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| 0332 |
The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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In this *Lo* or Lo-hoh, which apparently formed the lower part of what is now
Siam, previous to the middle of the 14th century, I believe that we have our
Traveller's Locac. The latter half of the name may be either the second syllable of
Lo-Hoh, for Polo's *c* often represents *k*; or it may be the Chinese *Kwŏ* or *Kwŏ*,
"kingdom," in the Canton and Fo-kien pronunciation (*i.e.* the pronunciation of
Polo's mariners) *kok*; *Lo-kok*, "the kingdom of Lo." *Sien*-Lo-Kok is the exact
form of the Chinese name of Siam which is used by Bastian.
What was this kingdom of Lo which occupied the northern shores of the Gulf of
Siam? Chinese scholars generally say that *Sien-Lo* means Siam and *Laos*; but this
I cannot accept, if Laos is to bear its ordinary geographical sense, *i.e.* of a country
bordering Siam on the *north-east and north*. Still there seems a probability that
the usual interpretation may be correct, when properly explained.
[Regarding the identification of Locac with Siam, Mr. G. Phillips writes (*Jour.
China B.R.A.S.*, XXI., 1886, p. 34, note): "I can only fully endorse what Col.
Yule says upon this subject, and add a few extracts of my own taken from the article
on Siam given in the *Wu-pĕ-chĭ*. It would appear that previously to 1341 a country
called Lohoh (in Amoy pronunciation Lohok) existed, as Yule says, in what is now called
Lower Siam, and at that date became incorporated with Sien. In the 4th year of
Hung-wu, 1372, it sent tribute to China, under the name of Sien Lohok. The
country was first called Sien Lo in the first year of Yung Lo, 1403. In the T'ang
Dynasty it appears to have been known as *Lo-yueh*, pronounced *Lo-yueh* at that
period. This *Lo-yueh* would seem to have been situated on the Eastern side of
Malay Peninsula, and to have extended to the entrance to the Straits of Singapore, in
what is now known as Johore."—H. C.]
In 1864, Dr. Bastian communicated to the Asiatic Society of Bengal the translation
of a long and interesting inscription, brought [in 1834] from Sukkothai to Bangkok
by the late King of Siam [Mongkut, then crown prince], and dated in a year 1214,
which in the era of Salivahana (as it is almost certainly, see *Garnier*, cited below) will
be A.D. 1292-1293, almost exactly coincident with Polo's voyage. The author of this
inscription was a Prince of *Thai* (or Siamese) race, styled Phra Râma Kambhêng
("The Valiant") [son of Sri Indratiya], who reigned in Sukkothai, whilst his
dominions extended from Vieng-chan on the Mekong River (lat. 18°), to Pechabur,
and Sri-Thammarat (*i.e.* Ligôr, in lat. 8° 18′), on the coast of the Gulf of Siam.
[This inscription gives three dates—1205, 1209, and 1214 s'aka=A.D. 1283, 1287 and
1292. One passage says: "Formerly the Thais had no writing; it is in 1205 s'aka,
year of the goat=A.D. 1283, that King Râma Kambhêng sent for a teacher who
invented the Thai writing. It is to him that we are indebted for it to-day." (Cf.
*Fournereau, Siam ancien*, p. 225; *Schmitt, Exc. et Recon.*, 1885; *Aymonier,
Cambodge*, II. p. 72.)—H. C.] The conquests of this prince are stated to have
extended eastward to the "Royal Lake," apparently the Great Lake of Kamboja;
and we may conclude with certainty that he was the leader of the Siamese, who had
invaded Kamboja shortly before it was visited (in 1296) by that envoy of Kûblâi's
successor, whose valuable account of the country has been translated by Rémusat.*
Now this prince Râma Kambhêng of Sukkothai was probably (as Lieutenant Garnier
supposes) of the *Thai-nyai*, Great Thai, or Laotian branch of the race. Hence the
application of the name Lo-kok to his kingdom can be accounted for.
It was another branch of the Thai, known as *Thai-noï*, or Little Thai, which in
1351, under another Phra Rama, founded Ayuthia and the Siamese monarchy, which
still exists.
The explanation now given seems more satisfactory than the suggestions formerly
made of the connection of the name *Locac*, either with Lophâburi (or *Lavô*, *Louvo*),
a very ancient capital near Ayuthia, or with *Lawôk*, *i.e.* Kamboja. Kamboja had at
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731
732
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