Even more Thai ephemera

Enough about elephant farts …. Here are some more items of Thai ephemera. They are images from lam tat booklets, taken from the reference works of Anake Nawigamune.

Lam tat (р╕ер╕│р╕Хр╕▒р╕Ф) is a Thai folk performance. It came to Siam from Malaysia during the reign of Rama V (1853 – 1910). Performances are sharp, witty, aggressive, and overtly sexual. Performers sing in turn, replying to each other in song, relying upon repertoire and improvisation. Booklets of lam tat lyrics were sold in markets.

Many performances were based on popular news items like murder, robbery, corruption among mandarins, capture of bandits etc. The covers were very eye-catching, using photos or drawings based on real events. The examples of booklet covers presented here were published between 1924 and 1934.

[This post is provided by the National Library of Australia as part of our Book Zone feature. For further information on the featured publications contact Saowapha Viravong at [email protected]]