Tales of Teaching in Thailand: Dinosaur Outing!

The area in which we live is known for its dinosaur bones and fossils. Because of this, there are HUNDREDS of plaster and cement dinosaurs gracing the towns. 40 foot tall brachiosauruses dominate roundabouts, 3 foot tall T-Rexes act as welcome statues in people’s homes, and others are just used as decoration in civic spaces. It’s pretty fun.

On Saturday, Becky’s coordinator P’Tic, took Shelby, Becky and I to the dinosaur MUSEUM, which is about a 20 minute drive outside of Kalasin. It was actually really really nice to get out of town, and to actually see what the surrounding area looked like! The Northeast (which is where I am) is the driest part in Thailand and it really was apparent in the type of foliage I saw. Although still jungle-like, the forests were much more arid and the ground was lined with crunchy leaves. The type of agriculture was also different, and instead of rice fields, we were told that the staple crop of this region was cassava.

So as you probably guessed, the museum was built where the actual bones were found, which is at the base of this medium sized limestone hill that sticks out like a sore thumb against the flat landscape. P’Tic told us that one night (very long ago, I don’t know exact dates) a monk had a dream about the dinosaur bones and where they were located. The next day, he went to the hill in his dream and there were the bones. After this, they built a temple on the hill. As we drove along the base of the hill, we quickly realized that the affinity for plaster dinosaurs only increased in proximity to the fossils. It felt like we had travelled back in time, and that there were actual dinosaurs foraging in the forest. I also had a laugh at the image of Buddhist monks meditating in the forest beside these ancient (albeit plaster) beasts.

Our first spot was the dig site, which is about ¾ of a mile away from the actual museum. It was AWESOME!! There were about 3 skeletons that had been left in the stone and my god they were enormous. It was so cool to be able to visualize the position in which they had died and fossilized. The people of this province are extremely proud of their dinosaurs and some of the Thai royalty has even come to visit.

We then drove down to the Museum where we wandered for about an hour. Pretty much all the exhibit descriptions were in Thai so I didn’t take away that much information, but just the experience of being in a dinosaur museum, in Thailand was very fun. The true excitement of the museum was actually us! EVERY SINGLE PERSON stared in wide-eyed wonderment as we perused the halls. You would have thought we were the dinosaurs and had come to life they way they were staring at us. At one point a Thai family asked to take our picture and the results are pretty hilarious.

All in all, a very exciting time!