(2020) Adaptations of the Javanese Panji in Cosmopolitan Ayutthaya. Southeast Asian Studies, 9(1) 3–25. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Thai Adaptations of the Javanese Panji in Cosmopolitan Ayutthaya
2020
This article considers the curious case study of Thai literary networks in the late Ayutthaya, the networks' adoption and adaptations of the Javanese Panji epic, and what these innovations reveal about the form of cosmopolitanism that existed until the late Bangkok period. While windows into what we refer to as Siamese cosmopolitanism have been reconstructed by historians in accounts of Persian, Portuguese, Dutch, French, Chinese, and Japanese mercantile networks, our treatment of this important topic expands the units of analysis to include Thai literary networks. Davisakd Puaksom's excellent doctoral dissertation piqued our interest in Panji's Siamese adoptions and adaptations, but we set ourselves the task of exploring the utility of Ronit Ricci's Islam Translated, which analyzes Tamil, Javanese, and Malay sources for Thai studies. We pursue a comparative approach to Southeast Asian historiography in ways that increase the dialogue between Thai studies specialists and members of the Malay Studies Guild. Having described the most important Thai version of this Javanese epic produced by Siamese literary networks from the Ayutthaya through to the late Bangkok period, we consider the principal historical personalities and processes that brought Panji to cosmopolitan Ayutthaya. After providing details about the presence of Javanese individuals and influences in both Ayutthaya and Patani, we introduce insights provided by literary scholars and historians concerning the notoriously ambiguous terms "Java/Jawah/Javanese" and "Malay/Melayu." These form the foundation for putting forward arguments about Ayutthaya having fostered forms of cosmopolitanism resembling the fluid linguistic and cultural milieu that flourished in other Southeast Asian port polities.
(2019) The Legacy of Melaka's 15th Century Successes in 16th Century Siam
2019
main-page/conference/dr-christopher-m-joll/ The Legacy of Melaka’s 15th Century Successes in 16th Century Siam This paper seeks to respond to the perceived dearth of studies pursuing an explicitly comparative approach to Southeast Asian historiography. Before the publication of Chris Baker’s Ayutthaya Rising From Land or Sea?, there were a few examples in the secondary literature on “littoral“, and “mainland” of any engagement between Thai Studies specialists and members of the Malay Studies Guild. Although this paper seeks to build on Baker’s seminal contribution to comparative historiography vis-à-vis mainland Southeast Asia subservient to Ayutthaya, and Melaka, I ask questions about what insights into Melaka in the 15th century might be provided from an exploration of developments in the 16th. I argue that the prosperity of port cities such as Ayutthaya and Patani following 1511, confirms Melaka’s regional importance in the 15th Century. Furthermore, the presence of transcultural entrepreneurs in Siamese palaces and ports suggests Ayutthaya to have actively imitated Melaka’s highly successful cosmopolitan model. Finally, I consider case studies of how aspects of Melaka’s religious cosmopolitanism spread to Ayutthaya. These include Sufi tariqat, and Persian mercantile networks present in South Indian port cities arriving via transpeninsular portages revitalised by mercantile networks forced to establish new operational hubs.
TRaNS: Trans -Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia, 2022
This article reconstructs the history of Kling Muslims' contribution to the religious and ethnic cosmopolitanism of sixteenth-century Ayutthaya. This study's argument is constructed based on an aggregate of written fragments about the Kling in both Portuguese primary sources and the wider academic literature. We reveal that, amongst the many ways in which Siam benefited from the Iberian invasion of Melaka in 1511, the dramatic geopolitical rupture of the invasion rerouted trade across the Bay of Bengal. As a result, Kling merchants began arriving in Ayutthaya in greater numbers via the new network of Siamese-controlled ports and portages. Moreover, this study demonstrates the utility of greater synergy among South Asian, Southeast Asian, Thai, and Malay Studies through focusing on the exonyms employed in primary and secondary sources. Finally, this article contends that Ayutthaya's ethnic and religious cosmopolitanism was impacted by the arrival of South Asian Muslims, referred to as Kling in the Malay World and Khaek in Siam, approximately one century before Persians arrived in greater numbers. This, among others, was an unintended result of Portugal's sixteenth-century interventions into, and alliances with, the Siamese.
2017. "Local" vs. "Cosmopolitan" in the Study of Premodern Southeast Asia
SUVANNABHUMI: Multi-disciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 2017
This paper analyzes the scholarly approaches to the problem of "local" vs. "cosmopolitan" in the context of the cultural transfers between South and Southeast Asia. Taking the "localization" paradigm advanced by Oliver Wolters as its pivot, it reviews the "externalist" and "autonomous" positions, and questions the hermeneutical validity of the fuzzy and self-explanatory category of "local." Having discussed the geo-environmental metaphors of "Monsoon Asia" and "Maritime Asia" as alternative paradigms to make justice to the complex dynamics of transregional interaction that shaped South and Southeast Asian societies, it briefly presents two case studies highlighting the tensions between the "local" and "cosmopolitan" approaches to the study of Old Javanese literature and Balinese Hinduism.
TRaNS, 2024
'Thainess' [khwam-pen-Thai] or Thai identity has long been a state-constructed ideology linked to nationalist sentiment. However, in the 21 st century, internal politics and globalisation have come to challenge its monopoly. Against this backdrop, reinventing classical literature and folklore has emerged as a way to reimagine and rethink 'Thainess' in Thai literature. This holds particular relevance since transnational cultures, ranging from classical Indian mythology to the contemporary Korean wave, continue to be hybridised and reconstructed. This paper examines the hybridity of Thainess in contemporary Thai literature, focusing on two different genres: fantasy and fanfiction. Firstly, I explore the fantasy novel series 'Nawa Himmaphan' [New Himmaphan] (2013-2018), depicting an apocalypse and creating a new world inspired by the Indian mythical forest named Himavanta. The novel adapts and reinterprets the roles and meanings of Deva (the god) and Asura (the demon) in an upside-down future. Secondly, I examine an adaptation of the Ramakien, the Thai version of the Indian Ramayana, published on the internet and transformed into Boys Love (BL) fanfiction referencing Korean idols called 'Huachai Thotsakan KAIHUN' [The Heart of Thotsakan KAIHUN] (2016-2017). It reconstructs the Ramakien, challenging its traditional meaning while asserting the aesthetics of K-pop fans. Through the lens of the hybridity framework, this paper argues that these texts not only illustrate cross-regional cultural hybridisation but also challenge the top-down construction of Thainess. Hybridity creates a 'liminal space' for Thainess, establishing a new power structure that highlights the significance of marginalised voices against the backdrop of political polarisation and the influence of transnational flows.
Journal of World History, 2022
This article analyzes and discusses the modes and forms of cooperation between various groups of foreign nationals sojourning in Ayutthaya during the seventeenth century. It argues that Siamese monarchs' religious and ethnic tolerance toward foreigners as well as the large scope of autonomy they granted to overseas incomers was paralleled by the kings' predatory usage of law and inherently conflictual system of exploitation of foreign merchants that satisfied the court's fiscal needs. In effect, traders residing in Siam reacted by creating among themselves cross-national informal networks and by reaching out to court officials and Buddhist clergy. These networks superseded global conflicts raging between the kingdoms and treading companies (such as Portuguese and Dutch wars and the Dutch East India Company war against Ming loyalists, etc.). Moreover, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, the long-standing cooperation between various nations led to a significant cultural amalgamation and growing uniformization in customs and modes of consumption. Due to the strong state institution and specific multiethnic and multireligious social structure, Ayutthaya provides a fascinating early example of reasons, forms, and limits for social and cultural integration within the globalizing entrepôts of early modern Asia.