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In 1995, 17 antique Siamese maps ended up learned in the Grand Palace. Ironically, the people who observed these unusual aged maps weren't even shopping for them. On a lookup for aged court textiles for an exhibition, officials stumbled on some cotton sheets with elaborate markings in a cupboard in the Princess Abhantri Paja Mansion, royal residence of a daughter of King Rama V.

The cotton sheets turned out to be antique Siamese maps. The discovery of these maps commenced a quest for their origin and function that was to previous virtually 10 a long time. The officials presented the maps to the Crown Princess who tasked Santanee Phasuk, a geography teacher at Chitralada College to embark on this mission.

In 1997, Santanee went on a royally sponsored doctorate in cartography to study on these maps at the College of Oriental and African Research, University of London.

Collectively with Professor Philip Scott, Head of the Geography Division in the very same university, Dr Santanee researched and analyzed the previous maps, which covered Burma, Thailand Indochina and China.

The outdated maps are hand drawn and hand painted on big cotton sheets with names published in Thai script. The maps consist of topography maps with the terrain features painstakingly marked, coastal maps and even a chart of a battle strategy!

The chart even records the end result of the battle and casualties. The identify of rebel leader on the chart matched that of a rebel leader while in the reign of King Rama III.

Khemen Nai Ni (Cambodia) covers renowned Angkor Wat and Tonle Sap, the lake that drains and fills in the course of the dry and rainy seasons. The positions of Angkor Wat and other temples and Tonle Sap with all its tributaries are clearly marked in detail.

The place covers the Cambodian provinces of Battambang and Siem Reap around which many wars were fought. These territories were in dispute appropriate up till the 1940s.

Of the five antique Siamese maps, Muang Jin (China) is the most fascinating. The 2x4 m piece addresses the total coastline from Thailand to southern China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, all the way to Japan and Korea, which includes the northern tip of Luzon, Philippines. The shoreline has been accurately mapped with facts of all the coastal inlets.

Muang Kwantung (Guangzhou, China) is a metropolis map of outdated Canton, displaying the Pearl River delta, location of factories and properties in the city.

Purpose of antique Siamese maps

The topography maps on border regions with Burma and Cambodia, traditional foes, had been clearly for military functions, the military routes and terrain characteristics mapped by military commanders while in campaigns to assert territorial claims or suzerainty.

Trade with China, the big investing companion then, demanded navigation charts mapped by ship captains and surveyors hugging the coast to China on a 30 -40 day round trip.

Accuracy of outdated maps - course, distance and site

Military routes and distances had been usually exact as these ended up physically traversed. Areas of terrain attributes, mountains, jungles and rivers ended up also accurate.

The scale of these antique Siamese maps was in comparison with modern day maps the directional error was one diploma, very a mapping feat provided the technologies of these days.