A History Of Thailand

by Baker Chris

  Prajadhipok, King Rama VII (1892–1941). Born in Bangkok, last son of King Chulalongkorn. Educated in England at Eton and military colleges. Succeeded to throne in 1925. Abdicated in 1935 and lived in Surrey, England.

  Prasoet Sapsunthon (1913–1994). Born in Surat Thani, son of farmer and trader. Educated and later employed as book editor at Chulalongkorn University. Elected MP for Surat Thani, 1946. Proposed bill to amend Anti-Communist Law. Joined CPT. Disagreed with party’s rural strategy. Expelled from party in 1957. Offered services to Sarit. Collaborated with ISOC to design anti-communist strategy.

  Prawase Wasi (1931–). Born in Kanchanaburi, son of farmer. Studied medicine at Sirirat Hospital, University of Colorado, and London University, specializing in haematology. Medical practitioner, researcher, and activist. Professor at Mahidol University. Lay follower and publicist of this-worldly Buddhism. 1981 Magsaysay Award winner. Chaired committee that began process leading to 1997 constitution.

  Prem Tinsulanond (1920–). Born in Songkhla, son of an official. Suan Kulap School and Military Academy. Career army officer. Developed political strategy against insurgency as commander of Second Army in northeast from 1977. Appointed army commander, 1978. Prime minister, 1980–88. Privy councillor, 1988.

  Pridi Banomyong (1900–1983). Born in Ayutthaya. Given official title Luang Pradit Manutham. Studied at Law School, then law and political economy at University of Paris, 1920–27. Attended founding meeting of People’s Party in Paris, 1927. Interior minister, 1934; foreign minister, 1937; finance minister, 1938; regent, 1941; prime minister, 1946. Wrote anti-war novel, The King of the White Elephant, and directed it as a film. Left Thailand after failed Palace Rebellion in 1949. Lived in China, then Paris from 1970. Wrote extensively in exile on philosophy, philology, and politics.

  Puey Ungphakon (1917–1999). Son of fish wholesaler. Entered first year at Thammasat University. Scholarship to study economics at London School of Economics. Parachuted into Thailand by Seri Thai in 1944 and captured. Completed doctorate at LSE, 1948. Governor of Bank of Thailand, 1959–71. Rector of Thammasat University, 1974–76. Forced to flee after Thammasat massacre and lived in London.

  Samak Sundaravej (1935–2009). Long-settled Chinese family with tradition of serving as medical practitioners to king. Joined Democrat Party in 1968. Prominent in right-wing rabble-rousing that led to Thammasat massacre of 6 October 1976. Minister of Interior, 1976–77. Founded Prachakon Thai Party, 1979. Deputy prime minister in coup government of Suchinda Kraprayun, 1991–92. Prachakon Thai Party disintegrated in 1997. Elected mayor of Bangkok, 2000–03. Drafted by Thaksin Shinawatra as leader of PPP in August 2007. Prime minister, 2008.

  Sarit Thanarat (1908–1963). Born in Nakhon Phanom, son of district officer. Educated in Bangkok. Career army officer. Commander of Bangkok troops in 1947 coup and Palace Rebellion. Deputy defence minister, 1951. Head of army, 1954. Field marshal, 1956. Led coup in 1957. Visited USA, 1958. Carried out second coup and became prime minister, 1958. Promoted development and personal rule, including summary executions.

  Seksan Prasertkun (1949–). Son of fishing-boat builder and market vendor. Student leader at Thammasat University in 1973. Fled to jungle in 1976. Surrendered in 1980 and went on to acquire a doctorate from Cornell University, 1989. Taught political science at Thammasat. Prominent public intellectual and writer of poetry, stories, and autobiography, including the film The Moonhunter.

  Seni Pramoj (1905–1977). Born in Bangkok, great-grandson of King Rama II, elder brother of Kukrit. Educated at Worcester College, Oxford. Qualified as barrister in Thailand. As ambassador to USA in 1941, refused to deliver Phibun’s declaration of war. Organizer of Seri Thai. Returned to Thailand in 1945 to oversee peace negotiations. Prime minister, 1945–46. Co-founder of Democrat Party, elected its leader in 1968. Lawyer and journalist. Prime minister 1975, 1976.

  Sondhi Limthongkun (1947–). Born in Bangkok to Hainan-Chinese parents. BA in history from UCLA, 1969; MA from Utah State University, 1972. Career in journalism. In 1982, founded Phujatkan (Manager) newspaper, later expanded to publishing group. Virtually bankrupt following 1997 financial crisis. Early supporter of Thaksin, and later leader of opposing Yellow Shirt movement. Narrowly escaped assassination by gunfire in April 2009.

  Sonthi Boonyaratglin, General (1946–). Long-settled aristocratic Muslim family of Persian heritage. Career soldier. Head of Special Warfare Command. Became army commander in 2005 to block the candidate of Thaksin Shinawatra. Led successful coup against Thaksin on 19 September 2006. Retired as army commander and coup chief in September 2007.

  Sujit Wongthet (1945–). Born in Prachinburi, son of village headman and farmer. Archaeology BA from Silapakorn University. Journalist at Siam Rath. Editor of Social Science Review. Leading cultural-nationalist critic of the American era. Writer of poetry, short stories, and novels. Performer of traditional music and drama. Editor and publisher of Sinlapa Watthanatham (Art and Culture) magazine and publishing house, which developed a cultural-nationalist interpretation of Thai history. Author of Made in USA (1971, 1973), The Thai Were Always Here (1986), and Jek pon Lao (Chinese mixed with Lao, 1987).

  Sulak Sivaraksa (1932–). Born in Thonburi, son of accountant in Thai–Chinese family. Studied in missionary schools then in England, 1953–61, qualifying as barrister. Started Social Science Review in 1963, also a publishing company and bookshop. Became devotee of Buddhadasa Bhikkhu and got involved in early NGO work. Fled after 1976 massacre and again after 1991 coup. Accused of lèse majesté in 1984 and 1992, acquitted both times. Leading activist in interreligious movements, NGOs, and environmental causes. Author of several books on themes of Buddhism and politics, especially Siam in Crisis (1990).

  Sunthon Phu (1786–1856). Born in Bangkok. Brought up in palace where his mother was a wet-nurse. Clerical job. Jailed for love affair with palace lady. Wrote his first great poem, Nirat mueang Klaeng, in 1806. Patronized by King Rama II and contributed to court compilation of Khun Chang Khun Phaen. In jail again for a drunken quarrel, began Phra Aphaimani, continually extended over subsequent years. Wrote many nirat and didactic works. Patronized again by King Mongkut and ended life with rank and fame.

  Surayud Chulanont, General (1943–). Son of an army officer who defected to become a leader of CPT. Served with clandestine forces in Cambodia, 1969–72. Aide to General Prem Tinsulanond. Head of Special Warfare Command, 1992. Army commander, 1998. Supreme commander, 2003. Retired from army and appointed to king’s Privy Council, 2003. Appointed prime minister after coup, 2006–08.

  T. S. R. Wannapho, Thianwan (1842–1915). Born in Bangkok, grandson of Ayutthaya noble. Educated on fringes of court. Worked as trader. Studied English and law. Lawyer, essayist, and briefly member of ‘Young Siam’ group. In 1882, framed on charge of authoring seditious petition and jailed for 17 years. On release, ran bookstore, and published journals 1902–09 criticizing old social order, lack of attention to development, and lack of representation.

  Taksin, King (1734–1782). Possibly son of migrant Teochiu gambler. Known as Jeung sae Ing or Sin. Probably a cart trader who acquired governor post of border town, Tak. Brought troops to defend Ayutthaya in 1767 and left before fall. Rallied forces in east, expelled Burmese garrison, and established new headquarters at Thonburi. Defeated rival claimants over 1768–71. Adopted personal, charismatic style of rule. Overthrown in bloody coup hatched by old nobles in 1782. Executed.

  Thaksin Shinawatra (1950–). Born in Chiang Mai in leading business family in silk, construction, and banking. Entered Police Academy. Scholarship for doctorate in criminal justice from Sam Houston State University, USA. Began computer leasing business. Resigned from police in 1987. Gained string of government concessions, including first private mobile phone network and satellite. Estimated net worth of 60 billion baht by mid-1990s. Entered politics in Chamlong’s Phalang Tham Party and had three brief spells as minister. Formed Thai Rak Thai Party, 1998. Prime minister, 2001–06. Overthrown by coup. Owned Manchester Cit
y Football Club, 2007–08. Fled to exile in 2008 before conviction for abuse of power and lives mainly in Dubai.

  Thanom Kittikhachon (1911–2004). Born in Tak, son of an official. Attended Military Academy. Career army officer. Right-hand man of Sarit Thanarat. Prime minister, 1958, 1963–73. Deposed and exiled after 14 October 1973 uprising but returned in 1976.

  Thiphakorawong, Chao Phraya (1818–1870). Born Kham, son of Dit Bunnag, in Bangkok. Scholar, enthusiast for western knowledge and associate of Prince Mongkut. Appointed phrakhlang, 1851–65. Compiled royal chronicles of First to Third Reigns and edited Royal Autograph edition of Ayutthaya chronicles. Wrote articles on science and Buddhism in fledgling Thai press, collected in Sadaeng Kitchanukit (A Miscellany, 1867).

  Thirayuth Boonmi (1950–). Born in Nakhon Pathom, son of army sergeant and market vendor. As engineering student at Chulalongkorn University, headed National Student Centre. One of 13 arrested for demanding constitution, sparking movement that led to the 14 October 1973 student uprising. Worked as engineer and activist. Fled to CPT jungle camp in Nan. Went to study in Netherlands and Germany, 1981–85. Self-appointed ‘social thinker’ and leading public intellectual. Books include Strong Society and Turning Point of the Era.

  Vajiravudh, King Rama VI (1881–1925). Suan Kulap School. To England, 1894–1903: private tuition; Sandhurst Military College; Christ Church, Oxford. Succeeded to throne in 1910. Formed Sua pa (Wild Tiger Corps) as royalist paramilitary, 1911. Angered palace old guard by patronizing male commoners. Obliged to take foreign loan in 1920 to avoid personal bankruptcy. Founded Lumpini Park. Prolific dramatist, translator of Shakespeare, and writer on nationalism.

  Wichit Wathakan, Luang (1898–1962). Born Kim Liang, son of orchard farmer, in Uthai Thani. Took foreign service exams and appointed to Paris legation, 1921–27; studied part time at University of Paris. Head of Fine Arts Department, 1934–42; foreign minister during Second World War; finance/economic affairs minister, 1951–53; special adviser to prime minister Sarit, 1958–62. Prolific playwright, radio broadcaster, and writer on history, religion, culture, and self-improvement.

  Yingluck Shinawatra (1967–). Born in Chiang Mai to a wealthy family of Chinese origin, youngest sister of Thaksin. BA from Chiang Mai University and MA from Kentucky State University in public administration, 1991. Worked in various family companies, especially managing director of property firm, SC Asset. Selected as leader of Pheu Thai Party on eve of July 2011 election. Prime minister 2011–.

  Yotfa, King Rama I (1737–1809). Born in Ayutthaya, son of leading Mon noble and Chinese wife. Married into leading Ratchaburi family and took post there. Recruited by younger brother to join King Taksin. Became leading military commander. Elevated to throne in 1782 coup against Taksin by old nobility. Convoked Buddhist Council to revise Tripitaka. Oversaw massive military expansion to south, north, and northeast. Commissioned collections of laws, state manuals, religious texts, and dramatic works.

  Readings

  1: Before Bangkok

  Kennon Breazeale (ed.), From Japan to Arabia: Ayutthaya’s Maritime Relations with Asia (Bangkok: Foundation for the Promotion of Social Sciences and Humanities Textbooks Project, 1999).

  Georges Condominas, From Lawa to Mon, from Saa’ to Thai: Historical and Anthropological Aspects of Southeast Asian Social Spaces (Canberra: Australian National University, 1990).

  Lorraine Gesick, ‘The rise and fall of King Taksin: a drama of Buddhist kingship’, in Gesick (ed.), Centers, Symbols and Hierarchies: Essays on the Classical States of Southeast Asia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983).

  Charles Higham and Rachanie Thosarat, Early Thailand: From Prehistory to Sukhothai (Bangkok: River Books, 2012).

  Charnvit Kasetsiri, The Rise of Ayudhya: A History of Siam in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1976).

  David Lieberman, Strange Parallels: Volume I, Integration of the Mainland: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 800 to 1830 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

  Richard A. O’Connor, ‘Agricultural change and ethnic succession in Southeast Asian states: a case for regional anthropology’, Journal of Asian Studies 54, 4 (1995).

  Richard A. O’Connor, ‘A regional explanation of the Tai müang as a city state’, in Mogens Herman Hansen (ed.), A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures (Copenhagen: Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters, 2000).

  David K. Wyatt, Thailand: A Short History (rev. edn, Yale University Press, 2003).

  2: The old order in transition, 1760s to 1860s

  Neil A. Englehart, Culture and Power in Traditional Siamese Government (Ithaca: Cornell Southeast Asia Program, 2001).

  Volker Grabowsky (ed.), Regions and National Integration in Thailand, 1892–1992 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1995).

  Hong Lysa, Thailand in the Nineteenth Century: Evolution of the Economy and Society (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1984).

  D. B. Johnston, ‘Bandit, nakleng, and peasant in rural Thai society’, Contributions to Asian Studies XV (1980).

  Junko Koizumi, ‘From a water buffalo to a human being: women and the family in Siamese history’, in Barbara Watson Andaya (ed.), Other Pasts: Women, Gender and History in Early Modern Southeast Asia (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i at Mânao, 2000).

  Craig J. Reynolds, ‘Buddhist cosmography in Thai history, with special reference to nineteenth century culture change’, Journal of Asian Studies 35, 2 (1976).

  William G. Skinner, Chinese Society in Thailand: An Analytical History (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1957).

  Andrew Turton, ‘Thai institutions of slavery’, in J. L. Watson (ed.), Asian and African Systems of Slavery (Oxford: Blackwell, 1980).

  3: Reforms, 1850s to 1910s

  Tej Bunnag, The Provincial Administration of Siam, 1892–1915 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1977).

  Kullada Kesboonchu Mead, The Rise and Decline of Thai Absolutism (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004).

  Tamara Loos, Subject Siam: Family, Law, and Colonial Modernity in Thailand (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2006).

  Eiji Murashima, ‘The origins of modern official state ideology in Thailand’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 19, 1 (1988).

  M. Peleggi, Lords of Things: The Fashioning of the Siamese Monarchy’s Modern Image (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2002).

  David Streckfuss, ‘The mixed colonial legacy in Siam: origins of Thai racialist thought, 1890–1910’, in L. Sears (ed.), Autonomous Histories: Particular Truths (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1993).

  Patrick Tuck, The French Wolf and the Siamese Lamb: The French Threat to Siamese Independence, 1858–1907 (Bangkok: White Lotus, 1995).

  Thongchai Winichakul, Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-body of a Nation (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994).

  Thongchai Winichakul, ‘The quest for “siwilai”: a geographical discourse of civilizational thinking in the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Siam’, Journal of Asian Studies 59, 3 (2000).

  4: Peasants, merchants, and officials, 1870s to 1930s

  Mark Askew, Bangkok: Place, Practice and Representation (London and New York: Routledge, 2002).

  Scot Barmé, Woman, Man, Bangkok: Love, Sex and Popular Culture in Thailand (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2002).

  Ian G. Brown, The Elite and the Economy in Siam, c. 1890–1920 (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1988).

  J. C. Ingram, Economic Change in Thailand, 1850–1970 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1971).

  Chatthip Nartsupha, The Thai Village Economy in the Past, tr. Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1999).

  Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, Thailand: Economy and Politics (2nd edn, Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 2002).

  Akira Suehiro, Capital Accumulation in Thailand, 1855–1985 (Tokyo: Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies, 1989).

  David K. Wyatt, The Politics of Reform in Thailan
d: Education in the Reign of King Chulalongkorn (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1969).

  5: Nationalisms, 1910s to 1940s

  Pridi Banomyong, Pridi by Pridi: Selected Writings on Life, Politics, and Economy, tr. Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2000).

  Scot Barmé, Luang Wichit Wathakan and the Creation of a Thai Identity (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1993).

  Benjamin A. Batson, The End of the Absolute Monarchy in Siam (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1984).

  Stephen L. W. Greene, Absolute Dreams: Thai Government under Rama VI, 1910–1925 (Bangkok: White Lotus, 1999).

  J. B. Haseman, The Thai Resistance Movement during World War II (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2002).

  Thamsook Numnonda, Thailand and the Japanese Presence, 1941–45 (Singapore: ISEAS, 1977).

  Craig Reynolds (ed.), National Identity and Its Defenders (2nd edn, Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2002).

  E. B. Reynolds, Thailand and Japan’s Southern Advance, 1940–1945 (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1994).

  Kobkua Suwannathat-Pian, Thailand’s Durable Premier: Phibun through Three Decades, 1932–1957 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1995).

  6: The American era and development, 1940s to 1960s

  Thak Chaloemtiarana, Thailand: The Politics of Despotic Paternalism (Bangkok: Social Science Association of Thailand, Thai Khadi Institute, Thammasat University, 1979); revised edition (Ithaca: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program, 2007).

  D. Fineman, A Special Relationship: The United States and Military Government in Thailand, 1947–1956 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997).