Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre (SAC)
“Through anthropology, humans learn about humanity, and learn to understand themselves and their fellow humans, forming the basis for mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence.”
Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn,
at the formal opening of the Centre
9 March, 1999
The Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre (SAC) is a public organization under the supervision of the Thai Ministry of Culture. Established in 1989, the Centre’s primary mission is to promote understanding among peoples through the study of human societies. SAC’s activities fall within three main program areas: documentation, research, and public education and outreach. Geographically, SAC’s program activities focus on Thailand and the Greater Mekong Sub-region, with the broad aim of fostering tolerance and cross-cultural awareness in the region through anthropological research and public education.
Local Museums Research and Development Project
One of the Centre’s flagship research projects is the Local Museums Research and Development Project. Recognizing the vital role of local museums as repositories of Thailand’s local history and culture, in 2005, SAC began the project of surveying all the museums in Thailand for inclusion in a searchable, digital database. Concurrently, SAC launched collaborative, on-site action research and development projects with three local museums: Wat Lay Hin Luang Museum in Lampang Province, The Wat Baan Don Museum of Nang Yay Shadow Puppetry in Rayong Province, and the Wat Tha Phut Museum in Nakhon Pathom Province.
These collaborative projects involved a range of research, capacity-building and knowledge-sharing activities. Capacity-building activities covered conservation methods, museum classification methods, and research and interpretation. In order to share experiences and lessons learned from the first three pilot projects in local museum management, SAC launched a series of regional museum network meetings aimed at building regional support networks among museum organizers. In addition, the Local Museums Research and Development project publishes a quarterly newsletter entitled “Moving Forward Together” (Kaaw Pay Duaykan) in order to provide yet another forum for sharing knowledge among members of the local museum community network.
Information about the Local Museums Research and Development Project can be accessed via the project website at: http://10.1.0.10/test/museumdatabase_eng/