Paew Snidvongseni

Biography

At eight, her parents meant to send her to study with a missionary teacher, Edna Sarah Cole. Instead she ended up in Bangkok.

Paew Suddhiburana was born on 25 December 1903 in Chachoengsao, the second of three children of Heng and Suddhi Suddhiburana. She spent part of her childhood in the Grand Palace with her grandmother, who served in the inner court under King Chulalongkorn; after the king’s death she returned home. Then word came from Suan Kulap Palace that Prince Asdang Dejavudh, younger brother of the crown prince, had opened a theatre school for children with lessons in reading and dance. The girl was sent there. She later recalled the routine: dance from dawn until eight in the morning, then breakfast, half an hour of cooking, half an hour of embroidery and an hour of book lessons. She learned to read and write there, and wrote verse rather well.

Her dance teachers, among them consorts and concubines of King Rama the Fifth and King Rama the Fourth, were former court actresses. For a time she also trained at the palace of Prince Naradhip Prapanphong. She performed leading male and female roles: Inao and Darasa in “Inao”, Sita, Tosakan and Phra Phirap in the “Ramakien”, and, in the “outer” theatre repertoire, Phra Wai and Kraithong. She was especially good in scenes with weapons: spear, sabre, kris. She danced before King Vajiravudh, and later before King Prajadhipok. At thirteen, by her own account, she was sent to study with Chao Chom Manda Thapthim.

She played Darasa, who throws herself into the fire after her husband, so well that Prince Asdang asked for her hand. A commoner from a non-noble family was accepted without objection; it is said to have been the first such case among the daughters-in-law of the royal house. After the death of the prince’s elder brother in 1920 he became heir to the throne, and the king formally recognised her as his daughter-in-law; on 25 November 1923 she received the Order of Chula Chom Klao, second class. The prince died on 9 February 1924, aged thirty-six, when she was twenty. She did not hide her feelings about that time: she fainted, and the world seemed to her wholly insecure. They had no children. In 1927, with the permission of King Prajadhipok, she gave up her position as the prince’s widow and returned the order. She had no money; everything had belonged to the prince.

Three years after his death she married a diplomat, Mom Rajawongse Tan Snidvongs, who was later granted the title Mom Snidvongseni. He served as military attaché in France, Britain and Italy, as minister to Portugal, and in 1948–1949 as minister of industry. She spent about ten years with him in Europe, raising four children and running the household herself; during the Second World War she looked after Thai students stranded in Italy and sold her jewellery to support them. On their travels she watched the dances of other countries. From Portugal she brought back an impression of a horse dance.

In 1946 the family returned to Thailand, and in 1948 she joined the Fine Arts Department; Thanit Yupho, head of its music division, asked her to help restore theatre and dance. She worked there until 1992 as a specialist in Thai dance and director of rehearsals, creating pieces, teaching and giving lectures. The basic movements, formerly slow, she made more compact.

She created 44 dance pieces. Among them were the Sukhothai dance, based on an episode of “Inao”; the Farmers’ Dance, with gestures of sowing, ploughing, reaping and winnowing rice; the Soaring Kinnari, to which a dance of Manohra’s sacrificial offering was later added; and the Horse Dance, from her Portuguese impressions. The “Fon Duang Duean” is built on a song that, at the wish of King Bhumibol, Professor Montri Tramot divided into male and female parts; she devised the movements for its stage version, and it was shown to the king’s guests in 1963. She is said to have observed the movements of many birds in nature. She also wrote several scripts for theatre and for khon, the masked dance drama, notably from “Inao”, “Sangthong” and the “Ramakien”. In 1958 came Rattana Pestonji’s short film “The Diamond Finger”, based on a khon production she choreographed.

She was called “Mom Achan”, the princess-teacher. She taught strictly and sometimes harshly, and kept the beat at rehearsals with a cane. A granddaughter recalled that one sometimes pitied the pupils, but at the performance one saw what it was all for. Her pupils included the future National Artists Suphachai Chansuwan, Chatuphon Rattanawarah and Ratchana Phuangprayong, as well as Bunnak Thattharananon, Sudjit Phansang and others.

In 1985 she was named National Artist of Thailand in performing arts, in the first round of the award; in 1986 she also received the title of Outstanding Person of the Nation in dance. In 1992 she was granted the Order of the Crown of Thailand, highest class. She died in Bangkok on 24 September 2000, aged ninety-six, and was cremated on 19 November at Wat Thepsirin.