Karen - Orientation

Identification. Historically, the written Burmese term "Karen" probably came from the word "Kayin," referring to the particular group of peoples in eastern Myanmar (Burma) and western Thailand who speak closely related but different Sino-Tibetan languages. The Central Thai or Siamese word for Karen is "Kariang," presumably borrowed from the Mon term "Kareang." The Northern Thai or Yuan word "Yang," the origins of which may be Shan or from the root word nyang (person) in many Karen languages, is applied to the Karen by Shans and Thais. The designation "Karen" in fact includes several different subgroups, each with its own language and name. The largest, Sgaw and Pwo, have differences of dialect within their languages. The Sgaw or Skaw refer to themselves as "Pwakenyaw." The Pwo term for themselves is "Phlong" or "Kêphlong." The Burmese identify the Sgaw as "Bama Kayin" (Burmese Karen) and the Pwo as "Talaing Kayin" (Mon Karen). Thais sometimes use "Yang" to refer to the Sgaw and "Kariang" to refer to the Pwo, who live mainly south of the Sgaw. The word "Karen" was probably brought to Thailand from Burma by Christian missionaries. The term "White Karen" has been used to identify Christian Karen of the hill Sgaw. Other important subgroups include the Kayah and Pa-O. Prior to Burmese independence the Burmese term for the Kayah was "Kayin-ni," from which the English "Karen-ni" or "Red Karen" derived; Luce identifies them as "Eastern Bwe" or "Bghai." The Burmese term for the Pa-O is "Taungthu," adapted by the Shans as "Tong-su." Karennet (Kayin-net, or Black Karen) were listed in the 1911 census. Luce's classification of minor Karen languages listed in the 1931 census includes Paku; Western Bwe, consisting of Blimaw or Bre(k), and Geba; Padaung; Gek'o or Gheko; and Yinbaw (Yimbaw, Lakü Phu, or Lesser Padaung). Additional groups listed in the 1931 census are Monnepwa, Zayein, Taleing-Kalasi, Wewaw, and Mopwa. Scott's Gazetteer of 1900 lists the following: "Kekawngdu," the Padaung name for themselves; "Lakü," the self-name of the Bre; "Yintale" in Burmese, "Yangtalai" in Shan, for a branch of Eastern Karenni; the Sawng-tüng Karen, also known as "Gaung-to," "Zayein," or "Zalein"; Kawn-sawng; Mepu; Pa-hlaing; Loilong; Sinsin; Salon; Karathi; Lamung; Baw-han; and the Banyang or Banyok. These early sources are often inconsistent and lack adequate references for further research or clarification.

Recently anthropologists have remarked on the limitations of identifying the Karen primarily on the basis of language or name, noting that the complex and fluid Karen group identity is a cluster of traits that includes, among other things, language, political and social organization, religion, and material culture. Populations of Karen speakers may differ in these traits. Hinton and stresses economic and political interests as more significant to Karen identity than cultural features or "ethnic" distinctions. Some contemporary writings on the question of Karen identity place more importance on the belief of the Karen in the distinctiveness of their language as a cultural marker than they do on the objective linguistic distinctiveness of Karen languages. Other writings emphasize the contemporary Thai-Burmese political-economic context in which Karen ethnic identity is forged.

Location. Until the mid-eighteenth century the Karen lived mainly in the forested mountainous regions of eastern Burma, where the hills are divided by long narrow valleys running north to south from the Bilauktaung and Dawna ranges along the Salween River system to the broad high plateau of the Shan uplands. Today Karen reside in both Myanmar and Thailand, within the area between 10° and 21° N and between 94° and 101° E. Karen settlements are found in the hills along the border between the two countries along the length of Tenasserim into the Shan plateau from 10° N as far as 21 ° N. Most Karen inhabit Myanmar, in both lowland rice-growing plains and hill regions, with large numbers in the central Irrawaddy Delta, in the Irrawaddy and Sittang valleys from the coast to about 19° N, and in the northern part of Tenasserim. In Thailand most of the Karen settlements are along the hilly western border and range northward and eastward to the Mekong from approximately 12 ° 00′ N to 20°30′ N. Karen villages are located in three distinct physical environments: the lowland plains of the Irrawaddy, Sittang, and Salween deltas and the coast of Tenasserim; the Pegu Yoma, a hilly range between the Irrawaddy and the Sittang; and the Shan upland, which varies geographically from a rolling high plateau (1,000 meters in elevation on average) in the Shan State to the north-south hills and narrow valleys of the Kayah and Karen states and interior Tenasserim to the south. These hill regions are covered with tropical rain forest that contains great varieties of vegetation, ranging from towering hardwoods to dense bamboo and vines that fires burn off during the hot dry season. The tropical-monsoon climate has two seasons, the monsoon from mid-May through September and the dry season from October through April. It is cold from November to February and becomes extremely hot in March and April, before the advent of the cooling monsoon rains. The precipitation range is from less than 200 centimeters annually in the southwestern Shan State to more than 254 centimeters in the central Irrawaddy Delta and more than 500 centimeters in Tenasserim.

Demography. Karen are the largest "tribal" minority in both Myanmar and Thailand. Although recent census figures for Myanmar are unavailable, their population there, projected from 1,350,000 in the 1931 census, is estimated at more than 3 million. Karen in Thailand number approximately 185,000, with about 150,000 Sgaw, 25,000 Pwo Karen, and much smaller populations of B'ghwe or Bwe (about 1,500) and Pa-O or Taungthu; together these groups comprise about 56 percent of the highland minority people of Thailand. Approximately one-third of the Karen population in Myanmar lives in the Karen State or administrative division. The Sgaw Karen, with a population of over 1 million, have settlements in the mountainous Karen State, in the Shan uplands, and to a lesser extent in the Irrawaddy and Sittang deltas. The Pwo Karen (approximately 750,000) inhabit primarily the Irrawaddy Delta. The Pa-O live mainly in southwestern Shan State. The approximately 75,000 Kayah, or Red Karen, live almost entirely in Kayah State, the smallest state in Myanmar. Political and economic circumstances have affected demographics. Since the early 1980s between 10,000 and 20,000 Karen from Burma have been living in refugee camps in Thailand. Outside Myanmar and Thailand, there is a growing community of Karen immigrants in Bakersfield, California.

Linguistic Affiliation. Despite the linguistic and numerical importance of the Karen, surpisingly few studies of Karen languages have been conducted in recent times. There continues to be controversy concerning the linguistic affiliation of the Karen group of languages, although it is widely accepted that within the Sino-Tibetan Stock all Karen linguistic subgroups are related to each other. Pwo and Pa-O form one subgroup, with Sgaw and several related languages forming another. Lehman and Hamilton cite André Haudricourt's view that Karen falls in the Tibeto-Burman classification. Benedict and Shafer both positione Karen as a distinct Sino-Tibetan Division, the Karenic. Luce and to some extent Jones, on the other hand, argue that Karen is linguistically related to Thai. The most generally accepted view is that the Karen languages are a divergent subfamily of the Tibeto-Burman Language Family. Matisoff notes the similarity in phonology and basic vocabulary of Karen dialects to Lolo-Burmese, the other major Tibeto-Burman Language Subgroup in Thailand with similar tone systems, the same paucity of final consonants, and a comparably rich set of vowels. He points out that syntactically Karen's atypical placement of the object after the verb may be the reason some linguists have set it apart genetically from the other Tibeto-Burman languages.