Mom Luang Boonlua Debyasuvarn[a] née Kunchon (December 13, 1911 – June 7, 1982), writing under the pen name Boonlua, was a Thai writer, educator and civil servant.[1][2] She is considered to have been one of Thailand's most important educators during a crucial phase of that country's modernization.[3]
Biography
editThe youngest child of Chao Phraya Thewet, a high ranking official who had 32 children, and the only child of Mom Nual, a classical Thai dancer, she was born in Bangkok and was educated at a Catholic convent primary school there, at a convent secondary school in Penang and then earned her secondary school certificate at Saint Mary’s S.P.G School in Bangkok. She received a BA in Thai language and literature at Chulalongkorn University in 1936 and an MA in education from the University of Minnesota in 1950.[4][1][5]
After her graduation from Chulalongkorn University, she entered public service. She later became a teacher of literature and then an educational administrator in the Ministry of Education. After completing her master's degree which had been funded by a scholarship, she returned to Thailand. She retired from public service in 1970; around the same time, she married a doctor. Boonlua also began writing, producing five novels.[6][1] She published a number of essays on Thai literature and is thought to have established the basis for modern Thai literary criticism.[7] Some of Boonlua's work has been translated into English and incorporated into a number of comparative studies of contemporary Southeast Asian writing. She also translated English stories into Thai and Thai literature into English.[8]
In 1968, she was tasked with founding the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Sanam Chandra Palace Campus of Silpakorn University.[7]
Her sister M.L. Buppha Kunchon Nimmanhemin, also a novelist, wrote under the name Dō̜kmai Sot.[9]
Awards and honours
editBoonlua has been given the following honours:
- Commander (Third Class) of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant
- Commander (Third Class) of the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand
- Companion (Third Class) of the Most Illustrious Order of Chula Chom Klao[8]
Selected works
editNotes
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c "Historical Background". M.L. Boonlua. Silpakorn University. Archived from the original on 2019-10-17. Retrieved 2017-05-14.
- ^ Kepner, Susan Fulop (1996). The Lioness in Bloom: Modern Thai Fiction about Women. p. 8. ISBN 0520915410.
- ^ "Celebration of anniversaries in 2012". UNESCO.
- ^ a b Miller, Jane Eldridge (2001). Who's who in Contemporary Women's Writing. pp. 42–43. ISBN 0415159806.
- ^ Kepner, Susan Fulop (2013). A Civilized Woman: M.L. Boonlua Debyasuvarn and the Thai Twentieth Century. ISBN 978-1630418182.
- ^ "Intimate view of an extraordinary life". Bangkok Post. April 11, 2013.
- ^ a b Fry, Gerald W; Nieminen, Gayla S; Smith, Harold E (2013). Historical Dictionary of Thailand. pp. 64–65. ISBN 978-0810875258.
- ^ a b c "Her Works". M.L. Boonlua. Silpakorn University. Archived from the original on 2019-10-03. Retrieved 2017-05-14.
- ^ Fry, Gerald W; Nieminen, Gayla S; Smith, Harold E (2013). Historical Dictionary of Thailand. p. 138. ISBN 978-0810875258.