Travelers, Dreamers, Adventurers and Agitators: Common Worlds and Uncommon Lives Across Nineteenth–Century Cambodia

by Thibodi Buakamsri

A fascinating exploration of lesser known, unofficial documents and testimonies on pre-colonial Cambodia and the French push for colonization.

Funerals King Norodom 1906

Publication: PhD Dissertation, University of California at Berkeley

Published: 2018

Author: Thibodi Buakamsri

Pages: 243

Language : English

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This substantial essay gives us a rare access to Cambodia-related literature in Thai language, as well as a stimulating exploration of Khmer archives by a Thai writer who is fluent in Khmer language. It also let us hear the voices of "ordinary people", how they saw the political events in Cambodia at the time, and how they reacted to the growing presence of France.


Tags: 19th century, Siam, Vietnam, Thai studies, King Ang Duong

About the Author

Thibodi Buakamsri

Thibodi Buakamsri

Thibodi Buakamsri ธิบดี บัวคำศรี is a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, Faculty of Arts, Department of History. He has been studying the modern history of Cambodia, and the somewhat tense relations between Thailand and Cambodia when dealing with cultural heritage, cultural appropriation and the role of politics in cultural heritage management.

His Ph.D. dissertation was Travelers, Dreamers, Adventurers and Agitators: Common Worlds and Uncommon Lives Across Nineteenth-Century Cambodia (South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A., 2018), and his M.A. thesis 'Ekkasan Mahaburus Khamen': kan suksa ngan khian prawattisat samai mai khong Kampucha [Ekasar Mahauras Khmaer: A Study of a Modern Cambodian Historical Writing] (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, 2005).

He regularly contributes to the Journal of Mekong Societies, an English-Thai print and online publication.

Read also 'A Beginning of the History of Cambodia', Mekong Journal, 2007 (in Thai language).