Thai traditional music is a cultural heritage dated back for centuries. There are topics on stories, skills, pedagogy, and craftmanship behind the music that contribute to the beauty and uniqueness of the music that are worth telling.  These topics are considered academic and historical knowledge that Office of Art and Culture, Chulalongkorn University deemed important and should be recorded for the next generation as part of preservation of Thai traditional music.

Thai traditional musical instruments are categorized by the nature of how the sounds are made.  These categories are plucked string instruments, bowed string instruments, percussions, and wind instruments, for instance, chakhe, saw, ranat or gong, drums, and Pi, respectively.  The smaller parts of these instruments, namely mallets, picks, reeds, tuning lead (for ranat) contribute significantly to how good the instruments can sound.  The making and maintenance of these parts of instruments require craftmanship and special skill sets that are not widely known as different music households have their own techniques, which are passed on only orally. 

As these techniques are big parts of Thai traditional music and have not been systematically documented, Thai Music Library, Chulalongkorn University, took an initiative in videotaping these nearly lost body of knowledge, skills, and techniques, and disseminate them to teachers, students, Thai traditional musicians, and other interested individuals through an online program on Facebook and YouTube, Chula Inscription: Miscellaneous Knowledge of Thai Traditional Music.

As the program is accessible online, teachers and Thai musicians in small, distant provinces are able to learn from the program.  An example of comments left on Facebook by a viewer, Kitthanate Sirisuriyasaeree, School of Architecture and Fine Art, University of Phayao, a university by Thai-Laos border, reads:

“Great appreciation to Chulalongkorn University for the knowledge on Ranat mallet wrapping.  As I am a Thai traditional music teacher in a distant province, I am able to utilize this knowledge in fixing ranat mallets for students my school, and it worked. Thank you so much. (May 24, 2022) 

Phase 1 of the program in fiscal year 2022 has seen four episodes, with a total of 33,321 views (as of July 12, 2022).  These episodes can be viewed via these following links:

Thai Music Library Contact Information:

Services provided for Chulalongkorn University community and the public without fee

Service Hours: Mondays to Fridays 8.30 am – 4:30 pm.
Tel: +662-218-3633
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Website: https://www.cuartculture.chula.ac.th/en/service/thai-music-library/