Pira Sudham
Pira Sudham , is an author of Thai descent. He was born in a village in Isan in northeastern Thailand. At age fourteen, he left Isan for Bangkok to become a servant to Buddhist monks in a monastery where he attended secondary school. Later, he entered Triam Udom High School, before gaining a place at Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University. He won a New Zealand government scholarship to read English Literature at Auckland University and then Victoria University of Wellington, where his first story was published by New Zealand's leading literary quarterly Landfall. Since then, Pira Sudham has been writing short stories, poems, and novels in English. He has not produced any literary works in the Thai language.
Influences
Pira Sudham's literary works, particularly "Monsoon Country" and its sequel "The Force of Karma" portray social and political transition in the shadowed kingdom, involving one of the richest men in the world and several prominent European personalities. They include a formidable German composer, a Bavarian orchestra conductor, an English antiquarian, a University of London graduate and an impoverished Thai family living in the northeastern region of Thailand. The works cover the political turmoil and a massacre of pro-democracy activists in October 1973, the massacre of students at Thammasat University in October 1976 and the killing of protesters in the streets of Bangkok in May 1992. His short stories in "Tales of Thailand" and "People of Esarn - The Damned of Thailand & The Kingdom in Conflicts" deal with the subjects of deforestation, child trade, slavery, prostitution, sex tourism, drug trade, land loss, forced relocation and pollution.Personal
Pira Sudham has lived over twenty years in New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and in the UK, writing short stories, poems, and his first novel, Monsoon Country. Now he lives in his home village in Isan, Northeastern Thailand.A New Short Story
A Hunted Hunter by Pira SudhamIn ancient times, tiger shooters tied down asses to lure tigers. These days asses were so rare that hunters had to use dogs instead.
One morning a man carrying a rifle with a dog on a leash entered Khao Yai national park. Having found a spot deep in the jungle he chained the dog to a tree. Afterwards he climbed up a nearby tree. Soon the dog was yelping incessantly. Three patrolling park rangers arrived. While they were trying to free the unfortunate canine, the poacher climbed down his tree and fled.
A day later, the hunter’s house was raided and the police confiscated his rifle and several tiger skin rugs with tiger heads still attached. Consequently, the culprit was jailed.
A week later, his spouse visited him. She whispered: “A man came to see me saying that for three million baht he could arrange to include your name on the pardon list.”
“But we don’t have 3 million baht,” the husband sighed.
“I know,” the wife wailed.
After the woman had gone, the prisoner sat down, sadly reflecting.
In so doing, he arrived at a notion that his dreadful deed had caught up with him.
“Now I have been chained to lure a predator,” the hopeless hunter concluded.
News pertaining to the imprisonment of Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister, filled the hunted hunter’s heart with envy. The impoverished inmate surmised that the billionaire would certainly be pardoned.