Border And Crossed: Dai Songkran Ceremony Text

This thesis tries to present the changeable feature of the different cosmologies behind different actors in the water-splashing festivals, via analysis of the changes from the names to the procedures of the festivals as time goes by.There are eight chapters in total. The introduction gives the issues to be discussed: the relationship between the traditional customs and the creation of tradition; the textuality and changing feature presented in the changes of the rituals during the water-splashing festivals.In chapter 1, the meanings of the water-splashing festival to the locals before the establishment of newly nation-state are analyzed so that comparison can be made with the changed rituals later. The Festival for Sino-Burmese Frontiers' People held in Manshi, 1965 and attended by both premiers of China and Burma is analyzed in chapter 2. The passive side during the construction of the nation-state is shown when both demostic and international backgrounds are given, among which the boundary issue, caused by being colonized by British empire, was urgent for both governments to solve under the pressure of the international situation. The course to survey the border was also the transformation from the cosmology of traditional dynasties to that of modern nation-state, during which the frontiers' people might suffer a lot directly. The water-splashing festival held in Xishuangbanna, 1961, when the protocols on Sino-Burmese border were signed and put into force, is the subject analyzed in chapter 3. The aim to gain good political response from Southeast Asia resulted in the change of location to hold the festival. Baobo, "blood brother" in Burmese, gained political color during the rituals and activities held by the governments and gradually became the political metaphor of Sino-Burmese border. The first question proposed in the introduction has been discussed here: the construction and legalization of modern nation-state relies on the cosmology of the locals through which the government symbolizes itself and embeds the symbols into the local sense of time and space presented in local traditions. That is the reason why the nation-state relies so much on the creation of tradition to set up effective social governance.The discontinuity of the water-splashing festival is the clue of chapter 4, in which how the government exerted single-dimensional meaning with the local meanings neglected, while the Dai made diversified types of resistances on the other hand, is illustrated. All this illustrates that the homogeneity is a kind of bilateral interaction. All the analysis in chapter 5 is based on the materials collected in the fieldwork by the author. Also the analysis corresponding to the second question in the introduction is illustrated in detail. The water-splashing festival is revived after the reform and opening-up. During investigation, the author finds that the municipality, the township government and the village hold ceremonies to celebrate the water-splashing festival at different time respectively. Some villagers of Dadenghan village have attended all the activities. Through analysis, the author argues that different actors give the same festival different meanings correspondingly, thus the texuality of the festival is presented. Because of tourism development, global sense of time and space is newly added into the ceremonies, overlapping with other systems of time and space. To the villagers, the systems of time and space appear changeable corresponding to the different groups with different identities. The base of changeable systems of time and space is the origin of meaning that is closely connected to the local livelihood. Chapter 6 describes the competition between different Dai regions, i.e. Xishuangbanna and Dehong, caused by the heterogeneous force of the economical globalization, more specifically tourism industry development. Both regions compete with each other to appropriate the resources of national symbols. It is why "Sino-Burmese Baobo Carnival", extreme commercialization of Baobo, is strongly advocated although quite a few people are against its continuity. It is a fine example of the tension between the homogeneity and heterogeneity of globalization.In sum, through the description and analysis of changes of the rituals in specific contexts over a long period, it has been illustrated that the creation of traditions has been used by the nation-state to define the Dai people, to objectify the border and the time and space, and to provide diversified meanings to the rituals, during which, the system of the time and space behind the rituals is being changed. The textuality of the rituals has thus been presented.