Oh boy. More history, my favorite!! So as the title of this entry indicates, Sukhothai roughly translates into “The Dawn of Happiness” from some mix of Pali and Sanskrit – it’s not modern Thai is what I’m trying to say. It declared its independence from the Khmer empire based at Angkor in 1238 AD and existed as a kingdom until 1438 AD, whereupon it was ceded unto the kingdom of Ayutthaya (see Ayutthaya entry). Thailand as we know it today did not exist in the 13th century. The Thai people lived in various kingdoms that co-existed in something resembling the feudal system in early Medieval Europe. Sukhothai was the first independent Thai kingdom, but it was by no means powerful enough to exert control over the other Thai kingdoms, most of which were tributary states to other Southeast Asian empires such as that of the Khmers or the Sri Vijayans. Still, because Sukhothai was the first independent Thai kingdom, it is credited for being the first capital of the Thai people. Additionally, it was during the Sukhothai period that the modern Thai alphabet was developed by the great king Ramkamhaeng.
The first picture shows laterite -- it's what most of the structures you will see in the pictures below are constructed from. Of course, they look smooth in places because they were covered with something like cement afterwards. Apparently, laterite is commonly used in this part of Thailand because it is so plentiful. It was explained to me that it is soil that has undergone some kind of chemical reaction. The "holy" look is a result of gases that had worked their way in and left little air bubbles. Bricks are extracted from the ground and allowed to dry out. They can then be used as light-weight but strong building material. I'm not sure if there is any firing involved...
And now, a collection of the photos I took as I went through the provinces of Sukhothai, Kamphaeng Phet and Phitsanulok. I think I should win some kind of award for them =), hah hah. One of the observations that was made as we saw the millions of Buddha figures that can be found in Sukhothai (well, everywhere in Thailand) is that some of them have "farang" noses. Farang is the Thai word for foreigner, if you didn't already catch that in an earlier entry. The thing with Buddha figures, just like any kind of anthropomorphic depictions of gods, etc (sculptures, paintings, carvings and so forth) is that they reflect the society they come from, right? So Buddha figures from the various kingdoms of ancient Thailand looked slightly different depending on where they came from. One particular figure that we saw in a museum had a big-time farang nose. Khruu Bong (the other AUA teacher) explained that the particular figure in question was sculpted in the Indian style. He told us that Indian Buddha figures have "Western" noses because when Alexander the Great arrived in South Asia, he brought with him figures of the Greek gods. From this meeting of cultures and societies, the Asian Buddha received the Western nose of a Greek god. Interesting, huh?
With background out the way, I can move on to telling you how I found myself in Sukhothai. Occasionally, the AUA Thai program sponsors field trips and my visit to Sukhothai was one of these. We had two of the Thai teachers leading a group of 9 students from levels 2 through 10. The objective of the trip is for the students to be exposed to hands-on learning outside of the classroom. Of course, the entire trip was conducted in Thai so what you get is an intensive weekend of Thai because for many of the students, English is not their native language. Therefore, in order to communicate with everybody else, you needed to speak Thai in whatever capacity you had at your command. Also, you can’t just go back home to whatever language it is you speak there.
This is Khruu Jaeng playing tour guide followed by a picture of her with two AUA students. One is Emma from France/Morocco and the other is Makiko from Japan:
This is a picture of the moat surrounding Wat Mahathat...like a mirror, no?
One of the things that Sukhothai is known for is its silk-weaving industry -- most of the production is at the cottage industry level and therefore does not make use of machinery. What you get is beautiful handwoven fabric instead of the cheaply made stuff you will find just about anywhere in Bangkok. I got a beautiful silk ka-prong (Thai skirt) for my mom...
The problem with taking students that come from different levels of Thai proficiency without English as a common base is that the teachers have to make it so that beginner students can understand what is going on and the advanced students don’t get bored. Currently, I’m in level 3, which puts me towards the lower end of Thai proficiency. What I found, however, was that I was translating for students at all levels aside from the ones at level 10. As a result, a couple of the level 2 students stuck close to me. It’s a good thing that they are likeable people =). I’m just glad there weren’t any level 1 students, I would have felt awful for them! We left Bangkok fairly early on a Friday morning and got back on Sunday evening. I will forever be known as the best “eater” in the group as I was always reliable for finishing up the extra food we always ended up with. The big joke of the weekend (which was a response to Hong, you’re not full already, are you?) was “in twenty minutes.” They found it hard to believe that my 5’8” and 135lbs self could pack away so much food ~
This is a picture of Khruu Jaeng and Xiang Ling from Taiwan. They are buying mangosteens. I think the group consumed about 6 kilos of mangosteens in two days. This is excluding the bananas, guavas, pineapples and watermelon. Below this picture is one of the trip favorites: Sukhothai noodles. I think between the 11 of us, we consumed about 25 bowls such as this in one sitting.
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