WAY OF LIFE ASSOCIATED WITH RICE IN THAI AND VIETNAMESE FOLK TALES

Abstract

This research article’s objectives is to study about rice and way of life in Thai and Vietnamese folk tales in order to determine the content to create language and culture learning materials titled “Rice and Folk Tales for Vietnamese Learners”. The result shows that Thai and Vietnamese folk tales reflect the lifestyle of the local people, whose life is bonded with rice under the superstitious beliefs. For example, the respect of Mae Phosop and Mae Kwankhao (The Goddess of Rice) leads to the various traditions of rice-related ceremonies, such as Rice Blessing Ceremony, The Royal Ploughing Ceremony, Tết cơm mới, and Tịch Điền Đọi Sơn or Vietnamese local Ploughing traditions. There is evidence showing the use of tools and equipment in rice production process, for example, the process of grinding and milling rice to change the form of rice. Also, the consumption of rice as their staple by making food in their own unique characteristics such as bánh chưng, a Vietnamese glutinous rice steamed in banana leaf, which has different cooking process from Thai style. After the analysis of the way of life in the folk tales, the researcher has selected the keyword “Mae Phosop”, which is a mutual keyword in Thai and Vietnamese folk tales, to create cultural reading supplementary book with infographic titled “The Birth of The Goddess of Rice”. It is about the sacrifice of Mae Phosop herself to be food for human beings and the trace of Mae Phosop to get back on Earth to be the origin of Thai Rice Blessing ceremony. Moreover, the result can lead to being a supplementary article about the Thai and Vietnamese folk tales to encourage cultural relationship that mentions about the original rice kernel, which used to be very huge in size but was hit broken and made smaller until present.