Materializing Thailand 9781474215213, 9781859733066

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Materializing Thailand

is a valued part of the myth of the golden age of Sukhothai to be discussed further in Chapter 5. In this view, feudal Ayutthaya destroyed the traditional rights of Thai women by codifying Khmer hierarchical laws and imposing them over Sukhothai egalitarianism. Other models downplay the existence and extent of both gender subordination and slavery in the Ayutthaya period and earlier. Bowie (1994) has critiqued casual approaches to slavery such as the following: 'For centuries, Thai peasantry enjoyed a relatively free and easy life in social interaction, although they suffered from poverty and slavery' (Tantiwiramanond and Pandey 1991:15), arguing that slavery and gender inequities did not fit well with Thai romantic views of their past. Examples of cultural intimacy such as prostration, polygamy, prostitution and slavery were all sources of external embarassment that might draw the disapproval of powerful outsiders (cf. Herzfeld 1997). Among the images of women in Thailand's past as war captives, tribute wives or concubines, are the warriors: Queen Srisuriyothai of Ayutthaya (1548-1569) who fought against the Burmese; Khunying (Lady) Muk and Khunying Jan (1785) who also fought against the Burmese; Khunying Mo who saved Nakhon Ratchatchasima from the Lao army during the reign of King Rama III; Queen Chamadevi of Lanna who counted menstrual blood among her weapons (cf. Morris 1994a). Feats of bravery by individual women - especially royal women stimulated the incorporation of these stories of powerful, militarily dominant women into Thailand's official historical narrative. While the stories of powerful Thai women reveal something about the building of the narrative of national identity, they can also reveal the state's 'deepest paranoias of sovereignty and control' (Appadurai 1996:190). For example, the Thai woman historian who dared to suggest that the commemorative statue of Khunying Mo might be as much about confirming the locality's loyalty to the state following an abortive coup as glorifying a local heroine was accused of treason. Keyes locates the conflict in the attempts to situate Khunying Mo in two distinct and conflicting national narratives, Lao and Thai (1996). Both heroines from the past - Khunying Mo and Queen Chamadevi - reappear in the present through their mediums, transcending their positions in time and space and collapsing the palimpsest or folding it back on itself. As spirits, these historical figures can intervene in the lives of contemporary men and women. It is overwhelmingly women, or men who appropriate femaleness through transgenderism (Morris 1994a:52) who access the power of the past through mediumship. Metaphors move thoughts in a particular direction and are often

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captured in proverbs and songs. Images of powerful women from the past are perpetuated in proverbs about women's ability to wield a sword as well as rock a cradle. But they coexist with a more commonly cited proverb: 'Men are the front legs of the elephant: women are the hind legs of the elephant', cited to demonstrate Thai women's subordinate position or the complementarity of men and women, depending on the feminist politics of the speaker. But, as Srisambhand and Gordon (1987:14) point out, the elephant's hind legs are the first to move. Another proverb often cited to demonstrate the position of women in Thailand - 'Man is human, woman is buffalo' - certainly looks bad for the buffalo/woman. On questioning Thai specialists on the meaning of this proverb, it was pointed out that while humans are open to illusion, buffaloes are hardworking and reliable. Key to interpreting meaning, however, requires more analysis of context, how and why the proverbs are cited. Literary a n d Artistic Discourses The dominant artistic and literary discourses on Thai women are both illuminating and paradoxical. Gender representation in the arts is not isomorphic with women's participation in society or to gender relations in everyday life. However, there are powerful linkages between artistic and literary images of women and the uses to which gendered images are put. In fact, the arts are where gender boundaries are most often questioned, and in the case of Thailand, blurred or reversed. In the Thai visual and dramatic arts, the feminine is glorified and not devalued; male robustness is not as aesthetically central as it is in Euro-American arts. According to a leading Thai literary critic (Nagavajara 1994a), Thai literature expresses feelings as well as ideas, and requires synaesthetic appreciation to an extent that renders it inaccessible to all but the most skilled foreigners who know how to listen and imagine 'in Thai'. Literature has the capacity to delight, but this delight is heightened by sharing. Thus, the conviviality of performance is a critically important part of the oral tradition. Performers and audiences must come together in time and space, sharing interaction time. Many Thai literary works were burned in the fall of Ayutthaya to the Burmese in 1767. Restoration was made through oral literature and memory (Nagavajara 1994a:32). While the early Bangkok kings tried to replenish the stock by composing and commissioning new literary works, they also selected and revised to suit the political task of cultural

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Use of Buddhist Texts How is gender framed in Buddhist texts? Identification of gender bias in ancient texts and current religious institutions and practices requires careful distinction between Buddhist institutions and Buddhist logic; Buddhist practice and Buddhist beliefs; and popular Buddhist texts and canonical Buddhist texts. To date, researchers have concentrated most attention on popular Buddhist texts and Buddhist institutions, such as the monkhood which excludes women from the most valued roles within the ordination tradition. Anthropologists are wary of equating universal religious texts with current local practice or assuming that texts determine behavior. Local reinterpretation of texts fits with the Buddhist argument that texts should always be tested and challenged by experience. However, monks encourage the belief that unenlightened individuals may not be able to trust their own experience and so must support the monkhood and accept monastic interpretations of texts. Nevertheless, reinterpretation of text and testing through experience is to be expected within Buddhism. Greater attention to reinterpreting the primary canonical texts from a Thai feminist perspective might open up a new way of conceptualizing the relation between Buddhism and gender ideology. One potential for reinterpretation lies in the recognition that texts reflect social conditions at the time the texts were written, including the biases of their male interpreters. Rita Gross has identified some of the formidable obstacles facing anyone undertaking a feminist reinterpretation of Buddhist texts. Working through multiple levels of androcentrism requires recognizing the biases in selecting what documents to preserve in the historical record and what texts to ignore. The biases in the textual record are compounded by androcentric biases in Western scholarship on Buddhism and androcentric biases in contemporary Buddhist practice (Gross 1993:18). Others have also been searching the texts for a usable past for a Buddhist feminism (Murcott 1991; Bartholemeusz 1992; Cabezon 1992, Kabilsingh 1991). In 1992, I attended a lecture by a well-known monk who taught at Wat Mahathat in Bangkok, in order to learn more about the interpretation of Buddhist texts. After two hours of extraordinarily dry recitation of the names of each of the books, sections, and chapters of the Tipitaka,2 he noticed the dazed, bored look on the Thai and foreign, monk and lay faces in the audience. He apologized briefly, explaining that texts do not matter in Buddhism, that one did not need to know or understand them, that the Buddha cautioned against trusting texts

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and words without understanding and knowing oneself. He explained that the teaching exists on two levels, the mundane (lokiya) and the supramundane (lokutara), and it is difficult for a lay person to understand texts. Knowledge of texts, he said, is not necessary for happiness. It is only necessary for monks who teach. This is the argument that monks give to encourage attendance at sermons. But most monks know very little about Buddhist texts beyond what they recite in services. Monks who know the texts well, do not usually question them. While many laymen and laywomen may know a great deal about Buddhist texts, men claim more right to question the authority of the monks simply because they are men and have the potential for being ordained. Accepting the authority of the monks as representatives of the Sangha is very different from accepting their knowledge of the texts. Nevertheless, the attitude that it is sinful (baap) to question the authority of monks is widespread in Thailand, alongside the attitude held by many that monks are quite lazy and not very knowledgable. This does not mean that Buddhism does not shape the consciousness of most rural and urban Thai who identify themselves as Buddhist. Texts and stories may provide a reference system for guiding everyday life decisions, a source of metaphor or a stock of memorized stanzas, as, for example, magical verses or katha. To suggest that the four Noble Truths are alien and esoteric concepts to most Thai (as Truong does, 1990:132) trivializes the knowledge and understanding of Thai laity, and imparts an unnecessarily privileged position to monks who may not have great knowledge of metaphysical principles. It is a mistake to assume that a great gap of knowledge exists between laity and monks, and between popular and textual Buddhism. The gap between men and women lies more in legitimized authority than in knowledge, particularly now that women have increasing opportunities for acquiring knowledge of Buddhism. In addition, women's knowledge of Buddhism may well lie in domains other than texts. I have argued that Thai women's knowledge of Buddhism may also be expressed through food and commensality, an important part of Buddhist rituals (P. Van Esterik 1986). Even esoteric and paradoxical knowledge can be coded through everyday practices, providing alternative frameworks for interpretation. Feminists writing on Thailand often make use of Buddhist texts to make their arguments about the subordination of women. Often single stories are cited as if textual evidence were equivalent to contemporary practice or belief. The questions of Queen Mallika on obtaining beauty and wealth (from the Anguttara-Nikaya), or the Buddha's reluctance to ordain women (from the Culla-Vagga), are cited as evidence for the

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The plans for the reconstruction were reviewed by 'a distinguished panel of Thai historians who testified to the authenticity of the reconstruction' (Muang Boran 1980:70). This reconstruction is particularly important for understanding the relation between successor kingdoms in Thailand. The Sanphet Prasat Palace became the model for the Inthara Phisek Palace in Bangkok (destroyed by fire). Many of the key features of the former capital, Ayutthaya, were recreated at the new capital, Bangkok. 7. Restoring replicas of 'original' palaces and temples before faulty reconstructions could be made by the Fine Arts Department. Research was undertaken to determine their original appearances. Photographs, documents and chronicles were consulted to achieve a copy of the authentic original building (Muang Boran 1980:193). Sia Lek writes of having panels of Thai experts 'authenticate' his reproductions; that is, to invest them with authority or render them authoritative. In this sense, all the art and architecture reproduced at Muang Boran is authentic. The leading Thai authority on Thai culture history, a member of the royal family, said that he was asked by Sia Lek if there were inaccuracies in any reconstructions. If he found errors, Sia Lek said he would pull the buildings down. While the Prince said he found small errors, he said that he did not have the heart to tell him. Aesthetic pleasure is the elegant working out of pattern. Muang Boran's builders discover old buildings that were falling (or had fallen) down, buy them, and reassemble the pieces in new contexts, thus saving them. The builders of Sukhothai Historical Park reconstruct Sukhothai buildings in ways that will appeal to park visitors, both Thai and foreign. When the originals collapsed, models had already been reconstructed, saving the exemplars for posterity. Art historians have long deplored Thai lack of motivation for preserving old things or art objects for their own sake, but great concern with perfecting copies and shifting these copies into new contexts. This fits well with Buddhists' preference for constructing a new temple rather than repairing or restoring an old temple. Only the former is considered an important means of acquiring merit because the merit for the repair will accrue to the original builder not to the repairer. Ancient City is not popular with foreign tourists. The 'authentic' Thai past is so accessible, so well packaged, and so pleasant to explore that there would be no reason for most tourists to brave suburban Bangkok traffic to visit a less accessible theme park. While the Tourist

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Authority of Thailand (TAT) did at one time develop a theme park near the airport called TIMland (Thailand in Miniature), and a small display of miniature replicas of famous buildings known as Mini Siam was built near Pattaya, the 'Disneyworld' approach was not successful in Thailand. In contrast, Mini Indonesia was created by the wife of Prime Minister Soeharto after visits to Muang Boran (Peleggi 1994:68) and Disneyland. Opening near Jakarta in 1975, the park was built to appeal to both foreign tourists and nostalgic Indonesians who longed for home. Admittedly, Ancient City does not have to deal with the ethnic diversity represented in Mini Indonesia, and can merely present a single upland group to stand for all marginalized peoples. Like Ancient City, miniature replicas of national monuments were selected for Mini Indonesia as signs of continuity with Java's past. Pemberton also recognizes this effort as a 'special historicism and concomitant passion for form' (1994:247). Both theme parks miniaturize items of national heritage. But they illustrate differing approaches to and uses of the past. Indonesia must construct a past without colonialism - creating in effect, a contemporary past through the recovery of tradition. Thailand claims to construct an unbroken line from past to present and can risk representing an official past from the dawn of time, as a historical continuity. With no direct colonial rule, Thailand can afford to preserve a few sites of colonial architecture such as the Oriental Hotel and a few nineteenthcentury commercial buildings in Bangkok for nostalgia-oriented tourism (Peleggi 1996:444). The reconstructions at Muang Boran, in addition to the various replicas and models of historical moments described above reveal how old configurations legitimize present and future action. Knowledge of the past is codified in exemplars demonstrating moral knowledge of cause and effect not chronological knowledge of when and where. The correct use of the products of the past is to anchor them into paradigms of Thai history as exemplars of correct moral behaviour or successful political exploits. These exemplars can be reproduced and shifted into new moral and political contexts to legitimize new times, new people, and link them to past moments. These moments cannot and need not be ordered chronologically. Rather, they condense what is important about conditions and quality of life at a particular point in time much like the Buddhist notion of truth by experience rather than by past examples. Thus the Thai art system, until recently offered few inducements to evolve new art forms, since emphasis was on exact reproduction of received form, rather than creativity, originally, or