Page 112 - The Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand

วารสารราชบััณฑิิตยสภา
ปีีที� ๔๙ ฉบัับัที� ๑ มกราคม-เมษายน ๒๕๖๗

102 การกลืืนกลืายชาติิพัันธุ์์�: กรณีีก์ลืาในภาคอีีสานขอีงไทย

Abstract: Ethnic Assimilation: A case of the Kula in Northeastern Thailand

Associate Professor Dr. Chai Pothisita
Fellow of the Moral and Political Sciences,

The Royal Society of Thailand

Like its neighboring countries on the Mainland Southeast Asia,
Thailand has an ethnic diversity. Some of the ethnic groups are experiencing

ethnic assimilation, others have been assimilated to the point that their

ethnic identities are practically lost. This article aims to understand ethnic
assimilation by taking the Kula in Isan region of Thailand as a case study.
“Kula” is the name given by the Isan people to two ethnic groups

from Burma (Myanmar), Taungsoo and Tai Yai, who were itinerant traders in

rural arears of Isan. In doing their business, these traders also played a part
in introducing the money economy to Isan villages in the past. In the course
of time, there were a number of the Kula traders who married local women

and settled permanently in a number of Isan villages. However, when

economic, pollical and transportation development took place in Isan,
number of the Kula traders coming into Thailand and their business in the
Isan region gradually decreased and eventually disappeared.

Assimilation process of the ethnic Kula in Isan began when

they gradually adopted dominant culture of the Isan population among
whom they lived. In subsequent generations of the Kula the process of
assimilation was increased to the extent that their ethnic identity gradually

faded out and eventually disappeared. In the concluding section, this paper

discusses the factors believed to be responsible for ethnic assimilation and
possibility/impossibility for conserving/reviving of the Kula ethnic culture
in Isan.

Keywords: ethnicity, ethnic assimilation, Kula, Isan region