Nyaw people

Nyaw
ญ้อ (Nyo) · ไทญ้อ · ไทย้อ
Regions with significant populations
Thailand: Sakon Nakhon, Nakhon Phanom, Kalasin, Maha Sarakham, Yasothon, Mukdahan and Sa Kaeo provinces Laos: Khammouane and Bolikhamxai provinces
Languages
Nyaw, a Southwestern Tai language
Religion
Buddhism, with ancestral and guardian spirit cults
Related ethnic groups
Phu Thai, Yoy, Kaloeng, Lao

The Nyaw (Thai ญ้อ, also written ย้อ, ไทญ้อ and ไทย้อ; in English also Nyo, Yo and Thai Yor) are a Tai-speaking people of Northeastern Thailand and central Laos. In Thailand they live in the towns and villages of the Sakon Nakhon basin, at Tha Uthen on the Mekong in Nakhon Phanom, in Kalasin, Maha Sarakham, Yasothon and Mukdahan. A separate community lives at Aranyaprathet in Sa Kaeo. In Laos, Nyaw villages lie in Khammouane and Bolikhamxai.

Their ancestors lived in towns east of the Mekong, among them Mueang Kham Koet and Mueang Khammuan. They crossed to the right bank in the 19th century, many in the removals that followed the Lao rebellion of 1826–1828. Nyaw is close to Lao and Yoy in vocabulary. The name Yo is also borne by linguistically distinct Tai groups in Vietnam, among them the Tai Yo of Nghệ An. Nyaw communities honour village and town guardian spirits beside Buddhism. At Tha Uthen the spirit Ya Pho is now the guardian of the town pillar.

Name and identity

The people's name is ญ้อ in Thai, also written ย้อ, ไทญ้อ, ไทย้อ and ไทยย้อ.^{: [ix]: 116} Most studies in Thailand write the name ญอ and romanise it Nyo. Ethnologue calls the language Nyaw, with the alternative names Jo, Nyo, Nyoh and Yo.^: 74 The English titles of Thai studies also spell it Thai Yor and Tai-Yoh.^: 60: 177

The name reaches well beyond these people. The linguist James R. Chamberlain found it, or forms of it without the nasal, from Thanh Hóa and Nghệ An in Vietnam through Khammouane to Nakhon Phanom and Sakon Nakhon.^: 75 In Vietnam it is the name of the Tai Yo of Nghệ An, whose language belongs to a different group of the Southwestern Tai languages from Nyaw and is treated as a separate language.^: 75–76 A dialect that its own speakers call Nyo or Lao Nyo, in Banteay Meanchey in Cambodia, has been analysed as a dialect of Lao.^: 75

The Nyaw of Kut Kho Kan in Yasothon call the Phu Thai and Kha of Loeng Nok Tha and the neighbouring districts their phi-nong, their elder and younger siblings. The Phu Thai of the next subdistrict, who call themselves Phu Thai Boran ("old Phu Thai"), call the Nyaw Phu Thai Nyo.^: 81 At Saeng Badan in Kalasin a rule of conduct is summed up in the phrase hit Nyaw, khlong Phu Thai: never to lie, to greet and take leave properly, to know one's place and one's kin and to honour the pho lam and mae lam.^: 133

Population and distribution

The Sakon Nakhon provincial statistical office lists the Nyaw among six peoples of the province who keep their own descent, culture and customs. It places them in Mueang Sakon Nakhon, Tao Ngoi, Phon Na Kaeo and Khok Si Suphan districts.^: [ix] A study of the province's ethnic music calls the Nyaw a large group in Sakon Nakhon.^: 341 In the town of Sakon Nakhon, Nyaw communities live around Wat Phra That Choeng Chum, called the Nyaw capital of the province, at Ban Tha Wat in Lao Po Daeng subdistrict and around Wat Saphan Si in Khamin subdistrict. These are the parts of the province with the most Nyaw.^: 63

In Nakhon Phanom the Nyaw of Tha Uthen honour the same spirits as the people of Chaiburi, Hin Bun, Tha Dok Kaeo, Tan Pak Nam, Ban Phon and Hua Bueng Thung. In Kalasin, Nyaw live at Saeng Badan in Somdet District.^: 125–126 Chareerak and Wongpinunwatana describe the Saeng Badan group of Somdet as Phu Thai mixed with Nyaw.^: 154 Ban Tha Khon Yang in Kantharawichai District of Maha Sarakham is a Nyaw village on the Chi. In the village's account the larger Nyaw groups live in Kalasin and Nakhon Phanom.^{: 48, 50}

Further south, the Nyaw of Kut Kho Kan in Loeng Nok Tha District of Yasothon relate themselves to the Nyaw of nearby Hin Siw and of Dong Yen, Sai Lai Laeng and Khon Kaen in Mueang Mukdahan and Nikhom Kham Soi districts of Mukdahan.^{: 73, 80} The Nyaw of Ban Khlong Nam Sai at Aranyaprathet in Sa Kaeo are considered the first people to have settled at Aranyaprathet.^: 178 In 2018 Ethnologue listed Nyaw speakers in Sa Kaeo and in an isolated area on the Cambodian border.^: 75

In Laos, Nyaw is spoken at Na Kaang, in what are now Hinboun and Khounkham districts of Khammouane and at Don Xat in Khamkeuth District of Bolikhamxai. Chamberlain classed this dialect, which the Nyaw of Tha Uthen also speak, apart from the Nyaw of Sakon Nakhon, recorded at Taw Ngoy.^: 75

Language

Nyaw (ISO 639-3 nyw) is a Southwestern Tai language. Glottolog lists it for Laos and Thailand. Ethnologue calls it a stable language, thought to be the first language of everyone in the community. J. Marvin Brown in 1965 classed the Nyaw speech of Sakon Nakhon and Nakhon Phanom as one of three distinct dialect groups of Lao, beside those of Luang Prabang and Vientiane.^: 74 Both Nyaw dialects belong to the "PH group" of Southwestern Tai, which turned the old voiced stops into voiceless aspirated ones.^: 76

Mudjalin Luksanawong compared the vocabulary of five Tai varieties of Sakon Nakhon, taking the Nyaw data from elderly speakers in That Choeng Chum subdistrict of the provincial town. Nyaw, Lao and Yoy formed one group, while Kaloeng and Phu Thai each stood apart.^: 8–9 Working from sound changes, Pittayawat Pittayaporn groups Nyaw, Yoy and Kaloeng as one cluster, whose members differ in their tonal mergers and splits. He places the cluster provisionally in a "Peninsular" branch of Southwestern Tai with Lao and Thai.^{: 16, 23–24}

The Nyaw of Saeng Badan speak with an accent their study likens to Phu Thai, marked by the vowel oe. Lemongrass, for example, is hua i-khoe. Parents are addressed as thao.^: 132 At Ban Tha Khon Yang the community still speaks Nyaw, which its study calls the main means of keeping Nyaw culture and identity.^: 50

History

Removal from the left bank

In a list of the peoples of the north-east quoted by Maswanna and Hongsuwan, Prince Damrong Rajanubhab recorded the Nyaw at Mueang Tha Uthen. He wrote that they had once lived near Tha Uthen, had fled the Bangkok army across the Mekong to Mueang Luang Pong Leng near the Vietnamese border and had returned to Tha Uthen in the reign of Rama III.^: 145

After the defeat of Chao Anouvong of Vientiane in 1828, Siam moved the peoples of the left bank to the right. The Nyaw were among them, with the Kaloeng, So, Kha and, above all, the Phu Thai.^: 151 In Failai's account, between 1833 and 1845 people of 15 towns on the left bank, among them Mueang Kham Koet and Mueang Khammuan, were moved to Nakhon Ratchasima and the towns of the Sakon Nakhon basin. Their peoples included Phu Thai, Kaloeng, So, Nyaw, Kha and Lao.^: 225 Timsuksai and Rambo write that all the Tai-speaking groups of the basin are believed to have settled there in the early 19th century, after the Siamese army moved them by force from their homes in Laos.^: 3

The Nyaw settlements

Ban Tha Khon Yang traces its people to Mueang Kham Koet. In the account its historians follow, Anouvong's army took the Nyaw of Kham Koet in 1826 to found a new town. They were led by Phra Lamduan, also called Chao Kham Kon. When Siam went to war with Vientiane, Phra Lamduan brought his people to the Siamese side and settled them at Ban Tha Khon Yang, under Kalasin.^: 49–50 The village was raised to the town of Tha Khon Yang, a dependency of Kalasin, about 1845. The river crossing that gave the village its importance came into use about the same time.^{: 48, 50} Villagers say their ancestors came from Laos with Chao Lamduan, fleeing war.^: 50

The Nyaw of Saeng Badan in Kalasin say that their ancestors left Mueang Khammuan in Laos because of war and the rounding-up of people. They settled first at Bueng Kradan and moved after an outbreak of smallpox. In their account three groups of kin set out from Khammuan under Phra Si Suwan, also called Phra Kham Daeng: one went to Sakon Nakhon, one of about 1,500 people to Saeng Badan and one to Tha Khon Yang on the Chi, whose people speak the same Nyaw.^: 125–126 Chareerak and Wongpinunwatana count the same town among the Phu Thai towns: Ban Bueng Kradan became Muang Saeng Badan about 1845, with Phra Kham Daeng, titled Phra Si Suwan, as its first ruler.^: 153

The Nyaw of Aranyaprathet are thought to have come from Vientiane or from the Tha Uthen area in 1826, in the reign of Rama III. A study of their houses places them in the Lao Wiang cultural group, with the Nyaw of Tha Uthen.^: 178

Tha Uthen

A study of Nyaw spirit worship at Tha Uthen divides the town's history into four periods. When the town was founded its ruler drew his authority from the spirit Ya Pho. The provincial reforms ended the old government of four officials. After the suppression of the phi bun rising the spirit's hold on power collapsed. The monk Phra Achan Sithat Suwannamacho then promoted Buddhism and built the stupa of Phra That Tha Uthen as the town's object of veneration in place of the spirit. Today Ya Pho has been installed as the guardian of the town pillar.

Society

At Saeng Badan a Nyaw marriage begins with a request to the bride's kin and the gift called khai kham pak, a jar of liquor and a chicken, with the bride price the kin name. Two pho lam, an elder and a younger, stand in for father and mother; there is no mae lam.^: 129 At a death the corpse is called khon, "log". A son-in-law of the dead person takes charge of it, or failing one a son-in-law of a relative, from the house to the cremation. The rite includes the ten krathop mai, a dance between clapping poles.^: 127 The dead are laid with the head to the east, where the stupa of Phra That Phanom stands, so that the feet do not point towards it; other Lao groups lay the head to the west.^: 130

Religion

At Saeng Badan the sacred places of the village must not be offended. The spirits are fed with a cow, a buffalo, a pig or a chicken, a different animal each year, beginning with the larger.^: 128 At Tha Uthen the guardian spirit Ya Pho Si Sutho is honoured with the spirits of the Mekong, of streams and of ponds.

In Sakon Nakhon several ancestral shrines (san pu ta) are tied to Nyaw belief. The shrine of Chao Pu Na Pho–Na Phiang at Ban Pho Thong in Wanon Niwat District belongs to Nyaw and Lao villagers. The shrine of Ban Phu Ngoen at Ban Hai Yong in Phang Khon District serves Lao villagers with some Nyaw and Yoy. The shrine of Chao Pho Mahesak in the provincial town joins the beliefs of the Nyaw, the Phu Thai, the Vietnamese and the Chinese. The city municipality helps to maintain it.^: 176–177

Culture

In the traditional dress of Saeng Badan, men wear three-quarter trousers and an indigo-dyed shirt. Women wear a dark mo hom blouse with a patterned border and a coloured skirt, with earrings in large piercings and their hair in a bun.^: 127 Men have their legs tattooed from the knee to the thigh in their youth; a man without the tattoo is thought to lack endurance.^: 128 Houses were raised on posts, with a stepped porch (koei) and an open terrace (chan) with the kitchen beyond. Cattle and buffalo were penned underneath.^: 134

Saeng Badan makes its own khao pong, rice crackers of steamed glutinous rice pounded with the tot ma vine, pressed into sheets, dried and toasted.^: 132 A collection of the legends and folktales of the Tai peoples of Isan who came from elsewhere gathered two legends and 57 folktales from the Nyaw.^: 148 Two schools in the town of Sakon Nakhon, Thatnarai School and Sakon Phatthana Suksa School, teach Nyaw music.^: 343

Economy and livelihood

Most households at Saeng Badan grow rice for their own use. Cassava, sugar cane, rubber, silk weaving and livestock bring in further income. The village has producer groups for rice, basketry and weaving.^: 126 In a 2016 study of home gardens in the Sakon Nakhon basin, most Nyaw gardens were organic in shape, with indistinct borders and several planting centres, like those of the Kaloeng, Lao and Yoy.^: 8 Nyaw communities in the town of Sakon Nakhon work with the state in promoting tourism.^: 60

Accessions

No accessions documented yet.

See also

• Kaloeng people
• Nakhon Phanom Province
• Phu Thai people
• Sakon Nakhon Province
• Yoy people