Sri Thanonchai

Sri Thanonchai (Thai: ศรีธนญชัย) is a character from Thai folklore.[1] It is well known in the central area of Thailand. In the north and east of Thailand, and Laos, the main character is called Xiang Miang. No one knows where this story comes from but it is not originally from Thailand as we can find similar stories in other countries e.g. Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Singapore and Philippines. However, the character has different names in each country but still have similar story line.[2]

Plot (synopsis)

The story is very long so it is divided into chapters. Each incident that happens will end within one chapter so there is no need to read the whole story to understand what happens

Sri Thanonchai was born into a farming family in the area of Ayutthaya.[3]

Birth

There is a Husband and Wife who have lived together for a long time and one day, the wife Dreams that she brings the Moon back to her House. She tells her husband about her dream when she wakes up. Her husband tells the Brahman about the dream. The Brahman says that they will have a Child who is very Smart and Bright. Later the wife gives Birth to a Boy and they name him Sri Thanonchai. He is the only child in the family but not for long before his mother gives birth to another Son. His Brother is very cute and Adorable and Everyone Loves him, so Sri Thanonchai is jealous of his brother. One day his brother Plays around too much and his Body is cover with Dust so his mother asks Sri Thanonchai to Clean every inch of his brother’s body. Sri Thanonchai does what his mother tells him and cleans his brother including cutting out the Stomach of his brother and cleans the Inside of him, after cleaning up his brother he put his brother back into the Cradle as usual.[4]

After his father and mother come back Home and find their second son dead in the cradle, they decided to bring Sri Thanonchai to live in the Temple hoping by doing this he will become a better man. However, it seems that he is even more slippery.

Roofing

One day the Monk sees that the Roof of the temple is old and it is falling down so he asked the temple boys to fix the roof. Sri Thanonchai was the only person who did not help to fix the roof so the others temple boys go to the monk and tell him that Sri Thanonchai did not help to fix the roof. Sri Thanonchai is scared that the monk will get mad at him so he takes away the roof that his friends construct and reconstructs it again. His friends constructed the roof by twisting it to the right so Sri Thanonchai reconstructs the roof by twisting the roof to the left. When the monk arrives, Sri Thanonchai pretends to ask his friends “which way did you twist the roof to?” his friends answer “ to the right”, therefore the monks looks up and see that the roof is twisted to the left so he believes that Sri Thanonchai was the only one who constructed the roof.[5]

Guessing the number of the watermelon seeds

This time the King (title) punishes Sri Thanonchai by sending him to stay on an Isolated Island. He is lucky to have a visit from foreigners on the island for a rest. Sri Thanonchai hides on the Boat to get a ride to the Marketing. During the ride, he sees the foreigners brings two big Watermelons, which are cut in half and get rid of the seeds inside leaving one seed in one of the watermelon and two seeds in the other watermelon and put the two halves back together. The foreigners talk that they will bring these two watermelons to Gambling with the king. Sri Thanonchai already knows what is happening so he tries to go and hides in the Palace. The next day, the foreigners bring the two watermelons to the king, and ask him to guess the number of seeds in the watermelons. If the king wins the foreigner will give the king everything he has but if the king loses, the king has to give the foreigner the city. At this time the king is thinking of Sri Thanonchai and asks the Soldier to go and get Sri Thanonchai. But suddenly Sri Thanonchai just appears and volunteers to guess the number of the seeds. He pretends to do complicated Mathematics Calculation but at the end he gives the correct number of the seeds in the watermelon as he has seen it before. This goodness that Sri Thanonchai has done this time make him able to comeback and work in the palace.[6]

Characterization

The main character in this story is only Sri Thanonchai. He is a Trickster, he can talk his way out of any situation and he is very good at twisting words and making people believe what he is saying. He also pretends to be very Innocent and do exactly what the people tell him to do. For example, when his mother tells him to cleans every inch of his brother (in Thai, the phrase is to clean the Intestines and the stomach), Sri Thanonchai does exactly what his mother tells him, and cuts the stomach of his brother and cleans the inside causing his brother to Die.[7][8]

Culture significance

The main character is a normal man, who is brave enough to break the Rules, which normal people would not dare to do so, and Jokes around with it. His jokes include joking with Foreigners, Monk, noblemen, rich men or even the king. Some people study and analyse Sri Thanonchai’s action and conclude that his actions reflect the needs of normal people to win over the power of these people. They want to be able to fight against these people, not by force but by Literature.[9]

In the story there are many Thai Aphorism which do not means exactly what they sound like, and Sri Thanonchai uses these phrases and does his tricks. The story also includes the everyday life of Thai culture, that monks walk barefooted to receive food offering from the people, Marriages, market life and Thai gambling for example.

Notes

  1. ↑ Vathanaprida, Supaporn; MacDonald, Margaret Read; Rohitasuke, Boonsong (1994-01-01). Thai Tales: Folktales of Thailand. Libraries Unlimited. ISBN 9781563080968.
  2. ↑ ยังรอต, วิไลรัตน์ and องค์วุฒิเวทย์, ธวัชชัย (2555) จิตรกรรมเล่าเรื่องวรรณคดีอมตะ: อิเหนา ศรีธนญชัย สังข์ทอง สุวรรณหงส์ คัทธณะกุมาร สินไซ. มิวเซียมเพรส.
  3. ↑ ยังรอต, วิไลรัตน์ and องค์วุฒิเวทย์, ธวัชชัย (2555) จิตรกรรมเล่าเรื่องวรรณคดีอมตะ: อิเหนา ศรีธนญชัย สังข์ทอง สุวรรณหงส์ คัทธณะกุมาร สินไซ. มิวเซียมเพรส.
  4. ↑ ยังรอต, วิไลรัตน์ and องค์วุฒิเวทย์, ธวัชชัย (2555) จิตรกรรมเล่าเรื่องวรรณคดีอมตะ: อิเหนา ศรีธนญชัย สังข์ทอง สุวรรณหงส์ คัทธณะกุมาร สินไซ. มิวเซียมเพรส.
  5. ↑ ยังรอต, วิไลรัตน์ and องค์วุฒิเวทย์, ธวัชชัย (2555) จิตรกรรมเล่าเรื่องวรรณคดีอมตะ: อิเหนา ศรีธนญชัย สังข์ทอง สุวรรณหงส์ คัทธณะกุมาร สินไซ. มิวเซียมเพรส.
  6. ↑ ยังรอต, วิไลรัตน์ and องค์วุฒิเวทย์, ธวัชชัย (2555) จิตรกรรมเล่าเรื่องวรรณคดีอมตะ: อิเหนา ศรีธนญชัย สังข์ทอง สุวรรณหงส์ คัทธณะกุมาร สินไซ. มิวเซียมเพรส.
  7. ↑ Vathanaprida, Supaporn; MacDonald, Margaret Read; Rohitasuke, Boonsong (1994-01-01). Thai Tales: Folktales of Thailand. Libraries Unlimited. ISBN 9781563080968.
  8. ↑ ยังรอต, วิไลรัตน์ and องค์วุฒิเวทย์, ธวัชชัย (2555) จิตรกรรมเล่าเรื่องวรรณคดีอมตะ: อิเหนา ศรีธนญชัย สังข์ทอง สุวรรณหงส์ คัทธณะกุมาร สินไซ.มิวเซียมเพรส.
  9. ↑ ยังรอต, วิไลรัตน์ and องค์วุฒิเวทย์, ธวัชชัย (2555) จิตรกรรมเล่าเรื่องวรรณคดีอมตะ: อิเหนา ศรีธนญชัย สังข์ทอง สุวรรณหงส์ คัทธณะกุมาร สินไซ. มิวเซียมเพรส.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.