Phra Aphai Mani


Phra Aphai Mani is a 48,700-line epic poem written by the Thai legendary poet, Sunthorn Phu, also known as "the Bard of Rattanakosin". It is considered to be one of Thailand's national epics. With 48,686 couplets, it is listed the longest Thai single poem. Suthorn Phu started working on this epic fantasy from 1822 and took 22 years to finish in 1844. It is also one of well-known Thai folklores that has been heavily adapted into films and comics. The main protagonists are Prince Aphai Mani, the mermaid, and the Pisue Samutr; a female yak who can transmute herself into a beautiful girl.
Although, Phra Aphai Mani contains many mythical creatures and supra-natural protagonists, its major difference from other Thai epics is that they are originally created by Sunthorn Phu himself, unlike those poetic tales based on well-known folk stories like Khun Chang Khun Phaen. Moreover, Phra Aphai Mani was composed during the period of western colonisation of Southeast Asia. As the result, many parts of the story include the characters of European ancestry, from mercenaries to pirates. Some Thai literary critics believe that Suthorn Phu composed Phra Aphai Mani as an anti-colonisation story, disguised as a versified tale of fantasy adventures.

Synopsis

Phra Aphai Mani and his brother, Sisuwan, are Thai princes. Their father sends them to study abroad, wishing to let them enthrone after he passes away. Sisuwan masters the martial art of sword fighting, whilst Phra Aphai Mani masters playing a magical flute that either puts people to sleep or kills them. When they return home, their father is infuriated by the fact that what they learned was not useful for rulers, as he expected, and so he expels them from the kingdom.
One day, while Aphai's companions were lulled to sleep by the sound of his flute, a female ogress named Nang Phisuea Samut, came and took Aphai away to her cave. She disguised herself as a beautiful maiden and Aphai fell in love with her. They lived together and gave birth to their son, Sinsamut. When Aphai found out that his wife was actually an ogress, he decided to flee with his son. He was assisted by a family of mermaids, a father, mother, and daughter. The father and mother were caught and eaten by the ogress. The mermaid daughter took Aphai and Sinsamut to Koh Kaeo Phitsadan where a saved them from the ogress. Aphai married the mermaid who partially helped him escape and had a son, named Sutsakhon.
One day, a junk carrying King Silarat and Princess Suwanmali, passed the island where Aphai lives. The princess was engaged to the European Prince, Usaren of Lanka. Aphai and Sinsamut asked to join the ship in order to get home, but the ogress saw them and got infuriated, attacking them and killed King Silarat. Aphai managed to escape and found himself on a shore. Then, he played his magic flute that killed the ogress. Afterwards, he met Prince Usaren, who was looking for a fiancée.
Meanwhile, Sinsamut, escaping the ogress, swam with the princess Suwanmali to an island where they met Sisuwan and his daughter; Arun Ratsami. Together, they went in search of Aphai. When they found Aphai and Usaren safe, the princess Suwanmali refused to engaged to Usaren, which caused the two parties to fight and Prince Usaren fled to his homeland of Lanka.
Aphai later moved to the kingdom of Pharuek where the queen asked him to enthrone for the next king. Angry at Phra Aphai for giving her up to Usaren, Princess Suwanmali fled and become a nun in a monastery. But, with the trick of her own maid; Walee, Suwanmali decided to leave the nunhood and marry Aphai. They had twin daughters named Soisuwan and Chanthasuda.
Years later, Usaren and his father attacked the kingdom of Pharuek. Usaren's father was killed and so did Usaren who died from being heart-broken by learning that Suwanmali married to Aphai. The throne of Lanka later fell to Usaren's little sister, Laweng. The beautiful blonde-haired Laweng decided to take revenge for Usaren. She proclaimed to all neighbouring cities; whoever kills Aphai of Phareuk, she will grant her son and her kingdom of Lanka. Seeing the armies surrounded, Aphai fled with Laweng and eventually won her heart, whilst the war continued until the hermit came and helped to stop the war between them.

Composition, innovations, and (possible) influences

The epic tale of Phra Aphai Mani is a truly massive work of poetry in klon suphap. The unabridged version published by the National Library is 48,686-Bāt long, totaling over 600,000 words, and spanning 132 samut Thai books - by far the single longest poem in the Thai language, and is the world's second longest epic poem written by a single poet. Sunthorn Phu, however, originally intended to end the story at the point where Phra Aphai abdicates the throne and retires into the wood. This leaves his original vision of the work at 25,098 lines of poetry - spanning 64 samut thai books. But his literary patron wanted him to continue composing, which he did for many years until it reached final length. Today, the abridged version - i.e. his original 64 samut-thai volumes, totaling 25,098 couplets of poetry - is regarded as the authoritative text of the epic. It took Sunthorn Phu more than 20 years to compose.
Phra Aphai Mani is Sunthorn Phu's Chef-d'œuvre. It breaks the tradition of earlier Thai poetic novels or nithan kham-klon by including western contemporary inventions, such as steam-powered ships which only started to appear in Europe. Sunthorn Phu also writes about a mechanical music player at the time when a gramophone or a self-playing piano was yet to be invented. This made Phra Aphai Mani surprisingly futuristic for the time. Also, unlike other classical Thai epic poems, Phra Aphai Mani depicts various exploits of white mercenaries and pirates which reflects the ongoing colonization of Southeast Asia in the early 19th Century. Phra Aphai himself is said to have learned "to speak Farang, Chinese and Cham languages." Moreover, the locations of cities and islands in Phra Aphai Mani are not imagined but actually correspond to real geographical locations in the Andaman Sea as well as east of the Indian Ocean. Sunthorn Phu could also give an accurate knowledge of modern sea voyage in that part of the world. This suggests that the Thai Bard must have acquired these knowledge from foreign seafarers first-handedly. The multi-cultural and the half-mythical, half-realistic setting of Phra Aphai Mani - combined with Sunthorn Phu's poetical brilliance - makes Phra Aphai Mani a unique literary masterpiece.

Phra Aphai Mani as the Siamese Odyssey

Western colonialism was spreading into Southeast Asia at the time when Sunthorn Phu was composing Phra Aphai Mani. Many Thai literary critics have suggested that Sunthorn Phu may have intended his epic masterpiece to be an anti-colonialism story, disguised as a versified tale of fantasy adventures. Sujit Wongthes, for example, proposes that Sunthorn Phu models Nang Laweng, Phra Aphai's beautiful blonde-haired female nemesis who later becomes his lover, after Queen Victoria of England. He also cites the fact that Sunthorn Phu portrays an English captain of a huge privateer as a villainous character to support his claim. In a literary sense, however, Phra Aphai Mani could perhaps be inspired by great Greek epic and Persian literature, notably the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Argonauts, and Thousand and One Nights. The structure of Phra Aphai Mani conforms well to the Monomyth structure, shared by other great epic stories. Indeed, it is possible that Sunthorn Phu may have learned these epic stories from European missionaries, Catholic priests or learned individuals who travelled to Siam during the early 19th century. Phra Aphai, the main protagonist, resembles Orpheus - the famed musician of the Argonauts - rather than a warrior like Achilles. However, Phra Aphai's odyssean journey conjures a similarity with the King of Ithaca. Pii Sue Samut, a love-struck female titan who kidnaps the hero, vaguely reminds us of the nymph Calypso. Also, much like Odysseus, Phra Aphai's long voyage enables him to speak many languages and to learn the minds and customs of many foreign races. Phra Aphai's name is pronounced quite similar to how "Orpheus" is pronounced in Greek. In addition, Nang Laweng's bewitching beauty, so captivating it drives nations to war, seems to match the reputation of fair-haired Helen of Troy. Others have suggested that Nang Laweng may have been inspired by a story of a Christian princess, told in Persia's Thousand and One Nights, who falls in love with a muslim king.
In composing Phra Aphai Mani, Sunthorn Phu demonstrates a grand poetic ambition. He became the first Thai writer to draw inspirations from vast western literary sources and produced an epic literature based, loosely, on the amalgamation of those myths and legends. Thus, rather than writing with a political motive, Sunthorn Phu might simply want to challenge the best poets and literature of the west.

Phra Aphai Mani in modern popular culture

There are a few Thai films based on this popular legend, including The Adventure of Sudsakorn and Legend of Sudsakorn.
There is also a Thai comic series with the name Apaimanee Saga.
On some locations in Thailand, such as Ko Samet island and Cha-am, there are statues related to the Phra Aphai Mani story.
A ballad with some kind of a similar story exists in Sweden: Herr_Mannelig.