The best preserved mural illustrates the local folk story of Sang Thong, (Suvannasangkha Jataka). The celebrated Jataka of the prince of the golden conch has no connection with the canonical Jatakas which mention a conch; but exists in many versions, one of them written by King Rama II:
A queen gives birth to a shell (Sangkha, pronounced Sang). The king has many wives. The rivalries between co-wives are the spark and fire of many plots in asian folktales. The powers and influence of providing a king with an heir are a great temptation to undermine any rivals. When the king’s new wife mysteriously gives birth to a conch shell, the older wife sees an opportunity to undermine her. She convinces the king that giving birth to a conch shell is inauspicious, it is bad luck for the king and the kingdom. When news of this spreads to the world it will destroy his reputation as a leader with good luck. The king must rid himself of her for the good of all concerned.
Banished from the kingdom Sang Thong’s mother finds shelter with a hermit. She tends the shell as though it were a child and soon discovers that there is in reality a living child within it. Still in jeopardy, the child is eventually given to a female yakshini (ogre); she brings the child up as a mother, all the while doing her best to hide from him the fact that she eats human flesh. One day while his ogre mother left the city in search of forest animals to eat, Phra Sang sneaked out of the palace to play outside. To his surprise, he saw a big heap of human bones left by this foster-mother. Horrified, he proceeded to the castle and saw a silver and gold pond which was full of pure silver and liquid gold. He also saw a pair of golden shoes, and a mask of Ngor (an aboriginal race found in the jungles of Malaysia and southern Thailand) and a double-edged knife with a handle made of glass. The mask will disguise his beauty, provoking others to behave in ways that are more revealing of their true feelings and intentions.
Sang Thong appears several times showing different parts of the narrative. His “mother” is pictured in the lower right corner with other ogres. Click on image for larger view
Children’s elementary school reader featuring the story of Sang Thong.
In Asia, there is a group of folktales that shares the same narrative motif, namely, “the transformation of man to snail.” The motif is one where the protagonists hide in a shell, such as a snail or a conch, as they seek protection or camouflage while in danger or experiencing misfortune.
It is inevitable that tales with “transformation of snail to man” and “transformation of man to snail” motifs contain elements of supernatural belief’ the story of transformation is in itself supernatural.
In Sang Thong, the name of the hero signifies “the golden conch”, but the conch shell in this tale has nothing to do with gold. The word “gold” is added only because the hero bathes himself in a pond of gold later in the story. Sang Thong is a tale of inner virtue as the hero’s appearance causes him to be banished from the kingdom. The King only perceives the bizarre appearance of his son so he refuses to look closer and see the potential of his new-born son.*
The motif is doubled when Sang Thong finds and wears a Ngor mask that disguises his beauty.
Paraphrase of text:
*An Analysis of the Prominent Cultural Values of Asian People through Similar Folktales by Onusa Suwanpratest, published in International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 6, No. 11, November 2016