Portfolio: Layout Design

Portfolio Mr. Thanaphon Borihanthanachot B o ok E x p er ienc e L ayout D esig n

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Mr.Thanaphon Borihanthanachot Book Designer

Thawan Duchanee MODERN BUDDHIST ARTIST

Russell Marcus

Buddha does not liberate men.

He teaches them to liberate themselves, as he liberated himself.10

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PAINTINGS

Chapter 1

THE DHAMMAPADA

The Dhammapada, literally the path of virtue or righteousness, is considered to be the most succinct expression of Buddhist teachings. The Buddha, himself, is reputed to have delivered these teachings over twenty-five hundred years ago. There are 423 stanzas, mostly presented as pairs of thoughts contrasting wrong and right actions. For example: Wrong How easily the wind overturns a frail tree.

Seek happiness in the senses, indulge in food and sleep, and you, too, will be uprooted.

Right The wind cannot overturn a mountain.

Temptation cannot touch the man who is awake, strong, and humble, who masters himself and minds the dharma.1 The Dhammapada describes the moral choices that confront a man in his lifetime: between good and evil, right and wrong, and wisdom and folly. Its emphasis is on personal responsibility to act virtuously in the areas of thought, speech, and action: the three categories of the eightfold noble path to wisdom.

The ideas of the Dhammapada have a freshness and ring of truth for modern man, even for our radically different world that is dominated by technology.

Thawan created a series of drawings that reflect admonitions in the Dhammapada. At first glance they seem to show grotesque and contorted beasts, but this is only because we focus on their exterior forms. If we look more carefully, we begin to discover common patterns in the drawings.

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Let a wise man blow off the impurities of his self, as a smith blows off the impurities of silver, one by one, little by little, and from time to time.3 When an appropriate stanza from the Dhammapada is placed with them, Thawan’s original drawings resonate with power and present extremely forceful admonitions.

Observations The figures above all have an animal head (mental fetter) on a strong, muscular human body (human potential). All their hands and feet (points of action) are idle. Their bodies are crammed tightly into the frame of the drawing as if it were an imaginary container. Their heads display the negative emotions of lust, pain, doubt, surprise, and fear. These emotions are character impurities (fetters/our beasts) that Buddhism warns will distort an individual. By painting the beasts as something vivid and substantial, Thawan is illustrating Buddhism.

Creatures from mind, their character derive; mind-marshaled are they, mind-made.2

If a man is slack in doing what is good his mind comes to rejoice in evil.4

Buddhism goes on to teach that one must learn to remove such distortions from oneself in order to achieve one's own happiness.

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Whatever an enemy may do to an enemy, whatever a hater may do to a hater, a wrongly directed mind will do itself greater harm.5

Nothing purifies a man who is not free from doubt.6

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Chapter 3

THE LAST TEN LIVES OF THE BUDDHA

The Battle of Mara (3)

This painting of the Battle of Mara uses a Buddhist temple door as a metaphor separating inside from outside, self from the world. The door frames the head of a tranquil self-controlled Buddha inside, facing a mass of wild, ferocious, uncontrolled animals and formless monsters with fangs and claws bared, cavorting outside.

Although the painting is black and white, a single royal mark is painted in gold on the forehead of the Buddha as a third eye, symbolizing his inner understanding of true reality.

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T H AWA N D U C H A N E E

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The Buddha was a teacher and he used stories as teaching tools. One group of Aesop-like parables is known as the jataka tales (literally, birth stories about Buddha’s past lives or reincarnations). Although there are 547 of them, the final ten jataka tales are a special set known as the Last Ten Lives of the Buddha.

These stories are very well known in Thailand as Chadok or Phra Chao Sip Chat (Ten Lives of Our Lord).

As with most parables, the original stories function on two levels.

Superficially, each story relates the response of the protagonist (the Buddha to be) to a challenging situation. On a symbolic level, each story illustrates one of the ten qualities or virtues (perfections) that the Buddha needed to acquire during his many lifetimes to reach enlightenment. These Buddha qualities are renunciation, perseverance, benevolence, moral restraint, wisdom, patience, aversion to killing, truthfulness, equanimity, and generosity.

For hundreds of years the stories have been painted on Thai temple walls as murals and used for teaching. A single wall has many scenes from different episodes, separated by house walls, trees, or other objects. The main character is repeated in each episode. In this way, monks could narrate a story of the Buddha’s life and use the murals to illustrate it scene by scene.

The traditional style of mural illustration is two-dimensional and literal. For example, when the story relates that Temiya picks up a chariot, the temple drawing literally shows him holding a chariot in one hand.1 Unfortunately, this traditional Thai painting style is not very artistic or philosophical. Moreover, it encourages artists to train only as draftsmen in the art of reproduction.

To examine how Thawan reaches into the essence of what is painted here, we need to start with the frame of the painting and move towards the areas and details within it. In the case of the baboon, the red background is the largest element in the frame. Red suggests passion, as does the open jaws of the baboon. The index finger is a pointing device, a mudra, a symbolic or ritual gesture. The bubbles are also a kind of pointing device since they are holes punched in the cover that reveal the eyes beneath: three eyes with flecks of gold inside, or more specifically, a trinity of eyes, in keeping with the theme of the exhibition.

The inner picture of the “Earth Face” was presumably chosen for the cover as a spiritual tone-setting work; it has a calm, black background. The top image is a garuda, a powerful bird of the skies. The wings of the garuda are hidden by the wings of a moth. The wings on the left contain images of lust and fear: a pouncing leopard and a fearful horse. These represent one of the Buddhist characteristics of existence: suffering (dukkha). The right wing shows the same images but in a less solid form. The moth’s wings flank the human face below.

The lowest face is that of a peaceful man with his eyes closed like a Buddha’s, with golden moon-like eyelashes perhaps indicating that he has reached his goal, symbolically, the moon. He wears the garuda and the moth wings on his head like a mask (an external illusory identity or persona and a defilement of the tranquil Buddha nature at the core of his being).

The gold in all three sets of eyes symbolically sets value on observation as a tool with which to gain insight. The three superimposed heads merge into one another. This suggests the second Buddhist characteristic of existence: impermanence (anicca), the idea that all living things are part of a cycle from birth to death, or even a larger cycle of inheritance and rebirth. The famous Greek philosopher Heraclitus (535–475 BC, who coincidentally lived in the same period as the Buddha 563–483 BC) was one of the first people to express the thought that the only constant in life is change. The example that he cited was the river that is perpetually in transition and changing. Only the name of the river or the river as a concept is unchanging.

Thawan’s concept of the impermanent nature of reality is extremely creative, not only in the design of the catalog as a whole, but also in the choice, relevance, and placement of the details. The artistry involved is masterful.

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t h awa n D U C h a n e e

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The Story of Angkor

1 KING OF THE GODS

Jame DiBiasio

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he year is AD 802 and a king is about to found an epoch: the classical Angkor period in Cambodia. It is a legacy remembered today through the haunting ruins of temples and reservoirs concentrated around the modern town of Siem Reap. This king, Jayavarman II, could not have dreamed of the monuments Angkor would leave, for it would be up to his successors to build them. Yet, posterity was very much on his mind, for he had to contend with an even more distant and glorious legacy.

Southeast Asia was once the fulcrum of world trade, an ancient vanguard of globalization that linked the mighty civilizations of China, India, and Rome. Cambodians had been at the heart of this world trade— they had practically invented it—but by the seventh and eighth centuries, rival kingdoms had begun to challenge their power and wealth, leading to internal revolt and dissent.

Jayavarman II sought to restore the greatness of the Khmer-speaking people of Cambodia. But he would do so by a new design: retreating from the maritime-focused trading power of his ancestors toward an inland kingdom based on the cultivation of rice. The monuments around Siem Reap, all built by his successors, are testament to the civilization the Khmers went on to create. About this king, however, we know astonishingly little. His name, Jayavarman, means “protected by victory” in Sanskrit. His wife was called Hyang Amrita. He was presumably of aristocratic birth and claimed a tenuous lineage to the ancient realms of early Cambodia.

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the other half a shaggy-haired Shiva holding a trident. Examples can be found at the National Museum in Phnom Penh.

We do not know whether such syncretism was a practical, political move to widen the ruling cult’s appeal, or merely a reflection of the plurality of thought in Cambodia. Although Jayavarman II and his successors were clearly tied to the cult of Shiva, the norm was to be tolerant of other sects and religions.

Preah Ko was surrounded by a moat, no longer visible, and degradable structures, probably including a royal palace. It would have been surrounded by other structures, some made of wood, for the wealthy, or thatch, for commoners. Today, the monuments stand encircled by encroaching jungle and silence (at least when the national park is emptied of tourists), but they were created to be the symbolic heart of a busy urban center.

The foundation stele, which has since been removed, was found in the gopura (gate) that leads to the main set of six towers and is now little more than ruins. The stele outlined Indravarman I’s genealogy, making the argument for his claim to be devaraja, as well as enforcing the legitimacy of his ancestors, very important in Khmer culture where rulers were rarely dynastic. Moving into the courtyard, passing the statue of Nandin, is the approach to the main temple. Each of its six towers once housed a statue of a deity, three male (the ones in front) and three female, all facing east, and all cast as human beings representing Shiva.

Preah Ko is known for its ornamentation. The lintels (the crossbeams atop doors) are the only parts of this monument carved from sandstone, a mineral hard enough to be sculpted in detail. These lintels boast some of the most intricate displays in Angkor civilization. The rest of the structure is of brick and laterite, a porous reddish-brown stone that is common in early Angkor building. Laterite is soft and easy to cut, but unstable and unsuitable for the intricate carvings, and, later, bas-reliefs, that are the hallmark of Khmer poetic genius. The lintels show motifs that would be repeated at other sites. The decoration is of Indian inspiration, but the realization is purely Khmer.6 In the center is a kala, a jawless monster that resembles a lion with bulging eyes. It is usually chewing a garland or vegetation. In Hinduism, kala has multiple meanings. One is a color, dark blue/black, and the other is a unit of time, often considered to be that of a lifecycle, from birth through life, death, and reincarnation. Lastly, it is a substitute for Shiva in his guise as the destroyer.

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The edges of the lintels are usually marked by a makara, a type of sea monster that looks to be part reptile and part bird, and which continues the motifs of vegetation and water. (Throughout Southeast Asia today, the prows of many boats are carved as strange, bird-like creatures. These are the artistic descendants of the makara.) Kala and makara are meant to be images of fecund bounty that recall the ancestral forests of India. Their presence over temple doorways suggests nature and humanity in equilibrium, and encloses sacred spaces with nature’s blessing.

Indravarman, therefore, set another precedent for all of his successor kings: the need to build a temple to honor and legitimize his rule, his ancestral line, and his connection to the divine. Preah Ko would set the standard for later glories of Angkor construction, such as Ta Prohm and Preah Khan (see chapter 9 on Jayavarman VII). It is also one of the best sites to see Sanskrit inscriptions of the sort used by scholars to dissect the mystery of classical Angkor.

Bakong Indravarman I’s third innovation was to build a temple-cum-mausoleum in his own honor, the Bakong, the first truly magnificent, monumentally sized Angkor structure. It is the first Khmer temple to be built mostly of sandstone, and the first pyramid-shaped temple of meaningful size.

The Khmers were to make something of a fetish of these mountainshaped temples, and this is the first known example. One does not find such an obsession in India. The ancient Khmers had worshiped mountains as the physical embodiment of spirits and so readily seized upon this imagery when delivered in a Hindu context. The proliferation and embellishment of Khmer temples-as-mountains is an expression of the way that Southeast Asians adapted homegrown themes to Indian metaphors and created something unique.

The Bakong is, in fact, the one Angkorian temple that corresponds most closely in its five tiers to the metaphor of Mount Meru, the cosmic abode of the gods (which has five worlds, belonging in turn to naga, for example, or the half-men half-bird garuda, or to different families of deities). It is one of the greatest testaments to colonial efforts at

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We are not even sure from where Jayavarman II came. An inscription made two centuries after his death referred to his origins in “Java.” Some scholars take this literally and believe Jayavarman II was either born or spent time on Java. This island kingdom was then under the sway of the powerful Sailendra dynasty, which had come to dominate the trade routes between China and India that had once been controlled, to some extent, by the Cambodians.

Other scholars suggest “Java” may have referred to Malaya or Champa (south-central Vietnam), or that it implies Jayavarman II was in the employ of foreign powers, or had sought exile under the protection of a foreign prince. We do know that at the close of the eighth century he appeared in Vyadhapura, a major center of Khmer-speaking peoples located near the lower Mekong, with the intent to restore Khmer autonomy after nearly two centuries of chaos and submission to outside powers.1 Jayavarman II raised an army, seized the city, and declared independence. After this victory, Jayavarman II began an itinerant life— perhaps a life on the run from the greater powers of “Java.” He led a series of conquests and formed many alliances, including by marriage, and thereby burnished his credibility as king. He moved up the Mekong River taking one settlement after another. Although he fought his way as far north as what is now southern Laos, he then turned back and further inland, settling near the Tonle Sap Lake—his stroke of genius.

Eons ago, this huge body of water was connected to the Gulf of Thailand, but in the course of geologic time found itself isolated as a great lake whose waters flow into the Mekong River via the Tonle Sap River. By the end of the dry season, however, around May, the Mekong’s waters are so swollen from waters originating in the distant Himalayas that the Tonle Sap’s channel is blocked, effectively damming the lake.

The waters in the lake then rise by as much as ten meters over the course of the rainy season. The surface area of the Tonle Sap triples until about November, when the rains subside and the lake’s waters can flow easily into the Mekong. The lakeshore recedes, creating a vast fertile plain perfect for cultivating rice. Agriculture along the Nile works in a similar way. The lake was a plentiful source of fish, it was located near lodes of sandstone and laterite stone for building, and the forest was full of game and a source for timber. It was a pleasant environment: a stable pattern

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of rains and floods, easy access to important raw materials, and distant from powerful enemies. Jayavarman II settled at a place with sufficient elevation to protect against floods, about fifteen kilometers from the site where Angkor Wat would one day be constructed. He called this new capital Hariharalaya, a place we now call Roluos.

Jayavarman II then made a fateful journey in the year 802 to Mount Kulen, about fifty kilometers away and the source of the Siem Reap River.2 He went there with a retinue of Brahman priests and aristocrats. We are not sure whether he fled to the sacred mountain in desperation, or if he went there from a position of security and confidence. Either way, he and his supporters embarked on an historic pilgrimage that culminated in the symbolic act that founded classical Angkor civilization.

It was there, atop Mount Kulen, which the medieval Khmers called Mount Mahendra after the cosmic abode of the Indian god, Shiva, that Jayavarman II became the first Khmer ruler to pronounce himself a “universal monarch,” or “king of kings,” theoretically unifying the Khmerspeaking societies into something new: an empire.

This was done by a dual ceremony. First, the Brahman gurus proclaimed Jayavarman II the chakravartin, the universal king who rules benevolently over the entire world. This was standard practice throughout much of Southeast Asia and the Indian world. The second ritual was the innovation.

The gurus claimed to place his realm under the protection of a devaraja, “the god who is king,” or a “lord of the universe.” This would have been accompanied by the laying of a royal linga, a smooth stone pillar with a blunt head representing the Hindu god Shiva, over which they poured water. They may have completed the ceremony by decapitating the Sailendra monarch in effigy.3 The concept of devaraja, while not proclaiming Jayavarman II to be an actual god, linked his monarchy directly with the royalist cult of Shiva in a way that had never been done in India. Such endorsement by the priestly class, the Brahmans, gave him the religious credentials he needed to rally the Khmers to his side, particularly if he was viewed as a foreigner. Alternatively, the endorsement may have been required in order to discredit (or, more accurately, exorcise) the Sailendra kings, who already proclaimed themselves lords of the universe. “No,” Jayavarman II was saying, “I am lord of the universe and this mountain is the symbolic home of God.”

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Whether this act represented a genuinely new mode of government and society, or was later hyped as such by Angkor’s Brahmans (or much later by easily excited historians), it does seem to have secured legitimacy for Jayavarman II and his new inland kingdom. The ritual succeeded in creating an institutional political system, replacing a myriad of ad hoc fiefdoms based on transitory achievements.

Jayavarman II returned to rule from both Roluos and, according to an inscription, from a city called Amarendrapura, the location of which has never been found. This realm was dubbed Kambuja Desa, the term behind the modern name Cambodia. This implied not only a territory, but—in another innovation—an identity.

The choice of Hariharalaya as capital reflected a typically Khmer sensibility of making building and art of dual use, marrying the practical with the mystical. Jayavarman II was obviously aware of the site’s physical benefits, upon elevated land near the Tonle Sap Lake. There would have been a religious purpose as well, and in Angkorian civilization, religion was an expression of political power.

A devaraja wanted subjects to regard him as the earthly reflection of his patron god. Shiva, Vishnu, and the rest of the Indian pantheon were thought to live on Mount Meru,4 a five-peaked Himalayan retreat surrounded by a great ocean of milk, visibly manifested during nighttime as the Milky Way. Building a capital on high ground near water made it conform to Indian-derived cosmology, an earthly reflection of divine arrangements. Hariharalaya’s establishment entailed a huge effort: it required swamps to be drained, embankments to be built to protect against floods, and canals to be dug to irrigate rice paddies. Only a strong king could have marshaled the resources to begin a new capital from scratch. Jayavarman II had been powerful enough to establish a new, independent Khmer kingdom. It would be left to his successors, however, to complete the first great Angkor monuments.

This brief introduction to the founder of classic Angkor civilization raises plenty of questions. What was the more ancient legacy that Jayavarman II sought to revive? Why were his name and his religion of Indian derivation?

What was the purpose of the temples that Jayavarman’s successors would build? And who were all of these people anyway—Khmers, Chams, Javans—and how did they come to create and control global trade?

2 ORIGINS: FUNAN AND CHENLA

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long time ago, says the legend, there was a Brahman prince in India named Kaundinya. He came from a family representing a “solar” dynasty, that is, his family had mythical attachments to Surya, the sun god. Kaundinya heard a voice urging him to leave for the land of gold, where he would become king. This required a long perilous journey by sea, following the monsoonal winds and currents. He set out.

Upon nearing the foreign coast, his ship was attacked by a serpent woman. She was no ordinary sea creature, but the beautiful daughter of the ruling serpent king. Her name was Nagisoma, a name that evoked both the naga, the magical cobra worshiped by the natives, and Soma the moon deity.1 Kaundinya prevailed in battle, impressing the princess with his high station and ability. A marriage was agreed and he hurled his golden lance upon the coast where a new royal city would be built.

He had fulfilled his destiny by founding a new kingdom in this foreign land, by binding his fate to the serpent-woman princess. Together they represented land and sea, sun and moon, male and female, and India and native Southeast Asia. The combination symbolized the founding of something new: the nation called Kambuja. Kambuja, of course, was the original name for Cambodia.2 This fantastic story does contain seeds of truth. Cambodia and several other Southeast Asian societies became Indianized, they voluntarily adopted Indian religions, worldview, and state systems. But how this happened remains a source of controversy.

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The “Bare Life” of Thai Migrant Workmen in Singapore

Chapter 1

Introduction

Pattana Kitiarsa The community of Thai migrants employed as construction workers in Singapore is known to the world primarily through general public information and various impressions. Most Thai migrants are workingage males from the Thai countryside—especially the northern and northeastern regions of Thailand. They have temporarily moved away from a traditional land-based economy to a modern wage-based economy through the rather dangerous and risky venture of transnational labor migration.

Media reports on the problems faced by Thai migrant workers in Singapore focus on the harsh treatment they receive from job placement agencies, employers, and to some extent, governmental authorities due to Singapore’s strict law enforcement. Violations of the law committed

by Thai workers in Singapore range from careless littering, smoking in prohibited areas, and drunken behavior (for which fines are administered) to drug trafficking and murder. Corporal punishment, such as canning and execution, is not uncommon.

Thai foreign workers in Singapore are an unusual group with high rates of death due to a mysterious sudden death syndrome. Doctors and medical researchers call this cause of death “sudden unexplained death syndrome” (SUDS) or “sudden unexplained nocturnal death syndrome” (SUNDS). This deadly killer is widely known back home in Thailand and among members of Thai overseas communities as lai tai (lit., floating into death while sleeping, or dying in deep sleep). There have been cases of death among seemingly healthy Thai workers in Singapore since the early 1980s (see chapter 6). The real-life situation of Thai migrant workers in Singapore has subversively defied the Thai government-promoted and popular image of Thai overseas workers as “economic warriors” (nakrop 1

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introduction

The modern state imposes laws and regulations on foreign workers— in this book’s example, inside and outside of construction sites in Singapore. It arranges for them to stay in designated dormitories and living quarters located away from city centers designed for foreign workers. The state issues these workers—mainly men—various types of work permits, tightly regulates their working and off hours, and controls their sexuality by not allowing their wives or girlfriends from home to accompany them to Singapore. Foreign workers are then reduced to laborers, subject to stringent jurisdiction, which is a common but effective way to put these men into a state of exception and a bare life. Confined into a regulated space between the Thai home and the Singaporean host country, workers, in some respects, represent homo sacer who live and work in a transnational migrant zone indistinguishable not only between life and law, but also between life and death.

and, reciprocally, from how these forms of power influence responses to social problems. Included under the category of social suffering are conditions that are usually divided among separate fields, conditions that simultaneously involve health, welfare, legal, moral, and religious issues.”

The conceptual strength of the notion of social suffering is twofold.

First, it highlights the importance of power relations underlying such human social experience. Unbalanced social relations manifest in social exclusion and marginalization, which limit equal opportunity for gaining access to education, healthcare services, and other resources necessary to improve one’s quality of life and social mobility. Second, the inclusion of social suffering into my conceptual framework draws attention to the migrant reality of being a working-class, disadvantaged population, because social suffering is likely a key symptom that is synonymous with the powerless, the poor, and the migrant both in host and home countries.

As Kleinman, Das, and Lock (ibid., ix–x) point out, “social suffering is shared across high-income and low-income societies, primarily affecting, in such different settings, those who are desperately poor and powerless.

This is not merely a statistical correlation, but a causal web in the global political economy. Many of the same sources of breakdown, violence, emerging infectious diseases and mental and social health problems are at work among poor populations worldwide.”

This study demonstrates that the socioeconomic and cultural aspects of social suffering are imminent in the context of transnational labor migration. Workers are desperately powerless, poor, and struggling to survive their bare life away from home. The mysterious death of Thai workers in Singapore is evidence of migrants’ most severe social suffering.

“Bare Life” as Social Suffering The bare life in the context of transnational labor migration is a form of social suffering, which I describe in this book as “migrant social suffering.”

Social suffering is not confined to an isolated individual fate and it is not a form of an isolated, private life which is endured or suffered separately by individuals. Rather, the socially collective aspect of the bare life is deemed important here. In this respect, I benefit from the conceptual discussion of “social suffering,” set forth by Kleinman, Das, and Lock (1997, ix), who rightly argue that suffering is a social experience because there is always a close linkage between personal problems and societal problems.

The authors remind us that human sufferings have “their origins and consequences in the devastating injuries that social force can inflict on human experience” (ibid.). Injury, illness, and other forms of suffering are multifaceted, interpersonal human experiences. Individual bodies serve as the physical canvas or site of suffering, but they are not mere living organisms or biological phenomena. Human bodies are the products of complex and intensive power relations. Human suffering is thus rooted in the complex linkages between bodies, social actions, and institutions.

According to Kleinman, Das, and Lock (ibid.), “social suffering results from what political, economic, and institutional power does to people, 6

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Gendered Agency and Emotional Sensitivity I am aware that describing the lives of Thai migrant workers in Singapore as marked by the bare life and social suffering may seem overly simplified and one-sided. Foreign workers have ups and downs in their transnational migrant lives. They are not passive social actors who are incapable of handling their personal affairs. As I show in this book, male migrant workers have gendered agency (Constable 2005) and emotional sensitivity that reflects their autonomy, responsibility, and self-definition. This 7

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Going Down to the Sea

CHAPTER 1

CHINESE SEX WORKERS ABROAD

Offering the Girlfriend Experience KITTY IN HONG KONG

Ko-lin Chin

Date: August 21, 2007 Place: An apartment on Nathan Road, Hong Kong Name: Kitty Age: 20 Marital Status: Single

Born in a village about two hours’ drive from Chongqing.

Brought to Chongqing by boyfriend to engage in prostitution.

First came to Hong Kong in May 2007, now is here for the second time.

“I really do not like this work.”

Looking for Sex Workers on the Internet After I arrived in Hong Kong and told a sociology professor there that I was looking for Chinese sex workers to interview, he gave me the name of a website and told me to check it out. I did, and there I found details about hundreds of young Chinese women, including names, phone numbers, and close-up photos. I spent some time browsing through

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ChaptEr 1

Offering the Girlfriend Experience

the information and decided to get in touch with a woman named Kitty.1 She was introduced as follows:

extremely small—there was only a massage bed and a small refrigerator.

After we walked in, we had to sit on the massage bed because there was nothing else to sit on and not much room to move around.

Kitty had light makeup and long black hair. She was wearing a black night gown, but it was not too revealing. Once Kitty closed the door, I told her right away that I only wanted to interview her for my research project. I explained that I was a professor from the United States and wanted to know why she came to Hong Kong, how she began to engage in prostitution, and her feelings about working in the sex trade. I also assured her that the interview would not be audiotaped or videotaped and that it would be anonymous. Moreover, I told her that I would give her the full set price after the interview, but she also had the right to reject my request, and if she did, I would pay her a little bit of money and leave the premises promptly.

Name: Kitty Address: No. xxx, xxx Flat, Nathan Road, Yau Ma Tei, Hong Kong Phone: xxxx-xxxx Hours: 24 hours Age: 20 Height: 1.54 meters Measurements: 34C-24-34 Nationality: China (Language: Cantonese, Mandarin) Services: $402 DUP + HJ; $50 ML; $65 Full Set3 A young and beautiful woman with a sweet smile and an innocent look who can give you the girlfriend experience!

The street where Kitty’s place was located—Nathan Road—was not far from my hotel, and it is probably the longest and the best known street in Hong Kong and is always bustling with people. It starts from Tsim Sha Tsui and passes through areas such as Jordan, Yau Ma Tei, Mongkok, and Prince; the whole street is dotted with all kinds of businesses and stores.

Entering a One-Woman Brothel

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Starting Out Kitty said yes to my request without much hesitation. She began to answer my questions and did so in a relatively relaxed way.

I was born in a village about two hours’ drive away from Chongqing.5 I am twenty years old now and I am single. When I was about fourteen years old, I dropped out of school after completing the first year of junior high. My dad is a swindler, specializing in cheating people out of their money; I am not sure how he does that, though. He was once arrested by the police and beaten almost to death. My mom is a housewife, and I have a little sister and a little brother.

When I entered the elevator of the building, there was also a middleaged woman there who appeared to be a resident. When I arrived at the specified floor and was about to exit the elevator, I wasn’t sure whether it was the front flat or the rear flat, so I had to ask the woman for directions. After I arrived at the destination, there were two doors and I did not know which one belonged to the brothel.4 I called the place, and a woman answered the phone. I told her I was standing in front of her door; soon Kitty opened the door and led me through a small living room furnished with a sofa and a TV. The place was relatively clean, and it was also quite bright. There were two rooms inside the apartment; one was locked and she brought me into another room. Her room was

Both Kitty and I were sitting on that small massage bed, and it was not a comfortable way to have a long conversation. She paused and changed her position, and I also took the opportunity to adjust mine.

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I worked as a waitress in a restaurant after I dropped out of middle school. I quit after a few days because it was hard work. Then I became an apprentice at a regular hair salon. I was there for more than one year,

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HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN THAILAND

CHAPTER 1

Current Issues and Trends

Current Issues, Trends, and the Role of the Thai Government

Siroj Sorajjakool

Human trafficking is a crime involving the cheating or deceiving of people into sexual servitude or labour for the purpose of their exploitation. It affects individuals, families and entire communities, in almost all parts of the world. The International Labour Organization estimated in 2005 that 9.49 million people were in forced labour in the Asia-Pacific region, with a significant proportion thought to be in the Mekong region, which includes Cambodia, China, Lao pdr, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. Within the Mekong region, the crime of human trafficking is widespread, yet little is known about specific trafficking patterns and trends.

—uniap Human Trafficking Datasheets

Introduction The general focus of attention on human trafficking in Thailand is on the horror and brutality experienced by victims and shockingly high statistical citations of the number of victims. Most people assume that the majority of these are victims of sex trafficking, with tens of thousands, if not more, of children being forced into prostitution. There is also a strongly held belief that the Thai government has made little effort to address the issue. It is true that child sexual exploitation takes place, that law enforcement is corrupt, and that more serious intentionality is needed to address this issue. But perhaps it is also true that there are more issues involved that generate complexity than is often assumed, and as a result the situation can be easily misread, thus perpetuating myths that may have greater negative impacts on both the victims themselves and those 13

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14 | CURRENT ISSUES AND TRENDS

working for their protection. Mike Dottridge offers an explanation of the importance of providing accurate information: Some human rights activists argue that exaggeration is not a major problem, as long as attention ends up being given to whatever abuses are occurring. This seems to be a rather idealistic, not to say naïve approach, which ignores the damage that can be done by misrepresenting the scale of a problem. An inaccurate estimate of the problem is likely to result in a remedy being proposed that is equally inappropriate.1

To acquire a better understanding and in order not to further complicate the situation, we need to first be informed of the current situation of human trafficking in Thailand. What do reports say about this issue?

Three Reports on Human Trafficking in Thailand A broad picture of the situation can be ascertained through a comparison of three official reports, and reflecting on them in relation to the annual report by the Thai Department of Social Development and Welfare. These three reports are the “Trafficking in Persons Report” (tip Report) by the US Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, the “Global Report on Trafficking in Persons” by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (unodc), and a report from Humantrafficking.org, a website that provides information on human trafficking around the world.

(1) “Trafficking in Persons Report” (2010)2

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According to the “Trafficking in Persons Report” (tip Report) by the US Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Thailand is placed in Tier 2 (Watch List). The criterion for determining which category a country falls into is based on its government’s compliance with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (tvpa).3 Countries that comply fully are placed in Tier 1. For those countries that

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CURRENT ISSUES AND TRENDS | 15

fail to comply fully, the department considers whether their governments are making a significant effort to comply with the act. Governments that are making a significant effort to meet the minimum standards are placed in Tier 2, and governments that do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making a significant effort to do so are placed in Tier 3.4 The trafficking situation within each country is published by the US Department of State in a tip Report. The following is the tip Report for Thailand:5 Thailand is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children who are subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and forced prostitution. Individuals from neighboring countries and from as far away as Russia and Fiji migrate to Thailand fleeing conditions of poverty. Migrants from Burma, who make up the bulk of migrants in Thailand, seek economic opportunity and escape from military repression. The majority of trafficking victims identified within Thailand are migrants who have been forced, coerced, or defrauded into forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation.

Trafficking victims within Thailand were found employed in maritime fishing, seafood processing, low-end garment production, and domestic work. In particular, Burmese, Cambodian, and Thai men were found trafficked onto Thai fishing boats that traveled throughout Southeast Asia, and who remained at sea for up to several years, did not receive pay, and were threatened and physically beaten. Observers noted that traffickers (including labor brokers) who bring foreign victims into Thailand generally work as individuals or in unorganized groups, while those who enslave Thai victims abroad tend to be more organized.

Migrants, ethnic minorities, and stateless people in Thailand are at a greater risk of being trafficked than Thai nationals. Undocumented migrants remain particularly vulnerable to trafficking due to their economic status, education level, language barriers, and lack of understanding of their rights under Thai law. Some children from neighboring countries have been forced to sell flowers, beg, or work in domestic service in urban areas. Most Thai trafficking victims abroad that were repatriated to Thailand with assistance from the Thai government had been exploited in Bahrain, Malaysia, the Maldives,

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The Barefoot Anthropologist

PA R T 1

The Highlands of Champa and Vietnam in the Words of Jacques Dournes

Jacques Dournes, Highland Champa, and the Potao: Reading Pötao, une théorie du pouvoir chez les Indochinois jörai1

Andrew Hardy

Jacques Dournes at Home I didn’t know it then, but that year was his last. Someone a little more sensitive might have read the signs, especially when he said he had lived long enough, when he boasted that he was “imperishable”2 but his time had come, speaking in a tone of burning rage that I later understood had animated his life and work. That weekend, though, I was shocked to hear a man say he wished it all to end. On those two days in February 1992, he told me some of his stories, explained some of his ideas, and gave me an account of the road he had followed since arriving, a young priest, at the port of Saigon forty-six years earlier.

He greeted me outside the small house he shared with two large dogs, a country bus ride into the hills above the French town of Nîmes. Before leaving Aix-en-Provence, where I was reading colonial archives, I had called from a phone box. Apologizing, I said something had come up, and I’d arrive a week later than planned. I also asked if he’d like me to bring wine. I’d been worrying about the wine for quite a while. What gift do you 1. Dournes’s Pötao, une théorie du pouvoir chez les Indochinois jörai (Paris: Flammarion, 1977) is referred to using the acronym “PUT” in footnotes and in-text citations.

2. “Je suis le plus increvable.”

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J ac q u e s d o u r n e s , h i g h l a n d c h a m pa , a n d t h e p otao

J a c q u e s d o u r n e s , h i g h l a n d c h a m pa , a n d t h e p ota o

take to the author of Forêt femme folie?3 (I had read only one of his books, chosen for its title.) Finally I thought it safer to check.

“Polish vodka,” he said emphatically. “Bring Polish vodka.”

It was lunchtime. A wiry energetic man came out as I walked across the cracked earth up the garden. The barking of excited dogs almost drowned his gruff, warm welcome. His energy found its first target as I pulled the bottle from my bag: “What’s this blade of grass? The real taste is nothing but grain, nothing but grain.”

Knowing little of Polish vodka, I had thought the bison grass a rather good idea.

“And only one bottle,” he added. “It’s hardly going to see us through the weekend. That’s a bottle to drink at a sitting, an hour for two people or two hours alone.”

I didn’t then know that two men could down a bottle over lunch and still feel the thirst, though I was about to find out.

He brought out rice and an earthenware dish.

“Aubergines. I started cooking them two days before you were to come.

They improve day by day. You’re late, so they’re past their best now, but still good. Sit down.”

By now I was feeling more than a little clumsy, out of my depth in the company of this man who spoke exactly what he felt, no more, no less.

I was sure of one thing. It was going to be an interesting couple of days.

I had come to see Jacques Dournes on the recommendation of a mutual friend, his former secretary. Marguerita Young had told me of his years in Indochina. “If you’re interested in Vietnam, this is someone you should see.” At that time, I had no particular interest in the highlanders he’d spent his life studying, and I’d spent only a few weeks in the country, mainly in the capital, Hanoi. Dournes must have sensed this, and I’m now sure he knew I had understood little of Forêt femme folie.

“Aha!” he said, “that’s my favorite, perhaps because I wrote it for fun, for my own amusement.”

Then, kindly he asked, “And what about you? What are you planning to do?”

Stumbling with my words in French, I told him about my work in the archives, my MA dissertation on the economic development of France’s Indochina colony, and my current search for a PhD topic: something on the economic history of Vietnam, perhaps? I also asked if he’d spent much time reading documents in the archives in Aix. “I have more here than they have in Aix,” he shot back. “That’s why I’ve never been there. I have more.”

It took me some years to realize why such a statement might not be unreasonable.

At the time, I was more conscious of my latest faux pas. So I spoke little as he talked of Vietnam and the montagnards, with whom he had lived for many years. His words were not about himself, but revealed much about him: The exile he felt since his return to France, conveyed in a small sense of triumph at the Vietnam postal workers’ inability to read the letters he exchanged with his friends, written in Jarai. The failed fusion of Catholic religion and Montagnard civilization attempted in his spiritual quest, a battle decisively won by the latter. The value he placed on “anarchy” and “comedy,” reflected in his love for Orwell’s Animal Farm. His identification with matters of culture and deep dislike of economics. His lively contempt for French media and Parisian academia, for all forms of power, scientific or other.

Between diatribes, with their theatrical repetitions and countless expletives, he sometimes hit the stop button on my recorder to censor a politically sensitive story, to silence some overly virulent outburst. I particularly remember him cutting an account of the purge of people associated with the Pétain regime conducted after 1945 by the French authorities in Saigon with the zealous support of the Catholic Church. He told me that, just off the boat from France, he nonetheless expressed his views about contemporary events, agreeing even with political opinions voiced by Ho Chi Minh. Even then, he did not fit in. Did this explain his choice of mission site—Djiring (today’s Di Linh, in Lâm Đồng province),

3. Forêt femme folie, une traversée de l’imaginaire jörai (Paris: Aubier-Montaigne, 1978).

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The Tale of

THREE BIRTHS

Khun Chang Khun Phaen ABRIDGED

TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY

Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit This is the story of Khun Phaen, Khun Chang, and the fair Wanthong.

Their parents were subjects of King Phanwasa of Ayutthaya. Let us begin with the births of these three characters.

At night, a wicked spirit at the top of a tree fashions human bodies by molding and remolding, adding this and that to make them complete, in fits of laughter. When beings who have suffered in hell for their bad karma are released from torment, the spirit catches them, shapes them as humans, and slips each into a womb.

Khun Siwichai, a provincial official in charge of elephants, was a rich man with masses of wealth and many servants. Together with his wife, Thepthong, he lived at Ten Cowries Landing in Suphan.

In her sleep, Thepthong dreamed that a bull elephant died and rolled down a steep bank where its head became swollen and putrefied.

A baldheaded adjutant stork flew over from the forest, picked up the elephant in its beak, and set it down in the hall where she slept. She called to the bird, “Come over here, bald lord” and cradled both stork and elephant to sleep.

Waking up, she retched at the foul smell lingering on her chest, roused her husband, and begged him to massage her neck. When she had recovered and related the dream, Khun Siwichai interpreted it. “Well, 1

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Phlai kaeo is ordained

Near dawn, Phim began to dream. She and Saithong were swimming across water; in the shallows at the shore, her feet touched and she stood up; Saithong handed her a golden lotus flower; she inhaled its fragrance, awash with joy, wrapped it in her uppercloth, and made her way back across the water. As the dream ended, she woke up and groped around for the lotus. “Oh! It’s gone.”

She promptly shook Saithong awake and told her the dream. “What’s going to happen? Tell me, please!”

Saithong knew the meaning without a shadow of doubt. “I’ve been noticing things for some time. Don’t be worried, eye’s jewel. Dreaming about having a lotus means you’ll gain a partner in love. It seems this man isn’t far away and may turn up very soon. The fact that I handed you the lotus probably means you’ll depend on me in the time ahead.

If you get what you desire, please let me have some benefit too.”

“Oh Saithong! Why do you come up with this interpretation?

Where did you see any hint of such a thing? Have you ever seen me all restless and irritable? I don’t accept this means a man for me. In the dream it was you who picked the lotus. If the man goes straight for you, I’ll laugh. Please give an interpretation more to my liking and I’ll reward you.”

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PHLAI KAEO MEETS PHIM IN A COTTON FIELD

Khun Chang tossed and turned, pined and longed. “Oh my Phim Philalai! When you shouted at me, it sounded so mellow, so crystal clear. Among thousands of girls, there’s none other the same. Your arm is shapely, your slender waist so elegant, and your bottom enchanting.

What must I do to fondle and caress you all day long? I’ll place food in your mouth to eat, provide you with an elephant to ride, surround you with perfumes while you sleep, and make you a shower spray to bathe.

I love you as much as my own life but I worry my hopes will come to nothing. I fear you’ll hate my ugly body. Even if you loved me, you’d worry about your reputation. Stop thinking about it! Why fret now?

I’ll find some way to plead my case.”

He opened his mosquito net. “Is it dawn yet? Oh, the moon’s still high in the sky. This is a sign that I’ll get my beautiful lover for sure!”

As golden rays lit the sky, Novice Phlai thought longingly of gentle, lovely Phim. He washed his face, put on his robe, picked up his almsbowl, and went out. He searched every lane, alley, and bush.

Before long, he arrived at Maids Landing in Suphan town. Seeing a bench set out for almsgiving, he paused and stood composing himself.

Phim was inside with Saithong preparing food for almsgiving. She opened a window and saw a novice standing with eyes lowered. The ochre color of his close-fitting robe made his skin glow like moonlight.

She picked up the food and started down the stairs with Saithong.

Novice Phlai raised his face. Phim glanced long enough for their eyes to meet then ducked and hid behind Saithong. “Oh! Seeing his face makes me shy.” She passed her bowl of rice to Saithong, and hid behind a wall.

Novice Phlai blew a Great Beguiler mantra onto her, making her tremble with passion, hardly able to restrain herself from rushing down.

Saithong raised her hands to wai the novice. He unhitched the almsbowl from his shoulder. “I’m late because I’ve come a long way. At yesterday’s recitation, the sponsor of the episode dashed off. Maybe she’s angry with me. I’d like a chance to explain. I’d also like to talk to you.”

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Khun chang petitions the King

KHUN CHANG PETITIONS THE KING

After winning the case against Khun Chang, Phra Wai lived contentedly with his two wives but missed his mother. “It’s shameful that she hasn’t got over the falling out with Father. He’s now become a noble but she’s stuck beside that ugly, ill-intentioned man. I’m furious that she made me beg for his life. I must make this fury disappear by repaying Khun Chang in some way. I’ll pry her away from that evil fellow and bring her to live here with Father.”

He waited restlessly, counting the tolling of the palace gong, until late in the night. He checked that the time was free of any obstruction or inauspiciousness. The sky was clear, stars sparkled brightly, and a brilliant haloed moon shone. He made offerings of liquor, rice, and fish to the spirits, applied a potion of turmeric and herbs to his body, put a yantra on his chest, tied a sacred thread around his head, blew a mantra upwards into the darkness to urge his spirits to go along, picked up a sword, and set out for Khun Chang’s house.

The gates were securely bolted and bonfires shed light as bright as daytime. After chanting a Great Subduer mantra to drop everyone to sleep, and sending his spirits to pull bolts and remove battens, he walked into the compound without being challenged. At the house of Khun Chang, he lit a candle and scattered enchanted rice, forcing all the spirits to abandon the house. He used a formula to open the

windows, and climbed up to a frame for plants with blooming flowers and branches intertwined. Fragrance billowed. Twigs trembled. Pollen wafted. Servants lay asleep, tumbled over one another. Light danced off many mirrors and screens.

He walked ahead, glancing around to admire the curtains, blinds, screens, half-moon tables, and abundance of crystal. He opened a mosquito net and saw the face of his mother, fast asleep on the bed beside Khun Chang, embracing as a couple. Phlai Ngam felt hurt enough for his heart to burst. He drew his sword and raised it to chop Khun Chang dead, but feared he might hit Wanthong.

He drove his spirits away and blew a formula to wake her. Sheathing his sword, he stood motionless while Wanthong regained her senses and opened her eyes. Thinking the intruder was a robber, she clutched her husband and cried out at the top of her voice.

“Why are you shouting, Mother? I’m not a thief.”

He clasped her feet. Wanthong buried her head in his shoulder.

“Why did you come at this time, my son? There are guards everywhere, bolts on the doors, and bonfires all round. Did your father send you?

If Khun Chang wakes up there’ll be trouble, and I fear something bad will come of this. What’s on your mind? Please tell me and then go home.”

“I’ve no wish to get myself into trouble, but I’ve come anyway because I love my mother. At present I’m comfortable with my rank, money, two lovely wives, servants at my bidding, and all Father’s relatives around. The only thing missing is Mother. You’re alive but might as well be dead and gone. I came here to take you back to the house. If any bad consequences arise, that’s a matter of fate. Why stay with this lowlife? He’s like a fly that buzzes around garbage and then bothers a sweetly fragrant lotus. You brought me up until I was seven, but then we were separated by fate. If you care for your child, come home without delay.”

“Oh Phlai Ngam, mother’s beloved, I’m not wallowing in wealth.

Among all these elephants, horses, and servants, there’s nothing I love like you. It’s not true that I’m happy. I have to bear the karma I’ve

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The deaThs of The faThers

Siprajan and Thepthong came to an agreement. “Our husbands have met their deaths. We should have the bodies cremated in the best way possible so we don’t make trouble for their spirits.”

They promptly asked Abbot Som to arrange a cremation at Wat Khao. Craftsmen carved wood, wove bamboo, and made frames and panels for a grand crematory pavilion decorated with English gold, inlaid with glittering white and green glass, and embellished with flowers waving on wire stems. On the front was fashioned a brilliant image of Lord Indra riding a three-headed elephant. Cooks were summoned to prepare food with nothing stinted.

When the work was finished, the two bodies were brought in procession and placed on the pyre while flute and drum played a dirge.

At evening, fireworks were lit. Bangers exploded. Rockets whizzed in the air. Strings of crackers popped and banged. Firewheels were tossed, spinning and bobbling on the water.

To the beating of gong and drum, the monk clowning began. Monks performed in pairs, dressed up as people of different languages. First came a pair of monks playing Vietnamese with white teeth and tousled beards like forest langur.

“Khoan khoan khoan ho khoan, khoan ho khoan.

To the stars, no attention pay.

It’ll happen anyway!

Jump up, dingle dangle dong, End of the Vietnamese song!”

The next pair of monks were decked out as Chinese with beards like goats. One clacked claves, and the other chinked cymbals in reply.

They wailed to the rhythm through twisted mouths.

“The Vietnamese monk has a secret weapon to scare me, Six-six, dee-dee, three-four-two!

But the Vietnamese girl and I can still become lovers.

For a couple of coins, one time can do!”

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The deaThs of The faThers

A pair playing as Lao opened their mouths wide and sang, “Di-dum, di-dum, smart or dumb, it’s all the same, You’re dead and I’m sorry, but that’s the game.

Without whittling, a thorn is sharp.

Without shaping, a lime is round.

We all end up like you, even me.

A-hey-diddle-diddle, diddle-diddle-dee!”

A pair dressed as Khaek with bearded chins gurgled on a hookah and chanted, “With all support denied, You closed your eyes and died.

Parents and all your kin Fought death but did not win.

In the end you join them!”

Up came two monks decked out as Westerners. They rolled their eyes, bashed their bottoms together, fondled themselves for the audience to see, and sang, “This fellow’s captain is shorter than me.

I know how to solder constructively, so mine is better than his!”

He took a swig of liquor, rang a bell, and the captain stood up and swayed to the music. He pulled down his trousers for the Khaek monk to see.

The Khaek monk’s mouth dropped open, and he spat. “What are you showing me this tiddler for?” He waved a fan and tried to hit the Westerner, who dodged, picked up a fan, and raised it to fight back. They went at each other crazily, one drunk on liquor, the other smashed on ganja. The crowd roared in appreciation.

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Mekong Kids by

Khemachat

MEKONG PRESS was initiated in 2005 by Silkworm Books with the financial support of the Rockefeller Foundation. In 2007, the Mekong Press Foundation was registered as a nonprofit organization to encourage and support the work of local scholars, writers, and publishing professionals in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and the other countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Books published by Mekong Press (www.mekongpress.com) are marketed and distributed internationally.

Mekong Press also holds seminars and training workshops on different aspects of book publishing, and helps find ways to overcome some of the huge challenges faced by small book publishers in the region.

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CHAPTER 1

Boom, the Fat Boy

I

T WAS ALMOST SIX O’CLOCK on a new day and everything was still enveloped in darkness. New Year’s Day in BE 2518— also known as AD 1975—was just over. A chilly wind was blowing hard.

A florescent light under the house shone far into the darkness. Houses stood on both sides of the laterite road that ran alongside the Mekong River. With every gust of wind, the long row of light bulbs would sway back and forth, the points of light like fireflies playing in the wind.

The raised wooden house stood on a plot of about two hundred square tarang wa. It was supported by big round posts, almost ten inches in diameter, set about three meters apart. Under the house were three women of different ages vigorously working away as if they were trying to compete with each other—an older woman who was Boom’s

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CHAPTER 2

If Only I Had Some Friends

T

HE PEDAL TRISHAW, THE KIND with a covered roof, moved slowly but steadily along the laterite road dodging potholes this way and that. Uncle Noi’s wiry frame hardly looked like it was making much effort pedaling.

Boom might be a bit tubby, but nonetheless, he was still very much a kid. That year, Boom was in Grade 5. He weighed almost thirty-five kilograms, but that still wasn’t as heavy as the adults that sat behind Uncle Noi, who had to pedal so hard then that his calves bulged out. He didn’t have to use very much energy in taking Boom to school.

Uncle Noi would generally hum a molam song by Uncle Pho Chalatnoi, or by Uncle Khen Dalao, the top molam artist and everyone’s heartthrob. Even if he did look a bit scary, still he always seemed to be in a good mood. Boom was sitting on the seat behind him, head tilted to one side, 10

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looking at the other kids around his age walking along in a line on the edge of the road. Some were wrapped in thin gray blankets that had been handed out by the district officer. Some wore grubby old school shirts. These village kids didn’t study at the school in town, so they didn’t ride to school in a trishaw like Boom. They had to walk by themselves to the school in the village where his mom taught, a kilometer or more from Boom’s house. People generally called the school South Village School. To the north, upstream, was another school that everyone called North Village School.

Boom tried to smile at all those kids who were the same age as he was and from the same village, but in return lots of kids stuck their tongues out at him. Some boys swore at him using his dad’s name.

“Sonova-Khong!”

The little fellow was angry but didn’t know what to do.

Mom had taught him that to swear at them using their dad’s names was bad. One shouldn’t curse anyone’s dad or mom.

Why did so many people not like him, Boom would ask himself again and again. He wanted to ask Grandma, or Mom, or Auntie, but didn’t know how he should ask.

Incidents like this had been happening with monotonous regularity for a long time already.

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weaned off his mother’s milk. He was more than nine years old, but he was still afraid of sleeping by himself because he was so used to sleeping with her.

• Hands pulled the thick quilt off of Boom’s roly-poly body.

The fat little fellow looked as if he still didn’t want to get up to face the morning’s numbing cold, but Grandma’s call to wake up was as absolute as a command.

“Up, up up! Go wash your face and brush your teeth.”

Grandma Khem patted sleepy Boom on the arm. The little fellow raised both his hands and rubbed his eyes, opening his mouth in a gaping yawn.

“I haven’t slept enough yet.” He scowled at Grandma.

“You’re going to sleep the whole day, are you, Boom?”

Grandma scolded.

Boom pouted, gradually taking his butterball body out of the bedroom that his dad had made so special by fixing wire screens on every side. Now he could sleep without having to hang up a mosquito net.

The high, spacious area underneath the rice granary was where they had the kitchen and dining table. The plump boy sat down and slowly began eating his breakfast. There was hot sticky rice in a big round woven bamboo container.

As soon as the lid came off, steam from the rice wafted upwards. Laid out in front of him were several dishes to 4

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eat with the rice. Boom liked Grandma’s grilled fish the best, but what he hated was his mother’s Ovaltine. Boom’s mother made him drink it every morning after breakfast.

In those days, they didn’t have the boxed fresh milk they have now that keeps for a while. All Boom had to drink every day was Ovaltine, so he was tired of it.

The granary was built separately from the house, at the back, near an enormous tamarind tree with a trunk the size of a three-person hug-hold. Just past the tamarind tree was a fence made of concrete. Diagonally opposite the tamarind tree was a big neem tree. Boom remembered how much his father liked this neem tree. Dad said it wasn’t too bitter. When his dad came home, his mom would always make sweet fish-sauce neem for him. As far as Boom was concerned, when it came to neem, there wasn’t a tree in the world that was any good. It was as bitter as anything. But when he thought of his father gathering up the rice with his fingertips and putting it in his mouth, followed by the sweet fish-sauce neem and grilled catfish, Boom changed his mind. One day when he was grown up, just maybe he would enjoy eating neem like his dad.

Dad, I miss you so much! When are you going to come home for once?

The sound of a dog barking and whining came from the iron door at the back of the house. Boom, delighted,

5

Trams, Buses, and Rails The History of Urban Transport in Bangkok, 1886-2010

1 The Introduction of Rail Transport, 1880s–1900s

The Introduction of Tramways by Foreign Companies

I C HIR O KAKIZAKI

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The First Tramway The tramway business in Bangkok started as part of a foreigner’s economic activity. A railway, a modern means of transportation, had been discussed by the government in the 1870s, and a plan to construct a Moulmein-to-Yunnan line emerged in the 1880s.1 However, there was no mention of a tramway in these plans. As far as I can ascertain, the subject of a tramway was first introduced to the government when Axel Johnson, Siam’s honorary consul in Stockholm, informed Phra Darunrak, the chargé d’affaires in Paris, of his intention to cooperate in the rumored tramway construction in Bangkok. This was then reported to Prince Thewawong (Krommamuen Thewawong Waropakan), the Thai minister of foreign affairs.2 One year later, on May 5, 1887, a British navigator hired by the Thai government, Alfred John Loftus, and a Danish deputy superintendent of the Thai Royal Navy, Commodore de Richelieu, gained the concession to construct seven tram lines in Bangkok.3 The agreement stated that the concessionaire had to start construction of the first line within three years and complete it within five years, as shown in table 1.1. The first line to be built would run from Bang Kholaem to Tha Tian, near the Royal Palace, via Charoen Krung Road (New Road).4 In this concession, the tramway was specified as a single track, as were all tramways built later.

19

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Company

Line

Loftus & de 7 tramlines Richelieu

Siam Electric Railway Siamese Tramway

CHAPTER 1

THE INTRODUCTION OF RAIL TRANSPORT, 1880s–1900s

Table 1.1. Conditions of Tramway Concessions

construction of the first 5-kilometer section from Lak Mueang, the adjusted starting point at the east side of Sanam Luang, to the Bangkok dock near Wat Yannawa, and this opened on September 22, 1888 (see table 1.2) (BTWM, 19 April 1909).6 By 1890, this tramway line had been completed up to Bang Kholaem.7

Date of Concession Track Rent Deadline Deadline for Purchase of Grant Term for Start Completion Business 5 May 1887

50 years

Samsen line

25 Jul 1900

40 years

4 tramlines

1 Apr 1904

End of 1949

Pakkret Tramway Menam Paklat Motor Boat Tramway

End of 1949 7 May 1907

End of 1949

Siam Atsadang, 1907 Electricity Ratchawong, and Samsen extension lines

End of 1949

Remarks

Within 3 Within 5 years 20 years years (for for the first after grant the first line (within 7 line) years for other lines) 2.5–4% of Within 6 Within 2 years 12 years gross receipt months after grant 1,200–5,000 Within 6 baht per months mile 400–1,200 Within 6 baht per months mile 600–1,000 Within 6 baht per months mile 3,000 baht N.A. per mile

Within 18 months Within 30 months Within 18 months N.A.

Table 1.2. Opening of Tramways, 1888–1910 Company

At any time Deposit of 10,000 baht per mile required.

12 years Based on after grant concession draft.

After 1920 N.A.

Water sprinklers along the tramways and fire protection within 300 feet of tramways required.

Line

Section

Siam Bang Kholaem Lak Mueang– Electricity Bangkok Dock Bangkok Dock– Bang Kholaem Samsen Hua Lamphong– Bang Krabue Saphan Lueang– Hua Lamphong Atsadang Ratchawong Siamese Hua Lamphong Hua Lamphong– Tramway Phra Sumen City Wall Dusit

Chakkraphet– Power Plant Dusit Extension Khosua–Mouth of Samsen Canal

Note: Here, and in subsequent tables, N.A. means not available.

Sources: NA Ro. 5 No. 21/2; NA Ro. 5 No. 21/25; NA Ro. 5 No. 21/40; NA Ro. 5 No. 21/78; NA Ko To. 5/53; BTWM, 2 Sep 1907.

Length (km)

Opening Date

5.0

8.6

22 Sep 1888 Electrified in 1894 1890 Electrifiied in May 1893 24 Nov 1901

BTWM, 23 Nov 1901

0.5

20 Oct 1910

BTWM, 21 Oct 1910

0.5

1907

0.8

1907

4.4

1 Oct 1905

NA [2] So Ro. 0201.

63. 2/8 NA [2] So Ro. 0201.

63. 2/8 BTWM, 2 Oct 1905

7.2

1 Oct 1905

BTWM, 2 Oct 1905

4.8

1 Oct 1905

BTWM, 2 Oct 1905

2.4

1 Oct 1905

Abandoned BTWM, 2 Oct 1905 1.6-km section in 1910

4.0

Remarks

Sources BTWM, 19 Apr 1909 BT, 2 Dec 1891

Although the reason these two persons were able to gain the tramway concession is unknown, it seems that they enjoyed considerable popularity since both were foreign employees of the government. De Richelieu had also obtained the concession for the Paknam Railway the previous year. However, the next month, the concession was transferred by these two men to a British man, Henry Sigg, and it was he who established the Bangkok Tramway Company to build it (BTWM, 24 September 1902).5 The transfer would have already been decided before these two men gained the concession, since they also participated in the newly established company as directors. The company started

This first tramway was horse-drawn. Such horse-drawn tramways had already been introduced in several cities in Southeast Asia, first in Batavia (Jakarta) in 1869 and then in Manila in 1881 (Dick and Rimmer 2003, 68). The horse-drawn tramway of Bangkok was towed by eight horses, and these had to be changed along the way (Sa-nguan 1986, 81). Unlike in Europe or the United States, fatigue in horses was a large problem in Southeast Asia due to the hot weather and high humidity,

20

21

Total

38.2

Note: Italicized numbers are approximate numbers.

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INDEX

Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (continued) plan for increasing private sector’s role, 250–51, 290, 356–57 transfer plan to BMTA, 250, 284–85 Bangkok Mass Transit Implementation Plan (BMTIP), 267, 270–71, 276, 279, 281, 298, 312–14 Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS), 1–2, 9, 263–64, 271, 280–81, 284, 287, 289, 297, 300, 302, 314–15, 317–18, 335–36, 345, 350, 356–58, 361 construction, 235–38, 240–42, 248, 252, 255–57 extension, 269, 277, 279–81, 283–85, 287, 289, 296–99, 302, 304, 307, 316, 341, 344, 346–49, 360 Bangkok Mass Transit System Company (BTSC), 233, 236, 238, 241–42, 248, 255, 280, 283, 296, 302–3, 308, 328, 336, 341 purchase plan by the government, 281, 297, 313–14, 335 Bangkok Metro Company (BMCL), 263, 265–66, 315, 336, 341 purchase plan by the government, 313–14 Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), 9, 13–14, 211, 227, 233, 236–38, 241, 247, 249–53, 264–65, 269, 276–77, 283–85, 302–4, 307– 8, 335–36, 341, 344–48, 356–57 Bangkok Mass Transit plan. See Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS) bus rapid transit (BRT) plan. See bus rapid transit (BRT) conflict with the Ministry of Transport, 297–99 conflict with the Samak government, 296–97 conflict with the Thaksin government, 279–83, 286–87, 289

Bangkok Municipality, 3, 76, 92–94, 97, 105, 116–17, 119, 123, 132, 147, 155, 199, 204, 207, 340, 344, 354–55 bus unification plan, 168–71 start of bus operation, 80, 83–85 Bangkok Microbus Company, 246 Bangkok–Paknam Road. See Sukhumvit Road Bangkok Rattanakosin Automobile Company, 222 Bangkok Tramway Company, 20, 25–27, 47, 340 dividends, 22 electrification, 22, 24–25 gross receipts, 22, 25 Bangkok Transport Company, 243 Bangkok Yai Canal, 29 Banharn Silapa–acha, 250 Banthat Thong Road, 133 barter method, 9, 312–13, 351 Battambang, 35 Bearing, 282, 295, 297, 303–4, 360 Belgium, 60–61 Bhumjaithai Party, 297–98, 309–10, 348–49 Black May incident, 215, 356 Board of Railway Commissioners, 66, 68, 70 Bombardier, Inc., 215, 303 Boworadet, Prince, 76 Brazil, 3, 5–6 Budget Department, 250 Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT), 213, 215, 231, 233, 235, 238, 336, 340– 41, 356 Bunchu Rotchanasathian, 212 Bunphong Company, 117 Burapha Railway Company, 34, 51 Burma, 34, 332 buses air-conditioned buses, 1, 216–18, 220–21, 227, 246–48, 251, 258, 284–86, 290, 292, 294, 309–10, 319, 357 426

INDEX

all-night buses, 227, 258, 319 BMTA buses (directly operated), 220–22, 244–46, 249–51, 261, 290, 294, 309–10, 343, 361 bus concessions, 74, 95, 124, 127, 130, 132–35, 139–40, 144–45, 160–63, 166–74, 180, 182–83, 188–90, 192– 93, 200–201, 222, 248, 343, 355 expressway buses, 227, 258, 319 fare hikes, 135, 144–46, 168, 178–82, 188–89, 200, 223–26, 244, 249, 260, 285, 292, 340–41, 349, 351, 355 feeder buses, 242, 248, 328 free buses, 190, 192, 200, 226, 260, 310–11, 327–28, 343, 349–51, 357 microbuses, 246–48, 342 minibuses, 2, 4, 222, 243–44, 251, 258, 310, 337, 343, 356 “mosquito buses,” 83, 94, 333–34 NGV buses, 290, 294–95, 307–11, 328, 343, 348–49, 357 ordinary (non air-conditioned) buses, 216, 218, 220, 226–27, 251, 260, 284–86, 292, 294, 309, 344, 357 private buses (before unification), 94, 124, 130, 132, 135, 166–67, 171, 201 private buses (under BMTA), 220– 21, 223, 243–46, 249–51, 290, 292, 294, 310–11, 340, 342–43, 351, 354, 356 special permission buses 74, 79–80, 82, 94–95, 100, 105, 117, 122, 126– 27, 130, 340, 345 student buses, 190, 192 See also songthaeo; vans Bus Operators Association, 190–91 bus rapid transit (BRT), 6–7, 269, 278, 284, 286–88, 289, 307–9, 316, 328, 337–39, 344–47, 357, 361 bus unification

by Bangkok Municipality, 168–71

by ETO, 119, 121–25

by Nakhon Luang Transport Company, 171–73

by Transport Company, 166–68 formation of BMTA, 192–95 formation of Mahanakhon Transport Company, 188–92 Canada, 214, 356 carriage, 43, 45, 48, 50, 72 Chachoengsao (Ban Mai), 33–34 Chaeng Watthana Road, 178 Chamlong Srimuang, 233, 236 Chamnan Yuabun, 169 Chanthaburi, 113 Chaophraya River, 26, 29, 32–33, 38, 44, 55, 61, 67, 76–77, 110, 115, 150–51, 163, 196, 208, 212–13, 296, 304, 306, 358–59 Chaowarat Sutlapha, 249 Charansanitwong Road, 133, 163 Charoen Krung Road, 3, 19, 50, 56, 62, 72, 79–80, 84–85, 92, 94–95, 97, 116–17, 121, 123–24, 138, 146, 150 Chatchai Choonhavan, 214 Chavalit Yongchaiyut, 250 Chiang Mai, 110, 339 Chitlom, 238 Chonburi, 113, 147 Chong Nonsi, 279, 287, 289 Chongrak Norasin, Phraya, 73 Chotchoi Sophonphanit, 236–38 Chuan Leekpai, 235, 279 Chulalongkorn University, 285 Chumphon, 166 Chunlachomklao Fort, 163 communication-based train control (CBTC), 303 conductors, 247, 292 Constitutional Revolution, 15, 87 coup d’état, 123, 160, 181, 270, 295, 347, 357 Credit Suisse–First Boston Company (CSFB), 242 427

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Chapter 1

Tribute and Profit

The International Context of the Sino-Siamese Trade

Sino-Siamese Trade, 1652–1853

T SARASIN VIRAPHOL Edited by Wutdichai Moolsilpa

he junk1 trade may be defined as that branch of the maritime commerce of the Eastern Seas (East and Southeast Asia included) which encompassed Japan to the north and the East Indies to the south, and which was managed almost exclusively by Chinese. This trade was at its height at the end of the eighteenth century and during the early decades of the nineteenth century.2 The network of this maritime commerce, according to Chinese navigational charts,3 emanated from the Taiwan Straits and branched out essentially in two directions: xi yang or the “western ocean” route covering Annam, Cambodia, Siam, and the Malay peninsula, and dong yang or the “eastern ocean” route, which included the Ryukyus (Liuqiu), Japan, the Philippines, and the East Indies.4 These two routes had of course been used by Chinese navigators long before the Qing dynasty, but after the second half of the seventeenth century traffic picked up greatly, especially on the “western ocean” route during a time when the Eastern Seas trade was predominantly in the hands of the Chinese seafarers who often collaborated with various indigenous rulers. The comprehensive scope of this trade may further be viewed from the large number of ports and calling stations, and the wide range of exports and imports.

Siam occupied a central position in the junk trade in the “western ocean” branch owing to its geographical location; it served as a locus of both regional and East-West trade.5 The various ports of Siam (the capitals of Ayutthaya, Thonburi, and Bangkok, and others such 7

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CHAPTER 1

THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT OF THE SINO-SIAMESE TRADE

as Chanthaburi, Pattani, Nakhon [Ligor], Songkhla, and Chaiya) all maintained a vigorous trade at various times with China because they had an abundance of produce suitable for the junk trade, and because of the sailing range of the junk and the manner in which it was sailed. Larry Sternstein has observed that “Chinese ‘navigators’ much preferred an interminable coasting around mainland Southeast Asia to the relatively short out-of-sight-of-land voyage, because junks were manned not by ‘efficient’ seamen but by so many independent entrepreneurs engaged in multifarious time-consuming deals.”6 These factors, in addition to the underpopulated nature of the country, made Siam an ideal center for the junk trade.

This position was made even more favorable because by the second half of the seventeenth century Siam’s status in the East-West trade was already well established. Political consolidation, receptiveness of the ruling court to such foreign trade, and the country’s proximity to the coveted China and Japan markets7 enabled Siam to play the crucial role as a transshipment point for East-West goods, thus further enhancing the junk trade. The capital at Ayutthaya was then known as an “emporium of the East,” serving as a vital crossroads for the flow of merchandise between Europe and China and Japan.

Another factor that favored a long and cordial commercial relationship between Siam and China, which in turn strengthened the position of the junk trade, was the atmosphere of informality in which business was conducted. The Chinese traders to Siam were invariably moved solely by commercial motives; hence they were almost always ready to go to any extent to accomplish a business deal. In contrast to the comparatively more systematic and legalistic mode of Western trade, the casualness of traditional Asiatic societies prevailed.

Furthermore, not only were the Chinese more knowledgeable about sailing junks and about market conditions at the various ports of call (where merchants were more often than not Chinese compatriots), but the Siamese government policy of discouraging the participation of Siamese individuals in navigation and foreign trade, and the skill of the Chinese in bribery and other “wheeling-and-dealing” techniques enabled them to transact business with minimal cost and delay. Understandably, this commercial “adroitness” was consistently pointed out by Western traders as an asset only the Chinese themselves could fully enjoy.

The junk trade, nevertheless, did not flourish solely because of the above geographic factor and the character of the Chinese merchants (though such factors cannot be lightly ignored); it also came about as a historical accident. Precisely because of the considered importance of Siam’s status as an entrepôt, as early as in the reigns of the Siamese kings Songtham (1611–28) and Prasat Thong (1630–55), Western (Portuguese, Dutch, British)8 and Japanese traders were already active in the area. The fame of Chinese silks and gold, Japanese silver and copper, and spices of the East Indies had been well established by the lucrative ventures of the Portuguese vessels in the sixteenth century, much to the envy of other European powers. The Portuguese captured Malacca in 1511, and commenced trading with Siam at Ayutthaya, Pattani, Nakhon, Murgui, and Tenasserim after 1512. Following the acquisition of another base at Macao in 1557, the Portuguese clinched the European trade to China and Japan for the remainder of the century. They served as a main conveyor of Chinese silks to Japan, for indigenous Japanese ships were not permitted at Chinese ports by Chinese imperial decree.

8

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Rise and Decline of Dutch Trade with Siam Although Portuguese shipping in the Eastern Seas was, in the final analysis, only a fraction of the local Asian shipping at the time, it proved the value of the intra-Asian trade to other European states.9 The first formidable competitors of the Portuguese were the Dutch, who began to trade directly with the Eastern Seas after their independence from Spanish rule and after Philip II of Spain severed from the Dutch supplies of oriental goods normally available at Portugal in the latter quarter of the sixteenth century (after 1580). In 1602, the Vereeningte Oost Indische Compagnie, or the Dutch East India Company, was chartered. One of its first acts was the establishment of factories (trading posts) at Pattani and Ayutthaya for the purpose of competing with the Portuguese in the intraAsian trade, and also to make up for the loss of supplies of pepper and fine spices by exchanging these products with European silver, which was worth more in the East.10 In the meantime, the British, impressed by news of successful Dutch voyages to the East after 1596, formed the East India Company in 1600 to control and finance all English trade with

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The Birth Story of Mahosadha, or of the Great Tunnel (Mahosadha-jātaka or Mahā-Ummagga-jātaka)

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InTroducTIon The Mahosadha-jātaka, or, as it is commonly known in Sri Lanka, the Ummagga-jātaka, (the Tunnel Story), is singled out as one of only three lives in which the Bodhisatta speaks at birth. On each occasion of this extraordinary occurrence, the other two are also cited, emphasising the way they have historically been linked to one another. In the Jātakanidāna, the Bodhisatta in his final life is said to have spoken and announced his pre-eminence in the world, foreshadowing his Buddhahood. In the Vessantara-jātaka he expresses his wish to his mother to be generous. In this story, as he is being born, King Sakka slips a healing herb, osadhī, into the Bodhisatta’s hand. He immediately gives it to his mother and asks that it be used to cure people’s sickness, which it does, with miraculous effect.

The story is attributed to the perfection of wisdom, and it is this quality that pervades the style and content of the tale, making it one for which no other attribution seems possible, though it makes clear that wisdom needs to be rightly placed, and not used for one’s own gain.1 Through riddles, questions, answers to apparently insoluble problems, advice to kings, intelligence gathering, planning, and forethought the Bodhisatta brings his great wisdom, or perhaps more accurately in the situations Introduced and translated by Sarah Shaw.

1. For attributions, see Introduction, Table 2.

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The BirTh STory of MahoSadha

The BirTh STory of MahoSadha

coffers and is later secretly stolen by devinda, the king’s jewel valuer (v.

77). Whenever he carries it, its auspiciousness brings him wealth, reckoned in multiples of eight coins, and popularity in the king’s own court. it is called a jewel treasure by the Bodhisatta, an image that aligns it with the seven treasures of a Universal Monarch, and is requested by him for his great challenge with the enemy king’s adviser, Kevaṭṭa.11 But when the jewel is tossed to him, Kevaṭṭa, unskilful in intention, cannot catch it and it slips to the ground, so he is left greedily scrambling around at the others’ feet, thereby inadvertently showing his own inferiority, and that of his state, to the king of Mithilā. This incident is one of the most popular images in Southeast asian temple art. as Peris points out, there is something about this jewel, connected to the eight curves, that means it cannot be threaded. in the ‘Question of the Jewel’ it needs to be done by ants, who are led on by the honey smeared on its side. Usually shown in Sri Lankan temple art as a kind of square, with curves around the side, the jewel was clearly intended to be more unusual in some way. Peris makes a comparison with the ancient Greek story of daedalus (‘clever worker’), the great inventor and designer of the labyrinth. he used ants to take a thread through a spiral shell, tempting them also by honey. Peris points out that maybe the ‘crookedness’ is a kind of spiral effect in the jewel—it is a present from Sakka, after all, and need not be a ‘real’ type of stone (Peris 1978). While Peris carefully avoids discussion of the tales’ origins, his analysis of the affinities between the jewel and the shell, and the tunnel and the labyrinth, is a good one. Something has to be done that is hidden, involving work in secret, away from sight.

Amarā’s ‘Secret Way’, the lattice that hides from Kevaṭṭa the fact the city has been decorated for a wedding (Ja Vi 412), and indeed the threading of this curious jewel all anticipate the climactic image of the story: the tunnel, an escape route for the King of Mithilā and his men, a means of ensuring the safe departure of King Cūḷani’s family, and a restorative resting place for the hundred and one kings, their armies, and their attendants. here we see a powerful metaphor for the Bodhisatta’s final life. It is built to his recommendations by craftsmen, including members of an army ‘released from prison’. These followers of the Bodhisatta, like his saṅgha in his final life, construct a whole world in which liberation is made possible.

Sun, moon, Meru and the four continents, and the six sense heavens are skilfully painted on its walls. New gadgets are employed: the lights can all be revealed or not, in one stroke of a switch. fully lit, it is like the meeting place of the gods, Sudhammā. But the enemy army is subjected to great terror inside it when the Bodhisatta extinguishes the lights to ensure they are mindful of his power. Unlit, and closed off, it is a hell. in a self-conscious nod to the way so many jātakas begin, he points out when he releases the army, and the tunnel is again filled with light, that once before they had been delivered by him: when Cūḷani’s plan to poison them all is foiled by the Bodhisatta’s spies. This finally cures them of enmity and is a good description of the way the Bodhisatta, if sometimes hard, actually uses wisdom in the stories. in some ways the incident is an encapsulation of the jātaka form and function. Wisdom is compared throughout the suttas to a lamp, restored to place, that fills what has been dark with light. In this last great episode of the Mahosadha-jātaka, the puzzle that lies behind existence, which is dark without the light of wisdom, is demonstrated. it reminds us of the wisdom of the Buddha’s final life and his very exposition of the jātakas themselves that illuminate the past and the lives of those that listen to them.

Art and Literature The tale has always been amongst the most popular of the last ten, particularly in Sri Lanka, where the Sinhalese version expands on the story greatly. it has also prompted new texts, such as the Lokaneyyapakaraṇa, roughly contemporaneous with the Paññāsajātaka collection.12 in Sri Lanka it seems to have influenced architectural planning: the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century fortress at Kotte is reputedly modeled on the Bodhisatta’s plans for defence for his own city. Mahosadha-jātaka often features as a single tale in Sinhala and Burmese manuscripts.13 in the twentieth century, anecdotes derived from the story frequently feature in children’s tales and retellings, such as Perera’s The Sage of India (1976).14 There is also a

11. here the jewel is called, aṭṭhavaṃkamaṇiratanaṃ, a treasure with ‘eight curves’ or ‘eight crooked features’ (Ja Vi 403 ff.)

12. See appleton 2010a: 76 n. 22.

13. See, in the Bodleian collection, the Pāli-Burmese nissaya on the story, purchased in 1898, MS. Pali b.11. There are various single translations into Southeast asian languages listed under ‘Mahosadha’ in the British Library’s online catalogue, along with a Siamese palm-leaf manuscript (1845). The story is linked to the establishing of legal precedent in Myanmar and Thailand (see huxley 1997).

14. for discussion of this see appleton 2010a: 80 ff.

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