Thai studies, a branch of

Asian studies Asian studies is the term used usually in North America and Australia for what in Europe is known as Oriental studies. The field is concerned with the Asian people, their cultures, languages, history and politics. Within the Asian sphere, Asian ...

, is the multidisciplinary study of Thailand and the Thai peoples. It calls upon the academic disciplines of

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

religious studies Religious studies, also known as religiology or the study of religion, is the study of religion from a historical or scientific perspective. There is no consensus on what qualifies as ''religion'' and definition of religion, its definition is h ...

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

Thai language Thai,In or Central Thai (historically Siamese;Although "Thai" and "Central Thai" have become more common, the older term, "Siamese", is still used by linguists, especially when it is being distinguished from other Tai languages (Diller 2008:6 ...

Thai literature 300px, ''Samut Thai'', a traditional medium for recordation and transmission of Thai and other literature in mainland Southeast Asia Thai literature is the literature of the Thai people, almost exclusively written in the Thai language (althoug ...

musicology Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, ...

and the physical sciences such as geology. The first organisation to sponsor and promote Thai Studies was the

Siam Society The Siam Society Under Royal Patronage () was established in 1904 with a mission to promote knowledge of the culture, history, arts, and natural sciences of Thailand as well as those of neighbouring countries. The premises of the Society in Bangko ...

, established in 1904. The Siam Society and the affiliated Siamese Heritage Protection Trust maintain an extensive library of Thai studies materials and exhibits. The ''

Journal of the Siam Society The ''Journal of the Siam Society'' (JSS) is a scholarly journal published by the Siam Society in Bangkok since 1904. History The ''Journal of the Siam Society'' is published by Siam Society, The Siam Society Under Royal Patronage in Bangkok, Th ...

'' (''JSS'') is a

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

academic journal An academic journal (or scholarly journal or scientific journal) is a periodical publication in which Scholarly method, scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. They serve as permanent and transparent forums for the ...

Open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

copies of all issues back to 1904 is available online. The Center for Thai Studies at

Chulalongkorn University Chulalongkorn University (CU; ; , ) is a public university, public Autonomous university, autonomous research university in Bangkok, Thailand. The university was originally founded during King Chulalongkorn's reign as a school for training ro ...

is a Thai studies center. The Thailand Information Center (TIC) at Chulalongkorn's main library maintains a repository of research materials for Thai studies.

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

was the first active center for Thai studies in the United States. In 1947,

Lauriston Sharp Lauriston Sharp (March 24, 1907 – December 31, 1993) was a Goldwin Smith Professor of Anthropology and Asian Studies at Cornell University. He was the first person appointed in anthropology at the university, and he created its Southeast As ...

began the Cornell-Thailand Project, an initiative to collate baseline data in a comprehensive study of what was then a farming village on the outskirts of Bangkok, now

Tambon ''Tambon'' (, ) is a local governmental unit in Thailand. Below district (''amphoe'') and province ('' changwat''), they form the third administrative subdivision level. there were 7,255 tambons, not including the 180 ''khwaeng'' of Bangkok, whi ...

Bang Chan () in Bangkok's

Khlong Sam Wa District Khlong Sam Wa (, ) is one of the 50 districts (''khet'') of Bangkok, Thailand. It is bounded by other districts (from north clockwise): Lam Luk Ka district of Pathum Thani province, Nong Chok, Min Buri, Khan Na Yao, Bang Khen, and Sai Mai of ...

(). Outside Thailand, a group of young, active academics at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) promoted Thai studies as a research discipline in social studies. The inaugural open-access ''Thai Studies Journal'' was launched at RMIT in 2011. RMIT hosted three Thai studies conferences in 2001, 2011, and 2014.

Institutes and schools

;Academic * The Sirindhorn Thai Language Institute,

The Siam Society

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

;University
Department of Thai language

Kasetsart University Kasetsart University (; ; commonly Kaset or KU) is a public university, public research university in Bangkok, Thailand. It is the largest university in Thailand. It was Thailand's first agriculture, agricultural university and Thailand's third ...

, Thailand
Department of Thai language

Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University Suan can refer to: * Suan, Atlántico, Colombia * Sivan, East Azerbaijan, a village in Iran * Suan County, a county of North Hwanghae Province, North Korea * Suan Station, a station of the Busan Metro, South Korea * a minor Kazakh Zhuz ("h ...

, Thailand

References

{{reflist

External links

The 10th International Conference on Thai Studies

Thailand Information Center, Chulalongkorn University

thaistudies.net, An international forum for students of Thailand based at Northern Illinois University

National Thai Studies Centre
located at the College of Asia and the Pacific in the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

The International Journal of Studies in Thai Business, Society & Culture
hosted by the School of Management
RMIT University
Australia Southeast Asian studies Culture of Thailand