Revered Thai Traditional Musician Archive to Preserve Thai Musical Heritage

            Thai Music Library, Chulalongkorn University is one in very few libraries of its kind in Thailand.  Founded as a result of the university’s efforts to preserve the Thai culture, the library is the first digitalized music library in high education institutions in the country.  A project to record Thai traditional music repertoire and its information was implemented in 1986, and still ongoing presently.  To date, the library database holds information on over 10,000 pieces of music.

             The library’s main service offered to students, researchers, and the public, is retrieving digital information in forms of audio and video files as well as rare books.  The library also has an exhibition hall and a museum to display rotating exhibitions and important Thai musical instruments respectively.

            In 2018 an archive project was initiated under the name ‘100 Musicians, 100 Years Chula’ as part of the university’s centennial celebration and made available for public access.  The project is very beneficial to the Thai traditional music circle and those who are interested in that it provides an extensive resource on revered musicians in all dimensions, which had never been done before.    Consecutively, in the year 2019, Thai Music Library continued its effort to expand its Thai musician archive under another project, ‘Chula Memoir of Musicians,’ with addition of more musicians to the first archive.  The project collects biography, body of knowledge, and their performances through video interviews and other forms with collaboration of Fine Art Department, Thai Music Unit of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Police Department, Government Public Relations Department, and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.  The order of the interview is organized according to the age of the revered musicians on the list.  Currently interviews of 30 musicians and singers have been added to the archive. 

            The purpose of archiving is a response to the main mission of Thai Music Library, that is to preserve and promote continuation of Thailand’s musical heritage, disseminate body of knowledge and develop works in Thai traditional music.  The library strives to promote appreciation of Thai traditional music in younger generation as it is an important heritage of the country and the world.