[Talk] Recalling a Trans-local Past: Thailand’s Mon-language Manuscripts

Readers may be interested in this talk by Dr Patrick McCormick on Mon manuscripts at the Siam Society on 16 May 2024.

The Mon people are usually associated with Burma, yet Burma has never been the only place where Mon-speaking communities have lived. Large numbers of Mon-language manuscripts are kept in the temples of the Thai-Mon community, living largely in the provinces surrounding Bangkok. Among these collections are numerous texts unknown in Burma. The Thai-Mon community represents the remnants of a once trans-local past. Mon speakers in past decades and centuries crossed what we now consider an international border as they took part in the circulation of texts, ideas and cultural forms, and trade. During the twentieth century, the Thai state promoted a single past and identity. Over time, this project effectively cut the Thai Mons off from their language and intellectual traditions. Few Thai Mons are literate in Mon today, so that the collections of texts, including religious teachings, literature, history, and astrology, languish unread and unvalued. I trace the history of the rise of Thai Mon communities, which one took part in the “Greater Burma Zone,” through their intellectual, cultural, religious, and intellectual traditions. The manuscripts still hold great value for the Mon community of Burma, which maintains an intellectual tradition in the language that is still very much alive. Visuals from recent work in Thai Mon temples will illustrate aspects of digitizing the manuscripts in hopes of encouraging others to become involved in preserving and promoting Thailand’s manuscript heritage.

Source: Recalling a Trans-local Past: Thailand’s Mon-language Manuscripts | The Siam Society Under Royal Patronage