Tomorrow will mark the twentieth anniversary of the passing of Jaran Manophet, the famous folk song singer and much loved native of Chiang Mai.
His songs -- many of them in the local Lanna (northern) dialect had lyrics illustrating changes in the local community and the hardship that local folk had to swallow as agrarian society Thailand tried to modernise. Yet, tomorrow will also mark an unprecedented chapter in community history. There will be the unveiling of a sculpture -- life-size and made of bronze, of Jaran. This sculpture will be later installed at the Jaran Manophet memorial site near the City Wall in Muang Chiang Mai.
The memorial site and the sculpture will be the first monument ever to be constructed and managed by the local community. In Thailand, most monuments and sculptures are built by the state and the majority are sculptures of rulers, kings, soldiers or national heroes.
Jaran was not a national hero. The late artist was just an ordinary man from a humble background with an oversized gift for music and song writing. Jaran was a beloved native of Chiang Mai, a pride of the ancient northern city. Many of his songs have continued to be played every year and the Lanna community there has not been able to find another artist to take his place.
The singer was born in 1951 to a well-learned artist family. Even though his parents were educated, they were middle class with a modest income. Jaran was an ace student and he needed to work to support his five younger brothers to go to school after he graduated from a vocational school, Payap Technical College.
Growing up in the 1960s when US military and economic influence increased in Thailand due to the Indochina War, teenager Jaran quickly picked up Western musical magic including the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Jimmy Hendrix, and Peter, Paul & Mary. With a Sueng (Lanna four-string guitar), Jaran quickly learned to master guitar playing. Further, he brought the rhyme of Western songs (500 miles, A Man from Egypt, Lemon Tree and Tiny Sparrow) and blended them with local songs and rhymes that he composed. His local songs were very well received, but no one recognised the partial origin from the West.
For 24 years (1977-2001) as a famous singer, Jaran composed around 300 songs. Half were in Lanna and the other in official Thai. His songs managed to break many barriers in the mainstream music industry at that time. First, many of his hit songs are in the Lanna dialect; it was the first time that a local dialect singer -- some of them local poems, managed to capture a nationwide audience. Second, most of the lyrics illustrated changes in local communities. Third, they covered aspects of history, culture, social problems, especially the conflict between materialism and local people's mindsets. Fourth, the local language songs emboldened the local identity of northerners that also impressed audiences in the Central region. Fifth, his songs called for love and concern for locality, nature and the environment, as well as the working class both in town and the countryside. Lastly, in many songs, the singer called for a life with dreams and hopes, community, and social improvement.
Besides, Jaran was very active in a number of social service activities, for example, giving funds to rural students, teaching art projects to young students, musical learning and composing dramas for young students. Jaran organised several national performances inviting Lanna artists from the eight northernmost provinces to participate and also planned to set up a local art promotion centre.
As an individual, Jaran was a man of politeness, modesty, simplicity and friendliness.
Shortly after his cremation in mid-September 2001, a proposal was submitted to the mayor of Chiang Mai Municipality to construct a monument in memory of this great local artist. Many years passed without any progress until last year.
In May last year, a group of eight local academics from Chiang Mai University and Chiang Mai Rajabahtr University formed the Jaran Memorial Committee and launched a campaign to collect donations of 500,000 baht from people nationwide in order to construct a monument. Amid the pandemic and limited public gatherings, the donations slowly grew and reached the target at the end of the year.
The committee listened to views on the monument plan and came to the conclusion that the bronze monument should be made life-size with a guitar sitting on a long bench and a Sueng leaning beside it. The earthen, wax and bronze work began in March this year and the monument was completed at the end of August. The committee proposed to set up the monument in front of the Lanna Local Museum opposite the Three Kings Monument in downtown Chiang Mai. The purpose was to enable both locals and visitors to see the local legend, feel proud, be inspired by, and learn from him in the town centre. The province and municipality disagreed with the proposal and instead chose Suan Buak Haad, a public park near Chiang Mai Gate and not far from Jaran's birthplace.
However, since the municipality first has to improve the park, the monument is expected to be erected in mid-December this year. Hopefully, the Covid-19 pandemic should be gone by the time. The opening ceremony may take place on 1 Jan 2022 since Jaran was born on that day and would have turned 71 if he had lived.
The memorial will be a reminder of the local artist and his message. As per the lyrics of one of Jaran's most popular songs: "Let me carry on your dreams, to bring about great beauties." Twenty years after his death, Jaran's dreams live on.
Tanet Charoenmuang is member of Jaran Memorial Committee. He is also lecturer on political science at Chiang Mai University.