Quarter Column
This journey was undertaken by John Hartmann, with the assistance Dr. Ratanaporn Sethakul, his former research assistant at Northern Illinois University, where she completed her doctoral dissertation in Thai history. For some time, both had nurtured an abiding interest in Tai minorities outside of Thailand and had done considerable research on Tai groups such as the Lue in Sipspongpanna, Yunnan (each on separate field trips) and the Tai Kheun, who are concentrated in Keng Tung, Burma. Her publications can be found in the bibliographic notes to this website and a scanned copy of her article on the military incursion of Rama IV into the northern limits of the kingdom of Siam, principally Chiang Tung (Keng Tung).