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Michael Smithies

Portrait of Michael   Smithies

Michael Smithies (1932 — 2 Jan. 2019, Bangkok) was a British historian based in Bangkok, a translator of numerous texts on Siam and Cambodia from French into English — in particular studies by French archaeologist Jacques Dumarcay, Michel Jacq-Hergoualc’h and Bernard-Philippe Groslier in modern times -, an author of numerous books on Siamese and Southeast Asian civilizations.

After majoring in Mediaeval Studies and French language at Oxford University — on an ​‘open scholarship’ -, Prof. Smithies arrived in Bangkok as an Education Officer for the British Council in 1960. At that time, he became an active member of the Siam Society and a frequent contributor to the Journal of Siam Society (JSS), of which he was twice Honorary Editor (1969 – 71 and 2002-09). He worked with the British Council in Phnom Penh (1964−5) before returning to Bangkok, resuming his research on the history of Kingdom of Siam’s foreign interactions in the 16th-17th centuries, with an emphasis on France. His translation of Zhou Daguan’s Customs of Cambodia (2001) was made from Paul Pelliot​’s first edition of the famous 1296 Chinese travelogue to Angkor published in 1902. 

From 1971 to 1985, he pursued a roving academic career as lecturer in French at the University of Hong Kong (1971−4), British Council Director of the Staff English Language Training Unit at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta (1974−6), professor of Language and Social Science at the University of Technology in Lae, Papua New Guinea (1976 – 1982), associate professor in communication studies at the new Nanyang Technology University, Singapore (1982 – 5), then back in Bangkok as visiting professor at the Asian Institute of Technology’s English Language Centre, special lecturer at Burapha University, Bang Saen, and adviser to United Nations ESCAP staff training unit from 1987 to 1992, when he retired. 

Involved in Bangkok’s cultural scene for decades, Smithies was known for organizing classical music concerts and setting up exhibitions of Thai modern artists, locally and in the UK. He spent his last decades between his vacation house in Coulon (France) and the village of Bua Yai, Isan (Thailand), alongside his companion, Thai artist Uthai Traisiwakul (see Tej Bunnag, ​‘Michael Smithies, 1932 – 2019’, JSS 107 – 1, 2019: 173 – 6.) He was made Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 2006.

Publications

  1. [with Tej Bunnag] In Memoriam Phya Anuman Rajadhon: Contributions in Memory of the Late President of the Siam Society, Bangkok: Siam Society, 1970.
  2. Discovering Thailand : guidebook and photographs by Achille Clarac, Bangkok : Siam Communications, 1972. 458 p.
  3. A Javanese Boyhood : an ethnographic biography, Singapore : Federal Publications, 1982, 145 p. ISBN 9971404214 [with illustrations by Philip Teo and Yuli].
  4. A Singapore boyhood, Singapore/​Kuala Lumpur : Federal Publications, 1984, 114 p. [illustr.]. ISBN 9810190336.
  5. [tr. and pres.] The Discourses at Versailles of the First Siamese Ambassadors to France 1686 – 7, together with the list of their presents to the Court, Bangkok: Siam Society, 1986.
  6. The Mons : collected articles from the Journal of the Siam Society, Bangkok: Siam Society, 1986, 82 p. ISBN 9748298019.
  7. “The Ladies at Versailles on 1st September 1686,” Siam Society Newsletter (SSN) 2 – 2, June 1986.
  8. Old Bangkok, Singapore : Oxford University Press, 1986, 83 p. [illustr.]. ISBN 0195826868.
  9. [ed. and tr.] A Week in Siam January 1867, by the Marquis of Beauvoir, Bangkok: 1986, 102 p. ISBN 9748298035.
  10. Description of Phetchaburi, Bangkok: Siam Society, 1987, 107 p. ISBN 9748298108.
  11. Yogyakarta : cultural heart of Indonesia, Singapore : Oxford University Press, 1986, 110 p. [illustr.], ISBN 0195826531.
  12. [tr.] Early accounts of The Siamese embassy to the Sun King : the personal memorials of Kosa Pan, Bangkok : Editions Duang Kamol : Chatchamnai doi Duangkamonsamai, 1990, 141 p. ISBN 9742105057.
  13. [compil. and intr.] Descriptions of old Siam, Kuala Lumpur/​New York : Oxford University Press, 1995, 319 p. ISBN 9676530832.
  14. [ed.] The Siamese Memoirs of Count Claude de Forbin 1685 – 1688, Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1996.
  15. [ed. and pres.] A pilgrimage to Angkor by Pierre Loti (Julien Viaud), based on a translation by W.P. Baines, Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1996, 126 p. [with 16 plates by Euayporn Kerdchouay].
  16. [ed.] The Chevalier de Chaumont and the Abbé de Choisy: Aspects of the Embassy to Siam 1685, Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1997.
  17. [ed.] A Scottish sea captain in Southeast Asia, 1689 – 1723: Alexander Hamilton, Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1997, 216 p.
  18. A resounding failure : Martin and the French in Siam, 1672 – 1693, Chiang Mai : Silkworm Books, 1998, 168 p. ISBN 9747100711.
  19. “Young Beauregard (c.1665 – c.1692) soldier of misfortune in Siam,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (JRAS), 3d series 8 – 2, July 1998: 229 – 235.
  20. A Siamese embassy lost in Africa 1686 : the odyssey of Ok-Khun Chamnan, Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1999, 134 p. ISBN 9747100959.
  21. [ed.] The Talaings by Robert Halliday, Bangkok : Orchid Press, 1999, 172 p. ISBN 9748299112.
  22. Gulfs of Thailand : a collection of short stories, Chiang Mai : Silkworm Books, 1999, 144 p. ISBN 9747100894.
  23. “Madame Constance’s jewels.” JSS 88, 2000: 111 – 121.
  24. [tr. and pres.] The Customs of Cambodia by Zhou Daguan, Bangkok: Siam Society, 2001 [4th ed.], 147 p.
  25. Mission Made Impossible: The Second French Embassy to Siam 1687, Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2000.
  26. [with Luigi Bressan] Siam and the Vatican in the Seventeenth Century, Bangkok, River Books, 2001.
  27. [ed.] The Diary of Kosa Pan (Thai Ambassador to France. June-July 1686), translated into English by Visudh Busayakul, introduced and annotated by Dirk Van der Cruysse, Chiang Mai : Silkworm Books, 2002, 82 p. [illustr.]. ISBN 9747551586.
  28. [tr.] Siam and the West, 1500 – 1700, by Dirk van der Cruysse, Chiang Mai : Silkworm Books, 2002, 583 p. ISBN 9747551578.
  29. [tr. and pres.] Three military accounts of the 1688 ​‘Revolution’ in Siam by General Desfarges, Lieutenant de La Touché and Engineer Jean Vollant des Verquains, Bangkok : Orchid Press, 2002, 192 p. ISBN 9745240052.
  30. [ed.] Two Yankee Diplomats in 1830s Siam, Edmund Roberts and W.S.W. Ruschenberger, Bangkok : Orchid Press, 2002, 232 p. ISBN 9745240044.
  31. [tr. and ed.] Marcel Le Blanc: History of Siam in 1688, Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2003.
  32. ‘Eclipses in Siam, 1685 and 1688, and their representation’, JSS 91, 2003: 189 – 204.
  33. Village vignettes : portraits of a Thai village, Bangkok : Orchid Press, 2003, 168 p. ISBN 9745240311 [with drawings by Uthai Traisiwakul].
  34. [tr. and ed.] Witnesses to a Revolution, Siam 1688: twelve key texts describing the events and consequences of the Phetracha coup d’ʹetat, and the withdrawal of French forces from the country, Bangkok: Siam Society, 2004, 220 p. ISBN 9748298558.
  35. [tr.] Architecture and its models in South-East Asia, by Jacques Dumarcay, Bangkok : Orchid Press, 2003, 127 p. ISBN 9745240273.
  36. [tr.] Muslims of Thailand, by Michel Gilquin, Chiang Mai : Silkworm Books, 2005, 223 p [illustr.]. ISBN 9749575857.
  37. [tr. and pres.] Angkor and Cambodia in the sixteenth century : according to Portugese and Spanish sources by B.-P. Groslier, Bangkok : Orchid Press, 2005, 196 p. ISBN 9745240532.
  38. [tr., preface by Jean Boisselier] The armies of Angkor : military structure and weaponry of the Khmers, by Michel Jacq-Hergoualc’h, Bangkok, Thailand : Orchid Press, 2007, 191 p [illustr.]. ISBN 9789745240964. [1st English tr.]
  39. ‘The Chevalier de Fretteville (c.1665 – 1688), an Innocent in Siam’, JSS 101, 2013: 113 – 25.
  40. [ed.] 500 Years of Thai-Portuguese Relations, Bangkok: Siam Society and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2011.
  41. [ed. on his 80th birthday] Seventeenth century Siamese explorations; a collection of reprinted articles, Bangkok: Siam Society, 2012, 390 p.