Kosa Pan Totally Explained

Everything about Kosa Pan totally explained

Kosa Pan, also Ok-Phra Visut Sunthorn, was a Siamese diplomat and minister who led the Second Siamese Embassy to France sent by king Narai in 1686. He was preceded to France by the First Siamese Embassy to France, which had been composed of two Siamese ambassadors and Father Bénigne Vachet, who had left Siam for France on January 5 1684.
   Kosa Pan left for France in 1686, accompanying the return of the 1685 French embassy to Siam of Chevalier de Chaumont and François-Timoléon de Choisy on two French ships. The embassy was bringing a proposal for an eternal alliance between France and Siam and stayed in France from June 1686 to March 1687. Kosa Pan was accompanied by two other Siamese ambassadors, Ok-luang Kanlaya Ratchamaitri and Ok-khun Sisawan Wacha, and by the Jesuit Father Guy Tachard.
   Kosa Pan's embassy was met with a rapturous reception and caused a sensation in the courts and society of Europe. The mission landed at the French port of Brest before continuing its journey to Versailles, constantly surrounded by crowds of curious onlookers.
   The "exotic" clothes as well as manners of the envoys (including their kowtowing to Louis XIV during their visit to him on September 1 1686), together with a special "machine" that was used to carry King Narai's missive to the French monarch caused much comment in French high society. Kosa Pan's great interest in French maps and images was commented upon in a contemporary issue of the Mercure Galant.
   A fragmentary Siamese account of the mission compiled by Kosa Pan was re-discovered in Paris in the 1980s. The embassy's encounter with Louis XIV is depicted in numerous paintings of the period.
   The embassy of Kosa Pan was soon followed by another one, led by Ok-khun Chamnan in 1688.
   Upon his return to Siam, Kosa Pan became Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Phra klang) under the new ruler Petracha. Kosa Pan is known to have been met in Siam in 1690 by the German naturalist Engelbert Kaempfer, who described "pictures of the Royal familly of France and European maps" hanging "in the hall of his house".

Further Information

Get more info on 'Kosa Pan'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://kosa_pan.totallyexplained.com">Kosa Pan Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.