Tales of Thai Place Names in Vietnam

hovering around the earth ”. The extremely difficult work of creating heaven and earth was placed in the hands of the gods. However, in human perception, these gods are not strange. Gods can also make mistakes, can be punished by Then like the couple Cho Cong Din and Cho Cong Nha, because they did not complete the task of raising people to know how to make a living and had to use their own strength to support the sky, carry the clouds to become the names (Mr. Chong Troi, Mrs. Chong May). The gods are close and have the virtues, do the work of humans. Even rivers and streams know how to talk, laugh, become brothers, love, and be angry... In the myths, the Thai people used their own model to build the gods, and in the same way, they gave the gods the power to create all things. Not only that, the above stories also reflect the concept of animism and at the same time demonstrate the absolute connection and harmony between humans and nature in the beginning of creation.

A little later, in Thai place myths we encounter stories that reflect the most ancient form of human belief - totem worship. The Thai people consider their totem to be the dragon, which they call the Reverse King or the Reverse Creator (the story of the Na Noi Oi U legend, Phai Da Suoi Vi ...). In these stories, the dragon is mostly the god of large rivers such as the Rom River, Da River, and Ma River, the one who directly gave birth to the ancestors of the Thai people (as in the story of the Na Noi Oi U legend ) or helped people build irrigation works to serve production (as in the story of Phai Da Suoi Vi) . And no matter from which perspective it is constructed, the image of luong me, to luong (mother dragon, creator of dragon) in Thai mythology is also an object of worship and respect by the community. From a totem image, Thai people in each locality built their own image and then created legends to honor the achievements of the object, making the totem image increasingly shimmering and majestic.

The legend of Na Noi Oi U tells that, "the god of the source of the Rom River is the mother dragon (luong me). Every year on the day of Giap Thin (cap xi), the mother dragon follows the pipeline from Nam Rom to Ai Lao peak to mate with the father dragon (luong po), who is the phoenix god. Those are the days when the sky has heavy rain and strong winds, thunder and lightning boom, and the Rom River floods. After that, the mother dragon god retreats from Ai Lao peak to return to the river and lays and incubates eggs in Chong Nang, leaving the father god as a phoenix on the high mountain. Today in Muong Then land, on the left bank of Nam Rom in Na Noi village (Na Tau commune, Dien Bien district, Lai Chau), people can still see several large stone slabs named Chong Nang in the shape of a basin (Chong Nang means: Her basin) and on the right bank there is a mountain named Ai Lao.

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The story also tells that on the day of Giap Thin (cap xi) in ancient times, the dragon goddess's egg hatched Khun Bo Ruom - the first leader of the Thai people. From Na Noi village, Khun commanded a strong army, opened the way for the Thai Be (Thay Noi) people to come and reclaim the vast fields and establish Muong Then. The story of Phai da suoi Vi recounts the battle between the dragon and the thunder god, the messenger of heaven. Finally, with the help of humans, the dragon won and repaid humans by kneading rocks and soil to create a large phai, bringing water for the people to cultivate.

The image of the dragon in the totem worship of the Thai people has variations in each locality and each village; above all, the dragon is revered as the master of the water, comparable to the master of the sky and the human. The totem worship existed during the period when the Thai people in particular and other ethnic groups in general still existed under the clan and tribal regime, reflecting a way of thinking that was still very primitive but closer and more specific than the concept of the gods who created humans and the universe in the previous period. Gradually, when the ethnic groups gathered together, they formed an alliance.

into larger, more populous residential communities, on the way to forming a nation, when the Thai people realized that there were many other ethnic groups around them such as the Xa, Meo, Kinh... then a mythological story with a broader scope than the previous totem story was born. One of the typical stories for this broader scope is the story of the Gourd , a story that is not only popular among ethnic groups in the Muong Thanh basin but also popular among many ethnic groups in Southeast Asia.

Among the myths in the genre of place-name stories, the Tau Pung story tells about Tao Suong, Tao Ngan and the construction of the Thai villages. With gourds and bronze spears, after building Muong Lo, Muong La..., Tao went to Muong Theng (Muong Thanh). " Tao used the spear to cut a piece of the gourd and saw Thai people coming out. The second time he cut it with an axe, he saw Lao and Lu people coming out, taller than Thai people. Afraid that the gourd would be crushed, Tao Ngan took a hammer and put it in the fire and carefully drilled it. Kha people came out from the hole, soaked in charcoal so their skin was darker than Lao and Thai people. After that, Tao Ngan taught the people how to live, how to speak and how to write. After all the humans came out, the remaining gourd turned into a mountain that today is called Mak Tau Pung (Gourd Mountain). Later, the Thai people established a village right at the foot of the mountain, this village is also called Tau Pung village (in Xam Mun commune, Dien Bien city) until today".

Continuing the concept of the origin of our people and other ethnic groups, before the achievements in the process of building Muong villages, Thai mythology in particular and ethnic mythology in general appeared a new form, which is the form of stories about the miracles of early cultural creation. In the stories about place names in Thai mythology, this miracle is given to giants or people who have great merit in exploiting nature, destroying wild animals, and establishing villages.

versions such as Ai Lac Cac or the giant Pu Te (story of Ai Lac Cac or Mr. Against the Sky, Mrs. Against the Clouds; The giant Pu Te ).

Ai Lac Cac is described as a race of people created by Me Bau with a strangely large body. The Ai couple belonged to the second generation of giants sent down to earth by Then to replace the Cho Cong lords. At this time, the earth had been shaped by the Cho Cong lords, and the Ai Lac Cac couple continued to work hard to create vast fields such as Muong Thanh, Muong Lo, Muong Than, and Muong Tac. Traces of Ai's achievements are still left everywhere in Dien Bien ( The story of Ai Lac Cac and the God-supporting God and the God-supporting God ), Son La ( The legend of the villages in Son La ) and along the Da River ( The story of the two giants ).

Not as well known as Ai Lac Cac, the giant Pu Te is also a person who has great contributions to the Thai people of Muong Khoong (Thanh Hoa). He is the one who has the merit of killing fierce tigers, reclaiming fields, and even intending to block the Ma River to get water for people to farm. His achievements are still remembered by the people today and are reminded during the New Rice Offering. The Thai people in Cha Ky, Muong Khoong (Thanh Hoa) worship him, remembering the merit of the giant who opened mountains and rocks in this area ( the giant Pu Te ).

Thus, from an abstract conception of nature and the universe, humans have gradually realized their own power. However, they still seem to be “amazed” by their current achievements, unconsciously – humans “give credit” to the giants, giving them the creative power that should have belonged to them.

Most closely, when realizing the strength of the community and the role of the leader in the process of reclaiming land and villages, the Thai people of Muong Thanh imagined the image of the leader - Khun Bo Rom. Khun is the person

belonging to the third generation sent by Then, sometimes people believe that he is the youngest son of Then ( Khun Bo Rom's Tale ), sometimes he is considered the son of the dragon goddess - the goddess of the source of the Rom River (Nam Rom) ( The Tale of Na Noi Oi U ). But regardless of his origin, Khun is still considered a person of great merit to the Thai people. It was Khun and his two wives, Da Nang Lang and Da Nang Et Keng, who brought their entourage to Muong Then (Muong Thanh). They made the first hoes to establish villages, fields, and build houses for the people to live in. Later, Khun Bo Rom gave birth to seven children and sent them to "eat" in seven Muongs, which are areas where Thai people live throughout the southern region of China and Southeast Asia today. The image of Khun Bo Rom was built from the respect of the first Thai residents living on Muong Thanh land for their leader, partly reflecting the concept and awareness of the people about the person who contributed to the discovery of civilization.

After settling down and producing, when questions about the origin of the universe and of oneself were temporarily answered, Thai society began to enter the stage of class division. This stage also left its mark in myths such as the story of Phai Da Suoi Vi or the story of Ban Na Pha. Here, social division is shown through the appearance of tax payment, the distinction between rich and poor. The story of Phai Da Suoi Vi recounts “ In the old days, when the dragon could still speak, the stream water flowed like flutes and pipes. People and things on the ground had to pay taxes to Then every year. At that time, the Dragon lived on the Nam Vi stream - Muong Chong (now and Van village, Chau Son, Quy Hop Nghe An), digging in the mountains all year round but its belly was still flat like a late-ripening rice grain. The family was poor, the dragon could not find a brain of stone, a heart of water to pay to Then, Then got angry and sent the thunder god down to punish the Dragon. The Thunder God promised the sun to wake up three times. If the Dragon did not pay the tax, he would be punished with death . In the story of Ban Na Pha , the

Class division is shown through the division between rich and poor between the two villages. " Coong village is full of well-off families, with both husband and wife, while the smaller village is full of poor people, widows and orphans, so it is named Me Mai village (Widow village) ".

This is based on reality, because when the production level of people is still low, the role of men is increasingly important. " In the past, every harvest season, men of Coong village had to worry about finding bamboo to split bamboo strips to tie rice. When harvesting, the wife went first, the husband went after, the wife harvested first and then gave it to her husband to tie into a bundle of rice called "va khau". As for widows, there was no one to split bamboo strips to tie rice, so they had to do it themselves ". Families with only widows and orphans gradually could not handle all the heavy work, they became poor and were pushed down to the lower class. Here, the attitude of absolute respect and exaltation for gods or giants no longer existed. Myths, besides the content reflecting awareness, also had a new color, which was the attitude of defending disadvantaged characters such as dragons or widows.

Looking back at the myths in the collection of place-name stories, we can see the reflection of different aspects in the perception of the universe, of the natural world that directly affects human life as the basic content. In particular, for people at that time, nature and all things have souls and are unified in action. The fact that people take themselves as the standard and unconsciously abstract them into the images of Then gods, gods or giants on the one hand reflects the way of thinking of myths, on the other hand also shows why mythical places were born and exist until today.

Place names are like a bridge between the imaginary world and the real world, they are “proof” for people to affirm that their imaginations are well-founded. Just the appearance of place names in a series of stories

The story of Ai Lac Cac, a giant who made great contributions to the entire Thai community ( The Story of Ai Lac Cac and Mr. Chong Troi and Mrs. Chong May; The Legend of the Villages in Son La Region; The Story of the Two Giants ) has shown their "efforts" in affirming the correctness of their thinking. Thai people everywhere tell the story of Ai Lac Cac, Muong Then people (Muong Thanh) tell why this land has such fertile fields; Muong Muoi people explain the birth of mountains such as Pu Khau Chi (Sticky Rice Mountain), Pu Hin Kinh (Stone Falling Mountain); Son La people tell about villages such as Pung village, Hip village that exist to this day, while Hoa Binh people tell about place names that were born in the work of renovating the Da River and eliminating the giants of Ai Lac Cac and his wife. Each story is the result of creativity of the masses in many regions and many periods of time. Along with the migration and development of the Thai community, the story is embellished, adding realistic elements in the new places where people come. And so, the story is extended.

Not only that, the birth of place names also reflects the need of people to locate and assert sovereignty over their place of residence and production. Around the Thai people, there are other ethnic groups living together. There is a Thai proverb that says, "The Thai people eat water, the Xa people eat fire, the H'Mong people eat fog", so they tell a story explaining why the Thai people live low, near water sources, the Xa people live halfway up the mountain, and the H'Mong people live in rocky, foggy, remote areas . They prove that this territorial division is not natural or spontaneous, but has a lot of weight, which is the "protection" of the Then, the gods or the giants. People believe that once the supreme being has divided like that, all ethnic groups must obey. To put it humorously, in that way, the territory (which history can prove that they invaded) has become "legal".

This method was preserved until later generations, even famous Thai leaders "borrowed" gods, even pretended to be gods to get the land they wanted.

2.2.2. Historical reflection content

Place name stories with historical content are place name legends. These stories talk about the origin of place names in localities that are associated with related historical events and figures. The main content of Thai place name legends focuses on explaining the origin of place names in provinces from Lai Chau, Dien Bien to Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, in which the localities where many historical events took place such as Dien Bien, Moc Chau (Son La), Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa... are where the stories mainly focus.

Most Thai place name legends have the same content reflecting history expressed through different aspects, most notably stories about wars for land and stories about wars to protect land , including stories about leaders, heroes and stories about lands and places established and named during or after the war. Besides, there are also a few legends that do not have much historical content but mainly focus on explaining place names, temporarily called pure place name legends .

First of all, the story tells about the land searches and the land wars to commemorate the merits of the leaders who had the first achievements in finding and conquering new lands. The history of the Thai people also recorded that "around the 11th-12th century, a part of the ancestors of the Black Thai branch from Muong Om, Muong Ai, the land between the Nam U River and the Red River in the South of Yunnan, led by Tao Ngan (or Tao Suong), migrated to occupy the Muong Lo area, with Nghia Lo field as the center. By the time of his son, Tao Lo, he continued to develop his power to the surrounding areas such as

Tales of Thai Place Names in Vietnam - 6

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