Tai Yuan people group of Laos
 
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  • Population: 5,000(1962);9,750(2000);12,150(2010)
  • Main Province: Bokeo
  • Language Affiliation: Tai
  • Religion: Buddhism
  • Christians: none known

The main information provided here is used by permission from asiaharvest.org

Additional information may be provided by millionelephants.com

Pray for the Tai Yuan
  • Pray the Tai Yuan Jesus film would be used to evangelize many people inside Laos.
  • Pray the things keeping the Tai Yuan from salvation would be cast down.
  • Ask God to send Tai Yuan Christians from Thailand to reach their cousins in Laos.

     Approximately 10,000 Tai Yuan, or Northern Tai speakers, live in several different locations in Laos. An accurate estimate on the number of Tai Yuan in Laos is difficult to gauge. The most recent estimate was made by P. B. Lafont in 1962, who stated there were between 3,000 to 5,000 Tai Yuan in Laos. The 1995 book by Laurent Chazee states the Tai Yuan live in the Houayxay and Pha-Oudom districts of Bokeo Province, near the Thai border; the Luang Namtha District of Luang Namtha Province; the Xai District of Oudomxai Province; and the Xaignabouri District of Xaignabouri Province.

     More than six million Northern Tai speakers live in Thailand. The traditional center of Northern Tai culture is the city of Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai was formerly the capital of the Lanna ('Million Rice-fields) Kingdom, which at the height of its power extended across north-central Thailand to include Luang Prabang and Vientiane. Lanna was finally overcome by the Siamese and politically incorporated into today's Thailand in 1895. There were many years of hostility between the kings of Lanna and Siam before the former was finally subdued. In the 1770's, Chau Prasat Tawng, the King of Siam, "laid the country waste, plundered their villages, and brought away many thousand captives to be slaves forever more. The King of Laos...was betrayed into the hands of the Siamese, arriving in Bangkok about the close of the year 1828. He here underwent cruelties of which it is a shame even to speak...He was confined in a large iron cage, exposed to the burning sun, and obliged to proclaim to everyone that the King of Siam was great and merciful, that he himself had committed a great error and deserved his present punishment. In this cage were placed with the prisoner a large mortar to pound him with, a larger boiler to boil him in, a hook to hang by, and a sword to decapitate him; also a sharp-pointed spike for him to sit on. His children were sometimes put in along with him."187

     The Tai Yuan traditionally have their own script, in which the Bible was translated in 1927. Few people today, however, can read it. The Jesus film was recently completed in Tai Yuan, giving hope that the unevangelized Tai Yuan in Laos may soon hear the Gospel.

  

 

  

Additional Information

  1. Gospel Recording in Tai Yuan here: Tai Yuan resources page If you are aware of other recordings, literature, or anything else for the Tai Yuan people, please let us make it available online.
  2. Getting there - If you make a trip to the Tai Yuan people, share your experience and advice here: Tai Yuan travel page
  3. Information - Do you know something more about the beliefs of the Tai Yuan? Do you have a story to tell? Do you have a picture? Please share it here.
  4. Does anyone know of a Tai Yuan believer inside or outside of Laos?
  5. Intercession - Have you gotten any impressions, scriptures or words while praying for this group? Have you visited their area? Please share these and we will include them on the prayer page here: Tai Yuan prayer page
  6. Adoption - This is a small group, but that doesn't diminish the importance of these people in Gods' heart. If you feel led to focus on this group, maybe God will use in a miraculous way to reach them with the Gospel! Need assistance? Contact us at: millionelephants@gmail.com, subject: adoption