Siam Society etches place in Unesco memory

Siam Society etches place in Unesco memory

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE

The minute books of the Siam Society from 1904 have been inscribed on the Unesco Memory of the World Register as a record of international cooperation in research and the dissemination of knowledge in the arts and sciences.

The records of the first Siam Society’s council meeting in 1904 at The Oriental Hotel Bangkok.

They are the fourth entry on the register from Thailand. The others are the King Ramkhamhaeng Inscription (listed in 2003), documents on King Chulalongkorn's transformation of Siam (2009) and the 1,431 inscriptions of Wat Pho (2011).

The archive of minute books contains the official records of the council meetings and the general meetings of the Siam Society from 1904 to 2004 and beyond.

The books reflect the society's system, process and outcome of work, its obstacles and challenges, the personalities and organisations contributing to its success and the scope of its work in a century of great international changes and development.

They also testify to the continuous transactions and cooperation of an international and intellectual nature, among the many generations of people elected to carry out the work of the Siam Society over the long and eventful century.

The society's motto, "Knowledge gives rise to friendship", a fore-runner of the current concept of many regional and global organisations, sums up the idealism with which members launched various projects in the past and present.

The minutes show that, for more than 100 years, the knowledge promoted and generated by the society has expanded to cover diverse fields of interests, such as language and literature, law, history and archaeology, cultural expressions of ethnic groups including textiles, music, beliefs and indigenous knowledge, natural science and medicine, conservation and tourism. The friendship, through the society's networks under its various sections, has also grown in quantity and quality, as well as in diversity, in terms of nationality, age groups, and fields of interest.

"This inscription is a great honour for the Siam Society. It recognises the society's role in the country's history, and especially in international cooperation on academic and cultural topics," said Bilaibhan Sampatisiri, president of Siam Society.

The Unesco Memory of the World programme was started in 1992 to preserve these recorded treasures of humanity and mobilise resources so that future generations can enjoy legacies preserved in major libraries, archives and museums across the globe.

The register began in 1995, and now has about 400 items, including the Gutenberg Bible, Bayeux Tapestry, Magna Carta, and the film of The Wizard Of Oz.

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