KITA Discourse Series 4/2022: Malay Exiles in Central Thailand: Revisiting the Cultural Geography of Islam in Thailand and the Malay World’s Northern Diasporas

This seminar presents provisional findings that shed new light on both the cultural geography of Islam in Thailand, and northern extremities of the Malay world. An analysis of mosques officially registered in Thailand reveals that 10% are located in Central Thailand. Half of these are part of metropolitan Bangkok, and 74% of these are concentrated on its eastern districts along the Saen Saep Canal. I summarise the picture provided by Thai studies specialists who have documented the dates, origins, and circumstances of the (mainly involuntary) movement of Malays to Central Thailand, central Bangkok, and (later) to its eastern outskirts. This is followed by discussions of Siamese practices such as the taking of all slaves (chalei), and the organisation of labour under the sakdina system.

TENTATIVE PROGRAMME

Date: June 8, 2022 (Wednesday)
Time: 10am – 12pm (GMT+8)
Venue: Online
Platform: Zoom & KITA Facebook page (links below)

10.00am: Introduction by Moderator
10.05am: Welcoming remarks by Distinguished Prof. Dr. Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, KITA Founding Director
10.10am: Seminar by Dr. Christopher M. Joll
11.10am: Q & A session

PRESENTER’S PROFILE

Dr. Christopher M. Joll is a New Zealand anthropologist who has been based in Thailand for 18 years. His primary ethnographic subjects since stumbling into anthropology 10 years ago have been Thailand’s Muslim minority. He completed his PhD from the National University of Malaysia in 2009, and his first monograph (Muslim Merit Making in Thailand’s Far South) was published by Springer in 2011. He is affiliated with the Faculty of Anthropology and Sociology at Thammasat University (Bangkok), but has been a research associate at the Religious Studies Program, since July 2017.

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