Queens of Pattani, Not Queens of Langkasuka

It was last week that I found out about the new Thai film called Queens Of Langkasuka by Nongzee, the director who crafted Nang Nak. When Tengku Ismail of Pura Tanjung Sabtu, Terengganu mentioned to me that he was invited to see some of the works of Queens of Langkasuka, I tot that's nice that someone is actually making a movie out of that history. I remember for many years Azanin Dato'Ahmad(www.azanin.net) wanted to stage Queens of Pattani but was not able for various reasons. Not many of us in Malaysia are actually aware about the history of Pattani and Langkasuka. Now that I have found out that the movie Queens of Langkasuka is actually Queens of Pattani, I am not happy at all about it, as Langkasuka was the name of Buddhist Kingdom, from the 1st to 10th Century in the Northern part of the Malay Peninsula, Kedah in the West and Pattani in the East and Pahang in the South and Chaya in the North. The kingdom became Pattani Besar mush later in the 16th Century and Pattani in the 17th Century. So if Nongzee is looking at Pattani from the history of 17th Century, it is quite wrong to call it Langkasuka as point of reference. This will certainly damaged the fact of the history. I wonder what the people of Pattani think!