History of Protestant Christianity in Isaan
      Protestant Work in Isaan
      Statistical Perspective
      Scriptures, Outreach

The Northeast region of Thailand, known as Isaan, is home to the second largest people group in the country. In Thai, Isaan refers to the people, the dialect and the land area of the Northeast. One can be Isaan, speak Isaan and be from Isaan. The Isaan region includes 170,218 square kilometers, about one third of the country’s total area. In 1997 the population of Isaan was 21,086,501 or 35% of Thailand’s total population.

Not only is Isaan the second largest people group (after the central Thai,) it is also the second largest unreached people group in Thailand; that is, it does not yet have a viable, evangelizing, indigenous community of believers which is able to reach the rest of the group.

Life in Isaan

The Land

Isaan is located in what is known as the arid tropics. Topographically, it is primarily a plateau (the Korat Plateau,) averaging 100-200 meters elevation. It is bounded by mountain ranges in the west and south and by the Mekong River in the north and east. Soil quality is the poorest in Thailand, possibly in all of Southeast Asia -- roughly a third of the land area is considered unsuitable for cultivation. Fertility is low, the primarily sandy composition has poor water retention, and in many areas large salt deposits result in high salinity. Rainfall averages 1200-1400mm per year, but falls almost exclusively during the May-October rainy season and is very unpredictable. And about 80% of the region depends on rainfall, rain-fed storage ponds, and wells for its water supply. Even so, the population is almost entirely dependent on agriculture for their livelihood.

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The People - Introduction

Isaan are a hard working, good-natured people of Laotian descent. They are in the process of acculturation to the predominate Central Thai culture, but for the most part they still form a distinct cultural group as evidenced by the use of their own language, their eating habits and their distinct social class.

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Language/Literacy

The Isaan dialect comes from and is very similar to the Lao language. Lao is written using the Lao script which is distinct from Thai. Over the years the central Thai government has made a deliberate effort to unify the language of Thailand. Some Isaan people still remember government imposed book burnings to destroy Lao (and as was supposed communist) literature. One man recalls that afterwards the elders took the ashes of their ancient Lao texts and molded them with clay to make amulets to wear around their necks to remind them of their heritage. Most Isaan people today are no longer fluent readers of the Lao script.

In spite of the fact that Isaan has not been written down as a language for over forty years it still remains the mother tongue of the region and shows no sign of decreasing. First grade in school remains a traumatic time for Isaan children who are taught to read, write and speak Thai, some hearing it for the first time in their lives.

For 70% of the total population living within Isaan Isaan is the primary heart language and Thai is the secondary language. Among the remaining 30%, other languages are primary, Isaan is secondary and Thai is third. Included in this 30% are the Khmer speakers, Chinese and Vietnamese born and raised in Thailand, and the tribal groups such as the Phu Tai and others, each with their own distinct mother tongue.

Adult literacy - 70%.

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Economics

Occupations: 85% of the population are rice farmers dependent upon rain fed agriculture. Others are laborers, merchants, government employees and other.

Income sources:

Modernization/Utilities:

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Living Conditions

Food: The staple of the Isaan (and Lao) diet is "sticky rice". This highly glutinous rice is steamed and eaten with the fingers. Its slow digestibility insures that it will stave off hunger pangs as a long as possible. Most Isaan food, in fact, tends to be chewy and difficult to digest, perhaps for this very reason. Eating food without sticky rice is not considered a meal.

Isaan people partake of a wide variety from nature’s bounty. Some are things that the rest of the country would not consider "food". Most green plants are eaten - young leaf tips of mango, cashew, leuceana, and many other trees are favorites. Most water plants are eaten. The favorites among the greens tend to be the bitter, sour, and the astringent. When eaten with food cooked in hot chili peppers the chemical reaction in the mouth often produces surprisingly sweet and pleasant taste sensations.

Among greens the most essential is dommakhung better known in Thai as somtam. This is made from shredded unripe papaya pounded in a mortar with a pestle along with chili peppers, salt, sour fruits and the all-important ingredient - plah rah, fermented fish. It is this last component that gives the dish its peculiar fragrance (some would say stench) as well as infecting the food with a wide selection of parasites if the plah rah is not well boiled.

Rice provides a diet high in carbohydrates. Seasonal greens provide some vitamins and minerals. Proteins, being the most expensive and hardest to find, are least in quantity at any meal.

Among sources of animal protein are snakes, iguanas, lizards, frogs, toads, fish, snails, field crabs, all birds and their eggs, rats, mice, most insects at egg, pupal, or adult stages, wild rabbit (rare), chicken and eggs, buffalo, pork, beef and (in a few areas) dog. The usual preparation of many of these is to finely chop and stir fry (known as larb) or to stew.

There are virtually no dairy products in the diet. Bones and some greens provide the only source of calcium. Osteoporosis among elderly women can be seen in nearly every village. Government programs are starting to provide UHT milk for school children.

All meals are the same morning, noon and night. The sticky rice, steamed early in the morning is served in its unique basket with other components dished out in common bowls centered on a mat on the floor. People sit on the floor and eat together out of the common bowls with adult males usually eating first. After the meal people drink water out of a common dipper and wash the stickiness of the rice off their fingers.

Shelter: Traditional Isaan homes were made of raised wooden post construction. Old homes are carefully disassembled and resold. Wooden homes are preferred but the expense of wood puts it out of the range for any but the rich or those able to find their own trees to cut.

The current shortage of wood has been influenced by recent government policies. During the Vietnam war era the Thai government, under strong suggestion from western governments, promoted large-scale clearing of forested areas around the country in an effort to destroy the hide-outs of communist insurgents. Many of the largest were in Isaan. In less than 15 years, forest cover in Isaan was reduced from 30% (1973) to 13% (1987.)

Since that time an entire generation has grown up with a fear of the forest. Some believe that bandits and criminals still hide in the tree-shrouded darkness. An even greater fear is that of evil spirits that are believed to lurk in the trunks of old trees and hide in the shadows. This combination of animistic fear and government policy has led to the elimination of many native forested areas.

With the threat of communism now abated, new government programs attempt to reverse previous policy and now promote reforestation. However, reforestation projects are typically pursued when it is to the financial advantage of local authorities. An example of this has been the recent bulldozing of countless acres of former public land which had been designated "destroyed forest" only to be planted with eucalyptus which only officials could sell or receive benefit from.

The resulting effect of destroyed native forests has meant a dramatic change in the construction and style of housing built today. Most houses are single story concrete post and block construction in what is popularly termed "Spanish style".

Clothing: Isaan village girls usually prefer to wear western style clothes (jeans and tee-shirts) and sandals. Once married, however, most soon get pregnant and revert to wearing the traditional sarong, a tube-shaped piece of cloth that is wrapped around the waist. Even long after the child-bearing years are over this will be the garment most women wear. Usually they will own a silk version or two to wear on special occasions. Some industrious Isaan women raise their own silk worms and weave beautiful silk, both to use themselves and to sell.

Boys and men wear casual western style clothes and cheap plastic sandals. Most village men can be seen with a pakama tied around their waist or wrapped around the head during the day. This light cotton cloth of two meter length is multi-purpose. It can be used as belt, hat, storage bag, swimming garment or hammock as occasion demands. In the evening after work is done men bathe and can be seen lounging very comfortably shirtless wrapped either in a pakama or the longer men’s sarong.

Schoolchildren wear uniforms to school. The poorest families can only afford to buy one large outfit and so send their two children to school on alternate days. Scouting outfits and accessories (both boys and girls) plus physical education gym suits bring addition financial burdens upon the family budget. Ironically the better schools in cities often have trust money available from wealthy sponsors to purchase students’ uniforms, books and supplies whereas the more needy remote village schools do not.

During the rice planting season it is sometimes difficult to tell men from women as field workers tend to be covered from head to foot to keep the heat off and avoid getting darkened by the sun. Ski masks are very popular year round: in the hot season to keep off the sun, in the winter to keep in the warmth.

Health Care: The best care is available in the larger cities. Here is where good doctors are able to support themselves. Most doctors make their money selling medicine. People like shots for fast action but often take a variety of pills. Preventative medicine is not widely practiced.

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Society

Isaan Communities:

The following table gives some statistics about the population of Isaan and the current Christian presence in this area.

In addition to the 19 cities (muang or provincial capitals) and the 269 towns (amphur or district centers,) there are approximately 3500 sub-districts (tambon) and approximately 35,000 villages (muubaan.)

Family structures: Children are the center of the family. The primary relationship tends to be parent-child, usually the mother-child relationship. Most males express little interest in their own children and complain if their wives give them only daughters. Some men have minor wives in other places.

Government sponsored family planning has been highly successful. Most families have only two children. Sterilization at government hospitals is free after the second child.

The youngest daughter is the one who is usually given the responsibility to care for the parents in their old age. She in turn will inherit the family home.

Neighbor relations: With the change from barter society to a cash economy relationships with neighbors, particularly in rural villages has changed dramatically. In the past, neighborhood groups came together to plant the rice fields for each other and then at harvest time to share the work. Today this tradition of long khaek (trading work for work) has all but disappeared and has been replaced with hiring on a cash-per-day basis. Fewer rice fields are actually being planted out in the traditional rows due to the expense of daily labor. While harvest is significantly reduced most farmers resort to broadcast plantings of their rice fields today to cut the cost of labor.

Rule/Authority/Selection: Traditional Isaan systems of rule and authority selection have been replaced with the central Thai government’s system imposed from Bangkok. Village headman are no longer lifetime appointments but serve for five year terms elected by the villagers themselves.

Social Habits/Groupings: The Isaan are a community-oriented people. They dislike to be alone, but rather spend lots of time chatting together. Most of the men find whiskey indispensable for these times.

Unlike Americans, Isaan people live tightly clustered in villages. They do not live separate out on their farm lands. Those who live in homes out in the fields are usually outcasts.

Cultural Change: There are many rapid cultural changes especially due to the migration of the working class to Bangkok and elsewhere. This impacts both those who go and those who stay back in the villages. However, Isaan language and eating habits continue relatively unchanged.

Acculturation to National Society: Distant in the villages. For migrants moving to Bangkok there is a desire to assimilate in order to get good jobs - but home is always considered Isaan.

Self Image: Threatened and depressed. Direct central Thai government repression of indigenous movements from Isaan. These are considered threats to national stability and are thus violently and quickly controlled.

Celebrations/Recreation: Thai New Year’s, known as Songkran, is celebrated during the height of the hot season. Isaan people and those in Laos also celebrate this festival. Originally a time to visit elders and bless them with a dainty sprinkling of lustral water, the tradition has degenerated into a three-day national public dousing. Buckets of water are thrown back and forth from passing trucks or roadside groups on any who dare venture forth. This is followed with a powdering of fragrant talcum smeared on the faces of the participants. Songkran is particularly popular among young people.

Another important celebration is Bun Bang Fai. This ceremony popular in Isaan and Laos particularly, combines animistic elements with Buddhism and Brahmanism. It is basically a rocket festival concerned with bringing rain through the firing of homemade skyrockets and high-spirited village merrymaking that goes on for two days.

Other forms of recreation are primarily geared for men and boys. Sports involving foot coordination are popular: soccer, sepak-takra, and thai boxing. Animal fights are popular particularly fighting cocks and fighting fish. These usually involve gambling.

Art forms: Maw lam music is an indigenous form found uniquely in Laos and Isaan. Employing the bamboo khaen instrument and other Isaan forms it is extremely popular. A modernized, fast-paced and electrified version of the same is known as Maw Lam Sing (from the word racing). This is the ultimate in popular Isaan music today.

Children/Youth

Labor/Tasks: Many village children watch cattle and water buffalo. Some parents allow this chore to take the place of going to school. Girls help with the younger children. Boys help with collecting firewood and grass for cattle. Both will help with planting and harvesting rice when old enough.

Problems (morality/family/insurrection/etc.): Economic pressure, through television and word of mouth, reinforces a feeling of desperation among the village rice farmer. Young people today are encouraged to go elsewhere to find work as long as they send money home. Problems result when young people are sucked into debt or addictions of all types, or return home with no money. In worst cases entire families agree to send their girls (and some now send boys) into prostitution to Bangkok and elsewhere. AIDS and the care of those with this disease is now a serious national issue. As of 1997 Thailand was listed as having the highest number of reported cases of HIV in Asia with an estimate of 6% of the Thai population between the ages of 15 and 45 or 2% of the total population.

Greatest Needs:

Religion

Christianity in Isaan

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History of Protestant Christianity in Isaan

Dr. Paul Gunther, Christian and Missionary Alliance missionary, was commissioned as a missionary in Cambodia (part of French Indochina at that time). Fluent in Khmer, he was burdened to reach the Khmer-speakers of northeast Thailand. In 1928 he first entered Thailand through Ubon Ratchatani which was a point of entry for Khmer at that time.

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Statistical Perspective

1 Protestant pastor/evangelist/lay leader for every 40,000 persons

1 Protestant missionary for every 400,000 persons

1 Protestant believer to every 1000 persons

1 Protestant church for every 20,000 persons

1 Protestant church for every 40 Isaan communities

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Scriptures, Outreach

Scripture: Thai people love a handout. A majority (70%) can read but don’t have access to anything they want to read. Isaan people themselves may not respond eagerly to a Bible translation in their mother tongue since they are unaccustomed to seeing it in print. The Thai Bible is difficult for Isaan (as well as central Thai) to understand since it uses royal vocabulary and "high" language which are unfamiliar to the majority of the Thai population. A carefully done "modern-day" Thai translation of the Bible is urgently needed.

The books of Genesis, Luke, Ephesians, Galatians, I & II Thessalonians, I & II Timothy, Titus, and John have been translated into Isaan using the Thai script by a former New Tribes Mission missionary. This project has been ongoing since 1982. Even with this work, an easily readable version in the central Thai language is still needed; most Isaan people are unfamiliar with seeing their own language in written form.

Other Media: Cassette tapes of scripture read aloud in Isaan as well as group discussion of the text have been produced by the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD) in Udon Thani with the help of the Voice of Peace in Chiang Mai. These tapes incorporate the Isaan musical idiom known as maw lom to both teach and entertain.

There are plans to produce Isaan Christian radio programs in the future. National Christian television (5:30 am for one half hour each Sunday) and film and video productions are all in central Thai at present.

Receptivity: Western styles and influence are eagerly sought in every area of life but religion. While the government guarantees freedom of religious belief there is a strong bias taught through the school system and propagated over the national media that to be a true Thai is to be Buddhist. Forms and structures that present Christianity as a foreigner’s religion are barriers that must be removed.

Outside (cross-cultural) Assistance: The Isaan people group is considered one of the lowest and therefore least important in Thai society, particularly by the central Thai. Among most Thai Christians there is no serious vision of reaching the Isaan through the use of their own forms or dialect. The assumption of the social majority in Thailand is that Isaan are Thai and will fit (or be made to fit) into the central Thai context. This is true both on a national level and within the church.

Repeated attempts (by the Isaan) to thwart these efforts to conform on the national level have been met with swift and severe military retribution from the central Thai government. On the level of the church this effort to homogenize everyone together goes against everything ever learned about how to reach a specific people group and thus has failed. Simply instilling a vision among the Isaan to reach out to their own requires long-term, culturally sensitive, Biblically based assistance both from committed locals and outsiders. This is preferably done while working together within the local Isaan context.

Items for Prayer

	Vision among Churches and Organizations for Outreach
	A Spiritual Breakthrough. As stated in the YWAM People Profile of 1990, "Isan people have been named after Phra Isuan, also called Phra Siwa or Shiva, the god of Destruction. Pray that the power of Destruction, which is so evident in their lives, will be broken Pray that they will get to know the God of Healing and Restoration, the only true God!"
	Other unreached groups in Isaan. In addition to the larger main Isaan people group there are at least 10 sub-groups within Isaan itself which also need to be reached. Each of these require further study and different approaches specific to their own situations. Chinese merchants/money lenders Sikhs of Indian descent (fabric vendors, peanut sellers) Vietnamese born in Thailand (produce vendors) Central Thai (government employees) politicians teachers government employees (hospital, health, other dept.) Military/Police Movie workers (dek nang), Fairground workers, Migrants Tribal groups Prostitutes/Addicts Foreign community Khmer speakers (southern Isaan)

Specific Ways to Reach These People:

	Pray for people with a vision to reach Isaan for Christ through culturally-sensitive methods. Support and send them to Isaan for career commitment. Because of national prejudices (both directions) between Thai and Isaan it would be extremely difficult to expect central Thai Christians to become cross-cultural missionaries to their northeastern Thai brothers and sisters. Wealthy Bangkok churches could, however, be motivated to give to and pray for outreach ministries within Isaan. More effective strategies would involve team ministries of culturally-sensitive outsiders partnering with Isaan workers in a joint vision of outreach ministries meeting the real needs of Isaan.
	Educate and prepare expatriate visionaries with adequate language and culture learning - at least two years in Thai and two in Isaan.
	Allow the visionaries freedom to think and work creatively in team ministry using culturally appropriate, Biblically-based, innovative methods without outside (either central Thai or expatriate) interference.
	Engage committed local people, those fluent in the local forms, idioms and customs to do the actual extension ministry reaching their own people. Build trust among people.
	Equip such a team with a sustainable infrastructure that is able to support on-going holistic ministry without creating a dependency upon continual and/or total outside assistance.
	Evaluate on-going ministry and make appropriate changes so that the changing current needs of Isaan society can continue to be addressed.

 

Current Needs:

	More visionaries to reach the lost in Isaan.
	A new translation of the Bible in modern Thai.
	Employment opportunities for Isaan within the local region.
	Higher educational opportunities for Isaan.
	De-centralization of power/fund distribution from Bangkok to provinces, particularly in Isaan.
	Development of more Indigenous para-church organizations specifically focused on reaching Isaan.
	Improved networking/"visioning" between existing groups.

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  (Borrowed from The Evangelical Covenant Web page!  Excellent summary)
  (Edited by Nathan McBride and given to him by Dean Overholt. Any tech. questions ask The Web Master.)