On Friday, 17 January 2020, the Thammasat University Library was visited by a group of students and ajarns from The University of Malaya.
The University of Malaya (UM) is a public research university located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is also the oldest university in Malaysia and is considered the highest ranking Malaysian institution of higher education, according to several international ranking agencies.
The Thammasat University Library owns a number of books published by the University of Malaya Press. These include Chinese epigraphic materials in Malaysia, collected, annotated, and edited by Wolfgang Franke and Chen Tieh Fan; British intervention in Malaya, 1867-1877 by C. Northcote Parkinson; Communalism and the political process in Malaya by K.J. Ratnam; The development of the tin mining industry of Malaya by Yat Hoong Yip; Asian dance: voice of the millennium edited by Mohd Anis Md. Nor; Evidence-based development economics: essays in honor of Sanjaya Lall edited by Carlo Pietrobelli and Rajah Rasiah; The Golden Khersonese; studies in the historical geography of the Malay Peninsula before A.D. 1500 by Paul Wheatley; The Indianized states of Southeast Asia edited by Walter F. Vella; Malaysia: a study in direct and indirect rule by Rupert Emerson; Malaysian media studies: integrating perspectives edited by Azizah Hamzah and Amira Firdaus; Oriental silverwork: Malay and Chinese by Henry Ling Roth; The origins of Malay Nationalism by William R. Roff; and Redistribution policies for the rural poor of developing countries: towards more equitable development by Yuji Tamura.
In the TU Library collection are also publications produced by research based at The University of Malaya, such as ASAIHL: Seminar on Role of Universities in Human Resources Development, January 31-February 1966, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur : report by Seminar on Role of Universities in Human Resources Development (1966 : Kuala Lumpur)
Noted alumni
Among the many distinguished graduates of UM is Daniel Dorall, a Malaysian Australian sculptor who specialises in miniature works. He completed a Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Melbourne in 2005, having previously earned a Bachelor of Science in Architecture with honours from the University of Malaya in 2002. The TU Library owns a book, Microworlds by Marc Valli & Margherita Dessanay, featuring a chapter on Daniel Dorall.
Another UM graduate represented on the shelves of the TU Library is Shirley Geok-lin Lim, born in Malacca, Malaysia. She is an American writer of poetry, fiction, and criticism. She won a federal scholarship to the University of Malaya, where she earned a bachelor of arts degree in English. She later received a Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States of the America.
The TU Library has several books edited or coedited by Shirley Geok-lin Lim, such as Approaches to teaching Kingston’s The Woman Warrior; Asian-American literature: an anthology; Transnational Asia Pacific: gender, culture, and the public sphere; and Writing Singapore: an historical anthology of Singapore literature. In addition, Becoming Americans: four centuries of immigrant writing edited by Ilan Stavans, shelved in the General Stacks of the Pridi Banomyong Library, Tha Prachan campus, features a chapter by Shirley Geok-lin Lim.
Yet another distinguished alumnus is Edwin Thumboo, a Singaporean poet and academic who is regarded as one of the pioneers of English literature in Singapore. Thumboo graduated in English from the University of Malaya in 1956. Last November, he celebrated his 86th birthday. The TU Library owns books edited by Edwin Thumboo, including Cultures in ASEAN and the 21st century; Literature and liberation: five essays from Southeast Asia; The Poetry of Singapore; and Seven poets, Singapore and Malaysia.
Campus attractions
Among the leading features of the University of Malaya campus is Rimba Ilmu or forest of knowledge, a tropical botanical garden established 45 years ago by Professor W.R. Stanton, at the time Professor and Head of the Department of Botany. At the ceremonial opening of the Rimba Ilmu in August 1974, he stated:
I suggest the golden age of botany is now and not in the 18th century, or some earlier era…we are beginning to find the raison d’etre for the great diversity of plant forms from the lowly algae and liverworts to the most stately trees of our tropical rainforest. The primary object of our new garden has been to provide the stage on which we may continue to act out the drama of Malaya’s plant life for the benefit of the community.
TU students may obtain writings by Professor W. R. Stanton through the TU Library Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Service. They include
Waste recovery by microorganisms: selected papers for the UNESCO/ICRO work study held at the University of Malaya; Survey of agricultural and agro-industrial residues in selected countries in Africa: report; Sago : the equatorial swamp as a natural resource ; proceedings of the 2. International Sago Symposium, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Sept., 15-17, 1979; Microbiological conversion of wastes with special reference to the application to developing countries: report; The analysis of the present distribution of varietal variation in maize, sorghum and cowpea in Nigeria as an aid to the study of tribal movement; Some domesticated lower plants in South-east Asian food technology; and Archaeological evidence for changes in maize type in West Africa: an experiment in technique.
As an online article notes, the garden was designed to resemble a rain forest rather than a flower garden, featuring only plants that occur authentically in nature. Looking like a natural forest habitat, Rimba Ilmu contains over 1600 species of plants occupying more than 80 hectares. It is populated mainly with indigenous plants species but include many from tropical Asia, the Pacific islands, Australia, South America, Africa and Madagascar.
The Malaysian Nature Society, the oldest and one of the most prominent environmental not for profit, non-governmental organisations in Malaysia, maintains an environmental program with the cooperation of the university at the botanical garden since 1997.
The garden is divided into specialized areas for medicinal plants; palms; citrus; mixed forest species; ferns; and fruit trees. Among medicinal plants is misai kuching or cat’s whiskers, commonly used in traditional medicine to cure diabetes and high blood pressure; the serengan plant (Flemingia strobilifera), is often cultivated in villages of the Indian and Malaysian region, used in treating rheumatism; and the Madagascar Periwinkle is used to slow the progress of leukaemia.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)