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Advocate and Partner: Missionaries and Modernization in Nan Province, Siam, 1895–1934

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2011

Herbert R. Swanson
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Extract

John Fairbank wrote of China that “the missionary movement … was a profound stimulus to China's modernization”, and he cited missionary medical, educational, and humanitarian work, including extensive rural contacts, as the basis for his conclusion. And George Antonius in his classic study of Arab nationalism noted that in the Arab revival of the last century, the American Presbyterian Mission in Syria played an important role in the rebirth of Arab literature and education. The Presbyterian missionaries were one important source of the emergence of the Arabs into the modern world. A reading of Thai history suggests that the missionaries in Siam might well have had a similarly important impact. However, the role of the missionaries after the decades of the 1830s to the 1850s has been little studied and is hardly understood. This has been especially true because the historical study of Thai modernization has focused primarily on national policies and strategies where the missionaries had less influence after the reign of King Mongkut (1851–68).

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Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , September 1982 , pp. 296 - 309
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1982

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References

1 Fairbank, John King, The United States and China, 3rd ed. (Cambridge, Mass., 1971), p. 178Google Scholar.

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4 “Modernization” is used here to describe the processes of social change in which a traditional society is confronted with new ideas and technologies, primarily Western in origin, and changes as a result of that confrontation.

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13 See Nan Folder, Papers of Paul A. Eakin, RG 017/80 at the Manuscript Division, Payap College.

14 These figures taken from annual reports published in Laos News and Siam Outlook.

15 Robert Irwin to Speer, 14Feb. 1896, Board, 13; and “Annual Report of Muang Nan Station for the year ending Oct. 31, 1896”, Board, 22.

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33 Vella, Walter F., Chaiyo! King Vajiravudh and The Development of Thai Nationalism (Honolulu, 1978), pp. 158–59Google Scholar; Laos News IX, 3 (July 1912): 79–80Google Scholar.

34 Taylor, “A Missionary”, p. 366; Laos News XIII, 4 (Oct. 1916): 87Google Scholar.

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39 See Thamornpak, Satien, tan acharn em. bee. palmer kab krungtheb khristian withayalai kaw. saw. 1920–1938 (Acharn M.B. Palmer and Bangkok Christian College 1920–1938) (Bangkok, n.d.), p. 37Google Scholar; Taylor, “A Missionary”, pp. 382, 441–42; and Laos News IX, 1 (Jan. 1912): 14Google Scholar.

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41 Taylor, “A Missionary”, pp. 370–71, 295–96.

42 Ibid., p. 259ff; Laos News X, 3 (July 1913): 50Google Scholar.

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47 Starling, Dawn, pp. 79–80, 95, 99; Weisbecker, Homer G., “Touring in Tiger Country”, Siam Outlook VI, 11 (July 1929): 362Google Scholar; “Annual Report of Muang Nan Station for the year ending Oct. 31, 1896”, Board, 22; “Report of Nan Girls' School 1910–1911”, Maen Research; Taylor, “A Missionary”, pp. 372, 405–406, 421–22; Starling, Lucy, “Nan Notes”, Laos News XI, 2 (Apr. 1914): 63–64Google Scholar.

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49 See Taylor, “A Missionary”, p. 246, for a description of missionary relations with “domestic staff”. The widespread use of the titles paw kru (father teacher) and maa kru (mother teacher) for the missionaries in general and paw Hang (father benefactor) for mission doctors is one measure of their high status in society. See Siam Outlook Annual Reports Issue (Jan. 1926): 99; and XI, 1 (Jan. 1935): 29. Curtis, The Laos of North Siam, p. 123n.

50 Foster, George M., Traditional Societies and Technological Change, 2nd ed., (Boston, 1973), p. 1Google Scholar. cf. Bock, Carl Alfred, Temples and Elephants (London, 1884)Google Scholar; Curtis, The Laos of North Siam; Dodd, William Clifton, The Thai Race (Cedar Rapids, 1923)Google Scholar; Zimmerman, Siam Rural Economic Survey; Judd, Chao Rai Thai.

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57 Laos News I, 1 (Jan. 1904): 13–14Google Scholar; and VI, 1 (Feb. 1909): 11. Peoples, “Nan Station”.

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59 Laos News II, 1 (Jan. 1905): 19Google Scholar.

60 Kate N. Fleeson to Benj. Labaree, 6 Aug. 1897, Board, 13; Palmer, M.B., “Activities in Nan”, Laos News IX, 4 (Oct. 1912): 126Google Scholar; Starling, Dawn, p. 101; Siam Outlook III, 3 (Jan. 1924): 63Google Scholar.

61 Peoples, “Nan Station”.

62 See Wyatt, The Politics of Reform; Vella, Chaiyo!, pp. 106ff.

63 Laos News V, 1 (Jan. 1908): 7Google Scholar; and V, 2 (Apr. 1908): 34. Park, David, “Opening of the Boys' Christian High School of Nan”, Laos News IV, 3 (July 1911): 83–85Google Scholar.

64 See Park, , “Opening”; Laos News XIII, 3 (July 1916): 61Google Scholar.

65 Beach, W.H., “Air Castles, Ideals, and Stern Realities”, Siam Outlook (Apr. 1930): 395–96Google Scholar; Wells, Kenneth E., “History of Protestant Work in Thailand 1828–1966”, rev. unpublished manuscript (Bangkok, 1970), ch. vii, p. 4Google Scholar.

66 Siam Outlook II, 2 (1922): 196–97Google Scholar; also see Dr.Crooks, Chas. H., “A Brief Survey of Medical Work in North Siam from Its Inception to the Present Time”, Laos News XIV, 3 (July 1917): 99Google Scholar.

67 Zimmerman, Siam Rural Economic Survey, pp. 233, 236.

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71 Siam Outlook VI, 3 (Jan. 1927): 49–50Google Scholar; government and local school figures were calculated from Nan Province census figures and Monthon Mahrashtra school enrolment figures in Statistical Yearbook of the Kingdom of Siam.

72 “Report of Nan Station for 1898”, Board, 22; “Annual Report of Muang Nan Station for the year ending Oct. 31, 1896”, Board, 22.

73 David Park to Fellow-workers, 27 Feb. 1902, Board, 272; Starling, “Nan Notes”, pp. 62–63.

74 Laos News II, 4 (Oct. 1905): 101–102Google Scholar; and Taylor, “A Missionary”, pp. 256–59, 273.

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77 Ibid., p. 330.

78 See Pierre, Richard T. La, Social Change (New York, 1965), pp. 130ffGoogle Scholar.

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80 Wyatt, The Politics of Reform, p. 376.