The Japan Foundation Asia Center Asia Fellowship Report Maria Christine Muyco NOT A PEACOCK BUT A GINGGALA: THE TAI YAI’S MYTHICAL HUMAN-BIRD IN PLACES AND PARTICULARITIES by Maria Christine Muyco and Khanithep Pitupumnak (Research funded by the Japan Foundation Asia Center) INTRODUCTION The Tai Yai, or Shan,1 are descendants of rulers and their subjects who had strongholds in upper Burma, southwest China (Sip Song Panna), and Laos. Schiliesinger (2001) describes Tai Yai history, including the narrative about King Mangrai, the ruler of Lanna (the Kingdom that included Chiang Mai) invaded and dominated northern Thailand. This region included the area where the Tai Yai live. The Tai Yai living in Chiang Mai now trace their lineage to the Shan State and Mea Hong Son province. This overlaps Lanna culture. Figure 1: Map of the Shan State (left) and Mea Hong son province (right). (Source: Joshua Project / Global Mapping International, https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/18205/BM. 2016) Our research focuses on the present day Tai Yai living within Chiang Mai City who practice and present a music and dance form called Ginggala (also known as King ka la, Ginnara, or Kinnara). We seek to understand its ideology of practice and its meaningful 1 They are also known as Tai Jai, Ngio, Ngiaw, Niou, Ngiou, Ngieo, Nyaw, Ngeo, Sam, Sham, and Sen. They belong to the Austro-Thai linguistic family within the language group of Ta-Kadai. (Schiliesinger, 2010: 144) 1 link to the wat (temple). This is where performers experience a sense of place, which plays an especially important role in the lives of migrants and displaced people.2 The wat provides a linkage to homeland, to other members of the diaspora and to practitioners of various cultural practices related to the homeland. Through the wat members of the diaspora—priests, monks, nuns, musicians, dancers, teachers and laypersons—renew and grounding their identities through fellowships. As a haven and point of return, cultural practitioners draw their purpose for music-making and dancing from the temple’s teachings, in particular beliefs and practices that revere Buddhist monks. Figure 2: The Wat Mahawan in Chiang Mai, which is where interviews and performances cited in this research took place. The Lanna people built Wat Mahawan in 1795 during the period of King Kawila. In 1843 and 1867, Tai Yai merchants erected another building along with a Buddha statue on the temple grounds. Therefore, one can find Tai Yai architecture and arts on this temple’s site. Tai Yai music and dance are preserved and taught in this temple, as well. Ginggala, according to Khru (Master) Sang Kham Jang Yod, a respected teacher and source of knowledge about this tradition, is a dance of a half-bird and half-human being accompanied by gong and drum music. To many, it is known as a Peacock Dance because many layfolk associate the dancer’s costume for the piece, especially the 2 Many Tai Yai have been displaced by conflicts in Myanmar. 2 headdress, with that bird. However, the headdress and the costume do not refer to a peacock, but a mythical creature. “You call it Ginggala if it is male, and Ginggali, if female,” Khru said. “However,” he added, “…simply call it Ginggala, a general term.” The dance is performed during rice harvest ceremonies, the Shan New Year, at the end of the Buddhist Lent season, temple activities such as monk or novice ordinations, and other special occasions. The dance has also been adapted to the Thai celebration of Songkran, the so-called Water Festival marking the beginning of the Southeast Asian Lunar New Year. Figure 3: The Ginggala of Tai Yai in Chiang Mai. The Shan people place the origins of Ginggala during the reign of the great King Chao Seua Khan Fa, who ruled the Muang Mao Luang in 1311 AD. This king is also known to have developed the Shan language, as well as its music and dance culture. Another scholar known to the Shan people as Dr. Bahayan (full name not remembered) from Muang Seepaw, knew and conveyed knowledge related to the dance and its sixty-two steps. Today, only thirty-two (32) of these steps are still known (Khru Sang Kham Jang Yod, personal conversation, 2016). Long-held beliefs of the Tai Yai as learned from their ancestors in Mea Hong Son province are being recalled in the Ginggala practice. The observances may vary from place to place but there would always be something common in the implementation of such beliefs. These include, among others, the 1) readiness to perform in consideration of age; 2) birth order within the family (as explained below); and 3) awareness of what the performance is for and the sacredness of the occasion. Thus, for public performance, the dancer’s age should be at least fifteen years old. Furthermore, a Ginggala dancer should be the only child, or if there are siblings, should be the youngest. This age is believed to be the start of maturity when a more serious disposition to the dance is held, respecting its sacredness and devotional aspects. Private domains, like one’s home, are used for rehearsing and developing one’s skills so that a younger person can express the Ginggala artistry within these bounds. As to occasions, it is forbidden to have the dance during funerals, as it is supposedly a celebration of an auspicious event. Otherwise, the 3 dancer will typically accept any invitation offered through an official letter, which is central in maintaining the process’s formality. This sense of formality is extended to the preamble of the performance by way of a bow given by the dancer to those in attendance. In particular, this is a bow to the teacher, the objects involved such as gongs, cymbals, and drums, to monks, and to others in attendance.3 Popped rice and flowers should be presented as an offering. Clothing and accessories worn during the dance are considered sacred just as the dance is; this includes the headdress and wing-accessory portraying this feathered being, which also suggests mystical associations. Because these items are sacred, no one can step over the dance clothes, and the musical instruments. Traditionally, a mask was required in dancing Ginggala, although now this rule has been relaxed. The performers’ intentions are considered more important than strict adherence to consuming conventions. How do the Tai Yai express “birdness?” In the literal sense of jumping, walking, and following the flight of a bird, the gracefulness in this dance is made whole by the marriage of martial arts movements. It is a sacred art following rules and aspects of Buddhist philosophy and yet, there is another side of “dancing for fun,” as seen in the dance’s function as an entertainment form. Formalists and elders, such as Khru Sang Kham, claim that this inclusion of entertainment elements in the dance undermine the dance’s beauty and depth as a cultural expression. According to him, the dance deserves to be preserved and promoted for the next generation of learners in its most elevated (or deep) form. Nevertheless, these two forms and purposes exist in the Chiang Mai society’s way of appreciating and practicing the dance. As a collaborative research between Philippine and Thai musicologists, this article will incorporate perspectives from both scholars in order to uncover and highlight fresh insights on the fieldwork based on conversations with the Ginggala practitioners and Wat Mahawan’s monks, especially head monk, or Phra Theerawat, Wongkhatiyakamon. Localism as a discourse on “placemaking” becomes a central part of the inquiry, helping to frame the people’s ideology of practice of their music-dance as both a spiritual practice sited in the wat’s physical space. 3 While the reader may be tempted to think of those gathered together as “the audience,” we believe this word conveys an inaccurate connotation. These are witnesses to a sacred event, and therefore, are closer to congregants, or in the Buddhist framework, the sangha. 4 THE HIMMAPAN FOREST: FROM MYTH TO LIFE Figure 4: Thailand’s Committee on Records and Archives (2004: 174) illustrates The Himmapan Forest in An Illustrated Book of Trai Phum Manuscripts Written in Tham Lanna and Khmer Scripts. The Ginggala is considered to be an inhabitant of the Himmapan Forest. Pa Himmapan, or the Himmapan forest, is a place in the Tri-Poom, which refers to the three world- cosmology found in Buddhism and Hinduism. This name appears in Thai literature within sources such as the Tri-Poon, Pra Roung, and Ramayana. It is believed that the Himmapan forest is in the Himalaya Mountains of Chomputaweep (India). Many mythical creatures live there: a horse with a bird's head, a man with a lion’s body, and other hybrid combinations. This Buddha visited this place after he experienced enlightenment, passing through ass he went up to the heavens to see his mother and share the knowledge that had dawned on him. The creatures of this forest felt so happy to see Buddha that they welcomed him with dancing and other forms of celebration. The Ginggala together with his partner, the Ginggali (or Ginggalee), pleased the Buddha with a dance. To this day, the offering of this dance is remembered as sacred; it is an act of expressing reverence to the Buddha. THE GONG-CYMBAL-DRUM ENSEMBLE The ensemble for the Ginggala usually consists of long drums, a hand-held pair of cymbals, and gongs in a rack as shown in the next figure. 5 Figure 5: From extreme right, Paponnatee Srijunya plays the Kong Jum, or gongs in a rack. On his right side, Watchara Boriboon holds the hand cymbals while Master Suthas Sipthopthing is shown playing the long drum.