King of the Waters: Homan Van Der Heide and the Origin of Modern Irrigation in Siam (Verhandelingen Van Het Koninklijk Instituut Voor Taal-, Land) - Softcover

Ten Brummelhuis, H

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9067182370 ISBN 13: 9789067182379

Publisher: Brill, 2005

Synopsis

King of the waters describes how a brilliant Dutch engineer ultimately failed to implement his plans for modern irrigation in Siam. Homan van der Heide's identification with the interests of the rice farmers caused ambivalent reactions from his Siamese environment. Interwoven with the detailed description of the actions of the Dutch engineer, King Chulalongkorn and some of his ministers is the ambiguous performance of the Siamese state towards agriculture in the first decade of the twentieth century. The book shows the weight of many contingencies in state affairs, especially through the problematical interactions between the engineer Homan van der Heide and the minister of Agriculture, chao phraya Thewet -- they seemed to form a kind of jolie à deux. King of the waters sketches a dramatic picture of clashing cultures, comparable to many encounters in contemporary development cooperation. The study is based on archival material in the National Archives in Bangkok and documents available in the Netherlands.

About this title

About the Author:

Han ten Brummelhuis is an anthropologist at the University of Amsterdam. His work concentrates on Southeast Asia, especially Thailand and Burma.

About this edition

• Publisher: Brill
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 9067182370
• ISBN 13: 9789067182379
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 409