All the credit to Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Antrhopology Center (ศูนย์มานุษยวิทยาสิรินธร)!
A Seminar, "the reborn of old documents" (หนังสือเก่าชาวสยาม), was arranged at the Center (9 Jun 09) and was attended by academics, historians, librarians, and the public who share their concern about the ways to preserve old documents.
In the morning, librarians and staffs from 5 organizations gathered to discuss about ways in which the public could make use of their collections (The Thai National Archives, Chula's Rarebook collection, Siam Society, Muang Boran database, and Ton-Chabab Publishing House). It was very interesting knowing the names of documents stored in these places. To give some examples, in Chula's rarebook collection there are Somyapithan Ramakian (สมญาภิธานรามเกียรติ์), Mulbot Banpakit (มูลบทบรรพกิจ), the online full text of Mattana Patha (มัธนะพาธา), and etc. At Muang Boran Database, they store a large collection of b/w photos. These photos are architectures, temples, and lots of views of Siam when photography is still new to the Siamese. Historians should find these useful in portraying an image of Siam in the period of their interest. At the end, the panelists called for more use of these sources, which is know little in public.
After a modest lunch, the seminar continued. The topic concerned the use of old documents and how they benefit researchers. The whole excerpt will not be put here, but an interesting thing came from Ajarn Chalong Soontravanich. He called for the storage of political pamphlet, which is the periodicals from governmental organizations, army divisions, or famous temples. Statistical Year Book, for instance, could show us the big picture of Siam's socioeconomic context in the past. These are some of the examples he gave: Tesaphibanthai (เทศาภิบาลไทย), Senasuksa (เสนาศึกษา) Yuttagoad (ยุทธโกศ), Wittayajarn (วิทยาจารย์), Ekkasarn Sataranasuk (เอกสารสาธารณสุข), Khao Pad (ข่าวแพทย์), Dula Paha (ดุลพาหะ), Bot Bundit (บทบัณฑิต), Talangkarn Khana Song (แถลงการณ์คณะสงฆ์), Nangsue Wat Koh (หนังสือวัดเ กาะ). Ajarn concluded that we coould make an enormous use of these documents if they began to be collected.
After coffee break, the last seminar went to the hands of Anake Nawigamune, a milestone of Thailand's past. He told us the special thing about Vajirayan Vised (วชิรญาณวิเศษ) that has been put online by PMCS Anthropology Center.(This seminar was also an opening ceremony for the website siamrarebooks.com) All the deatils about this online version as well as the text itself can be found here.
After the seminar, we all agreed that there are so many more old documents that should be put online, in order to preserve Siamese past for many generations to come.
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