The Pia ’s Subtle Sustain: Contemporary Ethnic Identity and the Revitalization of the Lanna “Heart Harp”

Abstract

����� ��� In 1969, a young American ethnomusicologist, Gerald Dyck, spent several months documenting performances of folk music in northern Thailand. Dyck was especially interested in musical traditions that remained distinct from modern, Siam-ized ensembles. In a village outside of the old northern capital of Chiang Mai, Dyck discovered an elderly musician named Nai Tun who was able to play a then rarely seen instrument known as the pin pia. 1 The pin pia, an extremely quiet two to fichest-resonated stick zither, was described to him as a troubadour’s instrument of the bygone Lanna (Northern Thai) kingdom. Returning to the area some months later to make professional recordings of Nai Tun, Dyck instead stumbled upon his funeral procession; the pia player had died only the week before Dyck’s return. In 1975, Dyck published a photo-journal of the pin pia including an ominous postscript: a full-page negative-print plate of the elderly player who had died before his music could be documented. Dyck’s prognostication was clear; along with its aged practitioners, a unique local tradition was passing inexorably into history. In 2004, while lecturing in Chiang Mai, I found the pin pia omnipre sent. It was a popular topic in academic discourse, a central image in the local tourist industry, and an important element in the now fi rmly established Lanna ethnic identity. Pin pia performances were fairly common, recordings were readily available, and a large number of young players could be found throughout the north. The instrument was sold in large outlet malls alongside more common Lanna instruments and the Western guitar. After providing a basic description of the pin pia and its historical relationship to similar instruments elsewhere in Asia, I trace and explain the very different scenes that Gerald Dyck and I experienced. I describe the development of the pin pia and Lanna music, in general, over the past two decades and investigate the ways in which the instrument and its repertoire have become emblematic of the revitalization and reinvention of Lanna ethnic identity within the context of contemporary multi-ethnic Thailand. 2