[Tlc] Prof. Wyatt Memorial

[justinm at ucr.edu]

Dear TLC members,

Please see below Dr. Michael Montesano's description of Prof.
David Wyatt's memorial in Bangkok.

Thank you,
justin


I had the privilege of joining the events that took place here
in Bangkok yesterday, 30 November, to honor the life and
memory of David Wyatt.  It was a very special day, and one
that underlined in expected and unexpected ways the impact
that David made on the lives of so many.  It is impossible to
do justice to the day, but I do want to offer a few impressions.

 

The day began with a Sangkhathan ceremony at Wat Makut.  In my
own mind, there could be few more fitting places to honor
David’s memory, as I still often recall the delight with
which, during my first semester as his graduate student in
1989, David talked about some of the beautiful old temples of
the Early Rattanakosin era.  And to join his friends at one
such temple only underlined his deep roots in a Thailand that
we in this age of “globalization” need to think about far more
often than we do.  (Indeed, finding a cabbie who know Wat
Makut yesterday morning made this all too clear!)  The group
that gathered there included Prasoet Na Nakhon, Chanwit
Kasetsiri, Peter Skilling, Suphot Chaengreo, Sunet
Chutintharanon, Thanet Aphonsuwan, Ruchaya Aphakon (whose
devotion to David during his visits to Chiang Mai is the stuff
of legend), the ever enthusiastic Aphinan Posayanon, and
others. It was impossible to turn into the sala in which the
ceremony was to be held and behold such a gathering without
thinking very hard about the force that had concentrated such
a group in one room ….

 

The afternoon saw many of these people and such others as Ben
Anderson, Michael Nelson, and Michael Wright join a far larger
gathering in the movie theater of the National Archives.  The
program included tributes to David and recollections of his
life and work offered from many perspectives.  

 

Speaking on behalf of the Thammasat history department, Aj
Thanet recalled, for example, David’s deep interest in sources
on Thai histories centered on hubs besides Bangkok, hubs in
what are today Thailand’s far north and far south.  In these
comments, Thanet echoed the moving introduction that Tony Reid
offered before David spoke at the “Plural Peninsula”
conference in Nakhon Si Thammarat in February 2004, when Tony
noted that as far back as their time together at the
University of Malaya in Petaling Jaya, he could recall David’s
concern for “other” Thai experiences. Thanet made unmistakable
how gripped David always had him when their paths crossed in
Ithaca and talk turned to regional historiography. 

 

Calling herself David’s very first Thai student ever, Aj
Thaemsuk Numanon described David’s assuming responsibility for
her supervision when he served on the SOAS faculty, recalled
the “red buildings” of the old National Archives at Wat
Mahathat, and offered thoughts drawn from decades and decades
of close personal and professional contact with David. 
Thaemsuk spoke, quite simply, in a way that few if indeed any
others could about her earliest discussions with David about
sources for the Fifth Reign, the principles of David’s
historiography, and many other dimensions of their deep,
perhaps unique collegiality.  Thaemsuk’s trade-mark manner has
not failed her, of course, and—for me—her comments were one of
the two great highlights of the afternoon.

 

Aj Chanwit’s emotional tribute to David noted his use of
“Thailand” in the title of “The Politics of Reform” but of
“Siam”, decades later, in that of “Siam in Mind”.  He wondered
what David would make of the curious events that have
overtaken his beloved Thailand in recent months and made clear
that we would all do well to learn from the way that David
might understand those events.  Aj Sunet described the
experience of being David’s student for, in all, seven years
and celebrated his linguistic skills. 

 

While I had to leave before she finished, Chiranan Phitpricha
joined Aj Thaemsuk in speaking about David and about Mrs Wyatt
in very personal, affectionate terms and bringing the
afternoon’s second true highlight.  She shared countless funny
and charming recollections of David’s humor, travels, habits,
and sayings and of her own reactions to them.  The former
included his ability instantaneously to suggest Thai
renderings of English puns to help her as she wrote movie
sub-titles.  The latter included her anticipation when she and
Aj Seksan emerged from “the jungle” and arrived at Cornell:
Communist guerrilla meets student of Rama V in Southeast Asian
history course, or so she thought!   Chiranan also projected
pictures of David and Mrs Wyatt at home, in Thailand (not
least at ease on the West Coast, in Krabi), and with many
friends in both places.  These photographs included former US
Consul General Eric Rubin’s introducing David at an event held
in Chiang Mai some years ago, and a number of pictures of
David and others with Kamala Tiyavanich, whose work fascinated
him most among that of all of us studying Thai history in my
time at Cornell …

 

I was only sorry that I had to leave before Chiranan’s remarks
were finished and before the reception that followed this
gathering at the National Archives.  Above all, it would have
been good to speak to some of the many younger Thais in
attendance, to have a sense of the impression that the
afternoon left on them.  The day did make unmistakable that,
via his many students, colleagues, and friends in the Thai
field, these younger scholars are likely already to have been
subject to David’s influence far more than they might realize.

 

 

______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
2617 Humanities Building
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu