Thai Studies

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Thai Studies ( Thai ไทย ศึกษา , RTGS Thai Sueksa ; English Thai Studies ) is the scientific examination of the language, culture, literature, history and society of Thailand and some neighboring regions, including Laos . Dealing with modern Thailand also requires the inclusion of other disciplines such as ethnology , political science, sociology, geography and economics. The basis is a solid education in the Thai language.

Thai studies also include research that deals with ethnic groups of the Tai outside of today's Thailand, for example the Tai Lü in Yunnan , China or the Shan in Burma .

history

The first institution that focused on researching and disseminating Thai studies and its findings is the Siam Society ( Sayam Samakhom , "Siam Society"), founded in 1904 and under the patronage of the Thai royal family . The society has an extensive library and publishes The Journal of the Siam Society (JSS).

Prince Damrong Rajanubhab (1862–1943) devoted himself to research and description of Thai history and culture in addition to his duties as interior minister of the country. In addition, the German Oskar Frankfurter (1852–1922), who was the chief librarian of the National Library of Thailand from 1905 to 1918 , the French George Cœdès (1886–1969) and the British Horace Geoffrey Quaritch Wales (1900–1983) were among the pioneers of Thai studies.

A Thai Studies Project was founded at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok in 1975 , from which the Institute for Thai Studies emerged in 2010 . There is also a Thai Studies Program at Thammasat University . The Department of Asian Studies at Cornell University , the Center For Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Southeast Asia Institute at the Australian National University specialize in Thai studies.

Thai studies in Hamburg

At the University of Hamburg at the Asia-Africa Institute there is a department for Southeast Asian Studies with a work area specifically for Thai Studies. The beginnings of Thai studies in Hamburg go back to 1958. At the initiative of the Japanologist Oscar Benl , a teaching office for the Thai language was set up at the Chinese seminar. In the early years, the lecturer Luang Kee Kirati, who had already taught Thai under Walter Trittel in Berlin in the 1930s, played a prominent role in developing Thai studies. He was assisted by Klaus Wenk , who has a doctorate in law and primarily devoted himself to research into classical literature and Thai art.

In 1970 Klaus Wenk was appointed professor for languages ​​and cultures of the Southeast Asian mainland at the newly established department of Thailand, Burma and Indochina, which he headed for the next 22 years. Also from 1970 until his death in 1988, Klaus Rosenberg , whose focus was on Thai philology, was a professor in the department. When Rosenberg's mother died in August 1997, she stipulated in her will that her fortune was intended for a Klaus Rosenberg Foundation . The sole purpose of the foundation is to send students from the department to Thailand for study purposes or to have Thai students come to Hamburg.

Wenk's successor was the internationally renowned ethnologist and historian Barend Jan Terwiel in 1992 , who had previously taught in Canberra and Munich . Terwiel enriched the field of Thai studies by the inclusion of the cultures of the Tai peoples living outside Thailand (including Shan and Ahom). After a two-year vacancy, Thai Studies has been represented since the winter semester 2009/10 by Volker Grabowsky , who completed his habilitation in 1996 at Hamburg Thai Studies with a thesis on “Population and State in Lan Na”.

As part of the Southeast Asia Department, founded in 2005, Thai Studies, together with Austronesian and Vietnamese Studies, offers a BA course that also explicitly has a specialist profile in Thai Studies. Since the winter semester 2012/13, a unique international model course "Languages ​​and Cultures of Southeast Asia" with a specialization in Thai Studies has been offered. The cooperation with neighboring subjects at the Asia-Africa Institute opens up a multitude of cooperation and development opportunities in the subject. Teaching covers the entire breadth of the subject in language, literature, history and society. The current research focuses on the history of Thailand and Laos as well as the manuscript cultures of the Tai. Eleven doctoral students are currently writing dissertations in the fields of history, culture and linguistics.

requirements

Research projects to be carried out in Thailand usually require approval from the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT), the National Research Council of Thailand. For field research in Thai national parks or nature reserves, the approval of the Royal Forest Department (RDP), the Royal Forest Inspectorate, must also be obtained.

Researchers and Scholars of Thai Studies (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Institute of Thai Studies , Chulalongkorn University.
  2. ^ Thai Studies Program , Pridi Banomyong International College, Thammasat University.
  3. ↑ https://asianstudies.cornell.edu/thai
  4. ↑ https://seasia.wisc.edu/
  5. ↑ http://seasiainstitute.anu.edu.au/
  6. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nrct.net
  7. ↑ Royal Forest Department (in English and Thai)

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