Woman between Two Kingdoms: Dara Rasami and the Making of Modern Thailand

by Leslie Castro-Woodhouse

Overview

Woman between Two Kingdoms explores the story of Dara Rasami, one of 153 wives of King Chulalongkorn of Siam during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in a kingdom near Siam called Lan Na, Dara served as both hostage and diplomat for her family and nation.

Thought of as a harem by the West, Siam's Inner Palace actually formed a nexus between the domestic and the political. Dara's role as an ethnic Other among the royal concubines assisted the Siamese in both consolidating the kingdom's territory and building a local version of Europe's hierarchy of civilizations. Dara Rasami's story provides a fresh perspective on both the sociopolitical roles played by Siamese palace women, and Siam's response to the intense imperialist pressures it faced in the late nineteenth century.

Thanks to generous funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, through The Sustainable History Monograph Pilot, the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other repositories.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501755507
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	05/15/2021
Pages:	198
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.46(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Leslie Castro-Woodhouse earned an MA in Asian studies and PhD in history from UC Berkeley. She has spoken at many international seminars and conferences, taught courses at Berkeley and the University of San Francisco, and has been published in several scholarly journals and edited volumes. She served as managing editor of the journal Asia Pacific Perspectives from 2015–2018 and continues to work as an independent scholar and editor in the San Francisco Bay area.

Table of Contents

1. Introducing Lan Na, Siam, and the Inland Constellation
2. Dara Rasami's Career in the Siamese Royal Palace
3. Performing Identity and Ethnicity in the Siamese Court
4. Inventing Lan Na Tradition and Dara Rasami's Legacy
5. Intertwined Fates: Monarchy, Women's Bodies, and the Thai State

What People are Saying About This

Taylor Easum

Woman between Two Kingdoms explores the inner workings of an inner palace that in much scholarship has been exoticized and Orientalized. By focusing on Dara Rasami, Castro-Woodhouse paints a three-dimensional picture, full of complexity, nuance, and contradiction, of a particular political subject who both shaped and was shaped by the political culture around her.

Editorial Reviews

Castro-Woodhouse brings to life Rasami and the other consorts who are otherwise flattened by historical accounts.

Choice

Castro-Woodhouse brings to life Rasami and the other consorts who are otherwise flattened by historical accounts.

-- "Choice"

From the Publisher