James Low (East India Company officer)

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James Low (4 April 1791 – 1852) was a Scottish military officer with the East India Company who was known for his writings on the Thai language and the art and culture of the Malay Peninsula.

Life and career

Low was born on 4 April 1791 at

Straits of Malacca. In 1820 he was given command of the Penang Local Corps until the corps was disbanded in 1827.[2]

Since Low had received a mathematical and philosophical education at Edinburgh College, he nurtured an interest in the study of languages. The posting to Penang offered the opportunity to acquire language skills in both

Sultan of Kedah, who had fled to Penang instead of providing the support which had been requested from him by the Raja of Ligor.[2]

Low's was the second mission to Siam, following

Province Wellesley in Penang, a post he held until 1840 when he was made Assistant Resident of Singapore. He finally retired in 1845 but returned to Edinburgh only in 1850, where he died two years later.[1][2]

Scholarship

Although Low's main responsibility as an officer of the East India Company was to settle disputes with local chiefs in the interests of the British—a task he did not always succeed in fulfilling—he was also a pioneer in the study of Thai language, literature and art by Westerners. The lack of textbooks inspired him to produce A Grammar of the Thai or Siamese Language (1828), and he published a collection of works On the Government, the Literature, and the Mythology of the Siamese (1831–36) as well as articles on Thai Buddhist art, Buddhist law, local histories and ethnic minorities of the Malay Peninsula. He also studied inscriptions and translated parts of Thai Buddhist scriptures, and the Malay historical text from Kedah, Merong Mahawangsa. Low's ability to observe and then describe in detail a variety of aspects of Thai art and culture helped to make his mission journal an interesting source for the study of everyday life and cultural practices in 19th-century Siam.[2]

Low had a strong interest in Thai art, and amassed a large collection of fine paintings and drawings from

Royal Asiatic Society in London. Although not much research has been done on Low's art collection, it is a popular source of inspiration for Thai designers.[2]

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17073. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. ^ a b c d e Igunma, Jana (3 February 2016). "Exploring Thai art: James Low". Asian and African studies blog. British Library. Retrieved 14 June 2022.  This article incorporates text by Jana Igunma/The British Library available under the CC BY 1.0 license.

Further reading

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