Kaw-Ham: The Local Wisdom of Lanna Poets

Abstract

This article is the study of local wisdom and corpus of Lanna poets: a case of the Kaw-Ham promoted by Northern Thai radio”. It aims to analyze the local wisdom of Lanna poets from the collection approximately 20,000 of these Kaw-Ham which broadcasted during 1963-2007, and were preserved by Mr. Amnuay Kalampat, a former-radio broadcaster until 2019 and permitted to this research project.

The study shows that there are 3 significant features of Lanna local wisdom poets; the prosody of Kaw-Ham, languages and contents. The content of Kaw-Ham can be divided into 13 topics as; teaching and way of life, food, health, agriculture, natural resources, comedy narratives, astrology, art and culture, handicrafts, religious, intellectual confidence.   

Kaw-Ham is not only a local wisdom of Lanna poets which represents the identity of Lanna language and culture, but it is also found the values embodied in Lanna ancestral knowledge passed down from generation to generation. The former- radio broadcaster and Lanna poets created the social space of Kaw-Ham as a heritage of Lanna wisdom and appropriately be adapted through the socio-cultural, economic and political changes of Lanna.