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The history of Isan ((タイ語:อีสาน), ) has been determined by its geography, situated as it is on the Korat Plateau between Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand. The national government claimed that the name "Isan" was derived from Sanskrit ''Īśāna'', a name of Shiva they claimed referred to his rule of the northeast (Sanskrit ''īśānya'').〔Royal Institute - 1982: อีสาน ๑〕 This interpretation was intended to reinforce Isan's identity as the northeast of Thailand, rather than as part of the Lao kingdom because of the fear of the Lao people seceding. The Thai king Vajiravudh reinvoked the ancient name, designating the northeast sector of the Rattanakosin Kingdom "Isan". Previously, in the reign of Chulalongkorn in early 20th century, the sector was generally called ''Hua Mueang Lao'' (''Lao Townships'' ) for the area north of Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat) and ''Khamen Pa Dong'' (''Wilderness Khmer'', ) for the townships to the east. Later, the term ''Isan'' came into wide, if unofficial, use as a term for the northeastern region, and ''khon Isan'' (''Isan people'', ) as a general term for the peoples of Isan. Isan has been dominated by each of its neighbors in turn, although its relative infertility meant it was more often a battleground than a prize. Rather than being incorporated into the respective empires of each power, the area was divided into ''mueang'' ("city-states", ), each paying tribute to one or more powers under the mandala system. Throughout the 20th century, the Thai government took steps to cement Isan's status as a part of Thailand and to de-emphasize the Lao, Khmer and Kuy origins of its population, a process known as Thaification. The majority of people in present-day Isan speak the Lao language known as Isan. Many Khmer speakers live in the southern half and substantial minorities of Katuic speakers (i.e., Kuy, Bru, and So) also exist. Most Isan people are both conversant and to some degree literate in Central Thai. Before the central government introduced the Thai alphabet and language in regional schools, the people of Isan wrote in the Lao alphabet, a very similar script that Thai adopted. Most people still speak the Isan language, a dialect of the Lao language, as their first language. A significant minority in the south also speak Northern Khmer. The Kuy people, an Austronesian people concentrated around the core of what was once the Chenla Kingdom and known as the ''Khmer Boran'' "ancient Khmer", are a link to the region's pre-Tai history. ==Prehistory== Four ''Homo erectus'' fossil skull fragments found in northern Thailand's Hat Pudui cave (Ko Kha District, Lampang Province) by Thai paleontologists Somsak Pramankij and Vadhana Subhavanin, were in deposits dating from the mid-Pleistocene era, which was before the Khorat Plateau had uplifted from an extensive plain. Professor Phillip V. Tobias of Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand examined the fragments and said: "It seems unavoidable but to conclude that Thailand must have been a highway or crossroads in the movement of hominids — members of the family of man." Pha Taem cliff paintings alongside the Mekong in Udon Thani Province date to around 1500 BC. They are younger than but similar in composition to the Rock Paintings of Hua Mountain in southern China, which are attributed to the Luoyue people of what is today the lowland plains of northern Vietnam, particularly the marshy, agriculturally rich area of the Red River Delta, and particularly associated with the Bronze Age Đông Sơn culture of mainland Southeast Asia. The Ban Chiang archaeological site, dating from around 3000 BC to 300 AD, attracted attention in 1966 as seemingly the world's oldest site showing traces of a Bronze Age culture, due to errors in dating. In Fine Arts, the site is remarkable for its pottery; further investigation into ancient skeletal remains raised serious questions about transitions to sedentism and intensified agriculture.〔 〕 The question as to why the site was abandoned until resettled by 19th–century Lao émigrés remains to be settled. The Bronze Age site of Ban Non Wat in the southeast of the plateau is also under investigation (2002–present.) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Isan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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