The South lives on

Published on October 15, 2005 - Local literature, oral history, ancient maps and travellers’ tales will surface at seminar on Andaman region’s past. An archivists’ seminar to be held in Phuket next month will shed more light on Andaman’s “golden” past and the history of the southern provinces. The past will be told through evidence left by Western travellers and local people of the time.

During the seminar, to be held from November 3 to 5, scholars will link the past to the present using local literature, oral history, ancient maps and archives.

Thavatchai Tangsirivanich, a well-known collector of ancient European maps, said the archivists would trace the past from a 15th century European map based on Ptolemy’s manuscript on Southeast Asia showing “Aurea Chersonesus”, Latin for Golden Peninsula, corresponding with present-day southern Thailand.

The map collector will join archivists and southern scholars in “Tracing Andaman’s Past” by revealing old evidence of the “golden” referred to in ancient European maps.

In a talk titled “The South in Ancient European Maps”, Thavatchai will trace Western knowledge of the South from Ptolemy’s map and Pierre Mortier’s map of Siam (printed in Amsterdam in 1700).

On Ptolemy’s map, the Malay Peninsula from Malacca to southern Thailand was painted in gold. Pierre Mortier’s map named Phuket (Guncalam ou Jun caloan), Nakhon Si Thammarat (Ligor) and Pattani (Patane) as a kingdom (Le Royaume De).

“Westerners knew Siam from the port cities in the South. We can see from ancient European maps that the important port cities of the time were Phuket, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Pattani and Malacca,” he said.

Thavatchai will end his search for Andaman’s past with maps from the late Ayutthaya period. The map collector said he would not delve into other areas from maps created after that period.

“My interest [in ancient maps] ended at the reign of King Narai,” Thavatchai said.

Professor Sommai Pinphutt-hasin will focus on other chapters in the South’s history from the early Rattanakosin period. In a paper titled “Archives of the South – Andaman Coast”, Sommai will present letters written by Thanpuying Jan, or Tao Thepkasatree, the heroine of Maung Thalang, to Francis Light, the governor of Penang.

The original letters, written in 1785, are kept at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Former Phuket governor Uan Surakul visited London in 1962 and got permission to copy the letters and bring them back to Thailand. The copies are kept in Phuket’s People Library.

“We have no historical evidence of Tao Thepkasatree, but her letters confirm that she existed in history,” said Sommai, a scholar at Rajabhat Phuket University.

Her letters show that she had good relations with Light in both politics and commercial affairs.

For example, she once wrote to Light about the shortage of opium and asked him to send opium to Muang Thalang, Sommai said. In another letter, she informed Light that Burmese troops were attacking Muang Thalang while her husband was seriously ill. She asked Light to send troops to help fend off the Burmese attack.

Thanpuying Jan’s son and daughter were also in contact with Light, he said, and copies of their letters to Light will be displayed at the seminar.

“Prang, her eldest daughter, wrote to Light to ask him to buy perfumes and clothes for her in India,” Sommai said.

Respected sociologist Professor Suthiwong Pongpaiboo will also present stories of the South’s past. He will use local archives to describe “Nora” and the way of life surrounding southern art in the 1950s.

“It’s a collection of autobiographies of people who performed the role of Nora. They wrote in many forms,” he said.

The performances will combine movement, traditional costumes and lyrics created “ad lib” to accompanying music. Quick wits are required because the performer must create words that are meaningful and rhyme.

The sociologist said the Nora autobiographies were part of local history that reflected the way of life of ordinary people, and the political, economic and social dimensions of the time.

Professor Chuan Petkaew, director of the Arts and Culture Office at Rajabhat Surat Thani University, will use literature to share the oral history of Surat Thani and Trang provinces that reflect local conditions and the way of life.

He said that the story of Nai Chuen (Mr Chuen) describes the way of life on Koh Samui and Koh Pa Ngan between 1940 and 1942.

The story of the death of prisoner Mo Jan (Dr Jan) reflects an important historical episode that has never been recorded in the national narrative. Mo Jan, or Nai Jan-boriban, served as a civil servant in Trang province during the reign of King Rama VI. He killed Phraya Sathon-sathanpitak, the governor of Trang.

Khunying Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand will lead a talk on “tsunami archives” and marine biology, and Torn Thamrongnava-sawat will share his wisdom on “the use of archive evidence and marine and coastal resources rehabilitation”.

*Note: The seminar is co-organised by the Association of Thai Archives, Rajabhat Phuket University, Office of Arts and Culture, Phuket and Satreephuket School. For more information, please call (02) 613 3840-1 or (02) 222 0149.

Subhatra Bhumiprabhas
The Nation