"In the absence of war, ancient Thai-Burmese conflicts are relived and revived through statue-building... The King Bayinnaung statue glowers down malevolently on the Thai border town of Mai Sai from higher ground in Tachilek, Burma just across from the river that marks the frontier. His bronze likeness also stands atop a hill at Burma?s southernmost Victoria Point, surveying Thailand?s Ranong Province across the estuary. The long-dead monarch is revered in Burma as a great warrior-king who conquered Siam. Thais, however, remember Bayinnaung as a brutal foreign invader who, on capturing Ayudhaya in 1569, looted the Siamese capital of its treasure, white elephants and many thousands of slaves. The provocative Burmese monument to the conquest of Siam is not a relic from a period of heightened tensions between the two countries. It was unveiled in 1996 as cooperation and business links between Bangkok and Rangoon were stronger than at any period since before World War II..."