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Chapter 4: Isan Writing Enters the Mainstream
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109 Isan Writing Enters the Mainstream Of all the many Isan writers active in the 1970s, two in particular stood out, gaining recognition from official institutions of Thai literature: Khamphun Bunthawi and Khamman Khonkhai. Khamman’s fame was largely the result of the film that was made of one of his books, Khru Ban No’k (meaning “Rural Teacher,” but published in an English translation under the unfortunate title, The Teachers of Mad Dog Swamp). Khamphun’s work, too, has been made into films and television series, which have contributed to his prominence as well. However, his winning of important literary awards has probably been the major factor in his renown. Khamphun won the SEAWrite Award in 1979, the first year it was given, for his novel, Luk Isan (“Child of Isan”, called A Child of the Northeast in its English translation), and thereafter became a literary celebrity in Thailand. Khamphun Bunthawi Among Isan writers (excepting Kanchana Nakkhanan, who does not identify herself as an Isan writer), Khamphun Bunthawi คำพูน บุญทวี is the most prolific, the most famous, and the most popular. In addition, he is different from other Isan writers in another important way: he is entirely outside the Literature for Life stream that has so dominated Isan writing since both the movement and the regional literature began to gain visibility in the 1950s. Other Isan writers in the 1970s (as previously shown) were overwhelmingly involved with Literature for Life, and the vast majority of Isan writers before and since were at least influenced by it. This is true even of Khamman, whose work was more popular and well-known, outside the primarily young and intellectual circles which Literature for Life dominated, than that of CHAPTER 4 110 Isan Writers, Thai Literature other Isan writers of the time (late 1970s).1 Khamphun, by contrast, shows no connection at all to the movement, whether in style, subject, or goals. Indeed, politics are absent from nearly all of his work. Instead, Khamphun seems concerned primarily with telling a good story and, along the way, relating the customs and traditions of Isan people. Khamphun Bunthawi was born Khun2 Bunthawi in 1928 in a Laospeaking village in Sai Mun District of what is now Yasothorn Province (but at the time was part of Ubon Province). His father was from Isan and his mother from Savannakhet, Laos. After finishing the fourth year of elementary school in his village, he continued his studies in Yasothorn town. While in secondary school, he had his name changed to Khamphun by his father. According to his own account, he was a poor student; his weakest and most hated subjects were Thai language, drawing, and grammar.3 After completing school, he moved to Bangkok to make a living. As Khamphun describes it: I had to go to Bangkok because Bangkok was the great city of progress. You don’t have to dip up the water in Bangkok, just turn on the tap, they said, and it flows out. You don’t have to light lanterns. There were boats. You could see iron float on water, which was naval ships. The only thing I wanted to do was go to Bangkok.4 He worked in many different jobs, pedaling a samlo’, doing day labor, milking cows, loading ships, etc. At one point, he returned to Yasothorn briefly to start a ramwong troupe. Among the songs they performed was Phu Yai Li. After the troupe broke up, he returned to Bangkok, and then eventually moved down south to join a friend in Satul, where Khamphun became a rural elementary teacher. Khamphun taught school for four years, and married a woman from the South, with whom he had several children. After repeated requests to be transferred to a teaching post in Yasothorn were all turned down, he quit teaching. He then worked in Bangkok again for two years, after which he returned to the South and was hired as a prison guard in Patthalung. Over the next several years, he worked at several prisons, mostly in the South. At this 1 Excluding Surachai, whose fame was due to his songs rather than his stories, as noted previously. 2 คูน meaning “lucky, beneficent, precious” in Lao. 3 ประเสริฐ ไสววรรณ, “วิเคราะห์นวนิยาย และเรื่องส้ัน ที่สะท้อนชีวิตชาวชนบทอีสานของ คำพูน บุญทวี”. ปริญญานิพนธ์ มหาวิทยาลัยศรีนครินทรวิโรฒ ประสานมิตร, 2532. 4 Khamphun Bunthawi, Interview, June 25, 1999, Bangkok. [54.210.85.205] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 08:05 GMT) Isan Writing Enters the Mainstream 111 time (late 1960s), however, his wife became seriously ill. Financial pressures related to her medical bills put severe strain on the family...