"Par-r-pie-money"—this is a close transliteration into English.
To begin, I had not heard of this saga before I saw this statue in Rayong, however, after I enquired as to the nature of the statue I quickly learnt that every Thai citizen knew the story in one form or another, and that images from the epic are to be found throughout Thailand.
This story was composed by the famous Thai poet, scholar, and court official Phra Sunthorn Vohara, popularly known as Sunthorn Phu (1786–1855), whose family came from Rayong. He wrote a sizeable body of work depicting various aspects of Thai life and culture. In 1986, the 200th anniversary of his birth, the poet was declared by UNESCO to be a world poet. His greatest work, and one popular in Thailand, is The Phra Apaimanee Saga.
In short, this 30,000 line saga describes the adventures of two young-adult aged brothers, as they deal with the vicissitudes of life in ancient Thailand. I have read that the brothers are 'Byronic', and 'romantic' characters. The saga was partly composed behind prison bars, and took on the order of two decades to complete, but apparently, there is no real ending. The story is left open.
The story in summary: The two brothers are despatched by their father, the king, to gain a liberal arts education, however, they do not. One learns the flute, a magic flute which can put people into a deep sleep, the second cudgel (or sword) fighting. There father is displeased and turns to the two boys out into the world to fend for themselves.
The saga concentrates on one son, Aphai. He becomes romantically involved with four mythical women, and has several sons. He meets a family of mermaids, a hermit, a magic island, rescues a princess (a beautiful princess, of course), becomes a monk, meets four revered wise men, becomes a king, fights a war with nine armies, is loved and then betrayed by his wife.
Themes: an appreciation of science, technology, and learning are threads which run through the saga. There is also the wide range of adventures and experiences told, a comparison with Odysseus comes to mind. Similarly, the saga reveals aspects of contemporary Thai life, reminiscent of 'The Canterbury Tales'. Yet any description of this story run into several problems.
First, as far as I can determine, there is no definitive translation into English. Second, the story (naturally enough) relies on an understanding of the Thai cultural background. Lastly, the length, it is a sizeable work (in comparison Homer's 'Iliad' runs to ~15,700 lines). It is not an easy task for a non-Thai to grasp this work.
With this being said, while the popularity of the saga is limited to Thai nationals, it does deal with the human condition, finding one's place in the world, trying to do the right thing, failing and trying again, families, fathers and wives, and sons. I have also noticed that different Thai people enjoy and recount different stories from the entire epic. Parts of the epic have been adapted into stories for children.
* my earlier waymark "The Golden Mermaid" (WM7WVQ), in Songkhla province in southern Thailand, is based upon this epic.
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The best English translation and explanation I could find:
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