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If you are looking for something to do in Bangkok at the end of March...

Quote[/b] ]Contrasting Styles: two mid-19th century French travellers in Siam: Henri Mouhot and Ludowic de Beauvoir

by Michael Smithies

The explorer and botanist Mouhot, the so-called 'discoverer' of Angkor - something he never claimed - fired, we are told, by an account of Siam, possibly Bowring's book (1857), abandoned his wife and family to explore the jungles of South-East Asia, where he discovered several new species. Along with other foreigners, he was entertained by King Mongkut, and alone visited Phetburi, Chantaburi, Saraburi, Khorat and Chaiyaphum before penetrating into then largely unknown Lao territory, where he died in 1861. Hist papers were returned to his brother, also in Jersey, and two totally different accounts, one French, one English, of the explorer's travels were published in 1863 and 1864.

The young Comte (later Marquis) de Beauvoir was accompanying his childhood friend the Duc de Penthievre, son of the Prince de Joinville and grandson of the deposed monarch Louis Philippe, on a trip round the world. The two, accompanied only by a French naval officer, Fauvel, made a six day excursion in 1867 to Bangkok from Singapore, and packed into their visit audiences with King Mongkut, who took them into his inner quarters, the deceased Second King, the prime minister, and went everywhere in the city. Beauvoir's account of his visit was published in French in 1869 and in English in 1870.

The scientific explorer and the early but well-connected backpacker: two contrasting personalities, both with their British connections (Mouhot married a niece of Mungo Park, lived in Jersey and was given the moral support of the Royal Geographical Society for his journey; de Beauvoir was brought up in exile in England along with the other members of the deposed Orleanistes) whose differing accounts tell us much about life in Siam in the Fourth Reign.

Professor Michael Smithies, honorary member and former Council member (1969-71, 1986-8), Hon. Editor, JSS, etc, first came to Thailand in 1960 as British Council Education Officer. He subsequently worked in Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore, but returned to Thailand on different occasions to serve in a Rockefeller Foundation language project, in AIT, and at Burapha University. Before retiring in 1992 he worked with the UN at ESCAP in Bangkok. His most recent publication was Witnesses to a Revolution: Siam 1688, published by the Siam Society in 2004.

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Date: 24 March 2005 (Tuesday)
Time: 7.30 P.M.
Place: The Siam Society, 131 Asoke Rd, Sukhumvit 21

For more information, please telephone Khun Preechaya or Khun Arunsri at (02) 661 6470-7, fax (02) 258 3491, or email info@siam-society.org
Office Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 9.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m.

Siam Society Members, Members' spouses and children, and all studetns showing valid student I.D. cards, are admitted free of charge. Non-Members Donation: 150 baht.