Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

wilked aka Khun Deng · 6th December 2004, 02:06 PM

Let me see if I can address your questions and comments. To clear up any confusion this is the Grand Palace Arms Room. They have a seperate museum that holds all royal weapons (climate controlled - beautifully displayed in modern exhibit cases) jewelry, coinage, awards, costumes, etc.
And this is not the National Museum or part of the National Museum system who's weapons could also use some work, though their branch in Lop Buri was well taken care of and instituting continual improvements. There are really two seperate entities at work here, an individual with a title a mile long that is in charge of all royal possesions and the government in charge of the museums. Neither consider these weapons of historical importance, that is reserved for royal weapons which even in the National museum are in another section in very nice exhibit cases.
I hope this next doesn't sound too defensive (I have been accused of being part Thai before) but the royal family has funneled most of its resources into infrastructure projects for the past 60 years and projects that would allow income growth to its subjects while the civilian government fought for power. All over the country you see trade associations, Fina Arts associations, reserviors, road projects all with little signs underneath that say "under the patronage of HRH ....) I know NO politics on the forum, but it should be mentioned that HRH Princess Sirindhron is a world renown scholar and has been the driving force behind most of the projects to capture and collate Thai history, so I can't fault them for this minor shortfall in the overall scheem of things.

JT, The Grand Palace does not have a catalogue. the National Museum (again seperate from the palace) doesn't either. The National Museum in conjjunction with the Fine Arts dept. has published a book called "Heritage of Thai Culture". I was lucky enough to find a single copy in English at the Lop Buri museum and I have made copies of the weapons section I can send you and anyone else that would like one. At the National Museum, after our request for photos and provenance on their swords, the curator Mrs. Jarunee took the initiative to start building a data base with photos and provenance. Mike Ngyuen, who has been an enormous help, is mailing her initial product to me today. I still have to figure out the data base and then translate the provenance.

Ian, I didn't get anywhere on contacts at the palace. They wanted a request in Thai to pass up to the keeper of the royal possesions just to get an appointment to give our brief and Mrs Nattapat basically told me not to hold my breath. I will however pass on your restoration inquery to Mrs Jarunee at the National museum when I send off our thank you letter.

Adni, I also noted those knives under the badeks but was unfamiliar with them. They had a yataghan type handle was all I could tell. While I'm not up on keris, the mix of styles was evident even to me. I assumed this was due to ignorance as many didn't have handles and some looked like they didn't quite fit their sheaths. As for tajong I didn't note any at the palace but the museum had some, sorry no pictures, this was a dha/darb project.

Mike has posted the first gallery from the National museum look for the post.

Thanks all for your kind words.

Khun Deng

6th December 2004, 02:06 PM	#12
wilked aka Khun Deng Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Oahu, Hawaii Posts: 166	Answers Let me see if I can address your questions and comments. To clear up any confusion this is the Grand Palace Arms Room. They have a seperate museum that holds all royal weapons (climate controlled - beautifully displayed in modern exhibit cases) jewelry, coinage, awards, costumes, etc. And this is not the National Museum or part of the National Museum system who's weapons could also use some work, though their branch in Lop Buri was well taken care of and instituting continual improvements. There are really two seperate entities at work here, an individual with a title a mile long that is in charge of all royal possesions and the government in charge of the museums. Neither consider these weapons of historical importance, that is reserved for royal weapons which even in the National museum are in another section in very nice exhibit cases. I hope this next doesn't sound too defensive (I have been accused of being part Thai before) but the royal family has funneled most of its resources into infrastructure projects for the past 60 years and projects that would allow income growth to its subjects while the civilian government fought for power. All over the country you see trade associations, Fina Arts associations, reserviors, road projects all with little signs underneath that say "under the patronage of HRH ....) I know NO politics on the forum, but it should be mentioned that HRH Princess Sirindhron is a world renown scholar and has been the driving force behind most of the projects to capture and collate Thai history, so I can't fault them for this minor shortfall in the overall scheem of things. JT, The Grand Palace does not have a catalogue. the National Museum (again seperate from the palace) doesn't either. The National Museum in conjjunction with the Fine Arts dept. has published a book called "Heritage of Thai Culture". I was lucky enough to find a single copy in English at the Lop Buri museum and I have made copies of the weapons section I can send you and anyone else that would like one. At the National Museum, after our request for photos and provenance on their swords, the curator Mrs. Jarunee took the initiative to start building a data base with photos and provenance. Mike Ngyuen, who has been an enormous help, is mailing her initial product to me today. I still have to figure out the data base and then translate the provenance. Ian, I didn't get anywhere on contacts at the palace. They wanted a request in Thai to pass up to the keeper of the royal possesions just to get an appointment to give our brief and Mrs Nattapat basically told me not to hold my breath. I will however pass on your restoration inquery to Mrs Jarunee at the National museum when I send off our thank you letter. Adni, I also noted those knives under the badeks but was unfamiliar with them. They had a yataghan type handle was all I could tell. While I'm not up on keris, the mix of styles was evident even to me. I assumed this was due to ignorance as many didn't have handles and some looked like they didn't quite fit their sheaths. As for tajong I didn't note any at the palace but the museum had some, sorry no pictures, this was a dha/darb project. Mike has posted the first gallery from the National museum look for the post. Thanks all for your kind words. Khun Deng