VETERAN journalist Subhatra Bhumiprabhas has been fascinated by Myanmar for as long as she can remember so her decision to translate into Thai two books covering Burmese history came as no surprise to those who knew her.

What did surprise them, as well as Subhatra herself, is that both books have since become bestsellers, quite a feat in the Thai literary world where non-fiction simply doesn’t compete with contemporary novels.

Her first book Rachan Poo Plat Paen Din: Mua Pama Sia Muang translated from The King in Exile: The Fall of the Royal Family of Burma by Sudha Shah, was released late last year and is now in its sixth edition.

Her second book, Rajini Supayalat: Jak Nang Kasat Soo Saman Chon, co-translated with Supida Kaewsuksombat, from Thibaw’s Queen by H. Fielding, is following the same pattern. Launched a little more than a month ago, it is already in its second reprint.

“I love all books about royal families regardless of the country,” says Subhatra, a former Nation journalist and human rights activist who is today the editor of media watchdog Media Inside Out.

“And I have always been interested in history, especially that of Burma. Many of us only knew that the king and queen were forced out Burma in 1885. Then Sudha Shah wrote her book and the events surrounding King Thibaw and his family over the past 100 years were revealed,” she adds, referring to the Indian author of The King in Exile.

The book focuses predominantly on the life of Thibaw, the last king of the Konbuang dynasty following the invasion of Mandalay by British colonial forces, which put an end to Burma’s royal rule and sent the family to live out their lives in exile in the secluded Indian town of Ratnagiri.

With seven years of extraordinarily comprehensive research and the use of chronicles, letters, photos and interviews, Sudha richly illustrates how the lives of the royal family and their four daughters, including grandchildren, were forever impacted by the exile.

Like the author, the translator has also undertaken a great deal of research, visiting Yangon, Mandalay and Pyin Oo Lwin (Maymyo) in Myanmar as well as Kolkata and Kalimpong in India, where the royal family members spent part of their lives.

The Thai version of Rachan Poo Plat Paen Din: Mua Pama Sia Muang is so beautifully translated that it often feels more than a novel that an historical tome with even the poems of the queen’s letters written to the king, for example, rhyming in a delightful way.

Rajini Supayalat: Jak Nang Kasat Soo Saman Chon is likely to enjoy the same level of popularity.

“The focus of this book is the queen,” Subhatra explains. Supayalat became a queen at the tender age of 19 when her beloved half-brother Prince Thibaw, ascended to the throne in Mandalay in 1878. A well-known figure in Burmese history, at least among Thais, she has been cast in many history books, as wicked and bloodthirsty. She is also widely known for arranging a massacre of many royal family members, to prevent potential rivals from seizing Thibaw’s power. It was believed that she was actually the one who ruled the country and the king was under her dominance.

The beauty of the book lies in its first-hand information from a nine-year old maid of honour, who served the queen as a cigarette roller for four years until the moment of the surrender, Subhatra adds.

“It gives us information about the good sides of the queen, which are not revealed elsewhere.”

She thinks that Fielding Hall, who wrote the book under the pseudonym H. Fielding, interviewed the maid of honour in the Burmese language in which he was conversant having lived in the country for several years.

“Although the interview took place 12 years after the exile, the conversation between the two reveals the reasons behind many events. There are also various stories that can found between the lines.”

Fielding-Hall’s Thibaw’s Queen explores the personal side of the queen rather than the country’s affairs. “It depicts her cleverness in managing the people in her life, being sweet to those who she thinks can do her no harm while treating those who are enemies in different ways. You will either love her or hate her, as the maid said,” Subhatra says.

The book also offers enjoyable peeks into the Mandalay Palace, where the queen played hide and seek and rustled up some royal dishes when she found life too quiet, as well as the king’s mistress and the day the British took the town.

“It’s like you were present for the events. It illustrates both the queen’s good and bad sides and shows her clearly as a human being,” says co-translator Supida, a former Nation journalist, who has also long been fascinated by archaeology and history.

The foreword by Lalita Hanwong, a history lecturer at Maha Sarakham University’s Faculty of Humanities, explains that former British officer Fielding Hall, who died in 1917 at the age of 58, was deeply critical of colonialism and had empathy for the locals, unlike other British officers. His story, therefore, offers a very different viewpoint from other works that favour the West’s patronising perception of the East.

The Nation/Thailand

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2015