Buakaw's ethnic group - Suay, also called Kui, Kuy or Kuoy
In Thailand, no other ethnic group has such a long and strong relationship with elephants as the KUI people. Since the dawn of history, they have lived in the territory where the southern part of today’s northeastern Thailand (called ISSAN) meets northen Cambodia and southern Laos. For centuries they were the dominant settlers of the region. Their ancestors settled in the area several thousand years BC, well before the first Tai-speaking people arrived in Southeast Asia and well before Thai people established their first kingdom at Sukhothai in the thirteenth century AD.
The KUI language is an oral language and has no script. Therefore there are no historical records. All historical events have to be transmitted by month from generation to generation.
Today, about 200,000 KUI live in Thailand. Though the KUI have adopted many features from their Thai , Lao and Khmer neighbors , they have also preserved many of their traditions and customs. At home they speak a Katuic dialect of the Mon-Khmer language group. They belong to several subgroups, such as the M’ai, Yor, Ml’oa, Hot and Kandra, all distinguished by their different dialects. Today they are of course bilingual or even trilingual, speaking, besides their mother tongue, also the Thai and Lao language. They call themselves KUI, meaning men. They pronounce the “K” in their group’s name with a hard “G”.
The Thai, however , call the KUI people Souai (or Suei or Suai). The reason for this designation is that in the early Siamese armies the lowest military rank was the souai. The people of this rank were Khas or ethnic Mon-Khmer-speaking people from northeastern Thailand and Laos, including So and Kaleung and also many ethnic KUI from the area of today’s southern ISSAN region. The people in the rank of souai served as virtual slaves and had to perform the most lowly work and tasks that no Siamese would deign to undertake. Within the rank of souai there were several subdivisions, to each of which was allocated a specific task. A very important subdivision within the souai rank was the taponje, which had the responsibility to cut the grass to be fed to the army’s elephants. Most people of this subdivision were ethnic KUI people and even since that time the Thai people have called the KUI people, through the association with their military souai rank, Souai.
The KUI have one of the longest traditions as elephant keepers in Thailand. It is possible , although there is no proof, that the KUI may have domesticated elephants as early as 1000 BC. KUI mahouts were also very important elephant trainers in the elephant stables of the Siam aristocracy and to this day KUI mahouts are the keepers of the Royal White Elephants. The KUI are considered the most skilled mahouts in Thailand and regarded by other elephant-keeping ethnic groups as very gentle trainers. Kui mahouts usually did not work in the logging industry and had uses for their animals that were less stressful. The exceptions are those Kui who take their elephants to the congested streets of Bangkok for begging.
The KUI have conserved more ancient elephant traditions than any other group in Southeast Asia. And many adult KUI mahouts still follow those customs. The KUI are very spiritual people who want not only to be in harmony with Buddhist principles but also to have a good relationship with the spirits of the forests, including the spirits associated with elephants.
Today, most KUI elephant keepers live in Surin province, the predominant elephant province of Thailand. It is said that during the region of King Mongkut (Rama IV; 1851-1868) a white elephant disappeared from the royal stables. A group of KUI elephant catchers finally manage to recapture the white elephant and brought it back to Bangkok. King Mongkut was so pleased with the return of his beloved animal that he gave the leader of the hunt the title “PHRA SURIN” and established the independent province of Surin for him as governor.
In ancient times, Kui’s economy was centered on iron mining and iron making. Many artifacts excavated from the area proved that the Kui were skilled iron miners and excellent iron and bronze smiths. The quality of Kui’s fine workmanship was appreciated by the kings of the Khmer empire. Further, the Kui are wet rice agriculturalists with extensive paddies around their villages and breed a great number of domesticated animals such as buffaloes, cows, goats, pigs, chicken and ducks.
For centuries, the Kui followed an elephant-capturing tradition characterized by the use of mela-shikar, a wide range of shared rites, shared taboos and the use of a special language –the “forest spirit language”—when capturing wild elephants.
The training of the captured elephants was basic and their training methods lacked firm routine. The Kui kept khoonkie elephants for their own use and they were not very interested in training captured wild elephants other than to break their will and walk them back home.
The reason that the Kui were never masters in the training of elephants is that they had little use for trained elephants, except for khoonkie elephants. Traditionally , they never used them in work processes , such as logging teak wood or as beasts for burden for transporting people and goods over vast distances, as was the practice among other ethnic groups. For centuries elephants were the only means of transportation in Thailand’s northeast and in adjacent Laos and Cambodia during the rainy seasons.
But the KUI people never traveled far from home , except to capture elephants.
Since the total deforestation of their habitat ,the economic importance of elephant hunting has decreased. The KUI say that they captured the last wild elephant in Surin province in 1961.
The KUI , like almost all other ethnic groups of the region , are very spirit-conscious people. Though they adopted Buddhism from the Khmers several centuries ago, they also believe in the existence of a great array of spirits in their surroundings , such as the guardian spirit, the spirit of the tree, forest , mountain, water and earth , to name only a few. They also venerate the spirits of their ancestors (phi paw and phi mae). Not only do the Kui regard their elephants—called a giaong in the Kui language—as member of the family but they also honor and venerate the phi pakham, the lasso or rope with which they capture wild elephants.
The most important celebration to honor the phi pakham is the annual Elephant Festival –called na a giaong in Kui language—which is held in Surin in the third weekend in November.
Since ancient times the mahout has held a high status in Kui society. All Kui mahouts are proud of their jobs and love their elephants.