Geographical Distribution Population:
The Karen are an indigenous people to the southeast Asian countries of Thailand and Burma. The population numbers around 7 million, the majority of the Karen living inside Burma. Traditionally, most Karen are farmers who farm the nutrient rich soils of southern Burma and western Thailand.
The religion of the Karen majority is Animism and Buddhism although there is a sizable population of Christians among the Karen. Christians constitute roughly 30% of the Karen population. Karen, unlike other large ethnic groups, are made-up of smaller subgroups who, in some cases, speak in their own dialects. There are, however, two main groups of Karen: the Sgaw and the Pwo. To most people who are familiar with the Karen, they are known for their colorful traditional clothes, but they should also be known for their hospitality and friendliness which is readily extend to everyone.
--Data from the Hilltribe Welfare and development center, Thailand 1998
Language Language Group:
The Karen languages are classed as Sino-Tibetan.
Languages & Dialects
All Karen languages are monosyllabic agglutinated speech, with no final consonants in Sgaw Karen and with nasals and finals in other dialects. These are all marks of Sinitic speech. Dr. D.C. Gilmore believes that the Pwo dialect branched off from the parent stem earlier than the Sgaw, but kept the original nasals and, being in closer contact with outside races, adopted more outside words. The Sgaw has dropped the final nasals, because they were more difficult to pronounce, but has kept the original form of the language to a greater extent than the Pwo. Pwo Karen has six tones. In Myanmar a Burmese script is used to write down the language, in Thailand a modified Thai script is used. There are only 26 of the 44 Thai characters used, in the Thailand Pwo Karen Script.
The name "Karen" is an imperfect transliteration of the Burmese word "Kayin" the derivation of which has puzzled students of that language. It has been thought that this word is derived from the name by which the Red Karen call themselves, i.e., "Ka-Ya"
According to their language or dialect differences the Karenic people can be divided into four subgroups. >>The Manumanaw, the Sgaw Karen that call themselves Paganyaw, and the Bwe Karen. >>The Eastern and Western Red Karen groups also known as Kayah.
>>The Pwo Karen that refer to themselves as Phlong, Pho and Shu.
>>The Pa’o or Black Karen are Karen speaking people, however ethnically they are not Karen.
Livelihood Family structure
The smallest social unit among the Karen is the nuclear family, which occupies one household. Most households are made up of a husband, wife, and any unmarried children. But it is also common for younger married couples to live with the parents of the wife for 1-3 years before building their own home on the compound of the wife's parents home or on a separate piece of property.
The husband will always consult with his wife before making a decision that will affect the entire family. Privately, both husbands and wives share equally in decision making regarding family issues, though the husband is usually the one to announce the decision in public.
If all of the children of the family are married, it is also common for the youngest married daughter, her husband, and her children to care for her elderly parents in the home in which she was raised. When her parents die, she will inherit this house.
Karen Houses
The Karen traditionally build simple houses on stilts, usually using split bamboo for walls and floors, with roofs made of thatch or grass. Chickens, pigs, buffalo, and cattle are kept under the house at night. Many houses also have rice-pounders under the house. Today in more and more villages there are diesel rice mills which provide the service in exchange for the bran that is milled from the rice, or some of the rice. This payment of bran becomes the protein rich food fed to the pigs.
All traditional Karen houses have a spacious, partly covered veranda which is used for preparing food, weaving, doing other work, and as a place to chat with friends and accommodate overnight guests. The houses usually consist of 1-2 rooms, one of which is used as a sleeping compartment.
In the main living room, located in the center of the house, there is a fireplace surrounded by cooking utensils, and dishes. Over the fire is suspended a woven bamboo tray that is used for drying and storage. The fire is often kept going day and night and is used for cooking, to keep the family members warm, and is a deterrent to mosquitoes, helping to protect the residents from malaria.
Farming
There are two main types of farming: slash and burn and paddy. Slash and burn farming involves clearing an area of trees and then burning the underbrush. The burning process adds minerals to the soil, which helps crops to be grown. Unfortunately, the negative aspects outweigh the positives. This process strips the soil of essential nutrients and leads to more erosion, therefore, only allowing crops to be grown for a few years. As a result, the Karen have begun to utilize the process of paddy farming more often than slash and burn. Instead of installing an irrigation system, a paddy farm is flooded by a close river in order to water the crop. Clearly, this displays a financial advantage of paddy farming.
As seen with only these two types of farming, rice was the main crop. For the Karen, rice was always consumed by the family and never sold for profit. The isolation of the villages prevented them from using cash transactions or trade. Since rice continues to be the staple food for the Karen, agriculture remains to be an important aspect of their lifestyle and economy. Problems facing the Karen in Thailand include the environmental issues and the sharing of economic success. Similarities can be drawn between the popularity of a crop after a successful year. For example, once a certain crop is successful, the following year sees an influx of that specific crop to the market. Problems arise when the market becomes flooded with a certain crop. Therefore, the villagers face the challenge of finding new ways/products in order to earn an income and survive in the current cash economy.
Religion and Beliefs Religion of the Karen in Thailand
In contemporary Thailand, of all Karen, approximately:
55% are Buddhists
18% are Christians
10% are Traditional Karen Animists
17% are electic (Both animists and Buddhists)
Traditional Beliefs and Practices
Their traditional belief is animism, their practices consist principally of attempts to gain the favor of the spirits that surround them. Since they believe in many different kinds of spirits or "gods", they always have to give sacrifices to, and seek counsel from these supernatural forces before they start a journey, before hunting, buying animals, or taking part in any business ventures.
The most important person in the traditional non-Christian animist Karen village is the priest. The priest is always a man who has inherited his position from the deceased priest from his father's lineage. Karen people will consult the village priest when asking for advice from the spirits or gods. He will determine the will of the spirits through the casting of lots, and for this purpose he will consult special divining paraphernalia such as seeds of rice, bones from chickens and pigs, ashes from a ritual fire, and even common bamboo or wood.
Mission History of Christian Mission to the Karen
In the 1820s American Baptist missionaries Judson, Wade, and Mason came to Burma and evangelized the Karen. In the process they translated the Christian Bible into the Sgaw Karen language using the Burmese script. This Bible translation was finished in 1839 and this translation is still used today. The Karen believe that before the preaching of the gospel, the Karen people were like the people of Israel. They sacrificed chickens and pigs. So in animism, the Karen were in the stage of waiting. Before the good news of Christ's atoning sacrifice, the Karen were subject to the obligation of sacrifice in atonement. Now the Karen people can accept Jesus' death as their ultimate sacrifice and they no longer need to practice 'au xae -- Jesus becomes the acceptable sacrifice.
For the first generation Christian it is the fulfillment of traditional Karen culture, in the same way that Christians claim that Christ came to fulfill the promise of Judaism. For many Karen, who suffered under the burden of making costly sacrifices of chickens and pigs to si kho miu xa, this was good news. In Thailand, the American Baptist missionaries started work among the Karen in 1952 and formed the Karen Baptist Convention in 1955
How Karen did evangelism in the past
When coming to a new village, the Karen Christians would gather the children and sing traditional Karen songs for them. After they had the children's attention, they then would teach them to sing the Karen songs and tell Bible stories. Soon the adults of the village would gather to see what was happening.
A Karen Song: Into our heart, into our heart, come into our heart Lord Jesus
Come in now, come in now, come in my heart Jesus.
Mother father, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandchildren
lets look back on our lives, when we were still in the hands of Satan.
We had to sacrifice in order to please the spirits all the time,
we lost our chickens we searched in vain and the spirits made us sick.
But now we don’t have to sacrifice the spirits anymore.
Because we see the true God who is the God who loves us
who gave his only Son we should lift Him up
Origin of the Karen
The Karen oral traditions refer to crossing a river of "running sand" as an important event in their history. There are Chinese sources which refer to the Gobi Desert as the "river of sand," and it is probable that the Karen originated in an area bordering Tibet. They crossed the Gobi Desert into China, and gradually made their way into the mountainous areas of Myanmar. In ancient times most of Thailand's Karen came over the eastern borders of Myanmar, and this is still true today. They most likely immigrated to Thailand before the Thai, and just after the Mon Khmers. Today almost all of Thailand's Karen live in the western part of the country along the shared border with Myanmar.
Karen in Thailand
The country of Thailand has a population of approximately 61 million people, and almost 695,000 of those are what the Thais refer to as Chao Khao--or tribal people of the mountains. The six major tribal groups in Thailand are the Karen, Hmong, Lahu, Akha, Yao, and Lisu. There are almost as many Karen as all other tribal groups combined--nearly 322,000 people. The majority of Karen are divided into two groups: Sgaw and the Pwo. The small minority of remaining Karen are collectively referred to as the Red Karen. Although all Karen speak related languages, individual Karen sub-groups speak languages which are sometimes unintelligible to other groups.
Sgaw Karen
In Thailand the largest concentration of Karen, roughly 106,000 live in the Chiang Mai province. This is about one third of Thailand's Karen population. The Sgaw are the largest group of Karen. All the Sgaw Karen share a common language and biological characteristics. They also share a cultural heritage. This includes Karen history, tales, legends, myths in songs, poetry, and prose; religious rituals; and preferences for dress and food. Their villages have between 10 and 100 houses.
The Future of the Karen
There are many kinds of learning, formal and informal and new opportunities are coming there all the time. The Changes brought by Christianity and formal education have benefited the Karen in many ways. Learning new and better ways to perform traditional labors and gaining other ways to earn money has increased the standard of living significantly in the villages. More people have expanded into other occupations besides rice farming. While this has been favorable, increased education has come at a price.
The increased Thai presence education brings to the village has threatened the traditional Karen culture and lifestyle. As we have seen, Karen children are often not following in the footsteps of their parents and grandparents, and many elders have mixed feelings about this. Education brings many opportunities, but also many new questions to answer. If children are to grow up and become rice farmers like their parents, why do they need to go to school? If they do go to school, what can students do with their new knowledge and skills if they return to the village? Do the job opportunities in the village really make education worthwhile?
Schools for the Karen today are not providing an education comparable to what is found in urban Thai schools. The Karen believe in the importance of education, but they will be left behind if they do not have educational opportunities equal to the rest of Thailand and the world. It is the Karen’s number one goal to gain a better, more equal education.
The Karen people of Northern Thailand are facing some serious issues concerning the preservation of their culture. Due to several environmental issues they are dealing with the conflict between sustainable living and current usage of the earth’s resources. They are also faced with the intrusion of Thai influence, both from the government and from visitors who have easier access to the hill tribes due to the construction of the road that winds up the mountains. This includes the arrival of machines, televisions, and other modern amenities that are intrinsic to the process of globalization. Additionally, the ideas of efficiency and capitalism are rapidly being introduced to traditional hill tribe culture.History of Karen Education
For many Karen, education at home was based on cultural tradition. Before the gospel came to the Karen villages, many families were brought up with Karen morals. Some of these teachings dealt with ceremonial traditions such as learning about the different rituals with death and burial, marriage ceremonies, etc.
The lack of education brought upon oppression and much of the suffering of the Karen people when the British came to colonize Burma (Marshall, 1922). Many Karen were forced to migrate to Thailand because they did not want to pay tributes to the Burmese government (Ajarn Sompob, 1/11/99). In Thailand, the Thai government started oppressing the Karen community by trying to convert them to become more Thai-like.
Growing up as a minority, many Karen’s right to lead their own lives with strictly Karen ways were taken away from them—with the control of the Thai government. Along with schools opening, modern industrialization allowed the Thais to move into Northern Thailand.
The educational system shows the great dominance of Thai culture in the tribal villages. For instance, Thai laws state that no tribal language can be spoken or taught in the schools (Grunewald, 1/26/99). Amy Grunewald mentioned how the Central Thai classes that are being taught in the village schools have no relation to the lives the Karen children lead when they go home. A typical schedule for a Karen student would be to take an English, Mathematical, Thai dance or culture, and Thai history class. Often times, Karen children will wai their elders(teachers) upon greeting them. This is something that has been adapted from Thai culture that has never been used in Karen cultureEducation
Education in Thailand is experiencing great Changes that are affecting both its structure and function, as well as the lives of people throughout Thailand. Tribal peoples like the Karen are facing the influx of Thai and Western culture and education is one of the central mediums where this is happening. With the more recent development of formal education among the Karen, the protection of their traditional culture and lifestyle is a crucial issue today. For the Karen, education brings many benefits as well as new challenges.
History of Thai Education
Before the development of any formal educational institutions, learning was done in the home and parents and elders were the teachers of young people. Education was practical and informal; young people learned the skills and knowledge needed to live in their society. Girls learned household chores and domestic skills while boys were taught how to farm and perform other masculine duties. Understanding and behaving in a manner appropriate to one’s gender was alsocentral to traditional education. Traditional education created a new generation of adults who could live competently in the society in which they grew up. While traditional education was a part of everyone’s life, formal education was unavailable to many young people. Currently Thailand promotes a school-based primary education for all children, but many have not had access to Thai schools for geographic as well as financial reasons.
Thai Curriculum and Structure
Schools in Thailand are centralized, and all of their curriculum comes from the government in Bangkok. For this reason, most people refer to it as "the Bangkok Curriculum". Students were formerly required to complete their compulsory primary schooling for six years, but it has recently been increased to nine years. All students in grades 1-9 are required to study Thai language, science, and mathematics. English formerly began at age eight or nine, but has recently been added at this level as well (Jantra, 1/25/99). Schools also have required electives, such as physical education, art, music, practical skills, and religion (Buddhism).Socio Economic
Change The Government has programs to help hill tribes improve their standard of living. The aim of the projects is to stop opium cultivation, slash-and-burn method of cultivation and forest destruction and to enable the people to grow useful crops that will earn them a good income. Among other things, the tribal people are taught proper use of land, soil conservation, proper use of water and forest preservation. Villagers are being introduced to new crops to the benefit of Thailand economy. Thai and Karen government often differs with each other on what is wanted and done for a village. In the past Thai officials didn’t know much about Karen people and culture so the government would use its power to see what it wanted to see, not what was really occurring. Villagers feel that government officials just come and do, without asking. They believe local government thinks only of themselves and has different ideas about what to do with water, dirt and forest problems. For example, at one time the King’s Royal Project, whose mission is to preserve land and forest now moves from a traditionally subsistence economy to a cash economy.
In addition to agriculture needs the National government has helped with the social welfare of the hill tribe people by bringing medical and educational programs. The King’s Royal Project has brought educational and medical facilities. The government schools are Thai and children are taught Thai language, history and politics instead of their own. With these facilities come Thai government officials, employees and teachers who take up permanent residence in the villages.
The last century has brought much National presence and influence to the hill tribes of Northern Thailand whether the Karen appreciate it or not.
The push towards higher education is mainly lead by the older generation. The lack of education in this age group has severely hindered their ability to work with the Thai, and in turn become a threat to the survival of the basic culture of the Karen. Education is seen as the best chance for the younger generation to survive in a world heavily influenced by the outside Thai stimuli.
A shift in power has occurred which lessens the power of the headman in order to make room for the government official. Therehas also been a split in the authority between the official government system and the traditional forms of authority, however, the two forms of authority compliment one another well and create a functioning system. Although new political issues often arise for the villages, the most pertinent issues are those that have existed for some time: land, drugs, water and relations with the Thai.Social Change
The Karen in Thailand, like all other ethnic groups, are confronted with social change. As much as they want to maintain their Karen ethnic identity within the country of Thailand, they are being pressured to assimilate into the larger society. Some of the social changes promote what Karen consider to be a better life for their families--they have greater access to education, health care, food, transportation, communication, better housing, ample water, warm clothing, and energy to light their homes and cook their food. Yet, such benefits may come at the cost of loosing their Karen culture.
Increasingly the primary language of Karen children is Thai and presently few children are able to read and write their tribal language. Traditional Karen dress, an important source of ethnic pride and identity, is more and more reserved for special occasions. The performance of ancestral Karen music and dance is so rare that even most middle age adults are unable to participate. Historic Karen stories, poems, and songs are no longer a part of the collective memory. How long will it take before the Karen people are completely assimilated into Thai society once they leave their mountain homelands and move into the large urban centers of Thailand?
Many Karen villages in Thailand can be reached by dirt roads. The roads improve steadily but the rainy season makes traveling on them a bit hazardous, if not impossible. Because of the mountainous home of the Karen they were able to stay fairly culturally and physically secluded as long as they did.
The ecology of the land is changing as well as the lives of the people. Because of the roads there is more erosion. Due to increased usage of pesticides and fertilizers there are more water pollution problems. The Thai government is interested in preserving the forest as well as the Karen people themselves. The Thai government and the Karen have different concepts of water, dirt, forest. Therefore the environment is a big issue in Karen/ Thai relations. The Karen in the past have always been environmentally aware and have avoided farming methods which cut down trees.Karen Music
The Karen, like most people of the world, play both traditional and contemporary music. To play these two styles there is also a difference of instruments used.
The traditional music is played on a pentatonic (five-toned) scale. This is made up of the first, second, third, fifth, and sixth notes of what we know as a modern octave. They keep a loose structure of what pitch and rhythm the song should be sung in, allowing compensation for peoples' variety of voices and emotion to the song. Traditionally the music is in a minor key, causing a saddened sound to emerge.
Of the traditional instruments of the Karen are harp, Jew's harp, bamboo guitar or fiddle, xylophone, flute, graduated-pipes, gourd bag-pipe, wedding horn, drums, cymbals, and gongs. The instruments were made by the villagers out of elements around them, except for the drums, cymbals, and gongs, which came from the Burmese. The Karen would use the music played by these instruments for dancing, ceremonies, calling to each other in the brush, courting, or just a way to pass the time in musical enjoyment.
Along with Christianity coming to the Karen, the missionaries brought Christian hymns from their land. The Karen enjoyed the hymns, and although not forced to, began to drop their traditional songs for these hymns. Only a few of their traditional songs have been modified into hymns and added to their hymnbook.
Contemporary music can resemble western music, using guitars as the base for the music. Depending on who has influenced the village, the village follows likewise. Some people who play music a lot prefer to bounce between traditional and contemporary music. They may do this by playing a traditional song on their Karen guitar, followed by a western song on their western guitar. Others use their Karen instruments and create new songs.
Village Politics
If the smallest social unit among the Karen society is the nuclear family, then the largest social unit is the village itself. The village is presided over by a headman who is recognized as the village's political leader by the government of Thailand. From the Karen point of view, the village headman has little power or authority. His duty is to determine the village consensus and then to follow it carefully. This can put him in a difficult position, as he needs to remain a "good Karen," while at the same time carry out whatever duties the Thai authorities require.
Most Karen do not aspire to this position because of the potential conflicts that might arise. A Karen village is a very democratic place. Decisions are made by the whole group with the men doing most of the talking (at least in the meetings!). Unanimity is an important ideal and goal before any decision is reached. It is generally safe to say that issues that are never agreed upon are never acted upon. The headman is not so much a decision maker as the voice of the group after a consensus has be reached.
Geographical Distribution
