Northern Thai people

Exonym and endonym[edit]

Central Thai may call northern Thai people and their language Thai Yuan, probably derived from Sanskrit yavana meaning "stranger", which itself comes from the name of the Greek tribe of the Ionians.^[4] In everyday speech, "Tai" prefixed to some location is understood as meaning "Tai person" of that place.^[5] The British colonial rulers in neighbouring Burma (Myanmar) referred to them as Siamese Shan, to distinguish them from the Shan proper, whom they called Burmese Shan.^[6]


The people of this ethnicity refer to themselves as khon muang, meaning "people of the (cultivated) land", "people of our community" or "society" (mueang is a central term in Tai languages having a broad meaning, essential to the social structure of Tai peoples). With this name, they historically identified themselves as the inhabitants of the alluvial plains, river valleys, and plateaus of their native area, where they lived in local communities called muang and cultivated rice on paddy fields. This distinguished them from the indigenous peoples of the area ("hill tribes"), like the Lua', who lived in the wooded mountains practicing slash-and-burn agriculture. Membership of the ethnicity was therefore defined by lifestyle rather than by genetics. At the same time, it was a term of dissociation from the Burmese and Siamese, who held suzerainty over the Lanna Kingdom for centuries and who were not "people of our muang".^[7][8]


For the same reasons, the own name of the khon muang for their language is kammuang or kham muang, in which kam means language or word; muang town, hence the meaning "town language," in contrast to those of the many hill tribe peoples in the surrounding mountainous areas.^[9]


Prior to their integration into Thailand, the Northern Thais were known as Lao phung dam, or black-bellied Lao, due to the tradition of tattooing their abdomens (phung), which contrasted with the Lao to their east who did not have this custom.^[10] According to Jit Bhumisak, a prominent Thai historian, Northern Thais consider themselves Tai-Thai and do not refer to themselves as Lao. This is reflected in various inscriptions where the term "Thai-Tai" is used to refer to themselves. The term Lao is seen as an insult by Northern Thais, as it is associated with a savage and uncivilized culture. Therefore, the use of the term Khon Muang is a way for Northern Thais to assert their distinct identity and cultural heritage, and to distance themselves from the negative connotations of the term Lao. Northern Thais also call Central Thais "Thai" and add the word "South" to refer to Southern Thais or "Southerners", indicating they see themselves and Central Thais as part of the larger Tai/Thai ethnic group. However, they do not use the term Tai/Thai to refer to other ethnicities that interact more closely with Lanna society, such as Tai Yai, Tai Khoen, Tai Lue people, reflecting the fact that they see themselves and these ethnic groups as distinct entities.^[11]