ROYAL SIAMESES MAPS: WAR AND TRADE IN NINETEENTH CENTURY THAILAND

In 1996, seventeen exquisite handdrawn and hand-coloured cotton maps were discovered in the Grand Palace, Bangkok. These long-lost treasures record cartographically Siamese warfare and trade during the first three reigns of the Bangkok Period (1782-1851). Large in size, and works of art in themselves, these maps overturn the conventional view of indigenous map-making in Southeast Asia. Focusing on Siam and on her immediate neighbours, the collection also includes a remarkable four-metre coastal map extending from peninsular Malaysia through China to Korea.