A new translation of the 1894 chronicle by a high-ranking official from the Nan kingdom, a once-powerful principality whose territory encompassed all of what is now northwestern Laos and neighboring portions of China, in addition to the present province of Nan in Thailand. It details the history of the principality, the legendary origins of the Nan River Valley, the rituals and customs of the Nan, the moral duties of the ruler, and royal genealogy. A fascinating portrait of Thai history and culture.
Cover; TABLE OF CONTENTS; PREFACE; ABBREVIATIONS; INTRODUCTION; The Nan Chronicle and its Sources; 1. Main Manuscript (MS.1); 2. Shorter Version (MS.2); 3. Reliquary Chronicles; 4. The ""History of the Founding of Nan; 5. The ""Old Chronicle; 6. The ""Royal Genealogy; 7. The ""History of Nan and Treatise on Medicine; 8. Miscellaneous Manuscripts; The Lineage of the Texts; The Language of the Texts; Editing Procedures; Romanization; Possible Future Directions; ÂRAMBHAKATHÂ; INVOCATION; CHAPTER ONE -- ORIGINS OF THE MÜANG; CHAPTER TWO -- THE THAI KAO RULERS, CA. 1300-1448.
Lan Na is the name of a conglomerate of Thai city-states that covered roughly the area of modern north Thailand between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. Lan Na's influence reached far into the neighbouring regions, most under the leadership of the city-state of Chiang Mai. Beginning with the popular legends, this wide-ranging narrative takes us through prehistoric and protohistoric periods, through history, up to the present day. While the writing of Lan Na history is still in its infancy, this brief and highly readable volume is a welcome step towards developing a fuller history of Northern Thailand.
How did early Buddhists actually encounter the seminal texts of their religion? What were the attitudes held by monks and laypeople toward the written and oral Pali traditions? In this pioneering work, Daniel Veidlinger explores these questions in the context of the northern Thai kingdom of Lan Na. Drawing on a vast array of sources, including indigenous chronicles, reports by foreign visitors, inscriptions, and palm-leaf manuscripts, he traces the role of written Buddhist texts in the predominantly oral milieu of northern Thailand from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Veidlinger examines how the written word was assimilated into existing Buddhist and monastic practice in the region, considering the use of manuscripts for textual study and recitation as well as the place of writing in the cultic and ritual life of the faithful. He shows how manuscripts fit into the economy, describes how they were made and stored, and highlights the understudied issue of the "cult of the book" in Theravâda Buddhism. Looking at the wider Theravâda world, Veidlinger argues that manuscripts in Burma and Sri Lanka played a more central role in the preservation and dissemination of Buddhist texts. By offering a detailed examination of the motivations driving those who sponsored manuscript production, this study draws attention to the vital role played by forest-dwelling monastic orders introduced from Sri Lanka in the development of Lan Na’s written Pali heritage. It also considers the rivalry between those monks who wished to preserve the older oral tradition and monks, rulers, and laypeople who supported the expansion of the new medium of writing.
Chronicles of Chiang Khaeng goes far beyond a mere annotated translation of four Lu chronicles. The polyglot co-authors, Grabowsky and Wichasin, take the annotations out of their meticulously researched footnotes of the translation proper and deftly integrate them into a history not only of a principality in northwestern Laos but a panorama of the jostlings for power among other chiang and their respective chao in the upper Mekong region. This geographic area outlines a cultural realm that shared Buddhist ethics and dhammic writing while also subscribing to the notion of hierarchy reinforced by demands for tribute, the display of regalia and pomp, and the brutal armed removal of local populations in incessant wars over human resources. Myth and history merge in these chronicles, which document sibling and spousal rivalries in networks of intermarriage and political alliances among the elite of the region. All of this was taking place at a time in history when the British and French arrived on the scene to engage China and newly emerging Siam in a mapping exercise that brought an end to centuries of regional rule by previously fairly autonomous city states. In this careful study, Chiang Khaeng emerges as a paradigm of a Southeast Asian tributary state with more than one overlord. Chronicles is a model of translation skill and historical acumen at its finest.
