the origin and spread of a thai concept of power

Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

16(1): 152–194 Copyright 2002 by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies,

Northern Illinois University

THE VESSANTARA JATAKA, BARAMI, AND THE BODHISATTA-KINGS:

The Origin and Spread of a Thai Concept of Power Patrick Jory ∗∗∗∗

Pre–modern Thai literary traditions contain little that can be thought of in conventional terms as “political” theory. We will revisit this line of inquiry by examining the relatively neglected concept of barami (“moral perfection”, “virtue”, “charisma”), its origins in Theravada Buddhist discourse, and the manner of its popularization in premodern Thai culture.

Often translated in English as “charisma”, a number of Thai scholars have identified barami as a key term in Thai discourses about power. Although studies of traditional Thai political culture have been able to identify in the Theravada Buddhist tradition important relationships between morality, spiritual attainment, and power,1 the cultural historian Nidhi Aeusrivongse was one of the first to make use of the term in his studies of premodern Thai politics (Nidhi 1980; 1986). In his history of the reign of King Taksin, Nidhi attempts to theorize a Thai concept of power by coining his own term, “anabarami.” Nidhi offers an English translation of anabarami in parentheses as “charisma”, the term popularized by Weber’s studies of political forms in premodern society (1986). Kobkua Suwannathat-Pian is another Thai scholar who is attracted to a more indigenous conceptual vocabulary. In her English, language study of Thai-Malay relations prior to the twentieth century, Kobkua rejects the political notions of Western theorists such as Locke, Hobbes, and Rousseau as inadequate for

∗ Dr. Patrick Jory is a Lecturer at the Department of Asian Studies, University of Western Australia. 1 Of these, Hanks’ widely influential anthropological study, “Merit and Power in the Thai Social Order” is one of the most important (Hanks 1962). Another is Gesick’s examination of Buddhist kingship in the reign of King Taksin, in which Hanks’ influence is evident (Gesick 1983).

The Vessantara Jataka, Barami, and the Bodhisatta-Kings

Crossroads 16:1 153

the explanation of premodern Southeast Asian intra-regional relations. She makes frequent references to the notion of barami, which she describes as “charismatic power” or “meritorious prestige” (Kobkua 1988). The political scientist Likhit Dhiravegin has also made use of the concept of barami. The difference in Likhit’s work is that he has applied the concept to the study of contemporary Thai politics. Likhit’s description of barami (albeit confined to footnotes—perhaps a reflection of the Western-trained political scientist’s reticence to emphasize non-Western political theory) is “a Thai version of charisma” (Likhit 1992: 59, 191).

Less attention has been given, however, to the origins of the term barami, and moreover, the means by which it came to influence Thai political discourses. Derived from the Pali word parami, the term is rooted in a Theravada Buddhist scriptural tradition in which a Buddha-to-be (Pali bodhisatta) vowed to “accumulate” ten kinds of barami in order to achieve the state of moral and spiritual “Perfection” that enabled the attainment of enlightenment and Buddhahood. The Ten Perfections (Thai thotsabarami) comprise the Perfections of Giving, Moral Conduct, Renunciation, Wisdom, Energy, Patience, Truthfulness, Resolution, Loving-Kindness, and Equanimity.2 This “theory of the Perfections” is developed in considerable detail in such Pali canonical works as the Buddhavamsa and the Cariyapitaka, as well as in the semi-canonical but far more popular Jatakas—the stories of the previous lives of the Buddha.

Of all the Jatakas it was the Vessantara Jataka, that was regarded among the Thai, the Lao and other Theravada Buddhist Tai as the most sacred of all, since it was held to be the story of the bodhisatta’s penultimate incarnation.3 In this story the bodhisatta, born as Prince Vessantara, gives away all he possesses—his wealth, kingdom, children, and wife—and in doing so attains the “Perfection of Giving.” For centuries the

2 Princess Sirindhorn’s Thotsabarami nai phutthasatsana Therawat (The Ten Perfections in Theravada Buddhism) is the most thorough treatment of the term’s usage and various meanings throughout the Pali and Thai literature of Thailand’s Theravada Buddhist tradition (Sirindhorn 1982). 3 Recitation texts of the Vessantara Jataka are particularly prominent in the manuscript collection catalogues cited above. For example, in the Raichu nangsu boran Lanna there are over four hundred manuscript versons of the story, more than any other single story in the catalog.

Patrick Jory

154 Crossroads 16:1

Vessantara Jataka was presented to popular audiences in an annual vernacular recitation known in Thai as Thet Mahachat, or the “Sermon about the Great Life.” In the Theravada Buddhist-Tai world this story of the future Buddha was also read as the exemplary story of the Buddhist ruler. This association between the Vessantara Jataka and Thai rulers can be traced back as early as the Sukhothai period, but it is in the early Bangkok period that the status of the Vessantara Jataka as one of the key texts expressing the “political ideology” of the Thai kingdom can be seen most clearly. In this period the kingdom’s rulers, modeling themselves on the bodhisatta-king, consciously made use of the story to promote the idea that barami was inherent in the royal line itself, conflating the genealogy of the Buddha with that of the ruling dynasty.

The Jatakas have long been in the shadow of other Buddhist scriptures despite their popularity in premodern Theravada Buddhist culture. They are typically regarded in mainstream scholarship as little more than folktales or Buddhist parables. It is the aim of this article to show that the Vessantara Jataka was one of the most important texts in the premodern Thai State for the expression and dissemination of a political theory based on the concept of barami and the exemplary figure of the bodhisatta-king. The Vessantara Jataka Within “Great Lineage” History An essential element of the exemplary force that the Vessantara Jataka had for Thai rulers was its special place in a broad framework of Buddhist historiography that explained both the origins of the Buddha and the origins of the Thai rulers themselves. I have termed this narrative “Great Lineage” history on the basis of its derivation from the fifth century Sinhalese chronicle the Mahavamsa. This “Great Lineage” tradition4 traces the origins of the Buddha back in time four asankheyyas (literally, incalculable periods of time) and one hundred thousand kappas (“aeons”, or “world cycles”5) ago. Such narratives customarily commence with the vow made at that

4 The Pali works on which this tradition was based include the canonical works Buddhavamsa and Cariyapitaka, as well as the the Nidanakatha, the introduction to the Jataka Commentary. 5 One kappa is the length of time in which the world is created, decays, and ends, with the process repeating itelf in the next kappa, and so on.


Crossroads 16:1 155

time by a brahman named Sumedha at the feet of the Buddha of that age, Dipankara, that he would himself one day become a Buddha. This Buddha prophesied that Sumedha’s vow would be fulfilled four asankheyyas and one hundred thousand kappas later. With this vow, Sumedha assumed the status of a bodhisatta and began the task of accumulating the Ten Perfections. Over an immense period of time there appeared a further twenty-three Buddhas6 before the bodhisatta was finally reborn as Gotama Buddha. It is as Gotama Buddha that the bodhisatta, originally the Brahman Sumedha, was finally enlightened (Nidanakatha in The Story of Gotama Buddha 1990: 3-57).7

Before his rebirth as Gotama Buddha the bodhisatta is incarnated countless times, including incarnations during the lifetimes of each of the twenty-three Buddhas. The Jataka Commentary records five hundred and fifty of the bodhisatta’s incarnations. The Vessantara Jataka, the last Jataka in this work, is the story of the bodhisatta’s last incarnation before enlightenment, and as such is the culmination of his “career” as a bodhisatta. This, then, is the reason for the Vessantara Jataka’s key position in premodern narratives of the origins of the Buddha. As the historian Nidhi Aeusrivongse has shown, traditional Thai accounts of the Buddha’s origins followed this narrative in emphasizing the progress of the bodhisatta over the details of Gotama Buddha’s life (Nidhi 1984b: 374-418). In fact, his study shows that before the Bangkok period Buddhist chronicles paid remarkably little attention to the actual life of the founder of the religion, the Buddha himself. These texts Nidhi terms “dhamma histories” (thammaprawat), since they place less emphasis on the actual person of the Buddha than they do on the Buddha as a “principle of the dhamma” (Nidhi 1984b: 381). These widely popular Buddhist historical narratives include such works as the Chinamahanithan (The Great Story of the Victory) (1987) and the Phrapathomsomphotikatha (The Story of the First Enlightenment) (Paramanuchit 1962). The emphasis in these “dhamma histories” is on the bodhisatta’s accumulation of the Perfections. The dhamma histories always give special mention

6 The Nidanakatha includes a detailed list of the names of these Buddhas and the times at which they appear. 7 For an edited Thai MS version of the Nidanakatha see Chadok atthakatha 1976.

Patrick Jory

156 Crossroads 16:1

to the incarnation as Vessantara and the achievement of the Perfection of Giving, treating it as a decisive moment in the progress of the bodhisatta. In his next life, when he is on the verge of enlightenment, the bodhisatta is said to have responded to a challenge from the demon Mara by “calling the earth to witness” his achievement of the Perfection of Giving in his previous incarnation as Vessantara. The earth responded by quaking in affirmation, thus putting Mara and his army to flight (Nidanakatha in The Story of Gotama Buddha 1990: 98; Chinamahanithan 1987: 96; Paramanuchit Chinorot 1962: 180-1). Thus the bodhisatta’s story as told in the Jatakas, and in particular the Vessantara Jataka, would seem to have been inseparable from the life of the Buddha in Thai religious thinking of the time (Nidhi 1984b: 180-1).

Early Western accounts of the life of the Buddha derived from Thai informants rather than textual sources generally correspond to the dhamma histories despite some differences in details. The late seventeenth-century French missionary Gervaise who had spent four years in Siam gave an account of “the Buddha’s life” that mentioned the Buddha’s previous incarnations, the donation of all his possessions to the poor, and even the gift of one of his eyes as alms - all elements derived from the Jatakas.8 Another seventeenth-century account this one by de la Loubère, French envoy to the Siamese court in 1687-1688, includes the story that “the Buddha” gave his estate in alms, plucked out his eyes, and slaughtered his wife and children to give to an ascetic to eat; the latter is a curious perversion of the Vessantara Jataka that may have arisen from a misunderstanding of the word than, which can mean both “alms” and “to eat” (Nidhi 1984b: 386; de la Loubère 1986: 136).

Father Tachard, a Jesuit priest who had spent some time at the court of King Narai (r. 1656-1688) (Tachard 1981) published a third account in 1686. Tachard’s account says that “the Buddha” returned to the world five hundred and fifty times (this is the number of stories in the Jataka Commentary, not the number of incarnations, which was much greater). As with

8 The story of “the Buddha’s” giving away of all his possesions probably derives from the Vessantara Jataka (Nidhi 1984b: 385), and the donation of one of his eyes comes from the Sivi Jataka. See Gervaise 1989: Ch. 4.


Crossroads 16:1 157

Gervaise and de la Loubére, Tachard’s version of the Buddha’s life included many elements drawn from the Vessantara and other Jataka tales. For example, it mentions “the Buddha’s” renunciation of worldly life and retirement to the wilderness with his wife and children, where, having fully extinguished his passions, he was able to restrain himself while a brahmin took away his son and daughter and tormented them before his eyes. Tachard’s account also mentions the Buddha giving away his wife to a poor man begging for alms, putting out his own eyes and giving of his own flesh to be distributed among the beasts—a mixture of incidents derived from the Vessantara and various other Jataka stories (Tachard 1981: 291-2).9 Tachard attests to the widespread popularity of such Jataka-based themes, ob-serving that these feats “are the rare actions which the talapoins [monks] in their Sermons propose to the people for imitation, and the examples they make use of to incline them to virtue” (Tachard 1981: 291-2).

This theme of the progress of the bodhisatta was not restricted to merely describing the origins of the Buddha. It also informed the chronicle traditions that described the origins of Theravada Buddhist kings and ruling houses throughout mainland Southeast Asia, as these chronicles incorporated the bodhisatta’s progress into the genealogy or lineage (Thai wong Pali vamsa) of contemporary kings and rulers.10 The prototype of this historiographical genre was the famous fifth-century Sinhalese chronicle, the Mahavamsa. “Mahavamsa” literally means “great lineage,” by which is meant the lineage from which the Buddha had descended, and of which the Sinhalese kings were the heirs. The Mahavamsa begins with the narrative of the bodhisatta’s progress starting from his vow as the brahman Sumedha, then goes on to present the bodhisatta’s lin-eage in the present “world cycle” known as the bhadarakappa. The progenitor of the lineage is a figure named Maha Sammata, the first king of the present era (bhadarakappa) and an incarnation of this same bodhisatta, who would eventually become Gotama Buddha (The Mahavamsa 1964: 10-13; “Khamphi mahawong” 1991: 52). According to the text, King Maha Sammata’s royal descendants are numbered in the

9 These incidents appear to derive from the Vessantara Jataka, the Sivi Jataka and the Sasapandit Jataka, respectively. 10 On the integration of the Buddha into the Thai chronicle tradition, see Tambiah 1984: 119-23.

Patrick Jory

158 Crossroads 16:1

hundreds of thousands, though only the most notable are referred to by name. This lineage continues down to the Sakya family, into which the Buddha was born. Many of the kings mentioned in the Mahavamsa are also recorded in the Jatakas, including incarnations of the bodhisatta himself such as King Nimi of the King Nimi Jataka, Mahasudassana of the Mahasudassana Jataka, and most importantly, Vessantara himself.11 Thus both the Mahavamsa and the Jatakas gave Vessantara a central place in the genealogy of the Buddha. Furthermore, by extending the Buddha’s lineage down to the present time, “Great Lineage” history also made Vessantara an ancestor of contemporary kings. The lineage of the original Mahavamsa had ended with the Sinhalese kings. When writing their own chronicles, later rulers and ruling houses throughout Theravada Buddhist Southeast Asia merely appended their dynastic lineages onto this “great lineage,” thereby fusing the origins of the present king with those of the Buddha and Vessantara, tracing their lineage all the way back to Maha Sammata, the original king of the present world cycle (bhadarakappa). This historiographical device is found in the chronicles not only of the Thai kings but also the Burmese, Lao, Khmer, and other rulers in areas where Theravada Buddhist culture dominated and the bodhisatta kingship ideal prevailed. To demonstrate their membership of this lineage and hence their royal legitimacy, Thai kings in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries claimed the title of sommutiwong or mahasommutiwong, meaning literally “of the lineage of Maha Sammata”—a frequently used epithet of Prince Vessantara in the Thai version of Vessantara Jataka (MWC13K 1988). Not only was the king himself perceived as having descended from the bodhisatta king Maha Sammata, but the Pali code of law inherited from the Mon and in use both at the courts of the Burmese and the Thai, the dhammasattham (Thai thammasat),

11 Among the other figures in the Maha Sammata lineage to which there are references in the Jatakas are Mucalinda, Roja, Sakara, Bharata, Angirasa, Suruci, Mahapatapa, Panada, Kalarajanaka, Okkaka, and Kusa (from Cowell 1957). The clear relation between the historical conception of the Jatakas and the Mahavamsa (and the “great lineage” genre of historiography to which it gave birth) is partly explained by the fact that the Mahavamsa and Jataka Commentary were originally compiled at roughly the same time and place, the Sinhalese island-kingdom in the fifth century A.D.


Crossroads 16:1 159

stated in its preamble that Manu, the figure credited with having been the original source of the law, was actually a minister in the service of Maha Sammata (Tambiah 1976: 93-4; “Phra Thammasat” 1962: 1-41). The authority of a code of law originating from the rule of the first king Maha Sammata could be and indeed was cited, as in the case of King Rama III when he justified the crown’s taxing powers as having derived from royal custom since Maha Sammata (Atthachak 1988: 46). The “Great Lineage” genre seems to have been particularly popular at the court of King Rama I, who had the Mahavamsa translated into Thai in 1797. During his reign another well-known “Great Lineage” history was translated from Pali into Thai, this one the sixteenth century chronicle of the Northern kingdoms known as the Chinakalamalipakorn (Ratana–pany–athera 1974: 12-13). In addition to the translation of these works, the reign of Rama I saw the composition of a new work in this same genre. This was the Sangitiyavamsa, a chronicle of the Buddhist Councils and recensions of the Tipitaka. A senior monk compiled it shortly after Rama I had convened his own Council to produce yet another recession of the Tipitaka. Many histories of Northern and Northeastern Tai kingdoms and principalities were also composed in this genre, including the sixteenth century chronicle Tamnan Munlasatsana (The Story of the Origin of the Religion) (1976), the Tamnan Phun Muang Chiang Mai (The Chronicle of the City of Chiang Mai) (1971), the Tamnan Sipha Ratchawong (The Chronicle of the Fifteen Dynasties) (1981), the Tamnan Muang Suwannakhomkham (The Chronicle of Suwannakhomkham City) (1969: 129ff.), the so-called “Sinhanavati Chronicle” (1926: 141-2),12 and the Ratchawong Pakorn (The Book of the Dynasty), the chronicle of the rulers of the principality of Nan (1964: 188ff). “Relic histories” such as the Tamnan Phra That Haripunchai and the Tamnan Phra That Doi Suthep are also written within the “Great Lineage” historiographical framework (Prachum Tamnan Phrathat 1970: 28-9, 139). Finally, the “Great Lineage” story line can even be found in cosmological treatises such as the Traiphumilokwinitchai (1977: 69-72), also composed at the court of Rama I, the Pali Lokathipakasan

12 See also the “Chronique de Xieng Mai” (1932: 7ff), which includes Vessantara in the “Samantaraja” dynasty, another name for the Maha Sammata lineage.

Patrick Jory

160 Crossroads 16:1

(1986: 54-5) and the Pathomamulamuli (Tamnan Khao Phi Lanna...1991),13 the latter a work widely known throughout the Northern and Northeastern regions of the kingdom. One of the distinctive characteristics of the “Great Lineage” histories was that the lineages whose history they related were based only partly on dynastic ties. The literally hundreds of thousands of kings included in the lineage were drawn from many different dynasties, polities, and geographical areas covering a region stretching from modern day northern India, to Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and parts of Thailand, all of whom were nevertheless regarded as being of the same lineage, of which present kings were the descendants. The principle for inclusion in the lineage was not blood but rather what could be termed “ties of incarnation.” The Buddha was related to Vessantara, Nimi, Mahasudassana and other kings of the “Great Lineage” in that as a bodhisatta he had previously been incarnated as these figures. “Great Lineage” history, therefore, allowed contemporary kings to use to their advantage the same kind of lineal relationship to great kings of the past, to whom they were unrelated by blood.

One advantage of “Great Lineage” history over dynastic history was that it could smooth over dynastic discontinuities, which might otherwise have threatened the legitimacy of a king or a ruling house. For example, during the Ayuthayan period when “Great Lineage” historiography dominated, dynastic or blood relations were no firm guarantees of royal legitimacy. Indeed, the Ayuthaya kingdom experienced six dynastic changes in four hundred years and many bloody coups. A person’s barami was the basis of his claim to the throne, just as his alleged lack of barami would be the rallying call of his enemies when he was to be deposed (Nidhi 1980: 52, 64-5; Atthachak 1988: 29, 80-4). The same lack of a strong dynastic principle characterized the kingdoms and principalities to the north and

13 The Pathomamulamuli clearly shows the structural importance of the Vessantara Jataka in premodern representations of the history of Buddhism. Before the text narrates the circumstances of the Buddha’s preaching of the Pathomamulamuli and the cosmography itself, it relates how “[a]fter he had achieved his earthly life as Prince Vessantara our Eminent and Precious Bodhisatva was born again in Tusita heaven where he lived four thousand celestial years. He thus came down unto the earth and was reincarnated in the womb of Queen Sri Mahamaya...” (Tamnan khao phi Lanna...1991: 193; Yuan version: 10; Thai version: 11).


Crossroads 16:1 161

northeast of Ayuthaya, and it was also evident in the political discontinuities between the old kingdom of Ayuthaya and the new kingdom based in Bangkok. The Chakri generals who made no pretense of any claim of dynastic ties to the rulers of the kingdom of Ayuthaya forcibly seized the kingdom established by Taksin at Thonburi.

The notion of legitimacy based on the king’s (or pretender’s) own barami was given further encouragement by the example of King Maha Sammata, who, according to canonical scripture, had been chosen by the people because of his status as a bodhisatta, rather than acceding to power through dynastic birthright (“Phra Thammasat” 1962: 10). While providing some flexibility in the choice of a new king, this canonical precedent was a recipe for political instability, since any leader who could convince others that he had the qualities of a bodhisatta and the right to rule could exploit it. Such figures, known variously as phu mi bun, phu wiset, ton bun, or thammikarat (common epithets used for Vessantara and other incarnations of the bodhisatta in Thai versions of Jatakas texts), have appeared regularly in Thai history, particularly during periods of great crisis and social disorder, such as that immediately following the fall of Ayuthaya in 1767 (Nidhi 1986: 64ff), and such as that in the Lao speaking regions of the Thai kingdom and French Laos in 1901-2 (Ishii 1975: 121-26; Keyes 1977: 283-302).

The phu mi bun (“person who has merit”) and the bodhisatta are based on the same concept: both terms refer to leader-heroes whose authority derives from their practices of self-perfection, or, using the language of the Jatakas, their “accumulation of barami.” While phu mi bun was the term used, often pejoratively in Thai court documents, for local ascetic figures whom sometimes became leaders of revolts, the term bodhisatta was almost always associated with “legitimate” royalty.

“Great Lineage” history’s fusion of a ruler’s origins with those of the Buddha has important implications for the relationship between ‘Buddhist history’ and political history in premodern Theravada Buddhist polities. Scholars who have studied “Great Lineage” histories commonly characterize them as “Buddhist history.”14 However, these histories indicate that the writers, patrons, and “audiences” of such narratives

14 See for example, Charnvit 1976: 1-11; Wyatt 1976; and Dhida 1982.

Patrick Jory

162 Crossroads 16:1

perceived no separation between religious and political history, because the genealogy of the Buddha was also the genealogy of the king. These notions were so strong that in the late seventeenth century Western visitors to the Kingdom of Ayuthaya noted the popular belief that the Buddha had been a “Siamese” king, and had even founded the Siamese kingdom (Gervaise 1989: 140; van Vliet 1975: 55). Bowring encountered a similar belief in 1855, when he noted in the record of his visit to Siam that, “The Siamese group their earliest ancestors around the first disciples of Buddha (Gaudama) and begin their annals about five centuries before the Christian era...” (Bowring 1975: 35). The Vessantara Jataka and the Thai Court In the Early Bangkok Era I have argued above that within the framework of “Great Lineage” historiography that the Vessantara Jataka occupied a special position. Let us turn our attention now to how Thai kings in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries gave special privilege to this particular Jataka story in the ceremonial life of the Thai court and in the education of princes and nobles. When the first ruler of the new Chakri dynasty moved the kingdom’s capital to Bangkok in 1782 he established as the dynasty’s palladium the Emerald Buddha, which had been captured from the Lao at Vientiane in 1778 and would now be housed within a specially constructed temple located within the Grand Palace, the residence of the king. One of the image’s ti-tles, ratanakosin (or “India’s Jewel”) would come to signify both the new dynasty and indeed the new state it ruled.15 Under the early Chakri rulers, this central icon of the Thai state also became intimately associated with the Vessantara Jataka. Beginning in the reign of Rama II (r. 1809-1824) if not earlier, during the first three days of the three-month Buddhist Rains Retreat (khao phansa), the customary time for Buddhist ordination, a court version of the Vessantara Jataka would be chanted in the Temple of the Emerald Buddha before the sacred image by a team specially trained in the melodies and rhythms of the chant (Chulalongkorn 1971: 520-29). This annual custom

15 For example, the chronicle of this king’s was titled Phra ratchaphongsawadan Krung ratanakosin ratchakan thi 1, [The Royal Chronicle of the First Reign of the Ratanakosin Kingdom.]


Crossroads 16:1 163

survives to this day.16 The text that is chanted in this ceremony is the Mahachat Kham Luang, which was supposedly composed by King Boromatrailokanat, the fifteenth-century Ayuthayan king who laid the foundations of the Ayuthayan state. The chronicles mention that in 1812 under Rama II six “chapters” (Thai kan) of the text disappeared after the 1767 fall of Ayuthaya, but in 1812 they were rewritten by royal command, so that the complete text could be recited at the ceremony in the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (PRPR2 1962: 197-8). This retelling of the story of the Buddha’s penultimate life, at the symbolic heart of Buddhist kingdom, in front of the kingdom’s most sacred Buddha image and with the most senior aristocracy, monks and court officials of the Thai kingdom in attendance, suggests that the occasion had great political significance. It took place during the Rains Retreat, a period symbolic of worldly renunciation and the most sacred and potent time of the seasonal cycle. The location, timing, and audience all augmented the authority of the message being communicated among the elite. Prince Vessantara was a Buddhist ruler whose activities in his worldly life were both a product of and means of his preparation for future Buddhahood. The chanting of the story thus publicized among the Thai elite this ideal of Buddhist authority, while appropriating it as legitimization for their own rulers, for by association it helped to affirm the Thai ruler himself as a bodhisatta king, or future Buddha. Royal Thet Mahachat ceremonies were not only a court affair but were also oriented towards the general public. The ceremonies were always extremely ostentatious affairs, occasions for great displays of “alms” giving (Thai than) which, as the Vessantara Jataka taught, was the principle path to Buddhahood—as well as to the royal throne. The Royal Chronicle of the First Reign records a particularly spectacular Thet Mahachat in 1807 in which thirteen giant baskets (krachat), 33 feet wide and 47 feet high, one for each of the thirteen “chapters” (kan) of the story, were set up in public outside the royal palace to receive alms (Gerini 1892: 32-3). Besides the great gifts of alms presented by the king, other alms-

16 Today the story is recited on the first three days, the middle three days, and the final three days of the Rains Retreat (interview with one of the chanters, Temple of the Emerald Buddha, 11 October 1992).

Patrick Jory

164 Crossroads 16:1

givers competed among themselves to make the most munificent offering. One of the king’s senior consorts actually presented a child to the monks, in imitation of Vessantara’s gift of his children to the Brahman (Thipakorawong 1983: 205). Honorary offerings had also been sent by Siam’s tributaries, with the rulers of the Malay, Cambodian, and Lao states sending the traditional symbols of tributary submission, the gold and silver trees (Gerini 1892: 33). The involvement of not only the king and the palace but also the king’s tributary vassals and the people of the royal capital made the Thet Mahachat a state occasion. Accounts of other royal Thet Mahachat ceremonies reveal the same ostentatious character. On one occasion during the reign of King Mongkut, a life-sized Chinese junk was erected outside the walls of the Grand Palace, with great multi-tiered alms baskets set on its deck in place of the masts (Gerini 1892: 30). In 1891, under King Chulalongkorn, an even bigger Chinese junk was erected to receive offerings of alms (Gerini 1892: 31). The fact that the alms-giving activities were located outside the walls of the Grand Palace is a further indication of the public and expressive nature of the occasion. These junks were not only symbols of the kingdom’s external trade upon which much of the monarchy’s wealth and power depended, but they also alluded to the powerful metaphor contained in the Vessantara Jataka, that the act of giving was a vessel that would carry the giver to the other shore—Nirvana. Vessantara uses this metaphor when he explains to his son Chali why he must give him to the Brahman.

My son, do you not know that your father is determined in his desire for enlightenment? That he wishes to help all living things to cross over the great sea of Becoming To the other side This is the hardest sea to cross... Your father regards you two children As the great golden boat... which will steadfastly sail me to the bejeweled city The timeless, great land of Nirvana (MWC13K 1988: 210-12).

One has only to think of the economic importance of the junk trade to the early Bangkok kings to see how powerful the


Crossroads 16:1 165

association of the boat as a means of salvation was to the early Bangkok merchant kings.17 King Rama III, who had amassed great wealth from the junk trade actually constructed (or restored) a temple, Wat Yannawa, which had a life-sized junk situated inside the temple grounds. The junk housed two cetiya, or receptacles of relics of the Buddha. At the stern of the boat there were statues of Vessantara, and his two children, Kanha and Chali.18 On the inside walls of the junk was inscribed the text of the Vessantara Jataka (Atchara 1986: 32 n.2; Prawat wat 1986: 276). This curious association of signs points to a link between, on the one hand, the theme of giving in the Vessantara Jataka, which showed that the activity of giving was both a means of attaining royal power as well as an essential activity of the good ruler for the well-being of his subjects; and on the other, the king’s conduct of trade and commerce, which had a similar effect of bringing wealth and power to rulers and prosperity to the kingdom. The Vessantara Jataka’s ideal of the king as the greatest giver in the kingdom thus provided ideological justification for the acquisition of wealth. For the early Bangkok kings the junk trade was the means by which they were able to accumulate such large amounts of wealth, thus fulfilling the ideal of the Theravada Buddhist ruler so widely disseminated by the Vessantara Jataka.

Rama I’s Thet Mahachat ceremony seems to have been the model for such performances of the Vessantara Jataka held by later kings of the Chakri dynasty. The royal chronicles record a number of particularly grand Thet Mahachat performances, such as that of 1851, the year of his coming to the throne, when King Mongkut organized a Thet Mahachat ceremony of similar proportions to that of his grandfather Rama I, in honor of the first three kings of the Chakri dynasty (Thiphakorawong 1978: 77-80). The Thet Mahachat was also performed at the so-called “Front Palace” (wang na), the palace of the Prince who traditionally had direct responsibility for the kingdom’s defense,

17 Nidhi has pointed out that Chao Phraya Phra Khlang (Hon), a poet who was head of the royal treasury at the court of King Rama I, describes the boat as a Chinese junk in his version of this chapter of the Vessantara Jataka. The intimacy of the description no doubt reflected the poet’s own close association with the junk trade during this period (Nidhi 1984a: 320-1). 18 These statues are said to have been destroyed by Allied bombing raids over Bangkok during World War II (Damrong 1991: 42).

Patrick Jory

166 Crossroads 16:1

who often inherited the throne of the king proper (wang luang), and whose status in the kingdom was such that he was often referred to by the foreign community (mistakenly) as the “Second King.” The “Front Palace Prince” during the Fourth Reign, Pin Klao, (whose royal title showed him to be of equal status with the king proper, Mongkut), was reputed to be a skilled reciter of the Vessantara Jataka, and he even personally instructed those who wished to learn its intricate rhythms and melodies (Thiphawan 1978: 63). Again we see the clear association between the Vessantara Jataka and kings—or would-be kings.

Knowledge of the story—and public demonstration of this knowledge—by would-be kings was ritualized by the Thai court. At least by the Second Reign (1809-1824) a custom had been established whereby the presumed heir to the throne would enter the monkshood as a novice, during which time he would memorize and recite in front of an audience a chapter (kan) from the Maha Chat. In 1817 the novice Prince Mongkut, at the time technically first in line to the throne, recited the chapter Kan Matsi to his father, King Rama II (Damrong 1962: 17). Later, Prince Chetsadabodin, Mongkut’s half-brother who ascended the throne ahead of Mongkut as Rama III, also invited the young Mongkut to recite at an elaborate Thet Mahachat ceremony held at his palace. After Mongkut became king as Rama IV, he had his son and chosen successor, the young Chulalongkorn, recite a version of the chapter Sakkabap Kan, which Mongkut had himself composed specially for the occasion (Damrong 1988: 54-5; Chulalongkorn 1971:75). In 1891 King Chulalongkorn, in turn, had his son, the Crown Prince Wachirunhit, also recite the same chapter (Gerini 1892: 31).19 After Wachirunhit’s untimely death the new Crown Prince, Wachirawut (Vajiravudh), who later became King Rama VI, also trained to give a recital, though the actual performance was prevented by his departure to study in England (Damrong 1965: i- ii ). By the Fourth Reign the custom of reciting a chapter from the Mahachat was extended to all young males of the aristocracy and nobility. Special teachers would train the princes in the vocal art of the story’s recitation (MCR4 1965: i). Indeed

19 The rank “Crown Prince” had been newly created by Chulalongkorn after the British model, in order to minimize the potential of political instability in the royal succession.


Crossroads 16:1 167

the custom became so popular during the Fourth and Fifth Reigns (1851-1910) that almost every prince of the somdet phrachao luk thoe and phrachao luk thoe rank (mostly Mongkut’s sons) recited a chapter while serving as novices, using King Mongkut’s own version of the Vessantara Jataka. The young men who performed these recitations included many who would someday be among the highest ranking members of the Fifth Reign’s court, including Damrong himself, Sangha head Prince Patriarch Wachirayan, Foreign Minister Thewawong (Devawongse), the king’s Private Secretary Sommut Amoraphan, Narathip Praphanphong, Naritsaranu–watti–wong, Phichitprichakorn, Phanuphanthuwongworadet, and many others (MCR4 1965: i-ii ; MCPC 1918: 27-9). Oral performance of the Thet Mahachat as an integral part of the aristocratic education helped emphasize the connection between the Vessantara Jataka and the moral authority of the Thai ruler. The early Bangkok period was the golden age for the composition of recitation versions of the Vessantara Jataka at the Thai court. Court poets competed to compose the most beautiful versions of the story—that is, versions that would be recited in the most pleasing manner—while keeping close to the structure and meaning of the Pali original. Because the Thet Mahachat was a performance, the aesthetic of the performance was highly valued. Poets whose compositions are now considered classics of the Thai language include Chaophraya Phra Khlang (Hon), who was Rama I’s minister in charge of Trade and Foreign Affairs and a poet of great repute, Prince-Patriarch Paramanuchit, head of the Sangha in the Third Reign, Phra Thepmoli (Klin), another senior monk, and King Mongkut himself. Let us now look more closely at the moral code and view of kingship promoted by the Vessantara Jataka and how it supported the model of political authority in the Thai kingdom. Thai Monarchs and the Ten Perfections As a number of scholars have shown, prior to the mid-nineteenth century Thai kings were not only directly referred to as bodhisattas (future Buddhas), but were represented in court documents as possessing qualities similar to those of the bodhisatta (Tambiah 1976; Nidhi 1980: 50-65; Nidhi 1986: 114-6; Atchara 1980; Saichon 1982; Phimphada and Suwadi 1986; Sirindhorn 1982). The lengthy and elaborate names that kings assumed on their enthronement often included the title nor

Patrick Jory

168 Crossroads 16:1

phutthangkun, maha phutthankun, or nor somdet phraphutthachao, meaning “one who will in the future become a Buddha”—the same appellation of the bodhisatta in the Vessantara Jataka.20 In addition, the kings were depicted as being committed to the accumulation of the Ten Perfections, or barami, in the same way as Gotama Buddha had done in his previous incarnations as a bodhisatta. In performing meritorious deeds Thai kings were said to phoem phrabarami, sang phrabarami, or bamphen barami—all referring to the act of increasing their barami, or Perfections, in the hope of attaining enlightenment at some time in the future, and thereby delivering all living beings from suffering.21 King Taksin was praised by sections of his clergy for his accumulation of the ten kinds of barami, after the model of the Buddha’s own accumulation of the ten barami during his existence as a bodhisatta (Saichon 1982: 186). Of the two Chakri brothers who established the Chakri dynasty under Rama I, a First Reign chronicler wrote that

There were two royal kings who had previously resided in Ayuthaya. They were bodhisattas, future Buddhas. They possessed much bunya barami, which they had accumulated [from previous incarnations]. They were men of great faith and wisdom. They desired only enlightenment... (Wanarat 1978: 424)

According to the chronicles of the time it was the power of the kings’ accumulated barami (usually expressed by the phrase, duai decha phrabarami) that enabled them to defeat their enemies and to perform supernatural feats, such as causing the rain to fall or the earth to quake. Such manifestations of royal power are commonly recorded in historical works written from the late eighteenth up to the mid-nineteenth centuries. For example, among the many miraculous royal feats recorded by the Royal Chronicle of Thonburi, King Taksin is depicted as using the power of his barami to calm a storm that threatened his fleet (PRPKT 1969: 41). The same chronicle’s account of

20 See MWC13K 1988. For the names of the first three kings of the Chakri dynasty, each of which includes the title maha phutthangun, see Somphong 1964: 613-616. 21 Another phrase of similar meaning commonly found in these works is sang phothisomphan.


Crossroads 16:1 169

the king’s campaign to oust the Burmese from Chiang Mai records that

When the king moved the royal army [to Chiang Mai] the Burmese army fled. It was a miracle. The Burmese army had fled because of the power of the king’s barami. The monks of Chiang Mai said that on the morning of the king’s arrival a miracle occurred when the earth quaked in Chiang Mai city (PRKT 1969: 64).

In some cases the notion of kings as bodhisatta was made explicit. In a passage from another early nineteenth–century account, King Rama I’s accession to the throne in 1782 is likened to the bodhisatta’s defeat of Mara (the embodiment of evil and delusion) through the power of his barami (Chotmaihet 1983: 12, 185). The same metaphor is also used in a late eighteenth-century chronicle describing King Naresuan’s famous victory over the Burmese Uparacha in 1593: the Uparacha is represented as Mara and Naresuan as the bodhisatta (Sunait 1992: 92; PRPCP 1969: 252-3). This metaphor is a particularly effective one as the image of the defeat or subduing of Mara (drawn from texts on the progress of the bodhisatta) is probably the best known of all images in Theravada Buddhism and is often depicted graphically on the walls of temples. Political relationships were also phrased using the language derived from the theory of the king’s Perfections. Princes or vassals who submitted to the overlordship of the king were said to phung phrabarami, or “to come under the protection” of the king’s barami. Enemies of the king were said not to “believe in” the king’s barami, while defeated armies are depicted as being unable to stand up to the king’s barami. The king’s barami was also reflected in the kingdom’s prosperity. If famine or epidemic befell the kingdom, this showed that the king’s barami was failing, and at such dangerous times kings had to make great displays of merit-making (usually alms-giving) to prove their legitimacy (Atchara 1980: 33-5). Not only could the king’s Perfections be demonstrated through military victories and a prosperous realm, but it could also be shown through a “test” of his barami (siang phrabaram’). For example, the following incident from the reign of King Taksin is recorded in the Royal Chronicle compiled in the Fourth Reign.

Patrick Jory

170 Crossroads 16:1

Having paid respect to the sacred Buddha image at Wat Klang Doi Khao Kaew the king addressed the monks: “do you remember, monks, when I was at Rahaeng I lifted a great jeweled bell up and pledged to put my barami to the test? I said that if in the future I was truly to achieve the victory of enlightenment, when I hit the jeweled bell it would crack at the spot, which I touched, and then I would build a stupa containing a Holy Relic. After I made this pledge and hit the bell a crack did appear at just that spot, a miracle for all to see.” The monks blessed the king, affirming his words (PRPCR 1973: 374-5; PRPKT 1969: 75).

The representation of kings as bodhisattas accumulating the Perfections is found not only in written documents but also in temple art. Besides the bodhisatta’s defeat of Mara, one of the most common subjects for temple artists was scenes from the last ten Jatakas—the thotsachat (the tenth of which was the Vessantara Jataka), each of which was supposed to represent the bodhisatta’s attainment of one particular Perfection (barami). Scenes from the ten Jatakas were painted in order around the temple’s inner walls, in the manner of the Stations of the Cross in Christian churches. In many temples the Vessantara Jataka was given prominence, with the temple walls displaying scenes from all thirteen chapters (kan) of the story.22 In the late Ayuthaya and early Bangkok periods these illustrations commonly depicted the bodhisatta dressed in garments and regalia identical to those worn by the Thai kings (Nidhi 1984b: 403-4), thereby helping to disseminate through visual means the conception of the king as bodhisatta. It is in relation to this concept of the king’s status as a bodhisatta accumulating the Perfections that the Vessantara

22 See for example, Wat Khongkharam 1978; Chitrakam faphanang Thonburi 1980; Wat Chongnonsi 1982; Wat Suwannaram 1982; Wat Ratchasittharam 1982; Wat Dusidaram 1983; Buddhaisawan Chapel 1983; Sombat (No Date). For a study of Jataka paintings in Northeastern temples see Wannipha 1983: 1-7. For a study of themes from the Vessantara Jataka in temple paintings from Wat Suwannaram, see Saengarun 1989. For an example of a temple with carved wooden reliefs of the Vessantara Jataka fixed around the outside walls of the temple, see Wat Kut Bang Khem 1990.


Crossroads 16:1 171

Jataka was of such significance to the Thai rulers. The bodhisatta’s incarnation as Vessantara was the exemplary story of the bodhisatta-king. Thus of all the Perfections, the Perfection of Giving, the subject of the Vessantara Jataka, was given pride of place, and Vessantara’s great feats of alms-giving became a model for kings to emulate. In the chronicles it is by the act of alms-giving that kings most ostentatiously demonstrated their bodhisattva-hood and hence their moral legitimacy. Rama I’s great gifts of alms during the grandiose Thet Mahachat ceremony, mentioned above, was, in the words of one account, “intended to speed the king on the way to attain Buddhaship at some future existence when he would be enabled, in accordance with the Gospel of Salvation preached by Gotama Buddha, to lead all sentient beings to the attainment of Nirvana, thus emancipating them from the evils of continued rebirths” (Gerini 1892: 33). The extent to which kings sought to portray themselves in the image of Vessantara was sometimes extraordinary. For example, in an almost verbatim repetition of Vessantara’s words to his wife Matsi, on his devotion to the Perfection of Giving: “If anyone should desire my skin, flesh, blood, heart and both eyes / I would not flinch from cutting them out and giving them as alms...” (MWC13K 1988: 254). The Thonburi chronicle records King Taksin as having once made the following claim when impressing on his monks his dedication to alms giving.

Even were you to desire my own flesh and blood I would carve out my flesh and blood and give them as alms (PRPKT 1969: 33). Similarly, a chronicle records that on the occasion of his

1824 coronation, King Rama III went to great lengths to imitate the bodhisatta Vessantara by staging a ritual in which he symbolically “gave” his own son and daughter away to a monk (Atchara 1980: 32).23 The same chronicle describes how the king also performed the “Great Gift of the Seven Hundreds”

23 The king’s son and daughter were later returned to the king. The ritual may have been inspired also by the “Questions of King Milinda,” one of the best-known scriptural commentaries in Theravada Buddhist countries, which stated that all bodhisattas were required to give away their wife and children just as Vessantara had done; see Milinda’s Questions 1964: 95ff.

Patrick Jory

172 Crossroads 16:1

(satasadokmahathan) in imitation of Vessantara’s gift to the citizens of the royal city of Sivi (Thiphakorawong 1961: 120).24 Older chronicles document kings of the Ayuthaya period performing the same feat.25 The often–stated desire of kings for enlightenment by way of great deeds of charity such as Vessantara’s was reinforced by orthodox belief, based on religious texts such as Milinda’s Questions, which held that all bodhisattas, either past, present, or future, had similar “careers,” and that in their penultimate incarnation they would give away their wife and children to achieve the Perfection of Giving just as Vessantara had done.26

The extent of the Thai kings’ identification with Vessantara can also be seen in peculiar customs, such as naming the king’s white elephant after Vessantara’s white elephant, “Patchai Nakhen” (see “Kham hai kan Khun Luang Ha Wat” 1972: 457). White elephants were themselves one of the most important attributes of the king’s barami, being sometimes referred to in chronicles as khu phrabarami or “partner” of the king’s barami (see PRPR2 1962: 191). Furthermore, like the king’s barami, the white elephant was considered a guarantor of the kingdom’s prosperity.27 Episodes of the Vessantara Jataka were also used as metaphors in accounts of court intrigues. One early nineteenth–century description of the often difficult relations between the wang luang (Royal Palace) and the wang na (Front Palace) in the First Reign, which is sympathetic to the wang na, compares the wang na king when he entered the monkhood to Vessantara, and the wang luang king to Vessantara’s father Sanjaya, who in the Vessantara Jataka had sent his son into exile (Saichon 1982: 139; Chotmaihet 1983: 273).

24 The “Great Gift of the Seven Hundreds” (satasadokmahathan) was made up of seven hundred elephants, seven hundred horses, seven hundred chariots, seven hundred noblewomen, seven hundred female slaves, seven hundred male slaves, and seven hundred cows. For the original “Great Gift of the Seven Hundreds” by Prince Vessantara, see MWC13K 1988: 54-6. 25 For the performance of this feat by King Prasat Thorng in 1638 (but in multiples of one hundred) see “Chulayutthakanwong” 1969: 84; and for that of eighteenth-century King Boromakot see “Kham hai kan Khun Luang Ha Wat” 1972: 384. 26 See, for example, Milinda’s Questions, a well-known Pali commentary in Thai Buddhism (Milinda’s Questions 1964: 95). 27 On Vessantara’s white elephant see MWC13K 1988: 17.


Crossroads 16:1 173

As we have seen, for the Thai kingdom the Vessantara Jataka was the classic performative text about kingship, or more specifically, a conception of authority based on the Theravada Buddhist theory of the Perfections. The Thai kings paid special attention to the Vessantara Jataka, especially if those areas and periods when their authority was uncertain or incomplete. In pre-modern Southeast Asia military force was never enough to ensure either the enduring authority of the center or the integration of outlying areas and peoples into a kingdom. Ceremonial recitation of the Vessantara Jataka was an essential element of the Thai kingdom’s cultural authority because of the expressive nature of the ritual and the way it popularized ideas on the nature and acquisition of authority. If the royal capital was an “exemplary center,” the royal recitation of the Vessantara Jataka provided idealized examples of authority and social order, whose repeated, ritualized expression contributed to their implementation in practice.

These models of authority and their dissemination were also essential for the integration of newly conquered peoples into the greater Thai state. This required not only military control but also a process of drawing these peoples more closely into the cultural orbit of the Thai monarchy. The kingdom’s dealings with Cambodia provide a good illustration. Following the successful outcome of the war between the Thai and the Vietnamese over hegemony in Cambodia in the mid-nineteenth century, the Thai court was concerned with reasserting their cultural hegemony in Cambodia after the devastation caused by the war and the forced imposition of Vietnamese cultural norms.28 Accordingly, King Rama III ordered a number of texts to be sent to that country, among which archival sources specifically mention Pali religious scriptures, a number of legal works, and the last ten Jatakas, including the Vessantara Jataka.29 The imposition of Vietnamese culture had included

28 For the Thai concern regarding Vietnamese cultural influence in Cambodia under the Emperor Minh Mang, see “Wa duai hetkan Muang Khamen torn set songkhram Thai kap Yuan” (On the Cambodian Situation After the War Between the Thai and the Vietnamese) 1969: 166-7. 29 Chotmaihet ratchakan thi 3 chor. sor.1211/2 (Records of the Third Reign, 1849-50). We know that the recitation of the Vessantara Jataka was performed in Cambodia at least by the mid-eighteenth century,

Patrick Jory

174 Crossroads 16:1

the teaching of Vietnamese language, the use of Vietnamese weights, measures, fashions and coiffures, a disdain for Buddhism, and most importantly the imposition of Vietnamese Confucian bureaucratic models (Chandler 1983: 128-31). This latter action was a direct attack on traditional Cambodian—and Thai—notions of authority since it devalued local conceptions of kingship and the social order that supported it in favor of Vietnamese bureaucratic authority. When Thai hegemony was returned to the area, the Cambodian king immediately set about restoring the ceremonial aura of (Thai–sponsored) kingship in Cambodia with the performance of elaborate court ceremonies and the restoration of Theravada Buddhist monasteries (Chandler 1983: 135). It was in support of this policy that the Thai court dispatched Jataka texts to Cambodia-almost certainly intending them both for royal ceremonial performances and for popular recitation. In so doing, they helped re-establish the ideological foundations of Thai Buddhist authority.30 The Vessantara Jataka Beyond the Thai Court There is no doubt, therefore, that the Vessantara Jataka was highly valued knowledge for Thai kings and the Thai elite in general. Yet we know that the story was most certainly not con-fined to the Thai court, as was the case with many other examples of court culture. The story’s permeation with religious culture beyond the royal capital seems to have been equally deep. In the same way as it did at the royal court, the popular versions of the story could provide religious legitimization of the authority of alternative centers and leaders. For this reason there were constant efforts by the court to regulate the Thet Mahachat, which, however, were largely unsuccessful. Between 1782 and 1801 Rama I issued an unprecedented set of laws designed to give the Chakri court greater control over the Sangha and over the kingdom’s religious affairs in general. This royal intervention into religious affairs was prompted by the disarray into which the Sangha had fallen after the 1767 most probably because of Thai political and cultural influence (Chandler 1971: 157-9). Rama III’s donations may have been intended to encourage restoration of the practice. (I am grateful to Puangthong Rungsawasdisab for bringing these references to my attention.) 30 A Khmer Mahachat manuscript published by Damrong in 1920, obtained from the Cambodian Sangkharat (Sangha Head) “Thiang” who received his education in Bangkok in the Third Reign, is likely to date from about this period (Thet Mahachat kham Khamen 1920: i-ii ).


Crossroads 16:1 175

collapse of the kingdom of Ayuthaya. During the reign of Taksin (r. 1767-82) the Sangha had become further divided and highly politicized, as the king had stripped several senior monks of their ranks for insubordination. The first of these ten special “Sangha laws” (kot phrasong), issued in 1782 (KTSD 1962: 164-9), prohibited so-called “comic” (talok khanorng) performances of the Thet Mahachat.

At this time the entire populace of the kingdom are holding recitations of the Vessantara Jataka. However they do not respect the story as part of the Dhamma. They listen only to the comical poetry, which is of no benefit to them. Some of the monks who recite the story have not studied the Tripitika. They know only the parts, which have been put into song-verse (kap klorn), which they then recite in a comical and obscene manner. They are interested only in fame and riches. They have never desired to study and pass on the knowledge of the Dhamma. This is damaging to the religion and encourages people to be careless in teaching the Dhamma. Such people will suffer long torment in the four hells...

So as of this time the king orders that monks who give sermons and the people who listen to the recitation of the Maha Chat Jataka, must recite and listen to only the Pali canonical verses and the Commentary...the recitation of and listening to sermons in song-verse or the expression of buffoonish words for comic purposes is strictly forbidden... (KTSD 1962: 167-9)

The regulation was addressed to all royal officials, including

both military and civilian authorities, the Krom (Ministry) heads, the Front Palace, City officials, and the Sangha authorities and abbots both in Bangkok and in the kingdom’s First, Second, and Third–Class cities31 of the Western, Eastern, Southern, and Northern regions of the kingdom, and “everywhere.” Violators of the law, along with their relatives, were liable for unspecified punishment (KTSD 1962: 164, 169).

31 These were the terms for grading towns and cities according to their distance from and relative importance to Bangkok.

Patrick Jory

176 Crossroads 16:1

This regulation gives us clear indication of the Thet Mahachat’s popularity at the beginning of the First Reign. In addition, the fact that this was the first of the Sangha laws, that it was enacted in the year of Rama I’s seizure of power, and that it was promulgated through all the kingdom’s agencies, together indicate the importance the court attached to the “proper” performance of the Thet Mahachat. If the story’s value in the eyes of the court derived from the ideas it expressed in regard to authority and social order, then the “comical” treatment of the story in some popular recitations implied an attack not just on a religious story but on the very ideas of kingship and authority that underlay the monarch’s rule. The law seems to have had little lasting effect, as during the Fourth Reign King Mongkut would issue another pronouncement criticizing the “opportunists” who organized Thet Mahachat ceremonies purely for selfish financial gain (Nangsu Chotmaihet 1965: 161). Rama I’s directive should perhaps be regarded less as a law than as an articulation of the elite’s norm. It certainly did not dampen the popularity of the Thet Mahachat in the villages and towns of the newly expanded Thai kingdom. Other references in documents of the Early Bangkok period, for example in the long narrative Khun Chang Khun Phaen, bear witness to the pervasiveness of the Thet Mahachat outside the court (KCKP 1971: 54ff). Many extant versions of the story written in the northern Thai dialect from around the region of Chiang Mai also date from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (see Raichu nangsu boran Lanna 1990: 239-80). Furthermore, the law’s ban on the versification of the story for the purposes of singing the text seems also to have had little effect. For many audiences these performances were the principal attraction of the Thet Mahachat in the first place. Monks became famous - and wealthy - for their skill in reciting particular chapters of the Vessantara Jataka, and skilled monks would receive invitations to perform at Thet Mahachat ceremonies far and wide. The principal device employed to attract and entertain the audience was the distinctive melodic and rhythmic style of reciting the verse (known as thamnorng maha chat), which bears some similarity to Western operatic singing. The Thet Mahachat was unique for its “singing” style of preaching Buddhist scripture. This style of recitation made listening to the lengthy narrative, which went on from before dawn until late at night on the same day, not only endurable but


Crossroads 16:1 177

also highly entertaining for audiences. Each chapter had a different style of recitation, and a different vocal repertoire. It was rare that any one monk could master the complete repertoire, so Thet Mahachat performances usually involved several monks, and sometimes even novices. Monks had to train for many years in order to become skilled in the arts of recitation. Monks were accomplished in reciting the Mahachat. For local, rural audiences the attraction of the Thet Mahachat was manifold. The recitation of the story had developed into a highly refined vocal art, which was greatly popular with the people. Different regions developed their own highly distinctive vocal styles of recitation, and Vessantara Jataka texts for recitation were written in the local vernacular. Through this art audiences were attracted to the story, its ideas, and values. The charismatic monk Somdet Phra Phuthachan (To), who was close to the Thai court in the mid-nineteenth century, was a renowned performer, and is known to have preached in village temples as well as at the royal court. His rendering of the Matsi chapter of the Vessantara Jataka, in which Vessantara’s wife, Matsi, frantically searches the forest for her children, was reputed to have moved audiences to tears (Chantichai 1983: 28-34). However, as indicated in the Sangha law, many monks became nakthet or reciters of the Vessantara Jataka. for reasons other than piety or love of performance. The alms giving at the Thet Mahachat was the greatest festival of the year, being an opportunity for local “big men” to flaunt their wealth and gain face in the eyes of the community.32 The alms giving that took place at Thet Mahachat ceremonies, though ostensibly an act of personal merit-making, was also a community–wide competition for social status similar to Mauss’ “agonistic” contest of giving in “archaic societies,” in which gift-giving takes the form of a “war of wealth” (Mauss 1950: 35). Thus, skilled monks had the opportunity to become very wealthy as members of the audience would attempt to outdo each other in their alms-giving. The close attention paid by the Bangkok kings to “rogue” monks performing the Thet Mahachat for fame and riches was

32 See Chanthichai’s account of the performance given at a small village by Somdet To (Chanthichai 1983: 38-34).

Patrick Jory

178 Crossroads 16:1

partly motivated by the court’s ongoing concern with religious figures who often became leaders of local or even regional revolts. Furthermore, the image of these popular provincial monastic figures reciting the Vessantara Jataka before local audiences paralleled the situation at the royal court, where young would-be kings and sons of the aristocracy and nobility were also reciting the story amidst great pomp, ceremony, and public merit-making. There was therefore a potential for these local recitations to greatly enhance the status of local power figures. The great alms-giving that these ceremonies occasioned could also provide these figures with financial power and a network of obligations, which had the potential to pose a chal-lenge to the state authorities. Another reason for Bangkok’s concern about local recitations of the Vessantara Jataka was that it was a story not about the power of the Thai king specifically, but about authority and social order in general. Local leaders, regional lords, and even the rulers of tributary states, like the Chiang Mai kings, were happy to support the Thet Mahachat ceremonies because the tale’s images of moral authority—the idea of the benevolent ruler as the greatest giver, the supreme moral being, and a future Buddha whose ascetic abilities endowed him with supernatural powers—could all enhance a local ruler’s authority. The great alms giving that took place in the Thet Mahachat ceremony also worked to support the local Sangha, and thus indirectly aided decentralized authority. In supporting local authorities, the local recitations of the Vessantara Jataka fostered a decentralized and therefore potentially unstable administrative structure in the kingdom. It was suited to the conditions of a premodern Southeast Asian kingdom where direct royal administration was impossible except in the areas closest to the royal city. The Thet Mahachat contributed to the creation of a cohesive cultural community in which, on the one hand, the authority of the Thai king could be understood by diverse and dispersed rural communities in the same cultural terms. On the other hand, these recitations also enabled local figures to take advantage of the same concepts of authority and thus threaten the control of the Bangkok kings. Not until the arrival of the colonial powers in the later nineteenth century necessitated a fundamental change in the kingdom’s political order was this tension resolved definitively in the direction of centralization and administrative rationalization.


Crossroads 16:1 179

Conclusion The early Bangkok era, then, marks the final manifestation of a Thai political culture based on the concept of barami grounded in what could be called a theory of the Perfections. According to this theory, the king was idealized as a bodhisatta (future Buddha) engaged in the accumulation of the Perfections. The theory was communicated through the tradition of “Great Lineage” history that prevailed in the Thai kingdom until the middle of the nineteenth century, and also through the Jatakas, especially the final tale of the charitable Prince Vessantara, in whose image the Thai kings customarily claimed to be acting. The mid-nineteenth century is usually regarded as the starting point of the process of Western-oriented “modernization” in the Thai kingdom. The kingdom’s economic, political, cultural, and religious-intellectual landscape were radically transformed by the Thai court’s progressive loss of authority before the expanding colonial powers, the influence of science and other Western forms of knowledge on the Thai court, and the political, religious, and intellectual influence of the “reformist” Thammayutika Buddhist order, which became the dominant force in Thai Buddhism when its founder, Prince Mongkut, assumed the throne in 1851. One of the casualties of this transformation was the discourse of authority based on the theory of the Perfections, which progressively fell out of favor at the Thai court (though its influence persisted in the kingdom’s hinterland). Gradually the Jataka stories and the other scriptures, which dealt with the theory of the Perfections and the doctrine of rebirth, were abandoned by the Thai court.33 Similarly the “Great Lineage” religious-historical discourses that explained and legitimized the origins of rulers as bodhisattas were replaced by national-dynastic historical narratives. Today, the concept of barami survives in Thai political discourse only as a relic of the former moral-political system of belief of which it was once a part. In politics, business, military circles, and even the criminal world, the term is still commonly used to describe the often-intangible power of “charismatic” leaders who are able to attract a large following of supporters and exert significant influence. Vestiges of the term’s original association with monarchy can also be found in eulogistic

33 I have written at length about the Thai court’s deliberate policy of delegitimizing the Jatakas dating from the second part of the nineteenth century (Jory 1996).

Patrick Jory

180 Crossroads 16:1

discourse about the “moral authority” of the present king, such as, for example, the “royal anthem” which is referred to as the “song in praise of His barami” (Thai Pleng sanrasoen phrabarami). Those most important conduits of the theory of the Perfections, the Jatakas, have long since been expunged from official Thai Buddhist doctrine and survive in the popular mind only as “folktales” (nithan). As for the ceremonial recitations of the Vessantara Jataka, while they are still held at a declining number of temples throughout the kingdom, what value the ceremony and indeed the story itself may be thought to retain today is related to official programs emphasizing the need to preserve “Thai culture,” rather than the powerful politico-cultural message the Vessantara Jataka once helped disseminate.

ABBREVIATIONS KCKP Sepha ruang Khun Chang Khun Phaen: phra

ratchaniphon phrabat Somdet Phraphutthaloetlanaphalai (The Ballad of Khun Chang and Khun Phaen)

KTSD Kotmai Tra Sam Duang (The Three Seals Law) MCPC Mahachat phraniphon Krom Somdet

Phraparamanuchit Chinorot (wen tae kan mahaphon kap kan matsi) (Prince Paramanuchit Chinorot’s Version of the Mahachat, Not Including Mahaphon and Matsi Chapters)

MCR4 Mahachat phraratchaniphon nai ratchakan thi

4 (The Fourth Reign King’s Version of the Maha Chat).

MWC13K Maha Wetsandorn chadok chabap sipsam kan

(The Thirteen Chapter Version of the Great Vessantara Jataka).

PRPCP “Phraratchaphongsawadan chabap

phanchanthanumat” (The Phanchanthanumat Version of the Royal Chronicle).


Crossroads 16:1 181

PRPCR Phraratchaphongsawadan chabap

phraratchahatthalekha (The Royal Autograph Version of the Royal Chronicle).

PRPKT “Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung Thonburi”

(The Royal Chronicle of the Kingdom of Thonburi). In Prachum phongsawadan (Collected Histories).

PRPR2 Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung Rattanakosin

ratchakan thi 2 (Royal Chronicle of the Second Reign).

References

Anderson, Benedict R. O’G. 1990 “The Idea of Power in Javanese Culture,” In Language

and Power: Exploring Political Cultures in Indonesia. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Atchara Kanchanothai 1980 “Kanfunfu phra phuttha satsana nai samai Rattanakosin

torn ton (B.E. 2325 - 2395)” [The Restoration of Buddhism in the Early Bangkok Period, 1782-1852]. M.A. thesis, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.

Atthachak Satayanurak 1988 “Khwamplianprae khorng samnuk thang prawattisat lae

kanplianplaeng khorng sangkhom Thai tangtae ratchakan thi 4 thung phor. sor. 2475” [Shifts in Historical Consciousness and Change in Thai Society from the Fourth Reign to 1932]. M.A. thesis, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.

Au Chhieng 1953 Catalogue du Fonds Khmer. Paris: Bibliothèque

Nationale.

Patrick Jory

182 Crossroads 16:1

Aung-Thwin, Michael 1983 “Divinity, Spirit, and Human: Conceptions of Classical

Burmese Kingship,” in Lorraine Gesick, ed. Centres, Symbols and Hierarchies: Essays on the Classical States of Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies.

Banchi samruat ekasan boran [Catalog of Surveyed Ancient

Literature] 1981-1990 14 Vols., Northeastern Teachers, Colleges and Khon Kaen University, led by Maha Sarakham Teacher’s College, Maha Sarakham.

Bowring, Sir John 1975 The Kingdom and People of Siam, with a Narrative of

the Mission to that Country in 1855, Vol.1. London: J. W. Parker.

Buddhaisawan Chapel 1983 Mural Paintings of Thailand Series. Bangkok: Muang

Boran. Chadok atthakatha—athibai chadok [Jataka Commentary— Explanation of the Jataka] 1976 Part 1, First Report, Project for the Transcription,

Editing and Thai translation of Buddhist Texts in Khorm [Old Khmer] and Local Scripts. Bangkok: Education Ministry, Phumiphalo Phikku Foundation.

Chandler, David P. 1971 “An Eighteenth Century Inscription from Angkor Wat.”

Journal of the Siam Society, 59:2, (July), 151-9. 1983 A History of Cambodia. Boulder: Westview Press. “Chanthichai” 1983 Somdet Phra Phutthachan (To), Vol.1. Bangkok:

Khurusapha. Charnvit Kasetsiri 1976 The Rise of Ayudhya: A History of Siam in the

Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. New York: Oxford University Press.


Crossroads 16:1 183

Chinamahanithan [The Great Story of the Victory] 1987 Vol. 2, Thai trans., National Library. Bangkok: The Fine

Arts Department in Honour of the King’s Fifth Cycle Birthday Celebrations.

Chittrakam fa phanang Thonburi [Thonburi Wall Paintings] 1980 Bangkok: Society for the Conservation of National Art

Treasures and Environment. Chotmaihet khwamsongcham khorng Krommaluang Narintharathewi (phor.sor.2310-2381) lae phraratchawichan nai Phrabat Somdet Phra Chulachormklao Chaoyuhua [Recorded Memoirs of Princess Narintharathewi (1777-1838) and Commentary by King Chulachormklao] 1983 Cremation Volume, Phrachao Boromawongthoe

Phraongchao Wapibutsabakorn, Bangkok: March. “Chronique de Sinhanavati” 1926 Annales du Siam. Traduction de Camille Notton.1:1,

Paris: C. Lavauzelle. “Chronique de Xieng Mai” 1932 Annales du Siam. Vol. 3. Paris. Chulalongkorn, King 1971 Phraratchaphithi sipsorng duan [The Royal

Ceremonies of the Twelve Months], Bangkok: Khlang Witthaya.

“Chulayutthakanwong” [Chronicle of Minor Battles] 1969 Prachum phongsawadan [Collected Histories], 41:66.

Bangkok: Khurusapha. Chumnum phraniphon Somdet Krom Phraya Damrong Rajanubhab [Prince Damrong Rajanubhab’s Collected Writings]. 1991 Bangkok: Bannakit.

Patrick Jory

184 Crossroads 16:1

Cowell, E. B. 1957 The Jataka or Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births,

trans. from the Pali by Various Hands. Ed. E. B. Cowell, 6 Vols. London: Pali Text Society.

Damrong Rajanubhab, Prince 1924 “Khamnam” [Introduction]. In Panyat chadok: prachum

nithan tae prathet ni tae boran 50 ruang [The Pannasa Jatakas: A Collection of Fifty Ancient Tales from this Country]. Part 1, Samutthakhota Jataka and Suthana Jataka. Cremation Volume, M.R. Lek Siriwong na Krungthep, Bangkok. 1-4.

1962 Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung Rattanakosin

ratchakan thi 2 [Dynastic Chronicle of the Second Reign], Book 2. Bangkok: Khurusapha.

1965 “Kham athibai” [Explanation], Mahachat

phraratchaniphon nai ratchakan thi 4 [The Fourth Reign King’s Version of the Mahachat], Cremation Volume, Mormchao Chongkonni Watthanawong. Bangkok.

1988 Prawat bukkhon samkhan [Biographies of Important

People]. Bangkok: Bannakit. 1991 “Prawat Wat Yannawa” [History of Wat Yannawa] in

Chumnum phraniphon Somdet Krom Phraya Damrong Rajanubhab [Prince Damrong Rajanubhab’s Collected Writings]. Bangkok: Bannakit.

de la Loubère, Simon 1986 The Kingdom of Siam. With an introduction by David

Wyatt. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dhida Saraya 1982 Tamnan lae tamnan prawattisat kap kansuksa

prawattisat thorngthin [Tamnan and Tamnan History: A Study of Local History]. Bangkok: Office of the National Culture Commission.


Crossroads 16:1 185

Dialogues of the Buddha 1957 Trans. from the Pali of the Digha Nikaya by T.W. and

C.A.F. Rhys Davids. Part III. London: Pali Text Society. Gerini, G. E. 1892 A Retrospective View and Account of the Origin of the

Maha Chat Ceremony. Bangkok. Gervaise, Nicolas 1989 The Natural and Political History of the Kingdom of

Siam. Trans. and ed. John Villiers. Bangkok: White Lotus.

Gesick, Lorraine, ed. 1983 Centres, Symbols and Hierarchies: Essays on the

Classical States of Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies.

Hanks, Lucien M. 1962 “Merit and Power in the Thai Social Order.” American

Anthropologist, LXIV, 6, Dec.: 1247-1261. Ishii, Yoneo 1975 “A Note on Buddhistic Millenarian Revolts in

Northeastern Siam.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 6:2, (September), 121-6.

Jory, Patrick 1996 “A History of the Thet Mahachat and its Contribution to

a Thai Political Culture.” Ph.D. dissertation. Australian National University.

KCKP 1971 Sepha ruang Khun Chang Khun Phaen:

phraratchaniphon Phrabat Somdet Phra Phutthaloet-lanaphalai [The Ballad of Khun Chang and Khun Phaen]. Bangkok: Krom Sinlapakorn.

Keyes, Charles F. 1977 “Millenialism, Theravada Buddhism, and Thai Society.”

Journal of Asian Studies, 36:2, (February), 283-302.

Patrick Jory

186 Crossroads 16:1

KTSD 1962 Kotmai Tra Sam Duang [The Three Seals Law]. Book 4.

Bangkok: Khurusapha. “Kham hai kan Khun Luang Ha Wat” [Testimony of Khun Luang Ha Wat] 1972 In Kham hai kan chao krung kao, kham hai kan Khun

Luang Ha Wat, lae phraratchaphongsawadan krung kao chabap Luang Prasoet Aksoranit [Testimony of the People of the Old Capital, Testimony of Khun Luang Ha Wat, and Luang Prasoet Aksoranit version of the Royal Chronicle of the Old Capital]. Bangkok: Khlang Witthaya.

“Khamphi mahawong” [The Mahavamsa] 1991 In Wannakam samai Rattanakosin [Literature in the

Bangkok Period]. Vol. 1, (Religious Section). Bangkok: Krom Sinlapakorn.

Kobkua Suwannathat-Pian 1988 Thai-Malay Relations: Traditional Intra-Regional

Relations from the Seventeenth to the Early Twentieth Centuries, East Asian Historical Monographs, Singapore: Oxford University Press.

Latthi thamniam tang tang [Beliefs and Customs]. 1972 Krom Sinlapakorn. Bangkok: Khlang Witthaya. Likhit Dhiravegin 1992 Demi-Democracy: The Evolution of the Thai Political

System. Singapore: Times Academic Press. Lokathipakasan. 1986 Phra Sangkharat Methangkorn, Ed. Bangkok: Krom

Sinlapakorn. The Mahavamsa or The Great Chronicle of Ceylon. 1964 Wilhelm Geiger, trans. London: Pali Text Society. Mauss, Marcel 1950 The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic

Societies. Ian Cunnison, trans. London: Cohen and West.


Crossroads 16:1 187

MCPC 1918 Mahachat phraniphon Krom Somdet Phra Paramanuchit Chinorot (wen tae kan mahaphon kap kan matsi) [Prince Paramanuchit Chinorot’s Version of the Maha Chat, Not Including Mahaphon and Matsi Chapters] National Library. Bangkok: Thai Printing. MCR4 1965 Mahachat phraratchaniphon nai ratchakan thi 4 [The Fourth Reign King’s Version of the Mahachat]. Cremation Volume, Mormchao Chongkonni Wathanawong. Bangkok. Milinda’s Questions. 1964 Vol. II. Trans. from the Pali by I. B. Horner. Sacred

Books of the Buddhists, Vol. XXIII. London: Pali Text Society.

MWC13K 1988 Maha Wetsandorn chadok chabap sipsam kan [The Thirteen Chapter Version of the Great Vessantara Jataka]. Bangkok: Khurusapha. Nangsu chotmaihet— The Bangkok Recorder 1965 “Ruang niyai khorng luang,” Vol. 1, November 18, No.

18, 161. Nidhi Aeusrivongse 1980 Prawattisat Rattanakosin naiphra ratchaphongsawadan

Ayuthaya [Bangkok History in the Royal Chronicles of Ayuthaya]. Bangkok: Thai Khadi Suksa, Thammasat University.

1984a “An nuang ma chak mahachat Muang Phet” [On the

Phetburi Vessantara Jataka]. In Pak kai lae bai rua: ruam khwam riang wa duai wannakam lae prawattisat Rattanakosin [Quill and Sail: Collected Essays on Early Bangkok Literature and History]. Bangkok: Amarin.

1984b “Phra pathom somphothikatha kap khwamkhluanwai

thang satsana nai ton Ratanakosin” [The Phra Patomsomphothikatha and Religious Change in the Early Bangkok Period]. In Pak kai lae bai rua: ruam

Patrick Jory

188 Crossroads 16:1

khwam riang wa duai wannakam lae prawattisat Ratanakosin [Quill and Sail: Collected Essays on Early Bangkok Literature and History]. Bangkok: Amarin.

1986 Kanmuang Thai samai Phrachao Krung Thonburi [Thai

Politics in the Time of the King of Thonburi], Bangkok: Sinlapa Watthanatham.

Paramanuchit Chinorot, Prince–Patriarch 1962 Phra pathomsomphothikatha [Story of the First

Enlightenment]. 1962. Bangkok: Department of Religion, Ministry of Education.

Peltier, Anatole-Roger. 1987 Wannakam Thai khoen / La Littérature Tai khoeun / Tai

khoeun literature. École Francaise d'Extrême Orient & Social Research Institute, Chiang Mai University.

Phimphada Yangcharoen and Suwadi Thanaprasitphathana 1986 Kan suksa lae phon krathop tor sangkhom thai samai

ton Ratanakosin (phor. sor. 2325-2394) [Education and Its Effects on Thai Society in the Early Bangkok Period]. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University.

“Phra Thammasat” 1962 In Kotmai Tra Sam Duang. Book 1. Bangkok:

Khurusapha: 1-41. Phromratchapanya, Phra 1987 Rattanaphimphawong: tamnan Phra Kaew Morakot

[History of the Jewel Image: Chronicle of the Emerald Jewel], trans. from the Pali into Thai by Saeng Manawithun. Cremation Volume, Phra Phutthiwongwiwat (Wong Thanawangsamahathera), Bangkok.

Prachum charuk Wat Phra Chetuphon [Collection of Inscriptions from Wat Phra Chetuphon] 1974 Cremation Volume, Somdet Phra Ariyawongsakhotayan,

Phra Sangkharat (Pun Punnasiri), Bangkok.


Crossroads 16:1 189

Prachum tamnan phrathat [Collection of Relic Histories] 1970 Parts 1 and 2. Cremation Volume, Nang Oep

Umaphirom, Bangkok. Prawat wat samkhan thang phutthasatsana torn thi 7 [History of Important Buddhist Temples, Part 7] 1986 Bangkok: Religious Affairs Department, Ministry of

Education. PRPCP 1969 “Phra ratchaphongsawadan chabap phanchanthanumat”

[The Phanchanthanumat Version of the Royal Chronicle]. In Prachum phongsawasan [Collected Histories], Vol. 38, Part 64, Bangkok: Khurusapha.

PRPCR 1973 Phraratchaphongsawadan chabap phra

ratchahatthalekha [The Royal Autograph Version of the Royal Chronicle]. Vol. 2. Bangkok: Khlang Witthaya.

PRPKT 1969 “Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung Thonburi” [The Royal

Chronicle of the Kingdom of Thonburi]. In Prachum phongsawadan [Collected Histories].Vol. 40, Pt. 65. Bangkok: Khurusapha.

PRPR2 1962 Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung Rattanakosin

ratchakan thi 2 [Royal Chronicle of the Second Reign]. Book 2. Bangkok: Khurusapha.

Puangthong Rungsawasdisab 1995 “War and Trade: Siamese Interventions in Cambodia,

1767-1851.” PhD diss., University of Wollongong. Rai chu nangsu boran Lanna ekasan microfilm khorng Sathaban Wichai Sangkhom, Mahawithayalai Chiang Mai phor. sor. 2521-2533 [Catalogue of Old Lanna Literature on Microfilm, University of Chiang Mai Social Research Institute, 1978-1990] 1990 Chiang Mai: Social Research Institute.

Patrick Jory

190 Crossroads 16:1

Ratanapanyathera, Phra 1974 Chinakalamalipakorn. Trans. Saeng Manawithun.

Cremation Volume. Bangkok. Reynolds, Craig J. 1979 “Religious Historical Writing and the Legitimation of

the First Bangkok Reign.” Anthony Reid and David Marr, eds., Perceptions of the Past in Southeast Asia. Singapore: Asian Studies Association of Australia.

“Ruang ratchawong pakorn, phongsawadan Lanna Thai” [About the Royal Lineage, a Chronicle of Lanna Thai] 1964 Ed. Saen Luang Ratchasomphan under the Order of

Phrachao Suriyaphong Phritadet, Prince of Nan, Prachum phongsawadan [Collected Histories], Vol. 9, Part 10. Bangkok: Khurusapha.

Saengarun Kanokphongchai 1989 “Khati khwamchua ruang mahachat chadok: kanplian

plaeng lae kansupnuang sathorn chak phapchitrakam faphanang korani suksa chapo phapchitrakam faphanang nai phra ubosot Wat Suwannaram” [Beliefs Related to the Vessantara Jataka: Change and Continuity Reflected in Wall Paintings, A Case Study of the Wall Paintings in the Chanting Hall of Wat Suwannaram]. M.A. thesis. Silapakorn University, Bangkok.

Saichon Wannarat 1982 “Phutthasatsana kap naew khwamkhit thang kanmuang

nai ratchasamai Phrabat Somdet Phra Phutthayortfa Chulalok” [Buddhism and Political Thought in the First Reign]. M.A. thesis, Chulalongkorn University.

Sirindhorn, Princess 1982 Thotsabarami nai phutthasatsana Therawat [The Ten

Perfections in Theravada Buddhism]. Bangkok: Mahamakut Ratchawithayalai (In Commemoration of 200 Years of the Chakri Dynasty).

Sombat Plainoi n.d. Mural Paintings. Panit Boonyawatana, trans, ed.

Malithat Pramathattavedi. Bangkok: Office of the National Culture Commission.


Crossroads 16:1 191

Somphong Kriangkraiphet 1964 Prapheni Thai lae ruang na ru [Thai Customs and

Things Worth Knowing]. Bangkok: Phrae Phitthaya. The Story of Gotama Buddha: The Nidana-katha of the Jatakatthakatha 1990 Trans. N. A. Jayawickrama. Oxford: Pali Text Society. Sunait Chutintaranon 1992 “The Image of the Burmese Enemy in Thai Perceptions

and Historical Writing.” The Journal of the Siam Society, 80:1, 92.

Tachard, G. 1981 A Relation of the Voyage to Siam Performed by Six

Jesuits Sent by the French King to the Indies and China in the year 1685. Bangkok: White Orchid Press.

Tambiah, S. J. 1976 World Conqueror and World Renouncer: A Study of

Buddhism and Polity in Thailand Against A Historical Background. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

1984 The Buddhist Saints of the Forest and the Cult of

Amulets. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tamnan khao phi Lanna pathomamulamuli / pathamamulamuli. 1991 Trans. Anatole Roger Peltier. Chiang Mai. “Tamnan Muang Suwannakhomkham” [The Chronicle of Suwannakhomkham City] 1969 Prachum phongsawadan [Collected Histories], Vol. 45,

Part 72. Bangkok: Khurusapha. Tamnan munlasatsana [The Story of the Origin of the Religion] 1976 Krom Sinlapakorn. Bangkok: Soem Bannakhan. Tamnan phun Muang Chiang Mai chak ton chabap bailan aksorn Thai Yuan [The Chronicle of the City of Chiang Mai from the Palm Leaf Manuscript in Thai Yuan Characters] 1971 Trans. Sanguan Chotisukharat. Bangkok: Prime

Minister’s Office.

Patrick Jory

192 Crossroads 16:1

Tamnan Sip Ha Rachawong, The Chronicle of the Fifteen Dynasties, Part 1 (Fascicle I-II) 1981 Lanna Thai Manuscript Project Phase 1. Chiang Mai:

Social Research Institute, Chiang Mai University, October.

Thet Mahachat kham Khamen: kan mahaphon [Recitation of the Khmer Version of the Vessantara Jataka: Mahaphon Chapter] 1920 Cremation Volume, Phra Sanit Somkhun (Ngoen). Bangkok. Thiphakorawong, Chaophraya (Kham Bunnak) 1961 Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung Rattanakosin

ratchakan thi 3 [Dynastic Chronicles of Bangkok, the Third Reign]. Vol. 1. Bangkok: Khurusapha.

1978 Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung rattanakosin

ratchakan thi 4 [Royal Chronicle of the Fourth Reign]. 2nd ed: Bangkok, Khurusapha.

1983 Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung ratanakosin

ratchakan thi 1 [Dynastic Chronicle of the First Reign]. ed. Damrong Rajanubhab. Bangkok: Khurusapha.

Thiphawan Bunwira 1978 “Lae khruang len mahachat” [Popular Tunes in the

Mahachat], Sinlapakorn [Journal of Fine Arts], 22, 2. Traiphumilokwinitchai [Treatise on the Three Worlds] 1977 Vol. 1. Compiled by Phraya Thammapricha by Order of

King Rama I in 1802. Bangkok: Krom Sinlapakorn. Van Vliet, Jeremias 1975 The Short History of the Kings of Siam. Leonard

Andaya, from a transcription by Miriam J. Verkuijl-van den Berg, trans, ed. David K. Wyatt. Bangkok: Siam Society.

“Wa duai hetkan Muang Khamen torn set songkhram Thai kap Yuan” [On the Cambodian Situation After the War Between the Thai and the Vietnamese] 1969 Prachum phongsawadan (Collected Histories) Vol. 31, Part 56.


Crossroads 16:1 193

Wannarat, Somdet Phra 1978 Sangkhitiyawong: phongsawadan ruang sangkhayana

phra thammawinai [Sangitiyavamsa: Chronicle of the Recensions of the Scriptures], trans. from Pali by Phraya Pariyatithammathada (Phae Tanlaksamon). Cremation Volume, Somdet Phra Phuthachan (Wanathitiyan Mahathera). Bangkok.

Wannakam Lanna / Lanna Literature: Catalog of Palm Leaf Texts on Microfilm 1986 Social Research Institute, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai. Wannipha Na Songkhla 1983 “Kananurak chitrakam faphanang Phak Isan” [The

Preservation of Isan Wall Painting]. In Sing faengren yu nai chittrakam faphanang Isan [Things Hidden in Isan Wall Paintings]. Conference, Khon Kaen University, 2 - 4 December.

Wat Chongnonsi 1982 Mural Paintings of Thailand Series. Bangkok: Muang Boran. Wat Dusidaram 1983 Mural Paintings of Thailand Series. Bangkok: Muang Boran. Wat Khongkharam 1978 Mural Paintings of Thailand Series. Bangkok: Thai Wathanaphanit. Wat Kut Bang Khem: bot maisak cham laklai [Wat Kut Bang Khem: Carvings in a Teak Chapel] 1990 Bangkok: Office for the Promotion of National Identity. Wat Ratchasittharam 1982 Mural Paintings of Thailand Series. Bangkok: Muang Boran.

Patrick Jory

194 Crossroads 16:1

Wat Suwannaram 1982 Mural Paintings of Thailand Series. Bangkok: Muang Boran. Wolters, O. W. 1982 History, Culture, and Region in Southeast Asian

Perspectives. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

Wyatt, David, K. 1976 “Chronicle Traditions in Thai Historiography.” In C.D.

Cowan and O. W. Wolters, eds., Southeast Asian History and Historiography: Essays Presented to D. G. E. Hall, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

1982 “The ‘Subtle Revolution’ of King Rama I of Siam.” In

David K. Wyatt and Alexander Woodside, Moral Order and the Question of Change: Essays on Southeast Asian Thought. New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asian Studies.

the origin and spread of a thai concept of power

Documents

thai discourses

thai rulers

thai political discourses

premodern thai culture

perfections thai thotsabarami

language study of thai

term barami

thai social order