Conceptions of State and Kingship in Southeast Asia

Structure Bookmarks......Page 0
CONCEPTIONS OF STATE AND KINGSHIP IN SOUTHEAST ASIA......Page 1
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Ithaca, New York 14850 April, 1956......Page 3
April 2004......Page 4
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l. However, it must be taken into account that Burmese, Mon and Thai literatures are still very imperfectly known.......Page 8
2. There usually are twenty-six heavens in all, including those on Mount Meru, but the number occasionally varies.......Page 9
3. Although Brahman and Buddhist cosmologies usually ascribe to the world a circular shape, the \"cosmic\" cities of Southeast Asia, with rare excep­tions, affect the square form. It would take too long to explain this apparent, but not very important di screpanc_y.......Page 10
4. In the original myth Mount Mandara is used as churning stick. In South­east Asiatic variants of the myth Mount Meru usually takes its place.......Page 11
5. Similarly, H. G. Quaritch Wales comments on the bad impression created among the people by the abo 1 i ti on of the harem system by King Rama VI of Si am.......Page 12
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for Indra.......Page 14
The theory of divine incarnation as found in Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism is incompatible with the doctrine of the Buddhism of the H1nayana. This difference in tenets is clearly expressed even in the lay-out of capital......Page 15
7. However, strong traces of the belief that Siva and Vishnu incarnate them­selves in the king survive in the coronation rituals of Siam and Cambodia.......Page 16
think that the merit of having shaded the Buddha would have been exhaused by a life full of crimes. However, according to the Burmese chronicle, this is not so. The former mountain spirit is reborn in the 12th century as Prince Narathu who becomes king by murdering his father and brother and throughout his reign excells by bloody deeds, and in the 13th century as king Narathi­hapate. This leads us to a very characteristic conception of historical......Page 17
The theory of vocation to kingship either on the basis of divine incar­nation, as in Java and ancient Cambodia, or by karma acquired in former lives, as in Burma, Siam and modern Cambodia, did not deprive that of the heredity of the right to the crown of its importance. Again and again usurpers have striven for a semblance of legitimacy by construing genealogies linking them­selves either to the dynasty they had overthrown or to a dynasty which at an earlier period had governed the country. Occasionally, ph......Page 18
The deification of the king, while raising him to an almost unbelievably exalted position with regard to his subjects, has in no way succeeded in stabilizing government, rather the contrary. As explained above, the theory of divine incarnation, and even more so that of rebirth and of karma, pro­vided an easy subterfuge for usurpers. The fact that the relatively easy task of seizing the palace, as in Burma and Siam, or of seizing the regalia, as in certain parts of Indonesia, often sufficed to be accepted as......Page 19
Is all this a crumbling structure, giving way under the impact of modern civilization or may it still influence the political activities of the peoples concerned? The question is not easily answered. Information on this point is scarce. There are, however, a few indications.......Page 20
The story of the Myinmu rebellion of 1910, as told by Paul Edmonds in his book,ePeacocks and Pagodas, if it does not directly contribute to our knowledge of cosmo-magic ideas, at least gives a significant instance of the power of the belief in rebirth, prophecies and portents. A young man of eighteen years,......Page 21
One may ask whether there is any possibility of this same conception becoming the basis of future constructive developments. The question is difficult to answer. Orientals with western education, and above all the leaders of nationalist movements, tend to disregard and to despise the \"super­stitions\" which governed their nations in the past. Yet, there is the vast mass of the common people, grown up in the old traditions, people to whom the modern ideas of democracy and representative government mean little......Page 22
Siamese State Ceremonies.......Page 23