Palaung Lives: Navigating Questions of Identity

Abstract

This paper seeks to address the relation between cultural identity and religion for the Palaung living in Northern Thailand. The Palaung are newcomers to Thailand. who began arriving in the mid-l980s as refugees from the violence in Burma. They have largely held to their religious traditions of Theravada Buddhism integrated with the propitiation of various spirits, despite Christian missionary efforts. However, since coming to Thailand, a minority of Palaung have converted to Christianity under varying circumstances. Comparisons with other regional ethnic groups and their conceptions of ethnicity and religion can provide some points of comparison with the Palaung. For the Karen, Charles F. Keyes among others finds that religion is not essentially linked to ethnic identity. Deborah Tooker finds that the Akha have an exteriorized conception of religious and ethnic identity. However, I argue that for Palaung Buddhists, unlike Karen, religion is firmly connected to their ethnic and cultural identity. How then can Palaung become Christian? Some Palaung convert to Christianity only to later practice Buddhism when in Buddhist communities. Others are staunch Christians. Conversions lacking "true belief" have some parallels with Akha conversion and may speak to Palaung conceptions of identity and responses to physical needs. However, adopting a firm interior belief in Christianity results in re-conception of the place of religion within the lives of the Palaung, by delinking religion from ethnicity