From Archenemy of the Nation to the Intimate Other: Prince Damrong Rajanubhab's Journey through Burma and the Colonial Ecumene

Abstract:Between the late nineteenth century and the 1930s, the transmission of ethnohistorical knowledge between Colonial Burma and the Siamese State entered a new phase. Modern Burmese history was investigated and written by Siamese elites and state administrators. This article focuses on the transmission and reflection of ethnohistorical knowledge through Prince Damrong Rajanubhab's 1936 travel writing, published in 1946 as เที่ยวเมืองพม่า (Thiao Mueang Phama). The English translation Journey through Burma in 1936 was published in 1991. Critical and contextual reading methods are used to show Prince Damrong's historical perceptions of Burma and the changes in his narration about the country. This article also discusses the development of Prince Damrong's historical vision of Thai identity, pointing to historical actions of the Burmese as sources of Siam's lost heritage and the cultural fusion of "Suvannabhumi peoples." Thus, the text provided the Thais an alternative discourse about their neighbor country, transforming it from an intimate nation parallel with a discourse of archenemy in Thai nationalist history. This narrative also influenced cultural practices among the Thai upper and middle classes, as it has been demonstrated through television programs, historical-cultural tourism business, and, especially, the knowledge production by contemporary Thai Southeast Asianists.