Showing 1 - 9 of 9
Two deaths in Bangkok in 1856 and their consequences
Life, Chris Baker, Published on 17/12/2021
» The Bowring Treaty of 1855 is a landmark of Thailand's modern history. The treaty opened the door for the colonial invasion of Siam's economy, and helped drag Siam into the modern world. It's a story about the great wheels of history, especially of colonial expansion and the cultural collision of East and West. But such events of great practical and symbolic significance are also about people, about the "big people" who shape these events, and the "little people" who get caught up in them by fate.
At the crossroads of justice and virtue
Life, Chris Baker, Published on 10/07/2020
» The judiciary is the least studied element of the Thai polity. That did not matter much 25 years ago because it played almost no political role. But now the courts bring down governments, exile leaders, dissolve political parties, punish protesters and jail people for thought crimes. This book is long awaited and does not disappoint.
The perfection of humour
Life, Chris Baker, Published on 02/06/2017
» The story of Vessantara, or Wetsandon, is perhaps the most famous and best-known tale in Thailand. Although originating among the jataka tales of India, most think it a local creation (Thais call it chadok). There is a Pali version in the early Buddhist texts, and official Thai-language adaptations since the 15th century. But the story also lives in popular memory, in pictures on wat walls, and in performances at annual festivals, and in these forms there is great scope for creative adaptation.
Saving the Fort Mahakan community
Life, Chris Baker, Published on 11/04/2016
» Last week, the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (BMA) posted an order to evict the residents of the Fort Mahakan community within a matter of days. Immediately, journalists, activists, academics, and town planners rose in protest, condemning the BMA as philistine wreckers of a small but important part of Bangkok's battered heritage.
The man behind the treaty
Life, Chris Baker, Published on 27/10/2014
» In Thai history, Bowring is the title of the 1855 treaty that is the major landmark in Siam's transition to the modern world. Bowring is also less well known as the author of a bulky book about Mongkut's Siam (the reign of King Rama IV). But John Bowring himself is like a character in a drama who is there because the plot requires him, but who never takes shape as a person.
Intimate view of an extraordinary life
Life, Chris Baker, Published on 04/11/2013
» The life of ML Boonlua Debyasuvarn slices diagonally across the social history of 20th-century Thailand. She was born in 1911, the 32nd child of a senior noble from a core royal lineage (Kunchon). Her father was keeper of the royal elephants and manager of the royal drama troupe. While the Fifth Reign court ardently pursued modernisation, he remained totally traditional, innocent of English, scarcely literate in Thai, devoted to traditional arts, and polygamous. His drama troupe doubled as a personal harem.
Truth is rarely simple
Life, Chris Baker, Published on 19/08/2013
» Thai political leaders don't write memoirs, so Abhisit Vejjajiva's account of events from his appointment as prime minister in December 2008 to the end of the red-shirt demonstration on April 20, 2010 is path-breaking. Abhisit explains that he wrote this memoir because red shirts have made political capital by claiming that government forces killed protesters in a brutal crackdown, so he needs to set the record straight: "We have heard plenty of lies _ I now ask for the opportunity to tell the truth."
The unofficial court jester of Modernising Siam
Life, Chris Baker, Published on 07/01/2013
» He claimed that his only aim was "to benefit the royalty, my country, and the Buddhist religion." But many others, especially those in power, thought he was a nut and a "Man of Great Nuisance to Society".
Force of the farmers
Life, Chris Baker, Published on 03/09/2012
» Once upon a time anthropologists did "village studies". They found a place that became "their village." They counted the houses, traced the kin relations, described farming systems, and analysed the rituals.