David K. Wyatt

Southeast Asia ‘Inside Out,’ 1300–1800: A Perspective from the Interior

Despite the serious studies of the past century, the history of Mainland Southeast Asia is still poorly understood. This is not to say that we do not have numerous studies of particular countries and events in individual countries; but, despite the efforts of Victor Lieberman, Anthony Reid, and others, we still lack a comprehensive sense of the dynamics of the premodern history of long periods on a region-wide basis.

Relics, oaths and politics in thirteenth-century Siam

Recent efforts have re-dated the Wat Bang Sanuk inscription to 1219, long before the Ram Khamhaeng inscription of 1292. Attempts to assess the implications force a re-thinking of Thai rebellion against Angkor by linking rebellion to religious thought, including especially the discovery and public show of relics of the Buddha.

Family Politics in Nineteenth Century Thailand

One of the most arresting periods in modern Thai history is the latter half of the nineteenth century, when a process of social and political development begun in the previous century reached its fruition when a single bureaucratic family obtained a virtual mono poly on high state office in the reign of King Mongkut (1851-68) and the first half of the reign of King Chulalongkorn (1868-1910). This situation had profound effects on the course of modern Thai history; and its study enlightens our understanding of Thailands foreign relations and of the course of reform and modernization in a period when the successful conduct of these was crucially vital to the survival of the kingdom. The origins and growth of one-family dominance in nineteenth century Thai politics are not readily susceptible to study. Family names are essentially a twentieth century innovation, and nineteenth century documents rarely reveal even the personal names of govern ment officials who were known only by their titles. However, it is obvious both from the comments of such foreign observers as Captain Henry Burney and Sir John Bowring, and from the expressed con cerns of Thai kings from Rama III to Chulalongkorn, that family relationships among the royalty and nobility were of considerable importance political. The availability of three general types of sources makes possible a preliminary analysis of nineteenth century Thai politics and the family relationships which undergirded them. First, there are a number of genealogical compilations, most of which were compiled early in the current century. Important among these are a collection of genealogies of major noble families begun by Phraya Rattanakun (Camrat Rattanakun) in 1920/ the official genealogy of the royal family,2 and the genealogies of the families of

A Short History of Patani

The small provincial town in the south of Thailand that today is Patani gives little indication of the richness of its past. Travellers who fly high above it en route to Bangkok or Singapore, or mariners who steam past it almost over the horizon, probably are oblivious of the great advantages its geographical position once gave it in a long millennium of sailing ships and a complex Asian trade. Along the lengthy east coast of the Malay Peninsula there are few good natural harbours, and Patani long was among the best of these. It is at the Cape of Patani that the coastline veers westward, and at that point that a long narrow spit of land curves twelve miles out to sea, protecting on its southern and western sides a bay some five miles across. There the early mariner could shelter from the northeast, or southwest, monsoon before continuing on northwards to Ayudhya in Thailand, or to the Vietnamese coast and onward to China, or southwards for the Straits of Malacca and points beyond. When trade in the Straits was particularly disturbed, trans-peninsular overland routes stretched towards Patani from Kedah and Perak through narrowing river basins and over the low mountain ranges that form the spine of the peninsula. With a small hinterland well-suited for wet-rice cultivation, the region could sustain a modest population, and its natural advantages led it from earliest times to engage in overseas trade.

Thai Historical Materials in Bangkok

Compared with the other countries of Southeast Asia, the Western-language historiography of Thailand is meagre indeed. Western sources have furthered scholarship considerably, but historical writing on Thailand will remain unbalanced until Thai materials have been fully exploited. Some beginning has been made on this work by both Thai and Western scholars, but as yet this is only a beginning.

Thailand: A Short History.

This highly acclaimed book, the standard history of Thailand for almost twenty years, has now been completely revised by the author. David K. Wyatt has also added new sections examining the social and economic changes that have transformed the country in the past two decades.

The Structure of the Malay Text Its Authors, Date, Language

It is apparent from what has been said so far that little can be concluded concerning the authorship, date, origin or textual history of the Hikayat Patani on the basis of external data and comparison with other books. It now remains for us to investigate to what extent internal evidence, i.e. data from the text as it has been handed down to us, can help us draw some conclusions in this respect.

The Hikayat Patani and Related Texts

In the West the Hikayat Patani has been known to exist ever since 1838. In that year Lieutenant Newbold published a “Note on Malayan MSS. and Books presented to the Society” in the Madras Journal of Literature and Science, Vol. VII. “The Society” was evidently the Royal Asiatic Society, and more specifically its Madras Branch, and the list of Malay manuscripts included ten items, some of them consisting of several parts. As No. 6 Newbold mentions the “Hikayet Patani”, and goes on to say:1 “This is a history of the Malayan principality of Patani, now a province of Siam”. He then summarizes briefly what the text has to say about the founder of the state of Patani and his descendants, giving the names of the sultans of the first dynasty mentioned in the text, followed by the so-called Kalantan dynasty, which came to an end with the rule of “Alung Yunus”. After his death Patani fell into a state of anarchy and has never had a Raja or Bendahara since. “With a brief account of an invasion from Siam, and some curious instructions touching the Noubet and the twenty-four Ragams or musical modes, the work closes.” Newbold’s survey of this manuscript ends with a “tolerably literal translation” of the beginning of the MS., namely the description of the foundation of the city of Patani, and he concludes with the observation that this story of the foundation of Patani differs from that of the Sejarah Melayu.