The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

ILllf'VIE\\'
AHTJCLJ•: 371
tan, who was involved in the construction of a temple in Chiang Rai in
1496. 97 In the chronicle, where jav hmu'n often indicates a governor,
there is a jav bra :ya suvarn}a gartt fan na jian saen who is said to have
died in 1487 after ruling for 25 years, 98 and no other Chiang Saen
governor of the last half of the 15th and first quarter of the 16th cen
turies has a name resembling gam tan.
an error of one 12-year cycle in the chronicle.
The difference in dates suggests
As I remarked earlier, probably all historians would agree that
true history begins with the period of Mangrai. Not only do Mangrai
and his descendants play an important role in all the northern
chronicles, but there is contemporary evidence concerning some of them
in the inscription of Wat Phra Yu'n.99
An important fact which has been carefully skirted in all
previous studies is that although the chronicles provide six generations
from Mangrai to Ku' Na-Mangrai, Jaya (Xai, Jaiy) Sangram,
Saen Bhu, Garp Fu, Pha Yii. Ku' Mi-the inscription, erected by the
last king of this list, only bas four-Mangrai, Garp Fii, Pba Yu, Soil
Saen Na (Ku'Na)-wbo are designated great grandfather, grandfather,
father, son, that is, Soh Saen Na is said to be son, grandwn
and great grandson of the other three.
Proper method, taking the
evidence of a contemporary inscription over that of a late chronicle,
should already have led scholars to reject, or explain, two fictitious
generations, Jaya Sati.gram and Saen Bhii, but instead the problem
bas either bl!en ignored or epicycles have been devised to account
for it.
In fact, the chronicles themselves contain information sufficient
to make the genealogy suspect, even without the evidence of the inscription.
This is the way the chronology of birth dates and ages is squeezed
97) Prajwn Situ c'Ziru'k III, pp. 174-177, no. 69.
98)
99)
PP 61. pp. 181-182,
13
6 144 no
Coedes, "Documents", pp. 195-200; Prajum silii ciiru'l~ III, PP· - • ·
62; EHS 13.