Travels in India (Tavernier) 145: BOOK III
Travels in India (Ball) 145
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BOOK III
145.1
The King of Siam is one of the wealthiest monarchs in the East, and he calls himself in his edicts King of heaven and earth, although he is a tributary to the Kings of China. He shows himself but rarely to his subjects, and only gives audience to the principal persons of his court, strangers having no admission to his palace. He confides the government to his ministers, who very often make ill use of the authority with which they are invested. He only shows himself in public twice in the year ; this he does with much splendour. The first time is in order to go in state to a pagoda which is in the town, the tower of which is gilt throughout, both inside and outside. It contains three idols, which are from 6 to 7 feet high, and are made of massive gold ; and by means of liberal alms to the poor, and presents to the priests of these false gods, he believes that he makes himself pleasing to them. He goes there accompanied by all his court, and displays all his richest possessions. Among other indications of magnificence there are 200 elephants in Siam, one of them being white ; and it is so highly esteemed by the King that he glories in calling himself “the King of the white elephant.” These elephants live for several centuries, as I have elsewhere remarked.
145.2
The second time that the King goes forth in public is for the purpose of visiting another pagoda, which is 5 or 6 leagues from the town up the river. No one can enter this pagoda save the King and his priests. As for the people, as soon as they see the door of it each one must throw himself with his face to the ground. On this occasion the King appears on the river with 200 richly gilt and decorated galleys of an enormous length, each having 400 rowers. As this second sortie of the King happens in the month of November, when the river begins to fall, the priests make the people believe that it is the King alone who is able to arrest the course of the waters by the prayers and offerings which he makes in this pagoda ; and these poor people persuade themselves that the King goes to cut the waters with his sword, to dismiss them and order them to retire into the sea. The King goes, moreover, but on this occasion without any state, to a pagoda which is in the island where the Dutch have their factory. There is, at the entrance, an idol seated after the manner of our tailors, having one hand on one of his knees and the other at his side. It is more than 60 feet high, and around this large idol there are more than 300 others of different sizes, which represent all kinds of attitudes of men and women. All these idols are gilt, and there is a prodigious quantity of these pagodas in all the country.
145.3
This results from the fact that there is no rich Siamese who does not have one built to perpetuate his memory. These pagodas have towers and bells, and the walls inside are painted and gilt, but the windows are so narrow that they afford but little light. The altars are laden with costly idols, among which there are generally three of different sizes close to one another. The two pagodas to which, as I have said, the King goes in state, are surrounded by many beautiful pyramids, all well gilt; and that which is in the island where the Dutch have their house has associated with it a cloister, the facade of which is very fine. In the middle there is, as it were, a great chapel all gilded within, where a lamp and three wax candles are kept alight in front of the altar, which is covered with idols, some being of fine gold and the others of gilt copper. The pagoda, which is in the middle of the town, and is one of the two which the King visits once in the year, as I have related, contains nearly 4000 idols, and it has around it, as has that which is at 6 leagues from Siam, a quantity of pyramids, the beauty of which causes one to wonder at the industry of this nation.
145.4
When the King appears all the doors and windows of the houses have to be closed, and all the people prostrate themselves on the ground without daring to raise their eyes towards him. As no one should be in a place more elevated than the King when he is passing through the streets, all those who are in their houses must descend. When his hair is cut one of his wives is employed on that duty, as he does not allow a barber to place a hand upon him. This prince is passionately attached to certain elephants, which he supports as the favourites and ornaments of his kingdom. When they are sick the greatest nobles of the court show the utmost care for them in order to please their sovereign ; and when the elephants die, as much magnificence is displayed for them as at the funerals of the nobles of the Kingdom. These funerals of the nobles are conducted in the following manner : — A kind of mausoleum is adorned with reeds covered on both sides with paper of many colours. As all kinds of scented wood are sold by weight, as much as the body weighs is placed in the middle of the mausoleum, and after the priests have finished pronouncing some benedictions they burn the whole to ashes. Those of the rich are preserved in urns of gold or silver, but as for those of the poor they are cast to the winds. As for criminals who have finished their lives with a disgraceful death, the Siamese do not burn their bodies, but bury them.
145.5
The King authorises public women, but they have to live in their own separate quarter, under a chief who protects them from insult from any one. When one of them dies her body is not burnt as is that of a respectable woman, but is thrown into a place where it becomes the food of dogs and crows. It is estimated that there are in this Kingdom more than 200,000 priests called Bonzes who are held in great veneration both by the court and by the people. The King himself regards some of them with such awe as to humiliate himself in their presence. The extraordinary respect which every one shows them has inspired in them, sometimes, so much pride, that some of them have pushed their desires as far as the throne. But when the King discovers anything of the kind he takes their lives, as was the case some time ago in a rebellion, the author of which was a Bonze, whom the King executed.
145.6
These Bonzes are clad in yellow, and wear on their loins a small red cloth as a waistband. They make an outward show of great modesty, and one never sees them manifest the smallest degree of passion. At four o’clock in the morning they rise at the sound of bells to say their prayers, and they do the same towards evening. There are certain days of the year when they withdraw from the conversation of men to live in retreat. Some live on charity, and others have well-endowed dwellings. As long as they wear the garb of Bonzes they cannot possess wives, and they must relinquish it if they desire to marry. They are for the most part very ignorant, and know not what they believe. It appears, however, that like the idolaters of India they believe in the transmigration of the soul into many bodies. It is forbidden to them to take the lives of animals; nevertheless, they make no scruple about eating animals which others have slain, or have died naturally. The god whom they worship is a phantom, of whom they speak blindly, and they are so obstinate in maintaining their gross errors that it is difficult to cure them of them. They say that the God of the Christians and theirs are brothers, but that theirs is the elder. If any one asks them where their god is they reply that he has disappeared, and that they know not where he is.
145.7
As for the standing army of the kingdom, it consists mainly of infantry, which is fairly good. The soldiers are inured to fatigue, and have for sole garment a piece of calico to cover the middle of the body. All the remainder of the body — the chest, back, arms, and thighs — are uncovered, and the skin, which is all cut (tattooed), as when one applies cupping-glasses, represents many kinds of flowers and animals. After the skin is cut and the blood has flowed from it, these figures of flowers and animals are rubbed in with whatever colours are wished for ; and one would say, on seeing these soldiers from a distance, that they were clad with some flowered silken stuff or painted calico, for the colours once applied never fade. They have for arms bow and arrow, musket and pike, and an azagaye, which is a stick of 5 or 6 feet long, tipped with iron at the end, which can be hurled with skill against an enemy. In the year 1665 there was in the town of Siam a Neapolitan Jesuit called Father Thomas. He fortified the town and the King’s palace, which is on the margin of the river, and he had previously erected good bastions on both sides. It was on account of this that the King allowed him to dwell in the town, where he had a small church with a house where M. Lambert, Bishop of Beyrout, went to lodge on arriving in Siam. But these two did not long remain on good terms together, and the Bishop found it advisable to have a
145.8
The port where vessels arrive from Cochin-China and other places is only half a league from the town, and as there are always some Christian sailors there, the Bishop built a small house and a chapel there in order to perform mass.