Dropping perhaps yet another bombshell in the Shan conference from October 15 to 17, a German researcher, who has been studying The Tai peoples of Asia, which include Ahoms of India, Shans of Burma, Tais of Vietnam, Thais and Laos, claimed the ancient Taoist philosophy has its roots in Tais.
Oliver Raendchen, who publishes ‘Tai Culture,’ an academic series, and speaks fluent Lao, told the conference that he believed the Chinese classic Tao Te Ching (his spelling: tau tae tching) “was created as a mirror, as secondary image of an existing culture, namely, the world view, way of life, and practical rules of behaviour of the Tai peoples.”
No Han Chinese, according to him, can identify with or even understand the text attributed to Laozi, because of their deeply rooted Confucian beliefs.
Moreover, “the contents of the (Tao Te Ching) are contradictory to the traditions of the Han people.” Many researchers who are mostly Sinologists also agree “that these (Tao) traditions of living and of perceiving the world have died out.”
On the other hand, there are obvious similarities between Taoism and the different traditional laws of the Tai. “The Thais of Thailand, who are exposed to modern views of philosophy like the concept, because it is all about balance between two extreme poles, actually known as typical Thais or Lao ways. Nevertheless, I think they are not consciously aware of it in their everyday life and behaviour,” he said.
The only Tai people who say “their religion is (tao te ching),” which they translate as “The right way”, though they do not use Tai in their everyday life anymore, are the Ahoms of India, according to Mr Raendchen.
His audience however may need a lot of time and convincing. “Even the facilitator (who is the head of the department of Art and Archaeology in London) expressed incredulity,” he told SHAN.
For example, his critics pointed out to SHAN, Taoist principles were applied in the Chinese martial arts such as Kungfu, Sun Tzu’s Art of War and Mao Zedong’s military strategy.
Taoism teaches the ruling of the state, the cultivation of body and person, the subordination into the world and nature and above all to follow the way of water “that is the softest and yet also the hardest thing in the world,” just as the Grand Canyon was carved out of hard rock by soft water.
