Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia, Thailand

The Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia (RILCA) is based at the Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand. Its mission involves the following aims:

Researching and developing language and culture for ethnic minority groups.
Providing language, culture and ethnic studies.
Providing academic services, including Master’s and Doctoral degree programmes for the support of the languages and cultures of ethnic minority groups in Thailand and beyond.
Developing and preserving the languages and cultures of ethnic minority groups in Thailand and beyond.
Administration leading to excellence.

The objective of Museums Studies, one of the six Majors under the Cultural Studies Programme, is to create human resource development in museum management for the various fields of museum tasks and academic activities. The RILCA Cultural Anthropology Museum was founded in 1990 with the following purposes:

To be a learning center for research works in Southeast Asian studies, including Linguistics and Cultural Studies.
To provide an on-campus practicum site for students, researchers and others.
To collect art objects, crafts and ethnic textiles both from field works and donations.
To provide museum services, including exhibition design, research and development, education programs, collection and conservation practicum site.

Permanent collections include art objects, crafts and ethnic textiles, both from field works and donations.