Illustrated manuscript of Thai poetry

An amazing illustrated manuscript of Thai poetry can be viewed online on the World Digital Library website.
This Thai folding book (samut khoi), which is being kept at the Bavarian State Library in Munich (Bayrische Staatsbibliothek), dates from the second half of the 19th century. It contains poems by an unknown author. The poems tell of the loss of a beloved woman. Not only is each poem a work of art in itself, many of them are also accompanied by illustrations of outstanding quality showing mythological figures and motifs from Thai literary works, including the Ramayana.

To view a fully digitised copy of the manuscript, please view the WDL website.

Vietnam War Museum Ho Chi Minh City – Virtual Tour

Throughout Vietnam there are museums, references, and memorials dedicated to the Vietnam War and the wars in Indochina. In the city of Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon, we probably find best and most comprehensive museum dedicated to the Vietnam War.

The organisation Vietnamitas en Madrid has created a virtual tour to the Vietnam War Museum (War Remnants Museum) for all those who can not travel to Saigon, or for travellers who had no time to see the museum during their visit to the city.

The virtual visit to the Vietnam War Museum  is composed of a collection of videos and photos to show the exterior exhibition areas, the exhibition halls and the 3 floors of the Museum of Saigon Guerra. The largest part of the museum are the exterior areas. In the grounds of the Museum are displayed machinery of war and heavy artillery that the Viet Cong captured from U.S. Army: aircraft, fighters, helicopters, tanks, bombs, anti-aircraft artillery, flamethrowers, etc.

The interior houses collections of propaganda posters, photographs and videos documenting the effects of Agent Orange, of which many are truly shocking. Also included are collections of guns, ammunition and landmines, battle scenes, gear and medals of American soldiers.

The museum stands as a reminder of the atrocities of the Vietnam War in particular, and of the inhumanity of any war.

To enter the virtual tour of the Vietnam War Museum, please visit the homepage of the Vietnamitas en Madrid organisation.