Thai Kreis? Thai forum Members?

[Laowang]

Originally Posted by DAHenkel

I did not mean to imply that the Tai living in Nakhon dont keep and wear keris. For that matter anywhere else. Clearly though they adopted them from the Malays in the south.

For my part, I don't mean to imply that ethnic Thai in southern Thailand do wear keris. Our only proof, at the moment, is a single photograph of Khun Phan; without some sort of authoritative biography, we're operating on pure speculation as to his ethnic background. We also have no way of knowing from the single photograph whether he was in his formal dress (with the keris being part of it), or displaying trophies from his years of policing. In the essay "Luang Pho Thuat and the Integration of Patani", the historian Patrick Jory notes that Khun Phan received a 'knife' as a token of gratitude from the sultan of Kelantan, after capturing a notorious bandit. It's possible that 'knife' is a keris, given that it was awarded by the sultan, but again this is pure speculation.

Historically there has been much intermixing between ethnic groups in the region, at least between Chinese-Thai and Chinese-Malay (as many of you are well aware). I'm not as familiar as to mixing between Thai-Malay, although historical accounts of Nakhon and other cities in the region in the 16th-18th centuries tell of populations "so mixed that visitors had trouble identifying with whom they were dealing." Nakhon at that time period was ruled by ethnic Thai, but the elite were probably bilingual (Thai and Malay), with many high officials of Chinese and Indian extraction. Primary ethnic groups were Thai, Malay, and Chinese.

The amulet craze Khun Phan is linked to is, I assume, the Luang Pho Thuat amulet craze. Jory notes that the amulet craze, and the promotion surrounding the affiliated Buddhist temple (Wat Chang Hai in Pattani), are linked to the Thai government's policy of integrating Pattani into the Thai Buddhist heartland. The mention of the keris in the book The Heritage of Thai Culture seems somewhat suspicious in this regard (which is something Alan notes as well). By claiming the keris as having roots in Thailand, the Thai government bolsters its claim over the former sultanates of Pattani and Songkhla and their peoples, not unlike its use of the Luang Pho Thuat amulet craze to reinforce that claim.