ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the part one of this book. The part explains the subordinate position of the Karen in Thai society within a general discourse on what the term ‘hill tribe’ has come to mean. Pinkaew Laungaramsri of Chiang Mai University provides a fascinating and thoroughly well documented overview of where the Karen sit within the ‘new order of the modern Thai nation-state’ which generally classifies highland peoples as ‘non-citizen, alien other’. Making extensive use of historical Thai documentation she traces the changing image of the Karen as chao pa, chao khao and nak anurak (benign savage or nature conservationist) and the demise of their earlier place in Thai history as guardians of the frontier and forest. Reiner Buergin places his focus on the extremely difficult position faced by the Karen of the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand’s first natural World Heritage Site from which the people constantly face expulsion.
