27-29 NOVEMBER 2000
BANGKOK, THAILAND
From Fact to Fiction and Vice Versa
From 27 to 29 November 2000, a rather different sort of conference took place at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, that combined creative art and various disciplines from the humanities. The conference bore the title 'From Fact to Fiction: A history of Thai-Myanmar relations in cultural context'. The organizers' intentions were made clear on the very first morning; the keynote lecture was a spirited plea for creative freedom for those artists who depict the past as portrayed by Onchuma Yuthavong, a theatre expert.
* By B.J. TERWIELSunait Chutintaranond followed this with a witty account of the various depictions over time of the most famous woman of Thai history, Queen Suriyothai, who lost her life during the first Burmese siege of Ayutthaya in 1549. Notably after the 1920s, when the nationalistic ideology exerted a marked influence on the writing of history, this queen grew in stature and importance. The rest of the morning was devoted to the new Thai historical film Suriyothai, presently being prepared for public release by the famous director Prince Chatri Chalerm Yukol. Prince Chatri told us how he had been inspired by Mendes Pinto in making this film and then gave us a preview. It left us with the impression that the Thais have created a historical blockbuster of a film. The first afternoon was also devoted to the cinema. We were shown the award-winning film Never Shall We Be Enslaved (1996), featuring a love story between a Shan princess and a Burmese commoner at the time of the fall of the Konbaung Dynasty (1885). Viewing this film was a very rewarding experience and it certainly deserves a wider public. To make things exciting, there followed a discussion with the author of the original story, the film's producer, and the chief consultant, U Khin Maung Tint, Myo Than Tyn, and U Kyi Soe Tun, respectively.
On the second day, Professor B.J. Terwiel, in an analysis of the first Burmese siege of Ayutthaya, confronted Thai, Burmese, and Portuguese records. Kwandee Attavavutichai reported on the remnants of Thai culture among the large groups of prisoners-of-war that were resettled in Myanmar after the second fall of Ayutthaya in 1767. Charivat Santaputra of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented a lecture about Thai foreign policy in the 1930s and 1940s.
The second afternoon was entirely devoted to yet another historical film, this time the famous The King of the White Elephant, made by Pridi Phanomyong and first shown to the public in 1941. Charnvit Kasetsiri, who rediscovered this film and has written a book about it, gave an extensive commentary afterwards.
The third and final day began with an anthropological analysis by James Taylor of the historical character Princess Suphankanlaya. Nai Pan Hla then explained the history of his novel Rajadhirat and Newal Agnihotra introduced the international Ramayana Project. The final afternoon was devoted to dance. One group from Thailand and another from Myanmar performed some very fine dances and, as a rare treat, they discussed stylistic and technical differences.
A book exhibition was organized to accompany the conference and each evening was enlivened by cultural events. On the whole, the discussions provided for an unusual and simulating confrontation between data from the past and forms of imagined history. It represented a very ambitious undertaking which left many participants pondering how seldomly representatives from Myanmar and Thailand met to discuss their common past.
Professor B. J. Terwiel is the IIAS Extraordinary Chair at Leiden University, the Netherlands.
E-mail: baasterwiel@hotmail.com