The city of Ayutthaya was founded in 1351 CE in the Chao Phraya Basin, in modern-day Thailand, and soon emerged as a dominant force in the region, turning neighbouring mueang, or city-states, into its tributaries.
[1]
This was largely thanks to its advantageous geographical position, which allowed it to become an entrepôt where goods could be exchanged between China to the east, India and Arabia to the west, and the Malay archipelago to the south.
[2]
In 1569, Ayutthaya fell to the Burmese army.
[3]
Here, we only consider the second phase of the polity’s history, starting in 1593, when Ayutthaya regained its independence after defeating Burma at the Battle of Nong Sarai.
[4]
The kingdom flourished throughout the 17th century, regaining its status as the dominant political and economic power of mainland Southeast Asia and ruling over Khmer, Lao, Lanna, and Shan.
[5]
The polity may have reached its peak under King Borommakot (reigned 1733‒1758): during this time, Ayutthaya faced no serious external threats (indeed, it made peace with Burma and consolidated its hold over Cambodia), and supplanted Sri Lanka as the preeminent centre of Buddhist culture.
[6]
Shortly afterwards, however, hostilities with Burma resumed due to the ambitions of a new Burmese dynasty. In 1767, Ayutthaya was once again captured ‒ and this time, it was destroyed.
[7]
A number of different spellings of Ayutthaya are in use, including Ayuthaya, Ayudhya, and Ayuthia.
[8]
Population and political organization
In the Ayutthaya Kingdom, kings ruled over a society composed of a ’service nobility of maybe 2000 people and their families, and a mass of people bound to surrender some or all of their labour to the elite’.
[9]
There was a four-part administrative structure: one ministry was dedicated to the palace and the capital; one to military affairs and relations with tributary states and cities; one to trade, the treasury, and foreign communities; and one, made up of Brahmans, to ritual, astrology, and records.
[9]
It is difficult to give a firm figure for the population of the kingdom as a whole. However, Ayutthaya may have been the largest city in Southeast Asia in the 17th and 18th centuries,
[10]
with perhaps 150,000 inhabitants in 1700 and 160,000 in 1750.
[11]
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, xv, 7-13) Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit. 2009. A History of Thailand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[2]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, 10) Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit. 2009. A History of Thailand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[3]: (Wyatt 1984, 100) David K. Wyatt. 1984. Thailand: A Short History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
[4]: (Wyatt 1984, 103) David K. Wyatt. 1984. Thailand: A Short History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
[5]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, 13-18) Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit. 2009. A History of Thailand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[6]: (Wyatt 1984, 130-31) David K. Wyatt. 1984. Thailand: A Short History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
[7]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, 21-22) Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit. 2009. A History of Thailand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[8]: (Ooi 2004, xxiii) Keat Gin Ooi. 2004. Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia from Angkor Wat to East Timor. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
[9]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, 15) Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit. 2009. A History of Thailand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[10]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, 13) Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit. 2009. A History of Thailand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[11]: Christopher K. Chase-Dunn 2001, personal communication 2012
47 P | |
47 Q | |
48 P | |
48 Q |
Ayutthaya |
Ayutthaya |
Ayutthaya | |
Ayuthaya | |
Ayudhya | |
Ayuthia | |
Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya | |
Anajak Ayutthaya | |
Krung Kao | |
Samai Krung Si Ayutthaya |
nominal allegiance to [---] |
Indianized Southeast Asia |
Rattanakosin |
2,175,000 km2 |
continuity |
Succeeding: Ayutthaya (th_ayutthaya) [continuity] | |
Succeeding: Rattanakosin (th_rattanakosin) [continuity] |
Present |
Absent |
Absent |
Present |
Unknown |
inferred Present |
inferred Present |
inferred Present |
inferred Present |
Unknown |
unknown |
inferred Present |
inferred Present |
inferred Absent |
Present |
Present |
Present |
inferred Present |
Present |
Unknown |
Absent |
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1644 CE 1767 CE | ||||
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Year Range | Ayutthaya (th_ayutthaya) was in: |
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(1594 CE 1767 CE) | Cambodian Basin |
"Because of its prime location for trade, Ayutthaya was the capital of an enlarged federation [in the 15th and 16th centuries]. But the northern city of Phitsanulok operated a a second capital (the Portuguese sometimes described them as twin states) because of its strategic location for the wars against Lanna." [1]
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 10)
’Likewise, spelling variations abound owing to the transliteration of indigenous languages into the Roman alphabet. Hence Ayutthaya, Ayuthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia, and Yogyakarta or Jogjakarta.’ [1] ’Uthong’s regnal name was Ramathibodi, or the Great Rama who ruled over Siamese Ayudhya (Ayudhya having been the name of the capital of Rama in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana).’ [2]
[1]: (Ooi 2004, p. xxiii)
[2]: (Kasetsiri 1991, p. 76)
’Likewise, spelling variations abound owing to the transliteration of indigenous languages into the Roman alphabet. Hence Ayutthaya, Ayuthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia, and Yogyakarta or Jogjakarta.’ [1] ’Uthong’s regnal name was Ramathibodi, or the Great Rama who ruled over Siamese Ayudhya (Ayudhya having been the name of the capital of Rama in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana).’ [2]
[1]: (Ooi 2004, p. xxiii)
[2]: (Kasetsiri 1991, p. 76)
’Likewise, spelling variations abound owing to the transliteration of indigenous languages into the Roman alphabet. Hence Ayutthaya, Ayuthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia, and Yogyakarta or Jogjakarta.’ [1] ’Uthong’s regnal name was Ramathibodi, or the Great Rama who ruled over Siamese Ayudhya (Ayudhya having been the name of the capital of Rama in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana).’ [2]
[1]: (Ooi 2004, p. xxiii)
[2]: (Kasetsiri 1991, p. 76)
’Likewise, spelling variations abound owing to the transliteration of indigenous languages into the Roman alphabet. Hence Ayutthaya, Ayuthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia, and Yogyakarta or Jogjakarta.’ [1] ’Uthong’s regnal name was Ramathibodi, or the Great Rama who ruled over Siamese Ayudhya (Ayudhya having been the name of the capital of Rama in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana).’ [2]
[1]: (Ooi 2004, p. xxiii)
[2]: (Kasetsiri 1991, p. 76)
’Likewise, spelling variations abound owing to the transliteration of indigenous languages into the Roman alphabet. Hence Ayutthaya, Ayuthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia, and Yogyakarta or Jogjakarta.’ [1] ’Uthong’s regnal name was Ramathibodi, or the Great Rama who ruled over Siamese Ayudhya (Ayudhya having been the name of the capital of Rama in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana).’ [2]
[1]: (Ooi 2004, p. xxiii)
[2]: (Kasetsiri 1991, p. 76)
’Likewise, spelling variations abound owing to the transliteration of indigenous languages into the Roman alphabet. Hence Ayutthaya, Ayuthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia, and Yogyakarta or Jogjakarta.’ [1] ’Uthong’s regnal name was Ramathibodi, or the Great Rama who ruled over Siamese Ayudhya (Ayudhya having been the name of the capital of Rama in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana).’ [2]
[1]: (Ooi 2004, p. xxiii)
[2]: (Kasetsiri 1991, p. 76)
’Likewise, spelling variations abound owing to the transliteration of indigenous languages into the Roman alphabet. Hence Ayutthaya, Ayuthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia, and Yogyakarta or Jogjakarta.’ [1] ’Uthong’s regnal name was Ramathibodi, or the Great Rama who ruled over Siamese Ayudhya (Ayudhya having been the name of the capital of Rama in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana).’ [2]
[1]: (Ooi 2004, p. xxiii)
[2]: (Kasetsiri 1991, p. 76)
’Likewise, spelling variations abound owing to the transliteration of indigenous languages into the Roman alphabet. Hence Ayutthaya, Ayuthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia, and Yogyakarta or Jogjakarta.’ [1] ’Uthong’s regnal name was Ramathibodi, or the Great Rama who ruled over Siamese Ayudhya (Ayudhya having been the name of the capital of Rama in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana).’ [2]
[1]: (Ooi 2004, p. xxiii)
[2]: (Kasetsiri 1991, p. 76)
The reign of Borommakot. "To a generation that, in the 1780s and 1790s, was looking back at Ayudhya, the reign of Borommakot must have seemed a sort of golden age, an ideal to be recaptured. There was much about Borommakot’s reign that accorded with traditional ideas of the virtues of good kings and so won him acclaim". During Borommakot’s reign, Ayutthaya succeeded Ceylon as "the preeminent center of Buddhism" ("a party of eighteen Siamese monks was dispatched to Kandy to reordain Singhalese monks and establish what was to become a Siam order of monks on Ceylon", in response to a 1751 mission "from Ceylon requesting aid in restoring Singhalese Buddhism, which had declined under Portuguese and Dutch rule"). Moreover, Ayutthaya consolidated its control over Cambodia, and established peaceful relations with Burma. "To the end of the reign, Ayudhya faced no serious external threats, and there was no military levée en masse." [1]
[1]: (Wyatt 1984, pp. 130-131)
invaded NGA 1594 CE
"On the fall of Ayudhya in 1569, the Burmese installed Maha Thammaracha (r. 1569-1590) on the throne, thoroughly looted the city, and led thousands of prisoners, both commoners and nobles, away to captivity in Burma."
[1]
Ayudhya freed itself from the Burmese yoke on 1593, with the Battle of Nong Sarai: "Ayudhya’s independence was now secured, and for the next generation, the Burmese kings would be on the defensive against Ayudhya, the tables of war thus turning for the first time in thirty years."
[2]
The tables turned in favour of Burma again in the 1760s: after a siege, "on April 27, 1767, [the Burmese] finally breached the walls and took the ancient capital"
[3]
.
[1]: (Wyatt 1984, p. 100)
[2]: (Wyatt 1984, p. 103)
[3]: (Wyatt 1984, p. 136)
’The differing understandings of what the tributary relationship entailed are evident in an incident in October 1592 when King Narasuan of Ayutthaya offered Siamese naval assistance to the Ming court in its struggle to contain the depredations of Japanese pirates. The offer was refused, for from the Chinese point of view it would have been demeaning, and an admission of Chinese weakness, to have accepted. In the mandala world of Southeast Asia, however, it was usual for an ally to contribute military assistance in time of war. Narasuan may have hoped for some quid pro quo in his own conflict with the Burmese, but his offer, and the Ming refusal, point to essential differences in worldview.’ [1]
[1]: (Stuart-Fox 2003, p. 34)
In 1569, after a protracted military campaign, Burmese forces took the capital and "installed the obsequious Maha Thammaracha as vassal king of Ayudhya" [1] . Besides the subordination to Burmese rule in the period between 1569 and 1592, sources do not indicate any significant changes in the polity after 1569.
[1]: (Wyatt 1984, p. 95)
In 1569, after a protracted military campaign, Burmese forces took the capital and "installed the obsequious Maha Thammaracha as vassal king of Ayudhya" [1] .
[1]: (Wyatt 1984, p. 95)
"The new regime portrayed itself as a restoration of Ayutthayan tradition [...]. The capital was moved across the river to Bangkok, and built on similar principles to Ayutthaya--an island created by closing a river meander with a canal. The word Ayutthaya was inscribed in the city’s official name. The remains of shattered Ayutthayan monuments were brought to the city and incorporated into its new buildings. All surviving manuscripts were sought out and complied into recensions of laws, histories, religious texts, and manuals on the practice of every aspect of government." [1]
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 27)
"The group of languages now known as Tai probably originated among peoples who lived south of the Yangzi River before the Han Chinese spread from the north into the area before the Han Chinese spread from the north into the area from the 6th century BC. As the Han armies came to control China’s southern coastline in the first few centuries AD, some of these peoples retreated into the high valleys in the hills behind the coast. Then, over many centuries, some moved westwards, spreading Tai language dialects along a 1000-kilometre arc from the Guanxi interior to the Brahmaputra valley. They probably took with them some expertise in growing rice using the water flow from mountain streams." [1]
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, pp. 4-5)
"The group of languages now known as Tai probably originated among peoples who lived south of the Yangzi River before the Han Chinese spread from the north into the area before the Han Chinese spread from the north into the area from the 6th century BC. As the Han armies came to control China’s southern coastline in the first few centuries AD, some of these peoples retreated into the high valleys in the hills behind the coast. Then, over many centuries, some moved westwards, spreading Tai language dialects along a 1000-kilometre arc from the Guanxi interior to the Brahmaputra valley. They probably took with them some expertise in growing rice using the water flow from mountain streams." [1]
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, pp. 4-5)
levels.
[1]
.
1. AyutthayaThe capital.
2. "Great cities" (mahanakhon)Including "the old northern cities" and "ports around the head of the gulf".
3. Tributary centresFor example, "the port cities down the peninsula which simultaneously looked southwards to the Malay world", as well as urban centres in "the interior states of Khmer, Lao, Lanna, and Shahn".
4. VillagesInferred from the fact that most of the population would likely not have lived in cities (RA’s guess).
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 13)
levels.
[1]
1. Somdet Phra Sangharat (Supreme Patriarch)
2. Chao kana yai (Sangha general governors.There were three.
3. Phraracha kana"[T]he heads of monks in the capital and important provinces".
[2]
4. Phra khru"The head monks of the lesser provinces".
[2]
5. Abbots
6. Ordinary monks
[1]: (Suksamran 1982, pp. 31-32)
[2]: (Suksamran 1982, p. 32)
levels. "Ranks and titles were conferred on the bureaucratic and military nobility until the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932, a rank and title usually being associated with an office. The chaophraya were highest on the list, the equivalents of cabinet ministers, generals, and the governors of the most important provincial cities. On a descending scale came phraya, phra, luang, and khun."
[1]
1. Chaophraya
2. Phraya
3. Phra
4. Luang
5. Khun
[1]: (Wyatt 1984, p. xviii)
levels. "Ranks and titles were conferred on the bureaucratic and military nobility until the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932, a rank and title usually being associated with an office. The chaophraya were highest on the list, the equivalents of cabinet ministers, generals, and the governors of the most important provincial cities. On a descending scale came phraya, phra, luang, and khun."
[1]
Presumably the king should be added to this hierarchy--RA’s guess.
1. King
2. Chaophraya
3. Phraya
4. Phra
5. Luang
6. Khun
[1]: (Wyatt 1984, p. xviii)
"Theravada, the way of the elder, differs from other strains of Buddhism in the prime position accorded to the monk and monastic practice. The duty of the Sangha or monkhood is to preserve the thamma or teachings of the Buddha by adhering strictly to the winaya or monastic code. Some monks study the texts, preserve them by recopying, and preach their contents to the laity. Other monks exemplify the teachings by living an imitation of the Buddha’s own life, gaining insight through ascetic rigour and meditation." [1]
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 19)
"Contemporary European accounts also sometimes refer to what appear to be highly organized command hierarchies. The Siamese army command in the 1680s, for example, was described by Gervaise as consisting of a ’commander-in-chief, a deputy general, several captains with their lieutenants and some subalterns.’ In actuality, members of the nobility through ad hoc appointments led Southeast Asian armies. These men were usually personal favorites of the ruler or one of his relatives, or were outlying lords obligated to bring local levies to participate in campaigns. One reason for this was the concern that otherwise a regular officer class on a permanent footing would become part of the court and ministerial politics that plagued early modern Southeast Asian states." [1]
[1]: (Charney 2004, p. 237)
"The administration was divided into four main sections. The first looked after the palace and capital including collecting rice from the royal land, guarding the royal person, keeping the peace, running the royal household, and adjudicating disputes in the capital and the core kingdom (ratchathani). The second looked after military affairs, and managed relations with the outlying great cities and tributary states. The third carried out royal trade, oversaw the foreign communities, and looked after the main treasury. The fourth contained the Brahmans who care of ritual, astrology, and record keeping" [1] .
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 15)
"While other kings simply rendered judicial decisions in accord with their knowledge of [Buddhist] Dharma, the kings of Ayudhya issued real legislation, formal codes of civil and criminal law--law that by definition was mutable, temporal, and changeable. To Ramathibodi I are attributed various titles of Ayudhya’s law, including the Law of Evidence, the Law of Offences against the Government, the Law of Receiving Plaints, the Law of Abduction, the Law on Offences against the People, the Law concerning Robbery, and the Law of Husband and Wife" [1] . This refers to the early phase of Ayutthaya, but there is nothing to indicate that late-phase Ayutthaya jettisoned their legal traditions.
[1]: (Wyatt 1984, pp. 71-72)
According to a seventeenth-century Dutch source, "Besides [the Ayutthaya equivalent of a Supreme Court], there are still several courts of justice, as that of oya Berckelangh, who is attorney to the court and judge for all foreigners, further opraa Mathip Mamontry, who is chief of the court where all civil questions and all ordinary cases are pleaded and decided; oya Syserputh is permanent chief of the court where all secret and uncertain cases, criminal and civil are treated and decided by ordeal." [1]
[1]: (Van Ravenswaay 1910, p. 70)
According to a seventeenth-century Dutch source, "for the use of the common people, small shells are used, which come from Manilla and Borneo. 600 to 700 of these are worth one foeang, and the daily provisions and other little necessaries are paid with them. With 5 to 20 of these shells, or even with less, the people may buy on the market sufficient supplies for one day." [1]
[1]: (Van Ravenswaay 1910, p. 96)
"The muang fai irrigation system was used on fast flowing streams up to twenty metres in width, across which weirs elevated water by up to two or more metres. The fai held back water which was directed to major and minor canals known as muang in which gates, tang, controlled flow rates. Where a muang could be constructed by diverting water from a river, no fai was needed. Constructed from bamboo and woodern stakes driven into the river bed against which rocks, poles and sand were placed, the fai allowed water to pass through and over the barrier while restricting the rate of flow and thus raising the water level." [1]
[1]: (Falvey 2000, p. 113)
Falvey [1] writes of "the construction of the first storage irrigation system in 1633 in Ayutthaya, an echo of the Khmer storage barai". "Each water-based feature fulfilled several functions. Barays provided agricultural and domestic water, and fish and plant foods. Canals channeled water for public sanitation, and transport arteries. Embankments and dikes were usually oriented east-west following the contours and acted both as levees ti control floods and elevated causeways for roads. Moats surrounding temples, monuments, and inhabited areas also fulfilled several functions: they served as sacred boundaries, they were a source of domestic water and food, and they provided fill for foundations to raise the level of the terrain for drainage and protection. Access to domestic water was provided by tanks and basins dug into the water table.’ [2]
[1]: (Falvey 2000, p. 129)
[2]: (Engelhardt 1995, p.25)
Falvey [1] writes of "the construction of the first storage irrigation system in 1633 in Ayutthaya, an echo of the Khmer storage barai". "Each water-based feature fulfilled several functions. Barays provided agricultural and domestic water, and fish and plant foods. Canals channeled water for public sanitation, and transport arteries. Embankments and dikes were usually oriented east-west following the contours and acted both as levees ti control floods and elevated causeways for roads. Moats surrounding temples, monuments, and inhabited areas also fulfilled several functions: they served as sacred boundaries, they were a source of domestic water and food, and they provided fill for foundations to raise the level of the terrain for drainage and protection. Access to domestic water was provided by tanks and basins dug into the water table.’ [2]
[1]: (Falvey 2000, p. 129)
[2]: (Engelhardt 1995, p.25)
"Thai has a high degree of consistency in mapping between phonemes and graphemes but there are multigrapheme to phoneme correspondences for some consonants [...] In addition, there is a change in grapheme-phoneme correspondences of consonants when they occur in final position. [...] In addition, there are orthographic class-change clusters, in which the first consonant of the cluster,  or  is silent, and is used to change the class of consonant to a high or middle class expression with a corresponding change in tone [...] Thai does have additional irregularities, which include silent consonants and vowels that are not pronounced" [1] .
[1]: (Winskel 2010, p. 1023)
"As the records of astrologers, the chotmaihet hon display an overriding interest in the movements of the planets, and in significant, as well as unusual or unpredictable celestial and earthly events. Entries in the chotmaihet hon are always preceded by a set of numbers indicating the day, lunar date and year of occurrence. The regular motions of the planets were used by the astrologers to establish a system of time-keeping that has been regarded as Siam’s most sophisticated form of temporal measurement. Those responsible for the crafting of the chotmaihet hon were the inheritors and custodians of this complex system. Reflecting their concern with the timing of events, the chotmaihet hon have been known as both calendars and as diaries of the Court Astrologers" [1] "During his restoration of Wat Phrachettuphon (Wat Pho), started in the year of the python, 1832, King Rama III ensured this continuity for many generations to come, by having all available knowledge of the finest quality in the fields of art, letters, technical skills, medicine, and other disciplines engraved on stone plaques and fixed to the walls of the buildings of this Royal wat (temple), so that it would be accessible to all. The inscriptions on medicine at Wat Pho include hundreds of ancient texts as well as dozens of illustrated diagrams of the human body showing the points on the body used in the practice of Thai massage, and verses describing exercises demonstrated by statues of yogis performing them." [2]
[1]: (Hodges 1999, p. 34)
[2]: (Mulholland 1979, pp. 82-83)
Inferred from the fact that, a few years after the collapse of Ayutthaya, when its successor polity, Rattanakosin, was founded, "[a]ll surviving manuscripts were sought out and compiled into recensions of laws, histories, religious texts, and manuals on the practice of every aspect of government" [1] .
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 27)
Inferred from the fact that, a few years after the collapse of Ayutthaya, when its successor polity, Rattanakosin, was founded, "[a]ll surviving manuscripts were sought out and compiled into recensions of laws, histories, religious texts, and manuals on the practice of every aspect of government" [1] .
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 27)
Inferred from the fact that, a few years after the collapse of Ayutthaya, when its successor polity, Rattanakosin, was founded, "[a]ll surviving manuscripts were sought out and compiled into recensions of laws, histories, religious texts, and manuals on the practice of every aspect of government" [1] .
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 27)
"Under King Narai, astrology found a new use in the creation a new style of writing Thai history. From the fifteenth century up to then, tamnan (legend) was the dominant form of history writing. It blends the travels of Buddha through time and across continents with local events without placing them in a chronological framework. In 1681, at King Narai’s behest, Phra Horathibodi, now composed a history which presented events using the lunar calendar to provide ’precise temporal context’. The result was the Luang Prasoet Chronicle, the first of the phongsawadan (dynastic history) genre, which related the history of Ayutthaya from 1324 to 1605, in which humans (the Kings) stand central, instead of Buddha" [1] .
[1]: (Ruangslip 2007, p. 146)
According to a seventeenth-century Dutch source, "for the use of the common people, small shells are used, which come from Manilla and Borneo. 600 to 700 of these are worth one foeang, and the daily provisions and other little necessaries are paid with them. With 5 to 20 of these shells, or even with less, the people may buy on the market sufficient supplies for one day." [1]
[1]: (Van Ravenswaay 1910, p. 96)
"Sudden conflagrations were reported to have consumed 800 houses in Aceh in 1602 and 8000 in 1688; 1260 in Makassar in 1614, and 10,000 in Ayutthaya in 1545, while most of Pattani was burned during a revolt in 1613. For European and Chinese merchants this was a source of endless anxiety, but Southeast Asians appear to have accepted the essential impermanence of their houses, and to have kept what wealth they had in removable gold, jewellery and cloth. After a fire, whole sections of the city would be rebuilt in a matter of three or four days." [1]
[1]: (Tarling 1993, p. 476)
According to a seventeenth-century Dutch source, "The Siamese money is made of very fine silver, has the proper weight, is cast in round shape and is minted with the king’s seal. The common people are very curious about such seals, so that one has great trouble in paying it out, for out of ten pieces they sometimes do not want to take a single one, not because the silver alloy is not good, but because the seal of the king is not according to the rule. There are three kinds of coins, namely ticals, maas, and foeanghs, which in Netherlands money are worth 30, 7 1/2, and 3 3/4 stuiver. Usually the Siamese make their accounts in catties of silver, each of which is worth 20 tayls of 6 guilders, or 48 reals of 50 stuiver each. Each tayl is worth 4 ticals, each tical 4 maas or 8 foeangs. Only these coins are used in trade and for payment." [1]
[1]: (Van Ravenswaay 1910, pp. 95-96)
Inferred from the fact that these are not mentioned in Van Dongen’s detailed lists of all the types of "money" circulating in Thailand in the Ayutthaya and Rattanakosin periods.
"The inland mail service of the Thai Government in its state up to the middle of the XIX century must be looked at as originating with the administrative reforms carried out by King Trailok (1448-1488), who created five civil ministries. One of these particularly cared for the transportation of government letters." [1] However, it was probably quite a simple service: the Court had no communications outside the country until King Mongkut started a voluminous correspondence with European countries, and an internal mail only started in Bangkok in 1881 [2] .
[1]: (Lindenberg 1944, p.78)
[2]: (http://www.sandafayre.com/stampatlas/thailandsiam.html)
"Aside from occasional exceptions, [...] stone fortifications do not appear to have been favored after the classical period. [...] Building stone walls was time-consuming and probably expensive. The stone was difficult to procure and to work, whereas brick was much more readily produced. a transition from stone to brick in temple building from the classical period into the early modern period was thus accompanied by the same general shift in fortification building." [1]
[1]: (Charney 2004, p. 79)
"Aside from occasional exceptions, [...] stone fortifications do not appear to have been favored after the classical period. [...] Building stone walls was time-consuming and probably expensive. The stone was difficult to procure and to work, whereas brick was much more readily produced. a transition from stone to brick in temple building from the classical period into the early modern period was thus accompanied by the same general shift in fortification building." [1]
[1]: (Charney 2004, p. 79)
No references in the literature. Polity expert Charles Higham "I dont think there was ever a transition to steel but will ask the iron expert, Oliver Pryce for his view." (pers. comm. with Harvey Whitehouse 04/08/2017)
Earlier polities used bronze military technology, so this polity probably used copper too.
Earlier polities used bronze military technology, so this polity probably did too.
Tension siege engines do not feature among the "personal weapons" mentioned in Charney’s [1] comprehensive summary of Southeast Asian military technology and organisation between the early modern period and the nineteenth century, or indeed in his descriptions of sieges where the Thai were the attackers. However, previous polity did have tension siege engines.
[1]: (Charney 2004)
Tension siege engines do not feature among the "personal weapons" mentioned in Charney’s [1] comprehensive summary of Southeast Asian military technology and organisation between the early modern period and the nineteenth century, or indeed in his descriptions of sieges where the Thai were the attackers. However, previous polity did have sling siege engines.
[1]: (Charney 2004)
Shields "were commonplace among the Burmese, Siamese, Javanese [...] and almost every other Southeast Asian society for which we have evidence throughout the early modern period" [1] "In the 1680s, Siamese levies made use of leather shields." [2]
[1]: (Charney 2004, p. 39)
[2]: (Charney 2004, p. 40)
’The differing understandings of what the tributary relationship entailed are evident in an incident in October 1592 when King Narasuan of Ayutthaya offered Siamese naval assistance to the Ming court in its struggle to contain the depredations of Japanese pirates. The offer was refused, for from the Chinese point of view it would have been demeaning, and an admission of Chinese weakness, to have accepted. In the mandala world of Southeast Asia, however, it was usual for an ally to contribute military assistance in time of war. Narasuan may have hoped for some quid pro quo in his own conflict with the Burmese, but his offer, and the Ming refusal, point to essential differences in worldview.’ [1]
[1]: (Stuart-Fox 2003, p. 34)
Luxury Precious Metal: | Present |
Consumption by Ruler: | Present |
Consumption by Elite: | Inferred Present |
Consumption by Common People: | Inferred Present |
Gold, silver. “The cosmopolitan character of Southeast Asian cities meant that a wide array of coins was exchanged in the marketplace, as well as gold and silver by weight. The importance of Chinese demand in stimulating the commercial upturn is indicated by the vast influx of Chinese cash, beginning in the fourteenth century but much accelerating in the fifteenth and sixteenth.’’ [Tarling 2008, p. 485] ‘’’The main royal treasury was sited immediately behind the hall used for audience and residence in the palace, and some European visitors were invited to visit. Count Forbin, who was impressed by nothing else in Siam, waxed lyrical about ‘this heap of gold, silver and precious stones of immense value” which constituted “all the riches of the royal treasure, which are truly worthy of a great king, and enough to make one in love with his court.’ Gervaise recorded that the king had “eight or ten warehouses … that are of unimaginable wealth,” piled “to the roof” with jewels, metals, exotic goods, and “great lumps of gold-dust.’ ‘’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] "’ The following quote seems to suggest that gold and silver, at least, were relatively widely accessible. “The cosmopolitan character of Southeast Asian cities meant that a wide array of coins was exchanged in the marketplace, as well as gold and silver by weight. The importance of Chinese demand in stimulating the commercial upturn is indicated by the vast influx of Chinese cash, beginning in the fourteenth century but much accelerating in the fifteenth and sixteenth.’’ [Tarling 2008, p. 485] "’ The following quote seems to suggest that gold and silver, at least, were not exclusive to the elites. “The cosmopolitan character of Southeast Asian cities meant that a wide array of coins was exchanged in the marketplace, as well as gold and silver by weight. The importance of Chinese demand in stimulating the commercial upturn is indicated by the vast influx of Chinese cash, beginning in the fourteenth century but much accelerating in the fifteenth and sixteenth.’’ [Tarling 2008, p. 485]
Luxury Spices Incense And Dyes: | Inferred Present |
Place(s) of Provenance: | Early Qing ; suspected unknown |
Inferred from the fact that some spices were imported from other countries. “A clear picture is available of Ayutthaya, thanks largely to 17th Century French visitors who characteristically devoted a considerable amount of space to the subject of food in their accounts of the kingdom […] From these accounts it is clear that for all its seeming simplicity, the presence of exotic spices, herbs, and vegetables were evidence of trade with the outside world, and the fact that numerous Chinese, Japanese, Malays, and the Indians lived in Ayutthaya suggests other likely influences.’’ [Narisa 2005, p. 63] ‘’The city had become perhaps even more cosmopolitan. The Description of Ayutthaya details many trading communities besides the Chinese: Lao who hawk live birds; Mons who manufacture brass and other metal wares; Chams who weave cloth and high-quality mats; Pattani Khaek who weave silk and cotton cloth; Moken sea gypsies who sell fish; Indians who sell cloth, incense, jewelry, and cosmetics.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] "The goods carried from China to Siam in the early eighteenth century included metals, cane sugar, tools, copper basins and pails, crockery, silks, sweetmeats, dried fruits, dyes, gums, and thread – mostly consumer goods, suggesting that the city was not only growing but prospering.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017]
Luxury Manufactured Goods: | Present |
Place(s) of Provenance: | Dutch Empire |
Consumption by Ruler: | Present |
Consumption by Elite: | Present |
Consumption by Common People: | Inferred Absent |
“The palace housed several other storehouses for valuable goods including European articles imported from Dutch Batavia, porcelain from China, silks from Japan, and other textiles from India. A list of gifts sent from Ayutthaya to French royalty in the 1680s reads like the inventory of a museum of Asian luxuries: Japanese furniture, silverware, pottery, and weaponry; Chinese cabinets, silks, and porcelain reckoned “the best and most curious of all the Indies”; Persian and Indian carpets; and countless figurines, powder boxes, flasks, and curiosities.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] “The palace housed several other storehouses for valuable goods including European articles imported from Dutch Batavia, porcelain from China, silks from Japan, and other textiles from India.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] “Nobles were invested with symbols of office, mostly betel boxes of graded elaborateness of design… They paraded through the streets displaying their betel boxes and trailed by an entourage to indicate their status.’ [Baker,_Phongpaichit 2014, p. 15] ‘‘The palace housed several other storehouses for valuable goods including European articles imported from Dutch Batavia, porcelain from China, silks from Japan, and other textiles from India. A list of gifts sent from Ayutthaya to French royalty in the 1680s reads like the inventory of a museum of Asian luxuries: Japanese furniture, silverware, pottery, and weaponry; Chinese cabinets, silks, and porcelain reckoned “the best and most curious of all the Indies”; Persian and Indian carpets; and countless figurines, powder boxes, flasks, and curiosities.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] Luxury manufactured goods seem to be closely tied to the elites, based on the literature consulted. “Nobles were invested with symbols of office, mostly betel boxes of graded elaborateness of design… They paraded through the streets displaying their betel boxes and trailed by an entourage to indicate their status.’ [Baker,_Phongpaichit 2014, p. 15]
Luxury Glass Goods: | Present |
Consumption by Ruler: | Inferred Present |
Consumption by Elite: | Present |
Consumption by Common People: | Inferred Absent |
‘’The prosperity of the nobility is evident from the variety of luxury goods in the capital’s markets… The well-off and status-conscious consumer could choose among betel bags in wool and silk… wool pouches for betelnut embroidered in gold and embellished with glass; ordinary betel pouches; pouches for tobacco embroidered in gold embellished with glass; ordinary tobacco pouches; and pan leaf holders in various colors.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] “The prosperity of the nobility is evident from the variety of luxury goods in the capital’s markets… The well-off and statusconscious consumer could choose among betel bags in wool and silk… wool pouches for betelnut embroidered in gold and embellished with glass; ordinary betel pouches; pouches for tobacco embroidered in gold embellished with glass; ordinary tobacco pouches; and pan leaf holders in various colors.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] ‘’The prosperity of the nobility is evident from the variety of luxury goods in the capital’s markets… The well-off and statusconscious consumer could choose among betel bags in wool and silk… wool pouches for betelnut embroidered in gold and embellished with glass; ordinary betel pouches; pouches for tobacco embroidered in gold embellished with glass; ordinary tobacco pouches; and pan leaf holders in various colors.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] ‘’’ The following seems to imply that luxury glass goods were exclusive to the elites. “The prosperity of the nobility is evident from the variety of luxury goods in the capital’s markets… The well-off and statusconscious consumer could choose among betel bags in wool and silk… wool pouches for betelnut embroidered in gold and embellished with glass; ordinary betel pouches; pouches for tobacco embroidered in gold embellished with glass; ordinary tobacco pouches; and pan leaf holders in various colors.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017]
Luxury Food: | Inferred Present |
Consumption by Ruler: | Inferred Present |
Consumption by Elite: | Inferred Present |
Consumption by Common People: | Inferred Absent |
Inferred from the long distances travelled by some food items. “The commercial boom also made it possible for large cities and substantial populations to import their food by sea… Other foodstuffs such as vegetables, dried fish and fermented fish-paste, coconut oil, salt, and palm-wine also travelled long distances by sea to feed the flourishing cities.” [Tarling 2008, p. 471] ‘’As Europeans replaced Persians in employment at court, the source of cultural influence changed in parallel. According to La Loubère, Narai was “curious to the highest degree.”… In the latter few years of the reign, Europe (and especially France) replaced Persia as the source of cultural influence on the court. Narai wore French clothing on the hunt. Phaulkon’s Japanese-Christian wife is credited with introducing Portuguese desserts into Siamese cuisine’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] “As Europeans replaced Persians in employment at court, the source of cultural influence changed in parallel. According to La Loubère, Narai was “curious to the highest degree.”… In the latter few years of the reign, Europe (and especially France) replaced Persia as the source of cultural influence on the court. Narai wore French clothing on the hunt. Phaulkon’s Japanese-Christian wife is credited with introducing Portuguese desserts into Siamese cuisine’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] “The commercial boom also made it possible for large cities and substantial populations to import their food by sea… Other foodstuffs such as vegetables, dried fish and fermented fish-paste, coconut oil, salt, and palm-wine also travelled long distances by sea to feed the flourishing cities.’’ [Tarling 2008, p. 471] “A clear picture is available of Ayutthaya, thanks largely to 17th Century French visitors who characteristically devoted a considerable amount of space to the subject of food in their accounts of the kingdom. Simon De La Loubere, for instance, who came with a diplomatic mission in 1687, was struck by the fact that people ate sparingly. Good salt, he found, was a rare commodity, and fresh fish was seldom eaten, despite its abnundance.’ [Narisa 2005, p. 63]
Luxury Fabrics: | Present |
Place(s) of Provenance: | Bengal Sultanate |
Consumption by Ruler: | Present |
Consumption by Elite: | Present |
“The goods carried from China to Siam in the early eighteenth century included metals, cane sugar, tools, copper basins and pails, crockery, silks, sweetmeats, dried fruits, dyes, gums, and thread – mostly consumer goods, suggesting that the city was not only growing but prospering.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] ’ Using information from the Portuguese sea-captains and envoys sent to explore the region after 1511, Duarte Barbosa reported that the Ayutthaya ruler controlled ports on both sides of the peninsula, especially Tenasserim, Mergui, Kedah, and Selangor, to which ships from Arabia and Bengal brought copper, quicksilver, vermilion, cloth, silk, saffron, coral, and opium.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] “The palace housed several other storehouses for valuable goods including European articles imported from Dutch Batavia, porcelain from China, silks from Japan, and other textiles from India.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] Ma Huan’s account of the ruler and his residence is also strikingly modest: The house in which the king resides is rather elegant, neat and clean …As to the king’s dress: he uses a white cloth to wind round his head; on the upper [part of his body] he wears no garment; [and] round the lower [part he wears] a silk-embroidered kerchief, adding a waist-band of brocaded silk gauze. ‘’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] ‘’ Using information from the Portuguese sea-captains and envoys sent to explore the region after 1511, Duarte Barbosa reported that the Ayutthaya ruler controlled ports on both sides of the peninsula, especially Tenasserim, Mergui, Kedah, and Selangor, to which ships from Arabia and Bengal brought copper, quicksilver, vermilion, cloth, silk, saffron, coral, and opium.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] Empty_Description
Luxury Drink/Alcohol: | Present |
Place(s) of Provenance: | Spanish Empire I |
Many Asian traders used Ayutthaya as an entrepot. “Malays in small Prowes” brought forest goods from the archipelago for onward transmission to China, and carried camphor, pepper, and bird’s nests from Ayutthaya to coastal ports. Fragrant wood came from Cochinchina for re-export to Japan. Cloth from Surat and southern India was bought and sold in Ayutthaya before being sent onward to Japan, China, and Manila. Spanish wine and contraband American silver came from Manila to Ayutthaya for distribution through Asia.‘’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] "The commercial boom also made it possible for large cities and substantial populations to import their food by sea… Other foodstuffs such as vegetables, dried fish and fermented fish-paste, coconut oil, salt, and palm-wine also travelled long distances by sea to feed the flourishing cities.’’ [Tarling 2008, p. 471]
Luxury Statuary: | Present |
Consumption by Ruler: | Present |
The Ayutthaya chronicles state that the Peguan army took away “all the statues,” including those that had been taken from Angkor in 1431/2, along with “the royal adornments and the golden utensils reserved for reigning kings, and the concubines and attendants.” [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] ‘’The palace housed several other storehouses for valuable goods including European articles imported from Dutch Batavia, porcelain from China, silks from Japan, and other textiles from India. A list of gifts sent from Ayutthaya to French royalty in the 1680s reads like the inventory of a museum of Asian luxuries: Japanese furniture, silverware, pottery, and weaponry; Chinese cabinets, silks, and porcelain reckoned “the best and most curious of all the Indies”; Persian and Indian carpets; and countless figurines, powder boxes, flasks, and curiosities.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017]
Luxury Precious Stone: | Present |
Place(s) of Provenance: | Ayutthaya |
Consumption by Ruler: | Present |
Consumption by Elite: | Present |
‘’’ In 1621, the Dutch merchant Van Neijenrode reported that the city of Ayutthaya surpassed “any place in the Indies (except for China) in terms of populace, elephants, gold, gemstones, shipping, commerce, trade and fertility.” [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] ‘’Van Neijenrode noticed that the well-off invested heavily in their personal appearance…They have large holes in their ears, through which they insert their major ornament, gold bars about as long as a finger, round as the hole they have in their earlobes, artistically shaped and set with gems such as diamonds, pearls, rubies and emeralds; and their hands are ornamented with costly rings, of both gemstones and fine gold, and gold bracelets encircle their arms.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] “In 1621, the Dutch merchant Van Neijenrode reported that the city of Ayutthaya surpassed “any place in the Indies (except for China) in terms of populace, elephants, gold, gemstones, shipping, commerce, trade and fertility.” ‘’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] “European visitors noted that the great nobles lived in splendid houses and were surrounded by hordes of retainers, but seemed to possess almost no movable property. Diamonds were popular because they were easy to hide.’ [Baker,_Phongpaichit 2014, p. 17] ‘’The main royal treasury was sited immediately behind the hall used for audience and residence in the palace, and some European visitors were invited to visit. Count Forbin, who was impressed by nothing else in Siam, waxed lyrical about ‘this heap of gold, silver and precious stones of immense value” which constituted “all the riches of the royal treasure, which are truly worthy of a great king, and enough to make one in love with his court.’ Gervaise recorded that the king had “eight or ten warehouses … that are of unimaginable wealth,” piled “to the roof” with jewels, metals, exotic goods, and “great lumps of gold-dust.’ ‘’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] ‘’ Van Neijenrode noticed that the well-off invested heavily in their personal appearance…They have large holes in their ears, through which they insert their major ornament, gold bars about as long as a finger, round as the hole they have in their earlobes, artistically shaped and set with gems such as diamonds, pearls, rubies and emeralds; and their hands are ornamented with costly rings, of both gemstones and fine gold, and gold bracelets encircle their arms.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017]
Luxury Fine Ceramic Wares: | Present |
Place(s) of Provenance: | Early Qing ; Great Ming |
Consumption by Ruler: | Present |
Consumption by Elite: | Present |
Consumption by Common People: | Inferred Absent |
“The palace housed several other storehouses for valuable goods including European articles imported from Dutch Batavia, porcelain from China, silks from Japan, and other textiles from India. A list of gifts sent from Ayutthaya to French royalty in the 1680s reads like the inventory of a museum of Asian luxuries: Japanese furniture, silverware, pottery, and weaponry; Chinese cabinets, silks, and porcelain reckoned “the best and most curious of all the Indies”; Persian and Indian carpets; and countless figurines, powder boxes, flasks, and curiosities.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] ‘’One evidence of elite prosperity comes from the distinctive five-colored Chinese ceramic ware known as Benjarong, which may have first appeared in the 1720s, following the gift of multicolor ceramics, fashionable in China at the time, as official presents to the Ayutthaya court. Large quantities of Benjarong pieces and shards have been found in the ruins of the palace and elsewhere in Ayutthaya. Many are in shapes specific to Siamese tableware with Thai motifs, showing that these pieces were produced in China on commissions from Siam.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017] '‘’ The literature consulted closely ties fine ceramics to the elites. “One evidence of elite prosperity comes from the distinctive five-colored Chinese ceramic ware known as Benjarong, which may have first appeared in the 1720s, following the gift of multicolor ceramics, fashionable in China at the time, as official presents to the Ayutthaya court. Large quantities of Benjarong pieces and shards have been found in the ruins of the palace and elsewhere in Ayutthaya. Many are in shapes specific to Siamese tableware with Thai motifs, showing that these pieces were produced in China on commissions from Siam.’’ [Baker_Phongpaichit 2017]