Chit Phumisak

Chit Phumisak, born Somchit Phumisak on September 25, 1930, in Prachantakham, Prachinburi, Siam, was a Thai Marxist historian, activist, author, philologist, poet, songwriter, and communist revolutionary. His most influential book was "Chomna Sakdina Thai," written in 1957 under the pseudonym Somsamai Sisutphan. Other pen names used by Chit include Kawi Kanmueang and Kawi Si Sayam. He has been described as the "Che Guevara of Thailand." Born into a poor family, he studied philology and history at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. During his student years, Chit was exposed to Marxism; in 1953, he was hired by the U.S. embassy to assist William J. Gedney, an American linguist working in Thailand, to translate The Communist Manifesto into Thai. His writings, which were anti-nationalist and progressive, were viewed as a threat to the state by the anti-communist government of Sarit Thanarat. He was arrested in 1957, branded a communist, and after six years in jail was declared not guilty by a court and set free. In 1965, he joined the Communist Party of Thailand, headquartered in the jungles of the Phu Phan Mountains, in Sakhon Nakhon Province. On May 5, 1966, he was shot dead by villagers near the village Nong Kung in Waritchaphum district. His body was burned, and no proper ceremony for his death occurred until 1989, when his remains were finally placed in a stupa at the nearby Wat Prasittisangwon.