Issue 5: Summer/Monsoon 2023
Editors: Peera Songkünnatham and Tyrell Haberkorn
Cover art: Summer Panadd

Agenda: Jolt your imagination of the Thai citizen with unorthodox uses of “you” pronouns

Full issue below!

Speech by Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul
Translated by Tyrell Haberkorn

Declaration of the People as Human, Not the King’s Dust:
A Letter to Rama 10
คำประกาศราษฎรที่เป็นมนุษย์ มิใช่ฝุ่นละอองธุลีพระบาท
จดหมายถึง ร. 10

Short story by Nontawat Machai
Translated by Peera Songkünnatham

A King Cobra and I
ไอ้บองหลา

Short story by Nitipong Sumrankong
Translated by Peera Songkünnatham

Nausea
คลื่นเหียน

Poems by Chutchon Aj
Translated by Peera Songkünnatham

Reader, You Know Best: Four Poems
เป็นคุณเองที่รู้ดี: สี่บทกวีจาก “ลุกไหม้สิ! ซิการ์”

Short story by Pimsiri Petchnamrob
Translated by Tyrell Haberkorn

Magical Realism
สัจนิยมมหัศจรรย์

Short story by Wanna Tamthong
Translated by Tyrell Haberkorn

Writing from Berlin: Letter to Uncle Kwa Kyi
จดหมายจากเบอร์ลิน ถึงลุงควา จี

Declaration by Khanakorn Phienchana
Translated by Tyrell Haberkorn

An Indictment of the Judiciary: Khanakorn Phienchana’s Life and Death
คำฟ้องของคณากร เพียรชนะ

Announcements by P. Phibulsongkhram and Khuang Aphaiwong
Translated by Peera Songkünnatham

Thai Universal Pronouns: A Failed Fascist Experiment and Its Queer Attraction
สัพนามไทยในบังคับสากล: คัดจากราชกิจจานุเบกสา

About Sanam Ratsadon

Founded in 2021 by a group of volunteer translators, Sanam Ratsadon offers glimpses into Thai political history through stories that capture the resilience, creativity and voices of commoners.

As an online platform for Thai historical sources in English translation, we collect and promote the writings, art performances, and oral histories that shed light on the lived experience and the linked fate of ordinary people past and present. Each issue carries a theme.

Why Sanam Ratsadon?

Sanam Ratsadon means Commoners Field. We take this name from pro-democracy activists’ subversive renaming of Sanam Luang, an open-air, historical site located in the heart of old Bangkok. Conceived as a royal field [‘Luang’ literally means ‘royal’], the common people from the middle and lower classes had at various points in time used and enjoyed Sanam Luang for various purposes: as a public space to fly kites, picnic, spend leisure time, sleep, cruise and sell sex, and also to stage political rallies. In recent years, it was fenced up and reserved mainly for state and royal functions. In September 2020, protestors from various activist groups placed a democracy plaque in the field to reclaim it for the masses. That symbol of resistance disappeared overnight. 

Sanam Ratsadon is a tribute to the generations who have fought for democracy in Thailand. This website showcases the contest for meanings in public spaces. It also tells and explores Thailand’s history as it questions and builds it from the points of view of commoners.