Tam Nan Mueang Krung Si Yothiya: Ayutthaya in a Lan Na Buddhist Prophetic Legend from the Early 19th Century

Abstract

Tamnan Mueang Kung Si Yothiya, known by other names as Puen Mueang Kung Sri Yothiya, Puen Kerd Mueng Kung Si Yothiya, Puen Mueang Kung, Tamnan Mueang Kung, or Tamnan Wiang Chan, is a short Buddhist prophetic legend, presumably composed by an unnamed author during the early 19^th Century. Its content includes the mythological history of Ayutthaya, variously called “Mueang Nong Sano,” and the prophecy of calamities that would occur upon the city and all humankind, after which the “Meritorious One” or “Thammikarat” will be incarnated in the world to save those who uphold virtues and follow Lord Buddha’s teachings. The text of this legend is almost identical to the Lao literature of Puen Mueang Kung, popular in Lan Xang and Isaan regions, and similar to the Khmer-language Puttamneay, founded in a Khmer community in Southern Isaan. It is also known within the research circle of Isaan history that this literature, under the name Puen Mueang Krung, served as a medium that helped shape and spread the narratives and ideas of the 18^th – 20^th Century peasant movement called “Phu Mee Boon’s Movement.” The existence of the same legend in Lan Na, where a similar peasant movement emerged contemporaneously, revealed a conceptual link between the peasant movements of the two regions. Therefore, the author hereby transliterates the Lan Na version of the legend into Thai script to facilitate further studies on the topic.