#maniq

[yearningforunity]

Maniq person of Southern Thailand.

[laly-se-crea]

I just watched Raya and the last dragon. Although it is by no means perfect there is a very positive aspect I'd like to point out: representation. I was so happy to see the directors did their research and included characters of all shades, with different features, highlighting the ethnic and cultural richness of Southeast Asia. For a moment, I thought they had forgotten to represent the indigenous people of Southeast Asia, until...

Let's not forget who the first inhabitants of South and Southeast Asia were.

Semang, Malaysia.

Maniq, Thailand.

Aeta, Philippines.

I encourage everybody to investigate about these original people, their history, culture and struggle.

[southeastasianists]

“We try to not be Thai”: the everyday resistance of ethnic minorities - New Mandala

How two ethnic minority groups, the Lisu and the Maniq, continue to challenge the Thai state's sovereignty

Surrounded by low-hanging clouds, mud and chickens in a village deep in the northern hills, a young woman tells me, “We are not Thai and we try not to be Thai. Sometimes I find myself talking to my family in Thai and I think, ‘No, try to be Lisu’”. Katima is an activist and member of one of Thailand’s myriad ethnic minorities. The Lisu people are spread across Thailand’s northern hills, deep into north-eastern Burma and southern China. They are a stateless people with language, culture, religion and practices that are completely distinct from any of the national states that envelope them.

Down the road sits the local government office. Built around 20 years ago, it marked the first formal governing presence in the lives of the local people. “When I was a kid, we used to have no hospitals, no schools, no government,” Katima tells me. Today the office is coated in flags and murals dedicated to the monarchy and nation-state. Those who work in the office are not locals, but Thai people brought in to govern the Lisu population. The same is true of the teachers in the local government schools: Thai civil servants assigned to teach the national curriculum. There has also been a concerted effort to build Buddhist temples in these more remote areas, which serve to supplement and eventually replace the animist spiritual beliefs held and practised by the local people.

This extension of the state is a clear and direct plan originating from 20th-century policies of ‘Thaification’ formulated by the central government. Beginning in 1933, dictator Plaek Phibunsongkhram oversaw a massive nationalist overhaul of the state’s relationship towards ethnic minorities. Notable policies included harshly enforcing the Thai language in the education system, reinforcing the relationship between the monarchy and population, and issuing the 12 Core Values—a kind of nationalist guide to ideal ‘Thai’ behaviour, ways of living and etiquette.

Another young Lisu woman, who wanted to go unnamed, describes government involvement in Lisu life as a negotiation. “We accept some of the things the government offers us, like schools, hospitals, temples. But we are still Lisu … The defiance is at home and in the community, where we will continue to do our customs and live our own way of life. We won’t really assimilate”. Most local people don’t feel the government has any influence over them.

[yearningforunity]

Maniq people of Southern Thailand.

[coolmika745]

Thailand's Last Hunter-Gathers Fight For Land Ownership

[happi-speech]

Kensiu phonology by Amritavision

Amaravati: Abode of Amritas

[happi-speech]

Revisiting the limits of language: The odor lexicon of Maniq by Ewelina Wnuk, Asifa Majid

[monicajoylyn]

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