How did Tai people enjoy songs in the era without subtitles? The answer is opera meaning they preserved the tones and mimicked the natural rhythm and inflection of ordinary speech rather than having a non-tonal repeating, melodic structure like modern songs, making it ideal for dialogue and storytelling. Traditional Tai Opera are antiphonal and recitative in nature and would ideally (though not always) be a call-and-response conversation between man and woman.

Such operas would form an essential part of marriage and new year functions although because of modernism and emigration this tradition is slowly dying. In this article we will cover the folk songs, opera and anti-phonal singing of different Tai groups to show similarities and oneness between them despite thousand years of geographic separation from one another

The Poya Songbook of Zhuang

One of China's most remarkable intangible cultural treasures, the Poya Songbook or Pōyá gēshū (坡芽歌书) is a unique pictographic heritage of the Zhuang people in Yunnan Province. The Poya Songbook contains 81 symbols, painted on homemade cloth. These symbols represent objects like the moon, bamboo, maple leaves, fish, etc.

Each symbol represents the memory of one complete folk song. It is too primitive to be called a script, in fact they are non-Chinese 'rudimentary characters'^[1] that encapsulate an entire song's lyrics and music. They can be understood as Zhuang version of Vedas, which were memorized by Zhuang people and sung in exact same intonation and same melody and passed down through generations. Just like we don't know who composed Vedas and when, the Poya Songbook is also a mystery but is the best specimen for linguistic continuity of Tai-Kadai traditions.

These 81 songs collectively contain 762 lines of poetry. Most verses follow a five-character structure. These songs are arranged following the traditional order of Zhuang antiphonal singing — a call-and-response dialogue between a young man and woman. These songs form an integral part of the Sanyuesan Festival (also called the Zhuang Folk Songs Festival). The following is first Poya Song which is sung in many diplomatic events to show strong minority-identity in China

Although the Poya songs are in Zhuang language(s) but overtime with Sinification, many folk songs were sung in Chinese language as well. In fact the most famous folk singer of China Third-Sister Liu is also of Zhuang heritage (this one song defines entire Zhuang ethnicity today). You can listen to many beautiful Zhuang songs along with lyrics here and if you want to go deeper I strongly recommend watching some videos on Sanyuesan Festival like this to better understand how folk songs are composed.

Tai Phake Opera Tradition

One crucial difference between Western Opera and Tai-Kadai Opera is that understanding every single word is crucial for Tai tradition, whereas in Western Opera most people usually do not even understand a single word due to the musicality.^[2] We can say that English Opera tradition is a deviation from common English speech while Tai opera tradition is an enhancement of the same common-day speech. The alignment of tones with melody for comprehension is therefore just as important in Tai Phake tradition as it is to the other Tai groups.

The following video illustrates intonation in traditional Tai Phake songs very well, infact because it is religous prayer, the correct tones matter even more here.

It also appears that they are doing some form of Lamwong here

Shan Recitative Song-Poetry

Now I understand the word 'Shan' is very misleading here as it refers to not just one tribe or ethnicity but rather a collective group stretching from Southern China to Northeastern India, but for this article context we are using the word Shan for the Tai speaking people in Myanmar who have formed a common unified Tai identity unlike their counterparts in Assam.

So in Shan, recitative songs particularly of anti-phonal nature are called as ၵႂၢမ်းဝွၵ်းၵၼ် (kwáam wáwk kǎn) or literally words that cut each other (wáwk can also mean poetry in general). Perhaps an example will suffice here to show how exactly words cut against each other

You can note how this call-and-response conversation between male and female is common between Shan, Zhuang and all Tai groups as we will see in Lao too

Lao Anti-Phonal Singing

Molam (or Mor lam ໝໍລຳ) is a traditional folk music and storytelling style originating from Laos and the Isan region of northeastern Thailand^[4]. Mor (ໝໍ) means master or expert, and Lam (ລຳ) meaning story tale, or a folk performance in broad terms.

These kind of singing again pit man vs woman in a fun-style manner and nothing illustrates this better than the above video (note that they are not actually fighting it is just for fun and appearances sake. You can literally understand anti-phonal singing as ancient Rap Battle). Some people might have also noticed their style of sitting. Tai women in Assam (except so-called Ahom) also sit in exact same way as it happens, another similarity !

Dai Lue 'Zhangha' 章哈

Zhangha (赞哈) or ᦋᦱᧂᧈ ᦃᧇ caaŋ³³xap⁵⁵ in Dai Lue dialect refers to the semi-professional artists who perform at special occasions in Xishuangbanna such as holidays and festivals, building of new houses, marriage, new-born celebration, and so on.

Note that Zhangha originally referred to the artists, ᦃᧇ xap⁵⁵ meaning folk performance, and tsang means skilled so tsang xap / Zhangha means someone skilled in folk performances. But just like Mor Lam, people started calling the performance also as Zangha ! Just like Lao people have speciality of using Khaen ແຄນ in their performances, the Dai Lue similarly use ᦔᦲᧈ pii³⁵ or flute as primary instrument in their performances

Lost Dai Ahom Tradition

Folk songs were very important part of Dai Ahom culture, from lullabies to agricultural songs. But today no Ahom mother sings Dai lullaby to her children, no Ahom farmer sings Dai agricultural song to his crops, no Ahom priest can even speak a single word of Dai language much less understand his own neo-constructions. It is almost as if a foreign group of people invaded Assam and started calling themselves Ahom (but that is for another article)

Ahom Folk Songs were called as 𑜉𑜦𑜡 𑜁า𑜉𑜫: maw xáam, and just like Mor Lam, this word was used for both the folk performance as well as the folk artist (maw - expert, and xáam - song)

You can visit this link to check out modern Dai Ahom songs and how we can create our own style of Folk while preserving the intonation. One important thing to note is that there is no traditional difference between a song and poetry in Dai traditions. So Ma Likha Lit is also a traditionally recorded folk song and not just a poem. If you are an artist please email me at learnahom@gmail.com and we can recreate a true Dai Ahom folk song in this manner.

Further Reading

1. Bojun Sun (2023), The nature of the non-Chinese writings discovered in Southern China
2. Lindy L. Mark and Fang Kuei Li (1966), Speech Tone and Melody in Wu-Ming Folk Songs
3. Stephen Morey (2011), The Realisation of Tones in Traditional Tai Phake Songs
4. Itsarate Dolphen (2016), The Modernization of Isan Folk Performance (Morlum): A Change for Survival