THE YUNNAN CONNECTION: ISLAM, TRADE, FAMILY SUSTAIN LINKS

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