Tales of old Thailand and Japan
It’s the stuff of high adventure: Warrior kings, mysterious ships from far-off Japan, thriving trade across oceans and generations.
All part of the real-life tale of Thailand’s King Naresuan, who sat on the Thai throne more than 400 years ago when adventurous Japanese traders and samurai first settled in Thailand. And, you can read all about it in English thanks to Kennon “Ken” Breazeale, a projects coordinator at the Center. Here’s the story:
Those key events in Thailand’s history were remembered recently when Crown Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn traveled to Ayutthaya, the old capital of the Kingdom where she opened a new section of the national historical park there. The Princess, many remember, was just at the Center in Honolulu where she rededicated the Thai Sala and accepted Center’s Asia Pacific Community Building Award on behalf of her father, His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
The new section of the park, known as Nihonmachi, is the site where Japanese traders and samurai settled around the beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate. To mark the occasion, the Toyota Thailand Foundation published a book on the period, written by Thailand’s best-known historian, Prince Damrong, who is a great-uncle to the present King. An English-language edition of his work, titled A Biography of King Naresuan the Great has just been translated by Breazeale, a projects coordinator at the Center. To complement the book, the Textbooks Foundation of Thailand has just published another book, written by Breazeale, titled The Writings of Prince Damrong Rajanubhab: A Chronology with Annotations.
Both books were presented to the Princess during the dedication of Nihonmachi.
These sound interesting. Do you know if the Center’s library will have them?
I found a review of the translation on the Bangkok Post website that contains this praise of Breazeale: “The biography has been translated by Kennon Breazeale, one of the most knowledgeable historians of Ayutthaya, who also wrote a thesis on Damrong’s historical work. He has turned Prince Damrong’s often heavy Thai prose into light and lucid English. In the original, Damrong gave no indication of his sources but Breazeale has added 166 footnotes, which tracks down the sources, corrects a few obvious slips, decodes the dates, and gently points out where Prince Damrong is indulging his imagination.”
http://www.bangkokpost.com/210608_Outlook/21Jun2008_out006.php
08 Jul 2008 at 1:35 pm
Good day. I heard about an Ayutthaya Agricultural State University. I am interested to visit said school, together with my class of 15 students. Can i please have an email address and a Name i can write to. Thank you,
17 Jul 2008 at 2:37 pm
Hi Neri,
Unfortunately, I don’t have contact information for the Ayutthaya Agricultural State University. If any readers out there has the information Neri is looking for please post the answer as a comment.
17 Jul 2008 at 3:27 pm
Dear Neri,
Sorry for the long delay. I could not find any information about the agricultural college in Ayutthaya in English. I have only the address and other basic contact information:
College of Agriculture and Technology
Bangsai Arts and Crafts Centre
Tambon Pho Daeng, Bang Sai District
Ayutthaya Province 13290, Thailand
Tel. 035-366305
They have a website, but it is in the Thai language only:
website : kasetbangsai.com
For information about a visit for students, you might try the email address listed on the website:
e-mail: kasetbangsai@gmail.com
Best of luck,
Ken Breazeale
11 Aug 2008 at 10:33 am