An Expansion Of Plakat Thai

To study an expansion of Plakat Thai is to answer two importance questions. First, what is the relationship between human and the fighter? The study shows that fighting fish is a cultural being and developing along with Thai society, more general South East Asia society. Second, what will be the future of fighting fish society?  Fighting fish is slowly wide spread to other countries accompany by men. Technology make men fly from one country to another country just a few hours, so fighting fish is no more keep itself in one region. However, I will limit my scoop of discussion only in Thai society that I am living in.

Fighting fish is involved in many parts of Thai social life as Westerner visitors already observed (Dr. Theodore Cantor, 1840 and later Dr. Smith, 1923). But in fact it is concerned in Thais life more than Westerner ever noticed.  In the Ayuthaya war time era, fighting fish was used as warfare strategy that Thai soldier introduced it to lead astray Burmese soldier no tension to war. (I get this datum from one booklet, though I did not see the real manuscript yet. This is what I am searching).

Fighting fish and human develop theirs’ relationship from independent external being to the internal thought relationship. We can see this internal relationship in the very old social-political expression metaphoric language. Metaphor symbolic language is representing the cultural thinking. These metaphor symbolic terms derived from observation on the fighting fish behavior that human involving and apply to the symbolic thought then to language that using in everyday life activity.

• “Gor Wot” (ก่อหวอด) means “bubbling” or the gathering of bubbles growing slowly and silently. It refers to the political instigated in the negative sense of the term that instigate of the opposition of government. Now it is using wider sense of the term to any social sectors, a purposively growing of the member in the group to do an action towards something.
• “Tod Si” (ถอดสี) means color faded or pale, taking from a fighter runaway from fighting and its color is faded, or a faded face when a person feel frighten in the submissive manner.
• “Luk Lai” (ลูกไล่) means coward fighter, when training the fighter we let the fighter chasing many coward fighters (Luk Lai). Luk Lai would run around until the fighter stop chasing. Apply to a weaker or a subordinated person or servant that no chance to fight against master. In the present application on fighting fish training, “Luk Lai” means small female that fighter chasing. However, this term not extend its meaning to the human action that female is a “Luk Lai” of male or husband to wife.
• “Lao” (เหล่า) means group, clan, family, bloodlines, which derive from the same source or parents. So in one family it has many things in similar or generality. For example, Mr. Precha comes from the hard working family (Lao), so he works like a worker ant. This seems presupposition on human habit and may mislead to that person. Also in fighting fish, one fighting fish can represent to the whole family. “Lao” also implement to covers the phenotype and genotype of the fighter bloodlines. Many fighters in one family may have same or difference colors or difference structures from its parents but the fighting habit would be the same or similar. This concept plays a very significance role in selection of the fighter parents. The breeder would find the parents stock both attack tail, when he want to reproduce the fighter for tail hitter.   

Dr. Smith described Fighting fish is a Thai “national sport” and already is a domesticated and cultivated fighter more than 90 years (he described this in the year 1923. May be he read Cantor work). Taking Dr. Smith, fighting fish is presenting in Thai society at least before 1833. (We will see in the below discussion on interview “uncle Peng”, that fighting fish at that time already a captive and cultivated fighter or in short Thai breeder already develop fighting fish to be a sophisticated and complicated fighter already 200 years ago. This fact, against my previous hypothesis that Thai breeder just develop captive fighter only a hundred years ago.    

The complexity of the game is reflecting the player’s society type. The player in Bangkok much more complicated than the player in Northeast of Thailand, Betta smaragdina. Fighting fish game also developed along the change of society and people who play this game. Whatsoever,  fighting fish no matter playing in Bangkok or remote provinces the game still simple compared to the racing horse or fighting cock.

Fighting fish is developed by Thai farmer in his routine growing crop in the rice field. The farmer so-called peasant is living in the nature more than in the city or town. By peasant society I mean to the widest scope.  

• Non-mechanized agriculture
• Small scale of production.
• Often isolated from the mainstream
• Worldview conservative

Non-mechanized agriculture: Thais breeders still use family labor to build the tank, get up early (3 a.m.) to find the life food for the new hatches fighters. The breeding method is still in the very traditional way same as has been practiced hundreds years ago. Some of them may try to apply a few chemical product and artificial feed advocated by scientist from Fisheries Department, but they all back to their traditional technique. The breeders are slowly developing theirs own breeding and keeping theirs’ technique private and unique. The numbers of fighters are limited by number of labor in the family. They know that they can not rely or hire other people to breed the best quality fighter. Few of them has been get bad experienced in using advance chemical and hire people. They are all back to the past and push theirs fighters to the future. All fighting fish both game bred and long fin show case in Aquabid are the production of the simple breeding technique.

Small scale production: When compared to other aquarium fishes such as gold fish, Koi, and platy group. But fighting fish is one of a most famous crafted from the farmer.  Some breeders even limit the number of his best fighter by keep only 200 out of 800 fries he can bred. Since each breeder has private technique of rearing the fighter. All agree that one can not breed the best fighter by large quantity and handle too many families at one time. This made the fighter of each breeder unique, some player even can distinguished fighter one breeder from other breeder fighter by its uniqueness.  On the other hand, fighting fish can not reproduce the same quality in the large scale quantity. Each batch though the same parents has it own variety and uniqueness.

Isolated from the mainstream: Fighting fish breeders mostly are self sufficient economy attitude. They do not refuse the new technology and new economic trend. They are listening with full interest. But in the everyday real life they are still living in the very simple and humble house. One can see a full set of computer and other electronic staff placing on the open air space that nobody pays attention much and they are easy to take away. But they will keep their fighters in the special locker room neat and clean. These people still prefer to smoke raw tobacco from the hand made cigarette etc. They prefer to drive mini truck and dress old and very cheap cloth but living in 10 hectare worth a million dollar. Even the player which seems closed to technology society and took degree from University; very few of them know how to use computer and networking.

Worldview conservative: They like to talk their childhood day. They do not worry much on what the direction the world is changing. In my fighting fish group they know how good computer and internet is, but very few interesting to use it. They believe that breeding fighter in the traditional way bear the most productive and most effective result. Breeding fighter is still keeping private and verbalized only among the close friend and relative. In short, fighting fish today and hundred years ago can preserve itself on its traditional way. The change is presented only outside but spirit still the same.

The peasant community pattern makes the fighting fish people unique and safeguard them from the digital trend. It can assimilate between what they had with the new form of digital society and cope themselves to be solid and strong enough that they do not feel suffering or alienated to the new trend. They preserve what they have and slowly select what available from outside to suited themselves. They are selector not the selected. A social move on like a snail’s pace at least slow down the global change in community.

This article tells the story of an expansion of fighting fish. Fighting fish is actually a pool of wealth for keeping the treasure of Asian culture heritage. It is a living people dynamic history not a history of State.

86 years old man players told me that in the past or twenty years ago (2008) fighting fish very active in summer to rainy season and slow down in winter. The players simply play the game according to its natural habit, winter is a time for fighting fish take rest, female can not wandering on the cold water to find the male and in fact male can not build the nest in the almost dry mud. Fighting fish is in the weakest state. In this situation to be survived is even hardest. However the captive bred fighter still continue developed along with the usage of human society. The fighting fish is purposive bred creature, in which it is already setup the goal in advance by the breeder. The reputable breeder is trying to achieve the goal, that is to produce the tough fighter to serve a very high demand market to an entire year. Fighting fish is now twelve month full function active.

For me fighting fish involving to human action as a game is, truly human/animal close relationship.  There are three forms of human/animal relationships.

First, subject/object relation: Human treat animal as food this is the primitive relationship developing from hunting to farming.  In this relationship human view animal purely object that human act towards animal in one way relation.

Second, friendly relationship: this human/animal relationship is rather dramatic, that human realized an existence of animal and welcome on co-living with that animal as a friend. Human place animal full functioning in society, animal as an existing member in the society such as cat, dog or may involving in economical production such as buffalo and cow as a farming labor. As a master human breed animal according to theirs’ purpose, that they may improve its physical size or even lame them such as gold fish. For me this relationship is only semi-two way relationship. The development of an animal is only under human context not an animal potential context.

Third, co-working relationship: human/animal relationship is using animal as entertainment, sport or even working side by side with human such as racing horse, working dog and here is fighting fish. This relationship is rather complex and requires human involving very close co-operation with animal. Human must know what can be done and what should not. Because they are working together, this relationship can happen only when both feel appreciate to each other. An objective of development is try to promote and improve more and more on body and mind of an animal into a highest potential degree. From the pale grayish red and shy habit in the wild, Betta is developed to deep color with display full muscle and ready accompany with human in his every day social life. For me this relationship is more complicated and closer than the first two human/animal relation mentioned above. It is a real interactive relationship that higher than merely a house pet.

The following are the entertainment that Thai man makes use of animals for fighting, only few of them still on developing, some disappeared or lame. Not all are developed to the third kind relationship, co-worker.

• Hercules's Beetle (Xylotrupes Gideon) Northern of Thailand playing in the end of rainy season.
• Fighting chicken as old as fighting fish and very popular in every part of the country. We have popular phrases “fighting chicken, fighting fish”.
• Bull fighting very popular in southern of Thailand.
• Fighting cricket very popular 40 years ago but remain very few in the very limited group of people, now cricket become delicious eatable insect from farming product.

On the fish fighting, there were many kinds of fishes used to fight.  I have been witness myself when I was a child:

• Halfbeak or Wrestling Halfbeak (Dermogenys pusillus siamensis Fowler, 1934). Forty years ago the fighting of halfbeak fish was popular and took almost half of the fighting fish game. Last time I have seen the halfbeak fish as a fighting fish was 10 years ago. Now it is one item of export ornamental fish. However nowadays, there are very limited group of people still playing.

• Climbing perch (Anabas testudineus) I myself have been fighting this fish a few times and feel no fun. Because the size was too large when compared to the jar. It was a real cruel deadly fight. Now climbing peach is fully bred for eatable fish for both consuming in country and for export.

• BLUE PANCHAX (Aplocheilus panchax) I have not seen this fish fighting but I have often heard people talk about it when I was young.

Plakat is a most popular to selected for a game. It is lively and lovely colorful attraction, very friendly to human when take away from the tank and keeping in the bowl only a few hours. Plakat is true carnivore type, easy to feed only a necessity amount. It can also have live food and artificial feed. We can feed it with small insect such as mosquito, ant, termite and all kind of worm, shrimp meat, shell meat, pork, beef or Betta pellet also able to supply. Whereas the other three kinds of fishes live in the deep tidy water very hard to collect, have dull color, wilder and less adaptive to human, consume a lot of space and hard to breed.

Fighting fish is more than a social entertainment game. But it is a part of South East Asia cultural development in which it can briefly describe in the following:

• Fighting fish is one of basic element in Thais’ rice grower culture. The development of fighting wild fighting fish to the complex captive fighting fish goes along with the development of farmer social development.  Even today people who play the fighting fish are not the rice grower anymore. But the root of agricultural spirit is still there, keeping fighting fish is an expression of its symbol.
• Fighting fish is in fact a robe tie traditional social value to be solid Thais culture, bundle and strengthen Thai’s basic social institutes together not to flow away to the foreign cultures. It represents existing of Thais tradition in the midst of Western technology storm. Those who play fighting fish are social conservative; believe in spiritual scarce and mystic entities.  Fighting fish play a role as cumulative repeating culture and transfer to the next young generation.
• Fighting fish breeder place is acting as a local aquarium pet shop in the time of systematic full management aquarium pet shop not introduced to Thais community. When I was young I simply walk into a small community and ask people for the fighting fish breeder place and I never disappointed an answer. I have asked many men an age older than 40 years old most of them has a few experiences on fighting fish for more or less. In the present time with the help of transportation, digital technology and commercial interest fighting fish has expand from the breeder place to every market, in monthly magazine and international mail order. This means that farmer also has his influence power to play in an international affair.
• Thais and other Asian countries consider the physical fighting as an art and physical therapy, fighting is not simply an action of winning, for example Kung Fu fighting for Chinese and Kick boxing for Thais. When considered fighting Plakat as an art, the conception of design is come in. That is why Plakat Thai has difference structure form type as I have discussed in http://www.plakatthai.com/introduction.html  in which other ornamental fish has only one form type and also the fighting style is the main interested in his breeding project, http://www.plakatthai.com/kombat.html. The breeding design of the breeder come to the point of, one fighter can represent an entire batch. The breeder can achieved a uniqueness of both physical and mental design.  Fighting fish is no more the primitive entertainment game but sophisticated and complicated that both breeder and fighter involved.

The hardest part on study the historical event is the lack of primary source either direct or indirect documentation. Most of the historical documents are devoted to the Aristocratic society and the written history of farmer society seems to be nonexistence. Man tends to write his own story. At that time only high class person was educated. Fighting fish is belonging to the lowest class in the same historical society, call farmer that un-educated, can not read/write. So they can not write their own literature. We have proverb “landlord play fighting cock, slave play fighting fish”. (There are many historical script and pictures on fighting cock). The farmer has only his mouth to convey his intelligence. The only way to study fighting fish history is to study its environment and other social object that infer to it existence. The only valuable sources are verbal history that passing from one man to another man. And most of all valuable evidence sources are the fighting fish itself which is the witness of absolute invention of farmer, the production of the  fighting fish history.

The ancient Plakat Thai

An ancient long fin strain draw by Thai  aritist (1931)

Long fin fighting fish from Tropical fish book printed in 1954(Tropical fish, Lucile Quarry Mann, Sentinel Books Publishing, Inc. New York, 1954, p. 38

From the picture and my memory when I was 5 years old (45 years ago), I am sure that the body size of fighting fish at that time was bigger but the fin was shorter when compared to the long fin of this day (2008), may be that time the fin is not development fully.

The unique form of co-working relationship is that, animal is moves along with the breeders/players. The process of expansion is simply following to the social infrastructure. Cannel and boat is the most convenience route for transportation in which the players moving from one place to another place. At that time the settlements of people are on the both sides of the cannel and river.

The changing social structure to modern Thai society in the reign of King Rama V had the great impact to the fighting fish society. The construction of road and railway connecting people and fighting fish from the cannel spread to the mainland.

Earthenware pot using for training the fighter by uncle Peng

I think, that time fighting fish can be seen everywhere on the corner of the street. A group of people sits around an earthenware jar cheering, shouting playing fighting fish call for the interested to the foreign visitor. For the western foreigner I think conditioning and training the fighter to fight was complicated and hard to practice. Or may be for them using the pet to fight was hard to think of.  An impression on the fighting fish was just a first glance on its colorful beauty. Of course in that period of time the beauty aquarium fish that able to keep in such a small bowl was almost impossible but an interactive display colorful of the fighter should shock them. An amazing of this little beauty creature can go beyond an insult attitude towards local poor people. It was unavoidable for them to keep the splendid fighter for their private decorative show fish and sent some to their native country as a living jewel in the water.

Fighting fish was not domestic fish anymore. As Dr. Smith said “It does not appear to have been indigenous to any other country, but it is now to be found around the world because of its attractiveness, hardiness, and adaptability to small aquariums…which makes the fighting fish one of the most beautiful of all fresh-water fishes”.

An interview has explored me the picture of ancient Plakat Thai society.  He has collected many valuable items of Plakat Thai equipment such as the more than 100 years old square glass bottle, the tricky matching glass and many original ancient earthenware jar and also halfbeak fighting fish equipment. All these equipment are belonging to his father and he is keeping all of them for memory to his father and his pride. Interview information can lead back more than 120 years ago. That time his father was 40 years old and now he is 86 years old.

Liquor matching glass deduction lens

An age of this “Mor” should be over 120 years. The oval form is support to use swirling water training technic

So the match glass has shifted again to the visible all side round the liquor thin glass that matcher can view any side of the fighter. Still the professional player produce the deduction lens to match each other. I guess this glass using in around 1972 and faded in the years 2005, since the problem of deduction lens is not seriously solved.

The fighting fish is no more a simple game. It show the long passage of human/animal relationship cooperated to win the game. That the straight forward game is not enough for winning the game and it required more in human brain to support his fighter. It is a complicated game required a lot of tricks, systematic training the fighter etc.. It shows the the long moving from bare simple to many actions involvement.

There are two concepts should be discussed here. One is an application using glass keeping the fighter boosted the fighting fish much more popular over other pet. An attractive colorful actively show around the transparency glass amaze to many people, westerner included, I think this should encourage the breeder develop the fighter branching to the showing fin form fish. Secondly, the breeder can make use of earthenware jar and glass jar in the very fit manner. If earthenware jar means the conservative mind that he keeping the fighter at home the glass should also means the progressive thinking of the breeder that take the fighter outside home to observe, absorb to the outer world. The fighting fish can be both conservative and progressive in one hand and another hand. This adaptability should be the key success in the development of the fighting fish in the modern world where as wrestling halfbeak still using coconut shell to show of itself.

In the past, the broken big earthenware jar, in Thai term "Tum" using raising the fighter

One of the picture most impressed me is the broken big earthenware jar that lean on the wet ground under the banana tree. This can represent the vessel using to breed the fighting fish in the past. The vessel may contain water not more than 500 liters that can keep one batch of fighter not more than 100 fighters, in which considered very small compared to what the breeder using today (2,000 liters). Both wooden sheet plate and broken big earthenware jar confirmed what I have been discussed that, in the past fighting fish bred for personal use and shared among the close friend. The house surrounding is allow only one or two visitor that seems knowing the breeder private.

to be continue