Talk:Siamese buffalo

Dubious cavalry claim
The cited book, the focus of which is on animal husbandry, only includes a vague statement that "...buffalo cavalry ridden by Siamese warriors are said to have ensured the final rout of the Burmese" (emphasis mine). This is hardly compelling evidence, and anyone with a brief knowledge of Thai history would recognise it as most obviously a misrepresentation a certain episode of the legendary heroics of the villagers at Bang Rachan. To quote The Journal of the Burma Research Society: "One day Nai T'ong Men took alcohol and became drunk. He somehow became annoyed, got on a water buffalo, gathered a platoon of his men, and went directly to the Burmese fortifications. There he uprooted some of the fences and wrested the Burmese fortifications.'" As every Thai schoolchild knows, despite being said to have slowed the Burmese army's progress, the villagers of Bang Rachan ultimately lost the fight. Per WP:CONTEXTMATTERS, the FAO publication, while a reliable source for its coverage of agricultural aspects, cannot be considered a reliable source in regards to the historical composition of Siamese cavalry units. For those you would need to cite a scholarly work of Southeast Asian history, and I'm sure you'd find none that support such a claim. --Paul_012 (talk) 11:20, 8 August 2017 (UTC)