Dissertation > Social Sciences > Ethnology > Folklore

Morphology of Contemporary Songkran Devon

Author FanNing
Tutor ZhuXiongQuan
School Central University for Nationalities
Course Folklore
Keywords contemporary Songkran cultural change culturalindustries
CLC C953
Type Master's thesis
Year 2012
Downloads 163
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China is a multi-ethnic country. Every ethnic formed its own long tradition with social and historical development. At Yunnan Province, China, Songkran is the new year festival of some ethnics having beliefs of Theravada Buddhism such as the Dai, Blang, Deang, Wa and Achang. The Dehong Songkran has a long history, and the local Dai ande De’ang village still celebrate the festival each year.Facing the new social changes, the Government has organized a grand festival.The festival presents a more complex performance. This paper observes and describes Dehong Songkran festival and discusses the changes and the direction of development of the festival."The Building of the traditional form","contemporary villages Songkran form" and "contemporary government-sponsored Songkran form" are the objects of study. Chapter1describe the geographical environment and the ethnic composition in Dehong with local history information and field survey data.The next highlight introduce the Dai people, preparing for the description of the Songkran. Chapter2, Construct a traditional form of Songkran in base of literature, oral memories and including discussion of the sources of Songkran, the traditional activities of the Songkran period, summary of its features and functions. Chapter3, through field survey methods, describe Songkran activities of the contemporary village, including the festival period, the crowds participating the festival and festive events, exploring contemporary features of Songkran. Chapter4, make description of the Songkran activities hosted by the Government, including the process of operation of the organization, festival space and festive events, at the same time exploring its features. Chapter5, compele three Songkrans and described the loss of some traditional elements in Songkran of village, while the government-sponsored Songkran is retained the form of the traditional festivals and maken some innovations, as the significance of the festival has shifted or pulled out of many new content according to actual needs.Then exploring how to develop the festival including the developmentof history and memories of the festival, life and emotion of the festival, power and politics of the festival, the symbol and commodity of the festival.

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