The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXXX, Part 1-2, 1992 - Khamkoo

The Journal 

of the 

Siam Society 

VOLUME 80, PART 1 

1992

© 

All Rights Reserved 

The Siam Society 

1992 

ISSN 0857-7099 

Front cover : 

Her Majesty Queen Sirikit. Portrait painted by Piriya Krairiksh, Bhubing Palace, Chiang Mai, 1964. 

Printed by 

Amarin Printing Group Co., Ltd., 65/16 Soi Wat Chaiyapruk, Pinklao-Nakhon Chaisi Road, Taling Chan, 

Bangkok 10170, Thailand. Tel. 424-2800-1, 424-1176

THE SIAM SOCIETY 

PATRON 

VICE-PATRONS 

HON. PRESIDENT 

HON. VICE-PRESIDENTS 

HON. MEMBERS 

HON. AUDITOR 

HON. ARCHITECT 

HON. LEGAL COUNSEL 

HON. LANDSCAPE CONSULTANT 

His Majesty the King 

Her Majesty the Queen 

Her Royal Highness the Princess Mother 

His Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn 

Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn 

Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana 


Mom Kobkaew Abhakara na Ayudhaya 

H.S.H. Prince Subhadradis Diskul 

Maj. Gen. M.R. Kukrit Pramoj 

Professor Chilli Tingsabadh 

The Ven. Dhammaghosacariya (Buddhadasa Bhikkhu) 

The Ven. Debvedi (Payutto) 

Dr. Fua Haripitak 

Dr. Puey Ungphakorn 

Dr. Sood Saengvichien 

Professor William Gedney 

Professor Prawase Wasi, M.D. 

H.E. Mr. Anand Panyarachun 

Dr. Tern Smitinand 

Mr. Dacre F.A. Raikes 

Mr. Yukta na Thalang 

Mr. Sirichai Narumit 

Mr. John Hancock 

Mr. William Warren 

COUNCIL OF THE SIAM SOCIETY FOR 1992/93 

Dr. Piriya Krairiksh 

Dr. Rachit Buri 

Mrs. Jada Wattanasiritham 

Dr. Philippe Annez 

Mrs. Bilaibhan Sampatisiri 

Dr. Charit Tingsabadh 

Mr. Jitkasem Sangsingkeo 

Dr. Warren Y. Brockelman 

Mr. James V. Di Crocco 

Dr. Chaiyudh Khantaprab 

Mrs. Boonyavan Chandrviroj 

MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL: 

Mr. Athueck Asvanund 

Major Suradhaj Bunnag 

Mr. Bangkok Chowkwanyun 

Mrs. Bonnie Davis 

Mrs. Virginia M. Di Crocco 

M.L. Plaichumpol Kitiyakara 

Mr. Henri Pagau-Clarac 

Mr. Norman Pajasalmi 

President 

Vice President 



Honorary Secretary 

Honorary Treasurer 

Honorary Librarian 

Honorary Editor of the NHB 

Honorary Editor of the JSS 

Leader of the Natural History Section 

Honorary Officer 

Mrs. Vipavadee Patpongpibul 

Mr. Peter Rogers 

Dr. Thawatchai Santisuk 

Mr.Barent Springsted 

Mr. Sidhijai Tanphiphat 

Dr. Steven J. Torok 

Mr. Albert Paravi Wongchirachai

Acknowledgments 

The Honorary Editor gives special thanks to the 

President of The Siam Society Under Royal Patronage, 

Dr. Piriya Krairiksh, for kindly furnishing to the JSS the reproduction 

of his painting of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit which 

graces our cover. Our readers are undoubtedly aware that 

Dr. Piriya is as accomplished a creative artist as he is a scholar. 

The photographer who took the cover picture of Her 

Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn for our 

previous issue, Vol. 79, Part 2, is Miss Anothai Nanthithasana, 

whose name was inadvertently omitted. She also took the 

other pictures of the Princess which appear in that issue. 

Another photographer to whom credit is belatedly 

due is Mr. Denis Robinson of Placitas, New Mexico. The 

statement, originally included, that Mr. Robinson took all the 

otherwise unaccredited photographs illustrating the article on 

"Comparison of Transitional Bencharong and Probable Bat 

Trang Enameled Wares" by his wife, Mrs. Natalie Robinson, 

also in Vol. 79, Part 2, somehow fell out in the production 

process. 

We also extend our thanks to photographers 

Luca Invernizzi Tettoni, Dacho Buranabunpot, Noppadol 

Suwanweerakorn and Virginia Di Crocco for their contributions 

to the present issue, and to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 

for the photograph of a Dutch artist's painting of 

Ayudhya. Specific credits are given in the appropriate places. 

Last in mention but among the first deserving of our 

appreciation is Mr. Euayporn Kerdchouay, whose assistance 

in the production of this issue was as invaluable as it always 

has been in many aspects of the Society's activities.

In This Issue 

The Siam Society Under Royal Patronage most humbly 

and respectfully offers this issue of the Journal of the Siam 

Society to Her Majesty QUEEN SIRIKIT in commemoration of 

Her Majesty's Fifth Cycle Birthday, thus joining the entire 

nation in expressing affection and happiness on this most 

auspicious occasion. Council Member BONNIE DAVIS, the 

Society's chronicler of royalty, speaks for the Society as a whole 

in a warm-hearted tribute to the Society's Royal Vice-Patron. 

The Siam Society also warmly welcomes His Royal 

Highness Crown Prince MAHA V AJIRALONGKORN as a 

Royal Vice-Patron, deeply sensible of the high honor thus 

brought to the Society, and further reports upon His Royal 

Highness's graciously representing His Majesty the King at 

the Gold-Casting Ceremony for the Society's Buddha Footprint 

Project in honor of Her Majesty the Queen. 

Distinguished personages who have received honors 

of special interest to the Society, namely H.E. Mr. ANAND 

PANYARACHUN, Dr. TEM SMITINAND, Mr. DACRE F.A. 

RAIKES, O.B.E., and Mr. JAN. J. BOELES, are given recognition 

in the following pages. 

Members of the Siam Society finally met their counterparts 

in the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 

during a gala weekend spent enjoying the hospitality of the 

MBRAS in Penang, Kuala Lumpur, and at cultural monuments 

elsewhere in Malaysia. A return visit to Bangkok by 

the MBRAS is being planned. 

It is a pleasure indeed to announce that this issue of 

the JSS has been sponsored by Mrs. BOONKRONG 

INDHUSOPHON, to whom goes our great gratitude. Mrs. 

Boonkrong's late husband, Mr. PRAKAIPET INDHUSOPHON, 

the renowned philatelist, had in his collection the contemporary 

letter of the English merchant WILLIAM SOAME, 

presented in this issue, which describes the violent events of 

1688 in Siam. Soame's letter, published here for presumably 

the first time, serves to introduce a discussion in several articles 

of various aspects of the history of Ayudhya. 

Featured among these is a fresh and detailed scrutiny 

of the architecture of Ayudhya by Dr. PIRIYA KRAIRIKSH, 

President of the Siam Society, in which he proposes a revised 

dating for many of the monuments in that city. Prominent in 

the evidence that he adduces are the descriptions, literary 

and pictorial, made by early European visitors to A yudhya, 

whose eyewitness accounts he compares with the monuments 

as they have been traditionally described or dated and as 

they appear today. 

We turn then to politicoeconomic accounts of 

A yudhya, some of which bear a close relation to the stormy 

events recounted by William Soame. His Excellency GEORGE 

A. SIORIS, formerly Ambassador of Greece in Thailand and 

Member of the Council, discusses the character of Constance 

Phaulkon as reconstituted by a fellow Greek. DIRK VAN 

DER CRUYSSE summarizes the broader scope of Siamese 

French relations during the eighteenth century as a whole, 

examining them in relation to a panoramic historical perspective, 

especially as concerns early Siamese encounters with 

other Europeans besides the French. REIKO HADA, awardwinning 

Japanese novelist, studies Phaulkon's Japanese wife 

in a manner similar to that of Greek Ambassador Sioris's 

examining the Greek Phaulkon. CHARNVIT KASETSIRI 

depicts the role played by overseas Chinese traders in the 

maritime economy of Ayudhya in its heyday. MICHAEL 

WRIGHT next turns his historian's telescope not back at 

Ayudhya from the present day, but forward to Ayudhya from 

prehistoric times. 

Here we leave Ayudhya for wider horizons as SUNAIT 

CHITINTARANOND examines the Thai image of Ayudhya's 

nemesis, the Burmese, and how that image of an implacable 

enemy was used to serve the goals of Thai patriotism. With 

CHRISTIAN BAUER we enter an entirely different arena as 

he focuses his epigrapher's scrutiny on the language of the 

Jataka glosses at Wat Sri Chum in Sukhothai; and with 

STEPHEN J. TOROK we view the future of Cambodia, and 

indeed of a stable self-sustainable world, as envisioned by a 

philosophical political economist with farreaching historical 

insights who was on the spot in Cambodia helping the UN to 

help Cambodia elect a new government. 

PETER SKILLING, looking into Southeast Asian 

maritime history, notes references to a pair of ports in 

Suvarnabhumi, and brings readers up to date on half a dozen 

recent translations of Buddhist literature ranging from Pali 

through Sanskrit and Tibetan. 

Finally, after our review section, JAN J. BOELES calls 

upon Catullus in seeking a fitting threnody for a towering 

figure among Thai scholars who will ever live in the annals 

of Lanna culture and the Siam Society, KRAISRI 

NIMMANAHAEMINDA, who passed away in May 1992. 

Acharn Kraisri's luminous scholarship will cast an eternal light.






CONTENTS 

Acknowledgments 4 

In This Issue 5 

Section I : Her Majesty the Queen 9 

HER MAJESTY QUEEN SIRIKIT 11 

BONNIE DAVIS 

Section II : People and Events 13 

A GREAT HONOR FOR THE SIAM SOCIETY 14 

HONORS TO DISTINGUISHED PERSONS 15 

THE SIAM SOCIETY CEMENTS TIES 16 

WITH THE MALAYSIAN BRANCH OF THE 

ROYAL ASIA TIC SOCIETY 

Section III : A Contemporary Letter 17 

About the Events of 1688 

MRS. BOONKRONG INDHUSOPHON 19 

PRAKAIPET INDHUSOPHON 21 

A CONTEMPORARY LETTER 24 

BY AN ENGLISH MERCHANT 

ABOUT THE CRISIS IN SIAM, 1688 

Section IV : A yudhya Architecture 35 

A REVISED DATING OF 37 

A YUDHYA ARCHITECTURE 

BONNIE DAVIS 

WILLIAM SOAME 

PIRIYA KRAIRIKSH

7 

Section V : Aspects of Ayudhya 57 

PHAULKON 59 

A Personal Attempt at 

Reconstituting a Personality 

ASPECTS OF SIAMESE-FRENCH RELATIONS 63 

DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 

MADAME MARIE GUIMARD 71 

Under the Ayudhya Dynasty 

of the Seventeenth Century 

AYUDHYA: CAPITAL-PORT OF SIAM 75 

AND ITS CHINESE CONNECTION IN THE 

FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES 

AYUDHYA AND ITS PLACE 81 

IN PRE-MODERN SOUTHEAST ASIA 

Section VI : Other Articles 87 

THE IMAGE OF THE BURMESE ENEMY 89 

IN THAI PERCEPTIONS AND 

HISTORICAL WRITINGS 

THE WAT SRI CHUM JATAKA GLOSSES 105 

RECONSIDERED 

AN INFORMATION STRATEGY 127 

FOR ECONOMIC MODERNIZATION 

Section VII: Notes and Comments 129 

TWO PORTS OF SUV ARNABHUMI : 131 

A BRIEF NOTE 

Section VIII : Reviews 133 

REVIEW ARTICLE 135 

BUDDHIST LITERATURE: 

SOME RECENT TRANSLATIONS 

DIRK VAN DER CRUYSSE 144 

Louis XIV et le Siam 

DIRK VAN DER CRUYSSE 146 


GEORGE A. SIORIS 

DIRK VAN DER CRUYSSE 

REIKO HADA 

CHARNVIT KASETSIRI 

MICHAEL WRIGHT 

SUNAIT CHUTINTARANOND 

CHRISTIAN BAUER 

STEVEN J. TOROK 

PETER SKILLING 



MICHAEL SMITHIES

8 

MICHEL JACQ-HERGOUALC'H 148 

Etude historique et critique 

du "Journal du Voyage de Siam 

de Claude Ceberet," 

Envoye extraordinaire du Roi 

en 1687 et 1688 

SULAK SIV ARAKSA 151 

Seeds of Peace: 

A Buddhist Vision for 

Renewing Society 

SULAK SIV ARAKSA 151 

Siam in Crisis: 

A Collection of Articles 

MARTIN STUARY-FOX and 152 

MARY KOOYMAN 

Historical Dictionary of Laos 

CHARLES HIGHAM 156 

The Archaeology of Mainland Southeast Asia 

From 10,000 B.C. to the 

Fall of Angkor 

J.H.C.S. DAVIDSON, ed. 158 

Austroasiatic Languages: 

Essays in Honor of 

H.L. Shorto 

APINAN POSHYANANDA 159 

Modern Art in Thailand: 

Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 

K.R. NORMAN, ed. 162 

Journal of the Pali Text Society 

Volume XIV 

Section IX : In Memoriam 165 

KRAISRI NIMMANAHAEMINDA 167 

MICHAEL SMITHIES 

RUTH-INGE HEINZE 

JANE KEYES 

JAMES R. CHAMBERLAIN 

PAJRAPONGS NA POMBEJRA 


JOHN HOSKIN 


JAN J. BOELES

SECTION I 

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN

Her Majesty Queen Sirikit graciously signs the Siam Society's Welcome Book at the dedication 

of the Library, 13 January 1962. 

Her Majesty Queen Sirikit with Her Majesty Queen Ingrid of Denmark at the dedication 

of the Library of the Siam Society, 13 January 1962. The Library was dedicated in the presence of 

two kings and three queens : Their Majesties King Bhumibol Adulyadet and Queen Sirikit of 

Thailand, Her Majesty Queen Rambhai Barni, and Their Majesties King Frederik IX and Queen 

Ingrid of Denmark.

HER MAJESTY QUEEN SIRIKIT 

BONNIE DAVIS 

MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL 


Her Majesty Queen Sirikit was born Mom Rajawongse 

Sirikit Kittiyakara on Friday, 12 August 1932. Her Majesty, 

the daughter of General H.R.H. Prince Nakkhatra Manggala 

Kittiyakara and Mom Luang Bua Kittiyakara, is descended 

from a long and illustrious royal lineage. 

At the age of four, M.R. Sirikit was enrolled in kindergarten 

at the Rajini School. During World War II she 

transferred to the St. Francis Xavier Convent School because 

it was closer to her home and considered safer. During the 

years her father served as the Siamese Ambassador to several 

countries in Europe, M.R. Sirikit continued her education in 

England and France. Proficient in languages and music, she 

at one time considered becoming a concert pianist. 

It was in Europe where the young bachelor King of 

Siam met the lovely M.R. Sirikit-a meeting that not only 

changed her life forever, but in time, the lives of thousands of 

Thai people as well. Their engagement was announced in 

1949, after months of rumors, speculation and hope at home. 

The young couple returned to Siam early in 1950 and were 

married on 28 April at Sapatum Palace, home of Her Majesty 

Queen Sawang Wattana, paternal grandmother of His Majesty 

the King. 

On his Coronation Day, 5 May 1950, His Majesty elevated 

his beautiful consort to the full rank and title of Her 

Majesty Queen Sirikit. 

Their Majesties the King and Queen have four children, 

one son and three daughters. Their first child, Princess Ubolratana, 

was born in April, 1951 in Switzerland, where His 

Majesty was continuing his formal education. Their Majesties 

returned home to Thailand in December, 1951. The 

Kingdom rejoiced, and the celebrations for His Majesty's 

birthday on 5 December were especially festive, for after almost 

twenty years there were again a King and Queen in 

residence in the Royal Palace. His Royal Highness Prince 

Maha Vajiralongkorn was born in Bangkok on 28 July 1952, 

the first son born to a reigning King of Siam since 1893. Her 

Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn was born 

on 2 April1955, and Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn 

on 4 July 1957. 

Although she was very young when she became a 

mother, Her Majesty soon became the role model for Thai 

mothers. Since 1976 the Queen's birthday on 12 August has 

been celebrated as National Mother's Day in Thailand. Once 

asked about her favorite hobbies by a television interviewer 

in the United States, Her Majesty replied, "Looking after my 

children." The Royal children were brought up to be aware 

of their duties as citizens of Thailand as well as members of 

the Royal Family. They were also taught to use their time 

wisely, and Her Majesty often read to her children to encourage 

them to read worthwhile books for pleasure as well as 

learning. 

Early in the reign Their Majesties the King and Queen 

began visiting rural villages and provincial areas of Thailand 

so they could meet their people, learn about their lives, and 

let them know they cared about their welfare. They were 

amazed to find people waiting for them everywhere they 

went-along roadsides, at village markets and temples. Many 

had travelled on foot for days from areas where there were 

no roads, and often bringing with them small tokens or gifts 

they hoped to present to their King and Queen. Hand woven 

cloth, choice fruits and vegetables, and frequently flowers 

which soon became very wilted in the heat. Everything was 

graciously received by Their Majesties-nothing was refused. 

His Majesty once remarked that whatever else happened, they 

would not go hungry! 

Her Majesty Queen Sirikit is the only Queen of this 

country to visit every province. When His Majesty entered 

the monastery for a short period, following the traditional 

custom of all young Thai men, Her Majesty served the 

Kingdom as Regent while the King was absent from the throne. 

After His Majesty the King again assumed the duties of 

Sovereign, the title of Somdej Phra Borom Rajini Nath, or "full 

reigning Queen," was bestowed on Her Majesty. 

Being born Royal isn't altogether the easy and idle life 

that many believe it to be-at least not in Thailand. There is 

total commitment to the job at hand; always public expectations 

to fulfill, formal and often tiring ceremonial duties to 

perform, all in the task of trying to please everyone, disappoint 

no one, and keep smiling. 

That first trip of the Royal couple to visit their people 

expanded to become annual visits to widely separated regions 

of the country. As time passed they saw that the lives of the 

people were becoming worse instead of better; clearly 

something had to be done. In trying to find solutions to rural 

problems, at one time Their Majesties were spending close to 

eight months of every year away from Bangkok. As soon as 

the Royal children were old enough, they too accompanied 

the King and Queen. To see their Royal Family visiting them 

gave the people hope, but more than hope was needed. 

While His Majesty the King worked with the farmers 

to improve their lot, Her Majesty the Queen turned her attention 

to helping the women find ways to supplement the 

family income. The ideal was to keep the family together and 

for the women in the household to earn money while working 

at home.

12 

Thailand has a rich heritage of arts and handicrafts, 

and each region has its own distinctive styles and types of 

crafts. In the Northeast Her Majesty admired the hand-woven 

fabrics, and encouraged the women to weave material for 

sale. Silkworm projects were set up and Her Majesty supplied 

looms and weaving material as well as equipment and 

supplies needed for other crafts. A market was guaranteed at 

fair prices, and often, when the need was great, payment was 

made in advance. In the South the old craft of Yan Lipao vine 

weaving was revived and expanded. In many cases all it 

took to make an item popular was to have Her Majesty seen 

wearing or carrying it. 

Once these projects took off the financial burden became 

too great to be borne alone, so on 26 July 1976 the 

SUPPORT Foundation under Her Majesty's Royal Patronage 

was formally established. SUPPORT is the acronym for 

Supplementary Occupations and Related Techniques. During 

its formation period Her Majesty sometimes worked 

around the clock arranging details, and personally provided 

a substantial amount of the "seed money" to get it started. In 

the sixteen years of its existence the SUPPORT Foundation 

has grown like a wild banyan tree with its limbs and branches 

covering and protecting wide areas. Expanded far beyond 

Mudmee silk and Yan Lipao handbags, crafts now include 

leather carving, pottery making, mat weaving, and many 

others. 

While the workers-young and old, male and female, 

physically sound or disabled alike-have benefited financially 

and pridefully from their work, the nation has also benefited 

by the preservation or relearning of many old indigenous arts 

and crafts. A few of these, one of them kram, were so nearly 

lost that Her Majesty asked elderly retired craftsmen to come 

to teach at the SUPPORT schools. 

Her Majesty Queen Sirikit has a rare eye for seeing 

beauty in the simple things of life that many never notice at 

all or take for granted; an odd-shaped basket may become a 

design for pottery, or a certain kind of short-lived beetle with 

its iridescent colors can become a brooch or be used in other 

decorative ways. Queen Sirikit has said, "Before urging the 

villagers to make anything we must be certain that the 

products will be marketable, not for charity alone .... We must 

put them on their way so they can stand on their own feet." 

The interests of H.M. Queen Sirikit are limitless-not 

only for people, but for wildlife conservation, reforestation 

and preservation of precious watersheds, and sustainable use 

of natural resources, for they balance life. Her Majesty is 

President of the Thai Red Cross Society and grants her Royal 

Patronage to many worthy charities. Her life might be 

compared to a well-cut diamond; each facet reflects the 

compassionate care and interest of the Queen in her country, 

its culture and history, and the lives and well-being of the 

Thai people. 

Her Majesty Queen Sirikit honored The Siam Society 

many years ago by graciously consenting to become a Vice 

Patron of the Society. The President, Council and membership 

of The Siam Society proudly join together in wishing 

Her Majesty good health and a long and happy life on her 

auspicious 60th (Fifth Cycle) birthday.

SECTION II 

PEOPLE AND EVENTS

A GREAT HONOR FOR THE SIAM SOCIETY 

His Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn became a Vice-Patron of the Siam Society on 23 December 

1992. On 25 December he represented His Majesty the King at the Gold-Casting Ceremony for the Siam Society's Buddha 

Footprint Project in honor of the Fifth Cycle Birthday of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit. The ritual was presided over by His 

Holiness Somdet Phra Nyanasamvara, the Supreme Patriarch, at Wat Bovornives Vihara. The gold ca kra as cast is shown in 

the inset. (Above) 

His Excellency Air Chief Marshal Siddhi Savetsila, Member of the Privy Council and Acting Chairman of the Organizing 

Committee, participated in the ceremony along with many palace and government officials. Principal donors and members 

of the Council were also in attendance, led by Dr. Piriya Krairiksh, President of the Siam Society. Among the members 

attending was Professor Emmanuel Guillon from Paris and Madame. (Below) Photographs by Dacho Buranabunpot.

HONORS TO DISTINGUISHED PERSONS 

Dr. Tem Smitinand was 

awarded the position of Honorary 

Member of the Siam Society at the 

Annual General Meeting of 1992 in 

recognition of his distinguished service 

for many years, which included terms 

as Vice President, Leader of the Natural 

History Section, and Honorary Editor 

of the Natural History Bulletin. 

One of the world's leading experts in 

the fi elds of forestry and botany in 

general, he has been a member of numerous 

learned organiza ti ons and is 

the author of many important books 

and articles. 

The Siam Society announces 

with pride tha t H.E. Mr. A nand 

Panyarachun, twice Prime Minister of 

Thailand, has become an Honorary 

Member. Mr. Anand Panyarachun is 

the first prime minister to address the 

Society while in office. 

Mr. Dacre F.A. Raikes, O.B.E., 

Vice President of the Siam Society, was 

similarly awarded the position of Honorary 

Member by the Council and 

Members of the Society at the same 

Annual General Meeting. During the 

decades of his varied outstanding activities 

in the Society, Mr. Raikes has 

perhaps been best known for his promotion 

of Thai music as the organizer 

and leader of troupes of classical musicians 

from Srinakharin Viroj University 

on visits to Britain, continental 

Europe and the United States. (Photogra 

ph by Virgi nia Di Crocco.) 

The Siam Society announces 

wi th pleasure the appointment of 

Mr. Jan J. Boeles, Life Member of the 

Society and well-known scholar of Thai 

history, as Honorary Advisor on Art 

History and Archaeology in Southeast 

Asia fo r the Faculty of Arts, the State 

University of Leiden. Mr. Boeles was 

formerly Director of the Siam Society 

Research Center and is the author of 

numerous scholarly works contributing 

to a better understanding of the Thai 

past. (Photograph by Virgi nia Di Crocco.)

THE SIAM SOCIETY CEMENTS TIES 

WITH THE MALAYSIAN BRANCH OF THE 

ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY 

At the kind invita tion 

of the Malaysian Branch of the 

Royal Asiatic Society, the President 

and fourteen Members of 

the Siam Society visited their 

Malaysian counterparts in August 

of 1992, visiting cultural 

sites and monuments under the 

guidance of their most hospitabl 

e hosts . Here Dr. Piriya 

Krairiksh, President of the Siam 

Society (fifth left), meets with 

H is H ig hness Raja M u da, 

Crown Prince of Selangor (in 

fro nt of the column) and Dr. 

Dato' Khoo Kay Kim, President 


Royal Asiatic Society (fou rth 

left) together with officers and 

members of both societies. His 

Highness Raja Muda was the 

gracious host at a gala dinner 

for both groups. 

Dr. Piriya Krair iksh 

and Tan Sri Dato' Dr. Mubin 

Sheppard, Senior Vice President 


Royal Asiatic Socie ty a nd 

Honorary Editor of the MBRAS 

Journal, exchange views on aspects 

of Thai and Malaysian 

culture.

SECTION III 

A CONTEMPORARY LETTER 

ABOUT THE EVENTS OF 1688

Mrs. Boonkrong Indhusophon 

(Photograph by Noppadol Suwanveerakorn ) 

This issue of the journnl of the Sinm Society bas been made possible by the most kind generosity of 

Mrs. Boonkrong Indhusophon, Life Member. This special tribute by the JSS to Her Majesty the Queen in 

honor of her Fifth Cycle Birthday fea tures the first publica tion anywhere of a contemporary letter about the 

Crisis of 1688 in Siam from the collection of Mrs. Boonkrong's late husband, Mr. Prakaipet Indhusophon. 

Mr. Prakaipet was Thailand's most renowned philatelist and one of the most distinguished and honored in 

the world. The letter that Mrs. Boonkrong has made available to the JSS sets the theme for the articles in 

this issue. The Siam Society Under Royal Pa tronage and the JSS join in expressing their warmest thanks 

to Mrs. Boonkrong, who in memory of her distinguished husband and in her own right continues to hold 

the Thai flag high at philatelic ga therings world wide.

Mr. Prakaipet lndhusophon

PRAKAIPET INDHUSOPHON 

BONNIE DAVIS 



With the premature death of Prakaipet Indhusophon 

in April, 1991, Thailand lost perhaps the greatest philatelist 

she has ever claimed as her own. There are many stamp 

collectors among Thai people but far fewer philatelists. Until 

"Pet" began making his genial presence known at international 

shows, foreigners totally dominated the scene of Thai 

stamp collecting exhibits outside of Thailand. 

Stamp collections have been described as "bits of 

colored paper having little or no use beyond post offini·doors." 

In 1840, when the handset stamps of England were first seen, 

they were derided as "bits of paper with glutinous wash at 

the back." 

A Frenchman, Georges Herpin, is credited with originating 

the word philately. In his Le collectionneur de timbrespaste 

published in 1864 he combined two words from the 

Greek language, philo (love of) and ateles (free from payment). 

The latter word was accepted as equivalent to "free" or franco, 

as had formerly been stamped on pre-paid letters. 

Prakaipet was a man who stood out in any groupand 

Pet never stood alone. He was a gregarious gentleman 

who not only volunteered himself-he volunteered others as 

well. Several times I received unexpected letters from editors 

of stamp journals in other countries asking the whereabouts 

of a promised article; only after calling Pet would I learn he 

had once again promised an article from me for the journal 

and had then forgotten to tell me. After knowing him for 

close to a decade, it became almost routine and there was 

nothing for it but to get busy and produce the promised article 

as quickly as possible! It was impossible to refuse Pet. 

Try telling him you hadn't planned to attend a meeting, or 

whatever-he was charming but persistent in telling you that 

his car and driver were on their way to pick you up. 

Prakaipet Indhusophon was born on 16 January 1929 

to Nai Chamnan and Mrs. Kian lndhusophon. His father was 

a former Under Secretary of State, Ministry of Communications. 

Prakaipet served in the military service as a Squadron 

Leader in the Royal Thai Air Force. He also served the country 

as a Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Industry, and as 

Secretary General to former Prime Minister M.R. Kukrit 

Pramoj. 

Pet began collecting stamps when he was about ten 

years old and continued throughout his school and university 

years. It was not until 1979, however, that he became 

an active member of the Philatelic Association of Thailand 

(PAT). He became President of PAT in 1984 and remained 

so until his untimely death. 

In 1981 he exhibited in an international stamp exhibition 

for the first time, at PHILATokyo in Japan. At Thailand's 

first international stamp exhibition in August, 1983, 

held to commemorate the centenary of the Royal Siamese 

Postal Service, Pet's exhibit won the Grand Prix. The Grand 

Prix d'Honneur was awarded for his exhibit entitled Siam 19th 

Century and Siamese Post Offices Abroad at the international 

exhibition in India in January 1989. This is the most prestigious 

of all awards in philatelic competitive exhibits and Pet 

was the first Thai ever to achieve this honor. Following this 

award he was invited to attend the World Stamp Expo 1989 

in Washington, D.C. together with other World Grand Prix 

awardees. 

In March 1989 Pet was invited by the British Philatelic 

Federation Limited to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists, 

regarded internationally as the world's pre-eminent 

philatelic honor. Pet was the first Thai elected to sign the roll. 

Initiated at the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain in 1920, it 

had as its first signator King George V in 1921, followed by 

thirty-nine other leading philatelists of the world at that time. 

Since its inception a few over 221 philatelists have been elected. 

Stamp collecting, or philately, to use the more elegant 

term, is governed by the 66-year-old Federation Internationale 

de Philatelie (FIP). It is this body which oversees the organization 

of international stamp exhibitions in the more than one 

hundred member countries. The rules are strict-not only on 

what can or cannot be shown in an international exhibition, 

but also how items are displayed and described. Only recently 

revenue (tax) stamps have been accepted as being a 

legitimate part of philately, but unfortunately none of the

22 

Mao Zedong and Mr. Prakaipet exchange greetings as Prime Minister M.R. 

Kukrit Pramoj looks on. 

Mr. Prakaipet signs the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in March 1989 at 

the in vitation of the British Philatelic Federation with Mrs. Boonkrong at his side.

23 

rules as to size of exhibition sheets and numbers shown in a 

frame have been adapted to the special needs of revenue 

collecting. Before his d ea th, however, Pet was quick to get a 

representative from Thailand accepted by the revenue committee. 

In his voluntary work to promote stamp collecting 

throughout the Asian region, Pet was always on the go. He 

regularly attended meetings of the Inter-Asia Philatelic Federation 

(FlAP), and exhibited, judged, or served as country 

commissioner in shows from Singapore to India to Australia. 

Pet undoubtedly did more for Thai philately, both at home 

and abroad, than any other collector ever has. Others have 

won awards, become well known and had grand, awardwinning 

collections, but none of them was Thai. Pet proudly 

collected and represented his own country as an "Ambassador 

with Stamps" for Thailand. 

Pet is also to be applauded and remembered for 

bringing back to Thailand many things of national and historical 

value including royal letters and letters written by other 

personalities who fi gure in Thai history such as John Bush 

and Dr. Dan Bradley, and the letter about the Revolution in 

Siam of 1688 featured in this issue of the JSS. For that fact 

alone, a part from his many awards, Khun Prakaipet 

Indhusophon deserved high praise and recognition. This 

praise can now deservedly be passed to Khun Boonkrong 

Indhusophon, Pet's charming wife. Khun "Ad" has kept the 

now famous collection intact and has herself taken the exhibit, 

by invitation, to several international exhibitions since Pet's 

death. 

To Pet philately was more than a hobby; it became a 

mission he served with dedication. Collectors who knew him, 

miss him. I sometimes even miss the letters from disgruntled 

editors telling me that once again, Pet had "volunteered" my 

services and forgotten to tell me. 

Mr. Prakaipet with a galaxy of top-ranking leaders of the People's Republic of China and Thailand at the time of Prime 

Minister M.R. Kukrit Pramoj's visit to China in 1975. Mr. Prakaipet is fourth from the left in the second row, behind and to 

the left of M.R. Kukrit (fifth from the left, first row), and just to the right of ACM Siddhi Savetsila. Three prime ministers of 

Thailand appear in this photograph : Maj Gen. M.R. Kukrit, Gen. Chatichai Choonhavan (fourth from the right, first row), and 

Mr. Anand Panyarachun (second from the right, first row). Others among the luminaries are Deng Xiaoping, (to the left of M.R. 

Kukrit), Mr. Amnuay Viravan (third from the left, first row), and Zhou Enlai (to the right of M.R. Kukrit).

A CONTEMPORARY LETTER 

BY AN ENGLISH MERCHANT 

ABOUT THE CRISIS 

IN SIAM, 1688 

Mr. William Soame, evidently a merchant attached to the British East India Company, sent a letter 

on 20 December 1688 to "some friend" at Madras in which he described the recent "Revolution of Siam": the 

intrigues surrounding the death of King Narai, the execution of Constance Phaulkon, the accession to the 

throne of Phetracha, and the turbulence surrounding the French military presence in Siam. All these events 

had occurred between May and October of the Same year. Soame writes not as an eyewitness, but as one 

who has composed for the record "such an Imperfect Account as has been collected from such informations 

as in [his] judgement appeared most credible." So far as is known his account has never before been 

published. 

The letter forms part of the collection of the late Mr. Prakaipet lndhusophon, Thailand's premier 

philatelist and one of the most prominent in the world. It has been made available to the JSS though the 

kindness of his widow, Mrs. Boonkrong Indhusophon, who has so kindly sponsored this issue. 

Mrs. Boonkrong informs us that she first saw the letter some ten years ago in the collection of a 

friend in Singapore. It was later sold to a Thai collector, Mr. Anatchai Rattakul, who in turn sold it to an 

auction house in England, from which Mr. Prakaipet acquired it. It was translated into Thai by Dr. Usanee 

Laothamatat, presumably for its first Thai owner. 

The letter, browned with age, is seven pages long and is written on both sides of the sheets, which 

measure 20 x 30 em. The ink has seeped through, which adds to the difficulty in reading it. It was 

transcribed first in 1991 by Mr. Martin E. Hardy, Assistant Director, Western Hemisphere Department, 

International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C., and has been reexamined by the Honorary Editor and Mrs. 

Virginia M. Di Crocco. 

The text is presented here both in modern script, with the punctuation and spelling of the original 

preserved, and in facsimile. (Photographs by Noppadol Suwanveerakorn.) 

Worshippfull sir 

Malaca 20th December 1688 

You may probably before this have understood the 

Revolution of Siam from those more advantagiously Qualified 

to Informe - nevertheless such an Imperfect Account as hath 

been collected from such Informations as in my judgement 

appeared most credible, Please to take as followeth. 

The Beginning of March the then King being Disabled 

to the affairs of Gouvernment was pleased to appoint and 

Impower for Officiating Royall Authoritye Upra Pipera Chai 

the Siam Genal!. Frape [Phra Pi] his adopted son, & Oya 

Phaulkon, the Princess Daughter to be made accquainted with 

and consenting to all their Proceedings. The .2. Princes His 

Brothers (and according to their Law, Heirs to the Crowne) 

the iLegitimate Son had been particularly and most Effectually 

excluded as may be perceived by the Sequell. 

The thus Excludeing the Royall Line wholely consisting 

in the Disinhereited Princes highly favoured and 

Incourriged the aspirement of Both Partyes yt. designed 

themselves Candidates for the Crowne. The King's Illness 

increasing to past Hopes ( or rather Feares of Recoverye ) 

Each Partye drawes His Friends to Court, and Forces to adjacent 

villages. And Oya Phaulkon with Consent of Councell, 

Regent in the Kings Name Required the French Genall. with 

a Certaine Number of his Souldiers to Repair to Levo, Who 

by the waye touching att Siam, then received Such advices 

from the French Bishopp, as caused His Return to Bancocke, 

Excusing itt to the Oya Phaulkon on account of a Rumor then 

generally Credited, of the Kings being Dead, Both Partyes in 

this Councell Regent concurr'd in having a Partye of the French 

Soldiers up to Court, The one to be strengthened by theire 

Assistance, the other by Separateing the Force to Facilitate 

their Destruction. Wherefore a Second Requiry was made in 

Complyance wherewith the Genall. only accompanied with

25 

his Eldest Son makes his appearance, whose comeing in that 

Manner and too late for Assistance of the Frapian Partye frustrates 

the designes of Both. The Siam Genall. Upra Pipera 

Chai prospering in His designes was by this time ready for 

repossession of their Forts. In order whereunto the French 

Genallleaveing His two Sons in Hostages was admitted down. 

But noe Invitations could ever after Intice Him to Leave His 

Fort, till Businesses were Honourably accommodated for His 

departing the Kingdome. 

About the 10th of May Frape the Adopted Son was by 

procurement of the Siam Generall Upra Pipera Chai cutt to 

pieces in the Pallace In whose Scrutore [=escritoire] was found 

a paper with names of a Partye of Mandereens, wherein upon 

the Kings Decease the Crowne was allotted to Frape the 

Adopted Son, the chief Princedom to Oya Phaulkon, and 

offices of State how to be disposed. The Genall. Upra Pipra 

Chai haveing as yett Seemingly favoured the Succession of 

the Royal Line was hereby Sufficently - fortified in proovening 

treasonable Designes of the Frapean Partye and thereuppon 

Oya Phaulkon Sent for to answere the Charge, was uppon 

Entering the Palace being Seized, Narrowly Scaped Execution, 

wch. for Some reasons of State was Reprieved till the 

25th. att Night when in His Irons, and after the Manner of a 

Common Malefactor He was carryed to Execution without 

that Gate of the Citye bearing ye. Regent Upra's Name. A 

Padre for Confession with other Requests being denyed, His 

Speech in the Siam Language ( avouching that Loyaltie to 

their King was the Cause of his Suffering ) concluded riseing 

up from Devotion, tooke of His Relicaro Consacrado given by 

the Pope containeing pieces of Bones of Severall reputed 

Roman Saints, and desired it might be given to one of the 

Christian Padress, but happened to John Spens out of whose 

Hands the Devonionists have not yett obtained itt by a 

Purchaseing Consideration. Thus while Standeing, the Executioner 

att one Stroke Severed the Head, the Body falling 

was cutt into two, and with the Corps of His yong Son John, 

(who had then Layne in State in the Chapell about .4. Months 

in a Coffin of Sylver within one of wood ) was putt into a 

Hole neare the place of Execution. where it may be Supposed 

to Remayne without any Remarkable Demonstration. 

As to the Suffering of His Lady few Particulars have 

come to our Knowledge Save yt. her Selfe, and her Fathers 

Familie have been deprived of all yt by a Scrutinous Search 

assisted with Corporal Tortures for Confession could possibly 

be found. 

The .2. Princes by means of Severe chastisements from 

the King their Brother, haveing as was reported threatened 

Revenge uppon His Corps, which being made Knowne. His 

Matie. was onely prevailed with to Reprieve their Executions 

till the time of His Decease Should draw neare, wch. now 

happening, the Regent Upra on the 28th. June at Night, loyally 

caused them to be Stampt to death with Sandal Wood, 

and His Matie. expiring the 30th. about 8th. att Night the Said 

Regent Upra usurpd the Royalty to Himselve and His Familie. 

The Hurly Burly att Court beginning Now to appease 

and dye of fortune Cast, the Siamese betake themselves by 

Force of Armes to Recover Posession of their Forts, but not 

prevaileing, in Some time a Cessation of Armes was agreed 

during wch. Intervall the French fitt out a Sloop for Information 

of their Shipping, expectant the then approaching 

Monsoon, wch. grounding in the River was overpowered and 

Boarded by the Ennemy, whereupon one of the Soldiers with 

Himselve as is Reported, blew up about 200 of them. After 

wch. a Peace was concluded, Shipps, Provisions &c given for 

Transportation and with much difficultye Permission obtained 

for Captain Williams, Captain Howell, & a Certain Number 

of English Sailors to assist the Navigation 

About the 25th. September the Lady Phaulkon with 

Her Son assisted by the Jesuites of her late Husbands 

Canonicall Privy Councell made Her escape to Bancoke wch. 

putt a Stopp to all proceedings Save the Reneweing of Hostile 

Preparations. The French Genall. and Councell of Warrfinding, 

as may be Supposed, that their Honble. come off was 

like to be obstructed & the Christian Interest in that Kingdome 

more Severely- persecuted Solely uppon Account of 

detaineing the Distressed Lady and Son, did after 12 Dayes 

Consultations consent to termes of Surrender, wch. the 8th of 

October was done accordingly. 

October the 23th [sic] the French with their two Siam 

Hostages marched on Board their Shipps 30 and odd pieces 

of Ordnance---. & with Some Soldiers in Boates, Looseing 

Companye with the Shipps in the Night were intercepted 

wch. occasioned the Hostages on both Sides to be detained 

Save the French Chief & Generalls younger Son comeing neare 

the Shipps, forced or frightened their Guard Mandereen to 

carry them on Board. Soe yt. of the French Hostages the Bishop 

only is remaineing. 

The Genall. after about .3. dayes Stay att the Barr, Sent 

the Siamers word, yt He would Stay Six dayes longer att the 

Duch Hand Expecteing the intercepted Boats, but noe answer 

comeing in that time, the 3d. November He Sett Saile. 

July the 4th. Mr. Joseph Baspoole was Seized, Fetter'd, 

and Imprisoned, whose treatment to extort Confessions 

concerning the late Lord Phaulkon's Estate hath not been free 

from Corporall tortures. 

Mr. Hodges the Honble. Companye Commr. happening 

to be at Levo, in the time of Revolution was Seized, 

Plundered, Gongoed, chained, an fettered for ,Severall dayes 

and Nights in the Lucombands [= Thai ~'1ln1uu riiakampan, 

ships] and for the more Honble. advancement in Degrees of 

that Universitye, admitted a Fellow Commoner of the Daily 

Relicks of His Keepers Rice. till the Councell takeing into 

Consideration His particular Circumstances were pleased to 

order His Releasement, after wch. the 31st. July the Said 

Mr. Hodges wayted on Mumpann, late Ambassador to France 

being the first day of Publick appearance in His office as 

Barcalong who expresst Himselve to this effect. 

To you of the English Nation I Shall Speak in Genall. 

and first as to the Business of Fenasire. [Tenasserim] yr. people 

were in fault, and ours not without. But the things yt. 

there happned cannot be recalled. 

The Late King was pleased Some years agoe to take 

into Favour and putt into great Employments Mr. Constant 

Phaulkon, who for great Crimes has received His Chastise-

26 

ment But for time to come, if the English are Inclined to have 

a Trade with us according to the Customes and Privilidges 

formerly granted they shall be welcome to itt. Out Friend at 

Mergen according to the advices yt arrived 2 dayes before I 

left Syam, have been very Severely dealt- with. wch. Extraordinary 

Severity, as is believed, hath occasioned 

Mr. Threders Death. 

We expect to follow this Conveyance in 8. or 10 dayes 

after wch. in due time I hope to have the Honr. of Seeing you 

in good Health att Madrass being what offerrs at present from 

Yr. oblidged Humble 

Servant to Command 

William Soame 

[Written on the back of one of the folds of the letter:] 

Malacca 20 Decbr 1688 

From Mr.Soame 

to some freind in 

India about the 

Revolution at Syam.

27 

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SECTION IV 

AYUDHYA ARCHITECTURE

36 

0 

fi 

CJl

A REVISED DATING OF AYUDHYA 

ARCHITECTURE 

PIRIYA KRAIRIKSH 

PRESIDENT OF THE SIAM SOCIETY 

At the beginning of the essay on 'The History of Siam 

before the Founding of Ayudhya," which is included in his 

introduction to the Royal Autograph Recension of the Annals of 

Ayudhya published in 1914, Prince Damrong Rajanubhab 

wrote: 

"The books composed by the old writers sometimes 

contain stories of too miraculous a kind to be believed 

at the present day; and sometimes different accounts 

of the same event are so contradictory that the reader 

must decide for himself which of them is right. In 

the following compilation, therefore, there is much 

that is conjecture on my part; and as conjecture may 

lead to error, the reader should use his own powers 

of discrimination when reading it." 1 

This writer agrees with the late Mr. Alexander B. 

Griswold in his introduction to the Second Edition of the 

English translation of Prince Damrong's Tamnan Phuttha Chedi 

Sayam (Monuments of the Buddha in Sayam), when he wrote: 

"I take this passage to be Prince Damrong's general 

advice to future scholars not to regard his conclusions 

as the final word, but to conduct investigations 

of their own. For a long time the advice went largely 

unheeded in Siam: his prestige as a writer was such 

that many scholars were content to repeat what he 

had said, as if no further research could possibly 

add anything useful to it. In more recent years, 

however, scholars have begun to realize that a better 

way to show their respect for his memory is to 

carry on his work, modifying his working hypotheses 

when necessary, and searching for further information."2 

*This article is partially based on a paper entitled "Silpakam 

samai Ayudhya thon plai: miti mai thang kansuksa (Art of the late 

Ayudhya period: a new direction in research)" presented to the Historical 

Society Under the Royal Patronage of Her Royal Highness 

Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhom at its meeting at Ayudhya on August 

13, 1992. 

The aim of this paper is to propose a new dating for 

Ayudhya architecture which, it is hoped, will replace the 

existing chronology formulated by Prince Damrong in his 

Tamnan Phuttha Chedi Sayam (Chronicle of the Monuments of the 

Buddha in Siam), published in 1926. 3 That hypothesis should 

now be modified on account of misconceptions in its basic 

methodology which modern research can point out and rectify, 

so that art historical studies can proceed afresh after 

having been influenced by the hypothesis for sixty-six years. 

The methodology used in Tamnan Phuttha Chedi Sayam 

is based on the correlation between existing monuments and 

those mentioned in the Phra Ratcha Phongsawadan (Royal 

Chronicle). 

It presupposes that the monuments we see today have 

remained unchanged since the days they were built and that 

their names correspond to those mentioned in the chronicles. 

Furthermore, it relies on the truthfulness of the royal 

chronicles without having made a thorough comparison with 

foreign sources to verify them. Thus, the hypothesis assumes 

that the monuments existing today were built when the royal 

chronicles say they were. 

These methodological approaches were not challenged 

by Professor George Coedes, who was Prince Damrong's 

research assistant. So great is Prince Darnrong's prestige that 

no one has questioned the validity of his hypothesis. For had 

the question been raised, his assumptions would have been 

found untenable because they are based on premises that lack 

valid foundation, and the hypothesis would not have been 

supported. 

It will be shown through comparing the monuments 

with their illustrations in 17th and 18th century paintings, 

maps and charts, as well as with descriptions by foreign 

travellers, that the monuments we see today do not correspond 

with their depictions. Also, the statements in the royal 

chronicles regarding their founding are contradicted by 

contemporary Western accounts, which, when cross checked 

with 17th and 18th century maps, make it obvious that the 

royal chronicles are usually unreliable. 

Prince Darnrong's hypothesis for the chronology of 

Ayudhya architecture as put forth in Monuments of the Buddha 

in Siam is summarized as follows : 4

(>) 

00 

Fig. 1 

"Plan de la Ville de Siam, Capitale du Royaume de ce nom !eve par un Ingenieur Fran

39 

First sub-period.-From the founding of A yudhya by the 

Prince of U Thong in 1350 to the end of King 

Borommatrailokanat's reign in 1488. 

The principal monuments at A yudhya from this period 

are Wat Phutthai Sawan, built by Prince U Thong (King 

Ramathibodhi, 1351-1369); Wat Mahathat, built by King 

Borommaracha I (1370-1388) and King Ramesuan (second 

reign, 1388-1395); Wat Ratchaburana, built by King 

Borommaracha II (1424-1448); and Wat Phra Ram, built by 

King Borommatrailokanat (1448-1488). 

These are built in the form of Lop Burl period prangs. 

Second sub-period.-From King Borommatrailokanat's 

moving his capital to Phitsanulok in 1463 to the death of King 

Song Tham (1628). 

The monuments are the great stupas enshrining the 

ashes of King Borommatrailokanat and King Borommaracha 

III (1463-1488) as well as the colossal gold-plated bronze image 

of the Buddha called Phra Si Sanphet at Wat Phra Si Sanphet, 

all built by King Ramathibodi II (1491-1529), and the chedi 

commemorating the victory of King Naresuan (1590-1605) in 

an elephant duel with the Crown Prince of Hamsavati, copied 

after the victory chedi of King Dutthagamani of Sri Lanka. 

The principal monuments built during this period are 

Sinhalese-style stupas instead of prangs. 

Third sub-period.-From the accession of King Prasat Thong 

(1629) to the death of King Thai Sa (1773). 

The principal monuments are Wat Chai Watthanaram, 

the chedis at Wat Chumphon Nikayaram and the Prasat 

Nakhon Luang built by King Prasat Thong (1629-1656). 

This sub-period saw the revival of Khmer style in 

celebration of King Prasat Thong's reconquest of Cambodia. 

No more large monuments were built by later kings at 

Ayudhya, not even by King Narai (1656-1688). 

Fourth sub-period.-From the accession of King Borommakot 

(1733) to the fall of Ayudhya (1767). 

Although King Borommakot built Wat Kuti Dao, he 

preferred to restore old buildings. His restorations were 

faithful to the original style. 

As can be seen from the above summary, Prince 

Damrong relies heavily on the Royal Chronicles of Ayudhya for 

his dating of the monuments. The royal chronicles then 

available to him are as follows : 

The "Luang Prasoet version,'' 5 according to its own 

exordium, is the earliest, for it is said to have been compiled 

by the command of King Narai in 1680. It was discovered at 

Phetchaburi in 1907. However, as it will be shown here, at 

least two incidents mentioned in the "Luang Prasoet version" 

show that the compiler was out of touch with contemporary 

thinking regarding these particular events, which we know 

from the accounts of 17th century Western visitors to Ayudhya. 

With the possible exception of the "Luang Prasoet 

version,'' other nonfragmentary versions of the Ayudhya 

chronicles were written in the Bangkok period. The earliest, 

according to their exordia, are the "British Museum version," 

or the Phraratcha phongsawadan Krung Sayam, and the 

"Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version." The latter is said to have 

been written by the command of King Rama I in 1795. Since 

the former was discovered in London in 1958, it would not 

have been available to Prince Damrong. The "British Museum 

version" is believed to have been the original work, while the 

"Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version" is a correction of it.6 

The Phraratcha phongsawadan Krung Si Ayudhya or the 

Two-volume printed edition (chabap phim 2lem) or the "Dr. Bradley 

version," or the "Somdet Phra Phonnarat version,"7 is known by 

all of these names, since it was first published in two volumes 

under the auspices of King Mongkut in the printing press of 

Dr. Dan Beach Bradley in 1865. 8 Formerly it was erroneously 

attributed to Krom Somdet Phra Paramanuchit (1790-1853). 

However, this work is a recension of the "British Museum 

version" compiled in the reigns of King Rama III (1824-1851) 

and King Mongkut (1851-1868). 

The Culayuddhakiirava1Jlsa9 is a Pali work written by 

Somdet Phra Phonnarat of Wat Phra Chetuphon (1735-1814). 

The Sangitiyava1Jlsa 10 is another Pali work compiled by 

Somdet Phra Phonnarat of Wat Phra Chetuphon in 1789. 

The Abridged Royal Chronicle of Ayudhya is an 

abridgement of the "British Museum version,'' compiled by 

Krom Somdet Phra Paramanuchit at the command of King 

Rama III in 1840. 11 

The "Chakraphatphong (Chad) version" 12 is a recension 

of the "Somdet Phra Phonnarat version." It was discovered in 

1908. 

The "Royal autograph version" 13 of King Mongkut (1851- 

1868) is a correction of the "British Museum version" by King 

Mongkut in his own handwriting. This version was completed 

by Prince Damrong Rajanubhab. 

The "Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version" will be referred 

to in this paper as it is the earliest version known to 

the writer of the Tamnan Phuttha Chedi Sayam. 

However, the earliest history of Ayudhya yet discovered 

is the Short History of Occurrences in the Past and the 

Succession of Kings of Siam as far as is Known from the Old Histories}4 

written by Jeremias van Vliet, director of the Dutch 

East India Company at Ayudhya. Van Vliet first came to 

Ayudhya in 1633 and remained till 1641. He wrote his Short 

History in 1640. When van Vliet wrote that "The Siamese are 

not curious enough to investigate events of ancient times and 

there are no relevant histories which have appeared publicly 

for posterity," 15 he did not mean that there had not been 

historical writings in Siam, but that they were not publicly 

available because they had been written by monks in the Pali 

language, such as the sources for Somdet Phra Phonnarat's 

Sangitiyava1Jlsa. According to van Vliet, writing in his Description 

of the Kingdom of Siam, 

"Of antiquities of their country ... etc., they [the 

Siamese) have few descriptions, thus that their principal 

descriptions consist in the laws of the country, 

the fundaments of their religion, the lives, deeds and 

praise of some dead kings ... , and these descriptions

40 

~0 

M 

• 

kl rex r!l 

or::g;l3 

Oe>l 

Fig. 2 

Plan of Wat Phutthai Sawan, Ayudhya. Fine Arts Department. 

::~ 

: ~ 

.~---.-:.· ;:;-:.·.--· : .;; 

,, 

,----,. :. 

L_J ,, 

., 

0 

0 DO D ' · 

~) L========ti P:======~ 

' ~' ·====~~==~==' 

Dt 

Fig. 3 

Plan of Wat Mahathat, Lop Buri. Fine Arts Department.

41 

were mostly committed to the care of the priests ... 

Thus amongst the nobility, the rich or civil population, 

not many chronicles or historical records are 

known, with the exception of those which are reported 

verbally or related in discourses."16 

The scarcity of chronicles continued into the 18th century. 

For in their accounts given to the Burmese captors, the 

former residents of Ayudhya who had been taken prisoner in 

1767 said in The Statement of the Residents of the Old Capital that 

"When Khun Chinnarat [Khun Worawongsa, r. 1548] 

became king, he had the old chronicles burnt or 

thrown into the water. On this account, parts of the 

old chronicles were missing from that time 

onward."17 

Since parts of the old chronicles were already missing 

since the mid 16th century, the Bangkok period compilers of 

the royal chronicle of A yudhya would have to fill in the 

missing parts with earsay and their imagination. 

The following discussion will take the monuments 

mentioned in the Thamnan Phuttha Chedi Sayam as examples 

of each sub-period and compare them to their illustrations in 

17th and 18th century European maps and descriptions by 

contemporary accounts so as to establish whether they had 

actually existed and in what form. 

First sub-period (1350-1488) 

Wat Phutthai Sawan 

When the author of the Tamnan Phuttha Chedi Sayam 

says that "Prince U Thong built Wat Phutthai Sawan," the 

information must have come from one of the recensions of 

the "Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version," 18 for the "Luang 

Prasoet version" does not mention it. He probably did not 

have Jeremias van Vliet's The Short History of the Kings of Siam 

to compare with the royal chronicles, since it was only 

translated into English and published by the Siam Society in 

1975. According to The Short History ..., Thao U Thong built 

three temples: the Nappetadt (Mahathat), Raeyjae Boenna 

(Ratchabun) and Waddeun (Wat Doen), "which are still 

considered to be the most important in the whole kingdom."19 

Apparently either Wat Phutthai Sawan was not considered 

significant in 1640 or had not yet been built. 

In 1687 Wat Phutthai Sawan made its first appearance 

on a map drawn by a French engineer and is labelled "Pagode 

de /a feue Reine," or Monastery of the Late Queen (Fig. 1). 

Nicolas Gervaise, who came to Siam in 1683 and spent the 

next four years there, also mentioned the monastery of the 

late queen. According to him, "The new cloister that has 

been built in honour of the late queen is filled with more than 

a hundred figures of women, all beautifully gilded and all 

with the same face and in the same posture."20 Although he 

mistook images of the Buddha for "figures of women," his 

statement that the "New cloister" had been built in honour of 

the late queen indicates that the Wat Phutthai Sawan had 

recently been built. Judging by the custom of building a 

monastery and transferring the merit accrued to the deceased, 

as for example King Mongkut's building Wat Somanat Vihara 

in 1853 and dedicating it to his late Queen Somanat 

Watthanawadi, it can be inferred that Wat Phutthai Sawan 

was built by King Narai in memory of his queen. Also the 

plan of Wat Phutthai Sawan (Fig. 2) with the central prang 

flanked by two smaller ones to the north and south (now 

transformed into mondop) recalls that of the Mahathat at Lop 

Buri (Fig. 3), which was reconstructed by King Narai in the 

1660's.21 This similarity lends support to the hypothesis that 

the monastery was built in King Narai's reign. Wat Phutthai 

Sawan must have been an important monastery in 1750, when 

King Borommakot commanded that the Sinhalese delegation 

be taken to worship there. The account written by the 

Sinhalese visitors to "Vat Puthi Suwan" gives us a glimpse of 

the monument as it existed then, and is quoted below : 

"Seven days later on Friday, being full moon, two 

officers came and informed us that the king had given 

orders for us to go and worship at two viharas on 

this day. We accordingly proceeded in boats and 

worshipped at the vihare called Vat Puthi Suwan. 

The following is a description of the place. On the 

right of the great river there stretches a plain right 

up to the river bank; here are built long ranges of 

two-storied halls in the form of a square, with four 

gateways on the four sides; on the four walls were 

placed two hundred gilt images. Within the eastern 

gate is fashioned a likeness of the sacred footprint, 

with the auspicious symbol worked in gold. Right 

in the centre is a great gilt dagaba [main prang] with 

four gates. On entering by the eastern gate there is 

found a flight of stone steps gilt; right in the womb 

of the dagaba are enshrined the holy relics; and it 

was so built that it was possible to walk round within 

the dagaba without approaching them. There was 

also within a gilt reproduction of the Sacred Foot. 

On either side of this gate were built two five-headed 

Naga Rajas apparently descending to the bank of 

earth. To the north of this was a two-storied building 

with a throne in the middle of it; on this was 

seated a gilt figure of the Buddha twelve cubits high. 

To the east of this and facing it was a five-storied 

building hung with awnings and adorned with 

paintings and gilding; the pillars in the middle were 

covered with plates of gold, and on a throne in the 

centre was a life-size image of gold supported on 

either side by two similar gilt images of the two chief 

disciples Sariyut Mahasami and Maha Mugalan Sami 

and numerous others. Above the gateway from the 

roof to the lintel there was pictured in gilt work 

Buddha in the Sakra world, seated on the White 

Throne and preaching his glorious Abhidharma to the 

god Mavu [Maha] Deva and to the gods and Brahmas 

of unnumbered worlds; and again, when his discourse 

was ended, he is depicted as descending by 

the golden stairs to Sakaspura. The vihare itself is 

strongly guarded by walls and gates; round about

42 

Fig. 4 

Wat Phutthai Sawan from the air. Photograph by Luca Invernizzi Tettoni.

43 

are built pleasant halls and priests' houses filled with 

the holy men, with worshippers of high rank and 

devotees of either sex. 22 

The monument we see today (Fig. 4) assumed its 

present form in its last major restoration in 1898.23 

Since Wat Phutthai Sawan was an important monastery 

in the final days of Ayudhya, it is only to be expected 

that someone should have made up a hoary history for it. 

The tale that King U Thong founded Wat Phutthai Sawan 

was accepted by both the compiler of the "Phanchanthanumat 

(Choem) version" 24 of the royal chronicle as well as by 

Somdet Phra Phonnarat in his P~ili work, Culayudd1uikarava1Jlsa,25 

where the same episode is mentioned. Inexplicably, 

Somdet Phra Phonnarat in his other Pali work, Sangitiya 

VaiJlsa of 1789, attributed the founding of Wat Phutthai Sawan 

to King Naresuan (1590-1605). 26 This discrepancy suggests 

that in the 18th century there might have been different 

theories as to who built Wat Phutthai Sawan. The fable that 

King U Thong founded Wat Phutthai Sawan was not accepted 

by everyone in the second half of the 18th century, because 

the former residents of Ayudhya who had been taken captive 

to Burma in 1767, in their Statement of the Residents of the Old 

Capital attributed the founding of Wat Phutthai Sawan to King 

Song Tham (1610-1628), saying that the king donated money 

from the privy purse to built two monasteries so that monks 

could study the Tipitaka: one was the Wat Phutthai Sawan; 

the other was Wat Ratnamahathat. 27 These different points of 

view indicate that the attribution to King U Thong was made 

in the early 19th century, at which time the fact that King 

Narai built it in memory of his queen had been forgotten. 

Hence Wat Phutthai Sawan cannot be accepted as example of 

14th century Ayudhya architecture. 

Wat Mahathat 

When van Vliet wrote in The Short History ... that the 

Nappetadt (Wat Mahathat) was founded by Thao U Thong, it 

reflected the high esteem given to the Mahathat in the reign 

of King Prasat Thong (1629-1656). In 1636, when the same 

author wrote his Description of the Kingdom of Siam, the 

Nappetat (Mahathat) together with Wat Sy-serpudt (Si 

Sanphet), Wat Deun (Doen, meaning the moon) and Wa~ 

Thimphiathey (Chao Phraya Thai, or present-day Wat Yar 

Chai Mongkhon) were "the four principal temples of the whole 

country."28 Their abbots constituted members of the ecclesiastical 

council. His statement that "The bishop of the Nappetat 

has the supreme dignity" 29 meant that the supreme patriarch 

was the abbot of Wat Mahathat. Wat Mahathat was fabulously 

rich, for "The people say that with the treasures lying under 

the idols of Wat Sy-ser-pudt and Nappetat a ruined kingdom 

could be restored." 30 

The "Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version" (1795) of the 

royal chronicle of Ayutthaya gives this statement : 

"Sakaraj 736 year of the tiger [1374], Somdet Phra 

Borommarachathirat Chao and the Phra Mahathera 

Dharmakalyana laid the foundation of the Phra Si 

Ratna Mahathat to the east [of the Palace]. The height 

of the pediment at the level of the lion [sic] measured 

19 wahs [38 metres]. The finial (noppha sun) 

measured 3 wahs [6 metres]."31 

The "Luang Prasoet version" (1680) has the same entry, 

with the exception of the measurement, saying that "The height 

of the pediment at the level of the lion measured 1 sen and 3 

wahs [46 metres]."32 

Since the measurements given in these two versions 

of the royal chronicle contradict one another, it does not lend 

much credibility to this passage, especially when the attribution 

to King Borommaracha is challenged by van Vliet's 

assignment to Thao U Thong forty years earlier. 

Although we may never know when and by whom 

the Mahathat was originally built, there is no doubt that in 

the reign of King Naresuen (1590-1605) it was counted as one 

of the city's "three main pagodas." According to Jacques de 

Coutre, who came to A yudhya in 1596, 

"Each of the pagodas had a very high tower of stone 

and brick masonry, and gilded from the tip until the 

middle, with four stairs made of gilded lead ... The 

said towers were built on very large squares paved 

with bricks. In each square one had four ponds, one 

in each corner, with many trees on the water's edge. 

Around the tower there was a small fence in masonry. 

Inside the fence there were many lamps 

around, and may bronze figures leaned against the 

wall, as high as a man of good stature ... They were 

made completely out of bronze and natural looking. 

They were found then forty years before, in the 

Kingdom of Cambodia, in a ruined city which the 

natives came across in the forest. They did not know 

which nation had lived there. When they described 

it they called it Anguor." 33 

This description seems to correspond with Wat 

Mahathat. 

According to the "Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version," 

in the reign of King Song Tham (1610-1628) the prang at Wat 

Mahathat collapsed in the year 1606. 34 However, the Royal 

Chronicle has the date wrong, since 1606 would have to be in 

the reign of King Ekathotsarot (1605-1611). Van Vliet gave 

the correct year in The Short History ... when he wrote that 

"In the third year of his reign (1631) the golden tower 

of the Nopphathat suddenly collapsed without crosswind, 

thunder or lightning. He [King Prasat Thong] 

had it quickly erected again, but before this tower 

was totally restored, the scaffolding (beautifully and 

durably made of bamboo) also collapsed unexpectedly 

during a rainstorm." 35 

The "Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version" then says that 

in 1633 King Prasat Thong had it rebuilt. 36 The original height, 

which was 19 wahs (38 metres), was increased to 1 sen and 2 

wahs (44 metres) but the height of the finial was retained at 3

;!::> 

;!::> 

Fig. 6 

A water-colour copy of the "Afooldinge der Stadt Iudiad Hooft des Choonincrick Siam ." Johannes Vingboons, c. 1665. Algemeen Rijksarchief, The Hague. 

Collection of the Siam Society.

45 

wahs (6 metres), making a total of 1 sen and 5 wahs (50 metres). 

This new prang is represented in the oil painting of 

"Iudea" in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, painted by an 

anonymous Dutch artist around 1650 (Fig. 5, frontispiece to 

this article). As depicted in the painting, Wat Mahathat in c. 

1650 was essentially the same as described by Jacques de 

Coutre in 1596. It consists of a prang enclosed by a covered 

gallery. To the east is a wihan with the rear porch intruding 

into the gallery. A group of five cinerary stupas arranged in 

two rows is placed north of the wihan and two are placed to 

the south of it. The Mahathat thus depicted must have been 

the result of King Prasat Thong's renovation undertaken 

around 1637 in anticipation of year Culasakaraj 1000 which was 

due in 1638. As van Vliet reported in his Description of the 

Kingdom of Siam, 

" ... [H)e [the King) would be the renewer of everything, 

and that the people, by building and repairing 

of many new temples, had to serve the gods ... In 

such a way the king thought to change everything 

spiritually. In view of this the king had all the 

principal temples in the entire country, and even in 

uninhabited places, repaired." 37 

The royal chronicle does not mention such a preparation. 

Its only entry for the year Culasakaraj 1000 (1638) was 

a lengthy description of the ceremony held to change the 

era. 38 

By the beginning of King Narai's reign (1656-1688), as 

shown in Johannes Vingboons' atlas of 1665 (Fig. 6), four chedis 

had been constructed, one inside each comer of the covered 

gallery, and two more cinerary stupas were added to the two 

south of the wihan. Outside the covered gallery to the west, 

four rows of buildings are shown forming a quandrangle with 

a large structure placed in the middle of it. As the following 

account shows, it could have been the residence of the supreme 

patriarch. 

This account of the Wat Mahathat appeared in 1750 

when the Sinhalese delegation visited it. Although the name 

is written "Maha Dhanvarama, in the district named Na pu 

than," there is no doubt that it was the Mahathat. The 

Napathat has become the name of the district. The Sinhalese 

envoys' account of the Wat Mahathat is quoted below: 

On the twenty-first day of the solar month Kanya, 

being Sunday, three officers came in the morning 

and accompanied us in boats to the vihare called 

Maha Dhanvarama, in the district named Na pu than, 

that we might make offerings there to the Buddha 

and acquire merit, and also see the beauties of the 

place; and this is what we saw there. The place was 

a fertile stretch of levelland enclosed by four walls, 

outside which ran four canals. Fron the water-course 

to the east up to the gate there was a long covered 

passage of two stages. On entering at the gateway 

we saw on the four sides eight holy dagabas [prang], 

so covered with gilding that they resembled masses 

of kinihiriya flowers. In the intervals were various 

images. Among them at the four sides were four 

buildings of two stages against the inner walls of 

which, and rising to the roof were large gilt images 

of the Buddha. Within the space enclosed by these 

were four handsome gilt dagabas [chedi] with images 

interspersed. In the very centre of all was a 

dagaba [main prang) richly adorned, with doors on 

the four sides fitted with stairs, up and down which 

we could ascend and descend. At the four comers 

of the square base of the spire [cornice) were four 

dragons [garudas] with wings outstretched and 

meeting above; in the four panels [antefixes) were 

four images of gods adorned with all the divine 

ornaments, as well as images of the gods who preside 

at the four points of the compass, with their 

hands clasped overhead. In the intervals were images 

of door-guardians armed with swords, of 

rakshas with clubs and of bairayas with staves, while 

above the circular base of the spire were depicted in 

solid gold the sacred halo [finial]. On either side of 

the stair leading from the eastern gate ran two snakes 

[nagas], their bodies the size of palmirah palms; where 

they reached the ground their hoods were raised and 

resting on slabs of crystal; their open jaws and projecting 

fangs filled the hearts of those who saw them 

with terror. Starting from here there were ranged 

round the dagaba [main prang) images of lions, bears, 

swans, peacocks, kinduras [kinaras], deer, oxen, 

wolves, buffaloes, makaras, and door-guardians 

armed with swords. Also, carrying palm fans, 

chamaras, sesat [parasols), triumphal chanks 

[ = conchs) and various offerings, with their hands 

clasped above their heads, were numerous images 

of Brahmas, Sakras, and the Suyama gods, all 

adorned with gold. In the hall to the east, with its 

eyes fixed on the dagaba, was an image of the Buddha 

supported in either side by images of the two 

great disciples with their hands clasped above their 

heads. Also there was another image of the lord as 

he was in life, begging for food with his bowl in his 

sacred hand. In another building, which was reached 

by a flight of steps, were various images of the Buddha 

and two figures of the Sacred Footprint with the 

auspicious symbols in gold. In a similar hall of the 

west were three images. Here was depicted in gold 

our lord reposing in lion fashion in his scented room, 

whilst Anada Mahasami is approaching holding in 

his right hand a golden candlestick. 

On the four walls was depicted the Vessantara 

birth-story, and next his birth in the Thusita heaven, 

whence again he was begotten of King Suddhodana 

in the womb of Queen Mahamaya and was brought 

forth into the arms of gods, after which he made his 

Great Renunciation, and on his gleaming throne 

under the sacred B6 attained Buddhahood; and, 

seated on the White Throne of $akraya, he preached 

his Abhidharma to the gods, and after receiving the

46 

Fig. 7 

Plan of Wat Mahathat, Ayudhya. 

Fine Arts Department. 

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47 

offerings of the gods and Brahmas he descended by 

the divine stair to the $akya city;-all this was pictured 

in gilt. 

Outside the great wall of the vihare were several 

preaching-halls; to the west of this was the 

residence of the Sanga Raja. The dining- and 

preaching-halls were adorned in diverse fashions 

with gilding. One room was hung with awnings 

and curtains embroidered with gold, whilst the floor 

was covered with various precious carpets ... 

Surrounding this spot were several houses 

occupied by a vast number of priests and Samaneras, 

devotees of either sex who observe dasa sil [the ten 

precepts], as well as a crowd of pious and courtly 

folk who provided daily offerings.39 

The Sinhalese account shows that at some time between 

1665 and 1750 eight gilded prangs were erected along 

the outside of the covered gallery on each side (Fig. 7). Since 

no mention is made of the lowermost platform of the central 

prang with ten stupas to each side, nor of the four corner 

prangs on the upper platform, nor of the four arms of the 

central prang each supporting a smaller prang above its extremity 

(Fig. 8), it has to be assumed that all of these additions 

date from later renovations which took place between 

1750 and 1767. For, had they been built before 1750, the 

Sinhalese visitors would have recorded them in great detail. 

Thus the ruins of the Wat Mahathat mostly date between 

the late 17th and late 18th centuries. The prang that was 

put up by King Prasat Thong collapsed in the reign of King 

Vajiravudh (1910-1925). Whilst the hypothesis that the Wat 

Mahathat was built by King Borommaracha I (1370-1388) and 

King Ramesuan (1388-1395) can neither be verified nor disproved, 

it is certain that the Mahathat we see today is not an 

example of 14th century Ayudhya architecture. 

Wat Ratchaburana 

Similar arguments can be made against the hypothesis 

that Wat Ratchaburana was built by King Borommaracha 

II (1424-1448). There were at least four candidates from Thai 

sources from which the author of the Taman Phuttha Chedi 

Sayam could choose as who built Wat Ratchaburana. They 

are as follows: 

The "Phanchanthanumat (Choem) Version" and all other 

recensions of the royal chronicle of A yudhya say that two 

sons of King Intharacha (1409-1424) by the name of Chao Ai 

Phraya and Chao Yi Phraya had an elephant duel at the foot 

of the Pa Than bridge, as a result of which both were killed. 

The youngest brother, Chao Sam Phraya, then became king 

Borommaracha II. He had the remains of his two brothers 

cremated. At the spot where the cremation took place he 

founded a monastery named Wat Ratchaburana (Royal Restoration).40 

The "Luang Prasoet version" is slightly different. It says 

that King Borommaracha II built two chedis where his two 

brothers killed each other in the Pa Than district. "In the 

same year [1424] the Wat Ratchabun [Royal Merit] was 

founded." 41 Apparently the founding of Wat Ratchabun was 

unrelated to the above story. It is mentioned because it happened 

to have been founded in the same year as King 

Borommaracha II's accession to the throne. 

The Khamhaikan Khunluang Hawat (Statements of Exking 

Uthumphon), which is an account given by the next to last 

king of Ayudhya (r. 1758), who was taken captive by the 

Burmese in 1767, says that King Ekathotsarot (1605-1611) 

built Wat Ratchaburana "in the city to the southeast of the 

palace." 42 Since the location corresponds to the present monastery 

of the same name, there is no doubt that Ex-king 

Uthumphon meant this one. 

The Khamhaikan Chao Krung Kao (Statements of the Residents 

of the Old Capital), which is an account of the residents 

of A yudhya taken captive by the Burmese in 1767, says that 

King Borommakot (1733-1758) built seven large monasteries, 

one of which was Wat Ratchaburana.43 

The author of the Tamnan Phuttha Chedi Sayam, however, 

opted for the version from the royal chronicle. 

Unknown to him, van Vliet in The Short History ... 

attributed Wat Raeyjae Boenna to Thao U Thong. 44 The Dutch 

spelling of this monastery suggests that the name is closer to 

the Wat Ratchabun (Royal Merit) of the "Luang Prasoet version" 

than to the Wat Ratchaburana of the "Phanchanthanumat 

(Choem) version." The Wat Ratchabun must have been an 

important monastery as van Vliet attributed it to Thao U Thong 

and the compiler of the "Luang Prasoet version" to King 

Borommaracha II. The Wat Raeyjae Boenna, according to van 

Vliet, was one of the three temples built by Thao U Thong. 

Moreover, in 1640 it had "the same size and shape as the 

Nappetadt." 45 The oil painting of Iudea (c. 1650) in the 

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Fig. 9) shows that there was a 

monastery where the present day Wat Ratchaburana is located 

(Fig. 10). But, since it consists of a chedi and a wihan to 

the south of it, it certainly does not have "the same size and 

shape as the Nappetadt." Hence, the Wat Ratchabun (Royal 

Merit) of van Vliet and the "Luang Prasoet version" could not 

have been the same as the present-day Wat Ratchaburana 

(Royal Restoration). Although the Wat Ratchabun probably 

had a prang, we do not know where it was located. 

By collating Wat Ratchaburana with the one mentioned 

in one of the recensions of the "Phanchanthanumat (Choem) 

version," and assuming that the Wat Ratchabun of the "Luang 

Prasoet version" was one and the same, Prince Damrong dated 

the monument to 1424. 

In conclusion it can be assumed that the original Wat 

Ratchaburana (Royal Restoration) may have been built by King 

Ekathotsarot (1605-1611), as reported in Ex-king Uthumphon's 

statement to the Burmese, for its existence in the mid 17th 

century in the form of a chedi is indicated by the oil painting 

of ludea (c. 1650) as well as in Vingboons' atlas of 1665. 

However, in Courtaulin's map of "Siam ou Iudia Capitalle du 

Royaume de Siam" of 1686 (Fig. 11), the site of Wat 

Ratchaburana is not marked on the map. In 1687, when the 

French engineer drew a plan of the city, again the location of 

Wat Ratchaburana was left out (Fig. 1). Probably it was

48 

Fig. 9 

Detail of "Iudea," showing Wat 

Mahathat and Wat Ratchaburana, 

c. 1650. 

Fig. 10 

Wat Ratchaburana and Wat 

Mahathat from the air. Photograph 

by Luca Invernizzi 

Tettoni.

49 

considered not important enough to be included in the map. 

Instead the location of Wat Plappla Chai, which is to the north 

of Wat Ratchaburana, is given on both maps. Had the present 

monument been built, it would have figured prominently on 

the map instead of the much smaller Wat Plappla Chai. The 

Statements of the Residents of the Old Capital that King 

Borommakot built Wat Ratchaburana is essentially correct, 

because he probably had the chedi built by King Ekathotsarot 

demolished and constructed a new one nearby. Since the 

captive former residents of Ayudhya over the age of nine 

years old would have lived in King Borommakot's reign, their 

statement that King Borommakot built Wat Ratchaburana has 

to be taken seriously. 

Since the present-day Wat Ratchaburana would have 

had to be built in King Borommakot's reign (1733-1758), it 

cannot be taken as an example of A yudhya architecture of the 

15th ·century. 

Wat Phra Ram 

The fourth principal monument at Ayudhya classified 

in the first sub-period (1350-1488) is Wat Phra Ram. The 

author's source for its having been built in King 

Borommatrailokanat's reign (1448-1488) must have been one 

of the recensions of the "Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version." 

The "Luang Prasoet Version," however, attributed it to 1369, 

the first year of King Ramesuan's first reign (1369-1370). 46 


King Borommatrailokanat donated the land where the royal 

palace had stood so that the Wat Phra Si Sanphet could be 

built in its place. At the spot where King Ramathibodi I was 

cremated, King Borommatrailokanat constructed a phra 

mahathat (which generally refers to a prang) and called it Wat 

Phra Ram. 47 

The oil painting of Iudea (c. 1650) shows what appears 

to be a slender prang with two smaller chedis to the east of it 

and one to the west (Fig. 5). A large wihan is to the south of 

it. The Vingboons atlas (1665) also gives the same picture 

(Fig. 6). The French engineer's plan of 1687 gives it pride of 

place and labelled it "Grande pagode" (Fig. 1). 

Two years earlier Pere Tachard visited Wat Phra Ram 

and gave a lengthy account of it in his Voyage to Siam, 1685. 

According to him, it was located "about an hundred paces 

South of the Palace." 48 The gilded monument was built on a 

Greek cross plan with the central prang being much bigger than 

the other four, which were located at the extremities of the 

cross (Fig. 12). Four stairways gave access to it. Over twenty 

larger than life statues of men and animals, all gilt, adorned 

the bottom of the staircase. This five-prang structure was 

surrounded by forty-four "Pyramides" [chedis] of different 

form standing of different platforms. On the lowest platform 

at the four corners were gilt "Pyramides" which end in a long 

slender cone supporting a needle or arrow of iron that pierced 

through several crystal balls of different sizes. "The body of 

these Pyramides [chedis] has too much Sculpture upon it." 

On the second platform, which was a little higher than the 

first, "There are six and thirty other Piramides some what 

less than the former: making a square round the Pagod, nine 

on each side." [There should have been 32 altogether, if there 

were nine on each side.] "They are of two different Figures, 

some taper into a point as the former did, and the rest are 

made round like a Bell on the top, after the manner of the 

domes which crown the Building; they are so mingled that 

there are not two of the same form." 49 The former must have 

been chedi and the latter prangs, arranged alternately. Above 

them on the third platform are "four Piramides on the four 

corners of it [corner chedis], which terminate in a point. They 

are less indeed than the first, but bigger than the second." 50 

The whole is enclosed by a covered gallery opening toward 

the central prang. Within the gallery along the outer wall 

were about four hundred images of Buddha, twelve of 

"Gigantick Stature," one in the middle of each gallery, and 

two at each angle. Outside of the covered gallery on each 

side stood "Sixteen solid Piramids, rounded at the top in form 

of a Dome [prangs], above fourty foot high, above twelve foot 

square, placed in a Line like a row of great Pillars." Pere 

Tachard was so impressed by Wat Phra Ram that he said, 

"We never saw a Fabrick no not in France, where Symmetry 

is better observed, either for the body of the Building, or the 

Ornaments about it, than in this Pagod." 51 

Since the description does not resemble the depiction 

in the oil painting of Iudea (c. 1650) or that in the Vingboons 

atlas of 1665, the "Grande Pagode," as described by Pere Tachard 

(Fig. 13), must have been constructed between 1665 and 1685, 

which falls in the reign of King Narai. 


King Borommakot had Wat Phra Ram repaired in 1741. It 

took over a year to complete. 52 

The reconstruction of 1741-1742 saw the removal of 

the sixteen pillar-like prangs aligned on each face outside of 

the enclosure gallery. In their places were constructed two 

large wihans, whose rear porches intrude into the covered 

gallery to the east and west of the prang (Fig. 14). The four 

corner chedis on the first platform were demolished. The nine 

alternating chedis and prangs on each side of the second platform 

were removed and the height of the platform raised. 

The stairs on the north and south sides were taken down. 

The north and south arms of the Greek cross plan were transformed 

into two prangs with their entrance porches facing east 

(Fig. 15). The raised second platform now supports ten miniature 

chedis on the northern and southern sides and twelve on 

the eastern and western sides. Through a comparison of Wat 

Phra Ram as described by Pere Tachard with the monument 

we see today, it can be inferred that the four corner chedis of 

the third platform may well have been the only constructions 

from King Narai's reign that have not undergone structural 

changes. Thus, most of the Wat Phra Ram we see today date 

from the restoration of 1741-1742. 

Since Wat Phra Ram, Wat Ratchaburana, Wat Mahathat 

and Wat Phutthaisawan all assumed their present forms in 

the 18th century, we shall have to look elsewhere for examples 

of the First sub-period (1350-1488) of Ayudhya art. 

(To be continued in the next issue of the Journal of the 

Siam Society.)

(Jl 

0 

Fig. 11 

"Siam ou Iudia Capitalle du Royaume de Siam." Designe sur le lieu Par Mr. Courtaulin missre. Apostoliq. de Ia Chine ... 1686." Collection of the Siam 

Society.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 

• 

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 

Fig. 12 A conjectural plan of Wat Phra Ram as described by Pere Tachard in 1685.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 

• 

• 

• 

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

51 

0 

f ..... O- ..... t 

Qo 

WIHAN D 

WIHAN 

a [Q] 

[Q] 

c 

[0] [OJ ~ . Clm t c 

·[01 

0 

D 

[Q)·O~( 

!rAil ~ ••• t 

~~~~·-

52 

Fig. 13 A conjectural elevation of Wat Phra Ram as described by Pere Tachard in 1685. 

Fig. 14 

Wat Phra Ram from the air. Photograph by Luca Invernizzi Tettoni.

53 

~------~·~~~~~~~~~~~ 

(;;:::. ------=--- ~ 

D UBOSO~ 

c:IQTIJ Q 

oOO©OG 

rr~-~l 

Li 

0 

t---o-t 

Qo 

. e 

WIHAN D 

WIHAN 

a rc [0] 

0 

0 

D·o 8 

C C [@] Olm 

~ IOJ fry ~···l 

!* ~ ~~.·1 

Fig. 15 

Plan of Wat Phra Ram. Fine Arts Department.

54 

ENDNOTES 

1. Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, "The 

History of Siam before the 

Founding of Ayudhaya," Phraratcha 

phongsawadan chabap 

phraratchahatthalekha, 2 vols. 

(Bangkok: Samnakphim Khlang 

Withaya, B.E. 2516), vol. 1, p. 34. 

2. Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, Monuments 

of the Buddha in Siam. Trans. 

Sulak Sivaraksa and A.B. 

Griswold (Bangkok: The Siam 

Society, 1973), pp. Vlll-IX. 

3. Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, Tamnan 

Phuttha Chedi Sayam. (Bangkok; 

B.E. 2469. 

4. Prince Damrong, Monuments ... pp. 24- 

25. 

5. The Luang Prasoet version was translated 

into English by 0. Frankfurter, 

entitled "Events in 

Ayudhya from Chulasakaraj 689- 

966," JSS, Vol. VI, part 3 (1909), 

pp. 1-21. Reprinted in The Siam 

Society Fiftieth Anniversary Commemorative 

Publication: Selected 

Articles from the Siam Society Journal, 

Volume I, 1904-29, (Bangkok: 

The Siam Society, 1954), pp. 38- 

62. 

6. Phraratcha phogsawadan Krung Sayam 

(Bangkok: Samnakphim Kao Na, 

B.E. 2507). See also "Phongsawadan 

krung si Ayudhya 

chabap phanchanthanumat 

(Choem)," Prachum phongsawadan, 

Pt. 64. Vols. 38-39 (Bangkok: 

Suksaphanphanit, B.E. 2512). 

According to Khachon Sukhaphanit, 

the "British Museum 

version" was begun by Phraya 

Thamparohit (Kaeo) in the reign 

of King Taksin (1767-1782). It 

was completed by his assistant 

Phraya Phochanaphimon (Thong 

Yu), who is also known by his 

clerical name of Somdet Phra 

Wannarat of Wat Bang Wa Yai. 

The version that was presented to 

King Rama I in 1795 was the 

"Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version." 

Howver, the completed 

"British Museum version" was 

presented to King Rama I in 1807. 

Khachon Sukhaphanit, "Khrai 

Khoe phu taeng phraratcha 

phongsawadan krung Si Ayudhya," 

Khomun prawatsat samai 

Ayudhya (Bangkok: Samakhum 

Sankhomsat Haeng prathat Thai, 

B.E. 2523), pp. 220-238. 

7. Phraratcha phongsawadan Krung Si 

Ayudhya lae Culayuddhakaravamsa 

(Bangkok: Rongphim Maha 

Chulalongkorn Ratchawithayalai, 

B.E. 2535), pp. 1-302. 

8. 0. Frankfurter, Introduction to "Events 

in Ayudhya ...," Selected Articles. 

Vol. I, p. 39. 


Ayudhya lae Culayuddhakaravamsa, 

pp. 303-336. 

10. Somdet Phra Phonnarat, Saflgitiyavamsa 

(Bangkok: Rongphim kan sasaii.a, 

B.E. 2521). This work is chronologically 

and textually comparable 

to Jeremias van Vliet's, The 

short History of the King of Siam; 

see Michael Vickery's review article 

of van Vliet, The Short History 

... in JSS, Vol. 64, Pt. 2 Guly 

1976), p. 223. 

11. The Abridged Royal Chronicle of 

Ayudhya was translated into 

English and edited by David K. 

Wyatt in "The Abridged Royal 

Chronicle of Ayudhya of Prince 

Paramanuchitchinorot," JSS, Vol. 

61, pt. 1 Ganuary, 1973), pp. 25- 

50. 


Ayudhya chabap Chakraphatphong 

(Chad). 2 vols. (Bangkok: Suksaphanphanit, 

B.E. 2533). 

13. Phraratcha phongsawadan chabap 

phraratchahatthalekha. 2 vols. 

(Bangkok: Samnakphim Khlang 

Withaya, B.E. 2516). 

14. Jeremias van Vliet, The Short History of 

the Kings of Siam, Translated by 

Leonard Andaya; edited by David 

K. Wyatt (Bangkok: The Siam 

Society, 1975). 

15. Ibid., p. 54. 

16. Jeremias van Vliet, Description of the 

Kingdom of Siam, Translated by 

L.F. van Ravenswaay, JSS, Vol. 

VII, pt. 1 (1910), p. 99. 

17. Khamhaikan Chao Krung Kao (Bangkok: 

B.E. 2457), p. 69. 

18. Prachum phongsawadan, Vol. 38, p. 3. 

19. Van Vliet, The Short History ..., p. 18 and 

pp. 58-59. It should be pointed 

out that the Dutch spelling of 

Wat "Raeyjae Boenna" is erroneously 

transliterated in The Short 

History ... as "Ratchaburana" and 

"Waddeun" as "Wat Doem," 

meaning "Original," in spite of 

van Vliet's explanation in Description 

of the Kingdom of Siam, 

that Wat Deun "is devoted to the 

moon." (JSS, Vol. VII, pt. 1, p. 

73). Hence the correct transliteration 

for it should be "Doen," 

meaning the moon. 

20. Nicolas Gervaise, The Natural and Political 

History of the Kingdom of Siam, 

Trans. John Villiers (Bangkok: 

White Lotus Co., Ltd. 1989), p. 166. 

21. According to Ex-king Uthumphon (r. 

1758), King Narai (1656-1688), 

having reigned for ten years, 

founded a new city at the site of 

an ancient one called Lavo and 

gave it the name Lop Buri. Then 

he built the palace and the Wat 

Mahathat. Khamhaikan Khunluang 

Hawat (Bangkok: B.E. 2459), p. 28. 

22. P.E. Pieris, "An Account of King Kirti 

Sri's Embassy to Siam in 1672 Saka 

(1750 A.D.)," Journal of the Royal 

Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch, Vol. 

XVIII, No. 54(1903), pp. 25-26. 

23. Krom Silpakorn, Phrarathawang lae wat 

boran nai Changwat Phranakhon Si 

Ayudhya (Bangkok: Krom 

Silpakorn, B.E. 2511), p. 41. 


25. Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung Si 

Ayudhya lae Culayuddhakar-avamsa, 

p. 320. 

26. Somdet Phra Phonnarat, Sangitiyava1]'1sa 

(Bangkok: Rongphim kan sasana, 

B.E. 2521), p. 386. 

27. Khamhaikan Chao Krung Kao, p. 96. 

28. Van Vliet, Description ... , p. 73. 

29. Ibid., p. 76. 

30. Ibid., p. 74. 


32. "Phraratcha phongsawadan Krung Si 

Ayudhya Chabap Luang Prasoet, 

"Prachum phongsawadan,Pt.1, Vol. 

1 (Bangkok: Suksaphanphanit, 

B.E. 2506), p. 131. 

33. Unpublished English translation by 

Dr. Philippe Annez of Jacques 

de Coutre, Vida, Aziatische 

omzwervingen (Berchem-Anvers, 

EPO, 1988). 


35. Van Vliet, The Short History ... , p. 95. 

36. Prachum phongsawadan, Vol. 39, pp. 115- 

116. 

37. Van Vliet, Description ... , p. 75.

55 


129. 

39. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon 

Branch, Vol. XVIII, No. 54 (1903), 

pp. 26-27. 



42. Khamhaikan Khunluang Hawat, p. 18. 



45. Ibid., pp. 58-59. 


47. Prachum phongsawadan, Vol. 38, pp. 

15-16. 

48. Guy Tachard, A Relation of the Voyage 

to Siam Performed by Six Jesuits sent 

by the French King, to the Indies and 

China in the year 1685 (Bangkok: 

White Orchid Press, 1981), pp. 

181-183. 

49. Ibid. 

50. Ibid. 

51. Ibid., pp. 183-184. 

52. Prachum phongsawadan, Vol. 39, p. 260.

SECTION V 

ASPECTS OF AYUDHYA

PHAULKON 

A Personal Attempt at Reconstituting 

A Personality 


FORMER AMBASSADOR OF GREECE 

TO THAILAND 

CORRESPONDING MEMBER, THE SIAM SOCIETY 

UNDER ROYAL PATRONAGE 

Perhaps now is the time to venture a personal scrutiny 

of the personality-so controversial-of Phaulkon, an effort 

to reconstruct his character, along with every plus and 

minus accompanying it. Leaving aside the testimonies that 

have already been made, we shall try to jump over the three 

centuries separating us from the scene and reconstruct the 

figure with our only guidance the synthetic-no longer the 

specific-wisdom of as many sources as we have been able to 

trace. The endeavour is of course somewhat authoritarian 

and bears a personal seal, something which easily leads to 

errors and also to criticism and dialogue, welcome in any 

way since we are moving into an area that is so uncertain and 

with so many gray nuances. The story of the First Counselor 

in exotic Siam of the 17th century still attracts us and will 

continue to invite research and controversy. Whoever scrutinizes 

it can see only parts of the mosaic which composes the 

final truth, lost perhaps forever in the flames of the destruction 

of Ayudhya by the Burmese troops in 1767, about 80 years 

after Phaulkon's drama. 

A first point could be his Greekness. I believe that a 

lot of what could be conventionally considered as Greek traits 

had accompanied him throughout his life: thirst for adventure, 

pride, generosity, hospitality, dedication to his benefactors, 

political acumen, a feeling of dignity, along with the 

counterweight of haughtiness, inflated ego, intense inner need 

for power, contempt, a quarrelsome disposition. But we are 

obliged to note that, besides his half Venetian roots, Gherakis 

left his birthplace at a very tender age, 10 or 12 years old at 

the most, without ever returning there. Adventure made a 

consmopolitan of him, and the intrigues in Siam led him, 

with the palindromic movement of a swing, from the British 

to the French, from Protestantism to Catholicism, with his 

most stable anchor his love for Siam. His contact with the 

country of his birth does not seem to have exceeded some 

occasional letters to his mother and just a few bottles of Greek 

wine at his rich table in his hospitable palace in Lopburi. His 

European enemies used to call him "the Greek," with every 

contemptuous hint attached to that epithet, whereas his 

Siamese enemies used this expression to underline how alien 

he was to the faraway kingdom. Gherakis reacted more by 

instinct than by what could be called, strictly speaking, hurt 

national pride. There is no evident identification of his struggle 

for success in Siam with a projection of his Greek roots or 

with nostalgia for them. Destiny brought him to these far 

away shores as an individual longing for adventure, without 

clear national characteristics. Nevertheless, something of the 

beauty and the power of the island where he came into the 

world accompanied him-even subconsciously-throughout 

his course. 

We now come to the legend about the Prime Minister. 

I would rather prefer to remain within the framework of the 

period, without a posteriori transplants of political terms. 

Phaulkon, during the peak of his power, was undoubtedly 

the most important of Narai's ministers, even if the sources 

do not agree that he finally accepted the supreme title or was 

content in the factual exercise of power, rejecting, out of 

modesty or out of a subtle calculation, the formal title. 

Extract from the author's book, Phaulkon, to be published in 

Greek, and in his English translation by The Siam Society. This article 

has been translated by the author from the Greek; edited by 

James V. Di Crocco.

60 

Whatever the case was, this position was that of Phra Khlang, 

i.e. of a kind of Minister for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade 

within the Siamese climate of the times, and the Siamese title 

by which he is remembered in history is that of Vichnyen. 

Personally, I would rather propose the title of "First 

Counselor," which, I believe, better reflects the meaning, the 

scope and the breadth of Gherakis's position at the Court of 

Siam. Indeed, the "First Counselor" of Narai he was-the 

first "Mandarin" to whom the Monarch had recourse for every 

piece of advice, with absolute and unshakable confidence 

always, with the effect of arousing the flames of jealousy in 

many other powerful Siamese elements of the Court. 

We may set aside, I think, the accusations of some 

excessively puritanical foreign sources of the times regarding 

the "reckless" lifestyle of Phaulkon during the first years of his 

stay in Siam. Not because his behaviour was above blame, 

but because he had never pretended that he went there as a 

missionary, and also because such was more or less the lifestyle 

of all those adventurers at that time, whether we really 

call them "adventurers" or not. The picture may shock the 

"English Catholic" who felt so much bitterness against 

Constance in the 17th century or, in our own days, to inspire 

the fantasy of Axel Aylwen in the two novels he has written 

about him. 

This point-and independently from the later 

exemplary and harmonious, as it seems, life of our hero-is 

not, in my mind, especially important or necessary for reconstructing 

his portrait. 

We now come to the chapter of his quarrels with men 

of trade and especially those of the British East India 

Company. We do not intend to defend him or to denounce 

him. Documents, correspondence, memorials are numerous 

in various archives of the times. Everyone can read them and 

judge. The texts have their own voice. There are explosions, 

accusations, complaints, confirmations and counter-confirmations 

from both sides. The exercise of commercial activity in 

a land as distant as Siam was not easy nor free from tensions 

and competition. Phaulkon appears often harsh and haughty, 

opportunistic, selfish, calculating, uncompromising, with 

unlimited thirst for profit, which brings along power. In this 

difficult game, it was unavoidable for him to create and 

multiply enemies-besides the Persians at first, the Dutch, 

many Englishmen later like Potts, Strange, Yale, Crouch and 

Thomas, the Frenchman Veret, and so many others. By supporting 

the "interlopers," it was natural that he distanced 

himself from the British Company and its austere pillars. But, 

in this complicated game, where undoubtedly his personal 

interest came first, it was never proved that Phaulkon was in 

competition with or neglected the commercial interests of 

Narai, especially at a time when the Monarch had an absolute 

commercial monopoly. 

As we follow Phaulkon's life in Siam we may divide 

it into two basic periods, that of the tradesman and that of the 

public figure. After the first had assured him several benefits 

and had allowed him to approach and win over the King, the 

second began. The adventurer, the old seaman, the man of 

profit, changed into the mature and experienced courtier and 

politician, the intriguer-and the trusted Counselor. Mere 

survival in the exotic land had been secured. Now, the investment 

in work and effort had to bring in dividends of 

influence and power. At this juncture there emerges the new 

Phaulkon, who projects himself onto the great diplomatic 

chessboard of the times, corresponding with popes, monarchs, 

bishops, generals, politicians, intriguing with Jesuits, missionaries 

and diplomats, planning or destroying great alliances, 

undercutting or supporting old and new religions. The small 

shipboy of remote Cephallonia was now wearing exotic golden 

uniforms and receiving ambassadors and envoys, and his voice 

reached the ears of the king-of a king whom his Siamese 

subjects could never stare at, nor did they know his real name 

as long as he was alive. "The Greek" was now stably entrenched 

in the court of Narai; he had taken wings; his role 

had assumed dimensions which he could have never dreamed 

about when he reached the shores of Siam, unknown and 

powerless, in 1678 ... 

The second phase is more interesting. The first remark 

here relates to Narai himself: If there had been no Narai 

then, if these two personalities had not coincided in time, if 

Phaulkon had not reached the monarch and gained his trust, 

the phenomenon of "the Greek" in Siam would have never 

existed. Constance might have lived there quietly, in the 

shadow of the British Company, or he might have withdrawn 

defeated and today these lines could not have been 

written. The happy coincidence of Phaulkon's presence in 

Siam with the reign of this enlightened despot allowed the 

"adventurer" to become in due course the "First Counselor." 

Narai, looking much further than the men around him, was 

a strange but also positive anachronism-or precursor-for 

the Siam of the time. Not only his wide spirit of religious 

tolerance but also his positive interest in faraway lands, their 

customs, religions and peoples, provided the ideal soil on 

which the phenomenon of Constance could flourish. The proof 

is that immediately afterwards, during the reign of Phetracha, 

Siam imposed isolation on itself, without any contact with the 

foreign world except for the Dutch. This isolation persisted 

even after Phetracha until much later. Perhaps it would not 

be an exaggeration to state that during the whole period of 

Ayudhya, the years of Narai were the period with the closest 

contact with the outside world, beyond the traditional immediate 

neighbours, up to faraway Europe. How was it that this 

specific foreigner, this specific "Greek," was the one who 

gained Narai's trust, and not any of the many other foreign 

residents of the capital? This was something decided by Fate. 

This phenomenon, unique for Siam, was not unique for the 

rest of Asia: A few decades earlier, in distant Japan, another 

adventurer, the Englishman William Adams, hero of the famous 

novel Shogun of James Clavell, had also gained the 

esteem of the powerful leyasu, acquiring the coveted title of 

"Hatamoto," along with corresponding influence but without 

reaching the height of power of Phaulkon. Even earlier, in 

the 16th century, the Portuguese adventurer Philip de Brito 

was the first to trace the course toward absolute power in 

Siam's neighbor, Burma. But De Brito, after first winning him 

over, later betrayed the king of Arakan, his protector; he tried

61 

to impose Christianity by force, caused a rebellion by the 

Buddhists, and came to a cruel end at their hands. 

Still examining this second phase, we are confronted 

with some basis questions: 

As a royal favorite, was Vichayen loyal to his king, or 

did he succumb to the illusions of the heights of his 

position-where he found himself accidentally-and give 

preference to French interests over those of Siam, preparing 

the road for French occupation of the country? And if the 

answer to this question is affirmative, then his punishment 

and execution by Phetracha's regime was the just conclusion 

for his misdeeds. But if it is negative, then where exactly can 

we trace his fall? At which point did his ambitious policy 

and his dreams go astray? 

As far as loyalty is concerned, I am inclined to think 

that Vichayen-despite his great vanity and his many other 

shortcomings, which hurt many people, both Siamese and 

foreigners-lived in the shadow of his beloved liege lord and 

served him faithfully up to the end. This opinion does not 

deny that Constance had motives for protecting his position, 

his progress, his wealth, his family and himself. A strict individualistic 

trait was strong throughout his life, and especially 

while he lived in Siam. He endured a continuous, difficult 

struggle for survival and then achieved distinction, influence 

and power. Under this prism, the overall game for 

implementing the Franco-Siamese Alliance is explained as a 

parallel effort to secure the privileged position rooted in his 

unique intelligence, flair for intrigue, and charismatic personality 

and talent, after years of efforts and struggles, perhaps 

not always orthodox enough. The French garrisons, although 

small in scale by today's standards would certainly have been 

of help to him in confronting his enemies at A yudhya and 

Louvo. The cementing of the alliance made Constance influential 

even at the court of Louis XIV -an important player, a 

link and a channel for its realization. The feeling that you are 

in a position to concurrently serve two monarchs, to be 

Vichayen as well as a Knight of France, is something which 

can undermine the foundations of modesty. In its reverse 

expression, it can supply the conduits of ego-worship and 

flattery not only of a Gherakis, but of anyone, in any country 

and in any time. 

But from this point to the accusation that the Favorite 

acted contrary to the national interests of Siam and that he 

betrayed his benefactor Narai, there is indeed a long way. 

At first there is the well-known fact-acknowledged 

even by Phaulkon's enemies-that within his complicated 

personality, the characteristic of boundless gratitude to his 

benefactors never left him. As with the Englishmen who first 

helped him at his beginnings, Barnaby and White, so with 

Narai there was an unbreakable feeling of devotion to the 

end. This is not reflected only in the high-flown words, in the 

pompous diplomatic expressions in which the old and unknown 

seaman of adventures and dreams was so well versed; 

it is reflected in the very facts themselves, at least in those 

among them which may he corroborated. 

We recall first the Rebellion of the Macassars in 1686. 

There is no source that does not praise the heroic attitude of 

Vichayen during this episode, which almost caused the loss 

of the throne for Narai and the loss of his life for "the Greek." 

Fighting for the king-it may be counterargued-he was 

defending first and foremost himself. The argument is logical 

but only up to a point, because Phaulkon could have avoided 

exposing himself to so much danger if he had not really cared 

for his liege. During this rebellion the first of the ministers 

took part in the battle as a simple warrior, something which 

has remained as a legend even in his biographies of today. 

We also remember three important moments when 

Constance might have escaped while the enemy was closing 

in. He did not do so, so as not to abandon his protector: 

The first case was when Narai personally requested 

the French envoy Chaumont to secure the smooth escape of 

his Favorite to France, in case the threats of his enemies would 

really become dangerous for his security. 

The second was when at the culmination of the drama 

the French General Desfarges-before shedding his 

mask-proposed to Constance, whose position was still strong 

but showed signs of becoming shaky, that he take him to 

Bangkok and then to France, along with all his family. 

And the third was when, after the execution of Narai's 

stepson, Mom Pi, by Phetracha's men, messengers urged 

Constance to escape while there was still time. 

In all these three instances Vichayen refused, and chose 

to stay by the side of the besieged king-up to the end, as it 

actually turned out. These are not proofs of lack of loyalty. 

On the contrary, they refute any allegation that Gherakis had 

as an ultimate aim the Throne of Siam. His aim and his 

dream, in our view, was definitely the game of power-the 

vertigo of power-but not the over-extended illusion that one 

day he might even become the "stallion" of the Throne. He 

also had enough political acumen, after his extensive experience, 

to judge that in such an extreme surmise, no European, 

neither himself nor any other, could achieve sufficient mastery 

to stand at the helm of the kingdom aginst the wishes of 

the Siamese people. 

This analysis may create the impression of an attempt 

at the beautfication of Phaulkon's portrait which possibly 

oversteps the limits of the evidence and known facts. So I 

hasten to propose the following hypothesis regarding the 

explanation of his final fall: 

Did the First Counselor err, and if so, how? This is 

the question we were asking just a while ago. 

The answer we propose is affirmative. Yes, he did 

err. After a series of many successes, after an ascent that was 

indeed meteoric, it seems that the became dizzy, like all those 

reaching so high, so soon; he staggered and he lost his balance. 

The game had exceeded its financial, commercial parameter. 

It had assumed wider dimensions-political, diplomatic, 

religious. It was becoming literally unbearable for 

the man who had exercised the supreme diplomatic power of 

Siam without being basically prepared for it, relying only on 

common sense, courage and the wide potential of his mind. 

The idea of an "alliance" was not originally groundless. 

We have seen on many occasions how much it was

62 

welcomed by Narai and his counselors even before the appearance 

of Phaulkon's star; its political component served 

the expediencies of the times. But its religious component, full 

of flaws, shaky, wrong, was drawing into fall not only the 

idea but also its architects. In brief, and despite the danger 

of oversimplification, the beautiful, genuine, spontaneous 

concept of the French Catholic zealots-in conformity with 

the Christian warmth of the times-was doomed ab initio. The 

reason was that the population from the Monarch to the 

last rice farmer could never have adopted it. The missionaries 

made the same miscalculation even later, at the time of 

King Mongkut (1851-1868), who also remained unshakable in 

his Buddhist faith. 

We cannot of course legitimately change course here 

and venture into alien fields, into comparisons of religious 

traditions, into analyses of reasons of success or failure with 

regard to proselytizing efforts. But we feel that it is an essential 

rule of historical research to look into the subject from 

within and not from the outside, i.e. from the viewpoint of 

17th century concepts in Siam and not from that of contemporary 

ideas or ideas alien to Siam. 

In those years the endeavour was doomed. The people, 

overwhelmingly traditionalist, looked at their ruler as a 

god, and the ruler in his turn drew force from "the 2229 years 

of Buddhist faith of his forefathers," as Narai himself used to 

say. Nor was it possible for the religion of the people to be 

corroded by the groups of French propagandists, as in the 

mind of Phaulkon. Nor was it possible for the king to set the 

example for abandoning the age-old faith, as both Chaumont 

and La Loubere insisted. Suffice it to reread the Memoir of 

Kosa Pan from his embassy to the France of Louis XIV to 

realize how irritating the frequent French references to 

proselytization were for the Siamese envoys, and with what 

ease-along with dismay-Narai's envoy put them aside on 

every occasion. Besides, we have the classic surprise exclamation 

of La Bruyere, who ironically reversed the idea, emphasizing 

how absurd a theoretical plan would appear for 

the propagation of Buddhism in the France of Louis XIV. 

So I am led to the conclusion that no matter how 

abhorrent the French troops were in the eyes of the Siamese,* 

the point where Phaulkon erred deeply was when he created 

suspicions that he was behind the moves for religious conversion 

of the king, shaking in such a way the very trunk and 

the moral essence of the country. 

It may be that the Favorite ingenuously believed in 

the benefits for Siam of a massive conversion. Perhaps he 

had not reached such a point rationally but was letting himself 

be carried away by his own religious faith, reinforced 

after his return to Catholicism, reinvigorated through his 

contacts with the Jesuits, and matured with age. But he 

misjudged, religiously, politically and morally, when before 

the last chapters of the unfolding drama he followed the tactics 

of the forced defrocking of Buddhist monks and the forced 

drafting of them into the state services. I see this episode as 

the beginning of the end of his star in Siam, because this was 

the way the campaign against the "Farang" who threatened 

the local religious beliefs started to assume broader dimensions 

with the passing of time and to be combined with the 

fear of foreign occupation. In another area, his involvement 

in the conflicts between the Jesuits and the members of the 

Catholic Missions, and his leaning toward the former, did 

anything but facilitate his moves. 

We many indeed ponder how Constance, with so much 

genuine love for his second country and such devotion to its 

ruler, with such deep knowledge of men and situations, with 

such great understanding of the customs of Siam and its 

language-even the inaccessible "royal" language of the 

Court-ignored, or did not adequately consider, the issue of 

insulting Siamese religious beliefs. As it was he encouraged 

the French, or at least tolerated their illusion that there were 

possibilities of success. The evidence of course points out 

that in many cases of audiences of French envoys and others, 

Constance always moderated their expectations in this matter, 

up to point, as it is said, to omit translating to the king 

some related passages of their allocutions. But he did not 

altogether kill their idea, possibly because he understood how 

essential it was to the overall foundation of the French concept 

of the Alliance. Therefore it seems that Constance himself 

was a victim of an inner conflict: he desired the conversion as 

a Catholic zealot and he helped to achieve it to the point that 

this would secure the Alliance, under which his own political 

and family situation would be sheltered. On the other hand, 

he was wondering about Siam being inappropriate terrain for 

such an undertaking, Here, I think, lies the crucial point of his 

miscalculation: he did not realize the extent of the infertility 

of this terrain. So, instead of rejecting the idea altogether, he 

simply sought to change tactics through the idea of having 

groups of French propagandists discreetly roam the countryside. 

These tactics he had no time to implement. 

In this way the Buddhist clergy became his main 

opponent, tremendous in proportion to its enormous influence 

not only among the masses of the people but among the 

nobles as well. The latter anyway had many reasons of their 

own to be disappointed with him. The various elements were 

slowly connected; they formed a cobweb from which it was 

impossible to escape. The unrest assumed broad dimensions. 

Narai's health happened to deteriorate at the same time, and 

in this way Destiny helped in the catalytic emergence of the 

shape of the revolutionary Phetracha. From then on we all 

know what followed. 

* The expeditionary force of General Desfarges had another 

historic precedent: Another great king of the Ayudhya period, Prasat 

Thong, had sought the support of the then Japanese garrison in order to 

stabilize his throne, and this independently of the fact that finally he 

expelled it in 1632.

ASPECTS OF SIAMESE-FRENCH RELATIONS 

DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 

DIRK VANDER CRUYSSE 

PROFESSOR, CHAIR IN FRENCH LITERATURE 

AND CULTURAL HISTORY 

UNIVERSITY OF ANTWERP 

First of, all I would like to express my delight at being 

invited to address the members of the Siam Society, even if 

English is only my third language. Preparing my Louis XIV 

et le Siam, I came across many articles and publications bearing 

the mark of your distinguished Society. They were most 

helpful in my research on specific aspects of Siamese-European 

relations during the 17th Century. The cultural and scientific 

interests of Thailand have been well served abroad by your 

Society's publishing efforts. 

Before discussing some aspects of the relations between 

the kingdoms of Siam and France during the reigns of Somdet 

Phra Narai and Louis XIV, who share the epithet "the Great," 

I would like to summarize a few general ideas that support 

my book. 

To my mind, it is impossible to write the story of 

Siamese-French relations during the 17th Century as an independent 

episode in diplomatic history. One cannot understand 

why the two kings sought each other's alliance, if one does 

not know the fate of the European nations that discovered 

and visited Siam before the French: the Portuguese, the Dutch 

and the English. The first four chapters of my book recount 

the history of the pre-French presence in Siam of the aforesaid 

European nations, from the arrival at the Court of Phra 

Intharatcha II, in 1511, of an emissary of the Portuguese 

viceroy, until the blockade of the Chao Phraya by the Dutch 

in 1663. 

I would like in this respect to draw your attention to 

the unknown autobiography of the Flemish adventurer Jacques 

de Coutre. Not unlike Fernao Mendes Pinto, de Coutre 

crisscrossed Asia for thirty years, amassed and lost as many 

fortunes, and was captured, sold and freed as many times as 

his famous Portuguese counterpart. He spent eight months 

in Siam in 1595 during the reign of Phra Naresuan. The 

recollections of this keen-eyed witness are impressive and 

unique, since the Dutch descriptions of the kingdom of Siam 

only started in the 1620s. The precision of his observations is 

striking. The ceremonies at the Royal Palace, the temples and 

the huge Buddha images that they house, the exotic market 

places, the crocodiles in the klongs, the unbearable cruelty of 

the executions, the kathin nam and kathin phak processions, the 

elephant hunting parties, the tiger battles, the incredible luxury 

surrounding the royal elephants (who slept on silk cushions 

and defecated in solid gold vessels), the stately funeral and 

cremation of the elephant on which Phra Naresuan had won 

the battle of Nong Sarai, everything is reported, pictured and 

measured with an eye for characteristic detail. 

The Flemish adventurer spent his old age in Spain, 

where he dictated his Spanish Memoirs. Printed in Madrid in 

1640, de Coutre's Vida seems to have been forgotten almost at 

once, overshadowed by Mendes Pinto's bestselling Peregrinar;ao. 

The only known copy of the Vida was discovered in a 

Madrid library and published in Antwerp in a Flemish translation 

in 1988. The Siamese episode of de Coutre's Vida is 

attracting the attention of Thai historians. My colleague and 

friend Prof. Dhiravat na Pombejra,· who reads Flemish, told 

me that de Coutre's description of an elephantine funeral is a 

striking and unique document. 

My decision to pave the way to the French arrival in 

Siam in the 1660s by an account of the pre-French involvement 

in that kingdom of other European nations will seem 

obvious enough to the readers of the Journal of the Siam Society, 

who are familiar with many sources written in Portuguese, 

Dutch and English by travellers, traders and missionaries 

in the late 16th and early 17th Century. It does not 

seem that obvious to many French readers, who see the history 

of their country as a glorious and almost independent epic, 

unaware of the fact that France lagged behind the other 

seagoing nations in its quest for new colonial markets. 

Lecture given at The Siam Society, with the President, Dr. Piriya 

Krairiksh, in the Chair. 

• Department of History, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkom University.

64 

The fact that the last book on Siamese-French relations 

during the 17th Century, written by a French historian, 

was published in 1883, seems almost unbelievable, especially 

when one bears in mind the words of Sir John Bowring: "There 

are few episodes in French history more remarkable than the 

events connected with the intercourse between the Court of 

Versailles and that of Siam in the reign of Louis XIV." 

How to explain that phenomenon of collective amnesia? 

I suppose that the unhappy outcome of the story, at least 

from a French viewpoint, is the main reason why French 

historians have looked the other way. Ernest Lavisse wrote 

ninety years ago in his impressive biography of Louis XIV: 

"In France, we do not like matters that do not succeed at 

once." Franc,;ois Bluche, who five years ago published a brilliant 

and widely acclaimed 1,000-page biography of Louis 

XIV, does not even mention the word "Siam." Louis XIV's 

failure to force a French protectorate upon the kingdom of 

Siam was considered incompatible with the Sun King's grandeur. 

It must be stressed, however, that the tide of French 

opinion has been turning the last few years, There has been, 

for starters, the exhibition "Phra Narai, roi de Siam, et Louis 

XIV," organized in Paris by the Musee Guimet in 1986, to 

celebrate the third centenary of the stay in France of an important 

Siamese diplomatic mission. A catalogue written by 

Thai and French scholars opened many new perspectives. A 

profusely introduced and annotated edition of Simon de La 

Loubere's Du royaume de Siam was published in Paris in 1987 

by Michel Jacq-Hergoualc'h. The Siamese episode of Forbin's 

Memoirs was reprinted last year as a small volume under the 

title Le voyage du comte de Forbin a Siam. And Maurice Collis's 

Siamese White finally got translated into French, fifty-five years 

after the first English edition. It was published in Paris last 

September as Au service du roi de Siam. 

Reviews in the French press greeted the simultaneous 

publication of my own book and the Collis translation as "a 

happy coincidence." One critic reads my narrative and analysis 

of Siamese-French relations during the 17th Century as 

"an incredible comedy of manners," and another sees it as 

"a love story between France and Siam." Clearly, some efforts 

still need to be made before the reality of Siamese-French 

relations will be understood and seen as a very complex 

intercultural experience. 

Whether one likes it or not, the story of the commercial, 

religious and diplomatic contacts between Louis XIV and 

Phra Narai is the story of a failure. Claude-Michel Cluny, 

who signed a very sympathetic review of my book in L 'Express, 

writes nicely: "Resembling two golden scarabs touching each 

other with their feelers, the kings of France and Siam blindly 

extend their scepters to one another." The image implies good 

will and curiosity as well as a lack of mutual understanding. 

It is of course impossible to summarize a book of nearly 

600 pages in less than an hour, but let's try to get a general 

idea of it. After the first section on the pre-French period in 

the contacts between Europe and Siam, three chapters analyse 

other non-French components of the story. A long chapter 

is devoted to Somdet Phra Narai, his father Prasat Thong, 

his seizure of power, the golden age of Thai poetry during his 

reign, his wars, Crown trade as a main source of revenue, 

and finally the king's fondness for Lopburi and his building 

efforts in that ancient city. 

Another chapter seeks to give a truthful portrait of 

Phra Narai's Greek favourite, Constantine Phaulkon, in spite 

of the conflicting evidence given by the French Jesuits (who 

extolled him to the skies) and the British East India Company 

officials (who loathed him). The Jesuit archives in Rome and 

the archives of the "Missions etrangeres de Paris" provide 

revealing documents on Phaulkon which shed light upon this 

highly intelligent, ambitious and reckless character. 

A last non-French chapter introduces an important text 

hitherto unknown in France: The Ship of Sulaimtln, being the 

account of a Persian embassy sent in 1685 to the Court of 

King Narai by Shah Sulaiman, who hoped "to guide him into 

the fold of Islam." Knowledge of this exotic and poetic travel 

story, written by Muhammad Ibrahim and translated into 

English by John O'Kane, is essential for a better understanding 

of the French endeavour to lure Phra Narai into the bosom 

of the Roman Catholic Church. The French ambassadors, 

who were made to believe that King Narai was considering 

a change of religion, were aware of the Persian mission and 

very worried about its outcome, as appears in the travel diaries 

of Father Bouvet and the Abbe de Choisy. 

The thirteen chapters devoted to the French involvement 

in Siam open with a first section of five chapters under 

the general heading "The Time of Missionaries and Traders." 

They encompass the period 1660-1680, starting with the foundation 

of the Royal East-India Company (Compagnie royale 

des Indes Orientales) by Louis XIV and Colbert in 1664. The 

ill-fated decision to colonize on the way the huge island of 

Madagascar absorbed precious human and financial resources 

needed to set up a network of French trading posts in India 

and Southeast Asia. 

The documents relating to the Royal Company reveal 

an overbearing behaviour, a lack of serious preparation, and 

an unwillingness to understand the reality of Asia and the 

touchiness of its rulers. When one knows furthermore that 

the Dutch, on whom Louis XIV had declared war in the meantime, 

went to great lengths to put a spoke in the French wheel, 

it is easy to understand why the Royal East-India Company 

never was a success story. But a French trading post was set 

up in Ayudhya, specializing in the spice trade. 

The next chapters tell the story of the arrival in Mergui 

and A yudhya of the first French bishops and priests who had 

left France in 1660. It would take too much time to explain 

the reasons why the Pope approved a new missionary order, 

designed to christianize Southeast Asia and China, the 

"Societe des Mission etrangeres de Paris." The general idea 

was to bypass the old privileges of the Portuguese and Spanish 

missions that depended entirely on the kings of Portugal 

and Spain, and to launch a new missionary instrument at the 

Pope's beck and call. 

As a consequence, two rival Catholic missionary circuits 

shared the Asian scene from the 1660s on. They engaged 

in a fierce struggle where all kinds of dirty tricks were

65 

allowed. It will surprise nobody that the Siamese were sick 

and tired of the neverending quarrels, and that very few 

among them felt the urge to join a Church that preached 

peace and brotherly love, but whose representatives were 

at each other's throats. 

For the same reason, the first bishops and clerics of 

the Missions etrangeres who left for Southeast Asia in November 

1660 carefully avoided the shipping lanes controlled 

by the Dutch and the Portuguese, and chose the problematic 

land route across Asia Minor and Mesopotamia. They sailed 

on a British trader from Bandar Abbas in Persia to Surat on 

the northwest coast of Mogul India. They crossed the subcontinent 

walking behind an ox-cart, and arrived at 

Masulipatam on the Coromandel Coast where a shaky Moorish 

vessel en route to Mergui was boarded. The march through 

the isthmus to Phetchaburi, and from there to A yudhya, was 

particularly exhausting and dangerous, but they arrived 

somehow in one piece in the capital in August 1662 after a 

testing journey of twenty-two months. 

We are well informed about the first voyage to Siam 

of the clerics of the Missions etrangeres thanks to the travel 

report written by one of them, Jacques de Bourges, the Account 

of a Journey through Turkey, Persia and India, as far as the Kingdom 

of Siam. This very important French book, published in 

Paris in 1666, deserves much more attention than it has attracted 

hitherto, and this for several reasons. It is, to start 

with, the first account of a French journey to Siam, made 

attractive by many picturesque details and practical advice to 

would-be travellers. It contains furthermore a 50-page description 

of the kingdom of Siam. One wonders if Jacques de 

Bourges was aware of the fact that he had started a new 

literary genre, to be made famous by the descriptions of Siam 

by people like Nicolas Gervaise and Simon de La Loubere. 

But there is a third and to my mind still more important 

reason why de Bourges's book should be closely studied. 

The man was a pious priest ready to risk his life to convert 

the Siamese "heathens" and very aware of this mission. His 

book allows us to penetrate his mind and that of his companions, 

Bishop Pierre Lambert and fellow priest Fran

66 

common language in religious matters is due to a different 

conception of truth. To the French, trained in Greek and 

Cartesian logic, truth is unique. Two persons cannot have 

different opinions on a given subject and both be right. To 

the Siamese, truth has many faces and no honest opinion 

should be rejected. To the Western mind, different approaches 

are conflicting. To the Eastern mind, they are complementary. 

The deadlock is complete. 

Jacques de Bourges's book on his overland journey to 

the distant kingdom of Siam derserves our full attention. To 

the historian of mentalities tackling a clash of cultures, its 

value is enormous. 

It appears that intolerance was the main reason for 

the French failure to gain a firm foothold in Siam, but they 

were by no means the only ones to snob the Siamese. The 

already mentioned Persian envoys to the Court of Phra Narai 

despised their guests openly. The author of The Ship of 

Sulaiman writes for instance after a royal banquet: "The food 

of the Siamese in no way resembles normal, proper foods, 

and the natives are not familiar with intelligent methods of 

preparing meals. In fact no one in Siam really knows how to 

cook and eat, or even how to sit correctly at table. The Siamese 

have only recently arrived from the world of bestiality to the 

realm of humanity." 

It will take an even-handed and moderate man such 

as La Loubere to sing another tune. He had not, of course, 

read the Philistine outpourings of his Persian colleague, but 

he states nonetheless in his chapter "Concerning the Table of 

the Siameses" (I quote from the 1693 translation): "I cannot 

forbear making a remark very necessary, truly to understand 

the Relations of Foreign Coutries. It is that the words good, 

excellent, magnificent, great, bad, ugly, simple and small, equivocal 

in themselves, must always be understood with reference to 

the fantasy of the Author of the Relation[ ... ]. It would not be 

just to contemn everything that resembles not what we do 

now see in the Court of France ... " Perhaps, if there had been 

more La Louberes among the French, the outcome of their 

adventure in Siam might have been different. 

But let us go back to the first team of French clerics 

who set foot in Ayudhya in 1662. My chapters 9 and 10 relate 

the arrival of more French priests, their quarrels with the 

Portuguese Jesuits and Dominicans established in Ayudhya, 

their vain attempts to heal the paralysis of Chaofa Aphaitot, 

the king's half-brother, the consecration of Louis Laneau as 

first Bishop of A yudhya, etc. They maintained excellent contacts 

with the Royal Court. The king was presented with 

sumptuously bound volumes containing not only copper 

engravings of biblical scenes, but also of Louis XIV, the French 

royal family, the royal palaces, vistas of Paris, French regiments, 

artillery and proud vessels. They saturated the royal 

ear with praises of the Sun King, his power, the many battles 

he had won, his wisdom, his generosity, and so on. 

Phra Narai was very curious about the world outside 

Siam and he listened eagerly to these eulogies. The idea 

seeped (or was seeped) in to his mind that diplomatic contacts 

with so powerful a prince would enhance his status 

among the rulers of Southeast Asia anQ. rein in the Dutch. 

Their arrogance and power in the region worried him, and he 

never truly forgave nor forgot the 1663 blockade of the Chao 

Phraya river mouth. The French bishops Lambert and Laneau 

urged him to send an embassy to Versailles, and the agents 

of the Royal Company offered him passage for his envoys on 

the Solei[ d'Orient. The signature in 1678 of the peace treaty 

of Nijmegen had put an end to the French-Dutch war in 

Europe, and reopened the sea lanes to the French vessels. It 

was the dawning of a new age in Siamese-French relations. 

That second period, starting in 1680, is the subject of 

a three-chapter section under the heading "The Time of the 

First Embassies." A first chapter tells of the ill-fated voyage 

of the Solei[ d'Orient, a thousand-ton vessel which was the 

pride of the French merchant navy. It had three Siamese 

ambassadors on board, two French clerics who were to serve 

as interpreters, a large party of khunnang (mandarins), secretaries 

and servants, their cumbersome baggage, fifty large 

crates of presents, and last but not least two young 

elephants-male and female-provided with a huge supply 

of banana-leaves and sugar cane. The ambassadors carried 

two royal messages engraved on gold foil and addressed to 

Louis XIV and Pope Innocent XL The letter to the French 

king said among other things: "We beg you, Very Great and 

Powerful King, to send us ambassadors. May our embassies 

go and come without interruption, and may our friendship 

be strong and everlasting." 

Court astrologers had predicted all kinds of disasters 

for Siamese reckless enough to board Farang vessels, and 

events proved them to be right. The Soleil d 'Orient left 

Bantam in August 1681, but never reached her destination. 

When one pieces together all available scraps of evidence, 

one comes to the conclustion that the hapless vessel perished 

somewhere between Madagascar and the Cape. Siamese and 

French officials suspected for a long time that the Dutch were 

somehow responsible for this tragedy. 

It took several years for the awful truth to become 

known in Ayudhya. Phaulkon's brilliant career as favourite 

of Phra Narai and almighty manager of Crown Trade, Foreign 

Affairs and Court Politics had started in the meantime. 

He urged the king to pursue his overtures towards the French. 

A modest mission of two khunnang set off for France in 

January 1684 on a small British vessel and reached Paris safely 

before the end of the year. 

They were escorted by the French priest Benigne 

Vachet, who acted officially as interpreter. Actually, Phra 

Narai had entrusted him with the direction of the mission 

and asked him to keep an eye on the envoys. Father Vachet 

wrote very extensive memoirs which inform us on every detail 

of the first Siamese embassy to reach France. The three bulky 

volumes of the manuscript of Vachet's Memoirs are kept in 

the archives of the Missions etrangeres de Paris. They yield 

a rich harvest of unknown facts on Siam and the author's 

semiofficial mission to the French Court. An English edition 

of the Vachet Memoirs would keep busy a small team of 

young Thai historians. It would keep them happy as well, for 

the tale of Vachet's troubles is very entertaining. He spent his 

time prodding and cursing his two unruly khunnang who did

67 

not make the slightest effort to adapt to French customs or 

even to behave politely. He brought them crawling on their 

knees and elbows before Louis XIV in the Gallery of Mirrors 

in Versailles. The king said to him in his usual royal manner: 

"Please assure these gentlemen that I am delighted to have 

seen them, and that I shall comply with the utmost pleasure 

with the wishes of my brother the king of Siam." 

The talkative Vachet was lucky enough to convince 

the king's ministers that it was in the interest of France to 

send an impressive embassy to Siam. Carried away by his 

enthusiasm, he insinuated that Phra Narai could become a 

Roman Catholic. This very imprudent suggestion set up a 

misunderstanding that weighed heavily upon future relations 

between the two Crowns. Having spent several years in Siam, 

Vachet should have known that the king, worshipped as a 

Devaraja ar God-King, a future Bodhisattva and a chakravartin, 

or wheel-turning monarch, could not drop Buddhism, the 

backbone of Siamese culture. 

Louis XIV appointed Alexandre de Chaumont as his 

ambassador, and assigned the Abbe de Choisy as counsel and 

possible replacement. Six Jesuits, well-grounded in astronomy 

and mathematics, were to sail with the ambassador on the 

Oiseau and Maligne, two vessels of the Crown. The Imperial 

Court of China was their ultimate goal. We must mention 

among them Joachim Bouvet and Guy Tachard, who kept 

well-known travel accounts. Father Tachard, who was about 

to play a pernicious part in Siamese-French relations, is the 

leading "bad character" in our story. The ambassador selected 

a retinue of young noblemen and aides. One of them, 

Claude de Forbin, deserves special mention. He would outstay 

the others in Siam and paint a realistic image of that 

country in his famous memoirs. 

The next section of my book is called "The Time of the 

Great Embassies." It tells in the first place, in two colourful 

chapters, of the journey of the French vessels to Siam, with 

stopovers in Cape Town and Batavia, and the three months 

the embassy spent in Siam, from September till December 

1685. The whole affair is well documented by the accounts 

referred to previously, and the diaries written by Chaumont 

and Choisy. This is of course the most famous episode of the 

whole story. I will not impose upon your patience by recalling 

things each of you has well etched in your memory. 

The most important things, as is always the case when 

diplomatic missions are concerned, happened behind the 

scenes. While the exotic pomp and circumstance unfolded in 

front of the visitors, Phaulkon and Father Tachard conducted 

their shady business in the back room. The Greek needed the 

French since he felt threatened by the mandarins and the 

Buddhist Sangha, whereas Tachard, who wanted to establish 

his Jesuit order in Siam to the prejudice of the Mission e 

trangeres, went to great lengths to please him. 

Constantine Phaulkon (the French called him "Monsieur 

Constance") craved for the presence in Siam of a French 

army corps on which he could rely in case of emergency. 

Ambassador Chaumont did not even want to talk of it, and 

Choisy thought likewise. But Tachard whispered in the 

Greek's ear that Chaumont carried little weight in Versailles 

(which was true), and that Father de La Chaize, the King's 

Jesuit confessor, would get him his army corps in no time. It 

was thereupon decided that Father Tachard would return to 

France to advocate in Versailles the cause of a French military 

involvement in Siam. He was to offer the fortresses of 

Bangkok and Mergui, the two "keys of the kingdom," to the 

French. When he heard the news, Chaumont called himself 

"un ambassadeur de fac;;ade," and Choisy writes with the same 

bitterness: "Chaumont and myself were but theatrical performers; 

the good Father was the real ambassador, in charge 

of the secret negotiation." The fact that Phra Narai, of course, 

had not even thought of becoming a Roman Catholic, made 

the embassy, the nice speeches and rich presents notwithstanding, 

a failure. 

The two vessels returned to France with an important 

Siamese embassy, a letter on gold foil and magnificent presents 

for the King and the Royal Family. The three ambassadors 

were selected with great care. The Ratchathut or first ambassador 

was no one less than Okphra Visut Sunthorn, better 

known as Kosa Pan, who had shared a wet nurse with Phra 

Narai and was raised with him. The Uppathut and Trithut 

(second and third ambassadors) were outstanding mandarins 

with diplomatic experience. 

In June 1686 the two vessels dropped anchor in the 

seaport of Brest in Brittany after a smooth return voyage of 

hardly six months. All along the journey the three Siamese 

ambassadors had prepared themselves eagerly for their mission 

in France, asking lost of questions and taking notes. 

Father Vachet, who escorted them, was very helpful in this 

respect. 

At this point in the writing of my book I was delighted 

to have a very rare Siamese document at my disposal. 

The Palace Revolution of 1688, the destruction of Ayudhya, 

the damp climate and the voracious insects explain the extreme 

scarcity of authentic Siamese documents going back to 

the 17th Century. The existence of an old Siamese manuscript 

in the archives of the Missions etrangeres has been known for 

some time. It was published by Mr. Manich Jumsai in 1984 

and the Silpakorn Journal in 1985, but the text was never 

translated to the best of my knowledge. Professor Dhiravat 

na Pombejra was kind enough to introduce me to the Translation 

Centre of Chulalongkorn University. Professor Visudh 

Busyakul agreed to translate into English and to annotate for 

me the Siamese text I had so often browsed through in the 

Rue du Bac in Paris. I take this opportunity to thank him for 

his fine scholarly work which has enabled me to hear and 

make heard the voice of a single Siamses witness in the middle 

of an impressive choir of European, mostly French voices. 

The Kosa Pan Diary covers a period of fifteen days, 

from the 20th of June till the 4th of July 1686. Kosa Pan had 

arrived two days earlier in Brest with his fellow ambassadors 

and retinue, and left that city the 9th of July, which allows us 

to call the fragment "Kosa Pan's Brest Diary." It informs us 

about the first fortnight of the Ratchathut's stay in France, and 

voices his amazement and admiration for all things French. 

The Diary boasts furthermore of KDsa Pan's adaptability to 

French manners. He writes for instance on the fifth day of

68 

the waxing moon in the eighth month of the year of the Tiger, 

being the eighth year of the Chulasakkarat Decade (which 

means Monday, the 24th of June, 1686): "In the evening the 

Governor and his wife came and had dinner with me. I took 

hold of the hand of the Governor's wife and we washed our 

hands together, and led her to her seat beside me. I set on her 

right side. The Second Ambassador and the Third Ambassador 

sat next to her left. I followed the French etiquette as 

instructed to me by Father Vachet." 

There is not enough time for me to quote from the 

Brest Diary in Professor Busyakul's translation, but it might be 

worth while to consider its publication in the Journal of the Siam 

Society. The reader will notice, among other interesting details, 

the author's struggle with the French names of dishes, 

vegetables and fruits unknown in Siam, and for which there 

were no Siamese words available. 

We are very well informed about the eight months the 

Siamese delegation spent in France. Father Vachet's Memoirs, 

and the Diaries kept by several French courtiers such as 

Sourches and Dangeau, provide us with a wealth of details. 

But the most impressive source is the monthly Mercure galant 

which devoted no less than 2,000 small pages to the Siamese 

embassy. Five special "Siamese" issues were printed between 

July 1686 and January 1687. They are hard to find, even in 

the main French libraries, but Mr. Manich Jumsai has had the 

excellent idea to make some of them available to the general 

public, as well as other French 17th Century texts on Siam. 

The most interesting things happened of course far 

from the public eye. While the French went crazy about the 

Siamese and the Mercure reported their visits and quoted their 

sayings, Father Tachard spun his web in the back rooms of 

Versailles. The stately audiences were left to Kosa Pan and 

his colleagues, but it is the Jesuit who prepared the dramatic 

future of Siamese-French relations. 

The king and his navy secretary Seignelay decided to 

send an army corps of six hundred men to Siam. General 

Desfarges was to be their commanding officer. Two envoys 

without ambassadorial status, Simon de La Loubere and 

Claude O~beret, were appointed, but they were told to decide 

nothing without Father Tachard's approval. 

The instructions to the envoys were very clear. 

Phaulkon, so they said, had pledged "to hand over all the 

strongholds demanded by the [French] King, to install French 

officials to run all places belonging to the King of Siam, and 

to grant total freedom of trade to all His Majesty's subjects." 

The instructions stipulated further that, if those promises were 

not kept, "His Majesty has decided to attack Bangkok and to 

resort to violence." One rubs one's eyes with astonishment: 

where are they gone, the nice speeches and flowery compliments 

exchanged between the two Crowns? 

The commercial and religious goals of the expedition 

were stressed at the same time: "Although the establishment 

of trade is the goal of the enterprise, it must be emphasized 

that the main reason why His Majesty is about to provide a 

solid estabishment to the French in that country, is his intention 

to promote the interests of Religion." 

When told about Phaulkon's promise to hand over 

Bangkok and Mergui, Kosa Pan was very upset. He repeated 

that his instructions directed him only to offer Songkhla in 

the south as a trading post to the French. 

A squadron of five vessels left Brest in March 1687, 

carrying a total of 1,361 men. Among them, twelve Jesuits. 

From the start, almost everything went wrong: the relations 

between the envoys and Tachard were icy, violent storms 

badly damaged the vessels, and scurvy, dysentery and other 

diseases killed about 200 soldiers and sailors. One of the 

Jesuits died as well. 

Father Tachard managed to disembark well ahead of 

the others and to meet Phaulkon before Kosa Pan and his 

colleagues could advise against the cession of Bangkok and 

Mergui. The Greek convinced Phra Narai and his Council to 

put the two strongholds under French "protection." Phra 

Phetracha, chief of the elephantry, was the only member of 

the Council to speak against the proposal, which was in the 

end approved by the king. Phetracha became in no time the 

heart of a nationalist anti-French movement, which was joined 

soon after by Kromluang Yothathep, Phra Narai's strongheaded 

daughter. 

We are pretty well informed on those matters by the 

accounts written by the Jesuits de Beze and Le Blanc, and by 

Ceberet, the second envoy. Father de Beze's book on Phaulkon, 

published in Tokyo in 1947, has been translated into English 

and is well known. Father Le Blanc's testimony, which is still 

more important, was never reprinted since its 1692 publication 

in two volumes. The only copy I know of in located in 

the Bibliotheque nationale in Paris. I chose however to quote 

Le Blanc from a more confidential manuscript version in the 

Jesuit archives in Rome, the Secret Memoirs on what happened 

in Siam. Ceberet's travel diary was never published. Two 

nearly identical manuscript copies can be consulted in Paris. 

I can only hope that Le Blanc and Ceberet will be published 

some day in English, for they could serve Thai history well. 

Having obtained the king's permission to hand over 

the fortresses of Bangkok and Mergui to the French, Phaulkon 

only let them disembark after an oath of obedience to himself. 

La Loubere and Ceberet fumed, but there was not much 

they could do about it, all the more because the stupid General 

Desfarges and the Machiavellian Tachard approved the 

submission of their king's soldiers to a Greek adventurer. 

There is no need to tell you that the La Loubere and 

Ceberet mission was not a success. The religious and commercial 

treaties they signed with Phaulkon had little value 

and were never applied anyway. The exotic glitter of the 

royal audience could not dispel the bitter feeling of ineffectiveness 

that haunted them. There was no love lost between 

the envoys and Phaulkon. They were happy to weigh anchor 

after a stay of three months, during which they had been told 

the details of the Macassar revolt that had rocked the kingdom 

in 1686 after the departure of the previous embassy. 

The envoys and Father Tachard, no longer on speaking 

terms, reached France in July 1688, eager to submit their 

conflicting reports and proposals to the king and his ministers. 

The French Court was about to send a new military 

force to Siam, but the Glorious Revolution and the Prince of

69 

Orange's accession to the British throne kept them in Europe. 

Nobody could know then in France that in the meantime 

another revolution had shaken the foundations of the kingdom 

of Siam and put an end to the relations between the two 

countries. 

Many sources are available on the "Revolution of 

Siam:" French, Dutch, English and Portuguese. On the French 

side, there is Jean Vollant des Verquains's Histoire de Ia 

revolution de Siam printed in 1691, Father de Beze's book on 

Phaulkon, and of course Father Le Blanc's unsurpassed Memoires 

secrets. The Dutch were delighted with the events, and 

the V.O.C. archives in the Hague are a treasure-trove of 

gloating reports. Some of them are French documents seized 

by the Dutch, for instance the extensive report written by 

Desfarges, who died on his way back to France. An interesting 

English account was printed in London in 1690, called A Full 

and True Relation of the Great and Wonderful Revolution that 

happened lately in the Kingdom of Siam. The Portuguese Rela(iio 

das revoltas de Siiio by the Belgian Jesuit Jean-Baptiste 

Maldonado, who witnessed the events, reveals unknown aspects 

and sequels of the Revolution. Father Maldonado 

concludes: "So horrible a Revolution deserves a thick volume 

providing the full details, and there will be no lack of dedicated 

historians to do so, especially in France." 

My twentieth and last chapter unfolds the chronicle of 

the Palace Revolution that overturned Siamese-French relations 

during the summer of 1688. Phaulkon was tortured and 

put to death in the most awful way. Phra Narai's two halfbrothers, 

Chaofa Aphaitot and Chaofa Noi, were put in scarlet 

sacks and beaten to death with sandalwood clubs, and the 

king, a captive in his own palace at Lopburi, died of despair 

and sickness. Phra Phetracha and his son Okluang Sorasak, 

who were to be the next kings, played of course an essential 

part. It is hard to explain General Desfarges' refusal to rush 

from Bangkok to Phaulkon's and the king's rescue when there 

was still plenty of time. The behaviour of other French, such 

as Bishop Louis Laneau, his aide Artus de Lionne, and Veret, 

the agent of the French Royal Company, gives rise to many 

questions as well. Father Le Blanc stresses the importance of 

the Buddhist Sangha and the Sankarrit (main abbot) of Lopburi 

in the progress of the dramatic events. 

But the outcome was clear enough, The French military 

were dislodged from their strongholds in Bangkok and 

Mergui, and many were killed. Those who could fled to 

Pondichery on the Coromandel Coast. The relations between 

the two Crowns came to an abrupt standstill, in spite of the 

efforts of the tireless Guy Tachard to establish relations with 

King Phetracha and his Phra Khlang, Kosa Pan. It is interesting 

to know that Father Tachard, in addition to his First and 

Second Voyage to Siam, which were printed, left also an 

overlooked manuscript account of his third and fourth Asian 

journeys. He went to Ayudhya a last time in 1698. He met 

King Phetracha, Kosa Pan and Phaulkon's Japanese widow, 

who worked as a slave in the kitchens of the Royal Palace, 

but could only establish that Siamese-French relations had 

collapsed. 

My epilogue takes its title from the famous Tom Wolfe 

novel, "The Bonfire of the Vanities." When Phra Narai's remains 

were cremated in February 1690, the towering sandalwood 

pyre was decorated with crucifixes, Christian pictures, 

portraits of Louis XIV and his ministers, and other relics of 

the French adventure in Siam. The day the king's body was 

committed to the fire and his soul set free, a dream went up 

in flames. The late king's wish, "May our friendship be strong 

and everlasting," proved to be impossible. The French king's 

answer, "I have decided to attack Bangkok and to resort to 

violence," was not what Phra Narai had in mind when he 

extended his invitation. 

I have suggested throughout this lecture the main reasons 

for the Siamese-French failure. The short-lived flirtation 

revealed the near impossibility of a common language between 

two completely different cultures. The French were 

mainly invited to curb the Dutch arrogance, but the medicine 

proved to be more dangerous than the illness it was to heal. 

Quicker to judge than to understand, the French were mentally 

ill-equipped. Unfamiliar with European ruthlessness, 

the Siamese should have pondered the saying, "Who sups 

with the devil needs a very long spoon," before opening up 

their country to the enterprising Farangs. 

It appears as if our planet was still too big in the 17th 

Century and the geographic and mental distances also 

stretched too for. The world, fortunately, has changed a lot 

in the last three centuries.

MADAME MARIE GUIMARD 

Under the Ayudhya Dynasty 

of the Seventeenth Century 

REIKOHADA 

THE JAPAN P.E.N. CLUB 

MEMBER OF THE SIAM SOCIETY 

Few people other than scholarly specialists may realize 

that Madame Marie Guimard, known by the Thai people 

as Thao Thong Kip Ma, was a Japanese woman. In order to 

discuss her eventful life, I must also mention her husband, 

Phaulkon, and the history of Christianity in Japan. Japanese 

people used to use the Portuguese word for Christians, 

"Cristao," because it was Portuguese culture and religion that 

was first introduced to Japan from the West. Japanese 

Christians were later suppressed by Hideyoshi and the early 

Tokugawa shoguns, for they viewed Christianity as a threat 

to political unity. As a result of ruthless persecution by the 

shogunate government, only a few communities of secret 

Christians survived. Marie was born in Ayudhya, and her 

mother was the daughter of a Japanese family of "hidden 

Christians." Marie was eighteen years old when she was 

married to Constance Phaulkon in 1682, so we can estimate 

that Marie was born in 1664, and that her mother was born 

around 1640. Let us look back on the history of Japan and of 

Christianity in Japan at that time. 

It was through Christianity that the Japanese and the 

European people began to have personal contact with each 

other. Christianity was first introduced by the famous Jesuit 

missionary Saint Francis Xavier in 1549. It is no exaggeration 

to say that he was not only a great man of religion, but also 

a great politician. Before discussing Xavier's activities in Japan, 

I would first like to give some general historical background. 

The introduction of Christianity was preceded by the 

arrival of the Portuguese in 1543 when their ship drifted ashore 

on Tanegashima, an island south of Kyiishu. Soon more 

Portuguese commercial ships arrived in Kyiishu, the southern 

part of Japan. People in Kyiishu may have learned about 

Christianity by seeing the Portuguese sailors praying, but they 

were formally evangelized when Xavier landed in Kagoshima, 

the southern tip of Kyiishu. Xavier, born in 1506, was the son 

of an aristocrat in the Kingdom of Navarre, which is now a 

part of Spain. When he was studying in Paris he met Ignatius 

Loyola, and he formed the Jesuit Society with Loyola and five 

others in 1534. 

Xavier started his evangelical mission in India and 

Southeast Asia. A young Japanese man that he met in Malacca 

made him interested in going to Japan. The young 

man's name was Anjiro (Yajiro in Japanese). Anjiro had 

committed murder in Japan, and had fled the country by 

boarding a Portuguese ship bound for Goa. The captain of 

the ship was a devout Christian, and he talked to Anjiro about 

God. Anjiro was so deeply moved by his words that he felt 

the need to repent for his sins. He became a student at a 

missionary school in Goa and became baptized. When Xavier 

met Anjiro at Malacca in 1547, he asked him if he could 

evangelize in Japan. Anjiro replied: "Japanese people go by 

reason. They won't change their religion unless they are fully 

convinced." With these words of Anjiro, Xavier decided to 

set out on his evangelical mission to Japan. 

It was the most turbulent time of Japanese history 

when Xavier came to Japan, but he successfully accomplished 

his mission as a pioneer of Christian evangelists in Japan. 

Aside from evangelism, he contributed much to the political 

and economic development of Portugal. Although he died of 

sickness before fully accomplishing his goals, he left his followers 

valuable information about Japanese culture, Japanese 

value systems, and the way one should approach Japanese 

intellectuals and authorities. For over forty years following 

Xavier's arrival in Japan, Christianity was evangelized freely 

and actively, and the number of Japanese Christians had 

significantly increased. Trade with Portuguese ships was 

making a good profit, and the evangelists who came on the 

ships included not only those from the Jesuit Society but also 

the Franciscans and missionaries from other sects, whose 

nationalities included Portuguese, Spanish and Italian.

72 

At this time Japan was in a chaotic period of civil 

wars. In spite of the fragile and volatile political climate, 

Xavier managed to earn the support of daimy6 (feudal lords) 

in his evangelical missions. Before Xavier died, he left his 

successors with much practical information on how to deal 

with feudal lords, making it possible for these followers to 

spread Christianity through out Japan in just forty years. 

Because of the efforts of Xavier and other missionaries, 

many people in Japan converted to Christianity, even 

among feudal lords, such as Ohmura Sumitada, Arima 

Harunobu, Ohtomo Sorin, and so on. By 1574 almost all the 

people under the domain of Lord Ohtomo had converted to 

Christianity and had destroyed shrines and temples. For 

feudal lords Christianity provided a way to absorb foreign 

culture, benefit from foreign trade, and acquire firearms from 

abroad. Many Churches were built in Osaka, Nagasaki, and 

especially in Kyoto, which became a center for the missionaries. 

The Christian population in Kyoto rose from fifteen 

hundred to fifteen thousand. 

At this time the most powerful of all feudal lords was 

Oda Nobunaga. His great ambition was to bring the entire 

country under his power, but two obstacles stood in his way. 

They were the peasant uprisings and the strong power of 

Hieizan, a very influential sect of Buddists in Japan. In order 

to work against the opposition, Nobunaga used and supported 

Christianity to import foreign culture and strengthen his 

power. Because of Nobunaga's policy, Western culture flourished 

during his reign. Nobunaga died in 1582; other supporters 

of Christianity such as Ohmura and Ohtomo also died 

shortly after. After Nobunaga's death, Toyotomi Hideyoshi 

seized power. At first he followed a policy similar to 

Nobunaga's, but later he became anti-Christian. The suffering 

of Christians in Japan began: he issued an order to expel 

the Jesuits from the country, and confiscated their head office 

in Nagasaki. Hideyoshi felt threatened by the conversion of 

so many feudal lords and their people to Christianity, and 

feared that Christianity would become an obstacle which 

would prevent order in the country. However, more missionaries 

managed to come to Japan, disguising themselves 

as merchants, because Hideyoshi did not ban free trade. 

In 1596 the Spanish ship San Felipe drifted ashore in 

Japan. Seeing the cargo of the ship being confiscated by the 

Japanese authorities, one of the Spanish crew warned the 

Japanese of the strength of Spain and her vast colonial territories. 

When Hideyoshi heard this, he realized the grand 

plan of Spain and Portugal to invade and colonize Japan. 

Hideyoshi captured all Christians on board, and executed them 

in Nagasaki. Twenty-six other Christians, including seventeen 

Japanese, were also martyred in Nagasaki. 

Hideyoshi died in 1598, and Tokugawa Ieyasu seized 

power after the battle of Sekigahara in 1600. Ieyasu also placed 

a ban on Christianity, while still permitting free overseas trade. 

The East India Company was established around this time, 

and many more foreign ships came to Japan. Despite the 

shogunate's prohibition, many missionaries were secretly on 

board, including persons like Miura Anshin, or William 

Adams, in the movie Shogun. In 1690 a Dutch trading post 

was opened in the Nagasaki port of Hirato, marking the official 

opening of trade between Japan and the Netherlands. 

At the same time Japan concluded a friendship treaty with 

Siam, and four ships sailed every year between Nagasaki and 

A yudhya. The traffic between the Dutch trading post in 

Ayudhya and the one in Hirato had increased, and soon after 

the Japanese trading post was opened in Ayudhya. 

In the meantime, the shogunate's persecution of 

Christians in Japan became more and more severe. In 1614 

over four hundred Jesuit Christians, including several feudal 

lords, were deported to Southeast Asia. In 1623 fifty Christians 

were burnt alive in Edo (now Tokyo), and three hundred 

and forty Christians were executed in Nagasaki four 

years later. Since 1622 the Shogunate had been using a test 

of faith to find Christians: people were asked to step on a 

plate which had a Christian symbol. If they resisted, it proved 

that they were Christians, and then they were arrested. 

However, there were still a number of Christians who secretly 

prayed to the figure of Mary shaped as a female Buddha 

image. Such people were called "hidden Christians." 

In order to assure the stability of their regime, the 

Tokugawa shoguns closed the country to eliminate all sources 

of possible challenge from the outside world. In 1636 overseas 

Japanese were prohibited from returning to Japan for 

fear that they might reintroduce the virus of Christianity, and 

Japanese ships were limited to smaller vessels unsuited for 

ocean voyages. Relations with the Western world were limited 

to trade with Holland through a small Dutch trading 

post in Nagasaki, where the trade was strictly supervised. 

Thus Japan entered into more than three centuries of selfimposed 

seclusion and the prohibition of Christianity. All 

trade with Siam was terminated until the friendship treaty 

was signed again in 1887, and as we know, the celebration of 

the centennial of the restored Thai-Japan relationship was 

celebrated a few years ago. 

Because of this policy of seclusion, many Japanese 

Christians were expelled from their homeland, and fled to 

various places in Southeast Asia, such as Annam (Vietnam), 

Phnom Penh in Cambodia, Luzon in the Philippines, Batavia 

in Java, and Ayudhya in Siam. This is how Madame Marie's 

ancestors came from Japan to Ayudhya. Her mother was 

born in Japan, and she was still a little girl when she left her 

country. She was described as "a girl with a pure and noble 

image." Marie's family were "hidden Christians" in Japan, 

holding a strong belief in Christ. Marie had received a very 

strict Christian education from her mother and grandmother. 

Marie's husband, Phaulkon, was born in Greece, and 

moved to London when he was eleven. He was employed by 

the East India Company as a cabin boy on a trade ship to 

Southeast Asia. His diligence and talent made him an attache 

at the British trading post in A yudhya, and he later seized an 

opportunity to serve at the Royal Palace in that. It was around 

this time that Phaulkon met Marie. Influenced by Marie, who 

was a pious Christian, Phaulkon was baptized. On 2 May 

1682 they were married at a Portuguese church in Ayudhya. 

Phaulkon won the recognition and favor of King Narai 

of Siam, and was promoted to the position of Minister of

73 

Foreign Affairs, and later became the Prime Minister. For his 

great achievements King Narai awarded him a great mansion 

with a chapel and guesthouses, where Phaulkon entertained 

the French delegation to Siam. Phaulkon's success owed much 

to his wife, Marie. At the Parties she would serve cakes for 

which the recipe had been passed down by her mother and 

grandmother, and some of them, such as foy thong, thong yip 

and thong yQt, are still popular among the Thai people today. 

When the Portuguese came to Japan, they taught the Japanese 

how to make Portuguese cakes. Some of the Japanese 

cakes we eat today have a strong influence from Portugal. 

Marie was taught by her mother to make such Portuguese 

Japanese cakes, which she then taught Thai people to make. 

There are cakes in Kyoto and KyU.shu that resembel foy thong. 

As a devout Christian, Mademe Marie contributed greatly to 

the Siam community through charity activities and the missionary 

school she founded. The strength of her religious 

belief could be seen in several holy paintings on the wall of 

the church inside Phaulkon's residence which she had commissioned 

from a painter in the Japanese town in Ayudhya. 

It is characteristic of Japanese women that after 

marriage they devote themselves to supporting their husbands, 

educating their children, and protecting their families. As a 

Japanese woman living in Thailand, I find that there is some 

similarity between my life now in Bangkok and that of Marie 

in the seventeenth century. My book, The Palace under the 

Moonlight, was written with this idea in mind. At her husband's 

death, Madame Marie demonstrated strong qualities 

as a Japanese woman, as the wife of Phaulkon, and as a devout 

Christian. Phaulkon was arrested when a revolution 

took place in Siam. On 18 May 1688 Phaulkon was informed 

of the revolution while he was quietly having dinner with his 

family. Before he went out to the Palace to save the king, he 

shared his last prayer with Marie in the chapel. He said: 

"The final moment has come at last. Marie, thank you for the 

love you have shown all these years. Your faith in Christ has 

opened my eyes, and made me realize what the true will of 

God is. I have been blinded by my ambitions. Now I am 

willing to devote my life to save the king." Marie replied, 

tightly holding the cross: "Hurry to the Palace for the king. 

Your position was given to you by the king, but it was also 

God's will. It is because of God's power that you are not 

afraid of death. Now, please hurry to your king who loved 

you so much. The glory of the Lord will shine upon your 

way." 

Phaulkon was executed on 5 June 1688. Marie and 

her four-year-old son, George, were protected by the French 

Navy, and with the help of Minister Phra Wisut Sunthorn 

(who later became the root of the present Dynasty), they returned 

to Marie's mother and grandmother in the Japanese 

town in Ayudhya. After peace returned to Ayudhya, Marie 

was ordered to take charge of cooking and education in the 

Palace. She spent the rest of her life quietly in the Palace, 

teaching Siamese women how to make Portuguese and 

Japanese-style cakes, and supervising the missionary school 

she founded. 

In searching for deeper insight into Marie's life, not 

long ago I spent Christmas at St. Joseph's church in Ayudhya. 

Like Marie's family, my family is Christian, too. On the way 

to the church everything was covered in darkness, the only 

source of light coming from the stars shining above. The latenight 

service started at 11:30. The congregation was so 

unspoilt and devout that I felt as if I were in the seventeenth 

century. The church, the modern successon of the original St. 

Joseph's, built in the Ayudhya period, with its beautiful stained 

glass windows, amplified my feeling towards Marie. After 

the Reverend Pailin Keutsamut's sermon, all the people, one 

by one, kissed the holy figure of Jesus Christ and crossed 

themselves. One of them told me that his family had been 

Christian for generations. As I watched the girl reciting the 

passage from the Bible, I felt that the spirit of Marie and her 

strong faith in Christ are still alive among the people in 

Ayudhya.

AYUDHYA: CAPITAL-PORT OF SIAM 

AND ITS "CHINESE CONNECTION" 

IN THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH 

CENTURIES 

CHARNVIT KASETSIRI 

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY 

THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY 

In 1990 Princess Maha Chakri presided over the opening 

of the "Ayudhya Historical Study Centre," an elaborate 

and gigantic research exhibition centre dedicated to the rich 

diversity of Ayudhya history. The centre is a gift of¥ 999 

million from the Japanese Government to Thailand. It has 

two hi-tech exhibition buildings with one large room portraying 

"Ayudhya as a port city. The exhibition depicts the 

relationship between Ayudhya and foreign nations. A Thai 

junk and Pomphet fort...[have been] recreated to demonstrate 

the life-style, market places and trading activities of ancient 

A yudhya," while another separate room displays a huge reproduction 

of a map of Ayudhya drawn from a seventeenthcentury 

Dutch oil painting. 

This room, "Ayudhya and its external relations," shows 

not only the impressive map but also documents for overseas 

contact (i.e. China, Japan, the Ryukyus, Portugal, Spain, Holland, 

England, Denmark, France, Persia, India, and the Malay 

Indonesian worlds). Indeed, the exhibitions give an impression 

of Ayudhya as a prosperous capital and, most important, an 

international entrepot. 

A small booklet was published on the occasion of the 

opening ceremony in which a very interesting question was 

posed as to whether Ayudhya developed from a port into a 

capital or vice versa. Then the author describes the birth of 

Ayudhya, in 1351, as a capital and goes on with illustrations 

of the city as a major international port, especially during the 

seventeenth century, the period of high diplomacy and trade. 

This is the period well documented and romantically conceived 

among present-day academic circles. 

Presented at a seminar on "Harbour Cities Along the Silk Roods," 

10-11 January, 1991, Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Centre for Social 

and Cultural Studies, Indonesia Institute of Sciences. 

Ayudhya, founded in 1351, remained an important 

economic and political center of Siam for more than four 

hundred years. In 1767 it was overrun by the Burmese, and 

the capital was rebuilt at Thonburi-Bangkok. Ayudhya is 

situated about 90 kilometers from the coast, tucked away at 

the northern tip of the Gulf of Siam, making it some distance 

away from the main international sea-route which passed the 

straits between present-day Malaysia-Singapore-Indonesia. 

Strictly speaking, Ayudhya might be termed a hinterland 

kingdom. Its economy was self-sufficient, depending 

on wet-rice cultivation and control of manpower. Overseas 

trade seemed to be relatively small and less important, consisting 

of exchanging raw natural products with manufactured 

goods from more advanced countries-India, China, 

and later Europe. 1 Nevertheless, its overseas trade was a 

significant part of court revenue, enabling the lavish and 

prosperous life-style of the royal court. Above all, it made 

possible the realization and the projection of the concepts of 

Ayudhyan kings as avatars (of Hindu gods), bodhisattvas 

(Buddhas-to-be), and cakravartins (wheel-turning and world 

conquering monarchs). 2 According to the Khamhaikan Chao 

Krungkao (The Testimony of the People of the Old Capital), 

revenue from royal overseas trade by the eighteenth century 

was estimated at 400,000 baht, or over 25 percent of the total 

of 1,500,000.3 In addition, according to Simon de La Loubere, 

the French diplomat who visited Siam in the late seventeenth 

century, the king of Siam was a "Great Merchant." 4 

Therefore, A yudhya being viewed as a hinterland 

kingdom could well be termed a maritime one, starting from 

the sixteenth century and well documented in the seventeenth 

and eighteenth centuries. What is left for us to wonder about 

is how Ayudhya developed, from its rise in the mid-fourteenth 

century, after the falls of Pagan and Srivijaya, and the 

decline of Sukhothai and Angkor, and just prior to the birth 

of Malacca, into such a dual functionality. The combination

76 

of its location, court policies vis-a-vis favorable outside conditions, 

and state mechanism, is probably what one should 

look for in order to understand the rise and growth of 

Ayudhya. In particular, developments in the fourteenth and 

fifteenth centuries would help us to have a better view of 

A yudhya-capital and port-at its height centuries after. 

Ayudhya was founded in the central Menam Basin, a 

huge lowland rich in the food supply of rice and fish. It 

emerged from the background of Mon-Khmer civilizations in 

what is now known as the Suphanburi and Lopburi area, or 

present-day Thailand, which had been in existence since the 

fifth and sixth centuries. The period from the fifth up to the 

eleventh centuries is known as the Dvaravati civilization, of 

which it is believed that the Old Mon people were the main 

inhabitants and that their Buddhist culture stretched in westeast 

direction from the Tenasserim range, bordering Burma, 

across the central Menam Basin to the border of Cambodia. It 

reached up to the north and the northeast into the Laotian 

countries. It seems that their "Indian connection" through 

lower Burma and southern Thailand gave rise to this early 

civilization. At the beginning of the Christian era the international 

trade route between China and India passed through 

the Kra Isthmus. This bore the main traffic between Canton 

and the Pallava and Chola of the Indian Coromandel coast. It 

was preferable to the later route via the straits of Malacca 

further south.5 The "Indianization" of central Thailand reached 

its peak in the fourth and fifth centuries and Dvaravati was 

its outcome. 

By the beginning of the eleventh century Buddhist 

Dvaravati gave way to the Hindu Khmer, who dominated the 

central Menam Basin for the next two centuries, and Lavo 

(Lopburi, Lo-hu) was an important post. There is no clear 

explanation as to how Dvaravati came to an end and how the 

direction of civilization switched from west to east to vice 

versa. Conventionally it is though that Khmer military conquest 

brought down Dvaravati. But it is possible that some 

natural disaster, plague or flood, might have been the cause. 

This gave rise to the Thais, who emerged from the northsouth 

direction. 

The above mentioned China-India connection made 

the Menam Basin part of an international trade route, and 

Lavo (Lopburi) and Hsien were the main participants. It is 

known that Lavo, though under Khmer domination, occasionally 

had tribute-trade relations with China. It sent missions 

in 1115 and 1155. 6 There were several envoys from Lavo 

between 1289-1299 and Lavo probably became independent 

by the mid thirteenth century. The Chinese tell us that besides 

Lavo, Hsien also sent missions between 1292-1323. In 

1295 the Chinese Emperor reprimanded Hsien: "Keep your 

promise and do no evil to Ma-li-yu-eul [a state on the Malay 

peninsula). " 7 

Hsien used to be taken as Sukhothai, but recent studies 

have shown that it was probably a state on the western 

part of the Menam which could be identified as Suphanburi 

or Phetburi, or even Ayudhya itself before the latter's actual 

foundation. In 1349, according to Wang Ta-yuan, "Hsien 

submitted to Lo-hu," clearly demonstrating that the two principalities 

of the Menam were now unified. It gave rise to 

A yudhya, which was then known as Hsien-lo to the Chinese.8 

The origins of Prince Uthong, the founder of Ayudhya, 

are obscure. He has believed to have come from various 

backgrounds, i.e. a descendant of a ruling house from 

Chiangrai-Chiangsaen in northern Thailand; or from the Mon 

Khmer dynasty of Lopburi. However, one source portrays 

him as a son of Choduksetthi, the leader of the Chinese 

community in the central Menam Basin. 9 Uthong's regnal 

name was Ramathibodi, or the Great Rama who ruled over 

Siamese A yudhya (A yudhya having been the name of the 

capital of Rama in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana). His 

son, Ramesuan or Ramesvara, ruled over Lopburi (Lavapura, 

a new Indian name for Lavo or Lo-hu). Therefore the beginning 

of a new chapter in Siamese history, according to the 

phongsawadan or royal chronicles, is seen as the continuation 

of a classical "Indianized" state. King Uthong ruled for eighteen 

years (1351-1369) and his reign is described as having 

been occupied with kingly activities, i.e. waging wars and 

trying to be a universal monarch by bringing Sukhothai 

Chiangmai-Angkor into his realm. 

Interestingly, though, various old Siamese laws, the 

Three Seals Law, testify differently. They are full of clauses 

that state that the kingdoms had to deal with trade, market, 

ships (junks), taxation etc. One clause in the "Law of Husband 

and Wife" goes further, to elaborate that if the husband 

went to (trade in) "China, the Sea, Chiangmai, Pang-nga, or 

red sky Java" the wife would have to wait for his return. If 

the husband was reported to have been captured by pirates 

and did not come back within three years, the wife would be 

free to take a new husband. In case the husband was shipwrecked, 

she would have to wait for seven years before being 

free. 10 Such laws give the impression that the avatar kings of 

A yudhya were not unconcerned with worldly business. 

How could Ayudhya, a mere hinterland kingdom with 

the majority of its population not skilled in sea-faring activities, 

have entered the maritime trade, usually dominated by 

Chinese, Indian, Arab and Malay-Indonesian stock? The 

answer is probably that it used the services of overseas Chinese, 

a small but extremely important group of inhabitants 

along the Gulf of Siam. It is possible that Chinese traders had 

reached the Gulf even before the arrival of the Siamese, who 

became a dominant force in the thirteenth century. 11 Since the 

Chinese Imperial Court usually restricted its foreign trade 

and people, many ports sprang up in the South China Sea 

and overseas Chinese became active traders in these ports. It 

is believed that Chinese trading communities along the Gulf 

of Siam were old settlements and that they became vital in 

the trade of Southeast AsiaY 

Siamese tamnan or legends are full of stories of incoming 

Chinese. In Pattani, an important port in southern 

Thailand, there stands an unfinished mosque. A local legend 

tells the story of a Ming Chinese warrior who came to settle 

there and married a Moslem Pattani princess. His sister, Lim 

Ko-nia, followed and tried unsuccessfully to persuade him to

77 

return to China. She then made a curse that the main mosque 

of Pattani would never be completed, and she committed 

suicide. Lim Ko-nia was deified and became an idol for the 

local Chinese community. 

In Ayudhya there stands a huge Buddha image at Wat 

Phanancherng. The Phongsawadan Nua, or the Chronicle of 

the North, tells the story of its construction in 1326, prior to 

the actual foundation of Ayudhya by Uthong. Local tradition 

has it that Soi Dok Mak, a certain Chinese "princess," came to 

marry King Sai Nam Phung. The king failed to give her 

proper honor and she committed suicide. The king then had 

to build the Buddha image, an act of merit making, at the site 

of her cremation. The image and the wat became a holy place 

of pilgrimage for the local Chinese. Again during the reign 

of Sam Phraya, the seventh king of Ayudhya (1424-1448), a 

temple was built in honor of his two brothers. The Chinese 

community participated in the construction and Chinese script 

and artefacts along with Chinese wall paintings were enshrined 

in the main pagodaP 

There is clear evidence of overseas Chinese residing in 

Siam and of their role as active partners in Siamese foreign 

trade. Their skills and knowledge of shipbuilding, sea-faring 

and trade were employed by the Siamese court. G. William 

Skinner thinks that by the seventeenth century the Chinese 

community in Ayudhya numbered up to three on four thousand 

out of around ten thousand in the whole country. 14 

This so-called "private Chinese-official Siamese 

connection" was extended to encompass the traditional tribute-trade 

relations between China and Siam. It is known that 

official trade with China was conducted in the manner of 

marketless business. The Son of Heaven did not participate 

in worldly affairs; "barbarians" only submitted to the Imperial 

Court by bringing tribute in order to show their loyalty. In 

return the Emperor would be kind enough to grant them gifts 

of silk, satin, porcelain etc., the best manufactured goods in 

the world. 

Of all the countries of "barbarous" Southeast Asia, Siam 

or rather A yudhya seemed to be most faithful in following 

this traditional tribute-trade system. A yudhyan kings not only 

sent frequent missions but also large quantities of its raw 

natural products: sapan, eagle wood, pepper, ivory etc. 15 

Siamese kings exploited the system to gain both economic 

and political benefits. Among the lists of tributary goods sent 

to the Ming Court (1368-1644) the one from Ayudhya was by 

far the most extensive compared to those of other states. It 

consisted of 44 different items of merchandise, whereas Malacca 

sent 26, Bengal24, North Sumatra 19, Sri Lanka 17, and 

Johore 15. 16 This meant that in return Ayudhya was able to 

acquire trading privileges and receive a sizeable amount of 

Chinese goods which were valuable in Siam, for the use of 

the court as well as for export to further lands. The closeness 

of Sino-Siamese relations, through Siamese court policy and 

the activities of local Chinese, is demonstrated by the fact that 

the Chinese Imperial Court on occasion asked the Siamese to 

be middlemen in passing messages to other states in Southeast 

Asia. When China decided to convey the tally system of 

standard Chinese weights and measures to foreign states, 

hoping it to be internationally accepted, A yudhya was honored 

by being the first recipient. 17 

It is interesting to see that immediately after the foundation 

of Ayudhya and especially when the new Ming Dynasty 

wanted to revive the old traditional tributary system, 

A yudhyan kings were eager to make this "Chinese connection." 

In a detailed study of tribute-trade relations between 

Ming China and A yudhya we find the flow of the system 

from the mid fourteenth to the end of the fifteenth century. 

The first Ming envoy arrived in Ayudhya in 1369 to demand 

tribute. That same year King Uthong passed away. His son 

Ramesuan became the second king but had to abandon the 

throne to his maternal uncle in less than a year. It was left to 

Boromracha I (Pha-ngua, 1370-1388), the third king, to cultivate 

good relations with the Ming. He sent elephants, sixlegged 

turtles and local products to the Imperial Court. In 

return A yudhya was awarded a large amount of silk and 

satin. There were eight missions from Ayudhya during this 

third reign. In 1377 a nephew of the king, the future King 

Intharacha, went to visit the Chinese Court. During 

Ramesuan's second reign (1388-1395) there were five missions 

to China. The peak of these tribute-trade relations came during 

the first half of the fifteenth century, especially during the 

period of three great kings of Ayudhya, Intharacha (1409- 

1424), Boromracha II (1424-1448) and Trailok (1448-1488), 

which coincided with the foundation of Malacca in 1400 and 

the seven Ming maritime expeditions 1405"1433. There were 

twenty-two missions, almost once every two years, and there 

were eight missions from China. There was a very interesting 

episode which illustrates the good relations characterizing 

this "Chinese connection." In 1404 a Siamese junk on the 

way to the Ryukyus was blown over to Fukien. The local 

Chinese authority wanted to collect duty fees from the illfated 

junk. The Imperial Court stepped in and the junk was 

set free. 18 

Ayudhya's overseas trade was a royal monopoly. 

There was a belief that an idea of "free trade" existed before 

in the Sukhothai period, especially during the reign of King 

Ramkhamhaeng (1279-1298), whose 1292 stone inscription 

claims: "In the time of King Ramkhamhaeng this land of 

Sukhothai is thriving. There is fish in the water and rice in 

the fields. The lord of the realm does not levy toll on his 

subjects for travelling the roads; they lead their cattle to trade 

or ride their horses to sell; whoever wants to trade in elephants, 

does so; whoever wants to trade in horses, does so; 

whoever wants to trade in silver and gold, does so.'' 19 

In a recent critical study by Dr. Piriya Krairiksh of 

Thammasat University, however, it seems that such a selfadvertising 

inscription was probably a mid-nineteenth 

century invention during the time of King Mongkut (1861- 

1868), the period when Siam was exposed to the English liberalism 

of Adam Smith. 20 Even if "free trade" existed in thirteenth 

century Sukhothai, it was not a practice of A yudhya. 

We find evidence of a royal trade monopoly since the beginning 

of the fifteenth century. The Rekidai Hoan (tr. as Ryukyuan 

Relations with Korea and South Sea Countries), shows that there 

were trade relations between Siam and the Ryukyus since the

78 

1380s and that in 1419 Ryukyuan traders found it difficult to 

sell their porcelain and at the same time they could not buy 

sapan wood. Trade had to be conducted under government 

supervision; no private dealing was permitted. 21 

To judge from this evidence, it may be said that monopoly 

was an obstacle to overseas trade and that the Siamese 

kings might not have been concerned with this worldly 

business. However, as we have seen elsewhere, monopoly 

was a common rule in Asia. The court wanted to have control 

over trade in order to gain a supply of goods and at the same 

time the revenue therefrom. However, an early Siamese law 

claimed that merchants had to pay a 10 percent duty fee on 

the value of their cargo, compared with a much higher rate in 

Canton, 20 to 30 percent, but lower in Malacca, 3 to 6 percent.22 

In theory the A yudhyan kings were avatar-bodhisattva 

who could not possibly participate in lowly trade. In practice 

it was carried out through his officials. An arriving ship had 

to bring sufficient gifts to the Siamese king and nobility; the 

court had the right to buy import goods as it pleased, and 

export items had to be carried through government supervision. 

The Phra Khlang or Minister of the Treasury was the 

person in charge. Local products such as aromatic or dyeing 

woods, spices, pepper, hides and food were collected through 

the system of sui: tax in kind. They were stored in the Phra 

Khlang Sinkha or the Royal Warehouse, ready to be exported. 

As mentioned above, incoming goods had to be sold to the 

Royal Warehouse as well, especially those of high value such 

as porcelain, textiles, and later arms. In this way the court 

not only made certain of its supply but also had a kind of 

economic power locally. 

By the middle of the fifteenth century A yudhya had 

established itself as a trading power. In his reputed administrative 

reforms King Trailok (1448-1488) had reorganized 

royal trade activities under an elaborate bureaucracy in order 

to guarantee control by the court. Foreign traders were seen 

as part of this new government organization. According to 

the Law of the Civil Hierachy, there was a Krom Khlang, 

Department of the Treasury, under the supervision of the 

Phra Khlang, the Minister of the Treasury. Under him there 

were several officials responsible for various functions. 

Among these officials there were two, one with the title of the 

Chularatchamontri and the other the Chodukratchasetthi. 

Curiously, the men who were appointed to these two titles 

were of foreign backgrounds, usually Indian and Chinese 

residing in Siam. The Chularatchamontri (Chula-possibly a 

corruption of the word Chola, a Tamil dynasty?) was in charge 

of another two chao tha (port masters). The Ratchamontri, the 

first chao tha, was in turn in charge of traders coming from 

khaek origins, meaning Java, Malayu etc., while the second 

chao tha, the Nonthaket, was to take care of those of foreign 

"Brahman" origin. 

This group of officials were later known as Krom Tha 

Khwa or Department of the Port to the Right, implying that 

they were in charge of traders coming from the right or 

western side of Siam, i.e. the Indian Ocean. 

As for the second group, under the Chodukratchasetthi, 

the origin of the word is not known. According to one 

legend, Uthong, the founder of A yudhya, was the son of a 

man with this title. Under him was the Thepphakdi, who 

was a chao tha in charge of the Dutch (who came much after 

this period; therefore, the Law was probably interpolated). 

This second group was later known as the Krom Tha Sai or 

Department of the Port to the Left, which suggests that they 

supervised traders coming from the eastern part, i.e. the South 

China Sea. When Europeans began to arrive they were 

randomly assigned to the Port to the Left or the Right before 

a new Krom Tha Klang, or Department of the Port in the 

Middle, was created. 

The Law goes further to include ship masters, technicians, 

and all the employees of any incoming ship as part of 

the Siamese trading bureaucracy. There were about 50 titles 

for each ship, and all the titles were in Chinese. Every title 

was given hierachical dignity marks of sakdina, thus placing 

all these foreign traders where they should belong at appropriate 

levels in Siamese society. 23 

It might be interesting to make a comparative study 

of this organization in A yudhya and those of the shabandar or 

port masters of Malacca. Such an elaborate system and 

specialization assigned to everyone involved implied that 

Ayudhya was now, by the second half of the fifteenth century, 

more concerned with its overseas trade. The reorganization 

came into being right after the Ming naval activities 

and the emergence of a rival trading center at malacca. 

Domestically the reorganization came at the time Ayudhya 

was able to unify its kingdom, incorporating Sukhothai and 

subjugating Angkor. It was about the same time when it 

tried to expand to the south over Malacca. 

Whatever the reason behind this reorganization, 

A yudhyan overseas trade was by then well established. By 

the second half of the fifteenth century, Ayudhya had become 

a political center in the Menam Basin as well as a trading 

post, a dual functionality of a hinterland and maritime 

kingdom indeed a unique characteristic. The development in 

the first two centuries clearly laid down some kind of ground 

work for the following periods.

79 

ENDNOTES 

1. James C. Ingram, Economic Change in Thailand, Stanford University 

Press, 1971, pp. 21-29 

2. Dhiravat na Pombejra, "Crown Trade and Court Politics in 

Ayudhya During the Reign of King Narai (1656-88)," in 

J.Kathirithornby-Well and John Villiers, eds., The Southeast 

Asian Port and City, Singapore University Press, 1990, pp. 127- 

142. 

3. Khamhaikan Chao Krungkao (The Testimony of the People of the 

Old Capital), Bangkok, 1967. 

4. Sun Suksa Prawattisat Ayudhya (Ayudhya Historical Study Centre), 

22 August 1990, pp. 33-35. Simon de La Loubere, A New 

Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam, reprinted as The 

Kingdom of Siam, Kuala Lumpur, 1969. 

5. Philip D. Curtin, Cross-Cultural Trade in World History, Cambridge 

University Press, 1984, pp. 101-103. 

6. G. Coedes, The Indianized States of Southeast Asia, tr. Susan Brown 

Cowing, East-West Center Press, 1968, pp. 162. 

7. D.G.E. Hall, A History of South-East Asia, St. Martin's Press, 1986, 

p. 174. 

8. Charnvit Kasetsiri, The Rise of Ayudhya, A History of Siam in the 

Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, Oxford University Press, 

Kuala Lumpur, 1976, p. 87. 

9. Ibid., Chapter 4. 

10. Khun Wichitmatra, Prawat Kankha Thai (History of Thai Commerce), 

Bangkok, 1973, p. 92. 

11. G. William Skinner, Chinese Society in Thailand: An Analytical 

History, Cornell University Press, 1957, Chapter 1. 

12. Curtin, op.cit., p. 168. 

13. Kromsilpakon, Phraphuttharup lae Phraphim nai kru phraprang Wat 

Ratburana (Buddha Images and Votive Tablets in the crypt of Wat 

Ratburana), Bangkok, 1959. 

14. Skinner, op. cit., chapter 1. 

15. See Suebsaeng Promboon, "Sino-Siamese Tributary Relations: 

1282-1853" Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin, 

1971. 

16. T.Grimm, "Thailand in the Light of official Chinese 

Historiography, A Chapter in the Ming Dynasty," Journal of 

the Siam Society, 49: 1 (July 1961), pp. 1-20. 

17. Suebsaeng, op. cit., p. 162. 

18. Khun Wichitrnatra, op. cit., pp. 125-126 

19. David K Wyatt, Thailand: A Short History, Yale University Press, 

1982, p. 54 

20. Piriya Krairiksh, Charuk Phokhun Ramkhamhaeng kanwikro cherng 

prawattisat Sin (The Ramkhamhaeng Inscription: An Art 

History Analysis), Bangkok, 1989. [See also James R. Chamberlain, 

ed., The Ram Khamhaeng Controversy, Bangkok: The 

Siam Society, 1991. -Ed. JSS] 

21. Atsushi Kobata and Mitsugu Matsuda, Ryukyuan Relations with 

Korea and South Sea Countries, Kyoto, 1969; see p. 55. 

22. Curtin, op. cit., p. 130 

23. H.G. Quaritch Wales, Ancient Siamese Government and Administration, 

Paragon, 1965, Chapter 4; Khun Wichitmatra, op.cit., 

pp. 107-123; Sarasin Viraphol, Tribute and Profit: Sino-Siamese 

Trade, 1652-1853, Harvard University Press, pp. 18-27. See 

also Jennifer W. Cushman, "Fields from the Sea: Chinese Junk 

Trade with Siam during the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth 

Centuries," Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Cornell University, 

1975.

AYUDHYA AND ITS PLACE 

IN PRE-MODERN SOUTHEAST ASIA 


C/0 BANGKOK BANK, LTD. 

All scholars tend to look back upon Ayudhya, for the 

very good reason that from our point of view its days of 

glory lie in the past. 

However, I would like to take you back to protohistoric 

times and so look forward to Ayudhya. 

No one knows when mainland Southeast Asia first 

became a centre of trade. The Southeast Asian peninsula 

contains within itself one of the most rich and diverse sources 

of resources on the planet, within a fairly small area: rice 

plains with rivers that flood annually, jungles rich in spices, 

medicinal products and rare animals, mountains that yielded 

valuable metals, and all manner of inlets and outlets. 

India and China were no less well endowed, but their 

endowments were much more dispersed and could be exploited 

only at much greater expense. By the time the Europeans 

came upon the scene, it was found that huge populations 

had depleted resources to the extent that neither India 

nor China could feed itself on a regular basis and the remaining 

forests were too remote to be commercialy viable, but 

Southeast Asia remained sparsely populated, still well forested, 

and could produce a surplus of rice. 

It seems that Southeast Asia in pre-modern times was 

always self-sufficient in the essentials of life, whereas India 

and China must have begun experiencing shortages at early 

dates. For instance, the Indians certainly learnt to cast metals 

long, long ago, but they were poor in tin, copper and gold; 

the Chinese must have been building junks from time immemorial, 

but at one point they seem to have realized that it was 

more economical to build junks of tropical hardwoods in 

Southeast Asia rather than from pines dragged from China's 

interior. 

Two other items must have drawn Chinese and Indians 

to Southeast Asia at a very early date. In the case of 

China the attraction would have been Southeast Asia's rich- 

The substance of this paper was delivered at a seminar for 

Siam Society members and friends held at A yudhya, Ayudhya in 

Depth, with Dr. Piriya Krairiksh, President of the Society, in the Chair. 

ness in jungle products : drugs, herbs and spices. In the case 

of India a big attraction (in addition to metals) seems to have 

been elephants. Of course India always had its own elephants, 

but evidence from the mid-12th to the early 19th century1 

indicates that Southeast Asia could provide high-quality elephants 

in huge quantities at relatively short notice and at 

reasonable prices, particularly when war was threatening 

between states in India and there was sudden demand for 

large numbers of the beasts. 

However this may be, it is clear that Indian and Chinese 

shipping was drawn to Southeast Asia in protohistoric 

and perhaps even prehistoric times. 

At some point, probably very early, a Chinese merchant 

met an Indian merchant, and a whole new trade 

emerged, carrying goods between the Far East, South Asia 

and the Middle East, with destinations further west in Europe. 

This was probably when Roman lamps and coins began 

appearing in Southeast Asia, and the Romans began 

wearing silks. 

It was at this point that Southeast Asia began to play 

a double role: that of barrier and conduit. In terms of physical 

geography it was an almost impenetrable barrier to East 

West trade; on the other hand, with the establishment of 

emporia on the east and west coasts of the Peninsula, and 

porterage routes, Southeast Asia became a conduit for the 

East-West trade. 

We know that by the Tang Dynasty at the latest, Persian 

ships were plying the sea route between Canton and the 

Middle East via the tip of the Southeast Asian peninsula and 

Ceylon, so Southeast Asia as a barrier was not insurmountable. 

However, these long sea journeys involved very high 

technology for the time in terms of ship-building and navigation, 

huge sums of capital and formidable risks, including 

piracy and tempest in that unpredictable equatorial region 

around Singapore. 

Lest it be thought that I am overemphasizing the 

difficulty of rounding the tip of the Peninsula, there is the 

evidence of the Sinhalese mission to the Court of King 

Boromakot of Ayudhya in the mid-18th century. They were 

carried in a Dutch ship, and the Dutch knew something about

82 

sailing. The voyage from Trincomalee across the Andaman 

Sea to Malacca took thirteen days with no incident. Leaving 

Malacca they spent two weeks trying to tack around Riao 

Point but the winds were against them. They therefore returned 

to Malacca where they waited for six months for the 

wind to change before setting out again for Ayudhya, which 

they reached in about two weeks. 

The huge difficulties and risks involved in rounding 

the Peninsula suggest that the greater part of the East-West 

trade must have been conducted in a less risky, more modest 

manner, with many smaller East Asian ships plying between 

Canton and the east coast of Southeast Asia, and West Asian 

ships plying between the west coast of Southeast Asia and 

markets in India and the Middle East. 

This trading system would only work, however, if 

there were strong powers in the river basins of Southeast 

Asia, capable of controlling the interior to gather its riches of 

metals and forest products, and also capable of keeping open 

the porterage routes between the east and west coasts. 

In the first millennium A.D. such a power existed in 

the form of a confederation of city states which I should like 

to call Dvaravati-Sri Vijaya. 

Dvaravati means "that which has gates as adornments", 

in other words "a city"; Sri Vijaya means "the prosperous and 

victorious". Neither name makes much sense alone, but together 

as Dvaravati-Sri Vijaya they make excellent sense as 

"the prosperous and victorious city". I would like to suggest 

that in 1350 A.D. the name was changed to Dvaravati-Sri 

Ayudhya, "the prosperous and unconquerable city". 

The change in name was probably resorted to for 

magical reasons when the city was re-founded with a new 

horoscope in the wake of the Black Death which must have 

ravaged Southeast Asia in the late 1330s and early 1340s. 

Foreign writers seem to have recorded one term or 

the other, "Dvaravati" or "Sri Vijaya", with Dvaravati (Tolopoti 

to the Chinese) meaning the east coast and mainland, 

and Sri Vijaya (Tiruvisayam to the Tamils) implying the west 

coast and the South. 

Dvaravati-Sri Vijaya cannot have been anything like a 

kingdom or empire as understood in the West, but the art 

evidence suggests a cultural unity from Udon in the Northeast 

(source of gold and copper) to Songkhla in the South 

(source of gold and tin). 

When I speak of art evidence I mean the art which we 

call Dvaravati, which has a character of its own that all can 

recognize, There is no such thing as Sri Vijaya art, which is 

a category invented in an attempt to explain the multiplicity 

of art forms found in the south of Siam: Dvaravati, Pala 

Sena, Pallava, Chola, Javanese and others. 

In addition to the Dvaravati Buddha images there are 

the so-called Pre-Angkorean Hindu sculptures and inscriptions 

in excellent Sanskrit and beautiful Pallava script to be 

found from as far east as the mouths of the Mae Khong River, 

as far Northeast as the mouth of the Mun River in Ubon, as 

far North as Si Thep in Petchabun Provinces, and as far South 

as Keda. 

All this evidence suggests a large Indian presence in 

the region, drawn here, I propose, by enormous natural resources 

as yet under-exploited by small Southeast Asian 

populations who may have been more skilled than their Indian 

contemporaries in the smelting of tin and copper. 

The Hindu caste system, which everyone admits was 

very ancient, must have led in early times to great social 

progress and cohesion with every man assigned his place and 

his duty, thus putting India way ahead of Southeast Asia in 

terms of social organization. In terms of technological development, 

however, the conservativism of the caste system must 

have acted as a brake, as a new technology would have to 

await the creation of a sub-caste to handle it. It must have 

been much easier, in early days, for Indians to take advantage 

of technologies developed by the socially backward Southeast 

Asian peoples, free of the restraints that even today limit 

the activities of many Hindus to one occupation: the occupation 

of his forefathers, which meant repetition of established 

technologies. In the traditional Hindu system innovation was 

possible, but it was very difficult. 

For these reasons it seems to me that the Southeast 

Asian attraction for Indian merchants is unsurprising. They 

found here both the raw materials that they lacked and an 

intellectual fluidity that fostered technological innovation. 

At the same time one must not overlook the Chinese 

participation in the ancient history of Southeast Asia, for which 

there is surprisingly little evidence: a mention by I Ching of 

a Chinese family that emigrated to Tolopoti and had a son 

who became a famous Buddhist pilgrim monk; and a Dvaravati 

votive tablet found in the Northeast with a Chinese inscription 

on the back, written in quite elegant characters. 

Though the Chinese left little overt evidence of their presence 

in early Southeast Asia, I believe that their influence was 

considerable. 

A major question that has long bothered me (and many 

others) is how the Indians insinuated themselves into the basic 

structure of early Southeast Asian societies. Working with 

Southeast Asian evidence I could find no answer, except the 

persistent legend of a Prince or Brahmin bedding a Naga 

King's daughter and creating a new royal line. However, 

early South India provided a clear picture. 

Some 2,500 years ago the Dravidians had a highly 

sophisticated tribal culture, very similar to that which persisted 

until later in Southeast Asia. They worshipped gods 

and goddesses localized in springs, old trees, large termite 

mounds and other remarkable features of the landscape. 

About 2,000 years ago the Dravidian tribal chieftains 

began to import Brahmins from North India to advise on the 

calendar and state affairs. These Brahmins gradually identified 

the old gods and goddesses of the trees and termite 

mounds with the classical gods and goddesses of Hinduism. 

Where a termite mound was proclaimed a Shiva Linga, more 

Brahmins were brought in to serve it, a temple was built, 

lands were given to the god and to his Brahmin servants, 

irrigation was provided and families were allocated to till the 

fields and feed the Bralunins and the god.

83 

These sacred centres eventually gave rise to some of 

the Indian cities and villages that we see today, where wastelands 

became identified with the presence or activities of a 

god and were later developed into centres of husbandry and 

commerce. Tillai, for instance, a tiger-infested jungle of poisonous 

shrubs, was identified as the place where Shiva danced 

and overcame the bloodthirsty local goddess. The forest was 

cut down, canals were dug, families were brought in, and 

Brahmins were imported from the North to administer the 

vast temple lands in the name of the god. Thus the Tillai 

jungle became the famous city of Chidarnbararn. 

The same sort of system seems to have been employed 

in early Southeast Asia, particularly in parts where Cambodian 

style culture prevailed. Angkor itself is a case in point, 

and places like Phanorn Rung and Muang Tarn in Burirarn 

Province, where a local spirit identified with a Hindu god 

provided a focal point, Brahmins provided an administration, 

jungle was turned into arable land, and tribal folk could be 

settled and made to contribute their labour to Church and 

State. 

This system was later employed by Buddhist kings to 

equally good effect, using relics of the Buddha in place of 

Hindu gods, and Buddhist monks in place of Brahmins. The 

Crystal Sands Chronicle tells us that at at least one point 

during the middle ages, Nakhon Si Tharnrnarat reverted to 

jungle. But a king rediscovered the ancient Relic there, reenshrined 

it, called the population out from the forests and 

mountains where they had taken refuge, and gave them lands 

which they were to till in service to the Relic, under the administration 

of the Sangha. This system helps to explain why 

each of Siam's major cities is centred on a "Wat Maha That", 

a sacred presence from which power issued and around which 

organization revolved. 

This long digression away from A yudhya itself to the 

ways and means of city-state formation in ancient times is 

necessary because the process has been consistently misinterpreted 

in western terms of military or cultural conquest. In 

fact the Southeast Asian experience must have been rather 

similar to that of South India, in which wise indigenous rulers 

recognized a superior system of social organization and imported 

it along with the necessary administrative personnel. 

This situation also suited the purposes of Indian merchants 

who wished to exploit Southeast Asia's resources. 

As a result of this creative intercourse, the Southeast 

Asia Peninsula ceased to be a barrier to trade and instead 

became a conduit, with a network of cities along the west and 

east coasts, while the riches of the interior were made available 

for trade via cities established further inland. 

As far as has been established, on the West Coast, 

from north to south, the cities were Mergui-Tenasserirn, Takua 

Pa, Trang and Keda. These cities corresponded to cities on 

the East Coast, from south to north : Pattani, Songkhla, Nakhon 

Si Tharnrnarat, Chaiya, Phetburi, Khu Bua in Ratburi, U-Thong 

in Suphanburi, Dong Si Mahaphot in Prachinburi, Lopburi, 

and Si Thep in Phetchabun Province. 

Most of these cities played a straightforward role as 

emporia and start or terminus to a porterage route, but others 

played more complex roles. 

Thus Pattani-Songkhla provided access to Keda and 

vice versa, Nakhon was some eight days journey from Trang, 

Chaiya was even closer to Takua Pa, and the route from 

Tenasserim to Phetburi was long a favoured one. 

Cities with more complex roles included Nakhon 

Pathorn, which at its heyday seems to have been the largest 

city in Southeast Asia and may have been something like a 

primate city. U-Thong provided access to the upper Chao 

Phraya River and its tributaries. Lopburi and Si Thep led to 

the Northeast and to Laos, rich in metals, and Dong Si Maha 

Phot in Prachinburi played a triple role as port, gateway to 

the Northeast, and back door to Cambodia. Cambodia's front 

door was at the mouths of the Mae Khong in Champa, but as 

Cambodia was frequently at war with the Chams that route 

was unreliable and the overland route from Angkor to the 

headwaters of the Bang Pakong River must often have been 

the favoured route of foreign trade. Nakhon Si Tharnrnarat, 

in addition to being the start of a porterage route, was also 

the key to the east and west coasts of the whole peninsula. 

I cannot name any major cities in the Northeast because 

despite the considerable art evidence and the inscriptions 

there indicating a major civilization (or civilizations), 

the names and forms of large cities seem to be irretrievably 

lost. But what we call Nakhon Ratchasirna must have been 

a nexus for trade between the Northeast and markets and 

ports in the Central Region. 

We might all be happier if we could establish what 

Dvaravati's political structure might have been. Among 

modern Thai scholars, the conservatives seem to be quite 

happy with the terms "kingdom" and "empire". Liberals abhor 

these terms and perceive instead a mass of independent citystates, 

or at most a loose federation based on dynastic marriages. 

I can see that both points of view have their attractions, 

but the terms "kingdom" and "empire" seem oversirnplistic, 

while "a loose federation of city-states" fails to explain the 

immense organizational complexity needed to exploit the 

resources of the interior, stabilize ports on the east and west 

coasts, and keep open the porterage routes between them. 

Evidence from the A yudhya Period and early Bangkok 

indicates precisely how this complex task was accomplished. 

Though dynastic marriages played a part, the chief 

instrument was military force issuing from the central ricebowl 

(Ayudhya and later Bangkok) that could subdue and 

extract tribute from Nakhon Ratchasirna (that took care of the 

Northeast), Phitsanulok (that took care of parts of Laos and 

the North), and Nakhon Si Tharnrnarat (the key to the South 

and the West Coast). 

These observations (with ample evidence) about how 

Siam functioned in the second rnilleniurn A.D., prompt me to 

propose that something very similar may have pertained 

during the first rnilleniurn, or the Dvaravati Period. 

In other words, there was probably an Ayudhya (or 

something rather like it) long before 1350 when the Ayudhya 

that we know was founded. It seems possible that the older 

A yudhya had existed in or around the site of the new A yudhya 

(which the Persians referred to as the New City), and that

84 

1350 marked its magical re-foundation when the population 

began to recover from the Black Death which, as noted above, 

must have ravaged Siam in the late 1330s and early 40s. This 

would help explain the persistence of "Dvaravati" in the full 

name of the later city, "Dvaravati Sri Ayudhya". 

On the other hand, the Siamese have a persistent tradition 

of coupling names of related cities, from Si Sachanalai/ 

Sukhothai and Sa Luang/Song Khwae, to Krung Thep/ 

Thonburi. So Dvaravati Sri A yudhya may be a conflation of 

the names of two closely related earlier cities. 

Prof. Srisak Walliphodom and Suchit Wongthet propose 

that Dvaravati was Lopburi, and I suspect that Nakhon 

Pathom was Sri Vijaya because the villagers called it "Muang 

Si Vichai" long before Coedes rediscovered the toponym. 

On yet another hand (unlike economics, but like a 

Hindu god, history has more than one pair of hands)-on yet 

another hand, the heart of Dvaravati may have been a triangular 

affair, with Lopburi looking after much of the interior, 

Dong Si Mahaphot serving the East and Cambodia, and 

Nakhon Pathom responsible for the control of the Peninsula 

and the West Coast ports. 

But this is all speculation. I feel that the Dvaravati 

that we know from art evidence must have had some sort of 

centre to create the artistic and economic unity that seems to 

have existed at that time over a widely diverse area. But 

where that centre was, I am unable to hazard a guess. 

Let us therefore return to the history that we know, or 

think we know. 

In the first millenium A.D. there was an entity in 

Southeast Asia, perhaps called "Dvaravati Sri Vijaya", that 

prospered and produced great art because it controlled the 

East-West trade and was in a position to exploit the interior. 

To recapitulate, the West Coast ports were, from North 

to South, Tenasserim, Takua Pa, Trang and Keda; on the East 

Coast, from South to North, were Songkhla, Nakhon Si 

Thammarat, Chaiya, Phetburi, Khu Bua, and Nakhon Pathom; 

other cities like U-Thong, Lopburi, Si Thep and Dong Si 

Mahaphot, seem to have been more oriented towards the 

interior. 

This system of related cities seems to have functioned 

most profitably during the first millenium A.D. Then the 

situation began to change, and the old order was destroyed. 

The Cholas had been expanding their influence over South 

India and Southeast Asia during the lOth and 11th centuries. 

About 995 A.D. the Cholas took Northern Sri Lanka. By 1025 

A.D. the Cholas had taken the whole of the west coast of 

Southeast Asia and must have penetrated to the east coast. 

Chola inscriptions claim that they took a city in Southeast 

Asia which they called Shri Vishayam (Sri Vijaya) and they 

used a door (or Dvara) to symbolize it in their seals. 

At that point the whole East-West trade fell into the 

hands of the Cholas, which was not necessarily a bad thing 

as the Cholas were great merchants. They seem to have helped 

rather than hindered trade, sending numerous embassies to 

China in their own name and that of Sri Vijaya. So it must 

have been prosperous times as far as trade was concerned. 

Then disaster struck. In the 1070s the Chola empire 

imploded due to dynastic squabbling and pressure from the 

North. Kulotunga I, a Chola on his mother's side and an 

Andhra on his father's was first recorded in Chinese annals 

and the inscription of Canton as King of Sri Vijaya (San Fo 

Chi). In the early 1070s he returned to South India to ascend 

the throne of a much-reduced Chola kingdom, perhaps little 

more than the lower Kaveri basin, where he used his considerable 

wealth in the glorification of sacred places like Chidambaram, 

which he made his capital with the name "Tiru 

Cholamandalam". 

The Chinese annals then record that the Cholas (Chu 

Lian) had become a tributary of Sri Vijaya (San Fo Chi), a 

beautiful example of how the Chinese annals tend to be 

factual, faithful, and totally wrong. 

In the fourth quarter of the 11th century the Sinhalas 

reestablished sovereignty over their island under Vijayabahu 

I. In the next century or so Polonnaruva became the most 

beautiful and prosperous city in the region under Vijayabahu, 

Parakramabahu and Nissankamalla. 

In contrast, the Chola retreat from Southeast Asia 

seems to have left a vacuum and initiated a Dark Age. The 

old trading cities went back to the jungle. As the Tamnan of 

Nakhon Si Thammarat says: "Plague descended on the City. 

The inhabitants fled to the jungles and mountains, and for a 

long time Nakhon was a ruin". Sri Vijaya and Dvaravati 

disappear from the historical records. Khu Bua, U-Thong, 

Nakhon Pathom, Dong Si Maha Phot and Si Thep, all became 

deserted. The only surviving cities seem to have been Lopburi, 

and perhaps Phetburi. 

Despite the disaster that overtook most of what had 

been Dvaravati Sri Vijaya and later became Siam, the Cambodians 

did very well in the first half of the 12th century under 

Suryavarman II, who built Angkor Wat, and towards the end 

of the century under Jayavarman VII, who built the Bayon, or 

Angkor Thorn. 

Towards the end of Jayavarman's reign, or perhaps 

slightly later, occurs a poignant piece of evidence pointing to 

how conditions had changed in those days. 

The evidence lies in Prasat Muang Sing in Kanchanaburi 

Province. This is obviously a Khmer-inspired city and 

temple, the furthermost west of them all. Why should the 

Cambodians be building so far west at that late date? The 

only answer I can find is that, with traditional trade routes to 

the west lost to the jungle and banditry, the Cambodians were 

trying to establish a new route further north, probably aiming 

for Martaban or Tavoy on the West Coast. Muang Sing was 

a considerable city with formidable fortifications, apparently 

designed as a garrison to hold the passes over the Tenasserim 

range. 

Long ago I decided that Prasat Muang Sing was a 

purely Cambodian monument because of its presiding image, 

a beautiful Radiating Lokeshvara Bodhisattva, Jayavarman's 

personal god, and straight out of an Angkorean workshop, 

but my Thai scholar friends argued that there was something 

distinctly un-Cambodian about the architecture. 

After a trip to South India, I began to see that my Thai 

friends were right: the east and west gate-towers of Prasat

85 

Muang Sing were extraordinarily tall; in fact they were 

Gopurams as understood in South India, and unknown in 

Cambodia. (The Department of Fine Arts has destroyed this 

evidence; you have to look at old photographs.) 

The Prasat Muang Sing evidence indicates to me that 

in the late 12th-early 13th century, Cambodia and South Indian 

merchants were attempting to open a new east/west 

trade route. Their efforts seem to have failed, probably because 

of the collapse of Cambodia after the death of 

Jayavarman VII, and Prasat Muang Sing, too, seems to have 

returned to the jungle. 

The next attempt to open an east/west trade route 

took place in the 13th century much further north, namely at 

Sukhothai, and it proved a great success. As Dong Si Maha 

Phot in Prachinburi Province may once have been a "back 

door" to Cambodia, so Sukhothai now became the back door 

of Siam, with its port at Martaban. Sukhothai was situated in 

a poor, dry area, little suited to agriculture even today, but it 

was bang in the middle of North-South and East-West trade 

routes, the ideal gathering-place for gold, copper and tin from 

Lanna, Laos and Isan. 

This explains in part (but by no means entirely) how 

so many huge Buddhist and Hindu bronze images came to be 

cast at Sukhothai. The kings of Sukhothai cannot have been 

buying up metals with the proceeds derived from rice or other 

produce; they must have been trading in the metals in order 

to have such a surplus available, But that surplus requires 

further explanation. 

Sukhothai, with its port on the west coast at Martaban, 

could only flourish as long as ports and porterage routes 

further south were in disarray, which brings me at last, at 

long last, to the subject of this paper, Ayudhya. 

The foundation (or refoundation) of Ayudhya in 1350 

was the beginning of the end for Sukhothai. 

According to the Laws of the Brahmins (Tamnan 

Phram Nakhon Si Thammarat), in 1351 an Indian king 

(probably a Sethupati of Ramnad) entered into trade negotiations 

with King Ramadhipati of A yudhya. The Indian king 

sent a group of Brahmins to A yudhya, carrying bronze images 

of the gods (an early example of imported raw materials 

being reexported in manufactured form). The Brahmins and 

their gods arrived at Trang and crossed the peninsula to 

Nakhon Si Thammarat, where the image of Vishnu that they 

were carrying conveniently refused to budge any further. The 

authorities at Ayudhya therefore decided that most of the 

Brahmins should stay at Nakhon to serve the god. They were 

given lands, tax exemption and other privileges. 

If the Laws of the Brahmins is to be believed (and it 

is a thoroughly sober collection of legal documents) then it 

shows how Ayudhya (in cooperation with a South Indian 

ruler) reestablished order in the south of Siam, with its short 

porterage routes to West Coast ports, and attracted Indian 

shipping back to ports and routes in Southeast Asia that had 

been out of use for something like two centuries. 

Even before Ayudhya established firm control over 

other stragegic points like Nakhon Ratchasima and Phitsanulok, 

this reopening of the southern trade route must have 

knocked the bottom out of the Sukhothai metals market. In 

the face of falling demand and prices, King Lithai of Sukhothai 

must have found it necessary to convert much of his stock-intrade 

into Buddha images in order to reduce the glut and 

firm up prices for his gold, copper and tin, for the prices 

offered by the King of Ayudhaya were probably an insult. 

With the foundation of A yudhya and its control of the 

trade routes further south, the end of Sukhothai was inevitable. 

Ayudhya had no need to conquer Sukhothai; indeed, 

Ayudhya's main efforts were directed against Kamphaeng Phet 

and Phitsanulok in order to gain access to the resources of 

Lanna, Nan and Luang Phra Bang. 

Sukhothai continued to function for a couple of centuries 

but only as a Buddhist Athens in the shadow of 

Ayudhya's Rome. In a final act of desperation, in 1568 

Sukhothai united its forces with the Mons of Hamsavati and 

overran A yudhya. As a result King Maha Dharmaraja of 

Sukhothai became king of Ayudhya. His son, King Naresuan, 

realizing that Sukhothai was not only useless but a liability, 

depopulated the city, bringing the population down 

to till rice fields nearer to A yudhya. 

The Mons of Hamsavati and the people of Sukhothai 

may have wished to knock out Ayudhya in order to revive 

their exclusive trade route, but when Naresuan came to the 

throne of Ayudhya he must have realized that Ayudhya was 

where the big profits lay, and his ancestral Sukhothai became 

deserted. 

The old pattern of a primate city in the Central Plain 

exploiting the interior while holding open ports on the east 

and west coasts persisted throughout the A yudhya Period 

and beyond. 

In the time of King Narai, Persian ambassadors and 

French clerics arrived at Ayudhya via Tenasserim, and we all 

know how Samuel White used Mergui as a pirate base to 

terrorise Indian shipping, make a fool of the East India 

Company, and pick the pocket of the king, his Master. It is 

also recorded that in those days hundreds of boxes of copper 

were exported to Madras via Mergui, along with something 

like 300 Siamese elephants per year. 

Even after the fall of A yudhya the old system persisted. 

Bangkok, the New Ayudhya, was founded in 1782. In 

1787 King Rama I led an army over the Tenasserim Range in 

order to retake Tavoy, without lasting success, but it was a 

valiant attempt to reassert Siam's right to access to the west 

coast. 

In contrast, King Taksin's efforts to regain the allegiance 

of Nakhon Si Thammarat persist until today, despite 

Burmese attempts in the 18th century to cut the South off 

from Siam. 

As late as the early 19th Century at least one old trade 

route was still in use. In 1815 King Rama II learnt that the 

British had taken the whole of Ceylon, including Kandy. The 

king therefore sent off a party of Buddhist monks to worship 

at the holy places in Ceylon and see what was going on. 

From Bangkok they took coastal shipping down to Nakhon Si 

Thammarat, where they disembarked and crossed the peninsula 

on elephants in eight days. At Trang they found four

86 

ships-three recently arrived traders from South India and 

one constructed by the Governor of Nakhon Si Thammarat to 

carry the monks and 20 Siamese elephants cross the Bay of 

Bengal. In addition to the 20 elephants, the ship carried a 

crew and passengers numbering over 60. The document gives 

no details as to the size or cargo of the Indian vessels. 

This early 19th Century evidence may be an obscure 

incident, but to me it seems extraordinarily significant because 

it occurred at a time when Indian overseas trade had 

largely been taken over by the European powers and Siam 

had hardly recovered from the disorder created by the Burmese. 

If, under those circumstances, South India could send 

three ships to trade at Trang, and the Governor of Nakhon Si 

Thammarat could build a ship to carry 60 men and 20 elephants 

across the ocean, then the commerce in earlier times, 

when both India and Southeast Asia were free and prosperous, 

must have been much more extensive. 

By the time of Rama III, however, the age of the 

steamship had come. Winds no longer mattered and neither 

did the east/west porterage routes, which brings the story of 

Dvaravati and Ayudhya to an end. I hope you will forgive 

me for having so little to say about Ayudhya itself, the subject 

of this seminar. At first I attempted to deal with the 

Ayudhyan evidence divectly, but soon found that the little 

there was had long been squeezed dry. 

Rather than say much about Ayudhya itself, I have 

chosen to examine the evidence of what happened before and 

after Ayudhya, and what happened to its north, south, east 

and west. By sketching around Ayudhya in terms of time and 

place, I hope I have been able to make it more visible: what 

Ayudhya was, and how it functioned, who were the players 

and what were the stakes, why it was at one time the key the 

to East-West trade, and how it came to an end around the 

middle of the 19th century, when the steamship passed 

through the Malacca Straits with the greatest of ease and rendered 

the porterage routes redundant.

SECTION VI 

OTHER ARTICLES

THE IMAGE OF THE BURMESE ENEMY 

IN THAI PERCEPTIONS AND 

HISTORICAL WRITINGS 

SUNAIT CHUTINTARANOND 

CHULALONGKORN UNIVERSITY 

The image of the Burmese as an archenemy of the 

Thai gradually emerged in Thai historiography and literary 

works after the kingdom of A yudhya fell to the Burmese 

armies in 1767. Prior to that tragic incident, Thai chroniclers 

were not anxious to record any historical event concerning 

the wars between Siam and Burma. The Luang Prasert 

Chronicle of Ayudhya (1680), for instance, does not specifically 

glorify the most famous victory of King Naresuan in the fight 

on elephantback with the Burmese crown prince, the Maha 

Uparacha, in 1592. 1 By contrast, only the royal chronicles 

compiled and written in the early Bangkok period, almost 

two centuries after the event, extensively describe and particularly 

commemorate the 1592-93 campaign of this warlike 

king.2 Nidhi Aeusrivongse, in his Bangkok History in the 

Ayudhya Chronicles, suggests that the stories concerning the 

Siamese-Burmese wars were additions to what was written in 

the Luang Prasert Chronicle of Ayudhya; that they were, in fact, 

composed in the early Bangkok period. In other words, the 

past which Bangkok rulers were interested in reconstructing 

in order to legitimize their political position concerned the 

wars with the Burmese from the reign of King Phra 

Mahachakkraphat (or Chakkraphat, 1548-69) to the reign of 

King Naresuan (1590-1605).3 The discrepancies between the 

Thai chronicles written in the two different periods shed light 

on the fact that Ayudhya chroniclers, unlike Bangkok's, did 

not seriously consider wars conducted against the Burmese 

as being more important than other historical events. In actual 

practice, the Ayudhya rulers were more concerned with 

military expeditions into the territories of Sukhothai and 

Chiang Mai in the north, Cambodia in the east, Tavoy, Mergui, 

and Tenasserim in the west, and Malaya in the south, but not 

into the heartland of Burma. 4 It was not until the fall of 

Ayudhya in 1767 that Siam's political and intellectual leaders 

started to realize the unbridled violence of the Burmese and 

the resultant perils to Thailand, and showed more concern 

for investigating and reconstructing the past circumstances of 

their hostilities with this neighbor. 

Throughout the four hundred years of its existence, 

the rulers of A yudhya had successfully shielded its glorious 

reputation as one of the most powerful kingdoms in mainland 

Southeast Asia. A yudhya kings were never tired of 

incorporating into their tributary orbit the less powerful 

principalities sharing their borders. After the successful 

amalgamation of the two independent riverine principalities 

of the Chao Phraya Valley, Lopburi and Suphanburi, which 

followed the succession of King Intharacha (1409-24), the 

Ayudhya rulers started to contend against their independent 

neighbors. The best known case is the invasion of Angkor in 

1431 by King Borommaracha II (1424-1448). 5 Ayudhya 

maintained its image as an aggressive military state up until 

the very end of its existence. In the reign of King 

Phumintharacha, popularly referred to as King Thai Sa (literally, 

"end of the lake," 1709-33), Ayudhya waged war against 

the Vietnamese in Cambodia proper. A major Ayudhya expedition 

led on sea by the Phrakhlang (the Minister of Finance, 

who controlled foreign trade and foreign relations) and on 

land by the Phraya Chakri (the Minister of Civil Administration 

and of the Northern and Eastern Provinces), attempted 

to recapture the Cambodian kingdom and force out the Vietnamese 

intruders (1720). The Ayudhya king successfully 

regained his sovereignty over this traditional client state by 

forcing the new king of Cambodia to resume his regular 

tributary payment of vassalage to Ayudhya. 6 

In the south, the A yudhya army also campaigned in 

the northern Malay peninsula (1709-10), and on this occasion 

the threat appeared so great that even Perak on the west coast 

approached the Dutch East India Company for help. 

On the east coast the Thai armies actually advanced 

into Terengganu itself. The purpose of 

this latter campaign, however, was not the subjection 

of Terengganu or its acquisition as a vassal 

state. The declared Thai aim was the elimination 

of pirate bases along the Terengganu coast;

90 

the move into Terengganu also appears to have 

been part of a projected assault on Johor, with 

which relations had deteriorated. Although the 

attack on Johor did not eventuate, and although 

Thai forces withdrew from the east coast, 

Borommakot (1709-1733) did make some effort to 

restore Ayutthaya's tarnished reputation in the 

Malay states. Pattani was brought to heel in 1712, 

but Kedah maintained only the most nominal 

recognition of Thai suzerainty? 

Prior to the fall of Ayudhya in 1767, the kingdom, 

regardless of having been defeated by Bayinnaung in 1564 

and 1569, had never been utterly destroyed. The wars with 

the Burmese in the reign of Chakkraphat, especially those of 

the year 1569, on the contrary served to strengthen the 

Ayudhya kingdom internally. First, they helped the new 

successor, Mahathammaracha (1569-1590), eliminate his political 

enemies such as Phra Mahin, Chakkraphat's younger 

son, who once secretly convinced King Setthathirat of 

Vientiane to attack his base at Phitsanulok (1567). According 

to the Ayudhya chronicles, Phra Mahin was taken away captive 

to Burma and he died of fever en route before reaching 

Pegu. 8 The Burmese chronicles, however, make no mention 

of the fate of Phra Mahin; Sir Arthur Phayre suggested that 

either this young king was put to death or he committed 

suicide. 9 Second, the wars with the Burmese in the reign of 

Chakkraphat also allowed Mahathammaracha to establish his 

power in Ayudhya proper without being challenged by any 

ranking state officials or ministers (khunnang) who since the 

rise of the Suphanburi house (1409) had played a very decisive 

role in A yudhya succession politics. Shortly after assuming 

the throne, Mahathammaracha appointed his 

loyal supporters to the controlling positions in the center and 

periphery of the kingdom. 10 The stability of Mahathammaracha's 

government had been put to the test in defending 

against a series of Cambodian attacks in 1570, 1575, 1578, 

1582 twice, and 1587. Obviously, the rise of the young 

Naresuan and his early accomplishments in fighting against 

the Burmese and enlarging Ayudhya's orbit of vassalages, 

were a result of what had been established in the reign of 

Mahathammaracha. 11 

The Burmese sack of A yudhya in the second half of 

the eighteenth century was dramatically different from the 

attack in 1569. Prince Damrong in his Our Wars with the 

Burmese states that "the expedition led by the king of 

Hamsavati (Bayinnaung) and the one carried out by the king 

of Ava (Hsinbyushin) are not the same ... the primary purpose 

of the former in attacking A yudhya was to reduce the Thai to 

vassalage and to expand his kingdom in the manner of a king 

of kings (Rachathirat or Rajadhiraja), while the major aim of 

the latter was just to loot the city and take away war prisoners. 

Thus, in the last attack, the Burmese, with no intention of 

retaining Ayudhya as their client state, burnt all big and small 

cities they captured, including the capital, down to ashes. 

The defeat on this occasion thus brought a great deal of 

damage to the kingdom of A yudhya, unlike when it was seized 

by the king of Hamsavati." 12 The Konbaungzet mahayazawin 

dawgyi agrees with the Thai sources. The Burmese commanders-in-chief, 

Mahanawrahta and Thihapate, as depicted in the 

chronicle, showed no interest in accepting the total surrender 

proposed by the king of Ayudhya, Ekkathat (1758-67), before 

the capital was sacked and burnt. 13 The Burmese commanders 

realized that they lacked the capability to keep 

Ayudhya under their control, unlike the great Bayinnaung in 

the past. G.E. Harvey came up with an explanation as to why 

the Burmese could not manage to leave their troops in 

Ayudhya for several seasons. "If Ayudhya had not fallen 

when it did, the siege would have had to be abandoned, as 

royal despatches now came urgently recalling the armies to 

take their place in the line against the Chinese whose attacks 

on Ava looked like breaking through; for the year 1765-69 

saw a series of murderous Chinese invasions." 14 The pressure 

derived from the Chinese invasion undoubtedly forced 

the Burmese to demolish Ayudhya and hurriedly withdraw 

their armies to Ava. 

The annihilation of Ayudhya in 1767 brought the Thai 

a great deal of damage, both physically and spiritually. That 

dreadful moment never faded from the memories of the people 

who witnessed it. Somdet Phra Phonnarat of King Rama I's 

reign, the author of the Sangkhitiyawong (The Chronicle of 

Buddhist Councils, 1789), compared the situation after the 

fall of Ayudhya in 1767 with the Buddhist dark age (kaliyug 

a) : 

The fall of Ayudhya in 1767 threw the Thai state 

into chaos, disrupting normal social life, causing 

economic and material deprivations, and dividing 

the population into factions which contended 

with each other for scarce resources. The harsh 

conditions broke up families, and food was in 

short supply. Many Buddhist monks, finding that 

they could not survive in the ordained state, disrobed 

and went off into lay life to seek their own 

livelihoods. Buddhism suffered in other ways as 

well, as disrespectful people committed violence 

against Buddhist images and scavenged libraries 

for the cloth and cords that bound the Pali scripts, 

thus leaving them prey to insects. 15 

Krom Phrarachawangboworn Mahasurasrihanat (Prince of 

the Front Palace in the reign of King Rama 1), in an episode 

of his literary work on the war with the Burmese in 1793, 

illustrated the state of calamity after the fall of Ayudhya (1767) 

thus : " ... the sinful Burmese ravaged our villages and cities. 

A great number of our citizens and many temples were killed 

and ruined. Our peaceful kingdom was abandoned and 

turned into forest. The Burmese showed no mercy to the 

Thai and felt no shame for all sins they had committed." 16 

The situation in which Ayudhya was destroyed shortly 

after the Burmese breached the walls and took control of the 

city is also pictured in detail in foreign records. M. Turpin in 

his History of the Kingdom of Siam, compiled from missionaries' 

manuscripts of late Ayudhya period, reconstructed the 

pathetic occurrence as follows :

91 

On the 28th April1767 the town was captured by 

assault. The treasures of the palace and the temples 

were nothing but heaps of ruins and ashes. 

The images of the gods were melted down and 

rage deprived the barbarian conquerors of the 

spoils that had aroused their greed. To avenge 

this loss, the Burmese visited their heavy displeasure 

upon the towns folk. They burnt the 

soles of their feet in order to make them reveal 

where they had concealed their wealth, and raped 

their weeping daughters before their very eyes. 

The priests suspected of having concealed much 

wealth were pierced through and through with 

arrows and spears and several were beaten to 

death with heavy clubs. 

The country side as well as the temples were 

strewn with corpses, and the river was choked 

with the bodies of the dead, the stench of which 

attracted swarms of flies causing much annoyance 

to the retreating army. The chief officers of 

state and the royal favourites were in the galleys. 

The King, witness of the unhappy fate of his court 

endeavoured to escape, but he was recognized 

and slain at the gates of the palace. 17 

Thai Burmese sack of A yudhya, then the center of the 

Thai political, economic and spiritual world, implanted hatred 

and fear in the minds of the ruling class and intellectuals who 

were directly affected. After the war, the Thai rulers totally 

changed their political attitude toward the Burmese. The 

Burmese, who, since the death of King Naresuan in 1605, had 

never been perceived as a dangerous and implacable enemy, 

were now regarded as Siam's most threatening hostile 

neighbor. The kings of Thonburi and early Bangkok, for 

example, took as their major concern the task of improving 

military tactics and strategy of the army to counteract Burmese 

incursions. David Wyatt describes an integral part of the 

whole strategic defence of this period thus : 

The Burmese campaigns against Siam in the 1760's 

and 1770's were based in part upon Burman political 

and military presence virtually encircling 

Ayudhya on all sides, including a large section of 

the Malay Peninsula, LanNa and the Shan states, 

and Lan Sang in Laos. To break this encirclement, 

Taksin had to work to expel the Burmans and 

their allies from these regions, and narrow the 

zone in which subsequent campaigns would be 

fought .... In LanNa, Vientiane, and Champassak, 

Taksin placed clearly-subordinate vassal rulers 

upon the throne, whose powers in all three cases 

were subsequently to be steadily absorbed by the 

Siamese capital. 18 

The early Bangkok rulers also expressed great interest 

in learning more about the essence of Burmese's military 

operations. In 1789, a Burmese war manual was translated 

into Thai at the command of King Rama I.19 Among the works 

concerning the art of war translated during this reign (1782- 

1809), the most important in the long run was to be the 

Rachathirat, or Rajadirit Ayedawpon. This book not only provides 

the chronology of the Mon kings of Pegu before the 

annexation by the Toungoo kings in the mid-sixteenth century 

but also illustrates numerous tactics and strategies of 

war employed by ancient Mon-Burmese warrior kings.20 It 

was, however, the Prince of the Front Palace, the commanderin-chief 

of the Bangkok army at that time, who initiated the 

translation of this military manuscript before it was brought 

to the king's attention. 21 Motivated by the idea of military 

retaliation, King Rama I once ordered three high-ranking officers, 

Chao Phraya Mahayotha, Amat Saisamon, and Phraya 

Saiyok (the governor of muang Saiyok, one of the most important 

western fortified cities situated on a Burmese war 

route) to collect all important data concerning war routes on 

the Three Pagodas Pass and in the Rahaeng (Tak) province to 

the Martaban Pass, expecting to use this intelligence in leading 

an expedition to Pegu.22 King Rama II (1809-24) also 

ordered his military staff to compile all necessary information 

concerning war routes lying between Siam and Burma, but 

this time the primary purpose was to intercept the Burmese 

army understood to be coming to attack Bangkok in 1820. 23 

The collapse of A yudhya in 1767 not only impelled 

the Thonburi and early Bangkok rulers to reinvestigate and 

improve their military arts, but also forced them to reconsider 

and change their leadership role and political policy. 

The role of defender of the kingdom, people, and Buddhism, 

to keep them from being destroyed by external intruders, never 

in the past seriously observed by A yudhya kings, was taken 

very seriously by the Thonburi and early Bangkok rulers. 

Unlike their predecessors, whose primary interest was 

in leading expeditions into the territory of weaker states, 

Taksin's and Rama I's chief concern was to protect their 

peaceful kingdom from the threat of their Burmese neighbor. 

According to the Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung Sayam, King 

Taksin, before fighting his way through the Burmese cordon 

around Ayudhya (1767) and establishing his military base in 

a southeastern province of the kingdom, expressed his strong 

determination to march back to rescue the falling kingdom, 

and to save Buddhism from the Burmese. 24 In a battle with 

the Burmese at Bang Khao province (1774), Taksin again clearly 

revealed his motivation: "The reason I have spent my life on 

battlefields up to the present is not because I am concerned 

about my own fortune and advantage. I choose to live harshly 

because I want to uphold Buddhism, priests, Brahmins, and 

the people in my kingdom."" 25 In the same manner, but in a 

different period and on a different occasion, King Rama I, in 

one of his royal orders, showed a very strong concern for all 

military campaigns led by his rival states, particularly the 

Burmese, into the political domain of Bangkok. The order 

distinctly stresses that "in the situation in which his majesty's 

army is at war with foreign principalities (outside the kingdom 

proper), recruits who experience any difficulty in joining 

the army have the right to hire a man to fight on his 

behalf. Nevertheless, the same permission is restricted when

92 

His Majesty's kingdom is under attack and the religion of the 

Lord Buddha is in danger. Any soldier who violates this order 

will be sentenced to death." 26 In one of his literary works, 

Nirat rop Plulma thi Tha Dindaeng (Poem on the fight with the 

Burmese at Tha Dindaeng district, 1786), Rama I revealed the 

same determination : 

[It is my intention to] support and pay honor to 

Buddhism, to protect the kingdom, and to shield 

my people and subjects [from external danger]. 27 

Such political aspirations of Rama I were also acknowledged 

in the last chapter of Somdet Phra Phannarat's Sangkhitiyawong. 

The author of this 1789 chronicle explicitly portrayed 

the king and his brother (Prince of the Front Palace) as 

bodhisattva; his reign was depicted as the beginning of a new 

era and he himself was referred to as a savior-king whose 

meritorious action created happiness for all subjects and stability 

for the kingdom. 28 

The idea of defending the welfare of Buddhism and 

the happiness of the people from external penetration and 

destruction became a legacy of thought passed down to rulers 

in subsequent eras. King Rama II's royal order of the year 

1810 refers to the custom by which kings were required to 

wage war against their enemies in order to protect the welfare 

of Buddhism. 29 Not only does this ideology survive 

throughout the period when the authority of the Bangkok 

state was threatened by Western imperialism and when the 

traditional conception of the state and the old patterns of 

statecraft and administration were reformed by King 

Chulalongkorn (1868-1910), but it also becomes one of the 

most important ideologies modern rulers use to integrate the 

society and the people and to build up national consciousness 

or a sense of nationality. Prince Vajiranana, the Supreme 

Patriarch in the reign of King Rama VI (1910- 

1925), in his special allocution on "The Buddhist Attitude 

towards National Defence and Administration," pointed out 

that the primary duty of the kings was to protect the welfare 

of the Buddhist religion, of the kingdom and of the people 

from external intrusion. "The defence against external foes is 

one of the policies of governance, and is one that cannot be 

neglected." 30 Military governments after the 1932 reforms 

also adopted this as a national ideology and used it as a 

weapon in fighting against their political opponents, particularly 

the Communist party, especially during the Sarit regime. 

Up to this point, the Burmese were no longer an enemy of 

Buddhism and the Cakri rulers; they were characterized and 

understood as an enemy of the Thai nation. 

The Image of the Burmese Enemy in 

Traditional Thai Historical Writing 

As I have already mentioned, it was not until Ayudhya 

was totally defeated and destroyed in 1767 that Siamese political 

and intellectual leaders came to realize the hazards of 

the Burmese and to show concern for rewriting the past with 

respect to their relations with Burma. Chronicles written and 

revised after 1767, unlike preceding chronicles, depicted and 

specially illustrated the wars between Ayudhya and the Burmese 

conducted mainly in the second half of the sixteenth 

century. The victories of King Naresuan over the Burmese, 

for example, were particularly highlighted and glorified, since 

this king was the one and only king who successfully crushed 

the Burmese army on several occasions and led two expeditions 

into the Burmese heartland. 31 

Chroniclers of Thonburi and early Bangkok not only 

modified and colorfully painted the history of Siamese-Burmese 

wars apart from what was originally written in the 

Ayudhya chronicles but also explicitly expressed their antagonism 

towards the Burmese, describing them as an unethical 

rival. It should be understood that before the fall of 

Ayudhya in 1767 there is no concrete evidence showing that 

court chroniclers expressed strong negative feelings regarding 

the immorallity of the Burmese in their works. The Luang 

Prasert chronicle, for example, is silent about the maleficent 

behavior of some Burmese rulers such as King Nandabayin 

(1581-1599) and his crown prince. By contrast, most of the 

A yudhya chronicles revised by the Bangkok rulers refer to 

King Nandabaying as a ruler who neglected the Thotsapit 

Racluldhamma (the Ten Righteous Duties of Sovereignty). The 

chroniclers claimed that this king plotted to murder King 

Naresuan (who at that time had assumed the status of the 

governor of Phitsanulok) after the young prince had proven 

his superiority in military operations over the Burmese crown 

prince in an expedition against a Shan state (1582). This 

immoral act, as early Bangkok chroniclers put it, violated the 

traditional norm of righteous kings and caused Naresuan to 

renounce Ayudhya's alliance to Burma. The chroniclers put 

their words in the young prince's mouth as follows : 

Since the king of Pegu does not observe the traditional 

norm of interstate alliance, violates the 

law of unity, and behaves dishonestly by planning 

to assassinate me (regardless of my innocence), 

I, therefore, declare that from now on the 

kingdoms of Ayudhya and Pegu no longer share 

the same golden land, and our alliance comes to 

an end and will never be reinstituted. 32 

Early Bangkok chroniclers also depicted the Uparacha, the 

Crown Prince of Burma, as a jealous person whose courage 

and spiritual power (barami) were not comparable to those of 

Prince Naresuan.33 The historical episode regarding the crown 

prince being slain on his elephant in single combat with 

Naresuan in 1593 was specifically highlighted by the chroniclers 

in order to justify the above claim. 

It was also in the early Bangkok period that intellectual 

leaders such as learned monks elaborately pictured the 

Burmese as a dangerous enemy of Buddhism. The revisers of 

the Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung Sayam (1795), for example, 

compared the Uparacha to the chief Mara, Phraya Watsawadi 

Man, and depicted Naresuan as the Lord Buddha who, after 

defeating Mara, successfully attained nirvana-an extraordinary 

achievement in itself. 34 Krom Phra Pramanuchit 

Chinorot, in his classical poem on the "Defeat of the Mons"

93 

(Lilit Talaeng phai, 1832) written in order to commemmorate 

the victory of King Naresuan in 1593, also equated the 

Uparacha with Mara and depicted Naresuan as Indra, a 

guardian of the dharma and Buddhism. 35 

The image of the Burmese as an arch enemy of Buddhism 

was portrayed in the 1789 chronicle Sangkhitiyawong. 

The chronicle clearly explains how the city of Ayudhya and 

Buddhism were attacked by the Burmese in the 1767 war: the 

Burmese 

captured the people such as members of the 

royal family, collected all types of properties, 

burnt down the city, the palace and the temples, 

and destroyed the city wall. They also caused 

canonical texts, the Tri-pitaka, to be damaged. 

Then, they returned to their kingdom and presented 

all the seized treasures and captured 

weapons to their commanding officers. 36 

The same image was also emphasized in a literary work of 

the Prince of the Front Palace of King Rama I's reign. 37 

The situation in which the Burmese were "dehumanized" 

and reduced to the level of devil, demon, or agent of 

dark forces, in my opinion has a direct connection with the 

politics of war after the year 1767. It should be clearly understood 

that the wars between Siam and Burma did not come 

to an end after the fall of A yudhya. The Burmese, after 

destroying the city, still considered the new centers of the 

Thai state, Thonburi and Bangkok, as their targets of attack. 

King Bodawpaya (1782-1819), in a great assembly of the officers 

of his court, declared it to be his intention "first to take 

and destroy the chief city of the Siamese, then to turn his 

victorious arms against the Emperor of China, and to make 

him his tributary; thence he would bend his course towards 

the west, possess himself of the British colonies, attack the 

Great Mogul in his empire, and, in fine, make himself undisputed 

master of the whole of the southern island, Zabudiba 

[Jambudwipa]."38 In practice, from the year 1767 the Burmese 

kept on sending expedition after expedition into the kingdom 

of Siam. The heaviest fighting first occurred in the reign of 

King Taksin in 1775-76 in the north, when the Burmese under 

the command of Mahathihathura, the hero of the Chinese 

war, attempted to draw the Thonburi army out of their base 

at Phitsanulok. However, he was ordered to withdraw from 

the city by the new king, Siggu (1776-82), after the death of 

King Hsinbyushin (1763-76).3 9 In the reign of King Rama I 

(1782-1809), the Bangkok kingdom face two other massive 

invasions in 1785 and 1786. The attacks were personally led 

by King Bodawpaya, but neither of them succeeded. 40 In 1822, 

two years before the outbreak of the first Anglo-Burmese war 

(1824-26), the king of Ava, Bagyidaw (1819-1838), sent an 

embassy to Emperor Minh Mang of Cochinchina asking him 

to renounce his alliance with the Siamese king and help the 

Burmese campaign against Bangkok. 41 

A series of military invasions and threats after the 

destruction of Ayudhya in 1767 forced the restored Siamese 

rulers to employ both psychological and physical methods to 

fight against the Burmese. In such ways were wars between 

the two principalities by no means waged only on the historical 

field of battle. As Sam Keen rightly points out, "What we 

will find is that wars come and go but-strangely, amid 

changing circumstances-the hostile imagination has a certain 

standard repertoire of images it uses to dehumanize the 

enemy." 42 

The Thonburi and, especially, Bangkok rulers, before 

and probably after entering the battlefield, created dehumanizing 

stereotypes of the Burmese. This, to some extent, allowed 

them to go to war and kill their enemy without guilt. For 

them, war was a religious mission; it was a fight between 

good and evil or between an enemy of Buddhism and the 

representatives of dharma. The situation is not far from what 

Leonard E. Doob describes in his Panorama of Evil : 

Except perhaps among mercenaries, soldiers may 

not be able to fight effectively unless they believe 

their cause is just and that of the enemy unjust. 

The morale of American combat crews in World 

War II, for example, tended to be high when they 

were acquainted with and sympathetic toward 

U.S. aims. Both sides in America's Civil War 

believed they were defending noble objectives : 

the South, its labor system and its 'entire way of 

life'; the North, saving the Union and democracy. 43 

In fact, a special form of sanction to prevent or discourage the 

appearance of the "evildoing Burmese" also involved punishing 

those who failed to punish the enemy or evildoers. In 

Thonburi and early Bangkok society, as in some places where 

war is regarded as the most important obligation of all social 

members, prestige was lost, punishment was imposed, and 

the individual was probably branded a coward or a weakling 

who shrank from his duty when he could not return from 

battle with the evildoer's head or other parts of his body, 

literally or symbolically, or when he failed to complete his 

military mission. 44 The condition in which the Burmese were 

dehumanized by the Siamese rulers lays a better foundation 

for understanding the history of historical writing on Siamese 

Burmese warfare in subsequent eras. 

Even though the Burmese, after the death of King 

Bodawpaya (1819) and the First Anglo-Burmese War, could 

not possibly lead any great expedition into the territory of 

Siam, 45 the early modern Bangkok rulers still considered the 

Burmese as their evil enemy. The image of the Burmese 

created by their predecessors after the fall of Ayudhya was 

firmly ingrained in their minds and memory. In the reign of 

King Mongkut (1851-68), when King Kavilorot (1856-70) of 

Chiang Mai presented to the Bangkok court a royal necklace 

on King Mindon's behalf (1856-78), Mongkut refused to accept 

the gift, saying that it was a prohibition from his ancestors 

(pu ya ta yai) to be allied with the Burmese. King 

Chulalongkorn (1868-1910), in his commentary on the memoirs 

of Princess Narinthewi, also mentioned that his ancestors 

had put a curse on any of his children and grandchildren 

who wished to form an alliance with the Burmese.46 

No such attempt to ingrain into the people an aversion 

towards the Burmese ever occurred in the A yudhya

94 

period. It is evident in both the A yudhya and the Burmese 

chronicles that King Borommakot (1733-58) offered political 

shelter to the Burmese governors of Martaban and Tavoy who 

fled from a Mon uprising instead of helping the Mons overthrow 

the weak restored Toungoo throne of Mahadammayaza-Dipati 

(1733-52). Hearing of this, the king of Ava sent 

grateful acknowledgments to the Ayudhya court (1744) by 

envoys bearing a number of rich and expensive presents. King 

Borommakot, in return, "sent envoys to Ava with gilded 

lacquer goblets, dishes and betel-boxes, velvets and silks of 

dragon pattern, a royal barge, and a letter on gold leaf; the 

letter was enclosed in caskets of ivory and crystal studded 

with rubies, wrapped in velvet and tied with gold cord, and 

it was borne on the back of an elephant. " 47 

The image of the Burmese as an evil enemy never 

faded away from the memory of the Siamese ruling class 

after the fall of A yudhya. What has been changed is primarily 

the ways in which the image is portrayed and made understood 

in each political and social climate. The transformation 

of the face of the Burmese enemy in Thai historical writing 

and consciousness, is, in the same manner, subject to political 

conditions inside and outside mainland Southeast Asia. The 

following part of this paper will deal fully with the relations 

of historical writings, as regards the wars between the two 

rival states, to the political forces that conditioned the nature 

and evolution of Thai historical consciousness towards the 

Burmese. I will emphasize how the conception of nationstate, 

borrowed from the West, provides an avenue for the 

emergence of a new conception of traditional Siamese-Burmese 

warfare and brings new light to the image of the Burmese as 

a crucial enemy of the "Thai nation." 

The Image of the Burmese Enemy in 

Modern Thai Historical Writing 

Not later than the last half of the nineteenth century 

did the Bangkok rulers come to feel the political influence of 

the West in mainland Southeast Asia. The Bangkok government 

began to feel the presence of Great Britain from the 

1820s, when British power thwarted her southern and westem 

territorial expansion and easily gained victory over the 

Burmese in the First Anglo-Burmese War in 1826. 48 The 

outcome of this war made the Thai more accommodating 

towards the British: the government agreed to sign the Anglo 

Siamese Treaty of 1826 opening the country to increased 

trade. 49 On his deathbed in 1851, King Rama III is reported 

to have remarked to Phraya Si Suriyawong (Chuang) that 

"there will be no more wars with Vietnam and Burma. We 

will have them only with the West. Take care, and do not 

lose any opportunities to them. Anything that they propose 

should be held up to close scrutiny before accepting it; do not 

blindly trust them." 50 At the end of King Mongkut's reign in 

the 1860s, the British declared their sovereignty over the Malay 

states and warned against anyone interfering in the internal 

affairs of their sphere of influence. 5 1 In the early years of King 

Chulalongkom's reign, the British established their permanent 

administration, which was later known as the "Residential 

System," in the mainland Malay states of Pahang, Perak, 

Negri Sembilan, and Selangor. This political movement was 

a result of their intention to ensure that their economic investments 

would no longer be impeded by the chronic political 

instability of the Malay states. In the north, the British also 

intervened in the tributary states whose ru-lers had been 

subjected to the courts of Burma and Siam. 52 In the east, 

shortly before the establishment of the British colony in the 

Malay peninsula, the French had successfully taken over 

Saigon (1859), and annexed Southern Vietnam between 1859 

and 1867. 53 From the year 1867 onward, they slowly expanded 

their circle of annexation to the east of Siam where 

there were Bangkok's tributary states of Cambodia, 

Champassak and Luang Prabang. In short, by the early 

twentieth century, many of the neighboring kingdoms had 

fallen under the control of the power of the European 

nations-the Shans under the British in Burma and the Lao 

and upland Tai under the French in Indochina. 54 The political 

climate from the middle of the nineteenth century, 

especially during the reigns of King Mongkut and King 

Chulalongkom, thus encouraged the creation of political unity 

in the Bangkok kingdom. , 

Dhida Saraya proposes that the irresistible pressure of 

Western imperialism was an important factor that forced King 

Mongkut to introduce the conception of the "unified state" in 

order to counteract the threat of the imperialist powers. 

In the face of this menacing political situation, a 

sense of unity was created by King Mongkut. The 

idea of Syam Prathet, meaning the country of the 

Syam people, was emphasized. He proclaimed 

himself to be the king of Syam Rath or Syam Prathet, 

and the sU:Zerain of many vassal states in Cambodia, 

Laos and northern Siam. This is the beginning 

of the idea of the unified country with the 

king at the center as the symbol of unity. 55 

However, it was Chulalongkom, Mongkut's successor, 

who fundamentally changed the administrative structure 

of the kingdom and established the idea of Thailand being a 

nation state belonging to the Thai people with Bangkok as its 

center. 56 Sombun Suksamran observes that the primary aim 

of Chulalongkom's nationalism was to instill in the minds of 

the people a sense of national consciousness and devotion. 

For the government, this was a stepping -stone towards creating 

social unity and national stability in the country, which 

had a king as the symbol of unity and leadership. 57 Nevertheless, 

the real era of Thai nationalism emerged in the reign 

of King Vajiravudh (1910-1925), Chulalongkom's son. David 

K. Wyatt suggests that "If King Chulalongkom may be said to 

have constructed the modem Kingdom of Siam, then his two 

sons who followed him on the throne may be said to have 

made it into a nation." 58 It was King Vajiravudh who introduced 

the most popular basic triad of Thai national ingredients 

to the public, "nation-religion-monarch" (chat-satsanaphramahakasat). 

As the king himself explained, 59

95 

The aim of this national institution is to instil in 

the minds of the people of our own race love and 

loyalty towards the High Authority that controls 

and maintains with justice and equity the political 

independence of the nation, devotion to Fatherland, 

Nation and our Holy Religion, and, not 

the least of all, the preservation of national unity, 

and the cultivation of mutual friendship. 

Unlike Chulalongkom, Vajiravudh emphasized the significance 

of the three elements, nation-religion-monarch, considering 

them as the most central to the identity of the Thai, and 

stressed the survival of the monarchic system. For Vajiravudh, 

all three elements were inextricably bound together. "Allegiance 

to any one of the three meant loyalty to all three; disloyalty 

or disobedience or disrespect toward one meant disrespect 

toward all." 60 Nationalism still played a very decisive 

role in Thai politics after the 1932 coup. Luang 

Phibunsongkhram's first government, which ran from the end 

of 1938 to mid 1944, for example, took as its primary concern 

the task of bitilding, "not a new country, but a new nation 

(sang chat). The most immediately visible aspect of these 

attempts was the change of the name of Siam to Thailand in 

1939." 61 Phibun's idea of nationalism, unlike Vajiravudh's, 

concentrated on the significance of military states and leadership 

as in Germany and Japan before World War 11. 62 Phibun's 

policy of building a new nation had a great deal of influence 

upon the perception by the Thai of their country and their 

nation in the wartime period and after. 

To conclude, it was in the political climate in which 

the idea of "unified state" and "nationalism" were first imported 

and then "localized" that I find that changes occurred 

in the image of the Burmese in Thai historical consciousness. 

In the past, the Burmese were basically understood as 

an enemy of Buddhism, but in the nation-building period 

they came to be characterized as an enemy of the Thai nation. 

King Chulalongkom, in his commentary on the memoirs of 

Princess Narinthewi, considers the 1767 war to have been a 

war between two countries, Muang Thai or Phaendin Thai and 

Muang Phama (Thailand and Burma), instead of a war between 

the two rival rulers.63 Vajiravudh, in his article on the benefit 

of living in dhamma, condemns the Burmese as adhamma or an 

unjust nation which, without moral justification, had subdued 

"our righteous nation" and inflicted a great deal of damage, 

mentally and physically upon the Thai. 64 Luang 

Wichitwathakan, Phibun's most important propagandist, in 

many places in his works on history and in his theatrical 

scripts, pictured the Burmese as an enemy of the Thai Nation. 65 

Since then, the image of the Burmese as an enemy of the Thai 

nation has become an invariable ingredient in modem Thai 

historiography. 

Before the reign of King Mongkut, history was written 

in the form of phongsawadan. By and large, the phongsawadan 

(chronicle) is a chronological, narrative record of major 

events in each reign and is directly concerned with the chronology 

of the kings or the dynasties that ruled over the capital 

cities of the kingdom, Ayudhya, Thonburi, and Bangkok, 

respectively. 66 Phongsawadan writers never incorporated in 

their records any major events which included common people 

and their history. They .also never took into account the 

history of local cities (prawatsatmuang), usually regarding them 

as separate from "Thai history." The Luang Prasert chronicle, 

for example, 

strongly emphasized Ayutthaya and its kings. 

This phongsawadan totally ignored all the myths, 

folklore and other oral tradition which represented 

the ideas and social expression of that period. It 

referred to Ayutthaya as Krung Phranakorn 

Sriayutthaya which implied its dominance over 

other states. Even Chiang Mai was merely mentioned 

as 'Muang Nua' (the northern state).67 

The creation of a "nation state" and the implantation 

of nationalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries 

gave birth to a new historical conception which later 

dominated the world view of Thai historical thinking and 

historiography-the conception of national history. Unlike 

phongsawadan historical writing, national history is written with 

the spirit and consciousness of building political unity and 

social integration. It means to represent not merely the 

history of the ruling class and the history of the capital (krung), 

but also the history of the whole nation or the Siamese 

Country (Prathet Sayam), with the king at the center as the 

symbol of unity.68 Even though national history, to a considerable 

degree, adopts the framework of phongsawadan writing, 

emphasizing the glory and significance of the capital cities, it 

incorporates the history of some local muang, which never in 

the past had captured the interest of traditional chroniclers, 

into what comes to be known as "Thai history." The history 

of Sukhothai, the principality which has an independent development 

separate from A yudhya and Bangkok, for example, 

is absorbed into the framework of national history as the 

first beach-head state of the Tai race. 69 In addition, national 

history, unlike phongsawadan, does not totally overlook the 

significance of the common people. The life and activities of 

the commoners whom national historians consider as national 

heroes and heroines are usually emphasized and exceptionally 

glorified. Many of them are apparently heroes 

and heroines of battles with the Burmese, such as the Bang 

Rachan villagers who fought against the Burmese army to 

their death in the 1767 war, and Lady Chan, wife of the governor 

of muang Thalang and her sister, who successfully saved 

their city from the Burmese attack in 1785? 0 It is in the 

perspective of national history that I find, first, that the wars 

between Siam and Burma are made to be understood as wars 

of "national independence;" and, second, that the Burmese, 

who in the past had once been characterized as the enemy of 

Buddhism, were now clearly depicted as an enemy of the 

Thai nation. 

The first historical work which has been used as a 

standard for writing Thai national history was written in the 

reign of King Mongkut and published in the year 1912, 1,mder 

the title Phongsawadan chabap Phraratchahatlekha (The Royal

96 

Autograph Chronicle). 71 Two years after its first publication, 

it was revised with additional research on particular subjects 

such as the coming of the Tai people to the Chaophraya River 

basin and the early history of Siam before the A yudhya period. 

It then becomes "the first piece of work that proposes 

a total outline of Thai history, starting from the origin of the 

Thai people, to the first kingdom of Sukhothai, Ayutthaya 

and to Bangkok." 72 It is in this work that the kingdoms of 

Ayudhya and Thonburi are clearly referred to as Sayam 

Prathet73 and the idea of wars for national liberation and independence 

is first introduced in the tradition of Thai 

historiography. 

Unlike traditional chronicles, the Royal Autograph 

Chronicle does not totally overlook the significance of the 

commoners. It describes the "heroism" of the Bang Rachan 

villagers in detail, covering events never written in any preceding 

chronicles. Step by step, it vividly portrays how the 

villagers formed their fortifications, how they achieved victory 

in almost every battle regardless of their smaller force, and 

how they were finally defeated by their opponents, who 

possessed better weaponry. In my opinion, the story of the 

Bang Rachan battle described in the Royal Autograph 

Chronicle is important in the sense that it introduces a new 

image of Siamese-Burmese warfare, different from wars conducted 

exclusively within the group of the ruling class and 

now including wars led by commoners. National historians 

and novel writers in the following period take this as a piece 

of evidence to support the idea that the Thai commoners, like 

their strong kings in the past, fought to the death against the 

Burmese in order to protect their beloved motherland and 

their freedom. The "heroism" of the Bang Rachan villagers is 

also used by the nationalist government as a tool to arouse 

national consciousness and to create political unity within the 

nation.1 4 

In the framework of national history, then, Thai history 

is a history of continuing warfare fought for gaining and 

regaining national independence as well as for protecting the 

country from external invasion. Research done by Western 

scholars helped national historians to complete the long history 

of the Tai people, believed to be a mighty race that migrated 

from China. W.C. Dodd's research, for example, proposed 

the theory that the Tai people had to move southwards because 

they were attacked by the Chinese.7 5 Prince Damrong 

Rajanubhab, in an article attached to the first publication of 

the Royal Autograph Chronicle (1912), also offered the idea 

that the Tai people, in order to establish an independent 

kingdom separate from the Khmer domain, had to conduct 

war against the Khom (Khmer) who ruled part of present-day 

Thailand long before their arriva1. 76 A Thai history written 

completely in the framework of national history is found in 

W.A.R. Wood's A History of Siam (1926). Like Thai national 

historians, Wood explains how the Tai people successfully 

built up the nation regardless of oppression from their 

powerful neighbors. 

It will, I think be frankly admitted that the Siamese 

have some right to feel a pride in the history of 

their country. It is the story of a collection of 

more or less uncultivated immigrants from 

Southern China, who settled in the country now 

known as Siam, overcoming a mighty (sic) empire, 

and establishing a number of free states, 

which became finally fused into the Siam of today. 

We see them humbled to the dust again and 

again by a more powerful. neighbor, yet always 

rising up and regaining their freedom. A hundred 

years ago there were dozens of independent 

states in South-Eastern Asia. To-day there remains 

but one: Siam. 77 

In the framework of national history, the Burmese, no 

less than the Chinese and the Khmer, are characterized as an 

important enemy of the Thai, particularly in the period after 

the kingdom of Ayudhya was founded (1351). Thus, the wars 

with the Burmese, as Wood puts it, are wars of rising up and 

regaining national independence, and, were by no means wars 

to establish a beachhead state, as in the case of Sukhothai, or 

wars to expand territory. 78 In the context of national history, 

the Burmese were unjust intruders. 

King Rama V, in his commentary on the memoirs of 

Princess Narinthewi, and Prince Damrong in his Thai rop 

Phama, suggest that the Burmese were aggressive intruders 

whose concern was to suppress the Mons and then the Thai, 

while the Thai, in contrast, were righteous and legitimate 

defenders whose main object was to protect their freedom 

and nation from the attacks of outsiders. 79 In his introduction 

to Thai rop Phama, Prince Damrong clearly explains: "Hostilities 

began because the Burmese conquered the Mon country 

and they consequently carried the war into Siam. For this 

reason, the war which the Siamese carried into Burmese 

territory, though it was the initiative of the Siamese, was only 

a reprisal for what the Burmese had done to the Siamese 

territory on previous occasions. "80 

The image of the Burmese as an enemy of the Thai 

nation was systematically depicted in this long research work 

by Prince Damrong, which was first published in 1917.81 Thai 

rop Phama deals principally with the wars between the two 

rival kingdoms, covering almost every fighting episode that 

appeared in the Thai chronicles and foreign records. The 

battle of Bang Rachan previously mentioned is also described 

in detail in this classic text. 82 There is no mistaking the fact 

that Thai rop Phama is one of the most influential historical 

works, responsible for popularizing the image of the Burmese 

as an enemy of the Thai nation. With the help of modem 

printing technology, this classic work has been widely reprinted 

and disseminated for public consumption on various 

occasions over the past seventy years. It was first printed in 

1917-20 and was reprinted in 1932 (vol. I 1917; vol. II 1920; 

revised edition 1932), 1951, 1958, 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1971. 

Thai rop Phama was also translated into English under the title 

"Our Wars with the Burmese" by Phra Phaison Sararak (U 

Aung Thein) in the Journal of the Burma Research Society in 1955, 

1957 and 1958. 83 It casts a long shadow over later historical 

writing, especially textbooks written for Thai schools and 

colleges. Among these is I

97 

impact of which was quite extraordinary (see below). 84 

It is important to stress here that the image of the 

Burmese as an enemy of the Thai nation in the early modernizing 

period would not have been able to capture the interest 

and punctuate Thai consciousness without the support of 

Chulalongkorn's reform of the educational system, officially 

founded in 1885. 85 The educational reform of this king and 

his successors not only successfully enlarged the number of 

educated people but also effectively implanted in the people's 

mind a sense of nationality. 86 In the Decree on the Education 

of Siam, presented to the king on August 23, 1910, the nature 

and objectives of education were announced as follows : 

[It was the responsibility of the Ministry of Public 

Instruction to lay down the principles upon which 

such education should be based, namely, that in 

their studies His Majesty's subjects should] 

... pursue learning and cultivate arts and thereby 

develop intellectual faculties and perfect moral 

powers; ... support the common good, which is the 

good of all together; obey the laws; and, when 

the time comes when the nation and country need 

your help, give your bodies and your loyalty with 

bravery, with loyalty to His Majesty the King and 

gratitude for his great mercy, and be you always 

loyal to the King. 87 

Through the channel of national education, the government 

slowly but effectively introduced to the public yet another 

image of the Burmese as an enemy of the Thai nation. 

School textbooks were one of the most important 

means the government used to fill the intellectual gap between 

them and their people in the early period of nationbuilding. 

The concept of "nation" and the significance of 

national unity were emphasized in the textbooks and in lessons 

concerning the duties of the good citizen (nathiphonlamuang), 

morality (sinlatham) and history (phongsawadan chat 

Thai or prawatsat Thai). Dhammachariya (Dhamma-behavior), 

one of the most popular school texts of the early twentieth 

century, for example, clearly explained the necessity of preserving 

national freedom : "it was something worth fighting 

and dying for.'' 88 Phonlamuang di (Good Citizenship), another 

influential text of the same period, emphasized the duties of 

soldiers in protecting the nation from external attack. 89 Khun 

Wichitmatra's Lak Thai, one of the most popular textbooks 

(1928), clearly depicted the Burmese as an enemy of the Thai 

nation. "In the 1767 defeat, our national treasures (sombat khong 

chonchat Thai) were totally ravaged at the hands of the Burmese. 

Since the Burmese had no intention of keeping Ayudhya 

as their client state, they burned the temples and the cities 

they had captured, then took all properties and war prisoners 

back to their kingdom.'' 90 Thomya Sophonchit, in his high 

school textbook concerning the duties of the good citizen 

(1938), describes the Burmese as an enemy of the Thai nation 

in a different manner: 

Good citizens have to do military service so they 

can protect their nation (prathet chat) in time of 

war. We must not forget the times when our 

country was invaded by enemies. During the 

A yudhya period, we fell to the Burmese two tiems. 

In the Bangkok era, we again lost our north-east 

Lao territory, Cambodia and Battambang district 

(monthon) to the French. This was not all; in 1893 

a French fleet operated to close the Gulf of Siam. 

Two of their warships moved up river towards 

Bangkok. In order to avoid any confrontation, 

we had to sacrifice the territory on the left side of 

the Mekong River to the French. This was a result 

of the weakness of our military force. Thus, 

it is an obligation of our citizens to join military 

service. By doing this, we can save our land and 

maintain our national freedom which our ancestors 

created and protected for us with their lives 

and blood. 91 

Textbooks concerning the duties of the good citizen 

and history written for Thai schools and colleges usually 

highlight the lives of King Naresuan and King Taksin and 

their victories over the Burmese. Both kings are referred to 

as the most important national heroes in the sense that they 

successfully regained Thai independence from the Burmese 

after the conquests of Ayudhya in 1569 and 1767 respectively. 92 

The heroism of the Bang Rachan villagers is also emphasized 

in school textbooks and has been used as a classic example 

for teaching the young how their ancestors fought to the last 

drop of blood in order to protect their beloved country and 

the freedom of the nation from the Burmese intruders. 

Through textbooks for school and college students, 

nationalist governments, especially military regimes, successfully 

instilled in the minds of the young the image of the 

Burmese as an enemy of the Thai nation. Undoubtedly, the 

political purpose underlying this national propaganda relates 

to an attempt of the government to stir up a sense of nationalism 

and at the same time legitimize their ruling authority 

by claiming that they, like all their brave ancestors who fought 

against the Burmese, take as their primary concern the task of 

protecting the nation, religion, and monarchy from external 

invasion. Viewed in this light, the negative attitude of the 

Thai towards the Burmese does not occur solely as a result of 

their past relationship. It is, rather, the outcome of political 

maneuvers by the Thai government to stabilize their power 

and authority and secure their own interests. 93 

The image of the Burmese as an enemy of the Thai 

nation is implanted not only through the educational structure 

but also by means of historical novels, drama and music. 

King Vajiravudh's reign saw the bulding of modern literature 

(1900-1932). 94 During this period many Thai and foreign 

novels were published in newspapers, magazines, and journals, 

circulated mainly in Bangkok, such as Lak Witthaya, Thalok 

Witthaya, Thawi Panya, Sayam Muai, Phadung Witthaya, Sena 

Suksa, Sri Krung, Phro Witthaya, Thai Kasem, Phrae Witthayasat 

and more. Among these were various historical novels such 

as Dap lek namphi (The Iron Sword) of A yannakot, Okphra 

Thanthathikorn of Phanngam, Thahan-ek Prachao Rachathirat 

(King Rachathirat's Musketeer) of Khuruphap (1925), Ekkhun

98 

Ratchasena of W. Phaomani, Thahan Phrachao Krung Than (The 

King of Thonburi's Soldiers) of Siwasariyanon, and Chat sua 

mai thing lai (A Tiger Never Loses Its Stripes) of Lopburi. 

Suphanni Warathon suggests that historical novels are written 

about national heroes. The authors used their works as 

a means of expressing their adoration towards nation, religion, 

and monarchy. 95 However, the zenith era of Thai historical 

novels and dramas emerged after 1932, when the idea of the 

nation was very much stressed. Luang Wichit, the brain of 

Phibun's regime, involved himself in all government campaigns 

to establish the national myth in the framework of 

nationalism. He wrote many historical novels and plays 

extolling the past glory of the Thai nation and the life and 

activities of important national heroes and heroines who had 

fought against the Burmese, such as King Naresuan, King 

Taksin, and Lady Chan and Muk. 96 One of the most popular 

plays written by Luang Wichit is Luat Suphan (Suphan Blood). 

In brief, it is the story of Suphanburi prisoners of war in the 

late eighteenth century who fought against the Burmese until 

they were all killed. Another well-known play is Maha Dewi 

(The Great Queen). It is the story of the queen of Chiang Mai 

who, in reality, fought against the Burmese and against 

Ayudhya in the sixteenth century in order to protect the 

autonomy of her rule over the city; but in the play, historical 

facts were distorted by depicting Maha Dewi as helping to 

unify Siam into one great country. 97 

In my opinion, the most influential historical novels 

written before the second half of the 20th century were Mai 

Muangdoem's (Kan Phungbun na Ayudhya) Bang Rachan and 

Khunsuk. 98 Bang Rachan is the story of the Bang Rachan villagers 

who conducted warfare against the Burmese to their 

death, despite their smaller force. With his vivid imagination 

and his knowledge of Thai history, Mai Muangdoem sharply 

portrayed the Burmese as an evil enemy of the Thai people. 

Here is an example of how he creates a theater of battle in his 

novel: 

... numerous houses, cabins and barns were burnt 

down to ashes, leaving behind many corpses in 

the fire and on the ground when the Burmese 

bandits came to sack [the village]. The babies 

died because their mothers had died. The number 

of the old and the young slaughtered by the 

swords of the Burmese was uncountable. Wives 

and daughters of the villagers were robbed 

and carried on horseback back to the central 

fort. Wisetchaichan had become an abandoned 

city.... People left their houses and their villages 

to go to Bang Rachan. 99 

Mai Muangdoem has talent in recreating history in the novel 

form. His works capture the interests and feelings of people 

of all ages. Bang Rachan, for example, has been reproduced 

again and again in the form of theatrical plays and movies. 

However, the most popular historical novel of this author is 

Khun Suk. 100 It is the story of a blacksmith, Serna, who, with 

exceptional skill in using dual hand swords against the Burmese 

intruders, fought his way to become one of the best 

soldiers of King Naresuan's army. In this story the Burmese 

were again characterized as an enemy of the Thai nation, of 

the king, and particularly of Thai commoners. Like Bang 

Rachan, Khun Suk has been reproduced again and again in the 

form of stage and radio plays, television dramas and movies 

since the end of the Second World War. People have been 

known to become addicted to Khun Suk as opium smokers 

are addicted to opium. 101 There are many more historical 

novels on Siamese-Burmese warfare written since World 

War II which, no less than the pioneer works, depict the 

Burmese as a strong and unjust enemy of the Thai nation. 

This discussion of the history and development of 

historical writing and perceptions relating to Siamese-Burmese 

warfare would not be complete if I failed to mention the 

way in which military historians express their antagonism 

towards the Burmese. I think I would not be far wrong in 

suggesting that it is in the community of the armed forces 

that the seeds of nationalism which were systematically 

planted in the early twentieth century attained full growth. 

The image of the Burmese as an enemy of the Thai nation is 

interestingly emphasized on various occasions by military 

historians who, by borrowing the framework of national 

history, equate the Burmese with their most important enemy, 

the communists. Colonel Chinnawut Sunthonsima, in 

his lecture on national stability and the role of Buddhism, 

suggests that "the nature of the problems regarding the stability 

of the nation of each historical period are not the same. In 

the early Bangkok period, this problem concerned mainly wars 

against the Burmese, and then the threat of the colonial powers. 

In the present, the problems of national stability are engaged 

with the war of ideology, and our enemy is the communist." 102 

The same attitude and explanation also appear in Colonel 

Chong Supchakyong's work on the life of King Naresuan, an 

outstanding hero of the Thai army. The author emotionally 

describes "the most disgraceful moment" that ever happened 

in Thai history, the time when King Mahit had an audience 

with the King Bayinnaung after being defeated in 1569. Based 

on this historical incident, he convinces readers that they have 

to join together intellectual, mental, and physical force in order 

to fight against the evil communists and to protect the independence 

of the nation: he writes, "We must not let history 

repeat itself." 103 

Conclusion 

The history of historical writing on Siamese-Burmese 

warfare and historical perceptions regarding the Burmese as 

an enemy are inseparable from their social context, which 

changes from one sociopolitical situation to another. What I 

have done is to demonstrate how the particular sociopolitical 

conditions of each period may lead to a particular understanding, 

interpretation and reshaping of the past concerning 

the relationship between Thailand and Burma. The negative 

attitude of the Thai towards the Burmese is a deliberate, not 

a chance, happening. It is quite obvious that it is a product 

of profound changes in the sociopolitical structure of the Thai 

state from the Thonburi and the early Bangkok period to the

99 

present. The governments of both the traditional and the 

modern Thai state play very important roles in instilling a 

hostile image of the Burmese in the minds of the people, 

aiming at the benefit of their political legitimacy and social 

integration. 

The image of the Burmese as an evil enemy of the 

"Thai nation," popularly understood and accepted, is, of course, 

the result of a powerful "institutionalizing" and "socializing" 

process built and developed mostly in the world of the ruling 

class before being distributed for public consumption. In other 

words, sanctions against the Burmese are inspired by political 

and intellectual leaders. Prejudicial feelings towards the 

Burmese are widely and effectively ingrained in the minds of 

the Thai people through the channels of oral tradition, historical 

literature, textbooks, plays, music and movies, especially 

during and after the nation-building period, the time 

when the idea of nationality came to be emphasized. It is 

first introduced to children as they are socialized, and 

thereafter it is repeated either formally by leaders of the society 

or informally by word of mouth or through public media. 

Thus, on the psychological level it is impossible to prevent a 

prejudiced view of the Burmese as an historically hostile state 

when certain beliefs exist within the social heritage and are 

then perpetuated by the leaders through the means of the 

mass media and the educational system.

100 

ENDNOTES 

1 "Phraratchaphongsawadan chabap 

Luang Prasoet" [The Luang Prasoet 

Chronicle of Ayudhya], in Prachum 

phongsawadan phak thi 1 (Bangkok: 

Kaona, 1963), pp. 136-37. 

2 Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung Sayam 

[The Chronicle of Siam or the British 

Museum Edition] (Bangkok: Kaona, 

1964), pp. 196-216. 

3 Nidhi Aeusrivongse, Prawatsat Rattanakosin 

nai Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung 

Sri Ayudhya [Bangkok History in the 

Ayudhya Chronicles] (Bangkok: 

Samakhom Sangkhomsat haeng Prathet 

Thai, 1978), pp. 15-16. 

4 Sunait Chutintaranond, "Cakravartin: 

Ideology, Reason and Manifestation of 

Siamese-Burmese Kings in Traditional 

Warfare (1546-1854)," Crossroads: An 

Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian 

Studies, Special Burma Studies Issue, 4:1 

(Fall, 1988), 46-53. 

5 David P. Chandler, A History of Cambodia 

(Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 

1983), p. 64. 

6 David K. Wyatt, Thailand: A Short History 

(New Haven and London, Yale 

University Press, 1984), p. 126. 

7 Barbara Watson Andaya, "The Making 

of a Tributary State: Siam and 

Terengganu in the Eighteenth Century," 

in Anuson Walter Vella, ed. Ronald D. 

Renard (Honolulu: Center for Asian and 

Pacific Studies, University of Hawaii at 

Manoa, 1986), p. 165; Ibrahim Syukri, 

History of the Malay Kingdom of Patani, 

tr. Conner Bailey and John N. Miksic 

(Athens: Ohio University Press, 1985), 

p. xiv. 

8 Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung Sayam 

(Bangkok: Kaona, 1964), pp. 133-35. 

9 Aung Thein, "Burmese Invasion of Siam, 

Translated from the Hmannan Yazawin 

Dawgyi," JSS, 5:1 (Bangkok, 1908: Kraus 

Reprint, 1969), 68. 

10 Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung Sayam, 

pp. 135-36. 

11 Sunait Chutintaranond, "Kabot Phrai 

Samai Ayudhya" [The Prai Uprising 

during the Ayudhya Period], in Sinlapa 

Watthanatham, 14:12 (October, 1983), 10- 

23. 

12 Thai rop Phama, p. 377. 

13 U Tin, Knnbaungzet mahayazawin dawgyi, 

vol. 1 (Rangoon, 1967) pp. 402-03; 

Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung Sayam, 

p. 637; and Vincentius Sangermano, A 

Description of the Burmese Empire (New 

York, 1969), p. 62. 

14 G.E. Harvey, History of Burma (London, 

1967), p. 253. 

15 Craig J. Reynolds, "Religious Historical 

Writing and the Legitimation of the First 

Bangkok Reign," ed. Anthony Reid and 

David Marr, Perceptions of the Past in 

Southeast Asia (Singapore: Heinemann 

Educational Books, 1979), p. 96. 

16 Prachum phleng yao chabap Hosamut haeng 

Chat [Collection of Songs] (Bangkok: 

Khlang Witthaya, 1964), p. 38. 

17 M. Turpin, History of the Kingdom of Siam, 

tr. B.O. Cartwright (Bangkok: American 

Presby. Mission Press, 1908), pp. 167- 

68. 

18 David K. Wyatt, "The 'Subtle Revolution' 

of King Rama I of Siam," ed. David 

K. Wyatt and Alexander Woodside, 

Moral Order and the Question of Change: 

Essays on Southeast Asian Thought (New 

Haven: Yale University, Southeast Asia 

Studies, 1982), pp. 13-14. 

19 Battye, op. cit., p. 1. 

20 Thaung Blackmore, "Burmese Historical 

Literature and Native and Foreign 

Scholarship," in History, Archaeological 

and Linguistic Studies, ed. F. S. Drake 

(Hong Kong, 1967), p. 313. 

21 Naret Naroprakorn, Suk Raman [The 

Mon Wars] (Bangkok: Odeon Store, 

1964), p. 7. 

22 Charnchai Wanwong, "Kansuksa 

songkram Thai rop Phama," p. 222. 

23 Ibid., p. 213. 

24 Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung Sayam, 

pp. 639-40, 645, and 661. 

25 "Prachum Phongsawadan phak thi 65, 

Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung 

Thonburi," Prachum phongsawadan lem 40 

(Bangkok: Kurusapha, 1969), p. 88. 

26 "Phraratchakamnot Mai" ("New Royal 

Orders)," Kotmai tra sam duang [Laws of 

the Three Seals], vol. 5 (Bangkok: 

Khurusapha, 1963), pp. 254-55. 

27 Prachum phleng yao, p. 15. 

25 Kamala Tiyavanich, "The Sangitiyavamsa: 

Legitimation, and the Early Formation 

of the Bangkok State," unpublished 

paper, p. 19; Somdet Phra 

Phonnarat of Wat Phra Chettuphon, 

Sangitiyavamsa: Phongsawadan ruang 

sangkhayana phra tham winai [A Chronicle 

of Buddhist Councils] (Bangkok, 

1923), p. 441. 

29 Sombun Suksamran, Wiwatthanakan 

udomkan chat thai kho-sangket buangton 

[The Development of the Ideology of 

Thai Nationalism: An Introductory 

Observation] (Bangkok: Khrongkan Thai 

Suksa, Chulalongkorn Mahawitthayalai, 

1984), p. 64. 

30 Prince Vajiranana, The Buddhist Attitude 

towards National Defence and Administration: 

A Special Allocution (translated 

into English by one of his disciples) 

(Bangkok, 1918), pp. 8, 14-15, and 19. 

31 Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung 

Sayam, pp. 147-313. 

32 Ibid., p. 154. 

33 Ibid., p. 149. 

34 Ibid., pp. 214-15. 

35 Phra kret bang prakan nai Somdet 

Phramahasommanachao Krom Phra 

Paramanuchit Chinorot [Some Accounts 

of Prince Paramanuchit Chinorot] 

(Bangkok: Rongphim Prayunwong), pp. 

129, 133, 150-151, and 166. 

36 Somdet Phra Phonnarat Wat Phrachetuphon, 

op. cit., pp. 408. 

37 Prachum phleng yao, p. 38. 

35 Sangermano, op. cit., p. 71. 

39 Thai rop Phama, pp. 487-527; Wyatt, 

Thailand, p. 142. 

40 Thai rop Phama, pp. 552-71, and 583-89. 

41 Suzanne Karples, "Notes on a Manuscript 

Relative to a Burmese Embassy 

to Cochinchina," JBRS, 42:2 (Dec. 1959), 

1-7; Sri Krishna Saxena, "Causes leading 

to the deputation of a Burmese 

political mission to the court of Cochin 

China (1822-1824) and its results," Bulletin 

de !'Ecole Fram;aise d'Extr€me Orient 

45:2 (1952), 573-79. 

42 Sam Keen, Faces of the Enemy, p. 13. 

43 Leonard E. Doob, Panorama of Evil: 

Insights from the Behavioral Sciences

101 

(London: Greenwood Press, 1978), p. 85. 

44 Ibid., p. 33. Sir John Bowring observed 

that "The retreat of a Siamese soldier 

before the enemy without orders of his 

chief is punishable with death." Sir John 

Bowring, The Kingdom and People of Siam, 

vol. I (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University 

Press, 1969), p. 479; "Phra Aiyakan 

Kabotsuk" (the law of preventing an act 

of usurping), in Kotmai tra sam duang /em 

4 (Bangkok: Kurusapha, 1962), pp. 128- 

148; "Phraratchaphongsawadan krung 

Thonburi lae Chotrnaihet raiwan thap 

samai krung Thonburi" Prachum 

phongsawadan /em 40 (Bangkok: 

Kurusapha, 1969), pp. 65, 74, 87, 100, 

102-03, 105, and 107; Thai rop Phama, 

p. 568. 

45 "The British annexation of the 

Tenasserim provinces blocked the main 

route by which Burmese armies formerly 

had attacked the Siamese capital 

and reduced Siam's security risk on its 

western flank, at least so long as Anglo 

Siamese relations were friendly." In 

Search of Southeast Asia: A Modem History, 

rev. ed., David Joel Steinberg 

(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 

1987), p. 116. 

46 Phraratchawichan nai chotmai khwamsongcham 

khong Phrachao Paiyikathoe 

Krommaluang Narinthewi [The Memoirs 

of Princess Narinthewi with Commentary 

by King Chulalongkorn] (Bangkok: 

Bamrungnukunkit, 1908), pp. 259-260. 

47 Harvey, History, p. 214; Phongsawadan 

Krung Sayam, pp. 600-02; Hmannan 

Mahayazawin Dawgyi, III (Mandalay, 

1963), pp. 378-84. 

48 Tej Bunnag, "The Provincial Administration 

of Siam from 1892 to 1915: A 

Study of the Creation, the Growth, the 

Achievements, and the Implications for 

Modern Siam, of the Ministry of the 

Interior under Prince Damrong 

Rajanubhab," Ph.D. diss., University of 

Oxford, 1968, pp. 75-76. 

49 Dhida Saraya, "The Development of the 

Northern Tai States from the Twelfth to 

the Fifteenth Centuries," Ph.D. diss, 

University of Sydney, 1982, p. 13. 

50 Wyatt, Thailand, p. 180. 

51 Dhida Saraya, op. cit., p. 13. 

52 Tej Bunnag, op. cit., pp. 77-78. 

53 Dhida Saraya, op. cit., pp. 13-14. 

54 Wyatt, Thailand, p. 181. 

55 Dhida Saraya, op. cit., p. 14. King Rama 

IV is the first king who spelled the name 

of his country "Siam," and his profound 

knowledge of Latin had him sign his 

kingly title as Rex Siamensis, meaning 

the king of the Siamese country. Pridi 

Bhanomyong, "Khwampenma khong 

chu 'Prathet Sayam' kap 'Prathet Thai' 

[From Prathet Siam to Prathet Thai]," 

Muang Baran, 11:2 (April-June, 1985), 13; 

see also Vilailak Mekharatana, 

"Pramuan khwamkhaochai kieowkap 

kham wa Sa yam," Muang Baran, 11:2 

(April-June 1985), 19. 

56 Dhida Saraya, Tamnan & Tamnan History: 

A Study of Local History (Bangkok: 

Office of the National Culture Commission, 

Ministry of Education, 1982), 

p. 91; Tej Bunnag, op. cit., pp. 85-124; 

Wyatt, Thailand, pp. 190-222. 

57 Sombun Suksamran, op. cit., pp. 121, 191, 

and 192. 

58 Wyatt, op. cit., p. 223. 

59 Ibid., p. 225, quoting from a speech by 

King Vajiravudh at his coronation in 

1991, published in The Souvenir of the 

Siamese Kingdom Exhibition at Lumbini 

Park B.E. 2468 (Bangkok, 1927; reprint, 

1976?), p. 167. 

60 Ibid., p. 229. 

61 Ibid., p. 253. 

62 In Search of Southeast Asia, p. 330. 

63 Phraratchawichan, pp. 1-4. 

64 King Vajiravudh, Rama VI, "Prayot 

haeng kan yu nai tham" [The Benefit of 

Living in Accordance to Dhamma], in 

Pramuan bot phraratchaniphon [Collection 

of His Majesty's Works] (Bangkok: 

Rongphim Sirisan, 1961), pp. 40-41. 

65 Luang Wichit Wathakan, Wichitwannakadi 

/em 1: bot /akhon ruang yai tangtae 

ph. s. 2479 tung ph. s. 2483 [Wichit's 

Literary works, vol 1: Theater Scripts, 

1936-1940] (Bangkok: Rongphim 

Phrachan, 1941), pp. 37, 101-08, 318-19. 

66 Dhida Saraya, Tamnan & Tamnan History, 

pp. 82-83 and 86. 

67 Ibid., pp. 86-87. Ayudhya is referred to 

in the Nan Chronicle as the "Southern 

Country" [Muang Tail : Prachum 

phongsawadan, pt. 10 (Bangkok: Kaona, 

1964), IV, 420. 

68 However, in 1939 the Phibun government 

decided to change the name of the 

country from "Siam" or "Sayam Prathet" 

to "Thailand," as suggested by Luang 

Vichit Wathakan. Pridi Bhanomyong 

"Khwampenma khong chu 'Prathet 

Sayam' kap 'Prathet Thai,"' p. 13. 

69 Dhida Saraya observes that there was a 

political reason underlying the incorporation 

of Sukhothai history into history 

of the Thai nation. Such incorporation 

was the impression which the 

grandeur of Sukhothai and King 

Ramakhamhaeng made on Rama IV. 

According to Sukhothai stone inscription 

No. 1 (now the subject of controversy), 

Sukhothai territories were extensive, 

covering a number of dominions 

and people of various races. This 

confirmed Rama IV's claim that various 

races and states were united under his 

sovereignty. Such a claim could be used 

against the claim of Western powers on 

the Siamese territories. The incorporation 

of Sukhothai in to the scope of "Thai 

history," however, originated the idea 

that Sukhothai was the first Thai kingdom, 

succeeded by Ayudhya and 

Bangkok. Through this belief the history 

of Bangkok and the sovereignty of 

Bangkok's kings could be traced as far 

back as the 17th century. Dhida Saraya, 

"The Development of the Northern Tai 

states," p. 15, and the same author's 

Tamnan & Tamnan History, pp. 89-90. 

70 Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, op. cit., pp. 

349-57, 577-82, see also, Dhida Saraya, 

"Mong prawatsat thongthin Thalang 

Phuket kan sang 'tamnan' kieo kap 

bukkhon samkhan lae kan subnuang 

khong prawatsat thongthin [An investigation 

on the local history of Thalang 

Phuket, the creation of "myth" concerning 

important leaders and the continuity 

of local history]" in Prawatsat 

thongthin [Local History] (Bangkok: 

Muang Boran, 1986). 

71 For an English summary of this chronicle 

see, Bowring, op. cit., II, pp. 341-63. 

72 Dhida Saraya, Tamnan & Tamnan History, 

p. 91. 

73 Phraratchaphongsawadan chabap Phraratchahatlekha 

/em 2, ton 1 lae 2 (Royal 

Autograph Chronicle, parts 1 and 2) 

(Bangkok: Odeon Store, 1952), part 1, p. 

484 and part 2, p. 3. 

74 The Heroism of Bang Rachan Village 

(Bangkok: Rongphim Sarnnak Thamniap 

nayok rattamontri, 1965); Wirachon khai 

Bang Rachan [The Heroes of Bang 

Rachan] (Bangkok: Rongphim Kan 

Satsana, 1976) and Ode to Ayudhya 

(Bangkok: Kaow-Par-Nee, 1984), pp. 

390-97.

102 

75 W.C. Dodd, The Tai Race: The Elder 

Brother of the Chinese (Cedar Rapids: 

Torch Press, 1923). 

76 Phraratchaphongsawadan chabap Phrarachahatlekha, 

lem 1, ton 1 (The Royal 

Autograph Chronicle, vol. 1, part 1) 

(Bangkok: 1952), pp. 53, 56-85, and 103. 

77 W.A.R. Wood, A History of Siam (London: 

Fisher Unwin, 1926), p. 7, cited by 

Dhida Saraya in "The Development of 

the Northern Tai States," p. 27. 

78 Luang Wichit Wathakan, op. cit., p. 33. 

79 Phraratchawichan, pp. 1-4. 

80 "Our Wars with the Burmese," JBRS, 38:2 

(1955), introduction; Thai rop Phama, pp. 

4-5 and 377. 

81 Ibid., p. (2). 

82 Ibid., pp. 349-57. 

83 See note 2. 

84 In 1928 the author of Lak Thai received 

an award from the Thai Royal Academy 

(Ratchabandit Sapha) for writing it, 

and most textbooks written for Thai 

schools were based on it. See Dhida 

Saraya, "The Development of the 

Northern Tai States," p. 28. See also, 

Khun Wichitmatra, Lak Thai (The Thai 

Basis), (Bangkok: Odeon Store, 1963), pp. 

143-44; Thai rop Phama, pp. 377-78. 

85 David K. Wyatt, The Politics of Reform in 

Thailand: Education in the Reign of King 

Chulalongkorn (New Haven: Yale University 

Press, 1969), pp. 102-03. 

86 The number of schools, teachers and 

students increased 200 percent after the 

year 1898. Briefly, there were 18 schools, 

29 teachers and 791 students before the 

mentioned year. However, it is evident 

that in 1898 and the following year there 

were 196 schools, 232 teachers and 5,682 

students found in Thailand. See also 

Wutthichai Munlasin, Kanpatirup 

kansuksa nai ratchakan thi 5 (Educational 

Reform in the Fifth Reign) (Bangkok: 

Samakhom Sangkhomsat haeng Prathet 

Thai, 1973), p. 148. According to David 

K. Wyatt, "The 350 schools and 12,000 

provincial elementary school students of 

1902 had grown by 1901/11 to 2,732 

elementary, 197 primary, and 6 secondary 

schools in the provinces with a 

total of nearly 70,000 students, and 

further expansion to nearly double this 

number of students in governmentsupported 

schools was to be reached by 

1916/17." Wyatt, The Politics of Reform 

in Thailand, pp. 372, 387. 

87 Wyatt, The Politics of Reform in Thailand, 

p. 366; Wutthichai Munlasin, op. cit., 

p. 96. 

88 Sombun Suksamran, op. cit., pp. 100, 105. 

89 Chao Phraya Phrasadet Surentharathibodi, 

Phonlamuang di ton klang (Good 

Citizen: the Mid-part) (Bangkok: 

Rongphim Akson Nithi, 1916), pp. 103, 

104. The same idea was also illustrated 

in a special allocution of Prince 

Vajiranana, who promoted a great improvement 

in the standards of religious 

provincial education and wrote many 

religious school texts. The prince, who 

at that time held the rank of Supreme 

Patriarch, stated that "The defence 

against external foes is one of the policies 

of governance, and is one that 

cannot be neglected. War generally 

occurs suddenly, and victory cannot be 

won solely by having a large number of 

men, arms, and munitions; it must also 

depend upon Presence of Mind (Sati), 

Knowledge (Pafifia), Bravery, Experience, 

Readiness in Commands, and 

good fighting positions, and so forth, in 

order to make victory certain. Therefore, 

war must be prepared for, even in 

time of peace, otherwise one would not 

be in time and one would be in a disadvantageous 

position towards one's 

foe." Prince Vajiranana, The Buddhist 

Attitude towards National Defence, p. 19. 

90 Khun Wichitmatra, op. cit., p. 143. See 

also Baep rian sangkhomsuksa wicha 

prawatsat chan matthayom suksa pi thi 2 

khong krasuang Suksathikarn [Text on 

history for junior high school students, 

level 2, of the Ministry of Education] 

(Bangkok: Khurusapha 1963), p. 61; 

Praphat Trinarong, Prawatsat Thai samrab 

chan mo. so. ton-plai fukha kru p.k.s. [Thai 

history for teachers' college students] 

(Bangkok: Samnakphim Udomsuksa, 

1964), pp. 5, 8. 

91 Thomya Sophonchit, Nathi phonlamuang 

samrap chan matthayom pi thi 4 tam laksut 

mai [The Duties of Citizens for the Junior 

High School Level] (Bangkok: 

Rongphim Lepachan, 1938), p. 34. 

92 Khun Wichitmatra, op. cit., p. 139. See 

also Phraya Ahan Borirak (Pung Chuto), 

Tamnan Thai sangkhep (A Summary of 

Thai Legends) (Bangkok: Rongphim 

Bamrungnukunkit, 1941), pp. 30-31, and 

Baep rian Sangkhomsuksa, pp. 38-39. One 

of the most influential works on King 

Naresuan written by Prince Damrong 

Rajanubhab is Phraprawat somdet phra 

Naresuan Maharat [The Life of King 

Naresuan the Great] (Bangkok: 

Khurusapha, 1960). It widely affected 

school textbooks and historical works 

concerning the life of this king. 

93 As Jack S. Levy describes it in one of 

his articles: "Nationalism has created the 

sense of a common interest in the nation, 

a concept of the national interest as the 

highest value, and an intense commitment 

to the well-being of the state. This 

commitment is strengthened by national 

myths regarding the omniscience and 

omnipotence of the nation and the 

congruence of one's national morality 

with a supranational ethic. Such myths 

and doctrines can be used by elites to 

advance their own view of the national 

interest or their own political interests, 

but, once created, these myths and 

doctrines take on a life of their own." 

Jack S. Levy, "Domestic Politics and 

War," in The Origin and Prevention of 

Major Wars, ed. Robert I. Rotberg and 

Theodore K. Rabb (Cambridge: Cambridge 

University Press, 1988), p. 91. 

94 Yot Watcharasathian, Khwampenma 

khong kanpraphan lae nak-praphan khong 

Thai [A history of Thai literary writing 

and novelists] (Bangkok: Phrae 

Phitthaya, 1963), pp. 71-104. 

95 Suphanni Warathon, Prawat kan praphan 

nawaniyai Thai tangtae samai ruamraek 

chon thung ph. s. 2475 [ A History of Thai 

Novels from the Beginning to the Year 

1932] (Bangkok: Charoanwit Kanphim, 

1976), pp. 185-87,198-99,220-21,227-28, 

242-43, and 254-55. More discussion of 

the history of Thai novels can be found 

in Yutthitsathian, Klet chak Adit [Pieces 

from the past] (Bangkok: Bamrungsan, 

1970), pp. 201-307. 

96 See further discussion of Luang Wichit's 

historical novels in Luang Wichitwathakan, 

Krung taek [The fall of A yudhya, 

1767] (Bangkok: Rongphim Rungruangrat, 

1971), and Chalieo Phensida, 

Luang Wichitwathakan lae ngan dan 

prawatsat [Luang Wichitwathakan and 

his work on history] (Bangkok: 

Bannakit, 1977), and Suphanni 

Warathon, op. cit., p. 243. 

97 Dhida Saraya, "The Development of the 

Northern Tai States," pp. 30-31. 

98 Mai Muangdoem is one of the most 

famous Thai novelists. He wrote many 

historical novels which have had considerable 

impact upon many writers of 

his following generation. He died at 

the age of 37. For more information see, 

Yot Watcharasathian, Manat Chanyong

103 

lae Mai Muangdoem (Bangkok: Sarnnakphim 

Kret Thai, 1977). 

99 Mai Muangdoem, Bang Rachan (Bangkok: 

Samnakphirn Bannakhan, 1968), pp. 

98, 124, and 152-53. 

100 Mai Muangdoem, Khun Suk, vo!. 1-10 

(Bangkok: Sarnnakphirn Bannakhan, 

1969). 

101 Prakat Watcharaphan, Prawat nakpraphan 

[Biographies of Novelists] (Bangkok: 

Phrae Phitthaya, 1973), pp. 277-85. 

102 Chinnawut Sunthonsima, "Panha 

khwam mankhong khong chat kap 

botbat khong kan songserrn phraphutthasatsana 

[The Problem of National 

Stability and the Role of Buddhism]," 

in Phra-Phutthasatsana kap 

khwammankhong khong chat [Buddhism 

and the Stability of the Nation] (Bangkok: 

Siwaphon, 1987), p. 119. 

103 Chong Supchakyong, Somdet phra 

Naresuan ton prakat itsaraphap lae triam 

kan su suk yai [King Naresuan's Declaration 

of Independence and Battle Organization] 

(Bangkok: Kasernsuwan, 

1971), p. 5.

THE WAT SRI CHUM JATAKA GLOSSES 

RECONSIDERED 

CHRISTIAN BAUER 

HUMBOLDT-UNNERSITAT ZU BERLIN 

The engravings at Wat Sri Chum, Sukhothai, featuring 

scenes from the Jatakas accompanied by descriptive 

glosses in Thai, have recently attracted renewed interest, in 

particular concerning their date, now assumed to belong to 

the late 14th century.1 

The engravings and their glosses were first published 

by Lucien Fournereau and edited posthumously by A. Barth, 

as the second volume of Le Siam ancien in 1908. 2 These were 

accompanied by transcriptions and translations by the 

Reverend Schmitt, identifications and summaries by Leon 

Feer, and reproductions of the engravings themselves. 3 In 

1972 they were published in Thai as volume V of the series 

Collection of Inscriptions; the documentation consists of photographs 

of the engravings, rubbings, and line drawings, as 

well as summaries of the Jatakas and transliterations of the 

inscriptions. 4 Revised readings of the glosses were published 

in 1985 as part of the comprehensive collection Inscriptions of 

the Sukhothai Period. 5 

Even were it not for the controversy surrounding the 

dating of the engravings, the Glosses [Sd. 32] deserve attention: 

they have never been linguistically examined in any 

detail, and their vocabulary has not been included in GISI. 

In spite of the formulaic style - consisting of the title, followed 

by bodhisattva 12.en [ ]6 'the Bodhisattva is [ ]', which 

is followed by a resume- the Jataka glosses at Wat Sri Chum 

provide a variety of vocabulary, some nowhere else attested 

in Sukhothai epigraphy. 

It has been argued that the Wat Sri Chum glosses 

show the greatest orthographic and lexical variation in the 

Sukhothai corpus; 7 but is this kind of variation due to lack 

of standardization - however defined - or due to the fact 

that the engravings were the work of several craftsmen? Or 

can variation be ascribed to interference from another vernacular 

language? 

The term 'standardization' warrants clarification.8 The 

Jataka glosses show marked standardization in the sense that, 

for instance, lA loans having retroflex consonants are consistently 

spelt in the Sri Chum glosses with their alveolar 

counterparts, except in the case of nasals where one finds 

the following five Jataka titles spelt with their etymologically 

correct retroflex consonants: 9 J2.U7Japani [3.1] (J. #53), r(o)hit~i 

[5.1] (J. #45), warut~idasaka [7.1] (J. #47), laJckhat~a [11.1] (J #11), 

bartf1JQSi [13.3-4] (J. #13). By contrast, four J ataka titles are spelt 

in their naturalized form; these are kiindi [12.1] < kat~flina (J. 

#13), tandala [26.1] < tat~flulanali (J. #5), kalakanni [46.1] < 

kalaka7J7Ji (J. #83), and 'apanna [58.1] < 'apa7J7Jaka (J. #1). 10 

There are only two words in Sd. 32 which attest to variation, 

the subordinate marker 'tin - 'ann and the quantifier dtiil 

-dailil, and only in one instance do we find variation in the 

same gloss: 14.3 shows, in the same line, 'an- 'ann; in all other 

cases in which multiple 'ann /'tin are attested, their spelling 

is consistent either way: 'ann in 5.2/5.4, 17.2/17.5, 33.4/33.5 

and 'tin in 41.6/ 41.7. dann occurs in 5.1, dan hlay in 15.3. 11 

In fact, internal variation is found only in glosses 4, 

15, and 24 with glosses 5-7, 9-12, 17, 18, 23, 26, 28, 29, 41, 51 

showing consistency in spelling with respect to the use of 

superscript -ti-. 

Before resuming any discussion about variation and 

standardization of orthographies, a clear notion about how 

sounds are encoded in a writing system is necessary. H.L. 

Shorto distinguishes between (i) allography, (ii) homography, 

(iii) hypergraphy, (iv) agraphy, and (v) discrepancies in (a) 

segmentation, (b) class and (c) the lexicon [including logograms, 

archaic spellings and etymological spellings of 

loans]. 12 His demonstration, applied to OM, can easily be 

transferred to epigraphic Thai [ETh.]: (i) allography affects 

the writing of certain long vowels in ETh. (ii) homography 

is well attested throughout Sukhothai in the case of /w/ and 

/i/, written i. Hypergraphy and cases of agraphy are not 

attested, although one might argue that the reduplication of 

final consonants to indicate short I a/ is a case of hypergraphyP 

(v) discrepancies in class are not attested in OM, 

but in Old Khmer as well as ETh. from which it has borrowed 

most of its spelling conventions, such as the writing 

of the diphthong /u~/ as -wa- and /i~/ as -ya-. 

In the following I will discuss variation affecting the 

lexicon, punctuation, tone marking, consonants, and vowels. 

Finally, parallels with Old Mon Jataka glosses will be drawn.

106 

1. Lexical variation 

We find variation in the use of the honorific bra11 < 

OI

107 

languiw -lagnuiw - lan(n)uiw MM 'some, certain' 

sanga 

fikan 

-sagild 

-kfian 

MM 'monk's robe' 

OM/MM 'to be firm' 

Sd. 32.23 follows this pattern -cii- < -fie-, < P. 

paficdwudha.18 It is likely that this kind of metathesis originates 

in an orthography where subscripts are distinguished, 

and therefore to have been borrowed from Mon. 

Metathesis also occurs in lA loans, such as 41.3 

banararaja < bararza·. 

3.2.3 Loss of aspiration 

In 24.4 Skt. 'adhi~thdna 'constancy' is spelt 'adisthdn. 

This is typical for OM(> 'adisthdn [OM 'to resolve'; OM Fr.Nag. 

9.ii]), where aspirated stops have a low functional load, especially 

voiced ones - the latter being confined exclusively 

to lA loans. Also vedabbha > wedapba [8], tipallatthamiga > 

tipallatamiga [33.1]. 

3.2.4 Non-etymological aspiration 

In two cases have unaspirated retroflexes been replaced 

by their aspirated alveolar counterparts, as in vattaka 

> watthaka [20], kaficanakkhar4a > ktincanakharmdha [24]. 

3.2.5 Naturalization of syllable-finals -sth- > -t # sath-, - 

s->·t#s- 

Skt. sre~fhi 'rich man' occurs in the Glosses four times, 

spelt in two different ways: (i) sretsathi [3.1; 5.2] and (ii) sresthi 

[7.2; 25.2]. The former case reflects assimilation of syllable 

finals, in this case -s > -t f-tf; the latter reflects the tendency 

towards etymological integrity, although it should be noted 

here too that retroflexes have been naturalized and therefore 

spelt with their alveolar counterparts. 

In gloss #10.3 stisata' has an uncertain etymology: P. 

sdsati, Skt. sdsati 'to instruct, teach', or, Skt. stistra, P. sattha. 

Reanalyzed as /sa:t # sarSa:./ from a hypothetical form sds # 

sati, or a hypercorrected form sdssati. 

3.2.6 Medial contamination 

The tendency to retain etymological integrity has - 

paradoxically - lead to erroneous reconstructions such as 

43.1-2 boddhi" < bodhi" and buddha. 

3.3 Finals 

3.3.1 Final reduplication 

Reduplication of final consonants occurs in 32.3 c~kk, 

and there it is written as a subscript, unique in the Glosses. In 

41.6 khetta and 28.7 brarhdatta reduplicated finals are etymological. 

In 4.4, 29.3 and 25.2, 33.5, 38.5, 41.5 /hua/and 

/tua/ respectively, final wa is not reduplicated but assumes 

a vocalizing role. The only cases of reduplication of finals in 

native words occur in pre-nasal contexts, such as 'ann and dailil 

- and in both cases variants written with superscript -ii- are 

attested in Sd. 32 - and in 23.3 before -y, in tawayy, in 

variation with more numerous occurrences with simple final. 

3.3.2 Loss of final syllables 

This is problematic and affects the transliteration of 

loans tentatively offered here and elsewhere: is Skt. sUa, P. sila 

to be interpreted in ETh. as sil or sila [3.3], to be reconstructed 

as *I si:l/, *I si:n/, or more likely *I si:la?/, in which case the 

transliteration of sila should be retained. 19 Skt. si~ya 'disciple' 

> ETh. sis /sisa [43.2]. Final lA -a is dropped in 38 khdradiya 

> khdradiya/khdradiy. 

3.3.3 Pseudo-etymological finals 

The following instances should be noted: 20 

8 

30 

36 

24 

"bbha 

"dha 

"ga 

"kkhatrfla 

>"pba 

>"tda 

>"kga 

> "khatrndha 

)) */-p/ 

)) */-t/ 

)) * /-k/ 

>> * /-n/ 

The problem of how to interpret syllabic finals in lA 

loans is similar to OM; as Shorto points out in DMI, p.xx, the 

variant forms OM 'indra- 'in 'lndra' and OM swarga- swar 

'heaven' are to be reconstructed as */?in/ and */swor/ [late 

OM] respectively. He proceeded in a similar fashion even in 

those cases where no corresponding naturalized spellings 

occurred. The Jataka title of 24, kaficanakkhatrfla, is spelt here 

ktincanakhatrndha, implying a phonological form 

*/ka:ncanakhan/; 21 therefore "dha must be regarded as a 

pseudo-etymological fina1. 22 This argument is further 

strengthened by the devoicing of final stops in the vernacular 

forms. The existence of pseudo-etymological finals also 

suggests that the engravers were familiar with an orthographic 

tradition in which subscripts were used. This correlates well, 

by the way, with the attested subscripts in 32.3, quoted above. 

3.3.4 Final glottal stop 

In gloss #24.2 sisaiJ /si:sa?/ 'head', P. sisa, Skt. Sir~a. 

The marking of the glottal stop I-? I as -~ points to a late date 

of Sd. 32. 

3.4 Initials 

Gloss 9.1 spells bheriwddaka as beri". Again, as in the 

case of medial aspirated stops (cf. 24.4 'adisthdn), this may be 

because aspirated stops have a low functional load in OM, 

and would imply at least acquaintance with OM orthographic 

spelling practices. The functional load of aspiration is significantly 

higher even in ETh. - prior to devoicing - than in 

OM. 

4. Vowel variation 

4.1 Vowel length 

In the Glosses variation in vowel length affects only 

the vowel i, and here conforms to Sukhothai practice. In 10, 

11, 18, 38 and 42 bodhi" is spelt bodhi". 23 In 11.2 sip< sip 'ten', 

and 4.5 si < si 'four'. 9.2 has ti for ti 'to strike, beat, hit'.

108 

4.2 Vowel conditioning 

Elsewhere I have discussed vowel conditioning in 

pre-palatal contexts in Mon and epigraphic Thai in such 

instances as ETh. prejfitibala (Nn. 1.A.19), Skt. prajfia and ETh. 

kartefiatti (Lb.38.A.16), Skt. krtajfia, P. katafifiutti. 24 In Sd. 32 

we find another instance, not noted earlier, in gloss 23.1 

eecfitiwuddha for eaficti'. The metathesis in this case has already 

been discussed above (4.2.2). In OM conditioned 

vowels in pre-palatal contexts are not confined to loans, 25 

and words such as OM kumlac - kamlec 'thief', srafi - srefi 

'silver', clac - clec 'flame-like ornament' are attested in the 

epigraphic corpus. 26 

4.3 Superscript -a. Ia/ 

As has been mentioned at the outset, variation in the 

writing of short I a/ by either reduplicating the final consonant 

or by using a superscript -a-, called in modern Thai 

"/ma:y han ?a:ka:t/", affects in Sd. 32 only three lexical items, 

as has been noted above, two of them grammatical markers, 

'ann - 'an and daiziz - dan, the other a loan from Skt. 

bodhisattva, P. bodhisatta, which are not attested anywhere else 

in Sukhothai epigraphy except in the glosses at Wat Sri Chum. 

In the latter case, three types of variation can be 

distinguished: 27 

Type 1 'at (3) 

Type 2b 'a twa (5) 

Type 2a 'a twa (2) 

Type 3a 'attwa (14) 

Type 3b 'attwa (17) 

Type 1 is a completely naturalized spelling; type 2 is 

a blend-type showing a naturalized final and type 3 represents 

an etymological spelling. Types 2a - 3a are unmarked 

assuming that inherent vowel in lA word is short /a/ automatically. 

Types 2b - 3b are marked to avoid Mon-type 

confusion: -a- may actually have originated as a convention 

created by Mon for Thai, where the inherent vowel- except 

before I-? I - corresponds, or had already shifted by that 

time, to /o/ corresponding to former /a/. SM /-at/ < 

pM */-a:t/, SM /-ot/ < pM */-at/, */-ut/. 

Elsewhere in the Sukhothai corpus we find the 

word Skt. sattwa, P. satta 'being', showing the following 

variation: 28 Ay.l.A.33 sattwa 1361 

Ay.l.B.10 sa twa 1361 

Sd.2.A.50 sat twa 1370s 

Sd.2.B.15, 16 sattwa 1370s 

Sd.17.A.11 sa twa 1373? -a- 

• #94.2 sattwa 1384 

Sd.26.A.40 sa twa 1399 -a- 

• Sd.10.B.21 satta 1404 

• Sd.25.35 satwa]J. 1417 -a- 

Kb.2.13.1 sa twa 1472/1510 -a- 

Sd.12.C.2 sa twa 1525 -a- 

Sd.12.C.3 sa twa 1525 -a- 

• Sd.28.B.22 sa twa 1528 

• Sd.28.B.27 sqJJoa 1528 

Sd.11.B.6 stf!._ 1536 -a- 

5. Naturalization of lA loans 

lA retroflexes are written uniformly as their corresponding 

alveolars, with the exception of the cases already 

listed above, ew:zaptini [3.1] (J. #53), r(o)hitzi [5.1] (J. #45), 

wtirutzidusaka [7.1] (J. #47), liikkhatza [11.1] (J. #11), btirti~;~asi 

[13.3-4] (J. #13), the latter having naturalized variants elsewhere 

in the Sd.32 corpus. lA voiceless palatal spirants, 

written §a, are spelt with their corresponding alveolars sa. 

No cases of hypercorrection in the spelling of lA loans are 

attested. In gloss 28.7 Thai (? Mon [?]) syllable boundaries 

have been retained in brarh datta /brom (?) # dat/ for 

brahmadatta, for which compare OM brum, brumha, bruhma; 

bram, brarhm, brarhha, brahma, reconstructed by Shorto in DMJ 

as */bmm/. 

6. Grammar 

In spite of their restricted style, the glosses permit 

one to make the following observations on early Thai syntax: 

6.1 Anaphoric 'ann - 'an 

All occurrences of 'ann - 'iin in Sd.32 are given in 

Figure 1. It will be noticed that in seven cases out of the 

total 28 'ann, 'an occur in clause or sentence-initial position 

marked in the gloss by a syntactic boundary, transliterated 

here as #; in gloss 26 it occurs at the beginning of the gloss 

itself (context A), and is to be interpreted there- preceding 

the deictic ni- as a noun. In only seven cases do 'ann- 'an 

mark a subordinate [relative] clause (context C): These fall 

into two groups, one in which the subordinate clause has a 

different subject (#17, #41, context C.2) and one in which the 

subject is co-referential with the one of the main clause. In 

those contexts in which 'ann - 'an do not mark relative 

clauses they rather function as anaphoric pronouns, such as 

in context B.l. Remarkable is the absence of the equative 

verb 'to be' J!.en in context B.2. Again, one might guess that 

this is a scribal error, but given the careful notation of other 

prosodic features this seems somehow unlikely. Another 

explanation is that 'an in this context may have been regarded 

as predicative 'that which is'. This has a parallel in 

Mon which will be discussed below in section 8.2. 

6.2 Honorifics 

It has been pointed out in section 1. on lexical variation 

that the use of the honorific bra~ varies in Sd.32. In 

this context it should be noted that the classifier for bral].fiti

109 

&c. is gan 'person' [17, 18], the classifier for humans, implying 

that honorific contexts were not distinguished, otherwise 

bralpiti would have been classified separately, and not by 

gan: [17.4-5] ke dtiw bra]Jfiti cet gan and [18.2-3] ke bra]Jfiti cet gan 

# '[preaching the Dhamma] to the seven Brana'. The absence 

of honorific classifiers has a striking parallel in Old 

Mon. 

6.3 Instrumentals 

Grammatically perhaps the most intriguing, yet unfortunately 

marred by being an uncertain reading, is the 

possible occurrence in 35.2 of the marker rza '[instrumental] 

with, by means of'. 29 If the reading is correct rza is undoubtedly 

a borrowing from Old Mon na - na' '[instrumental]'; 

how this would connect with later Thai rza marking 

the 'locative' remains to be determined. 

7. Dating 

Based on the orthography, most notably the occurrence 

of superscript -a-, Vickery concluded that the Wat Sri 

Chum glosses were to be dated rather late, implying by that 

the late 14th century. Following Prasert's hypothesis, according 

to which superscript -a- was used first only in /-arJ/ 

-ail- rhymes, then in other nasal rhymes [except -ani], and only 

subsequently to those environments containing obstruents. 

Gosling disputed this in her critique of 1988 arguing that 

superscript -a- occurred in rhymes containing obstruents by 

the mid-14th c., namely in the Wat Sri Chum glosses, and 

that spellings became more standardized towards the end of 

the 14th c.30 

The argument for a relatively late date of the Wat Sri 

Chum glosses has now been substantiated by Prasert's recent 

contribution; 31 his argument favouring a date later than 

1392 AD is two-fold: 32 the use of superscript -a-, as discussed 

above, and the palaeographical examination of the a~aras rza, 

lla, fa, ra, wa, sa, 'a as well well as anusviira and visarga. If 

visarga -I). is to be taken as encoding a final glottal stop-?, this 

would support a late date. There is only one occurrence of 

word-final -~ indicating a glottal stop - though not unique 

in the Sukhothai corpus - , e.g. sisa]J I si:sa? I. The earlier 

convention is reminiscent of Mon where final I-? I is marked 

by a -'a (vowel support, marked by viriima), or alternatively 

by -a, -i, -u in the contexts /-a?, -i?, -u?/ respectively. The 

absence of reduplication of finals, except for dailil and 'ann, 

both grammatical markers, would indicate a late date.33 

8. Old Mon Parallels 

8.1 Formulae 

The Wat Sri Chum glosses should be seen within the 

general context of Southeast Asian Jataka illustrations accompanied 

by glosses. 34 At Pagan, Central Burma [11th /12th 

c.], Jataka glosses written in Old Mon [OM] are documented 

on the Ananda plaques, and OM ink glosses occur in a 

number of temples. One can distinguish two basic types of 

glosses accompanying Jataka illustrations: (i) interpretivedescriptive 

glosses, and (ii) titles. Within the first group one 

could distinguish further types; also relative length of gloss 

correlating with narrative complexity in the illustration 

should be considered. The second group (ii) reveals similarities 

between the Pagan glosses and Sd. 32 at Wat Sri 

Chum, in particular the ink glosses at (i) West Hpetleik, (ii) 

the temple west of Taungbi tank and (iii) the west wall of 

the Lokahteikpan. These consist of the identification of the 

Jataka by title followed by the identification of the Bodhisatta. 

Sd. 32 follows this pattern, and is thus not exceptional when 

seen within a regional context. 35 Striking parallels between 

some of the Pagan glosses and Sd. 32 can be observed, as for 

instance in the following (Old Mon glosses from W. Taungbi, 

nos. 11 and 13 and Sd. 32.11 and Sd. 32.12): 

OM 11 # [ 1 lakkhana jtit bodhisat das dray tos 

dharmma ku dray gumluiil # 

Sd. 32.11 liikkhana jtitak # bra]J bodhisattwa ¥len kwtiil 

gam rap sip 'et le 

where the second clause (underlined) tos dharmma ku dray 

gumluiil 'preaching the Dhamma to the deers' has no counterpart 

in Sd. 32, 

or 

OM 13 # wo' garz#ka jat bodhi(sat das de) wattiw chu' 

pihtir k[u] rumba' c-eil dray# 

Sd. 32.12 kandi jtitak # bra]J bodhisattwa ¥len debatti nay 

¥Z.Ii gtini rap sip slim 

where the clause pihtir k[u] rumba' c-eil dray (underlined) 

'speaking to the other deer-hunters' and the initial deictic 

verb wo' do not occur in Sd. 32. 

Structurally parallel are also the use of Wat Sri Chum (#) 

meia ... 'when, at the time when; as [temporal]' in glosses 

(26.2), 46.1, 47.1, 49.1, 52.1, 54.2, 56.1, and 58.1 with the 

Ananda's # kill ... 'At the time, when'. 36 Apart from the 

Ananda plaques, structurally closest to the Wat Sri Chum 

glosses are those at the Myinpyagu, the Nagayon and the 

Pahtothamya, as shown in this typology of gloss-incipits: 

Myinpyagu 

Nagayon 37 

Pahtothamya 

W. Taungbi 

W. Hpetleik 

kill [NAME] jtit go]J ... 

wo' kill .. . 

wo' kill .. . 

. wo' [NAME] jtit ... 

bodhisat das ... 

'At the time of the [ 1 Jataka ... ' 

'This is when .. .' 

'This is when .. .' 

'This is the [ ] Jataka ... ' 

'The Bodhisatta is ... '

110 

Also striking, as I have pointed out elsewhere, are 

grammatical parallelisms, including subordinate clauses, in 

Old Mon and early forms of Thai, such as they occur in the 

glosses in the West Hpetleik or again the Ananda.38 

8.2 Anaphoric/deictic predicates 

In section 6.1 reference was made to ETh. 'ann- 'an, 

and it was suggested that some particular usages in the Thai 

corpus had correspondences in Mon. 39 Gloss 26 is unusual 

in that it begins with the clause 'an ni 

26.1 'an ni [-]i tandala jatak le (#) 

26.2 (meia) [b]odhisattwa Tlen [ 1 

26.3 [ Itt [ 1 (bra 

26.4 1]) fia brahmadhatl.a [ 1 

'This is the Tandiilana.Ji Jataka' 

'When the Bodhisattwa was [ ]' 

'[Brahmadha]tta [who ... ] 

'Brafia Brahmadhatta' 

'an ni ... corresponds in OM to wo' ['this is'] type glosses at 

Pagan. 40 In Figure 1 'ann - 'an in context B. 1 can be regarded 

as a deictic noun, although occurrences in context 

B. 2 suggest that it can also be interpreted as a verb. In OM 

we find similar constructions: 

I.A.27 # ma tirley pa kir 'im wo' ci # mu het yo # 

III.B.26-7 mu het (man) tirla' gruil 

Vlli.B.22 [# ma man kyak buddha byades] 

I.A.16 # ma strak tluil (mno)r 

'why did you smile thus, Lord?' 

'why was it that you laughed, Lord?' 

'that which the Lord Buddha foretold' 

"that which was to come thereafter" 

[Blagden] 

It is obvious that the OM equivalent of ETh. 'ann- 'an OM 

ma - ma' in I.A.27 functions as a cataphoric pronoun, ma 

being here co-referential with the following mu het 'why, 

which reason'. 41 A paraphrase occurs, in fact, in III.B.26-7 

mu het man 'why is that ...'.42 In VITI the subordination of the 

clause to ma by man suggests that ma is to be regarded as a 

nominalized element, very much like ETh. 'an in #26.1. A 

further example of such a constructions is attested in the 

Ananda plaques 

Ananda 

611/a gna kyek tu~al] ma tur 

'the queen shows [him] the flames' 

where there is no co-referential subject forma which could 

be rendered as 'shows [him] that which is .. .'. 43 

8.3 Prepositions 

Other parallels occur on the Ananda plaques featuring 

the construction 'to preach [the Dharma] to' OM tos (ku), 

ETh. desand ke - dessana ke-44 All occurrences of ETh. ke in 

Sd. 32 are given in context in Figure 2, where context A lists 

ke as a preposition proper and context B shows occurrences 

of ke as the translation equivalent of the genitive, with keto 

be glossed as 'on behalf of, for'. In OM we witness variation 

with respect to the use of the preposition ku [in this context] 

'to'. 45 

Anand a 

574 

791 

789 

779 

775 

tos dharrma ku smiil 

tos dhar ku smiil nag 

widhir tos dhar 

tos rajawasati 

kinkdl dhar ku smiil 

'preaches the Dharma to the king' 

'preaches the Dharma to the Naga king' 

'Vidhura preaches the Dharma' 

'preaches the Rajavasati' 

'explains the Dharma to the king' 

Sd.32 Wat Sri Chum 46 

15.2-3 dessand dharrma ke khau dan hlay 

16.2-3 dessana dharrma ke dan bral]fia 

18.4-5 dessana dharrma lee daw (b)ral]fia £et gan 

17.2-3 dessana dharrma te bral]fia £et gan 

14.2-3 desana dharrma ke bram 'preaches the Dharma 

to them' 

8.4 Plurality 

'preaches the Dharma to the Brafia' 

'preaches the Dharma to the seven Brafia' 

'preaches the Dharma to the seven Brafia' 

'preaches the Dharma to the Brahmin' 

Significant in this context appears to be also the use 

of a pluralized personal pronoun, not attested elsewhere in 

Sukhothai epigraphy, as quoted above in the gloss 15.2-3 

khau dan hlay 'they', which Schmitt translated freely as "[a] 

des villageois".47 khau dr1it hlay is attested elsewhere only in 

a quantified noun-phrase in Sd.10.B.16-17 [ 1 ... khau dr1it hlay 

f!_et gan 'all eight of them'. In OM personal pronouns [third 

person] are overtly marked for plural - as are nouns. OM 

t)el] [sing.] - tjel] t'el] [pl.], OM 'ja [sing.] - 'ja t'el] [pl.]; for the 

second person OM does have a singular I plural distinction 

in kurh [sing.], bel] [sing.], and bnal] [pl.]; but kulil is also attested 

in a pluralized form kurh t'e1]. 48 Examples occurring 

in the ink glosses on the Nagayon (1090), the Kubyaukgyi 

(1113) and the Hpetleik (West) are numerous: 

Nagayon 

15 'ut tjel] t'el] sak go' nail

111 

17 'ja t' e~ sak mic 

20 ku twas @e(~~ t 'e)~ kurh kurh 

21 twas @e~ t'e~ kurh kurh 

42 ... ma @e~ t'e~ pafi tiil(g)im 

'they were unable to do it' 

'they did not want to' 

'and their disciples also' 

'their disciples, too' 

' ... which they shot' 

Kubyaukgyi 

185 buhic @e~ t'e~ 

'frightens them' 

West Hpetleik 

1 @e~ t 'e~ tbdk jrey 

'they cut down a fig tree' 

In Gloss 3, however, plurality is unmarked. 

One might argue, of course, that plural marking in 

epigraphic Thai originated as a calque of Pali/Sanskrit usage; 

however, this is unlikely since there is no statistical 

correlation between use of plural marking in epigraphic Thai 

and Pali in the Sukhothai corpus. 49 

9. Palaeographical notes 

In addition to Prasert's observations, the following 

should be noted: 

9.1 Vowel loci 

Palaeographical variation occuring in the Wat Sri 

Chum glosses is of two kinds: (i) locus of attachment of 

vowel signs and (ii) morphology of a~aras and vowel signs. 

Both may be relevant for dating.50 

In the Glosses the medial vowels i, i are shown to be 

attached to -dha- [in bodhi ·, bodhi1 either to the left vertical as 

in glosses 10, 11, 18 and 28 or to the right vertical as in 38 

and 48. 

9.2 pa I QJl. 

Problematic in the Glosses are also the a~aras pa I ~· 

For the latter, together with m a Thai innovation not found 

in Mon and Khmer scripts, at least two variants can be found 

in Sd.32, a looped variety and a variety with an extended 

right vertical, without loop. Figure 5c shows how ~ is 

derived from pa, by first writing pa and then extending the 

vertical. 51 m glosses 12.2, 28.3, 5 and 30.2 pen 'to be [equative]' 

an extended vertical is not visible, and should therefore be 

read as pen; in other instances, such as 29.2, ~is written in 

the looped variety, or in 10.2 and 31.2 without the loop but 

with the extended right vertical. It is difficult to say whether 

these variants are spelling variants controlled by the engravers; 

in gloss 42 ~ and pa are clearly distinguished, as in 42.4 

~au and 42.5 pita. 

9.3 Punctuation 

Noteworthy is the variety of styles of punctuation 

marks as well as their positioning. The punctuation marks 

and their contexts for Sd.32 are given in Figure 3.52 Palaeographically 

three styles and two types can be distinguished: 

The styles consist of (1) a wavy line, from left to right at the 

beginning, from right to left at the end of a gloss, (2) a circle 

with a small inner circle [28], (3) a mark reminiscent of Khmer 

[6], and (4) two parallel vertical strokes [5]. In 18.3 one finds 

a pada - two parallel vertical strokes - instead of the circle. 

All types, with the exception of (3) are also attested in 

monumental inscriptions and votive tablets in Mon. 

9.4 Text wrap 

Complete text wrapping- that is, lines and segmentation 

of a~aras, irrespective of their phonological boundaries, 

following the constraints of the pictorial space - occurs 

in glosses 33 and 34 (Jii.takas 16, 17) whereas in glosses 18, 17 

(Jii.takas 22, 23) and 9, 41, 51 (Jatakas 57, 58, 59) the text 

appears as a non-wrapped block. Exceptional is gloss 1 which 

appears outside the pictorial frame. 

9.5 Adjacency 

Apparent variation can be further reduced when 

adjacency of plaques is taken into account; in other words, 

plaques which are positioned next to one another are less 

likely to show variation among themselves but only with 

other sets. 

1 0. Conclusion 

We still know too little about epigraphic Thai orthographic 

systems in order to discern any notion of 'standardization'.53 

The limited variation that is attested in Sd.32 

can be ascribed to lexical discrepancies in Shorto's typology, 

affecting only two grammatical markers and the lA loan Skt. 

bodhisattwa, P. 'satta, apart from Jataka titles. Vocabulary of 

undoubted Tai or Mon-Khmer origin is not subject to variation 

in the glosses, except in the cases of ~ay I ~ai, ba I ba', 

pa I pa' and tone-marking. 

In the case of inscriptions from Sukhothai in the 14th 

to the 15th centuries - and perhaps even later - the problems 

in the interpretation of early writing systems are compounded 

not only by the ongoing process of phonological, 

lexical and grammatical innovation but also - and perhaps 

more importantly - by interference from another language, 

in this case Mon.54 

However, if second language interference must be 

assumed in some inscriptions, it may prove difficult in those 

cases to serve as "chronological benchmarks". 

In the case of the Jataka glosses from Wat Sri Chum, 

variation can also be accounted for by the fact that the glosses 

are the work of several engravers.

112 

NOTES 

Abbreviations: 

BBHC 

BSOAS 

CI 

GISI 

ISP 

JBRS 

JSS 

SSN 

Bulletin of the Burma Historical 

Commission, Rangoon 

Bulletin of the School of Oriental 

and African Studies, London 

[Collection of inscriptions] Bangkok, 

The Secretary of the 

Prime Minister's Office. Vol. 

v ([Wat Sri Chum Jataka 

glosses]1972). (in Thai) 

A glossarial index of the Sukhothai 

inscriptions, compiled by Ishii 

Yoneo, Akagi Osamu and 

Noriko Endo, Kyoto University, 

Center for Southeast 

Asian Studies (Discussion 

Paper 53), 1972, reprinted by 

Shoukadou, Kyoto, in 1977; 

a new version, based on a 

substantially enlarged corpus, 

was published in 1989 

by Ishii Yoneo, Nidhi 

Aewsrivongs, Akagi Osamu, 

Aroonrat Wichienkhiew, and 

Noriko Endo, Bangkok, 

Amarin, adding entries from 

another 17 inscriptions. 

[Inscriptions of the Sukhothai period]. 

Bangkok, Fine Arts Department, 

1985 (in Thai). 

Journal of the Burma Research Society, 

Rangoon 

Journal of the Siam Society, 

Bangkok 

Siam Society Newsletter, Bangkok 

Languages: 

(E)MM (Epigraphic) Middle Mon 

EMKhm. Epigraphic Middle Khmer 

EOM Early Old Mon 

ETh. Epigraphic I Early Thai 

LM modern literary Mon 

LOM Late Old Mon 

OKhm. Old Khmer 

OM Old Mon 

SM modem spoken Mon 

Transliteration: The system used here is 

derived from Blagden-Shorto for Mon; in 

Thai the vowel support is transcribed as ' 

syllable-initially, as d medially when denoting 

/o:/ -in analogy to Middle Mon 

rhymes -ali, -dk. 12!! and tl! transcribe the 

a~ras for the respective voiceless plosives 

/p-/ and /t-/, whereas their imploded 

counterparts are transcribed here as pa and 

ta (

113 

sis, 1978. 

8 Gosling, 1988, op. cit., p. 7: "I find it 

hard to believe that these inconsistencies [sc. 

in the spelling of bodhisattwa] could have 

occurred at Sukhothai at the end of the 

fourteenth century, when efforts towards 

standardization are apparent." 

9 A fact that has helped Prasert to determine 

the relative date of the Sri Chum 

glosses. 

10 I am tempted to reconstruct for glosses 

26 and 58 *tandu:l/*tandu:n and *?apan 

respectively. The reconstruction of *-1 in 

gloss 26 is based on the possibility that some 

of the glosses may have been written by 

Mon. This is discussed below. One might 

counterargue that the phonological context 

to be taken into account is ttJndulajtitak 

*tandu:laJa:dok, whence -Ia instead of the 

expected -na; similarly for 'apannajtitak 

"?apana1a:dok. 

11 Notice that in gloss 15 one finds variation 

in the spelling of final nasals diiil and 

'ann. 

12 'The interpretation of archaic writing 

systems', Lingua XIV, 1965, 88-97. 

13 Hypergraphy in OM is illustrated by 

pum- initials where no equivalent form pmexists. 

The same may be applied to Old 

[Angkorian] Khmer clusters such as thw-, 

spellings which encode junctura! aspiration, 

where no tw- initials exist. Agraphy includes 

cases such as OM -i in an 

orthographically 'open' syllable corresponding 

to the rhyme /-i?/. Through extant 

alternative forms such as i' as well as 

corresponding forms in modern dialects 

*I-i? I must therefore be reconstructed. 

14 Tone marking is the most problematic 

of the topics discussed here since the tone 

marks, especially + for the C tone, are in 

many cases hardly legible. 

15 In some instances the presence or absence 

of tone marks may be correlated to 

such factors as sentence stress. 

16 While some aspects of prosodic marking 

appear to be unique to Sd.32 - such as 

' following ti- variation in tone marking is 

not confined to the Wat Sri Chum glosses; 

for example, other Sukhothai inscriptions in 

which no C tone mark is found include Br.l I 

#107 (1339), Nw.2 /#11 (1361), #44 (1373), 

gold plate (1376), and Sd.15 /#45 (1392). The 

foregoing should be treated with caution: 

the Sukhothai corpus has not been critically 

edited yet, and, as stated, above prosodic 

marks in Sd.32 are difficult to discern. 

17 Cf. DMI, p. xvi. 

18 This form is erroneously transliterated 

in all published sources, including CI V and 

ISP, as paiictiwuddha or pefica·. This is the 

more surprising as Schmitt transcribed the 

form in Fournereau as pechya·. 

19 BSOAS LVI, 3, 1993. Note, however, that 

'head' is spelt sisa~ for */si:sa?/, where 

-}J. marks final glottal stop. 

20 The left-most column lists the etymological 

finals, the second column the actual 

form attested in Sd.32, and the right-most 

column the phonological reconstruction. 

21 The assumed final I-n/ is reduplicated, 

following short /a/, in accordance with 

early orthographic practice at Sukhothai, as 

an alternative for the comparatively later 

I -iin. Apart from variation in vowel length, 

note also that the first mediocluster has been 

naturalized -ftc-/ -pc-1>-nc-/ -nc-/. 

22 Pseudo-etymologil::al insofar as the correct 

final ought to be ·ra. 

23 Again, line transcriptions in CN cannot 

be relied upon, transcribing i in glosses 10 

and 11 as i. 

24 BSOAS LVI, 3, 1993. Shorto proposes as 

an explanation for this orthographic device: 

"The writing of e before palatals presumably 

results from an attempt to note a terminal 

glide", reconstructing 12th c. OM:> for 

this vowel, cf. DMI, p. xviii. 

25 Tai languages lack final palatals; their 

occurrence thus marks words as loans. 

26 In addition to lA loans such as OM trijas 

- trejas, Skt. tejas 'glory of king' where the 

etymological vowel e is raised to i, kot~f/.afi - 

kut~fiiii, P. kot~f/.afifia 'Fifth of the 28 Buddhas', 

jeyabhum, jeyyalekha < Skt. jaya· 'victory'. 

27 The figure given in parenthesis shows 

the number of times the spelling is attested 

in Sd.32. 

28 Items preceded by • provide counterevidence 

against the hypothesis according 

to which ETh. spellings of Skt. ·sattwa, 

P. ·satta underwent standardization and 

were uniformly spelt with superscript -ii- by 

the late 14th c. Cf. E.M.B. Gosling 'On 

Michael Vickery's "From Lamphun to Inscription 

2"', SSN IV, 1, 1988, 5-7, and M. 

Vickery 'From Lamphun to Inscription No.2', 

SSN III, 1, 1987, 2-6 [lecture delivered 14 

October 1986]. Vickery also proposed that 

the origin of the Thai superscript -ii- is to be 

sought in an earlier superscript -n-. The use 

of superscripts -n- and -r- is widely attested 

in epigraphic Mon in disyllabic words of 

the structure cvhcvc where h is written 

as a superscript. The latter's use is not systematic 

in OM, and both lA loans and OM 

words may be written either way; the OM 

infix [-r-1 may be written either way. In 

MM superscript -n- is prevalent. Prasert's 

method of using superscript -ii- for the 

relative dating was published [in Thai] in 

the Bunrueang J;ta Nagara cremation volume 

of 1971, pp. 52-58 [on superscript -iip. 

54]. It has since been independently 

confirmed by Ing-orn Supanvanit in The 

development of the Thai script and orthography 

[in Thai], Bangkok, Chulalongkorn University, 

1984, quoted neither by Vickery nor by 

Gosling. In addition Gosling refers to Sd.18 

[#106] as having superscript -ii- in obstruent 

rhymes; this occurs only in the Khmer loan 

snap 'to support', here Sd.18. B.20, and 

Sd.37.18 [#95], in [FAD reading] saniip jein 

GIS!: "trousers?, sandals?"; not having examined 

the original - inscriptions at the 

National Museum, Bangkok, are currently 

in storage, except Sd.32.18 - one might 

speculate that the transcription of superscript 

-ii- is the result of a misreading of the looped 

variety of pa, transliterated here as ll.a, 

modern Thai /p/, and should be interpreted 

as sanall. instead of saniip. For the looped 

variety of pa see Ing-orn, op.cit., p. 446 and 

p. 721. It should be noted that Gosling's 

argument of superscript -ii- being uniformly 

spelt by the late 14th c. but occurring in 

obstruent rhymes earlier and with greater 

variation than the late 14th c. is based only 

on data extracted from an earlier edition of 

GIS!. A synopsis listing cross-references for 

the earlier inventory numbers and the current 

registration numbers is published in 

BSOAS LVI, 3, 1993, [in press]. 

29 IJa is documented in the earlier FAD 

readings, without having sollicited any 

editorial comment. 

30 Gosling 1988, op, cit., "[ ... ] in the last 

half of the fourteenth century, [ ... ] there 

were increasing attempts at standardization" 

(p. 7), "[ ... ]at the end of the fourteenth century, 

when efforts towards standardization 

are apparent" (ibid.), "To me, the Jataka [sic] 

inscriptions represent a transitional stage 

between that earlier, probably more chaotic 

orthographic period and the late fourteenth

114 

century, when spelling was becoming more 

standardized" (ibid.). 

31 See the reference given in footnote 1; 

although Vickery, like Gosling, relied on the 

earlier erroneous FAD readings, the main 

thrust of his argument was based on the use 

of superscript ..Q.., again taken up by Prasert 

in his most recent 1991 analysis. 

32 Prasert also adduces other historical arguments 

for his claim that Sd.32 glosses 

must have been engraved after 1392. 

33 Previous opinion, such as Gosling following 

Boisselier, favoured a date close to 

the mid-14th century; Boisselier stated in his 

La peinture en Thai1ande, Fribourg, Office du 

Livre, 1976: "La serie, parfaitement 

homogene, peut etre attribue, environ, au 

milieu du XIVe siecle" (p. 42) and" ... [une] 

date qui s'accorderait d'ailleurs assez bien 

avec celle admise pour la construction de 

Wat Chedi Chet Theo, la regne de Lii Thai 

(1347-1374 env.)" (p. 75). 

34 Cf. Charles Duroiselle Epigraphia 

Birmanica, Volume II, Rangoon, Superintendent, 

Government Printing, 1921, reprinted 

1962, and G.H. Luce 'Pall and Old 

Mon ink glosses in Pagan temples', ]BRS, 

LVIII, 2, 1975, 119-280, Ba Shin The 

Lokahteikpan - Early Burmese culture in a 

Pagan temple. Rangoon, Rangoon University 

Press (=Burma Historical Commission) [Mon 

ink glosses on north, east and west wall, 

reproduced here in modern Mon script, 

transliteration and English translation; 

glossary of OM words; appendices A and B 

by G.H. Luce], and G.H. Luce and Ba Shin 

'Pagan Myinkaba Kubyaukgyi temple of 

Rlijakumar (1113 AD) and the Old Mon 

writings on its walls', BBHC II, 1961 

[1965], 277-416. Of the Myinpyagu glosses 

only the longer ones are transcribed in Luce 

1975, pp. 237-9, so I do not know whether 

there are more parallels to Sd.32 in Pagan 

than referred to here. 

35 The earliest vernacular gloss in Mon 

identifying an illustration [6th. c.] was recovered 

from a site in Central Thailand; d. 

JSS, LXXIXX, 1, 1991, 31-83. This is an 

amulet-type object, inscribed on the obverse 

in Old Mon, from Chansen, Nakhorn Sawan 

province. It is remarkable, however, that 

the Mon sima stones from Northeastern 

Thailand [8th I 9th c.], illustrating scenes 

from the Jiitakas, are not accompanied by 

glosses, but bear inscriptions relating to the 

donor; d. JSS, LXXIX, 1, op. cit., and Piriya 

Krairiksh "Buddhist folktales depicted at 

Chula Pathon Chedi", Bangkok, Prachanda 

Printing Press [printed privately], 1974, 

and his "Semas with scenes from the 

Mahdnipata-]atakas in the National Museum 

at Khon Kaen", in Art and Archaeology in 

Thailand, Bangkok, Fine Arts Department, 

1974, 35-36+26 ill., Surasawadi ltharat fllustrated 

Sima stones from Ban Kut Ngong, 

Chaiyaphum [in Thai], Bangkok, Silpakom 

University, BA thesis, 1978. 

36 Attested on the Ananda in the following 

14 glosses: 542, 565, 567, 571, 586, 589, 623, 

625, 629, 632, 637, 649, 664, 667. Titles only 

(20 times) occur on plaques 544, 545, 547, 

552, 559, 561, 666, 668, 669, 672, 673, 674, 

675, 676, 679, 680, 681, 683, 838, 851. All 

other glosses contain a verb-phrase. 

37 wo' kdl ... accounts for most, though not 

exclusive, occurrences; the same applies to 

the Pahtothamya. 

38 BSOAS LVI, 3,1993. 

39 Subordinate I relative clauses in epigraphic 

Thai and Mon are discussed in BSOAS 

LVI, 1993, 3, and JRAS ill. 1, 1993. 

40 ji 'to name; be called, named', if the 

reading of ji is correct - the preferred 

reading is gi 'to be, namely', but either 

reading cannot really be proven - it would 

be stylistically unusual to have 'to be named' 

in a formula style gloss. Although OM wo' 

is a predicative deixis, or rather a deictic 

verb, it can function as a noun as well. For 

details on wo' see JSS LXXIX, 1, 1991 

[1992]. 

41 OM mu etc., relative question particle 

'which, what', OM het 'reason, cause', P. hetu. 

42 OM man is another clause-subordinating 

particle, in many ways functionally and 

structurally identical with ma, ma', but not 

identical; exceptionally, both may be combined, 

as in vm, as quoted. 

43 OM tu~a~ 'to show'. 

44 OM tos 'to preach' is the equivalent of 

desand, dessand in Sd.32; OM kiilkal 'to explain'. 

45 Other verbs occurring in the Ananda 

glosses showing variation are bi~at 'to try, 

test' 566, 692, 785; bi~t ku 546, 550, 551, 553, 

554, 555, 556, 557, 558, 732. gulafi 'to talk' 572, 

613, 626, 643, 717, 729, 758, 770, 771, 819, 

846, 867. kil 'to give' 649, 651, 652, 655, 690, 

776, 794, 800, 801, 802, 815, 826, 827, 831, 

833, 836, 852, 872, 880, 895, 918; kil ku 760 761; 

kil na BOB; kil tun 897; kiilkan, "nkan 'to instruct' 

745, 599; kiilkan, "nkan ku 713, 728a, 

757. No variation occurs with kinkdl, "al 'to 

explain' 875, 775; wifi ku 'to play' 577, 653; 

the following verbs occur only once: jin ku 

'to make over, donate' 723; mflac ku 'to be 

angry' 712; pubar ku 'to show' 727; sthdn ku 

586. In 774, 822, 909 OM ku is a connective 

'and'. 

46 In Sd.32.17.2-3 te may be a misreading 

or scribal error for ke. 

47 In Fournereau, op. cit., p. 71. 

48 For the etymology of *-eh, probably an 

AA deictic term, see DMJ, t'e}J.. 

49 If this were the case, one should expect 

the incidence of plural marking in Thai to 

be higher in bi-lingual Thai-Pall inscriptions 

than in monolingual inscriptions; yet, this is 

not borne out by the data. 

50 The terminology used follows, or is 

based on, A.H.D. Dani, Indian palaeography, 

Oxford, Clarendon, 1963; Dani does not 

cover Southeast Asian scripts later than the 

lOth c. 

51 Notably in gloss 18. 

52 Context A: plaque-initial; B.1: lefinal; B.2: 

plaque-final; C.1: gam without 'ann, 'iin; C.2: 

before 'iin without (len; C.3: before 'ann, 'iin 

(len; D: end without number, or fragment; 

E.1: before meia; Context E.2: following the 

}iitaka title. 

53 We do not even possess, in contrast to 

Old Mon and Old Khmer, an epigraphic 

dictionary with lemmata shown in their 

original spelling; only then can spelling 

variation be properly assessed. Standardization 

can only be identified if phonetic and 

etymological spellings are identified and 

when more is known about internal sound 

changes and the dialectology of the language 

at the time. 

54 It may be a truism that early Thai (14th 

to the 15th c.) was in contact with Khmer in 

the region of what is now upper central 

Thailand but it remains to be determined to 

what extent Khmer influence went beyond 

lexical borrowing. Structural convergence 

that can be identified in the Thai inscriptions 

is Mon; d. BSOAS, LVI, 3, 1993.

115 

Context A: Gloss-initial 

2601. 

ni [ -1i tand ula 

Context Bo1 

41.7 

37.4 

304 

3807 

1603 

2406 

2307 

4003 

17.5 

2002 

1504 

3503 

703 

504 

604 

1803 

I 'au pa mi tai 

nay --- ra hi/ 

cam sila ha/ 

nile/ 

ke dan bral).iia 

'au rna reian tai 

'hen tan# 

1 mitthila nagara 

I ral).iia cet gan 

12en paro /[ 1 

dan Way# 1 

[----m--t1 

12ai[ 1[ 1# 

san nile 

than mai seip # 

cet gan # 

'an 

'an 

'an 

'an 

'ann 

'ann 

'ann 

'ann 

'ann 

'a(n)n 

'ann 

'ann 

'ann 

'ann 

'ann 

'ann 

12en I gam rap cet 

12en gam ra(p) 

12en gam rap I 

12en gam I (rap) 5 

I 12en gam rap 

I 12en gam rap ha 

I 12en gam rap sip 

12en I gam rap san 

12en I gam rap iii 

12en gam (rap) s- [ ] 

12en gam rap # 19 # 

12en gam rap 20 ( ) 

12en gam rap ce(t) 

12en gam rap ha le # 

12en gam rap hak # 

12en gam rap iii sip 

Context Bo2 

1004 

2702 

satsata' # I 

ja/tak 

'an 

'an 

gam rap sip # 

gam ra/p hak # 

Context C.1 

3804 

33.4 

502 

ke I neia 

ke fun neia 

I 12en sretsathi 

'an 

'ann 

'ann 

12en lun I ke neia 

12en lun - ni le 

12en cau ke I kha 

Context C.2 

1403 

41.6 

1702 

3502 

Ike bram 

gwa/m [-Jay 

0 0 ohi(sa)ttwa }2.en rna' 

fu(n) liii. 

'an 

'an 

puja fai -- 'ann pen 

cakhe cak I 'au pa 

'a(n)/n rna (man)gal 

'ann tai [----m--t 

Context D: Fragment 

203 

[ 1 I --wwa- 'ann ---- 1 --- an # 

Figure 1: ETho 'ann - 

'iin in context [Sdo32]

116 

Context A 

14.3 desana dharrma I ke bram 'an puja fai -- 

18.2 dessana dharrma ke bral)iia I cet gan 

16.3 dessana dharr I rna ke dan bral)iia 'ann 

17.4 d[e]ssana dharrma ke daw b/ral).ii.a 

15.3 dessana dharrma ke khau dan hlay # I 

Context B 

35.1 p,en bral)iia ke ru/(Ii.) 1m 'ann 

33.3 I p,en bral).na ke ru/Ii. neia 'ann p,en 

38.3 I p,en bral).ii.a ke I neia 'an p,en luil 

17.3 p,en rna (mail)gal ke bral).ii.a I 

38.5 'an p,en luil I ke neia taww ta/Ii. 

5.2 'ann p,en cau ke I kha me luk 

34.2 bod/ dhisatwa p,en rsl ke p/risna raja 

Figure 2: ETh. ke in context [Sd.32]

117 

Context A 

4301 

601 

17.1 

13.1 

41.1 

2701 

31.1 

1201 

2801 

16.1 

5301 

11.1 

401 

29.1 

3001 

5701 

10.1 

701 

34.1 

# 

# 

# 

# 

# 

# 

# 

(#) 

# 

# 

# 

# 

# 

# 

# 

# 

# 

# 

# 

'assatamala ja'k (b)ral} 

'aramdusaka jatak 

(g)au(j)janiya jatak bra!} 

(w)atamigga jatak I 

ban[ l/k 

debadharhma ja/tak 

gamma' ni jatak bra!} 

kandi jatak bra!} 

katththahari jata/ka 

kukkilra jatak bra!} 

kutdhala jata(k) [ l 

lillhal)a jatak # bra!} 

millasa jatak bra!} 

millhadeba jatak # 

nigrotdha jatak bra!} 

saram- jatak -- [ l 

sukkhawihara ja'tak # 

warul)idilsaka jatak 

[ l (jatak) bod/ dhi. 0 0 

Context Bo1: le marked by sentence-boundary (plaque-final) 

3o5 

1102 

504 

garh rap I sam le # 

garh rap sip' et le # 

garh rap ha le # 

Context Bo2: 

1004 

1504 

204 

41.8 

1203 

13.5 

2703 

1706 

1803 

1604 

1504 

604 

405 

21.4 

plaque-final 

'an garh rap sip # 

'ann 12-en garh rap # 

----- 1 --- an. # 

I garh rap cet # 

garh I rap sip sam # 

garh I rap sip si 

garh ra/p hak # 

garh rap fti sip sam # 

garh rap fti sip si # 

garh rap fti sip san # 

12-en garh rap # 19 

12-en garh rap hak 

12-en garh rap si 

[ ] I (ra)p hak 

19 # 

Context C.1: Gloss-final 

13o4 

2204 

oooo/l).asi ba raja # 

ba/ (k)i(n) (p)la # 

garh I rap sip si # 

garh rap sa/m sip 


1003 

ji gru sa tsa ta' # 

I 'an garh rap sip 

Figure 3: Graphically marked sentence-boundaries # in Sdo32 in context

118 


23.7 I hen tan # 'ann I 1?-en gam rap 

7.3 I?.ai [ ]/[ ] # 'ann 1?-en gam rap ce(t) 

18.3 I cet gan # 'ann 1?-en gam rap fii sip 

6.3 lift than mai seip # I 'ann 1?-en gam rap 

15.3 ke khau dan hlay # I 'ann 1?-en gam rap # 

Context 0: Gloss-closing 

57.3 waww Ira [ ] # 

28.7 I bramdatta # 

30.3 ji niglrotdha # 

31.3 grii dan bral].fia # 

43.3 cay I me dan # 

Context E.1: Title-closing 

46.1 kalakanni jatak # meia bodhisattwa I [ 

47.1 I [ 1 jatak # meia bodhisat[-] I [ 

Context E.2: Title-closing 

10.1 sukkhahawithara ja'tak # bral}. I bodhisatt ... 

11.1 # lakkhal).a jatak # bral}. bodhisattwa I 

19.1 (mauranacca) jatak # bral}. boldhisattwa [ 

22.1 I baka jatak # bral}. b(o)dhil(sa)ttwa 

25.1 I culaka jatak # bodisattwa 1?-en I 

29.1 makkhadeba jatak # bral}. bodhisatlwa 

32.1 I (tittha jatak) # bral}. bodhil sattwa 

39.1 dummedhajatak # bral}. I bodhisattwa 

40.1 culajanaka jatak # bral}. I bodhisat[-1 ... 

Figure 3: Graphically marked sentence-boundaries # in Sd.32 in context

No. Sd.32 Title lines ISP CIV Fournereau Jataka 

Index [vernacular 1 page page page no. plate rubbing 

1 mahtisilawa 4 393 83C 95-7 37 XXV.4 63 51 

2 [kap_o!a] 4 394 63C 83-85 28 XXIII.l 54 42 

3 p_unap_ani 5 395 103 108-9 39 XXVI.2 65 53 

4 mikkasa 5 396 68 86-7 30 XXIII.3 56 44 

5 rohil:zi 4 397 70 88-9 31 XXN.1 57 45 

6 'aramadusaka 4 398 71 89-90 32 XXN.2 58 46 

7 warurzidusaka 3 399 73 90-91 33 XXN.3 59 47 

8 [wedapba] 3 400 74 91-2 34 XXV.1 60 48 

9 beriwtitda 3 401 115D 116-7 44 XXVIII.2 71 59 

10 sukkhawihtira 4 402 22 61-2 9 XV.1 27 10 

11 liikkharza 2 403 26 63-4 11 XVI.1 29 11 

12 lalndi 3 404 19 60-1 8 XIV.2 23 13 

13 watamigga 5 405 29 64-5 12 XVI.2 31 14 

14 mattakabhat!a 4 406 38 69-71 16 XVII.4 35 18 

15 'ayacitabiit 4 407 41 71-2 17 XVII.5 36 19 

16 kukkiira 4 408 46Dt 74-5 20 XIX.1 39 22 

17 gaujjaniya 6 409 52 77-8 22 XX.1 41 24 

18 gaujti'niya 3 410 49Dt 76-7 21 XIX.2 40 23Bkk 

19 [nacca] 6 411 62D 82-3 27 XXII.3 52 32 

20 [maccha] 2 412 54c 78-9 23 XXI.1 48 34 

21 (sakunti) 4 413 56C 79-80 24 XXI.2 49 36 

22 baka 5 414 59C 81-2 26 XXII.2 51 38 

23 p_ecfiawud[dha] 8 415 1070 110-12 41 XXVII.1 67 55 Bkk+ 

24 ktincanakharzndha 7 416 1110 112-3 42 XXVII.2 68 56 Bkk+ 

25 culaka 4 417 3D 50-51 2 Xl.2 14 4 

26 tandula 5 418 5c 52-3 3 XII.l 15 5 

27 debadharhma 3 419 7 53-5 4 XII.2 16 6 

28 katththahtiri 7 420 9 55-6 5 XIII.1 17 7 

29 miikkhadeba 3 421 11 57-8 6 XIII.2 19 9 

30 nigrotdha 3 422 13 58-9 7 XIV.1 22 12 

31 gamma'ni 3 423 2111 - - 8 

32 (!i!tha) 4 424 240 62-3 10 XV.2 28 25 

33 !ipallatamiga 9 425 34 67-8 14 XVII.2 33 16 

34 [mtiluka] 5 426 36 68-9 15 XVII.3 34 17 

~5 [na]apana] 4 427 42 72-3 18 XVIII.1 37 20 

36 kuruizmikga 3 428 440 73-4 19 XVIII.2 38 21 

37 [welukti] 5 429 66D 85-6 29 XXIII.2 55 43 

38 khartidiya 8 430 32 65-7 13 XVII.1 32 15 

39 dummedha 10 431 soc 94-5 36 XXV.3 62 50 

40 culajanaka 4 432 90ct 97-107 38 XXVI.l 64 52 ...... 

...... 

41 [wtinaripada] 8 433 1120 114-5 43 XXVIII.1 69 57 \0

No. Sd.32 Title lines ISP CIV Fournereau 

Index [vernacular] page page page no. 

plate 

rubbing 

}a taka ..... 

N 

0 

42 siinkha 7 434 116 117-8 45 

43 'iissatamalaja 'ka 3 435 117 118-9 46 

44 nanda 3 436 121C 120-1 47 

45 [khadiriingara] 3 437 123o 121-2 48 

46 kalakanni 3 438 126o 123-4 49 

47 [ 'iitthtissadwara] 3 439 128o 124-5 50 

48 phala 2 440 105at 109-10 40 

49 (sfla)[wi]ma 4 - 130 - 

50 [ 'abhi1;1ha 1 3-4? - - - - 

51 (tayaudharhma) 5? - - - - 

52 [sa]keta 4? - - - 

53 kutdala 4? - pl. LXXXI - - 

54 [mahasupina] 4? - - - - 

55 [ 'atthassadwara] 4? - - - - 

56 man gala 4? - - - 

57 saram(bha) 3? - - - 

58 'apanna 3? - - - - 

59 [wisawanta] 2? - pl. LXXX - - 

XXIX.l 77 60 

XXIX.2 78 61 

XXIX.4 80 39 

XXIX.S 81 40 

XXX.2 82 83 

XXX.l 84 84 

XXVI.3 66 54 

XXXI.2 ? 86 

- 27 

- - 58 

- - 68 

- - 70 

- - 77 

- - 84 

- - 87 

- - 88 

- 1 

- - 69 

TABLE 1: Synopsis of Jataka glosses occurring in Sd.32 

This synopsis lists the names of the Jatakas in vernacular spellings only; the running numbers to the left follow the sequence of the glosses 

as they are published in ISP. The symbols o, t and :j: following the page-reference to CI V indicate respectively that the gloss is reproduced 

there as a photograph, line-drawing and rubbing; the absence of a symbol implies that all three are reproduced in CI V. +currently not on 

display.

121 

Jataka No. ISP CI V Foumereau Jataka No. ISP CIV Foumereau 

Index page page page no. Index page page page no. 

1 58 68 52 

4 25 417 3 50-51 2 69 59 

5 26 418 5 52-3 3 70 53 

6 27 419 7 53-5 4 77 54 

7 28 420 9 55-6 5 83 46 438 126 123-4 49 

8 31 423 21 84 47 439 128 124-5 50 

9 29 421 11 57-8 6 84 55 

10 10 402 22 61-2 9 86 49 130 [:XXXI.2] 

11 11 403 26 63-4 11 87 56 

12 30 422 13 58-9 7 88 57 

13 12 404 19 60-1 8 

14 13 405 29 64-5 12 

15 38 430 32 65-7 13 

16 33 425 34 67-8 14 

17 34 426 36 68-9 15 

18 14 406 38 69-71 16 

19 15 407 41 71-2 17 

20 35 427 42 72-3 18 

21 36 428 44 73-4 19 

22 16 408 46 74-5 20 

23 18 410 49 76-7 21 

24 17 409 52 77-8 22 

25 32 424 24 62-3 10 

32 19 411 62 82-3 27 

35 20 412 54 78-9 23 

36 21 413 56 79-80 24 

38 22 414 59 81-2 26 

39 44 436 121 120-1 47 

40 45 437 123 121-2 48 

42 2 394 63 83-85 28 

43 37 429 66 85-6 29 

44 4 396 68 86-7 30 

45 5 397 70 88-9 31 

46 6 398 71 89-90 32 

47 7 399 73 90-91 33 

48 8 400 74 91-2 34 

50 39 431 80 94-5 36 

51 1 393 83 95-7 37 

52 40 432 90 97-107 38 

53 3 395 103 108-9 39 

54 48 440 105 109-10 40 

55 23 415 107 110-12 41 

56 24 416 111 112-3 42 

57 41 433 112 114-5 43 

58 51 

59 9 401 115 116-7 44 

60 42 434 116 117-8 45 

61 43 435 117 118-9 46 

TABLE 2a: Synopsis- Jataka reference numbers and ISP-based sequence

122 

Foumereau Jataka No. ISP CI V 

page no. Index [page] [page] 

50-51 2 4 25 417 3 

52-3 3 5 26 418 5 

53-5 4 6 27 419 7 

55-6 5 7 28 420 9 

57-8 6 9 29 421 11 

58-9 7 12 30 422 13 

60-1 8 13 12 404 19 

61-2 9 10 10 402 22 

62-3 10 25 32 424 24 

63-4 11 11 11 403 26 

64-5 12 14 13 405 29 

65-7 13 15 38 430 32 

67-8 14 16 33 425 34 

68-9 15 17 34 426 36 

69-71 16 18 14 406 38 

71-2 17 19 15 407 41 

72-3 18 20 35 427 42 

73-4 19 21 36 428 44 

74-5 20 22 16 408 46+ 

76-7 21 23 18 410 49+ 

77-8 22 24 17 409 52 

78-9 23 35 20 412 54 

79-80 24 36 21 413 56 

81-2 26 38 22 414 59 

82-3 27 32 19 411 62 

83-85 28 42 2 394 63 

85-6 29 43 37 429 66 

86-7 30 44 4 396 68 

88-9 31 45 5 397 70 

89-90 32 46 6 398 71 

90-91 33 47 7 399 73 

91-1 34 48 8 400 74 

94-5 36 50 39 431 80 

95-7 37 51 1 393 83 

97-107 38 52 40 432 90 

108-9 39 53 3 395 103 

109-10 40 54 48 440 105 

110-12 41 55 23 415 107 

112-3 42 56 24 416 111 

114-5 43 57 41 433 112 

116-7 44 59 9 401 115 

117-8 45 60 42 434 116 

118-9 46 61 43 435 117 

120-1 47 39 44 436 121 

121-2 48 40 45 437 123 

123-4 49 83 46 438 126 

124-5 50 84 47 439 128 

[XXXI.2] 86 49 130 

TABLE 2b: Synopsis - 

Foumereau page-reference and ISP-based sequence

123 

INDEX 

This index lists all lemmata found in the Wat 

Sri Chum glosses; these have not been included 

in GISI. 

'a dis than 

'ann 

'a panna 

'ayii 

'ar 

'an 

'iissa tamala 

'ac 

'acarya 

'amnac 

('a)m(isa) 

'ayacitabiita 

'aramadusaka 

'au 

'ak 

kadam 

katththahari 

kiitthabahanaraja 

ka~o!a 

[kiin] 

kiindi 

24.4 

2.3; 4.5; 5.2, 4; 6.4; 7.3; 

15.4; 16.3; 17.2, 5; 

18.3; 20.2; 21.3; 23.7; 

24.6; 33.4, 5; 34.5; 

35.2, 3; 40.3 

58.1 

37.3 

23.6 

3.4; 9.3; 10.4; 14.3; 26.1; 

27.2; 37.4; 38.4; 38.7; 

41.6, 7 

43.1 

23.5; 41.3; 

8.2 

23.6 

35.2 

15.1 

6.1 

1.3; 4.4; 6, 2; 24.6; 41.4; 7 

29.3 

24.4 

28 

28.4-5 

37.1 

34.4 

12.1 

kancanakhal)ndha 24.1 

kalakanni 46.1, 3 

kin 3.2; 22.4 

kukkura 16.1 

kutdala 53.1 

kurmi.gamikga 

ke 

keit 

kau 

kosalamawa 

kan 

klan 

kwail 

kwayan 

kharadiya 

kha 

kham 

khay 

khi 

khet!a 

khew+ 

khau 

36.1 

5.2; 14.3; 15.3; 16.3; 17.4; 

18.2; 33.3; 34.2; 35.1; 

38.3, 5; 

42.3 

9.3 

1.2 

24.2 

9.2 

11.2; 30.2 [k'wail?] 

4.3 

38.1 

9.2; 5.3; 26.3x 

41.4 

4.2 

24.2 

41.6 

6.3 

3.3x; 15.3; 45.3 

khwan 

gan 

ga 

ga' 

gamma'ni 

gam rap 

gojjaniy 

gojja'niya 

grU 

gwam 

cak 

cakk 

catgte 

ciik 

cay 

cak 

cam 

ciil 

culaka 

culajanaka 

cet 

cau 

cau+ 

jawan 

ja'k 

jan 

jatak 

ja'tak 

ji 

jiil 

jin 

ji 

fla 

fli 

fli 

4.4 

9.2; 17.5; 18.3; 42.4; 58.2 

4.2; 3; 26.3x; 39.8 

58.1 

31.1 

1.4; 3.4; 4.5; 5.4; 6.4; 7.3; 

9.3; 10.4; 11.2; 12.2-3; 

13.4-5; 14.4; 15.4; 

16.4; 17.6; 18.3; 19.5; 

20.2; 22.4; 23.8; 24.7; 

27.2-3; 33.9; 34.5; 

35.3; 37.4; 38.7-9; 

41.8; 44.1 

17.1 

18.1 

10.3; 31.3 

41.5 

24.3 

32.3 

41.6 

41.6 

43.2 

41.5 

3.3 

24.5; 25.3 

25.1 

40.1 

7.3 

5.2 

49.2; 56.2 

3.2 

43.1 

4.3 

1.1; 3.1; 4.1; 5.1; 6.1; 7.1; 

8.1; 9.1; 11.1; 12.1; 

13.1; 14.1; 15.1; 16.1; 

17.1; 19.1; 20.1; 21.1; 

22.1; 24.1; 25.1; 26.1; 

27.1; 28.1; 29.1; 30.1; 

31.1; 32.1; 34.1; 35.1; 

36.1; 37.1; 38.1; 40.1; 

42.1; 44.1; 46.1; 47.1; 

48.1; 49.1; 51.1; 52.1; 

53.1; 56.1; 57.1; 58.1 

10.1; 18.1; 23.2 

30.2 

1.3 

24.3 

10.3; 23.4; 30.2; 58.1 

24.3 

17.6 

16.4, 18.3, 50.2 

35.2 

!an 

!an+ 

!iindula 

!ay 

!ayodharhma 

!aww 

!aw(w) 

[ l!awallago 

!ill) 

!i 

!ipalla!amigapota 

ten 

tan 

!rakul 

thai 

than 

dailil 

dan hlay 

dan 

dan 

-dandaw 

debata 

debadhamma 

desana 

dessana 

dummedha 

dan 

dhamma 

dharrma 

taway 

ti 

te 

tai 

nagara 

nand a 

niin 

na 

nam 

nay 

nigrotdha 

ni 

niil 

neia 

nay 

23.7 

6.2; 41.4 

26.1 

33.6 

51.1 

38.5 

25.2 

32.3 

35.2 

9.2 

33.1 

9.2 

38.5 

42.4 

24.2x 

6.3 

5.3 

15.3 

43.3 

3.2; 16.2 

31.2-3 

17.4 

12.2 

27.1 

14.2 

15.2-3; 16.2-3; 17.4; 18.2 

39 

24.2, 5x 

27 

14.2; 15.2-3; 16.2-3; 17.4; 

18.2 

3.3; 23.3 (?); 24.2; 34.4; 

46.2; 56.3; 58.2 

24.5; 55.3 

18.2 

24.2, 3, 6; 35.2; 39.2; 41.7; 

48.2 

40.3 

44.1 

24.5 

24.2 

6.2 

26.3 

30.1, 2-3 

5.3; 26.1; 33.5; 38 .. 6; 58.1 

1.4; 24.2; 25.4, 4 

33.4, 5; 38.4, 5 

1.2; 2.2; 4.3; 12.2; 22.3; 

23.6; 24.4; 29.3; 37.3; 

40.2; 42.3; 58.3 

12.2

124 

P.tmaP.ani 3.1 28.2; 29.1, 2; 30.1; ray 48.2 

11-ecnawuddha 23.1 31.1; 32.1; 33.2; 35.1; rat 33.6 

11-en 1.1, 4; 3.1, 4; 4.2, 5; 5.2x, 39.1; 40.1; 43.1; 45.1, 

4; 6.4; 7.2, 3; 8.1; 9.1, 3; 48.1 lakkhal).a 11.1 

3; 10.2; 11.2; 12.2; bram 14.3; 57.2 liit 6.2, 3; 35.2; 

13.3; 14.2-3; 15.2, 4; bramma 57.2 lw\ 33.4; 38.4 

16.2, 4; 17.2-3, 5; 18.2, braja 13.4 I ilk 5.3;25.2; 28.6; 39.3; 51.1; 

3; 19.5; 20.1, 2; 21.3; brisadebata 14.2; 15.2 (25.2 ?) 

22.2; 23.8; 24.5, 7; Ie conjunction: 1.2; 15.2; 

25.1; 26.2; 28.3, 5; pa 3.2; 41.7 29.3; 33.6; 34.3; 47.2 

29.2; 30.2; 31.2; 32.2; pa' 24.3 Ie s-final: 1.4; 3.5; 5.4; 11.2; 

33.3, 4, 6; 34.2, 4, 5; parohito 20.1; 31.2 26.2; 38.6; 46.2 

35.1, 3; 37.4; 38.3, 4, pawail. 38.6 Ie s-initial: 26.1 

7; 39.2-3; 40.2, 3; 41.1, pawas 29.3 Ian 43.2 

2, 7; 44.5; 45.5; 46.2; pan 4.3 

47.2; 49.2; 51.1; 56.2; paw 4.3; 7.2 watthaka 20.1 

58.1 pita 42.6 watamigga 13.1 

P.et 22.5 puta 14.3 wai'UI).idusaka 7.1 

11-au 42.4 wi!ak 9.3 

11-ay 4.2 fai[ 14.3 wedapba 8.1 

11-ai 7.2; 8.2 

P.risnci 34.2-3 fuii. 3.2; 6.2, 3; 9.2; 3.3-4; sakuna 21.1 

P.la (22.4) 35.1-2 saijrii 42.7 

·sa!Wa 6.1; 16.1; 17.1 

phala 48.1 mail.gala 17.3; 56.1 ·sat!Wa 3.1, 2; 4.2; 7.1; 13.2; 18.1; 

phi (phi?) 24.3 mahasilawa 1.1 19.1; 20.1; 22.1; 23.1; 

phii 46.2; 55.3; 56.2 makkasa 4.1 24.1; 32.1; 38.1; 39.1; 

makkhadeba 29.1, 2 45.1; 46.1 

ba 13.4 mat!akabhat!a 14.1 sayap 4.4 

ba' 4.2, 4 rna 17.3; 24.6 sahay (34.4); 46.2 

baka 22.1 rna' 17.2; 18.2 sankha 42.1, 5 

bap 24.3 mi 3.2; 24.3 san san 3.3 

ban 41.5 mitthilcinagara 40.3 ·scit 9.1; 41.1; 51.1 

banararaja 41.3 mi 41.7 ·satwa 12.1; 29.1; 34.1; 35.1 

baral).asi 13.3-4 me 5.3; 43.3 ·sat!Wa 1.1; 5.1; 10.1; 11.1; 14.1; 

baranasi 1.2 m(au) 7.3 15.1; 25.1; 26.1; 28.1; 

bara'nasi 49.3 (mora)[niicca] 19.1 31.1; 33.1; 38.1; 42.1; 

bay 24.3 meia (26.2); 46.1; 47.1; 49.1; 43.1; 59.1 

beriwatda 9.1 52.1; 54.2; 56.1; 58.1 sam 3.5, 12.3, 17.6, 19.6, 37.5 

be 23.5-6 meiail. 1.3 satsata' 10.3 

bodi. 38.1 mai 6.2, 3 sai 21.2 

bodi[ 58.1 si 4.5; 18.3 

boddhi. 14.1; 34.1 yiik 23.(3-)4 seik 9.2 

bodhi. 1.1; 3.1, 2; 4.2; 5.1; 6.1; yiiksa 23.5 seip 6.3 

7.1; 9.1; 11.1; 12.1; yan 22.3 seiy 34.3 

13.2; 15.1; 16.1; 17.1; siil. 4.2; 23.5-6 

19.1; 20.1; 22.2; 23.1; rat 6.2, 3 sin ga 4.2-3 

24.1; 25.1; 26.1; 28.1; rap 1.4; 3.4; 4.5; 5.4; 6.4; 7.3; sip 12.3; 13.5; 16.4; 17.6; 

29.1; 31.1; 32.1; 33.1; 9.3; 10.4; 11.2; 12.3; 18.3; 19.6; 22.5; 23.8; 

35.1; 39.1; 41.1; 42.1; 13.5; 14.4; 15.4; 16.4; 24.7; 50.2 

43.1; 45.1; 46.1; 51.1; 17.6; 18.3; 19.5; 20.2; silesalauma 23.4 

59.1; 21.4; 22.4; 23.3; 23.8; silesalaumayakkha 23.4 

bodhi. 10.1; 18.1 24.7; 27.2; 33.6; 34.5; sis 43.2 

braii.a 13.3 35.3; 37.4; 38.8; 40.4; sip 10.4; 11.2 

brariunadatta 28.7 41.8;51.5 sila 3.3; 8.2 

brahmada!!:a 26.4 rayan 8.2 silasaga [ 8.2 

bra4fia 1.2; 16.3; 17.3; 18.2; 28.3; rasi 10.?, 2; 34.2 sisal). 24.2 

6; 33.3; 35.1; 38.3; 40.2 "raja· 13.4; 28.5; 29.2; 31.2; siha 34.3 

bra4fia kosala 1.2-3 34.3; 41.3; 49.3 sukkhawihiira 10.1 

bra}). l.lx; 3.1; 4.1; 5.1; 6.1; 7.1; rajadebi 39.3 sura 7.3 

10.1; 11.1; 12.1; 13.2; ren 3.2 seia 34.3-4 

16.1; 17.1; 18.1; 19.1; rohiil.i 5.1 seiay 6.3 

21.1; 22.1; 23.2; 24.1; reian 24.6 san 5.3; 16.4; 19.5; 40.4

san 3.3 hii 3.3; 5.4; 23.8; 24.7; 48.2 hni 42.6 

sretsathi 3.1; 5.2 hen 23.7 hnil 25.2 

sresathi 7.2; 25.2 hen 6.2; 22.3; 25.2; 29.2 luna 16.2 

hay 3.3; 7.2 hrak 6.4 

hak 6.4; 21.4; 24.7; 27.3 hay+ 23.5, 25.3, 42.5, 43.2, 58.2 hlau+ 3.2 

han 58.3 himaw!ln 41.6 hlay 15.3 

haww 4.4; 29.3 hruik 29.2-3 

hliw 24.3 

125

AN INFORMATION STRATEGY 

FOR ECONOMIC MODERNIZATION 

STEVEN J. TOROK 



OIC/ELECTORAL/PURSAT UNTAC OFFICE 

PURSAT, CAMBODIA 

I 

Since what I am offering here is 

a luncheon speech, I shall skip technical 

details and refer you instead to our 

book1-that, no doubt, all of you have 

read?-and some other recent (and ancient!) 

references. 2'3'4'5'6 

The basic question I am concerned 

with is, what is the microclimate 

of institutions that renders socioeconomic 

development possible? The 

answer from chapter 10 of our book is 

simple : inter-sectoral dialogue. The extent 

of such "dialogue" can be measured 

by the simple aggregates described 

as "Inter-sectoral income transition 

coefficients." 

Although the result here is almost 

tautological, the measurement 

above fails to capture "accumulation of 

wealth effects, credibility" and a system' 

s collapse, except through the phenomenological 

categorization of "uncontrollable" 

and "singular" income-transition 

matrices. One has to study the 

microstructure of institutions (as our 

book has done from many diverse 

points of view) so as to achieve un- 

This paper was delivered at the Open Symposium 

on Asia-Pacific Symbiosis, Fukuoka, Japan, 4 

November 1992. 

derstanding first ("observability") and 

then, hopefully, control ("controlability''). 

An example of a recent application 

of this methodology to the 

"Greenhouse" issue in environmental 

management is given in the second 

reference. 2 

II 

Janos Jelen, the Hungarian diplomat 

and specialist on Angkor Wat 

currently serving with UNTAC at Seam 

Reap as Deputy Director of Civil 

Adminsitration, a Founding Member of 

the Angkor Foundation, has characterized 

the civilization of Angkor as the 

ever-recurring realization of a "blueprint'' 

or "prototype" embodied in the 

architecture, and illustrated by the stone 

carvings. Chou Ta-Kuan} Chinese 

envoy to Angkor at the end of the 13th 

century,* has captured Angkor society 

as a contemporary observer (incidentally, 

Janos Jelen is now working on a 

definitive modern translation of that 

book as a "new Chou Ta-Kuan," working 

for a year with UNT AC as a diplomat 

in Cambodia). A modern analysis 

"See the new revised edition of Chou Ta-Kuan's 

Customs of Cambodia, published by the Siam 

Society in 1992. 

in economic terms can be attempted 

based on Chou Ta-Kuan's work, as well 

as the commentary on it by Janos Jelen 

(I must emphasize, however, that the 

interpretation presented below is my 

own, and do not wish to implicate in it 

either Chou Ta-Kuan or Janos Jelen!). 

At the end of the 13th century 

it was already the "settecento" of 

Angkor (a declining period, characterized 

by "delightful decadence" as found 

also in sixteenth-century Venice). 

Expectations of the continuation 

of the Angkor society are enshrined in 

stone in Angkor Wat itself (that 

monument took four hundred years to 

build). During the building of it, these 

expectations were stable. 

It was a society based on wars, 

through these acquiring slaves, who 

then built the city, tilled the land and 

decorated the monuments, satisfying 

their own expectations of a "quiet life" 

(or death?) within the "eternal" and 

glorious kingdom. Chou Ta-Kuan 

writes that in his time a "normal" wellto-do 

Khmer family had about a hundred 

slaves. 

What happened in their 

"settecento"? The "productivity" of 

war in producing new slaves must have 

declined, while at the same time expectations 

of both slaves and slaveowners 

must have changed as Bud-

128 

dhism became dominant. Thus, the 

compassionate smile and sadness on the 

faces of the Bayon monuments, a temple 

that was completed in forty (rather 

than four hundred) years. 

In modern economic terms, 

"labour's share of income" must have 

been rising-even if this can be identified 

only by Chou Ta-Kuan's description 

of sumptuous monthly festivals, 

organized by the Government (remember 

the "panem et circenses" of the 

heyday of Rome?) 

Capital resources were exhausted 

in extravagant building; the 

army was neglected (see again Chou Ta 

Kuan's description of the ill-equipped 

barefoot Khmer army, that could not 

be expected to acquire many slaves, 

when fighting the Thais or, perhaps, the 

Malays of Champa, or possibly Mongols 

from the North. 

In my terms, a typical "downward 

unstable" economy ensued, with 

capital's share declining, increasing 

labour's shares and "unstable" expectations 

leading to civil wars and "hostile 

factions." Everybody blamed everybody 

else; the king lost his "credibility'' 

and the "settecento" ended with 

the sad smiles of the Bayon looking at 

burning cities that were slowly reclaimed 

by the jungle-the ultimate 

victory of the environmentalists? 

Now I put on my other hat: I 

am an environmentalist too, as shown 

in recent publications. 2 ' 5 Can we save 

civilisations and the environment too-- 

or are we condemned to the bittersweet 

smile of the monuments of the 

Bayon looking down at increasing human 

misery? 

Well, the conclusion of our 

book, especially the very valuable experience 

of China described by Gao 

Guopei, 6 would let me believe that we 

can "have our cake and eat it too." 

Redefined and "nurtured" expectations 

(through management education) could 

reconcile the "three factors" in China, 

and may hold out hope for reconciliation 

also in Cambodia. With this 

hopeful note, defining an "information 

strategy" as actively working for such 

reconciliation, I want to close, summarizing, 

however what I think is important 

from our book for the United 

Nations System. 

III 

The United Nations System is 

embarked on an unprecedented undertaking 

in trying to install stable expectations 

through the electoral process in 

various countries of the world-starting 

first in Namibia, now in Cambodia. 

What this signifies is some sort 

of world-wide consensus of expectations 

that might just lead to the elusive stability 

we all seek in a world plagued 

by disintegrating expectations and nationalistic 

strife, in the wake of collapsing 

command economies. 

How does this lead to "upward 

unstable" economies again? Techni- 

cally, one could design the necessary 

income flows. Practically, however, 

these will be the result of free enterprise 

withing a world of more stable 

socioeconomic expectations hopefully 

evolving in the next millennium, involving 

less hostility, more respect-and 

perhaps more "festivals" and a cleaner 

environment. 

To give a historical perspective, 

it is worthwhile to remember that Egypt 

in ancient times had "stable expectations" 

and a remarkably successful 

civilization for a thousand years, at 

least, a millennium and a half before 

European civilization was started by the 

Greeks two and a half millennia ago. 

Similarly the Chinese under the Confucian 

system had a remarkably stable 

civilization, for a couple of millennia. 

Is it not possible that such "stable expectations" 

under ecological constraint 

could again be achieved through the 

initiatives of the Untied Nations System? 

I believe the above is a worthwhile 

objective. With that, ladies and 

gentlemen, I close, hoping that all these 

high-flying ideas will not give you indigestion, 

but a glimmer of hope. The 

"proof of the pudding is in the eating," 

however, and our test case is 

Cambodia. 

(My thanks go to Veronique Ivanovsky 

for comments on an earlier version of 

this paper.) 

REFERENCES 

1. TOROK, S.J. : "Fueling Growth : The 

Relevance of the Japanese Model to 

Eastern Europe." 

Chapter 10 in Asia Pacific Symbiosis; quest 

for Business-Economic Reciprocity, by 

Yoshitomo Izawa (ed.) Shohsei-sha, Tokyo, 

1992. 

2. TOROK, S.J. : "Decisions Under Uncertainty 

about Outcomes and Values: anticipating 

the Greenhouse Effect", pp. 

228-233 of Greenhouse Research Initiatives 

in the ESCAP Region - Energy, by Barry P. 

Jones and Edward F. Wheele (eds) 

ABARE, Camberra, Australia (ISBN 0 642 

18332 5), 1992. 

3. CHOU TA-KUAN : The Customs of Cambodia, 

The Siam Society, Bangkok, 1987; 

2nd (revised) edition, 1992. 

4. DARMSTADTER, J.: Global Development 

and the Environment-Perspectives on 

Sustainability, Resources for the Future, 

Washington, D.C., 1992. 

5. TOROK, S.J.: "Development of Asian 

natural gas as a response strategy to global 

environmental concerns", paper presented 

at Greenhouse Research Initiatives 

in the ESCAP Regional Energy conference, 

Bangkok, 21-23 August 1992 (but 

not included in the proceedings). 

6. GAO GUOPEI. "Cultural Aspects of 

China as a Market", Chapter 8 in Asia- 

Pacific Symbiosis (op. cit.).

SECTION VII 

NOTES AND COMMENTS

NOTES AND COMMENTS 

TWO PORTS OF SUV ARNABHUMI: A BRIEF NOTE 

. 


C/0 THE SIAM SOCIETY 

Suvan:tabhumi-the Land of Gold, the Indian El 

Dorado-is frequently mentioned in Indian and Buddhist 

literature. 1 The setting of the Suptiraga Jtitaka, number 14 in 

the Jtitakamtilti of Arya-sura (4th century A.C. ?), recently 

translated by Peter I

SECTION VIII 

REVIEWS

..·

REVIEW ARTICLE 

BUDDHIST LITERATURE: SOME RECENT 

TRANSLATIONS 


C/0 THE SIAM SOCIETY 

The translation of the vast literature of the Buddhists into English, and other modern languages, is a 

vast project: begun well over a century ago, it is still in progress. Here I would like to review a number 

of recent contributions, some of them re-translations, to that field. The first four texts under review belong 

to the jatakn (or avadana) literature, perennially popular from well before the 1st century B. C., when the 

jatakns appear in some of the earliest stone sculpture of India (Bharhut, Safichi, and so on), up to, of course, 

the time of the present translations. The fifth work (The Fortunate Aeon) is intimately related to the jatakn 

tradition, since it refers by name to numerous traditional jatakns in the course of its discussion of the paramitas 

or perfections, since it relates a number of "Mahayanist" jatakns of its own, and since its description of the 

biographical particulars of future Buddhas is structurally and stylistically based on an ancient and canonical 

Buddhological tradition. Like the Pali Jatakn, the Udana, the sixth work under review, belongs to the Khuddaknnilaiya 

or "miscellaneous" section of the Tipitakn; it is, however, of a different nature, since it is a collection 

of teachings attributed to the historical Buddha Gotama. 

The Story of Gotama Buddha 

(]titaka-nidana), translated by N. A. 

JAYAWICKRAMA, The Pall Text 

Society, Oxford, 1990; xvi + 141 

pages, paperback. 

A romanized edition of the Jataknnidana 

was first published by V. 

Fausbell in 1877 in the first volume of 

the The Jatakn together with its Commentary, 

being Tales of the Anterior Births of 

Gotama Buddha. A translation by T. W. 

Rhys Davids of the nidana or "introduction" 

and the beginning of the Jatakn 

properly speaking was published in 

Triibner's Oriental Series in 1880; this was 

reprinted in a "New and Revised Edition 

by Mrs Rhys Davids" by Routledge 

in 1925 (minus the Jatakn translations, 

since a separate translation of the Jataka 

as a whole had by then been undertaken), 

under the title Buddhist Birth- 

Stories (Jatakn Tales): The Commentarial 

Introduction Entitled Nidana-kathli, The 

Story of the Lineage (repr. Indological 

Book House, Varanasi and Delhi, 

1973). 

N. A. Jayawickrama's translation 

was originally published in Sri Lanka 

in 1951. The present edition has a brief 

and informative preface by Steven 

Collins, a short but pithy introduction 

by the translator, and an index. The 

translator is well qualified, having to 

his credit a number of other translations 

from Pali-Chronicle of the Thupa 

(1971), Epochs of the Conqueror (1962), 

and The Inception of Discipline (1962) 

-plus editions of the Pali Buddhava7J1sa 

and Cariyapitakn (1974), the Vimanavatthu 

and Petavatthu (1977), and the 

Kathlivatthu Commentary (1979), all 

published by the Pali Text Society. 

These titles reveal Jayawickrama to be 

a specialist in chronicle or narrative 

literature, and indeed his translation is 

clear, smooth, and accurate. 

The Jatakn-nidana is a chronicle of 

the past lives of Gotama as a bodhisatta 

from the time of his meeting with the 

past Buddha DipaJ:!lkara up to the 

early period of his career as a Buddha, 

ending with the donation of the 

Jetavana monastery (thereby leading up 

to the first jatakn, which opens there). 

The chronicle presents the developed 

Buddhology of the Mahavihara branch 

of the Theravadins (see verse 11): all 

events must be archetypal and must be 

embellished by divine or supernatural 

wonders. It is religious literature and 

not scripture, and its exaggerationsoften 

more pedantic than inspiredmust 

certainly be taken cum grana salis. 

Among the uniquely Theravadin 

characteristics I include the list of 24 

(or 27) past Buddhas, the allotment of 

the duration of the bodhisatta's career

136 

to four "incalculables" (asaizkheyya) and 

100,000 aeons, the classification of the 

perfections into three groups of ten to 

total thirty, and the arrangement of the 

chronicle into three epochs (distant, 

intermediate, and recent). 1 

Although to a degree the text is 

didactic in purpose, its main aim is the 

glorification of the bodhisatta's career. 

While the Jtitakanidtina may not be required 

reading for the Buddhist practitioner, 

it is for those who wish to understand 

the Mahavihara Buddhology, 

either in its own right or as represented 

in the art of Sri Lanka and Southeast 

Asia. The Jtitakanidtina is in part based 

upon (particularly for the important 

meeting with DipaJ.1lkara) and closely 

related to the Buddhava1J1sa and its 

commentary, which are also available 

in English translation by I. B. Horner 

under the titles Chronicle of Buddhas 

(published together with the Cariyapifaka 

in The Minor Anthologies of the Pali 

Canon III, 1975) and The Clarifier of the 

Sweet Meaning (1978), both published by 

the Pali Text Society. For the latest 

phase of Theravadin Buddhology, one 

may consult Jayawickrama's Epochs of 

the Conqueror. The "Distant Epoch" 

contains two sections on the ten perfections 

according to the Mahavihara 

tradition (pp. 25-32, and 58-61). The 

presentation of the life of the present 

Buddha Gotama, as given in the 

"Intermediate" and "Recent" Epochs, is 

a summary of events related in the Pali 

canon itself, with many later embellishments. 

(A comparison with the life of the 

Buddha as recounted in other traditions 

has been made easier by two recent 

publications. P. E. de Foucaux's classic 

Le Lalitavistara: L'histoire traditionelle de 

Ia vie du Bouddha c;akyamuni, originally 

published in Annales du Musee Guimet 

in 1884, was reprinted in a reasonably 

priced and attractive fascimile edition 

by Les Deux Oceans, Paris, in 1988. 

A complete English translation by 

Gwendolyn Bays, based on Foucaux's 

French but revised in consultation with 

the Tibetan translation and the Sanskrit 

original, is available in two handsome 

volumes as The Voice of the Buddha, the 

Beauty of Compassion (Dharma Publishing, 

Berkeley, 1983).) 

I have only one quibble, and that 

concerns the headings interspersed 

throughout the text. For the stories of 

the 24 Buddhas, especially the first 

three, they do not quite follow the same 

format, and it would be helpful if the 

headings with the names of the Buddhas 

were numbered. In the second 

section on the perfections (pp. 58-61), 

the headings seem to be slightly displaced, 

since for perfections 2 to 8 the 

heading of the succeeding perfection 

comes before the concluding statement 

on the preceding perfection. For perfections 

9 and 10 (p. 61) the headings 

are misplaced, since 9 follows the verse 

on the perfection in question and 10 

comes in the middle. It would again 

be helpful if the ten perf~ctions were 

numbered in both sections. Three 

minor misprints may be noted: thie for 

this on p. 35 line 5, thisle for thistle on p. 

67 note 4, and praching for preaching on 

p. 116 line 19. 

Needless to say, Rhys David's 

pioneering edition should not be 

overlooked by the serious student. The 

80-page Introduction contains much of 

interest, especially on the relations 

between the jtitakas and the folklore of 

other cultures. 

Once the Buddha Was a 

Monkey: Arya Sura's Jatakarruila, 

translated from the Sanskrit by 

PETER KHOROCHE with a 

Foreword by WENDY DONIGER, 

The University of Chicago Press, 

Chicago and London, 1989; xix + 

273 pages. 

The Jtitakamtilti is of a different 

order than the Jtitakas of the Pali tradition: 

as a non-sectarian poetic work 

(ktivya) addressed to the literati of the 

age rather than the monks alone, it does 

not pretend to canonical status. The 

Sanskrit text (in Devanagari) was 

published in 1891 by Hendrik Kern as 

the first volume of the Harvard Oriental 

Series, under the title The Jtitaka-Mtilti, 

Stories of Buddha's Former Incarnations 

otherwise entitled Bodhisattva-Avadtina 

Mtilti, by Arya-qura (The Harvard 

University Press, Cambridge, Mass.; 

repr. 1914, 1943). In 1895 a translation 

by J. S. Speyer, The Jtitaka-Mtilti or 

Garland of Birth-Stories of Aryasura 

(repr. Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1971, 

1982), was published as volume 1 of 

the Sacred Books of the Buddhists (with 

the material support of "H. M. the King 

of Siam", that is, King Rama V), with a 

preface by the editor of the series, Max 

Muller, an introduction by the translator, 

and a useful synaptical table of the 

correspondence between the stanzas of 

the Jtitakamtilti and the scripture verses 

of the Pali Jataka". 

Once the Buddha Was a Monkey is 

an attractively bound and printed 

volume-a testimony to the publishing 

skills of The University of Chicago 

Press. The translation, smooth and 

readable, brings out the humour and 

the satire of the original. This is no 

small accomplishment, since Sanskrit 

verse delights in dense compounds and 

rich imagery, of which Arya-sura was 

a master. The introduction deals 

succinctly with the problems of 

authorship and date, and with the 

jtitaka and jtitakamtilti genre; 2 the notes 

explain various proper names and 

mythological or sociological concepts. 

Incidentally, one note is relevant to the 

much vexed Suvan:tabhumi question 

(see Two Ports of Suvarrzabhilmi: A Brief 

Note, p. 131 of the present issue). 

The Jtitakamtilti is a retelling of 

tales already many times retold, 

directed at an urbane and courtly 

audience. The contents of the stories 

vary. Many involve kings, and Aryasura 

clearly uses his jtitakas as a means 

to teach the Buddhist ideals of 

compassion and charity in opposition 

to the Machiavellian principles of 

traditional Indian statecraft. Others 

involve deities: often Sakra takes upon 

himself the role of putting the Great 

Being to the test with a variety of disguises 

and ruses. In "The Lotus Stalks" 

(19:31, p. 125) the bodhisattva upbraids 

him for doing this: "We are neither 

friends of yours nor relatives, nor are 

we your troupe of actors or buffoons. 

So on what grounds do you, lord of 

the gods, come here to play tricks on 

hermits?" But not all of the stories 

involve divine or supernatural intervention: 

numbers 18, 20, and 21, for 

example, are entirely human tales. In 

story 20, the bodhisattva is shown as 

naive if highly principled: he renounces

the world as a result of a chain of events 

starting with his half-deaf mother-inlaw's 

misinterpretation of her daughter's 

words. In some cases the 

bodhisattva is an animal: a hare (6), a 

fish (15), a young quail (16), a goose 

(22), an ape (24), and so on. Such 

tales-themselves a reworking of 

fables of hoary antiquity-seek to 

reveal ideal human virtues by way of 

contrast. A king, whose life has been 

saved by the very ibex-bodhisattva he 

had intended to kill in the hunt, 

exclaims, "Oh! how sharply his 

gentleness puts me to shame. It is I 

who am the animal, the brute rather, 

and he is an ibex only in appearance" 

(p. 175). While most of the stories 

illustrate universal virtues like 

compassion and forbearance, two are 

more philosophical in tenor: number 

23, which seeks to refute a number of 

Indian philosophical systems, and 

number 29, which deals with belief in 

the afterlife. 

Le Congres du Lac Anavatapta 

(Vies de Saints Bouddhiques), 

Extrait du Vinaya des Mulasarvdstivddin 

Bhai~ajyavastu, II: 

Legendes du Bouddha (Buddluivadlina) 

(Publications de 

l'Institut Orientaliste de 

Louvain 38), MARCEL HOFIN 

GER, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1990; 159 

pages. 

The purpose of the fdtaka-niddna 

and the fdtakamdld (as well as the 

Buddhava1J1sa and Cariydpitaka, mentioned 

above, and the Lokdnanda-nd.taka, 

to be reviewed below) is the glorification 

of Gotama or Sakyamuni as a 

bodhisattva or a Buddha through the 

recounting of his noble deeds. In contrast, 

the "Buddhdvaddna" 3 is an attempt 

to grapple with a hagiographical 

problem: the undeniable fact that the 

early scriptures and traditions of the 

various schools of Buddhism relate that 

in his final life the Buddha underwent 

certain negative experiences. Since 

every effect must have a karmic cause, 

the Buddha, like anyone else, must have 

committed wrong deeds in previous 

misdeeds. 6 The present volume is a sequel 

137 

lives. Hofinger's work is a translation 

of the Mulasarvastivadin version of 

these events, as recounted in the 

Bhai?ajyavastu (Chapter on Medicine) of 

that school's Vinaya. The Theravadin 

account is found in the Buddhdpaddna 

of their Apaddna. (The past misdeeds 

of the Buddha are also dealt with in 

Hofinger gives a French translation 

of the relevant section of the 

Bhai?ajyavastu: a prose text dealing with 

eleven such events, in each case spoken 

by the Buddha himself in response to a 

specific question put by the monks; an 

intervening anonymous verse eulogy of 

the Sa1]1skrtasa1J1skrtaviniscaya of the Buddha; and a concluding versified 

Dasabalasrimitra, a text preserved 

only in Tibetan translation, probably 

account of ten events, in an order 

different from that of the prose, again 

composed in Northern India in the 12th spoken by the Buddha. The work 

or 13th century. 4 Dasabalasrimitra gives opens with a brief introduction and a 

two prose lists: (1) 260b6-261a7, bibliography. At the end of the book 

"sixteen misdeeds" (but I count only 

twelve), source not named; (2) 

261a7-262a4, "sixteen misdeeds ... 

according to the system of the Arya 

Sammatiya school ('phags pa mang pos 

bkur ba 'i sde pa'i chos lugs kyis)". At least 

are separate indexes of Tibetan and 

Chinese terms, both cross-referenced 

with a Sanskrit-Pali-Tibetan-Chinese 

glossary, and finally an index of proper 

names and important topics. 

The translation is based on a 

one misdeed is discussed in romanized edition of the Tibetan, for 

Vasubandhu's (5th century?) Vydkhydyukti, 

also extant only in Tibetan translation.5 

which Hofinger has utilized three 

xylograph recensions: Narthang (N), 

These sources have not yet been Peking (P) and Lhasa (Lh). In his 

studied or translated.) 

pioneering studies over the last decade 

or so, Dr. Helmut Eimer of Bonn has 

I will give one example of the 

type of story in question. In no. VIII of 

Hofinger's translation, the monks ask 

why Sakyamuni, as a bodhisattva, had 

to spend six years practising severe 

austerities. They are referring to a wellknown 

period of the bodhisattva's 

quest for enlightenment, which is 

described in the early scriptures such 

as the Majjhima-nikdya of the Pali 

shown that the available editions of the 

Tibetan Kanjur fall into two main 

redactional groups, and that in order 

to establish a Kanjur text with a truly 

critical edition, more editions than those 

utilized by Hofinger must be consulted. 

Since the editions used by Hofinger 

represent both groups-Narthang along 

with Lhasa (a 20th century edition 

based in the main on Narthang), what 

canon. In reply the Buddha relates Eimer calls the "Western tradition", 

how, as the brahman Uttara, he once 

refused to pay homage to the past 

and Peking the "Eastern tradition" 

we at least have representative readings 

Buddha Kasyapa, saying, "How can 

of the two traditions. This is 

there be enlightenment (bodhi) for that 

bald-pated ascetic? Enlightenment is 

something extremely difficult to 

attain!" As a result of this verbal karma, 

Sakyamuni himself underwent difficulties 

in his quest for enlightenment. 

Other past misdeeds of the 

bodhisattva include killing or murder 

(I, II, VI, XI), calumny (IV, V), false 

accusation (VI), and so on. In contrast 

to the jdtaka stories, the bodhisattva is 

shown here as very human and very 

imperfect, and no attempt is made to 

gloss over his misdeeds. The latter task 

insufficient, however, to thoroughly 

establish the finer points of the text 

and its transmission. 

The Tibetan text is supplemented 

by Sanskrit fragments from Gilgit, given 

when available at the foot of the Tibetan, 

and by reproductions of the 

Taish6 edition of the corresponding 

sections of the Bhai?ajyavastu in I-ching's 

Chinese translation and of the Chinese 

translation of a related avaddna text. 

Hofinger also reproduces the Taish6 

text of siitra 63 of the Chinese 

Madhyamdgama along with its Pali 

was left to such Mahayana texts as the counterpart, the Ghafikdra-sutta 

Updyakausalya-siitra, which gives an 

apologetic account of most of the 

(Majjhimanikdya 81), as parallels to prose 

story VIII of his translation.

138 

to Hofinger's earlier study, Le Congres 

du Lac Anavatapta (Vies de Saints 

Bouddhiques), Extrait du Vinaya des 

Mulasarvtistivtidin Bhai?ajyavastu, 1: 

Legendes des Anciens (Sthavirtivadtina) 

(Bibliotheque du Museon 34, Louvain, 

1954; second edition, Publications de 

l'Institut Orientaliste de Louvain 28, 

Louvain-la-Neuve, 1982). This work 

gave a French translation of the past 

lives of the elders (sthavira) or arhants, 

as spoken by each in verse at Lake 

Anavatapta (hence the title) in the 

presence of the Buddha, based on 

Hofinger's edition of the Tibetan text 

of the relevant section of the 

Mulasarvastivadin Bhai?ajyavastu, 

along with the Gilgit Sanskrit fragments 

and a reproduction of the Taisho 

edition of 1-ching's Chinese translation. 

Since in the Mulasarvastivadin Vinaya 

the text dealt with in the work under 

review follows directly upon that 

presented in the earlier work, Hofinger 

has now completed the translation 

of an important section of the 

Bhai?ajyavastu. 

It is unfortunate that the author 

seems to have been unaware of a 

number of important printed sources 

and related researches, all published a 

considerable time before his own work. 

He does not refer to Heinz Bechert's 

Die Anavataptagtithti und die Sthaviragathti 

(in Sanskrittexte aus den 

Turfanfunden VI, Bruchstiicke buddhistischer 

Verssammlungen I, Berlin, 

1961), which gives the Tibetan text 

(based on five editions) of the "eulogy 

of the Buddha" (Bechert 206-208 = 

Hofinger 48-50) and the verse text on 

the ten past misdeeds of the Buddha 

-side-by-side with the Pali parallels 

from the Apadtina and German translations 

of two Chinese versions (Bechert 

pp. 210-243 = Hofinger 50-54) 

followed by a German translation of the 

Tibetan (pp. 244-247), all accompanied 

by detailed notes. As for prose story 

VIII in Hofinger's translation (pp. 102- 

115, "Nandipala et Uttara"), Ernst 

Waldschmidt, in his "Central Asian 

Sii.tra Fragments" (in Heinz Bechert, ed., 

The Language of the Earliest Buddhist 

Tradition, Gottingen, 1980, p. 143), gave 

a brief description of the Nandiptila-sutra 

and its parallels. While, as noted by 

Hofinger, the story is not given in the 

Gilgit manuscript of the Sanskrit 

Bhai?ajyavastu-which refers the reader 

to sutra version in the Madhyamtigama 

-the Mii.lasarvastivadin version 

(referred to by Waldschmidt) is in fact 

repeated in full in the Sanghabhedavastu; 

it is preserved in Sanskrit, and was 

published by Raniero Gnoli in The Gilgit 

Manuscript of the Sanghabhedavastu, Part 

II, Rome, 1978, pp. 21-30. The 

Lokottaravadin version (also referred 

to by Waldschmidt) was published in 

1882 by Senart in the Mahtivastu I, pp. 

317 foil., and translated by J. J. Jones 

in The Mahtivastu, volume I, London, 

1949 (repr. 1973), pp. 265-285. The 

Upayakausalya-sutra (in Chang, op. cit., 

pp. 442, 449-452) gives a detailed 

account from a Mahayana perspective. 

Furthermore, Hofinger does not refer 

to the Kanjur studies of Eimer and 

others. These are all serious omissions, 

which detract from the comparative 

apparatus given in Hofinger's notes. 

A comparison of the Sanskrit 

Sanghabhedavastu version of story VIII 

with the Tibetan Bhai?ajyavastu as 

edited by Hofinger shows that the 

two are very similar, the only major 

difference being that the former 

introduces Uttara first, and then 

Nandipala, while in the latter the order 

is reversed. It also reveals a number of 

mistranslations, and shows that many 

of the Sanskrit equivalents of the Tibetan 

given by Hofinger in parentheses 

or in the notes are wrong. It is 

beyond the scope of this review to go 

into full detail: a new edition of this 

section, with the Tibetan of both the 

Sanghabhedavastu and the Bhai?ajyavastu 

and the Sanskrit of the former, compared 

with the counterparts in the 

Chinese Madhyamagama, the Pali 

Majjhima-niktiya, the Mahtivastu, and 

other related sources such as the 

Upayakausalya-sutra and the Vyakhyayukti, 

would certainly be a valuable 

undertaking, since it would throw light 

on the transmission of an ancient and 

canonical jtitaka according to four 

Sravaka schools-the Mulasarvastivadins 

(Sanghabhedavastu, Bhai?ajyavastu), 

the Sarvastivadins (Madhyamagama), the 

Theravadins (Majjhima-niktiya), and the 

Lokottaravadins (Mahtivastu)-and its 

interpretation in the Mahayana 

(Upayakausalya-sutra, Vyakhyayukti)? I 

will limit myself here to one important 

passage. On p. 106, "Au contraire, ce 

Bienhereux lui-meme etant Buddha, a 

purifie tous les dharmas" corresponds to 

text p. 37 'on kyang beam !dan 'das de fiid 

sangs rgyas yin tel 'dis chos thams cad 

sangs byas so, with a variant for the 

adopted reading (that of Narthang) 

sangs byas so given in the footnote as 

sangs rgyas so (Lhasa and Peking). That 

sangs rgyas so is the correct reading is 

clear from the Sanskrit of the 

Sanghabhedavastu (p. 23), api tu buddhafz 

sa bhagavan, buddhtis canena sarvadharma 

iti. The passage may therefore be 

rendered as: "That very Blessed One is 

indeed awakened (or enlightened), 

because he has awakened to (or 

realized) all dharmas". The phrase is 

significant as a Mulasarvastivadin 

"definition" of the term Buddha. 

I note here a few other 

mistranslations or points needing 

clarification that have come to my 

attention: 8 

-pp. 85, 91, "le gain de !'accumulation 

(sa1]'lcayalabha)": 

"Sa1J1cayaltibha" is Hofinger's 

reconstruction of the Tibetan 

tshogs rfied pa (see note 6 to 

p. 85, where the final pa is 

omitted). The correct Sanskrit 

form is labdhasa1]tbhtirarzi, 

as found repeatedly in extant 

Vinaya and Avadana literature, 

and given by Hofinger 

himself from the Gilgit manuscript 

on p. 27 of the text. It 

signifies that past karma will 

bear fruit when the appropriate 

complex of conditions 

( sa1]'lbhtira) obtains (labdha), 

that is, "when conditions are 

ripe". 

-p. 88, "!'absence de toute moralite 

aboutit a coup sur au malheur"; text 

pp. 22-23 thams cad tshul ma yin pas sdug 

bsngal bar gyur ta re: 

Here the Sanskrit is not available. 

Two merchants are at 

sea: one, who has lost his ship 

laden with gems because he 

had loaded it carelessly, is attempting 

to sink the other's 

ship out of sheer envy, in 

order to deny the other his 

profit. The latter catches him 

in the act. From the context

139 

tshul seems not to mean 

"moralite" (more regularly 

tshul khrims), but rather 

"method" (Sanskrit naya?), or 

figuratively "sense." Thus the 

intended victim says: "Do not 

scuttle the ship! It is utterly 

senseless (perverse, idiotic, 

futile: since we will both 

perish) and will certainly lead 

to misery." 

-p. 88, "dont !'esprit etait attache 

(abhinivi~ta) a la jalousie" ; text p. 23 

phrag dog Ia mngon par zhen pa'i blo can: 

The Sanskrit equivalent of the 

whole phrase, ir~yanivi~.tabuddhi~, 

taken from text p. 28 

(where the Tibetan is the same 

with the omission of the final 

can), is given on translation 

p. 95. Thus, despite the 

Tibetan prefix mngon par, 

which usually translates 

abhi-, the correct form seems 

to be simply nivi~.ta. 

-p. 89, "un humble pratyekabuddha, 

qui a de la compassion pour les 

miserables ... apparait comme !'unique 

pur champ d'offrandes (danak~etra) 

du monde"; text p. 23 rang sangs rgyas 

dman pa dang/ ngan pa Ia siiing brtse ba 

can .. .'jig rten gyi yon gnas gcig pu dag 

'byung bar 'gyur ro: 

This is part of a stock phrase. 

A complete Sanskrit example, 

which corresponds perfectly 

to the Tibetan of the Bhai~ajyavastu, 

is found in The Gilgit 

Manuscript of the Sayanasanavastu 

and the Adhikararzavastu, 

(ed. Raniero Gnoli, Rome, 

1978, p. 32.8): asati buddhtinam 

utpade pratyekabuddhti loka 

utpadyante hinadinanukampakiib 

prantasayantisanabhakta 

ekad~irziya lokasya. Hofinger's 

"un humble pratyekabuddha, 

qui a de la compassion pour 

les miserables ... apparait" 

contains two errors: humble 

(hina, Tib. dman pa) does not 

modify pratyekabuddha, but 

rather belongs with the 

following phrase as clearly 

seen from the Sanskrit; 

pratyekabuddha is plural rather 

than singular, as seen in both 

the Sanskrit and the Tibetan 

(dag 'byung bar 'gyur ro:). The 

whole phrase is a general 

statement about the arising of 

pratyekabuddhas. Another 

problem is Hofinger's reconstruction 

of yon gnas as 

danak~etra (also at p. 122 and 

in the glossary, p. 145): the 

correct Sanskrit equivalent is 

dakpirziya. The whole passage 

may be translated thus: 

"When there is no arising of 

Buddhas, pratyekabuddhas arise 

in the world. They have 

compassion for the lowly and 

the wretched, and cleave to 

(Tib. here "delight in") remote 

dwelling-places. They are the 

sole receptacle for the offerings 

of the world." The idea 

is that pratyekabuddhas arise 

only when there is no Buddha 

in the world; in the absence 

of a Buddha, and thereby of 

the sa1J!gha or community, the 

only worthy recipients of 

offerings, for the making of 

merit in the Buddhistic sense, 

are the pratyekabuddhas. 

-p. 90, "qui etait bien propre"; text. p. 

24, gtsang zhing bsod pa'i bza' ba dang/ 

bca' ba ... 

This phrase is consistently 

mistranslated by attaching the 

adjective gtsang (pure, clean = 

Skt. suci) to the preceding 

noun, when in fact it belongs 

with the following phrase: 

"wholesome and tasty food 

and beverage". The mistranslation 

occurs once on p. 90, 

"son bola aumones, qui etait 

bien propre", and three times 

on p. 109: "le roi l(rkin, bien 

pur", etc. The Sanskrit of the 

latter, which occurs in story 

VIII, is available in the 

Sanghabhedavastu, as mentioned 

above. 

-p. 96, "un roi nomme Brahmadatta 

commen

140 

Joy for the World: A Buddhist 

Play by Candragomin, 

translated with an Introduction and 

Notes by MICHAEL HAHN, 

Dharma Publishing, Berkeley, 1987; 

xxiv + 155 pages. 

The Indian Buddhists contributed 

to, and were often at the forefront of, 

most branches of the traditional arts. 

The earliest surviving Indian drama is 

by Asvagho~a (1st century A. C.), author 

of a famous verse life of the Buddha, 

the Buddha~rita. The present 

work is a drama composed by 

Candragomin (whom Hahn dates to the 

fifth century), who is also well known 

as a grammarian and a poet. The 

English translation is based on Hahn's 

own edition and German translation 

of the Tibetan version (the Sanskrit, 

but for a few verses, not having 

survived), which was published as 

Candragomins Lolainandanataka: Nach 

dem tibetischen Tanjur herausgegeben 

und iibersetz: Ein Beitrag zur klassischen 

indischen Schauspieldichtung in Asiatische 

Forschungen, Band 39, Wiesbaden, 

1974. 

The Lolainandanataka resembles 

the Jatakamald in that, though religious 

and didactic in theme and purpose, it 

is a non-sectarian and literary work, 

addressed to the educated public in 

general, and composed by a master 

poet. The play is based on the story of 

the bodhisattva's past life as Prince 

Ma¢cU.4a, and is thus an adaptation of 

a jataka or avaddna for the stage. In his 

introduction Hahn, an authority on 

avadana literature, discusses the use 

and development of the medium of 

poetry in Buddhist literature, and gives 

a summary of some of the source 

materials and of the conventions of 

Indian drama. The translation succeeds 

in the difficult task of bringing out the 

poetry and maintaining dramatic interest; 

intended for the general reader, 

it is rounded out by useful "Notes and 

Comments" and a brief glossary. The 

volume is beautifully produced. 

The Fortunate Aeon: How 

the Thousand Buddhas Become 

Enlightened (Tibetan Buddhist 

Canon, Text 94), translated into 

English by Dharma Publishing Staff 

under the auspices of the Yeshe De 

Project, 4 vols., Dharma Publishing, 

Berkeley, 1986. 

The Fortunate Aeon gives ,the 

Tibetan text and English translation of 

a popular Mahayana text, the Bhadrakalpika-sutra. 

The sutra is lost in Sanskrit, 

but preserved in Tibetan (translated by 

Vidycikarasi.J!lha and dPal gyi dbyangs 

and revised by dPal-brtsegs, ca. 800 

A. C.) and Chinese. The preface states 

that the Tibetan text is based on the 

"gSer-ljong edition" in comparison with 

the sDe-dge; the readings of the two 

editions are graphically distinguished 

within the text itself. From the colophon 

(vol. IV, p. 1748-1749) we learn 

that the gSer-ljong edition was published 

in 1932, and that the Ku-se gSerljong 

dgon is near sDe dge, that is, in 

Eastern Tibet. The Tibetan text appears 

on the left-hand page, the English en 

face. 

Like most other long Mahayana 

sutras, the Bhadrakalpika is a composite 

text which may have taken several 

centuries to arrive at its present form. 

In the first part, after the usual description 

of the setting and audience, 

Bodhisattva Pramuditaraja-who figures 

as interlocutor throughout-asks 

the Buddha a long question on the 

nature of the bodhisattva path (pp. 

6-13). In reply, the Buddha gives a long 

description of the wondrous qualities 

of a samadhi (concentration) called 

"Showing the Way of All Dharmas" (pp. 

14-59). He then relates how a number 

of past Buddhas also taught the samddhi, 

how the Buddha Amitayus studied it as 

a bodhisattva, and how he himself 

learned it from Diparpkara (pp. 58-73). 

Such "Mahayanist jatakas" (sometimes 

termed purvayoga) are a common 

device to legitimize the teachings of a 

Mahayana sutra by giving it the 

sanction of past, present, and future 

Buddhas. Pramuditaraja then announces 

that he will devote himself to 

the practice and preservation of the 

samadhi and sutra, even in the face of 

great adversity. This opening section, 

in prose interspersed with verse, 

resembles other Mahayana samadhi 

texts, such as the Pratyutpanna-buddhasal']'lmukhdvasthita-samadhi-sutra, 

which 

seems to be earlier in terms of style and 

contents.9 Since the section ends with 

a description of the effects of the teaching 

on the assembly, and is given a 

separate chapter-heading, "The teachings 

of taking up the Bodhisattva's activities, 

the completely purifying 

actions" (p. 79), it is possible that it was 

originally an independent text. The 

Buddha then relates a further jataka, 

linking the samadhi to the Buddhas 

Amitayus and Ak~obhya, and to 1000 

sons of the latter when he was a 

"chakravartin king" (pp. 80-83). This 

sets the stage for the remainder of the 

text, for it is these 1000 bodhisattvas 

who are to become the 1000 Buddhas 

of the Fortunate Aeon. The Buddha 

praises the "thought of great enlightenment" 

and the samadhi in verse, and 

enters samddhi. 

Pramuditaraja then asks the 

Buddha about the perfections 

(paramita); in reply the Buddha lists 

2100 (pp. 92-115). The rest of volume 

I (pp. 116-477) is taken up by a description 

of these perfections. At the end of 

the section it is stated that the 2100 

become 8400, and that finally there 

are 84,000 perfections. The intimate 

connection between the paramita 

theory and the jataka tradition is shown 

by the number of jatakas referred to by 

name as specific illustrations of individual 

perfections. 10 

Near the beginning of volume II 

the Buddha Sakyamuni lists the names 

of the 1000 Buddhas of the Fortunate 

Aeon (pp. 488-515), and then relates in 

detail their "biographies", in both cases 

in response to requests put by 

Pramuditaraja. Roughly the first 

hundred accounts are in prose, the next 

hundred in verse, followed by a hundred 

in prose, and so on.U Twelve 

particulars are given for each Buddha: 

1) his land or country; 

2) his descent or lineage (jati, 

gotra); 

3) his light, that is, the extent of 

the his halo or radiance 

(prabhd); 

4) the name of his father; 

5) the name of his mother; 

6) the name of his son; 

7) the name of his chief attendant 

(upasthdyaka); 

8) the names of the "supreme 

pair, the excellent pair"

141 

(agrayuga, bhadrayuga) of disciples; 

9) the size and number of his 

monastic assemblies (sanniptita); 

10) his life-span (tiyulwramtirza); 

11) the duration of his dispensation 

(saddharma); 

12) the extent of his relics (dhtitu). 

Classification of this sort goes 

back to the early canonical texts of 

the Sravakayana, such as the Pali 

Mahtipadtina-sutta (Digha-nikiiya 14), 

which gives ten particulars for the 

seven past Buddhas including Gotama, 

including the names of their bodhi-trees, 

an important early concept not given 

in the Bhadrakalpika, and omitting 

numbers 3, 6, 11, and 12 of the latter 

text. The Jtitakanidtina gives similar 

particulars for each past Buddha, 

omitting the same items, and including 

the bodhi-tree and two further details: 

the names of the chief pair of female 

disciples and the Buddha's height. The 

commentary to the Buddhava1Jlsa adds 

further details, to total 22. The 

Theravadin classifications have been 

discussed in detail by I. B. Horner in 

the introductions to her translations of 

the Buddhava1Jlsa (especially pp. xx-lii) 

and its commentary, while a general 

survey is given in the Encyclopaedia of 

BuddhismY The Mahtivastu of the 

Lokottaravadin school follows a 

similar pattern, as do "prophetic" texts 

of various schools for the future Buddha 

Maitreya, and the Theravadins for 

ten future Buddhas in the Dasabodhisattuppattikathti 

and the Dasabodhisattauddesa.B 

Thus the Bhadrakalpika-sutra, 

by doing the same for 1000 Buddhas, 

takes a time-honoured tradition to the 

extreme limit. It is interesting that it 

prefers the cult of relics, and hence the 

caitya or stupa, over that of the bodhi-tree 

of the Theravadin tradition. Both cults 

are equally ancient. 

The account starts with Sakyamuni's 

three predecessors-Krakucchanda, 

Kanakamuni, and Kasyapa 

-plus Saykamuni himself, and then 

Maitreya, first of the future Buddhas, 

all of whom also belong to the Auspicious 

Aeon (pp. 518-523), and who are 

of course common to the traditions of 

all Buddhist schools. Then comes the 

account of the remaining Buddhas, 

which seems to be unique to the present 

sutra. This takes up the remainder of 

volume II (pp. 523-967), all of volume 

III (pp. 968-1447), and the beginning of 

volume IV (pp. 1448-1479). 

Pramuditaraja then asks about 

the first production of the "mind of 

enlightenment" (bodhicitta) by the 

Buddhas of the Auspicious Aeon; in 

reply Sakyamuni describes in verse the 

circumstances of this act for each of the 

Buddhas (pp. 1480-1733: this section 

relates to the past, since all of the 1000 

are already bodhisattvas). (Four examples 

from this section are cited in 

Sanskrit in the Sik{!tisamuccaya 14 and six 

in Tibetan in the Sutrasamuccaya 

attributed to Nagarjuna, 15 in both cases 

in prose: the use of prose and the 

number of variants show that these 

citations are from a different recension 

than that translated into Tibetan.) Since 

in each case the production of the mind 

of enlightenment involves an offering 

or other act of devotion towards a past 

Buddha, 1000 Buddhas of the past are 

named. The section is remarkable for 

the frequently humble status of the 

bodhisattvas and the simplicity of the 

acts of devotion. The sutra concludes 

with a prediction about the number of 

Buddhas to appear in the aeons 

succeeding the Auspicious Aeon, and 

further praises of the samtidhi (pp. 1733- 

1749). 

The Theravadins limited the 

number of Buddhas of the Fortunate 

Aeon to five, a figure supported by the 

early scriptures. According to Dasabalasrimitra, 

the Sammatiyas allotted 

500 Buddhas to the Auspicious Aeon.I 6 

The Mahtivastu of the Lokottaravadin 

branch of the Mahasarp.ghikas is the 

only Sravaka text that I know of that 

gives the figure 1000.17 The concept of 

the 1000 Buddhas of the Fortunate Aeon 

became widely disseminated, and was 

accepted by such important Mahayana 

sutras as the Sura1Jlgamasamtidhi, 18 the 

Vimalakirti-nirdesa, 19 the Saddharmapurz 

{iarika,20 the Tathtigatticintyaguhyanirdesa,21 

the Karurztipurz{farika}2 and the 

Mahtikarurztipurz{farika. 23 Some of these 

sources are discussed by the great 

Tibetan scholar Bu ston in his History 

of Buddhism} 4 and valuable summaries 

of sources are given by Lamotte in 

his notes, by Isshi Yamada in his 

introduction, 25 and by Jean Dantinne.26 

The evidence of the Mahtivastu suggexts 

that the concept might predate the 

Mahayana, and in fact the whole of the 

two sections dealing with the "biographies" 

of the 1000 Buddhas and their 

initial generation of bodhicitta contains 

nothing that is uniquely Mahayanist. 

The "assemblies" of the various 

Buddhas are of arhats rather than 

bodhisattvas. 27 It is therefore possible 

that the Bhadrakalpika-sutra originally 

belonged to the Sravakayana, and was 

"converted" to the Mahayana by the 

addition of the opening sections on 

samtidhi and the ptiramittis. Perhaps 

further research into related Chinese 

sources will clarify this point. 

The text as a whole takes up 1749 

pages; that is, the English translation 

runs to well over 800 pages. Volume 

IV ends with an appendix giving the 

names, Tibetan and Sanskrit, of the 

1000 Buddhas of the Auspicious Aeon 

in order of appearance, followed by 

separate indexes of the Tibetan and 

Sanskrit names, a brief bibliography, a 

glossary, and an index. 

The Fortunate Aeon does not 

pretend to be a scholarly work in the 

technical sense: the Tibetan text is not 

a true critical edition, and the translation 

is not accompanied by philological 

or text-comparative notes. In his 

preface Tarthang Tulku acknowledges 

the difficulties posed by the translation, 

the limitations of the translation team, 

and the preliminary nature of the result, 

stating that the work is offered "as a 

gesture of blessing for those who wish 

to read the sacred texts". Given these 

limitations, the translators may be 

commended for making a long and 

difficult text available to the English 

(and Tibetan) speaking reader. The 

translation, in a "religious" rather than 

"scholastic" style, is based directly on 

the Tibetan translation without taking 

into account the underlying Sanskrit. 28 

It is generally natural and quite readable; 

it succeeds in recreating the grand 

and inspirational sweep of the text. 

There are, of course, inaccuracies and 

errors, and occasional problems with 

the form of the Sanskrit names. On p. 

517, mchog gi zung dang/ bzang po'i zung 

dang is translated as "the foremost follower 

of greatness and foremost of

142 

goodness": it should rather be "the 

foremost pair, the excellent pair" 

(Sanskrit agrayuga, bhadrayuga), which 

refers to the traditional idea that each 

Buddha declares his foremost pair of 

disciples, one foremost in wisdom 

(prajiid), the other in magic power 

(rddhi). This is shown in the prose on 

the following pages, where the translation 

is correct. In the verse sections, 

"one foremost in wisdom" is paraphrased, 

metri causa, by mkhas pa, 

translated as "the one of skill", or blo 

can I blo gros can , rendered as "the one 

with fine intelligence". Here it would 

be clearer if the term "wisdom" were 

retained, or if the concept were 

clarified in a note. 

The bibliography is rather 

general, and does not give some 

important sources such as Bu ston's 

discussion or the introductions to the 

translations of related Pali works, 

mentioned above. I may also add here 

the pioneering description of the siltra 

by Alexander Csoma de Koros in his 

"Analysis of the Mdo", first published 

in Asiatick Researches, Calcutta, 1836- 

1839 (repr. in Analysis of Kanjur, Delhi, 

1982, pp. 109-112); the fragmentary lists 

of names of Bhadrakalpa Buddhas 

published with detailed bibliographical 

notes in Sanskrithandschriften aus 

den Turfanfunden, part 3 (Wiesbaden, 

1971), catalogue nos. 840, 840a, and the 

various references in Alexander Coburn 

Soper's Literary Evidence for Early 

Buddhist Art in China (Ascona, 1959, 

pp. 201-202, etc.). Citations should also 

be taken into account: one in the 

Sik~dsamuccaya (see above), two in the 

Sutrasamuccaya,2 9 and one in Dasabalasrimitra.30 

The glossary too is rather general: 

it seems to have been tacked on from 

another source, since it includes many 

items not relevant to the siltra, such as 

the "forty special meditation subjects," 

a uniquely Theravadin classification. 

On the other hand, it does not give 

definitions of Sanskrit words such as 

pdramita or samadhi, which occur 

repeatedly and are left untranslated. 

The definition of kalpa ("aeon") as "a 

very long period of time" is insufficient 

for a term of such significance to the 

text. 

The edition is sumptuously 

produced-a result of the meeting of 

traditional Tibetan aesthetics with 

modern Western printing and bookbinding 

arts. Each volume has as 

frontispiece a colour reproduction of a 

Tibetan cloth-painting (thangka), as 

endpieces a red line-drawing of one of 

the Four Great Kings and two auspicious 

benedictions in gilt Lantsa 

calligraphy: sarva ma1igala111 and 

jayantu. The page-edges are gilt, the 

endpieces carry the multiple reproduction 

of the ye dharma verse in Sanskrit 

in Lantsa script, and each volume has 

a red ribbon page-marker. At the top 

of about every third pair of pages are 

gilt line drawings, reproduced from the 

gSer-ljong edition, of a pair of Buddhas 

flanking a stilpa; their names are given 

below in Tibetan and Sanskrit. At vol. 

4, p. 1595, the illustrations of Buddhas 

end, and a new series of other figures 

commences: the interlocutor Pramuditaraja, 

assorted deities, disciples or 

elders (sthavira), Indian and Tibetan 

masters, Tibetan kings, and the eight 

stilpas. Here only the Tibetan captions 

are given, in Tibetan and roman script; 

it would, of course, be helpful for the 

general reader to have the Sanskrit 

names. 

The Uddna: Inspired Utterances 

of the Buddha, translated from the 

Pali by JOHN D. IRELAND, 

Buddhist Publication Society, 

Kandy, 1990; 160 pages. 

The Pali text of the Udana edited 

by Paul Steinthal was published by the 

Pali Text Society in 1885; an English 

translation of the Udana by F. L. 

Woodward was published in 1935 

(repr. 1948) in The Minor Anthologies of 

the Pali Canon, Part II, Uddna: Verses of 

Uplift and Itivuttaka: As it was Said. The 

Udana consists of prose stories attached 

to older verses; in some cases the connection 

between the story and the 

verses is tenuous indeed. Nonetheless, 

the Uddna is one of the more accessible 

texts of the Pali canon: the sections are 

brief, and the material is varied, dealing 

with all aspects of the Dhamma 

from ethics to Nibbana. Ireland's style 

is simple, lucid, and accurate, and will 

no doubt be preferred by the contemporary 

reader to Woodward's, which 

contains many archaisms. In particular, 

Ireland's treatment of the technical 

terminology of spiritual practice and 

meditation is clear and natural, making 

his version of the Udana a suitable 

introduction to Buddhism for those 

who want to read directly a canonical 

text. The translation is accompanied 

by a brief introduction (pp. 1-8), notes 

(pp. 125-151), a list of "parallel passages 

and references" (pp. 152-153), a bibliography, 

and a "list of [English] Sutta 

titles". 

NOTES 

1. For the ten perfections, see (in 

Thai) H. R. H. Princess Maha 

Chakri Sirindhorn, Dasapdrami in 

Theravdda Buddhism, Bangkok, 2525 

[1982]. For the Ti'J1lsapdrami, a text 

devoted to the "thirty perfections", 

see George Coedes, Catalogue des 

manuscrits en pdli, laotien et siamois 

provenant de la Thailande, Bibliotheque 

Royale, Copenhagen, 1966, 

pp. 89-91; for a list of titles of 

pdrami texts, see Louis Finot, 

"Recherches sur la litterature 

Laotienne", in Bulletin de l'Ecole 

franr;aise d'Extreme Orient, XVII, 

Hanoi, 1917, p. 72 and p. 196 nos. 

524-528, 536-544. For the Theravadin 

Buddhology in general, see 

Richard Gombrich, "The Significance 

of Former Buddhas in the 

Theravii.din Tradition" and I. B. 

Horner, "Some Notes on the 

Buddhava111sa Commentary (Madhuratthavilasini)", 

in Somaratna 

Balasooriya et al., Buddhist Studies 

in Honour of Walpola Rahula, 

London, 1980, pp. 62-72 and 73-83. 

Also relevant is Andre Bareau's 

"The Place of the Buddha Gautama 

in the Buddhist Religion during 

the Reign of Asoka", in the same 

volume, pp. 1-9. 

2. Regarding the latter, I may add to 

Khoroche's references a Jatakamdla 

mentioned in the Sphu.tarthd 

Srighandcdra-Sa'J1lgraha-_tikd: see 

Sanghasen Singh, A Study of The 

Sphu.tarthd Srighandcdrasangraha-

143 

fikli, Patna, 1983, p. 48.5; tr. J. 

Duncan M. Derrett, A Textbook for 

Novices: Jayaralq;ita's "Perspicuous 

Commentary on the Compendium of 

Conduct by Sri ghana", Turin, 1983, 

pp. 9, 17. 

3. I cannot find any evidence for this 

title in the text under review or 

elsewhere in Mulasarvastivadin 

literature, the only title being the 

concluding de bzhin gshegs pa 'i 

le'u'o (p. 54), "Chapter on the 

Tathagata", that is, the Buddha. 

Thus "Buddhavadana" seems to be 

an invention of the author. 

4. For this work, cf. P. Skilling, "The 

Sarrzskrtasarrzskrta-viniscaya of 

Dasabalasrimitra", in Buddhist 

Studies Review, vol. 4, no. 1, 1987, 

pp. 3-23. 

5. Peking edition of the Tibetan 

Tripifaka, no. 5562, vol. 113, sems 

tsam, si, 131a5 foil. 

6. Translated from the Chinese in 

Carma C. C. Chang, ed., A Treasury 

of Mahayana Sz"Uras: Selections 

from the Maharatnakuta Sutra, Penn 

State, 1983, pp. 442 foil., especially 

pp. 449-452, 457-464. The sutra 

(also available in Tibetan translation) 

also gives many details of the 

traditional life of the Buddha, again 

from a Mahayana standpoint, and 

may be profitably compared with 

the account of the Jatakanidana. 

7. In addition, the brief citation by 

Dasabalasrimitra shows that a 

similar version of the event was 

transmitted by the Sammatiya 

school. 

8. I regret that I am unable to offer 

alternate translations in French. 

The Tibetan is transcribed differently 

from the "Francophonic 

system" of the text, in order to 

avoid the use of diacritics. 

9. See the review of Paul Harrison's 

translation in JSS, Vol. 79.2, 1991, 

pp. 152-156. 

10. The paramita theory, which is accepted 

in some form or other by 

the known Sravaka schools, may 

be seen as a development within 

the early jtitnkn tradition, as 

elaborated by the "jataka-reciters" 

(bharzaka). It predates the rise of 

the Mahayana, which took the 

jataka-paramita tradition, originally 

confined to Sakyamuni (or the 

other early "historical" Buddhas) as 

the basis for its prescriptive and 

universalist description of the 

bodhisattva path. To suggest that 

references to the paramitas betray a 

Mahayana influence is therefore to 

put the cart before the ox. For a 

discussion of this and related 

points, see Anthony K. Warder, 

"Original" Buddhism and Mahayana, 

Pubblicazioni di "Indologica Taurinensia" 

XVI, Turin, 1983. 

11. The breakdown, by sequential 

numbers of the Buddhas, is as 

follows: prose 1-99, 202-301, 

402-502, 604-703, 804-903; verse 

100-201, 302-401, 503-603, 704-803, 

904-1004. The use of verse 

probably explains some of the 

variation in the names of the 

Buddhas between the three lists 

(see remarks at vol. 4, p. 1752). 

12. Vol. III, fasc. 3,1973, "Buddha", esp. 

pp. 358-361. Cf. also Hobogirin, 

dictionnaire encyclopedique du 

bouddhisme d'apres les sources 

chinoises et japonaises, 3rd fascicule, 

Paris, 1974, pp. 195-196 ("Butsu"). 

13. The first-named translated and 

edited by H. Saddhatissa, The Birthstories 

of the Ten Bodhisattas and the 

Dasabodhisattuppattikatha, and 

published by the Pali Text Society, 

London, 1975, the second by Fran 

144 



Paris: Fayard, 1991 

586 pp., ill., FF 150 

ISBN 2-213-02719-6 

This voluminous study by the Belgian 

Professor Dirk Van der Cruysse 

on Louis XIV and Siam came out in 

Paris in September 1991. By its appearance 

and contents it promises to attract 

considerable interest and to remain for 

years to come a basic synthetic contribution 

on this fascinating as well as 

turbulent chapter of Franco-Siamese 

relations. The author being a historian 

specializing in the French 17th century, 

with broad exposure, as it appears, to 

the Asian world as well, his endeavour 

rested from the start on solid foundations 

and so the final outcome achieves 

a natural success. 

The story has been told time and 

again and from so many angles or so 

variously fragmented that an all-embracing 

synthetical attempt at recapitulation 

seems most welcome and appropriate. 

The author has done it very 

satisfactorily, exhausting almost every 

available source, whether in archives 

and libraries of Paris, The Hague or 

Rome. All those familiar with the subject 

are aware of the extreme difficulty 

of evaluating and combining the available 

historical evidence, which is, unfortunately, 

mainly European due to the 

almost complete silence of the Siamese 

sources. (The Revolution of 1688 and 

especially the destruction of the 

Siamese archives in the Burmese fires 

which engulfed Ayudhya in 1767, 

condemn forever any historian or researcher 

to only a partial access at reconstituting 

the sequence of events at 

the time of the reign of Phra Narai.) 

The point to underline is that the 

Belgian author not only manages to 

present to his readers a well organized 

and deeply researched historical narrative, 

but also to do this in a vivid style 

where irony is often made a tool for 

very down-to-earth conclusions, after 

unavoidable long and "dry" juxtapositions 

of materials and testimonies. The 

text thus becomes always interesting 

and pleasant and the reader is helped 

to forget the distance in time and to 

acquire a feeling of live participation 

in the unfolding of the drama. The work 

is definitely scholarly but this vivid, 

personal style makes its reading flow 

as a fascinating mosaic of historical biographies. 

The organization of the study is, 

generally, what it should be: After an 

overview of the Portuguese, Dutch and 

British presence in Siam (which, incidentally, 

covers by necessity almost 

one-fifth of the entire work), the author 

deals extensively with missionaries, 

apostolic vicars, merchants, diplomats, 

examining closely the Siamese 

embassies to France and the French 

embassies to Siam, sparing no detail of 

their splendor as well as their shortcomings. 

Naturally, the three main 

protagonists, Louis XIV, Narai and the 

Greek Favorite, Constantine Phaulkon, 

are given due pre~minence. Then comes 

tragic catharsis and final disillusionment 

at the time of the dramatic Revolution 

of 1688. Extensive notes, 

chronological tables, indexes and bibliography 

complement the narrative 

most usefully. 

This is the general framework in a 

brief summarization. But what is the 

author's position with regard to this 

most complex historical chapter? 

Obviously, his intention is to be 

guided by testimonies and texts and 

present the picture, particularly of 

Constance, as objectively as possible. 

The general dichotomy of relevant 

sources is well known to the students 

of the period: British and Dutch in most 

cases incriminating, French again in 

most cases "eulogizing," and further 

subdivisions within the French camp 

between Jesuits and members of the 

Seminary. The Belgian historian mentions 

everybody, often presenting us 

with both shades of the contrast, and 

leaving us with the final aftertaste of 

his own irony. 

It would be delicate to try to summarize 

his basic opinions but this is 

necessary for the purposes of this review: 

- Narai: An enlighted despot much 

ahead of his times. 

-The French: Unduly emphasizing 

- in those times of reversal of the 

Edict of Nantes-the paramount need 

for religious conversion of Narai and 

later embarking on the disastrous idea 

of Siam's colonization. 

- Phaulkon: Extraordinarily gifted 

but cunning and an adventurer, from 

the beginning to end. 

-Father Tachard: The most dangerous 

grey eminence, the Jesuit turned 

diplomat, often exceeding his instructions. 

- General Desfarges: A weak character, 

instrumental in Phaulkon's 

downfall. 

- Phetracha: Usurper but incarnating 

the nationalistic and Buddhist feelings 

of the Siamese. 

The table could go on and on but 

it would be better to let the reader enjoy 

the presentation of the text himself and 

draw his own conclusions. One last 

point is nevertheless fundamental: Prof. 

Van der Cryusse's commendable 

analysis of the diametrically opposed 

concepts of religious tolerance and intolerance 

of the Siamese and the French 

respectively. 

It would not be easy to find fault 

with the above framework and basic 

approaches and conclusions. Having 

expressed our concurrence, in general, 

we would like nevertheless to offer 

some differing nuances on some specific 

points, as a contribution to the 

overall discussion. 

First, a minor chronological correction: 

The Dutch Factory at Ayudhya 

was not established in 1607 (p. 62), but 

in 1608 (pp. 64 and 490). 

The reference (just one paragraph 

on p. 75) to the Japanese presence in 

Ayudhya could perhaps be slightly 

expanded, to be in line with the overall 

pre-French alien presence there. And 

this even more as a measure of comparison 

between the notorious leader 

of the Japanese community, Yamada 

Nagamasa, and Phaulkon, and the 

former's involvement in the Siamese 

exercise of power, some decades before 

the advent of the latter. 

Although the term "interlude," 

used by the author, is appropriate especially 

with the famous Persian Embassy 

sent to Siam in 1685, I would 

rather hesitate to use it in connection 

with Siam itself (p. 93) since developments 

there constituted a "constant"

145 

dimension of the overall Franco-Siamese 

encounter and cannot be viewed 

as an "interval." On the other hand, we 

do not see any corresponding "French 

interlude," and rightly so. (This remark 

pertains of course only to form, and 

finally the author himself-and again 

rightly so-justifies the modest scope 

of his Persian interlude, v. p. 307). 

Regarding Narai's preference for 

Lopburi, the author seems to dismiss 

the old explanation of Prince Damrong 

(i.e. because of the threat of the Dutch) 

and subscribes to other interpretations 

which emerged at the historical seminar 

at Lopburi in 1979. Indeed, such 

opinions were voiced there, but it is not 

certain that there is yet unanimity on 

the subject: Manich Jumsai} and Prof. 

Rong Syamananda 2 writing in 1981, 

seem still to point to the Dutch factor. 

Some slight corrections regarding 

references to events in Japan seem to 

be in order: Franc;ois Caron, writes Van 

der Cruysse (p. 126), became director 

at Hirado in 1639, one year before the 

xenophobic Sakoku, culminating in the 

expulsion of the Portuguese and the 

transfer of the Dutch factory to Deshima. 

In reality, Sakoku found expression 

in the three famous edicts of 

1633, 1635 and 1639; the Portuguese 

were expelled in 1639; and the Dutch 

went to Deshima in 1641. 3 

Also, the reference to the "Christian 

insurrection of Nagasaki in 1637" 

is an oversimplification of a largely debatable 

episode of Japanese history: it 

was indeed the "Shimabara insurrection," 

which, despite some Christian 

connotations, was essentially a peasants' 

revolt. 4 • 5 • 6 

While I fully endorse the author's 

treatment of the subject of Buddhist 

tolerance, I would go even further regarding 

King Asoka: Not only he did 

not "impose" the Dharma on anyone by 

force, but he himself turned to the solace 

of Buddhism after reflecting on the 

bloody battlefield of Kalinga. 

There is a slight reservation concerning 

Jacques de Bourges's ignorance 

of the "devaraja" character of Siamese 

kings (p. 172). While this was true in 

the time of Narai, it was not the case 

during the previous Sukhothai period 

when the monarch, according to the 

traditional interpretation of the Ram 

Khamhaeng inscription, was more paternalistic. 

A more serious objection would 

have to be formulated in reference to 

the point that "Narai's indifference with 

regard to Buddhism" caused a conspiracy 

by "Talapoins" (p. 191). Whereas 

there was indeed some uneasiness 

among the Buddhist clergy, I am afraid 

that the wording of the sentence goes 

too far: Narai did manifest great interest 

and tolerance towards Christianity but 

this never made him reject his basic 

Buddhist beliefs. (Cf. his own eloquent 

defense of 2229 Buddhist years on p. 

359 and the remarks of Prof. Rong 

Syamananda about Narai's Buddhist 

adherence.) 

The evaluation of Phaulkon (in 

"Interlude Grec" as well as in many relevant 

references) claims objective analytical 

research and it is true that both 

sides of the portrait are shown. But in 

the end, the author hardly disguises his 

disapproval of the royal Favorite. One 

may agree or disagree, but this is a legitimate 

option of the author. After all, 

for more than 300 years, the personality 

of "the Greek in Siam" has challenged 

complete impartiality of judgement, 

making some incline favourably 

towards him and most against him ... 

My only objection here would be regarding 

the partial use of a reference 

to Phaulkon in a neutral way (p. 224), 

whereas the same source can definitely 

be interpreted as clear praise for 

Constance: This is the summary of the 

History of Siam by King Mongkut 8 

where Phaulkon's portrait emerges in 

the most positive way from the pen of 

this enlightened Siamese Monarch of 

the middle of the 19th century. 

The Persian Embassy of Shah 

Suleiman was not heading towards 

Shahr Nav, "Siam" in the sense of the 

country (p. 296), but towards Shar Nav, 

"Siam" in the sense of A yudhya, as is 

correctly mentioned on page 300. This 

is just to avoid the well-known confusion 

regarding the use of the term 

"Siam" in those times. 

The question of which is the authentic 

text of Kosa Pan's diary, the text 

of the Rue du Bac (p. 378 sq.) or the 

one published in 1990 by Prof. M. 

Smithies/ presents us with another 

interesting scholarly dilemma. It is indeed 

sad that we have not been able to 

locate, so far, the complete and authoritative 

version of such a valuable 

Siamese testimony. Perhaps one day 

some lucky scholar will finally come 

across some copy in one of the neighbouring 

countries of Siam, if Narai had 

indeed forwarded it there, to one of his 

then allies, as per the wishes of Kosa 

Pan (v. p. 402). 

With reference to the one hundred 

"slaves" allocated by Phaulkon to the 

Jesuits, and to the author's ironical remark 

on "slavery" versus "eternity" (p. 

428), it should of course be accepted 

but also qualified: the connotation of 

"slavery" in the western world does not 

correspond exactly to the much milder 

Siamese version. 

The author's endorsement of 

Phetracha (p. 450) as "champion of traditional 

Siamese values, of threatened 

Buddhism and of national independence," 

is, in my opinion, leaning too 

much on the other side of the whole 

argument. An extreme idealization of a 

nationalist, certainly, but also a usurper 

whose thirst for power was even 

greater than his antiforeign feelings. 

This is, incidentally, a permanent danger 

when one tries to draw more a less 

absolute lines regarding the protagonists 

of this strange story, where so 

much lies in the grey area, far from both 

entirely black or white ... 

Where I would be completely unable 

to agree with the author is his attempt 

(p. 462) at proving the famous 

"English Catholic's" dismissal of 

Phaulkon's harmonious married life 

through the well-known quotation from 

the strange and isolated testimony of 

Engelbert Kaempfer: when Phaulkon 

had fallen from grace, the 17th century 

writer mentions that his wife "spit in 

his face." I think that a "mise au point" 

becomes necessary here: First, the private 

life of the hero is rather irrelevant 

to the story. Second, Kaempfer's testimony, 

based on Dutch sources, is in 

certain points even factually wrong (e.g. 

the events of the Revolution happened 

"in 1689"-instead of 1688). 1 ° Finally, 

regarding the "spitting in his face," suffice 

it to mention the refutation by not 

a Jesuit but a British historian,

146 

Anderson: 11 "In view of her [Mrs 

Phaulkon's] Christian character and 

kindly womanly nature ..., a story told 

by Kaempfer to her discredit had better 

be left untold." 

After these short remarks on the 

main part of the book, we come now to 

examine the notes and the bibliography. 

The notes occupy some 36 pages 

and are definitely to be read as they 

provide a most useful background to 

the central narrative. They are accurate 

and they prove the enormous and conscientious 

effort of the author to locate 

and analyze his numerous sources. I 

would only wish to add a footnote on 

the basic testimony of Pere Le Blanc 

(note 22 on p. 534). The other available 

manuscript at the Municipal Library of 

Dijon, mentioned here passim, had already 

been extensively analyzed by 

Hutchinson12 in 1968. Moreover, there 

is an Italian translation of Le Blanc's 

work, edited in 1695 in MilanY 

Turning to the bibliography, I think 

that it will usefully serve many future 

researchers on the subject. It is very 

ample and well presented, almost 

exhaustive. Of course, most of it is already 

known to the specialist but there 

are numerous noteworthy references to 

manuscript sources in the Paris National 

Archives, the Paris National Library, 

the Quai d'Orsay, the archives 

of "Missions Etrangeres" as well as 

manuscripts in The Hague and in 

Rome. Moreover this bibliography is 

not only adressed to the specialist but 

also to the enlightened general reader 

and as such it can certainly and greatly 

facilitate his further research. 

It is a well accepted rule that the 

choice of the bibliographical material 

belongs to the writer. The critic has very 

small margins of legitimacy to question 

the author's choices. As far as this reviewer 

is concerned, the bibliography 

is most satisfactory with only some 

minor suggestions: 

Some of the books mentioned do 

not have a direct connection with the 

central topic of the work (Louis XIV 

and Siam). Therefore they should rather 

be presented in an independent subdivision 

(for instance R. Knox: An Historical 

Relation of Ceylon; Matteo Ricci: 

Histoire de 1' expedition chretienne au 

royaume de Chine; L. Frederic: Sudest 

asiatique ... etc). In this way, the main 

references to the central topic could be 

more easily located. 

One fundamental work which is 

missing is Hutchinson's 1688: Revolution 

in Siam, the Memoir of P. de Beze. 

Prof. Van der Cruysse rightly draws 

from the relevant publication of the 

Salesian Press of Tokyo, 1947, but 

Hutchinson's work provides many 

additional interesting remarks on de 

Beze and many interesting appendices 

worth discussing. 

In a reverse case, Vander Cruysse 

mentions a work but refrains from 

making any use of it in his text. This is 

Luang Sitsayamkan's historic biography 

of Phaulkon which, although based on 

French sources, is interesting for its Thai 

writer's remarks and conclusions, favourable 

to Narai and to Phaulkon in 

general. 

This reviewer is conscious that 

over-dissection of such a monumental 

work as that of Prof. Vander Cruysse's 

may perhaps be blamed as stressing the 

limits of criticism. By his doing so it 

does not mean that he detracts from 

his praise at the beginning of these 

notes. The work is basically solid and 

very good. If there are occasional slight 

disagreements, the reason is the controversial 

character of some of the main 

protagonists of the story and the contradictions 

of the sources themselves. 

Everybody wishes to examine the 

drama of 1688 dispassionately, but at 

the end, perhaps subconsciously, he 

tends to lean, slightly or more, to one 

or the other side. The Belgian professor 

revives the overall unending discussion, 

attempting to capture the Truth, already 

elusive for 300 years. 


Former 

Ambassador of Greece in Thailand 

NOTES 

1. Manich Jumsai. Phra Narai, Roi de Siam, 

Bangkok: 1986, p. 44. 

2. Rong Syamananda. A History of Thailand, 

Bangkok: 1981, p. 76. 

3. George Sansom. A History of Japan, 

Stanford: 1963, III, p. 36. 

4. Ibid. III, p. 38. 

5. C.R. Boxer. The Christian Century in 

Japan, Univ. of Calif. Press, 1967, p. 377. 

6. Franc;ois Toussaint. Histoire du Japon, 

Paris: 1969, p. 258. 

7. Rong Syamananda. op. cit. p. 77. 

8. Sir John Bowring. The Kingdom and 

People of Siam, London: 1857, p. 341 sq. 

9. Michael Smithies. The Siamese Embassy 

to the Sun King, Bangkok: 1990. 

10. Engelbert Kaempfer. "A Description of 

the Kingdom of Siam," in Itineraria Asiatica, 

pp. 31-32. Bangkok: White Orchid Press, 1987 

(reprint). 

11. John Anderson. English Intercourse with 

Siam in the 17th Century, p. 372. London: 

1890. 

12. E.W. Hutchinson. 1688: Revolution in 

Siam. Hong Kong: 1968, p. xiii. 

13. Jeremias Van Vliet. Historiael Verhael der 

Sieckte Ende ... Toyo Bunco: 1958. 



Paris: Fayard, 1991 

586 pp., ill., FF 150 

ISBN 2-213-02719-6 

The title of this major work of 

scholarship is somewhat misleading. It 

is essentially a survey of Siamese-farang 

relations in the sixteenth and seventeenth 

centuries, though concentrating 

on the period of the Siamese and 

French embassies between 1680 and 

1688. It covers the early Portuguese, 

Dutch and English contacts, the establishment 

of the Catholic missions, the 

rise of Phaulkon, and the final debacle 

with the seizure of power of Petracha 

and the retreat of the French from their 

forts in Bangkok and Mergui. 

Most of this (including the embassy 

of Hussein Beg from Persia) is 

familiar territory. But the importance 

of Dr. Vander Cruysse's work lies not 

only in bringing it all together in one 

volume, but in the access he has had to 

hitherto unpublished archival sources. 

Some of these, notably the Ceberet

147 

journal and Tachard's "Relation", not to 

be confused with his published first and 

second voyages, were used by Michel 

Jacq-Hergoualc'h in his magisterial 

edition of the original French text of La 

Loubere which appeared in 1987 (reviewed 

inJSS in Vol. 77, Pt.1, 1989). But 

Van der Cruysse has also used the 

"Lettre d'un anglais catholique" in the 

Rue du Bac, has used and translated 

extracts of the hitherto little known (and 

so far unpublished in toto in French or 

English) "Journal de Brest" of Kosa Pan, 

the Memoires of Le Blanc in the Jesuit 

archives in Rome, Dhiravat na 

Pombejra's London Ph.D. thesis of 1984, 

has carefully analysed the Memoires of 

Vachet and Challes, and above all has 

had access to all the Dutch records, both 

archival and published. 

The early story of the western 

contacts may not be so well known. 

They admirably set the scene, and Van 

der Cruysse makes full use of the text 

of a fellow-countryman, Jacques de 

Coutre from Bruges, who visited Siam 

in 1595-6, and whose account was published, 

in Flemish, by V erberckmoes 

and Stols in 1988. The establishment of 

the VOC "factory" in A yudhya and the 

comings and goings of the less successful 

British one are also carefully recorded. 

Van der Cruysse makes clear that 

the northern Europeans were interested 

in trade (put more crudely, profit) and 

not much else. The Portuguese who 

preceded them also had the same motive, 

but as their material importance 

declined, they placed increasing emphasis 

on faith rather than the factory. 

The treaty of 1516 gave the Portuguese 

in Siam the right to practice their religion; 

they supplied arms to the Siamese 

kings and established a merchant community 

in Ayudhya, cared for by Dominican 

priests. A pope had earlier 

thoughtfully divided the world into 

Spanish and Portuguese spheres of influence 

and the Ius Patronatus gave the 

Portuguese crown authority in religious 

affairs from the Cape to Japan. The establishment 

of the Jesuits in 1534 and 

their appearance in Siam in the early 

seventeenth century (the first, Sequeria, 

died in Petchaburi in 1609) was to 

challenge the Portuguese Padroado. 

The establishment in Paris of the Missions 

Etrangeres and their subsequent 

appearance in Siam in 1662, enhanced 

with the titles of bishops (in partibus, it 

is true), was to lead to serious religious 

disputes. The Vicars Apostolic were 

astonished at the tolerance which prevailed 

in Siam; for the most part, the 

Catholic missionaries and Jesuits 

showed little tolerance towards each 

other. This was hardly calculated to 

inspire the confidence of outsiders in 

the new religion which was clearly rent 

with all manner of internal schisms. 

The movement towards the climax 

of the period with the exchange of 

embassies is very clearly presented. The 

first Siamese embassy to Louis XIV was 

lost in the Indian Ocean; without any 

news of it, Narai, presumably at 

Phaulkon's urging, sent what Van de 

Cruysse calls a mini-embassy, not to the 

king, but to his ministers, particularly 

the Marquis de Seignelay, the minister 

of state for what were effectively overseas 

relations. The record of the missionary 

Vachet, sent as interpreter, is 

used to recount the difficulties of this 

mission: the two Siamese refused to go 

anywhere, refused to socialize, and 

were constantly scandalized at farang 

habits and customs. Louis XIV expressly 

requested their presence at the 

opera. "I had to tell them twice that they 

had to stand when His Majesty entered; 

he had the grace to turn towards them 

and greet them. The Dauphin and all 

the court did likewise, and it was only 

with much difficulty that I could get 

them to return the compliment. It is 

hard to believe that throughout the 

performance they neither looked at the 

King nor the actors, but kept their eyes 

cast down, except to glance from time 

to time at the exit." Since they were 

treated more like creatures from outer 

space than envoys, their attitude can in 

some ways hardly be blamed. Details 

of this mission have not hitherto been 

generally available and Van der 

Cruysse gives an excellent summary of 

it. 

The next three embassies, two 

French, one Siamese, are much better 

known, and records abound; Vander 

Cruysse points out that few journeys 

were so well recorded as the 

Chaumont-Choisy mission of 1685-6; 

apart from the accounts of the two 

ambassadors, there were also those of 

Bouvet, Vachet, Forbin and that genius 

of intrigue, Tachard. Apart from the 

accounts of Bouvet and Vachet, which 

appeared much later, the rest were 

published almost immediately on the 

return of the embassy (Forbin's with 

some delay) and, with the exception of 

Choisy-an exception which Oxford 

University Press is remedying next 

year-translated contemporaneously 

into English. 

But how little all three embassies 

accomplished. The first obtained some 

rights in relation to the practice of religion, 

but these rights were never 

publicized by Phaulkon, and the commercial 

advantages were of no consequence. 

Chaumont himself was hardly 

the model of diplomatic flexibility. The 

two subsequent embassies were rendered 

ineffective from the start by the 

machinations of the Jesuit Tachard, 

whose hot line to the king's confessor 

and orders which overrode those given 

to La Loubere and Ceberet made a 

mockery of the missions themselves. 

His secret dealings with Phaulkon 

made the position of both Siamese and 

French ambassadors untenable, and his 

increasing paranoia and self-importance 

were intolerable. 

The final debacle is well known, 

but the different threads are carefully 

pulled together and the motives of the 

actors in the ultimate tragedy convincingly 

analysed. The arch-schemer 

Phaulkon, who all along appears to 

have sought the French alliance to back 

up his own position (the fragility of 

which he well recognized) rather than 

to counterbalance Dutch power, falsified 

the situation from the beginning 

by holding out the bait of Narai's conversion. 

Versailles was equally to blame 

in accepting the likelihood of this conversion 

(though how much this was 

clouded by possible commercial and 

colonial advantages, particularly after 

the signal lack of success in the settlement 

of Madagascar, is unclear). Yet 

when the climax came, Phaulkon gave 

up the chance of an easy escape; apparently 

feeling his place was beside 

the dying king, he went to the palace 

in Lopburi and knowingly his death, 

after dreadful tortures.

148 

The different Frenchmen in the 

denouement come out worse, with the 

possible exception of Mgr. Laneau, the 

Bishop of Metellopolis, who also was 

tortured and imprisoned, and eventually 

resumed his post in A yudhya, 

where he died in 1696. Tachard is 

clearly the arch-villain of the piece, 

encouraging false hopes and vainglorious 

of his position first as secret envoy 

of France, then as declared Siamese 

envoy to Louis XIV and the pope, inciting 

discord among the missionaries, 

and conveniently out of harm's way 

when the crunch came. Desfarges, the 

French general, was throughout despicable, 

and his treatment of Phaulkon's 

widow Marie Guimard (who was to 

spend years as a slave in Phetracha's 

stables) scandalized even his own officers; 

still, he had his deserts, after the 

withdrawal via Mergui, the pointless 

attack on Phuket, and his recall, by 

dying on the return journey, with his 

sons and his not inconsiderable personal 

fortune (possibly augmented by 

some of Phaulkon's wealth) sinking 

without trace off the coast of Brittany. 

Even the Abbe de Lionne, often represented 

as a saintly figure, is shown to 

be otherwise in these pages. His own 

superior wrote to him saying he was 

accused "of the death of Mr. Constance, 

of the misfortune which befell the 

French, and of the reversal which had 

occurred in matters of religion in Siam." 

Seeing the going was getting rough, 

Lionne made his escape from Siam 

while he could, "abandoning Mgr. 

Laneau and his colleagues to their sad 

fate." Veret, the representative of the 

French Indies Company, was only interested 

in his pocket and his skin. 

Many of the Siamese in the drama 

fared no better. Narai's favourite and 

possibly chosen successor, Phra Pi, was 

executed and his stinking head hung 

around Phaulkon under torture; the 

king, now a prisoner in his own palace, 

died the day after he heard his two 

half-brothers had been killed by 

Phetracha's son Sorasak. Kosa Pan 

became for a time Phra Klang, had his 

nose cut off in a fit of anger by the 

usurper Phetracha, and died (or committed 

suicide) in disgrace. 

None of this is new, but the material 

is assembled in a consummately 

readable and analytic fashion. Vander 

Cruysse tries to see all sides of the picture; 

his sifting through all the contradictory 

"facts" relating to Phaulkon's 

background is eminently balanced. One 

is forced to reflect on the absurdity of 

the whole proposal (pointed out quite 

early on by La Bruyere, apparently 

emphasized throughout by Forbin), and 

on the danger of mixing the traffic in 

goods with that in souls. The number 

of fortunes which disappeared beneath 

the waters-the lavish presents to Louis 

XIV in the Soleil d'Orient, the assets and 

person of Caron outside Lisbon in 1673, 

the wealth of Desfarges and quite likely 

Phaulkon in the Oriflamme among 

others - also underlines the fact that 

travel on these journeys was not only 

long and uncomfortable, but also 

dangerous and occasionally fatal. 

A careful reading of the textual 

sources cited here should give both the 

librarian and the publications officers 

of the Siam Society a rich supply of 

additional material deserving of being 

either acquired or published, reissued, 

and/ or translated. And it is still surprising 

that no Hollywood mogul has 

yet hit upon this most fascinating and 

improbable of historical dramas. It is 

to be hoped that Dirk Vander Cruysse 

has secured the film rights. 


c/o United Nations-ESCAP 

Bangkok 

Etude historique et critique 

du "Journal du Voyage de 

Siam de Claude Ceberet," 

Envoye extraordinaire du Roi 

en 1687 et 1688 

MICHEL JACQ-HERGOUALC'H 

Paris: Editions l'Harmattan, 1992 

360 pp., no price given 

After a a mere 304 years, Ceberet's 

text of his and La Loubere's embassy 

has at last been published, and who 

better than Michel Jacq-Hergoualc'h to 

present it, after his editing of the new 

French version of La Loubere which 

appeared in 1987. This was reviewed 

in JSS vol. 77 pt. 1 (1989), when a plea 

was made for the publication of 

Ceberet; now we have it. 

It has been known about for a long 

time, and was used by Lanier in the 

last century, by Vander Cruysse in his 

recent Louis XIV et le Siam, and of course 

by Jacq-Hergoualc'h himself in his edition 

of La Loubere, where extracts from 

it showed more clearly than La 

Loubere's discreet text the incredible 

difficulties the joint embassy laboured 

under, and the inexcusable behaviour 

of Tachard throughout. 

It does not, by itself, come to a 

massive text, running to 111 printed 

pages, with 30 pages of biographical 

and historical notes preceding the main 

text, and no less than 424 footnotes 

(filling 189 pages), as well as a chronology, 

bibliography and very complete 

index. 

La Loubere's text needs no introduction, 

and provides the best summary 

of information about Siam available 

at the time. But though he was in 

charge of the diplomatic and religious 

aspects of the mission, he rarely mentions 

anything in relation to it. Ceberet, 

as one of the twelve directors of the 

Compagnie Franc;aise des Indes 

Orientales, was in charge of the mission's 

commercial aspects. Nearly 

everyone of consequence in Versailles 

was dissatisfied with the commercial 

treaty brought back by Chaumont and 

Choisy's mission of 1685-6; neither of 

the ambassadors was acquainted with 

business, and V eret, in charge of the 

French "comptoir" or godown in 

Ayudhya, was both incompetent and 

venal. Ceberet's mastery of commercial 

niceties is very clear in the complex 

arrangements relating to Phaulkon's 

entry into the Compagnie, adding 

300,000 livres (or 100,000 ecus) to 

its capital. 

The mission of the envoys extraordinary 

(who were not given the title of 

ambassadors, a subject of much 

protocolar dispute during the reception 

of the mission) was a disaster, thanks 

to the presence of the Jesuit Father 

Tachard. While the hierarchy between 

La Loubere and Ceberet was established, 

that between them and Tachard 

was not. Neither was the position of

149 

General Desfarges clear: did he obey 

the King of Siam, his minister, 

Phaulkon, as of course his minister 

wished, or the King of France's envoys? 

(In the end he obeyed none of them, 

and bears much of the blame for the 

fiasco which was to occur). 

Desfarges' idiocy comes out very 

clearly in this text. He was asked by 

La Loubere and Ceberet early on 

"if, according to the plans and reports 

made to him about Bangkok, 

he considered it possible to undertake 

its attack, to which he only 

replied that if he were put before 

Bangkok with his troops, he would 

die at his post, to which I replied 

that it was not a question of dying 

but of knowing if the enterprise 

was feasible ..." 

Before Ceberet returned to France, via 

Mergui and Pondichery, leaving La 

Loubere to complete the unhappy embassy 

alone, he spoke to Desfarges, 

pointing out that the Marquis de 

Seignelay, the Minister of the Marine 

charged with this affair, might ask him 

about the condition of the Bangkok fort 

and if the French troops there were "in 

safety and out of insult." Desfarges 

unhelpfully replied "He would defend 

himself well in that place, even though 

it was poor." Ceberet pressed his point: 

was it in a position to be defended? 

"He replied he would defend himself 

behind a gauze curtain. I then 

told him I was not asking if he 

would defend himself, being well 

persuaded of his valour and experience, 

but I was requesting him to 

tell me if the fort of Bangkok was 

in a position to withstand an attack. 

He did not wish to add anything, 

except that he would do his 

duty." 

One cannot wonder that at this point 

Ceberet gave up; reasoning with a buffalo 

would have been equally productive. 

But the position of Tachard was 

more equivocal. The Instructions to the 

envoys stated: 

"His Majesty desires that they send 

back the envoys of the King of 

Siam on local boats to be found on 

the spot, with whom they would 

send Father Tachard, to whom His 

Majesty had graciously given a 

letter of credence in reply to that 

of sire Constance, to which the 

instructions he will receive from 

the sires La Loubere and Ceberet 

should be relative. They should 

therefore give him an instructive 

memoir of all that he should propose 

to the said sire Constance ..." 

Given such ambiguity, it is not surprising 

that Tachard took full advantage of 

it. Father d'Espagnac, Ceberet notes, 

publicly stated that Phaulkon 

"considered us as persons to whom 

the king had given an apparent 

position of rank which the reverend 

father could not publicly undertake 

because of his religious 

character, but that for the negotiation 

of the embassy he would only 

deal with Father Tachard with 

whom he would obtain better results 

than with us ..." 

Tachard took as much as he dared into 

his own hands, negotiating directing 

with Phaulkon (Monsieur Constance 

throughout in the text, though Tachard 

objected that he should be referred to 

as "Monseigneur"). He openly announced 

to the envoys that he was 

conveying Phaulkon's wishes to them. 

They replied that they 

"were surprised he waited on the 

orders of Mr. Constance to communicate 

matters in which the king 

[Louis XIV] had interest. He replied 

brusquely that the commission 

of the king was complete, that 

His Majesty had only ordered him 

to disembark first and to effect the 

entry of His Majesty's troops into 

Bangkok. Our astonishment at 

hearing the father speak in such a 

manner prevented us from replying, 

apart from the fact that the 

conversation would have become 

heated if we had continued with 

it." 

Their astonishment was to be still 

greater when they discovered that 

Tachard had signed commissions from 

Phaulkon to the French commanders as 

Phaulkon's secretary. Tachard moved 

completely into Phaulkon's camp, and 

acted only as his mouthpiece to the 

envoys, who never came into contact 

with the minister until a few days before 

their formal presentation at court. 

The protracted negotiations continued 

through this far from impartial third 

force. He then announced that he had 

charge of explaining to Louis XIV what 

he had undertaken and to bring him 

all documents concerning his intermediation. 

"Do you not," he said to us, "have 

orders to follow my advice?" 

We replied simply, no, to which 

he relied he too had no orders to 

obey us, and wanted to see the 

article in our instructions which 

said we would send him to disembark 

first and would give him our 

instructions. He argued over the 

distinction between instruction and 

order and we replied that we had 

only this article concerning this 

matter and did not pretend to 

more. 

"This article," he went on, "implies 

that you will not act without me." 

"So," we replied, "do you pretend, 

in that case, that orders come from 

you or from us?" 

"I pretend to nothing." 

All this is quite extraordinary; Tachard's 

self-importance must have gone to his 

head. Matters were not helped by 

Tachard being named, early on in these 

negotiations, as the ambassador of King 

Narai to Louis XIV and the Pope, and 

thus to return with La Loubere on an 

equal footing. His effrontery knew no 

bounds, nor did his servility. When, 

after the presentation in A yudhya and 

the now routine trip to Lopburi, the 

envoys stayed rather late at Phaulkon's 

residence discussing details, Phaulkon 

sent Tachard into his kitchens to order 

supper for those present. Not only did 

he act as Phaulkon's secretary, but even 

his butler. 

The text gives fascinating insights 

into Phaulkon's complex and arrogant 

character. He appears as choleric as La 

Loubere and far more demanding. This 

Greek upstart, who started his career 

as a cabin boy, was behaving like the 

nabob he had become. Clever he undoubtedly 

was, a gifted linguist (though 

Ceberet snidely notes that when he 

translated La Loubere's discourse to 

King Narai, he did so "in very few 

words"), an acute businessman (seen 

here in his dealings relating to his entry 

into the Compagnie des Indes), but 

apparently so blind to his exposed

150 

position that he could not see the house 

of cards about him as ready to collapse 

at one puff of wind. Power and selfimportance 

seem to have gone to his 

head as well. 

There are two other fascinating 

facts to emerge from this text. One is 

that French intentions were not as 

peaceful as they appeared. The envoys' 

instructions stated: 

"If a change of government which 

might have occurred since the departure 

of the ambassadors 

[Chaumont and Choisy], or a 

change in the wishes of the King 

of Siam, took away all hope of 

succeeding through negotiation, 

His Majesty has resolved in this 

case to attack Bangkok and to make 

himself master of it by open force, 

and he will give his orders to sire 

Desfarges on this subject, through 

which he will explain that he 

should not proceed to this extremity 

but that after the sires La 

Loubere and Ceberet will have 

communicated to him that there 

was no other way of succeeding." 

This a capital text, not in fact in Ceberet's 

record at all, but in Jacq 

Hergoualc'h's footnotes; nevertheless, it 

does not really justify no less than three 

separate appearances (namely, in footnotes 

50, 95 and 110). It proves the 

contentions of percipient Siamese that 

French intentions were not ultimately 

disinterested. 

The other is that both Ceberet and 

La Loubere were under no illusions that 

everything might go very wrong. In 

the arguments against having Siamese 

troops (which Phaulkon was demanding) 

alongside the French in Bangkok, 

they exposed all the weaknesses of the 

French and Phaulkon's position. This 

single sentence will be quoted (in 

translation) in full, in part because it is 

a good example of the very complex 

style used by Ceberet: 

"We indicated to him [Tachard] 

that although the king had the 

right to approve the establishment 

of French troops in the Kingdom 

of Siam, such as had been done, 

we had not the right to approve it, 

and it was also in our minds to do 

our duty, that the intention of the 

king in sending his troops to Siam 

had been to assure the Christian 

religion and the commerce of his 

subjects, as Monsieur Constance 

had even requested His Majesty, 

but we saw the king frustrated in 

his intentions since his troops were 

not in complete safety in Bangkok 

for, apart from the peril of a dangerous 

division which could arise 

in a garrison composed of two different 

nationalities, especially 

when a foreigner was in overall 

command, there was also the danger 

of secret betrayals which the 

example of what had arrived recently 

to the Macassars and the 

English at Mergui was an example 

[sic], that the King of Siam could 

die and his successor not be among 

our friends, that the sire Constance 

himself should consider this matter 

still more than us, in that he 

was furthermore interested, having 

no other means to protect himself 

from the violence to which it was 

natural he could be exposed, if the 

King of Siam were to die, but to 

withdraw to Bangkok where he 

would find his safety if the French 

were entirely the masters, that in 

his letter, by which he accorded the 

custody of Bangkok, he had given 

as the motive the necessity of fortifying 

a place as a retreat for 

Christians who could not be in 

safety among pagans." 

That was foresight indeed. For the 

results of this embassy were dissipated 

by events. Ceberet left Siamese territory 

overland on 4 January 1688, La 

Loubere the day before by ship (the 

paranoia of Tachard on board has been 

described by Jacq-Hergoualc'h elsewhere). 

King Narai fell seriously ill in 

February, Desfarges was summoned by 

Phaulkon to Lopburi on 31 March to 

discuss Phetracha's plot, did not go, and 

left Phetracha a free hand to act on 18 

May. The rest is well known: the 

murder of Narai's half-brothers, of Phra 

Pi, of Phaulkon, the death of Narai, the 

siege of Bangkok, the handing over of 

Phaulkon's wife, the retreat of the 

French on 2 November. 

Valuable as this text is, it is not an 

easy read, as the translation above 

might indicate. It is not made easier 

by the desire of Jacq-Hergoualc'h in 

effect to compare this text with the 

unpublished Relation of Tachard in the 

Archives Nationales describing the 

same events as Ceberet (the differences 

between the two are sometimes remarkable), 

as well as Tachard's published 

Second Voyage ... of 1689, Ceberet's 

own summary of his account, and, 

where relevant, extracts from La 

Loubere, the envoys' instructions, and 

other documents. It might have been 

better to have printed a face-to-face text 

so that an immediate comparison between 

the unpublished Ceberet and the 

unpublished Tachard could be made, 

with footnotes coming at the bottom of 

both pages. At it stands, one spends 

all one's time turning between the text 

and the occasionally overwhelming and 

repetitive footnotes. Still, it is better to 

have it published at last than not published 

at all. 

Now that we have this text, there 

still remains one more from that rich 

period in Siamese history which has 

never been published in full and which 

is capital to a clear understanding of 

events leading up to the final fiasco, 

and that is Father Benigne Vachet's 

account. This is the only text to describe 

in detail the second mission, consisting 

of Khun Pichai Walit and Khun Pichit 

Maitri, sent by King Narai to his 

"brother" Louis XIV, as well as subsequent 

events, and it only saw a partial 

publication in 1865. Would it be too 

much to ask Michel Jacq-Hergoualc'h, 

or Dirk Van der Cruysse, or even the 

Siam Society, to undertake this and so 

end our ignorance? 


cfo United Nations-ESCAP 

Bangkok

151 

Seeds of Peace, A Buddhist 

Vision for Renewing Society 

SULAK SIV ARAKSA 

Foreword by H.H. The Dalai 

Lama, preface by Thich Nhat 

Hanh. Berkeley, CA: Parallax 

Press, 1992. ISBN 0-938077-78-3; 

pp. xiv, 129. US$12.00. 

The title of' this book points already 

to the fact that it should not be read for its 

literary or scholarly value alone. Of primary 

importance apparently is neither the 

style of the author nor the scholarly approach 

(i.e., the amount of footnotes and 

references), but the goal expressed in the 

title. Seldom are readers asked so directly 

to contemplate on their own views and look 

at their own attitudes in the light of the 

material presented. Seldom are readers reminded 

so directly to consider the effects of 

their own thoughts, words, and actions. 

That H.H. The Dalai Lama decided 

to write the Foreword to the book and that 

the Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh wrote the Preface 

should also alert readers that they are 

invited to approach the content of the Seeds 

of Peace from a higher level of understanding. 

Seeds of Peace has truly been written in 

the spirit of the basic teachings of the Buddha. 

The author himself, in the words of 

the editor, "is a prominent and outspoken 

Thai social critic and activist." The idea that 

Buddhists can become actively involved in 

the improvement of the quality of life in their 

own communities may be new to those who 

follow the last words of the Buddha, that 

we should be a lamp to ourselves and work 

on our salvation with diligence. With the 

population growing in numbers, however, 

and the increasing modernization with all 

its concomitant results-industrialization, 

pollution of the environment, de-personalization, 

greater availability of consumer 

goods-our preoccupation with material issues 

has reached proportions where spiritual 

concerns have become overshadowed and 

are pushed aside during the hectic pace of 

modern life. We are in dire need of being 

reminded to balance materialism with increased 

spiritual practice and the application 

of these spiritual insights to daily life. 

In the editor's words, Sulak Sivaraksa 

"is the natural product of the contradictions 

of contemporary Thai life--educated abroad, 

he often dresses in traditional clothing, and 

his politics are at once culturally conservative 

and socially progressive." A lawyer, a 

teacher, a scholar, a publisher, the founder 

of many organizations, and the author of 

more than sixty books and monographs in 

both Thai and English, he has, during the 

last three decades prepared himself for the 

task of proposing some blueprints for "renewing 

society." 

The idea to publish this book 

emerged from a collection of previous talks. 

Discussed in Part one, "The Politics of 

Greed," are "The Religion of Consumerism," 

"A Thai Monologue with Japan," "The 

'Think-Big' Strategy of Development," 

"Quantifying Development," and "Development 

as if People Mattered." In Part Two, 

"Personal and Societal Transformation," the 

reader is confronted with topics like "Religion 

and Socia Change," "Buddhism with a 

Small 'b'," "The Five Moral Precepts," 

"Buddhism and Non-Violence," "Buddhist 

Women-Past and Present," and "A Buddhist 

Model of Society." The latter chapter 

offers some concrete suggestions how consumerism 

could be curbed, how democracy 

could be implemented, how global disarmament 

could be administered and guaranteed 

by a permanent international peacekeeping 

force, and how international justics 

could be strengthened by a Universal Bill of 

Rights. One of the appendices presents a 

critical view of democracy in Siam and the 

other some clarifying statements of the author 

about his motivations to speak out in 

public talks and his publications. 

The book is certainly thoughtprovoking 

and attests to the courage and 

fortitude of the author. Readers should not 

be affected by the terse and often direct language 

which the author apparently chose to 

shift the attention of the readers out of their 

habitual mode of thinking, because progress 

will only be possible when we see and go 

beyond prejudices and stereotypes. 

RUTH-INGE HEINZE 

Center of Southeast Asia Studies 

University of California, Berkeley 

Siam in Crisis 

A Collection of Articles 

SULAK SIVARAKSA 

Bangkok: Santi Pracha Dhamma 

Institute and the Thai Inter 

Religious Commission for 

Development, 1990, 371 pp. 

When a second or subsequent 

edition of a book appears in print, there 

is a tendency to ignore it, for inevitably 

it contains a good deal of material 

which has already been read and reviewed. 

In the case of Sulak Sivaraksa's 

Siam in Crisis: A Collection of Articles 

this would be a mistake. While retaining 

the best articles from the original 

1980 edition, the revised version also 

includes a considerable amount of new 

material written during the 1980s that 

addresses some of the most important 

issues affecting Thailand over the past 

decade. "On Southeast Asian Modernization" 

takes a hard look at the high 

costs of modernization to the Thai body 

politic-costs that include environmental 

degradation and pollution, the 

expansion of slums, child prostitution 

and absentee landlordism, to name but 

a few. "The Religion of Consumerism" 

deplores the recent upsurge of rampant 

consumerism and loss of traditional 

cultural values in Thailand. In "The 

Problem of Ethnic Minorities and State: 

Burma and Siam" the author reflects on 

what he sees as his country's lack of 

respect for its neighbors and for minority 

peoples within its borders, while 

in "Buddhism and Social Values" he 

attacks the increasing cooption of the 

Sangha by the state. 

Presented in his distinctively 

trenchant and provocative style, the 

second edition of Siam in Crisis to a 

large extent reflects Sulak Sivaraksa's 

own personal odyssey. Retained here 

frorrl'an earlier phase of his work are 

the articles in which he pays tribute to 

his heroes (Prince Narit, Prince 

Damrong and Prince Dhani) and mentor 

(Phya Anuman), and excoriates his 

fallen idol (Kukrit Pramot). Here too 

are articles from the 1960s and 1970s 

which reflect his growing concern for 

the common man, willingness to speak 

out against social injustice, and increasing 

growth in stature as a social 

critic. At the same time we see him 

increasingly turning to Buddhism for 

ways to deal with his country's ills. 

Much of the new material presented in 

the 1990 edition of Siam in Crisis 

reflects an extension of this trajectory. 

It shows the author's current active 

concern with issues of social justice not 

only within his own country, but also 

as they affect Thailand's relations with

152 

its neighbors, and particularly with 

Burma. 

So what forces in Thai society 

does Sulak believe can overcome the 

problems of rapid modernization 

facing the country? Basically he looks 

to an alliance between three groups that 

he believes truly have the needs of the 

people at heart. They include those 

members of the Sangha who have 

become aware of the dangers of being 

coopted by the state and are now alert 

to local and village needs, especially in 

the environmental sphere; nongovernmental 

organization (NGO) 

workers whom he claims now see 

themselves as being on the side of the 

people rather than, as in the past, 

superior to them, and the mass of the 

people themselves. 

The forum in which Sulak sees a 

socially engaged Buddhism as being 

most effective still remains, however, a 

predominantly rural one. Yet he is the 

first to admit that one of the most 

intractable problems is how to make 

Buddhism meaningful in an urban environment. 

Buddhism still mostly 

works well at the village level; it is in 

major cities such as Bangkok that it has 

become, in his own words, largely ceremonial. 

Simplicity of life-style, selfawareness 

and mindfulness do not mix 

easily with the lures of modern highrise, 

fast-paced urban conglomerates. 

Further thought might have been 

given to the headings under which 

some of the articles are placed in the 

new edition. A few give the impression 

of belonging to residual categories 

and of having been listed under particular 

headings for want of a better 

place to put them. The appendices, for 

example, include several miscellaneous 

pieces that relate to the author. Book 

reviews of earlier works by Sulak are 

mixed with articles about and interviews 

with him. The book reviews 

have already appeared elsewhere, and 

probably do not merit being reprinted 

here, while some of the remaining 

material needs either to be polished into 

true article form or omitted. By the 

same token the recent brief obituaries 

dedicated to various friends do not 

blend comfortably with the longer 

pieces on leading Thai cultural figures 

and could have benefitted from being 

placed in a separate category. 

The vision of Thailand presented 

in this book is at once conservative and 

radical. The tension between these two 

sides of Sulak's vision is not resolved 

in the new edition of Siam in Crisis, but 

its presence is what makes many of the 

essays stimulating reading. 

JANE KEYES 

Seattle, Washington 

Historical Dictionary of Laos 

MARTIN STUART-FOX and 

MARY KOOYMAN 

Asian Historical Dictionaries No. 6. 

Metuchen, N.J. and London: The 

Scarecrow Press, Inc. 1992 (xlix + 

258 pp) 

For those seeking guidance in their 

study of the Lao People's Democratic 

Republic (LPDR), this work offers an 

aggregate of names, treaties, and parties 

that one may encounter in post 

World War II, especially post-1975, 

political literature. Although not advertised 

as such, the volume is presumably 

directed towards non-specialists, 

perhaps journalists or the casual 

researcher attempting to see Laos in the 

context of other Asian countries. If 

indeed this is the true purpose of such 

a publication then it might be considered 

a satisfactory reference of conventional 

beliefs held by Western political 

scientists. 

In the event that this book aspires 

to contribute to the study of Lao history 

as its title portends, then it is acutely 

deficient and the title deceptive and 

misleading. The reader is in fact apprised 

of a narrower focus in the 

foreword which declares that in order 

to understand events linked to the 

Vietnam war in Laos (already a dubious 

motivation for producing a historical 

dictionary), "it is necessary to 

reach further back." But "reaching back" 

must be taken here as a relative term 

since the authors say apologetically in 

their preface that "both the classical 

kingdom of Lane Xang and its successor 

kingdoms, and the French colonial 

interlude have been relatively neglected" 

[reviewer's emphasis], and furthermore, 

"political figures and events have been 

given prominence over economic, social 

and cultural developments." Thus, to 

be honest and academically aboveboard 

the title should read, A Political Scientist's 

Pocket Dictionary of Laos, since 

entries, even when they do relate to 

earlier periods, are of the quick-fix 

variety that gloss over complicated 

ethnographic and historical detail. But 

while this predilection is unfortunate it 

does accurately reflect most recent 

political work on Laos. 

Owing to the dichotomy in stated 

purpose between title and preface, both 

of which are contradicted by the series 

editor in the foreword, the question 

naturally arises as to the distinction 

between history and politics. The authors 

are sensitized to this (171), even 

stating explicitly that in their own 

historiographic conception, political 

developments constitute "contemporary 

history," and furthermore that politics 

provides "an essential framework 

within which to study social or cultural 

change." In the case of the former, 

while we can accept that politics is included 

in contemporary history, we 

must reject the implication that they are 

interchangeable, and, since in most 

academic circles politics would be 

classed as a subset of social phenomena 

and not the reverse, the latter is a 

disappqinting and unconvincing contention, 

not to mention an example of 

fallacious logical typing. It is moreover 

not borne out in practice since 

proportionately few examples of social 

or cultural analysis appear in the dictionary. 

Nor is such a hypothesis warranted 

on the basis of currently available 

political literature on Laos such as 

in the works of Brown and Zasloff 

(1986), Stuart-Fox (1986), Deuve (1984) 

or Gunn (1988), studies which are 

confined primarily to political events 

with slight mention of culture and society. 

One senses an indecision on the 

part of the authors and we are left with 

an aftertaste of confusion of intent: that 

the result is neither fish nor fowl, and 

that left to their own devices, 

unconstrained by the dictionary-ofcurrent-affairs 

genre, richer and more

153 

diverse flavors might have emerged, 

Luang Prabang Stew [ Gl:l'l::~"'IJ ] as 

opposed to rice and salt. 

Politics, in this reviewer's opinion, 

fails as history precisely because its 

discourse evades those cultural issues 

which tend to put unwanted flesh on 

anorexic chains of causality, thereby 

disrupting neat and simplistic interpretations. 

It is no accident that this 

work and those of others in the field 

emphasize French and English sources 

as opposed to indigenous ones thereby 

avoiding, to the extent possible, any 

confrontation with culture. This approach 

has led to a myriad of popular 

misconceptions, many of which are 

reproduced in this work as well as in 

the works of authors which this dictionary 

ostensibly seeks to explicate, 

such as those already mentioned. 

The primal transgression of political 

scientists writing on Laos, one with 

grave historiographic repercussions, is 

their disregard for the Lao language. 

This is tantamount to a proscription of 

primary sources: interviews in Lao, oral 

history, the reading of original texts, 

and hermeneutic endeavor generally. 

Doubt is cast on conclusions since 

analyses, it may be assumed, have not 

penetrated the Lao mode of thought. 

(Must we return to the primitive 

Eurocentric stages of Southeast Asian 

studies where the colonial language is 

the means of knowledge?) Furthermore, 

the problem of the lack of inclusion 

of language in political history 

is peculiar to Laos and not to homologous 

undertakings in Cambodia, 

Thailand, and Vietnam where utilization 

of in-depth knowledge of the respective 

language has been de rigueur 

for at least the past twenty years. 

Historiographically speaking, it is this 

fact that sets Laos apart from the others 

in Southeast Asia. If we accept that 

history [

154 

the political ascendance of Asang Laoly 

(Akha) and Kham-Ouan Boupha 

(Lao), he would not get very far using 

this dictionary as a starting point since 

half of these ethnic groups and both 

personages are missing from the listings. 

An interesting point which pertains 

to entries concerning both the ethnic 

Lue and the origins of the Lao, and one 

which this reviewer has been preaching 

since 1975, is that the Lue royal lineage 

of Muang Ou in Phong Saly claim 

to predate the establishment of the 

capital in Chieng Hung because the Lue 

migrated originally from northwestern 

Vietnam, passing through Muang Ou 

before arriving in Sip Song Panna. The 

linguistic evidence supports this east to 

west movement and there is still a Lue 

population in Lai Chau (Vietnam) today. 

Moreover, the Lao of the upper 

Nam Ou, at Nam Bak and Muang 

Ngoy, preserve a tradition that the Lao 

originated in Muang Bourn (on the 

upper Black River near Muang Te), not 

in Muang Theng as commonly held (cf. 

Chamberlain 1975, 1991). 

The oversimplification of ethnic 

classification inherent in the terms Lao 

Loum ('Lao below'), Lao Theung ('Lao 

above'), and Lao Soung ('high Lao'), 

which were the creation of P.S. Nginn 

in the early 1960s, is ideal for political 

purposes but hardly befits an academic 

study, and from a humanitarian point 

of view it does not grant people the 

dignity of correct identity. Here again, 

political scientists, supported by government 

politicians, have opted for the 

easy way out, as this typology allows 

for a down-playing of very complex 

inter-ethnic relationships which underlie 

thinking and complicate political 

matters in Laos, something that cannot 

be understood without at least a 

knowledge of Lao and preferably some 

of the minority languages as well. It is 

more than likely that ethnic diversity 

accounts for why political scientists 

specializing in Laos shy away from 

language and culture and prefer to 

withdraw into the more secure passageways 

of French colonial archives 

and international treaties. And even 

colonial studies of language and culture, 

some of which are contained in 

the bibliography, are customarily ignored 

by those interested in Lao politics. 

One statement in particular, made 

in the authors' introduction (xlvi), encapsulates 

basic misunderstandings of 

an ethnolinguistic nature and also 

demonstrates its importance since 

Western political scholarship on Laos 

asserts this in various guises as a 

founding premise: "The present borders 

of Laos owe more to historical accident 

than to the logic of either geography or 

ethnography." Setting aside the problems 

inherent in the expression "historical 

accident," there is in fact a logic 

to the boundaries. The distribution of 

the true Lao language (not including 

other Tai languages like Lue, Red Tai, 

Phuan, etc.) begins at the northern point 

of the Nam Ou River in Phong Saly 

and follows the Nam Ou to Luang 

Prabang. The eastern Phongsaly border 

separates the valley of the Ou (Lao) 

from the valley of the Te or Black River 

(White Tai). There are also branchings 

which are found along the Nam Tha 

and the Nam Beng which appear to 

stem from the northern point and extend 

to the southwest. From Pak Beng 

it extends west for some distance along 

the Mekhong, mostly to the south of 

the river. The mountain ridges which 

skirt this area beginning in Chiang Rai 

and continuing into Nan form the land 

border between Thailand and what is 

now Oudomxay Province. This is logical 

from both a cultural and geographic 

perspective. The Lue and Kalom 

populations, whose languages differ 

somewhat from the Lue of Muang Sing, 

are relatively dense on the Lao side, 

but thin out considerably where they 

spill over into Thailand. In the northwest, 

the boundaries follow the territories 

of the Lue principalities of Muang 

Sing and Ou Neua respectively. From 

Luang Prabang, the Lao language follows 

the Mekhong south all the way to 

Champasak and Ratanakiri in Cambodia. 

In Xaignaboury it is found spoken 

in the valleys from the river to the 

beginning of the mountain crest with 

Nan, again forming a natural linguistic 

and geographical area. South from 

Thakhek, the lowland areas are inhabited 

primarily by Lao speakers between 

the river and the crest of the Annamite 

range, again forming a natural border. 

The main exception are the lowland 

Phou Thay of Savannakhet and 

Khammouan, more recent arrivals from 

N ghe An and Thanh Hoa. In the 

northwest along the northern Houa 

Phanh border, the main distinction is 

between the Black Tai speaking area to 

the north and the Thay Neua speaking 

area to the south. The boundary is 

slightly distorted here since the Tai of 

Muang Vat (nn Chau) in the Sip Song 

Chou Tai speak a form of Thay Neua 

closer to that of Xieng Kho than to Black 

Tai proper. The only part of the border 

which seems really to be arbitrary 

is from eastern Houa Phanh south to 

Borikhamxay. The Red Tai and Tai 

Meuy [/m ~y C1/] occur on both sides 

of the border as do many of the other 

Tai languages from this location. Of 

course the political entities of Houa 

Phanh and Xieng Khwang, where 

Neua-Phuan dialects are dominant as 

opposed to Lao, have had problematic 

eastern borders since the Vietnamese 

began their nationhood. Thus, the borders 

of Laos do form, even omitting 

the obvious situation of Northeast 

Thailand, a coherent non-accidental 

ethnographic and geographic area, and 

its complexity should not be allowed 

to obfuscate that fact. From Phongsaly 

to Champasak, Lao speakers possess a 

common language and literature. Refusal 

to look at basic ethnolinguistic 

information (in this case consulting the 

1949 EFEO ethnolinguistic map of 

Indochina would have helped) has led 

to the emplacement of a false assumption 

that is adhered to in one form or 

another in political discourse on Laos, 

one which has engendered an ontology 

of divisions in which unifying factors 

have customarily been overlooked. Of 

even greater concern are deficiencies in 

the educational process which have 

allowed this kind of thinking to arise. 

In the works this dictionary directly 

addresses, language and cultural 

diversity are paid lip-service (to portray 

divisiveness a la the above example) 

but are rarely taken into consideration 

in analyses. Studies of minority 

uprisings carried out by Gunn come 

closest in terms of recognition of the

155 

intricacies of the problem, but here data 

are taken primarily from secondary and 

tertiary sources. In Gunn's (1986) study 

of the Hmong Pa Chay [Paj Cai] rebellion, 

for example (incorrectly spelled Ba 

Chay in the dictionary and Batchai by 

Gunn), the indigenous Hmong language 

source in Mottin (1980) which 

differs radically from the French positions 

is not consulted. Thus, while we 

are demanding of those who would 

specialize in Laos, our position is justified. 

But the intellectual economics are 

clear: Laos is a small country of 3.5 

million people (many of whom are 

excellent polyglots speaking several 

Asian and European languages) with 

over one hundred ethnic groups from 

five ethnolinguistic families; therefore 

a major investment in language is 

mandatory for understanding. Few 

investors are willing to pay the real 

price and many are agreeably seduced 

by the considerable foreign language 

skills of the Lao themselves. But as the 

saying goes, it comes with the territory. 

Other popular misconceptions due 

primarily to language deficiency which 

are given unquestioned credence in the 

volume include: the meaning of Kha 

[ B'l ] as 'slave,' which is perhaps understandable 

since the meaning does 

come close in contemporary usage. 

However, this word appears to derive 

from an ancient ethnonym for 

'Austroasiatic,' vestiges of which are 

found in the terms Khmu, Khmer, Khom, 

Krom, etc. As a Tai word its distribution 

is limited to the geographical range 

of Mon-Khmer, that is, where the two 

families overlap. Another form frequently 

mistranslated and never questioned 

is Muang Theng [ die:JII:tJ:J ], 

the Tai name for Dien Bien Phu. Here 

the authors have provided a most imaginative 

gloss, 'place of the gourd,' 

which defies explanation. The word 

for 'gourd' found in the original Lao 

and Black Tai mythological texts is 

/maak taw puTJ/ [ umJJ'lnCn'l~:J ] so 

this cannot be the source. In the 

original Lao texts of Khun Burom the 

gourds were said to have appeared at 

a location not far from Muang Theng 

and this may be the reason for the error. 

One would hope it is not a mistake 

for /tETJ/ 'cucumber, melon,' but given 

the level of language awareness found 

in the dictionary this cannot be ruled 

out. The other gloss offered is '[place 

of the] heavenly beings (Then)' because 

many linguistically naive folketymologists 

have sought to relate then 

[ a;qu ] to theng [ ll:tJ:J ]. But these 

two words are always kept separate 

in Black Tai, and such a correspondence 

just does not work historically in 

Tai linguistics, where final consonants 

are stable. It must be accepted that 

theng is a place name with no translation, 

most likely pre-Tai in origin. A 

more minor point is the mystery of why 

the Chinese Pin-Yin spelling Zhenla is 

utilized in place of the more widely 

accepted Chenla in the name of the 

ancient kingdom. The Lao form is Chin 

[ ~u ] (with a short vowel) and the 

Khmer word is Chiin, both of which 

are good Southeast Asian names. 

In another cultural area, one that 

could shed much light on political affairs 

and history, the subject of Lao literature 

is barely alluded to. The entry 

under 'Literature' begins with a bizarre 

declaration that Lao literature dates 

only from the 16th century in spite of 

the fact that the epic poem of Thao Hung 

Thao Cheuang [ nh::ui~M"l:Jc~g~ ] is 

shown by its archai~ language to be 

much older, at least 14th century in 

composition, with origins dating from 

a much earlier period. It is particularly 

ironic and inexcusable that this work is 

not mentioned anywhere in the dictionary 

since its content is to a large 

degree historical and is related to figures 

found regularly in the chronicle 

tradition, and is found preserved by the 

Khmu as well (the Khmu "Chuang" is 

mentioned in the bibliography in an 

article of Ferlus 1979). Its publication 

several years ago in Laos was the 

crowning achievement of Maha Sila 

Viravong before his death (Sila 1988). 

The poem of Sang Sin Xay [ ib~ul~ ] 

(not an epic by standard definition 

although it is defined as such in the 

dictionary) is the only work given a 

separate entry. Besides this only four 

other works are cited (one is spelled 

incorrectly: Kalabet should be Kalaket 

[ n'Jl;l::t.nn ]), which is a very poor 

showing indeed for a country so rich 

in literary tradition. The dissertation 

of Anatole Peltier (1986) describes 37 

of the major works (most of which 

were published and have been available 

since the early 1960s). Lafont 

(1959) lists 1,634 titles of manuscripts, 

and a recent publication of the Committee 

for Social Science (Khampheng 

1988) lists many more. 

Even in the domain of political 

history, the purported focus of the 

dictionary, many principle minority 

leaders are disregarded or have gone 

unnoticed due to the language barrier. 

Pho Kadeuat, the much-feared Kha 

military commander, has been excluded. 

Chao La, leader and successor 

to a long line of Mien (Yao) ethnarchs, 

is never mentioned. Ba Va, the Akha 

leader from Phongsaly, is not to be 

found. Phragna Thao Nhi, leader of 

the "Soek Cheuang" (Cheuang Wars) in 

Houa Phanh and Thanh Hoa from 1875 

until 1886, is mentioned only in passing 

(and even then his title is misspelled 

as Thao Nhe). He defeated the Lue 

army from Muang Say and was finally 

killed 10 years after he began (not in 

1877 as we read in the dictionary) 

(Boutin 1937) but the hostilities continued 

until1901 (Robequain 1929) and 

caused massive migrations by Tai 

speakers into Khammouan Province to 

the south. Finally, the 13th century 

Black Tai prince Lo Let (Chau Ngou 

Hao = "the cobra prince"), who made 

contact with Luang Prabang and King 

Phagna Khamphong, grandfather of Fa 

Ngoum, marking the first recorded 

interaction with the Sip Song Chou Tai, 

has not been included in the dictionary 

(cf. Dore 1991). 

Thus it would appear that the further 

one goes in a quest for detail in 

this work, the more its deficiencies 

become apparent and the more its focus 

is revealed as shallow and restricted. 

In part this situation is a result 

of ignoring the basics of language 

and culture, which, however democratically 

one wishes to view academia, 

must precede other disciplines if mistakes 

are to be avoided. It also results 

from a failure to question the works of 

other writers mirrored therein with the 

consequence that old errors are repeated 

and given additional credence. 

The authors are trapped in the mas-

156 

querade of having to pay homage to a 

disingenuous title while trying to remain 

faithful to their own interests. The 

core of the work is an alphabetical list 

of some major (mostly post-1975) persons 

and topics surrounded by a few 

aleatory entries from earlier periods, 

especially names of kings. These are 

located between lackluster and in some 

cases highly disputable maps in the 

front of the book, and an adequate but 

uninspiring bibliography in the back, 

together with appendices providing 

names of Lane Xang kings beginning 

with Fa Ngoum in the 14th century 

(earlier ones are not listed), names of 

kings from Luang Prabang, Vientiane, 

and Champassak (the Xieng Khwang 

Phuan royal line has not been included), 

and names of political figures 

in various eras all of which are readily 

available in other sources. In this manner 

the status quo ante of Lao political 

studies is maintained but our own intellectual 

curiosity, like that of the authors', 

ignoti nulla cupido, has not been 

aroused. 

The reviewer is truly sorry for this 

very critical assessment, not only of the 

dictionary but of the many works it 

represents as well. It is written not with 

animosity but with a sincere desire to 

awaken scholars to some of the problems 

and elevate the condition of Lao 

studies generally, to imbue relevant 

disciplines with broader epistemological 

as well as factual foundations that 

include indigenous and hence more 

diverse views of this fascinating 

country and its unique inherent qualities. 

These essential substructures have 

been missing for too long. We are 

promised (172) that a new general 

history of Laos by Martin Stuart-Fox 

will appear this year (1992) and so we 

look forward to this with the hope that, 

having dispensed with the constraints 

of the political dictionary genre, a more 

well-balanced and erudite treatise will 

emerge. 


Chulalongkorn University 

REFERENCES 

Boutin, Andre. 1937. Monographie de la 

province des Houa-Phan. BAL 1.69- 

119. 

Brown, MacAlister and Joseph J. Zasloff. 

1986. Apprentice Revolutionaries: the 

Communist Movement in Laos,1939-1985. 

Stanford: Stanford University Press 

(Hoover Institution). 

Chamberlain, James R. 1975. A new look at 

the history and classification of the Tai 

languages, in Studies in Tai Linguistics 

in Honor of William f. Gedney, eds. J. 

Harris and J. Chamberlain. Bangkok: 

CIEL. 

__ 1991. The efficacy of the P/PH distinction 

for Tai languages. in The Ram 

Khamhaeng Controversy: Collected Papers, 

ed. J. Chamberlain. Bangkok: The Siam 

Society. 

Deuve, Jean. 1984. Le Royaume du Laos 

1949-1965. Paris: EFEO. 

Dore, Amphay. 1991. The Sukhothai inscription 

seen from the middle 

Mekhong valley, in The Ram Khamhaeng 

Controversy: Collected Papers, ed. James 

R. Chamberlain. Bangkok: The Siam 

Society. 

Ferlus, Michel. 1979. Le recit Khamou de 

Chuang et ses implications historiques 

pour le Nord-Laos, Asia du Sud-est et 

Monde Insulindien 10.327-365. 

Gunn, Geoffrey. 1986. Shamans and rebels: 

the Batchai (Meo) rebellion of northern 

Laos and north-west Vietnam (1918-21). 

JSS 74.107-121. 

__ 1988. Political Struggles in Laos (1930- 

1954): Vietnamese Communist Power and 

the Lao Struggle for National Independence. 

Bangkok: Editions Duang Kamol. 

Khampheng Ketavong. 1988. [ Q'lu::u"l"tU 

Jt ~ n 

IJ'lUrnoU::,rnn fl:Jifl ~ .] (The First 

Country-Wide Seminar on Palm-Leaf 

Manuscripts) Vientiane: The National 

Research Institute of Arts and Literature, 

Lao Committee for Social Sciences. 

Lafont, Pierre-Bernard. 1959. Inventaire des 

manuscrits des pagodes du Laos. 

BEFEO LII. 2.429-545. 

Mottin, Jean. 1980. Contes et Legendes Hmong 

Blanc. Bangkok: Don Bosco Press. 

Peltier, Anatole-Roger. 1986. Le Roman 

Classique Lao. These pour le doctorat 

d'etat. Universite de la Sorbonne 

Nouvelle (Paris III). 

Robequain, Charles. 1929. Le Thanh Hoti. 

Paris et Bruxelles: EFEO. 

Sila Viravong (Maha). 1988. [ um'ln'lu 

ID'lO~:Jm"'o,qg:J, l (The Epic Poem of 

Thao Hung Thao Cheuang) Vientiane: 

The Research Institute for Arts and 

Literature, National Research Committee 

for Social Sciences. 

Stuart-Fox, Martin. 1986. Laos: Politics, Economics, 

and Society. Marxist Regimes 

Series. London: Frances Printer; Boulder: 

Lynne Rienner. 

The Archaeology of Mainland 

Southeast Asia 

From 10,000 B.C. to the 

Fall of Angkor 

CHARLES HIGHAM 

University of Otago. 

Cambridge: Cambridge 

University Press, 1989 

xii+387 pp. About US$70. 

Charles Higham has hitherto made 

a very substantial contribution to the 

study of and progress in prehistoric 

archaeology in Southeast Asia, having 

published countless articles and reports 

on sites he has excavated in Thailand. 

This book only further confirms his 

recognized stature as a discerning analyst 

and interpreter of archaeological 

data. Although his expertise lies within 

the prehistoric period, as he himself 

points out in the introduction, the later 

stages of the book have been researched 

with typical conscientiousness and 

thoroughness. Personally the reviewer 

has always warmed to his style of 

English; it matters a great deal for a 

book to be not only academically sound 

but also eminently readable. 

Vietnamese archaeology is a field 

deserving special attention and thus 

Professor Higham's presentation in 

some detail of data from many sites in 

that country is very welcome. It is 

commendable that emphasis has been 

given to a country where archaeological 

research has apparently made 

strides forward and been very active in 

the past fifteen years. Admittedly few 

outside Vietnam can claim to have been 

able to follow closely the new discoveries 

made in the field of archaeology 

in that country, and these would be 

those with contacts with the Vietnamese 

archaeologists or who have access 

to and can read the vernacular.

157 

It is interesting to note that while 

Professor Higham of course sees as 

significant the novel objects which appear 

at about 6000 B.C. at Spirit Cave, 

such as pottery and polished stone 

tools, he feels their presence there is 

not necessarily diagnostic of the beginnings 

of agriculture, as many scholars 

in the past and even now have believed. 

Absolute proof of rice agriculture can 

be determined by analyses of rice 

husks, which at Spirit Cave have been 

proven to be of the wild variety up until 

the upper layers of the site. Admittedly 

methods for determining the type of 

rice being consumed still needs perfecting 

or at least improving, but the 

upper layers of the Hoabinhian site of 

Xom Trai in Vietnam have yielded 

sufficient evidence of a successful transition 

to plant cultivation. It must also 

be said that the artefacts unearthed 

from layers 2-4 at Spirit Cave and the 

tools excavated from the Bac Bo region 

of similar date show close similarities, 

much of this period reflecting the 

widespread presence of a form of 

Hoabinhian culture in mainland 

Southeast Asia. 

Professor Higham emphasizes the 

point that in antiquity in the uplands 

of Northern Thailand the communities 

like those at Spirit Cave, so well endowed 

as far as food resources were 

concerned, continued for thousands of 

years to lead a hunting-gathering way 

of life because food production was not 

considered necessary. It is only when 

the environment was overexploited or 

exhausted that such a transition was 

often made. 

A resounding success for Professor 

Higham was his excavations at 

Khok Phanom Di, which are dealt with 

in some detail in this book. He observes 

that at this site one can witness a successful 

transition towards what he calls 

the domestication of people, which is 

the adaptation of humans to a sedentary 

way of life. He feels that although 

man was now raising animals and 

perhaps cultivating rice, these adopted 

practices, although admittedly important, 

should be regarded at Khok 

Phanom Di as less significant than the 

fact that people were settling down to 

live in a village-type community where 

they had permanent homes. One of 

the highlights of Professor Higham's 

excavations at this site is the amount of 

paleoenvironmental evidence gained 

and the picture this consequently gives 

about life at that time and the resources 

available locally. Professor Higham is 

in no doubt as to the richness of the 

environment, which includes marine 

food, and indeed the skeletal remains 

indicate healthy, well nourished 

populations. At the time the book was 

written it had not been determined 

whether the rice consumed at Khok 

Phanom Di was cultivated or wild. 

We see also at this site that the 

people had been interred in clusters 

some distance away from one another, 

which Professor Higham believes to be 

indicative of different family groups. It 

seems that for one generation after 

another the dead were buried above the 

points where their ancestors had been 

laid to rest. The excavator also observes 

that wealth must have oscillated in 

particular family groups, an analysis 

based on grave goods which seems to 

show that status was probably achieved 

and not ascribed. Professor Higham's 

analysis of the burials at Khok Phanom 

Di is very discerning and interesting. 

Although the site dates from about 2000 

B.C. to 1400 B.C., the absence of bronze 

objects as prestige goods which were 

traded has perplexed the excavator, 

especially when one considers that the 

location of the site is within reach of 

arteries of communication leading up 

northwards to Lopburi, a copper-bearing 

region and an area where bronze 

was being produced in some quantity 

at that particular period. Bronze ornaments 

found at Nong No in the 

Phanat Nikom area, not far from Khok 

Phanom Di, argue for trading links with 

the Lopburi area and pose the question 

of why the high status site of Khok 

Phanom Di did not itself yield any 

bronze items. 

Emphasis has been given in this 

book also to Northeast Thailand, beginning 

with the early settlements 

characterised by the probable practice 

of rice agriculture and the raising of 

livestock. Ban Chiang's lowest archaeological 

layers, dated to about 

3600-2000 B.C., represent this period, 

and hopefully further field work in the 

region will give us more data on this 

phase. Professor Higham calls this 

period the General A phase, using the 

term of Donn Bayard. 

Professor Higham draws attention 

to the fact that early settlements of 

General Periods A and B, the latter 

characterised by the presence of bronze 

in the archaeological layers, whether in 

Northeast Thailand or in the Bac Bo 

region of Vietnam, share one interesting 

feature, which is the almost invariable 

occurrence of sites on slightly elevated 

terrain above the confluence of 

streams. Such a choice of sites had 

presumably been determined by the 

need to be near a water source and at 

the same time to be safe from the 

hazards of floods. 

Professor Higham believes that 

bronze appears in Northeast Thailand 

for the first time around 2000 B.C., a 

view he has maintained for some years 

now and which agrees with Joyce 

White's revision of the Ban Chiang 

chronology. He favours the theory of 

North Vietnamese origin for bronze 

metallurgy in Northeast Thailand and 

it must be said from available archaeological 

evidence that the bronze-bearing 

Phong Nguyen sites in Vietnam have 

so far yielded earlier dates than the 

Northeast and also more in the form of 

objects associated with metallurgy 

around 2000 B.C. Indeed, the finished 

bronze tools and the moulds in the two 

areas show a resemblance, and this 

suggests probable contact and trade 

between North Vietnam and Northeast 

Thailand at that time, and there is reason 

to believe that the initial stages of 

the metallurgical tradition were one 

and the same. 

General Period C sees iron appearing 

and one can witness the growth 

of settlements in terms of physical size, 

evident at sites like Nonchai and Ban 

Chiang Hian. Such sites are believed 

to be representative of chiefdom-like 

entres usually surrounded in the nearby 

areas by smaller sites, undoubtedly 

subordinate to the centres. Although 

Professor Higham believes the use of 

iron to be an indigenous development 

rather than an introduction from the 

subcontinent he does not rule out the

158 

possibility of diffusion in this issue. 

It is a popularly held view amongst 

experts in Southeast Asian prehistory 

that acquaintance with iron came with 

the smelting of certain copper ores 

which contained iron elements and that 

this led to the adoption of the practise 

of iron smelting, so local innovation is 

thought probable for this region. This 

General Period C, which is estimated 

to have lasted from about 400 B.C.-300 

A.D., was also characterized by the 

appearance of glass, agate and carnelian 

beads, which are likely to have been 

trade items. Although it is still a matter 

of debate, certain beads made from 

semiprecious stones were most likely 

imported from India, whose agate and 

carnelian have been fashioned into such 

ornaments for a long time. The quality 

of the stones is such in India that the 

much inferior Southeast Asian specimens 

could not have been as prestigious 

when exchanged although it could 

be that many of the local stones were 

used for bead-making. The site of Ban 

Don Ta Phet in west Central Thailand 

is representative of this period, having 

yielded semiprecious and glass beads 

in some quantity. 

In conclusion, I should like to draw 

attention to the continuing field work 

done in the Lopburi region of Central 

Thailand. Professor Higham has not 

gone into much detail on the results 

obtained from this project, probably 

due to the fact that the data acquired 

had not been published at the time of 

the writing of his book. The fact that 

the bronze objects in the two areas are 

quite distinct would support separate 

development of bronze metallurgy, in 

spite of contacts having definitely been 

made possible by the water-ways. 

PAJRAPONGS NA POMBEJRA 

cfo The Siam Society 

Austroasiatic Languages: 

Essays in Honor of H.L. 

Shorto. 

Edited by 

J.H.C.S. DAVIDSON. 

School of Oriental and African 

Studies, University of London. 

1991. 249 pp. 

This fine collection of sixteen papers 

marks the retirement of H.L. 

Shorto, the eminent scholar of Southeast 

Asian linguistics. Shorto is best 

known for his work on Austroasiatic 

and the Mon language, especially for 

his two major lexical contributions: A 

Dictionary of Modern Spoken Mon (1962), 

and A Dictionary of the Man Inscriptions 

from the Sixth to the Sixteenth Centuries 

(1971). The articles in this Festschrift 

cover a broad range of the diverse linguistic 

sub-disciplines, including 

synchronic and diachronic aspects of 

Mon-Khmer and Austroasiatic phonetics, 

phonology, morphology, syntax, 

semantics, lexicon and philology, and 

represent major academic advancements. 

The Austroasiatic superstock, 

which includes the Mon-Khmer 

ethnolinguistic family, is without question 

the oldest and most widespread 

group of languages on the Southeast 

Asian mainland. (At one time, around 

the turn of the century, Wilhelm 

Schmidt attempted to relate the Mon 

Khmer languages to Austronesian and 

used the all-inclusive term Austric to 

refer to this larger unit. In his introductory 

paper to the volume Paul 

Benedict attacks this concept in Austric: 

an 'extinct' proto-language. Although the 

classification of sub-groups within 

Mon-Khmer is perhaps still not complete, 

the tentative groupings of Gerard 

Diffloth (1991) seem reasonable: 

(1) Northern Mon-Khmer, comprised 

of Khasian (the subject of a 

contribution to this volume by the late 

Eugenie J.A. Henderson, Problems and 

pitfalls in the phonetic interpretation of 

Khasi orthography); and Palaungic (the 

subject of Diffloth's paper for this volume, 

Palaungic vowels in Man-Khmer 

Perspective). The Northern sub-group 

has been further divided into East 

Palaungic (including Waic, Angkuic, 

and Lamet), represented here by Jan 

Olof Svantesson's article on an Angkuic 

language, Hu-a language with unorthodox 

tonogenesis, and West Palaungic 

(Danaw, Riang, and Rumai); the 

Khmuic is represented by Dr. Suwilai 

Premsrirat's excellent study, Aspects of 

inter-clausal relations in Khmu. 

(2) Eastern Mon-Khmer includes 

Vietic (represented by two papers in 

this volume: Seventeenth-century Vietnamese 

lexicon: preliminary gleanings from 

Alexandre de Rhodes' writings by Professor 

Nguyen Dinh-Hoa, and Kenneth 

Gregorson's On Austronesian lexicon in 

Vietnamese); Katuic; Bahnaric (the 

subject of David Thomas' paper 

Communicatives, existives, and statives in 

Proto-South-Bahnaric); Khmeric (wellrepresented 

by several papers: Les derives 

desideratifs en Khmer by Saveros 

Pou, A diachronic survey of some Khmer 

particles (7th to 17th centuries) by Judith 

M. Jacob, and The form syal) in Angkorean 

Khmer by Philip N. Jenner; and Pearic 

(including the Chong language spoken 

in Thailand, the subject of Dr. 

Theraphan L. Thongkum's article An 

instrumental study of Chong registers). 

(3) Southern Mon-Khmer includes 

the branches of Monic (represented 

by Christian Bauer's Old Man 

s-); Aslian, and the Mon-Khmer substratum 

found in Achanese and 

Nicobarese. 

Included in the broader stock of 

Austroasiatic are the Munda languages 

spoken in India. This group is represented 

by A linguistic analysis of some 

South Munda kinship terms, by Norman 

H. and Arlene R.K. Zide. 

As may be seen from the fascinating 

array of titles, the articles in this 

volume embody the full breadth and 

depth of the field of Austroasiatic linguistics. 

It is in addition a most valuable 

offering to Southeast Asian language 

studies generally, with considerable 

implications for reconstruction of 

the prehistory of Southeast Asia. We 

are much indebted to the School of 

Oriental and African Studies for making 

this volume available to the scholarly 

community.

159 

REFERENCES 

Diffloth, Gerard. 1991. "Linguistic prehistory 

from a Mon-Khmer perspective," 

paper presented at the conference, The 

High Bronze Age of Southeast Asia and 

South China, Hua Hin, Thailand, 14-19 

January. 


Chulalongkorn University 

Modern Art in Thailand: 

Nineteenth and Twentieth 

Centuries 

APINAN POSHY ANAND A 

Singapore: Oxford University 

Press 1992, 259 pp., ill. 

S$110. 

Art is not produced in a vacuum; 

it may possess its own internal logic 

but, at the same time, it is subject to a 

complex and constantly shifting set of 

external factors. Painting and sculpture 

are as much reactions to the past 

as responses to the present. A critical 

tradition thus seems essential if art is 

not to lose impetus, nor fail to establish 

a dynamic relationship with its 

audience. The art historian and the 

critic have definite roles to play. 

Thailand has lacked such a critical 

tradition, partly due to the nature of 

art production in the past, though it is 

also the result of a more general cultural 

phenomenon. The absence of 

documentation and dialogue is especially 

regrettable in the present era, 

when modern art has evolved hesitantly 

and with a confusing eclecticism. 

Now, the publication of Modern 

Art in Thailand goes a long way to filling 

the void, and offers the kind of · 

scholarly study contemporary Thai art 

not only deserves but needs if it is to 

thrive. In what is the first comprehensive 

account of the development of Thai 

painting and sculpture in the 19th and 

20th centuries, Assist. Prof. Apinan 

admirably lays the foundations on 

which a critical tradition may be built. 

Not only welcome, Modern Art in 

Thailand is also an extremely timely 

publication as the local art scene is 

currently experiencing one of its periodic 

booms; a boom which, unlike other 

moments of heightened activity, might 

just not fizzle out. Making sense of the 

boom and giving it some perspective is 

not the least of Apinan's achievements. 

Part of the difficulty in assessing 

and understanding modern Thai art lies 

in the fickleness of the subject. The 

number of times Apinan has recourse 

to the word 'novelty' is indicative. In 

the 19th century there is a "search for 

novelty that constantly changed the 

meaning and form of Thai art;" later 

the "novelty [here a fascination with oil 

painting, bronze and marble] had worn 

off;" by the 1950s Prof. Silpa Bhirasri is 

described as feeling "the search for 

novelty had become a chronic disease." 

In a sense, Bhirasri was right, 

though not quite in the way he intended, 

his attitude being arguably reactionary 

and certainly anti ultra-modern. 

He seems to have been confused 

about, among other things, the difference 

between change, or new directions, 

and novelty. Since he is popularly 

known, with some justification, as 

the "Father of modern art in Thailand," 

it is perhaps not surprising that many 

Thai artists tend to do the same. 

A case can be made that a fascination 

with novelty for its own sake has 

long been deeply ingrained in Thai 

culture, and the problem existed well 

before Bhirasri's time. The important 

point is that the eclecticism it produces 

was never properly appreciated, true 

change and development not distinguished 

from a facile pursuit of that 

which is merely new or different. 

Given that by the late 19th and 

early 20th centuries Thai art was at a 

turning point, with the decline of didactic 

religious art, an appreciation of 

the various influences at work is crucial 

to an understanding of the development 

of modern art in Thailand. 

Without a critical historical appraisal it 

is impossible to distinguish accurately 

valid new directions, to separate the 

good from the bad or simply the indifferent. 

It is precisely such an appraisal 

that Apinan successfully attempts in 

Modern Art in Thailand. 

The core of the study traces the 

various influences which have produced 

the essential eclecticism that 

characterizes modern Thai art. The 

theme of modernism provides a con- . 

text, though as Apinan points out, it is 

a term whose precise meaning lacks 

international consensus, and which here 

must be understood with specific reference 

to Thailand's own "revolutionary 

process of modernization." 

The central problem of modernism 

in regard to Thai art is "the dilemma of 

choosing between a need to be modern 

and a desire to preserve national identity 

and traditional values. As a result, 

there is no dominant style or uniformity 

in modern Thai art." In tracing the 

several stages in the evolution of art in 

the modern era, Apinan attempts to 

define modernism as the term relates 

to a specific stage of development. 

Thus the actors-art teachers and patrons 

as well as artists-are portrayed 

against a detailed and well-researched 

sociopolitical background. 

The book opens with an intriguing 

survey of the latter half of the 19th 

century and the early decades of the 

20th-the "threshold" of modern art in 

Thailand. Particular attention is paid 

to King Chulalongkorn, whose patronage 

played a major role in disseminating 

Western art in Bangkok, but, more 

interestingly, Apinan also takes the 

reader into less familiar territory-the 

work of foreign, especially Italian, 

painters in Thailand and the quest for 

reality in art, prompted in part by an 

interest in the alien fields of portraiture 

and photography, and expressed in the 

work of Thai artists such as Prince 

N arisaranuwattiwong. 

No simple transitional period, this 

"threshold" of modern Thai art also 

contained the seeds of the dilemma 

which has plagued and slowed artistic 

development. In the early 20th century, 

King Vajiravudh felt that Siamese 

arts and crafts were suffering from an 

overexposure to Western influences, 

and aired his views in newspaper articles 

written under the pseudonym 

"Asvabahu." And colourful writing it 

was, too; for example, Apinan quotes a 

lament that Thai decorative painting 

had to make way for "a piece of lithographic 

horror, whose colours knock 

you down at a distance of 10 yards."

160 

Cesare Ferro and Luang Sora/aklikhit (Mui) painting portraits of Kilrg 

Chu/alo11gkorn at the Abhisek Du sit Throne Hall , Ba11gkok, in 1906. 

(Photograph courtesy of the National Arc/rives, Bangkok). 

Fran cesco Margotti. Charles E11·rile Auguste Carolus-Duran pain ting 

Ki11g Clw /alongkom in the studio of Francesco Margotti in May 1907, 

San Rerno, Ita ly. 

Corrado Feroci (Bh irasi), To Their Heroes who Died for the Countn;, 

1922, Bronze, Portofarraio, italy, (Photograph Carlo Ca rletti). 

E11r ile-Frnn qois Chatro11sse, King Mongkut, gilded metal, 1863, Ratcha 

Karn nyasapha Throne Ha ll, Grand Palace, Bangkok, height 59 em . (Plwtogrnph 

cou rtesy of Bureau of the Royal Household).

161 

Damrong Wong-Uparaj , Fisherman Vi llage, tempera, 1960, 

Silpa Bhirasri Memorial Museu111, Bnugkok, 88 x 109 WI. (Photograph 

Kitti Amornpatanakul). 

Fun Hnribhitnk, Nude Study, pastel, 1955, collection of 0/iep 

C/11.1 /adu /, Los Angeles, 48 x 65.5 em. (Photogmp/1 Nnrong 

Tliongwitokomarn). 

Montien Boomna, Venus of Bangkok, bucket, wood, paint, 1991, 

!lie Visual Dhamma Gallery, Bangkok, 180 x 94 x 180 em. 

(Photograph Kitti Amornpalannkul). 

Clin lood Nim snmer, Lokuttara, 1991 , Fibreglass, IIeigiii 700 

C/11. Queen Sirikit Nat ional Convention Centre, Bangkok 

(Photograph courtesy of Presko Ltd.). 

Nitti Wattuyn, Oriental Soul, acrylic ou paper, ·1989, CL 

Sahaviriya Finance and Securities Co. , Ltd., Bangkok, 60 x 80 

em. (Photograph courtesy of the artist).

162 

This resulted in a revival of traditional 

arts-the Department of Fine 

Arts and the Arts and Crafts school 

were founded in 1912 and 1913, respectively. 

The effect was a slowing 

down in the pace of the local art scene, 

compared to that in Europe or Japan; 

moreover, there was little financial or 

moral support for artists who wished 

to study Western art. 

This early background is important, 

but the real pivotal period in the 

development of modern art in Thailand 

came in the 1930s and '40s. It was a 

time when the connotation of the word 

"modern" ceased to be confined to the 

monarchy and the elite; when art was 

institutionalized "as a government tool 

to state building;" when the School of 

Fine Arts (later Silpakorn University) 

was founded, and when scholars and 

teachers, most particularly Prof. 

Bhirasri (Corrado Feroci), had a pervasive 

influence. 

Here Apinan brilliantly describes 

the social and political context, most 

notably using Bhirasri and the creation 

of the Democracy Monument as a telling 

example of the influences at work. 

Despite enormous change, there was 

neither a full revolution at this time, 

nor was the conflict between traditionalism 

and modernism resolved. 

The complexities are enormous 

and are here well tackled. While the 

present volume is perhaps not the place 

for a full critical analysis of Bhirasri's 

influence, Apinan provides ample food 

for thought. The informed text raises 

in the reader's mind questions as not 

only to Bhirasri's talent, but also to his 

questionable politics and his seemingly 

contradictory aesthetics. Bhirasri is 

probably rightly revered as a great 

teacher-former students attest to his 

enthusiams and his ability to 

inspire-yet along with Bhirasri's undoubted 

achievements, attention should 

be given to confusions he either failed 

to resolve or to which he actually contributed. 

From the first institutional development 

of modern art in the 1930s and 

'40s Apinan traces the path of modernism 

up to the present day. Always 

keeping a firm grasp on the impact of 

political and social events, he offers 

detailed descriptions of the works of 

major painters and sculptors. Based on 

extensive research, personal observation 

and interviews with the artists, the 

accounts of individual achievements are 

clear and precise. In the main, Apinan 

avoids art critics' jargon while remaining 

pertinent; for example, on a series 

of Pratuang's works: ".. .landscape is 

filtered and abstracted to a point beyond 

recognition. One's vision is 

captured by a rhythmic effect where a 

staccato compositional thrust is created 

by a fusion of delicated lines and 

prismatic colours." 

As a trained art historian (with a 

PhD from Cornell University), as well 

as an art critic and a practising artist, 

Apinan is ideally equipped for his task. 

His knowledge serves him especially 

well in drawing interesting parallels 

with well-known Western artists. He 

further complements a sharp eye with 

an academic thoroughness-the book's 

bibliography covers 15 tightly-packed 

pages. 

Never does Modern Art in Thailand 

become a mere catalogue of art and 

artists, and individual achievements are 

always viewed against the background 

of the overall art environment, the 

booms, the exhibitions, the institutions, 

the galleries, the critics and the controversies. 

Moreover, Apinan interestingly 

combines the descriptive with thematic 

analysis, and there are chapters on 

abstract art, thematic art and postmodern 

art, as well as a well-argued 

and provocative section titled "Taste, 

Value and Commodity." 

One slight disappointment is that 

Apinan choses to offer criticism only 

implicitly, and that rarely. At one point 

he comments: "It is difficult to pinpoint 

when-and if-the concept of Surrealism 

was fully understood by Thai artists," 

yet the question prompted by such 

a loaded statement is not answered. 

Moreover, he does not always take his 

analysis quite far enough. For instance, 

Fua Haribhitak's paintings are discussed 

but not his eventual abandoning 

of his own art in favour of mural 

restoration. Likewise, the highly-talented 

Tawee Nandakwang is discussed 

without mention of how or why his 

work became increasingly commercial. 

Such criticisms are, however, minor 

in the context of the book's broad 

scope (yet they raise hope for future 

separate studies of particular artists or 

art styles). Overall, Modern Art in 

Thailand is scarcely to be faulted as both 

an historical study and as an analysis 

of major contemporary artists. Apinan 

writes well, managing to be interesting 

as well as informative, and his research 

is impeccable-even to such fascinating 

minutiae as quoting the London 

Times on a Thai art exhibition. Supporting 

the substantial text are more 

than 200 illustrations, 64 in colour, and, 

like the writing, these have been well 

researched to give a good sampling of 

artworks and some intriguing historical 

insights-for example, there is what 

must be a rare 1907 magazine sketch of 

King Chulalongkorn sitting for his 

portrait in the San Remo studio of 

Francesco Margotti. 

Fresh revelations are to be found 

in Modern Art in Thailand, but the book's 

principal value lies in its broad canvas, 

its comprehensive scope which brings 

together so much material in a clear and 

coordinated fashion. In providing the 

first full-length study of modern Thai 

painting and sculpture, Apinan has 

made an invaluable contribution towards 

establishing a critical tradition 

from which art in Thailand can only 

profit. 

JOHN HOSKIN 

c/o The Siam Society 

Journal of the Pali Text 

Society, 

Volume .xrv, edited by 

K. R. NORMAN, 

Oxford, 1990; 228 pp. 

Volume XIV of the Journal of the 

Pali Text Society contains a valuable 

contribution to Siamese Pali and 

Northern Thai studies in the form of a 

lengthy article (one might say monograph) 

by H. Hundius of Chiangmai 

University, entitled "The colophons of 

30 Pali manuscripts from Northern 

Thailand" (pp. 1-173).

163 

The study opens with a detailed 

introduction (Part A, pp. 10-41) which 

provides an overview of various 

historical and social aspects of the 

study. The colophons are presented in 

Part B (pp. 42-156), which opens with 

notes on technical aspects: transliteration, 

pronunciation, the pagination of 

palm-leaf manuscripts, dates and 

calendrial systems, etc. Then begins the 

study proper ("The Manuscripts and 

their Colophons"). For each text 

Hundius first gives a physical description 

of the manuscript, with information 

on its date and location. He then 

gives the opening and closing sentences 

(in Pali) and the text of the colophon 

(in Northern Thai), with English translation, 

and, as appropriate, concluding 

remarks. The manuscripts listed include 

canonical texts (08, 11), commentaries 

(01, 02, 09), numerous ftitakas (03, 

05, etc.), and Southeast Asian texts such 

as the Cakkavtifadipani (15, 16), 

Ctimadevivafzsa (17, 18), Lokadipa[kastira] 

(20, 21), Lokasatzfhtina (22), and so on. 

Hundius's historical and bibliographical 

remarks about the latter are 

particularly valuable, since little has 

been written about Southeast Asian Pali 

literature. The colophons themselves 

give the motives of the scribe and other 

details, and are a contribution to Lanna 

social, literary, and religious history. 

Some have a disarming simplicity: 

"Accomplished shortly after noontime-Bindaa 

Bhikkhu did the writing 

all by himself, my dear!" (no. 16, p. 97). 

The catalogue is followed by a 

number of indexes: [A] Pali Manuscripts 

in Chronological Order (Christian 

Era); [B] Repositories of the Manuscripts; 

[C] Texts and Authors; [D] 

Donors, Scribes, and Other Persons 

Mentioned in the Colophons; [E] 

Names of Places; and [F] Names of 

Monasteries. The study concludes with 

a detailed bibliography. 

The volume contains two other 

articles, both installments in ongoing 

series, and both of great interest to Pali 

scholars. "Studies in the Pali Grammarians 

ILl" by 0. H. Pind of Copenhagen 

(pp. 175-218) deals with [A] 

Buddhanghosa's interpretations of 

eight terms, [B] Grammatical References 

in Paramatthajotika I-11, and [C] 

Mahanama and Buddhadatta on 

Grammar. The study extracts grammatical 

comments from the Pali works, 

translates them into English, and 

discusses them in the light of both 

traditional Pali and Sanskrit grammar 

and modern philology. "Pali Lexicographical 

Studies VII: Five Pali 

Etymologies" by K. R. Norman of 

Cambridge (pp. 219-225) is "another 

random collection of words which are 

either omitted from [the Pali Text 

Society's Pali-English Dictionary], or 

given an incorrect meaning or etymology 

there". The volume concludes with 

an index by author to volumes IX to 

XIV of the Journal of the Pali Text Society 

(pp. 227-228), compiled by K. R. 

Norman. 


cfo The Siam Society

SECTION IX 

IN MEMORIAM

166 

Acharn Kraisri Nimmanahaeminda at Banteay Srei, Angkor (Cambodia) 

The last photograph of Acharn Kraisri, taken on 29 February 1992

ACHARN KRAISRI 

NIMMANAHAEMINDA 

12 DECEMBER 1912 

27 MAY 1992 

IN MEMORIAM 

The death of Acharn Kraisri Nimmanahaeminda on 27 May 1992 has deprived the academic wo"rld 

of its most erudite authority on the Lanna Thai culture. It has taken from Thailand a scholar of tremendous 

vigor, versatility and devotion, and from me a dear, long-time friend. 

Many are the colleagues-Thai and foreign-who mourn his passing. For those of us who were 

fortunate enough to be included in his circle of close friends, his death is supremely saddening. But 

certainly not as much as to his family. Acharn Kraisri was as loving a husband to Khun Chanya, and as 

solicitous a father to his sons, Khun Tarrin and Khun Sirin, as he was a warm and generous friend to all 

his many colleagues. 

The Siam Society under Royal Patronage was a special beneficiary of his generosity, for it was at 

Acharn Kraisri's recommendation that his mother, Mrs. Kimhaw, donated the Kamthieng House to the Siam 

Society-a treasure for which the Society will be forever grateful. This was not philanthropy of the ordinary 

kind, for the Kamthieng House was the Nimmanahaeminda Family's ancestral home-one that had stood 

along the Ping River in Chiengmai. Moved in its entirety from the North and reconstructed in faithful detail 

on the Society's grounds in the heart of Bangkok, the Kamthieng House is now a permanent museum of 

Northern Thai architecture and a permanent testimony of the Nimmanahaeminda Family's largess for all to 

visit and appreciate. 

In attempting to write this brief commemorative piece, I have come to realize in greater detail how 

great is the loss of the Society-as well as my own-with the passing of this extraordinary man. When I 

listed just the headings of his major accomplishments and contributions to Thai society and the world of 

learning, the inventory grew so long as to be almost unmanageable. Like the Renaissance figures of history, 

Acharn Kraisri had wide-ranging cultural and scholarly interests in addition to pursuing a successful career 

in business and banking. 

The roof beams at the front and rear of the Kamthieng House, donated to the Siam Society by Acharn Kraisri 

Nimmanahaeminda's mother, extend beyond the ridgepole to form a V-shaped design called kalae, "glancing crows," by 

the Thai Yuan people of Lanna, now Northern Thailand, and kaelae, "glancing pigeons," by the Thai Yuan of Ratchaburi. 

Although the real meaning of this design has not been fully ascertained, it is thought that it represents a pair of buffalo 

horns rather than birds. It has become symbolic of both the Nimmanahaeminda Family and the Siam Society.

168 

Acham I

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INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTORS 

The Journal of the Siam Society welcomes all original articles and reviews of a scholarly nature 

and in conformity with the principles and objectives of the Society. 

Articles submitted for publication (accepted in English, Thai, French or German) should be 

forwarded whenever possible on Macintosh or ffiM-compatible disks in any of the standard 

word-processing programs, accompanied by one double-spaced hard copy. However, if this is 

not feasible, manuscripts may be submitted in one typewritten copy, double-spaced, on A4 (quarto) 

paper (approximately 21 x 30 em), with generous margins. The top copy should be submitted. 

All notes and references should be similarly typed double-spaced. References should include 

name of author(s), title, name and volume of periodical or relevant publication series (where 

applicable), date and place of publication (or nature of reference, if unpublished), and pagination 

(where appropriate). Contributors should include their institutional affiliation, fields of special 

interest, and title of their chief publications in a brief biographical sketch. The Siam Society has 

selected The Chicago Manual of Style, 13th edition, 1982, as its stylistic guide. However, rather than 

impose at this time rigid standardization of such variables as transliterations, referencing, etc., we 

are, in general, publishing such elements in the way the are employed by our contributors. Pageproofs 

of articles and review articles are sent to authors on request only. Originals of illustrations 

will be returned on request. Authors of published contributions receive extra copies of the JSS 

free of charge. Additional copies will be supplied at cost price. 

The Siam Society encourages readers to communicate comments, corrections, supplementary 

data or differing opinions to the Honorary Editor regarding materials which appear in the 

JSS. Suitably documented correspondence will be published under "Communications," bearing 

the writer's name. 

The opinions expressed in the JSS are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent 

the views of the Siam Society. 

Manuscripts, books for review, and all correspondence should be sent to the Honorary 

Editor, The Journal of the Siam Society, 131 Soi Asoke, Sukhumvit 21, Bangkok 10110, Thailand. 

Subscription and membership enquiries and orders for publications should be addressed to the 

Administrative Officer, The Siam Society, 131 Soi Asoke, Sukhumvit 21, Bangkok 10110, Thailand. 

Exchange copies of periodicals should be sent to the Honorary Librarian, The Siam Society, 

G.P.O. Box 65, Bangkok 10501, Thailand.


UNDER ROYAL PATRONGAGE 

The Siam Society was founded in 1904, under royal patronage, as an organization for those 

interested in the artistic, scientific and other cultural affairs of Thailand and neighbouring 

countries. The Society maintains an excellent Library which is at the disposal of Members. The 

Society publishes The Journal of the Siam Society and The Siam Society Newsletter in addition to 

occasional works of topical interest and scholarly merit. The Society sponsors a programme of 

lectures and artistic performances, and regularly conducts study trips to places of archaeological 

and cultural interest in Thailand and abroad. Activities and events of the Society are reported 

in the Newsletter and special circulars of the Society. The Kamthieng House, an ethnological 

museum on the grounds of the Society's home, provides an example of a traditional 

northern Thai house with artefacts of rural life and superb collections of woven materials and 

wood carvings. The Saengaroon House is a new addition to the Society's compound. A typical 

house of central Thailand, it too is open to the public. 

The Natural History Section of the Siam Society, which was organized in 1913, sponsors its 

own programme of lectures and study trips to places of natural interest, and concerns itself with 

the conservation of Thai wildlife and flora. The Natural History Section publishes the annual 

Natural History Bulletin of the Siam Society as well as aperiodic works of scientific interest. 

MEMBERSHIP 

The Society welcomes new Members, resident in Thailand or abroad, on the following 

bases: 

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Both Life Members and Ordinary Members receive the Society's Journal, the Natural History 

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resident in Thailand receive the Annual Report of the Siam Society, which is issued in advance of 

the Annual General Meeting, and special circulars. 

Student Member is a special category for Thai students only and carries the same privileges 

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the Society's Journal, Newsletter, Natural History Bulletin and circulars. 

SUBSCRIPTIONS 

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APPLICATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP AND SUBSCRIPTIONS 

Applications for membership, subscriptions or further information on the Society are welcome. 

Please contact The Administrative Officer, The Siam Society, 131 Soi Asoke, Sukhumvit 

21, Thailand.

.. :.'1}--..,u s toms 

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published Spring, Summer 

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POST. CODE 

THE CUSTOMS OF CAMBODIA 

by CHOU TA-KUAN 

2nd (revised) edition, 1992 

CHOU TA-KUAN spent a year in Cambodia from 1296 to 1297 as 

part of a Chinese diplomatic mission sent by Timur Khan, the grandson 

and successor of Kublai Khan, to the court of Indravarman III 

(reigned 1295-1308). The Khmer empire, though past its zenith, was 

still powerful and wealthy. Chou wrote his account some time before 

1312 and it is the only detailed contemporary account of Angkor 

to come down to us. 

The text was translated from Chinese into French by Paul Pelliot and 

published in 1902. An English translation appeared in Bangkok in 

1967 but has long been out of print, as has also the Siam Society's 

1987 edition. 

This new edition by the Siam Society is particularly timely now that 

Angkor has again been visited and Chou's descriptions of the walled 

city, people, dwellings and daily life retain all their vividness and 

co lour across the centuries. In addition to Delaporte's splendid lithographs 

this second edition has 30 illustrations in colour, most of 

them previously unpublished. 

Price Bt. 360 (Bt. 300 for members)





1992

All Rights Reserved 

The Siam Society 


ISSN 0857-7099 

.. / 

/ 

Front cover : 

Chedi Phukhao Thong, Ayudhya. Photograph by Luca Invernizzi Tettoni. 

Printed by 

Amarin Printing Group Co., Ltd., 65/16 Soi Wat Chaiyapruk, Pinklao-Nakhon Chaisi Road, Taling Chan, 

Bangkok 10170, Thailand. Tel. 424-2800-1, 424-1176, 434-1380-4


PATRON 

VICE-PATRONS 

HON. PRESIDENT 

HON. VICE-PRESIDENTS 

HON. MEMBERS 

HON. AUDITOR 

HON. ARCHITECT 

HON. LEGAL COUNSEL 

HON. LANDSCAPE CONSULTANT 

His Majesty the King 

Her Majesty the Queen 

Her Royal Highness the Princess Mother 

His Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn 

Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn 



Mom Kobkaew Abhakara na Ayudhaya 

H.S.H. Prince Subhadradis Diskul 

Maj. Gen. M.R. Kukrit Pramoj 

Professor Chitti Tingsabadh 

The Ven. Dhammaghosacariya (Buddhadasa Bhikkhu) 

The Ven. Debvedi (Payutto) 

Dr. Fua Haripitak 

Dr. Puey Ungphakorn 

Dr. Sood Saengvichien 

Professor William Gedney 

Professor Prawase Wasi, M.D. 

H.E. Mr. Anand Panyarachun 

Dr. Tern Smitinand 

Mr. Dacre F.A. Raikes 

Mr. Yukta na Thalang 

Mr. Sirichai Narumit 

Mr. John Hancock 

Mr. William Warren 

COUNCIL OF THE SIAM SOCIETY FOR 1992/93 

Dr. Piriya Krairiksh 

Dr. Rachit Buri 

Mrs. Jada Wattanasiritham 

Dr. Philippe Annez 

Mrs. Bilaibhan Sampatisiri 

Dr. Charit Tingsabadh 

Mr. Jitkasem Sangsingkeo 

Dr. Warren Y. Brockelman 

Mr. James V. Di Crocco 

Dr. Chaiyudh Khantaprab 

Mrs. Boonyavan Chandrviroj 

MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL: 

Mr. Athueck Asvanund 

Major Suradhaj Bunnag 

Mr. Bangkok Chowkwanyun 

Mrs. Bonnie Davis 

Mrs. Virginia M. Di Crocco 

M.L. Plaichumpol Kitiyakara 

Mr. Henri Pagau-Clarac 

Mr. Norman Pajasalmi 

President 




Honorary Secretary 

Honorary Treasurer 

Honorary Librarian 

Honorary Editor of the NHB 

Honorary Editor of the JSS 

Leader of the Natural History Section 

Honorary Officer 

Mrs. Vipavadee Patpongpibul 

Mr. Peter Rogers 

Dr. Thawatchai Santisuk 

Mr.Barent Springsted 

Mr. Sidhijai Tanphiphat 

Dr. Steven J. Torok 

Mr. Albert Paravi Wongchirachai

Acknowledgments 

For photographs, ground plans and diagrams we thank 

the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Fine Arts Department of 

Thailand, Luca Invernizzi Tettoni, Piriya Krairiksh, 

Thepmontri Limpapayom, Marjorie A. Muecke, Mary L. Grow, 

James L. Taylor, Kazuo Yamasaki and Terry E. Miller. 

We thank Dr. Nyle Spoelstra for his help in computerization. 

Camille Baumann provided welcome editorial 

assistance. 

The cover design is by Euayporn Kerdchouay from a 

photograph by Luca Invernizzi Tettoni.

In This Issue 

Dr. PIRIYA KRAIRIKSH, President of The Siam Society 

under Royal Patronage, continues to reanalyze the dating 

of the monumental structures remaining today in A yudhya. 

His method is in the main to compare the monuments still 

existing there with their depictions in early charts and maps 

and to cross-check with the descriptions of them written by 

early foreign visitors. He has thus concluded that the 

monuments hitherto identified as belonging to the period 1350- 

1488 actually assumed their present form in the eighteenth 

century (see JSS Vol. 80.1). Dr. Piriya now reanalyzes the three 

great stupas in Wat Phra Sri Sanphet, the Victory Chedi of 

King Naresuan the Great, and Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, and 

concludes that their remains which are still visible are also 

more recent than traditionally thought. (The third and concluding 

part of this reanalysis will be published in a future 

issue of the JSS). 

The degree of information contained in indications of 

the date chosen for some event or ceremony as mentioned in 

commemorative stone inscriptions is usually sufficient for 

historians to determine that date with certainty, provided that 

there are no problems of legibility. But if such problems 

exist, Northern inscriptions sometimes carry astronomical data 

that can be useful as adjuncts to determining the date accurately. 

This is where the computer comes in. J.C. EADE 

looks at Wat Si in Phayao, and shows in a specific case how 

the computer can be an indispensable tool in fixing dates 

with precision. 

While echoing criticism of the now dormant land and 

development movement, PHILIP VON MEHREN and TIM 

SA WERS note that if the movement is to continue in any 

form, explication of the central tenet of the causal interaction 

between law and development is necessary. Their vehicle for 

explication is a case study comprising an original history of 

the development of land law in Thailand and proceeding from 

the conceptual basis of Max Weber's typology of legal systems. 

The authors contrast the Weberian explanation of the 

evolution of Thailand law with alternative analyses based on 

the Marxist and World System theories of social change. The 

article includes original translations from the ancient Thai Law 

of the Three Seals, the only translations from this law into 

any language. 

The issue continues its exploration of problems of law 

in Southeast Asia with a study by U AYE KY A W of religion 

and family law in Burma, the only country in the family of 

nations where "Buddhist Law" has become family law. U 

Aye Kyaw reviews in detail the history of attempts by the 

British to cope with the laws and customs of Buddhists, 

Hindus, Mohammedans and Christians in innmmerable acts 

and charters, with special attention given to the interrelationships 

of Buddhist law, Burmese customary law, and the 

British legal system. 

PETER SKILLING contributes to the current scholarly 

interest in the Footprints of the Buddha by making available 

a number of lists from Tibetan and Central Asian sources of 

the symbols on the body or on the feet and hands of a Buddha. 

He reviews the lists known in Thailand and those 

published in the West, from the early Dutch travelers to the 

present day. He then presents five lists in Tibetan with 

Sanskrit and English equivalents, and also lists from Kyzil 

and from Tocharian fragments. The lists are cross-referenced 

and compared. 

Christian missionary organizations, both Catholic and 

Protestant, encounter the problem of how to determine clearly 

the perspective of the people they wish to help. So how do 

the people to whom the missionary organization wishes to do 

good-to raise their economic sights, for example-change a 

negative thinking process into one in which they are willing 

to try out new ways? R.A.F. PAUL WEBB cites specific examples 

of how "progress," amidst its various definitions, can 

be achieved: how the power of rapacious rice brokers can be 

overcome, or how the constant fear of evil spirits can be 

understood so that "love can cast out fear." The basic lesson 

to be learned is that a "bottom up" approach must be used in 

which the traditional outlooks of the people can be perceived 

and understood, with patience as the watchword. 

MICHAEL WRIGHT focuses on the complexities and 

seeming contradictions of Siamese religion, in which Buddhism, 

Hinduism and Animism interrelate at a number of 

levels. Whereas a Westerner, considering the historical 

Buddha as a philosopher, might be baffled by an apparently 

flagrant misinterpretation of Buddhism given its admixture 

of Hindu deities and the placatory offerings of Animism, 

Mr. Wright perceives in Siamese religion a pattern of mutual 

support in which each religion accommodates the others, 

resulting in a wise telling of a tale which is available to both 

intellectuals and farmers alike-a system that works, extending 

across the spectrum of society. 

Noting the rise in popularity over several decades of 

spirit mediumship in urban areas of northern Thailand, 

MARJORIE A MUECKE discusses the paradoxical aspects of 

a ritual she once witnessed in Chiang Mai wherein some 

monks actually consulted female mediums regarding a 

problem in orthodox belief. This event, demonstrating the 

subordination of a male to a female and a state religion to a 

folk cult, raises questions about the validity of assumptions 

concerning the social and moral supremacy of orthodox 

Buddhism over folk religion and of maleness over femaleness 

in orthodox Theravadin societies. Moreover, the monks 

consulted the mediums because they were not sure whether 

the concept of reincarnation was true or not, a surprising 

doubt to find in the uppermost level of orthodox Buddhism. 

The observations made by Dr. Muecke regarding the syn-

6 

cretism of Thai religion are related to those of Michael Wright 

in his article in this issue. 

Addressing another aspect of animism, MARY L. 

GROW discusses lakhon chatri, one of Thailand's oldest extant 

forms of dance-drama, which still is performed in Petchaburi 

province as a spirit offering. She reviews lakhon chatri performers 

prior to King Rama IV's dance-drama edict and takes 

note of the rise of woman lakhon chatri performers. All of the 

women she interviewed felt that the dance-drama tradition 

offered them opportunities for training that they never would 

have had otherwise, and recognized their life in the lakhon as 

personally rewarding, even to the point of being a bit 

glamorous. 

JAMES L. TAYLOR discusses the forest monastic 

tradition in pre-reform Chakri Siam and the declining status 

and relative position of forest monks in the hierarchy and 

structure of the early Chakri Sangha. He provides a history 

of the early administrative system of the Sangha from the 

mid-fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries, examines the role 

of wandering monks, peri-urban monasteries, and meditation, 

and refers to the nineteenth-century wall paintings at Wat 

Somanat which show reform monks meditating on the theme 

of "foulness." The extension of far-reaching reforms around 

the turn of the century embroiled the forest monks in the 

tensions and aspirations of King Chulalongkorn's national 

program of unification. 

In a paper read in 1990 at the third conference of the 

European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, 

VIRGINIA M. DI CROCCO suggested that the development 

of lead glazing on ceramics in Myanmar/Burma was associated 

with ancient mining at Bawzaing in the Shan State, and 

further suggested the minting of silver coins from the silver 

content of the lead ore mined there. She then turned to 

Professor KAZUO YAMASAKI, Mr. YUICHI KUNO, and 

Professor H. SHIRAHATA for technical analysis at institutes 

in Japan. This shows that "lead slags" from Bawzaing have 

lead isotope ratios similar to those of plaques of Mara's army 

in Pegu, white opaque glazed ceramic sherds from Pagan, 

and white opaque glazed wares with green designs found in 

the Tak area of Thailand. In addition, the present paper gives 

evidence that silver coins with the bhaddapitha and srivatsa 

symbols certainly were struck from silver mined at the 

Bawzaing mines-in operation circa the sixth-eighth century 

A.D.-and that coins with the rising sun and srivatsa symbols 

were made of silver from Bawzaing as well. 

"In drinking wines and spirits there is [a case entailing) 

expiation." This dictum is unequivocal, and there are 

numerous such precepts and prohibitions in the Tripitaka 

regarding the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Yet from 

time immemorial there is a propensity in human nature for 

greedily indulging in intoxicating drink. KLAUS WENK 

shows how the Buddha's precept and its transgression have 

been treated as a specific subject in Thai literature, citing 

instances in the poetry of Sunthon Phu, the Kamnoet Phlai 

Ngam, King Mongkut's legal pronouncements, and the poems 

of Angkhan Kalyanaphong. 

GEORGE A. SIORIS, formerly a member of the Council 

of the Siam Society and Ambassador of Greece in Thailand, 

now Ambassador of Greece in Japan and a Corresponding 

Member of the Siam Society, takes as his inspiration 

the statement of Goethe that "Every national Literature 

feels at times the need to turn itself to abroad." Noting several 

examples of this tendency in Southeast Asia, such as that 

of the Ramayana in Siam and other countries of the area, and 

its reverse in the effect of Siam on a multitude of foreigners 

such as de Beze, Choisy, Pallegoix, La Loubere, Chaumont, 

Ernest Young, Carl Bock, E.W. Hutchinson and Mouhot among 

others, he extrapolates from these examples to the cultural 

dialogue between Japan and the West. Specifically, he examines 

the works of Pierre Loti, Lafcadio Hearn, Wenceslau 

de Moraes and Endo Shusaku. 

TERRY F. MILLER tells the story of the problems 

inherent in establishing a foreign musical ensemble in alien 

territory, with specific reference to the coming of Thai classical 

music to Kent State University in Ohio. While Thai classical 

ensembles had existed off and on in the United States 

since the 1960s, the arrival at Kent State in 1978 of Professor 

Kovit Kantasiri, chairman of the Faculty of Music at 

Chulalongkorn University and an instrumentalist in the classic 

Thai style, furnished an opportunity that the university 

immediately seized upon. Dr. Miller relates the development 

of the Kent State Thai ensemble once a set of instruments was 

obtained, and discusses the pedagogical difficulties of teaching 

methods of performance that depend largely on oral 

tradition to students accustomed to Western notation. 

Maintaining the instruments properly was an obstacle; another 

was the difficulty of preserving the continuity of the 

ensemble in an environment where the players constantly 

changed. The players, however, "continue to nurture a rare 

and perhaps exotic musical plant in an academic greenhouse 

where more and more students are being exposed to one of 

the world's most charming musical flowers." 

NATALIE BECQUIGNON studies traditional Thai 

massage from an ethnologist's point of view, showing what 

rules govern the practice of massage in a country where the 

act of touching a person is subject to strict constraints. Diagrams 

illustrate the various kinds of taboos, depending on 

who is being massaged by whom. The paper includes a case 

study of a young woman who receives a therapeutic massage 

from an elderly masseuse. The training of masseuses, the 

objectives of massage and the different functions of masseurs 

and masseuses are discussed. 

The Aslian languages are Austroasiatic languages 

spoken in West Malaysia and southernmost Thailand, mostly 

in the mountainous jungles of the center and north. They are 

grouped into three branches, Jahaic, Senoic and Semelaic. 

Sufficient data on Aslian kin terms exist to enable ROBERT J. 

PARKIN to identify in this body of lexis a number of cognates 

common to two or more branches of Aslian, as well as 

Malay loan words. Lists of cognates and loans are given with 

appropriate reference to the various subgroups.




JSS 



CONTENTS 

Acknowledgments 4 

In This Issue 5 

Section I : Dating the Past 9 

A REVISED DATING OF AYUDHYA 

ARCHITECTURE (II) 11 

COMPUTER-ASSISTED DATING FOR THAI 

INSCRIPTIONS 27 

An Instance From Wat Si, Phayao 

Section II : Aspects of Law and Religion 31 

REVITALIZING THE LAW AND DEVELOPMENT 33 

MOVEMENT 

A Case Study on Land Law In Thailand 

RELIGION AND FAMILY LAW IN BURMA 59 

SYMBOLS ON THE BODY, FEET, AND HANDS 67 

OF A BUDDHA 

K'LA AND THE CATHOLICS OF CHIANG MAl 81 

Village Development in the Northwest of Thailand 

THE BUDDHA UNDER NAGA 89 

Animism, Hinduism and Buddhism in Siamese 

Religion-a senseless pastiche or a living organism? 


J.C. EADE 

PHILIP VON MEHREN 

TIM SAWERS 

AYE KYAW 


R.A.F. PAUL WEBB 

MICHAEL WRIGHT

8 

MONKS AND MEDIUMS: RELIGIOUS SYNCRETISM 97 

IN NORTHERN THAILAND 

DANCING FOR SPIRITS: LAKHON CHATRI 105 

PERFORMERS FROM PHETCHABURI PROVINCE 

COSMOLOGY, FOREST MONKS AND SANGHA 113 

RECONSTRUCTION IN THE EARLY BANGKOK 

PERIOD 

Section Ill : Archaeology 123 

SILVER COINS: EVIDENCE FOR MINING AT 125 

BAWZAING IN THE SHAN STATE CIRCA 6TH-8TH 

CENTURY A.D. 

Section IV : Literature 129 

PRECEPT AND TRANSGRESSION 131 

Alcohol and Addicts in Ancient and Modern Thailand 

as Reflected in Thai Literature 

FAR EASTERN CULTURAL TRANSPLANTATIONS 135 

Section V: Music 141 

THAI CLASSICAL MUSIC COMES TO AMERICA: 143 

CULTIVATING A RARE SPECIES IN A MUSICAL 

GREENHOUSE 

Section VI : Ethnology 149 

UNE APPROCHE ETHNOLOGIQUE 151 

DES MASSAGES TRADITIONNELS THAIS 

Section VII : Linguistics 165 

COGNATES AND LOANS 167 

AMONG ASLIAN KIN TERMS 

Section VIII : Reviews 171 

WALTER E.J. TIPS 173 

Gustave Rolin-]aequemyns 

SMITTHI SIRIBHADRA, ELIZABETH MOORE 178 

MICHAEL FREEMAN: Palaces of the Gods 

APINAN POSHYANANDA 179 

Modern Art in Thailand 

DAVID GOSLING 180 

A New Earth 

MARJORIE A. MUECKE 

MARY L. GROW 

JAMES L. TAYLOR 

VIRGINIA M. DI CROCCO 

KLAUS WENK 

GEORGE SIORIS 

TERRY E. MILLER 

NATHALIE BECQUIGNON 

ROBERT J. PARKIN 

PHILIPPE ANNEZ 

DEAN MEYERS 



WILLIAM J. KLAUSNER

SECTION I 

DATING THE PAST

A REVISED DATING OF 

AYUDHYA ARCHITECTURE (II) 


PRESIDENT OF THE SIAM SOCIETY 

In the previous issue of the Journal of the Siam Society (Vol. 80.1 

1992, 37-55) this writer proposed in an article entitled "A Revised 

Dating of A yudhya Architecture" that H.R.H. Prince Damrong 

Rajanubhab's dating of Ayudhya monuments first set forth in 

the Tamnan Phuttha Chedi Say am (Chronicle of the Monuments of 

the Buddha in Siam), published in 1926, should be revised on 

account of misconceptions in its basic methodology, for the 

Prince correlated the structures remaining today with those 

mentioned in the Phraratcha Phongsawadan (Royal Chronicles). 

Furthermore, he did not take into account the possibility that 

the monuments we see today may have been built at a later 

period, nor did he attempt to verify the credibility of the Royal 

Chronicles by comparing them with foreign sources. Thus, 

after having compared the existing monuments at Ayudhya 

with their depictions in seventeenth century charts and maps 

and cross-checking with contemporary foreigners' accounts, 

this writer has concluded that the monuments identified by 

the author of the Tamnan as belonging to the First Sub-Period 

(1350-1488), namely, the prang of Wat Phutthai Sawan, the 

prang 9f Wat Mahathat, the prang of Wat Ratchaburana and 

the prang of Wat Phra Ram, all assumed their present forms 

in the 18th century. Hence the Prince's rule of thumb for 

identifying A yudhya architecture of the First Sub-Period, i.e. 

that it .is characterized by the Lop Buri-period prangs, has to 

be revised. 

Tam nan Phuttha Chedi Say am's 

Second Sub-Period (1463-1628) 

According to the author of the Tamnan Phuttha Chedi Sayam the 

Second Sub-Period commences in 1463, when King 

Borommatrailokanat (1448-1488) moved the capital from 

Ayudhya to Phitsanulok, and ends with the death of King 

Song Tham in 1628. Examples of the architecture from the 

Second Sub-Period show influences from Sukhothai, especially 

the Sinhalese-type stupas. These are the two great stu pas 

enshrining the ashes of King Borommatrailokanat and King 

Borommaracha III in the Temple Royal of Wat Phra Sri Sanphet, 

as well as the colossal image of a standing Buddha called Phra 

Sri Sanphet, all built by King Ramathibodi II (1491-1529). The 

author of the Tamnan Phuttha Chedi Sayam later surmised that 

the third great in the same Temple Royal of Wat Phra Sri 

Sanphet was built by a later king to enshrine the ashes of King 

Ramathibodi II, which explains why there are three great stupas 

in Wat Phra Sri Sanphet. 1 

Another example of the monuments from the Tamnan 

Phuttha Chedi Sayam's Second Sub-Period is the Victory Chedi 

of King Naresuan the Great (1590-1605), built at the spot where 

he had won an elephant duel with the Crown Prince of 

Hamsavati (Pegu), which was a copy of the Victory Chedi of 

King Dutthagamani of Sri Lanka. 

The author of the Tamnan also gave a rule of thumb to 

identify monuments of his Second Sub-Period: "Instead of 

prangs, nearly all the principal monuments built during this 

period were stupas of Sinhalese type." 2 

H.S.H. Prince Subhadradis Diskul later added to this 

list the chedi at Wat Yai Chai Mongkon as another example of 

Ayudhya architecture of the Second Sub-Period. 3 

The Three Great Stu pas in Wat Phra Sri Sanphet 

Whereas the "Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version" of the Royal 

Chronicle of Ayudhya says that in 1474 King Ramathibodi II had 

the ashes of King Borommatrailokanat enshrined in a stupa, 4 

it did not say that those of King Borommaracha III also were 

enshrined at the same time. This additional information comes 

from the "Luang Prasoet version" of the Royal Chronicle which 

says that in the year 1492 King Ramathibodi II had the ashes 

of King Borommatrailokanat as well as those of King 

Borommaracha III enshrined in the great stupa.5

12 

PIRIY A KRAIRIKSH 

Figure 1 

The Three Great Stupas in Wat 

Phra Sri Sanphet, Ayudhya. Collection 

of the Siam Society. 

L U UF A 

Figure 2 

The vihara of the Phra Sri Sanphet image. Detail from the oil painting of "Iudea," anonymous Dutch school, c. 1650, Rijksmuseum, 

Amsterdam. 

Figure 3 

The vihara of the Phra Sri Sanphet 

image. Detail from a water-color 

copy of the "Afooldinge der Stadt 

Iudiad Hooft des Choonincrick 

Siam," Johannes Vingboons, c. 

1665, Algemeen Rijksarchief, The 

Hague. Collection of the Siam 

Society.

A REVISED DATING OF A YUDHYA ARCHITECTURE (II) 13 

Although the "Luang Prasoet version" does not specify 

whether the ashes of these two kings were placed together in 

the same stupa or were placed in separate ones, the author of 

the Tamnan surmised that two stupas were constructed, one 

for each king. Also, neither of the two recensions of the Royal 

Chronicle says in which city and in which monastery the stu pas 

were located; the author of the Tamnan again surmised that 

These great stupas must be the big chedis in 

Wat Phra Sri Sanphet. Two were built then. A 

later king built another one to enshrine the ashes 

of King Ramathibodi II. Hence there are three 

great stupas existing today.6 (Figure 1) 

Since both the oil painting of "Iudea" of c. 1659 in the 

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Figure 2) and the watercolor 

painting from Johannes Vingboons' atlas of 1665 (Figure 3) 

show that there is no stupa to the rear of the vihara of the Phra 

Sri Sanphet image, the hypothesis of the author of the Tamnan 

that two of the three great stupas were built by King 

Ramathibodi II in 1492, and the third one after his death in 

1529, must be revised. 

However, the earliest depiction of stu pas at the rear of 

the vihara of the Phra Sri Sanphet image is shown in the "Plan 

of the Royal Palace of Siam" (Figures 4 and 4a}, published by 

Dr. Engelbert Kaempfer, a German doctor employed by the 

Dutch East India Company, who visited Ayudhya in 1690. 

Judging from Kaempfer's plan, there are to the front (east) of 

the vihara of the Phra Sri Sanphet image one small building 

and a chedi, while to the back (west) of it are three large 

buildings separated by two chedis and one prang. These 

chedis appear to have been the multi-storeyed prasat type, not 

the bell-shaped Sinhalese type we see today. Since all of these 

additional structures are absent in Vingboons' atlas of 1665 

(see Figure 3), they most probably would have had to be built 

between 1665 and 1688 during the reign of King Narai the 

Great. 


in 1741 King Borommakot commanded the heir apparent to 

renovate Wat Phra Sri Sanphet, which took over one year to 

complete? The "Royal Autograph version," however, says that 

the renovation took place between 1742-1744. 8 

When one compares the Fine Arts Department's present 

plan of Wat Phra Sri Sanphet (Figure 5) with Kaempfer's plan 

of 1690 (Figure 4), one can see that with the possible exception 

of the Phra Sri Sanphet image, all of the structures mentioned 

earlier have been demolished and replaced by three 

Sinhalese-type stupas alternating with three mondops which 

used to enshrine Footprints of the Buddha, all laid out along 

an east-west axis. Also, given the symmetrically designed 

plan and the uniformity in style of the mondop, the three great 

stupas, viharas and subsidiary stupas (Figure 5) in Wat Phra 

Sri Sanphet, it is reasonable to assume that most of the 

monuments we see today were reconstructed after a master 

plan drawn in the early 1740s. 

As for the Phra Sri Sanphet image itself, the 

"Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version" says, 

In 841, the year of the pig [1479], the vihara of 

the Wat Phra Sri Sanphet was first constructed. 

Somdet Phra Ramathibodi [II] first cast the Phra 

Sri Sanphet image on Sunday the 8th of the waxing 

6th month. Then in 845, the year of the rabbit 

[1483], on Friday the 11th of the waxing 8th month, 

the statue was dedicated. The dimensions were 

from the feet to the crest 8 wah and the face was 

4 sok long and 3 sok wide, the breast 11 sok. The 

metal used weighed 53,000 catties; the gold for 

covering the statue weighed 286 catties. The gold 

was of a fineness in front of seven and behind of 

six. 9 

Since King Rama I had the Phra Sri Sanphet image 

brought to Bangkok and enshrined in the Sri Sanphet Dayan 

Chedi in Wat Phra Chetuphon in B.E. 2332 (1789), 10 its exact 

measurements and weight must have been known to the 

compiler of the "Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version," who 

completed his work in 1795. 

The "Luang Prasoet version," however, has it that the 

construction of the vihara and the casting of the image occurred 

in two successive years. Although the day of the first 

casting of the image and the day of its dedication and their 

respective moon's phases remain the same, the years given in 

the "Luang Prasoet version" differ from the "Phanchanthanumat 

(Choem) version" by as much as 20 years. It states as follows: 

In 861, the year of the goat [1499], he [Somdet 

Phra Ramathibodi II] built the vihara of W at Phra 

Sri Sanphet. In 862, the year of the monkey [1500], 

he gave orders for the casting of the Phra Sri 

Sanphet. It was commenced on Sunday the 8th of 

the waxing 6th month, and in 865, the year of the 

pig (1503), on Friday the 11th of the waxing 8th 

month, the statue was dedicated. The dimensions 

were from the feet to the crest 8 wah and the face 

was 4 sok long and three sok wide, the breast 11 

sok. The metal used weighed 53,000 catties, the 

gold for covering the statue weighed 286 catties. 

The gold was of a fineness in front of seven and 

behind six.U 

It should be remarked here that the dimensions and 

weight of the image given in the "Luang Prasoet version" are 

exactly the same as those of the "Phanchanthanumat (Choem) 

version." 

However, contemporary Western accounts from the 

1680s challenge the statements given in the "Luang Prasoet 

version," which according to its own exordium dates from 

1680, that the vihara of Wat Phra Sri Sanphet was constructed 

before the casting of the Phra Sri Sanphet image. Nicolas 

Gervaise wrote in 1688: "It [the Phra Sri Sanphet image] was 

made on the spot and the pagoda where it is now worshipped 

was not built until it had been put in place." 12 

According to Father Tachard's account of 1685, "They 

say that this Prodigious Colossus was cast in the same place

14 PIRIY A KRAIRIKSH 

Figure 4 

Wat Phra Sri Sanphet from the Plan of the Royal Palace 

of Siam in Kaempfer's A Description of the Kingdom of 

Siam, 1690. 

Jl 

.I 

Figure 4a Detail of Figure 4. 

0 

"L. E 

t: t,ooo 

Figure 5 

Plan of Wat Phra Sri Sanphet. Fine Arts Department.

A REVISED DATING OF AYUDHYA ARCHITECTURE (II) 15 

where it stands, and that afterwards they built the Temple over 

it. "13 

Father Tachard's statement that "This Pagod is pretty 

long, but very narrow," 14 supports the popular belief that the 

image was cast first, after which the vihara was built to house 

the image. For the narrowness of the vihara would have 

facilitated the roofing of the building. 

This is the first instance where the compiler of the 

"Luang Prasoet version" shows that he was out of touch with 

his contemporaries. For, had the "Luang Prasoet version" been 

compiled in 1680, as it claims, it would have placed the casting 

of the Buddha image before the construction of the vihara. 

This incongruity together with the same measurements and 

weight of the Phra Sri Sanphet image given in the 

"Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version," as well as the 20 years 

correction for the date of the construction of the vihara of the 

Phra Sri Sanphet image, all indicate that the "Luang Prasoet 

version" probably was based on the "Phanchanthanumat (Choem) 

version." 

Not only do Western accounts cast doubt as to the 

credibility of the "Luang Prasoet version" and the "Phanchanthanumat 

(Choem) version" on the casting of the Phra Sri 

Sanphet image, but both the Khamhaikan Khun Luang Ha Wat 

Chabap Luang, (Statement of Khun Luang Ha Wat; Ex-King 

Uthumphon) and the Khamhaikan Chao Krung Kao (Statements 

of the Residents of the Old Capital) contradict them also. For, 

according to Ex-King Uthumphon, the Phra Sri Sanphet image 

was cast by King Ekathotsarot (1605-1611). Its height was 18 

sok, it was made of tin, and the gold covering the statue weighed 

173 catties. 15 The former residents of the old capital also said 

that King Ekathotsarot had the image cast but the gold covering 

weighed 179 catties. 16 

Since there is no other evidence to support either the 

"Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version" and the "Luang Prasoet 

version" of the Royal Chronicle, both of which say that the Phra 

Sri Sanphet image was cast by King Ramathibodi II, or the 

Statements ofKhun Luang Ha Wat and the Statements of the Residents 

of the Old Capital, which claim that the image was cast by King 

Ekathotsarot, these traditional sources may have been equally 

unreliable. Circumstantial evidence, however, suggests that 

the Phra Sri Sanphet image may well have been cast in the 

reign of King Prasat Thong, for these is an entry in the 

"Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version" and its recensions which 

says "In the year that the [Prasat] Nakhon Luang was built, 

Wat Phra Sri Sanphet was founded; completed, a ceremony 

was held to celebrate it." 17 

Judging by the oil painting of "Iudea" of c. 1650 in the 

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (see Figure 2), the vihara of the 

Phra Sri Sanphet image looks as if it had been built recently, 

for it is shown in isolated splendor. Thus the painting gives 

credence to the above entry in the Royal Chronicle. This assertion 

contradicts the chronicle's own earlier statement that 

King Ramathibodi II built the vihara of the Phra Sri Sanphet 

image. Moreover, van Vliet wrote in 1636 in the Description 

of the Kingdom of Siam that " ... with the treasures lying under 

the idols of wat Sy-Ser-Pudt and Nappetat a ruined kingdom 

could be restored."18 

This suggests that the value of .the treasures buried 

underneath the image was greater than that of the image itself. 

For had the Phra Sri Sanphet image been cast before 1636, van 

Vliet probably would have mentioned the value of the image 

itself and not that of the treasures. Also, had the image been 

cast before 1640, when he wrote The Short History of the Kings 

of Siam, he might have referred to it as an example of King 

Prasat Thong's extravagance. 

If King Prasat Thong's treatment of Wat Chi Chiang 

can be any indication, a similar fate may have been the lot of 

Wat Phra Sri Sanphet also. For, according to van Vliet, writing 

in February 1640, 

A few months ago the ruling King [Prasat 

Thong] demolished the temple to its very base and 

had a large copper he a then image [the Phra 

Mongkhon Bop hit image] which was located there 

pulled back several rods so that another temple 

like the last could be built over the image.19 

Van Vliet thought that King Prasat Thong had hoped 

to find great treasures in the demolition of the temple, because 

"He is more avaricious than any other former Siamese King. 

He had temples tom down and their foundations dug up to 

search for gold and silver.'' 20 

Hence it is possible to suggest that King Prasat Thong 

might have removed an earlier presiding image in the Temple 

Royal of Wat Phra Sri Sanphet to search for its fabled foundation 

deposits and then had the image replaced by a standing 

image which he named Phra Sri Sanphet. 

The Victory Chedi of King N aresuan the Great 

The Tamnan Phra Phuttha Chedi Sayam also classified the chedi 

commemorating the victory of King Naresuan the Great in an 

elephant duel with the Maha Uparat (Crown Prince) of 

Hamsavati as an example of the architecture of the Second 

Sub-Period. He also surmised that King Naresuan was following 

the example set by King Dutthagamani of Sri Lanka, 

who built a chedi to commemorate his victory over the Tamil 

King Elara. 21 A.B. Griswold identified King Dutthagamani's 

Victory Chedi as the present day Ruvanvali Thupa at 

Anuradhapura. 22 

According to the author of the Tamnan, he had been 

trying to find the Victory Chedi of King Naresuan for over ten 

years, on account of the statement in the Royal Chronicle which 

says that King Naresuan commanded a chedi to bebuilt over 

the remains of the Maha Uparat in the District of Phang Tru. 

However, he was unable to locate it until the "Luang Prasoet 

version" was discovered in 1907 and he read in it that the Maha 

Uparat had established his camp in Taphang Tru District of 

Suphanburi province and had the elephant duel with King 

Naresuan at Nong Sarai. He thus requested the Governor of 

Suphanburi province to look for Nong Sarai as well as to find 

a chedi nearby. When both were located the author of the 

Tamnan went to inspect the chedi himself. The lone chedi was 

covered with vegetation, but after it had been cleared one

16 PIRIYA KRAIRIKSH 

Figure 6 Chedi Yuddhahatthi, Don Chedi District, Suphanburi Province. Photographed in 1912. 

could see a square base measuring 10 wah (20 meters) on each 

side. The height of the ruin was six wah (12 meters). Old people 

said th at they had heard from their forefathers th at an elephant 

duel had taken place at this spot. When King Vajiravudh 

heard of this, he said that the evidence was strong enough to 

accept this chedi as the monument built by King Naresuan at 

the place where he had the elephant duel with the Mah a 

Uparat in the war to liberate Siam 23 

H owever, in a letter date 23 October 1942 to his halfbrother, 

H .R.H. Prince Naritsaranuwattiwong, the author of 

the Tamnan admitted that the old people sa id that this spot 

was where "Phra Naresuan had an elephant duel with Phra 

Narai." Moreover, he did not go to inspect the site himself but 

onl y read the report of the Governor of Suphanburi and saw 

the chedi in photographs. 24 

Judging from an old photograph, the chedi was in such 

a ruinous state that its original form could not be discerned 

with the exception of its plain plastered base (Figure 6). Since 

the ruined chedi does not bear any stylistic resemblance to the 

Ruvanvali Thupa, the author of the Tamnan probabl y meant 

th at the Victory Chedi of King Dutthaga mani was a precedent 

for subsequent victory chedis, not that the ruined chedi was 

a co py of it. 

Francis H. Giles noted in his essay, "A critica l analysis 

of van Vli et's Historical Account of Siam in the 17th century," 

published in the Journal of the Siam Society, th at 

Burmese history insists that this battle was 

fought just outside the walls of Ayudhya, whereas 

Siamese history says it took place at Taphang Tru 

(lil::~~lil~) in the district of Suphan, which is many 

miles distan t fro m Ayudhya. Van Vliet, who was 

in Ayudhya thirty-nine years after the event, says 

in the report that the battle was fought half a mile 

above the town near a ruined temple. Van Vliet's 

statement is in accord with Burmese history 25 

Giles, however, did not refer to Kaempfer's illustration 

of the Chedi Phukhao Thong in his Description of the Kingdorn 

of Siam 1690 (Figure 7), the caption of which reads "The Pyramid 

Pu kathon near Juthia. It was built in memory of a victory, 

which the Siamites obtained over the Peguans, and thereby 

recovered their liberty. " 26 

Kaempfer also gives a detailed description of its archjtech 

lre which generally corresponds with the Chedi Phukhao 

Thong (Figure 8). He also gives its location: "(it] stands on a


Figure 7 

Chedi Phukhao Thong as illustrated in Kaempfer's A Description 

of the Kingdom of Siam, 1690. 

A 

./r.UA ,. o~-- ,_ 

~ --,~------=. ;.~ 

Fw. 13. A, The Pyramid Pukathon near Juthia. It was built 'in 

memory of a victory, which the Siamites obtained over the Peguans, 

and thereby recovered their liberty. B, The ground plot of the 

wd Pyramid. 

Figure 8 

Chedi Phukhao Thong 

from the air. Photograph 

by Luca Invernizzi 

Tettoni.


plain one League North West of the City." 27 Even though the 

distance given by Kaempfer differs from that given by van 

Vliet, its location outside the walls of Ayudhya is the same as 

in van Vliet's account. According to the Description of the 

Kingdom of Siam, which van Vliet wrote in 1636, 

At last they appeared before Judia which town 

they thought to conquer very easily. But the 

Siamese prince marched with his army against the 

enemy and met them half a mile above the town 

near a ruined temple which is still existing. 28 

A similar account appears in van Vliet's The Short History of 

the Kings of Siam of 1640, as follows: 

The King of Pegu appeared with a mighty 

army before the city of Ayudhya. Phra 

Naretarrived with the Siamese army at a certain 

ruined temple (the remains of which are still visible 

today) called Crengh or Nong Sarai to meet 

the Peguans. 29 

The above accounts, coming as they do from van Vliet, 

who was a resident of Ayudhya from 1633 to 1641, are more 

reliable than the account of the same event given in the "Luang 

Prasoet version," which gives the location as in Suphanburi. 

Furthermore, it also refers to King Naresuan as Phra Narai, 

whereas van Vliet called him Phra Naret. Here is Frankfurter's 

translation of the relevant passage of the "Luang Prasoet version:" 

In 954, the year of the dragon, on Friday the 

2nd of the 12th waxing moon, the Uparaj came 

from Pegu ... In the second month the Mahauparaj 

arrived at the frontier of Suphanburi and established 

his camp at Phang Tru. On Sunday the 9th 

of the 2nd waxing moon at 10.12, the King came 

by water with his army and celebrated the ceremony 

of the consecration of arms at Lomphli and 

established his camp at Muang Wan, and on 

Wednesday the 12th of the 2nd waxing moon, at 

8.54 a.m. the King proceeded on Land. About 

dawn on the 12th day the relics of the Buddha 

were seen to be floating [in the air] in the way the 

King took. On Monday the 2nd of the 2nd waxing 

moon, at 11.18, the King rode on his chief elephant 

Phraya Jayanubhab and fought with the 

Mahauparaj at Nong Sarai. This was not done 

exactly at the auspicious moment. Whilst the 

elephant fight was going on with the Mahauparaj, 

the King Phra Narayana was slightly wounded in 

the right arm. Further the Mahauparaj came out 

riding on his elephant and his hat fell off; but he 

was able to put it on again, and then he died on 

his elephant. 30 

The above account may have been composed to lend 

credibility to the claim in the "Luang Prasoet version" that it was 

compiled from astrological calendars (Phum Hora), 31 giving as 

it does the precise hours and minutes. However, it stretches 

one's credulity to believe that there were astrologers present 

at the battle to keep the exact time. Ironically, the collected 

astrological calendar called Chotmaihet Hora, which includes 

events from the A yudhya period, does not register this momentous 

occasion at all. 32 

Although the Statements ofKhun Luang Ha Wat says that 

the battle took place in the district of Len Tae Khao Ngam, it 

does not specify in which province that district was located. 33 

However, the Statements of the Residents of the Old Capital gives 

the location as being near the town of Suphanburi. 34 Furthermore, 

the Statements of the Residents of the Old Capital says 

that before the battle took place a relic of the Buddha also flew 

past,35 just as is recorded in the "Luang Prasoet version." The 

discrepancy between the location given by van Vliet and the 

Burmese and that in the "Luang Prasoet version" is the second 

incongruity in its claim to have been compiled in 1680, because 

its story is closer to the Statements of the Residents of the Old 

Capital from the late 18th-century than to its own contemporary 

accounts. This discrepancy again casts doubt as to the 

authenticity of the 1680 date given in the exordium of the 

"Luang Prasoet version." 

The probability that the Chedi Phukhao Thong was 

built to commemorate King Naresuan's victory over the Crown 

Prince of Burma is alluded to in the Phongsawadan Nuea 

(Chronicle of the North). However, the Phongsawadan Nuea 

confuses King Naresuan with the Crown Prince of Hamsavati, 

for King Naresuan is called Phra Naresuan Hongsa, who was 

a son of a king of Thaton. Phra Naresuan Hongsa came with 

"four million men" to surround the city of A yudhya. He then 

challenged Phra Narai, the ruler of Ayudhya, to a chedibuilding 

competition. 

After 15 days Phra Naresuan was able to build 

to the height of the topmost molding of the base 

('U'Jn~3.1) and gave it the name Wat Phukhao Thong. 

Phra Narai thought that he was going to be defeated, 

so he resorted to a ruse by building his 

chedi with bamboo scaffoldings and covered them 

with white cloth. Phra Naresuan saw the chedi 

and was afraid, so he retreated with all his men. 

Phra Narai commanded that the chedi be completed 

and gave it the name Wat Yai Chai 

Mongkhon. 

Then Phra Narai built the Phra Prang (Wat Maha 

That) at Muang Lavo. He called his new city Lop 

Buri. 36 

On this particular episode the Phongsawadan Nuea 

appears to be closer to the truth than the "Luang Prasoet version," 

for the location where Phra Naresuan built his chedi is 

the same as given in both van Vliet's and Kaempfer's accounts. 

Hence there is no reason to doubt that the Chedi Phukhao 

Thong was founded by King Naresuan to commemorate his 

victory.

A REVISED DATING OF A YUDHYA ARCHITECTURE (II) 19 

The Statements of the Residents of the Old Capital, on the 

other hand, says that when the king of Hamsavati (Bayinnaung) 

was staying at Ayudhya he caused a big chedi to be built in 

the Thung Khao Thong District and gave it the name of Chedi 

Phukhao Thong. 37 Thus it appears that when Ayudhya fell in 

1767 the people living there knew that the Chedi Phukhao 

Thong had something to do with Hamsavati, so perhaps to 

please their Burmese captors, the former residents of the Old 

Capital who were taken as prisoners to Ava attributed it to 

Bayinnaung. 38 

When the "Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version" of the 

Royal Chronicle was compiled in 1795, the compiler must have 

vaguely remembered that Phra Naresuan founded the Chedi 

Phukhao Thong. But since popular belief identified Phra 

Naresuan with a king of Hamsavati as told in the Phongsawadan 

Nuea, the compiler attributed the founding of the Chedi 

Phukhao Thong to another king with a similar-sounding name, 

King Ramesuan, in 1387. 39 The "Luang Prasoet version," on the 

other hand, does not mention it at all. 

Although the Chedi Phukhao Thong was founded by 

King Naresuan on the spot where he obtained victory over the 

Crown Prince of Hamsavati, the chedi shown in Kaempfer's 

illustration (Figure 7) probably was built after 1640, for van 

Vliet specified that the battle was fought "at a certain ruined 

temple (the remains of which are still visible today)." 40 Had 

the Chedi Phukhao Thong as illustrated in Kaempfer's book 

been built before 1640, he would have said where the great 

pyramid now stands, for at the time of its construction the 

Chedi Phukhao Thong would have been the tallest chedi at 

Ayudhya. However, taking into account van Vliet's and 

Kaempfer's statements together with that of the Phongsawadan 

Nuea, it can be inferred that after the great battle was 

fought and won outside the walls of Ayudhya, King Naresuan 

commanded that a great chedi be built to commemorate his 

victory. But his grandiose scheme had not been completed as 

planned, for having attained the height of the topmost course 

of mouldings of the base, the great chedi was abandoned. By 

1640 it was covered with overgrowth, which explains why van 

Vliet referred to it as "a ruined temple," for its unfinished state 

would have resembled a small hillock covered with vegetation. 

Thus the Chedi Phukhao Thong depicted by Kaempfer 

(Figure 7) must have been built after 1640 and before 1690, 

either during the latter half of King Prasat Thong's reign 

(1640-1656) or in the reign of King Narai (1656-1688). 

If the substratum of fact from the Phongsawadan Nuea 

can be of any help it may indicate that King Prasat Thong had 

the Chedi Phukhao Thong rebuilt between 1640-1656, for 

according to the Phongsawadan Nuea, Phra Chao Prasat Thong, 

King of Ayudhya, sent a delegation to Hamsavati to give 

offerings to the Phra Mali Chedi. 41 Although the Phra Mali 

Chedi is mythical, the description suggests that it might have 

been based on the Mahazedi of King Bayinnaung (1551-1581) 

(Figure 9). It is possible to assume that the delegation was sent 

to Hamsavati to collect more information on the Mahazedi for 

King Prasat Thong's reconstruction of the Chedi Phukhao 

Thong, since King Prasat Thong might have known that King 

Naresuan's original intention for the Chedi Phukhao Thong 

was to build a replica of the Mahazedi at Pegu, in which city 

he had spent his youth as a hostage. As the Chedi Phukhao 

Thong was modeled after the Mahazedi of Bayinnaung, its 

correlation with Bayinnaung, as told in the Statements of the 

Residents of the Old Capital, may contain a modicum of truth 

after all. 

Kaempfer gives a detailed description of the Chedi 

Phukhao Thong as he saw it in 1690, which is here quoted in 

full, as follows: 

It is a bulky, but magnificent structure, forty 

odd fathoms high, standing in a square taken in 

with a low neat wall. It consists of two structures 

which are built one upon the other. The lowermost 

structure is square, each side being one hundred 

and fifteen paces long, and rises to the height of 

twelve fathoms and upwards. Three corners jet 

out some few paces on each side, which are 

continu'd up to the top, and altering its square 

figure make it appear, as it were, multangular. It 

consists of four Stories, built one upon the other, 

the uppermost of which growing narrower leaves 

at the top of that below it an empty space, or walk 

to go round. Every Story hath its Cornishes curiously 

diversify'd, and all the walks, the lowermost 

only excepted, are taken in with low neat walls 

adorn'd in each corner with fine columns. The 

middlemost corner of each Story represents the 

frontispiece of the Building. It exceeds the others 

in beauty and ornaments, especially in a magnificent 

gable it ends into. The Staircase is in the 

middle of it, which leads up to the upper area on 

which is built the second structure, and consists 

of seventy four steps, each nine Inches high, and 

four paces long. The second structure is built on 

the upper surface of the first, which is square, each 

side being thirty six paces long. It stands out in 

the middle for ornament's sake, and is taken in like 

the rest, with a low neat wall. It hath a walk five 

paces broad to go about the second structure. The 

Stair-case ends into this walk, each side of its 

entry being adorn'd with columns. The basis, or 

pedestal of the second structure is octangular, 

consisting of eight sides of different length, those 

facing South, East, West and North, being eleven, 

but the North East, South East, South West, and 

North West sides, each twelve paces long. It hath 

its Cornishes much after the manner of the 

lowermost structure to the height of some fathoms. 

It then becomes not unlike a Steeple, on 

whose top stand several short columns at some 

distances from each other, the spaces between being 

left empty. These columns support a pile of globes, 

which run up tapering, their diameters decreasing 

in proportion to the height. The whole ends into 

a very long Spire, and withal so sharp, that it is 

very surprizing, how it could hold out for so


Figure 9 

The auth Mahazed. 

I, at Pegu, Ph 

or. otograph b Y the 0 v 

Figure 10 Plan D of ch e d' I 

epartment. Phukh ao Thong. Fine Arts 

r.


considerable a space of time against all the Injuries 

of wind and weather. Next to this Pyramid are 

some Temples and Colleges of the Talapoins, which 

are taken in with particular neat brick walls. 42 

A comparison of Kaempfer's drawing (see Figure 7) 

and description with the Chedi Phukhao Thong as it stands 

today (Figure 8) shows that substantial modifications took 

place after 1690. The most obvious is the change in the lower 

structure where, instead of having "Three corners [which] jet 

out some few paces on each side," there are only two today, 

for the central projection which housed the stairway has been 

removed (Figure 10). Otherwise, the mouldings on each of the 

four storeys of the lower structure remain essentially the same 

as in the drawing. The upper structure from the base to the 

top of the platform on which stand the "several short columns" 

has been modified beyond recognition. Kaempfer's drawing 

shows that it has a projection on each of the four sides, making 

it an added-angle type chedi ( chedi phoem mum), and the course 

of mouldings of the upper structure repeat that of the lowermost 

structure. The present upper structure, on the other hand, is 

an elaborate redented added-angle type chedi whose sequences 

of mouldings, consisting of three sets of superimposed lower 

and upper cyma recta moldings decorated with torus 

mouldings, are typical of the 18th-century. Also an extra 

projection was added to the center of each side to contain an 

image niche. The cylindrical dome was changed to one of a 

square plan with rabbeted angles. The form of the "steeple," 

however, has not been changed. This transformation must 

have been the result of the restoration undertaken in 1745, as 

recorded in the Phum Hora (Astrological Calendar). 43 

The Chedi of Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon 

Although the author of the Tamnan did not choose the chedi 

of Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon as an example of his Second Sub 

Period, Professor H.S.H. Prince Subhadradis Diskul classified 

it as such. Moreover the chedi of Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon is 

today identified as another Victory Chedi of King Naresuan 

the Great. So it is appropriate here to trace the development 

of the myth that leads to the identification of the chedi of Wat 

Yai Chai Mongkhon with King Naresuan's Victory Chedi. 

The myth had its beginning in an article called "Roeng 

Wat Pa Kaeo," written by H.R.H. Prince Damrong Rajanubhab. 

According to the author, 

Among the large royal monastic foundations in 

the Old City [Ayudhya] there is one that today is 

called Wat Yai. In the time of Ayudhya this 

monastery was called Wat Chao Phraya Thai. The 

name Wat Chao Phraya Thai does not appear in 

the ecclesiastical registrar from the A yudhya period. 

In that list a Patriarch with the ecclesiastical 

title of Somdet Phra Wannarat resided at Wat Pa 

Kaeo. When Wat Pa Kaeo could not be located, 

I thought that it might have been Wat Chao Phraya 

Thai, which is the same as Wat Yai. 44 

Prince Damrong later speculated that after King 

Naresuan had won his elephant duel with the Maha Uparat, 

he built a chedi at the spot where he was victorious and also 

had a large chedi called "Phra Chedi Chai Mongkhon" ("The 

Chedi of the Auspicious Victory") built at "Wat Chao Phraya 

Thai" where the patriarch of the "Pa Kaeo" sect resided. 45 

Once Prince Damrong made the correlation between 

Wat Chao Phraya Thai, the chedi of Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon 

and Wat Pa Kaeo, further speculation was rife. For, according 

to the "Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version," a Somdet Phra 

Wannarat, the abbot of Wat Pa Kaeo, asked King Naresuan to 

spare the lives of military commanders whom the king had 

condemned to death for failing to join him in Suphanburi in 

time for the elephant duel with the Crown Prince of 

Hamsavati. 46 Although the "Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version" 

does not say that during this audience with King 

Naresuan, Somdet Phra Wannarat also suggested to the king 

that he should construct a chedi to commemorate that victory, 

a later writer assumed that Somdet Phra Wannarat did so. 

Following Prince Damrong, he state that King Naresuan 

commanded that a chedi be built at Nong Sarai where the 

Crown Prince of Hamsavati was killed, and also 

... had the big chedi at Wat Chao Phraya Thai 

constructed, so as to make a pair with the Chedi 

Phukhao Thong which the king of Hamsavati had 

built when he defeated the Thais. The chedi that 

King N aresuan built was named "Phra Chedi Chai 

Mongkhon." People commonly called it "Phra 

Chedi Yai." After a long time had passed people 

began to call it by another name, namely "Wat Yai 

Chai Mongkhon. 47 

The above hypothesis has no factual evidence at all, for 

the sequence of events as told in the "Phanchanthanumat (Choem) 

version" has King Naresuan constructing a chedi to cover the 

body of the Maha Uparat of Hamsavati in Phang Tru District 

before the Somdet Phra W annarat came to see him. So the 

identification of the chedi of Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon with 

King Naresuan's Victory Chedi is a myth based on Prince 

Damrong's conjecture. 

The contemporary Western record of Jacques de Coutre, 

who came to A yudhya in 1595, three years after King Naresuan's 

elephant duel with the Maha Uparat, says that "Maharraya 

died in the city of Tavai [Tavoy] of a lance stab to the throat. " 48 

That the Maha Uparat died from a stab wound is found 

also in van Vliet's account. 49 The difference is that contrary 

to van Vliet's version, the Maha Uparat did not "[fall] to the 

ground dead" there and then. De Coutre's account is supported 

by the "Ukala Mahayaza Wingyi version" of the Chronicle 

of Burma, which says that the body of the Maha Uparat was 

brought back to Hamsavati.50 Since the most reliable source 

for this event is that of Jacques de Coutre, the account of the 

"Phanchanthanumat (Choem) version" that King Naresuan built 

a chedi to cover the body of the Maha Uparat in the Phang 

Tru District must be rejected as fictitious. 

Even though the correlation between Wat Pa Kaeo 

with Wat Chao Phraya Thai remains hypothetical, the iden-


t · . f • I J1 .1 ~ 

I I 

,.J 

. I 

_ J...=-1 _ 

~ ,,,,tr,.t . . /ly-.'·. · 

Figure 11 Wat Tianpiatay in the map of De Stadt Judia with the Dutch Lodge, c. 1650. Algemeen Rijksarchief, The Hague . 

.. 

' 

Figure 12 Wat Tiau Tia Teu. Detail from map of De Groote Siamse Rievier Me-Nam by Francois Valentijn, 1726.


tification of Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon with Wat Chao Phraya 

Thai is more plausible since the two appear to have been 

different names for the same monastery. The earliest mention 

of Wat Chao Phraya Thai is in van Vliet's Description of the 

Kingdom of Siam, written in 1636. According to him, Wat 

Thimphiathey (Chao Phraya Thai) was one of the four principal 

temples of the whole country. 51 He also says in the same 

work that "In the pointed tower Thimphiathey there is a costly 

ruby, the value of which can hardly be estimated."52 

His mentioning of the "pointed tower" suggests that 

there was a chedi there whose finial was topped by a jewel 

.bouquet (dokmai phet) in which the legendary ruby was the 

principal adornment. 

Interestingly, the fabled jewel atop the spire of the 

chedi at Wat Chao Phraya Thai also figures in the early 19thcentury 

romance of Khun Chang Khun Phaen in connection with 

the birth of the two protagonists. Khun Chang and Khun 

Phaen were born when the Emperor of China presented the 

King of Ayudhya with a brilliant crystal in order that it be 

placed atop the great chedi, called from time immemorial Wat 

Chao Phraya Thai, which was built at the time of the Hamsavati 

occupation of Ayudhya. 53 This mentioning of the Hamsavati 

occupation most probably refers to the popular belief that the 

chedi of Way Yai Chai Mongkhon was built by Phra Narai 

during the chedi-building competition with Phra Naresuan 

Hongsa as told in the Phongsawadan Nuea, quoted earlier. 

In a Dutch manuscript map of De Stadt Judia of about 

1650 (Figure 11) showing the Dutch Lodge, Wat Tianpiatay 

(Chao Phraya Thai) is depicted in the same location as where 

Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon now stands. It also shows a spired 

structure that confirms van Vliet's description of Wat Chao 

Phraya Thai as being a "pointed tower" ( chedi). However, in 

the map of De Groote Siamse Rievier Me-Nam (Figure 12), 

published in Francois Valentijn in Beschrijvinge van Siam en onsen 

Handel aldaar of 1726, Wat Tiau Tia Teu (Chao Phraya Thai) 

is represented by a building with three spires, the central one 

being taller than the lateral ones. This depiction of three chedis 

may well represent the present five-spired chedi of Wat Yai 

Chai Mongkhon (Figure 13), for only three of the five spires 

can be seen on any one side. Also the central spire towers 

above the other four. Since the chedi of Wat Chao Phraya Thai 

has only one spire in the map of De Stadt Judia of c. 1650, but 

has three spires in the map of De Groote Siamse Rievier Me 

Nam of 1726, there must have been a major reconstruction 

undertaken between these two dates. 

If the substratum of fact in the Phongsawadan Nuea can 

again be of any help as an indication, the most likely candidate 

for having undertaken the reconstruction of the chedi of Wat 

Chao Phraya Thai would be King Narai. Since the construction 

of the octagonal base section of the stupa in the form of 

a domed chamber is unusual for traditional stupa construction 

(Figure 14), its appearance here can only be attributed to Iranian 

influences, for we know from the account of the Iranian 

ambassador sent by Shah Sulaiman the Safavid in 1685 that 

"The King's estates include temples built of wood and bricks 

as well as private houses which were actually constructed by 

the Iranians." 54 

Hence it is quite possible that the chedi of Wat Chao 

Phraya Thai was rebuilt by the command of King Narai. Since 

its height is comparable to that of the Chedi Phukhao Thong, 

King Narai probably had in mind to make it a pair with the 

Chedi Phukhao Thong that his father had reconstructed between 

1640-1656. There probably was some truth to the popular 

belief, as recorded in the Phongsawadan Nuea, that King Narai 

had the chedi of Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon constructed before 

he went to build the Phra Prang at Wat Mahathat, Lop Buri, 

and founded a new city there, so that the chedi ofWat Yai Chai 

Mongkhon would probably have had to be built in the first 

decade of his reign (1656-1666), 55 during which time the Iranians 

had the strongest influence over the king, as attested by 

the account of the Iranian ambassador: 

From the beginning of this king's reign up until 

just recently, all important business and matters 

of states were in the hands of the Iranians. They 

were the very source of the king's power. 56 

Conclusion to the Second Sub-Period 

The author of the Tamnan Phuttha Chedi Sayam has chosen the 

Three Great Stupas in Wat Phra Sri Sanphet to represent 

Ayudhya architecture of the Second Sub-Period (1463-1628). 

Since these stupas are in the Sinhalese style he formulated a 

hypothesis that Sinhalese-type stupas represent the architecture 

of the Second Sub-Period. However, the Three Great 

Stupas were probably built between 1742-1744, which qualify 

them for architecture of the Tamnan's Fourth Sub-Period 

(1733-1767). Moreover, in the Victory Chedi of King Naresuan, 

the author of the Tamnan was led to the wrong chedi by the 

"Luang Prasoet version" of the Royal Chronicle, while he overlooked 

the correct one pointed out by Kaempfer. As for the 

example chosen by Professor H.S.H. Prince Subhadradis Diskul, 

namely the chedi of Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, it probably was 

constructed between 1656-1666, which would make it an 

example of the Tamnan's Third Sub-Period (1629-1733). 

Hence none of the examples chosen to represent 

Ayudhya architecture of the Second Sub-Period (1463-1628) 

was built at the time assigned to it. Thus it can be concluded 

that the rule of thumb given by the author of the Tamnan that 

the Sinhalese type stupas represent Ayudhya architecture of 

the Second Sub-Period must be revised. 

(To be concluded in a subsequent issue 

of the Journal of the Siam Society.)


Figure 13 Chedi of Wat y ai . Ch a1 . Mongkh 

b 

· Jam Society. 

efore restoration s· . on, Ayudhya, 

Figure 14 F" p] an of the ched. I o f Wat Yai Ch . 

me Arts Department. aJ Mongkhon.


ENDNOTES 

1. Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, "Roeng 

sang phra chedi banchu phra atthi nai 

Wat Phra Sri Sanphet," Phraratcha 

phongsawadan chabap phraratchahatthalekha. 

2 vols. (Bangkok: Samnak-phim 

Khlang Withaya, B.E. 2516), Vol. 1, p. 

488. 

2. Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, Monuments 

of the Buddha in Siam. Trans. Sulak 

Sivaraksa and A.B. Griswold (Bangkok: 

The Siam Society, 1973), p. 24. 

3. Prince Subhadradis Diskul, Art in 

Thailand: A Brief History (Bangkok: 

Krung Siam Press, 1970), p. 21. 

4. "Phongsawadan Krung Si Ayudhya 

chabap phanchanthanumat (Choem)," 

Prachum phongsawadan, Pt. 64. Vol. 38- 

39 (Bangkok: Suksaphanphanit, B.E. 

2512), Vol. 38, p. 21. 

5. The "Luang Prasoet version" was translated 

into English by 0. Frankfurter, 

entitled "Events in Ayudhya from 

Chulasakaraj 686-966," JSS, Vol. VI, part 

3 (1909), pp. 1-21. Reprinted in The Siam 

Society Fiftieth Anniversary Commemorative 

Publication : Selected Articles from the 

Siam Society Journal Volume I, 1904-29, 

(Bangkok : The Siam Society, 1954), 

p.51. 

6. Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, Phraratcha 

phongsawadan chabap phraratchahatthalekha, 

Vol. 1, p. 488. 


8. Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, Phraratcha 

phongsawadan chabap phraratchahatthalekha, 

Vol. 2, p. 223. 


10. Prachum charuk Wat Phra Chetuphon 

Lem 1 champhuak khwamriang (Bangkok 

: Rongphim Sophonphiphatthanakon, 

B.E. 2472), p. 1. 

11. Frankfurter, pp. 51-52. 

12. Nicolas Gervaise, The Natural and Political 

History of the Kingdom of Siam 

(1688). Trans. John Villiers (Bangkok: 

White Lotus Co., Ltd. 1989), p. 219. 

According to Gervaise, the image was 

of pure gold and was 42 ft. high, "even 

though it is seated with legs crossed n 

the Siamese fashion." During the most 

recent war with the Peguans, the 

Peguans cut off one of its arms. The 

Siamese had a replacement made, but 

the gold of the new arm was much paler 

than that of the rest of the body." Since 

the Phra Sri Sanphet image was a 

standing figure, Gervaise must have 

confused it with a seated image whose 

arm might have been cut off during the 

First Burmese War. 

13. Guy Tachard, A Relation of the Voyage to 

Siam : Performed by Six Jesuits sent by the 

French King, to the Indies and China in the 

year 1685 (Bangkok: White Orchid Press, 

1981), p. 181. 

14. Ibid. p. 180. 

15. Khamhaikan Khun Luang Ha Wat Chabap 

Luang (Bangkok: Rongphim sophonphiphatthanakon, 

B.E. 2459), p. 18. 

16. Khamhaikan Chao Krung Kao (Bangkok: 

Rongphim Thai, B.E. 2457), p. 93. 


18. Jeremias van Vliet, Description of the 

Kingdom of Siam, Trans. L.F. van 

Ravenswaay, JSS, Vol. VII, pt. 1. 

(1910), p. 74. 

19. Jeremias van Vliet, The Short History of 

the Kings of Siam, Trans. Leonard 

Andaya; ed. David K. Wyatt (Bangkok: 

The Siam Society, 1975), p. 97. 

20. Ibid. p. 96. 

21. Prince Damrong, Monuments ... , p. 25. 

22. Ibid. p. 54, note 126. 


suk Phra Maha Uparacha khrang thi 

song khrao chon chang," Phraratcha 

phongsawadan chabap phraratchahatthalekha. 

Vol. 1, p. 651.24. "Roeng 

Phra Chedi Yutthahatthi," San somdet, 

Vol. 24 (Bangkok: Suksaphanphanich, 

B.E. 2505), pp. 282-286. 

24. "Roeng Phra Chedi Yutthahatthi," San 

somdet, Vol. 24 (Bangkok: Suksaphanphanich, 

B.E. 2505), pp. 282-286. 

25. Francis H. Giles, "A Critical Analysis of 

van Vliet's Historical Account of Siam 

in the 17th Century," Selected Articles 

from the Siam Society Journal Volume VII 

: Relationship with Portugal, Holland and 

the Vatican, (Bangkok: The Siam Society, 

1959), pp. 138-139. 

26. Engelbert Kaempfer, A Description of 

the Kingdom of Siam, 1690 (Bangkok: 

White Orchid Press, 1987), caption to 

Figure 13. 

27. Ibid. p. 52. 



30. Frankfurter, p. 61. 

31. Ibid. p. 46. 

32. "Chotmaihet Hora," Prachum phongsawadan 

phak thi 8, (Bangkok: Rongphim 

Thai, B.E. 2460), p. 4. 

33. Khamhaikan Khun Luang Ha Wat Chabap 

Luang, p. 8. 


35. Ibid. p. 88. 

36. "Phongsawadan Nuea," Prachum 

phongsawadan, Vol. 1, p. 48. 


38. Thep Sukratni, "Wat Phukhao Thong," 

Phraratchawang lae wat boran nai 

changwat Phra Nakhon Sri Ayudhya 

(Bangkok: Krom Silpakorn, B.E. 2511), 

p. 122. 




65. 

42. Kaempfer, p. 52 and p. 54. 

43. Prachum phongsawadan phak thi 8, p. 6. 


Wat Pa Kaeo," Phraratchaphongsawadan 

chabap phraratchahatthalekha, Vol. 1, p. 

655. 

45. Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, San 

somdet, Vol. 24, p. 282. 


254. 

47. Somphorn Upho, "Wat Yai Chai 

Mongkhon," Phraratchawang lae wat 

boran ... , p. 57. 

48. Jacques de Coutre, Vida; Johan 

Verberckmoes and Eddy Stols (ed.), 

Aziatische Omzweryingen, Het Leven 

van Jacques de Coutre, en Brugs 

diamanthandelaar 1591-1627. (Berchem 

Anvers, EPO, 1988). Unpublished

26 

PIRIY A KRAIRIKSH 

English translation by Dr. Philippe 

Annez, p. 32. 


50. Sunait Chutintaranond, "Myanmar 

Sayamyut nai Myanmar Yazawin" 

Journal of Asian Review, Vol. 13, pt. 3. 

(September- December, 1992), p. 27. 


52. Ibid. p. 74. 

53. Quoted in Somphorn Upho, "Wat Yai 

Chai Mongkhon," p. 59. 

54. The Ship ofSulaiman. Trans. John O'Kane 

(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 

1972), p. 139. 

55. King Narai founded Lop Buri in 1665; 

see Krom Silpakorn, Somdet Phra Narai 

lae Phra Chao Louis thi 14 (Bangkok: 

Krom Silpakorn, B.E. 2529-2530), p. 7. 

This date is in accordance with that 

given by Ex-king Uthumphon in 

Khamhaikan Khun Luang Ha Wat, 

Chabap Luang, p. 28. 

56. The Ship of Sulaiman, p. 58.

COMPUTER-ASSISTED DATING 

FOR THAI INSCRIPTIONS 

An Instance From Wat Si, Phayao 

J.C. EADE 

THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY 

The commemorative function of stone inscriptions 

necessarily means that the majority of them carry an indication 

of the date that was chosen for the particular event or ceremony 

that was being celebrated. In some cases that date is 

very fully expressed: the year (usually reckoned in terms of 

Chulasakarat, the Little Era whose origin is in March 638 AD) 

may be accompanied not only by the animal name of the 

year, but also by the cyclic year designation, that combination 

of a sequence of ten names with a sequence of twelve names 

whose rate of rotation is sixty years. 

The lunar month is then designated, either by its 

Sanskrit name or by a numeric equivalent, and this is paired 

with the day in the waxings or waning phase of the moon, 

with a strong preponderance of Full Moon as the time chosen. 

Then follows the planetary weekday, again designated 

either by name or by numeral, and this is often accompanied 

by the same set of cyclic terms as are used to define the years, 

but this time applying to the day. For good measure the 

mansion occupied by the moon (the rrek, or naksatra) may also 

be specified. 

This degree of information is almost always sufficient 

on its own for the historian to identify a date with certainty-or 

rather it would be if there were no problems with the legibility 

of inscriptions. But since there are often difficulties here, 

it is an additional benefit as regards the Northern inscriptions 

that they sometimes carry detailed information of an astronomical 

variety. Most commonly this takes the form of a 

circular diagram (a "duang", or "duang chata") that locates each 

of the planets within the sign of the zodiac, the rasi, it occupies 

at the time. And since these positions are determined 

essentially by mathematical calculation, the duang may also 

be accompanied by some of the numerical values used in that 

process. There are frequently six numbers, each relating to 

the positions found for the sun and the moon, of which the 

"horakhun ", the number of days that have elapsed since the 

start of the era, is the most familiar. 

A clear understanding of these astronomical data is 

clearly of considerable usefulness to the historian if, that is, 

the means are available for assessing them accurately. And 

it is at this point that one calls upon the assistance of the 

computer. 

The extent to which this assistance can be used to 

advantage can be gauged if we look at an interesting inscription 

from Wat Si, Phayao (Phayao, number 28), which 

contains exactly that wealth of astronomical and calendrical 

detail just referred to. Consequently, although the inscription 

has already been published in Sinlapakon (22, 2, July 2521), it 

merits further examination. 

The body of the inscription gives the date as: "saka 

862, kat san; month eight, full moon; Saturday kap cai; rrek 

Vaisakha; BE 2044". 1 The lunar month is here called number 

eight, and this is by one of the two modes of Northern reckoning, 

in this case answering to month six in the Central 

region. 2 This would lead one to suppose that the occasion at 

issue was the Vaisakha Full Moon of CS 862, a date corresponding 

in Western terms to 13 April1500. But if one looks 

more closely, one finds that the weekday and cyclic day 

permutation of that Full Moon was in fact Monday kat sai. 

This is a long way distant (both calendrically and 

epigraphically) from the Saturday kap cai which the inscription 

attached to its date. 

The question, then, is whether the permutation assigned 

is a simple mistake, or whether it is, instead, the reflection 

of an intention that we have not yet grasped. The 

first step in attempting to resolve the problem is to tabulate 

the positions of the planets as assigned by the inscription and 

as determined by the computer. For reasons that will appear 

shortly, one requires the planetary positions for 14 Vaisakha 

in CS 863 and well as those for Vaisakha Full Moon in CS 862: 

duang cs 863 cs 862 

sun 1 1 0 

moon 7 6 6 

Mars 11 11:00 2 

Mercury 1 1 0 

Jupiter 0 0 11 

Venus 0 0 1 

Saturn 1 1 0 signs 29 

Rahu 1 1 2

28 J.C. EADE 

The above numerals represent the rasi (and, where 

significant, the angsa-the zodiacal signs and degrees of the 

sign)3 in which the planets are located by the inscription on 

the one hand, and by computer reckoning on the other. It can 

be seen that with the exception of the moon the match is exact 

for CS 863 and completely out for CS 862. It emerges, then, 

that the year mentioned in the body of the text and the date 

represented by the duang stand a year apart. 

This being so, we might wish to conjecture that the 

abbot or his deputy wrote the body of the inscription; that 

another person, possessed of the necessary expertise, devised 

the duang; and that the two operations came to be at cross 

purposes. Such a conclusion, however, would be hasty. We 

have still to accommodate the anomalous cyclic day permutation. 

On some occasions one has to entertain the possibility 

that the details handed to the engraver were not very legible, 

but tao si and kap cai are sufficiently distinct from each other 

for that consideration not to have any force here. Is this 

discrepancy, then, merely another error or confusion? We 

can pursue the matter further, by examining the numbers 

that flank the duang. 

As is the case here, these numbers are often allowed 

to speak for themselves and are not attended by captions. 

This means that one has to learn to judge by a number's size 

and position what it represents. But a little experience allows 

one to make this judgement. Here, for instance, the number 

"118" is very much too low to represent the intended year, 

and the number "862" would be much too small to represent 

the horakhun. We can therefore approach any set of numbers, 

when they are plainly of this category, with some understanding. 

Indeed, in the course of investigating these kinds 

of data one learns to adopt two principles: that position means 

something, but the intended meaning is assumed, not specified; 

and that the answer to a seemingly intractable or impenetrable 

problem ("What is this number doing here?") will 

turn out to be simple enough, if/when it is resolved. 

The values presented are as follows (I have added 

their unexpressed function): 

862 [CS] 315224 [horakhun] 

10675 [masaken] 318753 [kilmmacubala] 

118 [avoman] 11273 [ucabala]. 4 

The number in the kilmmacubala position is much the most 

interesting one. It looks to be far too large at "318753", since 

that value would yield (as a result of division by 800) 398 

days, and even an intercalary year, such as CS 862 was, will 

contain only 384 days. 

Yet again we may be tempted to conclude that we are 

faced by a mistake of some kind-perhaps a faulty calculation 

on the part of the people preparing the inscription, or a 

faulty reading by modem epigraphers. However, there are 

other possibilities that must still be investigated. We note, 

first of all that, that the problem "862" (for 863) has made 

another appearance. Does it suggest anything? Indeed it 

does-the following expedient. Begin at the New Year's day 

of CS 862, which was 29 (14 waning) Caitra, and then add on 

the number of days implied by the kilmmacubala, viz., 398 days. 

The result is that one arrives precisely at CS 863 Vaisakha 14, 

as implied by the duang. One can again employ the computer 

to determine what the other calendrical values ("masaken", 

"avoman", etc.) were on that day. The values generated are 

followed here by those of the inscription: 

10676 [10675: masaken] 

118 [118: avoman] 

315252 ["315224": horakhun] 

1127 ["11273": ucabala] 

We can see that the masaken, the avoman, and all but 

one of the digits assigned to the ucabala are correct for the CS 

863 date, to which we have been led by the initially bewildering 

kammacubala. But the horakhun (despite its being the base 

number in the set, the one from which the others derive) is 

still out. How can it be that the other numbers derive from 

315252, whereas 315224 is certainly a possible reading of the 

inscription? 

In the Northern script it is only too easy to confuse 

not just 4 and 5, as in the Central script, but 2 with either of 

them. Here one finds that what has been read as "---224" 

could very easily be turned into "-252", where the latter would 

in fact be correct for the date and tally not only with all the 

other calendrical elements, but of course with the duang that 

they flank. We are therefore at liberty to say that the horakhun 

"ought" to have been 315252, but that the last three digits 

could easily be misread as --224. 

There is now only one more step to be taken, and this 

relates to the cyclic day permutation, which is still out of 

kilter. One's first task is to determine the day on which in 

fact the inscription's Saturday kap cai fell. It proves to be 15 

Caitra in 863-and it is surely no accident that the horakhun of 

that day was 315224! I take this to be clear evidence that the 

number was misread in the devising or execution of the inscription. 

Finally, we have a minor detail to clarify: that the only 

discrepancy between the inscription's duang and the computer 

findings was that the inscription located the moon in rasi 

7 (Scorpio), whereas the computer indicates that the moon 

was in rasi 6 (Libra). The rrek (lunar mansion) specified in the 

body of the inscription, which is Visakha, would permit either 

rasi to be correct. At this point, then, yet another detail comes 

into play. This is the "lagna", i.e. that part of the zodiac that 

is on the eastern horizon. This is located in the duang at rasi 

3 (Cancer), from which one can deduce a time of about 

9.00 a.m.5 

Putting the computer to work on the rrek and the lagna 

together, one can say that at 9.00 a.m. on 14 Vaisakha in CS 

863 the rrek was only 15:11, Svati, and that the moon did not 

reach rrek 16, Vaisakha, until midnight on the 15th. This 

discrepancy might be set down as, at worst, a minor error, 

were it not that other explanations offer themselves. The 

duang and most of its associated detail, we note, is valid for 

14 Vaisakha, not 15 Vaisakha. Why then "Full Moon"? There 

are other instances where the time of the month is said to be 

"LVI.:!" in the text and the moon is none the less (in distinction 

from the present instance) not yet in the rasi opposite the 

sun-an indication the word does not always require the

COMPUTER-ASSISTED DATING FOR THAI INSCRIPTIONS 29 

strictest application. 6 Then again, the moon might have been 

placed in rasi 7, pro forma, to conform with the principle determining 

that the name of a lunar month is defined by the 

name of the reek that the moon will normally occupy when 

Full. Whatever the explanation, the discrepancy is slight. It 

has no power to cast doubt on the other findings. 

The main conclusion to be drawn from this investigation, 

I believe, is that the computer assistance now available 

to historians represents an extremely powerful tool for 

research and analysis. 7 The complications here detected and 

resolved would not even have been recognised as complications 

without its aid. And had they been seen, one would 

probably have been forced to conclude that the data were 

irrecoverably corrupt. 

We can summarise as follows: the inscription initially 

purports to commemorate an event that took place on Vaisakha 

Full Moon in CS 862, that year number appearing twice and 

being supported by the cyclic year combination assigned to it. 

At odds with this is the accompanying duang and its attendant 

calculations, which point to the year following. The 

main clue to the mystery is the excessive value assigned to 

the kammacubala, which proves to represent an interval whose 

origin lies in the start of CS 862. Had its origin been in the 

start of 863, its value would have been only 26586. The 

evidence may also suggest that more than one "expert" was 

involved in the calculations. It is difficult otherwise to explain 

the anomaly of the cyclic day, since perhaps the only 

viable way of making sense of the anomaly is regard the 

cyclic day as based on a horakhun that has itself been misread.8 

Nothing then prompted the scribe to detect a rather 

gross mistake: presumably he saw no cause to check whether 

the cyclic day named was coherent with the avoman and the 

other values given. But then, without the computer, we too 

would be hard pressed to uncover this and the other curious 

features the inscription betrays. 

NOTES 

1 One notes that the BE-AD difference is 

544 in this instance. 

2 It is not widely recognised that the twomonth 

numerical difference between the 

North and the Central regions can by no 

means be automatically applied. There is a 

middle reckoning which one may label Keng 

Tung-style reckoning, where the difference 

is only one: the month Caitra, for example, 

is 5th for the Central region, 6th on Keng 

Tung reckoning, and 7th on Northern reckoning. 

This observation applies to the inscriptions 

published in Sinlapakon, 13, 6 

(2513), 93; 14, 3 (2513), 88; 14, 4 (2513); 95; 

17, 6 (2517), 59; and 18, 2 (2517), 51 and to 

the Fine Arts Department inscriptions 67, 70, 

87, and (probably) 100. A number of other 

dates are complicated by the fact that they 

fall after Ashadha in what should be 

intercalary years, where failure to intercalate 

could produce the impression of Keng 

Tung style reckoning. 

Inscription 103 is particularly interesting, 

in that it labels the month as "9th 

Buddhist, lOth, 11th Thai" (cf. no. 72, where 

Ashadha is called "8th Buddhist, 9th Thai"). 

3 It may be observed, in particular, that 

though Mars was not yet a full angsa into rasi 

Mina, that is none the less the rasi assigned 

to it by the duang. The constraint, in other 

words, is severe. The position of a planet in 

a given rasi, on the face of it, presents an 

ambiguity of 30°-the convention never 

defines what degree of what sign the planet 

occupies. But if, for instance, the computer 

program indicated that the position of a 

planet was in fact 1 sign 29, rather than 2 

signs 1, the leeway would be reduced to only 

two degrees. 

4 The technical sense of these terms is of 

no great importance: it is of more significance 

that they are all interdependent and 

that once the horakhun (elapsed days of the 

era) is known, the masaken (elapsed months), 

the kammacubala (indicating bissextile 

years), the ucabala (indicating the position of 

the moon's apogee), and the avoman (indicating 

years in which Jyestha takes 30 days) 

can all be found. The kammacubala, by orthodox 

reckoning, would have been 26586, 

representing 186 parts of 800 (800 units per 

day), plus the 33 days from 10 Caitra (the 

start of 863) to 14 Vaisakha. Instead, as indicated 

above, 318753 represents 353 parts 

of 800 and 398 days (33+365 days)-another 

year in addition. One sees, on reflection, 

that the intended kammacubala must have 

been 318793: i.e. (365.25875 x 800=) 292207 

plus 26586. (We have to add 9 I 5 to our list 

of numeric ambiguities.) 

5 The working is as follows: the sun is 

somewhere in rasi 1 and the lagna somewhere 

in rasi 3. Setting both, by default, in the 

middle of their rasi, one has to add the 

following amounts on to 6.00 a.m.: 48 minutes 

from Taurus (half), all of 72 minutes 

from Gemini, and 60 minutes (half) from 

Cancer-i.e. 3 hours on to 6 a.m. The 

reckoning, though susceptible to an ambiguity 

of 1 hour 48 minutes in this instance, 

does at least place the auspicious time within 

a given "watch" of the day. 

6 For instances where "pheng" is not exactly 

Full Moon day, see Hans Penth (ed.), 

Kham charuk thi than Phra Phuttarup nai 

Nakhon Chiang Mai. Bangkok, BE 2519, no. 

21 (Pausha CS 924); Mission Pavie (Etudes

30 

J.C. EADE 

Diverses II: Recherches sur I'histoire du 

Cambodge, du Laos et du Siam contenant Ia 

transcription et Ia traduction des inscriptions par 

M. Schmitt. Paris, 1898, no. 8 (Bhadra- pada 

CS 943); and Sinlapakon, 15, 2 (BE 2514), 89 

(Phalguna CS 977). 

7 Those without access to computer assistance 

may care to avail themselves of my 

Southeast Asian Ephemeris: Solar and Planetary 

Positions, AD 638-200, Southeast Asia Program, 

Cornell University, 1989. A companion 

lunar volume is forthcoming. 

8 If this interpretation is correct, then it 

argues that someone must have known the 

rule that says, in order to find the cyclic day 

permutation for a given date, you must add 

17 to the horakhun and find the remainder 

from division by 60. The working is as follows: 

315224 plus 17 = 315241. Over 60 this 

yields 5254, remainder 1 (first in the sequence): 

kap cai. For the weekday, divide 

the horakhun itself by 7. Both variants give 

the same result: 315224 by 7 = 45031, remainder 

7 = Saturday; whereas 315252 by 

7 = 45035, remainder again 7.

SECTION II 

ASPECTS OF LAW AND RELIGION

REVITALIZING 

THE LAW AND DEVELOPMENT 

MOVEMENT 

A Case Study on Land Law 

In Thailand 

PHILIP VON MEHREN, J.D. 

MILBANK, TWEED, HADLEY AND McCLOY 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 

TIM SAWERS, J.D. 

HODGSON, RUSS, ANDREWS, WOODS & GOODYEAR 

BUFFALO, N.Y. 

ABSTRACT 

While echoing criticism of the now dormant law and development movement, the authors suggest an analytical 

approach to revitalization of the energies behind the movement. Von Mehren and Sawers fault members of 

the law and development movement for failing to focus on a central tenet of its theoretical underpinnings: the causal 

interaction between law and development. If the movement is to continue in any form, explication of this central tenet 

is necessary. 

The vehicle for explication is a case study. The authors outline the history of the development of land law 

in Thailand. The historical analysis proceeds from a conceptual basis which posits a causal relationship between law 

and development, Max Weber's famous typology of legal systems. The authors contrast the Weberian explanation of 

the evolution of Thai land law with alternative analyses based on theories of social change which see law as 

epiphenomenal-the Marxist and World System approaches. 

The case study shows how legal changes facilitated (but in no sense caused) the emergence of commercialized 

agriculture in Thailand. The authors conclude that law serves as a reinforcing variable in the process of social change. 

Thus, with a central tenet intact, the way is open for recrudescence of the scholarly energy behind the law and 

development movement. Von Mehren and Sawers show that the proven explanatory power of Weber's theories 

merits more attention from scholars in this field. 

In addition to an original history of Thai land law, this article includes original translations from the ancient 

Thai Law of the Three Seals. The appendix comprises translations of sections from this important body of laws which 

are cited in the case history. These are the only translations into any language of the Law of the Three Seals. 

A version of this article has been published in the Harvard Law Review.

34 VON MEHREN AND SAWERS 

CHAPTER I 

Theoretical and Methodological Issues 

I. INTRODUCTION 

The law and development literature was already 

teetering on the edge of irrelevance when, more than a decade 

ago, Merryman and Burg raised fundamental and discouraging 

observations about it. Merryman criticized law 

and development practitioners on several scores: for failing 

to develop a paradigm to focus research on generally agreedupon 

questions and purposes, for neglecting to elucidate a 

theory of how law interacts with social change, and for ignoring 

the specific cultural background of "target" societies. 

His over-arching solution was to place law and development 

in the field of "comparative law and social change" in order 

to re-energize "efforts at theory-building that characterize the 

best aspects of the law and development movement." 1 Burg 

built on many of Merryman's criticisms, yet, at least in one 

respect, came to a fundamentally different conclusion. 2 He 

suggested that instead of using theoretical models as a starting 

point for analysis, a potentially more fruitful country-bycountry 

case study approach should be adopted with the 

emphasis on "culturally specific phenomenon." Eventually, 

these studies, through an inductive process, might provide 

the basis for a general theory of law and development. 

Both authors acknowledged that theory as well as case 

studies are necessary to propel the law and development 

movement forward, yet Merryman's emphasis on linking it to 

comparative law and social change makes more sense given 

both the availability of a rich source of sociological theory on 

social change and the difficulties that case-study authors within 

the movement seem to have when they focus solely on empirical 

historical data.3 

A major problem with the work within the movement 

is that it fails to state explicitly the causal interaction between 

law and development. Few authors of case studies directly 

address this fundamental issue. Yet, if the law and development 

movement is to play an important role in the literature 

on social change, law needs to be envisioned as at least 

an important reinforcing variable in the process of social 

change. If law is merely a product of social change, the 

analysis of its development will at best yield a reflection of 

the underlying process of social change. Thus, the movement's 

revitalization depends partly on whether, and to what 

extent, law is conceptualized as an important variable in the 

process of social change. 

We shall summarize three theoretical approaches to 

social change-Marxian, World Systems, and Weberianwhich 

differ in their conceptualization of the interaction between 

social change and law. We shall apply only the 

Weberian pespective to the case study for the simple reason 

that, in our interpetation, it sees law as more important in the 

process of social change than do the other theories. The 

Marxian and World Systems are included to demonstrate their 

perspectives' conceptualization of law as relatively unimportant 

in the process of social change, and to suggest plausible 

alternatives to the Weberian analysis. 

Our central purpose throughout is to explain, through 

the application of a Weberian approach, the relationship between 

the adoption of the concept of title and the commercialization 

of agriculture in Thailand. Our objective is not to 

show that legalism was wholly responsible for, but rather 

that a close interelationship exists between, the introduction 

and acceptance of title in Thailand and the commercialization 

of agriculture. We explain this process in terms of the development 

of a "formally rational" legal system in Thailand. 

Our basic thesis is that the development of legalism in general, 

and the specific conceptual innovation of title in particular, 

has had an important impact on the economic development 

of Thailand's agricultural sector. Title fostered 

capitalist development in agriculture by clarifying ownership 

rights in land and thereby creating a context in which capital 

could be invested into agricultural production at lower interest 

rates based on the debtor-mortgagor giving the lendermortgagee 

a security interest in land. This displaced, in areas 

suitable for capitalist agriculture, the traditional system of 

land tenure which was characterized by considerable uncertainty 

and was associated with the khaifak mortgaging system 

inherently characterized by high interest rates. 4 

II. THE THEORIES 

Many richly suggestive and heretofore apparently 

untapped theoretical propositions exist on the relationship 

between law and development. These propositions can serve 

to guide researchers in organizing facts into important case 

studies. The examination of theoretical concerns should take 

place in the context of applying a theoretical framework to a 

specific case study because historical data are ultimately the 

best test of a theory's propositions. This study will, thus, 

serve both to demonstrate and to refine specific theoretical 

propositions. Our goal in this section is to derive theoretical 

propositions from an interpretation of Weber on the relationship 

between law and capitalist development. These 

propositions will then be applied to the historical data in 

subsequent chapters. 

A. The Weberian Approach 

Weber's work is much more complicated than many 

analysts acknowledge. Both Trubek and Kronman portray 

Weber as a thinker, who at least on the subject of law, was 

fraught with internal contradictions and tensions.5 As aresult 

of these contradictions, interpretations of Weber are 

ironically, to use Trubek's description, "delphic." 6 At stake here 

is whether Weber can be construed as presenting a coherent 

theory on the interaction between law and society. We shall 

strive in this sub-section to show that a plausible interpretation 

of Weber does provide a solid theoretical framework for 

studying the interaction between law and society, although 

one which is historicist in the sense that the specific relationship 

varies from country to country.

REVITALIZING THE LAW AND DEVELOPMENT MOVEMENT 35 

Weber focused on the increasing rationalization and 

differentiation of various dimensions of society, including law, 

religion and the economy. The central question that animated 

all of his work was what were the unique factors in Europe, 

specifically NoRthern Europe, that accounted for the historically 

unprecedented development of capitalism in those societies? 

In his examination of religion, he argued forcefully in 

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism that culture, 

specifically religion, is an important independent variable in 

understanding the direction of social change. Thus, in England 

the development of a Protestant ethic, displacing Catholicism 

with its negative normative judgements concerning 

capital accumulation, facilitated the emergence of a spirit of 

capitalism, without which the technological innovations 

necessary for industrialization and capitalism would not have 

developed as strongly as they did. His Rechtssoziologie (Sociology 

of Law) applies the same type of methodological approach.8 

He begins with the question of what is different 

about European law. He then asks what is the causal relationship 

between the particular features of Western law and 

the development of capitalism. 9 These features, and their 

impact on a society's development, become the basis for his 

explanation of the development of capitalism in Europe. 

Within the framework of his analytical system, which 

is characterized by the use of ideal types, by examination of 

the spread of rationalism, and by a normative assumption 

about the advanced nature of capitalism 10 , Weber espoused a 

typology with four categories of legal thought. 11 He used a 

typology to isolate by juxtaposition the unique features of 

Western Law. 

The first type, "formal irrational," is characteristic of 

systems that depend on primitive procedures for deciding 

disputes, such as the Delphic oracle in ancient Greece. 

Stringent observance of procedural rules is of utmost importance, 

but the rules have no relationship to the rational determination 

of the rights and liabilities of the parties in the particular 

case. One imagines a priest examining the viscera of 

a goat and proclaiming the guilt or innocence of the accused. 

A second type of legal system is the "substantively 

irrational." Kronman cites as an example "khadi-justice" of 

the Mideast. Weber characterizes these systems as using an 

ad hoc process to determine the outcome of a particular case. 

The system is "irrational" because it espouses no general rules; 

it is "substantive" because of its willingness to consider the 

widest range of considerations in determining the outcome of 

a case. The picture of a Bedouin chief handing out roughand-tumble 

justice springs to mind. 

The third type of judicial system is "substantively rational." 

This type is exemplified by theocratic or patriarchal 

legal systems. These systems are "rational" in the sense of 

adherence to fixed principles rather than in their mode of 

thought. 

The final type is called "formally rational" and corresponds 

to the European model of legal thought. These systems 

give precedence to the general over the particular and to 

the secular over the moral. Formally rational systems stress 

"the logical analysis of meaning" which corresponds to the 

view that law contains ~eutral principles which are discoverable 

through the application of techniques of legal reasoning.12 

The European system is also characterized by differentiation 

of roles within law, and between law and politics. 13 

According to Kronman and Trubek an apparent 

problem or contradiction emerges in Weber's disscusion of 

"formal rationality." 14 They argue that Weber's own definition 

of "formal rationality" led him to find its highest expression 

in the Pandectist system of Germany. Thus, if "formal 

rationality" in law is an important variable in capitalist development, 

the more strongly it manifests itself, the sooner and 

more successful capitalist development should be. Yet England 

was the first country to develop capitalism and was significantly 

ahead of the continent economically until the post 

World War period. The inability of Weber to solve the so 

called "English problem" is a central tension that both Kronman 

and Trubek see as undermining his analysis of law's relationship 

to capitalist development. Yet, at least two solutions 

to the apparent contradictions are possible. Ewing argues 

that Kronman and Trubek misinterpreted Weber. She suggests 

that a one-to-one correspondence between economic and legal 

rationality is not an underlying assumption of Weber's 

schema. 15 Thus, the most rational legal system is not 

neccesarily the most economically successful. Essentially this 

argument rests on an analysis which recognizes the relevance 

of several independant variables in the rise of capitalism but 

realizes that the relative mix and importance of these variables 

may vary from case to case. Thus, even if England did 

have a less rational legal system, other variables, e.g. religion, 

could have been stronger than on the Continent or its legal 

system could have been more rational at an earlier point in 

time. Yet Ewing essentially takes another tack to untangle 

the contradiction: 

... a legal order is formally rational in the sociological 

rather than the juridical sense when it is based 

on formal justice. Such a system is abstract and 

bound by strict procedures, and guarantees the legal 

certainty essential for calculability in economic 

transactions, all of which applies both to civil and 

common law countries. 16 

Ewing's analysis succesfully saves Weber's conceptual 

schema from Kronman's and Trubek's more pessimistic 

interpetation by distinguishing between formal rationality in 

the sociological and in the juridical sense. Thus the doctrinal 

drive for meta-rationality in the Civil Law is viewed as irrelevant, 

or at least not totally determinative, to the relationship 

between legalism and capitalism. Both the civil and common 

law systems provide a context of certainty and predictablity 

sufficient for capitalist activity. Thus, the so called "English 

problem" is a red herring. 

Ewing's analysis essentially preserves the coherence 

of Weber. She has convincingly shown that Weber can be 

fairly construed so as to preserve the theoretical integrity of 

his framework from the alleged contradictions uncovered by 

Kronman and Trubek. Given that Weber's framework is co-


herent, how did he view the specific causal interaction between 

law and social change? Kronman has called Weber's 

approach "causal agnosticism."17 Yet he points to two different 

ways in which Weber claimed that "formally rational" law 

could influence capitalist development. The first is both the 

most important and the most general. Legal rules that protect 

individual entitlements, especially in the context of contracts, 

promote economic activity: 

By guaranteeing that contracts will be enforced in 

accordance with fixed rules known in advance by the 

contracting parties, the legal order significantly increases 

the probability that promises, once made, will 

be kept and thereby encourages promisemaking and 

the forms of economic activity that depend on it (most 

importantly, market exchange).18 

The legal order also promotes capitalism through the development 

of concepts that are useful in certain specific situations. 

Weber specifically mentioned title in this regard. 

Business organizations require "a method by which transfers 

can be made legally secure [while eliminating] the need of 

constantly testing the title of the transferor."19 These concepts 

serve to solve the practical problems that foster economic 

development. 

Yet Weber did not view the relationship between law 

and capitalism as merely the former affecting the latter. He 

also saw the economic order affecting law. As Trubek explains, 

"Legalism supported the development of capitalism 

by providing a stable and predictable atmosphere: capitalism 

encouraged legalism because the bourgeoisie were aware of 

their own need for this type of governmental structure."20 

Legalism and capitalism could be both cause and effect for 

each other. Furthermore, the specific relationship between 

law and development seems to vary with the given historical 

case. 

Weber's conclusions regarding both the relationship 

between law and capitalism, as well as what legalism requires, 

provide a framework for the study of law's role in social 

change on a comparative basis. In the context of the emergence 

of Thai concepts of title, Weberian analysis offers several 

clear propositions. The first is that there is a relationship 

between the development of formally rational law and 

capitalist development. Formally rational law is characterized, 

in the sociological sense, by (1) the emergence of formal 

justice, composed of strict procedures, and the use of legal 

reasoning applied through logical procedures to the facts of 

the case, and (2) the differentiation of legal from purely political 

institutions, as well as the differentiation within the 

legal profession of various functions. The second proposition 

is that formal justice can have an impact on capitalism in two 

ways. The first is the general effect of predictability and 

calculability that formal justice provides capitalists. The 

second is the proclivity for a formal system of justice to solve 

practical legal problems through the elaboration of specific 

legal concepts, such as title to land, which function to foster 

capitalist development. The third proposition is that a causal 

relationship exists between the development of formally rational 

law and capitalism but that the exact relationship is 

problematic, and may depend on the specific historic context. 

The second and third chapters of this paper will explore these 

propositions on the basis of Thai legal and economic development. 

B. The Marxist Approach 

Briefly stated, Marxian analysis of social change focuses 

on the "mode of production" in a society. The mode of 

production is comprised of (1) the "relations of production," 

i.e., the groups into which society is organized to produce 

goods and services, (2) the "forces of production," i.e., the 

technology used to produce goods and services, and (3) the 

"means of production," e.g. the land used for production. The 

dialectical evolution of the mode of production through 

various stages of history, 21 from primitive communism to 

capitalism, has had a dominant causal effect on the "superstructure," 

e.g., on institutions, ideas, and, most importantly 

for our purposes, on law. Writers have debated the extent to 

which Marx permitted super-structural factors to have a 

feedback relationship or effect on the development of the mode 

of production; but, in the last analysis, material factors are the 

independent variables that guide the course of history and 

social change. 

Marx saw, at least in his earlier writings, the development 

of capitalism as unleashing historically progressive 

productive forces wherever it spread: 

The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing 

the instruments of production and thereby 

the relations of production, and with them the whole 

relations of society ... Constant revolutionizing of 

production, uninterrupted disturbances of all social 

conditions, everlasting uncertainty, and agitation 

distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. 

The bourgeoisie ... draw all, even the most barbarian 

nations into civilization. The cheap prices of its 

commodities are the heavy artillery with which it 

batters down all Chinese walls .. .It compels all nations, 

on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of 

production; it compels them to introduce what it calls 

civilization into their midst, to become bourgeois 

themselves. In a word, it creates a world after its own 

image. 22 

Marx thus saw capitalism forcing developing nations to follow 

or to converge on the model presented by European history.23 

Capitalism would be a dynamic, progressive force/ 4 

unleashing the productive capacities of developing countries 

and leading to a capitalist mode of production and to social 

organization reminiscent of European development. 

Implicit in Marx's analysis of the effect of the spread 

of capitalism-and fundamental for our purposes-is the view 

that law, as a superstructural phenomenon, will also converge 

along models first created in Europe. In other words, all law


will become "capitalist" as a bourgeois mode of production is 

introduced. How literally specific legal rules will correspond 

to the model is a difficult question. For this Marxian approach 

to have explanatory power for our purposes, a progressively 

growing similarity between European and Thai legal 

conceptions of title suffices. One would also expect convergence 

to occur in non-legal dimensions in society, e.g. politics. 

As compared to the Weberian approach, the traditional 

Marxist's perspective resolves Weber's agnosticism by emphasizing 

the imposition of the needs of the commercial classes 

on the legal system. 

C. The World Systems Approach 

A Neo-Marxist approach, World Systems, is propounded 

by A. Gunder Frank and I. Wallerstein. 25 This group 

fundamentally rejects Marx's view that capitalism would 

unleash productive forces in the developing world, leading to 

convergence between the developed and underdeveloped 

countries. They instead focus on the structural underdevelopment 

of the underdeveloped world caused by world 

capitalism, and the mechanisms by which developed nations 

expropriate an economic surplus from these societies. They 

view social change in developing countries-or peripheral 

countries, to use Frank's and Wallerstein's jargon-as determined 

by the role which a country plays in the international 

division of labor. As Frank states, "Economic development 

and underdevelopment are the opposite face of the same 

coin." 26 The exploitation of resources and markets in the underdeveloped 

world, dating back to the Spanish colonization 

of America, and the transfer of this surplus to Europe, led to 

divergent paths of development for individual states within 

the capitalist world system. Thus social change occurs within 

a single unit, the world capitalist system, and leads to growth 

in the developed countries-the core-and to underdevelopment 

in the periphery. 

These authors see the transfer of economic surplus as 

a function of the role played by specific nation states within 

the international division of labor. As Wallerstein explains, 

the hierarchy of occupational tasks characteristic of the world 

capitalist system allocates higher rewards to those nation states 

that carry out the most complex tasks. 27 Most importantly, 

this international division of labor is conceptualized as a 

whole; one element in the structure cannot exist without the 

other. Furthermore, these hierarchial relationships are ordered 

as a zero-sum game: development in one area of the 

hierarchy necessarily leads to underdevelopment in another 

area. Thus, the development of the center would not have 

been possible without the incorporation and underdevelopment 

of the Third World. Once placed-in the periphery 

either forcibly through colonization or passively through 

market demands-a country's role can change but only with 

difficulty; the status quo is self reinforcing through the exercise 

of individual state power on a global level and the process 

of unequal exchange. 28 

It is difficult to tease out the World System view of 

the role of law in social change because of the approach's 

somewhat confused meta-theoretical characteristics. Yet some 

general statements can be ventured. Unlike Marx, Wallerstein 

does not view capitalism as unleashing productive forces that 

lead inextricably to the emergence of free labor and the commercialization 

of land. His approach, unlike Marx's, would 

emphasize the structural constraints of Thailand's role in the 

international division of labor and that, through the process 

of unequal exchange, the Thai agricultural sector, however it 

was economically and legally organized, channeled economic 

surplus to the center through price terms favoring the center. 

Ultimately, Thai legal concepts, practices, and social change 

in general would be determined by Thailand's role in the 

international division of labor. Thus, Thai legal concepts 

would not necessarily converge on the Western model but 

would instead follow a Third World model. 

Although quite popular during the mid-seventies to 

early eighties, methodological problems have plagued the 

world system or dependency analysis of development. None 

of the authors ever gave a clear definition of capitalism or 

provided a detailed historical case study of exactly how the 

surplus from the periphery is channeled to the center. As a 

result, the theory provided no specific propositions that could 

be tested in terms of empirical data in a case study approach. 29 

Frank, for example, speaks only of concentric circles of exploitation 

beginning with the peasant producers and the urban 

underemployed in the periphery and ultimately benefiting 

the capitalists at the center. 

III. THE CASE STUDY 

Our choice of legal concepts of title for study was 

influenced by several factors. Land is of fundamental importance 

in all societies, especially those attempting to develop 

economically. The changing legal definition of people's 

relationship to land was an important element of the European 

transition from feudalism to capitalism. Specifically, the 

development of a concept of individual title and the ability to 

transfer and mortgage land are a fundamental aspect of the 

commercialization of agriculture. Furthermore, the increasing 

realization that agricultural development must, to a certain 

extent, precede and support industrialization, requires a 

thorough understanding of the legal techniques that might 

support that process. Thailand is an appropriate case study 

for two basic reasons. The first is that the authors are both 

familar on a first-hand basis with the society. The second is 

that Thailand has not received detailed academic attention 

despite its on-going economic success. 

The second chapter of the case study will outline the 

evolution of Thai notions of title. It will focus on the development 

of the Thai legal system from a "formally irrational" 

system-characterized by the King simply announcing 

the law-to a "formally rational" system. The third chapter 

will tentatively test our basic proposition that legalism did 

support economic development by importing a concept of 

title which facilitated the commercialization of agriculture. We 

shall show that title only displaced the traditional Thai notion 

of "ownership" in areas susceptible to commercialization. We


then analyze the current pattern of land holdings, showing 

how a continuum exists from mere occupation of land to full 

title ownership. We then explain why the traditional credit 

mechanism associated with non-titled lands is a less efficient 

means to harness capital for agricultural development. We 

conclude with general remarks about the law and development 

movement as well as an assessment of our explanation 

of the case study as compared to both the Marxist and World 

System approaches. 

CHAPTER 2 

I. BACKGROUND: THAI HISTORY AND THE THAI 

LEGAL SYSTEM 

Thai history is usually divided into three epochs named 

for the capital at the time. The chronological progression 

from the Sukhothai period (about 1250 to 1350) through the 

Ayudhya period (about 1350 to 1767) to the Bangkok period 

(1767 to present) also reflects a continuation in the Chao Phya 

River basin of the Thais' generally southward movement from 

their original home traditionally identified as in Yunnan. 1 

When the Burmese sacked Ayudhya in 1767 they destroyed 

ninety percent of the code of laws then in use. 2 So there is 

almost no primary source material prior to the Bangkok period. 

For our purposes in this chapter we divide Thai history 

into the modem and the ancient periods using a traditional 

line of demarcation between these two periods, the Anglo 

Siamese Treaty of 1855. In Weberian terms this chapter depicts 

the shift from a "substantively irrational" system during 

the Sukhothai period to a "substantively rational" system 

during the Ayudhya and early Bangkok periods to a "formally 

rational" system in the modem era. 

The Thai legal system has historically revolved around 

the monarchy. The traditionally accepted Thai view of the 

monarchy during the Sukhothai period, when the population 

and the area of the kingdom were both relatively small, was 

of a familial, patriarchal king. 3 This changed as the Thai capital 

moved south and Thai kings controlled more land and people. 

The Thai view of kingship which was adopted during 

the Ayudhya period retains astonishing power even today, as 

Thailand prepares to join the ranks of developed countries. 

In A yudhya Thai thought on kingship was influenced 

by the Mon, an indigenous people, and the Khmer, against 

whom the Thai frequently waged war. The legal systems of 

both the Mon and the Khmer had been developed from the 

Hindu dharma-sastras. The Thai thammasaf4 is a Buddhist 

interpretation of the dharma-sastras as the Thais received them 

from the Mon and the Khmer.5 The thammasat was central to 

the Thai legal system until the reforms of King Chulalongkom 

in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its view of the king 

as a righteous god who embodies the law continues to influence 

the common Thai's concept of kingship. 

The thammasat was considered sacred or natural law. 

It was deemed to be the supreme expression of truth and 

equity as revealed by a supernatural source; its provisions 

were sacred and etemal. 6 Thai kings, although regarded as 

divine, could not make a law which was not in harmony with 

the thammasat. Laws made by kings (rachasat) tended to be 

considered temporary reflections of the power of the king, 

while the natural law of the thammasat was regarded as 

etemaF The thammasat "changed the basis of political leadership 

from an intimate and informal paternalism to an idealized 

monarch who was expected to rule his subjects with 

justice and moderation."8 

Although common Thai people continue to think of 

the monarch as a god-king, the legal system no longer revolves 

around the king. Beginning with the reforms of King 

Chulalongkom the Great (Rama V, 1868-1910), Thai law has 

moved increasingly towards Western models. The first small 

law school was started in 18979 and there are now four 

universities granting law degrees: Chulalongkom University, 

Thammasat University, Ramkhamheng University and 

Sukhothai University. In 1901 King Chulalongkom introduced 

a Western system of title in land. ° 1 Civil and Criminal codes 

based on continental European models were adopted early in 

this century. The demise of the absolute monarchy in 1932 

seems to have confirmed the inevitability of this movement 

toward a Western system of law. 

II. HISTORY OF THAI LAND LAW 

A. Ancient law 

1. Before Sukhothai 

As was the case in most Asian societies, religious and 

cultural influences regulated the relationship between ancient 

Thai rulers and the people over whom they reigned. Before 

the Sukhothai period (roughly 1250-1350 A.D.) the Thai 

generated no form of legalism comparable to that of Ch'in 

Shih Huang-ti, who developed a detailed administrative 

system, with provisions for enforcement, during the Ch'in 

dynasty (255-206 B.C.).U 

Virapol Sarasin states that in their original home in 

Yunnan the Thais were constantly at war with the Mongols. 12 

Traditional opinion holds that war was a central factor in the 

Thais' migration south and, once in present day Thailand, 

they engaged in frequent wars with Pagan to the west and 

Angkor to the east. The Thai tradition that all land belongs 

to the leader (later the king) developed over the centuries as 

the Thais moved south in relatively small bands of people 

clustered about a leader or chief. 13 

Robert Lingat, the foremost scholar of Thai legal history, 

distinguishes the early Thai tradition of royal ownership 

of all land from theoretically similar legal traditions in Europe 

and Asia. He compares ancient Chinese law, Islamic 

law and European law of the Middle Ages. All of the land 

theoretically belonged to the monarch (or the imam) in these 

systems, but the actual practice did not reflect this theory. 

Lingat gives two reasons for this gap, one theoretical and the 

other practical. First, there had not yet developed a distinction 

between control (in the hands of the husband, the father,


the monarch etc.) and private rights. So, because the husband, 

the father and the monarch had control, they were 

theoretically the holders of private rights as well. It was 

impractical to implement the theory that the monarch (or 

imam) had ownership rights in all the land in these societies 

because the land area "owned" by the monarchs was too large. 14 

The ancient Thais apparently had a very strong tradition 

of rights in the land residing in the leader or monarch.15 

This, along with the small area of land actually under 

the control of any one leader or monarch prior to the Thais' 

movement into the Chao Phya River basin, allowed them to 

put into actual practice what was only theory elsewhere. The 

king or tribal leader, as owner of all the land, awarded land 

to his followers according to how they had served him. 

2. Sukhothai period (about 1250-1350) 

The ancient Thai legal system traditionally began to 

take shape during the Sukhothai period. When the Thais 

emerged into the Chao Phya River basin and began to control 

more land the ancient tradition of royal ownership of all the 

land came with them, but it began to change perforce. A 

famous stone inscription in the Bangkok National Museum 

traditionally accepted as being from the Sukhothai period gives 

the flavor of law during this era: 

In the gateway of the palace a bell is hung; if anyone 

in the kingdom has some grievance or some matter 

that is ulcerating his entrails and troubling his mind, 

and wishes to lay it before the king, the way is easy: 

he has only to strike the bell hung there. Every time 

King Rama Khamheng hears this appeal, he interrogates 

the plaintiff about the matter and gives an entirely 

impartial decision.16 

This can be seen as a public relations offering by a 

kingdom rich in land and starved for manpower. In order to 

continue to control the land the king had to attract more people 

to live on it and work it. A few lines further down on the 

stone inscription is the first inkling of Thai land law: 

(the king) comes when he hears the bell and decides 

the case, so the people of Sukhothai praise him. They 

plant areca groves and betel groves all over Sukhothai; 

cocoanut groves and jackfruit groves are planted in 

abundance here, mango groves and tamarind groves 

are planted in abundance. Anyone who plants them 

gets them for himself and keeps them.17 

Thus, although there is really very little material on 

the Sukhothai period, we may infer that during that time the 

king claimed ownership of all the land, but commoners were 

given or allowed to use land rather freely and the product of 

the land was not taxed. The fledgling kingdom was ruled 

with a light hand by a paternalistic monarch who controlled 

more land than he had subjects to farm it. 

3. Ayudhya and early Bangkok periods (about 1350-1855)18 

As we have noted, the Burmese sacked A yudhya destroying 

almost all legal materials in 1767. King Phra 

Phuttahyotfa (Rama I, 1782-1809), the founder of the present 

(Chakri) dynasty, decided to compile all the traditional law 

and remove from it aberrations such as unfair or inappropriate 

king-made law (rachasat). This task was completed in 1805 

and the resulting code is commonly known as the Law of the 

Three Seals. 19 This code, because it is virtually the only extant 

evidence of classical Thai law/ 0 represents the ancient traditional 

law of Thailand.21 There is no translation into any language 

except modem Thai. 

Because there is almost no primary source material 

except this 1805 recension, it is difficult to give a chronological 

picture of the gradual accretion of farmers' rights in land. 

We offer our interpretation based upon what we find in the 

Law of the ThreeSeals. See the appendix of this paper for 

our translations of the provisions of the Law of the Three 

Seals cited below. 

The ancient Thai tradition of royal ownership of all 

land had been relaxed and was perhaps on its way to extinction 

during the Sukhothai period because the Thais were 

holding more land and suffered chronic shortages of manpower. 

The adoption of the Hindu theory of kingship during 

the early A yudhya period prevented any change in the actual 

law because the notion of royal ownership of all land comported 

so well with the idea of the king as god. It was seen 

as a l0gical corollary of divinity that the king should own the 

source of all sustenance. Thus ironically the adoption of a 

"substantively rational" system of law based on thammasat 

(natural law) by the Thai kings perhaps forestalled legal 

recognition of farmers' ownership rights in land. 

But the economic forces present in Sukhothai were 

also at work in Ayuthya. The area controlled by Thai kings 

grew, and manpower was always in short supply. The tension 

created by Thai kings' need to attract more people to 

farm the land they controlled while maintaining the theoretical 

ownership of all land is readily apparent in the Law of the 

Three Seals. While section 5222 of the miscellaneous book 

declared that all land belonged to the king and section 54 23 

prohibited the buying and selling of land, section 54 also 

required officials to encourage people to farm the land and 

granted a one-year tax holiday for newly cleared lands. 

Given the policy of encouraging the people to clear 

and settle more land implicit in section 54, it seems inevitable 

that the prohibition of the sale of land would lose its potency. 

Thus section 6F4 limits to ten years the seller's right of redemption 

in a sale of land with the right of redemption 

(khaifak)2 5 and section 6226 prohibits the sale of land by an 

unlawful occupier. We may infer from these sections that 

borrowing against and selling land were common practices 

during the A yudhya period. Indeed, it is difficult to understand 

why section 54's prohibition on the sale of land was 

retained through the years and in the 1805 recension if not in 

order to keep the law in harmony with the prevailing theory 

of kingship; many sections of the miscellaneous laws book27 

seem to assume regular buying and selling of land.


Further indications of farmers' gradually increasing 

rights in the land include punishments stipulated in the Law 

of the Three Seals for occupation of another's land (miscellaneous 

laws book§§ 34-41)2 8 and for clearing and farming wild 

land without first notifying the proper authority (crimes 

against government book § 47).29 It seems likely that the 

purpose of the latter provision was to facilitate collection of 

land taxes. 

The king collected taxes on paddy land and on other 

sources of bounty such as fruit trees. Before the end of the 

A yudhya period the government issued documents to the 

farmers showing how much land they farmed, how many 

mango trees they had, etc. These tax documents came to 

represent de facto proof of the farmers' land-holding right. 30 

At least by the end of the A yudhya period commoners exercised 

ownership rights in land as against other commoners; 

they bought and sold land, devised and inherited land and 

borrowed against it. But if a farmer did not make beneficial 

use of his land, he lost any claim he had to that land.31 As 

Lingat points out, this "use it or lose it" policy helped to 

maximize land tax revenue, an important financial resource 

throughout this period.32 

Thus throughout the Ayudhya period (about 1350- 

1767) and during the period leading up to the Anglo-Siamese 

treaty of 1855, farmers' rights in the land they tilled gradually 

increased. By the dawn of the modem era farmers exercised 

virtually complete ownership rights over their land. But the 

legal system, which was based upon the thammasat (natural 

law) and recognized the king as the divine embodiment of 

law, held the king to be owner of all land. Certainly this legal 

fiction represented no threat to the farmer's tenure by 1855.33 

If political and economic events had been different after 1855 

perhaps the Thai legal system might have developed its own 

distinctive approach to the "use it or lose it" problem. But, as 

the next section of this chapter shows, the events of the second 

half of the nineteenth century forced Thailand to adopt 

many western ideas, including a European legal system and 

a western theory of title. The Thai farmer's ancient usufructory 

right was further refined, but was then pushed to the periphery. 

B. Modem law 

1. 19th Century 

The Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1855, commonly known 

as the Bowring Treaty after the governor of Hongkong who 

negotiated it, 34 opened up Thailand to foreign trade on London's 

terms. Because he saw this treaty as the only way to 

avoid colonization, King Mongkut (Rama IV, 1851-1868) 

agreed, among other things, to limit import duties to three 

percent ad valorem and export taxes to an average of five 

percent. 35 Similar commercial treaties with many foreign 

countries followed the Bowring Treaty. All of these treaties 

called for extraterritoriality for nationals of the foreign country 

in Thailand because of the perceived backwardness of the 

Thai legal system. The Bowring Treaty was the death knell 

for the traditional order, including the self-sufficient economy 

and the evolving system of land tenure based on usufruct. 

Extraterritoriality and the threat of colonization combined to 

move the Thai monarchy toward modernization of the legal 

system. 

Thai rice became very popular abroad. 36 As the price 

of rice rose dramatically,37 the demand for land increased. 38 

This caused problems with the farmer's traditional mode of 

borrowing against his land, one of his main sources of loans. 

The principal method of borrowing against land was the old 

Chinese financing instrument khaifak, often translated into 

English as "sale with right of redemption." Professor 

Feinerman has shown that the khaifak transaction is not really 

captured when translated into western languages because 

western legal systems have no equivalent of khaifak. 39 He has 

also conveyed the rich variety of forms this Chinese instrument 

took in China and Vietnam. For instance, in China and 

Vietnam there was sometimes a period of time after the exchange 

of money and rights in land before the "seller" could 

exercise his right to redeem.40 Also, because title did exist in 

these two societies, the "seller" sometimes had the right to 

redeem the land even after the end of the redemption period.41 

We believe the Thai khaifak transaction was simpler 

than its Chinese and Vietnamese cousins. There is no evidence 

at all of any interval between the khaifak transaction and 

the beginning of the redemption period. Furthermore, ancient 

Thai law clearly gave the land to the ''buyer" if the "seller" 

failed to redeem within the redemption period (see appendix, 

page x). while it is clear from Professor Feinerman's article 

that in China and Vietnam the "buyer" took possession of the 

land, 42 in the Thai context it is not clear at all whether the 

''buyer" or "seller" had possession of the land after the khaifak 

transaction. We believe that because of the abundance of 

land and shortage of manpower in Thailand at this time the 

"seller" usually continued to farm his land. For our present 

purposes it is not necessary to resolve this puzzle, but for 

clarity of presentation we assume the "seller" remained on his 

land. Despite its drawbacks we sometimes refer to the khaifak 

transaction as "sale with right of redemption" for the same 

reason. 

So under the khaifak instrument the borrower-vendor 

remained on the land and paid a large portion of its bounty 

to the lender-purchaser as interest or rent. The borrower thus 

transformed himself from an owner to a tenant, but retained 

the right to repurchase the land for a maximum of ten years 

(see footnotes 24 & 25 and the text accompanying them, this 

chapter). We presume that the khaifak financing instrument, 

as applied in Thailand, was quite informal by western standards. 

We believe, since land was readily available and still 

relatively cheap, that the amount of money secured by the 

land was linked not so much to the value of the land as to the 

value of the product of the land. Probably the amount of 

money which changed hands using this old instrument was 

rather small and the interest rate was high. 

The increased demand for land caused the value of 

land to rise in the second half of the nineteenth century. As


the price of land went up the need for clarification of exactly 

who had rights in the land under the traditional financial 

instrument rose with it. 

King Chulalongkorn (Rama V, 1868-1910) accomplished 

a complete transformation and modernization of the 

Thai government using Western advisors and many Western 

concepts. Threatened by the colonizing powers on all sides 

and stung by the extraterritoriality granted foreign nationals 

on Thai soil, Chulalongkorn moved the legal system out of its 

orbit around the king and set it on the road towards a "formally 

rational," Western system. At the heart of 

Chulalongkorn's Chakri Reformation was the restructuring of 

the judiciary. He reasoned that only by showing the colonizers 

that Thailand was a "civilized" country (that is, that it had a 

Western legal system) could he rid Thailand of the insulting 

extraterritorial rights enjoyed by foreign nationals in Thailand.43 

Chulalongkorn hoped that by Westernizing the legal 

system he would take away from England and France an 

often repeated excuse for colonization, bringing "civilization" 

to ''backward" countries, and thereby avoid the fate of all of 

his neighbors. It also seems certain that, as Engel points out,44 

Chulalongkorn hoped to improve the lot of his subjects by 

Westernizing his legal system. 45 

Included in Chulalongkorn's Chakri Reformation were 

many proclamations (prakat) and royal decrees (phraratchabanyat) 

designed to clarify rights to land in an ad hoc manner. 

A series of two proclamations and a decree spanning the last 

third of the nineteenth century shows the Thai legal system 

grappling with the problem of rights in land. The rising price 

of rice and land gave farmers who had sold their land with 

the right of redemption great incentive to redeem at the original 

price. Farmers who had sold their land outright also 

attempted to redeem at the original price. King Mongkut's 

Prakat khai suan khai na Jak kae kan 46 (Proclamation on sale and 

khaifak of paddy and garden), acknowledged in 1866 the increased 

usage of land and the consequent rise in the cost of 

land. It went on to declare that in disputes regarding purchase, 

mortgage and purchase with right of redemption 

(khaifak), holders of certain land tax documents (tra daeng) 

would be deemed by the courts to have ownership rights in 

the land. 

This did not solve the problem; it substituted possession 

of the tax documents for possession of the land as the 

determinative factor. So lenders took the tax documents as 

collateral. King Chulalongkorn's Phraratchabanyat kan khaifak 

lae kan jamnam thidin 47 (Royal decree on the sale with right of 

redemption and the mortgaging of land, 1896) addressed 

problems arising with the 1866 proclamation when the mortgagor 

or the landowner who sold land with a right of redemption 

(khaifak) had a contract attesting to his right of redemption 

but had given the tax document to his creditor as 

security. Many cases were backed up in the legal system 

because officials did not know how to resolve this legal conflict. 

The contracts indicated a right of redemption in the 

debtor, but the earlier proclamation dictated that the holder 

of the documents, the creditor in this situation, owned the 

land. The 1896 royal decree announced that King Mongkut's 

proclamation was out of step with the times; since contracts 

were now commonly made in the presence of government 

officials the old proclamation was eliminated and deciding 

officials were instructed to resolve such cases on the basis of 

current law, including contract law. In 1899 Prakat reuang 

jamnam lae khaifak thi din 48 (Proclamation concerning the 

mortagaging and the sale with right of redemption of land) 

proclaimed that in these land transactions a written contract 

was necessary. The purchaser (in a khaifak transaction) or 

mortgagee had no legal remedy unless there was a written 

contract made in the presence of a government official. With 

such a contract the vendor who succeeded in redeeming his 

land freed himself both of the obligation to give a portion of 

his crop to the money-lender and from the threat that after 

the ten year statutory period the money lender would claim 

possession and sell or rent the land to another party. By 

giving legal effect to a contract made in the presence of a 

government official these laws increased the security of the 

khaifak credit mechanism. 

Thus by the end of the nineteenth century the Thai 

legal system had granted the farmer virtually complete rights 

in his land. Through the implementation of contract law"9 it 

had developed a partial response to the "use it or lose it" rule. 

That is, the traditional legal system generated a solution 

(contract law or, in the absence of a written contract, the land 

tax document) to instances where the owner (the purchaser in 

a khaifak transaction or the mortgagee) of the land was not 

actually in possession and control of the land. Money-lenders 

were not in possession of the land they "owned," but the 

legal system had evolved in such a way as to protect them; 

they didn't "use it," but nor did they "lose it." 50 The only remaining 

hurdle for the Thai legal system's land law was 

abandonment of land. 

This customary system of land tenure had evolved 

over the centuries to a point where it functioned well within 

the traditional Thai economic setting and also offered a 

modicum of social justice to the farmer. Farmers could take 

up as much vacant land as they could cultivate. The law 

provided sufficient security for traditional informal methods 

of borrowing against land. We view Thai land law at the end 

of the nineteenth century as having evolved to a point of near 

perfection within Thailand's "substantively rational" legal 

system. Any further significant "improvement" would require 

abstraction possible only within a "formally rational 

system." One might ask at this point, why did the Thai legal 

system adopt a Western system of title in land at the beginning 

of the twentieth century? 

2. Western system of title 

In 1901 King Chulalongkorn separated the concept of 

ownership from actual occupancy and use of the land 51 • He 

made provisions for a cadastral survey, a Torrens registration 

system and title deeds giving full legal ownership rights to 

the person holding the title deed. It was assumed that in 

almost every case the head of the family that had been farming 

the land would get title to the land.


There are no source materials available in this country 

which shine any light on the question with which we concluded 

our discussion of late nineteenth century Thai land 

law: why did Thailand adopt a Western system of title in 

land? It is possible that the king and his advisors chose to 

adopt a Western system of land tenure in order to solve the 

traditional system's problem with abandonment of land (the 

"use it or lose it rule"). But this seems implausible: land was 

still plentiful and relatively inexpensive; any rational public 

policy would surely encourage the use of arable land. 

A more likely explanation for the shift to a Western 

model views the land tenure law as simply swept away toward 

the new system along with most of traditional Thai law: 

all law had to be "modern." We know that King 

Chulalongkom himself thought that by "adopting certain 

practices of the prosperous and developed countries, 

... Thailand itself could become prosperous and developed. " 52 

We also know that the great king saw adoption of a Westernized 

legal system as a means of fending off colonization 

and as the only way to rid his country of extraterritoriality. 

Perhaps Chulalongkom decided to adopt a Western system 

of title as part of his complete overhaul of the Thai legal 

system, hoping at the same time that the Western system 

would facilitate greater agricultural development and better 

the lot of his subjects. 

It is also possible that Thailand adopted a Western 

system of title in order to accommodate a new species of 

rural land owner. As rice farming became profitable, businessmen 

and royalty from Bangkok began to purchase land 

and engage in the business of rice farming. Of course these 

members of the urban elite did not live on the land; to them 

rice farming was not a traditional way of life, but a source of 

income. Because they were foreigners in rural Thailand, 

because they did not live on or even near the land and because 

they wanted bigger loans and lower interest rates than 

the traditional methods of securing debt with land provided, 

the urban elite demanded a land law which provided as much 

security of tenure as possible. 

Western systems separate ownership rights from 

possession and control of the land. But because of this abstraction 

they also take measures aimed at assuring full security 

of tenure to the land owner. The land is surveyed and 

accurately described in words on a document symbolizing 

the land. The owner of the land is named on the document 

and a copy of it is recorded or registered with a government 

agency. Perhaps because of the new, politically influential 

land owners' desire for increased security of tenure, Thailand 

adopted a Western system of title in land. 

Regardless of the reason for Thailand's adoption of a 

Western system, we believe that the extent of the .cadastral 

survey, and thus the Western system of title in land, correlates 

very closely in rural Thailand to the spread of commercial 

agriculture. We also believe that, like the perception of 

the king as a divinity, the old natural law land system is alive 

in areas of traditional self sufficient agriculture. 

3. Epilog: current law 

Many other laws and regulations followed the establishment 

of the Western system in Thailand. For instance, in 

1904 Phraratchabanyat awk tra jawng chuakhraw (Royal decree 

on the issuance of temporary title deeds) made provisions for 

government officials to issue temporary title deeds (tra jawng 

chuakhraw) in areas where permanent title deeds had not yet 

been issued. The new laws and regulations which followed 

the establishment of the Western system of title were compiled 

in Phraratchabanyat kan awk chanot thi din R.S. 127 (Royal 

decree on the issuance of title deed to land of 1906). This 

Land Act of 1906 was Thailand's first modem land code. It 

made provisions for procedures in litigation of cases concerning 

land, set down how the cadastral survey was to procede, 

established procedures for the transfer of land which had 

already been surveyed but for which title deeds had not yet 

been issued, explained how to correct a mistake on the Torrens 

registration, etc. 

Because not only the land title system but the entire 

judicial system and indeed virtually the whole government 

were changed by King Chulalongkom, it was necessary to 

make many modifications to the Land Act of 1906. Phraratchabanyat 

awk chanot thi din chabap thi 2 (Royal decree on the 

issuance of title deed to land #2) mandated registration of the 

new owner upon the death of a landowner and provided for 

escheat of land with a title deed which was left unoccupied 

and unused for nine years. Phraratchabanyat awk chanot thi din 

chabap thi 3 (Royal decree on the issuance of title deed to land 

#3) gave Ministry of Agriculture officials the power to issue 

replacement ownership documents to tax officials who wanted 

to seize and sell the land for back taxes. It also made provisions 

for release of a mortgage when there were multiple 

mortgagors or mortgagees and designated a method for entering 

the name of the executor of a will on the title deed 

while the executor was administering the estate. 

As might be expected in an agricultural society with 

a traditional system of de facto ownership rights in the 

possessor, the new title deed system's protection of ownership 

rights rather than occupancy gave rise to much confusion. 

Phraratchabanyat awk chanot thi din chabap thi 6 (Royal 

decree on the issuance of title deed to land #6) represented 

both a culmination of the bureaucracy's adjustment to the 

new system and an attempt to alleviate the confusion that 

new system had caused. With this 1936 decree a more flexible 

system began to emerge. Its provisions recognized three 

different stages in the acquisition of land: occupancy, utilization 

and legal possession. This basic scheme is still in use 

today. 

Where the Land Act of 1906 (part 4, chapter 11) had 

provisions for acquiring full legal rights over any amount of 

vacant land of which one could make beneficial use, the 1936 

decree (section 5) reduced the amount one could claim to SO 

or 100 rai 53 (depending upon what government official gave 

his approval). The 1936 law also required more extensive 

participation by government officials in the squatting procedure. 

This is the first legal limitation of the Thai peasants' 

ancient squatting right.


With the Pramuan kotmai thi din 2497 (Land Code of 

1954) the Thai government for the first time moved to limit 

the amount of land an individual could hold. Section 34 of 

that act allowed an individual to hold a maximum of 50 rai 

for agricultural purposes. More severe limits were established 

for industrial, commercial and residential holdings. This 

section of the 1954 Act was summarily eliminated by Field 

Marshall Sarit after his 1957-8 revolution.54 

As a result of the Land Code of 1954, which (with 

Book IV [Property] of the Thai Civil and Commercial Code) 

regulates land ownership today, there are now five documents 

concerning occupation and ownership of land. The 

claim cerificate or so ko 1 merely represents the government's 

acknowledgement of occupancy of the land. The supreme 

court of Thailand ruled in 1966 that the claim certificate shows 

not ownership, but that the holder claims ownership (Dika 

676\2509). Every farming family must have the claim certificate 

for tax purposes. Farmers who live within forest preserves 

get an analogous document, the so ko to or SKT.55 

Articles 30 and 33 of the Land Code of 1954 perpetuate 

the earlier statutory provisions for taking up vacant land. 

A farmer must ask the appropriate government office to inspect 

and conduct a survey of the land and to post public 

notice. After 30 days, if no one objects, the farmer will receive 

a bai jong or preemption certificate granting permission 

to occupy and cultivate the land. If the farmer starts clearing 

the land within six months and can show, after three years, 

that he is making beneficial use of the land, the district office 

will issue a no so 3 or, since 1972, no so 3 ko (certificate of use). 

The certificate of use is the first step on the path to full 

legal ownership of the land. The final two documents in use 

today are the bai tai suan, issued by the Land Department and 

the chanot thi din (land title deed), which is issued by the Land 

Department and the provincial governor. The bai tai suan is 

documentary proof of inspection and survey of the land and 

the chanot thi din (form no so 4) represents, of course, full legal 

title. But even land held under full title is subject to prescription 

under articles 77 and 78 of the Land Code of 1954 and 

clause 1382 of the Thai Civil and Commercial Code if abandoned 

for ten years. 56 

We should note that despite these provisions for acquisition 

of vacant land, the main thrust of the Land Code of 

1954 was to achieve increased governmental control over the 

land rather than to rectify any social problem. Verachai 

Tantikul, for instance, has said that the Land Act was promulgated 

because of concern for tax revenue. 57 

The land Code of 1954 represents the consummation 

of the Westernization of Thai land law, the completion of the 

move to a "formally rational" land law. Ownership rights are 

separate from possession and control, land is scientifically 

surveyed, there is a Torrens registration system and provisions 

have been made for the taking up of any vacant land. 

But it also limits Thai farmers' ancient right to squat and 

requires extensive participation of government officials in the 

squatting process. These last two considerations probably 

outweigh concerns about security of tenure and help to explain 

why there is no popular demand for full title deeds in 

an area where farming is not yet commercialized. In these 

areas where the traditional economy reigns the "new" law 

must seem abstract and foreign to the farmer. The traditional 

land law, the product of a legal system based on what the 

Thais perceive as natural law, certainly appears just that to 

these rustic Thais: nature. 58 Thus it is no surprise that in rural 

areas, where life is governed by the passing of the seasons, 

nature and not abstract law regulates land tenure. 

CHAPTER III 

Analysis of the Relationship Between Title 

and Commercialization 

I. INTRODUCTION 

In this chapter we shall show the interrelationship 

between (1) areas in Thailand where secure ownership rights 

exist, (2) the availability of credit for investment in agriculture, 

and (3) the commercialization of agriculture. Our analysis 

will emphasize that, for most of the arable land in Thailand, 

the traditional tenurial system still survives; mere occupation 

coupled with the possession of one of the several 

non-title documents is considered sufficient to prove "ownership" 

of land. Yet the lack of secure ownership rights essentially 

relegates these farmers to credit from traditional sources. 

Conversely, for those farmers that have secure ownership 

rights, commercial or institutional credit is available that 

provides the farmer both with more total credit and lower 

interest rates than traditional mechanisms. 1 As a result, these 

latter farmers have an ongoing advantage as the commercialization 

of Thai agriculture proceeds. Our central thesis, 

again, is that the development of a formally rational legal 

system, especially the introduction of the legal concept of title, 

helped to spur the process of commercialization of Thai agriculture 

by fostering more efficient credit mechanisms. 

The first section of this chapter explores the early 

spread of title and shows the close association between access 

to ports and the initial spread of title documents. The second 

section describes the differences between-and the relative 

importance of-various types of land "ownership" in Thailand. 

The third section, argues that a strong correlation exists 

between those regions that have the highest percentage of rai 

titled and those that have the highest yield per rai for rice. The 

fourth section describes how secure ownership rights foster 

commercialization by providing the farmer with access to 

greater amounts of cheaper credit than is available from 

traditional sources. The fifth section evaluates this case study 

in terms of what it shows about the relationship between law 

and development and of its contribution to the revitalization 

of the law and development movement. We conclude with a 

discussion of the utility of the Weberian approach in the 

context of this case study.


II. THE EARLY INTRODUCTION AND SPREAD OF TI 

TLE 

As we saw in the last chapter, the Thai legal system in 

successive decrees grappled with the problem of "ownership" 

of land inherent in the traditional tenurial system. These 

efforts led to King Chulalongkorn's 1901 "Proclamation on 

the issuance of land title deeds." 2 At this point in Thai history 

one might have expected that, within a matter of decades, all 

farmland in Thailand would be surveyed, registered and a 

title deed issued to the owner. Yet this did not occur. Instead, 

only in some areas were lands registered, and title deeds 

issued. 

The different rates of title issuance for various areas in 

Thailand is probably best explained by the relative abilities of 

some areas to take advantage of the world market demand 

for rice. Those areas near to or with access to Bangkok and, 

to a lessor extent, Phuket, were able to export rice more 

economically than other areas due to high transportation costs 

within Thailand. Yet the acceptance of title in areas where 

commercialization of agriculture was feasible probably indicates 

that title served, as Weber thought it would, a useful 

legal and economic purpose: the clear description and definition 

of what land was owned and by whom added a significant 

degree of calculability to what the mortgagor was 

pledging and what the mortgagee was securing. As a result, 

more credit became available for investment in the agricultural 

sector. Thus, the legal concept of title helped to further 

a process of commercialization which had already begun in 

the aftermath of the Bowring treaty. 3 

The early Thailand Yearbooks show the limited geographical 

spread of titles during the first half of this century. 

By 1933, only 645,906 titles had been issued in Thailand. 4 The 

1932-33 Thailand Year Book mentions only six areas 

Bangkok, Ayuthya, Prajinburi, Rachaburi, Phitsanulok and 

Phuket-in all of Thailand where title was issued by the 

government. 5 Thus, more than thirty years after King 

Chulalongkorn's attempt to create a registration system and 

to introduce title, the Thai Government had issued few titles, 

and those were concentrated in a geographical location with 

access to Thailand's major ports. 

By the 1940's, the Thailand Yearbooks began to report 

issuance of titles in all the regions of the country. 6 Yet the 

total amount of titled land still only accounted for a small 

percentage of all land in Thailand. The slow spread of title 

was probably due to a combination of interrelated factors. In 

many areas of Thailand land was still plentiful. As a result, 

new land was constantly being cleared, creating additional 

demands on the already overburdened administrative capacity 

of the Thai government. Secondly, the expense of the 

ground survey could be justified only for land ripe for 

commercialization. Farms without access or any prospects of 

access to commercial markets had less to gain from receiving 

title because they had a lower demand for capital. In sum, 

the main benefits of title, access to larger amounts of capital 

and to lower interest rates, were not as important to noncommercialized 

as to commercialized farms. Yet, as the 

growth of the internal market incorporated more areas of 

Thailand's agricultural sector, the demand and need for clear 

ownership rights grew. 

III. A DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT TENURIAL SYS 

TEM 

The landholding system in Thailand is characterized 

by a several different types of documents embodying a 

spectrum of rights, running from full title to mere occupation. 

On one end of the spectrum, are farmers who occupy government 

land, called forest reserves, without any documentation 

except a tax certificate. As much as 30 million rai (5.3 

million hectares) of the forest reserves are occupied by Thai 

farmers.7 On the other end of the spectrum, are the farmers 

who occupy the roughly 20 million rai (3.2 million hectares) 

who hold "title deeds." Between these extremes, are several 

other types of documents that give the holder greater or lessor 

"ownership" rights. 

A description of the various types of "ownership" rights 

in Thailand is difficult because of disagreement among 

commentators as to the exact rights which a specific document 

confers on a holder. As is developed below, these 

differences may be due to the geographical scope of specific 

studies or simply reflect a change over time in the acceptability 

of certain documents. What then are the various documents 

in use, and the rights embodied in them? 8 

The "Land Title" (NS-4) or chanot thi din gives the 

holder unrestricted title to the land. The holder has a legal 

right to sell freely, transfer and, most importantly for our 

purposes, mortgage the land. The document has its origins 

in King Chulalongkorn's 1901 "Proclamation on the Issuance 

of Land Title Deeds." It was reaffirmed in the Land Code of 

1954. The title deed is granted on the basis of a cadastral 

survey which marks the land by a stone boundary. The deed 

is registered by the holder in the provincial land registry. 9 

The "Certificate of Use" (no so 3 & no so 3k) or nor sor 

sarm gives the holder something slightly less than "Land Title" 

and something more than mere occupation. The Land 

Code of 1954 created the "Certificate of Use" and saw it as a 

transitional document which would lead to "Land Title" 

ownership. Nonetheless, a substantial amount of land never 

completed the transition from "Certificate of Use" to "Land 

Title". These documents were issued on the basis of tape 

surveys until1972; thereafter they were issued on the basis of 

unrectified aerial photographs. 10 In view of the less systematic 

quality of the surveys on which these certificates are based, 

a transferor must advertise a transfer for thirty days prior to 

a transfer at the District Office. 11 

Feder argues that the "Certificate of Use" is valid security 

for a mortgage whereas Kemp states that it either is not 

valid security or at most limits the total amount of credit 

available to 60% of the value of the land. 12 We cannot resolve 

this debate but can suggest two possible explanations for the 

discrepancy. The first is that regional practices of commercial 

lenders may vary depending on the relative proportion of the 

type of "ownership" rights in the area. Such variations would 

account for the different observations of these authors. Add-


ing support to this argument is that Feder's study was done 

in the Northeast, where full title is extremely rare (none were 

reported in their study areas), and Kemp's and Lin and 

Esposito's study seems to be based on data from the Central 

Plains where more agricultural land has full title. In areas 

where both types of documents are prevalent, banks may 

prefer to lend to fully titled farmers rather than those with 

"Certificates of Use." Another possibility is that commercial 

and institutional lenders have only recently accepted the 

"Certificate of Use" as collateral. Kemp's study rests on data 

from 1970 and Lin and Espisito's from data collected in 1971, 

while Feder's study was based on data from the mid-1980s. 

Our sense is that a "Certificate of Use" is probably valid security 

but for identical land is worth less than a "Full Title" 

because of the added time and difficulty that the posting 

requirement adds to the foreclosure process for the former 

type of "ownership" right. 

The "Preemption Certificate" (NS-2) or bai jong merely 

authorizes temporary occupation of the land. The land described 

by a certificate is in theory not transferable except by 

inheritance. All of the commentators agree that the land held 

under a "Preemption Certificate" is not accepted as legal collateral 

for a commercial loan. The "Preemption Certificate" 

was created by the 1936 Land Code. In theory, the document 

is merely a transitional status, which the holder will eventually 

transform into full title ownership or a "Certificate of 

Use" when a proper survey is completed. The certificate is 

distributed on the basis of a metes and bound description. 

The "Claim Certificate" (SK-1) or sor-ko 1 was created 

by the 1954 Land Code. It was designed, like the "Preemption 

Certificate," to grant to the holder a transitional status, permitting 

farmers who merely occupied their land-for at least 

six months-to obtain some documentation for their tract 

which would later, subsequent to a proper survey, be upgraded 

into a "Land Title" document or "Certificate of Use." 

The "Claim Certificate" was also distributed on the basis of a 

metes and bounds description of the property. Land owned 

under a "Claim Certificate" is not acceptable collateral for a 

commercial bank loan. 

The "Certificate of Occupation" or bai yiab yam is a relic 

of the Land Act of 1906. In some parts of Thailand this document 

still exists, although in theory it may be converted to a 

"Certificate of Use."13 Commercial lenders do not accept land 

held under a "Certificate of Occupation" as collateral. 

The final type of land document is called a "Usufruct 

Document" (STK). Except for the "Certificate of Use," the STK 

is probably the most prevalent type of "ownership" right in 

Thailand. In 1964, the Thai government passed the Forest 

Reserve Act which designated large areas (166 million rai) of 

Thailand as forest reserves. 14 In many instances this land was 

already occupied by squatters who had followed the traditional 

practice of simply clearing new land and farming it. 

Since 1964, substantially more individuals have entered the 

forest reserves as population pressure has grown. Roughly 

30 million rai (5.3 million hectares) of this land is now occupied 

by squatters.15 These areas are indistinguishable from 

privately held land and major roads, villages, schools and 

government offices are found on this land. Prior to 1981 this 

land was undocumented, except for tax documents. Since 

1981, the Royal Forestry Department has issued STK's or 

usufruct documents to land in the Forest Reserves. STK 

documents are only given for plots up to 15 rai (2.4 hectares). 

Conversion of the document to any of the documents that 

cover privately owned land is prohibited. Nor are these plots 

in theory transferable except by inheritance. 16 As a result, they 

are not accepted by commercial or institutional lenders as 

collateral. 

The percentage or relative importance of each type of 

"ownership right" in Thailand's agricultural sector is difficult 

to asses precisely. Kemp, relying on a 1970 Annual Report of 

the Department of Lands, which gives a figure of 84.8 million 

rai (13.3 million hectares) of arable land in Thailand, divides 

the various "ownership rights" in Thailand as a whole as 

follows: 

Fully titled land covering 14.7 million rai (2.4 million 

hectares) or 17.3% of the total arable land; 

"Certificate of Use" covering 18.2 million rai (2.9 million 

hectares) or 21.4% of the total arable land; 

The "Preemption Certificate" covering 4.5 million rai 

(0.7 million hectares) or 5.3% of the total arable land; 

The "Certificate of Occupation" covering 4.4 million 

rai (0.7 million hectares) or 5.1% of the total arable 

land; 

The "Claim Certificate" covering 43.0 million rai (6.9 

million hectares) or 50.7% of the total. 

Kemp's figures ignore the substantial amount of land 

occupied by squatters in the forest reserves. The Feder study 

indicates roughly how many rai of land are occupied in forest 

reserves by farmers (33.1 million rai or 5.3 million hectares) 

but gives no figure for the total arable land in ThailandP 

Instead the study divides ownership rights on the basis of 

privately owned land which includes urban as well as rural 

property. The study uses Department of Land figures to 

estimate that the total privately owned land is 121.3 million 

rai (19.4 million hectares). If we add the privately occupied 

but government owned land figure to the privately owned 

land, the data indicate that 154.4 million rai (24.7 million 

hectares) are privately utilized in Thailand. If we estimate 

that roughly 15 percent of the privately utilized land is urban 

or simply non-agricultural, then the total arable land in Thailand 

is 131.2 million rai (21.0 million hectares). 18 

A more difficult problem is determining which type 

of ownership rights are overstated and by how much in the 

Feder study because its calculations are based on all privately 

owned land instead of on arable land. No precise figures are 

available; however, urban land, because of its greater value, 

is probably more likely to be registered under a "Land Title" 

deed or a "Certificate of Use" than rural land. As a result,


reliance on the Feder study to asses the relative proportion of 

each type of "ownership" in rural areas would probably overstate 

the proportion of privately owned arable land that has 

either a "Land Title" deed or a "Certificate of Use." Nonetheless, 

the Feder study does provide useful information on the 

overall amount of land in each category and the proportional 

amount of growth in each category. The study's data indicate 

the following proportion of "ownership" documents based on 

154.4 million rai (24.7 million hectares) of privately utilized 

land: 19 Title deeds account for 18.4 million rai (2.9 million 

hectares) or 11.9% of all privately utilized land in 

Thailand; 

"Certificates of Use" account for 64.0 million rai (10.2 

million hectares) or 41.5% of all privately utilized land. 

The "Preemption and Claim Certificates" account for 

38.9 million rai (6.2 million hectares) or 25.2% of all 

privately utilized land. 

Land occupied in forest reserves account for 33.1 

million rai (5.3 million hectares) or 21.5% of the privately 

utilized land. Of this total an undisclosed 

amount is covered by the STK certificates described 

above. 

In comparing these data with Kemp's, several conclusions 

are possible about the changes over time in the relative 

importance of various types of "ownership" rights in Thailand. 

The first is that the amount of land accounted for by 

full scale title is growing at a very slow pace. Less than four 

million rai was registered in the interim between Kemp's and 

Feder's surveys. The second is that the "Certificate of Use'' 

has grown from 18.2 million rai to 64.0 million rai. This growth 

mirrors the decline in the importance of the "Oaim Certificate," 

the "Preemption Certificate" and the "Certificate of Occupation." 

They have declined in importance from a total of 52.9 

million rai to only 38.9 million rai. 

Yet, despite progress in upgrading ownership rights, 

fully 60.4% of the privately utilized land (land .occupied in 

forest reserves and land privately "owned" but without at 

least a Certificate of Use) in Thailand is still unacceptable as 

collateral for commercialloans. 20 This figure is probably even 

higher for arable land given that urban land would tend to 

have a higher proportion of either full title deeds or Certificates 

of Use. We now tum to an analysis of the relationship 

between secure ownership and the commercialization of agriculture. 

IV. PRODUCTIVITY AND TITLE 

Demonstrating a correlation between the prevalence 

of secure ownership and the commercialization of agriculture 

is the focus of this section. In the next section, we shall focus 

on causal interaction; how security of ownership helps to foster 

and support commercialization. The data used here are from 

Thailand Yearbooks. Unfortunately, the only type of "ownership 

right" compiled in the Yearbooks is "Land Title." Thus, 

to the extent that a "Certificate of Use" is also valid security 

for commercial or institutional loans, the data here may be 

misleading. Moreover, although the data are presented in the 

agricultural section of the Yearbooks, the figures on total rai 

titled may include "Land Titles" issued in urban areas. Thus, 

any conclusions reached here are extremely tentative. 

Although the Yearbooks do not provide any clear 

information on what types and sizes of land holdings were 

issued titles or any information on "ownership" rights besides 

titles, they do provide evidence that the average size of plots 

was larger in earlier years. For example, by 1955 a total of 

844,345 "Land Titles" had been issued. The area covered by 

the titled land was 12,528,516 rai. Thus, the average size of 

a plot was 14.8 rai (2.4 hectares). 21 The large average size of 

the plots indicates that, at least for early years, most of the 

plots were probably used for agricultural purposes rather than 

for urban dwellings. Yet by the sixties, and continuing into 

the eighties, the average plot size was between 2.0 (1965) and 

3.4 (1971) rai. 22 The earlier issuance of "Land Title" deeds for 

larger plots indicates that large farms were the first to go 

through the process of surveying and registration leading to 

the issuance of a "Land Title" deed. 

The data collected by the Thai government do not 

lend themselves to a direct analysis of which lands were more 

productive. Nonetheless, calculations made by us seem to 

indicate that a higher percentage of land was titled in those 

Regions that had greater productivity per rai. Based on figures 

in the 1983 Yearbook, we think that the productivity 

(yield per rai) of land planted with rice is related to the 

proportion of total lands titled in a given region. Obviously, 

both the level of aggregation of the data and the universal 

unreliability of government statistics present serious problems. 

Table 1 shows that the Central Region is by far the 

most productive in Thailand. This region corresponds to the 

area which first received "Land Titles" in the country. 23 The 

least productive is the Northeast. Table 2 shows the number 

Table 1: Yield per rai in Kilos of Rice by Region 

Region Yield per rai (Kg.) Rank 

Central 406.06 1 

Eastern 331.94 4 

Western 378.63 3 

North-East 275.67 6 

Northern 380.67 2 

Southern 308.09 5 

TOTAL 320.13 

Source: Thailand Yearbook 1985-86, p. 175.


of rai that is titled by region. Once again the range is defined 

by the Central Region, with the most rai titled, and the North 

East, with the least. Table 2 also shows that for the Central, 

Eastern and Western regions, three of the top four in productivity 

per rai for rice, are also the top 3 in total lands titled. 24 

While our conclusions are tentative, the data seem to 

Table 2: Total Number of rai Titled and Planted by Region 

Region Total rai Titled* Total rai with Rice** 

Central 5,949,476 4,731,869 

Eastern 4,058,055 3,291,309 

Western 4,119,936 3,040,541 

North-East 1,963,067 32,289,643 

Northern 3,423,188 14,266,280 

Southern 799,514 4,257,944 

TOTAL 20,236,389 61,877,586 

Source: Thailand Yearbook 1985-86, p. 203. 

* Note: May include rural and urban land. 

** Note: All figures were calculated by dividing total rice 

production by yield per rai; thus the column represents 

the total number of rai harvested with rice. 

support our thesis that an interrelationship exists between 

commercialization, represented here by higher yields per rai, 

and the total amount of titled land in a region. 

V. COMMERCIALIZATION, OWNERSHIP RIGHTS AND 

ACCESS TO CREDIT 

In this section we shall describe the enormous credit 

advantages that a farmer holding land with secure ownership 

rights has over another farmer with less secure rights. We 

also will explore the specific reasons why these advantages 

exist. 

Imagine two farmers. Both hold identical plots of land 

and are equal in all relevant ways, e.g. socio-economic status, 

accumulated household wealth, etc. except that Farmer A 

holds his land either with a "Land Title" or a "Certificate of 

Use" and Farmer B has either no document for his land, an 

STK certificate, or any of the other documents that do not 

give the holder an officially recognized right to alienate his 

land. 25 Farming is typically characterized by several months 

of negative cash flow, followed by a short period of marketing 

during the harvest.26 As a result, at the beginning of the 

growing season Farmers A and B need a loan to cover the 

costs of inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and tools. The greater 

the capital investment that each farmer can make now, the 

higher his output per rai and, thus, the agricultural surplus 

he will produce and be able to market-2 7 

Both Farmers A and B live in the same community. 

Yet, since they are aware that the local money lender charges 

higher interest rates, both farmers attempt to get a loan from 

a nearby commercial bank or the government's Bank for 

Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC). 28 Although 

it is possible that Farmer B will get a loan from one 

of these institutional sources, it will be, at most, a short-term 

unsecured loan and he will not receive as much principal,29 

On the other hand, Farmer A will receive a loan by pledging 

his land as security. 

Why will Farmer A receive a loan from an institutional 

lender whereas Farmer B probably will not? Lenders 

base their decision to loan funds to borrowers on the basis of 

the risk inherent in the loan. Two basic catagories of loans 

are possible, either secured or unsecured. A unsecured loan 

is given on the basis of the general credit worthiness of the 

borrower. Farmer B is less credit worthy than Farmer A, all 

other factors being equal, because he has less implicit collateral 

due to the lower value of his land. Farmer B is thus less 

likely to receive a unsecured loan than Farmer A from institutional 

sources and if he does, it will be for a smaller amount. 30 

A secured loan has important advantages for the 

lender. The first is that without collateral, a lender may have 

difficulty in forcing a borrower to pay; however, upon default 

of a secured loan, the lender is legally entitled to accelerate 

the loan and demand payment. If the lender fails to pay 

the whole amount, the lender may foreclose on the secured 

asset by selling it a foreclosure sale. The process of foreclosure 

depends on three essential factors: the property right secured 

by the lender must be legally alienable; the lender must be 

able to confirm easily that the borrower actually owns the 

secured property at the time the loan is made; and the legal 

system must provide a relatively efficient mechanism for the 

lender to enforce his right to foreclose on the secured asset. 31 

Unfortunately for Farmer B, he cannot offer the institutional 

lenders his land as security because it is not legally 

freely alienable. 32 Nor will the bank accept B's land as collateral 

because his "ownership" rights in the land are too indefinite. 

In Thailand, as we have seen, roughly 64.4% of the 

privately utilized land is not legally marketable. These farmers, 

like Farmer B, cannot use their land to secure loans from 

institutional lenders. As a result, they are generally relegated 

to traditional credit mechanisms such as khaifak. 

Traditional credit mechanisms charge a higher interest 

rate than institutionallenders. 33 Three basic reasons explain 

the higher rate of interest. The first is that traditional 

sources of capital are generally a last resort for borrowers 

deemed too great a risk for a loan by institutional sources. 

The higher rate of interest reflects this greater risk. The second 

is that these lenders hold an unregulated-traditional 

lenders are not subject to usury laws-monopoly. 34 Interest 

rates are high because these farmers have no choice. 35 The 

third reason is that traditional lenders have a high degree of 

covariability on their loans. 36 In a given loan portfolio, a high 

degree of covariability means that the chances are higher that 

either all loans will be paid or all will be in default. Since 

traditional creditors make loans of essentially a local charac-


ter to agricultural producers, the lenders are exposed to the 

risk of local crop failure. Institutional lenders, by diversifying 

their loans geographically and to different types of enterprises, 

have a lower covariability or overall risk on their loan 

portfolio. 

From these factors it follows that the traditional 

lender-more specifically, the "mortgagee" in the khaifak 

system-would demand a higher rate of interest, given the 

greater risk of the loan. Moreover, traditional lenders will 

also limit the amount of capital a borrower will receive to 

well under the full market value of the property. Thus the 

traditional credit system has two effects. The first is to increase 

the cost of capital to those farms without secure 

ownership rights. The second is to cap or limit the total 

amount of the loan. A third possible effect that specifically 

relates to a khaifak transaction is that the mortgagor is deterred 

from investing the funds he receives into the land 

because he is uncertain that he will be able to redeem his 

land. To this extent, we would expect that most farmers 

relying on a khaifak system for cash would probably use the 

funds for current consumption rather than capital investment. 

All of these effects will inevitably impede agricultural development 

by increasing the cost of needed capital and diverting 

capital away from capital investments. As a result, 

our analysis indicates that the Thai government should emphasize 

the issuance of secure ownership rights on all privately 

utilized lands in order to support the commercialization 

of agriculture. 

VI. TOWARDS THE REVITALIZATION OF THE LAW 

AND DEVELOPMENT MOVEMENT 

In the first chapter of this paper we criticized authors 

within the law and development movement for failing to 

address and to state explicitly the causal interaction between 

law and development. 37 We have attempted to untangle the 

Gordian knot of the relationship between law and development, 

but have only partially succeeded. Our analysis has 

shown that the historical process of Thailand's emergence into 

the world market played a crucial role in creating the context 

for the emergence of commercialized agriculture; without the 

Bowring Treaty and the concomitant increase in the price of 

rice and of land, the process of commercialization probably 

would have been delayed indefinitely. But, given these 

changes, the legal innovation of title imposed by King 

Chulalongkorn helped to further and to deepen the process. 

The impact of our analysis on the possibility of the 

revitalization of the law and development movement is also 

qualified. Earlier we argued that the relevance of the 

movement depended on the extent to which one could conceptualize 

law as an independent, or at least a re-enforcing, 

variable in the process of socio-economic change. 38 Our case 

study has shown that law cannot be convincingly seen as an 

independent variable. Instead law plays a more modest, yet 

still important, role as a re-enforcing variable in the process 

of social change. These observations are important for advocates 

of law and development to keep in mind. Overstating 

the importance of law leads to absurd practical results and 

academic scorn. Yet, practitioners can do important work at 

both a practical and theoretical level if we are sensitive to our 

field's inherent limits. 

Our analysis of the emergence of commercialized 

agriculture in Thailand has demonstrated our basic theoretical 

propositions respecting the causal relationship between 

law and development; in general, law, through the development 

of a formally rational legal system, and in particular by 

providing the legal concepts required to provide secure 

ownership rights, spurred or reinforced the process of the 

commercialization of agriculture in Thailand. Yet, without 

increasing demand for rice, the innovation of title would not 

have led to the commercialization of agriculture. The major 

way in which law fostered development was through the 

increased legal certainty and calculability which the title 

system afforded in the context of mortgages. Secure ownership 

rights reduced, for those plots of land in Thailand where 

they was adopted, the hold of traditional credit mechanisms 

such as khaifak mortgaging and thereby removed them as a 

barrier to the commercialization of agriculture. 

VII. THE EXPLANATORY POWER OF THE THEORETI 

CAL APPROACHES 

We have used our understanding and interpretation 

of the Weberian approach to organize the historical data and 

to analyze the case materials. While other theoretical approaches 

are not discredited merely by suggesting the plausibility 

of one approach, we are satisfied that the Weberian 

approach has greater explanatory power, at least in this 

context, then either the Marxist or World System approaches. 

A Marxist approach would have stressed the alternative 

explanation that the innovation of title was simply the 

legal system adjusting in an epiphenomenal manner to the 

introduction of a capitalist mode of production in the agrarian 

sector and to the concomitant emergence of a nascent 

bourgeoisie. While one could understand our case study in 

this manner, two basic problems plague this type of explanation. 

The first is that the reforms of King Chulalongkorn 

were not a culmination of the political ascendancy of the Thai 

bourgeoisie. Indeed, the reforms have the same flavor as 

those undertaken in Japan following the Meiji Restoration. In 

both Thailand and Japan, the traditional elite seems to have 

led the process of social change for mainly nationalistic reasons 

in order to ensure their society's independence from 

colonial power and their continued social and political 

dominance. Thus, the innovation in title is better understood 

not as the epiphenomenal adjustment of the legal system to 

the new economic and social reality of commercialization of 

agriculture and the political ascendancy of a Thai bourgeoisie, 

but rather as an attempt by traditional elites to force feed 

the economy to avoid loss of national autonomy. 

The second major problem with a Marxist explanation 

for this case study is that Thailand has not witnessed a generalized 

convergence of land tenurial systems along a capitalist 

model as Marx presumably would have predicted. In-


stead, as we have seen, 39 Thailand has a continuum of tenurial 

systems. One can compare the Thai reality with the land 

holding pattern in the United States, where virtually all privately 

held land is titled. Perhaps one could defend the 

Marxist approach by arguing that the process is still under 

way in Thailand and that, eventually, the Thai system will 

have only titled land as well. Yet this would hardly conform 

to Marx's description of a revolution in productive forcesand, 

thus, in law-that capitalism would inevitable bring to 

the Third World to knock down "Chinese walls." The Weberian 

approach yields the more plausible explanation that the legal 

innovation of secure ownership rights, acting as a re-enforcing 

variable, will only be adopted where the underlying context 

for commercialization already exists. 

The Weberian theory also seems more persuasive than 

an explanation based on the World System's theoretical 

framework. While the continuum in the Thai tenurial system 

seems to support the general proposition we teased out of the 

World System approach-that legal systems in the Third 

World would follow their own model and would reflect the 

status of the given country's role in the international division 

of labor40---considerations exogenous to the examination of 

title seem to undermine the whole approach. While the World 

System approach does not deny some adjustment in the role 

of a given nation state in the international division of labor, 

its advocates argue that all gains are essentially a zero sum 

game. Yet the dynamic capitalist development that has occurred 

in Asia and, for that matter, in Thailand throughout 

the last twenty years amounts to more than one area of the 

world system gaining at the expense of another. 

In comparison to both the Marxist and World System 

approaches, the application of a Weberian perspective to the 

case study demonstrated the latter's relatively greater explanatory 

power. Weber's typology of legal systems provided 

a powerful analytical framework with which we could 

meaningfully organize the historical data. Kronman's discussion 

of the ways in which Weber saw law as affecting 

social change provided us with the main analytical tools with 

which to show how title had promoted the commercialization 

of agriculture. We think that the Weberian approach, envisioning 

law as a reinforcing variable, has utility in the context 

of case studies on comparative law and social change. 

INTRODUCTION 

APPENDIX 

To the best of our knowledge, Siam's 1805 recension, 

the Law of the Three Seals, has never been translated into any 

language. We offer below our translations of the 1805 

recension provisions cited in chapter two of this work. In 

preparing these translations we have used Robert Lingat's 

definitive edition of the Law of the Three Seals published by 

Thammasat University in the late 1930s. Titled Pramuan kotmai 

rachakan thi 1 julasakarat 1166 (The Siamese Code of 1166 C.S. 1 ), 

this work, now out of publication, contains the original fortyone 

Thai-style books in three volumes. Lingat arranged the 

order in which the original forty-one volumes are presented 

and renumbered the provisions to facilitate scholarly research. 

The arabic numerals in the translations are Lingat's; the 

original Thai numeration is indicated in brackets. 

We have translated sixteen provisions from the miscellaneous 

book of the Law of the Three Seals and arranged 

them in numerical order following Lingat's numeration. A 

seventeenth and final provision, from the crimes against government 

book of the Law of the Three Seals, is added at the 

end. Under each of Lingat's arabic numerals is first a close 

translation of the original and then, in boldface type, a more 

fluent translation. We have attempted to keep comments, 

which are interspersed among the translations, and footnotes 

to a minimum. 

The close translations are as accurate as possible. But 

it is often difficult to convey in English the ambiguity of the 

original Thai; to do so accurately is to risk incoherence in the 

English translation. Pronouns, number and articles contribute 

heavily to this ambiguity. In these provisions the antecedent 

of a pronoun is rarely self-evident and the same pronoun 

may be second or third person, singular or plural, depending 

upon the context. Classifiers are used to indicate 

(sometimes rather precisely) number in Thai. But without 

these classifiers, which are scarce in the provisions translated, 

the reader is left to infer from the context whether a noun is 

singular or plural. Furthermore, Thai has no equivalent of 

the English articles "a," "an" and "the," so inference from the 

context is that much more difficult. 

We have tried to address the problem presented by 

the ambiguity of the original Thai by liberal use of parentheses. 

Inferences made in translation are in parentheses in the 

close translations. While most of these inferences are routine 

and present little danger of misinterpretation, many of them 

could be challenged. Thus we ask that the reader first read 

the close interpretation omitting words within parentheses 

and then read the entire close interpretation ignoring the 

parentheses. In this way the reader will get a feel for the style 

and ambiguity of this ancient law and see clearly the inferential 

leaps made in translation. 

Our goal in offering the more fluent translation is to 

present to the reader as succinctly as possible the meaning of 

the translated provision to a contemporary lawyer. Thus in 

addition to involving further (and more questionable, if one 

is concerned with the literal accuracy of the translation) inferences, 

the fluent translations exclude information from the 

original which is not relevant from the point of view of current 

law. By first reading the close translation excluding the 

phrases in parentheses, then reading the close translation 

including the phrases in parentheses and finally consulting 

the fluent translation, lawyers and scholars will be able to 

form their own opinions about the legitimacy of inferences 

made in translation. This should give rise to many differences 

of opinion and, we hope, inspire further research into 

Siam's Law of the Three Seals and the society which generated 

it. 

We owe a great debt to Khun Jitraporn Leelawat for 

her gracious help and guidance in the preparation of the 

translations that follow.


TRANSLATIONS 

LAW OF THE 3 SEALS, MISCELLANEOUS BOOK 

34 

[Thai numeral 25]. One person is plowing paddy. 

One person challenges (him by) plowing (the same paddy). 

If (the interloper) plows (the entire) field, levy a fine of 330,000 

cowrie shells. If (he) plows two furrows, levy a fine of 110,000. 

If (he) plows three furrows, levy a fine of 220,000. 

A fine will be levied for plowing over again where 

another person is plowing. 

35 

[Thai numeral 26]. (If) anyone intrudes with water 

buffalo (and) plows the rice which you have just sown, levy 

a fine of 330,000. 

A fine will be levied for plowing under another person's 

newly sown rice. 

36 

[Thai numeral 27]. (If) anyone intrudes with water 

buffalo (and) plows your rice when it is a stalk (or) leaf, 

thammasat2 says levy a fine of 440,000. If the rice is young, 3 

levy a fine of 550,000; if the rice is ripe, levy a fine of 660,000. 

If (he) plows as much as 1, 2, 3 rai 4 or more, levy a fine of 

110,000 and have the wrongdoer prepare one pig, one duck, 

one jar of liquor, candles, incense and other ceremonial accessories 

to pay obeisance to the rice goddess in accordance 

with the tradition of the community. 

The fine for plowing under another persons' rice 

varies according to how much land is so plowed and the 

point in the growing cycle of the rice when it is plowed 

under. 

37 

[Thai numeral 28]. (If) anyone dares to plant rice in 

your paddy saying it is his own paddy, levy a fine of 110,000. 

A fine will be levied for seizing and planting rice in 

another person's paddy. 

38 

[Thai numeral29]. (You have) plowed the paddy (but) 

not yet sown the rice. A person comes and plows (the same 

paddy) again. Whether (he) plows (the same) furrow deeper 

or plows on either side (of the furrow), levy a fine of 220,000 

three times. Also fine (him) by reducing (his) rank once. If 

there was no boundary marker, levy a fine of 33,000 three 

times. 

A fine will be levied for plowing over again where 

another person has plowed. The fine will include a demotion 

in rank. But the fine will be reduced if the land was 

not marked. 

39 

[Thai numeral30]. (There is) paddy which you have 

formerly worked. (Someone) comes and challenges (you by) 

plowing (and) working your paddy. Thammasat says that 

person transgresses, levy a fine of 110,000. 

A fine will be levied for seizing and working land 

formerly worked by another person. 

40 

[Thai numeral31]. (If) anyone dares to rake overS (the 

furrows) you plowed, fine (him) 3 times for a total of 220,000. 

A fine will be levied for filling back in the furrows 

plowed by another person. 

41 

[Thai numeral 32]. (If) anyone dares to pile up a 

mound of dirt (for) building a hut (and) putting up paddy 

dikes and takes your paddy as his own paddy, thammasat 

says levy a fine of 110,000. 

A fine will be levied for seizing and settling on the 

land of another person. 

Comment 

Sections 34-41 all deal with intentional invasions of 

another's land, but none of these provisions says "don't invade 

or seize your neighbor's land." In attempting to make 

these provisions meaningful for current lawyers we have 

resorted, in §§ 37, 39 and 41, to the word "seize" in the fluent 

translation. But these sections show clearly that what was 

important in rural Thai society at that time was the labor 

already expended or the crop, not the seizure of the land. 

Note the extensive articulation in these provisions. 

There are many different provisions for actions which current 

law subsumes under the rubric trespass. 

The land in the area around Bangkok and A yuthya is 

the land of the king. Although (the king) allows the populace, 

people who are tied to the land, to live (on the land), the 

populace cannot own (it). There are disagreements about this 

because the people are already living (on the land and) each 

has his own house, his own garden. Then another person 

comes to live (on the land). And (he) fences in, plants and 

builds on (the land). (The king) gives (this) right to him.


Also, if (that) person hasn't abandoned that land and 

he has fenced (it) in as evidence (of his claim to the land), but 

he leaves, whether for business or pleasure, and returns (intending) 

to enter and live (on the land), give (the land) back 

to him to live on because he did not abandon that land. If he 

abandons the land as long as 9 (or) 10 years, have the local 

government arrange to give (the land to) those people who 

cannot find any land to live on. Do not allow that land to be 

unoccupied. 

Furthermore, if (that person) planted fruit trees on 

that land, have the person occupying (his land) give him 

the price of those trees. 7 If he piled up dirt into mounds (for 

fill), pay him an approriate price. As for the land, do not 

buy and sell it at all. 

All land belongs to the king. Sale of land is prohibited. 

The people may occupy land and are encouraged to do 

so in populated areas. People may abandon their land temporarily 

if it is fenced in. If someone uses the land in their 

absence, that person must return the land and pay an appropriate 

price for the use of the land. However, if people 

leave the land for nine or ten years, they lose their right of 

usufruct. 

54 

[Thai numeral42]. If land around the capital city of 

Ayuthya is an area (where) the people (live), do not allow 

them to buy (and) sell (land there). Do not leave (land) 

unoccupied; have the village headman, the district chief, the 

local official and the tax collector arrange for people to live 

there. 

Also, (If) there is (formerly cultivated) land outside 

the city, even if it has long been abandoned, and a man comes 

and works that land as his farm (or) garden and plants fruit 

trees there, reduce taxes for him for one year. After that (the 

land will be subject to) royal taxes. 8 

Sale of land is prohibited. Local officials should 

find people to work vacant land. There will be a one year 

tax holiday for a person who takes up and works abandoned 

land. 

61 

[Thai numeral 49]. (If) there is a contract selling with 

the right of redemption farm land, paddy or a house, thammasat 

says redeem within ten years. If the owner does nothing for 

more than ten years (and then wants to) redeem (the land}, 

thammasat does not allow (him to) redeem the farm land, 

paddy or house. (It) is the right of the purchaser. 

The right to redeem of a vendor of land who retains 

the right of redemption expires after ten years. Such a vendor 

has no more rights in the land after ten years. 

62 

[Thai numeral 50]. (There is a) purchase of farm land, 

paddy or a house (and) there is a document as evidence. 

Someone comes (and) claims that farm land, paddy or house 

was originally his ancestor's. (You) consider (and decide) 

that it was not the owner of the land who sold (it to the 

purchaser). Thammasat says leave things as they originally 

were. 9 As for the purchase money, take it from the seller. 

A claim to land based on ancestry takes precedence 

over the claim of one who purchased the land from a vendor 

who did not own the land, even if the purchaser has a sales 

document. 

Comment 

This section deals with a problem that every legal 

system faces: sale of property by a vendor who has no rights 

in the property. Compare it with U.C.C. § 2-403 (1977}, which 

addresses this problem by articulating "no rights in the 

property" into "voidable claim" and "void claim." In§ 2-403 

itself one must infer "void claim" to understand correctly. For 

modem Thai supreme court cases reaching the same result as 

this section see Dika 1076-1079\2510 (1967) and Dika 

2031\2514 (1971). 

Observe the ambiguity of § 62: it says not that the 

claim based on ancestry was valid, but that the vendor's claim 

was invalid; not that the purchaser gets his money back, but 

that the vendor may not keep the money. Even the command 

to "leave things as they originally were" is unclear. Our 

footnote resolving this last ambiguity in favor of the ancestral 

claimant is based on the use of the Thai word "original" (doem) 

in the description of the ancestral claim. 

66 

[Thai numeral 54]. Someone buys land for a house or 

garden that overlaps (with land claimed by his neighbor). 

(Both parties) knew and no one objected. There was no 

notification of officials. Afterwards there is controversy. If a 

man, wife, child, elephant, horse (or) buffalo dies, that is the 

karma of the deceased. Thammasat gives no punishment 

because there was no notification at first. 

If both parties know of conflicting claims to land 

but do not notify the appropriate authorities, then a dispute 

arises and a person or animal dies, there is no legal recourse 

because there was no notification. 

67 

[Thai numeral 55]. Someone buys land for a house or 

garden. If (the claim to the land) overlaps (with someone 

else's claim and) one faction knows, (that faction) should have 

elders (or) officials go to announce the return of the land. 

The other side is arrogant, disdainful (and) refuses to return 

(the land) and puts in a wooden stake to mark the land. If a


person, elephant, horse or buffalo of theirs 10 dies, have (the 

arrogant and disdainful faction) replace their loss 11 and levy 

a fine according to royal ordinance. 

Also, (claims to) land for a house or garden overlap 

(and) one faction finds out the other faction won't listen (as 

above). If (you) investigate (and find that) (the claim to land 

of one faction) indeed overlaps (with the claim to land of the 

other faction) and (within) three days a person, elephant, horse 

or buffalo of theirs 12 dies, levy a fine (of) treble (damages). If 

(a person or animal) dies (within) five days, levy a fine (of) 

double (damages). If (a person or animal) dies (within) seven 

days, fine the cost of the damage. If (a person or animal) dies 

(within) three months, levy a fine (of) half (the damages). If 

(a person or animal) dies within one year, (levy a fine of) one 

third (the damages). When levying a fine use the cost of the 

dead (person or animal) to determine the fine. If (a person or 

animal) dies within three years, have (them) make amends 

with flowers. 

If one party, learning of conflicting claims to land, 

notifies the appropriate authorities and sends elders to reclaim 

the land from the other party, but the second party 

refuses and then a person or animal belonging to the first 

party dies, the second party must replace the deceased person 

or animal and pay a fine. If after investigation it is 

determined that there are indeed conflicting claims and a 

person or animal belonging to the first party dies within 

three days of the notification, the second party will be fined 

treble damages. The second party's fine grows smaller as 

the length of time between the notification and the death 

increases. 

69 

[Thai numeral 57]. Someone buys land to farm and 

build a house. (The claimed land) overlaps (with a neighbor's 

claim), but there is not yet any danger (of death of a person, 

elephant, horse or buffalo). Have officials (or) elders go to 

prohibit them. If (they) do not listen, fine (them) for the 

transgression. 

Furthermore, if they do not know of the overlapping 

(claims to land), (you) can't find elders and (someone) dies, 

have the person (whose claim) overlaps simply help to bum 

the ghost 13 because (you) can find no fault. It was his karma. 

Where there are conflicting claims to land but not 

yet an open dispute, officials or elders should prohibit an 

open dispute. Those who disregard the prohibition will be 

fined. Where the parties do not yet know of their conflicting 

claims to land and a person or animal dies, there is 

no liability. 

70 

[Thai numeral 58]. Someone buys land to farm and 

(his claim) overlaps (his neighbor's claim). The owners see 

(that their claims to the land) indeed overlap and have elders 

(or) officials go announce the return {of) that land, then (the 

owners) mark the boundary. If a slave, a person, an elephant, 

a horse, a cow (or) a buffalo dies (some) other day, do not 

punish (them) at all. 

If conflicting claims to land are peaceably resolved 

and later a person or animal dies, there is no liability. 

Comment 

Sections 66, 67, 69 and 70 all deal with situations where 

one party has bought land and it is later discovered that a 

portion of the land he claims is also claimed by a neighbor. 

The probability of feuding in such a situation is implicit, but 

never explicitly stated. Counterbalancing this potential for 

feuding is a very Thai-like preference for surface orderliness 

and deference to authority. Officials must be consulted. 

Arrogance and refusal to submit to authority apparently are 

independent factors which may weigh heavily in the decision 

on the merits (§ 67, first paragraph). This is anathema to 

Western systems of law, but anyone familiar with modem 

Thai society (and, one is tempted to add, human nature) has 

witnessed it. Perhaps Thai law, left to its own devices, would 

have developed along lines which placed more emphasis on 

outward peace and tranquility in the community and submission 

to authority than on the "correct" solution to a given 

legal problem. 

The diminution of damages as time passes under § 67 

seems to represent a policy similar to our statute of limitations, 

but it is probably more closely related to our notion of 

proximate cause. The reasoning behind § 70, which is aimed 

at avoiding over-inclusiveness, seems to be modern legal 

reasoning. Previous knowledge or scienter is obviously an 

important element in § 66, 69 and 70, but its significance in 

§ 67 is lost to the modern lawyer. 

LAW OF THE THREE SEALS, CRIMES AGAINST GOV 

ERNMENT BOOK 

47 

[Thai numeral 47]. Someone clears land to farm. 

Thammasat says to go inform the local officials, have (them) 

go to look at the cleared land so (they will) know how much 

(land was cleared). Have the officials write a document and 

leave it with the person who cleared (the land) so they will 

know that person lives at that house and (the land) was newly 

cleared in that canton in that year. If any person surreptitiously 

clears (land) following only his own wishes (and) does 

not inform the officials, whether he is caught (in the act) or 

someone comes to complain, thammasat says punish (him) six 

ways. If the king forbids you to kill (him), hang the tax 

which (he) avoided (around his neck) for three days to disgrace 

(him), then fine him quadruple (the amount of the tax). 

A person who clears land to farm must notify the 

appropriate authorities. Anyone who clears land to farm 

without such notification commits a crime subject to severe, 

perhaps capital, punishment.


NOTES 

CHAPTER I 

1. Merryman, "Comparative Law & Social 

Change", 25 Am. J. Comp. L. 457, 483 (1977). 

2. Burg, "Law and Development: A Review 

of the Literature & a Critique of 

'Scholars in Self-Estrangement' ," 25 Am. f. 

Comp. Law, 492, 528-30 (1977). 

3. Our observation is based on an overall 

impression of case studies gained through 

the Merryman and Burg articles as well as 

the D.S. Lev article in the readings. See Lev, 

"Judicial Institutions and Legal Culture in 

Indonesia" in Culture and Politics in Indonesia 

246 (F. Holt ed. 1972). 

4. See infra, pp. 40-41, for a full description 

of the khaifak system. Although we 

emphasize the Khaifak system in our discussion 

of traditional credit in rural Thailand, 

other mechanisms no doubt also existed. 

5. Trubek, "Reconstructing Max Weber's 

Sociology of Law" 37 Stanford Law Review 

919, 935 (1985); A. Kronman, Max Weber 185 

(Stanford Univ. Press 1983). 

6. Trubek, supra note 5, at 919. 

7. Id. at 925. 

8. Id. at 925. 

9. Id. at 925. 

10. Many analysts have criticized modern 

sociologists who have followed Weber's lead 

in using ideal types as a framework for 

analyzing development in Third World 

countries. See Portes, "Modernity and Development: 

A Critique" in Studies in Comparative 

International Development 3 (1973). It 

is interesting that most of the new sociological 

literature on development has been 

based on structural or Marxian analysis of 

underdevelopment. 

11. See A. Kronman, supra note 5, at 76-79. 

I draw heavily here on Kronman's description 

of Weber's typology. 

12. See Trubek, supra note 5, at 927-933. 

Trubek claims that a central contradiction 

exist in the discussion of "the logical interpretation 

of meaning" between Weber as a 

positivist and as a "precursor of what we 

today call 'critical legal studies' ." While an 

interesting view, perhaps the delphic qualities 

of Weber's writings have led Trubek to 

impose his own ideas, sympathetic to a 

Critical Legal Studies perspective, onto 

Weber. 

13. Trubek, "Max Weber and the Rise of 

Capitalism," 3 Wis. L. Rev. 720, 724 (1972). 

14. A. Kronman, supra note 5, at 87-92 and 

120-124; Trubek, supra note 13, at 746. 

15. Ewing, "Formal Justice and the Spirit 

of Capitalism: Max Weber's Sociology of 

Law," 21 Law and Society Rev. 489 (1987). 

16. Id. at 489 (emphasis added). 

17. See A. Kronman, supra note 5, at 126. 

Kronman argues that there are two grounds 

on which Weber's agnosticism can be defended. 

The first is that Weber is essentially 

pointing out the inadequacy of any theory 

that attempts to account for the interaction 

between law and capitalism. A second 

ground is that Weber essentially is arguing 

a historisist position in which the causal 

interaction between law and capitalism 

varies with the historical context. See id. at 

129-130. 

18. Id. at 125. 

19. Quoted in id. at 125. 

20. Trubek, supra note 13, at 736-37. Note 

that the second portion of this quote is entirely 

consistent with a Marxian analysis of 

social change. 

21. The Marxist dialectic, simply put, 

fundamentally rests on the notion that social 

development is compelled by contradictions, 

e.g. between capital and labor, 

within the given mode of production and 

that, over time, quantitative changes eventually 

become qualitative. 

22. K. Marx, "The Communist Manifesto" 

(New York 1964). 

23. Meyer et. a!., "Convergence and Divergence 

in Development," 1 Annual Rev. 

of Soc. 222, 224-25 (1975). 

24. Marx used the term "progressive" in the 

sense of moving the dialectic to a new level, 

and ultimately closer to the achievement of 

a Communist society. 

25. Many analysts might object to labeling 

these authors as Neo-Marxist. Some would 

argue, for example, J. Womack, that neither 

Frank's nor Wallerstein's works fall within 

the Marxist tradition. Indeed, one can argue 

that Frank and Wallerstein owe their 

intellectual debt to structuralist economists 

such as R. Prebisch and C. Furtado. While 

some important differences exists between 

these authors and Marxists, they do seem to 

us to share fundamental similarities in their 

treatment and focus on the disarticulation 

of class structures in the developing world, 

and the process of capitalist expropriation 

of surplus value by the developed countries. 

For a renowned critique of Frank from a 

Marxist perspective, see Laclau, "Feudalism 

and Capitalism in Latin America" 67 New 

Left Rev. 19 (1977). Laclau argues that 

Frank's emphasis on exchange is fundamentally 

non-Marxist. 

26. A.G. Frank, Capitalism and Underdevelopment 

in Latin America 9 (New York 1969). 

27. I. Wallerstein, The Modern World-System 

II 9 (Academic Press 1980). 

28. I. Wallerstein, The Modern World-System 

I 350 (Academic Press 1974). 

29. See P. von Mehren, "A Historical 

Structural View of the Emergence of Reform 

Movements in Bolivia and Peru" unpublished 

manuscript, Reed College Library. 

(Author's own flawed attempt to write a 

detailed case study from the perspective of 

World System analysis.) 

CHAPTER 2 

1. Chinese records from the sixth century 

B.C. contain the first mention of the Thais. 

From that time on frequent references to the 

Thais as the "barbarians" south of the Yangtse 

are found. Hall, D.G.E. (1977) A History 

of South-East Asia 169. 

2. Ishii, Yoneo (1986) "The Thai 

Thammasat" in Hooker, M.B., ed., (1986-88) 

The Laws of South-East Asia vol. 1 pg. 143. 

3. Engel, David M. (1975) Law and Kingship 

in Thailand during the Reign of King 

Chulalongkorn 1.

54 

VON MEHREN AND SAWERS 

4. There is no satisfactory system for 

transliteration of Thai to English. In transliterating 

we have attempted to approximate, 

using the roman alphabet, the sound (as 

opposed to the spelling) of the Thai word. 

We have indicated aspiration of dentals, 

velars, palatals and bilabials by use of the 

English letter "h." We have abandoned this 

admittedly loose system where tradition or 

a cited author's transliteration of his own 

name dictates: Chulalongkorn would be 

"Julalongkawn" in our system; Viraphol 

Sarasin would be 'Wiraphon Sarasin." 

5. See Ishii, Yoneo (1986) "The Thai 

Thammasat" in Hooker, M.B., ed., (1986-88) 

The Laws of South-East Asia vol. 1 pp. 143- 

203 for more information about the 

thammasat. 

6. Thanin I


volume set. Where we have been unable to 

cite Prachum kotmai prajam sok we have depended 

upon the Thai custom of dating the 

law or naming it after a previous law which 

it amends (e.g. Phraratchabanyat awk chanot 

thi din chabap thi 2 [Royal decree on the issuance 

of title deed to land #2] in this chapter's 

epilog). 

38. Tomosugi, Takashi (1969) "The Land 

System in Central Thailand," Developing 

Economies, 7 (3): 291. 

39. Feinerman, James ''The Dien Transaction 

in China and Vietnam" 29-35 (unpublished 

manuscript). 

40. Id. 26-7. 

41. Id. at 8. 

42. Id. 23-4. 



Chulalongkorn 59. A Harvard Law School 

professor (and son-in-law of President 

Woodrow Wilson), Francis B. Sayre, negotiated 

the treaties which gained Thailand 

judicial autonomy in 1927. See Darling, 

Frank C. (1970) ''The Evolution of Law in 

Thailand," Review of Politics, 32 (2): 205. 



Chulalongkorn 59. 

45. Id. at 16. 

46. 7 PKPS 226. 

47. 15 PKPS 267. 

48. 17 PKPS 199. 

49. We leave for another paper the question 

of the extent of the influence of modem 

western contract law on Thai law at the end 

of the 19th century. While it is clear that 

later 19th century western legal notions of 

contract as king influenced Chulalongkom's 

decision to instruct officials to decide the 

cases mentioned with reference to the law 

of contract (rather than follow the old 

proclamation), it is not necessary here to 

delineate the form of contract law applied 

to these cases. 

50. Of course an economist would say that 

the money lenders certainly were "using" the 

land. Our rather simple point here is that 

the "substantively rational" legal system 

evolved to a point of near perfection within 

the traditional Thai economy and did develop 

a partial solution to the "use it or lose 

it" problem by recognizing limited ownership 

rights in those not actually in possession 

of the land. 

51. Prakat awk chanot thi din (Proclamation 

on the issuance of land title deeds) 18 PKPS 

84. See Sharp, Lauriston and Hanks, Lucien 

M. (1978) Bang Chan: Sodal History of a Rural 

Community in Thailand 129 for an anecdote 

showing the effect of the new law on villagers 

near Bangkok. 



Chulalongkorn 16. Chulalongkom was not 

alone among Thai leaders in his belief that 

law could lead development. Prime Minister 

Field Marshal Phibun Songkhram, apparently 

in hopes of modernizing Thailand, 

passed a law during the 1940s forcing 

women to wear hats while on the street and 

forbidding anyone not wearing coat, hat and 

shoes from entering a building. MacDonald, 

Alexander (1950) Bangkok Editor 84. See also 

Sharp, Lauriston and Hanks, Lucien M. 

(1978) Bang Chan: Sodal History of a Rural 

Community in Thailand 156 (anecdote about 

the effect of this law on villagers' lives). 

53. About 2 1/2 rai equal one acre. 

54. Kham sang khana patiwat 49 (Revolutionary 

Council Proclamation No. 49), January 

13, 1959. 

55. Feder, G. et al. (1988) Land Policies and 

Farm Productivity in Thailand 18. 

56. Most of the discussion of the acquistion 

of land under the Land Code of 1954 is taken 

from Yano, Toru (1968) "Land Tenure in 

Thailand," Asian Survey, 8 (10): 853-863. 

57. Verachai Tantikul (1973) "Land Tenure 

in Thailand," School of Law, University of 

California, Berkely 12. Cited in Kemp, 

Jeremy H. (1981) "Legal and Informal Land 

Tenures in Thailand," Modern Asian Studies, 

15 (1): 7. 

58. See O'Connor, Richard A. "Law as Indigenous 

Social Theory: a Siamese Thai 

Case," American Ethnologist, 8 (2): 223-37. 

O'Connor makes an intriguing argument 

that traditional Thai law served as a culturally 

constituted mode of analysis that projected 

an indigenous theory of society. 

CHAPTER III 

1. Throughout this chapter, when we 

speak of title or secure ownership rights we 

are referring to land held with a "Full 

title" document or a "Certificate of Use." We 

explain our reasons below for categorizing 

these right as secure. See pp. 44-45. 

2. See supra, pp. 44-45. 

3. See supra, at p. 40. 

4. 1932-33 Thailand Year Book, 429 (table 

unnumbered). Unfortunately the early 

Yearbooks do not present any data on how 

many rai of land was covered by the titles 

issued. 

5. Id. Except for Phuket, which served as 

a port for trade with India at the time, all of 

these areas are in close proximity to Bangkok, 

the major port for rice shipments. 

6. The Thailand Yearbook 1954-55 at 185. 

This is the first yearbook which contains data 

on the number of titles issued outside the 

Central Region (near Bangkok) and the 

Phuket areas. 

7. G. Feder, T. Onchan, Y. Chalamwong 

and C. Hongladarom, Land Policies and Farm 

Productivity in Thailand 14-15 (The Johns 

Hopkins University Press 1988). (Hereinafter 

referred to as G. Feder.) 

8. The following description of "ownership" 

rights in Thailand is based on the 

works of Kemp, "Legal and Informal Land 

Tenures in Thailand," 15 Modem Asian 

Studies 1 (1981); Yano, "Land Tenure in 

Thailand," 8 Asia Survey 853 (1968); Lin and 

Espisito, "Agrarian Reform in Thailand: 

Problems and Prospects," 49 Pacific Affairs 

425 (1976); and G. Feder, id .. 

9. G. Feder, supra note 7, at 11. 

10. G. Feder, id. at 15. 

11. ld. at 14. Land held under a "Full Title" 

or a "Certificate of Use" that is left fallow 

for more than either 10 years or 5 years 

respectively is subject to an ownership 

challenge by another farmer wishing to 

utilize the land. This form of challenge is 

reminiscent of the traditional Thai concept 

of "use it or lose it" and differs from Westem, 

common law concepts of land ownership, 

which stress-through the doctrine of 

"adverse possession"-an attitude of "protect 

it or lose it." Thus, at least to this extent, 

an important continuity exists in tradi-

56 

VON MEHREN AND SAWERS 

tional and modem Thai concepts of land 

ownership. See supra, at p. 43. 

12. Id. at 16. Kemp, supra note 8, at 9. Lin 

and Espisito, supra note 8, at 426, agree with 

Kemp. 

13. Kemp, supra note 8, at 8. 

14. G. Feder, supra note 7, at 17-18. 

15. Id. at 17. 

16. Id. at 16. 

17. Id. at 16. 

18. The 131.2 million rai is not completely 

out of proportion with Kemp's figure of 84.8 

million rai. If we add to Kemp's figures the 

33 million rai for land occupied by squatters 

and permit some expansion of privately 

owned land placed under cultivation (13 

million rai) since Kemp's study, we arrive at 

roughly the same figure for total arable land 

in Thailand under the adjusted figures in 

the Feder study. 

19. G. Feder, supra note 7, at 16. Although 

no date is given for the data used in the 

study, the figures must be from sometime 

in the mid 1980's. 

20. See supra, at pp. 44-45, for a discussion 

on the acceptability of "Certificates of Use" 

as collateral to commercial and institutional 

lenders. 

21. Thailand Yearbook (1954-55) at 185. 

This average was typical for the preceding 

years. In 1954, the average plot was 15.1 rai 

and, in, 1953 15.3 rai. (All figures rounded 

to nearest tenth). 

22. Calculations based on data from the 

Thailand Yearbook 1985-86 at 202. 

23. See supra, p. 44. 

24. The exception that the Northern Region 

presents is somewhat puzzling. The area's 

productivity success may be due to natural 

factors such as good rains and rich soils. 

25. See supra, pp. 44-46, for a discussion of 

whether a "Certificate of Use" is valid security 

for commercial loans in Thailand. 

26. G. Feder, supra note 7, at 44. 

27. At some specific level of investment, 

the marginal utility of the added input will 

be less than its cost. At this point, the farmer, 

assuming he acts rationally, will not purchase 

the input. 

28. Data presented in G. Feder, supra note 

7, at 56, indicate that the mean interest rate 

for traditional credit mechanisms for untitled 

farmers varies in the four Districts where 

the field work was done from 42.5% to 56.8% 

per annum. For farmers with secure title, 

interest rates varied for traditional credit 

mechanisms from 38.5% to 54.0% per 

annum. Conversely, the mean interest rate 

for all loans from commercial or institutional 

sources was 13.8% to 17.1 %. For a borrower 

such differences between interest rates are 

highly significant. 

29. In the Feder study, commercial banks 

rarely made any loans to untitled farmers. 

BAAC and some cooperatives make loans 

to untitled farmers but the average amount 

of these loan is considerably less than for 

titled farmers and are for shorter periods of 

time. The average amount of loan per rai 

owned varies by district from 324 baht to 114 

baht for untitled farmers. Titled farmers 

receive considerable more per rai of land. 

The average varies from 319 baht per rai to 

776 baht (26 baht is equal to one dollar). Id. 

at 54-56. 

30. In G. Feder, id. at 57, the authors state 

that "... while untitled borrowers without 

loan security obtained an average of only 

262 baht per rai from institutional sources, 

titled borrowers without loan security obtained 

almost twice that amount, 515 baht 

per rai. These findings suggest that even 

when land is not formally offered as collateral, 

titled land is more valuable as implicit 

collateral, allowing farmers to obtain more 

institutional credit than untitled farmers can 

obtain." 

31. G. Feder cites evidence that the legal 

system in Thailand does have an orderly 

process for foreclosure by lending institutions 

on mortgaged property. Id. at 49. 

32. All of the commentators agree that, 

despite legal prohibitions on alienation of 

land held under many of the various types 

of "ownership" rights, all types of land are 

sold in Thailand. But land prices reflect the 

type of "ownership" right under which the 

plot of land is held. The Feder study shows 

that the mean land price per rai varies depending 

on whether the seller holds a 

"Certificate of Use" or some other less secure 

document. For example, in Nakhon 

Ratchasima the mean price per rai for lowland 

plots varied from 4,210 bahts for plots 

without a "Certificate of Use" to 11,085 baht 

for plots with a "Certificate of Use." While 

in other Provinces the differences are not as 

great, it seems clear that the market is 

placing a higher value on land held under a 

"Certificate of Use" principally because of 

its value as collateral. Id. at 35. The formal 

illegality of sales of land held under insecure 

"ownership" rights prevents banks from 

allowing farmers to use this type of land as 

collateral. 

33. See supra, note 29. 

34. G. Feder, supra note 7, at 47-48. 

35. Traditional credit mechanisms offer 

farmers some important advantages over 

institutional loans despite their high inte~est 

rates. The most important is that these 

loans have a generally low transaction cost 

associated with them. Traditional money 

lenders are usually from the same community 

as the borrower and, as a result, have a 

good idea of the credit worthiness of the 

borrower. Consequently, loans are processed 

more quickly and the farmer does not 

have to travel to a outside the community. 

Furthermore, these costs are roughly the 

same for large and small loans. If we factor 

these transaction costs into institutional 

loans, traditional loans for small amounts 

may actually be less expensive for a farmers. 

Id. at 45. 

36. Id. at 48. 

37. See supra, at p. 34. 

38. See supra, p. 34. 

39. See supra, at pp. 44-46. 

40. See supra, at p. 47.


APPENDIX 

1. C.S. is an old Burmese dynastic dating 

system. The recension was completed in 

the year 1166 of the C.S. system. 

2. Throughout these translations we frequently 

translate the pronoun than as 

thammasat. Than is an honorific pronoun 

used in these instances to refer to the 

thanimasat. We have omitted the article to 

convey more forcefully the Thai conception 

that the thammasat is not just a book or an 

anthropomorphic angel, but omnipresent 

natural law. For more information on the 

thammasat see Ishii, Yoneo (1986), "The Thai 

Thammasat," in Hooker, M.B., ed., (1986-88) 

The Laws of South-East Asia vol. 1 pp. 157-8. 

3. I.e. not yet transplanted. 

4. Rai is a measure of land area. About 

two and a half rai equal one acre. 

5. I.e. fill back in. 

6. We omit from the translation of this 

provision an introductory passage containing 

mythological references and a quote in 

Pall from the theravadan scriptures. 

7. I.e. the value of the fruit of those trees. 

8. This section is cited in many modem 

supreme court prescription decisions. E.g. 

Dika 1000\2493 (1950), 181\2508 (1965), 

756\2509 (1966), 812\2509 (1966). 

9. The land goes to the person with ancestral 

rights. 

10. I.e. the faction which announced the 

return of the land. 

11. I.e. the dead person or animal. 

12. I.e. the reasonable faction. 

13. I.e. attend the cremation.

RELIGION AND FAMILY LAW 

IN BURMA 

AYEKYAW 

SOUTHEAST ASIA PROGRAM FELLOW 

CORNELL UNIVERSITY 

Burma, recently renamed Myanmar 1 by the present 

military junta, is the only country in the family of nations 

where what is termed "Buddhist law" has become family law. 

We have Hindu family law for Hindus, Christian family law 

for Christians and Muslim family law for Muslims. Nonetheless, 

there is no Buddhist law applicable to all Buddhists 

nor is there Buddhist law that can be actually equated with 

family law. 

Burma was annexed by the British through the three 

wars in 1824-26, 1852-53 and 1885-86. At the beginning of 

colonial rule, the policy of the British Government was, as in 

other British colonies, not to interfere, as far as possible, with 

the religion, customs and manners of the colonial territories. 

This policy was adopted so as not to create further confrontations 

with the subject peoples. Had this policy not been put 

into force, British rule would surely have fomented more 

uprisings and more discontent among the people, which 

would in due course have endangered the British army and 

treasury. In fact, this policy reflected the experience of the 

colonial administrators in the gradual conquest and implementation 

of colonial rule in India in the 18th century. The 

wisdom gained by their experience was embodied perhaps 

for the first time in the provision of the Charter of Mayor 

Courts granted in 1753. This Charter indicates "a reservation 

to the native resident in our territories in India of their laws 

and custom." 2 The policy was repeated in the provision of 

the Warren Hastings' 23rd rule of 1772, which says with regard 

to civil rights: 

that in all suits regarding marriage, inheritance and 

caste and other religious usages and institutions the 

laws of the Koran with respect to Mohammedans and 

those of the Shaster with respect to Gentus (Hindus) 

shall be invariably adhered to. 3 

This guideline, the foundation of colonial policy, was 

embodied in the Act of Settlement in 1781. The Act directed 

that all matters relating to inheritance, succession and contract 

were to be determined "in the case of Mohammedans by 

the laws and usages of Mohammedans and in the case of 

Gentoos by the laws and usages of Gentoos; and where only 

one of the parties shall be a Mohammedan or Gentoo by the 

law and usages of the defendant." Thus, the provisions of the 

Act of 1781 confirmed the preservation of the religious laws 

of the Hindus and Mohammedans and constituted "the first 

express recognition of the Warren Hastings rule in the English 

statute law."4 

The Charter Act of 1833 referred to such laws and 

usages, declared that they should be ascertained, enacted, 

consolidated and amended wherever necessary. In this regard 

a Law Commission was established, but the task of 

codification was never completed. To quote MacCaulay: 

We do not mean that all the people of India should be 

under the same law, far from it. We know how desirable 

that object is, but we also know that it is unattainable. 

But whether we assimilate those systems 

or not, let us ascertain them, let us digest them. Our 

principle is simply this: uniformity where you can have 

it, diversity where you must have it, but in all cases 

certainty. 5 

In view of this principle, provisions with respect to 

religion and usage were found in most of the Acts of the 

several provinces of India, such as the Bengal, Agra and Assam 

Civil Courts Act, 1887, s. 37, and the Madras Civil Courts Act 

1873, s. 16. Customs having the force of law were also 

prominently recognized in the Punjab Laws Act 1872, ss. 5 

and 6, the Central Provinces Laws Act 1875, ss. 5 and 6, and 

the Oudh Laws Act 1876, s. 3. This policy was again put into 

force in the Government of India Act 1914, s. 112, and the 

Government of India Act, 1935, s. 223. Thus the preservation 

of laws in the areas of family affairs and religious usages was 

not a new concept when colonial rule began in Burma. It 

was, therefore, not a matter of wonder, when the Civil Code 

of the Province of Pegu was sanctioned in two parts in 1859 

and 1860, that the colonial practice in India was reflected in 

it. Thus the Courts of Pegu "have always professed to ad-

60 AYE KYAW 

minister Burmese Law, when the litigants belong to that race, 

on all cases of marriage, seduction and adultery, divorce, 

adoption, inheritance, immovable property." 6 

However, when the scheme of administration of civil 

justice was developed further, Buddhist Law rather than 

Burmese customary law first appeared in section 6 of the 

Burma Courts Act 1872. This was repeated in section 4 of the 

Burma Courts Act 1875. This section made Buddhist Law the 

lex fori of the British courts regarding succession, inheritance, 

marriage or caste or any religious usage or institution in cases 

where the parties were Buddhists, except in so far as such 

law had been altered or abolished by legislative enactment or 

was opposed to any custom having the force of law in British 

Burma. Similar provision was again made in the Burma Act 

of 1889. However; in all these Acts no provisions were made 

with respect to other religions. This is presumably because 

two important Acts, the Christian Marriage Act and the 

Miscellaneous Marriage Act, also Known as the Special 

Marriage Act, had already been brought into operation in 

1872. 7 In this regard, it is also worthy of note that colonial 

rule brought with it a large number of people from other 

countries, chiefly India and China.8 The resulting plurality of 

diverse creeds and beliefs necessitated accommodation in laws. 

Such accommodation apparently materialized only in 1898 

when the Burma Laws Act was promulgated. 

Section 13 of this Act, incorporating the required 

provisions, determined the life and validity of Burmese 

Customary Law which is still in force today. According to 

this section: 

1. Where in any suit or proceeding, it is necessary for 

any Court to decide any question regarding succession, 

inheritance, marriage or caste or any religious 

usage or institution, (a) the Buddhist Law in cases 

where the parties are Buddhists; (b) the Mohammedan 

Law in cases where the parties are Mohammedans; 

and (c) the Hindu Law in cases where the parties are 

Hindus, shall form the rule of decision, except in so 

far as such law has by enactment been altered or 

abolished or is opposed to any custom having the force 

of law. 

Subsection 3 of the Act lays down that, in cases which are not 

provided for in sub-section 1, or by any other enactment, the 

decison shall be according to "justice, equity and good conscience. 

" 9 It can be seen that the principle of Warren Hastings' 

rule, as made use of in India, was extended to Burma in 

the context of this section. 

As in India, the preservation of Buddhist Law was not 

complete and exhaustive. In the case of India, Sir Courtenay 

illbert remarks: 

It will be observed the Warren Hastings' rule and the 

enactment based upon it apply only to Hindus and 

Mohammedans. There are, of course, many natives of 

India who are neither Hindus nor Mohammedans, 

such as the Portuguese and Armenian Christians, the 

Parsees, the Sikhs, the Jains, the Buddhists of Burma 

and elsewhere and the Jews. The tendency of the 

Courts and of the legislatures has been to apply to 

these classes the spirit of Warren Hastings' rule and to 

leave them in the enjoyment of their family law except 

so far they have shown a disposition to place 

themselves under English law. 10 

Here the term "Buddhist" and the phrase "the Buddhist law 

where the parties are Buddhist," and "except so far as it is 

opposed to any customs having the force of law," were complicated 

and somewhat misleading. 

In fact "Buddhist" is a wide term and may include 

many nationalities other than Burmese; there are Chinese, 

Japanese, Tibetan, Sinhalese, Thai, Laotian, Khmer and many 

other Buddhists. In the cases of Mohammedans and Hindus, 

though there may be different schools for different sects or 

castes, there is still one body of Mohammedan law for all 

Mohammedans and of Hindu law for all Hindus. In the case 

of Buddhists, however, there is no Buddhist law for all Buddhists. 

That body of Buddhist law known as the Vinaya Pitaka 

mainly deals with rules and regulations which the Buddha 

promulgated, as occasion arose, for the future discipline of 

the Order of monks (Bhikkhus) and nuns (Bhikkhunis). Even 

though it also reveals indirectly some interesting information 

about ancient Indian history, customs, arts and sciences, it is 

not concerned with matrimonial law. Hence, as Justice May 

Oung remarks, the term "Buddhist" in reference to the customary 

law of the Burmese, "is a misnomer, but its use in 

connection with matrimonial law is not only misleading, but 

even incongruous." 11 This remark is correct partly because 

the Vinaya is not concerned with matrimonial law, and partly 

because in practice Buddhist monks keep strictly aloof from 

family and other mundane affairs. Again, if the Buddhist law 

of which the Courts of Burma took cognizance was "Burmese 

Buddhist law," then, whether it was obligatory on the part of 

the courts in Burma to apply it to Buddhists from Thailand, 

China, or elsewhere was a difficult legal question. 

Another question concerns the difference between the 

two terms, Burman and Burmese. An appropriate terminology 

to distinguish between the Buddhist ethnic majority of 

central Burma and other peripheral groups had not been 

developed. The English terms "Burman" and "Burmese" were 

used interchangeably. It was probably only in the 1930s, when 

a distinction arose not only within the Burmese language itself 

but also in Burmese politics, that "Burman" came to be 

the accepted designation of the ethnic majority and ~'Burmese" 

that of inhabitants of the country as a whole. When the Burma 

Laws Act of 1898 was promulgated, British judges in Burma 

as well as the Privy Councillors in England had difficulty not 

only in interpreting the term "Buddhist Law" but also, and 

especially, in determining to whom the law should apply. In 

1927 a Full Bench of the High Court at Rangoon ruled that 

the term "Buddhist Law" was to be interpreted as "Burmese 

Buddhist Law." 12 A further ruling in 1956 stated that it was 

to be interpreted as "Customary Law of the Burmese Bud-


dhists." 13 It was only in 1969 that the law was changed to 

read Burmese Customary Law. 14 This law does not apply to 

the whole of Burma, but only to cases involving Buddhists. 

Mixed marriages are governed by both this Burmese Customary 

Law and the Buddhist Women's Special Marriage and 

Succession Act 1954. 

In spite of the fact that the expression for Burmese · 

Buddhist Law has undergone changes, the original spirit and 

content of Burmese customary law, formed when the administration 

of civil justice began in Burma, remained basically 

the same. It is also worth mentioning that this law, particularly 

under colonial rule, did not extend beyond the areas of 

the Buddhist peoples to whom it applied. Many of the peripheral 

groups were under a separate judicial and administrative 

system and had their own substantive and procedural 

customary laws in contradiction to the laws that applied in 

Burma proper. For example, by the Burma Laws Act of 1898 

in the civil, criminal and revenue administration of each of 

the Shan States was vested in the Chief of the State (Sawbwa) 

, subject to any restriction specified in the sanad, the order of 

appointment granted to him. The same Act declared that 

"the law to be administered in a Shan State shall be the customary 

law of the State in so far as the punishments which 

may be awarded thereunder, or the practices which are permitted 

thereby, are in conformity with the spirit of the law in 

force in the rest of British Burma." 15 

The administration of civil justice in the peripheral 

regions and in each of the Shan States was relatively easy 

primarily because the Sawbwas in those places were well 

equipped with the knowledge of the prevailing local customs 

and traditions. The few British officers assigned to maintain 

law and order in these areas were not required to be well 

versed in existing local customs. 16 On the other hand, those 

British judges responsible for the administration of civil justice 

in Burma proper did not understand Burmese customary 

law. Among the important references for those judges were 

Sangermano's Description of the Burmese Empire, which contains 

an abstract of the Manusara Shwemyin dhammathat 17 (1833), 

D. Richardson's translation of the Law of Menoo 16 (1847), Major 

Spark's Civil Code of the Province of Pegu (1860), W. De Courcy 

Ireland's Digest of Buddhist Law (1874), and the Manu Wunnana 

Dhammathat, edited by Maung Tet Toe with preface by Colonel 

Horce (1878). A Digest of Burmese Law, better known as 

Thirty-six Dhammathats, which was complied into two volumes 

by Kinwun Mingyi U Gaung during the period from 

June 1893 to February 1897 for the Judicial Commissioner of 

Upper Burma, was the most readily accessible repository of 

Burmese legal treatises. 19 

Perhaps equally important was the Notes on Buddhist 

Law by Sir John Jardine, Judicial Commissioner of British 

Burma and a great scholar. He was convinced that most 

Europeans had very slight knowledge of Burmese customs; 

that the judges were therefore rather like blind men feeling 

their way with a staff, and that the duty of the Judicial Commissioner 

was to smooth the way as much as possible by 

supplying even an imperfect guide. 20 By virtue of his position 

as well as his scholarship his series of works influenced 

the British judges in Burma and the Privy Councillors in 

England. In his law research he found that the Manugye was 

fuller than most of the Dhammathats.21 

It was partly due to the influence of Jardine's works 

and mainly on the authority of Dr E. Forchhammer, Professor 

of Pali at Rangoon College, that the Privy Council decided to 

attach preeminence to the Manugye among all Dhammathats. 

This Dhammathat, having the advantage of being written in 

Burmese prose, was translated into English by Richardson, 

Principal Assistant to the Commissioner of Tenasserim, and 

published in 1847 in both English and Burmese versions. It 

was thus the first translation in English and one of the fullest 

compilations of Burmese customary laws, existing even before 

the occupation of Lower Burma. In fact the Privy 

Councillors in England did not know Burmese and they had 

to judge the civil appeal cases from Burma mainly in the light 

of the Manugye. Hence, it was held in one appeal case, "The 

Manugye has held a co~manding position since the time of 

King Alompra and is still to be regarded as of the highest 

authority. Where it is not ambiguous other Dhammathats do 

not require to be referred to. "22 

Though the courts in Burma had to follow loyally, the 

Privy Counsellors' judgement did not go absolutely free of 

timid challenges from some British judges. 

In a case decided by Page, C.J. and U Mya, J. in 1936, 

the authority of the Manugye was criticised: 

That the time has come when some Judge should be 

courageous enough to point out, albeit with diffidence 

and the utmost respect, that while great value is attached 

in Burma to the rulings in the Manugye, Burmese 

jurists do not regard this Dhammathat as sacrosanct, 

and that from time to time some embarrassment 

has been created as the result of following the 

Manugye in the teeth of what has been laid down 

elsewhere in the Dhammathats. One not insignificant 

reason why the Dhammathat is so frequently cited is 

because the Manugye was the first, if not the only, 

Dhammathat to be wholly translated into English, and 

thus it is the authority to which those unversed in the 

Burmese tongue most readily, if not inevitably, turn. 23 

In 1951 the reliability and viability of the Manugye were finally 

challenged in a classic case. The Supreme Court pointed 

out errors in the translations of it and also discovered that it 

was as difficult to appraise its authority as to determine its 

borrowing from different sources. 24 

With respect to mixed marriages, the principle of the 

lex loci contratus is accepted, but the importance of mixed 

marriages is not clear in the law. If the marriage was valid 

when contracted, any other subsequent change of law could 

not make it invalid, except when there had been a statutory 

provision invalidating such marriage. When Burma was 

included in India as a part of the British empire, there was a 

question as to whether the principle of international law visa-vis 

the Buddhist law would apply in deciding the validity 

of de facto marriages between Burmese Buddhists and

62 AYEKYAW 

Mahommedans, Hindus, Christians or Chinese. The answer 

was beset with difficulties, primarily due to lack of a provision 

regarding mixed marriages in section 13 of the Burma 

Law Act 1898. 

The courts in Burma, therefore, had been frequently 

called upon to decide the validity of de facto mixed marriages, 

especially when questions arising from divorce, succession, 

or partition of property were involved. In fact, no marriage 

is legally possible between a Mahommedan man and a Buddhist 

woman, or between a Buddhist man and a Mahommedan 

woman. This is mainly because, under Mahommedan law, a 

Mahommedan man or woman cannot contract a legal marriage 

with a person who does not believe in a heavenly or 

revealed religion and who is not kitabis. In other words, a 

Mahom- medan, who professes faith in Allah, all His Angels, 

all His Books, all His Prophets, the Day of Judgment, and the 

idea that the power of doing good and bad actions proceeds 

from Allah and Allah alone, cannot marry a person who disbelieves 

in these. 25 However, if there is a conversion to Islam, 

and a customary ceremony is performed according to Islamic 

rites, a legal marriage can be contracted with any person irrespective 

of his or her previous religion. The Holy Quran 

permits polygamy as a legal institution, and sets forth the 

limits that a man may not have more than four wives. 26 In 

Burma particularly, during colonial rule, most Mohammedan 

men who could afford the maintenance of more than one 

wife took Burmese women as their wives in addition to their 

Mohammedan wives who might live with them in Burma or 

who might live in India. In such cases Burmese wives had to 

change their Burmese names to Mahommedan names. The 

offspring of a Muslim father and Burmese Buddhist mother 

were known as Zerbadi and tended to identify with the people 

of their father's race. Just before the second world war 

these Zebardis preferred to be called "Burmese Muslims" and . 

they are known by this name in present Burmese society. 

In such mixed marriages, the validity of de facto 

marriages did not, as a rule, raise any legal questions at the 

time they were first contracted, despite the fact that the Burmese 

wives lost all rights which they legitimately had as 

Burmese women, such as joint ownership of property, a preferential 

right to inherit and the like. The legal questions only 

arose when the cases of divorce were brought to the courts. 

The Holy Quran, of course, makes no provision for wives to 

divorce their husbands-a right normally reserved to 

husbands-except when they fear abuse. The Mahom- medan 

law formed the rule of decision. According to it, 

A Mahomedan can divorce his wife whenever he 

desires. He may do so without a talaknama or written 

document, and no particular form of words is prescribed. 

If the words used are well understood as 

implying divorce, such as "talak", no proof of intention 

is required; otherwise the intention must be 

proved. It is not necessary that the repudiation should 

be pronounced in the presence of the wife or even 

addressed to her. 27 

In mixed marriages between Burmese Buddhist women and 

Hindus, Burmese women were in a worse position. Many 

Indians, both Mahommedans and Hindus, migrated to Burma 

where many of them became wealthy. Burmese women, 

having no knowledge of Hindu law and custom, took Hindu 

husbands and subsequently lost all the rights conferred on 

them by Burmese customary law because they were mere 

mistresses. Worth noting is that a born pariah who was not 

within the pale of caste Hinduism could contract a legal 

marriage with a Burmese woman. In one case it was held: 

The frequency of permanent alliances between Tamil 

cultivators and Burmese women in this province tends 

to show that Tamils of the lower orders do not consider 

themselves bound by a rule of Hindu law which 

Hindus of the recognized castes regard as one of the 

essentials of their religion and system. 28 

In addition, a legal marriage between a Burmese woman and 

a Kalai, the offspring of a mixed marriage between Hindu 

and Burmese, is possible because the man is not regarded as 

Hindu. In a case decided by the Privy Council it was held: 

If a twice-born Hindu emigrates across the sea to 

Burma and marries a Burmese woman that in itself 

may not necessarily deprive of his Hindu status in the 

eye of the law, but if he has descendants who have 

been born and have always lived in Burma and who 

have intermarried with its people, then, even though 

they may form a community of their own which inherits 

many traces of Hindu usage, if the usages and 

religion are of a character so divergent from Hinduism 

as those of the Kali community are, the community 

cannot be regarded as Hindu. 29 

As regards Christians, the Christian Marriage Act (XV of 1872) 

was first promulgated to apply to matrimonial matters arising 

among the Christians. Section 13 of the Burma Laws Act 

1898 therefore says nothing of the law applicable to the Christians. 

However, according to the Christian Marriage Act, a 

legal marriage between a Burmese Buddhist and a Christian 

can be contracted in two ways: by means of a Christian religious 

ceremony or by civil contract before a Registrar or licensee. 

Conversion is not necessary but a Buddhist cannot 

sue a Christian for a divorce under the Indian Divorce Act. 

In fact, 

where conversion had taken place prior to a marriage 

with a Christian, a re-conversion to Buddhism, does 

not free from the Christian marriage and a man cannot 

claim the liberty of having more wives than one 

as a Buddhist under the Buddhist Marriage Law so 

long as he remains bound by a Christian marriage 

and his wife is still alive.30 

Nevertheless, in cases where the parties are married as Christians, 

and the husband alone has apostatized, the wife may


divorce him under the Indian Divorce Act. As the Christian 

Marriage Act does not prescribe that both parties should be 

Christians, a mixed marriage between a Christian and a Buddhist 

raises few social problems. 

The case of Chinese taking Burmese wives seems not 

to have been considered when the Burma Laws Act 1898 was 

drafted and enacted, although a sizeable Chinese community 

was in Rangoon even before the annexation of Upper Burma 

in 1885. 31 In the Act, the expression, "except in so far as it is 

opposed to any customs having the force of law," was by no 

means comprehensive. It left uncertainty concerning the rule 

of decision particularly when questions arose as to the validity 

of a mixed marriage between a Chinese and a Burmese. 

In this regard, the principles of the lex loci contractus quod 

solemnitatus, which determined the validity of a marriage, and 

of the lex domicilii, which decided the question of the capacity 

of the parties to marry, were to be taken into account. 

In Burma, the ambiguous expression embodied in the 

Burma Law Act and the principles of the lex loci contractus 

and the lex domicilii conflicted. There were thus conflicting 

judgments and as a result the legal position was far from 

satisfactory for quite a long time during colonial rule. It was 

only in 1927 that a case decided by a full bench confirmed the 

rule of the law regarding a mixed marriage between a Chinese 

and a Burmese Buddhist. By this decision it was held: 

[a] the Burmese Buddhist law regarding marriage is 

prima facie applicable to Chinese Buddhists as the lex 

loci contractus; and [b] to escape from the application 

of Burmese Buddhist law regarding marriage a Chinese 

Buddhist must prove that he is subject to a custom 

having the force of law in Burma and that custom 

is opposed to the provisions of Burmese Buddhist law 

applicable to the case; and [c] in case the matter in 

issue is the marriage of a Buddhist Chinaman with a 

Burmese Buddhist woman he must show that the 

application of the custom having the force of law will 

not work injustice to the Burmese Buddhist woman. 32 

This judgment is still valid in Burma up to the present time. 

Whether due to the ignorance of the English concerning 

the relationship between customary law and the Buddhist 

religion, or due to the deliberate plan of colonial masters, 

Burmese customary law became the Buddhist law by section 

13 of the Burma Laws· Act 1898. Consequently, Burmese 

society was divided into a number of religious enclaves as 

well as being geographically bisected by other Regulations. 

As the society was thus divided, community was strongly 

entrenched by religion. The result was that antagonism among 

the diverse religious communities, though not apparent in 

the beginning when the Act was put into force, eventually 

gathered strength as questions of maintenance, divorce or 

inheritance arose, and as Burmese women, albeit embracing 

new religions, and adopting new names when they took Indian 

husbands, found themselves mere mistresses and their 

offspring bastards, both legal nonentities. 

This situation was known to the colonial government 

as well as to Burmese nationalists and judges. Accordingly, 

the Special Marriage Act was amended in 1923. This amendment, 

though going some way toward rectifying the position 

of Burmese women, was far from satisfactory. There had 

been some suggestions that Burmese customary law should 

be codified, and attempts were made in this direction. A 

Codification Committee, with Sir Guy Rutledge as its chairman, 

worked for a few years beginning in 1924, and a 

Committee on the Buddhist Will was also appointed in 1938. 

The work of these committees could not go very far because 

of division of opinion regarding approaches to the solution of 

the existing situation. 33 One approach conceded that Burmese 

customary law should be codified in order to meet the needs 

of Burmese society, particularly concerning the position of 

Burmese women. This approach was almost impossible to 

put in action, primarily because the muscles and bones were 

too old to cure the running sore of both social and legal 

problems. The other approach argued that Burmese customary 

law had attained its maturity naturally, and a complete 

tidy code would fail to emcompass much of the living fabric 

of Burmese customary law, and would be incompatible with 

the changing customs and norms of Burmese society. 

Furthermore, the threat of "the Indian peril" turned 

from words to acts when communal conflict broke out in 

Rangoon in 1938. This incident, combined with the demands 

of Burmese nationalists, made way for speedy enactment of 

the Buddhist Women's Special Marriage and Succession Act, 

Burma Act XXIX of 1939, in the House of Representatives. 

This Act came into operation on April1, 1940, just before the 

Second World War spread over Burma. By this Act, the 

position of Burmese Buddhist women contracting marriage 

with non-Buddhists was improved. 

In spite of this more advantageous position, the war 

crippled the full play of the Act. Hence, a new Act called the 

Buddhist Women's Special Marriage and Succession Act was 

drafted and passed by the Parliament in 1954. Since then, the 

position of the Buddhist woman who contracts a matrimonial 

alliance with a non-Buddhist has been greatly improved. 

Provisions in the Act are made for the registration of marriage.34 

If a non-Buddhist man and a Buddhist woman live 

together in such manner as would raise the presumption that 

they are man and wife by Burmese custom, the Act establishes 

the presumption that they are lawfully married from 

the time they started to live together. In such a case, they can 

formalize the marriage by registration or can live together as 

presumed by the Act. Either way, their marriage is governed 

by Burmese customary law. 35 If the husband divorces her or 

seeks to nullify the marriage on the ground that his personal 

law does not allow him to contract a legal marriage with a 

Buddhist woman, he must forfeit all his interest in the joint 

property of the union and must lose the right to be guardian 

of the children, for whom he must nonetheless pay maintenance 

through the years of their minority. The wife is also 

entitled to compensation. 36 

As regards conversion, the Act also prescribes the 

following. If a woman who is a citizen of Burma becomes a 

convert to Buddhism while her marriage exists, then the fam-

64 AYE KYAW 

ily comes under Burmese customary law. If a Hindu, Jain or 

Sikh who is a member of a religiously undivided family contracts 

a legal marriage with a Buddhist woman, any member 

of such an undivided family must be deemed to have become 

divided. Thus, if the husband seeks to divorce her on account 

of the fact that his personal law and custom prohibit a 

legal marriage with a Buddhist wife, he must maintain her in 

the standard of life to which she was accustomed before her 

conversion to Buddhism. Furthermore, all matters of her 

proprietary rights should be vested in her, and the children 

for whom she is responsible should be maintained in the years 

of their minority. 37 All case law on marriage and its effects 

for relations between Buddhist women and non-Buddhist men 

are made obsolete by operation of this Act and its effect. Cases 

of Buddhist women contracting marriage with Buddhist men 

of foreign races will remain unaffected. 38 

In conclusion, the continuity of the provision of the 

Warren Hastings' rule was found in section 13 of the Burma 

Laws Act of 1898. This Act was not comprehensive but made 

"Buddhist Law" [Burmese Customary Law] a statutory, religious 

and non-territorial law. Due to this Act, the position of 

Burmese Buddhist women in mixed marriages was very 

handicapped, particularly during colonial rule. Thus came 

the birth of the Buddhist Women's Special Marriage and 

Succession Act 1954-the only Special Marriage Act which 

protects the rights of Buddhist women in Asia. 

NOTES 

1 Early evidence of use of this name 9 John Jardine, op. cit., Book I, p. 1; 17 See Rev. Father Sangermano, "Abis 

found in a Burmese inscription Rutledge, C.J., in Ma Yin Mya and stract of the Burmese Code entitled 

dated A.D. 1090 [Taungguni In- Another vs. Tan Yuak Pu and Others, Damasat or the golden rule," in A 

scription of Pagan]. AIR. 1927, Ran., 265 FB. Desription of the Burmese Empire, 

2 V B.S. Sinha, "Custom and Cus- 10 Cited from Sir Courtenay IIIbert, 

Rangoon, MCMXXIV, pp. 178-224. 

tomary Law in Indian Jurispru- Government of India, by Rutledge, 18 D. Richardson, (tr.) The Damathat or 

dence" Indian Sino-Legal Journal, C.J., in Ma Yin Mya and Another vs. the Laws of Menoo, translated from 

Vol. 2, 1976, p. 89. Tan Yuak Pu and Others, AIR. 1927, the Burmese, XIV Vols in One, 

3 

Ran., 265 FB. 

Rutledge, C.J. In Ma Yin Mya and 

Rangoon, Hanthawaddy Press, 4th 

another vs. Tan Yuak Pu and Others, 

Edition. 

11 May Oung, op. cit., p. 2. 

AIR, 1927, Ran., 265 FB. 

12 Ma Yin Mya and Another vs. Tan 

19 Kinwunmingyi Digest, II, preface. 

4 The Publications Division, Social Yuak Pu and Others, AIR. 1927, Ran., 

Legislation: Its Role in Social Welfare, 265 FB. 

20 John Jardine, op. cit., Book, p. 1. 

New Delhi, 1956, p. 16. 

13 Lin Chin Noe vs. Lin Gok Su, 1956 

5 Ibid., p. 18. Ma Ta Ca, 247. 

21 John Jardine, ibid., Book, II, p. iii. 

22 Ma Hnin Bwin vs. U Shwe Gon, 

(1915-16) 8 LBR., 1 PC. 

6 Maung Maung, Law and Custom in 14 Na Si Ti vs. Ah Phu Si, 1969 Ma Ta 

Burma and the Burmese Family, The Ca, CC 155 FB. 

23 Ma Hnin Zan and Others vs. Ma 

Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1963, p. 

Myaing and Others, AIR 1936 Ran., 

32. 

15 Report on the Administration of 31. 

Burma for the year 1921-22, pp. 14- 

7 John Jardine, Notes on Buddhist Law, 15. 

24 Dr Tha Mya vs. Daw Khin Pu, 1951 

Rangoon, Govt. Printing and Staty., 

BLR., 102 SC. 

1953, Book I, p. 1; May Oung, A 

16 See Saw Khin Gyi, "History of the 

25 

Cis-Salween Shan State 1886-1900," 

See The Light of Revelation, Manila, 

Selection of Leading Cases on Buddhist 

M.A. Thesis, Department of His- 

Convislam Press, n.d.; Naser 

Law with Dissertations, Rangoon, 

tory, Arts and Science University, 

Makarem Shirazi: Me'ray and 

British Burma Press, 1926, pp. 12- 

Mandalay, 1973; see also Aye 

Prophet of Islam (Tr. by Maktab E. 

13. 

Kyaw, "Economic Change in the 

Qoran), Tehran, Islamic Great Li- 

8 See Michael Adas, The Burma Shan States 1886-1940" in Prakai 

brary, 1977; Ustaz lljas Ismail: 

Delta: Economic Development and Nontawasee, Changes in Northern 

Fundamental Teachings of Islam, 

Social Change on an Asian Rice Thailand and The Shan States, 1886- 

Manila, Maharlika Village, 1981. 

Frontier, 1852-1941, University of 1940, Southeast Asian Studies 

Wisconsin, 1974. Program, Singapore, 1988, pp. 209- 

47.

RELIGION AND FAMILY LAW IN BURMA 

65 

26 Michael J. Dimond and Peter G. 

Gowing: Islam and Muslim: Some 

Basic Information, Manila, New Day 

Publishers, 1981, p. 66. · 

27 Ma Mi and another vs. Kallander 

Ammal (NO 2), ILR 1927 Ran., PC, 

p. 18; Ma Saing vs. Kader Moideen, 8 

BLR., 16. 

28 W.R. Vanoogopaul vs. R. 

Kristnaswawmy Mudaliar, 3 LBR., 25. 

29 Ma Yait vs. Maung Chit Maung, 1922 

BLJ., 146/47 PC. 

30 Maung Kyaik vs. Ma Gyi, II UBR 

(1897-19010, 488). 

31 See Chen Yi-Sein: "The Chinese in 

Rangoon during the 18th and 19th 

Centuries," in Ba Shin, Jean 

Boisselier, A.B. Griswold ed., Essays 

Offered to G.H. Luce, Vol. I, Artibus 

Asiae Publishers, MCMLXVI, pp. 

107-111. 

32 Ma Yin Mya and another vs. Tan 

Yuak Pu and Others, AIR 1927 Ran., 

265 FB. 

33 U E Maung and U Thein Maung 

were among the members of this 

committee; U E Maung served as 

secretary of the committee on 

Buddhist Will. See Maung Maung: 

Law and Custom in Burma and the 

Burmese Family. The Hague, 

Martinus Nijhoff, 1963, p. 68. 

34 The Buddhist Women's Special Marriage 

and Succession Act 1954, s. 21. 

35 Ibid, s. 20. 

36 Ibid, s. 25. 

37 Ibid, ss. 23, 25.

SYMBOLS ON THE BODY, FEET, AND 

HANDS OF A BUDDHA 

Part 1-Lists 


C I 0 THE SIAM SOCIETY 

PART I 

1. Introduction 

In the light of the perennial cult of the footprint of the 

Buddha, and the (I hope) equally perennial interest of scholars 

in the subject, 1 I will present in these pages a number of lists 

from Tibetan and Central Asian sources of symbols on the 

body or on the feet and hands of a Buddha.2 

Lists of symbols on the feet of the Buddha are given 

in Pali and vernacular sources belonging to the Theravadin 

tradition. The earliest long list (of about 40 items) is that given 

by Buddhaghosa (5th century) in his commentaries on the 

Digha and Majjhima Nilaiyas. Later lists, giving 108 symbols, 

occur in the Antigatavamsa-atthakathti ( SamantabhaddilaiP and the 

Jintilanktira-tikti (ca. 12th century),4 as well as in the Pajjamadhu 

of Buddhappiya and the Samantakutava~;u;zanti of Vedeha 

Thera, both in verse, and both probably dating to the late 13th 

or early 14th century.5 All of the preceding are in Pali. The 

Dharmapradipiktiva, composed by Gurulug6mi in the latter 

part of the 12th century, gives a list in Sanskritized Sinhala, 6 

and lists occur in other Sinhala works such as the Butsarana 

of Vidyacakravarti of the late 12th or 13th century and the 

Pujtivaliya of Mayiirapada Thera of 1266.7 While the origins 

of the list of 108 symbols remain obscure, it is clear that the 

list was very much in vogue in Ceylon by at least the 12th and 

13th centuries. 

The earliest list known in Siam is that given in Pali verse 

in a 14th century stone inscription from Wat Traphang Chang 

Phuak at Sukhothai;8 a different Pa.li verse inscription on a 

silver plate dates to the 15th century (Ayutthaya period). 9 A 

15th century stone footprint from Wat Sri Chum at Sukhothai 

seems to have originally had Pali captions for each symbol; 

unfortunately it is damaged, and only the names of a few 

deities have been preserved.10 The Sambhtiraviptika, a Pali work 

composed perhaps in Lanna in the 14th century, gives the 

list, 11 while the Buddhaptidamangala, composed perhaps in the 

15th century (Ayutthaya period), is devoted exclusively to the 

subject. 12 Another work which might belong to at least the late 

Ayutthaya period is the Phra Ptidalakkha7;1a, composed in Pali 

verse interspersed with Thai.13 The topic continued to be dealt 

with during the Bangkok period. The Phra Mahtipuru{!alak{!a7;La, 

composed at Wat Rajapurai).a in 1814 by Somdet Phra Vanarat, 

gives a list in Pali with a Thai gloss for each symbol;14 the 

Pathamasambodhikathti, composed at Wat Jetubanarama in 1845 

by the Prince Patriarch Paramii.nujita Jinorasa, gives the list in 

Thai.15 Lists are also found in Khmer.16 The 108 auspicious 

signs are mentioned (but not listed) in Pali chants of the 

Ayutthaya period such as the Mangalacakkavti] yai and 

Mahtidibamant, where they are invoked for blessing and protection 

along with other physical and spiritual qualities of the 

BuddhaP 

It appears that the first list of such symbols published 

in the West was that given by Buddhist monks to Dutch travellers 

in Siam in 1654 or 57, as reported in German by Baldreus.18 

Although said to name 68 figures, it in fact contains about 108, 

since several groups are subsumed under single titles. Another 

list, based on Siamese Pali sources, was published with 

a plate by James Low in 1830. 19 In Section IV of Appendix VIII 

of his Le lotus de Ia bonne loi, entitled "De l'empreinte du pied 

de

68 PETER SKILLING 

list based on Sinhala sources, 21 and in 1871, Henry Alabaster 

published a list (accompanied by a plate) based on Siamese 

sources. 22 In this century, U Mya and T.B. Karunaratne have 

published detailed studies, 23 and Griswold and Prasert, Bizot, 

Chutiwongs, and Supaphan have discussed the symbols in the 

works referred to above.24 Hobogirin and the Encyclopaedia of 

Buddhism include entries on the subject. 25 

Short lists of miscellaneous symbols, on both the hands 

and feet of the Buddha, are scattered here and there in the texts 

of other schools, such as the Lokottaravadin Mahasii.xpghikas 

and Mulasarvastivadins, as well as in Mahayana literature.26 

While the Theravadin lists have long been known, it 

does not seem to have been noted that similar lists, from non 

Theravadin sources, are preserved in Tibetan and Chinese 

translation.27 The first two lists, a shorter (List A) and a longer 

(List B), are of symbols on the bodJIB of a Buddha as given in 

citation by Samathadeva in his Indispensable Commentary on the 

Treasury of Abhidharma (Abhidharmakosa-upayi/ai-filai). The third 

and fourth lists; again a shorter (List C) and a longer (List D), 

are of symbols on the hands and feet of a Buddha as given in 

citation by Dasabalasrimitra in his Analysis of the Conditioned 

and the Unconditioned (Sal']'lskrttisal']'lskrtaviniscaya). Both 

sources were originally composed in Sanskrit, by a Nepalese 

and an Indian author respectively. Since the original Sanskrit 

is lost and since they were not rendered into Chinese, the two 

works survive only in Tibetan as preserved in the Tanjur, the 

collection of commentaries and treatises in Tibetan translation.29 

Both sources give their lists in sections dealing with the 

physical characteristics- the 32 features (lak:;arta) and 80 attributes 

(anuvyafijana) -of a Buddha. These sections, which 

I will summarize in Part 2 of the article, are two of the longest 

and most detailed treatments of the subject that I know of in 

extant Sanskrit or Tibetan literature.30 A fifth list of symbols 

on the hands and feet of a Buddha (List E) is from a sutra 

preserved in Tibetan translation under the title The Discourse 

of the Great Vehicle entitled the Question of Mafijusri (.Arya Mafijusripariprcchti-ntima-mahtiytina._sutra). 

As far as I know, the Sanskrit 

of this text is also lost; there are, however, two Chinese 

translations.31 As a supplement to the Tibetan lists, I also give 

a short list of symbols on the body of a Buddha from a Sanskrit 

verse eulogy (stotra), and three fragmentary lists of the same 

in Tocharian, all from Central Asia. 

Lists A to E are from Indian sources composed originally 

in Sanskrit, and preserved in Tibetan translation. 

Samathadeva describes lists A and B as a Kashmiri tradition. 

He attributes List A to a Sthavira Vasumitra, but does not 

clearly state the source of List B, which he describes as a 

commentary on List A List C is ascribed simply to "a sutra"; 

List D is unattributed. List E is from a Mahayana sutra, as the 

title indicates. Lists W to Z are from Central Asia. List W is 

from a verse of a Sanskrit eulogy (stotra) of the body of the 

Buddha recovered from Kizil. The name of the author has not 

been preserved, and whether it was composed in India or in 

Central Asia cannot be determined. Lists X to Z are in the 

Central Asian language of Tocharian; since they are fragmentary, 

neither the titles nor the authors of the works to which 

the fragments belonged are known. 

All of the lists ultimately derive from Sravakayii.na - in 

some cases most probably Vaibha~?ika or (Mula) 

Sarvastivadin - sources. This includes List E: although it is 

from a Mahayana sutra, the sutra draws on Sravakayii.na 

material for its contents, which it submits to a Mahayanist 

interpretation. Since Lists A to D are cited in later works, it 

is impossible to determine their dates with any certainty; they 

predate the authors of the works in which they occur, 

Samathadeva and Dasabalasrimitra, whose dates are not 

known. The Chinese translations of List E were done in CE 

683; the script of the stotra dates to the 6th or 7th century. As 

a rough hypothesis, I suggest that all of the lists took shape 

and were finalized during the first half of the first millenium 

of the Common Era. I will deal with the question of school 

affiliation and dates at greater length in Part 2. 

Lists D and E are almost identical, and must go back 

to a common source. According to the text of E, the list should 

contain 80 items, but according to my count D has 79 items, 

while E has 81.32 E omits one item given in D (012, garuda, 

given however in both Chinese versions [P A]) and adds two 

items not given in D (E27, ntiga; E52, Viruc;lhaka, given 

however inTI 661 [PA]), while several other items do not agree 

(for example D45-E45; D63-E63). In some cases the discrepancies 

may have arisen from the translation. List B contains, 

according to my count, 57 items, followed by an "etc."; according 

to the text, it too contained 80 items in its complete state. 

To some extent it resembles Lists D and E in both items 

enumerated and their grouping and order, as may be seen 

from the table at the end of the article. 

In all of the lists, a number of items are uncertain. I 

have indicated these in the notes. Further clarification of the 

contents of Lists D and E may be expected when a complete 

comparison is made with the Chinese translations. That and 

a comparison of the lists with those found in Pali is beyond 

the scope of the present article. 

2. Sources 

The sources for the lists are as follows: 

Lists A and B 

Abhidharmakosa-uptiyiktintima-fikti = Chos mngon pa'i mdzod 

kyi 'grel bshad nye bar mkho ba zhes bya baby the monk (bhik:;u) 

Samathadeva (Zhi gnas Iha): 

Dg Derge Tanjur 4094, mngon pa ju, 123b2 foil.; 

G GoldenManuscriptTanjur, mdzod 'grel tu (Reprint Vol. 

70), 180a6 foil.; 

Q Peking Tanjur 5595, mdo 'grel tu (Reprint Vol. 118), 141b4 

foil. 

Lists C and D 

Sal']'lskrtlisal'flskrtaviniscaya = 'Dus byas dang 'dus ma byas rnam 

par nges pa by Mahapar:tc;lita Sthavira-bhik~?u Dasabalasrimitra 

(sTobs bcu dpal bshes gnyen): 

Dg = Derge Tanjur 3897, dbu ma ha, 305b2 foil.;

SYMBOLS ON A BUDDHA 69 

Q 

List E 

Peking Tanjur 5865, ngo mtshar bstan bcos nyo (Reprint 

Vol. 146), 255b2 foll. 

Arya Mafijusrl-pariprcchli-ntima-mahliytina-sutra = 'Phags pa 'jam 

dpal gyis dris pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo: 33 

Dg Derge Kanjur 172, mdo rna, 3b4-4a2; 

F Phug brag Kanjur 150, ting nge tsha, 263a7-b7; 

H lHasa Kanjur 173, mdo pha, 5b2-6a2; 

N Narthang Kanjur 158, mdo pha, 5b2-6a2; 

Q Peking Kanjur 839, mdo bu (Reprint Vol. 34), 3b8- 

4a5; 

S Stog Palace Kanjur 56, mdo cha, 145a5-b6; 

TI 661 Taisho 661 (Korean Buddhist Canon 244), Ta ch'eng 

pai fu hsiang ching; 

TI 662 = Taish6 662 (Korean Buddhist Canon 245), Tach 'eng 

pai fu chuang yen hsiang ching. 

List W 

Dieter Schlingloff (ed.), Buddhistische Stotras aus ostturkistanischen 

Sanskrittexten (Sanskrittexte aus den Turfanfunden I), 

Berlin, 1955, pp.ll0-11, "Preis des Korpers Buddhas (1)", verse 

16. 

Lists X, Y, Z 

Walter Couvreur, "Le caractere Sarvastivadin-Vaibha~?ika des 

fragments Tochariens A d'apres les marques et epithetes du 

Bouddha", in Le Museon LIX (Melanges L. Th. Lefort), Louvain, 

1946, pp. 577-610. 

3. Preliminary notes 

Lists A-E 

In Lists A, B, C, D, and E the first column gives the Tibetan. 

The second column gives Sanskrit equivalents; unless otherwise 

noted these are from the Mahtivyutpatti, a Tibetan-Sanskrit 

lexicon compiled by a team of Indian and Tibetan scholars 

in the early 9th century. Since subsequent Tibetan 

translations - such as those utilized herein- followed this 

lexicon, the equivalents are for the most part certain. In some 

cases, however, there is more than one possible Sanskrit 

equivalent, and in a few cases I have not been able to find any 

equivalent, either in the Mahtivyutpatti or in other sources. 

Tentative equivalents are signalled by an asterisk. The third 

column gives an English translation; the fourth gives the 

number of identical or similar items from other lists. The 

syllables of Sanskrit words transliterated into Tibetan are joined 

by a hyphen (e.g. Tib. pad-rna= Sanskrit padma); the syllables 

of Tibetan words are not. 

List A is cross-referenced mainly with List B, which is crossreferenced 

mainly with List D. 

List Cis cross-referenced mainly with List D, which is crossreferenced 

with Lists B and E. 

List E is cross-referenced mainly with List D. When a counterpart 

is similar but not identical, it is given in parentheses; 

when it is the same it is given without parentheses. 34 That is, 

D1 in the fourth column means the item in question is an exact 

counterpart of D1; (D1) means it is similar but not identical to 

Dl. When the enumeration of D and E agrees, the lists are 

cited together as DE; that is, DE 1 refers to D1 and El. 

Lists W-Z 

List W gives the Sanskrit terms from the stotra from Kizil, with 

English translation; it is cross-referenced with Lists A-E. Lists 

X, Y, and Z give Couvreur's French translation of the Tocharian 

lists. When the Tocharian is derived from Sanskrit, I have 

given the Sanskrit form in the second column. The third 

column gives cross-references as available. 

4. Abbreviations 

BG: 

Mvy: 

MW: 

[PA]: 

TSD: 

Bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo, 3 vols., Mi rigs dpe skrun 

khang, 1986 

R. Sakaki, Mahtivyutpatti, 2 vols., Kyoto, 1926 

Monier Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, 

[Oxford, 1899] Delhi, 1976 

Information provided by Dr. Prapot Assavavirulhakam 

(Chulalongkom University) 

Lokesh Chandra, Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary, Compact 

Edition, Rinsen Book Company, Kyoto, 1990


PART II 

1. Lists of symbols on the body of a Buddha 

A. List of The Elder (Sthavira) Vasumitra 

(Samathadeva: Dgju 123b2; G tu 180a6; Q tu 141b4) 

A1. phrengba ma.Ia.Js a garland DE4 

A2. dung saitkha a conch 071, E72 

A3. gdugs chattra a parasol B1 

A4. dpal gyi be'u bzang po bhadra-srivatsa an auspicious srivatscr 6 B4 

AS. lcagskyu ankusa an elephant goad B3 

A6. rgyal mtshan dhvaja an ensign B2 

A7. mtshon cha 37 sastra, ayudha, yudha a weapon, a sword -38 

AB. zla ba candra the moon B37 

A9. chu udaka water 

A10. padma padma a lotus B42 

B. List commenting on preceding 

(Samathadeva: Dg ju 123b3; G tu 180b2; Q tu 141b5) 

B1. gdugs chattra a parasol 01 

B2. rgyal mtshan dhvaja an ensign 02 

B3. lcagskyu ankusa an elephant goad 05 

B4. dpal gyi be'u srivatsa a srivatsa 03 

BS. mu-ti~ 9 muktika, mukta a pearl 046 

B6. bumpa kumbha, ghata, etc. a pot DB 

B7. rta asva a horse 010 

B8. nya matysa afish 014 

B9. chu srin makara a sea-monster 013 

B10. rus sbal kiirma a tortoise 015 

Bll. nam mkha' lding garuqa agarw;la 012 

B12. stag vyaghra a tiger Dll 

B13. glangpoche hasti an elephant D9 

B14. ka-la-bingka kalaviilka a cuckoo 017 

B15. shang shang te'u jivallljivaka a peacock pheasant 018 

B16. khugrta cataka a cataka bird -40 

B17. netso suka a parrot 021 

B18. khubyug kokila akoel 

B19. ri dvags nag po ~:r:tamrga a black antelope 033 

B20. rmabya mayiira a peacock 016 

B21. ral gri khaqga a sword 035 

B22. rdo rje'i yan lag vajrail.ga a vajra 41 (036) 

B23. norbu mal).i a gemstone 034 

B24. rinpo che ratna a precious gemstone 034 

B25. nor 42 dhana wealth 

B26. mdung sakti a lance 039 

B27. rtse gsum trisiila a trident 040 

B28. dgra sta parasu a battle axe 043 

B29. mda' i~u, sara an arrow 038 

B30. sprin megha a cloud 048 

B31. dragpo rudra Rudra 

B32. tshangspa brahma Brahma 049 

B33. dbangpo indra Indra 050 

B34. gzhonnu kumara Kumara = Skanda (068)


B35. nyima surya the Sun D57 

B36. 'phags skyes po viriiQhaka Virii


Dl3. chu srin makara a sea-monster B9, E12 

Dl4. nya matysa a fish B8, E13 

DlS. rus sbal kurma a tortoise BlO, E14 

D16. rma bya mayura a peacock B20, ElS 

D17. bya ka-li-bing-ka kalavit\ka a cuckoo Bl4, E16 

D18. bya shang shang ti'u jiva:q1.jivaka a peacock pheasant BlS, E17 

Dl9. bya tsa-ta *cata[ka]? a sparrow? (E18) 58 

D20. ngurpa cakravaka a cak:ra bird E19 

D21. ne tso suka a parrot Bl7, E20 

D22. ngangpa ha:q1.sa a swan E21 

D23. thi ba kapota a pigeon, a dove E22 

D24. nas yava barley, grain E23 

D25. smanchenpo maha-o~adhi the great herb 59 B48,E24 

D26. 'odma Vel)U bamboo E25 

D27. bamen gavaya 60 a wild ox, gayal E26 

D28. ra aja, chagala, urabhra a ram, a sheep E27 

D29. khyu mchog vr~abha a bull B56, E29 

D30. bil-ba bilva a bel fruit 61 E31 

D31. ri parvata a mountain E30 

D32. dpag bsam 62 shing kalpavrk~a a wishing tree (E32) 

D33. ri dags nag po kr~l)amrga a black antelope B19, E33 

D34. nor bu rin po che mal)iratna a precious gemstone B23-24, E34 

D35. ral gri mchog *vara-kha


D70. mgaboche bheri a drum B49, E71 

D71. dung saitkha a conch A2, E72 

D72. rdzamga mrdaitga a tabour (B49) E73 

D73. lag gdub a bracelet E74 

D74. dpungrgyan keyiira, ail.gada an armlet B52, E75 

D75. margyan an earring B54, E76 

D76. sor gdub rgyan mudrikii, aitguliyaka a finger ring B53, E77 

D77. 'khyil pa'o sdong bu 

_71 

a whorled trunk? 

D78. me tog rgyal po shing a king of trees in blossom? (B57, E79, 80) 

D79. 'khor lo'i dbus su senge ge *cakramadhyasUqUha a lion at the centre of a wheel (B55) E81 

E. List from the Maiijusri-pariprcchi-siitra 

(Dg rna 3b4; F tsha 263a7; H pha 5b2; N pha 5b2; Q bu 3b8; S cha 145a5) 

El. gdugs chattra a parasol D1 

E2. rgyal mtshan dhvaja an ensign D2 

E3. dpal be'u 72 srivatsa a srivatsa D3 

E4. phrengba miilii, miilya, diima a garland D4 

E5. kyo ba thang 73 ail.kusa an elephant goad D5 

E6. codpan74 kirip, mukuta a diadem, a crown D6 

E7. dbyig to75 *dat)


E44. zhags pa100 pasa 

E45. gru nau, jalayana 

E46. mu-tig gi rgyan 102 *muktikalarpkara 

E47. sprin megha 

E48. tshangspa brahma 

E49. dbangpo indra 

E50. 'khor srung106 po dhrtara!?tra 107 

E51. chu'i lha varux:ta109 

E52. 'phags skyes po virft

SYMBOLS ON A BUDDHA 

75 

X3. les grands munis r!li B50, DE55 

X4. les monarques Cakravartin 

X5. I' ocean samudra (A9) 

X6. l'etang (A9) 

X7. les rois des nagas (E27) 

X8. les grands asuras ... 134 

X9. les iles de joyaux 

X10. surtout le dieu de I' eclat 

Xll. les cintamat;ris 

{B23, 24, DE34) 

X12. les viharas 

X13. les saitgharamas 

X14. les danasa.Ias ... 

X15. les Bodhisattvas dormant des dons 

X16. Ia montagne divine Sumeru (031, E30) 

X17. les quatres roi divins B36, 38, 40 051, 53-54, E50, 52-54 

X18. l'arbre Panjataka (DE32) 

X19. laSudharma 

X20. le Vaijayanta palais des dieux 

X21. Skanda B34 

X22. Vi!lx:tU 

X23. Mahesvara = Siva (B31) 

X24. leschevaux B7,DE10 

X25. les vehicules 

X26. les elephants B13, DE9 

X27. le ciel de Yama 

X28. Tu!lita jusqu'aux Suddhavasa 

Y. Fragment 24: marks on the body of a Buddha 

(Couvreur, p. 600) 

les signes brillants 

Y1. vajra 

Y2. millet 

Y3. srivatsa 

(B22}, DE36 

(DE24?) 

A4, B4,DE3 

Z. Fragment 264: marks on the body of a Buddha 

(Couvreur, p. 600) 

sur son corps se produisent 

Zl. les roues cakra 

Z2. les javelots tomari 

Z3. les lances sakti 

Z4. les tridents trisiila 

zs. les piques 

Z6. les glaives 

Z7. les etendards ... pattaka 

ZB. les? de diamant 135 

Z9. les chevaux 

Z10. les elephants ... 

W8 

B26,DE39 

B27, DE40 

B21, DE35 

B43 

B7, DE10 

B13, DE9 

Table: Comparison of grouped items in Lists B, D, and E136 

ListB 

Category 

ListD 

ListE 

Category 

B1-6 

B7-13 

B14-18 

auspicious symbols 

animals 

birds 

Dl-8 

09-15 

016-23 

E1-8 

E9-14 

E15-22 

auspicious symbols 

animals 

birds


[B19 animal] 

D24-26 E23-25 plants 

[B20 bird] 

D27-29 E26-29 animals 

[B21 weapon] 

[B22-25 

precious things] 

D30-34 E30-34 miscellaneous 

B26-29 weapons D35-44 E35-44 weapons 

D45-47 E45-46 miscellaneous 

B30 cloud D48 E47 cloud 

B31-40 deities D49-60 E48-60 deities 

B41-49 auspicious things D61-72 E61-73 auspicious things 

B52-54 ornaments D73-76 E74-78 ornaments 

[BSS-56 

animals] 

B57 plant D77{?)-78 E79-80 plants 

D79 E81 wheel/lion


77 

NOTES 

1Recent expressions of this interest, past or 

planned, include the exhibition "Royal Gift 

of a Buddha Footprint", presented by 

Waldemar Sailer at the Siam Society in 

December 1990; a book by Nandana 

Chutiwongs entitled Roi Phra Buddhapada, 

published (in Thai) by Muang Boran, also in 

December 1990; the exhibition "History of 

the Footprints of the Buddha: Asia and 

Ayutthaya Province", held at the Chao Sam 

Phraya National Museum, Ayutthaya, from 

19 August to 30 September, 1992; the exhibition 

"The Buddhapiidalakkat:ta and Footprints 

of the Buddha in Thailand", held at 

the National Museum, Bangkok, from 26 July 

to 26 October, 1993; and the Siam Society's 

current project "Casting of a Gold Footprint 

of the Lord Buddha on the Auspicious Occasion 

of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit's Sixtieth 

Royal Birthday Anniversay". 

2Note that I use here "a" rather than "the" 

Buddha: the symbols belong to all Buddhas, 

past, present, and future. 

3-ybe date of this work is not clear: if the 

author Upatissa is the same as the author of 

the Mahabodhival']tsa, it might date to the last 

quarter of the lOth century: see K.R. Norman, 

Pali Literature: including the canonical 

literature in Prakrit and Sanskrit of all the 

Hinayana schools of Buddhism Oan Gonda [ ed.], 

A History of Indian Literature, Vol. VII, Fasc. 

2), Wiesbaden, 1983, pp. 162, 141. If so, it 

would be the earliest known work to give 

the expanded list of 108 symbols. 

4Jiniilankara-tika, Rangoon (Sudhammavati 

Press), 1940, pp. 189-90; for the date see 

Norman, p. 157. 

5E.R. Gooneratne (ed.), Pajjamadhu, Journal of 

the Pali Text Society 1887, pp. 1-16 (not seen); 

C.E. Godakumbura (ed.), Samantakittavat~!lana 

ofVeheda [sic, for Vedeha I Thera, PTS, 

London, 1958; Ann Appleby Hazlewood (tr. ), 

In Praise of Mount Samanta, PTS, London, 1986, 

vv. 760-70; for dates and other details, see 

Norman pp. 158-59. 

6Pat:tQ.ita Baddegama Vimalavaqtsa Sthavira 

(ed.), Dharmapradipikava, Colombo [1959] 

1967, p. 5; the date is from C.E. Godakumbura, 

Sinhalese Literature, Colombo, 1955, 

pp. 49-50. 

7T.B. Karunaratne, "The Significance of the 

Signs and Symbols on the Footprints of the 

Buddha", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 

(Sri Lanka), Vol. XX, (New Series), 1976, pp. 

49-50; for the Butsarana, see Godakumhura 

1955, pp. 73-76 and 110; "Butsarana", Encyclopaedia 

of Buddhism, Vol. III, fasc. 4, (Colombo], 

1977, pp. 548-49, and "Amrtiivaha", 

Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, Vol. I, fasc. 3, 

[Colombo], 1964, pp. 492-93; for the 

Pujavaliya, see Godakumbura 1955, pp. 62- 

63. 

8 A.B. Griswold and Prasert t:ta Nagara, "The 

Inscription of Vat Iraban Jail Phoak: Epigraphic 

and Historical Studies No. 7", JSS 

59/1 Oanuary, 1971) 157-88, and figs. 1-4; 

Supaphan na Bangchang, Viva(ihanakar ngan 

khian bha~apali nai prades thai: charuk tamnan 

ban~avatar sasan prak~, Bangkok, 2529 [1986], 

PP· 44-50. 

9Supaphan 2529, pp. 67-69. 

10Supaphan 2529, p. 60; cf. the plate in National 

Library, Charuk nai prades thai, Bangkok, 

2529 [1986], p. 45. See also the Piili list 

of deities in the inscription from Wat 

Kamphaeng Ngam, Sukhothai (Supaphan, 

41-43), which, butfor the mention of nibbiina 

and the fact that it seems to be complete as 

stands, might be related to the footprint 

mentioned in the Thai portion of the inscription. 

11For a discussion and summary of the (un-. 

published) Piili version, see Supaphan na 

Bangchang, Viva(ihanakar varrt~agati sai phra 

suttantapitak ti daeng nai prades thai, Bangkok, 

2533 [1990], pp. 135-50; I have consulted the 

Thai translation in Niigapradip/Phra 

Dharrmamahiiviriinuvatr (ed.), Sal']tbharavipak, 

Bangkok, 4th printing, 2504 [1961], pp. 

351-55, which also gives the Piili. 

12supaphan 2533, pp. 281-99. 

13Edited in Piili on the basis of two manuscripts 

kept in the National Library, Bangkok, 

and translated into Thai in Buddhapadalakkhat~a 

lae roiphrabuddhapad nai 

pradesthai, Fine Arts Department, Bangkok, 

2536, pp. 16-26 (catalogue published in 

conjunction with the National Museum exhibition 

mentioned inn. 1 above). 

14Phra Mahapuru~alak~at~ab agariyavinayagharavas 

lae mangal 38 prabkar, Cremation 

volume for Nang Bufuni Acarat:tarddhi, Wat 

Prahyuravansiiviis, Thonburi, 2504, pp. 3-6; 

see also Griswold and Prasert, p. 176. 

15Phra pathamasambodhikatha, Rong bimb kiir 

siisanii, Bangkok, n.d., pp. 61-62, tr. in Henry 

Alabaster, The Wheel of the Law. Buddhism 

Illustrated from Siamese Sources by the Modern 

Buddhist, A life of the Buddha, and An Account 

of the Phrabat, [London, 1871] Taipei, 1971, 

pp. 112-13; details on authorship from 

Griswold and Prasert, p. 176. 

16por a study of two Khmer (and one Piili, 

from Cambodia) lists, see Fran~is Bizot, "La 

figuration des pieds du bouddha au 

cambodge", Etudes asiatiques XXV (1971), pp. 

407-39. 

17See for example Mangalacakkavtfl yai, in Suat 

mant chabap luang, 13th ed., Bangkok, 2526 

[1983], p. 30.1, atthuttarasatamangalanubhavena; 

Mahadibamant, Bangkok, 2471 [1928], 

p. 2.5; Phra mahadibamant, Bangkok, 2516 

[1973], p. 2 penult; and P.S. Jaini (ed.), 

Mahadibbamanta, Bulletin of the School of 

Oriental and African Studies 28 (1965), p. 66, 

v. 10, atthuttara- (var. atthadhika-) satal']t yassa 

mangalal']t carat~advaye 

cakkalakkhat~asampannal']t 

nametal']t lokanayakal']t. The Mahddibbamanta 

verse is cited (without naming 

the source) at Phra Mahapuru~alak$a~fl p. 6.2. 

18E. Burnouf, Le lotus de la bonne loi, Paris, 

[1852]1989, p. 622, n. 2 and p. 623, referring 

to Beschreibung Malabar und Coromandel, pp. 

147-48. In the note he gives 1657, in the text 

1654. The following bibliographical notes 

deal only with texts that discuss or present 

lists of the 108 signs, and not with literature 

on the footprint in art and legend. 

19aurnouf, pp. 622 foil., referring to James 

Low, "On Buddha", in Transactions of the Royal 

Asiatic Society of Great Britain, Vol. III, pp. 62 

foil. (not seen). 

2llaurnouf, pp. 622-47. Bumouf divides the 

list into 65 items, after the Dharmapradipikdva 

(for which he seems to have used a manuscript 

rather than a printed edition), and notes 

(p. 640) that Low's list has 96. Here as well 

it is a question of differing enumeration and 

classification into broader groups: in the main 

the lists agree. 

21Spence Hardy, A Manual of Buddhism in its 

Modern Development, [London, 1853] 

V aranasi, 1967, pp. 367-68; the source is given 

as the Pujavaliya on p. 370, but cf. n. to p. 

368. 

22Alabaster, pp. 286-310. 

23U Mya, "A Note on the Buddha's Footprints 

in Burma", Annual Reports of the Archaeological 

Survey of India for the years 1930- 

31, 1931-32, 1932-33 & 1933-34, Part Two, repr. 

Delhi, 1990, pp. 320-31; T.B .. Karunaratne, 

op. cit., pp. 47-60 and pis. I and II.

78 


24For the latter, I refer to Supaphan 2523, pp. 

281-97. 

25"Bussokuseki", H6b6girin, Dictionnaire 

encyclopedique du bouddhisme d' apres les sources 

chinoises et japonaises, deuxieme fascicule, 

Tokyo, 1929-30, pp. 187-90; ''Buddhapada", 

Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, Vol. m,. fasc. 3, 

[Colombo], 1971, pp. 450-58. 

UX plan to deal with these shorter lists in 

another article. 

27The existence of the list in the Chinese 

Manjusri-pariprcchti (see List E in this article) 

was noted by Samuel Beal, "The Buddhist 

Works in Chinese in the India Office library", 

Indian Antiquary IV (1875), p. 95 (see Part 2 

of this article). 

28I will discuss the significance of this and its 

occurrence in art and iconography in Part 2. 

29por a note on the Tanjur; see Peter Skilling, 

"A Brief Guide to the Golden Tanjur", JSS 79- 

2 (1991) 138-46. 

30part 2 of this article gives a bibliography of 

the features and attributes. 

31Le~ R. Lancaster in collaboration with 

Sung-bae Park, The Korean Buddhist Canon: A 

Descriptive Catalogue (Berkeley, 1979), §§ 244, 

245 (= Taish6 §§ 661, 662: Korean § 1211 = 

Taish6 § 473 is also related, but does not list 

the symbols on the feet). I am grateful to 

Dr. Prapot Assavavirulhakarn (Chulalongkom 

University) for examining Taisho 

661 and 662, and providing valuable 

comments (indicated in text and notes by 

[PA]). I have included a few of his notes to 

List E, as an indication of the complexity of 

the variant enumeration. Although the 

catalogues state that 661 and 662 were 

translated by the same team in the same year 

(CE 683), the two versions differ (I will discuss.this 

in more detail in Part 2). Note that 

TI 661 lists 80 symbols "on the feet", TI 662 

80 symbols "on the body, hands and feet" or 

"hands and feet of the body": the compound 

*Taiya-hasta-pada may be interpreted both 

ways [PA]. 

32In ·the Tibetan lists individual items are 

separated by the word dang, "and"; hence the 

enumeration is quite clear. It is impossible· 

to say whether in the original Sanskrit the 

items were similarly separated by the use of 

the equivalent Sanskrit ca, or were given as 

a series of compounds. If the latter were the 

case, the translators may have broken up the 

compounds differently, resulting in different 

enumerations. [P A:] The Chinese lists of 

Taish6 661 and 662 also give 80 items; since 

each is assigned a number, the entimeration 

is clear. (The numbering- also supplied for 

the 32 features and 80 attributes -might, 

however, derive from the translators or later 

editors, since such a practice is rare in Indian 

texts.) While the contents are generally the 

same, the two translations differ in order 

from each other and from the Tibetan lists D 

and E: this means that there are three different 

lists. 

33I am grateful to E. Gene Smith (Jakarta) for 

providing copies of Dg and S, and Helmut 

Eimer (Bonn) and Siglinde Dietz (Gottingen) 

for providing copies of F, H, and N. 

34I refer here to the Sanskrit, and not variant 

Tibetan forms. 

35 Also mdlya, dtima, sragdama. 

36I will discuss the srivatsa in some detail in 

Part 2. 

37Dg: GQ omit cha. 

38Cp. weapons at B26-29 and DE35-44. 

39ouplicate to B46. Could the Sanskrit here 

have been mukuta (=DE6)? 

40khug rta (or sta) = cataka, Mvy 4906, in a list 

of birds. Cp. 019 and E18. 

41I am not certain of the meaning of aliga (yan 

lag) in this compound. Can it mean vajra as 

a weapon? 

42Dg: GQ omit this item. 

43 A name of Kuvera: MW 508b. 

44Dg: du-rba G, durba Q. 

45Cp. B48? 

46Darva =bent grass, panic grass, Durb·grass, 

Panicum Dactylon: MW 490a. Cf. Henry Yule 

and A.C. Burnell, Hobson-]obson, [London, 

1903] New Delhi, 1984, p. 323b, doob. 

47Duplicate to B5. 

48"A great or very efficacious medicinal plant; 

Darva grass": MW 802c. 

49Cf. MW 609c. I am not convinced by this 

equivalent, but can think of none better: straw 

could easily have been translated into Tibetan. 

50zhes bya ba Ia sogs pa = ity ddi. 

stQ: g'yu Dg. 

52For this symbol, see Oskar von Hiniiber, 

"Das Nandyavarta-Symbol", Zeitschrift der 

Deutschen Morgenliindischen Gesellschaft, 

Supplement ll, Deutscher Orientalistentag, 

Wiesbaden, 1974, pp. 356-65; Volker Moeller, 

"Das Nandyavarta-Symbol?", Zeitschrift der 

Deutschen Morgenliindischen Gesellschaft 129 

(1979), pp. 149-54; Mireille Benisti, "A propos 

du triratna", Bulletin de !'Ecole frant;aise 

d'Extreme-orient LXIV (1977), pp. 76-77; A.L. 

Srivastava, Nandyavarta: An Auspicious Symbol 

in Indian Art, Allahabad, 1991. 

53 Also -ghata, -patra, etc. 

~e Tibetan gnas ("place") has numerous 

Sanskrit equivalents: dsana is given at TSD 

1363a. Cp. bhadda-pittha of the Pall lists. 

55Cf. note to B5. 

56Q: dbyu gu Dg. 

57The Tibetan of Bll is the more common 

term for garulfa. 

S&rhe Tibetan is a transliteration. E18 has 

cd$a; blue jay. Cf. B16, cataka. 

59See note to B48. 

60Equivalent from Susumu Yamaguchi, Index 

to the Prasannapada Madhyamaka-vrtti, Part 

Two, Tibetan-Sanskrit, Kyoto, 1974, p. 145. 

Cf. MW 351b. 

61See MW 732a. 

62Dg: bsams Q. 

63Hala means both plough and weapon: MW 

1293a. In the context, the latter is more likely. 

64Cp. Mvy 4834, chu srin 'dzin khri = grtihtzb. 

65Mvy 751, 4294, 4330; d. MW 156ab, 290a, 

and nandyavarta B41, C2, D62. See also D77. 

I am not certain of the meaning; d. BG I 324b, 

'khyil pa = dung dkar g'yas 'khyil, "a white 

conch turning to the right" (but D71 = conch). 

66Equivalent from Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, An 

Index to the Lankavatara Sutra, Kyoto, 1934, p. 

151a. See MW 921b. 

67 An epithet of Kuvera: MW 508b. 

68Q: g'yu Dg. 

69Correction made on the basis of E68 (q.v.). 

70prom the context B34 should equal the deity 

Skanda. D68 and E69 are given separately 

from the other deities (049-60), and followed 

by kanya, and hence seem to mean "prince" 

or "youth". 

71Sdong bu = dattlfa, trunk, Mvy 6223, 6243. 

For 'khyil pa, see D47. 'Khyil pa'o does not 

seem right: read 'khyil pa'i? 

72DgHNQS: dpal bye'u F. 

73kyo ba = alikusa, TSD; kyo ba and kyo ba tang 

= lcags kyu, BG I 37 (which describes both 

terms as "old" forms). 

74DgFHNQ: cod pa-r~a S. 

75Cf. BG IT 1959, dbyug to = dbyug pa shing. 

Not in TSD. 

76ogHNQS: glang po che F.


79 

77DgHNQS: rtag F. 

78Note that List E does not have a counterpart 

to 012, garu(la, given however inTI 661, 

where it is no. 22, and 662, where it is no. 58. 

79FHNS: ru(!) spa! Q sru(!) sbal Dg. 

SOogHNQS: bya (om. rma) F. 

81Q: ka-la-ping-ka DgF: ka-la-bingka HNS. Note 

that 017-19, equivalent to E16-18, prefix the 

names with bya, "bird". 

82DgHNQS: shang shang ti'u F (= 018). 

83DgS: tsa sha FHNQ. 

84Mvy 4878, bya tsa-sha, in list of birds; MW 

394b, "blue jay". 

85See note to B48. No. 63 inTI 661 [PA]. 

86see note to 027. No. 65 inTI 661 [PA). 

87Naga, not given in List D, is included as no. 

12 inTI 661 [PA]. 

88No. 66 inTI 661 [PA). 

89No. 18 inTI 661 [PA). 

90See note to 030. 

91Note that List E reverses the order of 30 

and 31 against List D. 

92DgFNQS: ri dvags H. 

93No. 35 inTI 661 [PA]. 

94DgHNQS: ral gyi F. Ral gyi is an alternate 

spelling of ral gri employed since the time of 

the Dunhuang manuscripts: see e.g. F.A. 

Bischoff, Arya Mahiibala-nama-mahayana-sutra, 

Paris, 1956, pp. 23.18 and 25.31; Zuiho 

Yamaguchi et al., A Catalogue of the Tibetan 

Manuscripts collected by Sir Aurel Stein, Part 

One, The Toyo Bunko, Tokyo, 1977, p. 11, 

antepenult. The spelling is sometimes 

maintained in the Kanjur, as in the Vinayavibhaliga, 

lOth bampo, where it is used by 

Narthang and the Tokyo Ms against the ral 

gri ofBerlinMs, Cone, Derge, Lhasa, Lithang, 

London Ms, Peking, and Stog Ms. Cf. also 

BG III 2667b, ral gyi (rnying). The present 

case is ambiguous, since ral gyi could equal 

either ral gri, or ral followed by the genitive 

postposition gyi. 

95"Bow and arrow" are counted as a single 

item inTI 661 [PA]. 

96DgFNQS: shakti H. E39 transcribes - shagti 

= sakti; 039 translates - mdung thung = 

sakti. 


98Mvy 5890, gtun (shing) = musala. 

99DgFHNQ: sta gri S. Cf. BG II 1096a, where 

the primary definition of sta gri is the same 

as that of sta re - shing gcod byed kyi lag cha 

zhig, and dgra sta (= 043) is given as a synonym 

of sta gri. 

100ogHNQS: F omits this item. 

101045, though connected with water, is different. 

The long Piili lists include a "golden 

boat": see e.g. Phra Mahiipuru~ala/q;apai;l p. 5.10, 

suvappaniivd, and Sambhiiravipak p. 355.2, 

harinavii. Neither TI 661 or 662 gives "boat" 

[PA). 

102DFHNQ: brgyan S. 

103"Cloud" is given by both TI 661 and 662 

[PA]. 

104No. 1 in T 661, which opens with a list of 

deities similar to those of E48-60, concluding 

with megha (E47) [PA]. 

105No. 2 inTI 661 [PA]. 

106DgFHN: bsrung Q bsrungs S. 

107Mvy 3381 gives Yul 'khor skyong, 'Khor 

srung, and Yul 'khor bsrung for Dhrtariieyp-a. 

108No. 3 in T1 661 [PA). 

109Mvy 694, Chu lha = Varucya. 

110No. 4 inTI 661 [PA). 

111053 uses the honorific spyan, E the common 

mig, for "eye". 

112No. 5 inTI 661 [PA). 


114No. 8 inTI 661 [PA). 

115No. 9 inTI 661 [PA). 

116No. 10 inTI 661 [PA). 

117No. 11 inTI 661 [PA]. 

118DgFQ: padmo HNS. 061 adds me tog, 

"flower". 

119DgFHS: bstan NQ. While stan = dsana, dge 

ba usually = kusala, kalyapa, subha (TSD). 

12DogHNS: brtsva F: rtsa Q. 

121pu- DgHQ(?)S: bu F, N unclear. 

122Cf. MW 635ab. 

123DgHNQS: khye- 'u F. TI 661 includes 

"youth" and "maiden" as §§ 14 and 15. 

124F and S carry the correct form, mri-dang 

(tang- S) ga-dangl: mri-dang-ga transliterates 

the Sanskrit mrdaliga; the second dang= "and" 

(Sanskrit ca). This is equivalent to the cor- 

responding item 072, which is translated as 

rdza rnga, "earthenware drum", a standard 

counterpart of mrdaliga (Mvy 5011). The 

editors of the Tshal pa Kanjur or its exemplar 

failed to realize that they were dealing with 

a transliteration, and interpreted the dang of 

mri-dang-ga as the Tibetan word for "and". Q 

reads smrig dang! ga dang!; it breaks the 

transliteration into two items by inserting a 

stroke (shad, dap(la) after the first dang, taking 

itto mean "and", to read "smri (or smri-ga) and 

ga" (which seems to be meaningless). The 

first syllable smrig (or smri-ga) is written in 

smaller letters, and has probably been altered 

from mri: the original reading may well 

have been mri-dang-ga dang!, as in F. Dg 

and N (and H, following N) have been further 

altered by the deletion of the first dang, 

to yield the (apparently meaningless) smriga 

dang!. For mrdaliga in the Drumakinnararaja-pariprcchii, 

see Paul Harrison (ed.), 

Druma-kinnara-riija-pariprcchii-sutra, Tokyo, 

1992, pp. xi(§ 16, papava), xli (§ 22, mrdaliga). 

125Mvy 6008, 6020. 

12~0 1384b. 

127DgHNQS: sor dub F. 

128Mvy 6001, phyang phrul = iibharapa. No. 53 

inTI 661 [PA]. 

129FS: dpag bsam gyi shing DgHNQ. 

130Kalpa-vrk~a is already given at 032, where 

E32 has simply vr~a. 

1311 accept the reading of S, supported by F: 

'khor lo'i dbung gi seng ge S, 'khor lo'i dpung 

gi sing(sic) ge F. I accept S's dbung = "centre, 

middle" (BG II 1946a: dbung [rnying] dbus sam 

dkyil) =Sanskrit madhya (TSD 1706a, from the 

Dasabhumika) against the dpung of the other 

editions: the item then agrees with its 

counterpart 079, 'khor lo'i dbus su seng ge. 

DgHNQ divide the item into two: 'khor lo 

dang! dpung gi seng ge dang!. 

132The final items of lists D (77 or 78-79) and 

E (79-81) and ofTI 661 are similar, but present 

numerous difficulties. TI 661 has 76. 

''heavenly tree", 77. "fruit tree" (*phala-vr~a), 

78. a kind of bird, 79. *cakramadhyasimha, 80. 

mrgaraja [PA]. 

133Restored by the editor of the Sanskrit text. 

134Lacunae in the lists are indicated by .... 

13!7he question mark is from Couvreur. 

136Items that occur in a different position in 

B are bracketed.

K'LA AND THE CATHOLICS 

OF CHIANG MAl 

Village Development in the Northwest of 

Thailand 


DIRECTOR 

CENTRE FOR SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES 

NORTHERN TERRITORY UNIVERSITY 

AUSTRALIA 

It goes without saying that any Christian presence in 

Thailand, Catholic or Protestant, must in the nature of things 

be very small: infinitesimal when judged against the neartotality 

of the people's adherence to Buddhism, and the very 

strong minority of Hill Tribes' animism. In 1979 the population 

of Thailand was estimated at 45 million; in 1987 it was 

reckoned to be approximately 54 million with about 230,000 

Catholics (0.04%) 1 In the northwest of Thailand, in that part 

known world-wide as "The Golden Triangle," Protestants are 

a strong minority, drawn in the main from the Church of 

Christ in Thailand and the American Baptist Mission, whose 

ministers, evangelists and lay-workers have been working in 

the region, which looks to the city of Chiang Mai as its metropolis, 

for one hundred and thirty years. 2 

Here the Protestants have established clinics, a hospital, 

the first private university in Thailand/ and a prestigious 

school for boys known as The Prince's School; together with 

extremely impressive and highly organised socioeconomic 

programmes and strategies, most of which are financed from 

America. 4 

By contrast the Catholic Church is spread more thinly, 

has fewer resources without much outside support, and the 

cynical might perhaps be justified in seeing in this a case of 

"Johnny come lately." 5 

The Catholic diocese of Chiang Mai in fact covers eight 

provinces in northern Thailand: Maehongson, Fang, Chiang 

Rai, Chiang Mai, Phayao, Nan, Lampang and Lamphun, with 

a total population somewhere in the vicinity of five million, 

of whom in 1990 only 20,000 were Catholics (0.4%). Of this 

number Thai Catholics numbered 8,000 (40%) with approximately 

12,000 members of various Hill Tribes (60%) making 

up the rest. 6 

The first organised Catholic presence here was the 

Congregation Missions Etrangeres de Paris (the MEP Fathers) who 

came to the provinces of Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and 

Lamphun in 1931, to work amongst those Thai Catholics who 

came with British companies which built the railway from 

Bangkok to the North. This undertaking was a commercial 

one, in order to get teak. The MEP Fathers also wanted to 

work amongst the Karen Hill Tribes, seeing in these animist 

tribes a possible fruitful field of missionary endeavour, 

something which was not very promising amongst the Thai 

Buddhist population. 7 

In 1949 I 1950 another French Order, the Bettaram 

Fathers, who had previously been working in Southern China, 

were forced to leave under the new Communist government, 

and settled amongst the White Karen Hill Tribes, having their 

centre at Maehongson, staffing eight tambon (districts) each 

with approximately forty ban (villages).8 Again in 1972, priests 

of the Rome-based Pontifical Institute for Missions (known as 

the PIME Fathers) began to work amongst the Lahu Hill Tribes, 

with their base in the town of Lampang, southwest from 

Chiang Mai. 9 

The Spanish Order of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and 

Mary, called locally the Marina Sisters, have worked in the 

Chiang Mai diocese since 1965. Their work is mainly concerned 

with young girls of the Phayao Hill Tribe region, and 

it is from this region that many of them flee their povertystricken 

life, and head for the glitter and tinsel which is 

Bangkok at night. Many travel to the city voluntarily to look 

for work; equally as many are persuaded by various "employment" 

agents to go and look for work away from rural 

impoverishment. Few of these girls or young women have 

any marketable skills or education. They either end up in the

82 R.A.F. PAUL WEBB 

brothels of back-street Bangkok, 10 or as "go-go" dancers in one 

of the many bars in the Patpong tourist area of the capital.U 

Agents from Japan and elsewhere are said to be on the lookout 

for girls from the country-those who have not acquired 

the surface sophistication of their more worldly-wise 

sisters-in order to persuade them to become "guest workers." 

The latter of course is a euphemism for prostitution. 

Thus it is amongst these girls that the Spanish and 

Thai Marina Sisters work, giving them some training in 

personal hygiene, teaching them sewing and weaving skills 

so that instead of having to go to Bangkok for work, they are 

able to sell their products from the village, thus obviating a 

break in family relationships and community networksY 

Also in Chiang Mai city is the Thai Sisterhood of the 

Immaculate Conception; again these Sisters work with girls 

between the ages of thirteen and fifteen years, teaching them 

domestic science skills and personal hygiene. Most of these 

girls have graduated from the primary schools run by the 

Sisters. 13 

Economic Development 

In every village in the Catholic area around Chiang 

Mai there is a rice bank, originally organised by the DISAC 

(Diocesan Social Action/Coordinator). 14 This works on what 

Indonesian villagers would call gotong royong-a system of 

mutual cooperation and mutual support, in order, say, to break 

down the high rate of interest asked by the local entrepreneur 

on rice borrowed in a poor season. 

If a family runs short of rice for whatever reason and 

must borrow ten sacks, the interest is often thirty sacks: 300% 

interest. An example wil suffice to make this clear. During 

the middle eighties in the ban of Kum Pae, some kilometres 

up in the mountains from Chiang Mai, three prominent 

families had emerged as the rice brokers. Over a period of 

twenty years they exerted control of all the village affairs 

through extortionate interest on rice borrowed. If any family 

thwarted them, then that family was easily brought to heel by 

a refusal to lend them rice in a bad season, and by forbidding 

any other villager to help them. These petty strong-arm tactics 

might well be seen as pathetic out of context, but within 

a tight traditional society they were very real indeed. 15 And 

it appears to be no exaggeration to say that their tactics were 

literally a matter of life or death, for no one would willingly 

antagonise these powerful families. Needless to say, with an 

interest rate ratio of 1:3 a great many people were held in 

thrall to these rural strongmen. The Catholic Church, through 

the intermediary of the DISAC, helped break this economic 

cartel, by forming the villagers into a rice-group or cooperative. 

Other villages from outside the area began to give rice to 

their indigent clan neighbours, and in tum received the same 

amount of rice back when harvest came. 

Once more, it was gotong royong in action. 16 Which does 

not mean to say that the local rice "mafia" took this threat to 

their domination of the ban quietly. There were many unreported 

nasty incidents: beatings, stabbings and knife 

wounds. But when the power of the families was broken 

because there was now no need for people to borrow rice at 

exhorbitant rates of interest, and the former rice-profits began 

to dry up, these families themselves now began to suffer 

poverty and hardship. Yet there appeared to be little animosity 

or antagonism from the former victims of their greed-even 

though the rice cooperative and the DISAC were accused by 

them of being Communists. Whenever the Church spoke out 

against exploitation or spoke in favour of social justice, this 

was seen as espousing Communism.J7 Such threats were 

forgotten by the villagers who when they saw their former 

tormentors in need simply gave them rice without a second 

thought. Leaving aside Christian morality, it seems that they 

considered community well-being, ethnicity and solidarity to 

be of much more importance than any thought of revenge. 

The formation of rice banks did not take place over 

night, but over a long period during the late seventies and 

eighties.18 It shows that with preparation, discussion amongst 

the elders and people of a ban, and the training of local 

leaders, improvements in a local economic situation can be 

undertaken. There remains of course a question: does it mean 

that the Church's ideas of economic development are the same 

as the peoples' view of their local world? Probably not, but 

even uneducated Hill Tribe villagers know when they are 

being exploited and that the usual Thai philosophical response 

to difficulties, "mai pen rai," meaning "Never mind; it doesn't 

matter," is inappropriate in such circumstances. 

Yet such is the ingrained reaction to, if not authority, 

then local supremacy, that without some outside assistance-in 

this case the DISAC-those village people would probably 

not have found the determination to break out of the vicious 

circle of local oppression. 

But most of those involved in socioeconomic strategies, 

government or Non-Government Organisations (NGO's), 

find it hard to always determine the peoples' perspective 

clearly. A "Yes" may really mean "No," and a "No" may mean 

the opposite. So how do the people to whom the organisation 

wishes to do good, to raise their economic sights, to 

change their ways of traditional agriculture handed down 

since time immemorial, change a negative thinking process to 

a time process where they are willing to try out new ways? 

Or as DISAC and Protestant missionaries have said, "How do 

you rewrite theology according to the peoples' viewpoint?" 19 

Especially when an animistic people start from a different 

perception of creation and nature from that of a Christian or 

even a Buddhist. Thus the whole strategy of development is 

sometimes a minefield of misconceptions which must be 

trodden with care if socioeconomic development is to be 

successfuly transmitted to village and I or tribal society. 

There is also the question underlying such development: 

what is progress? Can this concept be interpreted in the 

sense that Adam Smith defined progress in terms of scientific 

knowledge of the world by which all irrational elements which 

might and do interfere with the free process of trade would 

be overcome, so that then society would be improved and the 

greater good of the population achieved? 20 

Yet the churches in northwest Thailand, like the 

churches in Indonesia, have learned, and as many intema-


tiona! aid agencies have failed to learn, 21 that unless indigenous 

values are seen as important and given the respect due 

to them, any talk of economic planning/progress becomes 

not the peoples' programme, but the organisation's programme. 

The people are by-passed-for the very best of 

intentions-and the particular development or aid package 

ultimately fails. Here lies the tragedy, for the seeds of failure 

have been planted deeply. Those to whom good would be 

done have had little say in their own destiny. Good is being 

done to them, and not by them for themselves.22 

The White Karens 

In the DISAC area of Chiang Mai diocese, whilst the 

old feudal political structure has changed over the past 150 

years to what is called democracy-however that is seen-the 

economic structure often remains much the same. Much of 

the land is owned by absentee landlords, many of them 

Chinese. There is still the same ratio: 30-40% are tenant 

farmers; 80% own between 1-5 rai (1 rai = 1/2 acre).23 From 

a population of approximately five million in the North, 60,000 

are subsistence farmers.24 Fifteen percent of land owners have 

between 5-20 rai and only 5% have between 20-200 rai. 25 

And whilst in 1960 Thailand began its national programme 

of modernisation and development, the North still 

maintained its own sense of identity with its extended family 

system and its rural poverty which relied on swidden farming 

and in certain areas the growing of opium. 26 The White 

or Skaw Karens call themselves pga-gan-yaw lit. human beings.27 

On the other hand, many Thais from the lowlands and 

the central plain refer to them rather contemptuously as yang, 

lit. savages, the backward ones, in much the same way as 

many Australians still refer to Aboriginal people in the same 

offhand manner as "the Blacks" or "Abos." 

Yet the White Karens have a very clear conception of 

a Creator, as in fact do many of the more unsophisticated 

peoples the world over. Australian Aboriginals talk of the 

"Dream Time"-the time before all things were when the great 

snake brought Creation into existence.28 The people of 

Manggarai on the west coast of the Indonesian island of Flores 

talk of Mori Kereng who strolls through the land he has created 

like a country squire, with his dogs and servants.29 In 

West Timor there is Uis Neno, the creator of all things. 30 

Because all these groups of peoples are close to nature they 

have a great and deep understanding and attachment to the 

earth, and creation is as close as the bond between a child 

and its mother. 

In the mythology of the White Karen there is itatu, the 

Supreme Being, creator of earth, stars and mountains. There 

is also a plethora of lesser spirits who may be benign and 

benificent if placated, but who might just as easily by antagonistic 

if offended, like the Marapu of the Island of Sumba in 

Indonesia.31 Thus the White Karens, in company with animists 

the world over, walk a very narrow line between contentment 

and fear. 

The spirit of evil (Satan) is called Mu Gau Li and it is 

this spirit which continually tries to harm Ywa, who are the 

seven children to whom God has given birth: black, brown, 

yellow, red, bronze, white, and golden brown. 

Unless this spirituality with its constant fear of spirits 

is understood and taken into consideration by those concerned 

with bringing development into such an animist milieu, and 

at the same time trying to replace this fear with the conviction 

that "perfect love casts out fear," then any agricultural or 

economic strategies will not be deep nor ultimately successful. 

And this despite any amount of financial aid spent in 

irrigation works, the encouraging of diversification of crops 

and the hard work of agricultural and development experts 

from government or non-government agencies and organisations. 

Whilst it appears to be true from a Christian viewpoint 

that full bellies may eventually lead to a consideration 

of other spiritual truths and concepts, the Catholic Church 

has perhaps come later to this philosophy. 

Like many of the Protestant churches, especially the 

narrowly fundamentalist sects in the northwest of Thailand32 

and the Dutch Calvinists of eastern Indonesia, the Catholic 

Church before the Second Vatican Council (commenced in 

1962) was concerned, if not to condemn outright indigenous 

spirituality, then at least to denigrate it. "Superstition" had to 

be eradicated and replaced with traditional Catholic teaching 

and practice "wherein lies the truth." 

Since Vatican II, the thrust under Pope Paul Vl33 (and 

especially under the present Pope John Paul II), has shifted its 

emphasis. Indigenous spirituality must be respected and used 

as a base on which the Christian Gospel can be built more 

securely. With this base, socioeconomic development will 

become stronger, for the people "to whom good would be 

done" may be able to see more clearly that the Church begins 

from where they are and is not a system of belief posed from 

above. 

Socioeconomic development must also likewise come 

from the roots and flow along the branches of understanding 

rather being superimposed. The roots are the people: development 

strategies are the leaves which flourish for a time and 

may finally fall when the chill winds of misunderstanding 

and resentment at being patronised come, as they will and 

do, in due course. 

In this area of the White Karens, water, as in most of 

the tribal regions, is scarce. And if the chemical formula for 

water is H20, it is also life, for nothing can exist without it. 

Not surprisingly, then, for the White Karens water is more 

than a formula: it has a spirit of its own. All things have their 

spirit: rice, water, buffalo, mountains. So for the tribespeople, 

animists or newly-converted Christians, money has no value 

in itself; another reason why rice banks seem to have become 

popular. Having said that, perhaps another problem for the 

Church to overcome is the belief that since K'la, 34 the spirit of 

the rice, is life-giving, how is it possible to sell life itself? But 

rice can be freely given-another reason for the success of the 

rice-banks. 35 This rice donation is called by the White Karens 

boo rna bu, lit. "married rice," since as a wife helps her husband, 

so this rice helps those in riceless villages.


Similarly the buffalo has a spirit, and it too relates to 

everything in the ban. The Western view sees the buffalo in 

terms of say, 5,000 Baht (A$ 260), but the tribes see it as 

related to God and the other families, and to the ancestors. 36 

When a buffalo dies, that loss is experienced by all the ban. 

When a buffalo is lost or stolen, everyone looks for it, because 

all are affected. How can one sell that which has a spiritual 

connotation? Thus with rice: if a neighbouring ban needs a 

buffalo, then they are given it by a group, another ban or even 

by DISAC. There is an economic stratum to this but it is an 

economic stratum unrelated to anything as crass as money 

and the theories of Adam Smith. 

It is part of what is called tarn tordis, a tradition found 

in many animist Hill Tribes but especially amongst the White 

Karen. It is particularly to the fore during the period of local 

starvation and hardship experienced between the end of one 

harvest's food supplies and before the next harvest is ripe. 

People who have, give to those who have not. It might be 

thought that this neighbourly compassion or gotong royong 

has its roots in Christian compassion. Rather it comes from 

the tribes own spirituality and faith and generosity. So the 

Church therefore must acknowledge that traditional wisdom 

and those values which have already been in situ since 

creation. "The church is not the only one who has Kingdom 

values and who may give salvation." Thus the role of the 

church and of DISAC is to help these Hill Tribes to reproduce, 

to receive and to renew their roots which are expressed 

through daily living in the modern world. As Seri Phongphit 

has written, "Development is not a work, an activity or a 

project. It is a movement in which many who share similar 

ideals take part. " 37 

This is the reason why in the early days of DISAC's 

encouraging the swidden farmers to terrace the hillsides, to 

grow rice, and vegetables which have a higher profit margin 

than opium; to grow perhaps, red kidney beans, which return 

an excellent profit, 38 the Church's development workers found 

it difficult to interact with the local clans. They could find no 

immediate answer to why people were loathe to come to 

meetings to discuss the economic development of their ban 

and its land-why people reneged on loans. Was it a case of 

apathy, and dishonesty? Not unnaturally DISAC blamed the 

villagers who were their potential clients, rather than their 

own organisation. 39 

The ban gradually became stagnant: there was no work, 

no money, no activity, no people willing to participate in any 

new development strategies. And then it became gradually 

clear: the ban had its own traditional remedies and was able 

to organise itself in its own limited and traditional way. If 

those who borrowed money became sick, they were exempt 

from the normal repayment rules. The ban realised that mutual 

aid was more important than repayment. 

So the DISAC had to learn from these simple Hill 

Tribespeople and learn all over again that very valuable lesson 

which has to be learned by all those undertaking any 

kind of socioeconomic development: that a "bottom up" approach 

and not a "top down" approach is necessary. There 

has to be a balance in every part of ban activity; economic 

factors alone cannot be allowed to dominated decision-making, 

for sharing means solidarity. 

Now, talking the problem out together until a consensus 

is reached is imperative 40 and if the people approve of the 

proposed project they will work for it, whilst the DISAC gives 

the necessary funding. Where previously the relationship 

between DISAC and the people was a "project relationship," 

now it is a fraternal relationship: not a client-patron relationship, 

but a family one. Now DISAC gives financial help; 

people share with each other and villages set up rice groups, 

a mutual project between people and DISAC. 

This simple programme of human development is just 

as important in its own way as any Australian-Thai government 

financed scheme 41 with its millions of dollars and small 

army of economic experts. This observation is not particularly 

a criticism, simply a restatement that the goals are different. 

In the Catholic and Protestant development strategies 

the emphasis is on serving the whole person, so that the things 

of the spirit-and not necessarily a Christian spirituality-may 

be discussed and experiences shared as opposed to an emphasis 

on material development only. 

**** 

Yet however development is seen it costs money to 

prepare courses, train village leaders and initiate pilot studies. 

DISAC receives financial aid from the Asia Partnership 

for Human Development, the economic arm of the Catholic 

Church based in Hong Kong. 42 In turn their funds are derived 

from those Asian countries where there are Catholics, 

the money being raised through Lenten Campaigns and donations. 

DISAC's budget is one million Baht (A$ 50,000) for 

three years. The German Catholic organisation Misereor43 

also gave 500,000 Baht (A$ 25,000) for the periods 1988 and 

1989. This latter sum has been used within the White Karen 

area to turn swidden into padi through terracing hillside 

projects. Water found higher up the mountain is brought 

down by natural gravity to the terraces-a source of wonderment 

to old farmers who are puzzled as to how water can 

flow up as well as down. This northwestern region of Thailand 

is very dry and there is never enough wet rice because 

the Wet Season is short, June-November. In the Dry Season, 

November/December-April/May, dry rice is planted. So as 

rule there are only two crops available in one year. And in 

bad seasons when the expected rains are late in coming or the 

volume is less than expected, only one crop of rice can be 

grown, with resultant local famine and hardship. Then it is 

that the rice banks come into play. 

. Relations with the Sangha In Chiang 

Mai Diocese 

As in the Northeast of Thailand in the diocese of Ubon 

Ratchathani, relations appear to be excellent between Catholics 

and the local wat or Buddhist temple. DISAC works 

amongst the Phayao, who unlike other Hill Tribes are mainly


Buddhist rather than animist; but DISAC, monks and abbot 

of the wat often meet for friendly discussions. So much so 

that at the time of the Songkran or Spring Water Festival in 

1989, the DISAC, Fr. Nipote, was invited to preach in the local 

wat, giving the normal Christian blessing to abbot, monks 

and congregation-something unheard of in this area before 

and unlikely to occur very often anywhere. 44 

Like most Catholic priests in Thailand Fr. Nipote carne 

from a Buddhist family, and in 1989, after having been DISAC 

of the diocese for fifteen years, he was given six months leave 

of absence; of which he spent four months in a small hermitage 

in a padi field (and loaned by the Sangha), in meditation. 

In discussions with many Thai Catholics and Protestants 

it appears to the writer that many of them do not often 

see a great difference between Buddhism and Christianity. 

This may well be a perfunctory evaluation and perhaps one 

which many Thai Christians would reject. But in both religions 

there is an emphasis on love and compassion, and a 

desire to penetrate the spiritual mystery of life, whilst the 

Christian doctrine and concept of "salvation" appears not to 

be as important to many Thai Christians of a former Buddhist 

background. This of course is quite at odds, for example, 

with the case of Indonesian Christianity, where there is an 

apparent great gulf between the Church and the mosque, with 

little intercourse between Christians and Muslirns.45 

It might be that the blurring of rigid boundary lines 

between Buddhism and Thai Catholicism/Christianity has 

allowed the Catholic Church, modest as it is, to have made 

small but significant advances in socioeconomic development 

strategies, whereas the Protestant churches in Thailand work 

almost entirely in the area of the Golden Triangle, where there 

is little if any Buddhist influence, and appear to have more 

success in "conversions." 

Animism with its deep roots in the propitiation of 

spirits has little to offer except fear, so that Protestantism with 

its emphasis on a personal God and Saviour has much that is 

attractive to animist peoples. It cannot be denied that the 

American Baptist Mission and the Church of Christ in Thailand 

have undertaken remarkable developmental strategies: 

money and expertise from America have changed many areas 

in the mountains from swidden, with its soil degradation, 

into flourishing cultivated and profitable farming areas where 

the ban and its people have a new sense of purpose and direction.46 

In contrast, the Catholic Church, with fewer actual 

numbers and less available finance, has concentrated not so 

much on diversification of crops as a change in peoples' attitudes.47 

The rice banks are a good example of this emphasis. 

Where once a starving village of another clan or tribe might 

have remained an object of disinterest to a more fortunate 

community, now with rice banks and rice cooperatives there 

is more positive outlook. 

There are objections, of course. It has been said that 

what some see as the blurring of the outlines between Buddhism 

and Christianity is detrimental to the "pure" Christian 

gospel: that the Church, because of Thai tolerance, not to say 

complacency, stands in some danger of preaching a "complacent" 

rnessage. 48 Some urban Thai Catholics see their Church's 

endeavours in the mountains as rather a waste of their priests' 

time and energy and a waste of their rnoney.49 

It has also been said by a Protestant critic that the 

Catholic Church is not dynamic enough; that conversion must 

come before economic development and that any cooperation 

or apparent compromise with Buddhism is fraught with danger.50 

It has also been suggested that "mai pen rai-never mind" 

has been allowed to percolate through the Catholic Church, 

thereby vitiating its eternal message, although whether this is 

so probably depends on one's theological position. 

PIME in Lampang 

The large city of Larnpang is about 80 krn southeast 

from Chiang Mai, and here two Italian priests of the Pontifical 

Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) have their headquarters. 

They are responsible for 46 villages and 700 Catholics 

drawn from the Karen, Akha, Muser and Yao Hill Tribes. 

Although opium was previously grown by the Yao there is 

now in the Larnpang region no opium cultivated on a large 

scale.51 Within the area served by the PIME Fathers there are 

60 elementary schools for boys and girls and a hostel for 

about 158 boys, who come to a village centre some 85 krn 

from Lam pang for schooling, drawn from scattered mountain 

communities. 

As in other areas where the Christian churches are 

working the Hill Tribes appear to be looking for a substitute 

religion. Many, it would appear, are fed up with the demands 

of animism and traditional religion, yet do not want 

to become Buddhists. There is a general suspicion that the 

provincial government is impatient with the cultures of the 

Hill Tribes and their way of life. If Thailand is one nation, so 

the argument goes, then it should be seen to be one nation 

with one unifying culture. 

The difficulty, of course, is that the Hill Tribes are not 

Thai by race and most of them are not Thai by religion, i.e. 

Buddhist. 5 2 Hence the impatience of bureaucrats who would 

like to be able to slot everyone into a neat pigeonhole, and the 

consequent tension between the centre and the periphery.53 

Some 20 krn from Larnpang is a new village comprising 

Palap Yao people who whilst having lived in Thailand for 

about 15 years, originally crossed the border from Laos to 

escape warfare. In 1988/89 they were resettled on land bought 

by the Catholic Church. Of the 300 people here most though 

not all are Catholics, at least in name, this latter comment 

being given added point by the existence of a village shaman, 

who conducts the necessary rituals for the village. The most 

modern building amongst the small ramshackle houses is the 

church. It is newly built, modern, with lots of red painted 

walls and woodwork inside (for good luck). It is important 

for these tribespeople to have their church in their midst for 

such a presence will keep away the ghosts and spirits who 

might otherwise harm the community.54 The land set aside 

for agriculture slopes down towards a lake or large pond 

caused by the run-off during the wet season, with the main 

crop being dry rice. Soon the villagers will have to begin to


terrace the land if they are to contain the soil and allow crops 

to be continued. The visiting priest has suggested to the 

village council that the land is being steadily degraded by the 

continual washing away of the soil but so far it appears that 

his advice has fallen on deaf ears, the reason being that the 

idea of terracing is "modem technology" and is thereby foreign 

to them, for swidden-culture runs deep and strong and 

even such a simple lesson as making terraces for growing rice 

takes a long time to learn. Nevertheless they have to be allowed 

to progress at their own pace to discover that with 

terraces, rice and com can be grown in the same place every 

year. 

****** 

The problems, then, of human development, or of 

socioeconomic development with a human face, are many. It 

is always a temptation for the "expert" to see the problem and 

to prescribe the remedy without ensuring that the local people 

understand or even want new agricultural practices, diversification 

of crops or new markets for their crops. Village 

horizons are always nearer than imagined, and perhaps the 

eleventh commandment for DISAC, or for anyone else involved 

in village development at whatever level is: Thou shalt 

be patient. · 

It is a directive which is too often disregarded, 55 the 

losers being the well-meaning "expert" and the indigenous 

people both. The Catholics of Chiang Mai, like their Protestant 

brethren, wish ·only to help those in need: animists, 

Buddhists, Muslims, without any strings attached. In this of 

course lies both their strength and their weakness. 

NOTES 

1. Cf. Thailand in the 80s (Office of the 

Prime Minister, Kingdom of Thailand, 

1984), p. 262, and also discussions with 

Bishop Michael Bunluen Mansap, 

Catholic Bishop of Ubon Ratchathani, 

1987. 

2. Saad Chaiwan "A Study of Christian 

Mission in Thailand," East Asian Journal 

of Theology (Singapore), Vol. 2, April 

1984, pp. 65-6. 

3. This is Payap University, fourided in 

1974, from whose Research and Development 

Centre comes much of the information 

and technical expertise 

needed by the Church's economic 

planners. 

4. Personal visits to Payap University, 

January 1988 and 1990, and discussions 

with the staff of the Research Centre. 

5. In fact the position of the Catholic 

church in the northwest is similar to 

that of the Protestant churches in the 

Indonesian province of Nusa Tenggara 

Timur, where it is the Catholic church, 

through the Divine Word Missionaries 

(S.V.D) which has financial and educational 

expertise available through 

European channels. 

6. Discussions with Fr. Paul O'Brien S.J., 

Seven Fountains, Chiang Mai, January 

1990. This Jesuit compound houses a 

Minor Seminary and is also a venue for 

postulants to the Society. 

7. The M.E.P. Fathers, whose main 

house is in Silom Road, Bangkok, also 

work in Ubon Ratchathani in the 

northeast of Thailand. As their numbers 

decrease through natural attrition 

or through resignations, they are replaced 

by Thai diocesan priests. 

8. Discussions with Fr. Nipote 

Thienviham in Chiang Mai, January 

1990. 

9. Discussions with Fr. Alessandro 

Bordignon, PIME, at Amphoe Muang, 

Lampang, January 1990. 

10. For further information see Chandler, 

G., N. Sullivan and J. Branson, 

Development and Displacement: Women in 

Southeast Asia (Monash Papers on 

Southeast Asia No. 18 Centre of SEA 

Studies, Monash University, Australia, 

1988), pp. 128-134. The authors state 

that " ... Bangkok has some 500,000 girls 

in bars, coffee shops, brothels, nightclubs, 

massage saloons and sauna." 

Discussions also with Sornehai 

Vichitpam in Chiang Mai, January 1990. 

11. Ibid. However, these authors would 

appear to be more concerned that an 

"anti-vice" campaign always means the 

repressions of the prostitute and the 

imposition of a guilty conscience on 

both prostitute and client, "finally becoming 

nothing more than a power 

instrument of certain agencies under 

different labels." It seems certain that 

the work of the Marina Sisters would 

be scorned by these (apparently) feminist 

authors. 

12. Discussions with Fr. Nipote as 

above. 

13. Ibid. 

14. A priest is trained in socioeconomic/ 

human development techniques in order 

to bring the benefits of modem 

agriculture, e.g. diversification of crops, 

to the Hill tribes (or in other areas, to 

Thai villagers), yet allowing· people to 

develop at their own pace. This is 

called the ''bottom up" approach. The 

DISAC (Diocesan Social Action Coordinator) 

often has a team or a cadre 

system working with him.


15. The local ratu adat (custodian of 

traditional laws and customs) in villages 

in the islands of Nusa Tenggara Timur, 

Indonesia, also wield inordinate power 

amongst their suku or clan, concerning 

the distribution of communual land. 

See Webb, R.A.F. Paul, "Adat & 

Christianity in Nusa Tenggara Timur: 

Reaction & Counteraction," Philippine 

Quarterly of Culture & Society (San Carlos 

University, Cebu), Vol. 14 (1986), pp. 

339-65 passim. 

16. Information obtained from Fr. 

Nipote as above. 

17. The same accusation was levelled 

at the Church in the diocese of Ubon 

Ratchathani, northeast Thailand, during 

the seventies, by wealthy Thai Catholics. 

See Webb, R.A.F. Paul, "Church 

and Temple," Journal of the Siam Society 

Vol. 78.1, 1990. "When I feed the poor, 

I am called a saint. When I ask why 

the poor are hungry, I am called a 

Communist" (Dom Helder Camara, 

Retd. Bishop of Recife, Brazil), cited in 

Judd, L. C., In Perspective: Trends in Rural 

Development and Programs in Thailand, 

1947-1987 (Research Report Series No. 

41, Payap University Center for Research 

& Development (Chiang Mai, 

1989), pp. 111-61. 

18. Fr. Nipote has been the DISAC for 

the Chiang Mai Diocese for the Chiang 

Mai Diocese for over fifteen years. 

Within the Indonesian Catholic Church 

his position is taken by a Delegatus 

Socialis (Delsos) - Social Delegate; but 

the work is the same: that of initiating 

new agricultural and economic developments 

in the villages and/or coordinating 

already existing socioeconomic 

improvements and by cooperating with 

government agencies. 

19. Discussions with Pastor David 

Wells, Theological Faculty, Payap University, 

Chiang Mai, January 1989. 

20. Cf., amongst others, Barber, W.J., A 

History of Economic Thought (Penguin 

Books, London [1967] 1987 edn.), pp. 

25 ff. 

21. See Webb, R.A.F. Paul, "Old Lamps 

for New: Recent Developments in Nusa 

Tenggara Timur. Sojourn - Social Issues 

in Southeast Asia (Institute of Southeast 

Asian Studies, Singapore), Vol. 4. No. 

2, August 1989, pp. 213-18 passim. 

22. Discussions also with Dick Mann 

and staff at the Thai-Norwegian Church 

Development Aid Project office, Chiang 

Mai, January 1989, and the General 

Secretary, Church of Christ in Thailand, 

Bangkok, January 1989. 

23. Compare this amount of land held 

(by White Karens) with land in villages 

of Central Java where the personal 

holdings are more often measured in 

metre strips. Visit to desa Mojopuro, C. 

Java, in 1987 and January 1990, and 

discussions with Bapak Karno, who 

laughed uproariously when asked how 

many hectares of wet rice fields he possessed. 

24. The following information, unless 

specified, is taken from Nipote 

Thienviharn, "Documents of CCTD 

[Catholic Church Thai Development] 

Experiences for CCFD [Catholic Church 

Forward Development Programme] 

1989," pp. 1-18 passim. 

25. Again a comparison with overcrowded 

Central Java is unavoidable. 

Absentee landowners, of whom some 

are businessmen from Jakarta with 

political influence, often own hundreds 

of hectares, using share farmers and 

tenant farmers to work their land at a 

large profit. Discussions with farmers 

in the Wonogiri area of Central Java; 

names suppressed. For further information 

on Thai family land holdings 

see Hart, G., A. Turton & B. White, 

Agrarian Transformations: Local Processes 

and the State in Southeast Asia (University 

of California, Berkeley, 1989), pp. 

58-61 ff. 

26. See Judd, L. C. In Perspective, op. cit., 

p. 195 ff. See also Pauker, G., F. Golay 

& C. Enloe, Diversity & Development in 

Southeast Asia: The Coming Decade 

(Project/Council on Foreign Relations, 

McGraw-Hill, 1977), pp. 168-9. 

27. See The Hill Tribes of Thailand, 

Technical Service Club Tribal Research 

Institute, Chiang Mai, 1986, pp. 7-9. 

This is a common nomenclature for 

animistic tribes throughout the world. 

Aboriginal tribes in the north of Australia 

refer to themselves as "The People." 

Cf. Webb, R.A.F. Paul, Brothers in 

the Sun (Rigby, Adelaide, Australia, 

1978). Cf. also Meggitt, M.J., Desert 

People: A Study of the Walbiri People of 

Central Australia (Angus & Robertson, 

Sydney, 1984 edn). 

28. Bali-Hindus speak, of course, of the 

god Vishnu who dances Creation into 

being. 

29. Verhijen, J., "The Monotheism of 

the Manggarai" in Boburg (ed.), The 

Word in the World, 1971 (S.V.D. Rome, 

1971) pp. 163-6. 

30. Webb, Palms and the Cross, op. cit., 

p. 77. See also Cunningham, C.E., Soba: 

An Atoni Village in West Timor, in Koent 

Jariningrat (ed.), Villages in Indonesia 

(2nd. edn., Cornell University Press, 

Ithaca 1974), p. 65. 

31. See Webb, R.A.F. Palms and the 

Cross, op. cit., pp. 47-50. Also Van Dijk, 

W., "Het Begrip Marapoe in West 

Soemba" in Die Macedonier (1939), pp. 

497-516. 

32. Such as the North Thailand Christian 

Mission at Tambon Wat Ket 

Amphoe Muang, Chiang Mai, and others. 

33. See Abbott, W., Documents of 

Vatican Two (Chapman, London, 1966). 

34. In Java and Bali the spirit of the 

rice is known as Dewi Sri. Cf. Van 

Akkeren, P., Sri and Christ (London, 

Lutterworth Press, 1970). 

35. When this writer met Fr. Nipote he 

had just come in from a three-week 

patrol of some of the villages where he 

had been supervising the collecting of 

rice from thirty ban-458 sacks--to help 

one or two other villages where rice was 

in short supply. 

36. Again as a comparison, the farmers 

of Central Java and in the province of 

Nusa Tenggara Timur in Indonesia see 

the buffalo not only as a work animal 

but also as a "savings bank," selling a 

buffalo to pay for a child's education or 

to provide a clan feast. See Webb, 

R.A.F. Paul, Palms and the Cross, op. cit., 

p. 65. 

37. Seri Phongphit, Religion in a Changing 

Society: Buddhism, reform & the role

88 


of monks in community development in 

Thailand. (Arena Press, Hong Kong 

1988) p. 180. 

38. Discussions with Dick Mann as 

above. 

39. See Vichitparn & Prapahan 

Thienviharn in Nipote Thienviharn, 

Documents on CCTD Experiences, op. cit., 

pp. 119-126 passim. 

40. In Indonesian Gavanese) society this 

process is called musjarawah and mufakat 

(discussion leading to consensus). See 

Webb, Palms and the Cross, op. cit., Ch. 

12, p. 163 ff. 

41. See Judd, In Perspective, op. cit., pp. 

IX-200, 207-8. Thai-Australian Highland 

Programs; Thai-Australian Land 

Development Project; Thai-Australia 

World Bank Land Development Project 

and others. 

42. Discussions with Bishop Michael 

Bunluen Mansap at Ubon Ratchathani, 

July 1987. 

43. Misereor is the German Catholic 

Bishops Conference Overseas Aid Fund, 

which distributes funds (generously) 

throughout the Third World areas, especially 

to projects undertaken by 

Catholic agencies in Southeast Asia. See 

Webb, Palms & the Cross, op. cit., pp. 166- 

8. 

44. Discussions with Fr. Nipote as 

above. 

45. See Webb, R.A.F. Paul, "The People 

of the Book: Christians and Muslims in 

Indonesia" in Indonesia Circle (School of 

Oriental & African Studies, London 

University), No. 35 Nov. 1984, pp. 56- 

69. 

46. Discussions with Revd. Boonratna 

Boayan, General Secretary of the 

Church of Christ in Thailand, Bangkok, 

January 1989, and with Revd. David 

Wells, Payap Theological Faculty, as 

above. Personal visit to a Hill Tribe 

village in January 1989 where fields of 

cabbages, beans and citrus crops have 

displaced the opium poppy. 

47. Discussions with Bishop Michael as 

above and Fr. Peter Paisan Jaidee, 

Rector of Epiphany Seminary, Ubon 

Ratchathani, January 1988. 

48. Discussions with Fr. O'Brien, Fr. 

Nipote, and Dick Mann as above. 

49. Discussions with Fr. Peter Paisan 

and Fr. Nipote as above. 

50. See Chaiwan, S. "A Study of Christian 

Mission in Thailand," op. cit., pp. 62- 

6 passim. 

51. Discussions with Fr. Alessandro 

Bordignon, PIME, in Lampang, January 

1990. 

52. There is something of a comparison 

here with the Aboriginal peoples of 

Australia, most of whom are not Christian 

except in name, and who, within 

their own communities, do not necessarily 

subscribe to white Australians' 

aspirations or European cultural mores. 

53. It is said that the government would 

like to keep a few Hill Tribespeople 

around, dressed in their distinctive 

traditional clothes just for the tourists. 

54. Tongue-in-cheek discussions with 

Fr. Sandro as above. Personal visit to 

this village, January 1990.

THEBUDDHAUNDERNAGA 

Animism, Hinduism and Buddhism in Siamese 

Religion-A Senseless Pastiche or a Living 

Organism? 


C/ 0 THE SIAM SOCIETY 

The ridge poles of Siamese Buddhist temple roofs terminate 

in monster heads (Cho Fa); Vishnu riding on Garuda 

often presides at the gable-end; the presiding Buddha image 

may be seated on a Naga throne; the offerings can consist of 

pigs' heads, duck eggs, fermented fish and liquor. 

A Westerner, accustomed to thinking of the historical 

Buddha as a philosopher, might be excused for supposing 

that the Siamese had created a monstrous misinterpretation 

of Buddhism, ignorantly mixing Buddhism with Hinduism 

and native Animism. 

However, after many years of observation I begin to 

perceive in Siamese religion a wise and generous pattern that 

accommodates the teachings of the Sage together with Hindu 

state-craft, and the fertility concerns of rice farmers, without 

doing violence to any one of them. 

It is a system that works, and has worked for many 

centuries, but today it is threatened by a new generation of 

thinkers, reformers, well-intentioned and well-educated, who 

have forgotten how symbolism works. The system is not 

easy to describe as it is not based on a scripture, and it is 

complicated by a number of difficulties. 

Difficulties 

At one level it is very easy to define Buddhism, 

Hinduism and Animism. For instance:- 

1. If one practises Morality (Sila), Concentration (Samadhi) 

and Wisdom (Pafrii.a), then this is Buddhism, because it is 

what the Buddha taught. 

2. If one worships the Buddha with lustration, lights, incense 

and flowers, then this is Hinduism as one is treating the 

Buddha image as a Hindu god. 

3. When liquor, pigs' heads and fowl are offered, this is Animism, 

because these are the sacrifices demanded by the 

local spirits; they are far from what was acceptable to the 

historical Buddha as we know him (or think we know 

him) from the scriptures. 

These definitions are, however, oversimplifications, 

and like other over-simplifications they work only at the most 

simple level. Siamese religion is an extremely complex subject; 

Buddhism, Hinduism and Animism interrelate within it 

at a number of levels, and my simple definitions fail to explain 

the complex reality. In particular they fail in the face of 

the fact that ancient peoples produced similar rites and myths 

under similar circumstances, and that the Buddhism imported 

here was already contaminated to some extent by Indian earthreligion 

as Indian Buddhism grew up at a time when the 

Vedic religion of the Aryan invaders was reacting vigorously 

with that of the native gardeners. (I have already written at 

some length on this problem in JSS vol. 78 part 1, 1990). 

Despite these restraints and the inherent complexity 

of Siamese religion, I have begun to perceive a pattern of 

mutual support between Buddhism, Hinduism and Animism 

here, in which the one accommodates the others without itself 

becoming sullied (in the case of Buddhism) or losing 

dignity (in the case of Hinduism) or being rendered infertile 

(in the case of Animism). 

Buddhism is chiefly about world-renunciation; Hinduism 

is chiefly about world-organization; Animism is chiefly 

about fertility; they are not easily reconciled, any more than 

the Christian eschatology, the worldly orientation of classical 

Paganism and the fertility interests of the Barbarians. At the 

Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. a committee of Jewish and 

Greek Christians came up with a compromise mythology (an 

all-male Trinity and a separate Mother of God) that would 

have made Jesus the Jew rend his garments and must have 

made the Greeks scratch their heads. Unlikely though this 

committee's product was, it worked to the extent that it became 

the basis for what we still call Christianity. 

The early Buddhist Councils must also have been the 

occasion of high controversy, but their purpose was to 

standardize the memory of what the Buddha had taught. 

There is no evidence (as far as I can see) for an attempt to 

achieve an official compromise between Buddhist philosophy

90 MICHAEL WRIGHT 

and Hindu statecraft and the interests of, 1 the native agriculturalists. 

However, such a compromise was already taking 

place on an informal basis, the Vedic gods lndra and Brahma 

playing an honoured role in the Buddha's life story, and the 

Naga, bringer of rain, father of grain and older than all the 

gods, provides the Buddha with his kingly and fatal seat, as 

early as the 1st century B.C. at Barhut.1 

My picture of how Siamese religion works in all its 

complexity is still far from complete, but in this paper I should 

like to present pieces of the jigsaw puzzle which seem to me 

to form a pattern. I shall begin with the Buddha under Naga 

image with its serpent symbolism which made the Buddha 

and his teaching available to primitive agriculturalists who 

lacked a philosophy expressed in words but who understood 

the significance of symbols. 

1. The Buddha under Naga 

Why should the Buddha, Sage of Sages, be seated on 

a serpent throne? 

Much has been written by Joseph Campbell and others 

about the serpent and all that he means. 2 

The serpent is master of all the elements and is lord 

over all levels of the universe. In heaven he dances as lightning 

in the rain-clouds; on earth he is at home in water and 

on land; his lordship of the underworld is attested by his 

frequenting its doors-the roots of trees, termite mounds, caves 

and springs. 

In Siamese tradition the serpent is controller of water: 

as rainbow he drinks it up (Rung-kin-nam) and then releases 

it (Nak-hai-nam). 

As most virulent bringer of death he is also healer, 

like Nehushtan, the bronze serpent of Moses that was worshipped 

in the Temple at Jerusalem until the reign of King 

Hezekiah in the 7th century B.C. 3 

The serpent is a shape-changer, now snake, now man 

or maiden, now the kingly Nagaraja, now the ubiquitous South 

and Southeast Asian Naga King's Daughter. With his ability 

to slough he is also deathless, renewing his youth instead of 

dying. 

Among agriculturalists the serpent was above all the 

Lord of the Underworld, husband of Mother Earth, who renewed 

vegetation year after year following its annual death 

due to cold or dryness depending on latitude. He was the 

transformed victim of the priestess of the Goddess who 

presided over the murder of the Sacred King or Com King or 

Rice King. 

In later times when the sacrifice of the Sacred King 

was abandoned and the political king tended to reign rather 

longer than the Sacred King's allotted year, the serpent remained 

the symbol of royalty (like China's Imperial Dragon) 

in some cultures. In the Judaic tradition he was transformed 

into the Lord of Evil, despite Nehushtan, and the possibility 

that Yahweh himself may once have been a Sacred King/ 

Serpent of the gardeners, and Azazel a Goat/Goat God of the 

nomads. 

The imagery of the Adam and Eve story (closely 

echoed by the Enlightenment of the Buddha with its hero, 

lady, tree and serpent) is thought to recall the earlier sacrifice 

of the Sacred King and his transformation into fertilizing 

serpent. The image is carried further by St. Paul, who calls 

Christ a second Adam; the Gospels that have Christ descend 

into "Hell" before ascending into Heaven; and a medieval 

Florentine relief showing a Tree of Life (or Tree of Jesse?) 

growing from the corpse of the Old Adam, bearing in its 

branches Christ (the New Adam) in the arms of the Virgin, 

thus continuing the cyclical motion of prehistoric agricultural 

magic, though in these images the serpent is suppressed. 

The medieval Florentine icon gave me an insight into 

another icon, namely Vishnu Asleep on the Serpent, the 

signficance of which had long escaped me. Why should skyranging 

Vishnu need a serpent for a bed? 

In the icon we see the hero attended by his two 

consorts, Sri (Fortune) and Bhu (the Earth). Is he asleep upon 

the serpent as the myth tells us? Or is he dead and becoming 

the serpent? The lotus arising from his navel suggests the 

latter. The lotus arising from Vishnu's navel echoes the tree 

of life rising from the corpse of the Old Adam, and in its 

calyx is Brahma, creator and New Adam. So the ancient 

agricultural cycle of death and new life is completed, to be 

repeated and repeated for as long as man lived close to the 

earth, knowing that earth was the source of his sustenance 

and that to earth he would return. 

This wisdom was understood for countless generations 

intuitively, needing no words to express it; symbols like 

the serpent told the whole story. 

In more recent times (about the 5th century B.C. in 

Northeast India) society had developed to the extent that many 

of its members were relieved of direct dependence on the soil 

for their livelihood. For them the ancient, instinctive, symbolic 

wisdom was lost, just as stones and skulls and animals 

became dumb after having "spoken" eloquently since the very 

earliest childhood of man. 

The ancient wisdom therefore had to be presented 

anew, this time in words which we call philosophy or Dharma. 

Philosophy /Dharma has provided comfort for many, 

but for over 2,000 years most of mankind has lived in a noman's-land 

of poorly understood or misunderstood symbols, 

and conflicting teachings of vast complexity that poorly reflect 

the unending life/ death cycle that our prehistoric ancestors 

must have accepted with an equanimity we lack, who 

tend to view life as something to hold onto at all costs, and 

death as the end of all things. 

Now we come to the essential point: the image of the 

Buddha alone is a philosopher teaching in words to those 

who have lost their contact with the soil; the Naga upon which 

the Buddha sometimes sits teaches wordlessly all the wisdom 

that gardeners ever knew about the comings and going of 

man on this thin earth where plants grow, between the bright 

sky and the darkness of the Underworld where new life rises 

from the corruption of flesh. 

Of course we have been provided with an iconotropic 

explanation of the Buddha under Naga; how the Naga 

Muccalinda slithered from his pool to protect the newly-en-


lightened Buddha from the storm and flood sent by Mara to 

destroy the Buddha before he could preach the way to the 

liberation of beings from Mara's thrall. 

I reject this explanation because of broad mythological 

principle:- The image does not derive from the myth; rather 

the myth is created later to explain (or falsify) the image. 

In the image of the Buddha under Naga the figure of 

the Buddha teaches wisdom in words for those who enjoy a 

verbal culture; the Naga "speaks" silently to those who are 

poor in words but who understand symbolism. 

In this icon we find Buddhism and Animism reinforcing 

each other in many subtle ways. 

2. Hinduism 

2.1 The Contribution of Vishnu 

The highlight of a Siamese Buddhist Vihara (image 

house) or Uposatha (chapter house) is usually its gable-end 

with its elaborate decoration consisting of finial (Cho Fa), once 

a Naga head or monster-mask, jagged barge-board (Bai 

Raka), and Hamsa's Tails (Hang Hong), actually the tails of 

Makaras or aquatic monsters. 

These decorative elements together tell a tale of sky, 

rain/ rainbow, and fecundity, the universal animistic theme, 

but at the centre of the triangle formed by the gable there 

occurs a figure that must be of great significance because of 

its commanding position in the scheme. 

The presiding icon on the gable end may be chosen 

from a variety of sources. It may be a monster mask or a 

serpent (Animist), or a Buddhist scene like the Enlightenment 

or the Great Renunciation, or it may be a Hindu subject like 

Indra (who occurs in Buddhist mythology), or Vishnu (who 

does not). 

Though I have no statistics to prove my point, I claim 

with confidence that the most common icon on Siamese 

Buddhist gable ends is that of Vishnu riding on Garuda, and 

that Shaiva subject matter never occurs in this position. 

A number of explanations for the occurrence of Hindu 

images on gable-ends may be proposed. For instance, Indra 

and Vishnu may represent the assemblage of divinities (Thep 

Prachum) who have come to worship the Buddha image 

within the Vihara. However, this fails to take into account 

the absence of Shaiva imagery. 

A widely accepted explanation is that Vishnu on 

Garuda represents the King of Siam who is considered to be 

an incarnation of Vishnu, and that the icon attests to the royal 

support for Buddhism. 

I believe that the latter proposal approaches the truth, 

but feel that it would be more convincing if Vishim on Garuda 

occurred in all royally founded temples. But this is not the 

case. One also wonders why Vishnu Asleep on the Serpent, 

so common in Cambodian monuments, does not occur (though 

the serpent Vasukri occurs on the foundations of the Prince 

Priest Param.anujitjinorasa who in lay life had been Prince 

Vasukri). 

My proposal to explain the frequent occurrence of 

Vislmu on Garuda on Buddhist buildings is that the palaces 

of the Siamese kings of the A yudhya Period were designed 

by Brahmins using the South Indian Vishnu temple as their 

model, with Vishnu on the gable ends and rampant Garuda 

in the corners between the gables. 

No roofs remain from the Ayudhya period to support 

my claim, but the 19th century Dusit Maha Prasat and the 

Prasat Phra Thepbidon are excellent examples. 

I propose that when Siamese kings of the historical 

period began constructing Buddhist temple buildings they 

based their works on the noblest architecture they knew, 

namely their own palaces with their Vishnu imagery. The 

architects being without guile (or perhaps very clever indeed) 

transferred the image of Vishnu on Garuda from palace to 

temple and allowed it to speak for itself of the intimate and 

delicate relationship between palace and temple, between 

royalty and religion, at once triumphant and subservient. 

In this case of Vaishnavism and Buddhism we find 

yet another dimension of mutual support without intrusion. 

2.2 The Contributions of Shiva. 

Almost exactly in the middle of the temple complex of 

Wat Pho, a little to the west of the western Vihara, there is an 

artificial mountain on which stands a large, beautiful 

Mukhalingam. It stands within the view of the presiding 

image in the Vihara, which happens to be a Buddha under 

Naga. The Lingam, easily datable to the fi rst millennium 

AD., is ignored by the monks but receives constant worship 

from pious local people. 

A Shiva Lingam in such a prominent place in an 

important Buddhist temple comes as something of a shock to 

the informed Westerner, but it raises no blushes on Siamese 

cheeks. I have not been able to discover when it was placed 

there or by whom, but, given the history of Wat Pho, it must 

have been by royal order. 

Why was it placed there at Wat Pho? I do not believe 

that a Council was called to discuss the pros and cons. Rather 

the decision must have been based on subconscious wisdom. 

The Siamese are as aware as Westerners of the Buddha's worlddenying 

philosophy, but they are also aware that until Enlightenment 

is attained and worldly attachment overcome, 

mankind needs fertility. The Wat Pho Lingam stands there 

not to deny or to sully Buddhist doctrine but as a temporary 

alternative or counterbalance to renunciation for those who 

are not yet ready to renounce. 

At Wat Pho there is an interesting west-east progression 

from the fertilizing Lingam to the Buddha-under 

Naga in the western Vihara that tells both stories, to the 

presiding Buddha image in the Uposatha hall to the east where 

there is neither Lingam nor Naga. 

The case of the Lingam at Wat Pho is perhaps unique. 

However, many other large Buddhist temples with their rows 

of Buddha images in the cloisters reflect exactly the Shiva 

temples of South India with their rows of Lingams in the 

galleries, for instance at the Kailasanatha at Kanchipuram and 

the Rajarajeshvara at Tanjavur. The Siamese Buddha images,


like the South Indian Lingams, form a focus for annual 

lustration and merit-making by families who claim a Buddha-image 

I Lingam as their ancestral shrine. 

Every Buddhist temple in Siam exhibits an affinity to 

the ideal Shiva shrine. The 'Luk Nimit' buried under the 

floor of the Uposatha hall, surrounded by eight others under 

the Sima stones, reflects exactly the presiding Lingam surrounded 

by the eight subsidiary shrines (Ashthaparivaradevalaya 

). 

Shaivism in Siam has nothing to add to Buddhism, 

but it forms a bridge between the fertility interests of rice 

farmers and the world-rejecting teachings of the Sage. This is 

not surprising because even in India Shiva is the Joker who 

forms a link between asceticism and lust, and between the 

pure sky and the polluted/polluting earth that feeds us. 4 

3. Shakti-back to Animism 

Here we leave the Buddhist temple and go to the rice 

field where a fair amount of Siamese religion takes place. 

It is my belief that Siamese Animism is so similar to 

the religion of the Indian Shaktas that no borrowing was 

necessary, or if borrowing occurred it would be unrecognizable 

as such. This may seem hard to accept in view of the 

radical differences in imagery. 

The Siamese rice goddess (Mae Phosop) as depicted 

today is a pretty maiden with a sheaf of ripe rice in her hand. 

In contrast the Indian Kali is a ravening hag with a human 

head held by its hair in one hand and a sickle in the other. 

These very different icons are not as irreconcilable as 

they may seem:- 

-- In the case of Kali, the sickle is the clue as it indicates 

that the human head held by its hair has been 

'reaped'; it is in fact a sheaf of rice and Kali is a Rice 

Goddess. 

-- In the case of Mae Phosop one may recall that the 

Siamese have traditionally considered rice as a 

human being. At one time lullabies were sung to 

the new sprouts; when ready for transplanting it 

became 'bold' (Kla) like a teenager; later when ears 

formed it became 'pregnant' (Thong); after reaping 

some of the crop was made up into 'com dollies' 

which were solemnly cremated, their ashes being 

mixed with the seed of the new sowing. 5 

This intense identification of rice with man must have 

rendered reaping a traumatic activity, amounting to the slitting 

of the throat of a being that had been lovingly tended 

from infancy to maturity. The trauma is vividly expressed in 

the Kali icon; it is suppressed in Mae Phosop, but the two 

images both tell the same story. It is another segment of the 

life-death cycle:- murder and eating:- we eat what we kill; life 

is sustained by death. Here again we have Animism coexisting 

with Buddhism (though set a little apart) and supplementing 

rather than subverting it. 

Conclusions 

I submit the above observations with some confidence 

because none of it is new. In modem times the story began 

to emerge when mythologists, anthropologists and psychologists 

started comparing notes and the higher criticism 

had liberated biblical scholars from their blinkers. 

Some two or three thousand years ago the Sages tried 

with varying degrees of success to put the ancient wisdom (in 

fact no more than the common facts of life and death) into 

words, and make it bearable for man who was losing his 

innate equanimity. 

Much, much earlier than that primitive man perceived 

his whole environment as sacred. The hunter begged the 

pardon of his prey and the gardener tended his crops as his 

children, and both hunter and gardener must have known 

themselves to be murderers of what they ate, but rite and 

symbol rendered the deadly business of living bearable. 

In prehistoric times when every stone and bone and 

tree talked and talked, the forest must have been a noisy 

place and may have prompted sparse ancient populations to 

seek the quiet of empty places like the deserts of the Middle 

East where only the sky had a voice. 

However this may be, I submit that Siamese religion 

is rich in information for the study of man and his environment. 

The amalgamation of Buddhism, Hinduism and Animism 

here is not an ignorant clash of ideologies, but reflects 

a wise, pre-conscious matching of the Serpent and the Sage to 

tell a tale available to both intellectuals and farmers. 

NOTES 

1. Boisselier, J ., in Silpawathanatham, year 12, vol. 2., Bangkok. 

2. Campbell, Joseph, Occidental Mythology, Penguin 1988. 

3. Friedman, Richard Elliot, Who Wrote the Bible? Harper & 

Row 1989. 

4. Shulman, David D., Tamil Temple Myths, Princeton University 

Press 1980. 

5. Giteau, M., The Civilization of Angkor, New York 1976.


Figure 1. 

Naga Muccalinda, from Bharhut, 1st century 

B.C.,now in the National Museum, New Delhi. 

Figure 2. 

Panel (Tree of Life) from the Pulpit in San 

Leonardo in Arcetri, Florence.


Figure 3. 

Vishnu asleep on the serpent-bed, Prasat Phanom Rung, 11th Century. 

Figure 4. 

Gable-end at Na Phra Men, Ayudhya; early 17th century?


Figure 5. Kali of Kalighat Temple, Kalighat, 1875-1900. 

Figure 6. 

Mae Phosop, from a popular almanac.

MONKS AND MEDIUMS: 

RELIGIOUS SYNCRETISM IN NORTHERN 

THAILAND 


PROFESSOR, NURSING 

ADJUNCT PROFESSOR, ANTHROPOLOGY 

ADJUNCT PROFESSOR, HEALTH SERVICES 

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON 

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 98195, USA 

Dedicated to 

JANE RICHARDSON HANKS AND LUCIEN M. HANKS, JR. 

with deep respect and the feelings of joy and 

privilege in knowing them through their scholarship, 

and in their work and leisure. 

The Expansion of Urban-based Spirit 

Mediumship in Theravadin Buddhist Societies 

Spirit mediumship has enjoyed a rising tide of 

popularity in urban areas of northern Thailand, particularly 

in the neighboring towns of Chiang Mai, Lamphun and 

Lampang. Estimates by spirit mediums who have been in 

practice for over 25 years suggest that between the late 1950s 

and late 1970s there was a six-fold increase in the proportion 

of spirit mediums per 1000 population. By 1987 there were 

approximately 250-300 in Chiang Mai town (Irvine 1984:317). 

This dramatic change in religious behavior needs to be accounted 

for. The explanation for similar urban-based patterns 

of medium proliferation in Burma and in Sri Lanka may 

account for the numeric increase, but does not address the 

inherently paramount issues of gender relationships 1 or of 

religious syncretism. Both Spiro (for Burma) and Obeyesekere 

(for Sri Lanka) use a functional argument: they see the shaman's 

practice of divination as providing an element of 

predictability that contravenes the change and luck that are 

characteristic of life in the modernizing urban environments 

of post-World War Two Southeast Asia (Obeyesekere 1967; 

Spiro 1978:208). 

My first purpose is descriptive. A case study of 

unorthodox behavior of a small clique of spirit mediums and 

monks in urban Chiang Mai demonstrates both the flux of 

contemporary urban Thai religion and a fundamental concern 

with power in the informal sector of Northern Thai 

society. 

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Thirty-Eighth 

Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Inc., Chicago, 

illinois, 22 March 1986, in a panel dedicated to Jane Richardson Hanks 

and Lucien M. Hanks, Jr. Plans to publish the panel papers in a 

Festschrift were cancelled in 1990. 

Spirit Mediumship in Urban Northern 

Thailand 

The terms for spirit medium in northern Thailand, 

maa khii and jaw song, refer to lay persons who invite spirits

98 MARJORIE A. MUECKE 

to take possession of their human bodies in order to speak 

and act through them to human beings. Both terms translate 

as a "horse ridden" 2 by a spirit, signifying that the medium is 

a means by which spirits move among humans. Maa khii is 

a local term; jaw song is the term preferred in Central Thailand 

and in the Standard Thai language. Jaw song also signifies 

that the possessing spirit is of princely or holy status, 

and the medium, correspondingly, of a more elite status than 

the common maa khii. 

The meditl,IJls are usually female. 3 Their sex contrasts 

with that of the popular l,lfban cults of the 1970s and 

1980s-the jaw phoo cults, the samnak phuu sawan (Koon-nhu 

1978; Yagi 1986), and the moo tham of the rural Northeast 

(Tambiah 1970). 

A person's initial possession is involuntary and 

frightening to new mediums. As they gain experience in the 

role, mediums in Chiang Mai give Brahman-Buddhist justification 

for practicing it. 4 They explain that by offering their 

bodies as temporary vehicles for the formless winyaan, 

Brahmanistic essences that are between incarnations in the 

cycle of rebirths, the mediums give the winyaan opportunity 

to perform merit-making acts. The gain in the winyaan's store 

of merit brings its next incarnation closer. Thus the mediums 

believe that both the winyaan and the medium gain merit 

through their relationship, and living humans benefit from 

the good deeds performed by the winyaan-possessed medium 

as well. 

The increasing prevalence of spirit mediumship is but 

one of a number of recent changes in religious roles in the 

context of northern Thai society. Keyes (1975) has reported a 

decline in the prevalence of temporary service in the 

monkhood in urban areas. He has associated this decline 

with the spread and secularization of education in the country. 

My medium informants say that the proportion of males 

who are spirit mediums has increased in the past 15 to 20 

years. How these two trends may be interrelated warrants 

further study. 

The decrease in number of Buddhist monks parallels 

a decline in traditional animist practice. In a recent work, I 

reported that ancestral cults (phii puu yaa) in Chiang Mai town 

were on the wane (1984; cf. Wijeyewardene 1977). Since 

ancestral cults are territorial, being based in the ancestral 

home (Turton 1972; Wijeyewardene 1977), I interpreted this 

demise as a function of economic conditions that have favored 

the sale of inherited property. In contrast, the spirit medium 

cults now on the rise in northern Thailand serve not ancestral 

spirits, but thewadaa, the spirits of figures of regional or national, 

historical and religious significance. Thewadaa derive 

from the Brahmanical system of deities. Although it is believed 

that people still may be possessed by phii (a lower class 

of spirit who may perpetrate evil or good), jaw song 

mediumship involves thewadaa instead of phii. 

Both the ancestral spirits and the thewadaa are described 

by their adepts as benevolent guardians of the moral 

order. However, the two types of spirit differ in several 

important ways: 

1. According to Hindu-Buddhist cosmology, ancestral 

spirits belong to the worlds of phii, humans and animals, 

whereas thewadaa belong to the heavens (deva 

loka) that are inhabited by the gods (cf. Tambiah 1977: 

36-39). According to the Pitaka (Pali Canon), thewadaa 

pay homage to the Buddha and receive instruction 

from him, whereas phii, being lesser and often evil 

entities, are controlled and exorcised by Buddhist 

monks (Tambiah 1970:43, 202, 341); 

2. Ancestral spirits (phii puu yaa) are not identified as 

individual entities, whereas thewadaa who possess 

humans are-in fact they are known by name; 

3. The functional domain of ancestral spirits is limited 

to the domestic sphere and lower worlds, whereas 

that of thewadaa extends to larger society and the 

karmic cycle; 

4. The worldly attachment of ancestral spirits is to a 

particular place, the ancestral home, whereas that of 

thewadaa is to a human being who serves as medium; 

and, 

5. The prospect of economic gain is not a factor in the 

custodianship of ancestral spirits, but is a real and 

attractive incentive for the mediums of historical spirits. 

Society's deemphasis on phii and simultaneous elaboration 

of thewadaa suggests a process of religious upgrading, 

from the localism of animism to the scope of a world religion, 

Hinduism. There is other evidence for this phenomenon in 

the Chiang Mai municipal government's institutionalizing the 

observance of wan khaw Inthakhin in the 1960s. This day 

acknowledges the origin myth of the city, commemorating 

the founding of the city by the Hindu god Indra (Sanguan 

1972:117-160; Wijeyewardene 1971:213-216). Since that time, 

the governments of most other northern provinces have rehabilitated 

the lak muang (city posts) of their capital cities. 

Among the various recent changes in the nature of 

spirit mediumship in Chiang Mai, I will focus upon only one, 

one that presents a cultural paradox: a female spirit medium 

who receives Theravada Buddhist monks as clients. 

The Problematic Event 

A monk kneels before a woman who sits elevated on 

a platform before him (Figure 1 ). In terms of the ethnography 

of Thailand, and of Theravadin societies of Southeast 

Asia, this event presents a double paradox. The customary 

relationship between the two sexes is reversed, as is that 

between Buddhism and animism. These reversals vest power 

where power normally is not, and morality where morality 

normally is not-in the "subordinate sex" and in a folk cult 

rather than a state religion (Bullough 1974; Kirsch 1982). The 

reversals raise questions about the validity of our arguments 

and assumptions concerning the social and moral supremacy 

of orthodox Buddhism over folk religion, and of maleness 

over femaleness in Theravadin societies. The paradoxes may

- 


Fig. 1. 

Theravada Buddhist monk kneeling before a female 

spirit medium: Chiang Mai, July 1978. 

Photograph courtesy of Marjorie A. Muecke. 

rituals, 5 on Thursday (commonly considered teacher's day), 

28 July 1978 (B.E. 2521), at the home of the spirit medium 

pictured [Figure 1]. Monks' observance of the beginning of 

Lent had already been celebrated during the day the previous 

week in monasteries throughout the country. There were few 

participants in this domicile-based Lent-entering ceremony: 

eleven spirit mediums (nine women and two men) each of 

whom were possessed for the ceremony, and three monks 

and two anthropologist observers, who were not so possessed 6 

The Lenten period would be observed for 49 days instead of 

the usual three months. The hostess medium later explained 

that this difference was not a break with Buddhist practice, 

but rather an expression of fundamentalist Buddhism since, 

she said, the Buddha himself had fasted for 49 days. 

I will now describe the characteristic roles of the 

participants in the entering Lent ritual: the mediums, the 

thewadaa, and the monks. 

present a paradigm for the ethnography of syncretism in religion 

in Thailand. 

The occasion of this problematic event was in itself 

unusual. It was the celebration of the major Buddhist observance, 

wan khaw phansaa, the first day of Lent, by a group of 

spirit mediums. Normally, spirit mediums in Chiang Mai 

participate in Buddhist ritual only as do ordinary laity, with 

the exception that they also pay respect at their domestic 

Buddha altars before becoming possessed by a spirit. Once 

possessed, they do not participate in Buddhist ritual. they 

thus recognize functional boundaries between two forms of 

religion, folk Brahmanism and Buddhism. 

Just two weeks prior to this entering Lent ritual, 

however, another spirit med ium in Chiang Mai did the unprecedented 

by sponsoring a Buddhist celebration that was 

attended almost exclusively by spirit mediums. Based on the 

power of her primary possessing spirit (jaw thip jet sii, said to 

be the younger brother of the 17th century King of Ayudhya, 

Narai), she was reputed to be th e senior spirit medium of the 

city. She held phiti th99t phaa paa (lit. "take forest cloths") 

whereby laymen make merit by offering robes and necessities 

to monks; the ceremony is preceded by merry processions. 

She said she sponsored this ceremony to make merit for her 

daughter who had died th e previous year at age 32. Before 

the ceremony, the hostess medium invited the abbot of the 

receiving wat (monastery) to her home to make offerings to 

him. After the abbot left, she and the other spirit mediums 

let themselves be possessed. There followed as ebullient a 

mediums' party as ever, and then a major parade of the merrymaking 

mediums from the medium's house to the wat. Once 

in side the wat compound, all the mediums depossessed 

themselves before soberly entering the vihaan for the Buddhist 

ceremony. They too thus observed a behavioral 

boundary between animism and Buddhism. 

The entering Lent ritual held by the spirit mediums 

did not conform to Buddhist protocol for the ritual. It was 

celebrated at night, as are most possession but no ordination 

The Mediums 

The mediums were all mature, experienced practitioners. 

They differentiated themselves from the other mediums 

in the city on the basis of what they perceived as their 

superior Buddhist morality. They described themselves as 

borisut or "pure," citing as evidence their abstention from liquor 

and their following the Precepts. The hostess medium 

in particular claimed to have no worldly desires, for food, sex 

or material goods. A high level of morality, they said, was 

prerequisite to being selected for possession by a jaw. They 

used the term jaw song exclusively when referring to themselves 

as mediums. They defined their relationship with each 

other in terms of the kinship that their respective jaw shared 

to the same khruu. 

Spirit mediumship in Chiang Mai involves a threetiered 

hierarchy of humans and supernatural entities: the 

human or spirit medium ranks lowest; above her /him are the 

various benevolent jaw who regularly take possession of the 

medium (the 11 Lent-observing mediums counted 64 such 

spirits among them); and above these spirits are the khruu 

(teacher spirits) [Figure 2]. 

1 khrrm 

spirit 

preceptor 

64 jaw 

possessing 

spirit 

11 humans 

Fig. 2. 

Hierarchy of spirit mediumship in Chiang Mai.


The mutual bonds of their respective jaw to the same 

khruu have brought the mediums together and given them a 

moral kinship that is the basis for their social interaction. The 

mediums expressed their sense of difference from other mediums 

in Chiang Mai in their patterns of socializing. They 

often rebuffed invitations to the annual parties (ngaan liang yai) 

that follow upon the solemn and fairly private annual phitii 

kaan yok khruu (ritual to honor the preceptor spirit of other 

mediums; see Grow, this issue). This group considered 

themselves and their jaw above the frivolous display and 

bawdy abandon that raucously characterize the dance parties, 

as well as above the petty competition for recognition 

among the lesser mediums derogatively referred to as maa khii, 

who hold and attend the parties. 

The gathering together of these mediums (jaw song) to 

observe the beginning and end of Buddhist Lent each year is 

atypical of spirit mediums because it denies customary 

boundaries between folk religion and Buddhism. It incorporates 

orthodox Buddhist ritual into Brahmanistic roles, and it 

gathers mediums together at a time outside the normal season 

of their annual ritual parties. 

The Thewadaa 

The mediums described their jaw as thewadaa (divine 

angels). Thewadaa rank very high in the laity's understandings 

of the hierarchy of the demons and gods. One spirit medium 

explained that the lowest of the spirits are those of persons 

who while incarnated committed some loathsome act such as 

cursing their parents or stealing from a wat. Thewadaa rank 

fifth up on a seven-tiered scale: they are the spirits of persons 

who when incarnated were good commoners, kings or monks. 

Above them is only Lord Inthakhin, the founding spirit of 

Chiang Mai, and above him, at the apex of the spirit hierarchy, 

the Hindu god Brahma. The highest ranking thewadaa, 

arahat, possess idthi, mystical power that is acquired through 

the practice of meditation and moral actions. Idthi is ascribed 

to ascetics and meditation monks because of their opportunity 

to practice meditation while ordained (Tambiah 1970:49, 

324). It refers to a complex of power that transcends and 

transforms this life, and that, through sympathomimetic 

thinking, can be transmitted passively to others, as from 

thewadaa to mediums. 

The thewadaa possessing the Lent-observing mediums 

are all the spirits of known historical or religious figures. The 

most famous possess the hostess medium and are the khruu 

for the jaw of the mediums present. The khruu spirits were 

King Saam Fang Kaen and Mogalaana. Both of these spirits 

were intimately associated with Buddhism in previous incarnations. 

Saam Fang Kaen was a fifteenth century king, 

reputedly the eleventh King of Chiang Mai. In his reign, 25 

Tai monks were sent to Sri Lanka to study Pali. They were 

reordained as Theravadin monks there, and returned to Chiang 

Mai with two Sri Lankan "forest monks" who brought the 

Theravada sect of Buddhism to what is now northern Thailand. 

Mogalaana is also a famous figure in Buddhist history, 

being known as the left-hand disciple of the Buddha, and as 

an arahat, one of saintly status that has entered the path to 

nirvana. The Buddha is said to have described him as "the 

chief of my disciples who possess magical power" (Warren 

1973:221).7 According to the scriptures, Mogalaana can speak 

with spirits of all levels, those from hell to heaven. 8 

The Monks 

The two monks were regular clients of the hostess 

medium. They came to her compound every month from 

other northern provinces (Mae Hong Sqqn and Tak), where 

each was busy building his respective temple. They were 

both Chinese-Thai, one originally from Chiang Mai and the 

other from the Northeast (Korat). Both had been ordained in 

a district adjacent to Chiang Mai City. They explained why 

they had become luuksit (followers or pupils) to the spirit 

medium as follows: 

Buddhism teaches to learn by experience. We want to 

know if there is life after death. If we cannot meditate 

well enough to arrive at the answer for this question, 

we can go to a spirit medium and see if there are 

winyaan: if there are, then there is life after death. 9 

For a monk to question the truth of reincarnation 

pushes Buddhist orthodoxy to an extreme. That laypersons 

may seek answers to such questions outside Buddhist teaching 

and practice reflects the great tolerance of Buddhism as 

practiced in Thailand. For ordained monks to do so is unprecedented. 

The monks focused upon winyaan because it is a "life 

principle" that is commonly believed to survive a human after 

death and to have the potential for rebirth into a living 

form OR Hanks 1963; 1965). It also is that which takes possession 

of the medium in spirit possession. A medium is 

predicated on the idea that spirits---winyaan and phii--exist and 

remain active in the world by possessing certain humans. 

The monks had come to the spirit medium as they 

had many times before, to ask the spirit teacher's help (khqq 

khanaa khruu), to obtain naammon (sacral water) and khaathaa 

(magical prayers) for use in their own practices. This time 

they said they also came to participate in the medium's annual 

yok khruu ceremony. The yok khruu is a ritual that is 

conducted by individual spirit mediums, exorcists and like 

performers to honor and reconfirm their relationship with 

their khruu. During the solemn ritual, the human is possessed 

by the khruu. In the current case, the medium was possessed 

by the most senior of the spirits for whom she serves as 

medium. This spirit is the khruu to at least one of the participating 

mediums' usual possessing spirits. It was this same 

ritual occasion that the hostess and guest mediums labeled as 

phitii khaaw phansaa (entering Buddhist Lent ritual). 

The monks participated in the preparations for the 

ritual, repainting the hostess medium's Buddha image in gold. 

They placed the image on a pedestal to the right of the host-


ess medium after she had become possessed by Mogalaana 

and taken the most elevated seat in the room. Each monk 

"wai'd" to the newly possessed medium three times [Figure 

1], then received her blessing: "she" cupped the head of each 

monk in "her" hands as "she" recited khathaa and blew on 

their heads, then "she" did the same over a bucket of water 

th at each monk presented to "her," thereby sacralizing it into 

nan 111 rnan. 

After the possessing spirits had blessed everyone but 

the shocked anthropologists present, each monk performed a 

med itation dance of elaborate choreography that concluded 

with multiple sweeping wai executed to the whispered cadence 

of his prayers. The possessed mediums, dressed in silk 

and gossamer Chinese red head covering, short-sleeve shirt, 

and pants, then enacted a mock circumambulation, bearing 

ca ndles and joss sticks in their prayer-positioned hands. Later 

the monks retired to their quarters in the domestic compound 

where the hostess medium, who was by then depossessed of 

her khruu spirit and repossessed b y her u sual spirit 

(thewndna), joined them. 

Interpretation 

Despite the nomenclature used by the different participants 

to describe it, the ritu al observed on this occasion 

was a replica of neither the Buddhist Lenten ceremonies nor 

the Brahmanistic yak khruu ritual, but rather a cross-over of 

the two. "Alms" in the form of betel, fruit, incense, candles 

and flower offerings were given to the jaw and khruu, not to 

monks 10 Circumambulation was inside a spirit medium.'s 

house, not outside around a Buddhist temple. Yak khruu 

offerings were the standard fare of khruang buchan, not the 

expectable pig's head. Danci11 g was by monks who mimicked 

the sword dance (sans swords) of the standard yak khruu 

ritual, not by possessed mediums. Linguistic terminology 

was similarly inverted: the monks used spirit medium's 

Brahmanistic terminology to describe the ceremony-phitii 

knan yak khruu-and the spirit mediums used Buddhist terminology 

to describe it-phitii kann khaw phansaa. 

The ambiguity posed by reciprocal transference of 

Buddhist and Brahmru1istic ritual can be explained by what 

Tambiah (1970:369-70) has defined as a contribution of Hindus 

to Thai religion: "The double relationship to the divine 

tlu·ough priesthood and possession." It was before Mogalaana, 

rather than the female hostess med ium, that the monks knelt 

down, and from him rather than her that they received a 

blessin g. Mogalaana and King Saam Fang Kaen were mentors, 

through the mediumship of the hostess medium, not 

only for the jaw possessing the Lent-observing mediums, but 

also for the monks. 

Thus, the social-moral hierarchy in volved actually 

places the mediums on the bottom rung, paying respect to 

the superior possessing spirits (thewadaa), as well as when 

defrocked/ depossessed, to monks [Figure 3]. Above th e 

mediums in the middle rung, both the thewadaa and the monks 

pay homage directly to the khruu or preceptor spirits. Th is 

Fig. 3. 

Food offerings to thewadaa and to khruu. 

Photograph by Marjorie A. Muecke. 

moral hierarchy is reiterated in expressive form. It is materially 

expressed in offerings of fr uit by mediums only to jaw, 

and by monks only to khruu . 11 

These bonds between spirits and humans were expressed 

in the idiom of kinship as well as of morality. For 

example, one of the monks said that his brothers in a former 

incarnation were now the jaw of two of the Lent-observing 

mediums (Irvine 1984:324). In effect, the monk thus equated 

his moral rank w ith that of thewndnn possessing the mediums 

[Figure 4]. 

The other monk was religiously related to the hostess 

spirit medium: she was his ordination mother (mae buat). 

Before becoming a monk, as a disbeli eving youth, he had 

happened to visit her. When one of her possessing spirits 

spontaneously spoke to him in Chinese rather than in Thai, 

and recited obscure details of Chi ang Mai history that he 

subsequently verified in his studies, he became a believer. 

His natural parents did not approve of his interest in spirit 

possession and d ispossessed him of human parentage because 

of it. The medium encouraged the youth to study Buddhist 

meditation. This led to his becoming a monk and selecting 

her instead of his biological mother as his ordin ation mother.


d d d 

Three brother in a former life 

jaw 

spirit 

monk 

jaw 

spirit Become two thewada and one monk currently. 

[OJ 

jaw song 

medium 

[OJ 

jaw song 

medium 

The two thewada each possess a spirit medium in Chiang Mai. 

Through the spirit medium, the monk accesses the thewada. 

Fig. 4. 

Spiritual relationships of spirits, monks, and mediums. 

The social organization of the Lent-observing mediums 

parallels the social organization of monks in the Buddhist 

Sangha. Both are relatively small groups of the moral 

elite. Both are hierarchicr~lly organized on the basis of the 

ability to detach self from this-worldly or bodily concerns, 

and to attain direct access to esoteric knowledge and moral 

wisdom. Both monks and mediums are socially acknowledged 

as privileged channels of communication between 

humans and the supernatural. Mediums who are jaw song 

and monks who are meditation monks number among the 

few of their respective religious domains that are acknowledged 

to have privileged access to idthi, mystical power. Both 

groups, mediums and monks, aspire to the same end, an end 

that each group complements the other in achieving. Monks, 

after all, are not permitted to become mediums, and mediums, 

usually by virtue of their gender (or if male, by virtue 

of their homosexuality; see Keyes n.d.) may not become monks. 

The end each seeks is the power of true understanding which 

in both the Brahmanistic and Buddhist perspectives involve 

an end to this-worldly attachment. Mediums achieve it by 

giving their bodies entirely over to another soul; monks 

achieve it through meditation. The hostess medium helped 

the monks by incarnating the Buddha's disciple and transferring 

his idthi to them; the monks helped the mediums with 

their achievement of moral excellence by teaching them 

Buddhist doctrine. What we have observed is a syncretic 

blending of a common goal from two religious traditions. 

Dissociation is thus the paradigmatic intersection of 

the two traditions. In the Buddhist tradition, dissociation 

from the body is familiar through concepts of reincarnation 

and of the transitory nature of the body. In the Brahrnanisticanimist 

tradition, dissociation is featured in the concepts of 

possession and soul loss. In Chiang Mai, notions of soul loss 

are particularly evident in the prevalent practice of the suu 

khwan (tying the soul to the body) rituals. 

The shared method of detachment from the body 

renders gender a non-issue and makes the fact that a male 

knelt down before a female and let her hold his head in her 

hands "irrelevant." In their aspiration to the supernatural, 

both mediums and monks are beyond gender. In fact, gender 

has become irrelevant in their respective social roles as well, 

insofar as neither mediumship nor monkhood is a role that 

includes procreation. The monks' celibacy is approximated, 

if not matched, by the mediums' disinterest in reproduction.U 

The female mediums are either separated, widowed, or no 

longer able to bear children; many of the male mediums are 

considered effeminate or describe themselves as homosexuals. 

Being free of family ties and obligations as these Lentobserving 

mediums are is a prerequisite for the attainment of 

Buddhist wisdom, and is another way in which they gave 

evidence of their high moral status. According to the 

Ambattha Sutta, "Whoever... are in bondage to the notions of 

birth or of lineage, or to the pride of social position, or of 

connection by marriage, they are far from the best wisdom of 

righteousness. It is only by having got rid of all such bondage 

that one can realize for himself that supreme perfection 

in wisdom of righteousness. It is only by having got rid of 

all such bondage that one can realize for himself that supreme 

perfection in wisdom and conduct" (cited in Tambiah 

1984: frontispiece). 

If these jaw song and monks are beyond gender in their 

religious roles because their Buddhist behavior has enabled 

their detachment from their bodies, and if jaw song are perceived 

to verify the Buddhist theory of reincarnation, mediums 

and thewadaa may be a confirmation of, rather than a 

challenge to, Buddhist supremacy in Northern Thai religious 

syncretism. The mediums thus offer far more than predictability 

to their clients. They offer knowledge of the supernatural, 

and idthi (moral power).


NOTES 

1 In another context (Muecke 1984), I have 

discussed the specificity of the role of spirit 

medium to the female gender, so do not do 

so here. 

2 The horse metaphor is a common symbol 

for spirit possession in a wide variety of 

cultures (Lewis 1971: 58). 

3 In Chiang Mai it is widely believed that 

women are generally "weak-hearted" (jai 99n) 

in comparison to men who are generally 

"strong-hearted" (jai khaeng), although an 

individual of either sex may express the 

characteristic normally associated with the 

opposite sex. Males, whether boys or men, 

who are considered weak-hearted are often 

labelled effeminate (kathoey). Persons who 

are weak-hearted are typically easily frightened, 

worrisome, gullible, as risk of "wind 

illness" (kaan pen lom; Muecke 1979, 1980), 

and readily penetrated by possessing spirits. 

Heard-hearted people, in contrast, are 

thought to be fearless, stable and sure, and 

highly resistant to spirits. These are the 

terms in which the preponderance of female 

spirit mediums over males are usually explained. 

4 My reports and interpretations are based 

upon ethnographic field work that I conducted 

in Amphur Muang, Chiang Mai. This 

began in 1973-74 as a Fulbright Fellow and 

an NIMH Fellow, continued in 1977-78 as 

co-investigator (with Peter Kunstadter) on a 

grant from the NICHD, and was followed 

up in short visits in 1982 and 1986. 

5 Also see Golomb 1985:124, footnote #26. 

6 The other anthropologist was Walter 

Irvine, then of S.O.A.S., University of London. 

He discusses this ritual briefly in his 

dissertation (1982: 347, 349) and elsewhere 

(1984). Although our observations of events 

concur, our interpretations of them vary 

because Irvine is primarily concerned with 

gender relationships, and I, with religious 

syncretism. 

7 From the Anguttara-Nikaya, i. 14, as 

cited in Warren 1973. 

8 "He goes to heaven and questions the 

deities concerning their previous karma, and 

then he returns and tells it to men: 'It is by 

having done thus and so that they now enjoy 

so great glory.' Also, he asks those who 

have been born in hell concerning their 

karma, and returning, he tells it to men: 'It 

is by having done such and such evil deed 

that they now experience so great misery"' 

(Translated from the Dhammapada, as cited 

in Warren 1973: 222). 

9 Eight years later, the medium validated 

this statement. When asked how the monks 

became her followers she said, "They came 

to test out, like disbelievers, 'Are there really 

spirits? Does the medium really get 

possessed by spirits?' " (April 1986). 

10 Similar offerings have been described 

among Khmer in central Cambodia 

(Kompong Chang Province) when Poree 

Maspero observed a possession ceremony in 

1969. She describes flowers, betel nut, incense 

and fruit being offered to three levels 

of beings: superior gods, ogres (yakh), and 

hermits (rusi) (1975). Zago discusses the 

Brahmanic origin of non-meat offerings for 

higher beings in Laos (1972: 340-341). 

11 See note 10. 

12 The hostess medium described her relationship 

to men: "I was never interested in 

men. My parents found my husband for 

me when I was 25 or 26. If they hadn't found 

him for me, I would not have known whom 

to have. Men couldn't ever come close to 

me-if they got too close, I'd hit them. When 

I was a girl, I went to the Winter Fair: 

some fellow touched me-l grabbed a 

hatchet and hit him! No man was going to 

get near me!"

104 


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DANCING FOR SPIRITS: 

LAKHON CHATRI PERFORMERS FROM 

PHETCHABURI PROVINCE 

MARYL.GROW 

DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY 

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN- MADISON 

Introduction 

Lakhon chatri is one of Thailand's oldest extant forms 

of dance-drama. During the Ayudhya era (1351-1776) and 

early Ratanakosin period (1782-present) lakhon chatri performers 

maintained close associations with the Southern 

dance-drama tradition known as manora. Hence, in these early 

years the dance-drama was commonly referred to as nora chatri 

(Mattani 1978:70; Nicholas 1927:87; Sopha 1986:28). Visual 

representations of nora chatri dancers are depicted on the doors 

of the main chapel at Wat Yai Suwannaram, a Phetchaburi 

temple constructed some time in the early years of the 

Ayudhya kingdom. Invocations transmitted for generations 

from dance-drama masters to aspiring performers bear testimony 

that the dance-drama was originally presented as a 

spirit offering by patrons wishing to placate the beneficial 

and protective powers of the spirit world. 

Today in Phetchaburi province, the site of my recent 

fieldwork, lakhon chatri continues to be performed as a spirit 

offering. Here performances highlight the ritual practice of 

kae bon, in which supplicants ask a spirit for divine intercession 

in accomplishing a particular task, and then pledge a 

I am grateful to the Asian Cultural Council and the Fulbright-Hays 

Doctoral Dissertation Abroad Program for generously funding my 

fulltime research in Thailand (1986-1988). I thank Professors Emiko 

Ohnuki-Tiemey, Katherine A. Bowie, and Phillip B. Zarrilli of the 

University of Wisconsin for their valuable comments, suggestions, 

and enthusiasm. In addition, I pay tribute to the lineage of lakhon chatri 

masters and to the genius of the performers and musicians in 

Phetchaburi province. An earlier version of this paper was prepared 

for presentation at the Forty-Third Annual Meeting of the Association 

for Asian Studies, Inc., New Orleans, Louisiana, April 12, 1991, in a 

panel on "The Performing Artist in Thai Society," chaired by Mary L. 

Grow. 

dance-drama offering to the spirit if their boon is granted. 

Supplicants who reap the beneficial power of a spirit must 

commission a dance-drama promptly to avoid incurring misfortune 

from a spirit who has not been thanked with the 

promised offering. Hence, kae bon participants believe their 

revered spirits, many of whom belong to the higher eleva realms 

of the Buddhist cosmology, have a dual nature. On the one 

hand, if placated with ceremony they can enhance the livelihood 

of the supplicant; on the other hand, if ignored or 

insulted, spirits can create economic hardship, ill health, or 

other unfortunate circumstances in the lives of their supplicants. 

Although lakhon chatri dancers are Theravada Buddhist, 

as individuals who are involved in the performance of 

a spirit offering, they maintain close associations with Hindu 

Brahman ritual expertise. Not only is Hindu-Brahmanism 

(sasana Phram) an essential part of their kae bon spirit invocation, 

but it is central to their dance-drama tradition. Integrating 

their ritual expertise and performing skill into the 

lives of people practicing Buddhism, lakhon chatri performers 

belong to what scholars have identified as the Folk Brahman 

tradition (Kirsch 1977). 1 

In ancient times all lakhon chatri troupes were composed 

of male performers. This gender composition was 

influenced greatly by two factors: Firstly, kae bon spirit propitiation 

was the domain of the Folk Brahman practitioner, 

and as such this expertise was traditionally male dominated. 

Secondly, the Palatine Law, the Kot Monthian Ban, issued by 

the Siamese court in the late 15th century, maintained that 

only the Siamese monarch could own a Royal Female Dance 

Drama troupe, the Lakhon Phuying Khong Luang (Mattani 

1983:24). 2 Within the palace walls this lakhon developed an 

elegance and mystery that was associated with divine kingship. 

In costume the troupe of female dancers not only resembled 

the beautiful celestials of Indian mythology, the divine 

gandhara and kinnari, but both on- and off-stage they were 

strictly the property of the monarch, as legislation forbade

106 MARY L. GROW 

anyone else from cultivating or training a female dance-drama 

troupe. 

Following a Royal Dance-Drama Edict, issued at the 

command of King Rama IV (1851-1868) in 1861, this gender 

restriction was abolished, and women were encouraged to 

perform dance-drama (Damrong 1964:170-195). Today in 

Phetchaburi province the majority of lakhon chatri performers 

are women; moreover, in contrast to former times, almost all 

troupe leaders are women. As such they have become custodians 

of a great store of cultural knowledge that plays a 

vital role in the lives of lakhon chatri patrons. This knowledge 

not only includes a repertoire of dance-drama stories, songs 

and dances, but also occult expertise. By combining historical 

and ethnographic data I will explore how women rose to 

prominence in the lakhon chatri tradition, how they influenced 

the artistic dimensions of the dance-drama, and strengthened 

the occult mystique which surrounds lakhon chatri performers 

today. 

Lakhon Chatri Performers Prior to the 

Edict of King Rama IV 

By the 1800's, prior to King Rama IV's Dance-Drama 

Edict, lakhon chatri troupes were well established in 

Phetchaburi province. These troupes, composed of male 

performers, presented dance-dramas as spirit offerings, and 

they also performed for other occasions, such as Buddhist 

ordinations, funerals, top-knot ceremonies and soul-calling 

rituals. Troupe leaders played an important role in the local 

community as they trained dancers in a repertoire of stories 

associated with the Pafiiia.sa fataka and attended to the details 

of ritual practice. These details often focused upon spirit 

invocation, and included knowledge concerning which invocations 

were most effective with particular spirits, which 

musical accompaniments were necessary, which food offerings 

(sinbon) supplicants needed to prepare, and which days 

were most auspicious for the ritual occasion. 

While spirit invocation was an essential prelude to 

any kae bon ritual featuring a lakhon chatri performance, it was 

also important in soul-calling rituals involving the khwan. The 

Thai scholar Phya Anuman Rajadhon (1962) explains khwan 

as being multiple souls that reside in each person.3 Because 

khwan have the tendency to leave the body, or become disintegrated, 

whereby the individuals suffer a variety of symptoms 

diminishing their health and well-being, a ritual specialist 

is called to restore the khwan to the individual and reintegrate 

these entities in the body. 

Lakhon chatri performers skilled in khwan ritual often 

combined their activities with kae bon. This occurred whenever 

supplicants promised lakhon chatri dance-drama offerings 

to spirits to whom they had asked to heal the individual 

who was identified as needing a soul-calling ritual. Hence, 

performers were able to combine their artistic training and 

ritual expertise, thereby creating a service that was valued in 

the general population. Although the majority of lakhon chatri 

performances are currently presented by patrons who appeal 

to particular spirits for economic assistance, in the past, prior 

to the advent of modem medicine, healing was a significant 

motivating factor in kae bon supplication, and it was connected 

to lakhon chatri ritual expertise. Healing as a ritual 

specialty has not died out completely in the lakhon chatri 

tradition, a point I will return to. 

Within Thai Buddhist culture knowledge is highly 

regarded, and notions of power (saksit) are associated with the 

acquisition of knowledge, particularly that which is transmitted 

over time through an unbroken lineage of teachers, or 

khru. Lakhon chatri performers trace their khru back to the rusi 

("sages" or more literally "seers"), who according to ancient 

Vedic and Brahmanic tradition are regarded as the originators 

of all knowledge. Each branch of knowledge has a khru, 

a teacher or master, who not only transmits knowledge to an 

apprentice or disciple (luk sit), but ideally reveals the power 

inherent in knowledge. Khru are not only actual living masters 

who impart knowledge, but also guardian spirits who 

are respected and venerated with ceremony. 

The ultimate power of the rusi concerns transformation, 

and the disciple's acquisition of knowledge from a master 

is deeply interconnected with this aspect. While all disciples 

respect their lineage khru and the rusi, in Thailand specific 

groups of individuals are particularly devoted to their 

teachers. These include performers, musicians, artists, craftsmen, 

spirit mediums, herbalists, midwives, and ritual 

officiants. All of these people in some way or another are 

involved in activities that require the knowledge and expertise 

to change a particular substance or condition into something 

else. Movement becomes dance, sound becomes music, 

illness becomes health, plants become medicine. By the same 

token, the transformation can move in the opposite direction, 

as with black magic. These practitioners not only revere and 

guard knowledge they have learned from their teachers, but 

they strongly believe that the power of their khru lineage is 

essential if they are to heal, to divine, or to perform. This 

power is activated through devotional songs and sacred recitations 

each time a practitioner is called upon to perform his 

or her services. Efficacy is therefore a matter of securing a 

powerful blessing as well as technical expertise. 

Alllakhon chatri performers received khatha from their 

teachers. These sacred mantras or utterances were believed 

to empower both the dancers and a variety of objects central 

to their performance. Although the exact formula of khatha 

was secret, generally syllables were a combination of Pall 

Sanskrit or Khorm, both languages having a religious significance 

which further contributed to the khatha's power.4 Prior 

to each performance dancers recited khatha to promote their 

artistic skill in dance-drama and to encourage audience members 

to like them. 

Lakhon chatri troupes were custodians of a variety of 

ritual objects that were handed down from dance-drama 

master to disciple. This process generally occurred when a 

master, who was also a troupe leader, retired from the profession 

and gave his significant ritual objects to a dancer whom 

he selected to be his successor. These typically included the

DANCING FOR SPIRITS: LAKHON CHATRI PERFORMERS 107 

crowns (mongkut and chada) and performance masks, the sheaf 

of performance weapons, costumes, musical instruments, 5 the 

pha yan, and the golden Soet. While these objects were annually 

blessed and empowered at Phiti Wai Khru, a ceremony 

paying tribute to the teachers of lakhon chatri, their power was 

also reactivated prior to each performance through a series of 

invocations performers recited to summon the power and 

protection of their dance-drama teachers or divine khru. The 

pha yan, a banner containing mystical diagrams and sacred 

mantras, was empowered through the khatha recitations of the 

troupe leader, who then placed the cloth above the performance 

area prior to further ritual invocations. This procedure, 

as well as the recitation of khatha, is still practiced by lakhon 

chatri troupe leaders today. The pha yan and the khatha were 

an important means of protecting the dance-drama troupe 

from negative spiritual forces, and were essential in warding 

off the curses of rival performers. 6 The golden Soet mentioned 

previously is the most sacred and powerful ritual object of a 

lakhon chatri troupe. Throughout the dance-drama tradition, 

the Soet has been regarded as the resting place of Phau Kae, 

the ancient Rusi Bharata, who is the patron saint of the tradition. 

The Soet not only highlights the altar lakhon chatri 

performers construct at each ritual performance, but it is revered 

and propitiated by the troupe leader who typically 

maintains a shrine at home, and carefully attends to the mask 

whenever the troupe is on the road. At the Phiti Wai Khru the 

Soet is held by a ritual specialist, who portrays the role of 

Phau Kae, and it is placed over each performer's head as a 

blessing is whispered by the ritual specialist. At this time the 

power of the rusi and the lineage khru is transferred to the 

performer. 

In this extended discussion I wish to emphasize that 

the objects I have just mentioned collectively formed a constellation 

of power which distinguished the performers as 

being associated with the extraordinary force of the supernatural. 

While the performer's khatha were secret, and 

therefore unknown to others, by contrast the ritual objects 

used by a lakhon chatri troupe were tangible items that were 

revered and protected as if they had a life and power of their 

own. These objects could not be kept by anyone, but were 

the sole property of the lakhon chatri troupe leader who inherited 

them from a dance-drama master. While both performers 

and non-performers recognized that the power inherent 

in these objects could be benevolent if the objects were 

carefully attended to and propitiated by the appropriate people, 

that is, lakhon chatri performers, by the same token, if the 

crowns, Soet, and other objects fell into the hands of someone 

who was not a lakhon chatri performer, that individual or his 

or her family could suffer great misfortune? Hence, as performers 

surrounded themselves with these objects, they 

strengthened their mysterious reputation in the local community, 

and this in turn enhanced their credibility as ritual specialists. 

Within the lakhon chatri tradition ritual expertise and 

artistic performance were inseparable. Not only were the 

dance-dramas presented as spirit offerings, but even significant 

performance props were intertwined with ritual practice 

and power. As performers relied upon the local community 

for patronage, it was important for a troupe to cultivate a 

loyal following by performing popular dance-drama stories 

and by extending their occult services which were a part of 

the Folk Brahman tradition. 8 

The Rise of Women Lakhon Chatri Performers 

Following King Mongkut's Royal Dance-Drama Edict 

of 1861, women were permitted to train in the dance-drama 

tradition; and except for the Lakhon Phuying Khong Luang, this 

tradition was dominated by male performers. In Phetchaburi 

this royal legislation was significant, for it began a transformation 

in the local dance-drama tradition. Here dance-drama 

artists created their own unique performance style by combining 

the most outstanding characteristics of three popular 

contemporary dance-dramas. These included: 1) the dance 

movements (tha ram mae bot) from the Lakhon Luang, 2) the 

ribald humor (len sanuk-sanan) from the lakhon nok, and 3) the 

didactic stories of the Pafifiasa Jtitaka from the manora. 9 This 

new dance-drama, called Lakhon Phet, not only reached a high 

level of acclaim and popularity throughout southern and 

central Thailand because the genre was inventive and entertaining, 

but moreover, because the troupe featured Mom 

Muang, a female dancer of exceptional beauty and artistic 

talent. 

Mom Muang was the daughter of Luang Aphai, who 

established the renowned troupe of Lakhon Phet. Their prestigious 

titles of Mom and Luang were granted by King Rama 

IV, and they are evidence of the high status both father and 

daughter achieved as a result of their performance expertise. 

Mom Muang, who was born in Phetchaburi, cultivated a loyal 

following of young people whom she trained in the lakhon 

(Nuanlaong and Jintana 1983:11-12). Following her marriage 

to the Governor of Phetchaburi, Phya Suraphan Phisut, a 

gesture which again enhanced both her reputation and the 

reputation of her dance-drama troupe, Mom Muang brought 

her dancers to the governor's mansion where they entertained 

a variety of local and national dignitaries. She also performed 

with these dancers for Kings Rama IV and V at their summer 

palaces in Phetchaburi. 10 Impressed by both Mom Muang's 

artistic talent and the enthusiasm of her dancers, King Rama 

IV gave them a land grant where a performance pavilion was 

constructed. 

Phetchaburi dance-drama performers, influenced by 

Mom Muang's performance style, emulated the slow and 

elegant dance movements of the Lakhon Phuying Khong Luang. 

Further imitating this royal tradition, local troupes began to 

feature women in both the roles of dance-drama hero and 

heroine. 11 Thus, women began to assume leading positions in 

dance-drama troupes, a trend patrons supported because it 

duplicated the artistic standards set by the court (Figure 1). 

In Phetchaburi, patrons were generally merchants, land 

owners, and members of the aristocracy who served as local

108 MARY L. GROW 

Fig. 1. Women performers from Phetchaburi province 

stage a battle between the forces of good and evil. 

Their choreography is patterned after the court 

tradition. Photographs courtesy of the author. 

Fig. 2. The role of the joker in lakhon chatri continues to 

be played by men. 

bureaucrats. By commissioning d ance-drama p erformers, 

p articularly those trained in the style of Lakhon Phet, patrons 

enhanced their own standing within the community, while at 

the same time enhancing the social and economic status of 

Phetchaburi dance-drama performers. The fact that lakhon 

families permanently settled on land near the royal palace of 

Phra Nakorn Khiri and the prominent temple of Wat Maha 

That, provides further evidence that at least some performers 

economically benefited from the extensive p a tronage 

Phetchaburi troupes experienced at the turn of the century. 

As women trained in d ance-drama they were initiated 

into the lakhon tradition by participating in the Phithi Wai Khru. 

Hence, they received knowledge from a lineage of empowered 

teachers. Likewise, they were given khatha and also 

learned the ritual invocations essential to their performance 

tradition. Dancers could not perform without the blessing of 

their teachers, nor could they simply train in the artistic dimensions 

of music, dance, and vocal recitation. In Phetchaburi 

province many dance-drama troupes performed both lakhon, 

characteristi c of the Lakhon Phet, and lakhon chatri. While 

patrons generally commissioned lakhon for entertainment 

purposes, and even hired troupes who could display elaborate 

scenery and lighting, 12 lakhon chatri performances were 

only presented for ritual occasions, many of which focused 

upon spirit propitiation. 

During these early years, as women began to perform 

lakhon chatri, it was still common for men to be dance-drama 

troupe leaders; and as such, they were called upon to p erform 

the ritual duties patrons expected when they needed a 

soul-calling ritual or a kae bon invocation. But the wives, 

daughters, and other female relatives of the troupe leader 

were encouraged to train in dance-drama, for only women 

could reproduce the aesthetic courtly standards patrons admired. 

While men, particularly troupe leaders, continued to 

perform in some of the major roles, gradually this trend diminished 

as female performers perfected their artistic skill 

and gained popularity with many local patrons. Only the 

joker roles (tua talok) in the lakhon chatri tradition continued to 

be played by men (Figure 2). This was in keepi11g with the 

fact that jokers, who performed ribald scenarios often containing 

sexual puns and overtures, maintained strong ties with 

the lakhon nok tradition; and moreover, both performers and 

patrons felt that if women played the joker roles their actions 

might be misconstrued as being obscene rather than funnyB 

The rise of women in the Phetchaburi lakhon chatri 

tradition was ex tensive. Temple records at Wat Maha That, 

the site of many performances, indicate that the majority of 

performers since the 1920's have been women, a report confinned 

by elderly local lakhon chatri performers and patrons. 

These data, when combined with my contemporary research, 

reveal that women not only became prominent in the lakhon 

chatri tradition, but moreover, they established themselves as 

troupe leaders, a trend prevalent in Phetchaburi today. 

I propose that many factors contributed to this gender 

change in troupe leadership. Firstly, as I have mentioned 

previously, the aesthetic beauty and performance style of the 

female performer was preferred by patrons commissioning


dance-drama. Secondly, the fact that Mom Muang and her 

dancers rose to public acclaim and were honored by the royal 

court further encouraged dance-drama performers to maintain 

a particular artistic standard that revolved around the 

female performer. Thirdly, as lakhon performers established 

permanent residence in Phetchaburi, male performers sought 

additional employment outside of the performance sector. 

Men who wished to maintain a steady family income simply 

could not rely upon a patronage whose taste was changing. 

From an economic standpoint, many lakhon families continued 

to train both male and female members in the dancedrama 

tradition, but men more often than women tended to 

earn money in other ways. Interestingly, men who remained 

committed to performing usually worked additional jobs that 

were flexible and remained available if a family or troupe 

secured a lucrative dance-drama commission. In Phetchaburi 

women from prominent dance-drama families not only continued 

to perfect their artistic skill, but they also began to 

secure commissions from patrons and handle the financial 

arrangements of the troupe. 14 

But lakhon chatri was, and continues to be, a tradition 

associated with ritual expertise. And while changes regarding 

the artistic achievement of female dancers took place, 

thereby enhancing the marketability of troupes featuring female 

performers, changes for women also took place within 

the realms of ritual practice, for it was impossible for them to 

become troupe leaders without developing the appropriate 

ritual skill. 

As women assumed the leadership of lakhon chatri 

troupes they became custodians of the ritual objects that were 

a part of their dance-drama tradition. They not only learned 

the standard invocations which summoned the blessing and 

protective power of their khru lineage prior to each performance, 

but they also received from their dance-drama teachers 

the more esoteric invocations and khatha they needed to 

perform at kae bon rituals. 

At the time I conducted research in Phetchaburi I not 

only met many lakhon chatri troupe leaders who were women 

well versed in kae bon ritual expertise, but also several who 

were locally recognized specialists in soul-calling ritual. These 

women were known as mo su khwan, "soul-tying doctors," an 

identification usually reserved for Folk Brahman practitioners 

who are male. The ceremonies conducted by women are 

comparable with those I attended featuring a male ritual 

specialist. The only difference I must emphasize is a comment 

offered to me by a patron who commissioned a female 

practitioner to perform the khwan ritual. This patron clearly 

stated that the woman was much more adept in poetic oratory, 

and therefore more efficacious in ritual expertise, than 

any of the male practitioners in the province. While this could 

be interpreted to suggest male Folk Brahman practitioners 

are dying out in Phetchaburi, and I cannot confirm this, it 

moreover highlights the fact that some female lakhon chatri 

troupe leaders are conducting khwan rituals, and apparently 

their services are appreciated by patrons. 

Conclusion 

Scholars writing about Thai ritual practice (cf. Kirsch 

1977; Tambiah 1970; Terwiel1975) generally have emphasized 

that while men are ritual specialists in both Buddhism and 

Folk Brahman traditions, by contrast, women are usually ritual 

specialists in animist tradition which focuses upon placating 

spirits. The male Folk Brahman specialist is said to have 

acquired his knowledge from an empowered teacher, and 

generally has been a member of the Sangha, where again he 

gains further ritual knowledge (Kirsch 1977:257). Unlike 

women ritual specialists, who tend to be identified with animism, 

male Folk Brahman practitioners are said to be well 

respected in their communities because their tradition is compatible 

with Buddhism (1977:259); that is, the specialist demonstrates 

qualities revered in Buddhism, such as mindfulness, 

restraint, and piety. A. Thomas Kirsch (1977), who explores 

the ritual expertise of Buddhist, Folk Brahman and animist 

specialists, writes the following: 

Taking on a Buddhist or Folk Brahman role typically 

involves some measure of learning chants, techniques, 

or other lore; by contrast, popular belief has it that the 

spirit brings all necessary skills to a spirit doctor, so 

no learning is involved on her part (1977:259). 

Here Kirsch is referring to female spirit mediums (mo phi) 

who communicate to their clients in a state of trance, and do 

not cultivate ritual expertise, but rather rely upon the visitation 

of a spirit to direct their activities. 

Lakhon chatri performers, particularly women, who 

through the course of time have risen to the position of dancedrama 

troupe leader, present another perspective of the ritual 

specialist, one which challenges, or at least questions, some of 

the categories in today's scholarship. While lakhon chatri 

performers propitiate spirits, they do this in a very prescribed 

manner which is totally dependent upon the sacred knowledge 

they have acquired from a lineage of empowered 

teachers. The spirits they propitiate for kae bon patrons are 

carefully selected from the upper levels of the Buddhist 

pantheon, and the spirits guiding the ritual expertise of the 

lakhon chatri performer include an entourage of deities and 

teachers from the Buddhist and Hindu-Brahman tradition. 15 

The women troupe leaders in Phetchaburi who were my 

informants maintain a high level of respect in the local 

community not only because they teach a distinguished dancedrama 

tradition to aspiring students, the majority of whom 

are women, but moreover, because they are skilled in a ritual 

expertise most people associate with a high level of knowledge. 

While scholars focusing upon ritual practice in Thailand 

have generally discussed the Folk Brahman practitioner 

within the confines of male gender, I propose that women 

dance-drama performers who are skilled in ritual expertise 

are an interesting category of people who have responded 

and contributed to significant historical processes, and have 

carved out a niche for themselves which creatively embraces 

some of the most prestigious and respected characteristics of 

the Folk Brahman tradition.

110 MARYL. GROW 

While elderly women who are now troupe leaders have 

not participated in monastic education and rarely have attended 

more than several years of public school, they have 

received extensive training from their dance-drama teachers, 

and their educational experiences generally surpass those 

available to women in the same age category who are not 

associated with dance-drama. They are well versed in the 

literary classics they perform, and therefore knowledgeable 

about the great poets, musicians, and dancers of the lakhon 

tradition. They not only have training in a variety of ritual 

practices closely associated with lakhon chatri, but they also 

are experienced travelers who have insight into a socioeconomic 

network that extends beyond the local sphere. 

Mae Ying, an elderly troupe leader who has performed 

since she was four years old, talks about her career in the 

following ways: 

I am now 57 years old. Although I have never been 

rich and never had a husband to care for me, I have 

had a good life. I have had many excellent teachers, 

one in particular who trained me very rigorously. She 

would make me practice for hours and humiliate me 

if I did not learn quickly. When we first learned the 

dances at her house she would count out the rhythm 

by tapping a stick on the floor. All of us knew she 

would use this stick to discipline us if it became 

necessary. This may sound harsh, but that is how all 

dancers were trained. Laziness was never allowed by 

a good teacher; there were just too many things we 

needed to learn. I have great respect and love for this 

teacher. Without her guidance I would have remained 

ignorant. I would have been spending my life bent 

over in the rice fields. 

Interviews I have collected from other troupe leaders, 

the majority of whom range from approximately 45 to 60 

years old, reflect a similar perspective of their teachers and 

training. All women felt the dance-drama tradition offered 

them a learning opportunity that otherwise was unavailable 

to them. Because most women belong to families who had 

participated in dance-drama for several generations, they 

considered it foolish to abandon a tradition which had 

groomed their artistic talents and made them custodians of 

ritual knowledge. Although most women regretted they were 

not wealthy, and in fact, many now live from one commission 

to the next, they nevertheless recognized their life in the 

lakhon as personally rewarding, and at moments even a bit 

glamourous.


NOTES 

1 Within the Brahmanistic elements of Thai 

religion, Kirsch (1977) identifies two main 

components which he terms as "Folk Brahmanism" 

and "Court Brahmanism." Folk 

Brahmanism is integrated into the religious 

domain of common people, while Court 

Brahmanism is practiced in the royal court 

by an elite Brahman priesthood. 

2 This dance-drama division is also referred 

to as lakhon nai, meaning it is the 

dance-drama of the Inner Court, the private 

domain of the Siamese monarch, his wives 

and consorts, all royal female children and 

pre-adolescent royal male children. 

3 Depending upon whom you consult, the 

number of khwan varies. However, some 11- 

32 are thought to reside in the body. They 

are generally identified with specific parts 

of the body associated with a particular 

function. Hence, there are khwan of the eyes, 

khwan of the heart, and so forth. For a detailed 

discussion see, Phya Anuman 

Rajadhon (1962) "The Khwan and Its Ceremonies" 

(1962: 119-164); also see Jane 

Richardson Hanks (1964: 58-81) and Stanley 

J. Tambiah (1970: 223-51) for an analysis regarding 

the significance of khwan in Thai 

ritual. 

4 Khorm is the script of the ancient Khmer. 

The Khorm alphabet, also known as Mul 

writing, formerly was used to print Pali texts. 

The script is frequently used in the mystical 

drawings of sacred banners (pha yan,) and is 

also prevalent in the art of tattoo. 

5 While musical instruments sometimes 

belong to the lakhon chatri troupe leader, 

these days it is common for an orchestra 

master to own the instruments, or for individual 

musicians to own their own drums, 

ranat, and so forth. When a lakhon chatri 

troupe is commissioned, the troupe leader 

contacts the musicians needed, and these 

people bring their instruments with them. 

6 Performance troupes often competed 

with each other at temple fairs where multiple 

productions were staged simultaneously. 

Troupes securing the most audience 

members were awarded cash prizes and 

considerable prestige. Winning this kind of 

competition was an excellent way for a 

troupe to establish new patronage with 

families who wanted to hire performance 

troupes for their household rituals. Both 

patrons and performers I interviewed claim 

competition was particularly fierce in 

Phetchaburi, and hence, troupe leaders used 

a variety of khatha and pha yan to secure 

protection and success during a performance. 

Likewise, some leaders also used 

khatha to curse their rivals. 

7 Because the rusi mask of Phau Kae is 

regarded by people in Thailand as sacred, 

shops selling dance-drama merchandise 

usually display a sign stating they will not 

sell this mask to tourists or others who do 

not have legitimate connections to the dancedrama 

profession. 

Another example of how people in Thailand 

regard these objects concerns the fact 

that masks, crowns, and similar performance 

items are left at Buddhist temples when they 

are either too worn for further use, or when 

a dance-drama master does not have a successor 

to carry on the tradition. The temple 

is recognized as the only safe repository 

where these ritual objects will maintain their 

neutral power. Collections of shadow play 

(nang talung and nang yai) figures are also 

found at temples, where a master leaves 

them if he does not have an apprentice who 

will use them in performance and venerate 

their spiritual power. 

8 James Brandon (1967) has written that in 

ancient times lakhon chatri performers were 

"sorcerers" (1967:61). I argue that this term 

is misleading not only because it has a strong 

negative connotation, but moreover, because 

it does not credit the performers as having 

a ritual expertise that was valued by the 

dominant patron community. While conducting 

my fieldwork in Phetchaburi, I asked 

many performers and patrons if lakhon chatri 

performers were formerly connected to 

sorcery, and on all accounts people firmly 

associated the performing artist with the 

Hindu-Brahman or Folk Brahman tradition, 

and clearly did not see connections with 

sorcery or black magic. While performers 

certainly had the powers to curse others, and 

occasionally this happened, this was not a 

central part of their ritual training and practice. 

Patrons did not seek out the services of 

lakhon chatri performers because they wished 

to cultivate the 'black arts," but rather, because 

they wished to cultivate the protective 

and beneficial power of spirits who often 

formed part of the Buddhist pantheon. 

9 I wish to thank Acan Saman Sohame 

from Phetchaburi Teacher Training College 

for sharing his insight with me concerning 

the development of Lakhon Phet. 

10 King Rama IV built his palace complex 

of Phra Nakhon Khiri on Maha Sawan hill 

in the town of Phetchaburi. Several years 

later, King Rama V built his palace, Phra 

Ram Rajniwate, in the central part of the 

town along the banks of the Phetchaburi 

River. 

11 The female dancers of the Lakhon Phuying 

Khong Luang played both male and female 

roles. Because many of these dancers maintained 

an intimate relationship with the 

monarch it was considered inappropriate for 

male performers to interact with these 

women during extensive rehearsals and 

performances. Gender segregation within 

the dance-drama tradition was upheld at 

court with many male performers participating 

in khon, a masked dance-drama featuring 

only me. 

12 Performers and patrons refer to elaborate 

lakhon productions as rong yai, "large 

performance area," because a large space is 

needed to accommodate scenery, lighting, 

and many musicians. By contrast, they refer 

to lakhon chatri as rong lek, "small performance 

area," because only a small space 

is required; generally, the size of two straw 

mats (10 ft. by 12 ft.). 

13 For further discussion regarding the 

gender preference of joker roles in Thailand, 

see Mary L. Grow (1991). 

14 For further information concerning the 

role of women in entrepreneurial or commercial 

activity, see A. Thomas Kirsch (1975). 

15 In extended research (1991) focusing 

upon lakhon chatri as a kae bon offering I 

explore how a supplicant's selection of a 

particular spirit and their ritual practice is 

interconnected to a larger culture of class 

(Grow 1991: 45-77).

112 

MARY L. GROW 

REFERENCES 

ANUMAN RAJADHON, Phya 

1962 The Khwan and Its Ceremonies. 

Journal of the Siam Society. 50: 119- 

164. 

BRANDON, James R. 

1967 Theatre of Southeast Asia. Cambridge: 

Harvard University Press. 

DAMRONG RACHANUPHAP, H.R.H. 

Prince 

1964 Tamnan Lakhon Ruang Inao. 

Bangkok: Khlang Witthaya. 

GROW, Mary L. 

1991 Duen Phen: Joker Performances in 

the Nightclubs of Bangkok, in R.A. 

Sutton & J. Dryfess (eds.), Expressions 

of Humor in Southeast 

Asian Performance and Print Media. 

Madison: University of Wisconsin 

Center for Southeast Asian Studies. 

(Forthcoming) 

1991 Laughter For Spirits - A Vow 

Fulfilled: The Comic Performance 

of Thailand's Lakhon Chatri 

Dance-Drama. Ph.D. dissertation, 

University of Wisconsin - Madison. 

HANKS, Jane Richardson 

1964 Maternity and Its Rituals in bang 

Chan. Cornell Thailand Project 

Interim Reports Series Number 6. 

Ithaca: Cornell University. 

KIRSCH, A. Thomas 

1975 Economy, Polity, and Religion in 

Thailand, in G.W. Skinner & A.T. 

Kirsch (eds.), Change and 

Persistance in Thai Society. Ithaca 

& London: Cornell University 

Press. 

1977 Complexity in the Thai Religious 

System: An Interpretation. Journal 

of Asian Studies 36: 241-266. 

MATTANI M., Rutnin 

1978 The Modernization of Thai Dance 

Drama, with Special Reference to 

the Reign of King Chulalongkorn. 

Ph.D. dissertation, University of 

London, School of Oriental and 

African Studies. 

1983 Transformation of the Thai Concepts 

of Aesthetics. Thai Khadi Research 

Institute Paper No. 13. Bangkok: 

Thammasat University. 

NICOLAS, Rene 

1924 Le Lakhon Nora ou Lakhon Chatri 

et les origines du theatre classique 

siamois. Journal of the Siam Society 

14: 84-110. 

NURNLAONG Chanaphinchasin and 

JINTANA Saengrung 

1983 Suksachoengwikhro Lakhon Chatri 

Khanat Prathinthep. Amphur 

Muang Cangwat Phetchaburi. 

Phetchaburi: Witthayalay Khru 

Phetchaburi. 

SOPHA Kimwangtako 

1986 Suksachoengwikhro Lakhon 

Chatri Phetchaburi lae Lakhon 

Chatri Kansilapakon. Kansuksawic 

hai Kiew Kap Cangwat Phetchaburi 

1: 27-39. 

TAMBIAH, Stanley J. 

1970 Buddhism and the Spirit Cults of 

North-east Thailand. Cambridge: 


TERWIEL, B.J. 

1975 Monks and Magic: An Analysis of 

Religious Ceremonies in Central 

Thailand. Bangkok: Scandinavian 

Institute of Asian Studies & B.J. 

Terwiel.

COSMOLOGY, FOREST MONKS 

AND SANGHA RECONSTRUCTION 

IN THE EARLY BANGKOK PERIOD 


MACQUARRIE UNIVERSITY 

SYDNEY 

This paper outlines the forest monastic tradition in 

pre-reform Chakri Siam, and the declining status and relative 

position of forest monks in the hierarchy and structure of the 

early Chakri Sangha. However, it should be noted that historical 

information on forest monasticism in Thailand from 

the beginning of the First until the Fifth Reign is scarce and 

somewhat patchy at best. We know that from the Fourth 

Reign onwards, many of the "reformist" and doctrinal aspects 

of forest-dwelling (embodied in the thirteen special ascetic 

practices-dhutangas, and techniques of concentration meditation) 

transmitted by orthodox pupillary lines sourced in 

medieval Ceylon became incorporated into the practices of 

the new Thammayut Khana. 1 In a paradigmatic sense this 

reaffirmation with doctrinal sources ensured on-going normative 

imagery embedded in conceptions of the primitive 

arahan ideal; importantly, as Keyes (1987) says, it was also a 

response to particular historical process during the late 

nineteenth century. 

Wales (1965 [1934]) mentioned that the development 

of a national religious structure and hierarchy related to the 

political authority of the king and his administration only 

really commences from the First Reign (1782-1809) onwards. 

However, the basic framework for administrative regulation 

of the sangha was set as early as Lu Thai's reign in the 

Sukhothai Period and further elaborated during the time of 

King Trailok (the eighth king of Ayutthayaa, 1448-1488). Ishii 

(1986:82) points out that it was this latter-mentioned king who 

ranked monks according to their knowledge of the Pali Canon 

as detailed in the 1466 "Laws of the Military and Provincial 

Hierarchies," Phra ayakaan tamnaeng naa thahaan huameuang. 

In the first few years of his reign, Rama I instituted 

extensive reforms of the sangha (Dhani Nivat 1955, 1958). 

After the aberrant period of King Taaksin (1768-1782), Rama 

I attempted to raise the "moral level" of the sangha and "restore 

its prestige and authority," and thus, in stressing the 

scriptural tradition, issued seven decrees followed by a new 

decree each year during 1789, 1794 and 1801 (Wenk 1968:39). 

One of these decrees required each monk to identify with a 

specific monastery and Preceptor (Upatchaa, Pali: Upajjha/ 

Upajjhaya). He was also required to obtain an identifying 

certificate and carry it with him if travelling outside the 

monastery during the phansaa (Pali: vassa-rains retreat period). 

No monk arriving at a monastery from another district 

was to be permitted to stay until his documents had been 

examined (Ishii 1986:65), and all abbots had to forward a 

register of monks under their supervision for mobilisation 

and control of manpower (C. Reynolds 1972:42-3). This, as 

Tambiah (1976:185) notes, drastically restricted the mobility 

of wandering forest monks. 

The first Chakri king felt the need to "instruct" and 

purify (chamra) the sangha, especially to regulate the behaviour 

of monks throughout the country in line with the newly 

interpreted Winai (Pall: Vinaya). This reflected the immense 

political power of the king in the religious sphere and served 

as a basis for legitimating his own authority and right to rule. 

The tight regulation of the sangha by the first Chakri king 

was a feature noted by Crawfurd (1967:368), who also mentioned 

that there were no "sectaries" as the "religion was 

completely identified with the government." The king 

regulated the day-to-day affairs of the sangha; in turn monks 

depended on a benign king for "subsistence and promotion." 

The king did not hesitate to criticise the wrong-doing of monks 

on textual grounds, and bemoaned that "monks nowadays 

completely abandoned the Vinaya;" they did not study and 

wandered about in the market places, visited musical and 

dramatic performances, gambled and played draughts (Wyatt 

1982:21-22). 

Aye Kyaw (1984:186-7), comparing Rama I with his 

Burmese counterpart King Bodawpaya (1782-1819), said that 

the latter stressed that monks should observe the dhutangas; 

they should practice in the forest away from the laity, wear 

robes made from discarded cloth (bangsukunjiiwon, Pali:

114 JAMES L. TAYLOR 

pamsukulika) and go on alms-round every day. This contrasts 

with the objectives of Rama I, who was more concerned, after 

the unstable previous period and military threat from the 

Burmese, to tightly regulate the sangha from the centre 

through organisational coherence, hierarchy and an educational 

program based on Pall studies. Perhaps the king's most 

important achievement in the religious realm was the sponsorship 

of the Ninth Buddhist Council in 1788 and rewriting 

of the canon (Ishii 1986:64); thus, added Wyatt (1982:27), 

showing his confidence "in the ability of human minds to 

meet the delicate challenge of ascertaining and interpreting 

holy writ." 

Although Rama I consciously reaffirmed Ayutthayaa 

traditions, he nevertheless "in a subtle way" broke with the 

past such that "the changes he introduced hardly seemed 

significant at the time" (Wyatt 1982:40). As an example, the 

king wanted the sangha hierarchical ranking system 

(samanasak) and structure to follow along Ayutthayaa lines, 

except the title Phra Thammakhodom which he changed to Phra 

Thamma-udom for the deputy head (Jao Khana Rong) of the 

town-dwelling monks (khaamawaasii) on the "right" side (faai 

khwaa). Rama I also changed the title Phra Ubaalii to Phra 

Winai-rakkhit. The reason for dropping these two titles was 

their canonical associations, in the former case with the 

Buddha, and in the latter to the Buddha's arahan disciples 

(Damrong 1970:42). The king was obviously very conscious 

of doctrinal bases in his attempts to restructure the Siamese 

Sangha. 

History and Early Sangha Administration 

Perhaps because of the importance to Rama I of the 

Ayutthayaa model, it may be worth discussing briefly the 

administrative system from the mid-fourteenth to eighteenth 

centuries. As mentioned above, the system of conferring titles 

on monks had been introduced since Lu Thai (r. 1347- 

1368/74)-a high cultural period during Sukhothai, the sangha 

structure seemingly paralleling the top-down civil administration. 

The basic early monastic form influenced by the 

infusion of Sinhalese Buddhism was basically a division of 

the sangha into two sections (phanaek), the head of each appointed 

by the king (Sobhana 1967:4). From these, the Supreme 

Patriarch of the Sangha (Sangkharaat) was appointed, 

with each section no doubt competing for the king's favour. 

These sections were the Khaamawaasii, (right side or section, 

Jaai khwaa) and Aranyawaasii (left side or section,faai saai) each 

with its own ranking system (Yen 1962:55). Seemingly, during 

Sukhothai, monks ordained in the Sinhalese lineage were 

simply classified as "forest-dwellers" in accordance with their 

lineage tradition and its locale perference. The head of the 

Sinhalese monks was known under the title of "Phra 

Wannarat" (lbid.:58),2 at least up until early Ayutthayaa. 

Theoretically, each formal section in the Siamese 

sangha could in turn be sub-divided according to the application 

of special ascetic rules (dhutangas), or simply locale 

preference and pupillage. Also, because there is a fluidity 

within and between monastic groupings (as in town monks 

spawning ascetic reformers and reclusive forest-dwelling 

communities becoming domesticated), certain generalities 

pertaining to religious classifications may, ipso facto, be misleading. 

At the beginning of Boromaraachaa's reign (1424), 

Sinhalese Buddhism makes a second historic impact in 

Northern Siam to establish a new ordination tradition. These 

"new monasteries" or monastic groupings (khana) were known 

as Paa Kaew (Wannarat) (Yen 1962:56), a term broadly extended 

to include all forest monks affiliated to the Sinhalese 

Order (Sihala Nikaya) (Damrong 1970:13). This also distinguished 

them from the earlier indigenised grouping of 

Sinhalese forest monks, Khana Aranyawaasii, traced back to the 

famous Sumana's sangha in the previous century. 

By this time the organisation of the sangha was divided 

into three distinctive groupings and, perhaps reflecting 

the need for purification within the mainstream sangha, the 

Sinhalese newcomers were integrated into the Khaamawaasii 

(town-dwelling, or "House Order" as in Sobhana 1967:4). This 

in turn, as we shall see below, sub-divided into left and right 

sections with the Khana Paa Kaew now constituting the important 

right section or "side" of the Khaamawaasii (Damrong 

1970:13). 

Riggs (1967:75) suggested it was during the time of 

Trailok (Boromtrailokanaat, the eighth king of Ayutthayaa, 

1448-1488) that Khmer concepts and cosmological 

design-itself rooted in Indic cosmology-had an important 

influence in Siam where the bilateral division of left and right 

side "came to play an important part" (see discussion below). 

The state displayed features of a "functionally differentiated 

administrative system" (Tambiah 1976:181) with a new department 

(krom) of religious administration set up, responsible 

for overall control of the increasingly complex sangha 

(Wales 1965 [1934] : 93). 

Trailok's long reign of forty years marked the beginning 

of centralisation and consolidation of monarchical power 

with a firm religio-political base (Charnvit 1976:135). Trailok's 

political integration program in the far north was facilitated 

largely through his display of support for the Buddhist religion 

(as in helping to restore and build monasteries), then 

ordaining-followed by other members of royalty and elite 

(Ibid.: 138). 

Having divided the Khaamawaasii into right and left 

sections, the title of Wannarat or Paa Kaew as head of the 

forest-dwellers (under the previous simple dual classification 

of "town" and "forest" dwellers) becomes replaced by the title 

Jao Khana Yai of the southern section or right "hand" of the 

Khaamawaasii (Wichitwong and Phitthathibodi 1914; Damrong 

1923:13-14). Perhaps because there were many Sinhalese 

monks in the southern principality of Nakhorn Siithammaraat 

the title Phra Wannarat (or Paa Kaew, as mentioned in the 

Chronicle of Nagara Sri Dharmaraja [Nakhorn Siithammaraat], 

trans. Wyatt 1975, covering the fourteenth to the sixteenth

COSMOLOGY, FOREST MONKS 115 

centuries) denoted head of all monks, whether town or forest-dwelling 

(C. Reynolds 1972:14-15). By the turn of the 

twentieth century regional connotations were still associated 

with the above monastic title which carried with it the function 

of Jao Khana Yai Faai Tai ("Sangha General Governor, 

Southern Section"). 

Eventually a new title was given to the head of the 

forest-dwellers called in Pall Buddhachariya [Phra Phutthaajaan] 

(Yen 1962:59), a designatory rank which persisted up until 

the First Reign (Wichian and Sunthorn 1985:33). There thus 

became a head of the Khaamawaasii left "hand," northern section 

(Somdet Phra Ariyawongsaa); a head of the Khaamawaa 

sii right "hand," southern section (Somdet Phra Wannarat); 

and a head of the Aranyawaasii (Phra Phutthaajaan). The head 

of the forest-dwelling community (Jao Khana Klaang Faai 

Aranyawaasii), "Head of the central division composed of the 

community of forest-dwellers," was based at Wat Bot 

Raatchadecha in the capital and was responsible for all forest 

monks including meditation (samatha-wipatsanaa) monks of 

Phra Khruu rank inside the city. Interestingly, as well as this 

he was in charge of the head monks of both the Raaman 

(Mon) and Lao divisions (khana) in the Greater Thai Sangha 

(Wichian and Sunthorn 1985:25). 

A few words are needed to explain the cosmological 

significance of the early Siamese ecclesiastical administrative 

structure outlined above. Heine-Geldern (1942:21) had pointed 

out the relevance of the mandala (or "compass") arrangement 

in the Indic polities of Southeast Asia which had direct implications 

for sangha administration: 

The system based on the compass was largely supplemented 

and modified by the division into offices of 

the right and left hand ... referring to the place on the 

side of the king ... As the king, when sitting on the 

throne, always faced the East, right corresponded to 

the South and left to the North ... 

The whole Siamese civil and corresponding religious 

hierarchies reflected this basic mandala structure of the kingdom, 

influenced by Indic-Buddhist conceptions filtered 

through Angkor. The canonical basis for this cosmological 

design may be compared to the way the Buddha seemingly 

organised his principal disciples around him: Sariputta (regarded 

as the most important pupil) sat on the Buddha's right 

side, whilst Maha Moggallana was positioned on his left side. 

This is the reason given by Wichian and Sunthorn (1985:37) 

for the symbolic superiority of the "right side" in the early 

Siamese Sangha as well as the fact that the largest grouping 

of monks is always to be found on this side. "Right" (south) 

and "Left" (north) dualities may be found in many other cultural 

contexts (see for instance Cunningham in Needham 

1973:216-9). There is also a spatial and conceptual configuration 

in the association of "Right" as "outer" and "Left" as "inner." 

Forest monks by nature of their lifestyle were on the 

outside-to the "south," a positive attribute as Hertz (1973 

[1909]) noted in general for its correspondence to the "right 

side" (though forest monks were not always favoured). Despite 

being on the outside, they were kept close to the centre 

of secular power with kings attempting to bring them within 

easy reach, to the city walls (or at least close to the palace). 

There is also an ambiguity in being situated on the outside of 

established forms and possessing certain much needed charismatic 

attributes. 

Tambiah (1976) described the Ayutthayaa administrative 

layout as functioning along the lines of a "dual classification 

with its asymmetrical or parallel evaluations" in relation 

to a central point, itself an element of a larger universal system. 

Right and left hand categories are arranged according to this 

central position as well as "vertical dimensions of above and 

below and to the cardinal points ... " (Ibid.: 139). 

In terms of actual sangha structure and organisation, 

Thompson (1941:625) commented that its division into northern 

and southern sections (which persisted until Mongkut's 

reforms) appeared to be fairly ineffectual and that by the 

seventeenth century La Loubere (1986:113-119) noted a distinct 

lack of religious hierarchy in Siam. Van Vliet's account (trans. 

Van Ravenswaay 1910) during the same century, despite his 

superficial understanding of Buddhism (though showing some 

knowledge of the ecclesiastical structure), indicates on the 

contrary that there was an effective sangha organisation. We 

learn that there were many monks, divided under influential 

"priors and other ecclesiastical officers" who in turn were under 

the "highest regents, namely the four bishops [Somdet?] of 

the principal temples ... ", the supreme authority being vested 

in the "bishop of the Nappetat ... " (Ibid.: 76). Apparently the 

sangha was well regulated during this period and we are told 

that in general there were "no disputes, quarrels, ruptures or 

sects" (Ibid.: 80). 

The division of the sangha into the above-mentioned 

administrative geopolitical categories becomes firmly institutionalised 

in Mahaathammaraachaa's reign (1569-1590) 

(Tambiah 1970:77), a complexifying feature of sangha affairs 

(Dhani Nivat 1965:16-17); indeed Indic-Khmer cosmology had 

broad significance in the administration of a formative polity 

with intrinsically complex organisational features. 

Shortly after the beginning of Naresuan's reign (1590- 

1605) there was a separate Sangkharaat Somdet for the north 

and one for the south. Up to this time it was not certain if 

there had been a single Sangha Patriarch, given the sangha's 

shifting and unstable base (Ferguson and Ramitanondh 1976: 

107), and in effect as Siam generally was faction ridden, so 

also was the sangha; within the totality of state and its religious 

institutions, the condition of one was dependent on the 

other (Tambiah 1976:189). It was Naresuan who was eventually 

responsible for restoring "national independence" and 

providing Siam with much needed symbols of order and stability 

(Rong 1981:61). 

The well-known poem Lilit-talengphaai "Defeat of the 

Taleng (Mon)," written by Somdet Phra Mahaa Samanajao 

Krommaphra Paramaanuchit-chinorot (the seventh Sangkharaat 

in the Ratanakosin period [1851-3] and Mongkut's Preceptor 

[Upatchaa]), tells of the defeat of the Burmese by


Naresuan and his younger brother. During a fight with the 

Burmese Uparaat, the rutting elephants of the two Thai leaders 

rushed forward ahead of the main Thai contingent and 

engaged in heated battle with the Burmese leader. Naresuan 

won the fight and afterwards issued orders to execute his 

senior military officers who could not keep up with him in 

the fight. However a Somdet W annarat from Wat Paa Kaew, 

the Sinhalese forest-dwelling order, along with twenty-five 

other monks of Phra Raachaakhana rank, interceded successfully 

on behalf of the condemned men. These monks, so the 

poem goes, came from both "sections" (phanaek) of the Thai 

Sangha. 

Due to the development of ranks and titles (samanasak) 

the heads of the various sections were responsible for the 

administration, discipline and ritual defined by the king at 

the political centre and as ultimate authority through the new 

council of the Supreme Patriarch (Somdet Phra Sangkharaat). 

Henceforth the forest tradition lost its formal significance 

because it had no internal administrative structure (Yen 1962: 

61), and the kings turned more to the Hindu conception of 

divine rule with its geopolitical ordering of the kingdom (Dutt 

1966:81). Forest monks had only the status of "assistant or 

deputy to the Supreme Patriarch" and were unable to field 

their own senior monks to the top ecclesiastical position, contrasting 

significantly with earlier Sukhothai.l 

During the First Reign, even though (as mentioned 

earlier) the aranyawaasii had formally disappeared in the 

sangha organisation, the title Phra Phutthaajaan from the time 

of A yutthayaa was retained, as the incumbent of this position 

had to continue to accompany (taamsadet) the king on state 

ceremonial occasions (Damrong 1970:43). Apparently Rama 

I had been impressed with at least one wipatsanaa (meditation) 

ascetic monk called Phra Ajaan Suk (Wat Thaahoikrungkao) 

and promoted him to be "deputy head of the forest-dwellers" 

(]ao Khana Rang Faai Aranyawaasii) with the title Phra 

Yaansangwon (previously Phra Yaantrailok during Ayutthayaa), 

simultaneously inviting him to reside at the important Wat 

Raatchasittaaraam in the capital. 

The position of "head of the southern section" (]ao 

Khana Yai Faai Tai) in the Greater Siamese Sangha was eventually 

shared among three monks with the title Phra Phannarat 

(otherwise known as "Wannarat"). One monk was Sangkharaat 

Cheun, who had earlier been demoted by Rama I for 

supporting King Taaksin and no longer had the eminent rank 

of Somdet (a term derivative from the Khmer language); another 

monk was Phra Phannarat Suk (probably the same as 

the above but listed as resident at W at Mahaathaat, Bangkok); 

and the third monk was Somdet Phra Phannarat (Wat 

Phra Chettuphon) (Damrong 1970:44). As already noted, the 

basic outline of the sangha structure had been set in Trailok's 

time when new Sinhalese-ordained forest monks became integrated 

administratively into the Right Side of the 

Khaamawaasii, southern section lfaai tai). During the Second 

Reign there was little change except in the structure of the 

Pali ecclesiastical examinations (Phra Pariyat-tham) from three 

grades to the present nine grades (Ibid.: 45). 

Wandering Monks, Peri-Urban Monasteries 

and Meditation 

From Richard O'Connor's informative account (1978) 

of the historical developments of selected Bangkok monasteries 

we are told that "wandering meditation monks" on occasion 

temporarily resided in the northern Bangkhunphrom 

Thewet area where several local monasteries taught meditation. 

Many of these forest monks became the founders of 

urban satellite monasteries during the early nineteenth century. 

At one particular monastery a meditation tradition was 

established during the First Reign when a "Lao Prince and 

patron of the wat invited a meditation master Chaokhun [Jao 

Khun] Aranyik to serve as Abbot." O'Connor (1980:34) notes 

that ironically the Pall term aranyik, meaning "forest's edge," 

implies a ritual separation of forest from the meuang (urban 

centre) and yet significantly this monk was part of an urbancentered 

sangha hierarchy that regulated forest monks. But 

monks' personal names and ecclesiastical titles have little 

meaning insofar as actual vocational or locale interests are 

concerned (for example, the title "head of the forest-dwellers" 

for high-ranking urban monks). 

At the beginning of the Rattanakosin or Bangkok Period 

there were supposedly three main urban meditation 

monasteries specialising in the teaching of meditation, namely 

Wat Thewakhunchorn, Wat Raachaathiwaat and Wat Phlap. 

It is not known what direct connections, if any, these had 

with forest monks. 

During the Second Reign (1809-1824) a forest teacher 

named Ajaan Duang had received a royal appointment as 

meditation master at a Bangkok monastery. In the Fourth 

(1851-1868) and Fifth Reigns (1868-1910) one of the abovementioned 

teacher's disciples, the highly respected forest monk 

Somdet To, "rose to the upper echelons of the Thai sangha ... " 

(O'Connor 1978:146). This suggests to Tambiah (1984:221) 

evidence of positive relations between elements of the ecclesia 

and political powers at the centre. It appeared that Somdet 

To and his pupil Luang Puu Phuu (abbot of Wat 

Intharawihaan, or Wat In, from 1892 until1923) used to "leave 

Bangkok together and wander [doen thudong] in the forest" 

(O'Connor 1978:146). Both were highly revered monks and 

both had reputations for their supranormal powers. Somdet 

To had been patronised by King Chulalongkorn, who unswervingly 

believed in his mystical prowess (Tambiah 1984: 

219; see also Chalieo n.d. in O'Connor 1980:34). 

Somdet To's pupil Luang Puu Phuu was born during 

the Third Reign in 1830 at Taak (in Northern Siam, not far 

from Burma) and was encouraged to ordain early by his 

parents who were fearful of the neighbouring Burmese. Phuu 

eventually trekked to the capital where he initially set up his 

klot (large hanging meditator's umbrella with mosquito net 

used as a temporary shelter which can be folded and carried 

over the shoulder during wandering in the forest) in the 

thudong (Pali: dhutanga) tradition along the river in


Bangkhunphrom (Chalieo n.d. in O'Connor 1980:35), never 

again to return to his home town. He died at Wat Intharawihaan 

in 1933 at the age of 103 after long before having a 

nimit (Pali: nimitta, a "visionary sign" which appears to the 

meditator) indicating that he would live through three Chakri 

reigns; the third, fourth and fifth (Lokthip, vol. 2, n.d., pp 188- 

9). 

Even a younger brother of Chulalongkorn became a 

forest monk by the name of Phra Ong Manewt who apprently 

preferred a life of austerities and refused all offers of "wealth 

and honors [rank?]" from the king. Cort (1886) reported a 

meeting with the "small and emaciated" wanderer, then a 

monk with only five annual rains retreat periods (phansaa; the 

normal way of calculating monastic seniority). He ate only 

once a day, went about barefoot without "pomp and ceremony" 

from "temple to shrine, from cave to sacred mountain" 

and in this "expects [or it is assumed as a result of his 

practice] to accumulate the more merit" (Ibid.: 158). 

O'Connor (1978; 1980) reported that at one particular 

Bangkok monastery (Wat Sangwet) up until1916, all the abbots 

had been meditation teachers. By late in the Fifth Reign a 

meditation tradition seems to have become less important 

and a Grade Five Pali scholar was then appointed as abbot. 

This monk came from within the monastery (unlike the two 

short-lived predecessors), stressing a new emphasis on formal 

Pali studies. By this time the new Thammayut grouping 

of monks, now formally a nikaai (Pali: nikaya, sect or order), 

were the principal purifying force among forest monks. Simultaneously, 

the acclaimed spiritual prowess of forest monks 

was largely discredited unless perceived to conform strictly 

to doctrinal themes. In the eyes of leading Thammayut reformers, 

meditation and austere practices had a useful function 

only in terms of orthopraxy and orthodoxy. Thus with 

the emphasis on canonical studies, the Fifth Reign reforms 

effectively redefined sanctity at many monasteries and the 

functions of religiosity, as O'Connor (1980) notes in his study 

of Wat Noranaat. This Thammayut monastery, consisting 

largely of monks from the northeastern provinces, was to 

become an important centre for Pali studies. In fact there 

were many Thammayut monasteries of importance emerging 

in the first decade of the twentieth century in metropolitan 

Bangkok, including Wat Raachaathiwaat, Raatchapradit, 

Bupphaaraam, Phichaiyaat (Thonburi), Senaasanaaraam, 

Somkliang, Pathumwanaaraam and Samphanthawong (see 

N.A. Fifth Reign, Seuksaathikaan, 8/19, 1-19). 

Among these monasteries the first one built specifically 

for the reform monks was Wat Raatchapradit, completed 

in 1864. Throughout early Thai history it has been a tradition 

to have three important monasteries in the capital with the 

names Wat Mahaathaat, Wat Raatchabuurana and Wat 

Raatchapradit. Since the First Reign, however, there had been 

only the first two in Bangkok. After Mongkut became king 

his followers advised him to construct a new monastery, this 

time built specifically for Thammayut monks. They argued that 

it was in any case too far to go each day from the palace to 

another principal royal monastery, Wat Bowornniwet, for 

merit-making, and that if a new monastery were built the 

king could control discipline more easily, since it would be 

situated next to the palace. Less than half a hectare (the 

smallest area of any monastery in Bangkok) of coffee gardens 

were used for the construction site of Wat Raatchapradit. 

Mongkut then arranged for twenty selected scholar monks 

from Wat Bowornniwet to occupy his new monastery 

(Damnoen 1964:55-7). 

When wandering monks came to the capital they 

would often reside outside the walls on open land under their 

klot, the first phase in the establishment of permanent monasteries. 

At another monastery in O'Connor's study (1980), a 

Fifth Reign abbot would occasionally wander in traditional 

thudong style into the forests outside the capital. Here there 

were also white-robed "nuns" (mae chii) practicing meditation. 

Further it is claimed that Wat Chimphli (later Wat Noranaat) 

became established by a wandering forest monk, who had set 

up his klot in an orchard at the present site. The owner of the 

land, inspired by the austerities and meditation practice of 

the monk, offered him the land in which to establish a monastery. 

During the 1930s onwards this was a common practice 

among later reform forest monks in the northeastern lineage 

of the famous Ajaan Man Phuurithatto (1870-1949). As 

an example, after encamping for some time in an orchard in 

the Phrakhanong District (in those days on the outskirts of 

Bangkok), one of Man's pupils was invited to settle and establish 

a permanent monastery on the disused land. The 

donation of land either by villagers or local elite to wandering 

forest monks also took place in parts of the countryside, 

and especially in the Northeast Region among some of Man's 

many pupils. This was largely how the Thammayut became 

established throughout the countryside, linked to a pervasive 

patronage system with royalty in the capital. 

Reynolds (1972) said that since the Third Reign the 

Thai Sangha was formally divided into four primary divisions 

(khana), embedded in a cosmology not unlike that of 

late Ayutthayaa. Seemingly the king had decided to group 

together a Bangkok royal wat (Phra Aaraam Luang) and a 

commoner's wat (Wat Raat) to form one division which he 

called Khana Klaang, the Central Division (Damrong 1970 and 

Lingat 1933). The aforementioned royal monk Paramaanuchitchinorot 

(then Athibodii Song "Monastic Director-General" at 

Wat Phrachettuphon) was made head of this khana. The four 

formal divisions were Neua (North or "left"), Tai (South or 

"right"), klaang (Central), and, in name only with a ]ao Khana 

head, Khana Aranyawaasii (Damrong 1970:47). The Northern 

and Southern Divisions apparently consisted of the towndwelling 

monks (khaamawaasii). 

The new Thammayut-tikaa movement, originally in the 

Central Division, did not become dissociated until1881 when 

Wachirayaan was appointed by King Chulalongkorn as its 

deputy head (jao Khana Rang Khana Thammayut-tikaa). Ten 

years later Prince Pawaret was appointed by the king as ]ao 

Khana Yai Thammayut-tikaa, head of the Thammayut (Damrong 

1970:50-51). He was then replaced by Wachirayaan after his 

death in 1893. With some variation, Lingat (1933:94, 97) said 

that in 1894, two years after Wachirayaan became abbot of 

Wat Bowornniwet and head of the Thammayut, the reform


movement with the blessing of the king formally separated 

from the Central Division of the Greater Thai Sangha as a 

separate nikaai. This was the time when forest monks lacked 

separate administrative recognition in either nikaai (Damrong 

1970:51), though it was some eight years later during the 

Sangha Act of 1902 that this was formally ratified (Tambiah 

1984:71). 

Thus it was that the far-reaching administrative reforms 

around the tum of the century (germinated earlier in 

the Third Reign) with the aim of restructuring the Greater 

Thai Sangha in line with the new civil administration, sounded 

the death-knell for the forest monks as a formal division of 

the national sangha (Tambiah 1984:70). The Sangha Act of 

1902, which changed the status of the Central Division (consisting 

of a category of forest monks) into a geographic-division 

of the Mahaanikaai (Tambiah 1976:235), seems to have 

avoided any administrative recognition of forest monks 

(Tambiah 1976:233-241). The act was above all concerned 

with maintaining a tightened and more uniform control over 

the newly regrouped national sangha (Reynolds 1972:253 ff.). 

However, forest monks (aranyawaasii) had started to 

disappear in the formal sangha structure at least since the 

First Reign, as during this time there were too few forest 

monks to constitute a separate khana (Damrong 1970:43). 

Damrong also remarked that for this reason new administrative 

geopolitical terms, khana neua (north) and khana tai (south), 

became used from about this time onwards (though in fact 

this design had been implemented during fifteenth century 

Khmer-influenced Ayutthayaa). Therefore it would appear 

that the old simplistic division of the greater sangha into 

dwelling or vocational preferences was no longer so relevant. 

Perhaps also forest monks had started to disperse further afield 

from being situated near the capital in a mutual interdependence 

with rulers as the foci of politicoreligious power. Yet 

aside from the institutionalised forest monks which records, 

such as they are, bespeak, there were many ascetic practitioners 

who preferred to wander about in seclusion to live and 

die in isolated forests. These monks of course we know little 

about in records, but a great deal from studying pupillages in 

an oral tradition. 

There is no mention of forest monks in the history of 

the Thammayut-tikaa, nor is there any reference of the persistence 

at least up until 1836 of a Raaman (Mon) Nikaai (that is 

from the "Ramanna Country" in southern Burma). Yet it is 

from some senior monks in the Raaman order that Mongkut 

drew much of his early inspiration (M.R. Thanyawaat 1964: 

40). The Mon monks seem to have been a pervasive influence 

in the central provinces and spawned a number of exemplary 

individuals. One such monk, a dhutanga practitioner named 

Ajaan Thaa (Wat Phaniangtaek, Nakhom Pathom), gained a 

wide reputation as an ascetic meditation teacher from 1857 to 

1907, developing an extensive line of pupils. Thaa was born 

in 1836, was ordained and brought up with Mon teachers in 

his home province of Raatchaburii, and was taught many of 

the strict practices espoused by the Raaman Winai. 

The biography of one of Ajaan Thaa's well-known 

pupils (Ajaan Chaem, Wat Taakong, Nakhom Pathom) details 

his application of the dhutangas in the forest, his extradisciplinary 

rules such as staying with one's teacher for at 

least three rains retreat periods, daily routine at the monastery 

(including, interestingly, tree planting) and consistent 

"insight" contemplation on the traditional thirty-two parts of 

the body (kaaya-khataasati), and so on. 4 Around this time there 

were still many forests around metropolitan Bangkok and 

surrounding provinces and ascetic monks had plenty of opportunity 

for secluded practice. As related in Chaem's biography 

there were also many wild animals not far from the 

capital, although these have long since disappeared. 

During the Sixth Reign the Thammayut continued the 

tradition of using the title and position "deputy head of the 

forest-dwellers" (Jao Khana Rang Faai Aranyawaasii) as evidenced 

by the promotion to this position in 1923 of the third 

abbot of the Thammayut Bangkok monastery, Wat 

Raatchapradit, Phra Phrommunii "Yaem" (Mahaa Thonglor 

1964:31). Then, two years later, the northeastern friend and 

senior of Ajaan Man, Phra Ubaalii (fourth abbot of Wat 

Boromniwaat in Bangkok) took over this position (Ubaalii 

1983 [1947] : 39). 

Throughout the nineteenth century the development 

and spread of the metropole saw the establishment of new 

urban monasteries and, just outside the city walls, monasteries 

occupied largely by wandering monks. Even by the Fifth 

Reign, the Bangkhunphrom and Thewet areas still had some 

forest, which the laity would avoid as much as possible, leaving 

its potential dangers to the forest monks; yet in time these 

monasteries eventually became absorbed into the sprawling 

metropolis and the residences of an establishment clergy. The 

monasteries situated on the purlieu and interstices of social 

order outside the city walls were centres for cremations and 

associated mortuary rites. Only cremations of royalty were 

permitted inside the city walls. Most urban crematoria were 

situated in the commoner's areas outside the walls. To the 

north of the city where most of the new monasteries were 

established were the growing Siamese settlements, and by 

royal proclamation the Chinese were concentrated to the 

outside of the southeast wall, and foreigners further to the 

south along the river. 5 

Wat Saket (to the northeast of the old walled city) is 

one example of a large charnel-ground and crematorium (see 

Bock's [1986:54-60] description during the Fifth Reign) where 

forest monks used to reside temporarily. The destitute who 

were unable to afford a proper cremation simply left the dead 

to the elements and vultures (executed criminals were apparently 

forbidden a cremation by social custom and were similarly 

left to the elements), providing a classic environment for 

"insight" meditation. 6 During the First Reign, Wat Saket (now 

in the heart of the metropolis) was surrounded by forest and 

regarded as the "entrance" to the capital (Phra 

Phromkhunaaphon 1976). It was here that the king ritually 

washed his hair before entering the capital, hence the name 

(saket, "washing royal hair" from the Pali srakesa). During 

Chulalongkom's reign the monastery was a centre for disposing 

of the dead; bodies "were cut up and thrown to the dogs 

and birds" and the bones were heaped together and burned


Photographs courtesy of the author. 

with the ashes spread over the monastery's gardens (Cort 

1886:150). 

Wall-paintings in the bot (Pali: uposathagara, a sanctifi 

ed convocati on hall) at Wat Somanat (see photographs) 

show reform monks during the Fourth Reign meditating over 

decomposing bodies, a meditation subject with the theme of 

"foulness" (asupha, Pali: asubha). As enumerated in the 

Visuddhimagga (VI, 1 ff.), there are ten traditional types of 

foulness upon which the meditator focuses attention; in the 

photographs from Wat Somanat, one pertains to a bloated 

corpse, the other to a heap of bones. 

The paintings were probably done at the instiga tion 

of Somdet Wam1arat "Thap Phutthasiri," a grade-nine Pali 

scholar and meditator who became abbot of Wat Somanat in 

1856. Thap had been at Wat Samoraai around the time of 

King Mongkut's residence and was highly respected as an 

exemplary, somewhat charismatic, austere monk. Thap was 

born at the end of the First Reign (three years before the first 

Chakri king died) and li ved until the Fifth Reign. H is kinsfolk 

had fled Ayutthayaa after the Burmese invasion, settling 

in Bangkok. The Third Reign monarch reputedly supported 

him and had been impressed w ith the young Thap since his 

early childhood. Thap was initially ordained at Wat 

Thewaraatkunchorn in 1823; his Preceptor was Phra 

Thammawirot. He then moved to stay at Wat Samoraai, 

following his teacher, and spent much of his time at both 

meditation and formal religious studies. In fact during his 

li fe Thap was ordained seven times, indicating the extent of 

confusion at the time over the fragmented ordination tradition, 

which had so concerned Mongkut early in his monastic 

career. Thap was a prime example of a pioneering reform 

monk capable of combining both theoretical knowledge of 

the scriptures with intensive urban-centred meditation practice 

(in the latter regard, charnel grounds around the outskirts 

of the city providing ample opportunity). In contrast 

many individualistic forest-dwelling monks largely resisted 

integration into the new sangha structure, especially the orientation 

towards formal scriptural studies at the new reform 

monasteries. They were thus frowned upon by the establishment 

seeking conformity and orthodoxy coniirmed in the 

doctrinal texts themselves. 

However, during the nineteenth century there were a 

number of forest-dwelling monks who established themselves 

on the outskirts of Bangkok, particularly to the north where 

there were predominantly Siamese residents (e.g. in the areas 

of Wat Sangwet, Wat In, Wat Mai Bangkhunphrom). They 

"were recognised by and incorporated into the overall sangha 

hierarchy, but at the same time kept their distance from the 

capital" (Tambiah 1984:72, 379n. 33). It would seem, supporting 

O'Connor (1978; 1980), that it was largely cremations 

which linked these northern monasteries (including also the 

important Wat Saket and Wat Somanat) to a meditation tradition. 

However, although they were ascetic monks intent on 

maintaining correct practices in line with scriptural interpretations, 

these monks were not necessarily "forest dwellers" 

but rather urban-dwelling meditators and Pali scholars (such 

as Wannarat "Thap" mentioned above), undertaking one or 

two of the thirteen dhutangas and perhaps affirming links upcountry 

during periods of dry-season "wandering" (doen 

thudong). But perhaps some of these monks may have been 

forest-dwellers early in their lives, eventually becoming "domesticated" 

along w ith their monasteries which they had


founded. then again, although many newer monasteries had 

a reputation for accommodating forest monks, they may have 

been only temporarily resident during the three-month rains 

retreat, or at certain ceremonial times of the year. 

Significantly, the established royal Thammayut monasteries 

became important centres for the dissemination of 

national ideology and hegemony through a network of rami- 

fied branch monasteries to selected up-country centres 

(specialising in Thai and Pali studies). This nascent 

religiopolitical scenario in the capital and the extension of farreaching 

reforms around the tum of the century led to the 

inevitable embroilment of forest monks moving on the rim of 

social order, embedded in the dialectical tensions and aspirations 

of Chulalongkom's national program of unification. 

NOTES 

1 These influences in fact came largely from 

Southern Burma, a former way-station for 

forest monks ordained in the Sihala Nikaya. 

2 Wannarat (Pali: vanaratana) is the same as 

the term Paa Kaew, literally "jewel of the 

forest." 

3 The number of administrative sangha officials 

appointed to royal monasteries 

throughout the country affiliated to the 

Aranyawaasii, which consisted also of Mon 

and Lao monks, was reputed to be one head 

or Jao Khana Yai (JKY) and seven Phra 

Raachaakhana Rong (PRR) or deputies (Yen 

1962:61). The Khaamawaasii (Left Division) 

consisted of one JKY, seventeen PRR and 

forty-six Phra Khruu in some twenty-six 

provinces. In each of the two groups there 

were also an additional twenty non-titled, 

or monks of lesser status than Phra Khruu 

rank, in twenty provinces. 

4 See Thep, n.d., and Thorngthiew 1985. 

5 See La Loubere's (1969:7) map of Ayutthayaa 

showing a similar cosmographical 

layout. 

6 Personal communication (1986) with 

Maneephan Jaarudun, Buddhologist, Pali 

scholar and Director of the Bhumibalo 

Bhikkhu Foundation (concerned with translating 

and preserving ancient palm-leaf 

manuscripts) situated inside Wat Saket.

COSMOLOGY, FOREST MONKS 

121 

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SECTION III 

ARCHAEOLOGY

SILVER COINS: EVIDENCE FOR MINING AT 

BAWZAING IN THE SHAN STATE 

CIRCA 6TH-8TH CENTURY A.D. 


CHULALONGKORN UNIVERSITY (RETIRED) 

At the third Conference of the European Association 

of Southeast Asian Archaeologists held in 1990 this researcher 

suggested that the development of lead glazing on ceramics 

in Myanmar was associated with ancient mining at Bawzaing 

(20" 57" N 96" 50" E) near Heho in the Shan State, and further 

suggested the minting of silver coins from the silver content 

of the lead ore there by the Mon and Pyu Kingdoms. 

The geologist H.L. Chhibber reported in 1934 that in 

the area of Bawzaing there are ore-bearing zones some 

hundreds of feet in width and extending for several miles 

north and south. These are easily located by the remains of 

ancient workings which penetrate them. He observed that 

the silver content of the lead at Bawzaing is very variable, 

ranging from 10 to 70 oz. to the ton of lead, while the ancient 

slags carry on the average upward to thirty percent lead but 

little silver. He deduced that this was due to the fact that the 

ancient workers extracted silver and had little use for the lead 

(Chhibber 1934: 148-9). 

This deduction is only partially correct. The present 

paper indicates that while the workers did extract the silver, 

and used it at least in part to mint coins by circa the sixth to 

eighth centuries A.D., they began to use the "lead slag" to 

make ceramic glazes at an as yet undetermined time. They 

gathered chunks of "lead slag" which contained a bit of tin, 

ground them, melted them and made a glaze, adding whatever 

colorant they desired. To this day chunks of lead are 

carried to kilns in Twante, near Yangon, and Thayetkun, a 

suburb of Moulmein, for the manufacture of glazes. Analysis 

of what Chhibber called "lead slags" from Bawzaing by Mr. 

Yuichiro Kuno, Director of the Sambo Copper Alloy Company, 

Japan, has revealed that the "lead slags" are an intermediate 

product of lead smelting rather than "lead slags." Results 

of chemical analysis of two pieces of Bawzaing "lead 

slag" purchased for use in the kilns at Twante and Thayetkun 

give the following components: 

Table 1 

Twante 

Thayetkun 

Si02 38.70% Si 0.60% silicon 

CaO 12.22 Ca 0.08 calcium 

FeO 4.05 Fe 0.29 iron 

ZnO 0.32 Zn 0.09 zinc 

MgO 1.23 Mg 0.01 magnesium 

Al20 3 6.58 Al 0.10 aluminum 

s 0.006 Pb 98.51 lead 

Pb 28.17 Ag 0.086 silver 

Ag 0.01 Cu 0.40 copper 

Cu 0.33 As 0.02 arsenic 

As 0.08 Sb 0.05 antimony 

Sb 0.09 Sn 0.04 tin 

Sn 0.25 Bi 0.01 bismuth 

Bi 0.02 Ti 0.01 Titanium 

02 ~ Sum 100.28% 

Sum 93.32%

126 VIRGINIA M. DI CROCCO 

(Courtesy of Prof. Kazuo Yamasaki, 18 July 1992.) Lead 

isotope ratios of the two above-mentioned pieces of "lead slag" 

from Bawzaing were measured by Prof. H. Shirahata of the 

Muroran Institute of Technology, Hokkaido, as follows: 

Table 2 

Twante 

Thayetkun 

Pb 206 I Pb 204 

18.216±0.002 

18.260±0.005 

Pb 208IPb 206 

2.10509±0.00002 

2.10809±0.00007 

Pb 207 I Pb 206 

0.86144±0.00001 

0.86179±0.00003 

The lead isotope ratios measured by Prof. Shirahata 

reveal that "lead slags" from Bawzaing have similar ratios to 

those of lead isotopes found on plaques of Mara's army at the 

Shwegugyi Pagoda, Bago (Pegu) area, white opaque glazed 

sherds from Bagan (Pagan), and white opaque glazed wares 

with green designs found in the Tak area of Thailand 

(Yamasaki op. cit. 18 July 1992 plus 20 August 1992; see also 

Yamasaki, Murozumi, Shaw and George 1989, 43-4). 

Prof. Shirahata also analyzed the lead isotope ratios of 

three silver coins, reportedly found in Bago (Pegu) and 

Mattaya (north of Mandalay), Myanmar, and in Ratchaburi, 

Thailand, to determine whether the lead samples in the coins 

agreed with the lead in the pieces of slag from Bawzaing 

employed in the making of glaze at Twante and Thayetkun 

and in the above-mentioned glazed wares from Bago, Bagan 

and Tak. The data in Table 3 indicate that the lead isotope 

ratios contained in the coins from Ratchaburi (No. 2) and 

from Mattaya (No. 3) agree well with those from the "lead 

slag" brought from Bawzaing. The lead in the coin from Bago 

is a little different but is still in the region of the opaque white 

wares with green patterns, etc. (Yamasaki 18 February 1992). 

Table 3 

Pb 206 I Pb 204 

Coin 1 (Bago, 18.212±0.0025 

the smallest) 

Coin 2 (Ratchaburi) 18.242±0.0008 

Coin 3 (Mattaya) 18.256±0.0012 

Pb 208IPb 206 Pb 207 I Pb 206 

2.1095±0.00005 0.86144±0.00002 

2.10593±0.00002 0.86168±0.00001 

2.10786±0.00004 0.86177±0.00001 

Coin No. 1 (Bago) has a worn but distinguishable 

bhaddapitha (throne) symbol on the obverse and a srivatsa (Skt., 

goddess of fortune) symbol on the reverse. Coins of this type 

have been found in the excavations at the Khinba Mound, 

Thayethkettaya (Srikshetra), Beikthano and Halin (Hanlin), 

all Pyu cities in central Myanmar, and Prommatin and U 

Thong, Mon-Dvaravati sites in Thailand. Robert S. Wicks in 

his Money, Markets and Trade in Early Southeast Asia states that 

coins of this design are likely Pyu issues struck between the 

sixth and eighth centuries. Coin No.2 (Ratchaburi) and No. 

3 (Mattaya) have a symbol of the rising sun on the obverse 

and a srivatsa symbol on the reverse. Coins of the rising sun 

type were the most widespread of all ancient coinage found 

in Southeast Asia. Specimens found in Myanmar have been 

ascribed to both the Pyus and the Mons, in Thailand to the 

Mon-Dvaravati, and in Vietnam to Funan. In his study mentioned 

above Wicks concludes that the rising sun coins 

originated in Myanmar. 

The present paper gives evidence that coins with the 

bhaddhapitha and srivatsa symbols certainly were struck from 

silver mined at Bawzaing and that those mines were in operation 

circa the sixth-eighth century A.D., and that coins with 

the rising sun and srivatsa symbols were made of silver from 

the Bawzaing mines as well.

SILVER COINS: EVIDENCE FOR MINING AT BAWZAING 

127 

Coin No. 1, Bago (Pegu), Myanmar 

diameter c. 18 mm. 

Obverse 

(blwddapitha, throne symbol) 

Reverse 

(srivatsa, goddess of fortune symbol) 

Coin No. 2, Ratchaburi, Thailand 


Obverse 

(rising sun symbol) 

Reverse 


Coin No. 3, Mattaya, Myanmar 


Obverse 

(rising sun symbol) 

Reverse 


Photographs courtesy of P.rof. Kazuo Yamasaki

128 


REFERENCES 

CHHIBBER, H.L. 1934 The Mineral Resources 

of Burma, London: MacMillan. 

DI CROCCO, VIRGINIA M. 1992 "Early 

Burmese ceramics from Srikshetra 

and Pagan and the problem of the 

identification of the P'iao kingdom of 

the Chinese chronicles," Southeast 

Asian Archaeology 1990, London: 

Centre for South-East Asian Studies, 

University of Hull. 

WICKS, ROBERTS. 1992 Money, Markets, and 

Trade in Early Southeast Asia. Ithaca, 

New York: Southeast Asia Program, 

Cornell University. 

YAMASAKI, KAZUO, MASA YO MURO 

ZUMI, JOHN C. SHAW and ALAN 

R. GEORGE 1989, JSS 77.2, 43-4. 

YAMASAKI, KAZUO 18 July 1992, 20 

August 1992 and 18 February 1993, 

personal correspondence.

SECTION IV 

LITERATURE

PRECEPT AND TRANSGRESSION 

Alcohol and Addicts in Ancient and 

Modern Thailand as Reflected in 

Thai Literature 

KLAUSWENK 

HAMBURG 

The precept sikkhiipada reads as follows: 

Suramerayapane pacittiyari1 1 

In drinking wines and spirits 

there is [a case entailing] expiation 

The Tripitaka contains numerous precepts and prohibitions 

regarding the consumption of alcoholic beverages. 2 

The above dictum is unequivocal. It has invariably been 

adhered to by monks and devout laymen alike wherever the 

Buddha's teachings are accepted as a binding rule of life. 

However, this does not hold true of all Buddhists in general. 

It is a well-known fact that from time immemorial there is a 

propensity in human nature for greedily indulging in intoxicating 

drink. 

In the following pages an attempt is made to show the 

manner in which the Buddha's precept and its transgression 

have been treated as a specific subject in Thai literature. 

1. The following verses from Sunthon Phu's Nirat phu 

khau thong are famous and well known to everyone familiar 

with Thai poetry: 

® ii-:~b..:m,l~1tl?l1niuP1tJ'ut'lla.J'I 

t~mtlm1a.~J1umt~El'l'flnt11 

~ 

vh~rym'llm'l~'l.h'ii'fl~1L1"l 

ii-:~~11'i'l11'fl~'l~'l'fl~'l1u 

' 

hlLa.J1LVI~1tt!ilt:mT'Ita.J11"n 

n

132 KLAUS WENK 

said that courtiers approached him with a view to making 

him drunk and eliciting verses from him in the state of intoxication 

which later they passed on to the king as their own. 

Sunthon Phu, it is alleged, lacked the "fifth virtue," sin 

thi ha, namely abstinence from intoxicating drink. Such 

grossly exaggerated stories go well with a supposed horoscope 

of the poet. The horoscope is intentionally qualified as 

"supposed." Neither the name of his parents nor the place of 

his birth are known. Nevertheless the horoscope even 

mentions the hour of his birth: "two o'clock in the morning." 

This does not fit well together. Darnrong says 4 there were 

horoscope casters determining Sunthon Phu's fate as follows: 

Even if a propensity towards alcoholic drink is now 

considered normal for persons rising above human mediocrity, 

it is yet amazing that reports are circulated in such a 

careless manner with seeming sureness about one of the 

greatest Thai poets, a fact that is possibly offensive to many 

people. 

2. In Kamnoet Phlai Ngam, section 24 of the Bot lakhon 

Khun Chang Khun Phaen, Khun Chang's drunkeness, willfully 

brought about, is dramatically depicted in a very naturalistic 

manner (verses 285 sqq.). 

Khun Chang was just abouth to kill young Phlai Ngarn 

in the forest, after having learnt that Phlai Ngarn is not his 

real son: 

. ~ 

. ~ 

285. @) ~1tJ'li"WoD1\IPJ1\IlPJ11ii''ml4'1l~'IX l:l.n L).J ltJ~).Jni).J'fltJ1).J~.h 

•~u..:J-l"W'VI'fl'l1'fl'IL1X"'l?1 Lvi).J1 

~'fl'1!?1111U1J'I •Fimu"Wl~U'I"W'fl"W 

vh Ltl~ 111im).J lii"WPJ'l1).J1iltJ'fln 

~~1'1fll'll1'~i"W'VI'fl\11'fl'I~~Pl1 

. ~ 

'll1ii"W1).JtJ'flnl~1Jtl'lu"'~'li'ltJtl'fl"W 

l4'1'VIn'll1tl"WT1PJ1ru1h~m1'l!?1 '1 

313. bl~'llUlUl'fllT'fl'fl'flnLt.I"W'flnlX'fl.:i 

LUl~tl'l~1).Jtl1).JVI10.:1~1J1 

~~tn"W1'fl..:J(1mif1).J1f;h~i1 

. 

t:!.l~uvhn'fl"Whn~utui1'fl"W 

'fl~11tJ..:~tmPJ1"1~•111il'fl"W 

. ~ 

~\JV111i 

" 

fl1in1!tMUJ1 

Where did the casters get these dates from? Those of the 

mother who disappeared and those of the father who is 

unknown? Who at all took an interest in Sunthon Phu before 

he had become a poet and a favorite of the king? Those 

fortune tellers surely did not draw a duong chada for someone 

belonging to the dregs of society. 

Many if not most of the biographical dates of the poet 

remain a mystery. Nothing is known, not even in the form 

of a hint. Whence then this apparent sureness with which 

Sunthon Phu's character is delineated right from his birth? 

To crown it all, under the duong chada in the current printed 

editions we read as an integral part of it: Sunthon Phu alak khi 

mau. It can aptly be rendered in English by "Sunthon Phu the 

drunkard secretary," which is evidently an unusual addition 

to the horoscope of one of the most famous Thai poets. On 

the strength of the reasons given above, the authenticity of 

the horoscope can justifiably be doubted and considered as a 

subsequent addition with fictitious dates.5 The remark under 

the duong chada, which is not exactly flattering, can likewise 

be legitimately considered as a later addition based on the 

aforementioned quotation from the Nirat phu khau thong. 

According to the standards then prevailing in Thai society it 

cannot be assumed that the wording alak khi mau is meant to 

be a tribute to Sunthon Phu's poetic genius. How can a 

drunkard bring forth such an outstanding poetic work? In 

Thailand of the 19th century such a question would not have 

arisen in anyone's mind. 

285) Bearded Khun Chang is full of deceit. 

286) Drunk he leans against a wall, smiling broadly. 

287) He hears Wan Thong's voice; she is weeping. He lights 

a candle. 

288) Light falls on her face; he sit down on the bed close 

beside her. 

289) Loitering he makes inquiries in a playful manner. 

290) "Are you pricked by thorns and in pain? I will help to 

extract them. 

291) "I welcome you, Wan Thong," he sings, and cries out 

theatrically 

292) "Are you sad? Are you worried?" 

313) Khun Chang then leaves the room, covering up his 

embarrassment. 

314) Shouting "I am corning" and continuously cursing 

315) He proceeds to look for the landing place. 

316) Not finding Phlai Ngarn, he returns to the house with 

a sigh, 

317) pours himself liquor and drinks until unconscious. 

318) Being beside himself he starts weeping, wondering if 

there is the like of him. 

327) He utters drunken sounds, "0-Ae," sprawling on the 

floor, his face turned up. 

328) Unconscious, he rests his head on his arm-dead drunk. 

"Khun Chang is full of deceit." He is drunk and acts 

out his state in an artful manner. He pretends, 313 sqq., to 

look for Phlai Ngam. In the verses his state of inebriation is 

made quite evident by leaving it open whether he deliber-

PRECEPT AND TRANSGRESSION 133 

ately searches in the wrong place or whether he is led there 

through his intoxication. Verse 316 would point to the latter 

possibility. The comedy reaches its height in verse 317: 

"pouring himself liquor and drinking until unconscious," he 

is obviously seized by a fit of crying and tries to make up for 

his miserable condition by self-adulation6 (verse 318). 

3. In Thai literature of the 19th century there are some 

other passages which describe the drinking of alcoholic 

beverages as a habit contrary to the prevailing moral standards, 

as in the Suphasit son ying, line 110: 

f'lU~tJ ~unu~11VI14'n 'L1 

~ 1 "Ill 

"Some men smoke opium, drink liquor and behave 

badly." 

Drunkenness is seen in a more discriminating manner 

by Khun Phum in Phleng yau chaloem phra kiet, line 611: 

"Ignorance is even a more potent intoxicant than alcohol." 

7 

4. King Mongkut's legal announcements reflect the 

same moralising and derogatory attitude towards drunkenness, 

especiallY' announcement No. 79 concerning persons of 

notoriously bad reputation for drinking liquor during the trut 

and songkran rites, dated 2398 B.S. (1855), and announcement 

No. 121 concerning persons getting drunk with liquor on 

songkran day. The text of this announcement speaks for itself: 

Whereas in accordance with the custom observed 

from time immemorial, on the occasion of 

celebrating the arrival of new year, by far the greater 

majority of manhood, partly consisting of rogues and 

ruffians, see fit to get themselves drunk all over the 

place; These revellers drink their way on to the 

highway and even naughtily into the temple and 

monastery, leaving in their wake scattered remnants 

of drunken brawl, assault, battery and mayhem. With 

the celebration running into eleven days altogether, 

that is to say, five days in honour of the lunar year, 

with three days for actual celebration, one day for 

preparation and another day for the send-off and six 

days in honour of the solar year, with three or four 

days for actual celebration, one or two days for 

preparation and another day or two for the send-off, 

the countless cases of drunken brawl, assault, battery 

and mayhem occurring within and without the City 

wall are beyond the power of the Nai Amphur and 

the police to cope with. 

Wherefore, it shall be the duty of every 

householder, as from now on, to seize all persons 

getting drunk and disorderly in front of his house and 

deliver the same to the police at the prison gate while 

they are still in the state of insobriety. The performance 

of such a duty shall be made only by the householder 

in front of whose house the person to be seized 

shall have been getting drunk and disorderly, and no 

neighbours of his shall be permitted to render assistance. 

If upon delivery the person seized in the said 

manner is found to be drunk by the police the householder 

who makes the delivery shall not be made 

answerable even were the person seized and so delivered 

is found bodily hurt or wounded. In order to 

prevent a possible rescue of the person thus seized for 

delivery while being taken on the way to the police, 

the house-holder may detain him at his house, pending 

the immediate examination by the Nai Amphur or 

the police into his state of sobriety, which examination 

shall be conducted immediately. Drunken revellers 

during the New Year celebration are hereby 

warned to confine their hilarity within the limits of 

their household, and any urgent business which they 

may wish to perform abroad before they get over the 

reaction of their over indulgence must wait until they 

are sober. 

Announcement No. 160 testifies to the personal integrity 

and courage of Rama IV. It likewise is a proof of his 

authority. Two members of the Royal family are mentioned 

in it by name and exposed to the public as drunkards. The 

announcement forbids everyone to enter the residence of these 

persons with the exception of certain servants. Further short 

references about drunkenness are contained in announcements 

No. 189 and 289. 

5. The general attitude prevailing in "Ancient Thailand" 

towards liquor and topers is summarily dealt with in 

the Suphasit on drunkenness, Suphasit khi mau.10 

Obviously this text was first printed in R.S.114 (1895). 

The text may be described as of minor value from a literary 

point of view. As a document shedding light on cultural 

history, it is however quite interesting. The verses vividly 

depict the evil consequences and the sinfulness arising from 

the consumption of liquor. At the same time they admonish 

the reader to follow the path of virtue, i.e. abstinence. 

Drunkenness is associated with opium, gambling houses, 

brothels and crime. Verse 313 mentions that women's nature 

is sinful and that there is a direct connection between liquor 

and fornication. Drunkenness leads to quarrels and brawls 

with even fatal consequences, ending up in humiliation and 

a loss of social status. 

6. The precept of abstinence is still part and parcel of 

the Buddhist canon. Hence it is valid as a rule to be followed 

by every adherent of Buddhism. To what extent modem 

poets have deviated from the rule can clearly be demonstrated 

by the poems of Angkhan Kalyanaphong. Some of them, in 

Lam nam phu kradiing for instance, can be considered as hymns 

of drunkenness. Other poems intimate at least that alcoholic 

intoxication is for him a pleasant state of mind which goes to 

enhance his awareness of life. Poem No. 89 in the abovequoted 

work is a proof of it. It bears the title "Drinking good 

brandy at the rock Mak Duk." 

In a number of other passages, however, Angkhan 

makes use of the word drunkenness to characterise a nega-

134 KLAUS WENK 

tive state of mind-when it occurs to others! Also verses like 

the following have come from his pen: 11 

tt~'lfl'flU~1'flth1-l'l"l3.1U'EtU 

IPl'liPlnUtnt'ltl\111'liPl'Vit'IU'U1UIPl 

IV ~

FAR EASTERN CULTURAL 

TRANSPLANTATIONS 

GEORGE SIORIS 

AMBASSADOR OF GREECE IN THAILAND* 

"Every national Literature feels at times the need to tum itself 

to abroad," Goethe once remarked. 

In the European area, cases of mutual transfusion of 

literary elements would need numerous volumes to be 

analyzed. Sometimes we see writers inspired by only one 

foreign country, sometimes a whole literary genre spreading 

itself all over, drawing from the same source; sometimes writertravelers 

succumbing to the new, the exotic or to adventure, 

who bring the corresponding coloring to the pages of their 

national literature. 

Without straying into the labyrinth of so many intellectual 

cross influences, we would only like to recall the links 

of Stendhal with Italy, of Madame de Stael with Germany, of 

Voltaire with England, of Heine with France or, coming closer 

to our own times, of Montherland with Spain and Troy at with 

Russia. 

Nevertheless, we should note that the above cases, in 

their majority, and from the angle of the universality of personal 

experience, have been more "literary," "intellectual," than 

deeply "sentimental," more marginal perhaps than complete 

turns to different ways of life. Even Stendhal, who lived so 

many years in Italy and who expressed the wish that his real 

name, Henri Beyle, with the addition "from Milan," be inscribed 

on his grave - even he remains forever a figure of 

French belles lettres. 

Moreover, all the above figures had acted within the 

same continent- among different national shades, but generally 

in the same cultural background. 

Closer to the Asian continent, an Indian writer has 

examined the phenomenon of "cultural emigration" as the 

"transference of a pattern of living, a hierarchy of values and 

rituals, ceremonies, observances, religion, literature and art." 

He cites many characterstic examples, each of which could stir 

lengthy analysis and discussion: the "emigration" of Sanskrit 

to the West due to William Jones, Max Mueller and so many 

others; the Greek impact on the British romantic poets; the 

Ramayana and its radiation into Southeast Asia, etc. 

Since the Ramayana has been mentioned, a most interesting 

complication comes to mind: Indian professor K.R. 

Srinivasa Iyengar's "Asian Variations in Ramayana," based on 

papers presented by various scholars at the International 

Seminar on the Ramayana in Asia which took place in New 

Delhi some years ago. In this vastpanorama of comparative 

literature, one of the most captivating chapters is on the 

Ramayana's impact in Southeast Asia, including the famous 

Ramakien of Thailand's Ayudhya period. There are also in 

Siam, as else-where in the Far East, "cross cultural frontiers" 

in reverse, in the sense of the "interpretation" of this fascinating 

land to the West through the eyes and testimonies of early 

travellers. Well-known clergymen like Father de Beze, Abbe 

de Choisy or Mgr. Pallegoix, diplomats like La Loubere or 

Chaumont, educationists turned ethnologists like Ernest Young, 

administrators turned historians like E.W. Hutchinson, adventurers 

like Carl Bock, naturalists like the Frenchman Henri 

Mouhot with his vivid description not only of Siam of the 

mid-nineteenth century but also of Cambodia and Laos, and 

so many others. 

The fact is that in most of these cases we have 

knowledgeable, well-meaning and penetrating "observers" of 

good faith whose contribution to learning is undeniable and 

most valuable, especially when we bear in mind the limitations 

of those years in exchanges and traveling. But here again 

we do not witness a fuller and deeper sentimental, personal 

identification with the land and traditions. The "observation 

of the scene" remains rather a scholarly exercise "from outside," 

not a real, spontaneous "descent" to a new cultural world. 

In order to witness this directly we shall have to proceed still 

* Since this article was written, Ambassador Sioris has become Ambassador 

of Greece in Japan and a Corresponding Member of The 

Siam Society.

136 GEORGE SIORIS 

further afield in our literary journey, to Jesuit missionary 

Valignano's "Another World," to the islands of the Rising Sun. 

We face here the literary and psychological adventures of 

people who hesitated between two completely different worlds, 

worlds with different values, worlds regarding which it is 

doubtful even today whether they understand each other 

satisfactorily and completely. 

The experiment in the area of Japan is much more 

complicated as it is note worthy from the point of view of a 

larger cultural dialogue between the West and the East. 

In the following paragraphs we shall look at this delicate 

trial through the personal literary testimony of four 

different writers: Pierre Loti, Lafcadio Hearn, Wenceslau de 

Moraes and Endo Shusaku. 

Loti (1850-1923) 

The romantic seaman of French belles lettres went to the four 

comers of the world, bringing along his anxiety and fear in 

confronting the idea of death, of this "ultimate dust" where we 

shall all end up without exception. To Morocco, Senegal, 

Turkey, Palestine, Iran, India, Indochina -everywhere-he 

brought along with him his talent, his melancholy, his love for 

the past and his metaphysical anxieties. "I have always felt 

half Arab in my soul," he confesses in the foreword of The Story 

of a Spahi. But this did not prevent him from proceeding 

forward, from penetrating even into the empire of the Rising 

Sun and of presenting some really excellent pictures in Madame 

Chrysantheme, like for instance that unique description of his 

entering Nagasaki; in that picture, the reader feels that he is 

standing by Loti on the deck of the same ship and that he too 

is enjoying the beauty and serenity of the landscape. 

But Japan is only a passing page in Loti's life chronicle, 

a supreme moment in his torturous pursuit of exoticism. The 

story of the girl of the chrysanthemums, written lightly, with 

French wit and also with some feeling of racial superiority, 

does not prove that the writer had penetrated below the surface 

of the Japanese soul. On the contrary, from time to time, 

there escape from him nostalgic complaints about the monotonous 

song of the muezzin which he had left behind him. 

His Japanese adventure does not appear to be anything more 

than a familiarization trip into a world that is exotic, full of 

seemingly human dolls with little faces capable of laughing 

but also of crying ... 

"Come on, little girl, let us part like friends," he will 

write at the end of his story, with sorrow accompanied by 

indifference. "We can even kiss each other, if you feel like it. 

I took you to have some fun with you. Maybe you have not 

really succeeded, but you offered everything you had, your 

little body, your bows, your delicate music... Who knows, 

maybe I shall think of you again when I recall this beautiful 

summer, these beautiful gardens, the concert of cicadas ..." 

In other words, an exotic parenthesis; a draught of 

experience with a melancholy aftertaste which quickly disappears 

as Loti moves on in the endless journey of life. A nice 

additional experience which takes its tum indifferently in the 

gallery of adventures of a talented traveler. In order to find 

a descent into the depths of the Japanese soul we will have to 

look somewhere else ... 

Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) 

In the case of cosmopolitan Lafcadio Hearn, with that mixture 

of blood, Greek and Irish, full of life experiences from the New 

World, who came to the shores of the far-off chrysanthemum 

islands, we have a characteristic picture of voluntary and 

profound cultural transplantation. 

Hearn loved the Japanese islands; he adored also their 

inhabitants. He married a Japanese lady and he settled down 

in a peaceful and genuine provincial city, Matsue. As time 

went by he even changed his name, and as Yakumo Koizumi 

he was adopted, according to Japanese custom, by his wife's 

family. Having retired over there he started writing, writing 

endlessly, studying the legends and traditions of his new 

country, portraying the festivals in that unique style of his, 

concentrating on that Shinto-Buddhist syncretism which has 

put its indelible seal on the Japanese soul, reviving the songs 

of birds and cicadas, removing strange visions and ghosts, 

bringing closer the monotonous moanings of the drowned 

Heike soldiers of the naval battle at Dannoura, of those wishing 

to escape the wet embrace of the waves until they achieve 

salvation through various cycles of reincarnations up to the 

ultimate enlightenment and union with the eternal. .. 

The work of Hearn, as a whole, does not make any 

claims to deep academic research. For this we should tum to 

the brilliant studies of Aston, Chamberlain, Fenollosa, Sansom, 

Waley, to mention only the older generation of scholars. 

Yakumo Koizumi is a talented specialist in vulgarization who 

nevertheless achieves the first complete interpretation of the 

Japanese soul and culture, someone who thanks to his own 

real love for this exotic country becomes himself the first cultural 

bridge between the West and Japan. His contribution to the 

history of the cross-influence of cultural currents is unique as 

well as important. 

Japan, for the self-exiled man of Matsue, is not a place 

of exotic scenery which will superficially enrich his production, 

a simple chapter in a big book, an original note drawing 

from a simplistic exoticism, as was more or less the case with 

Loti. Japan is for Hearn his roots, his base, his anchorage; 

Japan's boundaries represent the beginning and the end of his 

world. The gold mine of ethnologic, historic, religious and 

artistic material which he as one of the first Westerners had 

discovered there has thoroughly and irrevocably conquered 

him. He draws his inspiration from Japan, he lives Japan, 

Japan is what he wishes to show to the Western world of his 

origins; he is fascinated by Japanese women, he appreciates 

the Japanese as people. "What I love in Japan is the 

Japanese-the poor simple humanity of the country. It is 

divine ... And I love their gods, their customs, their dress, their 

bird-like quavering songs, their houses, their superstitions, 

their faults." You feel these words echo the famous and 

enthusiastic confession of St. Francis Xavier, three centuries


earlier: "The people we have met so far are the best who have 

yet been discovered and it seems to me that we shall never find 

among heathens another race to equal the Japanese. They are 

people of very good manners, good in general and not malicious; 

they are men of honour to a marvel, and prize honour 

above all else in the world." 

Nevertheless, despite all his dedication-his offering 

of himself to a new culture, his identification with it-doubts 

remain as to whether it all finally flourished as a complete 

experiment in individual intellectual and sentimental "transplantation." 

Lafcadio penetrated the secrets of the Far East as 

did few people, but he did not manage ultimately to rid himself 

of the memories of his Western origins. "He never became 

at all Japanese himself," writes his biographer Elisabeth 

Stevenson, as if he went tragically through various contradictory 

phases which "obliterated his very self' and made him 

"neither Occidental nor Oriental." From rejection of Western 

materialism he projected himself to the expectation of Eastern 

serenity and from his encounter with the impenetrability of 

Far Eastern mystery he was shipwrecked on the reefs of the 

most cruel loneliness. Rejecting his roots, rejected to a certain 

point from the culture of the land of his exile, he found himself 

suspended between two worlds, unaccepted, like transplanted 

flesh which does not fit the new body. 

Hearn is not particularly revealing on this his deepest 

tragedy. Only from time to time a complaint escapes him, 

some nostalgic note: "How small suddenly my little Japan 

became! How lonesome! What a joy to feel the West! What a 

great thing is the West!" Or, elsewhere, he contemplates the 

seed of disappointment when with the passing of time the East 

in his soul lost its first splendor, like the unmuddling of logic 

after the thunderstroke of love. " .. .I had learned to see the Far 

East without its glamour." 

Hearn kept carefully away from his writings his deeper 

tragedy of trying to embrace West and East, to reach the vision 

of universal man. And I do not think that Armando Martins 

Jeneira, my late Portuguese friend and student of both Hearn 

and Moraes, is wrong in lamenting this silence of the exiled 

man of Matsue. His discretion, he writes, is understandable. 

But on the other hand it is precisely the descriptions of these 

deep overwhelming experiences which make him a great writer. 

In this way the reader can only guess fearfully at the ruthless 

inner moral struggle of someone quivering between two worlds, 

of someone who pursued, found and lost a new Ithaca ... 

According to the Buddhist saying, mentioned by Hearn 

himself in his book In Ghostly Japan, "Au wa wakare no hajime." 

In other words, encounter is but the beginning of parting ... 

Maybe, for Yakumo Koizumi, such was his Japanese experience: 

the fulfillment of desire which at the same time fades and 

disappears, leaving behind it a bitter-sweet aftertaste and an 

invisible hint of some mysterious perfume; 

Wenceslau de Moraes (1854-1920) 

Among the many people who were fascinated by the beautiful 

melody of the Japanese Sirens is someone who forgot himself 

so much in their singing that at the end he fell in love even 

with his own drunkenness! Wenceslau de Moraes, a Portuguese 

nobleman, became, ultimately, the most fanatic lover of 

Amaterasu's islands. He adored the land and its people without 

any reservation, thoroughly, when they embraced him and 

when they rejected him and when they forgot him, in days of 

joy and sorrow, love and abandonment. In Moraes's face is 

reflected the most complete picture of cultural transplantation 

and assimilation, of love which becomes blind passion for a 

different country, for different people, for different values in 

which, nevertheless, the writer is relentlessly looking for the 

seed of universality of the human race, the hopeful mixture 

of heterogeneous but not necessarily incompatible elements. 

Like the true seaman who adores the sea not only in 

days of serenity but also in days of tempest, like parents who 

adore their child be it invalid or criminal, Moraes loves his 

second country even when its people disappoint him or despise 

him. Mutilation of the objectivity of judgement, someone 

would object: absolute, integral, all-round sentimentalism, 

without concessions or analogies-that would be closer to 

Moraes's idiosyncrasy. 

I wonder whether the recluse of Tokushima had ever 

himself wondered, in his tum, whether he was not the reincarnation 

of his great compatriot Fernao Mendes Pinto, who 

was one of the first foreigners to set foot on the island of 

Tanegashima in 1540s ... With that forgotten profanation of the 

unsullied Japanese land by a Portuguese conquistador "thirteen 

times a slave and seventeen liberated; pursuer of the most 

fantastic adventures in India, Arabai, Sumatra, China, Tartary, 

Thailand," there opened the chapter of the historic encounter 

of the Mikado's islands with the outside "barbarous" world. In 

the long self-exile of Moraes in the same islands it was as if 

the Japanese had become acquainted with the second face of 

the Portuguese seafarer, this one sweet, calm, friendly, civilized. 

Moraes and Pinto-two interchangeable figures, as in 

the supernatural poetry of Rikombyo depicting those persecuted 

by visions and ghosts, where one face has a real existence 

whereas the other is ethereal and unseen, where there are 

reflected strangely in the mirror two idols, the real and the 

mysterious ... 

I came to know about Moraes and his sad story through 

another Portuguese, a friend from the years when life in the 

Japanese land brought us close together. He was then ambassador 

of his country to the land of the Mikado and at the same 

time an untiring servant of belles lettres, a student devoted to 

the parallels between the literatures of the East and the West. 

Here are some landmarks from Moraes's life from 

among the numerous writings of the late Armando Martins 

Janeira: 

Born in 1854 in Lisbon to a well-off family. A naval 

officer, who has travelled to the ends of the world: Europe, the 

New World, Africa and Asia. In 1891 he serves as deputy 

harbour master of the Portuguese colony of Madi.o. He lives 

there for a certain time with the title of Consul of Portugal. 

There he will become united according to full Shinto ritual to 

a most attractive geisha, twenty-one years younger than he. 

This is 0 Yone, of whom he will sing in his later works. His


companion nevertheless dies in 1912. This event shakes him 

tremendously; he breaks every link with the navy and with the 

Consulate, he decides to live forever in the land of his beloved, 

and in order to be closer to her, closer to the ashes into which 

her beautiful youth inevitably was transformed, he settles 

down at Tokushima, in the beautiful island of Shikoku. The 

days pass there quietly but sadly, with a daily pilgrimage to 

the grave of his beloved. 

Later on, a niece of 0 Yone, Ko Haru, will keep company 

for a while with the aging Moraes. But she is also 

doomed to sicken and die prematurely, in 1916. From then 

on, life for the hermit of Tokushima is nothing but a slow, sad 

and quiet course to final salvation which comes melancholically 

in 1929 after thirty-four years spent in the islands of the sun 

of the East. 

Moraes's figure and work represent perhaps the most 

complete example of cultural transplantation in the Japanese 

area. This Portuguese romantic thinker has far surpassed his 

contemporary, Lafcadio Hearn, in his descent into the inner 

workings of the Japanese soul. There are deeper and more 

unknown layers of the psychic and intellectual mind which he 

sets himself out to explore. It is doubtful whether any other 

foreigner, in his times, had managed to reach such depths, 

such identification with so different a rhythm and way of life. 

After two works of vulgarization of Japanese history 

and culture which he modestly qualifies as relance, i.e. bird's 

eye view over a city, Moraes's subsequent production quickly 

assumes another tone and receives his personal seal. Letters 

from Japan, Tea Ceremony and even more his famous 0 Bon Odori 

in Tokushima, 0 Yone and Ko Haru-all these are real masterpieces 

in which the elements of the unknown and exotic Japanese 

culture go first through the melting-pot of his personal 

experience. 

Moraes does not hesitate nor does he retrace his steps 

like Lafcadio; each time his pen portrays his deepest feelings. 

What the Portuguese remarks and describes and what he feels 

deep in himself become united in the same synthesis of inspiration. 

As if he does not write for the sake of others or for 

posterity, he just looks around, utters a monologue and modestly 

puts on paper his spontaneous composition. 

His style is not even autobiographic. That genre presupposes 

a certain previous planning, a certain systematic 

preparation. In addition, it sometimes happens that in this 

genre the same kind of confession emerges only with some 

effort and difficulty as a result of a ruthless fight with ego's 

cruel tentacles. In Moraes, on the contrary, the subjective 

element flows quietly, like a breath in front of a mirror, with 

its trace spreading over the image and softly covering it ... 

Moraes's style reminds us of the Nikki, those classic Japanese 

"personal notebooks" with stray observations from whatever 

deep and innermost emotions shake the traveler through life. 

In any case, what most interests this self-exiled Portuguese 

is the authentic experience of his exotic life, without 

any compromise, ambition or vestiges of old memories. At 

Takamatsu, Moraes lives without the glory of his past titles, 

in a poor Japanese wooden house, with a carpenter as his 

neighbor. "I live poorly, but I do not need anything," he 

confesses. To him the "Japaneseness" surrounding him is 

enough, along with his day dreams of the old days of love for 

0 Yone and of affectionate passion for Ko Haru. 

As time goes by he manages to grasp Japanese mysticism, 

Japanese aesthetics, Japanese inner feelings, with his 

whole soul-this unique mono no aware, a sweet melancholy 

imbuing the soul and leading it to the serene havens of sentimental 

peace and harmony, far away from noise, stress and 

anxiety. 

Here we are perhaps at the threshold of a mystic or 

ascetic view of life. But this is not exactly Moraes's position. 

Our recluse is still voluntarily full of thousands of worldly 

memories; he suffers, he laughs, he loves, and he is agitated 

in the daily reminiscences of his old social life. He is not so 

much given to religious fear or theological contemplation as 

to the exquisite nectar of his endless exotic fairy tale and to 

the safe anchorage of a sentimental world-a world immaterializing 

him and reidentifying him with God knows which 

previous Far Eastern incarnation lost in the end of time. We 

may be facing here a Buddhist view of life, with endless life 

cycles up to the supreme moment of final enlightenment. But 

even this is not true regarding Moraes because he was shaken 

by the influence of Gautama's teaching without ever adhering 

to the company of his believers. 

Moraes represents a case for which I find no other 

word but to come back to his own name, "Moraes" ... He is a 

man disillusioned by the materialism of the West, escaping 

from it without hating it, since he is even incapable of hatred; 

a man adjusting himself to a most different environment, 

adoring his new compatriots even if at times they make him 

suffer. For there were many times when he was despised, 

hated or suspected, disappointed or ignored. He remained up 

to the end unshakable in his feelings of love towards them, like 

those rare creatures who, having become attached to something 

or to someone, adhere to their choice no matter what life 

brings, completely devoted, thoroughly dedicated, offering 

their whole soul. 

In 0 Bon Odori Moraes portrays the folk frenzy of 

Tokushima during the heat of August when people in all 

places remember the dead. It is a strange festivity without 

sorrow, since the dead are not lost forever, but come and go 

according to the inevitable cycles of Buddhist reincarnation. 

In his other masterpiece, 0 Yone and Ko Haru, this 

lonesome recluse revives what he most treasured in the world 

of women, the two Japanese who kept him company-alas, for 

so short a time. Both of them left him alone too soon, ironically 

reversing the probabilities that they, as the younger ones, 

would have to accompany him to his grave. 

0 Yone's chronicle is a moving love story between two 

creatures born in worlds so far apart. 

Ko Haru's story is even more impressive. What aging 

Moraes felt for this person, full of life and youth, "was not 

evidently love, nor friendliness, nor esteem." It was a strange 

passion shaking and burning him to his inner self. Ko Haru 

became at his life's twilight a symbol. Moraes caught hold of 

her as if of life itself. 

It is a strange coincidence that we come across this


same theme in modern Japanese literature, in various shades: 

In Diary of a Mad Old Man of Junichiro Tanizaki. Here 

the hero, Utsugi, feels at the end of his life's journey an invincible 

sexual passion for the every wife of his son. In The House 

of the Sleeping Beauties of Yasunari Kawabata. Here, old men 

with a last drop of life in them are living out a strange experience 

near some most attractive young girls, all of them asleep, 

on the only condition that they respect their sleep. Finally, in 

the stir produced years after Kawabata's suicide by the theory 

that the Nobel laureate was thunderstruck in his last days by 

a strange passion for a young girl. 

Anyway, Ko Haru's chronicle is a real poem, overwhelming 

by the passion inspired in a lonely old man, at the 

threshold of death, in a far-away foreign land. From its pages, 

as well as from any other pages of Moraes, is reflected the 

dream of a real man. Of a man who tried through his life and 

work to harmonize values of two worlds which the cursed 

muddling of prejudice, fanaticism or ignorance kept on presenting 

as incompatible and contradictory. 

Endo Shusaku (1923- ) 

Now comes the moment for us to concentrate on an opposite 

effort of cultural transplantation: a writer of our times, Endo 

Shusaku, known as the Graham Green of Japan, incarnates the 

deeper wish of the people of the island empire to come closer 

and to understand the values of the Western world. 

Like Janeira, I happened to get to know Endo in his 

own country and for years now have followed his work. In 

one of our many meetings in Tokyo I found him, as always, 

alert and interested in cultural worlds different from his, eager 

to try a spiritual descent into the abyss of Indian thought, but 

mainly dedicated, as during his whole life, to the effort of 

grasping the inner meaning of Western Catholicism, like the 

Japanese Catholic that he is. "I am now working," he told me, 

"on a new novel called Samurai which has as its subject the 

journey of a Japanese warrior to the Vatican, in the seventeenth 

century." Now, many years later, I found him overwhelmed 

by the depth of his spiritual experience at the City of Death, 

Benares of eternal India. 

Endo, born in 1923, happened to become a Catholic. 

Up to now he has never rejected his Christian faith, but as he 

grew up, like a thinking person he often asked himself what 

this strange "suit" could be that he had worn from his childhood 

but which he never felt "fitted him" and which he never 

managed to take off since it had already become identified 

with his skin. Endo combined his agony in the religious field 

with the problem of uniting the values of Eastern and Western 

worlds and made this the central axis of his work. 

His books, one after another, portray heroes who are 

suffering from the same questions that torment the writer. 

In Shirai Hito (White Man) and Kiiroi Hito (Yellow Man) 

their titles easily denote the subject. 

In his novel Ryugaku the hero is a Japanese teacher of 

French literature who goes to France and tries to grasp the 

meaning of statues in the impressive magic of Chartres cathedral. 

But the gulf is too deep; the figures of the saints 

cannot communicate with his soul: "As he stood there before 

the statues ... , he felt a sense of oppression, as if a heavy lever 

were pressing down upon his chest. This sense of oppression 

came from the feeling that he, as a Japanese, was completely 

unable to comprehend the statues." The message of this work, 

as it is characteristically pointed out by the Jesuit student and 

translator of Endo, Francis Mathy, is that blood produced by 

the world of East and West is different. "We are unable to 

receive a blood transfusion from a donor of a blood type 

different from our own," Endo also underlines. The religious, 

aesthetic and intellectual antitheses between East and West, 

adds Janeira, are so many that they cannot be overcome in a 

lifetime. 

In his play The Golden Country Endo focuses on a dramatic 

story in Japan in the year 1633, during the climax of the 

Shogunate's persecutions of the Christians. The subject especially 

dear to Endo is the apostasy of the Portuguese missionary 

Ferreira. His persecutor, the cruel Inoue, personifies the 

three basic insensibilities of the Japanese, as they emerge from 

an earlier essay by Endo, "Christianity and I," according to 

Mathy: "insensibility" towards the idea of the existence of God, 

the notion of sin, and the meaning of death. 

It is true that even in the whole huge body of primitive 

Shinto beliefs, since the beginnings of Japanese history, there 

are no divinities cut off from the human, whereas "sin" is 

characteristically represented as simply "dust on a mirror." 

We have but to remove the dust and the mirror immediately 

becomes clean. This is the reason why the Japanese are not 

tormented by metaphysical agonies over the meaning of sin. 

As to the third "insensibility," to death, this comes out of every 

page of Japanese history. 

In another novel of his, Volcano, Endo portrays again 

two conflicting heroes, the Japanese Suda and the Western 

apostate missionary Durand, who nevertheless have one thing 

in common, their tragic loneliness because of advanced age. 

There are in this work pages rich in dramatic tension, in feelings 

of pity for these two old people heading toward death, 

one surrounded by the suffocating self-interest of his family, 

the other, a horrible solitary shipwreck, a skeleton forgotten 

in a hospital room at the other end of the world. But behind 

every scene there is this vague and threatening groan of the 

volcano, of the volcano which one day will erupt and whose 

flame will sweep the small Christian community of the area. 

The main problem, exclaims the apostate to a Japanese Christian 

priest, is summed up in the question "whether the hearts 

of the Japanese are the proper material for Christianity." 

There is another work by Endo which I could single 

out not only as his strongest one, but also as one of the most 

overwhelming books that I have ever read. 

The famous Silence, written in 1966, is the writer's cry 

de profundis, the most honest, the most true, the most genuine 

picture of the agony of a Japanese Christian, asking himself 

why such a faith is incapable of penetrating the Japanese soul, 

of taking roots, blossoming and yielding fruit. 

The scene is again Japan of the period of anti-Christian 

persecutions of the seventeenth century and the hero another 

Portuguese missionary, Rodrigues, who will also apostatize in


the end. A constant, tormenting expectation, a deep prayer 

that Christ's voice be heard, that the heavens be opened, that 

some pale light be shed over the clouded vault of the suffering 

country, all these warm prayers of Rodrigues remain vain, 

doomed, unanswered. Everywhere silence, the silence of death. 

No consoling whispering from above, no ray of sun on the 

tortured bodies of the Christian peasants where they are accepting 

the cruel martyrdom, by the sea, crucified upside down 

on wooden crosses, with the endless torment of the tide 

drowning them and leaving them for a while again to drown 

them, days and hours of indescribable pain, with the torturer 

opening a small hole near the ear, so that blood comes out drop 

by drop, up to the last moment where the martyr either tramples 

on his faith or dies ... "Why do they have to suffer so 

much? Even Christ himself would have apostatized, were it 

to help them," laments Rodrigues at a certain moment. So he 

finally takes the terrible decision to reject his faith, to trample 

on the fumie, on that Christian icon which is put under his feet 

by the torturer; he decides to defile the symbol which even at 

the moment of betrayal breaks his heart with devotion to God. 

With this historico-religious background Endo works 

on his deeper philosophical myth. He himself suffers in his 

innermost being as he tries to reconcile his Christian to his 

Japanese self, as a descendant of a completely different tradition. 

The image constantly emerging in Silence is the terrible, 

the invincible swamp, the slippery marsh of Japan which does 

not allow the Christian tree to take root. The transplanting of 

a tree of the faith with different Greco-Roman branches is 

rejected in a country with different cultural traditions, to quote 

another student of Endo, William Johnson. 

This novel takes the reader to philosophical heights 

where everyone's answers do not necessarily converge. Endo's 

thesis is that for the Christian doctrine to penetrate the Japanese 

soul it has first to shed the cover of its historic tradition 

and remould itself in the Japanese melting-pot which during 

the centuries has absorbed so many cultural and religious 

currents, a whole Chinese civilization, a whole Buddhist doctrine. 

From another point of view, as Janeira rightly points 

out, it is not presupposed that the Christian seed has to fall 

on a Japanese believer who is stripped from his own historicoreligious 

tradition. Rejection of any previous doctrine of faith, 

offering one's heart and one's mind totally vacant to a new 

religious beginning, does not constitute a guarantee for the 

successful graft of Christian doctrine onto the trunk of Japanese 

tradition. As Endo believes, what is necessary is that the 

seed fall on the Japanese as he is, with every layer of previous 

tradition that was bequeathed to him by former generations. 

His very traditional tolerance, along with his assimilative 

dynamism, will help him to accept something new, something 

beautiful and strong, provided this is not offered to him in a 

spirit of fanaticism. 

We find ourselves here in the inaccessible area of the 

sociology of religion and of research in the cross-influence of 

civilizations. The answers may be more than one; Endo may 

even be compelled to face critics. But what is important is his 

passion to put these crucial questions forward, even if he limits 

them to the area of religion. 

Endo is much deeper than the pleasant exoticism of 

Loti, indifferent to the idea of the vulgarization of Western 

traditions in the Japanese sphere-a thing he would have done 

had he been a Japanese Hearn, incapable of competing with 

Moraes in an opposite experiment of total immersion in the 

West. Endo has had not a few years of mainly French experience, 

but his base is his own country. Nevertheless, the 

fact that his own country is his starting point does not prevent 

him from dedicating his creations to the same questions which 

puzzled all the above writers-to the same searching and 

conviction in the universality of Man which in the final analysis 

is the only one reaching Man's deep Menandric meaning.

SECTIONV 

MUSIC

THAI CLASSICAL MUSIC COMES TO 

AMERICA: CULTIVATING A RARE SPECIES 

IN A MUSICAL GREENHOUSE 

TERRY E. MILLER 

CO-DIRECTOR 

CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WORLD MUSICS 

KENT STATE UNIVERSITY 

Introduction 

Thai classical music in the United States has had an 

"unofficial" existence for some years, since amateur musicians 

from within some of the larger overseas Thai communities 

have had small, informal ensembles. Dr. David Morton 

formed the first officially recognized Thai classical ensemble 

at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the 

1960s, but sometime during the 1970s this ensemble ceased to 

function. Kent State University's ensemble was therefore a 

successor to the UCLA group. More recently an ensemble 

was established at Southwestern Texas State University (San 

Marcos) when a touring ensemble from Sri Nakharinwirot 

University in Bangkok left its instruments there, but this 

ensemble requires the presence of a Thai teacher; when none 

is available, the ensemble is moth-balled. The recent establishment 

of the Academy of Thai Classical Music at Wat 

Dhammaram in Chicago by the Thai community there has 

added another "official" group. Perhaps the pioneering days 

are coming to an end. This article tells the story of the difficulties 

inherent in establishing any "foreign" ensemble in 

alien territory as well as the particular challenges faced in 

establishing Thai classical music in an American institution of 

higher learning. 

The Coming of Thai Classical Music 

to Kent State University in Ohio 

The distant sound of opportunity knocking was heard 

at Kent State University's Center for the Study of World Musics 

one day in late 1977 in the form of a letter from a Thai musician 

living in Bangkok. Inquiring about the possibility of 

earning a master's degree in Musicology, Prof. Kovit Kantasiri, 

chairman of the Faculty of Music at Chulalongkorn University, 

also mentioned that he was skilled in playing Thai 

classical music. Having spent fourteen months in northeast 

Thailand doing field work for my doctoral dissertation (1972- 

4), I was naturally very interested. Eventually, Prof. Kovit 

arrived for the Fall quarter, 1978. 

Up to this point, World Music performances at KSU 

had consisted only of single instruments, e.g., Japanese koto 

and Chinese zheng. It occurred to me that were we able to 

purchase a set of instruments from Thailand, we might be 

able to form a Thai classical ensemble whose music is rarely 

heard in the West. Since my research had been in the Lao 

musical tradition of the Northeast, an area whose music is 

totally different from the Central Thai classical tradition, there 

was no hint of the challenges that lay ahead. 

A set of instruments was purchased in the fall of 1978 

soon after Prof. Kovit's arrival. They included two xylophones 

(ranat ek and ranat toom), two gong circles (kawng wong yai 

and kawng wong lek), three kinds of fiddles (saw duang, saw oo, 

and saw sam sai), a flute (klui), an oboe (bee nai), a zither (jakay), 

a dulcimer (kim), and a variety of rhythmic percussion instruments 

including ching, chap, mong, grup, and various 

drums. The only other set of such instruments in the United 

States at that time was to be found at UCLA, but they were 

no longer used in performance. KSU, nonetheless, claimed 

the distinction of having the only functioning Thai ensemble 

in the US. Our distinction, however, was to be delayed because 

the instruments only arrived in mid-April, 1979. This 

delay was especially alarming since we had scheduled our 

first concert for late May, only six weeks later. 

In Thailand the performance of classical music is primarily 

an oral tradition. Although Thai composers create 

relatively fixed compositions, these are not normally written 

down, nor is there a definitive version. In performing Thai 

music, each instrumentalist realizes the melody into the characteristic 

idiom (or tang) of his/her instrument. The resulting 

texture has been described both as heterophonic (simultaneous 

variants) and polyphonically stratified. The ability to

144 TERRY E. MILLER 

realize a given melody into a specific idiom is a skill developed 

only over a long period of time and based on extensive 

hearing of Thai music. Most performers in the KSU Ensemble 

were and continue to be non-Thai (Americans and other 

foreign students) who therefore lack this cultural foundation 

so crucial to the performance. 

Prof. Kovit was fortunately an outgoing and effective 

teacher as well as performer and wrote out "parts" for the two 

pieces we played in the May concert. Although none of us, 

except our teacher, really had a feel for the sound of Thai 

music, we managed to perform, though not without difficulties, 

two standards from the repertory--"Kamen sai yok" 

and "Lao siang tian "-with the remainder of the program filled 

out with solos by Prof. Kovit and arrangements of Thai pieces 

(by Thai composers) for Western string ensemble. 

The performance of a little known and lightly documented 

musical tradition such as that of the Thai in an alien 

environment created hitherto unseen problems and required 

solutions that were sometimes unorthodox. Not the least of 

these was maintenance of the instruments. The Thai tuning 

system comprises seven more or less equidistant steps in an 

octave, and tuning is accomplished by specialists who tune 

by ear. Whereas the fiddles and other strings can be tuned 

easily by changing the tension on the strings, the xylophones 

and gong circles must be tuned by adding or substracting from 

the lead and wax tuning weights mounted on the underside 

of the keys. Various solutions short of the proper (but difficult) 

one were attempted. Ordinary modeling clay worked 

well enough for the xylophones but deadened the tones of 

the tuned gongs. Auto-body filler was found to work better 

on the latter, though its relatively light density sometimes 

required rather sizable lumps. 

In returning finally to the authentic lead/wax mixture 

in 1982, however, I felt as if I must be reinventing the wheel, 

since I had no guidance as to how a Thai tuner worked. The 

individual gongs, suspended on leather thongs, had to be 

removed in order to be turned upside down. The tuning 

material was heated in a toaster oven at first, but later it was 

found more efficient to melt it in the bowl of a large spoon 

over a candle. However, the newly installed tuning lumps 

tended to fall out at inopportune times. It was finally determined 

that I must heat both the gong and the wax so that 

they would cool at the same time, and this solution has worked 

best. In any case, the drier air of the American winter and 

our central heating still encourage the lumps to become brittle 

and fall out, sometimes in the middle of a concert. The 

remainder of the instrumentarium is easier to maintain, 

providing it is kept in a humidified room to prevent the wood 

and bamboo from cracking. 

If practical problems seemed to dominate our attention 

from time to time, musical problems constantly challenged 

us. Overriding all was the process of transmission. Traditional 

musicians are trained by masters through a process 

that is as thorough as it is time and labor intensive. The 

teacher transmits each part of each composition to the students 

phrase by phrase until learned. Most of the day is 

spent with the students in a kind of organized practice which 

includes correcting previously taught material and adding new 

phrases. The results are exceptionally good, for even student 

ensembles are capable of playing extended and complex 

compositions, all from memory. 

We departed from Thai traditional pedagogy in another 

fundamental way. Students in Thailand, whether in 

school or studying privately, are expected to pay respect to 

their teacher (s) in a series of ceremonies generally called wai 

kroo. The Thai musicians who taught at KSU did not require 

a wai kroo ceremony or the traditional behavioral patterns 

expected in the master-student relationship. While those 

matters of etiquette which could be easily accommodated were 

observed, e.g., not stepping over instruments, others were 

not, e.g., the student keeping his/her head lower than that of 

the teacher. In most things all agreed that "when in America, 

do as the Americans do." 

Because most players changed each year, we had little 

continuity. While the ideal might have been traditional rotestyle 

teaching, which is demonstrably more thorough, we had 

to compromise between tradition and expediency because the 

teachers lacked the time and in order to realize another 

necessary goal, a performance during the spring of each school 

year. Both Prof. Kovit and his successor, Prof. Jarernchai 

Chonpairot, gave the student players written-out parts. Prof. 

Jarernchai preferred to use a simplified version of the melody 

in notation and instructed the player in the proper idiom of 

the instrument, but there was still too little time for most 

players to absorb the tradition. Nonetheless, our performance 

skills increased and our repertory grew. The spring concert 

of 1980, in which both teachers were present, was also heavily 

attended by the new influx of Lao refugees and their 

sponsors. For variety, we added performance of Lao-style 

music for kaen (free-reed mouth organ) and voice. 

Prof. Kovit graduated in 1980 and returned to his post 

at Chulalongkorn University, and Jarernchai passed his candidacy 

exams in 1982 and also returned to his post in 

Mahasarakam. There being no Thai musician available to 

teach the ensemble, the task fell on me. With considerable 

anxiety I organized a new group in the fall of 1982. Among 

the members was Ms. Marcia Cooper, who had formerly been 

a faculty member in music at Payap College (now Payap 

University) in Chiengmai, Thailand. Her suggestion that Thai 

musicians at Payap record each instrumental part for each 

piece separately was a most fortunate idea. These tapes were 

transcribed into staff notation and given to the performers 

who learned to play them as they might any orchestral part. 

While this procedure violates the traditional practices of Thai 

music, it is one of the many and necessary compromises we 

had to make to cultivate this rare plant in an alien environment. 

In 1986, however, Prof. Jarernchai discovered that 

having the players first learn to sing the melody in unison 

made it easier to play idiomatically later. 

Two notational compromises were also made. To the 

extent that a Thai notation system is used, it presents the 

pitches in arabic numbers arranged in measures having the 

accent in the final position, since Thai music, like certain other 

Southeast Asian musics, is end-accented. If the numbers are

THAI CLASSICAL MUSIC COMES TO AMERICA 145 

converted to notes on a staff, the accent must be shifted to the 

first (downbeat) position in order to avoid unending confusion 

on the part of non-Thai performers. Furthermore, a Thai 

performer following the arabic numbers, which only show 

the skeleton of the melody, knows how to play it in the proper 

idiom of the instrument at hand but a non-Thai does not. 

However, staff notation is capable of showing far more 

rhythmic and melodic detail than is Thai arabic notation, and 

that is why the former was chosen. This compromise, 

nonetheless, is not as radical as it may seem. For years the 

Fine Arts Department in Bangkok has published Thai music 

in staff notation, either in book form or in issues of Silapakorn 

Magazine. Our notation matches the conventions of this 

Westernized-Thai notation. 

While our chief goal is to understand Thai music 

through performance, we also perform in public and want to 

sound as well as possible. It is harder to make a Thai classical 

ensemble sound well than to make a Javanese or Balinese 

gamelan sound well because the latter two groups primarily 

use metallophones, i.e., instruments of fixed pitch. Furthermore, 

individual players contribute to the matrix of sound by 

adding given densities of notes depending on the instruments. 

In other words, few players are responsible for the complete 

melody. In Thai performance, each melodic player is responsible 

for the complete melody in that instrument's idiom, 

and some of the instruments, such as the fiddles, are fretless. 

Therefore, until players have mastered the techniques of these 

more difficult instruments, especially fiddles, zither, and flute, 

it is nearly unavoidable to sound like a beginning ensemble 

with out-of-tune notes, harsh timbres, and a lack of the nuances 

that make Thai music artistic. 

The bowed strings constitute the greatest challenge. 

Since the Thai tuning system has seven equidistant steps in 

an octave, none of which exactly match the Western equaltemperament 

system, and Thai bowed strings do not have 

frets, Western players have trouble knowing just how "flat" or 

"sharp" to play the notes. Fortunately, our players had help 

in this regard from two Thai string players, Ms. Natchar 

Pancharoen, who joined the ensemble in 1980, and Ms. Seesom 

Eamsunpang, who came in 1983 as a graduate assistant; both 

graduated in 1985 and took positions at Chulalongkorn 

University. These "strong" players tend to lead and focus the 

"weak" beginning players. In any case, building a string 

section in Thai music is not dissimilar from building one in a 

junior high school Western orchestra. 

One problem has remained insoluble for the presentthe 

vocal part. Thai is a tonally-inflected language, and the 

melody, though based on fixed pitches at certain points, is 

nonetheless realized in relation to the linguistic tones. Furthermore, 

to be done correctly, the melody includes extremely 

subtle rhythms and ornamentation, neither of which is easily 

notated. Even a Thai singer trained to sing Western music 

will have to make major adjustments before sounding Thai. 

Therefore, our ensemble has depended on having a nativespeaker 

singer render the vocal parts, and when none is 

available, there is no vocal music. 

Notwithstanding the many (and possibly to some, 

extreme) compromises that have been made, Thai music must 

be said to flourish at KSU. Performing the music has proven 

to be a far more effective way of teaching the structure of 

Thai music than merely lecturing about it. Those who have 

played Thai music, and many of those who have heard it, 

have come away with a special interest in Southeast Asia, an 

interest that has sometimes blossomed in the distant places in 

which our graduates find themselves. None has yet organized 

another student ensemble, but some have organized 

refugee musicians or travelled to Thailand as a result. 

Although the KSU Thai Ensemble works each year 

towards the goal of a spring concert and an occasional offcampus 

performance, it is viewed primarily as a teaching tool 

in the study of world musics. Even those who had only a 

passing interest in Asian music have often come away with a 

new perspective on their own Western classical music. While 

they may have thought the particular etiquette related to Thai 

music and its instruments was unusual, they have come to 

see that Western musicians too have their customs and habits. 

Students have also had a positive experience in dealing 

with a foreign music which, to paraphrase Prof. William Maim, 

is very different from each person's previous experience, but 

absolutely logical in its own way. I believe this has had a 

broadening effect on our students. 

While those who participate learn to penetrate the 

complex web of sound that constitutes Thai classical music, 

those who hear only the concert, both Thai and Americans, 

continue to face the challenges presented by this rarely heard 

music. Many Thai, both students and residents, come to hear 

us perform, but not necessarily because they understand or 

prefer this kind of music. They do it out of respect for their 

tradition and perhaps to see whether farangs (Westerners) 

really can play this kind of music. The American audience 

appreciates the music on various levels, depending on their 

training and experience. Some hear the sound as a series of 

intricately woven versions of the melody and are aware of 

the accents marked by the ching and the overall phrasing, but 

others hear only the totality. For many it is like hearing the 

Thai language--appreciating the undulation of the tones, the 

timbre of the voice, the inflections--but understanding none 

of the words. Naturally, a few find it too difficult to accept, 

just as some find Thai food too spicy. 

In the meantime, out players continue to nurture a 

rare and perhaps exotic musical plant in an academic 

greenhouse where more and more students are being exposed 

to one of the world's most charming musical flowers.


Fig. 1. The Kent State University Thai Ensemble rehearses before its 1985 concert. 

Fig. 2. 

Singer Duangjai Thewtong is accompanied by the 

ensemble at Illionis College. 

Fig. 3. Rehearsal of strings and flute. 

Fig. 4. 

Japanese student Tone Takehashi practices the 

ranat ek xylophone.

THAI CLASSICAL MUSIC COMES TO AMERICA 147 

Fig. 5. The jakay is a 3-stringed crocodileshaped 

zither, here played by Elizabeth 

Howard. 

Fig. 7. 

Suzanne Ealy, playing saw duang fiddle, is flanked by master 

Thai musicians Kovit Kantasiri (right, playing ton and rammana 

drums) and Jarernchai Chonpairot (left, playing kawng wong 

lek [gong circle]). 

Fig. 6. 

Sirirat Visesku, playing saw oo fiddle, practices with Sara Stone 

Miller, playing kawng wong yai (gong circle). 

Photographs courtesy of the author.


Fig. 8. 

Master fiddler, Prof. Kovit Kantasiri (center), playing the 

saw duang, practices with Sunpong Boonsiri (left) playing 

saw oo fiddle and Dusanee Vanichvatana playing the kim 

dulcimer. 

Fig. 9. 

Led by Kovit Kantasiri (lower right), four student performers 

prepare a performance. 

Fig.lO. Gene Mothersbaugh, playing ton and rammana drums, 

practices with Tom Brennan, playing kawng wong yai (gong 

circle). 

Fig. 11. Student instructor Seesom Eamsunpang teaches Gerald 

Moore in playing the kawng wong yai (gong circle). 

Photographs courtesy of the author.

SECTION VI 

ETHNOLOGY

UNE APPROCHE ETHNOLOGIQUE 

DES MASSAGES TRADITIONNELS THAIS 

NATHALIE BECQUIGNON 

UNIVERSITE DE PARIS, NANTERRE 

SUMMARY IN ENGLISH 

Perhaps because of its narrow association with prostitution in Thailand, traditional Thai massage has been little 

studied from an ethnological approach. This paper employs that approach, not from a therapeutic or technical standpoint 

but by viewing traditional massage as a significant cultural phenomenon. It attempts to show what rules govern the practice 

of massage in a country where the act of touching a person is subject to strict restraints. 

To become acquainted with traditional Thai massage the author took a course at Wat Pho and then conducted 

field research in Northeast Thailand, especially in Nakhon Ratchasima Province near Chumphuang. 

Massage is performed in accordance with a variety of taboos governing parts of the body as well as age and sex. 

The head, for example, occupies the highest position and the feet the lowest; youth defers to age, and women to men; 

women must never touch a monk. The rules and taboos which govern the touching of a person are illustrated herein by 

diagrams. These show the areas which it is permissible (white) or forbidden (black) to touch, depending on whether the 

contact occurs within or outside of a family group, between males and females, or between the old and the young. 

A detailed example is given of the apprenticeship and functions of a masseuse by presenting a case study of a 

female patient aged 30 who suffers from chronic constipation and consults a local masseuse aged 69. After inquiring as 

to the symptoms, the masseuse strongly massages the abdomen of the patient, using circular strokes with the palm of 

one hand pressed on the back of the other hand. The massage is performed on the clothed body, demonstrating the lack 

of direct physical contact with the body except for the arms and legs. The massage continues on the shoulders and arms; 

the circulation of the blood is then stopped for a moment at the level of the elbows. Massage of the abdomen is then resumed. 

The fee of 20 baht is then symbolically rejected, only to be accepted at last. 

No instruments or medicines are used in the massage, and the masseuses evidently have only a vague knowledge 

of the internal organs of the body. While some believe that the massages are of Chinese origin, a strong Indian influence 

seems probable, since at Wat Pho, for example, certain twistings and stretchings were called "yoga" by the practitioner. 

Pressure is exerted by all the fingers or by just the thumbs; sometimes the palm of the hand is used, and the feet are used 

to knead the thighs. The elbow or knee may be used when extra pressure is needed. 

The masseuses studied by the author all acquired their skills within their province, generally from a relative or 

an elderly masseuse, although there are schools like those in Chiang Mai or Wat Pho where the course involves three 

hours of practice a day for ten days, when, after an examination, a diploma is conferred. 

Apprenticeship may be undertaken at the initiative of a relative or a practicing masseuse, or after a dream or other 

indications of destiny. 

Massages generally have three objectives: a precise therapeutic function (the most common), exorcism, or 

relaxation. The author broaches the question as to whether massages taken for relaxation by young people raised in an 

environment of strict sexual morality may in fact offer a kind of sexual release. 

Most therapeutic practitioners in the villages studied are women; the few masseurs are all also exorcists. Women 

participate only in certain specialized areas of popular medicine: massages (of course), births, abortions and mediumism. 

These are specialities which do not require knowledge of magic or magical incantations, which are reserved for men. The 

latter must follow certain taboos so as not to lose their special knowledge or wicha; e.g. they may not enter a house in 

which there is a coffin. 

Women are excluded from magical or exorcistic practices for two reasons: first, they are considered too weak by 

nature, i.e. by their kwan (vital essence residing in the head); and second, they are considered impure. 

Since at the village level the techniques of massage are acquired through apprenticeship, a strong bond of gratitude 

is created with the master. Furthermore, by an act of beneficence toward the patient, the practitioner acquires merit to

152 NATHALIE BECQUIGNON 

be applied to a future life. The remuneration given by a patient is considered to be an offering to the master. Thus the 

practitioner offers the product of her knowledge and the patient participates in a gift which becomes an offering: 

" ... a conversion of material capital into symbolic capital which itself can be reconverted into material capital'' 

(Bourdien 1980). 

Introduction 

Parmi les nombreuses pratiques de medecines 

traditionnelles, il en est une qui prete a peu d'analyses 

fines, a savoir les massages. Le fait que cette technique soit 

etroitement associee a la prostitution (principalement en 

Thai1ande) contribue probablement sinon a son occultation 

du moins au peu d'interet qu'elle suscite en ethnologie, discipline 

qui, en l'occurence, a beaucoup de difficulte a s'extraire 

des cliches du sens commun. 

J'ai choisi d'etudier les massages traditionnels thais 

non pas du point de vue therapeutique ou technique, malgre 

tout !'interet evident que l'on peut trouver, mais comme un 

phenomEme culturel significati£. 1 En effet, en Thai1ande le 

massage fait partie du quotidien. On se masse soi-meme ou 

bien mutuellement en discutant avec des ami(e)s ala faveur 

d'un moment de detente ou encore en sollicitant le service 

d'une masseuse detentrice d'un savoir therapeutique. Mais, 

dans ce pays ou les regles du toucher sont tres strictes, les 

massages peuvent apparaltre comme une transgression 

toleree. Obeissent-ils a certaines regles? Y a-t-il des personnes 

que l'on ne peut toucher ou masser? Ce contact physique ne 

permet-il pas de renforcer les liens entre les differents membres 

de la communaute? Et l'altruisme manifeste par les masseuses 

n'est-il pas finalement une forme dissimulee d'echanges, 

de prestations? 

Apres une explication des regles sociales du toucher 

et une esquisse des techniques de massage, je tenterai de 

repondre a ces questions. 2 

Methode 

Au debut de l'etude, des fonctionnaires de Bangkok a 

qui j'avais explique mon projet essayerent de me decourager, 

affirmant que cette vieille pratique avait quasiment disparu, 

qu'elle n'etait plus d'actualite et ininteressante. Une telle 

attitude est assez frequente dans les pays en voie de developpement 

dont les representants officiels, petris de valeurs 

occidentales, comprennent difficilement que ceux dont il est 

dans la nature d'incamer ces valeurs s'interessent a autre chose 

qu'a la modernisation de leur pays. C. Levi-Strauss exprime 

parfaitement ce type de problemes (dans "Anthropologie" in 

Diogene. Paris, 1975 N. 90: 26), je cite: 

"On accueille volontiers les economistes et les 

sociologues dont les recherches peuvent contribuer aus 

transformations souhaitees; en revanche, on tolere a 

peine les ethnologues et parfois on les interdit de sejour, 

de peur que leurs travaux et leurs publications 

ne fixent !'attention sur des usages qu'on prefere 

oublier jusqu'a ce qu'ils aient disparu. A supposer 

qu'ils persistent, on ne souhaite pas que leur existence 

soit connue au-dehors, pour que nul ne s'imagine qu'a 

!'inverse de ce que l'on voudrait faire croire et que l'on 

croit peut-etre, la culture nationale n'est pas encore 

parvenue au niveau d'une civilisation modernisee". 

Afin de me familiariser avec le savoir-faire des 

praticiens traditionnels, je suivis en Octobre 1988 un stage de 

massages traditionnels au temple de Wat Pho a Bangkok (voir 

infra: p.157). Si la technique du massage semble identique, 

c'est bien le seul point commun qui existe entre les masseuses 

de ce temple et celles qui officient dans les villages. A 

Bangkok, le massage est une profession avec horaires et 

remunerations. Dans les villages, il n'y a en general pas de 

contraintes de temps ni de paiements necessaires. 3 

Apres avoir re~ une formation pratique a Bangkok, 

mon travail s'est base sur des enquetes et observations dans 

le nord-est de la Thai1ande, plus particulierement dans la 

province de Nakhon Ratchasima, pres de Chumphong. Les 

villages observes se nomment Khok Hin Chang, Talat et Khok 

Po Gnat (cf cartes). J'ai limite mon observation aces quelques 

villages proches afin de com parer les pratiques des differentes 

masseuses. 

Cet endroit, en retrait des voies de circulation 

principales, est au sud de l'Isan ("Nord-Est"), a deux heures 

de route et une demi-heure de piste du celebre sanctuaire 

khmer de Phimai Cette province est limitrophe, entre la plaine 

centrale de Bangkok et l'Isan, done une region charniere ou 

s'interpenetrent cultures thaie et lao (cf notes). 

1. Les regles du toucher chez les Thais 

Plusieurs etudes ont montre que les comportements 

engendres par les normes de contact varient selon les cultures, 

par exemple Descamps (1989: 139). ll ressort notamment 

de ces travaux que dans bien des societes le toucher est tres 

reglemente. Si cela ne semble pas evident dans les societes 

occidentales ou le contact physique n'est pas strictement 

prohibe en public, a !'inverse en Asie du Sud-Est, les interdits 

relatifs au toucher sont tres rapidement signifies a l'h6te 

etranger soit par le constat d'un evitement systematique des 

acteurs sociaux, soit par l'enonciation formelle des tabous a 

l'etranger qui n'a passu les voir. Chez les Siamois et les Isan, 

les representations du corps varient selon les ages et selon les 

sexes. La tete est hautement consideree car elle est le siege de 

I' essence vitale appelee khwan; c'est la partie la plus intime de 

l'individu. 4 A l'oppose, les pieds sont impurs, bas, souilles 

par leur contact au sol. B. Formoso explique a propos des Isan

UNE APPROCHE ETHNOLOGIQUE DES MASSAGES 153 

cette opposition tete/pieds (1987: 147) et montre ainsi que ce 

systeme de reference s'etend a !'organisation de la maison et 

meme a la constitution du village et de son environnement, 

le village etant l'extremite superieure d'un espace humanise 

dont les rizieres figurent les pieds. 

Dans ces deux societes il est tres grave de toucher la 

tete d'un, ou d'une, aine(e). Par precaution, il vaut meme 

mieux ne pas apposer la main au-dessus du niveau des 

epaules. De meme, les jeunes doivent s'incliner s'ils passent 

a proximite de personnes respectables (car d'un age ou d'un 

statut social qui suppose la deference). Flechissant la tete ou 

le corps, ils affichent ainsi leur volonte de se placer en position 

d'inferiorite face aux aines. Quant aux femmes, en 

reproduisant le meme flechissement du corps en presence des 

hommes reconnaissent la preeminence de ces derniers. A 

travers ces regles relatives au toucher et a la position des 

corps se decline done la hierarchie des positions statutaires, 

qu'elles aient trait a rage, au sexe ou a d'autres discriminants 

(economiques, religieux, politiques). Ainsi, cette convention 

est systematique devant les moines bouddhistes. En effet, 

ceux-ci ont une aura sacree qu'il faut honorer. Quelque soit 

I'age et la position sociale des la'ics, il est de leur devoir de 

s'incliner profondement par trois fois, devant le Bouddha, le 

Dharma et le Sangha5 et surtout pour les femmes, ne pas 

toucher un moine afin d'eviter toute tentation sexuelle a ce 

dernier. 

Nous arrivons maintenant aux regles du toucher selon 

les sexes. En Thallande, selon Terwiel (1975: 116}, la femme 

est consideree comme impure a cause du sang menstruel. 

Mais c'est un fait qui n'est pas typique a la Thallande; les 

menstruations sont souvent symbole d'impurete, de souillure. 

Voici un recapitulatif des regles du toucher, tel qu'il 

en a resulte des enquetes dans les villages observes. n n'est 

pas possible de generaliser a I' ensemble de la Thallande compte 

tenu des informations parcellaires dont on dispose inevitablement. 

Les dessins utilises par I'ethologue Desmond 

Morris (1977: 204) pour presenter differentes situations intimes 

ou publiques du quotidien sont la source d'inspiration des 

figurines presentees aux pages suivantes. D. Morris a dessine 

quatre figures resultant d'enquetes faites aupres d'adolescents 

americains: zones touchees par le pere, par la mere, par les 

amis de meme sexe et par les arnis de sexe oppose afin de 

determiner les parties publiques et les parties privees selon 

les sexes et les contextes. 

En ce qui conceme ce present article, de plus nombreux 

cas ont ete decrits afin de couvrir un vaste ensemble de 

situations probables. Si les relations familieres et formelles 

ont ete representees, ce n'est pas le cas des situations d'intimite. 

Legende: • zone de contact interdit 

rl zone de contact permis 

JZI reponse ne faisant pas l'unanimite 

quant a !'interdiction. 

Dans un contexte familial 

cadet 

aim! 

aim!e 

cadette 

Hors du contexte familial 

cadet 

aine 

ainee 

cadette 

Dans un contexte familial 

cadet 

aine 

1. n ne peut toucher que les avant-bras 

et le bas des jambes. 

2. Elle ne doit pas toucher le torse, le 

sexe et les fesses. 

1. La femme est plus jeune, il n'est pas 

prejudiciable de toucher se tete. Tout 

le corps est zone taboue. 

2. Tout le corps est interdit, particulierement 

la tete et les epaules. 

1. Hors de la famille, le garc;on ne doit 

pas toucher une femme plus agee, si 

ce n'est les avant-bras. 

2. Le torse, le sexe, les fesses sont zones 

interdites. La tete ne doit pas etre 

touchee meme si le garc;on est plus 

jeune: I'homme doit etre respecte. 

1. et 2. La situation demeure la meme 

que dans le cadre familial. 

1. Entre personnes du meme sexe les 

zones interdites sont plus restreintes: 

sexe, tete et epaules. 

2. Seulement le sexe ne doit pas etre 

touche. 

1. La poitrine et le sexe sont des zones 

interdites au toucher. 

2. La meme chose avec la tete et les 

epaules en plus, par respect. 

ainee 

cadette


Hors du contexte familial. 

1. et 2. Les interdits sont les memes 

qu'en situation familiale. 

Personnes du meme age: 

dans un contexte familial 

cadet 

aim! 

Idem. 

Hors de la famille Dans les deux cas, seules les parties 

sexuelles sont interdites. 

aitu!e 

cadette 

Dans un contexte familial: 

personnes du meme age 

Seules les parties sexuelles seraient 

taboues, mais toutes les reponses ne le 

mentionnent pas. 

Prohibition absolue 

moine 

femme 

Le toucher est autorise mais la pratique 

improbable. 

Hors du contexte familial: 

personnes du meme age 

Le sexe est tabou; toutes les reponses ne 

s'accordent pas pour les femmes a propos 

de la poitrine. 

moine 

homme 

Les regles du toucher sont quasiment les memes dans 

les contextes familiaux et exb~rieurs, les deux exceptions etant 

d'une part qu'un cadet ne doit pas toucher une ainee (horsfamille) 

excepte au niveau des avant-bras alors que dans le 

cadre familialles zones taboues sont plus reduites et d'autre 

part, considerant des personnes du meme age et du meme 

sexe, il semblerait que dans les families il ne soit pas tabou de 

toucher les parties sexuelles, alors que cela le demeure entre 

personnes non familieres. 

Les regles du toucher sont regies par l'age (aine-cadet) 

et le sexe. L'articulation de ces deux parametres definit un 

plus ou moins grand nombre de zones taboues. Ces interdits 

sont de trois sortes: 

1. Interdits sexuels: marques non seulement par le sexe mais 

par tout le corps dans certains cas. 

2. Interdits lies au respect qui concement la tete et les 

epaules. Le corps des femmes est du point de vue des prohibitions 

tactiles principalement defini par reference aux


tabous sexuels alors que celui des hommes est plus sensible 

au tabou de respect. En effet, ce respect ne s'exprime pas 

seulement en fonction de l'age; nous voyons sur les figurines 

qu'une femme ainee ne doit pas toucher la tete d'un cadet et 

du coup apparait plus "respectable" que la femme. 

3. Interdit total de toucher un moine ou d'etre touche par 

celui-ci pour les femmes. II fait partie de la sphere du sacre 

et ne peut avoir de contacts physiques. 

Ces regles du toucher seront modifiees en fonction de 

la variante "situation sociale". Les Thais sont tres sensibles au 

prestige social d'une situation financiere ou d'un poste 

valorisant. Aussi un vieil homme s'inclinera profondement 

devant un haut dignitaire la'ic ou devant un moine, quelque 

soit l'age de ceux-ci. 

Les regles du toucher qui regissent les attitudes 

corporelles quotidiennes semblent tres rigides et fortement 

respectees. D'oil !'interet d'une etude des pratiques de massages 

dans la mesure oil celles-ci ne respectent pas les interdits 

precedemment enonces. Des lors, en effet, seules Ia poitrine 

et les parties sexuelles demeurent zones interdites au toucher. 

Par ailleurs, la notion de respect de la tete et d'impurete des 

pieds n'existent plus, arne ou cadet peuvent se masser l'un 

I' autre. Dans le contexte particulier des massages a caractere 

therapeutique ou relaxant tombent les interdits 

lies au respect et seuls restent en vigueur les interdits sexuels. 

Nous reviendrons sur cette "transgression permise" dans les 

pages qui suivent, mais auparavant, commenc;ons par decrire 

cette technique qui libere des interdits du toucher. 

2. Massages: techniques, apprentissage 

et fonctions 

En guise d'illustration a l'apprentissage et aux 

fonctions des massages, il nous semble necessaire de presenter 

une seance telle qu'elle fut observee en 1988 dans le village 

de Nok Hin Chang. 

2.1 Un exemple. 

Da est une institutrice de 30 ans. Elle enseigne et 

reside a Nok Hin Chang depuis 5 ans mais elle est originaire 

de Saraburi, situe dans Ia plaine centrale de Bangkok. Elle 

souffre de constipation chronique et pratique !'auto-medication 

en prenant regulierement des laxatifs achetes dans une 

pharmacie de la ville voisine. Ce jour-la, elle etait a cours de 

medicaments et choisit de consulter une masseuse. Une fillette 

servit d'intermediaire pour fixer un rendez-vous. La 

praticienne contactee etait agee de 69 ans. Elle assure 

egalement les fonctions de sage-femme et pratique ces deux 

activites depuis 1981, date correspondant au deces d'une 

masseuse chez qui elle etait servante. Selon ses dires, celled 

lui serait apparue en reve pour lui demander de continuer 

sa tache afin d'aider ses prochains a moins souffrir. Elle a 

done commence a masser, menant parallelement un travail 

qui consiste a nettoyer I' ecole, ce qu'elle fait encore aujourd'hui. 

Cette femme est arrivee a l'heure du dejeuner et toutle monde 

s'est empresse de lui offrir un repas, qu'elle a refuse poliment, 

comme c'est la coutume. Elle est allee avec Da dans une piece 

voisine oil il y avait un espace plus confortable pour s'allonger. 

La masseuse s'est mise a croupetons (naiJ j::J:I) ja:IJ) et a demande 

a la patiente allongee quels etaient ses symptomes. 

Apres les explications de l'institutrice, elle a tout d'abord joint 

les mains au niveau du front (wii.j) par respect envers la 

masseuse decedee, puis elle a commence a masser sans jamais 

regarder le corps, les yeux dans le vague. Cette methode lui 

est particuliere car les autres masseuses ne pratiquent pas 

obligatoirement sans regarder ce qu'elles font. La seance a 

dure une demi-heure. 

Elle a masse le ventre tres fort, en cercles, avec la 

paume d'une main appuyee par !'autre; les pressions sont 

plus ou moins longues. Les massages etaient effectues sur les 

vetements. 6 Elle a continue par les epaules et les bras puis a 

bloque la circulation sanguine au niveau des coudes pendant 

environ une minute afin de chasser le vent et stimuler la 

circulation. 7 Elle a recommence ensuite a masser le ventre de 

la meme maniere. Le massage termine, Da est allee chercher 

20 baths que la masseuse a refuse en pretextant qu'elle ne 

pratique pas pour !'argent mais pour soulager la douleur des 

autres. Sur l'insistance de la cliente, elle a finalement accepte 

en disant que cet argent servirait d'offrande a celle qui lui 

etait apparue en reve. La seance s'est terminee ainsi. 

Nous nous baserons sur cet exemple au cours de nos 

prochaines explications. 

2.2 Techniques et apprentissage. 

Que les massages thals n'utilisent pas d'instruments, 

ni de medicaments, au contraire de l'Inde 8 n'en signifie pas 

pour autant que les techniques qu'ils mettent en oeuvre sont 

rudimentaires. Bien au contraire, les manipulations, les torsions 

supposent la maitrise de connaissances "tactiles", pour 

ne pas dire anatomiques car il semble que les masseuses n'aient 

qu'une connaissance tres diffuse de la constitution interne du 

corps. Le massage consiste en manipulations ou pratiques 

essentiellement manuelles, executees sur une partie du corps, 

generalement a des fins therapeutiques. Si pour certains Thais 

les massages seraient d'origine chinoise, une forte influence 

indienne apparait probable. Par exemple, mon professeur 

au Wat Pho appelait certains mouvements de contorsion et 

d'elongation "yoga". Des representations de yogi dans des 

positions utilisees pendant les massages oment d'ailleurs les 

murs de ce temple. 

Mis-a-part ces mouvements de torsion, les massages 

sont faits de pressions qui sont de force et de duree variables. 

Ces pressions sont exercees soit avec tous les doigts, soit 

uniquement avec les pouces; les paumes etant utilisees parfois. 

La masseuse pratique aussi avec les pieds pour "travailler" 

l'arriere de la cuisse. Si elle est trop faible, elle peut s'aider de 

son coude ou de son genou pour faire une pression soutenue. 

Les masseuses rencontrees ont appris dans leur province 

d'origine, aucune n'a un savoir exterieur. Generalement, 

c'est une parente ou une vieille femme masseuse qui leur a


enseigne. 11 y a pourtant deux possibilites d'apprendre les 

massages: Au village avec un khru: (instructeur) ou bien dans 

une ecole comme celle de Chiang Mai ou le temple de Wat 

Pho. L'enseignement tel qu'il est dispense dans ce dernier 

procede de Ia fac;on suivante: I'elE~ve suit des cours de trois 

heures quotidiennement pendant environ dix jours, avec le 

meme professeur. En general, il s'agit de cours particuliers. 

Dans un premier temps, l'enseignant masse l'etudiant en lui 

expliquant les mouvements, Ia repetitivite et les indications 

therapeutiques. Ensuite, I'apprenti-masseur exerce le savoir 

fraichement acquis sur le professeur qui corrige les mauvais 

mouvements. Cet enseignement pratique est fort interessant 

car il permet a l'eleve de ressentir lui-meme I'effet du geste 

avant de le realiser a son tour. Le cours termine, I'etudiant 

est invite a mettre en pratique chez lui les techniques qui lui 

ont ete inculquees sur des amis, car le cours du lendemain 

debutera par une revision de ce qui a ete enseigne Ia veille. 

Le dernier jour du stage, l'eleve devra masser son professeur 

des pieds a Ia tete, pendant trois heures, ce qui correspond au 

temps necessaire pour un massage complet. Dans Ia pratique, 

les masseuses n'exercent jamais trois heures durant. Ce 

massage correspond a toutes les techniques enseignees afin 

de controler leur assimilation par l'eleve. L'exercice pratique 

final est en fait I'examen qui permet de delivrer un diplome 

de m5: nwat "specialiste es massages". Durant ce massage 

complet, il est des points sur lesquels Ia masseuse revient 

plusieurs fois: Ia plante des pieds, qui a des correspondances 

avec tous les organes, le dos souvent douloureux et dont le 

massage est particulierement relaxant et Ia tete pour stimuler. 

Mon professeur m'a enseigne Ia maniere d'arreter le 

flux sanguin en trois points du corps: sous Ia cheville, a l'aine 

eta I'epaule; ceci a pour but de chasser le souffle, comme il 

a ete vu precedemment. Cette pratique n'est pas systematiquement 

utilisee par tous les masseurs, et pas toujours 

appliquee aux memes endroits. Chacun acquiert sa propre 

technique a partir d'une base commune. Au temple, le masseur 

n'a pas besoin de preparation particuliere ni d'artifice: il 

lui faut un espace ferme pour allonger le patient, qui reste 

vetu, et de Ia concentration. 

Plusieurs types d'initiation peuvent etre distingues au 

niveau villageois. D'une part I'apprentissage a !'initiative d'une 

parente ou d'une specialiste, d'autre part !'initiation a Ia suite 

d'un reve ou par d'autres signes du destin (revelation suite a 

!'accident d'un proche ou demande des villageois). 

Dans le premier cas, Ia personne decide d'apprendre 

les massages de son plein gre ou bien quelque peu contrainte; 

par exemple lorsqu'une grand-mere demande a sa petite-fille 

de Ia masser, sollicitation d'autant plus difficile a refuser qu'elle 

emane d'une ainee, les personnes agees et les aines devant 

generalement etre obeis et respectes en toute circonstance. 

L'apprentissage se passe toujours sous forme pratique 

d'observation et de repetition des mouvements. L'eleve est 

soumis et attentionne a son professeur. Comme le signale P. 

Bourdieu (1972: 191}, Ia transmission "explicite par prescriptions 

et preceptes" inculque autre chose qu'un savoir technique; 

en I'occurence une dimension culturelle globale qui 

serait ici le respect et le devouement pour I'instructeur et, 

dans un sens plus general, pour !'Autre. C'est pourquoi Ia 

ceremonie de phi? thi: wiij khru: (ceremonie de respect aux 

maitres) qui a lieu une fois par an au moment du Nouvel An 

traditionnel, en Avril, est si importante: on fait des offrandes 

aux personnes qui ont bien voulu transmettre leur savoir et 

leur sagesse. Pendant cette ceremonie, on ne s'adresse pas 

seulement a son propre instructeur, mais a toute l'ascendance 

des maitres remontant parfois jusqu'a Jivaka, medecin du 

Bouddha devenu ainsi en Thailande "premier medecin 

mythique" d'une lignee de guerisseurs (Tambiah, 1970: 327). 

Ce respect aux maitres est quasiment un du, et ne pas 

le faire conduit a une vengeance de Ia part de I'instructeur 

defunt courrouce. Cela s'appelle phit khru: (punition du 

maitre). Si un guerisseur, et cela est valable pour tout detenteur 

d'un savoir therapeutique, commet une faute dans sa 

pratique ou oublie d'honorer son maitre, celui-ci lui enverra 

une punition dont void les symptomes enumeres par les 

villageois: froideur des mains et des pieds, evanouissement, 

agressivite envers tout le monde. Dans ce cas-la, Ia famille 

doit preparer une ceremonie equivalente a phi? phi: wiij khru: 

afin que le guerisseur recouvre l'integralite de ses facultes. 

Dans le second cas, c'est-a-dire par initiation spirituelle 

(comme dans I'exemple) Ia personne ne desirait pas a priori 

devenir masseuse. L'esprit d'une personne connue (en 

general masseuse ou parente) apparait en reve et ordonne de 

masser pour soulager Ia douleur des autres villageois. La 

personne "elue" rec;oit un certain prestige, une promotion 

sociale au sein du village. Comme dans le cas d'une initiation 

par un khru:, cette masseuse choisie doit rendre hommage a 

son esprit revelateur au moment du Nouvel An. 

L'evenement declencheur peut etre un reve mais aussi 

un fait reel dont Ia personne "revelee" fut temoin ou objet. 

Par exemple, une vieille femme expliqua que son petit-fils 

etait tombe d'un arbre et s'etait foule Ia cheville. 11 avait mal 

et elle etait toute seule avec lui. Alors elle I' a masse et comme 

les pleurs de !'enfant cessaient, elle a continue jusqu'a ce qu'il 

n'ait plus mal. Suite a cette histoire, les voisins sont venus Ia 

consulter, lui ont demande de les soigner et c'est ainsi qu'elle 

est devenue masseuse. 11 est interessant de noter que cette 

femme concretisa sa vocation bien avant d'etre depositaire 

d'une technique qui, en I' absence d'initiateur, ne pouvait etre 

qu'empirique, les Dons reveles a travers le deroulement de Ia 

destinee (kham ou kharma) individuelle se voyant, dans cette 

societe bouddhiste, conferes d'emblee une efficacite sans passer 

necessairemep.t par Ia mediation d'un apprentissage 

besogneux. 

2.3 Les fonctions des massages. 

Trois categories de massages peuvent etre distinguees 

tels qu'ils ont ete observes dans le Nord-Est. Les deux 

premieres sont "techniques" tandis que la troisieme ne necessite 

pas de savoir particulier: 

1. Une fonction therapeutique precise. 

2. Une contribution a !'expulsion d'esprits malefiques. 

3. Une fonction relaxante.

UNE APPROCHE ETHNOLOGIQUE DES MASSAGES 

157 

Village de Ban Khok Hin Chang. Photographs courtesy of the author. 

Vieille femme exprimant son respect par le w aj . 

Salle de massages dans }'enceinte du temple. 

Plaques de marbre de Wat Pho representant differents points 

de massages. 

Posture denommee "yoga" par le professeur.


Torsions. 

Differentes techniques. 

Massages pratiques avec les pieds.


Moine-guerisseur-exorciste specialise dans la guerison des 

fractures. 

Differentes masseuses des villages observes.


La premiere fonction est celle qui est evoquee le plus 

frequemment; il s'agit d'apaiser les desordres du corps. La 

masseuse utilise les techniques citees precedemment. Pour 

aider une personne possedee, il faut aussi recourir aux incantations. 

Dans les villages observes, il y a des exorcistes m:X phi: 

qui ont pour fonction de delivrer les personnes 

possedees par les esprits, souvent prises de convulsions et de 

tremblements. Ces m:X phi: utilisent les massages renforces 

par des incantations magiques afin d'apaiser le corps endolori 

du patient et de contribuer a expulser l'occupant indesire. 

Dans ce cas, les massages serviront a completer la therapie 

magique mais ils ne sauraient etre suffisants. Dans ces deux 

fonctions il y a retribution du praticien tandis que dans la 

troisieme il en va autrement. 11 n'a pas ete observe qu'une 

masseuse vienne chez un villageois simplement pour de la 

relaxation, mais cela ne signifie pas qu'elles ne le £assent pas 

au profit de leur parente proche. 11 semblerait done que les 

masseuses "confirmees" soient requises pour des fonctions 

therapeutiques bien precises. 

Dans le cas de simple relaxation, il n'est pas besoin de 

connaitre la technique enseignee lors des apprentissages. 11 

est frequent de voir les jeunes gens du meme sexe se masser 

en discutant, en groupe, detendus et hors des contraintes 

sociales de bienseance. De fa~on spontanee on verra des jeunes 

filles se masser les epaules en bavardant sans qu'il y ait forcement 

de demande et cela toujours dans un moment privilegie 

de repos ou de confidences done dans un moment de communication 

intense, renforce par ce partage corpore!. 

On peut distinguer deux categories de masseuses: les 

praticiennes detentrices d'un savoir-faire reconnu, appelees 

ou visitees pour des fonctions therapeutiques precises et les 

masseuses "spontanees" qui massent sans retribution, dans 

un moment de detente. Chez ces jeunes gens qui sont eleves 

de fa~on rigide quant au toucher eta la sexualite hors-mariage, 

ne peut-on pas voir dans les massages non seulement un 

moyen de cohesion mais aussi une expression, une certaine 

liberation de cette sensualite et meme de cette sexualite 

prohibee? 

En effet, bien que ces massages relaxants ne leur soient 

pas particuliers, ils sont plus frequents chez les jeunes des 

deux sexes qu'entre personnes deja mariees et plus agees. 

Nous allons maintenant determiner pourquoi il y a 

plus de femmes que d'hommes exer~ant lest massages avant 

de tenter d'expliquer quels pourraient etre les fonctions 

culturelles, communautaires de telles pratiques. 

3. Une majorite de femmes 

Dans les villages etudies, la plupart des personnes 

pratiquant des massages a des fins therapeutiques sont de 

sexe feminin. Les quelques hommes qui utilisent cette specialite 

sont tous aussi rna: phi: c'est-a-dire exorcistes. Autre 

constat, les femmes ne sont presentes que dans certains 

secteurs de la medecine populaire: massages certes, mais aussi 

accouchements, avortements et mediumnisme. Differentes 

specialites qui, notons-le, ne requierent ni savoir magique ni 

incantations, magie et recitation de formules sacrees etant 

affaires d'hommes. 

Pour qu'une telle opposition soit claire, on doit 

expliquer tout d'abord que la plupart des guerisseurs villageois 

ont acquis leur savoir soit aupres d'un vieux guerisseur dont 

ils sont devenus l'eleve soit aupres d'un moine, ou les deux. 

Leur savoir nomme wicha, que ce soit de guerir par les plantes 

ou d'exorciser, se base sur la meditation et des incantations 

appropriees. Uncertain nombre d'interdits sont a respecter 

afin de ne pas perdre cette connaissance (voir R. Marukatat, 

1989: 332). Aussi le guerisseur ne doit pas manger dans une 

maison ou il y a un cercueil car il perdrait son wicha. 11 y a 

la une analogie entre la mort physique et la mort symbolique 

du savoir. Les autres interdits sont de ne pas manger centaines 

sortes de viande, les restes ou fumer la cigarette des autres. 

Ou encore, de ne pas passer sous la maison ou le grenier a 

riz; on retrouve ici la volonte de respecter la tete, siege des 

khwan qui ne doit pas etre domine ou touche. Enfin, le 

detenteur de wicha doit manger en prenant garde qu'on ne 

touche pas sa main sinon il devra faire le waj a l'autel de son 

maitre pcur que le pouvoir qu'il detient conserve toute son 

integrite. Ce savoir et le respect des interdits cites donne un 

pouvoir sacre qui est inaccessible aux femmes pour deux 

raisons: 

La premiere est, que les femmes sont dites faibles par 

nature (khwan ?:J:n) et qu'illeur serait dangereux de manipuler 

ou de lutter avec des esprits qui les domineraient forcement. 

Cette notion de faiblesse n'est pas unique ala Thai1ande. Ainsi, 

Jeanne Favret-Saada (1977: 23) s'est vue demander dans son 

enquete sur la sorcellerie en France si elle etait "assez forte" 

pour ecouter les recits de sorcellerie et voir les possedes. En 

Thai1ande, on ne pose pas la question a la femme car, il est 

acquis qu'elle est plus faible que les hommes et les esprits. 

C'est la raison pour laquelle elle peut devenir medium: en 

effet, etre m5: khaw SOl] c'est avoir ete choisie par un esprit 

pour etre son support, son intermediaire. La medium n'a pas 

de role actif dans son art: elle a ete choisie par l'esprit et ne 

peut pas lui resister sous peine d'etre tres malade. Le seul 

pouvoir qu'elle ait sur lui est de l'appeler quand elle le veut 

par une formule qu'illui aura appris, souvent lors d'un reve. 

Les villageois viennent consulter la medium lorsqu'ils veulent 

connaitre un evenement futur, prendre une decision ou bien 

etablir un diagnostic lors d'une maladie. 

La seconde raison qui place la femme a part est son 

impurete. Terwiel (1975: 93-94) note que les femmes sont 

antithetiques a toute action a base de sacre car le sang 

menstruel est considere comme polluant, oppose au pouvoirs 

benefiques. C'est pour cette raison et pour eviter toute 

tentation sexuelle qu'elle ne peut toucher les moines, 

personnages sacres du Bouddhisme dont elle pourrait annihiler 

tousles pouvoirs. Ellene peut pas non plus etre guerisseuse 

par les plantes, m5: ja:, son impurete detruirait les pouvoirs 

des plantes. Nous voyons done que la femme dans la societe 

thaie n'a pas acces au sacre, au magique car elle est polluante 

mais aussi porteuse d'une force non maitrisee par les hommes. 

Elle doit etre soumise, reservee, toumee vers l'interieur, la 

maison comme l'ecrit P. Bourdieu (1980: 119). Tandis que


I'homme est tourne vers l'exterieur, le haut, les autres. Ces 

criteres sont valables pour beaucoup de societes humaines, 

mais il n'est pas inutile de rappeler ces oppositions dans un 

tableau: 

Homme 

exterieur 

fier 

psychologiquement fort 

techniques spirituelles 

Femme 

interieur 

reservee 

psychologiquement faible 

techniques corporelles 

II y a proverbe tha'i qui exprime bien cette opposition 

interieur I exterieur, femme I homme: 

chiJj kha:w plwak ji!] kha:w sa:n 

"Les hommes sont le riz brut, les femmes le riz decortique". 

Cela signifie que les hommes peuvent prendre 

racine et s'etablir par eux-memes tandis que les femmes 

associees au riz domestique sont fragiles, dependantes et 

toumees vers le foyer. 9 

Ainsi les seules activites que peuvent avoir les femmes 

sont orientees vers l'interieur: le massage, !'accouchement, 

l'avortement, le mediumnisme. Ce sont les rares pratiques 

qui leur permettent d'avoir du prestige social. 

* * * 

Pour conclure, il convient de s'interesser aux implications 

d'ordre relationnel des massages. 

Comme ill'a ete indique, les femmes sont majoritaires 

dans ce secteur d'activite. Lorsqu'il y a specialisation et vocation 

therapeutique, c'est indeniablement un moyen d'obtenir 

une certaine consideration au sein du village. Ce qui differencie 

principalement les femmes par rapport aux representants 

de l'autre sexe dans l'exercice de leurs specialites est 

le recours a Ia parole. En effet, les hommes prononcent des 

incantations qui leur donnent un pouvoir sur les choses, 10 les 

etres surnaturels et permet de sacraliser l'eau ou l'huile afin 

de purifier ou de proteger. La femme, elle, n'a pas ce pouvoir 

dans Ia societe tha'ie, meme dans le mediumnisme puisqu'elle 

n'est qu'intermediaire. Dans ses pratiques, elle communique 

par le toucher. 11 est interessant de voir que dans cette societe 

oil, nous I'avons vu, ce toucher est si reglemente, Ia femme y 

a acces et monopolise quasiment ces pratiques du corps. Ce 

qui nous amene a l'autre vocation des massages: lorsque Ia 

"faiblesse psychique" devient source de tentation physique, 

d'excitation sexuelle, lorsque les soins pratiques pudiquement 

sur les vetements s'effacent au profit de pratiques nettement 

plus erotiques. On connait bien le developpement 

spectaculaire qu'ont connu les "salons de massages" des lors 

que Ia Tha'ilande devenait le principal point de reliiche des 

G.l. americains combattant au Vietnam. Les touristes en quete 

de sensations "exotiques" prenant ensuite le relais des soldats 

pour poursuivre le developpement d'une institution que les 

premiers avaient fait connaitre au monde entier. Sans doute 

les massages-prostitution representent-ils une perversion des 

massages-relaxation dont on a vu qu'ils etaient d'autant plus 

populaires dans Ia societe traditionnelle tha'ie, telle qu'elle se 

donne encore a voir dans les villages, que les contraintes 

sociales qui pesent ordinairement sur !'expression corporelle 

dans cette societe sont tres fortes. Des lors, le prestige social 

que peuvent tirer les praticiennes traditionnelles des massages 

s'evanouit et les femmes (plutot vaudrait-il mieux parler de 

jeunes filles puisque celles-ci ont en moyenne 16-17 ans) 

deviennent le simple instrument du plaisir des hommes. 

Si au terme de cette disgression necessaire on revient 

a !'horizon villageois, on peut recapituler les caracteristiques 

des massages de Ia maniere suivante: 

II y a tout d'abord des consequences sociales directes: 

les massages sont enseignes par apprentissage, acte 

d'importance dans Ia societe. Mauss ecrit a ce sujet: "c'est 

precisement dans cette notion de prestige de Ia personne qui 

fait I'acte ordonne, autorise, prouve, par rapport a l'individu 

imitateur, que se trouve tout !'element social" (1983: 369). 

Ce don de savoir, de techniques, cree daris le cas de Ia 

societe tha'ie un lien tres fort avec le maitre qui sera toujours 

venere et remercie d'avoir partage ses connaissances, meme 

au-dela de son deces. Les relations entre les masseuses et les 

masses sont intenses aussi par cette communication particuliere 

du toucher, interdit ordinairement. II y a done un 

echange tacite oil chacun trouve son compte. La masseuse 

soulage Ia douleur du patient; deja par cette action elle obtient 

un benefice que l'on nomme "merite" dans le Bouddhisme, 

bun en that, II lot de bonneS actions qui apporteront des re 

COmpenseS dans une prochaine vie. Le malade donne en 

retour une somme d'argent a Ia prestataire. On aurait tort 

d'assimiler une telle contre-prestation a une simple remuneration. 

En effet, I' argent re«;U se veut avant tout une offrande 

aux maitres, a l'initiateur, en remerciement du savoir qu'il a 

bien voulu lui leguer. Le profit de Ia prestation est done re 

ciproque: Ia masseuse qui offre le produit de son savoir et Ia 

malade qui participe a un don transforme en offrande. En 

fait, chacun obtient quelque chose de cette relation desinteressee 

en apparence. La conversion de services rendus en 

merites, eux-memes determinant les conditions d'une vie future 

n'est pas sans rappeler ce qu'ecrit P. Bourdieu a propos 

des echanges dans un village kabyle: "( ... ) une conversion de 

capital materiel en capital symbolique lui-meme reconvertible 

en capital materiel" (1980: 202), si I' on admet qu'en I'occurence 

Ia reconversion soit deplacee tres loin dans le temps, au terme 

d'un passage transitoire dans l'au-dela et que le capital materiel 

se definisse dans les termes plus generaux de meilleures 

conditions d'existence. 

Qu'elle ait acquis son savoir par apprentissage direct 

ou par revelation, la masseuse aura un culte profond au 

revelateur de savoir et un peu plus de prestige social. Les 

offrandes offertes apportent des merites qui permettront une 

meilleure renaissance ou de meilleures conditions de vie. Ces 

deux dimensions aboutissent en fait a donner a Ia masseuse 

de la consideration et du respect au sein du village. Le fait 

d'acquerir des merites est purement individuel mais a toujours 

des retombees sociales: par exemple, lorsqu'une famille offre 

une fete dans une pagode, elle acquiert beaucoup de merites


mais aussi un prestige plus ou moins important selon le faste 

de la ceremonie et les dons offerts. Cette remarque est valable 

pour les pratiques de guerison des hommes mais il est important 

de noter que les femmes peuvent obtenir du prestige aux 

yeux des villageois en n'ayant ni incantations ni relation 

dominatrice avec les esprits. Par ce systeme d'echanges, les 

personnes renforcent leurs relations entre elles mais aussi avec 

les morts, par les offrandes. 

On voit done que cette pratique, pourtant anodine en 

apparence, est de nature a reveler en tant que "fait social 

total", selon la formule de Mauss les multiples aspects et 

implications des rapports sociaux caracteristiques de cette 

region de Thailande. 

NOTES 

1 De Juin 1988 a Avril 1989 j'ai sejoume 

en Thailande grace a !'obtention d'une 

bourse de recherche de l'UNESCO. Ce sejour 

permit de m'initier a la langue et surtout 

de vivre avec des Thai's. Apres plusieurs 

courts sejours en zone rurale je me suis inti! 

ressee au systeme medical et en particulier 

aux massages auxquels tout le monde a 

recours. Le present article est le resultat de 

ces observations. 

2 La transcription des mots thais est en 

phonetique intemationale. 

3 n est interessant de remarquer que les 

massages pratiques a Wat Pho par des Thai's 

sont semblables a ceux pratiques en Isan oil 

habitent une majorite de Lao. Une etude, 

comparative entre les techniques de massages 

en Thailande et au Laos serait interessante 

a faire. 

4 Anuman Rajadhon (1962: 119) definit les 

khwan comme "quelque chose de non substantiel" 

residant dans le corps d'un etre. Le 

siege en est la tete. C'est en fait un principe 

vital souvent divise en 32 elements repartis 

dans tout le corps. 

5 Le Bouddha, le Dharma et le Sangha 

representent les "Trois Joyaux" de la 

doctrine bouddhique. II faut honorer le 

Bouddha, la loi (Dharma) et la communaute 

des moines (Sangha). 

6 Que ce soit a Wat Pho ou dans les villages 

observes, les massages sont generalement 

faits sur les vetements, sauf dans 

le cas oil la masseuse souhaite appliquer une 

creme (foulure ou echauffement musculaire 

par exemples). Cette information est importante 

car elle apprend qu'il n'y a pas 

reellement de contacts physiques directs sur 

le corps. Ce n'est pas le cas des jambes ni 

des bras. 

7 Cette notion de "vent" ou "souffle" se 

retrouve autant en lnde qu'en Chine. Elle 

met en symbiose le corps et le reste de 

l'univers, tous deux mus par ce souffle. A 

partir du cerveau il controle la parole, la 

pensee, entraine la respiration, actionne les 

membres et permet la digestion. 

8 En Inde, on pratique les massages 

huileux, pour les enfants et pour les adultes 

(cf. Zimmermann Histoire des medecines nov. 

89: 71 ou Bulletin d'ethnomedecine N"14, 1982: 

8). Des onguents tel le ''baume du tigre" 

sont parfois utilises en Thailande, mais plutot 

en auto-massages ou pour masser une 

foulure. Ceux que pratiquent les specialistes 

tant au Wat Pho que dans les villages etaient 

des massages sees. 

9 J.P. Predagne Expressions imagees de Ia 

langue thaie par!ee: le domaine de Ia maison. 

Paris: these de l'EPHE, IVe section, 1979. 

10 Notamment les m5: phi: qui peuvent 

rendre malade quelqu'un en envoyant un 

objet dans l'estomac par la force de la meditation. 

11 bun rend compte a la fois de la fete 

bouddhique et des merites qui peuvent resulter 

de la participation a la fete.


BIBLIOGRAPHIE 

ANUMAN Rajadhon "The kwan and its 

ceremonies" in Journal of the Siam Society 

vol. L part 2, 1962: 119-164. 

BOURDIEU Pierre Le sens pratique. Paris: ed. 

de Minuit, 1980. 

CHU Valentin Thailand today. New York: 

Thomas Crowell Cie, 1968. 

COHEN Milton "The ethnomedicine of the 

Garifuna (Black caraibs) of Rio Tinto, 

Honduras" in Anthropological Quarterly. 

Washington, USA: 1984, vol. 57 

N·1: 16-27. 

CUNNINGHAM C. Some social aspects of 

Rural Medicine in North Central Thailand. 

A preliminary paper. Chiang Mai, 

1966. 

DESCAMPS Marc-Alain Le langage du corps 

et Ia communication corporelle. Paris: 

PUF, 1989. 

FA VRET-SAADA Jeanne Les mots, Ia mort, 

les sorts. Paris: Gallimard, 1977. 

FORMOSO Bernard "Du corps humain a 

l'espace humanise" in Etudes Rurales 

N.107-108, 1987: 137-170. [See also an 

English version of this article, "From 

the Human Body to the Humanized 

Space," in the Journal of the Siam Society, 

76.1, 67-83, 1990.-Ed.] 

GOFFMAN Erving La mise en scene de Ia vie 

quotidienne. tome 2 Les relations en 

public. Paris: ed. de Minuit, 1973. 

GOLOMB Louis An anthropology of curing in 

multiethnic Thailand (lere ed. 1943) 

Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois 

Press, reed. 1985. 

LE BRETON David "L'effacement ritualise 

du corps" in Cahiers internationaux de 

sociologie. 1984 N.76-77: 273-286. 

LEVI-STRAUSS Claude "Anthropologie" in 

Diogene. Paris N·9o, 1975. 

MAUSS Marcel Sociologie et Anthropologie 

"Essai sur le don" (lere ed. 1950) Paris: 

PUF, 1983 8eme ed. 

__ Manuel d'ethnographie (lere ed. 1947). 

Paris: ed. Payot, 1989 3eme ed. 

MARUKATAT Ratrie La medecine traditionnelle 

populaire de l'Issan (Thai1ande) 

et ses rapports avec Ia medecine moderne. 

Paris: these de 3eme cycle EHESS, 

1989. 

MORRIS Desmond Man Watching. New 

York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc Publishers, 

1977. 

MULHOLLAND Jean Medicine, Magic and 

Evil Spirits. Canberra: Australian 

National University, 1987. 

PREDAGNE Jean-Pierre Expressions imagees 

de Ia langue thai"e parlee: le domaine de Ia 

maison. Paris: these de 3eme cycle 

EPHE, Ive section, 1979. 

TAMBIAH S.J., Buddhism and the spirit cults 

in North-East Thailand. Cambridge: 

Cambridge University Press, 1970. 

TERWIEL B.J. Monks and Magic, Londres: 

Curzon Press Ltd, 1975. 

VIGNET-ZUNZ Jacques "Usages sociaux du 

corps: essai de classification" in Geste 

et Image, 1983 N·3: 133-146. 

ZIMMERMANN Francis "La tradition 

savante de la medecine ayurvedique 

dans la vie quotidienne" in Bulletin 

d'ethnomedecine, 1982 N.14: 3-11. 

ZIMMERMANN Francis "L'historien de la 

medecine au pays des epices" in 

Historie des medecines Nov. 89: 68-72.

SECTION VII 

LINGUISTICS

COGNATES AND LOANS 

AMONG ASLIAN KIN TERMS 

ROBERT J. PARKIN 

FREIE UNIVERSITAT BERLIN 

The Aslian languages are those Austroasiatic languages 

spoken in West Malaysia and southernmost Thailand, mostly 

in the mountainous jungles of the centre and north (none are 

found south of the Endau river in Johore). Apart from 

Nicobarese they form the smallest of the four sub-families 

into which Austroasiatic is generally divided, the other two 

being Munda (in central India) and Mon-Kluner (in the rest 

of Southeast Asia). Aslian languages are grouped into three 

branches, Jahaic in the north, Senoic in the centre, and Semelaic 

in the south. The Jahaic groups are very small and speakers 

number only about 2,000 altogether. The other two branches 

number a little above 30,000 and 20,000 respectively. The 

grand total of perhaps 55,000 is less than one percent of the 

total population of West Malaysia. 1 The constituent languages 

of the three branches are as follows: 

Jahaic 

Tonga and Mos 

Batek 

Jahai 

Kensiu 

Kintak Bong 

Mendriq 

Min til 

Chewong 

Senoic 

Jah Hut 

Lanoh 

Temiar 

Semai 

Semelaic 

Maq Betiseq 

Semelai 

Temoq 

Semoq Beri 

There is a sufficient if not complete body of data on 

Aslian kin terms to permit academic analysis and enquiry. 

The principal purpose of this article is to identify some 

cognates sets and Malay loans in this body of lexis.2 However, 

I will start with some general remarks on the 

terminologies as a whole. 

None of these terminologies are prescriptive, i.e. have 

the sorts of equation and pattern associated with the continuous 

operation of positive marriage rules (commonly if 

not really adequately known as cross-cousin marriage), which 

all these societies lack; indeed, they are all cognatic in both 

kinship terminology and their usual mode of kin reckoning. 3 

Their terminologies all resemble instead the common type of 

lowland Southeast Asian terminology __ -The,r. are less 

thoroughtly generational than the Malay terminology and 

make slightly more distinctions, especially in ascending levels. 

They are perfectly symmetric in that they do not distinguish 

between matrilateral and patrilateral kin, between cross 

and parallel kin or between wife's parents and husband's 

parents. It is also uncommon for the same term to be applied 

in more than one genealogical level. 4 The remoter levels, both 

ascending and descending, mostly have only one term each, 

which are perhaps better considered generational markers than 

kin terms in the strict sense. The +2 to -1levels are all more 

differentiated, however, especially the ascending levels. It is 

in +2 and + 1 that sex is relevant, for this is not typically 

distinguished in ego's or the -1level. Consanguines and affines 

are distinguished in all four levels, though minimally in +2. 

Only + 1 and -1 distinguish lineal from collateral kin to any 

degree, this being the main departure from Malay, which is 

generational in all levels. Relative age is significant in + 1 and 

occasionally in the -1level, but it is absolutely regular in ego's 

level, where the two terms for consanguines always denote 

elder and younger (not male and female or same-sex and 

opposite-sex). Thus the levels with the greatest degree of 

differentiation are +1 (the level of jural control for ego) and 

his own level (the one into which he marries). Generally it is 

Semelaic, and especially Semelai itself, that has the least 

differentiation of consanguines and is therefore, like Malay, 

the most generational. This befits the greater degree of acculturation 

of the speakers of this branch generally, for they 

live furthest south and in less remote parts of the interior. 

I will list first the main cognate sets of Aslian lexis 

among kin terms, and secondly the Malay loans that have 

been adopted. 

Aslian Cognates 

A number of cognates common to two or more branches of 

Aslian can be established, some of them extending into other 

Austroasiatic also. 

1. bah. Parent's sibling in Batek Deq, Chewong; Jah Hut 

ibah parent's younger sibling, Semai ba(h) id.

168 ROBERT J. PARKIN 

2. ber, beh. Younger sibling in Jahaic; also Lanoh, Temiar 

peq id.? 

3. cnaq (Temiar, Semai), ceniXJ (Semoq Beri), chenuq (Semelai), 

grandchild. 

4. dodn Oahai), dotn (Semai), great-grandparent. 

5. doq. Father in Batek, Lanoh, Temiar. 

6. gadoq (Semelai, Temoq), ga(n)deq (Maq Betiseq), qideq Oah 

Hut), mother. 

7. kedol (Batek), ked(y (Lanoh), kodol (Temiar), ked& (Maq 

Betiseq), wife. 

8. kancoq (Batek Deq), kancho Oahai), kenchok (Mendriq), 

kanchau (Lanoh), grandchild. Possibly the Jahaic for 3 

above, which is found only in Senoic and Semelaic. 

9. ken(d)eh. Wife in Jahaic; Jah Hut, Semai, Semelai kenah id. 

10. kesiu. Husband in Jahaic (Kensiu gesiu); Jah Hut kesir, 

Semai gengsir. 

11. kodn. Parent's elder brother in Kensiu, Mendriq; also 

Semai kHjfi id.? 

12. kon. Child in Lanoh. Jahai ken, Semai, Semelaic kenan id. 

Common Austroasiatic root. 

13. kuman (Temiar), kemun (Lanoh), sibling's child. 

14. mensaw. Child's spouse in Batek Deq, Jahai; child's spouse, 

younger sibling's spouse in Senoic. 

15. naq. Mother in Jahaic (not Jahai, Batek Nong), Lanoh, 

Temiar, Semelai. 

16. qawpq. Child, sibling's child in Batek Deq, Mintil; Semoq 

Beri qewpq, Jah Hut qiwiiq, possibly Temiar kew'6t, kewfis, 

id. 

17. qey. Father in Jahaic (not Mintil, Chewong); also Temiar 

qayaq, Semoq Beri qeypaq id.? 

18. taq. Grandfather in Jahaic and Senoic. Common 

Austroasiatic root. 

19. teq. Husband in Chewong, Lanoh; also Temiar toh id.? 

20. wong. Child in Jahaic (not Batek Deq, Mintil); also Lanoh 

kewan id.? 

21. yaq. Grandmother in Jahaic and Senoic. Common 

Austroasiatic root. 

Malay Loans 

1. Chewong adi, Jah Hut qadig, Maq Betiseq, Semelai qadiq, 

Temoq, Semoq Beri qadeq younger sibling; from Malay 

adek id. Also Jah Hut adeq wife's elder brother's child. 

2. Kintak Bong adik ipar younger brother-in-law; from Malay 

adik ipar younger sibling's spouse. 

3. Semoq Beri qakih grandfather; from Malay aki grandparent, 

great uncle. 

4. Kintak Bong qaneg child, Chewong aneg sibling's child, Jah 

Hut anake elder sibling's child, parent's sibling's child's 

child; from Malay anak child. 

5. Semai apa, Chewong, Maq Betiseq bap, Semelai, Temoq, 

Semoq Beri bapaq, father; from Malay bapak id. 

6. Semelai bapaq mentuhaq father-in-law, maq mentuhaq 

mother-in-law; from Malay bapak, emak plus mentua 

parent-in-law. 

7. Semelai bapaq sedaraq uncle, maq sedaraq aunt; from Malay 

bapak, emak plus saudara collateral relative. 

8. Semelai bapaq tiriq step-father, maq tiriq step-mother; from 

Malay bapak, emak plus tiri step-kinsman. 

9. Chewong besan, Temiar bisat, Semelai bisan child's spouse's 

parent; from Malay besan id. 

10. Chewong, Semelai biras spouse's sibling's spouse; from 

Malay biras wife's sister's husband, husband's brother's 

wife. 

11. Batek Nong biXJ, Jahai beq mother; possibly from Malay 

embuk id. 

12. Maq Betiseq budek child; from Malay budak young boy or 

girl. 

13. Mendriq chichid, Batek Deq cucid, Jah Hut, Semai cicit, 

Semelai chichet great-grandchild; from Malay cicit id. 

Temiar chichid, great-grandparent of great-grandparents, 

may be connected. 

14. Kensiu chuchuq, Jah Hut cuk, Semelai, Temoq chuchu 

(sibling's) grandchild; from Malay cucu id. 

15. Chewong cu grandchild; from Malay cucu id. or possibly 

chu youngest. 

16. Semelai datok, tok grandparent; from Malay datok 

grandfather. 

17. Semai ibu mother; from Malay ibu id. 

18. Semelai ipar spouse's sibling; from Malay ipar sibling-inlaw. 

19. Temoq kakak elder sister, possibly Semelai ga'ek, Semoq 

Beri gaqoq id.; from Malay kakak id. 

20. Jahai lamin brother-in-law; possibly from Malay lamin, 

used in terms for bridal accoutrements, e.g. pelamin bridal 

dais. 

21. Chewong, Semelai, Temoq, Semoq Beri maq, Semai qameq 

mother, possibly Maq Betiseq ameh mother; from Malay 

emak id. 

22. Jah Hut mentuha parent-in-law; from Malay mentua id. 

23. Jah Hut moyang great-great-grandparent, yang greatgrandparent, 

Semelai moyang (great-) great-grandparent, 

Maq Betiseq moyang great-grandparent, yang great-greatgrandparent; 

from Malay moyang great-grandparent. 

24. 

25. 

26. 

27. 

28. 

29. 

30. 

31. 

Chewong moyet great-grandparent, great-grandson, 

Semelai moyet great-great-grandparent; from Malay moyot 

great-great-grandparent. 

Semelai nenik great-grandparent; from Malay nenek id. 

Semelai nenik father's mother, Maq Betiseq ninik grandparent, 

great-uncle, Temoq nenik grandmother; from 

Malay nini grandmother, old lady. 

Temoq nga younger sibling; from Malay ngah middle one 

of a family. 

Kensiu nyang great-grandparent, great-grandchild; from 

nyang (connected with moyang, 23 above, according to 

Rahman op. cit.) great-grandparent. 

Maq Betiseq oneng great-great-great-grandchild; possibly 

from Malay onang-aning great-great-great-great-greatgrandchild. 

Jah Hut paran wife's younger sibling; possibly from Malay 

ipar sibling-in-law. 

Jah Hut paran tuhak wife's brother; possibly from Malay

ASLIAN COGNATES AND LOANS 169 

ipar sibling-in-law plus mentua parent-in-law. 

32. Finally, three Jah Hut kin terms for descending generations 

seem to have been taken, for some reason at present 

hard to understand, from Malay words for particular 

gestures: 

cuit great-great-grandchild; cf. Malay mencuit to poke with 

one's finger; 

gamit great-great-great-grandchild; cf. Malay menggamit 

to beckon, invite; 

cangah great-great-great-great-grandchild; cf. Malay 

mencanggah to point with two fingers. 

Temiar has itself loaned kin terms to the Jahaic language 

Mendriq, viz. atouh (Temiar qatow 'son') for son, sibling's 

son, and aleh (Temiar qaleh, 'daughter') for daughter, 

sibling's daughter. 

NOTES 

For fuller details, see Robert Parkin, An 

Introductory Guide to Austroasiatic-speaking 

Populations, ch. 4 (in manuscript). 

2 The data in this article were originally assembled 

and analysed in my thesis (R.J. 

Parkin, 'Kinship and Marriage in the 

Austroasiatic-speaking World: A Comparative 

Analysis', Oxford D. Phil. 1984) 

and were drawn mostly from already published 

material; the sources are too numerous 

to be mentioned here but are listed 

in an Appendix to my thesis. I wish to 

thank M-A. Couillard and Kirk Endicott 

for allowing me to consult unpublished 

data of their own on Batek and Jah Hut 

respectively; and the Economic and Social 

Research Council (then Social Science Research 

Council) of the United Kingdom 

and Dr N.J. Allen for funding and supervising 

the original research respectively. 

For a view of Malay kinship and details 

of terms, I have consulted David J. 

Banks, 'Malay Kinship Terms and Morgan's 

Malayan Terminology: The Complexity of 

Simplicity', Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en 

Volkenkunde 130, pt. 1 (1974), pp. 44-68, and 

Haji Abdul Rahman, Malay-English Dictionary, 

London etc.: Collins. In the data 

below, initial and final q stands for the 

glottal stop; I have not otherwise altered 

the spelling of the original sources for this 

article. There are at least some kin-term 

data for all Aslian groups except the Tonga 

and Mos, nomadic groups found in 

southernmost Thailand. 

3 See my thesis for a summary of these matters. 

4 Ego's level is conventionally numbered 0 

(zero), that of his parents + 1, that of his 

children -1, that of his grandparents +2, 

that of his grandchildren -2, and so on.

SECTION VIII 

REVIEWS

172 

REVIEWS 

Gustave Rolin-Jaequemyns 

(Chao Phraya Aphai Raja) 

and the 

Belgian Advisers in Siam 

(1892-1902): 

An Overview of Little-known 

Documents Concerning the 

Chakri Reformation Era 

WALTER E.J. TIPS 

Bangkok: Published by the author, 

1992. Available at selected bookstores 

or from the author, P.O. Box #1, 

Lan Luang, Bangkok 10102 

I 

Mr. Tips's remarkable book is 

nominally about the life of Gustave 

Rolin-Jaequemyns. It really is about the 

genius of King Chulalongkorn. When 

you have completed the book, because 

you w ill read it cover to cover, you will 

have a better understanding of why so 

many Thais still worship King 

Chulalongkorn. You will see the reason 

why they keep photographs of him 

near their desks, why you so often see 

portraits of him in public premises and 

why elegant ladies wear diamondstudded 

enamel portraits of him when 

they dress up for official occasions. This 

book illustrates the boldness and the 

timeliness of his vision. He saw that 

Siam 1 needed urgent and drastic reforms. 

He understood it as the only 

way to preserve Siam's independence 

from the expanding colonial powers. He 

also wanted to bring his country on a 

path that would improve the welfare of 

all Siamese. But vision alone, without 

implementation, would have been futile. 

Mr. Tips's book shows us how King 

Chulalongkorn succeeded. He chose 

and managed the people around him 

well. He had relied on small team of 

exceptionally talented men, many of 

them brothers and relatives. That group, 

which one would nowadays call an 

inner cabinet, included Prince Damrong 

Rajanuphab, his Minister of Interior, 

Prince Devawongse Voraprakar, Prince 

RMB of Rachburi, Minister of Justice, 

Phra Suriya Nuvate, Charge d'Affaires 

in Paris, and Phra Svasti, Ambassador 

to Britain and to many other European 

countries. And then there were a fairly 

large number of foreign advisors. These 

were recruited by the king and his 

brothers among the best talent available 

in Europe at the time. Mr. Rolin 

Jaequemyns was definitely one of the 

most prominent advisers employed by 

King Chulalongkorn. His talents and 

background fit perfectly the needs of 

Siam at the time. 

This is where the book leaves us 

wondering. It tells such a compelling 

story of the onset of the Chakri reformation, 

of the wrangle with France, and 

of the important auxiliary role of 

Mr. Rolin-Jaequemyns, that one is left 

with the sense that the whole story is 

not told. Or at least that the first act of 

the play is missing. This first act should 

have been the story of how King 

Chulalongkorn and his close aides 

found Rolin-Jaequemyns, or possibly of 

how Rolin-Jaequemyns came upon the 

idea of offering his services to Siam, and 

how the king realised that this man 

would serve his purposes so well. 2 

This should however not be construed 

as a major flaw of the book. We 

Rnf-· 

I , 

yearn to know how Rolin-Jaequemyns 

ended up in Siam just because the book 

convinces us that his contribution was 

most fortuitous for that country. 

Siam was under heavy pressure 

from France, which wanted to expand 

its Indo-Chinese possessions westward, 

Gustave Rolin-Jaequemyns in full regalia. 

The three main actors in the Siamese Question: H.R.H. Prince Devawongse, 

Minister of Foreign Affairs, H.M. King Chulalongkorn and H.R.H. Prince 

Damrong, Minister of the Interior. Plate 5 of W. Tips: Gustave Rolin-Jaequemyns.

REVIEWS 

173 

into territories until then controlled by 

the Siamese king. Siam did not have 

the military power to fend off the French 

and their mercenary troops. It could 

only play off Britain's desire to preserve 

its economic interests in the region 

against the territorial ambitions of 

France. It was also aware that both 

Britain and France preferred keeping a 

buffer state between their two colonial 

realms. King Chulalongkorn was aware 

that even that left him vulnerable to 

French impetuousness. He knew that 

any incident might cause the belligerent 

Colonial Party to push the French 

government into annexing Siam. He 

knew that only diplomatic finesse could 

save his country. But for that he needed 

an adviser who knew the French well 

but who would be able to serve Thai 

interests with total loyalty. 

And the king found just that man, 

among the elite of the French-speaking 

Flemish bourgeoisie. Flanders was for 

centuries a vassal state of the French 

kings. As a consequence there has always 

been a kind of love-hate relationship 

between the two countries. 

Although Flemish, a Germanic language, 

is the language of all, at the court 

of Flanders one spoke French, a Latin 

language. By emulation, the bourgeoisie 

also adopted French. Democratisation 

and economic development has 

much eroded the power of the traditional 

French-speaking bourgeoisie. 

One would expect that by now, the 

Flemish, because they speak a Germanic 

language, to get their cues either from 

Germany or from the Anglo-Saxon 

countries, just like the Dutch or the 

Scandinavians. Surprisingly the old 

attachment remains and Flanders still 

looks up to Paris as a cultural beacon. 

If the old love remains so does defiance. 

The Flemish are still proud that they 

defeated the French King and decimated 

his richly caparisoned noblemen in 1302. 

Although Flanders was occupied by just 

about every country in Europe, it was 

able to avoid being annexed by France. 

Rolin-Jaequemyns thus came from 

a culture which admired France and 

French culture, but which had a long 

tradition of resisting French territorial 

expansion. He brought with him other 

experiences which would serve Siam 

well. Flemish independence from 

France had been assured in 1830 when 

it was included in Belgium, a buffer state 

created with the approval of the countries 

it kept apart: France, Britain and 

Germany. Rolin-Jaequemyns, who was 

born in 1835, was thus acutely aware 

that the independence of small states 

was most precarious at a time when the 

great powers were more than willing to 

use military power to satisfy territorial 

ambitions. He also knew from experience 

that militarily weak states could 

survive as long as they could convince 

the great powers that their existence as 

a buffer state could keep them from 

unnecessary friction. He saw that buffer 

states could only seek protection under 

international laws guaranteeing their 

existence. These laws were laid out in 

the treaties which created them as a 

buffer state. Long before coming to 

Siam he had written in an essay on "The 

Role and the Mission of Neutral States" 

about the need of neutral and weak 

states to rely on the protection of international 

law for their security. 

Rolin-Jaequemyns was thus culturally 

fit to become a loyal servant of 

Siam. He was also perfectly prepared 

technically to be of service to King 

Chulalongkorn. After brilliant studies 

he had become one of Europe's most 

respected experts on international and 

comparative law. He was the editor and 

main driving force of the International 

Law Review and a convener of many 

international conferences on the same 

subject. Mr. Tips, the author, describes 

him as "a scholar who investigated and 

analysed before believing, before 

adopting or adapting to purposes he 

believed to be in line with his conscience 

and with the development at all levels 

of society and between all nations, small 

and large, on an equal basis". 

Rolin-Jaequemyns was not only a 

scholar; he also knew about politics and 

government. He had been a Member of 

Parliament and a Minister of Interior of 

Belgium for six years. During that time 

he drafted many laws. When he was 

defeated at the elections he returned to 

being a scholar. He probably would 

have continued his research career 

had the loss of his fortune not forced 

Rolin-Jaequemyns to seek employment 

abroad. During his career as a researcher 

and in his contacts with a great 

variety of legal innovators he had developed 

a philosophy of law. There is 

no doubt that he shared these views 

with King Chulalongkorn and his close 

advisors Princes Damrong and 

Devawongse during their long private 

meetings. The author characterises 

Rolin-Jaequemyns' philosophy as follows: 

"He thought that his times were 

marked by the rapidity with which 

various reforms which are required by 

reason and humanity were introduced 

all over the world. ... [he identified] 

three categories: those that have received 

a definite solution, those on 

which debate is going on but which are 

more or less settled, and those which 

are being studied. In the first category, 

Rolin-Jaequemyns places the abolition 

of slavery, and serfdom (such as the 

corvee system), liberty of establishment, 

a just proportion between crimes and 

punishment, abolishment of punishment 

for usury, the suppression of privileged 

corporations, the liberty of the exchange 

rate between gold and currencies, and 

the liberty to set up organisations. 

Those being debated for adoption in 

some countries are: the utility and legitimacy 

of capital punishment, equality 

between sexes in civil and political 

domains, human bondage for civil and 

commercial debts, and equality before 

the law of the words of master and 

servant. Finally, the third category, 

which still needs to be organised before 

it can be introduced, comprises: the 

organisation of the penitentiary system, 

preventive detention law of civil and 

commercial societies, social welfare, the 

supervision of legal entities, representative 

government and electoral laws, 

limits to state powers in regulating 

professional qualifications and the free 

professions, the organisation of education 

at all levels; and the organisation 

of judicial power." These reflections, 

which the author gleaned from some of 

his writings before going to Siam again, 

show how close Rolin-Jaequemyns's 

concerns were to those of King Chulalongkorn. 

Rolin-Jaequemyns was an extremely 

prolific, hard-working man. He 

was of great integrity. This came to light

174 

REVIEWS 

during his stay in Siam when he consistently 

refused to promote Belgian 

commercial interests because he felt that 

such activity would have been incompatible 

with his duties as adviser to the 

King of Siam. He even ignored requests 

for such assistance from his former boss, 

the King of the Belgians. He was an 

able diplomat and had been able to 

assemble a wide network of friends in 

many countries of Europe, including 

France and as far as Russia. While in 

the service of King Chulalongkorn he 

would put this network to use in 

gathering support for the defence of 

Siam as an independent state and to 

publicise the breaches of treaty accords 

by France. It is no doubt the combination 

of his good nature, his sharp 

intelligence, his excellent abilities to 

organise work, his technical abilities, his 

political experience and flair, his unswerving 

loyalty to his employer and 

his cultural background that endeared 

him so much to King Chulalongkorn 

and his entourage. 

After a period of negotiation concerning 

the conditions of his employment,3 

Rolin-Jaequemyns arrived in 

Siam in September 1992. Although he 

had been offered the post of Attorney 

General by the Khedive of Egypt, he 

turned it down in favour of becoming 

General Adviser to the King of Siam. 

The General Adviser was originally 

assigned to the Ministry of Justice and 

intended to embark immediately on the 

codification and revision of the civil and 

criminal laws of Siam. But French 

pressure was mounting and Rolin 

Jaequemyns was called in to help. He 

drafted responses to the French claims 

and, using his network, publicised the 

French treaty violations to the world. 

About six months after his arrival, 

in March 1893, the French claimed that 

all territories on the left bank of the 

Mekong, and which for hundreds of 

years had been ruled by Siam, were 

considered to be under the suzerainty 

of Annam, a French protectorate, and 

were thus part of the French colonial 

empire. In the months following, a few 

minor incidents occurred in the disputed 

territories which increased tensions and 

increased the virulence of demands for 

action against Siam by the French Co- 

Ionia! Party. 

Matters came to a stand-off when, 

on 13 July 1893, two French gunboats, 

the Inconstant and the Comete, sailed up 

the Chao Phraya River, exchanged fire 

with the Pak-Nam fortress, and rejoined 

a third French gunboat, the Lutin, already 

moored in front of Bangkok. They 

did so in violation of the 1856 Treaty on 

Navigation and Commerce, which 

specified that not more than one gunboat 

of any foreign power had the right 

to sail up the Chao Phraya. The French 

sent an ultimatum to Siam on 21 July 

1893 demanding that Siam immediately 

withdraw from the left bank of the 

Mekong, that Siam withdraw all posts 

in a zone 50 km inside the right bank of 

the Mekong, that it return all territories 

of Cambodia, that it punish Siamese 

citizens guilty of causing damage to 

French citizens, and that it pay large 

compensations and indemnities for all 

damages inflicted on France during 

border incidents and during the gunboats' 

intrusion up the Chao Phraya 

river. The conditions of the ultimatum 

were accepted by King Chulalongkorn 

on 29 July 1893 because he feared the 

damage a prolonged French blockade 

would inflict on his country. He also 

wanted to avoid irritating France to the 

point of giving it an excuse for an 

outright invasion. Rolin-Jaequemyns 

had advised him to resist the French 

demands longer because he reckoned 

that the blockade was damaging mainly 

British commercial interests and that 

Britain would demand a lifting of the 

blockade. 

On 30 July 1893 the French made 

still more demands. They occupied 

Chantaboon as well as Luang Prabang 

and forbade the Siamese to post troops 

in Siam Riep and Battambang. These 

events left the Siamese government in 

shock. The author even says that it left 

the Siamese government in lethargy 

until the Anglo-French Convention of 

1897. However, it appears that gradually 

the government went back on the 

offensive. They sent Rolin-Jaequemyns 

to lobby in Europe, and especially with 

the British. Rolin-Jaequemyns went all 

the way to Lord Salisbury, the British 

Foreign Minister, to plead the case of 

Siam. He asked him to grant Siam 

protection under the heading of being a 

free buffer state between the British and 

French colonial empires. 

While Rolin was drumming up 

support for Siam he also advised the 

King to be tough in resisting French 

pressure. He advised him to send 

troops to Nan to resist French incursions. 

His argument was that any incident 

in the north would be noticed by 

the British because it would occur in an 

area close to Shan areas held by them. 

Tensions reduced when the Anglo 

French Treaty was signed in January 

1896. It guaranteed the integrity of the 

Chao Phraya Valley as a Siamese buffer 

state. It was followed by a convention 

concerning the south of the Kingdom of 

Siam which made sure that the French 

did not appropriate the Kra isthmus to 

establish a land bridge. The British were 

eager to stop this new French infringement 

on Siamese sovereignty because it 

would have impinged on British interests 

in Singapore and Penang. 

In the subsequent years Rolin 

Jaequemyns was very active in gathering 

support for Siam with the other 

powers in Europe, especially with 

Germany, whose commercial interests 

in Siam were slowly supplanting those 

of Britain. He had talks in Berlin with 

Baron Von Richthofen, then the German 

Foreign Minister. He also paid much 

attention to Russia, because he feared 

that their potential clash with British 

interests in Asia could lead them form 

an alliance with France which would be 

detrimental to Siam. Rolin-Jaequemyns, 

through his extensive contacts in France, 

was able to provide Siam much intelligence 

about the increasing tensions inside 

the French Government as well as 

about the demise of the much dreaded 

Colonial Party. This information helped 

the Siamese adapt their negotiation 

stance to the strength and resolve of 

their French opponents. 

Tough negotiations under instructions 

from Prince Devawongse, advised 

by Rolin-Jaequemyns, resulted in the 

Convention of 1902 which turned out 

rather advantageously for Siam. In fact 

it was seen as so disadvantageous for 

France that it was not ratified by the 

French Parliament. Ratification waited 

until a new convention, much more

REVIEWS 

175 

favourable to France, was signed in 

1904. The 1902 Convention had recognised 

that Siam Riep and Battambang 

were Siamese, had abolished the 25 km 

neutral zone along the Cambodian 

Siamese border, gave back parts of 

Luang Prabang, and required the French 

to evacuate Chantaboon. The 1904 

treaty left much more Cambodian territory 

to the French and maintained the 

25 km neutral zone where the French 

could establish commercial stations. The 

author attributes the gains made by the 

French in the 1904 Treaty to the fact that 

they did not have to contend anymore 

with Rolin-Jaequemyns, who had died 

in the meantime. 

The book does an excellent job of 

showing how appropriately timed 

Rolin-Jaequemyns' appointment was 

and how effectively he supported the 

Siamese government in fending off 

French onslaughts. The book also 

presents the contribution of Rolin 

Jaequemyns to the Chakri Reformation. 

It shows how the direct defence against 

colonial aspirations of the great powers 

was backed up by internal reform. Indeed, 

the vision of King Chulalongkorn 

and his brothers was that Siam could 

only fend off the expansionist greed of 

the colonial powers if it could rob them 

of their usual excuse of taking a country 

under "protection" to bring to it 

"justice and civilisation". The colonial 

powers' concern with justice of course 

limited itself mostly to ensuring that 

their citizens could conduct business 

without encumbrances and that their 

commercial interests could expand 

without too much competition from the 

other powers. 

The author summarises the situation 

succinctly: "Certainly, the signs of 

the times and the enlightened actions of 

King Chulalongkorn and his right hand 

man, Prince Damrong, were extremely 

conductive to large scale reforms-at the 

same time mowing the grass away 

before the approaching feet of French 

and British colonialists. The 'chance' 

recruitment of a catalyst [Rolin 

Jaequemyns] sparked off the reforms 

that would preserve Siam's independence 

and modernise the country." 

One of the thorns in the side of the 

Siamese government and a constant 

opportunity for foreign powers to create 

incidents was the regime of extraterritoriality 

granted to foreign citizens. 

This meant that they would not be 

subject to Siamese laws which were 

considered inadequate or too harsh and 

to Siamese judges who were accused of 

being biased or incompetent. Rolin 

Jaequemyns and the other Belgian advisers 

whom he later brought in to help, 

worked hard to set up all the laws which 

would pave the way to the abolition of 

extraterritoriality. Some of the laws 

which the General Adviser and his team 

helped draft were, for example, the Law 

of Evidence which led to the subsequent 

abolishment of the use of torture 

for confession, the Civil Procedure Act, 

the Harbour and Navigation Regulations, 

the Timber Mark Regulation, the 

Regency Act, Village and Ampoe Regulations, 

the Mining Law, the Police Act, 

the Criminal Procedure Amendment 

Act, the Arms Act, etc. Rolin 

Jaequemyns also helped bring about the 

abolishment of slavery because of debt. 

One of the laws on which he worked 

which might seem to us as insignificant 

was the Pawn Shop Act. At the time it 

was very important because the new act 

reduced yet another irritating interference 

by foreign legations, namely their 

right of inspecting pawn shops to retrieve 

goods stolen from their citizens. 

Another small improvement promoted 

by Rolin-Jaequemyns which also 

reduced opportunities for foreign 

powers to interfere or to look for incidents 

was the introduction of closed 

envelope bids for government contracts. 

For the same reason of reducing foreign 

interference he consistently advised 

King Chulalongkorn against granting 

concessions to foreign companies. He 

argued that the process of granting 

concessions would become a focus for 

political rivalries and once granted they 

would invariably lead foreign powers 

to interfere to protect the interests of 

their investors. 

Rolin-Jaequemyns considered that 

land rights should be properly organised. 

This again would be an improvement 

to the country as a whole 

but it would also remove yet another 

reason for foreign powers to demand 

extraterritoriality for their citizens. 

Further in this vein, Rolin-Jaequemyns 

was able to make a breach in the solidarity 

of foreign powers in their insistence 

on extraterritorial rights. He 

convinced the Japanese government to 

include a clause in their convention with 

Siam to gradually abolish such rights as 

the Siamese legal regime approached 

international standards. 

In keeping with his philosophy of 

law which we quoted earlier, Rolin 

Jaequemyns fostered the introduction of 

punishments commensurate with the 

crime, and the abolition of corporal 

punishment in general. For the same 

reasons he and his assistants were active 

in prison reform. Teams of Belgian 

and Siamese judges were sent to the 

provinces to clear the enormous backlog 

of court cases. This caused a large 

number of citizens who had been held 

without trial to be released immediately 

since many had been held longer then 

their crime warranted. Also a large 

number of prisoners were liberated 

when it was discovered that they had 

been held in prison longer than their 

sentence had required. This clean-up 

operation alone and the improvement 

in prison conditions that followed, made 

the king and his Belgian legal advisers 

immensely popular. 

As a sure sign of trust, Rolin 

Jaequemyns was asked to help guide the 

education of the Crown Prince and his 

brothers. He was also asked to help 

King Chulalongkorn and his brothers 

recruit foreign expertise in a wide variety 

of fields. 

King Chulalongkorn recognised 

Rolin-Jaequemyns's contribution to the 

welfare of Siam. He elevated him in 

1896 to the rank of Chao Phraya Aphai 

Raja Sayammanakulkit and to his wife 

the title of Lady Aphai Raja. Rolin 

Jaequemyns' title of Chao Phraya is still 

the highest honour ever bestowed on a 

foreigner, except for Constance 

Phaulkon, the Greek advisor and Minister 

of King Narai. 

Still the book gives us the impression 

that some of Rolin-Jaequemyns's 

work did not last. His great contributions 

in helping Siam survive some of 

the most perilous years of its existence 

are remembered, but his careful work 

in surveying existing laws and in find-

176 

REVIEWS 

ing in foreign laws the parts which were 

best adapted to Siamese circumstances, 

was swept away almost completely after 

his death. On the occasion of the 

1902 and 1904 conventions with France, 

French legal experts took over from the 

Belgian team and drafted new laws 

according to the Napoleonic code. Here 

the book lets us down. It does not 

explain why King Chulalongkom and 

his Ministers allowed the work of the 

Belgian team to be swept away so easily. 

Rolin-Jaequemyns's contribution is 

best measured by his own definition of 

his successor's duties. They are also, in 

retrospect, a summary of his own duties. 

He described them thus: "The 

functions of General Adviser do not by 

themselves involve any parcel of executive 

power, and it is better that it be so, 

because the General Adviser has to 

consider himself a disinterested friend, 

who has to look everywhere, to the 

utmost of his ability, for what may 

promote justice and wealth, without any 

pretension to public power for himself 

personally. His functions are thus 

merely consultative but they are so in 

the broadest sense of the word, because 

he may give his advice about the suppression 

of abuses or introduction of 

desirable reforms, without expecting to 

be consulted either by His Majesty or 

by His Ministers." 

Also, his last words give a glimpse 

of the kind of man Rolin-Jaequemyns 

was. The author relates that when, a 

few hours before his decease, his nurse 

wanted to give him some champagne 

to re-animate his forces, he replied: 

"Death arrives, I must preserve the full 

freedom of my mind." 

Overall Mr. Walter Tips book is excellent. 

Not only does it contain a 

wealth of information about Rolin 

Jaequemyns, it also gives a good impression 

of life in Bangkok around the 

turn of the century. The author accomplishes 

this by giving us a free bookwithin-a-book; 

namely, Chapter Three 

is totally dedicated to an introduction 

and an English translation of a small 

book called Croquis Siamois (Sketch of 

Siam) by Charles Buls, the ebullient 

former mayor of Brussels. He had been 

the Belgian equivalent of France's 

Haussman and had beautified Brussels 

with wide boulevards, parks and public 

buildings. He had received King 

Chulalongkom during his visit to the 

Brussels International Exposition of 

1897. Buls left for Siam ten days after 

he left his position as mayor after a 

dispute with King Leopold II of the 

Belgians. He arrived at the mouth of 

the Menam Chao Phraya on 10 February, 

1900 and left a little more than one 

month later, on March 15. Still in this 

short time he was able to meet a very 

large number of people and visit many 

places in and outside Bangkok. He must 

have had a very keen sense of observation 

because after such a short visit he 

was able to write a delightful little book 

which gives an interesting snapshot of 

the life in Siam at the time Rolin 

Jaequemyns lived there. 

Buls's book gives the impression 

that one is watching the beginning of 

the development of a great nation. He 

draws a vivid picture of how the Chinese 

immigrants are providing the 

commercial drive of the country, and 

how King Chulalongkorn, with a 

handful of well-educated countrymen 

and a few foreign advisors, is setting 

the foundations for a modem, prosperous 

state. Buls's sharp eye for details 

gives us much information about 

the material circumstances under which 

the king and his advisors started their 

crusade for reformation. 

Mr. Walter Tips has produced a 

delightful book, scholarly, yet readable 

and enjoyable, full of little gems of 

anecdotes and details. It is illustrated 

with copies of historic handwritten 

documents as well as with photographs 

of the time. The book is an essential 

companion for those interested in Thai 

history. 

DR. PHILIPPE ANNEZ 

Vice President, The Siam Society 

1 In keeping with the book we will use the name Siam when referring to Thailand at the time 

of King Chulalongkorn. 

2 But then one might also wonder how the Siam Society accidentally chose a reviewer whose 

ancestors new the Rolin and Jaequemyns families and who attended the same Athenaeum 

(high school) as Mr. Rolin-Jaequemyns, 111 years after him. 

3 He was paid 3,000 pounds sterling per year, paid in local ticals, and given an unfurnished 

house.

REVIEWS 

177 

II 

The year 1992 marks the one hundredth 

anniversary of the beginning of 

what was surely one of the most critical 

decades in the survival of the kingdom 

which we know today as Thailand, but 

which was known then, and until1939, 

as Siam. Regrettably, scholarship on this 

period has been quite limited, and, as a 

consequence, historical understanding of 

this decisive era has remained far from 

complete. Many of the most crucial 

events, and a number of the most important 

actors, in this drama remain 

obscure. It is, then, with considerable 

happiness that scholars of Thailand's 

modern history, and especially of those 

key events at the turn of the century 

which determined that Siam would not 

go the way of every other traditional 

state in Southeast Asia by becoming part 

of some European power's colonial 

empire, but would retain her own national 

integrity, will welcome this remarkable 

book by a consultant of the 

Prime Minister's Office of Thailand. 

Tips has selected for his chief focus 

the extraordinary achievements, as they 

relate to Siam, of fellow Belgian, and 

from 1892 until 1902 General Adviser 

to the Government of Siam, Gustave 

Rolin-Jaequemyns. Jaequemyns's recruitment 

to Siamese service in 

mid-1892 came at a critical moment 

when Siam lay uneasily in the trough 

between two waves of French-sponsored 

crisis. The second wave, beginning 

its rise in March of 1893, and 

reaching its crest in July with the French 

naval assault on the Siamese forts at the 

entrance to the Chao Phraya River, 

followed by a blockade and the menacing 

of Bangkok itself, came close to 

submerging the kingdom under a 

French protectorate. 

It seems clear that, although Siam's 

erstwhile Western mentor, Britain, 

hoped the Siamese would somehow 

muddle through with their sovereignty 

intact, she was unwilling to take any 

direct action to block the provocative 

actions of a French government temporarily 

under the sway of a highly 

aggressive Parti Colonial determined on 

annexation. In this dark period, almost 

all of the British observers on the scene 

envisioned the ultimate denouement of 

these events to be either the establishment 

of a Western protectorate over 

Siam, or, what would be worse for the 

Siamese, her disappearance entirely 

through partition. A number of Britons 

in this period urged their own country, 

in vain, to take a more active role, in 

the hope that the expected protection 

would be in what they, and apparently 

more than a few Siamese leaders as well, 

considered to be the comparatively benevolent 

hands of England, rather than 

what was expected to be a harsher tutelage 

by France. 

Only Rolin-Jaequemyns had, it 

would seem, the faith throughout that 

Siam would be able to escape all such 

European domination. He worked ardently 

and conscientiously to do everything 

he could to see her through, 

dying in 1902, still "in harness," engaged 

even from his deathbed in advising King 

Chulalongkorn and his chief princely 

advisers, Princes Devawongse and 

Damrong, on the negotiations with 

France for the upcoming Convention of 

1902. Rarely has this record of service 

by a European in the interest of blunting 

Western colonial predations been 

matched. 

Working closely with Prince 

Damrong in the Interior Ministry and 

with Prince Devawongse at the Ministry 

of Foreign Affairs, Rolin-Jaequemyns 

managed to implement a wide-ranging 

series of reforms which, known subsequently 

as the Chakri Reformation, 

provided much of the administrative 

backbone for the modern Thai monarchy. 

Concentrating above all on the 

modernization and rationalization of the 

justice system, he was able to obviate 

French demands for expanding the 

pernicious system of extraterritoriality, 

the first step in eroding Siam's jurisdiction 

over its own population and 

territory. 

By the time of his death, Siam, 

though not completely out of the woods, 

would appear clearly to have turned the 

critical corner in securing its national 

survival. In retrospect, much of this 

achievement would appear to have been 

impossible without the expert legal and 

other advice of the General Advisor. 

Surely, Rolin-Jaequemyns lived up to 

the commitment he made to King 

Chulalongkorn upon receiving his appointment: 

"I will consecrate ... the whole 

of my faculties, experience and energy, 

and consider their interests as I should 

consider the interests of my own 

country. I will ... be as faithful and loyal 

a counselor to His Majesty the King of 

Siam as I was to His Majesty the King 

of the Belgians." 

Tips divides his book into seven 

chapters. The first, second, and final 

chapters relate specifically to Rolin 

Jaequemyns himself: how he came to 

be recruited for his work in Siam; his 

training and previous work and 

achievements in Europe; his principles, 

both personal and juridical; and the 

ultimate significance of what he 

achieved in Siam. In a very unusual 

and enlightening inclusion, Tips offers 

in Chapter Three, entitled, "Siam at the 

Turn of the Century: Croquis Siamois 

by Charles Buls," a translation from the 

French of the Mayor of Brussels's detailed 

and insightful account, together 

with numerous period illustrations, of 

what he saw, felt, and learned in a onemonth 

stay in Siam in early 1900 as the 

guest of the King. His first-hand account 

serves to confirm much of what 

we see in other chapters, where Tips has 

presented Rolin-Jaequemyns's and 

Siamese government correspondence, as 

well as additional archival material from 

both Thai and Belgian sources. 

But, it is the two central chapters, 

entitled respectively, "Siam, Its 

Neighbors and the Foreign Powers" and 

"The General Adviser and the Chakri 

Reformation" which will constitute the 

solid core of interest for the political 

historian of Siam in this critical period. 

Herein Tips treats, in some detail, the 

shifting political situation, with all its 

trials for the Siamese, over this decade, 

as well as the specific nature of the reforms 

which Rolin-Jaequemyns, together 

with his Siamese colleagues, 

engendered and cultivated. In addition, 

the policies of Germany, Russia, Denmark, 

Japan and Belgium are adduced 

in the context of these events. 

An additional chapter deals with 

other Belgians in Siam, such as Robert

178 

REVIEWS 

Kirkpatrick, Pierre Orts, Felicien Cattier, 

and Corneille Schlesser, all of whom 

worked closely with Rolin-Jaequemyns, 

and King Rama V's personal physician, 

Dr. Eugene Reytter. In addition to its 

analytical and descriptive contribution 

to a rather little-known period in 

Siamese history, this volume has at least 

one or two additional points of value. 

One is that it is beautifully and bountifully 

illustrated with period photographs, 

engravings, and maps, most of 

which will be encountered here for the 

first time. The other is its most reasonable 

price. 

The book is not without a few flaws, 

as anything this ambitious is unlikely 

to avoid. It is very dense, and will require 

the reader's full attention. I suspect 

it will be read more by scholars 

than by laymen, though it is well worthy 

of the attention of the latter as well. 

There are a number of typographic errors 

or misspellings, and the punctuation 

usages are sometimes slightly unusual. 

In addition, the book lacks an 

index, whose presence will perhaps be 

missed by the serious researcher. But, 

these deficiencies are, I think, far outweighed 

by the great value of so much 

carefully unearthed and generally quite 

well presented material, which Dr. Tips, 

with his unusual command of a variety 

of languages, including English, French, 

German, and of course Thai, plus his 

considerable familiarity with Thai history, 

culture, and social institutions, has 

gone to such exemplary efforts to make 

available. 

DEAN MEYERS 

Sophia University 

Department of Comparative Culture 

Tokyo 

Palaces of the Gods 

Khmer Art and Architecture 

in Thailand 

SMITTHI SIRIBHADRA 

and 

ELIZABETH MOORE 

Photography by 

MICHAEL FREEMAN 

Bangkok: Asia Books 

A River Books Production 

1992. 352 pp. illus. c.IB1,800 

This visually splendid work is also 

an excellent introduction to a subject 

that has never been treated before in so 

comprehensive a manner. As its title 

indicates it is also blessedly free of 

coyness, using the term 'Khmer' 

unblushingly and eschewing nationalistic 

code-words like 'Lopburi'. 

It begins with a double chapter on 

religion and history which tells the 

reader enough and no more of what he 

needs to know about Khmer Hinduism, 

Buddhism and chronology in order to 

appreciate the finer points of the art and 

architecture. The next chapter continues 

the theme of Khmer art in further 

detail, covering construction techniques 

and the development of decoration and 

sculpture in stone and bronze. 

The authors then proceed to deal 

with a broad selection of important 

Khmer temples in Thailand, including 

some like Phimai and Phanom Rung 

that are well known and others like the 

fascinating and early Prasat Khao Noi 

in Prachinburi that was only recently 

discovered. Their treatment is thorough 

and covers construction techniques, religious 

orientation, decoration and dating. 

Notes on how additions and alterations 

accumulated at some sites are 

insightful. However, there is no mention 

of the peculiar situation pertaining 

at Phanom Wan where the construction 

of the present sandstone monument 

appears to have wiped out a series of 

small brick shrines such as one finds at 

temples in Kerala. The brick foundations 

of the earlier shrines are still visible, 

some partly obliterated by the later 

stonework. Furthermore, the stone 

Prakara stands on a brick foundation, 

not an order one would expect. Something 

similar seems to have occurred at 

Phanom Rung, where the ruins of two 

small brick shrines still stand to the 

north of the Mandapa and the foundations 

of another are visible to the south. 

Presumably the present Vimana covers 

an earlier central brick shrine. The 

immense sanctity of that spot would 

help explain the architectural mistake 

of the Mandapa being built smack up 

against the eastern Gopura. Had the 

earlier brick shrine been less sacred, then 

the later stone Vimana might have been 

located further to the west (there was 

plenty of room on the hilltop), thus 

providing a dignified vista between the 

eastern Gopura and the Mandapa, such 

as we see at Phimai. 

Some omissions from the selection 

of monuments are curious. No mention 

is made of Sithep, Lopburi or 

Phetburi, although Muang Sing in 

Kanchanaburi is given careful attention. 

The latter is of particular interest in that 

it had an extremely tall eastern Gopura, 

probably taller than the Vimana. Such 

a feature occurs at no other Khmer 

temple, but it was beginning to occur at 

that time (late 12th-early 13th c.) in 

South India towards the end of the 

Chola period. As Muang Sing seems to 

have been located so far west in order 

to guard and sanctify a trade route to 

the west coast, one might suspect some 

South Indian input here. The authors 

rightly deplore how the Gopura has 

been shortened and incorrectly reconstructed 

by the authorities. 

The authors' perception of South 

Indian inspiration for the Dancing 

Shivas at Phimai and Phanom Rung is 

satisfying as earlier commentators seem 

to have supposed that those with more 

than two pairs of arms were strictly of 

northern origin, probably because the 

popularity of the four-armed Chidambaram 

Dancer tends to blind one to the 

existence of other forms of Dancing 

Shiva in the South. The presence of the 

skeletal Karaikkal Ammaiyar in both 

pediments confirms the southern connection. 

One might also note that the 

Dancing Shivas have been localized to 

Southeast Asia in that they bear no attributes 

in their hands, but gesture like 

local dancers.

REVIEWS 

179 

I feel that something more might 

have been made of South Indian inspiration, 

as the Khmer Prasada is, like its 

Dravidian counterpart, a stepped 

pyramid. Its apparently smooth outline 

is an illusion caused by the placement 

of antefixes which carry the eye up tierby-tier 

without a visible break. 

The photography is uniformly 

good. The temptation to print a spectacular 

picture right across two pages 

(so that the important bit gets lost in 

the binding) has been resisted except in 

a couple of trying instances. Some 

pictures are printed smaller than need 

be, which is a pity. For instance, the 

picture on p. 112 of the Svayambhu 

Linga in the Garbha Briha at Ta Muan 

Thorn could have been nearly twice the 

size, as it deserves to be. All Khmer 

temples in Cambodia and Thailand were 

long ago vandalized, so no Linga has 

ever been found in situ until this instance, 

where the debris of the superstructure 

seem to have tumbled down 

in such a way as to obtruct entry to the 

inner chamber. The discovery in 1992 

of a Linga in situ, and a Svayambhuva 

Linga at that, is thus dramatic. 

Despite its coffee table size this 

work is an essential handbook to the 

Khmer ruins of Thailand, and it will not 

easily be surpassed. 



Modern Art in Thailand 

APINAN POSHYANANDA 

Singapore: Oxford University 

Press, 1992. 

259 pp. illus. S$110 

This handsome volume is the distillation 

in print of Apinan's doctoral 

thesis at Cornell, and provides a comprehensive 

survey of painting and 

sculpture in Thailand from the midnineteenth 

century to the present. It is 

essentially concerned with the assimilation 

of western artistic influences and 

the crafting of a non-traditionalist response 

to these. 

Thailand's undisputed artistic heritage 

from the past is evident in temple 

wall paintings and religious sculpture, 

both three dimensional and relief. 

Apinan carefully explores the modernizing 

influences on this past from the 

fourth reign, and is very detailed in his 

examination of the role of Italian 

painters, sculptors and architects in this 

respect. None were perhaps great artists, 

but their presence in Bangkok was 

seminal, well brought out by one photograph 

of Ferro painting a portrait of 

King Chulalongkorn in 1906 at the 

Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall, with a few 

feet away the Thai artist Mui (Luang 

Soralakhikhit) also at work on a portrait 

of the king. 

The presence of Corrado Feroci 

(Silpa Bhirasri) from 1923 until his death 

in 1962 was of major importance, as 

most people are aware. Apinan covers 

all the aspects of Feroci's work, and 

makes interesting comparisons between 

the monumental statuary required for 

commissions like the Democracy 

Monument and the Victory Monument 

reliefs and Fascist sculpture of the 1920s 

and 1930s. Perhaps because dwarfed 

by Feroci's standing, or the weight of 

past traditions, Thai sculptors, with a 

few exceptions, have not usually made 

much impact, though Chalood Nimsamer's 

recent 'Lokuttara' at the Queen 

Sirikit National Convention Centre has 

many admirers. 

It may come as a surprise to some 

readers that the Department of Fine Arts 

and the Poh Chang (Arts and Crafts 

School) were founded as long ago as 

1912 and 1913 respectively. Silapakorn 

University is the Cinderella, dating from 

1942, but goes back to the founding of 

the School of Fine Arts in 1933. Annual 

art exhibitions (later, inevitably, the 

cause of some controversies) were instituted 

in 1937 but were not made into 

national exhibitions until 1949. Artists 

like Fua Haribhitak and Sawasdee 

Tantisuk went to Europe in the 1950s, 

absorbed current modes, and returned 

to inspire the rising generation, including 

Damrong Wong-Upparaj, 

Anand Panin, Tawee Nandakwang, 

Praphan Srisouta and Pichai Nirand, 

who helped give rise to the great flowering 

of art exhibitions (and also art 

criticism) in the 1960s. 

The influence of the United States 

on Thai art was to come rather late, 

towards the end of the 1960s. Apinan 

follows through the work of artists preferring 

abstract and non-figurative 

forms and devotes a chapter to what he 

terms thematic art, particularly the 

mythological and surrealistic. He gives 

very generous coverage to the forceful 

works of Thawan Duchanee in this 

section, though in plate 100 it is impossible 

from the illustration to detect a 

gorilla inside the ubosot, burglars and 

monks stealing religious objects or 

Buddha images inside a toad, all of 

which Apinan tells us are to be seen in 

Thawan's oil. His descriptions of 

Angkarn Kalayanapongsa's work owe 

much to Freudian interpretations, but 

one searches in vain in, for example, 

plate 99, for the fangs, animal's head, 

penis and "the meaning of erection and 

masturbation". 

The upheavals of the 1970s left their 

mark, though not many of the politically 

inspired works could be considered 

great art. Pratuang Emjaroen's 

painting was considered leftist but he 

withstood the storm, and Thammasak 

Booncherd worked in cartoons. The 

consumerism and boom times (in 

Bangkok at least) of the 1980s were to 

produce a different artistic climate. 

Apinan's Chapter 7, 'Taste, Value 

and Commodity', discusses the influence 

of corporate patronage of artists in this 

more affluent period. Such patronage 

and the Bua Luang exhibitions of traditional 

and contemporary paintings led 

to a revival of traditional Thai painting 

and even to the establishment of a Department 

of Thai Art at Silapakorn 

University. The leading protagonists, 

Chalermchai Kositpipat and Panya 

Vijinthanasarn, received their commission 

to decorate the London Buddhist 

temple, with astonishing results that 

showed "neo-conservatism reigned supreme, 

and a sense of revitalization and 

cultural change was pervasive". But 

Apinan at first offers only indirect 

comments on the artistic qualities of the

180 

REVIEWS 

'new traditional style'. Mixing his 

metaphors, he finds the work of Preecha 

Thaothong and Surasit Saowakong escapist 

commodities and "serve as a psychological 

band-aid for corporate patrons 

and collectors who wish for an 

instant shot of religion and national 

identity". More tellingly labelled revivalist 

art, strongly supported by banks 

and hotels, it can be seen as a reaction 

to western influences which dominated 

until recently. Apinan finally shows he 

has little time for it; it has "the numbness 

of repetition" and its protagonists 

"fit smugly in the niche of institutional 

art". 

Komol Tassanachalee and Prawat 

Laucharoen offer more recent modernist 

links with past themes, and Apinan's 

conclusion is upbeat: in 1991 the art 

scene "looks bright and promising", the 

synthesis of past and present, local and 

international, "characterizes the eclecticism 

which remains the trademark of 

modern art in Thailand." 

This detailed overview of the art 

scene from the 1850s to 1991 is on the 

whole written without too much arty 

claptrap, though it would be interesting 

to know what exactly is meant by 

"cosmic interrelatedness" and "the tactile 

surface creates a liquid field". 

Apinan is no purist and relishes split 

infinitives, talks of "intersecting questions" 

and of a government "faced with 

an unstable political climate" (how does 

a government face a climate?), and of 

an exhibition being "curated" (a verb 

form of the curate's egg?). His French 

too can he wobbly (e.g. chavalier, fon~t, 

Sevre). But he also has some neat 

phrases, as when he notes "By creating 

'high art' for the easy consumption of 

the nouveau riche and consumer culture, 

numerous Thai artists are forced 

through the motion of self-censorship 

to be part of the norm". 

A few parts of the presentation 

could be improved. Using regal names, 

numbered reigns and Rama titles interchangeably 

will surely confuse nonspecialist 

readers. Sawasdee Tantisuk 

was promoted to be director of the 

College of Fine Arts in 1960, we are 

informed, but we are not told what this 

college is and how it fits into the other 

art training establishments. It would 

incidentally be useful to know exactly 

how many art schools there are now, 

where they are, and what is their current 

throughput of graduate artists. In 

the text, we are told "dignitaries" such 

as M.L. Pin Malakul, Pate Sarasin, 

Khunying Chongkol Kittikachorn, Tej 

Bunnag and Thana Poshyananda attended 

an exhibition of Piriya Krairiksh 

at the Siam Society in 1963, but only 

those familiar with Bangkok society are 

likely to know who they are, and none 

make the index. Although Prince 

Karawik Chakrabhandu is noted as attending 

an exhibition, he is not mentioned 

as an accomplished watercolourist 

in his own right. It would also 

be interesting to know why the project 

for the Taksin monument was postponed 

from 1937 to 1950; presumably 

the war years had something to do with 

it. Hopefully most of the captions to 

the illustrations are correct; that for 

Damrong, though, in the collection of 

your reviewer (plate 64) is on board, not 

canvas, and was painted in 1960, not 

1956. The bibliography is comprehensive, 

and includes no less than 52 articles 

of the author, both using his own 

name and his nom de guerre, Nanipa, but 

there is no indication there that Corrado 

Feroci and Silpa Bhirasri are one and 

the same person. 

Now that so many Thai artists have 

returned from studying abroad and 

have seen how the international art 

world functions, it is to be hoped that 

the problems pointed to by this reviewer 

in the mid-1960s and quoted in this 

book have by and large ceased to exist, 

and in the 1990s a thoroughly professional 

approach prevails. Apinan hints 

that fake Gucci bags and Cardin watches 

have their equivalent in the art world, 

"commodities that simulate the originals 

but which lack creative imagination", 

but he takes the point no further than a 

well-deserved swipe at the "pseudopost-modern 

facades" found in contemporary 

Bangkok architecture. 

Whether the state of modern art is 

as healthy as we are led to believe is 

doubtful, with the closure of the Silpa 

Bhirasri Foundation, which was so slow 

to get off the ground and which reached 

its apogee under the able direction of 

Chartvichai Promadhattavedi. The 

cramped National Art Gallery in the old 

mint is no substitute, and the various 

institutions, Silapakorn included, do not 

by themselves have the ability to 

crossfertilize and interact with each 

other. 

As a summary of the art scene from 

its beginnings in the last century, generously 

illustrated by 64 colour and 150 

black and white illustrations, there is 

nothing to which to compare this book, 

and it is likely to be an indispensible 

work of reference to future researchers 

and art lovers. 



A New Earth: 

Covenanting for Justice, Peace 

and the 

Integrity of Creation 

DAVID GOSLING 

London: CCBI, Inter-Church House 

1992. 108 pp. 

Buffeted by the chaos of the 

emerging world disorder and its attendant 

ethno-religious conflicts and 

cleansing, one cannot help but rejoice at 

the ethical and intellectual reflections of 

Dr. David Gosling as he describes and 

analyzes recent efforts, focused on environmental 

issues, to combat dissension, 

conflict and discrimination and 

achieve lasting peace and justice. In his 

new book, A New Earth: Covenanting for 

Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation, 

Dr. Gosling uses, as his point of departure, 

the growing concern of the 

church with environmental issues as 

dramatically given voice in the covenant 

of more than three hundred mainly 

Protestant churches, in Vancouver, 

Canada in 1983, to "Justice, Peace and 

the Integrity of Creation." As a nuclear 

scientist, cleric and Director of the 

Church and Society sub-unit of the 

World Council of Churches, the author 

is uniquely qualified to examine the 

challenges posed by the inter-linked 

issues of environment, justice and peace,

REVIEWS 

181 

and the response on the part of the ecumenical 

Christian movement. 

Dr. Gosling provides us with a clear 

exposition of an emerging Christian 

interpretation of nature and humanity 

as inexorably linked, interdependent, 

and interrelated; every creature in a 

communion and community of being, 

part of a totality, a single integrated 

whole with God as Creator and Peace 

Maker. Only if man and nature are 

understood in this framework of unity, 

can one pursue the structural social, 

economic and political changes, so 

necessary to assure environmental wellbeing, 

justice and peace. It is in the 

context of the symbiotic linkage of environment, 

justice and peace that 

Dr. Gosling examines such issues as 

Third World debt; militarism; the armaments 

race; nuclear testing; health 

problems; work ethic; the unequal distribution 

of the world's wealth, etc. 

For a Buddhist reader, Dr. Gosling's 

ruminations often sound a familiar 

chord. Buddhism has always stressed 

the concordant, interdependent relationship 

of humanity and nature, the 

intrinsic value of all transient beings. 

Man must not dominate or control nature 

but rather live in harmony with it. 

Dr. Gosling points up the insights of 

other religions, and even animism, in 

interpreting the relationships of humanity 

and nature. 

The author has a commendable 

breadth of vision and perspective which 

enables him to profit from the insights 

of other faiths and cultures. He strongly 

advocates regional-based responses and 

solutions drawing on the local wisdom 

of indigenous religions and cultural 

beliefs. 

In early chapters of his book, 

Dr. Gosling details environmental crises 

in such areas as Africa, Asia and Latin 

America and analyzes the responses of 

the Church to such diverse problem 

areas as deforestation; marine pollution; 

computer technology and the microelectronic 

industry; the industrial disaster 

at the Union Carbide plant in 

Bhopal, India; nuclear testing and fallout 

in the Marshall Islands; and aboriginal 

land rights. And he again focuses 

on the inevitable linkage of environmental 

damage and degradation to 

the injustice done to disadvantaged 

groups and to the resulting state of 

hostility, conflict and tension. 

While all religions are going 

through their own variations of 

aggiornamento, of change, reform and 

renewal, so as to be responsive to and 

maintain their relevance vis-a-vis fastpaced 

social, economic and political 

changes in today's world, the scope, 

extent, and vitality of the debate on issues 

of reform, responsiveness and 

relevance within the Christian church is 

quite remarkable. 

One cannot help but be somewhat 

astounded by the myriad caucuses, 

consultations, symposia, conferences, 

convocations and assemblies, described 

with much sympathy and insight by 

Dr. Gosling, that the ecumenical movement 

has undertaken to confront problems 

and crises posed by various aspects 

of environmental degradation and related 

issues of injustice and conflict. 

As I perused Dr. Gosling's New 

Earth, I was confronted by a new vocabulary 

with such terms as integrity of 

creation, panentheism, eco-justice, shalom, 

concilia, kenosis, foundational, 

healing community, theocentric ethics, 

etc. Dr. Gosling is to be complimented 

for not only making us familiar with but 

also carefully explaining and interpreting 

this new terminology so necessary 

to properly understand the debates now 

under way within the Christian ecumenical 

movement. However, there are 

other words, cropping up again and 

again in Dr. Gosling's expositions, which 

are more familiar to the Buddhist reader: 

sharing, caring, compassion, solidarity, 

consensus, community. 

And Dr. Gosling's final plea, albeit 

couched in Christian phraseology, to 

become co-workers, co-creators with 

God in His creative activity, goes beyond 

any one religious framework as 

the author further exhorts us to move 

away from individualism and selfcentered 

competition towards interdependence 

and solidarity. Only then will 

disparate communities, drawing on their 

own unique knowledge, values and 

experience, have the will to find common 

solutions, through concerted action, 

to the pressing problems they face, including 

those associated with the pres- 

ervation and conservation of our environment. 

Dr. Gosling, while possessing the 

intellectual attributes of the scientist, 

philosopher, theologian and scholar is 

not content with ivory tower reflections. 

At heart, he is an activist, motivated by 

his moral and ethical convictions and 

determined by his engagement to make 

the world we live in a more environmentally 

benign, just and peaceful place. 

Certainly, with the publication of "The 

New Earth", Dr. Gosling is making his 

own vibrant voice and that of the World 

Council of Churches ecumenical 

movement heard and hopefully listened 

to. 

I would, without reservation, 

commend this book to all concerned 

with the vexing question of the relevance 

of religion to the environmental 

crises and concomitant issues of justice 

and peace confronting the world today. 

WILLIAM J. KLAUSNER 

Chulalongkorn University


UNDER ROYAL PATRONAGE 

The Siam Society was founded in 1904, under royal patronage, as an organization for those 

interested in the artistic, scientific and other cultural affairs of Thailand and neighbouring 

countries. The Society maintains an excellent Library which is at the disposal of Members. The 

Society publishes The Journal of the Siam Society and administers an active publications programme 

of books of topical interest and scholarly merit. The Society sponsors a programme of 

lectures and artistic performances, and regularly conducts study trips to places of archaeological 

and cultural interest in Thailand and abroad. Activities and events of the Society are reported 

in regular and special circulars of the Society. The Kamthieng House, an ethnological 

museum on the grounds of the Society's home, provides an example of a traditional northern 

Thai house with artefacts of rural life and superb collections of woven materials and wood 

carvings. The adjacent Saengaroon House is a typical house of central Thailand. 

The Natural History Section of the Siam Society, which was organized in 1913, sponsors its 

own programme of lectures and study trips to places of natural interest, and concerns itself with 

the conservation of Thai wildlife and flora. The Natural History Section publishes the Natural 

History Bulletin of the Siam Society as well as aperiodic works of scientific interest. 

MEMBERSHIP 

The Society welcomes new Members, resident in Thailand or abroad, on the following 

bases: 

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Both Life Members and Ordinary Members receive the Society's Journal and the Natural 

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right to vote at the Society's Annual General Meeting. In addition, all members resident in 

Thailand receive the Annual Report of the Siam Society, which is issued in advance of the Annual 

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Student Member is a special category for Thai students only and carries the same privileges 

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the Society's Journal, Natural History Bulletin and circulars. 

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APPLICATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP AND SUBSCRIPTIONS 

Applications for membership, subscriptions or further information on the Society are welcome. 

Please contact The Administrative Officer, The Siam Society, 131 Soi Asoke, Sukhumvit 

21, Bangkok 10110, Thailand.

INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTORS 

The Journal of the Siam Society welcomes all original articles and reviews of a scholarly nature 

and in conformity with the principles and objectives of the Society. 

Articles are accepted for publication in English, Thai, French or German. If not in English, 

they must have an English summary. Articles should be forwarded whenever possible on Macintosh 

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The top copy should be submitted. All notes and references should be similarly typed doublespaced. 

References should include name of author(s), title, name and volume of periodical or 

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Manuscripts, books for review, and all correspondence should be sent to the Honorary 

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THE CUSTOMS OF CAMBODIA 

by CHOU TA-KUAN 

2nd (revised) edition, 1992 

CHOU TA-KUAN spent a year in Cambodia from 1296 to 1297 as 

part of a Chinese diplomatic mission sent by Timur Khan, the grandson 

and successor of Kublai Khan, to the court of Indravarman III 

(reigned 1295-1308). The Khmer empire, though past its zenith, was 

still powerful and wealthy. Chou wrote his account some time before 

1312 and it is the only detailed contemporary account of Angkor 

to come down to us. 

The text was translated from Chinese into French by Paul Pelliot and 

published in 1902. An English translation appeared in Bangkok in 

1967 but has long been out of print, as has also the Siam Society's 

1987 edition. 

This new edition by the Siam Society is particularly timely now that 

Angkor has again been visited and Chou's descriptions of the walled 

city, people, dwellings and daily life retain all their vividness and 

colour across the centuries. In addition to Delaporte's splendid lithographs 

this second edition has 30 illustrations in colour, most of 

them previously unpublished. 

Price Bt. 360 (Bt. 300 for members)

The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXXX, Part 1-2, 1992 - Khamkoo

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