Thailand
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Glasgow Museums has a collection of 428 objects associated with Thailand which date from between 1893 and 2001. This collection comprises 365 small ceramic gambling counters along with other items including weapons, costume, bronze Buddha figures, votives, coins, bronze containers and charms. There are also embossed bamboo and silver pipes, feather fans, a bronze gong, a cooking pot, a fine black nielloware bottle and a box for storing religious manuscripts. The earliest acquisition is six bronze coins from Laos donated in 1898 by Alexander Hood-Begg, the General Manager of Guthrie and Co, Ltd, Singapore. Two other bequests account for much of the remaining material; a bequest from James Boyd in 1929 comprising 11 bronze Buddha figures and a bequest of Mr RA Lennox in 1953 which contains objects from Thailand, Korea, Japan, Burma, Laos and England. The collection also encompasses an array of 21st century mass-produced charms and amulets purchased at markets in Bangkok. Thailand, known officially as Siam until 1939, is divided into 75 provinces and is a predominantly Buddhist country of the Theravada tradition. Despite a European presence in Thailand since the 16th century it remains the only south-east Asian nation to never have been colonized by a European country.
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