Author: David Fullbrook
Publication: Asia Times
Date: May 15, 2004
Missionaries are working hard to
bring salvation to tribal people in Chiang Rai's highlands. Concerned about
nefarious activities, the Thai government is quietly investigating. About
time too, many would say: missionaries are accused of destroying traditional
cultures and societies, exploiting highlanders' ignorance and spurring
conflict.
For the majority of Chiang Rai Akha,
one of many tribal nations spread across Indochina's mountains, Christianity
has replaced traditional religion over the past decade. Matthew McDaniel,
an American working for a decade to preserve Akha culture, calculates that
65 percent of 150 Akha villages, home to 35,000 people, now are Christian.
McDaniel estimates that more than
100 organizations are proselytizing. "There's way too many missionaries
coming. It's become a free-for-all. They come in with money from their
home churches, with four-wheel drives, living like kings, like they never
would back home," said McDaniel, whose forthright campaign upset many people,
spurring whispers about his motives. McDaniel was reportedly deported by
Thai authorities after being interviewed for this article; the reasons
for the deportation are unclear.
Thailand is undergoing a spiritual
"gold rush" because its "heathen" tribes hold promise for missionaries,
who face few restrictions, as communities from which to reach millions
more brethren scattered across the hard-to-reach peaks of Cambodia, Laos,
Myanmar, Vietnam and Yunnan in southern China.
"It seems many of these missionaries
are agents for Christian fundamentalist groups, especially from the US,
who are competing to expand by converting more people, which means they
can garner more donations and hence convert more people," said Ralana Maleeprasert,
Research and Development head at the Ministry of Social Development and
Human Security.
A sharp increase in foundation-status
applications from missions has raised official eyebrows. "We want to know
what's behind them, their real intentions, what they want with the children,"
said Sergeant Sukich Surin of the Tourist Police. "The Thai government
is very concerned about this now."
But Ta-wye Sawapitak, manager of
Baan Chewit Mai (New Life Home), a Christian home for poor children, downplayed
the disquiet. "This is a small community. People who are abusing their
position, acting improperly, would find it hard to operate. The new faces
that have arrived recently seem okay," he said.
An extensive investigation still
is expected after Sukich, on orders from Bangkok, filed a preliminary report
about missions in March. Not all missionaries are angels, it is alleged.
A few have been charged with sex abuse. Others stand accused of fraud.
"They try to bring the kid from the mountain to a center to make a foundation
and get donations from abroad," said Sergeant Sukich. "We don't want people
to abuse the hill-tribe children or use them as a tool to get money. We
strongly suspect this is going on."
Missionaries often scour tribal
villages offering orphans and other children, supposedly threatened by
drugs or poverty, an education in mission orphanages. But these institutions
are expensive, disruptive and certainly no match for a family environment.
"It would be much cheaper to keep the children with their in-laws in the
villages," McDaniel said.
Life is changing rapidly for the
half-million cash-poor, uneducated highlanders. They struggle to comprehend
the downside that can accompany promises of easier lives that the charismatic
missionaries tout. Materialism and the market economy have ridden into
their once isolated and self-sufficient communities on the back of electricity
and tourism.
As the cash economy's grip on the
hills tightens, money is replacing subsistence values, so once-sacrosanct
customs become costly burdens. Akha elders, for example, refuse to reduce
costly animal sacrifices required in traditional religious rituals, and
this gives missionaries an opening.
"Traditionally Akha have to sacrifice
at least nine chickens at least nine times a year for their ancestors.
To avoid this expensive practice, they convert to Christianity, but only
in name. They are not real Christians," said Ralana.
Resettlement villages add to exploitation
Greedy orchard-planting businessmen
are snatching tribal lands. A swirling drug war recruits poor highlanders
as coolies or foot soldiers. Many wind up dead or jailed, often wrongly.
As a result, some villages bordering Myanmar have been forcibly resettled
deeper into Thailand by the government to disrupt narcotics transportation,
with little effect. Resettlement villages leave highlanders vulnerable
to missionaries and social ills.
"The very old villages are strong
communities that Christian and Muslim missionaries cannot break into. However,
in resettlement villages, communities are broken and often are a mix of
ethnicities. They are not so strong and so are easily influenced by the
missionaries," said Ralana.
Resettlement villages highlight
missionaries' exploitation of jarring change and lack of official interest.
Mountain-dwelling minorities dropped off the government's priority list
when the perceived communist threat abated 30 years ago. Missionaries crept
into that vacuum.
Their activities, like those of
many foreigners, generally face little inquisition from laid-back Thais.
"I think Thai culture is also a problem here because it is very open, very
welcoming to foreign ideas and influences. That makes it easy for missionaries
to come in," said Yuthapong Chantrawarin, an anthropologist-sociologist
at Chiang Rai's Mae Fah Luang University.
Yuthapong worries that this openness
allows missionaries to abuse their position. "In Thai society missionaries
are seen as teachers, a highly respected position. Some of them misuse
this position, this power. I have watched a missionary in court being charged
with raping a village woman."
Some Christians are concerned too.
"I have heard about cases of so-called foreign missionaries who used helping
children as an excuse to raise money for other purposes. I'm suspicious
of people who opened churches for a few years and then disappeared," said
Songsak Pairumpuegsakul, an Akha who founded the Akha Evangelical Church.
Its children live by the Bible while retaining elements of Akha tradition.
Sophisticated, zealous missionaries
demand strict adherence to their interpretation of Christianity, Islam
or Kuan-Yin, erasing traditional cultures and beliefs. "I think the worst
damage done by missionaries is cultural destruction. There is no going
back, no keeping some old beliefs," said Yuthapong.
McDaniel was more blunt. "I'm married
to an Akha, I live in a traditional Akha community. I see what is happening
in other communities and what could happen in my community. Only one word
comes to mind: 'fascism'."
Missionaries and their supporters
stand by their actions. "It's not that the missionary is destroying their
culture or changing their way of life. But they want to help them have
better lives, find work, stop worshipping spirits, have religion and stop
their daughters marrying at 14 or 15," said Ta-wye. Somsee Karunawong,
a convert working for Operation Dawn, a Christian drug-rehabilitation foundation
that claims not to proselytize, firmly supports conversion.
"As a missionary the priority should
be to help people become Christians because then they will be blessed and
good things will come. The problem with missionaries in the past is that
they focused too much on development and did not pay enough attention to
people's spiritual well-being. Consequently, some people returned to their
old beliefs," she said.
According to Ta-wye, customs justify
conversions. "For example, years ago in many villages, girls about to get
married would have to sleep with the village witch doctor, who is also
the headman."
Similar practices are not uncommon
among traditional societies stretching from Africa to the Pacific. But
who is to say what is right and wrong within a cultural context? Such judgments,
many would argue, are should not be made by missions but by the government,
widely consulting impartial anthropologists, doctors and sociologists.
A community divided
Proponents argue that missions
save lives because conversion dispels deadly taboos. Yet such practices
have already been curbed by dogged, respectful savoir-faire. Today Akha
parents often give twins to different villages rather than killing them
as was tradition, says Chiang Rai Senator Duangjai Deetes, who has worked
with highlanders since the 1970s.
Such activities and arguments damage
those missionaries who respect local wisdom and work hard to ease the hardships
of life thousands of feet up mountain ridges. Complex customs, integral
to highland societies, should be esteemed rather than dismissed by those
foisting their beliefs on others. Their loss weakens communities.
"In Lokyo, an Akha village, the
community was very strong when they followed traditional religion. When
many missionaries came to the village, like Christian, Muslim and Kuan-In,
the community became divided. A local medicine woman, visiting one night
to treat a sick lady, was very saddened when she saw so many beliefs -
she said the village's heart was broken," said Duangjai.
Missionaries are not acting alone.
Many Western tourists hand out sweets to highlanders and have been seen
trying to explain a dosing regime for medicine to villagers, without a
watch among them, in northern Laos. Their ignorance erodes hardy highlanders'
self-sufficiency by provoking demands for junk foods and Western medicine
that requires money, which has to be earned, compromising independence,
while disparaging traditional medical wisdom, a likely trove of new medicines.
Missionaries' intrusions provoke
conflict, further weakening the solidarity of highland peoples. "Four years
ago, to end disputes between traditional beliefs and old Christian families
in the village, the elders decided Christians must move to a Christian
village. People felt their traditions were under threat from Christians'
new activism. This conflict was caused by the intrusion and activities
of missionaries," said Wirote Wisetrilairat, an Akha law student at Mae
Fah Luang.
Events in Wirote's village mirror
McDaniel's observations. "Traditional Akhas will allow a few Christians
in their village. But the Christianized villages will not allow any traditional
Akhas to remain."
Growing religious friction threatens
families and even leaves individuals confused. "I'm officially a Buddhist,
as I don't want any problems with my family or the villagers. But actually
I believe in God," said Wirote.
Fundamentalist Muslim missionaries
grate too, sowing discord with their uncompromising demands and secretiveness,
said Ralana, contrasting them with traditional Muslims, who have lived
harmoniously beside other religious communities in northern Thailand for
generations.
Modernity gives rise to materialism,
money
Religion's firebrands are but one
negative aspect brought on by the uninvited intrusion of modernity. "It's
not just religion, but mainstream materialism and money that are destroying
tribal society and culture that lives, by and large, in harmony with nature.
Government policies and education are also pushing mainstream materialism,"
said Duengjai, who has witnessed similar effects on rural and indigenous
peoples worldwide.
Events in Chiang Rai are in essence
the end of a game played out worldwide since the dawn of modern man in
which one culture triumphs over another, leaving only its artifacts and
inscriptions for archeologists to puzzle over. Today, traditional cultures'
importance is well recognized. Sadly, society struggles to preserve ancient
and medieval cultures while helping them enjoy modernity's benefits.
Given missionaries' zeal, the prospects
for giving tribal peoples a real choice, perhaps even saving their culture,
look bleak. "I think it's possible that in a decade all the young people
will be Christian, as the cold Buddhist traditions are complicated and
take up a lot of time. Christianity is easier, simpler. Missionaries are
visiting increasingly frequently to hand out brochures about Christianity,"
said Wirote.
Only the government can control
missionaries. That investigations are under way suggests that restrictions
and close monitoring could follow. But it may be too little, too late.
Restrictions may force the missionaries
to channel their not inconsiderable funds to established, experienced charities
in Thailand such as the Population and Community Development Association,
the Thai Red Cross and Oxfam - an efficient and sensible option if their
concerns really are for highlanders' welfare.
Critics say there is no good reason
for missionaries' troublesome mixing of aid work and religion. Poor, uneducated
people are easy victims for political agendas. "There ultimate aim is to
control the Akhas in Thailand, Laos, China, Vietnam and Myanmar," said
McDaniel. "If you are an astute observer, you can see the political, ethnic
and social events that are happening over religion, religion being used
as a political tool, there is a basis for a war here."
An extreme prediction, perhaps,
but with hardline Christians and Muslims cracking communal harmony, it
is not unconceivable, although unlikely for now, that green lines could
one day divide villages should religious friction burn into violence.
Even stopping missionaries will
not derail modernity's charge through these communities, and nor should
it. "Change is nature. Nothing can be stable. But change needs to occur
with understanding of materialism, preserving deep cultural roots while
only taking what is needed from globalization," said Duengjai.
Highlanders have as much right as
anybody else to good hospitals and schools. But to save their culture from
the changes and choices swamping them, they need knowledge. If society
fails to provide that, it will stand guilty of passively supporting cultural
cleansing. A great loss for civilization indeed.
