Another way to understand the perception of history in Thailand and the ideas behind it is to look at historiography – historians’ views on history which actually reflect both the historians, the society they reside in and their audience. Another point is the reflection of history itself in which experience, interpretation and orientation need to be considered (Rüsen “Historical Consciousness” 79-80).
Winai Pongsripian, in his PhD thesis, stated that Thai traditional history especially prior to the 16th century (the coming of the Europeans) is an “obscure object” due to the “fragmentary” nature of epigraphic sources and unreliability of the local chronicle.
As a result, not many scholars dedicate themselves to the study of it (Pongsripian
“Traditional Thai Historiography” ii ).
Two kinds of history, as briefly mentioned earlier in chapter 4, are worth elaborating on here, namely tamnan or myth, and phongsawadan or chronicle. Tamnan is related to religion and phongsawadan is related to the kings and their dynasties. The first type of history is religious, and was written by monks especially in the North of Thailand.
The latter is related to kings, and obviously bears the influence of the Thai God-King cult, which belief was influenced by Buddhist Pali canons.
The concepts and approaches in traditional Thai history can be discussed as follows.
1) Inscription
Inscriptions are the oldest kind of historical evidence found in the land that is now Thailand. As mentioned, the evidence of merit making called kalapana were located with objects or places to show the dedication of the believers to their religions.27 Apart from convention and belief in merit making which became the origin of a large number of inscriptions in Thailand, the inscriptions mostly exalt the bravery of kings or, in some cases, people and cities were described.
Natwipa Chalitanon explained that in this mode of writing, writers look at their present and the near future. The recording will not be about a distant past as is the case with tamnan (Chalitanon 103). The purpose of the inscription writing is thus for exaltation for good deeds for people at the highest level, such as kings and for those who are able to donate things to temples. People who are less wealthy inscribe their merit in other kinds of materials, such as brick. These actions say that inscriptions were made to announce people’s good actions, so they have religious and political functions including long lasting communication to the communities. Things written in transcriptions do not relate events in the distant past. Thus, it seems more likely that the purpose is to make an announcement than to write history (Chalitanon 94).
27 They can be both Buddhism and Hinduism.
Inscribing on stone became less popular by the time that there were other media available such as inscribing on palm leaf, cloth and paper.
2) Tamnan
The content of the tamnan is related to religions, i.e. Buddhism. It is said to be a kind of history that can best express the life of the epoch and the everyday citizen.
However, tamnan has its flaws when judged against Western standards because it is involved with miracles, princes, angels and hermits. As fact and actuality are mixed together in myths, it is difficult for readers and historians to distinguish fact and fiction from each other. But for ordinary people like local people and villagers, these myths are stories that touch their hearts, and they can assimilate them with their daily life.
Hence, tamnan is known as a form of actual public history in Thailand. It is mixed with belief, ways of life and community, and reflects the real Thai mentality. The exciting and fun elements help it to last and stand for a long time both orally and in scripts. We can see that there are different patterns of the same stories in different areas. It is also an important instrument in local history.
As for the purposes and historical ideas behind the tamnan, they are all about
religions and its relation to people’s lifestyle and communal sense. For example, Ban Koo Kantanam, a village in Thailand, has an annual ritual where villagers gather to meet God represented by a medium. The God Kantanam is from the myth villagers believe, so he is able to answer historical questions the villagers ask. At the same time, the God helps to solve conflicts in the village (Wongthet 150-60).
In comparison, the writing and oral history of tamnan is similar to Western history written in medieval times. They focus on religion, and are full of miraculous situations. It is not until the time that the idea about truth had an influence on historiography. Traditional Thai historiography seems to hold this shared characteristic until the West came.
The effects of such a form of writing is that history has its focus on the capital cities.
The emphasis placed on national history has meant that other kinds of history have been to some extent placed in the shade. Dhida Saraya mentioned that tamnan or
tamnan prawatsat or myth have been ignored in the study of history (Saraya 56).
Also, the government policy under King Rama IV to create only one “Thainess” led to history education ignoring local history. However, tamnan has both factual and fictional parts, so it is actually an important source that can tell the history of ordinary and powerful people, but this type of history is usually neglected.
One prominent characteristic of Thai historiography is the idea about centralisation.
Thai historical writing and study focuses on the capital city. It focuses on kings and their dynasties, which is a real influence of historical writing since the Ayutthaya period. Such writing takes the form of a chronicle, and there are a few versions of them. Later, the tradition of writing chronicles continued to exert an influence until the Rattanakosin period, where the study of history dominantly relied on capital cities (Saraya 15). The centralist historical ideology is a part of Thai historiography.
3) Phongsawadan
Phongsawadan or chronicle is the origin of the perception of the word archives in the traditional Thai sense, which is “recording events”. As mentioned in recordkeeping history, phongsawadan was written as from chotmaihet or archives in Thai, which are not records from activities but the diary of the royal secretary. In terms of the quality of history, chronicles are not historical writings that are based on truth and were not intended to be so, as we can see from the fact that phongsawadan in different versions can make completely contradictory claims depending on the political position of the writers (Chalitanon 94).
The purpose in writing phongsawadan is obviously to record significant events of kings and the royal family. As chronicles are dynastic, they always focus on the capital cities, centre of the government. Phongsawadan is an important genre of the Ayutthaya period. This focus leads to a lack of interest in local history (Saraya 19). In fact, this comment is true as the perception of Thai history is centralised, and limited to that point of view according to textbooks.
The ideas behind phongsawadan is to function as a tool for the kings in governing the country. The tradition of recording is supported by the God-King cult. Phongsawadan
and its origin chotmaihet are nothing to do with history and archives in the Western sense, but now the two meanings are implied by the one word.
Thai elites were the first group of people to experience Western civilisation, and this seriously impacted Siam during early Rattanakosin. Comparisons of Siam’s and Western civilisation unavoidably occurred. The traditional ideas about Buddhism and the God-King cult sounded unreasonable. Thai elites tried to explain history in a way that made sense for the West, both to reaffirm to themselves, and to protect their civilisation from Western threats (Eoseewong 16).