A Comparative Study Of Thai And Chinese Myths Of Rice

As one of the Myths in the world, the myth of rice, wherever China or the Western Countries, the Ancient Rome and Greece, the Middle East Asia, India or South East Asia, they all had their own distinctive and unique characteristic. Due to the diversity in the development of society, the gap between time and space in Cultural formation, Economic disparity, History, Geography, Ecological environment, customs and belief in each ethnic group, their myth of rice, as well as the cognition of Harvest God is also different. Through the various forms of culture around the world, the similarity in evolution of mankind and process of development has made the myth undoubtedly exist the inter-being of diverse life-forms. Obviously, Thai and China Mythology on rice also had their similarities. Due to the2,000years gap between Thai and China rice cropping, the discrepancy of the way to recognize "sacred-seed" of the people in both places, and the time of their myth formation have spoken for themselves. The most of mythology on rice in South of Yangtze River region’s pattern has shown in a form of animal shape, which bird-worship was a core content. While the myth of rice in Thailand has seem to be related to Buddhist culture, but the origin of story is based on her rice goddess Mae Posop.This research is using the Myth as a research object which could be considered as a memorandum of ancient people. By using the Comparative Method as a researching method, the researcher will be able to analyze and explain the folk cultures and beliefs that lie behind the Myth of Thai and Chinese. Combining with the field work data and interviewed information collected by the researcher from both sources; Thai and China. Also, the scope of this research focuses mainly on the Myth Thai and the South Yangtze Region.This research is divided into five chapters:I. Introduction. This is to introduce the background, meaning and concept of the research, the current research situation, as well as framework and method. Ⅱ. South Yangtze River Myth of rice. This chapter is mainly based on the core content of bird worship in this area along with interpreting the folk culture and beliefs behind the myth and giving a brief discussion on the collective consciousness. III. The Myth of Rice in Thailand. The objective of this chapter is to introduce the classification of rice mythology in Thailand. Then, discuss Thai folk cultural perspective in rice goddess, and the profound impact of Buddhism in its mythology. Ⅵ. The Differences and Similarities between Thai and China Myths of Rice. This part is consisted of contexts and characters existed in the myths, including the comparison of both Thai and Chinese people’s perceptions. The last Chapter is Review and conclusion.