Where do the Palaung people live?

The Palaung people in Burma

The Palaung have a 40-year history of armed resistance through the Palaung State Liberation Army – the military wing of their political liberation organization.

Even though a cease-fire has been in effect for the past 12 years, the Palaung State Liberation Front has been associated with other ethnic minority-led armed resistance movements in Thailand.

They are currently trying to secure three-way peace talks between Myanmar’s military rulers, the pan ethnic armed resistance movements and the (currently interned) national pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Palaung people live in mountainous areas because they can grow the tae in the mountains that make them for survival. They are famous for the high quality tea they grow there.

Palaung tea is famous in Burma. The Palaung is one of the indigenous ethnics in Burma.

Mostly they are living in Northern Shan State and some are in the South. Palaung people, they call themselves “Ta-ang” as the Palaung language. In Burmese or else, they are called “Palaung”.

They are about over one million populations living in Burma (estimated). They live in different place.

The Palaung are descended from Mon-Khmer from Mongolia passing China to Burma. The Palaung people have along history and a strong sense of their unique identities.
They have their own language and literature, a distinctive traditional culture, their own territory and self-sufficient economy.

Most Palaung work in agriculture, farming, tea planting and logging work. Many communities make most of their income from the growing of tea in their villages, which are usually located on steep hillsides amongst evergreen forests.

They also grow once a year paddy in their farms. Most of them are farmers.

Most of Palaung people are Buddhists. Most of their villages have a temple, and the monks who live there depend on the offerings of the followers to provide for their daily needs.

The villagers, in turn, depend on the monks for spiritual guidance. Each village also looks to layman who directs the offering-making ceremonies and practices divination.

Buddhists, they believe one thing that if you do the right thing, you’ll get the right thing and if you do the wrong thing, you’ll get the wrong thing.

Like all Buddhists, the Palaung believe they should try to do good works, to gain merit for their next life. They believe that fate predetermines the events in their lives.

This results in them having little concern to change their ways, and long-deadened consciences in regard to sin. Their Buddhist practices are also mixed with animistic beliefs.

Animists believe in the spirit-realm, and are careful not to upset them in case the vengeful demons extract retribution on them.

Shamans – or witch doctors – are powerful figures in Palaung society. The shamans are the link between the community and the spirit-world.

No important event like a wedding, funeral, or long journey is undertaken without first consulting the local shaman, who enters into a trance and announces whether or not the event should happen, and when is the most auspicious date and time.

There are some Palaung people in Northern Thailand about 5000. The Palaung are the most recent ethnic group to arrive in Thailand.

They have come here from neighboring Myanmar (Burma), where they are one of that country’s most ancient indigenous peoples.

They have fled in the past 20 years from Shan State and Kachin State to escape persecution and oppression at the hands of Myanmar’s military rulers. Many of the Palaung in Thailand are refugees living in refugee camps.

There are also Palaung people in Southern China about 15, 500. The Palaung live scattered across the Yunnan Province of southwestern China.

The Palaung are the smallest registered minority in China, due largely to a high infant mortality rate. Fortunately, China’s medical care has greatly improved since the 1950’s, and their population growth rate has seen a steady increase.

Most of the Palaung live in mountainous areas that are also inhabited by the Lisu, and Wa peoples. A small number of Palaung also live in flatland villages among the Dai.

Because they generally share villages with other minority groups, most of the Palaung are bilingual.

Although most of the Palaung are farmers or lumberjacks, many earn their incomes by growing and selling opium.

The Palaung in China

The Palaung, also known as the Ta-ang, live scattered across the Yunnan Province of southwestern China.

The Palaung are the smallest registered minority in China, due largely to a high infant mortality rate.

Fortunately, China’s medical care has greatly improved since the 1950’s, and their population growth rate has seen a steady increase.

Most of the Palaung live in mountainous areas that are also inhabited by the Jingpo, Han, Lisu, and Va peoples.

A small number of Palaung also live in flatland villages among the Dai. Because they generally share villages with other minority groups, most of the Palaung are bilingual.

Their native language is called Palaung. Although most of the Palaung are farmers or lumberjacks, many earn their incomes by growing and selling opium.

What are their lives like?

Though the Palaung resemble the Dai in many aspects, they are easily identifiable when wearing their traditional costumes.

The women keep their haircut short and wrap their heads in black turbans. They also wear heavy earrings and silver necklaces. The men are fond of tattoos.

The Palaung usually settle in isolated farming villages that consist of a few dozen households. Their chief crops are grain and tea.

In addition to farming, they also engage in the production of various handicrafts such as bamboo weaving, making gunnysacks, and fashioning silverware.

With profits earned by selling such items, the Palaung are able to buy metal tools, salt, cloth, and other manufactured goods at neighboring Dai or Han markets.

Among the Palaung, everyone’s primary work is directly related to agriculture. Tasks are divided by age and sex.

The men perform heavy work in the fields such as plowing, while the women are responsible for transplanting rice seedlings. The elderly engage in weaving and taking care of household chores.

Traditionally, all land was the property of the entire Palaung village. Each family had the right to use the land, but not to own it. In the late 19th century, the economic forces of the Dai and Han peoples gradually began infiltrating the Palaung villages.

By 1956, they had occupied 80-90% of the rice fields by buying the land from Palaung landowners. Losing the fields, many Palaung were reduced to being tenants of the Dai and Han landowners.

What are their beliefs?

The Palaung are 99.9% Hinayana Buddhists. Most of their villages have a temple, and the monks who live there depend on the offerings of the followers to provide for their daily needs.
The villagers, in turn, depend on the monks for spiritual guidance. Each village also looks to one layman who directs the offering-making ceremonies and practices divination.
Like all Buddhists, the Palaung believe that they should try to do good works in order to gain merit for their next life.
Since they believe that fate predetermines the events of their lives, they have little concern for changing their ways. Their consciences have long been deadened in regard to sin.

Although the Palaung consider they to be Buddhists, their practices are heavily mixed with animism, (the belief that non-human objects have spirits). Shamans, or witch doctors, are powerful figures in the Palaung society. In funeral rites, monks chant for the dead.

They believe that this will release the soul of the dead from purgatory, so that the ghost will not harm the people or the livestock.

What are their needs?

A majority of the Palaung has never heard the name of Jesus Christ. The Bible has not yet been translated into Palaung, and there are currently no mission’s agencies working amongst him or her.

Trapped in bondage to demons, the Palaung have no hope without Jesus.

Prayer Points

— Take authority over the spiritual principalities and powers that are keeping the Palaung bound.
— Ask the Lord to call people who are willing to go to China and share Christ with the Palaung.
— Pray that the doors of China will soon open to missionaries.
— Ask God to protect and encourage the small number of Palaung believers.
— Pray that the Palaung Christians will be a clear witness to their people of God’s goodness and grace.
— Ask the Holy Spirit to soften the hearts of the Palaung so that they will be convicted of their sins.
— Pray for God to rise up qualified linguists to translate the Bible into Palaung.
— Ask God to create a hunger within the hearts of the Palaung to know the Truth
— Pray for a strong church to be raised up among the Palaung by the year 2000.

The People

• People name: Palaung
• Country: China
• Their language: Palaung
• Population:
(1990) 15,400
(1995) 16,300
(2000) 17,200
• Largest religion:
Buddhists (Therevada) (99%)
• Christians: 1%
• Church members: 163
• Scriptures in their own language: None
• Jesus Film in their own language: None
• Christian broadcasts in their own language: None
• Mission agencies working among this people: None
• Persons who have heard the Gospel: 3,300 (20%)
Those evangelized by local Christians: 1,100 (7%)
Those evangelized from the outside: 2,200 (13%)
• Persons who have never heard the Gospel: 13,000 (80%)

China

• Country: China
• Population:
(1990) 1,135,043,400
(1995) 1,199,901,200
(2000) 1,262,195,800
• Major peoples in size order:
Han Chinese (Mandarin) 67.7%
Han Chinese (Wu) 7.5%
Han Chinese (Cantonese) 4.5%
• Major religions:
Nonreligious 55%
Chinese folk-religionists 17%
Atheists 12.7%
• Number of denominations: 42

Source: www.bethany.com
Note: Statistics from the latest estimates from the World Evangelization Research Center

The Palaung people in Thailand

The Palaung are the most recent ethnic group to arrive in Thailand. They have come here from neighboring Myanmar (Burma), where they are one of that country’s most ancient indigenous peoples.

There are three main sub-groups of the Palaung: Pale, Shwe and Rumai. Each of these sub-groups has their own language.

Most of the Palaung who settled in northern Thailand are of the Pale, also known as Silver Palaung. The photographs here are of this sub-group.

Their women are very distinct in their dress. This includes a bright red skirt, worn like a sarong. Typically in the past, these “tube skirts” were made from cotton, which the Pale grew and dyed themselves, and were hand woven.

Nowadays the cloth is more commonly bought in markets and hand weaving is giving way to machines. Around their waist are worn quite heavy silver hoops.

These are said to symbolize an animal trap, set by the Lisu people, which accidentally ensnared Roi Ngoen, a visiting angel from whom they believe they are descended. The hoops are also believed to afford protection to the women.

The Palaung traditionally have practiced a mixture of Animism and Buddhism. (Although there has been a small amount of recent Christian missionary work among them.)

Whereas many associate Buddhism with a pacifistic lifestyle, the Palaung in Myanmar have a 40-year history of armed resistance through the Palaung State Liberation Army – the military wing of their political liberation organization.

Even though a cease-fire has been in effect for the past 12 years, the Palaung State Liberation Front has been associated with other ethnic minority-led armed resistance movements in Myanmar.

Like many others in Myanmar and Thailand who are nominally Buddhist, the Palaung also still practice various forms of Animist ritual from their religious past.

The most famous such ritual is known as “nat worship.” Nats are believed to be the spirits of otherwise inanimate objects such as rocks, mountains and rivers, as well as the spirits of deceased ancestors.

There are traditionally 37 different nats, to whom offerings of, for example, betel and tobacco are made on various ceremonial occasions – or simply to appease these spirits if someone falls sick or if a crop harvest has been bad.

“Nat wives” are women who have “married” such a spirit, and are sometimes transvestite and/or homosexual men (see the documentary link below).

Palaung shamans, who are both respected and powerful in their communities, perform offerings to nats and other Animist rituals at events such as weddings, births and funerals.

In 19th Century Myanmar, under British colonial rule, the Palaung were far more powerful in terms of land ownership and political representation than they are today. The British even recognized the Palaung-controlled kingdom of Tawnpeng.

Today land ownership is being taken away from the Palaung by Myanmar’s military government. In Thailand many Palaung work as hired laborers on Thai-owned farms. To the extent that they continue to own land, they farm a variety of crops including tea, grain, rice, opium poppy, betel and corn.

The photographs left and right show the Palaung harvesting corn and carrying it back to their village. While corn is a recent introduction to the crops of the Palaung, others such as rice, tea and opium poppy are generations old.

Historically, and extending to the present day, opium poppy has been a lucrative cash crop to the Palaung. In Thailand government control and the efforts of non-governmental organizations have, for the most part, persuaded them to cultivate alternate cash crops such as coffee and beans.

Efforts along these same lines in Myanmar lag behind those in Thailand, but are now underway. Nonetheless, peoples like the Palaung live in poverty relative to their immediate neighbors and due to the power of local drug-lords, as well as the corruption of law enforcers, it will be a long time, if ever, before they abandon opium poppy cultivation.

(A recent news link is given below with some reporting and opinion on this issue as it relates to the cultivation of opium poppy among ethnic groups in Myanmar. The visitor to the border areas of northern Thailand can expect to be spot searched for drugs by Thai authorities.)

Besides alternate cash crops, the Palaung have recently begun selling handicrafts to tourists to supplement their income.

This is especially prevalent in northern Thailand, where many tour operators and guides take trekkers into Palaung villages. This type of tourism takes place to a lesser degree in Myanmar also.

They sell, among other things, shoulder bags, wallets, hand-woven cloth and hand-made clothes. The visitor can overnight in some of these villages, which have basic yet comfortable wooden guest huts that have been purpose-built to accommodate tourists.

The visitor might be surprised by how well these guest huts are built. The Palaung are highly skilled in construction. Their own houses are also wooden huts, which are raised high off the ground on stilts.

These days their houses are typically much smaller than in the past. Traditionally their houses have been longhouses accommodating extended families of 50 or more!

While the typical house is home to fewer family members these days, the Palaung continue their tradition in which parents host their married sons and their daughters-in-law.

Every Palaung village has a headman, whose duties involve making decisions for the village and ruling in disputes. The headman usually comes from the largest family in the village.

In the village shown above right and left, Palaung men are building a new house for a husband and wife who are about to give birth to their first baby.

Village men of all ages play some role in the construction, which symbolizes the wishes and blessing of the whole community. Since the Palaung still use working elephants, the mahoot (elephant trainer) also employs the village elephant to sack and transport timber for the construction of the house.

Books

Howard, M. C. and Wattanapun, W., (2001) The Palaung in Northern Thailand. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.
Diran, R. K., (1997) The Vanishing Tribes of Burma. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Naing, U. M., (2000) National Ethnic Groups of Myanmar. (Trans. H. Thant) Yangon: Swiftwinds Books.
Milne, L., (1924) and Home of an Eastern Clan: A Study of the Palaung of the Shan States. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.

Source: www.peoplesoftheworld.org

The Palaung Hill tribe in Chiang Mai

The Palaung are the newest hill tribe to arrive in Chiang Mai. Like the Lua they may have originally been a lowland peoples.

Both Lua and Palaung speak a language related to the Mon-Khmer family of languages.

The Palaung have been living in the Shan State of Burma for several centuries but have only started moving into Thailand since 1984 to escape from the fighting in their homeland. They number more than 2000 and live in six villages in the Doi Ang Khang and Chiang Dao areas.

The Palaung are noted for their skill in raising crops. They are strict Buddhists who also believe in nature and animal spirits. Their villages must have a Buddhist temple or shrine as well as a shrine for propitiating the spirits.

Living in raised houses, families are extended with married sons usually living with the parents. Villages have a headman, who usually comes from the largest family, as well as monks and a shaman for curing sickness.

Only Palaung women wear costume. They wear a short bright (often blue) long sleeved jacket with decorated trim and a red tube skirt with narrow horizontal white stripes.

The women also wear large belts made of rattan coils, which protect them and let them go to heaven when they die. Both women and men like to have silver and gold in their teeth.