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[I-San Guide]

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  • Festivals of I-San
  • Music is an important element in all public I-San celebrations, be they temporal or religious, and remains an enduringly important part of I-San's cultural heritage.

    Folk Dance
    Music in I-San is quite different from the rest of Thailand, both in instrumentation and form. Some music forms the accompaniment for dances, some for a type of singing known as mor lam, a traditional duet between a flirtatious male and a recalcitrant, ostensibly modest female.

    The allure of the syncopated music depends a great deal on the sauciness of its lyrics, and the improvised wit of the participants.
    One of the most distinctive instruments indigenous to I-San is the Kharen, a bamboo wind instrument of vertical organ-like pipes which produces a wholly unique reedy sound. In the hands of a virtuoso, the Khaen produces some of the most distinctive folk music heard anywhere in Southeast Asia.
    Dance and Band


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