Ecos do Sião

Des premiers Portugais à Ayutthaya aux hordes de touristes de Pattaya, le symposium des NMV consacré jeudi aux relations vieilles de 500 ans entre la Thaïlande et l'Europe, a tenté d’analyser les échanges culturels et économiques entre ces deux parties du monde. Une douzaine d'intervenants, écrivains de renom, historiens et ancêtres de personnalités importantes de Thaïlande ont questionné l'apport de la culture européenne dans le développement du Siam.

Les Portugais, officiellement les premiers Européens à être entrés en contact avec les Siamois, semblent eux aussi avoir entretenu des relations étroites avec le royaume. "Des relations d'amitié uniques sans équivalent avec aucun autre pays européen", selon l'écrivain portugais Miguel Castelo-Branco, qui s’est attaché jeudi à défendre la validité des traités entre les deux pays.

***

In any event, the symposium, organised by the National Museum Volunteers and held at the National Theatre last Thursday, did an admirable job of charting the impressive historical contributions made by Europeans to Thai society and culture over the past half millennium. (...). The afternoon session saw Miguel Castelo-Branco deliver an in-depth analysis of the Portuguese-Siamese Treaty of 1820.

***

After an introduction by H.E. the Ambassador of Portugal, Dr. Jorge Torres-Pereira, Professor António Vasconcelos de Saldanha had presented the book and the author, Miguel Castelo Branco, was ready to answer some questions from the audience regarding what he underlined in his research: “It seems the diplomatic history of Siam in early Bangkok period has been written from front to back. The so called Bowring Treaty was not, after all, so decisive as it was thought, since in 1820 Portugal and Siam have negotiated a treaty in such conditions that allowed Siam to break with the sino-centric system. The Bowring Treaty was imposed by threat and resulted in an unequall treaty. The treaty with the Portuguese was discussed on the base of absolute parity.” (com vídeo das intervenções do Professor António Vasconcelos de Saldanha e MCB).