Siam. An Account of the Land and the People

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AM

S

AN ACCOUNT OF THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE

P.

HOMPSON

A.

H.A., A.M., I.C.E.

LATE OF THE ROYAL SURVEY DEPARTMENT, SIAM

VOLUME XVI

OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF

J.

B.

MILLET COMPANY BOSTON

AND

TOKYO

COW ADDED ORIGINAL TO BEi RETAINED

OCT

0494

COPYRIGHT, IQIO

BY

J.

THE

B.

MILLET CO.

PLIMPTON [W

D

PRESS

O]

NORWOOD MASS

U

S

A

CONTENTS CHAPTER

PAGE

,

EDITORIAL NOTE

ix

INTRODUCTION *

I

.

1

BANGKOK

33

PRESENT CONDITIONS

54

III

THE BUDDHIST RELIGION

82

IV

TEMPLES, IMAGES, AND SYMBOLS OF THE YELLOW ROBE

II

....

V THE BROTHERHOOD VI *.VII

-VIII

.

THE PEES AND CHARMS

145

SIAMESE ART

156

RICE AND FISH

177

IX CAMP LIFE

X XI

96 122

203

AYUTHIA AND THE ELEPHANT HUNT LOPBURI, AND THE STORY OF PHAULCON .

THE PRABAT MOUNTAIN THE EDGE OF THE JUNGLE XIV THE FRAGMENTS OF AN EMPIRE XV ANGKOR TOM

.

.

227

.

.

249

XII

262

XIII

274

INDEX

....

289

.303 325

r>

>*

^ our nature is

ennobled or debased, and by so much they determine whether our next state of existence will be on a higher or a lower plane. Thus each man shapes

own destiny. The illustration

his

of the water

87

must be given with

SIAM: THE LOTUS

LAND

some

reservation, for Buddhist scholars say that all that survives is the result of our actions. Accord-

ing to this view the chain of existences finds a exact parallel in the motion of a wave. The

more wave

advances over the surface of the water, but the water of which it is composed at any one point is This subtlety may be left for metaleft behind. to argue over, for the ordinary Buddhist physicians believes that though the personality becomes extinct, some principle, which we may call the soul, Also many scholars say that Nirvanah, survives. the goal for which the Buddhist aims, is extinction, but the Buddha did not teach this. He only refrained from defining in precise terms that which we are unable to comprehend, but it should be 1

noticed that Nirvanah as in the case of the

is

a state of existence which,

Buddha

himself,

it is

possible

So also did he refrain from speaking of God. But when we have got rid of the idea of a personal God, a God subject to human passions, what is the all-pervading Divine "It seems to Intelligence in which we believe? me that this Divine Spirit is but the actual spirit of man, the disposition, be it good or evil And God the Creator is the Holy Merit and Demerit, to reach

upon

this earth.

the cause and