Chit Phumisak

Chit Phumisak (also spelt Jit Poumisak; จิตร ภูมิศักดิ์, ; 25 September 1930 – 5 May 1966) was a Thai Marxist historian, activist, author, philologist, poet, songwriter, and communist revolutionary.

It was as a student that Chit first became exposed to Marxism; in 1953 he was hired by the U.S. embassy to help assist William J. Gedney, an American linguist working in Thailand, to translate The Communist Manifesto into Thai (in an attempt to scare the Thai government into taking a tougher stance against communism).

His writings were anti-nationalist and progressive and were viewed as a threat to the state by the harshly anti-communist government of Sarit Thanarat.

His most influential book was Chomna Sakdina Thai, written in 1957 under the pseudonym Somsamai Sisutphan (สมสมัย ศรีศูทรพรรณ).

Other pen names used by Chit include Kawi Kanmueang (กวีการเมือง) and Kawi Si Sayam (กวี ศรีสยาม).

He has been described as the "Che Guevara of Thailand".

Born into a poor family in Prachinburi Province, eastern Thailand, he studied philology and history at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

He was arrested in 1957, branded a communist, and after six years in jail was declared not guilty by a court and set free.

In 1965, he joined the Communist Party of Thailand, headquartered in the jungles of the Phu Phan Mountains, in Sakhon Nakhon Province.

On May 5, 1966 he was shot dead by villagers near the village Nong Kung in Waritchaphum district.

His body was burned and no proper ceremony for his death occurred until 1989, when his remains were finally placed in a stupa at the nearby Wat Prasittisangwon.

There is a small dispute over his death.

Paul M. Handley, the author of The King Never Smiles, states that Chit was executed by government officials near the Phu Phan mountains shortly after he was released from jail.