Long Mae Ping: Kham Mueang from a Jaran Manopetch Song

Long Mae Ping is a Kham Mueang (Northern Thai) folk song by Jaran Manopetch. Its title begins with the word long (ล่อฯง, Kham Mueang reading long), which the dictionary explains as "to travel from north to south; to go downstream". But when you actually listen, the song is not about a boat trip down the river: it uses the flowers of the mountains and the waters of the Ping River as images of the young women of Chiang Mai. This lesson reads the song's Kham Mueang word by word, listens for the sounds that differ from central Thai, and looks at how the words at the ends of the lines rhyme.

Whose song is it?

The study of representations of Khon Mueang (Northern Thai people) in Jaran Manopetch's songs by Ueamporn Thipdet and Siriwan Nanthachanthun (2023) covers the songs Jaran wrote and sang himself between 1977 and 1990. It places Long Mae Ping in the group "Folk Song Kham Mueang album" of 1990, together with Muan Khanat and Ban Bon Doi.

Several generations of listeners know this song in two voices: Jaran's own, and that of Soontaree Vechanont, who sang with Jaran in Noi Chai Ya. This article quotes only a few lines of the lyrics, for study (words and music: Jaran Manopetch), and teaches mainly through words and short phrases. You can listen to the full song in the video at the end.

The title: long, Mae Ping and Raming

The Ping River flows from north to south through Chiang Mai, so "long Mae Ping" fits the dictionary's meaning of long exactly. Thai Wikipedia notes that the Ping River has another name, Mae Raming, and so the song has the phrase "luk Mae Raming" (children of the Raming), meaning people born and raised beside the Ping, in other words the people of Chiang Mai.

The song names the city in several ways: wiang (วยฯง, read wiang), meaning a town or city; Chiang Mai (ชยฯงไห่มฯ, read chiang mai, with a "j" sound), Chiang Mai in the Kham Mueang accent; and Wiang Phing, a poetic name for Chiang Mai. The name "Phing" also appears in the provincial slogan that the dictionary quotes under Chiang Mai: "nam lam kha Nakhon Phing" (the precious name of the City of the Ping).

The first verse: flowers in the mountains

The song opens with pictures of the Northern countryside:

ดอกบัวตองนั้นบานอยู่บนยอดดอย ดอกเอื้องสามปอยบ่เกยเบ่งบานบนลานพื้นดิน

— Long Mae Ping, words and music: Jaran Manopetch (as quoted in Ueamporn and Siriwan, 2023)

("The bua tong flower blooms on the mountaintop; the ueang sam poi orchid has never bloomed on the open ground.")

The dictionary says that bua tong (บ฿วฯทอฯง, read bua tong) "grows in abundance on Doi Mae U Kho, Mae Hong Son Province, flowering in November and December", as in the picture at the top of this article. The name ueang sam poi has a charming origin. The dictionary explains, under ueang sam poi luang, that poi is a festival, so the name means a flower that "stays in bloom through three temple festivals in a row" (read about poi festivals in Poy Luang).

So bo koei in the song means "never". The ueang sam poi is an orchid that clings to tall trees and has never bloomed on the bare ground. The song then goes on to the great trees of the forest where peacocks make their home. Ueamporn and Siriwan (2023) argue that the bua tong flower, the orchid and the peacock are metaphors comparing Northern women to beautiful things that live in high places, and that the negative "bo" in this line stresses that Northern women do not lower themselves.

The sounds of music in the song: sueng, salo, choi, so

The next lines of the song list the sounds of Lanna music: "sueng salo" and "choi so". These are Kham Mueang words worth learning as a set.

The chorus: children of the Mae Raming

The part most people sing along to is the one that speaks directly to "sao chao", the young woman:

สาวเจ้าควรภูมิใจบ่ลืมว่าเฮาลูกแม่ระมิงค์
ต้องฮักศักดิ์ศรีของกุลสตรีแม่ญ่าแม่ญิง
เยือกเย็นสดใสเหมือนน้ำแม่ปิง

("Young woman, be proud, and don't forget that we are children of the Mae Raming; cherish the honour of a well-bred woman; be cool and clear like the waters of the Ping.")

The word most worth remembering in this part is luk mae ying (ลูกแม่ยิงฯ, read luk mae ying), which the dictionary explains as "a name for a woman who is well-mannered, gentle and modest", matching the picture of women the song paints in every line. The dictionary spells the song's mae ying แม่ยิง, while mae ya, paired with it, is not in the dictionary; together they simply mean women.

The following lines compare the Chiang Mai girl to the cool, clear waters of the Ping, and say that whoever she loves, she "hak khrai hak ching" (loves truly), close to the dictionary's hak tae. Ueamporn and Siriwan (2023) point out that the song uses words of obligation such as "tong" (must) and "khuan" (should), together with the metaphor woman = river, to build a picture of Northern women who value their honour and are steadfast in love. It answers the negative stereotype that outsiders held of Northern women at that time.

Kham Mueang sounds in the song

The lyrics of Long Mae Ping are mostly central Thai, with words like sakdisi (honour), kunlasattri (well-bred woman), phumchai (proud) and yueak yen (cool, calm), and Kham Mueang words slipped in at key points. See where the Kham Mueang sounds differ from central Thai:

The patterns r to h and ch to j are sound pairs often found in Kham Mueang, as in other songs of this series, such as Lanna, Lanna.

Rhymes at the ends of lines

If you look only at the last word of each line, you can see that the song strings the same vowel sounds together in sets (this division into lines and count of rhymes is Moradok Lanna's own reading).

The -ing set stands out most, because it ties together the song's key words: Raming, mae ying, Mae Ping, hak ching and Wiang Phing. The listener hears women, the river, love and the city of Chiang Mai in one sound. There are also internal rhymes, such as di, si and sattri. This differs from khao and so, whose rhymes link one line to the next like a chain (see Khao and the song Noi Chaiya).

Listen to Long Mae Ping

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This version is sung by Soontaree Vechanont, from a live recording on the Nititad AOA Official channel. You can hear Jaran Manopetch's own voice at Long Mae Ping – Jaran Manopetch (℗ RMS). Try listening and noting down the Kham Mueang words you hear, such as hak, hao, bo koei and Chiang Mai.

The meaning of the song in brief

The song begins with the bua tong flower on the mountaintop, the orchid that never blooms on the ground and the peacock in the great forest, together with the sounds of the sueng, salo, choi and so of Chiang Mai. Then it turns to tell the young women of Chiang Mai to be proud that they are children of the Mae Raming, to be beautiful in both looks and goodness, to value their honour, to be calm and clear like the waters of the Ping, to love truly whoever they love, and to keep the tales of Sao Khruea Fa and Mae Sao Bua Ban as a warning.

Summary

• long means to travel from north to south, downstream, but the song Long Mae Ping uses the Ping River as an image of the young women of Chiang Mai.
• Key Kham Mueang words in the song: doi, ueang, bo koei (never), hao, hak, mae ying, Chiang Mai (jiang mai) and wiang.
• In the dictionary, luk mae ying means a woman who is well-mannered, gentle and modest, matching the picture of women in the song.
• Clear Kham Mueang sounds: r becomes h (rak → hak) and ch becomes j (Chiang Mai → jiang mai).
• The song ties its key words together with the -ing rhyme: Raming, ying, Ping, ching, Phing.

Look up more words from the song in the Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai), and read another of Jaran's Kham Mueang songs at the song Noi Chaiya.

More in the same series: Sao Chiang Mai · Ban Bon Doi, or see the whole series at Kham Mueang through songs and literature (in Thai).

Sources

• Moradok Lanna dictionary (dict2): ล่อง, ลูกแม่ยิง, บ่เกย, ดอกบัวตอง, บัวตอง, ดอย, เอื้อง, เอื้องสามปอยหลวง, นกยูง, ซึง, วงสะล้อซอซึง, จ๊อย, ซอ, สาว, เฮา, แม่ยิง, ฮักแต๊, ใส, งาม, เวียง, เจียงใหม่. In Thai.
• เอื้อมพร ทิพย์เดช และสิริวรรณ นันทจันทูล [Ueamporn Thipdet and Siriwan Nanthachanthun]. (2023). ภาพแทนคนเมืองในบทเพลงของจรัล มโนเพ็ชร [Representations of Khon Mueang in the songs of Jaran Manopetch]. Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Uttaradit Rajabhat University 10(1) (January–June 2023), 167–184. In Thai.
• musicatm.com. เนื้อเพลงล่องแม่ปิง – จรัล มโนเพชร [Long Mae Ping lyrics – Jaran Manopetch] (used only to compare the wording of the lyrics). In Thai.
• วิกิพีเดียภาษาไทย [Thai Wikipedia]. แม่น้ำปิง [Ping River] (the name Mae Raming, used as background only). In Thai.
• Nititad AOA Official. (2024). ล่องแม่ปิง – สุนทรี เวชานนท์ (คอนเสิร์ตเพลงคำเมืองดั้งเดิม) [Long Mae Ping – Soontaree Vechanont (traditional Kham Mueang song concert)]. YouTube.
• Moradok Lanna. Noi Chaiya (the origin of the sung drama Sao Khruea Fa).