Sala Keo Kou : Narrative and Strategies for Creating Multiculturalism in The Mekong Communities

Abstract

     This research examines the narratives in Sala Keo Kou, multiculturalism in the Mekong communities, and language strategies that form multiculturalism. First, the concept of multiculturalism and language strategies are applied to study the narratives from the inscription that appears on various Devalai bases in Sala Keo Kou. The results mainly indicated the Buddha narratives, followed by God’s narratives, stories from the literature, and folk tales. These narratives have represented multicultural circumstances in the Mekong communities, including the variety of beliefs, biodiversity and ethnicity, languages, traditions and rituals, and priests. Language strategies shaped such varieties based on lexicalization, modification, metaphor, and rhetorical styles in creating multicultural characteristics. These language strategies offer space for cultural diversity to embrace multicultural ways of life in the Mekong communities.