#sinxay

[artofnor]

Inktober Day 9: ສິນໄຊ #sinxay #laos #lao #inktober #inktober2016

[southeastasianists]

“Sinxay is a story which appears in slightly different versions with slightly different names in Mon, Thai, Lao and Khmer. The plot is a classic quest in which a hero prince is banished by the machinations  of evil siblings, travels long through forest and mountain, defeats many fearsome enemies, and is eventually celebrated in a great homecoming. Old versions were written in verse for recitation at festivals  Key scenes were popular with artists painting temple murals. During the nationalist era in the 1940s, the great littérateur of Laos, Maha Sila Viravong, began a prose version in a conscious attempt to create a Lao national literature. More recently, Sinxay has been celebrated as a kind of national hero in Laos. In 2005, Khon Kaen municipality adopted Sinxay as symbol of the city, and characters from the tale sprouted on the peaks of the city's lamp posts. 

Peter Whittlesey, an American photographer, and his Lao wife Baythong became fascinated by the Sinxay story and its modern revival. They spent  a decade translating the texts, visiting the sites, photographing the murals, and interviewing the monks, writers, performers and politicians involved in the Sinxay revival in Laos and Isan. The result  is this self-published book now available on Amazon. 

In old Southeast Asia, tales were public property. Authors freely updated old plots and borrowed good bits from other stories. Wisely the Whittleseys have not tried to locate an "original" or "correct" version of Sinxay. They call their contribution a "retelling" in the spirit of this flexible tradition. They have used the modern Lao prose versions for their outline, but have added detail from the old verse manuscripts which legendarily date back to the 16th century. And they have incorporated a sequel in which the slain villain is brought back to life to pave the way for a Buddhist-inspired ending in which all conflicts are resolved and everybody lives happily ever after. They have written this retelling in readable modern prose with minimal academic clutter. (...)”