The Thai-Vietnamese in Tha Rae Community: Resilience of Cultural Pluralism to Promote the Identity of Sakon Nakhon Province

Abstract

The research had 2 purposes: 1) to study the history of resilience of cultural pluralism in Tha Rae community, Sakon Nakhon province and 2) to study the current conditions of resilience of cultural pluralism in Tha Rae community, Sakon Nakhon province. The area of study was Tha Rae community. The study was a qualitative research, with selecting informants by purposive sampling. The informants were 22 Christian and Buddhist who lived in Tha Rae community. An in-depth interview, a participant observation and a non-participant observation, including related literatures were used to analyze and synthesize data. The data were subsequently investigated by triangulation inspection in the aspect of time, place and person.

            The results showed that a coexistence of aboriginal and Vietnamese was the history of resilience of cultural pluralism in Tha Rae community. Then, the community confronted with religious persecution from the nationalist policies of the state, consequently bringing Christianity to be a mediator in the resilience of cultural pluralism. As a result, the people cooperated on creating an identity to convey the history of Tha Rae community.

The current conditions of resilience of cultural pluralism in Tha Rae community, Sakon Nakhon province has been found that most of the people’s way of life have been influenced by government policies in the context of cultural tourism promotion. For that reason, local people have developed the Christmas star parade, a successful resilience of cultural pluralism. Even more, there have been community attractive Vietnamese foodstuffs. Lastly, there also have been unique French-Vietnamese architectures that has attracted the tourists.