The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LIII, Part 1-2, 1965 - Khamkoo

VOWME UU PART l 

JANUARY 

THE 

;JOURNAl.. 

OF THE

' ' ' 

' . 

TB)D SIAM SOOlETY 

His Majestytb'el{ing 

Ber Maj(!sty the Que~n 

Her Majesty Que~n· Ramb~li B11rni ·· 

;Her Ro~al:Highile~s the ,Princess o£ Songkhla •· 

f{is-MiJ~sty I,\:ip:g.FrederikJX of Denmark· · 

''I '• ( !.'.:'· '. ., . ,·, • , /"' ,< "• '•, :' '·: '

VOWME LIII PART 1 JANUARY 1965 

J 

THE 

URNAL 

OF THE 

BANGKOK 

2508

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

VOLU.!VIE LIII PART 1 

,JANUARY :l..IHH'i 

Articles 

H.G. Quaritch Wales 

Professor Gordon H. Luce 

John H. Brandt 

Thamsook Nurnnonda 

H.H. Prince Dhaninivat, 

Kromarnun Bidyalabh 

Phya Anuman Rajadhon 

Larry Sternstein 

Book Review 


Muang Bon, A Tawn of Northern Dvaravati 

Dvaravatz and Old Burma 

The Southeast Asian Negrito 

The Anglo-Siamese Secret Convention of I 8D7 

Hide Figures of the Ramakien 

Notes : W at Sijum, Sriraja, Lavo 

Data on Conditioned Poison 

'K.rung K.ao' : The Old CajJital 

of Ayutthaya 

Text-Book Thailand 

Page 

10 

27 

45 

61 

67 

69 

83 

123 

Rece11t Siamese Publications : 

318. Attributes of His Holiness Kromsanulecfna Param'iinujit 

319. Letters to a friend during the state visit of 

their Majesties to America 

320. Their Majesties' Official Visits to Pakistan and Malaya 

321. The Story of the Sihala Image 

D. 

127 

128 

129 

130

MUANG BON, A TOWN OF NORTHERN DV ARA v ATi 

by 

'J(.r:J. Qrwritdz, C(Q)alcs 

In a previous article in this journal 1 I called attention to the 

correct location of Williams-Hunt's supposed most easterly "metropolis", 

which is really situated ncar Ban Bon, on the left bank of the 

Menam Chao Phya, some twenty miles south of Nnkhon Sawan 

( Paknampo ). Further work with modern maps enabled me to plot its 

position more exactly, as shown on the accompanying sketch-map 

(Fig. 1 ). It lies about three miles south of r'yuhagiri, the main 

north-south highway running alongside the other rampart. Consequently 

it proved to be easily accessible. It is rather surprising that 

it should have remained so long unknown, except or course to the Ban 

Bon villagers, some of whom realized that the cat'lh works were the 

ramparts of an ancient town. 

MLiang Bon (Fig. 2 ), as the site may be called, has town status 

by reason of its extensive outer enclosure, though it is smaller than I 

had originally judged from the air photograph. The internal diameter 

of the circular inner enclosure i:s only about 300 yards, that of an 

average circular site on the Korat plateau, the total length of the outer 

enclosure being about 1000 yards. Each enclosure has a ~ingle moat, 

now dry, averaging some 35 yards wide, and in the case of the outer 

one often obliterated by agriculture. A small tributary of the Menum 

running west of the outer rampart would have provided a good water 

supply, and may have communicated with the moat. It would seem 

that multiple moats and ramparts were not needed even i 11 the smaller 

settlements of central Siam, as they were on the Korat plateau where 

the people must have been much more exposed to the danger of attack. 

It was during the first week of February 1964 that my wife and 

I were enabled by the kind co-operation of Khun Dlmnit Yupho, 

Director~General of the Fine Arts Department, to visit this site and 

----·--·--·""·-~~-- ....... ~-.~ -·--- ·---·· ·- ·---"·-·-------·-- 

1 H.G. Quaritch "Wales, "An Early Duddhist Civilization in Eastern Siam ", 

J.S.S., Vol. XLV. 1957, p. 5G.

2 H.G. QUAHITCH WALES 

carry out some trial excavations. In this undertaking we were aided 

by two members of the Department, Khun Mali Koksanfia and Khun 

Raphisak Jaiwal, who proved most helpful. 

The inner enclosure has a rampart outside the moat (Fig. 3 ); 

but not one inside it, as appeared from the air photograph, this appearance 

having been given by a ring of vegetation. The rampart, 

some 20 yards broad at the base, stands at present about six feet higher 

than the level of the ground in the enclosure. Traces of bricks were 

seen at several places on the earth rampart when we walked round, and 

at one point on the south they seemed to be of some depth, a trench 

revealing laid bricks in two or three courses. I am unable to say what 

was the purpose of this brickwork. Gaps indicated the positions of 

former gateways at the cardinal points. The one on the south showed 

earth abutments, jutting out from each bank of the moat, which would 

have supported a bridge. 

The interior of the inner enclosure was bare, except for occasional 

trees and patches of scrub, most of it having been under bean 

cultivation. Potsherds were frequently to be seen on the surface, and 

were particularly abundant in the south-eastern part. So it was here 

that I made arrangements with the owner of the land to make trial 

excavations quite near to the moat, while about ten Ban Bon villagers 

were engaged to work for us. Meanwhile we were shown a more or 

less surface find, which had come to light when the ground was being 

tilled in this area, and it certainly excited my interest. This was a 

rather unusual terracotta votive tablet, a little over two inches high, 

embossed on one side with a representation of the abi§ekha of Sri 

(Fig. 4 A), a well-known Buddhist motif, which is found for example 

on a Wheel of the Law from Nakhon Pathom. On the reverse of the 

tablet (Fig. 4 B) there is a figure seated in the attitude of royal ease 

which, despite its weathering, seems to show a laudable freedom and 

mastery of design. 

The owner of the land where we were to dig mentioned that 

"enough beads to make a necklace" had been found after rain, but 

he had given them to children who had lost them. From his descrip-

Fig. 1. 

' 

Sketch·map showing position of Miiang Bon. 

3 

Mru;s

I 

1 

'I 

c 

/ 

./ 

.. 

Oo 

I 

I 

I 

/ 31) 

Fig. 2. Outline of Miiang Bon (based on an air photograph at the Pitt-Rivers Museum, 

Oxford.) 1-4 positions of gateways ; A, inner enclosure excavation; B, outer 

enclosure excavations; C, inscribed stone found here; lJ, approxnnate vusiuon 

of stiipas.

Fig. :l. Miiang Bon: rnmpart and moat of inner enclosure. ( 1\uthor'N phol.o1~raphl 

Fig. 4. Votive tablet from inner encLosure of Mi.iang Bon. CFrom sketches made by f\:hun Raphisak).

Fig. 5. Mi.iang Bon: inner enclosure trial excavation. (Author's photograph) 

Fig. 6. Examples of sherds. (Author's photograph)

\tijA\l; llll:\, .I TOll N OF \O!l!IIF!l\ 1>\ :i"ILIUJ'J :; 

tion I should think they were common Kuala Sclinsing types, such as 

have also been found at U T'ong. :~ 

A trial trench 23 feet long was dug at right nngles to the moat, 

and ending 15 feet from it. Later this trench was extended right to 

the moat and the pottery deposits were found to continue to within 

six feet of the sloping edge of the moat. The upper six inches in the 

trench consisted of soil disturbed by agriculture, with few sherds. 

Below this was a layer of about 18 inches or undisturbed soil, with 

potsherds, animal bones etc; that is to say the bottom of the habitation 

level was about two feet beneath present ground level. A second 

trench was then dug parallel to the first, about nine feet from it. 

Then the intervening block (Fig. 5) was carefully cleared down to 

natural soiL first the six inches of disturbed soil, then the 18 inches 

with undisturbed deposits, which showed no stratification. 

The slierds were of coarse reddish and greyi~h wares, some 

with simple impressed ornament (rigs. 6, 7, 8 ), while only a very 

small proportion was cord-marked. The sherds were on the whole 

very different from those previously found at the circular sites on the 

Korat plateau.:; The site \vas probably not inhabited much af'ter the 

Xth century A.D., since no gla;.cd pottery or porcelain was found. 

ft is important to place the~c sherds on record against the time when 

documented material may be obtained !'rom many other Dvuravati 

sites. Only then will it be possible to sec what conclusions may 

emerge from their comparative st.udy. Besides the shcrds there were 

also occasional pot-lid knobs, spouts and pottery counters. An iron 

knife blade was found at a depth or 14 in., and another at 15 in. At 

ll in. was found a small tin ring, probably f'rom a fishing net, and at 

18 in. were found two broken portions of stone saddlc-qucrns and a 

rubber, similar to others that have been found at Dvrira vali' sites. 

Potsherds were also seen on the surface in many parts of the 

outer enclosure. I decided to dig a trial trench (about 10 ft. long) 

at a convenient spot some thirty yards south-east of the inner cnclo- 

2 It may here be mentioned that at nnother D1·:iravmi site, Ku B11a, I\atburi, a 

collection of such glass bends, plus a few carnelian and other stone barrel 

bends, all found locally, are now preserver! nt 'Vat Khan ( Sitr~ 18 ), Kij Bun, 

3 J.S.S. Joe. cit., Figs.

4 H.G. QUARITCH WALJ\S 

sure rampart. The object was to see how the deposits compared with 

those in the inner enclosure. We found a layer of similar sherds 

extending from a depth of 6 in. beneath the surface down to 2H in., 

but within this layer the concentration of sherds was less than in the 

inner town. From this one might be safe in drawing the conclusion 

that, while the outer enclosure was added not long after the founding 

of the original settlement, it was less densely populated. 

At the bottom of the habitation level in this trench we were 

fortunate in making a find such as is usually not to be expected in a 

trial trench. This was the front half of an earthenware Roman style 

lamp, the extant portion measuring 6~ in. long, 2~ in. high, the mouth 

still showing traces of blackening from a wick (Fig. 9 ). Apart from 

the well-known bronze Roman lamp found at P'ong T'iik, there is a 

complete earthenware one resembling the present one which came 

from Nakhon Pathom, and is exhibited in the National Museum. Unfortunately 

such lamps cannot provide us with a date. Although 

Roman prototypes in Italy may date from the first or second century 

A.D., this type of lamp evidently became popular when introduced to 

Dvaravati and may have been copied for centuries. 

We were informed that lying by the border of a padi field in 

the south-eastern part of the outer enclosure there was an inscribed 

stone. We went to see this, and the owner of the field said that 

formerly there had been two such stones, but the other one had been 

destroyed. This one was about two feet high, roughly pointed at one 

end (Fig. 10 ). It had evidently been a stele from which most of the 

surface had flaked off, and only three or four isolated letters could be 

distinguished. After it had been transported to the Bangkok Museum, 

a rubbing was made which I subsequently sent to Monsieur Coedes. 

He informs me that the style of the letters seems to indicate that they 

date from about the VIIIth century A.D. 

One day Khun Mali told me that he had heard of the existence 

of six old stilpa-mounds, outside the town enclosure to the south-east, 

and near to a modern wat. We went to inspect these and saw that 

they were fairly large, the largest perhaps some forty feet in diameter, 

and partly overgrown with vegetation (Fig. 11 ). The thorough in- 

. . . . . ' .

I 

3 INS----t 

Fig. 7. Pot-rims I, :2 (above), :l, •1 ( belflw) C Autlu11'~ photograph) 

Fig, 8. Sections of pot·rirns shown 111 Fig 7.

Fig. 10. The inscribed stone. (Author's photograph)

Fig. 11. Mi.iang Bon : one of the stiipa ·mounds. (Author's photograph) 

Fig. 12. Stucco £gures from a Miiang Bon stupa. (Author's photograph)

Fig. 13. 

Stucco dwarf caryatid from Mi.iang Bon stupa. 

(From a sketch by Khun Raphisak ) 

Fig. 14. 

Dwarf earyatid from a Miiang Bon 

stiipa. (Photo: Khun Raphisak) 

Fig. 15. 

Stucco bead from a Miiang Bon 

stfipa. (Photo: Khun Raphisak)

MliANG BON~ A TOWN OF NOBTUERN DV'ARAVAJ-1 5 

vestigation of these would have entailed a larger task than I had 

envisaged; hut I was later assured by the Director-General that their 

excavation would be undertaken by the Fine Arts Department. For 

the moment I was satisfied by the information I derived from the fact 

that one of the stiipas had obviously been broken into, and some of the 

objects that had been extracted were found to be in the possession of 

another modern wat, situated not far away. These consisted of two 

headless stucco figures of dancers or musicians, height 6! in. and 51, 

in., (Fig. 12) two stucco dwarf caryatids, height 2ft., (Figs. !3, 14 ), 

and a stucco head with foliage head-dress, height 14 in. (Fig. 15). All 

these are unmistakably characteristic of Dvliravati art; but, on this 

restricted amount of material, I should hesitate to ascribe objects 

which may be rather provincial to a particular phase of it. However 

the last mentioned object appears less stylized than rather similar 

stucco pieces from P'ong T'!ik. 4 What appears to be certain is that 

the st'llpas (five of them intact) are contemporary to MUang Bon, and 

their full investigation may provide a wider range of material of great 

interest. 

Near the modern wat by the stlipa-mounds there was a rough 

rectangular stone base measuring 41 in. by 21 in. Of a piece with it 

were two stone feet, each 21 in. long, with sockets at the heels, on 

which must have formerly stood a large image (Fig. 16 ). There were 

several ancient bricks about, one measuring lOin. x 2~ in. x 7in. 

Here I will make mention of another circular village site, Ban 

Thap Chumpbon, situated about three miles north of Nakbon Sa wan, 

measuring under 300 yards in diameter and with moat and rampart. 

l made only a superficial inspection of this place, and was shown the 

spot where in 1961, in what appeared to be the remains of a brick 

st'ii.pa, a number of Dvaravati style votive tablets bad been found, and 

also some small votive stiipas, at least three of which were inscribed 

with Buddhist credos. M. Coedes tells me that he has seen the rubbings 

of the inscriptions and that they date from the Vllth or Vlllth 

century A.D. This evidence (bad it been published) might already 

have been taken as sufficient to establish the northward extension of 

Dvliravatr to this area; or again it might have been doubted, on the 

4 Cf. P. Dupont, L'Arch¢olof{ie M(;ne de DrOravari. Paris. 1959, page 113.

IT.G. QUAH!TCII 

6 

VI'.\U:s 

grounds that the Dvaravati objects could have merely been a hoard 

placed there at some later time. Now, in view of the finds from 

Miiang Bon, the material from Thap Chumphon certainly acquires 

greater evidential value: indeed the two sites supplement each other. 

It is not likely that Bon, which developed into a town, would be 

situated right on the frontier. The stele we found there, probably of 

the VIIIth century, was lying in the outer enclosure. Consequently it 

seems likely that both Bon and Thap Chumphon were founded by the 

end of the VIIth century. How much further north the authority of 

Dvaravati extended it is not at present possible to say; but that that 

distance was considerable is suggested by the legend that queen 

Chammadevi from Lopburi evidently had to go as far afield as Lamphun 

to establish a new kingdom in the VIIIth century. 

The archaeological and epigraphic discoveries made in recent 

years both in central Siam and on the Korat plateau now give the 

impression that the kingdom of Dvaravati, or at least its culture, was 

virtually co-extensive with the subsequent kingdom of Siam, exclusive 

of the Lao and Malay states. It seems to have controlled the Korat 

plateau much longer than I thought when I wrote my previous article. 5 

In this connection, I must, however, mention the apparently conflicting 

deduction which M. Coedes draws from his study of two inscription~ 

that were recently found at Si T'ep. He has very kindly sent me a 

proof of the section dealing with these two inscriptions, which will 

appear in the seventh volume of his Inscriptions du Cambodge. 

One of the new inscriptions ( K. 978) is a Sanskrit text of lhe 

Vlth-VIIth century A.D., mentioning a King Bhavavarman, who 

appears to be the well-known Bhavavarman I of Chen-la. From this 

inscription we learn that he had enough authority in the Nam Sale 

valley to set up Siva images on the occasion of his accession to 

sovereignty. Incidentally this represents an abrupt change from the 

religion of the former rulers of Si T'ep, who were Vai$l)avas. That 

Bhavavarman I might well have made a raid, or temporarily extended 

his power, into the Nam Sak valley in the disturbed times following 

the break-up of Fu-nan is understandable enough. Briggs 6 has simi- 

5 J.S.S., Joe. cit., p. 59. 

6 

r;.p. Briggs, Tire Ancifllf Kluner Empire, Philadelphia, 1951, p. 4::;,

larly taken the same king's comparable Tham Pet Thong inscription 

in the upper Mun valley as indicating nothing more than the commemoration 

of a successful raid. Indeed Bhavavarman could well 

have been the destroyer of old Si T'ep. For the next three centuries 

r know of no evidence concerning SI T'ep, unless we can take the 

recent finding of some large stone Dvaravati statues in a cave in a 

mountain near Si T'ep as possibly significant. But Coedes concludes 

with regard to this new Bhavavarman inscription ns follows: " L'implantation 

de la puissance du Tchen-la, premier royaume khmer, au 

moins a partir de cette epoque [early Vllth century A.D.], y est 

d'ailleurs confirmee, d'une part par le fragment d'inscription K. 979 

qui est en Khmer, et de l'autre par le l'existence des nombreux vestiges 

khmeres signales par H.G. Quaritch Wales." 

Now I did not record the finding of any Khmer remains at Si 

T'ep which in my opinion were older than the XIth or XIIth century 

A.D. The Khmer inscription K. 979, the second newly found one, in 

script of the Xth century, can do no more than indicate the presence 

of Khmer influence some time in the Xth century. Coedes has himself 

recognized 7 the existence in the Karat region of a kingdom still 

independent of the Khmer empire in the middle of the Xth century, 

even if it employed the Khmer language in inscriptions as early as 

the IXth. And he says of these Korat plateau inscriptions: ''Ces divers 

documents epigraphiques assez disparates ont pour caraetere commun 

d'etre etrangers au Cambodge, meme s'ils emploient la langue 

khmere. Certains d'entre eux emanent peut-etre de pays ayant fait 

partie, ou ayant reconnu la suzerainete, du royaume de Dvaravati. " 8 

For the Khmers to have occupied the Nam Sak valley, while Dvaravati 

dominated the Korat plateau and the Menam valley, would seem to 

me to be a geographical and strategic impossibility. 

1 

7 G. Coedes, "Nouvelles donm!es epigraphiques Sllr l'hi~toire de l'Indochine 

centrale", Journal Asiatique, 1958, p. 127. 

g ibid., p. 128.

DVARAV A Ti AND OLD BURMA 

by 

r]Jrofesso r §o rdon r:H . .£.uce 

The so-called Burmese Era, dating from 638 A.D., should rather 

be called the Pyu Era, for it is pretty certain that it was used, and 

first used, by the Pyu of Sr"i K~etra (modern Hmawza, 4 miles S.E. of 

Prome ).1 Indeed, I suspect that it is the date of the founding of that 

city, the first capital of Burma in any large sense. Megaliths found 

in the neighbourhood may well be older than that date; but I doubt if 

anything Buddhist antedates it. 

Old Mon inscriptions and late Burmese Chronicles lay great 

stress on the founding; but the dates they give are far too early. In 

the great Shwezigon inscription (c. 1100 A.D. ) 2 the Buddha foretells 

that the Rishi Vishnu (the future king of Pagan, Kyanzittha), "together 

with my son Gavarhpati, and King Indra, and the (celestial architect) 

Visvakarman, and Katakarma king of the Nagas, shall build the city 

called Siszt" i.e. Sri Ksetra. The Chronicles 3 add that the Buddha 

himself flew over and stood on Mt Po-u, north of the site, in order to 

make his prophecy. Earth-convulsions, he said, would mark the 

founding. The sea would retreat from its foundations (it is now 200 

miles from the sea); and Mt. Popa, the 5000 ft. volcano in the heart 

of Burma, would "arise like a cone out of the earth". Gavainpati, 

the Rishi (Vishnu), Indra, the Naga king, Garur;la, Caqqi ( Di1rga) 

and Paramesvara ( Shiva ), all were present at the founding. Indra 

stood in the centre. The Naga king swished his head round, describing 

the perimeter. The area enclosed by the walls, said to be 18 square 

miles, is far larger than that of Pagan, whose walls, even allowing 

~ for river-erosion, are barely 1 mile square. The difference lies in the 

1. See C.O. Blagden. "The 'Pyu' Inscriptions", Epig. Indica Vol. XII, No. 16, 

reprinted at J.S.R.S. Vol. VII Part l, PP· 37-44 ( esp. pp. 42-43 ). The era was 

used in the Pyu kings' urn-inscriptions, brilliantly read by Blagden. The period 

covered .is from 35·80, sc. 673-718 A.D. 718 is the last certain date in the history 

of Pyu Sri K9etra. 

2. Epig. Birm. I, II, Inscr. I, l'ace, A, ll. 30-33. The elate of the founding is given 

in Inscr. III, l'ace C, 1.3: "in the year of my reaching Nirv'a1~a ", i.e. 544 B.C. 

according to Burma tradition. 

3. See, e.g., Glass Palace Chronicle (trans!. from the ' Hmannan Yazawin' by Pe 

Maung Tin and G.H. Luce, 1923, Oxford University Press) pp. 7, 14-15. The 

date of the founding is given as 101 A.B., i.e. 443 B.C,

10 

Gordon H. Lucc 

presence or absence of ricefields. At Pagan there are none. At Sri 

Ksetra, the northern half of the city, and much of the southern, is 

ricefield. 

All this fuss about the founding points, I suspect, to the fact 

that it was the first strongly Buddhist capital in Burma. I used to 

think that there was an earlier Buddhist capital. Chineses authors' 1 

tell of plans made (but cancelled on his death) by Fan Shih Wan 

(Sri Mara.), the great king of Fu-nan, to conquer the thriving port of 

CHIN-LIN (or CiflN-CH'EN). This was near the beginning of the 

3rd century A.D. Chin-lin was situated on a big bay over 2,000 li west 

of Fu-nan. It was a populous kingdom, rich in silver and ivory. Chill, 

the first syllable, means Gold, Suvanna. Two thousand li inland beyond 

it, in a wide plain, was the kingdom of LIN-YANG (Liem-yang), 

with an ardent Buddhist population of over 100,000 families, including 

several thousand monks: "one goes there (from Chin-lin) by carriage 

or on horseback. There is no route by water. All the people 

worship the Buddha". Two thousand li beyond Lin-yang, was NU 

HOU kingdom of "the descendants of slaves", over 20,000 families, 

conterminous with Yung-ch'ang ( Pao-shan ).-There are some discrepancies 

in the texts, throwing doubt on whether .the ''great bay" was 

the Gulf of Siam or the Gulf of Marta ban. I used to think the latter: 

but now, in view of what we know about the antiquity of Dvaravatl, 

and perhaps Haripunjaya, I incline to place Lin-yang in North Siam, 

rather than in Central Burma. Lying equidistant between the sea 

and Nu-hou Yung-ch'ang, it might be in either country. 

Another reason that inclines me to place it in Siam is the recent 

work of U Aung Thaw, 5 the energetic head of our present Burma 

Archaeological Department. He has been excavating, 'Peikthanomyo 

', a large walled ruin at Kokkogwa, a hundred miles north of 

4. For ~jlilf. Chin-lin ( ~~'*- Chin·ch'en), ;#.!%" Lin-yang, and -:kll..,f!. Nu-hou, see 

discussion at J.S.R.S. 1924, Vol. XIV, Part II, pp. 142-158; 1937, Vol. XXVII, 

Part III, p. 2 1 10, n. I. The chief Chinese sources are Liang-shu, ch. 5·1 (Section 

on Pu-nan ); Shui-ching-chu ch. 1, £, 6 r 0 ; T'ai-p'ing-yii-lan, ch. 787, f. 4 v 0 ; 790, 

f, 9 V 0 , 10 r 0 • 

5. See Aung Thaw, Preliminary Report an the h";-;cavation at Peikthanomyo, 1959 

(pub!. by the Asia foundation for the Archaeological Survey of Burma). A.S.S. 

1959, PP· 8-10 CBurmese), and Plates 1 to 28.

DVAHAVATI AND OLD Bllll~IA 11 

Sri K~etra. It is certainly older than Sri K~etra. U Aung Thaw has 

revealed a number of large buildings and many interesting objects: 

but, in spite of the name ("Vishnu City" ), hardly any Indian writing, 

and little evidence of Indian workmanship, and none whatever of 

Buddhism. Nor, I think, has he found megaliths. At Sri K~ctra, on 

the other hand, almost everything dug up ( apart from megaliths ) 

shows the influence of India-whether Buddhist ( Hinayana or Mahayana) 

or Brahmanic ( Vaishnavaite ). The southern half of the city 

is dotted with large cylindrical stupas, bell-like encased stupas, and 

small vaulted temples with great variety of plan and sl1apc. There 

are also cemeteries with pots of ashes ranged in terraces. The Pyu 

kings still clung to megalithic customs: their ashes arc found in huge 

stone urns, engraved with Pyu inscriptions, but otherwise 1 ike those 

of the Plaine des Jarres in Laos.(i 

Mr. Chairman, this is my first visit to Thailand. Let me admit 

that I am appalled at my temerity in addressing Thailand's eminent 

scholars about their antiquities. But with your permission, Sir, I 

propose to try and compare the arts of Mon Dvuravati, as shown 

especially in Dupont's book, with those of Burma: namely the Pyu of 

Sri K~etra (7th-8th cent. ), the coastal Burma Mon (l(iima1l'iiadesa ), 

and the inland Man/Burmese of Pagan ( 1 Hh--13th cent. ). 

My first feeling, I confess, is how different they all arc-even 

Dvaravati Mon and Burma Mon. There was little or no difference 

between these Mons, either in language or race. The difference lay, 

I suppose, in the different influences from India which informed them. 

Dupont sees in Dvaravati Mon especially the influence of Amaravati: 

and Ceylon. In Burma Mon, both architecture and sculpture, I sec 

little Andhra influence except in the south. I only wish there were 

more, for the Andhras were great sculptors. 

I see hardly any Singhalese influence before the 11th century. 

I see, on the other hand, the clear dominance of North Indian models, 

at any rate at Pagan. Your ancient Buddhism was simpler and purer 

than ours. It seems to date from before the wide diffusion of Shaivism 

6. See M. Colani, Megalithe.\' du Haul-Laos, 2 vols., 1925 CParis, Ecole Francaise 

d'Extreme-Orient). 

'

12 Gordon H. Luce 

in Upper India. Our Buddhism, especially in the north (North Arakari, 

Pagan and evenProme) had close contact with the Mahayanist, Tantric, 

and Brahmanic schools of Pala and post-Pala Bengal. It was only, I 

think, after 1070 A.D., with the obtaining of the full Pali Tipitaka 

from Ceylon, that the great change to Theravada was finally possible 

at Pagan. The chief agent in that change was King Kyanzittha, who 

reigned from 1084 to 1113 A.D. Round about 1090, near the beginning 

of his reign, he was building a Theravada temple, the Nagayon, on 

one side of the road at Pagan, while his chief queen, (perhaps a lady 

from East Bengal) was building a Tantric Mahayanist temple, the 

Abeyadana, on the opposite side of the road. Kyanzittha's final 

temple, the Ananda, which dates (I think) about 1105 or later, 7 marks 

the final triumph of Singhalese Theravada in Burma. 

LATERITE. Dupont says little about laterite architecture or 

sculpture. At P'ong Tiik-one of your oldest site-Coedes noted plenty 

of it: 8 buildings of brick and laterite, which foundations, round and 

square, of laterite blocks, neatly arranged; high basement platforms 

faced with laterite, with simple fine plinth-mouldings. My colleague, 

Col. Ba Shin, who had the great privilege last year of visiting your 

old sites under your guidance, thinks you may have here just as much 

laterite-work as we have in coastal Burma. At P'ong Tiik, he noted 

"huge laterite pillars and carved blocks for the waist and recesses of 

the stupa". At the base of the Phra Fathom, "a lifesize torso-image, 

a ten-spoke Wheel of the Law, 3 small stupas, a carved pedestal, a 

large vase on a pedestal, and (perhaps) a litJga-all in laterite. Near 

7. Dupont ( pp. 6, 57, etc.) follows Duroiselle (A. S.l. 1913·11, pp. 64-65) in giving 

1090 A. D. as the date of the completion of the Anand a. I think this is much too 

early. The Mon inscription cited by Duroise!le, which was later edited by Blagden 

in Vol. III, Part 1, of Epigraphia Sirmmzica, records the building of the palace 

( 1102 A.D.), not of the Ananda. The "Burmese oral tradition" that the king 

"had the architect put to death, lest any similar edifice should be erected by any 

of his successors", to which Harvey (History of Burma, P· 41) adds the further 

refinement that "at the foundation a child was buried alive to provide the building 

with a guardian spirit", is just folklore cliche, not to say rubbish. It should not 

be repeated in serious history, any more than Governess Anna's account of Gatesa~:ifice 

in 1865 Siam -a libel finally exposed by Mr. A.B. Griswold in his King 

Mongkut of Siam (Asia Society, New York, 1961). 

8. See" The excavations at P'ong Ti.ik and their importance for the ancient history 

of Siam", Joumal of the Siam Society, V~). XXI, Part 3, pp. 195-209.

IlVAHAVATI AND OJ.IJ llllll\1\ 

Ratburi, "the Wut Mahathut built of laterite, together with its enclosure-walls; 

also a seated Buddha image". At Lopburi, the Phra Prang 

San Yot, "built entirely of laterite. with pediments and spires beautifully 

carved"; and within the round-about across the railway-line, 

'a ruin which looks like a hillock of laterite blocks, with two stone, 

images of' Vishnu" (he thought). 

Finally, ncar Prachinburi to the 

cast, " a huge laterite block, shaped like the m_I(la or a stupa ". 

Was not Laterite the first native material. in the coastal regions 

of both our countries, to be used for Buddhist and pre-Buddhist art'! 

As for Burnt Brick, though hallowed by A~oka's 

usc of it, it is a 

foreign Indian word ( i!(haka) in nearly all our languages -Thai, Shan, 

Mon, Khmer, Burmese, etc. Laterite was certainly the old building 

and art-stone in Ramannadesa. 

It was used for drains, gargoyles, 

square wells, ramps, pillars and pedestals, casings of relic-caskets; for 

animal sculptures, platforms, city-walls and all the oldest Buddhas 

and pagodas; for colossal monolith such as the Htamal6n seated Buddha, 

17 ft. 9 in. high. Such images soon lose their surface features, 

but the beauty ol' their colouring (if not buried in paint unci plaster) 

remains for centuries. 

At Zolcthok 9 ncar our Keli:'isa, where some or the Rulqas turned 

Buddhist and offered their "ropes of hair'' ( Mrm juk sok), they ussembled 

huge beams ol' laterite, artfully piled, to construct the pagoda. 

All around there is a glorious congregation---all native monoliths or 

reel iron claystone, skilfully carved: umbrellas with bead and tassel 

fringes resting on octagonal posts, altars hour-glass shaped with double 

lotus mouldings, knobbed pillars with table-tops, ends or ramps with 

volutes, 'buds' for corner-posts with little niches for candles, four-sided 

stupas, pinnaclcd, with four shrines for seated Buddhas, and all manncr 

of carved stands with leaf-patterns. All arc in laterite. They 

outblaze the noonday sun in April, yet keep their porous calm and 

coolness. For sheer workaday beauty, what stone in the world can 

beat it! 

REREDOS. 

There is one great difference in iconology between 

Mon and Pyu. 

The earliest Mon images, both in Burma and 

9. Sec U Mya, Arch. Sun·. Ind., Report 1934-35, pp. 51-52 and Plate XXI.

i4 

Gordon H. Luce 

(I think) Siam, were always in the round. With the Pyu, and usually 

the Bunnans, they must be backed with a reredos (' tag,e '). It i~ a 

relic, I suspect, from megalithic religion. The oldest images at Sri 

K~etra are massive stone reliefs, Buddhist or Brahmanic.L 0 But what 

is massive is not the figure but the stone 'tage '. Right down to Pagan 

times, even when both are made of brick, the 'tagt: ', often plain, 

seems almost as prominent as the image. It has even recurred to me 

that one could measure the decay of one religion and the advance of 

the other by the relative thickness of 'tage' and image! 

VAULTING. In the temples, the greatest difference between 

Siam and Burma lies in the vaulting. From Pyu times (7th-8th century), 

right through our Pag{m and Pinya periods, and (rarely) beyond, 

the Radiating Pointed Arch has been the main, preserving feature of 

Burma's architecture. No two Pyu temples are alike in plan; but all 

employ the radiating arch. The graining of the four pendentives at 

Sri Ksetra is sometimes crude and two-dimensional (e.g. the Bebe 

shrine), but it can be perfect (e.g. the East Z6gu temple). This neglected 

temple, as M. Henri Marchal realized,ll is a small masterpiece, 

the prototype of Pagan. 

Radiating arches have also been found in Old Pegu, 1 ~ but not 

yet at Thaton. The Mons, even at Pagan, did not entirely trust the 

radiating arch. At the centre of the arch way they usually insert a 

lintel of carved or fossil wood. The original 'Mon' type of temple 

appears to have been a square shrine, with elaborate plinth-mouldings 

on the outer side, tall niches richly embossed above them, preforated 

stone windows with pediments, dado, and Kirtimuldta frieze 

and cornice. A lean-to corridor was later added, with perforated 

windows on three sides, and a broad entrance-hall on the fourth. This 

lean-to corridor had only a half -vault, which could not bear the shock 

10. See, e.g., Arch. Surv. Ind., Report 1909-10, Plate L (r), "Stone Sculpture from the 

Kyaukkathein Pagoda". 

11. See his "Notes d' Architecture, Birmane, 1 o Z~gu Est", with its excellent drawings 

at B.E.F.E.O. t. XI, 1940, pp. 425-431. 

12. See ].A. Ste.wart, "Excavation and Exploration in Pegu", J. Burma Research 

Society Vol. VIr, Part I (Aprill917), pp. 17-18, 20. There are also radiating 

arches in the modernized Theinbyu pagoda, N. NW. of Kamanat village, E. 

of Pegu Old City.

DVAilAVATI- AND OLD BURMA 15 

of earthquake, as full keystone vaulting could. That is why the cor~ 

ridor roofs of so many of the' Mon' type of temples at Pagan, have 

fallen in. The Old Bm·mans, taught by Mon experience, avoided this 

mistake: their fully vaulted temples have stood Lhe shocks of centuries. 

Dupont is wrong in saying (on p. 125) that vaulting was not 

used in Burma monasteries, partly because the spans were too broad. 

There is great variety in plan of the brick monasteries of Pagan; but 

all are vaulted. One monastery, 13 dated 1223 A.D. N.E. of Lemy~ 

ethna temple, Minnanthu, has two large vaulted halls ( 44 x 20ft., and 

40x 15 ft.), set at right angles to each other, with a mezzanine corridor 

crossing between the spandrels. Sad to say, nearly all these daring 

monasteries are in ruin, because the walls were too thin, quite verti~ 

cal, and not buttressed; no allowance was made for the outward thrust 

of the vaulting. 

Where did the Pyu learn the art of vaulting?-Not, I think, from 

the Chinese Later Han dynasty tombs in Tongking, as M. Henri Mar~ 

chal suggested;14 for there the style of bricklaying is quite different: 

the brick's broad face being at right angles to the plane of the arch.l5 

In Burma, as at Ni.i'landa 16 and in Central Asia,17 the brick's broad 

face is always parallel to the arch-face. No radiating arches survive 

in Eastern India, so far as I am aware, as old as those of Sri Ksetra. 

But I expect the Pyu learnt their fine technique from North Indian 

13. See Plate 5 of Mr. Braxton Sinclair's article, "The Monasteries of Pagan" in 

J.B.R.S., Vol. X, Part T, reprinted at pp. 585·8 of the Fiftieth Anniversary Publication 

No. 2. The Lernyethna dedications are recorded under date 585 s., in 

Inscriptions of Burma, Portfolio I, Plate 73. The pillar is still in situ. 

14. lac. cit .. PP· 428, 435-6. 

15. See, e.g., Q.R.T. Janse, Archaeological Research iulndo-China, Vol. I (f-Jarvard 

University Press, 1947), Plate 7 (2), which shows "the undisturbed brick con· 

struction" of one of the Thanh·hoa tombs. Or see G. Coedes. Les pe11p!es de fa 

peninsule indochinoises (Paris, 1962), Pl. V Cbas). 

16. Nalanda Monastery No. 1 (Granary) has two radiating barreJ.arches, between 

vertical front and back walls, the bricks of voussoir being laid Cas in Burma) 

parallel to the arch·face. Here wooden lintels are also usual. The date is thought 

to be 9th cent. These vaults, says Dr. Ghosh, are "among the first specimens of 

the true arch in ancient India": see his Guide to Nalanda ( Delhi 1959) p. 8. 

17. See L. Bey lie, Prome et Samara (Paris, 1907 ), p. 99, flg. 71, for a sketch of an 

8th cent. burrel-vault in Chinese Turkestan. Here too the broad face of the 

bricks is parallel to the arch-face.


architects, whether from Bihar, Orissa or Bengal. Heavy rainfall and 

earthquake may account for the disappearance of such vaulting, both 

in Eastern India and at That6n. 

MON PEDIMENT ( clec, clac).- For architectural ornament 

the Pagan Burman was deeply indebted to the Mon. The Mon 

pediment is the most conspicuous detail of Pagan architecture, 

crowning or enclosing almost every arch and window. Sri, Goddess 

of Luck and wife of Vishnu, is often seen in the top centre. This 

goes back to the carved stone jambs and architraves of Buddhist 

tora11as at Sanci,lS or to the entrance of the Jain Ananta Gumpha 

Khandagiri, in Orissa. But the two elephants with trunks bathing 

her, have passed at Pagan into floral arabesques. At the lower 

corners of the pediment, there are spouting makaras. Sri and Makara 

are, properly speaking, Vaishnava figures. King Kyanzittha, who 

declared himself an Avatar of Vishnu, popularized the Mon clec at 

Pagan, though it occurs earlier on the Nan-paya and the Nat-hlaunggyaung 

( a Vishnu temple ). The word claco, a pure Mon word, occurs 

in one of the Vat Kukut inscriptions at Haripunjaya; 1 9 and the 

pediment itself crowns every tiered niche in that magnificent monument.20 

Judging from photographs, I guess that the makams are 

shown, but not the SRI. I do not know if the clac occurs in Dvaravati 

art. The two Mon words, K.yax Sri, ''Goddess Sri", have 

passed into Burmese ' kyesthye ' as an abstract noun meaning 

"splendour". 

VOTIVE TABLETS.-Burma's art here comes nearest to that 

of Dvaravati. For the origin of Votive Tablets-often shown by the 

Buddhist Credo ( ye dharma hetuprabhava etc. ) stamped in Sanskrit 

Nagari, usually on the obverse-is clearly from N.E. India, especially 

Bodhgaya. After comparison, not only with Dupont's book ( where 

few tablets are shown), but also with Coedes' admirable article, 

"Siamese Votive Tablets", published in the Siam Society's Journal,2 1 

18. See e.g., H. Zimmer, The Art of Indian Asia, Plates Vol., Nos. 18, 27 CSanci). 

19. See B.E.F.E.O. t. XXX, p. 97 (Vat Kukut Inscr. II, 1.4 ). 

20. See The Arts of Thailand C ed. by T. Bowie, 1960 ), P· 50. 

21. J.S.S. Vol. XX (Part I,) 1926, pp. 1-23, with 15 plates. Reprinted in the 

Fiftieth Anniversary Vol. I, pp. 150·172 ( 1954 ),

llVAHAVA1~ AN!J OLD llliH~IA 17 

~tnd also with notes made by Col. Ba Shin on his visits to the Bangkok 

and other museums, we have found 8 or 9 types of plaques in 

Burma which arc exact, or close, copies of yours in Thailand. 

( i) Coedes' Plate I (top) illustrates the First Sermon: the Buddha 

seated between stupas in pralambanasana, dharmacalmnnudra, with 

a Deer on either side of his footstool, and the Wheel of the Law below 

it. Your plaque comes from P'ong Tlik.~~ Several variants, never 

(I think) quite the same as yours but very similar, have been found 

at Pagan,~ 8 Sri K~etra 2 ·1 and Twant(!:!ri near Rangoon. A bronze 

mould for such tablets has been found at Myinkaba, and is now in 

Rangoon University Library. 

( ii) A rare variety, from Nyaungbingan in Meiktila district, 

shows the Buddha seated in the same attitude between two Bodhisattvas, 

seated on the same throne in lalitasana. 21 i 

this variety is found in Thailand. 

I do not know if 

But a third variety, oblong with 

arching top, is shown in Coedes' Plate II, top, right und left corners. 

Here the Bodhisattvas are standing, and three 'Dhyani' Buddhas arc 

added at the top or the plaque. The plaques come from Budalung 

and P'ra Pa~hom. Cocd

is 


persons, seated in ecstatic attitudes around him. It comes from Tharri 

Guha Svarga. A good specimen of the same plaque, from Sri K~etra. 

is in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, and a worn specimen from the 

same place is also shown by U Mya. 29 

( iv) On the same plate (bottom right), coming from the 

same cave, is a round Mahayanist plaque showing the Green Tara 

(Syama or Khadiravan'i sitting in lalittisana, right hand on knee in 

varadamudra. This also is in the Indian Museum, found at Sri 

K~etra. 30 

( v) Coedes Plate V (centre) shows a high triangular plaque 

with the Earth-touching Buddha, royally adorned, mounted on three 

elephant- heads, with many other Buddhas beside and above him. 

This type was found at Bejraburi. Specimens have also been found 

at Rangoon Tadagale.3 1 

(vi ) Col. Ba Shin has a photograph of an oval plaque, showing 

the Earth-touching Buddha seated between stupas within an arch 

crowned with an umbrella. It is said to come from a cave in Khao 

Ngu hill near Ratburi. The strong tall-torsoed figure with long arm 

falling vertically, is found in East Benga1;: 12 but it is so characteristic 

of Aniruddha's work at Pagan that I have ventured to call it 'the 

Aniruddha type'. Aniruddha's own plaques have 2 full lines of Sanskrit/Nagari 

below the double lotus, containing the Icing's signature.:3:l 

Others like yours, have 3 full lines, containing the Buddhist C1'edo.34 

The former come from the Icing's pagoda, Pagan Shwehsanda w; the 

latter from other sites at Pagan. A terracotta mould has also been 

found. 

(vii) Col. Ba Shin has 3 photographs of a plaque, squared at 

the base, pointed at the top, which shows the same type of Earth- 

29. V.T.B. Part II, :figs. 84, 85. 

30. Cf. U. Mya, V.T.B., Part II figs. 86. 

31. See U. My a V .T.B. Part I, Fig. 88. 

32. e.g. N.K. Bhattasali, Iconograj)hy of Buddhist and Brahmanical Sculj>tures 

in the Dacca Museum (Dacca, 1929), Plate IX (a). 

33. See A.S.I. 1927, pp. 162·3 and Plate XXXIX Ca); 1915, Part I, Plate XX (h). 

U Mya, V.T.B., Part I, fig. 4. 

:34. See U Mya, V.T.B., Part I, fig. 18, Mon Bo Kay, "Ye dhammii hetuppabhavii," 

Yin-yf:-lmm magazine, Vol. III, Part 9 (Feb. 1961), P· 116.

DVARAVA'l'f AND OLD BURMA 19 

touching Buddha, seated between stupas on a high recessed throne, 

under an arch crowned with sikhara and stupa. They come, I think, 

from Kaficanaburi.-This type, in Burma, we associate with Aniruddha's 

son and successor, 'Saw Lu ', whose title, stamped on some of 

these plaques in Sanskrit/Nagari, is Sri Bajrabharava. These have only 

I line of writing below the throne,3 5 while yours have two. Our Sawlu 

plaques have been found so far only in the north, at Mandalay, 

Tagaung, and Kanthida in Katha township. 

(viii) Col. Ba Shin has also photographs of plaques, squared 

below, arching to a point above, showing a similar Earth-touching 

Buddha seated on double lotus, with 3 stupas below the lotus, as well 

as 2 faint lines of what looks like Mon writing. They come from 

Tham Rsi, Khao Ngu hill, Ratburi-Mr. David Steinberg of the Asia 

Found~tion found the lower half of a suntar plaque at Mokti pagoda, 

at the mouth ofTavoy river. It is now with the Burma Historical Commission. 

Several other plaques from the same site had Mon writings on 

the back, showing that they were made by governors ( sambeit) of Tavoy 

( Daway ), under king Kyanzittha (Sri Tribhovartaditya ).36 

( ix) Finally, Col. Ba Shin has a photograph of a thick-rimmed 

plaque from Uthong, Suphanburi, showing the Earth-touching Buddha 

under an arch crowned with an umbrella, between 4 other small 

Buddhas in two tiers. Below is a line of inscription in Old Mon 

saying; "This Buddhamuni was made by Matrarajikar", governor of the 

Madra, a people N.W. of India. Perhaps he was a minister of Kyanzittha 

who gave several of his ministers fanciful Sanskrit titles. 

Dozens of this type of plaque have been found at Pagan, E. of the 

Mingalazedi.37 Often they have Mon writings on the rims. One is 

to be seen in the Tresor at Pegu, Shwemawdaw pagoda. 

THE EIGHT SCENES.-One large and important group of 

votive tablets at Pagan, illustrates the Eight Scenes ( at~hamah'ii!hana) 

in the life of Gotama Buddha. These have a long history in Indian 

35. See U Mya. V.T.B., Part I, fig. 38. A.S.B. 19·18-52, Plate I (right). 

36. See U Mya, V. T.B., Part I, figs. 79, 80. Cf. Dt~roiselle, A.S.B., 1924, pp. 38-40; Ibid. 

1959, Plate 31. 

37. See U Mya, V.T.B., Part I, fig. 98.


art, from Gandhara onwards. At Old Nalanda one of the Pala kings 

built a colossal image of the Earth-touching Buddha against a reredos 

15ft. high and 9k ft. broad, showing the Eight Scenes.3 8 This, and 

the many Pala carvings on black slate, must have spread the fashion 

to both our countries. In Burma, at Sri K~etra, only two fragments 

of a votive tablet of the Eight Scenes have yet been found. 39 At 

Pagan they are plentiful. They may be painted, as in Loka-hteikpan 

temple, on a large scale, 18ft. in height. 40 They may be condensed 

onto terracotta tablets barely 3 inches high. The finest are intricately 

carved on what we call 'Andagu' stone, defined in the dictionaries as 

Dolomite. 41 

Not having previously seen mention of the Eight Scenes in 

Thailand, I was delighted to read, in Artibus Asiae, 4 2 an artiCle by 

Coedes: "Note sur une stele indienne d'epoque Pala decouverte i1 

Ayudhya (Siam)". It is a small gilded stone, a little over 6 inches 

high. The kind of stone is not stated; one would like to know whether 

it is a stone common to Bengal and Thailand, or one peculiar to either: 

for although the style is plainly Pa:la, the size is that of our 'andagu' 

carvings, not of ordinary Pala black slate reliefs. The scenes shown 

include the usual Eight: 

1. Nativity, 

2. Enlightenment, 

at Kapilavatthu. 

at Bodhgaya. 

3. First Sermon, near Benares. 

4. Great Twin Miracles, at Savatthi. 

(bottom left corner ) 

(center) 

( middle tier, left ) 

(middle tier, right) 

38. See A. Ghosh, A Guide to Nalanda, PP· 20-21. Burgess, The Ancient Monuments. 

Temples, and Sculptures of India, Part II, fig. 226, Duroiselle, A.S.B. 1923, p. 31. 

39, See L. de Bey lie, Prome et Samara, Plate V, fig. 2, and L'Architecture Hindoue en 

Extreme-Orient, p. 245, fig. 198 (from the U~myet-hna temple). A.S.I. 1910, Pl. 

XLIX 7 and p. 123, (from the East Zegu). Col. Ba Shin reports that a complete 

specimen (except for damaged rims) has been found 300 yds W. of the Li:!myet-hna, 

Sri K~etra, and is now in the library-museum of Shwe·hpon·pwint pagoda, Prome 

2 3 11 

Town. He1g · h t 5 ;i" .t B rea d t l 1 45 " Tl 11c · I mess 1 Th 

40. See Col_ Ba Shin, Loka-hteikpan (Rangoon, 1962), pp. 10-12, and Plates 10, 13, 14, 

16, 17a, 18a, 19a, 21. 

41. See, e.g., A.S./. 1923, Plate XXXIII (d) and p. 123; 1930·34, Part I, p. 180 (items 

4 and 5), and Part II, Plate C ( c, d). A.S.B. 1935, Plates 9 and p, 14. 

42. Artibus Asiae, Vol. XXII 1/2, 1959, pp. 9-14,

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

Descent from 

Tavatin.1sa, 

Monkey's offering 

of honeycomb, 

Taming of Natagiri 

elephant, 

Parini rvui.Hl, 

IJ\'AHAVATI AND OLIJ II\ liMA 

to Sarikassa. 

ncar Vcs'iili. 

at Rajagaha. 

at Kusinagara. 

(top tier. lef't) 

(bottom right corner) 

(top tier, right) 

(top) 

There are also 3 additional figures in the middle ol' the lower tier-the 

Buddha sheltered by the Mucalinda Naga, flanked by two Buddhas 

with outer hands on knee, and inner raised in abhayamzulra. Coedes 

dates the carving 11th or 12th century, judging partly from the writing 

of the Sanskrit/Pali Buddhist Credo engraved on the reverse. 

The arrangement of these scenes is not rigid, except that the 

ParinirvaJ}a is always shown at the top, and the Nativity at the bottom; 

but the latter may be either on the left or the right, and the same 

applies to the other scenes. Burma plaques sometimes add an extra 

scene at the bottom centre; and several 'andagu' slabs udd, bet ween 

the 6 side-scenes and the central Buddha, another series or 6 (or !:l ) 

scenes in intermediate relief', showing the Seven Sites' 1 : 1 in the ncighboUJ·hood 

of the Bodhi tree, where the Buddha, according to the later 

texts, spent the first seven weeks after the Enlightenment. 

THE FAT MONK.-·· Dupont ( p. 87, and fig. 253 ) shows a remarkable' 

votive tablet' from Wat P'ru Pat'on in which a Fat Monk, 

seated with both hands supporting his belly (or is he in dhyamanuulra'!), 

takes the place of the Buddha. rn one of his reports 4·1 Duroise!Ie mentions, 

without illustrating it, a similar plaque round in a mound near 

Tilominlo temple, Pag{tn. Statuettes of the Fat Monk arc plentiful 

in Burma, in stone, bron?.c, silver-gilt, bronze-gilt, plaster, terracotta 

an~ unburnt clay. They arc found frequently in old relic-chambers: 

at Sri K~etra, Rangoon, Pegu, Mandalay, Pagan etc., from the 7th to 

the 17th Century. Perhaps the oldest is a stone statuette, once lacquered 

and gilded, found in the stone casket in the relic-chamber or 

Kyaik De-ap ( Bo-ta-htaung) pagoda, Rangoon. 4 ii 

'13. See, e.g., A .S.l. 1930·34, Part I, p. 180 (item 5 ), and Part II, Plate C (e): A .S.J. 

1929, Plate LII (e) and p. 113; A.S.A. 1923, Plate llJ, f1g. 1, and pp. ao.:~1. 

44. A.S.!. 1928-29, p. 111. 

45. A.S.B. 1948-52, Plate III a, o.

22 Gordon I-I. Luce 

In Thailand, I believt< you call this Fat Monk K.acciJyana. -Is 

this the 5th-6th century author of the first Pal i grammar, K.accayana 

vyakarm.za? Or is it the eminent disciple of the Buddha, MalzUlwccana, 

famous for his golden complexion? - The rich youth of Soreyya, 

according to the Dhanunapada-auhalwtha (I, 324 ff ), wished that his 

wife were like the latter: a prayer that seems improbable if he was 

really so obese. In Burma we hardly know how to identify him. 

Personally, I follow our venerable archaeologist, U Mya, in thinking 

he is Gavainpati, patron saint of the Mons, and a sort of ' elder statesman' 

in Buddhism, whose gilded images are mentioned in our inscriptions.46 

But I know no text that says Gavatnpati was abnormally 

fat. And Burmese scholars have suggested that the monk is the Great 

Disciple of the Left, Moggallana, uncomfortably swelled by the 

naughty Mara entering his belly, as told in the Maratajjaniya Sutta of 

the Majjhinza Nikaya.41 

THE DVARA VATI BUDDHA-IMAGE. - Our experts, Dr. 

Dupont and Dr. Le May, 48 are pretty well agreed about the distinctive 

features of the Buddha image in Mon Dvaravati. Dupont ( pp. 177- 

185 ) defines three of them:- 

( i ) the brow-arches are joined. 

(ii) the figure seems almost naked, but sexless (''lc nu ascxue"). 

(iii) both hands tend to execute the same mudra. 

For ( i ), Dr. Le May says "lightly outlined eyebrows, in the form of 

a swallow springing ". 

For ( ii ), he says "torso ... like a nude sexless body under a fine 

diaphanous cloth". 

For (iii), he distinguishes two types:- 

( a ) the standing Buddha with right hand raised in abhaya 

rnudra, or both in vitarl~amudra. 

(b) the image seated European wise ( pralambanl'tsana), either 

in dharrnacakramudra, or with right hand raised, left in 

lap. 

46. e.~. inscrs. of Burma, Portfolio I, Plate 6, 11. 4-6, where gilded ima;~s-cl-St1riputtra 

C 1 ), Mokkallin C 1 ), and Gavathpati C 2 ), are mentioned. 

47. See A.S.l. 1928·29, p. 110. 

48. See ~eginald LeMay, The Culture of Soutlz-J:,ast Asia (1954, London, Allen and 

Unwm ), pp. 65 f£,

He also adds other features:-- 

( iv ) spiral curls of hair, or abnormal size. 

( v ) elliptical form of face. 

( vi ) bulging upper eyelids. 

(vii) the material never sandstone, but a hard bl uc-black 

limestone. 

How docs all this compare with our images in Burma.- I find 

it difficult to say. Nearly all these features, except the last, occur in 

some Burma images, both stone, bronze and terracotta. They arc 

commonest perhaps at Pegu; but they occur everywhere from N. 

Arakan to Sri K~etw. And they do not exclude other, different features. 

In many cases the images arc so old or damaged that \Ve cannot 

be sure about the curls, the eyelids or the brow-arches. VIc can, 

however, usually determine the mudrli and the "iisana. The Burma image 

seated European wise, represents (with f'cw exceptions) tither the 

First Sermon, or the Parileyyaka Retreat. In the former case hands 

arc in r!lzannacahrannulra, with Wheel and Deer usually visible at the 

base. But the j>ralamf)(mflsmuz is not obligatory in this scene. More 

often the Buddha sits crosslcggecl in Indian fashion. In the Parikyyakll 

scene he nearly always sits in Jmilambanasana, sometimes turned hulflel't 

towards the Monkey in the right corner. He has usually almsbowl 

in lap. The Elephant is generally shown in the lcl't corner, with un 

irrelevant monk behind. 

SJJJVIE MlJJ)lUI FOR FJ(J1'11 11/INJ>S. Images, seated or 

standing, where both hands execute the same mudr7i, arc always, in 

Burma, an;haic. Here I would readily admit Dvaravati influence: 

with this difference, that standing images arc commoner in Dvaravati, 

while seated images arc commoner with us. Here is a sunumuy ,of.' 

the Burma evidence:- 

From Sri K~etra come at least 4 such images, 3 seated crosslegged, 

1 standing; 3 in bronze, l in gold. All have both hands raised 

in vitarkamudra. The gold image, seated right leg on left, was found 

south of the Tharawady Gate, in a garden just outside it. 49 A beautiful 

bronze, seated in much the same pose, comes from the octagonal 

49. See A.S.J. 1929, Plate LI (g) and pp. 106-7. Burm. Arch. Neg. 3097, 3098 

( 1928-29).


ruin at Kan-wet-hkaung-g6n. 50 Here the robe covers the left shoulder 

only. A similar bronze image, much cruder in style, is clearly a Pyu 

attempt to copy an Indian original, with features exaggerated, bulging 

almond eyes, large hands propped on the robe, and legs awkwardly 

superposed, right on left. It comes from a site west of Yindaikkwin.51 

The standing bronze image, found by the Shwenyaungbinyo 

abbot near his monastery S. of Taunglonnyo village. 52 wears a 

heavy pointed crown: but in all other respects he is dressed as a 

monk, with an indented line across the waist, and plain robe spreading 

behind the legs. 

From the relic-chamber of a ruined pagoda at Twante, some 

15 miles W. of Rangoon, comes a fine bronze image of the Buddha 

seated in pralambanasana, his delicate hands raised from the elbow in 

vitarkamudra. His robe covers only the left shoulder. 53 

At Pagan, 3 bronzes and 1 terracotta illustrate this feature. 

One small weathered bronze comes perhaps from Paunggu pagoda,5'1 

now mostly fallen into the river, just N. of the junction of Myinkaba 

Chaung and the Irawady. It is a Buddha seated cross-legged, right 

leg on left, with large hands propped at the wrist, raised in abhayamudra. 

With it was found another archaic bronze of the Pyu 

Maitreya. I have a note also, written in Pagan Museum, of a similar 

"small bronze of' Pyu' style, headless, with tiny round legs and feet 

barely crossing, and both large hands in abhayamudra ". Another 

bronze, from Pagan Shwehnsandaw, 55 shows the Buddha seated on 

double lotus, right leg on left, with both hands propped at the wrist. 

Here, I think, the attitude is vitarlwmudra. The Shwehsanclaw, built 

by Aniruddha c. 1060 A.D. or earlier, contained some of the oldest 

Pagan tablets and bronzes, including Pyu.56 

--------····------------------------ 

50. See A.S.l. 1928, Plate LlV ( b ) and p. 129 (item c). Burm. Arch. Neg. 3040 

( 1927-28 ). 

51. See A.S.J. 1929, p. 105, item ( v ). Burm. Arch. Neg. 3055 ( 192.8-29 ). 

52. A.S.B. 1939, Appendix F, p. xii, no. 79. Burm. Arch. Neg. 4124 ( 1938-39 ). 

53. See A.S.B. 1920, Plate II, figs. 1 and 2, and p. 25. Burm. Arch. Neg. 2179, 

2180 ( 1920-21 ) . 

54. It is now at Pagan Museum, oddly labelled as foui)d in a "stone mound W. of the 

Myazedi, 4 furlongs W. of the main road". I guess that the reference is to 

Paunggu pagoda. 

55. Burm. Arch. Neg. 2721 ( 1926-27 ). 

56. See Duroiselle, A.S.T. 1927, pp. 161-5 and Plate XXXIX (f).

iJVARAVATl AND OLD BURMA 25 

The Hpetleik pagodas at Lokananda, 3 miles S. of Pagfm, are 

probably older than Aniruddha. It was he, doubtless, who encased 

them each with a corridor to hold 550 unglazed Jataka-plaques, the 

finest in Burma. In doing so, he reorientated the pagodas so as to face 

East, instead of North or West where the old stairways are still visible. 

At the West Hpetleik, the North steps led up to the main niche in 

the a1J{la or bell. Here a row of very antique bricklike tablets can 

be seen, and 3 similar ones at Pagan Museum. They have long 

tenons which ran back into the bell. Faintly visible in the centre is 

a haloed Buddha of Dvaravati type, standing with Iarge 1 hands raised, 

palms forward, perhaps in the pose of Argument ( vitarkamudra) 

rather than Freedom from Fear ( abhayamudra). Of the three tiers 

on each side, the upper one may hold stupas, the two lower ones 

worshippers. 57 

CONCLUSION.-Perhaps you will feel, as I do, that the really 

distinguishing features of Mon, or any other art, are not really contained 

in such rigid criteria. Useful as they are as workaday means 

of identification, they do not contain the essence of works of art, 

such as the many noble specimens from Dvaravati to which Dr. Le 

May has introduced us. I do not think that we can rival these in 

Burma. But our archaeological record of Ramai'ii'iadesa is far more 

incomplete, I fear, than is yours of Dvaravati. And while we talk, 

with some confidence, about the 'Mon' element in the early temples 

of Pagan, we still write 'Mon' in inverted commas: for though we 

see clearly that it is different from Burmese, we are not always 

absolutely sure that it is Mon. To ascertain this, we shall have to 

do much more excavation in Tenasserim. 

57. See A.S.I. 1907, Plate L (d) and p. 127, where Taw Sein Ko suggested that 

they represent "Dipankara ... prophesying that Sumedhn and Sumitta, a ilowergirl, 

would respectively become Prince Siddhatlhu and his wife, Yasodhara.'' Cf. 

A.S.B. 1908, pp. 11-12.

ASIA 

INDIA 

.. KNOWN NEGRITO oR PYGHOID TYPES 

0 OCEANIC NEGROIDS 

~ AUSTRALOIDS 

m INTER t-11;\E'D Ne:GRITIC PYGHOI DS 

Ethnological distribution map of South Asi:J :;howing locations of I'ygrnoid, Negroid and Austr;tl.,id ral'ial t) I""'·

THE SOUTIII

isulatccl from contact \\'ith the Asiatic Mainland. In the Philippine~. 

roughly 25,000 Negrito li\·e on several pf the larger islands ll(' the 

;trchipelago. Some 3,000 Scmang Negrito, divided into seven known 

bands, today inhabit the junglcd intcrinr of Northern Malaya and 

northward on the Peninsula of Thailand as far as~)' N. Latitude. (Sec 

Brandt 1962 ). Currently dwelling only in remote junglcd mountains, 

the Negri to seem tu han: in the past also been lowland and coa~;tal 

dwellers who were pushed into the interior by encroaching Malays or 

Thai. The surviving tribes or the Andamans :-.till arc adept fisherman 

and usc canoes in coastal waters. 

At times the pygmoid bushman or the Kalahari desert of South 

Africa is also classified among true pygmies. 

The now extinct inhabitants or Tasmania have been described 

as Ncgrito of medium stature with broad noses, thick lips, medium 

racial protrusion, frizzly black hair and brachycephalic skulls in contrast 

to the present lnng headed, dolicocephalic, Australnid. h>r 

Negritos to have reached Tasmania from the Australian continent, a 

crossing or water at the Bass Straits would have been required by bual, 

assuming a late migration southward from Asia proper. Even here 

islands or the htrneaux, Curtis ami Kents would have facilitated such 

a passage. Earlier migration from Asia could have been accomplished 

by a short boat trip acrnss the straits scperating the Sunda and Sahul 

shelves of present Indonesia which joined Horne(), Malaya, Sumatra 

and Java in the former and Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania in 

the latter, for some million years during the Pleistocene. An alternate 

theory of Tasmanian origins by simple craft from the New I fcbrides 

exists. However, more reasonable speculation is that Australia itself 

was originally inhabited by Negrito people later replaced by Australoids 

pushing south f'rum the Asian Mainland. Further support is given 

this proposition by the facl that the Australian aborigine of today, 

arc themselves divided into what appear to be three sub-types. One 

a southern type with profuse body hair; a sparse haired dark northern 

variety and a frizzly haired negroid stock from the rain forests of 

Queensland, which intermixed and was largely replaced by the two 

others. This Ncgritic element, it is suggested, is the remaining rem~ 

nant of the original inhabitants.

The• thidc wooly hair of tht.~ Negrito has Parned him the name " Khon 

Ngo" in Thai whieh likens his hair to the curly spinc•s on the outside of 

tlw fruit 1\ambutan.

TIW ~OIITIIE.\ST .\SI\N NEI:lll"rO 

Further cast, the Sahul shelf continued on to include several or 

the larger Melanesian islands of the western Pacific. In tracing the 

migrations or the Pulyncsians across the Pacific, Dr. Robert C. Suggs, 

points out that there is reason to believe that some or the islands 

reached by the Polynesians as early as P.OO BC were already occupied 

by Negri to Pygmy or Negroid gruups. The place or '' Menuhenes ", 

or small black forest dwarf's, armed with long bows dwelling in the 

mountained interior of the islands is a living part or Polynesian and 

Micronesian mythology and folk lore. The Negrito in all likelihood 

moved into the island area on fool during the Pleistocene crossing 

short distance of water with primitive craft where necessary. 

During this early period, much or southeast Asia was occupied 

by Negroids and primitive Paleo-Caucasoicl people. Which of' the 

principle world races developed first is an unanswered question but 

many authorities lean towards the Pygmy or Negrito as being one of 

the earliest examples of primitive man although this is still not too 

well documented by fossil remains. Contemporaneous development 

or a perhaps slightly later origin is well ~;uppurted for the Australoid 

who has been described by Prof. E.A. Hooton a~;" an archaic form uf' 

modern white man", or Puleo-Caucasoid. Mongoloid intrusion into 

Southeast Asia is of a rather recent vintage and the area seems to have 

been largely inhabited by a primitive caucasoid who derived wooly 

hair and dark pigmentation !"rom whatever Negroid clements, probably 

Negrito, that existed in the area at that time. 

Evidence of an Auslraloid existence on the Asiatic Mainland 

bas been purported by many physical relationships bet ween these 

people and the remaining Veddalts of Ceylon as well as umnng several 

hill tribes or southern India. It would he reasonable to include in 

the Australoid classification all autochthonous Dravidian people of 

south India. The Senoi ( Temiar and Semai) of' Central Malaya have 

suggestions of certain primitive Australoicl characteristics as do the 

Mokcn or Selung Sea Gypsies of Thailand's west coast centering in 

the Mergui Archipelago of south Burma. Farther north such physical 

types are found in the Hairy Ainu of Hokkaido, Sakhalin and the Kuril 

Islands of Japan and in certain bearded Ainoid tribes of the Amur 

River in Siberia. All of these are marginal people who seem to have

hn~ll l'li'•IWd h\ :Ill llllt:!llal pre•;'.\!l't: [,, !ill' oltl!\:r Pl'llpiK'lY ut' !ltc 

:\~ian land ttLt,: .. :Ill rt~maining individualt: 

ph;. sit.:al t~ pc··· r(lu;•hly da····t.·d a < keanio.· \;t::~n,id arL' cltaral'leri;ed 

h;. d n:ry dtdic•Jcepllalic "ktdl, ''· ith a eeph:di~.· indn v. ell ht.:lu\'. 75, a 

deeply dt~prc:.:;ed 11as~d t'PIIt, Pl''!·!nathi:.m am! ;1 :.kull \', iih ~•traight 

'itk'·· Skulh ~.imilar in ~.hape han: been f'nund in :\mt.•rica :1nd the 

cr i:; that the fir:;! prirniti 1 ;L: hunter~ 1t1 enter 

'\urth America\ ia tilt.: Bering Strait:; were pf this mi\ed :\ustralnid 

'\let•roid typl'. 1 he~c were replaced at a tntH:h !at~r datt~ hy the 

.\1onJ!tlltlitl ract· v. hen it had den·! oped It' it':' later :.tal!\: 111' Asian 

dominance. 

Btil.h .ft,,,. lmh~lltlfli ;l!ld llaruld (il:tdwin in their writifl)!' un 

tilt· Jll'jllllatin:' .. r the :\meriL~an l'1;1 h11t llli)•rated on lP bccnrnc the Amerit.·an lndiatt~; \ll' 

tlttLt\'. 

1 1

TilE !:;tli 1 'I'IIEAST ASIAN NJo:t;){ITO :n 

of the Negri to in this area may eventually pwve to he it appears his 

extremely early presence seems i mlicutcd. 

Going north into Southeast Asia, severn! Neolithic skulls and 

fragments have been found indicating the early presence of' Negritos. 

At Tam Hang and Lang-CLiom in Indochina a series of skeletal remains 

excavated by French archaeologists have been iclcHtificd as Negrito. 

Some indications arc that these people had started mixing with early 

Mongoloids which apparently began filtering into the area in early 

post-glacial times. 

Dr. M. Abadie in 19:24 wrote that the Ho-Nhi tribes of Tongking 

had Ncgrito hair and a dark skin color. A skull found at Minhcarn 

Cave in Annam has been identified as Negrito. 

Early Chinese chronicles identify many or the dark skinned 

jungle people or Indo-China as Negri to and called the people or Funan 

(Cambodia) Negritos. Natives or the island of' Pulo Condorc, off 

Vietnam, were identified as Negrito and ancient references identify 

Negri to slaves in South China during the Seventh Century. Although 

such evidence of Ncgritos is questionable due to lonsc interpretation 

of the word "Negro'' the substantiated apparent intermingling or 

Negroid, Paleo-Caucasoid and Mongoloid types in the Annamese area 

seems to account for the dark skinned types which appears tn have 

remained as late as the 'J"ang Dynasty ( 700 A.D.). 

On the Thailand-Cambodian border, in the Cardamon Mountains, 

dwell dark skinned jungle tribes called Piirr or Chong. Dr. 

Jean Brengucs classified ulotrichi hair types among these people indicating 

quite possibly the absorption or a Negrilo group into the now 

predominantly Mongoloid population. Similm evidence of' Negroid 

phenotypes throughout Southeast Asia indicate intermixture with an 

earlier negroid type which existed in the area. LiLLie actual physical 

evidence exists in Thailand and Burma of the existence of early Negri to 

distribution patterns since little actual field exploration has been done 

here. However, in many rural areas a strong negritic cast is evident 

in remote communities of the western part of Thailand and continuing 

south on the Peninsula through the isthmus of Kra.

,Iilli\ If. lii!ANilT 

The May, Cuci and RuP tribes ul' the mountain~. ut'

ur man's relations amtlng the primates, the African Chimpanzee 

alsu interestingly has produced a pygmy variety of itself'. 

The possibility of ateliotic or achondroplastic development due 

to pituitary mal-function has been suggested as a reason for dwarfing. 

Certain pygmoid groups, particularly the Bambuti or Africa, sho\\' 

certain features associated with pituitary deficicnees such as dispwprotionatcly 

large heads, flattened faces and distorted limbs. The fact 

that the pygmy groups are related by blood gene frequencies tu the 

non-negroid people around them rather than to euch other, has led tu 

the speculation that pygmies have come about clue to parallel gene 

mutations bringing on such characteristics. By contrast, however, the 

Asian Ncgrito, generally exhibits normal body conformation and balance. 

Yet if parallel gene mutation is considered it must be remembered 

that there is no evidence that full sized negroicls ever existed 

on the Asiatic Mainland nor areas of the Philippines and Andamuns 

where pygmies exist. The brachycephalic pygmies of' the Congo also 

it has bL~Cn shown do not bear much physical relationship to their 

dnlicoceplwlic neighburs in spite uf a demonstrated blood ~;imilarity. 

Similar environments rnay produce similar characteristics over 

a period of time due to natural sclcdion. Kinky negroid hair is such 

a mutation having adaptive value although what this adltplution is, is 

not fully unden;Lood. Yet such mutations, if adaptive, will become 

rapidly established in small populatiorHi sw.:h as existed among primitive 

man. It appears evident however that whatever gcnes were 

responsible for producing pygmy slat urc types seem odell y connected 

with the genes which produced wooly hair. There do not appear to 

be any known pygmy types in which this characteri!;tic is lacking to 

one degree or another. Since there is no evidence that any full sized 

Negroes existed cast of Central Asia in early times little relationship 

between Asiatic and African Negroids is postulated. Consequently, 

whatever Negroid charncteristics exist in Southeast Asia seem due to 

an archaic negritic strain that developed within the Negroid sub-type 

along lines parallel to equatorial Africa having become established at 

a very early time in the development of primitive man. 

:u

,l!lllN II. 111!\Nlll 

Little recent "''rk ll:ts het.!n done amun~· the Sem:tllf ~·t f'rom the flank 

nf Gunong ( Mt.) Tahan, Malaya. They had been seen once in 1930 

and aJ though a !\CarcJl for l)H.:Jll proved llllslleCe);sf'ul, evidence of their 

existence in the mea was supported by finding abandoned windscreens 

and holes where the women had extracted tubec; not more than two 

months earlier. What the sn called Tahan Negrito arc or their relationship 

to other known Ncgrito in the area is still undetermined. 

II 

During my studies of the Jahai Ncgrito living in Rengae District, 

Naratiwat Province, South Thailand, I received reports of another 

band which ranged the drainage of the upper Saiburi River in Wang 

District, Naratiwat. This band is reportedly in contact with Thai or

TilE SIHII'IIF.\ST .\~L\~ "'EI:HITO 

Malay villagers ncar Tambnn Mamung which is about a six hour walk 

over a 300 meter divitlc from Amphur '/lang. Earlier reports of this or 

another hand rcpurtcd living ncar Kampong Balar or Kampang Lukac 

which were reported to have moved across from Kelan tan, Malaya 

ncar Kampong Jcli, could not be substantiated. Material arLiclcs obtained 

from this hand through village headmen in Wang, now in the 

American Museum ol' Natural History, included a blowpipe, durt 

cannister, poison spatula, tobacco purse, women's hair combs and 

plaited pack basket. On the basis of' dccorati ve patterns. on the blowpipe, 

in particular, I hesitate to identify this group. Design patterns 

arc similar to those found on Tcmiar Scnoi bamboo pieces a considerable 

distance to the south. '·Nhcthcr these items were traded 

north to the Saiburi Ri vcr Negri to, as often happens, or i r these were 

MuhtVan Negrito who moved north into Thailand during the Malayan 

Communist insurrection is still unknown. Some aspects of their 

material culture arc distinctly different f'rorn adjoining Negrito and 

the rossibility exists that these are a distinct previously unreported. 

band. Further investigation is called l'or. 

On tl1c other side or the Malay Peninsula, in Thailand's Satun 

Province, previously unrecorded Negri to were located during the 196! 

investigation. The location of Ncgrito hands identified as the Tonga, 

(Mos, Chong) has been established l'nr some time in the Kau Ban Tal 

Mountains which is the southern hill extension or the Central 

Mountain range running south l'rnm Burma and continuing on to the 

mountains or Malaya. These 110111Hdk bands wandered iII the forest 

separating Trang and Pattalung Provinces and have at various times 

been reported living ncar Ga-C!Jong 1:alls, Trang and earlier in the 

century ncar NaWong. Reports have also placed them on Ml. Rawn, 

Mt. Mamtow and Mt. Mai Dam. They trade now ncar a village called 

Lujangla, Tambon Tanwt, Kauchaison Distric;t, Pattnlung, on the cast 

drainage of the mountains. 

Bands of what appear to be 'T'onga arc reported ncar Toentck 

Falls on Pu Kau Luang, Trang Province and near Pu Kau Sam Ngam 

in Bali en District, Trang, as well as near Pha Ban Taket and Ban Trak, 

near the west coast of Satun Province. These people appear to have

.Iilli:\ II. IIH\:'-llll 

littlt: t:

Ilt•w. Tilt> last surviving 1111111 of a band of Nt•grito frorn :'aillll I 'rovi11n· 

holds a blunt J.ladt•d spear and 11 tassc·l·la·;"lvd bon• l'it'

\Va, tilt· last Nt'grito 1\'fllllan of tlw han I loan Band holds hl'r l'hild, Sarnni, 

whidt ,·illagt.'rs tltn~;llt~ned would J,e stolen or llf)llght from lwr.

1 

.,; 

c:: 

'v 

'l) 

,, 

'.I 

~~ 

c 

-~

.~ 

'

The young Negrito child is often quite light ~kinned when born hut gels gradually dmkt~r. 

The

.\ 1\.cnsiu Semang Negrito rnan twists string. In the foreground i~ a largt• J.(Ollrd used for 

't"rin~: watl'f. The 1aised plattorm prl!te"ts the sleeper from the tnni,t J.(I'OlltHI.

Seed beads and a rattan armband adorn thi~ Kensiu Negrito girl. In her hair she wears a 

decorated bamhnn hair cumh with magical designs to protect the wearer from illness.

A Semang Negri to woman of the Kensiu Band of Yala Province. South Thailand. Both mother 

and child display the deep nasal root frequently observed while the child has an unusually 

pronounced forehead.

An old Negrito woman in Yala plays a two string b

A Ken~iu Negri to hunter displays his blowpipe and poisoned dart cannister. Both are deeor:t~ t:ed 

with magical incised de~igns to assure a successful hunt. The moutl1piece of the blow l=>i pe is 

built up of wood and hardened pitch.

THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN NJ

38 JOHN H. BRANDT 

platform met diagonally with the slope of the mountain. A small 

sheltering fence of palm branches surrounded the platform. This had 

not been reported for other Negrito and may have been designed to 

protect the infant since no other persons were in the camp which 

might normally have been available to watch the child. Leaves were 

used as bedding. Skeats had earlier reported green leaves on Negrito 

sleeping platforms but Schebesta questioned whether Negritos ever did 

this as he had never seen this during his long residence among them. 

The Negrito had a small swing built on a branch of a tree which 

is a previously unreported recreational device. It was also reportedly 

used during courtship at which time love songs were sung. The camp 

had dried salted river fish hung up which had been caught in the 

stream. The preservation technique may have been learned from the 

Malays since food preservation of any kind is not typical of the 

Negri to. Shortly after this visit the Negri to broke camp and moved. 

Attempts to visit the new camp site were unsuccessful. 

Drinking water was stored in a joint of bamboo and cooking 

was done in an old metal pot that had been obtained by barter. The 

small storage baskets at the camp had also been obtained from the 

Malay. The Negrito claimed food taboos against Tiger, Bear, 

Elephant, Frog, Lizard, Duck, Pig and Deer. Villagers said the Negrito 

refused beef as well. Pork was of course not offered in a 

Moslem Malay village. The food taboos conform with those 

reported for the Tonga who also will not eat Rhino. The group 

maintained no special food taboos during pregnancy and both sexes 

ate together. 

Both Negrito wore discarded clothing obtained from the 

Malays and the woman had a black sarong which she wore to the 

village. The predilection of the Tonga for discarded clothing was 

reported as early as the turn of the century. The child was naked except 

for a necklace of old Chinese coins. A necklace of seed beads 

was also worn at times. The Negrito attributed magical properties 

to monkey bones as do other Negrito bands. The Negrito claimed 

not to know how to make bark cloth from the Ipoh tree.

THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN NEC:HITO 

The informant stated that the dead were buried approximately 

15 inches under-ground wrapped in cloth or Banana leaves. The 

head faced the west and the body was placed with the arms extended 

at the sides. Mourning lasted for 5 days. A windscreen was built 

over the grave and food offerings were made. This follows the 

burial practice of the Jahai and Lanoh Negri to in Malaya. The grave 

is not revisited. Ghosts were reported to appear white and human 

although they did not eat. Ghosts also reportedly wore clothing. 

The Tonga had reported to me that a spirit's face shines in the dark 

but our informant could not confirm this. The Tonga concept of 

heaven in the western sky to which a "soul" goes by climbing a Nipa 

Palm and then jumping over a stream was not understood by these 

Negri to although their "heaven" did lie in the west. This "heaven" 

had no Tiger and Elephant as in the Tonga belief but the Negri to advised 

us that men and women go to separate heavens. No children 

are born in heaven and families are not reunited after death. This 

lack of reunification differs from the Tonga. 

Although the Tonga normally pay a bride price of cloth or 

trophies of the hunt the band claimed no bride price was necessary 

and that residence was matrilocal. Children are delivered in a lying 

position in contrast to typical Negrito parturition which is in a squatting 

position. The informant stated that incestuous relations between 

brother and sister were permitted. 

The items of material culture were extremely limited. The 

man carried a short stabbing spear with a heavy metal blade which 

had been obtained from villagers. The blade was about 10 inches 

long and the shaft about 4 feet long. A short stout digging stick 

with a spatula shaped metal blade was U:sed to dig out edible jungle 

tubers and other roots. 

Weapons made by the Tonga Negrito are rather crude compared 

to the beautifully decorated blowpipes produced by the Kensiu 

and Jahai. The blowpipes made in Satun are undecorated as is 

characteristic of the Tonga. Three blowpipes collected measured 4' 

lO!r", 5' 7" and 7' 2". Each was made of a two piece inner bore 

joined with a sleeve of bamboo covered with a hardened pitch. In

4o 

JollN H. BRAND'!' 

blowpipe, Th-1390, the inner bore pieces measured 53" and 33·~ in~ 

eluding a 4!" mouthpiece. The outer protective covering was made 

of three pieces 38", 16" and 8lr" long. The last 19 inches of the inner 

bore was uncovered but had apparently been covered at one time by 

another extension of the outer covering. The joints were tightly 

lashed with rattan and covered with hardened pitch. The ends of 

the covering were similarly bound to prevent splitting. The joints 

were made of extremely thin lightweight yellowish cane or undetermined 

species of bamboo. The Negrito in the area do not have 

access to a good grade of bamboo with long joints such as are extensively 

traded about among the Negrito in Malaya. The bore 

diameter of the weapons ranged from 9 I 16 to 11 I 16 inches. The 

outer bore diameter on blowpipe Th-1930 was 1 inch and on Th-1319 

1 114 inches. 

The mouthpiece was carved from bamboo and had a crown 

built up or gummy pitch with a semi soft consistency similar to 

modeling clay. 

A unique instrument found among the band was a bore cleaning 

rod. This has been, I believe, previously unreported among any 

Negrito. It consists of a 114 inch stick 55" in length. The head has 

a backward bound tassel of split rattan fibres lashed fast with rattan 

lacing. 

The poison container was a joint of bamboo 17'' x 1 114". 

The top was stoppered with a wad of leaves and contained a long 

thin spatula. The Tonga made use of sap from the tree, Antiaris 

toxicaria, for poisoning their darts. The hard chocolate brown sap 

is collected by slashing the trunk of the tree and catching the sap 

in a bamboo joint. The sap, originally a milky gray, turns dark 

and hard upon drying. It becomes very brittle but can be softened 

again by heating. The Tonga frequently mix this poison with cooked 

sap from a creeper belonging to the genus Strychnos and add chicken 

gall and bird fat to increase it's potency. The Satun band claimed 

they added "other items" to the poison but would not elaborate on 

what the "other" ingredients were. 

Three dart containers were obtained from the group. These 

measured 16~ x 3t, and 14~ x 2~". Another was 12 inches long.

I. 

l. llan I loan l'kgrito. Blowpipe 

IIH>lltlipir~r

Blowpipe bore cleaner rod collected among the Ban Doan Negri to in Sa tun 

Province, South Thailand.

TllE S!Hi'I'IIEAS'i' ASI.IN Nl•:t:HII'O 

All were made from large joints of bamboo. The first was a polished 

joint bound ncar the top with rattan lashings to which were attached 

a fibre cord and a piece of rag for binding the cannister around the 

waist. The cannistcrs of the Kensiu and Jahai are normally LUcked 

into a waistband without a separate strap. The bottom of the cannister 

on the outside had a heavy coating of the same soft gummy 

material of which the blowpipe mouth pieces were built up. 

Inside the larger of the cannisters were 22 individual tubes of 

cane, each containing one poisoned dart. These were arranged around 

the walls of the container. The core was packed with plant fibre 

flocculence probably Caryota or Calamus. This is used as an air 

seal behind the dart in the breech so in expelling the projectiles no air 

is lost. The medium sized cannister contained 17 dart tubes. This 

cannister was also of Bamboo from which the glazed outer coating 

had been scraped. Both the Tonga and the now extinct Hami made 

cannisters bound about the waist in which each dart was in a separate 

container. Other Negrito bands usc small narrow cannistcrs without 

tubes. The Tonga cannisters and blowpipes are also unique in that 

they arc without decoration. Among other Ncgrito, decorative 

patterns have important significance as attractants for game or to 

prevent animals from being afraid of' the hunter through it's magic 

properties. Most Negri to consider undecorated blowpipes as ineffective. 

On the outside of' the larger cannister were two sharpened bone 

awls, 5 3/4" and 4 1/4" long placed under the rattan binding. Although 

their utilitarian purpose was quite probably otherwise, the 

informant said they were used for removing splinters from his feet. 

The rather hca vy darts were 14" long and made of what appeared 

to be palm wood. 3 1/ 4" from the tip the darts were deeply 

notched so as to break off in the wounded animal. On the upper end 

was a conical cap of light pithy wood which was cut to fit the bore 

diameter. The darts arc considerably heavier than the light splinter 

like darts made by the Kensiu from Bertam Palm rib. 

The Negrito claimed not to make musical instruments although 

Jews Harps have been reported among the Tonga. 

·ll

42 JOHN H. BRAND'i' 

With only one informant, with whom communication and contact 

was limited, the accuracy of acquired information is questionable. 

The intelligence of the informant and his familiarity with some of the 

aspects of his culture could not be ascertained. His long isolation from . 

others of his kind may have dulled his recollection of some cultural 

matters. The items of material culture described may be crude due to 

poor craftsmanship rather than being typical of the group, recognizing 

that all persons are not equally gifted craftsman. His lack of knowledge, 

i.e. regarding musical instruments, may be due to the same 

reason. 

The last contact with Hew, Wa and Samoi was on May 24, 1964. 

Note: On April 17, 1964 a Malay woodcutter from Ban Doan 

was approached in the forest by a powerfully built bushy haired nude 

Negrito man carrying a blowpipe, dart cannister and a long sword like 

machete. The Negrito asked in southern dialect Siamese for food and 

clothing. The badly frightened Malay guided him to the village where 

he was given a pair of old Khaki shorts. The Negrito did not know 

apparently how to put on trousers and was instead given an old 

pakoma (short wrap around sarong). He asked that food be placed 

upon a rock in mid stream above the village for him. This was done 

and the food was gone next morning. I visited Ban Doan on this 

particular day and found the villagers extremely excited by their 

jungle visitor. The Negrito did not return after the initial contact. 

Ten days later an entire new band of Negri to, all nude, emerged 

from the forest guided by the former visitor who had acted as reconnaissance 

scout. This group consisted of three adult females, three 

adult males, one male child of approximately 11 years and one male 

child of 8 or 9. All asked for clothing and food and then returned to 

the forest. The women wore head bands of twisted grasses over closely 

cropped hair. The male scout, a powerfully built unusually tall 

Negrito, wore long bushy hair. All members of the band wore red 

dyed fibre neck cords called "gasai ", worn to prevent illness. No 

earrings or bracelets were seen. 

The new band soon joined the Negrito family of Ban Doan and 

established a joint camp with Hew acting as group leader. The new

An unusually large bushy heudc:d Nel-(rilo acted as scout for his band nt 

Tambon Tungnui, Satun Province and emerged from the forest with eight 

other Negrito. He wears a 1

Two Negrito girls from the Satun Negrito band at Tambon Tungnui. 

Twisted plant fibres are wrapped around their foreheads. The band 

came from the forest to trade after having wandered for six years in the 

Dong ChUok Chang Forest Tract on the Thai-Malay border.

TilE SOUT!IEASI' ASIAN NEC:HITO 

comers were uninhibited and aggressive around the village in contrast 

to the normal shy retiring character of Negri to. The two Negri to boys 

particularly delighted in grimacing at the Malay children fully a ware 

of the fears that the villagers had of the jungle people. All the men 

were armed with blowpipes and poison darts. No permission could be 

obtained to accompany them to their camp and they advised that they 

would run away if any attempt was made to follow them. 

The band informed us they had formerly lived near Kau Krai 

(where Hew's band had also originated) but had been away from 

contact with villages for over six years. On May 24, 1964 the group 

visited Ban Doan and said they were tired of eating rice and were 

going back into the forest to live. Apparently Hew and Wa joined 

the new group which was the first of their race they had seen in a 

decade. No Negrito has been seen in the village since their departure. 

Where they have gone or where from the huge forests they will again 

emerge, and when, no man knows.

THE ANGLO~SIAMESE SECRET CONVENTION OF 1897 

•(.ihamsook 9Vurnnonda 

Faculty of Arts) Chulalongkorn University 1 

The last quarter of the nineteenth century saw Siam became 

the target of jealousy and rivalry between Britain and France, her 

territorial neighbours on the west and east. Of these two strong 

colonising Powers, the Siamese, in their best interests, looked to the 

British Government for help. As King Chulalongkorn of Siam put it, 

"We always rely on England as our support ".2 As regards the relations 

with France disagreement was always chronic, and periodically 

developed into an acute form. Doubtless Siamese procrastination and 

shuffling were to some extent responsible for this fact. But on the other 

hand, Siamese hatred and mistrust for France were due to the aggression 

and hectoring tone of the French Colonial Party. The difficulties 

over claims to territory on the left bank of the Mekong which 

boiled up with the passage of the Menam by the French gun-boats 

culminated in 1893 in a rupture of relation. It, however, brought 

salvation to Siam since the Siamese cession of all territory to the east 

of the Mekong made French possessions contiguous with the British 

Protectorate on the Burmese frontier. Such a situation aroused a considerable 

amount of mutual suspicion between England and France as 

regards designs upon Siam, and led to protracted pourparlers, which 

after some three years, resulted in the Anglo-French Declaration of 

1896. Summed up briefly, this was to the effect that neither England 

nor France should advance their armed forces, nor acquire any special 

privilege or advantage within the region which roughly speaking might 

be termed the valley of the Menam. 

This settlement, though it guaranteed the independence of Siam, 

gave a rather loose definition of the non-guaranteed portion of Siam, 

the Malay Peninsula in particular. The Foreign Office and Colonial 

Office both agreed that "Whoever holds the Peninsula must to a great 

1. Mrs. Thamsook Numnonda is presently doing research on Anglo-Thai relations 

1900·09, at the School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London. 

2. Foreign Office Paper, hereafter cited as F.O. 422/56, Archer to Lansdowne, September 

29, 1902.

THE ANGLO~SIAMESE SECRET CONVENTION OF 1897 

•(.ihamsook 9Vurnnonda 

Faculty of Arts) Chulalongkorn University 1 

The last quarter of the nineteenth century saw Siam became 

the target of jealousy and rivalry between Britain and France, her 

territorial neighbours on the west and east. Of these two strong 

colonising Powers, the Siamese, in their best interests, looked to the 

British Government for help. As King Chulalongkorn of Siam put it, 

"We always rely on England as our support ".2 As regards the relations 

with France disagreement was always chronic, and periodically 

developed into an acute form. Doubtless Siamese procrastination and 

shuffling were to some extent responsible for this fact. But on the other 

hand, Siamese hatred and mistrust for France were due to the aggression 

and hectoring tone of the French Colonial Party. The difficulties 

over claims to territory on the left bank of the Mekong which 

boiled up with the passage of the Menam by the French gun-boats 

culminated in 1893 in a rupture of relation. It, however, brought 

salvation to Siam since the Siamese cession of all territory to the east 

of the Mekong made French possessions contiguous with the British 

Protectorate on the Burmese frontier. Such a situation aroused a considerable 

amount of mutual suspicion between England and France as 

regards designs upon Siam, and led to protracted pourparlers, which 

after some three years, resulted in the Anglo-French Declaration of 

1896. Summed up briefly, this was to the effect that neither England 

nor France should advance their armed forces, nor acquire any special 

privilege or advantage within the region which roughly speaking might 

be termed the valley of the Menam. 

This settlement, though it guaranteed the independence of Siam, 

gave a rather loose definition of the non-guaranteed portion of Siam, 

the Malay Peninsula in particular. The Foreign Office and Colonial 

Office both agreed that "Whoever holds the Peninsula must to a great 

1. Mrs. Thamsook Numnonda is presently doing research on Anglo-Thai relations 

1900·09, at the School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London. 

2. Foreign Office Paper, hereafter cited as F.O. 422/56, Archer to Lansdowne, September 

29, 1902.

46 Thamsook Numnonda 

extent command the route to the Far East. Singapore is the turning 

point in the south of Asia, but half the value of Singapore would be 

gone if, to the north of it, a neck of the Peninsula were held by some 

other Power." 1 Although Siam had, ever since the existence of 

Anglo-Siamese relations, claimed the greater portion of the Peninsula 

as a part of the Siamese dominions, her hold over these regions comprising 

the Stutes of Kelantan, Trengganu, and Kedah was of the most 

shadowy and feeble description, and she would naturally be quite 

unable to resist any penetration by foreigners under the pretext of 

commercial enterprise. In addition, the Sultans of these States 

refused to recognize Siamese authority but were too weak to do 

anything about it. Britain was constantly threatened by the possibility 

that at some moment any one of these petty Rulers might be 

enticed into relations either directly with some foreign Government 

for the cession of a harbour or coaling station or by the grant of 

land in their States to permit the establishment of large foreign 

interests leading eventually to intervention in the Peninsula by a 

non-British Government. 

Subsequently Salisbury secretly sounded De Bunsen, the British 

Minister in Bangkok, as to whether the Siamese Government would 

be inclined to enter into an engagement not to part with any of the 

territory which they claimed in the Malay Peninsula without British 

consent.2 De Bunsen replied that he believed the Siamese Government 

would willingly accept the proposal since thy were already 

alarmed at the speeches of Sir C. Clementi Smith, the ex-Governor of 

the Straits Settlements, hinting at the expansion of the Straits Settle~ 

ments in a northerly direction.3 Governor Mitchell of the Straits 

Settlements was also very anxious to settle the question of Siam's exclusive 

rights in this region because he felt, "that these most astute 

Asiatics are taking advantage of us, and the matter ought to be definitely 

settled, in spite of our newly formed servile attitude to French 

susceptibilities. 4'' Such an agreement, however, Mr. T. Sanderson, Under 

1. F.O. 422/45, 0.0.-F.O., February 28, 1896. 

2. F.O. 17/1293, Telegram, Salisbury-Bunsen, January 24, 1896. 

3. F.O. 17/1293, Telegram, De Bunsen-Salisbury, January25, 1896. 

4. F.O. 69/176, Sir Charles Mitchell-De Bunsen.

'L'l-i£: ANGLO-SIAMESE SECRET CONVENTION OF 1897 

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs argued would provide Siam 

with a degree of security almost equivalent to the Anglo-French Treaty 

of 1896 for the western portion of her territory which was outside 

the Anglo-French Agreement of 1896.1 In actual fact, this question 

had been raised in 1891, but it was considered useless to lay such a 

request before the Siamese Government until the British Government 

were prepared to concede something on their side.z The Foreign Office 

then voiced the views of the Colonial Office as to whether the British 

Government should recognise definitely Siamese sovereignty and control 

over Kelantan, Trengganu and Kedah. It was Salisbury's opinion 

that if the Siamese claim was left vague, the protection afforded by 

the Convention should become equally indefinite.:3 But before any 

settlement was reached, Salisbm:y wrote another letter to Chamberlain 

expressing his readiness to forward to the British Minister in 

Bangkok a draft of the Convention. He clearly stipulated his opinion, 

"the result of the Convention, if concluded, will necessarily be to 

acknowledge the rights of Siam over Kelantan and Trengganu, whatever 

view may be held as to their validity on historical grounds.4 

On the 31st of May, 1896, the Convention was drafted which 

embodied three principles-the King of Siam engaged not to alienate 

to any Power other than England any of his territm·ial or suzerain 

rights lying to south of Muong Bang Tapan, the British Government 

engaged on her part to support the King of Siam in resisting any 

attempt by a third Power and, the King of Siam engaged not to grant, 

cede or let any exclusive rights within the specified limits to a third 

Power without the written consent of the British Government. This 

was communicated by Bunsen to Prince Devawongse, the Siamese 

Foreign Minister, who appeared to be pleased and promised to forward 

it at once to the King.5 In his 'verbal note' De Bunsen added that 

this Convention aimed, among other things, at furnishing Siam with 

1. F.O. 17/1293, Sanderson's Memorandum, March 2, 1896. 

2. F,O. 422/45, C.O.-F.O., February 28, 1896. 

3. Ibid., F.O.-C.O., March 14, 1896. 

4. Ibid., F.O.-C.O., March 26, 1896. 

5. f.O. 422/45, De Bunsen-Salisbury, May 7, 1896.

48 Thamsook Numnci:hda 

an almost equivalent security as regards her territory oi.Jtside the 

Anglo-French Agreement of 1896.1 

The negotiation did not proceed satisfactorily on the lines 

which were sketched. The King being quite disposed to admit the 

principle of the proposed Convention, was not prepared to pursue it 

without making some modifications. He suggested firstly, to allude 

to the Declaration of 1896, secondly, to reduce the text to two 

articles, as it contained only two substantial clauses, thirdly to substitute 

for the words "exclusive rights" of Article 3 the words 

"special privilege or advantage" and lastly to make a Protocol 

binding the two Governments to refer to arbitration "any controversies 

which may arise respecting the interpretation or the execution 

of any Treaties when other means are exhausted. "2 

The object of the Siamese Government in proposing these 

amendment was to disarm the French, who might otherwise think 

England was trying to obtain a trade monopoly in the Malay Peninsula, 

and so cause them to try to obtain a similar trade monopoly to the 

west of the French colonies in Indo-China, and this privilege would 

have to be granted to France without a 'quid pro quo', for no one but 

France was likely to dispute with Siam the possession of those barren 

regions, and France could therefore promise to assist Siam in protecting 

them from the attacks of a third party without any real prospect 

of her assistance being involved. 

The Siamese amended draft, in the above-mentioned sense with 

two other striking substitutions was forwarded to De Bunsen. In it 

the phrase "Siam engages not to cede certain territories to any other 

Power" was used instead of " _____ to any Power other than 

Great Britain" and also the word "sovereignty" substituted for 

"suzerainty.'' 

The new reading, the Siamese Govennent believed, would be 

less calculated than these in the original draft to convey an impression 

to the sensitive French mind that England was tightening her hold on 

1. F.O. 17/1293, Telegram, Salisbury-Bunsen, January 24, 1896. 

2. F.O. 628/18/242, Prince Devawongse-De Bunsen, July 7, 1896.

the northern part of the Malay Peninsula. !!or if' France believed 

this, she would certainly respond by asserting herself to at least a 

corresponding degree in the eastern provinces of Sinm.l 

The Foreign OHice and the Colonial Office fully supported the 

Siamese Preamble and two ph ruses, "special privilege or ad vantage" 

and ''to any other Power". The Foreign Office did not consider the 

ambiguity of the latter important so long as the words "without the 

consent of the British Government "were retained.2 HO\rcver, they 

adhered to the more explicit form of Convention in three Articles. 

Also they strongly advocated an Arbitration Protocol and demanded 

the omission of the words "territorial or suzerain" to avoid further 

discussion.::l 

The renewed draft, the last made in the course of negotiations, 

was referred back to the Siamese Government. Surprisingly, it was 

received with much enthusiasm. The Siamese Government were 

disposed to accept the adoption of the amended Convention reserving 

for future discussion the question of arbitration.'1 But with a view to 

securing secrecy they considered it advisable to continue the negotiations 

in London where Prince Swasti of the Siamese legation in Paris 

would be authorised to conclude the Convention.!:\ 

But two months passed and nothing was done. The King's 

European tour was planned. A strong nnnour was running round the 

British Consulate that the Siamese Government wished to put off the 

negotiations. The instru~~tions were not yet sent to Prince Swasti. G 

The sensitive Siamese Government harboured suspicions as to Brith;h 

policy. Prince Devawongsc alluded to the Railway Convention 

between China and Russia and thought that the Malay Convention 

might lead to a British Protectoratc.7 This situation caused the 

1. F.O. 628/2

50 Thaml;wok Ntimnolld~i 

Foreign Office no little anxiety. Salisbury prompted Archt:r the ne~v 

British Minister to press the Siamese Government to conclude the 

Convention before the King's departure to Europe.l 

The misunderstanding, however, was relieved when the King 

apologetically expressed his regret to Archer for the delay which was 

due entirely to "the dilatoriness of Prince Devawongse. "2 It was not 

his desire at all either to relinquish or retard the Convention but he 

wished to have the third Article elucidated.3 

In taking up the thread of the negotiations, the concentration 

was now on the third Article. The Siamese Government renewed 

their objection to it as calculated to clash with stipulations in their 

existing Treaties with Foreign Powers granting them, under reasonable 

conditions, the right to prospect for minerals and work mines. 

Also the new Mining Regulation recently issued rendered the issue of 

prospecting licences obligatory. For this reason the Siamese Government 

desired the stipulation in Article 3 to refer only to large concessions 

But the Foreign Office and the Colonial Office adhered to 

their view that it should apply to all foreign concessions, whether small 

or large, within the specified area. fo them, it was impossible to 

distinguish between small and large concessions since the object of the 

Convention might be frustrated by a grant, unknown to the British 

Minister in Bangkok, of a concession to a foreigner which the Siamese 

Government might consider small. 4 Then there was a request from 

Prince Devawongse that in case Siam found herself bound by the 

proposed Convention to refuse a concession in the Malay States to a 

foreign subject and the foreign Power insisted, by virtue of Treaty 

stipulations or the Mining Laws, Siam would not be left to meet the 

possible consequences of a refusal 'single-handed '.5 In view of the 

difficulties pointed out, the Foreign Office eventually decided to 

interpret Article 3 in the most liberal manner by adding at the end of 

1. F.O. 69/176, Telegram, Salisbury-Archer, March 23, 1897. 

2. F.O. 422/47, Archer-Salisbury, April 7, 1897. 

3. F.O. 69/186, Telegram, Archer-Salisbury, March 27, 1897. 

4. F.O. 4'22/47, C:O.-F.O., March 12, 1897. 

5. F.O. G9/17G, Telegram, Archer-Salisbury, April 3, 1897.

Tl:IE ANGLO-SIAMESE f:)ECRI>T CONVENTION OF ]897 51 

that article the words "and Her Britannic Majesty engages to support 

the King of Siam in the execution of this Article" as proposed by 

Prince Devawongse.l The Convention was duly signed by the British 

Minister and the Siamese Minister for Foreign Affairs on April 6, 

1897. It reads as follows:- 

Preamble. 

Her Britannic Majesty having communicated to His 

Majesty the King of Siam the two first Articles of the 

Declaration signed between the Government of Great 

Britain and France on the fifteenth day of January, 1896, 

as giving evidence of England and France's joint solicitude 

for the security and stability of the Kingdom of 

Siam, His Majesty the King of Siam and Her Britannic 

Majesty, being desiwus of making further provision for 

securing the mutual interests of Siam and Great Britain, 

have agreed, &c. 

Article 1 

His Majesty the King of Siam engages not Lo cede 

or alienate to any other Power any of his rights over any 

portion of the territories or islands lying to the south of 

Muong Bang Tapan. 

Article 2 

Her Britannic Majesty engages on her part to 

support His Majesty the King of Siam in resisting any 

attempt by a third Power to acquire dominion or to 

establish its influence or Protectorate in the territories 

or islands above mentioned. 

Article 3 

His Britannic Majesty having engaged by the 

preceding article to support His Majesty the King of 

Siam in resisting any attempt by any third Power to 

1. F.O. 69/186, Telegram, Salisbury-Archer, April 5. 1897.

52 Thamsook N~mnonda 

acquire dominion or to establish influence or Protectorate 

in any of the territories or islands above mentioned, 

His Majesty the King of Siam engages not to 

grant, cede or let any special privilege or advantage 

whether as regards land or trade within the above specified 

limits either to the Government or to the subjects 

of a third Power without the written consent of the 

British Government. 

Right from the very outset of the negotiations, the Foreign 

Office, complying with the wish of the Siamese Government, took 

every possible precaution to preserve the secrecy of the Convention. 

Even the Straits Settlements Government were merely informed that 

the British Government had received from the Siamese Government 

assurances in regard to the Malay State which they considered satisfactory.l 

The Secret Convention brought satisfaction to both parties 

concerned. The Siamese Government were happy since Siamese 

sovereignty over the Malay States was no longer questioned. The 

Resident-General of the Federated Malay States was warned against 

"taking any action which could in any way be construed by the 

Siamese Government as throwing doubts on the rights of Siam in the 

States in question."2 As for the British, the fear of foreign intrigue 

was set at rest. 

The satisfaction, however, was short-lived. As the twentieth 

century dawned, the interpretation of the Convention began to be a 

constant source of discussion, friction, and discontent between the 

two Governments. As might be expected, the clash of opinion sprang 

from the third Article. It should be borne in mind that despite the 

hurried conclusions of the Convention reached by both parties, the 

real issues as far as the Siamese Government were concerned were: 

firstly, the Siamese Government could not grant Concessions involving 

the alienation or cession of any territorial rights, no distinction being 

1. F.O. 422/47, F.O.-C.O., April20, 1897. 

2. F.O. 422/47. Chamberlain-Mitchell, May 5, 1897,

THE ANGLO-SIAMESE SECHllT CONVENT!()); OF 1897 53 

made between large or small concessions, secondly, the words "special 

privilege or advantage" were exdusive of general rights already conceded 

to Treaty Powers and, lastly, the terms of the Convention if 

enforced would deny to other powers rights granted to them by the 

existing Treaties negotiated in the 1850's and 60's. This result would 

have been contrary to the proposed Convention. 

The freedom of action left to the Siamese Government in dealing 

with foreign applications presented the most complicated problem. 

The definition of Treaty rights of other Powers still remained 

unanswered. So it was extremely difficult to distinguish purely commercial 

enterprises from concessions 1 ikely to be of political import, 

since a large agglomeration of foreign interests might probably lead 

a foreign Power into using large vested interests and rights as a pretext 

for intervention. 

The prevailing concession system was open to grave danger 

inasmuch as the Rajas still bad the power to grant concessions and 

then the concessionaires applied to the Siamese Government for rati 

:fication.l The Siamese Government whose policy was to strengthen 

their control over and to raise revenue from all her Malay States, were 

dead against this. For they found it difficult to deal with a 'fait accompli'. 

Sir Frank Swettenham was right when he said, "Siamese 

officials will dislike and oppose a concession obtained straight from a 

Malay Ruler or Chief; firstly, because they think it weakens their 

control, and, secondly, because they have no opportunity of deriving 

any benefit from the grant of it.2'' Worse still, the British Government 

with a policy of entirely exclusive enterprise encouraged the 

Siamese Government to grant "reasonable concession to British subjects, 

without making any embarassing concessions to Europeans of 

other nationalities."3 But the distinction between concessions to 

British subjects and concessions to the subjects of Third Powers 

had not been kept sufficiently in mind. It was difficul for the Siamese 

1. F.O. 628/29,1, Paget-Lansclowne, January 25, 1905. 

2. F.O. 422/53, Swettenham -Archer, July 13, 1900. 

3. F.O. 69/215, Archer-Lansdowne, March 26, 1901.

Thamsook Numnonda 

to discriminate between bona :fide and bogus British Companies, 

Syndicates or private applicants. 

From the British viewpoint the undertaking that the British 

Government would construe the Convention in the most friendly spirit 

to Siam also left it open for them to consider in what cases their interests 

rendered it inadvisable to refuse the consents to a concession 

demanded by the subject of a third Power on the strength of his Treaty 

rightsl As Paget, the British Minister in the early 1900's put it, 

"whenever an application comes in for a prospecting license or mining 

concession for a foreigner I am in doubt what to do as no regular rule 

is laid down and there are no regular tests to guide one---".2 The 

power of the Rajas to grant concessions also revealed the danger of 

British interest. If therefore, foreign companies other than British 

obtained concession directly from the Rulers of these States, they 

might not consider themselves bound to submit their Agreement to 

the Siamese Government for confirmation as, so far no other Power 

had recognized the authority of Siam over these Malay States.3 

Under such a confused concession system, the Convention instead 

of being interpreted as having a purely political object came to 

be utilized as a commercial arrangement, and its presentation virtually 

meant the closing of the door to foreigners in the Malay Peninsula. 

Whatever the other interpretation of this Article might prove 

in other ways, it was difficulty to assume that it was indeed the purpose 

of the British Government, whose policy in other parts of the 

world was that of the 'open door ' to reverse this policy in Siamese 

Malaya alone. The mi~ute of Salisbury on which the Treaty was 

drafted showed that its object was to protect certain portions of Siam 

from foreign aggression, and it appeared to be clear that the idea of 

inserting Article 3 was not so much to secure trade advantages for 

Britain as an object in themselves, but rather to prevent foreigners from 

obtaining special leases of land and special trading rights as a means to 

1. F.O. 69/215, Archer-Lansdowne, March 5, 1901. 

2. F.O. 69/265, Paget--Langley, Private, September, 1905. 

3. F.O. 69/236, Memorandum, January 9, 1902.

TilE ANGLO·SIAMESf!: SEC£\E'I' CONVENTION OF 1897 

an end. In other words, gradually to establish thereby political control 

in those regions. That it was so, was confirmed by the correspondence 

that subsequently passed dealing with the difficulties interposed 

by Siam before accepting the Article.! 

However, it was obvious that the British Government naturally 

preferred British enterprise to be predominant. Sir Frank Swettenham 

expressed his view, "there might be objections to granting an island 

or land on the sea coast to foreigners if it were possible that the land 

might afterwards be used in any sense as naval station ".2 Anderson 

even went beyond this view. He considered it advisable to exclude 

all foreign commercial enterprise from that region. To both of them 

the Convention should be termed a success because the large concessions 

which the Siamese Government had given during the Convention's 

life were exclusively worked by British companies or British 

capital. 

This policy of wholesale discrimination against foreigners in 

favour of British subjects, the Siamese Government complained,placed 

them in an extremely embarrassing situation by obliging them to find 

all kinds of pretexts for delaying a reply to application or concessions, 

and ending, perhaps, by their having to refuse the concession when no 

plausible ground existed. They simultaneously laid themselves open 

to remonstrance and the accusation of non-compliance with Treaty 

rights from other Powers. To take one example, the opposition and 

delay experienced in dealing with the Cerruti and Kaulfuss concessions 

in the early 1900's, though neither of these could be of any 

political importance, caused the Siamese Government no little embarrasmen 

t. 3 

The di-fficulties surrounding the question increased in consequence 

of more constant and increasing demands for land in that 

1. F.O. 69/265, Nicholas Ball's Memorandum, October 30, 1905. 

2. F.O. 628/294, Paget-Lansdowne, January 25, 1905. 

3. F.O. 69/265, Strobel's memorandum on the Interpretation of the Secret Convention 

Agreement between Great Brit!lin and Siam, signed at Bangkok, April 6, 1897, 

September 11, 1905.

56 Thamsooic Numnoncia 

territory by foreigners, especially Germans. From time to time an 

attempt was made between the two Governments to come to some 

understanding as regards the question of concession. In 1905 they 

agreed that the Rajas should obtain the assent of the Siamese Government 

prior to granting any concessions to applicants. One year later 

the British Government vested greater authority in the British Minister 

in Bangkok regarding the sanction of concessions .I None the less, 

the attempts hardly came to anything. 

Also the suggestion to publish the Secret Convention to put an 

end to this distressing state was advanced as early as 1902, but on the 

part of Siam the objection to such publication was the fear of fresh 

demands from the French Colonial Party with respect to the provinces 

in the east of Siam under-French influence.2 Again in 1904, in reply 

to a question asked in Parliament by Sir C. Dilke, it was stated that 

"the agreements entered into between Her Majesty's Government and 

Siam with regard to the Siamese dependencies in the Malay Peninsula 

are of a strictly confidential nature, and in deference to the strong 

wish of the Siamese Government, it is not intended to make them 

public ".3 In 1906 and 1907 when the question of the Malay Peninsular 

Railway was under discussion, the Colonial Office suggested the 

advisability of publishing the 1897 Convention. The proposal was, 

however, met by the renewed objection of the Siamese Government. 

The Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1907 by which the French Government 

transferred their Asiatic proteges to the jurisdiction of the 

Siamese Courts in return for the eastern provinces, gave the hint to 

Strobel, the Siamese General-Adviser, that the time had come for the 

Siamese to forego her interest in the Malay States in order to free 

herself from the 1897 Convention, 'the most deplorable document 

Siam had ever signed'.4 Such was the payment by which Siam also 

consolidated her position. Strobel saw in the feebleness of Siamese 

administration in the Malay States a positive menace to Siam. 

1. F.O. 422/60, Telegram, F.O.-Beckett, October 1, 1906. 

2. F.O. 69/226, Lansdowne-Archer, October 23, 1902. 

3. F.O. 422/66, F.O.-Inc\ia Office. August 14, 1911. 

4. F.O. 422/62, PHget-Grey, April3, 1908.

'hiE ANGLO-SIAMEiilE SEChET CONVENTION OF 1897 

in addition the Convention afforded Great Britain so stringent a hold 

over that part as to render it practically valueless to Siam. There 

was so much to be done in the heart of Siam that men and money 

could not be spared to rule those outlying possessions with a strong 

hand. If the present conditions were allowed to continue the day 

vvould inevitably come when Siam would lose all her Malay possessions 

to England without getting any return. From the point of view 

of the British Government also, the Convention, though affording a 

guarantee against a too rapid penetration by foreigners into these 

States, was a constant source of trouble and anxiety. 

At the very outset of the negotiations, simultaneously with his 

request for the abrogation of the Convention, Strobel himself proposed 

to make an Agreement of a purely political nature in substitution. I 

Paget, striking for the best bargain, urged that, in addition to such an 

agreement, the British Government required a provision similar to 

Article VII of the Franco-Siamese Convention of 1904, which gave 

the French Government the right to be consulted on public works in 

their sphere of influence.2 To this suggestion Strobel strongly demurred. 

In his opinion the aims of the Siamese Government in making 

a cession of territory were to retain absolute freedom of action within 

the territories which remained to them. Thus a clause similar to the 

one in the French Treaty might become an exceedingly irksome 

restriction. A special Agreement was about to be concluded with the 

British Government regarding the Malay Peninsular Railway, and this 

was the most important of all works likely to be undertaken by the 

Siamese Government. In view of this strenous opposition, the British 

claim to such a provision was dropped. 

The wording for an Agreement of a purely political character 

which Paget first suggested to the Siamese Government was, that 

Siam will neither in the Malay Peninsula nor in the 

islands adjacent thereto, nor in the territories situated 

in the immediate neighbourhood of British India cede or 

1. P.O. 422/61, Poget--Grey, April 29, 1907. 

2. F.O. 422/GI, Paget-Beckett, Telegram, 10 September, 1907 

5'/

Tiwmsooic Numnonda 

lease any territory of any description directly or indirectiy 

to any foreign Government or Company to establish or 

lease any coaling station, to construct or own docks, or 

to occupy any harbour in a position likely to be prejudicial 

to British interests from a strategical point ofview.1 

While the matter was still only in the proposal stage, the sudden 

death of Strobel occured. 

This sad circumstance delayed the negotiation 

for the next twelve months. 

When the talk was resumed again 

in 1909, the British Minister met with an altogether antagonistic 

response from the Siamese Government. 

Westengard, the new negotiator, 

raised several objections. 

Firstly, he was convinced that the 

words, "territories situated in the neighbourhood of British India", 

would extend the scope of the new Agreement to regions never contemplated 

by the 1897 Convention. Furthermore, the expression was 

vague, and might even be construed to cover Bangkok,-a contingency 

which was naturally out of the question-. . Secondly, he regarded 

the words "to construct or own docks" as implying some measure 

of commercial restriction. Lastly he regarded the phrase "occupy 

positions" unfavourable as being too indefinite and liable to misconstruction. 

By this time the Siamese Government were commencing to 

show a chilling lack of interest towards the negotiations. There was 

already an outcry for the death or burial of the whole Treaty. 'Any 

negative view on the British part would only endanger the success of 

the negotiations. Paget had no option but to agree to all amendments 

without a hitch. None the less, he succeeded in persuading the 

Siamese Government to agree to publish the Declaration. 

In estimating the relative value of the new Agreement as against 

the wording of the abandoned one, both parties got the best of the 

bargain. Siam was. relieved of all responsibility for the area covered 

by the Convention. To England, the new Declaration, being public, 

was a warning against pacific penetration. The much-vexed questions 

---------···-----·--·--------------···------ 

1. P.O. /122/Ci2, Pnget-Crey, .Tnnuary 1, 1908.

TilE ANGLO-SIAMESE S!i:CHlST CONVI':NTlON OF 1897 59 

of concessions were set at rest, for the Britisch Government had no 

longer the right of being consulted. As regards the northern portion 

of the peninsula which still remained to Siam, it now stood on a different 

footing and formed an integral part of the Siamese dominions, 

well under Siamese stronger control. 

It seemed impossible for Siam 

to allow a foreign Power to establish a footing in those regions. 

There was a question raised whether, in preparing a draft 

Convention, the abrogation of the 1897 Convention should form one 

of the documents for publication, or whether it should be considered 

confidential.l The British Government had, after consideration of 

the several agreements, decided that such abrogation should remain 

confidential. In April, 1908, however, they expressed themselves to 

be inclining to change their view, and enquired whether there would 

be any objection on the part of the Siamese·Government.2 Wcstengard 

personnally favoured the idea, for such publication would be a complete 

answer to the incredulous persistency of the German and Dutch 

representatives, and take the wind out of their sails in the matter of 

their request for a quid pro quo.1 He was, anyhow, unable to convert 

the King to his own views although all the Ministers were favourably 

inclined towards this being done. The King recoiled from the 

accusations, to which he felt he would expose himself, and the irritation 

that would arise not only on the part of Germany and the Netherlands, 

but of France also, with whom his relations were then most 

cordial, if a secret Agreement with England were made public. He 

evidently looked on complaints as to the insufficiency of the quid pro 

quo as more temporary and easier to meet, and therefore the least 

disagreeable alternative, for after a month's reflection he gave his 

definite decision against publication.4 This decision was notified to 

the Foreign Office on May 21, 1909, and the secret Convention, with 

the instrument of March 10 cancelling it, thus continued to remain 

confidential. 

-------·------------- 

1. F.O. 422/62, Paget-Grey, January 11, 1908. 

2. F.O. 371/522, Paget-Grey. May 5, 1908. 

3. F.O. 422/65, Beckett-Grey, April26, Hl09. 

4. F.O. 422/64, Beckett-Grey, May 4, 1909.

GO 

Thamsook Numnonda 

Ironically, the abandoned Convention made its first dramatic 

appearance in 1909 in the "Treaties, Engagements, and Sanads" published 

in Calcutta by the Government of India. The Siamese Government 

was caught by surprise. It sent an urgent enquiry to look into 

this most regrettable occurence.l Grey, astonished and displeased, 

pressed for reasons from the India Government. It appeared to be 

due to pure oversight.2 But everything was too late. The secrecy 

was no longer maintained. The English Government as well as the 

Government of India could only greatly deplore the error which had 

been committed. 

1. F.O.

HIDE FIGURES OF THE RAMAKIEN 

at the Ledermuseum in Offenbach, Germany 

by 

7Cis ':highness ~prince q)haninivat, Kroma,n1un Cf3id!;alabh 

In the summer of 1963 I was kindly invited by the German 

Government to inaugurate the Exhibition of Thai Art, which was to 

take place in Munich. My commitments did not however allow me to 

fix a definite date for some time; and by the time I arrived in Munich a 

few days before the date appointed for the inauguration I found that the 

Minister President of Bavaria had been invited to perform the duties 

originally scheduled for me. After the exhibition had been inaugurated 

we were invited to visit centres of German culture- Berlin, Hamburg, 

Bonn, Rothenburg, Nilrnberg and Heidelberg, ending our tour with a 

:visit to the Ledermuseum at Offenbach on the outskirts of Frankfurt 

whence we flew to Paris. 

At Offenbach the BLirgomeister invited me to visit the Ledermuseum 

where, under the enterprising leadership of the Curator, Dr. 

Gall, an attempt had been made to exhibit every possible use of leather 

in any form by mankind all over the world. Here I was shown 

the hide figures of our classical NmJ, of which some two hundred were 

said to have been collected. The method adopted was to mount the 

:figures on rails thus rendering them possible of being drawn out individually 

for exhibition in front of a cloth screen with a light behind 

somewhat in the same way we show them in this country. In congratulating 

the Curator for the enterprise and care in exhibiting these 

figures I took the opportunity to suggest that their presentation 

before the lighted screen could be improved if the figures could be 

exhibited niore or less in accordance with the narration of the classic 

Ramakien. The Curator then agreed to have them photographed and 

sent to me in Bangkok later for due rearrangement. 

Finding that the figures were still incomplete, I suggested that 

I would write a note giving a consecutive story, at the same time filling 

up the' gaps with additional narrative according to the Ramalden. 

This should enable the operator in Offenbach to present a sufficiently

HIDE FIGURES OF THE RAMAKIEN 

at the Ledermuseum in Offenbach, Germany 

by 

7Cis ':highness ~prince q)haninivat, Kroma,n1un Cf3id!;alabh 

In the summer of 1963 I was kindly invited by the German 

Government to inaugurate the Exhibition of Thai Art, which was to 

take place in Munich. My commitments did not however allow me to 

fix a definite date for some time; and by the time I arrived in Munich a 

few days before the date appointed for the inauguration I found that the 

Minister President of Bavaria had been invited to perform the duties 

originally scheduled for me. After the exhibition had been inaugurated 

we were invited to visit centres of German culture- Berlin, Hamburg, 

Bonn, Rothenburg, Nilrnberg and Heidelberg, ending our tour with a 

:visit to the Ledermuseum at Offenbach on the outskirts of Frankfurt 

whence we flew to Paris. 

At Offenbach the BLirgomeister invited me to visit the Ledermuseum 

where, under the enterprising leadership of the Curator, Dr. 

Gall, an attempt had been made to exhibit every possible use of leather 

in any form by mankind all over the world. Here I was shown 

the hide figures of our classical NmJ, of which some two hundred were 

said to have been collected. The method adopted was to mount the 

:figures on rails thus rendering them possible of being drawn out individually 

for exhibition in front of a cloth screen with a light behind 

somewhat in the same way we show them in this country. In congratulating 

the Curator for the enterprise and care in exhibiting these 

figures I took the opportunity to suggest that their presentation 

before the lighted screen could be improved if the figures could be 

exhibited niore or less in accordance with the narration of the classic 

Ramakien. The Curator then agreed to have them photographed and 

sent to me in Bangkok later for due rearrangement. 

Finding that the figures were still incomplete, I suggested that 

I would write a note giving a consecutive story, at the same time filling 

up the' gaps with additional narrative according to the Ramalden. 

This should enable the operator in Offenbach to present a sufficiently

62 His Highness Prince J)haninivat, Kromamun Bidya]abh 

consecutive narration. I planned in fact to give a trial exhibition in 

a lecture to the Siam Society. This however has been delayed by 

various circumstances. 

The above note was shown to the Hon. Editor and the Director 

of Research of the Siam Society who persuaded me to offer it for 

publication in the JSS after having obtained permission from the 

Museum who are the owners of the figures. 

The classical1za?J was originally in the time of King Narai of 

Ayudhya based upon the theme of the Samudaghos though in all probability 

on the story of Rama as well. It is not the same as the 

southern variety called nmJ taluv, understood to have been a variety 

coming from Patalul), an old seat of culture of no known date. The 

Thai story of Rama, like most other south-east Asian versions of the 

story of Rama, are neither translations nor adaptations of the Sanskrit 

classic of the Ramayana attributed to Valmiki. Their sources might 

have left India even before the Sanskrit Ramayana took shape. They 

lack the clement of divinity, being merely literature or just a dramatic 

work. Jn any case it has taken a finn hold of the popular mind 

and is known everywhere in east Asia and even beyond. 

The photographs of these figures are marked on the back thus : 

Siamesische Schattenspiel: Inv. Nr ...... . 

platte Nr ...... . 

In the following note each photograph will be referred to by 

its i-nventory number. 

The greater number of these plates relate the war waged by 

Rama upon fosakanth, King of LolJkiT, apparently the most popular 

section of the classic for the audiences of Bangkok and Siam. Rama, 

eldest son and heir of the King of Ayodhya, honouring the pledge 

given by his father to a younger wife, goes into exile with his wife and 

brother Laksh and they meet with adventures including the forceful 

abduction of his wife ~y fosakanth ( Ravana ), King of Lo!Jka (La!Jka). 

Rama, acquiring allies from the aboriginal states of Jompu and 

I(hidkhin, whose people are described as monkeys, wages war upon the 

demon-king fosakanth. The war is usually the most popular episode 

for the shadow-play as well as the Khon dances.

lliDE !

64 His Highness Prince Dhaninivat, Eromamun Bidyalabh 

The bridge is finally built. Indra sends the celestial charioteer 

Matali 5375 to offer his chariot to RHma. We have here a picture of 

Rama and Laksh mounted thereon 5323. 

By way of courtesy according to protocol Rama sends O!Jkot 

5380 to try to persuade the demon-king to agree to peaceful means of 

ending the quarrel. Being refused admission into the citadel OlJkot 

neglecting protocol demolishes the walls 5337 and fights the demon 

officers who have been ordered by the demon-king to arrest him 5338. 

Rama again presides over a council of war 5334. The single 

figures of simian generals above may be brought in here again in an 

exhibition of the shadow-play. Monkey officers and soldiers now 

exhibit their prowess in exultation over the coming excitement of 

fighting 5247, 5356, 5367, 5368, 5389, 5390. There is also a scene of 

forage, 5357. 

One of the first demon leaders in the war of LO!Jka is the 

magician Maiyarab, King of the Netherworld and a nephew of the 

demon-king of LolJka. He employs luminous sticks to feign stars in 

heaven and a pipe through which he blows sleeping powder to put his 

enemies to deep sleep. Our figures are: Maiyarab 5378, Maiyarab 

wielding his luminous sticks 4623, Maiyarab using his blow-pipe 4624. 

Kumbhakarn, brother of the King of Lol)ldi comes in next 3807. One 

of the episodes of his battle is that of his stratagem in lying down on 

the bottom of the stream whence the monkey army derives its water 

supply and thus prevent flow of the 'precious liquid, from which 

Hanuman is sent to drive him out 5324. His long sword sends Laksh 

swooning on the battlefield (no plate), whilst Rama waiting in camp 

comes out on hearing the news of his brother being wounded 4626 and 

tries to pull out the sword without avail 5320. The sword has to be 

pulled out by a mystic concoction which Pipek is prepari,ng 5354. 

An episode which is more fully portrayed here is that of the battle 

of Indrajit, son and heir of the King of LolJka. We commence with 

Tosakanth giving orders 5328 to a young nephew to summon Indrajit 

to give battle, then a standing figure of Indrajit 5382 and a corpse of 

the criminal who is instructed to portray Sida and beheaded in sight of 

Prince Laksh at the head of his army. The picture here is that of the

HIDE l•'IGUHES OF THE 1\AMAK!E:N 65 

criminal who after death reverts to his demoniac form 5355. Then 

in order to carry out his rite of vivification of his arrow undisturbed, 

Indrajit gets a cousin Ma1Jkarakarna ( Skt. Makadilcsha ) to make a 

delay action in which the demon prince, a skilled archer, shoots at 

Rama almost piercing the latter's mail coat 3945 and then, finding 

himself getting worsted, creates by magic numerous figures of himself 

4622 but is finally killed. Meanwhile Indrajit performs his mystic 

rites 5345 till frustrated by the enemy who got to know of it from 

Pipek. Nevertheless he comes out to battle disguised as Indra on his 

celestial mount Erawan and thus disguised shoots down the whole 

army including its leader Laksh who lie as good as dead on the battlefield. 

Hanuman however had dodged the mystic weapon and jumps 

up to engage the pseudo god on the elephant with the result that he 

drops down to the ground unconscious 3948 and is to be seen there 

by the side of Laksh 5348. Rama who has not come out with his 

army hears of it and hurries to the battlefield only to fall down fainting 

from grief. The demon-king sends Sidfi. on a celestial chariot to 

have a view of her dead husband and his brother but is assured by 

her companion that they are not dead though unconscious for a time 

for no widow can sit mid-air on this heavenly chariot 3808. Having 

recovered Laksh is sent out again to battle borne on the shoulders of 

Hanuman 5350. This time he shoots arrows and badly wounds 

Indrajit5342 and engages in a duel3944 with him. Losing everything he 

possesses Indrajit retires from the battle to bid farewell to his parents 

and wife 3946 and comes out again next day to fight a duel 5340 

before he is finally shot in the air and killed. 

Several princes and allies of LoiJkfi continue the fight for a 

long time. Two of them are represented here in the persons of Satthasura 

who sits 5363 receiving orders from the demon-king, After his 

death at the hands of Rama (no plate) another nephew of the demonking, 

ViruncambaiJ, coming out to battle on his war chariot 3949, 

assumes invisibility and rides his black horse killing the simian hosts 

5343; but finally disappears to hide in the ocean by the end of the 

world. Hanuman is sent after him and got information from a young 

maiden in a cave 5929 as to ViruncambaiJ'S whereabouts. On discovering 

the demon they fight 3947 and the demon is killed.

66 His Highness Prince Dhaninivat, Kromamun Bhidyalabll 

Now comes the last and most important stage of the war. 

Though having taken shares in the fighting at intervals, 'i'osakanth, 

now reft of most relatives and allies, engages the enemy in earnest by 

leading successive attacks in person. Our figures at this stage show 

Rama in battle 5388, 'fosakanth on his war-chariot 5332, Tosakanth 

in a duel with Rama 5317 & 5322, i'osakanth, sole, in a fighting attitude 

5387, his officers in fanciful uniforms of a door-sentinel- dvarnpala- 

5347 & 5353, Tosakanth in a fighting pose (the work of an artist 

similar in style as 5332, 5317, 5322) 5386, i osakanth and Rama 

again in duel 4629; then the demon-king again on his war-chariot 5337. 

Then the hermitage of Tosakanth's preceptor 5327, who believing in 

Hanuman's good faith in asking to join the demon camp presents the 

monkey general to the demon-king. At first naturally suspicious 

i'osakanth comes to believe his old preceptor; and, bestowing high 

honours on Hanuman makes him his heir 5331, 5379. As heir to the 

throne of LoiJka Hanuman comes out to battle in full state on the 

war-chariot of the demon court 5316. No. 5369 is a curious figure of 

.Hanuman dressed as the Prince Royal of Lo!J lea bearing Ram a and 

Laksh on either hand. The classic Ramakien of whichever version 

has none such incident. The only explanation that occurs to the 

writer here is that the figure conveys a visualisation of an offer which 

Hanuman makes to the demon-king to bring the enemy and deliver 

them into his hands. In the last but one battle of Tosakanth he is 

badly wounded 5321, his head and trunk cut apart but by means of 

his magic he is restored to normal. He retires into his citadel dejected 

and is comforted 5319 by his queens. After a night's respite 

he takes leave of them 5326 and assuming the form of Indra the god 

goes out to his last battle from which he knows he would never 

return. 

The remainder of the figures are mostly comic (5516, 5517) 

which have no bearing on the narrative. They were probably used 

to fill in gaps or complete ensembles in an exhibition of the shadowplay.

5383 1637 

5344 5346

5376 538l 

fi361 

5392

9:370 5::l62 

5360 5358

5099 

5364 

:1411 

5365

5349 5366 

::mo

5371 5377 

53tH 

5335

5336 5:173 

4628

5375 532:1 

!i:380

5:lfifi

53G7 5368 

5389 

5390

:1807 

5il2tl 

1626 

5320

s:J54 

5328 

5:JS2 

5:355

:J945 

1]622 

5:145 

3948

31!08 

5350 5342

3944 

3946 

5:l10 

5363

; i ~1·1 !l 

49~7

5388 5332 

5317 5322

5::387 5347 

5353 5386

46~9 

5377 

5327 

5331

:i3H') 

5321

1. __ _ 

5319 

532(j 

5516 

5517

NOTES 

WAT SiJUM 

In our notice of Recent Siamese Publications No. 299 { JSS 

LII, 1 ), where it was mentioned that Prince Naris commented on the 

significance of this name, we were inclined to accept the Prince's 

belief that the name was an abbreviation of" Risijum ", i.e. an assemblage 

of risis or seers. 

A reader has kindly drawn our attention to the fact that in the 

north the word si is equivalent to the Po, or bodhi, tree. The name 

therefore of Sijum has another quite probable alternative interpretation, 

that of an assemblage of Po trees. 

SRIRAiA 

As actually spelt now ( f!1'·mf1) the name does not seem to 

have any significance either from any linguistic or historical point 

of view. Literally it would be translated as' The auspicious king'. 

The locality has however never had any connection with royalty at 

any time. It seems hard therefore to explain the name. Now, in the 

village there is an old monastery in which stands an old Po tree of 

large dimensions indicating its great age. Supposing that SI means a 

Po tree as said above, it is tempting to imagine that Sriraja ( 1'1i'l1'lf1) 

might have been a Sanskritised form of just SIRAJA, the 'King of 

Po Trees' ~'ll'lfl; and the monastery might have taken its name in the 

sense of the Monastery of the King of Po Trees and the village that of 

the Village of the Monastery of the King of Po Trees. The name is often 

written Srimahiira:ja but that is the same as the commoner name of 

Sriraja. If this hypothesis is possible of being accepted the name 

should be henceforth just SIRAJA, the 'Village of (the Monastery of) 

the King of Po Trees'.

LAVO 

The use of this name is confirmed by Chinese sources where it 

is LOHOK dating from quite ancient times. Historians have been 

inclined to suspect that the name was one of the Dvaravati culture. 

Its meaning was doubtful and has not been explained. 

We have however another source of its use. In the inscription 

of Pra Khan (mid-fourteenth century) King Jayavarman mentioned 

that he sent the images of the Jayabuddhamahanath which he had cast 

on the occasion of the celebration of his victory over the Cham and 

the rebuilding of the capital of Angkor and the erection of the Nagara 

Jayasri (Pra Khan) to 23localities, among which were Lavodayapura, 

Svarnapura Jayarajapuri, Vajrapuri etc. This was later than many of 

the Chinese mentions of LOHOK. It could well have been Sanskritised 

from an indigenous name. 

This note comes to no definite conclusion but is intended for 

scholars to make use of for further identifications. 

rJJhani 

25 April 1965

DATA ON CONDITIONED POISON 

( A Folklore Study ) 

Cf>h!;a _.Anurnan Cff.ajadhon 

Acting President, Royal Institute 

"Conditioned poison" is a translation of the Thai word ya 

sang l'.llrf~ meaning literally ordered or directed medicine, or in this 

particular instance it means poison which, if taken, will become 

operative only on certain conditions as ordered or directed in the 

prescribed formula. If anyone inadvertently eats or drinks anything 

in which there is such a poison, he will eventually die in a specific 

period of time or when partaking certain specific food as conditioned 

in the poison. I heard of this type of poison quite a long time ago in 

my boyhood days. It was supposed to be prevalent somewhere in 

outlying districts where rustic people lived. If a city or town dweller 

intended to make a trip to such localities, he would be forewarned 

by well-wishing persons to be careful about taking any food or drink 

as offered. By a mishap he might be poisoned with ya sang 

administered in the food or drink he was partaking. This was not 

done by the folk in the di~trict to a sojourner through malice, but 

only to make a test of the potency of the ya sang prepared by the 

folk on a stranger. Normally the ya sang vvould be administered 

solely in vengeance to a person who had done an injurious wrong to 

the owner of the poison. Hence the formula of ya sang was wellguarded 

and known to a few persons only. If by chance the secret 

of the formula fell into unworthy hands and any misdeed was done, 

the owner of the secret would be held to have sinned implicitly 

as a party with the guilty one. If by necessity or otherwise the 

owner of the formula had to impart the secret to someone, he 

would demand the usual promise from the sharer of the secret not 

to utilize the poison in an unworthy cause or to divulge the secret 

to another person. Such was the information I had by hearsay about 

the poison ya sang. 

In the year 1952, I made a holiday trip to Karat, a chief 

town in North-East Thailand some 250 kilometers from Bangkok. 

One morning I and other members of the party were in Pak Tong

7o 

PHYA ANUMAN RAJADUON 

Chai some 20 kilometers from Korat and a district well-known for its 

silk weaving industry. One of the party made a well-intentioned 

remark to me to be careful in taking food or drink in the district 

which had been known notoriously as a place where the poison 

ya sang was prevalent. No one could be sure whether a food or drink 

offered by the local people would not contain ya sang. At once my 

memory of the poison of my younger days was revived and aroused 

my curiosity. Here r was actually in the locality where the ya sang 

was known in practice. I began to seek more information on this 

famous or infamous poison. Fortunately the then Officer of Education 

of Korat Province, 1 who acted as our guide, knew something 

about the ya sang. Upon request he later on after the trip gave me a 

typescript copy of the formula in his possession. 

He said in it that the word ya sang was peculiar to Korat Province 

for a certain type of poison which might be sub-divided into 

three sub-classes, namely: 

( 1) Ya pit ( l'llWfl) or" poison". It is made from certain 

poisonous plants of the genus of wan plants, 2 powdered and mixed 

with bones of a species of cobra called hao Jai ( lJ,'lvl=fire cobra).:l 

Put a little amount of this mixed powder in spirituous liquor and 

whoever drinks it will suffer great pain and die within 4 to 5 hours 

if the right anti-dote against the poison is not admini~tered in time. 

(2) "Stomach-destroying poison" ( vnlnl1UTJH1Vll:t'ilm11) 

This sub-class of poison is prepared with a certain kind of poisonous 

wan plant which grows wild in a highland jungle. In fetching such a 

wan plant there is a complicated ritual process. 4 If it is desired that 

the victim should die after taking the poison when eating a specific 

food, usually, for example, the ground bone or dried smoked flesh of 

poultry to which the poisonous herb is added, the prepared poison 

1. Nui Thawin Chan!awong, now Officer of Education of Uthaidhani. 

2. See "Thai Charms and Amulets" IV Wan Ya by Phya Anuman Rajadhon. 

:3. "Fire Cobra" is believed to be a highly poisonous snake. While moving over the 

grass it leaves a scorched trace on the grass in its trail. 

,!. The formula does not give a detailed ritual process. Probably it is similar to the 

one given in my "Thai Charms and Amulets" for the three formulas for making a 

nang kwak charm.

DATA 0~ CO~IJ!TJON!m POISON 71 

will react fatally on the victim after a duration of time varying from 

7 to 120 days and depending on the constitution of the victim, or to 

the age or potency of the poison. If the right antidote is not administered 

in time, the victim will die or become impaired in strength 

both physically and mentally throughout the rest of his life. 

( 3) "Intoxicating or fumigative poison ( flllnBr~imnlJJl ). 

The poison is also prepared from a certain zvan plant. It is mixed 

with the food which the victim is partaking. The poison will react 

detrimentally against the victim, putting him in a state of morbid 

drowsiness or profound sleep within a specific time from one to lOhours 

relative to the strength and the amount of the poison. Beyond 

this limit of time the poison will lose its effectiveness. 

If the poison is meant as a fumigator, the skin of a kind of 

jungle toad called chong-kroang ( ~~ 1rl; ~ ) is added to the poison. 

This species of toad is the size of a man's palm in circumference, its 

skin is rough and nodular, exuding a nauseate odor. It is to be found 

wild on the banks of mountain streams and has as its abode a hollow 

of a big tree in the highland jungle. Only the male species is required 

and dried over the fire, the person preparing it being careful to avoid 

inhaling the smoke during the process. Its dried skin is powdered and 

mixed with the wan poison. Sprinkle a certain amount of the mixed 

poison powder over a fire, and let the wind blows the poisoned smoke 

towards the victim or victims. 

As noted above, these three sub-classes of ya sang are made of 

a certain kind of wan plant which has different names in various 

localities, but by a collective name it is called merely wan ya sang i.e. 

the conditioned poison wan. Only its root stalk is required; and it is 

to be uprooted when the plant is in bloom. There are two varieties 

of the root-stalk, white or reddish white in colour, the former one is 

better but rare. The leaves of the plant when in bloom are poisonous, 

harmful to the touch and give ulcerous pains. Most of the wild 

animals through instinctive experience avoid coming in contact with 

the plant in bloom. 

The root-stalk after it has been powdered has a white, yellowish 

or reddish white colour. If a quantity is mixed with an alcoholic

72 PHYA ANUMAN RAJADHON 

drink, instead of impairing the quality of its taste, it will heighten its 

intoxicating strength. The poison will retain its poisonous strength 

for a period of up to sixty days, and beyond this limit it will lose its 

potency. It is to be kept, completely hidden, in a cool place; but 

generally the country folk keep it in a quill of a fowl. When in use the 

hollow under a finger nail is utilized as a carrier, and secretly dipped 

in a drink of any kind. The effect of the poison is instantaneous 

after it reaches the victim's stomach. He will "feel sour in his 

mouth" ( ltl;\mho l due to hyperacidity in the stomach, there will 

be an abnormal flow of saliva in the mouth, nausea and swimming 

of the head, continued pain and weariness of the jaws with subsequent 

regidity of the jaws' movements abnormal cold in the belly area, 

heavy sweating all over the body, vomiting with the characteristic 

smell of the wan plant, quick pulsating of the heart, and a feeling 

of weariness in all parts of the body, the leg joints becoming stiff 

and bearing the body's weight with difficulty when rising or standing. 

The victim will die soon after if no right remedy to counteract the 

poison is found in time. However there are certain precautions 

before taking any drink. Always keep the wan plant called rangchiit 

( 11J~\?1) handy about onel or use a piece of ivory dipped into 

a drink as a test to see whether it contains poison or not; or have a 

cup fashioned from ivory to hold the ,drink. (Perhaps the ivory 

functions as a neutralizer of poison ). On the other hand, if a person 

shows a symptom of being poisoned as afore-mentioned there arc 

three ways to counteract iL, namely: 

( a ) To apply an emetic agent to the poisoned person in order 

to make him vomit. 

(b) Have a root-stalk of the "wan counteracting the poison" 

(no specific name is given) rubbed with water on a hard material and 

then mixed with alcoholic spirit. Pour the liquid down the victim's 

throat. 

1. Wan Rangchcit is a kind of climbing plant to be found sometimes grown in certain 

houses in Bangkok. It is a well-known medicinal plant, as far as I know, for 

counteracting certain poisonous agencies. Probably it is the same plant ventilago 

calycu!ata (Rflatlllraceae) given in McFarland's Thai· English Dictionary, Bangkok, 

1941, under the word ra11g-darmg p. 707. McFarland does not give the word 

rang-clriit in his dic.tionary.

I>A'.I'A UN CONDITIONED POISOl\ 

(c) If the victim suffer a rigidity of the jaws, have seven 

fresh field-crabs pounded and mixed with water. Pour the mixture 

forcibly down the victim's throat once only. The victim will revive 

instantly. Have a cup of boiled ash-pumpkin or white gourdl 

water given to the sufferer to drink, and he will be cured from the 

poisonous effects. The above information is meant for the poison in 

sub-class ( 1 ) "Ya-pit" only. 

Now we come to the poison in sub-class (2), "Stomach-destroying 

poison". It is mixed either with solid food or drinks. The country 

folk call this sub-class of poison ya-yen (=cooling poison) or ya nguluam 

( = phython poison). The victim inadvertently taking such 

poison will show a sign of the symptomatic effects after he has 

eaten certain kinds of food as tacitly specified in the poison. He will 

become giddy; there will be pains in the throat or on the back of the 

neck, flatulence in the stomach with a hard mass felt in the abdomen, 

continual high sensitivity of the teeth, abnormal falling of hair from 

the head, the nails from both hands; the feet stop growing and start 

shrinking gradually, there is yellowness of the eyes, white spots 

appear all over the nails of the hands and feet, the edges of the 

ear-lobes become red in colour and begin itching, and there is a feeling 

of weariness all over the body. 

The antidote is the same as in sub-class ( 1 ). If in doubt 

whether one has been poisoned with the ya-sang, have a few drops of 

the sap of sweet potato poured into alcoholic spirit or drinking 

water and let the sufferer drink it. If he is really being poisoned 

with this sub-class ( 2) of Ya-pit, he will show a sign of high perturbation 

or will eructate with the smell of the wan poison. Rub some 

ivory with water and mix it with alcoholic spirit or lime juice. After 

drinking such an antidote twice or thrice, the victim will revive and 

finally be cured. 

Stib-class ( 3 ), "Intoxicating or fumigative poison". The 

victim of this poison will have a symptom of becoming sleepy, feeling 

dazed before the eyes, giddy, with a headache and weariness all over 

the body. If it is known that one is being poisoned, the first aid is to 

l. Beninca~a cerifera ( Cucurbitaccae) -McFarland.

74 PHVA ANUMAN RAJADI-idN 

inake the person vomit. Subsequently let him drink either boiled 

ash pumpkinl water, boiled phak boong2 water, boiled sweet potato 

water, or certain specific wan-ya boiled. He will be cured. As this 

class of poisoh is not fatal, the victim will be in a stupor for a period 

of time, but will gradually become normal in self even if no antidote 

is used. The thing to do is simply to have plenty of rest, 

Though all three of these sub-classes of poison as described 

ate collectively called ya sang or conditioned poison~ it is sub-class 

( 2 ) 1 the stomach-destroying poison only that is relevant to the sub· 

ject I am writing about. I have translated the notes given to me in 

full, for the reason that it is more or less informative for the study 

of folk medicine. 

Though ya-sang or conditioned poison is well-known, the people 

know it only in name; no one as yet can enlighten me with a 

satisfactory answer to verify the fact of the practice of this wellknown 

kind of poison. As Korat is geographically the main gateway 

from lower Central Thailand to the North-Eastern part of the country, 

one naturally thinks the practice of conditioned poison must 

have prevailed in some localities of the latter area. A friend of 

mine 3 who was a Nai Amphur or district officer in Chaiyabhum, one 

of the North-East provinces adjoining Korat, wrote me in answer to 

my enquiry that during the past twenty-three years of his career as a 

police and district official in many localities4 of the North-East Area 

he had never come across any case relating to conditioned poison. 

Only cases in connection with yang nong (upas tree poison) had come 

to him in his official capacity. 

He further states that the ya-sang or 

conditioned poison is to be found only as hearsay in Korat. The 

people there told him that the ya-sang is made from a kind of animal 

like a toad which has a skin the colour of a "newly-made em'thern 

1. Benincassa cerifera ( Cucurbitaccae)- McFarland under the word Wfl p. 606. 

2 Ipomoea aquatica ( Convolvu!aceae) -McFarland under the word J~ p. 484. 

3. Police Lt. Busya Chintana, now Deputy Governor of Udorn Dhani P~ovince in the 

North-East Area. 

4. In the provinces of Nakhon Panom, Khan Kaen, Nongkhai, Udorn Dhani, 

Cbaiyabh)lm.

DATA ON CONDITIONED POISON 75 

pot" (whitish-red). Its name is Katangjai (m:;Yi'H'lvl). It has very 

poisonous knobs on its skin. Have this katang fai dried and then 

pounded into powder. Secretly put a certain amount of the powder 

in a spirituous drink, and whoever partakes it will die within two or 

three hours after drinking it. This is an ordinary poison in the simple 

sense of the word, but there is another kind of poison named ya-sang 

or conditioned poison. It is made with a certain kind of plant like 

wan petchahung ( ~1lll'W'll1~~ ) 1 to be found on the mountains. This is 

mixed with poison from a certain kind of poisonous animal, and it 

has to pass through a magical process to arouse its potency by the 

use of a spell or incantation. If the poisoner wishes his victim to 

die conditionally when eating a certain kind of meat after a specific 

number of days or months, such a kind of meat is to be added to the 

poison. Have this poisonous mixture inserted into the mouth of a 

cobra (dead?), cut the cobra's throat and bury its head for the same 

number of days or months after which the poisoner desires his victim 

to die. The cobra's head is then dug up and pulverized into a 

powder. Secretly mix it with food or drink and its effect on the 

partaker of the food or drink is death if the victim eats certain meat 

as specified by the poison after a certain conditioned time period. 

Further enquiry from another friend, who was then district 

officer of Aranyaprades,2 a border district adjoining Cambodia, elicits 

the following facts : 

The practice of ya-sang is to be found prevalent among the folk 

in nearly all parts of the country. In some places it is called ya klom 

nang non ( tllfl~'illJllHlHlll =medicine to lull a maiden to sleep). Prominently 

it is to be found in certain parts of the provinces of Chanta~ 

buri and Prachinburi.3 

1. "A species of giant orchid ( Grammato phyllum speciosum )." McFarland, Thai· 

English Dictionary. 

2. Nai Thiam Ajakul, now Deputy Director-Geneml of the Department of Public 

Welfare. 

3. These two provinces adjoin Cambodia on their north-eastern and eastern frontier 

respectively. The localities where the practice of ya-sang is more frequently in 

the province of Chantaburi are:- Ban (Village) Sam phan ta ( U1'1-1!;1'1lJW~m ) 

in Krabinburi district; Ban Nang Yai ( Ulll'l1ll'eNl'l1qj ), Ban Chong Kuin 

( Ul~~'il~fllJ) and Sre Or ( ll'llHJ'il) in Watana district; and !ambon (commune) 

" 0 " 5I! 

Klang Nam Sai ( ~11Jl'l!Hl'1l~U1 ~ff) in Aranyapades district.

76 PHYA ANUMAN RAJADI\ON 

The ingredients of the ya-sang as practised by the folk are as 

follows:- 

· ( 1 ) Bile from a pea-fowl. 

( 2) Ching-kroang ( ~\lifl~~ ), a species of spider, smaller in size 

than the common spider but with longer legs. It is found in a hole 

in the forest or in a mountain cave. It moves slightly similar to 

common spiders when approached by man. ( The word ching-kroang 

and the afore-said chong-kroang- a kind of jungle toad-have nearly 

identical pronunciation). 

( 3) Bile from rnang-han ( 1~~1111.1 ), a species of small caterpillar 

which gives a severe smarting pain if touched. 

( 4) Rang-hae.fungus ( 1 ~~l; Hl! 11 ) to be found wild on the ground 

with hangings like meshes of a net.l 

( 5) Arsenic 

( 6 ) Acid ( in liquid form) 

Have ingredients (Nos. ( 1 ) to ( 4)) roasted separately and then 

pulverized each into powder'. Mix these with the other ingredients 

(No. 5 and 6) and store it in a glass bottle sealing it with a glass 

stopper. The poison cannot be wrapped with paper or cloth for it will 

corrode the wrapper. While preparing the mixture care must be taken 

not to be against the wind lest the poison will be borne along with 

the wind with harmful effect to a person nearby. 

If it is desired that the intended victim should become sleepy 

and then die in his sleep through the effect of the said ya-sang, add 

roasted lampoang seeds2 and ganja.3 The victim will become mad 

and subsequently die. The ya-sang can be used as a purgative by 

adding a certain amount of quick-silver. The victim will have a 

morbidly profuse discharge of blood from the intestines through the 

corrosion of the poison in the stomach. 

The ya-sang can become a conditioned poison when the victim 

is eating a certain kind of food or fruit; in this case have such food 

1. A species of fungus having poisonous or intoxicating properties- McFarland's 

Thai- English Dictionary on word 1'1~1111 (rang lzae ). 

2. Datura bojeri (Solanaceae) stra/monium- McFarland. 

3. Cannabis Sath·a ( Urticaceae) -McFarland.

DATA ON GONDJ'l'JONED POISON 77 

or fruit roasted and mixed with the ya-sang. The person will die 

only after being poisoned when he .eats such food or fruit as conditioned. 

The ya-sang can be secretly mixed with food or drink; 

preferably alcoholic drink which has an instantaneous effect. 

The victim will be in a state of perturbation within 3 hours 

after having taken the ya-sang (with acid mixture) with burning pain 

in the throat and breast, suffering from a colicky pain and severe 

headache. If the ya-sang is mixed with quick-silver he will have 

an acute diarrhea, deteriorate in mentality, becoming lean with 

pale skin like someone with a chronic fever, and will vomit blood. 

This is the ordinary symptom of being poisoned with the" unconditioned" 

ya-sang. If the victim is being poisoned with the "conditioned" 

ya-sang, he will die after eating the conditioned food or 

drink within 24 hours. The effect of the poison shows a symptom 

of blood in the eyes and of urination also with blood. 

To test whether a person is being poisoned with ya-sang, let 

the poisoned person eat a ripe water melon. If he is relieved from 

the symptom temporarily only, it is to be inferred that he has been 

poisoned· with ya-sang. If in doubt let the sick person eat taeng-ran 

( 111m"1\.l- a variety of large sized cucumber) or he should drink a 

,, " 

mixture of nam sao Mao ( 1hli11'll1'J washing water from rice before 

boiling) with a root of mayom ( .m:1JIJ - star gooseberry tree) majuang 

( lJ~l~'Cl\1- Carambola tree) rubbed with water. The above medicine 

is not a curative agent against the ya-sang but to relieve the patient 

temporarily only. If still in doubt have the leaves and roots of chUJnhet 

khao l?hwai ( ~IJI {fl'll '111fl111J ) 1 or ordinary chumhet boiled as a decoction 

and administer it to the patient. If he vomits or has a watery 

discharge from the bowels instantly after drinking it, it .is a sign 

that he has actually been poisoned. A remedy counteract the poison 

is to be administered to the patient immediately. 

There are many remedies counteracting the poison. Three of 

·them as revealed with reluctance by the owner of the secret are as 

follows: 

1. Cassia opp. McFarland's Thai- English Dictionary gives names of many species 

of chumhet but not of above species.

78 PHYA ANUMAN RAJADHON 

Remedy 1. 

( 1) Root of praang-ja ( 1u1~,!1,) 1 

( 2) Ya nang daeng ( Vl1J1\llll'l~) 

Rub these with "washing water from rice before boiling" and 

then mix it with alcoholic spirit, or have these two materials boiled 

as a decoction. 

Remedy 2. 

( 1 ) Nguang chum ( \l1~~lJ -probably a species of herb'/) 

( 2) Hua euang ( 'ri11~'el~ -the bulb of a kind of orchid) 

( 3) Krachao Sida ( nnt'11"1ril'l1- a species of orchid with broad 

leaves hanging from its stalk. It is commonly to be found in various 

places both in a wild or domestic state. 

These are to be boiled together for the patient to drink. 

Remedy 3. 

( 1) Root of no.tanong ( t1HI'VI1:1H probably lotanong tfll'l'Vl~IJ\l--a 

kind of tree ). 

(2) Red Hang-lai ( m~h·H'llll'l\l ).2 

( 3) Root of sihuat (1lfl~'l1dl'l-probably a kind of tree). 

These are to be rubbed with "washing water from rice before 

boiling" with gratings of gold, silver and lead added. This will have 

a purgative effect instantly after drinking the mixture. 

Method of examination to find whether a person is poisoned 

by the ya-sang. 

Squeeze the finger nails of a person and see whether the blood 

runs to the bases of his nails. If, when releasing the pressure, the 

blood runs back slowly, it is a sign that the person has been poisoned 

by the ya-sang. 

If the person dies his mouth will become swollen, the tongue, 

and also the body, will become black in colour with spots on the 

breast. And the belly will bulge out within 30 minutes after death. 

1. Murraya Siamensis ( Rutaceae ) -McFarland. 

2. Amarantus cruentas (Amaranthaceae)-McFarland.

DAtA ON C()NDl'l'IONED POlSON 

'the writer further stated that he had the above information 

from a certain Buddhist head priest who exacted a promise from him 

that he on no account utilized the knowledge of ya-sang on living 

beings either man or animal. For a breach of promise the divulger 

of the secret would bear a burden of sin. The secret he gave was 

knowledge for knowledge 1 s sake only. Psychologicaliy this is the 

idea among the folk that they are not accomplices to any evil deeds 

done, therefore there is no sin on their heads for whateVer secret 

knowledge is divulged by them. 

In one of the papers read at the Conference of Psychiatrists of 

Thailand in Chiengmai in 1950 1 there is a topic on the ya-sang. The 

belief of the folk as to the nature of ya-sang with its symptons affecting 

a poisoned person, as related in the paper, save in a few minor 

details, is fundamentally the same to what has already been described. 

It classifies the ya-sang into three categories, namely: 

( 1 ) Y a-sang relating to food. Particularly, it is called in accOt·dance 

to the nature of the food or fruit which has been added as 

an ingredient in the ya-sang> such as ya-sang-nua ( meat conditioned 

poison), ya-sang niia khem (salted meat conditioned poison), ya-sang 

kluay (banana conditioned poison) and so on. 

( 2) Ya-sang wan (conditioned poison relating to days of the 

week). A person will die after eating this class of poison within, 

say 5, 7 or 15, specific days. 

( 3 ) ya-sang ayu (conditioned poison relating to age). A person 

partaking this class of poison will suffer a lingering chronic illness, 

every now and then, throughout the span of his life. 

The author says in his paper that he has tried to find out what 

kind of herbs and plants are used as the principle ingredients of the 

ya-sang, but failed to do so. Several people informed the author that 

when they wanted a ya-sang made they got the desired herbs or plants 

from jungle folk, or from people who lived far away from the general 

populace, such as the Karen tribes or the Negritos. 

1. l;'1l.J lJ1~V11J iu rm th~'ltlJ~I'l LIW'I'I~ ml.J lin l'l'lfl' hw w. fl'. ~

so 

PHYA ANUMAN i~AJADtlON 

Here are the ingredients and the process of manufacturing the 

ya-sang so far as the mHhor has been able to find out. 

(I) Certain kind of herbs or plants. (Informers would not 

give their secrets). 

( 2) Moss from a bate (Buddhist temple) or boundary stones 

of the bote.l 

( 3) Barks from various kinds of trees which spirits or geriii 

inhabit such as takien tree,z habok tree.3 Oblation has to be made to 

the genii of the tree before the bark can be stripped from the tree. 

( 4) Have the above ingredient, I to 3 boiled until all the 

water has evaporated to dryness and the substance becomes a powder. 

There is a certain rite relating to the boiling of the ingredients. 

They are to be boiled in the precinct of a cemetery and have human 

skulls as supporters of the utensil over the fire-place. During boiling 

the operator has to recite certain mantras or incantations throughout 

the process. 

If the right antidote is administered in time to a person who 

has bee,n poisoned by the ya-sang, he may be cured. The remedy 

is called ya-ton ( fl1tt'Ell4=nullifying medicine) which the owner keeps 

secret. If pressed, he will divulge the secret only by saying that it 

includes, unspecifically of course, certain kinds of medicinal herbs 

and plants as the main ingredients. There is also a speCial incantation 

to invoke the potency and to assert their effect of such herbs and 

plants ratifying their potency against the ya-sang. 

The belief in the ya-sang is prevalent in the southern area 

(Upper Malay Peninsula) of Thailand up to the present day, 

dominating the mind of the folk, and in particular, among the preliterate 

people inhabiting the fringe of forests and jungles. The 

ya-sang is very wide-spread in the Tapi River Valley in the province 

of Surat, and also in the provinces of Nakorn Sri Thamarat and 

Patalung. 

1. It is worth noting that moss from a bote or boundary stones of a bote is also us~d 

to counteract love philter. 

2. Hopea odorata CDiptero carpaceae-Mc!7arland.) 

:3. Irvinga malayana (Simarubaceae-McFarland.)

DA'l'A ON CONDITJONED POISON 81 

The author further states in his paper that he himself had been 

an eye-witness to one case and also knew someone who was a witness 

to another of persons who were supposed to have been afflicted with 

ya-sang. 

Case 1. 

A young villager strong and healthy, 22 years of age, was in 

love with a girl of another village. Before his death the young man 

had eaten boiled pumpkin at the girl's village. A few days later he 

ate some meat curry with rice in his own village, and had a convulsion 

with stiff jaws. He died instantly. The young man, before 

dying had confided to his friends that he was in love with a girl in 

another village and had eaten boiled pumpkin, there. The dead man's 

relatives suspected that the young man was poisoned by ya-sang 

which had been sprinkled either on the pumpkin or on coconut shreds 

(mixed with a little salt and sugar to be eaten with pumpkin as a 

sweet-meat). The man who told this story was known by the author 

for a number of years and the man's story was a bona fide one. 

Case 2. 

A man, an acquaintance of the author, living in the village 

Kroot ( ~'huflfl~~) on the upper reaches of Tapi River, Surat Province, 

came to consult the author for a certain ailment. He had a swollen 

abdomen and could not be cured by folk medicine. The author failed 

in his diagnosis of the disease. The sick man went to Bangkok as a 

patient of a certain hospital, but later on came back as an incurable 

and entered a hospital at Nakorn Srithamarat. Again as an 

incurable he went back to his home and died there. The villagers 

believed that he had been poisoned with ya.sang, and there was some 

gossip to the effect that the man had been poisoned by a certain 

person of that village. The dead man was the headman there and 

had died through malice of one of the villagers. The author suspected 

that the man might have died of cirrhosis through the hardening of 

the liver. He might perhaps have taken something which was injurious 

to that organism. Probably he might have drunk a large 

amount of arrack or ardent spirit which is generally found in most

82 PHYA ANUMAN RA.TADHON 

outlying villages in Thailand or he had actually been poisoned by 

ya-sang. No one really knew. 

The author summed up his opinion on ya-sang by saying that 

it existed, but in the form of ordinary poison only. The strength of 

such poison is variable for the reason that it is made from certain 

poisonous herbs or trees which cannot be standardized by scientific 

measurements. The effect of the poison is, therefore, variable too. 

The victim of the poison may die instantly or have a lingering death. 

In many cases the effect of the poison is on the liver, an organ having 

a function to thwart and destroy poison. Some people may have a 

strong constitution and the amount of poison may be relatively small, 

or perhaps the poison is not up to the standard of strength, the poison 

is, therefore, harmless to the partaker. In such cases the poisoner 

may plead the excuse that the poison had lost its potency, or the 

intended victim had been very careful of his food or drink and had 

never taken such food or drink as conditioned by the poison. Perhaps 

when the poison as taken, becomes active in function a man dies 

merely by coincidence at the time when he has eaten certain food or 

drink. It is the word sang meaning to direct or command which has 

taken a strong hold on the country people who dread certain consequences, 

which, in reality, come from only an ordinary poison, 

nothing more nor less. 

My subject on the ya-sang is still incomplete and what is 

written here is meant as data for further studies only.

MUNICIPALITY 

AYUTTHAYA 

( 

OF 

1962 

. 

~ 

CH.40 

;ltp~'~''~'"~''~"~T~H~AH~O~N~~~~~==dl 

Poilu 1 

._ Htadquar~trl 

' . 

Figure 1.

'KRUNG KAO' 

THE OLD CAPITAL OF AYUTTHAYA 

~arry 

by 

cSternsiein 

The Australian National University 

Canberra 

In the Chula era 712, the year of ihe tiger, on Friday the six!h of the 

waxing fifth month, at 9.54 a.m., the foundation of Ayudtlhya was !ai1l* 

At the same time as he formally announced the assumption of 

sovereign kingship ( styling himself Somdetch Phra Ramadhipatil ) 

Phra Chao U Thong dedicated the side of his capital-' Krungthep 

Dvaravati Sri Ayuddhya '. 2 Three years earlier he had arrived at 

the site, encamping on the west bank of the Chao Phraya immediately 

south of the present municipality-that place now occupied by Wat 

* 

1. 

'Phra Rajaphongsavadan Krung Kao Chabab I-lluang Prasot ', that is, Luang 

Prasot's History of the Ayutthayan Period, tr. Frankfurter as 'Events in Ayuddhya 

from Chulasakaraj 686-966 ', Selected Articles from the Siam Society Journal, 

vol. 1 (1904-1929), 195

134 Larry sternstcin 

Buddhaisawan (see figure 1) which he afterwards erected to consecrate 

his temporary residence. 3 Apparently, both the consolidation of 

the kingdom ( which, at the time of accession in 1350, appears, even 

from the most grudging appraisal, to have included the whole of the 

basin of the Chao Phraya and the lands to both east and west as far 

as the frontiers of the Khmer and Burmese dominions, as well as the 

States to the south, including much of the Malay Peninsula ) 1 and the 

preparation of the site of the new capital, occupied this three-year 

period. It seems unlikely that, as has been suggested, this interval 

was spent anxiously awaiting the propitious moment to openly deny 

allegiance to the then all but powerless suzerain of Sukhothai.!i While 

3. 

-!. 

5. 

Indian civilization and Buddhist religion which has left in the southwest of Siam 

archaeological traces characterised by pronounced archaism and a rna nifest reselll· 

blnnce with Gupta art'. Coedcs notes further that, ' This name, Dviiravati, 

mentioned in the 7th century by I-Isuan·chuang and I-d1ing ... seems to have 

been borne at first by a town situated in the neighbourhood of Subarnapuri 

[ Suphan Buri] or of Brah Pathama [ Nnkhon Path om], and then npplied to 

Ayudhya ... ',though Pelliot (as quoted by Luce, G.H., 'Countries Neighbouring 

Burma', Burma Research Society .Joumal, val. 14 ( 2 ), 1925, p. 181) subscribes 

to' the opinion of M. Aymonier according to which Dvaravati must have formerly 

been Lopburi ', dismissing what, in truth, must be considered n presumptuous 

siting by Colonel Gerini 'on an island in the Menam, at the height of t\yuthia '. 

See II.R.H. Prince Damrong, 'Siamese History Prior to the Foundin 1 ~ of Ayudhyn', 

tr. Crosby, Selected Articles from the Siam Sou'ety Journal, vol. :l, Early 

History and Ayudhya Period, 1959, p. 100. 

'At the time of the foundation of Ayut'ia ... King Rarna Tibndi probably held 

sway over the districts of Ayut'ia [ Ayutthaya]. Lopburi [Lop Buri ], Sup' an 

[Suphan Buri ], Ratburi [Rat Buri ], P'etchaburi [ Phet Buri ], N:1 k'on Srit'arnmarat 

[ Nakhon Si Thammarat ], Singora [ Songkhla ], Chantahun (conquered from 

Cambodia ) [ Chantaburi] Tenasserim and Ta voy. He had even ex tended his 

con~uests as far as [the position of?] Malacca ... ' (Wood, W.A.I~ .• ,1 History 

of Siam, 192,1, p. 64 ). 

See Phya Boranrajadhanin, 'Ayutthaya ',-Annals: .-1 Compilation (in Tbai) 

pt. 63, 1~36, P· ~4 and Damrong, 'Siamese History Prior to the Pounding of 

Ayu~hya •. 0 P· czt .. P· ~00. T~ough published by the Fine Arts Department as 

on~ 1~1 a ser;~s of ht~toncal stud1es, Phya Boranrajadhanin's work has enjoyed but 

a limited edttlon wluch was distributed I th m . I I 

. . , . on y to ose o !CUI s present at the authors 

cremation. See also fn Amatyakul, The Thai Guide Boo'· . ·1 l/ 19"7 6 

1 ] · d · 11 d , rc . ' YI!C 1 va, .J , p. 

anc t 1e 1 enhca y war ed Guide to Ayu.dhya and Baug-l'a-In, l957, p. 7; for 

the most part these are poor partial t a ] t' 

. • r ns a wns o 

f 

· 

PI 

1ya Boranra]adhnnm 

· · • 

s workwinch 

source goes unacknowledged. The original st d b · 1 1 ·1 bl 

and, moreover, couched in rather complicated Tl u. Y ebmg on y rda.re y ~vm a 'lei 

· f lai, SU Sequent JSCUSSIO!l WI 

contam re erence, where possible, to the relevant f · T ·A k I' 

twin condensation; however th b . asse~ wns m n matya u s 

' e as1s for argument m these dual references 

always stems from the scholarly uncertain Ph a B . dh . 

Y oranra]a anm,

'KHUNG KAO': Tlll\ OLD CAPITAL OF AYUTTITAYA 85 

under Rama Kamhaeng U Thong was merely one of a large number 

of feudatory states; 6 but the empire-building activities of Phra Chao 

U Thong and his predecessor during thirty years following the end 

of Rama Kamhaeng's reign, about A.D. 1317, leaves little doubt concerning 

the independence of the Kingdom of U Thong-rather, it implies 

no small contempt for the rapidly waning power of the Kingdom 

of Sukhothai. The Annals of Ayutthaya even includes Sukhothai 

among those states subject to Ramadhipati upon his accession 7 

Tradition has it that Phra Chao U Thong shifted the capital 

from U Thong, near the present town of the same name, to Ayutthaya 

when a terrible pestilence, resulting from a scarcity of water 

caused by the silting up of the Nam Chorakhe Suphan, forced him to 

flee the former citadel. Though legend is often found to proceed 

from fact, in this instance that the city was not wholly abandoned, 

that Phra Chao U Thong, in fact, appointed his brother-in-law administrator 

of the old capital, 8 argues against such an unpremeditated 

departure. But even allowing the abandonment of U Thong to have 

been forced in this manner, this 'explanation' fails to account for 

the choice of the new site, some seventy-five kilometres almost due 

east from U Thong, save, perhaps, by the implication that the area 

was well endowed with the requisite resources-which, of course, is 

true. Damrong offers an additional explanation, which may be 

considered basically tenable: 'The land from Ayuddhya upwards 

consisted in great part formerly of low and marshy ground near the 

sea ... [and] all the principal water-courses of the region met together 

at that place, which thus derived importance as being situated at the 

mouth of a river and as being the gateway to the whole of the North 

from Sukhodaya up to Chiengmai' 9 - in other words, the site was a 

potential centre of communications. 

6. In retrospect, Damrong ( ' Siamese History Prior to the Founding of Ayudhya ', 

ojJ. cit., p. 97) believes it to have been a fairly large one, but this appears an 

untenable conjecture; certainly its area was rather closely circumscribed, if, as 

Damrong himself believes (ibid., p. 79) it was surrounded by the vassal states of 

Ayutthaya, Suphan Buri, Rat Buri and Tavoy. 

7. See Bishop Pallegoix's translation as quoted by Bowring, Sir J ., The Kingdom 

and Peoj>le of Siam, voi. 1, 1857, p.' 43. 

8. See Damrong, 'The Foundation of Ayuthia ', op. cit., PP· 201·2. 

9. Damrong, 'Siamese History Prior to the Founding of AyLlclhya ', oj>. cit., p. 99.

86 

Larry Stcrnstcin 

Considering, however, that the effective administration of the 

recently subjected States to the east (in the basin of the Chao Phraya 

and beyond) and south would demand a more strategically sited 

capital, it would be difficult to attempt to explain logically the choice 

of a position other than that at the confluence of the Chao Phraya, 

Lop Buri and Pasak rivers, in the centre of the fertile basin of the 

Chao Phraya, far enough from the sea to preclude, or at least discourage, 

marauding pirates, yet near enough to permit an efficient 

all-water connection with the States spaced along the littoral of the 

Gulf. 

Throughout, it has been tacitly assumed that the founder of 

Ayutthaya was previously the King of U Thong. Though the argument 

for this belief as presented by Damrong 10 appears irrefutable, 

is eminently logical, has been endorsed by the Historical Research 

Society of Siam and accepted by modern European historians 11 none 

of the five versions of the History of Ayutthaya offers any substantiating 

evidence. The 'official ' view is that Chao Phya U Thong 

migrated to Ayutthaya from Traitrung or Pep, which was located immediately 

south of the present town of Kamphaengphet. 12 Obviously, 

however, the basic argument as presented does not depend upon an 

exact positioning of the former capital; though it would suffer if 

Kaempfer's suggestion (accepted by Anderson ) 1 :1 that ' This City in 

ancient times stood at the place, which is now called Bangkok ... from 

whence it was afterwards removed to the place, on which it now 

stands ...•,ltl be regarded as proceeding from other than a misinformed 

or misinterpreted source. 

Moreover, the already defensible site, a westward jutting 

tongue of land formed by a meander of the Chao Phraya to the west 

10. See' The Foundation of Ayuthia ', op. cit., pp. 69-74 and' Siamese History Prior 

to the Founding of Ayudhya ', op. cit., pp. 97-100. 

11. See, for exa~ple, ~all, D.G.E., A History of Southeast Asia, 1960, p. 151 and 

Wood, ojJ. ctt., p. 63. 

1~. ~ee Damron~, H.R.H. Prince,_ 'The Story of the Records of Siamese History', 

:::Jclected :1rtzcles from the Szam. Society Jo 1 ,rnal val 1 ( 190,1-29) llJr:4 

82-98. ' . ' • • c) • PP · 

13. See English Intercourse with Siam in the Seventeenth Century, 1890, P· 17. 

14. Kaempfer, E., History of Japan, tr. Scheuzer val 1 1727 ·•? 3 

• · • • PP· '"~· ·

'KHUNG KAO': 'l'HE OW CAPITAL OF AYUTTHAYA 8'7 

and south, the Lop Buri to the north ( the present 'City Canal' see 

figure 1 ) and the Pasak to the east, could be rendered 'impregnable' 

by simply cutting through the narrow neck ofland between the Lop 

Buri and Chao Phraya rivers, and heaping up the mud so excavated 

(and that dug from other channels within the site) around the 

perimeter of the island created thereby, thus forming a base upon 

which to erect the stockade. Since no mention is made of these important 

works in the official histories of Ayutthaya, thougl1 several 

constructions of like import are noted in the years following the 

founding of the capital, it appears likely that they had already been 

accomplished when Phra Chao U Thong declared himself Somdetch 

Phra Ramadhipati; certainly they were completed within his reign, 

that is, prior to A.D. 1369. 15 

Unlike its better known and undoubtedly more spectacular 

Cambodian and Burmese counterparts 16 the Thai centre has not 

excited the enunciation of underlying geomantic principles, despite a 

very' similar, if not identical, Brahmanic-Buddhist/Indo-Chinese 

heritageP But that this 'magical symbolism which combined long 

experience with intuition, leading in the end to very practical results' 18 

did, indeed, guide construction in a number of instances, is indicated 

when allusions to associated ritual 19 are coupled with an examination 

15. See Phya Boranrajadhunin, oj>. cit., pp. 13-17, Tri Amatyakul, Guide to Ayudhya 

and Bang-Pa-In, oj>. cit., pp. 7 and 14 or The 'Thai Guide Book, J\yudhya, oj>. 

cit., pp. 6 and 12, and Wood, op. cit., p. 64. 

16. See the references cited by Wheatley, P., 'What the Greatness of a City is Said 

to be', Pacific Viewj>oint, vol. 4, no. 2, 1963, pp. 163-88 and, more particularly, 

V.C. Scott O'Connor's Mandalay and Other Cities of the Past in Bur111a, 1907 

and Coedes' fascinating little volume Pour miel!.T comj>rendTe !lngkor, 1947, 

made even more pleasurable when read in conjunction with B. Groslier and 

J. Arthaucl's remarkable pictorial study ilngkor, J11't and Civilization, 1957. 

17. See Heine-Geldern, H .. , Concej>tions of State mul Kingship in Southeast Jlsia, 

Data Paper Number 18, Southeast Asia Program, Department of Far Eastern 

Studies, Cornell University, 1956 and Quaritch Wales, H.G., Siamese Stale 

Ceremonies, 1931, particularly pp. 12-25. 

18. Gutkind, E. A., Revolution of Environment, 1946, p. 20. 

19. See Quaritch Wales, Siamese State Ceremonies, oj>. cit., pp. 302-7.

88 Larry Sternstein 

of contemporary town layouts, 20 or, more particularly, with late-17th 

century plans of Ayutthaya (see figures 2-7 ). Sinhalese Hinayanistic 

influences first appear in Thailand in about the 12th century and the 

mass conversion of the Thai from Mahayana Buddhism appears to 

have occurred during the 13th century. 21 While the Mahayana 

theory of divine incarnation requires that a temple occupy the centre 

of the capital, the Hinayana sect, recognising the king merely as a 

representative of the divine, requires that the palace occupy the 

centre. 

Invoking what might be termed a first principle of geomancy, 22 

then, that the palace should be sited in the centre of the walled area 

(the ruins of What Phra Sri Sanphet now mark the site of the original 

palace, 23 which was immediately south of the position noted on 

late-17th century maps, (see figures 2-7), this north-south cut or moat 

should have occupied a position coincident with that of the present 

Maharat Road ( see figure 1 ) which is shown as a canal on both the 

'French Engineer's' plan of Ayutthaya of 1687 and Kacmpfcr's plan 

of 1690. Such a position would also appear to allow for the 'exterior 

moat ... in addition to the already existing moat', 2·1 dug about 1550; 

20. See the maps of Kanchanaburi, Chaiyaphum, Chiang Rai, Chiengmai, Nakbon 

Pathom, Nakhon Ratchasima, Phrae, Roi Et, r~at Buri, Lop Buri, Lamphun, 

Sisaket, Sakhon Nakhon, Sara Buri, Surin, Ubon and, of course, Bangkok and 

Ayutthaya, in i1laps of the Caj,ital Districts of the ['ro·viwes of Thailand, in 

Thai and on various scales, Royal Thai Survey Department, 19fj0. 

21. See Quaritch Wales, Siamese State Ceremonies, ojJ. cit., p. Hl. 

22. An appreciation of the philosophy of geomancy, implications and it~ applications, 

may be gleaned from the most interesting expositions of Mircea Eliadc in l'allems 

in Contcm.porm·y Religion, tr. Sheed, 1958, chap. 10. pp. 369-82, and ( 'osmos a/Ill 

History, tr. Trask, 1954, ~hap. 1, pp. 6-21, ].].M. de Groot in The Religious 

System of China, val. 3, book 1, part 3, 1897, chap. 12, pp. 935-J05G, and Heine 

Geldern in Conceptions of State and Kingshij> in Southeast !lsi a, oj>. cit. tind 

'Weltbild _ und Bauform in S"d u os t as1en · ' TV· ,, zcner l' )Citrage · :::ur l\.111/St·IOUL - 

Aultl~rgeschic!~te ll.siens, val. 4, 1930, pp. 28-78, and from the many citations in 

Gutbnd, of'· czt., pp. 1·25 and 291-333. 

:!3. See Phya Boranrajadh~nin, of). cit., p. 86 and Tri Amatyakul, The Thai Guide 

1301 

2 '1. 1 : ilyudhya, 0 1'· cit, P· 26 or Guide to Ayudhya and Bang-Pa-In, of'· cit,· 

p. 90 

:.!4. Wood, oj•.

An apparently reasonable impression of late-17th century Ayutthaya 

may be obtained by combining that which is of value on each of 

the following representations; from the 'French engineer's' plan of 

1687, the disposition of the city's main streets and waterways, most of 

the important places, and scale and orientation; from Kaempfer's plan 

of 1690, the configuration of the 'Island' and its environs, and the location 

of a number of noteworthy sites; from the French plans of c. 1690, 

and c. 1685, a general indication of the use of the land and the distribution 

of the population; and, finally, from the Dutch views of c. 1725, 

an appreciation of the form of the city's more important structures. 

Note: A thousand paces equal c. 1.5 km.; a thousand Toise equal 

c. 2.0 km.; and a Lieu Germanique, apparently the old English league, 

equals c. 4.8 km.

A 'French Engineer's Plan of Ayutthaya; 1687 

From: The Siam Society's map collection. 

Figure 2. Since, as is likely, the 'French engineer' is Father Thomas Valgarneira (an 

Italian serving with the French Jesuits), the designer and supervisor-of-construction of 

the new fortifications erected at Ayutthaya late in the 17th century (begun in 1675 and 

here shown completed), and as the configuration, size, orientation and the disposition 

of the city's lineaments are remarkably consistent with present remains, it appears that 

this plan must be considered the most accurate representation of Ayutthaya available 

from this period. Note that the letters of a number of places cited in the legend are 

either missing from, or cannot be distinguished on, the map proper.

'1 .,._' 

,............ ... 

,;f4

. ~. 

' {. 

. A. L.r f"ih'« . 

;dl~J~I'f~::t!16fi,, B. L 4 P,¥/.uj. . 

C' · l.r P

French Map of Ayutthaya: c. 16B5 

From: Choisy, op. cit. 

Figure 5. Despite the misshapen eastern half of the 'Island' and the rather 

ill-disposed streams, scale and orientation, and the distribution of most of the major 

features shown (though several important places have been omitted and several misplaced) 

compares quite favorably with contemporary descriptions and what remains 

at present. The real value of this map, however, lies in its pictorial presentation, 

which, if somewhat overdrawn, gives a good general impression of the distribution 

of the population-making evident the vast amount of open space within the city 

walls. Note: Though this map is dateless, an are ally abridged version, reproduced in 

M. Garcon's introduction to the Paris Edition of Choisy'sjournal, op. cit., carries that 

o£1686-a date which agrees with that of c. 1685 deduced from several features shown.

Dutch Oblique Plan-View of Ayutthaya; c. 1725 

From: A recent color reproduction after the original in Valentyn, F., Beschryving 

van Oud en Nieuw Oost-Iizdien, Vol. 3, 1726. 

Figure 6. Though this view is hardly of a standard attained in Europe a century 

before, as, for example, in the civitates orbis terrarum, it appears an honest, if 

somewhat misguided, attempt at portrayal. Failing this, it yet succeeds, quite 

vividly, in depicting the great number of temples, their general architecture, as well 

as that of the palaces, and the large areas devoted to these structures.

f. •. 

!!." 

r- 

1 •. 

l 

!,t.•..·. 

' 

Portion of a Dutch Map of the Chao Phraya; c. 1725 

From: After Hutchinson, Adventurers in Siam in the Seventeenth Century, op. cit., 

which is after a portion of the original in Valentyn, op. cit. 

Figure 7. Obviously, a woefully inadequate 'map', but the architectural form of the 

principal structures shown (though here indistinct) is remarkably fine and well worth 

scrutiny; and the general emptiness of the area is made readily apparent. Note: 

Hutchinson labels this view 'seventeenth century', considering, no doubt, that that 

shown is based upon information gathered during the late 1600's.

'KHUNl; KAO': THE OLD CAPITAL OF AYUTTHAYA 89 

the latter occupying a position coincident with the channel of the 

present Makam-riang canal, about half-way between Maharat Road 

and the Pasak River to the east (see figures 1 and 2 ). However, the 

'official' view seems to be that the original moat, known as 

'Khu-na' ( literally ' front arch ' ), 'branched off from the Lop Buri 

river [the present much diminished channel of which is occupied by 

the so-called 'City Canal'] at the locality of Hua Raw [the northeast 

corner of the 'island'], and joined the Bang-kacha river at Pom 

Phet fortress ( the southeast corner of the ' island' ); 25 a position apparently 

coincident with the channel of the present Makam-riang 

canal. While offering no indication of the correctness of either 

position, that the eastern wall was ' pulled down and re-erected near 

the river bank ' 2 6 in A.D. 1580, seemingly confirms one of them, but 

the assertion of a simultaneous widening ( to twenty metres ) and 

deepening ( to six metres ) of this moat ( by then well within the 

walls) seems illogical; certaintly it was not undertaken for defensive 

purposes, as has been suggested. 27 

On the most recent official plan of Ayutthaya ( 1:4000, dated 

1956) the short stretch of water trending northwest-southeast between 

the 'City Canal' and the Pasak River (see figure 1 ) is regarded as a 

portion of the latter, but an alternative name is also given in recognition 

of common usage : the 'Khu-na' stream. This might, not too 

unreasonably, be interpreted as the persistence of a tradition having 

a basis in fact, for it appears quite logical, from present maps, to 

assume that the founding fathers would have simply cut through the 

narrow neck of land between the then wide Lop Buri and the Pasak 

rivers, rather than the relatively wide neck between the Lop Buri and 

the Chao Phraya. However, though at that time the Lop Buri ('City 

Canal') was a much larger stream, the Pasak was much smaller ; the 

width and depth of the present Pasak River at Ayutthaya have increa- 

25. Tri Amatyakul. The Thai Guide Boo/1: Ayudhya, oj>. cit., p. 6 or Guide to 

Ayudhya and Hang-Pa-In, 0}1. cit., p. 7, after Phya Boranrajaclhanin, ojJ. dt., 

p. 32. 

26. Frankfmter, oj>. cit., p. 58. 

27. See Phya Boranrajadhanin, op. c£t., p. 32 and Tri Amatyakul. The Thai Guide 

Boo!l: Ayudhya, op. cit., p. 6 or Guide to Ayudhya and Bang-Pa.[n, op. cit., 

pp. 7·8.

91J 

Larry Sternstci11 

sed greatly as the water of the Lop Buri has been redirected into its 

Channel. Given that the area enclosed was to be kept at a defensible 

maximum, it would have been folly to negate the strategic advantage 

of a wide band of water to the north, west and south by an unnecessarily 

long, narrow ribbon of water to the east. Cutting a direct northsouth 

channel from the Lop Buri to the Chao Phraya would not only 

reduce the length of an obviously vulnerable eastern perimeter but 

enhance the value of the Pasak as an outer 'moat'. It is possible that 

this cut was enlarged in 1580, but it appears more likely that the moat 

widened and deepened when the wall was moved to take advantage 

of the development of the Pasak channel (in 1688, Gervaise noted that 

'The great river laps its ( Ayutthaya's) walls on the southern, eastern 

and western sides•28 (my italics) and in 1690 la Loubere stated that 

The King's Palace stands to the North on the Canaf'2~J (my italics)) 

was the short one between the Lop Buri and Pasak rivers-a new 'front 

arch' or 'Khu-na'. 

The advantages of this site being evident, it must be assumed 

they had long been realised. But beyond a Khmer inscription of A.D. 

937 which cannot certainly be considered as in situ,3° the evidence-the 

large Buddha image in Wat Phanan- choeng, on the east bank of the 

Chao Phraya immediately below the confluence of the Pasak (see 

figure I), which was erected in A.D. 13243 1 and the head of another 

in a pre-Ayutthayan style, now enshrined in the Ayutthaya Museum32 

-permits of only conjectural, if logical, sitings prior to the 14th century, 

or, rather, prior to the ascendancy of the Kingdom of Sukhothai 

under Rama Kamhaeng (A.D. 1275-?1317 ), when, it appears (in the 

28. Gervaise, N., Histoire Naturelle et Polit.ique du Siam, 1688, tr. O'Niel as 

Mcmvires de Siam, 1929, p. 15. 

29. Ia Loubere, Simon de, A New HistoricaL Relation of the Kingdom of Siam, 

tr. S.P., 1693, p. 6. . 

30. See Coedes, G., 'Une nouvelle inscription d'Ayuthya ', JoumaL of the Siam 

Society, vol. 35, 1944, p. 73. 

31. See Frankfurter, op. cit., p. 46. 

32. See Tri Amatyakul, The Thai Guide Boo!~; Ayudl• '" 't 6 G 'd t 

'1 dl z .ya oJc .. cz ., p. or Jill e o 

.- yu zya 11/1( Bang-Pa.Jn, op. cit., p. 7.

'KRUNG KAO': THE OLU CAPITAL OF AYU'I'THAYA 

9i 

absence of any mention of the place) the occupation of so strategic a 

site by any considerable centre was not tolerated.33 

Some three hundred and fifty years after its founding, Ayutthaya34 

was still the centre of a kingdom, albeit a restive one, that 

comprehended much the same dominions claimed in 1350, plus those 

of the former Sukhothai Kingdom proper which had been wholly 

annexed by 1438.3 5 But the Kingdom had hardly remained static during 

the intervening period.: 36 Ayutthaya itself had been forced to capitulate 

to the Burmese following investment in 1568, thereby allowing the 

33. The meagre evidence for the existence of the !dngdom o£ Dvaravati which appears 

to have occupied the basin of the Chao Phraya by the 7th century and possibly as 

early as the 4th century (see Coedes, G., Les Etats liindmdses d' Indochine et 

d' Indonesie, 1948, p. 131 and Rect~eil des Inscriptions du Siam, op. cit., val. 1, 

p. 1; Briggs, L.P .. 'The Ancient Khmer Empire', Transactions of the American 

PhilvsojJhical Society, New Series, val. 41, part 1, 1951. p. 48; Luce, G.I-1., 

'Countries Neighbouring Burma', 13urma Research Society Journal, vol. 14 (2) • 

1925, p. 181; and Majumdar, R.C., !limlu Colonies in the Far East, 1944, p. 222 

and Ancient Indian Colonisation in 5'outh-East ilsia, 1955, p. 32) and Phya Boranrajadhanin's 

C ojJ. cit., p. 32) carefully qualified conjecture concerning a prior 

settlement on the site of Ayutthaya has deterred neither casual acceptance of a 

long period of prior occupation (see, for example, Damrong, 'The Foundation 

of Ayuthia ', oj>. dt., p. 201 and Wood, op. cit., p. 53) nor remarkable assertions 

to this effect (see Graham, A.W., ,)'iam, vol. 1, 1924. p. 28 and Tri Amatyakul, 

The Thai Guide Boull: llyudh:ya, oj>. dt ., pp. 4-5 or Guide to llyudh:ya and 

Bang·Pa-In, oj>. cit., pp. 5·6 ). 

34. 'Ayutthaya' is the official modern English equivalent of the Thai name. In 

addition to the many variants which resemble this rendering C e.g. ' Ayulhia ' or 

'Ayuddhya' ), 'Odia' (occasionally • Odiaa' ) '.Tudela' C occasionally' Judea', 

'Judia ', 'Juthia ', 'Juthya ',or' Hudia') 'Iudia' C occasionally misprinted C?) 

' India ' on maps ) and ' Siam ' ( occasionally ' Siaam ' ) were used by European 

writers of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. 

A number of infrequently used 

variants gleaned from the maps of this period are given by Wheatley (see The 

Golden K.hersonese, 1961, p. 235, footnote 3 ), and Anderson ( oj>. cit., p. 18) 

includes a partial list of early works in which several of the principal variants are 

to be found. 

35. See Frankfurter, op. cit., pp. 4G·8 and Wood, a}'· r/t., pp. 71-2 and 81.. 

36. See, for example, Wood, of'· cit., chaps. 5-1.4.

92 Lari' y Sternsteiti 

extension of Burmese suzerainty throughout the Kingdoi11 durirtg the 

period A.D.l569 to c.1585; 37 and had been reduced to a 'second capital' 

under Phitsanulok during the period A.D. 1463 to 1488 after constant 

incursions from Chiengmai prompted Rama Boromo Trailokanat to 

establish the capital in a position from which retaliation was more 

easily effected.ss Further, to the bloody intrigue involved in the 

enthronement of twenty-seven kings was added the diplomatic crises 

which developed from the cut-throat competition of Indian, Arab, 

Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese, Dutch, English and French factors as 

their governments' everchanging interrelationships.3 9 However, though 

the cumulated construction of three and a half centuries had wrought 

37. Important, though unsuccessful sieges were engineered by the Burmese C Peguans ) 

in A.D. 1549, 1564, 1568 and 1586; the Cambodians also laid siege in 1570 and 

1575. See Frankfurter, op. cit., jmssim, Wood, oj;. cit., pp. 108-57 and Hall, 

Oj>. cit., pp. 207-23. 

38. See Frankfurter, oj>. cit., pp. 49 and 5!, Wood, op. cit., p. 88 and Hall, oj>. cit;., 

p. 157. 

39. The seizing of Malacca in 1511, then a nominal vassal of the Thai king, led to a 

treaty in 1516 which permitted the Portuguese to trade at Ayutthaya and several 

of the peninsula ports. The Dutch East India Company did not·begin trading at 

Ayutthaya until almost a century later, in 1608 (though their factory at Pattani. 

a nominal Thai vassal, was opened in 1602 ), by which time Portugal had been 

united with Spain for some thirty years and their efforts in the East seem to have 

developed a more religious, less commercial bent. C Though a Treaty of Amity 

and Commerce between the Spanish Crown and Thailand was concluded in 1598, 

nothing seems to have come of it). Four years later the English East India 

Company was permitted to trade at Ayutthaya, being granted a plot of land close 

to that occupied by the Dutch Company. The Japanese, in the main religious 

refugees, had been allotted a 'quarter' by King Ekat'otsarot about five years 

previously. The first visit of French clergy in 1662, though unpremeditated, led 

to the establishment in Ayutthaya of the French Catholic Mission's headquarters 

for the propagation of the faith in the East, in 1664. Though the Mission attempted 

at the outset to interest the French Court in a trading venture at Ayutthaya, the 

French East India Company did not settle agents there until 1682, at which time 

political circumstances were such that they were especially favoured by being 

granted a' ramshackle house on the south side of the island', that is, within the 

city walls. (See Hutchinson, E.W., Adventurers in Siam in the Seventeent:h 

Century, 1940, chaps. 2 through 4; Wood, op. cit., chaps. 7 and 11 through 13; 

Hall, op. cit., chaps. 12 and 18 ). Arabs appear to have been trading at Ayutthaya 

in the 16th century (see Wheatley, The Golden Khersonese, OfJ. cit., p. 235 ) , 

and Indian and Chinese merchants were probably in residence when the city was 

founded-a Chinese section apparently being recognizable early in the 16th century 

(see Skinner, G.vV., Chinese Society in Thailand, 1957, p. 3 ).

'KiiUNG KAO': !'HE OLD CAPITAL OF AYUTTHAYA 93 

~l massive change in its appearance, that much had been, if not 

unaltered, but little affected during this period, is evident from 

contemporary description. 

In fact, brief general descriptions of Ayutthaya, while not 

numerous, are available from about the mid-16th century,4° but only 

three eyewitness accounts merit especial attention: Fernao Mendez 

Pinto's of about 1545; 41 Joost Schouten's of 1636;42 and John Albert 

de Mandelsloe's of 1637. 43 Pinto's description gathers value more 

from its antiquity than from its content-in truth, there appears to 

have been no attempt to describe the town per se-but in several instances 

what has been noted is useful in endeavouring to indicate the 

evolution of late-17th century Ayutthaya. Mandelsloe's description is 

useful for several remarks concerning the inhabitants, remarks which 

will be referred to during the discussion of the Ayutthaya of a halfcentury 

later, but, otherwise his observations follow those of Schouten 

so closely as to arouse the suspicion that the latter's contribution was 

40. See, for example, Balbi, G., 'His Voyage to Pegu, and observations there, gathered 

out of his own Italian Relation, A.D. 1583'. Punolws His Pilgrimes, vol. 10, 

1905, chap. 5, p. 163; Chevalier de Chaumont, A., Relation de l'ambassade de 

1\1.onsieur le Che·valier de Chaumont ala Coil/' d1t Roy, 1G86; Tavernier, J.B., 

Tavernier's Travels in India, tr. from the French eel. of 1676, val. 2, 1889, 

chap. 18, pp. 288-96; van Vliet, J.. 'Deseription of the Kingdom of Siam', tr. von 

Ravenswaay, .Journal of the Siam Society, val. 7, 1910, pp. 12-19 and82-3. 

41. In the Peregrina~am, 1558, but particularly in a long letter written in 1554 from 

Malacca to the Society of Jesus in Lisbon-Christovam Ayres, Fern7w Mendez 

Pinto, Subsidios etc., Lisbon, 1904, Appendix B. See The Voyages and 

Adventures of Ferdinand Mende.z Pinto, The Porlt(guese, tr. of the PeregTinaqam 

by H. Cogan. 1663, abridged version, 1890; Colli~, M., The Grand Pereg1·ination, 

1949; de Campos, J., 'Early Portuguese Accounts of Thailand; Selected Articles 

front the Siam Society .Journal, vel. 7, 1959, pp. 211-37. 

42. Schouten, J. and Caron, F., A True Descrij•tion 1~{ the Mighty Kingdoms of 

.lajJan and Siarn, 1671, pp. 124·25. 

43. de Mandelsloe, J.A., 'The remaining Voyages of John Albert de Mandelsloe, 

through the Indies, including his Descriptions of Countries, historical Remarks 

upon several Nations, and his Observations on the Commerce of the Portuguese, 

English, and Dutch at that Time, HaTris' Comj>lete Culleclion of Voyages and 

Travels, 1744, pp. 781-82.

94 Larry Sternstein 

firmly in mind. Schouten, resident at Ayutthaya for eight years and 

manager of the Dutch East India Company's factory from 1633 to 

1636 saw 'The City of Iudica [Ayutthaya_], the Metropolis of the 

King and his chiefest Nobles ... situate upon the River Menam !:Chao 

Phraya]' as 

... a little round Island, encompassed with a thick stone wall, 

about six English miles round ... [with] Suburbs ... on the 

other side of the River, closely builded, and full of Temples 

and Cloysters, lying in a flat fruitful Country. The Streets of 

the walled Town are many of them large, straight and regular, 

with channels running through them, although for the most 

part of small narrow Lanes, Ditches, and Creeks most confusedly 

placed; the Citizens have an incredible number of 

small Boats ... which come to their very doors, especially at 

floods and high water. The building of the Houses is ... slight, 

and covered with Tiles; but the City is beautified with more 

than three hundred fair Temples and Cloysters, all curiously 

builded, and adorned with many gilded Towers,· Pyramids, and 

Pictures without number. The King's Palace is seated upon 

the River, resembling a little Town apart great and magnificent, 

many of its Buildings and Towers being entirely gilded. 

and he thought the city 'admirable', 'perfectly well seated' 'populous 

to a wonder' and 'impregnable as not to be besieged but six months in 

a year, by reason of the inundations of the River ....' 41 Schouten's 

exuberance doubtless owes something to his most successful term as 

manager, during which he directed construction of the permanent Dutch 

factory; a structure which, while basically similar to other such establislunents, 

appears to have been as sumptuous as those of the Ayutthayan 

nobility: 

There is an excellent building, rather large, with high ceilings, 

roomy and well-designed store-houses behind it. The building 

itself has a double gabled front with a lot of carved wood 

decorations over doors and windows .... protected by bars 

against robbers! The walls are of baked bricks and .... thick, 

4~. Schon ten, of'· cit., pp. 12~-25.

'Kl\UNG KAO' :THE OLD CAPITAL llJ

96 


Fifty years later, descriptions of Ayutthaya offer more details, 

but indicate no basic change . 

. . . the City of Siam [ Ayutthaya] is not only become an Island, 

but is placed in the middle of several Islands, which renders 

the situation thereof very singular. 16 This Island, with 

the City upon it ... hath about two German Miles in circumference.-17 

It is situate in a Country all flat . . .. on a low 

ground, which is cut through by many Canals coming from 

the River, and by them divided into so many Isles and squares, 

that one cannot go far without the help of Boats ... Divers 

great Canals go out of the River quite through the City some 

from East to West, others from North to South, and abundance 

of smaller Canals being derived from the great ones, Ships 

may come from the River up into the Town, and put on shore 

near the principal Houses and Palaces. 48 

so to speak. 49 

It is another Venice 

It is surrounded with a Brick wall, which on the South and 

North is four fathoms and a half [about nine nwtcrs] high, 

clean, well condition'd and adorn'd with Battlements, but the 

rest of it is lower, neglected and decayed. This wall is open 

in many places, where there are small gates towards the River. 

On the inside there are ramparts rais'd against it at different 

distances for placing Cannons upon them. At the lower end 

of the City appears a large bastion advancing into the water, 

46. Ia Loubt!re, op. cit., p. 6. 

47. Two German miles equal approximately 14.8 kilometres. Schouten's earlier 

estimate ( op. cit , p. 124) of six English miles ( about 9.6 kilorneters) appears 

much the better approximation and the 11.4 kilometres for this d isla nee on the 

'French Engineer's Plan of 1687 (see figure 2) seems remarkably accurate, as 

t I 1 e ''I ts anc I'' s present perimeter approximates 11.7 kilometres, while the distance 

around via U Thong road, (see figure 1 ) which follows or lies imtnediately beyond 

the former ramparts, is about 10.9 kilometres. 

-18. Kaempfer, oj>. cit., p. 42. 

-19. Gervaise, oj>. cit., P· 15. A number of observers have, quite naturally, compared 

Ayutthaya and then Bangkok. with the canalized Adriatic port. Pinto appears to 

have been the first; referring to the Thai capital as the ' Venice of the East' in a 

letter to the Society of Jesus in Lisbon in 1554 (of>. cit.,),

·khUNG KAO': 'l'HE OLD CAPI'I'AL OF A\'UTT!IAYA 

besides several small ones. The first is furnished with Cannon 

against the Ships coming up. 50 All vessels moor there 

because at that point the river forms a wide basin extremely 

useful and convenient for repairing ships ... 51 To fence the 

City-wall against the wasting of the current, a narrow bank, 

or key is left, which is built upon in many places.5 2 

The first siege of Ayutthaya, in 1549, though unsuccessful, 

apparently stimulated preparations for another. Immediately afterward 

work began on a wall and fortifications of brick and mortar, 

which to judge from the description that ' The brick formed the 

surface while the inter spaces were filled with mud and broken 

brick ' 53 - 

apparently encased the previous, perhaps raised, wall of 

mud. While Wood 54 and Chakrabongse 55 maintain that these 

defences were dismantled following the successful attack by the 

Burmese in 1569, Frankfurter, 56 Phya Boranrajadhanin 57 and Tri 

Amatyaku1 58 indicate that they were not; however, whatever the 

case, King Maha T'ammaraja convinced the Burmese, then suzerains 

of Ayutthaya, of the necessity for the erection of new fortifications 

in order to withstand Cambodian attack. A major feature of this 

renovation, which occurred about 1580, was the re-erection of the 

east wall nearer the west bank of the Pasak river, eliminating a strip 

of land which had previously been of service to besieging forces. 

Ayutthaya's fortifications ( as well as those of several other centres ) 

were being remodelled at the time of the above description, that is, 

late in the 17th century, under the capable direction of a member of 

50. Kaempfer, ojJ. cit., p. 42. 

51. Gervaise, op. cit, p. 16-17. 

52. Kaempfer, oj>. cit., p. 42. 

53. Tri Amatyakul, The Thai Guide J3ooll: Ayudhya, op. cit., p. 12 or Guide to, 

flyudhya and Bang-Pa-In, oj>. cit., p. 14, after Phya 13oranrajadhanin, op. t'ii., 

p. 33. 

54. Op. cit., p. 126. 

55. Op. cit., p. 43. 

56. Op. cit., p. 58. 

57. Op. cit., p. 32. 

58. The Thai Guide Boo!1: Ayudhya, op. dt., pp. 12-13 or Guide to Ayudhya and 

Bang-Pa-In, op. cit., pp. 14·15.

98 tarry Sternsteiri 

the French Jesuit Mission-the Italian, Father Thomas Valguarneirato 

incorporate elements of more sophisticated European design; in 

particular, bastions were erected to command the river approach-see 

figure 2. 59 

Considering the bigness of the City, it is not very populous 60 

... scarce the sixth part thereof is inhabited, and that to the 

South-East only. The rest lies desart where the Temples only 

stand61 ... [and] there are abundance of empty spaces and 

large gardens behind the streets, wherein they let nature work, 

so that they are full of Grass, Herbs, Shrubs and Trees, that 

grow wild. 62 

The Streets run in a straight line along the Canals; some of 

them tolerably large 63 •.. and in some places planted with 

Trees, and paved with Bricks laid edgewise .... 6 ' 1 but the 

greater part very narrow, and all, generally speaking foul and 

dirty: some also are overflow'd at high water ... and towards 

the South by reason of the morassy ground ... people make 

shift to get upon planks, or paltry bridges ... The first Street 

upon entering the City [from the bastion at the southeastern 

corner] is that which runs Westward along the turning of the 

Wall: it bath the best Houses, amongst which are those, that 

formerly belonged to the English, Dutch, and French ... The 

middle Street, which runs North towards the Court, is best 

inhabited, and full of shops of Tradesmen, Artificers ... Hand 

rcra . f tmen 65 ... and squares for the markets. These markets 

are held every day, in the evening and in the morning. They 

are especially full of fish, eggs, fruit, vegetables and innumerable 

other merchandise ... Crowds of people so throng these 

59. See Wood, op. cit.; pp. 195-96 and Hutchinson, OjJ. cit, p. 91. 

60. Kru:mpfer, OjJ. cit., _P· 42. The two independent estimates of the population in 

168D-500,000 from mformation contained in de Voogd, ojJ. cit. and 250,000 to 

500,000 quoted by Gervaise, op. cit., p. 17-may be considered either remarkably 

similar or r~ther dissimilar, but even the most divergent figures are of the same 

~ross magmtude; and though an estimate of close to half a million may appear 

tmmod_erate, one of less than a quarter of a million seems improbable. However, 

th:se figur~s have resulted from a great deal of supposition frorn a 1neagre amount 

of mformat10n. 

61. !a Loubere, ojJ, cit., p. 6. 

63. Kaernpfer, oj>. cit., p. 44. 

G:l. Ibid., p. 42. 

fi1. Ia Loubhe, oj>. cit., p. 6. 

5. Kaempfer, oj>. cit., pp, 42-44.

'KHUN(; KAO': THE OLD CAPITAL OF AYUTTHAYA 99 

market places that, at times, it is almost impossible ... to pass 

along.66 In both these Streets are seen above one hundred 

Houses belonging to the Chinese, Hindostanians, and Moors 

[Arabs] ... They are all built alike of Stone, very small, being 

but eight paces [twelve meters?] in length, four [six meters?] 

in breadth and of two Stories, yet not above two Fathoms and 

a half [four meters] high. They are covered with flat tiles, 

and have large doors ... The rest of the Streets are less inhabited, 

and the Houses of ordinary Inhabitants are but mean and poor 

cottages, built of Bambous ... and boards, and carelessly cover'd 

with Gabbe' Gabbe', Branches and leaves of Palm Trees ... 67 but 

surrounded with pretty large Grounds... The Piles on which 

they are erected to avoid the Inundation, are Bambous as thick 

as one's Leg ... There never is more than four or six, on which 

they do lay other Bambou's across instead of Beams. The 

Stairs are a Ladder of Bambou, which hangs on the outside ... 

And by reason that their Stables are also in the Air, they have 

Climbers made of Hurdles, by which the Cattle enter therein.6S 

The Mandarins or Ministers of State and Courtiers live in 

separate palaces, with Courtyards to them, which are very 

dirty. The Buildings in general, though rais'd with Lime and 

Stone are but indifferent, and the apartments neither clean, nor 

well furnisb'd. The booth, or Shops of the town are low, and 

very ordinary, however they stand in good order, and in a 

straight line, as the Streets are.69 

One single story sufficeth them; and I am persuaded that this 

manner of building is more commodious to them than ours; 

seeing that they are not strained for room (... and they take 

it where they please) and seeing they build with those slight 

materials, which every one takes at pleasure in the Woods, or 

which he buys at a low rate of him that has been there to take 

them. Nevertheless it is reported that the reason why their 

Houses have but one Story, is that no Person may be higher in 

66. Gervaise, Oj>. cit., p. 17. 

67. Kaempfer. of'· r'it., p. 44. 

68. Ia Loubere, of'· cit .. p. 29. 

69. Kaempfer, oj>. cit., p. 44.

]()l) 

Larry StertHltt:in 

his own House than the King of ,

Brick huildtll1','·· ;and tini,,h~:,, t'l.'l'•. lht· reason ol' which I know 

rwt.: 

101 

The P;ll;l\:t:·· .... md ·,c•. cral l'aJ~ .• ~da,, ur f'empks arc likewise of 

BriL'k. hui rh~.· P.lla\.'1.':; an: hj1• .... nt.l nwre than one story ... and 

the Pag;~da:• arc tltl! rai~.cd high cnuugh in proportion to their 

hip.r11:s~ ... th~.·y hnu'lr llP exkrinr Ornament ... Save in the 

Rouh. whkh thl'Y l'>~ 1 ;t.:r with ... Tin ... ur with Tiles varnished 

with ~·.:lh1w... But tl111 there appears not any Gold in the 

Palace of Siam tin the •Htbide, and there is but little gilding on 

the iw;idL:. yt:! tilt:y fail not l!l call it ... the Golden Palace, 

bccathe tht:y pivc ptilll!Hllls name.' to every thing which they 

horwur ... Tl!at whkh ... makes: their! real dignity ... is that 

althu tiler\.' i:• ll•' tll\H\~ than one st11ry, yet they arc not all level... 

The Ronf:; art: all high·ridu.ed, but the one is lower thun the 

uther: as it C•IV\~1'·· a part luwa than another. And a lower 

Rout' :icenh lu cunJL: PUt rr,,m a higher Roof'. and the highest 

to bear , 111 the ln'.'.T~it, 1 ike a Saddle, tlw J'orl:-bow of which 

bears on the himl-pan of another ... this inequality of the 

Ruul"s ... d~:th1te·; grandcm, in lh

102 

There arc tlm~c Rnyal palal'l~:; ill th i ,, City. The tir!;t is the 

new palace built by the late King on the NPrth·.itk ltl\\ards the 

middle of the Town. It consists pj' a large squart~, with several 

sub-divisions, and many building'. i. ~ee litwre s .. .'IIi thin the 

walls of' the Palace as well as witlwul. an.: ... IPng Stables, in 

which some hundred of Elephants ~land in a [(lng rnw magnificently 

hurnass'd ... The second pahu.:c, ta !I'd t !11.~ fon~rnost 

palace, is situated in the North East part uf the City towards its 

extremity. It is of n square figurl', but not nc;tr :,u large as the 

first ... it is inhabited by the Prince RDyal ... the third ... Palace 

is smaller than any of the two, ami situated in the West and 

least inhabited part of the City. In this li\'es ... a Prince ol' the 

Royal Blood ... 7•1 

As each of twenty-eight kings had addcd or rcJHIV· cit., pp. 4 5-Mi. 

75. See Phya Boranrajadhanin, of'· .-it .. Jlp. ·ll'l·H:'. nncl l.

·.· 

The Rllyal !'a lace at :\yutthaya, 1 (,

:\ vVat: from Ia Lmtht\n·, lifl. rit. 

Figure ' (1685-H()) approach to thl· hall of audicrtvc illu~trates pitfalls 

awaiting an uninitiated intruder. 

The underlying geornantic principles may h(: readily apprcltc:ndcd 1n these 

stylized plans.

. IWl :-

io4 

Lany St~~nu;tt'ill 

waters, which overHow the Country fnr some mnnths, may freely 

pass under ... Each House i~ furnbh'd with Stairs, or a Ladder, 

to come down in dry weather, and with a boat, to go about it 

at high water. Other Villages stand on higher and dry ground, 

and consequently not being subject to those inundations their 

Houses want neither such stairs or boats. On these eminences 

also stand Temples, Convents, burying Place~ and yards where 

they burn their bones and ashes, where they bury their dead, 

and erect costly Pyramids over them. On the Southside, at a 

small distance down the River, the Dutch have their Factory 

and Magazines very splendidly and conveniently built on dry 

ground. Lower down on the same bank arc other villages inhabited 

by Colonies of Japanese ... Peguans and Malaccans. On 

the opposite side of the River st~mds a village inhabited by a 

Portuguese race begot on black Women and farther down 

stands a Church, dedicated Lo St. Domingo, to which belong 

the Fathers of the Dominican Order. Behind it stands another 

small church ... kept by two Fathers of the order of St. Austin ... 

Not far from hence, on the same plain, stands a Jesuit Church 

nam'd St. Paul, after the ClliefChurch at Goa ... South West of 

the City, opposite to that side of the River, where it lets out 

the branch Klang Nam Ja (now called Khlong Ta Khian'] the 

Metropolitan Bishop ... had caus'd a stone Palace to be built, 

together with a fine Church, which is now lock'd up since his 

Imprisonment. The Roman Catholick Ecdesiastics in Siam 

have assur'd me, that there live above three th~msand six 

hundred Christians in the neighbourhood of Judia (Ayutthaya], 

who are past seven years of age .. ,ttl 

Though lacking even rudimentary attributes of the contemporary 

western capital, the 'city' was not without a certain oriental 

'urban grandeur', and might well have moved a sensitive European 

83. Kaempfer, op. cit,, pp. 50·52. The Engli~h cantonment. whieh had stood 

between those of the Dutch and the Japanese (the Freneh, us previously noted, 

had only recently arrived and were housed within the walls of the city ) is not 

noted as it was abandoned following the total destruction of tlw factory by fire in 

1682; the English East India Company withdrew its agency from Ayutthaya 

shortly thereafter (see Hutchinson, Oj>. cit., pp. 73·85 ).

'hili'\•, h \tl' HIE 111.11 C.\I'Jl,\l. IIF .IY\ITTII:IYA 

soul tn a declaration similar tn that with which the Abb

J06 

Larry StcrnHtein 

cultural and commercial centre, the kingdom was sea reel y more than 

a loose confederation of politically independent or scmi··indepcndent, 

largely self-sustaining agrarian states. and the basis (If the capital's 

prosperity and pre-eminence, as previously noted. devol vcd rather 

from the domination of the fertile basin of the Chao Phraya ·-·the 

largest and most populous coherent area in the' confederation'. -than 

from an in-pouring of produce from all quarters nf the Kingdom. 

Food, housing materials, agricultural and domestic implements 

and dress being simple, almost wholly of lot:al origin and very similar, 

if not identical, throughout the kingdom, internal trade must be 

reckoned negligible (though the distribution of certain localized 

essentials, particularly salt, was, of course nf great importance); 

while the small populace who led 'a miserable Life, by reason that 

Provisions are so cheap ..... they can't gain anything by their 

Labour ', 88 possessing (apparently through necessity) a 'simplicity 

of Manners, which ... makes them ... to slight most of the commodities 

... necessary to the Europeans' ,HIJ could, hard! y offer other than 

a meagre market for foreign produce. In fact, in the absence of 

domestically marketable items, with the except ion of lnd ian textiles 

which were apparently of some consequence in home cnnsumpli

Sl)metime previuu~. The. system operated until the mid-19th century. 

However, from inception, it was diluted both by the granting of 

monopolies in Gcrtain items or the products of certain areas to 

European ami :\ siat il.· factur:-., and the rclati ve freedom of trade 

allowed the Chim~:-.e. Some writer:;, among them early observers, 

have attributed the p1Jor state of Thai trade at various periods to the 

evils of the ruyttl trading monopol~m but others, in retrospect, have 

pointed nut that though such monopolies do indeed impede trade 

they were u:-~ual in the East and did not prevent a flourishing exchange 

where desired artk~les were available. 92 After quoting 

L'Abbt· de Choisy's brief description of a Thai home- 

107 

'lie ... passed between rows of wooden houses perched on 

posts, very shabby-looking outside, but, as we were to find, 

dean within. 1 

1/c entered one of them prepared to sec the 

peasants in rags, but all was spick and span, the floor covered 

with mat•;, Japanese coffers and screens everywhere. Hardly 

inside the door. they offered us teu in porcelain cups.m; 

Collis, however, explains that the Abb(~ 'was looking at ... the distributell 

dividend of the \,!\last trade '.\' 1 Unfortunately, there is no 

evidence of ' the distributed dividend • other than this interpretation 

of the Abbes vision. Certainly the suspicion may be entertained 

that one of' Louis XIV's more remarkable courtiers% and a member 

of the French Embatisy to the Thai Court was looking at a' model 

home'. 

Even it' but a fraction of' Ayutthuya's estimated population of 

several hundred thousand be considered 'urban', two short streets 

()!, Set: van \'lit>t, .f,. 'llt"·•Tiptiuu n( 1lw I

1()8 Lany StcrnHtein 

containing, 'above one hundred Houses belonging tu the Chinese, 

Hindostanians, and Moors', one of which wa:> apparently predominantly 

residential, can hardly be considered other than a paltry 

'commercial core'. However, it may well have been adequate considering 

the peculiar nature of Thai trade. 

By way of introduction to his study nl' the et:lHlOmy of Thailand 

during the past century, Ingram considers the economy in 1850 

and remarks that 

Siam appears to have occupied the position of an entrcp(lt for 

the trade of the South China Sea. Goods were collected and 

shipped to Bangkok from the Malay Peninsula, India, Cambodia, 

Manila, and other ncar-by places, after which they were 

shipped out again to China and Japan. Similarly, gouds from 

China and Japan were brought to Bungkok and then distributed 

to other countries ... We can only conjecture about why and 

how Siam came to fill this role. The sailing range or the 

junks may have had something to do with it, and so might the 

attitude or the Chinese toward foreign trade. In any case, the 

picture of Bangkok as an entrep!it .even in a minor way .".offers 

a startling contrast to her lutcr pa~sivc role in foreign 

trade. 96 

If Bangkok's role as an entrcpM in the mid-19th century causes 

surprise, that Ayutthaya previously performed this function even in 

a minor way-must verge on the inconceivable. But Ayutthaya's 

reputation as an ' emporium of the East ' ( however ill-deserved ) 

rests largely upon her role as a focus for the truns-shipmcnt uf goods 

between Europe/India and China/ Japan during the fairly frequent 

and relatively prolonged peaceful interludes of the 16th and 17th 

centuries; further, this function appears to have been fulfilled, albeit 

in a minor way and intermittently, from the very inception of this 

capital which, of course, was coincident with the abandonment of 

overland routes following the deterioration of Mongol power. The 

nature of the Chinese junk traffic appears a major factor in the 

development of the Ayutthaya entrepot; the continued importance of 

95. Ingram, J.C., Economic Change in Thailand Since 1850, 1955, p. 26.

this lrafli~: at mid-lllth l.:'cntury must cunlirm Ingram's conjecture 

regarding BangLnk·~ fullilhm:nt 111" this same role. 

Long hcfurl.' Ayutthaylwcnlinked with 'lung Tlik ... a small island 

or high sand lnmk situated

110 

off the mouth of the Takuapu Riverllll seems to be better known than 

his subsequent retraction of this opiniun'In:~ • hurdly surprising, in 

that the former nrc rather lengthy and convincingly well-written, while 

the latter is but a short unobtrusive note. occashmcd by the rcscar

'flltl''>'· h\11': I'IIL 01.11 C:\l'ITAI. OF HI'TTllAYA 

They proceeded by sea in the first instance to Taranquc, and 

thence by l;tnd with horses and draught-oxen to the city ofSiao 

(Ayuttlwya), and nn their return they reported that the peninsula 

wa~ \'i:ry narmw on that side where the Chinese make 

their navigation, and that from thence it was only ten days' 

journey to the coa);t of' Tenasserim, Trang, and Tavoy. 

Nunnl Ill assert~ 

that 

The records of (early 16th century) traffic, through Tenasserim, 

het ween Siam and the West, extending as far as Bengal and 

Cape Guardafui, urc fairly full; and it is certain that the Portuguese 

were not long in making usc of their establishment at 

Malacca tn take their share in the trade 

-a view which is confirmed by de Camposill and Anderson,li~ A 

comprchcnsi\'C description or the various trans-peninsular routes 

through the Tenasserim region is given by Smyth.ll:l Briefly, from 

Mergui the main route went through the town of Te11asserim and then 

northwards up the Great Tenasserim Riverton place now 'lost' called 

'Jelinga' (or some ncar-sounding variant) crossed the watershed shortly 

thereaf'tcr and then fanned out to lead to several small ports along 

the eastern littoral from Phct Buri in the north to 'Cham' or 'Xam' 

{ Prachuap Khiri Khan'!) in the south; the journey to Ayutthaya being 

completed in small boats. A seldom used overland route also led 

!'rom Tenasserim to the capi Lal.!I'l A less-frequented route followed 

the Little T

112 La1-ry Stt•rn!\tl'in 

waist of the Isthmus. Further south. on the authority of Ciilesl!ii 

rather than Gcrini, tl!i an anciently important r•llltt' led l'mm Tung Tiik 

(near the present Takuapa) up the Tak uapa R i vcr. acruss a watershed 

of but a few miles and down the Laung River to ( 'haiya or Bandon, 

Chaiya was also eastern terminus of a route from 'Pun-pin' nppositc 

the island of Phukct, while further southward along the Peninsula 

tracks led from Trang to Nakhon Si Thammarat ond from Kcdah to 

Songkhla or Pattani, and a number of' important passages crossed the 

wider Malayan area.ll7 Martaban, the terminus llf several important 

overland routes from the north, apparently also received cargoes from 

Ayutthaya destined for points at the head of the Bay of Bengal via 

the Three Pagodas Pass.lt ii 

Further a return trip from a port in sou~hcrn China to, say, the 

Coromandel Coast, via the South Chinn Sea and the Bay of Bengal, 

could not possibly occupy much less than the full year, leaving little 

or no time for even a most ctncient transfer of L'argncs and a necessary 

overhaul before the waning of the northeast monsoon. But, in fact, 

the Chinese 'navigator' much preferred an interminable coasting round 

mainland Southeast Asia to the relatively short out-or-sight-of-land 

voyage, and junks were manned, not by 'cflicienl' seamen, hut by so 

many independent entrepreneurs engaged in multif'ariou~ time-consuming 

'deals'. The year was fully employed in gaining the Peninsula's 

east coast.WJ Consolidation of the Ayutthayan kingdom, which late 

in the 16th century included the entire isthmian portion of the Peninsula, 

would not only provide conditions favourable to trade but 

would naturally induce much trans-peninsular traliic to t'orsuke more 

southerly crossings in favour of those convenient to the cupital and 

115. Oj1. cit .. p. 81. 

116. "Research~s on Ptolemy's Geography" oj•. ,·it., I'· !ll. 

117. See Anderson, of'· cit., p. 27. 

118. See Collis, The Grand Peregrination of'· .:it .• p. 1 (j(i. Wheadcy provides on 

illustrative catalogue of the main trans· peninsula routes in Tit,: ( ,'o/dt•n Kht•r· 

sonese, oj1. cit., p. xxvi. 

119. Gutzlaff ( as quoted by Bowring, oji. cit., vol. 1. pp. ~'lfi·5~ ) provides a most 

detailed, yet interesting, account of the more intimate features of the Chinese 

junk traffic.

t\ Iii ·,, · ij, \II' llll llllt I \l'l'l .\I. !ll \) t:TIIIA) A n:1 

en~.:l>llrag.c junk~; hrmnd for ~.out h!.!rn ports, like Pattani, to take 

advantage of tr:tding. !)tlssihilitics \It Ayutthayu by a simple detout' 

ulong the twi:-.ting Chan Phraya. Wlmtcver effect the royal trading 

moiwpolic) (intrndm·t•d timing the reign of King Prasat T'ong, 1630-55) 

had upon the level 11r trade, that certain commodities, for example, 

tin, had to he dep11:-.itcd in the king's storehouses at Ayutthaya prior 

to e.xporn::• 1 nn douht l'mthcr 'cn~:ouragcd' the re-routcing of traffic to 

the capital. 

It was to tap the China trade that the Dutch, and the English 

after them, first set up f:ttl\lt':> in Ayutthaya early in the 17th century. 

Furni\'al's 'The English, like the Dutch before them, were 

tempted tu explore the Irrawaddy route to China, but found it 

unattractive. The main interest of both English and French wus in 

Siam, where they cmlld lwpc to cut into the China trade and could 

join forces with the native pirates and smugglers of spices ', 121 while 

uneonccrncd with ni~o:cty of fact presumably in the interest of 

brevity yet contains a germ of truth. Blankwaardt after ·what np· 

pears to have been an c:xhaustivc survey of Dutch/Siamese relations, 

notes that, in I MU. the Dutch wen: •well cstnblishccl in Patnni, which 

was conliidercd ... the " Door for China and Japan", and they were 

thinking nf making it their ··general rendez-vous". It was known 

however that the King uf Siam ... was doing a lively trade with Chinn 

and principally with the object 111' getting in touch with that country, 

we find in I (,()J, the Manager of' Pattani ... on a tour of investigation 

in Ayuthia. and the next year Admiral van Warwyck himself went 

there to !ieck the King·~ as\'iistancc'. 1 :!:!. The Minutes of the Dutch 

East India Cwnpany fur the 5th September 1609 provide the record 

of u resolution ' by the I.\lrds Seventeen that this fleet shall embark 

the Embassy from th~.: King of Siam ... to the end that a trade may 

b~ fostered with China thmugh the favtlllr of the King ?f Siam '.l

!.any !'iternAlt~in 

The English having followed the Dut~:h to Paltani, where 

'The traffiquc ... yeildcth no special Mutters uf it sclfc, but is all 

brought in from other places and because of tlw sc:ituation of the place 

there is great shipping for diucrs places, whereby much marchandize 

is brought hither, cspeciallie of Chinu \VUres .. .' were not 5low in 

following on to Ayutthaya where ' there might bee hope to gett 

footing in China, because of the amitie, it is bctwccnc China and 

Siam .. .' 12 ' 1 The French, as Hutchinson maintains 1 :;;) appear to have 

been most concerned with linking up the trade of Siam, chiefly 

saltpetre and pepper, with that of France and the Madrus coast, but 

that they were cognizant of the ' China trade ' is evident from 

remarks contained in a manuscript of 1686 entitled 'Observations on 

Trade for the instruction of King's Envoys to the King of Siam': 

'it would be possible to draw thereto [Songkbla and Ligor"l ull the 

traders of China, Japan, Borneo and Tongking, •tlso the Moors, and 

to trade in freedom from those same ports to China and Japan by 

means of two or three ships with greater eu~c than from (the city of) 

Siam'.l 26 

Though the inadequate profit to be derived therefrom, nnd 

from any other tmde for that matter, soon became all too obvious, the 

Dutch East India Company by maintaining u factory here ( not without 

difficulties which, in several instances, necessitated brief' withdrawals 

) assured Batavia's l'ice supply: and the E;:nglish Cwnpany, 

seemingly honour-bound, reoccupied its cantonment repeatedly 

despite financialloss.1 2 i Initially both Agencies were located ncar 

124. Maxwell. W.G., 'A Letter of Instruetion~ fmm the Ea~il ludinu Company to its 

Agent, eire. 161,! '1 Journal of the Straits Hranch of tit•' Noyal :biatir' Soddy. 

number 54, Jan. HllO, pp. 81 and H4. 

125. See ' Four French State MnnuscriptB ', Sclccli~tl ,.\,tid,·sfnl/lt th,· Siam Srwil'fy 

Joumal. vol. 8, p. 102. 

126. Ibid., pp. 149·56. 

127. Though, to be sure, profit motivated both companics,.:hdr al'tiviti(•s to thiH end 

having been chronicled in studies by AnderBon ( oj•. ril. ) Blanlnva:mlt ( of•. tit. l 

Collis C Siamese Hl hitc, op. cit.) and Hutchinson ( lltht•ntwt·rs in ,\'iam intlte 

Seventeenth Century, op. cit.) - the Dutch maintahlc'd throughout, as had Joost 

Schouten Cop. cit., p. 151) the Dutch Compnny'H mauagc~r during the H530's, 

that' the Company indeed hath not profited tntwh, by rea~nn of severalmisfor· 

tunes by this traffic', enthusing instead, aH Joost had, that they had 'gained 

more reputation that any Europians besides, by the grcut friend~hip and corre· 

spondence which is betwixt them and the King; and also huve bud the benefit of 

transporting great quantities of ull sorts of provisions in Bntmnia ... 1 When, 

early in the 18th century, losses were such that the Company's directors repeat~dly

'KH1'••'·1\\l0' l!H:IIlli•.\1'11\I..OI'.\YIIlll\\'.\ llt) 

one anuthcr \\ithin the \\,db; .~r the eity, but in 1633 the Dutch negotiated 

a f'aV

116 

The Chinese pnsition, while less L~X(Hh~:d than that nf her 

European and Asiatic rivals, was not without iusL:curity, particularly 

during the earlier decades of the 17th century. llnwcver, they were 

not only favored in the conduct of ftH·cign trade hy the 'general 

course of events ... Lin which l the P~H·tugucsc. Japanese, English, 

French and Dutch, each in tum ... was forctd tu quit •yH but, 

together with a few ' Moors' they constituted the small

gunns and Ptlrluguc~c. ftll' example (see figure 4), implies an awareness 

of their pntcnlial danger tu the crown, but that there appear to have 

been no extensive f~~reign sections within the walls may possibly have 

resulted simply i'rtllll a lack of u~able space. For much of the site 

was occupied or pre-empted for the more than ' five hundred pagodas', 

while a large pMtion of the remainder was either perennially 

submerged or swampy ( the result of natural conditions aided by the 

practice or· lmrrowing' mud from one place to build up another); 

circumstances which would appear sufficient explanation for the absence 

of cxtcn~ivc native ~cttlemcnt as well. 

Certainly late-17th century Ayutthaya evidenced accord with 

Buddhist Ct.l!>llH'Ingical concepts und canons regarding the delimiting 

of sacred space from the profane: the wats, each more or less oriented 

to the cardinal points and surrounded by a wall of sorts within which 

the ' bot ' is centred, picketed by eight 'semas' and in many 

instances, huilt atop a terrace and surrounded by a low inner wall 

(sec figure 9 ); 1 :o the Grand Palace, a carefully ordered en walled 

area, subdivided by ' parlitions' trcn ding strictly north/south or 

cast/west, cat:h '~.:ell· containing structures similarly aligned and, if 

of especial importance, facing cast (sec figure 8 ); the city itself, encircled 

by a mas•;i vc baltlcmcntcd wall, 1 ' 11 crossed by cardinally 

1.1(), F .. r au analylir li •h•'•l'lij•tinu of the~ Thni wat, sc:c; Silpa Bhirusri'H informative 

JWnphlet : ' Tlmi ll•llldhi· .. t .\r! ( :\r.:hiteetun;) ', Thai ('ttl lure, New Series 

No. :J,ll.l':. :~:·~J:! 1. I(J:i':J l. 

141. Thuugh till~ n1lmlwr of gah•s :>hownonlaw-l7th century plunH and views (sec 

fignn••; :!-'i l I' a I j,~,,

Wl 

Larry Slt.•ru'ltein 

directed main streets and canals, and ecntrctl by a laq11! ruyal wat 

(see figures 2-7). However, Wat Phm Ram. appruximatcly in the centre 

of the capital in the late-17th century, was not begun until 1369. 11 :! 

It appears that, as has been suggested, the pahtt:c initially uceupicd 

the centre in accordance with Hinttyanistic principles, hut, when a 

more substantial structure wus raised immediately to the north 

(about a hundred years later) the areu of the original r\lyal residence, 

being consecrated ground, was given over lll '//at Phra Sri Sanphet. 

Thus, in effect, the lay-out of the capital conformed to iv1ahayana 

precept (not surprising in that the court was responsive to Brahnmnical 

doctrine) from about the mid-fifteenth century onwards for 

when the wall was moved eastward in 1580, Wat Phm Ram main:. 

tnined the illusion as it happened to occupy a pmition approximately 

coincident with the new centre. 

A.B. Griswold, now preparing an cxhausti\c survey of all that 

is known about archaeological sites in Thailand, has, in conversation, 

stated his belief in the purposeful centntliz.ation of Wat Phra Ram: 

pointing out that a portion of the canal system slww n on Phya Bomn· 

rajadhanin's 'Map of Ayutthaya •Ha clearly outlines u ncar-perfect 

square centred on this temple. ·Allowing thh> map as incontestable 

(though, obviously, M.L. de Lajonquit•re's 11 t criticism or woeful incompleteness 

and illusory precision based upon much i.:unjecture is 

warranted) and disregarding the prior erection or the palace, one is 

yet at a loss to attempt to explain the possible signilicancc of a central 

location within this square, as it is coinddcnl neither with the 

walls of the palace, nor, seemingly, with any prior position of' the 

outer enceinte. Griswold, realising this, is forced to ussumc that the 

walls of the city once lay along the inner margins or these waterways, 

and, further, to interpret the movement or the wull in 1580 as 

one which affected not only the eastern side but the entire perimeter. 

The former conjecture has no tangible basis whatever; the latter 

necessitates the umeasonable generalization of a specific allusion. 

142. Sec Frankfurter, Oj>. cit., p. 46. 

143. Oj>. cit., fold-out to rear. 

144. 'Essai D'Inventaire Archeologique Du Siam, ' 1Julleti 11 de Ia Con/lnission 

Archeologique de l' lnclochine, 1912, p. 43.

hu·thcr, alh!win~,· t:arlicr c:unjecturc concerning the initial 

lay-otlltlf lhl: city. if Ayultha~a··, ~at·n:d phtn its ~imulation of a 

celestial md1c!} pc \H'fll llltrccn~whcd hy tontcm porary foreign observers. 

1111m~·rou~ wab and i he ubiquitous talapt>in l•ld could admit 

of hardly a th1ubt :o. til the capital's "anctity. ()bvious variation from 

the ideal di:>crcpam:ic.;, bci\\Ccn a c:apital as cuntci\'ed in Buddhist 

doctrine am! thc lhai capital appear to have evolved more from the 

rationalizin~ l•l" privr gcum;m!ic dccbions, in consequence of site 

peculiaritil's anti the d;;w~lnt,~ milieu, than from any gross inability 

to confirm these prim:ipks or indif(crcncc. Yet, even Ayutthuya's 

carefully pl>i~cd · yin-yang· Wa)o. shaken by a stubborn Burmese investmcm, 

maintained. dc•;pitc tlnml periods. for nearly two years, and 

finally. during, the ni~1h1 ~·f the 7th of April 1767 the capital was 

taken.H•i But 

11\l 

In the mid:.l t»f tht~i:· cnjnymcrll in celebration of the conquest 

... the cummandcr-in-t:hicr Ncmyo Thihapatc, .. [informed] 

his ttfficcrs that new·; had been rct.:civcd that the Chinese Emperm· 

had ~.ctH a \'a:..t army. , . to invade Burma; and that their 

l·Hi. !:kh.. utt•n ( "/'·, ,f,, L: • li!HI 1·1111 '""'Itt• hit•,· vt:Hr'• t•arlier. in thp ltarly 1()30'H, 

e~lirontnl liw m•mlw• "' m t\'illl!lwy:t at • IIIUI't~ than thnK' huncln•cl' 

1111'1 tllf• • d 'a! Jr,lol ~~oirt:; li~tlli•,JIIIIj' (oil' :\{awf!·J~Jnt• !'U!ICIII"Ii 1 

~~C II}>• d/., 

p. '/H:~ ) , •.vi 11 k llarmhwa £ • l Sn•' ,I, . ''IIIII 1:/ the /·,'r~ '•I lwlit·s, \•ul. :!, I !J:lO, p. 8H ) 

111 A::nllli:tv;l 111 1'."11.1. t•, k"nnl lli.11 llw!•' Wt'll' '1w h.•so; thau fifty tlwusnnd 

Ch!t~:•.lllt•u .. , 111 ,!Uri i!l.!i•,Jl tlw t 'it:.' . 

l'Jii 1Jmll1g tb· IJ•H•i•l!•,j t!n,,,. 'lll·•~l!·h 11! ,,,,,.ll!lli'Y pnrviou•·· that h

lzo 

Larry SlL'I'IHitdu 

brother generals und officers at the capital were distinguishing 

themselves and winning royal fa v~>ur by sw .. ·~.·cssl'ully n.:pclling 

the invasion ... He nddcd that as they had most stH.:cessfully 

accomplished their mission by the capturt:: tll' the Siamese 

capital ... it behoved them to return as quickly as possible, 

after demolishing the city, moats, and all defensive and offei1· 

sive works, as commanded by their Sllvcreign, so that they 

might be in time to take part in the fighting against the 

Chinese and share the honours or war in that field also. 1·17 

Barely two months later the Burmese army had withdrawn.HH Admittedly, 

in their haste it is probable that' The victors behaved like 

Vandals •.1 49 To ascribe their actions to a 'sucriligious lust for destruction 

•!50 or the ' blind rage of ... barbarians ' 1 ;; 1 ur even to suggest 

that' They were naturally enraged by the relentless resistance 

which the T'ais had shown •Ui;! nevertheless appears unwarranted. 

Perhaps more destructive and denudativc was authorized {and, of 

course, unauthorized) ' treasure-farming ' after the Burmese withdrawal 

and the wholesale removal of bricks and other building 

materials to the new citadel at Bangkok. 1 ;;:J Obviously much booty 

had gone undiscovered by the Burme~e, for trea~urc-farming operated 

on a grand scale for at least fifteen ycars,H" und though the defensive 

1-17. Luang Phraison Salurak, 'Intercourse Iktw

'KHUN

BOOK REVIEW 

Text-Book Thailand 

Unlike E.H.G. Dobby ( So.utheast Asia, University of London 

Press Ltd., London, 7th Ed., 1960, 415 pp.) C.A. Fisher has not explicitly 

stated that the aim of South-east Asia (Methuen & Co. Ltd., 

London, 1964, 831 pp.) was to 'provide the student with a basic text 

and at the same time stimulate the sociologist, the administrator, the 

politician and the businessman to see the relation of their work to the 

general field'. Perhaps the author believed-and quite rightly-that 

Soutlz-east Asia's 'text-book' character being self-evident, a statement 

to this effect could scarcely fail of being redundant. Certainly anyone 

who has satisfied even a casual interest in this fascinating part of the 

world previous to a reading of Professor Fisher's book will come 

away from it more in wonder than in wisdom. 

In general plan South-east Asia is much the same as Southeast 

Asia: first the 'region • is considered in broad physical and cui tural 

aspect, each political unit is then discussed in greater detail and 

finally, this hazy corner between India and China is placed in world 

perspective. Consequently, both books grant Thailand the benefit of 

an appreciation on several levels of generalization. The 'expert', of 

course, pales at the grossness of even that consideration given Thailand 

as an entity unto itself, but to damn these contributions for failing 

to titillate the informed is hardly warranted if, as seems obvious, 

this was not the audience intended. Indeed, criticism, if it is to be 

constructive, must be concerned with the value for the layman. And 

the synthesis of a great mass of unobtainable or too technical literature 

into a clear and comprehensible,' widely disseminated essay must 

be accounted n signal service-the worth of a 'text'. Unfortunately, 

the Dobby and Fisher syntheses, being based almost wholly upon 

available readable secondary sources-in the latter's text this reliance 

reaches remarkable proportions and even readily obtainable statistical 

data are so referred-cannot lay claim to such an accomplishment. In 

fact, Fisher goes so far as to express his conviction in the likelihood of 

the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development's A Public 

Development Program for Thailand (Baltimore, 1959, 301 pp. )-as

12·1 Lnny StcrnHtein 

glossy a study as could be imagined rt.'maining ·a maj,,r work of 

reference for many years'. Despite thcst.: slwrtcoming};, however, 

both authors ha vc presented fairly decent rcsumelection 

nwst be ruthless to be brief', and Thailand neatly disposed of on 

both sides of scarce a dozen pages. However, with this brief compass 

Dobby somehow manages to so vary the' mood' that the reader's 

interest never wavers as he is shuttled from the inocuous to the absurd 

and back again with remarkable pace. Indeed, I must confess that 

this snappy swipe was prompted (and, I hope, may he excused) by 

an attempt to analyze an involuntary grin which bubbled up and onto 

my f~tce upon a reading of the author's assertion (possibly innocent) 

that being' Written from inside Asia', this U!Ho-datc geography is not 

focused on any one Asian nation, and it should enable Asian students 

no less than Western students to sec their national problems in rela· 

tion to those of others! Apparently, in a most improbable moment of 

lucidity, it became quite clear that 'Written from inside Asia' referred 

to the fact that the text had been partially written ut the Univer· 

sity of Malaya; 'up-to-date' was warranted in that 'factual data' had 

been obtained from the very 'latest United Nations reports~; 'not 

focused on any one Asian nation' described the fractured presentation, 

by 'landscape types', of countries considered as belonging to the 

several 'regions' delimited- a format which, having served its some· 

what oblique purpose, has been abandoned (necessarily) when econo· 

mic and political aspects were under discussion; and 'enabling Asian

lt·:XT· BOOK 'l'IIAILANI> 125 

students no less than Western students to see ... .' had relied largely 

upon that eerie ability students (of whatever race, creed or color) 

possess or seeing only that which is presented. 

Occasionally, an author's opening remarks arc so temerous, so 

audacious - no, outrageous - however, that they invoke not the 

rather gleeful derision reserved for comrades in toil but rather hot 

indignation. The preface to Thailand (its People, its Society, its Culture)- 

Human Relations Area Files, Inc., New Haven, Connecticut, 

1958, 528 pp, --states, complacently, that the book's 'Research and 

writing arc done with the aid of u new research guide and in accordance 

with new procedures for interdisciplinary team research', that 

'Both guide and procedures were specifically developed to ensure 

that analysis undertaken within the context of any one discipline be 

informed by the theories and findings of the others; and that the 

resulting interpretations of the several disciplines be refined and 

integrated through a process of challenge and synthesis'; and claims, 

calmly, that the Survey 'examines in depth the sociological, political, 

and economic aspects of a whole society' in order to 'define basic 

cultural and institutional patterns, and to identify dominant values 

and attitudes'. Thailand (its Peajlle, its Society, its Culture) is simply 

a decent round-up of readily available information presented in 

staccato sing-song. 

The suspicion must be entertained that Professor Dr. Wilhelm 

Crcdncr's Siam, das Land dar Tai ( J. Engelhorns, Stuttgart, 1935, 

422 pp.) owes some of its 'sacred cow ness' to both its unavailability 

and its german, but, Mvertheless, it is unquestionably the least contemptuous 

of the attempts at overall coverage- the more remarkable 

for being based on but two years personal observation ( 1927-29 ). 

Woefully inaccurate (most of the statistical data used have since been 

found wanting) and flushed with rhapsody (where information was 

scanty or entirely absent) as it is- premature as it is- Siam, das 

Land der Tai must remain the 'text' model for any future attentpts 

(though, unfortunately, it has not been so used in the generation srnce 

its publication). Had Professor Dr. Credner been content to confine 

himself to one aspect of his 'Landeskunde'- the sections on the 

physical landscape are exemplary- however, he surely would have

1~6 

precluded the suggestion of a Wordswnrthinn l'ipcness. And, similarly, 

had the American Geographical Society :-;mtght ,,, honor the late 

Dr. Robert L. Pendleton it might better have collected and published 

his relevant works as Thailand: Aspects ~~! l.tmdscapc and l4t' (Duell, 

Sloan and Pearce, New York, 1962, 321 pp. ) instead or completing 

the Handbook after his death in 1957 with' the assistance of Robert 

C. Kingsbury and others'. For, with the exception nf those portions 

bearing the hallmark of Dr. Pendleton's lucid pen (this despite editing) 

this is a poorly written round-up of seemingly anything that came to 

hand which could be encompussed under the headings adopted. The 

simple clarity with which Pendleton treated complex subjects further 

obscured by a lack of basic information resulted from a life-time of 

intimate association; the simplicity which characterizes the remainder 

of Thailand: Aspects of Landscape mzd l,ije has resulted either from 

the unrealistic apportioning of space or from sheer naivity. And, 

although Dr. Pendleton's contribution is obviously in a dass apart, it 

demands a good measure of self-control to restrain a natural impulse 

to cut away the rest. 

'Text' has been used herein as a derogatory term, f'or this 

written form has been so abused as to he almost synonymous with 

mediocrity. But a true text-· surely the rarest of volumes presents 

nn author with one of the most difficult tasks in writing: a clear, 

coherent synthesis following incisive analysis of a mass of information 

of varying quality. Obviously, a would-be text writer must 

first be possessed of sufficient information. Should basic data be 

unavailable for any reason--- and the author's inability to conduct an 

adequate enquiry is certainly not the least of such reasons-- it is 

not enough to gather together and rc~prescnl ( in a

RECgNT SIAMESE PUBLICATIONS 

318. DharmakosaeiTrya, the Ven. Pra: Attributes of His Holiness 

Kromsomdecfmz Paramanujit 1'i "J:;Ln 1rrfi111 ~ ih~nn 1 u tUJLfi'llWi:::JJ~lLUJ nn

l\ECEN'I' SIAMESE l'lltlLlCYI'III.!'IS 

combined with an extensive knowledge of the standttrd Pali classics 

of the time. A full analysis of the romance is given and commendation 

of the poem's eloquence is freely given. It should be noted that the 

author's realisation that the Prince's ability to appreciate mediaeval 

romance was a feature of the romantic poem. ( pp. 28-l-!6) The most 

famous of the Prince's works is then examined--the Tal('y ['iii-or' the 

Defeat of the TalelJs '. It was then a mistaken idea that the people 

whom we defeated were the Mons in league with the Burmese. In 

whatever case this epic poem remains still alive on the lips of school 

children; is still quoted by those who love epic poetry young and old 

of the present generation and it seems evident that our monastic author 

is still carried away by its patriotic eloquence ( pp. 87-178 ). 

One cannot help remarking that another poem of eloquence 

which is almost as popular as The Advice of Krislma to her Sister 

has not been included in this book. Inspite of its somewhat unnatural 

theme it should be in here for its eloquence is well known. 

To sum up the work under review is something worthy of 

attention. 

319. Vibhavadi Rangsit, Princess: Letters to a friend during the state 

visit of their Majesties to. America, 'if1VIlJ1!Jtl-ll~ma ~o.:~m~HHi'VtJLlJ7n1 

Pracand Press, Bangkok, ill. 2503, pp. 148. 

These letters, written by a woman, are not made up of female 

gossip, fashion notes etc; but contain, under u veneer which may seem 

to suggest such topics, much that the average reader \vould find that 

he or she could 'read, mark and learn' from the wealth of graphic 

description of the topography, the scenery, the life and the social aspect 

of the great nation on the other side of the oceans. They contain 

moreover interesting information on the economic development and 

enterprises and at the same time do not neglect to give us a view of 

the human side of the American ideal of life. All through the book 

one realises the hard work entailed in writing this book for the author 

was attached to the royal suite, participated in all the social and 

ceremonial happenings that go to make up a state visit, served not 

only as the Queen's lady-in-waiting but also very often as the sovereign's 

secretary and at the same time had to do packing and repacking

12!l 

every lWP llr three days of the reully ~trenuou:-; journey of over a 

month covering mnrc than the milc~tge of an air journey round the 

world, in whi1.~h prntncPl required changes of dress l!Uitc often if not 

as exucting as if the trip Wit!; thrt:Htgh Europe. 

As to the American continent it is so well known to the world's 

reading public that the author's general description of it would not 

command as much attention us it might deserve. The state of Hawaii, 

on the other hand, by reason nf its having been an independent kingdom 

up to quite recently and ofits position midway between the continents 

of America and Asia. is a topic of interest from both the historical and 

botanical aspects. The rest of the United States nevertheless offers 

much interest in point of their being the home of great enterprises in 

industry and commerce and the home of a people which have been 

particularly friendly to us on this side of the Pacific especially since 

we have become the vanguard against an aggressive political movement 

that may in time bridge the ocean on her either flank. 

320. Vibhlivadi Rangsit, Princess: Their i'irfajesties' Ofjicial Visits to 

~ A fll D AlA. IV' 

Palustan and Jlalaya, 1>11Htll't'l~ll~'l1'df11LmLt1nt.'ftmLnlt::t1\Hal1!lJtntJ1 

Pracnnd Press, Bangkok. 2505. ill. pp. 142 etc. 

The account is written in the form of a diary. It has, more 

than most travcliJ!!,liCs, observations or a literary and historical nature 

a feature which may be pcrhups attributable to the long line of her 

ancestors noted for their literary attainments. The author has already 

made her name in fiction, her books being widely read aiL over the 

remotest parts of' the Kingdom. She has now enlarged her field of 

activity by writing m:count:-> uf' the state visits in which she has had 

the unique opportunity Df close observation and access to the highest 

quarters. We find here therefore not only descriptions of the lordly 

mansions initiated by the British Raj when it had charge of the 

destinies or this part of the world which are now inherited by the 

Pakistani government nnd offered to the guests of the state, but also 

of the present government's observation of international courtesy and 

protocol. One cannot help remarking upon her attention paid to the 

traditional Siamese nomenclature of places and personalities, once 

widely known in Siam but since given up in favour of the dreadfully

1:10 HEt:l•:N'I' ::ii.\\IE::il·: l'l!UI.IC \TJII:\:; 

distorted versions adopted by the badly int'llt'!llCd intelligentsia of British 

rulers, such for instam:e us the Anglo-Indian Muttra fnr Iv1uthurii, and 

the Greek-based name of Patna for Pi.Ttaliputra, the Greek-based names 

of Menander and Taxila for the widely known Thai Milinda and 

Takkasila. Peshawar, however, though in dnsc pro.\imity with the 

fanner capital of the Gandb'ftra kingdom, is not that capital but the 

Sanskrit Purushapura. The capital has now been identified with a 

group of ruins at the village of Charsadda, which muy be believed to 

have been the old Pushkaravati, the :;cat uf Emperor Kanishka's 

government. West Pukistan indeed covers a ground of that Indian 

Buddhist culture which inspired our own Buddhist traditions. Its 

connection with the Jatalw and the story of Ri.Tma was considerable. 

The reviewer, for example, noticed in the maps to the west of lower 

West Pakistan a name of the ancient capital Si bi, the scut tJf the bod hi· 

suttva's kingdom. On enquiry however he was told that Sibi was known 

to be an old site but nothing else was known of it. Sibi is nevertheless 

well known here in our country by name because of its connection 

with the story of Prince Vessanturu, an apostle of liberality; though we 

have never looked upon the name qs a possible archeological renlity. 

As might be expected the Princess devotes considerable attention 

to food and delicacies of the table as well as to the interior decoration 

of houses. As for general descriptions the author has not neglected 

to present the more important data, such as the observation that while 

East Pakistan is thickly populated, exceeding West Pakistan by some 

eight millions, her extent is only one sixth of the latter. She feeds 

moreover the whole country including the Western partner. 

Although Malaya-beforc the days of 'Malaysia' .. ,. appears in 

the title of the book, there is only a skeleton programme of the visit 

which is however copiously illustrated. 

321. The Story of the Sihala Image um~Wi~VtYlll"Aii.Jn Pali text by the 

Yen. BodhiralJsi, new translation into Siamese by Dr. S. Manavitun 

with critical notes, ill. Sivaporn Press, Bangkok, 2506, pp. 79. 

The author was a resident of ChielJmai ( 1402~1442). The 

"story" consisted of eight canto in prose scattered with verses and

HECENT SlA.\IESE l'll!ILICATIONS 131 

entitled the ,)'ihiyganida11a. It was translated into Siamese in 1906 by 

Lual) I'rasrocth, well known through the History of Siam of the reign 

of King Narai which he presented to the National Library. It has 

been published now and then since as the Tamnan Pra Buddha Sihivga 

but without the Pali text. The present publication of Pali text and a 

new translation into Siamese owes its origin to the initiative of the 

Director-General of the Fine Arts Department and was intended 

primarily for presentation to monks who visited the Museum during 

the festival of the Sol)krant of 2506 ( 1963). 

The book under review contains photographs of each of the 3 

Sihala Images claiming to be the original one of the name. The verdict 

on these claims has not yet been given. 

According, then, to the story of the book under review, a 

meeting took place 700 years after the pari11ibbana of Our Lord the 

Buddha between royalty and 20 saints ( arahats) which discussed what 

the Buddha looked like. A naga turned up from nowhere who claimed 

that he knew the likeness of the Lord. On the invitation of the 

assemblage he transformed himself through miraculous powers into a 

likeness but disappeared within a short time. The assemblage then 

helped one another to create a likeness as far as they could remember 

and naming it the Sihula Buddha set it up to worship. The fame of 

the Sihalu Image became widely spread and the King of Sukhodaya in 

conjunction with the King of Nakorn Sridharmaraj sent a mission to 

the King of Sihala to beg to share in the worship of the famous image. 

The request was acceded to but on the way across the ocean it was 

shipwrecked; but through its supernatural power it floated to its 

destination. The King of Nakorn Sridharmaraj in paying great respect 

to it prayed the image to give some manifestation of its sanctity. 

Thereupon the image ascended into the sky, radiating a halo of glory 

all over the landscape. At that time the valiant Pra Rual) of Sukhodaya 

was present on the scene. He prayed the image to move to his 

state of Sukhodaya; where he held high festival and adored it. The 

narrative mentions here a glaring historical inaccuracy, for it says 

that this valiant King by the name of Pra Rual) was succeeded by his 

son Ban Mtial), who in turn was succeeded by his son Lidaya, whose 

son Ltidaya succeeded him later. All these kings adored the Sihala

1~12 

Image. It was then taken to the sou them !>tate by 'RITma of Ayudhya 1 , 

Then followed further peregrinations bet ween Kami)f'Qpcj, Chievmai, 

ChieiJrai, in between which time a model or the venerated image was 

made. Finally there remain a Sihala Image in Chic9nuti, another one 

in Bangkok, and u third in Nukorn Sridharmuraj 

One cannot but feel in reading the above jumble of traditions 

that the main objective of the story was not a historical narrative but 

an eulogy of the Silulla Image. From the historical point of view 

the first period in Ceylon is not substantiated by Singhalese history. 

Not even a mere mention of its name occurs in the long winded Mahavaysa. 

One might note the statement that when the Silulla Image was 

in Nakorn Sridharmaraj it 'ascended unto the heavens'. The implication 

seems to be that it returned to earth and was taken to Sukhodaya. Could 

we take this to mean that there were already two images'! The third 

one would surely be the 'model' made during the peregrinations in 

the north. The suppositions above arc admittedly 'tall'. In any case 

it is not the duty of a humble reviewer to solve the problem of the 

genuine image. Perhaps it now remains a problem for the historian 

of plastic art. From the point of view of the average reader one must 

bear in mind the remarkable sanctity attached in each locality to 

their individual Sihala Image. After all they arc representative of 

an ideal of hallowed memory and a highly respected personality.

PUBLICATIONS 01'' 1'HJi.l SIAM SOCIETY 

1. The Journal.-per number 

The Journal- back numbers before 1946 

2. Index to the Journal, Volumes I to XXV 

3. Index to the Journal, Volumes XXVI to XL • . . • •• 

4. Florae Siamensis Enumeratio-per number •. • • , • 

5. The Natural History Bulletin~per number •. • ••• 

6. John Black, F.R.G.S.: The Lofty Sanctuary of Khao Phra Vihar ••. 

REPBINT VOLUMES l·X 

7. 'l'he Commemorative Publication issued on the occasion 

of the Society's 50th Anniversary; 

One set (Vols. I & II), cloth~bound 

One set (Vols. I & II), paper-bound 

Vol. III, paper-bound, Early History and Ayudhya 

Vol. IV, 1 , , • Lophburi, Bangkok, Bhuket 

Vol. V, u , , Relationship with Burma Part 1 ••• 

Vol. VI, ,, 11 , Relationship with Burma Part 2 .• , 

Vol. VII, , u , Relationship with Portugal, 

·Holland, and the Vatican 

Vol. VIII, , , , Relationship with P'rance, 

England and Denmark •, • 

Vol, IX, ·~ n , The Coinage of Siam ••• 

Vol. X, ,, , , Studies of old Sinmese Coins 

8. Erik Seidenfaden.: The Thai Peoples • •• . ••• 

9. Charles Nelson Spinks: Siamese Pottery in Indonesin 

10. Gunnar Seidenfade.n and Tem Smitinnnd: 

••• 

. .. 

... 

The brehids o.f Thaihtnd: A Preliminary List, 1959, Part I 

· Part II, 1 

Part II, 2 

Part Ill 

Part IV, 1 

11. Monograph?No. 1 (iord!;)n Youn~; The Hill Tribes of 

NorthernThailar,ld, 2nd. ed. 19Q2 . · . · 

, J:l;R~H: Ptinee Da((irorig Rajunubhab; . 

:A: .Xiistocy of. Buddhist ,Monuments· in Siam ill, 1962 

'·.1 '' ' '·, ' : . '·' I I 

... 

...

., . . ,' ·, ,' 

f~· sr•.••loc1~:mY 

Ii:l$ M'ajeaty tbo King 

.!Itt M:oj6Sty the~!\ 

H~~ MaJosty.QUMU bmbll B«ml 

Her'!~~l HigW.It t~ Pr:in•s ot Sr.tnJ,khla 

.tti:S Majesty King P~k: CX.ot ~n:Uldt 

()O'()'Ncti.. Q~ "U.fllWt ~~lfW ~~OR tJ·U 

· •w · $unol'aty.,~.t 

· . lliomatntta Bidfllabh

VOLUME LUI PART 2 

July 1965 

THE 

JOURNAL 

OF THE 

SIAM SOCIETY 

(JS S) 

BANGKOK 

2508

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

VOLUME LUI l'AU'l' ~ 

JULY 1UG5 

Articles 

Page 

Phya Anuman Rajadhon A Study on Thai Folk Tale 133 

Professor Gordon H. Luce Rice and Religion 139 

Nicholas Tarling Harry Parkes' Negotiatians in Banghok in 1856 153 

Christian de Saint-Hubert 

Alastair Lamb 

Rolin-]aequemyns (Chao Phya Aphay Raja) 

and the Belgian Legal Advisors in Siam at 

the Turn of the Century 181 

A Stone Casket from Satiypra: 

some Further Observatt'ons 191 

Rece11t Siamese Publicatio11s : D. 

322. Gazetteer of Thai Geography 197 

323. Yiipo, D.: Traitriys, U-r8 0 and Ayodhya 198 

324. Yupo, D.: An Excursion into Nav Pim's Country 200 

325. Mementos of the cremation of Momcaoying Vimol-padmaraj 

Chirapravat 202 

326. A Memento to the late Momchaoying Dibyaratna-prabha Devakul 203 

327. Vajiranan, His Royal Highness Kromapraya: Autobiography 205 

328. Navsu Sanuh 206 

329. Damrot]> His late Royal Highness Prince: To my eldest daughter 207 

330. Customs of Daily Life 208 

331. Fine Arts Department: Chino-Siamese Relationship 209 

332. Debafianakavi, the Ven.: A Handbook for the Practice of 

Buddhism and Other Topics 209 

333. Boriraks-boiavalanj, Khun: Memento at cremation 211 

334. The Ven. Debavarabhorn: Colour in Visual Education 211 

335. Kittisobhana, His Holiness the Patriarch : Tradition of the 

Kathin, and religious practice 212 

336. Coedes, G.: Thai art of the Sukho.daya period 213 

337. Scientists of the Department of Mineral Resources: 

A Trip to the 'Wondrous Island of Gems' 

Accessions to the Siam Society's Library 

Annual Report fol' 1964 

213 

215 

237

A STUDY ON THAI FOLK TALE. 

by 

~h,r;a ... Anunum CR.aja.dho/1. 

Ayudhya the former capital of Thailand preceding Bangkok, 

was founded by King Ramadhibodi I in 1349 A.D. Before he became 

the first king of Ayudhya, Ramadhibodi was a ruler of the city of 

U-t6IJ. succeeding his father-in-law the then ruler. U -f6IJ is now 

an amPJwe (district) of the same name in the Province of Su£mnburi 

some 130 kilometres by road north-west of Bangkok. Who was the 

father of Ramadhibodi and where did he come from'? History does 

not tell. 

King Ramadhibodi is known popularly in folk tales as fao 

U-t6IJ; a design~tion commonly bestowed on all rulers of U-i6IJ by 

storytellers. Tao means in one sense "king" in romantic tales, and 

u-lu?J means a cradle made of gold which Ramadhibodi had in 

tradition as his cot when he was a child. A well-known legendary 

tale gives the following account. 

Once upon a time there was a miserable man in an abject state 

coming from nowhere. He lived in a hovel in the city of Traitri.iiJS· 

Where TraitrLiiJS was no one knows for sure except it must be one of 

the ruined cities somewhere in Central Thailand, of which there are 

many. Traitrii?JS means the thirty-three chief Vedic gods which Buddhism 

had adopted in its mythology; it therefore also meant the "city 

of gods" or heaven. 

Now, this man had fleshy knobs all over his face and body. He 

was therefore, nick-named Sen-pont meaning a hundred thousand 

knobs. To eke his scanty living the man grew vegetables for the 

market. In one place nearest his hut he planted makhua.l He planted 

and watered it with his urine as fertilizer. The plants thrived and 

bore abnormally large fruits. The king of the City of Traitrti~s had 

a beautiful daughter; One night she dreamt through the inspiration 

of Indra, the chief god of the Buddhist pantheon, that she had eaten 

a wonderful and delicious "makhiia" fruit. To fulfil her dream the 

princess' maid went to market but found no such wonderful thing. 

1. Name for a species of eggplants or brinjals, of which there are many varieties. Its 

fruits are often dipped in certain kinds of Thai sauce calle~ nam .. prik, etc.

I'IIYA A \liM AN l

:\ ST\IDY ON 'l'll:\1 FOLK TALE 135 

on his face and body were gone instantly. He became a handsome 

young man. He beat the drum again for the second and the third 

time wishing for a city and gold and they came true even as he wished 

them. He named the city Thep Nakhorn or "the god's city" and 

ruled it as its first king with the royal name of Siri Jai of Chie9sen.l 

As for the gold, he built a cot for his child who subsequently succeeded 

him as King U-tcitJ ( =-"gold cradle or cot), and who also 

was, historically, the founder of the old capital of Thailand, 

Ayudhya. 

Now, There arc two motifs relevant to my study of this 

folk talc, i.e. the person £JJith a hundred thousand fleshy knobs and the 

three £vislzes. In a Mon story there was a person with warts all over 

his body who afterwards became a Mon king. I heard the story 

orally from a Mon priest and scholm·2 some twenty years ago but 

unfortunately I have forgotten the story, for at that time I was not 

interested and did not take notes of it. It is a historical fact that the 

central part of Thailand, the Menam Basin, a thousand or more years 

ago were peopled by a Mon-speaking race who later mixed freely, 

racially and culturally, with the Thai, late comers from North Thailand 

and beyond. Historians tell us that the Mons at those times 

were a relatively civilized race as compared to the Thai and other 

neighboring races. Probably the Thais got the story of Sen-porn 

from the Man; and no doubt the Mon, chronologically in turn, got 

their story of a person with numerous warts from India, for the Mons 

were the first bearers of Indian civilization, especially Buddhism, to 

this part of the world. Only this year, 1963 A.D. I met a noted Indian 

folklorist,:! who had made a suggestion in reply to my enquiry 

for some traces of the story of Sen-pom. l-Ie said that it might originate 

from u certain episode concerning the god Indra as depicted 

in Hindu mythology. The story runs thus: 

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

1. Traditionally Thep Nakhorn City was built by King Siri Jai of Chie'}s~n in 1319 

A. D. and King U-to~, his son, succeeded him in 1344 A.D. Undoubtedly the 

legendary tale of King U-tdl) bears some traces of historical .fact, but it is so 

mixed up with fiction that it is hard to unravel. It is still a moot point among 

Thai historians. King Vajiravudh ( Rama VI) had in 1913 A.D. written a, 

theatrical play entitled i'ao Sen·jJom in which he offered certain historical 

suggestions. Thai history is outside the theme I am writing on and my aim is a 

comparative study of Thai folk tales only. 

2. l~ra Sumedh Muni, late abbot of Wat Jana So11krum. Bangkok. 

3. The late Dr. Kali Pr~sacl, .

t:lll 

PIIYA !I:\L\1.\\ lt\J\!11111\ 

"According to the Mahabhnrata he (!mira ) seduced, or endeavoured 

to seduce, Ahalya, the wire ur the saJ!C (iautama. and that 

sage's curses impressed upon him a thousand marb resembling the 

female organ, so he was called Sa-yoni; but these marks were afterwards 

changed to eyes, and he is hence called .... "the thousand 

eyed" -John Dowson, Classical Dictionary of Hindul\Tytholngy unci 

Religion, etc, ). 

The noted Indian folklorist further informed me in reply to 

my question that in the story of' Indra as tuld by the !"olk, the 

thousand-eyed marks on Indra were changed inl\l a thousand fleshy 

protuberances. 

The resemblance between the idea of' a hero having a hundred 

thousand fleshy knobs (which simply means "very numerous" in 

the Thai idiom), and the story of the Indian god Inclra having, ineidcntally, 

a thousand eyes on his body thruugh a curse i:-; very obvious. 

Presumably such a motif in the story is of Indian origin, and 

perhaps the story of Sen-pom is a development of the former one. 

Naturally the story adopted has its modification:-;; names arc sometimes 

altered, scenes are changed, and certain eircumstanccs arc added 

or omitted to suit local surrounding and tradition. 

The next motif, the three wishes, is to be f'uund also in one of 

the Thai droll stories orally narmted among young men in their 

social company. The story is humorous but bnrders (HJ vulgarity 

and offends propriety. It is therefore not to be found in print. 

However, the gist of the story can be told here at tile sncrif!cc ol' 

certain humour. Naturally, a story with !-luch crude humour found 

ready hearers among the young people iflef't cxdusively to themselves. 

The story runs thus : 

A man of a humble class recei vcd a magical ubjcct as a present 

from a supernatural being in return for the man's gocldwill. This 

magical object had a certain potency for the owner by which he 

could make successively only three wishes for things he desired. 

After the three wishes had been fulfilled, the magical object would 

lose its potency. Like many other tales of the type protraying a low 

estimation of the weaker sex, the man divulged the secret of the three 

wishes to his wife. She like her kind, wanted him to wish for too

A STUDY !l:-1 TIIAl FOLK TALE 137 

many things pertaining to the adornment of the fair sex. There 

was, of course, a disagreement and high words passed between the 

two. In a fit or anger the man invidiously wished for numerous male 

generative organs to adorn his body. Instantly his body became 

studded with the ob.iccts he had wished for. He was very frightened 

by the consequence and so was his wife. Both of them were now 

in a sober mood and thought of a way to get rid of the obnoxious 

objects. The wife proposed that the man make a second wish for 

the disappearance of these unpleasant things. He agreed and at once 

all the unpleasant things on his body were gone, together with his 

own natural one too. He was compelled to make the third and the 

last wish recalling by right his own identical characteristic to be 

re-instated as a man. The magical object then lost its potency and 

the man was no richer than before. 

In the Booh of Sindibati 1 there is a story of a "holy man who 

spent all his time in devotion, and had a peri for his constant and familiar 

companion for many years. At length the peri was obliged to leave 

him, word having been brought her of the illness of her rchildren. 

On parting, she taught him the 'Three Great Names' (of God), on 

pronouncement of one of which, on any great emergency, his wish 

would be immediately granted. One night the sheikh communicates 

the circumstance to his wife, who dictated to him what he is to wish 

for. The result shows the folly of consulting with women; but is 

unfit to be repeated. It is sufficient to say that the talc is similar to 

that of the "Three Wishes", by La Fontaine, to Prior's 'Ladle', and 

to that given in Syntipas (Greek version of the Book of Sindibad). 

1. The !look of Sinrlihad or, tlw Story of the King, his sons, the ch1msel, and the 

Keven vizirs, hy W.f\. Clouston, pp. 7Hl7, privately printed 1884. 

old version of this Book in Thai which bears the name of Paduma Jntaka. 

In appendix XV of the Book of Sindibacl, W.A. Clouston says: 

There is an 

It may pos~ihly interest some students of comparative folk lore to know that the 

Persian version of this story (the Peri and the Devotee) the First Wish of the devotee 

is similar to that in the:old Castilian version, Liln·v de los Engannos et los Asayamentos 

de los Mugeres, appended to Professor D. Comparetti's most valuable 

Ricerche intorno al Libro di Sindibacl. And it is perhaps worthy of note that 

the Turkish rendering of the story agrees, in this respect, with the Persian and old 

Castili~n 

versions: which seems to show that the Ottoman translation of the 

Thousand and One Nights was made from (t different text from the Calcutta or 

the Bulac1.

RICE AND RELIGION 

a study of Old Mon-Khmer evolution and culture. 

by 

~professor [Jordon

I doubt ir he would put it quite like thi~, had he heen alive today. 

Thanks to his own labours, and thtlSe of' l\1. Cieorgc Coedes:! and 

other scholars of' the French School, thanks ttl the Siam Snciety, and 

thanks finally to the solid work ol' the late-lamented Dr. Dupont,:l we 

know much more now about the date, n:liginn and art ut' Dvaruvati. 

My own work (mainly un the languages and imeriptions) leads me, 

quite definitely, to the view that your lcounlry. rather than Burma, 

was the main radiating centre; and that we uwc chiefly to Dvaravati, 

not only the Burmese type or Indian s~:ript, but also the first model 

or Theravada Buddhism, which ultimately triumphed in Burma, and 

on which much of our later civilization has been based. This happy 

early period, not of war, but or mutual influence, intimacy, and 

friendship, led each country to its first diion:sccm:c 1)f Buddhi:-;t art, 

and to a brave dcrnonstratiou ol' a new society, guided and governed 

by the D!wmma. 

What did it all rest on '?"··Materially speaking, I should say on 

RICE. And this is the subject of my paper. In trying to convince 

you of tl1e fact, I hope also tu give sume glimpses of the vast 

field involved: not only our two countries, but almost the whole of 

Further India, and a large part of India besides. 

Then let us start with RICE .. ·- 

In itself, it stiU has the nature ul' a Rcligiun amung the 

Austric-spcaking hill-tribes of South-East A~>ia. ln 1954 M. and Mme. 

Proux devoted a book of 134 pages to ''The Soul or Rice", /,' ;lme 

du Ri

tUCfo: ANil HELIGION 141 

In his book on the JAMET of Northern Laos, the Swedish 

scholar, Mr. K.G. L'.ikowitz, has also much to say about the Soul of 

RiccJi Tho Lamct are said to number less than 6,000. They live 

close to the borders, both of Burma and of Thailand. They talk a 

Mon-Khmer language of the Northern Group, closest to Khamuk. 

"Rice" says the author, "posseses a Soul, Mpu, just as a human being 

docs. . .. If the soul of rice escapes ... famine will follow. . .. It is 

a very ethereal thing which can easily vanish into other parts. 

Therefore it must be led and enticed on to the right path, and when 

it once is got hold of it must be fastened with stones, exactly as a 

human being is fastened to the grave. . .. No other plant has klpu. 

1t is reserved only for human beings and rice." ( pp., 243-4. ) 

Now it is easy to smile at such curious superstitions, but they 

deserve rather our respect. They are the first steps of a primitive 

people on the road to civilization: the first attempt to take stock of 

life, and give it a meaning and a purpose. They open the door to 

philosophy, religion, literature and art. They are a result of the 

first growing of Rice, or perhaps irrigated Rice-one of the great 

economic discoveries in the history of humanity. Irrigated Rice is 

the prime product of South-East Asia. It is our first contribution to 

civilization. 

What do the botanists tell us about the origins of Rice.-! quote 

the following from the article on ORYZA in I.H. Burkill's Dictionary 

of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula (Vol. II, P· 1592 

follg. ). 

" The genus is most strongly developed in a wild state in 

Africa, but it must have been in Asia that the cultivated rice had its 

remotest origin." ( p. 1592 ). . .. ''Man can have invented the wet 

rice-field only after he had long grown rice as ... a dry-land crop. 

The parts of the world, therefore, where it is so grown, taken 

together with the physiological requirements of the parents, indicate 

within what rather wide limits wet-rice cultivation must have arisen. 

The Asiatic species which have been pointed out as parents 0. fatua 

5. Lamet, Hill Peasants in French Indochina by Karl Gustav hikowitz ( Gi:iteborg, 

1951 ). See especially pp. 243·247. ,

14:'. 

l'rofe;>f>OI' norflnn II. l.un: 

and 0. miuuta .occurs in moist place}, fr11tn the E~~:>tcrn llimalaya tu 

Ceylon and from the snutllcrnnHISt cdgc ul' Chilla tlHIHl).'li Burma and 

Indo-China to .Java, Bnrncn, and the Philippine Islan~b: and where 

they grew, dry-land cultivation is pratti~~·tl. It wuuld be within 

these limits that the first wet-ri~·c ~·ultivatinn wa)l undertaken" 

( p. 1595 ). 

Compare this with Dr. C. 0. Blagden's memurahlc WllHls about 

the Sakai of' the Malay Peninsula. 11 I Ic is dispnl\'ing. mainly on 

linguistic grounds, the old view that they owe their planting of dec 

to Malay influence:-- 

" 'fhe true inference, in my opinitlll, is that, like many of the 

ruder Mon-Khmer tribes, some nf the wild tribes ut' the Peninsula 

have from time immemorial planted rice in their jungle-clearings. 

But they have never made the great advance ttl pla11ting in irrigable 

swamp-land: that, in South-East Asia, is the Ruhic(ln whit:h a barbarous 

tribe must cross before it can fulfil the cuntiitiolls precedent 

to real civilization, first in the material ~ense, ami ultiutatcly in its 

social, moral, intclle~.:tual, and ollwr connotatiull\\" ( pp .. ~:'l-2 ). 

That Rubicon was certainly crossed, al an early date, by the 

more advanced Mcm-Khmer !.peaking peoples nol'th ol' the N!alay 

Peninsula. But at what date: 

In treating ol' such ancient penples as the spcakcrs ur Mon 

Khmer, it is important tu di5Linguish Race and I .anguage. The oldest 

known people who have pa!-ised through Burma and ( l imagim~) Siam 

(generally from north to south), arc llwught tn have been in race 

Negrito, their present-day descendants being the inhabitants of the 

Anclmnan islands, and, on the mainland, the .'->'RM;JNG of the Thailand/Malayan 

border, iiOuth of the isthmus or Kra. Little or no Mon· 

Khmer influence has yet been traced in Andamun languages; so we 

assume that they reached Lhci r islands before the coming of the Mons. 

Nor is there clear evidence of common oril'in bet ween Andamanesc 

and Semang languages.? The Semang Negritues 

"" 

arc the later comers. 

G. Pagan Races of the Mala_y Peninsula by W. W. Sh~; 1 t and(;,(). J',]agden, ~~ vols. 

( 1906 London, lviacmillan). See Vol. II, pp. cJ:H-~. 

7. "Their relationship must be considered a~; hypotl 11::tical. The :HrucltHCS and 

grammars of the language~; at the present day ure quite dlf!t~nmt" (Blagden, cp. 

cit., Vol. II. p. 'tG3 ).

HIC:E ANIJ HEI.fGION 

Though not basically Mon-Khmcr, the Scmang dialects arc so deeply 

penetrated with Austric vocabulary, that they must have lived for a 

long time, in Burma and/or Siam, in close contact with Mon-Khmer 

speakers. 

These last were presumably the SAKAI tribes, who now live 

on the higher central parts of the Peninsula, between the Kra Isthmus 

and Malacca. Sakai speakers arc of mixed race: some look more 

than hall· Ncgrito; others might be taken for Mongoloid; but in the 

main they arc classed as Australoid. Apart from a very few pre 

Mon-Khnter survivals, such as the older names for the numerals 1, 2 

and 3, the purer Sakai dialects arc shown by Dr. Blagden to be 

thoroughly Man-Khmer, although in race the speakers are clearly 

different rrom, and older than, the Mons of Burma and Siam today. 

A new and conquering set of numerals, 1 to 10, with a much 

less primitive vocabulary, was brought in later by new waves of Man 

Khmer speakers, who spread, quite rapidly, over an enormous areafrom 

the China Sea to Central India. These 4 specimen Charts 

(Chart I-74 words)- show two main lines of diffusion: 

T A and B, radiating South-West from Tongking, as far as the 

Nicobars. 

I A and B cont., the same words reaching far to the West 

through the Northern Group ( WA-RIANG-PALAUNG ), reappearing 

in K!UlSI, south of the Brahmaputra in Assam, and finally in the 

MU NDA languages of lndia.f\ These scattered Munda languages, now 

spoken south of the Ganges valley, reach west as far as KURKU 

in Central India, and south as far as SAVAH.A and GADABA north 

of Madras. Munda languages have subsequently been greatly changed 

by Indo-Aryan influence in the north, and Dravidian influence in the 

south; but their primitive Man-Khmer basis is still in certain evidence. 

Similarly the Man-Khmer basis of Tanking Annamite is still plain, 

though now largely submerged by the Southern YVEH (Vl$TNAM) 

conquest of ·the Tongking plain, once the home of Austro-asiatic 

speech. 

8. See George Grierson, Linguistic Stitvey of India, Vol.lV Cpp. 239 ff.), "Mund11 

Languages ". 

lt13

1·1·1 PrClftHl'Hlr Oonlon II. !.lie•· 

How did this extraordinary diHusiun come about.? The only 

likely, or even possible, explanation seems !11 he RICE. Suuth-l~ust 

Asia is the homdand of Wet-Rice cultivatinn. Dr. Blagdt:n has shown 

from their vocabularies that while the Scmang tribes were mainly 

hunters and food-gatherers, the Sakai made the fir:-.t adYancc tu the 

growing or hill-rice-petty 'taungya' cultivation, as wt~ call it in Burmese. 

The main, enormous advance came later, with the gwwing of 

wet rice in well-watered, monsoon, level, delta an:

HICE ,\NE HEI.ICION 

Ch'o in 863 A.D. ( Man-slm, Ch. VIT) mentions rice as only one among 

several Ytinnan \.Tops---hemp, glutinous millet, paniclcd millet, barley, 

etc. In 2000 B.C., I doubt if much except hill-rice was grown on the 

cold, high plateau of Central Y\.innan. It was then very likely peopled 

by the Northern Mon-Khmers, WA-RIANG-PALAUNG, speaking 

cognate but different languages. 

Perhaps the Tongking rice-growers had heard of the plains of 

N.E. India. In India Rice is never mentioned in the Rigveda. It 

first occurs in the Atharvaveda. The word is Vrihi, from which Greek 

6ruza and English 'Rice' are thought to derive. The word Vriha 

occurs in a Khmer inscription of 1003 A.D., perhaps in the general 

sense or 'grain'; and Coedes cites, as possibly connected, the]aruy 

word for Rice, breh.IO 

The Tongking emigrants, escaping west, seem to have followed 

the course of the Red River to its source, S. of Ta-li; descended thence 

lo the Ira wady swamps ncar Myitkyina; crossed the Chindwin and the 

runge N. of Manipur; and so reached their next centre, KHASI, in the 

plains of East Assam. But the main body moved on to the vaster 

Ganges plain, where they multiplied exceedingly. But in the 1st 

millcnium B.C., the Aryan penetration ofthc middle and lower Ganges 

valley must huve steadily driven the MUNDAS south of the river, 

into the hills of Central and Eastern India; while soon after, the Mikir 

Naga and Tibeto-Burman invasions in the northeast, drove the Khasis 

south of the Brahmaputra, into the Khasi Hills W. of Manipur, where 

they still survive. After all their losses, in the 1921 Census, Khasi 

speakers still numbered over 200,000, and Munda speakers nearly four 

million. In Burma, the total of Mon-Palaung-Riang-Wa speakers was 

then barely 350,000. 

For centuries before and after the time of Christ, the Malayan 

Vikings of the South maintained a series of footholds along our coasts. 

Their main centres and settlements were in Champa and Sumatra. 

Perhaps owing to the dearth or islands at the head of the Gulf of Siam, 

they were less of a menace to you than they were to us; and that is 

why Man Buddhist culture flourished earlier in Dvaravati than it did 

W. See Inscriptions du Cambod[Je, Vol. II, P· 113, n. 2. 

U5

in Burma. Our cna:-.lal penple li\l'd in kt wr t•t' their ~.mlden raids 

I' rom the se;1, and l':tlled lht!!l1 N.ahsa.w, 'C:llmi h;d lkmnn, '. When 

the first Buddhist thcras ,

14'7 

settlements along our coast. Doubtless the pirates conscribed the 

local aborigines, such as the Scmang Negritoes, and the few coastal 

Sakai tribes, such as the Bcsisi of Malacca, who, in turn, contributed 

not a l'ew words to Old tv1on which are hardly found elsewhere in 

Mon-Khmer. These ancient Malayan pirates, whatever the Mons 

may have called them, were not savages. In some ways they were more 

than a match for the Mon-Khmers. They gave many of the peoples 

of' S.E. Asia their words for metals,--gold, silver and iron; also for 

shipping. Their prowess as early navigators is second to none in the 

history of the world. Curiously enough, they seem to have ignored 

the Nicobarcsc, who lived so near Sumatra. The languages of the 

Nicobars arc not Malayan, but Mon-Khmer-all ancient and peculiar 

varieties. 

islands. 

They are the only Austroasiatic languages spoken on the 

My analysis or Old Mon vocabulary (mostly taken from our 

11th--12th century inscriptions) shows a large number of borrowings 

from fndo-Aryan: the older forms taken from Sanskrit rather than 

Pali. But Old Mon never sinks to the level of a secondary language, 

as Khmer docs in the pre-Angkor inscriptions of Camboja, where the 

Khmer passages arc mostly confined to lists of slaves, lands, and objects 

dedicated. The true Mon vocabulary in our inscriptions shows 

several strands of' origin. Of the 153 words listed in these Charts, not 

counting the more dubious cases, I reckon that half (nos. 1 to 74) are 

widespread or almost uni versa!. Over 60 occur in Khasi; over 40 in 

Munda. In Vietnamese perhaps 50 survive. In Kinner over 100, including 

50 found in pre-Angkor inscriptions ( 600-800 A.D.). In the 

Annamitc Chain practically all the words in Charts I and II are found 

(Nos. 1 to 117): but hardly any in Chart III. 

The oldest strand in Mon includes words shared only with the 

South-with Sakai, Besisi, Semang, the Nicobars, and sometimes 

Khmer; they arc not found, so far as I know. in the Annamite Chain. 

Then there are a lot of common words of varying antiquity (e.g. 

smiil "king") which seem to be confined to Mon or Burma Mon. 

Closest to Old Mon-rather closer than Khmer-are the central dialects 

of the Annamite Chain-BAHNAR-SRE-BIAT~ etc, Their

[.lfl 

l'rof\:Ht\tl!' (;nr;lon il. l t\l'< 

words nul t:\llllllHlll to the South ~.h

HICE AND H ELIGlON 149 

To conclude the subject of Mon-Khmer, may I give a brief 

summary of the earliest Mon inscriptions.- 

( i) Much the oldest Mon writing comes from Dvaravati kingdom, 

which, according Chinese accounts, was at its height in the 7th 

century A.D. In 1952, at Vat P'o Rang in the P'ra Pathom group, 

Nagnra Pathama, a stone fragment with two different inscribed faces 

was found. In editing it, Coedes describes the script as "identical 

with that of the oldest inscriptions of Caniboja: it points to the beginning 

of the 7th century, perhaps even the end of the 7th. The language 

is unquestionably Mon."t6 The subject is ,Buddhist. The writing, 

though fragmentary, is clear. 16 or 17 words are about all that are 

legible. Nearly all are common to 11th Cent. Burma Mon; and the 

spellings arc almost identical. 

( ii ) The next important Mon inscription (really 4 short Buddhist 

dedications) has been often edited.l7 It is on the octagonal 

pillar from Vat Sal Sun at Lopburi, now at the National Library, 

Bangkok. Apart from proper names, it contains only about 24 different 

Mon words. The writing is continuous and fairly legible. In 1925 

Coedes dated it palaeographically "not earlier than the middle of the 

8th Century". -Round about 1000 A.D. this Theravada Buddhist 

kingdom of Dvaravati fell into the hands of the Khmer rulers of 

Angkor. 

( iii ) The earliest Mon inscriptions of Burm~, not yet edited 

in print, come from Thaton, and Kawgun Cave on the Salween, 30 

miles N. of Moulmein.l8 They date probably from the middle of the 

11th Century, shortly before Aniruddha's capture of Thaton (c. 1057 

~ Se-;···Cin~~-;;,;;;;;z~d;.-;;·de la -fondation de l' E~ole Fram;aise .d' E:ctreme-Orient. 

Seance du 21 mars 1952, pp. 27-31. See also G. Coedes, Recueil des Insc1·iptions 

du Siam. Part II, Inscrij>tions cle Dvamvati, 2nd Ed., Siam Society, 1961, Pl1mche 

XVIII. 

17. See Coedes, BE.F.E.O., t. XXV, 1925, pp. 106-8. Recueil des Inscrij>ti01zs du 

Siam, Part II, 1st Ed. 1929, pp. 17·19 (French text), and Planches I Cleft side) 

and XIII C Inscr. XVIII); 2nd Eel. 1961, XVIII, pp. 7-9 C French text), and 

Planches III, IV. R. Halliday, "Les Inscriptions Mon du Siam", B.E.F.O.E. 

t. XXX. 1930, pp. 81-85, and Pl. VIII. 

18. See Inscriptions of Burma, Portfolio IV, Plates 358·360.

l;iO l'rof

HICE \:'ill HFLII:ION 151 

Khmer \'(JL:ahulary, extending from the China Sea to the Malay Peninsula 

and Central India. The beautiful script of Sabbadhisiddhi's 

inscription:> at l!aripuii.jaya, clearly derives in the main from that of 

II th lo I 2th Century Burma. But that of Burma probably derives 

from that of 7th Ccmury Dvaravatl. It is very different from the 7th 

Ccn tury Pyu script of Sri Ks;:;tra. The 8th-9th Century Pyu (of Halin? ), 

according to the i'v'!"Z1J T'ang Tlistury,zt claimed suzerainty over the 

Lower Burma iv1ons. Perhaps this was an idle or outdated claim. 

Anyho\\', in the 7th Century, the western boundary of Dvaravati' is 

said in the Old T'ang llistory to have been the ocean.22 If so, it 

reached the Gulf or Martaban. M. Coedes and Dr. Dupont have 

shown the remarkable extent and uniformity of this Theravada Buddhist 

kingdom. If the excavations at Sri K~etra prove, as it seems, 

that the Pyu, with their usc of the radiating arch, were the better 

architects, the Mons always appear to have been the better sculptors. 

And since not only the Theravacln, but also the Mahayana and Brahmanism 

were strong at Sri K~etra, while in Dviiravati the Theravacla 

dominated, it seems probable that in religious matters, the latter influenced 

the Ji:mner rather than vice vers'a. The Old Siam religion, no 

less than the Old Siam script, ultimately tnumphed in Burma. 

But the final collapse of this ancient and stable Old Mon literary 

culture came with extraordinary suddenness in both countries. In 

Lower Siam, after 1000 /\.D., it seems to go out like a lamp. In Burma, 

after the !'all or Pagan, an independent Mon kingdom revived in the 

south, from the end or the I 3th Century. But Mon inscriptions 

("Middle Mon") :::: start ag'ain only in the middle of the 15th Century; 

21. l1sin.t'an1:·sl111 d1. :~:~:~C. St~rtion on P'iao. 

:~2. Chiu-t'ang-shu t:h. J!l7, Section on To-ho-lo kingdom. 

:!:l. 

For published Middle Mon inseriptions, sec E.)if.f· T3irm. Vol III, Part II and 

Plate~ ( lfJ2H) "The Inscriptions of the Kolyal).'lSirna, Pegu ";and VoL IV, Parts 

l and U (plates), 193,!.36, "The Mcdiaevnl MCn Records"- both by Dr. 

Blagden. Sec also the Rr~j>ort of the Suj;erintendent, Archaeological Su1·vey 

13urma for the year 19::18-39, pp. 22-~4 and Plate VII " An Imcription at the site 

of the Mui'icalinda Pagoda Pcgu " by U Lu Pc Win; ond Bulletin of the School of 

Oriental ancl African Studies, London, 1958, xxi/2, PP· 361·7, "The Kyaikmaraw 

ln~eriptions ",by H.L. Shortq.

11i2 

ProfcnHnr Gordon II. l.ucc 

and then, owing to phonetic breakdown and Burmese infiltmtions, it 

looks almost like a different language. 

Old Mon has a strength and beauty all its own. Perhaps, as 

in Indonesian, the normal word was originally dissyllabic. When the 

first syllable decayed through loss of accent, it was wonclerfull y revived 

in Old Mon writing to provide an cffccti ve Syntax, based on prefix, 

infix and reduplication. It was soon adequate for the gigantic task of 

translating the Tipitaka. But what strikes me most, is its grave beauty 

and imaginative range. It was no primitive language struggling to 

express thoughts too deep for it. Even in prose, it is always poetry. 

Even the words of the Buddha. translated into Old ivhm, Jose little in 

the process.

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AUSTRO-ASIATIC LANGUAGES. NORTH-CENTRE CLUSTER (KENGTUNG,INLE ~) 

" . - , ..CHART ff . ' • 

MON. DANAW. AMOK. MONGLW£ ANGKU. J>AAANG. RUHAr:-- W&. LA. WA. EN. SON. TAHOI(t..&{ 

dim 

oA 

WfO 

o/10 

to 

¥ 

{iik 

~an 

I 

TltJ¥ 

ONE 

LO\\'EH SlAM. 

Nugarn Pa~hama 

c. 600 A.D. 

moy 

OLD MON ORTHOGRAPHY 

-- 

Lopburi 

775A.D 

moy 

LO\VER BURMA. 

Thntoq 

c. 1050 A.D. 

moy 

CENTRAL BURMA. 

Pagan 

c. llOO A.D. 

moy 

TABLE A. 

UPPER SIAM. 

Lamp hun 

c. 1220 A.D. 

moy, moyy 

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THREE 

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[1098 A.D.] 

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EIGHT 

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[1098 A.D.] 

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[1098 A.D.] 

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THOUSAND 

OBJECT OF 

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BUDDHIST 

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~.:. tiOU A.D. I··· 775A.L>. v. 111[;0 :\.!J. ~·. lltJU .\ D. 

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~.:. 1220 A.D. 

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bdiw

HARRY PARKES' NEGOTIATIONS 

IN BAN(iKOK IN 1856 

by 

Nicholas Tarling, M.A., Ph. D., F.R.A.S.} F.R. Hist. S. 

Sir John Bowring had written enthusiastically to his son Edgar 

about the treaty he was making with Siam in April 1855. "The 

country will be absolutely revolutionised by the change,-and in a few 

years I doubt not there will be an enormous trade ..." 

Much, herecognised, 

was due to his "auxiliaries", his son John and Harry S. 

Parkes, the Consul at Amoy. "Parkes with his admirable tact,-John 

with his great commercial aptitude and knowledge ..." 

He had 

u decided that Parkes shall take home the treaty. His services 

have been invaluable. I hope the government will confer upon 

him some mark of honor. He truly deserves it-And so does 

John. I never would have accomplished what I have accomplished 

without auxiliaries so active, intelligent and trustworthy 

... I can lll afford to spare him,-but it is so important the 

government should be thoroughly informed of all that has taken 

place here ... "(1) 

Parkes was thus sent home to secure the ratification of the treaty and 

convey his "mass of valuable knowledge" about a country with 

which so great a trade was to develop. "Moreover I discovered that 

there was a strong feeling that the Letters and Presents of the two 

Kings to Her Majesty the Queen, ought properly to be conveyed by 

the highest functionary at my disposal, and my appointment of Mr. 

Parkes has been a particular gratification to them ... "(2) 

Parkes reached London, after an exceptionally rapid journey, 

on July lst. During his stay in Britain, he busied himself with a 

Cl)M···B~;;i~·~·t;·iEd;~;;-B~-writ;g-:-13th. AprillBsS:iinglish niss. 1228/125, Job~ 

Rylands Library, Manchester. For the negotiation of the treaty, see Nicholas 

Tarling, "The Mission of Sir John Bowring to Siam'', TlzeJoumal of the Siam 

Society. L, Pt. 2

1S4 

Nicholtt!'l Tnrling 

number of activities. Vlith the help of he drew up a map of 

Lower Siam based on rough ~urvcys by resident American missiut, the farm provided 

some compensation to the Chinese farmers for the loss of other 

monopolies.ClO) Lord Shaftesbury and leaders uf the anti-opium 

movement had accused Bowring of betraying his principles in intro .. 

(4) Parke:~ t Hammond, Gth. July, .2:.!nd. Dt•t:Nnlwr ta:v,. P.O. 17/!?Nfi. 

(5) "Geographical Note!'! on Si,tm't, Journal of the !

IIAHtn PAUI\I·:s• N~:(;t)'l'JATIONS IN llANt;Kol< IN 1856 155 

clueing the clause.n n Even after Parkes' explanation, Clarendon 

could not see why the regulation had been made into a clause in the 

treaty.o~n Parkes also had to deal with the criticisms of the treaty 

offered by one of the Government's law officers. The discussion 

illustrates the developing system of extraterritoriality and the use of 

China and Turkey as bases of reference. 

The Queen's Advocate had been asked to comment on the 

treaty, although, as he said, he was ignorant of "the political, legal 

and coxnmercial system in Siam ... " Firstly, he thought article 2 vague, 

in providing that the new consul was to enforce British subjects' 

observance of all the provisions of this treaty, and of" such of the 

former treaty negotiated by Captain Burney in 1826 as shall still 

remain in operation,,; it omitted to set forth what did remain in 

operation. Article 2 also covered the rather different subject of consular 

jurisdiction, providing that "any disputes arising between 

British and Siamese Subjects shall be heard and determined by the 

consul, in conjunction with the proper Siamese officers H. This, the 

Queen's Advocate thought, was · 

"so vague as to be scarcely intelligible. I presume the 

intention of the article is to provide for the Erection of a Tri~ 

bunal of which the Consul shall always be a Member, having 

exclusive civil Jurisdiction in all cases in which a British Subject 

may be either Plaintiff or Defendant, but if so this is not very 

distinctly expressed. I would further suggest that the number 

01) G.F. Bartle. ··Sir John Bowring and the Chinese and Siamese Commercial 

Treatie~,'', Bulletin of tlze .John R.ylands Library, xlii C March 1962 ), p. 306. 

Mr. Bartle notes that opium was a delicate question with Sir John, not only 

because of his principles, but because of his peri::ional obligations to the great 

finn of Jardine Matheson, of which the younger John was a partner. Bowring 

wrote to the Foreign Office: •'If it be the opinion of any one that the severest 

regulations will prevent a supply of opium from some source or other, where 

there is an active demand for the drug, I can only say that such an opinion 

is not warranted by my observation and experience. I avoided however 

discussions on the subject in Siam." Bowring to Clarendon, 27th. September 

1855, no. 311. F.O. 17/238. See also Bowring to Fredk. Bowring 4th. 

October 1855. English MSS. 1229/205. 

(12) Note by Clarendon, 9th. August 1855. F.O. 17/236. The clause had been 

suggested by the Siamese Commissioners. See, under the date April. 12th., the 

journal of the mission, Enclosure No. 15 in Bowring to Clarendon, 28th. April 

1855, no. 144 1 

F.O. 17/229.

156 Nic:lwlalii Tnrling 

and description of persons wllC) are to C(Hlstitute the Tribunal 

in questi()n should be defined, and some provision made for 

preventing a majority of Siamese otlkers always overruling 

the decision of tht Consul, and deciding ad\"ersely to British 

litigents. I presume that it is also intended to exempt British 

Subjects from the Siamese Criminal Jurisdiction in all cases 

without ExcBption~ so as to place them in the same peculiar position 

in Siam as that which they a~:tually occupy in Turkey; but 

if so, there are no words securing them any such complete 

exemption in all cases without exception. n 

The Queen's Advocate also questioned a dause in article 5, stipulating 

that British subjects should not leave Siam, "if the Siamese authorities 

show to the British Consul that legitimate objections exist to their 

quitting the country., How was the legitimacy of the objections to 

be determined'? H Debt, the existence c:>f a Criminal charge, the pendency 

of a Civil Suit, intentin to evade legal process, and various 

other objections will all be relied upon as legitimate objections." 

Difficulties could arise if the Consul were to exercise a discretionary 

power to detain British subjects against \Vhse departure the Siamese 

Government offered objections he deemed legitimate, or if he could 

allow them to leave despite such objecti

IlAHRY l'ARKI-:S' NEt;O'J'IATIONS IN BAN

HiR 

Nicholas TarlinR 

His proposals thus concerned the appoint mcnt uf n ccm~ul and his 

jurisdiction, freedom to pnssc~s houses and land. unre~trh:ted exercise 

of the Christian religion, abolition of measurement dues and establishment 

of a tariff, abolition of certain monopolies und inland taxation, 

access to the interior, most-favoured-nation treatment, irlterpretation 

of the treaty by the English version, the right of in ten years. 

The treaty secured all these points, 4 ~ and if hnpt~rfections are observable 

in the \vorking of some of its provisions~ or if c>ther desirable 

stipulations have necessarily been omitted, it wiil ~een that an opportunity 

has been provided for remedying these de fie icncies, which 

are attributable .... to the obstacles a'bove set forth .... H 

The Advocate objected to the vague ~tipulatin of the entire treaty; 

''and to avoid an inconvenient subject of discussion, His Excellency 

considered it advisable to omit the enumeration oft he several articles 

,.. or passages annulled or affected by the present Treaty, the general 

rule being understood by the Siamese that all C(>nditions of the old 

Treaty that arc opposed to those

H·\HftY I'AltKES' NE(:OT!A.TJONS IN BANGKOK IN 1856 159 

were, he said, "framed \Vith the design of placing British subjects 

under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Consul in all cases civil and 

criminal in \Vhich British subjects are Plaintiffs and Defendants, and 

also in all cases civil and criminal in which natives of Siam are Plaintiffs 

and British subject Defendants; precisely the same effect being 

aimed at as that of the corresponding stipulations of the Chinese 

treaties, with the conditions of which the Siamese are perfectly familiar 

....'' This was covered, it was thought, by the leading stipulation 

of the article, that ''the interests of all British subjects coming to 

Siam shall be placed under the regulation and control of the Consul", 

and that the consul should henceforward "give effect to all rules and 

regulations that are now or may be hereafter enacted for the Government 

of British subjects in Siam, the conduct of their trade, and for 

the prevention of violations of the laws of Siam." Bowring felt, 

hovvever. that it was desirable 

"to promote .... a cordial cooperation between British and 

Siamese Authorities in all cases in which both British and 

Siamese interests might be involved, and that the investigation 

of complaints, whether preferred by Siamese against British 

Subjects, in the Consular Courts, or by British subjects against 

Siamese, through the medium of the Consul, in the Native 

Courts, should as far as possible be conducted by British and 

Siamese officers acting conjointly with or mutually assisting 

each other, but without either of these functionaries relinquishing 

the right of decision which they would severally retain in 

their respective courts. The principal object in view is to give 

the Consul a right of access to the native Courts, and the means 

of watching, and, to a certain extent, taking part in the 

proceedings in cases where British subjects are Plaintiffs and 

Siamese Defendants. Owing to the irregular practices of native 

Courts some check of this nature becomes indispensable to 

ensure due consideration or an impatial hearing by the native 

judges of the claims or charges of a British subject; and when~ 

ever the Consul may be called on to hear and determine the 

complaint of a Siamese against a British subject, the presence 

of a Siamese officer would not only facilitate the investigation, 

but would otherwise be desirable as affording the Siamese 

Government the most open means of satisfying themselves on 

the impartiality of our proceedings. "

160 Nicholas T~trling 

The Queen's Advocate had also objected to a clause in article 5 

dealing with the departure of British subjects from Siam. This, however, 

was something the Siumese negotiators had especially urged. 

"Feeling that they had surrendered all control on British subjects and 

being inclined probably to estimate the good faith of foreign officials 

by their own imperfect standard, they sought ... in this stipulation an 

additional guarantee that British offenders or defaulters should not 

have it in their power, by suddenly fleeing the country, to escape the 

puTI>uit of justice." The "legitimacy H of Siamese objections would 

presumably be ascertained by suit or prosecution in the consular court, 

and the presence of Siamese authorities at the hearing would demonstrate 

the equitable character of the consul's decisions. 

As for the first two omissions the Queen's Advocate noticed, 

Parkes thought his remarks had already shown ''that no arbitrary 

interference of this nature or liability to Siamese Jurisdiction is contemplated 

or allowable on the part of the Siamese". If, however, the 

exclusive jurisdiction of the consul over British subjects needed to 

"be more explicitly set forth H, Parkes suggested H that the Siamese 

Authorities be induced to subscribe to certain Judicial rules or other 

Agreement which would place this point beyond question. H 

The omission of a provision securing British subjects the free 

disposal of real estate was partly remedied by article 7 in Burney's 

treaty which provided that "whenever a Sian1ese or English merchant 

or subject who has nothing to detain him requests permission to leave 

the country, and embark with his property on board any vessel he 

shall be allowed to do so with facility". The clause might at least 

provide the basis for negotiating something more explicit. Another 

article of the Burney treaty, the eighth, covered other omissions mentioned 

by the Queen's Advocate, namely the right of succession and 

the case of wreck, except that it did not explicitly deal with the 

recovery of debts due to the estate of a deceased person. But by 

article 6 of the Burney treaty the Siamese were bound to endeavour 

to recover the debt of a living creditor, and they were pledged by 

article 8 to restore property to the heir. "It may be hoped therefore 

that the Siamese Authorities will not refuse to agree to any amplification 

or amendments in these provisions of Captain Burney's Treaty,

UA!IHY 1*;\!U\ES' NE

16~ 

however. The doubtful pnints might 

regulations 

under article 9. It would be consider 

whether, before the Ratifications arc 

~mnc definite agreement 

or understanding should be come tu by the 

as to the contents of such (future) Regulations 

Jurisdiction-~ and as to the Burney treaty. 

for Parkes' opinion. otJ> 

Parkes thought that '~any proposal to alter the text of the new 

Treaty \:Vould probably be met with strong 

on the part of 

the King and the Siamese Ministersn; but " SCi!llC or ttlf nf the extra 

conditions or explanations" might be secured in additi1nmt articles" if 

it can be shewn to them that these additions invnh c no revocation of 

the original provisions of the Treaty~ but arc in with its spirit 

and intent". Precedents might be fnund in sur»plcment to the 

Burney treaty and in the treaty supplemental to the of Nan 

Idng.C20> The Siamese could nlso be referred tn article 9 of the 

Bowring treaty, and to their own pr\lposals f\•r n:•placing political 

clauses in the Burney treaty as submitted to the Gnvcrnor-O

IIAHHY I'AI!KES' NIWOTIA'fiONS IN BAN

161 Nichnlas Tarling 

fidence in British good faith "and thereby dispose them to eventually 

agree to the additional provisions which I Ier Majesty,s Advocate 

General deems so de~ir·able .... ~' It was H not unlikely that our interests 

in this respect may be in some measure promoted by the 

movements t)f the French and United States Governments. \vho alive 

to the great advantages of Sir John Bowring's Treaty, have already 

appointed their respective Commissioners to proceed to Siam to 

negotiate for similar privileges ".c::n At Singapore, \vhere he heard 

of the moves of Montigny and To\vnsend Harris, Parkes expressed 

more doubt on this last point. The Siamese might wish to avoid any 

further innovation.< 24 ) 

At Singapore Parkes also received sorne additional instructions 

from Bowring in Hong Kong. These related to the matters that had 

been referred to the Governor"Gencral. On two of these, he had 

been able to come to some decision. Fc\v British Burmese subjects 

traded beyond the Bangkok river, and if this was meant by the u Menam 

", no inconvenience could be anticipated from an order restraining 

them from crossing it. The Kra boundary should be held to, but 

it could be defined. The third matter, involving the Siamese claims 

over the Malay states, had been referred to London. Bowring told 

Parkes he could discuss the first two.t 2 5> 

It had been arranged that Parkes should~ en route for China, 

carry the ratification to Bangkok, together with the presents and the 

letter from Queen Victoria that King Mongkut had been so anxious 

to receive.t 26 ) He was to take the January mail and pick up a steamer 

of the Royal Navy at Singapore. The February mail would have left 

only a small margin before the treaty came into effect-fixed by 

(28) Parkes to Wodehouse, 7th. December 1855. 11:0. 17/2Sfi. Hence the instruc· 

tions to Parkes, 2nd. January 1856. P.O. 17/25•f.. 

(24) Parkes to Clarendon, lst. March 1856. F.O. ().9/.5. 

(25) Bowring to Parkes, lOth. January 1856. B.C. 190807. p. 4. Bogle to Beadon, 

18th. Augustl855; Dalrymple to Bowring. 28th. Novemberl855, B.C. 171870, 

pp. 33, 49. 

(26) Tarling, J.S.S .• L Pt. 2, p. 109. Neither Brooke nor Bowring had carried 

royal letters to the Siamese kings, though they had full powers.

B \HRY PARKF:S' NE(;OTIATlONS IN BANGKOK IN 1856 165 

article I 2 for April 6th ( 27 ) -and Parkes thought that he or someone 

"should be on the spot to see how the Siamese carry out the new 

arrangements .... (28) 

The voyage was marked by contretemps. The route was overland 

to Marseilles and thence to Alexandria. But the presents for 

the Kings of Siam, as well as the Parkes couple's baggage, were on a 

steamer from Southampton, which had not reached Alexandria by the 

time the Marseilles steamer arrived. < 29 > Next the journey was overland 

to take another steamer at Suez. Parkes decided not to risk the 

ratification for the sake of the presents, that is not to miss the Suez 

steamer by waiting for the one from Southampton. In the event the 

presents arrived in time and by January 31st all were aboard. < 30 ) At 

Singapore a more serious mishap occurred. H. C. Steamer Auckland 

was to convey Parkes up to Bangkok. A boat carrying the presents 

out to it sank. Most of the packages were recovered ( 31 ); "but with 

the exception of three only, the contents were completely saturated 

a~d spoiled ... nt 32 >. But there was some good news, definite news of 

(27) Bowring had originally proposed that the new tariff should date from the 

signature of the treaty, •'but ns those important provisions relative to the 

abolishment of the Firms, Monopolies, etc., could not come into operation 

before the expiration o£ the year for which the licences had been renewed only 

a few .days pr~vious to the Plenipotentiary's arrival'', it was deferred Jor that 

year. See, Ullder the date April 13th., Endosute No. 15 in Bowring to Clarendon, 

28th. April1855 1 

no. 144. F.O. 17/22.9. 

(28) Parkes to Hammond, 27th. October 1855; Hammond to Wodehouse, 31st. 

October 1855. F:O. 17/2/Ui. 

(29) Parkes to Hammond, 22nd. January 1856. F.(). 6.9/5. 

(80) Parkes to Hammond, 31st. January 1856. l 1 ~Q. 6'9/5. 

(81) Later there was ~me question of the remuneration to those who tried to recover 

them. The amount paid was 500 dollars, "and when it is seen that this sum 

in dudes fifty one Dollars for the hire of boats and forty nine Dollars paid to the 

English Engineers leaving therefore only fottr hundred Dollars to be divided 

among 109 ntltives at an average o£ fifteen shillings per head, this do~s not 

appear an exorbitant rate of remuneration for a night's exposure to a storm, 

and three days' subsequent labor .••. " Parkes to Bowring, 5th. July 1856. 

F.O. 17/248. 

(32) Lane-Poole, op.cit., i, p. 299. Some of the damaged articles, according to 

Mongkut, included ''Digby Wyatts industrial Arts two volumes highly illumi· 

nated", "a collection of coloured diagrams illustrative of Physiology, Machinery, 

Natural History. etc.'', ''a complete set of charts of the Indian and China 

Seas''. some "philosophical apparatus", a polar clock and an arithmometer. 

A model steamer, a model locomotive, an air pump, a "solar gun", were all 

safely received, as also, apparently, an inkstand, two globes, some coloured 

engravings of Victoria's coronation, a revolver, an eye-glass, and a camera. 

Mongkut did not blame Parkes: ''such the unforeseen accident is in difficulty of 

human power to promptly prevent ....." Mongkut's receipt, 7th. May 1856. 

F.O. 69/5.

166 Nicholas Tarling 

the end of the Crimean War.(:·~: 1 ) 

While he was in England, Parkes had learned of some changes 

in the political situation in Bangkok since the signature of the treaty. 

Late in May the Somdct Ong Yai had died, a senior member of the 

great noble family of which the Kralahom was the most ambitious 

member. The Kralahom, wrote Parkes. 

"seeks for unbounded sway over the Senior King. To the execu" 

tion of this design he has an opponent in the second king, who 

wishes to maintain the independence of his brother, but has a 

difficult part to perform in consequence of the Kralahom having 

worked with some success upon the jealous feelings of the first 

king, and caused him to become envious both of the ability of 

the second king, and the precautions he has taken to secure his 

own safety and position by organising an efficient military 

force., 

The late Somdet did not concur and so the Kralahom's high aims were 

held in check during his lifetime. His death put the First King in a 

more precarious position. The conflict was urged on by the personal 

enmity of Knox, the Second King's agent, and Joseph, an American 

in the Kralahom's service, principal interpreter in the Bowring negotiationsJH) 

Bowring had expressed a very high opinion of the Kralahonl.\:35} 

He had also suggested that Parkes; estimate of him did 

"not quite agree with mine ....,,- Perhaps, indeed, the Kralahom 

aimed at the throne.tH6) Parkes and Bowring were thus agreed as to 

the Kralahom's ambition. Possibly they differed as to the advisability 

of his success.(a7) The situati~.~,~~ ... Bang~?~. I:~?.?~~~~~ 

(33) Parkes to Hammond, 5th. Marc:h 1856. l/0. fW/:i. 

(34) Memor~mdum on Siamest.! polities. loth. St~pt(~mber 1R55. P.O. 17/lt:W. Parke~ 

thought Joseph was "a nutive of Calcutta though he calls hinu;el£ a Dutl'h 

subject". Elsewhere he is dt!l:iCribc:tl as Pmtugu(!5e. R Adey Moon:•, ''An 

Early Briti::;h Men•hant in Bangkokf\ .J.S.S., xi, Pt. 2 (1914·5), P· :17. 

(35) See, e.g., Bowring, oj>.cit., ii, p. 804. 

C36) Bowring to Fredk. Bowring, 2nd. September 1855. J.,'nglish J.l1S5'. 1229/20-t. 

(37) As for relations between the First and Second Kings, u recent Thai writer has 

suggested that they were not as strained as has sometimes been made out. 

though there were resentments. On his death-bed Isaret told Mongkut that 

his army was maintained f.or protection against the Kralahom. Neon Snidvongs, 

The de·velopment of Siamese relations tvith Britain and France in the 

Reign of Malw. ,1\:tonglwt, 1851-1868 (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Univen;ity 

of London, 1961), pp. 247 8.

since 1855. 

at it.!:U~) 

llAitHY l'AHKF.S' r•mc:nTIATIONS IN BAN,:KOK TN 1856 167 

So perhaps had the way the British negotiator looked 

On the 12th. March the Aucl?land arrived off the bar with 

Parkes, his wife, and the salty remnant of the presents( 39 l. But it was 

the arrival of the Queen's letters to the two kings that caused most 

excitement, according to Parkes, "and lengthy deliberations were 

directly commenced as to the mode of delivering these letters". The 

pleased Mongkut wrote to Parkes, in reply to a letter of announcement 

sent in the hope of "opening a direct communication with the 

Palace, which I was able to maintain during the whole period of my 

stay, and although private in its nature, it proved of great advantage 

to me". Parkes considered that the entry of the Auckland into the 

river was necessary to ensure the deli very of the letters "in a becoming 

and suitable manner, and to give me the support of her presence in 

my transactions with the Siamese Government". Thus he asked for 

aid in lightening the steamer so as to assist her across the bar at the 

next high tide, and requested permission meanwhile to go to Bangkok. 

The "conservative party", opposed to delivering the letters "in any 

other than the derogatory mode prescribed by the old regime", were 

opposed to this course. Five days elapsed before the King's yacht 

arrived to take Parkes to Bangkok, and it was then intimated that he 

was to take the ratification and letters with him. But he did not take 

them, and simply looked on the state boats "as a personal compliment". 

Parkes believed he had to contend not only with a rift between 

Mongkut and the Kralahom, but also with conservative influences, 

which made supplementary arrangements more essential. At the time 

of Bowring's visit, he recapitulated, the two Sorndets represented the 

conservative party; the Kralahom and the Phraklang, though sons of 

the Somdet Ong Yai, were ''favourable to innovation, while the Prince 

Krom Hluang, a half brother of the first King, occupied, in opinion, 

a middle position between both these parties, but submitted in a con~ 

siderable measure to the influence of the Kralahom .... '' The Ong 

C38) It has to be remembered, however, that Parkes played a considerable part in 

the negotiations of 1855. 

(39) Parkes' account of his mission, drawn on below, is i!l his despatch to Clarendof! 

9f ?2nd. Mar 1856. F.O. 69(5. '

168 Nicholas Tarling 

Y~ti had died, but the power and influence t)f the Ong Noi uppeared 

to have increased. 

As for the estrangement of the King and the Kralahom, Parkes 

reported some of the latter's "occasional remarks.H 

" He had resigned, he informed me, the lead he had taken and 

maintained in the negotiation of the Treatyt and \Vhich had 

contributed so greatly to its success, for the reason that his 

counsel was no longer sought or listened to by the Kingt whilst 

those who advocated a less friendly course, were received at 

Court with marked favour. None of the measures necessary 

to give effect to the Treaty had yet been taken, he said, by the 

Government, and strong language and action would be needed 

on my part to secure the faithful performance of the new engagements 

...." 

The King had seen the Japanese convention ' 4 0> and blamed the Kralahom-so 

he said-for 

"the disparity ... between the wide concessions of Siam and the 

restrictions maintained by Japan. He was also. added the Kralahom, 

dissatisfied with British policy in C()Chin China( 4 ll, the 

Government of which country had made the Treaty the subject 

of a taunt towards that of Siam, and independent of these ex .. 

terior questions~ His Majesty, whose expenditure, particularly 

on the female inmates of his palace, was daily becoming more 

profuse, was not favorably inclined towards any measure cal· 

culated to interfere) though only for a time, with the State income 

.... H 

Presumably Stirling's convention of 14th. CJctoher· 1854, reprinted in 

Berudey, Great Britain and the Otnminp. of Japtzn 18.'f.!f.J8f»N (London, 1H51), 

Appendix A. This followed the treaty mndt.• by the ;\rnt:>rk•tul Commodore 

PerryJ opening Shimoda and. Hakodate M port! of refuge ft)r American t~hipN, 

providing for the protection of Atneri

HAHH\' PARKES* NF.f:OTIATIONS IN BANGKOK tN 1856 169 

Parkes wondered if the Kralahom's feelings had not been "awakened 

by some check given by other acts of the King to his ambition or 

desire for power". He saw reason in all this for measures to ensure 

the effective execution of the treaty, but not for coercion. 

A further result of the Kralahom's attitude was that the Prince 

Krom Hluang "leant more than before to the opinions or wishes of 

the Somdet Ong Noi, whilst the Phraklang, as greatly the junior both 

of the Prince and the Somdet in years and station, could seldom be 

induced to pronounce an independent opinion of his own, if it involved 

any opposition to those of his superiors". It was these parties, with 

the Yomarat, or Minister of Justice, that Parkes had to negotiate. 

Constantly they referred even trivial matters to the First King (the 

Second took no part ). 

"This being the case the Commissioners constantly replied to 

my protest against difficulties and delays, whenever these arose, 

by attributing them entirely to the :first King, and disclaiming 

fr themselves any responsibility; but the personal kindness 

with which the :first King always honored me, the access to his 

person which he frequently allowed me both by letter and by 

private audience, contrary in some instances to the wishes of 

his Ministers, and the favorable attention which he often gave 

to the questions I submitted to him, all induced me to receive 

these statements of the Commissioners with some reserve, and 

to dispose me, in the end, to place more confidence in His 

Majesty than in them." 

In other words the conservatives fought some sort of a delaying action; 

but Mongkut disproved the accusation of the Kralahom. Parkes 

had no doubt been inclined all along to work through the First King. 

The first few days after his arrival in Bangkok itself on the 

17th. Parkes used in endeavouring to arrange the delivery of the letters 

and exchange of ratifications and in introducing, as carefully as possible, 

the notion of a further definition of details. Nothing had been 

arranged when on the 21st. Parkes rejoined the Auckland for the crossing 

of the bar. The Siamese authorities, he found, bad- not kept 

their promises over the lightetrs but, after he had hinted that a delay 

till the next tide would delay the Queen's letters also, a number of 

boats appeared, and the bar was crossed on the 24th., the last day it

tlo 

Nidwla!i Tuding 

\VUS practicable. So the letters and the .·lucldmul w·ent up to the 

capitaL Having used them to get the steamer over the bar, Parkes 

sought now to use the letters again in improving his relations with 

the King, the line that his O\Vn predilections~ a:-; well us the Kralahom~ 

Mongkut rift and the conservative influences$ pointed out. 

"What I now sought to obtain \Vas un interview with the first 

King, at which I hoped to arrange, with ntcility than with the 

Ministers, the manner of delivering the Queen's letters, and to prevail 

on His Majesty to interest himself in the mea"ures which appeared to 

me needful for the execution of the Treaty." The Ivfinisters had 

proposed that Parkes should surrender the letters for examination 

and "translation", "this being the cour~e pursued with the missives 

received from the Sovereigns of Burma and Cochin China''. There 

was little fear that the Queen's letters would be altered, but Parkes 

objected to the ordinary mode Clf delivery as " ''. The 

mode of delivery, he declared, should be respectable "not only in the 

eyes of the Siamese but in those of the 

and people of 

European States". He thus declined tt) surrender the letters before 

the public audience and claimed the right to deliver them then. At 

an interview with the First King, gave hirn a copy f the 

Queen's letter, 

"and had the pleasure of the genuine stttisfaction 

that its contents afforded him at a nunnent when in the absence 

of his Ministers and courtier:.; he had occasi

ll \Rl!Y 1'"\lH\Es• ~fWO'l'IATJO:'IIS IN BA:"·H;KOK IN 1856 l'i'l 

Parkes put the letter in Mongkut's hands, and on April 2nd. there was 

a similar audience with the Second King. 

On April 5th. the ratifications were exchanged, a delay having 

allowed the King to cast a special seal in imitation of the Great Seal 

attached to the "Queen,s ratification. Mongkut's ratification was 

characteristic. It included a promise to try to enforce the treaty 

H according to our power and ability to govern the people of 

this half civilized and half barbarous nation herein being of 

various several races languages religion etc for which nations 

we are still afraid that any one individual or party among such 

the nation being very ignorant and unfrequent of civilized and 

enlightened custom usage, etc., may misunderstand of any 

thing and things contained or expressed in the Treaty and do 

according to his or their knowledge which may be contradictory 

to some clauses of any article of Treaty, yet we will observe 

accurately and command our officers of State to correct the 

wrong as soon as possible when the British Consul might complain 

to our officers of State directly with whom our officer 

will be joined in justice ... '' 

The ratification also expressed a wish for direct communication with 

the British Government rather than via a colony or marine power.C42) 

This was indeed the point Mongkut kept steadily in view: he was 

concerned to secure the recognition of Siam as an independent state 

on a parity with European states. This was his "ambition". 

It is not clear from his narrative at what point Parkes introduced 

the discussion-which he had seen as a means of introducing in 

turn the supplementary negotiations -of the points referred to India 

in 1855 and referred back to Bowring. On one of them at least 

Parkes could be fairly accommodating. The Siamese Commissioners 

indicated "more clearly than they had done before on a Map which 

they supplied to me the course of the River beyond which they desire 

the travels of Burmese and British subjects shall not extend. This 

River wends away so much to the Eastward that no injury can in my 

opinion result to our interests from a compliance with the proposition 

of the Sia1nese ... ,, On the frontier question, he had to urge the 

maintenance of the existing line, and found the Siamese indisposed 

(42) Ratification, 5th. April 1856. F.O. 69/5.

Nichohui 

in consequence to pursue the matter further. The Siamese apparently 

did not urge the third point referred t{> India in \Vhich related 

to the p(.>sition of the northern Malay 

while Parkes had 

nothing to propose. 

Anxious to introduce the supplementary negotiati

li \Hln I'Atu\.b:s• \F.Lt.llJ.\llU:-1-S I~ BA:'-4t;h.l)[\. IN l8[:iG 1/:.5 

Parkes was glad to secure an article admitting an exclusive consular 

jurbdictit)n1 civil and criminal~ over British subjects, as defined by the 

Queen's Advocate. He also secured a satisfactory agreement over 

the free diJ.;posul of real property and the right of succession or 

adrninistmtion to real and personal property. 

Another point, "the exemption of British subjects from public 

burdens or taxes t1ther than those contemplated in the Treaty", needed 

u time and labour'' to settle. According to article 4 of the Bowring 

treaty, lands purchased by British sujects \Vere liable to the taxation 

levied on Siamese subjects. '~The amount of this taxation had therefore 

to be ascertained, and here I found that in matters of finance the 

Siamese evinced the same utter \Vant of certainty and method, combined 

with much more complication of detail than that I had already 

noticed in reference to their Jurisprudence ... " Only the Somdet 

scerned to kno\v about the subject, but even he 

"spoke on it with reluctance as if he feared that the interest 

he has in the Revenues might thereby be in some manner prejudiced. 

The labour involved in the arrangement of this and 

all other questions relating to Taxes or Revenues, which are so 

directly affected by the Treaty, amounted in fact to a recodificaticm 

of their Financial System with which I had to make myself 

familiar. A schedule of the Land Taxes was at length finished, 

and an Agreement concluded that these Taxes and the Import 

and Export Duties oft he Tariff are the only charges that British 

subjects in Siam can be called upon to pay to the Government." 

The Parkes negotiation was significant in giving practical effect 

to some of the revolutionary implications of the Bowring treaty. In 

the course of it, the legal a11d taxation systems actually assumed 

much of the shape they retained till the turn of the century. The 

system of consular jurisdiction, more especially its application to 

Asian proteges of the European powers,C45) became a spur to the 

Europeanisation of the judicial administration and to codification. C46) 

,............._.._.................... _,..................... ·~~-·-···---- 

(t15) One of the artic:.:l,es proposed by the Siamese Commissioners in 1855, but not 

accepted, had related to 41 the protection to be given to Chinese and others 

daiming the privileges of British subjects". See, under the date April 11th., 

Enclosure No. 15 in Bowring to Clarendon, 28th. April 1855, no. 144. F.O. 

17/22.9. 

(16) See Detchard Vongkomolshet, The Administrative, Judicial and Financial 

Reforms of King Ohulalapgkorn 1868-1910 (Unpublished M.A. thesist 

Cornell University, l958), pp. 15~f£.

The negotiations and ugrl!emcnts or 1 !'lCt the ta\~ttiPll ~') ~,tcm in 

a mould it was difficult to break, till the Siamese h) acquire 

tariff autonomy as a means to finance the f1.1rlhcr nHldcrni:mtion of the 

stutc.( t:') 

Yet a rurthcr point was lhc establishment tJf' u custum lhmsc. 

This Parkes urged and the Somdcl opposed. ''He, us the firm suppl)ftl!r 

or ail exclusive privileges, wished to Farm the Duties on the 

r-:orcign T'racle~ a measure which must have proved as. injurious to the 

King's Revenue as to the Foreign Commerce t

llAilffl I' \HKEl:l' ~E(;OT!.\1'10\S IN B.\N! :KOK IN 1856 1'15 

reasr.m~ ft>r defining these limits. The task might have been left to 

the new consul, but it was not clear when he would arrive. On the 

other hand, H.M.S. Sart:tcen was surveying the Gulf, and some professil.mal 

assi::>tf.mce might be secured in measuring the circuit from 

the city \Valls. The Commissiotiers "agreed to be content with the 

measurement of four lines, each of' four miles in length, drawn due 

North, South, East and '#est~ from the city, provided that the points 

where the circle cuts the river \Vere also correctly ascertained-this 

latter consideration having a most important bearing on the settlement 

of all water frontage lots." With Siamese working parties and officers 

from the Suracen and Auckland, the "survey" was completed by April 

30th. "Several rainy days added to the difficulty of the work which 

had to be carried over ground thickly intersected with canals or 

ditches, and covered in many parts vvith dense jungle or rank vegetation, 

penetrable only by means of the track which had to be cut for 

the oct~asion. ;, Parkes had also to insist on four miles as the limit: 

that amounted in fact to no more than 159 sen. As for the twentyhour 

journey, he found his geographical knowledge useful. In the 

Commissioners' opinion "nothing less than actual travel, with all its 

contingent accidents and uncertainty, was to be adopted as the means 

of taking the length of the journey; and it was not until I successfully 

argued the point with the King, that I persuaded them to accept five 

miles as a fair average rate of one hour's travel by boat, and to agree 

to the multiplication of this rate by twenty-four to obtain the total 

length of the twenty-four hours' journey." Then, guided by this cal~ 

culation, the negotiators chose various well-known localities to define 

the lin1its. The area measured comprised "a 'very large portion of 

the fertile delta formed by the four rivers which flow into the head 

or the Gulf.', < 48 > 

C4H) Purkcs apparently did rather better here than Bowring had envisaged. The 

Kralahom had proposed the restriction-no doubt somewhat on a Chinese model 

-on April 9th. 1855. The boats of the Country, it was explained, could travel 

"a considerable distance" in twenty-four hours, and the Kralahom "mentioned 

that it would be held to include the old capital Ayuthia which is fifty four 

miles distant from Bangkok. 

The Plenipotentiary agreed to these limits". 

Enclosure No. 15 in Bowring to Clarendon, 28th. April1855, no. 144. F.O. 

17/22.9.

Nicholas Tarling 

Meanwhile the written arrangements on the other points had 

been drawn up in Siamese and English and sent to the King for approval 

on April 25th. He retained them for a week. " During this 

time I heard through the Prince Krom Hluang that His Majesty desired 

the addition of various articles relative to the regulation of the 

Trade that might spring up at the Siamese outports, the shipment of 

produce that might be grown by English settlers outside the Port of 

Bangkok, ahd the mode in which English ships, and men-of-war in 

particular, should obtain supplies when navigating or cruizing in the 

Siamese Gulf." Parkes managed to persuade King and Prince that 

any arrangement required on these points could be made later by the 

consul. Then Mongkut returned the agreements, but stated he wanted 

a new Siamese version made out. And,this would take time. 

Already the Auckland had been running short of provisions, and 

in the resulting difficulty perhaps lay the source of one of the King's 

rejected articles. 

"The obstacles in the way of obtaining supplies of fresh provisions 

rested chiefly on religious grounds, the Siamese viewing 

the slaughter of animals as an offence against both their laws 

and religion, and individuals not of the national faith hesitated 

to purchase for us bullocks and other stock, until I had obtained 

from the Phraklang an assurance that they would incur no punishment 

nor other inconvenience by doing so. It is creditable 

to the Siamese Government, as instancing their liberality in 

matters of religious opinion, for me to add that live supplies 

were eventually furnished us in ample quantity and at very reasonable 

rates. " 

Parkes had hoped to leave at least on the 7th. or 8th., and catch the 

homeward mail passing through Singapore on the 17th. He now asked 

Mongkut to agree to the execution of the agreement in English alone. 

Two days later, on the evening of the 4th., came a message of 

assent, but requiring also a new stipulation over rice exportations, 

''which he wished made conditional on a special permission to be 

obtained in each instance by the shipper from the King." Parkes 

could not agree to stipulation which would "convert the trade in this 

staple into a Royal monopoly", and he told the Commissioners it 

would be a departure from the treaty. These remarks he made (he

IIAHRY PAJUCES' NEr;O'l'IAT!ONS JN JJANCIWK IN 185B 1'77 

thought) in a friendly way, but could not say "whether they were 

referred to the King in the same spirit." Next morning the king again 

demanded the re-translation of the agreement. But the following 

day the king sent to say that this demand had been made without his 

authority and again assented to the execution of the English version. 

Parkes "felt greatly obliged to His Majesty for this mark of his confidence, 

which had not however met with the approval of the Commissioners, 

if I may judge from a slight coolness on the part of the 

Prince, and the absence of the Phraklang, who reported himself ill, 

from all proceedings for a week afterwards."l 491 

On the 6th. Parkes sent the Prince a fresh copy oft he agreement 

for the King's approval, including the two articles over the four-mile 

circuit and the twenty-four hour journey. The agreement was finally 

concluded on the 13th. The Siamese bound themselves to give the 

agreement the same force as the treaty whenever Bowring called upon 

them to do so. On the 15th., after a royal audience of leave, Parkes 

was able to leave for Singapore, just before the AucMand)s provisions 

ran out. 

The instructions to Parkes do not seem to have envisaged an 

actual agreement such as he secured. But he had suggested it, and on 

his arrival he had been confirmed in his vi,f(W that it was desirable. 

Verbally it seems that he was authorised to secure an agreement if he 

could. Thus, at the conclusion of the negotiations, he wrote to 

Hammond : 

''My patience was a good .deal tried at Siam, and I assure you 

no little amount of labour was needed on my part to get what 

I did out of the Siamese. I trust you will approve of my having 

waited so long, as I think you ,will see that I have succeeded in 

settling all questionable points, as well as others that I did not 

think would have fallen to me. I bore in mind, throughout, 

what you told me on my departure that it would be better for 

(49) According to Townsend Harris, the American envoy, who had arrived in Bang· 

kok some three weeks previou,s]y, ''a grand row" had taken plnce on the 5th. 

'•about the business of Mr. Parkes who had so wearied the King by his letters, 

etc .. that he got enraged, blew up all his court and ended by closing the palace 

gates against all the world ... " Cosenza, op.cit,, P· 139. It seems possible 

that the King was rather enraged with his court for so confusing (and thus 

expnnding) the business of Mr. Parkes.

N'icho!a!:l Tariing 

me to stay in Siam and settle matters there, than return in haste 

to Canton, where my absence for a short time would not be 

missed. You will perhaps be surprised, looking to the short 

time in which the Treaty was negotiated-that I could not 

secure on this occasion equal despatch, but it often takes a 

much longer time to settle details than to determine a principle, 

and the very fact of their having been so hurried in the first 

instance by Sir John Bowring has made the Siamese determine 

that they will never expose themselves t.o the same inconvenience 

again. " 

The details 

"required almost endless discussion-the great difficulty being 

to get the Siamese Ministers-who appear altogether irresponsible-to 

agree to anything-they will talk over a matter from 

day to day-but when you want to effect any positive arrangement 

they shift the responsibility from one to another and 

declare they can settle nothing-that the king must do everything, 

whilst His Majesty on the contrary refers you to his 

Ministers. They have a great deal to learn in the way of 

business, and they require a firm but patient and considerate 

instructor to overrule their pride ignorance and indolence. 

The J.st. King is undoubtedly far in advance of all his Ministers, 

but he is also very capricious and sometimes puerile, and is 

often checked. by his Court in his good endeavours-He is 

certainly the best'friend we have in the country, and I have no 

doubt that while he continues so, everything will go on well,- a 

few years will suffice for the new system to take a deep enough 

root for it to stand thenceforward by its own strength." 

Parkes was glad the question of consular jurisdiction was settled. 

Judging from his instructions to the new consul, Bowring appeared 

after all "to have had in view a kind of mixed Court''. But this most 

probably would not have worked.(50) Bowring in fact approved the 

agreement and had it published in the Hong Kong Gazette.C5D 

The U.S. Plenipotentiary hac! been in Bangkok a month, Parkes 

noted, "and bad got on slower than I did." He aimed at securing 

(50) Parkes to Hammond, lOth. June 1856. F.O. 69/5. Bowring to Hillier, 5th. May 

1856. F.O. 17/247. 

(51) Bowring to Clarendon, lOth. June 1856, No. 189, F.O. 17/247. Same, 

18th. June 1856, no. 192. F.O. 18/248. The agreement is printed in Bowring, 

oj•.cit., ii, pp. 230-47.

IL\HH\ l'AHKES' NfWOTL\.TIONS IN BA:'-/GKOK JN 1856 17() 

some additional advantages: "they will cost him time to obtain if 

indeed he do succeed. They are such as settling at a greater distance 

in the country, opening mines, etc ... " Time and patience were indeed 

consumed, and towards the end of May Townsend Harris was writing: 

"The proper way to negotiate with the Siamese is to send two or three 

men-of-war of not more than sixteen feet draft of water. Let them 

arrive in October and at once proceed up to Bangkok and fire their 

salutes. In such a case the Treaty would not require more days than 

I have consumed weeks ... "

180 Nicholas Tar ling 

does indeed come through his official report. He was at pains to 

emphasise in it that Mongkut had wished to confer nobility on him 

and appoint him agent at Canton, which showed " that I remained 

until the last on friendly terms with His Majesty ... " Indeed, somewhat 

predisposed against the ambitious Kralahom, ( 57 l and finding that 

in any case he did not apparently wish to assume a leading role, Parkes 

had concentrated on the First King. His impatience came rather 

from having to deal officially with ministers no longer guided by the 

Kralahom, having to defer to the King, and influenced by the Somdet's 

conservatism. Mongkut, whom Harris saw as ''pedantic beyond 

belief, and that too on a very small capital of knowledge"C 58 l, Parkes 

saw as "really an enlightened man. His knowledge of English is 

not profound, but he makes an excellent use of what he has acquired . 

. . . It is scarcely a matter of surprise that he should be capricious 

and at times not easily guided; but he entered into the Treaty well 

aware of its force and meaning, and is determined, I believe, as far 

as in him lies, to execute faithfully all his engagements, which are 

certainly of the most liberal nature."C 59 l 

C 57} The K,r,alah~;;:;-,--~ ma;~~otec~;~;-;;;;~.-~~~-~~kcd-b;--;l;~--Americans 

about .chang~s n: the dyn.asty", to "the real republican sentiment that Kings 

who claun the1r tltle by nght of birth, often forget they originated from the 

people · · · · and don't lend an ear to the sufferings of their subjects,-so there 

was often a cJ;ange at the fourth generation of princes of the same dynasty .. '' 

Cosenza, op·clt., p. 115. 

1.-ROLIN-JAEQUEMYNS

ROLIN-JAEQUEMYNS (CHAO PHYA APHAY RAJA) AND THE 

BELGIAN LEGAL ADVISORS IN SIAM AT THE TURN 

OF THE CENTURY 

by 

C%ristia.vt de cSaint-:lhtbert 

"Once upon a time ..... " thus begins Prince Damrong's 

"Story of Chao Phya Aphay Raja", in his delightful "Tales 

of Olden Days". 

But who was Chao Phya Aphay Raja? In 1892, a Belgian 

lawyer and statesman, Gustave Rolin-Jaequemyns, was 

invited to Siam by King Chulalongkorn as his General Advisor. 

He served Siam well and faithfully in her hour of greatest need, 

when her independence was gravely threatened. He also was 

instrumental in implementing the Reforms which were to transform 

old Siam into modern Thailand. 

Here is his story and the story of a number of Belgians 

who helped him in this great task. 

* 

* 

To the first Kings of the Chakkri Dynasty befell the duty of 

reconstructing a Kingdom devastated by decades of almost continuous 

warfare. As to King Mongkut, his main role was probably that of 

opening Siam to the world at large by establishing relations with the 

main maritime and trading nations of his time. 

The great and wise King Chulalongkorn realised that it was 

imperative for Siam to modernize her institutions, not only for domestic 

reasons but also as the only way to retain her independence. 

Through Chulalongkorn's far-sightedness, Siam became one of the few 

nations to rem~in independent in the whole of Asia. 

King Rama V had already conceived some important reforms 

in the first years of his reign: the abolition of slavery is, of course, 

one of the most important royal reforms of this period. 

By 1890, however, the King realised that Siam needed a farreaching 

policy of reforms if the monarchy was to survive. It may

182 Christian de Saint-Hubert 

be remembered that Great Britain and France were then acquiring 

territories in South-East Asia and Siam consequently found herself in 

a rather uneasy position between these two great powers. 

So, when Prince Damrong went to Europe in1891, he was asked 

by the King to :find someone with integrity and high ability who would 

be willing to come to Siam as adv.isor in international law and foreign 

affairs. 

In his delightful "Nit han Borankhadi" ("Tales of Olden 

Times") Prince Damrong recalls how his quest for a suitable person 

had not been successful until he reached Egypt, on his way back to 

Bangkok. 

He was there introduced to a Belgian gentleman, Gustave 

Rolin-Jaequemyns who had recently been appointed as Attorney 

General by the Egyptian Government. Prince Damrong was impressed 

with Rolin's bearing as well as with his knowledge and past 

experience. 

At their first meeting, he offered him the post of Advisor in 

Foreign Affairs. Rolin-Jaequemyns accepted the proposal provided 

he could free himself from his obligations vis-a.-vis the Egyptian 

Government. A correspondence ensued between King Chulalongkorn 

and Khedive Abbas; the latter finally agreed to part with Rolin 

Jaequemyns' services when Rama V pointed out that Egypt was closer 

to Europe, and it would thus be easier for him to find another 

European Attorney General than for Siam to acquire the services of 

another man of Rolin's calibre. 

Rolin-Jaequemyns arrived in Bangkok in September 1892 and 

King Chulalongkorn was soon convinced that Prince Damrong's judgement 

was excellent. The King saw that Rolin's past experienceboth 

in legal and in administrative matters-made hirn the ideal man 

to foster and coordinate Siam's Policy of Reforms. Rolin-Jaequemyns 

thus became the country's first General Advisor, an appointment he 

held until his death in 1902. 

In fact, the General Advisor's work was twofold : his part in 

Siam's foreign relations and his work connected with the Policy of

l{OLIN·.JAE

184 Christian de Saint-Hubert 

provided him with a good stead in his work of modernizing Siam's 

public institutions. 

Lastly, from a Siamese point of view, another favourable factor 

was that Rolin was a citizen of a country which had no territorial 

ambitions in Soutb~East Asia. Belgium was then following a policy 

of neutrality and was thus not linked to any of the big European 

Powers. 

Rolin-Jaequemyns once wrote to a friend : 

"My position here is somewhat strange. I do not possess 

the least bit of executive power, nor do I care for it. For 

instance, I am not entitled to give instructions to a mere 

policeman. All my authority is the advice I give which is 

generally followed and the confidence which the King and 

the Princes have in me. I also have daily proof that this 

confidence is shared by the people at large." 

"When the members of the Cabinet wish to bring some 

new measure to the attention of the King, they usually ask 

me to speak to him on their behalf. In this way, all important 

affairs of the various Ministries pass through my hands". 

This quotation shows that the General Advisor's powers were 

based entirely on the personal trust granted him by the King and by 

the three great statesmen who helped him to transform Siam into a 

modern State : Prince Dam rang, the Minister of the Interior, Prince 

Devawongse, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Prince Rabi of 

Rajburi, the young and efficient Minister of Justice who had recently 

completed his law studies in England. 

All through Rolin~Jaequemyns' service to Siam, this confidence 

in him always continued. 

* * 

Rolin-Jaequemyns contributed, in no small measure, to the 

preservation of the independence of his country of adoption. He also 

laid the foundations of Thailand's present policy of legality in internatiol.lal 

dealings.

HOLIN·.TAEQliEMYNS AND THE llELGlAN LEGAL ADVISORS lN Slt\~1 

He secured this by making Siam conscious of her national 

rights: by providing the arguments of international law which could 

be opposed to those who threatened Siam's independence and territorial 

integrity; and by initiating the process of judicial reforms which 

were to allow the gradual elimination of extra terri to rial restrictions 

to Siam's sovereignty. 

When Rolin arrived in Bangkok the tension between Siam and 

France, which had been building up since 1888, was about to reach 

its climax. 

The Paknam Incident, the blockade of the Chao Phya River and 

the Treaty of 1893, by which Siam renounced its rights to the territories 

on the western banks of the Mekong River are well-known 

historical events. 

The General Advisor did his best to prevent the clash, but in 

vain. On the other hand, he was not able to use his knowledge of 

international law and his diplomatic skill on behalf of Siam during 

the ensuing negotiations, for the French plenipotentiary refused to 

allow him to take part in them. 

After the crisis, the General Advisor's first thought was to 

prevent a recurrence of the events of 1893. 

Taking into account the military aspects of the question, he 

requested General Briahnont to draw up plans for the defense of 

Bangkok. Brialmont, a famous Belgian military engineer, had recently 

built Belgium's defense system. He was the inventor of a type of 

concrete fort, al'med with retractable steel gun-turrets, which was 

then the last word in modern fortifications. The plans, provided for 

the building of three forts at the first bend of the river above Paknam. 

They were duly handed over to Prince Svasdi, in Brussels, in 1895. 

On the other hand, Rolin spent several months in Europe in 

1895, during which he had many meetings with Lord Salisbury, then 

Foreign Minister, and a number of influential British politicians and 

jurists-many of them his close friends. The General Advisor also 

went to France and held talks with Hanotaux, the French Minister of 

Foreign Affairs, and other statesmen who were then shaping France's 

foreign policy. 

lB~

C!Histian de Saint-Hubert 

In this way, Rolin contributed to pave the way for the Treaty 

which Britain and France signed in January 1896. By this Treaty the 

two Powers agreed to respect Thai sovereignty upon the territories 

comprised in the Chao Phya River basin. Bangkok and the richest 

and most densely populated regions of Siam were thus protected by 

an international guarantee. 

Border incidents did continue to take place along the Mekong 

and other" affairs" originated in the vast number of French-protected 

persons of Asiatic origin living in Siam. Never again, however, did 

the tension rise to boiling point as it had in 1893. Due to Rolin's 

efforts, these differences were settled amicably. 

Siam's relations with France gradually became friendlier as 

efforts made by Rolin and the Siamese Government were being met 

halfway by French statesmen who opposed the exaggerated claims of 

the "parti colonial". 

In 1897, King Chulalongkorn visited a number of European 

countries. France was among them and he was well received there. 

Two years later, the Governor-General of French-Indochina, Paul 

Doumer (a future President of the Republic) paid an official visit to 

Siam, whereupon, he was received in stately welcome by the King 

and the Court. On this occasion, important talks were held in which 

Rolin took an outstanding part. 

When the General Advisor died, in 1902, the Treaties of 1904 

and 1907 which were to open a new era in Franco-Siamese relations 

were only a little way off. 

The relations with France were by no means the only aspect 

of Rolin's activities in Foreign Affairs. Und~r his auspices, amicable 

solutions-mainly through arbitration-were found to a number of 

differences with other foreign nations. Such were the "Railway 

Arbitration Case", with Great Britain, and the Cheek and Kellett 

Arbitration Cases, with the United States. 

The General Advisor's experience was also invaluable to Siam 

at the time of the negotiations which culminated in the Treaty of 

1898 with Japan. Rolin, at the time, journeyed to Japan to iron out

HOLTN·.JAEQUgMYNS AND THE llliLGIAN LE(iAL ADVJSOH

188 Chdstian de Saint-Hubert 

kok alone. This special procedure was deemed so successful that it 

was extended to the provinces with special powers to institute inquiries 

about negligent judges. Great popular respect was thus won for the 

new reforms. 

Next, foreign Assistant Legal Advisors were appointed to each 

of the main newly reorganized courts. Their job was not to judge 

but to help the Siamese judges to apply the new laws. 

These laws were being prepared by a Codification Committee 

where the same Assistant Legal Advisors set under the chairmanship 

of the Legal Advisor. As seen above, their work consisted in blending, 

so to speak, the old Siamese laws with modern legal principles. 

They did a good and fast job of it: a Code of Civil Procedure was 

issued in 1896 and a temporary Code of Criminal Procedure in 1897. 

A Civil and Commercial Code was also being drawn up, while 

the preparation of a Penal Code was rushed ahead, since it was usually 

in penal matters that the trouble with "protected" Asiatics cropped 

up. 

These legal reforms at the turn of the century were to bring 

Thailnnd's legal and judicial systems to the high degree of perfection, 

they have now reached. These reforms also constituted Thailand's 

most valid argument for requesting that extra-territoriality should be 

done away with: this gradually became effective between 1907 and 

1937. 

* 

* 

The General Advisors' activities also extended to other domains. 

His hand can be seen in many measures, taken during that 

important decade, to modernize the country: the establishment of an 

annual budget, which contributed to a sound financial situation; the 

abolition of the corvee system and the setting up of a paid government 

labour service; the first mining and forestry regulations; the 

pawnbrokers Act., etc ... 

In 1900, the Legal Advisor (Kirkpatrick) and nine out of the 

eleven Assistant Legal Advisors were Belgians. The other two Assistant 

Legal Advisors were Patijn, a Dutchman, and Masao, a Japanese.

2.-DR. E. REYTTER CPHYA PRAS!RTSATR DAMRONG ), physician to King 

Chulalongkorn from 1895 until the I

3.-The General Advisor and Mrs. ROLIN-JAEQUEMYNS with a group of Belgian Legal Advisors.

4.-Dr. and Mrs. REYTTER, with a group of Belgian Legal Advisors at Wat Arun in 1899.

HOLIN·.!Agc)UICMYNS AN!l THE BELc:JAN LE!:AL A!IV!SUHS IN SlAM 189 

A few words about each of these men: .. , 

Kirkpatrick served Siam from 1894 to 1900, when he returned to Europe 

on sick-leave and soon died. During Rolin's trip to Europe, in 1895, 

Kirkpatrick successfully exercised the functions of Acting General 

Advisor, and, as a reward, was promoted to Legal Advisor. In 1896, 

Kirkpatrick married Rolin's eldest daughter and the "Bangkok Times" 

for May 9th 1896 wrote that "the Protestant Church was yesterday 

the venue of the prettiest wedding that Bangkok has seen for a long 

timc,-with Prince Damrong, Prince Devawongse and Prince Bhanurangsi 

acting as witnesses at the ceremony". 

Schlesser succeeded Kirkpatrick as Legal Advisor. 

in the preparation of the Penal Code was great. 

His contribution 

Orts was the General Advisor's " Chef de Cabinet" and dealt mainly 

with legal cases concerning Siam's relations with foreign powers. He 

later entered the Belgian Diplomatic Service, and, after a distinguished 

career was appointed Secretary General of the Belgian Foreign Office. 

Three other Assistant Legal Advisors, Dauge, Symons and 

1'ilmont, served both in Bangkok and in the provincial towns where 

International Courts had been set up ( Phuket, Pitsanuloke, etc ... ). 

After leaving Siam, they also entered into the Belgian Diplomatic 

Service. 

Jottrand served in Bangkok (at the "Borispah ", the International 

Court and on the Codification Committee) and in Karat. He later 

wrote a delightful book on Siam which is full of the flavour of those 

times. Mr. Jottrand is still living in Brussels and, at the ripe age of 

93, enjoys speaking about "good old days" in Bangkok. We thank 

him for the photographs appearing here and on other pages. 

When Their Thai Majesties visited Belgium in 1960, They graciously 

received the surviving members of Bangkok's Belgian Community 

at the turn of the century (Mr. Jottrand, Mrs. Kirkpatrick and 

Miss Rolin-Jaequemyns) as well as Mrs. Polain, (widow of a Belgian 

diplomat who represented his country here for many years and was 

the negotiator of the Treaties of 1926 and 1927 between Thailand and 

Belgium).

uJo 

Christian cic Saint-Hubert 

Other Belgian Assistant Legal Advisors were Cattier (later an 

important financier) Henvaux, Robyns, De Busscher and Baudour. 

After the relations between Siam and France had improved, 

the French Government requested that French jurists should also be 

appointed as Legal Advisors. The Belgian Advisors were gradually 

replaced by Frenchmen. However, one Belgian Legal Advisor, Rene 

Sheridan, stayed on and served Thailand for 25 years; until his death, 

in Bangkok, in 1927. In recognition of his services, the title of Phya 

Vides Dharmamontri was given to him by King Vajiravudh. 

As we have seen, the General Advisor's powers were based 

solely on the trust which the King and the Princes placed in him. As 

a token of this trust and of his pleasure with the services rendered by 

Rolin, King Chulalongkorn bestowed upon him the title of Chao Phya 

Aphay Raja, in 1896. Rolin-Jaequemyns thus became the only 

"farang" ever to be made a Chao Phya with the sole exception of 

Constantin Phaulkon (Chao Phya Wijayen) in the 17th century. 

The General Advisor was also appointed one of the five members 

of the Council of Regency which governed Thailand during King 

Chulalongkorn's trip to Europe in 1897. 

By 1901, Rolin's health was very poor and he had to leave 

Bangkok to recuperate in Europe. On this occasion, the King knew 

how to show his affection for a man who had worked tirelessly at the 

expense of his health and without ever thinking of personal agrandizement: 

He called on him at his house and placed the royal yacht 

"Maha Chakkri" at Rolin's dispo,sal to take him and his family to 

Singapore. 

Thailand's loyalty to the memory of her late General Advisor 

is shown by a commemorative bust placed at the Bangkok Law School 

(now at Thammasat University), in 1928. On that occasion, King 

Prajadipok graciously paid hommage to the memory of Siam's" most 

devoted and loyal friend whose help was so valuable to the country 

in its hour of greatest need".

l. The Pondicherry copper casket, a cube measuring 9 X 9 X 9 inches approximately, and at present kept in 

the Pondicherry public library. (Photo : A. Lamb) 

2. View of the Pondichery copper casket with lid open, showing the 25 compartments. (Photo: A. Lamb).

A STONE CASKET I

192 Alastair Lamb 

that they are the product of a scheme of religious thought that derived 

from the Indian subcontinent. I cannot see, however, how the statement 

of this fact advances particularly our investigation of any specific 

object or structure. It really is very like observing, after much 

scholarly discussion, that a Buddhist temple is Buddhist. In this 

context a typological, rather than metaphysical, approach might perhaps 

be more useful. 

It has been in an attempt to establish typological relationships 

that I have compared the Kedah caskets with specimens of similar 

objects from Java: and there can be no doubt that here parallels of 

some possible significance can be drawn. 2 The Kedah caskets are 

small stone boxes, rectangular in plan, virtually without decoration. 

The boxes are provided with simple feet at the corners of the base, 

and with lids, likewise plain except for chamfered edges and a hole 

pierced right through their centres. Inside the boxes, on their floors, 

are nine circular depressions, being eight smaller depressions arranged 

around a larger central depression. To these objects the Javanese 

parallels are very close, though by no means perfect. Javanese caskets, 

of which a number are preserved in the Indonesian National Museum 

at Jakarta, are stone boxes, often extremely plain, with 9 depressions 

either in their floors or in a block which is then located inside the 

casket. The Javanese lids are frequently pierced as in the case of the 

Kedah specimens. I saw no Javanese casket with feet on the Kedah 

pattern; but, with this exception, the Kedah caskets could easily lose 

themselves among the Javanese caskets in Jakarta. The same cannot 

be said for other categories of "multi-chambered foundation deposit 

receptacles" from Ceylon and Sduth East Asia. 

The yantra-galas from Ceylon, to which Dr. Wales draws attention, 

are either structures or are containers in significant ways different 

from the Kedah caskets. We need not concern ourselves here with 

the structures. Another type of yantra-gala, of which there is an 

excellent example from Pabulu Vehera, Polonnoruwa, on display in 

2. See: A. Lamb, Chandi Buldt Batu Pa!zat: th1·ee additional notes, Singapore 1961, 

and A. Lamb, ' Miscellaneous Papers on early Hindu and Buddhist Settlement in 

Northern Malaya and Southern Thailand', Federation l'viuseums Journal, (New 

Series ) VI, Kuala Lumpur 1961.

A STONE CASKET FHOM SATI":(J%\: SOMI

1\H Alastair Lamb 

very closely the Kedah caskets, though tt 1s much more crudely 

executed than the Kedah examples and is without feet. It may be, 

perhaps, that the Sati~pra object was made at a later date than the 

Kedah caskets when the detailed ritual behind the Kedah caskets had 

been forgotten. On the other hand, it may be much earlier than the 

Kedah specimens. We simply do not know; and we are extremely 

unlikely to know until the site from which the Sati!Jpra object came 

has been located and systematically excavated. It is to be hoped that 

this is a task which Thai archaeologists will undertake in the near 

future. 

In his article Dr. Wales points to my negative results in a quest 

for typological similarities between the Kedah caskets and India. 

This, it seems, Ceylon apart, has also been Dr. Wales' experience. Of 

course, the main interest in the quest for Indian parallels lay in the 

light that this might throw on Dr. Wales' hypothesis that the early 

settlement of Kedah was the word of "Pallava colonists" from Tamilnad. 

The failure, in this context, to find Pallava parallels for the 

Kedah caskets appeared to me to be another argument against Dr. 

Wales' theory which was supported by singularly little concrete evidence. 

Since the publication of Dr. Wales' article on the Sati~pra 

casket in the journal of the Siam Society I have been obliged to conclude 

that it may be necessary to modify this negative conclusion. 

While travelling in South India in January 1965 I came across a copper 

casket in the Pondicherry public library which may well ha vc to 

be taken into consideration if the casket problem is to be further 

illuminated. 

Two photographs of the Pondichcrry casket arc reproduced 

here, and, so far as I know, for the first time. The object is made up 

of copper sheets. It is a cube with all dimensions measuring about 9 

inches. The lid has a single hinge at one side and is provided with 

a simple hasp at the other. Inside, the floor of the casket is divided 

into 25 compartments by means of copper strips arranged much as 

are arranged the partitions of an egg box. This casket, it seems, was 

discovered a few years ago during the course of well digging in a village 

on the edge of Pondicherry territory. I was unable to obtain any

A S"I'DNI•, CASKKl' FI\OM SAT!P~PHA: SOME FURTHER OBSERVATIONS 1£1£> 

precise details about the circumstances of its discovery beyond the 

fact that this did not occur within the discernable context of any 

structural remains. There is a possibility, so my information would · 

suggest, that the casket; when discovered, contained a number of gems 

and other substances along the lines of the intact Kedah caskets I 

found in 1958 and 1959; but, if so, then the contents of the Pondicherry 

casket have by now disappeared. 

I was able to learn nothing about 

the Ponclicherry casket from the Indian Archaeological Survey in 

Madras, and the Madras Museum appeared to be unaware of its 

existence. 

The Pondicherry casket, therefore, remains yet another 

mystery to be solved in the quest for a full explanation of the origins 

of "multi-chambered foundation deposit receptacles", of which the 

SatilJPW casket is a fascinating example.

RECENT SIAMESE PUBLICA 'fiONS 

3J2.:. Gazett~er of Thai Geography: EJ"mJill.\n'llJ~a'jf11L'I\ll7hw 'il.U'tJ"mfuwnmnHllH 

Pracand Press, Bangkok 2506. 376-693 pp. Octo, atlas. 

The idea of a Gazetteer of Thai Geography was conceived by 

the Dictionary Commission of the Fine Arts Department as far back 

as 1932. It then came under the Royal Institute of the Ministry of 

Public Instruction, which was later transfered to the Office of the 

Prime Minister. After some 20 years it has taken a concrete from and 

offered to the public in three volumes of an introduction and two of 

the lists of names. The writing was entrusted to various expert in 

respective fields, thus: 

Introductory Volume: 1 general treatment under the name of (a) 

geography by Praya Anuman Rajadhon, (b) mountains and 

(c) waterways by Major-General Khun Sri Smitakar; 

2. Meteorology by Admiral Cari:ifi Vijayabhai Bunnag; 

3. Flora by Krasin Suvatabandh ofChulalongkorn University; 

4. Fauna by Joti Suvathi of Kasetsastra University; 

5. Natural Wealth, divided into sections of minerals by 

by T. Paniumasen, of the Department of Mineral Resources, 

forestry by Kid Suvarnasuddhi agricultural expert, 

and aquatic animals by Joti Suvatthi, Dean of Fishery in 

the Kasetsastra University; 

6. Communications by J. Indusobhon, former UnderSecretary 

of the Ministry of Communications; 

7. Races of Man by Praya Anuman Rajadhon; and 

8. Manners and Customs by Careen Indukset. 

Volumes II and III of 1963 pages contain the gazetteer proper, names 

being arranged in an alphabetical order. 

The addition of an atlas is praiseworthy. It is made up of a general 

map of physical features, a map showing islands in Thai 

waters, one indicating rainfall, one showing the comparative 

density of population, one of political boundaries within the 

Kingdom, one indicating mineral resources, one of forestry, 

one of communications and finally the existing railways as 

well as those being planned. 

The pioneer effort deserves to be highly commended.

198 1\ECEN'l' SIAMESJO: PUI3!"1CA'l'IONS 

Apart from the technical material under the care of experts 

whose names are wellknown in academic circles, the topics of more 

general interest are well written. The note on the boundary line of 

the Dongrak range ( p. 24 of the Introduction ) is pertinent. 

Within the Gazetteer proper under the name Nakorn Fathom 

( pp. 531-534) it is stated that about B.E. 1600 King Anurudh of 

Pagan conquered Lava from the Khmer and 'probably advanced to 

take possession of Nakorn Pathom as well'. It was therefore, it 

goes on to say, for this reason that the Burmese took from here 

Mon architecture to Pagan, rather than from That6n which supplied 

no architectural link of that age. The notion of Anurudh of Pagan 

conquering the area now forming Nakorn Pathom finds no confirmation 

in Burmese history. One cannot help imagining that if they 

really took it what a prize the territory must have been for the victors 

who were not likely to neglect mentioning it. What they took 

from us was of course parts of Ui:nnathai, which incidentally Pagan 

records called Siam. The attribution of Anurudh's conquest of lower 

Siam occurs again under the name of Kancanaburi ( p. 44 ). 

The name J(rabi ( pp. 15-17 ) is again doubtful. The off1cial 

spelling, meaning a sword and often mispelt kabi, a monkey, is obviously 

meant to he the Sanskrit kapi. It is hard however to imagine 

what the reference to the sword or the monkey can be accounted for. 

The English transcription, no doubt from a Malay spelling, is Gherbi. 

On enquiry on the spot I got the explanation that it referred to a berry 

commort to the locality. If the derivation frbll1 the berry is accepted, 

it should then be n;~ nbt m~~ the vowel beirtg ar and not ra, 

thus Karbi, or as in the Anglo-Malay way Gherbi. 

323. Yiipo, D.: Tmitrivs, U-Tero and Ayodhya, l91J'il;~l!l ~'r1u~ at'l~ 

v1~1HI1 Sivaporn Ltd., Bangkok, 2506, w. maps, plans & Illns. 72 pp. 

sexa. 

The recent clearing of growth in what had been vaguely suspected 

to be an old site of Thai history resulted in the discovery of . 

a considerable grbup of ruins which is now definitely identified with 

the city of U-T6lJ-the Cradle of Gold once looked upon with incredulity 

as to its identity. In presenting to the public this prelimi-

RECENT SIAMESE PUBLICATIONS 199 

nary result of the archeological discovery pending a fuller report 

from M. Boisselier, the Director-General has gathered material 

which should compliment the elucidation of the history of Thai 

migrations leading l,lp to the formation of the state of Siam around 

Ayudhya in the middle of the XIVth century. In view of the present 

lack of sufficient inforrnat ion on the subject it is proposed to give a 

fuller review of this unpretentious brochure. 

According to the standard history of Siam, already discredited 

in the last half-century with regard to this part of it, a' Prince Sirijai 

of ChieiJsen' migrated from ChieiJrai to the south about 550 of the 

Minor Era ( 1188 of the Christian Era) and founded somewhere near 

the present town of Kampei)pej his city of TraitriiJS, where he and 

some four generations of his descendants ruled for 160 years. Then 

came the King who had a lovely daughter who had a son by an 

unknown father that turned out to be a deformed villager. The 

three of them were banished in disgrace. The deformed man became 

cured of his deformities and founded his new city of t~panakorn 

( Devanagara ) by miraculous powers which he seemed to have been 

in possession of. Their prosperity was great that the baby son was 

nursed in a golden cradle and became known as the ' Prince of the 

Golden Cradle '. This Prince later succeded his father as King; but 

driven by an epidemic led his people ~ast to found a new city nea;r 

an older settlement. He gave the name of Dvaravati-Sri-Ayudhyij 

to his new city; and commenced a new state which became the. 

nucleus of the state of Ayudhya ( Cf also supra pp. 133-5) 

By comparing this with an old treatise called the Tamnan Sinhanavati 

the author finds that the King who migrated from the north 

and founded TraitriiJS was named Jaisiri; but the standard history's 

statement that he came from Chiengrai was insupportable because 

CheiiJdii had not yet come into existence having been founded by 

the famous Me9rai of Lannathai. Regarding TraitriiJS, he says, the 

late Prince Damrong was more inclined to identify it with that group 

of extensive ruins where the modernNakorn Pathom now stands because 

the site mentioned above was too near the growing power of 

Sukhodaya which could not have tolerated a new usurper of a state 

~Q near. Kin~ Rama VI qn tlw other hand thou¥ht that a mi~ratin~

200 RECENT SIAMESE PUllLICATJONS 

leader from the far north was not likely to choose a ruined site to 

build a new nucleus of his rule. He offered the suggestion of Sankaburi 

further up river especially in view of the identity of the meaning 

of the names of TraitriiJS with that of Sankaburi ( Svargaburi ). 

Making allowances for copyists' errors in chronology and even 

in naming the leading figures Dr Yupo accepts the evidence of the 

Tamnan Sivha.navati that Jaisiri migrated south in 366 of the Little 

Era ( 1004) and founded his new capital of TraitriiJs near the modern 

town ofKampel)pej; and from him four generations of rulers descended 

till we have the father of the 'Prince of the Golden Cradle.' He too 

might have borne the name of Jaisiri. Our author also accepts the 

identification of Tepanakorn with U-1'6IJ 'the Golden Cradle.' He 

goes on then to accept the original site of Ayodhya which was often 

enough mentioned by this name in old documents; and points out the 

justification ofthe name given to his capital by the 'King of the Golden 

Cradle', Dvaravati-Sri-Ayudhya, who adopted the classical Hindu 

tradition by styling himself Ramadhipati, the Lord Ram a. 

324. YutJO, Dh.: An Excursion into Nav Pim'scauntry, L~EJ'H~V.JUHYilJ 

Government Press, Bangkok, 2508, ill. pp. 56 sexa. 

In February 1965, the Fine Arts Department organised a tour 

of historical sites in Supan, the locale of the best known romance 

in Siamese Literature that is indigenous -the Khun Chav Khun iWen. 

The trip was in anticipation of the report to be written by J. Boisselier 

on the ruins of the old Dvaravati city of U-T6I] on the road between 

Supan and Nakorn Pathom. 

The gist of the story is prefaced by a few lines of the standard 

sebha of the same name, thus : 

" Let us now recite the romance 

Of Khun ChaiJ, Khun PMn and the beauteous Pim. 

It all happened in the year hundred and forty-seven, 

Their parents were subjects of the King of Men.'' 

Dr Yiipo then takes up the problem of chronology and upholds 

the surmise of the late Prince Damrong that the date given of 'hundred 

and forty-seven' dropped out one word in front. lf V(e insert

RECENT STAMESE PU!H.TCATIONS 201 

'eight' before hundred the dating would fall, within the reign of King 

Boroma Trailokanath and therefore concur with the Statement of the 

Man from Kruykao already published elsewhere. 

As for the plot the author quotes Prince Damrong who was 

inclined to believe that the main theme of the story as it originally 

existed was as follows : 

The figures in the love triangle consisted of Khun ChalJ, an 

ugly bald-headed son of a well-to-do family in Supan, Plai Keo young 

and dashing son of another member of the Supan gentry who had incurred 

the wrath of the King and been confiscated of all property 

leaving the family very poor and the beautiful Pim, also of a Supan 

family. The whereabouts of their homes have been identified in this 

brochure. Ptai Keo, later known as Khun Phen, had been in love 

with Pim, his childhood's playmate. He was then conscripted into 

the army and sent away to a distant part of the kingdom for such a 

long time that Khun Chill), his rival in love, spread abroad the story 

that he had lost his life in war. Pim's mother, with her eyes on his 

riches more than in sympathy with her daughter's inclinations, at 

once agreed to the match and they were duly married. Pliii Keo then 

returned from the war; and being still in love with the thirct'party 

Pim who returned his affections, eloped together. The husband 

pursued but was worsted in a fight which ensued. He appealed to 

the King who sent officials to arrest the pair but they were killed by 

Keo, thus incurring the guilt to l~se majeste. The eloping pair wandered 

about till Pim would have to confine herself in expectation of 

the child. They therefore approached the Governor of Picit,. The 

Governor, advising an appeal for the King's mercy, sent them down 

to Ayudhyii. 

202 RECENT SIAMESE PUBLTCA'l'IONS 

quarrels took place; where the direction of the journey of elopement 

was; many of these scenes are illustrated by photogravure. His 

sketches of the character of the personalities of the drama are 

substantiated by apt quotations which enable us to visualise these 

personalities with regard to their thought, their ambition, and their 

reasoning. We thus have the beautiful Pim, later called Wan T61), a 

charming girl of the gentry with a natural amount of heart who 

could not decide between her love for the young and dashing hero 

and the well-to-do if ugly and uncouth lover who gave all for her. 

325. Mementos of the cremation of Momcaoying Virnol-padmaraj Chirapravat, 

Pracand Press, Bangkok, 2508. 

Diary of the last year ( 1868) of the fourth reign with the initial 

days of the fifth reign, 41 pp. sexa. and 

The name of Nalwrn]aisri '1-lf'l"J'lf~~fl1, 24 pp. sexa. 

Of the four volumes published to commemorate this occasion, 

one a cook book and the second a legal treatise from the pen of LualJ 

Saranai are technical and obviously outside the scope of the Siam 

Society. The other two enumerated above are however worthy of 

some interest. 

The Diary hitherto unpublished is a contemporary document of 

the time it covers. The period has certainly been written about elsewhere 

by historians better qualified to deal with the period; but this 

brochure is nevertheless interesting as being a contemporary record 

by an unknown person who as will be seen later was in a way well 

qualified to write on the topic. The anonymous writer was probably 

an official of the Court who had access to records even important ones. 

He probably did not mean to hide his personality, having merely jotted 

down his notes which he never thought of getting published in the 

way of modern writers. He was certainly close to. the King if one is 

to judge from his very full recording. If his literary attainments bad 

been better one would be tempted to make a guess that he was a Private 

Secretary to His Majesty. From the knowledge he possessed of 

the King·s inclinations and movements one must be content to imagine 

he was perhaps a Grand Chamberlain of the ca

Ol;;CEN'l' SIAMESE PUllLICATlONS 203 

who was later raised in the next reign to the rank and title of Chaopraya 

Mahindra. 

It should be noticed that he referred to the successor of King 

Mongkut as Pra Chulaldao, which is not known to have been used at 

all. He also called the heir of His Majesty Pra Pink lao of the Palace 

to the Front Somdec Prachao Landhoe, again a title which has not 

been met with elsewhere, for this personality is usually known as .the 

Krom PrarajwalJboworn. 

The second brochure, Nakorn j aisri, is a revised version of what 

the reviewer had written on the topic some 15 years previously under 

the title of "The Origin of the Name of Nako.rnjaisri" (in Siam). In 

the earlier brochure it was left to the decision of the reader to solve 

the proposition thus raised. In the brochure under review now it is 

definitely suggested that the name, having no connection with the 

Khmer citadel now usually referred to as the '' Phra Khan" of Ankor, 

might have been coined from the name of the almost mythical leader 

who led his people down south to form the settlement now identified 

with G-T61J, which was later incorporated with the province of Nakorn 

Jaisri, for the name of that leader was Sirijai of ChielJsen. Though 

more recent theories attribute the founding of U-folJ to a Sirijai, the 

great-grandfather perhaps of the better known namesake who was the 

maternal.grandfather of the traditional "Prince of the Golden Cradle" 

who migrated east to found on the site of the older Ayodhya a new 

state called Dvaravati Sri Ayudhya, the nucleus in the following four 

centuries of the Kingdom of Siam. 

The mention of the Nagara Jayasri of the Khmer at Ankor here 

was not meant to suggest its connection with King Chakrapat's new 

township of Nakorn Jaisri. It is merely a point of interest to be aware 

of a parallel in name, especially when the latter gives rise to other 

names of the western country proving their existence in those mediaeval 

times. 

326. A Memento to the late Momchaoying Dibyaratna-prabha Devakul, 

edited by H.S.H. Momchao Prididebya Devakul, ~t]Jt]Jncn 'V'I1::1h~191 

LLt1~'ilfiVIlJ1~L 'INWnt~1'"'u'll'l:hll:'llJL~i"J 

, 

1 mlJW"l::tJ1L m::1.Jfl1l nlnn, Pracand Press, 

Bangkok, 2508, ill. pp. 132. Octo.

204 HECENT SIAMESE PUBLICATIONS 

The memento planned and edited by Momchao Prididebya, 

Devakul brother to the deceased, consists of the customary biography 

from the pen presumably of the editor; a sermon delivered by the 

Ven. Pradhannapamokkh ofWat Rajaphatikaram at one of the weekly 

services in honour of the dead, dealing with the subject of pu'iina, or 

merit, introducing material that tends to illustrate the meritorious life 

of the deceased in trying to shape her life as a good Buddhist; then 

follow two interesting features, a biography of His late Royal 

Highness Kromaprayii Devavongs, father of the deceased and head of 

the gifted Devakul family, probably written by the editor himself 

and excerpts from the diary of the late Prince Devavongs covering a 

period in his long and distinguished life first as the King's Private 

Secretary and then as Minister of Foreign Affairs in which last post 

he remained for 37 years without interruption. 

From these materials one can see how the average working 

man in the time of King Chulalongkorn devoted his life to the King 

and state. Prince Devavongs, for instance, to quote a part of his 

diary: 

February (B. E. 2425) the first: 

Got up at 10 a.m., took breakfast with Sana. Went at 

noon into the Palace. Between 20 and 30 people were waiting 

to see me, not all of them having anything in the way of state 

business but wanting to ask for this a.nd that help. At 2 p.m. 

the King came out to the east wing. 

At 3 p.m. General John Haldemeyer, United States 

Minister, came in; I introduced him into the royal presence. 

The King was asked when the Siamese envoy would be arriving 

in America; be said that he would like to send one very soon 

but th~re was still a good deal to be done with England and 

France yet. The Minister enquired about the Chinese claim to 

have tribute from us, to which H.M. said that there could be 

no question of our acquiescing since we are independant of 

China ....... the audience lasted about half an hour and the 

Minister took leave. W. Newman the acting British Agent and 

Consul General was then received in private audience. H. M.

llECENT SlltMESf~ PUBLICA'i'!ONS 2os 

asked him to help solve the problem of the sale of liquors, the 

Agent undertook to see to it that no Chinese should henceforth 

sell liquors which was not a good thing; he then informed H.M. 

that the British Government approved of the proposal of the 

company to work at telegraphs. H. M. then retired. Iti the 

evening the King gave a general audience, retiring about 9 p.nL 

.... returned .home past ten, took dinner, then read a bit and 

went to bed at 1 a.m. 

It only remains to be added that the wotk has been inost c~u·c~ 

full edited and the sections-newly written though bearii1g no name 

of an author has been well written and are obviously from the pen of 

the Editor, Prince Prididebya Devakul. 

327. Vajiranan, His Royal Highness Kromaprayu: Autobiography 

'V'lnl1;~1~rr{1'1L~1, King Mo!Jkut Academy Press, Bangkok, 2508, ill. 

pp. 85. Octo. 

This is a new edition of an old publication. It is now reviewed 

because it has never been noticed before in the JSS, the original having 

been published long before the days we review works in Siamese. 

Prince Vajiranan was one of the younger sons of King MolJkut, born 

some nine years before the King's death, but he has been able tore~ 

collect many interesting incidents of his infancy. Being by nature 

one of a studious inclination he received many marks of affection 

from his royal sire. One of his favorite sports was riding; the military 

spirit of royalty is here manifested in such passages as "I was unfor~ 

tunate in never having been a soldier as my royal birth should have 

entitled me; I used to look with envy at some of my brothers in their 

military uniforms." One of the men with whom he came in close 

contact with was Dr Peter Gowan, a scotch doctor whose age might 

have been between 25 and 30. He was by inclination what one des~ 

cribed as a ' young hermit'. The Prince was interested in him because 

he was a farang and had a kind heart. Through his influence the 

Prince gave up his wild flights of adolescence when about the age of 

17; but his failing which continued was that of senseless spending of 

money.

ilECENT SIA~IESE PUBLJCATION::i 

206 

From quite an early period he became interested in religious 

matters. The contact with Dr Gowan's honest and simple life prepared 

him for a monastic career. Further contact with the monastery promoted 

this interest. The King, his brother, noticed the trait and 

tacitly encouraged it. At 18 he served in the King's Private Secretariat 

in the legal adviser's section. When he came of age he joined the 

monastery as was the custom for young men to do. At the commencement 

of the vassa period His Majesty visited the Prince when to his 

surprise the King, his sovereign and brother, bowed low on the ground 

as if the young prince was a senior monic. This courtesy made the 

Prince determined to stay on in monastic life instead of leaving it after 

the season as most others did, though he did not say so till the second 

year. His description of monastic life is interesting. It shows up his 

character and determination which became useful assets in later years 

when he was entrusted with the administration of the clergy and the 

organisation of monastic life and the national education. 

The work under review was published to commemorate the 

cremation of Colonel M.C. NivaddhavoiJS Ksemsant, a closely related 

nephew of the Prince Vajirai'Htn. The deceased had been trained in 

the Imperial Czarist army of Russia and had to give up that training 

on the breakout of the Revolution which put an end to the Empire of 

the Romanovs. 

328. Navs'i'i Sanuk \-11,\u"~mn;n ~ Sociological Society Press, Bangkok, 

2508, pp. 199. Octo. 

We are not sure as to what caption in English would be nearer 

to the original intention of the editor of this book. Possibly we should 

have labelled it Diversions. That would be a more or less conservative 

paraphrase. Other captions might be more exciting. 

e 

In any case the volume under review consists of writings of the 

past century or more. They form an anthology covering a wide field 

of topics of varied interest in prose as well as in poetry. The topics 

range from varied aspects of sociology, history, manners, customs, 

literature and fiction; and of course the arts, pictorial, decorative and 

culinary.

1\I':Gl\NT SIAMESE l'UilLl

lO!l 

J{lo;CENT SIAW;SE l'UBLIC:ATIONi:\ 

.d ...I .......... ~ • 

330. Customs of Daily Life l..ld~LWru.Ln~'JnlJ'If1Vl by vanous authors and 

published under the direction of the Fine Arts Dept., Bangkok, 

2507, pp. 80. 

The contents are custom in merit-making, the form of 

liberality, mental dedication and miscellaneous aspects; the 

custom in bringing up a child; the custom of ordination in 

monastic life and the custom of marriage. It is stated in the 

preface that a fifth part in the original draft has not been included-that 

of honouring the dead. 

To the average Siamese householder the custom or 

merit-making in the first part comes as a matter of course. 

The essential characteristics of the way to make merit is familiar 

to all. It is in fact liberality. Under the more economical 

circumstances of modern society that is becoming difficult especially 

since western ideas of a social life has become adopted 

side by side with the traditional requirements of a social life 

or a generation ago. The average member of a cultivated 

Thai society would be liable to appeals for the support of 

monasteries, would feel somewhat about his own lack of 

generosity were he not to respond to the usual request for aid 

given to the immediate circle of his dependants in the family 

and the household; and at the same time he is equally expected 

to respond to the numerous appeals in the more modern forms 

of charity such as f~tes and balls which might drain his purse 

just as heavily as the old-style methods of liberality. And, 

as a rule he is required by courtesy to respond to both the 

old and the more modern forms of generosity. But this is 

beside the point for our book does not touch upon Stlch topics. 

A pertinent remark in the introduction defines the 

average man's attitude about moral standards of life. Merit 

and demerit are tantamount to good and bad action. The 

question arises as to whether mere abstention from demerit 

would qualify to be considered as merit. The author here 

answers in the negative for abstention is merely inaction. To 

acquire merit one would need a positive action. Hence merit 

making at various stages of life has been identified with

ltEGENT t;IAMI•:SE PUBLICATIONS 209 

liberality, with mental dedication (bhavana) and so on. 

One 

is tempted to remark that a work written in modern days like 

the present time might, either under the heading of mental 

dedication or even ordit1ation, give some emphasis to the importance 

of studying intelligently the Master's teaching. It 

was this emphasis which was the key to success of the reformer 

Prince, later King, Mongkut; and it is this aspect of Buddhism 

which shines out now as the high light of modern Buddhism. 

The general tone of the description of Buddhist ceremonial 

and custom of present-day Buddhism follows the usual 

type as practised nowadays. It leaves nothing out in the way 

of ceremonial details, though many of these are fast becoming 

obsolete. 

33l. Fine Arts Department: Chino-Siamese Relationship ( in the 

early Bangkok period) Vl'i~'l1'l!t'f1!HILuLlJV.J'il'Hfl'J\!n'l.J1l~U7LLf•:; 

~-· " "' l: .. 

1"11~'i1'lit'flt'f~l~lJ1LHi'l!nl!1~ lil n;.J'lu911-tLn~1.-l'nJ.) Bangkok: 2507', pp. 

49. Oct. 

The publication, dedicated to the memory of Mr. Joti 

Le9suwan has been sponsored by his daughter, Citra and her 

husband Mr. Thwalya Kama9svasti, Secretary of the Thai 

Embassy in Rome. It deals for the most part with diplomatic 

correspondence promoting amity and friendship between the 

two countries. The first is a draft of the royal autograph of 

the King of Dhonburi addressed to the Cheng Emperor of 

Pekin, prefaced with an interesting introduction, setting out 

the circumstances leading up to the resumption, after the fall 

of Ayudhya, of diplomatic relationship initiated by the King 

of Dhonburi in 1781. Obviously the courtesy of acquainting 

friendly state of the change in the headship of a state was 

taken by China to indicate the informer's status of a tributary. 

332. Debafianaka vi, the Ven.: A Handboak jar the P1'actice of Buddhism 

and Other Tapics ff1l'fn¥i! LLt'l:: U1H1fllli a memento of the 

cremation of the remains of Police Major Suriya. Bunnag, King 

.MoiJkut University Press, Bangkok, 2508, pp. 141.

2LO 

l\ECENT SIAMESE l'UUL!CA'I'JONS 

Buddhism consists not only of its high philosophy but 

also of monastic and lay practice. The handbook under 

review treats of the latter almost exclusively for that after all 

is the one that concerns the majority of its adherents. Buddhism 

in fact is a high ethical frame a great deal of which 

requires personal attention of the individual adherent. It is 

nevertheless not equally apparent as the practice. It ,is summed 

up very shortly in a series of headings without much 

elucidation. Volumes certainly exist dealing with this side 

of the Buddhist religion and philosophy; but, as a rule, they 

are written not so much to educate as to codify the the Master's 

teachings. The numerous sermons which are from time 

to time published especially as cremation mementos are hardly 

conducive towards attracting the layman's interest in what 

after all he should be better informed. 

It was with the hope of supplying this want that the 

late King Prajadhipok initiated the awards of prizes for such 

manuals every year. These were then published and placed 

within reach of the educational authorities for dissemination 

as reading books for the young. The one judged best received 

monetary prizes. Though these prize essays are still continued; 

volume is published every year and some hundreds of copies 

are offered to the educational authorities, the public hardly 

ever comes across them and less so the school children for 

whom they were intended. 

Turning now to the main contents of the volume under 

review, they are ceremonies of everyday life in a Siamese 

Buddhist household. As a rule they are not observed in full 

as stated in the book; but if observed they follow more or less 

this ruling. They are summed up as those for the living and 

those for the dead. Minute details are given for the proper 

conduct of the ceremonies. But, after all they arc social 

customs hardly having any claim to be considered as Buddhism 

save that they are combined with the chanting of Buddhist 

texts and stanzas of blessing or admonition. They give the

IlECENT S!AM!lSE l'lli!LICATIONS 

reader a picture of the typical life from time to time of the 

Siamese Buddhist. They deal with the rearing of children, 

customs of marriage, birthdays, anniversaries and house-warming; 

whilst those connected with the dead described the successive 

memorial ceremonies up to cremation and the disposal of 

the crematory remains. The topic is deemed here so important 

that it forms the first part of the book whilst what little to be 

said of the ethical side of life is relegated to a later place. 

2ri 

.. 

333. Boriraks-bofavalanj, Khun: Memento at cremation, Pracandra 

Press, Bangkok, 2506, pp. 62. 

As the customary memento of such functions, there 

were published 

(a) The Story of Votive Tablets, by G. Coedes ( pp. 1-18) 

0 A i 

prof. ill. ~11U1H'I'O~WlJW This is a very well-known and reliable 

handbook which has been published several times. 

(b) Art in Thailand ~mfit'1tl1m.b:a'llf11tw by H.S.H. Prince 

Subhadradis Diskul, (pp. 19-48) also well illustrated, containing 

accurate information which is both up-to-date and reliable. 

The material formed a series of lectures delivered by the 

author. 

... 

( c ) Story of the Buddha's Footprint in Saraburi L 1D~W'l"~W1'11i- 

~ , 

1J1'11~7~~:~ by Luan9 Boribal Buribhand (49-64), which has also 

been published elsewhere before. It is based upon the traditional 

account of the most popular monument in mediaeval 

Siam. The theme of this post-canonical but romantic Punnovada 

Sutta is fully examined and discussed. 

The deceased to whom the dedication is made was an 

official of the provincial administration . 

334. The Ven. Debavarabhorn: Colour in Visual Education rlfl\.l~fimn 

.. 

'\l'lnn, King Mongkut Academy Press, Bangkok, 2508. pp. 21 sexa. 

How many visitors to the main chapel of Wat Bovoranives 

ever take the trouble to note the six pairs of big pillars of different 

colours with frames on each depicting the livelihood of man? Most 

of us enter the chapel either to hear the weekly sermons which by the

2t2 Rli:CENT SIAMi~SE PUBLll:A'floNS 

way are above the average of such deliveries elsewhere otto be iost iii 

admiration of that wonderful piece of plastic art of the Sukhodaya 

period visualised into the sublime calm of expression on the visage of 

the principal image, the Pra jinaszha, the 'Victorious Lion' (of men). 

According to the pamphlet under review the source of this 

scheme can be traced to the Tipitaka. Once upon a time the Buddha 

was in residence on the Vulture Peak of Rajagaha. Ananda told him 

that according to the theorist Pi:irnakassapa men were to be divided 

into six categories through their livelihood, such as black for those 

engaged in occupations which were harmful to life, blue for beggars 

and mendicants, then red, dark yellow, light yellow and white in 

progression of the scale of livelihood and professions. The Buddha 

replied: 

" No, Ananda, one should not classify people by their calling, 

or livelihood, or birth, or wealth, or raiment, but rather by 

their action which reflect the colouring of their mentality." 

It is in the spirit of the Lord's teaching that the author of the 

pamphlet under review has drawn quotations from the dharma to 

illustrate his point. Thus the first pair, as one goes in, bear decorative 

designs on a black background. The plate on either depicts 

hunters and fishermen; the next pair, in blue, though not painted with 

beggars and mendicants contain representations of officials who in 

their corruption are taking advantage of innocent people etc. 

335. Kittisobhana, His Holiness the Patriarch: Tradition of the Kathin, 

and religious practice, n3~L\11tl1"Jn~ llt'l~f11t:'lWwli dedicated to the late 

King Chulalongkorn 2507, 70 pp. octo. 

As stated in the preface, the work under review has been revised 

from the Custom aj the Visakha and Kathin by the same author with 

the addition of some allied material by the Very Rev. Pra Dharmakittisobhon, 

his disciple and successor to the Abbotship of Wat Bencamabopit. 

As it is made up now the volume is comprised of the 

original treatise on the origin and significance of the Kathin ceremony, 

its practice at the Wat mentioned, where it is a combination. of the 

former Mahanikai tradition with the more rational Dhammayut 

practice-the former one being one of the older Mahanikai sect. It

ih;c I~NT SIAMl~Sl~ PUBLICA Tld:-

~14 RECENT SIAMBSI•: l'UBLICA'l'IONS 

Resources the committee of authorship remains almost the same with 

the addition of an expert on submarine geology. 

Relying again on the romances of Suniorn Phil the book takes 

its name from the locality of i)hu's imagination of the Wondrous 

Island of Gems, which goal turns out to be the luxuriant island 

of Samui off the east coast of the southern peninsula. Beginning 

with a quotation from a lullaby of sailing from King Rama Il's lnao 

the travelogue introduces us into an atmosphere of sea breezes and 

marine life, the descriptive eloquence of which passage is unexcelled 

anywhere. The romance of Inao has been maligned for its acceptance 

of Indonesian social habits of polygamy thereby ignoring its gems of 

descriptive poetry lying at the bottom in' purest rays serene'. 

Turning now to the contents, the volume is as usual full of 

scientific information, brightened from time to time by gems of poetry. 

The principal topic of the volume under review being marine geology, 

due attention is given here to the importance in a relative sense of 

water although the world as a whole has been regarded as the EARTH 

from time immemorial. It is pointed out here that as a matter of 

fact the surface of the earth above water was no more than a quarter 

of the whole surface. The authorship goes on then to describe each 

of the four coastlines of our country, that of Phuket on the west of the 

Southern Peninsula where the evidence of geology points to the islands 

which scatter along this coast having formed parts of the mainland. 

The east coast from Huahin to Sol)khla, on the other hand, is less 

indented. Only two islands of considerable sizes are found-that of 

Samui and Pa-l)all. The third coast is that of Samuda-prakar, or 

Paknam, consisting of the alluvial soil in mud which drains from the 

several rivers of the centre of the country. The fourth coastline is 

that of the east bank of the Gulf of Siam from Jolaburi down. This 

is the starting point of their trip this year which ends however at the 

Wondrous Island of Gems at Samui off the coastline east of the 

southern peninsula. The scientific account of their sea trip is fascinatingly 

told with references to allied topics which are not scientific. It 

is as usual well worth reading whether for old or young.

ACCESSIONS TO THE SIAM SOCIETY'S LIBRARY 

from cfluly to CDecember 1964 

Boo lis. 

.. 

Agrawala, Vasudeva S. 

Agriculture, Minbtry of 

Ahmad, H. Manzooruddin: 

Ayer, Margaret 

Bailey, H.W. (translator) : 

Beckmann, Frank Harrison: 

Bloch, Jules and Others 

Border Patrol Police and: 

The OSOM Public Safety 

Division 

Boribal Buribhand, Luang: 

Bradshaw, Rhoda and 

Others 

Bryner, Edna 

Budget Bureau, Office of 

the Prime Minister 

A Catalogue of the Brahmanical Images 

in Mathura Art (1951). 

Mathura Museum Catalogue, Part III: 

Jaina Tirthankaras and other miscellaneous 

figures (1963). 

Mathura Museum Catalogue, Part. IV : 

Architectural pieces in Mathura Museum 

(1963). 

Miscellaneous Soil Report of the Royal 

Irrigation Department, Agriculture Department 

and Rice Department. 

Thailand Land der Freien (1943). 

Made in Thailand (1964). 

Indo-Scythian Studies: Being Khotanese 

Texts Vol. IV: Saka Texts from Khotan 

in the Hedin Collection, (1961). 

(Presented by the author). 

Son of Siam (1939). 

Canon Bouddhique Pali (Tipitaka): Sut· 

tapitaka Dighanikaya (1949). 

The Civil Action Program of the Border 

Patrol Police and the USOM Public 

Safety (1963) . 

The Buddha's Footprint in Saraburi Province 

(1964). 

Pattani Malay Dictionary (1962). 

(Presented). 

Thirteen, Tibetan Tankas (1956). 

Budget in brief. Fiscal Year 1963. 

(1963).

216 ACGI.,SS!ONS TO TilE SIAM SOCI8TY'S Llfli\ARY 

Cernuschi, Musee Tresors d'Art de Thailande (1964). 

(Presented by M. Coedes.) 

De Chabert and Gallo is, L. : Atlas General de L'Indochine Francaisc 

(1909). 

Chaya, Prem 

Chotimon, Adul and 

Kebruksa, Udon 

Coedes, George 

Cort, Mary Lovina 

Cowan, C.D. (editor) 

de Croizicr 

Deignan, Herbert G. 

Delaporte, L. 

Doehring, Charles 

Taiwan(l964). (Presented by the author) 

Soil Survey Reports of the Land Development 

Dept. No. 23 Report on the Soil 

Survey of Thawat Chai Tanh-Irrigation 

Area ( 1964). 

(Presented by Land Development Dept.). 

Origine et Evolution des Diverses formes 

du Theatre Traditionnel en Thailande 

(reprinted from Bulletin de la Societe 

des Etudes Indochinoises, Nouvelle Seric 

-Tome XXXIII, 3-4) p. 491-506. 


Lc Siamois ~~ l'Ecole Nationale des Langues 

Orientales Vivantes. (1964). 


Siam or the Heart of Farther India, 

(1886). 

The Economic Development of South 

East Asia; Studies in Economic History 

and Political Economy. (1964). 

Bulletin de la Societe Academiquc Indo 

Chinoise de France. 2nd Serie, Tome 3 

(1890). 

Checklist of the Birds of Thailand(l963). 


Les Monuments du Cambodge; etudes 

d'Architecture Khmere. (1923). 

Art and Art-Industry in Siam, Vol. I: 

Lacquer-works in black and gold. Text 

(n-d) 

Art and Art-Industry in Siam, Vol. II : 

Lacquer works in black and gold. Text 

(n-d), 

..

Evans, G.P. 

Ever:>, Hans-Dicler 

Evers, ll.D. and Others 

Fowkc, W.H. 

Frantz, Jr., Donald H. 

Gjellerup, Karl 

ACCI

218 ACCESSIONS TO THE SIAM SOCIETY'S L TBHAHY 

de Glasenapp, H. 

Gonda, Jan 

Griswold, Alexander B. 

and Others 

Haags Gemeentemuseum 

Hall, D.G.E. 

Hanks, Jane Richardson 

Hanks, Lucien M. and 


Hastings, James (editor) 

Heangsun, Sok 

van Heekeren, H.R. 

van Der Heide, H.M. 

Heimbach, Ernest E. 

( compiler) 

Henderson, M.R. 

Hoontrakul, Likhit 

Hooykass, C. 

Les Cinq Grandes Religions du Monde 

(1954). 

Les Religions de L'Inde, I: V edisme et 

Hindouisme Ancien. ( 1962). 

Burma, Korea, Tibet. (1964). 

Kunst uit Thailand (1964). (Presented). 

A History of South-East Asia. (1964). 

2nd Ed. 

Maternity and its Rituals in Bang Chan. 

(1963). (Presented by the author). 

A Report on Tribal Peoples in Chiengrai 

Province, North of The Mae Kok River 

(1964). (Presente.d by the authors.). 

Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics 

12 Vols, Index. ( 1908 ). 

L'Hemoglobine e au Cambodge ( 1958 ). 

A Tentative Investigation of the Sai Yok 

Neolithic Pottery in Thailand. 

Reprint, p. 42-49. (Presented by the 

author). 

An Analysis of blood grouping data 

collected in Indonesia and in the 

Netherlands ( 1963 ). (Presented.) 

White Meo to English Dictionary ( 1963). 


Malayan wild flowers ( 1959 ). 

The Historical Records of the Siamese 

Chinese Relations. ( 1964 ). 

Love in Lenka (reprinted from Bijdragen 

Tot de Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde) 

p. 1-16. 


On some Arthalankaras in the Bhattikavya 

X (reprinted from the BSOAS, 

1957, XX) p. 351-363. (Presented by the 

author). 

.. ,

Hooykaas, C. 

Hummel, Siegbert 

Indian Committee 

for Cultural Freedom 

Jacobs, M. 

The Jesuit Fathers 

Judd, Laurence C. 

Kantabutra, Bundhit 

Kim, Won-Yong 

Ki ttayarug, Si richai 

Konow, Stcn 

Kruijt, Alb. C. 

Kunst, J. 

Lafont, Pierre Bernard 

AGGESSIONS 1'0 TilE SIAI

ACCJ~ssioJ\Is TO ·rHt: SIAM sclcmTY 1 s LiBRARY 

Macshane, Frank 

Many Golden Ages Ruins, Temples & 

Monuments of the Orient ( 1963 ). 

M ac 1 oc, G ... C An Introduction to Malayan Birds. 

( 1956 ). 

Maclrolle, Cl. 

Guide du Voyageur: IndocChine, Canal 

de Suez, Djibouti et Harar, Indes, Ceylan, 

Siam, Chine Meridionale. ( 1902 ). 

Majumdar, R.C. Hindu Colonies. ( 1963 ). 

Mallerct, Louis 

L'Archeologie du Delta du Mekong. 

Tome Quatrieme : Le Cisbassac. Texts 

avec Index et Planches ( 1963 ). 

Masselman, George The Cradle of Colonialism. ( 1963 ). 

(Presented). 

Max Weber 

The Religion of China; Confucianism 

.. and Taoism. ( 1951 ). 

Modelski, George (editor): SEATO, six studies. ( 1962). 

Moormann, F.R. 

Mousny, Andre 

Muller, A. 

Miscellaneous Soil Reports of the Royal 

Irrigation Dept., Dept. of Agriculture and 

the Dept. of Rice No. 1 Report on the 

Preliminary Soil Survey of the Mae Klang 

Irrigation Project Area (1 96!/). 


Soil Survey Reports of the Land 

Development Dept. No. 20 Note on the 

Soils and Landuse in the .Hills of Tal~ Province 

( 1964 ). 


The Economy of Thailand: an Appraisal 

of a. liberal exchange policy. ( 1964). 

Health Status of Sisal Plants (Agave 

and Sisalana) As Related to Soils and 

the Mineral Composition of their Leaves. 

(reprinted from the Journal of Science 

of Food and Agriculture No. 2, p. 129- 

132 ). 

NationaleHandelsbankN.V.: Some Facts and Figures on Trade with 

Thailand ( 1963 ). 

Noss, Richard B. : Thai Reference Grammar. ( 1964 ).

Nuttonson, M.Y. 

Omakupt, Manu 

Ministerie van Onclerwijs, : 

Kunst en en W etenschappen 

(Pub.) 

Parmentier, Henri 

Van der Plas, C.C. 

Painton, A.C. 

Poomvises, Vira and 


Prabha, C. 

Prem Purachatra, Prince 

Public Administration 

Div., USOM 

Department of Public 

Welfare 

Accl'!ssiONS TO THE siAM sociETY's LIBRARY 221 

The Physical Environment and Agriculture 

of Thailand; A Study based on Field 

Survey Data and on Pertinent Records, 

Material and Reports. ( 1963 ). 

(Presented by U.S.I.S. ). 


Dept. No. 22 Report on the Soil 

Survey of the Kut Daeng Tank Irrigation 

Area ( Roi Et Province). ( 1964 ). 

(Presented by Land Development Dept. ) 

Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde. (1961). 

(Presented). 

L' Art Architectural Hindou dans L'Inde 

et en Extreme-Orient. ( 1948 ). 

Tonkin 1644/45: Journal van de Reis 

van Anthonio van Brouckhorst. ( 1955 ). 

The Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation 

Limited, 1863-1963. ( 1964). 

(Presented). 

Miscellaneous Soil Reports of the Royal 

Irrigation Dept., Dept. of Land Development 

and the Dept. of Rice No. 26 Detailed 

Reconnaissance Sail Survey of the 

Lam Phra Ploeng Irrigation Project ( Na 

!lhon Ratchasima Province) ( 1964 ). 


Buddhist Holy Days and State Ceremonies 

of Thailand ( 1964 ). 

(Presented by the author ). 

Introduction to Thai Literature ( 1964) 


Organization Directory of the Government 

of Thailand, 1963 (1963). 1964 

(1964). (Presented). 

Report of the Socio~Economic Survey of 

the Hill Tribes in Northern Thailand 

( 1962 ). (Presented).

22Q 

ACCESSIONS 'i'O THE SIAM SOCIETY'S LIBRAR'r 

Quirino, Carlo Philippine Cartography ( 1320-1899 ). 

(Presented by Mr. N.lsrael, Amsterdam) 

Rao, T.A. Gopinatha 

Rassers, W.H. 

de Reinach, Lucien 

Reisenfeld, Alphonse 

Elements of Hindu Iconography. Vol. I, 

Pts. 1-2, 1964; Vol. II, Pts. 1-II, 1916. 

(Presented by Mr. James H.W. 

Thompson). 

Panji, The Culture Hero. ( n-d ). 

Lettres d'Indochine, 1893-1899. ( n-d ). 

The Megalithic Culture of Melanesia 

( 1950 ). 

Religious Affairs, Dept. of: Pali-Thai-English dictionary. Vol. 4-8 

( 1962 ). 

Robins, R.H. and Others 

Rowland Jr., Benjamin 

Royal Irrigation Dept. 

Linguistic Comparison in South East 

Asia and the Pacific. ( 1963 ). 

The Evolution of the Buddha Image 

( 1963 ). 

A Souvenir of His Majesty the King's 

Performance of the Dedication 

Ceremony of the Bhumiphol Dam on 

17th May 1964. 

(Presented by H.S.H. Prince Ajavadis 

Diskul ). 

Ruhle, George C. 

Saihoo, Patya 

Advisory Report on a National Park 

system for Thailand, 1959-1960 ( 1964 ). 


The Hill Tribes of Northern Thailand. 

( 1963 ). 

Saint-Hilair, J. Barthelemy: Le Bouddha et sa Religion. ( 1860 ). 

Scarpa, Antonio 

Medicinal dances. ( an article in Rassegna 

Medica Magazine, n. 6-XXXVII- 

1960) p. 306-309. 


La Medl.cina Tradizionale del Siam 

Secondo un Manoscritto su Scorza 

d'Albero. (Presented). 

Nozioni di Etnoiatrica, ( 1962 ). 

( Presented).

ACC8SSIONS TO THE SIAM SOCIETY'S LIURAUY 

Scarpa, Antonio 

De Schacck, Ivan 

Schweitzer, Albert 

Secretariat, Ninth Pacific : 

Science Congress; (Pub.) 

Shrader, W.D. 

Silhi-Amnuai, Paul 

Smalley, William and 


Smith, Malcolm 

Suriyabongs, Luang 

Telford, J.H. 

Thong, Thor Peng 

Tongchuta, Tanit 

Seduta inaugurale dell'Ethnoiatrice 

Study Group of Thailand, October 1963. 

(Presented). 

S.A.I. le Grand-Due Boris de Russie aux 

Fetes du Siam pour le Couronnement du 

Roi. 2nd ed. ( 1914 ). 

Indian Thought and its Development, 

( 1936 ). 

Proceedings of the Ninth Pacific Science 

Congress of the Pacific Science Association. 

Vol. II : Forest Resources. ( 1958 ) . 

(Presented). 

Miscellaneous Soil Reports, Royal Irrigation 

Dept. No. 6 Landclassification for 

Agricultural Production of the Chao Phraya 

Project. ( 1964 ). 


Finance and Banking in Thailand; a 

study of the commercial system, 1888- 

1963 . .( 1964 ). 

Orthography Studies: Articles on New 

Writing Systems. ( 1964 ). 


A Physician at the Court of Siam. ( 1946) 

.(Presented by Mr. J.N. Wurtz). 

Gedichte aus Thailand ( n-d ). Presented. 

The Fundamental Teachings of Theravada 

Buddhism. 

(Presented by Mr. V.F. Hemmingsen). 

Handbook of the Lahu ( Muhso) 

language and English-Lahu Dictionary. 

( 1938 ). 

La Thalassemic au Cambodge. ( 1963 ). 


Dept. No.. 18 Report 01t the Soil 

Survey of the Proposed Land Settlement 

Area at Nam Phong ( J{on K.haen Province) 

( 1964 ). 

(Presented by Land Development Dept.)

224 ACC~;SSIONS TO THE SlAM SOCIETY'S LIBRARY 

Tricon, A. and Bellan, Ch. : 

University of Chicago 

Valentyn, Francois 

Vallibhotama, Manit 

Viennot, Odelte 

Wells, Margaretta B. 

Wenk, Klaus 

Wyatt-Smith, J. imd 

Wycheley, P.R. (editor) 

Chansons Cambodgiennes. ( 1921 ). 

Encyclopaedia Britannica. Vol. 1-24. 

( 1947) (Presented by The British Council). 

Beschryving and Oud en Nieuw Oost 

Indien. ( 1726 ). 

Guide to Pimai and Antiquities in the 

province of Nagara Rajasima ( Khorat ). 

( 1962 ). 

Les Divinites Fluviales Ganga et Yamuna 

aux Portes des Sanctuaires de 1' Inde. 

( 1964 ). 

Guide to Chiengmai. ( 1964 ). 

( Presented by the author). 

Thai Fairy Tales. ( 1964 ). 


Die Verfassungen Thailands. ( 1964 ). 


Nature Conservation in Western Malaysia 

( 1961 ). 

"Original Accounts of " Siamese White" 

White, George 

Tench, Nathaniel 

Davenport, Francis 

Anonymous 

Weltden, Anthony 

and Others 

Reflections on a Scandalous Paper, Intituled 

the Answer of the East-India 

Company to Two Printed Papers of Mr. 

Samuel White: Together with the True 

Character of Francis Davenport ( 1689 ). 

Animadversions upon Mr. George White's 

Reflection on the Answer of the East 

India Co., 1688. 

An Historical Abstract of Mr. Samuel 

White, 1687/8. 

To the Right Honourable the Knights, 

Citizens and Burgesses Assembled in 

Parliament, 1688. 

Fort St. George. January 30th 1687-1688; 

A True and Imp'artial Narrative. 1687/8 

... .

AGCESSIO!'IS TO THE SIAM SOGlETY'S LIBUAHY 

Periodicals 

Acta Asiatica Bulletin 6, 1964. 

Acta Biologica Venezuelica, Vol. 3, Arts. 25-29 1963· V 1 4 A 1 

1964. ' ' o . ' rt. ' 

Acta Geologica Taiwanica, No. 10, 1963. 

Allan Hancock Foundation Publications, No. 26, Pt. II; No. 27, 1964. 

American Anthropologist, Vol. 66, No.3, Pts. 1-2; Vol. 66, No.4, 

Pts. 1-2, 1964; Vol. 66, No.5, 1964. 

American Museum of Natural History, Bulletin of the, Vol. 126, 

Arts. 1-3, 1964; Vol. 127, Art. l, 1964. 

American Philosophical Society Year Book January 1, 1961-December 

31, 1961. (Presented by The American Philosophical Society). 

Archiv fi.ir Volkerkunde, Band. 16, 1961. 

Arcbiv Orientalni, Vol. 32, Nos. 1-2, 1964. 

Area and Culture Studies, No. 11, 1964. 

Artibus Asiac, Vol. 26, Nos. 1-2, 1963. 

Asian Bibliography, Vol. XIII, No. 2, 1964. 

Asian Perspectives, Vol. 7, Nos. 1-2, 1963. 

Asian Studies, Journal of the, Vol. 23, Nos. 3-4, June, 1964; Vol. XXII, 

No. 4, 1963; Vol. XX, No.3, 1961. 

Asiatic Society, Journal of the, Vol. IH, Nos. 3 &4, 1961; Vol. IV, No.2, 

1962. 

Asiatique Journal, Tome CCLI, Fasc. No. 1, 1963. 

Australian Museum, Records of the, Vol. 26, Nos. 5-10, 1964. 

Baessler-Archiv, Neue Folge, Band XI, Heft. 2, 1964. 

Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Annals of the, Vol. XLIV, 

Pts. 1-4, 1964. 

Bibliography of Scientific Publications of South & South East Asia, 

Vol. 10, Nos. 8-9, 11, 1964. 

Bijdragen Tot de Taal -,Land-En Volkenkunde, Dee1120, Nos. 1-2, 

1964. 

Bonner Geographische Abhandlungen, Heft. 33, 1963. 

Breviora Museum of Comparative Zoology, Nos. 200-207, 1964. 

Burma Research Society, Journal of the, Vol. 46, Pt. 1, 1963.

U6 

ACCI!:SSIONS TO THE SlAM SOCmTY'S I.!BHAI\Y 

Chesapeake Science, Vol. 5, No. 3, 1964. 

China Quarterly, the, No. 18, 1964. 

Confrontation, Jahrgang 4, Heft. 2, 1964. 

Cornell Extension Bulletin, 1125, 1128, 1129, 1130, 1964. 

Current Anthropology, Vol. 1, Nos. 1~6, 1960; Vol. 2, Nos. 1-5, 1961; 

Vol. 3, Nos. 2-5, 1962; Vol. 4, Nos. 1-5, 1963; Vol. 5, Nos. 1-4, 1964. 

Delta, Vol. 6, Nos. 3-4, 1963-1964. 

Deutsche Kulturnachrichten, Jahrgang, Heft. 3-4, 8, 1964. 

Ecole Fran~aise d'Extreme-Orient, Bulletin de 1', Tome UI, Fasc. 1, 

1964. 

Florida State Museum, Biological Sciences, Bulletin of the, Vol. 8, 

No. 3, 1964. 

Ford Foundation Annual Report 1963, the. 

Foreign Affairs, Vol. 42, No. 4, 1964. 

Foreign Affairs). 

(Presented by the Ministry of 

France-Asie/ Asia, Nouvelle Serie, Vol. XIX, Nos. 180-181, 1963. 

Geographical Review, Vol. LIV, No. 4, 1964. 

Geographical Society of China, Proceedings of the, No. 7, 1963. 

Hemisphere, Vol. 8, Nos. 4-6, 9, 1964. 

Hitotsubashi, Journal of Economics, Vol. 5, No. l, 1964. 

Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Bulletin, Tome 

XXXIX, Nos. 14, 18, 20-21, 23-25, 28-29, 40, 1963. 

Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Mt~moires, Memoire 

Nos. 150-151, 1963-1964. 

Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, 2e Serie, Fasc. 

75-76, 1963-1964. 

Institute for Oriental Culture, the Memoirs of the, No. 31, 1963. 

Jahrbuch des Museums fur Volkerkunde zu Leipzig, Band 20, 1964. 

Japanese Journal of Botany, Vol. 18, No. 3, 1964. 

Japanese Journal of Ethnology, the, Vol. 28, Nos. 1-2, 1964; Vol. 29, 

No. 1, 1964. 

Maha Bodhi, the, Vol. 72, Nos. 5-7, 1964. 

Malayan Nature Journal, the, Vol. 18, Nos. 1-3, 1964.

ACC.ESSIONS TO THE SIAM SOCIET'r'S LIBRAilY 227 

Mie Medical Journal, Vol.XIII, Nos. 1-3, 1963-1964. 

Mitteilungen aus dem Museum fiir Volkerkunde zu Leipzig, Nr. 1, 

1964. 

Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 2e Serie, Bulletin du, Tome 35, 

No. 6, 1963; Tome 36, No. 1, 1964. 

Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard Universityj Bulletin of 

the, Vol. 131, Nos. 3-10, 1964. 

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Bulletin, Vol. LXII, Nos. 327-328, 1964. 

Muslim World, the, Vol. LIV, Nos. 3-4, 1964. 

Nachrichten 92, Dezember, 1962. 

National Research Council of Thailand, Journal of the, Vol. 3, No. 3, 

1962. 

Natur und Museum, Band. 94, Heft. 5-8, 1964. 

Ninth Pacific Science Congress of the Pacific Science Association, 

Proceedings of the, Vol. 1-5, 7-10, 12-13, 15-19, 1961. 

Nytt Magasin Botanikk, Vol. 11, 1964. 

Objets et Mondes, Tome II, Fasc. 2, 1962. 

Oriens Extremus 10 Jahrgang, Heft. 1-2, 1963. 

Oriental Art, New Series, Vol. X, Nos. 1-3, 1964. 

Oriental Institute, Journal of the, Vol. Xlll, No.3, 1964; Vol. XIV, 

No. 1, 1964. 

Pacific Science, Vol. 18, Nos. 2-3, 1964. 

Philippine Agriculturist, the, Vol. XLVII, No. 8, 10, 1964. 

Royal Central Asian Journal, Vol. LI, Pts. 1-4, 1964. 

Sarawak Museum Journal, the,, Vol. XI, Nos. 21-22, 1963. 

Sawaddi, Vol. 2, No. 6, 1964; Vol. 3, Nos. 1-2, 1964. 

School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Bulletin 

of the, Vol. 27, Pts. 1~3, 1964. " 

SEATO Record, Vol. 3, Nos. 4-5, 1964. 

Siriraj Hospital Gazette, (Thai), Vol. 18, Nos. 5, 8, 11, 1964. 

Societe des Etudes Indochinoises, Nouvelle Serie, Bulletin de la, Tome 

XXXVIII, Nos. 3 & 4, 1963. 

Southeast Asian History, Journal, Vol. 5, Nos. 1-2, 1964.

228 

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ACCESSIONS io THE SIAM SOCIETY'S LIBRARY 

Stuttgarter Beitrage zur Naturkunde, Nrs. 108-124, 1963. 

Sumer, Journal of Archaeology, & History in Iraq, Vol. XVIII, Nos. 

1 & 2, 1962. 

T'Oung Pao, Vol. 50, Livrs. 1-5, 1963; Vol. 51, Livrs. 1, 1964. 

Tamil Culture, Vol. XI, Nos. 1-2, 1964. 

Thai National Documentation Centre, Journal Holdings of the, List 

No. 1, May, 1964. 

Thailand Travel Talk, Vol. 4, Nos. 7-10, 1964. 

Tohogaku, No. 27, 1964. 

Tropical Abstracts, Vol. 19, No. 5, 1964. 

Tulane Studies in Zoology, Vol. 11, No.5, 1964; Vol. 12, No.1, 1964. 

United States National Museum, Bulletin 236, 1964. 

United States National Museum, Proceedings of the, Vol. 116, Nos. 

3494-3501, 1964; Vol. 115, No. 3493, 1964; Vol. 114, Nos. 3475, 1964. 

University of California Publications in Entomology, Vol. 37-38, 1964. 

University of California Publications in Zoology, Vol. 73, 1964 . 

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ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1964 

The Annual General Meeting of the Siam Society terminating 

the year 1963 was held at the Society's Home, 131 Asoka Road (Lane 

21 ), Sukhumvit, Bangkok, on Tuesday, 24th March 1964 at 8.15 p.m. 

with His Highness Prince Dhaninivat, Kromamun Bidyalabh, President, 

in the Chair. The Meeting was a attended by nearly 200 members 

and guests including the following members of the Council: 

H.H. Prince Prem Purachatra 

H.E. Chao Phya Sri Dharmadhibes 

H.S.H. Prince Ajavadis Diskul 

Mr. J.J. Boeles 

Mr. Kenneth J. MacConnac 

H.E. Mr. Ebbe Munck 

Mr. Ariyant Manjikul 

H.S.H. Prince Piyarangsit Rangsit 

Mr. J.H.W. Thompson 

Senior Vice-President 

Vice-President 

Vice-President and Honorary 

Secretary 

Honorary Librarian and Director 

of the Research Centre 

Honorary Editor of the Journal 

Honorary Editor of the Natural 

History Bulletin 

The Meeting by a unanimous resolution re-elected the Council 

en bloc with His Highness Prince Dhaninivat, Kromamun Bidyalabh, 

as President. The Meeting was followed by a lecture by Mr. W.A.R. 

Wood, the oldest British resident in Siam, on the subject of "OLD 

TALES RETOLD". 

The Council upon taking office re-elected the following standing 

committees for carrying on the activities of the Society: 

1 ) Finance Committee 

The Senior Vice-President ( H.H. Prince Pre111 

Purachatra 

), Chairman 

The Honorary Secretary 

The Honorary Treasurer

238 

ANNUAL REPOI\T FOR 1964 

2 ) Editorial Committee 

The Honorary Editor of the Journal ( Mr. Kenneth J. 

MacCormac ), Chairman 

H.H. Prince Dhaninivat, Kromamun Bidyalabh 


3) National History Committee 

Lt. General Phya Salwidhan Nidhes, Chairman 


Mr. Ariyant Manjikul 

H.S.H. Prince Piyarangsit Rangsit 

4 ) Exchange Committee 

H.S.H. Prince Subhadradis Diskul, Chairman 

Phya Anuman Rajadhon 

H.H. Prince Sukhuma Paribatra 

Mr. J.J. Boeles 

5) Travel Committee 

Mr. Sanya Dharmasakti, Chairman 


H.S.H. Prince Subhadradis Diskul 

Mom Rajawongse Sumonajati Swasdikul 

6) Research Committee 

H.H. Prince Prem Purachatra, Chairman 

Mr. Kenneth J. MacCormac 

Mr. V.F. Hemmingsen 



The Director of the Siam Society Research Centre (Mr. 

J.J. Boeles) • • 

The Council has re-appointed Mr. Kenneth J. MacCormac and 

H.E. Mr. Ebbe Munck as Honorary Editor of the Journal and Honorary 

Editor of the Natural History Bulletin respectively. They are to be 

congratulated for having spent so much time and effort in producing 

highly commendable publications for the Society as follows: 

Journal of the Siam Society, Volume 52, Part 1 ( April1964)

1964) 

ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1964 239 

Journal of the Siam Society, Volume 52, Part 2 (July 1964) 

Bulletin of the Natural History, Volume 20, No. 4 (December 

Data Paper Number 1-1964 on" A Report on Tribal Peoples 

in Chiengrai Province, North of the Mae Kok River" 

The Council has much pleasure in reporting that the sale of 

our publications has proved to be the main source of our income. In 

1963 alone the total sales exceeded Baht 100,000.00: in 1964 almost 

Baht 85,000.00. 

It is with profound regret that the Council has to announce 

one great loss to the Society: Mom Rajawongse Sumonajati Swasdikul, 

who was a member of the Council and had on several occasions· 

lectured before the Society besides acting as guide on our popular 

excursions, passed away on 23rd May 1964 after a long illness. He 

had been on the Council for nearly 20 years and his loss is keenly felt. 

The Council also lost the service of our energetic Honorary Assistant 

Secretary, Mr. Pracha Guna-Kasem, in July 1964 because he was assigned 

in his official capacity to the Royal Thai Embassy in Cairo. 

The Council has co-opted two new members to sit on the 

Council, namely: Luang Thavil Sethapanijkarn and Mr. Kraisri 

Nimmanbaeminda, in order to fill the vacancies, and we feel very 

fortunate in securing the services of these two prominent gentlemen. 

The Council held 11 business meetings during the year; 8 meetings 

at the Society's Home and 3 meetings at the President's residence. 

The Society's membership of all categories up to the end of 

1964 was 1,026 as compared with 978 at the close of 1963, and this is 

the highest on record. 

The classification of membership is as follows : 

Royal Patron and Vice Patrons 4 

Honorary Members 2 

Free Members 5 

Corresponding Members '15 

Life Members 199 

Ordinary Members 801 

Total: 1,026

240 ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1964 

The Society also has 28 subscribers to its Journal and Natural 

History Bulletin. 

The financial position of the Society under the direction of our 

Honorary Treasurer, Mr. V.F. Hemmingsen, is sound as usual. 

The high item of expenditure in the foreseeable future is the 

construction cost of the Khamthieng Memorial, which has been put 

up in the Society's compound and will serve as an Ethnological 

Museum. The Council cannot but express its deep gratitude and 

appreciation to various donors for this project, and special mention 

must be made of the Asia Foundation which has been most generous 

in granting a further sum of Baht 10,000.00 for this purpose apart 

from the previous contribution of Baht 135,000.00 as reported last 

year. 

The Council also wishes to record its grateful appreciation for 

the following gifts: 

1 ) Palm-leave manuscripts with Bali incriptions presented 

by Mr. Kraisri Nimmanhaeminda to the Library; 

2 ) 203 copies of Siamese publications presented by H.S.H. 

Princess Poon Pisrnai Diskul; 

3 ) Cremation volumes presented by H.H. Prince Dhaninivat, 

Kromamun Bidyalabh; 

4 ) One complete set of Encyclopaedia Britannica-1947 Edition-presented 

by the British Council; 

5) 200 sheets of corrugated asbestos sheets presented by the 

Siam Cement Co., Ltd. for making fence; 

6 ) Bpi-Diascope Machine presented by the B. Grimm & Co.; 

and lastly cash donations from members totalling Baht 29,870.50. 

The Council takes this opportunity to announce that the John 

D. Rockefeller 3rd Fund has awarded a grant of U.S. $25,000.00 to 

the Siam Society to assist over a period of 3 years in the acquisition 

and installation of artifacts in the Khamthieng Memorial, the continuing 

development of the library, and the creation of an archive of 

the visual and performing arts of Thailand not already maintained in 

other cultural institutions in Siam. 

Meetings arranged by the Society during the year were as 

follows:

24th March 1964 

30th March 1965 

4th June 1965 

17th June 1965 

1st July 1965 

3rd July 1965 

15th July 1965 

11th August 1965 

27th August 1965 

8th October 1965 

ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1964 241 

Annual General Meeting and Lecture by Mr. 

W.A.R. Wood on the subject of "Old Tales 

Retold'' 

Film show of "The Mekhong Project" by the 

courtesy of the Shell Company of Thailand, Ltd. 

Lecture by His Highness Prince Prem Purachatra 

on the subject of "Introduction to Thai Literature" 

Lecture with showing of slides by Dr. Raiko 

Ruzic on the subject of "Precious Stone Deposits 

in Thailand" 

Lecture with showing of slides by Dr. Wilhelm 

G. Solheim II on the subject of "Thailand and 

South East Asian Prehistory" 

Lecture with showing of slides by Dr. Gunnar 

Seidenfaden on the subject of "Botanical Field 

Trip in North and Northeast Thailand" 

Lecture with showing of slides by Dr. Lucien 

M. Hanks and Dr. Lauriston Sharp on the subject 

of" Hill Peoples of Chiengrai" 

Lecture by Mr. Chun Pra bha vivadh on the subject 

of "In a Siamese Garden : A Cultural Interlude" 

Lecture with showing of slides by Dr. Peter 

Kunstadter on the subject of "The Lawa of the 

Northern Thailand Hills '' 

Lecture by His Highness Prince Hubertus Zu 

Lowenstein-Wertheim- Freudenberg on the 

subject of "Germany and Thailand- Their 

Spiritual and Cultural Relations" 

23rd December 1965 Lecture with showing of film by Dr. E.M. 

Nicholson on the subject of" The Conservation 

of Wild Life and National Forests and its Problems'' 

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• •

THE SIAM SOOIETY 

Under Royal Patronage 

Address: 131 Asoka Road. (Lane 21 ), Bangkapi; Bangkok. 

Telephone : 914401 

Central P.O. Box 65, Bangkok. 

OBJEOTS 

"The objects of the S~ciety 

shall be the investigation and 

encouragement of .Art, Science and Literature in relation to Thailand 

and the neighbouring countries.'' (From Rules of the .Siam So~iety, 

ArtiCle 2 ). . . 

SUBSORIPTION. 

The annual subscription for Ordinary Members is Baht 150 

which is payable in advance. There is also an entrance fee of 

Baht 150. . . 

Life membership fee is Baht 1,500. 

Applications for membership should be addressed to the 

Honorary Secretary, Central 'P.O. Box. 65, Bangkok. Application 

forms are also obtainable at the. Society's Home. 

APPLIOATIONS FOB OOPIES OF 'rHE JOURNAL 

Applications for copies ofthe Journal should be made to the 

Honorary Secretary. Purchase can be made at the Society's Home. 

LI.BRA:BY 

. The Library of the Society is open dni}y at the following .llours: 

Morning : . · 9.00~12.00 hours . . ' 

Afternoon: 14.00-19.00 hours . . 

The Library .is closed ~n Sa.turdayat,~oon arid on Sunday. 

Books may be conthtlted andbotto\Ve~.during ofl1ce hours ~nly. 

. Books borrowed froin.the Library-must be r.etumed within)m~ 

·month.. . . .. , · ..

:PUBLICATIONS OF THE SIAM SOCIETY 

L The Journal-per number 

The Journal- back numbers before 1946 

2. Index to theJour~'al, Volumes I to XXV 

3. Index to the Journal, Volumes XXVI to XL ••• 

4t Florae Siamensis Enumeratio-per number .•• 

5. The Natural History Bulletin- per number ••• 

6. John Black, F.R.G.S. : The Lofty Sanctuary of Khao Phra Vihar 

BEPJ.UNT VOLU~ES I-X 

7. The Commemorative. Publication issued on the occasion 

of the Society's 50th Anniversary : 

One set (Vols. I & II), cloth-bound ..... 

One set (Vols..I & II), paper~bound 

Vol. III, paper-bound, Early History ap.d Ayudhya 

Vol. IV, , , , Lophburi, Bangkok, Bhuket 

Vol.V, , , , Relationship with Burma Part 1 

Vol. VI, , ,. , Relationship with Burma Part Z, 

Vol. VII, , , , Relationship with Portugal, 

· Holland, and the Vatican 

Vol. VIII, , , , Relationship with France, 

England and Denn:iark 

, Vol. IX, , , , The Coinage of Siam 

Vol. X, , , , Studies of old Siamese Coins 

8. Erik Seidenfaden: The Tlw.i Peoples • • • • .• " •,• 

9. Charles. Nelson Spinks: The Ceramic Wares of Siam, 1965 

10. Gunnar· Seidenfaden and Tem SJnitina:nd: 

The. Orchids of Thailand: ·A ;preliminary List, 1959, Part I 

Pa.rt II, 1 

Part II, 2 

Part Ill 

11. Monograph, No. 1 Gordon Young; The Hill Tribes of • 

Northern Thailand, 2nd·; ed: 1962 

12. Monograph, No .. 2 RR.H; Prince. Damrong Raja11tJ,bhab; . . . 

· 1 A History of Buddhist Monl.li)lents in· Siam ill. 1962 

•• flo 

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The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LIII, Part 1-2, 1965 - Khamkoo

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