สำนักราชบัณฑิตยสภา

The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Volume III - 2011 Volker Grabowsky 107 In the end, as a result of the Franco-Siamese Convention the Lao lands became divided between two çcolonial powersé, as the Pavatsat Lao concludes that the treaty divided the Lao people into two different political entities: çThe result was that the Lao on the right bank of the Mekong River became servants ( khoi kha ) of the Siamese, and those on the left bank servants of the French.é 15 Which reactions did the haggling of colonial powers cause among the peoples living on both banks of the Mekong River and, in particular, among their traditional political and social elites? We know very little, if anything, from contemporary Western reports. Siamese sources are almost silent on that issue as well. Nevertheless, there are some rare sources that provide insight into the perspective of the local population. Such a perspective is reflected in a manuscript found at Ban Ta Pao near Mueang Sing which, according to its colophon, was completed on 20 March 1905. 16 Nine years earlier, the French and British had divided the principality of Chiang Khaeng, the capital of which was present-day Mueang Sing in the Lao province of Luang Namtha. There is hardly any doubt that the demise of Chiang Khaeng, the end of its political autonomy as well as significant changes of the long-established social order, motivated Phaya Luang Phawadi, a high-ranking nobleman, to write the Chiang Khaeng Chronicle. The loss of sovereignty and the territorial division of the country stand in the centre of this unique historical document. But Chiang Khaeng is not only portrayed as a victim of colonial power politics; its historical legacy as a semi-independent tributary state, which maintained flexible relations with more powerful neighbours, stands against the new concept of sovereignty introduced by Britain and France. Thus the first part of the chronicle is not just a record of better days in a distant past; it also reflects the indigenous and traditional model of power relations, a potential challenge to the model imposed by the colonial powers. What can we learn from the conflict in and around Chiang Khaeng with regard to the fate of the DSCD on the eve of Western colonialism? First of all, the European colonial powers looked at the Upper Mekong region solely under the perspective of how to draw a clear dividing line between 15 Ibid.: 503. 16 Grabowsky and Renoo 2008: 59. 98-112_mac9 4/26/12, 9:10 PM 107