Travelers, Dreamers, Adventurers and Agitators: Common Worlds and Uncommon Lives Across Nineteenth–Century Cambodia by Thibodi Buakamsri A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in South and Southeast Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Penelope Edwards, Chair Professor Peter Zinoman Professor Khatharya Um Summer 2018 Copyright © 2018 Thibodi Buakamsri Abstract Travelers, Dreamers, Adventurers and Agitators: Common Worlds and Uncommon Lives Across Nineteenth-Century Cambodia by Thibodi Buakamsri Doctor of Philosophy in South and Southeast Asian Studies University of California, Berkeley Professor Penelope Edwards, Chair If there is a space for ordinary people in the history of Cambodia, that space has been on the ground, beneath kings and monuments, in the distant background of glory and tragedy. Ordinary people remain placeless, nameless, voiceless, and invisible. But they existed. This thesis aims to redress such élitist historiography by introducing a different historical narrative that is fragmentary and episodic narratives of ordinary people. It explores the role of flesh-and-blood individuals, and the worlds they lived in and imagined, in Cambodia in the nineteenth-century, a period of radical change that remains comparatively unexamined, especially prior to the establishment of the French Protectorate in 1863. The thesis excavates archival sources, including testimonial narratives and local literature, and pieces together such shards and fragments into vivid narratives of ordinary people who lived at the fringes of society yet traversed vast stretches of Cambodian territory. It is a quilt of the life-stories of individuals –of Khmer, Siamese, Vietnamese, and Chinese descent– who traveled, dreamed, adventured and agitated in order to make their lives better in the here-and-now felt and material world. In that sense, it is a quotidian history. But it is also a history of imagination and belief, and of how the visions of, and quests for, other worlds sustained the everyday practices and decisions of the extraordinary, common folk whose journeys are at the core of this thesis. The thesis analyzes practices that deviated from élite Buddhist norms and were dismissed as immoral, superstitious, and irrational by authorities. Such practices have been similarly marginalized and neglected in histories of Cambodia. The thesis argues that these practices were more than a survival strategy. They offered a means to a better life rooted in the here-and-now. The thesis also examines axes of connection between commoner and élites realms, and reveals significant worlds of difference between the commoners and the ruling élites in their motivations for supporting movements that challenged the status quo. One such movement was the rebellions led by Prince Votha in 1876-1890. The thesis offers a new lens on this rebellion, bringing to light the motivations of his supporters. It considers the temporary nature of historical events such as the Votha rebellion, against the permanent and continuous nature of story telling. In examining their testimonies and the multiple journeys they made, the thesis also challenges the primacy of the patron-client model in Southeast Asian studies. It shows 1 that commoners exercised agency and mobility, and highlights the various factors that determined support for a patron, and that led commoners to switch allegiance from one patron to another, or to move from one village or town or kingdom, to another. The thesis further analyzes testimonies for rhetorical resistance to the imposition of French colonial rule. It also examines the tensions between narratives of the future (prophecy) and the past (as both legend, and history) in Khmer oral and written texts. Finally, it examines how rebels and their memories kept alive different ways of seeing and possibilities for being outside of the authority of the state. 2 To Bunma and Pavat, who are my past and future. i Table of Contents Dedication i Table of Contents ii List of Maps and List of Figures iv Acknowledgement vi Notes on Transcription vii Abbreviations ix Introduction 1 Nineteenth-Century Cambodia and Its History 1 A Microscopic Perspective from Below 8 Uprising in the Archives 14 Crossing to the Other Worlds 17 The People’s Archives 22 Toward a Different Narrative 30 Chapter 1: The Travelers 33 Suk (1801-?) 35 Pem (1813-?) 43 The Locality of Lying 44 Living Texts, Living Practices 48 Beyond the Beyond 52 Immoral Tales/Lives 56 Ordinary Morality 60 Different Ordinary Spaces 65 Ordinary Travel, Ordinary Trouble 68 Chapter 2: The Dreamers 71 Nori (?-1864) 71 A Journey to Angkor Wat 76 A Place of and a Path to be Nĕak Mean Bŏn 79 A Pretender Prince 85 There and Back Again 89 Second Time in Siem Reap 92 Place of Hope, Hope as Place 96 Magic of the Ordinary 101 Fear and Love 106 Death, but Not Yet the End 110 Chapter 3: The Adventurers 112 Commoners’ Way 114 The Kingdom Within 119 Royal Way 125 Commoners and the King 133 Troubles on the Mekong 138 ii Narratives of Uprising 143 The Use of Rhetoric 147 The King is Dead, Long Live the People 152 Chapter 4: The Agitators 154 Prelude to the Uprising 157 The Year of the Pig, the First Year of the Decade 163 A Land of Bad Spirits 168 “The Capture of Phnom Penh” in 1898 174 Moral Attacking 180 Men, Guns, and Dreams 185 The Old is Dying 190 Conclusion: Different Worlds of the Ordinary People 192 Glossary 195 Bibliography 209 iii List of Maps Introductory Map 1: Nineteenth-century Cambodia and its environs 2 Introductory Map 2: Index Map 32 Map 1: The Geographical Worlds of Suk and Pem 35 Map 2.1: Mid-Nineteenth Century Bangkok and its Khmer communities 73 Map 2.2: A Supposed Route of Nori’s pilgriamge to Angkor Wat from Bangkok in 1862 76 Map 3.1: Geographical Worlds of the Ordinary People in Votha’s Eebellion, 1860-1891 113 Map 3.2: A Supposed route of Votha’s Escape to Cambodia from Bangkok in 1876 127 Map 4.1: Geographical Worlds of Ordinary People of the Rebellion in Takeo, 1898 155 Map 4.2: Phnŭm Prӗahbat Chŏenchŭm and the Seven Mountains, and theirs Environs 156 List of Figures Figure 2.1: The Gate of the Citadel of Siem Reap (Photo by Pestel) 102 Figure 2.2: A royal procession of Prӗah Keavfea (Sisowath), 1866 105 Figure 2.3: Former citadel (indigenous guard), Siem Reap, 1902 111 Figure 4.1: Ngô Prẻp’s resident card (cartes de séjour) of the year 1897 157 Figure 4.2: Two Great Seals and two small seals engraved by Cheang Ŭk 186 iv Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to express my humble respect and gratitude to Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand. Without her generous financial support over the years, my education here would not have been possible. I am particularly grateful to Prapod Assavavirulhakarn for his support throughout my study. My special thanks go to my great teacher Chalong Soontravanich who always encourages, teaches, and advises me in both my personal and academic life. To him I am forever indebted. Suvimvol Roongcharoen also continuously and tirelessly supported me with her unconditional generosity. I always owe her a lot. I would also like to thank Klairung Amratisha and Dhiravat na Pombejra for their support. Without them, my travel could not have been started. I owe my deepest gratitude to my advisor Penny Edwards who accepted me to the program, for her understanding, support, patience, encouragement, and knowledge. She is able to understand my experimental ideas and my rough English. She helps to conceptualize my work and patiently salvages my poor English. I cannot thank her enough. In addition, I would like to thank my dissertation committee members, Peter Zinoman and Khatharya Um, for having given me an opportunity to work on my project. I am regretful that I never had a chance to present this dissertation, which is based on “my archives” to the late Jeff Hadler. I am also grateful to the archivists, librarians, and staff at the Archives Nationales d'Outre-Mer in Aix-en-Provence, Bibliothèque nationale de France and Bibliothèque de l’École français d’extrême-orient in Paris, the National Archives of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, the National Archives of Thailand and the National Library of Thailand in Bangkok. I would like to thank particularly Amina Abudureheman and Chantal Duhuy of the Bibliothèque de la société asiatique in Paris for their warm kindness and generosity. I thank Nathalie Limosin of the Bibliothèque municipale d’Alençon for her supportive hands. I thank Marie-Sybille de Vienne and Sompen Khutranon for their help during my archival fieldwork in France and Cambodia. Some chapters in this study were read by Siti Keo and Trent Walker, members of a dissertation writing group that was created and directed by Penny Edwards. They provided me worthwhile comments, suggestions, and opinions. It is a privilege of mine to be part of the friendly and wonderful group of young energetic scholars. I owe it to David Chandler who volunteered to read, comment, and edit chapters as well as shared his insights in Cambodian history and literature. I also owe Ed Van Roy for his industrious editing. I thank Cheeraphol Katechumphol and Teerapa Pairohakul for their comments and suggestions. I am immensely appreciative of Arthit Jiamrattanyoo for his very careful reading, helpful suggestion and useful editing, which improve this study. Some findings of this study have been presented at the Graduate Seminar in History Department, Chulalongkorn University in 2013, at the SEASIA Conference in Kyoto in 2015, at the Colloque International sur le Cambodge in Phnom Penh in 2016, and at the Buddhism and Magic Workshop in UC Berkeley in 2017.