Qualla: Thammasat University

Thammasat University: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit ธวัชชัย, CC BY-SA 3.0. The name comes from the Pali word Dhammasattha -- the study of law. In 1934, two years after the revolution that ended absolute monarchy in Siam, Pridi Banomyong opened a university with that name and a radical premise: education, which had been reserved for royalty, should be available to anyone who wanted it. On its first day, 7,094 people applied for admission. At the time, Chulalongkorn University was graduating 68 students a year. Thammasat University was not just a school. It was an argument about who deserved to learn.

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Image: ธวัชชัย | CC BY-SA 3.0

Thammasat University: The Revolutionary's University

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zhou Guanhuai, CC0. Pridi Banomyong was a senior statesman, former regent, and the intellectual architect of Thailand's transition from absolute monarchy to constitutional government. He founded Thammasat as the University of Law and Political Sciences, anchoring it to the sixth principle of the Peo...

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Image: Zhou Guanhuai | CC0

Thammasat University: Weapons in the Attic

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Government of Thailand, Public domain. During the Second World War, Pridi turned Thammasat into the clandestine headquarters of the Free Thai Movement, the underground resistance against the Japanese occupation. The Dome -- the campus's signature building, constructed from four former military structures -- housed Pri...

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Image: Government of Thailand | Public domain

Thammasat University: Bloody October, Twice

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter in s, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 14 October 1973, a crowd led by university students assembled at Thammasat to protest the arrest of thirteen pro-democracy activists. The protest swelled over several days before a bloody confrontation erupted at the Democracy Monument. Thailand's military leaders fled into ex...

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Image: Peter in s | CC BY-SA 3.0

Thammasat University: Two Campuses, Two Centuries

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chainwit., CC BY-SA 4.0. Today Thammasat operates across four campuses. The original Tha Phra Chan site sits in Bangkok's Phra Nakhon district, surrounded by Sanam Luang, the Grand Palace, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, and the Chao Phraya River. Graduate programs and international courses remain here...

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Image: Chainwit. | CC BY-SA 4.0

Thammasat University: A Legacy Measured in Dissent

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit E22mhs, CC BY-SA 4.0. Thammasat's alumni list reads like a registry of Thai political life: prime ministers Tanin Kraivixien, Chuan Leekpai, Samak Sundaravej, and Somchai Wongsawat; multiple governors of the Bank of Thailand; the Future Forward Party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit. Nuon Chea, th...

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Image: E22mhs | CC BY-SA 4.0