<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"><HTML DIR=ltr><HEAD><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"></HEAD><BODY><DIV><FONT face='Arial' color=#000000 size=2>Dear Justin, Khun Yuphapann, Geoff Wade, Bonnie Brereton,
Tutu, Oliver Raendchen;</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Thank you for your
feedback.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Justin, is your dissertation
available in any library in Thailand? Thanks for these new names too (Renoo
Wichasin, Wasan Panyagaeo, Thomas Borchert). Balee Buddharaksa's work was made
known to me through Peter Skilling's papers.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Your 2002 review of the recent
Camadevivamsa translation in the Journal of American Oriental Society, sums up
well my feelings about indigenous Burmese historiography (c.
1350-1600):</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>"Swearer and Sommai see the possible
historical information that could be gleaned from the CDV as of "secondary
importance" to the "religio-mythic nature" of the history.... They emphasize the
literary devices, social commentary, and ethical instruction woven through
Bodhiramsi's telling of history...Swearer and Sommai, largely in agreement with
Hans Penth, see "univocal" categorization of genres of Thai history as
"impossible" ...this reader would have liked to see this comparison expanded to
include non-canonical jatakas written in Yuan (northern Thai), Khun, and Lao
which show a similar interest in the history of local religion, as well as a
closer look at local "epic" poems like the Lao Thao Hung Thao Cheung and Xieng
Xai, which contain the elements of dynastic histories and creation myths and
which tell, like the CDV, the exploits of magical virtuosos. This ***exercise in
regional comparative literature would reveal what literary tropes were
widespread in the region***, would underscore the further ***arbitrariness of
the genre categories currently used by many scholars***, and would help clarify
what if any literary themes were specific to Pali versus vernacular texts.
Furthermore, his comparison would help address a problem that has plagued most
work in Southeast Asian religious and literary studies, namely, the employment
of modern national borders as a guide to collecting and commenting on primary
sources."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>The **arbitrariness of genre and
regional linguistic boundaries** certainly does seem like an important theme to
guide research. The Burmese U Kala Mahayazawin chronicle bears fundamental
similarities to the Tamnan Pheun Meuang Chiang Mai, for instance. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>This is why I'm focusing on chronicle
and inscription translation and the lexicography that supports such translation,
focusing on accurate rendering of historical sources, rather than jumping to
radically premature interpretations as, for instance, Aung-Thwin does in the
Mists of Rammana (attempting effectively to erase Mon history without even
mastering Mon language and sources, a communication from Shorto to Piriya
Krairiksh cited in his Piriya's work on Pathom Cedi actually states that the
palaeography of Mon inscriptions in Isan matches that of Mon inscriptions in
Burma, what is lacking is attention to the details of words like this, even the
shapes of writing sometimes being an important detail). </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Zooming in on history c. 1350-1425,
the Razadarit Ayeidawpon (Rajadhirat Mon epic, in Mon, Thai, Burmese language
versions) though overtly recording history, explicitly states in two places that
the work is about the employment of four "upaya" (bheda, sama, danda, dana) in
politics and warfare which really makes the work a cross between arthasastra and
history. Perhaps to historians "intellectual history," but of what era?
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>These four upaya are a fundamental
part of the Kamandaki Nitisara, a condensed version of Kautilya's Arthasastra,
and the basis of rajaniti. A Tai version of the Kamandaki Nitisara is listed in
Skilling's bibliography. A Pali version also exists, quoted extensively in
Bagshawe's online Raja Dhamma Sangaha. The English Kamandaki version that I have
is a translation of a translation from Sanskrit to Javanese. Burmese chronicles
always include rajaniti, sometimes in Pali nissaya form, and the Pali Thai
script rajaniti that I have (published c. 1920), supposedly originated in
Pagan. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>That Pali and Sanskrit so often
served as a cross-cultural communication vehicle or conduit for this indigenous
knowledge, is well-attested to, by Ludvik Sternbach's work on the dissemination
of Indian Supphasita into Southeast Asia. Unravelling the history of
post-Buddha, pre-Asoka India contained in the U Kala Mahayazawingyi of Burma,
leads you to....the Mahavamsa Tika, for the stories of the post Ajatasatru, but
pre-Nanda kings. Everything seems to be interconnected.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Not only is the pre-modern
religious-historical-literary textual world of South-Southeast Asia completely
interconnected, but the lexical building blocks of this world are also
apparently interconnected. Accurate translations require thorough explication,
and one has to start somewhere, so a blog devoted to Burmese and northern Tai
words, with lots of example sentences, might be nice. That's one thing I do
everyday: <A
href="http://www.readbangkokpost.com/businesswords/">http://www.readbangkokpost.com/businesswords/</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>The Wichienkaew-Wyatt Pheun Meuang
Chiang Mai translation, if it is very literal, might have a dictionary residing
implicitly within it. Has anyone tried to read the two texts in parallel? I've
been slogging through Razadarit Ayeidawpon for months extracting works and the
sentences they are embedded in, many of which are not in any dictionary at
all, at least the sense in which they are used.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>[Also is there a northern Tai font or a program
that converts from central Thai to northern Tai publicly
available?]</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Sincerely,<BR>Jon
Fernquest<BR>Educational Services, Bangkok Post,<BR><A
href="http://readbangkokpost.com/">http://readbangkokpost.com/</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
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