Noi Chaiya: A Lanna Song-Drama of Love from a Royal Court

Noi Chaiya (น้อฯยฯไชยา, Kham Mueang reading noi chai-ya), also written Noi Chai Ya or Noi Chaiya in Thai spellings such as น้อยใจยา and น้อยไชยา, is a Lanna song-drama (lakhon so): the love story of a young Chiang Mai man named Noi Chaiya and a beautiful girl named Waen Kaeo. It was written by Thao Sunthon Photchanakit, the poet of the court of Princess Dara Rasmi (พระราชชายา เจ้าดารารัศมี), who devised the plot and wrote parts of the lyrics herself. A century later the story has become a film, a television drama and a Kham Mueang (Northern Thai) song that almost everyone in Lanna can sing.

What is Noi Chaiya?

The Moradok Lanna dictionary describes Noi Chaiya as "a play that Thao Sunthon Photchanakit (Mai Bunma), poet of the royal court of Princess Dara Rasmi, composed for her following the plot she devised". It records that the story was later made into a film, a stage play, a modern Thai song and a folk song, and is still used to accompany dances at important occasions in Lanna.

Research by Krit Buranavitayawut (กฤษติ์ บูรณวิทยวุฒิ, 2018), citing Prakhong Nimmanahaeminda (ประคอง นิมมานเหมินท์, 1974), explains that Noi Chaiya is a lakhon so, a song-drama. It is similar to the lakhon rong (sung drama) of Bangkok, but the characters sing to each other in Kham Mueang, to the melodies of so (ซํอฯ, read so), the Lanna sung verse in which male and female singers answer each other to musical accompaniment. The story is a "modern novel": its characters and settings are realistic, like the people of Chiang Mai at the time. For Lanna literature and music, it was something new.

Why is he called "Noi"?

The "Noi" in the hero's name does not mean "little". It is a title for a man who was once ordained as a novice and has left the order. The dictionary explains it under nan (หนฯานฯ, read nan): a man who leaves the monkhood is called nan, and "if he leaves the novicehood, he is called noi". The Office of Arts and Culture of Chulalongkorn University gives the same explanation: noi means a man who has been a novice and has returned to lay life.

The story of Noi Chaiya

The Office of Arts and Culture of Chulalongkorn University sums it up as a story of "young love and a love triangle", with these main characters:

A love story of young Khon Mueang (Northern Thai people) like this one is bound up with the custom of aeo sao (แอ่วฯสาวฯ, read aeo sao), in which a bao (บ่าฯวฯ, read bao, an unmarried young man) visits a young woman at her home in the evening and courts her with kam u bao u sao (คำฯอู้บ่าฯวฯอู้สาวฯ, read kam u bao u sao), which the dictionary explains as "the eloquent words young men and women use to answer each other in courtship". The sung exchanges in this song-drama follow the same pattern.

Who wrote it: Thao Sunthon Photchanakit and Princess Dara Rasmi's court

The author was Thao Sunthon Photchanakit (Mai Bunma), poet of the khum (ฅุ้ม, read khum, the residence of a Northern prince or princess) of Princess Dara Rasmi. The princess devised the plot, revised some passages and wrote lyrics to fit Chiang Mai folk melodies, such as the long nan melody (ล่อฯงนาฯ, read long nan), which the dictionary describes as "the name of a so-singing melody, popular in Nan Province".

The inspiration came from the Bangkok sung dramas the princess loved, above all Sao Khruea Fa, by Prince Narathip Praphanphong, which borrows its outline from Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly (Krit Buranavitayawut, 2018, citing Prakhong Nimmanahaeminda). The Noi Chaiya song-drama turns it into a story of Khon Mueang, sung in Kham Mueang to Lanna music.

Later, Princess Athonthiphayaniphha (พระองค์เจ้าหญิงอาทรทิพยนิภา) asked for the script for her own theatre troupe, and Noi Chaiya became widely known in Bangkok (Office of Arts and Culture, Chulalongkorn University). Read more about the princess and her work for the performing arts in Princess Dara Rasmi (in Thai).

From song-drama to film and Kham Mueang song

Noi Chaiya did not stay on the stage of the princess's residence. It travelled through the new media of each era.

The Thai Film Archive has registered the film as national film heritage, because it "has value as a work that brings an important work of Lanna literature to the screen". Parts of the film it received were missing, so the archive recreated the narration and the closing music from the screenplay.

The song best known today is Noi Chai Ya, sung by Jaran Manopetch with Soontaree Vechanont, as the dictionary records: an exchange between Noi Chaiya and Waen Kaeo, played on folk-song instruments. Krit (2018) sees this album as the model for "Kham Mueang folk song", in which old folk songs are retold with Western instruments.

What Noi Chaiya tells us about the Lanna language

The fame of Noi Chaiya has kept Kham Mueang alive in the memory of several generations, because it tells the whole story in Kham Mueang, unlike the Bangkok sung dramas that inspired it. Listeners hear Northern ways of addressing people, words of courtship and Khon Mueang expressions all in one story.

The song-drama is also a fine example of old and new blended together. Its verse form and melodies come from traditional khap so (ขัปฯซํอฯ, read khap so, so singing), its staging from the sung drama of Bangkok, and its story from the modern novel. Read more about so singing in Khap So (in Thai) and about Lanna verse in Khao (in Thai).

Summary

• Noi Chaiya (also Noi Chai Ya, น้อยใจยา / น้อยไชยา) is a song-drama written by Thao Sunthon Photchanakit for Princess Dara Rasmi, following a plot she devised.
• It is a love triangle between Noi Chaiya, Waen Kaeo and Sang Nanta, a Burmese timber merchant, ending with the court finding Noi Chaiya innocent and the lovers married.
• "Noi" is a title for a man who was once a novice and has left the order.
• The sources disagree on the first performance: her 48th birthday in 1921, or her 60th birthday at Wat Suan Dok.
• It later became a 1966 film (now national film heritage) and the 1977 song by Jaran Manopetch and Soontaree Vechanont.

Look up Noi Chaiya and other words about so singing in the Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai), and read about another famous so story in Hong Hin (in Thai).

Sources

• Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai): น้อยไจยา · หนาน · ล่องน่าน · ก้องซอ
• สำนักบริหารศิลปวัฒนธรรม จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย [Office of Arts and Culture, Chulalongkorn University]. (2022). พระนิพนธ์ในพระราชชายาเจ้าดารารัศมี : น้อยไจยา [The works of Princess Dara Rasmi: Noi Chaiya] (citing สายใยรักสองแผ่นดิน and the thesis of Saisawan Khayanying). In Thai.
• กฤษติ์ บูรณวิทยวุฒิ [Krit Buranavitayawut]. (2018). น้อยใจยา/เสเลเมา: การตีความการผสมผสานวัฒนธรรมดนตรีตะวันออกและตะวันตกในบรรยากาศของแจ๊ส โดยวงดนตรี เดอะ พาเมโล ทาวน์ [Noi Chai Ya/Se Le Mao: interpreting the blend of Eastern and Western musical cultures in a jazz setting by The Pamelo Town]. Veridian E-Journal, Silpakorn University 11(3) (citing Prakhong Nimmanahaeminda, 1974). In Thai.
• หอภาพยนตร์ (องค์การมหาชน) [Thai Film Archive (Public Organization)]. น้อยไจยา (๒๕๐๙) [Noi Chaiya (1966)]. National film heritage. In Thai.
• จรวยพร สุเนตรวรกุล [Jaruayporn Sunetworakul]. พระราชชายาเจ้าดารารัศมี (พ.ศ. ๒๔๑๖–๒๔๗๖) [Princess Dara Rasmi (1873–1933)]. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Music Library, Mahidol University. In Thai.