Prince Prisdang Chumsai, from ambassador to outcast
Every now and then I come across a new person in Siamese history. A person with a fascinating and interesting life as I could not have imagined before that time. Prince Prisdang is such a person.
He was a royalist but also a challenger. He was accused of treason against the king, of financial and sexual wrongs, and eventually died in abject poverty. Unfortunately, he has been virtually forgotten in Siam/Thailand himself for reasons related to his relationship to King Chulalongkorn.
He was a kind, intelligent, and able blue-blooded man who spoke fluent English. Everything came together in his life: Thai nationalism, European imperialism, Buddhist universalism and anti-imperialism across different states.
Origin and education
He was a Mom Chao, the grandson of King Rama III, the youngest of eight children and born in Bangkok in 1851. His education began in Singapore and later as an engineer at King's College in London. were awarded by Prime Minister Gladstone, who commented that it was very special that someone from such a 'distant country' graduated with such good grades.
He chose to gain more experience with a British company for a few years about port works, railways and waterworks. He traveled through a number of countries in Europe and also visited the Netherlands in 1876 to talk about dams in the Zuiderzee.
In 1881 he was back in Bangkok. He accompanied King Chulalongkorn on a visit to the east coast and "listened to the king's opinions on politics and other matters," as he himself later wrote in his autobiography. At the end of that year, the king sent him back to Europe as a special delegate to the wedding of a prince in Prussia. A number of princes and other persons sailed with him to begin studies in England with Prisdang as mentor. Celebrating, he visited several royal families in Europe.
His life as an ambassador
King Chulalongkorn appointed Prisdang in 1882 as Siamese ambassador to all European countries and the United States, where previously only Europeans acted as envoys for Siam, sometimes representing their own interests rather than the interests of Siam. He was based in London where he presented his credentials to Queen Victoria in 1882. He traveled to many European capitals, talked to kings and emperors, took part in parties, attended music and theatre, and trained in dance and billiards. He gave many gifts and it is this time that stories of his financial problems and debts were circulated. He negotiated membership of the international Post and Telegraph Union and concluded other treaties. The Hague newspaper reported on 09-11-1883
The Siamese envoy, Prince Prisdang, is expected here next Saturday to sign the treaty concluded between the Netherlands and Siam, regulating the trade in spirits.
In the 1884s, Siam felt threatened by the colonial powers, England, which occupied all of Burma and France, which tried to gain a foothold in Laos. In 7 the king asked Prisdang to draw up a plan to prevent colonization. Together with four other princes and 1885 officials, Prisdang sent a reply with the main point of drawing up a constitution with a constitutional instead of an absolute monarchy, more equality, freedoms and the abolition of outdated traditions. The king replied in May XNUMX with a strong rejection and recalled Prisdang to Siam.
A report in the Dutch Government Gazette 15-03-1888 says something about his fame and influence in Europe at that time.
By Royal Decree of 2 March 1888 no.2, Prince Prisdang, last envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of His Majesty the King of Siam, was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion at the Dutch Court.
Work in Siam and Malaysia
Prisdang started working as director of the Post and Telegraph Service. He later worked for a British company in Malaysia for some time.
Rumors continued to circulate about his financial problems. He is also said to have an affair with Sri, a widow of a friend, who had previously been asked by King Chulalongkorn to join his harem but which she had refused. Prisdang has always denied that they had sexual contact: she was an ordinary friend.
At this time, Prisdang also spoke out against polygyny, polygamy, because this would make political relationships too personal. Many suspected him of betrayal of the king. In October 1896 he left for India and later Ceylon and was ordained as a monk
Monk in India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
On November 5, 1896, Prisdang was ordained as a monk with the moniker name Jinavaravamsa. All previous years, Prisdang continued to exchange letters with King Chulalongkorn and even after this initiation he wrote to the king.
In April 1897, the King visited Ceylon on his first trip to Europe. They went together to a temple in the royal city of Kandy where a relic of the Buddha was kept: a tooth. The king asked if he could hold the tooth for a moment, which was refused and the king left indignantly.
In the following years, monk Jinavaravamsa visited places in North India where excavations took place in Buddhist sites. Many relics passed from hand to hand, often with strife and suspicion where Jinavaravamsa also faced an accusation of theft.
Jinavaravamsa founded two free schools, one for girls and one for boys, at his later temple in Ceylon. He received guests from all corners of the world and ordained a German, a Dutchman and an Australian as a monk.
Back to Siam, his poverty-stricken existence as an outcast and his death
King Chulalongkorn died in 1910, 'ascended into heaven' as the official Thai expression says. Jintavaravamsa rushed to Bangkok in 1911 to attend the funeral. There it turned out that many former friends and nobles had turned against him and he had to take off his habit. It was whispered that the king would not bow to him, the monk.
Now called Prisdang again, he led a miserable existence. He only had short-term work, for example as a translator. Letters of supplication to King Vajirawuth, Rama VI, went unanswered. Inheritances of money and houses passed him by, and he lived for a long time on a houseboat in a canal where he posted texts criticizing the authorities.
In 1921 he received a prize from Japan for the most beautiful long white beard.
He died in 1935, 3 years after a peaceful revolution placed the king under a constitution and almost 50 years after Prisdang had already advocated it.
Tamara loos, the author of the book below, commented that:
The politically ambivalent allegiances of Prisdang – both a loyal royalist and critical of absolutism – have parallels in contemporary Thailand, where citizens struggle to find a way to express critical forms of patriotism under an equally fraught royalist regime .'
His Thai name is พระวรวงศ์เธอ พระองค์เจ้าปฤษฎางค์ the last part of which is pronounced as Phra Ong Chao Pritsadaang meaning 'The Prince of the Noble Back of the Buddha' means.
Sources:
Tamara Loos, Bones around My Neck, The life and exile of a prince Provocateur, Ithaca, NY and London, 2016
('Bones around my neck' is a Thai saying and means 'scapegoat')
Two reviews on this book with a more general overview:
https://www.bangkokpost.com/life/arts-and-entertainment/1312659/ambassador-provocateur-outcast
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2016/10/historians-new-book-tells-story-notorious-thai-prince
A short video in English about his life, especially about a small island off the coast of Sri Lanka where Prisdang stayed:
The cover of Tamara Loos' book shows how Prince Prisdang once appeared at a party: wearing a traditional Siamese robe and a British military uniform.
Thank you Tino for this life story of a prince unknown to me.
King Chulalongkorn appointed Prisdang in 1882 as Siamese ambassador to all European countries and the United States, where previously only Europeans acted as envoys for Siam, sometimes representing their own interests rather than the interests of Siam.
According to other sources, there were already ambassadors back and forth in 1604. What is wrong?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_Thailand
Yes Chris, there were short-term embassies of Siamese to Europe from the early 17th century, the first to the Netherlands in 1608: see here:
https://www.thailandblog.nl/achtergrond/het-eerste-bezoek-van-een-siamese-delegatie-aan-europa/
And later also to France.
I should have said better '…the first permanent Siamese embassy….
So not only Europeans, or perhaps never Europeans, but I think Thai nationals ..
Quote: 'Together with four other princes and 7 officials, Prisdang sent a reply with the main point of drawing up a constitution with a constitutional instead of an absolute monarchy, more equality, freedoms and the abolition of outdated traditions.'
The following are the full proposals of Prince Prisdang and those others. Very modern for the time, 1885:
There is only one solution: the country must adopt a constitution.
The proposed Constitution does not, at this stage, mean setting up one
Parliament. But it concerns the following measures:
1. There must be a change from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy.
2. Defense and administration of the country should be in the hands of ministers who together form a cabinet, and a clearly formulated law of succession should be promulgated.
3. All corruption must be eradicated, and to ensure this, the salaries of government officials must be made adequate. [This point should be seen against the background of Siam before King Chulalongkorn's reform program].
4. Universal satisfaction must be met by ensuring equality before the law, including the tax system.
5. Obsolete traditions must be abolished, however ancient they may be.
6. Freedom of thought, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are
are guaranteed.
7. Appointments and dismissals in government service are governed by clearly defined law.