Woman between Two Kingdoms explores the story of Dara Rasami, one of 153 wives of King Chulalongkorn of Siam during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in a kingdom near Siam called Lan Na, Dara served as both hostage and diplomat for her family and nation.

Thought of as a harem by the West, Siam's Inner Palace actually formed a nexus between the domestic and the political. Dara's role as an ethnic Other among the royal concubines assisted the Siamese in both consolidating the kingdom's territory and building a local version of Europe's hierarchy of civilizations. Dara Rasami's story provides a fresh perspective on both the sociopolitical roles played by Siamese palace women, and Siam's response to the intense imperialist pressures it faced in the late nineteenth century.

Thanks to generous funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, through The Sustainable History Monograph Pilot, the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other repositories.

About the Author

Leslie Castro-Woodhouse earned an MA in Asian studies and PhD in history from UC Berkeley. She has spoken at many international seminars and conferences, taught courses at Berkeley and the University of San Francisco, and has been published in several scholarly journals and edited volumes. She served as managing editor of the journal Asia Pacific Perspectives from 2015-2018 and continues to work as an independent scholar and editor in the San Francisco Bay area.

Reviews

Castro-Woodhouse brings to life Rasami and the other consorts who are otherwise flattened by historical accounts.

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Book Information
ISBN 9781501755507
Author Leslie Castro-Woodhouse
Format Paperback
Page Count 198
Imprint Southeast Asia Program Publications, Cornell University
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 12mm