Bicentenary Exhibition Video

In 2023 the Society held an exhibition at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, to mark its bicentenary. The theme of the exhibition was ‘The Royal Asiatic Society, 1823-2023 – Extraordinary Endeavours: Celebrating 200 Years of Communication, Collaboration and Dissemination’. The exhibition included rare books, archives,  manuscripts, paintings, photographs, and maps from the Society’s collections, and explored how Asian works of literature, art, and religion have made a lasting impression on British culture. The exhibition reflected the extraordinary diversity of the collections donated to the Society by its members and other institutions.

In this video, Dr Alison Ohta, the Society’s Director, talks us through the different sections of the exhibition, explaining how each pertains to the overarching theme.