--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "mkelkar2003" <smykelkar@...> wrote:
>
> Pulitzer prize winning author Jared Diamond writes (2005, p. 14):
> "Essentially the same question has been debated for the fall of the
> Khmer Empire centered on Angkor Wat in relation to invasions by Thai
> neighbors, for the decline in Harrapan Indus Valley civilization in
> relation to Aryan Invasions, and the fall of Mycenaean Greece and
> other Bronze Age Mediterranean societies in relation to the invasions
> by Sea Peoples."
> Interestingly, the fictional story of an
> "Aryan Invasion" finds a place among well recorded and verified
> historic events!
Is there a historical novel telling the tale of the Aryan invasion of
lesser India? Who wrote it?
There's an interesting parallel in the Thai case. Whereas it does
indeed seem that the Thais invaded Thailand within the past
millennium, there is an influential school of thought that the Thais
were indigenous and that the overthrow of Khmer rule in what is now
Thailand should be seen as liberation, not invasion. The National
Museum in Bangkok is ambivalent as to whether there has been a recent
spread of Tai languages to Thailand.
On the other hand, there are suggestions that the court of Siam did
not switch from Khmer to Thai until the 1490s (Angkor Wat was
devastatingly sacked in 1431.)
I have been assured that Thais are difficult to detect
archaeologically because their houses are mobile. Traditional Thai
houses are of wood and may readily be disassembled. Traditionally,
when one replaces one's house, one takes the parts to the local temple
for poor people to use free. (One of the tourist sights in Bangkok,
Jim Thompson's house, is composed of three traditional houses brought
in from the countryside.)
I have also heard of an (Australian?) archaeological dig in Thailand
being stopped because it was producing the wrong results. I wish I
knew more; I head this from someone who had worked on it as a student
and received the nickname _yak yai_ 'big giant' because of her great
height.
Richard.