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54 แสงพระธรรม กรกฎาคม 2564 ถึง มิถุนายน 2565
may be because the Burmese exercised they settled they submitted to the au-
direct rule over the north, which was thority of the peoples who ruled the
easily accessible from Pagan, whereas the place. Others followed them, and the Tai
south was ruled from Labapuri by the population gradually increased. In the
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Khmers as vassals of Pagan . That may course of time some groups achieved
be why the Mahayana remained active self-government and finally became
in the south. strong enough to set up independent
By this time the Tai were moving states (one of the first of these was the
into Siam. Originally they had had a large Sip-song Jao Tai near the border of Tong-
and strong country of their own, located king). They invaded Khmer territory and
between China and Tibet . Beginning founded independent states in Lan Na ,
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around B.E. 400 (say 150 B.C.) their land where our northwest provinces are now
was subjected to a series of invasions by located, and in Lan Chang, i.e. Luang Pra
the Chinese, whose power was increasing. Bang and Vieng Jan.Then they went far-
A long struggle followed, during which ther south and founded a kingdom with
the Tai lost more and more of their ter- its capital at Sukhodaya, which shortly
ritory until finally they had none left. before B.E. 1800 (say 1250 A.D.) gained
Those of them who were unwilling to control of the whole of Siam .
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submit to Chinese domination emigrated When King Anuruddha of Pagan
in order to found new states elsewhere. ruled over Saim there was a much
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Some settled along the Salween River larger population of Tai in Lan Na and
and got the name Tai Yai (‘Great Tai’); Lan Chang than farther south. As the Tai
their descendants are now known as Ngio were already Buddhist they easily ad-
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or Shan . Others settled along the Rivers opted the Hinayana in the form practiced
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Te and Me Kong, or went farther south at Pagan . After the reign of Anuruddha,
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and settled in the valley of the Me-nam the power of Pagan declined, while that
Jao Praya. These peoples are collec- of the Tai in Siam increased , By this
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tively called Tai Noi (‘Lesser Tai’). Some time, in the south of Siam the Khmer had
of them are known as Pu Tai, some as long been intermarrying with the Lao.
Lu, some as Kon; some of them (such as The Lao were less advanced than the
the people of Luang Pra Bang, Vieng Jan, Khmer, so for the most part they allowed
the northwest provinces of Siam, and the themselves to be assimilated by them;
provinces of Udon, Roi-et and Ubon) are only those Lao who lived in the forests
mistakenly known as Lao because they and hills continued their old way of life.
are confused with the ancient Lao; and When the Tai population living in North-
some are known as Siamese. ern Siam increased in numbers, a part of
When the Tai first came into Siam the Lao people living there, being less
they traveled in small groups. Whenever advanced than the Tai, were assimilated
The Light of Dharma July 2021 – June 2022 55
by them. The Lao therefore declined toms. The Tai knew how to pick and
more and more until finally the only choose. When they saw some good fea-
ones left were scattered populations liv- ture in the culture of other peoples, if it
ing in the forest, whom the Tai of the was not in conflict with their own inter-
north called Lawa (ละวะ) and the Tai of ests, they did not hesitate to borrow it
the south call Lawa (ละว้า). Even now and adapt it to their own requirements.
they can still be found in nearly every For example they took a Khmer script
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province of Siam . and adapted it to produce one that
When the Tai became rulers of would be suitable for the Tai language.
Sukhodaya, which had been founded by In the same way the Tai who settled at
the Khmer long before, both Mahayana Sukhodaya and farther south-in contrast
Buddhism and the Brahmanical religions to those who settled in Lan Na and Lan
were already established there, as well Chang – took over curtain religious and
as the use of Khmer language and script. cultural practices from the Khmer, includ-
Thus the peoples who now came under ing some of their linguistic and intellec-
control of the Tai were for the most part tual habits.
attached to Khmer civilization and cus- (to be continued)
1 King Asoka of India reigned in the third century B.C. (A.B.G.)
2 Nagara Pathama and other Davravati sites are in Mon. (S.D.) Nagara Pathama has yielded a greater quantity of
It is now believed that these people were Mon, nor Lao or Lawa; at lease the vernacular inscriptions found at
antiquities of Dvaravati style than any site, but there is no means of knowing whether or not it was the capital
of Dvarawati. Drawing political conclusions from art styles in sometimes hazardous. (A.B.G.)
The Theravada or ‘Doctrine of the Elders’ is the form of Buddhism that uses Pali as its sacred language and tries
3 to adhere as closely as possible to teachings of the Buddha preserved in that language. Tha Mahayana or
‘Greater Vehicle’ is the name of a much expanded form of Buddhism that arose in Northern India some four or
five centuries after the Buddha’s death; it used the Sanskrit language, gave more importance to ideas of divinity
and ritual introduced from the Brahmanical religions, and invented new doctrine freely. The adherents of this
sect used the term Hinayana (‘Lesser Vehicle’ or ‘Inferior Vehicle’) to describe the Theravada. ‘Hinayana’ also
includes a few sects, such as the Sarvastivada, whose doctrine, preached in Sanskrit, was mainly the same as the
Theravada but influenced to a minor extent by the Mahayana. (A.B.G.)
4 The argument that Buddhism was introduced into Siam in the first century B.C. needs to be qualified. None of
the stone Wheels of the Doctrine or other ‘aniconic’ symbols that have actually been discovered in Siam date
from any earlier than the 6 century A.D., as we know from the style of their floral and other patterns, and many
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of them are a good deal later. (One of the Wheels dates from the 9 century.) Nevertheless it is possible that
they are copies, at one or more removes, of much older objects that no longer survive. If so they may be evi-
dence, though not conclusive evidence, that Buddhism was first brough to Siam in very early times. Not a single
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example of Dvaravati art can be dated earlier than the 6 century A.D., though a few much older pieces of Bud-
dhist art, made in India or Ceylon, have been found in Siam. (A.B.G.)
5 Since 1926, when Prine Damrong’s book was first published, a number of images of the Bodhisattva Avalokites-
vara of Dvaravati style have been discovered, which show that the Mahayana had at least some adherants in the
Dvaravati area around the 8 or 9 century; and there is ample evidence that it had adherents at Pagan in Burma
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from the 11 to th e 13 ; though both places were predominantly Theravadin. (A.B.G.)
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