Hi! It's View from Point of View.
Today's Loy Krathong day right?
Speaking of Loy Krathong,
Thai traditional costume, or some sort.
Many would think of a woman,
that is, Nopphamat, right?
We've heard in the folklore
that she's the first to invent krathong
back in Sukhothai Period,
since we were little right?
But did you know all about her lore?
Where's she from and all that jazz?
So I'm here today with Noppamat's tale.
Saying that I'm covering the Noppamat's tale
many of you might think
I'd cover her biography right?
No. The thing is there's this book
that's so controversial about
whether or not it's a Sukhothai literature
or a Rattanakosin one?
This book has three names.
First is the Tale of Noppamat.
The second is known as Ravadeenoppamat.
And the last is Lady Srichulalak's recipe.
This book is written in
prose form. What's a prose then?
Prose is when you write.
Like normally write.
Not in rhymes, verses, sonnets, poems.
Not poetry.
Besides, it's also written like a journal.
Like it's a journal of a woman
named Ravadeenoppamat.
Our Noppamat.
But most of it didn't really mention Loy Krathong.
The part about Loy Krathong is
actually really short
in this Noppamat's tale.
But if they didn't talk much about it,
then what is this book about?
This book begins with
the prologue, I am Noppamat.
I shall tale you all some stories.
Starting with what's the world like
back in my days.
Starting with nations and languages.
Our world has blah blah nations.
There's Laos, Thai, Khmer, and so on.
Including the nation of "'Marican."
Remember this well, we will be
discussing this point later.
Then it'd explain on the languages.
What's languages each nations are using.
So we began with world explanation.
The world is in this setting, like this.
Our world is currently being this and that.
After the world setting, it then began
to praise Phra Ruang.
Phra Ruang is, of course, refers to
the kings in Sukhothai period
that we often mention when
I was covering Trai Phum Phra Ruang.
It's written here that this Phra Ruang
is the great Phra Ruang etc etc.
After praising the king,
began the description of each
noble houses in Sukhothai, saying that
The Sukhothai city in Phra Ruang's rein
has many important noble houses which are...
Moreover, Sukhothai also has vassal states.
Owning this, that, and those states.
Sukhothai is great, has beautiful temples.
Beauty stands in the temple grand.
That wasn't in the book though.
Why beauty stands in the temple grand?
Well it's a rhyme.
I got that from junior high school.
It also mentions religions in Sukhothai
such as Buddhism, Hinduism,
Christianity, Islam,
as well as many other beliefs.
Basically, the Sukhothai in Noppamat's eyes,
written in her journal, seems like a utopia.
It's such a grand and civilised kingdom,
flourish with cultures and religions.
Everyone lives freely and happily.
Then Noppamat started to describe
Phra Ruang's profile.
He's this and that.
When done with Phra Ruang's profile
she then described her own profile
that there's a courtier named Sri Mahosod
who has a beautiful daughter
named Noppamat, or I, myself.
The full name is Ravadeenoppamat.
Then she went on and praised herself for a bit.
Although this book is a prose.
But it contains a few verses as well.
The praising of Noppamat's beauty
is one of them. It goes like this.
Soft and supple, prim and proper.
Her beauty and grace are exquisite.
Glowing golden skin shines.
Captured every hearts its eyes lay upon.
Not only saying that she's beautiful,
Noppamat also selling herself hard
that she's got both beauty and brain.
How so? It's the verse that said
Lovely maiden Noppamat;
a wise daughter like her father had taught;
well verse in words and rhymes;
chime dharma bell she shall.
An utterly lovely maiden;
no one else shall compare;
as old times merit brings;
thus thy blessed with beauty beyond compare.
This is her journal, describing herself.
I did good deeds, that's why I'm pretty and smart.
That's why I love Dharma.
I'm the lady to die for of this kingdom.
Again, this is her journal.
And surly the beauty of Noppamat
has been someone's subject of poetry.
Someone has written a sonnet about it.
It's a type of poetry, praising beauty.
Anyone who watched my Lilit Phra Lo video,
it's similar Phuean and Phaeng situation.
The words on the beauty of Noppamat
has reached Phra Ruang.
Eventually, Phra Ruang was like
such brain and beauty, why waste it?
And called her in to be his concubine.
Before Phra Sri Mahosod, a high ranked courtier,
present his daughter to his majesty,
he felt like, no it can't be done like this.
If she isn't up to standard, we couldn't risk it.
So he tested Noppamat's intelligence
by asking her questions and riddles.
If this happened, what would she do?
If that happened, what would she do?
Which Noppamat aced it all.
And she got sent in to be his majesty's consort.
And the most important part of this book
is right here, where Phra Sri Mahosod
asked Noppamat that
To become his majesty's conncubine
and given your service to the king,
in what attribute should you posses?
Should you be prim and proper?
Should you be intelligent?
When should you voice your opinion?
You should be loyal and most importantly,
you shouldn't cross your pinkies.
What's pinkies crossing?
Long story short, back in the day
there's only one man in court, the king.
The rest is women.
So there might be something something
to kill the boredom, when they're neglected.
Well, you might be too young if you don't get it.
Don't try to, wait til you come of age
I'm starting to sounds like old folks
trying to explain things.
The point of this book is in this part.
Where her parents tried to guide her
on how to behave
went given her service to the king.
After describing her life before the court,
Noppamat began to describe
her life in court
through many ceremonies she has joined.
Such as the Jongpriang ceremony,
Triyampawai ceremony, Tripawai ceremony,
Tanayatoh, Sampatchorachint, Reak Na.
Visakha Bucha, and many many more.
And among these ceremonies
Noppamat had joined.
The first one is the Jongpriang ceremony.
The title of it might sounds familiar.
It's the ceremony that nowadays
known as Loy Krathong ceremony.
According to the 12 months ceremonial text
by King Rama V, the word Jongpriang
isn't exactly associated with Loy Krathong.
But it eventually morphed into one.
I won't get into much detail
but let's say that in this ceremony,
Noppamat had shown her intelligence
by invented a lantern by banana leaves
in the shape of a lotus, the Krathong nowadays.
It's so pretty Phra Ruang praised her, saying
It's such a beautiful invention.
From now on, we'll use this in our ceremony
as a sacrafice.
Hence, this is the origin of Krathong,
which is a very tiny part
in the memoir of Noppamat.
Other that the Jongpriang ceremony,
there's a couple ceremonies
that Noppamat had joined and
got to show her intelligent like this again.
After the part about ceremonies,
Noppamat mentioned concubine-hood again.
Saying this lady from that house is this way
and that lady from this house is this way.
And ended by saying that
the behaviors such as mine
is the good model, or some sort.
And that's all on Noppamat's tale.
There's something we should discuss further.
We can see that through out the book,
it mentioned a lot on the behavior of
a concubine, which is good and which is bad.
Which should be followed and which shouldn't.
So some believe that
the text of Lady Sri Chulalak's recipe
or the Tale of Noppamat
is written as a guide for concubines.
If a person is coming in the palace as
a consort or concubine, how should they behave.
So it's like another guide to womenhood.
But a long discussion further
is quite controversial so
I'll save it for the end of the video.
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Did you notice when I mentioned it might be
a Sukhothai or Rattanakosin liteturature?
There's some controversial around it.
As many have said that
it's a journal written by Noppamat.
Noppamat lived in Sukhothai era.
It's a first-person narrative.
I, Noppamat, blah blah
It must be from Sukhothai!
But for many that have actually read it
thinks that the language used is every Rattanakosin's.
For example, the verse I've read. You can see that
it's easily understandable on the first read.
While, if anyone ever read Trai Phum Phra Ruang,
knows that it's much harder to comprehend.
It'll be like, 'this Traiphum as such, it seems'
Blah blah. It's kind of complicated.
While the text of Sri Chulalak's recipe
can be read and understand normally.
There's only a few difficult words.
But most importantly, some words that slipped
And felt like they weren't Sukhothai language.
For example, Farang 'merican, American, America.
These weren't existed in Sukhothai period.
They only started to existed in Thonburi-
Early Rattanakosin period, you know?
There's also some mention of cannon,
which gun powder back then
weren't that advance.
This makes scholars speculate that
this text is perhaps written in Rattanakosin.
And it's probably fiction like one of those...
Like The Princess Diaries.
A princess didn't wrote it.
It's a fiction by an author
using the first-person narrative.
It's been discussed widely in academic fields.
But many scholars had
confirmed that this book
was actually written in Rattanakosin era,
around King Rama III.
If anyone got something to say or to add on
please leave a comment down below.
Happy Loy Krathong, everyone!