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Ngo Pa

Introduction

Ngo Pa (Thai: เงาะป่า, pronounced [ŋɔ́ʔ pàː]), commonly known as Romance of the Sakai in other countries, is a Thai Literature written in the shape of a poetry, or Klon, and in the traditional play format of Lakhon Nok, despite the fact that there was no aim of converting this story into a play. This literature is also a writing composed by King Chulalongkorn (King Rama V) in February 1906 as he was recuperating from malaria at Vimanmek Mansion for eight days. The story is known as a tragedy inspired by The King’s Conception of a Negrito group called Maniq people, living in Southern Thailand, following the tragic love triangle story of Sompla and Hanao, a rivaling pair competing for the affection of the beautiful Lamhab. The Maniq people, a minority in the Siamese point of view, provided the novel idea of ethnography and the use of a "Love story" in the narrative of the story of Ngo Pa. The author wanted to emphasize that people are equal in emotional and feeling capacities regardless of where they came from or how they look, whether they are in civilization or not. Love is the strong, innate human emotion that unites all people.

Origin

Ngo Pa, at the time of the publication, was not intended to be used as a screenplay for a theatre play, even if the way it was written was eerily similar to Drama Poem at the time. King Chulalongkorn had only written it as a form of relaxation during his recuperation from Malaria. The exact time of the finalization is written as a Klon verse at the end of the original script as Friday the 2nd of February. It is also worth noting that said Klon verse also specifies that the story was written by following the word of a Maniq child named Kanang.

Synopsis

The story starts at Patthalung, one of the provinces of Thailand where the Maniq People lived, and every character in the story are Maniq people.

One day, Kanang, a Maniq child, invited his close friend, Maipai, to go foraging for Taro in the forest. As they were toasting taros, a man named Sompla passed by. He talked to Maipai about the kid’s older sister, Lamhab, who he fell for, and asked Maipai to bring flowers, a tiger’s fang, and a message to her. But Lamhab, receiving Sompla’s gifts, felt scared instead.

The next morning, Maipai invited Lamhab to the forest, according to Sompla’s plan. While she was picking up flowers, a snake snuck up on her, causing her to go unconscious. Sompla jumped in, killed the snake, and examined Lamhab. He then felt relieved knowing that she was unharmed.

Lamhab, regaining consciousness, panicked after she found herself in the arms of Sompla. Sompla immediately asked for her well-being and said that if she were to die, he would immediately follow. Lamhab felt grateful and thought to herself that she would repay his kindness.

Later, a marriage between Lamhab and Hanao was arranged by Hanao’s family. Lamhab was restless, as she did not love Hanao, but did not hate him either. Maipai then sneakily told her that Sompla would help her escape, as the marriage could only be counted as successful only if the bride and groom stayed in the forest for a week.

When the time was right, Ai Khae who was hiding nearby threw a rock at Hanao, triggering him and baiting him to get away from Lamhab. This action allowed Sompla to take her away. Hanao came back to find that his newlywed bride had disappeared. He spent all night trying to find her before going back to his home in the morning.

Sompla led Lamhab to a cave deep inside the forest and lived together. One day, Sompla decided to go out to find food. Lamhab felt a bad omen and tried to stop him but to no avail. In the meantime, Hanao had talked to his family and figured out that Sompla must have been the one that took Lamhab. He took Ramkaew, who was Hanao’s brother, along with Pongsong and Pongsud to help him find Sompla and Lamhab.

They met, and the fight started. Sompla got attacked by Ramkaew using a poisonous dart. He stumbled back to the cave where Lamhab was, and died in her arm. Overwhelmed with sadness, she took a dagger and killed herself. Seeing what happened, Hanao felt heavy regret and followed her to his death using that same dagger. Ramkaew, Pongsong, and Pongsud then decided to bury the three of them together.

Characteristics

Realism and Culture

The author, King Chulalongkorn, obtained the concept and inspiration for the story from a Maniq child named Kanang whom he met during his visit to Patthalung. The story he heard from the child was about the lifestyle of the Maniq people at the time. The author used his earned knowledge regarding cultural activities and the way of living to write this story. It is safe to say that this literature is made with realism in mind.

Moreover, some of the vocabulary used in the literature was in fact “Goi”, known as Sakai Language, which is used by the Maniq tribe, showing that the author intended to respect the cultural side of the Maniq people as best he could, even if it is not intended to be turned into theatrical plays.

Simplicity

The vocabulary used in Ngo Pa is a mixture of Goi (Sakai Language) and Simple Thai words that were widely used at the time, with the intention of simplicity but beautifully. Additionally, there are index pages that the author added before going into the story of the literature. The reader can compare Goi words using the index pages and translate it into simplified Thai words. King Chulalongkorn noted that even if the reader did not flip the pages around to look for the meaning, the wordings are quite easy to understand because Goi words and Thai words were tied together so that the reader understand the meaning of the words without having to look it up multiple times.

Publishing and Adaptation

Multiple instances of the literature have been published until today. The first publication was back in 1913. Other than that, a small part of the literature got adapted into the Thai literacy textbook for middle schools. In various theatrical troupes, Ngo Pa has been used as a stage play since that time. And there was also an instance of a movie adaptation called “Ngo Pa: The Primitive” back in 1979.

References