Thailand (Lonely Planet, 13th Edition) - China Williams [13]
In the 70 years between the reigns of King Taksin and King Nangklao (Rama III), the new rulers focused on restoring unity among the Siamese people and reviving Ayuthayan models. Surviving knowledge and practises were preserved or incorporated into new laws, manuals of government practise, religious and historical texts and literature. At the same time, the new rulers transformed their defence activities into expansion by means of war, extending their influence in every direction. Destroying the capital cities of both Laos and Cambodia, Siam contained Burmese aggression and made a vassal of Chiang Mai, which had suffered Burmese attacks as well. Defeated populations were resettled and played an important role in increasing the rice production of Siam, much of which was exported to China. King Nangklao was very keen on trading with the Chinese and was interested in their culture. Unlike the Ayuthayan rulers who identified with the Hindu god Vishnu, the Chakri kings positioned themselves as defenders of Buddhism. They undertook compilations and Thai translations of essential Buddhist texts and constructed many royal temples. In the meantime, a new social order and market economy was taking shape.
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THAI WOMEN IN HISTORY
Foreign visitors during the Ayuthaya period noted that women did most of the work in Siam, including trade. But only in 1868 did King Mongkut (Rama IV) abolish a husband’s right to sell his wife or her children without her permission. The older provision, it was said, treated the woman ‘as if she were a water buffalo’. A mid-19th century work, Suphasit Son Ying (Sayings for Ladies), acknowledged that upper-class women wanted to have an influence on the selection of a husband and that they contributed to family businesses. The Sayings gave advice to women on both these matters.
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The Three Seals Laws were based partly upon the surviving legal texts of Ayuthaya in the first reign of Bangkok. They set the legal standard in the early Bangkok period.
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Modernisation & Westernisation
The Siamese elite had admired China, but that fascination died away in the 1850s when Siam opened itself to Western countries. In the process, the ruling elite adopted a limited version of Western modernisation, including scientific knowledge, bureaucratic and military systems, education, infrastructure and legal systems.
Before his accession, King Mongkut (Rama IV) spent 27 years in the monkhood. He founded the Thammayut monastic sect, based on the strict disciplines of the Mon monks he himself had followed. During his long monastic career, he became proficient not only in Pali and Sanskrit, but also Latin and English. He also studied Western sciences. During the reign of Rama III, the first printing press had been brought to Siam by the American missionary James Low. The possibility of printing documents in Thai script advanced further when another American missionary, Dan Bradley, published the first Thai newspaper, the Bangkok Recorder in the 1840s and 1860s. King Mongkut and some Thai elite were among the subscribers of this newspaper.
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The Bangkok Recorder dealt with local and foreign news, and various topics like science, politics and religion.
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An enduring debate inherited from the reign of Rama III centred on the connected issues of the economy, the social order and the handling of Western influence. Reformers reasoned, though their position was not shared by all, that more Western trade, freer labour and access to new technologies would generate economic growth. While expressing disdain for Christianity, King Mongkut was genuinely fascinated by the Western idea of material progress. One of his advisors, Chaophraya Thiphakorawong, wrote a collection of essays, Sadaeng Kitjanukit,