Thursday, 1 December 2016

History of Tak Bai




Tak Bai (Thai: ตากใบ) is a border town on Malaysia-Thailand Border, the capital of Tak Bai district, Narathiwat province. Visitors can visit Malaysia by Pengkalan Kubur pass, Kelantan state.

Administratively it is a town (thesaban mueang), and covers 9.14 km² of the subdistrict (tambon) Che He.

As of 2007 it has a population of 17,317.

It is the location of the Tak Bai Incident, in which on October 25, 2004 at least 85 demonstrators died.

                                                                 History
Most ethnographic research on Thailand lists the Tak Bai Thai as part of the Southern Thai language group, but their vernacular is very different. It has been described as 'a rather distinct and ancient Tai dialect, which developed differently from most of the modern Tai dialects spoken in Thailand today. Tak Bai Thai is very different from the Southern Thai language; it is more a mixture of northern and central Thai dialects, but articulated in the fast manner as the Southern Thai usually speak. Some words are exactly the same as the Thai speak in the Sukkothai area [in north-central Thailand].'

In fact, linguist Marvin Brown has found that the Tak Bai Thai language is similar to that spoken by people in Sukkothai in AD 1250. It is not beyond the realm of possibility, therefore, that the Tak Bai Thai people along today's Thailand-Malaysia border are the descendants resulting from an interesting historical incident. Joachim Schliesinger says that 'when King Ramkhamhaeng of Sukkothai extended the power of his kingdom deep into the Malay peninsula in the late thirteenth century, he resettled thousands of Thai people from the Sukkothai region to the south, most probably to strengthen his foothold in this far corner of the kingdom. They brought with them Buddhism and built many Buddhist temples in and around Pron, establishing Buddhism in the southern areas of the Malay peninsulas before Islam was introduced.'
                                                              Religion
More than 700 years after they arrived in the area, the Tak Bai Thai people are still zealous Buddhists. Having to fight off the advances of Islam has made them even stronger in their faith and even more resistant to change. Few have ever heard of Jesus Christ, and a mere handful have put their trust in him.


1 comment:

  1. ตากใบมีสะพานเกาะยาวด้วยน่าไปเที่ยวจัง

    ReplyDelete