See the Real Things:
Short field trips and Traveling Classroom

Student's Impressions

Impact Stadium Thursday June 8, 2006

This field trip was organized by the Center for South East Asian Studies for students and faculty. Leaving Chulalongkorn at 7.30am we reached the Impact Arena before opening at 9am and spend some four hours at the exhibition.

The exhibition was organized in the two big exhibition halls with one having a series of sections on the Kings background and life including the Chakri Dynasty, the Kings childhood, marriage, coronation, and so on. The second hall was devoted to the Kings projects. Given the limited time the group focused on the first hall.

All the exhibits were very well organized and displayed allowing one both to follow a progression through the displays and move around round easily. We were also provided with three english speaking PR staff from the exhibition to explain the various parts of the exhibition.

The Exhibition was particularly interesting to a foreigner helping one to fully appreciate the lengthy background of the Chakri dynasty and then the sheer breadth of the king’s interests and achievements over the last 60 years. This could be seen on the multitude of the visits throughout the country by the King, the Kings devotion to development and helping the rural areas as well as his interests and achievements in music, painting and photography.

Although the exhibition was very crowded it was well organized so there was always a smooth flow of visitors.

All in all it was striking well organized exhibition that fittingly paid full respect to the Kings contributions. I can only hope that, as planned, it is kept on as a permanent exhibition for both Thais and for visitors as they can learn a great deal about the monarchy and Thailand on any visits in the future.

I should also add that the Centre itself organized the visit well in terms of the bus, refreshments and organization at the Exhibition.

Dr. Colin MacAndrews

IMPRESSIONS OF OUR VISIT TO THE KING'S EXHIBITION
AT MUANG THONGNG THANI

It was an early time to wake-up and meet in front of the Southeast Asian Studies office last week at 7am. I got there a little early at 6:30am and two Thai students, Aoy and Maprang, had already been waiting for a while. By around 7:30am everyone had arrived. I think there must have been more than 20 of us including teachers and staff. Dr. Sunait thought it best to leave early for the King's exhibition in order to avoid traffic. On the ride there, everyone was talking and getting to know each other. Almost everyone showed their spirit by wearing yellow. Apparently, and I may be wrong about this, the king was born on a Monday and that is the color of the day. I don't know if this is the only reason why people wear yellow to show respect for their king, but once we arrived at Muang Thong Thani arena, which is an enormous convention center, we were swallowed up by a sea of Thai people wearing t-shirts with the popular slogan "Rao Rak Nai Luang - We love the king" It was quite a spectacle as we arrived just before the event opened and thousands of people waited outside to get in. As you might imagine in Thailand, the sun was shining brightly and the heat was blazing. At this time, we managed to get a bit separated because of the crowd, however Dr. Sunait brought along some flags reading "Chula loves the king" which several of us carried so that we could find each other. We met up in the main hall of the convention center and waited for our English speaking tour guides. Inside is enormous and their were images and displays of his majesty and the royal family all over the place. Many photos were taken and exchanged as a yellow swarm of people maintained a lively atmosphere while touring the exhibition. Our tour guides soon arrived and took us along to explain the different sections of the exhibit. The exhibit focused on the noble attributes of the king and his great variety of talents. At the start of the exhibit were some wonderfully painted images of the Thai kings Rama I - IX. All of them were quite large and lifelike. We also saw some of the king's talents for engineering and some of the toys he used as replicas for the real thing. Some other highlights included some paintings the king had done. He is a gifted and creative artist. We saw a number of portraits he did of his wife Queen Sirikit which he painted in various modern and pre-modern styles. The king's love of jazz is well known and there was a section where we were able to listen to some songs he composed. This section was my personal favorite. There was also a live orchestra playing some of his music, but we didn't get the opportunity to sit through that. In addition, we got some background information on the king and his family history from the tour guides which they gave as we walked past a number of beautiful photographs. The convention center hall was so crowded that it was hard to keep our group together, but our tour guides did the best they could as they enlightened us about the king and his legacy. Dr. Sunait's "I love Chula" flags were indispensible and made is so easy for us to find each other. By the time we reached the end of the tour, the flags were the beacon we all looked for amongst the crowd. Soon after we all had lunch at the food court there before heading back to the university in the early afternoon. It was a special day and a unique opportunity to witness the king's importance and influence on the people. After 60 years of service to the kingdom, he is an icon of Thai culture and society who will be long remembered. Another 5 or more days of celebration were soon to follow which was highlighted by at least 25 monarchs from other countries coming to pay homage to Thailand's beloved king. It was good experience to witness something that will probably not soon happen again here, if ever.