History Museum visited by delegation of Kingdom of Thailand

Today, Kazan Federal University hosted a delegation from the Kingdom of Thailand. The event took place as part of the Russia-ASEAN Summit. The delegation was led by the Prime Minister’s spouse, Mrs. Thananon Charnvirakul. A tour of the Kazan University History Museum, the Emperor Ballroom, and the Lenin Memorial Classroom was organized.

Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan, Leila Fazleeva, also visited the university. The guests were accompanied by KFU President Riyaz Minzaripov and Vice-Rector for International Affairs Timirkhan Alishev.

The visit began with a tour led by Andrey Afanasyev, Director of the Lobachevsky Museum. The first stop was the Kazan University History Museum. The delegates learned about the stages of the university’s development since its founding in 1804 and the outstanding individuals who worked here and contributed to global science.

As Elmira Amerkhanova, Deputy Director for Research at the Lobachevsky Scientific Library, told the Kazan Federal University press service, the delegation inspected unique items related to Southeast Asia, including Thailand. Among other items, a 16th-century Mercator Atlas was on display, as well as the Tripitaka, a collection of sacred Buddhist texts presented by King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) of Thailand to the Russian Emperor Nicholas II in 1896 on the occasion of his coronation (one of the twenty copies was then donated to Kazan University). Guests were also shown publications related to the history of the Buddhist tradition, including that in Russia, and a mid-18th-century atlas with a more precise display of geographic coordinates, including for all of Southeast Asia.

The delegation then proceeded to the Emperor Ballroom and the Memorial Classroom. In memory of her visit, the guest left a note in the Guest Book of the Kazan University History Museum.