Longtime residents not only of Bangkok, but all of Thailand have been shocked by the news of the fire in the early hours of yesterday that gutted the office building, bookshop and another shop in the Siam Society grounds and severely damaged the remaining premises.
It is not yet known for certain what caused the fire.
The Siam Society, under royal patronage, was founded in 1904, the earliest academic society of its kind in the country. Its first meeting was held in the Oriental Hotel, and early on it received royal support for its activities. Prince Damrong, the father of Thai history", was a founding members. Past presidents have included wellknown scholars like HH Prince Dhaninivat, HRH Prince Wan Waithayakon and HSH Prince Subhadradis Diskul.
At first, meetings were held in members' homes, but then in the early 1930s the society received a grant of 3 rai of land in Soi Asoke from the generous businessman AE Nana and was able to build a lecture hall, which was opened in February 1933 and still stands.
The adjacent library/office building/research centre, built in part with Danish contributions, came later and was formally opened in the presence of Their Majesties the King and Queen of Thailand, Her Majesty Queen Rambhai Barni and Denmark's King Frederick IX and Queen Ingrid on January 13, 1962. Subsequent buildings added to the compound include the northernstyle Kamthieng House, the Ayutthaya period Saengaroon House and the main Chalerm Phra Kiat Building, which now holds the muchexpanded library.
The society arranges a series of lectures and study tours both inside and outside the country and since its foundation has established its wellknown Journal of the Siam Society, which appears annually and maintains the highest standards of scholarship. It also publishes a regular Natural History Bulletin of the Siam Society and many academic works unlikely to be supported by commercial publishers, such as its most recent volume on shipwreck ceramics, by the late Roxanna Brown.
The society is run by its members through an elected council and has a fulltime staff of 14. President Athueck Asvanund has the unenviable task of overseeing the reestablishment of the society's damaged buildings and compound.
As a meeting point between East and West, the society's home has an unrivalled history and role still to perform. This is the first serious setback in its long history but one that, we all hope, will be rapidly overcome.
Michael Smithies, a book reviewer for The Nation, edited the Journal of the Siam Society for many years.