‘Sao Hai’: the city pillar, the crying tree trunk, the goddess shrine, and contradictions in the sacralization of nature

Abstract

ABSTRACT‘Sao Hai’ (2003) is a short story by the renowned Thai author Daen-aran Saengthong that retells the myth of the crying pillar, a female spirit believed to have dwelt in an ironwood for a millennium before the tree was hewn down and transported to the capital, Bangkok, to serve as the city pillar in 1782. Transforming this oral, provincial tale into a literary text, Daen-aran adds depth to the myth of Sao Hai by personating the compelling figure of this grieving goddess, now a sacred tree trunk worshipped by locals in Saraburi province. Noting the absence of any ecological agenda in either of the versions of the Sao Hai story, this research paper critiques the socio-political and environmental implications of the quest for the city pillar. Its central argument concerns the inseparable contradictions that lie between the sacralization of nature and the dominant royalist-nationalistic discourse in Thai literature and culture. The paper further enquires into the acts of transformation – materially that of the tree and aesthetically that of the story – in relation to environmental conservation at large. At the same time, questions are raised regarding the author’s representation of the non-human and the story’s prevailing note of loss.