French painting of Kosa Pan, in 1686
(โกษาปาน), also
Ok-Phra Visut Sunthorn (ออกพระวิสุทธสุนทร), 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 was the brother of king Narai's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade (
Phra Khlang) Kosathipodi.
Embassy to France (1686)
Siamese embassy to
Louis XIV led by Kosa Pan in 1686, by Nicolas Larmessin
Kosa Pan presents King Narai's letter to Louis XIV at Versailles, September 1, 1686
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.
1688 Siamese revolution
Kosa Pan, sketched in France in 1686.
Upon his return to Siam, Kosa Pan became one of the strongest supporters of
Petratcha, the ruler who eliminated Narai and ousted the French, and became his Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Kosa Pan is known to have been met in Siam in 1690 by the German naturalist
Engelbert Kaempfer, who described "pictures of the Royal family of France and European maps" hanging "in the hall of his house":
In 1699, Kosa Pan and Petracha received a visit by the Jesuit Father
Guy Tachard, but the meeting remained purely formal and led to nothing.
In 1700 Kosa Pan was disgraced, had his nose cut by king Petracha, and apparently committed suicide.
See also
The embassy with Louis XIV.
