Khamsing Srinawk (Thai: คำสิงห์ ศรีนอก) is a writer from the Isan region of Thailand. He writes under the pen-name Law khamhɔ̌ɔm (Thai: ลาว คำหอม). He was named a National Artist in Literature in 1992[1] and is best known for his satirical short stories published in his 1958 collection Fáa Bɔ̀ Kân (Thai: ฟ้าบ่กั้น) [The Sky is No Barrier]. Benedict Anderson argues that Khamsing is the best known short-story writer in the Kingdom of Thailand.[2]
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Born December 25th, 1930 in Bua Yày (Thai: บัวใหญ่) District of Thailand’s northeastern Nakhon Ratchasima province,[3] Khamsing was raised on a farm in the countryside. Khamsing read heavily during his childhood and was encouraged in his studies by his uncle, a Buddhist monk, and other members of his family.[4] After completing schooling in the local Bua Yày government school he traveled to Bangkok and simultaneously enrolled in the faculty of Journalism at Chulalongkorn University and the faculty of Economics at Thammasat University.[5] Unable to afford room and board, Khamsing lived in a Buddhist temple in Bangkok while attending night classes and working part-time as a journalist until he was overcome with illness and forced to drop out of school.[6] From Bangkok, Khamsing took a job with the state forestry service, working in the far north as a forest ranger for three years (1953-1956).
A year after his time in the forest, Khamsing began publishing short stories in the newspaper Piyamit (Thai: ปิยะมิตร) [Dear Friend]. This corresponded with the relatively free press Thailand enjoyed during the years of 1955-58. Due to the growing political power-struggle between CIA backed Phao Sriyanond and Pentagon supported Sarit Thanarat Thai writers and intellectuals were free to express their ideas. This atmosphere of free press quickly burgeoned after the September 16, 1957 coup that drove Phao and Plaek Pibulsonggram into exile.[7] Anderson agrues that Khamsing's Fáa Bɔ̀ Kân, a collection of many of his stories originally published in Piyamit, best symbolizes this period of intellectual freedom.[8] Shortly after the publication of Fáa Bɔ̀ Kân, Sarit seized power and established an absolute regime. Sarit's regime instated strict censorship, ending the period of free-thought through imprisonment, exile and execution (only one or two cases) of Thai intellectuals, writers, and progressives.[9] This crackdown on progressives and independent press forced Khamsing to abandon writing for a number of years, during which time he returned to Khorat and started a farm.
The popularity of Fáa Bɔ̀ Kân gained Khamsing rising celebrity, which brought with it invitations to travel to Europe, Africa, and the United States in order to lecture on his own work, and Thai literature in general.[10] Khamsing spent the years 1967-68 in America on a Time-Life grant, after which point he returned to Thailand and began contributing regular articles to Sǎŋkhommasàat Pàríthát (Thai: สังคมศาสตร์ปริทัศน์) [Social Science Review]. These articles, many of which were concerned with social injustice in rural Thailand, were compiled in a 1975 publication known as Kamphɛɛŋ (Thai: กำแพง) [Walls].[11]
Khamsing continued writing and working on his farm in Khorat until the beginning of the 1973 student democracy movement. After the military and police crackdown on student demonstrations at Thammasat University on October 14, 1973, Khamsing became politically active and was elected vice-chairman of the Socialist Party of Thailand.[12] It is said that on two occasions in the early 1970s, Khamsing sold off many of his milking cows to finance unsuccessful campaigns for election to Thai parliament.[13] Khamsing's involvement with the Socialist party of Thailand continued throughout the early 70s, and after the second, bloodier military crackdown on student protesters at Thammasat on October, 6 1976 (known as the Thammasat University massacre), Khamsing fled into the jungles of Thailand with many of his fellow socialists. Due to his ideological differences with the Communist party of Thailand, however, Khamsing and his family fled to Sweden in 1977, where they remained in exile until a few years later.[14] While in Sweden, Khamsing began again working on his novel ˈMɛɛw (Thai: แมว) [Cat], which is a metaphor for Thailand itself.[15] Khamsing first began working on ˈMɛɛw after the events of October, 14 1973, however, the manuscript was lost after the Thammasat massacre of 1976. Eventually, the novel was published in 1983 after Khamsing had returned to Bangkok.
Even though he is not the most prolific of Thailand's celebrated authors, Khamsing is credited with beginning a tectonic shift in Thai literary style and focus. While the majority of Thai literature before the twentieth century was dominated by royal and elite authors writing for the kingdom’s gentry, it has been argued that Khamsing’s divergence from typical Thai literary subject matter has created the concept of the Thai peasant as a literary hero.[16] By giving literary voice to the common peasant, often in vernacular voice and within the village setting, Khamsing's writings, most notably Fáa Bɔ̀ Kân, have worked to democratize Thai literature. With literature, Khamsing has attempted to depict the plight of the Thai peasant, and in doing so seek social justice and the betterment of Thai society in general.
Most recently (May, 2011), Khamsing has added his name to what has come to be called the 'Thai Writers' Manifesto,' a petition signed by 359 Thai writers and academics calling for drastic revisions to Thailand's Lèse majesté laws (Article 112 of current Thai Criminal Code), under which numerous Thai and international citizens have been jailed.[17]