Thammasat University students interested in political science, history, Buddhist studies, Asian studies, literature, and related subjects may find it useful to participate in a free 10 August Zoom lecture on the Mahabharata in Thai Political Ideas.

The event is organized by the Department of History, Chulalongkorn University.

The TU Library collection includes several books about different aspects of the Mahabharata.

As the event description posted online explains, the presentation will be on Wednesday, 10 August 2022 at 1pm Bangkok time.

Students may join the Zoom meeting at this link:

https://chula.zoom.us/j/98497888469

Meeting ID: 984 9788 8469

Password: 514930

The speaker will be Dr. David M. Malitz, Senior Research Fellow at the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) in Japan. Dr. Malitz is a former researcher in Japanese-Thai relations and the modern history of Thailand at Thammasat University, among other institutions of higher learning.

At the DIJ, he is working on the projects on Health Diplomacy and Transnational Health Infrastructures in the Mekong-Region and Japanese-Thai Relations: Past, Present, and Future.

As the DIJ website notes,

When visiting Bangkok as foreign minister in 2016, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida referred to Thailand as “an economic partner that Japan cannot be without” due to the large number of Japanese companies operating in the Southeast Asian kingdom. Their investments since the 1980s were a major contribution to the country reaching middle income status in 2011. Both countries also have enjoyed a close political relationship since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1887, leading to the declaration of a strategic partnership in 2007. In recent years, however, several factors have complicated this close relationship: the decreasing competitiveness of Thailand as a location for foreign direct investments, the kingdom’s democratic backsliding since the 2014 coup, as well as the increasing influence of the People’s Republic of China in Thailand and Southeast Asia.

This interdisciplinary project aspires to contribute to a better understanding of Japan’s political, economic, and cultural influence in Thailand through a series of case studies on their historical development and present significance, as well as by identifying possible future trajectories. Thailand is a founding and core member of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN). As Germany, France, and the European Union have identified both Japan and ASEAN as partners in their respective strategies for the Indo-Pacific region, the project’s outcomes will also be of interest for scholars of European foreign relations.

The project is based on in-depth desk studies of archival and published sources combined with semi-structured interviews with relevant actors in the public and private sector in both countries. The project is multiscalar; it comprises case-studies about state-to-state relations, investigations of non-state networks enabling the flow of people, knowledge, and capital, as well as inquiries on the regional level into Japan’s and Thailand’s engagement with ASEAN.

There is also a description of another of Dr. Malitz’s research projects:

Health Diplomacy and Transnational Health Infrastructures in the Mekong-Region

Over the last decade, the infrastructural needs of Southeast Asia have received international attention. Among others, the Chinese Belt-and-Road-Initiative (BRI, 2013) and the Japanese Partnership for Quality Infrastructure (PQI, 2015) have developed competing connectivity strategies to support projects in this geostrategically and economically important region. This competition for influence has been particularly marked in the Mekong-Region composed of the riparian states of the Mekong (Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam). In 2016, both Japan and China have launched development frameworks focusing on this region: the Japan-Mekong Connectivity Initiative and the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation.

Even before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic put the spotlight on health infrastructures, namely the institutions, facilities, and people, necessary for providing health services to the public, the Japanese and Chinese connectivity and infrastructure initiatives for the region have included investments in public health.

In 2013, the Japanese government launched Japan’s Strategy on Global Health Diplomacy, making health diplomacy a central pillar of Japanese foreign policy. The Japan-Mekong Connectivity Initiative of 2016 subsequently combined Japan’s global health and infrastructure initiatives in the Mekong-Region. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Japan donated both vaccines and cold chain equipment for their delivery to the countries of the Mekong-Region. One particular focus of Japanese health diplomacy is the support of the necessary infrastructure for the introduction of universal health coverage. Japan has not only supported the Thai universal healthcare system (since 2002) but also introduced the Partnership Project for Global Health and Universal Health Coverage in 2016 which includes support for the countries of the Mekong-Region.

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic likewise led to an increased emphasis on health infrastructures within the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation from 2020 onward. This initiative could build on previous investments in health infrastructure and health cooperation as part of the original BRI framework of 2015. They were further emphasized from 2016 onward through the introduction of the Health Silk Road as one major branch of the BRI.

This project contributes to the global health literature by investigating how projects in the Mekong-Region supported by Japan and the People’s Republic of China as elements of their connectivity and health strategies have contributed to public health as well as to foreign policy objectives. Based on desktop research and semi-structured interviews, case studies cover specific projects of Japanese and Chinese Covid-19 diplomacy and cooperation between private Thai and Japanese hospitals…

As TU students know, the Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. It tells of the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kurukshetra War and the fates of the Kaurava and the Pandava princes and their successors.

It also contains philosophical and devotional material, such as a discussion of the four goals of life.

At about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahabharata is about ten times as long as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey combined, and about four times the length of the Ramayana.

A research article from 2005 available to TU students on the JSTOR database describes the Mahabharata in Art and Literature in Thailand.

Its author is Dr. Amara Srisuchat. The article begins:

When the Brahmins from India came to Thailand via the sea and settled in this territory since the 1st century AD they brought with them their knowledge of literature and art from their homeland and propagated their wisdom on the matter to the indigenous people. Obviously, along the passage of time, two celebrated Epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, and Puranas, had been widely adopted by the local people in Thailand. The Hindu Epics and Vuranas had been adapted to create artistic and literary works of their own style; these works are considered to be the cultural heritage of Thailand. At present Thai people are accustomed to Ramakian (literally means the eulogy of Rama) in the form of the classical Thai literature, the classical Thai performance art called Khon, and the mural painting in the emerald Buddha temple inside the royal palace in Bangkok. They also know that Ramakian was created based on the great epic of India, Ramayana. But not many people know that there are many classical works in art and literature in Thailand that were created based on Mahabharata, another great epic from India. The research paper is the attempt to explain the impact of Mahabharata in art and literature in Thailand from the early period to the present time.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)