Lilit Phra Lo
Lilit is a poetic form; Phra is a prefix used for royalty and monks; Lo is the personal name of the hero, sometimes transcribed as Lor or Law.
The story has been repeatedly reworked by prominent novelists and film-makers, often adapting the plot to conform to modern values.
When the king of Suang dies, he is succeeded by his son, Phra Lo, a man of "incomparable beauty."
Their maids Ruen and Roi arrange to have traders sing of the princesses' beauty so that Lo hears and falls in love with them in return.
The maids are taken to see Pu Chao Saming Phrai (Who is depicted as a weretiger-like rishi) deep in the mountains.
The maids send word to Pu Chao Saming Phrai who reinforces the spell, but Lo’s mother finds an adept who again can counter it.
Pu Chao Saming Phrai then sends a flying betel nut which makes Lo unstoppable.
Impatient at the delay, the princesses send word to Pu Chao Saming Phrai, who arranges for a beautiful cock to lure Phra Lo.
The late king's widow sees an opportunity to take revenge for the killing of her husband in the war between Suang and Song.
After pondering revenge, the mother of Lo decides to send envoys and presents to the cremation as a gesture of reconciliation.
In both Song and Suang, memorial stupas are erected and the relics are simultaneously interred, followed by a festival and merit-making.
The language is similar to two other early literary works, Yuan Phai and Mahachat Khamluang (มหาชาติคำหลวง), and includes words and constructions that had disappeared by the seventeenth century.
Lilit Phra Lo was clearly composed before this "great tone shift" in the Tai family of languages.
Duangmon Jitjamnong argues that the battle between Ayutthaya and Lan Na mentioned in the preamble took place in the reign of King Trailokanat (1448–88) and hence dates the poem to that time.
However, since these verses were probably added to the poem later, and since the words for "king" differ across the manuscripts and printed editions, this pursuit has been inconclusive.
As with many Thai literary works, Lilit Phra Lo may have developed over a long period with several authors contributing.
In 1932, Prince Damrong Rajanubhab wrote that the Phra Lo story was "a folktale (nithan, นิทาน) from the Lan Na kingdom that seems to have been written down by a king before he ascended the throne.
"[13] MR Sumonnachat Sawatdikun and Chanthit Krasaesin argue that the poem derives from the old Thai-Lao epic, Thao hung rue jueang, in which there is a character called Lo and a place called Kalong, the name of a river in Lilit Phra Lo.
Lo is also the name of a son of the Thai-Lao founder-god Khun Borom/Bulom in several texts, including the chronicle of Lan Xang.
The choice of form for each passage has no obvious guiding principle, except that rai is often used for narrative and khlong for dialogue, but this not a strict division.
Jindamani, a seventeenth-century manual or prosody, cites stanza 30 of Lilit Phra Lo as an example of khlong si.
MR Sumonnachat Sawatdikun pointed out that the authors were being judged by metrical rules that may have been formulated long after the poem was composed.
[19] Robert Bickner added that the use of the meter in the poem is consistent and conforms to the nature of the Thai language at the time, and that most of the anomalies can be attributed to corruptions of the manuscript by copyists and editors.
[20] Several scholars including Suphon Bunnag (ศุภร บุนนาค) and Wibha Kongkananda (วิภา กงกะนันทน์) defended the poem on grounds of its literary value and exposition of the Buddhist theory of karma.
[24] In 1933, Chote Praepan under the pen-name Yakhob (ยาขอบ) wrote a short story "Phuean–Phaeng" which transferred the characters of Lilit Phra Lo into a modern rural setting.
[26] In 1969, Nittaya Natayasunthon (นิตยา นาฏยสุนทร) authored a novel, Rak thi thuk muean (Love abandoned), in which Laksanawadi is the upright heroine, the two princesses are portrayed in a bad light, and Phra Lo is lured by the widowed grandmother in order to kill him in revenge.
[27] In 1970, the prolific popular novelist Thommayanti (Wimon Jiamjaroen) authored a novel Rak thi ton mon (Love by magic), which retains the original plot except for making the grandmother rather than the princesses responsible for luring Phra Lo to Song, and omitting the love scenes.
[10] Soison Sakolrak completed a thesis at SOAS, University of London in 2003, concentrating on the modern adaptations of the poem.
