Royal Scribes and Written Artefacts
Writing Culture of the Thai Royal Court through the Archives of Royal Scribes
2023–2025
RFE16
In the traditional royal court of Thailand, royal scribes (Thai: alak) did not only serve as traditional copyists of literary and administrative written artefacts, but also as the royal librarians and archivists. The head office of the royal scribes at the Royal Grand Palace of Bangkok itself functioned as the Royal Manuscript Hall, in which the royal collections of literary manuscripts and archival records were stored. Thus, royal scribes have been involved both in the production and the preservation of various written artefacts of the royal court. To understand the writing culture and the archival practices of the Thai royal court, it is imperative to study also the roles of royal scribes.
This project aims to collect and analyse the available evidence on the roles of the royal scribes in record-making and record-keeping, in order to trace the archival practices of the Thai (Siamese) royal court from the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century (before 1932). The main sources of the project, therefore, cover the manuscripts and administrative records produced by the royal scribes, as well as modern typewritten and printed administrative documents related to the royal scribes from the National Archives of Thailand. These sources reveal interesting roles and responsibilities of the royal scribes, which can be employed as a key to understand the writing culture and the archival practices of the Thai royal court, for example, making drafts and archival copies of the royal charters, preserving the administrative records at the Royal Manuscript Hall, as well as producing catalogues of these records and manuscripts.
People
Project lead: Peera Panarut