A l e c G o r d o n a n d N a p a t S i r i s a m b h a n d With the burning of central Thailand's capital city, Ayudhya, in 1767 and the destruction of virtually all the records kept there by the centralized bureaucracy of that kingdom, and with the Burmese occupation of the north and the devastating years of fighting around 1800 to drive them out, there is virtually no written record left at all for Thailand prior to the nineteenth century. There is a little material on rulers and some of

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... r activities, but for social history the record is nearly blank. Is there then no way to write a social history or a gender history for Thailand? The absence of written evidence permits the presentation of opinions based on pure insight, on assumptions and sometimes, frankly, on sheer prejudice. What, for example, does one make of the following two viewpoints? A prominent women's rights activist assures us in a United Nations publication that in the nineteenth century women did all the work in agriculture. 1 Yet the government's women's organization tells us that women did no work at all outside the house. 2 At least one of these views is surely wrong. In fact, it is from the paradox of those opposing answers on the historical work activities of women that our search for alternative historical sources began. There being practically no written evidence, what might the historical mural paintings in old temples offer? These paintings cover the period from about 1660 to around 1900 and show ordinary people in various activities. Would they reveal, for example, a gender division of labour or aspects of gender relations? 3 In this contribution we want to accomplish two things. First, establish 1. Siriphon Skrobanek, "Appropriate Technology for Rural Women", in idem, Women in Agriculture (Bangkok, 1985), pp. 7-8. 2. National Commission on Women's Affairs, Long Term Women's Development Plan (Bangkok, 1983), p. 2. 3 The temple murals are only one alternative source; manuscript paintings are another source.