Word: dai
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...Siam. Why they left is lost in the mists of time?most likely it was amid turmoil as colonial powers bickered over the region, sandwiched between Burma's Shan states and modern-day Laos. They were following a well-worn path. For centuries, the Buddhist, rice-farming Dai have been tempted by the wide open spaces of Thailand's north, and have ventured across the Mekong to start anew. Sawitree grew up speaking Dai Lue, the main Dai language, which remains the lingua franca of many northern Thais...
...first glimpse of her roots had come two days earlier. Our passenger plane from Thailand dropped through a thick layer of cloud to reveal steep, wrinkled peaks flanking a jade patchwork of paddies. As we whizzed over the treetops to land outside the main town of Jinghong?or in Dai Lue, Chiang Rung, "the city of the dawn"?what looked like dozens of Pizza Huts peeped from the verdure. This was the unique architecture of the Dai?their signature, high-canted roofs perched atop thick teak pillars...
...With no clue other than the name of Bua's childhood village, Baan Yandee, we decide to start at the palace of the Dai King, Jau Phaendin. After hours of wandering Jinghong's wide, quiet streets, we spot two elderly Dai women in traditional dress?long, silk sheaths and blouses, cinched by wide, silver belts. "Jau Phaendin?" asks my wife. "Don't you know?" whispers one of the women. The last Dai King, she tells us, was exiled to Kunming during the tumultuous early years of the People's Republic of China, and his magnificent teak palace was torn down...
...Does the old woman know of Baan Yandee? "Of course," she replies. "It's the village where Jau Phaendin was born." My wife explains her quest and the woman leads us through a maze of backstreets to a house with a handsome Dai roof, crouched in the shadows of tiled apartment blocks. We knock, and a man named Saengau answers the door with a scowl that fades as Sawitree explains her story. "Come in, come in," he smiles, calling his wife. They were once dancers at the King's palace, Saengau explains, and he is related to Jau Phaendin. "Very...
...ruminates. One of the oldest women mutters and squawks, professing vague memories of a cousin of that name who left as a little girl. "Come," says the chief, "we must eat and drink." His house, a magnificent example of the Dai style, was built 10 years after Bua would have begun her long trek. I soon lose count of the glasses of firewater raised and quaffed, as the women bustle about, assembling a feast. My wife is the center of attention, showered with questions and hugs. Overwhelmed, she chokes back sobs. The chief raises his glass and asks for silence...