Khorat Thai
Khorat Thai, Korat Thai, Thai Korat or Thai Khorat (Thai: ไทโคราช; Thai pronunciation: [tʰaj kʰoːrâːt]) refers to an ethnic group named for their main settlement area in Nakhon Ratchasima Province, unofficially called "Korat". Korat Thai people call themselves Thai Boeng (ไทเบิ้ง [tʰaj bɤ̂ŋ]; also spelled Tai Berng or Tai Beung), Thai Doeng (ไทเดิ้ง [tʰaj dɤ̂ŋ]; Tai Derng, Tai Deung), or Thai Khorat. Other tribes in northern Thailand also refer to them by those names.
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 10,000 (est. 1999) 600,000 (est. 2005) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Nakhon Ratchasima Province, Thailand | |
| Languages | |
| Central Thai (Khorat dialect), others | |
| Religion | |
| Theravada Buddhism |
Theories of the origin of the name Thai Boeng are:
- Boeng means 'some' or 'few'. Thai Khorat people lived in three major kingdoms: central Thai kingdoms (Ayutthaya, Thonburi, and Bangkok), Lao Kingdom, and Cambodia Kingdom. People who live in the Khorat area are of different origin—e.g., Thai, Lao, Khmer, Kui—and blended their cultures and beliefs together into their own culture.
- It may be from their commonly used word, boeng is a word unique to the Thai Khorat people, and it is frequently used in their conversation.
Thai Khorat people have their own traditions and cultures called Khorat culture, which is similar to the culture of Thai people on the central plain, but their own unique words, dialect, costumes, songs, and beliefs are different from the rest of the Tai-speaking peoples. In spite of their Isan domicile, populated by northeast Thai speakers, the Khorat Thai speak Central Thai. Their fluency in the official Thai language has meant that the group does not appear on official lists of ethnic groups in Thailand. The group was however acknowledged in Thailand's 2011 report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.