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ObituaryAlan Bairner

Published online: 15 Mar 2013.

To cite this article: Alan Bairner (2012): Obituary, Asia Pacific Journal of Sport and Social Science,

1:2-3, 166-168

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Obituary

Alan Bairner*

Pattana Kittiarsa

It was with great sadness that I received the news from Tomo Ishioka that Pattana

Kittiarsa had passed away. It is always a matter of sorrow when a fellow scholar and, in

this instance, a potential contributor to ones journal, dies. I was very much looking

forward to being able to publish Pattanas article, Of Men and Monks: Boxing

Buddhism Nexus in the Production of National Manhood in Contemporary Thailand.

As the abstract that appears below demonstrates, Pattana would undoubtedly have added

greatly to our understanding of masculinity in his native Thailand with this study.

However, as is so often the case, it is only when someone dies that we begin to appreciate

the true magnitude of what has been lost. This is made abundantly clear in the obituary

written for The Nation by Nantiya Tangwisutijit and Subhatra Bhumiprabhas, which is

reproduced in full here. Pattana Kittiarsa was that increasingly rare creature in the

academic world an earnest researcher who was primarily motivated not by yearnings for

personal advancement, but rather by a deep desire to improve the lives of those whom he

studied. He leaves behind a wife and two children, as well as countless admirers in the

fields of anthropology and Southeast Asian studies. On behalf of the associate editors and

editorial board members of the Asia Pacific Journal of Sport and Social Science, I offer my

sincere condolences to his wife and family.

The following originally appeared in The Nation on 11 January 2013 (http://www.nati

onmultimedia.com/opinion/Mourning-a-son-of-the-soil-30197647.html) and is repro-

duced with permission from Achara Deboonme, editor of The Nation:

Mourning a son of the soil

Nantiya Tangwisutijit,

Subhatra Bhumiprabhas

Not long ago, Isaan was simply seen as a supply of workers facilitating Bangkokssprawl. But when these workers started going home, sharing ideas, music and culture, the

result cemented the northeastern region into the Thai fabric far more than the buildings and

roads the regions people helped to construct decades earlier.

No one did more to articulate the evolution and importance of this trend than

anthropologist Pattana Kittiarsa, who at just 45 died of cancer yesterday in a Singapore

hospital.

Once he left his Nong Khai home for the University of Washington, he devoted his life

to documenting how increasingly influential Isaan has become to Thai economics, politics

and culture. His studies and writings include Thai Migrants in Singapore: State, Intimacy

and Desire (2008); Muai Thai Cinemas and the Burdens of Thai Men (2007); The Ghost of

q 2012 Taylor & Francis

*Email: A.E.S.Bairner@lboro.ac.uk

Asia Pacific Journal of Sport and Social Science, 2012

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Transnational Labour Migration: Death and Other Tragedies of Thai Workers in

Singapore (2005); and Rice Festivals in Northeast Thailand.

Pattana was born in the northeastern province of Nong Khai. He began his

anthropological career as a student at Khon Kaen University. After completing his PhD at

the University of Washington in 1999, he returned to his Isaan homeland to teach atSuranaree University in Nakhon Ratchasima province. He had been an associate professor

in Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore since 2004.

Apart from working in his classroom in Singapore, the anthropologist also worked

tirelessly to help improve the rights of Thai labourers until his last breath. His studies and

his advocacy helped lift the welfare and social status of thousands of Thai migrant workers

in Singapore, most of whom are from Isaan.

Pattanas mentor, Professor Charles Keyes, who was among the first generation of

Western anthropologists focusing on the Isaan culture, wrote of Pattana: I feel greatly

honoured to have had Pattana as my luksit [student], but I also see myself as his luksit as

well, since I have learned as much from him as I know he has learned from me. I also have

come to feel a deep sense of kinship with him that goes well beyond our academic

relationship. His death is a great personal loss, but I take some solace in knowing his

karmic legacy will continue for a long time to come.

Colleague and friend Pinkaew Laungaramsri, an anthropologist at Chiang Mai

University, wrote in a farewell message: Pattanas lifelong aspiration was to be

able to take part in the world of anthropology outside his home. I once asked him

why? He unhesitatingly responded, the Western community of anthropology is so lively

and energetic, I wish I could contribute to such a vibrant and challenging academic

atmosphere. For a native anthropologist of northeastern Thailand, this kind of dream

means an intense self-discipline, hard work and constant struggle in the highly competitive

world of academia, where qualifications are judged by the mastery of theoreticalknowledge, language and novelty of thought. This is undoubtedly a tiring journey.

But for Pattana, it was always a rite of passage, a difficult path one had to learn to

become intellectually mature. And through such academic life struggles, a multitude of

anthropological work and knowledge was produced. From religious cults, transmigration,

to popular culture and politics, his engaged ethnography has opened up the voices of the

unheard others, telling the stories of marginal subjects whose existence is often neglected

by society. The productive life he lived has now ended. But the journey and legacy of his

hard work will remain an inspiration to us all.

Pattana left his wife Rungnapa and their two children. His funeral rites will be held for

three nights starting at 7.30pm at Wat Ananda Metyaram in Singapore, and the cremationwill take place on Sunday (January 13).

While his family, friends and colleagues mourn his untimely death, Thai society is

once again reminded how, like so many sons and daughters of Isaan, Pattana contributed to

the ongoing evolution of Thai society in very meaningful and profound ways.

The following is the abstract of the paper by Pattana Kitiarsa that was meant to appear

in this issue

Of men and monks: boxing-Buddhism nexus and the production of national manhood

in contemporary Thailand

Pattana Kitiarsa, Department of Southeast Asian Studies, National University of Singapore

In Thailand, boxers and Buddhist monks share many common characteristics. Most of

them started their respective careers as poor, young boys from the countryside. Emerging

Asia Pacific Journal of Sport and Social Science 167

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from humble family backgrounds, they are attracted to two different extreme routes of

masculine ideals: one is deemed physically violent and deeply involved with masculine

contests and worldly activities, while the other offers an ideal path to renounce the world

and engage in a model of religious asceticism. How can Thai boxing (Muai Thai) and

Theravada Buddhism coexist and be widely practiced without significant tension incontemporary Thailand? How and why can Thailand possibly be home to the two,

seemingly extremely contrasting, cultural modes of masculine expressions? In this paper, I

will argue that boxing and Buddhism are taken by the Thais as a hegemonic cultural nexus,

in which they form a basis of everyday gendered ideological practices and social

institutions. In and through the boxing Buddhism nexus, a certain style and sensitivity of

Thai national manhood is produced and sustained. Discussions will be drawn from my data

gathering through ethnographic fieldwork in Northeastern Thailand and other related

secondary sources.

168 A. Bairner

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