King of Thonburi Royal Duties: International Culture

Abstract

The research’s objective is for analyzing the King of Thonburi royal duties in the dimension of international culture. This is qualitative research which collects the main data via the 10 pieces of royal command in writing in the King of Thonburi reign and field research on the cultural space in the Wat Kanlaya and Hiranrujee sub-districts, Thonburi district, Bangkok. The studying focuses on the King of Thonburi royal duties about the various-nation dweller’s cultures; Chinese, Mons, Laos and Portuguese. The research’s tools for collecting the datas are the international cultural recording form of the royal command in writing in the King of Thonburi reign, the recording form of field research, and the interviewing form in order to collect datas from the experts and intellectuals in communities and to collect the international cultural datas in Thonburi reigning period. The research’s result is the King of Thonburi maintained the cultures which implied the national identity and clearly revealed on the cultures of Chinese, Mons, Laos and Portuguese in the cultural celebrations, and exposed by the religious places and the culture of nations which were harmoniously blended into the Thai culture. In summary, the King of Thonburi had the royal resolution to preserve traditions, customs, arts and cultures of Thai society and his vision was to manage the various nations in Thonburi reigning era for happily living together with a main policy strategy to manipulate the socialb and cultural affairs, that is ‘the concept of equity’ between the various cultural groups in Thonburi.