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Tai Tham script

Abugida script

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The Lanna language is a close relative of (standard) Thai. It is spoken by nearly 6 million people in Northern Thailand and several thousand in Laos of whom few are literate in Lanna script. The script is still read by older monks. Northern Thai has six linguistic tones and Thai only five, making transcription into the Thai script problematic. There is some resurgent interest in the script among younger people, but an added complication is that the modern spoken form, called Kam Muang, differs in pronunciation from the older form.

There are 670,000 speakers of Tai Lü, some of those born before 1950 are literate in Tham, also known as Old Tai Lue. The script has also continued to be taught in the monasteries. The New Tai Lue script is derived from Tham. There are 120,000 speakers of Khün for which Lanna is the only script.

History

The Tai Tham script shows a strong similarity to the Mon script used by the Mon kingdom of Haripunjaya around the 13th century CE, in the present-day Lamphun Province of Northern Thailand. During the reign of King Tilokkarat, the Tai Tham script was promoted as a tool of political and cultural unification for the Lanna Kingdom. According to some historical perspectives, Tilokkarat was influenced by the Chinese model of using standardized language and scriptures to exert administrative control over an empire. To create a distinct identity for his expanding territories, he mandated a writing system that integrated elements from the Mon, Khmer, and Lao alphabets. This standardization allowed the central Lanna authority to project influence over its diverse vassal states through shared religious and administrative texts. However, evidence indicates that the script may have existed prior to his reign. The oldest known document containing the Tai Tham script is dated to 1376 CE and was found in Sukhothai. The document is a bilingual inscription on a gold folio, containing one line of Pali written in the Tai Tham script, while the vernacular is written in the Siamese language, using the Sukhothai script. The Tai Tham script was adapted to write vernacular languages not later than the 15th century CE, most probably in Chiang Mai, in the Lanna Kingdom. The script spread from Lanna to surrounding areas such as modern day Laos, Isan, Shan State and Sipsong Panna. Numerous local variants developed, such as the Lue variant (Sipsong Panna), the Khuen variant (Shan State) and the Tham Lao variant (Laos and Isan). The variants differ only slightly in appearance, and the system of writing has remained the same.

Following periods of decline after the Burmese conquest of Lanna in 1558, which led to depopulation and reduced manuscript production in Northern Thailand, monastic centers and script usage shifted eastward to Laos, particularly Vientiane and Luang Prabang. By the mid-17th century, Vientiane had become a hub attracting monks from Myanmar, Siam, and Sipsong Panna, fostering a vibrant manuscript culture in Lao Tham. Monks from Lanna also migrated to Luang Prabang for patronage, and texts were exchanged bidirectionally. For instance, in 1523, Chiang Mai sent 60 volumes of Pali texts to Luang Prabang and conversely as Chiang Mai was rebuilding under rulers like Kawila (1782–1816), numerous palm-leaf manuscripts containing Pali scriptures, Jātaka stories, chronicles, and other Buddhist texts in Lao Tham were copied from Luang Prabang and transferred to centers such as Chiang Mai, Phrae, and Nan. This period marked a reversal of earlier flows, with Laos influencing Lanna's textual revival.

During the revival of Northern Thai monastic libraries, scholar-monks like Phra Kru Kanjana (Khruba Kancana), at Wat Sung Men, in Phrae collected and copied thousands of manuscripts based on Lao originals in the Tham Lao script, with direct support from the king of Luang Prabang. This process effectively reintroduced and adapted elements of the Tham Lao script and associated Buddhist literature to Lanna regions, sustaining a shared "Tham script cultural zone" across pre-colonial borders through traveling monks, royal gifts, and trade routes. This network of intellectual exchange facilitated the transmission of Buddhist knowledge, with Luang Prabang emerging as a key center for preserving and producing manuscripts in Lao Tham during periods when northern Thai traditions waned. Luang Prabang's stronger continuity in manuscript production made it a vital source for restoring lost traditions in Lanna. Subsequent copying efforts occurred in Nan around 1840 and again in the 1860s–1870s. These exchanges challenge the unidirectional narratives of cultural flow from Lanna to Laos, instead revealing mutual influences in vernacular commentaries, ritual manuals, and apocryphal Jatakas.

As the name suggests, the use of the Tham (Dharma) script in Lao was restricted to religious literature, either used to transcribe Pali, or religious treatises written in Lao intended solely for the clergy. Religious instructional materials and prayer books dedicated to the laity were written in Tai Noi instead. As a result, only a few people outside the temples were literate in the script. In Isan, evidence of the script includes two stone inscriptions, such as the one housed at Wat Tham Suwannakhuha in Nong Bua Lamphu, dated to 1564, and another from Wat Mahaphon in Maha Sarakham from the same period.

Most of the script is recorded on palm-leaf manuscripts, many of which were destroyed during the 'Thaification' purges of the 1930s; contemporaneously this period of Thai nationalisation also ended its use as the primary written language in Northern Thailand. Although no longer in use in Isan, the alphabet is enjoying a resurgence in Northern Thailand, and is still used as the primary written script for the Tai Lü and Tai Khün languages spoken in the 'Golden Triangle' where Thailand, Laos, Burma and southern China meet. Its use is rather limited to the long-term monks in Laos and most materials published today are in the modern Lao script.

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