For about two weeks now I've been looking for a government pamhlet published in 1940, entitled "How Thailand Lost Its Territories to France." I finally figured out how to properly type the query into the computer (in Thai) so that I got the proper search results. It was a rare document so I had to go request it in the Luang Wichit reading room and return a half hour later to find the pamphlet waiting for me.
In my extensive research experience (ahem...) I had never been given a document in such poor condition. It was no exageration to say that this thing looked like someone had recently lit it on fire. I was afraid to even pick it up. I carefully carried it to a reading table but as soon as I opened it the back page fell off. The margins slowly crumbled with every touch, and after five minutes my work space looked like I was operating a bandsaw - there were bits of discolored paper all over me and the table. In this condition the pamphlet was useless to me.
All of this raises two issues...
First, libraries and archives are supposed contain documents hundreds of years old. How is it that something only 65 years old is in such poor condition? Most parts of the Thai library are not climate-controlled and apparently they recently had a raging wildfire, but this is still quite discouraging.
Second, how is it that they would take a document that is already falling apartand give me access to it? Not only did they let me read it, they also allowed me to take it down to the copy center (where someone finally had the sense to take it away from me so it could be repaired). In France I practically had to take a retinal scan and submit to a cavity search before they would even give me the documents, and they didn't let me photocopy anything.
So...I didn't get to read the pamphlet and I didn't get to make a copy. They say they are repairing it, but who knows when it will be done or if I will ever be allowed to see it again. After two weeks of periodically searching, I'm left with nothing.
I guess its time to tell Kaddi we'll need to stay longer than ten months.
3 comments:
Doug says:
Is this the 74 page pamphlet written by the Thai Department of Publicity in 1940? The version I am familiar with is called "How Thailand Lost HER Territories to France." I have a couple of copies propping up one end of my dining room table. I'll send you one in a few days. Also, I think the New York Public Library may have a copy under call # BAC p.v.641.
Hey now...which one of us has only three years of graduate work and which one of us has almost six?
Besides, your NYC library doesn't have it in Thai. Documents are always more sensational in their native language.
Have you been able to get a copy in the meantime? Some months ago I first read of it in the New Mandala blog, and would love to read it completely to learn more on the mindset of those nationalistic times.
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