When I joined the Hall-Wolters fold in the fall of 1967, there were
three other newcomers. They were not frightened neophytes like me, however.
Carl Trocki, an American, was brought up in the academic culture of the US.
Charnvit Kasetsiri, the Thai scholar I mentioned earlier, had obtained the MA
from the Occidental College in California and was being groomed for the Thai
diplomatic service. The third, Australian Barbara Watson, came with an MA in
history from the University of Hawaii. Watson’s training was seemed
somewhat problematic, however, for she had been mentored by no other than
Emmanuel Sarkisyanz. Hall and Wolters no doubt welcomed Watson as a
qualified scholar and also a refugee from another mandala. But what if she
were a Trojan horse sent by Sarkisyanz into the Hall-Wolters camp? Watson,
of course, while being faithful to her new teachers, gave us the other, positive,
side of the Sarkisyanz story. Needless to say, my PhD thesis on popular
movements in the Philippines would display an affinity with Sarkisyanz's book
on Buddhism and the Burmese revolution. Wolters, to give him his due, did not
resist the incorporation of Sarkisyanz into my work.