Minority rule

Yunnan cultural centre captures Pai's rich ethnic diversity

YVONNE BOHWONGPRASERT

The Yunnan Chinese Culture Centre, set against scenic hills in Pai district of Mae Hong Son, offers visiting tourists a rare glimpse of diverse cultures, food and the way of life of people who migrated there from southern China and made Pai their new home.

The Yunnanese community in Tambon Viengtai, called Ban Santichon, has been there for centuries, and it is within convenient distance from the cultural centre that is fast becoming a tourist attraction.

Visiting Pai, for a while I thought I was in China, apparently surprised to hear shopkeepers of Yunnanese extract (called Jeen Haw in Thailand) speak fluent Thai, although with a heavy accent. One of them flashed a broad smile as we approached and welcomed us by serving Oolong tea and preserved fruits.

The cultural centre boasts a restaurant that serves native Yunnanese meals believed to be blends of Han and other Chinese minority cuisines. The cook there explained that Yunnan was home to a diverse group of ethnic minorities, which also explained the rich variety of dishes on the menu.

Yunnanese food was spicy compared to other regions of China and I noted that it made generous use of mushrooms. I had lunch and visited the Santichon community, that aside from having ethnic Yunnanese is also home to the Lisu, a Tibeto-Burman group who began migrating into northern Thailand as early as around 200 years ago. Its residents - men as well as women - mostly wore brightly coloured baggy pants alongside trendy clothes.

Ban Santichon community also has a sizeable number of ethnic Shan or Tai Yai residents who form the basis of Pai's culture and are credited for the town's distinct flavour.

Against the backdrop of lush farmland stands the Church of Christ which has 40 parishioners. Tee Sae Loo, 26, the pastor, said Yunnanese presence in Pai and other towns of Mae Hong Son rose in the late 1940s at the end of the civil war in China when many Chinese families migrated to Burma and northern Thailand to escape the 1949 communist takeover of mainland China.

He said the cultural centre and Santichon are now popular tourist attractions. Both are eager to shed Pai's past image - that of a drug village notorious for opium cultivation - and give it a fresh image and its residents a new lease of life.

These days most villagers work as farmers or handymen. About 200 of them have been granted Thai citizenship, while more than 800 are waiting in line pending government approval.

Pai represents a blend of several ethnic cultures, said the pastor, adding that native Thais only started moving into Pai from Chiang Mai and Bangkok about six years ago to cash in on boom in tourism.

He then proceeded to show me around the village. I spotted bricks or plaster coming off old houses, while in other cases the damage was sustained by the recent flooding. But everywhere I went a sense of harmony prevailed among villagers, no matter what their ethnic roots or leanings.

The pastor disclosed that Yunnan in southwestern China was home to some 25 indigenous minorities with their own beliefs and cultures who have been living in harmony for centuries, and it was no different in Pai that was now home to 15 of those ethnic groups.

All in all, the pastor added, they add a rich vein of colour to Pai through their costumes, customs, food, festivals and religious beliefs that state officials are hoping to replicate at the cultural centre in order to attract more tourists to this district of Mae Hong Son.

Bangkok Post
Friday February 02, 2007