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Treason and Loyalty to the Royal Court: The Kan Narrative in Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century Khmer Chronicle Manuscripts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2020
Abstract
The Kan narrative presents a series of events that are believed, by many Cambodians today including top leaders, to be the historical contestation for kingship between a commoner named Kan and members of the royal family during the early sixteenth century. Discussing the contents, the formats, the epistemology, and key figures bound up in the Kan narrative, this article provides insights on its contextual origins and reception as well as the texts that recount it. Rather than a proven historical episode, the narrative was effectively re-constructed by two groups of chronicle writers during the early 1900s in order to promote ideas about ‘treason’ and ‘loyalty’ to the throne. Uncovering the contextual origins and reception of the narrative not only allows us to understand the process whereby a long-held body of local scholarship lying outside the scholarly practice of ‘history’ in the present-day sense was used to shape collective knowledge, but also to see its profound impact on colonial and post-independence collective memory and culture.
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Royal Asiatic Society
Footnotes
Research for this article was supported by the International Program of Collaborative Research (Fiscal Years 2017-18) through the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University. I acknowledge the International Institute for Asian Studies for the fellowship that I utilised to revise this article between February-July 2019. I am also thankful to the following scholars and friends for their helpful criticism, suggestions and comments: Grégory Mikaelian, Bruce Lockhart, Roger Nelson, Kobayashi Satoru, Haruno Shintani, Benedicte du Cheyron, William Monroe and Bob Snow. Special thanks also go to the anonymous reviewer for their insightful suggestions and the editors of JRAS for copyediting and useful guidance.
References
1 Pravattividyā Thnāk'dīṭap'muoy [11th grade history textbook] (Phnom Penh, 2015), p. 130.
2 Different sources provide different years for Kan's reign. For example, Siksāsaṅgam Thnāk'dīṭap'muoy [11th grade social studies textbook] points out that Kan's reign lasted until 1526, while Siksāsaṅgam Thnākdīprāṃmuoy [6th grade social studies textbook] recounts Kan's kingship until his death in 1525. See Siksāsaṅgam Thnāk'dīṭap'muoy (Phnom Penh, 2007), p. 180; Siksāsaṅgam Thnākdīprāṃmuoy (Phnom Penh, 2012), p. 107.
3 Pravattividyā Thnāk'dīṭap'muoy, pp. 129–131.
4 The book is written by Hun Sen's senior advisor and academia Ros Chantraboth, see Ros Chantraboth, Preah Sdach Kân [Royal Lord Kan] (Phnom Penh, 2007).
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11 My summary of these inscriptions is based on Ashley Thompson's translation which can be found in its French version in Ashley Thompson ‘Mémoires du Cambodge, Vol. II’ (unpublished PhD dissertation, Université de Paris VIII, 1999), pp. 403–406, and in its English version in Thompson, Ashley, ‘Introductory Remarks Between the Lines: Writing Histories of Middle Cambodia’, in Other Pasts: Women, Gender and History in Early Modern Southeast Asia, (ed.) Andaya, Barbara Watson (Honolulu, 2000), pp. 47–68Google Scholar, p. 52.
12 Filliozat ‘Une inscription cambodgienne en pāli et en khmer de 1566’, p. 98.
13 This suggestion is helpful for my analysis that follows later in this article. See Thompson, ‘Mémoires du Cambodge Vol. I’, p. 348.
14 See the Norodom court chronicle of 1869 in École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO)'s cat. no, ‘P. Camb 88’, p. 138.
15 Michael Vickery, ‘Cambodia after Angkor, The Chronicular Evidence for the Fourteenth to Sixteenth Centuries Vol. I and II’ (unpublished PhD dissertation, Yale University, 1977), pp. 232–233.
16 Cushman, Richard D. (translator), The Royal Chronicle of Ayutthaya (Bangkok, 2000), pp. 28–30Google Scholar. More discussion on Ayutthaya's rivalry for maritime trade with Longvek during the second half of the sixteenth century, see Baker, Chris and Phongpaichit, Pasuk, A History of Ayutthaya: Siamese in the Early Modern World (Cambridge, 2017), p. 89CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
17 Vickery, ‘Cambodia after Angkor’, pp. 64–65.
18 Ibid., p. 66.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid., p. 76.
21 This article refrains from providing a comparison since all these texts are more or less reproduced/re-copied from the same source, namely the P.Camb. 88.
22 For more discussion on the composition of Khmer chronicles and the relationship with historical events, see Éveline Porée-Maspero, ‘Remise en question de l'histoire du Cambodge à partir du XIVe siècle’, C. R. de l'Académie des Sciences d'outre-mer (Paris) 38, 2 (1983), pp. 263–271; Népote, Jacques, ‘Sources de l'histoire du pays khmer et société cambodgienne: quelques considérations méthodologiques’, Péninsule, 58 (2009), pp. 5–17Google Scholar.
23 The Nong chronicle was composed in 1818 under the reign of King Ang Chan II (r. 1806–34). The original Khmer text was lost. In 1864, first the French Representative in Cambodia, Doudart de Lagrée (1823–63), with the help of several Khmer officials, translated the text into French, and, between 1871–2, Francis Garnier (1839–73) published the French version in the Journal Asiatique. See Francis Garnier, ‘Chronique royale du Cambodge’ Journal asiatique, oct-déc. 1871, 6° sér., t, XVIII, n° 67, pp. 336–385; aoû-sept, 1872, 6° sér., t, XX, n° 37, pp. 112–144. For a good discussion about the Nong text, see Phoeun, Mak, ‘L'introduction de la Chronique royale du Cambodge du lettré Nong’, Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient 67 (1980), pp. 135–145CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
24 Garnier, ‘Chronique royale du Cambodge’, 1871, p. 347.
25 Ibid., p. 348.
26 Ibid.
27 These nineteenth-century palace chronicles, together with a few early twentieth-century texts, are kept at the EFEO library in Paris under cat. no. P. Camb.
28 EFEO's cat. no. P. Camb. 88, pp. 80–82.
29 EFEO's cat. no. P. Camb. 48, pp. 39–40.
30 EFEO's cat. no. P. Camb. 3, pp. 8–11. Also see Moura, Jean, Le royaume du Cambodge Vol. II (Paris, 1883), pp. 3–183Google Scholar.
31 The 1904 baṅsāvtār is entitled in EFEO's catalogue number as ‘P. Camb. 63’. More about Thiounn's works, see Marie Aberdm, ‘Samdech Veang Thiounn (1864–1946), interprète devenu haut-dignitaire du royaume khmer sous l'administration française’, Bulletin de l'AEFEK, n° 20 (février 2015); Edwards, Penny, Cambodge: The Cultivation of a Nation, 1860–1945 (Honolulu, 2007), pp. 67–68Google Scholar.
32 They include the palace chronicle text of 1713/14 (EFEO's cat. no. P. Camb. 64/3), which covers only a few reigns prior to the composition of the text.
33 EFEO's cat. no. P. Camb. 63, part II, pp. 22–25 and part III, pp. 1–15.
34 For Leclère's biography and his works related to Cambodia, see Grégory Mikaelian, Un partageux au Cambodge: biographie d'Adhémard Leclère suivie de l'inventaire du Fonds Adhémard Leclère (Paris, 2011).
35 See ‘Baṅsāvtār Khmer rapas’ Le Résident, Mairie de Phnom Penh, Monsieur Leclère’. [Khmer chronicle of Résident-mayor of Phnom Penh, Mr. Leclère]’ at https://bibliotheque-numerique-patrimoniale.cu-alencon.fr/records/item/5936-chronique-royale-reproduite-a-partir-d-un-manuscrit-cambodgien-par-un-lettre-du-palais-a-l-intention-d-a-leclere-en-janvier-1906-ce-dernier-lui-adressant-nominalement-le-document-en-khmer (accessed 23 May 2019). I am grateful to Bruce Lockhart for helping to locate this manuscript in Communauté Urbaine d'Alençon's online collection.
36 Although Japan Sotoshu Relief Committee (JSRC) book does not mentioned a specific year of publication, we can assume that the text was most likely produced during the 1980s because the place of publication is mentioned as the Khao-I-Dang refugee camp. Its publication was probably carried out as part of the broader effort of Cambodian intellectuals based in France to set up an educational system in the camp, which continued its operation until March 1993. See Adhémar Leclère, Braḥrāj Baṅsāvtār Khmer: Braḥ Mahāksatr Soyrāj Sampatti knuṅ Kruṅ Kampuchea Dhiptī [Khmer royal chronicle: Kings of Cambodia] (Khao-I-Dang refugee camp: JSRC, n.d.), pp. i-iii.
37 Tranet's publication of the Kan narrative based on the 1906 baṅsāvtār edition was originally published in Munich in 1987. He later published another French text which is a partial translation by Leclère from the 1906 Khmer text, see Tranet, Michel, Le Sdach Kan (Phnom Penh, 2002)Google Scholar.
38 Leclère, Adhémar, Histoire du Cambodge (Paris, 1914)Google Scholar.
39 Ibid., p. x.
40 Leclère, Adhémar, ‘Le Sdach Kan, Bulletin de la Société des Études Indochinoises (BSEI) 59 (1910), pp. 17–55Google Scholar.
41 Leclère, Le Sdach Kan (Saigon, 1911). This version can be viewed on the La médiathèque de la Communauté Urbaine d'Alençon website, https://bibliotheque-numerique-patrimoniale.cu-alencon.fr/viewer/1950/?offset=1#page=1&viewer=picture&o=info&n=0&q= (accessed 29 January 2019).
42 Leclère, Histoire du Cambodge, pp. 235–278.
43 For more discussion on these twentieth-century chronicles, see Theara Thun, ‘Baṅsāvtār: The Evolution of Historiographical Genres in Colonial Cambodia’ (unpublished PhD dissertation, National University of Singapore, 2017), pp. 67–83.
44 Vickery, ‘Cambodia and its Neighbors in the Fifteenth Century’, p. 1. A good discussion on mythical elements and implications in Khmer chronicles related to the depicted Cambodia's first founding ruler Braḥ Thoṅ and the Fou-nam Kingdom, see Népote, Jacques, ‘MYTHES DE FONDATION ET FONCTIONNEMENT DE L'ORDRE SOCIAL DANS LA BASSE VALLEE DU MEKONG: accompagnés de considérations sur l'indianisation’, Péninsule 38 (1999), pp. 35–67Google Scholar.
45 Cœdès, ‘La date d'exécution des deux bas-reliefs tardifs d'Angkor Vat’, p. 240.
46 David Chandler, ‘Cambodia Before the French: Politics in a Tributary Kingdom, 1794–1848’ (unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Michigan, 1973), p. 11.
47 Largely due to this literary practice of re-producing the baṅsāvtār and other Khmer texts during the nineteenth century, a popular belief concerning a severe decline of the Khmer kingdom following Siam's takeover of Longvek in 1594 has continued in Cambodia until the present day. Based on Grégory Mikaelian's scholarship on pre-colonial Cambodian historiography, this belief was in fact invented during the late eighteenth century by associating it with the story of Braḥ Go Braḥ Kaev [legends Braḥ Go and Braḥ Kaev] in order to condemn Siamese attacks and interventions in the Khmer court during those years. See Mikaelian, Grégory, ‘Le passé entre mémoire d'Angkor et déni de Laṅvaek: la conscience de l'histoire dans le royaume khmer du XVIIe siècle’, in Le passé des Khmers: Langues, textes, rites, (eds.) Abdoul-Carime, Nasir, Mikaelian, Grégory and Thach, Joseph (Bern, 2014), pp. 167–212Google Scholar.
48 1906 baṅsāvtār, pp. 50–94. [48] Ibid., pp. 51–52.
49 This observation is based on my own visit to the Bayon in January 2019.
50 Nhim Sotheavin, ‘Factors that Led to the Change of the Khmer Capitals from the 15th to the 17th centuries’, p. 67. The article is a revised version of Nhim's unpublished PhD dissertation submitted to Sophia University in 2003, available at http://dept.sophia.ac.jp/is/angkor/publication/pdf/bunka/bunka29_03.pdf (accessed 20 December 2018).
51 See CMCC's collection of Prajuṃ Rīoeṅ Preṅ Khmer (Bhāg Praṃmuoy) [Collection of Khmer folklores (Vol. 6)], pp. 14–16. Ashley Thompson has translated the story into English and incorporated into her study on the historiography of Middle-period Cambodia. See Thompson, ‘Introductory Remarks Between the Lines’, pp. 62–63.
52 Thompson ‘Mémoires du Cambodge Vol. I’, pp. 349–350.
53 On this particular aspect, although the 1904 text portrays Khlang Moeung's death as due to his old age, the storyline concerning Khlang Moeung's intention to mobilise ghost troops to help Ang Chan to defeat Kan is the same. See 1904 baṅsāvtār, Part II, p. 8.
54 Anak Tā is a Khmer term popularly used to refer to the spiritual protector of a place or a village.
55 When khlang or ghlaṃṅ means treasury in Khmer, moeung or mīoeṅ means province. Thus, khlang moeung or ghlaṃṅ mīoeṅ is the administrative title of an official who is in charge of both governing a province and managing its treasury.
56 1904 baṅsāvtār, Part III, pp. 3–9; 1906 baṅsāvtār, pp. 69–72.
57 Prajuṃ Rīoeṅ Preṅ Khmer, Vol. 8, pp. 4–9. For more discussion on this version of Khlang Moeung's story and the annual ceremony in Pursat, see Forest, Alain, Le culte des génies protecteurs au Cambodge: Analyse et traduction d'un corpus de textes sur les neak ta (Paris, 1992), pp. 237–247Google Scholar; Grégory Mikaelian, ‘Le souverain des Kambujā, ses neveux jörai, ses dépendants kuoy et pear. Un aperçu de la double légitimation du pouvoir dans le Cambodge du XVIIe siècle’, Péninsule 71, 2 (2015), pp. 35–75, pp. 61–62.
58 Mikaelian's studies on the power legitimisation of Khmer rulers during the seventeenth century show that the Khlang Moeung story in Pursat also has a connection with ethnic Pear who were in charge of Khmer kings’ royal elephants during those years because it depicts Khlang Moeung as a Pear. See Mikaelian, ‘Le souverain des Kambujā’, p. 61.
59 Eveline Porée-Maspero studied several oral stories in various places of Cambodia during the early 1960s. See Porée-Maspero, Eveline, ‘Traditions orales de Pursat et de Kampot’ Artibus Asiae, 21, 3/4 (1961), pp. 394–398CrossRefGoogle Scholar, p. 397.
60 For a good discussion on the relationship between oral and written histories in early-modern Makassar, see Cummings, William, ‘Rethinking the Imbrication of Orality and Literacy: Historical Discourse in Early Modern Makassar’, Journal of Asian Studies 62, 2 (2003), pp. 531–551CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
61 Ian Harris also discussed the term in his study on history of Cambodian Buddhism. See Harris, Ian C., Cambodian Buddhism: History and Practice (Honolulu, 2005), p. 50Google Scholar. Khing Hoc Dy has also studied the term and identified Kan as the man of merit. See Dy, Khing Hoc, ‘Neak Mean Boun, ‘Être de mérites’ dans la culture et la littérature du Cambodge’, Péninsule 56, 1 (2008), pp. 1–39Google Scholar.
62 1906 baṅsāvtār, p. 55.
63 1904 baṅsāvtār, Part III, p. 11; 1906 baṅsāvtār, p. 84.
64 1906 baṅsāvtār, p. 78.
65 The notion surrounding these great Angkor kings is defined largely through Wolters's definition of ‘men of prowess’, see Wolters, O. W., History, Culture, and Region in Southeast Asian Perspectives (2nd ed., revised), (Ithaca, 1999), pp. 93–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
66 Leclère's large collection can be found in the Communauté Urbaine d'Alençon's collection at http://137.74.162.72/Fonds-Adhemard-Leclere (accessed 10 January 2019).
67 Although the 1906 baṅsāvtār was not commissioned by the Palace, its contents show a strong emphasis in its depiction of Kan as a traitor (jan kpat’) and Khlang Moeung as a loyalist (anak smăgr).
68 Yukanthor was appointed by Norodom as the heir presumptive to the throne. However, due to criticism of French colonial rule over Cambodia made by the Prince in Paris in 1900, he was exiled for the remainder of his life. He died in Bangkok in 1934. For more about Yukanthor, see Lamant, Pierre, L'affaire Yukanthor: autopsie d'un scandale colonial (Paris, 1989)Google Scholar.
69 I am grateful to Bruce Lockhart for his observation on this point.
70 For a good discussion on how the Norodom court in Phnom Penh re-constructed its palace chronicles in order to build a close connection with the ancient city of Angkor during the nineteenth century, see Forest, Alain and Phoeun, Mak, ‘Le temps d'Angkor dans les Chroniques royales Khmères’, in Notes sure la culture et sure la religion dans la Péninsule indochinoise, (eds.) Anh, Nguyên Thê and Forest, Alain (Paris, 1994), pp. 77–106Google Scholar.
71 Porée-Maspero, ‘Traditions orales de Pursat et de Kampot’, pp. 395–396.
72 The ritual was recorded and published by Pierre Andelle in 1940 and a Khmer newspaper called Jhām Khmer [Khmer blood] in June 1957. Both sources display Khlang Moeung's image was understood by those who organised the ritual as a national hero and, at the same time, a spiritual protector of Cambodia. See Pierre Andelle, ‘Folklore et légendes du Cambodge: Le génie Khléang-Muoeung’ Indochine Hebdomadaire Illustrée 1, 11 (21 Nov. 1940), pp. 5–7; ‘Hetu avī pānjāmān bidhī ḷoeṅ anak tā Khlang Moeung nau khett Pursat? [Why there is a ceremony for anak tā Khlang Moeung in Pursat province?]’, Jhām Khmer, 6 June 1957.
73 The film was entitled Anak Tā Khlang Moeung (spiritual grandfather Khlang Moeung] and released in the cinemas in Phnom Penh and Siam Reap in February 1969. See Reastr Sangkum [People's socialist] newspaper, 1 February 1969. The film was probably adapted from a novel with the same name published in 1967. See Lot, Kuy, Anak Tā Khlang Moeung (Phnom Penh, 1967)Google Scholar.
74 Thompson, Ashley, ‘Performative Realities: Nobody's Possession’, in At the Edge of the Forest: Essays on Cambodia, History, and Narrative in Honor of David Chandler, (eds.) Hansen, Anne Ruth and Ledgerwood, Judy (Ithaca, 2008), p. 105Google Scholar.
75 For more discussion on this ritual and the people who organised it, see Yamada, Teri Shaffer, ‘The Spirit Cult of Khlang Moeung in Long Beach, California’, in History, Buddhism, and New Religious Movements in Cambodia, (eds.) Marston, John and Guthrie, Elizabeth (Honolulu, 2014), pp. 213–225Google Scholar.
76 During these years, several texts were produced by largely adopting the contents of the 1904 and 1906 baṅsāvtār texts. They include two palace baṅsāvtār texts produced in 1928 and 1934 (while the 1928 has been lost, the 1934 text is available at the Toyo Bukko in Tokyo), a historical novel depicting Ang Chan's greatness written by Biv Chhia Leang in 1965, and Eng Sut's 1969 Eksār Mahāpuras Khmer [Document of Khmer rulers].
77 Hel was a novelist active during the Khmer Republic, and most of his novels portray Cambodia's major past events and domestic political conflicts.
78 Hel, Saing, Anaka Paṭivatt Klaeṅ Klāy [A fake revolutionary] (Phnom Penh, 1972)Google Scholar. Another novelist of the Khmer Republic named Soun Sokhom also wrote a similar novel entitled Luoṅ Braḥ Stec Kan [Royal Lord-king Kan] published in the Koh Santepheap newspaper between June 1974-March 1975.
79 Ngea, Tren, Pravattisāstr Khmer Vol. 2 [Khmer History] (Phnom Penh, 1974), pp. 13–19Google Scholar.
80 Ibid., pp. 17–18.
81 Although Sor claimed in the Preface of his text that his version was collected from a monastery called Wat Kampong Tralach in Kampong Chhnang province and originated from the original text written in the sixteenth century, the Kan narrative in his text is in fact an adapted version of that included in the 1906 baṅsāvtār. Ioe, Sor, Pravatti Braḥ Stec Kan [History of Royal Lord Kan] (Phnom Penh, 1989)Google Scholar, p. i.
82 Chhoung, Touch, Stec Kan Jrek Rāj [Lord Kan the usurper] (Paris, 1995)Google Scholar.
83 With the exception of Chhoung's poetic text that only depicts Kan's birth, Srī Sugandhapad's love for Kan's sister, Srī Sugandhapad's intention to kill Kan, and Kan's escape from the palace.
84 Leclère, , Histoire du Cambodge, (translation) Kheang, Tep Meng, alia Yu, Ty Khea (Phnom Penh, 2004)Google Scholar.
85 Ros, Preah Sdech Kân.
86 Based on my field research at the site in August 2018, there are three ancient towers built by brick and sandstone and a huge water channel in that area, and all belonged to the Angkor era (tenth-twelfth centuries) in terms of structure and materials.
87 The film, Hluoṅ Braḥ Stec Kan, was released in August 2017 and with a one million US dollar budget is the most expensive film in Cambodian history.
88 The boat or dūkṅa has been constructed and brought to compete in the Water Festival, or Puṇy Uaṃ Dūk, in front of the Phnom Penh Palace since 2013. Its name—Adhirāj Stec Kan Techo Sen Jăy—is a combination of words adhirāj stec Kan [great king Kan], Techo Saena [Hun Sen], and jăy [victory].
89 Prominent Cambodian political cartoonist Ung Bun Heang (1953–2014), who lived and died in Sydney, was an outstanding figure who criticised Hun Sen's effort to re-construct Kan's image. Under the pen name ‘Sacrava's Political Cartoon’, Ung's cartoons can be seen at http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2010/08/sacravas-political-cartoon-sdech-kan.html (accessed 23 December 2018) and http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2010/02/sacravas-political-cartoon-sdech-kan.html (accessed 23 December 2018).
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