by Rajanubhab Damrong & Collective
The first full English translation of areference book reflecting the Siamese fascination with Angkor and everything Khmer.
Type: paperback
Publisher: Bangkok, River Books. Translated by Bruce Evans, eds. Peter Skilling and Chris Baker.
Published: 2024
Authors: Rajanubhab Damrong & Collective
Pages: 182
ISBN: 978 616 451 089 0
Language : English
ADB Library Catalog ID: DAMRTR
This informed translation of Prince Damrong Rajanubhab’s นิราศนครวัด Nirat Nakhon Wat is based on the third edition of this travelogue of a Thai statesman visiting Angkor 17 years after its restitution to Cambodia, initially published as a “gifting edition” in 1925.
The editors have expanded the illustrations, adding to the photographs printed in the original edition 54 addditional photos kept at the National Archives of Thailand, and 5 from the Coedès-Cros family archive, facilitated by Bernard Cros.
This edition brings numerous background details on Prince Damrong’s travel companions during this important visit to Phnom Penh and Angkor in November-December 1924, a list of monuments visited in Angkor, a map of the itinerary route from Bangkok and back.
Prince Damrong’s main observations, his complex inteaction with the Cambodian royals, and his closeness to EFEO researcher George Coedès, are commented here. From this English translation, we’ll quote here the account of the arrival from Battambang to Siem Reap, as it gives us
The boat reached the mouth of the river to Siem Reap at three in the afternoon. Monsieur Lambert, the Résident of Battambang Province, and a French military guard officer who was acting governor of Siem Reap, took us along a canal on a small government steamboat. At this point I noticed another interesting thing: all the Cambodian dug-out canoes, however big or small, have bow and stern like our rue dang. Even the small sampans with only two paddles are made like this. It must be a traditional design. The question arises: did the Khmer copy the Thai design for their native craft or did the Thais copy the Khmer dug-outs for their rue dang, rue si, rue sampanni? The latter seems more likely, as the Thai use the design in only some of their boats, while all Khmer boats throughout the country are designed that way. The small steamboat took about twenty minutes to reach the landing. This was not a regular landing. The government has made a motorable road all the way down to the bank of the Tonle Sap. When the water level rises and floods the road, the landing is moved accordingly. The landing used for our arrival consisted simply of two rowboats placed side by side and covered with wooden planks, along which we walked to the road. The Résident Supérieur had kindly sent a car from Phnom Penh for my use, along with two government cars from Siem Reap for our entourage. Boarding the cars, we proceeded along the road and entered the town of Siem Reap, where we saw the people’s houses along both sides of the river. The road ran behind the houses on the western bank, winding along the course of the river, until we reached the new town of Siem Reap, where the French had built government offices on the edge of the old town, where the Thai had built a fortress during the Third Reign [Author’s note: Built in the Year of the Dog, BE 2381 [1838 CE].] The Résident invited us to rest and take some refreshments. It also rained just then, so we had to wait for the rain to stop before getting into our cars and continuing our journey, passing the old town in which I could see the old Thai fortress, which seemed to be small and poorly built. After 150 sen [six kilometers] by road from the town of Siem Reap we arrived at Angkor Wat. The only place to stay here was the Hotel Angkor, a single story building like the hotels in Java, but well appointed and comfortable, with both running water and electricity. The food was not bad. By the time we arrived it was almost dusk, so we could only admire Angkor Wat from the hotel without going inside.
In the evening I invited Monsieur Lambert, the Résident, to dinner. This Résident had once received His Highness [editor’s note: ทูลกระหม่อมขาย, thun kramom chai, meaning สมเด็จเจ้าฟ้ากรมหลวง นครสวรรค์วรพินิต, Somdet Chaofa Kromluang Nakhonsawan Woraphinit, also known as Prince Paribatra Sukhumbandhu, Prince of Nakhon Sawan, 1881 – 1944, 13th son of King Chulalongkorn, head of the navy] , who was kindly disposed to him and I had heard him speak in praise of him. He has a fine character, but unfortunately we could only speak through an interpreter. [p 62 – 3]
Guided by experts George Coedès, Henri Marchal (and daughter Sappho Marchal) and Suzanne Karpelès, Prince Damrong and his traveling companions stayed ten days visiting the Angkor site, the area that would be officially named Parc archeologique d’Angkor a few months later, in May 1925.
The editors have put back together their itinerary, temple by temple, from 22 November to 1 December.
*visited briefly, explored on a later day
[1] This small tower, also known as ‘Monument 487’ and ‘Mangalartha’ in honor of a powerful monk, Jayamangalartha, consecrated after Jayavarman VII’s death, is said to be the last Brahmanic temple built in the Angkor area, hence Prince Damrong’s interest.
About the translator and the editors:
Bruce Evans was born in Melbourne Australia and travelled to Thailand in the early 1970s, where he became a Bhikkhu (Buddhist monk) under the revered meditation teacher Venerable Ajahn Chah. While there he translated a number of Ajahn Chah’s teachings into English. He left the monkhood in 1992 and worked for the Buddhadhamma Foundation translating the works of Venerable P.A. Payutto. He now works as a freelance translator and editor in Australia.
Peter Skilling (Bhadra Rujirathat) specialises in Buddhist Studies with a penchant for the history of the Buddhism of Southeast Asia. He has a doctorate from L’Ecole Pratique des Hautes Études, Section des Sciences Religieuses en Sorbonne. Paris. He has lived in Thuiled the over fifty years and in the course of his research he travels with thoughour Asta: His most recent book is Buddha Wander(Wisdom Publications, 2024)
Chris Baker has a doctorate from Cambridge University and has lived in Thailand for over forty years. With Pasuk Phongaichit he has written widely on Thailand’s history and political escamomy and has translated several works of Thai literature and history.
[from book presentation]
Tags: Siamese occupation, Siamese-French Treaty, Prince Damrong, 1920s
Prince Tisavarakumarn, the Prince Damrong Rajanubhab (สมเด็จพระเจ้าบรมวงศ์เธอ พระองค์เจ้าดิศวรกุมาร กรมพระยาดำรงราชานุภาพ) (21 June 1862, Bangkok, Kingdom of Siam – 1 Dec. 1943, Penang, Malaya?), known as Prince Damrong, a reformer, founder of the modern Thai educational system and provincial administration, and a self-taught historian who has been called ‘the father of Siamese history.’
A son of King Mongkut (Rama IV) with Consort Chum (เจ้าจอมมารดาชุ่ม, Chao Chom Manda Chum), a younger brother of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), Prince Damrong served as Minister of the North, Minister of Interior, Chief of the Supreme State Councul, and was the first president of the Royal Institute of Thailand. His interest in history gave birth to the “Damrong school” which, according to Thai historian Nithi Aeusrivongse, combined “the legacy of the royal chronicle with history as written in the West during the nineteenth century, creating a royal/national history to serve the modern Thai state under the absolute monarchy.”
Since his early education by Francis George Patterson, a special English instructor hired by Rama V to tutor some
of the princes, Prince Damrong developed an interest in the world outside Thailand, touring European and Russian courts, and India.He also spent two lenten periods studying in the Buddhist Order as a novice and as a bhikkhu. To his military education as a cadet in the Military Pages Corps, he added an interest in public health, “directing the construction of Siriraj Hospital during 1887 – 88 and assisting in the subsequent opening of the first medical school in the kingdom”, according to Kennon Breazeale (“A transition in historical writing: The Works of Prince Damrong Rachanup”, Journal of Siam Studies (JSS), 059 – 2, 1971,p 27).
As Minister of Interior, Prince Damrong supervised the first archaeological surveys in Siamese provinces. In the southern part of the Kingdom (not including Cambodian Angkor and Battambang provinces, annexed until 1907), he supported the prospections led by Etienne Lunet de Lajonquiere, who visited Nakhon Pathom several times from 1904 to 1908, at a time the latter was completing his Inventory of Cambodian monuments.
Prince Damrong worked closely with George Cœdès in sorting out the inscriptions and historical sequencing of ancient Thailand. The Khmerologist had been assigned by EFEO Director Claude-Eugène Maitre to the Bangkok Royal Library in 1918, so he could further his comparative studies in the Dvāravatī civilization, and in the Srivijaya kingdoms of Sumatra. Coedès returned to Hanoi in 1929, when he became director of the EFEO school. After retiring as Minister of the Interior in 1915, Damrong was appointed Chairman of the Wachirayan National Library by King Vajiravudh (Rama VI, r. 1910 – 1925), and took on the responsibilities of Director of the Royal Academy and the National Museum.
In the framework of his own research on the history of Siam (Thailand) and Southeast Asia, Prince Damrong studied Khmer history and visited Angkor (in 1924) and Preah Vihear (in 1930) both times along with his daughters. He wrote a brief history of Angkor, Nirat Nakhon Wat (Journey to Angkor Wat, first published in 1925).
After the 1932 coup in Bangkok, Prince Damrong, in favor of the absolute monarchy, fled to Penang, Malaysia. Some sources claimed he died there in 1943, while his great grandson, Pannada Diskul (b. 26 Aug. 1956), asserted that he passed away in the same building he had been arrested in 1932, the Varadis (pron. Waradit) Palace, a quaint Chinese-style townhouse away from Lan Luang Road in old Bangkok, In 1962, Prince Damrong Rachanupab was awarded the UNESCO award of the World’s Outstanding Personality, the first for a Thai.
Restored in 1996 — on the 53rd anniversary of Prince Damrong’s death — and converted into the Prince Damrong Rachanupab Museum and Library, Varadis Palace holds a collection of 7,000 books in Thai and English.
