ASEAS 18(1) | 119

Book Review: Karlsson, K. A. (2025). A Sense of Place and 
Belonging: The Chiang Tung Borderland of Northern 
Southeast Asia.
Northern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-1-5017-7976-3. 246 pages. 

Joseph Blacka*

aKing’s College London, Chiang Mai University

*corresponding author: joseph.black@kcl.ac.uk

Received: 27 February 2025 / Accepted: 11 April 2025 / Published: 29 April 2025.

► Black, J. (2025). Book Review: Klemens Karlsson (2025). A sense of place and belonging: The Chiang Tung 
borderland of northern Southeast Asia. Advances in Southeast Asian Studies, 18(1), 119-121. 

Situated at the intersection of China, Laos, and Thailand, the Shan State has his-
torically served as a cultural and commercial crossroads of civilizations, where 
trade, religion, and migration have woven an intricately textured fabric of iden-
tities. In contrast to Myanmar’s predominantly Bamar heartland, the history of 
Shan State is inextricably linked to Tai cultural heritage and unique configura-
tions of local autonomy. Among its many culturally diverse regions, the city of 
Chiang Tung (Keng Tung) exemplifies a dynamic borderland culture – shaped 
by fluid identities, cross-border exchanges, and a long history of local autonomy 
that defies easy categorization within national frameworks.

Klemens Karlsson’s A Sense of Place and Belonging is a timely book about 
Chiang Tung that illuminates its cultural and historical significance beyond the 
conventional narratives of Southeast Asian nation-states. In A Sense of Place and 
Belonging, Karlsson explores how the region’s indigenous people, particularly 
the Tai Khuen, construct sense and belonging through religious practice, sacred 
geography, and memory.

The book is thematic, with each chapter dealing with different aspects. In 
the introductory chapter, Karlsson lays out the historical and cultural context 
of Chiang Tung, framing it as a contested borderland marked by shifting sover-
eignties, diverse ethnic communities, and deep-rooted struggles for autonomy. 
He introduces the Tai Khuen as a distinct ethnic group within the broader Tai 
world and the region’s complicated relationship with its neighbors, including 
Lan Na. The subsequent chapters look at local belonging, myths and memory, 
and the region’s history. Karlsson also looks at the impact of colonial and foreign 
rule, as well as the significance of sacred spaces in local conceptions of place.

One of the most intriguing chapters is about the Songkran Festival in Chiang 
Tung. In this chapter, Karlsson weaves together many of the book’s previous 
themes – ritual, memory, sacred space, and ethnic plurality. Songkran in Chiang 

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120 | ASEAS 18(1)

Book Review: Karlsson, K. A. (2025). A Sense of Place and Belonging

Tung is anything but a simple New Year celebration; it is a layered spectacle of often 
conflicting religious symbolism, ancestral memory, and land ownership. Karlsson 
shows how ritual drama rehearses a mythic history that binds the Tai Khuen and 
indigenous Tai Loi together in a symbolic contract rooted in premodern land rights. 
That contract is what Clifford Geertz (1980) calls a “theatre state”, in which ritual 
becomes the performance of sovereignty and belonging. 

Particularly noteworthy is how Karlsson uses colonial sources – namely, the writ-
ings of J. George Scott, William Clifton Dodd, and C.M. Enriquez – to underscore the 
performative nature of earlier Songkran processions. Colonial voices highlight the 
“indecent” figures and “obscene” antics, which may suggest how ritual space allows 
for temporary inversion of social norms. In turn, we perceive how colonial agents 
othered other cultures and peoples, obtaining insights into past transnational spaces.

Beyond the rich historical and ethnographic insights, A Sense of Place and Belonging 
contributes to the field of ethnology by shedding light on a cultural landscape that 
has been understudied. Karlsson’s methodology, based on fieldwork and oral histories, 
gives an intimate view of how the Tai Khuen navigate their historical and spiritual 
world. This focus on lived experiences sets the book apart from broader regional histo-
ries that often ignore the agency of local communities in shaping their own narratives.

While the study offers several notable strengths, it also presents a few weak-
nesses that merit discussion. One of the book’s greatest strengths is how it frustrates 
methodological nationalism, a concept coined by Andreas Wimmer and Nina Glick 
Schiller (2002) and largely tied to contemporary area and borderland studies. Western 
scholarship on Southeast Asia, such as David Wyatt’s (1984) Thailand: A Short History 
and Robert H. Taylor’s (2009) The State in Myanmar tends to focus on the Thai, Lao, 
Burmese, or Khmer state. Such a focus, inevitably, marginalizes the borderlands and 
open, interconnected societies that existed prior to the formation of the colonial 
state. Like Mandy Sadan’s (2013) Being and Becoming Kachin: Histories Beyond the State 
in the Borderlands of Burma, Karlsson’s study serves as a valuable antidote to this dom-
inant trend. It sheds light on Chiang Tung’s unique cultural, religious, and historical 
individuality, which has very little in common with the rest of Myanmar and cannot 
be easily subsumed under contemporary Thai historiography.

Karlsson’s approach is commendable in that it contextualizes Chiang Tung 
through a local perspective rather than imposing Western academic frameworks 
onto its history and culture. This is particularly noticeable when Karlsson writes 
about sacred space and religion. The book explores how myth and memory construct 
the Tai Khuen people’s sense of origin and unity with the earth. In his examination 
of Chiang Tung’s Buddhist monasteries and literary tradition tied to Tai Khuen cul-
ture, Karlsson demonstrates how the region’s religious and intellectual life is deeply 
entwined with the broader Theravāda Buddhist world, particularly Lan Na and other 
parts of northern Thailand.

The author’s description of religious culture is especially illuminating, pointing to 
the ubiquity of both Buddhist monastic orders and spirit shrines in each village. This 
dual religious system, where animist practice coexists alongside Buddhism, presents 
a compelling example of Shan syncretic spirituality. Karlsson’s focus on how myth 
and ritual determine the sacred geography of Chiang Tung serves to inform readers 
about how these create local identity despite historical disruptions.



ASEAS 18(1) | 121

Joseph Black

While Karlsson provides a rich ethnographic and historical account, there are 
some limitations. One limitation is the lack of critical discussion of gender. His 
treatment of religious culture and sacred space could have been stronger with an 
examination of who is included and excluded (e.g., women or queer folk) across these 
spaces, how gendering is articulated in the spiritual and social institutions of Chiang 
Tung, and what that could tell us about power relations in society. 

Another limitation is the absence of discussion on innovative research methods 
that could be applied in a war-torn region, such as Myanmar. This would be highly 
valuable to individuals seeking to complete research on Myanmar or specifically 
the Shan State in the light of a general lack of discussion, which is also mirrored by 
the paucity of literature on this problem. Such missing debate is perhaps surprising 
given Karlsson’s use of a qualitative, ethnographic approach, combined with histori-
cal analysis, which should allow space for discussion of unique methods. Karlsson 
could also have critically noted ethical concerns related to doing research in a coun-
try where trauma and displacement are persistent issues. From my experience, this 
is a major blind spot in many researchers’ experiences, and Myanmar offers the best 
opportunity to discuss this.

In conclusion, Karlsson’s study successfully projects a historically overlooked 
community, offering a compelling account of Chiang Tung’s unique place in the his-
tory of northern Southeast Asia. Although certain aspects could benefit from further 
development, the book is an excellent read for anyone looking into borderland soci-
eties, religious syncretism, and the historical forces which have constructed one of 
Southeast Asia’s most intriguing but least appreciated regions.


REFERENCES

Geertz, C. (1980). Negara: The theatre state in nineteenth-century Bali. Princeton University Press.

Sadan, Mandy. (2013). Being and becoming Kachin: Histories beyond the state in the borderworlds of Burma. 
Oxford University Press.

Taylor, R. H. (2009). The state in Myanmar. NUS Press.

Wimmer, A. & Glick Schiller, N. (2002). Methodological nationalism and beyond: Nation-state building, 
migration and the social sciences. Global Networks, 2(4), 301–334.

Wyatt, D. K. (1984). Thailand: A short history. Yale University Press.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joseph Black is a graduate student in the War Studies Department at King’s College London 
and the Women’s Studies Center at Chiang Mai University. He is also a research officer at the 
University of New South Wales.

► Contact: joseph.black@kcl.ac.uk

mailto:joseph.black%40kcl.ac.uk?subject=