Hi, Im new here and I have a few questions for our Thai friends. How do the generally Thai population feel about Lao Issan of Northeast Thailand? Are they fully integrated into Thai society or do they still retain their own culture/customs?

Oops, meant to say "new guy here"

Hi..I'm glad you're interested in Thailand and Thai culture. I think each region of Thailand still retains its customs: each region is known for something within its culture, wheter it be food or the arts. In terms of being integrated or assimilated into Thailand, I think it depends on what you mean. the different regions in Thailand speak different dialects, with central Thai being the main Thai language. However, a person speaking one dialect can still be understood by a person speaking another dialect: that's part of the language culture. In terms of assimilation, I think what we see in Ong-Bak portrays a great deal of what goes on when someone from a rural village in a small province comes to the big city: there are still things one must get used to to be assimilated, as central Thailand is more metropolitan than the rest of the country.

I hope that helps..hope I haven't confused you more

Yeah, absolutely they are considered to be Thai.
I was in Isan for a year and have lots of friends from Isan.

And well, my grandma was actually raised by Lao Song. (Lao that move to Petchaburi province)

Besides that, in my family company, we have lots of Isan co-workers. I have heard they speak Isan since I was a child, so I can listen to Lao Isan with no problem.

Personally, I think Isan people have done a lots of things for Thailand such as Somrak Kamsing, gold medal from boxing in Olimpic, Atlanta USA, KaoKlai and Bua Kaw K1 fighters.

Somrak is still my hero since that medal was the first one that Thailand ever had.

Besides that, when I was not home, my parents like going to Isan area and have some sweet time over there.

Most of Isan people that I know are considered to be patient and sincere.

Thanks for taking the time to share with me. Can you tell me why the people of Issan have long been descrimated against by the majority of Thai people? Is it because the people of Issan are ethnically Laotian that the French divided and gave to Thailand make some Thai people consider people of this region as sort of a "second class" citizen?

descrimated????

Show me some examples.

im non thai,but my wife is thai,and from Issan,which I have spent a considerable amount of time in.I think it goes down to the class system,Issan is poorer and the skin is darker,so they are looked down because of this..I would call it discrimation,I would just compare it to someone from the Southern states is compared to NYC..its the same thing..In Issan they are considered(hicks)...
I find the people there alot more friendlier,and have the true smiles,which is why they call thailand "the land of smiles"and spicyer food...Aroy mak mak
There ar many dialects of thai in thailand, you have Issan,and you have the dialects in southern Thailand,which my wife has a hard time sometimes understanding her cousin, dialects from the northern regions and from BKK...plus all the diffrent hill tribes in the northern boarder of thailand..they are the ones that are actually looked down upon, same with the refugees from cambodia and burma.
just my 2 bht

Ongkot, here is an article I found on descrimation--scroll down to the last paragraph...

October 25, 2004 / Vol. 164, No. 17

Hitting the Big Time

Tony Jaa's death-defying stunts--and disregard for bodily harm--make him the new Bruce Lee

BY ANDREW PERRIN

When Tony Jaa's film producer met him for the first time, she thought he was "ugly" and "couldn't act." His image consultant now says Jaa is "uncool" and is urging him to get a new haircut. His English teacher despairs that two years of lessons have yielded little more than a rudimentary grasp of the language. Listen to his minders long enough, and you may start doubting the buzz that Jaa is Southeast Asia's long-overdue answer to Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

Until you see Jaa in action. In a cavernous room on the third floor of a stunt training center in Bangkok, Jaa bobs on the mat like a gymnast lining up a run to the vaulting horse. At the end of the room, a crew member holds aloft a cushion that stands in for a human head. Jaa hurtles down the runway, launches himself like a missile, flips in midair and brings his right foot crashing down on the cushion. The kick sends the cushion--and the unfortunate guy holding it--flying across the room. Jaa lands on his feet and smiles.

In Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior, the stunt man-turned-actor leaps across boiling oil, ballets above an array of tuk tuks and beats up anyone foolish enough to challenge him. The insane inventiveness of the stunts--done without special effects, wirework or apparent concern for Jaa's life and limb--has turned into box-office gold in Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and even France, where the film found a fan and international distributor in action auteur Luc Besson. Besson recut the film and secured a U.S. distribution deal with Magnolia Pictures. Expectations are high that Ong Bak and Jaa will break big in North America when the movie is released in February.

Jaa, whose real name is Phanom Yeeram, grew up in Thailand's rural northeast, a region most notable for its poverty and, in the early 1980s, the occasional mortar round fired across the Cambodian border by the Khmer Rouge. "Some days we'd be sitting down to dinner and the mortars would explode in the village, blowing out our windows and doors," Jaa says. He escaped these grim realities by viewing the films of Chan and Lee on outdoor screens at temple fairs. "It was powerful for me to watch," he says. "What they did was so beautiful, so heroic. I wanted to do it, too." Jaa practiced in his father's rice paddy or, when bathing the family's elephants, by somersaulting off their backs into the river. "I practiced," he says, "until I could do the move exactly as I had seen the masters do it."

At 15, Jaa sought out the Thai stunt coordinator and low-budget action director Panna Ritthikrai, who took him on as a protégé. He went to a gymnastics college and soon found work as a stunt man in local and international films, including 1997's Mortal Kombat 2. Then he and Ritthikrai started devising their own stunts inspired by muay boran a more elegant and traditional form of Thai boxing that resembles kung fu. Jaa traveled the countryside talking to the few remaining old masters of muay boran , rediscovering more than 100 long-abandoned moves. Ritthikrai and Jaa filmed the actor's best stunts and showed them to Bangkok director Prachya Pinkaew. The filmmaker was dazzled but had problems getting backing for a film with Jaa in the lead role. "Thai audiences are not used to seeing people from the northeast in the lead," says Sita Vosbein, managing director of Pinkaew's production house, Baa Ram Ewe. "They think people with dark skin are uneducated and ugly. They are always cast as bad guys." When the film was a hit, Jaa felt accepted at last. "I have never been so proud," he says. "I've been fighting discrimination since I was very young. For people to appreciate the beauty of the ancient art of boxing, instead of focusing on what I look like or where I come from, was what I had always dreamed."

Now I know why Thai movies always cast actors/actress of mix European ancestry.

yes it is true that there is some discrimination in thailand. people with darker skin are said to work in the fields (and are therefore poor), and people with light skin are said to have good jobs and don't have to work in the fields (and are therefore more well-off). but don't let a few bad apples spoil the bunch. the discrimination is far worse here in america.

when my mother was young, her family moved throughout central and northern thailand. my mom lived in the suburbs, in the city, and on a farm. her, her brothers and sisters, my grandmother, and my grandfather who has long since passed away, all knew that the backbone of thailand are the people who really worked for a living. the rice farmers, the elephant handlers, etc. my entire family since then has maintained that deep respect for people who work closely with nature.

the people who hold negative views towards our own fellow countrymen are hurting thailand in terrible, deep ways. our country will be able to recover from economic hardships, tsunamis, and things like that... but the kind of turmoil that comes from discrimination is the real disaster.

bonsoir a tous ,comme mon anglais n est pas parfai je ne peux que ecrire francais, j espere que les francophones qui me comprendront pourront si il le peut bien sur ,retranscrire mon message en anglais pour les autres.

j ai un peu appris sur la région de isan car pendant la période khmer rouge mes parents et grand freres et soeurs ont trouvé refuge vers surin et la ba il faut savoir que la région est habité en majorité par des populations khmers et lao. recemment j ai fait un tour a surin et lorsque j ai parlé en khmer avec des khmers ils m ont dis que la ba c etais interdit de parlé khmer en présence d autorités thai ,je ne comprend pas que les peuples khmer et lao sont l objet des discriminations en tout genre car la thailande est avant tout un pays a majorité boudhiste théravada comme ses voisins khmer et lao ,le boudhisme preche la tolérence entres les humains quelque soit leurs ethnies et d ailleurs pour ceux qui ne sont pas au courrant tony jaa est d origine khmer car il ya 2 ans a phnom penh il a fait tout ses interviews en khmer

Pease speak English here..

The discriminations is in everywhere not only Thailand. being rich always have a chance to have a good life more than being poor, its not the point of your appearance or you are light or dark or what is your ethnic from. Even in Cambodia, the rich Khmer always look down on the poor Khmer but it doen't mean Cambodia is the only one to have the discriminations right?

If your know Thai language, please check out "the twilight Show video clip" in multimedia section. you will be able to understand what Tony Jaa thought about his race. Surin is locate in the Thai-Cambodia border,some people can speaks Thai,Lao and even Khmer but its doesn't mean they are not Thai , thay still Thai such as yourself your can speak French but it doesn't mean your are French, right? whatever the extraction of Tony Jaa is, he said he very very proudly for being Thai and everything he did is trying to show the world knows about the Thai cultures.

:

Sithan please don't speak french here because very few people can understand.
About Tony's nationality, he's thai. Like Simplyworld said he grew up near the loas and cambodian border that's why he can speaks laotian (hope i'm not wrong) but he's thai. No discussions about it anymore, I don't want people arguing here.

i'm half thai and half vietnamese. i don't feel discriminated in any other way, but then again i don't really care what others think about me.