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Viewing cable 06CHIANGMAI131, THE YUNNAN CONNECTION: ISLAM, TRADE, FAMILY SUSTAIN LINKS

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06CHIANGMAI131 2006-08-16 11:50 2011-08-30 01:44 UNCLASSIFIED Consulate Chiang Mai
VZCZCXRO1717
PP RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHGH RUEHHM RUEHVC
DE RUEHCHI #0131/01 2281150
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 161150Z AUG 06
FM AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0251
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK PRIORITY 0524
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI PRIORITY 0285
RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CHIANG MAI 000131 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL SCUL TH CH
SUBJECT: THE YUNNAN CONNECTION:  ISLAM, TRADE, FAMILY SUSTAIN LINKS 
TO CHINA 
 
REF: A. A) CHIANG MAI 4 (UPHEAVAL IN CHIANG MAI ISLAMIC COMMITTEE WORRIES AUTHORITIES) 
 
     B. B) CHIANG MAI 117 (NORTHERN MUSLIMS CULTIVATE MODERATE IMAGE) 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000131  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
1.  (U)  Summary:  Northern Thai Muslim families with roots in 
China's Yunnan province play a significant role in the local 
economy and cross-border trade.  Known throughout the region as 
"Jin Haw", this group's heritage as caravan traders manifests 
itself today in religious, commercial, historical and family 
links throughout the Burma-Thailand-Laos-China quadrangle. 
Yunnanese Muslims have used family connections in northern 
Thailand to secure limited slots on the hajj pilgrimage.  End 
summary 
 
2.  (U)  In recent years as northern Thai Chinese became more 
financially and politically able to travel to China and send 
their children to Mandarin courses, old connections with Yunnan 
reemerged.   One prominent Chiang Mai family that includes the 
current chairman of the Provincial Islamic Committee (PIC) has 
uncovered its family relationship with Ming dynasty explorer 
Zheng He.  Others have helped their Chinese relatives travel to 
Saudi Arabia, taking advantage of Thailand's higher quota for 
hajj pilgrims. 
 
3.  (SBU)   [In addition to Muslims who began arriving from 
Yunnan in the 19th century, the colloquial designation "Jin Haw" 
includes Chinese Nationalist or Kuomintang (KMT) troops who came 
to Thailand through Burma after the 2nd World War, spearheaded 
by the KMT's 93rd Division.  The two groups live in many of the 
same border communities; officials and others see no religious 
or ideological contradiction in this combination and are quick 
to connect Yunnanese of all types with drug trafficking and 
other illicit activities.] 
 
The Road to Mecca 
--------------------- 
 
4.  (SBU)  According to Praman Mooktaree, a member of both the 
Chiang Mai PIC and the Central Islamic Committee of Thailand, 
Saudi authorities permit 10,000-12,000 Thai Muslims to make the 
hajj each year, a number that is reportedly more generous than 
the number of slots allocated to Chinese Muslims.   Praman 
explained that Yunnanese Muslims unable to get in on the Chinese 
quota had for some time been traveling to Mecca through Chiang 
Mai and Bangkok.  (Thai government contacts cite reports from 
Chinese authorities that some 100 Chinese Muslims per year cross 
the Burma border at Mae Sai under the pretext of pilgrimage.) 
 
5.   (SBU)   Last year, Saudi authorities tightened up on this 
practice, allowing only a hundred pilgrims to continue on to 
Saudi Arabia while a disappointed thousand more cooled their 
heels in Thailand.    Praman claimed that most of the successful 
pilgrims traveled under the care of a non-profit hajj operator 
who worked with the Chiang Mai PIC to screen for those with 
family or kinship ties in northern Thailand.   He blamed the 
crackdown on overly profit-oriented Thai hajj operators, whose 
focus on business made them less credible to the Saudi 
officials. 
 
Roots of the Muslim Jin Haw Community 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
6.  (U)  The current chairman of the PIC, Palangkun Wongluekiat, 
is the grandson of a Muslim Yunnanese caravan trader who moved 
to Chiang Mai in 1905 and built a house that was used to unload 
goods and rest pack animals from China.   The house, which still 
stands today across from the Ban Haw mosque a block from the 
Night Bazaar, combines Chinese courtyard architecture with Thai 
stilt construction.   A large wooden plaque with the Chinese 
family name is flanked by pictures of the King of Thailand and 
the Kaaba in Mecca. 
 
7.   (U)   This family, whose photo is displayed in Yunnan's 
Zheng He museum as the Thailand branch of the explorer's 
descendents, secured a position in Chiang Mai life as successful 
merchants and good citizens, donating land for the airport and 
eventually being awarded a title by the King and the Thai family 
name of Wongluekiat   In keeping with its origins, the house 
environs where mule caravans once unloaded is now a parking area 
for stalls from Chiang Mai's Night Bazaar. 
 
Caravans to Tour Buses 
----------------------------- 
 
8.   (U)  Chiang Mai's Night Bazaar, beloved of tourists, had 
its origins in a small trading post set up by Muslims from 
Yunnan fleeing the suppression of a rebellion there in the 19th 
century.    By the late 1890s, Muslim Yunnanese communities were 
established in Chiang Mai and other urban centers of north 
Thailand as well as in more remote rural areas.    Known as Ban 
Haw (or Ho), the area adjacent to the Night Bazaar hosts a 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000131  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
weekly Yunnanese market in the compound of the century-old 
Wongluekiat house.  Villagers from Fang's Ban Yang mosque as 
well as other communities travel every Friday to sell vegetables 
and other goods at this market. 
 
9.  (SBU)  Yunnanese Thai Muslims are woven throughout northern 
Thai commerce, especially in Chiang Mai city and in cross-border 
trade at Mae Sai.  The president of Mae Sai's Al Nur Mosque is 
one of the wealthiest men in town, thanks to his trade interests 
along the Mekong, through Burma's Wa region and into China. 
The largest locally based tour company in Chiang Mai, Standard 
Tour, is run by a Yunnanese Muslim family that specializes in 
trips to China and Taiwan as well as bringing mainland and 
Taiwan tourists to northern Thailand.   Company head Songwit 
Itthipattanakul has served as chairman of both the Chiang Mai 
and national Yunnanese Associations.  His inauguration last year 
as chairman of the Tourism Business Association of Chiang Mai 
was attended by the entire staff of the Chinese Consulate as 
well as by top government and Thai Rak Thai (TRT) leaders. 
Songwit is considered the province's leading Yunnanese 
businessman and reportedly played a behind-the-scenes role in 
last year's controversial PIC election, which saw his fellow 
Yunnanese Muslim Palangkun Wongluekiat - - in alliance with TRT 
MP Pakorn Buranupakorn, a non-Muslim  --  win the PIC 
chairmanship over the previous chairman, an Imam of Bengali 
descent (ref a). 
 
Mosque Remains Predominantly Chinese 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
10.  (U)  Chiang Mai's central Ban Haw mosque is a center for 
Muslims from Yunnan; an estimated 70 percent of the members are 
of Chinese ancestry.   A municipal historical marker on the main 
road of the Night Bazaar reads, "In the time of King 
Inthawichayanon (1870-1897), a group of Ho Chinese settled here 
and built the mosque 'Hidayatun' in 1887 as the center of their 
community." 
 
11.  (U)  Another prominent Chiang Mai mosque, Attaqwa, features 
pictures of Kunming as well as Mecca and displays the mosque 
name in Chinese as well as Arabic, Thai and English.   Students 
at the mosque's school study both Chinese and Arabic.  Farther 
north in Fang at a rural mosque headed by a Yunnan-born Imam, a 
two-classroom school teaches Thai, Arabic, English and Chinese. 
 
 
Comment:   Integration and Identity 
------------------------------------------- 
 
12. (U)   Many Yunnanese Muslims in northern Thailand have 
married non-Muslim Thais, adopted Thai names, and attended 
Thai-language and even Christian schools.  They are usually 
grouped  - often in a negative connection with the infamous drug 
trade that gave this border region its Golden Triangle 
reputation -- with the KMT troops and civilians who moved into 
northern Thailand after the Communist takeover of the mainland; 
in fact many of the newcomers from Yunnan moved into the 
communities of the earlier Muslim settlers.   Despite this 
successful integration, the community retains a distinctive 
identity, with prominent mosques, schools, special foods and 
even a city historical market. 
 
13. (U)  During the visit of Thai-American Imam Rahmat Phyakul 
to Mae Sai (ref b), the mosque president called for a volunteer 
to recite the opening chapter of the Koran in a Yunnanese 
accent, to complement the Thai, American, and Middle 
Eastern-accented recitations just completed.   Although 
initially reluctant, the young man who answered the call clearly 
found new pride in his native roots through this action, 
exclaiming afterward "I grew up with a Thai accent, I studied to 
develop a Middle Eastern style, but this is the first time I've 
recited with a Yunnan accent."  The Imam explained that "This is 
the first time in our lives to listen to the recitation in 
Yunnanese accent. It brought happiness and peace to our hearts." 
CAMP