The Thai krajappi

One of the oldest representation of krajappi in Thailand seems to date from the eighteenth century. The picture is an Ayutthaya School's painting, owned by Jim Thompson's house in Bangkok. It is from the book about Jim Thompson's house. It represents Prince Siddhartha leaving at night the palace where he grew up.

In the current state of our research, this representation of krajappi would be the oldest one. It is a mahori orchestra, a music practiced in the Ayutthaya court at least since the mid-eighteenth century, but certainly older. We can already see the structure of Khmer orchestras phleng arak boran and phleng kar boran, that is to say by transposing the names of Khmer instruments: the chapei lute, the tro Khmer fiddle, the pei ar oboe with its large reed, the goblet drums skor arak or skor daey and a skor romonea frame drum seen from the front. While this last drum is not present in the phleng arak boran and phleng kar boran, the structure of the musical ensemble is similar. We know that traditional Cambodian orchestras were, and remain, geometrically variable according to the provinces, the formations themselves, the availability of musicians and instruments.

For the Thai instruments names, see the following chapter: The Buddhaisawan Chapel (Bangkok).

We have retained the French version (reworked) of the monk Dhamma Sāmi in his book “The life of Buddha and his main disciples” to describe the scene depicted here; it is recurrent in the pagodas of Theravada Buddhism.

“Returning to the palace, on this Monday of the full moon of July 97 according to the calendar of the Great Era, Prince Siddhartha headed straight for the main living room, without bothering to climb into the room where the princess was sitting and his baby. Once there, he lay down on his vast throne, sheltered by a large white parasol. All around him, young and beautiful women danced, others played musical instruments, others sang pleasant melodies, all richly dressed, carefully coiffed and pleasantly scented. Unlike the previous days, the prince no longer felt the slightest pleasure at these festivities. The kilesā (mental impurities) weighed on him now as long as he no longer accepted to undergo them, however tiny they may be. That evening, insensitive to the graceful spectacle of the dancers, to the delicate harmonies of the musicians and to the sweetness of the melody of the singers, he fell asleep.

Seeing the sleeping prince, the women of the palace, embarrassed, dared no movement, for fear of disturbing him in his sleep. They did not venture to leave, the order was not given to them. All remained on the spot. As the hour progressed, they fell asleep on the spot in a total disorder: the scattered bodies were directed in all directions, tongues hung, some snored, drooled, groaned, talked while sleeping, chewed, some had their mouths wide open, d others were half naked in the unconsciousness of sleep. After the middle of the night, the prince awoke. Contemplating the distressing spectacle that presented itself to him, he was finally satiated with kilesā. Disgusted, disgusted by this disgusting vision that made him think of a messy mass grave where corpses pile up pell-mell, he depressed. A thought crossed his mind: ‘And to say that I remained carefree, immersed in this world of sensory pleasures twenty-eight years!’

It is at this moment that the prince decides to put immediately at work his decision to leave the palace for the forest ...”

In almost all cases, the female musicians are represented asleep, as described in the original text. However, here, the princess and her baby are immersed in sleep while the musicians play for awake spectators.

As is often the case for the illustration of mythological or historical texts, artists represent the musical instruments of their immediate environment, but not those of the time they illustrate. So do not see there, or anywhere else, the musical instruments of the time of the Buddha.

The Buddhaisawan Chapel in Bangkok was built in 1795 to house the statue of the Lion Buddha (Phra Puttha Sihing) of Sinhalese origin dating back to the 15th century. It is located inside the Bangkok National Museum. This chapel is now consecrated as a Buddhist temple and many worshipers frequent it daily, but no monk is attached to it. It contains the illustration of the 548th and last life of the Buddha in 28 murals made between 1795 and 1797.

The state of conservation of the panels is uneven and the paintings have been restored several times. The same panel can represent various events, sometimes anachronistic, separated by plant motifs (trees, bushes), minerals (rocks) or aquatic (ponds, rivers, seas). Important events are always painted on a red background and topped with zigzag decorations, typically Siamese.

The painting was made by the method called tempera, on walls washed and dried; the natural colors were applied on the dry walls, then stabilized with natural fixatives.

We present here the completeness of the panels of this chapel containing at least one krajappi lute as they are beautiful and representative of the Buddhist culture of that time. The krajappi are all played by women and, in a unique case, by a mythological being.

These paintings date from the beginning of the Rattanakosin period (1782-1932) of King Rama I, that's to say just from the end of the Ayutthaya Kingdom (1350-1767). They combine illustrating elements of the Buddha's life, from His birth to His awakening, and scenes from the court life. They are a precious testimony of Ayutthaya's life as they show the various ensembles and instruments played during the ceremonies. However, it's important to weigh this point of view that we are developing here. All these ensembles belong to the mahori musical style and all instruments are still part of the contemporary Thai musical heritage: saw sam sai (ซอสามสาย) fiddle, krajappi (กระจับปี่) lute, khlui (ขลุ่ย) flute, klong thap (กลอง ทับ) or thon/rammana drums (โทนรำมะนา), ching (ฉิ่ง) small cymbals, krap phuang blade percussion (กรับพวง). These instruments, with the exception of the krap phuang, also belong to the Khmer instrumental heritage in slightly different forms.

We will, however, focus here on the only krajappi.

“For three months during the rainy season, the Buddha preached to his mother and the gods, including ruler of Tavatimsa heaven, the god Indra. On his way to Tavatimsa heaven, the Buddha passes above the head of an evil serpent or Naga in human and princely form. Enraged, and assuming his serpent form, the evil Naga battles with another naga, Mogellana, who is a disciple of the Buddha, but to go/to avail, until Mogellana assumes the guise of a Garuda, the half bird half man enemy of the nagas the double miracle at Sravasti. To convince dissenters, the Buddha performs miracles in which a fully laden mango tree springs from a seed, and the Buddha himself appears in multiple forms simultaneously: as single walking figure, two seated figures and two reclining figures platforms erected by the dissenters on which to perform rival magic are destroyed by a storm caused by the green god Indra.”

The krajappi shown here has an oval soundbox and three pegs. The frets are not visible. 

“The Buddha’s father, King Suddhodana, sends the ninth emissary to find the Buddha to return to Kapilavastu, to preach to his father and relatives."

Two orchestras are mirrored on both sides of the cremation tower. The krajappi frets are not visible. The two resonance boxes have substantially different shapes; the one on the left is closer to the shape of the leaf of the Bodhi tree. The one on the right shows four tuning pegs.

“From Tavatimsa heaven down to the world of men, accompanied by the god Indra, the Brahma and celestial musicians, the Buddha descends the triple staircase of gold, silver and glittering jewels. At the time of the descent, a miracle enables the three worlds, of the heavens, earth and the hells, to be simultaneously visible to each other. After his descent to earth, the Buddha preaches to assembled followers.”

On this scene, two krajappi are represented in two different contexts. In the upper left, Gandharva Pañcaśikha plays krajappi. He holds in his other two hands two small rattle drums, one of the attributes of God Shiva when he is represented as the God of Dance. Indra who holds the sword and the conch accompany him. The soundbox of his krajappi is oval. The instrument has five tuning pegs but only three strings. Perhaps we should see there a symbolic representation: the five pegs could represent the five mountains of the Meru or remain the gods of Hinduism and the three strings, the three gods of Trimurti: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

The second krajappi is located under the stairway through which the Buddha descends into the world of humans. The instrument has four strings and the frets are visible. The musicians have the same hairstyle as the chapei player of the Royal Palace of Phnom Penh photographed by Émile Gsell at the same time. It is clear from this detail that the Siam Court in Bangkok and the Cambodia Court in Phnom Penh are close in culture.

"Princess Yasodhara is the wife of the Buddha whom he abandoned at the same time as his son when he left the palace one night. Legend has it that King Udena had three spouses; two of them, Mâgandiyâ and Sâmâvatî, were fierce rivals: one was a disciple of the Buddha, the other was jealous and vindictive. While the Buddha was visiting the kingdom, each queen behaved accordingly: the first received him with food offerings, the second spread rumors and barked the dogs after him. "

It is also a lute in this story: "At that time, the king used to share his time equally between his three women, spending seven days in turn in the apartment of each of them. Magandyia, knowing that he would go the next day or two days later to Samavati's apartment, sent word to his uncle: ‘Send me a serpent, whose fangs you have soaked with it.’ This was done. The king had custom, wherever he went, to carry his magical lute, elephant charmer. In the soundboard of the instrument, there was a hole. Mâgandiyâ then introduced the snake and blocked the opening with a bouquet of flowers. For two or three days, the snake remained in the lute ...” Read more here.

The krajappi depicted here has a soundbox whose shape is close to that of the leaf of the Bodhi tree. Twenty frets on the neck and six on the soundboard. Only two pegs are visible.

"Princess Yasodhara is the wife of the Buddha whom he abandoned at the same time as his son when he left the palace one night. Legend has it that King Udena had three spouses; two of them, Mâgandiyâ and Sâmâvatî, were fierce rivals: one was a disciple of the Buddha, the other was jealous and vindictive. While the Buddha was visiting the kingdom, each queen behaved accordingly: the first received him with food offerings, the second spread rumors and barked the dogs after him. "

It is also a lute in this story: "At that time, the king used to share his time equally between his three women, spending seven days in turn in the apartment of each of them. Magandyia, knowing that he would go the next day or two days later to Samavati's apartment, sent word to his uncle: ‘Send me a serpent, whose fangs you have soaked with it.’ This was done. The king had custom, wherever he went, to carry his magical lute, elephant charmer. In the soundboard of the instrument, there was a hole. Mâgandiyâ then introduced the snake and blocked the opening with a bouquet of flowers. For two or three days, the snake remained in the lute ...” Read more here.

The krajappi depicted here has a soundbox whose shape is close to that of the leaf of the Bodhi tree. Twenty frets on the neck and six on the soundboard. Only two pegs are visible.

“This scene depicts the engagement, the procession and the celebration of the royal wedding of the Bodhisattva's parents, the Suddhodana King of the Sakya clan and Princess Maha Maya at the Kapilavastu Palace. The future couple, surrounded by members of the Court, face each other: between them is a bai sri (floral arrangement). On the left, Prince Suddhodana Gautama is flanked by Brahma with four faces and Indra with green. On the right are Princess Maha Maya and her suite.”

The orchestra is composed of six instruments. From left to right: small cymbals, fiddle, krajappi lute, frame drum, goblet drum and a percussion instrument made of a bundle of hardwood and brass slats, tied together at one end called krap phuang (กรับพวง). The two drum players have their mouths ajar, which means they sing. This krajappi has four coupled strings, seventeen frets on the neck and six on the soundboard. One of the characteristics of this orchestra is that both string players are represented as left-handed because the outfits are reversed.

This is the classic scene of the great renunciation, in which Prince Siddhartha leaves his wife and newborn son to seek to understand how to free humanity from suffering. Leaving the palace, he leaves the musicians and the dancers asleep. Then he meets four disguised divine messengers: an old man, a sick man, a dead man and a wandering ascetic, represented here as a monk.

The scene of sleeping musicians is, for painters, the opportunity to represent musical instruments that they themselves have seen in their socio-cultural environment. Depending on the cultural and intellectual level of the painter or his master, the choice of instruments and the quality of the details are variable. Here, one sees the neck of the krajappi, that of the fiddle and three other instruments emerging from the abandoned bodies.

An eighteenth-century cabinet of the Ayutthaya School, belonging to the National Museum of Bangkok, shows a musical ensemble conforming to those of the Buddhaisawan Chapel, but to which are added some more instruments. Thus, from left to right: an aerophone (oboe?), a pair of small cymbals, a gong chime, a barrel-shaped drum, a krajappi lute, a three-strings fiddle, a second aerophone (oboe?).

In the back of the cabinet, another krajappi player seems to be the clown!

We will compare here one of the instruments photographed by Émile Gsell, the instrument of the Musée de la Musique in Paris (ref. E.1177) and the two krajappi of Prince Paribatra belonging to the Suan Pakkad Museum in Bangkok.

A preliminary remark must also be made about the paternity of the instruments present in the photo of Émile Gsell opposite. The three-strings fiddle is more like the size of a Thai saw sam sai than a tro Khmer. The same goes for the goblet drum. We think that some of these instruments (chapei / krajappi, fiddle and goblet drum) were made in the Siam or Cambodia kingdom by a Siamese or even Khmer maker trained in Siam. The xylophone, the metallophone, the gong chime and the zither do not show any Khmer or Siamese particularism.

Nattapann Nuch-ampann (ณัฐพันธุ์ นุชอำพันธ์) started studying and playing thai music when he was around 12 years old. First, he played the saw duang fiddle and then the ranat xylophone. In high school, he won the first prize in khim zither national competition. Later, in Chulalongkorn University, he continued playing Thai music in Thai Music Club. 

He has been interested by the krajappi at the end of the 2000s. He realized that this instrument was little by little disappeared from Thai musical practices. Anyway, in a little part of social media, there was a small group of krajappi lovers and they always discussed a lot about its playing technique, its tuning system, the manufacturers, etc. Every idea inspired him to find the good krajappi and made him dreaming one day playing this ancient instrument. 

Until one day, he had a chance to know a krajappi maker in Ayutthaya province. He made it with care and good quality. Finally, he ordered a first one, and a second one… then four to this only maker.

But it was impossible to find a krajappi teacher because the instrument was not popular and disappeared from alive Thai culture long time ago. Nobody knew exactly how it was played. The last krajappi known player in ancient style was the royal consort of King Rama V reigning from 1853 to 1910. After that, it seems nobody played it. 

So how to restart a disappeared practice? Nattapann Nuch-ampann says: “Nowadays we all play krajappi by imagination, including myself. Sometimes, I listen how the Khmer chapei players play, even techniques they use. As Thai and Khmer shared the same culture for centuries, I think it should be similar to ancient Thai way to play. However, I have melodies in my head, so I just play them as I think the way it should be.” 

But Nattaphan didn’t stop at four krajappi. When we find him at home, he has eight instruments from different manufacturers.

In addition to being a musician, Nattaphan is an esthete. Each instrument ordered by him is a work of art and he takes extreme care. His aestheticism is also embodied in the place he offers his instruments. His music room and the various places he dedicates to music and the living arts in general lend themselves to a sensitive musical practice and quality cinematographic productions. Judge instead ...

Find Nattapann Nuch-ampann on his channel  wisetdontree วิเศษดนตรี

This instrument has, inside its soundbox, a spring device coming from an old western pendulum clock. Such a device is mentioned on the documentary sheet of the Musée de la Musique in Paris (ref. E.1177). However, when the instrument is played, there is no acoustic change; the internal device remains inert until the instrument is shaken. The soundbox is close to that of the instrument of the Musée de la Musique in Paris and also that of the Émile Gsell's photographs. The tailpiece has a sounder, that doesn't seem to have been the case on the old spring instruments of the 19th century.

Below, such a device is visible inside an old krajappi. It consists of four metal spindles fixed in the wall of the soundbox. Along each of them, a second solidary spindle ends with a spring supposed to hit the terminal part of the first one.

We recorded Nattapann Nuch-ampann spring krajappi but without tangible results. The setting vibration was perhaps related to a particular playing technique?