Lilit Phra Lo

Lilit Phra Lo (Thai: ลิลิตพระลอ) is a narrative poem of around 3,870 lines in Thai. Lilit is a poetic form; Phra is a prefix used for royalty and monks; Lo is the personal name of the hero, sometimes transcribed as Lor or Law. Date and authorship are unknown but the work was probably composed in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century CE and counts among the five earliest works of Thai literature. The plot is a courtly romance that ends with a tragic massacre and political reconciliation. The work has been criticized for portraying feudal indulgence. The story has been repeatedly reworked by prominent novelists and film-makers, often adapting the plot to conform to modern values.

Cover of 1974 Khurusapha edition

Texts, editions and commentaries
Opening folio from a samut khoi manuscript of Lilit Phra Lo (Chiang Mai University Library)

The National Library of Thailand holds fifty-two volumes of Lilit Phra Lo in the form of samut thai or samut khoi accordion books, including two complete sets. One volume carries a date of 1860. All are in the orthography of the middle to late nineteenth century.[1] All of these manuscripts appear to come from a single source as there are no major variations in the story.

A first, undated printing was made at the behest of King Chulalongkorn, possibly in 1902. The Vajirañāṇa Library reprinted the same text in 1915 and 1926,[2] [3] and the National Library has reprinted the same text repeatedly with only minor corrections.[4] This has become the standard text. However, there is no explanation of the relationship between this printed text and the various manuscript versions. Some stanzas in this printed text cannot now be located in any manuscript versions, and some stanzas found in most of the manuscripts are missing from the printed text.

In 1954, Chanthit Krasaesin (ฉันทิชย์ กระแสสินธุ์) edited an annotated version showing variations found in the various manuscripts.[5]

In 1957, the Ministry of Education reprinted the National Library 1926 text, adding numbering of the stanzas and some glosses.[6]

In 1961 Phra Worawetphisit (พระวรเวทย์พิสิฐ) (Seng Siwasi-anon), a monk and professor of Thai language and literature at Chulalongkorn University, who had edited the edition, authored Khu mue lilit phra lo (Handbook to Lilit Phra Lo).[7]

In 2001, Cholada Ruengruglikit (ชลดา เรืองรักษ์ลิขิต) published an annotated edition based on the National Library text. [8]

In 1916, the Wannakhadi samoson (Literary Society), a body established by King Vajiravudh to promote literature, selected Lilit Phra Lo as a superb example of the lilit form. Since 1934, the poem has been used for teaching in secondary schools in Thailand.[9]

Plot

Song and Suang are two cities with royal rulers. When Suang attacks Song, the king of Song is killed, but the city is defended. The son who succeeds has two daughters, Phuean and Pheng. When the king of Suang dies, he is succeeded by his son, Phra Lo, a man of "incomparable beauty."

Princesses Phuean and Pheng hear of Lo's beauty and fall in love. Their maids Ruen and Roi arrange to have traders sing of the princesses' beauty so that Lo hears and falls in love with them in return.

The maids search for love magic to draw Lo to Song. All adepts refuse, saying their skills will not work on a king. The maids are taken to see Old Lord Tiger Spirit, deep in the mountains.

He casts a spell which makes Lo desperate to travel to Song and make love to the princesses. Lo’s mother hires all the local adepts who successfully counter the spell. The maids send word to Old Lord Tiger Spirit who reinforces the spell, but Lo’s mother finds an adept who again can counter it. After the maids send word again, Old Lord Tiger Spirit recruits a massive spirit army which overwhelms the guardian spirits of Song and the magic of the city’s adepts. Old Lord Tiger Spirit then sends a flying betelnut which makes Lo unstoppable. His mother pleads with him in vain then gives him her blessing.

Lo leaves with a great army. Along the way he is torn between thoughts of his queen, consorts, and mother left behind, and his obsession with the princesses ahead. At the frontier, he sends the army home except for a hundred troops and two manservants, Khwan and Kaeo. They get past the border guards by bribery and subterfuge. At the Kalong River, he is again torn between going onwards or back home. When he looks for an omen in the river, the prediction is that he will not survive to return home, yet he decides to travel on. He leaves the remainder of the army behind, and sends ahead the two manservants who find the royal park of Song.

Impatient at the delay, the princesses send word to Old Lord Tiger Spirit, who arranges for a beautiful cock to lure Phra Lo. He meets up with his manservants and they enter the royal park.

After the two princesses and their two maids all dream the same dream, the maids travel to the royal park. The two sets of servants meet, pair off, and make love in a lake, on its bank, and in a pavilion. They reluctantly part to fetch their respective master and mistresses.

Lo and the two princesses meet in a pavilion in the park. The four servants withdraw. The three make love. Outside, the four servants restrain themselves for fear of giving offence to a royal residence. The three bathe, eat a meal, and swear undying love. The princesses and their maids leave to return to Song before evening falls.

Lo and his manservants follow and enter the palace under cover of night. After they have stayed secretly with the princesses for half a month, word leaks out. The father of the princesses is angry, but once he sneaks a look at Lo, he realizes Lo will be a perfect son-in-law, and starts arrangements for the marriage.

The late king's widow sees an opportunity to take revenge for the killing of her husband in the war between Suang and Song. Though the king ignores her pleas for vengeance, she secretly sends a murder squad. In the ensuing battle, the princesses come to stand beside Lo, and all three are killed by poison arrows. The four servants are also killed.

The King of Song is devastated. He has all members of the murder squad killed, and has the widow first flayed, then dragged to her death. The mother of the princesses is distraught to the point of madness.

Arrangements are made to cremate the three royals and four servants in royal style. An envoy is sent to inform Suang. After pondering revenge, the mother of Lo decides to send envoys and presents to the cremation as a gesture of reconciliation. After the cremation, the relics of the three royals and four servants are evenly divided. In both Song and Suang, memorial stupas are erected and the relics are simultaneously interred, followed by a festival and merit-making.

Characters
Principal characters in Lilit Phra Lo
NameDescriptionThaiTranslation
Suang
Maen Suangking of Suangแมนสรวงgod in heaven
Queen Bunlueahis wife, the mother of Phra Loบุญเหลือmerit remaining/exceeding
Phra Lotheir sonพระลอ
Laksanawadiwife of Phra Loลักษณวดีlady of (good) attributes
Khwanservant/page of Loขวัญsoul, auspiciousness
Kaeoservant/page of Loแก้วjewel
Song
Phimphisakhonking of Songพิมพิสาครform, ocean
Phichai Phitsanukonson and successor of Phimphisakhonพิไชพิษณุกรvictorious arm of Vishnu
Darawadiwife of Phichai Phitsanukonดาราวดีstar lady
Phueandaughter of Phichai Phitsanukon and Darawadiเพื่อนfriend
Phaengdaughter of Phichai Phitsanukon and Darawadiแพงvaluable
Ruenmaid to Phuean and Phengรื่นjoyful, fresh
Roimaid to Phuean and Phengโรย
Other
Pu Jao Samingphrai Old Lord Tiger Spiritan adeptปูเจ้าสมิงพรายปู pu, paternal grandfather; เจ้า jao,lord; สมิง, saming, tiger or Mon word for a noble or ruler; พราย, phrai, spirit of a dead person
Pu Mo Tao Old Sageadept who helps find Old Lord Tiger Spritปูหมอเฒ่าpaternal grandfather; doctor; old
Sitthichaiadept helping Bunlueaสิทธิไชยvictorious power

Dating

Estimates for the dating of the work have ranged from pre-Ayutthaya era to the early Bangkok era.

The language and the meter suggest a date in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. The language is similar to two other early literary works, Yuan Phai and Mahachat Khamluang (มหาชาติคำหลวง), and includes words and constructions that had disappeared by the seventeenth century.[10][8][11]

Early Thai had three tones, identified by one of two tone markers or their absence. Lilit Phra Lo is written in metrical forms designed for this tonal structure. At some time before the mid-seventeenth century, pronunciation shifted to five tones. The old metrical forms fell out of use and were replaced by forms suitable to the five-tone structure. Lilit Phra Lo was clearly composed before this great tone shift in the Tai family of languages.[10] Dating this shift has proved difficult.

Duangmon Jitjamnong argues that the battle between Ayutthaya and Lan Na mentioned in the preamble took place in the reign of King Trailokanath (1448–88) and hence dates the poem to that time.[11]

MR Sumonnachat Sawatdikun argues that the mention of sanphet alludes to the Phra Si Sanphet Buddha image cast around 1500 and hence dates the poem to that time.[12]

Authorship

The authorship is also unclear. The last two stanzas both begin "Here ends the work of a king," and various attempts have made to identify what king is meant. However, since these verses were probably added to the poem later, and since the words for "king" differ across the manuscripts and printed editions, this pursuit has been inconclusive.

As with many Thai literary works, Lilit Phra Lo may have developed over a long period with several authors contributing. The surviving text may have been owned by a performer who would have expanded its content during performance.

Origins

In 1932, Prince Damrong Rajanubhab wrote that the Phra Lo story was "a folktale (nithan, นิทาน) from the Lan Na kingdom that seems to have been written down by a king before he ascended the throne."[13]

MR Sumonnachat Sawatdikun and Chanthit Krasaesin argue that the poem derives from the old Thai-Lao epic, Thao hung rue jueang, in which there is a character called Lo and a place called Kalong, the name of a river in Lilit Phra Lo. Lo is also the name of a son of the Thai-Lao founder-god Khun Borom/Bulom in several texts, including the chronicle of Lan Xang.[12][5]

Phaithun Phromwijit argues that the poem derives from a Shan folktale, Jao Sam Lo.[14]

However, none of these works has any trace of the distinctive plot of Lilit Phra Lo.

Location

The two rival cities in Lilit Phra Lo are named Song and Suang. In 1945, MR Sumonnachat Sawatdikun proposed that Amphoe Song in Phrae Province is the town in the poem.[12]

Since 1951, the local authorities in Song have identified the town with the poem by renaming an old stupa as Phrathat Phra Lo (holy reliquary of Phra Lo), building shrines to other characters, opening a "Lilit Phra Lo Park" in 2008, and promoting the town to tourists as the "love land of Phra Lo."[15] In 1990, Wat Luang in the provincial capital of Phrae built a Khum Phra Lo (Phra Lo's house) on the occasion of a visit by Princess Mahachakri Sirindhorn.

MR Sumonnachat Sawatdikun suggested that the Kalong River is at the village called Kalong to the northwest of Phayao.[12] Nearby there are remains of an old moated mound which some scholars have identified with the city of Suang in the poem.[16] Other sites for Suang have been proposed in Chiang Rai, Lampang, and Roi Et provinces.

Meter

Lilit is a poetic form which includes verses in the meters known as khlong and rai.

Rai is a sequence of lines of five (and occasionally more) syllables with a rhyme from the final syllable of the line to the first-to-third syllable in the following line. The sequence may be of any length, and the end is often marked by a four-syllable line.

Khlong has variants of two, three, and four lines. The four-line version has four lines each of five syllables with a two- to four-syllable tailpiece, and usually a rhyme from the end syllable of the first line to a mid syllable in the second and third lines, and another from the end syllable of the second line to a mid syllable in the fourth line. Several variants dictate a pattern of tones on certain syllables. The two- and three-line versions are similar. The choice of form for each passage has no obvious guiding principle, except that rai is often used for narrative and khlong for dialogue, but this not a strict division.

Jindamani, a seventeenth-century manual or prosody, cites stanza 30 of Lilit Phra Lo as an example of khlong si.[17]

เสียงฦๅเสียงเล่าอ้างอันใด พี่เอย
เสียงย่อมยอยศใครทั่วหล้า
สองเขือพี่หลับใหลลืมตื่น ฤๅพี่
สองพี่คิดเองอ้าอย่าได้ถามเผือ

Controversies

Some literary scholars have argued that the author(s) of Lilit Phra Lo made mistakes in the placement or rhymes and tones; either the authors were unskilled or the metrical forms had not yet developed to the refined suphap (สุภาพ) forms achieved in the seventeenth century.

MR Sumonnachat Sawatdikun pointed out that the authors were being judged by metrical rules that may have been formulated long after the poem was composed.[18] Robert Bickner added that the use of the meter in the poem is consistent and conforms to the nature of the Thai language at the time, and that most of the anomalies can be attributed to corruptions of the manuscript by copyists and editors.[10]

In 1949, the poet Atsani Pholajan wrote an article under the pen-name Indrayuth (อินทรายุธ) in the magazine Aksonsan criticizing Lilit Phra Lo as "feudal literature" produced by and for a degenerate elite, and calling on people to read literature with social relevance instead.[19] Several scholars including Suphon Bunnag (ศุภร บุนนาค) and Wibha Kongkananda (วิภา กงกะนันทน์) defended the poem on grounds of its literary value and exposition of the Buddhist theory of karma.[20] [21]

Adaptations

The poem was adapted as a drama by the Front Palace King, Mahasak Phonlasep in the Bangkok Third Reign, and again by Chaophraya Thewet Wongwiwat (MR Lan Kunchon) in the Fifth Reign.[22]

In the late nineteenth century, the poem or certain passages were adapted as stage dramas and dance dramas, notably by Prince Narathip and his wife Tuan.[23]

In 1933, Chot Phraephan under the pen-name Yakhob (ยาขอบ) wrote a short story "Phuean–Phaeng" which transferred the characters of Lilit Phra Lo into a modern rural setting. Lo, a farmer, has an affair with the sister of his lover, and after she dies in childbirth, Lo commits suicide. In 1970, Cherd Songsri adapted the story into a film with Sorapong Chatree as lead actor.[24]

In 1968 Thangai Suwannathat directed a film "Phra Lo" in which Phra Lo is portrayed as a great king, the romance is downplayed, and the love scenes are omitted. In the finale, troops from Suang attack Song and burn it to the ground.[25]

In 1969, Nittaya Natayasunthon (นิตยา นาฏยสุนทร) authored a novel, Rak thi thuk muean (Love abandoned), in which Laksanawadi is the upright heroine, the two princesses are portrayed in a bad light, and Phra Lo is lured by the widowed grandmother in order to kill him in revenge.[26]

In 1970, the prolific popular novelist Thommayanti (Wimon Jiamjaroen) authored a novel Rak thi ton mon (Love by magic), which retains the original plot except for making the grandmother rather than the princesses responsible for luring Phra Lo to Song, and omitting the love scenes.[27] The novel was adapted into stage dramas by Nalini Sitasuwan (1977) and Patravadi Sitrairat (Lo dilokrat, 1986).[28]

Illustrations

The illustrator Hem Vejakorn (1904–69) illustrated a full set of scenes from the poem.[29]

The national artist Chakrabhand Posyakrit painted several scenes, especially of the two princessses.[30]

Translations
Cover of Pei-Xiong translation

In 1937, Prem Chaya (Prince Prem Purachatra) authored what he called "a rather freely adapted version" of the poem broadcast as a play by the BBC.[31] In 1981, Suraphon Wirunlak adapted the script for a stage performance in Malaysia.[32]

In 1999, a translation by Pairote Gesmankit, Rajda Isarasena, and Sudchit Bhinyoying was published as part of a project to publish ASEAN literature in translation.[33]

In 1960, Ousa Sheanakul Ways and Walter Robinson made a translation that was never published.

In 2013, Pei Xiaorui (Chinese: 裴晓睿) and Xiong Ran (Chinese: 熊燃) published a Chinese translation in classical meter along with essays on the poem as (Chinese: 《<帕罗赋>翻译与研究》，北京：北京大学出版社).[34]

In 2020, Robert J. Bickner published an English translation.[35]

Studies in western languages

Robert J. Bickner completed a thesis at University of Michigan with a detailed examination of the metrical forms used. The study was published in 1991.[10]

Soison Sakolrak completed a thesis at SOAS, University of London in 2003, concentrating on the modern adaptations of the poem.[36]

In 1982, Wibha Kongkananda authored Phra Lo: A Portrait of the Hero as Tragic Lover for UNESCO.

In 2000, Giles Delouche wrote an appreciation of the poem in French. [37]

Notes
  1. Chanthit Krasassin 1954, p. 105.
  2. Vajirañāṇa Library 1915.
  3. Vajirañāṇa Library 1926.
  4. National Library 1965.
  5. Chanthit Krasaesin 1954.
  6. Ministry of Education 1957.
  7. Worawetphisit 1961.
  8. Cholada Ruengruglikit 2001.
  9. Wibha Kongkananda 1982a, p. 119.
  10. Bickner 1991.
  11. Duangmon Jitjamnong 1978.
  12. Sumonnachat Sawatdikun 1994.
  13. Damrong Rajanubhab 1932.
  14. Phaithun Phromwijit 2001.
  15. Lilit Phra Lo Park.
  16. Chanthit Krasaesin 1954, p. 5–6.
  17. Fine Arts Department 2018, p. 32.
  18. Sumonnachat Sawatdikun 1994, p. 14.
  19. Indrayuth 1949.
  20. Suphon Bunnag 1975.
  21. Wibha Kongkananda 1982a.
  22. Chanthit 1954, p. 13–4.
  23. Narathippraphanphong 1972.
  24. Soison Sakolrak 2003, p. 146-9.
  25. Soison Sakolrak 2003, p. 125.
  26. Nittaya Natayasunthon 1972.
  27. Thommayanti 1969.
  28. Soison Sakolrak 2003, p. 160.
  29. Hem 1963.
  30. Chakrabhand.
  31. Prem Chaya 1937.
  32. Soison Sakolrak 2003, p. 122.
  33. ASEAN 1999.
  34. Pei and Xiong 2013.
  35. Bickner 2020.
  36. Soison Sakolrak 2003.
  37. Delouche 2000.
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References
  • ASEAN, ed. (1999). "Lilit Phra Lo: Ayutthaya Literary Work". Anthology of ASEAN Literature, Volume IIa: Thai Literary Works of the Ayutthaya Period, Translated Version. Bangkok: Amarin. pp. 332–545.
  • Bickner, Robert J. (1991). An Introduction to the Thai Poem ‘Lilit Phra Lor’ (The Story of King Lor). Northern Illinois University Center for Southeast Asian Studies.
  • Bickner, Robert J. (2020). The Story of King Lo: Lilit Phra Lo. Translated by Bickner, Robert J. Silkworm Books.
  • "Chakrabhand Posyakrit". Retrieved June 10, 2018.
  • Chanthit Krasaesin (1954). Prachum wannakhadi phak thi 2 phra lo lilit [Collected literary works volume 2 Phra Lo Lilit]. Bangkok: Thai Wattanaphanit.
  • Cholada Ruengruglikit (2001). An lilit phra lo chabap wikhro lae thot khwam [Reading Lilit Phra Lo: analytic edition]. Cholada Ruengruglikit/Thana Press.
  • Damrong Rajanubhab, Prince (1932). "Kham winitchai rueang phra lo lilit" [Verdict on Phra Lo Lilit]. Nangsue bantuek samakhom wannakhadi [Annals of the Literary Society]. 1, 5. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
  • Delouche, Gilles (2000). "Le Lilit Phra Lo et l'Âge d'or de la littérature classique siamoise". Moussons. 2.
  • Duangmon Jitjamnong (1978). Bot wikhro lilit phra lo nai choeng wijan [Critical analysis of Lilit Phra Lo]. Pattani: Songkhla Nakharin University.
  • Fine Arts Department (2018). Jindamani lem 1 lae jindamani chabap yai boribun [Jindamani volume one and jindamani large and complete edition]. Bangkok: Fine Arts Department.
  • Hem Vejakorn; Plueang Na Nakhon (1963). Phra lo phap vijit [Phra Lo illustrated]. Bangkok: Thai Wattanaphanit.
  • Indrayuth (April 1949). "Lilit phra lo ... wannakhadi sakdina" [Lilit Phra Lo ... feudal literature]. Aksonsat.
  • "Lilit Phra Lo Park". Retrieved June 10, 2018.
  • Ministry of Education (1957). Nangsue an kawi niphon rueang lilit phra lo [Reading text of the poetic composition Lilit Phra Lo]. Bangkok: Khurusapha.
  • Narathippraphanphong, Prince (1972). Bot lakhon rueang phra lo [Drama script on the story of Phra Lo]. Bangkok: Sinlapa Bannakhan.
  • National Library (1965). Lilit phra lo chabap ho samut haeng chat [Lilit Phra Lo National Library edition] (9th ed.). Bangkok: Sinlapa Bannakhan.
  • Pei, Xiaorui; Xiong, Ran (2013). (Chinese: 《<帕罗赋>翻译与研究》，北京：北京大学出版社) [A Translation and Study on Lilit Phra Lo]. Beijing: Peking University Press.
  • Prem Chaya (1937). The Magic Lotus. Bangkok: Krungthep Bannakhan.
  • Nittaya Natayasunthon (1972). Rak thi thuk moen [Love abandoned]. Bangkok: Klang Withaya.
  • Phaithun Phromwijit (2001). Tamnan rak haeng duang dao lae sai rung phra lo – o-pem sam lo – khulu nang ua [Romantic legend of stars and rainbow: Phra Lo, O-Pem Sam Lo, Khulu Nang Ua] (Thesis). Chiang Mai University.
  • Soison Sakolrak (2003). Thai Literary Transformation: An Analytical Study of the Modernization of Lilit Phra Lor (PhD). SOAS, University of London.
  • Sumonnachat Sawatdikun, MR (1994) [1945]. "Sopsuan rueang kan taeng phra lo" [Investigating the composition of Phra Lo]. Phasa lae wannakhadi thai [Thai language and literature]. Bangkok. 11.
  • Suphon Bunnag (1975). "Phra Lo". Pakkai chabap wannakam wipak [Literary criticism review]. Thailand Writers Association.
  • Thommayanti (1969). Rak thi tong montra [Love by magic]. Bangkok: Ruamsan.
  • Vajirañāṇa Library (1915). Lilit Phra Lo. Bangkok: Rongphim Thai.
  • Vajirañāṇa Library (1926). Lilit Phra Lo. Bangkok: Sophon Phiphatthakon.
  • Wibha Kongkananda (1982a). "Tatsana rueang phra lo kap phuchao samingphrai" [Viewpoint on Phra Lo and Old Lord Tiger Spirit]. Lok nangsue [Book world]. 5, 8.
  • Wibha Kongkananda (1982b). Phra Lo: A Portrait of the Hero as a Tragic Lover. Bangkok: Silpakorn University.
  • Worawetphisit, Phra (Seng Siwasi-anon) (1961). Khu mue lilit phra lo [Handbook for Lilit Phra Lo]. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University.
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