Udon Thani Timeisaan history
isaan history
isaan history
The Northeastern Region and Its Historical Setting
A. Northeast Region Geographical Setting
The Northeast Region, the center of the study, lies alone the border of Laos and Cambodia. With approximately 23 million people out of the total population of 52 million, it is the largest and most populous region in the country. It occupies an area of 62,000 square miles, which is one-third of the whole country. The population of this region is about two-fifths of the entire nation.
The Northeast region is generally known as the Khorat Plateau, which got its name through the main city of the area, Nakornratchasima (Khorat). The Northeast, in comparison with the other regions, is desperately poor. Therefore, in the past, some believed that to be sent to the Northeast was like being punished and sent to the Siberia. These sixteen provinces were neglected by the central government for many decades.
The entire area is drained by the Mekong River, which forms the Thai northeastern border for 600 miles, and other branches, such as the Moon and the Chi Rivers. The land is mostly low and covered with infertile soil difficult to cultivate. In the dry season, clouds of dust cover the whole area, which is flooded in the rainy season. The lowlands and the lower valley slopes remain unused most of the year due to the floods during the rainy seasons which makes them unusable even for rice paddy agriculture. Only a very small area of this land is used four or five months out of the year.
The climate in the Northeast is quite different from that of the other regions. The mountain ranges keep the southwest monsoons away, but the Northeast still receives much rainfall from the cyclonic storms that originate in the area from the South China Sea. In the Northeast region the amount of rainfall varies from section to section; therefore, agriculture is unpredictable. It is hot and dry in the summer, but there is a cold northeast wind in the winter from Siberia and China. Besides rice, which is the main crop for this area, tobacco, mulberries, watermelons, and cotton are also farmed. The farmers also raise animals such as cattle, pigs, and chickens.
B. The History of the Northeast Region
For several centuries before Thai-speaking people began to arrive in the Northeast area, the Khorat Plateau was within the Angor Empire (khmer). After Thai-speaking people began to occupy the area, the Khmers started to feel their pressure.
D.G.E. Hall, in his history of Southeast Asia, has written that “. . . The shans, the Laotians and the Siamese are all descended from a parent racial group, cognate to the Chinese, which is thought to have made its first historical appearance in the sixth century B.C. . . .“
As has been mentioned, around the thirteenth century, the Thai-speaking people overcame a Khmer outpost and established the first capital of Thai autonomous state, Sukhothai, which had formerly been occupied by Mon and Khmers. Shortly afterwards, Sukhothai fell and two new capitals were established, Ayuthaya, the Siamese kingdom in the central region of the peninsula, and Lan Chang (or Lan-Xang) of Lao, in the mid-fourteenth century. Later the Lao kingdom expanded its territory over the northern part of Northeast Thailand and the Khmer empire continued to share the territory of the Northeast with the Laos. At this time in Thai history, Ayuthaya was not interested in the Northeast region.
In 1350, one of the Laos’ great kings, King Fa Ngum, married a Khmer princess after he was forced into exile in Cambodia. Later, he returned to unite Laos with the help of Khmer troops. King Fa Ngum was able to take over all the Khorat Plateau except some parts around Khorat city (or Nakhon Ratchasima) which were still in hostile hands. It was the first mass migration of Lao to the Northeast region.
When King Fa Ngum established Laos, he also introduced Buddhism to the Lao people. However, Maha Sila Viravong said that the main reason that the Khmer supported King Fa Ngum was that the Khmer emperor wanted him to stop Thai’s (Siamese) expansion. On the other hand, it was because of the weakness of the Khmer kingdom to protect itself against Ayuthaya that it gave military support to Lan Chang.
Before the seventeenth century King Narai (1656-1688) ordered the two of Khmer towns of Muang Senao and Muang Khorabura to be outposts for Ayuthaya. These outposts were renamed Nakhon Ratchasima (or Khorat). This was the first clear evidence of Thai strength in the Northeast.
To prevent confrontations between Ayuthaya and Lan Chang, the two kingdoms recognized the Khorat Plateau as a boundary region. A large number of Laotian migrated to the Northeast during King Fa Ngum’s rein. Later on, a large number of Laotian people around Vientiane again moved into the area extensively from Roi-Ed to Champasak to escape one of the usurper kings of Lan Chang. Another migration to Kalasin took place later in the eighteenth century.
The Lao brought with them both their own culture and languages. However, they also absorb some Khmer influence. This is seen today in the fact that a large number of Khmer-speaking people are still left in the Northeast at Surin, Buriram and some part of the Sisaket provinces. But significant as some of the Khmer influences were, the Northeast was becoming influenced even more by Laotian cultural, social and political ideas. Ayuthaya and even Chiang Mai, another autonomous state up north, shared with them the common enemy of the Burmese troops from the west. Prior to the beginning of the eighteenth century, after the reign of King Suriya Wongsa (1633-1690 or 1695), the Lao kingdom broke into three small kingdoms: Luang Prabang, Vientiane and Champasak. Ayuthaya now became more powerful. The Thai suddenly expanded their power into the Northeast much more than had been done previously. The Northeast area became a region of interest to at least three kingdoms: Ayuthaya, Champasak and Vientiane. Champasak was located on the left bank of the Mekong River, and her kingdom’s territory lay in the area of the Mun (Moon) and Chi Rivers which today is in Roi-Ed, Ubon, and Kalasin provinces. This gradually disintegrated the Northeast into five small parts. The kingdoms of this region gradually broke up into smaller units.
A new force, that of Burma, was now entering the scene. In 1767, Burmese troops from the west completely destroyed Ayuthaya, and Vientiane was forced to join Burma. Champasak, at the same time, attempted to expand it’s territories into the Northeast. In due course, the Burmese occupiers met with increasing resistance, and under General Phraya Taksin’s leadership they were able to reorganize their troops and drive the Burmese out of the country. In 1768 General Phraya Taksin, who was half Chinese and half Thai, established a new Thai capital at Thonburi and proclaimed himself the new king. Fortunately, Luang Prabang was saved because she aligned herself with the Thai kingdom. Afterwards, the three states of Vientiane, Luang Prabang and Champasak became Thai vassals. Since that time the Northeast, or Khorat Plateau, has remained an outer region within the Thai kingdom.
In 1782 a new Chakkri dynasty, ruled by King Rama I, was established in the Thai kingdom. Thailand moved her new capital from Thonburi, which was on the left bank of the Chao Phraya River, to the present Bangkok location. In 1804, King Rama II of Bangkok placed Chao Anu of Vientiane, his personal friend, as the new king of Vientiane. In 1827, however, when King Rama III ascended to the throne, King Chao Anu of Vientiane attempted to regain the independence of Vientiane. With the combined support of two groups of vassal troops, King Chao Anu moved toward Bangkok for battle. He pretended that he was going to help Thailand, which was being threatened by British gunboats. The Laos troops were able to reach the area of Saraburi province in the Central plain of Thailand.
At first the Thai troops were surprised, but quickly organized themselves to fight against the Laos troops. King Rama III ordered Vientiane completely destroyed, and deported some of the Laos people to the Central plains. To this day, these Laos-speaking groups still remain in the area of Lopburi and Ratchaburi provinces in the Central plain. Later on, King Chao Anu and his family were arrested, and for punishment were placed in an iron cage and subjected to public ridicule. They died four days later. At that time both Vientiane and Champasak were reduced in status and became vassals. Luang Prabang also remained a Thai vassal.
But Thailand was to have its troubles not only from other aggressive Southeast Asian states or kingdoms. With the nineteenth century, strong, new pressures developed from the European colonial powers, notably the French and the British. The Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1893, signed under threat of a French ultimatum, allowed the French and British to expand their territorial influence into Southeast Asia, thus halting Thai expansion. It established the present borders of Thailand. This treaty also transferred the entire area on the left bank of the Mekong River, or what is Laos today, to France. Later, by the treaty of 1904, both the area on the right bank of the Mekong River, Sayaboury province (opposite Luang Prabang in Laos) and Champasak (it is also called Bassac by the French) were also ceded to France. Since that time the present borders between Laos and Thailand have remained unchanged.
The preceding is just a small selection from a work titled Thai Politics and Foreign Aid in rural Isan development and Modernization in 1990′s. It was written by Char Karnchanapee, PhD ( Political Science).
I wish his work was in a more reader-friendly version.
If you wish to pursue the history of Isaan further, then you may find Ronald L. Myers 2005 thesis to be an entertaining read.
Entitled THE ISAN SAGA: THE INHABITANTS OF RURAL NORTHEAST THAILAND AND THEIR STRUGGLE FOR IDENTITY, EQUALITY AND ACCEPTANCE (1964–2004), I’d say at least a third of it’s more than 90 pages can be categorized as dealing with Isaan history.
Isan-Saga-Grad-Thesis_SDSU_R-Myers
As well, the Website Study in Thailand has quite a detailed page on Tracing Thailand’s prehistory and early history: Isan western plateau.
Name Change: Lao to Isaan
1ProudLao — March 10, 2009 — Why Siam (Thailand) change Lao to Isaan.
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Tags: Cambodia, Isaan history, Khorat Plateau, Mekong, Nakhon Ratchasima, Southeast Asia, Vientiane
