"Armed Rural Folk: Elements of Pre-colonial Warfare in the Artistic Representations and Written Accounts of the Pacification Campaign (1886–1889) in Burma" Michael W. Charney

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

I'm going to post a copy of Michael Charney's excellent article here as it is hard to find, and is an important piece in the history of Thailand's Muay Thai, in so far as it can be conceived in the context of mainland Southeast Asian warfare. It drives the the heart of the difficulty we have of even picturing the preponderance of warfare there may have been, as our record is powerfully overbalanced by Kingdom chronicle and its perspective. In fact, the vast majority of organized conflict likely was rural and between settlements and smaller polities. It's important to see this, as it was likely martial pressure that was most operative in developing a mode of fighting. (My own hypothesis has been that Muay Thai (Boran), likely developed less out of battle and conflict itself, and more out of a parallel line of (betting) ring fighting rites and custom. This text is found in "WARRING SOCIETIES OF PRECOLONIAL
SOUTHEAST ASIA".

 

This article is posted in reference to the much wider thesis of Thailand's defensive fighting style here: