"Woman between Two Kingdoms: Dara Rasami and the 153 Wives of the King of Siam, 1886-1910"

Everyone knows of Anna Leonowens, author of “The English Governess at the Siamese Court” (1870) and protagonist of the musical "The King and I." Anna's books gave the West its first glimpse of women's lives within the palace, depicting the "royal harem" as a place where women were slaves to the king's every whim. But what Anna didn't show was that royal polygamy played a crucial role in traditional Siamese politics, cementing loyalties between the capital and the city-states at its peripheries through marriage alliances.  Outside of Thailand, few people know the story of how one political marriage – between Princess Dara Rasami and the King of Siam – shaped the borders of today's Thailand. In this talk, Leslie will discuss a woman who became a royal consort to Siam's king Chulalongkorn in 1886: Princess Dara Rasami, a daughter of the royal family of Lan Na (today’s northern Thailand). Over the course of her nearly thirty-year career as an "outsider" among other  royal consorts, the Princess served as both a hostage and diplomat for her home country, ultimately earning her place as one of the 5 highest-ranking queens of the era.