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A college apart A school in Chiang Mai also boasts a museum dedicated to Rev Harris and his missionaries PRC has grown to become one of the largest schools in Chiang Mai serving over 6,000 students from kindergarten through high school since its inception in 1906. The PRC museum is located in the Harris House, the first building of the school which was damaged in a fire in 1989 and subsequently rebuilt in 1992. Rev Harris wanted children from all levels of society to receive good education, including ethnic minorities. Chiang Mai is the centre of Thailand's hill tribe population. These minority groups have their own history, culture and they speak their own language making the region one of the most unique in all of Southeast Asia. As such, getting the school going was not an easy task, says Sirin Jiracoup, the head of PRC Museum. The photo gallery is a reminder of the hard work of Christian missionaries like Rev Harris, an American, who built hospitals and schools for the betterment of the local people. Although they preached the gospel of Christ, they never tried to convert local people to their faith; their main mission was educating the masses, especially the poor and underprivileged, explained Sirin. Through education, Rev Harris taught them to be good citizens of Thailand. In his days, people in Bangkok saw Chiang Mai as a remote, underdeveloped land lacking good schools. The PRC is a fruit of his endeavour, something of which all northern people are proud of. To make the museum more visitor-friendly, Sirin said in due course every picture on display will have a caption explaining its origin and its significance to the school and province. Sirin said aside from Rev Harris' chronicled history, the gallery has stringed together photos depicting how Western values were introduced to Lanna people through religion, education, medicine and the print media. Leafing through the visitor book one can get an idea of the VIPs who have visited the school since its opening a century ago. Sirin said PRC in itself is a property of great historical and cultural interest. The architecture of the church is modern, but with a dash of Gothic elements to give it a refined look. Meanwhile Somyos Nimmahaeminda, who graduated from the school in 1968, said studying with American missionaries helped him attain proficiency in English: "When I moved to Bangkok to further my education, I realised that I had an edge over other students when it came to understanding and speaking English. When I went to America, I was also able to blend into the local culture and Christian environment. PRC's policy of accepting children from all levels of society taught me to treat everyone with respect and dignity, no matter what their financial standing." Somyos said he wants to see the PRC museum develop into a place where people can come and learn not just about the contribution of missionaries to the people of north Thailand, but also the damage caused by natural disasters that struck Chiang Mai over the past century. An audio-visual room featuring old footage of the natural calamities would be good start, he added. Somyos noted that education was just one facet of Rev Harris' contribution, more significant was his role in helping unite the Kingdom by supporting King Rama V's decree proclaiming Thai as the official language of the land. Until then Chiang Mai, capital of the former Lanna kingdom, had persisted with its own dialect. His charity work also paved the way for closer Thai-US relations. "The hard work of missionaries such as Rev Harris can be felt to this day. We in Chiang Mai have a lot to thank them for," he said and urged the museum to highlight the less-known side of Rev Harris and his missionaries' contributions. |