Author Archives:

Musical legacy from a beloved king

Almost a month ago on Oct 8, I attended “A Concert of Royal Compositions in Honour of the 60th Anniversary Celebrations of His Majesty’s Accession to the Throne” at the Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore. The tickets for this concert were made available, free-of-charge through the Royal Thai embassy and various channels. So I felt very fortunate to be able to obtain several passes to the concert because I heard there was a long waiting list of people interested in the concert but did not manage to get the tickets.

Organized by the Thai Ministry of Culture, Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Royal Thai Embassy, the concert is performed by the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and conducted by H.E. Rear Admiral M.L. Usni Pramoj, RTN., Privy Councillor. BSO has been touring the region to give goodwill concerts as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations of His Majesty’s Accession to the Throne as well as to promote bilateral ties and Thai culture. Singapore was the third stop in the region for BSO. It had earlier performed in Vietnam and Indonesia before moving on to the Philippines after Singapore.

King Bhumibol is a gifted composer and musician, and has gained numerous accolades internationally as an acclaimed jazz musician. To date, the talented King Bhimbibol has composed 48 royal pieces, but it was impossible to pack all these pieces into a two-hour concert. Therefore, BSO only performed a selected version of sixteen royal pieces with a focus on the clarinet, flute and French horn as some of the lead solos during the performance. Some of the royal pieces performed include “Alexandra”, “Lullaby”, “A Love Story”, “Royal Marines March”, “Magic Beams”, etc.

I must admit I am not very acquainted with classical music, but I certainly found the King’s pieces short, easy on the ears and tremendously enjoyable. The last royal piece “Can’t you ever see” has a distinctive jazz flavour to it, bringing the whole concert programme to a high note. When the last note sounded, the audience could not get enough of these melodious pieces and shouts of “encores” quickly resonated across the concert hall. To the delight of the audience, the conductor came back to conduct another two pieces.

I am really, really in awe of King Bhumibol! These royal compositions are indeed a musical legacy, a valuable extension to his good deeds for his people and the world. Kudos to BSO for such a delightful evening of royal music as all my friends, both Thais and Singaporeans alike enjoyed the concert tremendously. It was indeed phror maak maak (meaning very melodious in Thai).

Musical legacy from a beloved king

Almost a month ago on Oct 8, I attended “A Concert of Royal Compositions in Honour of the 60th Anniversary Celebrations of His Majesty’s Accession to the Throne” at the Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore. The tickets for this concert were made available, free-of-charge through the Royal Thai embassy and various channels. So I felt very fortunate to be able to obtain several passes to the concert because I heard there was a long waiting list of people interested in the concert but did not manage to get the tickets.

Organized by the Thai Ministry of Culture, Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Royal Thai Embassy, the concert is performed by the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and conducted by H.E. Rear Admiral M.L. Usni Pramoj, RTN., Privy Councillor. BSO has been touring the region to give goodwill concerts as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations of His Majesty’s Accession to the Throne as well as to promote bilateral ties and Thai culture. Singapore was the third stop in the region for BSO. It had earlier performed in Vietnam and Indonesia before moving on to the Philippines after Singapore.

King Bhumibol is a gifted composer and musician, and has gained numerous accolades internationally as an acclaimed jazz musician. To date, the talented King Bhimbibol has composed 48 royal pieces, but it was impossible to pack all these pieces into a two-hour concert. Therefore, BSO only performed a selected version of sixteen royal pieces with a focus on the clarinet, flute and French horn as some of the lead solos during the performance. Some of the royal pieces performed include “Alexandra”, “Lullaby”, “A Love Story”, “Royal Marines March”, “Magic Beams”, etc.

I must admit I am not very acquainted with classical music, but I certainly found the King’s pieces short, easy on the ears and tremendously enjoyable. The last royal piece “Can’t you ever see” has a distinctive jazz flavour to it, bringing the whole concert programme to a high note. When the last note sounded, the audience could not get enough of these melodious pieces and shouts of “encores” quickly resonated across the concert hall. To the delight of the audience, the conductor came back to conduct another two pieces.

I am really, really in awe of King Bhumibol! These royal compositions are indeed a musical legacy, a valuable extension to his good deeds for his people and the world. Kudos to BSO for such a delightful evening of royal music as all my friends, both Thais and Singaporeans alike enjoyed the concert tremendously. It was indeed phror maak maak (meaning very melodious in Thai).

The elephant called Khan Kluay

Khan Kluay the adorable

I first caught wind of this animated movie when I was in Bangkok in early May 2006. This movie has yet to be released then, so all that I saw were just promotional posters of a little sky-blue elephant with puffy cheeks donning the walls of the cinema theatres.

Soon after, I learnt that this little elephant is none other than the protagonist in the first Thai 3-D animated movie – Kaan Kluay. I was not in time to catch the movie then, and had to go to some lengths to request Thai friends to help buy the DVD for me. Over the last weekend, I finally sat down and watched this Thai animation of the year.

The story takes place during the Ayutthaya era in Siam history. Kaan Kluay is a curious little elephant with a righteous sense of heart who would defend little creatures who are bullied by other elephants. He became separated from his mother when he embarked on a search to look for his missing father. Along the way, he had some misadventures and met some new characters, such as Chaba Kaew (a pink elephant with a flower) whom he was to fall in love with later on. He then grew up to be a war elephant for King Naresuan and was remembered as one of the greatest war elephants ever, bestowed with the royal name of Chao Phraya Prab Hongsawadee.

The phrase “Kaan Kluay” actually means banana stalk in Thai, and it is the name given by the Grandmother Elephant for her grandson when she saw how the strong and graceful arching back of her grandson resembles that of a banana stalk. A fine breed indeed, she mused, just like the father. In the movie, Kaan Kluay’s father was a war elephant too and well-known for his bravery.

The opening scenes start with the shadow play of leather carvings of elephants. It was accompanied by a chorus of children’s voices who sang to the lines of the classic Thai children’s elephant poem “chaang, chaang, chaang, nong khoei hen chaang rer plaao…”

This film is a commendable effort for the Thai animation-makers, considering this is their first attempt to break into the international 3-D animation market. Many parts of the film are decked out in resplendent colours and with adorable little animals aplenty. The rough texture of tree barks, a blade of grass, gleaming rose apples and reflective water surfaces are some aspects of Mother Nature captured superbly by the artists. It is also noteworthy that the artists have probably spend considerable time observing the real elephants, such that the creases and folds on an elephant skin were drawn naturally and even little motions such as the flapping of ears by these pachyderms did not go unnoticed.

Despite the astounding details given to nature, the illustrations of the human characters in the show are much more lacklustre. The humans resemble those in video games and their movements appear awkward at times. The Disney or Pixar artists might be able to a better job in giving a more realistic and naturalistic feel to the human figures in the cartoon. But they are most likely not able to match up to the details that the Thais gave to their own architectural and cultural objects which stems from a familiar and deep understanding of one’s culture, right down to the intricate designs on cups, palaces and wall paintings, etc. Till now, the backdrop of spires of the palaces and wats in the capital city especially lingered in my mind.

Kaan Kluay is indeed a delightful story and many aspects of Thai culture are also woven into this 90-minute long cartoon. Patriotism for one’s country, esteemed reverence for the king, the respect for elders, the loving care of a mother, the eminent role of elephants and their relationships with humans in the Thai society, Thai boxing etc. are some of the ideas that featured very prominently in the film.

When I say the film is steeped in Thai culture, it also reflects the Thai biasness – of how the Burmese are always regarded as the villains. This was portrayed rather vividly during the war scenes between King Naresuan and his Burmese counterparts. King Naresuan is one fine-looking and courageous young man belonging to the noble ranks while the Burmese king is portrayed as a skinny and slicky guy with a menacing face. Kaan Kluay is handsomely draped with lush cloths in hues of red and gold on his back, a vast contrast to his Burmese opponent which is ferocious and deadly-looking with red gleaming eyes, and had external weapons tied to his trunk and legs to give him the extra lethal power. Whichever good qualities the Thai possess, the enemies are portrayed in the negative light.

As usual, a Thai film is not complete without some goofy characters. In this case, the goofiness comes in the size of a bird who acts as a constant companion for Kaan Kluay when he was separated from his mother. Chit Lit, as this bird (or rather a messenger pigeon from the palace) is called can be expected to give a lot of commentaries whenever Kaan Kluay is engaged in a fighting match, as if the former is watching a muay thai match. The talkative Chit Lit also tries to pretend to be an all-knowing bird whenever he dispenses advice to the young Kaan Kluay and fights together with Kaan Kluay in the battle scenes.

Behind these delightful characters, there stands a huge production team who must have dedicated a humongous amount of time producing this animation. It is produced by Kantana Animation and directed by Kompin Kemgumnird who has previously worked on Disney classics such as Ice Age. The soundtrack is sung none other by Yuenyong Ophakul (otherwise known as Add Carabao) with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra playing the majestic background music.

This is an animation worth watching, regardless of your age. I will certainly look forward to Thai animators producing works of even better quality and engaging content in the future. The only setback is this DVD that I owned does not have English subtitles so it is somewhat difficult to share with my non-Thai-speaking friends unless they want to sit through my coarse attempts of translation during the movie. But then again, the storyline of Khan Kluay is simple and engaging enough that the audience need not understand the language to grasp the content of this lovely Thai animation!

The southern tongue

Thai, like any other language, is marked by regional differences. Although Thailand is often perceived to be an ethnically homogenous society, but in actual fact, it is as ethnically, linguistically and culturally diverse as its many Southeast Asian neighbours. Linguistically, each main region in Thailand can also be differentiated by the type of Thai spoken, namely the Central Thai, the Northern Thai (kham mueng), the Northeastern Thai (Thai-Lao) and Southern Thai.

Once, I had the chance to take a train from Bangkok to Chiangmai. And as the train chugged up north and the flat landscapes slowly gave way to hills and mountains, a keen listener would be able to discern the greetings of the many female snacks and drinks sellers that came onboard the train drinks at each station, changing from “sawatdii kha” to sawatdii jao”.

Most of the time, Thais will be able understand you when you speak standard Thai. But whether one would be able to understand and decipher their replies is another matter, especially when they reply with a thick local accent.

The South is another region where the Thai language has evolved into a distinct dialect. Due to its geographical proximity to Malaysia, many Malay words are adopted and infused into the Southern dialect, thus partly adding to its unique flavour. Prior to that, my Thai friends have often remarked about the seemingly less comprehensible and curt speaking style of the southern Thais, who tend to “eat” their words. I have also noticed that each time a southern Thai person speaks during a Thai movie, subtitles in Thai will invariably appear on the screen. I reckoned if native Thais themselves are having an “earful” in trying to understand the southern dialect, I am definitely not going to be spared from this if I visit the southern provinces.

Indeed, this linguistic problem posed some challenges to me when I had to do fieldwork in the tsunami-stricken provinces of Krabi and Phangnga in southern Thailand last July. Thai is often known as a melodious language, but I find the southern tongue even more singsong-like. It seems like the tonal rules undergo some change when spoken in the southern dialect. I often had to utter phases like “phuut phasaa klaang thao nan, phuut phasaa tai mai dai (I’m only able to speak the central language, but not the southern)”.

Despite being rather proficient in spoken standard Thai, both my professor and I had a hard but enjoyable time interviewing the residents in the fishing villagers of Baan Hua Laem in Koh Lanta. Luckily, we had a Thai friend who came along as an interpreter with us on the project. However, even my Thai friend admitted that he had to pay very close attention to the conversation.

The Southern tongue, I realized, is not that indecipherable. After a while, I started making some sense of the conversations. It is only a matter of getting used to the southern tongue, and developing a keener sense of hearing. After all, when feelings of “mai khao jai” set in, just give a smile. Well, my research project has proven that regardless of the dialects spoken locally, the friendliness of Thais still reigned.

Personally, instead of a simplistic conception of a homogenous society, I feel that this linguistic diversity adds even more colour, flavour and character to Thailand, doesn’t it?


This lady had a strong and thick southern accent, but her amiable and forthcoming replies when we questioned her about the tsunami were not “lost in translation”.