My Studies of Northern Thai Literature with Ajarn Singkha Wannasai (1972-1978)
ศาสตราจารย์ ดร.ฮารัลด์ ฮุนดิอุส
Professor Dr. Harald Hundius
นักวิชาการอิสระ
After conclusion of my Ph.0D. thesis about Sunthorn Phu in 1971, I started to study the literary tradition of the North of Thailand. When asking Ajarn Prakong Nimmanahaeminda, the author of the first publication about Northern Thai literature, for a recommendation of a Northern Thai teacher, she recommended two persons, i.e. Singkha Wannasai (Lamphun) and Manee Phayomyong (Mae Rim).
So, I first travelled to Lamphun Province to visit Ajarn Singkha asking him whether he was willing to teach me about the language and literature of the North. Fortunately, he just had quit his engagement as a teacher to fully dedicate himself to the propagation of Northern Thai language and literature, and accepted my wish to be his student, teaching me five times a week for five hours each time.
After two or three months, Ajarn Singkha took me to Wat San Rim Ping to start with the research on Northern Thai manuscript tradition. I was perplexed to see the sheer amount of palm-leaf manuscripts held in this far-away and almost unknown Lamphun monastery.
So I asked the German Research Foundation to concentrate on the North and skip the Northeast and South of Thailand, and was granted the privilege to use the two and a half years to concentrate on the Northern tradition alone.
In almost three years, Ajarn Singkha and me visited some 90 monasteries throughout the eight Northern Thai provinces, some of which for the very first time, and I had microfilm recordings made of some 1,300 manuscripts, including a number of Shan, Tai Lue, and Lao holographies. In addition, some selected Northern Thai manuscripts were copied into notebooks by several ex-monks, comprising altogether some 21,000 pages.
All of the manuscripts and the handwritten copies have been digitised and are included in the www.lannamanuscripts.net.
(เสนอในการประชุมวิชาการระดับชาติ "วรรณกรรมท้องถิ่น : จากวันวานถึงวันหน้า" วันที่ 14 ธันวาคม 2561 ณ โรงแรมแคนทารี่ ฮิลล์ จังหวัดเชียงใหม่ จัดโดย โครงการวิวัฒน์ไทยศึกษานานาชาติเพื่อการพัฒนาสังคมไทย (ENITS) สถาบันไทยศึกษา จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย และศูนย์ล้านนาศึกษา คณะมนุษยศาสตร์ มหาวิทยาลัยเชียงใหม่)