Journal of the Siam Society; 72

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7-ro .-

JOURNAL OF THE SIAM SOCIETY

JANUAR ts

1&2

"·

THE SIAM SOCIETY PATRON

His Majesty the King

VICE-PATRONS

Her Majesty the Queen Her Royal Highness the Princess Mother Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn

HON . M E MB E R S

The Ven. Buddhadasa Bhikkhu The Ven. Phra Rajavaramuni (Payu!to) Mr. Fua Haripitak Dr. Mary R. Haas Dr. Puey Ungphakorn Soedjatmoko Dr. Sood Saengvichien H .S.H. Prince Chand Chirayu Rajni Professor William J. Gedney Mr. Alexander B. Griswold Mom Kobkaew Abhakara Na Ayudhya

HON. VI C E-PR ES IDF.NTS

H.S.H. Prince Subhadradis Diskul

..

COU N CIL OF 'I'HE S IAM S O C IET Y FOR 19841 8 5

M.R. Patanachai Jayant

President Vice-President and Leader, Natural History Section Vice-President Vice-President

Dr. Tern Smitinand Mr. Dacre F.A. Raikes Dr. Svasti Srisukh Mrs. Katherine B. Buri

Honorary Treasurer Honorary Secretary Honorary Editor. Honorary Librarian Assistant Honorary Treasurer Assistant Honorary Secretary Assistant Honorary Librarian Mr. Sulak Sivaraksa Mr. Henri Pagau-Clarac Dr. Piriya Krairiksh Dr. Warren Y . Brockelman H.E. Mr. W.F .M. Schmidt Mr. Hartmut Schneider Dr. Rachit Buri

Mrs . Nongyao Narumit Dr. Tej Bunnag Khi.m .Varun Yupha Snidvongs Mr. James Stent Mrs. Virginia M. Di Crocco Mrs. Bonnie Davis Mr. Wilhelm Mayer Dr. Pornchai Suchitta Miss A.B. Lambert Mr. Rolf E. Von Bueren Mr. Rich ard Engelhardt Dr. Thawatchai Santisuk

JSS

.

·"' .

JOURNAL OF THE SIAM SOCIETY

75 • •

nopeny of tbo ~ Society'• IJ1nQ BAN~Olt

JANUARY & JULY 1.984 volume 72 par_ts 1. & 2

2

·. ·

THE SIAM SOCIETY 1984 • Honorary Editor : Dr. Tej Bunnag

Contributed manuscripts should be typed double-spaced on quarto paper (approximately 8 x 11 inches), 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periodical or relevant publication series (where applicable), date and place of publication (or nature of reference, if unpublished), and pagination (where appropriate). Page-proofs of Articles and Review Articles are normaHy s'ent ~uthors; proofs of Notes, Reviews and other contributions will be sent to,aut:fi&rs 'on r~quest' ~~ly. Originals of illustrations will be returned on request .

to

Authors ·of~~biished contributions receive 30 offprints free of charge. copies will be supplied at cost price, but must be paid for in advance.

Additional

The Siam Society encourages readers to communicate to the Honorary Editor any differing opinion on, or corrections to, material which appears in JSS. Suitably documented correspondence will be published as a Communication, bearing the writer's name.

Manuscripts, books for review, and all correspondence should be sent to the Honorary Editor, Journal of the Siam Society, G .P.O. Box 65, Bangkok, Thailand. Subscription and membership enquiries, and publications orders, should be addressed to the Administrative Secretary, Siam Society, G.P.O. Box 65, Bangkok, Thailand. Exchange copies of periodicals should be sent to the Honorary Librarian, Siam Society, G.P.O. Box 65, Bangkok, Thailand .

jOURNAL OF THE SIAM SOCIETY Contents of Volume 72 1984 Page Articles

SURIYA RATANAKUL

A Prolegomena on Traditional Wisdom 1

in Karen Folklore BETTY GOSLING

Why Were the Jatakas "Hidden Away" 14

at Wat SIChum ? MICHEL JACQ-HERGOUALC'H

Les Ambassadeurs Siamois

a Versailles

le 1er septembre 1686 dans un bas relief en bronze d' A. Coysevox MICHAEL VICKERY

19

Prolegomena to Methods for Using the Ayutthayan Laws as Historical Source Material

CYRIL SKINNER

The Interrogation of Zeya Suriya Kyaw ·a Burmese account of the Junk Ceylon Campaigns of 1809-1810

KOBKUA SUWANNATHAT-PIAN

59

The 1902Siamese-Kelantan Treaty: an End to the Traditional Relations

PHAN-NGAM GOTHAMASAN

37

95

Some Aspects of the Political and Economic Systems of the Nineteenth Century Northern Malay States : Kedah, Kelantan and Trengganu

AYE KYAW

PAUL T. COHEN

PHILIP HUGHES

The Sangha Organization in Nineteenth Century Burma and Thailand

140

166

The Sovereignty of Dhamma and Economic Development : Buddhist Social Ethics in Rural Thailand

197

Values of Thai Buddhists and Thai Christians

212

Page

Note C. SURlY AKUMARAN

A Note on Mr. Michael Wright's lecture on the historical Lankan Buddhist connection in Siam and Cambujia

228

Reviews JEFFREY SNG TERRY A. SILVER

Soedjatmoko, Development and Culture C.l. Itty, ed., Searching for Asian

Paradigms: Contribution of Youth to the Promotion of Social Goals and Cultural Values in the Development Process VIRA SOMBOON S. SIV ARAKSA

S. Sivaraksa, Chuang haeng chiwit t:l

'"'"" v

•

231

233 237

,

t'lllL'il'iln71l'Yl7 :anfl17 ~71'li1'1Ul1'Yl, flU m111 m lfl 1 V v

•

(Biographies by Prince Damrong) t!lr7

ALEX P. MAVRO

Ernest Young, The Kingdom of the

Yellow Robe. Being Sketches of the Domestic and Religious Rites and Ceremonies of the Siamese MICHAEL SMITHIES

GEOFF AND CHIEKO GUNN

KENNON BREAZEALE

247

David A. Kohl, Chinese Architecture

in the Straits Settlements and Western Malaya: Temples, Kongsis and Houses NICHOLAS T APP

245

Anuvit Charernsupkul, The Elements

of Thai Architecture MICHAEL SMITHIES

243

Malcolm Smith, A Physician at the

Court of Siam BETTY GOSLING

241

249

J. Westermeyer, Poppies, Pipes and

People: Opium and Its Use in Laos

251

Yoshito Yamane, Raosu ni sasageta waga seishun (My Youth Devoted to Laos)

253

Victor B. Lieberman, Burmese Admi-

nistrative Cycles. Anarchy and Conquest, c. 1580-1760

255

Page VIRGINIA M. Dl CROCCO

Khin Myo Chit, A Wonderland of

Burmese Legends MICHAEL SMITHIES MICHAEL SMITHIES

Mochtar Lubis, T wilight in Jakarta Sri Mulyono, Human Character in the

Wayang: Javanese Shadow Play BUDDHADASA P. KIRTHISINGHE

261

26 3

Buddhadasa P. Kirthisinghe, Editor,

Buddhist Concepts Old and New Obituary CHETANA N AGAVAJARA

259

David J. and Indrani K alupahana Shambhale, The W ay of Siddhartha (a

life story of the Buddha) LOUISE J. PAPARAZZI

257

In · Memoriam Mom Luang Boonlua Debyasuvarn

264

266

The microfilming of rare books, Journals of the Siam Society and Bangkok Time Newspaper is a continuing project of the Library of the Siam Society. The following volumes of JSS and Bangkok Time have been microfilmed and copies are available for sale: Journal of the Siam Society Vol. 1-68. Bangkok Time Newspaper Weekly Mail

Vol. 1938-1939

Daily Mail

Vol. 1896-1902

Please send enquiries to the Librarian, The Siam Society, G.P.O. Box 65, Bangkok, Thailand

7-ro .-

JOURNAL OF THE SIAM SOCIETY

JANUAR ts

1&2

"·

THE SIAM SOCIETY PATRON

His Majesty the King

VICE-PATRONS

Her Majesty the Queen Her Royal Highness the Princess Mother Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn

HON . M E MB E R S

The Ven. Buddhadasa Bhikkhu The Ven. Phra Rajavaramuni (Payu!to) Mr. Fua Haripitak Dr. Mary R. Haas Dr. Puey Ungphakorn Soedjatmoko Dr. Sood Saengvichien H .S.H. Prince Chand Chirayu Rajni Professor William J. Gedney Mr. Alexander B. Griswold Mom Kobkaew Abhakara Na Ayudhya

HON. VI C E-PR ES IDF.NTS

H.S.H. Prince Subhadradis Diskul

..

COU N CIL OF 'I'HE S IAM S O C IET Y FOR 19841 8 5

M.R. Patanachai Jayant

President Vice-President and Leader, Natural History Section Vice-President Vice-President

Dr. Tern Smitinand Mr. Dacre F.A. Raikes Dr. Svasti Srisukh Mrs. Katherine B. Buri

Honorary Treasurer Honorary Secretary Honorary Editor. Honorary Librarian Assistant Honorary Treasurer Assistant Honorary Secretary Assistant Honorary Librarian Mr. Sulak Sivaraksa Mr. Henri Pagau-Clarac Dr. Piriya Krairiksh Dr. Warren Y . Brockelman H.E. Mr. W.F .M. Schmidt Mr. Hartmut Schneider Dr. Rachit Buri

Mrs . Nongyao Narumit Dr. Tej Bunnag Khi.m .Varun Yupha Snidvongs Mr. James Stent Mrs. Virginia M. Di Crocco Mrs. Bonnie Davis Mr. Wilhelm Mayer Dr. Pornchai Suchitta Miss A.B. Lambert Mr. Rolf E. Von Bueren Mr. Rich ard Engelhardt Dr. Thawatchai Santisuk

JSS

.

·"' .

JOURNAL OF THE SIAM SOCIETY

75 • •

nopeny of tbo ~ Society'• IJ1nQ BAN~Olt

JANUARY & JULY 1.984 volume 72 par_ts 1. & 2

2

·. ·

THE SIAM SOCIETY 1984 • Honorary Editor : Dr. Tej Bunnag

Contributed manuscripts should be typed double-spaced on quarto paper (approximately 8 x 11 inches), 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). Page-proofs of Articles and Review Articles are normaHy s'ent ~uthors; proofs of Notes, Reviews and other contributions will be sent to,aut:fi&rs 'on r~quest' ~~ly. Originals of illustrations will be returned on request .

to

Authors ·of~~biished contributions receive 30 offprints free of charge. copies will be supplied at cost price, but must be paid for in advance.

Additional

The Siam Society encourages readers to communicate to the Honorary Editor any differing opinion on, or corrections to, material which appears in JSS. Suitably documented correspondence will be published as a Communication, bearing the writer's name.

Manuscripts, books for review, and all correspondence should be sent to the Honorary Editor, Journal of the Siam Society, G .P.O. Box 65, Bangkok, Thailand. Subscription and membership enquiries, and publications orders, should be addressed to the Administrative Secretary, Siam Society, G.P.O. Box 65, Bangkok, Thailand. Exchange copies of periodicals should be sent to the Honorary Librarian, Siam Society, G.P.O. Box 65, Bangkok, Thailand .

jOURNAL OF THE SIAM SOCIETY Contents of Volume 72 1984 Page Articles

SURIYA RATANAKUL

A Prolegomena on Traditional Wisdom 1

in Karen Folklore BETTY GOSLING

Why Were the Jatakas "Hidden Away" 14

at Wat SIChum ? MICHEL JACQ-HERGOUALC'H

Les Ambassadeurs Siamois

a Versailles

le 1er septembre 1686 dans un bas relief en bronze d' A. Coysevox MICHAEL VICKERY

19

Prolegomena to Methods for Using the Ayutthayan Laws as Historical Source Material

CYRIL SKINNER

The Interrogation of Zeya Suriya Kyaw ·a Burmese account of the Junk Ceylon Campaigns of 1809-1810

KOBKUA SUWANNATHAT-PIAN

59

The 1902Siamese-Kelantan Treaty: an End to the Traditional Relations

PHAN-NGAM GOTHAMASAN

37

95

Some Aspects of the Political and Economic Systems of the Nineteenth Century Northern Malay States : Kedah, Kelantan and Trengganu

AYE KYAW

PAUL T. COHEN

PHILIP HUGHES

The Sangha Organization in Nineteenth Century Burma and Thailand

140

166

The Sovereignty of Dhamma and Economic Development : Buddhist Social Ethics in Rural Thailand

197

Values of Thai Buddhists and Thai Christians

212

Page

Note C. SURlY AKUMARAN

A Note on Mr. Michael Wright's lecture on the historical Lankan Buddhist connection in Siam and Cambujia

228

Reviews JEFFREY SNG TERRY A. SILVER

Soedjatmoko, Development and Culture C.l. Itty, ed., Searching for Asian

Paradigms: Contribution of Youth to the Promotion of Social Goals and Cultural Values in the Development Process VIRA SOMBOON S. SIV ARAKSA

S. Sivaraksa, Chuang haeng chiwit t:l

'"'"" v

•

231

233 237

,

t'lllL'il'iln71l'Yl7 :anfl17 ~71'li1'1Ul1'Yl, flU m111 m lfl 1 V v

•

(Biographies by Prince Damrong) t!lr7

ALEX P. MAVRO

Ernest Young, The Kingdom of the

Yellow Robe. Being Sketches of the Domestic and Religious Rites and Ceremonies of the Siamese MICHAEL SMITHIES

GEOFF AND CHIEKO GUNN

KENNON BREAZEALE

247

David A. Kohl, Chinese Architecture

in the Straits Settlements and Western Malaya: Temples, Kongsis and Houses NICHOLAS T APP

245

Anuvit Charernsupkul, The Elements

of Thai Architecture MICHAEL SMITHIES

243

Malcolm Smith, A Physician at the

Court of Siam BETTY GOSLING

241

249

J. Westermeyer, Poppies, Pipes and

People: Opium and Its Use in Laos

251

Yoshito Yamane, Raosu ni sasageta waga seishun (My Youth Devoted to Laos)

253

Victor B. Lieberman, Burmese Admi-

nistrative Cycles. Anarchy and Conquest, c. 1580-1760

255

Page VIRGINIA M. Dl CROCCO

Khin Myo Chit, A Wonderland of

Burmese Legends MICHAEL SMITHIES MICHAEL SMITHIES

Mochtar Lubis, T wilight in Jakarta Sri Mulyono, Human Character in the

Wayang: Javanese Shadow Play BUDDHADASA P. KIRTHISINGHE

261

26 3

Buddhadasa P. Kirthisinghe, Editor,

Buddhist Concepts Old and New Obituary CHETANA N AGAVAJARA

259

David J. and Indrani K alupahana Shambhale, The W ay of Siddhartha (a

life story of the Buddha) LOUISE J. PAPARAZZI

257

In · Memoriam Mom Luang Boonlua Debyasuvarn

264

266

The microfilming of rare books, Journals of the Siam Society and Bangkok Time Newspaper is a continuing project of the Library of the Siam Society. The following volumes of JSS and Bangkok Time have been microfilmed and copies are available for sale: Journal of the Siam Society Vol. 1-68. Bangkok Time Newspaper Weekly Mail

Vol. 1938-1939

Daily Mail

Vol. 1896-1902

Please send enquiries to the Librarian, The Siam Society, G.P.O. Box 65, Bangkok, Thailand

A PROLEGOMENA ON TRADITIONAL WISDOM IN KAREN FOLKLORE* SURIYA RATANAKUL**

This prolegomena is based on extensive materials compiled between 1975-1982 which were originally collected for the preparation of a Karen-Thai, Thai-Karen Dictionary. As linguistic investigation continued, interesting and unexpected cultural understandings appeared that were associated with Karen words. These cultural materials were recorded as part of the linguistic investigation of the Karen language. They include the Karen's world-view, life-style, traditional beliefs, superstitions, customs, manners, folk-medicine, tales, proverbs and traditional entertainment such as songs and riddles. This paper will present some of the cultural data and provide the readers with an opportunity to learn about the wisdom of these lesser known people of Southeast Asia. The People The Karen are an important group of people in the Sino-Tibetan linguistic super-stock. According to Keyes (1977: 49), they are the largest tribal minority in both Burma and thailand, numbering three million or more in Burma, although in Thailand their number does not probably exceed 200,000. In the map appended in the book of Lebar and others (1964) it was shown that the Karen cluster in dispersed groups in the basins of the Irrawaddy river, the Sittang river and in the hill areas which is eastern Burma and the western part of Thailand. In Thailand the Karen, being the largest minority group, are scattered in various places. One can find Karen villages in every northern and western province, from Mae Hongsorn down south. to Ranong. There are settlements of Karen in the central basin especially in the pocket-areas of Uthaithani, Petchburi and Suphanburi provinces. Only the north-eastern plateau and the southern-most provinces do not have their settlement. Linguistically speaking, at least two eminent linguists: Shafer (1955: 94-111) and Benedict (1972: 6) see the

* Paper presented to the International Symposium on Southeast Asian Folklore, Krogerup College,

**

Humlebaek, Denmark. August 23rd-26th, 1982. Acknowledgement is made to the Yayasan Lee Foundation of Malaysia and the Organizing Committee of the Symposium which made it possible for me to participate in this meeting. Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Mahidol University, Bangkok.

1

2

Suriya Ratanakul .

importance of this linguistic family so that they set up· this people as a group separated from the rest of the Tibeto-Burman people, thus, constituting an entity called the Karenic group. Unlike other new-comer hill people of the Tibeto-Burman linguistic groups (such as the Lahu, Lisu, Akha etc.). The Karen have been familiar to the Thai for a long time. The latter have a special name for these old friends i.e. the JaaJJ*l whereas· other new-comer tribes are called by the tribal names they call themselves. · There are twodistricts in Thailand whose names tell clearly that they must have been the cluster site of the Karen people i.e. Thaa JaaJJ district and Tbaa SoolJ JaaiJ district, In the lowland in the Central Basin, the Karen, like their Thai neighbours, tend the ricefields and grow crops necessary for their subsistence such as corn, vegetables and tobacco. In the hills, where the Karen live at a lower altitude than other hill-tribes, they employ swidden or ••slash and burn" agriculture. In the northern forest, they play an important role in the teak trade and are very keen at elephant training. They do not grow opium"poppy and neither do they take part in the opium trade except some few individual cases. The data for this study are from field work done in 6 province~!~ namely Chiengmai, Maehongsorn, Lamphoon, Kanchanaburi, SuphaDburi and Petchburi.

The Study As a people, the Karen have interesting cultural traditions.. Some of these traditions are not unlike those of other peoples of Southeast Asia. To mention only the most telling ones for example, the Karen te?prs is very close to Thai "Kumaan th:>:>lJ" nJJ1'l''YlD-1* 1; the Karen tiger-bride story has some inkling resemblance to Thai "sya ' samiiJ" Lins~,*3; and their concept that "bad luck" ca~ be chaQged is like the concept of the Thai "sada? khr5?" s:Lt~1:Ln1::~. *l

Thai worde il;l this study IUCJ written aocording t tho tranalitoratiA 11ystero. used in Ha"Li' Thai-English Student's Dictionar1 (l964) Karen data are from the author's field-notes which will be published.in the form of Sgaw Karen-Thai Dictionary and Thai-Sgaw Karen Dictionary, (forthcoming).

*2 nJJ1'f'rl£1a is the spirit of a male infant whose mother died before it was born. To make this

•

spirit, fl8J1'7f!£1a, the baby is taken out af its dead mother's womb while a magical ceremony is porfor.;ed, After tho oerii'PIllY tho ehild-spi:rit becomes pow~rful and half to act on every wi11h of its master, the performer of that ceremony. It is believed that the spirit will be most powerful if it is the master's son. The magical ceremony to make fli111'Yl£1a is described .

. . .

elaborately in a popular Thai work of lirerature "Khll.n Chaa9 Khun Phesn" ~

'

'2J",f-'-"!l"LLN"

*3 Lftilft~-1 is the spirit of an old man-eating tiger. It can change its appearance from man to tiger/from tiger to man at will. In the Thai version of the legend, this tiger runs with its victims' corpses usually on its back. In the Karen version, in the human-maiden form, it kills the man by alluring him to its enchanting female body. Its appearance can be changed from beautiful maiden into an old tiger by walking around a termite hill.

··:

3

A PROLEGOMENA ON TRADITIONAL _WlSDOM IN KAREN FOLKLORE

Some of the Karen beliefs are, aocording to our present knowledge, unique to this people such as the belief that every man predetermines his own life~span by telling the number of years he wants to live .on this earth to mhcakhlej the reoord·keeper, before he enters this life. This belief together with other traditional beliefs might seem nonsense to our modern mind. But it is to be noted that despite the change of time the tradition is still a living and dynamic force governing the behaviour, speech and way of thinking of the Karen living in modern time as in the past. With limited space it is impossible to present all these traditional lore in this paper. Besides, there is a problem of categorizing the materials collected. In this oase we need help from folklorists who have been working on Southeast Asian folklores to set up a universal (or at least Southeast Asian) categorization for the presentation of all these traditional wisdom. A Working Group is needed for the setting up of the categorization of recurring themes which crop up now and then in the investigation of folklores of different tribes. For folktales, good work was done by thompson (1955-58). But for other aspects of culture we are still in need of a workable framework. Hence in the study of proverbs, traditional beliefs, superstitions, folk-medicine, manners and bodymannerism, customs and traditional entertainments etc., we have to use a descriptive approach method to describe as accurately as possible what is discovered in the fielddata. In the description some comparisons, such as between Thai and Karen proverbs, can be made, This is all we can do at the moment. In the following part of the study we are attempting to present some examples of the Karen traditional wisdom and will wait for further research to suggest ways to use these data to shed more light on the comparative study of Southeast Asian folklore in general.

ta

Provesbs and Sayings : ka?todo Being a poetic people who like to use vivid and figurative metaphor, Karen speech is full of proverbs and good old-sayings, both of which have the same name in Karen "ta ka?rodo". While some of these proverbs have their counterparts in Thai which will be shqwn in (1)~(4), some are unique to the Karen at our present knowledge (we have not yet the means.to investigate whether the latter oocur in other minority languages in Burma such as the Chin, the Palaung etc. or not). (1)

Khe tiger

?a?

rno

its

mother

ki? striped

?a? its

pho children

ro red

'Being tiger whose mother is striped, the litters cannot be otherwise but russet' The colitexts where this proverb is mostly used are for example: to criticize the subordinates whose chief is a do-no-good man, or to praise the descendants of an able man. This ta ka?todo has similar meaning in Thai saying "chya maj thfg thew" L:a\~~.:ILU'I')

Suriya Ratanakul

4

.or "Like father, like son" in English. However, a difference is to be made, while the English and the Thai ~ayings specifically refer to children in relation to their fathers or ancestors, the Karen saying is more general in its application. (2)

wa bamboo

la? at

?a?

k3ph:>?, internode

its

pa man

la? at

?a? his.

sa? heart

Even the same stem of bamboo can have different colours on its different. nodes, men can have different opinions'. This ta ka?toko is like Thai "phaj jalJ taaiJ ploiJ, phii n5:>IJ jaiJ taaiJ caj' 'l,4;,~,,1l;a, .W,ra_,;,~,,'l.~. The same remark can be made as in (1). The Thai application is more appropriate for the comparison of the difference of opinions among siblings whereas the Karen application is more general. (3)

iiacha catfish

ta? one

bo classifier

iiacha catfish

?'i?

ne obtain

?a?

rom:> friend

bad

its

ro• red d:> m:> container made of bamboo node all

'If one catfish in the container is a red catfish, then all of its friends in the same container are poisonous'.

In the Karen belief a red catfish has very potent poison that

can contaminate other fish in the same container. Thus if a fish trap catches one red catfish, the traditional wisdom demands that, as we should not take an unnecessary risk of being poisoned, all other caught fish must be thrown away. is seen in other cases as well.

This way of thinking

For example in mushroom-gathering, the Karen will not

gather edible mushrooms if they see a poisonous one in the proximity of these mushrooms. One should notice also that this ta ke?todo has rhyming element at the end of each stanza (ro and mo), thus making it melodious and easily memorable. This Karen proverb is used to remind us of the necessity for self-preservation and is also used in the same meaning as in the Thai counterpart "plaa tua diaw naw, naw thalJ · khoiJ" t.l"1911L;!I1L'Ii1 L,.L,.rf.,,;£1,", comparing that one bad chap in the company makes everyone infamous. The Lawa also have a proverb on this theme. (4)

cho hen

pho children

?o? v.to be

cl? hand

nesa? center of the palm or sole

pu inside

'The chicken in the palm of your hand (you can squeeze it or release it, up to your mercy)'. This ta ka?todo resembles the Thai "lOuk kaj naj kam myy" "n'lri

'l.~rh~o.

.

A PROLEGOMENA ON TRADITIONAL WISDOM IN KAREN FOLKLORE

5

Some taka? todo are unique to the Karen. Most of the wisdom comes from the Karen's close observation of nature around them in the forest. The town people cannot have time to see the beauty of ants' eggs nor to observe the mannerism of big fish seeking for their prey as can be seen in (5) and (6). (5)

ta ant pa man

re Ia? good,beautiful when re 1~? good,beautiful when

?a? it ?a? he

di? egg pho child

'Ants are good only when they are in the egg. human-beings are beautiful only in their youth." To understand this saying, a knowledge of the Karen life is needed. As toilers of the land, the Karen detest ants because the latter, bother them while they are working and destroy their crops especially their favourite chilly plants whose young leaves are also ants' favourite. However, the Karen love to eat ants' eggs, so an ant's nest full of eggs is beautiful/good in the Karen's eyes. The Karen value youth because this period of life passes them so fast--being hard workers in the field without the help of modern technology, they age prematurely. (6) fia do? ?o? ?a? cha thi di big eat its prey water muddy, unclear fish 'The big fish can prey only when the water is muddy (otherwise the small fish see it coming)' The Karen observe that .when a big fish preys, it stirs up its body to make the surrounding water muddy which will prevent it being seen by its prey, the small fish. This ta ka?todo is very popular and is used in everyday speech. When a clever man tries to fool his neighbour, he likes to talk about big things such as the law, the rules etc., his neighbour can evade the trap by·citing this "iia do? .....•..". Then he will understand immediately that his neighbour refuses to be fooled. Traditional Beliefs The topic is undoubtedly an all-enbracing subject. As to how many sub-categorizations under this topic should be formed for the benefits of the study of Southeast Asian folklore should be determined by the mentioned Working Group. The subject can cover from religiously significant beliefs concerning with the hierarchy of deities and cosmology to ordinary and unimportant beliefs such as the belief that toad is a bad omen. In this paper, only 3 kinds of beliefs will be discussed. A. Prediction based on physical characteristics (mnt, Yh1.L1uan:ttm::). The . a Karen are keen at making physical observation on physical characteristics of both living beings (e.g. human and animal) and inanimate objects (e.g. house, knife etc.). These observations are used to tell them whether the objects seen are good or bad.

Suriya Ratanakul

6

Some 'Of these beliefs aetlm nonllense to the mind of modern read~ts. However, some of thorn reveal the ability of thcs Karen ~o make a penetrating observation on nature 1 {e.g. in (7)) and human psychology (e.g. in (8) ). . (7)

th5? pig

?a? its

ka? shut

me tail

kte. door

ta negative particle

good

negative particle

'Pig with drooping tail is not good'. As keen observer of nature, the Karen know that animals with drooping tail (called in Karen idiom "shut-door tail") are weak animals. They make furtheJi' notice that in a brood of puppies or piglets, there will be one which they call "l:>me" meaning "the weakest one of the brood". -Neither in :English nor Thai, do we have such a word. These l:>me animals usually have drooping tail. To test the truth of this Karen traditional wisdom. please observe when your dog has a now brood.

(8)

xt?

la? knife which

kta

?a? its

beautiful

very

ba

tni'l mata work neg.part pleasant, neg.part to have fun

'Too beautiful kni(e cannot work well' The Karen believes that utility tools such as a knife. a hoe have minds of their own. lf they are too beautiful, they might Thus when a Karen blacksmith refuse to work hard lest their beauty will diSappear. makes these tools, he will leave a tiny imperfection on each of them so that the tools will not be vain of their beauty. There is wisdom in this so~called nonsense. Man usually loves his beautiful tool so much that he might not use it in its full capacity as seen in the care and concern of a young tnan given to his first brand-new car. Realizing that if a Karen has a beautiful tool he might work less, the Karen blacksmith therefore will not make an artistically beautiful knife for a worker. This observation on the knife in (8) ..:xe? "'a? Te kla mata t~ mY? ba'' can be used as a saying ka1todo (see supra.). When used as a ta ka'Jtodo, it is used in a situation snch as to refuse to employ a too good-looking or too well-dressed man as a labourer.

ta

(9)

mer:> ke? ?a? red mole v.to be one's

khi? bad characteristics

'Red moles (on the skin) are bad sign.' With our knowledge of modem medicine this observation seems nonsense to our modem mind. But one should not forget that modem medicine also warns us that there is a possible link between unusual moles with the aigo. of newly developed oao.cor.

A PROLEGOMENA ON TRJU)l'l'JONJU. WlSDOM IN KAREN FOLKLORE

7

B. The Karen concept of ''weird wicked" behaviours : kachu There is no single English word equivalent to the Karen term k5chu. The idea refers to an unusually weird wicked behaviour or an unnecessarily cruel act (the French "crime gratgit") such as the sadist's cruel acts. The Karen believe that k'flchu brin~s bad fortune both to the doer and to his village, It is evident that such belief bas praamatic value: it brings peace and harmony into Karliln 'ociety. Moreover, this concept of k~chu protects not only human but also animals and nature, as in (11) and (12), from exploitation by the cruel acts of man. k?Jchu is therefore a really modem concept. Examples of k'!Jchu behaviours which are censured in Karen society are as follows: ne ba k!lcbu chota (10) able neg.part to swear neg. part "One cannot use a swear word, to swear is a k?Jchll.

Politenes11 and harmony

in human relation11hip is valued in Karen society so much that even abusive languagt such as to swear at one another is considered a k?Jchu and is not permitted.

Je? shw~ ?afJ pu kochu Iophla? at crab its hole thunderbolt 'To put rattan in the crab's bole (an unnecessarily cruel act to the crab) is k?Jchu. the sinner will be struck by lightning,

(11)

(12)

tel:> sule to put one kind of rattan

ma pbra molf? to separate monkey da ?a? prapa with its forest

pho obild

da with

?a many

?a? its

mo mother

ma

pbra to separate

tree

k~chu

'To separate the little monkey from its mother, to fell too many trees in the forest is k'flchu'. la? taphoxa Ia' (13) ka? thi ba? ?a na I a? thi at water many animal to trap touch, fish at water finish obtain ?o? taphoxa la? prapu ?a , prapu ?a? xo ~? forest it deserted. at forest many animal hunt eat 11ninbabited kakra? sa? heart lonely and nostal~io

'To trap too many water-animala, the supply of fish will finish; to b\lJlt too much, the forest will be empty, a lonely and nostalgic feeling for (our) heart•.

Suriya Ratanakul

8

We may conclude th~t the Karen are non-acquisitive people without "capitalist spirit"·. They are not driven by the desire to acc1,1mulate wealth and in so far as environment and natural resources are concerned they are less violently exploitative and destructive. For the Karen the natural world ·and all its resources including animals are not to be exploited to satisfy man's greedy desires. To use any material resources heedlessly or wastefully would be morally wrong or a k3chu. Trees should be felled down only if they are needed, and only with the greatest care and the most meticulou~ conceen for conservation. This non-exploitative attitude is also seen in the . case of killing animals*4

C. the Karen concept of unhealthy food Folk-medicine in many tribes around the world prohibit some specific kinds of food during a specific illness. Thai word for this concept is "salse:o" U.ft\11~. In modern western medicine, there is no longer such concept. · However, the prohibition of taking some kinds of food is still practiced as a means to ·prevent illness. (i.e. te> abstain from sea-food in allergic patients). Examples of such belief among the Karen are as follow: (14)

?'J? eat ?a? his

fia fish lo body

thu ta ba? 1-:J da a kind of mackerel neg.part appropriate with with sa?. ba itch neg. part.

'To eat mackerel (Scrombridae) is unhealthy if our body is itching (an allergic case)'. ba? appropriate

(15)

S'J . ?'J? ch'J di? pho chf? ta child small new eat hen egg neg. part. l'J? ba with neg. part. •A new mother shoUld not eat eggs'

(16)

tach1 te ba? 1-:J? tapul5 ba aoid things neg. part. appropriate with wound . neg. part. I)

'One who has wounds should not eat acid things'.

Reflections on Life, Huma1.1 Frailty and Death Traditional Karen religion was already discussed in Keyes (1977 : 52-54). Our findings agree with his study and supplement it with more details. One can see the Karen's attitudes towards life and death through the study of their myth and folklores. *4 When one of my Karen informant~ saw my cook-book with many pictures of preserved meat he remarked that the preservation of meat was a k'3chu and for explanation cited (13) to mean "You should not hunt for too much meat, the forest will be empty." Usually the Karen eat game meat only once in a wbile and they eat it with thrift. ·

A PROLEGOMENA ON TRADITIONAL WISDOM IN KAREN FOLKLORE

9

For example in a cosmogonic myth, we are told, Swa is the Divine Power, the Great Lord who created nature, the earth, the sky, water and wind. He also created the first man and the first woman whose seven offspring were ancestors of the world's major ethnic tribes of which the Karen were the eldest son. Then one day Swa, their Father, distributed books of wisdom to all these seven sons. The six elder sons were preoccupied with work in the field so much that they were not interested in their Father's gift. Only the youngest son paid much attention to it and thus became literate and wise.* 5 From this myth the Karen like to cite a popular saying praising the wisdom of the youngest child of a family as in (17) (17)

tho ?a? bird it

:wsk6? eldest

pho ?a? child it

shTa clever

tho bird

ta shTa not clever

pho sa?da. child youngest in the family

'The eldest bird is not clever, the youngest child is the cleverest'. Since all men are children of the same parents they cannot fundamentally differ from each other except in normative ways. For the Karen man is born as a part of the natural world and is therefore subject to the same law governing trees and animals. We are the same as trees, we are born, we grow old and we die as a tree or animal does. For the unpleasant fact of life the Karen explain in the myth of Mak:Jll, the Mistress of the Great Lord Swa.* 6 The Karen regards misfortune, hardship and illness as common aspects of life shared by all men. Even if the Great Lord Swa was their creator, the Karen do not *S The fact that this myth was used by the American Baptist missionaries for the benefits of spreading Christianity among the Karen was mentioned both in Keyes (1977: 52) and in Ratanakul (1978). These missionaries identified themselves with the youngest brother in the cosmogonic D:lYth coming to help their elder brother, the Karen, by bringing theD:l the book (the Now Testament) so that the latter could be literate and wise. *6 In the ll)yth Mak:Jtl is the Divinity Evil who enjoyed D:laking man suffer. The relationship between Swa and Mak:J/l is described as sima (D:listress). However, the Karen sima has a stronger connotation of sexual misbehaviour than the English word. It is to be noted that the myth does not give any account of Swa's Ia wful wife. Even her name is omitted. One can speculate that the relationship between Swa and M'!Jk;,/l is used in the myth to suggest human weakness which mythically stemmed from his Creator. The American missionaries equated Mak:Jii to Satan. This comparison is easily acceptable to the Karen because in their legends there are so many stories concerning tho evil acts of Mak:Jtl, for example, she made life unnecessarily difficult for man by creating plants with thorns as his obstacles and poisonous fruits as his food.

10

i·

Suriya Ratanakul

turn to Him for protection.*' On· the contrary they will seek help from spirits instead. The misfortune and suffering which the Karen often encounter in their life in the forests or on the hills does not make the Karen adopt a pessimistic attitud~ toward life. For them life is to be lived as fully as one can. One must accept the inevitable happenings in life with stiff-upper-lip and not :fight against them, as advised in (19) by the Wise Rabbit in a Karen popular folktale: Chi?ri da Swa taka?no cbs? with engage in a wrestling match push against ko · Ia? kho hi? one another at ~he Salawin river .at the Maekhong river Chi?Ti and Swa, wrestling with one another in a drawnmatch, got stuck one against another at the area between the Salawin river and the Maekhong river.' 19} ma me*B pazo•ll }:>shwi when. if dragon following the course of a stream Ia ma· me sepbu tha si? thi water when if at a big trunk of tree to go up in the direction of thi khi water tail (18}

· 'If (and only if} you can make a dragon follow the course of a stream, then you can make a big trunk of tree go up against the direction of the current' meaning •you cannot go against destiny'. Stoic acceptance of destiny and accommodation of oneself to that destiny are the chief characteristics of the Karen's philosophy of life.*IO This philosophy seems to be the result of the Karen's belief in their free choice of life* 11. Similarly death should *7 This is because the Karen do not regard s·wa as Almighty God and thai the Baptist missionaries identification of Swa ·with the Christian God is not accurate. In the Karen myth even Miik:Jii, His Mistress, could resist His power. In another myth S~a is also powerless against Chi?ri, the God of the Land.of the.Del!d, and hes to fight an endless batt)~ with this equally powerful god, as accounted in a Karen populer song (18) *8 me, a Karen copulative verb can be used in place of the conjunction "if" in a conditional proposition because the Karen language lacks the conjunction "if". This grammatical point is discussed in detail in my other paper (Ratanakul: 1982 b.). *9 p9zo is a legendary animal much· like the Westem mythological dragon. The Karen dragon is said to detest water so much that it. rarely enters water. When it goes into water, it w'ill swim only against the current. *10 For the Karen suicide is not a sensible solution to life's problema. Those who commit suicide will be severely punished after death-- to commit suicide in every future life. *11 In one Karen myth it is said that every man chooses the length of his life· span by telling Mlxakhi'B, the Record-Keeper, the number of years he wants his life to.last, Mlxakhl'a is· acting only as a recorder of man's choice and has no power to change man's decision.

A PROLEGOMENA ON TRADITIONAL WISDOM IN KAREN FOLKLORE

11

be accepted without grief or lamentation, for, as the Karen consoles the relatives of an untimely death of a man in (20) (20)

ra

pa

ta?

ra

d5?

man

one

classifier for man

try and see one

pha?

h.s come

classifier

mixakhle

make a rendez-vous

df?s5?

ta? ta

neg. part.

lo?sa?

resemble, to be like

neg. part.

one another

'Each one made (a separate choice of) rendez-vous with mixakhla, (so) the span of life of each one is different'.

Traditional entertainments : songs and riddles The form and content of Karen songs were already discussed in my other paper (Ratanakul 1978). Here it is to be noted that the Karen are people wtih poetic and musical ability. In a Karen village one usually finds a poet, mochO?, who is not only well versed in traditional songs but also capable of composing new songs for ~ew situations. Some of these now songs show the novelty and exceptional ability of their composer to write songs with combination of Karen and Thai words*I 2 It is a curious and little known fact that most of the Karen songs are sung at funerals (Ratanakul : 1978). Beside funerals, songs are sung on other occasions as well, e.g. the building of new houses, house-warming ceremony. Apart from songs, another means of entertainment for the Karen is riddle solving. Riddles, phi?prota, are usually used to test the wit of one another. The study of the ph1?prota will reveal both the interest of the Karen and their mode of living. The following phi?prota from (21) ~o (25) are some of the commonly known riddles: (21)

ta thing

chf?k.s small

ma make

ho cry

·'One small thing that makes one's child cry'. ~

?a? one's

pho child

The answer is chilly.

d

~

~

d

~

~

thing

climb up

tree

thing

carry

big bronze drum

'One who climbs up tree while carrying a bronze drum? The answer is a snail. *12 These "new" songs may be regarded as an example of the Karen ability for cultural adaptation to Thai culture without the loss of their cultural identity.

Suriya Ratanakul

12

(23).

sa?

three

tree

ta? c:>wa? c5 thu classifier for tree black-bird to perce one

be? classifier for birds 'Three trees that one black-bird perches on'. place made of three rocks.

(24)

pa

dopiwe

khi

man

relatives

two

bl:>

The answer is a traditional fire-

ra classifier for man ?a? 1:>? ms?

th:>bo

its

always

to pass moving in an opposite direction each other

face

'Two brothers who always pass one another in an opposite direction'. The answer is (man's two)' feet. (25)

at

tho

ta?

be?

bird

one

classifier for bird to fly at

?a?

no?·

its

beak

ZU

'The bird that flies with its wings (but) perches with its beak'. an arrow.

wings to perch

The answer is

Conclusion and Suggestion The material discussed represents only a small part of the Karen's dynamic culture. Karen folklore is not a mere collection of stories and tales for ent~rtainment. Rather it consists of traditional wisdom and world-views expressed in various forms. One cannot really understand the Karen without knowledge of their lore. The author contends that there are similarities and differences between Karen folklore and that of other ethnic groups in Southeast Asia which merits further research. An association of Southeast Asia folklorists is needed to stimulate and consolidate investigations of the lore and culture of ethnic groups in this region. Research findings should be widely disseminated as a means of promoting an understanding and respect for cultural rights of ethnic groups in Southeast Asia, and improving intergroup understanding, The author hopes that an association of folklorists could contribute, through its research and publication, to the easing of conflicts and tensions between minority groups and the dominant societies and makes Southeast Asia a land of peace and tolerance in this troubled world.

A PROLEGOMENA ON TRADITIONAL WISDOM IN KAREN FOLKLORE

13

REFERENCES Benedict, PaulK., (1972) Sino-Tibetan, A Conspectus, Cambridge, at the University Press. 230 pp. Haas, Mary R., (1964) Thai-English Student's Dictionary, Stanford University Press. Keyes, Charles F., (1977) The Golden Peninsula: Culture and Adaptation in Mainland Southeast Asia, Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 370 pp. Ratanakul, Suriya (1978) "Karen songs" • paper presented to Mahidol University Annual Conference on "The Studies and Researches on Languages in Thailand", February 23-24, 1978. This paper was later published in Journal of Language and Culture, Mahidol University, vol. 1, 1981, no. I, p. 61-107 (in Thai). Ratanakul, Suriya (1982 b.) "Three Copulative Verbs in Sgaw Karen", paper presented to the Sino-Tibetan Linguistics Working Group in the Xlllth International Congress of Linguists Tokyo, Japan. August 29cSeptember 4, 1982. Shafer, Robert, (1955) in WORD: 94-111. Thompson, S., (1955-58) Motif-Index of Folk-literature. A Classification of Narrative Elements in Folktales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, JestBooks and Lokal Legends. Revised and Enlarged Edition. 1-6. Copenhagen and Bloomington, Indiana.

fi

A PROLEGOMENA ON TRADITIONAL WISDOM IN KAREN FOLKLORE* SURIYA RATANAKUL**

This prolegomena is based on extensive materials compiled between 1975-1982 which were originally collected for the preparation of a Karen-Thai, Thai-Karen Dictionary. As linguistic investigation continued, interesting and unexpected cultural understandings appeared that were associated with Karen words. These cultural materials were recorded as part of the linguistic investigation of the Karen language. They include the Karen's world-view, life-style, traditional beliefs, superstitions, customs, manners, folk-medicine, tales, proverbs and traditional entertainment such as songs and riddles. This paper will present some of the cultural data and provide the readers with an opportunity to learn about the wisdom of these lesser known people of Southeast Asia. The People The Karen are an important group of people in the Sino-Tibetan linguistic super-stock. According to Keyes (1977: 49), they are the largest tribal minority in both Burma and thailand, numbering three million or more in Burma, although in Thailand their number does not probably exceed 200,000. In the map appended in the book of Lebar and others (1964) it was shown that the Karen cluster in dispersed groups in the basins of the Irrawaddy river, the Sittang river and in the hill areas which is eastern Burma and the western part of Thailand. In Thailand the Karen, being the largest minority group, are scattered in various places. One can find Karen villages in every northern and western province, from Mae Hongsorn down south. to Ranong. There are settlements of Karen in the central basin especially in the pocket-areas of Uthaithani, Petchburi and Suphanburi provinces. Only the north-eastern plateau and the southern-most provinces do not have their settlement. Linguistically speaking, at least two eminent linguists: Shafer (1955: 94-111) and Benedict (1972: 6) see the

* Paper presented to the International Symposium on Southeast Asian Folklore, Krogerup College,

**

Humlebaek, Denmark. August 23rd-26th, 1982. Acknowledgement is made to the Yayasan Lee Foundation of Malaysia and the Organizing Committee of the Symposium which made it possible for me to participate in this meeting. Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Mahidol University, Bangkok.

1

2

Suriya Ratanakul .

importance of this linguistic family so that they set up· this people as a group separated from the rest of the Tibeto-Burman people, thus, constituting an entity called the Karenic group. Unlike other new-comer hill people of the Tibeto-Burman linguistic groups (such as the Lahu, Lisu, Akha etc.). The Karen have been familiar to the Thai for a long time. The latter have a special name for these old friends i.e. the JaaJJ*l whereas· other new-comer tribes are called by the tribal names they call themselves. · There are twodistricts in Thailand whose names tell clearly that they must have been the cluster site of the Karen people i.e. Thaa JaaJJ district and Tbaa SoolJ JaaiJ district, In the lowland in the Central Basin, the Karen, like their Thai neighbours, tend the ricefields and grow crops necessary for their subsistence such as corn, vegetables and tobacco. In the hills, where the Karen live at a lower altitude than other hill-tribes, they employ swidden or ••slash and burn" agriculture. In the northern forest, they play an important role in the teak trade and are very keen at elephant training. They do not grow opium"poppy and neither do they take part in the opium trade except some few individual cases. The data for this study are from field work done in 6 province~!~ namely Chiengmai, Maehongsorn, Lamphoon, Kanchanaburi, SuphaDburi and Petchburi.

The Study As a people, the Karen have interesting cultural traditions.. Some of these traditions are not unlike those of other peoples of Southeast Asia. To mention only the most telling ones for example, the Karen te?prs is very close to Thai "Kumaan th:>:>lJ" nJJ1'l''YlD-1* 1; the Karen tiger-bride story has some inkling resemblance to Thai "sya ' samiiJ" Lins~,*3; and their concept that "bad luck" ca~ be chaQged is like the concept of the Thai "sada? khr5?" s:Lt~1:Ln1::~. *l

Thai worde il;l this study IUCJ written aocording t tho tranalitoratiA 11ystero. used in Ha"Li' Thai-English Student's Dictionar1 (l964) Karen data are from the author's field-notes which will be published.in the form of Sgaw Karen-Thai Dictionary and Thai-Sgaw Karen Dictionary, (forthcoming).

*2 nJJ1'f'rl£1a is the spirit of a male infant whose mother died before it was born. To make this

•

spirit, fl8J1'7f!£1a, the baby is taken out af its dead mother's womb while a magical ceremony is porfor.;ed, After tho oerii'PIllY tho ehild-spi:rit becomes pow~rful and half to act on every wi11h of its master, the performer of that ceremony. It is believed that the spirit will be most powerful if it is the master's son. The magical ceremony to make fli111'Yl£1a is described .

. . .

elaborately in a popular Thai work of lirerature "Khll.n Chaa9 Khun Phesn" ~

'

'2J",f-'-"!l"LLN"

*3 Lftilft~-1 is the spirit of an old man-eating tiger. It can change its appearance from man to tiger/from tiger to man at will. In the Thai version of the legend, this tiger runs with its victims' corpses usually on its back. In the Karen version, in the human-maiden form, it kills the man by alluring him to its enchanting female body. Its appearance can be changed from beautiful maiden into an old tiger by walking around a termite hill.

··:

3

A PROLEGOMENA ON TRADITIONAL _WlSDOM IN KAREN FOLKLORE

Some of the Karen beliefs are, aocording to our present knowledge, unique to this people such as the belief that every man predetermines his own life~span by telling the number of years he wants to live .on this earth to mhcakhlej the reoord·keeper, before he enters this life. This belief together with other traditional beliefs might seem nonsense to our modern mind. But it is to be noted that despite the change of time the tradition is still a living and dynamic force governing the behaviour, speech and way of thinking of the Karen living in modern time as in the past. With limited space it is impossible to present all these traditional lore in this paper. Besides, there is a problem of categorizing the materials collected. In this oase we need help from folklorists who have been working on Southeast Asian folklores to set up a universal (or at least Southeast Asian) categorization for the presentation of all these traditional wisdom. A Working Group is needed for the setting up of the categorization of recurring themes which crop up now and then in the investigation of folklores of different tribes. For folktales, good work was done by thompson (1955-58). But for other aspects of culture we are still in need of a workable framework. Hence in the study of proverbs, traditional beliefs, superstitions, folk-medicine, manners and bodymannerism, customs and traditional entertainments etc., we have to use a descriptive approach method to describe as accurately as possible what is discovered in the fielddata. In the description some comparisons, such as between Thai and Karen proverbs, can be made, This is all we can do at the moment. In the following part of the study we are attempting to present some examples of the Karen traditional wisdom and will wait for further research to suggest ways to use these data to shed more light on the comparative study of Southeast Asian folklore in general.

ta

Provesbs and Sayings : ka?todo Being a poetic people who like to use vivid and figurative metaphor, Karen speech is full of proverbs and good old-sayings, both of which have the same name in Karen "ta ka?rodo". While some of these proverbs have their counterparts in Thai which will be shqwn in (1)~(4), some are unique to the Karen at our present knowledge (we have not yet the means.to investigate whether the latter oocur in other minority languages in Burma such as the Chin, the Palaung etc. or not). (1)

Khe tiger

?a?

rno

its

mother

ki? striped

?a? its

pho children

ro red

'Being tiger whose mother is striped, the litters cannot be otherwise but russet' The colitexts where this proverb is mostly used are for example: to criticize the subordinates whose chief is a do-no-good man, or to praise the descendants of an able man. This ta ka?todo has similar meaning in Thai saying "chya maj thfg thew" L:a\~~.:ILU'I')

Suriya Ratanakul

4

.or "Like father, like son" in English. However, a difference is to be made, while the English and the Thai ~ayings specifically refer to children in relation to their fathers or ancestors, the Karen saying is more general in its application. (2)

wa bamboo

la? at

?a?

k3ph:>?, internode

its

pa man

la? at

?a? his.

sa? heart

Even the same stem of bamboo can have different colours on its different. nodes, men can have different opinions'. This ta ka?toko is like Thai "phaj jalJ taaiJ ploiJ, phii n5:>IJ jaiJ taaiJ caj' 'l,4;,~,,1l;a, .W,ra_,;,~,,'l.~. The same remark can be made as in (1). The Thai application is more appropriate for the comparison of the difference of opinions among siblings whereas the Karen application is more general. (3)

iiacha catfish

ta? one

bo classifier

iiacha catfish

?'i?

ne obtain

?a?

rom:> friend

bad

its

ro• red d:> m:> container made of bamboo node all

'If one catfish in the container is a red catfish, then all of its friends in the same container are poisonous'.

In the Karen belief a red catfish has very potent poison that

can contaminate other fish in the same container. Thus if a fish trap catches one red catfish, the traditional wisdom demands that, as we should not take an unnecessary risk of being poisoned, all other caught fish must be thrown away. is seen in other cases as well.

This way of thinking

For example in mushroom-gathering, the Karen will not

gather edible mushrooms if they see a poisonous one in the proximity of these mushrooms. One should notice also that this ta ke?todo has rhyming element at the end of each stanza (ro and mo), thus making it melodious and easily memorable. This Karen proverb is used to remind us of the necessity for self-preservation and is also used in the same meaning as in the Thai counterpart "plaa tua diaw naw, naw thalJ · khoiJ" t.l"1911L;!I1L'Ii1 L,.L,.rf.,,;£1,", comparing that one bad chap in the company makes everyone infamous. The Lawa also have a proverb on this theme. (4)

cho hen

pho children

?o? v.to be

cl? hand

nesa? center of the palm or sole

pu inside

'The chicken in the palm of your hand (you can squeeze it or release it, up to your mercy)'. This ta ka?todo resembles the Thai "lOuk kaj naj kam myy" "n'lri

'l.~rh~o.

.

A PROLEGOMENA ON TRADITIONAL WISDOM IN KAREN FOLKLORE

5

Some taka? todo are unique to the Karen. Most of the wisdom comes from the Karen's close observation of nature around them in the forest. The town people cannot have time to see the beauty of ants' eggs nor to observe the mannerism of big fish seeking for their prey as can be seen in (5) and (6). (5)

ta ant pa man

re Ia? good,beautiful when re 1~? good,beautiful when

?a? it ?a? he

di? egg pho child

'Ants are good only when they are in the egg. human-beings are beautiful only in their youth." To understand this saying, a knowledge of the Karen life is needed. As toilers of the land, the Karen detest ants because the latter, bother them while they are working and destroy their crops especially their favourite chilly plants whose young leaves are also ants' favourite. However, the Karen love to eat ants' eggs, so an ant's nest full of eggs is beautiful/good in the Karen's eyes. The Karen value youth because this period of life passes them so fast--being hard workers in the field without the help of modern technology, they age prematurely. (6) fia do? ?o? ?a? cha thi di big eat its prey water muddy, unclear fish 'The big fish can prey only when the water is muddy (otherwise the small fish see it coming)' The Karen observe that .when a big fish preys, it stirs up its body to make the surrounding water muddy which will prevent it being seen by its prey, the small fish. This ta ka?todo is very popular and is used in everyday speech. When a clever man tries to fool his neighbour, he likes to talk about big things such as the law, the rules etc., his neighbour can evade the trap by·citing this "iia do? .....•..". Then he will understand immediately that his neighbour refuses to be fooled. Traditional Beliefs The topic is undoubtedly an all-enbracing subject. As to how many sub-categorizations under this topic should be formed for the benefits of the study of Southeast Asian folklore should be determined by the mentioned Working Group. The subject can cover from religiously significant beliefs concerning with the hierarchy of deities and cosmology to ordinary and unimportant beliefs such as the belief that toad is a bad omen. In this paper, only 3 kinds of beliefs will be discussed. A. Prediction based on physical characteristics (mnt, Yh1.L1uan:ttm::). The . a Karen are keen at making physical observation on physical characteristics of both living beings (e.g. human and animal) and inanimate objects (e.g. house, knife etc.). These observations are used to tell them whether the objects seen are good or bad.

Suriya Ratanakul

6

Some 'Of these beliefs aetlm nonllense to the mind of modern read~ts. However, some of thorn reveal the ability of thcs Karen ~o make a penetrating observation on nature 1 {e.g. in (7)) and human psychology (e.g. in (8) ). . (7)

th5? pig

?a? its

ka? shut

me tail

kte. door

ta negative particle

good

negative particle

'Pig with drooping tail is not good'. As keen observer of nature, the Karen know that animals with drooping tail (called in Karen idiom "shut-door tail") are weak animals. They make furtheJi' notice that in a brood of puppies or piglets, there will be one which they call "l:>me" meaning "the weakest one of the brood". -Neither in :English nor Thai, do we have such a word. These l:>me animals usually have drooping tail. To test the truth of this Karen traditional wisdom. please observe when your dog has a now brood.

(8)

xt?

la? knife which

kta

?a? its

beautiful

very

ba

tni'l mata work neg.part pleasant, neg.part to have fun

'Too beautiful kni(e cannot work well' The Karen believes that utility tools such as a knife. a hoe have minds of their own. lf they are too beautiful, they might Thus when a Karen blacksmith refuse to work hard lest their beauty will diSappear. makes these tools, he will leave a tiny imperfection on each of them so that the tools will not be vain of their beauty. There is wisdom in this so~called nonsense. Man usually loves his beautiful tool so much that he might not use it in its full capacity as seen in the care and concern of a young tnan given to his first brand-new car. Realizing that if a Karen has a beautiful tool he might work less, the Karen blacksmith therefore will not make an artistically beautiful knife for a worker. This observation on the knife in (8) ..:xe? "'a? Te kla mata t~ mY? ba'' can be used as a saying ka1todo (see supra.). When used as a ta ka'Jtodo, it is used in a situation snch as to refuse to employ a too good-looking or too well-dressed man as a labourer.

ta

(9)

mer:> ke? ?a? red mole v.to be one's

khi? bad characteristics

'Red moles (on the skin) are bad sign.' With our knowledge of modem medicine this observation seems nonsense to our modem mind. But one should not forget that modem medicine also warns us that there is a possible link between unusual moles with the aigo. of newly developed oao.cor.

A PROLEGOMENA ON TRJU)l'l'JONJU. WlSDOM IN KAREN FOLKLORE

7

B. The Karen concept of ''weird wicked" behaviours : kachu There is no single English word equivalent to the Karen term k5chu. The idea refers to an unusually weird wicked behaviour or an unnecessarily cruel act (the French "crime gratgit") such as the sadist's cruel acts. The Karen believe that k'flchu brin~s bad fortune both to the doer and to his village, It is evident that such belief bas praamatic value: it brings peace and harmony into Karliln 'ociety. Moreover, this concept of k~chu protects not only human but also animals and nature, as in (11) and (12), from exploitation by the cruel acts of man. k?Jchu is therefore a really modem concept. Examples of k'!Jchu behaviours which are censured in Karen society are as follows: ne ba k!lcbu chota (10) able neg.part to swear neg. part "One cannot use a swear word, to swear is a k?Jchll.

Politenes11 and harmony

in human relation11hip is valued in Karen society so much that even abusive languagt such as to swear at one another is considered a k?Jchu and is not permitted.

Je? shw~ ?afJ pu kochu Iophla? at crab its hole thunderbolt 'To put rattan in the crab's bole (an unnecessarily cruel act to the crab) is k?Jchu. the sinner will be struck by lightning,

(11)

(12)

tel:> sule to put one kind of rattan

ma pbra molf? to separate monkey da ?a? prapa with its forest

pho obild

da with

?a many

?a? its

mo mother

ma

pbra to separate

tree

k~chu

'To separate the little monkey from its mother, to fell too many trees in the forest is k'flchu'. la? taphoxa Ia' (13) ka? thi ba? ?a na I a? thi at water many animal to trap touch, fish at water finish obtain ?o? taphoxa la? prapu ?a , prapu ?a? xo ~? forest it deserted. at forest many animal hunt eat 11ninbabited kakra? sa? heart lonely and nostal~io

'To trap too many water-animala, the supply of fish will finish; to b\lJlt too much, the forest will be empty, a lonely and nostalgic feeling for (our) heart•.

Suriya Ratanakul

8

We may conclude th~t the Karen are non-acquisitive people without "capitalist spirit"·. They are not driven by the desire to acc1,1mulate wealth and in so far as environment and natural resources are concerned they are less violently exploitative and destructive. For the Karen the natural world ·and all its resources including animals are not to be exploited to satisfy man's greedy desires. To use any material resources heedlessly or wastefully would be morally wrong or a k3chu. Trees should be felled down only if they are needed, and only with the greatest care and the most meticulou~ conceen for conservation. This non-exploitative attitude is also seen in the . case of killing animals*4

C. the Karen concept of unhealthy food Folk-medicine in many tribes around the world prohibit some specific kinds of food during a specific illness. Thai word for this concept is "salse:o" U.ft\11~. In modern western medicine, there is no longer such concept. · However, the prohibition of taking some kinds of food is still practiced as a means to ·prevent illness. (i.e. te> abstain from sea-food in allergic patients). Examples of such belief among the Karen are as follow: (14)

?'J? eat ?a? his

fia fish lo body

thu ta ba? 1-:J da a kind of mackerel neg.part appropriate with with sa?. ba itch neg. part.

'To eat mackerel (Scrombridae) is unhealthy if our body is itching (an allergic case)'. ba? appropriate

(15)

S'J . ?'J? ch'J di? pho chf? ta child small new eat hen egg neg. part. l'J? ba with neg. part. •A new mother shoUld not eat eggs'

(16)

tach1 te ba? 1-:J? tapul5 ba aoid things neg. part. appropriate with wound . neg. part. I)

'One who has wounds should not eat acid things'.

Reflections on Life, Huma1.1 Frailty and Death Traditional Karen religion was already discussed in Keyes (1977 : 52-54). Our findings agree with his study and supplement it with more details. One can see the Karen's attitudes towards life and death through the study of their myth and folklores. *4 When one of my Karen informant~ saw my cook-book with many pictures of preserved meat he remarked that the preservation of meat was a k'3chu and for explanation cited (13) to mean "You should not hunt for too much meat, the forest will be empty." Usually the Karen eat game meat only once in a wbile and they eat it with thrift. ·

A PROLEGOMENA ON TRADITIONAL WISDOM IN KAREN FOLKLORE

9

For example in a cosmogonic myth, we are told, Swa is the Divine Power, the Great Lord who created nature, the earth, the sky, water and wind. He also created the first man and the first woman whose seven offspring were ancestors of the world's major ethnic tribes of which the Karen were the eldest son. Then one day Swa, their Father, distributed books of wisdom to all these seven sons. The six elder sons were preoccupied with work in the field so much that they were not interested in their Father's gift. Only the youngest son paid much attention to it and thus became literate and wise.* 5 From this myth the Karen like to cite a popular saying praising the wisdom of the youngest child of a family as in (17) (17)

tho ?a? bird it

:wsk6? eldest

pho ?a? child it

shTa clever

tho bird

ta shTa not clever

pho sa?da. child youngest in the family

'The eldest bird is not clever, the youngest child is the cleverest'. Since all men are children of the same parents they cannot fundamentally differ from each other except in normative ways. For the Karen man is born as a part of the natural world and is therefore subject to the same law governing trees and animals. We are the same as trees, we are born, we grow old and we die as a tree or animal does. For the unpleasant fact of life the Karen explain in the myth of Mak:Jll, the Mistress of the Great Lord Swa.* 6 The Karen regards misfortune, hardship and illness as common aspects of life shared by all men. Even if the Great Lord Swa was their creator, the Karen do not *S The fact that this myth was used by the American Baptist missionaries for the benefits of spreading Christianity among the Karen was mentioned both in Keyes (1977: 52) and in Ratanakul (1978). These missionaries identified themselves with the youngest brother in the cosmogonic D:lYth coming to help their elder brother, the Karen, by bringing theD:l the book (the Now Testament) so that the latter could be literate and wise. *6 In the ll)yth Mak:Jtl is the Divinity Evil who enjoyed D:laking man suffer. The relationship between Swa and Mak:J/l is described as sima (D:listress). However, the Karen sima has a stronger connotation of sexual misbehaviour than the English word. It is to be noted that the myth does not give any account of Swa's Ia wful wife. Even her name is omitted. One can speculate that the relationship between Swa and M'!Jk;,/l is used in the myth to suggest human weakness which mythically stemmed from his Creator. The American missionaries equated Mak:Jii to Satan. This comparison is easily acceptable to the Karen because in their legends there are so many stories concerning tho evil acts of Mak:Jtl, for example, she made life unnecessarily difficult for man by creating plants with thorns as his obstacles and poisonous fruits as his food.

10

i·

Suriya Ratanakul

turn to Him for protection.*' On· the contrary they will seek help from spirits instead. The misfortune and suffering which the Karen often encounter in their life in the forests or on the hills does not make the Karen adopt a pessimistic attitud~ toward life. For them life is to be lived as fully as one can. One must accept the inevitable happenings in life with stiff-upper-lip and not :fight against them, as advised in (19) by the Wise Rabbit in a Karen popular folktale: Chi?ri da Swa taka?no cbs? with engage in a wrestling match push against ko · Ia? kho hi? one another at ~he Salawin river .at the Maekhong river Chi?Ti and Swa, wrestling with one another in a drawnmatch, got stuck one against another at the area between the Salawin river and the Maekhong river.' 19} ma me*B pazo•ll }:>shwi when. if dragon following the course of a stream Ia ma· me sepbu tha si? thi water when if at a big trunk of tree to go up in the direction of thi khi water tail (18}

· 'If (and only if} you can make a dragon follow the course of a stream, then you can make a big trunk of tree go up against the direction of the current' meaning •you cannot go against destiny'. Stoic acceptance of destiny and accommodation of oneself to that destiny are the chief characteristics of the Karen's philosophy of life.*IO This philosophy seems to be the result of the Karen's belief in their free choice of life* 11. Similarly death should *7 This is because the Karen do not regard s·wa as Almighty God and thai the Baptist missionaries identification of Swa ·with the Christian God is not accurate. In the Karen myth even Miik:Jii, His Mistress, could resist His power. In another myth S~a is also powerless against Chi?ri, the God of the Land.of the.Del!d, and hes to fight an endless batt)~ with this equally powerful god, as accounted in a Karen populer song (18) *8 me, a Karen copulative verb can be used in place of the conjunction "if" in a conditional proposition because the Karen language lacks the conjunction "if". This grammatical point is discussed in detail in my other paper (Ratanakul: 1982 b.). *9 p9zo is a legendary animal much· like the Westem mythological dragon. The Karen dragon is said to detest water so much that it. rarely enters water. When it goes into water, it w'ill swim only against the current. *10 For the Karen suicide is not a sensible solution to life's problema. Those who commit suicide will be severely punished after death-- to commit suicide in every future life. *11 In one Karen myth it is said that every man chooses the length of his life· span by telling Mlxakhi'B, the Record-Keeper, the number of years he wants his life to.last, Mlxakhl'a is· acting only as a recorder of man's choice and has no power to change man's decision.

A PROLEGOMENA ON TRADITIONAL WISDOM IN KAREN FOLKLORE

11

be accepted without grief or lamentation, for, as the Karen consoles the relatives of an untimely death of a man in (20) (20)

ra

pa

ta?

ra

d5?

man

one

classifier for man

try and see one

pha?

h.s come

classifier

mixakhle

make a rendez-vous

df?s5?

ta? ta

neg. part.

lo?sa?

resemble, to be like

neg. part.

one another

'Each one made (a separate choice of) rendez-vous with mixakhla, (so) the span of life of each one is different'.

Traditional entertainments : songs and riddles The form and content of Karen songs were already discussed in my other paper (Ratanakul 1978). Here it is to be noted that the Karen are people wtih poetic and musical ability. In a Karen village one usually finds a poet, mochO?, who is not only well versed in traditional songs but also capable of composing new songs for ~ew situations. Some of these now songs show the novelty and exceptional ability of their composer to write songs with combination of Karen and Thai words*I 2 It is a curious and little known fact that most of the Karen songs are sung at funerals (Ratanakul : 1978). Beside funerals, songs are sung on other occasions as well, e.g. the building of new houses, house-warming ceremony. Apart from songs, another means of entertainment for the Karen is riddle solving. Riddles, phi?prota, are usually used to test the wit of one another. The study of the ph1?prota will reveal both the interest of the Karen and their mode of living. The following phi?prota from (21) ~o (25) are some of the commonly known riddles: (21)

ta thing

chf?k.s small

ma make

ho cry

·'One small thing that makes one's child cry'. ~

?a? one's

pho child

The answer is chilly.

d

~

~

d

~

~

thing

climb up

tree

thing

carry

big bronze drum

'One who climbs up tree while carrying a bronze drum? The answer is a snail. *12 These "new" songs may be regarded as an example of the Karen ability for cultural adaptation to Thai culture without the loss of their cultural identity.

Suriya Ratanakul

12

(23).

sa?

three

tree

ta? c:>wa? c5 thu classifier for tree black-bird to perce one

be? classifier for birds 'Three trees that one black-bird perches on'. place made of three rocks.

(24)

pa

dopiwe

khi

man

relatives

two

bl:>

The answer is a traditional fire-

ra classifier for man ?a? 1:>? ms?

th:>bo

its

always

to pass moving in an opposite direction each other

face

'Two brothers who always pass one another in an opposite direction'. The answer is (man's two)' feet. (25)

at

tho

ta?

be?

bird

one

classifier for bird to fly at

?a?

no?·

its

beak

ZU

'The bird that flies with its wings (but) perches with its beak'. an arrow.

wings to perch

The answer is

Conclusion and Suggestion The material discussed represents only a small part of the Karen's dynamic culture. Karen folklore is not a mere collection of stories and tales for ent~rtainment. Rather it consists of traditional wisdom and world-views expressed in various forms. One cannot really understand the Karen without knowledge of their lore. The author contends that there are similarities and differences between Karen folklore and that of other ethnic groups in Southeast Asia which merits further research. An association of Southeast Asia folklorists is needed to stimulate and consolidate investigations of the lore and culture of ethnic groups in this region. Research findings should be widely disseminated as a means of promoting an understanding and respect for cultural rights of ethnic groups in Southeast Asia, and improving intergroup understanding, The author hopes that an association of folklorists could contribute, through its research and publication, to the easing of conflicts and tensions between minority groups and the dominant societies and makes Southeast Asia a land of peace and tolerance in this troubled world.

A PROLEGOMENA ON TRADITIONAL WISDOM IN KAREN FOLKLORE

13

REFERENCES Benedict, PaulK., (1972) Sino-Tibetan, A Conspectus, Cambridge, at the University Press. 230 pp. Haas, Mary R., (1964) Thai-English Student's Dictionary, Stanford University Press. Keyes, Charles F., (1977) The Golden Peninsula: Culture and Adaptation in Mainland Southeast Asia, Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 370 pp. Ratanakul, Suriya (1978) "Karen songs" • paper presented to Mahidol University Annual Conference on "The Studies and Researches on Languages in Thailand", February 23-24, 1978. This paper was later published in Journal of Language and Culture, Mahidol University, vol. 1, 1981, no. I, p. 61-107 (in Thai). Ratanakul, Suriya (1982 b.) "Three Copulative Verbs in Sgaw Karen", paper presented to the Sino-Tibetan Linguistics Working Group in the Xlllth International Congress of Linguists Tokyo, Japan. August 29cSeptember 4, 1982. Shafer, Robert, (1955) in WORD: 94-111. Thompson, S., (1955-58) Motif-Index of Folk-literature. A Classification of Narrative Elements in Folktales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, JestBooks and Lokal Legends. Revised and Enlarged Edition. 1-6. Copenhagen and Bloomington, Indiana.

fi

WHY WERE THE JATAKAS "HIDDEN AWAY" AT WAT SiCHUM? BETTY GOSLING

When Lucien Foumereau visited Sukhothai in the early 1890s, a source of joy and amazement was the collection of stone engravings depicting scenes from the Jatakas that he discovered at Wat Si Chum. Lodged in a narrow tunnel-1ike stairwell only a couple of feet wide that had been built into the thick walls of the monastery's mondop, or image bouse, the Jataka plaques, as they remain today, were all but inaccessible. Foumereau described the apprehension with which be crawled into the small opening that appeared to have been knocked haphazardly into the wall just south of the grandiose entryway that led to the shrine proper. He documented his excitement at catching glimpses of the engravings that lined the unlit ceiling of the . ..boyaux mysterieux." And be reported a sigh of relief when he finally emerged at the end of his arduous intramural journey at the summit of the monument.l Why was the dark stairway constructed, and why were the Jatakas so obscurely placed? Now, almost a century after Fournereau's exploration, the Si Chum mondop and its Jataka plaques remain something of a mystery. At" Pagan, monuments· with stairways embedded within exceptionally thick walls are not uncommon, but in the Pagan m·onuments there is some logical architectural relationship between the stairways and the interiors and exteriors of the monuments that is not evident at Si Chum. There are several terra cotta collections at Pagan depicting the entire 547 or 550 J'iitakas (depending on the recension), butthey were placed conspicuously on the exteriors of monuments to edify a populace only minimally familiar with the teachings of the Tberavada texts.2 As in India, the an~ient folk tales that bad been retold and incorporated into the Buddhist canon as stories of the Buddha's previous lives served to link popular thought with more sophisticated reJigious tenets. But the inaccessibility of the Si Chum J'iitakas belies any such traditional intent. In 1924 George Coedes suggested that the plaques perhaps had been lodged in the Sl Chum stairwell for safekeeping following some unknown catastrophe. 3 The 1. Lucien Fournereau, Le Siam Ancien, part 2, Annales du Musee Gulmet 31 (Paris, 1907), pp. 4-6. 2. Gordon H. Luce, Old Burma-Early Pagan, vol. I~ Artibus Asiae, Supplementum 25 (Locust Valley, New York), pp. 40, 61, 62, 241, 242, passim. 3. George Coedes, Recueil des inscriptions du Siam, vol. 1, Inscriptions de Sukhodaya (Bangkok. 1924), p. 177.

WHY WERE THE JATAKAS "HIDDEN AWAY"

15

Jatakas are incomplete...,. only the first one hundred or so are depicted, and the last of these are executed with fewer details and less precision than the early ones. Some sort of political threat might be suggested as a reason. But the plaques are fitted into the stairwell in such a way that they could not have been added after the completion of the building. 4 The huge mondop does not suggest itself as an emergency measure. But it is generally agreed, on the other hand, that, although the mondop must· have been constructed to house the plaques, they had probably been originally intended for another site.5 Although each plaque is numbered according to its position in the Pali canon, tbis ordering is not always followed.6 Moreover, the overhead positioning of the plaques makes the numbers, as well as their accompanying inscriptions, illegible· under normal circumstances, suggesting that the identifications were no longer attributed their former significance. Inscriptional and archaeological data provide some clues as to the plaques' original provenance. Coedes suggested that the Jarakas were those which Inscription 2 states surrounded a large, tall chedi, 7 now identified as the Mahathat, Sukhothai's most important religious monument, located at the center of the city. 8 Not only is this the only inscriptional evidence of Jarc.ka engravings at Sukhothai, but the stone engravings are the only extant examples to which the inscriptional passage could apply. In 1981 I was able to demonstrate that if the Pali text numbering was followedrather than the sequence of the plaques as placed at Si Chum- the plaques could be arranged to form a four-foot high panel, rather than the long 17-inch, one-panel wide arrangement one finds in the mondop.9 I have also recently suggested that prior to the renovations at Wat Mahathiit around 1330 and 1345, the core of the chedi had been a simple step pyramid of five stages similar to four other step pyramids that can be found at Sukhothai. A feature common to the four pyramids whose bases can still be seen (the base ofthe Mahathiit pyramid is now surrounded by galleries) is the four-foot height of the bottom story.•o Putting inscriptional and archaeological evidence 4. Jean Boisselier, Thai Painting {Tokyo, 1976), pp. 75, 168, 169. 5. A.B. Griswold, Towards a History of Sukhodaya Art (Bangkok, 1967). pp, 27, 49. M.C. Subhadradis Diskul, Sukhothai Art (Bangkok, n.d.), p. 79. It is Boisselier's opinion that the plaques were executed for the Si Chum location (Thai Painting, p. 75). 6. Boisselier, Thai Painting, p. 75. 7. Coedes. Recuell, p. 177. 8. See Betty Gosling, "Once More, Inscription 2: An Art Historian's View." JSS 69. 1-2 (1981) : 13-42. 9. Ibid, pp. 30, 31. 10. Elizabeth Gosling, "The History of Sukhothai as a Ceremonial Center: A Study of Early Siamese Architecture and Society," University of Michigan Ph.D. dissertation {1983), pp. 211-26.

16

Betty Gosling

together, I would suggest that Coed~s's theory is correct and that the Jatakas might possibly have adorned the bottom story of the Mahiithat pyramidal base. Inscription 2 tells us furthermorC? that when the renovator of the Mahiithat, the monk Si Satbii, returned from a lengthy journey to Sri Lanka around 1345 with relics for the Mabathat, it was falling into ruin and that it required extensive repairs.ll Apparently, the project which SI Sathii appears to have begun around 1330 had come to nought in his absence, and it can be hypothesized that the Jatakas, like the monu-. ment itself, bad either been ruined or left uncompleted. If, as SI Satha states in Inscription 2,12 he completed the stupa with stucco and brick (around 1.345), the stone engravings may well have been omitted from this stage of reconstruction. But before we continue with this line of thought, it must be mentioned that our theory demands a slight re-dating of the Jataka engravings.· Boisselier, basing his conclusions on comparisons of the figures in the engravings with Sukhothai's "high classic" sculpture, usually dated (correctly, I think), to the latter half of the fourteenth century, suggested the J'lltaka figures as prototypes and dated them accordingly the Luthai reign (1349-c. 1370).13 Our proposed date of c. 1330, although somewhat earlier than Boisselier's date, does not alter the chronological relation to later sculpture. The use of stucco architectural decor, which appears to have become the norm in the 1330s, 1340s, and 1350s,l4 suggests in itself that perhaps the stone engravings derive from a somewhat different period.

to

But even if one accepts these arguments, it -is still necessary to explain why, even when renovations of the Mahathiit resumed around 134_5, the plaques were nc;>t repaired, completed, and installed, if not on the Mahiithat itself, on some other monument in the large Mahathiit compound. The Jlitakas' removal from the most conspicuous site in the city to a place of obscurity requires some explanation other than a simple change in architectural plans. The inscriptional evidence is not helpful, for the passage concerning the Jatakas is mutilated. Mr. A. B. Griswold and Dr. Prasert ~a Nagara have filled in the lacunae to read that the plaques "were pried loose by foolish men to get gold, and ruined." The translators state, however, that their interpretation is highly conjectural.lS 11. Lines 2.18-20. A.B. Griswold and Prasert na Nagara, "Epigraphic and Historical Studies, No. 10 : King Lodaiya of Sukhodaya and His Contemporaries," JSS 60.1 (1972): 100, 120-1. 12. Lines 2.20-40. Ibid., pp. 100-102, 120-25. 13. Boisselier, Thai Painting, p. 75. 14. Gosling, ''Sukhothai," pp. 184-85. 15. Griswold and Prasert, "Studies, 10," p. 125.

WHY WERE THE JATAKAS ''IDDDEN AWAY"

17

It is my opinion· that the answer to the Sl Chum riddle is reflected, at least in part, in the religious attitudes of some Thai Buddhists in much more recent times. Prince Damrong reported that King Rama III disapproved of depictions of the Jatakas because he considered that portrayal of the Buddha in the form of spirits, animals, and persons was not appropriate.I6 Gerini explained that although the Jatakas had been incorporated into the Buddhist texts in early times, the modern school of Buddhism, particularly the Siamese Orthodox. School, questioned and even denied the canonicity of the stories. This school reasoned that the Buddha himself did not discourse much on himself, and previous lives such as those found in the Jatakas are not referred to in other orthodox texts." Over the centuries, with only few exceptions, it has been tniditional in Thailand to depict only the last ten of the Jatakas (the Tosachat), with emphasis on the last of these, the Vessantara JO.taka (the Mahachat, or Great Life), valued especially for its spiritual and moral values. IS (The most notable exception: the set of 500 statues, one for each Jataka, which were cast in 1458. Only a few, in ruinous condition, have survived.)l!l It would be unreasonable to project these modern-day attitudes back to the Sukhothai period without some supporting evidence, but although information is scarce, As in later times, it appears that by the latter half of a few analogies can be drawn. the fourteenth century, the. Tosachat and the Mahachat had been singled out as important texts. 20 After the 1345 reference to the Jataka plaques around the chedi, there is no further mention of the 500 Jatakas as a complete set.

Furthermore, recent architectural studies have indicated that the installation of relics at Wat Mahiithat around 1345 marked something of a watershed in the construction of Buddhist monuments at Sukhothai. Between the Ram Khamhieng period, at the end of the thirteenth century, and the mid-fourteenth century, little architectural· construction appears to have taken place.21 The ruined state of the Mahithit in the 1340s appears to reflect the religious climate of the times. But the installation of authentic relics from Sri Lanka seems to have inaugurated a new wave of Buddhist activity, evidenced not only in the fervent Liithai inscriptions22 but in an-inordinate 16. · Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, Monuments of the Buddha in Siam, second edition (Bangkok, 1973), p. 35. 17. G.E. Gerini, A Retrospective View and Account of the Origin of the Thet Mahft Ch'at Ceremony, second edition (Bangkok, 1976), p. 53. 18. Elizabeth Lyons, The Tasachat in Thai Painting {Bangkok, 1963), p. 5. · 19. Boisselier, Thai Sculpture (New York, 1975), p. 176. 20. Inscription 102.1.35. Griswold and Prasert "Studies, 7," JSS 59.1 (1971) : 166, 169. Inscription 3.1.37. Griswold and Prasert, "Studies, 11," JSS 61.1 (1973) : 88; 99. 21. Gosling, "Sukhothai," pp. 177-85. 22. Griswold and Prasert, "Studies, 11," JSS 61.1 (1973): 71-178.

18

Betty Gosling

amount of architectural construction, increasing as the century progressed.23 What is significant for the present discussion is that the period between the execution of the Jataka plaques and their installation in the Si Chum mondop spans the 1345 watershed. Putting these diverse scraps of information together, we would suggest that whereas the Jatakas would have served ~ell to bridge popular b.elief and the higher tenets of Theravada Buddhism in the first half of the fourteenth century, they may no longer have been considered the best means of incorporating the old traditions during the latter half of the century, when Theravada orthodoxy was more securely established. We have written elsewhere of the comparatively provincial state of affairs during the Ram Khamhaeng period.2 4 The importance of animism as a major component of the state religion is documented in Inscription 1.2 5 In our opinion, the Jot aka plaques, often depicting the Buddha in the guise of an animal or an animistic spirit, bore rele.., vance to the Mahithit Ch'edi in the early periods of Sukhothai's history that would not apply in the years of strict orthodoxy that were to follow. We propose that in the second half of the fourteenth century, a Jess conspicuous site, the tunnelled stairwell in the Wat Si Chum mondop, would have been considered a more appropriate location. Wi~hout doubt, the colossal seated Buddha image in the central shrine of the SI Chum mondop is the monastery's major focus of devotion. At Wat Mahithat the frieze depicting 168 almost identical monks in the walking mode that no~ surrounds the Chedi recalls, as the Jatakas could not, the journey to Sri Lanka and the installation of the Sinhalese relics. The Jotakas, on the other hand, were preserved at SI Chum, if not for their explicit statements of Buddhist thought, at · least for their sanctity, and perhaps their beauty-attributes for which they are still revered today.

23. Gosling, "Sukhothai," pp. 185-204. 24. Betty Gosling, "Some Thoughts on the Introduction of Theravada Buddhism at Sukhothai," paper presented at the International Congress on Thai Studies, New Delhi, 1981.. 25. Inscription 1.3.6-10. Griswold and Prasert, "Studies, 9," JSS 59.2 (1971): 200, 214.

WHY WERE THE JATAKAS "HIDDEN AWAY" AT WAT SiCHUM? BETTY GOSLING

When Lucien Foumereau visited Sukhothai in the early 1890s, a source of joy and amazement was the collection of stone engravings depicting scenes from the Jatakas that he discovered at Wat Si Chum. Lodged in a narrow tunnel-1ike stairwell only a couple of feet wide that had been built into the thick walls of the monastery's mondop, or image bouse, the Jataka plaques, as they remain today, were all but inaccessible. Foumereau described the apprehension with which be crawled into the small opening that appeared to have been knocked haphazardly into the wall just south of the grandiose entryway that led to the shrine proper. He documented his excitement at catching glimpses of the engravings that lined the unlit ceiling of the . ..boyaux mysterieux." And be reported a sigh of relief when he finally emerged at the end of his arduous intramural journey at the summit of the monument.l Why was the dark stairway constructed, and why were the Jatakas so obscurely placed? Now, almost a century after Fournereau's exploration, the Si Chum mondop and its Jataka plaques remain something of a mystery. At" Pagan, monuments· with stairways embedded within exceptionally thick walls are not uncommon, but in the Pagan m·onuments there is some logical architectural relationship between the stairways and the interiors and exteriors of the monuments that is not evident at Si Chum. There are several terra cotta collections at Pagan depicting the entire 547 or 550 J'iitakas (depending on the recension), butthey were placed conspicuously on the exteriors of monuments to edify a populace only minimally familiar with the teachings of the Tberavada texts.2 As in India, the an~ient folk tales that bad been retold and incorporated into the Buddhist canon as stories of the Buddha's previous lives served to link popular thought with more sophisticated reJigious tenets. But the inaccessibility of the Si Chum J'iitakas belies any such traditional intent. In 1924 George Coedes suggested that the plaques perhaps had been lodged in the Sl Chum stairwell for safekeeping following some unknown catastrophe. 3 The 1. Lucien Fournereau, Le Siam Ancien, part 2, Annales du Musee Gulmet 31 (Paris, 1907), pp. 4-6. 2. Gordon H. Luce, Old Burma-Early Pagan, vol. I~ Artibus Asiae, Supplementum 25 (Locust Valley, New York), pp. 40, 61, 62, 241, 242, passim. 3. George Coedes, Recueil des inscriptions du Siam, vol. 1, Inscriptions de Sukhodaya (Bangkok. 1924), p. 177.

WHY WERE THE JATAKAS "HIDDEN AWAY"

15

Jatakas are incomplete...,. only the first one hundred or so are depicted, and the last of these are executed with fewer details and less precision than the early ones. Some sort of political threat might be suggested as a reason. But the plaques are fitted into the stairwell in such a way that they could not have been added after the completion of the building. 4 The huge mondop does not suggest itself as an emergency measure. But it is generally agreed, on the other hand, that, although the mondop must· have been constructed to house the plaques, they had probably been originally intended for another site.5 Although each plaque is numbered according to its position in the Pali canon, tbis ordering is not always followed.6 Moreover, the overhead positioning of the plaques makes the numbers, as well as their accompanying inscriptions, illegible· under normal circumstances, suggesting that the identifications were no longer attributed their former significance. Inscriptional and archaeological data provide some clues as to the plaques' original provenance. Coedes suggested that the Jarakas were those which Inscription 2 states surrounded a large, tall chedi, 7 now identified as the Mahathat, Sukhothai's most important religious monument, located at the center of the city. 8 Not only is this the only inscriptional evidence of Jarc.ka engravings at Sukhothai, but the stone engravings are the only extant examples to which the inscriptional passage could apply. In 1981 I was able to demonstrate that if the Pali text numbering was followedrather than the sequence of the plaques as placed at Si Chum- the plaques could be arranged to form a four-foot high panel, rather than the long 17-inch, one-panel wide arrangement one finds in the mondop.9 I have also recently suggested that prior to the renovations at Wat Mahathiit around 1330 and 1345, the core of the chedi had been a simple step pyramid of five stages similar to four other step pyramids that can be found at Sukhothai. A feature common to the four pyramids whose bases can still be seen (the base ofthe Mahathiit pyramid is now surrounded by galleries) is the four-foot height of the bottom story.•o Putting inscriptional and archaeological evidence 4. Jean Boisselier, Thai Painting {Tokyo, 1976), pp. 75, 168, 169. 5. A.B. Griswold, Towards a History of Sukhodaya Art (Bangkok, 1967). pp, 27, 49. M.C. Subhadradis Diskul, Sukhothai Art (Bangkok, n.d.), p. 79. It is Boisselier's opinion that the plaques were executed for the Si Chum location (Thai Painting, p. 75). 6. Boisselier, Thai Painting, p. 75. 7. Coedes. Recuell, p. 177. 8. See Betty Gosling, "Once More, Inscription 2: An Art Historian's View." JSS 69. 1-2 (1981) : 13-42. 9. Ibid, pp. 30, 31. 10. Elizabeth Gosling, "The History of Sukhothai as a Ceremonial Center: A Study of Early Siamese Architecture and Society," University of Michigan Ph.D. dissertation {1983), pp. 211-26.

16

Betty Gosling

together, I would suggest that Coed~s's theory is correct and that the Jatakas might possibly have adorned the bottom story of the Mahiithat pyramidal base. Inscription 2 tells us furthermorC? that when the renovator of the Mahiithat, the monk Si Satbii, returned from a lengthy journey to Sri Lanka around 1345 with relics for the Mabathat, it was falling into ruin and that it required extensive repairs.ll Apparently, the project which SI Sathii appears to have begun around 1330 had come to nought in his absence, and it can be hypothesized that the Jatakas, like the monu-. ment itself, bad either been ruined or left uncompleted. If, as SI Satha states in Inscription 2,12 he completed the stupa with stucco and brick (around 1.345), the stone engravings may well have been omitted from this stage of reconstruction. But before we continue with this line of thought, it must be mentioned that our theory demands a slight re-dating of the Jataka engravings.· Boisselier, basing his conclusions on comparisons of the figures in the engravings with Sukhothai's "high classic" sculpture, usually dated (correctly, I think), to the latter half of the fourteenth century, suggested the J'lltaka figures as prototypes and dated them accordingly the Luthai reign (1349-c. 1370).13 Our proposed date of c. 1330, although somewhat earlier than Boisselier's date, does not alter the chronological relation to later sculpture. The use of stucco architectural decor, which appears to have become the norm in the 1330s, 1340s, and 1350s,l4 suggests in itself that perhaps the stone engravings derive from a somewhat different period.

to

But even if one accepts these arguments, it -is still necessary to explain why, even when renovations of the Mahathiit resumed around 134_5, the plaques were nc;>t repaired, completed, and installed, if not on the Mahiithat itself, on some other monument in the large Mahathiit compound. The Jlitakas' removal from the most conspicuous site in the city to a place of obscurity requires some explanation other than a simple change in architectural plans. The inscriptional evidence is not helpful, for the passage concerning the Jatakas is mutilated. Mr. A. B. Griswold and Dr. Prasert ~a Nagara have filled in the lacunae to read that the plaques "were pried loose by foolish men to get gold, and ruined." The translators state, however, that their interpretation is highly conjectural.lS 11. Lines 2.18-20. A.B. Griswold and Prasert na Nagara, "Epigraphic and Historical Studies, No. 10 : King Lodaiya of Sukhodaya and His Contemporaries," JSS 60.1 (1972): 100, 120-1. 12. Lines 2.20-40. Ibid., pp. 100-102, 120-25. 13. Boisselier, Thai Painting, p. 75. 14. Gosling, ''Sukhothai," pp. 184-85. 15. Griswold and Prasert, "Studies, 10," p. 125.

WHY WERE THE JATAKAS ''IDDDEN AWAY"

17

It is my opinion· that the answer to the Sl Chum riddle is reflected, at least in part, in the religious attitudes of some Thai Buddhists in much more recent times. Prince Damrong reported that King Rama III disapproved of depictions of the Jatakas because he considered that portrayal of the Buddha in the form of spirits, animals, and persons was not appropriate.I6 Gerini explained that although the Jatakas had been incorporated into the Buddhist texts in early times, the modern school of Buddhism, particularly the Siamese Orthodox. School, questioned and even denied the canonicity of the stories. This school reasoned that the Buddha himself did not discourse much on himself, and previous lives such as those found in the Jatakas are not referred to in other orthodox texts." Over the centuries, with only few exceptions, it has been tniditional in Thailand to depict only the last ten of the Jatakas (the Tosachat), with emphasis on the last of these, the Vessantara JO.taka (the Mahachat, or Great Life), valued especially for its spiritual and moral values. IS (The most notable exception: the set of 500 statues, one for each Jataka, which were cast in 1458. Only a few, in ruinous condition, have survived.)l!l It would be unreasonable to project these modern-day attitudes back to the Sukhothai period without some supporting evidence, but although information is scarce, As in later times, it appears that by the latter half of a few analogies can be drawn. the fourteenth century, the. Tosachat and the Mahachat had been singled out as important texts. 20 After the 1345 reference to the Jataka plaques around the chedi, there is no further mention of the 500 Jatakas as a complete set.

Furthermore, recent architectural studies have indicated that the installation of relics at Wat Mahiithat around 1345 marked something of a watershed in the construction of Buddhist monuments at Sukhothai. Between the Ram Khamhieng period, at the end of the thirteenth century, and the mid-fourteenth century, little architectural· construction appears to have taken place.21 The ruined state of the Mahithit in the 1340s appears to reflect the religious climate of the times. But the installation of authentic relics from Sri Lanka seems to have inaugurated a new wave of Buddhist activity, evidenced not only in the fervent Liithai inscriptions22 but in an-inordinate 16. · Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, Monuments of the Buddha in Siam, second edition (Bangkok, 1973), p. 35. 17. G.E. Gerini, A Retrospective View and Account of the Origin of the Thet Mahft Ch'at Ceremony, second edition (Bangkok, 1976), p. 53. 18. Elizabeth Lyons, The Tasachat in Thai Painting {Bangkok, 1963), p. 5. · 19. Boisselier, Thai Sculpture (New York, 1975), p. 176. 20. Inscription 102.1.35. Griswold and Prasert "Studies, 7," JSS 59.1 (1971) : 166, 169. Inscription 3.1.37. Griswold and Prasert, "Studies, 11," JSS 61.1 (1973) : 88; 99. 21. Gosling, "Sukhothai," pp. 177-85. 22. Griswold and Prasert, "Studies, 11," JSS 61.1 (1973): 71-178.

18

Betty Gosling

amount of architectural construction, increasing as the century progressed.23 What is significant for the present discussion is that the period between the execution of the Jataka plaques and their installation in the Si Chum mondop spans the 1345 watershed. Putting these diverse scraps of information together, we would suggest that whereas the Jatakas would have served ~ell to bridge popular b.elief and the higher tenets of Theravada Buddhism in the first half of the fourteenth century, they may no longer have been considered the best means of incorporating the old traditions during the latter half of the century, when Theravada orthodoxy was more securely established. We have written elsewhere of the comparatively provincial state of affairs during the Ram Khamhaeng period.2 4 The importance of animism as a major component of the state religion is documented in Inscription 1.2 5 In our opinion, the Jot aka plaques, often depicting the Buddha in the guise of an animal or an animistic spirit, bore rele.., vance to the Mahithit Ch'edi in the early periods of Sukhothai's history that would not apply in the years of strict orthodoxy that were to follow. We propose that in the second half of the fourteenth century, a Jess conspicuous site, the tunnelled stairwell in the Wat Si Chum mondop, would have been considered a more appropriate location. Wi~hout doubt, the colossal seated Buddha image in the central shrine of the SI Chum mondop is the monastery's major focus of devotion. At Wat Mahithat the frieze depicting 168 almost identical monks in the walking mode that no~ surrounds the Chedi recalls, as the Jatakas could not, the journey to Sri Lanka and the installation of the Sinhalese relics. The Jotakas, on the other hand, were preserved at SI Chum, if not for their explicit statements of Buddhist thought, at · least for their sanctity, and perhaps their beauty-attributes for which they are still revered today.

23. Gosling, "Sukhothai," pp. 185-204. 24. Betty Gosling, "Some Thoughts on the Introduction of Theravada Buddhism at Sukhothai," paper presented at the International Congress on Thai Studies, New Delhi, 1981.. 25. Inscription 1.3.6-10. Griswold and Prasert, "Studies, 9," JSS 59.2 (1971): 200, 214.

LES AMBASSADEURS SIAMOIS A VERSAILLES LE 1er SEPTEMBRE 1686 DANS UN BAS-RELIEF EN BRONZE D' A. COYSEVOX MICHEL JACQ-HERGOUALC'H

Au centre de la place' du Palais, a Rennes, s'elevait autrefois Ia statue equestre de Louis XIV, oeuvre du sculpteur Antoine Coysevox (1640-1720). Les furies iconoclastes de la Revolution de 1789lui porterent un coup fatal comme a beaucoup d'autres oeuvres d'art un peu partout en France. En effet, peu apres l'arrivee a Rennes, en 1792, des commissaires du pouvoir executif, I'oeuvre fut demantelee et, plus tard, envoyee ala fonte, tandis que son piedestal subsistait quelques temps encore. De ce piedestal furent sauves les deux bas-reliefs de bronze qui l'ornaient sur ses deux grands cotes. Ils sont aujourd'hui au Musee des Beaux-Arts de Rennes. L'un represente la France triomphante sur la mer, assise sur un char traine par les tritons,l'autre, qui fait I'objet de cette etude, la presentation au souverain du projet de Coysevox en presence de la cour et des representants des nations etrangeres parmi lesquels on peut reconnaitre les trois ambassadeurs envoyes par le roi de Siam Phra Nara! a Louis XIV en 1686, ambassadeurs qui furent re~usen audience solennelle, le ler septembre de cette meme annee, dans Ia Galerie des Glaces du Chateau de Versailles. Les deux bas-reliefs, qui mesurent 2, 18 m de longueur sur 1,36 m de hauteur, sont de Ia plus belle maniere du maitre qui en re~ut commande officielle, en 1686, des deputes des Etats de Bretagne qui, l'annee precedente, avaient resolu d'elever une statue au roi en laissant celui-ci decider de Ia ville oil elle serait erigee. Louis XIV, consulte, choisit Nantes " .... tant cause du pont oil elle pourra thre mise avec decence, devait-il ecrire, qu'a cause de l'abord considerable de toutes les nations tant par terre que par eau."l

a

1. Lettre de Louis XIV au due de Chaulnes, gouverneur de Bretagne, le 15 aout 1685, citee dans le tome I, page 77, de 1' excellente monographic de Georges Keller- Dorian, A. Coysevox (16401720), catalogue raisonne de son oeuvre •• . , deux tomes aux depens de !'auteur, Paris, 1920; monographic dans laquelle nous puisons les renseignements pratiques concernant cette oeuvre de Coysevox. Precisons que toutes les citations du XVIIe siecle que nous ferons seront restituees. dans l'orthographe actuelle, leur ponctuation parfois modifiee mais que les noms propres conserveront leur orthographe. 19

20

Michel Jacq-Hergoualc'h

a

Ce choix de Nantes comme ville d'accueil de Ia statue fut, !'evidence, determinant pour Coysevox lorsqu'il dessina, modela puis fondit les deux \)as-reliefs, cela aux alentours de l'annee 1691. Rappelons, en effet, que l'une de ces oeuvres evoque allegoriquement le triomphe de Ia France sur les mers avec en arriere-planles remparts d'un port forti:fie qui etait peut-etre Nantes, et que l'autre, celui qui nous occupe, represente, aux dires de Coysevox Iui-meme, dans un memoire date du 21 mai 1692, " .... Ie roi assis dans son trone dans Ia galerie de Versailles, oil il re~oit Ies siamois, indiens et chinois lesquels sont tous envoyes par les cotes de Bretagne, qui les amenent des ~arties les plus eloignees du monde par le commerce des me~s.••l Mais Ia statue, achevee au plus tard au debut de l'annee 1692, ne prit le chemin de Ia Bretagne que le 11 juillet 1715 ce qui ne laisse pas d'etre fort surprenant •... On avait en effet remis en question Ie choix de Nantes, et plusieurs villes se disputaient l'honneur d'accueilJir l'effigie royale, en particulier Rennes qui obtint gain de cause en 1713 mais ne vit cependant s'elever Ia statue sur sa toute nouvelle place du Palais que le 6 juillet 1726. Durant ces Iongues annees l'oeuvre etait demeuree sous Ia garde de Coysevox lui-meme, dans son atelier, oil elle devint peu apeu un objet de curiosite. Germain ·Brice, dans sa Description de Paris, datee de 1706, la signale en ces termes: "Derriere Ia Pitie, dans un atelier qui appartient au meme maitre (Coysevox), on doit aller voir le cheval de bronze fait pour les Etats de Bretagne. Le roi est represente cheval, l'antique, dans une attitude noble et grande, et cette figure equestre a ete Ia habille premiere que ~l'on ait jetee en France de cette grandeur; les bas-reliefs, aussi de bronze destines pour Je piedestal, sont d'un grand travail, dans lesquels on remarque une variete de sujets sans confusion qui fait plaisir examiner, parce que l'on y distingue plusieurs persorines de marque, que l'on reconnait sans peine dans leur air naturel."2

a

a

a

La remarque est interessante et confirme !'impression que l'on eprouve encore aujourd'hui en observant l'oeuvre, celle d'etre en presence d'une galerie de portraits3 sur lesquels il serait plaisant de mettre des noms comme pouvaient coup sOr Ie faire les gens de cour en ces annees du regne de Louis XIV.

a

La chose nous a tente a cause de la presence des trois ambassadeurs siamois qui ne sauraient etre que ceux de la celebre ambassade de 1686 dont Coysevox, qui venait de recevoir commande de Ia statue; entendit certainement parler, s'il ne Ia vit. Soucieux de realisme comme l'etait cet artiste, on peut admettre qu'ayant choisi de composer 1. G. Keller- Dorian, Catalogue ••• , op. eft., t. I, p. 78-79. 2. Germain Brice, Description nouvelle de Ia ville de Paris, Paris, 1706, in 12 o, 2 vol; t. 1, p. 114. 3. n y a, en tout, 36 personnages de 60 a 72 centimetres et ceux: du premier plan, en particulier, sont d'un fort relief.

LES AMBASSADEURS SIAMOIS

A VERSAILLES

21

l'un de ses bas-reliefs autour du theme de Louis XIV recevant 1es representants des nations etrangeres, il ait ete tente d'y faire figurer, au moins partiellement, Ia reception

a la cour des ambassadeurs siamois dont le souvenir etait encore dans tous les esprits. II n'assista sans doute pas a la ceremonie mais la presse del'epoque se fit largement !'echo de cet evenement dont tous les details furent rassembles par Ies soins de Jean Donneau de Vize, directeur du Mercure Galant, sous le titre general de Voyage des Ambassadeurs de Siam en France, en 4 volumes in 16o, pub1ies a Paris en 1686-87. Le volume 1 rend compte du ceremonial dont furent honores les ambassadeurs lors de leur audience a Versailles 1e Ier septembre de cette annee 1686, tandis que Ie 3eme contient, page 324, une gravure qui represente l'estrade royale dans Ia Galerie des Glaces avec !'indication des places qu'occupaient les principaux personnages au cours de cette ceremonie. 11 est fort possible que Coysevox ait 1u connaissance de ce dernier document: Ia presence de nombreuses personnes identifiables dans son bas-relief, la place qu'elles y occupent conduisent ale penser. Mais laissons parler Donneau de Vize: "Les gardes du corps etaient en haie et fort serres des deux cotes des deux premieres salles du grand appartement du roi. M. Ie due de· Luxembourg les re~ut Ia porte de Ia premiere avec trente officiers des gardes fort !estes et en justaucorps bleu. Le compliment de M. de Luxembourg etant fini, i1 accompagna les ambassadeurs avec tous les officiers de sa suite jusqu'au bout de la galerie oil eta:it le trone du roi (.; .. ) lis entrerent ensuite dans Ie salon qui est au bout de l'appartement, et par lequel on va dans la galerie, et des qu ils furent sous Ia grande arcade qui la separe de ce salon, et d'ou l'on pouvait voir le roi en face, ils firent trois profondes inclinations,· et tenant leurs mains jointes, ils les eleverent autant de fois jusques a leur front!. Ils firent la meme chose au milieu de la galerie, dans laquelle etaient environ quinze cents personnes, ce qui formait six a sept rangs de chaque cote ...•"2.

a

Donneau de Vize poursuit: "Le trone d'argent du roi etait pose sur une estrade elevee de neuf marches, et les marches etaient couvertes d'un tapis a fond· d'or. II y en avait encore un plus riche sur ('esplanade, et autour de ce tapis etait une campane en broderie qui debordait sur Ia neuvieme marche. Les cotes de ces neuf marches etaient garnis de grandes torcheres d'argent de neuf pieds de b.aut, et par-dela les marches, en 1. lis se trouvent done, ace moment, sous l'arcade qui fait communiquer le Salon de Ia Guerre, ou Coysevox. venait d'etablir le grand bas-relief en stuc du Triomphe de Louis XIV qui s'y trouve toujours, avec Ia Galerie des Glaces dont toute Ia longueur les separe du roi, installee a l'entree du Salon de Ia Paix. 2. J. Donneau de Vize, Voyage •.. , op cit., t. 1, p. 189 a 193.

22

Michel Jacq-Hergoualc'h

elargissant toujours, il yen avait environ dans l'espace de quatorze ou quinze pieds de long, entremeles de grandes buires et de grands vases d'argent." 1 La oopie du XVlle siecle d'un memoire anonyme relatant cette audience, conserve aux Archives du Ministere des Atraires Etrangeres de Paris2, parle aussi "de grandes torcheres" et precise que" •... en avant on avait mis d'espace en espace de grandes cassolettes d'argent, des tables de porphyre et des tables d'argent chargees de vases d'argent ....". Tous ces details de l'amenagement du trone royal sont reproduits avec beaucoup de fidelite sur Ia gravure que Dorineau de Vize place dans le tome 3 de son ouvrage, a ce. detail pres que les ombres pprtees viennent des ouvertures situees a gauche alors qu'elles devraient venir- de Ia droite etant donne Ia position du trone al'extremite nord de Ia galerie, !'entree du Salon de Ia Paix (Doc. 1). Coysevox a respecte cette derniere disposition; les arcades qui forment le fond du bas-relief sont bien celles qui encadrent les glaces et repondent symetriquement aux ouvertures de Ia galerie sur les jai:dins puisque un grand tableau,. sur lequel nous reviendrons, est appendu dans l'~ne de ces arcades. Par ailleurs, si l'estrade recouverte d'un tapis, qu'il a representee, ne comporte que six degres, comme celle qui est decrite dans le manuscrit du Ministere des Atraires Etrangeres dont nous parlions precedemment3, H n'a pas omis de suggerer Ia presence· des pieces d'orfevrerie qui l'encadraient par Ia representation de trois vases riehement ciseles qui rappellent ceux de Ia gravure de l'ouvrage de Donneau de Vize, tout comme Ia figuration du trone royal rappelle, dans sa forme generale, celle de Ia meme gravure; il a figure sur Ia partie superieure du haut dossier un globe fleurdelise surmonte de la couronne royale et sur son fond un soleil et une lyre (Doc. 1). Le marquis de Sourches dont les Memoires, abondants et pittoresquement agrementes de notes, se font l'echo de cette ceremonie, nous dit que " ... le ~oi etait ( ... ) vetu d'un habit (Ill'avait f~it faire tout expres pour cette ceremonie) 4 a fond d'or, tout chamarre de diamants d'une grosseur prodigieuse (lis valaient mieux que tout le royau~e de Siam), ayimt aux deux cotes de sa chaise tousles princes de son sang qui etaient a Ia cour (Tous, a Ia reserve de M. le Prince, qui ne pouvait se soutenir, et de · M. le prince de Conti, qui etait encore a Chantilly), et derriere lui les grands officiers de sa chambre et de sa garde-robe."S

a

1. J. Donneau de Vize Voyage ••• , op. cit., t. 1, p. 193 a 195. 2. Paris, Archives du Ministere des A.trairea Btrangeres. Memoires et Documents. Aaie. Vol. 3,folios 39 44. 3. op. ctt. 4. Cette parenthese est en fait une des notes de bas de page du marquis, comme lea deux suivantea. S. Memolres du marquis de Sourches, Paris, 1882, 13 t.,ln 8 o; t. 1,ler septembre 1686, p. 437.

a

LES AMBASSADEURS SIAMOIS

A VERSAILLES

23

Ces notations sur }'entourage royal ont ete reprises avec plus de precisions par Donneau de Vize qui, sur Ia gravure dont nous parlions precedemment, indique par une lettre ou un chiffre renvoyant une legende Ia place de cbacun. "Le roi (A) avait Ia droite de son trone Monseigneur le Dauphin (8), Monsieur le due de Chartres (D), Monsieur le due de 8ourb~n (F) et Monsieur le comte de Toulouse (H) ; et asa gauche, Monsieur (C), Monsieur le Due (E) et Monsieur le due du Maine (G). Son habit etait brode plein. II y avait dessus pour plusieurs millions de pierreries lesquelles formaieot eo beaucoup d'eodroits les ornements de Ia broderie. Tous les pri~ces avaieot des habits ou brodes, ou de brocards d'or, tous couverts de pierreries. Celui de Monsieur etait ooir, cause que ce prince porte le deuil, et cette couleur donoaot uo plus vif eclat aux diamaots dont il etait rempli, il o'y avait rieo de plus brillaotl. L'habit de Monsieur le due du Maine etait aussi distingue par uo tres grand oombre de rubis. Tous les grands officiers du roi, M. Ie due de Mootausier et ceux qui oot des survivaoces, etaieot derriere Sa Majeste, et derriere ces princes (I et K)."2

a

a

a

a

a

Ces persoonages etaient sans doute, quelques variantes pres, ceux qui faisaient }'entourage royal eo ces sortes de circonstances. Si l'on tente une comparaison avec Ie bas-relief de Coysevox on ne peut qu'etre frappe de certaines similitudes qui n'excluent pas, cependant, certaines disharmonies dont Ia raison d'etre ne peut etre imputable qu'au fait que le bas-relief n'est pas proprement parler !'evocation rigoureuse de Ia reception du ler septembre 1686, meme s'il s'en inspire sans doute beaucoup.

a

Le roi, sur son trone (A sur Ia gravure, 1 sur Ia photographic du bas-relief, Doc. 1 et 2) est fort bien rendu. II avait ~ l'epoque 48 aris. Son attitude est pleine d'aisance et, seul de !'assistance, i1 a Ie chapeau sur Ia tete. A sa droite, son fils Ie Dauphin, 25 aos, (8 et 2) est tout aussi reconnaissable ason visage empate. Immediatemeat gauche de ce prince nous croyoos pouvoir recoonaitre Monsieur, frere du roi, 46 ans, (C et 3) que les repartitioos de Ia gravure place Ia gauche du trone, mais cette localisation sur le bas-relief, etaot donne Ia composition qu'en a fait Coysevox, ne se pretait guere a Ia representation de nombreux persoonages. A cote de Monsieur il doit s'agir du due de Montausier (4), gouverneur du Dauphin, qui avait a l'epoque 76 ans et que Donneau de Vize, qui le nomme, place avec ·•tous les grands officiers du roi ( .•. ) et ceux qui ont des survivances ( ... ) derriere Sa Majeste", en K. Monsieur

a

a

Monsieur, frere du roi, portait le deuil de Madame l'Eiectrice Palatine, mere de Madame, sa femme, morte le 26 mars 1686 a Heidelberg, deuil que Louis XIV, lui-meme, prit en noir pendant huit jours si !'on se ref ere au tome 1 du Journal du marquis de Dangeau (Paris, 1854 1860, 19 vol., in 8 o) qui consigna quotidiennement, des annees durant, des details sur 1es evenement et Ia vie de Ia cour. 2. J. Donneau de Vize, Voyage •.. , op. cit., t. 1, p. 197 ll. 200. Nous avons place dans ce texte leslettres de Ia legende de Ia gravure du t. 3, p. 325 331. 1.

a

24

Michel Jacq-Hergouatc•h

le due de Chartres, le futur regent, fils de Monsieur et de Ia Palatine, etait ne en 1674; · il avait done 12 ans en 1686. Donneau de Vize 1e place a cote du Dauphin, en D,' et . nous decouvrons, en·5 sur le bas-relief, un adolescent qui pourrait bien etre ce jeune Philippe d'Orleans. A cote de ce prince se trouvent deux autres enfants plus jeunes. Le plus age des deux (6) pourrait etre le comte de Toulouse que Donneau de Vize place en H; Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse, etait le fils de Louis XIV et de Mme de Montespan; ne en 1678; il avait ete legitime en 1681 et avait 8 ans lors de l'ambassade. Le dernier prince que Donneau de Vize place a Ia droite du roi est le du!' de Bourbon (F), titre qui ne peut etre que celui du petit-fils du Grand Conde, ne en 1669, et done age de 17 ans. Nous n'avons pas cru pouvoir le reconnaitre. Par contre, a Ia place qui aurait dO lui revenir sur le bas-relief, d'apres Ia gravure, on decouvre un tout jeune enfant (7) que l'on est tente d'identifier comme Louis de Bourbon, due de Bourgogne, fils aine du Dauphin, ne en 1686, et done age de 4 ans en 1686. Outre Monsieur que nous croyons avoir deja identifie, mais a droite du trone, Donneau de Vize place encore ala gauche du roi Monsieur le Due (E), a propos duquel il precise dans Ia legende de sa gravure (t. 3, p. 325 a.331) " ... a present Monsieur le Prince". On sait que dans Ia famille des Conde une habitude de cour designait Ie chef de Ia maison comme M. le' Prince, le fils de celui-ci comme M. le Due et le fils de ce dernier comme M. le due de Bourbon ou encore d'Enghien. Le personnage auquel Donneau de Vize fait done allusion est bien le fils du Grand Conde, Monsieur le Due, qui devint, entre le moment de !'audience et celui oil futedite l'ouvrage de Donneau de Vize, Monsieur lePrince par suite de Ia mort de son pere surve~ue en decembre 1686. Or, Coysevox a fait figurer le Grand Conde a Ia gauche de Louis XIV (8) ; il connaissait bien le personnage pour l'avoir represente de nombreuses fois de diverses manieres, notamment, peu avant qu'il fit ce bas-relief, en medaillon pour sa pompe funebre puis en buste posthume. II lui a-donne, Ia encore, les traits qui le faisaient reconnaitre entre tous. En 1686le Grand Conde avait 65 ans et sa sante etait mauvaise depuis plusieurs annees deja. 11 paraissait neanmoins a Ia cour mais preferait son chateau de Chantilly a Versailles. II ne vit jamais les ambassadeurs siamois bien qu'il en eOt formule le desir si l'on en croit Ia reponse faite par son fils aux condoleances qui lui furent presentees par les siamois et que Donneau de Vize rapporte 1• La chose avait failli se faire mais des "accidents imprevus'' avaient empeche les ambassadeurs de se rendre aupres du Prince et, au moment oil ils s'appretaient enfin a se rendre a Chantilly, le Grand Conde en etait parti precipitamment pour se rendre a Fontainebleau au chevet de sa petite fille, Ia duchesse de Bourbon, qu'il aimait beaucoup, et qui venait 1. J. Donneau de Vize, Voyage • .•• op. cit., t. 4, p. 237.

LES AMBASSADEURS SIAMOIS

A VERSAILLES

25

d'etre atteinte de Ia petite verole. On pen~e generalement que ces soucis, joints aux fatigues du voyage, haterent sa fin. Deux autres personnages se trouvent encore figures a Ia gauche du roi. L'un est presque entierement cache par Ie haut dossier du trone et nous n'en dirons rien, l'autre dont on voit bien Ie visage au-dessus de l'epaule du Grand Conde pourrait etre le due du Maine (9), place par Donneau de Vize a cet endroit (G) ; ce prince, fils aine de Louis XIV et de Mme de Montespan, avait 26 ans Iors de l'ambassade. Cette identification est neanmoins hasardeuse. Les degres de l'estrade royale sont occupes par Coysevox lui-meme (10) qui soutient et deploie devant Louis XIV le rouleau de papier sur lequel est dessine le projet de la statue equestre que Ies Etats de Bretagne ont decide d'e1ever en l'honneur du souverain. Ce rouleau est egalement tenu et presente au roi par une jeune femme (11), Ia couronne ducale en tete et couverte d'un manteau hermine. C'est la Bretagne, figuree ainsi symboliquement par Coysevox, etant donne la destination du monument dont faisait partie le bas-relief. Le tableau appendu dans une arcade dont nous parlions precedemment a la meme valeur symboliquel puisqu'il represente le mariage de Louis XII et d'Anne de Bretagne qui fut celebre Je 8 janvier 1499 dans la chapelle du chateau de Nantes. On distingue tres bien le roi et la reine, l'eveque qui benit !'union, entoures des seigneurs, sur un fond mi-parti de_ :fleurs de lys royales et d'hermines bretonnes. C'est de ce mariage que naquit Claude de France la meme annee. Or, l'union de cette princesse avec le futur Franc;ois 1er, en 1514, assura !'annexion definitive de la Bretagne a la France par legs de la reine, morte en 1524. Nous croyons pouvoir reconnaitre Ie due de Chaulnes, gouverneur de la Bretagne, dans le personnage situe immediatement derriere la figure de 1a Bretagne (12) ; il releve de la main gauche un coin du rouleau deroule devan£ le roi : Charles d'Albert d'Ailly, due de Chaulnes, etait ne en 1625; il avait done 61 ans en 1686. 11 avait ete nomme gouverneur de Bretagne en 1670 et ne se demit de cette fonction qu'en 1695 en faveur du comte de Toulouse. Derriere ce groupe, et occupant toute la gauche de la composition on decouvre un ensemble de huit personnages dont sept sont des etrangers. 11 s'agit des represen_:tants des nations etrangeres, objet principal du bas"relief, des " ... siamois, indiens et chinois", aux dires de Coysevox lui-meme que nous avons deja cite. Les figures principales de ce groupe sont celles des trois ambassadeurs siamois auxquels il faut adjoindre le personnage d'un religieux dont nous reparlerons un peu plus loin. Les quatre autres, aux attitudes variees, sont indiscutablement exotiques, 1. C'est sans doute a cette particularite que nous devons de n'avoir pu en retrouver Ia trace; H n'a vraisemblabJement Jamais exist~.

/

26

Michel Jacq-Hergoualc'h

a

mais Ia mode du XVIIe siecle. L' "indien" avec ses plumes d'autruche sur Ia tete et son torse nu ne fait pas probleme (13) ; son voisin immediat, hirsute et grossierement . effare, pourrait etre de la meme nationalite (14). Lejeune porteur de turban ne nous para it pouvoir etre qu'un persan (15). Quant au personnage plus age, un genou terre et les mains croisees sur Ia poitrine, il porte une coiffure que l'on rencontre chez les turcs (16). Ces quatre personnages sont admirablement mis en place mais on sent bien que Coysevox ne. disposait pour les representer que de schemas conventionnels qu'il se borna areproduire asa maniere. 11 en va tout autrement des trois siamois, puisqu'il ne peut, !'evidence, que s'agir d'eux. Leurs ~rtraits furent graves de nombreuses reprises et ne furent pas toujours fiattes. Les meilleurs nous paraissent etre ceux qu'en fit Hainzelman, Paris, rue Galande. Ce graveur les representa en buste, separement, avec ce qui nous a semble etre un louable souci de verite historique, peut-etre plus pousse meme que celui de Coysevox, comme no11s le verrons certains details de leur costume (Doc. 3).

a

a

a

a

a

Tous les graveurs, et Coysevox lui-meme, s'accordent pour les revetir d'une sorte de justaucorps mi-boutoline, mi-drape, que l'on peut supposer de soie, representee, sur le bas-relief, couverte de ramages mais que les graveurs rendent plus diversement par des rayures ou des galons relevant l'etoffe unie. Ce justaucorps, sur les gravures d'Hainzelman, mais non sur les autres ni sur le bas-relief, est porte sur une chemise au col droit non boutonne ; il est serre Ia taille par une large ceinture d'etoffe et couvre le genou. Les jambes sont semble-t-il enveloppees de pantalons etroits ou de bas que les gravures en pied, editees chez Nolin, reproduisent ; enfin ils sont chausses de bottes courtes et souple!J (Doc. 4).

a

Ce COstume. est dans ses grandes !ignes comparable excepte la coiffure.

a celui des persans si l'on

11 n'y aurait pas lieu de s'en etonner si l'on en croit un chroniqueur iranien du XVIIe siecle, Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim qui fut, en 1685-86, l'un des ambassadeurs. envoyes aupres du roi Phra Narai de Siam par le Shah Sulaiman (1666-1694) de Ia dynastie des Safavides et qui ecrivit le compte-rendu de l'ambassade. Ce texte, dont le manuscrit se trouve la Bibliotheque du British Museum Londres, a ete traduit par M.J. O'Kane. Nous en relevons le passage suivant, extrait de Ia troisieme partie du voyage, page 99 : " ••• il (Phra Narai) a abandonne son ancien style de vetement et a commence porter des habits iraniens, notre sorte de longue tunique brodee, nos pantalons, nos chemises, nos chaussures et nos babouches. Quand ses serviteurs lui demandent queUe sorte d'anne i1 souhaite porter, il repofld: "Ce que l'on porte doit

a

a

a

LES AMBASSADEURS SIAMOIS

AVERSAILLES

27

correspondre au rang de chacun et je trouve les dagues de style iranien seules dignes de ma ceinture." Mais il a renonce a porter le turban a cause de son poids."l . Le detail de la dague portee a la ceioture, qui n'apparait pas sur le bas-relief, est bien figure sur les portraits en pied des trois ambassadeurs graves par Nolin (Doc. 4); quant a celui de Ia. coiffure il est amusant et nous amene a mettre l'accent sur cette partie de l'habillement des ambassadeurs qui seul frappa les chroniqueurs franctais du temps et dont ils parlent avec quelques precisions. Donneau de Vize, apropos de ces couvre-chefs, ne nous fait grace d'aucun detail et, apres nous les avoir decrits comme des enroulements coniques de mousseline emboitant le haut du crane, il precise : "lis ont au bas de ces bonnets, des couronnes d'or larges de deux a trois doigts, d'ou sortent des fieurs faites de feuilles d'or tres minces au milieu desquelles sont quelques rubis a la place de la graine. Comme les feuilles d'or qui forment ces fieurs sont fort legeres, elles ont un mouvement qui Ies fait paraitre toujours agitees. Le troisieme ambassadeur n'a point de ces fieurs autour de sa couronne, il n'a qu'un cercle d'or large de deux grands doigts et cisele"2. Hainzelman et Nolin soot tres fideles aces donnees ; Coysevox aussif bien que la coiffure de son troisieme ambassadeur porte egalement des fieurettes. . Mais redonnons la parole aDonneau de Vize : "Quand les trois ambassadeurs furent au pied de l'estrade, ils firent leurs troisiemes inclinations, et les firent si profondes, qu' on peut dire, que leur tete toucha Ia terre"3. C'est dans cette attitude, mains j~intes, que Coysevox les a representes. L'un d'eux (19) porte neanmoins une boite ciselee; c'est le troisieme des ambassadeurs comme l'atteste ce passage du meme auteur relatant leur arrivee au chateau : "Quand on fut au haut de l'escalier le premier ambassadeur prit dans Ia machine (le baldaquin qui abritait Ia lettre du roi Phra Narai), un vase ou l'on avait mis la boite d'or qui renfermait la lettre du roi son maitre, et le donna a porter au troisieme ambassadeur ... "4. Le siamois le plus proche du trone ne pouvant etre que le premier ambassadeur (17), le second se trouve done ala hauteur du troisieme au premier plan du bas-relief (18). Ce soot les positions que Donoeau de Vize leur donne sur la gravure de son ouvrage (Doc. 1 : I, 2 3). Entre Ies deux derniers ambassadeurs, et derriere Ie premier, incline comme eux, on reconnait un ecclesiastique a son costume. II n'occupe pas exactement Ia place 8 que lui attribue Donneau de Vize, mais il s'agit neanmoins de l'abbe de Lionne (Doc. 2; 20) 1. 2. 3. 4.

John O'Kane, The Ship of Sulaiman, London, 1972, in 8 o. J. Donneau de Vize, Voyage ..• , op. cit., t. 1, p. 181-182. J. Donneau de Vize, Voyage ..• , op cit., t. 1, p. 196. J. Donneau de Vize. Voyage • •• , op. cit., t. 1, p. 189.

28

Michel Jacq-ltergoua1c'h

dont Ie marquis de Sourches, dans une de ses notes, nous dit : "Troisieme fils de defunt M. de Lianne, Secretaire d'Etat, lequel ayant toujours ete chevalier de Malte, quitta tout d'un coup de grandes abbayes qu'il avait, renon~a au monde et, s'etant jete dans un seminaire se mit dans ·les ordres. Ensuite malgre sa mauvaise sante, il suivit M. l'eveque d'Heliopolis qui s'en allait aux lodes et, y ay~~;nt ete fait pretre, il y continua toutesles fonctions d'un veritable missionnaire, jusqu'a l'arrivee de M. le chevalier de Chaumont" 1, Alors qu'au Siam se preparait le retour de l'ambassade franl(aise et le depart de la siamoise, l'abbe de Choisy, qui faisait partie de !'expedition, note dans son journal a la date du ler decembre 1685: "M. l'abbe de Lianne ne voulait point absolument aller en France: mais il faut qu'il marche par obeissance. M. l'eveque le juge absolument necessaire et l'ordonne"2. 11 etait necessaire par la parfaite connaissance qu'il avait du siamois, ce que note Donneau de Vize dans la legende de sa gravure : "11 n'avait de rang en cette ceremonie que parce qu'il y servait d'interprete"3. Outre son habit et sa place dans le bas-relief, i1 est reconnaissable trait que !'abbe de Choisy note a deux reprises dans son journal.

a sa barbe,

n joua effectivement son role d'interprete comme le relate notre chroniqueur, d'abord en traduisant la harangue du premier ambassadeur, puis en servant d'intermediaire entre celui-ci et le roi qui posa quelques questions. Ces trois ambassadeurs avaient ete choisis par le roi de Siam avec quelques soins et le bel esprit qu'etait l'abbe de Choisy les avait en grande estime. "Ce soot, nous dit-il, de fort boones gens, commodes, sans fal(on, et qui ont bien de !'esprit ( ... ). lls ODt toujours des tablettes a Ja main ; et Si VOUS leur faites quatre questions, ils VOUS en feront six" 4 • Le chevalier de Chaumont confirme que " ... ces trois messieurs soot fort doux, honnetes et complaisants et d'une humeur tres agreable. lis ecrivent jusqu'aux moindres petites choses qu'ils voient ; je m'imagine qu'ils auront de quoi s'exercer en France, ou ils rencontreront tant de choses dignes de leur admiration, et je 'm'assure qu'ils en feront un fidele recit au roi leur maitre"5. l. Memoires du marquis de Sourches, op. cit., t. 1, p. 401. 2. Abbe de Choisy, Journal du voyage de Siam, Paris, 1687.

3. J. Donneau de Vize, Voyage, .• , op. cit., t. 3, p. 325 a 331. 4. Abbe de Choisy, Journal •. . , op. cit., 9 mai 1686. 5. Chevalier de Chaumont, Relation de l'ambassade de M. le chevalier de Chaumont •••• , Paris, 1687, in 12o, p. 204-205.

'

,,_

.

.,

LES AMBASSADEUR:S ·SIAMOIS··A VERSAILLES

2.9

Le chevalier de Chaumont parle du premier ambassadeur en ces termes : "Le premier nomme Ocppra Visut Jurithorat est frere du defunt barcalon2 qui etait premier ministre du roi de Siam, homme d'esprit, et qui ayant toujours ete aupres de son frere, a eu grande part dans toutes Ies affaires durant· son gouvernement ; il etait venu me recevoir a !'entree de Ia riviere de Siam lorsque j'y arrivai, et il m'a depuis accompagne partout ou j'allais. Des aussit6t que je l'eus vu il me parut tres honnete homme et d'un esprit fort aise, ce qui fit que je dis aMonsieur Constance que je croyais qu'il serait tres propre pour etre ambassadeur en France"3. Sa nomination ne fut pas aussi facile que Ie laisse entendre de Chaumont puisque l'abbe de Choisy rapporte qu'a une remarque semblable qu'il avait faite a Constance Phaulkon a propos de ce personnage, celui-ci lui " ... dit qu'il n'etait pas assez grand seigneur pour le charger d'une si belle ambassade et que d'ailleurs il etait mal content de la cour, parce qu'a la mort du barcalon son frere, on lui avait 6te deux millions; je lui repondis qu'on pouvait lui faire donner un plus grand titre, et que les bienfai~s effac;aient les injures ; il y songea, en parla au roi de Siam, le fit opra et ambassadeur"4. , II donna toute satisfaction en France; " ... sa personne avait ete agreable au roi" comme Ie rapportera plus tard Ceberet dans son journal (cf. infra) et i1 avait charme effectivement la bonne ·societe par son esprit et sa galanterie. Lepere Tachard l'avait cependant perce a jour si !'on en croit ce que Ceberet, Ie second Envoye Extraordinaire de Louis XIV lors de !'expedition de 1687, en rapporte dans son journal : "Dans quelques conversations que j'avais eues avec ·le pere Tachard pendant le voyage, et au Cap de Bonne Esperance il me dit qu'il ne croyait pas que Opra Vissita Sompton, premier ambassadeur du roi de Siam, fut beaucoup porte pour l'etablissement des franc;ais au dit royaume, etant tres attache a sa religion, et qu'il etait persuade que le dit ambassadeur se tournerait aSiam, suivant qu'il trouverait les affaires disposees, en sorte que s'il trouvait les affaires favorables pour les franc;ais il temoignerait de l'empressement pour Ies servir; que si au contraire ii arrivait le premier, et qu'il trouvat quelques dispositions contraires. i1 suivrait son inclination qui ne nous etait pas favorable"5. 1.

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PROLEGOMENA TO METHODS FOR USING THE AYUTTHAYAN LAWS AS HISTORICAL SOURCE MATERIAL MICHAEL VICKERY

Several years ago I wrote that "what the Sukhothai sources still require is the 'positivistic' type of analysis against which Collingwood so strongly argued."l Since that was in a review article discussing what others had written I was unable to demonstrate my suggestion beyond a· few illustrative remarks. In the present article I intend to show how such positivistic methods may some of the difficulties of another corpus of Thai' historical sources, the Ayutthayan laws, whose preambles, through comparison of the dates and titles contained therein, may be ordered chronologically in a much more accurate way than has so far been done. By positivistic methods I mean simply the ordering, or counting, or dissecting of a body of data to demonstrate objective patterns concealed within it. As examples of such techniques we may note the procedures of stratigraphy and seriation in archeology, the comparison of written character forms in paleography or ha~dwriting analysis, and in printed literature the analysis of word and phrase patterns which are peculiar to each writer and to some extent always involuntary. r~salve

In fact, the generally patterned information elicited through all such techniques was built into the material unconsciously, or through the random dispersal of countless small pieces. In the case of the Thai laws the concealed patterns which I shall elicit will reveal information which was in many instances, i believe, intended to remain concealed. The law corpus under discussion is the Kathmay tr'ii .sam duan (n~'W111Ufi'J1t'11il 911;1), promulgated in 1805 as a reconstruction of Ayutthayan laws by the first king of the present dynasty; and it was produced not as an·essay in the preservation of historical sources, but as his own law code to be applied during his own reign. Thus any laws which appear to date from earlier reigns, as nearly all of them do, were supposed, in their final form, to nevertheless fit early 19th-century reality. If one should suspect a priori that certain modifications might have been introduced into the old law texts to

* Visiting Research Fellow, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia. 1. Michael Vickery, ••A Guide through some Recent Sukhothai Historiography," JSS Vol. 66, . Pa,rt 2 (iuly 1978), p. 185, n. 9. ·

37

38

Michael Vickery

make them fit that reality, such suspicion is confirmed in the introduction to the laws themselves where we find that the impetus for the recodification was a provision of one of the old laws which offended the king's sense of propriety.2 The Kathmay consists of 29 purportedly Ayutthayan law texts of which 24 deal with specific matters, the remainder being collections of royal decisions and decrees on diverse subjects.3 In format nearly all of them begin with a preamble including a date, the titles of a king responsible for the law, the subject of the law, and mention of the official to whom the king's communication on the subject was .addressed. Besides the preamble dates, there are also other dated sections with titles within the t~xts of some laws. Most of the dates and royal titles, as well as some of the other material of the preambles, contain contradictions, both among themselves, and with the generally received notions of Ayutthayan history. In brutal terms, this means that either many of the law preambles are false, or part of the history of the 14th-17th centuries must be rewritten. In what follows only two .elements of the laws will be treated : the royal titles and the dates which accompany them in the preambles or other sections of the laws.

Dates Each date in the laws is expressed in one of three, or possibly four, different eras : Buddhist (A.D. + 543/544), saka (A.D.-78), cu/a (A.D.-638), and 'curamani' (A.D.-188). In terms of A.D., the law dates range from 1341 to 1804, and in terms of the first three eras just noted are distributed as shown in table 1. Now there is sufficient contemporary epigraphic evidence to show that in all of the old kingdoms included in modem Thailand these three eras were popular in the order saka, cula, Buddhist (B.E.), with saka used exclusively in Ayutthaya up to some . time in the 16th century, cula then replacing it as the official era up to the end of the 19th century, and the Buddhist era becoming popular and used in some official documents from the 17th and particularly the 18th century.4 At Sukhothai, whose 2. References hero are to the 5 -volume guru sabha edition of the laws. See Vol. 1, pp. 1-3; and comment by Prince Dhani Nivat, "The Reconstruction of Rama 1", JSS Vol. 43,Part 1 (1955), p. 27. 3. Since some laws contain more than one dated section with royal titles, there are over 40 dated contexts as shown in Table I. 4. The change from iaka to cula at Ayutthaya toward the end of the 16th century is standard doctrine. See ·o.G.E. Hall, A History of South-East Asia, 3rd ed., MacMillan and St. Martin's Press (1968), p. 268; W.A.R. Wood, A History of Slam, Bangkok (1933), p. 127; Prince Damrong Rajanubhap, ~11-L1'J.I.n11Lnlll"thl1,'11'~t'riD, in Prachum Phongsawadan (guru sabha), Vol. 14, p. 118. On later use of the Buddhist era see ?i.Wf1111 tUJnfl (Phiphat Sukhathit), u-41 u _ • n11UUUU.\II~W'r111'fln11'f, Silpakqn, May 1963, 7 {1), pp. 48-58 .

•

AYUTTHAYAN LAWS

39

institutions may have influenced some of the Ayutthayan laws, the cula era was introduced earlier, in the 14th century, and it appears concurrently with saka for some time thereafter.s Traditional Thai belief, however, held that the Buddhist era was earliest, to be followed by the saka and cu/a eras, believed to have been introduced into Southeast Asia in A.D. 79 and 639 respectively.6 The points to note here are that genuine texts should be dated in an era appropriate to their age, that the wrong era probably indicates emendation by later generations who did not know the correct historical sequence, and that early 19thcentury Thai would have seen no inconsistency in the use of any of these eras for any time in the Ayutthaya period. Examining the laws from this point of view we see that the two earliest are dated saka, and to that extent appear genuine; but then there follow six mid-14th century laws dated in the Buddhist era, which is anachronistic, then a saka and cula date, and seven more 14th-century Buddhist era preambles. Two more Buddhist era dates occur for A.D. 1382 and 1432, and there is a final group of Buddhist era dates in 1611-1614. Only the last group fall in a period in which one might reasonably expect B.E. dates in official secular documents. Our first preliminary conclusion, then, is that all of the law ·contexts containing B.E; dates were revised, if not composed out of whole cloth, in the 17th century, or later, that the earliest B.E. dates show a deliberate effort to provide a false aura of antiquity for certain pieces of l~gislation, and that nothing in those laws may be a priori assumed valid for any time before the 17th century. The same objection of anachronism applies to two of the cula dates, 720 (1358) for the Palatine Law, and 796 (1434) for one clause of the Law on Treason. The latter, in addition to the question of era, is clearly false from another point of view, which I shall discuss below. A different and somewhat more difficult problem is posed by the laws between 1622 and 1669 dated apparently in saka, in a period when it is believed to have fallen out of use in· Ayutthaya. If it was easy in other cases to postulate false claims to antiquity, it is more difficult to find a reason for apparent misuse of saka after it had become obsolete. One plausible explanation is that these dates are indeed genuine and reflect a reaction by kings; one of whom (Prasad Dc>Ii/Prasat Thong) is shown by other 5. This has been determined by examining all of the published Sukhothai inscriptions. 6. For comment on this see Michael Vickery, "The Lion Prince and Related Ramarks on Northern History," JSS Vol. 64, Part 1 (January 1976), pp. 326-377; and "A Note on th~ P~t~ of t4e Traibbiimika~hi 1 " JS~ VoJ. ~2~ Part 2 (Julr 1974), pp. 27$-64,

40

Michael Vickery

evidence to have been a conscious archaizer, against the Burmese and Sukhothai-inspired cula era. 7 The rest of the dates-- the saka dates of the 14th and 15th centuries, the cuia dates of the end of the 16th century and between 1690 and 1804-- are all in appropriate time periods and cannot be faulted on this ground. These 20, out of a total of 43 dates, are all that survive the first test of validity. The crude numerical date, however, is not the only decisive element in the dating of Thai documents. Each numerical year is also accompanied by the name of its place in the 12-year animal cycle; and if the animi:tl mentioned is incorrect for the numerical date we know the document is in some way spurious, although the error · may be no more than scribal carelessness in copying. In general scholars have assumed that animal years were maintained with greater .care than numerical dates, 8 and where the error is believed to be of less than 12 years the numerical date is simply changed ad hoc to fit the animal cycle. This can be a risky procedure, since scribes could just · as easily err in copying the figure for tens or hundreds, particularly in cases of 4 and 5, or 2, 3, 7, which are in Thai script often easy to confuse. There are a number of law dates in which such discrepancies occur. For numbers 41 and 42, undoubtedly laws of Rama I Chakri,9 we must attribute the errors to scribal carelessness; and a few others may also be corrected with this assumption. Thus, two contexts, number 20 of 1926jl382 and number 21 of 1976/l432 show the expressed animal date one year earlier than the true one. In the latter case the best explanation seems to be either a simple scribal error, or an error in converting a presumed original saka date, 1353/1975, to Buddhist era. I would, however, interpret the 7.

'Prasat Thong' copied the plan of Angkor Wat, built two temples modelled on it, and at one point planned to give the classical name for Angkor, 'Yasodhara', to one of his palaces. See Royal Autograph Chronicle, 1'l1::11'!1'1'lJI'l11~1 'H1.UlJ1'l 1 ::11'lf'VI~~llL~'lJ1, 6th printing, Bangkok,

2511, pp. 428 - 29; any of the Annals of Ayutthaya at dates 992 and 993; and Hiram W. Woodward, "The Art and Architecture of the Ayudhya Period," in ~mJn;;:w II':JJ~!Hl!lli!J1 • (Bangkok 2514), p . 64. 8.

G. Coedes, "Essai de classification des documents historiques cambodgiens conserves a Ia Biblotheque de !'Ecole Fran~;aise d' Extreme-Orient," Bulletin de 1' Ecole Franqaise d' ExtremeOrient, XVIII, 9 (1918), p. 15, n. 3; David K. Wyatt, "The Thai 'Ka~a Ma~ ~iarapala' and Malacca," JSS, Vol 55, Part 2 (July 1967), p. 282; Akin Rabibhadana, The Organization of Thai Society in the Early Bangkok Period, p. 189.

9:

Altough Phiphat Sukh athit, "The cu/amm,z'i era ," in-r1'!f'il~'1'1l.Jm, in Silpakf?n, 6 (5), January 1963, p. 56, treated them as cu{ama~i era afld belon~in~ to th~ l(lt}l ~nQ. 15th c~nt\uie~ respecti vel>'.

AYUTTHAYAN LAWS

41

other instance as scribal confusion in the Pall animal names, kukkutha/cock and kukkura/dog (nnnlJ/nnn1). In number 20 it would seem that the true kukkura was •• •• confused as kukku~ha (misspelled in the text as kukkuta: (~n~fl::). Another anomaly for which there seems to be no systematic explanation is the four-year discordance in number 9 (1278/1355) and number 28 (9~5/1593). Aside from their true animal years being four years earlier than the ones expressed, they share no common diagnostic feature in the elements of their dates and titles. Possibly, however, they both suffered tampering during the recodification of Rama I, as I shall demonstrate below, and their animal synchronisms were misconceived in the manner of two of that king's own laws, numbers 41 and 42. The most serious animal discrepancy problem is a whole group of laws which are apparently saka, but which show a regular discrepancy of two .years between the numerical and animal-year dates. The true animal year for the dates is in each case two years behind the one expressed. Two of them, considered as saka, would be in mid-14th c_entury, five more in the 15th, and the remaining five in the 17th; Obviously, such consistency in 'error' cannot be due to random miscopying, the discrepancy must have been deliberate, and a systematic explanation for the entire group is required. One explanation was already in existence in the 19th century, and it received further attention a few years ago.IO This is the cu!ama1,1i-era hypothesis, which accounts for those dates by postulating a. special era, beginning 110 years later than saka, which had been in use for laws exclusively in the Ayutthaya period, and was then forgotten, with the result that its dates were misunderstood as saka. The 110-year difference is just enough to make the year dates and the animal synchronisms of those· laws coincide. The most exhaustive essay to date on the 'cu{ama!li era' is that by Khun Phiphat Sukhathit, which was the foundation for Wyatt's discussion. Khun Phiphat, however, did not set out to investigate whether or not such an era had existed, he accepted its existence and merely sought to determine the circumstances of its establishment. His reasoning is too lengthy to examine here, but it involves acceptance of the chronological data in the Nan Nabhamas story, which is unjustified,Il various suppositions about King Lidaiy cutting cula or Buddhist eras, and finally the remark that the first cu(ammii date (i.e., the first date in Table 1, above, calculated as cu[ama'!i: 1263 + 188 = 1451) 10. Wyatt, "The Thai 'Ka!a Ma~!liarapala". See also Prince Damrong Rajanubhap, "Story of Thai Laws," qj1'U1'UntJ'"li1!1L~il\l,fl!l in the commentary to the Royal Autograph Chronicle (above, n. 7), where he calls some 'cu(amani' dates the 'Law Era', equivalent to saka+300.

ll• See my '/!-•

"Not~

9Q. the P~te of the !raibhUIDika~thi",

Michael Vickery

42

falls in• the reign of King Trailok- who, as a descendent of Sukhothai kings would have understood and favored it,ll None of Khun Phiphat's points show clearly that a cu{'iima11i era existed and there is no discussion of the question of why Kings Lidaiy or Trailok-, in founding a new era, did not have it begin with its year 1, rather than back-dating it to begin in a year equivalent to A.D. 188, seemingly a date without significance. Moreover, in Sukhothai through the reign of Lidaiy neither the Buddhist nor the cula era was used · for dating. The era in vogue wa.s saka; and the first recorded cula date in a Sukhothai inscription is 741 (A.D. 1379), placed after the principal date of iaka 1301. 13 Thus no explanation may involve an assumption that King Lidaiy or his predecessors based their calendrical reforms, if any, on the cula era. To be sure, the astrological documents cited by Khun Phiphat are in the cula era because they were composed later, at Ayutthaya, and were calculated back over several centuries.l4 Khun Phiphat also assumed that all the law dates showing discrepancies between animal and year dates were cu{iimaf1i, and he arbitrarily altered the tens or hundreds figure to make them fit this supposition. I think it is preferable to assume that some of those discrepancies are random scribal errors; and as representatives of the cufiimal'}i factor I shall accept only those apparent saka dates showing the precise 2-year discrepancy. A first, purely logical, objection to the cu['iima11i hypothesis is the unlikely circumstance of such a special era being used briefly in the 15th century, then abandoned for one Q.undred years, used again for a few law texts, neglected for 150 years more, and finally adopted again for a third time in the 18th century. If it was indeed the Ay~tthayan Law Era, why was it not used for all laws? It is preferable to hypothesize that this aberrant system was devised once and for all. at, or shortly before, the last date in the pattem, A.D. 1643 if we d~ not accept the cuf'iimal]i hypothesis or 1753 if we do.. Furthermore, accepting it makes difficult the rest of the explanation, that it was then misunderstood as iaka, since in 1805 there must still have been court scholars who could have remembered the use of cul'iima11i era under the last Ayutthayan kings and who would have been able to cope with it correctly and consistently. 12. ·since tho laws and chronicles contain three different versions of .the title, I shall use only their lowest common denominator, 'Trailok-'. 13. Inscription number 102 of the Sukhothai Corpus, published in Part 4 of the Collected Inscriptions, th'::,a.~thwn~n. ~

14. Michael Vickery, "A New '!'if!lnia about A)'Udhfa,.. JSS Vol. 67, Part 2 140-41, 183-84,

~Julf

1979), pp.

AYUTTHAYAN LAWS

43

If we accept that all cu(amat]i dates must have resulted from a decision made during a single codification of the laws, and that mid-18th century is too late for it to have been used and forgotten, then we must assume the numerical year dates to be intended as §aka and the last cuftimani laws to date from the reign of King Prasat Thong. This is of particular interest in that there is other evidence to show that Prasat According to all the standard Thong tried to tinker with the calendrical system. chronicles, in 1638, or 1000 cula, Prasat Thong was anxious about a mystical significance of the year 1000, and he believed the nefast kaliyuga was about to begin. Is In order to offset such bad luck he ordered that the proper tiger synchronism for 1000 cula be transformed into a pig year, which would be like the more auspicious dvaparayuga, and impressive ceremonies were carried out to effect the change. The fate of his new calendrical arrangement is not known, for, with the possible exception of one law preamble, no extant document shows that system in which the true animal synchronism would be 3 years later than the one expressed,l6 That reform of Prasat Thong is thus not the cu/amatfi factor, but the latter reflects similar considerations. That is, its animal years would. be correct if the numerical dates were considered as Buddhist era, as that era was understood in 17thcentury Ayutthaya-beginning in a snake year and equivalent to A.D. + 544.17 They cannot be true Buddhist years, for that would put them long before the Ayutthaya period, and they must therefore be saka years with pseudo-Buddhist animal synchro nisms. The 'cu{'iimal]i era' would then have been an attempt to give a mystically auspicious character to saka dates by assigning them false Buddhist era synchronisms. The author of the reform was probably Prasat Thong, given the other evidence that he tried to initiate that type of calendar revision. In proposing this explanation it is worth~hile to take note of the abundant evidence that Prasat Thong was both an innovator and archaizer in many areas, and has always been considered an important legislator, something confirmed by his contemporary Van Vliet, but that if the traditional cu/amal]l hypothesis were accepted none of the extant laws would date from his reign. IS We may now draw another preliminary conclusion and say that all of the Jaws with B.E. dates, and all of the cu{amal]i group, in addition to interpolations which may have occurred in 1805, had also been revised, altered, and given false patents of anti15. See that date in any of the Annals of Ayutthaya. is. the .Law on Treason dated cu/a 955/A.D. 1593, number 29 in Table 1. A single example, however, is hardly sufficient to postulate a system, and random error is equally likely. 17. See Phiphat Sukhathit work ci.ted inn. 4, above, 18. Jeremias van Vliet, The Short History of the Kings of Slam, The Siam Society, Bangkok, 1975.

lL This

44

Michael Vickery

quity during one or more recodifications in the 17th century. It seems most likely that all of the cu{ama71i group were the work of Prasat Thong. As for the B.E. dated laws, the three latest are from the reign of King Indaraja, who was considered by his near contemporary, Van Vliet, to have been a great king, at a time when the Buddhist era was coming into vogue for secular use,1 9 and whose better known popular name, Song Tham (dran dharma), "upholder of the religion", indicates a solid tradition of his interest in a Buddhist ordering of society. To sum up again, there are reasonable systemati~ hypoiheses that nearly all law dates are spurious, concocted during later codifications and dressed up with false symbols of sanctity or antiquity. The only laws which do not so far appear spurious as to date are the saka-dated law on Debts of 1278/1356, the two Hierarchy Laws of 1298/1376, three cula-dated laws in 1593 and 1599, the B.B.-dated laws of the Indaraja/ Song Tham period, and the cu/a~dated laws from 1690 onward; or in other words all of the law dates of earlier than 1593, except the three mentioned above, have in some way been altered, if not entirely devised, between 1610 and 1805. The Hierarchy Laws of 1298/1376, however, show complex problems of date, titles, and contents, and they require further examination. These two laws, which outline the structure of 'civilian' and 'military' official hierarchies, are the most valuable extant documents for study of the central government structure, or at least they would be if their own structure could be sorted out in a satisfactory manner. Their expressed dates place them in the reign of King Paramarajadhiraj, one of the most powerful, perhaps the most powerful, of early Aytitthayan rulers, thus in a reign in which one would not be surprised to find efforts at systematization of ~overnment structure. The first difficulty is that the animal year and the numerical date do not correspond, the former being dog while the latter requires dragon, and the difference between them is 6 years counted forward or backward. If the numerical date were adjusted to the animal, as is often done, we would have two possibilities, 1370 or 1382, both still within the reign of the same king. If simple scribal error is assumed as the reason for the discrepancy, 1370 is the better choice, since in the original saka numbering it (1292) differs by only one term from the expressed 1298, whereas 1382 (s. 1304) differs by three; and the figures for 2 and 8 are among those whose elements may lead to confusion (1!1, l'i),20 So far this is a quite satisfactory explanation: Ayutthaya's most powerful early king, at the very beginning of his reign promulgated a law code which 19. Ibid. 20. See the extended discussion of such numerical errors in Michael Vickery, "Cambodia After Angkor, the. Chronicular Evidence for the 14th to 16th Centuries,'' Ph.D. Thesis Yale University, 1977, chapter 1, and Annex 1.

AYUTTHAYAN LAWS

45

included a ·sort of table of organization of the central government, which has been preserved, albeit with ad hoc modifications to fit changed circumstances, by later rulers up to the 19th century. This apparently logical explanation. however, has always been rejected because of the titles given the reigning king--bra~ 1aram trailok nayak .. .. in the Civil Hierarchy law and bra~ ramadhipati sri param trailokanarth in the Military and Provincial Hierarchy law, since trailok-type titles, in particular trailokanath/-narth, appear in all other chronicles or literary sources uniquely as the title of another pow~rful, presumably lawgiving, king who reigned between 1448 and 1488. Thus systematic explanation of the date has been rejected, and there have been at least two different ad hoc modern 'rectifications' to fit the Hierarchy laws into the traditional King Trailok's reign. 21 The revision of date to fit the royal title is not at first thought a bad solution, for there is reasonably good evidence to suppose that 'Trailok-' was an administrative innovator, and the texts of these two laws contain many features which are difficult to accept before his time. Even the date could have been transposed to his time in a more systematic manner than has been done by supposing scribal error on two figures which changed an original 1388 dog year to 1298. These laws will be given further attention in the discussion of royal titles, below. I noted above that two laws, the Palatine, and a section of the Law on Treason, contain anachronistically early cula dates. The clue to the latter lies in the royal titles it contains and it will be discussed below. The Palatine law, the other example of an anachronistically early cula date (720/1358) combined with a Trailok-type title shows still another serious anomaly. Its animal synchronism diverges from the true one by two years in exactly the same way as the cu{ama'!i factor. Traditionally, however, it was not treated as cu/ama'!i, since that category was held to comprise only those laws with apparent saka dates and a two-year animal discrepancy. Even in the detailed treatment by Khun Phiphat the Palatine Law is ignored. Wyatt, however, then hypothesized that the Palatine Law date, because of the animal year discordance, should be included in the culama'!i group, which would fit it systematically into the reign of Trailok-, where earlier scholars had assumed it belonged, 21. H.G. Quaritch Wales, Ancient Siamese Government and Administration, pp. 22, 34, 173, suggested 1376/1454, while Phiphat Sukhathit, in "Cu(ami11fi era," offered 1278/1466. Wales followed Prince Damrong.

46

Michael Vickery ·

though at divergent dates and for unsystematic reasons.22 The Palatine Law date, however, cannot belong to that group because its animal year, for the numerical date 720, does not fit the pseudo-Buddhist ·era pattern of the culamai]i dates.. To be sure, Wyatt postulated a conversion. from an earlier pseudo-saka date, but that is not legitimate without explaining why only that law, and not the others of the cu/amani group, was converted to an apparent cula date. Any explanation for the 'culamani era' must account systematically for all such dates as well as the other anomalies of those laws. '

.

The Palatine Law is most probably to ,be explained as imitation cu!amal]i, devised at a time when no anomaly was seen in the use of cula era at any time in Ayutthaya, and when the culama'!i factor was considered a special Ayutthayan law device. The first consideration indicates a time after 1569, and one might wish to assume that it was part of the recodification indicated in the reign of Prasat Thon,g._ Since he, however, apparently devised the real cu{amaf!i system, it is difficult to attribute to him one law dated in a pseudo-cu/amaf!i era. It is more likely that the Palatine Law, of all the supposed old laws, is a construction of Rama I legists, even if older material was incorporated. Rama I did not order his code drawn up merely to to preserve historical source material. It was intended as the laws of his own reign; and the Palatine Law, although dated in the early Ayutthaya period, was also his own Palace Law. He wished nevertheless to give that important text a patent of antiquity, and its early date, in the current early 19th-century cula style, was given an animal synchronism apparently resembling the imperfectly understood 'Law or cu/amaf!t Bra'. It is thus the most anomalous, and most artificial, of all the anomalous law dates. Finally, then, apart from the cases of presumed random scribal error, the only pre-Rama I law dates which do not appear quite spurious are number 9 (s. 1278), the three 16th-c~ntury cula-dated laws, the three 17th-century Buddhist era dates, ~nd numbers 39-40 from the late 17th century, or a total of only nine out of forty contexts. Of course, if my explanation of cu[amaf!i is accepted, then the numerical dates of numbers 34-38 would also be genuine.

Titles In Table 2 the 43 sets of royal titles in the laws are listed in order of date, assuming only three eras : saka, cula, and Buddhist, and numbered in accordance with Table 1. The elements of the titles have been arranged to facilitate comparison, and in each case the original sequence of the title elements has been maintained. Due to length the final terms of each title, ayii hua; are omitted. 22. Wyatt, ''The Thai 'Kata Ma~~liarapala". · Prince Damrong's date was 820/1458, followed by Quaritcb Wales.

AYUTTBAYAN LAWS

47

This table i.ndicates clearly the first important point to be made: there was a sequence of title elements which was felt to be 'normal'; titles were not concocted randomly; it is not true that "the same elements ... are repeated again and again .... in the same or different order; and any king might ·use a different combination at different times."23 In only a very few cases is there deviation from the normal order, or an arrangement quite different from it; and where this occurs, as I shall demonstrate, it is a clue to rearrangement of the laws or recodification. The second point to note is the pattern of occurrences of principal titles. With only six exceptions, all those pre-Rama I contexts which seem to contain a principal title fall into two mutually exclusive and well-defined groups- -the Ramidhipati group (19 cases) up to 1465 and the eka-type group (12) encompassing all subsequent laws up to the reign of Rama I Chakri, who again used 'ramadhipati'. The temporal break between the last ramadhipati law (1465) and the first of the coherent eka-group (1593) is 128 years, far longer than any other space of time between law dates (the next longest is 50 years between.l382 and 1432). Two of the exceptions to this pattern are the Civil Hierarchy law (number 18) and a law on Treason (number 22), which have only trailok-as principal title, and a third is one ekadadharath law (number 21) of 1432, within the ramadhipati period. There are also three contexts which have cakrabarrti as major title. Two of them, number 20, with cakrabarrti + ramesuor, and number 17, appear to have been designed that way, but the third, number 25, seems originally to have been a ramadhipati law from which 'ramadhipati' was subsequently dropped. Besides that, two of the ramadhipati laws, numbers 9 and 26 of 1356 and 1452, exceptionally place cakrabarrti before ramadhipati, rather than after the principal ramadhipati title, as it occurs in the remaining 14 contexts. None of these cakrabarrti laws fall in the reign of the king conventionalJy known by that title (1548-68); there is no systematic way to account for them; and for the present they must be treated as scribal anomalies. It is interesting that the break in titulature between the ramadhipati and ekagroups, and a break on which laws, chronicles, and extant inscriptions all agree, corresponds to a real break in Ayutthayan history when the government of Ayutthaya was in 1569 assumed by Sukhothai princes after the Burmese invasion. Within the ramadhipati group, the regularity in arrangement of the elements is even more interesting in that it corresponds to the titles in a rare extant set.of old documents, the 15th-century Tenasserim inscriptions of the reign of 'Trailok-'. 24 23. A.B. Griswold and Prasert J}a Nagra, "Devices and Expedients Vat Pii Mok, 1727 A.D.," In Memoriam Phya Anuman Rajadhon, The Siam Society, Bangkok (1970), p. 151. 24. · Michael Vickery, "The Khmer Inscriptions of Tenasserim: 11 Remterpretation," JSS Vol. 61, P11rt 1 (January 1973), pp. S1-7Q,

48

Michael Vickery

There the royal titles are : samtec bra~ ramadhipa~i sri irindra param cakrabartti rajadhiraj ramesuor dharmma [raj] tejo jayabarmma debatideb tribhiibanadhipe$ • •• Fourteen of the ramadhipati law contexts contain a following cakrabarrti element; and in eleven cases cakrabarrti is followed directly by raj [adhiraj]. Moreover, seven examples of the ramadhipati element are followed by sundhar/surindr/sindhar, probably here corruptions of the original srindra;2s and in a handful of the laws there are still more elements of the old model following cakrabarrti, including one nearly perfect law dated 1899/1355. example of the old titles, number 5, the rap

Jon

The ramadhipaii law titulature is thus clearly based on a genuine old model dating from af least the 15th century.26 In the course of time, and during successive recodifications, some elements were dropped from some laws and others added. Since an authentic ancient model has been evoked, something more must be said about the question of 'true' titles before proceeding with -the internal analysis of the law titulature. In the conventional history of Ayutthaya, kings have been designated by the principal titles found in the chronicles, or Annals of Ayutthaya; but we are now faced with law titles which combine elements in ways unknown to the Annals. Examination of contemporary inscriptions, and recently studied old written works, such as the history of Van Vliet, shows that some of the titles in the Annals are inacciua~e, and that some of those in the laws are more genuine. Two inscriptions, and Van Vliet, show that the principal title of a king or kings reigning in 1418 and 1435, and who at the latter date was the ruler conventionally known as Paramarajidhiraj II, was really paramarajadhipati;27 and the 15th-century Tenasserim inscriptions which I have just evoked, and whose titulature is reflected in some of the laws, demonstrate that 'King Trailok' was not known, at least not officially, by that title. Those Inscriptions must be accepted as in~ontrovertible evidence that 'trallok-' was not in contemporary official use for the king reigning between 1448 and 1488, and probably not for any other king either. The important elements of his true titles were ramadhipati ... c'tzkrabarrti rajadhiraj ramesuor dharmaraja . .. jayabarmadebatideb tribhiivanat!hipes which begin with the name ascribed to the first king of Ayutthaya, 25. Although sundhar might be interpreted as sundara, "beautiful," that does not justify attributi~~.g an independent origin to this law title. Corruption in such contexts involves a misapprehension of meaning as well.as change of orthography. 26. In van Vliet's Short History the· same titles are given to Rimidhipati I, but that is not a reliable contemporary record •. 'l1, S~ m)' revi"W 9fVIU1 Vli"~'s Short lfi1torl iQ JSS VoJ. ~4, Pl&f~ ~ ~lulfl976), ·p. 227,

AYUTTHAYAN LAWS

49

contain that of the next important ruler (rajadhiraj 1370-1388), a title obviously inherited from the greatest king of Angkor (jayabarmadeba-Jagavarman), and only at the end a doublet of 'trailokanath' ('protector of the three worlds'), tribhuvanadhipes ('lord ruler of the three worlds').2B What seems to have happened was that in popular usage the last, and usually least diagnostic, element of the royal titles was perpetuated, even in subsequent official chronicles and perhaps deliberately, to distinguish this king from the other ramadhipati, rame!uor, or rajadhiraj. This usage was consecrated at least by the early 17th century, since it is found in Van Vliet's chronicle, and it may even have been common from soon after 'Trailok's' reign. It must also not be forgotten that the 'Trailok' period in the Annals is extremely confused and there may be many undetected errors in the conventional picture.29 If confusion about 'trailok' was already current in Van Vliet's time, his writings on the other hand enable us to resurrect genuine titles which have not been preserved in the Annals. Thus the true principal title of the Annals' ekadaiara~h (Ekathotsarot), 1605-10, was rameiuor (Ramesuan), dran dharm (Song Tham) was really indaraja, and prasad don (Prasat Thong) should more properly be known as dharmar'ajadhiraj. 30

In contrast to the correspondence between the ramadhipati group of laws and genuine old inscriptions, the 17th-century titles revealed by Van Vliet make the ekagroup of law titles for that period seem anomalous; and the anomaly is compounded by the only extant contemporary document showing an eka- title, the 1721 Pa Mok inscription of the king popularly known as Thaisa (day sra/1), but there it is ekadaiaruda, followed by prasad don. No extant laws' date from his reign; and the condition . of the sources does not permit conclusions as to when eka- titles were first used or what form they took. If we accept that those laws have a 17th-century origin, they and the Pi Mok inscription indicate that the conventional term ekadasara(h may be spurious. Let us return, though, to the ramadhipati titles and the variations from the 15th-century model. Some of the alterations and omissions seem due to scribal carelessness or misunderstanding, and are thus non-diagnostic. For example, the alternations sundhar/surindr/sindhar, and their omissions from some laws are probably of this type. Likewise the two occurrences of cakrabarrti + ramadhipati must be considered idiosyncratic. The additions to the old structure seem to be more informative, and their analysis can best be initiated with the Treason law of 1434 which I noted above as an 28. Vickery, "The Khmer Inscriptions of Tenasserim." Jayavarman's own inscriptions always show jayavarmmadeva. 29. See Wyatt's note in van Vliet, Short History, p. 63, n. 47. 30. V\U) VJiet, Sh(Jrf lflstorl, PP· 87, 89, 94; and my revie~ of Sh(Jrf lllstor1.

·so

Michael Vickery

anachronistically early example of cula date, 796, Its principal title is .trailo.k-, bqt the date is 14 .years before the beginning of 'Tr~ilok's' reign; and since the year an~ animal synchronism agree it is not culama'!i• nor is there any other way to adjust the date to the true 'Trailok' regnal period. In fact it is the title 'Yhich gives the game away. During the rei~ of Taksin (1767-82) and Rama I (1782-1809) new chronicle versions. were prepared in which all of the dates between 1346 and 1629 are inaccurate by 4-20 years and in which the reign of 'Trailok' indeed begins in 1434.3 1 Thus that se.ction of the law was composed at t~e end of the 18th century, probably after 1795 when the principal chronicle was written, and ins~rted among possibly older sections in order to give the new institutions of Rama I an ~ir of Ayutthayan authority. Rama I and his scholars believed 'T~ailok' had begun his reign in 1434 and they calculated an entirely correct cula date. Since, however, there was no genuine contemporary trallok- title, all such are later concoctions; and we are entitled to attribute · the one under. discussion, trailokanarth nayak tllak, to the legists of Rama i. Among the elements of this new composition are nayak tilak, found in only ·one other old law, the Civil Hierarchy text which shows serious anomalies of date as well. There nayak tilak are followed by a lol!g series of terms which are not part of recorded·genuine old titles, and in that respect it resembles numbers 1, 10, 25, and 41, the last of which is a law of Rama I dated 1784. Thus we"observe: 1. visuddhi suriyavah! ailg purisotam 10. mahi maDkut debamanusa visuddhi suriyavad! ang buddhitikur 18, klau bhuvamaq.4al sakal aruiclekr agra purisotam suriv~ ang purusotam 25. mahi 41. . siddhi visuddhi purusotam In general such extensions of titulature are characteristic of continuity and development within a polity; and the longest royal titles of all in the laws are those of R~ma I in the introduction to the Kat~may, dated 1166/1804.32 Those long introductory titles, moreover, include some of the controversial eleQlents just no~ed: • . . • . • tribhuvanesvaranarth nayak tilak .•• visuddhi makut ... maliiz buddhankur. Thus both the titulary expansion and some of the anomalous (for the laws) terminology were characteristic of the usage of Rama I legists; and we tnay conclude that in addition to number 22, entirely a creation of Rama I legists, the nayak tilak and following titles of number 18, as well as the extra terminology of numbers 1, 10, and 25 are due to Rama I legists, and these elements are evidence that the la.w:s concerned, the 14th-century section of the MiscellaneoWi text, the Palatine and Hierarqhy .laws, and 31. See Viekery, ''Cambodia After Angkor," chapter 9•. 32. See Ibid., chapter 7, and Amlex 5; an4 for the Ions titles of Rama I, Ka(hmap Vol. I, p. 1,

AYUTTHAYAN LAWS

51

one of the anomalous cakrabarrti laws were all rewritten in some way in 1804-05 and their patents of antiquity modified or superimposed. We may not, however, conclude that 'trailok-' was an insertion by Rama I legists, since it was already attributed to the mid-15th-century king in Van Vliet's day. A problem which remains is the evidence of number 22 that Rama I legists believed the reign of 'Trailok' to have been in mid15th century, even if the precise dating was wrong; the dates of the other three 'trailok' laws fall in the 14th century; and no Thai tradition ascribes that title to more than one king. Thus laws 10, 18, and 19, the Palatine and Hierarchy texts should have been considered by Rama I, and perhaps by earlier kings and their legists, to belong to the 15th century. I shall return to this in a moment. One more law whose title may be attributed to the post-1795 misapprehension about Ayutthayan regnal periods is number 28, the single ekadasarath occurrence, dated 1593. The king conventionally known by that title reigned in 1605-10, and his principal title was ramesuor. Moreover the laws and a single inscription indicate that the genuine eka- titles were ekadadharath and ekadasaruda. During the reign of Rama I, and throughout the 19th century, however, it was believed that a king ekadasara{h began his reign in 1593; 33 and the number 28 law preamble thus dates from the period of Rama I and exhibits a false patent of antiquity. Interestingly, the text of this law, p. 198, contains the title ekadadhara!h, probably indicating that the body of the law originally dated from one of the J 7th-century reigns, but was then revised and new preamble added by Rama I legists. Above I noted two dates with a 4-year discrepancy in the animal synchronism. One of them is number 28, whose titles are a composition of the reign of Rama I; and the other is one of the cakrabarrti + ramadhipati laws, which may perhaps also now be ascribed to Rama I. This is further evidence for my earlier tentative conclusion that the 4-year discrepancy was a fault in the writing of the 1805 code.

a

The main problems remaining now are the Palatine and Hierarchy laws, both becau~e of their anomalous dates and the .incorporation of the title trailok. Some of their anomalies are clearly the work of Rama I legists; and the pattern of the trailok elements suggests that they were also inserted during the codification of 1805. This cannot, however, be asserted definitively. since the title 'trailokanath' was already current in the 17th century, and could have been inserted in the laws at that time. A priori they are the laws most likely to show corruption and inconsistencies in their composition, since they would be among the most essential texts of any law code, but they would need considerable revision with each new codification in order to correspond with changing government structures. In fact, I have demonstrated the existence of 33.· ·See van Vliet's Short History, Wyatt's note, p. 87, n.'ll3.

52 inconsistent layers of composition reflecting changed administrative structures in the Hierarchy laws.34 Moreover, if kings~ as the action of Rama I seems to indicate. felt that their duty was to preserve in so far as possible old institutions, rather than openly innovate, the changes they introduced would be partially disguised among outmoded provisions of the laws, resulting in the confusion apparent in so many texts.

General conclusions on dates and· titles • I

1. With the exception of the reign of 'Paramarijidhirij' II, whose true major title was rajadhipati, we have no evidence that 'ramadhipati' is anachronistic for any other of the laws up to 1465; and all four laws whose dates fall in the reign of 'Paramarijidhirij' II are anomalous in other ways. One is the misplaced trailok law on Treason, one is an ekadadhara(h law with Buddhist era date, and the other two are

culamaJ1i. 2. The ramadhipati titles do not reveal definite evidence of more than two recensions,.an 'original' with titles more or less in accordance with the 15th-~ntury inscriptions, and that of Rama I in 1805. Given the similarity of all the old ramadhipati titles, the circumstance that Rimidhipati-Trailok probably was a reformer and innovator, and the inscriptions from his reign, it is probably better to attribute the earliest layer of titulature .in the laws. to a recension of his reign than to the founder of Ayutthaya. If RimidhipaU-Trailok had merely modified an old code we. would expect more indications of tampering with the ramadhipati titles, such as occurred in 1805. There may of course be pre-'Trailok" sections in the laws to which he added his own titles, but they may only be revealed through detailed study of the texts. Another possibility is that, as the Van Vliet Short History shows, those same titles were used by Rimidhipati I, and copied by later kings, including 'Trailok', Naray, Phetracha, and with significant expansion, Rama I Chakri.3S 3.. The 15th-century inscriptions show emphatically that ramadhipati is appropriate for the 'Trailok' period; and that all trailok titles in the laws are probably later interpolations. 4. The Palatine Law shows anomalies of both date and title which are probably due to Rama I legists; and thus no provision of that law, in particular descriptions of royal family or state organization, may automatically be attributed to any date before 1805. Older sections no doubt survive, but only detailed study of the text in comparison with other texts will estab~ish their identity. 34. Michael Vickery, Review of Yoneo Ishii, et. al., An Index of Officials In Traditional Thai Governments, JSS Vol. 63, Part 2 (July 1975), pp. 419-430. 35. See Vickery, ''The Khmer Inscriptions of Tenasserim," for discussion and further references. · Raina I Chakri's use of these titles is in the Miscellaaeous Law of 1146/1804, number 43 of Table 1. · · ·

AYUTTHA'YAN LAWS

53

5. The Palatine and Hierarchy laws exhibit complex difficulties which do not appear amenable to definitive resolution on the basis of date and titles alone. The true expressed date of the former is dog year, 720 cula = 1280 saka (A.D. 1358); and the best reconstruction of the Hierarchy law date, as I indicated above, is dog year 1292 saka (A.D. 1370), just one cycle later, and a circumstance in which copying errors have often occurred.3 6 If it were not for the trailok titles which they all contain, we could leave it at that, saying they dated respectively from the reigns of Rimadhipati I and Paramarijadhiriij I, or all from the same date in one or the other of those reigns, with a subsequent cyclical error in recopying. The presence oftrailok, however, means that they were at one time all dated in 'his' reign, or that because parts of the contents of those laws deal with administrativs structures which he is believed to have instituted, a post-15th century recension, most likely that of 1805, added the trailok titles arbitrarily in disregard of the date. As we have seen, all commentators on the laws have been willing to make quite arbitrary assumptions about dates in order to fit laws into slots in which they were a priori presumed to belong. If we suppose that these laws really originated in the mid-15th century reign of 'Trailok', a plausible systematic restoration of the Hierarchy law date would be saka 1388 (A.D. 1466), with two figures susceptible to a type of confusion which could lead to 1298. Then the trailok element could have been added either in one of the 17thcentury recensions, or in that of 1805, at which time the error in copying the date would have occurred. There is no way to systematically fit the Palatine date into the 'Trailok' period, but that date was most probably established arbitrarily by Rama I legists, and, as I said above, this law is the most anomalous of all. 6. The ekadadhara!h titles, when compar~d with other extant documents, seem quite anomalous, for that term is not found in any contemporary, or near contemporary, documents for a,ny of the kings concerned; and the only confirmed eka- title is ekadasaruda, for a reign to which no laws are attributed. Application of the same method as used in my explanation of cu{amal]i and the Buddhist era law dates would mean attribution of all occurrences of ekadadharath to a recension in the reign of King Naray, where it is found for the last time. Otherwise we would have to suppose that . other kings also used it, but perhaps only for their laws. For the present the only permissible conclusion is that all ekadadhara{h titles belong to the reign of Naresuor and in the 17th century. 36. See discussion of this problem in Vickery, "Cambodia After Angkor;" chapter 4.

MiohaelVic:keey

54

Recensions of the Ayutthayan laws The examination of dates and titles permits a few systematic hypotheses about the various recensions or recodifications through which the Ayutthayan laws passed before that of 1805.

1. A pre-1569 recension with true §aka dates. Although this may go back to RimidhipaU I there is no proof in the dates or titles of anything older than Rimadhipati- 'Trailok'. 2. Laws of Naresuor's reign with true cula dates. 3. A recodification by Indarijii/Song Tham using Buddhist era dates, including there-dating of old laws in the Buddhist era. The anomalous ekadadhara(h title of 1432 (number 21) would have been part of either this recension or the one following. 4. A new code prepared for. Dhammariijidhirij/Prasat Thong. The culamani . . . factor"'was probably devised at this time; and its occurrence at earlier dates would indicate either old laws revised for Dhammariijidhiriij or new compositions to which he wished to attribute patents of antiquity. It is also possible, because one cu{amani date belongs to the reign of Indarijii/Song Tham, that he was responsible for it and Dhammarajiidhiraj continued its use. 5. New laws of Naray and Phetracha, although not full new recensions of. the code. 6. The 1805 code of Rama I Chakri It is now interesting to turn to the earliest European. observer who wrote in some detail on the subjects of Thai historical literature and government structure, Jeremias van Vliet, who was on the scene in 1633-1641 during part of .one of the reigns in which I have deduced a major law recension, and who made the following remarks about Thai laws- -probably based partly on his own observations, partly on Thai writings, and partly on oral tradition. In his treatment of Rimesuor (Ekidasara~h, 1605;..10) van Vliet wrote that "he introduced the ordinances as established by ... Ramithibodi to which the officers who served the foreigners ... had to conform"; and for fiscal reasons "he introduced many oppressive laws ... demanded that all subject lands and cities under the Siamese crown list their slaves."37 Thus van Vliet, only 20-30 years afterward, had heard of major legal innovations in the beginning of the 17th century and also heard that. they involved a renewal of earlier laws promulgated by a king Ramidhipati, although whether the first (1351-69), or the second (1491-1529), or Ramidhipati-Trailok is not clear. 37. Van Vliet, Short History, pp. 87-88.

AYUTTHAYAN LAWS

55

Greater clarity emerges from his remarks on the reign of his contemporary King Dhammarajadhiraj who "improved, renewed, and corrected the ordinances introduced by the eleventh king [Ramiidhipati II] and continued by the twenty-first king [RamesuorEkadasara~h]."38 This information obtained by a near contemporary of the last two law revisions is very close to the picture deduced from the law preambles themselves, the important difference being that van Vliet emphasizes the work of Riimesuor, while the law preambles indicate a maJor recension under Indaraji. Also interesting, and puzzling, is that the earliest law code is attributed to Ramadhipati II rather than to Ramadhipat'i-Trailok, since no extant laws are dated between 1466 and 1593. That difficulty, however, might be overcome by remembering that 'Trailok's true principal title was Ramidhipati, but that by van Vliet's time this detail had been forgotten. Thus for men of the early 17th century all old laws with ramadhipati-type titles would have been attributed either to the king of 1491-1529 or to the first of that name in 1351-69. Even if van Vliet believed all the iamadhipati laws to have been the work of the second of that name, our examination of dates and titles indicates that apparently Dhammarajadhiraj/Prasat Thong and Rama I Chakri chose to redate some of them to the period of Ramidhipatl I.

~8.

!bid., p. 96,

56

· Michael Vickery

Page locations in the Guru sabha edition of the laws, and Thai subject titles of the laws. Numbering and dates are as in Table 1, and locations are by volume and page.

1.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. ~0.

1341 1345 1351 1351 1355 1355 1355 1356 1356 1358 1358 1359 1359 1360 1361 1362 1364 1376 1376 1382 1432 1434 1437 1447 1451 1452 1465 1593 1593 lS99

1263 Vol. III p. 94 Miscellaneous- tUtJiifl1l 1267 336 Slavery- nu1 II 1894 68 Witnesses - muiu II 1895 IV 2 Crimes against the Government - Sl'lfl mm 1899 II 27 Litigation - {uW!H 1899 lOS Ordeals - Yi"!:n II 1899 III 1 Kidnapping - ;nm 1900 130 Judges - fiH:a1m1 II 1278" 60 Debts - 1!11~ III 720 I 69 Palatine - lJillt~!ilula 1902 IV 106 Civil Offenses - m'lf11UJ 1903 114 Miscellaneous - tutJtlfl1l III 1903 III 210 Theft -ln 1904 II 205 Husband and Wife - li1t~v 1905 244 Husband and Wife - li1t~v II 1906 III 164 Miscellaneous - tutJtlfn 1910 III 290 Theft -11l1 1298 219 'Civil Hierarchy - fiumu~uw1at~au I 1298 I 316 Military, Provincial Hierarchies- tiunlu~u,nHmi1t~o~ 1926 50 Litigation - {uY!a~ II 1976 IV 17 Crimes' against the Government - m'!lma·H 796 132 Treason - m:utJ ~n IV 1359 II 287 Slavery - 111w '~ 1369 III 184 Quarre1s - ...11111 fllfl 1373 IV 123 Treason - ma:utJ~n 1374 149 Treason , IV " 1387 II 317 Slavery - n1w 955 I 196 Fines - WllJftfl~ 955 155 Treason - m~:utJ~n IV 96l v 6 (Old) Royal Decrees - timufltfh

.

--------------

S1

AYUTTHAYAN LAWS

31.

32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43.

1611 1611 1614 1622 1633 1633 1635 1643 1669 1690 1784 1790 1804

2155 2155 2158 1544 1555 1555 1557 1565 1591 1052 1146 1152 1166

III III III I I II II' III II II III II II

21 46 53" 160 172 185 331 132 38 2 173 202 248

Inheritanqe - lnt~n ,. Inheritance Inherit11nce " Procedure - 11n1.1u u · Procedure Appeal- ~n Slavery'- till~ Miscellaneous - mt~&l'l111 Litigatio.n - 1wuY:o4 Division of phrai - UlUUNun Miscellaneous - &ut~&fll11 . Appeal- 'illll '· Husband and Wife - N11~1J

..

---

--

58

Michael ~ickery Table 1 A.D. elates are calculated with the cimventional 78 and 638 for (aka and c;wa, iiiid544 for Buddhist,·in accordance'with 17th-centu!y pracl_ice. With tliilixcept1on of number 3, which clearly belongs in the reign of Rimidhipati, 1351, more refined

·Note:

calculation for elates falling near the change of year and requiring 79/639 would serve no pU1pose in the discussion. In colUDDI 3, I:, c., and B indicate original s"aka, cula and Buddhist elates; coliiDDI 4, + , indici1;es-presence of cuJlllnapr factor; colWilli r!iidicates discrepancies between: numerical year date and animal year other than ~ ( +/- meaning true animal synchronism ahead or behind that e:xpressed) ; translations of law subjects according to ·Akin Rabibhadana, The ~anization of ..!!!!!. Society.!!!, the Early Bangkot Period 1782-1873, Data Paper 74, Souteast Asia PiOgram, Comell University, July 19 9. .

1 A. D.

1 1341 2 1345

2 orig.

3 4

.1!11..

5

1263 ' a~ + 1267 +

HiacilJ.aDeoua Slavary

. Jamidhipati I 3 USO 1894 B

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

1351 1355 1355 1355 1356 1356 1358 1358 1359 1359 1360 1361 1362 1364

20

21

1895 1899 1899 1899 1900 1278 720

1902 1903 1903 1904 1905 1906 1910

rll'mi"dhipatr l'lmidhipatr zmaidhipatf rimidhipatlil: rim&dhipati

B B

B B B

t

-4 -2

c B

B B B B B -7/+5 B Paramarii:ji'dhirilj I

18 1376 19 1~76

7

Lav aub,1eot

1298 1298

rim&dhipatf riiDitlhipatf + WaUci:z'imidhipatl liim&dhipatl zmaidhipati rima""lihipati z'imidhipati l'lmidhipati

1926 B +1 Pal'allla1"iji[dhir&j II 1976 B +1

Litigations Ordeals Kidllappillg .TwJgea Dabts

Palatine MiaceUaneoua

Thett

Husband and vite Husband and vita

Miscellaneous

Thett

Civil B:l.e1'111'0b¥ Hilitar)' 0 Provincial HierarobJ'

J!> Ifo

a'

Witnesses Crimes agai.D&t govemment

1382

1432 22 1434 23 1437 24 1447

796

1359 1369

eki'cladhara~

tmilokl"im&dhipati :dimidhipati

0

8 + 8 +

Crimas against govamment Treason Slavery QUarrels

Trail.ok-

25 1451 26 1452 27 1465

1373 ~ + 1374 . ' + 1387 i +

Treason. Treason. Slava:ey-

Narelfuor

28 1593 29 1593.

955 955 961

-4 +3

c c

ekida{amtb.

1599

31 32 33 34

Indarija/Dmn dhal'll. (Song Tham) 1611 2155 B ekidadhamth 1611 2155 B ekiicladham~ 1614 2158 B ak'lldadharath. 1622 1544 8 + a11:8dadhamih llhammarijidhirilj/Pms'id d~ (Pmsat Thone)

35 1633 36. 1633 37 1635 38 1643

1555 1555 1557 1565

c

ekicladhamth

30

ekidadhamih

eki:dadhara~

ti + 1 +

s8

a

Illhari tance Illheritance Illharitance Procedure

ekidadhamth

Procedure Appeal

ekidadhara~

Miacallaneous

•

+

Finas Treason ( Oid) Ro)'al decrees

Slava:ey-

Niriy

1591 II'no animal ekidadhamth Bacb:aJi (Phetmoha) •

39 1669 Ill 1690

1052

c

Division or

Rlimll I Chakri

41

1784 J;l .1790 43 1804

1146 1152 1166

c

c

c

LitigatiOZL

-3 +2

:ramadhipatr

l'lmidhipati rlmildhipa tl

ll!!m!

Miscellaneous Appeal Husband and Wife

~r hotm

c&'kraba rrti

p;;n.•

-; r i bhliva nlidh iJles'

:..u1tec bra.~

3

pad

S illlll~

r im:~. dhipat

samtec

bra~

s:~. mt ec

bral.1 cat\

6 Lrill_l p;'d s:untec

c au

i Srr

b r.1~ param Jll bi ~ r bra~ buddhi c a1

sundhar

r3miidhi JJa t i Sr f su rindr

Sr r

Ti:n~d hijl:l.l i

cih :1barrt i S.lr

p:lvar dh:l.rrnib s:a~ ri J iidhhij

pa ra CJ~nirt h

ji'ti harl

h.&rin

in dr

tc jo j :li y:1

! U:ul h:lr

Lral_1

C:I. U

r:illll"dldpnf Sr i !: in:lh:tr

bra~

cau

r:i:.~:id J, i p :ui ~r r

deb

!.r i bhU van:i'J hi ri!S

bra~

buddhl ca1

pabi~r bra~

buddhi CAl.

bra~

buddha Cl.ll

·pa ra.11 pabi!:_r

r»ha iysu ri yas:IVa r ryi deb i t ideb !,rTbhiiva : nirt h

pa ru po.bi!r

paral71.

nn i n.lr 10

Jl'i i'llil

r!&u.1Jl.ip:H "i •.f1

"

s:~mtec

l5

S:lllltec

r sunJ!I i'

r:!Clidliip:ar

bnll

rltt.idhiJl:r. t i t rt

b·r :1~

c au

bro~h

c:m

par~

hjidloi r i j

!rrr

b r al,l cau

rijidhir.ij

rtir:l"\.~

ri'll:idhip:at r Sri

pam

c:llraba r n i

Tijidh ir:lj

c:i\rab:~.rrti

:ti'jll'

P!ll':l.m Jl:id

~ ribhUvanii'dh ipe s"

J>llb i f r

n1r ioJraJ)I.ipat LWr

l! bt"J!I jl.!J S:l.mtc:..:: brs ~

~ r:~a

p:iJ sllCt ec

20 tr:.l}~

piJ

!o:l.lll l ~

b r:al~

JliJ

Sll.loo toC

21

pen

pllr:ul ps.bi~r b n ~ budJhi c au

ca.u

17 Lral_1 J'id !:.llll tcc Jl:l.Tlm

19

""

unr al!l p:i.b i_!:r l· n ~

par:LQ P.lhi,!= r b ra~ budllhi c ~u

c:i\.rabar r ti br a~

pabl .!_ r brti_i WdJhl rau

p ir!ill paLl!t' Lra~ WJJha c&u

r:Wiidh i p:af Sri

trai l ok.

uayak

dlll::. pbtr JMoA

f•lT"!iiil

dh.J rfl:.iT;jl. ca.~

p.ibi! r bra? bullJJd r au

y iJJ, irlj ·p)l[l

kla.~ bbi'i"~~l s aka1 ~ iic il:.r i'1• puri s ou.a

pcu

par.1lt {labi!r b ra ~ budLi hi Clll.l

paru tra i l ob.ni'r t ll

parUI pabi!r

br ~

bud:J h i CIU.I

p.aru pllbi_;r

bn~

buJLihi c.w

...-.u.ii pabi!r t.r~t lo.ldJtti c~ bn~

23

pid s utec

n.&dhlpat indr bu~ cau

25

L ra ~

piid sntec

Jl:lor!l.lll

na'rt h flllrll.m pabitr siddhi

.....

r W dhiJl:l tr r i lll5"d lii p:n f

27

SrT

28

br a ~

Jlii'd S:llilt eC'

e~ i.!a sar:~. ~ h

29

br a ~

p!id s:lr. t ec

tUtl(;ldli:ln~h

!Hllilrf C

p~

I>"''" r&j parb

sundhn dhuru teji uhi"

111.1.h!' c i't; r::~ ba r r t is":a

lU br::ll_l )l:i,J

nari.nd.r

r WJ hi pa ti 1rf s undhar

Jiar- Jl.& bi!r

ca'knbanti

Svar

c-

pu·ua pabi!r br.a.J;l Lu.d.Jhi tau

pan•

deh~t i de b .is'v:~.r

tl:iJll.dhnilt.l• ·

.! 1 t. r o~f! J•JJ ':.o li:l ti: C

l'-

bl'~ b~i

t Tillii'Uv:lll'idh i pe/

p.lr~

pab i !; r Lr..J.t Luddhi .-: ..u

Jl lr :l ~Ui t't ll

p:n::alll

p :~.bi ~ r bnl~

l.J uddhi tlhl

fl!lrl41:m i r th

pa n:~:

p:abi .!. r

bra~

LudJh i Ciu

Jl!ll"!1tl

fllLI !._r lo NI! buJJM Ci.U

Jl!l l':lm

p:a.!, i~ t

r l[Ja:ll>ir:it_h

L•••l.' LuJ.D, i Ci.U

Jl"' ru p 11.l.J i ~-r l.nl.' LuJJid.

e).~tlatlh:.r:. ~ h

~.u

d:"ill:>d l1:r.r:r.~h

JS Lr.:. ~ p:i'J sawt ec

t k:idatlh:.ra!h b ra~

cau

i!:'var

t kiidad li!l n~ h

Jlllr!1WWllf'rl h

p:tl'!llll i':.b i!_ :- bral_t !Juddld C'!lu

fl:lf:IIWI :l"rt h

Jl:l l':ICI

pa!.Ji !_r h r ll} budJh i c au

j s'var p ua )l;Jb i!_r b r !ll.' budtU1i e r.u

3il l.J r.li.• pi'd sae;te c

•krdadtur:o!h

i l va-r

JIJ Lr:.l.1 J;:JJ ~.11:1 1 o;:.;:

d: :drodturJ~h

Hv u·

,.

ricldhipa t i Sri .U br~ piid santee p:u·IUII dharmikka:

4l

br~

p ia s:amtec para.c. niith

""'''

puam p ab i.!r

rijidhi ri'j

r :i'~dhi pa: i

Sri surind

si ddhi

Tiauddhi

P'"'"

:d::n barrti

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THE INTERROGATION OF ZEYA SURIYA KYA W A BURMESE ACCOUNT OF THE JUNK CEYLON (PHUKET) CAMPAIGNS OF 1809-1810* CYRIL SKINNER*'*

The last serious attack that the Burmese were to make upon Siam began in October 1809.1 It was launched from Tavoy, where one of King Bodawphaya's 'Atwinwun' (Palace Chamberlains) had assembled an army of 30,000 men, and it took the form of a two-pronged invasion of Siam's southern provinces. The left 'prong' of the invasion force captured Ranng Yan /28/ and ordered boats of various sizes to be built, to hold 20, 30, 40 or SO men, the total number of boats built being 237. He ordered mining to be carried out and obtained tin weighing 3,000 chang and 75 baht, and he also ordered rice to be planted, [obtaining?] 2,000 sat of hill rice and 3,000 sat of wet rice. Just over a month later /29/ the Atwinwun received letters from Kama Takhaeng, the Prince of Toungoo, Lakkha Takhaeng, the Prince of Paye [Prome], Mongpe, the Prince of Phukam [Pagan] and Mongphae, the Prince of Patan.l The letters said that as a consequence of the Atwinwun's complaint that the Governors of Martaban and Rangoon had tried to stop the expedition /30/ and had prevented him from levying men and s~pplies, the King had now dismissed them from their office and appointed Maha Nrathat and Mc;mg Charisa, the King's grandson, to go down and replace them as Governors of Martaban and Rangoon respectively. If the Atwinwun wished to levy men or supplies[? he should do so] without informing /31/ Martaban or Rangoon. In. the town of Tavoy, the Atwinwun had twelve buildings erected, fenced off with thick 'double-weave' bamboo walls with wooden frames at both the front and the .back, each side being 3 sen and 10 wat long. He took two Tavoy girls /32/ as his wives, dressed them up in robes striped with gold and insisted that they be addressed as 'Princess', constructing inner and outer apartments [for them].• When engaged upon his duties, whether going or coming, he insisted that his activities be described in terms reserved for royalty. His followers and servants /33/ -about 400 in number-would

66

Cyril Skinn~r

carry off the local womenfolk as. their wives and hold drinking parties, dancing and singing,and they would take fighting-cocks and hold cockfights for the.Atwinwun to see. This went on all the time causing the people in the district /34/ great distress. [Meanwhile] the governors of Martaban and Rangoon found out what was going on and reported to Ava that the Atwinwun appeared to be plannin_g a revolt. The King then sent a messenger by fast boat to Mayetae, the Governor of Rangoon, instructing him to raise an army of 6,000 men- to go down and safeguard /35/ Martaban. The Atwinwun's wife then wrote secretly to her husband info~ming him that people had been up to Ava to accuse him· of committing treason. The King had imprisoned her and she begged her husband to think carefully, otherwise they would all be killed. The Atwinwun /36/'sent a letter up to Ava denying the accusations made against . him and saying that, as soon as his military duties were over, he would establish the truth of the matter. He then /37/ ordered gold and silver to be levied from the people in the district and the Governor and his officers duly collected 150 gold baht[? weighing] 1 chang, 10 tamleung and 1 baht, I and 800 chang of silver which were handed over to the Atwinwun. · When the new Governor .of Rangoon came down, the King had him call upon Mayetae,/38/·the old Governor, to instruct him to stand down the troops he had raised to safeguard Martaban and return to Ava. Takhaeng M9ngmu also ~me up, bringing with him a male elephant of auspicious colour for the King but the King said that it was an inferior breed and would not allow it into the capital. The King /39/ spoke to Takhaeng M~ngmu and Mayetae about the accusations they had made against the Atwinwun and said that when the campaign was over, he would clear up the matter; they should not feel aggrieved. If the Atwinwun was unsuccessful in this present campaign against Siam, he wo1,1ld be put to death. On the 13th waning of the lOth month in the ye.ar'of the Snake, the first year [of the decade)1/40/ the Atwinwun appointed Nga U, the Governor of Tavoy, as General of a force, with ·[myself], Seya Turiang Ch9, as Lieutenant-General commanding the Right Wing, Singkha Turiang, the Governor of Marid [Mergui] as Lieutenant-General commanding the Left Wing and Phlayang Qng Nga,t Myutale of Tavoy, as Yokkrabat.2 The force was made up as follows : 6,000 Troops Atwinwun's men from Tavoy 3,000 from Mergui ~ Total 10,000 men

JUNK CEYLON (PHUKET) CAMPAIGNS OF 1809:...1810

Armaments

swivel-guns muskets bow chasers, 3" calibre

200 3,500 20

Total [Supplies]

with

67

3,720 pieces 300 charges 3 sat

black powder, per piece rice, per Qian 230 vessels,

/41/ charged to carry out the attack upon Junk Ceylon. The force was at full strength when it set off and none or' the vessels got away from the main body or suffered any damage. When it reached Takua Pa, (I] Seya Turiang Cho, Lieutenant-General commanding the Right Wing, took 3,000 men and attacked the place. The town /42/ did not put up any resistance; the people simply fled. We captured : 13 3", 4" calibre cannon 2 swivel guns 9 muskets Total 24 pieces, with about 2,000 sat of paddy, which was loaded aboard the ships.

We also

captured 2 old women. The next day, Singkha Turiang, the Lieutenant-General commanding the Left Wing, led 4,000 men in an attack upon the vtllage of Na Toeil. There was no resistance, the people simply fled. We captured: 3", 4'' calibre cannon swivel-guns muskets

20 5

13

Total

38 pieces

with 3,000 sat of paddy. /43/ We then sent a message to our General, Nga U, who advanced and set up camp at Na Toei with 3,000 men. He ordered me to embark my 3,000 men and told Singkha Turiang to take another 3,000 men and march down, the two forces being

ordered to meet up with each other at Pak Phrai; a thousand men were left to guard the boats. My force [subsequently] crossed over to the village of Sakhu2 /44/ where it· met a Siamese patrol and a brief skirmish ensued before the Siamese withdrew. We pursued them as far as Ban Takhian,l while the Siamese retreated to their fort at Thalang. We set up camp at Takhian. Seven days later Singkha Turiang sent us

68

Cyril Skinner

another thousand men and we proceeded to invest /45/ Thalang by setting up fifteen stockades so as to cut off the town from three sides, leaving only the southern side open. On the 12th waxing of the 12th month,l we made a night attack upon the Thalang defences but lost over 500 men as a result of Siamese cannon fire, as well as a great number of wounded, /46/ and withdrew to our stockades. Orders were received from the General ordering the Lieutenant-General commanding the Left Wing to arrest me and take ,me to Tha Reua.l However when I volunteered to capture Thalang, the General released me and sent me back. Subsequently /47 I a message was received from the Lieutenant-General commanding the Left Wing saying that the General, Nga U, had fallen sick and died. We were ordered to break off the siege and withdraw. After we had been encamped at Pak Chan• for just over a month, the Atwinwun sent Nga Chan down to take over command of the force with order:s to execute myself /48/ and Singkha Turiang and in our places appoint Yaechakatak[h]un as Lieutenant-General of the Right Wing and Yaelasurach9t as Lieutenant-General of the Left Wing. All the officers concerned discussed the situation and agreed to ask that our lives be spared on cogdition that we be put in command of the vanguard to press home the attack on Thalang until it fell. If we failed, tbim we were to be put to death. As a result Nga Chan, the General, did /49/ not proceed with the executions but ordered us to attack Thalang. The Atwinwun sent a letter to Nga Chan, the General, informing him that he had ordered Turiang Sarakay91 to take 8,000 men and march down by way of ChumpbQn. In the meantime our force had lost a considerable ·number of men through sickness, death and desertion/50/ and we would have had about 6,000 men left to invest Thalang. We had besieged Tbalang for 20 days when Turiang Sarakay9 arrived with 5,000 men to join in the attack. The town was taken and we captured : cannon-3", 4" calibre swivel~guns

muskets

84l 20 J 154 pieces 50

/51/ along with over 300 families and 3,000 bars of tin; all the weapons and the captives were sent up to Tavoy. The Atwinwun sent Mo and Mayakphu down to Thalang on official business and they told us that the Atwinwun had sent dispatches up to Ava along with the [captive] Gove~nor of Thalang, /52/ reporting that, in accordance with his instructions, Turian[g] Sarakayo had attacked Thalang with 12,000 men and taken it, capturing cannon, small-arms and a number of Siamese families, all of which bad been sent up to

JUNK CEYLON (PHUKET) CAMPAIGNS OF 1809-1810

69

Tavoy. The force had been ordered to remain in Thalang to defend it. The King conferred upon the Atwinwun the title of Maha Saba Sural and upon Turian[g] Sarakaye;> the title of Nemyo Sura Sak Teng. He had the Atwinwun's titles /53/ inscribed on a golden name-plate and sent down to him and also presented him with seven ·ceremonial 'victory' drums painted scarlet. The General, Nga Chan, appointed Nga Phyu, a Mergui man, as Akhun Chare[he was] the brother-in-law of the Laksamana'- and ordered him to take a ship with 30 men and carry a letter to Sai [Kedah]; he also sent the European Commodore of Rangoon2 with 25 men and a sloop to take 3,000 bars of tin /54/ to be traded for gunpowder at K~ Mak [Penang]'. The letter to Kedah said that originally Kedah had been a vassal of Burma; now that Thalang bad been captured, all the birds' nest islands would be handed over to Kedah; the Ruler of Kedah should therefore make arrangements to present the gold and silver fiowers2 [to the King of Ava] /55/ in the customary fashion. Nga Phyu and the European captain sailed off. Some 15 days later the European commodore, the master of the sloop, returned to Thailand and reported to the General, Nga Chan, that he had been unable to trade the tin for gunpowder but that he had traded it for : atalat' red velvet green velvet green silk red kalat2 green kalat thin white cloth tobacco dried fish

3 rolls 2 rolls 1 roll 3 rolls 3 bolts 2 bolts

l J 5 bolts in all

3 bolts 200 chang 300 chang

which he had brought to Nga Chao, /56/ our General. made off.

The European captain then

[Nga] Chan's force on Thalang was [subsequently] defeated and withdrew to Pak Chan. The Atwinwun sent [his men] down to arrest Nga Chan, the General and his deputy, Yaechakatakhun, and take them up to Tavoy. They had been gone for two days when the ship which had gone to Kedah returned /57/ and met up with the force at Pak Chan. The Ruler of Kedah had sent an answer by a Malay nobleman whom Nga Phyu brought back, together with a chest containing :

70

Cyril Skinner

white cloth · wax tapers, large red silk green silk

3 bolts SO sticks 2 rolls 3 rolls,

as a gift for the Atwinwun. The letter from the Ruler of Kedab stated that a Siamese force of about 3,000 men bad come ~own in order /58/ to keep an eye on Kedah and it appears that any attempt to join the Burmese would meet with opposition. He therefore asked for a ·Burmese force of 6,000 men to be sent to attack Kedab, and facilitate Kedab's joining the Burmese. Nga Phyu and the Malay were instructed to . ' make haste and sail up to Tavoy. The Atwinwun then bad the General, Nga Chan, the Lieutenant-General, Turiang Salacho,l and five other officers put to death, eight persons in all. /59/ The Atwinwun also gave orders to put me to death, but my four wives in Tavoy brought 50 baht of gold and 80 chang of silver and paid it over to the wife of the Atwinwun, begging that my life be spared. The very same day /60/ Tqya Bol came down from Ava and said that reports had been received that the Atwinwun had ordered the execution of a considerable number of officers and tliat he had been sent down to investigate the matter. When the Atwinwun had first led the army down from Ava, he had told his wife that if T~ya Bo was . not made Deputy Governor of Saenwi [SandowayJ,/61/ Tc;»ya ~o was to follow him down to Tavoy, and the King had utilised the occasion to have him take down two let~rs, the contents of which I do not know, but he requested that the 280 officers who had been arrested, including myself, should be pardoned. The Atwinwun thereupon had us released /62/ from custody. My wives told m~ that after the army bad gone oft' to Tbalang, the Atwinwun had ordered the women and children of Tavoy to carry bricks to build up the pagoda in the centre of the town to make it bigger than the 'original one. He also levied /63/ a contribution of 100 sat of rice from each household, and any household that could not deliver the rice had to sell their sons and daughters into slavery. The Atwinwun's followers- about 500 families- carried oft' the wives of the Governor and his officials, as well·as the wives of the common folk, to work in the rice-fields to harvest the crop, with four of his men in charge of every ten women. /64/ At night the men would sleep with the women as though they were their own wives. When the army came back, the husbands of the women who had been carried oft' by the Atwinwun's followers and used as concubines-about a hundred women in all'- complained to the Atwinwun. But the Atwinwun only replied: "lfyour wives were happy to take [my followers) as their husbands, /65/ what am I supposed to do about it ?" and the complainants could gain

JUNK CEYLON (PHUKET) CAMPAIGNS OF 1809-1810

71

no redress. Everybody in the entire district of Tavoy- men, women and children- were in great distress and Phalachipa' and 20 Tavoy men planned to assassinate the Atwinwun. The Atwinwun found out what was going on /66/ and had Phalachipa and the 20 men arrested and executed. On the 13th waning of the 6th month, the year of the Horse, the 2nd [of the decade],' the Atwinwun raised [another] force and appointed Si Be;» Wun2 as General of the force, Yelachochawa as Lieutenant-General of the Left and Akha Yekqng as Lieutenant-General of the Right. The force was made up of: 5,200 of the Atwinwun's men 500 from Tavoy 300 from Mergui Total

6,000 men

.Toya ' Bo was put in command of the vanguard /67/ . which totalled 1,050 men, one

company· of which consisted of myself, Th~ng Nak and 30 men from Thalang.l The Atwinwun presented Th9ng Nak with robes, a gold-leaf parasol and a sword with a gold scabbard. · The vanguard was equipped as follows : bow-chaser cannon swivel-guns· 20 476 pieces muskets 450 gun powder, per piece 150 charges rice, per man 3 sat 28 vessels. and

7}

.

/68/ I do not know what armaments or how much powder · and shot the main body of the army had. The Atwinwun gave T?ya Bo the draft plan for a citadel he was to build at Thalang which was to be surrounded by an earth wall and a moat /69/. Si 1J9 Wun was ordered to take his 6,000 men and attack Kedah, taking along with him the Malay who had come up from Kedah. The [combined] force left Tavoy but ran into a storm and Si BC? Wun had 3 boats sunk and over 100 men drowned, while 32 boats and over 1,000 men managed to get away. /70/ Of the vanguard, 5 boats got away with about 180 men. When the force reached Takua Pa, it rested for three days. The next morning it set out, but ran into a southerly gale with torrential rain; 16 ships were lost and /71/ about 30 men were drowned. The survivors were able to get ashore but the boats could make no headway and returned to Takua Pa, with only 44 boats and 3,000 men in the land and sea forces combined. We stopped there for 5 days, capturing 2 women from Takua Pa, and the force then marched south /72/ for five days until it reached Pak Pbra. We cut down trees and built some rafts, and got hold of a boat, and we were able to ferry the entire force across in eight days. The naval force then went on to Thalang.

72

Cyt~

Skinner

9 days later Si Bq Wun, the General, sent. Phyu Chare, the Laksamana's men, accompanied/by YQi, a Burman, in .a ship with brother-in-law, in a ship with 30 . c 35 men and Nga Pod, a Tavoy man, in a boat with 3 men /73/ to take a message to Kedah; I do not know what the letter said. About 15 days later the Lieutenant-General came back and reported that the Laksamanat had refused to allow_ the ships into Kedah; there was a Siamese force in Kedah and the discussions should be held in Penang. 174/ Si Be;» Wun gave Po Kale 4 boats and told him to go back to Penang. If the !4lksamana did not come to discuss matters, Nga Pok should go and fetch him but [whatever happened] Po Kale should arrange to buy rice and bring it back as soon as possible. The ships had been gone about a month and the force was running /75/ short of food. We were reduced to digging up yams and tubers to eat. Sickness set in and a number of men in the force died of hunger in the forest so that T9ya Bo would have had only about 350 men left. He /76/ sent my son Nga Su, my son-in-law Suai Phol and myself, in a boat with 22 ·men, with 12 chang of silver to buy rice in Mergui. The ship left on the 15th waxing of the lOth month.2 We got as far as Na Toei but ran into a storm and were unable to get any further. We all got ashore but the boat 1711 was wrecked. We made for Thalang and were within SO sent_ of Thalang when we encountered a force of 30 Siamese. We threw away the 12 chang of silver, a bowchaser cannon, 2 swivels and 5 muskets- 8 pieces in all- and fled hito the forest. The Siamese captured Nga Su, myself and 5 of the men- in all 7 persons- but Suai Phq, my son-in-law, and 6 men were able to get across. to Thalang. f18/ I do not know what happened to the other 11 men.

JUNK CEYLON (PHUKET) CAMPAIGNS OF 1809-1810

73

Notes to the Translation Although the Thai spelling used in the manuscript is much freer than modern standardised spelling, the divergences are not such as to cause any serious problems, However the copyist's rendering of the many Burmese names and titles occurring in the ms. is far from consistent and does not facilitate easy recognition. Possessing no knowledge of Burmese I have, in the body of the translation, romanised them according to the form used by the Siamese copyist. In the 'Notes' which follow (which have benefitted from the advice given me by Dr. U. Aye Kyaw) I have suggested a more oonventional Burmese romanisation of the names. *In the Text, page numbers of the original manuscript are enclosed within strokes, e.g. /l/,/2/, /3/, etc. The Notes to the Text are numbered according to the page of the manuscript, e.g, l/4' indicates Note 4 on page 1 of the original. 1/1 •Nga' is a Burmese prefix used before the names of males (similar to the Thai 'ai'). The name is therefore 'Satana Aung'. 1/2 Perhaps •Yin Taw'? 1/3 There are some 40 metres to the •sen'; 3,600 sen is thus about 140 km. l/4 Ava, the former capital of Burma, is frequently used to describe the Kingdom of Bumta, although at this time King Bodawphaya had established his capital at Amarapura, a few km east of Ava (and 10 km south of the later capital of Mandalay). l/5 'Suai' may be the Burmese 'shwe'- golden. 1/6 The first two words may be 'Shwe Daung'- 'Golden Mountain'; the last word is the word for •cavalry'- 'payankyi' (or 'payanchi'), (see e.g. the note on Burmese pronunciation in Philips (1963) p. 99-102). 2/1 Probably 'Zeya Suriya Kyaw'; 'Zeya' is the word often transcribed as 'Saye' (earlier •seree'), a title corresponding to 'Secretary'. 2/2 80 km. 3/1 Kyaukmaw was the district "bordering the land of Chiengmai on one side as far as the Salween river," see Trager and Koenig (1979) p. 179-180. It lies to the north of Shweigyin. 4/1 Reading \UJ1nn-san for the text's ll1nn1£1n. A document from Kyawkmaw dated 1784 speaks of "The Karens who. pay betel nut tax pay 370 vias of betel nut annually," see Trager and Koenig (1979) p. 181. (A 'viss" is just over 3 lb 5 oz/1.5 kg.) 4/2 There are 100 •catties' (chang) in the 'picul' (hab) of 133 1/3 lb/60 kg. The amount involved is thus approximately 4332 lbs/1950 kg. The sittan dated 1784 (see Trager and Koenig (1979) p. 181) states that the betel nut tax paid (in kind) by the Karens in the Kyaukmaw district amounted to 370 'viss", with a further 52! •viss' in the form of fees, i.e. a total of 422i viss, which is roughly 1415 1b/642.2 kg. This is only a third of the amount given in our document but 1784 may not have been a particularly good year, and as a n~wly-appointed governor Zeya Suriya Kyaw might well have been keen to increase revenue obtained from the district (and his own 'ten per cent').

-~--~-~

74

-

---

----

Cyril Skinner

4/3 This presumably refers to silver (currency?) there are 80 baht to the chang (1.2 kg). 4/4 Kyaukk.yi, which bordered Kyaukmaw on the north-west (see Trager a~d Koenig (1979) p. 181-182). S/1 1160 Chula Sakarat ('Lesser Era') commenced in Apri11798 and ended in March 1799. S/2 i.e. the Einshe (Thakin)- 'Lord of the Eastern House'- the title of the Burmese heir-apparent. S/3 'Lord of Toungoo', the Einshe Thakin's younger brother; 'Takhaeng' (Lord) in this and other titles is usually rolilanised 'Thakin'. 7/1 12 km. 8/1 i.e. Saku Thakin. 9/1 i.e. ~yin Wunkyi (Commander of the Cavalry). 10/1 i.e. Akhunwun (Collector of Customs). 11/1 The 'yokrabat' of a Siamese province was concerned with the administration of justice; he was (in theory at least) responsible directly to the capital and not to the governor of the province. 13(1 The reference to 'white' and 'black' gunpowder perhaps refers to two of the three elements which combine to form gunpowder, viz. saltpetre (nitrate) and charcoal. 13/2 The sat is about 20 litres. 15/1 The coyan is usually taken to be equivalent to 2,000 litres, so that, 4;000 coyan would be 8,000 kilolitres, but this figure would not tally with 200 000 sat, which (at 20 litres to the sat) would total 4000 kilolitres. However the coyan varied according to the location and the commodity being weighed, e.g. rice as distinct from paddy. 1711 The ms. quotes the amounts in 'tamleung' and 'baht' but I have taken the liberty of simplifying the figures by reducing them all to ·baht' (there are 4 baht to the tamleung). 19/1 The year of the Dragon, the lOth of the decade, began in Aprill808 and ended in March . 1809. 20/1 The 4th month of the year of the Dragon ran from mid-February to mid-:tylarch 1809. According to Phraison Salarak (1959), part 2, p. 176, the Burmese chronicles record that the Einshe Taksin died in Aprill808. 20/2 There were four 'Atwinwun' or 'Privy Counsellors'. Although in theory they were slightly lower in rank than the 'Wun-gyi', their proximity to the King often gave them great influence. See Sangermano (1966) p. 81-82. 22/1 i.e. Thakin Maungmu. 23/1 i.e. Nemyo Zeya Kyaw Khong. 24/l mid-February/mid-March 1809. 27/1 mid-April/mid-May 1809. 29/1 Patan appears to be the Thai version of the Burmese· 'Pathein' (while 'Phasin'- used earlier- is the Thai version of the Mon 'Pasim'), i.e. the town called 'Bassein' by the British. 30/1 Maha Nawratha• . 31/1 About 140 metres. 32/1 The Atwinwun is being charged here with acting in a manner !eserved for the royal family. He insists on his wives being termed 'Princess' and builds the equivalent of a royal palace (i.e. one with an 'inner' section, cf. the 'Malay-Javanese 'dalam'). The 'double-weave' pattern is presumably one reserved .for royalty.

JUNK CEYLON (PHUKET) CAMPAIGNS OF 1809-1810

75

37/1 1 chang, 10 tamleung and 1 baht make 121 baht, perhaps the actual weight of the coins and/or gold collected (as opposed to the prescribed weight of the coins?). 39/1 6 October 1809. 40/1 Perhaps 'Balayanaung'? 40/2 Although the 'yokrabat'·of a province was a sort of 'provincial justiciar', the yokrabat of a military expedition appears·to have functioned as the officer responsible for supplies- a sort of Commissary-General. 42/1 Na Toei is the modern 'Thai Meuang', some 30 km north of the straits of Pak Phra. 43/1 'Pak Phra' appears to refer to the harbour on the north (mainland) side (at the western end) of the Pak Phra straits. 43/2 Ban Sakhu (Malay: 'Kampung Sagu') is on the (north-)west coast of Junk Ceylon, about 6 km north-west of the modem Thalang tTheb Kasatri). It is about 4 km south of the modern Phuket airfield. 44/l Ban (Ta)khian was at one time the administrative centre of Thalang province; it lies just west of the modern town of Thalang (Theb Kasatri). 45/l 18 November 1809. 46/l The main port ('Tha Reua' ='harbour') of Junk Ceylon at this time; it lay between Thalang and the west coast (a few miles upstream). 47/1 The long inlet that now separates Burma from Thailand, between Victoria Point and Ranng. 48/l perhaps 'Yethurakyaw' ? 49/1 probably Suriya Chakka Kyaw. 52/1 perhaps 'Maha Siha Suriya'. 53/1 'Laksamana' is the Indian-derived title used to denote the official at Malay courts whose duties roughly corresponded to 'Lord High Admiral'. The reference here is presumably to the Laksamana of Kedah. 53/2 The text here has 'keman farang yangkung'

Lmi'outhi1a"n" •

and the phrase occurs twice

more in the text (with 'farang' spelt differently on both occasions- ~1i'.:1 and:,;,. Despite the fact that none of its three spellings correspon~ to the modern standard spelling - Jh~­ there can be no doubt that 'farang' here is the Thai word for 'Feringgi' (European', while 'Yangkung' is simply the Thai word for 'Rangoon'. 'Keman' however seems most unBurmese and would appear to deri~e from a European language, perhaps the French 'commandant' or 'commandeur' or the English 'commander'. We know that the admiral of the Burmese force that captured Thalang was a Frenchman, Jean Barthel, who was indeed sent to Penang toward the end of January 1810, see Launay (1920) p. 351-352. 54/1 For a translation of the letter sent by the Burmese commander see Appendix A. 54/2 The 'bunga em as [dan perak ]', the traditional offerings made by a vassal to his suzerain. 55/1 'Atalat' is derived (perhaps via the Malay 'a(n)telas') from the Arabic 'atlas'- a type of satin. 55/2 'kalat' I conjecture· to be derived (perhaps via the Malay 'sakh(e)lat') from the Persian 'saqal(l)it- type of broadcloth. 58/1 This is presumably the officer refea:red to earlier as 'Turian(g) Sarakayc?', i.e. 'Suiiya Chakka Kyaw'.

76

Cyril Skimier

60/l TC?ya Bo may· be the Burmese 'Tavoy Bo', the colonel commanding the Tavoy regiment. 65/l This may be a variant spelling of 'Phalathipha' who had earlier been sent up to Ava as an emissary of the Governor of Tavoy. 66/l 30 May 1810. 66/2 perhaps 'Si Baw Wun'. 67/1 'Thalang' here is presumably an error for 'Thawai' (Tavoy). 73/1 The Laksamana of Kedah had commanded a Kedah fleet which had rendered considerable assistance to the Siamese in forcing the Burmese to withdraw from Thalang earlier. The ..'Syair Sultan f'4aula~a· makes him appear as a proponent of the party .in Kedah that, with Sultan Tajuddin's backing, sought not to antagonise the Siamese and this attitude would fit quite. well with ,the condlJCt ascribed to him here. 76/1. perhaps 'Shw~ Pyo'. · 76/2 13 September 1810. 77/1 Just over 3 km.

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