Journal of the Siam Society; 97

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JSS

The Siam Society, under Royal Patronage, is one of Thailand’s oldest and most active learned organizations. The object of the Society is to investigate and to encourage the arts and sciences in Thailand and neighbouring countries.

Volume 97, 2009

Since the Society established its Journal in 1904, it has become one of the leading scholarly publications in South-East Asia. The Journal is international in outlook, carrying original articles of enduring value in English. The Society also publishes its Natural History Bulletin. Since its inception, the Society has amassed monographs, journals, and material of scholarly interest on Thailand and its neighbours. The Society’s library, open to members, has one of the best research collections in the region. Information is given at the end of the volume on how to become a member for those interested in Society’s library, lectures, tours, publications and other benefits.

Volume 97, 2009

Prof. PrawaseWasi Mr Anand Panyarachun Mr Dacre Raikes Phra Dhammapitaka Mrs Virginia Di Crocco Prof. Yoneo Ishii Mr Henri Pagau-Clarac Mr Term Meetem Prof. Michael Smithies Dr Hans Penth Dr William Klausner Dr Pierre Pichard Thanpuying Putrie Viravaidya H.E. Dr Thanat Koman Mr Euayporn Kerdchouay Prof. Prasert na Nagara Dr Thawatchai Santisuk Dr Warren Y Brockelman Dr Piriya Krairiksh Dr Sumet Jumsai Dr Chetana Nagavajara Dr Tej Bunnag

The Journal of the Siam Society

Mr W.R.D. Beckett Dr O. Frankfurter Mr H. Campbell Highet Mr W. A. Graham Prof. George Cœdès Phya Indra Montri (Francis Giles) Major Erik Seidenfaden H.H. Prince Dhani Nivat H.R.H. Prince Wan Waithayakon H.H. Prince Dhani Nivat H.H. Prince Prem Purachatra H.S.H. Prince Ajavadis Diskul Phya Anuman Rajadhon H.R.H. Prince Wan Waithayakon Prof. Chitti Tingsabadh H.S.H. Prince Subhadradis Diskul M.R. Patanachai Jayant Dr Piriya Krairiksh Mr Athueck Asvanund Mr Bangkok Chowkwanyun Mrs Bilaibhan Sampatisiri M.R. Chakrarot Chitrabongs Mr Athueck Asvanund

The Siam Society

The Journal of the Siam Society



The Siam Society under Royal Patronage 131 Sukhumvit Soi 21 (Asoke-Montri), Bangkok 10110 Thailand



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The Journal of the Siam Society

Patrons of the Siam Society Patron His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej Vice-Patrons Her Majesty Queen Sirikit His Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn Vice-Patron & Honorary President Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Honorary Vice-Presidents Her Majesty Ashi Kesang Choeden Wangchuck, The Royal Grandmother of Bhutan His Imperial Highness Prince Akishino of Japan His Royal Highness Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark Council of the Siam Society, 2008 - 2010 President

Mr Athueck Asvanund

Vice-President

Mrs  Bilaibhan Sampatisiri

Leader, Natural History Section

Dr Weerachai Nanakorn

Honorary Secretary Honorary Treasurer Honorary Librarian Honorary Editor, JSS Honorary Editor, NHB

Mr  Barent Springsted Mr  Suraya Supanwanich Ms  Anne Sutherland Dr Chris Baker Dr William Schaedla

Members of Council

Mrs  Eileen Deeley Ms Raksaswan Chrongchitpracharon Dr Nirun Jivasantikarn Mr Peter Laverick Mrs Beatrix Latham Mr James D Lehman H.E. Mr Juan Manuel Lopez Nadal Mr  Paul Russell

The Journal of the

Siam Society Volume 97 2009

As this volume was in press, in May 2009, the Society received the information that Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn had graciously accepted to become Honorary President of the Society, in addition to being a Vice-Patron. The President, Council, and Society members wish to express their gratitude to Her Royal Highness for honouring the Society in this way.

Editorial Board

Tej Bunnag Chris Baker Michael Smithies Kanitha Kasina-Ubol Euayporn Kerdchouay

advisor advisor and honorary editor editor coordinator production assistant

© The Siam Society 2009 ISSN 0857-7099

Cover: A tinted lithograph by Delaporte, showing the Lao weights in use in the market in Luang Prabang, in François Garnier, Voyage d’exploration en Indo-Chine effectué pendant les années 1688, 1867, et 1868. Paris, Hachette, 1873, vol. 2

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the Siam Society. The Journal of the Siam Society is a forum for original research and analysis. Opinions expressed in the Journal are those of the authors. They do not represent the views or policies of the Siam Society. Printed by Amarin Printing and Publishing Public Company Limited 65/16 Chaiyapruk Road, Taling Chan; Bangkok 10170, Thailand. Tel. (662) 422-9000 Fax (662) 433-2742, 434-1385 e-mail: [email protected] http://www.amarin.com

The Journal of the Siam Society

Volume 97

2009

Contents Articles Chris BAKER and PASUK Phongpaichit The career of Khun Chang Khun Phaen 1 Edward VAN ROY Under duress: Lao war captives in Bangkok in the nineteenth century

43

Joachim GABEL Lao weights and the Luang symbol 69 Elizabeth MOORE Place and space in early Burma: a new look at ‘Pyu culture’ 101 Jean-Noël JUTTET Phnom-Penh, April 1975: a personal souvenir Notes

129

Hiram WOODWARD Observations on Wat Si Chum 153 Carol STRATTON Sop-Li, a late fifteenth century bronze workshop in Lan Na 161 From the archives Memoirs of Pierre Poivre: The Thai Port of Mergui in 1745 Edited and translated by Kennon Breazeale

177

HSH Prince SITHIPORN Kridakara, ‘Memorandum on Opium in Siam’ (1921), introduction by Dr Tej Bunnag 201

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Reviews Peter Skilling, ed., Past Lives of the Buddha: Wat Si Chum – Art, Architecture, and Inscriptions Bangkok, River Books, 2008 Reviewer Hiram Woodward 221 Dawn Rooney, Ancient Sukhothai, Thailand’s cultural heritage Bangkok, River Books, 2008 Reviewer Carol Stratton

226

Damrong Rajanubhab, H.R.H. Prince, A Biography of King Naresuan the Great Translated and edited by Kennon Breazeale Bangkok, Toyota Foundation, 2008 Reviewer Michael Charney 231 Leonor de Seabra, The Embassy of Pero Vaz de Siqueira to Siam (1684–1686) Macau, University of Macau, 2005 Reviewer Kennon Breazeale 234 Direk Jayanama, ed. Jane Keyes, Thailand and World War II Chiang Mai, Silkworm, 2008 Reviewer Chris Baker

238

Anders Poulsen, Childbirth and tradition in northeast Thailand; forty years of cultural development and change Copenhagen, NIAS Press, 2007 240 Reviewer Lisa Vandemark Michael Montesano and Patrick Jory, eds, Thai South and Malay North: Ethnic interactions on a plural peninsula Singapore, NUS Press, 2008 Reviewer Thak Chaloemtiarana

243

Martin Stuart-Fox, Naga Cities of the Mekong: A guide to the temples, legends and history of Laos Singapore, Media Masters, 2006 Reviewer Milton Osborne

247

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Vatthana Pholsena, Post-War Laos: The Politics of Culture, History and Identity Institute of South-East Asian Studies, Singapore, 2006 Reviewer Mayoury Ngaosrivathana 249 Sao Sanda, The Moon Princess, Memories of the Shan States Bangkok, River Books, 2008 Reviewer Susan Conway

251

Penny Edwards, Cambodge, the cultivation of a Nation 1860–1945 Chiang Mai, Silkworm Books, 2008 Reviewer John Tully

254

Anne Ruth Hansen, How to behave: Buddhism and modernity in colonial Cambodia 1860–1930 Chiang Mai, Silkworm Books, 2008 Reviewer Ian Harris

257

Milton Osborne, Phnom Penh, a cultural and literary history Oxford, Signal Books, 2008 Reviewer David Chandler

260

Pratapaditya Pal, ed., Buddhist Art: Form and Meaning Mumbai, Marg Publications, 2007 Reviewer Donald M. Stadtner

263

Olga Dror, Cult, Culture, and Authority: Princess Liễu Hạnh in Vietnamese History Chiang Mai, Silkworm Books, 2008 Reviewer George Dutton 266 Philip Taylor, Cham Muslims of the Mekong Delta: place and mobility in the cosmopolitan pheriphery Copenhagen/Singapore, NIAS/NUS Press, 2007 Reviewer Amnuayvit Thitibordin 270 G. L. Balk, F. van Dijk, D. J. Kortlang, F. S. Gaastra, H. E. Niemeijer, and P. Koenders, The Archives of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the Local Institutions in Batavia (Jakarta) Leiden, Brill, 2007 Reviewer Bhawan Ruangsilp Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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Greg Bankoff and Sandra Swart, et al, Breeds of Empire: the ‘invention’ of the horse in Southeast Asia and Southern Africa 1500–1950 Copenhagen, NIAS Press, 2007 Reviewer Duncan Stearn

276

Lee Hock Guan and Leo Suryadinata, eds, Language, Nation and Development in Southeast Asia Singapore, ISEAS, 2007 Reviewer Titima Suthiwan 279 Christopher Duncan, ed, Civilizing the margins: Southeast Asian Government policies for the development of minorities Singapore, NUS Press, 2008 Reviewer Nicola Tannenbaum 284 Howard M. Federspiel, Sultans, Shamans, and Saints: Islam and Muslims in Southeast Asia Chiang Mai, Silkworm, 2008 Reviewer Patrick Jory Books received for review

287 291

Obituaries Mom Kobkaew Abhakara na Ayudhya 1908–2008 M. L. Manich Jumsai 1908–2009 Prok Amranand 1925–2008 Heng Thung 1934–2009 Anthony Farrington 1939–2008 Michael Wright 1940–2009 Roxanna M. Brown 1946–2008 Smitthi Siribhadra 1949–2008 Domnern Garden 1928–2009 In-house note

293 294 296 297 299 301 302 305 308

Khun Euayporn’s semi-retirement

310

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New publication As Mother Told Me HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarinda

312

Notes about contributors

313

Notes for contributors

317

Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

The Career of Khun Chang Khun Phaen Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit Abstract This article traces the development of the long Thai narrative poem, Khun Chang Khun Phaen. The poem began life in a troubadour tradition of recitation. The best evidence suggests the tale originated around 1600, and the early development of the text probably took place in the Narai era. In response to popular demand, an original story, possibly once recited in a single session, was developed into some twenty episodes, and three ‘sequels’ were later added. Between the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the ‘ownership’ of the poem passed from the folk tradition to the court. As a result, the poem shows a mixture of folk and court styles, sometimes separate, and sometimes layered upon one another. Starting around 1850 and ending in 1918, the ever-developing text was converted into the static form of a standard printed book. In this last stage of its career, the plot, characterization, and meanings of the work were substantially changed. Khun Chang Khun Phaen (KCKP) is a long narrative poem about love and death. Within the canon of pre-modern Thai literature, it is distinctive because it originated locally rather than being adapted from a foreign source, and because its main characters are relatively ordinary people rather than kings and gods. The standard modern version was edited by Prince Damrong Rajanubhab and published in 1917–18.1 That book has tended to be treated exactly like a poem, play, or novel in the western tradition – namely, a fixed text. But in fact the poem has a career, a history, a past. This article peers into that past. KCKP began in a tradition of troubadours who recited tales for local audiences and passed on the text by word of mouth. Such tales grow with the telling. KCKP probably started life as a story that could be recited for an audience within the space of a single night. By the early twentieth century, it had grown to over sixty episodes of that length. Many works in Thai and other Asian traditions This has been constantly reprinted, and is available in one-, two-, and three-volume versions. All references here are to the Khurusapha edition, twentieth printing, 2003, in the form: PD, volume: page. 1

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have careers in the same way. They have been rewritten, expanded, reinterpreted across different eras. The career of KCKP is complex because it began in a folk tradition of oral performance, but was later adopted by the court and transformed into reading material. Tracing the career of KCKP is not easy. It is not known when it first emerged. The manuscript trail goes back no earlier than the Bangkok Third or Fourth Reign. There are very few external sources for writing its history. However, there is a lot of information buried in the text itself. The career is etched in the work’s own wrinkles. This article uses the standard text edited by Prince Damrong but also two earlier printed versions (by Samuel Smith in 1872 and the Wat Ko press in 1890), some published fragments, and some of the large stock of manuscript texts in the National Archives. The first section below examines how the work was born and grew. We argue it is best understood as an Original Story2 and three sequels. The second section traces when each segment of the poem was developed. The third traces the contrast between the ‘folk’ and ‘court’ portions of the text. The fourth follows the process of revision through the nineteenth century, and the fifth examines the conversion from oral tradition through written manuscripts into printed publication. The conclusion summarizes some of the main changes to the nature and meaning of the poem in the course of this career. An Original Story and three sequels In Siam there was an old tradition of reciting folk tales (nithan) for entertainment. Most probably, KCKP began in this tradition. In the first chapter, the narrator tells us, ‘This story comes down from ancient times, and there is a text in Suphan.’ The event which makes the story of KCKP so dramatic and different is the ending in which a woman (Wanthong) is executed, ostensibly for failing to choose between two men (Chang and Phaen).3 This event, possibly based on an historical incident, must have been the focus of the Original Story. The build-up to this dramatic ending is a love triangle set in the provincial town of Suphanburi. Growing with the telling How did the tale grow to its final length? The process can be glimpsed in three versions of a famous part of the poem in which Phaen abducts Wanthong from Chang’s house. There are enough verbal clues to suggest that the three manuscripts We capitalize this term throughout to indicate that we are using it as a term of art. For simplicity, we use a single name for each main character, dropping their titles (Khun, Nang) and ignoring changes of name over the poem. 2 3

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form a sequence – the second was developed from the first, and the third from the second. These manuscripts date from late in the poem’s history (probably early nineteenth century) and after it has passed from oral to written transmission, but probably illustrate the way the poem developed throughout its career. The first and second manuscripts are fragments, and have become known as Samnuan kao (old version).4 The first may be in the form transcribed from troubadours in the early nineteenth century.5 It begins as Phaen rides through the forest. He arrives at Chang’s house and climbs in. He notices an unusual room and enters, finding a lady, Kaeo Kiriya, who explains she is the daughter of Phraya Sukhothai, mortgaged as a slave to Chang for a loan. Phaen gives Kaeo Kiriya money to ransom herself from slavery, propositions her directly, and they make love. He leaves her, walks through the central hall of the house, noting its exotic decorations, and finds a tapestry curtain outside Wanthong’s room. He admires her handiwork, then cuts the string. At this point the fragment ends. The style is simple story-telling, relating a sequence of events with little embroidery of setting, character, or dialogue. The second fragment, which may date from the First Reign,6 tells the same story, but has expanded to over three times the length.7 A few scenes have been added: Phaen performs a ceremony before entering the house to gain the cooperation of the local spirits; Chang’s guardian spirits come out to challenge Phaen. Other scenes have been lengthened: on entering the house, Phaen notices Chang’s pot-plants and ornamental fish; he also describes the cluttered but elegant contents of Kaeo Kiriya’s room; she puts up more resistance to his proposition at first, and afterwards delays his departure; the tapestry is described at greater length. In sum, the texture of the story has become much denser. The dialogue is much longer and more elaborate. The house and its contents are portrayed in greater detail. The encounter with the spirits emphasizes Phaen’s special talents. Kaeo Kiriya becomes more of a character than a passive plot element. Comparing the two manuscripts, it can be seen how one line in the first fragment has grown to a sub-scene in the second. But the basic story has not changed. They were first published in 1925, and reprinted in Atsiri, Chotchuang, and Khru Sepha Niranam 1990, and Chotchuang and Khru Sepha 1998. 5 Court poets favored verse with a regular meter – either the same number of syllables per line, or very little variation. Troubadours concentrated on the sound, and paid little attention to regularity. In this fragment, the syllables per wak (half line) vary between six and eleven. Also the language is relatively simple. 6 Khun Wichitmatra argued that this second fragment was written by Chaophraya Phrakhlang (Hon) on grounds of similarities with the verse in Hon’s Kaki and Rachathirat (Kanchanakphan and Nai Tamra 2002: 166–9). Hon died in 1805. 7 For telling the same portion of the story. The second fragment also continues further with the plot. 4

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The third manuscript was composed in King Rama II’s literary salon, and part of it is ascribed to the king as author. It appears in chapter 17 of the Damrong edition. Large sections of this third version tell the same story as the second, line for line, but have been completely rewritten in a self-consciously more elegant style. Some parts have been expanded for poetic effect. Whereas the second version enumerated the plants and fish on Chang’s terrace, the salon version converts this into one of the most famous passages of nineteenth-century Thai poetry. Moreover, this is not just for show. The sensuous description of flowers in bloom and fish sliding against one another builds anticipation of the sexual excitement which is approaching. In this example, the text expanded by successive authors adding and embellishing scenes. Another method of expansion was by repetition or recycling. In the oral tradition, two or more parallel versions of a single incident could be developed by different troubadours or schools of troubadours. The story which appears in chapter 14 of the Damrong edition probably began life as an alternative version of this same abduction incident. It opens in exactly the same way with Phaen missing Wanthong, riding to Chang’s house, and climbing in. It then diverges into a different, comic tale of Phaen tormenting Chang and other members of his household. In the middle, there is a similar scene of cutting down a tapestry. Towards the end, there is an exchange between Phaen and Wanthong which is very similar to a scene that immediately precedes the abduction in chapter 17. At this point, in the space of a single two-line verse, and without any logic, Phaen leaves Chang’s house and returns home. Most probably, troubadours had developed two versions of this abduction scene – one romantic (Kaeo Kiriya), the other comic. The Kaeo Kiriya version came to be preferred, but the other version had its own charm. Performers were reluctant to throw it away, so the ending was cut off, and the chapter moved back earlier in the story.8 Original Story These two examples suggest how the tale grew in the telling. The outline story remained the same. Incidents expanded with added detail, dialogue, and There is further internal evidence of this recycling. In this chapter 14, Phaen is introduced with mini-invocations, praising his supernatural powers. Such invocations appear elsewhere in the poem only after Phaen equips himself with a sword, horse, and powerful spirit in chapter 16. This story has been moved earlier in the tale, but these invocation have not been removed. We suspect the Kaeo Kiriya tale was a late addition. The introduction of her in chapter 14, her reappearance in chapter 21, and her later appearances, are rather clumsily pasted into the story. The two skirmishes between Chang and Phaen in the forest in chapters 19 and 20 are probably another example of recycling. The structure of both passages is the same: Chang follows after Phaen and finds him in the forest; Phaen uses stunning mantras, animates grass dummy troops, and wins the skirmish; Chang flees; Phaen returns to Wanthong; they bathe in a stream; the defeated army falls to recriminations. 8

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sub-scenes. Whole incidents might be duplicated. In this way, a tale originally told in one night was lengthened into a long series of tales, each of which could be told independently because the audience was familiar with the whole plot. We suspect that the original one-night tale contained all or most of the key incidents which became the well-known episodes: Phaen and Wanthong meet at Songkran; they romance in a cotton-field; Phaen goes on a military campaign in the north; Phaen returns with a second wife, provoking a jealous quarrel; Chang seizes Wanthong; Phaen abducts her for a romantic sojourn in the forest; there is a trial which results in Wanthong’s execution. We also suspect this Original Story contained the episodes now found in chapter 1–23 and 35–36 of the Damrong edition. The rest can be best understood as sequels.

Fig. 1 Structure of KCKP.

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First Sequel In response to popular demand, the producers of KCKP not only filled out the Original Story as outlined above, but also reacted to popular demand in the same way as producers of other forms of popular entertainment from manga to Star Wars – they created sequels. According to Prince Damrong, by the late Ayutthaya period, the recitation of episodes from KCKP had become the most popular form of local entertainment in the lower Chaophraya basin.9 This entertainment had become known as sepha KCKP or just sepha. The word sepha appears to name a genre but its meaning is obscure. There are some songs with the same name, but there is no association between them and the rhythm of narration used for KCKP.10 The word might derive from the Sanskrit sewa meaning a service (to the gods) but the derivation is speculative.11 Kukrit Pramoj believed the tales were created in jail and the word sepha somehow defined that, but his argument is unclear.12 In short, the derivation and meaning of the term sepha is not known for certain. In practice, at the end of the Ayutthaya era, sepha was a collective term for the episodes of the KCKP story. A measure of its extraordinary popularity is that no other story seems to have developed in the same way. Subsequently, some other stories were rendered in the same form on royal command, but failed to gain popularity and have since been almost totally lost.13 The First Sequel replicates several key elements of the main story, with Phaen’s son replacing his father in the central role. Like his father, young Wai is tipped into poverty and virtual orphanhood by his father’s imprisonment. Just as Phaen and his mother had to leave home and flee to Kanchanaburi in the Original Story, Wai has to flee from his stepfather Chang to the same destination. Like his father, too, he raises himself by becoming educated in the military arts, volunteerDamrong, Tamnan I: 2-3. Prince Damrong wrote two prefaces to KCKP. The first appeared in the three volumes of the first edition, and is included in most subsequent reprints. References here are to the Khurusapha edition. The second appeared as the introduction to the second edition of KCKP in 1925, and was reprinted by Rong Muang Press in Bangkok in 1925 as Tamnan sepha. In notes these are called Tamnan I and Tamnan II. Translations can be found at http://pioneer.netserv.chula. ac.th/~ppasuk/kckp/damrong.htm. 10 Damrong, Tamnan I: 1. 11 Damrong, Tamnan II: 2–3. 12 Kukrit Pramoj (2000: 10–12) argued that jail figures prominently in the story, and that one of the teachers mentioned in an Honoring Teachers (wai khru) invocation which Prince Damrong cited in his preface to KCKP is Phan Raksa Ratri, the title of a jail warden. In Old Laws no. 25 of the Three Seals Law, the word sepha appears seven times as part of the titles of officers involved with imprisonment, but this is the only known reference and the meaning is unclear (Kotmai tra sam duang, hereinafter KTSD, V: 46, 50, 51). 13 They were: the Si Thanonchai tale; a portion of the royal chronicles; and the Abu Hasan tale from the Arabian nights. 9

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ing to serve the king, winning a famous victory, being ennobled as reward, and acquiring two wives whose jealousy will cause him problems. As with the example of the abduction above, possibly all or part of this sequel began life as an alternative version of the original Phaen story. Subsequently, rather than being abandoned, this version was adapted into a sequel with Phaen’s son in the title role. Rather than being placed after the Original Story, this sequel was inserted into the Original Story immediately prior to the climax.14 (see Fig. 1) To prepare the way for this insertion, Phaen is consigned to jail for around fifteen years, giving time for his son to grow up. To get back to the conclusion of the Original Story, Wai abducts his mother Wanthong from Chang’s house, just as Phaen had abducted her as lover in the Original Story, thus provoking the delayed denouement of a trial and Wanthong’s execution. As in other genres, sequels have to be both the same (familiar) and different (novel). To add some difference to this First Sequel, some extra stories have been imported from elsewhere. The military campaign to the north, which occupies over half the length of the sequel, seems to be based on a true incident that happened in 1564 and is reported in both the Ayutthaya and Lanxang chronicles (on which more below). One incident in this campaign – a rescue from the Chiang Mai jail – seems to be modeled on a similar rescue which took place in a campaign in Burma in 1662.15 Second and Third Sequels The Second Sequel has another repetition of the Phaen story, this time with Phaen’s second son Chumphon as the focus. He also leaves home (by wandering off), becomes educated (at a wat in Sukhothai), and returns to win royal favor for his valor. Two other stories have been blended into the narrative: a jealous quarrel between Wai’s two wives which succeeds in splitting the whole family into warring camps; and an imported tale about a giant crocodile terrorizing people along the Chaophraya River. While the First Sequel is brilliantly dovetailed into the original, We suspect that the compilers knew that the death of Wanthong was the proper ending of the work, and hence inserted the sequel before that. 15 In KCKP, Phra Thainam and 500 soldiers are imprisoned but not killed in Chiang Mai. In the chronicles, Phraya Siharat Decho and 500 soldiers are imprisoned but not killed in Ava. In KCKP, Khun Phaen arrives and uses supernatural powers to enter the jail and release all the prisoners from their chains. In the chronicles, a relief force under Phraya Surin Phakdi arrives and begins to attack the stockade. ‘Meanwhile, Phraya Siha Ratcha Decho, bound in fetters, thereupon examined the clouds and shadows in the sky, saw a propitious omen, and recited a holy Buddhist mantra spell and magically managed to make all his fetters fall off from his body.’ In KCKP, the freed prisoners kill the guards and steal weapons, horses and elephants. In the chronicles, the freed prisoners kill the guards and ‘the Burmese prisoners, elephants, horses and weapons they had captured being numerous, had them sent under escort to [the king of Ayutthaya], and reported all of the details of their royal service for his benefit.’ See Cushman 2000 (hereinafter RCA): 281. 14

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the crafting of this Second Sequel is much less accomplished. The time-sequence does not work. Things happen without logic. Elements have been inserted by cut-and-paste (a character from the Third Sequel makes a brief appearance, though yet unborn). This sequel is located after the ending of the Original Story. The Third Sequel extends the family conflict which began in the Second Sequel down through two generations.16 Phaen and most other main characters from the Original Story are removed from the story by an epidemic. The descendants of Wai’s two quarreling wives fight a long-running battle, mostly over possession of Chiang Mai. Descendants of other branches of the lineage are incorporated as allies. A few other surviving characters make guest appearances. Some of the famous scenes are repeated, including the abduction and the giant crocodile. To sustain interest, there are more exotic locations and more special effects. One of Phaen’s grandsons fights in a dynastic dispute in China, returns with a Chinese wife, and later is reborn as a Burmese prince. The battles become more fantastic. A giant whirlpool makes an appearance. Prince Damrong judged that this sequel had merit neither as plot nor poetry, and excluded it from his printed edition. When did KCKP develop? Debates on dating The fifth and sixth stanzas of the first chapter run: This is the story of Khun Phaen, Khun Chang, and the fair Nang Wanthong. In the year 147, the parents of these three people of that era were subjects of the realm of His Majesty King Phanwasa. The tale will be told according to the legend, so that you listeners may understand.17 There have been several ingenious attempts to decode the date ‘147’. Prince Damrong argued that the figure was a copyist’s error for CS 847, equivalent to CE 1485/6, in order to accord with a theory described below.18 Choomsai Suwannachomphu suggested the date means CS 1147 (CE 1785/6), the year Bangkok was officially founded, but the first digit was truncated to fit the meter. Choomsai argued that the celebration of Bangkok’s foundation made such an impact that the date was inserted into KCKP when the various episodes were first assembled in the Second Reign.19 These chapters have been printed in two collections: Sepha n.d., and Sepha 1966. PD, I: 1. 18 Damrong, Tamnan I: 8–9. 19 Choomsai 2002. 16 17

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Phiset Jiajanphong argued that 147 appears in the Singhonawat (Singhanavati) chronicle from Lanna as the year in which the Buddha died, the old era of dating was closed, and the Buddhist era began (this old era was subsequently named the Anchana Sakkara). This knowledge may have passed from Lanna to Ayutthaya as several Ayutthaya legends and literary works have some Lanna origin. ‘147’ was thus a known date with sacred significance, and was inserted into KCKP to denote nothing more exact than ‘once upon a time’.20 Prince Damrong argued that the story of KCKP originated from events which took place around 1500 and were recorded in the Testimony of the Inhabitants of the Old Capital.21 The Testimony story runs as follows: Lanchang offered a royal daughter to the Ayutthaya king as part of a political alliance; to disrupt this alliance, the King of Chiang Mai had the princess seized in mid-journey; the Ayutthaya king sent Khun Phaen at the head of an army which defeated Chiang Mai and brought the princess to Ayutthaya. By virtue of the sequential position of this story in the Testimony, Damrong identified the Ayutthaya king as Ramathibodi II (r. 1491–1529), and argued that the date of Phaen’s birth given as 147 is a copyist’s error for CS 847 (equivalent to CE 1485/6), which would mean the Chiang Mai campaign took place around CE 1500. However, this origin is very doubtful. In his preface to KCKP, Damrong calls the Testimony ‘a form of royal chronicle’ with the implication that its contents are reliable. Yet in his preface to the Testimony (pp. 7–8), Prince Damrong judged that the history was compiled from ‘several people remembering bits and pieces’ without the assistance of written texts. The Testimony is a synthesis of information taken down from prisoners hauled away to Ava after 1767. The time interval between the recording in 1767 and the supposed date of the event around 1500 is the same as between now and the fall of Ayutthaya. The early part of the Testimony’s historical account is full of unlikely stories. It credits U Thong with a reign of forty-five years, compared to sixteen in the chronicles, and ends the account of his reign with U Thong importing Brahmins from Varanasi, and restoring the buildings at the Buddha’s Footprint on Suwannabanphot Hill – both stories more credible in much later reigns (the footprint on Suwannabanphot hill was discovered in the 1610s). It then skips over U Thong’s successors to a ‘King Phanwasa’, in whose reign there are only two items, the story of Phaen and the Lanxang princess, and a diplomatic mission of friendship to Ava which again is more likely at a much later date.22 After Phanwasa, the Testimony tells the story of Sudachan and Chinnarat, and Phiset 2002, summarized in Sujit 2002: 51–4. Damrong, Tamnan I: 2–9. 22 Khamhaikan 2001: the Phaen story is on 57–63, 66–7, and the embassy on 63–66. The embassy seems like an attempt at reconciliation following the conflicts of the late sixteenth century. There is no trace of such an embassy in the chronicles. 20 21

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from this point onwards there is some correspondence between the Testimony and the chronicles. In short, the early part of the Testimony has nothing that corresponds with other sources, but several stories which are more credible at later dates. There is thus no real grounds for timing the Khun Phaen story to c. CE 1500 on the basis of the Testimony, though the story may originate from a later era. Damrong found that the gazetteer23 portion of the Testimony was very muddled, perhaps because ‘the original bailan sheets were mixed up’, and he resequenced this portion of the Testimony in his edition, but not the historical part. In addition, the Phaen story is very strange in the context of the Testimony. The rest of the Testimony is about kings and their exploits, yet this episode is a long story about a common soldier. This strangeness hints that the Testimony has borrowed this story from elsewhere. Besides, this Chiang Mai campaign episode is not the core of the KCKP story (i.e., the love triangle and Wanthong’s death). This Chiang Mai episode appears in one of the sequels which were probably late additions to KCKP. Moreover, the Chiang Mai campaign in KCKP seems based on an incident which occurred in 1564 and is recorded in some detail in the chronicles of Ayutthaya and Lanxang, though the roles of the participating states have been shuffled. This story runs as follows. In 1560, in the face of Burmese aggression, Ayutthaya and Lanxang concluded a treaty of friendship, recorded on an inscription later found at Dansai (Loei province). As part of the agreement, the two sides ‘discussed arrangements for a lady to be presented (in marriage) in token of friendship in accordance with ancient custom’.24 According to the Luang Prasoet chronicle, in 1564 the king of Lanxang asked for the hand of Princess Thepkasat of Ayutthaya as part of an alliance. Initially another princess was sent on grounds that Thepkasat was sick, but Lanxang insisted this was rectified. An escort was dispatched from Lanxang to Ayutthaya to collect her, in exactly the same way as Ayutthaya sends an escort to collect the Lanxang princess in KCKP. Wishing to disrupt the Ayutthaya–Lanxang alliance, the ruler of Phitsanulok, then allied with Ava, seized the princess en route, in the same way that Chiang Mai seizes the Lanxang princess in KCKP. In revenge Lanxang attacked Phitsanulok, in the same way that Ayutthaya attacks Chiang Mai in KCKP.25 In short, the true story of an abducted princess seems to have been adapted as the plot of a segment of KCKP. Possibly, the story then found its way into the Testimony. Maybe this came about because the KCKP version simply seemed real to those who heard it. Perhaps the scribes and editors of the Testimony in Ava misunderstood what they were being told. The Testimony has two parts: a history; and a gazetteer of information about the city, monarchy, government, ceremonial, and so on. 24 Prasert and Griswold 1992: 801. 25 RCA: 49–51; the same story appears in the Lanxang chronicles, see Stuart-Fox 1998: 80–1. 23

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Original Story: internal evidence on dating There is one other incident in KCKP which might be dated. In the opening chapter, when Phaen is born (and given the natal name Phlai Kaeo), his grandfather advises: His birth-time is three by the shadow on Tuesday in the fifth month of the year of the tiger. The Chinese capital has sent glittering crystal to present to the King of Ayutthaya for placement on the pinnacle of the great chedi built since the time of Hongsa and called Wat Chaophraya Thai in the past. Give him the name Phlai Kaeo, the brilliant’.26 When King Naresuan defeated the Burmese prince in an elephant duel around 1593, Abbot Phanarat of Wat Chaophraya Thai pleaded with the king to spare nobles condemned to execution for failures on the battlefield.27 Damrong reasoned that Phanarat also advised Naresuan to make merit by building a victory chedi called Chaiyamongkhon, resulting in the wat becoming known as Wat Yai Chaiyamonkhon.28 Wachari Tomyanan surmises that the crystal would have been placed on this chedi at the time of its completion, and speculates that this indicates when the composition of KCKP began.29 The first tiger year after Naresuan’s victory was 1602/3. There is no mention of such a gift in the Chinese records, but these records rarely mention gifts to peripheral territories. Yet the gift could well have been given because of China and Siam’s shared enmity with Burma. Whenever Burma was ruled by an aggressive ruler, China feared attacks on Yunnan. This fear was strong in the late sixteenth century. In February 1593, the Chinese court received an offer from Siam to attack Japan. This extraordinary proposal makes no sense unless it was an expression of Siamese support for China in the hope of some reciprocal assistance against their common Burmese enemy. In late 1592, Siamese envoys went to Beijing, though there is no record of the issues discussed. In 1604,

PD, I: 7. RCA: 132–3. 28 Damrong imagined that Phanarat advised Naresuan to follow the example of King Dutthagamani who in Lanka in 205 BC commemorated victory in a similar elephant duel by building one victory chedi at the battle site, and another in his capital; and that as a result Naresuan built a commemorative chedi at the battle site of Nong Sarai (Don Chedi) and the Chaiyamongkhon (Damrong 2008: 125). Montri Limpaphayom has argued that Don Chedi was not the site of the battle, and that the commemorative chedi is actually Wat Phu Khao Thong. Piset Jiajanphong and Sisak Wallipodom doubt there were any commemorative chedi built at all. This debate was collected in Sujit 1994. There does not seem to be any other evidence on the origin of the Chaiyamongkhon. 29 Wachari 1990: 13–18. 26 27

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Beijing sent agents to ‘Siam and Bo-ni30 to arrange the combining of forces’ against Ava, and promised rewards if Ava were destroyed. Another missive went to the commander of Guang-dong/Guang-xi ‘to notify the countries of Siam, Bo-ni and Champa to join forces in a pincer attack’ against Ava. Other records from this time show Beijing bestowing gifts on officers and allies that helped to constrain Ava’s expansion.31 Although there is no direct evidence of a Chinese gift made in recognition of Naresuan’s help in deterring Burmese aggression, such a gift is quite feasible within the political context. The name of ‘Khun Phaen’ appears only twice in the chronicles, and once in another epic, and all three derive from this same era. In the listing of official titles in the Three Seals Law, the title closest to ‘Khun Phaen Saensathan’ (the full version in KCKP) is Khun Phlaeng Sathan, palat of the left in the royal guard (tamruat phuban).32 An officer of this name appears in the Ayutthaya chronicles commanding a brigade during King Naresuan’s siege of Toungoo in the late 1590s. His co-commanders included several nobles of higher rank, including Phraya Thainam, suggesting Khun Phlaeng was a prominent soldier.33 In 1604, when King Naresuan and his brother and successor Ekathotsarot leave Ayutthaya to march against Ava, they pass Pa Mok and come to Ekarat where ‘Khun Phæn Sathan was ordered to cut the wood and curse the [enemy’s] name according to the forms of the holy royal ritual for victory in war’.34 In the epic poem Lilit taleng phai (Defeat of the Mon), which also recounts events of the 1590s, a messenger sent from Kanchanaburi to inform Ayutthaya of a Burmese incursion is named Khun Phaen.35 There is one other slight but suggestive hint on timing. At every appearance of the king in KCKP there is an invocation. These passages portray the king surrounded by the best of everything as proof of his supreme merit. At the end of the first chapter of KCKP, the king makes his first appearance and fittingly the invocation is the longest and most elaborate in the poem. In the passage describing the king being bathed, anointed in scents, clothed in fine raiment, and equipped with splendid regalia, it states, ‘He was bathed in water flowing in a stream from a shower-head’.36 To appear in this context, a shower-head must have been new Geoff Wade (see next note) thinks Bo-ni may be Brunei. Possibly that is true in some Chinese records, but we wonder whether in these instances, Bo-ni refers to Phitsanulok. 31 Geoff Wade, translator, Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: an open access resource, Singapore: Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, National University of Singapore, http://epress. nus.edu.sg/msl/entry/2907, accessed June 10, 2008. The above account uses records 2907, 3130, 3013. 32 KTSD I: 226. 33 RCA: 177. 34 RCA: 193. 35 Lilit taleng phai: 46. 36 PD, I: 11. 30

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and very special – something available only to the king. The word used is surai, which clearly derives from the Persian, surahi. This suggests the invocation was composed in the middle or late seventeenth century, most probably in the Narai reign (1656–88), when the court adopted architecture, dress, regalia, vocabulary and much else through trade and diplomatic contacts with Persia. Another incident from the Narai era may have bearing on KCKP. In 1660, a border town pledged allegiance to Ayutthaya but then changed its mind, in fear of the power of its old overlord. Ayutthaya sent an army. Some clever monks came out to negotiate, pledging secret allegiance to Ayutthaya, and promising to cooperate against the old overlord.37 This account echoes the Chiang Thong campaign in chapters 8 and 9 of the Original Story of KCKP. Chiang Thong pledges allegiance to Ayutthaya, changes its mind after a visit by a Chiang Mai army, is attacked by Phaen at the head of an Ayutthayan force, and sends out three clever monks to negotiate. Though the two stories are different in detail, it is possible that this incident was inspiration for troubadours to develop the Chiang Thong story. This is another hint that the KCKP tale developed in the seventeenth century.38 In sum, the reference to Naresuan’s victory chedi at the birth of the principal male character is the best (but still very fragile) indication of when the core story may have been born. The name of Khun Phaen figures as a soldier in other sources around this same time. The prominence given to the surai nozzle in the first royal invocation hints that tale was being elaborated by the Narai era. The possibility that the military campaign in the early part of the story may have been based on a 1660 incident further suggests this timing. First Sequel: early beginning The First Sequel was initially developed in the folk tradition. As noted above, all or much of it may have begun as alternative versions of the original Phaen story. In the Smith/Wat Ko text, the First Sequel passage on the Chiang Mai campaign is told in folk mode from the viewpoint of the ordinary foot-soldier. RCA: 250–60. There is another hint in the chronicles, but it makes matters more complicated. Shortly following the above incident, around 1664, King Narai attacked Chiang Mai in revenge and won a great victory. The description of the siege and fall of Chiang Mai in the chronicles is very like the siege of Chiang Mai in the First Sequel, especially in the Smith/Wat Ko text. However, it is almost certain that the siege and victory in the chronicles did not take place. The incident does not appear in the Chiang Mai chronicle (which does record the earlier incident) or the Burmese records. In the Ayutthaya chronicles, it is written up with great drama, but the ending makes no sense: the Chiang Mai ruler is defeated but not made a tributary, and Chiang Mai does not figure in Ayutthaya’s external relations for decades afterwards (RCA: 291–300, especially 299). So was this another story that began in popular tradition, including KCKP, and later found its way into the chronicles? 37 38

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As soon as the army leaves Ayutthaya, the soldiers live off the land. They seize pigs from merchants, crops from fields, anything eatable from villages and markets. Villagers along the route flee into the forest on the army’s approach, taking their valuables and their daughters. Local officials rush to feed and entertain the soldiers lavishly because the alternative is to be plundered. Before reaching Chiang Mai, there is a battle to take a border outpost. The Thai are protected by their invulnerability, but the Lao opponents suffer terrible carnage. The field is left strewn with blood, guts, lopped heads, and severed limbs. At Chiang Mai, even before the victory is decisive, the Ayutthayan army begins looting. They ransack houses, threaten old ladies to reveal their valuables, seize furniture and crockery, appropriate wives, round up families of people to serve as slaves, and herd away livestock of every kind. After victory is final, there is a drunken feast. In a lovely touch, the dancers laid on for entertainment have to abandon the stage after so many drunken soldiers come up to join them. A messenger is sent to Bangkok to report the victory. He commandeers a boat, seizes liquor from a Chinese vendor, and passes the journey in a drunken stupor, pausing only to loot fish and sugarcane. The army returns to Ayutthaya like a city on the move, herding war-prisoners and livestock. At the overnight stops, the Thai soldiers celebrate among the captured women, teaching them to speak Thai, making them dance naked, and dragging them into their mosquito nets. Possibly this is the most realistic depiction of pre-modern warfare in the region, portraying the adventure, the risk, the horror, and the gain. At one point the narrator breaks in and editorializes: ‘Be forgiving but this is customary for an army. They create chaos like you see in a mask-play. Even though they think they’re good, it’s as crude as a robber getting a wife by capture and rape’.39 This text must have begun in the folk tradition. Prince Damrong slated it as ‘clearly a vulgar (chaloeisak) version in a style unsuitable for performance in the court’.40 The whole passage was replaced in his edition. Much of the further development of the First Sequel was in the hands of the court. While the Chiang Mai campaign in the Smith/Wat Ko version is clearly in the folk mode, the passages which come before and after this segment betray court authorship. When did the involvement of court authors with KCKP begin?41

WK: 1029. Damrong, Tamnan II: 61. 41 In a diary of court activities found in section 146 of the Palatine Law, ‘sepha’ appears as one of the entertainments of the king. However, it is not certain that this refers to KCKP, or to the musical style of the same name, or something else entirely. Though this law is ostensibly dated to 1358/9, many of such dates are inaccurate, and the laws were probably updated to reflect contemporary practice during their frequent recopying. ‘It is most likely that the Palatine Laws, of all the supposed old laws, is a construction of Rama I legists, even if older material was incorporated’ (Vickery 1984: 46). 39 40

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In 1784/5 a group of local officials whose experience dated back to the Borommakot reign (1733–58) was convened in Bangkok to record the customs and practices of royal visits to the Buddha’s footprint in Saraburi. An annual visit to this site had become a major royal event since the seventeenth century. This group recorded that, ‘When the king goes up to worship, Khun Intharaphitak and Khun Phromphitak of the khlang ministry take a Phra Narai cloth, a Wanthong tapestry (man wanthong), and a gold model junk for the king to present’.42 It seems that, as a result of the famous passage in the abduction episode noted above, a ‘Wanthong tapestry’ had become a conventional phrase describing an article which the king used in one of the major events on the royal ritual calendar in late Ayutthaya.43 This reference suggests the court had adopted KCKP some time before the mid eighteenth century. If indeed, as suggested above, the story of Phaen leading an army to Chiang Mai found its way from KCKP into the Testimony, then probably court writers had begun to play a role in the development of the story in this era. There is also one internal hint that the court writers helped to develop the First Sequel in late Ayutthaya. The text mentions the Banyong Rathanat throne hall, one of only two major buildings of the Ayutthaya palace mentioned directly by name in the poem. This hall was built in 1688 and used most intensively between the 1710s and 1730s when the older throne halls were dilapidated and undergoing repair.44 The insertion of such names and other ‘real’ touches of court life are a hallmark of the court authors. Most likely these references to the Banyong Rathanat hall were inserted into KCKP when the building was at the height of its use in the early eighteenth century. First Sequel: final form While the First Sequel may have begun to develop in the late Ayutthaya era and partly in the folk tradition, it seems to have taken full shape in the hands of the court during the Early Bangkok period. When Prince Damrong assembled the names of all the known sepha performers from the early Bangkok period, the only one who had probably begun his troubadour career in the Ayutthaya era and survived through to early Bangkok was a gatekeeper, a lowly commoner. But in the next generation of performers who emerged during the First Reign, most were from the ranks of officialdom, and

‘Khamhaikan khun khlon’: 57. According to legend, after Wanthong’s death, Khun Chang presented one of her embroideries to King Songtham (r. 1610/1–1628) who in turn presented it at Phra Phutthabat, hence founding the tradition (Chotchuang and Khru Sepha 1998: 83). Note that this timing again suggest the KCKP story originated in the early seventeenth century. 44 Fine Arts Department 1968: 6. 42 43

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Damrong could trace their patrons in the court.45 This shift of generations seems to mark the passage of KCKP from ‘folk’ to ‘court’ ownership. The main evidence to date the development of the First Sequel to early Bangkok lies in the politics. The villain of this story is the ruler of Chiang Mai who is defeated and humiliated, while by contrast, Lanxang is a friendly ally of Ayutthaya. These politics are appropriate to early Bangkok, not before, not after. After the Narai reign, Ayutthaya had almost no dealings with Chiang Mai or Lanxang for almost a century. Chiang Mai was under Burma, and Lanxang was falling apart. Ayutthaya’s external relations were focused on Cambodia and the Mon country, not the territories to the north. This situation changed with King Taksin’s northern expedition of 1775, and his alliances with Kawila of Lanna and Siribunyasan of Lanxang. Over the next fifty years, Bangkok established its influence in the north. The Lao states were the more willing allies, while the jao jet ton dynasty of Lanna had obvious aspirations for more independence, and had regularly to be whipped back into line. The politics of this era seem to be reflected in the politics of the Chiang Mai campaign in the First Sequel. Perhaps this part of KCKP was developed to impress the sons of the Lanna and Lanxang rulers who came to Bangkok for education in the early Bangkok era. One other striking fact about the First Sequel is the relative ignorance about Lanna and Lanxang. KCKP is famous for the accuracy of its geography, but not in its accounts of Lanna and Lanxang. All the wat named in Chiang Mai and Lamphun are wrong. When the King of Chiang Mai returns home, he starts out ascending the Nan River but then suddenly arrives at Rahaeng on the Ping. When leaving Vientiane for Ayutthaya, the Lanxang princess mounts an elephant and sets off – the authors did not know the Mekong river was in the way. Also, there are many mistakes over culture. Both Lanna and Lanxang are referred to as ‘Lao’ territories, and the authors do not seem to realize the cultural differences between them. In several places, Lanna people play the khaen though this is a Lanxang and not a Lanna instrument. In the Smith/Wat Ko edition, Chiang Mai characters use many Lao phrases which are Lanxang Lao, not Lanna kham mueang. Some but not all of these mistakes were subsequently rectified. In the revision that probably took place in the Fourth Reign (see below), the journeys to Vientiane are sprinkled with place-names which figured in the 1827–29 war with Anu of Vientiane; the Lanxang princess is ferried across the Mekong in a grand flotilla; the Chiang Mai king’s northward journey follows the Ping all the way; and the Lanxang Lao phrases have been deleted. The mistakes found in the early version of the First Sequel suggest that it took full shape before travel and trade revived after the disruptions caused by the warring in the late eighteenth century. 45

Damrong, Tamnan I: 13–16. Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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We suspect that the court portions of the First Sequel began to develop in the early-mid eighteenth century, but came of age in the early Bangkok era. There is one hint in the text. The reception of a Lanxang envoy at Ayutthaya in the early part of the First Sequel is very similar to the reception of a Tavoy embassy at Bangkok in 1791, as reported in the First Reign chronicle.46 Of course, the procedure could have been standard, but the echoes between the two accounts are very strong. The First Sequel must have been finished by 1821–4, as those are the years when Sunthon Phu composed chapter 24, ‘The Birth of Phlai Ngam,’ which is the introduction and set-up for the First Sequel. It was certainly done by 1827 when the wars against Vientiane changed the political background, and when the Bangkok court learnt the geography of the Khorat plateau. Second and Third Sequels The Second Sequel probably dates to early Bangkok. One key episode involves an (illusionary) revolt by ‘New Mon’. There were two large immigrations of Mon into Siam in 1775 and 1814–15. These new arrivals spoke a version of Mon which was more influenced by Burmese than the version used by older Mon inhabitants of Siam. The terms ‘New Mon’ and ‘Old Mon’ were used to distinguish the two groups.47 In addition, the portrayal of Wai’s household in the Second Sequel has a very bourgeois feel which differs greatly from earlier parts of the poem and matches well to the culture of early Bangkok.48 The Third Sequel also probably dates to the Bangkok era, and much of it may have developed quite late in the nineteenth century. From folk to court KCKP is a complex text because it developed in two different traditions in two phases of its career – the first in a folk tradition of troubadour recitation, and the second in a court tradition of drama performance and reading. The text has two distinct ‘modes,’ which differ greatly in theme, setting, style, and the approach to didacticism and nature. The final version of the sequels is in almost pure court mode. Only a small amount of the text remains in pure folk mode, but the Original Story was developed in the folk tradition and retains a base layer in the folk mode, evident in the themes, characters, and setting, though a second court layer has been See PD, chapter 25, and Flood and Flood 1978: 176–82 Halliday 1913: 1–15; Kanchanakphan and Nai Tamra 2002: 690, from the Second Reign chronicle. 48 See Nidhi 2006. Saichon Satyanurak has argued convincingly that the economic and cultural changes which Nidhi describes had begun in late Ayutthaya, but they were certainly more intense in early Bangkok. 46 47

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overlaid. In this section we outline the very different characteristics of the folk and court modes of KCKP. Theme The theme of the Original Story is the love triangle, and especially Wanthong’s dilemma over the two men. The plot can be summarized as follows: Phaen and Chang compete for the hand of the beautiful Wanthong. Poor but talented Phaen woos and marries her but is then sent off to war. Rich but ugly Chang seizes Wanthong through money and trickery. Phaen arms himself, abducts Wanthong from Chang’s house, and kills two nobles, thus becoming an outlaw. The couple flee to a frugal but idyllic sojourn in the forests. When Wanthong becomes pregnant, they give themselves up. The king condemns her to death for failing to choose between two men and thus provoking disorder. This is the plot of a romantic tragedy. The themes are love and death. By contrast, the plot of the First Sequel in isolation is as follows: Phlai Ngam volunteers to serve the king, thereby rescuing his father from jail. The two lead an army to Chiang Mai and win a great victory. On return, the king rewards Phlai Ngam with an important position in royal service and two wives. This is the typical plot of a courtly heroic tale. The themes are war and success. The reiteration of the same story with another of Phaen’s sons in the Second Sequel is similar. The First and Third Sequels are almost entirely taken up with political rivalries and military campaigns. In the Original Story, the political events which result in Phaen being sent on campaign in the north are sketched in 25 lines,49 but the parallel passage in the First Sequel is around 1,400 lines. In the Original Story, the actual fighting occupies less than 200 lines, but the parallel campaign in the First Sequel is around five times that length. The Third Sequel is essentially one long battle story of 10,000 lines with only a few minor interludes away from the fray. These battle sequences have more in common with heroic court writing (Yuan phai, Nirat tha dindaeng) than with the Original Story of KCKP.

49

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Setting The setting for the Original Story is the provincial towns of Suphanburi, Kanchanaburi, and Phichit, and the wild periphery of the forests. Characters make excursions to the royal capital of Ayutthaya, but these are short in duration, and generally bound up with fearful events (especially legal process and punishment). The minor characters of the Original Story are drawn from local society – neighbors, relatives, domestic servants, local officials, monks, hunters, boatmen, and tribal villagers. The plot is wound around the notable events of everyday life – births, weddings, cremations, temple festivals, major crimes, house-building, travel, sickness. The authors seem to delight in describing these events in loving detail. By contrast, the First Sequel takes place either in the capital city of Ayutthaya or on military campaign. Visits to Suphanburi or Kanchanaburi are brief. All the minor characters are officials, soldiers, and members of the court. The plot is wound around political affairs, military campaigns, and lawsuits. The authors seem to delight in showing off their technical knowledge of court protocol, government practice, legal proceedings, military affairs, and diplomatic relations. Style The Original Story has a style suited for troubadour performance. Most of the chapters underwent revision during the nineteenth century (see below) so this style is often obscured. The exception is chapter 1 and most of chapter 2. As Prince Damrong noted, this section may be in the form that was transcribed from troubadours in the early nineteenth century.50 It is the only segment in which the narrator explicitly addresses his ‘listeners’. The language of this segment is relatively simple and homely, and the meter is highly irregular.51 By contrast, the sequels are in the style of court composition. By the early nineteenth century, court literati had decreed that verse with a regular number of syllables per half-line, and strict rules for internal and external rhyming, was prized as the khlon suphap, genteel verse. The variant with eight syllables was most prized, with the seven-syllable variant running a close second. In the First Sequel, some bravura passages are written in one of these forms. Most of the text of the sequels favors a mixture of seven or eight syllable half-lines, and fairly strict rhyming. In the Original Story, the storytelling is very fast-paced. There is a rapid-fire mixture of romance, tragedy, bawdy comedy, violence, sex, and supernaturalism typical of many varieties of popular entertainment. Much of the text consists of dialogue, particularly the argumentative dialogue found in other Thai folk performance genres such as prop kai and phleng choi. Damrong, Tamnan I: 17. This can be seen in the Smith/Wat Ko version of these chapters, prior to editing for the Damrong edition. 50 51

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The narrative of the sequels is more even-paced and the story-telling is more linear. The sequels retain some interludes of rude-mechanical humor, but these are a much smaller element than in the Original Story. Nature Nature plays a very large role in the story. The towns are islands in a sea of forest, and the characters plunge into the trees as soon as they begin a journey. The attitude to nature differs between the Original Story and the sequels. In the Original Story, the forest is a place of great beauty and great power. It can serve as a refuge and as the source of exotic and powerful objects, but it is also a place of great danger. These characteristics are introduced in the untouched first segment. Wanthong’s father dies from a fever contracted while traveling through the forest to trade, and Chang’s father is killed by a gang of robbers who live in the forest. When Phaen and his mother have to flee their home, the forest offers them refuge but also threatens them with its dangers. They sleep in a tree to avoid wild animals, and are pestered by insects. These same characteristics are developed throughout the Original Story. When Phaen becomes an outlaw, he flees into the forest as a refuge. He also travels through the periphery of forest and mountain in search of objects of power. Phaen and Wanthong have a romantic sojourn in the forest, enjoying its beauty but also suffering its hardships. Whether benign or threatening, nature is real. In the sequels, nature serves as a prop for showy exercises in versification, and is often treated in a highly unrealistic way. From the eighteenth century, passages in which poets drew metaphors and allusions from nature, especially in the course of a journey, became one of the stock exercises of Thai poetry. Other poetical exercises used features of the natural world for bravura displays of rhyming, alliteration, and onomatopoeia. The sequels of KCKP are studded with such passages in which the sound of the words is far more important than any reality described.52 Clusters of trees appear together because they rhyme, alliterate, or sound nice together, not because they might exist in the same ecosystem. Birds are perched on certain trees because of affinities between their Thai names. Crakes are always sitting on cinnamon trees because the two Thai words are the same (anchan). One passage reproduces the sound of crows cawing by stringing together names of trees with a ‘ka’ sound, even though a coastal-mangrove plant and a deep-forest tree would never be found side-by-side. Another strings together the names of 56 trees while obeying the rules and convention of rhyme, meter, and alliteration but ignoring totally the laws of nature. There are some exceptions. Sunthon Phu (in chapter 24) combined naturalism with dramatic versifying. In chapter 28, the descriptions of Si Fai lake in Phichit and of a mountain crossing are highly realistic. 52

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Didacticism The Original Story was developed in the interplay between troubadours and their audiences over a long period of time. The players incorporated tales, true or imaginary, whose meanings resonated with the audience. They fine-tuned the episodes, characters, and language to satisfy the tastes of the audience. By this process, the work became a depository of values, ways to understand the world, and lessons for living in it. The poem remained popular because it could be ‘read’ to extract these meanings and lessons from generation to generation. The Original Story can be seen as highly didactic, but this didacticism is embedded in the plot, not made explicit in the wording. By contrast, the sequels contain several passages of explicit instruction. Manuals of correct behavior became a popular genre in nineteenth-century Bangkok. Sunthon Phu wrote two famous examples. Probably their popularity reflected the emergence of a new middling social stratum that wanted to learn genteel behavior in the hope of upwards mobility. The sequels contain several passages of didactic advice which are similar to the content of these manuals. When Phaen (now aged around 50) is about to set out on the Chiang Mai campaign, his mother gives him a lecture on military technique, straight out of the manual on the Arts of War.53 When the Chiang Mai royal family is about to be swept down to Ayutthaya, the queen lectures her daughter on the art of being a royal wife. In the Second Sequel, Wanthong returns as a ghost in order to instruct her son on military technique. Phaen also receives from his mother a long and highly formal lecture on the ten principles for succeeding in royal service.54 Literary allusions The sequels and other segments rewritten in the court are sprinkled with allusions to other literary works. The largest number of these refer to Ramakian, Inao, and Anirut – the three ‘inner’ works which were reserved for performance at court, and which were all composed in versions by King Rama I. Other references are to ‘outer’ dramas, which had no similar restriction, but still were mainly performed in the court circle. Most of the outer dramas (lakhon nok) mentioned in KCKP are stories made popular in versions attributed to King Rama II or his salon – Sangthong, Khawi, Kaki, Suwannahong, Chaiyachet, Manohra. There are also some references to the geography of Chomphuthawip in the Three Worlds cosmology, a key text of the Siamese royal tradition, consciously revived in the early Bangkok court.

53 54

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Sum: original and sequels, folk and court

The career of KCKP is complex. The Original Story was composed by troubadours for local performance. Although large parts were subsequently rewritten by court authors, a distinctive ‘folk mode’ can still be seen in the few unrevised passages, and as a substratum of the rest. By contrast, the three sequels are composed in a very different ‘court mode,’ suitable for performance at court and for reading. It is easy to imagine the passages in the folk mode being performed for local audiences, eliciting empathy for the characters, familiarity with the setting, tears, laughter, and great acclaim, but it is impossible to imagine the same about the passages in the court mode. Conversely, it is possible to imagine passages in the court mode being appreciated by a court audience precisely because of their formal elegance, their range of allusions, and their political and didactic concerns, but it is impossible to imagine them entertaining a local audience. The literary critic Chetana Nagavajara confessed that he once slated the climactic episode of KCKP on grounds that it was ‘deprived of unity and of good taste, because the incidents that follow one after the other totally lack any sense of logic, with tragic components mingling with grotesque elements, at times even bordering on inappropriate vulgarities.’ Only later did he appreciate that these very characteristics were what made it suitable for popular performance: ‘The more the episode is chaotic and marked by disparate and incoherent elements, the better the artist can demonstrate the supremacy of his art by varying the modes of expression to accommodate the changing emotions’.55 Chetana’s changing evaluation nicely captures the difference between performance and reading, between folk and court modes. Revision of KCKP in the nineteenth century With its transition from folk tradition to the court, KCKP entered a new phase of its career. In the hands of the court, the consumption of KCKP changed in two ways. First, court producers embroidered recitation with elements borrowed from the stage dramas which were popular at the time; more than a single reciter might be used, and a musical ensemble was introduced to play interludes. Second, the text was consumed by reading, or by listening to a reader. In addition, over the nineteenth century, there were two projects of revision. Second Reign salon

Members of King Rama II’s literary salon collaborated on a revision of the second half of the Original Story (chapters 17–23). Although there is no 55

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documentary proof on authorship, two chapters are conventionally attributed to King Rama II, another two to the future King Rama III, and one to Sunthon Phu.56 Khun Wichitmatra suspected that King Rama II’s cousin, Chaophraya Mahasakdi Phonlasep, another member of the salon who also adapted passages of KCKP into dramas, was responsible for revising three other chapters.57 Members of the salon also tinkered with other chapters from the Original Story, though in a much less comprehensive way.58 As noted above in the description of the three versions of the abduction episode, this revision appears not to have altered the main thrust of the plot, probably because it was so well known that it was sacrosanct. The court authors elaborated new scenes, extra dialogue, and fuller description. They added nirat-like passages of showy poetry, speeches of didactic advice, and literary allusions. They also raised the level of the language, and conformed the meter to the prized forms of the day. Most of the famous passages of KCKP’s poetry, learnt by Thai schoolchildren to this today, appeared in this revision. As a result of this revision, much of the Original Story (apart from chapter 1 and much of chapter 2) is a mixture of folk and court modes. The story, setting, characters, narrative style, and boisterousness betray the folk origins, while the poetry has been upgraded, and the narrative sprinkled with markers of court style. Khru Jaeng A second project of revision probably took place in the Fourth Reign. Khru Jaeng, a sepha performer who later became an author, took a leading part.59 Khru Jaeng introduced some new episodes that had already developed in the troubadour

The attribution to King Rama II is due to Prince Damrong who wrote in the preface to KCKP as follows: ‘I once asked Prince Bamrap Borabak, “I have heard it said that this sepha was composed by King Rama II. Is that true?” He replied, “Yes, he composed it, but not openly, and several other people helped.”’ (Tamnan I: 18). In his revised version of this preface, eight years later, he added: ‘The statement that “several other people helped” in the composition probably means that when King Rama II encouraged composition of sepha, the poets of high status who were close to the king probably used the king’s compositions as a model for composing other passages, and they also did not disclose the authorship because they wanted to use strong words in the same way.’ (Tamnan II: 44) The attribution of certain chapters to King Rama III was pure speculation on Damrong’s part, but has now become fact. 57 Kanchanakphan and Nai Tamra 2002: 267–81. 58 Prince Damrong detected King Rama II’s hand in parts of chapters 4 and 13, and King Rama III’s hand in parts of chapters 11 and 12. The video on KCKP in the Suphanburi Museum attributes chapter 3 to Sunthon Phu and chapter 7 to King Rama III. 59 Almost nothing is known about Khru Jaeng except that he lived close to Wat Rakhang. 56

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Fig. 2 Samut thai mss; passage on a house-building ceremony not found in the Damrong edition.

tradition.60 But his major contribution seems to have been made on a court commission, as it amounted to a clean-up of the ‘vulgar’ Chiang Mai campaign in the First Sequel. In this revision, the foot-soldier’s view of the campaign was totally discarded. The disorderliness of the march was replaced by a short passage about opium taking. The bloody battle over an outpost was excised. The drunken victory feast became a sedate affair. In place of the wholesale looting, people and property are seized on behalf of the king, entered on manifests, and subsequently returned after the Chiang Mai ruler is pardoned. The revision is also kinder to the Chiang Mai ruler, reflecting the changed politics of the mid-nineteenth century. He becomes a grander, more royal character, with a more sumptuous palace. He is still defeated and humiliated, but regains his dignity through a sequence of lamenting speeches, and a scene of triumphal return in procession to his Chiang Mai capital. With the excision of the foot-soldier’s view, and the addition of more material on the Chiang Mai ruler and on Ayutthaya officials, the First Sequel became almost completely a story by and for the court. In chapter 17, Khru Jaeng introduced the story of Khun Phaen marrying Buakhli and then killing her to make a protective spirit (kuman thong) from the unborn child. Prince Damrong noted this story was already popular among troubadours, but had not earlier appeared in written versions of the text. See Tamnan, I, 33. 60

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From oral tradition to printed book Over the nineteenth century and the early twentieth, KCKP made the transition from oral recitation to printed book. This was a transition from a milieu which promoted constant variation to a medium that by nature is static. This ‘deceleration’ of the text did not happen immediately but developed gradually over a century or so. Manuscripts and collections According to Prince Damrong, in early Bangkok individual episodes of KCKP were transcribed from troubadours into manuscript form, but there was no full collection of these manuscripts. He believes that the first collection was assembled in the palace during the Fourth Reign.61 The episodes were copied in sequence into a set of samut thai volumes. The lines were written continuously (not in the familiar form with two hemistiches per line) with a symbol to indicate a paragraph break (see Fig 2). The text continued from one volume to another, and the break between volumes was arbitrary. There was no division into chapters and no titling of chapters or episodes. Short synopses were often written on the cover of each volume. This collection included the Original Story, the first two sequels, and the opening episodes of the third.62 Some copies of this collection seem to have been made for senior members of the court, as Chuang Bunnag was in possession of one. These manuscripts met a demand from readers for a familiar unchanging text. Prince Damrong retailed a story concerning Chuang Bunnag (Chaophraya Sisuriyawong) and his personal reader: Phra Saenthongfa (Pong) told me that Somdet Chaophraya Borommaha Sisuriyawong would listen only to this chapter. Phra Saenthongfa was later asked what happened if he recited to the very end where Khun Phaen descends from Khun Chang’s house. He replied, ‘Well, I have to go back to where Khun Phaen enters the house again’.63

In his first version of his preface to KCKP in 1917–18, Prince Damrong reckoned this collection dated to the Third Reign (Tamnan I: 23). In his revised preface of 1925, he explicitly revised this opinion, but gave no reasons why (Tamnan II: 59). 62 This is the coverage of the Smith and Wat Ko editions, which were based on Chuang Bunnag’s text, which in turn was copied from the palace text. The story ends with the execution of Phlai Yong and Soi Fa, which is the end of the third chapter of Sepha n.d., and of chapter 51 in Sepha 1966. In truth, this could be called the end of the Second Sequel since the focus of this sequel is Soi Fa. 63 Damrong, Tamnan I: 35. 61

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Fig. 3 Cover page from the Smith edition, 1872.

Fig. 4 Cover page from the Wat Ko edition, 1890.

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Printing The missionary-printer Samuel Smith published the first book of KCKP in 1872.64 Smith borrowed Chuang Bunnag’s text, which in turn was a copy of the palace manuscripts.65 He divided the text into chapters which followed the (arbitrary) division into samut thai volumes found in the manuscripts. He also retained the continuous lines and synopses, and added no chapter titles. He sold the work in installments. Each volume contained the text of four samut thai, and was priced at one baht. According to Prince Damrong, the edition was popular, and was quickly copied by other printing houses. The press at Wat Ko66 printed such an edition in 1890, selling it in smaller volumes containing only one samut thai and priced at one salueng.67 After Prince Damrong resigned from government service in 1915 and devoted himself to literary works, one of his first projects was editing KCKP. He used the original palace text from the Fourth Reign, and three other copies of this text found in the palace library for checking passages that were unreadable. He replaced the long passage on the Chiang Mai campaign with the version revised by Khru Jaeng (discussed above), and also adopted three shorter passages by Khru Jaeng.68 He decided to end his edition after the Second Sequel.

Thanks to Achan Choomsai Suwannachomphu for providing a partial copy (about half) of the Smith text. We have not been able to locate a full copy. 65 In his first version of the preface, Damrong wrote that Chuang’s text was ‘thought to be’ the text that Smith used (Tamnan I: 27), but in the revised preface he states this as a fact (Tamnan II: 68). Smith made one innovation – putting spaces between the words. This was replicated in the Wat Ko publication. 66 Wat Ko is the familiar name for Wat Samphanthawong in Sampheng. The area opposite the wat gate was one of the first markets for books in Bangkok. Ratcharoen Printers (also more commonly known as Wat Ko Printers) was founded in 1889 when Nai Sin, who had earlier become an agent for selling Smith’s publication through his glassware shop, installed a manual printing press in a shophouse on Wanit 1 Road opposite the wat. The press became famous for its cheap editions of classics and popular works (Matichon 2006: 24–8). There is a complete copy of the Wat Ko text in the William Gedney collection at Michigan University Library. There are a few installments in the Prince Damrong Library on Lan Luang Road, but they have no cover pages and no identification in the catalogue. 67 The Smith and Wat Ko texts are not exactly the same, but have clearly come from a common original. The wording is almost exactly the same, except for some typical copyist’s errors and omissions. The division between samut thai volumes differs between the two sets, and the spelling is often widely different. This suggests that an original manuscript (perhaps the palace text) was copied into two different sets by copyists with different handwriting size, different views on spelling, and different susceptibility to error. These two sets were then the basis of the Smith and Wat Ko publications respectively. 68 These passages are: forging the Skystorm sword; Buakhli and the Goldchild: and crocodile Khwat. For Skystorm and Khwat, Khru Jaeng’s versions were revisions of older versions of the story, while the Buakhli story was an unwritten version popular among troubadours. 64

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Prince Damrong’s edition of 1917–18 is a book, rather than a replication of the samut thai text. He divided the narrative into chapters on the basis of the story, and invented chapter headings. He set the text in lines, with two hemistiches per line, as in drama texts with a line-throw between paragraphs. Most of all, he created a canonical version, a definitive text. His edition has been constantly reprinted without any modification, not even correction of the (very few) obvious errors. It is sacrosanct. There has been no attempt to produce an alternative selection from the many texts available. Only a handful of fragments from alternative texts have been published.69 All of the many subsequent commentaries, précis versions, and prose renderings are based on this text. Most of the dramas, films, novels, cartoons, and television series based on KCKP have stayed within its confines.70 Only a handful of films and novels have strayed beyond, using imagination rather than alternative sources. Academic research has focused on the Damrong version. The pre-Damrong printed versions (Smith, Wat Ko, Khru Jaeng) have disappeared from view and are difficult to find. From folk to book: some major changes We have no direct evidence of KCKP as it existed in the folk tradition of troubadour recitation. Although recitation of KCKP is still performed, the script has been greatly influenced by the printed version. In 1950, E. H. S. Simmonds recorded recitation of an episode of KCKP in Ang Thong. He found that the story deviated from the printed version with a folkish slant (less politics, more humor, simpler language) but was mainly based on the Damrong edition.71 We can get some idea of the folk version by imaginatively stripping away the layers of revision, and by examining versions of the story which developed in other media. In this section, we trace five ways in which the KCKP changed in this late phase of its career. Morality and characterization Sukanya Pathrachai argues that the folk version had a simple black-and-white morality – rich vs. poor, and good vs. bad: the evil, rich, oafish Chang competes for Wanthong using money, political connections, and underhand methods; the good, brilliant Phaen is hamstrung by poverty and honesty. Sukanya shows that this simple dualism was retained in the version of KCKP performed as likae.72 The Samnuan kao fragments were published in 1925. One of Khru Jaeng’s chapters was published as Fine Arts Department 1925. Sujit 2002 contains two passages from Khru Jaeng version of the Buakhli episode. 70 Narongsak 2002 and 2005. 71 Simmonds 1963. 72 Sukanya 1991: 29–37. 69

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Over the nineteenth century revisions, this simple duality was obscured in the sepha. First, the rich–poor contrast was not erased but muted. Between the early manuscripts and the Damrong publication, the clothes worn by Phaen’s family become more sumptuous, the foods they prepare and eat become more elaborate, and the possessions around them become more varied. Possibly the court writers and editors simply inserted the kind of food, cloth, and articles with which they were more familiar.73 Certainly the effect is to elevate the family socially. At the same time, several direct references to Phaen’s poverty were deleted, while a line describing Phaen’s lineage as phu di, gentlefolk, was inserted. The addition of the sequels saw Phaen elevated from commoner to minor noble and then governor of Kanchanaburi. Conversely, several passages which emphasized Chang’s wealth disappeared over the revisions. These include a line in the opening chapter stating that Chang’s family ‘are rich people,’ another with Chang describing himself as rich in the scene of the Mahachat chanting, Wanthong’s mother describing Chang as having ‘cartloads of money,’ and trying to persuade Wanthong into marriage with the words, ‘Chang will give you so much money, you won’t be able to sew sacks fast enough to hold it all’.74 The contrast is also reduced by making Chang somewhat less of a buffoon, a figure of fun and contempt. For instance, in the old version of the opening chapter, Chang’s mother is so appalled by his appearance at birth that she kicks him off the bed. He is described as ‘short and stubby like the pigs at Wat Kaeo.’ His mother berates him, ‘You’re so weirdly different from any of the kinfolk with that oily head like a fishing cat.’ Other children ask in horror, ‘What’s that over there, mummy? It’s got a face and body like a big tom cat, a humpback, a hairy chin, gaping mouth, hair all over its body and shoulders, white eyes, long feet, hands and navel, and rows of odd things round its neck.’ Even the king is appalled when young Chang is presented at court, ‘A shiny head with no hair on the pate, black, and fat as a taphon drum. What a disaster! His forehead bulges out in an odd-looking way’.75 All of these passages had disappeared by the time of the Damrong publication. In a very old version, Chang’s marriage to Wanthong is played as high farce, spoofing Chang’s extravagance and his lack of taste. The young girls chosen to carry the dowry, usually selected for their beauty, are hilariously ugly. By the Damrong version they had metamorphosed into ‘fair, attractive teenage girls from respectable families of good status, and all dressed to the nines’.76 For example, compare WK: 67 to the start of PD: chapter 3. WK: 10, 90, 344, 425. 75 WK: 5, 9–10, 21. 76 The old version, from Thailand National Archives mss 131, is in Choomsai 1991: 59 and 165; compare PD, I: 216. 73 74

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Most strikingly, the revisions undermine the simple good–bad division by smearing Phaen with blood. In the Smith/Wat Ko version, Phaen kills only on the battlefield. By the Damrong publication, he murders a wife, slaughters two innocent peasants in cold blood, and tries to kill his own son. In the Fourth Reign revision, Khru Jaeng introduced the Buakhli story in which Phaen marries a woman and then kills her in order to create a spirit from the fetus of his own child. Khru Jaeng also has Phaen kill two Lao peasants so he can adopt their forms as disguise. And in the contorted plotting of the Second Sequel, Phaen tries to kill his first-born son, and is foiled only by poor tactics. In general in these revisions, Phaen becomes a more violent character. For example, in the old fragment of the abduction scene, Phaen only cuts Wanthong’s three tapestries down to the ground. In the Second Reign salon revision, he angrily slashes them to shreds with his sword. In an old version of the jealous quarrel which parts Phaen and Wanthong, Phaen is relatively calm and conciliatory. In the version found in the Damrong publication, he is much more violent, both verbally and physically, and precipitates the split by drawing his sword on Wanthong. Sukanya argues that this change, making Phaen more responsible for his own downfall, reflected the demand of a new court audience, consuming KCKP by reading, for a more nuanced plotline and morality.77 But there also seems to be a definite project to reduce Phaen’s stature as a heroic character. Leading female characters Over the revisions, the role and character of the key female figures changed markedly. In the Original Story, Wanthong is very much the central figure. Her death provides the tragic ending. Many of the best bits of dialogue come from her mouth.78 And it is her we weep over at the end. The addition of the three sequels changes the balance. Wanthong hardly appears in the First Sequel, and has died before the other two. No other female character inherits her prominence. Simala, who is her parallel in the First Sequel, is much less developed. In all three sequels, the women have become prizes which men acquire through seduction or as reward for military success. The women also squabble with one another over the men. None of them are key to the plot. None has a dilemma like Wanthong. The revisions also modified the character of Wanthong, making her conform more closely to a court ideal of female submissiveness. In a folk version of the first meeting between Phaen and Wanthong, she takes the lead, flirting even though he is in a novice’s robe, then blocking his responses Sukanya 1991: 29–37. Compare the speeches over the three bo seedlings; Thong Prasi mumbles something prosaic; Phaen copies his mother; Wanthong soars (PD, I: 58–9). 77 78

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with a reminder that he is forbidden from talking to a woman on alms round. In the Damrong version, she is much less forward in this scene.79 This transformation is clearly seen in the rewritings of the abduction scene during the Second Reign. In the second fragment, Phaen and Wanthong fall into a fierce argument, trading mutual recriminations over which one caused them to split. Phaen’s desire for Wanthong overcomes him and he starts to plead. She gains the upper hand and mocks him for taking a second wife. In desperation, Phaen uses a love mantra to subdue her. She agrees to leave and goes to pack, but when she sees Chang she begins to change her mind. Phaen has to use a mantra four times. When they finally leave, Phaen tries to browbeat Wanthong by saying he will tell Chang that she chased after him out of uncontrollable lust. She laughs in his face, ‘Is this the soldier that destroyed the Lao army speaking these sharp words? Anyone would think it laughable.’ Phaen then points out a bald-looking stork and pretends it is Chang following them. She parries in kind by pointing to another bird and pretending it is Phaen’s second wife. ‘Is that Laothong following us? Somewhere I hear she went into the palace. You can’t have her any more, that’s why you come after me. Oh, are you getting annoyed?’ Wanthong not only gives at least as good as she gets, but Phaen rather enjoys it and the banter leads directly into lovemaking. In the revision by the Second Reign salon, the storyline has the same events, but the characterization is totally changed. In the argument, Wanthong is more peevish than dominant, and Phaen more violent. He first verbally threatens to kill her, then draws his sword on her, and finally threatens that she is either leaving willingly or in two pieces. When Phaen taunts her with the fantasy of her lust, she has no response other than a peevish protest. When he spins the joke about Chang and the stork, she only asks meekly to go back home. In short, in the revised version, Phaen reduces Wanthong to submission by physical and verbal violence, and Wanthong is portrayed as almost helpless.80 Similar modification in the female role occurred in the later revisions. In the Smith/Wat Ko (pre-revision) version of the First Sequel, Phaen’s son Wai has an affair with Simala, daughter of the governor of Phichit. When they first meet, with their fathers present, Wai gazes at Simala and we are treated to his mental review of her breasts, rear, waist, arms, fingers, and dress. Such reviews are a standard element of such scenes. What follows is more surprising. We switch to Simala and listen to her review of Wai: ‘Santiwan’ (Somdet phra Ariyawongsathotayan, Pun Punnsirimahathen, later Supreme Patriarch) recounted the scene in an article on Wat Palelai first printed in 1970. His account of the passages in KCKP associated with Wat Palelai follows the Damrong version closely except in this scene. Probably his variant came from a local version, though he does not explain that (see Santiwan, 1971: 29–31). 80 See Chotchuang and Khru Sepha 1998: 134–40, 149–51; compare to PD, II: 45–52 and 60–1. 79

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‘He has a bright face and cheeks like nutmeg. His lips look as if painted with rouge. His black teeth gleam prettily. When he smiles, you can see a glimpse. His hair is cute as a lotus pod. A rounded neck in proportion like a molding. Eyebrows curved like a bow. The black pupils of his eyes gleam like jet. A strong chest and curvy waist. Everything looks perfect. If he came to lie with me for one night, I’d gobble him up’.81 In the version which emerged from Khru Jaeng’s revision and was included in Damrong’s edition, Wai’s mental review of Simala has tripled in length and multiplied in intensity, while Simala’s review of Wai has been deleted. Simala is so overcome by properly demure shyness that she rushes away to hide.82 This passage also shows how love scenes were revised. The two instances with Wai and Simala in the Smith/Wat Ko version are possibly the only such scenes which survive from the folk version with no court revision. In both these scenes, Simala is a very willing partner. In the first, she puts up only token resistance to Wai’s advances by protesting ‘Hey, let all the servants go to sleep first.’ In the second (after his return from war), she ribs him a little about ‘eating sticky rice’ while in Chiang Mai. By contrast, in all scenes of a couple’s initial lovemaking in the Damrong publication, there is a touch of rape. Even if the woman is aroused, she puts up verbal and physical resistance, and the man responds by blowing mantra and using physical force. In Khru Jaeng’s revision, the first encounter between Wai and Simala was rewritten to conform to this standard pattern.83 The Second Sequel introduces another difference into the portrayal of women. One of the three sub-plots of the sequel revolves around jealousy between Wai’s two wives. This theme recycles the jealous quarrel between Wanthong and Laothong in the Original Story, but with an important difference. The quarrel between Wanthong and Laothong is momentary. Subsequently it is forgotten and they live in harmony. Both are ‘good’ women. By contrast, Wai’s two wives, Simala and Soi Fa are clearly cast as ‘good’ and ‘bad.’ Soi Fa resorts to using love philters, which was a serious offence under Ayutthaya law. The jealousy is far from momentary and is not reconciled but causes Phaen’s lineage to split into two camps that war continuously for the next two generations.

WK: 928; compare to PD, III: 40. From hiding, she does manage some appreciation, but very watered down: ‘This man is no waste of time! He’s the most handsome, most brilliant. His face and body look like they’re painted with gold. Handsome to perfection.’ (PD, III: 40). 83 WK: 936, 1062–3; compare to PD, III: 49–52. 81 82

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In the Original Story, Chang is the personification of ‘bad’ in contrast to the ‘good’ of Phaen. But Chang has only a small role in the First Sequel and then disappears completely while Soi Fa becomes the personification of evil which drives the plot. This role is passed from male to female. In sum, the transformation in the role of women in the nineteenth-century revisions of KCKP is sweeping. Though we have very little evidence of the portrayal of women in KCKP in the folk tradition, the early fragment on the abduction of Wanthong and the glimpse of Simala in the above excerpt suggest that the women were verbally forceful and sexually assured. In the revisions and extensions of the story, the women are reduced to courtly submissiveness, subject to near-rape, pushed to the sidelines, converted into prizes of war, and recast as the agents of evil. Most strikingly, Wanthong disappears from the title of the work where she most obviously belongs. This transformation may reflect a change in the audience. The audience for folk performance was probably more than half female (because many men were absent on corvée, military service, in the monkhood, etc.). The KCKP Original Story may have acquired its immense popularity because the main theme (Wanthong’s dilemma and death) appealed to this female majority in the audience, and because the troubadours continually developed the story in response to this audience’s tastes. By contrast, in the court, the majority of the audience (or the most important part of the audience) was male. In effect the sequels are warrior romances in which heroes defeat enemies and acquire rank, fame, and women – a very typical court genre with strong male bias. Folksiness Like much popular entertainment, the folk version of KCKP was full of sexiness, comedy, and knockabout farce. Rapid transition among moods was probably one of the tricks of troubadour performance. Some examples still remain. For example, the tragic moment of Wanthong’s death sentence is immediately followed by a farcical scene of Chang falling into dogs’ shit. But throughout the nineteenth-century revisions, such farcical scenes along with comic one-liners and risqué jokes were steadily deleted. This can be seen in the revisions of the Second Reign which removed several passages present in the earlier version of the abduction scene. In flight from Suphanburi, Phaen rewards a Mon boatman with a valuable ring, and the boatman responds, ‘I’ll sell it to redeem a slave I can hug in bed. I’m in love with I-Khlai at the end of the village, and I-Phon with the dangling breasts, the wife of Phan Son.’ In the abduction from Chang’s house, as Phaen threads his way through the prone bodies of servants put to sleep by his mantra, one woman ‘started to dream, fumbled in her skirt, and murmured, “I’ve found a monitor lizard’s hole.”’ Phaen peers into the bedroom of Chang’s Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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brother and finds him ‘sleeping the wrong way round on the bed using his wife’s bottom as a pillow’.84 All these passages (and many others of a similar nature) were deleted. While each deletion on its own is of little significance, collectively they reduce the earthiness and realism. This sanitization continued in later revisions. As already noted, Khru Jaeng’s revision of the Chiang Mai campaign removed scenes of carousing, womanizing, drug-taking, looting, and raping, mostly written for comic effect. In his editing, Prince Damrong consciously moved KCKP yet further away from ‘popular entertainment’ and towards literature, principally by reducing the role of sex, violence, and comedy. In his second version of the preface, Prince Damrong explained, But there were also several problems that had to be resolved. The first was the old view that women should not read Khun Chang Khun Phaen because it is an obscene book…. The obscene wording is found only in passages from the vulgar (chaloeisak) versions which probably came to be inserted when the whole thing was assembled…. Hence if those common chapters were to be excised and replaced by other versions that are not obscene, it would result in Khun Chang Khun Phaen becoming readable by both men and women without the former prejudice.85 Damrong described four categories of changes he made while editing: deleting passages considered obscene; deleting ‘jokes that were improvised during recitation but are not funny on the printed page’; amending clumsy or erroneous link passages probably inserted by earlier editors; and amending obscure wording.86 Damrong’s team toned down the ‘wondrous scenes’ describing lovemaking through metaphor, deleted the advice by mothers on how brides should feed their husbands for maximum performance, pruned the farcical scenes of lower cloths slipping off, droopy breasts dangling, and old men groping, and excised many risqué one-liners. Buddhism The two largest deletions made by Prince Damrong on grounds that the jokes were not funny both concern Buddhism. The first comes in the second chapter at the cremation of the fathers of Chang and Wanthong and concerns a funeral entertainment known variously as the Twelve-Language Chant (suat sipsong phasa), monk clowning (jam uat phra), or lay chanting (suat kharuhat). These performances Chotchuang and Khru Sepha 1998: 149, 119, 133, 118. Damrong, Tamnan II: 72. 86 Damrong, Tamnan I: 30–1. 84 85

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were laid on to entertain guests who kept the corpse company overnight on days before a cremation. They were once widespread and popular. The performers were originally monks but their participation was sternly banned by the Sangha Law of 1782.87 Laymen took over, and although even this was technically banned, there were still specialist troupes in the 1930s, one headed by a future police general.88 In the version in KCKP, the performers appear to be monks. They are high on liquor and ganja. They adopt roles as Thai, Mon, Vietnamese, Chinese, Lao, Khmer, Indian, and Farang. The content is highly scatological, and the audience loves it. The second passage occurs where Chang ordains in order to make merit after Wanthong’s cremation. This incident is retained in the Damrong version, but reduced to a short joke about Chang struggling with the initiation formula. The earlier version is much more elaborate. The abbot can find only a huge machete to shave what little hair Chang has on his bald pate. Chang gets tangled in his first attempt to don the robe. He gives a sermon which spoofs not only the ignorance of many monks but the absurdity of the plots of outer dramas (lakhon nok), and which reduces Chang’s own mother to commenting, ‘I have no faith. I’d rather feed dogs than make merit’.89 Prince Damrong may indeed have judged that these two passages were ‘not funny on the printed page,’ but it is probably also significant that in his governmental career Prince Damrong helped to initiate the project to cleanse, standardize, and regulate the Buddhist order as a pillar of the emergent nation. Kingship At four points in the Original Story, the text confronts the question whether Phaen’s abilities are powerful enough to defy the supreme authority of the king. In the Smith/Wat Ko version, the issue is resolved in favor of Phaen in all four cases. By the time of the Damrong edition, all four were changed. The king stands at the apex of the sakdina order. His authority is based on his supreme merit accumulated in past generations. Phaen is born a commoner but becomes a man of power by studying the military arts, including supernatural abilities. The monks who teach the military arts are convinced their pupils can defy the monarch. In the first of these four instances, the teacher of Phaen’s father, Khun Krai, asks Phaen in bewilderment how Krai let himself be executed by the king: ‘I’m still disappointed that he died without putting up a fight. He must have lost his knowledge. Why didn’t he come to see me? If anyone dared come after me, there’d be no match.’ Phaen explains that his father had drunk the oath of Sangha Laws clause 10 (KTSD, IV: 226–7). Yai 2001; Choomsai 1991: 58–9, 197–8; Skilling 2002. 89 WK: 1230. 87 88

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allegiance and would not go back on his word, and hence renounced his mastery and allowed himself to be killed.90 The vocabulary used (tat sai and soem) are technical terms within saiyasat. Khun Krai had the power to resist his execution, but chose not to use it. After release from jail, Phaen visits the abbot of Wat Palelai, his old teacher, who is bewildered why Phaen languished in jail for a dozen years ‘What was up? Didn’t you have faith in your knowledge? Or was it fun sleeping in the jail? Why didn’t you escape to find me? If they came after you, I’d put on a yantra cloth and fight back. Why did you sit doing nothing, not following what I taught you?’91 Phaen replies ‘I was not lacking in power,’ but again explains he had given an oath that he would not escape and refused to break his word. When Phaen and Wanthong are outlaws in the forest, and Wanthong becomes pregnant, Phaen decides to give himself up. He reasons, ‘If I give myself up, rather than being captured deep in the forest, the punishment should be light and I can create obstruction with the power of my knowledge’.92 When brought before the king, ‘Khun Phaen intoned a mantra he had decided on in advance, and blew it with faith in its lore. The king’s mood relaxed, and he turned his face towards them.’ The king promptly absolves Phaen of the serious charge of murdering two higher officials.93 When Phaen’s son Phra Wai goes to seek pardon for his mother, he prepares himself with a full complement of lore: He composed his mind, turned his face to the east, chanted the Great Beguiler mantra to charm and inspire love, put a Pokhwam with a powerful face in his mouth, pronounced a sacred Kasak verse displaying mastery and a verse of Lord Narai transformed into a floating omen, and recited prayers to his powerful teachers for the king’s anger to recede. He waited until he felt his breath through his left nostril, and then crawled into the jeweled audience hall.94 The king ‘felt very sorry inside for Muen Wai on account of the power of the mantra’, and promptly issues a pardon (though it turns out to be too late).

WK: 175. WK: 898. 92 WK: 672. 93 In the parallel scene in the First Sequel, the effect is the same: ‘When the king, pinnacle of the resplendent city, saw the three arrive, his mood improved and he took pity on them as he would children in the womb. / Because of the force of the powerful mantra, the king’s attitude became warmer and more sympathetic.’ (III, 228, 19) 94 WK: 1201. 90 91

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In two of these examples, Phaen’s powers work on the king; in the other two, Phaen rationalizes why he declined to exercise his powers. Between the Wat Ko text and Prince Damrong’s version, all four of these incidents were deleted or modified to become less explicit. In the first example about Khun Krai, just a single half-line with the technical phrase for renouncing saiyasat power was removed. In the second, about Khun Phaen’s time in jail, the whole scene was cut. In the third, on Phaen’s surrender, the line in which Phaen claims ability to ‘create obstruction with the power of my knowledge’ was deleted. In the fourth, Wai’s request for a pardon, the panoply of lore is much reduced, and the explanation that the king was moved ‘on account of the mantra’ have been removed.95 The Smith/Wat Ko version came from a palace text of the Fourth Reign. Apparently at that time, Phaen’s defiance of royal power was not found objectionable. But by the era of royal absolutism, this equanimity seems to have disappeared.96 Conclusion The career of KCKP probably began around 1600 in a folk tradition of troubadour performance and grew with the telling over many decades. The story was later adopted by the court and adapted to court tastes. The appearance of Phaen and the Chiang Mai campaign in The Testimony of the Inhabitants of the Old Capital, and the conclusion that KCKP is based on a true story from around 1500, should be treated with some skepticism. On the internal evidence of the poem, the most likely origin of the story is around 1600, possibly from a true story of the execution of a young woman. The best evidence for when the poem began to accumulate in the oral tradition is the mid to late seventeenth century. KCKP seems to have developed in four parts. The Original Story probably began from the execution which serves as the climax, and was gradually lengthened by popular demand into a tale with many episodes. The development took place mainly in the folk tradition of oral performance, though large parts were revised by the court in the nineteenth century. This Original Story forms chapters 1–23, 35–36 of the Damrong edition.

The significance of these changes is considered in more detail in Baker and Pasuk, ‘The revolt of Khun Phaen’ (forthcoming). 96 Writing in the 1980s, Kukrit (2000: 213) was so appalled by Phaen’s attempt to use a mantra on the king in the third of the above incidents that he claimed this effrontery was the cause of Phaen’s subsequent misfortune. 95

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A First Sequel began to develop in the folk tradition in late Ayutthaya, probably based on an alternative version of the Phaen tale adapted with Phaen’s son in the leading role. This sequel was inserted inside the Original Story (chapters 24 to 34) with some craft, and revised by court authors during the nineteenth century to remove virtually all traces of its folk origins. Two other sequels, also in the court style and probably composed in the nineteenth century, were added at the end. As a result of this history, KCKP has two distinct modes. The folk mode has the setting, characters, and concerns of the provincial town, and style suitable for oral performance as popular entertainment. The court mode has the setting, characters, and concerns of the capital and court, and style suitable for court performance and literary appreciation. These modes are both separate in parts of the tale, but also layered on one another in others. Although the original folk version of KCKP has not survived, enough traces remain to reconstruct its main characteristics.97 The king is portrayed, in Prince Bidyalankara’s phrase, as ‘a queer and thoughtless autocrat’,98 a figure of terrible power. Officials are flaccid, cowardly, and corrupt. The rich (as represented by Chang) are crass buffoons. The hero is born a commoner, tipped into poverty by the king, and repeatedly disadvantaged by Chang with his money and court connections, but raises himself up by his own brilliance and learning, and uses his

The western work which most resembles KCKP is the legend of Robin Hood. A big difference, however, is that the history of the Robin Hood legend is relatively well documented, and has been extensively studied in recent years. There is no clear identification of an original man named Robin Hood. In the earliest sources, mostly lawcourt records from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the name is used as an epithet for criminals and outlaws. By the fifteenth century, ballads appeared all over England in which Robin Hood is a rebel against the church and the nobility. He robs and he refuses to serve the king. He often appears as a trickster who defies authority. He lives in the forest and wears a green costume that recalls a wild, anti-civilizational spirit-figure in Anglo-Saxon legends. From the late fifteenth century, playlets about Robin Hood were performed at local festivals, especially the May festival, often with Robin Hood as the May King, a lord of misrule. In this era Robin Hood was ‘the hero who stands for an alternative and natural force of lordship, one who has the will and the power not only to elude but also to resist and if necessary destroy the agents of the world of legalism, of finance, and of regulation’ (Knight 1944: 81). The authorities began to suppress these performances in the late sixteenth century, and imposed a total ban in 1592. In the seventeenth century, there was a deliberate attempt to bring this rebellious tradition under control. Dramas appeared in which Robin Hood was given a noble background, and his exploits began to lose their rebellious character. He became an earl fallen on hard times. He no longer fought against the church and the power structure, but against individual corrupt officials. He no longer defied the king, but appealed to the king to help suppress a corrupt enemy and restore his rightful position. By the eighteenth century Robin Hood had also become a nationalistic figure, representing values of charity, bravery, and moral uprightness which were supposed to form the national character. By the twentieth century, this tamed version had evolved into a tale largely for children. See especially Knight 1994. 98 Bidyalankarana 1941: 13. 97

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mastery of lore to protect himself and others. Ultimately his powers are superior even to those of the king. The heroine, both beautiful and strong-willed, is battered by the machinations of Chang, the inequalities of gender, and the terrible power of the king. When the themes of political and sexual rivalry interlock, the heroine becomes a sacrificial victim, ending the story in a shocking tragedy. After the story was gradually adopted by the court, possibly beginning in the eighteenth century, it underwent successive stages of revision, culminating in the standard printed edition of 1917–8. In these revisions, authors made the work more comfortable and familiar for the court audience by thinning down the folkish elements, and adding elements of genteel culture. They also collectively changed the meanings of the work over time. They blurred the contrasts between rich and poor, powerful and powerless, good and evil. They undermined the simple heroism of Phaen by making him violent and blood-thirsty. They converted the heroine into a more submissive, helpless figure. They disrupted the plot by distancing the denouement from its build-up, hence obscuring the political meanings. The political landscape of the folk version is very similar to that found in works of folk tradition anywhere – a local hero pitted against the highest authority. The underlying theme of struggle against wealth and authority was probably a significant factor in KCKP’s enormous popularity in late Ayutthaya. By the twentieth century, this political aspect had been almost totally obscured by successive revisions. Indeed, in his ‘new reading’ of KCKP written in the 1970s, the royalist litterateur-politician Kukrit Pramoj could imagine Phaen as a shining example of loyalty to the established order: The loyalty of the characters in KCKP can be used as a model for officials and people in general. It is an ultimate form of loyalty without question. Even severe royal punishment does not make the loyalty of any of the characters diminish. They continue to remain loyal. Moreover, several of the characters have command of lore and supernatural powers, including keeping protective spirits. But when they must face royal punishment, their skills – whether from mantra or various amulets or spirits – totally lose their force, and provide no protection against the royal will.99

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References Atsiri Thammachot, Chotchuang Nadon, and Khru Sepha Niranam. 1990. Khun chang khun phaen chabap nok thamniap [KCKP, the unofficial version]. Bangkok: Bai bua. Baker, Chris and Pasuk Phongpaichit. Forthcoming. ‘The revolt of Khun Phaen.’ Bidyalankarana, Prince. 1941. ‘Sebha recitation and the story of khun chang khun phan.’ Journal of the Thailand Research Society, 33. Chetana Nagavajara. 2003. ‘In search of indigenous theories.’ In Dedications to Her Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra on her 80th Birthday. Bangkok: Siam Society. Choomsai Suwannachomphu. 2002. ‘Sakkarat 147 phi thi pen panha nai bot sepha rueang Khun Chang khun phaen’ [The problem date of 147 in KCKP]. Sinlapa Watthanatham 23, 6 May. Chotchuang Nadon and Khru Sepha Niranam. 1998. Khun chang khun phaen chabap yon tamnan [KCKP, the legendary version]. Bangkok: Phloi Tawan Printing. Chumsai Suwannachomphu. 1991. ‘Kan sueksa priapthiap sepha rueang khun chang khun phaen chabap ho phrasumut wachirayan samrap phranakhon kap chabap samnuan uen’ [Comparative study of the Wachirayan Capital Library edition of KCKP with other versions]. MA thesis, Silpakorn University. Cushman, Richard. 2000. The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya: A Synoptic Translation. Bangkok: Siam Society. Damrong Rajanubhab, Prince. 1917–8. Sepha khun chang khun phaen. Bangkok: Wachirayan Library. Damrong Rajanubhab, Prince. 1925. Tamnan sepha. Bangkok: Rong Muang. Damrong Rajanubhab, Prince. 2008. A Biography of King Naresuan the Great. Translated and edited by Kennon Breazeale. Bangkok: Toyota Thailand Foundation and the Foundation for the Promotion of Social Science and Humanities Textbooks Project. Fine Arts Department. 1935. Bot sepha rueang khun chang khun phaen ton taeng ngan phra wai (samnuan khru jaeng) [The marriage of Phra Wai episode from KCKP, Khru Jaeng’s version]. Printed for distribution at the royal kathin at Wat Sangwet-witsayaram, 3 April 1935. Bangkok: Fine Arts Department. Fine Arts Department. 1968. Phraratchawang lae wat boran nai jangwat nakhon si ayutthaya [Palaces and old wat in Ayutthaya province]. Bangkok: Fine Arts Department. Flood, Thadeus and Chadin Flood, tr. and ed. 1978. The Dynastic Chronicles, Bangkok Era, The First Reign, Chaophraya Thiphakorawong Edition. Vol. I, Text. Tokyo: Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies. Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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Halliday, R. 1913. ‘Imigration of the Mons into Siam,’ JSS, 10, 3. Kanchanakphan [Khun Wichitmatra] and Nai Tamra na Muang Tai [Plueng na Nakhon]. 2002 [1961]. Lao rueang khun chang khun phaen [Telling the story of KCKP]. Bangkok: Amarin. Khamhaikan. 2001 [1924]. Khamhaikan chao krung kao [Testimony of the inhabitants of the old capital]. Bangkok: Chotmaihet. ‘Khamhaikan khun khlon,’ in Prachum phongsawadan phak thi 7 [Collected chronicles, vol. 7]. Cremation volume of Luang Chamni Bannakom (Ma Jarurat), 30 March 1918. Knight, S. T. 1944. Robin Hood: A Complete Study Of The English Outlaw. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. KTSD. 2003. Kotmai tra sam duang [Three Seals Law]. 5 vols. Bangkok: Khurusapha, 20th edition. Kukrit Pramoj. 2000 [1989]. Khun chang khun phaen: chabap an mai [KCKP, a new reading]. Bangkok: Dokya. Lilit taleng phai. 1995. Printed for the cremation of Professor M.L. Kaset Sanitwong, Wat Thepsirin, Bangkok, 2 September. Matichon. 2006. Sayam phimphakan: prawatisat kan phim nai prathet thai [Siamese printing: history of printing in Thailand]. Bangkok: Matichon Press. Narongsak Sonjai. 2002. ‘Kan sueksa priapthiap bannakam thatplaeng rueang khun chang khun phaen’ [Study of adaptations of KCKP]. MA thesis, Silpakorn University. Narongsak Sonjai. 2005. ‘Rueang khun chang khun phaen nai rup baep tangtang’ [KCKP in various forms]. The Journal (Mahidol University), I, January: 71–90. Nidhi Eoseewong. 2006. Pen and Sail: Literature and History in Early Bangkok. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books. Phiset Jiajanphong. 2002. ‘Sakkarat nai rueang khun chang khun phaen’ [Dating in KCKP]. Unpublished. Prasert na Nagara and A. B. Griswold. 1992. Epigraphical and Historical Studies. Bangkok: Historical Society. Santiwan. 2007. ‘Wat palelai mueang suphanburi’ [Wat Palelai, Suphanburi] in Phra Sithawatmethi, Luang pho to wat palelaiworawihan [The Luang Pho To image at Wat Palelai]. Suphanburi: Wat Palelai. Saranukrom watthanatham thai [Thai cultural encyclopaedia]. 1994. Multiple volumes for each region. Bangkok: Siam Commercial Bank. Sepha. 1966. Sepha rueang khun chang khun phaen phak plai krom sinlapakon truat sop chamra mai [The latter part of KCKP edited by the Fine Arts Department]. Printed for the cremation of Khunying Chuea Chonlathanwinitchai, Wat Prayurawon-sawat, 10 January. Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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Sepha. n.d. Sepha rueang khun chang khun phaen ton to jak chabap ho samut haeng chat [KCKP continuation from the National Library edition]. Bangkok: Sinlapa Bannakan. Simmonds, E. H. S. 1963. ‘Thai narrative poetry: palace and provincial texts of an episode from Khun Chang Khun Phaen.’ Asia Major, 10, 2. Skilling, Peter. 2002. ‘Compassion, power, success: Notes on Siamese Buddhist liturgy.’ Paper presented at the United Kingdom Association of Buddhist Studies Day Conference, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, Wednesday, 3 July. Stuart-Fox, Martin 1998. The Lao Kingdom of Lan Xang: Rise and Decline. Bangkok: White Lotus. Sujit Wongthes. 2002. Khun chang khun phaen saensanuk [KCKP, lots of fun]. Bangkok: Sinlapa Watthanatham. Sujit Wongthet, ed. 1994. Jedi yutthahatthi mi jing ruea? [Was there really a chedi to commemorate the elephant duel?]. Bangkok: Sinlapa Watthanatham. Sukanya Pathrachai. 1991. ‘“Khun chang plaeng san” ton thi hai pai jak sepha khun chang khun phaen chabap ho samut’ [Khun Chang changes the letter: a passage missing from the library edition of Khun Chang Khun Phaen]. Phasa lae wannakhadi thai [Thai language and literature], 8, 1. Vickery, Michael. 1984. ‘Prologomena to methods for using the Ayutthaya materials as historical source materials.’ JSS, 72, 1&2. Wachari Romyanan. 1990. ‘Khun chang khun phaen roem taeng nai ratchakan dai’ [In what reign did the composition of Khun Chang Khun Phaen begin?]. Phasa lae wannakhadi thai [Thai language and literature], 7, 3. WK. 1890. Khun chang khun phaen. 40 vols. Bangkok: Wat Ko. Yai Nophayon. 2001. ‘Suat kharuhat jam-uat’ [Lay or clown chanting]. Mueang Boran, 27, 1, Jan-Mar: 108–112

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UNDER DURESS: LAO WAR CAPTIVES AT BANGKOK IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Edward Van Roy Abstract Over the course of the Thonburi period and the first five reigns of the Bangkok era, large numbers of Lao war captives were transported to Siam. While most of those prisoners were settled as slaves in the outlying provinces, the core of the captive Lao aristocracy along with their retinues of nobles and craftsmen were settled in Bangkok. This article examines the history of seven of the Lao settlements in Bangkok: first, the Vientiane royal compound at Bang Yi-khan and the Lao Phuan and Champasak communities at Bang Khun Phrom and Thewet, both upstream of the walled city of Bangkok; second, the Lao commoner communities at Bang Sai Kai and Ban Kruai downstream from the city; and third, Ban Lao Phuan, Ban Kraba, and Ban Ti Thong within the city. Clarification of the history of those communities provides a number of insights into the changing spatial structure and social organization of nineteenth-century Bangkok. Love and loathing Relations between Siam and the Lao states of the Mekong watershed soured during the Thonburi period (1767–1782). Whether that was primarily due to the dynamics of Burmese influence in the Lao country, the newly-found might and exuberant expansionism of the Thonburi regime, or personal animosities between Thonburi’s King Taksin and King Si Bunyasan of Vientiane remains a moot point. What is beyond dispute, however, is the decline in power of the Lao states and their reduced capacity to withstand pressure from their neighbors following the 1707 fragmentation of the kingdom of Lan Chang into the rival states of Luang Prabang, Vientiane, and Champasak. The result was a process of growing humiliation for the Lao at the hands of their Thai ethnic cousins. A respected pair of Lao scholars has succinctly expressed the lingering emotions as “the Lao-Thai saga of love and loathing” (Mayoury and Pheuiphanh, 1994: vii).

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The tensions between Thonburi and the Lao states culminated in 1778–1779 in a massive Thai military campaign against the Mekong riparian states, leading to the conquest of the Lao capital of Vientiane and the capture and transport to Thai territory of large numbers of war prisoners (chaloei soek), including many members of the Vientiane royal family and its entourage. Si Bunyasan and his personal retinue, including several of his sons, managed to escape the fall of his capital. But his eldest son and viceroy (uparat), Nanthasen, and other members of the royal family were caught and carried off to Siam along with masses of war captives and other booty, including the Phra Kaew and Phra Bang Buddha images, the chief palladia of the ancient kingdom of Lan Chang. That conquest marked a historic transition of the Lao states from political independence to tributary status to Siam, immortalized, to the lasting chagrin of the Lao, by the installation of the Phra Kaew Buddha image at the spiritual center of the Thai kingdom. The 1779 debacle set off a series of forced migrations from the Lao states into Siamese territory. Tens of thousands of captives were marched to Saraburi, and from there many were sent further afield – to Phetchaburi, Ratchaburi, and Nakhon Chaisi in the southwest and to Prachinburi and Chanthaburi in the southeast. Over the following century, several further waves of forced migration moved the bulk of the Lao population south from the Mekong watershed onto the Khorat plateau. The most dramatic march followed the crushing defeat of the Lao rebellion of 1827–1828. “The massive deportation in the wake of 1827 resulted in a five-fold disparity between the population of Laos and Thailand’s northeast (Isan). The estimated magnitude of this displacement ranges from one hundred thousand people to . . . more than three hundred thousand” (Mayoury and Pheuiphanh, 1998: 49, n. 100). A third wave followed the Thai response to the Ho incursions into the Lao states in the 1870s. It resulted in the relocation to Thai territory of lesser contingents of Phuan and Song Dam war captives from the Lao uplands bordering Vietnamese territory (Snit and Breazeale, 1988: 31). The Lao migrations and resettlement programs caused “profound human suffering” (Snit and Breazeale, 1988: 29). “Fully two-thirds died during their journey to Siam” (Mayoury and Pheuiphanh, 1998: 42). While the three eighteenth-nineteenth century waves of Lao migration extensively depopulated and impoverished the left bank of the Mekong, they transformed the demographic face of Siam and contributed immeasurably to its long-term development. In each case those who were “swept up” (kwat) and carried off into Siamese captivity consisted of three groups. The largest group were common folk, who were settled as virtual serfs in under-populated provinces and districts, ever available, as war slaves (that chaloei), to serve the Thai elite well beyond the limits of the annual corvée that was imposed on the kingdom’s freemen (phrai) (Ishii, 1986b: 173-174; Chatchai, 1982). Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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“Captives” (chaloei) and “slaves” (that) here become virtually interchangeable terms. The other two groups of war captives – aristocrats and artisans – were much smaller and were accorded far better treatment. Both groups were settled in close proximity to the Thai capital and placed under the protection of the Thai king (at the Grand Palace) and his viceroy (at the Front Palace). The Lao aristocracy in Bangkok were held hostage to the fidelity of their close kin who had been permitted to retain their positions as vassal rulers and ranking officials of the respective Lao principalities. They also played a useful role as intermediaries between the Thai provincial administration and the Lao communities dispersed about Siam. Similarly, the captive Lao craftsmen were valued for their contribution to the skills base of the royal artisans’ departments (Krom Sip Mu) serving the courts of both the Thai king and his viceroy, in particular gold- and silversmiths, bronze-casters, woodworkers, and architects and engineers. The Lao were also esteemed for their court dancers and musicians as well as for the spiritual eminence of their forest monk (aranyawasi) tradition. Under traditional Siamese legal precepts all those captive people were considered royal or state slaves (that luang, kha luang). As property of the king, their legal status was, in effect, extra-legal. Unlike debt slaves, they lived in perpetual bondage (Ishii, 1986b: 173-174).1 Even where they were assigned or given by the king to his loyal subordinates it was understood that they would in due course revert to the Privy Purse. Because of their status as royal property, the series of decrees issued during the Fifth Reign to free the slaves did not clarify the anomalous position of those who had been acquired by capture (permanent, or hereditary slaves) but dealt instead with the problem of debt slavery (redeemable slaves, or indentured bondsmen).2 Relatively little is known of the nineteenth century presence of Lao war captives at Bangkok for several reasons. First, communities of inferior status in the social hierarchy did not warrant documentary attention in the Thai court archives (chotmaihet) or annals (phongsawadan). Second, the forced residency of Lao aristocrats as war captives at the Thai capital carried a stigma among the Lao themselves, which did not favor close documentation or long memories.3 Third, the 1

Chatchai (1982: 39) refers to the body price (kha tua) at which war captives could presumably free themselves under the legal code of 1805, but it was set at a rate that could not be met. 2 The first of those acts, promulgated in 1874, identified seven classes of slaves: debt-slaves, the offspring of debt-slaves, children sold into slavery by their parents, slaves sold by their owners, those who entered into slavery to escape debt or other trouble, those who entered slavery to escape famine, those captured in war. But implementation – as distinct from legislation – of that and subsequent acts does not appear to have taken war slaves into specific account (Chatchai, 1982: 202ff). 3 An exception is Nirat bang yi-khan (Travel Reminiscence on Bang Yi-khan), by Khun Phum, a lesser member of the Vientiane aristocracy and native of Bangkok’s Bang Yi-khan Lao community. Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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records of the Front Palace, which had special responsibility for the Lao captives, did not long survive the late nineteenth century abolition of the viceroyalty. Lastly, the gradual easing of the “slave” status of particular communities was deliberately kept off-the-record to avoid invidious comparisons and unrest in other, less favored communities, and to forestall diplomatic unpleasantries with the Western powers. But enough information has filtered through, much of it from temple records and some of it circumstantial, to permit a brief review of the histories of two Lao communities (Bang Yi-khan and Bang Khun Phrom) upstream from the walled city of Bangkok, two communities (Bang Sai Kai and Ban Kruai) downstream, and three (Ban Lao Phuan, Ban Kraba, and Ban Ti Thong) within the city itself.

Upstream One of the many striking parallels between the Siamese and Lao political systems to the end of the Vientiane dynasty in 1828 was the administrative role assigned to the viceroy (uparat, nearly always the king’s senior son). The viceroy of Vientiane was accorded responsibility for oversight of the subject principalities to the north, including Chiang Khwang and Sip Song Chu Thai, home of the Phuan and Song Dam ethnic groups. Correspondingly, the king of Siam traditionally assigned his viceroy special authority in dealing with the northern territories of Lan Na and Lan Chang. That explains why at Bangkok both the Lao royal compound at Bang Yi-khan and the cross-river Lao Phuan settlement at Bang Khun Phrom were located just north of the walled city, a short distance from the Front Palace.4 Bang Yi-khan (see Map 1) The Lao royal captives of the 1779 conquest of Vientiane – headed by Si Bunyasan’s eldest son, Nanthasen, his eldest daughter, Khiawkhom, and a younger son, Anuwong – arrived at Thonburi around 1780. They were settled along the right bank of the Chao Phraya River upstream from the walled city, at Bang Yi-khan, under close oversight from the fortified compound of the conquering general, Chaophraya Surasi, situated at Bang Lamphu directly across the river. Nanthasen did not stay at Thonburi long. He was appointed king of Vientiane in 1781 and immediately returned home to take up his post as vassal ruler. Upon his arrival at Vientiane in 1782 his brothers Inthawong (the new viceroy) and Phromwong were dispatched 4

Similarly, the residences that the Chiangmai (Lan Na) aristocracy maintained for their frequent ceremonial visits to Bangkok were situated at the mouth of Khlong Samsen, 3.4 kilometers upriver from the Front Palace. In the early 1890s a new mansion was built for Chao Inthanon, the chief of Chiangmai, along the river at Bangkok Noi, directly across from the Front Palace (Sarassawadee, 2005: 242). Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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to join Anuwong at Bangkok as royal hostages. For that and several subsequent reigns the Lao royal compound at Bang Yi-khan remained the Bangkok residence of Vientiane’s royal hostages and their retinues, and therefore it came to be called Wang Lao (S. Plainoi, 2002: 101). Inthawong, accompanied by Phromwong, arrived at Bangkok in 1783. When, after the death of Nanthasen, Inthawong ascended to the throne of Vientiane in 1797, Anuwong was appointed his viceroy. And then, when Inthawong died in 1804, Anuwong succeeded him. Thus, three sons of Si Bunyasan in turn served as viceroy of Vientiane and each of them in turn succeeded to the throne. In each instance the Lao viceroy spent much of his time at Bang Yi-khan representing the interests of Vientiane at the court of Bangkok. That tradition continued with the appointment of Anuwong’s son Khli as viceroy in 1804. However, when Anuwong started plotting rebellion against Rama III around 1825, Khli quietly withdrew from the viceroyalty and was replaced by Anuwong’s half-brother Tissa. The Thai-Lao war of 1827-1828 was lost by Anuwong, with tragic consequences. Not only was Vientiane looted and razed to the ground, but tens of thousands of Lao peasants were removed from their homeland and forcibly resettled as war slaves in the Thai provinces. Anuwong and many members of his household, including several of his wives and a number of his 23 children, were tortured and executed at Bangkok. Included in the booty brought to Bangkok in 1828 was the Phra Bang Buddha image, which had been returned to Vientiane in 1782 upon the elevation of Nanthasen. Rubbing salt into the Lao wounds, Rama III had the Phra Bang image installed in a special pavilion at Wat Samploem, near the site of Anuwong’s execution.5 Tissa, Anuwong’s half-brother and viceroy, responsible for the eastern flank of the Lao military campaign, opted at the last moment to defect to the Thai cause. His desertion left Anuwong at a fatal disadvantage at the decisive battles of Sompoi and Khaosan. For his loyalty to the Siamese throne Tissa was designated chief Lao representative at Bangkok, though he was despised by his own people and largely written out of history. He was eventually awarded the Bangkok monopoly (akon) on alcoholic beverages and established a distillery along the river at Bang Yi-khan, on the former site of Wang Lao (Pramuan, 1939: 78).6 Of the survivors of the royal culling of 1828, a number of the daughters of Bang Yi-khan were absorbed into the Thai elite as wives and consorts. Many of the surviving sons found their way into government service in the Fourth and Fifth Reigns, and some rose to high rank as provincial governors and lesser officials in 5

Among his efforts to redress the excesses of the Third Reign, Rama IV in 1867 returned the palladium, this time to Luang Prabang, as Vientiane had been utterly destroyed. 6 The distillery site, today near the foot of the Rama VIII Bridge, has been designated to become a music conservatory dedicated to the memory of Princess Galyani Vadhana, the recently deceased elder sister of Rama IX. Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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the Thai Northeast. Stemming from those survivors of the Vientiane dynasty today are the Chaliwan, Chanthanakon, and Sithisaribut lineages (Pramuan, 1939: 78-80), but no Lao remnants are evident any longer at Bang Yi-khan. The Bang Yi-khan community maintained a direct presence at the Siamese court through a series of remarkable women. Si Bunyasan’s eldest daughter, Khiawkhom, had been a cause of dissent between Vientiane and Siam when negotiations concerning an inter-dynastic marriage in 1771 and again in 1775 were bogged down (Wyatt, 1994: 187, 190-191). In the 1779 conquest of Vientiane she was among the royal family members captured and transported to Bangkok. She was installed in the royal harem during the First Reign, but there is no indication that any amorous relationship ever developed between her and Rama I. Another member of the Lao royal family, Thongsuk, daughter of Inthawong, did bear a child by Rama I. Her daughter, Princess Kunthon Thipayawadi, was raised to the rank of celestial princess (chao fa) because of her dual royal lineage. She had the further distinction of being raised to a queen of Rama II and bore four children, of whom Prince Bamrap Porapak, popularly known as Prince Maha Mala and forebear of the Malakul lineage, later played an important role as patron of the Lao communities at Bangkok and Saraburi. In addition to these political alliances, Rama I succumbed to a romance with Khamwaen (otherwise known as Waen), the daughter of a Lao nobleman and herself a lady-in-waiting to Princess Khiawkhom. Despite her relatively low status within the ruling class, the king raised her to First-Class Royal Consort (chaochom chan ek). She came to wield great influence as a confidant of the king and capable representative of the Lao cause. None of the other Lao royal and noble women taken into the palace in that or subsequent reigns ever managed to equal her achievement. Nevertheless, Waen did suffer one great disappointment in failing to bear a child. She sought to overcome that misfortune through numerous meritorious acts, including the establishment of two important Lao-affiliated temples at Bangkok (Sansani, 2007: 3–10). One of those merit-making projects was pursued by her at Bang Yi-khan. In the later years of the First Reign she founded Wat Khrua In, situated in the orchards behind the riverside settlement, along a branch of Khlong Bang Yi-khan. The temple was named after Phra Achan In, a renowned Lao meditation practitioner who was installed as its first abbot. After an auspicious beginning, the temple was expanded and upgraded in the Second Reign by Princess Kunthon Thipayawadi, a granddaughter of Inthawong, and was renamed Wat Dawadoeng-sawan (referring to Indra’s heaven). Late in the Third Reign it was rebuilt on an expanded scale and formally raised to royal patronage as Wat Dawadoeng-saram – the suffix aram

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referring to its royal status.7 But with the decline of the local Lao royal community the temple gradually deteriorated. By the later years of the Fifth Reign it had been abandoned by all its resident monks but the abbot (Wat Dawadoeng, 2004: 54–58). Meager local support during the Sixth and Seventh Reigns was barely sufficient to keep the temple afloat.8 Bang Khun Phrom (see Map 1) Under the vigorous rule of Nanthasen, resurgent Vientiane in 1786 and again in 1794 invaded Chiang Khwang, capital of the recalcitrant Phuan state in the Lao uplands north of Vientiane. Thousands of Lao Phuan captives were carried off to the Thai hinterlands (Breazeale, 2002: 265; Bung-on, 1998: 40–42). Several contingents arrived at Bangkok around 1789 as tribute and were settled upstream from the walled city, directly across the river from Bang Yi-khan. There they were set to work fashioning pirogues (roea phai), massive hollowed-out logs fashioned into fresh-water naval craft, the lesser cousins of the magnificent royal barges for which Thailand is renowned today. At the mouth of the canal flowing through their settlement they dug a boat basin (khung) for storing and turning their boats.9 Inthawong, at that time the Vientiane viceroy and ranking member of Bangkok’s Lao establishment, assumed the role of patron to the community. The new community came to be known as Bang Lao Phuan. The origin of its later name, Bang Khun Phrom, is unknown, though it may derive from Phromwong, the younger brother of Nanthasen and Inthawong, who has left no other trace.

7

Around the same time, two other temples closely associated with the Lao royal settlement were built at Bang Yi-khan. Wat Khroehabodi was established shortly after 1824 on the former residential site of a Chinese merchant and confidant of Rama III recently promoted to Phraya Racha-montri Borirak. As a conciliatory gesture to the neighboring Lao community at Bang Yi-khan, Rama III contributed to the new temple the Phra Saek Kham Buddha image, which had been among the plunder carried off from Vientiane in 1779. The other temple, Wat Phraya Siri Aisawan, situated alongside Wat Dawadoeng, was founded in the late Third Reign by the head of the Front Palace treasury, who had been assigned to collaborate with Tissa in administering the alcohol monopoly and Bang Yi-khan distillery. 8 In recent years, with rising commercial prosperity in the shadow of the newly-built Pin Klao and Rama VIII bridges in the area, the temple has experienced a revival. With that transformation, virtually no local memory of any past association with the Lao royal family lingers on, other than the formal record of the temple’s establishment by Chaochom Waen and its renovation by Princess Kunthon. 9 The former khung is now buried beneath a massive annex to the Bank of Thailand. Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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A cluster of temples marks the site of the original Lao Phuan settlement, including Wat Woramat (rebuilt and renamed Wat Mai Amatarot), Wat Woranut (today Wat Iam Woranut), and Wat Intharam (today Wat Inthara-wihan, popularly referred to as Wat In). Of particular interest is Wat In, which had originally been founded by Chinese settlers during the Ayuthaya era, about 1752, as Wat Rai Prik (Temple in the Pepper Fields) and had apparently been abandoned following the collapse of Ayutthaya. The Lao Phuan captives revived the dilapidated temple for their own use. As overseer of the Phuan community during his tenure as Lao viceroy residing at Bangkok, Inthawong sponsored the temple’s reconstruction and appointed a renowned meditation master from Vientiane to serve as its first abbot. Upon Inthawong’s installation as ruler of Vientiane the temple was reconsecrated as Wat Intharam in his honor (O’Connor, 1978: 124; Wat Inthara-wihan, 1994: 25, 87–88). Its Lao royal sponsorship was affirmed by the incorporation of the honorific suffix, aram, in its name. That the Siamese Crown, too, patronized the temple is affirmed by the order of Rama II in 1817 including Wat In among the 33 royal temples of Bangkok to receive lanterns and lantern poles as a meritorious offering (Wat Inthara-wihan, 2001: 44–46). However, in the wake of the 1827–1828 Lao rebellion and the subsequent loss of royal patronage, the temple fell upon hard times. Instead, Wat In and the surrounding Lao community found a powerful benefactor in a charismatic monk, Somdet Phra Phuthachan (To Phrom-rangsi, 1787–1871). His parents had been early residents of the Lao Phuan settlement. In his youth he had studied at Wat In as a disciple of its first abbot, and he had gone on to monastic ordination and advanced meditation studies with other masters, gaining such esteem that he was eventually appointed abbot of Wat Rakhang Kositaram, one of Bangkok’s most prestigious temples, located at the center of Thonburi directly across the river from the Grand Palace. Despite his rise in the clergy he maintained lifelong contact with Bang Khun Phrom and Wat In. In 1867, at the advanced age of 80, he decided to commemorate his origins with the construction at Wat In of a gigantic standing Buddha image (32 meters tall, not completed until 1926), murals on the ordination hall walls depicting his biography, a reputedly magic well dispensing holy water, and a shrine memorializing his parents (Wat Inthara-wihan, 1994: 40–43). His sponsorship of the temple’s revival is today well-remembered, though the community’s memory of its Lao Phuan ancestry has faded. Another temple associated with the nineteenth century Lao Phuan settlement was Wat Saraphat Chang (Temple of Assorted Artisans). After Champasak was taken by the Thai in 1827, its ruler, Yo, a faithful son of the rebellious Anuwong, was dethroned and a new ruler, more trusted by Bangkok, was installed. “Yo, his family, his goldsmiths, and his blacksmiths were conducted to Bangkok” (Mayoury and Pheuiphanh, 1998: 221). Yo and his family were disposed of, but his captive retainers were settled alongside Bang Khun Phrom, in the neighborhood later Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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known as Thewet.10 There they built Wat Saraphat Chang, which fell into decline and was abandoned during the course of the Fifth Reign. In the early 1900s the site was razed and incorporated into a palace for Prince Nakhon Sawan, a son of Rama V, leaving no trace of its earlier presence. The possessions of Wat Saraphat Chang were removed, with the main Buddha image being transferred to the congregation hall of Wat Iam Woranut, where it remains today, revered as Luang Pho Saraphat Chang. In 1898 Bang Khun Phrom was bisected with the construction of a major new thoroughfare, Samsen Road, running north from the walled city. Samsen Road was initially planned as a royal passage from the Grand Palace to the Suan Dusit district, where a great new royal palace complex was to be laid out for Rama V. That plan was soon revised with the construction of the far grander Rachadamnoen Avenue, but Samsen Road remained an important route, opening Bangkok’s northern suburbs to vehicular traffic. As a straight, broad thoroughfare intended for royal use, the right-of-way of Samsen Road required the severe truncating of Wat Woranut. That moved the center of community life fully to Wat In, which had formerly stood at the settlement’s periphery as an important but socially distant monastic sanctuary. Wang Bang Khun Phrom, the palace of Prince Nakhon Sawan, was planned around the same time as the construction of Samsen Road. Its layout directly across Samsen Road from Wat In required the acquisition of two parcels of temple land – the site of the abandoned Wat Saraphat Chang and the strip of land cut off from the rear of Wat In by the construction of Samsen Road. Ancient tradition decreed the sacrosanct status of monastic land, but after lengthy negotiations between the Privy Purse and the ecclesiastical authorities it was agreed in 1904 that a 100-rai plot of Crown Property at Minburi, a district northeast of Bangkok populated by many Lao villages, would be ceded to Wat In for the Wat Saraphat Chang site. It took until 1914 to transfer possession of the Wat In temple strip along Samsen Road in exchange for the then-substantial sum of 9,590 baht (Wat Inthara-wihan, 1994: 192-206).11

10

The riverside tract comprising Thewet stretched from Wat Saraphat Chang to Wat Thepaya Phli (later re-established as Wat Noranat Sunthon). In 1895 Wang Thewet, the palace of Prince Chanthaburi Naroenat, was built at the mouth of Khlong Phadung Krung Kasem, and in 1918 Wang Thewawet, given by Rama VI to Prince Thewawong Waropakan, was installed between Wang Thewet and Wang Bang Khun Phrom, completing the transformation of the Thewet riverfront from a commoners’ community to a palatial neighborhood. 11 Wang Bang Khun Phrom was in 1933 converted to the Army Headquarters and in 1946 to the Bank of Thailand (established 1942), which continues to occupy the site today. Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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In the Sixth Reign the name of Wat Intharam was changed to Wat Intharawihan to eliminate confusion with another Wat Intharam, located along Khlong Bangkok Yai, Thonburi. With that name change, any lingering association of the temple with royal patronage (including the suffix aram) was eliminated. That change had little local significance, however, as the temple had long been popularly known as Wat Bang Khun Phrom Nai – as distinct from Wat Bang Khun Phrom Nok, or Wat Mai Amatarot. Only in recent decades has it become common once again to refer to the temple as Wat In.12

Downstream While Bangkok’s upstream communities were assigned to the oversight of the Front Palace, the bulk of the walled city and the districts downstream were retained under the direct supervision of the Grand Palace. That north-south symmetry complemented Bangkok’s inner-outer structuring as a basic spatial ordering principle of nineteenth century Thai society. Thus, the contingents of war slaves brought to Bangkok to serve the respective courts occupied separate zones of habitation. The royal chronicles (Thipakorawong, 1978: 58–60) record that for the construction of the new capital in 1783/84, the king conscripted 10,000 Cambodians to dig a new city moat and several related canals. In addition, he mobilized 5,000 Lao from the principalities along the west bank of the Mekong River to erect the city wall and its bastions as well as the Grand Palace and Front Palace. The Cambodians were settled outside the city wall and city moat due east of the Grand Palace, in the tract between Wat Samploem and Wat Saket later known as Ban Khmer. The Lao conscripts were consigned to an isolated tract across the river, along the outer bank of Khlong Bangkok Yai (popularly known as Khlong Bang Luang), beyond the Thonburi precincts. Bang Sai Kai (see Map 3) The king’s Lao conscripts who settled at the confluence of Khlong Bang Luang and Khlong Bang Sai Kai served as manual labor in the construction of the new city. In addition to the city wall and bastions they probably helped build Wat Phra Chetuphon and Wat Mahathat, and subsequently Wat Suthat, and they may have dug Khlong Khanon (later renamed Khlong Ban Somdet Chaophraya, or Khlong Talat Somdet) and Khlong San, both on the Thonburi side of the river not far distant 12

Over the course of the Ninth Reign, Wat Inthara-wihan has regained royal patronage, with the king or his designated representatives officiating at a number of renovation ceremonies and making generous donations. Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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from their settlement. They may also have participated in the Second Reign project to extend the rear wall and reposition the bastions of the Grand Palace. The settlement at Khlong Bang Luang was originally known as Ban Lao, or Ban Lao Siphum, after Khun Siphum, its Lao headman. Many decades later, after most of the Lao had moved elsewhere, the village name was revised to Bang Sai Kai, merging with a neighboring Thai village of that name. Alongside the community the settlers dug Khlong Lat Ban Lao Siphum, a shortcut canal reaching to the older Khlong Wat Hiran Ruchi downstream. An adjoining canal, Khlong Suan Lao, took its name from the sprawling fruit orchards (suan) that the Lao planted behind their settlement. They also built a village temple, Wat Ban Lao, which was eventually renamed Wat Bang Sai Kai (S. Plainoi, 2002: 102; Wat Bang Sai Kai, n.d.: 2–3). Local legend has it that the construction of Wat Bang Sai Kai was initially sponsored by Nanthasen and Inthawong but that the two princes argued and then abandoned the project. Actually, Nanthasen had departed for Vientiane before the settlement was founded. It appears, therefore, that Inthawong alone was the original sponsor while serving as the Lao viceroy and that he abandoned the project to build Wat Intharam following the 1789 arrival of the Lao Phuan at Bang Khun Phrom. It is said that a pious Sino-Thai tradeswoman, Yai Choen, was then prevailed upon to sponsor the completion of the temple (Wat Bang Sai Kai, n.d.: 3). Directly across Khlong Bang Luang from Bang Sai Kai, Chaochom Waen during the First Reign sponsored the reconstruction of an old temple later renamed Wat Sangkhrachai. The parallels between that merit-making project and Waen’s sponsorship of Wat Dawadoeng at Bang Yi-khan are self-evident. The original temple, name unknown, dates to the closing years of the Ayutthaya period but apparently remained incomplete into the First Reign. Rama I joined Waen in sponsoring the construction of the ordination hall. In preparing the structure’s foundation the builders unearthed a conch (sang[kh]) and a small gilded-bronze image of Phra Kachai (or Phra Sangkachai, a revered disciple of the Buddha himself destined for a future incarnation as Buddha). The king then formally established the temple as Wat Sangkachai (Sang[kh]-kachai, later revised to Sangkhrachai). Waen retained a close association with the temple, sponsoring the renovation of its ordination hall during the Second Reign. Following her death shortly thereafter and the bequest of her estate to Princess Kunthon Thiphayawadi, a garden tract she owned directly alongside was donated to the temple in her memory (Wat Sangkhrachai, 1990: 1–8; Royal Institute, 2007: 3–5). As will be seen below, Bang Sai Kai lost the bulk of its Lao population around 1828 upon the decision of Rama III to establish royal shipyards along the river at Yannawa and provide them with a labor force of Lao war captives. In the wake of the removal of most of the Lao captives to Yannawa, Bang Sai Kai reverted Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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to the inconsequential Thai peasant village that it had formerly been, its Lao temple fell into disrepair, and its surroundings are said to have gradually declined into a trackless jungle inhabited by poisonous snakes and giant trees (Wat Bang Sai Kai, n.d.: 3–4). A decade later, toward the end of the Third Reign, the area encountered a sudden revival upon the decision of Chamoen Waiworanat (Chuang Bunnag), a leading military officer destined to rise to Minister of the South (Kalahom) as Chaophraya Si Suriyawong, to establish a naval shipyard along Khlong Bang Luang, directly across from Wat Sangkhrachai, on the site of the former Lao settlement (Thipakorawong, 1995: 38). In the new shipyard Chaophraya Si Suriyawong directed the construction and outfitting of some of Siam’s first small steamboats, which he placed at the disposal of Rama IV. To man the new facility a body of Mon shipwrights was brought from the naval base at Paknam. They established a permanent community neighboring the shipyard and built there a Mon temple, Wat Pradit. A neighboring canal, Khlong Ban Somdet, was rechanneled from Khlong Bang Luang to discharge into Khlong Bang Sai Kai. That changed course demarcated the shipyard and Mon settlement from the Bunnag family estates that were introduced into the area in the Fourth and Fifth Reigns (Anon., 1999: 348).13 The tract across Khlong Ban Somdet from the naval shipyard, containing Wat Bang Sai Kai and remnants of the former Lao community as well as a cluster of noblemen’s mansions, was gradually repopulated over the course of the Fifth Reign by Thai and Chinese market gardeners as the Bangkok metropolis prospered and expanded. The village of Bang Sai Kai and its temple revived, but under a new ethnic label. In 1890 the consecrated area of Wat Bang Sai Kai was clarified and confirmed by the local authorities. With the monastic (sangha) administrative reforms of the 1890s and Sangha Act of 1902, the temple was formally upgraded from an unregistered monastery (samnak song) to an officially recognized temple (aram, a term no longer restricted only to royal temples) designated as a legitimate venue for the ordination of monks (Wat Bang Sai Kai, n.d.: 5–6; Ishii, 1986a: 69–70). A shadow of the former Lao presence at Bang Sai Kai lingers on today in folk memories of the community’s past and in the continuing local handicraft industry of Lao musical instrument production (Phromphong, 2004: 45–57).

13

The two aforementioned sources have left a confused record. Thipakorawong (1995) deceptively includes the establishment of the Khlong Bang Luang shipyard under the chronology of events for 1828 though it happened many years later, perhaps in 1848. Anon. (1999) misplaces the shipyard alongside Wat Anongkaram, at Ban Somdet (the mansion of Chaophraya Si Suriyawong) rather than at the identically named Ban Somdet (the cluster of Bunnag homes built in the Fifth Reign at the confluence of Khlong Ban Somdet and Khlong Bang Sai Kai which is today the site of the sprawling Ban Somdet Chaophraya Rachapat University). Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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Ban Kruai (see Map 4) In 1769 King Taskin led a naval expedition to the South to conquer Nakhon Si Thammarat, which had been a tributary state (prathet rat) of Ayutthaya but had claimed independence after the fall of the Siamese kingdom. The ruler of that small state, Chao Nakhon (Nu), and his family were carried off to Thonburi. In 1776 the court favorite who had been installed by King Taksin as vassal ruler of the conquered state died, and Nu was then permitted to return home and resume his reign, having provided Taksin with three of his daughters as consorts – and, in effect, hostages. During their seven-year exile at Thonburi, Chao Nakhon (Nu) and his household were initially placed under virtual house arrest within the city walls. After about two years they were allowed to establish an independent residential compound on a 200-rai tract some four kilometers downstream from the walled city, along the left bank of the river neighboring Ban Tawai, at the mouth of Khlong Kruai (kruai means “funnel” and apparently refers here to the gaping mouth and fine anchorage of the canal passing alongside the residential tract).14 Chao Nakhon also received permission to build a temple along the river near his residence. It was built in 1771–1772 as one of his first projects upon moving to the downriver tract; no record of its name survives (Suthiwarapiwat, 2006: 11). Over the ensuing decades the compound at Khlong Kruai remained a minor presence along the lower reaches of the Chaophraya River, serving as the Bangkok quarters of the Nakhon Si Thammarat ruling elite during their frequent visits to the capital. In 1833 Siam mounted the first of a series of attacks on Vietnamese territory with the dispatch of a 10,000-man naval flotilla against Ha Tien and Saigon. Preparations for that expedition began in 1828 with the requisitioning and refitting of many Chinese junks to serve as troop carriers and the construction of a fleet of marine barges to ensure adequate food and munitions. That preparatory work was conducted in secrecy under the supervision of the Minister of Finance and Foreign Affairs (Phra Khlang, also supervising the Ministry of the South), Chaophraya Prayurawong (Dit Bunnag), in cooperation with Chao Nakhon (Noi, the successor to Nu). The work was carried out along the shoreline fronting the Chao Nakhon residential compound, a river stretch that came to be known as Yannawa (yan nawa, the Maritime District) (Thipakorawong, 1995: 37–38). To man the sawmills and shipyards at Yannawa, Rama III ordered the resettlement of the able-bodied Lao war captives from Bang Sai Kai. They established their new community at Ban Kruai, neighboring the residential compound of Chao Nakhon, and adopted 14

That residence is today commemorated in the name of Phraya Nakhon Lane (Soi 69 along Charoen Krung Road). Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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the local temple for their own use, leading to its vernacular renaming as Wat Lao, reminiscent of the Wat Lao that they had left behind at Bang Sai Kai. Writing of his arrival at Bangkok in 1840, a British mariner recalled some years later that the Bangkok dockyards were situated downriver from the Roman Catholic Mission (Assumption Cathedral), three miles below the walled city. “Here those splendid ships which compose the King of Siam’s navy, and which would do credit to any nation, were constructed, under the immediate supervision of an English shipwright; and here vessels of any other nation, that may have met with damage at sea, are thoroughly, and at a very cheap outlay, repaired. There are also one or two dry docks” (Neale, 1852: 25). Toward the close of his reign, Rama III commemorated those royal shipyards in his renaming of the nearby temple, Wat Khok Kraboe, as Wat Yannawa, and in his construction at that temple of a large stupa with its base in the shape of a Chinese junk. The continuing presence of the Lao community at Yannawa is referred to in a fin-de-siècle Bangkok memoir that recalls Wat Lao and the village of Lao immigrants who settled the area during the Third Reign (Sthirakoses, 1992: 26, 27). In 1864 Rama IV decided to build the city’s first major thoroughfare, Charoen Krung Road. It stretched southward parallel with the river, passing directly behind the old royal shipyards and sawmills at Yannawa. The right-of-way ran through the midst of Wat Lao, leaving the temple severely truncated (Suthiwarapiwat, 2006: 1–2). No longer interested in maintaining the old royal shipyards, the king decided to rent the riverside property to commercial interests. The first leaseholder was Captain John Bush, a British seafarer serving as Bangkok Harbormaster with the title Luang (later Phraya) Wisut Sakhondit. His firm, the Bangkok Dock Company, located adjacent to Wat Yannawa, survives to this day. Additional parcels of the Yannawa waterfront were later leased to a line of Western agency houses – Markwald and Company (German), Windsor Rose and Company (German), and the Borneo Company (British) – which established their docks and warehouses there, eventually controlling a substantial portion of Siam’s rice export trade and passenger liner transport (Wilson, 1978: 247–250, 254; Suthiwarapiwat, 2006: 2). Rama IV also donated a plot of Yannawa waterfront land to the British community for the erection of their Anglican church, the Union Chapel.15 The Lao of Ban Kruai, no longer toiling as war captives, found employment as stevedores and warehousemen with the Western firms. In 1881 Madame Suthi, wife of Chaophraya Wichiankiri (Men na Songkhla, sixth governor of Songkhla) and a descendant of Chao Nakhon (Noi), rebuilt the badly dilapidated Wat Lao, and Rama V upgraded its name to Wat Suthi-wararam 15

The Union Chapel was moved in 1903 to Convent Road at the corner of Sathon Road and was renamed Christ Church. Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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in recognition of its benefactor. Less than two decades later the temple was again in need of repair, and Pan Wacharapai, daughter of Chaophraya Wichiankiri and Madame Suthi, rebuilt the entire temple in memory of her parents. The rear of the Windsor Rose property, cut off from the temple a generation earlier for the construction of Charoen Krung Road, was reacquired by the temple in 1911 to build the Suthi-wararam School, again under the patronage of the descendants of Chao Nakhon (Noi) (Suthiwarapiwat, 2006: 2-3).16

City “The landscape of Old Bangkok was a visible representation of the structure of society” (Tomosugi, 1991: 127). Specifically, the strict hierarchy of Siamese society occupied a spatial dimension of concentric rings of ascending status from outer to inner. The rural hinterlands were inhabited by the Thai peasantry as well as farming communities of Lao war captives and other ethnic minorities seeking refuge under the provincial authorities. The Bangkok periphery was peopled largely by communities of non-Thai specialists – mercenaries, merchants, artisans – serving the Thai aristocracy. The walled city (Krung Ratanakosin) was reserved for the Thai élite. Within that restricted zone the royal family was initially confined to the “citadel” circumscribed by the river and the inner city moat (Khu Moeang Doem, or Khlong Lot) but eventually spread beyond those confines in the face of spatial constraints. The nobility populated the less crowded “outer city” (between the inner and outer city moats), though some of them were initially allowed to occupy the fringes of the citadel itself.17

16

Upon Siam’s entry into the First World War on the side of the Allies in 1917, the docks, warehouses, inventories, and ships of the German firms, Windsor Rose and Markwald, were confiscated as war booty. The leased Yannawa riverside property also reverted to the Crown. With those newly acquired assets the government established the Siam Steamship Company (later reorganized as the Siam Maritime Navigation Company), operating out of the former German facilities (Greene, 1999: 105-109, 136). In the years following the 1932 Revolution, the waterfront where the German firms had formerly stood was converted to the government-run Fish Marketing Organization, Bangkok Fish Market, Cold Storage Organization, and Fisheries Technical Development Department, and the area came to be known as Saphan Pla (Fish Bridge). 17 A major exception to the élite’s residential exclusivity within the walled city was the inconspicuous presence of large numbers of household slaves, serving in the residential compounds of the élite and vouched for by their masters. Another was the lingering presence of several small commoner communities, holdovers from the Thonburi era settled along the outer bank of Khu Moeang Doem – Ban Yuan (Vietnamese hostages from Ha Tien), Ban Mon (Mon refugees from Tavoy), Ban Tanao (Mon refugees from Tenasserim), and Ban Tani (Malay war captives from Pattani). Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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Ban Lao Phuan (see Map 2) When, in 1818, Rama II decided to build an elaborate pleasure garden, Suan Khwa, in the Grand Palace, Anuwong, then the viceroy of Vientiane and resident at Bangkok, offered the services of a contingent of Lao Phuan laborers to dig the garden’s elaborate layout of ponds, meandering streams, and islets (S. Plainoi, 2002: 102; Khaisaeng, 1996: 107–123). For that task it appears that he recruited a sizable group of the settlers at Bang Khun Phrom. The death of Prince Senanurak, the viceroy of Rama II, only a year before had left Anuwong freer than he otherwise might have been to reassign a group of his subjects to the king’s service. To allow ready access to the construction site the workers were provided temporary quarters within the walled city, along the outer bank of the old city moat, adjacent to the old settlement of Ban Yuan. With the death of Rama II and installation of Rama III, Anuwong appealed for their repatriation – along with the many other Lao war captives being held at Bangkok and Saraburi – but his plea fell on deaf ears, contributing to his decision to initiate the Thai-Lao war of 1827–1828. In the aftermath of the Lao defeat, that same contingent of war captives may have been called on to carry out the demolition of Suan Khwa, ordered by Rama III to obliterate that unsavory reminder of Anuwong’s former connection with the Grand Palace. The royal chronicles refer to this community in passing. “[One early afternoon in mid-1831] a fire broke out within the walled city. It spread from the Drum Tower to the elephant bridge at Ban Mo. The fire spread to both sides of the [inner city moat], reaching the residence of Phraya Si Sahathep and extending along both banks of the canal up to the bridge at Ban Mon because that area contained the huts of Ban Lao Phuan, which were dry as tinder. The fire burned down a number of princes’ palaces [on the citadel side of the moat] and nobles’ residences [on the outer side of the moat]. Many people died in the fire” (Thipakorawong, 1995:45). This unusually vivid description of a local disaster places the location of Ban Lao Phuan along the outer bank of the old city moat, next to the old Mon community.18 The devastating fire of 1831 destroyed the palace of Prince Phithak Thewet, and he subsequently built a new palace (later called Wang Ban Mo) on the site of the burned-down Lao village, forcing the Lao to rebuild their hovels southward, towards Pak Khlong Talat (the downstream mouth of the old city moat). Prince Phithak served with the Royal Cavalry’s Elephantry Department (Krom Khochaban), its stables located in the royal gardens (suan luang) across the moat from the Lao Phuan village. It is likely that the slaves served the royal elephants under his charge, 18

The Lao Phuan settled alongside Ban Mo (Potters’ Village), an adjunct to Ban Mon, the residential site of Phraya Si Sahathep and his entourage (Phromphong, 2004: 84–86). That village name was eventually extended to incorporate the Lao village locale as well Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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cleaning out their stables and giving them their daily bath in the neighboring moat. The village was too small, too poor, and too transient to establish its own temple; instead, the Lao built several worship pavilions (sala rong tham) along Foeang Nakhon Road which monks from such nearby temples as Wat Rachabophit and Wat Suthat visited to conduct prayer sessions and communal rituals (Tomosugi, 1993: 40). The war slaves at Ban Lao Phuan were later assigned to the Department of Guardians of the Women’s Quarters (Krom Khlon), an agency of the Ministry of the Royal Household (Krom Wang) run by senior ladies of the Inside (fai nai or khang nai, the Grand Palace women’s quarters). Under their charge, the slaves were assigned to such menial duties as the upkeep of the latrines and sewage culverts in the densely populated women’s quarters of the Grand Palace. In the closing decades of the Fifth Reign the Ministry of the Royal Household dispensed with its reliance on slave labor and left the Lao Phuan to fend for themselves as freemen. Then, around 1900, the king decided to improve their neighborhood edging the inner city moat, and the Privy Purse erected lines of handsome shophouses along both sides of Foeang Nakhon Road, in the early decades of the twentieth century a fashionable shopping street. To make way for that project, the Lao Phuan were evicted from the area. Ban Lao, or Ban Kraba (see Map 2) The evicted Lao community was provided a new settlement site nearby, in a tract of reclaimed wasteland behind Wang Burapha, the palace of Prince Phanuphan Wongworadet. There it replicated its former squalor (Bung-on, 1998: 41).19 The neighborhood was known as Ban Kraba in recognition of its primary industry, the production of household wickerware including various sorts of lidded and unlidded containers and trays (kraba) (Sthirakoses, 2002: 24–25; Phromphong, 2004: 105–106). It also specialized in the raising of mosquito larvae (luk nam), sold as fish food to devotees of the popular gamblers’ hobby of fighting fish (pla kat). The nearby Sam Yot and Saphan Than neighborhoods, Bangkok’s premier entertainment center of the time, provided them with additional work as snack vendors, lottery dealers, and less reputable employments (Sthirakoses, 1992: 160–161; Tomosugi, 1993: 42–43). The area was upgraded in the first decade of the twentieth century with the creation of Sanam Nam Choet (Potable Water Field), featuring Bangkok’s first government-sponsored artesian well, which emptied into a large

19

Bung-on (1998) places the origin of this community in the First Reign, a century earlier. Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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tank that provided drinking water for the surrounding neighborhood.20 The field was rimmed by tenements providing upgraded, hygienic, fire-resistant habitation for the local community.21 Ban Ti Thong Among the variety of Lao artisans carried off to Bangkok over the course of the nineteenth century were a number of goldsmiths. One small group of those war captives was, in the wake of the Thai-Lao war of 1827–1828, apparently provided to Chaophraya Prayurawong (Dit Bunnag) and settled near his residence along the right bank of the river downstream from Thonburi. There the community of Ban Chang Thong (Goldsmiths’ Village) made its living in the shadow of Wat Anongkaram over the following decades, practicing its craft in the service of the noble households occupying the Khlong San district. By the turn of the century the origins of the village were becoming blurred in folk memory. Reminiscing about her forebears, Princess Mother Si Nakharin (Sangwan, 1900-1995), mother of Rama IX, recalled that her family had lived in Ban Chang Thong, where her father had been a goldsmith. “Some of my mother’s forebears came from Vientiane. My mother said that seemed likely because at home they liked to eat glutinous rice” (Galyani, 1980: 9, 18). Just as the residents of Ban Lao Phuan were in the closing decade of the nineteenth century released from their servitude in the Grand Palace, the ties of the artisans of Ban Chang Thong to their masters were also loosened. Some of them appear to have responded by moving across the river to Ban Ti Thong (Gold Beaters’ Village), in the midst of the city alongside Wat Suthat, drawn by the commercial promise of the nearby Sao Ching Cha market and Bamrung Moeang Road shophouse lines (Tomosugi, 1993: 54–55; Phromphong, 2004: 19–24). Lacking the business acumen and capital to strike out on their own, they were hired by Chinese merchants to produce gold foil by the hammering of gold lumps into wafer-thin sheets and ultimately tissue-thin gold leaf. The finished product was in great demand among worshipers as a devotional item, pasted by them to icons as a meritorious act; it was also used in the classic Thai art of gold-on-black lacquerwork (long rak pit thong). But gold-beating (ti thong) was only the noisiest element in the 20

John Dunlop arrived at Bangkok from Singapore in 1900 to take over as manager of the Bangkok Dock Co. He quit in 1906 to start his own business as a consulting engineer and like several other Western technicians at Bangkok soon secured construction contracts from the Ministry of Public Works. Sometime before 1910, he bored the ministry’s first public artesian well, at Ban Kraba, on the site that came to be known as Sanam Nam Choet. 21 Later, in the Seventh Reign, the area was further improved with the construction of the Chaloem Krung Theater. Today much of the area is covered by The Old Siam shopping mall. Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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goldsmiths’ repertoire of skills; a wide assortment of Lao goldsmithing techniques was on display in the Chinese shophouses along Ti Thong Road, including gold filigree work, ornamental casting and shaping, and niello inlay. Close to the center of government affairs, with the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of War only a few blocks away, Ti Thong Road gained a reputation for police and military insignia and medallions. Nearby, tailor shops competed in catering to the latest fashions in officers’ uniforms; down the street were others dealing in handguns and munitions. Vestiges of that shopping area remain today, though memories of the Lao presence have all but vanished. In sum, Ban Ti Thong rose with the emergence of Bangkok’s middle class of salaried government officials during the decades spanning the turn of the twentieth century. The Chinese shophouses of Ti Thong Road and their Lao goldsmiths exemplified the new commercial fashion or entertainment of retail shopping, making the previously unattainable affordable through its well-known devices of mass production, mass distribution, and mass consumption. Formerly the Lao goldsmiths had been captive craftsmen producing luxury items to order, serving the individual tastes and specifications of their noble patrons. Freed from servitude, they became employees turning out standardized products for display to anonymous shoppers. They symbolized Bangkok’s social revolution from patrimonial to commercial norms.

From war slaves to wage slaves Beyond the nineteenth century Lao communities reviewed above, a number of additional settlements of Lao war captives were scattered about the outskirts of Bangkok. Among them were Ban Samsen Nai (centering on Wat Apai-thayaram), Bang Kapi (alongside Wang Sa Pathum and Wat Pathumwan), Nang Loeng (between Wat Somanat and Wat Sunthon Thammathan), and Taling Chan (near Wat Rachada-thithan). The Lao slaves (kha luang) relegated to those communities farmed the king’s lands along the Bangkok periphery to supply the royal granaries, while some were contributed as acts of merit to royally sponsored temples as temple slaves (lek wat, kha wat). Just like the Bangkok Lao communities reviewed in the preceding sections, the slave status of those peripheral villages withered away in the closing decades of the Fifth Reign, accompanied by a progressive fading of their Lao ethnic identity and cultural memory. “Quietly and effectively, . . . with no royal decree to herald the change, an entire generation of state-owned peasants was [during the closing years of the nineteenth century] released from obligations of servitude” (Snit and Breazeale, 1988: 129). The proximate cause for the demise of the Lao captives’ slave status was a ploy threatened by the French imperialists in the wake of the Thai-French Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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confrontation of 1893. That stratagem sought to apply the extraterritoriality provisions contained in the Thai-French trade treaties to claim French sovereignty over Siam’s villages of Lao war captives, “many of which were in the suburbs of Bangkok itself” (Snit and Breazeale, 1988: 129). The Thai authorities were horrified to discover that under the rules of extraterritoriality all of Siam’s population of Lao war captives – and their descendants – could potentially be claimed as foreign subjects. A pragmatic response to that threat was to suppress the ethnic origins of the enslaved Lao communities and treat them as ordinary Thai “citizens”. The very existence of captive labour villages became an acute embarrassment. It was imperative that their [ethnic] identity be officially suppressed and their [origins] denied. An obvious first step was the abandonment of the ‘captive labour’ caste designation within the Thai legal system. . . . A second step was the formulation of a Thai nationality law in order to establish a legal definition for Thai citizens [and cover those communities formally within the legal framework] (Snit and Breazeale, 1988:129). An initial draft of such a law was circulated in 1899 granting citizenship to the third generation of resident aliens. The final formulation, the Nationality Act of 1913, granted citizenship to all those born in Siam. The freeing of the war slaves from their servitude to the Crown and its minions created an instant “footloose” population. Among the peasantry, that suited exactly the manpower requirements of the government’s land development programs, such as the Rangsit scheme that opened up vast swaths of reclaimed land north of Bangkok. The many Lao (and Malay) settlements stretching eastward from Bangkok along the Samsen and Saen Saep canals exemplified that policy. Within the city itself, many of the Lao of Ban Kruai found work with the Western logging, sawmilling, and trading houses of Yannawa and Bang Rak. Similarly, many of the craftsmen of Bang Khun Phrom, Bang Yi-khan, and other Lao communities formerly associated with the royal artisans’ departments found employment with Chinese merchants intent on developing the local market for luxury goods formerly available only to a tiny elite. Others found menial work with the municipality and with such proto-public enterprises as the Bangkok Tramways Company and Siam Electricity Company, forming an adjunct to the Chinese-dominated labor movement that emerged in the early decades of the twentieth century. The hardships of forced servitude to the favored few had faded into the past; the rigors of “voluntary” sweatshop labor had taken their place. Thus, “while formal slavery may have ended, other forms of dependence . . . continued” (Cruikshank, 1975: p. 329).

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References Anon. (1999). “Thin-than ban roean khong sakun bunnag” (Locations of the Homes of the Bunnag Lineage), in Banchop Bunnag, et al., Sakun Bunnak (The Bunnak Lineage). Vol. 1. Bangkok: Thai Wathana Phanit, pp. 340–359. Breazeale, Kennon (2002). “The Lao - Tay-son Alliance, 1792 and 1793,” in Mayoury Ngaosyvathn and Kennon Breazeale, eds., Breaking New Ground in Lao History: Essays on the Seventh to Twentieth Centuries. Chiangmai: Silkworm Books, pp. 261–280. Bung-on Piyabhan (1998). Lao nai krung ratanakosin (The Lao in [the] Ratanakosin [Kingdom]). Bangkok: Thailand Research Fund Foundation for the Promotion of Social Science and Humanities Textbook Project. Chatchai Panananon (1982). “Siamese ‘Slavery’: The Institution and Its Abolition.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan. Cruikshank, R.B. (1975). “Slavery in Nineteenth Century Siam,” Journal of the Siam Society, Vol. 63, Part 1, pp. 316–333. Department of Fine Arts (2002). Lamdap kasat lao (Sequence of the Kings of Laos). Bangkok: Royal Thai Government, Department of Fine Arts, Office of Archaeology and National Museum. Greene, Stephen Lyon Wakeman (1999). Absolute Dreams: Thai Government Under Rama VI, 1910-1925. Bangkok: White Lotus. Ishii, Yoneo (1986a). Sangha, State and Society: Thai Buddhism in History. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Ishii, Yoneo (1986b). “The Thai Thammasat,” in M. B. Hooker, ed. The Laws of South-East Asia. Vol. I: The Pre-Modern Texts. Singapore: Butterworth (Asia), pp. 143–203. Galyani Vadhana, Somdet Chao Fa (1980). Mae lao hai fang (What My Mother Told Me). Chiangmai: Suriwong Book Center. Khaisaeng Sukhowathana (1996). Suan thai (Thai [Royal] Gardens). Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press. Mayoury and Pheuiphanh Ngaosyvathn (1994). Kith and Kin Politics: The Relationship Between Laos and Thailand. Manila: Journal of Contemporary Asia Publishers. Mayoury and Pheuiphanh Ngaosyvathn (1998). Paths to Conflagration: Fifty Years of Diplomacy and Warfare in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, 1778–1828. Ithaca: Cornell University, Southeast Asia Program. Neale, F.A. (1852). Narrative of a Residence in Siam. London: National Illustrated Library. O’Connor, Richard A. (1978). “Urbanism and Religion: Community, Hierarchy, and Sanctity in Urban Thai Buddhist Temples.” Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University. Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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Phromphong Phairiron (2004). Chumchon chang haeng krung ratanakosin (Artisans’ Communities at Bangkok). Bangkok: Wanchana. Pramuan Wichaphun, Phraya (1939). Phongsawadan moeang lan chang lae lamdap sakun sithisaribut rachasakun lan chang wiangchan (The Chronicles of Lan Chang and the Genealogy of the Sithisaribut Royal Lineage of Vientiane, Lan Chang). Bangkok. Royal Institute (2007). Wat sangkhrachai worawihan. Printed on the occasion of a royal presentation of monks’ robes. Bangkok: Royal Institute, Royal Thai Government. S. Plainoi (2002), “Lao bangkok” (Bangkok Lao), Silpa Wathanatham, Vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 98–103. Sansani Wirasinchai (2007). Luk than lan thoe thi yu boeang kwam samret nai racha samnak (Royal Family Members [Women] Who Stood Behind the Success of the Royal Household). (Revised ed.). Bangkok: Mathichon. Sarassawadee Onsakul (2005). History of Lan Na. Chiangmai: Silkworm Books. Snit Smuckarn and Kennon Breazeale, 1988. A Culture in Search of Survival: The Phuan of Thailand and Laos. New Haven: Yale University, Southeast Asia Studies Council. Sthirakoses (Phraya Anuman Rachathon) (1992). Looking Back: Book One. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press. Sthirakoses (Phraya Anuman Rachathon) (2002). Looking Back: Book Three. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press. Suthiwarapiwat, Phra Khru (2006). Wat Suthi-wararam. Bangkok. Thipakorawong, Chaophraya (1978). The Dynastic Chronicles, Bangkok Era, The First Reign. (Thadeus and Chadin Flood, trans.). Tokyo: The Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies. Thipakorawong, Chaophraya (1995). Phra racha phongsawadan krung ratanakosin rachakan thi 3 (The Royal Chronicles of Ratanakosin, The Third Reign). (6th printing). Bangkok: Royal Thai Government, Department of Fine Arts. Tomosugi, Takashi (1991). Rethinking the Substantive Economy in Southeast Asia. Tokyo: University of Tokyo, Institute of Oriental Culture. Tomosugi, Takashi (1993). Reminiscences of Old Bangkok: Memory and the Identification of a Changing Society. Tokyo: University of Tokyo, Institute of Oriental Culture. Turton, Andrew (1980). “Thai Institutions of Slavery,” in J.C. Watson, ed., Asian and African Systems of Slavery. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 251–292. Wat Bang Sai Kai (n.d.). “Prawat Wat Bang Sai Kai” (History of Wat Bang Sai Kai). Thonburi: Unpublished paper. Wat Dawadoeng (2004). Luang Pho Wat Dawadoeng (Luang Pho [the Abbot] of Wat Dawadoeng). Printed for the royally sponsored cremation of Phra Khun Luang Pho Phrathep Priyatithan (But Kowitho). Thonburi. Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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Wat Inthara-wihan (1994). Wat inthara-wihan kap chiwa-prawat somdet phra phuthachan (to phrom-rangsi) nai ngan chitrakham fa-phanang ubosot (Wat Inthara-wihan and the Biography of Somdet Phra Phuthachan (To Phrom-rangsi), Upon the Celebratory Installation of the Ordination Hall’s Wall Murals). Bangkok. Wat Inthara-wihan (2001). Khon khwa ha ma dai: Ekasan samkhan khong wat inthara-wihan (Research Findings: Important Information on Wat Intharawihan). Bangkok. Wat Sangkhrachai (1990). Prawat wat sangkhrachai (History of Wat Sangkhrachai). Printed on the occasion of the visit of Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhon. Bangkok. Wilson, Constance M. (1978). “Ethnic Participation in the Export of Thai Rice, 1885-1890,” in K. Hutterer, ed., Economic Exchange and Social Interaction in Southeast Asia, University of Michigan, Papers on South and Southeast Asia, pp. 245–271. Wyatt, David K. (1994). “Siam and Laos 1767-1827,” in idem, Studies in Thai History, Chiangmai: Silkworm Books, pp.185–209.

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LAO WEIGHTS AND THE LUANG SYMBOL Joachim Gabel Abstract This investigation reveals that a weight system reform in the middle of the fourteenth century in Laos introduced a basic mass unit of 1.23g, which was unchanged until the nineteenth century. For weighing small quantities of precious goods, two classes of compatible weights were in use – one pot-shaped and one geometric. While the shape of the former probably owes its origin to a Buddhist background, the design of the latter is more obscure, but the few facts point to an influence from the Roman/Byzantine Mediterranean world via the ancient port Oc Eo and the Khmer empire. Also examined is a snake symbol called luang, appearing on certain geometric weights and having a particular significance regarding Lao royalty and mythology. Old Scale Weights from Laos The present paper is an attempt to summarize, categorize and interpret the available data of the old Lao scale weights. These weights appear to have escaped the attention of scholarly research, and are thus mentioned only incidentally, usually in connection with means of payment, and illustrated rarely.¹ This is in contrast to the more attractive Burmese animal-shaped weights, which were thoroughly studied by Gear (1992) and have been appreciated by collectors for a long time. The reference material for this study consists of a collection of 140 pieces of Lao weights acquired by the author during the last 13 years (see Appendix 1 for details). Although they were used over a considerable period of time, the weights are in good condition, with details and markings still visible. With few exceptions, badly worn-out or damaged weights were not taken into consideration in order to obtain mass units as accurate as possible. The Lao weights are predominantly found in the northern part of presentday Laos, above all in Luang Phrabang, in Northern Thailand, and in some parts of the Shan Plateau in Burma. 1

See Kneedler (1936, 11) who writes ‘No. 11. is merely a bronze weight, included only because of the ‘na’ mark on it (see similar marks on bar, c’ieng and tok money).’ Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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The core region, however, is Luang Phrabang, the old political and later religious capital of Lan Xang, where the weights were issued under royal supervision. Lao weights were apparently widely used in neighbouring Lan Na, as well as the former Shan principalities, where they were used alongside Burmese weights. Employed in the markets for weighing small quantities of valuable goods and precious items like gold, silver, jewellery, opium and especially medicines, they are also referred to as apothecaries’ weights. The Lao weights show an abundance of regular geometric as well as pot-shaped solids and therefore are divided into two classes. The former will be referred to as geometric weights, whereas the latter were termed pot-shaped weights by Braun (1983, 97). Although used commercially, they seem to derive from two different traditions. See Appendix 1 for details of the study collection. In all, one can define six groups of 16 different geometric weight shapes, though possibly more exist. At present it is impossible to say whether the different groups were used in different periods. Probably the shapes of the geometric weights are not indigenous conceptions, but were influenced by imported gold beads and other objects, originating in the Roman/Byzantine Mediterranean world. Braun (1983, 97) considers as an unfounded supposition the derivation of the pot-shaped weights from the Burmese nat headdress and their origin in Burma. In fact, the weights are closer to miniature models of Buddhist reliquaries (see, for example, LeMay 1927, plate opposite p. 202) or the food containers used by monks that can be found throughout mainland Southeast Asia, but especially in Laos, Thailand, Burma and Cambodia, namely, the Theravada Buddhist countries. In the Palace Museum in Luang Phrabang is a sitting Lan Na style Buddha image on a silver base, in exactly the shape of a sturdy pot-shaped weight. Consequently, there is clear evidence of a strong Buddhist influence that inspired the shape of what we have termed class II pot-shaped weights. In addition, the pot-shaped weights are also reminiscent of certain Lao and Khmer betel containers, which were a very important part of daily life and traditional rites. The luang symbol In contrast to the Burmese animal-shaped weights, Lao weights show rarely, if at all, a mark which appears on some class I geometric weights. Geographically, the mark is limited to old Lan Xang, particularly the northern part of Laos and old Lan Na. It consists of a wave-shaped motif resembling the letter W, showing occasionally at one end an inconspicuous thickening (Figs. 8b). Although it is reminiscent of the old Siamese letter ma and the letters p or b of the fak kham script of Lan Na (Gear 2000, 3), it is not a letter but an abstract symbol. The origin, as well Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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as the antiquity, of this motif are not known for certain, but the evidence points to a Tai Lao cultural substratum. Guehler (1949, 141) connects it rather expansively to similar signs of the Indus culture and ancient India: Plate III/m No. 17 is found on bar money from the North. There is a similar mark on Mohenjo-Daro seals and again on Indian punch-marked coins. The symbol seems to represent a snake. It may signify the Naga, the pet of Siva or the Naga-King Mucilinda, which sheltered the Lord Buddha. The motif is called luang in Lao. Translated into English it means ‘snake’ or ‘snake motif’. The word apparently derives from, or is at least cognate with, Chinese for dragon (liong/louang/lung), which, according to Eichhorn (1973, 71), can be traced back to an old pre-Shang period (pre-1600 B.C.) community worshipping a dragon totem in the Hoang Ho and Wei region. On the other hand, Prunner (1975, 188) refers to the dragon’s origin as a distinct phenomenon of the Dai minorities in Southern China. The earliest depictions of dragons have their origin in jade ornaments of the Xinglongwa culture (6200–5400 B.C.) of northeast China (Underhill and Habu 2006, 126–127). But this does not exclude the idea that the conception of the dragon in Southeast and East Asia has its deepest roots not in the mythology of the Chinese but the early Tai peoples. The Lao luang and the Chinese dragon share only superficially characteristics, e.g. an affinity to the element air and in later Lao art are similarly represented. Of considerable interest is an historic event in the territory of the Black Tai which caused a snake to become the insignia of the ruling aristocrats. Cam (2000, 12) writes: In the 13/14 century, to summon people to a gathering of the Thai, a chief of the Black Thai called Lo Let, with the pseudonym nguu hau (cobra), hoisted a flag made of black fabric pennant edged by wavy red braid, in the middle of which a white fabric cobra, wriggling as if swimming in water, is sewn. The Thai used to call the flag ‘Old Mr. Cobra’ (ko puu chau nguu hau), which the noble families of this müang area (area called ‘chäu müang’) maintained until the August Revolution of 1945. According to Cam (2000, 12) ngu hau sounds like a transliteration of ngu hong, a name which was given by king Ly Thanh Tong (1054–1072) to the inhabitants of the region northwest of Hanoi. In the eighteenth century Hoang Binh wrote in his book Hung Hua Xu Phong Tho Luc that ngu hong and ai lao both had a similar script and similar customs. Ai lao is the old Vietnamese name for the Tai Lao (ai=man, lao=big). Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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This indicates that a chieftain of the Black Tai gathered other Tai peoples around a kind of standard showing a snake which seemed to serve as a unifying symbol and, moreover, had probably already been worshipped for a very long time. At some early stage of social evolution it became the symbol of the ruling class and evolved from a snake (ngu) or dragon into the mythical luang. Since the Black Tai had close cultural relations to the Tai Lao, it is plausible to argue that the latter were all the more familiar with this tradition. The origin of the luang symbol, which was later exclusively reserved for the royal house, can be explained in this way. It was a very old and powerful sign of the kingdom and served to legitimate royal dignity. Mayoury and Pheuiphanh (2009, 7) write: ‘In the early sixteenth century, the preferred translation for “Sisattanakhanahuta” changed from “A Million Naga” to “A Million Elephants” or “Lan Xang” in Lao’. Hence it follows that the white elephant rose to be the royal symbol only considerably later, probably not before the sixteenth century, although, according to Cresswell (1974, 30), it is already depicted on early lat money dating to the thirteenth or fourteenth century (Fig. 9). Even if at the beginning of the twentieth century the meaning of the symbol was no longer part of common knowledge, at least in the consciousness of the older generation the belief survived that the luang was still alive. Lao mythical snakes There are three known groups of snakes in Lao mythology, each with its own meaning. They are endowed with either positive or negative forces and named luang, ngeuak and nak. A comprehensive study of the origin and meaning of the latter two can be found in Mayoury and Pheuiphanh (2009); here is given only a short overview. The genesis of these mythical snakes can be explained as follows. Before the spread of Buddhism among the Lao there existed the conception of two different mythical snakes. They lived in the waters and were a symbol for the chthonic elements. One snake embodied the positive, the other the negative forces. Apparently these antagonisms are only aspects of a single divine snake. According to Cam (2000, 11), the legends of the Tai peoples in northwest Vietnam relate that the dominant god of the aquatic world is a gigantic snake endowed with magic abilities and carrying two names: one is ngeuak, which means dragon, the other luang; the ngeuak belongs to the dangerous gods, but as soon as it is named luang it becomes an important divinity. To this day the Lao avoid speaking the word ngeuak as long as they are on a river or lake, fearing its incalculable wrath. In Lao art the ngeuak is figured like the Indian makara which often spits out the nak (the naga). Of the two terms luang and ngeuak, only the latter is older and derives from proto-Tai (Chamberlain 1977), while the former, although the word might have its origin in Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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the Chinese language, is embued with Tai and not Chinese conceptions. The Chinese dragon, which is nearly always supplied with wings and horns, lives in the ocean as well as in the air, bringing rain and is an expression of the male forces (Sälzle 1965, 263). The Lao luang is an agent of the sky, without, however, bringing rain, and expresses the female forces, originating in a culture much stronger adhering to matriarchaic strains, which can still be observed in several Tai ethnic groups. Eventually, under the influence of Buddhism, the belief in a third snake, the naga/nak, evolved. The naga is of Indian origin and derives from an authochthonous earth cult. The importance of the nak in connection with the life of the Buddha caused, so to speak, a final division of the already existing positive luang into a nak attached to the element water and a heavenly, female luang. The belief in the ancient luang was too strong to be suppressed by Buddhism; instead it was given a new meaning within the context of the officially sanctioned religion. It is necessary to stress this clear distinction between luang and nak for they are based on two different concepts. In Southeast Asia the naga is prominent in mythology and art, appearing as an apotropaeic element (that is, supposedly avoiding bad luck or evil influences) and a fertility symbol.² The naga is a water snake endowed with mainly positive attributes, especially protection and fertility, and innumerable legends deal with this fabulous creature, which even in Buddhism plays an outstanding part. In Southeast Asia, however, the early Mon and Khmer peoples practiced an even older indigenous snake cult, which was later mingled with the cult of the Indian nak and finally adopted by the Tai Lao, who in turn introduced their ngeuak and luang. Therefore when the term nak is used in the Lao language it has to be interpreted in the context discussed above. In Lao mythology the luang has a special rôle which is not identical with that of the nak. While nak are principally connected with water, the luang is an element of the air. In the imagination of the Lao, the luang is able to fly and appears only at full moon in the nocturnal sky with a tail of fire. It is loosely connected with the Chinese dragon and also occasionally depicted with four claws. Up to the present in Northern Laos the older generation narrates a myth about the luang, which embodies purity and virtue (see Appendix 2). In White and Black Tai language the meaning of luang is larger than large (Cam 2000, 16) and the notions great/mighty/royal at least stem from the same root. In the poem pao khwan muang faa of the Black Tai,

2

On Lao fabrics the nak is found as a subtle and abstract pattern in an ‘S’ form and is named lai nak (river dragon pattern) (Cheesman 1988, 95). Occasionally two naga form a W-shaped pseudo-luang, as illustrated in Cheesman (1988, 33–34) on a fabric from Sam Neua, but genuine luang patterns are found very rarely. In most cases the supposed luang motifs on textiles which were presented to the author were actually nak. Thus it seems very likely that textiles adorned with this motif should not be worn by ordinary people but members of the royal house only. Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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the luang is a symbol for female souls and therefore part of ancestor worship (Cam 2000, 11). Moreover, the Black Tai have a female water snake, and the White Tai a bird, as symbols. It is a legitimate question whether it is a mere coincidence that certain Burmese weights have the shape of a bird on a base that shows a snakeshaped gha sign. Of course this combination could also be considered in view of the Garuda-Naga antagonism of Indian mythology. The luang symbol on means of payment Over centuries in Lan Xang, boat- or bar-shaped money of different sizes served as a means of payment. Often this means of payment was provided with symbols among which also appears the luang motif (Fig. 9). It is best termed lat or bar-money after Cresswell (1974, 30), who divides it according to shape, metal alloy and marks, into lat money type one to three. This division into three types is not completely convincing. Kneedler (1936, 5) writes with regard to the two most common marks on bar money: The two commonest marks are shown in plate VI, Nos. 7 and 8. The latter I have not seen on the large size coins. The former, looking like a snake, appears on coins of other types also, as may be noted, and has been interpreted to me as being ‘Na’ a somewhat sacred symbol. LeMay (1927, 247) states: [the bar money forms] are 4¾ w and 4¾8 a inches long, and weigh 1453 and 1200 grains respectively; and are stamped in three places with a serpentine letter, or figure the meaning of which, if any, I do not know. This money was donated on special occasions, particularly as an offering for monasteries and at shrines (Graham and Winkler 1992, 53–55). Therefore a connection with religious ceremonies is obvious. Apart from the luang symbol, there appears an S-shaped motif which is equated to the lai nak on Lao weaving, already mentioned in note 2. So we find that the two most common snake symbols on money are always either the luang or the nak. The elephant as a royal symbol, of course also appears on lat money, but never together with the two snake signs. The elephant is combined with both the Buddhist Wheel of the Law and the lotus flower and consequently clearly separate from the indigenous luang/nak cult. The money was marked with these important symbols and thus rendered officially valid. Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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The so-called kakim or chiang money - chiang = city - (Fig. 9, top right) was the standard coinage of the kingdom of Lan Na, dating to the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries (Kneedler 1936, 5 and 6). It was allegedly also marked with the luang symbol, although Cresswell (1974, plate II) does not list it among the manifold signs found on this means of payment, which is in accordance with our observations. Several pieces of kakim money with the luang symbol are illustrated in Mitchiner (1998, 203: plate 682 and 683), but they are definitely nineteenth century copies, because their inscriptions are in modern Thai script. Kneedler (1936, 3) mentions the occurrence of the luang symbol also on the more or less shell-shaped tok money of Chiang Mai. The luang symbol in religious art The luang is distinguished in the religious art of Lao. It is true, compared to the naga, that it is kept in the background, but this does not predicate anything about its real significance. In monasteries we can find it on some door panels, where it carries the semi-divine guardians (Fig. 10), or on religious furniture like candle holders and prayer chairs. Then, however, it appears not stylised as on the weights, but as a snake, figured more or less naturalistically and sometimes provided with fore and hind legs, reminiscent of the Chinese dragon. Apparently in the course of time, under Chinese influence, the luang evolved into a more elaborately designed fabulous and fanciful creature. Occasionally the motif is even formed by two luang, whose intertwined bodies resemble a double wave-shaped W (Fig. 8a). The luang is generally confined to the lower part of decorated objects, and in architecture is attached exclusively to the ordination hall (sim), where, however, it is never seen on walls or roofs³. At least this is the conclusion drawn from observations made in several old monasteries, where nowadays only a very few have sim with representations of the luang, usually carved on the wooden doors. These monasteries are or were, by name, Vat Vixun, Vat Hua Xieng, Vat Aram, Vat That Luang and Vat Mai in Luang Phrabang, as well as Ho Pha Khaeo in Viangchan. Vat Vixun and Vat Mai once housed the palladium of Lan Xang, the Pha Bang Buddha image, and Ho Pha Khaeo the famous Pha Khaeo, or so called Emerald Buddha image. The luang obviously acted as a further protector of venerated Buddha images, but under a different premise than the nak, which was already established and connected with Buddhism for a long time. The luang was subdued, but not eliminated, by Buddhism and became a servant, although now second in rank to

3

However, there is a modern stucco relief on a roof gable in Vat Sene, showing two luang, apparently listening to the teachings of the Lord Buddha. Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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the nak, of the Lord Buddha. Of course, it is quite conceivable that the luang was more widespread as a religious motif in ordination halls of other monasteries, but was gradually replaced and thus its importance forgotten. But there is also good reason to believe that its presence was in fact limited to very distinguished buildings connected with the most important Buddha images of Lan Xang. In Lao art history the motif is nearly completely ignored or, if at all, merely mentioned as a decorative element and at best incidentally illustrated like in Marchal (1964, Pl. I, VII, XXV and XXXIX) and Parmentier (1955, Pl. 14, 22, 30 and 52). Without doubt the luang symbol plays at least a subliminal part in Lao art. Nowhere is it a dominant motif, often only subtly inserted into ornaments, but it is nevertheless present. The luang symbol as a mark of authentication In Southeast Asia weights were partly provided with particular authentication marks verifying their genuineness. In Laos both weights and bar-shaped coins were provided with the luang symbol, proving that they were valid weight pieces and means of payment. By this symbol, considered as sacred, both weights and coins were protected. Manipulations could not be prevented, but tampering would be considered sacrilege. Burmese animal-shaped weights occasionally even show a re-authentication with special signs, a custom which is not seen in the case of the Lao weights. However, in relation to the reference collection, only the hexagonal, heptagonal and especially the octagonal prisms, as well as the hexagonal and heptagonal truncated double-pyramids, carry the luang symbol. In addition, two flat spheroids are very rare exceptions (Fig. 12). Generally, the symbol appears more or less clearly on the lower and upper planes of the weights, unless worn out by long usage. Only a fraction, e.g. 31 pieces, of all geometric weights is marked with this symbol. Of that again, on just five octagonal prisms the luang symbol is represented on all eight sides – in one case even alternately as a single and a double snake, one on top of the other. These snakes are depicted in a sloping position, which gives them a certain dynamic, as if they are about to ascend. Most probably not more than 30 to 40 per cent of the geometric weights were issued or later provided with this authentication mark. The sign seems to have evolved from an ‘archaic’ (Figs. 1 and 8d), through a ‘simple’ (Fig. 8e) to a ‘classic’ design (Fig. 8b), although it was always stylised due to the small size of the weights. At closer view the luang symbol shows a striking similarity to the gha sign (Fig. 8c) on certain Burmese bird-shaped weights (Gear 1992, period F, G, H and Ia), with just slight differences in minor details. The Burmese letter gha is similar to the letter W. According to Gear (1992, 196), it is even an auspicious letter and Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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is, like the luang symbol, connected with the notions of importance and might. It is an interesting fact that the gha sign appears on Burmese bird-shaped weights at the end of the sixteenth century, only a short time after the conquest of Lan Na and the following military expeditions into Lan Xang under King Bayinnaung of Hongsawaddi (Pegu). It is not out of the question that the gha sign is in fact also an old snake-symbol, which was later mixed up with the letter of the same name. From Lan Na a type of bird-shaped weight is known that bears, in addition, an inscription in fak kham script as well as the luang symbol, which, however, is mistakenly interpreted by Gear (2002, 21 and fig.1) as a letter. A single octagonal prism in the collection has a sign that looks like a transition from gha to luang (Figs. 1 and 8d) and therefore might be dated tentatively to the end of the sixteenth century or even earlier. At least the patina and wear of this rare weight speak well for this assumption. The luang symbol was an authentication mark which guaranteed the genuineness of the weight. Possibly the sign was affixed not immediately after the manufacture of the weight but much later through an officially appointed royal servant. Since only a small fraction of the weights has this special mark, perhaps it was directly issued by the royal court or an authorized office. Weights without authentication marks were by no means used illegally, especially in the fairly frequent cases where the luang symbol is totally worn out by frequent use, but weights with the mark were probably in circulation in the vicinity of the court or at least had a special purpose for the trade in precious luxury items. Weights and their magical meaning The geometric shape of the weights has certainly not evolved by chance, but mirrors magic conceptions. Strikingly frequent are hexa-, hepta- and octagonal solids, confirming the special use of auspicious numerals. The five regular or platonic solids were consistently avoided as weight shapes, although one can assume that the Lao were aware of them and would have been able to manufacture a weight in the shape of a cube, for example, which is also easy to handle. For unknown reasons, most probably originating in magic and superstition, these solids were deliberately not used. According to interviews with older inhabitants of Luang Phrabang, the weights also served as charms protecting bearers from evil influences. This was probably the case with one spheroid, which was worn as a pendant (Fig. 12). Sometimes soldiers carried one in battle, for protection from wounds and death by their magical power. Cheesman (2004, 192) mentions scale weights among the ritual objects of a shaman (mor song phi taai) for a funeral ceremony, indicating that the weights had an apotropaeic character. This argument is further supported by the fact that they were and occasionally still are consecrated by monks at Buddhist Journal of the Siam Society 2009 Vol. 97

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monastery celebrations. To this day in the villages around Luang Phrabang, weights are kept by families as heirlooms, which are honoured and only reluctantly sold. The set of seven weights and their ratios (see discussion below) are an expression of the belief in the magic of odd numbers, which are generally comprehended positive. This is the reason why a binary or decimal system for the mass unit or an even number of weights for the total set was not used. At first the simultaneous use of geometric and pot-shaped weights seems to be odd. Several antique dealers supported the presumption that both basic shapes, in fact, constitute a unit. Without exception all geometric weights have two parallel planes, e.g. the pinacoid, of which one serves as the base and the other can carry a pot-shaped weight (Fig. 13). Furthermore, the geometric weights are considered as female, the pot-shaped weights male. If we take into consideration that the luang symbol on the geometric weights represents the female aspect, then the presumption is more likely to be true. Accordingly, the pot-shaped weights can also be interpreted as phallic symbols and stand for the male principle. But these notions were certainly added later to give a more popular explanation for the quite unusual presence of two weight classes. More probably they result from an antagonism between traditional beliefs and Buddhism, which, during the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries, was still struggling for predominance over the spirit cults. The pot-shaped weights were a symbol for the spread of the new religion, for use in commerce and as a counterbalance to the old geometric weights. Manufacture and materials Although there are apparently no existing documents such as drawings or travel reports discussing the manufacture of the weights, the technique can be reconstructed with relative certainty. The majority of the weights were cast by either the lost wax method or with a reusable mould. The gauging was achieved by carefully grinding the parallel planes of the geometric weights or the base of the pot-shaped weights. A great number of pot-shaped weights, as well as the spheroids and truncated double cones, were made with a different technique in order to save metal. For these weights, a clay mixture of unknown composition was used for the basic shape, which was subsequently covered with a thin wax layer and then again covered with clay. The metal replaced the wax enclosing the clay core. Some Burmese hintha (mythical bird) weights were similarly made (Fig. 11); however, here a stone core of pegmatite was used (Gear 1992, 48). As the metal layer covering the clay core is usually very thin (