King Naresuan : “Hero of Heroes” in the View of Prince Damrong Rajanubhap

Abstract

Prince Damrong Rajanubhap played a very important role in promoting King Naresuan as a hero. He wrote some works about King Naresuan, which became the absolute stereotype of knowlege formation about King Naresuan. Those works were : “Explanation for The Royal Chronicle”, “The War between Myanmar”, and “The History of King Naresuan". The result of this study shows that other people, for whom Prince Damrong Rajanubhap had high respect, such as King Rama I, King Rama IV, and King Rama V, also admired and considered King Naresuan a hero. The fact that Prince Damrong Rajanubhap promoted King Naresuan as a hero reflected the political context where high class people were lacking political consistency due to western imperialism. Therefore, his works had a hidden agenda on politics, education, and social psychology. Those works have had influences on the cognition of Thai history and have become the source for history learning through both textbooks and informal media. Such influences have subsequently stimulated nationalism among Thai people.