Creation and Chanting of Lik Yaat: Chanting Conveys Heart and History

Year of release: 2010
Duration: 26 min
Director: Satoru Ito
Original Language: Tai (known as “Shan” in Burma)
Country of production: Japan
Shooting location: Yunnan Province, China
Distributor: Satoru Ito
Satoru_worldmusic@yahoo.co.jp

Dehong Tai people embrace Theravada Buddhism. In order to live better in this world and the next, they perform dignified rituals and acquire "merit". For the rituals they spend years and save money, then they do a good deed like contribution of Buddhist statues and building the bridges. Chief donators commission an intellectual to write historical scriptures to hand down the good deed to posterity. It is called "Lik Yaat" in Tai and written with beautiful words and rhyme. There is a woman, Wan Xiang-ya, who strives for the tradition of “Lik Yaat”

Satoru Ito

Satoru Ito is anthropologist and ethnomusicologist He is a Ph.D. candidate, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies [Sokendai] (National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka).