The cultural evidences of Tai’s Naga believe along the Mekong River Basin.

Abstract

The aim of this article was to review literature, art, and antiquities based on historical and anthropological information regarding the relationship between the north and north east of Thailand and the Tai - Kadai speaking peoples of Erhai Lake in China's Yunnan Province. Study by compiled the discovery of ancient artefacts’ report, stories, legends, literatures and art forms, including assumptions that many scholars have made over a long period of decades. The timeline was summarized from cultural evidence through beliefs about Naga. The result was to collect information and update it for researchers, academics, and interested person to convenient their research or reference. Although the legend of Naga in Thai – Laos, the origin of the Naga in the Mekong River Basin and its tributaries comes from Nong Sae. Whereas the archaeological evidence indicates that the aspect of Naga did not originate in the Nong Sae or Erhai Lake in Yunnan Province. In fact, it is the result of exchange and assimilation between the Indian civilization and the southern Chinese ethnic tribes. Considering the seriation of archaeological evidence, it can be seen that the belief in the Naga entered Southeast Asia through Buddhist merchants and monks from the Krishna-Godavari river basin around the 1^th – 3^th centuries. The early evidences appearing in the port communities which accessible from merchant ships on both the Bay of Bengal and the Gulf of Thailand. While the Indian-style Naga appeared in Khmer culture around the 6^th century. Therefore, the Naga aspects from the Nan Zhao scrolls was dating estimated in the 9^th century. Another assumption was about the conflict of 2 Nagas appeared in the Thai -Lao legend and in the Nan Zhao scroll. The Erhai picture in Nan Zhao scroll illustrated an image of two Nagas’ attendants, a gold fish carring money and a jade conch. The key success factor of the coinage system was necessary to set standards from the governor. Thus, the goldfish carring coin is not only a form of an animal. Rather, it reflects the acceptance of the state economic system based on power from the Han rulers. Eventually, the Bai culture group around Erhai Lake was assimilated into the Han culture while the Tai-Lao group spread out along the Mekong Basin and its tributaries. Still favoring the nature of an independent economy that was not bound by standards from the central government as colonial countries. Basic habits that favor a simple, economic system along with the art of not being governed, it is an important geopolitical core that makes the Tai ethnic group separate the center from those in southern China. Therefore, the Naga culture still appears in the folk culture of the Mekong Basin and its tributaries today. Meanwhile, the Yunnan area has been assimilated by the dragon gods of the Han culture, leaving only sparse evidence today.