Suphankanlaya

Suphankanlaya (Thai: พระสุพรรณกัลยา) was a Siamese princess who lived in the 16th century. There are very few historical records of her life, but legends about her are widespread in Thailand. Many Thais revere her as a national heroine or even as a popular deity.

Biography and legend

She was the daughter of Maha Thammaracha, viceroy of Phitsanulok and later King of Ayutthaya and his wife Wisutkasat; elder sister of the princes Naresuan and Ekathotsarot who later both became kings of Ayutthaya, too. On her maternal side she was a granddaughter of King Chakkraphat and Queen Suriyothai. In 1564, her father became a vassal of King Bayinnaung of Pegu in Burma. Her brothers were taken to the Peguan court to serve as pages and guarantee for the loyalty of their father, as was usual at the time. In 1571, Suphankanlaya agreed to marry Bayinnaung to become one of his minor wives. This bond, too, should consolidate her father's allegiance to the Burmese king. Her brothers, instead, could return home.

Suphankanlaya had two children with Bayinnaung. After the king's death in 1581, she became the wife of his son and successor Nandabayin. In 1590, her father died and her brother succeeded to the throne of Ayutthaya. He revoked the oath of allegiance to the Burman king and it came to war. In 1593, Naresuan defeated and killed Nandabayin's son Mingyi Swa in a legendary duel on elephants' backs. When Nandabayin learnt of his son's death, according to the common narrative in Thailand, he became enraged and stroke Suphankanlaya, who was eight months pregnant with his child, dead.^[1]

Popular cult

In official accounts of the Siamese and Burmese history, Suphankanlaya is only mentioned in passing, if at all. However, her story entered the Thai national mythology. Legends of her have often been depicted in popular culture. During and after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, she became part of the "pantheon" of Thai national deities. A businesswoman first claimed that Suphankanlaya had saved her from bankruptcy. She then asked a historian to research the chronicles for accounts of the princess and a successful romantic novelist to popularise Suphankanlaya's story in an easy-to-read way. The historian insisted that historic depictions of the princess are very sparse and the story of her gruesome death rather legend than historically traceable. This did not stop large parts of the Thai public from developing a cult around the supposed heroine, worshipping her images and votive objects. As no authentic portrayal of the historic person has survived, the pictures were modelled on the look of former beauty queens.

Suphankanlaya, like her brother Naresuan, was established as a symbol of national assertiveness and self-sacrifice. In Thai folk beliefs, the spirits of murder victims are attributed exceptional powers.^[2] The spread of Suphankanlaya worship has to be seen in the context of the rise of Thai nationalist (particularly anti-Burmese) sentiments at that time of economic crisis.^[3] It is similar to the emergence of a cult around her grandmother Queen Suriyothai who is (ahistorically) venerated as a strong warrior heroine who sacrificed herself for the sovereignty of the nation, as well. The popular reverence for Suphankanlaya was seized on by Thai authorities and the military. The Third Army command in her presumed native city of Phitsanulok was the first to erect a monument to her and commissioned a biography in 1998, in which the alleged cruelty of her Burmese husband was emphasised.^[4] In 2004, a film was made of her legend.

Literature

• Sunait Chutintaranond (1999), พระสุพรรณกัลยา จากตำนานสู่หน้าประวัติศาสตร์ [Phra Suphankanlaya: Chak Tamnan su na Prawattisat / Princess Suphankalaya: From Legend to History] 
• Jim Taylor (2001), "History, Simulacrum and the real: the making of a Thai princess", From Fact to Fiction: History of Thai-Myanmar Relations in Cultural Context (Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University): 1–16 

References