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The Dai ethnic group lives in the southern part of Yunnan Province, mainly in the Xishuangbanna region. The area is subtropical, with plentiful rainfall and fertile land.
The Dai are Hinayana Buddhists who first appeared 2,000 years ago in the Yangzi Valley and who were subsequently driven southwards by the Mongol invasion of the 13 th century. Countless Buddhist temples were built in the early days of the Dai state and now lie in the jungles in ruins.
The villages of the Dais in Dehong and Xishuangbanna are found on the plains, near rivers or streams, and among clusters of bamboo. The buildings generally are built on stilts. Some of the houses are square, with two stories. The upper story serves as the living place, while the lower space, without walls, is used as a storehouse and for keeping livestock.
The Dai live in spacious wooden houses raised on stilts, to keep themselves off the damp earth, with the pigs and chickens below. The most common Dai foods are sticky rice (khao nio in Dai) and fish. The common dress for Dai women is a straw hat or towel-wrap headdress; a tight, short blouse in a bright color; and a printed sarong with a belt of silver links. Some Dai men tattoo their bodies with animal designs, and betel-nut chewing is popular. Many Dai youngsters get their teeth capped with gold; otherwise they are considered ugly.
In temple courtyard, look for a cement structure looking like a letterbox; this is an altar to local spirits, a combination of Buddhism and indigenous spirit worship. Some 32 separate spirits exits for humans.
During the Cultural Revolution, Xishuangbanna's temples were desecrated and destroyed. Some were saved by serving as granaries, but many are now being rebuilt from scratch. Temples are also recovering their role as village schools where young children are accepted for religious training as monks.
The Dais have a rich, colorful culture. They have their own calendar, which started in AD 638. There are books in Dai script for calculating solar and lunar eclipses. Dai historical documents carry a rich variety of literary works covering poetry, legends, stories, fables and children's tales. They love to sing and dance, accompanied by their native musical instruments.
Zhang khap is the name of solo narrative opera, for which the Dai have a long tradition. Singers are trained from childhood to perform long songs accompanied by native flute and sometimes a long drum known as the elephant drum. Performances are given at monk initiations, when new houses are built, at weddings, and on the birthdays of important people and often last all night. Even if you do understand Dai, the lyrics are complex if not fully improvised. At the end, the audience shouts 'Shuay! Shuay!' which is close to 'Hip, hip, hooray!' Even courtship is done via this singing.
For a long time the Dais had grown rice as their main crop, and they had developed a rather complete, intensive farming system and gained rich experience in irrigation.
Linguistically, the Dai are part of the very large Thai family that includes the Siamese, Lao, Shan, Thai Dam and Ahom peoples found scatted throughout the river valleys of Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, northern Vietnam and Assam.
The Xishuangbanna Dai are broken into four subgroups, the Shui (Water) Dai, Han (land) Dai, Huayao (Floral Belt) Dai and Kemu Dai, each distinguished by variations in costume, lifestyle and location. All speak the Dai language, which is quite similar to Lao and northern Thai dialects. In fact, Thai is often as useful as Chinese once you get off the beaten track, and those wit a firm linguistic background might have fun with a Thai phrasebook. The written language of the Dai employs a script that looks like a cross between Lao and Burmese.
