Department of Mines and a Making of the “Geology of Thailand,” 1932-1953

Abstract

A history of geology in Thai society is a subject that has not received much attention. Nevertheless, there were some available writings consist of important chronicle, organizational charts, and government organization’s activities - the former Department of Mines’ - relevant with geological knowledge, chronologically recorded. By such issues, this article therefore attempts to illustrate the knowledge of geology in Thai society from a historical perspective and methodology, by considering the relationship between the Thai government bureaucracy and the subject of geology through the operation of the Department of Mines as the Thai State’s first government organization between 1932 and 1953. The study found that the nationalist economic policies of the People's Party government after the 1932 revolution played an important role in implementation of geological knowledge to the country’s industrial development. These policies, thereby, led to the establishment of a government organization directly responsible for the production of “Geology of Thailand.” In addition, the cooperation with the United States Geological Service during the early Cold War had also led to a comprehensive geological survey of the country and the publication of important works, i.e., Geologic Reconnaissance of the Mineral Deposits of Thailand and the making of the Geological map of Thailand, with scale 1: 2,500,000. It is arguably that both works were an important milestone in the establishment of Geological knowledge in Thailand.