EXPLORATIONS a graduate student journal of southeast asian studies Volume 10 Spring 2010 IN THIS ISSUE: Buffalo Crimes and Modernization in King Chulalongkorn’s Siam MATT REEDER | Seals of Red and Letters of Gold: Japanese Relations with Southeast Asia in the 17th Century TRAVIS SEIFMAN | “Encek Peng Kun” by Remy Sylado, Translated by NEURENZIA YANNUAR | Lava Casting in Thailand JOHN WALTERS EXPLORATIONS: a graduate student journal of southeast asian studies Volume 10 | Spring 2010 Articles Seals of Red and Letters of Gold:!!!!!!!! Japanese Relations with Southeast Asia in the 17th Century!!!!! ! Travis Seifman!!!!!!!!!5 Sovereign Yet Subordinate: The Use of Buddhist Discourse!!!!! During the Reigns of King Rama IV, V, and VI in Siam (1851-1925)! !! ! Brooke Schedneck!!!!!!!!23 Buffalo Crimes and Modernization in King Chulalongkorn’s Siam ! Matt Reeder!!!!!!!!!33 Socially Engaged Buddhism and the “Just War”: A Contradiction in Terms? ! Jordan Johnson!!!!!!!!!55 Translation Remy Sylado’s “Encek Peng Kun”!!!!!!!! ! Nurenzia Yannuar!!!!!!!!73 Photo Essay Lava Casting for Sculptural Applications at Thamkrabok Monastery in Phra Puttabath, Thailand! ! John Walters!!!!!!!!!79 Archaeology in Cambodia ! Shawn Fehrenbach!!!!!!!!87 Interacting with Archaeological Landscapes in Cambodia ! Alison Carter!!!!!!!!!91 Book Review Justin McDaniel’s Gathering Leaves & Lifting Words: Histories of Buddhist Monastic Education in Laos and Thailand ! Quentin Pearson!!!!!!!!!95 Dear Readers We proudly welcome you to the tenth anniversary issue of EXPLORATIONS graduate student journal of Southeast Asian studies. The scholarship contained in these pages covers a variety of pertinent regional issues. Buddhism and war, buffalo theft, and seventeenth-century cross-cultural contact with Japan are all addressed. These pages also contain a newly translated Indonesian poem, as well as photo essays on modern lava casting sculptural techniques at a monastery/drug rehabilitation center in Thailand and the realities of archaeological work in Cambodia. The publication of this journal was not a lone endeavor, and our list of individuals to thank is a long one. First and foremost, many thanks to our staff of dedicated volunteer editors and the countless hours they do- nated towards making this publication possible. We are grateful for the support of our faculty advisors Dr. Barbara Andaya and Dr. Liam Kelley, as well as the assistance of the very efficient, ever-cheerful Paul Rausch and the greater Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa. We are also in- debted to Dr. Leslie Sponsel for his generous and expert advice. !Editors, !Rachel Hoerman and Deanna Ramsay EXPLORATIONS is a student publication of the Southeast Asian Stud- ies Students Association in conjunction with the Center for Southeast Editors Asian Studies at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa and partially funded by Rachel Hoerman and Deanna Ramsay the Student Equity and Diversity Initiative. The principle mission of EXPLORATIONS is to offer a forum for Editorial Staff graduate students to present research relating to Southeast Asia. This fo- Sovatha Ann rum introduces the work of graduate students studying Southeast Asia to others in the field, encourages the publishing of scholarship by those from Patrick Ball Southeast Asia about the region, and fosters a sense of community among Scott Bowen those interested in Southeast Asia from around the globe. EXPLORA- Aashish Hemrajani TIONS embraces the diversity of academic interests and scholastic exper- Alvin Lim tise of its authors, and hopes to encourage discussion both within and across disciplines in topics concerning Southeast Asia Miguel Llora The views expressed in EXPLORATIONS are those of the authors and Karl Mercer not necessarily those of the editorial board. If you are interested in submit- Michael Ryall ting your work to EXPLORATIONS, have questions or comments, or are Tani Sebro interested in participating in the production of EXPLORATIONS, please contact the editors at: [email protected], or EXPLORATIONS c/o Jy Xiong CSEAS, University of Hawai`i at Mānoa, 1890 East-West Road, Honolulu, Hawai`i 96822 USA. Faculty Advisors Barbara Watson Andaya Please visit us on the web at: Liam Kelley http://www.cseashawaii.com/wordpress/explorations/ CSEAS Coordinator ISSN 1945-8606 [print] Paul Rausch ISSN 1945-8614 [web] Travis Seifman Seals of Red and Letters of Gold Japanese Relations with Southeast Asia in the 17th Century TRAVIS SEIFMAN University of Hawai`i at Mānoa AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Travis Seifman is a first-year M.A. student in Art History at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa. His research interests center on early modern (17th-19th c.) Japan, with a particular interest in cultural history and Japan’s relationships with the other cultures of Asia outside of the oft- discussed China and Korea. “Seals of Red and Letters of Gold,” as published in this volume, is a version of a paper written as his M.A. dissertation in Japanese Studies at the School of Ori- ental and African Studies, University of London. He continues to have a strong interest in the culture of the cities and ports of early modern Southeast Asia, but has recently turned his atten- tion to studying the Ryūkyū Kingdom (Okinawa). Portrayals of Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate being taken against direct trade and friendly relations are frequently characterized by descriptions of a coun- with the polities of Southeast Asia? try which, out of fear of Christian influence, closed its Trends in scholarship over the last several decades 1 doors to the world (Toby 1977:323ff). Indeed, for over have turned away from the Eurocentric view of Japan's two hundred years, from the 1630s until 1853, Japanese relations in this period, reviving an awareness of the diplomatic and economic relations with the outside importance of Asian contacts. It is now argued that the world were heavily regulated and restricted. Some shogunate's policies of maritime restrictions derived scholars have described the shogunate’s key goals in from keen understandings and extensive information instituting these policies as the elimination of the sub- regarding the dispositions of its various potential trad- versive threat of Catholicism and the enforcement of a ing partners, rather than purely from ignorance, fear, shogunal monopoly on foreign trade. The shogunate or isolationism (Walker 2002:44). Nevertheless, most sought to achieve these goals through the complete scholarly treatments of Japanese trade during this pe- cessation of Japanese overseas travel, outlawing of riod continue to focus on relations with China, Korea, Christianity, and restriction of Europeans to a tiny and the Dutch East India Company, virtually omitting man-made island in Nagasaki Harbor, along with other any reference to the polities of Southeast Asia. This measures (Toby 1984:6). However, this explanation, poses a considerable obstacle to understanding the full like those which have come before it, fails to fully ac- picture of Japan's trade and diplomacy during this count for the cessation of direct trade with China and period. This work seeks to rectify this problem, of all direct trade and formal relations with the various through an exploration of the complex narrative of the polities of Southeast Asia. Thus, one comes to wonder, golden age of Japanese commercial and diplomatic how did fear of Western or Christian influence and a contact with Southeast Asia in the early 17th century, desire for greater shogunal wealth, translate into action and its cessation, addressing as well as the impact of Volume 10, Spring 2010 5 Japanese Relations with Southeast Asia domestic events in the region upon international rela- profit through military service to local Southeast Asian tions and trade. This work focuses particularly upon governments or other factions (Ibid.). Japanese trade and relations with the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya and Vietnamese polity of Quang Nam across The Shuinsen System and the Politics of the span of the 17th century. Trade Japanese merchant shipping was controlled by Japa- Trade before Maritime Restrictions nese authorities under Toyotomi Hideyoshi (r. 1582- In the decades before the imposition of maritime 1598), and later under the Tokugawa shogunate (est. restrictions, from roughly 1590 to 1635, Japan's trade 1603), both of which issued formal documents to offi- with Southeast Asian polities, independent Chinese cially designate authorized merchants in a system traders, and agents of a number of Western powers aimed at combating the piracy prevalent at the time. flourished. Extensive trade was conducted at Japanese These ships were called shuinsen, or “red seal ships” ports, as well as by Japanese traders and adventurers at after the vermillion seals on the formal documents ports in the independent Ryūkyū Kingdom and South- (shuinjō) that they carried, and agreements were east Asia. Not only did Japanese merchants trade with reached between the shogunate and the authorities in native Ryukyuan and Southeast Asian merchants, but various Southeast Asian countries regarding the rec- with Chinese merchants as well who, in trading with ognition and enforcement of the system. In this period Japanese in these locations, were not violating the of over 30 years, from the issuing of the first shuinjō by Ming maritime restrictions (haijin2) forbidding travel the shogunate in 1604, until the abolition of the system to Japan. The Ming court had formally severed ties with in 1635, more than 350 officially