René Charbonneau was 17th century French
medical missionary
Medical missions is the term used for Christian missionary endeavors that involve the administration of medical treatment. As has been common among missionary efforts from the 18th to 20th centuries, medical missions often involves residents of th ...
friar and a member of the
Siam mission of the
Société des Missions Etrangères
The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris (french: Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris, short M.E.P.) is a Roman Catholic missionary organization. It is not a religious institute, but an organization of secular priests and lay persons ...
. He was the first medical missionary to Siam. He arrived in the country in 1677.
René Charbonneau first provided his services to the Siamese King
Narai as an architect, to establish a wooden fort on the frontier with the country of
Pegu.
In 1681 or 1682, King Narai, who was seeking to reduce Dutch and English influence, named René Charbonneau the Governor of the island of
Phuket, a position which he held until 1685. Phuket was already highly valued at that time for its production of
tin. Charbonneau had received orders from King Narai to allow ships of all nations to trade freely in Phuket. In 1686, Charbonneau was replaced in this position by Sieur de Billy, the former
maître d'hôtel of the French ambassador to Siam,
Chevalier de Chaumont.
René Charbonneau worked as a nurse in the French hospital established in 1669 in
Ayutthaya by the Catholic Bishops Lambert and Ballue, with Father
Laneau as the chief physician. The hospital provided medical care to about 200-300 people daily.
[''History and Evolution of Western Medicine in Thailand'' Somrat Charuluxananana ,Vilai Chentanez, ''Asian Biomedicine'' Vol. 1 No. 1 June 2007, p.9]
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See also
* France-Thailand relations
Notes
References
* Smithies, Michael (2002), ''Three Military Accounts of the 1688 "Revolution" in Siam'', Itineria Asiatica, Orchid Press, Bangkok,
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charbonneau
1670s in the Ayutthaya Kingdom
Paris Foreign Missions Society missionaries
French Roman Catholic missionaries
17th-century French people
Christian missionaries in the Ayutthaya Kingdom
Roman Catholic missionaries in Thailand
Roman Catholic medical missionaries
French expatriates in Thailand