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Ramkhamhaeng

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Ramkhamhaeng
พ่อขุนรามคแหงมหาราช
Khun[1]
Statue of King Ramkhamhaeng the Great, Sukhothai Historical Park, Sukhothai Province, Thailand
King of Sukhothai
Reign1279–1298
PredecessorBan Mueang
SuccessorSai Songkhram (Regent)
BornRama[2]
c. 1237 or 1247
Sukhothai Kingdom
Died1298 (aged 51–61)
Sukhothai Kingdom
IssueLoe Thai
Phaya Sai Songkhram
May Hnin Thwe-Da
Regnal name
Phrabat Kamrateng An Sri Rammarat (พระบาทกมรเตงอัญศรีรามราช)
DynastyPhra Ruang
FatherSi Inthrathit
MotherSueang
ReligionTheravada Buddhism

Ramkhamhaeng (Thai: รามคำแหง, pronounced [rāːm kʰām hɛ̌ːŋ] ⓘ), commonly known as Pho Khun Ramkhamhaeng the Great (Thai: พ่อขุนรามคำแหงมหาราช, pronounced [pʰɔ̂ː kʰǔn raːm kʰam hɛ̌ːŋ má hǎː râːt] ⓘ), was the third king of the Phra Ruang dynasty, ruling the Sukhothai Kingdom, a historical polity in what is now Thailand, from 1279 to 1298, during its most prosperous era.

He is credited with the creation of the Thai alphabet and with firmly establishing Theravada Buddhism as the state religion of the kingdom.[3]: 197 [4]: 25 

Birth and name

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Ramkhamhaeng (sometimes written Ram Khamhaeng) was a son of Pho Khun Bang Klang Hao, who ruled as Pho Khun Si Inthrathit, and his queen, Sueang.[5] Folk legend, however, claims that his real parents were an ogress named Kangli and a fisherman.[6]: 23  He had two brothers and two sisters. The eldest brother died while very young. The second, Ban Mueang, became king following their father's death and was succeeded by Ramkhamhaeng on his death.[7]

At the age of 19, he took part in his father's successful campaign to capture the city of Sukhothai. Coedès described the city as formerly a vassal of the Khmer Empire, and on his account the victory established Sukhothai as an independent kingdom. Owing to his courage in battle, he was reportedly granted the title "Phra Ram Khamhaeng" ("Rama the Bold").[3]: 196  The Ram Khamhaeng Inscription gives a different occasion. At nineteen he fought Khun Sam Chon, ruler of Mueang Chot, who had attacked Tak, and he took the name Ram Khamhaeng from his victory on elephant-back.[8]: 134  Following his father's death, his elder brother Ban Mueang ascended the throne and appointed Ramkhamhaeng as ruler of Si Satchanalai. Chusak Satienpattanodom reads the descent of the town differently. On his account Si Satchanalai remained with Pha Mueang's line until 1283, when Ramkhamhaeng annexed it after Pha Mueang's death and restored it as the second seat of the kingdom. He takes the date from the preface of the Chindamani, a manual of the 17th century.[9]: 82 

The Royal Institute of Thailand has speculated that Ramkhamhaeng's birth name was "Ram", from Rama, the hero of the Hindu epic Ramayana, since his name following coronation was recorded as "Pho Khun Ramarat" (Thai: พ่อขุนรามราช). At the time, it was customary to name a grandson after his grandfather. According to both the 11th Stone Inscription and the Ayutthaya Chronicles compiled by Prasoet Aksoranit, Ramkhamhaeng had a grandson named "Phraya Ram", whose two grandsons in turn were named "Phraya Ban Mueang" and "Phraya Ram".

The title Maharat (Thai: มหาราช) is the Thai equivalent of "the Great King".

Accession

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The three kings monument in Chiang Mai: King Ngam Muang of Phayao (left), King Mangrai of Lan Na (center), and King Ramkhamhaeng of Sukhothai (right).

Tri Amattayakun (Thai: ตรี อมาตยกุล), a Thai historian, suggests that Ramkhamhaeng should have acceded to the throne in 1279, the year he planted a sugar palm tree in Sukhothai.[8]: 141  Prasert na Nagara of the Royal Institute speculates that this was a tradition of Tai Ahom monarchs. They planted banyan or sugar palm trees on their coronation day in the hope that their reign would achieve the same stature as the tree.

The most significant event at the beginning of his reign was the elopement of one of his daughters, Thai: แม่นางสร้อยดาว, RTGS: Mae-nang Soidao, "Lady Soidao" May Hnin Thwe-Da, with the captain of the palace guards, a commoner. The commoner would found the Burmese Hanthawaddy kingdom and commission compilation of the Code of Wareru, which would provide a basis for the law of Thailand used in Siam until 1908,[10] and in Burma to the present.[11][12]

Reign

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Ramkhamhaeng sent embassies to Yuan China from 1282 to 1323 and imported the techniques to make the ceramics now known as Sangkhalok ceramic ware. He had close relationships with the rulers of nearby city-states, especially Ngammueang, the ruler of neighboring Phayao kingdom (whose wife, according to legend, he seduced), and King Mangrai of Chiang Mai.[3]: 206  His campaign against Cambodia left the Khmer country "utterly devastated".[13]: 90 

According to Thai history, Ramkhamhaeng is credited with creating the Thai alphabet (Lai Nangsue Thai) from a combination of the Khmer, Sanskrit, Pali, and Grantha alphabets.[citation needed]

It is speculated that Ramkhamhaeng's kingdom reached Lampang, Phrae and Nan in the north and Phitsanulok and Vientiane in the east. It is said to have reached the Nakhon Si Thammarat Kingdom in the south, the Mon kingdoms of what is now Myanmar in the west, and the Bay of Bengal in the northwest. The Thais also expanded south towards the Malay Peninsula. The History of Yuan records that, "since the people of Sien and of Ma- li-yü-erh have long been killing each other and are all in submission at this moment", an imperial order told the people of Sien to "do no harm to the Ma-li-yii-erh and hold to your promise".[14] However, in the mandala political model, kingdoms such as Sukhothai lacked distinct borders, instead being centered on the strength of the capital itself.[15] Claims of Ramkhamhaeng's large kingdom were intended to assert Siamese dominance over mainland Southeast Asia.[15]

Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit, who render his name Ramaraja, read his inscription as the record of a warrior career. In it he describes raiding towns and villages in his youth and carrying off elephants, people, silver and gold, and later raiding over a wide area and helping other chiefs establish themselves.[16]: 31  The same inscription advertises Sukhothai as a place where anyone may trade in elephants, horses, silver or gold.[16]: 33  It then turns from the warrior exploits to the Buddhist furnishings of the city, its viharas, its gilded and colossal images and its senior monks.[16]: 38 

Death

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According to the Chinese History of Yuan, King Ramkhamhaeng died in 1298 and was succeeded by his son, Loe Thai, though George Cœdès says it is "more probable" it was "shortly before 1318". Legend holds that Khamhaeng perished in the rapids of the rivers of Sawankhalok. Another source says he was slain by a Malay warrior princess named Adruja Wijayamala Singha during a battle between Thai and Malay armies. The battle belonged to a campaign to conquer Malay lands that make up a third of modern Thailand today.[3]: 218–219 

Legacy

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Ram Khamhaeng Inscription

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Ramkhamhaeng stele, Bangkok National Museum

Much of the traditional biographical information comes from the inscription on the Ramkhamhaeng stele, composed in 1292, and contains vague facts about the king.[3]: 196–198  It is now found in the Bangkok National Museum. The formal name of the stele is the "King Ramkhamhaeng Inscription". It was added to the Memory of the World Register in 2003 by UNESCO.

The stele's claim that Ramkhamhaeng devised Tai letters has been read narrowly. Hans Penth argued that Tai had been written in South Indian, Grantha, Mōn and Khmer alphabets for as much as two centuries earlier, and David K. Wyatt notes that the text speaks of "these Tai letters", claiming only one particular form. What was devised was the writing of vowels on the line and the dropping of tone marks.[17]: 26, 29–30  Wyatt also uses the length of Ramkhamhaeng's reign, which ran into the 1290s, to argue that his father Si Inthrathit cannot have taken Sukhothai as early as 1220 and probably did so about 1243. He also cites the Annals of the North tradition that Ramkhamhaeng studied at Lopburi in 1254 under the same teacher as Ngam Mueang of Phayao. He takes it as a caution against reading later political identities backwards, since Lopburi would on a modern reading have been enemy country.[17]: 52–53, 55 

Sangkhalok ceramic ware

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Ramkhamhaeng is credited with bringing the skills of ceramic making from China and laying the foundation of a strong ceramic ware industry in the Sukhothai Kingdom.[3]: 206–207  Sukhothai for centuries was the major exporter of the ceramics known as "Sangkhalok ware" (Thai: เครื่องสังคโลก) to countries such as Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and even to China. The industry was one of the main revenue generators during his reign and long afterward. Phiset Jiajanphong attributes the transfer to a later ruler. He identifies the Phra Ruang who travelled to China and brought back potters as Chao Nakhon In of Suphannabhum, who ruled Ayutthaya as Intharacha from 1409. On that reading the sangkhalok kilns of Sukhothai and Si Satchanalai worked from the technology he obtained, a century after Ramkhamhaeng's death.[18] Vajiravudh had put the transfer earlier still. He held that Ramkhamhaeng took the Chinese style of bowls and dishes and adapted it into sangkhalok during a journey to China in 1300, in the reign of the Yuan emperor Chengzong.[19]: 163  Saipan Puriwanchana traces that account to the chronicle motif in which Phra Ruang travels to China, brings back potters and becomes the Chinese emperor's son-in-law.[19]: 154 

Banknote

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The reverse of the 20 Baht note (series 16), issued in 2013, depicts images of the royal statue of Ramkhamhaeng seated on the Manangkhasila Asana Throne and commemorates the invention of the Thai script by the king.[20]

Honour

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Ramkhamhaeng University, the first Thai university with an open-door policy and with campuses throughout the country was named after Ramkhamhaeng. The name was proposed in parliament by Khlaeo Norapati as a memorial to the king who granted the Thai letters.[19]: 163 

Video games

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King Ramkhamhaeng is a playable ruler for the Siamese in Sid Meier's Civilization V.

References

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  1. ↑ Eoseewong, Nidhi. ""พ่อขุน" ไม่เคยใช้เรียกกษัตริย์ที่ครองราชย์อยู่ "รามคำแหง" พระนามที่ชวนฉงน ?!?". Silpawattanatham. Silpawattanatham. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  2. ↑ 105 เนื้อหา ตำราพระมหากษัตริย์ไทย
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cœdès, George (1968). Walter F. Vella (ed.). The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. trans. Susan Brown Cowing. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-0368-1.
  4. ↑ Chakrabongse, C. (1960). Lords of Life. London: Alvin Redman Limited.
  5. ↑ Prasert Na Nagara and Alexander B. Griswold (1992). "The Inscription of King Rāma Gāṃhèṅ of Sukhodaya (1292 CE)", p. 265, in Epigraphic and Historical Studies. Journal of the Siam Society. The Historical Society Under the Royal Patronage of H.R.H. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn: Bangkok. ISBN 974-88735-5-2.
  6. ↑ Wyatt, David K. (1995). The Chiang Mai Chronicle. Bangkok: Silkworm Books. ISBN 978-974-7047-67-7. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
  7. ↑ Prasert and Griswold (1992), p. 265-267
  8. 1 2 Wongthes, Sujit (1983). สุโขทัยไม่ใช่ราชธานีแห่งแรกของไทย [Sukhothai Was Not the First Royal Capital of the Thai]. Sinlapa Watthanatham special issue (in Thai). Bangkok: Sinlapa Watthanatham. ISBN 974-8350-36-3.
  9. ↑ Chusak Satienpattanodom (2000). พัฒนาการของเมืองศรีสัชนาลัย ตั้งแต่กลางพุทธศตวรรษที่ 17 ถึงกลางพุทธศตวรรษที่ 22 [The rise and decline of Si Satchanalai from the twelfth to sixteenth centuries] (PDF) (MA thesis) (in Thai). Bangkok: Silpakorn University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 December 2024.
  10. ↑ T. Masao, (Toshiki Masao) (1908). "The New Penal Code of Siam" (PDF). Journal of the Siam Society. 5 (2). Siam Society Heritage Trust: 1–10. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
  11. ↑ Lingat, R. (1950). "Evolution of the Conception of Law in Burma and Siam" (PDF). Journal of the Siam Society. 38 (1). Siam Society Heritage Trust: 13–24. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
  12. ↑ Griswold, Alexander B.; Prasert na Nagara (1969). "Epigraphic and Historical Studies No. 4: A Law Promulgated By the King of Ayudhyā in 1397 A.D" (PDF). Journal of the Siam Society. 57 (1). Siam Society Heritage Trust: 109–148. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
  13. ↑ Maspero, G., 2002, The Champa Kingdom, Bangkok: White Lotus Co., Ltd., ISBN 9747534991
  14. ↑ Coedes, George (1965). The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. Canberra: Australia National University Press. p. 205.
  15. 1 2 Siam Mapped: A history of the geo-body of a nation, by Thongchai Winichakul, University of Hawaii Press. 1994. p 163.
  16. 1 2 3 Chris Baker; Pasuk Phongpaichit (4 July 2017). "Before Ayutthaya". A History of Ayutthaya: Siam in the Early Modern World. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–42. doi:10.1017/9781108120197.002. ISBN 978-1-108-12019-7. Archived from the original on 11 March 2026. Retrieved 29 August 2026.
  17. 1 2 David K. Wyatt (2001). "Relics, Oaths and Politics in Thirteenth-Century Siam" (PDF). Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 32 (1): 3–65. JSTOR 20072298. Archived from the original on 26 January 2026. Retrieved 10 September 2025.
  18. ↑ Wongthes, Sujit. สุโขทัย ไม่ใช่ราชธานีแห่งแรก, ไม่ปลดแอกเขมร, ไม่เป็นเจ้าของสังคโลก [ข้อมูลใหม่ จากกรมศิลปากร] [Sukhothai was not the first royal capital, did not throw off the Khmer, and did not own Sangkhalok [new information from the Fine Arts Department]] (PDF) (in Thai). Retrieved 20 September 2026 – via Sanamchandra Palace Library, Silpakorn University.
  19. 1 2 3 Puriwanchana, Saipan (2016). "อาณาจักรสุโขทัย": การประกอบสร้างประวัติศาสตร์จากตำนานและความเชื่อของคนไทย ["Kingdom of Sukhothai": The Construction of History from Thai Legends and Beliefs]. Ramkhamhaeng University Journal, Humanities Edition (in Thai). 35 (1): 143–172. Retrieved 20 September 2026.
  20. ↑ "History and Series of Banknotes, 20 Baht Series 16". BOT. Bank of Thailand. Archived from the original on 31 March 2013. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  • ตรี อมาตยกุล. (2523, 2524, 2525 และ 2527). "ประวัติศาสตร์สุโขทัย." แถลงงานประวัติศาสตร์ เอกสารโบราณคดี, (ปีที่ 14 เล่ม 1, ปีที่ 15 เล่ม 1, ปีที่ 16 เล่ม 1 และปีที่ 18 เล่ม 1).
  • ประชุมศิลาจารึก ภาคที่ 1. (2521). คณะกรรมการพิจารณาและจัดพิมพ์เอกสารทางประวัติศาสตร์. กรุงเทพฯ : โรงพิมพ์สำนักเลขาธิการคณะรัฐมนตรี.
  • ประเสริฐ ณ นคร. (2534). "ประวัติศาสตร์สุโขทัยจากจารึก." งานจารึกและประวัติศาสตร์ของประเสริฐ ณ นคร. มหาวิทยาลัยเกษตรศาสตร์ กำแพงแสน.
  • ประเสริฐ ณ นคร. (2544). "รามคำแหงมหาราช, พ่อขุน". สารานุกรมไทยฉบับราชบัณฑิตยสถาน, (เล่ม 25 : ราชบัณฑิตยสถาน-โลกธรรม). กรุงเทพฯ : สหมิตรพริ้นติ้ง. หน้า 15887–15892.
  • ประเสริฐ ณ นคร. (2534). "ลายสือไทย". งานจารึกและประวัติศาสตร์ของประเสริฐ ณ นคร. มหาวิทยาลัยเกษตรศาสตร์ กำแพงแสน.
  • เจ้าพระยาพระคลัง (หน). (2515). ราชาธิราช. พระนคร : บรรณาการ.
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