Tai Dam Diaspora Consciousness and Routes of Migration: An Analysis from Funeral Manuscripts

Abstract The objective of this study is to analyze Tai Dam funeral manuscripts called Kwam Bok Tang or Kwam Song Phi Khuen Mueang Fa . It is a comparative study conducted among Tai Dam or Lao Song in Thailand and Tai Dam in northwestern Vietnam. The texts reveal that Mueang Lo , Nghĩa Lộ in Vietnam, is the place of origin where the first community was established. It illustrates that the Khwan , the spirit or essence of life of the deceased, will be sent from the current settlement back along the route of migration to Mueang Lo before ascending to heaven to meet their ancestral spirits. Fittingly, this could be considered as Tai Dam diaspora consciousness of their ancestral homeland and the place of origin that records historical memory and historiography in forms of funeral manuscripts and rituals their funeral ceremony.