The Kingdom of Lanna and the HIV Epidemic

mother-fetus, and through sexual intercourse, both heterosexual and homosexual. While
injecting drug users and men who have sex with men account for the majority of HIV infected
persons in the West, heterosexual spread has been the dominant mode in Africa, and the
Caribbean. There was a major epidemic of HIV among injecting heroin users in Bangkok,
but this outbreak, like the AIDS cases among gay Thais before it, does not appear to have led
to the northern Thai HIV explosion. What did, most researchers now agree, was the
widespread use of prostitution by northern Thai men, and the heavy representation of northern
women in the brothels, cafes, and massage parlors throughout the country.(5,6,7,8,9,10) In
the north, heterosexuals make up the great majority of HIV infected persons. Like the central
African HIV epidemic, the roots of the epidemic in the 'north lie in the sexual networks,
behaviors, and practices of the people of Lanna, in the status and treatment of her women, and
in the sexual habits of her men.
For the northern Thai man in earlier times having multiple wives and other sex
partners was one of the privileges of prosperity. Minor wives were socially acceptable, and
wealthy men might have several.(I 1) Slavery was a part of Lanna life for most of the
Kingdom's first six centuries, and slave "wives" were common for those who cold afford
them. Any children a man had with his slave wives were his to sell.(11) The modern trade
in young women no doubt has some continuity with this tradition. The current emphasis on
monogamous marriages has been seen by cultural historians as an adaptation to exposure to
the West; earlier northern Thai traditions placed little emphasis on monogamy as a virtue for
men.
The well described social tolerance of Thai culture has also played a role in the
development of sexual habits and practices. While social codes of conduct may be adhered
to in public, and loss of face a compelling social control, Lanna culture has always allowed
for a considerable degree of autonomy in people's private lives. This relative sexual freedom,
at least for men, appears to have survived till today. The use of commercial sex services,
highly stigmatized in many Asian cultures, is an acknowledged outlet for northern Thai men,
the great majority of whom have bought sex at least some time in their lives.(5,6,7) We also
know from several carefully done studies, that most northern men begin their sexual lives in
brothels, usually being taken in adolescence by older relatives and friends.
Like virtually all societies, however, this same sexual freedom applies much less to
women. Social codes of female behavior strongly censure pre-marital sex, extra-marital sex,

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-T-w