to lossof Ta’aang-ness. The “last Ta’aang” of this village is Ta Mang, aged 82. Ta Mang ismarried to a Tay woman, and has seven children. His wife speaks only Tay, and thechildren speak Chinese and Tay. He is the only one who still speaks Ta’aang. According
to Ta Mang, “if the children do not speak Ta’aang, they are not Ta’aang.” Looking further
back into the history of the village, we can see a process of assimilation that must not be
uncommon. In the 1940s, there were about 10 Ta’aang households living together withapproximately 30 Tay households. Intermarriage became common, and in the 1990s, theTa’aang had for the most part stopped wearing Ta’aang clothes, choosing to dress likeTay instead. In 2000 a government school was built, and Ta’aang, Tay, and Jinghpaw
children attend the school together. In recent years, intermarriage between the threeethnic groups has increased rapidly. These changes have influenced their interaction

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with outside villages as well. In the pre-Cultural Revolution days, there were many more
Ta’aang. In the area, there were three Tay villages and two Ta’aang villages, and allparticipated in song pen together, visiting all of the other neighboring villages. Now, since
there is only one Ta’aang left, the people in Paang Yaang only visit the Tay villages forsong pen, and they have completely stopped visiting the Ta’aang villages.
Another strong trend is the increase of influence from the Han Chinese on theTa’aang. Ta Men, 60 years old, from Nam San village, relates that becoming Tay is nota concern in his village. The nearest Tay villages are more than two kilometers away,and even though there is some intermarriage, the children speak Ta’aang. The village
has already abandoned Ta’aang clothing, but the language is solid. “People who speak
Ta’aang are Ta’aang,” he insists. What they are concerned with is that many village girls
are marrying men from other provinces in China, including places as far away as Shandong,
Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hunan. Intermarriage is the first step towards loss ofTa’aang culture, as seen in the historical process of “becoming Tay,” and is already evident in the increase in marriage with Han Chinese.
Nonetheless, the recent efforts of the Ta’aang to use their own language in Buddhist
rituals, including both spoken Ta’aang and the orthography brought by Myanmar Palaung,take on special meaning given the pressure felt from intermarriage with Han Chinese.
The Buddhist texts and recitals show that the Tay influence over Ta’aang culture may
be waning, just as the Han Chinese influence over secular life is waxing. The looseningof Tay influence in Ta’aang life has opened up a window to strengthening the contemporary articulation of being Ta’aang. Although the Chinese side is economically more
dynamic, the Myanmar side has made important advances in promoting literacy in the
Palaung/Ta’aang language, and it is likely that the future of Ta’aang culture will be
increasingly intertwined with that of the Palaung.
Administratively, the official ethnicity of a child born to parents of different ethnicities is chosen by the parents. At the age of 18, the child can make a final decision about
which of the parents’ ethnicities will be taken (Wakabayashi 1991). Thus, even if a village
has “become Tay,” if one’s parents are both Ta’aang, one remains administratively
Ta’aang. However, in these villages it is very common to find mixed Tay-Ta’aang marriages. It is often the case that a Tay-Ta’aang couple with more than one child will initiallyregister one child as Ta’aang and one as Tay. It is noteworthy that with Ta’aang-Han
couples, the children are almost always registered as Ta’aang. Although the child may
grow up speaking only Chinese, living in Han style, the special benefits available tominority groups are attractive to the parents. The administrative angle on “becoming
Tay” provides a view on how daily practices and official ethnicity often do not coincide.

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VII Conclusions
This paper has examined the relationship between the Tay Maaw and Ta’aang of Mäng
Maaw, highlighting how Buddhism mediates a complementary relationship between the
two. The analysis has tried to avoid the dominant fascination with setting up structural
categories in favor of concern for the dynamics of local practice and the insights to begained from local narratives. Focus on the Ta’aang has highlighted important detailregarding local practices otherwise hidden by the assumption that an upland group issimply mimicking the Buddhism of a lowland group. Furthermore, close investigation
reveals that there is significant variation, not to mention contestation, within the politically dominant lowland majority as well.
The role of specialist ritual performers in Dehong Buddhism has provided an avenueof cultural reconfirmation for the Ta’aang. The Ta’aang have established a role in maintaining two aspects of local Buddhist practice. First, the specialist ritual performers
contribute to the mechanisms of merit-making that drive the practice of Buddhism by lay
people. Second, women lay practitioners contribute to the upkeep of “empty” templesof Tay. Part of this confirmation is the Tay recognition of Ta’aang performance, contributing to the Ta’aang search for a legitimacy in the role they are redefining.
At the same time, the Ta’aang have begun to assert some control over the cultural
aspects of Buddhist practice. The use of the Ta’aang language in ritual texts and recitals
has been met with enthusiasm from the local Ta’aang community, even as Ta’aang practitioners’ traditional fluency in the Tay language has made it possible for them to provide
services to the local Tay community. Networks of mobility are critical to their ability to do
this. Ta’aang networks bridge the rural-urban divide and cross international boundaries.
Moreover, they strengthen their own cultural networks, at the same time cementing
relations with the Tay in times of need within the realm of Buddhist practice.
These multi-directional dynamic interactions demonstrate that the Ta’aang-Tay
Maaw relationship is much more than an upland-lowland relationship defined by clear-cut
social categories. Leach ([1954] 1964) asserted that the tea economy enabled the Palaungto achieve and maintain Shan standards of life, noting that the Palaung-Shan relationshipwas something different from the Kachin-Shan relationship he was trying to describe.
Looking at the contemporary situation, we see a relationship that resembles a situationof symbiosis, where “becoming Tay” is not an inevitable outcome of the unequal power
relations, where the Ta’aang contribute to the continuity of Tay Buddhism, and where
the Ta’aang language may be undergoing an expansion of the social domains in which it
is used. Symbiosis in this sense entails an unequal relationship, mutual dependence, andbenefit, as proposed by Chamberlain (2011). Importantly, interethnic symbiosis also

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opens up the possibility of multiple flows of cultural material and influence.
The Palaung-Shan relationship has been considered an anomaly, an exception to theconvenient categories that have been constructed. But there are examples of “uplandpeople” becoming Buddhists—particularly within Mon-Khmer groups such as the Plang,Lawa, Khmu, and Wa—that have not received sufficient attention. On one hand, each ofthese groups has distinct historical, cultural, and linguistic characteristics, suggesting
the need for more detailed examination of their specific relationships with neighboring
Tai groups. On the other hand, as Mon-Khmer groups, they share elements of an ethnolinguistic heritage and local regional history, which signals the potential for refining ourknowledge of cultural contact on a broader scale. More detailed studies of the “upland”
Buddhisms of the region, focusing on the transfer of knowledge, practices, and institutions, could offer valuable insight into the socio-economic and political aspects of interethnic relations in the region, from both historical and contemporary perspectives.
Accepted: October 19, 2012

Acknowledgments
The main survey for this work was made possible through the financial support for the projects of theGrants-in-Aid for Scientific Research of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, “Mapping Practices of Theravadins of Mainland Southeast Asia in Time and Space: Temple/Hermitage, Social Mobility
and Network” (No. 20251003), “Studies on the Phenomena of Transgressing the Border in Southeast
Asia” (No. 22251003), and “The Study on the Nation State and Local Practices of Buddhism in Theravada
Buddhist Societies: Focusing on the Case of Contemporary Myanmar” (No. 23510311).

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