The Role of Buddhist Temples in Thailand in Transmitting Shan Language and Culture∗

In the Shan State, Myanmar, Buddhist temples serve as the center for passing on the Dharma teachings as well as transmitting Shan customs and traditions along with informally teaching Shan texts to Buddhist monks and Shan people. After the Shan people had to migrate from the Shan State into Thailand, Chiangmai Province in particular, due to various political problems, the Shan people continue using Buddhist temples as their meeting places, both the new temples they have built upon their arrival and the existing local ones in Chiangmai. Thus, Buddhist temples have become the central meeting places of the Shan immigrants. The objective of this paper is to study the roles of Buddhist temples on the Shan immigrants in five areas in Chiangmai where the Shan immigrants have settled down. The paper explores the roles of the temples through the activities of the Shan people held in the temples. The study shows that the Buddhist temples in Chiangmai play significant role among the Shan migrants, e.g. serving as the center for their gathering to learn, share, pass on and promote their art and culture as well as being the center for Shan language teaching, helping the Thailand born Shan children of the Shan migrants to learn Shan language and culture. The temples also provide all sorts of assistance to the Shan people and serve as an important social network that unite the Shan immigrants. This creates a core conscience of Shan identity in conserving the language, as well as art and culture, resulting in the younger generation being able to take pride in their history and ethnicity in a social context outside their homeland, the Shan State