Nirat Hariphunchai
Nirat, derived from a Sanskrit word meaning “without”, is a genre of Thai poetry that involves travel and love-longing for a separated beloved.
The poem recounts a journey from Chiang Mai to Lamphun to venerate the Buddhist reliquary, Wat Phra That Hariphunchai, with visits to around twenty temples and shrines along the way.
It is believed that a manuscript was brought from Lan Na to Ayutthaya, possibly by King Narai’s military expedition in 1661, and adapted into Siamese Thai, though there is no evidence.
In 1943, the historian and linguist Prasert na Nagara began transcribing the Lanna text into modern Thai characters.
Around 1959, the author and scholar Phya Anuman Rajadhon encouraged Prasert na Nagara to expand and publish his work.
[5] In 1989, Lamoon Janhom completed an MA thesis at Chiang Mai University with a comparison of six Lanna texts (see table), and her harmonized version which she claimed as “the closest to the original.”[6] In 1992, Thiu Wichaikhatkha and Phaithun Dokbua published another Lanna text which they dubbed the “Lamphun version.”[7] In 2019 Winai Pongsripian completed a new edition with new renderings in modern Thai and in English along with historical research on the poem’s background.
Winai Pongsripian proposed that the author was King Mueang Kaeo (r. 1495–1525), ruler of Chiang Mai in 1517/8, and that the beloved Si Thip was his major queen.
In 1512/3, he built a palace on the outskirts of Hariphunchai-Lamphun, initiated the constructed of a great preaching hall in the reliquary, and had the city walls strengthened, following several armed raids from Ayutthaya in recent years.
[13] Aroonrat Wichienkeeo proposed that the author was a noble called Maha-Ammat from Lampang and that Si Thip was his wife, Pongnoi, the mother of King Mueang Kaeo.
He describes the tiered pagoda of Wat Ku Kham Luang (now Wat Chedi Liam) in Wiang Kum Kam; notes the shallowness of the dry-season river; admires girls playing in the stream; describes forest trees and birds; watches hunters burning the forest; visits two wat and comments on the number of ruins; reaches Banyan Market (unknown) which seems like a city in the forest; listening to birdsong at dusk increases his loneliness.
He visits a wat with images of soldiers, and another occupied by Thai wayfaring monks; misses Thip and reaffirms his love; the way becomes hot and dusty.
He contrasts his solitariness with courting couples; listens to singing and recitation; makes offerings at several places within the reliquary and dedicates the fruit to Thip and his own progress to nibbana; practices the eight precepts overnight; watches dancers, singers and acrobats; visits other shrines, including Sangkachai and a reclining Buddha.
In the evening, he witnesses the king’s son and the queen arrive at the reliquary and praises her beauty; watches a firework display.
He thus travels in the later part of the cool, dry season, when water in the river is low and many forest trees are in bloom.
From Wiang Kum Kam to Hariphunchai-Lamphun, he probably follows the old course of the Ping River,[16] now the Old Chiang Mai Lamphun Road, Route 106, a distance of 25 kilometers.
the mother-queen has skin as fine as nine-gold flowers 161 her face and coiffured hair seem like the moon the cloth wrapped round her bosom’s fitly fine her smile bests heaven’s maids, her walk is like a vine Prasert na Nagara created the first annotated edition and proposed the date of 1517/8.
[19] Winai Pongsripian provided historical background to the poem and explained its importance for understanding the history and culture of Lan Na.
[11] Lamoon Janhom wrote a thesis on the poem, discussing the dating, authorship and significance, and incorporated the findings in a broader study of local Lan Na literature.
