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Lost Brothers of the Thais: Tais of Assam
Dr. Rajib Handique
When Chusak Suvimolstien left Bangkok for Assam, a state in the eastern part
of India bordering on Myanmar, he never imagined the surprises that would be
in store for him. A Thai Buddhist, he had just left an important job as an
instructor at the Huachiew Chalermprakiet in Bangkok and decided to plunge
into research. He had heard about the Tai people and especially of the
Tai-Ahoms of Assam, from several academic sources and therefore wanted to do
research on them. What Chusak experienced after staying and interacting with
the Tai people in Assam was very profound. According to him, the Tais of
Assam belong to the same ethnic stock as the Thais, and in one way are their
lost brothers or cousins.
 Chusak
visits with a village elder.
A long way back in history, the Tai-Ahoms had migrated from Yunnan in China
to Burma and finally migrated westwards into the Brahmaputra Valley located
in the eastern part of India. In the year 1215, Sukapha, the leader of the
Ahoms, along with his followers left Maulung in Upper Burma and after
defeating several tribes on the way, entered the Brahmaputra Valley in the
year 1228. Sukapha founded the Ahom Kingdom, which lasted for more than six
hundred years. During the early period of Ahom rule, there continued
intermittent flows of small migrant groups of Tai origin into the Ahom
Kingdom. The later Tai migrants were mostly Buddhist.
The Ahoms were able to develop a new civil society based on equality of all
the tribes living in the Brahmaputra valley. This new identity was Assamese,
which also developed a distinct language. The Ahoms assimilated and
patronized the new identity and the Assamese language. In the process, the
majority of the Ahoms forgot their ancestral language. However, the priests
of the Ahoms preserved the original Tai language and this is what scholars
like Chusak find so interesting. The Ahom kingdom was only overthrown after
the advent of the British colonial masters as per provisions of the Treaty
of Yandaboo signed on 24 February 1826.
However, under the colonial rule, the Royalty disintegrated and the British
cultivated a new and privileged middle-class and bureaucracy. The British
did not have much confidence in the Ahoms, as they initially struggled hard
to regain their lost independence. This marginalized the Ahoms and
diminished their power. This marginalization of the Ahoms fit perfectly into
the well-known British policy of ‘divide and rule’.
Chusak (4th from right)
standing with a group of Tai Phake villagers.
Thus a new elite developed in colonial Assam, which largely excluded the
Ahoms. This same elite largely dominated the polity and the socio-economic
and cultural domains of Assam even in the post independent period of the
country.
Ahom consciousness of a distinct identity developed during British rule. It
also led to political mobilization with the formation of the All Assam Ahom
Association in 1893, which was later named as the Ahom Sabha. In a
significant speech, one of the presidents of Ahom Sabha, Surendranath
Buragohain stated, “It is a great fortune on the part of the Indian Union
that the great Tai family people have been within India. The Indian
Government can utilise this force as a medium to establish friendship
between India and Eastern Asia.” However, this was not heeded to both before
and after independence of India.
With the dawn of the new millennium and the increasing demands of
globalization coupled with the demand created upon the opinion built up by
academicians, intellectuals and the people of Assam demanding opening of the
eastern borders, the situation has begun to change. One should never lose
sight of the fact that the peoples of North East India are predominantly
mongoloid and there are several groups of Tais, like the Tai-Phake, Tai
Turung, and the Tai-Ahoms. Chusak lived amongst these people and was
exhilarated by some similarities.
As he said, “Though it was a gap of almost a millennium, I found many
similarities in their Tai language, some of the rituals and some sculpture
and architecture. Even some food and food-habits bear uncanny similarities.
I feel a urge to admit that maybe we even feel alike.”
The names of several rivers and places of Assam in Tai language remind us of
their cultural background. Nam means water, as kai means chicken in their
traditional language. Chusak feels that it was western imperialism that
divided these peoples and that it is time to build bridges between them.
“There are lots of linkages and one needs only to use them to strengthen the
ties,” he feels. He further opines that places like Chiang Mai and Chiang
Rai are closer to Assam than other places in the region.
One can feel the optimism in the air as there is the new Look East Policy
adopted by the Government of India. The ASEAN car rally held in 2004,
linking up Guwahati, the premier city of North East India, with the other
centers of SE Asia marked a new beginning. One can definitely hope that in
the coming days there will be closer ties between the people of Assam and
this region, including Thailand. Perhaps there would also be more projects
like the Thai-Yunnan Project, which was done in the late 1990s jointly by
Chulalongkorn University and the Australian National University.
Perhaps, the dream of Chusak to travel by public transport all the way from
Bangkok to Assam via Chiang Mai and Burma will be accomplished one day. One
can only pray that sooner is the better.
The writer is from Assam, India and is a participant of the Three-Months
Certificate Course on Peace and Conflict Studies at Chulalongkorn
University, Bangkok
A musical journey to the heart of the spirit
Taal Yatra – An Odyssey Into Rhythm
Mantras melted into
rhythm, speaking to the soul through the medium of music.
Andrew Watson
I’ve been to India and I loved it. If I close my eyes, I can smell the
gentleness of jasmine floating in the air, juxtaposed with the harshness
of kerosene clinging to the air. I can hear the incessant babble of a
thousand voices, shouting, laughing and crying above the sound of
wandering cows and a concert of motor horns. I can feel the warmth and
the love of the people and through all my assailed senses, the rhythm of
the country. It was chaotic, colourful, vivid, bustling and brilliant.
The Hard Rock Hotel is all about concept. I can empathise, being an
artist; the whole experience of being there is designed to reflect the
nature of the subject. It’s all about big picture event management with
meticulous attention to detail. They work subliminally; nothing is left
to chance.
I had heard great things about Taai Yatra, an innovative Indian
classical ensemble, led by the great tabla maestro and music master
Pandit (Pt.) Suresh Talwalkar. I was enthused by the prospect of
witnessing their traditional and Indian classical compositions,
symbolizing the perfect synergy of several streams of Indian music:
dance, vocal, instrumental and Tabla solo music.
What I was less prepared for was the recreation of the unmistakeable
sense of being in real India, which greeted me as I sauntered into the
Hall of Fame. There was a tremendous sense of confusion. People rushing
from place to place; no-one knowing quite where to go or what to do. I
needed a ticket in order to get a coupon in order to get a drink. All
this involved queuing and unlike Dr. Kildare, I’m not known for my
patience. At times like this, I find it’s best to circumnavigate
protocol. I searched for the bar but ended up back where I started,
empty handed, having completed the longest possible path back to the
same place. It was the kind of thing which in England would result in
voluble protests from patrons, but here? No such thing! Beyond the
bedlam, there was an atmosphere of excitement and anticipation. In
India, it seems that everything life throws at you is greeted with a
broad smile.
Around me, there were waves of colour. Saris and Salwar-Kameez (loose
trousers and long shirt) flowed around the foyer. It was as it had been
requested; all casual elegance, with a touch of India.
As we used to say in London, I was absolutely ‘Hank Marvin’. (rhyming
slang for ‘starvin’: incidentally, do you think Hank uses the expression
himself?) Chatting in the vestibule, I had increasingly become aware of
my gnawing hunger, surrounded as I was, by a buffet including all manner
of sensational Indian dishes. Another cunning Hard Rock ploy: before the
assembled were allowed to satiate their ravenous desires, we first had
to be seated in the Hall of Fame. Only then, were we freed to return
from whence we had come only seconds before and gorge ourselves. You see
what I mean? Such attention to detail! Seeing the lines of patrons
stretching around the buffet, it was time to start another, new line.
When in India…
The patrons were politely shunted out of the Hall again as the
orientation of the seating was altered. I could appreciate the reason
for this; Indian music is all about connecting with the audience. My
sense of frivolity was replaced by one of rumination. We were about to
be taken on a spiritual journey to the heart of music and a musical
journey to the heart of the spirit. Taal Yatra were about to reveal
Pandit (Pt.) Suresh Talwalkar’s constant contemplation, reflection,
mediation and evaluation of rhythm in an enthralling audio-visual
experience. By interweaving the musical elements of the Tabla, the
Western drums, Kathak dance, North Indian vocal music, sitar and flute,
he reveals the “Oneness” of diverse musical instruments and performing
arts.
A piece would start with either the soft call of the flute, a subtle
rhythm or a mesmeric incantation, as if inviting the soul to awaken.
Gently, the spirit was nurtured, cajoled, lifted, with a kind of studied
spontaneity. At the heart of the caressing fluidity of the music, there
was consummate control and intuitive discipline. The relationship
between the artists and audience became absolute; a kind of conversation
was underway, and we were being invited to become part of it.
Pandit (Pt.) Suresh Talwalkar is also known as “Guru Ji”. He is a
spiritual teacher, an enlightened one. He and Taal Yatra had waited on
stage with meditative patience whilst the dignitaries had made their
salutations, which were extensive if heartfelt. Just as you thought the
performance was about to begin, we heard “And now just a few words
from…” It was all very Thai and simultaneously very Indian,
demonstrating appropriate veneration for the customs and traditions of
protocol and tremendous respect for the sense of occasion. The more
elevated the overture, the more significant the occasion, the more
celebrated the artist.
For Pattaya, the concert represented further evidence, if any were
required, of the city’s growing reputation as a world class centre for
cultural and artistic celebration. For the Thai-Indian community of
Pattaya in particular, the presence of Taal Yatra was reason to rejoice.
In India, a population of a billion people (and three roads), Guru Ji is
a massive name. It occurred to me that his presence also reflected
recognition of the integral role of the Thai-Indian community in the
continuing success story of the city.
I marvelled at Guru Ji’s sense of calm, relaxed concentration. The
odyssey into rhythm lulled and wooed us into a contemplative state, each
participating element demonstrating consummate respect for the purity of
their tradition, whilst affirming and enhancing the oneness of it all.
In this way, the Western drums serve only to reaffirm the classical
stylization of the Tabla. The Indian Rhythm System was assimilated
without altering their technique. The vocal compositions were rendered
without tampering with the purity of the ragas in which they are
composed or with the aesthetics of the compositions. At times, Guru Ji
sounded almost like a rapper, as his mantras melted into the rhythm.
There was synthesis of all the essential elements around us; the
audience was another instrument, a natural extension of the Taal Yatra
body; part of it all.
The sensual, immaculate choreography of the Kathak dance put the
abstract shapes of sound into physical form. Kathak is among the six
major classical dances of India and is synonymous with the community of
artists known as Kathakas whose hereditary profession it was to narrate
history while entertaining. With a flick of the wrist, or a twirl like a
breeze around a blossom, they became the embodiment of the rhythm. A
sense of fusion pervaded, a natural culmination of Sureshji’s profound
knowledge and unceasing contemplation of cadence.
Profound understanding of various musical media, through consideration
of the scope and limitations of each one of them and the evaluation of
one medium from the point of view of other media are the essence of
Sureshji’s musical asceticism and innovation. The impulse to express
innate feelings has surely been the prime intent behind every musical
expression. Taal Yatra embraces this sentiment and generates a powerful
sense of deep and shared humanity, building bridges of intuitive
understanding as they move around the pulsing heart of the compositions,
illuminating new dimensions of the beauty of colours, lines, space and
forms.
When it was done, an encore was demanded which became a natural
extension of our experience. Then there were garlands, adulation and
thanks. Guru Ji’s eyes burned bright as the Hall of Fame emptied and our
hearts filled and then there was time for reflection; the odyssey had
taken me to a better place and I, like many around me, was deeply
grateful.
Mayor Niran humbly
presents Guruji with the key to Pattaya City.
Guruji, garlanded his
beloved disciple Kata Permsub, the only Thai prodigy ever to study under
the great maestro.
Guruji gives his blessings
to Mayor Niran Wattansartsathorn and Gen. Kanit Permsub as they present
Amrik Singh with the proceeds that will benefit those who need it
most…the children.
Body mind and spirit in
sensual synthesis, like a breeze around a blossom they became the
embodiment of fantasy.
United by a gift of
studied spontaneity they caressed the heart of sound.
The Pattaya community is a
fusion of cultures from all over the world, so the presence of Taal
Yatra was an integrated reason to rejoice.
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In celebration of the 60th
anniversary of His Majesty the King’s accession to the throne,
the concert was organized by the Ministry of Culture, Royal Thai
Government, Embassy of India and “Sri Laya” foundation, Pattaya
City in Cooperation with the Hard Rock Hotel, the Thai-Indian
Community of Pattaya and the Pattaya Mail. |
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