The stories behind Chulalongkorn’s graduation photos

Résumé détaillé

For many people, Devalai is the backdrop to a Chulalongkorn University graduation photo. Some students know one of its two buildings by a more familiar name. They call the Maha Va…

For many people, Devalai is the backdrop to a Chulalongkorn University graduation photo. Some students know one of its two buildings by a more familiar name. They call the Maha Vajiravudh Building “Tuek Wat”, or “temple building”, a nickname likely inspired by its traditional Thai architecture.

For a few more days, visitors can step inside and see what former students remember about the place. Times within Devalai, a free exhibition organised by the university’s Faculty of Arts, runs until Sunday, 15 November. A projection mapping installation in the lobby has been extended to the final day, giving visitors a chance to see the building after dark before it closes for about two and a half years of restoration.

Built in the late 1950s, the Maha Vajiravudh Building combines traditional Thai architectural details with modern design. It stands next to the Maha Chulalongkorn Building, and the two are known collectively as Devalai. The Maha Vajiravudh Building has housed classrooms, the university’s Central Library and the Faculty of Arts Library.

The exhibition fills all three floors with more than 1,000 items, including photographs, rare books and personal belongings. More than 100 people contributed memories, spanning generations of Arts students from the faculty’s first graduating class to Class 94.

A copy of a degree certificate from that first class is on display alongside lecture notebooks from different decades. A photograph of boxes of face masks used by students recalls a more recent chapter in campus life, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition also revisits the university’s 1995 graduation ceremony, when Queen Sirikit, the Queen Mother, presented degrees on her own. King Bhumibol Adulyadej usually presided over the ceremony and handed out the certificates.

“The same place can mean different things to different people,” said Nakrob Moonmanas and Paspawisa Jewpattanagul of the curatorial team. “Some remember Devalai as a classroom.

Original plans and archival…

On…

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