Khun San (ขุนสรรค์)

Thai. ‘Mr. Creative’. Name of one of the eleven heroic leaders who in 1767, at the end of the Ayutthaya period, fought the invading Burmese in defence of the Bang Rajan camp in Singburi (fig.). He was skilled in shooting guns and as the leader of Meuang Sanburi (สรรค์บุรี) in Chainat, today known as Sankhaburi (สรรคบุรี), he in 1765 gathered his villagers to fight against the Burmese soldiers who had invaded Uthai Thani. However, when he and the villagers were unable to resist the Burma Army, he persuaded the villagers to gather in Bang Rajan, where they joined forces with the villagers of Sri Bua Thong (ศรีบัวทอง). One day, he had the weapons that they had seized from the Burmese in their previous victorious campaigns distributed to the villagers and together with Nai Chan Nuad Khiao (fig.), he led a circa one hundred men strong attack on the camp of the Burmese troops of Akha Bankhayih (อาคา บัญคญี), who was killed in the ensuing battle, in which also Khun San was killed. In iconography, he is usually depicted holding a rifle. 回