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Khao Ham Son Ying: A Lanna Teaching Verse, Line by Line
Khao ham (ระฯค่าฯวฯรํา, Kham Mueang reading khao ham) is khao composed to describe one particular subject. Hathaiwan Chaiyakun and Panadda Boonyasaranai (หทัยวรรณ ไชยะกุล และปนัดดา บุณยสาระนัย, 2020) sort the content of folk khao into 13 areas, and the first of them is teaching. This article invites you to read a khao ham son ying, a khao ham teaching women, from the old work Khrao Ram Kham Son Chao Rat (the Chao Rat's teaching verse), one bat (row) at a time: to see how the rhymes are strung together, and to collect Kham Mueang words that are still in use today.
If you are new to khao, start with the basics in the article Khao, which covers khao so, khao ham and the "sam tua liao, chet tua thiao" verse rule.
Where do teachings for women sit in Lanna literature?
Research by Phruetticha Nakhaphio (พฤฒิชา นาคะผิว, 2025), comparing teaching literature for women from 4 regions of Thailand, found that Lanna poets seldom wrote separate works of teaching for women. Instead they usually wrote a "section teaching women" inside teaching works for everyone, and no transcribed Lanna work written only to teach women has yet been found.
The researcher therefore studied 4 works with clear sections teaching women: the Teachings of Phaya Mangrai, Pu Thao Son Lan (Grandfather Teaches His Grandchild), Khlong Withun Son Lok, and Khrao Ram Kham Son Chao Rat. This last one is written in the khao verse form, with "Phra Bat Nuea Hua", the ruler of the city, as the one who teaches rit khlong, the customary ways people in society should follow, which Kham Mueang calls simply hit (รีตฯ, read hit).
Passage 1: up early to pound rice, without waking the house
This passage teaches about khuet (ขึดฯ, read khuet), things considered inauspicious, which bring decline to yourself and your family if you do them. The text of the transcribed edition (Phruetticha Nakhaphio, 2025, citing Khrao Ram Kham Son Chao Rat, p. 165) reads:
| Bat | Text |
|---|---|
| 1 | ฝูงยอดสาวจี นารีร่างแค้ว ・ จุ่งจำชื่อได้ยังคำ |
| 2 | คันลุกเมื่อเช้า เอาเข้าลงตำ ・ อย่าแด็กมองดัง เสียงนันทั่วบ้าน |
| 3 | อย่าหื้อพ่อแม่ตกใจ แม่บัวไหวก้าน ・ ขึดชาเนิออย่างนั้น |
The words in bold are the ones that pass the rhyme along. Look at them pair by pair:
| Word that passes | Word that receives | Note |
|---|---|---|
| sao chi (สาวจี) | na-ri (นารี) | the last word of the first line rhymes with the 2nd syllable of the next line |
| yang kham (ยังคำ) | long tam (ลงตำ) | the last word of the first bat is picked up at the end of a line in the next bat |
| muea chao (เมื่อเช้า) | ao khao (เอาเข้า) | the end of a line rhymes with the 2nd syllable of the next line |
| thua ban (ทั่วบ้าน) | wai kan (ไหวก้าน) | the end of the 2nd bat is picked up in the 3rd bat |
The sound at the end of one line is "hooked" onto the next, link by link, just as the dictionary describes khao (ระฯค่าฯวฯ, read khao): verse whose rhymes are threaded and interlinked "like a chain". The division into bat and lines in this table follows the printed transcription; the original manuscript runs on without breaks. You can read the verse-form diagrams that scholars have proposed in the article Khao.
Reading it one bat at a time
| Bat | Words to know | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | hang khaeo (ร่างฯแฅ้วฯ, read hang khaeo): well-proportioned and beautiful in figure · chung (จุ่ง, read chung): "shall", "be sure to" · cham chue (จำจื่, read cham chue): to keep in mind | All you young women, lovely in figure, keep these words in your hearts. |
| 2 | chao (เชั้า, read chao): morning · khao: rice · daek mong: to pound or bang the foot-operated rice pounder · nan (นั, read nan): a loud, clamorous noise | When you get up in the morning to pound rice, do not bang the rice pounder so loudly that the noise fills the whole house. |
| 3 | hue: to let · mae bua wai kan ("lotus swaying on its stem"): an affectionate way to address a young woman · khuet cha (ขึดฯชา, read khuet cha): the same word as khuet | Do not startle your father and mother, my dear girl; doing that is khuet. |
The foot-operated rice pounder used for this is called khok mong (ฅ฿กฯมอฯง, read khok mong) in Kham Mueang. The dictionary explains it as a wooden mortar hollowed into a deep hole, used with a long beam that has a pestle at one end: "to pound, you tread on the back end of the beam, so that the pestle head rises and falls, pounding the rice in the mortar". The same khao also forbids sitting near the hua mong, the head of the beam with the pestle underneath, because it is believed to make you lose your wealth.
The meaning of daek mong comes from a footnote by Phruetticha Nakhaphio (2025). The translation of the whole passage is Moradok Lanna's own, to help beginners.
Passage 2: farm animals are "dear and precious"
The next passage (p. 168 of the same edition) teaches people not to beat or curse the animals they keep.
| Bat | Text |
|---|---|
| 1 | เป็ดไก่หมูหมา เจ้าแพงที่รัก ・ อย่าตีด่าหย้อเมามัว |
| 2 | แช่งด่าสัพพะ ของเลี้ยงแห่งตัว ・ หมูหมาควายวัว เป็ดไก่เป็นต้น |
| 3 | ฮ่าปักฮ่ากิน บ่หันแต่ส้น ・ มันจักขึดชาเสื่อมร้อน |
The chain rhyme is very clear here. The -ua sound runs on three times, mao mua → haeng tua → khwai wua (เมามัว → แห่งตัว → ควายวัว), then the chain switches to the -on sound, pen ton → tae son (เป็นต้น → แต่ส้น).
Words to know in this passage:
- Paeng (แพงฯ, read paeng): the dictionary gives "of high value, costly, dear". Chao paeng thi hak therefore means the animals we love and value. The same word is used for prices at the market (see Going to the market like a local).
- Sap-pa (สัพะ, read sap-pa) means all, every single thing.
- Yo means to make snide remarks, to mock, to taunt, and ha is the plague (Thai ha). "ฮ่าปักฮ่ากิน" is therefore a curse wishing death by a terrible epidemic (according to the footnotes of Phruetticha Nakhaphio, 2025).
In short: the ducks, chickens, pigs, dogs, buffaloes and cows you keep are all dear and valuable. Do not beat them, scold them or taunt them thoughtlessly. Cursing your animals to die of the plague is khuet, and will bring decline and trouble upon you.
Phruetticha Nakhaphio (2025) interprets this as Lanna poets using the belief in khuet as a tool to keep social order, to create safety, and to help people live in balance with nature, not merely as superstitious prohibitions.
The sounds of Kham Mueang hidden in khao
The transcription spells most words in central Thai fashion, but if you read them aloud the Kham Mueang way, you hear different sounds. Compare them with the readings in the dictionary:
| Written in the khao | Kham Mueang reading | Note |
|---|---|---|
| chao, khuet cha (เช้า · ขึดชา) | chao, khuet cha (เจ๊า · ขึ๋ดจา) | aspirated ช becomes unaspirated จ (RTGS writes both as ch) |
| rang khaeo, rit (ร่างแค้ว · รีต) | hang khaeo, hit (ฮ่างแค้ว · ฮีต) | r becomes h, just as khrao ram is read khao ham |
| phaeng (แพง) | paeng (แปง) | ph becomes p |
| khao (เข้า) | khao, rice (ข้าว) | Kham Mueang calls rice khao (เข้า), as in kong khao (ก่อฯงเขั้า, read kong khao), a rice box |
| hue (หื้อ) | hue, to give or let (ให้) | also used in other words, such as khe hue (เขหื้, read khe hue), meaning to force someone to |
Another secret of khao language is doubled words, such as cham chue, made of cham and chue (จื่, read chue), which both mean "to remember". Doubling two words with the same meaning gives both rhythm and weight.
Teaching verse for women is still alive
Khao ham teaching women is not found only in old notebooks. Punyaphon Saopao and Tulaphon Saenpron (ปุณยาพร เส้าเปา และตุลาภรณ์ แสนปรน, 2021) studied 7 khao by Mae Khru Chandi Channio (แม่ครูจันทร์ดี จันทร์หนิ้ว), a village poet of Ban Mae Wang who has been writing khao for over 40 years. One of them is Khao Ham Son Luk Phu Ying (a khao ham teaching daughters). The researchers give an example of an image that teaches women to walk softly and with good manners:
"ป้อแม่สั่งสอน ยามลุกยามนอน เตียวก๋ายต๊องเต๊า ก๊อยย๊างเตียวไปย่องลัด เสมอดั่งแมวย๊างย้าย" — Mae Khru Chandi Channio, Khao Son Ying (quoted in Punyaphon Saopao and Tulaphon Saenpron, 2021)
The researchers explain it as: walk slowly and softly, like a cat creeping in. The same study also finds doubled words in this khao, such as kao ngao (trunk and root, meaning one's ancestry from long ago) and lai mak kwang (many, much, wide).
Summary
- Khao ham is khao composed to describe one particular subject, and teaching is a key theme of folk khao.
- Lanna sections teaching women usually sit inside teaching works for everyone, such as Khrao Ram Kham Son Chao Rat, which teaches custom (hit) and khuet.
- Khao rhymes hook onto each other like a chain, for example mao mua → haeng tua → khwai wua.
- Read khao aloud the Kham Mueang way and you hear ช become จ, r become h, ph become p, and words such as khao, hue, chung, cham chue and paeng.
- New poets still write teaching khao for women, such as Mae Khru Chandi Channio.
Look up more Kham Mueang words from khao in the Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai), and read the Lanna proverbs that poets like to quote in their teachings in the article Kham ba kao.
More in the same series: Reading the khao Hong Hin · Kham u bao u sao, or see the whole series at Kham Mueang through songs and literature (in Thai).
Sources
- Moradok Lanna dictionary (dict2, in Thai): ค่าวฮ่ำ ค่าว ขึด ขึดชา จำจื่อ จื่อ จุ่ง แพง ร่างแฅ้ว แฅ้ว สัพพะ ฅกมอง นัน เช้า รีต กล่องเข้า เขหื้อ
- พฤฒิชา นาคะผิว [Phruetticha Nakhaphio]. (2025). ลักษณะเฉพาะถิ่นของวรรณกรรมคำสอนสตรี ๔ ภูมิภาค [Regional features of teaching literature for women in 4 regions]. Journal of Liberal Arts 25(2) (quoting the text of Khrao Ram Kham Son Chao Rat in Phra Khru Sathitchittasangwon (Sathian Khamket), การศึกษาเชิงวิเคราะห์คร่าวร่ำคำสอนเจ้าราช [An analytical study of Khrao Ram Kham Son Chao Rat], Chiang Mai University, pp. 165, 168). In Thai.
- หทัยวรรณ ไชยะกุล และปนัดดา บุณยสาระนัย [Hathaiwan Chaiyakun and Panadda Boonyasaranai]. (2020). ค่าวฮ่ำ: ภูมิปัญญาของกวีพื้นบ้านล้านนา [Khao ham: the wisdom of Lanna folk poets]. Panidhana Journal 16(2). In Thai.
- ปุณยาพร เส้าเปา และตุลาภรณ์ แสนปรน [Punyaphon Saopao and Tulaphon Saenpron]. (2021). การศึกษาศิลปะการใช้ภาษาในวรรณกรรมค่าวของแม่ครูจันทร์ดี จันทร์หนิ้ว [A study of the art of language in the khao of Mae Khru Chandi Channio]. Mangraisan Journal 9(2). In Thai.
- มรดกล้านนา [Moradok Lanna]. ค่าว: คำประพันธ์ร้อยสัมผัสของล้านนา ค่าวซอ และค่าวฮ่ำ [Khao: Lanna chain-rhyme verse, khao so and khao ham]. In Thai.
