Karen language:
For Indigenous Karen peoples, the Hta (the Karen word meaning Poem) is an important tool as well as factual evidence used by our grandparents/ancestors to communicate these messages with us. And Hta entails vital information that has been memorized and passed down intergenerationally. Traditionally, the Hta is used to give instruction, guidance, discipline, and metaphor, and more importantly it’s the words of wisdom and truth for the next generations. According to our elders, those who communicate with each other by using the language of Hta are highly regarded as wise and knowledgeable. A simple phrase from a Hta can carry many different meanings and as such is hugely important for Karen people’s cultural identity. In this around 300-page Hta titled, “Karen traditional environmental poems,” the main poetic topics included Indigenous Karen people’ understanding and knowledge about Ywar/God and cosmology, Ku rotational farming practices and boundaries marking, seasonal livelihoods activities, traditional ritual ceremonial events-wedding, harvesting, drinking, officering, mourning and burial-, cultural significant areas and sacred sites, nature, judicial process/review revolving, rice banking, and youth. In addition, a set of Karen’s old adages were also incorporated the last section of the book for the reader.