MuayThaiHistory

Yeah, I hope I can find it. I think I will contact Cornell University and ask if it is possible to obtain a copy of "Violence and Control: Social and Cultural Dimensions of Muay Thai Boxing (1998) ", because I saw they are one of the few universities with a copy in their library. Then it would be possible to obtain the source of the Nai Khanom Tom tale. If anyone can provide me with more information in the meantime, I would love to hear it.

Well, I'm desparately looking to get the original source of Nai Khanom Tom tale. The problem is; I don't know which source it comes from. I do know now that it is listed in the document of Peter Vail: Violence and Control: Social and Cultural Dimensions of Muay Thai Boxing (1998). However, this document for some reason is the only document that is not available online. So I don't know how to retrieve the source of the Burmese poem of Nai Khanom Tom.

Do you mean the translation of the Burmese poem of Nai Khanom Tom? If so, then I'd would be very interested in reading it!

I have gone through all the sources from your link you provided. I have found a document which lists the source of the Burmese poem. It is listed in the following document: Violence and Control: Social and Cultural Dimensions of Muay Thai Boxing (1998) It is unfortunately also the only link which can't be opened. Any idea how to get access to it? It is not anywhere on the web.

Hello, your response was very interesting. I am very curious where you get the info from Nai Khanom Tom and the Burmese epic? Do you know where to find this Burmese version of the tale? I have looked online, but I was not able to find it. Any info would be greatly appreciated. The information that I gathered is that the tale of Nai Khanom Tom was composed in a poetry by Prince Prichit Prichakorn. I have shared the story here. Source: Nai Khanom Tale discussed in Thesis "During the reign of King Rama V [r.1868-1910], Prince Phichit prichakon, the King's half-brother, wrote a poem to reinterpret a life of a boxer who came from the city of Ayutthaya. Following a chronicle of Burma, in 1774, after the fall of Ayutthaya, Burmese troops captured and took war prisoners, including members of the royal familyand commoners, to Burma. Nai Khanom Tom, a war prisoner and a boxer taken from Ayutthaya, participated in boxing matches against Burmese boxers in a religious ceremony in Rangoon.162In Prince Phichitprichakon’s poem, he reinterpreted that Nai Khanom Tom represented “Siam” as “the nation-state of the Siamese” to fight against the Burmese. The social unit of Ayutthaya Kingdom was not united as a “we-group” identification of a nation-state.The Ayutthaya Kingdom frequently encounteredcentrifugal tendencies. During that period, the Burmese were understood to be the enemy of Buddhism rather than the Siamese nation.This poem could be seen as the elite’s attempt to nourish the idea that violence had to be 3done only in the name of the state. Besides, violence would be used at the inter-state level. Following the Prince's poem, he stated:...There was a Siamese, whose name was Khanom Tom, Volunteered to fight and the Burmese recognised [him as] the master of boxing. [He] kicked, hit, [and] punched with loud bangs.[He] threw a hook. A bunch of the Burmese lost.The Burmese dared not fight back.More than ten [Burmese] were knocked out before the second round.The Burmese King groped his chest and said: No matter how crucially the nation of Siam fell into trouble, The [Siamese] people, though being unarmed, can survive any danger...Through a reconstruction of a boxing story, the government propagated the idea of self-pacification within the nation-state while legitimising the use of violence at the inter-state level."