Preface

The poem “Chiengmai Calling” was printed as an epigraph to Margaretta Wells’ Guide to Chiengmai, which first appeared in 1962. Wells adds a note to explain that “Lotus”, who signed the poem, was a pseudonym used by W. A. R. Wood, the former British Consul-General and a “distinguished and long-time resident” of Chiang Mai. Wood had written it especially for her book. Wood’s memoir Consul in Paradise is one of the few examples of writing by members of the foreign community living in the north of Siam in the early twentieth century still to be found in bookshops today. It had first been published in 1935 under the title Land of Smiles.

Only a few hundred westerners (most of them from the British Isles and North America) lived in (or travelled to) the northern region before the Second World War. Though few in number, they left behind a considerable written legacy. Naturally, W. A. R. Wood features in this anthology of writings by Britons and Americans (and also a Siamese and a Dane) who lived in or visited Chiang Mai and the north of Siam (the modern Thailand) around a century ago. Few of the writings featured in this book apart from Wood’s are currently in print or easily accessible and some remain unpublished and in manuscript. They include letters, memoirs, reports, articles in newspapers and magazines, poems, short stories and extracts from novels. Most of the writings are drawn from the period between 1910 when King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) died, and 1932 when a constitution was granted by King Prajadhipok (Rama VII).

The authors represented in this book are a diverse group of men and women who had come to the north as missionaries, “teak-wallahs”, diplomats or travellers. Like Wood, some of them stayed in the north for most of their lives; others came only for a few weeks. Their writing is invariably personal and often vivid, describing, as it does, the hopes and aspirations of the writers, their personal relationships, the challenges they faced in their work and daily lives, and their recreational activities.

Needless to say, it reflects an early twentieth-century view of the world: views have changed as the world has changed in the century that has passed between them and us. Above all, the writing reflects the close bond many felt with the north of Siam, a remote, strange but beautiful land which some saw as a kind of Arcady or paradise but others felt was a “jungle prison”.

The present anthology is a mosaic or a series of disparate impressions by very different individuals linked only by the impact the northern region had on their lives. It is a book to be read and not a scholarly edition to lacquerwork is poor, but the weaving industry makes attractive sarongs. All these things are manufactured for the home market, not for tourists. Still, word had spread that I had arrived, and when we returned for lunch we found a number of ancient ladies squatting on the porch of the Collier house with silver items spread out before them. These were all articles they had used in their own homes and few of them appealed to me. Until I left, the porch was never empty. I did buy a silver bowl and told them what I wanted most was one of the small bronze weights in the shape of an animal that merchants used in the old days.