BUDDHISM IN THAILAND B. E. 2500. [cover title]. Field Marshal P. Pibulsonggram, Prime Minister of Thailand and other members of the Cabinet in collaboration with the Thai people have ….

BUDDHISM IN THAILAND B. E. 2500 [cover title]. Field Marshal P. Pibulsonggram, Prime Minister of Thailand and other members of the Cabinet in collaboration with the Thai people have caused this album to be published to promote and propagate Buddhism & to commemmorate the auspicious occasion of the twentyfifth buddhish century. May 12-18 BE 2500 (1957). No place or printer, 1957.

Oblong large folio (54 x 37 cm). Original brown cotton-covered boards held together with metal studs, ornamented with stitching in silk, illustrated and lettered in silver, patterned paste-downs; pp. [28, the final two blank], highly illustrated, including after colour photography, all pages separated by tissue guards, printed on strong glossy card (playing card material?); covers a little dusty and lightly rubbed, one repaired tear to the cloth of front cover, internally very good.

This is the extremely rare celebration of Siddhartha Gautama in a splendid book production, issued in Bangkok with text in Thai, English, and French. Promulgated by the Indian Emperor Ahsoka Buddhism had arrived in Thailand in the third century BCE, and developed its disctincive shape known as Theravada School. The Piprahwa relics of Buddha had been given to Rama V (the King of Siam) a couple of years after their discovery in 1898, where they still reside.

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