Paul – Page 2 – Fuengsin's Life and Work

A Wander around Chulalongkorn University

Note

The following is a copy of an article I originally posted on Blogger.com, January 16, 2011:
https://paultrafford.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/wander-around-chulalongkorn-university.html

In between conference preparation, pilgrimage, visits and general sight-seeing, I was given a special tour of Chulalongkorn University, by Khun Tewee, a long-time family friend who used to play with my mother as a child. Both of them had studied at Chula – Khun Tewee physical sciences and my mother (then Fuengsin Sarayutpitag) liberal arts. On this occasion I wanted just to get a feel for the environment, and see how much it resembled the scene depicted in group photos from the late 50s (my mother is standing, 5th from the left):

Chulalongkorn University occupies a privileged position in Thai history and culture. Even its Thai wording claims the linguistic distinction of having the word ‘university’ following the name: จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย [Chulalongkorn Mahawitthayalai] so it reads in the same order as in English, whereas all other universities would put Mahawitthayalai before the name.

The University has its roots as a civil service training school, founded during the reign of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) at the end of the 19th Century CE to help in Siam’s administration. It gradually expanded its remit and so emerged Chulalongkorn University, formally granted its new name and status in 1917, the first university to be established in Thailand. It is located fairly centrally in Pathum Wan district of Bangkok, with the nearest BTS station being National Stadium and occupies a rectangular plot of land plus a number of surrounding buildings.

When Khun Tewee proceeded to showed myself and one of her friends the central site, she led us first of all towards the original entrance across playing fields. There looking out from a raised platform were the University’s two founders commemorated in a memorial statue:

Seated is King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) and standing beside him is King Vajiravudh (Rama VI). Whilst we were there, a couple of students were paying respects, lighting incense sticks. Nearby there were some elaborate floral kratongs, very likely student creations, now looking somewhat bereft after the Loy Kratong festival, but still nice and colourful.

Next we retraced some steps and approached some of the original buildings (or, at least, the oldest that are still standing). Particularly prominent is the main auditorium, where the conferral of degrees and other major ceremonies take place in a grand theatre:

We then carried on to the Faculty of Arts building, close by, and naturally I was keen to explore.

The first thing that struck my was the lightness of the building. By modern standards it doesn’t have many floors, but as I wandered around, I could gaining a feeling of great solidity and substance, an imposing presence, with lofty spaces. It was a very distinguished environment and not hard to imagine students feeling like princes or princesses. Every angle seems to be pleasing architecturally, certainly worth protecting with the nagas!

The only disappointment was learning that these buildings are now used mainly for administration. So where do the Faculty of Arts students have their classes, if not in these buildings? Looking from the centre, there are new buildings dotted around:

The tall building in the distance is บรมราชกุมารี Borommarajakumari (Supreme Daughter of His Majesty the King), an epithet for HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, who herself was a graduate from the Faculty of Arts in the 1970s (details in a biography). It is a multi-purpose building: as well as lecture spaces, there are exhibition areas and academic staff have rooms towards the top.

Inevitably a lot of change, but it seems to retain a distinguised ethos and it looks like the staff and students continue to build on the heritage. It still looks an attractive place to study.

Somboon Sarayutpitag and Satriwithaya School

Note

The following is slightly edited version of an article I originally posted on Blogger.com, January 14, 2011:
https://paultrafford.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/somboon-sarayutpitag-and-satriwithaya.html

In recent trips to Thailand I’ve been learning how my maternal grandparents greatly valued education. I’m sure they were a strong influence on my mother, Ajahn Fuengsin, who acquired a lifelong interest in learning and transmitting her knowledge through teaching (Ajahn is a general prefix for an established teacher).

My grandfather had been awarded the title of ‘Luang’, so he was subsequently addressed as Capt. Luang Sarayutpitag (he had been a captain in the army). The distinctive Thai surname seems to have been spelt in more than one way; my cousins generally insist on ศรายุธพิทักษ์, but there are several letters that can represent an ‘s’ sound and an extra ท (‘t’) seems optional, so I think it could have been written สรายุทธพิทักษ์ (with an opening ส instead of ศ). I expect that if one knows the roots of Thai language (Sanskrit, Pali and so on), then one can work out the appropriate letter, but I guess that might be like asking someone in the UK to distinguish between Greek and Latin etymology…

Anyway, prior to this visit, I had heard that my grandmother, Khun Yay Somboon Sarayutpitag, had attended the same school as the Somdet Ya, the Princess Mother (the mother to H.M. King Bumiphol). This school was called Satriwithaya School, a girl’s school in the heart of Bangkok. Some time last summer I started typing into Google ศรายุธพิทักษ์ and a few permutations. Eventually I came across the Web site of the Srinagarindra [Somdet Ya] museum, the museum of Satriwithaya School, set up in honour and memory of its most famous pupil. Google had spotted an occurrence of the name in the following paragraph:

สิ่งที่เป็นจุดเด่นของพิพิธภัณฑ์สมเด็จย่าคือ พระบรมฉายาลักษณ์ ที่มาของภาพเก่าอันทรงคุณค่าของสมเด็จย่า ส่วนหนึ่งมาจากศิษย์เก่าและครูเก่าเก็บไว้ และอีกส่วนหนึ่งได้ไปขอมาจากสำนักพระราชวัง หนึ่งในรูปภาพที่ทรงคุณค่าอย่างยิ่งคือภาพถ่ายหมู่ของนักเรียนชั้นมูลปีที่ หนึ่ง(ปัจจุบันคือระดับอนุบาล) ถ่ายวันที่ 9 มีนาคม ร.ศ.127 (พ.ศ.2451) สมเด็จพระศรีนครินทราบรมราชชนนี ครั้งยังทรงเป็น ด.ญ. สังวาลย์ โดยพระองค์ประทับในแถวกลาง เป็นลำดับที่ 3 จากซ้าย ซึ่งภาพต้นฉบับสีซีดจนอ่านตัวหนังสือบนแผ่นกระดานที่แขวนไว้ด้านหลังนัก เรียนไม่ออก ต้องใช้คำบรรยายที่เจ้าของภาพเขียนติดไว้ด้านหลังภาพ ภาพนี้ได้รับความอนุเคราะห์จากทายาทนางสมบุญ ศรายุทธพิทักษ์ ในภาพมี ด.ญ.สมบุญอยู่แถวหน้า ลำดับที่ 6 จากซ้าย ส่วนด้านขวาสุดคือครูทิม

My attempted translation is as follows:

A prominent feature of the Srinagarindra [Somdet Ya] museum is the Royal source of some valuable old pictures of the Princess Mother. One part comes from the collections of alumni and former teachers, and another has been requested from the Bureau of the Royal House. One exceedingly valuable picture is a group photograph of first year pre-elementary students (now equivalent to kindergarten) taken on the 9th of March R.E. (Ratanakosin Era) 127 (B.E. 2451). The Princess Mother [can be seen] at the time when she was still a girl, Miss Sangwan; Her Royal Highness is residing in the central row, 3rd from the left. As an original picture it is extremely faded to the extent that it is not possible to read the writing on the plate mounted on the board behind; it’s necessary to use the description that the owner has attached on the back of the picture. This picture was received with the assistance of the descendants of Mrs. Somboon Sarayutpitag. In the picture Miss Somboon is in the front row, 6th from the left.

The next paragraph presents an invitation:

สำหรับ ผู้ที่อยากชมภาพนี้ มีภาพขยายใหญ่เกือบเท่าตัวจริงติดอยู่ในห้องเอลิซาเบธ ซึ่งเป็นห้องประชุมของโรงเรียน ห้องนี้มีขึ้นในช่วงที่ควีนเอลิซาเบธที่ 2 เสด็จมาที่โรงเรียนสตรีวิทยาในวันที่ 30 ตุลาคม พ.ศ.2539 เพื่อทอดพระเนตรกิจกรรมและนิทรรศการการป้องกันยาเสพติดในสถานศึกษา พระบรมฉายาลักษณ์สมเด็จพระราชินีนาถ เอลิซาเบธที่ 2 พร้อมพระปรมาภิไธยที่ได้รับพระราชทาน ขณะนี้อยู่ที่พิพิธภัณฑ์สมเด็จย่า

In approximate English:

For those who want to look at this picture, there is a near life-size enlargement on display in the Elizabeth room, which used to be the school assembly hall. This room was set up on the occasion of the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Satriwithaya School on October 30 2539 to observe events and exhibitions relating to drug prevention in schools. The picture of Queen Elizabeth II, together with her signature, is in the Srinagarindra Museum.

I soon found a copy of the photograph online in the Wikipedia entry for the Princess Mother. However, having read the description above I thought, “I’d really like to see this picture for myself at the school!”

I was fortunate. I got in touch with my cousin, P’ Laem, and he made enquiries through an aunt who used to teach there. Soon arrangements were made and we went along to visit one Friday afternoon in late November. Designed around a courtyard, the buildings rise on three sides to several storeys, having expanded considerably since its foundation over a hundred years ago. When we arrived the school was still bustling with activity; at the entrance there was a large tree occasionally shedding its leaves under which a group of pupils was anticipating its every move … and then a leaf would come sailing down and they’d try and catch it. Later when we left there were just two girls by the tree, still playing the same game!

On the left hand side as you enter there is a status to the Princess Mother:

The inscription says it is dedicated to สมเด็จพระศรีนครินทราบรมราชชนนี (Somdet Phra Srinagarindra Boromarajajonani), giving the dates she was alive (B.E. 2443 – 2538, i.e. 1900-1995CE). It was unveiled by สมเด็จพระเจ้าพี่นางเธอ เจ้าฟ้ากัลยาณิวัฒนา กรมหลวงนราธิวาสราชนครินทร์ (Somdet Phra Chao Phi Nang Thoe Chao Fa Galyani Vadhana Kromma Luang Narathiwat Ratchanakharin). This is the full title of HRH Princess Galyani, the elder sister to H.M. King Bhumipol. P’ Laem informed me that she took a great deal of interest in the Royal family history and was particularly interested in the school. The statue was unveiled in B.E. 2543 (2000 CE).
We were shown inside the museum by a librarian and directed to a number of books on the table. These contained further photographs and descriptions. We learnt that at the time that group photo was taken, Khun Yay Somboon was 14 years old and the eldest in the group. Afterwards we were led to the Queen Elizabeth Room, which now serves as the board room, where the enlargement has been placed on the wall. Here it is (clicking on it will take you to the version on Wikipedia):

This photo was taken in 1908, right towards the end of the reign of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V). Thailand’s process of modernisation through especially European influences is evident in the uniform: you can see the children wearing the traditional jongraben, but also Western style shoes and socks!

Thailand’s tropical climate is very severe on paper, yet the photograph itself is in very good condition. How come? P’ Laem explained that Khun Yay Somboon had cherished this photograph very much and took special care of it. His parents had built their home very close to the grandparents’ house and P’ Laem’s room was almost opposite Khun Yay’s. He could see it hanging at the back of the room as Khun Yay emerged onto her balcony. The positioning was deliberate!

The Princess Mother subsequently went on to Chulalongkorn Hospital to study nursing. Khun Yay also had an opportunity to study there but declined, apparently afraid of the ghosts! Thai people are generally sensitive to spirits, but this response surprised me as she was certainly a strong character, as I hope to convey in a future post or two…

Personal Diary Of Fuengsin Trafford – in 10 volumes!

Note

The following is a copy of an article I originally posted on Blogger.com, April 07, 2010:
https://paultrafford.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/personal-diary-of-fuengsin-trafford-in.html (with updated links)

My mother, the late Fuengsin Trafford, kept a personal diary, covering the years B.E. 2512 to 2517 (1969 to 1974). At the start, my family was in Southampton (Alpine Close), and then we moved to Strood in Kent in 1970 when I was just a toddler, staying there until 1975. I don’t know what prompted my mother to maintain the diary – whether it was something she chose to do to help her adjust to British life or whether she was following some advice from a friend.

The diary is mainly in Thai and occupies a varied collection of notebooks, ten in all, most of them fairly small (bit less than A5 in size). There’s an entry for almost every day, sometimes running to only a few lines, at others to more than a couple of pages. I estimate that there are 1500-2000 pages in total, but I can barely make out any of my mother’s handwriting. 🙁

Yet I can extract some simple patterns because there are many names in English (most of which I can decipher, but not all!) These include circles of friends and places visited (many mention Strood, Chatham, and Rochester, all places in the Medway area that are collectively seeking city status). Also recorded are literary works that she enjoyed reading, including a succession of French novels: Préséances (Mauriac), Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier), La Porte Étroite (André Gide), L’Assommoire (Zola) and unspecified works by Balzac and Flaubert. There are also contemporary events that hit the national and international headlines, which could be an interesting complement to her collection of scrapbooks.

But how am I going to be able to make more than superficial use? I would dearly like to be able to read the handwriting, but for the moment I am dependent on others and so I’m inviting a few Thai friends to transcribe small portions to gain a better idea of what my mother wrote. I hope that these samples will help me to be able to read on my own.

Even then as there’s so much material I shall have to target particular portions for reading, transcribing and translating. I could choose passages where certain people are mentioned etc., but perhaps there are more ingenious ways of delving into the text. Any suggestions would be welcome…

Welcome!

Welcome to a website for Fuengsin Trafford devoted to her life and work as a Buddhist practitioner, meditator, educator, interfaith worker, and culinary expert.

The blog posts on this site include in particular reflections on Thursday’s Lotus and what was involved in bringing the biography to fruition. I’ve copied over earlier articles relating to the project (before this site existed).

– Paul

The Hampshire Buddhist Society in the late ’60s

Note

The following is a copy of an article I originally posted on Blogger.com, February 23, 2010:
http://paultrafford.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/hampshire-buddhist-society-in-late-60s.html

I’ve recently started translating from Thai into English some documents authored by Fuengsin Trafford (formerly Sarayutpitag), my mother. I’m pleased to make available a draft of Some Buddhists in England, being a translation from the Thai of ส่วนหนึ่งของชาวพุทธในอังกฤษ.

The article describes the early days of the Hampshire Buddhist Society, which was founded in 1966. It organised some lectures at Southampton University, but it really developed at Crabwood Farmhouse, near Winchester, where core members of the Society met regularly. I found it particularly interesting to read about the format of the sessions since I attend a group in Oxford, where we follow a very similar procedure. This is no coincidence since our group used to be led by Freda Wint, who, I gather, was one of the early members of the Society. It’s a wonderful feeling to know this sense of continuity.

I’ll write separately about the process of translation itself, but just comment here that I think this would have been far more difficult for me even 5 years ago, but current electronic tools have really helped. However, I still need a Thai person to make corrections!

Golden Jubilee celebrations at KMUTT

Note

The following is a copy of an article I originally posted on Blogger.com, February 04, 2010:
https://paultrafford.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/golden-jubilee-celebrations-at-kmutt.html

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the official founding of King Mongkut’s University of Technology, Thonburi – it was established originally on 4 Feburary 1960 as Thonburi Technology Institute (TTI). It’s now a substantial research-led University building up an international profile.

I’ve been fortunate to get in touch with the University as my mother used to work there as a lecturer in English. She would refer to her former place of work as “Bangmot,” which is the colloquial shorthand and was one of the first members of staff, joining around the time it was founded – I’m currently trying to establish exactly when. The following photo was taken in 1964, when there was (as far as I know) just this two storey building!

The developments are extraordinary, so congratulations to the university on its achievements! I think my mother would have been delighted to see its progress.

Recalling Memories through Pictures (using multimedia tools)

Note

The following is a copy of an article I originally posted on Blogger.com, December 30, 2009:
https://paultrafford.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/recalling-memories-through-pictures.html

The processes of contact, feelings, perception and memory are closely interlinked. They are mediated through our senses and for most people the sense that usually predominates is sight. So in trying to put together the early life of my mother, the late Fuengsin Trafford, it’s been helpful to carry out interviews based on sets of photographs. I haven’t done much planning really, but rather have made things up as I’ve gone along, working intuitively; it’s only now I can see more of the methodology that I’ve actually followed! I’ll report here on that methodology and also on some of the technical tools that I’ve used to assist me.

My mother left hundreds of photos, which I’ve tried to arrange in sets according to distinct periods: early childhood, University days, her first years of teaching and so on. I created an index for each set and have pencilled in an incrementing number on the back of each photo, so that they are uniquely identified and there’s some order to them, though (as I later would frequently find out) it’s not chronological! I then scanned in the photos at a fairly high resolution (on an HP Scanjet 5370C, quite old now) and saved the files using the index as part of the file name. Having done this for a fair proportion of the collection, I’ve put copies in many places – on laptop hard drives, an external backup disk and memory sticks.

However, merely creating an archive without any descriptions is not much use! For some while I had intended to ask relatives and friends of my mother to enlighten me as to the context and details concerning the photos. I was finally able to set off for my mini fieldwork earlier this month (December), with a copy of the photos on my netbook, an Eee PC. When I met the ‘interviewees’ in Thailand I recorded the conversations using a digital voice recorder, saving copies of the recordings as files on the netbook.

It was the first time I had properly used such a recording device and my experience of conducting interviews was minimal (though I once did an interview with a Big Issue seller as part of a one day digital video course). So earlier this year I explored the world of digital audio recorders (a process that’s familiar for me as I’ve purchased quite a lot of electronic devices 🙂 I settled on an Olympus WS-110, which is a compact device, somewhat smaller and lighter than e.g. a Nokia 8210 mobile phone. I chose it based on reviews of its audio quality – good microphone and high quality sampling (see e.g. reviews on Amazon); file format wasn’t a concern for me. These devices are evolving rapidly and already Olympus lists this as an archived product, which means you should be able to find it new at a very good price on ebay (which is where I purchased it). Operating the device was very simple.

Then the netbook would serve as a digital lightbox and a basic means of navigation – for a given photo set all the photos would be the same folder and I’d run a slideshow using the wonderful Irfanview! The major handicap with the netbook is the relatively small screen – in many cases I needed to zoom in (my audio recording has a lot of tapping sounds!) When I was in conversation, I’d start with a preamble about what I was intending to do and asked for permission (it’s worth confirming this afterwards as well). Although sometimes you know that everyone is happy, it’s a good habit to get into in case I go on to do academic fieldwork, which is something I am deliberating. My main role felt like being a catalyst, with some general encouragement and a few questions sprinkled here and there, to elicit a few more details. There’s no doubt a large swathe of literature on conducting such interviews, but I didn’t read any.

On my return to the UK it was time to transcribe what had been said. To facilitate this, I wanted to associate the audio with the respective pictures (a tradeoff of using a separate recording device rather than doing the recording directly on the netbook). The intended result would be a video consisting of the photos that I had shown with each photo accompanied by the respective audio commentary, i.e. the comments from friends and relatives.

The solution I adopted was to use a video editing tool, Windows Movie Maker (WMM for short), which comes part of the Windows operating system. I guess it is similar in functionality, if not in elegance, with Apple’s iMovie. My familiarity with WMM is very limited, so it’s probably best if I summarise. The basic idea is to create one WMM file for each interview (WMM only provides a single audio track) so that in any given interview when playing back you know what was said about a particular picture. Here’s a screenshot:

There are basically three areas: top left is the collection of files that I used to create the composition – this is where you import the photos and the audio and in this case I could import audio straightaway without conversion as it was in WMA format. Top right is the playback for the composition as a whole. However, the work is carried out below in the storyboard/timeline, which consists of parallel tracks. All I used was the Video and Audio tracks, dragging and dropping photos from the collection area, moving them about until there was approximate synchronisation.

However, in writing a biography I need words as well as pictures! The next step in the process is thus transcription. The method I’m using here is to create a large table with the first column containing the photos, one photo per row. Each of the other columns are to record the transcription from a particular interview. With reference to the WMM files I’m transcribing what was said about a particular photo in the corresponding cell of the table. Again I’m not being particularly sophisticated about the implementation – it’s one mammoth table in a MS Word document. As long as it works, it is okay. For a formal research project I expect this would be better implemented in a database.

Handwriting bonus!

There have been some nice extras in undertaking this exercise. My mother has penned in Thai many documents, including a diary over several years. It’s one thing to learn how to read the printed word, but a further step to decipher Thai handwriting! With these compositions I have some samples here that have been read out (and with the aid of a dictionary I can slowly spell them out myself). To be systematic, for each letter I can build up a set of samples that I can use later on.

For a few hours of recording, there are many more in organising and interpreting, but I find it fun to do and along the way I learn a little more about Thai history generally. For anyone contemplating learning more about their own family history, I’d recommend this as a stimulating and informative exercise.

Acknowledgements

I mustn’t forget to thank everyone who has kindly provided information in the December interviews, including: Pah Vasana, Khun Jamras, Pah Umpai, P’ Laem, P’ Darunee & her mother, Khun Chaiwat, P’ Yui, P’ Ead, Na Tewee, Na Tun, and Pah Jah. If I could contact all those my mother knew well, this list would be very long …

Researching a Thai Biography

Explanatory Note

The following is an extract from the first article I posted about the biography on Blogger.com, December 15, 2009:
http://paultrafford.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/researching-thai-biography.html

… I’m currently gathering some information here in Thailand for a personal project: a biography of my mother, the late Fuengsin Trafford (the following photo of her is one of my favourites):

In my 10 day stopover on my way back from Melbourne to the UK, I’ve been showing old photographs like the one above to relatives and friends, seeking to learn more about her early life – her childhood, her university studies (and many outings) at Chulalongkorn and afterwards her time at the Thonburi Technical Institute, Bangmod (now King Mongkut University of Technology, Thonburi). I’ve been using a voice recorder and subsequently transferring the audio to my Eee PC: everything that has appeared online in the past couple of weeks or so has emanated from or been processed on this netbook, truly a travelling companion! (And I’ve been fortunate enough to have good Wifi access with reasonable broadband connections.

Today, one of my kalyanamittas, Khun Jo, took me to the National Library in Bangkok. My grandparents’ home was formerly in Rajadamnoen, in the city centre, which became a target for British and American bombers in the Second World War. Many families moved across the Chao Phraya to Thonburi, though my grandparents may have moved a few years before as they were the first to arrive at what was then an orchard without any dwellings. I was looking for some background information and photographs from that time and in the short time we had we were able to find a book that specifically mentioned this movement from one side of the river to the other.

I feel there’s a long way to go, not least to understand the geography – I recall two of my mother’s friends taking her to a certain restaurant around a big roundabout; only today did I learn that this was in Rajadamnoen. Evidently there’s much more for me to explore!