Page 67 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE VOL13

should be so complicated.And perhaps the sea is the only place where depth meetswidth. In its vastness, I feel as if I have entered a sacred temple, like a sinner come to seek redemption.In fact, it was no coincidence that I came to the Andaman Sea a few days after the coup.3The Andaman Sea is located in Southeast Asia and is part of the Indian Ocean. It is bordered by the islands of the same name to the west, the Irrawaddy Delta to the north, the shoreline between Burma and the Malay Peninsula to the east, and the Malacca Strait to the south.Anyone looking at a topographic map of the sea will see that the floor isn’t level. Stretching from north to south not too far off the eastern shore is a line of big and small chasms. Each of these ocean trenches measures more than a hundred kilometres and is as deep as hell.To be more precise, the average depth of the sea is about 1km. The deepest part, measuring 4km, is near the Nicobar Archipelago and stretches towards Phuket. This depth is double the height of the Phu Hin Rong Kla mountains.As for area, the body of water covers over 600,000km2, bigger than Thailand itself. The volume of the water is about 600,000km3 , making the Andaman a formidable sea.Often when I’m on a long-tail boat with Chang Si and Ta Moh Tao, I imagine deep under the water that an ancient and extinct species of shark may still exist. A Carcharodon megalodon, the ancestor of white sharks, with a length of over 13m, a mouth of over 2m and teeth 6 inches long, isn’t too big for a depth of 4km.Yes, the more I think about it, I can imagine many more creatures in the water.The sea not only has an interesting topography but also holds a long human history. Countless eras of people lived on the water.Again, very often...When I look at the sea, I envision Polynesian canoes tossing on the waves. A thousand years ago they were searching for homes and island shelters in the Indian and Pacific oceans. They became ancestors of the regions’ inhabitants from the Hawaiians to Thai fishermen.And if we look at a spot on the timeline closer to the present, we can see Captain Francis Light’s four-mast sailing ship on the horizon. He became an agent selling armour to the royal Siamese government in the beginning of the Rattanakosin era, and later used his thoroughknowledge of the Andaman Sea to bring Penang under British colonial rule.In the time of King Rama III, a Chinese labourer arrived in Ranong from the Malay Peninsula. He made a deal to collect profits from Ranong and deliver them to the royal Siamese government in Bangkok in exchange for a political position. The government agreed to the deal, and the Chinese immigrant coolie Kho Su Chiang was transformed into Phraya Rattanasetthi, forefather of the famous Na Ranong family.In my imagination, I can see his Chinese junk floating somewhere around here.In fact, I don’t know how long the Andaman Sea has been watching over human history in the region, and with what emotions. Perhaps she feels indifferent, perhaps sympathetic. She might feel stoic or even contemptuous as she watches everything and everyone come and go.An ultimate truth: no one knows, under an area of 600,000km2 and depth of 4km, how many shipwrecks, treasure troves and dead bodies lie...Not to mention how many tears were shed into the sea.To be continued in the next issueRead the online version of this article by scanning the QR codeAbout the AuthorSeksan Prasertkul was born in 1949 in the eastern part of Thailand. He received a PhD in political science from Cornell University, USA, and apart from writing, he has served as a lecturer at Thammasat University, Bangkok, during the past 20 years. Seksan rose to prominence in Thailand as both a writer and public figure, and his literary works are considered unique because of their consistency, original style and inspiring thoughts drawn from his direct experiences.Seksan Prasertkul was honoured as a Thai National Artist in the field of literature in 2009.Elite+ 65