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A Note on Buddhistic Millenarian Revolts in Northeastern Siam

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 1975

Yoneo Ishii
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Extract

The Royal Autograph Edition of the Phrarātcha-phongsāwadān or Royal Chronicles gives one of the oldest known accounts of a rebellion led by a magic-man, generically called phú mi bun or a “man of merit.” In 1699, a Lao named Bun Kwāng who styled himself a phū mī bun terrorized the governor of Korat with his reputed magical powers, according to the chronicle, and managed to establish himself as the ruler of a city which had been made a Siamese outpost by King Phra Narai (1656–88). Despite the superior military strength at his command, the intimidated governor was unable to order the immediate arrest of the phū mī bun and furthermore, humiliated himself by acceding to the insolent demand of the latter for armed men, elephants and horses.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 6 , Special Issue 2: Essays by Japanese Scholars in the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University , September 1975 , pp. 121 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1975

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References

1 Thailand Fine Arts Department, Phrarātchaphongsāwadān chabap phrarātchahatthalēkhā, lem 2, tōn 1. Bangkok: Odeon Store, 1952. pp. 240–245Google Scholar. An English résumé of this story is told in Wood, W. A. R., A history of Siam, Bangkok, 1926. p. 222Google Scholar.

2 The Royal Autograph Edition gives C. S. 1054, year of the monkey, which corresponds to 1692/93. I follow Wood here.

3 Phrarātchaphongsāwadān, p. 242.

4 Bunnag, Tej, “Kabot phū mī bun phāk Īsān R.S. 121,” [‘Millenarian revolt in northeastern Thailand, 1902’], Sangkhomasāt Parithat [Social Science Review], (Bangkok), 5 (1967), p. 82Google Scholar.

5 The following account is based upon: Toem Wiphakphotchanakit, Prawatisāt Īsān [A history of the Northeast], lem 2, Bangkok, Samnākphim Samākhom Sangkhomasāt haeng Prathēt Thai, 1970. p. 559.

6 Op., cit., pp. 560–561.

7 Damrong Rāchānuphāp, Somdet Kromphrayā, Nithānborānakhadī [Stories of the old days], Bangkok, Samnakphim Khlang Witthayā, (5th impr.), 1951. p. 423.

8 Tej, op., cit., p. 82.

9 Toem, op., cit., pp. 563–566.

10 Ibid., pp. 568–572.

11 Ibid., pp. 579–587.

12 For Sri Lanka: Malalgoda, Kitsiri, “Millennialism in Relation to Buddhism,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 12 (1970), pp. 424–441CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for Burma: Melford E. Spiro, Buddhism and Society, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1971, pp. 171–187; Mendel-son, E. Michael, “Religion and Authority in Modern Burma”, The World Today, XVI, 3 (1960), pp. 110–118Google Scholar; -do-, “The King of the Weaving Mountain”, Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society, XLVIII (1961), pp. 229–237; -do-, “A Messianic Buddhist Association in Upper Burma”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, XXVI (1961), pp. 560–580; and for the Karens in Thai-Burma border areas: Stern, Theodore, “Ariya and the Golden Book: A Millenarian Buddhist Sect among the Karen”, The Journal of Asian Studies, XXVII, 2 (1968), pp. 297–328CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Thrupp, Sylvia L. (ed.) Millennial Dreams in Action, New York: Schocken Books, 1970, p. 13Google Scholar.

14 Tej, op., cit., p. 84 n.

15 Ibid., p. 81.

16 Ibid., pp. 79–80.

17 Toem, op., cit., pp. 574–579.

18 Tej, op., cit., pp. 80–81.

19 Ibid., n. 81.

20 Ongkānkhā khōng Khrusaphā, Traiphūm Phra Ruang khōng Phrayā Lithai, [The Traibhūmīkathā of Phrayā Lithai], Bangkok: Ongkānkhā Khrusaphā, 1963, p. 93; Coedes, G. & Archaimbault, C., Les Trois Mondes (Thraibhūmi Brah R'van), Paris: Ecole Française d'Extreme Orient, 1973, p. 85Google Scholar.

21 Loc, cit.

22 Traiphūm, p. 326; Les Trois Mondes, p. 256.

23 Nivat, Prince Dhani, “Phra Malai, royal version, by Chaofa Khung, Prince Royal of Ayudhya,” Journal of Siam Society, XXXVII, 2 (1949), p. 71Google Scholar.

24 Nivat, Prince Dhani, “The Old Siamese Conception of the Monarchy”, The Siam Society Fiftieth Anniversary, Vol. I, Bangkok: The Siam Society, 1960. p. 172Google Scholar.

25 Traiphūm, p. 94; Les Trois Mondes, p. 86.

26 Gokhale, Balkrishna G., “Early Buddhist Kingship”, The Journal of Asian Studies, XXVI (1967), p. 20Google Scholar.

27 For example, Boromakot or Mahā Thammarāchā (Dharmaraja ) of the Ayutthayan Dynasty (1733–58) and Thammikarāt (Dhammikaraja) of Lan g Xang (1596–1622).

28 Talmon, Yonina, “Pursuit of the Millennium: the Relatio n between Religious and Social Change”, The European Journal of Sociology, III (1962), p. 138Google Scholar.

29 As for th e position of the Northeast in Thailand, see Keyes, Charles F., Isan: Regionalism in Northeastern Thailand. (Cornell University, Southeast Asia Program Data Paper N. 65) Ithaca: Cornell University, 1967Google Scholar.

30 Noi, Thai, Nāyokratthamontrī khon thī 11 kap 3 phūnam patiwat. [The 11th Prime Minister and Three Leaders of the Coup d'etat,] Bangkok: Prae Pittaya, 1964, pp. 546–549Google Scholar. The leader of the revolt is here referred to as phī bun, the word phī meaning ‘the possessed’. The first instance of the use of this derogatory term for phū mi bun by the Siamese authorities is, according to Tej Bunnag (op., cit., p. 78 n.), in a telegraphic dispatch sent to the central government by the High Commissioner of Monthon Isan dated 12th April, 1902.