(or what we don’t know about it)
On Saturday December 28 last, Mr. Suchit Wongthet, the Editor of the
Thai Language magazine Silpa Wathantham, featuring articles on art and culture,
wrote a most interesting essay for the English language daily “The Nation”
called: “Rice….. the long and the short of it”. In it, Mr. Suchit traces the
history of rice in Thailand and the origin of this staple which goes back
thousands of years.
Planting out the young rice shoots in Thailand’s
countryside.
Until more recently the earliest reports on rice cultivation came from southern
China, - about 2000 BC - 2500 BC, which does not necessarily mean that it was
there that the cultivation of the now most important staple in the world
originated. The rice plant, oryza sativa of the gramineae or grass family, needs
water and the swampy estuaries of the big rivers, the Ganges in India, Irrawadi
in Burma, Menam Mekhlong, and the Menam Chao Phya in Thailand as well as the
mighty Mekhong estuary in Vietnam and Cambodia, the delta of the Red River in
Vietnam and the Si Kiang in Kanton are likely sites for the birth of the
cultivation. From those lowlands it may have spread and people living in the
highlands may have learned how to terrace and irrigate their rice fields.
In the sixties researchers from America and Thailand discovered traces of rice
cultivation and pottery in the plains of the Northeast which antedate the
reports from China. If I am correct in surmising that rice was first cultivated
in the deltas, then the cultivation must be even more ancient than the traces in
Isarn but probably through the silting of the wet lands in the deltas - the
Northeast is rather dry and has a savannah climate - proof of this ancient
agriculture has so far not been found.
Rice fields at the foot of the Gunung Agung, South
Bali 1990.
It is generally taken for granted these days that rice was first cultivated in
Southeast Asia from where it spread to the tropical and temperate lands around
the world. The intriguing question, however, is who were the first people or
peoples who started to cultivate this plant, as it may have very well been
performed independently in several places at approximately the same time.
Now we get to the difficult question of whether the Thai tribes came from
Southern China or whether they have always lived in these lands. I find the last
possibility most unlikely because practically no people in the world have lived
for ever in the same place and another point is that modern Thais are a mixture
of several races. They are at present not known for racial bias as far as
intermarrying is concerned and consequently we may expect that they weren’t in
the past either.
I have a pet theory which I like to discuss but which has already driven some
serious historian friends of mine to distraction. In Thailand the word for rice
“Khao” (Tao was the Chinese word for rice in Shang times - 18th to 12th century
BC - and Kao the word for grain) is always used with an adjective to express
which kind of rice is meant. This is exactly what we do in Europe where rice is
not indigenous. As Mr. Sujit points out, since ancient times the variety of rice
called Khao Nieow, or popularly called “sticky rice”, has been popular in
Thailand. The long grained variety called Khao Chao or the rice of the “Chao” or
higher classes, was introduced at a later date and now preferred by the central
Thais. Still, at present, the Isarn people in the Northeast and the northerners
as well, prefer to eat Khao Nieow, the sticky variety which is more durable when
cooked and has more body to it. In Thai the actual rice plant is called ‘Ton
Khao’, the un-husked rice is called “Khao Peuak”, the uncooked rice is called
“Khao San”, and cooked rice is called “Khao Suway” (forgive me my
transliterations, I never know how to tackle this problem).
In the Malay language, spoken in Malaysia and Indonesia, a proper name is used
for all of these “Khao” varieties. The rice plants on the field are “Padi”, the
un-husked rice is called “Gabah”, the uncooked polished rice is called “Beras”,
the cooked rice is called “Nasi” and the glutinous or sticky variety is called
“Ketan”. Does this indicate that the Malays are actually familiar with the rice
culture since it was started? Or can it be a matter of language that the Thais
have no special name for these varieties. Could it be that the Malays cultivated
the rice from its original wild state until it became their daily fare. It is
most likely that the Malay tribes, thousands of years ago, migrated through
these countries on their way to the south. To do this they had no transport but
their own legs so it happened slowly over long periods of time, probably
dwelling in one place for hundreds of years before moving on to other pastures
under pressure of aggression or for reasons of agriculture or hunt.
There is a possibility that the Malay language developed in lands bordering the
sea as many of the words having to do with maritime matters - like the word for
boat, “Prao” or “Prahu” (erroneously spelled “Proa” in English) - are the same
in the hundreds of Malay dialects. Another most interesting point is that the
word for “sea straits” the stretch of water between two pieces of land, is
“Selatan” in Malay which is also the word for “South”. Could it be that they
were living on the western coast of the Kra Peninsular at one time, where the
Straits of Malacca is exactly south?
We will probably never find out, but if I am permitted to add one more of my own
observations. Many Thai names for tropical fruits and maritime fish have Malay
origins. “Thurian” comes from the Malay “Durian” meaning the “Thorny One”,
Langsat comes from the Malay “Langsep”, the world for coral in Thai is “Pa
Karang” and in Malay “Karang”, “Plah Kulau”, the tassel fish is called “Kurau”
or “Kuro” in Malay. The examples are many and to me this proves that the Thais
became acquainted with the sea later in history when they already had developed
their own language and these names were adopted from the people who lived near
the sea when they arrived which may have been the Mons, the Malays, or the
Khmers. Unfortunately I am not familiar with the Mon or the Khmer language.