Family connections

• The leading noble families of the late Ayutthaya period—

• The Persian Bunnags,

• The Brahman

• The Chinese, i.e., Krairuks,

The Chakri

• By 1775, the Chakri (Thong Duang) and brother(Bunma) were related to all three.

• The Chakri’s chief wife was closely related to the Bunnags;

• Through his elder sister’s husband he was related to the Brahman line; through one of his concubines, he was connected to the Chinese line.

Wars and conquest

• 1775 conquest of Lan Na

• 1778 conquest of Vientiane– Took the Emerald Buddha and Phrabang back

to Thonburi.

• Suzerainty over Champassak and Vientiene and cowed Luang Prabang unequal alliance with Siam.

Crisis and revolt in Thonburi

• 1779 Taksin devoted to religious excesses.

• Provoking schism in Buddhism, required the monks to recognize him as a sotapanna, “or stream-winner”

• The loss of merit and right, by merit, to rule.

• “paranoid” behavior because he was an outsider; his roots were shallow.

• Taksin had alienated the old power structure of the capital, the monks, old families, officials, and the merchants.

• Power remained in the hands of local ruling families, the noble families, forming many cliques and factions and control of manpower.

• By the end of 1781 some consensus within the elite that Taksin had to be replaced—for the good of all, for the fate of Buddhism, for the future of Siam.

• Sent Chakri and Surasi to pacify Cambodia.• A revolt in the capital and call for the

Chakri to be king. Marched back on April 6, 1782.

Royal execution

• According to the Palatine Law

• Taksin is said to have met his end tied up in a velvet sack and struck on the back of the neck with a sandalwood club, later to be secretly buried in the outskirts of Thonburi.

• Folk tradition was that he was taken away to Nakhon si Thammarat.

The Bangkok Kingdom• ‘new Siamese vision’

• 1:The “new self” perception. – humanism in Buddhism, “rationalism”, .

Paticcasamuppada, the doctrine of dependent co-arising

• 2: The “New Order” – a new moral order=The new Ecclesiastical laws

(Kotmai phra song) 1782-1801. – Rewrite “Traiphum”-1783: Tipitaka in 1788.

• Rethinking; interpretation of the canon & text.

– reminds monks of the rules – reverse the order of man and the world in Traiphum– Old Traiphum--less virtue up to the highest– New Traiphum--man first, then lower orders--higher

orders. Man in the middle of the order.– ‘world of men and kings’. Theme=king is the leader– The Three Seals Laws. 1805– relate all law to a single absolute standard of justice

• 3: The “New World”• Recognized the world and its calamities• Translation of foreign literature and texts• ‘Ramayana’.(1796-7). ‘Rachathirat’• ‘Dalang’ and ‘Inao’ from Java; from Persia• ‘Unarut’, from ‘Mahabharata’• ‘Mahavamsa’ and ‘Jinakalamali’ from Pali• ‘The Romance of the Three Kingdoms’-Chinese• Mainly from Mon, Chinese and Persian literatures

• Universalization of values.

The Rewriting of History

• . Explaining the cause of the fall of Ayudhya. Baan Plu Luang(1688-1767).> The royal chronicle of Ayudhya

• New hybrid of Bangkok style of art and architecture. Early Bangkok pro Chinese, by the middle period pro Western style.

• “change in focus that brought rational man clearly to the center of the stage of history”.

The New Empire

• Large number of power centers existed:• First circle of semi-independent

rulers=Kedah, Trengganu, Kelantan, Cambodia, and Luang Prabang.

• A second tier of principalities, provided manpower, tribute, married in and interfered; Chiangmai, Vientiane, Champassak, and Patani.

• The next layer consisted of large regional centers around Siam’s periphery, ruled by chaophraya, as quasi-independent provinces. Songkhla, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Battambong-Siem Reap, and Nakhon Ratchasima.

• A fourth tier was in Khorat Plateau.