Siam’s Javanese fetish:

Cultural anomaly or vestige of

cosmopolitan past?

Christopher M. Joll

Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM

(UKM Ethnic Studies Paper Series)
Institut Kajian Etnik (KITA)
Bangi 2019
Cetakan Pertama / First Printing, 2019
Hak cipta / Copyright Penulis / Author
Institut Kajian Etnik (KITA)
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 2019

Hak cipta terpelihara. Tiada bahagian daripada terbitan ini boleh

diterbitkan semula, disimpan untuk pengeluaran atau ditukarkan ke
dalam sebarang bentuk atau dengan sebarang alat juga pun, sama
ada dengan cara elektronik, gambar serta rakaman dan sebagainya
tanpa kebenaran bertulis daripada Institut Kajian Etnik (KITA),
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia terlebih dahulu.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical
including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Institute of
Ethnic Studies (KITA), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Diterbitkan di Malaysia oleh / Published in Malaysia by

Institut Kajian Etnik, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
43600 Bangi, Selangor D.E., Malaysia

Dicetak di Malaysia oleh / Printed in Malaysia by

Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
43600 UKM Bangi,Selangor D.E Malaysia
http:/pkukmweb.ukm.my/~penerbit/

Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia Cataloguing-in-Publication-Data

Joll, Christopher M., 1967-

Siam's Javanese fetish : Cultural anomaly or vestige of
cosmopolitan past? /
Christopher M. Joll.
(Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM; Bil. 62, Disember 2019 = UKM
Ethnic Studies Paper Series; No. 62, December 2019)
ISBN 978-967-0741-58-1
1. Javanese (Indonesian people)--Thailand.
2. Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya (Thailand)--History.
3.Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya (Thailand)--Social life and customs.
4. Government publications--Malaysia.
I. Title. II. Series.
305.899222

iv
 Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM
(UKM Ethnic Studies Paper Series)

Shamsul Amri Baharuddin. 2008. Hubungan Etnik di

Malaysia: Mencari dan Mengekal Kejernihan dalam
Kekeruhan. Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil.1 (November)
ISBN 978-983-44318-0-8

Shamsul Amri Baharuddin. 2008. Many Ethnicities,

Many Cultures, One Nation: The Malaysian Experience.
Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 2 (November) ISBN 978-
983-44318-1-5

Shamsul Amri Baharuddin. 2009. Culture and

Governance in Malaysia’s Survival as a Nation. Siri
Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 3 (September). ISSN
2180-1193

Sun Mee Lee. 2009. Construction of Moken Identity in

Thailand: A Case Study in Kuraburi. Siri Kertas Kajian
Etnik UKM Bil. 4 (Oktober). ISSN 2180-1193

Eric Schubert Ansah. 2009. Shaping A New Africa:

What Malaysians Should Know about the
Transformation in Africa. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM
Bil. 5 (November). ISSN 2180-1193

Thock Ker Pong. 2009. Tsunami Politik 2008 dan Hala

Tuju Perkembangan Pilitik MCA: Krisis dan Dilema di
Sepanjang Jalan. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 6
(Disember). ISSN 2180-1193

v
Sharifah Zaleha Syed Hassan. 2010. Negotiating
Islamism: The Experiences of the Muslim Youth
Movement of Malaysia. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil.
7 (Jun). ISSN 2180-1193

Korakit Choomgrant. 2010. Expression of Sexuality and

Lifestyle in Singapore and Bangkok: A Case Study of
Singaporean Homosexual Men. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik
UKM Bil. 8 (Julai). ISSN 2180-1193

Michael Banton. 2010. Ethnic Relations: An

International Perspective on the Malaysian Initiative of
2007. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 9 (Ogos). ISSN
2180-1193

Jean-Sébastian Guy. 2010. Toward a Second-Order

Theory of Globalization. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM
Bil. 10 (Ogos). ISSN 2180-1193

Lennart Niemelä. 2010. WALK! Framing a Successful

Agrarian Reform Campaign in the Philippines. Siri
Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 11 (September). ISSN
2180-1193

Elinor Lumbang Boayes. 2010. The Deadliest Free Press

in Asia: A case study of the Philippines. Siri Kertas
Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 12 (September). ISSN 2180-1193

Shamsul Amri Baharuddin. 2010. Unity in Diversity:

The Malaysian Experience. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM
Bil. 13 (Oktober). ISSN 2180-1193

vi
Ong Puay Hoon, Dick Yong, Ong Puay Liu & Ong Puay
Tee. 2010. The Silent Burden: What it Means to be
Dyslexic. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 14
(Oktober). ISSN 2180-1193

Shazlin Amir Hamzah. 2010. Branding Malaysia through

Tourism: When Ads Permeate Our Consciousness, What
Happens to Our Identity? Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM
Bil. 15 (November). ISSN 2180-1193

Tallyn Gray. 2010. Justice and the Khmer Rouge: Ideas

of a Just Response to the Atrocities of Democratic
Kampuchea in Buddhism and the Extraordinary
Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Siri Kertas Kajian
Etnik UKM Bil. 16 (Disember). ISSN 2180-1193

Shamsul Amri Baharuddin. 2011. ’Ilmu Kolonial’ dalam

Pembentukan Sejarah Intelektual Malaysia: Sebuah
Pandangan. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 17
(Januari). ISSN 2180-1193

Shamsul A.B. & Anis Y. Yusoff. 2011. Managing Peace

in Malaysia: A Case Study. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM
Bil. 18 (Mei). ISSN 2180-1193

Clive S. Kessler. 2012. What Every Malaysian Needs to

Know about Race. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 19
(Mac). ISSN 2180-1193

Pue Giok Hun & Shamsul A.B. 2012. Peranakan as a

Social Concept. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 20
(April). ISSN 2180-1193

vii
Denison Jayasooria & Teo Lee Ken (Editors). 2012.
Issues Pertaining to Malaysia’s Ratification of The
International Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) 1965. Siri
Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 21 (Oktober). ISSN 2180-
1193

Hasan Mat Nor. 2012. Kompilasi Beranotasi mengenai

Orang Asli: Bahan Bertulis dalam Bahasa Melayu di
UKM. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 22 (November).
ISSN 2180-1193

Denison Jayasooria. 2012. Malaysia: The Need for

Inclusiveness. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 23
(Disember). ISSN 2180-1193

Denison Jayasooria. 2012. Issues Pertaining to

Malaysia introducing a New National Harmony Act. Siri
Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 24 (Disember). ISSN
2180-1193

James T. Collins. 2013. On Malay Manuscripts: Lessons

from the Seventeenth Century. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik
UKM Bil. 25 (Januari). ISSN 2180-1193

Azmi Aziz dan Shamsul Amri Baharuddin. 2013.

Pluralisme dan Pluralisme Agama: Sebuah Wacana
Konseptual. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 26 (April).
ISSN 2180-1193 (not in print)

Denison Jayasooria dan Muhammad Ismail Aminuddin.

2013. Satu pendekatan dalam membina kesepaduan
sosial melalui penyertaan komuniti. Siri Kertas Kajian
Etnik UKM Bil. 27 (April). ISSN 2180-1193

viii
Wendy Smith. 2013. Managing Ethnic Diversity in a
Japanese Joint Venture in Malaysia. Siri Kertas Kajian
Etnik UKM Bil. 28 (April). ISSN 2180-1193 (not in
print)

Denison Jayasooria (ed.). 2013. Building an Inclusive

Society on the Foundation of Human Rights and
Responsibilities. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 29
(April). ISSN 2180-1193

Pue Giok Hun (pnyt.). 2013. Menyelusuri Cabaran

Kepelbagaian: Pengalaman Malaysia Terkini. Siri Kertas
Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 30 (Mei). ISSN 2180-1193

Leong Kar Yen. 2013. The State and Unseen Realm:

State Ideology, History and Memory in Indonesia. Siri
Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 31 (Julai). ISSN 2180-
1193

Kartini Aboo Talib @ Khalid. 2014. Consociation In

Plural Society: Accommodating Contemporary Malaysia
Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 32 (September).
ISSN 2180-1193

Kartini Aboo Talib @ Khalid. 2014. Moderation and

Power Sharing in Malaysia: Accommodating concept
and practice. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik Bil. 33
(September), ISSN 2180-1193

Eric Olmedo Panal. 2014. “MAMAKIZATION” Food and

Social Cohesion in Malaysia: A Tentative Framework.
Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik Bil. 34 (November), ISBN 978-
967-0741-03-1

ix
Shamsul Amri Baharuddin. 2015. Politics of Language
and Language of Politics: Theory and Practice of the
‘nation-of- intent’ as articulated in Malaysia. Siri Kertas
Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 35 (Jun), ISBN 978-967-0741-
10-9

Nurshuhada Binti Mohamed. 2015. Jawatankuasa

Hubungan Antara Kaum (CLC): Sejarah Bermulanya
Proses Perkongsian Kuasa. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM
Bil. 36 (Ogos), ISBN 978-967-0741-12-3

Mohd Mahadee Ismail. 2015. Keamatan Kemahiran

Sivik: Perbandingan Alumni dan Bukan Alumni Program
Latihan Khidmat Negara (PLKN). Siri Kertas Kajian
Etnik UKM Bil. 37 (Ogos), ISBN 978-967-0741-13-0

Aananthi a/p Thuraisamy. 2015. Cross Cultural

Relations of Live-In Indonesian Maids within Selected
Malaysian Households. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil.
38 (Ogos), ISBN 978-967-0741-14-7

Mohd Syariefudin Abdullah. 2015. Kesepaduan Sosial

dalam Komuniti di Kawasan Kejiranan Rukun Tetangga
(RT): Kajian di Zon Semenyih, Daerah Hulu Langat
Selangor. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 39 (Ogos),
ISBN 978-967-0741-15-4

Shazlin Amir Hamzah. 2015. Branding the Malaysian

nation: Tracing the role of popular music in the
construction of an imagined community. Siri Kertas
Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 40 (Ogos), ISBN 978-967-0741-
16-1

Pue Giok Hun. 2015. Perkahwinan Campur dan

Fenomena Peranakan di Semenanjung Malaysia. Siri

x
Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 41 (Ogos), ISBN 978-967-
0741-17-8

Kartini Aboo Talib @ Khalid. 2015. Pemerdagangan

Manusia: Hak, Hambatan dan Inisiatif. Siri Kertas
Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 42 (September), ISBN 978-967-
0741-18-5

Md. Khaldun Munip Abd. Malek. 2015. Is a History of

Our Own Possible? Negotiating the Limits of
“Autonomy” in Contemporary Malaysian Historiography.
Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 43 (November), ISBN
978-967-0741-19-2

Anuar Ahmad, Peter Ling Huo Hang & Nur Atiqah Tang
Abdullah. 2015. “Berbangga Sebagai Rakyat Malaysia”:
Satu Kajian tentang Nilai Patriotisme Pelajar
berdasarkan Pembelajaran Sejarah. Siri Kertas Kajian
Etnik UKM Bil. 44 (Disember), ISBN 978-967-0741-21-
5

Denison Jayasooria (ed.). 2016. Sustainable

Development Goals and Malaysia Society: Civil Society
Perspectives. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 45
(Februari), ISBN 978-967-0741-22-2

Denison Jayasooria. 2016. Towards 2030: Malaysia’s

Development Agenda. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil.
46 (Mac), ISBN 978-967-0741-23-9

Denison Jayasooria. 2016. Human Rights Priorities for

Malaysia: 2016 & Beyond. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM
Bil. 47 (Mac), ISBN 978-967-0741-24-6

xi
Denison Jayasooria. 2016. Human Rights Violations and
Remedies: The Rohingya Case. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik
UKM Bil. 48 (Mac), ISBN 978-967-0741-25-3

Denison Jayasooria. 2016. Inclusive Development for

Urban Poor & Bottom 40% Communities in Malaysia.
Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 49 (April), ISBN 978-
967-0741-26-0

Denison Jayasooria. 2016. Strengthening Religious

Freedom in the Asean Region: Lessons for Malaysia.
Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 50 (April), ISBN 978-
967-0741-27-7

Tan Jun-E. 2016. Social and Solidarity Economy for

Sustainable Development in Malaysia: Concepts,
Contexts and Case Studies. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik
UKM Bil. 51 (April), ISBN 978-967-0741-31-4

Denison Jayasooria. 2017. Civil Society Organisations'

Active Engagement in Sustainable Development Goals.
Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 52 (April), ISBN 978-
967-0741-37-6

Denison Jayasooria (ed.). 2017. Citizens’ Action to

Enhance Democracy in Malaysia. Siri Kertas Kajian
Etnik UKM Bil. 53 (April), ISBN 978-967-0741-38-3

Rachel Chan Suet Kay. 2017. Ah Beng Subculture and

the Anti-Capital of Social Exclusion. Siri Kertas Kajian
Etnik UKM Bil. 54 (August), ISBN 978-967-0741-39-0

Geraldine Avella. 2017. Communities Taking Part:

Challenges and Expectations of the Bottom 40
Neighbourhoods of Sri Pahang and Jalan Hang Tuah in

xii
Kuala Lumpur. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 55
(October), ISBN 978-967-0741-40-6

Viola Thimm, 2017. Commercialising Islam in Malaysia:

‘Ziarah’ at the Intersection of Muslim Pilgrimage and
the Market-driven Tourism. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik
UKM Bil. 56 (Disember), ISBN 978-967-0741-41-3

Malte Reimann, 2018. Regime Legitimacy in Troubled

Waters: To What Extent Does Inequality Influence
Trust in Political Institutions in Thailand (2002-2016)?
Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 57 (September), ISBN
978-967-0741-46-8

Govindran Jegatesen, 2018. Reimagining the Lines in

Orang Asli Studies. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 58
(Oktober), ISBN 978-967-0741-47-5

Shazlin Amir Hamzah, 2018. Negaraku: The national

anthem binding Malaysians in integration. Siri Kertas
Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 59 (Disember), ISBN 978-
9670741-48-3

Tan Raan Haan, 2019. Performing Portuguese

Becoming Betawi. Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 60
(Januari), ISBN 978-967-0741-51-2

Ju-Li Teo, 2019. Promoting Refugee Protection in

Southeast Asia Through the Responsibility To Protect
(R2P). Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM Bil. 61 (Mac), ISBN
978-967-0741-53-6

xiii
About the UKM Ethnic Studies Paper Series
UKM Ethnic Studies Paper Series marks the inaugural publication of
the Institute of Ethnic Studies (KITA), UKM. The purpose of this
Paper Series is in line with UKM’s official status as a research
university under the 9th Malaysia Plan. The Series provides a premise
for the dissemination of research findings and theoretical debates
among academics and researchers in Malaysia and world-wide
regarding issues related with ethnic studies. All articles submitted for
this Series will be refereed by at least one reviewer before
publication. Opinions expressed in this Series are solely those of the
writer(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of
KITA. The first two papers published in November 2008 under this
Series had the ISBN code. For 2009, the Series carries the ISSN
Code. However, the Series reverts to the ISBN code with the
publication of number 34, November 2014.

For further information, please contact:

Dr. Rachel Chan Suet Kay
Chief Editor
UKM Ethnic Studies Paper Series
Institute of Ethnic Studies (KITA)
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
Website: http://www.ukm.my/kita/ukm-ethnic-studies-paper-series/
email: rachelchansuetkay@ukm.edu.my

Mengenai Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM

Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik UKM menandakan penerbitan ulung Institut
Kajian Etnik (KITA). Tujuan penerbitan bersiri ini adalah selaras
dengan status rasmi UKM sebagai sebuah universiti penyelidikan
dalam Rancangan Malaysia Ke-9. Penerbitan Kertas bersiri ini
memberi peluang kepada para akademik dan penyelidik di Malaysia
dan luar negara untuk menyebar penemuan-penemuan kajian dan
idea-idea teoretikal masing-masing mengenai isu-isu berkaitan
dengan kajian etnik. Artikel-artikel yang dihantar untuk tujuan
penerbitan akan diwasit oleh sekurang-kurangnya seorang penilai.
Segala pandangan yang diungkapkan oleh penulis artikel dalam
penerbitan bersiri ini adalah pandangan penulis berkenaan dan tidak
semestinya mewakili atau mencerminkan pandangan dan polisi KITA.
Dua kertas yang diterbitkan pada bulan November 2008 di bawah Siri
ini mempunyai kod ISBN. Mulai tahun 2009, Siri Kertas Kajian Etnik
UKM ini membawa kod ISSN. Namun, kod diubah balik ke ISBN
bermula dengan penerbitan nombor 34, November 2014.

xiv
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract … 1

Introduction … 1

Javanese Presence in Ayutthaya and Bangkok … 6

Siam’s Javanese Fetish … 15

Conclusion … 24

References … 25

About the author … 42

About KITA … 43

xv
 Siam’s Javanese fetish: Cultural anomaly or
vestige of cosmopolitan past?

Abstract

Although actively preparing for increased integration in

the region in 2015, Thailand is often cited as one of
ASEAN’s most ethnically and linguistically homogeneous
member. This article considers Javanese presence, and
influence in Central Thai between the Ayutthaya period
and early Bangkok period, asking whether Siam's
captivation with Javanese cultural forms represent an
anomaly or reflect Ayutthaya’ cosmopolitan past. I begin
by summarising references to Javanese presence in
Ayutthaya and Bangkok in a range of primary and
secondary sources. These confirm that, although located
inland on a navigable river, Ayutthaya resembled the
maritime city-states of the era. Drawing extensively on
the work of Davisakd Puaksom, I consider the
personalities and processes involved in the arrival,
adoption, and adaption of the Javanese epic, Panji, best
known in Thailand as Inao. Far from a cultural anomaly,
I argue that Siam’s Inao fetish is a reminder about the
region’s connectedness, and that Ayutthaya was
strikingly similar to cosmopolitan Melaka.

Keywords: Ayutthaya, Bangkok, Java, Javanese,

cosmopolitanism, Panyi, Inao

INTRODUCTION

Engseng Ho is the latest of a number scholars of

Southeast Asia to have commented on the “expanding
and interconnected diasporas” which impacted port

1
polities throughout the archipelago.1 In his examination
of Sejarah Melayu’s account of “water-borne commerce
conducted by foreign merchants”, Ho draws attention to
details that question assumptions about what the world
in, and around, the Straits of Melaka looked like at the
time this was penned.2 This is one element of his wider
project to identify “expansive social formations”
previously perceived in “fragmentary, partial and
disconnected ways.” These led to oceans, empires and
Diasporas being “accepted frames or objects of
investigation”.3 Notwithstanding Malay Sultans
symbolising Malay sovereignty, he points out that “The
sultan of Selangor is descended from a Makassar Bugis
line, the Raja of Perlis is a descendant of the Arab
prophet Muhammad of Hadrami origin, and Malay prime
ministers have had Indian, Thai, Chinese, or Bugis
fathers, mothers and grandparents”.4 In the
“prototypical port-sultanate” of Melaka, merchants were
so numerous that there were a harbour masters
(syahbandar) for (a) The Gujaratis; (b) Southern
Indians; (c) Javanese and traders from the eastern
archipelago; (d) and Chinese, Ryukyu Islanders, and
Chams.5 The wealth and power of Melaka was built on
its ability to attract trade from all directions. The “entire
archipelago” at the time represented a crossroads in
which merchants enjoyed the freedom to “change where
they congregated.” Accordingly, ports took turns in
“dominating their peers and overshadowing their
neighbours”. Ho argues that for those with eyes to see,
Sejarah Melayu documents the inseparability of “internal
and external relations”, located as Melaka was at the
“crossroads of trans-regional trade, transcultural
politics, and alternating monsoons.” 6

2
Michael Feener, in his analysis of the localisation and
globalisation of Islam between the sixteenth and
nineteenth centuries, mentions a certain Pieter
Erberveld, who he describes as a “baptised German
Siamese Eurasian”. In 1721, some years after his
conversion to Islam, Erberveld and his associates were
executed, their heads displayed on pikes after
distributing “Islamic religious amulets containing Arabic
script formulae (jimat) and plotting to put an end to
VOC control by slaughtering the Christian population of
Batavia”.7 This mualaf (Ar. Muslim convert) was one of
hundreds of “polyglot, highly mobile and eclectic
individuals” who proliferating across Southeast Asia
during this period. Readers could conceivably find this
anecdote astounding for a number of reasons. For the
purposes of this article, questions about why, with
whom, and by what means Pieter Erberveld moved
between Ayutthaya and Java are more relevant than the
vexing issues of zealous converts engaging in violence.
Chris Baker’s argument that Ayutthaya was a maritime
state that subsequently expanded its sphere of influence
into the hinterland, raises the possibility that people like
Pieter Erberveld were more common than many have
assumed. 8 This is especially the case among observers
whose picture of Ayutthaya conceives it as a hinterland
state like (its successor) Sukhothai and (competitor)
Angkor that only later emerged as a commercial power
through maritime trade.9

Without denying its later expansion into mainland

Southeast Asia, Baker argues that Ayutthaya was first
and foremost a maritime state. As such, it resembled
the coastal polities to its south that it actively engaged
and competed with. Between the late eleventh and
twelfth centuries, Ayutthaya was one of a number of

3
port centres, which competed to gain “larger shares of
the trade ceded by a declining Srivijaya”. 10 Chinese
records in 1282 mention the polity of ‘Xian’, which in the
past has mistakenly be identified as Sukhothai. This
appears in a list of maritime kingdoms that “spread
across the peninsula.” Chinese envoys were dispatched
there to demand tribute, and notes noted ‘Xian’ having
control over Sukhothai. Ming records from the 1433
observed that Xian was located on land ill suited
agriculture as the land was “wet and swampy.” This was
an apt description for Ayutthaya (not Sukhothai) built as
it was on the edge of “a seaboard swamp”.11 Baker
considers that the “the variety of foundation myths”
suggest Ayutthaya having begun as a “trading power
whose dominant figures had little interest in history.”
These stories were constructed later after becoming “a
territorial power whose rulers needed a history and
genealogy”. To be clear, Ayutthaya eventually absorbed
“people, political structures, and cultural practices” to its
north, but – to reiterate - its initial rise was achieved
through the maritime power it exercised to its south. 12
Ayutthaya under King Narai, therefore resembled Java
under Sultan Agung, and Aceh under Iskandar Muda.13
In this article, I interrogate Javanese presence and
influence in Siam from the eighteen century, asking
whether these diaspora communities and the cultural
forms were cultural anomaly or vestige of cosmopolitan
past. As is well known, territories in mainland and
peninsula Southeast Asia annual paid tribute to both
Ayutthaya (1569–1767), and Bangkok (1767–1932)
were referred to Siam before its name was changed to
Thailand in 1939.14 As it well known, this development
occurred after the ablution of the absolute monarchy in
1932.15 Roughly fifty years before this, the borders of
Siam had been established through a series of treaties

4
with the French and British between 1893 and 1909.16
The earliest examples of Javanese influence presented
below occurred in Siam’s cosmopolitan capital of
Ayutthaya.17 Bangkok’s reduced openness and
enthusiasm for things foreign was born out of concerns
for the reestablishment of its territorial integrity
following the fall of Ayutthaya to the Burmese in 1767. 18
Some decades after Siam’s borders had been gazetted,
and its infrastructure and administration modernised in
the late nineteenth century, a series of xenophobic
ultra-nationalist governments imposed Central Thai
cultural, religious, and linguistic norms on its diverse
population.

My specific interest is in interrogating Javanese presence

and influence in Central – rather than South – Thailand.
By doing so, I draw attention to the specifically Siamese
form of cosmopolitanism that existed in Ayutthaya. The
first of this article’s two roughly equal sections, present
accounts describing Javanese presence in Ayutthaya and
Bangkok. This is prefaced by a short, but important,
summary of what terms such as Jawa, Jawah, and Jawi
did – and did not denote. The second, draws extensively
on Davisakd Puaksom excellent doctoral dissertation on
Panji, which he refers to as most potent and enduring
example of Siam’s Java fetish.19 I describe how this epic
reached Ayutthaya via Malay-speakers given roles in
Ayutthaya’s court, and how Thai translations – the most
famous of which is known as Inao – was transformed
into a popular dance drama (Th. lakhawn). I show that
scenes from Inao have even been immortalized in
murals that cover the walls of Buddhist temple halls in
Bangkok. In addition to the mobility of the Javanese, the
highly selective adoption and adaption of this epic testify
to the form of Siam cosmopolitanism that its demise

5
under the competing colonialisms in the nineteenth
century, and nationalisms of the twentieth.

JAVANESE PRESENCE IN AYUTTHAYA AND

BANGKOK

Notwithstanding denials about Javanese presence in

Ayutthaya since the Seventeenth Century being rare and
able to be readily be rejected, references are scant, and
evidence often anecdotal. Although the Javanese are
referred to in a number of ways, the following
clarification about what the terms Jawa and Jawah
denoted are required. Anthony Milner comments that a
related term, Jawi, is encountered in regions wherever
Muslim populations are found. This includes present-day
Cambodia where Muslims were referred to as Chvea, a
local derivation of Jawah. As is well known, this
community claim long-standing and close connections
with Patani and Kelantan where people are also
frequently referred to as Jawah or Jawi – rather than
Melayu.20 In Cambodia, Chvea refers to the entire Malay
community regardless of place of origin. Although
encompassing the island of Jawa, Chvea also includes
“various islands of the Malay Archipelago or the different
states on the Peninsula”.21 British observers in the late
1700s, comment on widespread familiarity with the land
and people “beneath the winds” (de-bawah angin). This
is toponym/ethnonym is as imprecise of Jawah.22 As a
toponym, it encompasses Sumatra and possibly Borneo.
English observers in the late seventeenth century
occasionally called the entire Archipelago, “The Javas.”
Similarly, Chinese captains referred to Melaka and
Patani as part of Jawa.

6
When employed as ethnonyms, Jawa or Jawah could
denote Javanese, Acehnese, Bugis, Malays and other
groups in mainland and littoral Southeast Asia. This was
also observed by Snouck Hurgronje, who commented
that, in Arabia, Jawah denoted all people of Malay race.
In addition to this, its geographical breadth spread to
Siam, Malacca and even New Guinea. Intriguingly, it
sometimes referred to Southeast Asians who were not
Muslims. Jawah Meriki, on the other hand, referred
specifically to what he referred to “genuine Javanese”.23
I will return to this important issue below, when
considering claims about the origins Thai translations of
the Panji.

Kennon Breazeale presents a reconstruction of

movements made by sailing vessels coming and going to
Ayutthaya. As anyone who has lived in Southeast Asia
will be aware, predictable monsoon winds reverse
themselves roughly every six months. These enabled
traders to approximate their arrivals and departures,
although no one was sailed more than once in a season.

Junks bound for East Asia usually left Ayutthaya in June

or July, to catch the winds that carried them to Chinese
ports, the Ryukyu Islands or Japan. The return voyage
was timed so that the junks reached Ayutthaya again in
January or February […] and the same return winds
carried ships south across the Gulf to Java and other
islands. From mid- or late-February, the changing winds
in the Gulf made it difficult to sail west toward
Ayutthaya while in sight of the southeast coast, and a
longer voyage then became necessary.24

Chris Baker’s fascinating translation and analysis of a

Siamese reconstruction of economic activity in

7
Ayutthaya before its demise in 1767, which was
discovered in 1925, contains the following description. 25
In the monsoon season “when wind blew junks up the
river and into the city”, these would “drop anchor at the
end of the canal.” Wares were deposited by traders in
“buildings that they have bought or rented inside the
walls of Ayutthaya, and open shops to sell goods
according to type and language”. These included

Chinese junk traders, Khaek sloop merchants, Farang

clipper traders, Gujarati Khaek traders, Surat Khaek,
Khaek from Java and Malayu, Khaek thet, French,
Farang Losong, Dutch, Spanish, English, black Farang,
Langkuni Farang, and island Khaek, merchants in charge
of junks, sloops.26

Javanese maps of the Asian coastline from the early

1500s, reveal that Javanese traders were aware of the
“early Ayutthaya kingdom and the extent of its
territory”, and the primary and secondary literature are
replete with references to the presence of Javanese in
Ayutthaya. Julispong Chularatana relates accounts by
Tomé Pires who mentioned, “Moors” and “Turks” having
settled in this Siamese entrepôt. 27 Similar observations
were made by the Portuguese visitor, Fernão Mendes
Pinto, who stayed in Ayutthaya between 1626-9 who
mentioned that “Turk” residents led “foreign troops” had
assisted Siamese armies in their attack on the northern
kingdom of Lanna, in 1547-1548. Seven mosques “of
the Turks and the Arabs” served Ayutthaya’s
approximately 30,000 residents that he estimated as
living in three thousand households. 28 Chevalier de
Chaumont, who visited Ayutthaya in 1685, observed
that the Malays were “quite numerous”, but that “most

8
of them are slaves.” Makassaris and “many people of the
Island of Java” had also an established presence there. 29
Like Melaka before it, Leonard Andaya argues ethnic
groups residing in Ayutthaya being designated particular
portions of the city. There, they were free to worship
and practice their own customs under the jurisdiction of
a chosen leader. This was in consultation with the
Siamese Phra Khlang. Owing to the prominence of
Muslims in trade, official in the court included a number
of Muslims. For example, during the reign of Song Tham
(r. 1611-28), two wealthy merchants from south India,
who were allegedly brothers, played a part in
reorganizing the Phra Khlang Ministry into the
Department of the Left (Th. Krom Tha Sai) and the
Department of the Right (Th. Krom Tha Khwa). The
latter assumed responsibility for trade to the south and
west that led to more merchants from south India
during the 1610s and 1620s. One of the brothers
eventually returned to south India, but the other
remained. Having become the head of the Department
of the Right, Song Tham granted him and his community
a site to build homes, a mosque, and a graveyard,
known today as Ban Khaek Kuti Chao Sen.30 Indeed, as
an attempt to encourage their presence, King Narai (r.
1656-1688) exempted Muslim from the six months of
corvée labour required by most Siamese. Furthermore,
King Naira’s reign began in October 1656, after a
successful coup against his uncle, King
Srisuthammaraja. His main supporters included
members of Ayutthaya’s Muslim communities from
Department of Western Maritime Affairs (Th. Krom Tha
Khwa).31

Chularatana Julispong relates that in a map (Figure 1)

accompanying a description of King Narai’s court by

9
Simon de la Loubère in 1687, two Muslim locations were
identified.32 In one, resided Makassari. In another,
Malays. These were located “along the river banks
outside of the city wall to the south west”. Another map
prepared by French engineers, include Chinese and
Moors communities inside the city wall, to the
southwest. Similar details are contained in the map by
Engelbert Kaempfer, a German physician who visited
Siam during the reign of King Phet Raja, in the late
1690s.33 Kaempfer also mentions that the “central city
road linking the north of the city to the palace consisted
of shops of the Chinese, the Hindustani, and the Moors”.
Thai documents written by Ayutthaya residents in the
early Rattanakosin period, describe Muslim communities
on Thanon Ban Khaek Yai ‘Grand Muslim Street’ in the
centre of the city. This was occasionally referred to as
Rue des Moores (Moor Street) in European documents.

10
Figure 1: Muslim Communities in Ayutthaya
(source: Chularatana, 2007, p. 96)

Unlike the Makassaris and Bugis mistrusted as potential

pirates and mercenaries, the Cham and Javanese had
earned reputations as loyal subjects of Siamese kings.34
Indeed, Makassaris were represented as barbaric giants
(Th. yak makkasan) in Thai literature.35 Having
outmanoeuvring a rival in 1703, King Borommakot
commissioned Chams to assassinate one of principal
supporters of his former opponent. This was largely
necessitated by their (perhaps hasty) ordination as
monks. Securing the services of a Buddhist assassin
would have been all but impossible. I finally note that
Muslims were among the foreign fighters who defended
Ayutthaya in its final days.36 Riyad Mustafa recalls the
first Cham settlers of Baan Khrua having originated from

11
Ayutthaya.37 They were given land by the first King of
the Chakri Dynasty (Rama I) as a reward with having
fought against the Khmer. Winyu Ardrugsa cites Cham
and Malays being exempted tax as a reward for
contributing to the navy of King Mongkut. 38

Javanese presence in Bangkok at the beginning of the

twentieth century, is mentioned in the following British
account:

(Bangkok’s) human element […] is extremely

interesting. It is wonderful to see the representatives of
so many nationalities rubbing shoulder to shoulder in
the different thoroughfares or jostling one another in the
market place. The crowds which throng the streets are
composed of Siamese, Chinese, Malays, Tamils,
Bengalis, Madrassis, Pathans, and half a score of other
tribes and castes of British India, Burmese, Ceylonese,
Javanese, Cambodians, Annamites, Laos, Shans, and
Mons, all of whom retain sufficient of their national dress
and characteristics to impart an idea of their origin. The
spectacular effect of such a gathering is enhanced by
the kaleidoscopic variety of the colours worn.39

Javanese also lived in the Kingdom of Siam at the

beginning of the twentieth century. An observation that
demonstrates these having been distinguished from
foreigners includes Breazeale pointing out that the Civil
Hierarchy Law specifically mentions jurisdiction over the
Javanese.40

According to Scupin, no claims can be made about any

mass migrations in Central Thailand from present-day
Indonesia in any particular era.41 As I mention below,
small numbers of Javanese migrated to Bangkok during

12
the nineteenth century, many of whom were “individual
traders” who established small businesses.” More
immigrated to Bangkok during the reign of Rama V (r.
1868-1910) who had been greatly impressed by
Javanese agricultural and gardening techniques during
his trips to Java.42 Javanese gardeners were hired to
manage the royal gardens and teach nursery and
gardening methods. A settlement of (mostly Javanese)
Indonesians has existed in Bangkok’s inner-city Bangrak
district, for approximately 200 years. 43 A Siamese
census undertaken near the end of Chulalongkorn’s
reign in 1903, confirms the presence of 371 Javanese. 44
Other communities like Bangkok Noi located in Thonburi
on the western side of the Chao Phraya River, contained
a number of Minangkabau immigrants from West
Sumatra. After being refused entry to Padang in the
early twentieth century by the Dutch colonial authorities,
this became the base for the earliest known promoter of
Indonesian modernist espoused by the Muhammadiyya
movement in Thailand, a Minang by the name of Ahmad
Wahad.45

What were the linguistic elements of the Siamese

Cosmopolitanism described above? One of the main
arguments of Davisakd Pauksom’s excellent study of
Siamese fascination with Panji (considered at length
below) is the importance of Malay in Ayutthaya. He
claims that this not only used in foreign office of the
Siamese court when communicating with diplomats and
traders from Southeast Asian world – especially that
Malay World. Malay was also employed in dealings with
Westerners from the Dutch East Indies and British South
India.46

13
The office of foreign affairs […] also adopted Melayu as a
lingua franca in communicating with the outside world.
Since the early sixteenth century, when the Portuguese
sent their first envoy to the Ayutthaya court in 1511
after their success in taking over Melaka, the Melayu
language was first registered as a medium of
international contact and communication, possibly both
in its spoken and written forms. […] At the end of the
sixteenth century, the Portuguese governor of Melaka
sent his delegation and his letter, “written in Malay,” to
King Naresuan in 1595. In the seventeenth century,
when the letter from the Dutch Stadholder Prince
Frederick Henry to King Songtham arrived in Ayutthaya
in 1628, “In accordance with the usual procedure, the
letter was translated from Dutch into Portuguese, from
Portuguese into Malay and from Malay into Siamese”.47

This was still the practice in the early Bangkok period.

South Indians involved in the elephant trade with the
Andaman Coast port of Trang used Malay. Although
Westerners trading east of Ayutthaya employed Chinese
translators, while with business interests to the south
and west employed Muslims, most of whom functioned
in Malay. Malay was also one of the main languages
through which merchants communicated with each
other. For Puaksom, this explains, “untranslated
Javanese and Melayu terms” in Thai translations of
Panji. These testify to moments when “economic
commodities and cultural elements were bargained,
bartered, and traded through the medium of Melayu”. 48
Having presented the contexts in which people from
Java in Central and South Thailand have been
mentioned in a range of primary and secondary
literature, I consider below the adoption and adaptation

14
of Javanese literature and performing arts in Siam from
the Ayutthaya period.

SIAM’S JAVANESE FETISH

Literature, and the performing arts resemble the people

who create them. They possess family resemblances,
are capable of moving countries, learning new
languages, and adapting to different culture milieu.
Throughout the Thai/Malay Peninsula, a range of Indian
epics have influenced local culture and literature. Many
of these came via Java whose population and prosperity
enabled it to “impose its control over a large number of
neighbouring regions”.49 There are other explanations
for the presence of Javanese musical and literary
traditions in parts of the peninsula located within the
modern nation-state of Thailand. The prestige of
anything and everything Javanese may have
represented a pre-modern form of “cultural
propaganda.”50 For example, at 70,000-lines, the Thai
version of the Ramayana is one of the longest Thai
epics. This was considerably longer than the original. 51
Arguable the most iconic example is shadow puppetry.
Studies from Kelantan in the 1930s, referred to Wayang
Jawa. This gave birth to distinct forms of Wayang Siam
and Wayang Kulit.52 Their dramatic repertoires included
“oral Malay version of the Ramayana epic, the Panji
stories, Malay folktales, and stories of local themes and
events”.53 These were performed by a puppeteer
(dalang) accompanied by a highly percussive ensemble
(consisting of drums, gongs, cymbals) and melodies
provided by an oboe who perform in raised huts with a
white screen behind which a lamp is hung. In Southern
Thai-speaking parts of the peninsula between
Phatthalung and Nakhon Si Thammarat, shadow

15
puppetry is referred to as Nang Talung.54 Nang is Thai
for leather (from which the puppets are made), and
Talung is shortened local form for Phatthalung.55
Wherever they are performed, puppet characters (based
on the Ramayana) adorn local attire, and speak in local
dialects. Other traditional music and performing arts
which have become embedded in both Malay and Thai
culture milieu, are Mak Yong and Main Puteri. Both
resemble Manora (named after a heavenly bird-maiden).
This dance form is closely associated with Songkhla. 56 It
is important to note that, throughout Thailand, nang
talung is associated with the Southern Thai-speaking
upper south – not Java.

One of the many literary traditions present throughout

insular and mainland Southeast Asia originating from
Java, are stories featuring Prince Panji. Mohammad Haji
Salleh describes these being told in many forms and
versions, including narrative prose, poetry, and stage
performances, which I describe below. As one of Java's
closest neighbours, these were translated into Malay. 57
As the region’s lingua franca, Panji stories spread
throughout the region. Similarities between Malay and
Javanese Panji stories are far greater than the
differences.58 Whilst it is common to hear claims that
translations were based on Javanese originals, as
already mentioned, it was fashionable to claim anything
of quality to come from the Javanese. Despite being
local re-creations, Malays wrote their own versions
based on its storyline and cast. Harun Mat Piah asserts
that 80 extant Malay Panji manuscripts exist.59 By
contrast, there are only 22 versions of the Sejarah
Melayu.60 One of the principal concerns of Ratiya Saleh’s
study of Thai and Malay Panji manuscripts was to
determine which was closest to the Inao of King Rama

16
II.61 These were Hikayat Misa Taman Jayeng Kusuma;
Hikayat Endang Malat Rasmi; Hikayat Dewa Asmara
Jaya; Hikayat Cekel Waneng Pati; Kuda Semirang Seri
Panji Pandairupa; Syair Angreni; Syair Ken Tambuhan;
and Hikayat Panji Semirang. She concludes that the
Inao of King Rama II is not a translation of any of these
texts.62

It is important to point out, that despite Panji having

been transmitted to Siam and translated into Thai after
Islam became a “crucial component” in Java, the
religious milieu of Panji is pre-Islamic, Hindu Java.
Robson also comments upon the absence of Buddhism,
conjecturing that this may have been due to its
Javanese form at the time being “an esoteric, Tantric
type, unfamiliar to the majority of people”. Puaksom
adds that as these Thai adaptations functioned as a
“prism for the Thai understanding or perception about
Indonesia.” Therefore, these inadvertently contributed to
“local ignorance about Islam” in Indonesia and the wider
Muslim world. In addition to Thais persistently and
problematically associating Indonesia with “Java”,
knowledge about Indonesia in Thailand is often
mediated through the Panji stories. This explains why
1,400 guns sent to King Thaksin by the Dutch in 1777
were inscribed in the Thai royal chronicle as the
chaophraya krung panyi (Th. the principal minister of
the Panji kingdom).63

Although the arrival of Panji in Central Thailand is not

surprising given the cosmopolitan nature of Ayutthaya
and the early Bangkok period, there is no agreement
among scholars about the personalities and processes
through which they arrived in the Siamese courts.
Rattiya Saleh argues Pattani to have played direct roles

17
in its transmission and transformation. Puaksom (one of
her main interlocutors) acknowledges that one of the
most popular Javanese versions contains an account of a
voyage that ended in a shipwreck near Patani. As these
romantic tales spread, they included a “dramatic trip by
a mysterious ship farther out to the port of
Ayutthaya…”.64 Malay maids, presumably descended
from Pattani prisoners of war, related Panji to their
mistresses.65 A certain Yai Yawo (Granny Jawa),
presumably a royal maid (Th. khaluang), is specifically
mentioned.66 Over and above the notorious imprecision
of this Jaw, Siamese may have been unaware or
unconcerned about distinctions between Malay and
Javanese. “Inao was unambiguously set in Java, so
(logically) it was taken from Javanese”? 67 What form of
Panji did Patani Malays present in the Ayutthaya courts
possess? Did they carry Jawi manuscripts that they were
capable of reading? A more likely scenario is that stories
were reproduced from memory.

Puaksom asks whether Panji was first brought to

Ayutthaya directly by Javanese. Having risked the trip
through the Java Sea to Melaka or Patani, why would
the trip to prosperous Ayutthaya not be undertaken? He
is also reluctant to discount Siamese visitors to Java
having played a role. What would have prevented
Siamese plying the naval routes between Ayutthaya and
Java through which an eye could be kept on
troublesome southern vassals? Why would they have not
stayed for a season in Java? Puaksom notes that foreign
languages are prominent in every Thai version of the
Panji. Nevertheless, he evaluates searches for the
origins of Thai Panji as “pointless and doomed to
failure”. Although such epics may have “originated from
and been intertwined with Java”, they were “widely

18
disseminated in oral and written forms throughout
Southeast Asia.68 What Thai translations of Javanese
tales in eighteenth century Ayutthaya represented, was
a “crosshatch of several elements in cultural
conjunction.” The most important of these were
Javanese tales communicated in Malay. Thai Panji epics
should therefore be regarded as “conceptual
representation(s) of these cultural contacts set within a
certain cultural framework and linguistic boundary.”
Rather than the “ethnicity of the translator”, Puaksom
insists that it is the “medium of translation” that assists
attempts to comprehend the “transmission or translation
of the Panji tales into the Thai literary space”.69 This is
more evidence that Javanese in Ayutthaya
communicated in Malay.

Supeena Adler provides the following summary of Thai

Iano based on the Panji Javanese epic

The Inao story depicts a handsome young king who likes

to watch theatre, who has many wives, who wins every
war, and has a nonchalant lifestyle. It covers his travels,
his power, protection from gods, and his desire to get
what he wants when he wants it. No matter what he
does to his families, friends and his people in his
palaces, at the end, he is still the only one who can
conquer chaos and bring peace back to the world.70

She adds that as members of the royalty, its contents

communicated what people at the time wanted to “hear
about the king’s life”, and to convince people about the
king’s “power to bring back peace”. They were
unconcerned the often “unacceptable and even unethical
behaviours of King Inao.” At the end of the story,
everything is accepted, assisting people to concluded

19
that “the king is never wrong.” The also story possessed
political utility. Not only was it concerned with unions
under one sovereign ruler, but its central – and richly
metaphorical – motif is the sexual union between the
prince of Kuripan and the princess of Daha”. 71

From 18th Century Ayutthaya to the early Bangkok

period, two Thai versions of Panji existed: Inao Lek (the
lesser Inao), and Inao Yai (the greater Inao). The
former would later be known as Dalang. These were
composed in Ayutthaya by Princess (Th. Chaofa)
Kunthon, daughters of King Borommakot (r.1733-58),
born to Chaofa Sangwan.72 As an “end-product of a
series of receptions”, although these resembled Panji,
Thai Inao diverged in several respects. These were,
therefore, independent and innovative creations based
on non-Thai sources that had been “naturalized on Thai
soil”. Adler relates assertions by Thai historians that the
last king of the Ayutthaya period, King Suriyamarin (r.
1758-1767), was so obsessed with Inao, that in the final
stages of the Burmese siege of Ayutthaya, he was
watching this drama!73 Inao was celebrated in literary
circles during the (short-lived) Thonburi period (1782-
1792) and early Bangkok period that began 1792.
Scenes from the Inao story was also included in murals
painted on the walls of royal dwellings. This included
those of King Rama I's elder sister, Princess
Thepsudawadi, born in the late Ayutthaya period. This
was first King of the Chakri dynasty (r. 1782-1809) who
commissioned a new version of Inao based on his
memory that were completed by a committee of court
poets which he presided over. His manuscript consisted
“of 9,870 stanzas in klon meter” containing numerous
Javanese and Melayu lexical elements. 74 A second was a

20
rather fragmented manuscript consisting of 1,772
stanzas, also in klon verse.75

During the reign of King Rama II (r. 1809-1824),

another version based on Inao (not Dalang) was
undertaken. This is widely regarded as best version ever
written. Court artists, including Sunthon Phuu, who was
a famous poet during the reigns of Kings Rama I-IV, and
the choreographer Luang Pitak Montrii, developed Inao
into a dance drama (Th. lakhawn).76 Since the mid-
1700s when it was first performed, Inao has enjoyed
spectacular success. A contemporary poet noted, that
after witnessing its “mesmerizing dance, a man wants to
die no more.” Its popularity is, in part, explained by its
offering a story of “pleasure and desire.” This contrasted
the morality of traditional literary works influenced by
Buddhist texts. 77 Alder adds that in contrast to the Thai
translation of the Ramayana (Ramakien), Inao concerns
the everyday lives of the Thai royalty.78

Like other lakhawn dance dramas, performances were

accompanied by an ensemble that featured two
Javanese instruments: the Javanese reed oboe (Th. pii
chawaa) and drum locally referred to the klawng khaek.
Miller describes the pi chawa as a “conical wooden tube
[…] with seven upper and one lower holes for fingering”
that is “27 centimetres long; with the wooden bell (7 to
8 centimetres in diameter)” measuring a total of “38 to
39 centimetres long.” The klawng khaek is almost
identical to drums used in Malaysia (gendang) and Java
(kendhang), although feature carved wooden bodies
“nearly conical in shape, but having a slight bulge near
the larger head” that are approximately 60 centimetres
long. 79 In addition to lakhawn renditions of Inao, these
are present in royal and military processions, and muay

21
thai (Thai boxing). Finally, they are also part of royal
funerals.

Wat Somanat Rajawarawihara, a Thai Buddhist temple

in Bangkok, contains a hall covered with murals
depicting scenes from the Inao story.80 This was
commissioned by King Mongkut (Rama IV) in the mid-
nineteenth century to commemorate Princess Somanat.
She was not only one of his favourite queens, but a
former court dancer.81 In addition to being publicized
and popularized through dance, and immortalized in
murals, a number of versions of Inao have published.
Most are by royal authors, including Rama I (1917),
King Rama II (1921). The latter was published in the
same year as those published by the National Library,
Prince Damrong Rachanuphap, and King Chulalongkorn
(Rama V) which was a theatrical version.

Adler claims that many members of the royal family

since Rama V have had close relations to Java since the
royal visits mentioned above. On one, he travelled with
musicians and returned with a gamelan ensemble.
Intriguingly, members of the royal family have resided
in Bandung where a palace was maintained by them. 82
Furthermore, one of Chulalongkorn’s sons, Prince
Paribatra Sukhumbhand (1881-1944), lived in exile in
Bandung following the 1932 Coup that brought an end
to the absolute monarchy during the reign of King
Prajadhipok Sakdidej (1893-1941, r. 1925-1935).83 The
exiled prince was a “musician, arranger, and composer”
possessing his own “Thai music ensemble at
Bangkhunphrom Palace” where he hosted “Thai music
competitions during the reign of Kings Rama VI and
VII”. During his exile in Bandung, he translated a Panji
tale from the Melayu text based on a Javanese

22
manuscript known as Panji Semirang. In 1920, this
version was published (in Thailand) to commemorate his
sixtieth birthday.84 In 1935, the Prince’s body was
repatriated from Bandung to Thailand where it was
given a royal funeral. Many other versions of Inao –
many by unknown authors – were published before
1932, since then it was included in a new national
curriculum through which the Thailand governments
operating under a constitutional monarchy sought to
promote Thai nationalism.

Although Inao is the most popular Javanese art form to

have been widely adopted and adapted by generations
of Thai elites, others exist. David Hughes safely assumes
that some contain “musical elements reflecting the
cultures referred to in their titles”. Whilst the goal has
often proven to be elusive, these assist
ethnomusicologist to identify “specific national sub
styles, accents or dialects […] within the Thai classical
music repertoire”. Clarity about the presence of a
distinct Javanese style in the Thai classical repertoire
requires a shortlist of works known (sometimes only
from their titles) to have Javanese connections. The
clearest examples are piece in the "Java Suite" (Tab
Chawa). A famous Thai composer, Luang Pradit Phairoh
(1881-1954), brought some of these back from Jawa in
1907.85 He and his collaborators composed new tunes
with a Javanese flavour. Many of these are performed on
the angklung, an ensemble of tuned bamboo rattles.
They subsequently created other tunes with Javanese
flavour that were played on traditional Thai instruments,
the Javanese angklung, and occasionally the two
gamelans sent as gifts from Java in 1929. Several of
these pieces furthermore include modified Javanese
lyrics and melodies. He adds that some may have

23
entered Thailand sometime between the late Ayutthaya
period and the beginning of the 18th century. Several
older compositions could best be considered based on
Javanese melodies, inspired by Javanese style; these
include Khaek Ying Nok, a Thai parody of Javanese
music, which arranges a set of central Thai folk tunes in
“pseudo-Javanese fashion”.86

CONCLUSION

Despite observations at being among the ASEAN

member most actively preparing for the increased
integration of the region scheduled to commence in
2015, Thailand it is often cited as one of its most
ethnically and linguistically homogeneous states. I have
argued above, that this situation is the legacy of military
campaigns initiated by the first rulers of Bangkok period.
Following the re-establishment of its territorial integrity,
European colonial expansion was combated through
both internally colonializing its ethnically and diverse
population, and the promulgation of Thai nationalism. 87

Although this article has detailed both the presence of

Javanese in Central and South Thailand, and what
Javanese cultural influences endure into present-day
Thailand, it has been equally concerned with drawing
attention to Siam’s capitals being as cosmopolitan and
connected as places like Surabaya, Batavia, Melaka,
Singapore, and Penang. Whilst Ayutthaya and Bangkok
expanded to its north, its initial rise was achieved
through trade to its south. I have argued that it was
during the eighteenth century that Javanese cultural
elements like panji were selectively adopted and
adapted in Siam. Once more, this tells as us much about
the mobility of the Javanese, the esteem with which

24
their cultural elements were held, and the
cosmopolitanism nature of this epoch in Siamese
history.

Among the reasons for recent studies by Supeena Adler,

Davisakd Puaksom, and Rattiya Saleh being so rare is –
like elsewhere in this highly connected region –
adaptation of foreign forms follows their local adoption.
Throughout Thailand, nang talung characters are
immediately associated with the Southern Thai-speaking
upper south – not Java. The same is true for Inao. As
Puaksom has argued, as a state based on Buddhism (Th.
satsana), chat (the Thai “race”), and the Thai Monarchy
(Th. phramahakasat), Siam’s inao fetish suggests either
a lack of interest or willingness to engage with Islam.
The Javanese influences presented in this article testify
to Javanese mobility and cosmopolitanism. Rather than
being evaluated as a cultural anomaly, Inao is a vestige
of Siam’s cosmopolitan past. This facilitated a form of
cultural hybridity resembling the hyber-connectedness
brought about by the explosion of affordable access to
the internet in the region over recent decades. Although
Siamese cosmopolitanism was replaced by Thai internal
colonialism (during the nineteenth century) and
nationalism (in the twentieth century), regional
integration will not only increase mobility and prosperity,
to reaffirm the importance of cultural diversity in Muslim
and Buddhist Southeast Asia.

REFERENCES

Adis Idris Raksaman. 2008. Multicultural Aspects of the

Mosques in Bangkok. Manusya: Journal of
Humanities 16: 114-34.

25
Adler, Supeena Insee. 2014. Music for the Few:
Nationalism and Thai Royal Authority.
Andaya, Leonard Y. 1999. Ayutthaya and the Persian
and India Muslim Connection. In From Japan to
Arabia: Ayutthaya's Maritime Relations with Asia,
edited by Kennon Breazeale, 119-36. Bangkok:
The Foundation for the Promotion of Social
Sciences and Humanities Textbook Project.
Ardrugsa, Winyu. 2012. 'Stranger’ / ‘Home-Land’:
Muslim Practice and Spatial Negotiation in
Contemporary Bangkok. Architectural Association
School of Architecture.
Baker, Christopher John. 2003. Ayutthaya Rising: From
Land or Sea? Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
34, no. 01: 41-62.
———. 2011. Before Ayutthaya Fell: Economic Life in an
Industrious Society. Journal of the Siam Society
99.
Barnard, Timothy P. (ed.). 2004. Contesting Malayness:
Malay Identity across Boundaries. Singapore:
NUS Press.
Batson, Benjamin A. 1974. Siam's Political Future:
Documents from the End of the Absolute
Monarchy. Data Paper - Southeast Asia Program,
Cornell University No 96. Ithaca, N.Y.: Southeast
Asia Program, Dept. of Asian Studies, Cornell
University.
Bradley, Francis R. 2012. Siam's Conquest of Patani and
the End of Mandala Relations, 1786-1838. In The
Ghosts of the Past in Southern Thailand: Essays
on the History and Historiography of Patani,
edited by Patrick Jory, 149-60. Singapore: NUS
Press.
Braginsky, Vladimir I. 2004. The Heritage of Traditional
Malay Literature: A Historical Survey of Genres,

26
 Writings and Literary Views. Verhandelingen Van
Het Koninklijk Instituut Voor Taal-, Land- En
Volkenkunde. Leiden: KITLV Press.
Breazeale, Kennon. 1999. Thai Maritime Trade and the
Ministry Responsible. In From Japan to Arabia:
Ayutthaya's Maritime Relations with Asia, edited
by Kennon Breazeale, 1-54. Bangkok: The
Foundation for the Promotion of Social Sciences
and Humanities Textbook Project.
Chonhacha, Chutima (ed.). 1995. Mural Paintings of
Thailand Series: Wat Somanat Wihan. Bangkok:
Muaeng Boran.
Chularatana, Julispong. 2007. Muslim Community During
Ayutthaya Period. Manusya: Journal of
Humanities 10, no. 89-107.
Dowsey-Magog, P. 1997. Khao Yam - a Southern Rice
Salad: Heteroglossia and Carnival in Nang
Talung. The Shadow Theatre of Southern
Thailand: University of Sydney.
———. 2005. Popular Culture and Traditional
Performance: Conflicts and Challenges in
Contemporary Nang Talung. In Dynamic Diversity
in South Thailand, edited by Wattana
Sungannasil, 109-52. Chiang Mai: Silkworm
Books.
Erika, Masuda. 2007. The Fall of Ayutthaya and Siam’s
Disrupted Order of Tribute to China (1767-1782).
Taiwan Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 4, no.
2: 75-128.
Farouk Bajunid, Omar. 1992. The Other Side of
Bangkok: A Survey of Muslim Presence in
Buddhist Thailand's Capital City. In The
Formation of Urban Civilization in Southeast Asia,
edited by Y Tsubouchi, 45-59. Kyoto Centre for
Southeast Asia Studies.

27
Feener, R. Michael. 2010. South-East Asian Localisations
of Islam and Participation within a Global Umma,
C. 1500 1800. In The Eastern Islamic World:
Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries, edited by
Anthony M. Reid and D. O. Morgan. The New
Cambridge History of Islam, 470-503.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Guelden, Marlane. 2005. Ancestral Spirit Mediumship in
Southern Thailand: The Nora Performance as a
Symbol of the South on the Periphery of a
Buddhist Nation-State. University of Hawaii.
———. 2005. Spirit Mediumship in Southern Thailand:
The Feminization of Nora Ancestral Possession. In
Dynamic Diversity in South Thailand, edited by
Wattana Sungannasil, 179-212. Chiang Mai:
Silkworm Books.
Harun Mat Piah. 1980. Cerita-Cerita Panji Melayu.
Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kementerian
Pelajaran, Malaysia.
Ho, Engseng. 2013. Foreigners and Mediators in the
Constitution of Malay Sovereignty. Indonesia and
the Malay World 41, no. 120: 146-67.
———. 2006. The Graves of Tarim: Genealogy and
Mobility across the Indian Ocean. The California
World History Library. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Hughes, David W. 1992. Thai Music in Java, Javanese
Music in Thailand: Two Case Studies. British
Journal of Ethnomusicology 1, no. 1: 17-30.
Jaiser, Gerhard. 2009. Thai Mural Painting: Iconography,
Analysis & Guide (Volume 1). 2 vols Bangkok,
Thailand: White Lotus Press.
———. 2009. Thai Mural Painting: Society, Preservation
and Subjects (Volume 2). 2 vols Bangkok,
Thailand: White Lotus Press.

28
Joll, Christopher Mark. 2011. Muslim Merit-Making in
Thailand's Far-South. In Muslims in Global
Societies, edited by Gabriele Marranci and Bryan
S. Turner Dordrecht: Springer.
Jory, Patrick, and Michael J. Montesano (eds.). 2008.
Thai South and Malay North: Ethnic Interactions
on a Plural Peninsula. Singapore: NUS Press.
Kaempfer, E. 1998. A Description of the Kingdom of
Siam, 1690. Orchid Press.
Kasetsiri, Charnvit. 1976. The Rise of Ayudhya: A
History of Siam in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Centuries. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University.
Khamhaikan Chao Krung Kao [Testimony of the
Inhabitants of the Old Capital]. 1925. Bangkok:
Chotmaihet.
Khamhaikan Khun Luang Ha Wat [Testimony of the King
Who Entered a Wat]. 2004. Bangkok: Sukhothai
Thammathirat University.
Lim, Patricia Pui Huen. 2009. Through the Eyes of the
King: The Travels of King Chulalongkorn to
Malaya. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies.
London, Bruce. 1979. Internal Colonialism in Thailand:
Primate City Parasitism Reconsidered. Urban
Affairs Quarterly 14, no. 4: 485-514.
Matusky, Patricia, and James Chopyak. 2008. Malay
Peninsula. In The Garland Handbook of Southeast
Asian Music, edited by T. E. Miller and Sean
Williams, 222-46. London: Routledge.
Maznah Mohamad and Syed Mhd. Khairudin Aljunied
(eds.). 2011. Melayu: The Politics, Poetics and
Paradoxes of Malayness. Vol. 21. Singapore: NUS
Press.

29
Miller, T. E., and Sean Williams (eds.). 2008. The
Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music.
London: Routledge.
Miller, T.E. 2008. Thailand. In The Garland Handbook of
Southeast Asian Music, edited by T. E. Miller and
Sean Williams, 222-46. London: Routledge.
Mohammad Haji Salleh. 2009. Words over Borders:
Trafficking Literatures in Southeast Asia. Asiatic
2, no. 3: 1-24.
Mustafa, Riyad T. 2011. The Making of a Cosmopolitan
Muslim Place: Islam, Metropolis, State, and the
Politics of Belonging in Ban Krua Community,
Bangkok. Oxford.
Nagata, Judith A. 2011. Boundaries of Malayness: “We
Have Made Malaysia: Now It Is Time to (Re)Make
the Malays but Who Interprets the History?”. In
Melayu: The Politics, Poetics and Paradoxes of
Malayness, edited by Maznah Mohamad and Syed
Mhd. Khairudin Aljunied, 3-33. Singapore: NUS
Press.
———. 1974. What Is a Malay? Situational Selection of
Ethnic Identity in a Plural Society. American
Ethnologist 1, no. 2: 331-50.
Nishii, Ryoko. 1991. Muslim Communities in Bangkok: A
Preliminary Report on Muslim Communities at
Baan Doon and Khuukhot (Muu 3). In The
Formation of Urban Civilization in Southeast Asia,
edited by Yoshihiro Tsubouchi, 74-101. Kyoto:
Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto
University.
Ooi, Keat Gin (ed.). Southeast Asia: A Historical
Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor. 3
vols. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO.
Osnes, Beth. 2010. The Shadow Puppet Theatre of
Malaysia: A Study of Wayang Kulit with

30
 Performance Scripts and Puppet Designs.
Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co..
Pinto, Fernão Mendes. 1989. The Travels of Mendes
Pinto. Translated by Rebecca Catz. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Pires, Tomé. 1990. The 'Suma Oriental' of Tomé Pires:
An Account of the East, from the Red Sea to
China. Translated by Armando Cortesão. 2 vols.
Pongsripian, Winai (ed.). 1991. Khamhaikan Khun Luang
Wat Pradu Songtham: Ekkasan Jak Ho Luang
[Testimony of the King at Wat Pradu Songtham:
Documents from the Palace]. Bangkok:
Committee to edit and Print Thai historical
Documents, Office of the Cabinet.
Prince Damrong Rachanoupap. nd. A Relation of the
Three Voyages of the King Chulalongkorn to Java.
Puaksom, Davisakd. 2008. The Pursuit of Java: Thai
Panji Stories, Melayu Lingua Franca, and the
Question of Translation. National University of
Singapore.
Rajchagool, Chaiyan. 1994. The Rise and Fall of the
Absolute Monarchy: Foundations of the Modern
Thai State from Feudalism to Peripheral
Capitalism. Bangkok: White Lotus.
Rattiya Saleh. 1988. Panji Thai dalam Perbandingan
dengan Cerita-Cerita Panji Melayu. Kuala
Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Reid, Anthony M. 2008. Merchant Princes and Magic
Mediators. Indonesia and the Malay World 36, no.
105: 253-67.
——— (ed.). 1993. Southeast Asia in the Early Modern
Era: Trade, Power and Belief. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press.
Reynolds, Craig J. 2006. Seditious Histories : Contesting
Thai and Southeast Asian Pasts. Critical Dialogues

31
 in Southeast Asian Studies. 1st ed. Seattle;
London: University of Washington Press in
association with Singapore University Press.
Robson, Stuart O. 1996. Panji and Inao: Questions of
Cultural and Textual History. Journal of the Siam
Society 84, no. 2: 39-53.
Ruangsilp, R. 2007. Dutch East India Company
Merchants at the Court of Ayutthaya. Tanap
Monographs on the History of the Asian-European
Interaction, edited by Leonard Blussé. Leiden:
Brill.
Sartraproong, Kannikar. 2011. Reading Documents,
Writing History: Reflections of a Thai Historian in
Writing on King Chulalongkorn of Siam’s Visit
Tosingapore and Java in 1871. Journal of the
Siam Society 99: 231-42.
———. 1959. A True Hero: King Chulalongkorn of Siam’s
Visit to Singapore and Java in 1871. Leiden.
Scott-Kemball, Jeune. 1959. The Kelantan Wayang Siam
Shadow Puppets 'Rama' and 'Hanuman': A
Comparative Study of Their Structure. Man 59,
no. May: 73-78.
Scupin, Raymond. 1980. Islamic Reformism in Thailand.
Journal of the Siam Society 68, no. 2: 1-10.
———. 1998. Muslim Accommodation in Thai Society.
Journal of Islamic Studies 9, no. 2: 229-58.
———.The Politics of Islamic Reformism in Thailand.
Asian Survey 20, no. 12: 1223-35.
———. 1978. Thai Muslims in Bangkok: Islam and
Modernization in a Buddhist Society. University of
California.
Smith, H. E. 2005. Historical Dictionary of Thailand.
Historical Dictionaries of Asia, Oceania, and the
Middle East. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press.

32
Smith, Stefan Halikowski. 2011. Creolization and
Diaspora in the Portuguese Indies: The Social
World of Ayutthaya, 1640-1720. European
Expansion and Indigenous Response. Leiden;
Boston: Brill.
Smithies, Michael. 2002. Accounts of the Makassar
Revolt, 1686. Journal of the Siam Society 90, no.
1/2: 73-100.
———. 1995. Descriptions of Old Siam. Oxford in Asia
Paperbacks. Kuala Lumpur; New York: Oxford
University Press.
Smithies, Michael and Euayporn Kerdchouay. 1972.
Nang Talung: The Shadow Theatre of South
Thailand. Journal of the Siam Society 60, no. 1:
379-90.
Sungunnasil, Wattana (ed.) Dynamic Diversity in
Southern Thailand. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.
Sweeney, Amin. 1972. Malay Shadow Puppets: The
Wayang Siam of Kelantan. London: The Trustees
of the British Museum.
Waijittragum, Pibool. 2012. The Education and Research
of Islamic Art in the Mosques in Bangkok,
Thailand. International Proceedings of Economics
Development and Research 41: 17-20.
Winichakul, Thongchai. 1994. Siam Mapped: A History of
the Geo-Body of a Nation. Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press.
———. 2003. Writing at the Interstices: Southeast Asian
Historians and Postnational Histories in Southeast
Asia. In New Terrains in Southeast Asian History,
edited by Abu Talib Ahmad and Tan Liok Ee.
Singapore: NUS Press.
Wright, A. and O.T. Breakspear (eds.). 1908. Twentieth
Century Impressions of Siam: Its History, People,
Commerce, Industries, and Resources, with which

33
 is incorporated an Abridged Edition of Two.
London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing
Company.
Wright, Barbara S. 1981. Islam and the Malay Shadow
Play: Aspects of the Historical Mythology of the
Wayang Siam. Asian Folklore Studies 40, no. 1:
51-63.

34
1
Anthony M. Reid, "Merchant Princes and Magic Mediators,"
Indonesia and the Malay World 36, no. 105 (2008); Engseng Ho,
"Foreigners and Mediators in the Constitution of Malay Sovereignty,"
ibid.41, no. 120 (2013).
2
"Foreigners and Mediators in the Constitution of Malay
Sovereignty," 146-47.
3
The Graves of Tarim: Genealogy and Mobility across the Indian
Ocean, The California World History Library (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 2006); "Foreigners and Mediators in the Constitution
of Malay Sovereignty," 147.
4
"Foreigners and Mediators in the Constitution of Malay
Sovereignty," 151.
5
Ibid.
6
Ibid.
7
R. Michael Feener, "South-East Asian Localisations of Islam and
Participation within a Global Umma, C. 1500 1800," in The Eastern
Islamic World: Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries, ed. Anthony M. Reid
and D. O. Morgan, The New Cambridge History of Islam (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2010), 495.
8
Christopher John Baker, "Ayutthaya Rising: From Land or Sea?,"
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 34, no. 01 (2003): 44.
9
See, for example Charnvit Kasetsiri, The Rise of Ayudhya: A History
of Siam in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (Kuala Lumpur:
Oxford University, 1976).
10
Baker, "Ayutthaya Rising: From Land or Sea?," 62.
11
Ibid., 44-45.
12
Ibid.
13
Anthony M. Reid, ed. Southeast Asia in the Early Modern Era:
Trade, Power and Belief (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993),
cited in Craig J. Reynolds, Seditious Histories: Contesting Thai and
Southeast Asian Pasts, 1st ed., Critical Dialogues in Southeast Asian
Studies (Seattle ; London: University of Washington Press in
association with Singapore University Press, 2006), 34.
14
Excellent summaries of Siam’s political development are contained
in H. E. Smith, Historical Dictionary of Thailand, Historical
Dictionaries of Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East (Lanham, Md.:
Scarecrow Press, 2005); Keat Gin Ooi, ed. Southeast Asia: A
Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor, 3 vols.
(Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2004).
15
See Benjamin A. Batson, Siam's Political Future: Documents from
the End of the Absolute Monarchy, Data Paper - Southeast Asia

35
Program, Cornell University No 96 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Southeast Asia
Program, Dept. of Asian Studies, Cornell University, 1974); Chaiyan
Rajchagool, The Rise and Fall of the Absolute Monarchy: Foundations
of the Modern Thai State from Feudalism to Peripheral Capitalism
(Bangkok: White Lotus, 1994).
16
For details on the demise of the absolute monarch see The Rise
and Fall of the Absolute Monarchy: Foundations of the Modern Thai
State from Feudalism to Peripheral Capitalism; Batson, Siam's
Political Future: Documents from the End of the Absolute Monarchy.
Thongchai Winichakul provides details of the evolution of the Siam
“Geobody” in his Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a
Nation (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994), 128.
17
One the “cosmopolitan” characteristics of Ayutthaya see Stefan
Halikowski Smith, Creolization and Diaspora in the Portuguese
Indies: The Social World of Ayutthaya, 1640-1720, European
Expansion and Indigenous Response (Leiden ; Boston: Brill, 2011);
R. Ruangsilp, Dutch East India Company Merchants at the Court of
Ayutthaya, ed. Leonard Blussé, Tanap Monographs on the History of
the Asian-European Interaction (Leiden: Brill, 2007).
18
Masuda Erika, "The Fall of Ayutthaya and Siam’s Disrupted Order
of Tribute to China (1767-1782)," Taiwan Journal of Southeast Asian
Studies 4, no. 2 (2007).
19
Davisakd Puaksom, "The Pursuit of Java: Thai Panji Stories, Melayu
Lingua Franca, and the Question of Translation" (National University
of Singapore, 2008), 151, 64, 82, 229.
20
Milner is one of a number of scholars who over the last two
decades have addressed equally problematic term Malay See Maznah
Mohamad and Syed Mhd. Khairudin Aljunied, eds., Melayu: The
Politics, Poetics and Paradoxes of Malayness, vol. 21 (Singapore:
NUS Press, 2011); Timothy P. Barnard, ed. Contesting Malayness:
Malay Identity across Boundaries (Singapore: NUS Press, 2004);
Judith A. Nagata, "What Is a Malay? Situational Selection of Ethnic
Identity in a Plural Society," American Ethnologist 1, no. 2 (1974);
"Boundaries of Malayness: “We Have Made Malaysia: Now It Is Time
to (Re)Make the Malays but Who Interprets the History?”," in Melayu:
The Politics, Poetics and Paradoxes of Malayness, ed. Maznah
Mohamad and Syed Mhd. Khairudin Aljunied (Singapore: NUS Press,
2011); Christopher Mark Joll, Muslim Merit-Making in Thailand's Far-
South, ed. Gabriele Marranci and Bryan S. Turner, Muslims in Global
Societies (Dordrecht: Springer, 2011), 66-75.
21
(2008, p. 90)
22
(2008, pp. 96-97)
23
(2007, p. 248)

36
24
Kennon Breazeale, "Thai Maritime Trade and the Ministry
Responsible," in From Japan to Arabia: Ayutthaya's Maritime
Relations with Asia, ed. Kennon Breazeale (Bangkok: The Foundation
for the Promotion of Social Sciences and Humanities Textbook Project
1999), 2.
25
Winai Pongsripian, ed. Khamhaikan Khun Luang Wat Pradu
Songtham: Ekkasan Jak Ho Luang [Testimony of the King at Wat
Pradu Songtham: Documents from the Palace] (Bangkok: Committee
to edit and Print Thai historical Documents, Office of the Cabinet,
1991); Khamhaikan Khun Luang Ha Wat [Testimony of the King Who
Entered a Wat], (Bangkok: Sukhothai Thammathirat University,
2004); Khamhaikan Chao Krung Kao [Testimony of the Inhabitants of
the Old Capital, (Bangkok: Chotmaihet, 1925).
26
Christopher John Baker, "Before Ayutthaya Fell: Economic Life in
an Industrious Society," Journal of the Siam Society 99(2011): 58..
27
The 'Suma Oriental' of Tomé Pires: An Account of the East, from
the Red Sea to China, trans. Armando Cortesão, 2 vols. (1990), 92,
104.
28
Fernão Mendes Pinto, The Travels of Mendes Pinto, trans. Rebecca
Catz (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), 63-65.
29
Michael Smithies, Descriptions of Old Siam, Oxford in Asia
Paperbacks (Kuala Lumpur ;: New York : Oxford University Press,
1995), 42. cited in Puaksom, 2008, 89
30
Leonard Y. Andaya, "Ayutthaya and the Persian and India Muslim
Connection," in From Japan to Arabia: Ayutthaya's Maritime Relations
with Asia, ed. Kennon Breazeale (Bangkok: The Foundation for the
Promotion of Social Sciences and Humanities Textbook Project 1999),
125.
31
For more details on these departments, see Ruangsilp, Dutch East
India Company Merchants at the Court of Ayutthaya, 14.
32
"Muslim Community During Ayutthaya Period," Manusya: Journal of
Humanities 10, no. 89-107 (2007): 92.
33
E. Kaempfer, A Description of the Kingdom of Siam, 1690 (Orchid
Press, 1998).
34
See Michael Smithies, "Accounts of the Makassar Revolt, 1686,"
Journal of the Siam Society 90, no. 1/2 (2002).
35
Puaksom, "The Pursuit of Java: Thai Panji Stories, Melayu Lingua
Franca, and the Question of Translation," 92.
36
Ibid., 90.
37
"The Making of a Cosmopolitan Muslim Place: Islam, Metropolis,
State, and the Politics of Belonging in Ban Krua Community,
Bangkok" (Oxford, 2011), 93.

37
38
Winyu Ardrugsa, "'Stranger’ / ‘Home-Land’: Muslim Practice and
Spatial Negotiation in Contemporary Bangkok" (Architectural
Association School of Architecture, 2012), 75.
39
A. Wright and O.T. Breakspear, eds., Twentieth Century
Impressions of Siam: Its History, People, Commerce, Industries, and
Resources, with Which Is Incorporated an Abridged Edition of Two
(London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, 1908), 244.
40
Breazeale, "Thai Maritime Trade and the Ministry Responsible," 38.
41
For more on Muslim communities in Bangkok see Adis Idris
Raksaman, "Multicultural Aspects of the Mosques in Bangkok,"
Manusya: Journal of Humanities 16(2008); Omar Farouk Bajunid,
"The Other Side of Bangkok: A Survey of Muslim Presence in
Buddhist Thailand's Capital City," in The Formation of Urban
Civilization in Southeast Asia, ed. Y Tsubouchi (Kyoto Centre for
Southeast Asia Studies, 1992); Ryoko Nishii, "Muslim Communities in
Bangkok: A Preliminary Report on Muslim Communities at Baan Doon
and Khuukhot (Muu 3) " in The Formation of Urban Civilization in
Southeast Asia, ed. Yoshihiro Tsubouchi (Kyoto: Center for Southeast
Asian Studies, Kyoto University, 1991); Raymond Scupin, "Thai
Muslims in Bangkok: Islam and Modernization in a Buddhist Society"
(University of California, 1978); Pibool Waijittragum, "The Education
and Research of Islamic Art in the Mosques in Bangkok, Thailand "
International Proceedings of Economics Development and Research
41(2012).
42
Prince Damrong Rachanoupap, A Relation of the Three Voyages of
the King Chulalongkorn to Java; Kannikar Sartraproong, "Reading
Documents, Writing History: Reflections of a Thai Historian in Writing
on King Chulalongkorn of Siam’s Visit Tosingapore and Java in 1871,"
Journal of the Siam Society 99(2011); Patricia Pui Huen Lim, Through
the Eyes of the King: The Travels of King Chulalongkorn to Malaya
(Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009); Kannikar
Sartraproong, "A True Hero: King Chulalongkorn of Siam’s Visit
Tosingapore and Java in 1871" (Leiden, 2004).
43
Raymond Scupin, "Muslim Accommodation in Thai Society," Journal
of Islamic Studies 9, no. 2 (1998): 242-43.
44
Ardrugsa, "'Stranger’ / ‘Home-Land’: Muslim Practice and Spatial
Negotiation in Contemporary Bangkok," 73.
45
Raymond Scupin, "Islamic Reformism in Thailand," Journal of the
Siam Society 68, no. 2 (1980): 2, 3, 5; "The Politics of Islamic
Reformism in Thailand," Asian Survey 20, no. 12 (1980): 1225.
46
"The Pursuit of Java: Thai Panji Stories, Melayu Lingua Franca, and
the Question of Translation," 117.
47
Ibid., 84.

38
48
Ibid., 25, 86, 88.
49
Stuart O. Robson, "Panji and Inao: Questions of Cultural and
Textual History " Journal of the Siam Society 84, no. 2 (1996): 42.
50
The most recent accounts of the religious and ethnic plurality of
the Thai/Malay Peninsula are contained in the following: Jory &
Montesano Thai South and Malay North: Ethnic Interactions on a
Plural Peninsula (Singapore: NUS Press, 2008). See also Sungunnasil
Dynamic Diversity in Southern Thailand (Chiang Mai: Silkworm
Books, 2005).
51
"Words over Borders: Trafficking Literatures in Southeast Asia,"
Asiatic 2, no. 3 (2009): 7.
52
See Beth Osnes, The Shadow Puppet Theatre of Malaysia: A Study
of Wayang Kulit with Performance Scripts and Puppet Designs
(Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2010); Barbara S. Wright, "Islam
and the Malay Shadow Play: Aspects of the Historical Mythology of
the Wayang Siam," Asian Folklore Studies 40, no. 1 (1981); Amin
Sweeney, Malay Shadow Puppets: The Wayang Siam of Kelantan
(London: The Trustees of the British Museum, 1972); Jeune Scott-
Kemball, "The Kelantan Wayang Siam Shadow Puppets 'Rama' and
'Hanuman': A Comparative Study of Their Structure," Man 59, no.
May (1959).
53
Patricia Matusky and James Chopyak, "Malay Peninsula " in The
Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music, ed. T. E. Miller and
Sean Williams (London: Routledge, 2008), 225.
54
See P Dowsey-Magog, "Khao Yam - a Southern Rice Salad:
Heteroglossia and Carnival in Nang Talung. The Shadow Theatre of
Southern Thailand" (University of Sydney, 1997); "Popular Culture
and Traditional Performance: Conflicts and Challenges in
Contemporary Nang Talung," in Dynamic Diversity in South Thailand,
ed. Wattana Sungannasil (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2005).
55
Patthalung Michael Smithies and Euayporn Kerdchouay, "Nang
Talung: The Shadow Theatre of South Thailand," Journal of the Siam
Society 60, no. 1 (1972): 379.
56
Marlane Guelden, "Spirit Mediumship in Southern Thailand: The
Feminization of Nora Ancestral Possession," in Dynamic Diversity in
South Thailand, ed. Wattana Sungannasil (Chiang Mai: Silkworm
Books, 2005); "Ancestral Spirit Mediumship in Southern Thailand:
The Nora Performance as a Symbol of the South on the Periphery of
a Buddhist Nation-State" (University of Hawaii, 2005).
57
Braginsky claims that by early sixteenth centuries, works about
Panji would have been widely popular in the Malay world The
Heritage of Traditional Malay Literature: A Historical Survey of
Genres, Writings and Literary Views, Verhandelingen Van Het

39
Koninklijk Instituut Voor Taal-, Land- En Volkenkunde (Leiden: KITLV
Press, 2004), 157. cited in Puaksom, 2008, p. 41.
58
Puaksom, "The Pursuit of Java: Thai Panji Stories, Melayu Lingua
Franca, and the Question of Translation," 41.
59
Cerita-Cerita Panji Melayu (Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka,
Kementerian Pelajaran, Malaysia, 1980).
60
Mohammad Haji Salleh, "Words over Borders: Trafficking
Literatures in Southeast Asia," 13.
61
Panji Thai Dalam Perbandingan Dengam Cerita-Cerita Panji Melayu
(Kuala Lumpure: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1988).
62
Robson, "Panji and Inao: Questions of Cultural and Textual History
" 49.
63
Puaksom, "The Pursuit of Java: Thai Panji Stories, Melayu Lingua
Franca, and the Question of Translation," 26, 83 124; Robson, "Panji
and Inao: Questions of Cultural and Textual History ".
64
"The Pursuit of Java: Thai Panji Stories, Melayu Lingua Franca, and
the Question of Translation," 41.
65
Francis R. Bradley, "Siam's Conquest of Patani and the End of
Mandala Relations, 1786-1838," in The Ghosts of the Past in
Southern Thailand: Essays on the History and Historiography of
Patani, ed. Patrick Jory (Singapore: NUS Press, 2012).
66
It is worth pointing out that the Patani dialect replaces a final /a/
with and /o/.
67
"Panji and Inao: Questions of Cultural and Textual History " 44, 51.
68
Robson agrees, citing slim evidence for contacts between Java and
Siam ibid., 51.
69
"The Pursuit of Java: Thai Panji Stories, Melayu Lingua Franca, and
the Question of Translation," 92, 95, 013, 107.
70
"Music for the Few: Nationalism and Thai Royal Authority," (2014),
85.
71
Robson, "Panji and Inao: Questions of Cultural and Textual History
" 42.
72
"The Pursuit of Java: Thai Panji Stories, Melayu Lingua Franca, and
the Question of Translation," 73.
73
"Panji and Inao: Questions of Cultural and Textual History " 51.
74
An example are the change from Ino to Inao which Stuart Robson
notes It is common in the final syllable of Malay words that have
found their way into the Thai lexicon to be rendered in a rising tone
ibid..
75
Puaksom, "The Pursuit of Java: Thai Panji Stories, Melayu Lingua
Franca, and the Question of Translation," 44.
76
Adler, "Music for the Few: Nationalism and Thai Royal Authority,"
83.

40
77
Puaksom, "The Pursuit of Java: Thai Panji Stories, Melayu Lingua
Franca, and the Question of Translation," 69.
78
"Music for the Few: Nationalism and Thai Royal Authority," 81.
79
"Thailand," in The Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music, ed.
T. E. Miller and Sean Williams (London: Routledge, 2008), 127, 29.
80
Chutima Chonhacha, ed. Mural Paintings of Thailand Series: Wat
Somanat Wihan (Bangkok: Muaeng Boran, 1995). For more on Thai
temple murals, including those of Wat Somanat see Gerhard Jaiser,
Thai Mural Painting: Society, Preservation and Subjects (Volume 2),
2 vols. (Bangkok, Thailand: White Lotus Press, 2009); Thai Mural
Painting: Iconography, Analysis & Guide (Volume 1), 2 vols.
(Bangkok, Thailand: White Lotus Press, 2009).
81
In addition to being performed by the Siam court’s dancing
troupes, dancers were also recruited from the kings' consorts.
82
"Music for the Few: Nationalism and Thai Royal Authority," 80.
83
Rajchagool, The Rise and Fall of the Absolute Monarchy:
Foundations of the Modern Thai State from Feudalism to Peripheral
Capitalism; Batson, Siam's Political Future: Documents from the End
of the Absolute Monarchy.
84
"Music for the Few: Nationalism and Thai Royal Authority," 81, 84.
85
For more on this important personality see T. E. Miller and Sean
Williams, eds., The Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music
(London: Routledge, 2008), 72, 150.
86
David W. Hughes, "Thai Music in Java, Javanese Music in Thailand:
Two Case Studies," British Journal of Ethnomusicology 1, no. 1
(1992): 26, 29.
87
Bruce London, "Internal Colonialism in Thailand: Primate City
Parasitism Reconsidered," Urban Affairs Quarterly 14, no. 4 (1979);
Thongchai Winichakul, "Writing at the Interstices: Southeast Asian
Historians and Postnational Histories in Southeast Asia," in New
Terrains in Southeast Asian History, ed. Abu Talib Ahmad. and Tan
Liok Ee (Singapore: NUS Press, 2003), 5.

41
About the Author

Dr. Christopher M. Joll is a New Zealand anthropologist who

has lived and worked in Thailand since 2000. In addition to
his research positions at the Muslim Studies Centre, Institute
of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok), and
the Religious Studies Program, Victoria University of
Wellington (New Zealand), he has been developing a cohort
of post-graduate research students working on South
Thailand, at KITA. He is the author of Muslim Merit-making in
Thailand’s Far-south (Springer, 2011), based on his doctoral
thesis at ATMA, UKM (2009). Although Chris’ interests are
inter-disciplinary (anthropology, history, Islamic studies),
inter-religious (Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism), and trans-
national (Thailand and Malaysia, the Indian Ocean), his
principal ethnographic subjects are Thailand’s ethnically,
religiously, and linguistically diverse Muslim minority. He has
published in Southeast Asian Studies, Critical Asian Studies,
Contemporary Southeast Asia, Studia Islamika, and Islam
and Christian-Muslim Relations.

42
About KITA
The Institute of Ethnic Studies (KITA) was officially
established on 8 October 2007 by Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia (UKM) to undertake academic research on subjects
pertaining to ethnic studies in Malaysia. This research
institute is ‘only one of its kind’ in Malaysia, focusing
specifically on ‘ethnic studies’ with thematic studies
orientation. The Institute emerged out of the need to
maintain at home the present peaceful inter- and intra-ethnic
existence against worldwide problematic, and sometimes
violent ethnic situations.

Organisationally, KITA has six research clusters, each being

led by a prominent scholar or a highly experienced
Professional person. The six research clusters are: Social
Theory and Ethnic Studies; Ethnicity and Religion; Ethnicity
at Workplace; Ethnicity and Consumerism; The Arts and
Social Integration; Ethnicity and Food. KITA’s postgraduate
programme (PhD and Masters) was launched in December
2009.

Mengenai KITA
Institut Kajian Etnik (KITA) ditubuhkan secara rasmi oleh
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia pada 8 Oktober 2007. KITA
merupakan satu-satunya institut penyelidikan di Malaysia
yang memberi tumpuan sepenuhnya kepada segala kajian
berkaitan dengan ‘etnik’ dan ‘etnisiti’.

Dari segi organisasi, KITA mempunyai enam rumpun

penyelidikan. Setiap satu rumpun diketuai oleh seorang
sarjana atau ahli Profesional yang mempunyai rekod prestasi
cemerlang. Enam rumpun penyelidikan berkenaan adalah:
Teori Sosial dan Kajian Etnik; Etnisiti dan Agama; Etnisiti di
Tempat Kerja; Etnisiti dan Konsumerisme; Kesenian dan
Integrasi Sosial; Etnisiti dan Makanan. Mulai Disember 2009,
KITA menawarkan program siswazah (PhD dan Sarjana).

43