Liang Khwai: Kham Mueang from a Jaran Manopetch Song

Liang Khwai ("Herding Buffalo") is a Kham Mueang (Northern Thai) folk song by Jaran Manopetch that makes the khwai (ฅวฯายฯ, Kham Mueang reading khwai, water buffalo) its hero. It tells of people and buffalo living side by side, from the rice field to the evening. It is an easy song to listen to, but its words mix real Kham Mueang with central Thai, which makes it a good text for practising how to tell which words are Kham Mueang in the dictionary.

This article is part of the series Kham Mueang through songs and literature. We do not print the whole song; we pick out only the lines and words worth knowing and explain their meaning, sound and the words the song spells differently from the dictionary. You can listen to the full song in the video below.

The song Liang Khwai

This song is on the album Luk Khao Nueng (track 4). Wikipedia gives the album year as 1981, while the "Phleng Wan" (songs of old) column of MGR Online (2012) gives 1982, so we give both years. The words and music are by Jaran, as shown in the karaoke video from the rights holder RMS. MGR Online writes that in this song Jaran tells of "the bond between people and buffalo", which matches what we hear.

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The audio comes from the "จรัล มโนเพ็ชร - Topic" channel, which YouTube generates from the files the rights holder (RMS) delivers. Words and music by Jaran Manopetch.

Two horns: the words for buffalo

The song begins by comparing the buffalo with the people:

ควายก็มีสองเขา เฮาก็มีสองมือ — Liang Khwai, words: Jaran Manopetch

("The buffalo has two horns, and we have two hands.")

Khon Mueang do not have just one word for "buffalo". The dictionary separates buffalo by sex, age and shape in detail.

Khwai ngan is especially interesting, because the dictionary says it can also mean a "young man". So the name has two layers of meaning. Jaran has another song called Khwai Ngan, but this article does not cover it yet.

Hao, hak, bo: the buffalo is a benefactor

The song states the herder's position plainly at the end of the second verse:

เฮาเป็นคนฮักควาย — Liang Khwai, words: Jaran Manopetch

("I am a person who loves buffalo.")

Both hao and hak begin with the sound h where central Thai writes r (rao, rak). This is the Kham Mueang sound rule by which r is pronounced h in native words. Try the tool below; the article Kham Mueang sound rules explains the whole set, including ch→j, th→t and ph→p.

Bo chang: the buffalo does not know how to scold

The second verse is the one that makes you smile, because Jaran turns around the insult people throw using the buffalo and asks who really suffers.

ควายบ่จ้างด่าคน — Liang Khwai, words: Jaran Manopetch

("The buffalo does not know how to scold people.")

The dictionary gives bo chang the meaning "cannot do", so "khwai bo chang da khon" reads as "the buffalo does not know how to scold people" (this reading is ours, from the dictionary meaning). The word panya that the song sings in the line before it matches panya in the dictionary.

Ta wan tok din: the herder's evening

The third verse takes us to the evening: crows calling, buffalo going down to the water, and the people's supper.

จูงควายลงอาบน้ำคลอง — Liang Khwai, words: Jaran Manopetch

("Lead the buffalo down to bathe in the canal.")

The dictionary has several words for this time of day directly, and for the words the song sings in central Thai there are real Kham Mueang counterparts.

Laeng for the evening is a common word, but the song's "ข้าวแลง" mixes central Thai and Kham Mueang. In full Kham Mueang it is เข้าแลง (khao laeng), because the Kham Mueang word for rice is เข้า (ข้าว in central Thai), in a tone of its own, as the article Rice and the fields in Kham Mueang explains.

For the part about building a smoky fire at dusk to drive off mosquitoes, the dictionary has these words:

The song has the phrase "ao haeng", which reads as "to rest and regain strength". The dictionary gives ao haeng ´าแรงฯ the meaning "to exercise the body to be strong", so it is close to the meaning in the song but not exactly the same word. A learner should know what the dictionary says before using it.

Words the song spells differently from the dictionary

The song mixes central Thai and Kham Mueang words to fit the singing. Open the dictionary and you will find that many of them have another form.

The word fang in the line about eating grass and "fang" is central Thai. The Kham Mueang dictionary we have does not record fang in the sense of rice straw (it only has fang meaning "blurred, not clear" for the eyes), so there is no Kham Mueang word to compare it with yet.

Buffalo in the life of the rice farmer: words the dictionary records

The title and the words of the song talk about a buffalo that is "raised" for work, and the dictionary also keeps many words for the field work that depended on buffalo power.

When the farming season ends, farmers hold the hong khwan khwai (ร้อฯงขัวฯรฅวฯายฯ) ceremony. The dictionary records that it calls back the spirit-essence (khwan) of the buffalo that did the work of ploughing and harrowing. If this ceremony interests you, read on in Rice and the fields in Kham Mueang and, for the idea of khwan, Hong khwan. The line in the song that says the buffalo "is the one who has given us a debt of gratitude" has a counterpart in real farming life.

The meaning as a whole

The song speaks for the buffalo and the herder. The first verse compares the buffalo with people and says that the buffalo has done us a kindness. The second answers people who use the buffalo as an insult: the buffalo does not know how to scold anyone, and it is the buffalo that should be ashamed to be used that way. In the end the herder says he himself "loves buffalo". The third verse tells of the evening of people and buffalo, from the bath to the feed to the smoky fire that keeps mosquitoes away so the buffalo can sleep well, and the song closes by saying that he will not sell his buffalo. (This reading of the meaning is by Moradok Lanna; for the full lyrics see the rights holder.)

Summary

• khwai has words by age and shape, such as khwai laeo (a young buffalo), khwai ngan (a buffalo in its prime, which can also mean a young man) and khwai pon (an albino buffalo).
• hao is "we" and hak is "to love"; both are examples of the r→h rule.
• bo chang means "does not know how to"; "khwai bo chang da khon" means the buffalo does not know how to scold people.
• ta wan tok din is the sun setting, khao laeng is the evening meal, and chin is meat, while เนื้อ (nuea) in the dictionary means wild animals.
• The song writes many words in central Thai, such as ตาย, ข้าวแลง, ตะวัน and ปัญญา, which the dictionary has as ต๋าย (tai), เข้าแลง (khao laeng), ต๋าวัน (ta wan) and ปั๋ญญา (panya).

Look up more words from the song in the Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai), and read about other animals in Animal names in Kham Mueang.

More in the same series: Phak Kat Cho · Long Mae Ping, or see the whole series at Kham Mueang through songs and literature (in Thai).

Sources

• Moradok Lanna dictionary (dict2), entries ควาย, ควายหงาน, ควายแลว, ควายต้อง, ควายปอน, เฮา, ฮัก, บ่, บ่จ้าง, ต๋าวันต๋กดิน, เข้าแลง, จิ๊น, ต๋าย and the other words named in this article. In Thai.
• RMS Karaoke. เลี้ยงควาย - จรัล มโนเพ็ชร์ [Liang Khwai – Jaran Manopetch]. YouTube (RMS Studio karaoke video showing the words; used to check the quoted lines).
• จรัล มโนเพ็ชร - Topic. เลี้ยงควาย [Liang Khwai]. YouTube (℗ RMS, delivered by AnyMind Music).
• บอน บอระเพ็ด [Bon Borapet]. (2012, 7 May). “จากยอดดอย-มิดะ” อมตะเพลง “จรัล” ยุคคลาสสิค ["From Yot Doi to Mida": the immortal classic-era songs of Jaran]. MGR Online (the "Phleng Wan" column). In Thai.
• Classy Records. แผ่นเสียง อัลบั้ม ลูกข้าวนึ่ง / จรัล มโนเพ็ชร [Vinyl album Luk Khao Nueng / Jaran Manopetch] (the album track list). In Thai.
• วิกิพีเดีย [Wikipedia]. จรัล มโนเพ็ชร [Jaran Manopetch] (discography), used as background on the album and year. In Thai.