Journal of the Siam Society; 50

Table of contents :
JSS_050_1a_Front
JSS_050_1b_PrincePremPurachatra_NewLibraryAndResearchCentre
JSS_050_1c_Nielsen_ThaiDanishPrehistoricExpedition
JSS_050_1d_Heekeren_SaiYokExcavations
JSS_050_1e_Knuth_SaiYokExcavationsAndWorkAtThaiPictureCave
JSS_050_1f_Chorin_ParisToAyuthia300YearsAgo
JSS_050_1g_RashidIbrahim_CulturalBackgroundOfEcafeRegion
JSS_050_1h_Reviews
JSS_050_1i_AccessionsToLibrary
JSS_050_2a_Front
JSS_050_2b_PhyaSalwidhannidhes_EarlyCartographyOfThailand
JSS_050_2c_Tarling_MissionOfSirJohnBowring
JSS_050_2d_PhyaAnumanRajadhon_KhwanAndItsCeremonies
JSS_050_2e_KraisriHertlandSwann_ExpeditionToKhonPa
JSS_050_2f_Reviews
JSS_050_2g_AccessionsToLibrary
JSS_050_2h_SiamSocietyResearchCentreThirdAnnualReport

Citation preview

VOLUME L Part 1

July 1962

THE

JOURNAL OF THE

SIAM SOCIETY (JSS)

BANGKOK

2505

TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLUME: L PART 1

JULY 1962

Page

Articles

H.H. Prince Prem Purachatra The New Library and Research Centre Dr. Elgil Nielsen

The Thai Dcmish Prehistoric Expedition 1960-1962

H.R. van Heekeren

Eigil Knuth

Bishop L.A.C. Chorin

A. Rashid Ibrahim

1

7

A Brief Survey of the Sai-Yolc Excavations 1961-1962 Season of the Thai-Danish Prehistoric Expedition

15

Further Report on the Sai-Yok Excavations and on the Work at the Picture Cave

19

From Paris to Ayuthia Three Hundred Yea.rs Ago .Tunc 18th, 1660-August 22nd, 1662

Z3

The Cultural Background of the ECAFE Region 35

Book Reviews

Burma Research Society

Fiftieth Anniversary Publica.tion No. 1, Rangoon 1961. 54.3 pages.

51

Ratanupanna : ]inakalamal'i, Pali Text Society Edition

D.

54

Minney, E.]. : Fanny and the Regent of Siam

D.

62

Moffat, A.L. : Mongkut, King of Siam

D.

64

Recent Siamese Puhlicatiolls I

v

280. Pra Sadec, Caopraya: Correspondence with King Chulalongkorn

65

281. Da.mrong, H.R.H. Prince: Buddhist Monuments for Worship

66

282. Krassesindhu, C. : Tawa'tosamas, 'the Twelve Months'

68

283. Nakon Sri Dhannariij: A Compendium

of Material concerning 70

N akon Sri Dharma raj 284. Scientists of the Dept. of Mines : Touring

Accesious to tlze Siam Society's. Library

Pimai

71

73

THE NEW Ll BRARY AND RESEARCH CENTRE

by g{,9{ Cj'Jrince q'Jrem Cj-Jurachatra

Saturday, January 13, 1962, was a red-letter day in the annals of the Siam Society, for on that day the new building housing the Society's Library and the headquarters of the Research Centre was opened in the presence of two Kings, th~ee Queens, many distinguished personages of several nationalities, hundreds of members of the Siam Society and their guests. His Majesty The King, Royal Patron of the Siam Society, together with Her Majesty The Queen and Her Majesty Queen Rambai Barni, were joined by Their Majesties King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid of Denmark, who had arrived in Bangkok the day before on a state visit. It was particularly appropriate that Their Danish Majesties should have been present on this occasion,, for the construction and furnishing of the new building was made possible largely through generous contributions by Danish :firms and individuals. Their Majesties The King and Queen arrived at the Society's home shortly after 2.30 p.m., and members of the Council were presented to Them by the President of the Society, His Highness Prince Dhaninivat, Kromamun Bidyalabh, in the entrance lobby of the main building. Shortly afterwards, Their Danish Majesties arrived. Members of the Council were presented to His Majesty King Frederik by the President of the Society, and to Her Majesty Queen Ingrid by the Senior Vice President, His Highness Prince Prem Purachatra. On this occasion, members of the Thai-Danish Prehistoric Expedition, who had almost completed their exploratory work in the Kwae Noi region, partly under the auspices of the Siam Society, were also presented to Their Majesties by the President and by His Excellency the Danish Ambassador, Monsieur Ebbe Munck, a member of the Council of the Society. A bouquet of flowers was presented to Her Danish Majesty by Mom Rajawongse Sumal Mongkol Sonakul, and another to Her Majesty The Queen by Miss Marchen Jansen.

THE NI•:W LIBRARY AND RESEARCH CENTRE

Their Majesties, followed by members of the Council, then proceeded through the lecture hall between rows of standing members and guests to the platform where, joined by Her Majesty Queen Rambai Barni, They sat in five chairs facing the assembly. The President of the Society read an address to Their Majesties, as follows : May it please your Majesty :

In the name of the Council and members of the Siam Society I beg to voice the pleasure which we feel in having this opportunity to welcome your Majesties among us today in order to declare open our new Library building which is to house also our newly established Research Centre. The pleasure is all the more heightened by the presence of Their Majesties The Queens. Since its inception over fifty years ago, the Society has enjoyed royal patronage morally as well as materially. The inauguration by His late Majesty King Prajadhipok in 1933 of this home is still within living memory. In the meantime the Society has carried on its work consistently and today our membership has passed the total of seven hundred. The object of the Society is the investigation of the arts and sciences of this country and her neighbours. In order to realize this, we have been issuing periodical journals and bulletins on cultural and scientific topics; we have organized meetings at which lectures are delivered; we have arranged trips for the study of objects of archaeological, historical and scientific interest; we have been trying to build up a reference library; and we engage in exchanging our publications with other learned bodies all over the world by way of keeping our library up-to-date. Of late years we have, with the help of the Ford Foundation of New York, established a Research Centre for the use of writers and others who need reference, one of the tangible results of it being the Thai-Danish Prehistoric Expedition jointly sponsored by Danish scientific institutions and the Royal Thai Government with

T!-JE NEW LlBRARY AND RESEARC.H CENTRk

bur Society. It is now in its second year of working in the valley of the Kwae Noi, Kanchanaburi; and has yielded already considerable results of great prehistoric interest. The achievements of recent years - - the establishment of a Research Centre, the Thai-Danish Prehistoric Expedition, the erection of the new Library building - - seem to have produced greater confidence in our work among the public. To indicate but one example of this confidence 1 beg to mention that Mr. James Thompson, the well-known pioneer of Thai Silk industry, has willed to the Society his property in Bangkok consisting of a unique Thai house with its interesting col1ection of objects of art which is a veritable museum. Turning now to the main objective of Your Majesty's visit, the new Library building, erection commenced in July 1961 and has just been completed within six months by Messrs. Christiani and Nielsen of Bangkok. The construction and furniture have cost some nine hundred thousand baht, drawn from Your Majesty's contribution, from the Society's own funds and largely donated by Thai, Danish and American institntions as well as by members o-f the Society, leading names of whom may be found on the stone plaque which I hope to beg Your Majesty of Denmark to condescend to unveil as an indication of the long-existing friendship between our two peoples. As a further mark of the royal patronage may I now invite Your Majesty formally to open our new Library building with the key which the Vice-President will be handing to you." Upon being invited by His Majesty The King and Royal Patron to open the new building, His Majesty King Frederik led the way across the courtyard to the new building, took the golden key proffered by the Senior Vice President and opened the door with it. Their Majesties entered the building, followed by the President and Council and other distinguished personages. His Danish Majesty then unveiled the marble plaque, which bore the following inscription :

4

THE NEW LIBRARY ANb RESEARCH CENi'llE

ON THE 13TH DAY 0 F JANUARY B.E. 2505 HIS MAJESTY KING BHUMIBOL ADULYADEJ GRACIOUSLY DECLARED OPEN THIS LIBRARY OF THE SIAM SOCIETY IN THE PRESENCE OF HIS MAJESTY KING FREDERIK IX OF DENMARK THIS LIBRARY WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY CONTRIBUTIONS FROM: THE EAST ASIATIC COMPANY LTD. MAERSK LINE- A.P. MOLLER CI-IRISTIANI & NIELSEN (THAI) LTD. P. BORK & COMPANY CARLSBERG BREWERIES F.L. SMIDTH & COMPANY A/S SCANDINAVIAN AIRLINES SYSTEM THE SIAM CEMENT COMPANY LTD. THE SIAM FIBRE- CEMENT COMPANY LTD. THE ASIA FOUNDATION DALHOFF LARSEN & HORNEMAN DAN BJOERNER AAGE MELLENTIN AND BY DONATIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE SIAM SOCIETY HEADED BY THE PATRON AND VICE-PATRONS PRESIDENT DHANINIVAT KROMAMUN BIDYALABH

Their Majesties were invited to sign the Book of Honour with a gold pen which was subsequently presented to the Society by its Vice President and Honourary Secretary, His Serene Highness Prince Ajavadis Diskul. While the Queens were appending Their royal signatnres, the two Monarchs went into the office of the Director of the Research Centre, Mr. }. }. Boeles, to examine a new wall map of Siam. Their Majesties then entered the exhibition room next door to inspect the exhibits of dresses and domestic appliances of the

'i'HE NI':\V LiBRARY AND RESEARCH CENTRE

ho:rthern hill tribes, which from a new and unique collection on which the Research Centre has been working as one of its major projects. Mr. Kraisri Nimmana-haeminda, a member of the Society responsible for making purchases for the collection, was in attendance. Their Majesties also toured the library, and looked at artifacts which has been unearthed by the Thai-Danish Prehistoric Expedition and at modern Thai art exhibits which were on display. On this occasion, Their Majesties were each presented with several volumes of the Society's recent publications as well as a copy of the latest issue of the Siam Society Journal. The royal visit to the Society's home ended at approximately 4 p.m. Members of the Council escorted Their Majesties to the royal cars, which moved off between rows of lined-up members and guests of the Society. Lining the road in front of the Society's premises, girls from the adjacent Wattana Wittaya Academy and the general public, who had gathered in large numbers, cheered Their Majesties as They sped on their way.

H.H. Prince Dhaninivat, Kromamun Bidyalabh, President of the Siam Society {lower right) addressing Their Majesties. Left to right: H.M. The King, H.M. Queen Ingrid of Denmark, H.M. King Frederik IX of Denmark, H.M. The Queen and H.M. Queen Rambai Barni.

H.M. King Frederik IX of Denmark accompanied by H. H. Prince Dhanioivat passes between rows of Vajiravudh students em·oute to open the new library.

H.M. The Queen accompanies H.M. Queen Ingrid of Denmark to the new library building.

H.M. The Queen signing the Book of Honour.

H.M. King Frederik IX of Denmark signing the Book of Honour.

THE THAI DANISH PREHISTORIC EXPEDITION 1960-1962

by CJ)r, {tigil 9\fielsen (Leader of the Expedition)

A short report on the activities and results of the main expeditiou 1961-1962 The Thai Danish Prehistoric Expedition started its investir~alions in the Kanchanaburi Province with a preliminary expedition

from Nov. 1960 to Feb. 1961. The results of this preliminary expedition were published briefly in the J. S. S. val. 49, part I, July 1961, and as their results were very promising, the committee of the expedition decided i.o continue investigations on a larger Reale with a main expedition, which took place from November 1961 to April1962. The CX\1edition also in the second phase enjoyed the privilege of the personal interest of H. M. The King and Patron of the Siam Society. With sanction of the President o£ the Council of Ministers, I-I.E. Field Marshal Srisdi Dhanarajata and the Council itself, upon recommendation of I-I.E. the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Education, the expedition had been permitted to survey and to make extensive excavations in the area of the Kwae Noi in the Province of Kanchanaburi. The task of the expedition could not have been completed successfully without the splendid cooperation and assistance of the Director General of the Fine Arts Department, the Governor of the Province of Kanchanaburi, and the Provincial Police who have protected all members of the expedition in the field during day anQ. night. The scientific staff of the main expedition was comprised of Mr. Chin You-di, Curator of the National Museum of Thailand; Mr. Aphomna Songkhla and Mr. Tbamnoon Attakor, all from Thailand; Dr. H.R. van Heekeren from the Netherlands, Mr. Per Serensen, M.A. and D1·. Eigil Nielsen, both from Denmark. All these had taken part also in the preliminary expedition. As new members of

8

Dr. Eigil Nielsen

the expedition came Count Eigil Knuth, the zoologist Palle Johnsen, M.A. and the botanist Kai Larsen, M.A., all from Denmark; the latter as associated member of the expedition. Furthermore, Mr. Pricha Kanchanakom and Mr. Prapat Yothaprasert, from the Fine Arts Department also took part. Prof. Sood Saengvichien, as in the first year, without being a member of the expedition, did very valuable work in excavating the human skeletons at Ban Kao. It must also be mentioned that Mrs. Per S0rensen came along with her husband and was of invaluable help to the expedition. Moreover, a large number of Thai students, for shorter or longer periods, helped in the excavations, as part of their archaeological training. The programme of the main expedition, based on the results of the preliminary expedition contained the following six points: I.

Continue examinations of the locality Bang site near Ban Kao.

II.

Examination of the Sawmill site at Wang Pho, a Bronze Age site first reported by Karl Heider in 1956 and first visited by our expedition on the reconnoitering trip in 1960.

III.

Continued examinations of a rock shelter and adjoining caves, explored during the first campaign in 1960-61, the so-called Tam Phra, or Priest Cave, near Sai-Yok (c.£. H.R. van Heekeren's a Preliminary Note on the Excavation of the Sai-Yok Rock Shelter, J,S.S. vol. 49 part II, Nov. 61 ).

IV.

Examination of the two Chande Ca.ves ( c.f. J,S.S. vol. 49 part I, July 61, pp. 48-49 ).

V. Examination of the Ongba Cave near Sri Sawat. VI.

Examination of different localities that might contain pleistocene deposits with fossils, i.a. locality near Nakorn Sa wan, from where pleistocene mammals were reported some years ago, and the Lawa Cave.

THE THAI DANISH PREHISTORIC EXPEDITION 1960-1962

To get through this programme effectively it was our plan to establish 3 archaeological teams, one of which should start with the Chande Caves, another with the Sai-Yok locality and the third at Ban Kao further south. The two northern teams were later to move to other localities; thus for instance, the Sai-Yok team to the Sawmill site and these two teams therefore should have their bases on bamboo rafts which could relatively be easily moved down the river. The Ban Kao team should stay on the rich neolithic locality during the whole season and therefore chose to usc as permanent base a number of small bamboo huts, arranged almost as a small village on the bank of the K wae Noi. The construction of the rafts and the huts were ordered some weeks before the main expedition started, but while the "village" at Ban Kao, as well as the rafts at Chan de were ready in time, the rafts at Sai-Yok were not. Therefore a combined team, including both the Chande and the Sai-Yok archaeologists, on November 12th started investigations at the two Chande Caves. The staff of this big team, included Dr. van Heekeren, Mr. Chin You-di, Count Eigil Knuth and Mr. Thamnoon Attakor. After 18 days of excavation in the Chande Caves the rafts were moved down to the Sai-Yok site, where the northern group started their excavations on December 2nd. Here the two other rafts ordered previously had been delivered and were taken over by Palle Johnsen and Kai Larsen who at the same date- December 2nd - arrived from Ban Kao. There the northern group had its base consisting of 4 rafts, until January 21st, when Palle Johnsen and Kai Larsen joined me in moving their rafts southward. On Febrttary 7th Dr. van Heekeren left for Wang Pho to start investigations at the Sawmill site, while Eigil Knuth and Chin You-di continued investigations at Sai-Yok. Dr. van Heekeren finished his work at the Sawmill site in the first week of March, then returned via Bangkok to Europe, while the Eigil Knuth and Chin You-di team contimtecl their excavations at Sai-Yok until March 24th. I arrived in Thailand on December 15th after having visited the various localities under excavation, once before and once after New Year. In between, with Dr. Boonsong Lekagul I made a short excursion to the localities near Nakorn Sawan, from where

lO

Dr. Eigil Nielsen

earlier finds of pleistocene mammals had been reported. On January 21st I took two of the four rafts from the Sai- Yok base down stream to the Tam Phra or Lawa cave and started investigation there, together with Mr. Thamnoon Attakor. From lst-3rd Feb. accompanied by Mr. Thamnoon and the zoologist Palle Johnsen, I made an excursion with four elephants inland from the hamlet Kaeng Raberd at Kwae Noi, in an attempt to verify a rumour we had heard already a year earlier, of the existence of a cave-Tam Roop, or Picture Cave-said to contain many old rock paintings. It turned out that there was some truth in the rumour, although the paintings were not in a real cave, but on the steep walls of a typical rock shelter, situated at a height of about 500 metres above sea level, and with a fine view over the jungle towards the Burmese frontier. Our guide, Taeng Klincbaroen, a hunter from Kaeng Raberd and the man who, together with his brother, 10 years earlier, bad found the place, told us that far above the rock shelter, in a large almost vertical fissure, there was an entrance to a very large cave, with many rock paintings and many stone implements. However, this cave could not be reached without a system of ladders leading up through the steep fissure. I arranged with the guide to have such a construction made, but as this work could not be completed in less than 10 to 12 days, we returned to the river to report the find to our committee as well as to our different archaeological teams. On account of the report, the following weeks brought several visitors. First to arrive were Per Sorensen, from his Ban Kao camp accompanied by Mr. Werner Jacobs en from the National Museum in Copenhagen and member of the committee of the expedition. Then my group from the Lawa Camp came for a second visit and at the same time Mr. Chin You-eli and Count Eigil Knnth arrived from the Sai- Y ok camp; and finally Dr. van Heekeren towards the end of Febrnary made a journey from Wang Pho to the Picture Cave. On my second VlSlt, when I had six elephants, I had as guests the journalist, Mr. Frank Robertson from the London Daily Telegraph and the B. B. C. television cameraman, Mr. Hugh Gibbs, as well al:l the secretary from the Danish Embassy, Bangkok, Mis~

TI-ll~ THAi DANISH PREHISTORIC EXPEDITION 19B0-19G2

11

Sttmalee Viravaidya, while Dr. van Heekeren was accompanied by the Danish cameraman; Mr. Robbert. I had the disarjpointment dui"ing my second visit to Tani Roop, that the big upper cave did not exist. After having climbed the steep ladders we found only a very small upper cave, with very faint traces of paintings and without implements. However, the discoveries in the rock shelter gave full compensation for closer study of the paintings here revealed more and more interesting de~ tails. Already during my first visit we had collected a few pebble tools of a mesolithic type from the floor of the rock shelter and a few more have later been found, but rto artifacts at all of ybunger age, for instance no potsherds. Eigil Knuth stayed with his group at Tam Roop for about tert days in order to study and copy the paintings and to carry out excavations in the floor of the shelter. Afterwards he returned to the Sai- Y ok camp where he and Chin You-di finished the investigations there. Per S0rensen and his team, apart from his short visit to Tam Roop, were working for the whole season at the neolithic side near Ban Kao and finished the excavations there on April 2nd. After visiting Mr. van Heekeren's excavations at the Sawmill site, I returned to Bangkok, on the 21st of February, to revisit the Ban Kao and the Sawmill sites for the last time between February 25th and 28th. From March 5th to 11th I made a trip to northern Thailand to visit the lignite and the triassic beds at Mae Mob. On this trip I was accompanied by a curator of the Bangkok Museum- Mr. Somphorn Ynpho, who assisted me in the best possible way. The zoologist Palle Johnsen and the botanist Kai Larsen carried ont their studies, using the archaeological camps mainly as their bases, that is to say at Ban Kao, Sai- Yok and Lawa Cave. From the Lawa Cave camp, Kai Larsen, with some Thai colleagues, Mr. Prasert Ynsamran, Mr. Suwan Klipbua and Mr. Tem Smitinand, on January 23rd started on a three weeks' excursion across the country of Kwae Yai for botanical studies.

iz

Dr. Eigil N ielseti.

As will be understood from the above, five of the six iocalities mentioned in the programme for this season have been investigated. The one locality not visited, because of lack of time, was the Ongba Cave near Sri Sawat, but as we found and investigated the Picture Cave, Tam Roop, the number of investigated localities is the same as in our programme. Regarding the results of the investigations in our s1x localities, I shall try to make a very brief summary, based on reports from the various groups of the different expeditions. I shall begin with the results of the investigations in the rock shelter and the adjoining caves near Sai-Yok, because these results in fact give the very backbone of the prehistory of Thailand. The excavations carried out here were a direct continuation of last year's trial excavations at the same site, summarized by Dr. van Heekeren in the JSS, 1961. The Sai-Yok rock shelter is unique in showing extraordinary thick deposits-4.5 metres-thereby telling us a very long, probably almost continuous story, reaching from the palaeolithic through the mesolithic and the neolithic periods. A story far more complete than told by any other locality so far investigated in Thailand. Summarized from Dr. van Heekeren's report written in February 1962, we have in this remarkable locality and uppermost layer of dusty rubble of angular limestone fragments containing a mixture of historical potsherds and some pebble tools. Just below we have a shallow neolithic layer, and below that a thicker layer without remnants of pottery, but with monofacial!y chipped pebble tools and with bone points hardened in the fire. A surprising element new to this part of Asia are bladelets (small, narrow flakes with relatively long, paralled sides). Similar mesolith1c industries are known from India. Below a depth of about 3.5 metres the deposits suddenly beeome very hard and thus were very difficult to penetrate. This hard layer continues down to rock -bottom at 4.5 metres. The hard lower layer contains a fair number of large primitive tools and flakes. The tools are heavier and cruder than the layers above and are obviously of palaeolithic age. In the first season we found, at a rather high level, a buried human

'J·iJE THAI DANISH Pl1EHJS'I'ORIC EXPEDITION 1960-1962

mesolithic skeleton. Another, but incomplete human skeleton, likewise from a high level, was discovered during this year's excavation. In addition to the deep excavation in the rock shelter, a long trench was made clown the slope ou tsicle the shelter. Furthermore a deep pit and later on an extensive excavation was made at the junction of the slope and the upper river terrace. By these excavations large numbers of implements were found, especially farthest down the slope and in the deposit of the terrace. In the first 1.5 m. an iron axe was found, together with mixed mesolithic and neolithic materials which can be explained by all these things having been washed down the slope. Below this level was found a mesoli thic layer above layers with palaeoli tbic pebble tools. To this short summary can be added that new excavations were made in the caves adjoining the rock shelter and here neolithic burials were found as well as articles from Bronze Age and historical times. Both the La wa Cave and the Chande Caves have given anumber of interesting finds, i.a. including mesolithic tools and neolithic burials, but at both localities the deposits are rather shallow and therefore cannot tell a story of anything like the same length as that of Sai-Yok As to the Sawmill site at Wang Pho, I have no written report, but according to verbal information from Dr. van I-Ieekeren, the excavations here have given us good material from the Bronze Age as well as pottery and other ortifacts. The extensive excavations at and in the immediate neighbourhood of Bang site, near Ban Kao, have yielded an immense amount of material in the form o£ human skeletons, animal bones, pottery of many different types, implements of stone, bone and shell, and bracelets and necklaces etc., enough to give the most detailed information about the neolithic dwellers in that area. It was already suspected last year by Dr. van Heekeren that the culture represented at Bang site was related to the Lungsban culture known from northern China. This season's finds have, according to Per Sorensen's reports given an absolute proof of the connection

bi·. Eigli Nielsen between the Lungshan culture and the Bang site cuiture. Almost every sort of artifacts known from Lungshan having now been discovered at Bang site. The neolithic site at Ban Kao must now be considered by far the richest neolithic site in South-East Asia. Concerning the Picture Cave, Tam Roop, I have mentioneo already that in addition to the paintings we have only mesolithic implements in the rock shelter. As to the interpretation of the locality, the opinion of Count Eigil Knuth, as far as I know, is that the rock shelter had never been a real dwelling place, but rather a sort of shrine or holy place in which some pictures indicate Bronze Age and others possibly, older. According to Kai Larsen and Palle Johnsen, the botanical and zoological studies have given very good results. The zoological collection made include about 2,000 specimens and the botanical collection comprises of approximately 1,700 dried plants, 200 wood samples, 250 seed samples, and an alcohol collection of 400 items, as the area in which the collections were made was almost a terra incognita in botanical and zoological respects, it is probable that the collection contains several forms new to science. The results of the main expedition are to a very great degree due to a continuation of the close cooperation between the Thai and Danish members, I thank all my comrades from the Thai-Danish Expedition for their part in this cooperation and fine work. On behalf of the Expedition I tender my best thanks to the E.A.C. Ltd. the Otto Memsted Foundation, the Danish Expedition Foundation and the Siam Society for their financial support of the expedition. I feel a deep debt of gratitude for every sort of assistance given by the following gentlemen: I-I.H. Prince Dhanini vat, President of the Siam Society; Mr. Dhanit Yupho, Director General of the Fine Arts Department; Mr. Likkit Satayoot, Governor of the Province of Kanchanaburi;

Mr.

J.J. Boeles, Director of the Research Center and

H.E. Monsieur Ebbe Munck, Danish Ambassador to Thailand.

Raft In Kwae No! at Sai-Yok

Excavation in rock shelter

Cave A at Sai·Yok site

Lower part of the long ladder at Tam Roop

Excavation at Wang Pho site

Ban Iting. At a rather high level we found a fragmentary human skeleton of which the skull was lacking. It was embedded in a hard brecci:1. So far as systematic excavation is CLmccrned, our activities have not only been confined to the rock shelter proper. Reference, therefore, should also be made to a trial trench, 1.50 metres wide, down the talus slope. In this trench, a great number of pebble tools were collected, a few in the upper part, increasing in number downwards, with an accumulation at the junction of the slope with the upper terrace, eight metres below the surface of the rock shelter. Here a pit was sunk, more than Jour metres in depth. Pebble tools were found at all levels. In order to get better information about the stratigraphy, a large trench was laid out, 4-!t x 3 metres and perpendicular to the slope trench. Here it was found out that in the course of a long period, all kind of archaeological material has been washed down from the slope, forming a confusing mixture of cultural elements together, in the first 1.50 metres notably neolithic potsherds, an iron axe, a polished axe and mesolithic tools. Deeper we observed, what is at first sight at the same level:

18

A BU!EF SUUVEY OF THE SAI-YOK EXCAVATIDNS, 1961-1962

a)

along the north wall of the trench, a Hoor with an abundance of pebble tools of a mesolithic habitus, and many refuse flakes suggesting a working place or atelier from that period.

b)

along the south wall, in a soft red clay layer, a concentration of neolithic broken vessels.

This can adequately be explained on the basis that the surface of the site is sloping to the south. Actually the neolithic horizon lies 183 em. and the mesolithic floor 228 em. below the surface respectively. The excavation here is not finished. Finally, in the left cave (when facing the rear wall of the rock shelter) a trench has been excavated 3.40 X 1.65 metres. The upper layers were much disturbed. Neolithic potsherds, some mcsolithic tools, fragments of a bronze Buddha figurine, a spindle whirl of baked clay, iron tools and Bronze Age beads and potsherds and charred human bones were found in one and the same layer. In an archaeological context, however, a small, beautiful Ming ( ? ) vessel was unearthed. It was covered with a lid and containing some ash and small bones of a child. On the rock-bottom was found a neolithic burial "in situ". Except for some bones, the skeleton was disintegrated. It had been lying in an east-west extended position with the head pointing to the east. At the head, funeral gifts in the form of three large broken vessels (of the Black Pottery class) were found. At the middle part of the body, a beautiful polished axe of chalcedony, another polished axe and a finely chipped chisel were unearthed. Vessels, laid clown at the foot-end, have been excavated last season in an adjacent sector. All by all the Sai-Yok sites have revealed a great quantity of well-documented data starting with palaeolithic, followed by mesolithic and neolithic and a few traces of Bronze and Iron Age. We have achieved to arrange the prehistory of the K wae Noi Valley in broad terms in their relative chronological order. With last year's finding of Sawankalok ware, and a fine bronze Buddha head and this year's Ming ware, we begin to emerge into tbc full light of history. The excavation is to be continued. S'ai-Yok, February 3, 1962 .

FURTHER REPORT ON THE SAI-YOK EXCAVATIONS AND ON THE WORK AT THAI PICTURE CAVE

by

0igil Knuth From the date of v. I-Ieekeren's departure, on Feb. 7th until March 24th the Sai-Y ok group kept on working, consisting now of two men only: Mr. Chin You-di and Eigil Knuth. According to plans the efforts during this last period had to serve two different purposes: 1) continuation of the diggings and the surveyings at the Sai- Yok site, and 2) investigations of the wall paintings and the rode shelter at Khao Kicw or "Green Hill".

1. Work at THAM PRAH (Sai-Yol{). As mentioned in v. Heekeren's report, here there had previously been opened two sectors on the 20m. terrace, about 8 m. under the rock shelter. One of them-sector X-was situated close to the lower end of the slope leading down from the rock shelter, the other one, Z, was placed 6 m. in front of X, at the edge of the terrace. When v. I-Ieekeren left Sai-Yok the excavations in sector X at an average level of about 250 em. below the surface had gone through a neolithic layer and reached the upper part of a mesolithic one. The registered finds counted 473 items. At the end of the campaign on March 24th the deepest level in the sector was 373 em. and the total number of :finds had increased to 1545 items. The mesolithic layer proved to be extremely rich in stone implements of :fine workmanship, and as in the rock shelter it was succeeded by a layer of coarse choppers and tool fragments of decidedly more primitive aspect, while, at the very bottom finer tools again seemed to appear. All in all this sector more clearly than the rock shelter shows the sequence of prevailing types, and thanks to samples of charcoal from the lower strata it will probably be of use to the dating.

20

Eigil Knuth

In sector Z a neolithic layer was reachrfl before v. Heekeren left Sai-Yok. At a depth of 260 em. below the surface this layer, however, stopped to give place for more than 70 em. thick deposits of sterile silt. Below this another neolithic strata appeared, rich in very rotten potsherds, and with apparently waterworn axheads, some charred bones 11nd pieces of charcoal. When the diggings stopped, this neolithic complex gave room for mesolithic tools about 400 em. below the surface. Beside these sectors on the 20m. terrace 4 new sectors were dug in tl1e two caves at both sides of the rock shelter. The first of them, sectorS, was placed in the small cave, the three others in the large one. Mnst worth mentioning are the sectors P and Q established as nrolongaHons of a ditch CEFGH) from last years investig-ations. Both of these sectors lay close to the cave wall, and what thev contained of earth. and finds rested on rather steep sloping rock, giving most favourable conditionR for sllcling. Nevertheless, many of the things in tl1ese two neighbouring sectors lay so dose together, that it is likely they belon1~ to a cultural unit. This unit was a burial, the skeleton of which lay in the upper part of P. The bead had disappeared apart from a inw-fragment with 3 teeth as well as many other teeth spread around separately. Undoubtedly connected with this skeleton were 16 small pots, all hand-modelled and rather carelessly done, apparently only to serve as symbolic grave -goods. Furthermore were found: 6 polished neolithic axheads, 1 head of a shouldered axe, 1 spinning wheel, 4 grinding stones, 2 iron fish-hooks, 4 iron chisels, 8 pieces of bronze arm (?) rings, some pieces of tortoise shells and many potsherds. At a level above this grave was a large cremation urn with bones and ashes, and at a lower level several mesolithic pebble tools. In between the archaeological work a survey of the whole cave mountain was carried out, and a horizontal plan drawn in scale 1:100, showing the rock shelter and all caves as well as all sectors. To this was added two vertical cuts, one at a right angle to the back wall of the rock shelter, reaching from the 20m-terrace to the very top of the cliff,-the other one following a longitudinal axis through

FURTHER REPORT ON THE SAI-YOK EXCAVATIONS

21

the larger cave. A front picture of the mountain and many plans of the different sectors were also drawn.

2. Work at THAM ROOB

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Ming like the khwan is an immaterial thing, also residing in a person. It gives him good fortune and prosperity if it does not desert him. In speaking, the word ming· is frequently couplec\

TJ!I( KHWAN AND ITS GI!:RBMONIES

l~5

with the word khwan as ming klul'an. It means probably a mysterious power supposed to determine one's luck or fortllne. By comparing the word 1ning with the Chinese word also ming ( ~) meaning life, fate, destiny of men, 1 believe that they are one and the same word. The Thai have lost the original meaning oE their word ming through the adoption of Pali wore\ chi.vi.t ( •ii1~1 =Pal i Jivita) meaning life. The various Thai tribes outside Thailand i.e. the Ahom in Assam, the Tho and other Thais in Tongking, the Dioi and the Nung in Southern China, still retain the 111i1zfi meaning

life in their language. Like the klw:rtn the word mi11g has shifted its meaning from

life to that of luck or fortune. It has again been superseded in its later meaning by the words ui and st:r£ of Sanskrit and Pali origin, both of which mean luck, prosperity, wealth, beauty, fame. So popular nre the words sri. and o~iri with the Thais that the two words are to be found in the above senses in everyday use, and also to he found as n prefix to many Thai litle-munes, and aH n suffix to many Thai female personal names. No wonder, then that the word ming has become vague in meaning. It is now, eonfinecl to limited uses. vVith the exception of the cottplet mingkhwan already mentionc·d, the word tiling strange to say, is nsually fo)lowed by u word uf ~he same initial sound such as ming mtwnp, ~) ( lWlJtl~ 1ning mia (''~) lJ~llJt:J · Tbe word muang means a city, and

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the word tnir.L means a wife. With word ming as a prefix, ming mnang and mi.ng mia may mean the best or precious city and the best or precious wife. Comparing this with the meaning of 1.-hwan, one is no wiser than before.

We now come to the word r:hetubh!tt. This is n Pnli word meaning in its original sense a substance which is the author of thought or consciousness. It is, therefore, not much different in meaning than to the word mind. But in popular parlance, particularly among the older generation, there is not much difference between the chetabhut and the khwan in certain characteristics. The khwan will forsake someone only when the person is 1n great fear or is influenced by evil spirits, while the r:hetabhu.t will leave a

126

Phya AnunHtn Hajadhon

person only when he or she is in an apprehensive fear or during :sleep in a dream. A man walking alone in a lonely place hears footsteps as if someone is w::tlking behind. He turns back in an apprehensive fear but sees no one. To country folk the sound heurd by the man is no other than his chetabhut. There is a folk story about the chetabhnt: well-known among the different Thai peoples which agrees in substance and differs only in details. Here is one version of the story. Two men on a journey took a rest at a certain place One of them fell asleep. His companion saw an insect issuing from one of the sleeper's nostrils. He followed it and found that the insect, by accident, had floundered into a water-hole. It tried to swim to get out of the water. The man pnt a bit of grass on the water, letting one end o( it touch the water and the other end touch the ground. The insect took advantage of that bit of grass and succeeded in getting out of water. It crawled back followed by the man and eventually re. entered a nostril of the sleeping man who then woke up. He told his companion that he had had a bad dream: he fell into some water, hut succeeded in getting out without drowning hy means of a piece of wood which jutted into the water. His companion then knew that the insect: was his friend's chetalihnt. Among the stories of the chewbhut as heard from the older generation, tl1e form of the chetabhnt. varies. It may be in the form of an ant, a eaterpillar, n spider or a scintillating thing somewhat like a firefly. Another version of the story relates that the chetabhut gnl out from the sleeping man not through a nostril but through the tip of one of his toes. Instead of falling into water, the chetabhut; climbed up with difficulty to the top of a hill; which in reality was only a heap of cow dung. Like the Muuan with its thirty-two multiple souls, the chetabhut has four. Vifhen a person is very ill in a critical stage with no l1ope of recovery, old folk say that three of the sick man's four chetabhu.t have left him. Probably the folk refer to the traditional four elements, earth, water, wind and fire, but miscalled them chet.ah!wt. Possibly the chet(tbhnt; is no other th~n the

'l'l!lo: KllWAN .\Nil IT~ Ci•:tu:MONIES

J.:lzwrw itself, but of alien origin, which the Thai have gatberect into the fold of tl1eir old beliefs along with the kh~t•un.

/\\though the khtN//1 is nowhere stated explicitly to have a physical form, the expression !tlnuan hin or the khwun flies awav

when it ha~; a fright, points tn the fact that the 1.-h~t•rtn mus-t have win~s. The Lno's 1.-hwon is in the form nf a ericket. the Malay, ami possibly alsn thnt of the Indonesian, .1etnangat soul is in the form of a hird, :tncl the Burmese leip-bya soul is in the form of n but1.erf1y. There is also the belief of the people in Europe that the floul of a dead man becomes a butted1y or a moth, so there arc some possible grounds for thinking that the khwan must ha\'e n fonn of some kind. Sh way Y oe (Sir George Scott) tells us in his book "The Flurman, his Life and Notions'' that the leip-bya or the Burmefle

butterfly sonl "is the cause of dreams. It is not absolutely necessary that the butterfly should remain eonstantly i.n the body; death will not necessarily ensue from the separation. When a man is asleep, thE>refore, it leaves the body nncl roams far and wide. But in these wnnclerings it can only go to those places where the person to whom it belongs has previously been. A straying from known paths would eause extreme danger to the sleeping body, for it might happen that the butterf1y wonlrl lose its w::1y and never return, and then both would die. The body because the animating principle was gone, and the leip-hJa becnu;;e it had no earthly tenement to live in". Sir George Scott, further in the same book, :>ays that there is another kind of Boul of the Burmese, the thwe seit which be translates as "soul of the blood" Lack of information on the primitive belief of the soul among the people of various races in the Indo-Chinese Peninsula is a handicap to comparative study. Anyhow the Burmese butterfly soul and the Thai chetabhnt seem to he one and the same kind in certain aspects.

Tbe Chinese say that a man's soul goes out at night during sleep through an aperture on the crown of the head. (Compare the brahmarandhm·a or Brahma's opening of the Hindus, where the soul

]28

Phya Anuman Rajacihcin

of a holy man leaves the body during death from an aperture in the same locality of the head). A man's dream i.s the experience of the soul while roaming. As the soul gets in and ou l every night, the hair on the crown of the head is disturbed by continual treading of the soul, so they arc:, therefore, unable to grow and thrive, unlike the hair on either side of the head, which grows luxuriantly undisturbed by the treftding of the soul. Hence., baldness is mmally confined lo the eentral part of the head. The Thai /Juoan goes out from that part of the head also, though it is not expressly stated. An average Thai will not tolerate Woe to the person without resentment anyone touching hi:> head. who pats a Thai head, if that person is a woman. Worse still if the hand that touches it is a left hand, for that hand is unclean, particularly that of a woman. No man if he can will pass under a clothes line, nor let a woman's lower garment touch his head. When passing or standing near a snperior or an elder, one should lower one's head in order not to be above or on an equal level with the head of that personage. If that personage sits on a chair or on a raised platform one musl lower one's head when passing ncDr the person. If he squats on a carpet or floor one mu:;t kneel or crawl. These socinl habits have become so conventionalized that they nnw form part of the Thai eticJuette of good manners and decorum. Why is the average Thai so fastidous ahout his head'( The reason perhaps may be found in the old belief that the khtNm has something to do with the head. If you want two boys to have a fight, just draw on the ground two circles, assuming that one of the circles is one of the boys' head, and the other circle is the head of the other boy (t~um11to draw heads). Now, dare the boys to rub out the other's cirele with their feet. Should one of them accept the dare rtnd do it, it is a grent insult and in most cases there will be rdi.p;ht between the two. That is how sacred the head is among the Thai, and this I believe to be due to the belief of the !.hwwt. The Thai word chai which means heart or mind, is also curious. Through magical art the chai can be removed from a person like a possession and hidden somewhere. No harm will be

'l'HE KHW AN AND ITS CEREMONIES

129

done to the owner but it will give the person invincibility for no weapon can harm him. He will dw only when his clztang chai (the heart in a round form) is discovered in its hidden place and cl'Ushed. The magical removal of a heart is called in Thai thad duang chai ( tt'1l~~·H'h) which quite literally means to remove a heart. By extension, a lover may say to his beloved that he has entrustec1 his heart to her. The belief of removal of a heart by magical means is to be found only in a certain class of Thai literature. It is probably of Indian origin. When frightened one's chai or "heart is lost and overturned'' (i1lmtJ'l'\ltA1) whereas the" khwan flees and bile withers" ('ll1't)l'Yil1~J'1l). Why, I do not know. As one of the causes of jaundice is a severe mental emotion like anger or fright one is apt to think ''the khwan flees and bile withers" has the same cause as the jaundice. The word chai forms a couplet with the khwan in lchwan cluti and the word khwan forms a couplet with ming in ming lchwan One can not reverse the order of these two couplets nor can one interchange their components. I venture to translate the couplet khwan chai as the khwan or vital spirit of the chai or heart while ming khwan is the ming or life of the lchwan. Hence a person has in himself or herself a chai (heart or mind), while the chai has its khwan (soul or vital spirit), and the khwan has its ming (life). 3,

"'NlAl\'I KHWAN" CEREl\'IONY

If a child comes home crying and in u feverish condition after experiencing a fall or a scare, people believe that the khwan has left the child. Someone, usually the child's mother, will in an instant take a brass bowl 1 with its ladle and a piece of cloth and go out directly to the spot where the child is supposed to have lost the khwan. Calling back the child's khwan which is imagined to be 1. The brass bowl as referred to above is a domestic utensil for storing cooked rice and is to be found in nearly every Thai home in the central part of Thailand. It is called khan ( 'li'u l in Thai. One frequently sees it in the eady hottr of the morning when people present foo(i to monks.

Phya Anuman

l~aJadhoil

nearby at the spot, the child's mother takes the ladle out ancl dips up the imagined lrhu·an, which she puts in the brass bowl, and covers it with the piece of cloth. H.eturning home to the sick child she turns the brass howl round and round many times over the child, in the hope that the lrlt~cnn will scent. possibly from odor, the ebild; thus enabling it to go back to its former abode in the child. Pieces of unspun cotton thread ( n thing to he found in every Thai horne where there is home spinning and weaving) are then tied in a fast knot round either wrist of the child. Then follows a wish or blessing with a present as a gift to the child. With such procedure and trentment it i~ believed that the sick ehi.ld in due time will regain its normal self. In this simple ceremony just deseribed, the first act done is called riak khu·m1 ( L~tlfl'Ui'f)J) meaning the calling of the lcllll'an. The next: is called taJr ltlnmn ( W~"'mrii.)J) or the dipping up of the klomn, and the tying of unspun cotton threads round the ehild's or the tying of the khwan. wrists is called phook kh11·an ( NT1'\l1"m) 0~ The whole procedure is called tliam lrhn·rw, literally the making of the lil11can or, in its shifted meaning in current usc t{S already mentioned, compensation for an injury done. What has been described of the l; lomn here is mainly done in Bangkok and in the central area of Thailand. In other areas of Thailand the words and details of the ceremony vary but overlap to a degree where two sub.cultnres meet. For instance, in Northern Thailand 1he tharn lrllttan ceremony is called r.hom1 lclnum ( l~t~'lrlt}J) i.e. the invitation of the khll'un, while in the north-eastern part of Thailand where its culture meets that of the Laos and also in a southerly direction that of the Cambodians it is called 81./. khwa,~ ( ~'lrif.)l ), i.e. the welcoming of the klwrm, The tying of unspun threads round the wrists is called 111af mii ( ~1'1"1~~) in Northern Thailand, meaning the binding of the hand. In the North-East it is called •• " .I( Jlook lrha.lt mu ( t~fl'iiUJtJ) or the tying of the wrists. The ceremony of th" m khwan or to be short the hhwan ceremony as given hitherto is in its simple form. There is also a certain kind of !tlw·an ceremony in a eomplex form, perhaps due .to later "

THE KHWAN AND ITS CEREMONIES

131

development, with degrees of elaboration pertaining to different classes and ranks of the people concerned. Also, when a child every now and then has an ailment with 01 " t lwee days goo d ·our f d ays 1'll " ( {Y1lJ'lU'llfl''lU "

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EXPEDITION TO THE· KHON PA' (OR PHI TONG LUANG?)

Kraisri ElVimmana.haeminda !Julian 9-(artland-c>Swann On August 5, 1962, an expedition under the auspices of the -1 -'l Siam Society to investigate the Phi Tong Luang ( t-1~1'1l~l11cHl~) or 'Spirits of the Yellow Leaves', assembled at Muang Nan. The expedition, of necessity small in number in order to provide the maximum opportunity of meeting the tribe without scaring them off, consisted of three members of the Society under the leadership of Mr. Kraisri Nirnmanahaeminda, his secretary, a photographer and a number of bearers. It should be mentioned at the outset that none of the members of the expedition were qualified anthropologists or ethnologists. This article consequently makes no claim in these fields to attempt anything more than a factual presentation of the expedition's findings; only in the linguistic field is any professional assessment attempted and even this has had to be strictly limited in the light of the very slender body of facts discovered. To place the subject in perspective an outline of the historical background is relevant. In northern Thailand the legend of the Phi Tong Lnang is ancient and very widespread. They were said to be a tribe of nomads, primitive, shy, suspicious and only rarely seen, who practised no form of agriculture, went around almost naked and lived on a diet of berries, nuts and small animals. They were said to inhabit the deep jungle and to construct no houses except small, temporary, lean-to shelters from a few sticks and palm-leaves. It was in fact these palm-leaves, grown yellow after their few days' use and then discovered by passing Thai hunters, which gave rise to their picturesque name. Up to 1936, however, no qualified observer had ever seen them, although Major Seidenfaden, during the course of his extensive anthropological work in this country as a member of the Society, noted several reports of Phi Tong Luang in the Sa valley in Cbangwat Nan which seemed to In 1936/7 an Austrian ethnoconfirm some parts of the legend 1 . logist, A. H. B"rnatzik, in the course of a Rturlv of the autochthonous 1. For fullest account see J.S.S. vol XX, part 1, pp 41-48; also mentioned in J.S.S vol, XIII, part 3, pp 49-51 & vol. XVIII, part2, pp.142-144.

166

Kraisri Nimmanahaeminda and Julian Hartland-Swann

peoples of South-East Asia, came to Thailand, organised an expedition into an area about 20 miles east of Nan and then claimed to have traced, met and lived with a small group of Phi Tong Luang. He published his findings in a book, now translated into English 1 . Between 1954 and 1956 two American anthropologists, Weaver and Goodman, also went into the Nan area and reported finding a small group of Phi Tong Luang. Apart from this and several chance brief encounters by Mr. Garland Bare, a missionary working in the Nan area at the moment, there has been no further corroborated evide11ce about these people. Bernatzik's account, although controversial ever since its publication, is certainly the most detailed and authoritative description of Phi Tong Luang and really constituted the main evidence we had to go on before mounting the expedition. We were therefore somewhat disappointed to find several discrepancies between his descriptions and what we observed when we met our own group. These discrepancies will be brought out during this article since in many ways it is on these that hinge the three main problems about our findings: were the people we met really Phi Tong Luang; what relation do they have with other Phi Tong Luang groups such as those met by Bernatzik, \Veaver, Goodman and Bare; and, most important of all, does the actual name Phi Tong Luang have a genuine ethnic connotation, or is it simply a loose coining invented by the Thai to cover" any strange or remote group of jungle-dwellers· We are able to give authoritative answers to none of these questions. However, as far as the last question is concerned, our own evidence and that of almost every independent account leads to what can almost be regarded as a firm conclusion. The name Phi Tong Luang is indubitably a Thai coining (it appears also in the alternative forms of Kha Tong Luang in Laos and Phi Pain the Nan area). No group of people in any account has ever admitted to owning the name; Bernatzik's o;ro•m ~~tl·~r:l thP.m~r··lves Yumhri, while onr 0wn ("ailed 1. • The Sptl"it;; •Jf the Yellow Leaves•, A.H. Bernatzik, (Robert Hale, 1958 ).

EXPEDI'i'ION TO THE KHON PA

themselves Khon Pa, at the same time strenuously repudiating the name Phi Tong Lnang. Moreover, as a glance at our photographic records will show and as later described, our group showed within itself considerable differences in physical appearance and seemed most unlikely to have stemmed from a common stock. It seems clear in fact that the name Phi Tong Luang is a name invented by the Thai and used indiscriminately to refer to any unfamiliar people who inhabit the deeper parts of the jungle and who are not members of any recognised hill-tribe or known local community. In itself it has no ethnic, sociological or genuine categorical meaning at all. It is for this reason that we have referred to the group we encountered as Khon Pa and not Phi Tong Luang. Bernatzik met his Ywnbri somewhere in the Wa valley about 20 miles east of Muang Nan. We met our nine Khan Pa in the Sa valley about 30 miles west of Muang Nan. We had walked into the jungle north from the village of Fang Min on the Nan-Phrae road and set up a camp in Ban Pa Hung. From here we had sent out a scouting party consisting of two local teachers and the Phn Yai Banl all of whom knew the group of Khan Pa well, having traded with them over a period of years. This advance party contacted the group after two days' search and had then arranged for them to meet us at an abandoned village called Ban Huay Kum, situated about 10 km. up a small tributary which ran steeply down from the hills to join tbe Mae Sa. All of us had carefully put on the loose blue smock and trousers worn by the local Thai villagers so that the Khan Pa should not be too startled by their first sight of 'farang' and city Thais. To reassure them further we also took with us several of tbe !oral Thai village maidens as our 'women-folk'! These girls went forward to one of the less dilapidated of the houses and we were delighted to see the group of Khon Pa suddenly appear, weighed down with their mats, baskets, knives and the occasional spear, and make for 1his hous~". It wRs about 11 am., almost immediately there 1. Village headman.

168

Kraisri Nimmanahaeminda

and Julian

Har tland-Sw ann

was a burst of chatter and laughter and this continued so vigorously that we lost no time in emerging from the shelter of our own house and joined the woman. There was a momentary pause as our heads appeared above the floor level and the Khon Pa nervously fingered the knives at their waists, but talk quickly resumed and after that they betrayed almost no nervousness at nil throughout the seven hours we spent with them. In fact one of the earliest and most striking impressions that we received was their spontaneous vivacity and gaiety, shown both by their frequent bursting into song accompanied by dancing and by their constant wit and good humour throughout our questioning. ( Bernatzik's Yumbri were particularly noted for their extreme shyness and almost lugubrious low 5pirits.) They were not however either curious or particularly observant. Despite the fact that five of us carried cameras and that we had two tape-recorders and a cine-camera in addition, they took very little initial notice of them and not only sat quite unmoved while we either photographed or recorded them but allowed us to group or pose them wherever we wished. Throughout the day they never asked us a single question about who we were, what we were doing or why we had come. When one of the Thais in our party pointed to Velder and Hartland-Swann and said 'farang ', they appeared to evince neither surprise nor interest and after repeating the word several times in an experimental way they turned away. To attempt an accurate physical description of them is difficult-both because none of us were trained anthropological observers and also because there was cor.siden:tble variation among the nine men we met. As far as we could judge they did not belong to any one identifiable ethnic group, altbou,)1 i1 ap:)eared that they were all of mongoloid and not negrito stock. It is best therefore to attempt to describe the features which they all shared in common and then to qualify this in individual cases They ranged in age from aboLit 17 to 50 ( all ages are es1imates since they were unable to reckon their own ages at all) although most of them appeared to

Group of nine Khon Pa, wearing clothes given by advance contact party.

Khon Pa with spear, blade was supplied by our party as a gift, but original point made by Khon Pa has been retained at other end.

Group of three Khon Pa, showing contrasting ethnic features.

Khon Pa dancing.

be in their 30's. They were (with one exception) small men about 5' 2" in height with sturdy well-built figures, particularly well-developed chests and strong shoulders and thighs. Their hair was black, thick and straight, although it was usually matted and very dirty. They wore it quite long, almost to their shoulders, hanging in a slight wave (three of them had cropped it short just by the neck) and most of them had applied some sort o-f animal grease to it. Their forehead was high surmounting strong eyebrows, though the latter had little trace of bushiness. The eyes were large, mongoloid, with long curling eyelashes, while the nose was generally pronounced, strong and high-bridged with narrow nostrils (three of them had a rather broader and flattened nose). The mouth was generally large with lips which were thickish though not negroid; the body well-built as described although there was some tendency to bowing in the legs. The colour of the skin showed some variation but was in general a pale yellowish tan, quite similar to the colour of the northern Thai. They appeared to be quite healthy with no sign of undernourishment, although they were extremely dirty and smelt highly. Several of them, however, were suffering quite severely from ring-worm on the waist arid groin, and two of them hnd suffered some damage to one of their eyes (one of them explained that he had been stung by n hornet in the eye in early youth). They wore no form of body ornament at all although all of them had the lower lobe of the ear pierced into a baH-inch diameter hole which in some cases had actually caused the lobe to break. Four of the group also had a blue tattoo worked onto their chest and back and one actually had a watch tattoed onto his wrist. These taHoes they explained had been done for them by some Thai visiting the valley a few years earlier and was in a conventional Thai pattern consistent with this explanation. They were mostly smooth-skinned though some had traces of body h~ir on the arms and legs. None of them had beards or any observable facial hair. None of this is in direct contradiction with Bernatzik's physical descriptions of the Yrunbri, though a comparison of the photographs he took and our own make it unlikely that the two groups are closely related. It i::; possible that they might have come from a similar original mongoloid stock a long time back, but no :\TIOre than this.

1'10

Kraisri Nimmanahaeminda and Julian Hartland·Swantl

Unfortunately we had neither the time nor the equipment to take detailed measurements and other vital observations which might have made their origins clear. We can only hope that a later op· portunity to do this will present itself. On their arrival at the meeting place, they were all wearing something in addition to their loin-cloths. They presented an extraordinarily motley sight as they tramped in, one in an old motheaten cardigan and a tattered pair of shorts, another in a grubby tee-shirt and two of them with bright pieces of green and blue plastic material flapping grotesquely about their waists. All of this had been given to them by our advance party. They told us that normaily they simply wore their loin-cloth, a filthy piece of twisted rag which they either begged or picked up by barter from the Thais. Once provided with the extra' clothes', however, they appeared curiously loth to remove them when asked and said they were asbamecl. Certainly when they left us that evening, having stripped almo~•t every garment off our backs even down to asking for Velder's pyjamas they appeared in high spirits. Gleefully wearing all their trophies they strutted off down the track like a troop of over-deeked scarecrows. They deBnitely wove no cloth themselves, both on their own evidence and corroborated by the Thais, though how they kept themselves warm at night still remains as much a mystery to us as it did to Bernatzik. Unlike the Ywnbri the Khan Pa seemed to possess some skill in handicrafts. They all carried with them a sort of string-bag made from knotted vine fibre, in which they carried tobacco, root pipes, dried banana leaf for rolling cigarettes (which they smoked constantly alternately with their pipes), fire-making equipment (a flint and steel) and beeswax which they used for trading. Almost all of them carried at least one knife tucked into their loincloth. These were small and crudely fashioned with both sheath and handle covered with plaited rattan, One man carried a spear about 7' long and tipped at one end with an unbarbed point; on the other end be had already bound the large forged spear-blade :::-hi.£1L!?_~~l form~d the chief gift carrie~J~y o~r_a_?v~~!l_Cf)1J~!Y~_!_he>: 1. see Bernatzik's 'Die Geister der Gcil>ern Bruckmann19::J8) illustrations No. GS & 59.

Bl~\tter'

(Verlag F.

EXPIWITTON TO TilE KllON PA

171

nlso carried, rolled in a mnt, one other shorter spear about 5' long. This had a more complex attachment which looked rather like a narrow bladed hoe or spade implement. Several of them carried lidded baskets on their backs made of dried split rattan and of a design quite similar to those made hy several hill-tribes-particularly the Meo. Here the Yumbri provide an interesting comparison since they were noted as making baskets of an almost identical design which they had learnt from the Meo. The Yumbri also made mats from the same material which again sounds very similar to those brought in by the Khan Pa and used by the latter as a staple trading product with the valley Thai. The Khon Pa said that they could work iron and were eager to aquire this material, one of the group met by our advance party having specifically requested a gift of an iron bar, which we in fact ultimately provided. We nevertheless had great difficulty in determining any de:finite product of their forging and, apart from the two crudely fashioned spear-points, all their implements may well have been obtained from local Thai sources and not made by them at all. Other examples of tbeir craftsmanship were available in two small, bamboo, lidded boxes, used to hold tobacco and fire-making equipment; these were carved and decorated with a simple design of stroke patterns and we found similar designs carved on two of their pipes. Their skills were crude and the design simple, but it seems an improvement on the Yumbri who, apart from the baskets and mats, attempted nothing in this sphere. As far as their diet is concerned much of our evidence is secondhand by way of our indefatigable Thai guides. Although, as mentioned, they did not appear to be undernourished, almost their :first request to us was for food. This the Thais said was habitual with them and they always went through an elaborate begging patter for food when they arrived at a village. We put before them meat, :fish, tinned sardines and glutinous rice-all of which they ate readily. They used their fingers throughout and were certainly hungry. They ate cleanly and seemed -familiar with the type of food, working the rice into a ball with their fingers and using it to pick up the

172

Kraisri Nimmanahaeminda and Julian Hartland-Swann

pieces of fish or meat in the normal northern Thai fashion. We also gave them some coffee to wash it down with. This they treated with great suspic]on but in the end most of them drank it, under the impression, playfully fostered by the Thai bearers, that it was a rare new form of aphrodisiac. From oblique references of their own, confirmed later hy our guides, their main diet at that time of year was a small nut called 'mak hom', Pittosporopsis Kerrii Craib, which grows profusely in the area and is ripe during the months of July to September. To our taste it was bitter and r::tther unpleasant. This they supplement with wild mango, various roots, fruit, wild honey which they extract from the combs by pressing them through their vine bags, and small animals such as porcupines, bamboo-rats and snakes. The Khon Pa said that they also occasionally organised hunting parties accompanied by their dogs and killed barking deer, They had no knowledge of traps and never pigs and even bears. used them, nor did they make any attempt to store food but simply lived from day to day. They had no cultivation and appeared to dislike the idea of it acutely; when we asked if they would like to be like us and have all the things which we had, they rejected the idea with great distaste saying that it would entail tilling fields and this they would hate. All that they wanted in this line was tobacco and this they could obtain in plenty by helping themselves from the plots of deserted villages, When they mentioned their hunting trips with their dogs we began to question them further about the latter since we still had no clue as to where they were kept and hoped that this might give us a line on the most tantalising question of allwhere the Khan Pa lived. Now in a matter of fact way, they replied that they kept their dogs behind permanently in their villages. Here, indeed, was the most significant departure from Phi But when we began to cross- question the group for details the curtain descended again. Apart from saying that it was situated up on the ridge behind, above the pine line and that there were live or Hix houses they prevaricated. When we asked to be taken to it they hedged, saying, that the trail crossed many Tong Luang mythology.

Young Khon Pa showing tattoo marks-also a cast in the right eye from a hornet sting

Study of one of the group of Khon Pa, showing the well developed pectoral muscles and good physique.

EXPEDITION TO Tl'!:E KHON PA

173

streams, was difficult to navigate and would take too long. Finally they put us off by saying that they would take us to it if we returned in the dry season. The only other fact we gathered from them was that their women and children remained there permanently and would flee into the surrounding trees on the approach of a stranger, warned by the dogs who were kept there for that purpose. No stranger was ever allowed to see or meet them. Three of the Thais in Ban Pa Hung later told us that they had on several occasions been l'lllowed to visit the village and supplied us with a variety of details. We record them here although none of it could he varified of course. They estimated the total number living there at about fifty although the number of houses was no more than five or six. The houses were simply and crudely made: an earth floor covered with bark; two sloping roofs going up to the middle but not meeting, leaving a gap for the smoke of a centrally placed ·fire to go out through; the roof is made of palm leaves laid flat and held there by tree branches; and each house surrounded by a small enclosure made of further piled This was their only defence against tigers which were branches. their greatest enemy and of which they were terrified. They had lived in this particular village for just over a month and had moved there frum a previous village at the source of the Huay Tha where they had 1i ved for about four months. In fact this group had a long history of having 1ived and traded in the Sa valley for a period of over thirty years. The only exception was a disastrous move three years ago over the ridge into Changwat Phrae. They stayed there a year despite hostile treatment from occasional police patrols ttntil they were finally driven out by a particularly brutal attack by some Thai villagers who raided their village and burnt it to the ground together with all their stocks of rattan. They moved their village normally when they had stripped the surrounding area of food. As for the famous leaf shelters; certainly they made them, but only when they were on a trading or hunting expedition down in the valleys. Several more of the villagers confirmed having seen these shelters themselves when hunting, but unfortunately we ourselves never came across one throughout the trip. Our attempts to get details of their

17,1

Kraisri Nimmanahaeminda and Julian Hartlnnd-Swann

tribal organisation, social customs or taboos proved almost completely barren-whether because so little of a real social structure existed (as we think) or sim[)1y because of their obvious difficulty to express or communicate ideas of this nature, we never discovered. The group, during the time we observed it, showed little sign of cohesion or organisation, although they told us that the eldest of them was their leader. They did, however, go into a brief, vague description of the spirits whom they believed ruled their lives and whom they worshipped after a fashion. There were two main manifestations: one a general tutelary deity and the other a more specific spirit whose particular province was to protect the eyes and give them keen sight. They sacrificed to both, pigs to the former and ducks to the latter. A curious and perhaps significant feature of this was that both pigs and ducks had to be domesticated ones and not wild, and these pigs and ducks were the main things which they approached the Thai villagers for. This might indicate a survival from a time when they were in a more civilized state and reared their own stock. Quite the most interesting feature of the group was their language and singing. At first our questioning proceeded slowly and with some difficulty, although they spoke to us in Thai Yuan. The Thai Yuan, Thai Yon or Thai Yonok are the people who live in the northern provinces of Thailand today, i.e. Chiengmai, Lampoon, Lampang, Chiengrai, Phrae and Nan, which are also referred to as Lanna Thai. Their language is also sometimes called Phasa Muang (the language of the townspeople). Our group spoke this quite well but with a strong Khamuk accent. When asked about this they then said that they were in fact Khamuk themselves (the Khamuk are a hill tribe of whom there are large numbers in the Nan area). Khun Kraisri, happening to know a few words of Khamuk, shot them a few more questions in Khamuk and they promptly replied in it. One of our servants, who was a local Khamuk, told us that they were indeed speaking Khamuk, but with a pronounced accent and later one of our guides, Kamnan Ka Srikampha, confirmed that he had heard some Khamuk villagers living at Ban Nam Mae or Ban Pae (village No. 4, tambol Yap Hua Na) say that this group of Khon Pa

l~XPEDiT!ON

to

THE KHON

I? A

had visited their village frequently. They used to speak Khamuk to them just as they used Thai Yuan when they visited Thai villages. The Khamuk villagers had added, however, that their accent was certainly a strange one and made it clear that the Khon Pa were not in fact Khamuk. W c returned to our questioning and the Khon Pa now, quite suddenly, said that they were Thai Yuan. Again we had to go through laborious cross-checks, such as asking them what language the Thai Yuan spoke; to which they replied 'Kham Muang '. Even their names they carefully rehearsed to us in Thai Yuan (and in fact appeared to have no others). These names appeared quite random coinings and were almost as if they had been bestowed on them in fun by the Tbais :- Pan, Paeng, Muang, Ouan, Mun, Pa, Ta, Kham and La.l With all these contradictions, it was quite obvious that they were not telling the truth. Further tedious and frustrating questioning followed and we were on the point of giving UJ1 when suddenly one of the Khon Pa admitted that they had a language of their own. This language, he said, was old, never used, and he could barely remember it. Armed with this new information we called the nine Khan ea in to us one by one. If two agreed on a. word we accepted this as sufficient evidence of its probable correctness; if only vouched for by one of them we disregarded it. Unfortunately our time with them was too limite(i; they had come at 11 a.m. and left us at 6 p.m. that evening, and we had too many other questions to ask them apart from those dealing with their language. On the basis of the evidence gathered Khun Kraisri was able to prepare a list of words said to be 'their own' language (Appendix I). There are several interesting features about this v.ocabulary, all too brief though it is. All but four of the words have the prefix 'tok' or 'to' for which they could give neither reason or exact meaning. This prefix is applied both to the names of animals and to the various parts of the body and it may be possible that it is linked with the Thai word' tua' ( 1·1"1) which is used as a classifier or numerator for animals and some parts of the body. Out of the 1.. These can be lonsely translated as:- give, expensive, m;ngo, bamboo rat, hoard, fish, eye, gold and youngest.

176

Kraisri Nimmanahaeminda and julian Fi:artiand-Swanr1

forty-eight words noted, three are quite close to their Khamuk equivalents: dog, elephant and land-leech. A comparison of this list with Bernatzik' s 1 reveals no obvious similarities. Certain of the Ywnbri words are readily identifiable with Khamuk words and their language, as far as one can judge, is probably of the Mon-Khmer group, despite the addition of a certain number of Laotian loanwords. But the Khon Pa's vocabulary, apart from a similar number of Thai loan-words, shows no ':lpparent link with any other known Southeast Asian language. It is certainly too soon to decide whether it is directly related to either the Mon-Khmer group of languages or the T'ai. They themselves were clearly in some difficulty trying to recall a language which they normally never used. Their repeated self-contradictions and disagreements between themselves during our questioning also made the task of elucidating it more difficult and diminished the value of the words we did note down. Definitive results can only come after a lengthy analysis of the recorded tapes and in a later study. On the other hand the Khon Pa showed a remarkable ability in the use of flowery and poetic Thai Yuan, despite their Khamuk accent. Many of the words and phrases whieh they used are now obsolete in modern conversation and literature, such as Jrh:JlJII'ltll'ill ( 'l~tfii'J!tfu), Furthermore there is a notable incidence of paired words.

., c., 'llr-l'l!fllJ 'lllflr-JVl!ll'llJ ),

'~ 'U "' , 'VI1\lfl'l'11~mHJ

tfl~Um< "'

., "'

v rv ft!lNfff1flh!

'U : ,

1 'U

\1

~ 'I'J~j~fiY.I'I'l::

Some examples are:

cVlHm'iil") , llW:J.l'Y!\Hff'il "'·""' c"'

..

o'i ), l'lHllJ\1\J~IHl

'!

v 1( S1 ""' G) o l!J 1 o t'll11J11'll11'l~ wm: C11fr'0'1U ( 'VI11HI1ff11J)

( 1-!111'11111fl~ml'l ),

"

mnpl'llfi'IJ!'Jlfl,

#J)

mH'illfiU'hlltJ,

d

1ma~n1

,.,

ff::!flflff:i:U'DV,

11

!l\J'U11fl'll'hll

If they were not born with Thai as tbeir first language, it is certainly remarkable that they should have reached such a high level of accomplishment in it. This was even more remarkable when we discovered that they seemed unable to count at all above tbe number three, could not reckon their own ages and showed a complete inability to grasp any question involving a simple hypothesis. Yet tbey were using a language of poets and learned monks which even the Thai villagers whom they visited could no longer usc or fully understand. 1. The Yumbri vocabulary is published only in the original German edition on pp. 237-240

Khon Pa ready for travelling. Over his shoulder are his vine string-bag and a short digging implement or spear, behind is one of the rattan mat used as their principal trading items.

II study of the oldest of the group who appeared to be the leader, taken inside a deserted house during questioning. The trousers were a gift, but the cigarette is one of his own making.

Their expertise in singing and chanting was little less extraordinary. All nine of the men could sing, chant and dance most skilfully. Their songs can be divided into two types: the 'soh ' ( 'li'il) corresponding to a real song and the ' joi' ( ~'!H.I) correspon-

ding to a simple chant. Of the' soh' which we recorded there arc four song-tunes which can be identified as being related to the songs of the Thai in north-eastern Thailand and Laos, a! though none can be definitely named. Local experts in this subject who listened to the recordings were of the finn opinion that although these links with the north-eastern songs exist, they are nevertheless quite separate and not directly derived from them. Nor clo they have any close relationship with the ' khab ' ( iu) of the Thai Lue of Sipsong Panna, ( the Khan Pa are at this moment Jiving among villagers who are Thai Yuan or Thai Lue migrants from Sipsong Panna). It hos not yet been possible to compare the Khan Pa' s :mngs with Lao songs of the Saiyaburi and Luang Prabang districts-the other area which some of the Khan Pa hinted at having come from.-but it is hoped to do this later. A transcription of two of these 'soh ' accompanied by a free verse translation is given in Appendix II. The origins of the Khon Pa' s 'joi' are immediat@ly clear. It is definitely Thai Yuan and the air is called 'the old Chiengrnai air' ( ~'fli:.IVinl'Cl-31itJ~i,.,J1umu) which is still chanted in the countryside around Chiengmai as well as in many other parts of the north. The' joi' is a chant which is always assot:iated with a story told ip verse, called in the North 'Lao Khao' ( !ch~rl ), and derived from the Palinasajataka ( ~li!\)11ff'liHHl) which originated in Chiengmai about four hundred years ago. The 'joi' is also used as a vehicle for eni.otional themes such as love, joy or melancholy. The standard metrical pattern of the old Cbiengmai 'joi' is given in Appendix III. Our first impression was that both the 'soh' and the ' joi ' were traditional forms handed down to the Khon 1-'u by their ancestors, or else simply learnt by heart from other groups of people with whom they had come into contact. It was soon evident that this

178

I{raisrl Nlm manahaemlnda and Julian Hartiand-Sw artn

might not be the case when we heard their final song . (No. 2 in Appendix II) which was indubitably extemporised, yet in perfect form. In it is mentioned our main guide, the Phu Yai of Ban Pa Hung, Ka Rangphai, and it was composed by way of a parting tribute to m; as they left. Nevertheless it is hard to escape the conclusion that most of these songs were either learnt from people more sophisticated than themselves with whom they had come into contact, or were some sort of a legacy from a previous period of more civilised life. In most of the songs occurred many words which were quite foreign to the jungle culture of the Khon Pa in their present state-gold, silver, books-and such abstract words as poverty, friendship, gratitude and commerce. It was impossible to determine whether they understood the meaning of these words. Their own accounts of their past were almost equally baffling. They had never, they said, heard of the Yumbri and the only part of the name which they could understand was the second syllable bri, which they said, correctly, was the Khamuk word for forest.l They gave only one account of their origin in the form of a legend: ''there were once two brothers living near the edge of the jungle. The younger brother grew rice and vegetables- he became the ancestor of the Khamuk; the elder brother went deep into the jungle and lived on fruit, roots, yams, insects and small wild animals-he became the ance:>tor of the Khan Pa.'' Three of them, at one stage, however, mentioned the names of several towns and districts in Saiyaburi and western Laos. They said they knew about these places even though they had never been there. Later they asserted that they were born somewhere in the deep jungle near the source of the Mae Sa. A final curiosity remains. Among the people living around Phrae and Nan there is a strong legend still curent about the Phi Tang Luang. "Once upon a time, one of the ruling princes of Nan, -...vishing to gain merit, released a group of his slaves composed of a ----~p;·of;;~sor Condominas also notes the word •hri' meaning forest in use among the Mnong Gay tribe in South Vietnam iJ1 his book 'No us avons manl?e Ja foret' (Mercure de France, 1957 ).

179

EXPEDJTION TO THE KHON PA

hundred men and a hundred women. They were sent deep into the jungle, cursed to remain there and never return to civilisation. They were to get their livelihood only from what they could find in the jungle; if they started any form of 'agriculture, their plants would wither and dry up. They would have to beg .for whatever they needed from the villages. "We asked the, !Own Pa about this and they quickly agreed that they were indeed cursed people. This and tradition forbade them from carrying on any form of agriculture. 01 'fl1etr • curse h ad been 1at"d upon them thus: ".I :'s romance of Pra Abhaimani and reputed to have asked him to continue producing further instalments of it for n long time; and it might have been for these reasons tbat Bhti thought himself specially favoured by Her Royal Highness. One cannot help thinking that, had W'"mn III come across this poem, he might in a moment of vindictiver.ess have dealt with the poet quite severely for such an idyll however imaginary would have been an act of lese majeste punishable with the highest penalty. The poem under review was written during Bhu's period of extremely bad luck, when he had escaped from the vengeance of his literary adversary who had mounted the throne, though it is evident that the new King was not taking vengeance on the man. Bhii'fl style is highly popular even to tbe present day because of it~ sharp wit. rhyrhmic S'mance and fertile if extravagant imagination. He was often carried away by his vivid imagination to seem

189

RECENT SIAMESE PUBLICATIONS

as if he aspired to the love of his patroness the King's favourite daughter, even though the lady was decades younger than the old profligate monk that he was. v

..

't

...

"

286. CaoH1 Dharmadhibes : an Anthology of his poetry !'ll1Wlli'J1llli11Jfl' ed. with a biography by Dr. D. Yupo. Director-General of the Fine Arts Dept. w. ill. & map, B.E. 2505. 334 p. Much of the work of this poet of e"ceptional literary merit has managed to survive the sack of Ayudhya in 1767. The poet's biography has been reconstructed and appears on pp. 1-23. Born the eldest son of 'His Majesty of the Sublime Urn' ( 1732-1758 ), the last but two of the sovereigns of Ayudha in whose reign literary activities bloomed their last before the holocaust of 1767, Prince Dharmadhibe8, nicknamed 'Kt11J ', the Shrimp, was created Kromakhun in 1733 and lived through a period of dynastic troubles which no doubt weakened the nation and prepared the way for its fall in 1767. The Prince's jealousy of his righteous cousin, combined with his intrigues to that end, was the cause of the King, his father's displeasure from which he fled to the sanctuary of the monastery to save his 1ife. While a monk he developed a taste for religious literatme resulting in the composition of two poems of acknowledged literary merit, the Nandopananda Slitra and the Malaya. Siitra. Some four years later he was pardoned; and, resuming lay life, was created Crown Prince. He was entrusted with the extensive repairs of the Chapel Royal of Sri-sarbejna and the now-famous landmark behind the Royal Palace of the image of the MoiJkolabopit. His dissolute nature again got the upper hand; though having already no less than 11 consorts of respectability, became involved in a case of adultery with one of his father's young wives, which was considered a guilt of treason punishable with death.

Pra

Of his extremely elegant writings the most famous is the Boat-song still regularly sung by propellers of the state- barge on which the King sits on his annual progress to present the Kathin gifts on the other bank of the river. The song of Kuki is another ·beautiful piece of poetry. The Prince also wrote erotic poetry of

RECENT SIAMESE PUBLICATIONS

190

the niras type, all ranked as p;ems of poetry. All these have been collected and published in the volume under review. Dr. D. Yii~o contributes a biography. \iV ell chosen illustrations taken from the manuscripts of these works and from murals from the Chapel Royal of the Palace to the Front in Bangkok, good photographs of the state barges and a map make up the compendium of the work of a poet of high literary merit. The volume is artistically boun·d in red and forms one of a series of literary gems. Traces of the masterhand of the learned Director-General of the Fine Arts Department are evident. It is indeed a pity that the creator of all this was such a decidedly bad chAracter typical of the decadence that brought about the fall of the nation. Sthintsut, L.:

287. .I

-"

.!"'.

'"'

~.I

T Tsing's Lives o.f Buddhist Pilgrims to India . "'I

.I

"'

"'.

mt1~1W'i:::ff~'JI ~1n1 Ht wavWnll,nJu'H 1i'li'!'ilUIHlffl.lm::\'itll\1 .{ + RulJnakon

Press, Bangkok, with notes and a map, B.E. 2505, 57 p. It is pointed out in the introdnction that, of the writings of Chinese Bnddhist Pilgrims who went to India in quest of the Master's TeAching, those of Fa- Hi an and Hioucn-Tsang have been translated into Siamese and published respectively by Praya Surindraja and Mr. Ke:olinn SribPnrii?lJ. T Tsing however has not been translated and to fill up the gap the author has undertaken the summary herein published with the addition of sbort mentions of other pilgrims from China as yet unknown by the Thai public. First of all is of course a summarised biography of I Tsing, who among other accomplishments tr.anslated into eloquent Chinese the Buddhavatimsaka-mahiibaipulya-siitra and some 56 other Sanskrit Buddhist classics. He also had the distinction of introducing the Mantra pi taka into his motherland. I Tsing's records of travel in pilgrimage were two in number, one of which formed the source o{ this book under review. It was written in Sumatra where the pilgrim sojourned on his way back to India in B.E. 1228. Instead however of dealing with the travel the work under review has contented itself with nothing beyoncl a catalogue of the pilgrim::;, 60 of whom were known to I Tsing personally.

An additional detail which can hardly be left without mention is that the translator has not distinguished between the long and short a's when romanising Sanskrit names, such as '11~~'hl11'S"a1i'\.l~ ( p. 56) for Harshavardhana, 'l!Hl~l!1i7 ( p. 2) Jalandhara, 'ff~YilloanJ~il!­

p. 10) for Saddharmapundarika Si.itra. Such mistakes . are often made by writers who transcribe from the English without

'111;fl'fflll1 (

a knowledge of Sanskrit; but they cannot be accounted for in the case of our author who knows Sanskrit. 288.

~

Scientists of the Department of Mines: Touring Saiyok !VHI1 'l'\117lt'lflflv1J1a'l1nll Borikarn 'b!J Co., Bangkok, B. E. 2504, ill. map 90p. Again another sequel to the series of books for children i::>sued by the Department on Children's Day ( 1 October), two of which we have reviewed in Recent Siamese Publications no. 264 (JSS XLIX, 1) and no. 284 ( JSS L, 1 ). Again it" combines the delightful narrative primarily addressed to children" with what is worth knowing for grown-ups. The topic this time is Saiyok, a valley of great natural beauty which is now earning great notoriety for prehistoric finds as evidenced by the result, as yet to be examined scientifically, of the Thai-Danish Expedition organised jointly by Danish philantrophy, the Fine Arts Dept. and the Siam Society. The brochure commences with an eloquent tribute to the King who had passed 26 years of his life on the battlefield and yet managed to devote the rest of his life to reconstructing the state by restoring the economic and cultural status of his nation, himself living to the good old age of 74. Drawing a paralled of that King's methods in the art of war with the requirements of scientific research in mineralogy, the author or authors point out how the work of preparation has to be based in either case on a thorough knowledge of the terrain to be covered. In their treatment a considerable knowledge of history is made usc of and that serves to aronse interest on the part of children. Artistic interest is promoted by the description of the valley's natural beauty, for that is known to have inspired the writing of music and rhetorics

192

RECENT

si.u.msk

PUJJLiCA'I'JONt>

as evidenced by the composition by the late Prince Naris o£ his Sai.yok Idylls. Scientific interest is stimulated by a very readable sketch of the geological development of the rocks alongside the river and no phenomenon of natural beauty escapes the attention of the authors. And yet very little if any of the material thus presented can be accused of being dull' shop', to eliminate which the scientific phenomena are often accompanied by quotations of poetry from well-known authors in literature. The volume is accompanied by a well drawn map of the route by which King Rama I marched west in his great campaign of 1787 and which was the one adopted by this scientific party.

ACCESSIONS TO THE SIAM SOCIETY'S LIBRARY from ganuary to CJJecember 1962

Books Altekar, A.S.

: The Gupta Gold Coins in the Bayana Hoard (1954).

Amatyakul, Tri

: Guide to Ayudhya and Bang-Pa-In.

Andersen, Niels J,

Studier over Hovedprincipperne I Den Islamiske Handelsret (1961). (Presented by the author)

Anuman Rajadhon, Phya

: Life of the Farmer in Thailand (1955).

Arahant Upatissa

: The Path of Freedom (1961)(Presented by Dr. D. Roland D. Weerasuria)

Banerjee, A C.

: Sarvastivada Literature (1957).

Basak, R.

: A Study of the Mahavastu-Avadana (1960).

Basham, A.L.

: The Wonder that was India (1954).

Beasley, W.G. and Pulleyblank, E.G. (editor) Benisti, Mireille

Bhattacharyya, B. (editor) Bhirasri, Silpa Bhirasri, Silpa Bosch, Dr. F.D.K.

Historians of China and Japan (1961). Le Medaillon Lotiforme dans la Sculpture Indienne du Ille Siecle avant J.-C. au VIle Siecle apres J.-C. (1952). : Nispannayogavali of Mahapandita Abhayakarogupta (1949). : Appreciation of our Murals. : A Bare Outline of History and Styles of Art (1959). Selected Studies in Indonesian Archaeology (1961).

194

AcCESSIONS TO THE SIAM SOCIETYiS LIIJRARY

Bose, D.N.

: Tantras : Their Philosophy and Occult Secrets (1956).

Boulle, P.

: The Bridge on the River Kwai(1954).

Buabusaya, Chitr

: Buddhist Iconography (Thai) (B.E. 2503) (Presented by the author).

Burnay, ].

: Chrestomatie Siamoise (1938).

Campbell, Stuart and Chaweevongse, Chuan

: The Fundamentals of the Language (2nd ed.) (1957).

Thai

Caulfield, Genevieve

: Three Thai Tales (1961).

Na Champasak, S.

: Storm over Laos.

Chaumont

: Relation de l'Ambassade de Mr. le Chevalier de Chaumont a la Cour du Roi de Siam (1687).

Cirlot, ].E.

: A Dictionary of Symbols (1962).

Coedes, G.

: Cambogia (Presented by George Coedes).

Coedes, G.

: Cham, Scuola (Presented by George Coedes).

Coedes, G.

: L' Avenir des Etudes Khmeres (1960) Presented by George Coedes).

Coedes, G.

: The Vajiranana National Library (1924).

Coomaraswamy, A.K.

: Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism (1956).

Coomaraswamy, A.K.

: La Sculpture de Bodhgaya ( Ars. Asiatic Vol. XVIII, 1935).

Coomaraswamy, A.K.

La Sculpture de Bharhut (1956).

Cowan, C.D.

Nineteenth Century Malaya (1961). (London Oriental Series Vol. II)

Damrong Rajanubhab, H.R.H. Prince

: Miscellaneous Articles (B.E. 2505).

AC:CESSJONS TO THE SIAM SOCIETY'S LIB!IARY

Damrong Rajanubhab, H.R.H. Prince Dani, A.B. Davidson, J,L.

195

: Dedication to Prince Damrong of Siam (1947). Prehistory and Protohistory of Eastern India. The Lotus Sutra in Chinese Art (1954).

Delvert, Jean

Le Paysan Cambodgien (1961).

Devendra, D. T.

The/ Buddha Image and C ey Ion (1957).

Devendra, D.T.

: Classical Singhalese Sculpture B.C 300-A.D. 1000 (1958).

Dobson,

A Select List of Books on the Ci vilisation of the Orient.

Doehring, Karl

Indische Kunst, Teil I: Vorderindien und Ceylon (1925).

Dawson, J.

A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology (1961).

Duke, Pensri

: Les Relations entre la France et la Thailande (Siam).

Durnford, John

: Branch Line to Burma (1958).

Evans-Pritchard, E.E.

: Social Anthropology (1951).

Fine Arts Department

: Guide to Phimai.

Fine Arts Department

: Ram wong (Folk-Dance) Songs (1960).

Finot, M. Louis

: Le Pratimoksasutra des Sarvastivadins (1914).

Frazer, Sir J. Frederic, L.

: The Golden Bough (1959). : Indian Temples and Sculpture (1959).

Galestin, Th. P.

Lamak and Malat in Bali and a S\.1mba Loom (1956).

196

ACCESSIONS TO 'l'f-IE SIAM SOCIETY'S LJBRARY

Godakumbura, C.E.

: Sinhalese Literature (1955).

Goswami, A.

: The Art of the Pallavas (1957).

Gray, B.

: Buddhist Cave Paintings at TunHuang (1959).

LeGros Clark, W.E.

: History of the Primates (1959).

Das Gupta, Charu C.

: Paharpur and its Monuments (1961).

Das Gupta, S.

: Tagore's Asian Outlook (1961).

Hall, D.G.E.

: Historian of South-East Asia (1961).

Hanayama, Shinsho

: Bibliography on Buddhism (1961).

Hansen, Renny

: The Kurdis Woman's Life (1961).

Heizer, Robert F. (editor)

: A Guide to Archaeological Field Methods (1959).

Herskovits, M.J.

: Cultural Anthropology (1960).

Herskovits, M.].

: Cultural Anthropology (1960).

Hippon, Anthony

Horner, I.B.

Sevende Reys na Oost-Indien; Dag Register na van Pieter Williamson Floris, na Patane Siam (1707). : Women under Primitive Buddhism: Lay Women and Alms women (1930),

Hospitalier,

J.-J

Grammaire Laotienne (1937).

Hsiang-Lin, Lo

: A New Study of P'U Shou-Keng and His Times (1959) (Presented by the author).

Hsiang-Lin, Lo

: Kwang-Hsiao Monastery of Canton during the T' Ang with Reference to Sino-Indian Relations ( 1960) (Presented by the author).

Hsiang-Lin, Lo

The Role of Hong Kong in the Cui~ tural Interchange between East & West ( 1961) (Presented by the (3Uthor).

ACCESSIONS TO THE SIAM SOCIETY'S LIBRARY

Innes, H.. A.

Hl7

Costumes of Upper Burma and the Shan States.

Japan Cultural Forum ( edi)

Modern Art of Asia; New Movements and Old Traditions (1961).

Jumsai, M.L. Manich

: Compulsory Education in Thailand (1958).

Kennedy, T.

: A History of Malaya (1962).

Konow, Sten and Tuxen, Paul : The Religions of India (1949) Kramrisch (editor)

: Journal of the Indian Society of Oriental Art (Vol. XVIII) 1900-51.

Lamotte, Etienne

The Spirit of Ancient Buddhism (Presented by Librcria Commissionaria Sansoni)

Latif, S.M.

: Bunga Anggerik (1960) (Presented by Dr. Erwin Leemann)

Law, Bimala Churn

Asvaghosa (1946)

Law, Bimala Churn

The Magadhas in Ancient India (1946)

Law, Bimala Churn

On the Chronicles of Ceylon (1947)

Lear, Elmer

The Japanese Occupation of the Philippines Leytc 1941-1945 (1961) (Presented by Cornell University, Ithaca, New York)

Leonowens, A.H.

The Romance of the Harem ( 1872 ).

Levi, M. Sylvain

: Kouen Louen et Dv1pantara.

Levi, M. Sylvain

: Makii-karmavibhanga et Karmavibhangopadesa ( 1932 ).

T.ewis, A.B.·

Javanese Batik Designs from Metal Stamps (1924 ),

198

ACCESSIONS TO THE SIAM SOCIETY'S 1-lllRARY

Ch'Eng-Tzu-Y ai: The Black Pottery

Lichi and others

Culture Site at Luang-Shan-Ch€mg in Li-Ch'eng-Hsien, Shantung Province ( 1956 ). Loudon, A.

Aanteekeningen gehouden op eene Zending naar Siam ( 1862).

Ludowyk, E.F.C.

The Story of Ceylon ( 1962).

Lyman, Thomas A.

: The Generic Designator Kua in Green Miao. (Presented by the author). Macmillan's Atlas for South-East Asia(1961).

Macmillan, (Publisher) Majumdar, R.C.

: Decline and Fall of the Sailendra Empire.

Menninger, E.A.

: Flowering Trees of the World (1962).

Moffat, Abbot Low

: Mongkut, the King of Siam ( 1961 ).

Moreland, W.H. (editor)

: Peter Floris, his Voyage to the East Indies in the Globe 1611-1615 (1934).

Murdock, G.P.

: Social Structure ( 1949 ).

Ayangar Murti, G.S. and A.N.K. (translator)

: Edicts of Asoka ( 1957 ).

Nguyen-Van-Thai

: A Short History of Vietnam ( 1958 ).

Nippold, Water

: Individuum unci Gemeinschaft bei den pygmHen Buschmannern unci Negrito-Volkern Siidost-Asiens ( 1960). Gandhakuti-the Buddha's Private Abode.

Norman, H.C.

U~gende

Notton, C.

:

Oakley, K.P.

: Man the Tool-Maker ( 1961 ).

D'Orleans, Prince Hem·i

: Around Tonkin and Siam ( 1894 ).

d'Angkor et Chronique du Bouddba de Crista] ( 1960 ).

A